North Korean Economy Watch

According to Yonhap:

Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung told reporters that the government has urged about 200 companies to refrain from signing new deals or supplying resources to North Korea.

“We thought there were possibilities the companies may suffer unexpected losses under the uncertain and murky circumstances” on the Korean Peninsula, Chun said.

Last month, North Korea confiscated or froze South Korean assets at a joint mountain resort on its east coast in anger over Seoul’s refusal to resume cross-border tours.

The move prompted South Korea to pledge retaliatory measures. Inter-Korean relations further eroded amid suspicions that an elusive North Korean submarine attacked a South Korean warship on March 26, killing 46 crew members.

Chun said the ministry warning did not apply to the more than 110 South Korean companies operating in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, where they employ about 42,000 North Korean workers to produce labor-intensive goods.

Inter-Korean consignment trade, in which vendors here supply raw materials to North Korea to be assembled into final products, amounted to US$254 million last year, Chun said. The vendors have favored factories in Pyongyang and the western port city of Nampo.

A multinational investigation is under way in South Korea to examine the suspected North Korean attack on the South Korean corvette Cheonan near the western inter-Korean border. North Korea denies any role.

Observers say the South Korean retaliatory measures are likely to come after investigators announce their results, which are expected as early as next week.

Also according to Yonhap:

North Korea’s moribund economy is projected to lose about US$370 million a year and about 80,000 jobs if inter-Korean trade is entirely suspended, a Seoul-based civic group said Sunday.

…

“If inter-Korean trade is fully halted, North Korea will lose $230 million a year in trade of agricultural goods,” the civic group said in a statement.

There would be also a loss of $49 million for the North if the Kaesong complex is shut down, the group said. Other losses came from already-suspended tourism between the two Koreas.

And according to the Choson Ilbo:

The government has worked out a package of sanctions to take if North Korea is found to have been behind the sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan on March 26. It will also be kind of counterblow to the North’s seizure and freezing of South Korean property in the Mt. Kumgang resort area late last month.

A senior government official on Wednesday said the sanctions formulated at the initiative of the Unification Ministry include banning sand imports from the North which were worth some US$70 million to the North in 2008. The imports were banned after the North launched a long-range rocket in April last year but were resumed in October.

South Korean firms that have already paid can proceed but no fresh deals can be struck.

Another target may be fisheries products. Of the total W1.06 trillion (US$1=W1,142) worth of worth of imports from the North last year, fisheries products were second with W173 billion or 16.3 percent after textiles (W477 billion or 44.8 percent).

A ministry official said, “Fisheries products are sold by companies under the North Korean military or government that specialize in earning dollars, so a ban would deal a blow to the regime.” But the regime does not cream off much from textile exports because South Korean firms depend chiefly on the joint Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex. Most of the money funneled to the North is meant as wages for North Korean workers.

The downside is that hundreds of importers of North Korean fisheries products would suffer. The government is also worried about skyrocketing prices. North Korean merchant ships could lose their right to pass through the Jeju Strait, granted them under an inter-Korean maritime agreement concluded in 2004.

A ban would mean higher fuel costs as the ships would have to make a detour through the high seas, a government official said.

The ministry submitted a report on the sanctions package to Cheong Wa Dae right after the North announced last month it was seizing South Korean property in Mt. Kumgang, but the government at the last moment decided to put it off.

“It seems that the government will make an announcement about a response to the sinking of the Cheonan and the North’s seizure of property in Mt. Kumgang next week, when the findings of the Cheonan investigation are out,” the official said.

Read the full stories below:
S. Korea moves to curb trade with N. Korea
Yonhap
Sam Kim
5/13/2010

Seoul Prepares Sanctions Over Cheonan Sinking
Choson Ilbo
5/13/2010

N. Korea to suffer dearly from halt in inter-Korean trade: civic group
Yonhap
5/16/2010

According to Interconnected World:

Secrecy normally shrouds military relations between Burma and its strategic allies such as China and North Korea, but intelligence sources suggest ongoing military ties with these two countries are helping the Burmese generals’ to achieve their military ambitions, including that of becoming a nuclear power.

Intelligence sources said top junta generals have held late- night meetings in Naypyidaw in the last two months, discussing military modernization, foreign relations, tension with ethnic groups and suppressing dissidents in urban areas.

They said the junta bought weapons from China and North Korea including mid-range missiles and rocket launchers in April, and suggested the war office in Naypyidaw chose the month when the Burmese celebrate new year in order to avoid public scrutiny.

Equipment necessary to build a nuclear capability was reportedly among imported military supplies from North Korea that arrived at the beginning of the holidays.

A report from Rangoon in April also referred to an undisclosed vessel believed to be connected with North Korea that was seen at Thilawar Port, near Rangoon. Burmese officials at the time said the vessel was there to load Burmese rice destined for North Korea.

Military relations between Naypyidaw and Pyongyang have been attracting attention from analysts, diplomats and journalists in recent years. In August 2009, an article in Sydney Morning Herald alleged the Burmese junta aims to get an atomic bomb in five years using Burmese enriched uranium and North Korean nuclear technology.

Apart from nuclear know-how and equipment, Pyongyang has also provided the Burmese junta’s armed forces with truck-mounted multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles and technology for underground warfare since the early 2000s, according to experts on Burma’s military like Andrew Selth.

“Pyongyang needs Burmese primary products, which Naypyidaw can in turn use to barter for North Korea arms, expertise and technology,” wrote Andrew Selth in the Australian Journal of International Affairs in March.

Read the full article here:
Burma said buying arms from China, North Korea
Interconnected World
5/10/2010

UPDATE 3: We are starting to see some price data come out of this story.  According to  the Times Live of South Africa:

However, conservationists, led by Johnny Rodrigues, the chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF), slammed the plan. They fear that many of the animals will not survive the long journey, let alone conditions in the impoverished communist state’s zoos.

In a telephone interview, Chadenga said the animals had already been paid for.

“The North Koreans paid for these animal species. This is a business deal, and we have an obligation to meet our side of the deal. For instance, the two baby elephants were sold for US$10,000 each. From the sale of the other animals, we might raise the other US$10,000.”

He dismissed concerns over conditions in Korean zoos.

“The North Koreans paid to facilitate a trip of our officers to determine the conditions in that country. On their return, they gave us a satisfactory report, and that is when the capturing of these animals started.”

He said Zimbabwe had an over-population of elephants . “We have more than 100000 elephants in our national parks. We will sell them to anyone if they approach us .”

UPDATE 2:  According to the AP (Via New York Times):

Wildlife authorities in Zimbabwe  on Wednesday defended the decision to sell two baby elephants and other animals to North Korea, and they said veterinary experts were satisfied that North Korea was equipped to care for them. The two 18-month-old elephants each cost $10,000. Officials said the other animals purchased by the North included breeding pairs of giraffes, zebras, antelopes, hyenas, monkeys and birds.

Vitalis Chadenga, the head of the wildlife department, called the deal “purely a business arrangement” for financially struggling Zimbabwe; he said it involved surplus species in the western Hwange National Park. But Johnny Rodrigues, the head of the independent Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, criticized the arrangement. “We understand North Korea does not have a good record in animal rights,” he said.

UPDATE 1: According to iol South Africa:

Zimbabwe is preparing to send wild animals to a North Korean zoo, state media said on Monday, a move likely to anger groups protesting at Pyongyang’s role in training an army unit accused of killing thousands of people.

The National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (NPWMA) said it was processing an application from North Korea to ship elephants, giraffes, zebras, warthogs, spotted hyenas and rock dassies to a zoo in the hermit state.

NPWMA director general Vitalis Chadenga told the state-owned Herald newspaper the national parks authority had sent experts to North Korea to verify whether the zoo was appropriate for the wild animals.

“This is a pure business arrangement with no directive from government … North Korea is paying for the animals as well as meeting the capture and translocation costs,” he said.

“We are satisfied that the recipients of the animals are suitably equipped to house and care for them,” said Chadenga, denying that the move was decreed by Mugabe.

Chadenga was not immediately available for direct comment.

ORIGINAL POST: According to the Guardian:

Zimbabwean president sending giraffes, zebras, baby elephants and other wild animals taken from a national park to zoo in communist state, conservation groups say.

Two by two, they were caught and lined up as an extravagant gift from one despotic regime to another.

According to conservationists, the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, will send a modern-day ark – containing pairs of giraffes, zebras, baby elephants and other wild animals taken from a national park – to a zoo in North Korea.

The experts warned that not every creature would survive the journey to be greeted by Mugabe’s ally Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader.

There are particular fears that a pair of 18-month-old elephants could die during the long airlift.

Johnny Rodrigues, the head of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, said elephant experts did not believe the calves would survive the journey separated from their mothers.

…

The animals were being kept in quarantine in holding pens at Umtshibi camp in the park, he said.

Rodrigues added that officials opposed to the captures had leaked details to conservationists.

They reported that some areas of the 5,500 square mile park, the biggest in Zimbabwe, were being closed to tourists and photographic safari groups.

“We fear a pair of endangered rhino in Hwange will also be included,” he told the Associated Press.

He said conservation groups were trying to find out from civil aviation authorities when the airlift would begin, and were lobbying for support from international animal welfare groups to stop it.

Zoo conditions in North Korea, which is isolated by most world nations, did not meet international standards, he said. Two rhinos, a male called Zimbo and a female called Zimba, given to Kim by Mugabe in the 80s, died only a few months after their relocation.

At the same time, other rhinos given to Belgrade zoo in the former Yugoslavia died after contracting footrot in damp and snowy winter conditions.

Rodrigues said: “This new exercise has to be stopped. People under orders to do it are too scared to speak out.”

Read the full story here:
Conservationists protest as Robert Mugabe sends ‘ark’ of animals to North Korea
The Guardian
David Smith
5/13/2010

Daily NK
Yoo Gwan Hee
5/14/2010

A source in North Korea has told The Daily NK that fertilizer shortages near the North Korean border have been alleviated by imports arriving from China.

“Chinese fertilizer has been imported through Hoiryeong. It was not done officially by the authorities, but by trade enterprises. They imported fertilizer in bulk and then sold it to the markets,” the source, who lives in the city, told The Daily NK yesterday.

Therefore, individuals and collective farm managers are still not able to get it through the national distribution system, but can obtain it on the open market.

“In Hoiryeong, a 50kg sack of fertilizer is being sold for 200 Yuan, which is approximately 22,000 North Korean Won,” said the source. Another source from Hyesan reported to The Daily NK the day before that, in the Hyesan jangmadang, the same quantity of fertilizer was being sold for 220 Yuan.

Until late last month, sources were reporting that fertilizer was “nowhere to be seen in the market.” Before that, one source said, “We could see it in the markets, but that was left over from last year.” Then, it was going for between 30,000 and 50,000 North Korean won per 50kg sack. Now enterprises are importing it from China, its price has dropped by around half.

In North Korea, May is the month when farmers are at their busiest, or to cite a proverb, it is the period during which “even the fire-pokers bustle with activity.” Therefore, individuals and farmers are all desperately seeking fertilizer.

Lee Min Bok, a former researcher with the Agriculture Institute of North Korea, explained why. “Growth of plants at the beginning of the planting period is really important because that decides the amount of grain it produces,” he said. “Therefore, applying fertilizer is decisive for the year’s farming. In times of fertilizer shortage, a maximum of 60% productivity can be achieved.”

It has been reported that many residents living near the border and who rely mainly on small farms believe China has relieved their worries.

However, it remains to be seen whether the importation of Chinese fertilizer will have an impact on the farming process in state-owned farms. It is not possible to say at this time whether the imported fertilizer has been or will be provided to those farms.

In North Korean farms, fertilizer ought to be applied three times a year: at the beginning, middle and end of the farming process. But with unfavorable circumstances negatively affecting the supply of fertilizer since the 1990s, use has been circumscribed, and it has only been added at the beginning and end of the

Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
NK Brief No. 10-05-11-1
5-11-2010

As North Korean leader Kim Jong Il spent four nights and five days in China, meeting with President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jaibao, and other top Chinese leaders, it appears that the issue of bilateral economic cooperation was high on the agenda, and was discussed in depth.

‘Strengthening economic and trade cooperation’ was one of the five proposals for bolstering PRC-DPRK relations made by Hu Jintao during the May 5 summit meeting with Kim Jong Il, giving some indication of just how much emphasis he and Kim were putting on economic cooperation during the latest visit.

Hu stated that strengthening cooperation between Beijing and Pyongyang would help both countries build their socialist systems, and would be in their shared interests as it would further development and help to bring peace, stability and prosperity to the region. According to China Daily, the five suggestions made by Hu Jintao are as follows:

1) To maintain high-level contacts. The leaders of the two countries should keep in touch by exchanging visits, as well as sending special envoys and messages.
2) To reinforce strategic coordination. The two sides should exchange views in a timely manner and regularly on major domestic and diplomatic issues, international and regional situation, as well as on governance experience.
3) To deepen economic and trade cooperation. The relevant departments of the two governments should discuss and explore ways of expanding economic and trade cooperation.
4) To increase personnel exchanges. The two sides should expand exchanges in the cultural, sports, and educational fields, and the contacts between the youth in particular to inherit the traditional friendship from generation to generation.
5) To strengthen coordination in international and regional affairs to better serve regional peace and stability.

In response, Kim Jong Il expressed his appreciation for Hu Jintao’s heartfelt invitation and warm greeting, and agreed with Hu’s five suggestions for developing bilateral cooperation. He highlighted the construction of a new bridge over the Yalu River as the latest sign of friendly cooperation between China and North Korea, and added that he “welcomes investment in North Korea by Chinese companies and boosting bilateral working-level cooperation based on the principle of mutual prosperity.”

Economic issues were at the heart of Kim Jong Il’s meeting with Premier Wen Jiabao, as well. Following their meeting, Wen said, “PRC-DPRK economic cooperation has great potential,” and that he actively supports bilateral efforts. He stated that he had high hopes for infrastructure projects and other cooperative efforts in the border region.

He went on to say, “China actively supports North Korea’s economic development and improvements in the lives of its people,” and that he would like to introduce to North Korea “Chinese-style know-how” by sharing China’s experiences with reform and economic construction.

In October of last year, Premier Wen introduced the “Chang-Ji-Tu Development Plan” during his visit to North Korea, pushing hard for the North’s cooperation in developing the border region. That, along with North Korea’s extension of the contract giving Chinese companies access to Rajin Port and the latest talks during Kim’s visit to China give a clearer picture of the future direction of PRC-DPRK cooperative economic efforts.

The Chang-Ji-Tu plan to develop the Jilin and Tumen River regions calls for the establishment of an economic ‘beltway’ by 2020, and the revival of the antiquated industrial areas of China’s three northeastern provinces. To be successful, the plan requires North Korean cooperation on securing access to the East Sea. In 2008, North Korea granted China usage rights to Pier 1 in Rajin Port, and then signed an agreement with China last November on the joint development of the port into an ‘international distribution hub’ providing a link for China to the global market. China’s Jilin Province has already earmarked 3 billion yuan (500 billion won) for Rajin Port’s development.

This, along with the construction of a new border-crossing bridge on the Tumen River and other similar projects, reflects the infrastructure development plans for the border region. Construction on the new 33 meter-long bridge began last October, and China is bearing the burden of a 1.7 billion yuan (290 billion won) price tag. In March, China also began restoration of the bridge over the Tumen River linking Hunchun and North Korea, and is expected to move forward quickly with a road construction project linking the bridge to Rajin Port.

Another cooperative effort is focused on the development of the Hwangeum Industrial Complex, a free trade zone on Hwanggeum Island, in the Tumen River. Ryongaksan General Trading Company, which currently holds the development rights to Hwanggeumpyeong and Uihwa islands, is actively seeking to attract foreign investment. Kim Jong Il’s latest trip to China is seen by some as an opportunity to push for increased Chinese investment and assistance in developing the region.

Workers’ Party of Korea Unification Strategy Department Director Kim Yang Gong, as chairman of the Korea Taepung International Investment Group, traveled with Kim Jong Il in China, and it appears to have been in order to more strongly call for investment in North Korea, and the development of Rajin Port, in particular.

Beijing permitting North Korean sight-seeing tours and joint development in its three northeastern provinces indicates its support for the increasing pace of bilateral economic cooperation with Pyongyang.

Daily NK
Min Cho Hee
5/11/2010

In a move sure to add weight to suspicions that North Korean industry is in the midst of a very serious funding crisis, a source has reported to The Daily NK that the Chinese partner has taken unprecedented power in a new mining joint venture in North Hamkyung Province.

The inside source reported on Sunday that when Saebyul Coal Mining Complex, a North Korean mining management organization, sealed a contract between Gogunwon Coal Mine, Ryongbuk Youth Coal Mine and a Chinese enterprise, it agreed to hand over an unheard of degree of discretion in affairs of personnel management, materials and working methods to the Chinese enterprise.

The source explained, “Now, the Chinese enterprise has authority over staffing, food distribution, wages and materials. Accordingly, it has reduced the administrative staff and drastically improved productivity.

According to the source, the Chinese are guaranteed operational independence free from the control and instruction of the Saebyul Party committee, and take 60% of net profits. If true, this is a new model of collaboration and cooperation in business between China and North Korea.

The source added, though, “The number of people in the Party committee has also been reduced, though it is unlikely to be got rid of completely due to the nature of the North Korean system.”

He said, “Since last year, North Korea has been trying to attract Chinese investment and three or four Chinese companies have been in negotiations over mine development in this way.”

The Chinese enterprise plans to convey the lignite produced in the mines to China, process it there and sell it domestically.

The source noted, “North Korean workers are delighted with this method of collaboration. They get guaranteed wages and food, and the working environment has also improved thanks to new, stronger mining timbers, so productivity has increase.”

In the cafeterias at the mines, they serve 900g of rice to everyone, and pork and eggs, which workers like. According to the source, “Workers want to take meals served in the cafeteria home for their family members. In this worker-friendly mood, Party cadres are unable to complain.”

Gogunwon Coal Mine and Ryongbuk Youth Coal Mine are both located in the “Gogunwon Workers” district of Saebyul, North Hamkyung Province. They both contain good quality coal seams, and are among the best coal mines in North Korea.

Another source from North Korea suggested on Monday that North Korea is losing a lot of control of the economy in its northern provinces, saying, “The purse strings in the border regions of our country have basically been handed over to China, and ‘our socialist pride’ is in the hands of China. Any factory where they produce even a small amount of goods has been invested in by the Chinese”

Andrei Lankov writes in the Korea Times:

So after months of rumors and a couple of false reports, Kim Jong-il finally departed for China. This time his visit produced a palpable irritation in Seoul. Suspicions about Pyongyang’s involvement in the Cheonan disaster are mounting, so some South Korean politicians saw China’s willingness to invite the North Korean leader as a sign of tacit support for Pyongyang’s policy. This led to an outpour of critical statements, which are certain to have no impact on China’s actions, of course.

To start with, China ― in spite of all rhetoric of “eternal friendship” ― is no admirer of Kim Jong-il’s regime and is frequently annoyed by the North Korean antics. China does not want Pyongyang to go nuclear, since nuclear proliferation threatens China’s own privileged position of a “legitimate” nuclear power. China also worries that North Korea’s nuclear program might trigger a nuclear arms race in East Asia, producing a nuclear Japan and perhaps, a nuclear Taiwan. Moreover, China rightly sees the North Korean economic system as irrational and wasteful.

Nonetheless, China supports North Korea. Throughout the past few years when South Korean and U.S. aid dried up, famine in North Korea was prevented, above all, by free or subsidized shipments of grain from China. China is the largest investor in and trading partner of North Korea. Why do Chinese continue to invest money into supporting the regime which they do not particularly like and do not see as their reliable ally?

From time to time some people in Washington and Seoul express their hope that China can be somehow persuaded to stop its support of the North or to use its supposed leverage to influence Pyongyang policy (like, say, pressing North Korea into denuclearization). After the second North Korean nuclear test in 2009, China chose to support the U.N. sanctions and there were statements that China finally was “in the same boat as the United States.” Alas, this is wishful thinking. China is not in the same boat, and will never be. There are good reasons why China supports the North, and these reasons are likely to remain valid for the foreseeable future.

Yes, China does not want a country in its neighborhood to acquire nuclear weapons. Neither it is happy about military provocations of any kind. However, there are two other concerns which are far more important for China to keep the region stable and to keep Korea divided.

Stability is a keyword for the Chinese policy. China concentrates on economic growth and needs a peaceful and predictable environment in order not to be distracted from this goal. Hence, any crisis in the vicinity of China is an anathema for the Chinese strategists and should be avoided at all cost.

Another, arguably less important, goal is to keep Korea divided. Taken into consideration the current balance of power, unification is likely to lead to absorption of the impoverished North by the rich South. For China it might mean the emergence of a stronger U.S. ally ― or, at least, another “unruly democracy” ― right on its border. China can survive such a turn of events, to be sure, but it would prefer to maintain North Korea as a strategic buffer zone.

Alas, in order to really influence North Korea’s behavior, one has to play hardball. Subtle measures will not work, since the North Korean government does not care that much about economy or even about survival of its own population. In order to have an impact, China would have to virtually close the border completely and stop all trade with the North. A senior South Korean diplomat described this problem in a private conversation by a good allegory: “China does not have leverage when it comes to dealing with the North. What China has is a hammer.”

But China must have a mighty good reason to wield this hammer since such extreme pressure can easily lead to a system collapse. This collapse will make the situation very volatile. Crowds of refugees, the nuclear weapons and material getting to the black market, numerous diplomatic complications ― those are not the problems China is eager to deal with. Finally, collapse is likely to produce a unified Korea which is not China’s most preferable outcome.

Therefore, China prefers to spend some resources keeping the North Korean regime afloat in order to maintain the status quo and prevent or, at least, postpone a major crisis. It also wants to minimize the risk of North Korea being involved in excessively dangerous actions, but this goal is of secondary importance.

At all probability, this time we will see another repetition of the old game. Chinese will insist that North Korea should come back to the six-party talks (Beijing’s pet project), and also should restrain itself. Kim Jong-il will claim his sovereign rights to run his state as he pleases while inquiring how much aid he is going to get for some minor concessions. The Cheonan affair is unlikely to be discussed at all ― even if Chinese bring up the question, the North will deny responsibility, claiming that all accusations are results of the “smear campaign waged by the South Korean warmongers.”

And what will be the net result? Perhaps, we can see the contours of a likely deal: North Korea will promise to go back to the six-party talks while China will reward Pyongyang for this by aid and subsidized trade. So, China will be satisfied with maintaining both its international prestige and stability in its neighborhood while the long-delayed six-party talks will finally restart, to continue for a while, until the next crisis. Will the talks ever produce their intended result ― the “complete and verifiable elimination of North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs?” Of course, not. But has that not been clear for years?

Read the full story here:
Why does China continue to support North Korea?
Korea Times
5/6/2010

Here are some articles about it:

North Korea’s Kim Jong Il arrives in China, amid internal, external tensions
Washington Post
Lauren Keane
5/4/2010

Kim Jong-il Arrives in China
New York Times
Choe Sang-hun
5/3/2010

North Korean leader in China seeking cash, clout
Los Angeles Times
Barbara Demick and John M. Glionna
5/3/2010

North Korea’s Kim seeks lifeline in China
Reuters
Royston Chan
5/3/2010

Kim Jong-il Stops Off in Chinese Boomtown
Choson Ilbo
5/5/2010

Who Is with Kim Jong-il on His China Trip?
Choson Ilbo
5/4/2010

North Korea’s Kim ‘visits China’
BBC
5/3/2010

Here are some photos of his train.

According to Bloomberg:

United Nations food aid to North Korea will run out the end of next month following a drop in international donations after the country detonated a nuclear device, the World Food Program said.

“We have resources to carry us through to June,” Lena Savelli, a Beijing-based spokeswoman for the UN agency, said in a telephone interview today. “We quite urgently need more donors to come forward and give us resources.”

The agency is in talks with donors on how to extend the program as it seeks to continue operations, she said. Kim Jong Il’s regime has relied on outside aid to feed its 24 million people since the mid-1990s when famine caused by floods, drought and economic mismanagement is estimated to have killed as many as 2 million people.

The aid shortfall may put further pressure on Kim following a botched currency revaluation late last year and tougher UN Security Council sanctions after a second nuclear test in May 2009. The Council should also consider the totalitarian regime’s human rights violations to force changes, Vitit Muntarbhorn, UN special rapporteur on North Korea’s human rights, said in a May 1 interview in Seoul.

“It’s a very helpless situation, sadly, for the people,” he said. “Given that the Security Council is the law- enforcement organ of the United Nations, it’s incumbent upon them to take it up,” said Muntarbhorn, 57, whose six-year term as the official for North Korea, expires in June.

Read the full article here:
North Korea’s Food Aid Will Run Out Next Month, UN Agency Says
Bloomberg
Bomi Lim
5/3/2010

According to Reuters (via the Washington Post):

North Korea’s health system would be the envy of many developing countries because of the abundance of medical staff that it has available, the head of the World Health Organization said on Friday.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, speaking a day after returning from a 2-1/2 day visit to the reclusive country, said malnutrition was a problem in North Korea but she had not seen any obvious signs of it in the capital Pyongyang.

North Korea — which does not allow its citizens to leave the country — has no shortage of doctors and nurses, in contrast to other developing countries where skilled healthcare workers often emigrate, she said.

This allows North Korea to provide comprehensive healthcare, with one “household doctor” looking after every 130 families, said the head of the United Nations health agency, praising North Korea’s immunization coverage and mother and child care.

“They have something which most other developing countries would envy,” Chan told a news conference, noting that her visit was a rare sign of the communist state’s willingness to cooperate with outside agencies.

Chan’s comments marked a significant change from the assessment of her predecessor, Gro Harlem Brundtland, who said in 2001 that North Korea’s health system was near collapse.

Chan, who acknowledged that countries that she visits always try to look good while pointing to where they need help, met a series of North Korean officials, visited several hospitals, and also talked to Pyongyang-based diplomats, United Nations officials and representatives of the Red Cross.

The authorities acknowledge there is a problem with malnutrition, she said, but things have become better since famine in the 1990s and a series of natural disasters in 2001.

“Nutrition is an area that the government has to pay attention (to) and especially for pregnant women and for young children,” Chan said.

NO SIGNS OF OBESITY

Chan spent most of her brief visit in Pyongyang, and she said that from what she had seen there most people had the same height and weight as Asians in other countries, while there were no signs of the obesity emerging in some parts of Asia.

But she said conditions could be different in the countryside.

News reports said earlier this year that North Koreans were starving to death and unrest was growing as last year’s currency revaluation caused prices to soar.

Chan, who described her visit as “technical and professional” — in other words avoiding politics — said the North Korean government’s readiness to work with international agencies, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, was encouraging.

The Global Fund requires countries it works with to provide sound data, account for resources contributed and allow access by officials, she noted.

“I can confirm that at least in the area of health the government is receptive to engagement with international partners,” she said.

“They are receptive to requests for increasing transparency — have a better quality data — and being held accountable for the resources flowing into the country to improve health.”

North Korea, whose human rights record has been strongly condemned by U.N. experts, is refusing to return to six-party talks about its nuclear program, which has led to U.N. sanctions being imposed after a nuclear test in May last year.

Tension is increasing with South Korea, with which the North fought a war in 1950-53, after the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel last month for which Seoul increasingly suspects Pyongyang.

But Chan praised a joint project between North and South Korea to improve women’s and children’s health, which she said was promoting dialogue and trust between the two rivals.

Last month, the WHO said North Korea has reduced deaths from surgery and among women in childbirth under the South Korea-funded program.

The Wall Street Journal calls out Ms. Chan:

Greetings, comrades. World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan has returned from Pyongyang with wonderful news. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is making great strides in health care, with one “household doctor” for every 130 households. Thanks to on-the-spot guidance from Dear Leader Kim Jong Il, North Korean doctors selflessly choose not to emigrate and have even conquered the decadent West’s problem of obesity!

All right, we exaggerate. But only the part about the Dear Leader. Ms. Chan’s surreal statements last Friday, as reported by several wire services, really did include praise for North Korean health care and the lack of obesity. “They have something which most other developing countries would envy,” the global health administrator gushed. In her guided tours, she saw few signs of malnutrition, and the people in Pyongyang were the same height and weight as other Asians.

That’s hardly consistent with the reports of other visitors, or the accounts of North Koreans fleeing starvation—a trend on the upswing again after a poor harvest and harsh winter. Even Ms. Chan’s predecessor described the North’s health-care system as near collapse in 2001, and since then the North has continued to depend on foreign aid to feed one-third of its population. As for the abundance of doctors, the North’s declaration on the WHO website ought to arouse suspicion: “During the period 2001-2003, the number of doctors was increased by 104 percent, the nurses 125 percent and the midwives 107 percent.”

It appears Ms. Chan is either winking at the reality to maintain contact with the North or she allowed herself to be fooled. Her own organization’s doctors have described appalling conditions in North Korean hospitals, such as the lack of running water and electricity.

But then this is nothing new for the WHO. In the 1970s, the United Nations agency promoted Mao Zedong’s vision of “barefoot doctors” to serve the rural poor—even as China’s health-care system was collapsing, along with the rest of society, under the strain of the Cultural Revolution. Today the WHO has become a cheerleader for Cuban health care. As long as a totalitarian state gives plenty of poorly trained people the title of doctor, fudges its health statistics and takes visiting officials on tours of Potemkin hospitals, the U.N. seems happy to give its seal of approval.

Ms. Chan’s testimony can be read here.

Hat tip to a reader.

Read the full story here:
North Korea has plenty of doctors: WHO
Reuters
Jonathan Lynn
4/30/2010