Archive for the ‘Ministry of Land and Marine Transport’ Category

Two Koreas agree on railway improvements

Wednesday, June 27th, 2018

Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

AP reports on talks between North and South Korea to improve North Korean railways, including a great overview of current railway systems in the country:

North Korea’s state media on Wednesday acknowledged inter-Korean discussions on “issues arising in reconnecting, updating and using the railways on the east and west coasts,” but did not describe that South Korea would be sending officials and experts to examine the country’s aging rail system.

The agreement Tuesday to start joint inspections of North Korea’s railways on July 24 was apparently as far as the rivals could go at the moment. The vows to upgrade the North’s railways and roads will remain purely aspirational until international sanctions against North Korea are lifted and the South is freed to take material steps.

The talks at the border village of Panmunjom were the latest to discuss ways to carry out peace commitments made by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

During their April 27 summit, when they issued a vague commitment to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, Kim and Moon expressed a desire to modernize North Korea’s railways and roads and reconnect them with the South. The Koreas are to hold another meeting on Thursday to discuss roads.

South Korean officials say better transport would greatly improve North Korea’s economy by facilitating trade and tourism. It may also provide the South with cheaper ways to move goods in and out of China and Russia. However, some experts say updating North Korean trains, which creak slowly along rails that were first laid in the early 20th century, would require a massive effort that could take decades and tens of billions of dollars. It might be impossible to embark on such projects unless North Korea denuclearizes, which isn’t a sure thing.

THE WEST SIDE

In their summit, Kim and Moon called for “practical steps” toward the “connection and modernization” of railways and roads between South Korea’s capital, Seoul, and North Korea’s Sinuiju, a port town on its border with China, and also along the peninsula’s “eastern transportation corridor.”

During the meeting on April 27, Kim went against the grain of North Korean propaganda by describing the country’s transport conditions as poor and praising South Korea’s bullet train system, clearly communicating an eagerness to improve his country’s rail networks, according to comments provided by South Korea’s presidential office.

In Tuesday’s meeting, the Koreas agreed to start inspections of the North Korean portion of a railway that once connected Seoul and Sinuiju before moving on to railways in the eastern region.

Japan completed a 499-kilometer (310-mile) railway line connecting Seoul and Sinuiju in 1906, mainly to move soldiers and military supplies, before it annexed the peninsula in 1910. The Gyeongui line was separated in 1945 at the end of World War II, when the peninsula was liberated from Japanese colonial rule but also divided between a U.S.-controlled southern side and a Soviet-controlled north. The peninsula remains in a technical state of war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

The Gyeongui line was temporarily reconnected during a previous era of rapprochement between the rivals in the 2000s. The Koreas in December 2007 began freight services between South Korea’s Munsan Station in Paju and North Korea’s Pongdong Station, which is near the border town of Kaesong. The South used the trains to move construction materials northbound, while clothing and shoes manufactured from a factory park jointly operated by the Koreas in Kaesong were sent southbound.

The line was cut again in November 2008 due to political tensions over North Korea’s nuclear program and the hard-line policies of a new conservative government in Seoul.

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THE EAST SIDE

Japan during its colonial rule completed a 193-kilometer (120-mile) rail line between North Korea’s Anbyon county and South Korea’s Yangyang along the peninsula’s eastern coast in 1937. The Koreas temporarily reconnected the cross-border part of the line between 2007 and 2008 to move South Korean tourists in and out of the North’s scenic Diamond Mountain resort. However, the project never advanced beyond a trial run before South Korea pulled out in June 2008 amid worsening ties.

South Korea has ambitions to significantly extend the eastern “Donghae” line so that it connects its southernmost port of Busan with North Korea’s northernmost industrial cities of Chongjin and Rajin. Seoul hopes the line will eventually link South Korea with Russia and the trans-Siberian railway. South Korea also hopes to eventually reopen a railway between Seoul and North Korea’s eastern coastal town of Wonsan which ran through the middle of the peninsula.

Article source:
Koreas agree to improve North’s railways, but work must wait
Kim Tong-Hyung
AP News
2018-06-27

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DPRK emphasizes development of marine resources

Thursday, July 30th, 2015

According to KCNA:

Development of Marine Resources Spurred in DPRK

The development of marine resources has been pushed forward in a far-sighted way in the DPRK according to a new national strategy for developing marine resources.

The Ministry of Land and Maritime Transport, the Ministry of Fisheries and the State Hydro-meteorological Administration are paying deep attention to marine survey and observation and research into marine resources, while laying sound material and technical bases for them.

Researchers of Kim Il Sung University have made successes in the research into marine energy resources, marine information system and marine environmental protection. They are also pushing ahead with the research into searching for fishing ground on the East and West seas of Korea and the ocean and into aquaculture and marine mineral resources.

The establishment of a latest marine technology park progresses apace.

Kwak Il Hwan, secretary of the DPRK society for marine studies, told KCNA:

It is one of important national policies to protect and develop marine resources.

Students and citizens are encouraged to get more knowledge about the sea through different occasions like the Day of Sea (July 12) and months for maritime physical culture (July and August).

Big efforts have been paid to putting the research into marine resources on a higher scientific basis.

And here is coverage of the report by the Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES):

Marine Development Projects Underway in North Korea
2015-7-30

North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on July 24, 2015 that marine resource development projects, such as the establishment of an Advanced Marine Technology Development Zone, are currently being pursued in North Korea.

While KCNA reports that the establishment of the Advanced Marine Technology Development Zone is moving along, Choson Marine Association head clerk Kwak Il Hwan adds, “Protecting and increasing marine resources while actively developing and using them is becoming one of the state’s main policies.”

The news agency also revealed, “As a marine space resource, ports will be constructed, navigation channels will be developed, and there were will be tidelands and marine tourist spots; on the west coast it will become a tideland capable of development as well as a wealth of information.” This statement indicates that the Advanced Marine Technology Development Zone will be designated on the west coast.

“A training system for our country’s experts and engineers in the marine sector is in place, and a technological foundation for the development and use of marine resources, including research bases in each field all over the country, has been secured,” KCNA reported.

Along with this, the news agency revealed that in the Ministry of Land and Marine Transport, the Ministry of Fisheries, and the meteorological observatory, they are proceeding with projects like maritime studies, marine observations and research projects, and maintenance reinforcement work through material and technical means.

In addition, Kim Il Sung University is pushing for the effective development and use of marine resources, invigorating the exploration of fisheries, sea farming, a marine ecology and environmental information management system, the exploration of marine mineral resources, and collection research projects on the East and West coast and in ocean waters.

KCNA also revealed that research in areas like marine energy resource development, marine environment protection technology, and a marine information system are achieving results.

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Tanchon Port reconstruction completed

Thursday, April 25th, 2013

Tanchon-port-2012-12-19

Pictured Above (2012-12-13): Tanchon Port

UPDATE 2 (2013-4-25): Yonhap reports on the DPRK’s plans for the Tanchon Port:

North Korea is scurrying to develop the resources-rich city of Tanchon on the east coast as part of the country’s efforts to make it a source of foreign currency income, recent news reports from the North showed.

Tanchon will become a key transit point in shipping goods to and from Russia’s Siberia, the northeastern part of China and Mongolia, said the Wednesday issue of the Choson Sinbo, a Korean language newspaper published by North Korean nationals in Japan.

The newspaper, a mouthpiece of North Korea, said the port city of Tanchon should become the source of finance for the country’s broader policy line of pursuing both economic development and nuclear capacities.
In a bid to boost exports, the country completed the construction of a port in May last year in the city with rich reserves of magnesite, zinc and other mineral resources, which sits about in the middle of the country’s east coast line. the Choson Sinbo said the city has about 5.4 billion tons of magnesite deposit, possibly the third biggest reserve in the world.

The news outlet also highlighted the country’s planned ways to increase earnings in the resources-rich city from which the country used to export mineral resources to China for meager profits.

“North Korea will move to manufacture processed magnesite goods in order to make high-value added goods,” the Choson Sinbo noted. “To that end, many plants will be built in the Tanchon region and the areas will become a new industrial zone.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has also underlined the country’s plan to boost profits from the Tanchon development, saying in a national meeting of light industrial workers last month that profits from Tanchon development should be exclusively used to prop up the livelihood of North Korean people.

UPDATE 1 (2012-5-3): KCNA announces the completion of  the Tanchon Port:

A modern trading port made its appearance in the area of Tanchon in South Hamgyong Province on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of President Kim Il Sung’s birth.

The construction of the port with a cargo traffic capacity of millions of tons provides a guarantee for greatly contributing to developing the nation’s foreign trade and improving the people’s living standard.

A ceremony for the completion of the construction was held on the spot Thursday.

Present there were Choe Yong Rim, Kwak Pom Gi, Ro Tu Chol and other officials concerned, officials of the Ministry of Land and Marine Transport, builders and working people of industrial establishments in Tanchon City.

Read out there was a joint congratulatory message sent by the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Cabinet of the DPRK to the officials and members of shock brigades who performed labor feats in the construction of the port.

The message highly praised them for successfully building another giant structure in the era of Songun greatly conducive to building an economic power true to the life-time desires and last instructions of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il.

It expressed belief that they would perform greater feats in the efforts for the country’s prosperity united close around the WPK Central Committee headed by the dear respected Kim Jong Un.

Minister of Land and Marine Transport Kang Jong Gwan, in his speech made for the occasion, said the construction of the port was a brilliant fruition of the wise leadership of Kim Jong Il who initiated the construction of the port and worked heart and soul to translate the desire of the President into a reality till the last moments of his revolutionary life and the clear-sighted guidance and meticulous care of Kim Jong Un.

Speakers at the ceremony pledged themselves to carry out their tasks including dredging in a short span of time in the same spirit as displayed in the construction of the port.

At the end of the ceremony the participants looked round different places of the port.

You can see video of the port inauguration here. (KCNA)

Just a few days ago, the Choson Sinbo reported the following (via Yonhap):

The North is estimated to have 15 billion tons of anthracite coal, a key mineral Pyongyang uses to produce steel, the Choson Sinbo newspaper said.

The North also has an estimated 5.4 billion tons of magnesite in Tanchon, a home to mines in South Hamgyong province, and other areas, according to the newspaper.

North Korea is set to open Tanchon as a modern trade port, the newspaper said, without giving any specific time frame for the opening.

ORIGINAL POST (2010-12-9): On December 2, KCNA announced that Kim Jong-il visited the port in Tanchon County, South Hamgyong County (40.412522°, 128.917731°) where he gave guidance on the port’s reconstruction.

Judging by the satellite imagery of the area on Google Earth, it appears that the project had already begun by May 13, 2009, where we can see concrete blocks ready to be used to extend the jettys (breakwaters).  I have outlined the proposed port project on Google Earth imagery below and provided a picture of the completed project from KCTV:

After the jettys are extended, the major construction work and dredging can begin.  Below are images of the port’s main construction site as it appears on Google Earth and a prediction of the project’s conclusion from KCNA:

It appears from the picture that the port will be connected to the railway system—likely via the nearby Tanchon Smeltery and Magnesia Plant (both recently renovated) whose products will probably be exported from the port.

Tanchon is also home to the DPRK’s Komdok and Taehung Youth Hero Mines (among others).  As is well known to readers, raw materials exports are the DPRK’s most significant (legal and transparent) source of hard currency.  According to Yonhap’s North Korea Handbook 2002:

Geomdeok [Komdok] Mine is a special company in Bonsan-dong, Dancheon, South Hamgyeon Province, and is very famous for about 300 million tons of deposited leads and zincs. This mine annually produces 52,000 tons of lead, 124,000 tons of zinc, both of which account for 47% of total production in North Korea, and more than twice as much as the production of Eunpa Mine, North Korea’s second largest mine, in Eunpa-gun North Hwanghae Province. Concentrates of lead and zinc produced from Geomdeok Mine are processed into electric zinc at Dancheon refinery. Opened in 1932, this mine produces 14,200 tons of raw ore annually with three ore dressing plants. Annual production capacity can reach up to 11 million tons. The first dressing plant was completed in July 1953, near the end of the Korean War. It now processes a million tons of ore a year. The second dressing plant was opened with a production capacity of 3,200 tons of ore. The third one constructed in September 1983 can process 10 million tons of ore.

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N. Korean prime minister visits South Korea for first time in 15 years

Wednesday, November 14th, 2007

Yonhap
11/14/2007

North Korea’s prime minister arrived here Wednesday to hold talks with his South Korean counterpart on implementing agreements reached at the second-ever inter-Korean summit last month.

In last month’s summit in Pyongyang, President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il called for denuclearization of North Korea, the establishment of a permanent peace regime on the peninsula and a range of economic cooperation and rapprochement measures.

Kim Yong-il is the first North Korean premier to visit here in 15 years. The prime ministers of the Koreas held eight rounds of talks until 1992. Inter-Korean minister-level talks resumed in 2000 following the first-ever summit between the leaders of the Koreas earlier that year.

 

Premier aims to build North Korean economy with inter-Korean cooperation
Yonhap

11/14/2007

North Korea’s prime minister is expected to make inter-Korean economic projects a top priority in the prime ministerial talks this week, watchers forecast on Wednesday.

Kim Yong-il, North Korea’s top official in overall economic policy, was due to arrive in Seoul on Wednesday for three-day talks with South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.

The talks follow last month’s inter-Korean summit held in Pyongyang, as well as Kim’s trip earlier this month to Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia and Laos. Kim’s Southeast Asian trip was aimed at finding ways to boost North Korea’s failing economy through regional cooperation.

Kim replaced his predecessor, Pak Pong-ju, as prime minister earlier this year after spending most of his career in maritime affairs and transport.

The 63-year-old career administrator served nine years in the military beginning in 1961 and graduated from the Rajin University of Marine Transport, leading to his bureaucratic career as a rank-and-filer in the Ministry of Land and Marine Transport.

He became head of the ministry in 1994, a position he held until he was appointed as prime minister on April 11.

The premier was praised by the North Korean people in 2005 for successfully modernizing the Ryongnam Ship Repair Factory near the western port of Nampo.

Kim is also well-known for having forged maritime communications and transportation agreements with North Korea’s allies, including China, Pakistan and Syria.

Some South Korean experts say Kim’s background represents a shift in North Korea’s economic policy, suggesting a move from isolation to economic expansion in the international community, as well an emphasis on reform and technology.

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Dock No. 2 of Ryongnam Ship Repairing Factory Commissioned

Friday, March 24th, 2006

KCNA
3/24/2006

A commissioning ceremony of the Dock No. 2 of the Ryongnam Ship Repairing Factory took place on the spot on Friday. With the building of the large computer-aided dock capable of repairing tens of thousands of tons of several ships simultaneously at the factory the capacity of ship repairing has remarkably increased and firmer material and technological foundations have been laid to develop the shipping industry of the country as required by the new century. A message of thanks sent by the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea to officials and builders of the Ministry of Land and Marine Transport who performed great labor feats in the construction of Dock No. 2 was conveyed at the ceremony. The message said that the officials and builders of the ministry who turned out as one true to the behests of President Kim Il Sung on further increasing the capacity of the factory and the militant tasks of the WPK performed the great labor feats in completing the construction of Dock No. 2 in a big and bold way with their own efforts in a short span of time.

It highly appreciated the officials and builders of the ministry for displaying intense loyalty to the Party and the leader and patriotic devotion and successfully building Dock No. 2 as a monumental edifice of the Songun era.

Speeches were made at the ceremony.

Present there were Vice-Premier of the Cabinet Ro Tu Chol, Minister of Land and Marine Transport Kim Yong Il and other officials concerned.

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