North Korean Economy Watch

Seriously.

Acording to Foreign Policy Magazine:

It’s not strictly accurate to say there was no international observation of Sunday’s Burmese election:

The newsreader said Myanmarese had voted “freely and happily,” noting the election had been witnessed by foreign diplomats, including some from North Korea, Vietnam and China, as well as the “Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Rangoon.”

Compared to those three countries, all of which have elections in which only the ruling Communist party participates, Burma, which at least has multiple military-backed parties disagreeing on small points of policy, may actually be the most democratic. Perhaps they were ensuring that international standards for rigging and suppression were met.

Additional information
1. I have actually visited all the countries mentioned in this article: the DPRK, China, Myanmar and Vietnam.  All fantastic trips, and I recommend you visit each of these countries.  Each country is unique and well worth the trip.  You will meet some fantastic people and gain memories that last a lifetime.

2. Several years ago a Myanmar military delegation visited the DPRK.  I mapped out the locations they visited on Google Earth.  You can see them here and here.

3. Thank you FP.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Evan Ramstad notes the following information about Rimjingang and Imjingang:

Japanese publisher Jiro Ishimaru has gotten a lot of attention over the past month for his new English-language book of articles from Rimjingang – the magazine about North Korea that’s written by North Koreans.

Over the past six years, he’s worked closely with a few dozen North Koreans to get insiders’ stories published.

Less well known is the North Korean defector in Seoul, Choi Jin-i, who worked closely with him until recently. She published a Korean version of the magazine while he handled Japanese.

They split earlier this year over funding differences. Mr. Ishimaru’s magazine is commercially-funded while Ms. Choi’s is supported by charitable contributions. Ms. Choi’s magazine now has a slightly different name. It’s called Imjingang.

Their writers are mainly North Koreans with the political and financial ability to visit China, where they can communicate freely.

For both Ms. Choi and Mr. Ishimaru, the biggest challenge is getting contributors to verify the information they report.

Mr. Ishimaru’s favorite scoop came last year. It was a video report that showed a 20-year-old textile factory in the North Korean city of Suncheon, long touted as a showplace industrial plant by North Korea’s state media, is actually unused and crumbling.

“The factory might have only run on opening day when the Great Leader (Kim Jong Il’s father Kim Il Sung) was there,” Mr. Ishimaru says. “There had been rumors inside the country that the factory never ran, but nobody outside the nation confirmed that. Our reporter went there and for the first time filmed the factory in ruins.”

Ms. Choi says her favorite article appeared in the magazine’s first issue in 2007. It was an analysis of North Korea’s economic situation by a high-ranking government official. She said she worked for more than a year to persuade the official to give an interview.

The quality of information in that interview surprised North Korea watchers. “Many South Korean scholars said they didn’t know there was an intellectual in North Korea,” Ms. Choi said.

And the surprise for me: The factory in Sunchon mentioned in the story is the Sunchon Vinalon Complex (not to be confused with the 2.8 Vinalon Complex in Hungnam).  I actually used the video mentioned in this story and matched it up with Google Earth Satellite imagery to confirm it was shot in the DPRK.  You can see the blog post and video here.

Read the Wall Street Journal article here:
North Korea by North Koreans; How the Magazines Work
Wall Street Journal
Evan Ramstad
11/8/2010

According to the AFP:

South Korea’s top court ruled Monday that possession of instrumental music with titles praising North Korea violates a tough national security law.

The supreme court upheld a two-year jail term, suspended for four years, given to a female activist identified only as Song.

Song was charged in 2008 with storing 14 MP3 music files with titles praising North Korea on a USB storage device.

State prosecutors accused her of violating the law banning distribution of pro-North Korean material.

A district court acquitted Song, saying the titles alone could not define the songs as praising the communist North.

But an appeal court ruled that the songs written by North Korea to praise its leadership contained “enemy-benefiting” expressions and threatened the South’s security — regardless of their lack of lyrics.

The supreme court supported the appeals court, saying it took into consideration “motivation” and various other circumstances.

South Korea bans distribution of publications or other material praising North Korea and unauthorised contact with its people. Offenders can face heavy jail terms.

As citizens of a modern open democracy, I would hope many South Koreans are embarrassed by this kind of silly censorship.   I have dozens of North Korean songs on my iPod and not once have they influenced my opinion of the DPRK.  They have made me laugh, however.

If you would like to hear the DPRKs song about “CNC”, which was introduced to South Korean factories back in the 1970s, click here.

Read the full story here:
S.Korea court rules pro-North music breaches law
AFP
11/8/2010

According to the Daily NK:

It has been confirmed by The Daily NK that North Korea failed in a recent attempt to import beef from New Zealand for the purpose of providing special gifts to cadres on Kim Jong Eun’s birthday, January 8, after the plan ran afoul of the New Zealand government, which froze the funds.

According to a source from North Korea today, “$170,000 remitted by ‘Myohyang Bureau’ to a New Zealand bank in October to import parts for Japanese tourist buses and beef has been frozen by the New Zealand authorities.”

The source added, “The New Zealand authorities are investigating whether or not the money is related to (North Korea’s) drug dealing.”

The source explained, “The beef is for special distribution to cadres on the Youth Captain (Kim Jong Eun)’s birthday, while the parts of Japanese buses are to repair buses operated by the Tour Bureau,” adding, “Myohyang Bureau is alarmed that there might be a snag in Comrade Youth Captain’s birthday special distribution.”

In North Korea, workplaces have already started to prepare presents for Kim Jong Eun’s birthday. There are two types of presents: the first is from cadres to Kim Jong Eun; and the latter is special distribution to cadres in Kim Jong Eun’s name. However, even though the special distribution is like a gift handed out by a monarch, factories and Party organs have to prepare it. According to the source, the Myohyang Bureau’s duty this time is to supply beef.

The Myohyang Bureau is directly in charge of tour events including Arirang performance-related tours and Mt. Baekdu and Geumgang tours. It sends the profits from these businesses involving foreign tourists to the No. 39 Department of the Central Committee of the Party.

The source explained further, “Due to Japanese sanctions against North Korea, the Tour Bureau has not been able to obtain parts for Japanese buses, so the Myohyang Bureau asked a New Zealand business partner to obtain them for them. In doing that, they also asked for beef.”

“Since the Myohyang Bureau sent the money via a secret bank account held with a bank in Latvia to a bank in New Zealand, it incurred the suspicion of the New Zealand government. Money is still money, but the bigger problem is to expose the Latvian account.”

This is the first time that a Latvian account has been linked to North Korea, adding to known secret accounts in Switzerland, China, Macau and the Caribbean.

The source said, “The Myohyang Bureau opened the account in the name, ‘RUSKOR International Company Ltd’ in a bank of Latvia,” adding, “The account name is the connecting of the words Russia and Korea.”

“Gift rations” have been in the news a lot lately.  Links to previous posts about the DPRK’s “gift rations” can be found here.

Read the full story here:
North Korean Funds for Beef Frozen by New Zealand
Daily NK
Park In Ho
11/5/2010

According to KBS:

The U.S. Treasury Department has announced detailed rules concerning the implementation of U.S. sanctions on North Korea.

The Treasury listed additional regulations relating to the implementation of sanctions placed on the North in June 2009 for weapons testing and in August of this year in response to North Korea’s sinking of a South Korean warship.

The rules stipulate the definition and interpretation of terminology and procedures for implementing the sanctions by U.S. government agencies and financial institutes.

At present, there are two sets of sanctions effectuated by administrative orders in the U.S. that specifically target North Korea.

The sanctions have frozen assets of certain North Korean organizations and individuals and they also ban U.S. transactions with the designated entities.

The US Treasury Department has updated their North Korea page with all relevant information. You can see their web page here.

I have added this resource to my Economic Statistics Page and Business Resources Page.

Read the full story here:
US Treasury Adds Rules on NK Sanctions Implementation
KBS
11/5/2010

According to the Choson Ilbo:

North Korea is pushing the implausible dream of turning the city of Rajin-Sonbong in North Hamgyong Province into an international freight brokerage, export processing and finance hub. A 3D video elaborating on a blueprint for the development of the city was made right after leader Kim Jong-il visited China in May.

The video, obtained by the Chosun Ilbo from a North Korean source in China, says the North worked out a plan in June to develop the city by giving distinctive roles to each of its six districts. “The video was made as material for reporting to Kim Jong-il,” the source said. “Discussion on the blueprint started right after Kim’s visit to the city in December last year and it was then hastily completed when people were talking about possible Chinese aid to the North after Kim’s visit to China in May.”

In December, Kim reportedly reprimanded senior officials there for making no progress in two decades since it was designated a development zone.

The regime upgraded Rajin-Sonbong to a special city in January. Rumor has it that Kim’s brother-in-law Jang Song-taek, the influential director of the Workers Party’s Administration Department, is pushing for development there.

The narrator in the video says, “In the future, Rajin-Sonbong will turn into a world-class economic and trade zone based on international freight brokerage, export processing and finance business and into a beautiful cultural port city in the era of the Songun (military-first) ideology.”

The narrator quotes regime founder Kim Il-sung as saying, “Rajin-Sonbong must become a better city than Singapore when you establish an economic and trade zone there.” Kim Jong-il is quoted as saying, “To build Rajin-Sonbong well, we must carry out the construction project according to an urban development plan.”

The video says the regime made a detailed plan to develop the city. A Kim Il-sung statue and public buildings such as an exhibition hall will be built in the Jungsim District. Changpyong District, which lies close to Rajin-Sonbong Port, will become a residential area. Anju District will become a finance center with hotels, banks and a department store will be built. High-risers including a 40-story office building will be built in Sosan and Dongmyong, and light industry will be built on both sides of Rajin Railway Station in Yokjon District.

Six design research centers in Pyongyang and Rajin-Sonbong were tasked with producing the blueprints.

But experts say chances that the project will come to fruition are near zero. “If Rajin-Sonbong is to be developed according to the blueprint in the video, the North would have to reform and open up. It can’t become an international trade and finance center without huge investment from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan,” a South Korean government official said.

So far, only a road linking the Chinese city of Hunchun with Rajin-Sonbong Port is being built in accordance with Chinese plans to ship goods from there.

Cho Bong-hyun, a researcher at the Industrial Bank of Korea’s economic research center, said an estimated 5 million tons a year of grain, coal and timber from northeastern China are being transported to southern China, and China can save up to US$10 per ton or $50 million a year in transport costs if it uses Rajin-Sonbong Port instead of railways.

The port could also be of help to China for exports. There are also rumors of a joint industrial complex in the area where North Korea would provide the labor for Chinese firms.

But a Chinese businessman operating in the North said the North and China have different ideas about the development plan, so nobody knows if and when development will get under way.

The video can be seen at the Choson Ilbo web page below.

Read the full story here:
N.Korea Pursues Dream of Int’l Business Hub
Choson Ilbo
11/5/2010

According to the AFP (via Straits Times):

South Korea has installed bullet-proof windows at an observatory in a border village to guard tourists against possible gunfire from North Korea, officials said on Thursday.

Three bullet-proof windows were fitted at the observatory pavilion at Daeseongdong village, inside the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) which bisects the peninsula.

Daeseongdong, inhabited by about 200 people, is just half a mile from North Korean guardposts inside the zone. The pavilion was built in 1980 to give tourists a better view of the world’s last Cold War frontier.

Tensions have been high since Seoul accused Pyongyang of torpedoing one of its warships in March with the loss of 46 lives.

North and South Korean troops exchanged fire briefly last Friday across their land border, without apparent casualties.

‘The installation was made at the request of villagers who have felt uneasy at growing tensions,’ Kim Young-Sea, an official in nearby Paju city, told AFP. ‘They have been living within the range of North Korean gunfire. Since March, civilian visitors have not been allowed into the village due to security concerns.’ The bullet-proof windows are aimed at restarting the visits.

Here is a satellite image of “Freedom Village”.

Read the full sotry here:
Bulletproof windows at border
AFP via Straits Times
11/4/2010

According to the AFP (via Straits Times):

North Korea’s premier, who is reportedly close to the son and heir apparent of leader Kim Jong Il, has visited north-east China this week for talks with Chinese officials, state media reported.

Choe Yong Rim – who in late September was named a member of the ruling party’s politburo presidium, of which Mr Kim had been the only member – met with Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Dejiang in Changchun, Xinhua news agency said.

It is the same region bordering the North that Mr Kim toured for five days in late August – a visit that state media said had largely focused on economic issues and analysts speculated included calls from Beijing to speed up reform.

Mr Choe ‘congratulated China on its economic and social development’ and said Pyongyang was ‘willing to draw experience from China and further strengthen its exchanges and cooperation with the country,’ Xinhua said late on Wednesday.

Mr Zhang said Beijing would work with the North to ‘promote the China-DPRK friendship to a new height’, the report said. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing unnamed sources, said Mr Choe toured electronics and pharmaceutical companies in the region this week, as well as an agricultural research centre in the city of Harbin.

Xinhua did not specify when Mr Choe and Mr Zhang had met, nor did it say when Mr Choe was due to return home. Yonhap also reported that Mr Choe was believed to be a key aide to Mr Kim’s son Jong Un, in his late 20s, who in September was promoted to a four-star general and given powerful posts in the ruling party.

KBS also reported on the story.

Read the full story here:
N.Korea premier visits China
AFP via Straits Times
11/4/2010

According to the Associated Press:

The head of the World Food Programme said on Thursday she saw many children in North Korea who are “losing the battle against malnutrition” during a visit there.

Executive director Josette Sheeran made the remarks in Beijing on her return from a three-day trip to Pyongyang, the UN agency’s first top-level visit to the communist country in nearly a decade.

She said she visited an orphanage, a factory, and a hospital where children were being treated for malnutrition.

“I saw many children that are already losing the battle against malnutrition and their bodies and minds are stunted,” she said, adding that “the need there for special fortified food for the children is very strong”.

Sheeran said she was able to meet with Kim Yong Nam, the head of the country’s parliament, the foreign minister and agriculture department officials.

She was also able to visit the agency’s operations there. The World Food Programme has been providing food aid to North Korea since 1995. The UN agency says nearly a third of North Korea’s 24 million people are undernourished.

Sheeran said she has worries about the current funding for food aid to North Korea, which has relied on foreign assistance to feed its 23 million people since the mid-1990s.

Read the full story here:
WFP: N Korea children malnourished
AP
11/4/2010

UPDATE: Martyn Williams writes in PC World (11/5/2010):

A new PDA (personal digital assistant) has hit stores in North Korea, according to a student who writes a blog from the secretive state.

The device, which doesn’t appear to carry any branding, has a color touchscreen display that occupies its entire front, according to photos published on the “Pyongyang Show and Tell” blog. The Russian-language blog is maintained by a Russian student who is studying in the country.

Installed software includes a Korean dictionary and translation dictionaries pairing Korean to and from Russian, English, Chinese and German, the blog report said. There are several basic utility programs and an electronic map of the country although the PDA does not feature GPS (global positioning system).

There is also no wireless networking so data transfer has to take place via a USB connection to a Windows or Linux computer. Data can also be transferred via MicroSD card, which is the same as used in domestic cell phones.

“Comparing it to modern things like, let’s say, the iPad, it’s nothing,” the blog’s author, who didn’t wish his name to be used, told IDG News Service via email. “It’s still good as a dictionary, except I don’t see any other advantages.”

It’s not the first PDA in North Korea.

In 2003 the country’s media said “Hana 21,” a PDA developed by the Samilpo Information Center, had been put on sale. The device included English-Korean and Korean-English dictionaries as its main function and also had several games and a basic word processor. Input was by pen and touchscreen.

According to published images of the Hana 21, the two devices are different.

At the time the Hana 21 was said to cost around 200 euros (US$182 at the exchange rate of the time).

The new PDA that hit stores recently costs around US$140.

“It’s still hard to buy for a Korean, but there are many people who keep their money for years and can afford it,” the student said via email.

PDAs have long been out of fashion in many countries after their features and functions were duplicated by smartphones. North Korea has a 3G cellular network, but most cell phones have only basic features.

ORIGINAL POST: Show and Tell Pyongyang introduced the world to the DPRK’s version of Linux: Red Star.  Now he has introduced us to the DPRK’s new Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

Here are pictures from the Russian web page:

According to the Russian-language web page (via Google Translate):

A few weeks ago in North Korea has started selling the first PDA. In all the computer shops you can see the advertising of the new items. [I] offer a small review of this device.

On sale are a few options. The difference between them – is the amount of internal memory and a built-in slot for the stylus. The most feature-rich [costs] $ 140 and has 8 gigs of internal memory and a slot for the stylus, so you do not accidentally lose it.

In addition, there is a slot for MicroSD memory cards – the same as in the local mobile phones.

The main function of which is worth noting (and more generally for which there is a fly sabzh), an electronic dictionary Samhyn (삼흥) with the Russian language. It is no secret that South Korea produced electronic translators, but, according to eyewitnesses, the Russian language is absent in them as fact. And in this case, Russian-Korean and Korean-Russian dictionaries most voluminous in the number of vocabulary words. Besides, there are English, Chinese and German. Also has a large Korean Wiki Grand Korean Dictionary.

So for me personally, the main value of the PDA – is an electronic dictionary, which can carry with them always and everywhere. And the rest is not so important.

So what else is there? There is a map of Korea’s system of teaching foreign languages (English, Chinese). By the way, about a month ago there was an opportunity to put maps on your mobile phone. Application free of charge and requires activation. Put it on a large computer center of the city. []

Device has access to TV, headphones and a USB-slot. Possible to connect devices to both Windows, and Linux (in this case, Red Star)

On the whole – everything is simple and works quite well. At the moment, the firmware needs some work, not all features fully implemented, but the Korean comrades promise to update and refine.

If anyone else has more information, please let me know.