North Korean Economy Watch

According to the Daily NK:

This year, the North Korean authorities have been cracking down on the sale and distribution of products, tools and materials coming out of the Kaesong Industrial Complex. As a result, such Korean goods, formerly an expensive but popular choice in Hwanghae and South Pyongan Provinces, are now hard to find in markets.

A source from South Pyongan Province who spoke with The Daily NK in China explained, “Right up until last year, literally anything being made in the Kaesong Complex was available in the market, including clocks, metal, screws, clothes, underwear, toys and parts of electronics. However, the amounts have fallen dramatically since regulations were strengthened.”

The reason behind the regulations is unclear, however; the source suggested it could only be because of deteriorating inter-Korean relations.

Regardless, the source went on, “Nowadays, revealing the fact you sell those Kaesong Complex goods results in high fines and puts you in a bind” Therefore, he went on, “Only bread (Choco Pies), stainless steel or ceramic bowls and underwear are being sold.”

One consequence of the crackdown is that it makes the sale of other South Korean products smuggled in from China equally difficult. Albeit with some provincial differences, clothes and electronics cannot now be displayed on stalls, and must be sold in alley markets in secret.

A source from Shinuiju explained, “Market watch guards go around markets every day inspecting stalls with no notice; their investigation into South Korean products is really severe.” He explained, “If they find goods with Korean writing on, they confiscate them and give them back after two or three days later, after fines have been paid.”

“I hear there was a decree from above reinforcing crackdowns, but won’t this only lead to bribes?” the source pointed out.

Even when readily available, South Korean products are at the top of the price range, so most average families cannot afford them; one Choco Pie, a circular, individually wrapped chocolate cake made famous by the movie “JSA”, is between 180 and 200 won, a set of women’s underwear is 90,000 won, and a set of roughly ten plates, five or six small bowls and some coffee cups is around 250,000 won.

The source reported, “Due to the severe regulations, some traders sell them at home or in secret, hiding the goods behind the curtain.”

Interestingly, one South Korean official with the Kaesong Industrial Complex told the Daily NK that product leakage is not a problem at Kaesong, saying, “There have been almost no cases of complete products leaking out, but it is possible for stock, tools or things provided to workers like Choco Pies. However, the leaks are not enough to affect factory management.

And yet, one defector who used to be a worker in a shoe factory in charge of testing product quality explained that the siphoning off of materials, complete products, tools and other things is common among North Korean workers.

“The way they hide things and bring them out of the factory is really expert. I sometimes put up to 20 pairs of shoes on my body and came out of the factory. If you wear a long, thick winter coat then it is not so remarkable. Sometimes we did it in collusion with the factory manager.”

Read the full story here:
South Korean Products Disappear from Markets
Daily NK
Park Jun Hyeong and Mok Yong Jae
2010-3-10

Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
NK Brief No. 11-03-07
3/7/2011

The number of male workers in Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC) increased according to the Ministry of Unification (MOU). Since the establishment of the complex, women made up 84-85 percent of the total work staff. But from last May, the number fell below 80 percent and currently is around 74 percent.

In contrast, the number of male workers steadily increased from 15 percent from last year to 26 percent, an increase of over 10 percent.

Out of the new hires of all of last year, 56 percent were male. Even sewing factories generally dominated by female employees began to accept male workers.

Many of the South Korean companies in Kaesong preferred young female workers over male for higher work efficiency; but with declining manpower, more male workers are being hired than previously.

An official from the MOU stated, “We are facing difficulties with labor supply lately,” and added, “Many are even coming from Pyongyang in addition to the nearby areas of Kaesong.”

The total production output of Kaesong Complex reached 323.32 million USD last year, an increase of 26 percent against the previous year.

Kaesong is a popular employment spot for the North Koreans due to its higher wages and extra perks including coupons exchangeable for daily necessities and free coffee and snacks.

The MOU official also noted that even in times of troubled inter-Korean relations, North Korean officials and workers on several occasions have expressed their hopes for the KIC to continue. “KIC is a space we acquired from the North for the purpose of fulfilling our national strategy. We need to be more proactive in utilizing this opportunity to its full potential.”

On the other hand, North Korea sent a letter proposing working-level talks on the industrial complex to the South earlier last month. In the letter the North expressed, “We hope for your active support to resume the working-level talks of the Kaesong Industrial Complex at the earliest possible date to revitalize the currently stagnant business. We look forward to your positive response.”

On January 8, the DPRK officially proposed for the resumption of KIC working-level talks at the earliest possible date through a statement made by the spokesperson of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea. Specifically, late January or early February was suggested.

On January 18, the Central Special Zone Development Guidance of North Korea also proposed through its representative for working-level talks related to the KIC to be held in Kaesong on February 9.

The request from the DPRK is analyzed to be an attempt to relax restrictions prohibiting new businesses and investments in the KIC from the “May 24 Sanctions” that the South Korean government put into effect in 2010 following the sinking of the South Korean naval corvette Cheonan in March of last year.

Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
NK Brief No.11-02-18
2/18/2011

Despite the severed inter-Korean relations, Kaesong Industrial Complex related trade reached USD 1,442,860,000, surpassing last year’s figure (USD 940 million) by 53.4 percent.

Trade at Kaesong continuously rose since 2004, almost reaching USD 1 billion by 2009. Then it sharply jumped over the one billion mark last year in 2010.

A closer look at the numbers is as follows: 2004 (USD 41.69 million); 2005 (USD 176.74 million); 2006 (USD 298.79 million); 2007 (USD 440.68 million); 2008 (USD 884.40 million); 2009 (USD 940.55 million); 2010 (USD 1.44 billion).

This rise in trade brought the total trade figure up to USD 1.912 billion by 2010, an increase of 13.9 percent against last year’s total of USD 1.679 billion.

The number of total workers in North Korea reached 42,397 in March 2010, steadily increased to 44,958 in October, and reached 45,332 by November.

However, after the Cheonan incident, South Korea issued a suspension on inter-Korean trade, causing a drop in general trade and processing on commission.

General trade declined by 54 percent from 2009 to USD 117, 860, 000 while processing on commission was down by 22.5 percent to USD 317, 560, 000.

Consequently, the composition of the inter-Korean trade changed, contributing to the proportion of the trade in Kaesong to increase to 75.5 percent from 56 percent in 2009. General trade on the other hand, fell from 15.3 percent to 6.2 percent and processing on commission dropped from 24.4 percent to 16.6 percent from 2009.

In addition, commercial transactions — such as general trade and processing on commission — in Kaesong comprised 98.8 percent of total inter-Korean exchange while noncommercial activities like humanitarian assistance only reached 1.2 percent.

Also in 2010, a total of 13,119 South Koreans visited North Korea, which is an increase of 7.9 percent from the previous year (12,616 people). This is due to the rise in the number of people visiting the Kaesong Industrial Complex.

According to the Ministry of Unification, 94.5 percent (123,023) of the total visitors to the DPRK had involvement with the Kaesong Industrial Complex. This is an increase of 7.9 percent from 2009 (111,811 people).

In comparison, most of the noneconomic related visits to the DPRK declined since the Cheonan incident including socio-cultural exchanges and humanitarian assistance. With the implementation of the May 24 sanctions against North Korea, noneconomic related visitation to North Korea decreased 23 percent from 2,313 people to 1,773 from the previous year.

Image from the Hankyoreh: The left graph shows the number of South Korean tenant companies operating at Kaesong Industrial Complex. 122 companies are operating normally, 77 companies are not currently operating, and 16 have halted operations. The right graph shows the total number of workers: above, the number of North Korean workers and below, the number of South Korean workers.

According to the Hankyoreh:

… [Companies in the Kaesong Zone]  complained that they have lost hundreds of millions of Won (hundreds of thousands of dollars) with the suspension of factory construction due to administration measures forbidding new investment. They also said that the situation is growing bleaker by the day, with veteran employees quitting as the numbers of resident personnel at the complex drops due to concerns about personal safety. Despite all of this, they suffer without a word of formal complaint out of fears that they might draw the anger of North Korean and South Korean authorities.

In its May 24 measures last year, the Lee administration declared a suspension to trade and exchanges with North Korea in response to the sinking of the Cheonan. At the complex, only existing facilities were allowed to operate, while the resident workforce was halved to 500 people and the introduction of additional equipment was prohibited. Sixteen companies that were in the process of building new factories suffered a direct hit from these measures. At present, a total of 122 small and medium companies run factories in the complex.

Company “A,” a garment company that invested 5 million Won ($4,493) in inter-Korean economic cooperation funding to build a sewing factory, but were forced to suspended construction with approximately 90 percent of the process complete.

“Only the exterior and interior remain,” said the president of the company. “We could not bring in factory equipment, so we just gave up.”

The Export-Import Bank of Korea (EXIM) only stood surety for 90 percent of the loan, so Company A faces the immediate burden of principal and interest repayments in the hundreds of millions of Won. It also has to pay 16 million Won per year in interest on the EXIM-guaranteed loan until compensation money comes from the government.

The company’s president said, “We borrowed the money because they said to do an inter-Korean economic cooperation project, and then they just cause a loss by suspending exchange. Is the administration playing interest games with South Koreans?”

To date, a total of 1.26 trillion Won ($1.1 billion) has been invested in the complex, the bulk of which is facility investment paid by tenant companies, amounting to 730 billion Won.

Company “B,” another garment company, originally had seven South Korean employees working with 330 North Korean workers. But following the order from Seoul to halve the number of resident employees, there are now just three South Korean employees left. Two employees left the company. “The employees who left were heads of household in their forties who had worked with us for over a decade,” the president sighed. “They had a difficult time getting up at 6 in the morning for the 70 to 80 kilometer commute, and the government actually ended up fanning anxieties with its talk about ‘protecting employee safety,’ so their family members dissuaded them from working at the complex.”

Hiring new employees is not an option. In some cases, interviews were held and start dates were set before the new recruits abandoned their plans after the Yeonpyeong Island shelling occurred two months ago. Company B, which has its head office in Seoul, is in a slightly better position. Employees at businesses in Daegu, Gwangju, and Busan, for whom commuting is impossible, are forced to stay at motels in Munsan, Gyeonggi Province.

“They emptied out a perfectly good dormitory in the Kaesong complex, and employees have been wasting time, money, and strength for months now,” said the president of Company “C.” “It stands to reason that the departure rate is increasing.”

The president of Company “D” stated emphatically that there is no physical risk at the complex. In fact, the president said, North Korean authorities have added more productive labor on site since the Cheonan sinking and the bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island. The 45,332 North Korean workers as of November 2010 represented an increase of a full 2,771 over the 42,561 working in 2009. The president of Company D stressed that the government must increase the number of resident personnel if the physical safety of South Korean employees is to be guarded.

“If it is impossible to guarantee physical safety, they should not be leaving a single person at the Kaesong complex,” the president said. “Does it make any sense to say that 500 people is okay, but 1,000 is not?”

Some buyers have also fallen away because of anxieties. In late 2010, garment company “E” lost a buyer that had previously been purchasing 70 percent of its production output. “They got worried when it became difficult to bring in raw materials due to the sanctions against North Korea, and finally they halted transactions, saying that they thought the government had washed its hands of the Kaesong complex,” the president of Company E said. “Even if we suspend operations because there is no work to do, we still have to pay the workers’ wages, so the deficit is increasing by the day.”

With the decreased South Korean presence, six commercial facilities within the complex have also closed down, including a supermarket, restaurant, and singing room at “Songak Plaza.”

“If you look at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex Support Act, which the National Assembly passed unanimously, the government is to provide support and guarantees so that we can conduct business freely, like companies do in any other region,” said the president of Company F. “We are on the brink of withering away because of this idea of restricting property rights and company activities for administrative expedience, and through a minister’s order rather than any law.”

While they have been driven to the brink, the company presidents are adamantly opposed to closure of the complex. The president of Company G explained, “At first, things were rocky because of cultural and ideological differences, but now the North Korean workers understand the companies. They have realized by themselves why we need to meet the delivery deadline, why we need to improve quality, why we need to make so much. The Kaesong complex is performing the role of reducing the costs of reunification by restoring homogeneity between North Korea and South Korea.”

The president of Company H said, “The possibility of war is also being checked by the presence of North Korean and South Korean workers in the complex.”

“For the sake of peace and shared prosperity, we need to develop [the complex] into a special economic zone of peace where North Korea and South Korea can communicate,” the president added.

According to the Choson Ilbo:

Six of nine commercial [leisure] facilities in the joint Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex have closed, it emerged on Tuesday.

According to the Unification Ministry, a supermarket, a beer hall, a karaoke and a billiard hall in the Songak Plaza, the industrial park hotel operated by Hyundai Asan, closed on Dec. 1, right after North Korea’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island. Already in February a massage parlor closed, and in August a Japanese restaurant.

Only a duty-free shop and Korean and Chinese restaurants managed directly by Hyundai Asan stay open. A staffer at the industrial park said the reason is that the number of South Korean staffers in the industrial park, who were the main customers of the facilities, has dropped sharply.

There were some 1,200 to 1,500 South Koreans at the industrial park until the North’s sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan in March and its shelling of Yeonpyeong in November, but the number dropped to about 500 recently.

According to Yonhap:

Production at an inter-Korean industrial park dropped 15 percent in November last year when the North bombarded a South Korean island, raising bilateral tensions to the highest level in years, the Unification Ministry said Sunday.

The fall, however, contrasted with an increase in the number of North Korean workers at the Kaesong industrial park, located just north of the heavily armed inter-Korean border, the ministry said on its Web site.

Over 45,000 North Koreans were working as of November for more than 120 South Korean firms at the complex, the ministry said, adding that they produced US$25.1 million worth of products that month, compared to $29.4 million in October.

The factory park is considered the last remaining symbol of reconciliation between the two Koreas that remain divided by a heavily armed border after the Korean War ended in a truce in 1953.

After North Korea shelled the western South Korean island of Yeonpyeong on Nov. 23, killing four people, Seoul restricted the number of South Korean workers allowed to stay overnight in Kaesong.

The measure, which remains in place, led business managers to complain of difficulties in production. South Korea maintains it will continue to support manufacturing activities at the Kaesong industrial park despite the North Korean provocation.

Since May when a multinational investigation led by Seoul found the North responsible for the sinking of a South Korean warship earlier that year, South Korea has suspended all cross-border trade with North Korea.

Read the full stories here:
Kaesong companies on the brink as sanctions continue
Hankyoreh
Jung Eun-joo
1/19/2011

Leisure Facilities at Kaesong Close Down
Choson Ilbo
1/19/2011

Output at inter-Korean factory park falls amid tension
Yonhap
1/23/2011

According to KBS:

South Korea says it will not re-station personnel at the inter-Korean economic cooperation office inside the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in North Korea.

An official from the Unification Ministry in Seoul said Tuesday that the decision was made as there is no work to be done at the office.

Seoul banned inter-Korean economic cooperation and trade in May of last year as part of its retaliatory measures for Pyongyang’s sinking of South Korea’s “Cheonan” naval vessel in March.

North Korea notified the South on Monday that it plans to resume operations at the economic cooperation office in the business park.

Meanwhile, the South accepted North Korea’s proposal to reopen the Red Cross communication channel at the truce village of Panmunjeom. The ministry official said that a South Korean liaison officer will answer the phone if North Korea attempts to contact the office Wednesday morning.

Read the full story here:
Seoul Will Not Send Officials to Gaeseong Office
KBS
1/11/2011

According to Yonhap:

Despite persisting political woes, a new South Korean company has begun operating in North Korea’s border industrial complex that combines superior South Korean capital and know-how with the North’s cheap local labor, a government official said Thursday.

The company, known as DSE, completed building its factory in Kaesong in early May and is therefore exempt from the investment ban on North Korea that Seoul imposed later that month over the sinking of a South Korean warship, the Unification Ministry official said.

…

The ministry official, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, said DSE began operating on Jan. 3 and is employing 160 North Korean workers, part of the 44,000 workforce in the Kaesong complex, to produce lighting apparatuses and other metallic products.

The number of South Korean companies operating in Kaesong now stands at 122, the official added.

…

South Korea has since sharply cut down on the number of its workers allowed to stay in Kaesong. The North, in an apparent act of desperation to revive its economy, has since called for lowering tension and holding cross-border dialogue. South Korean officials are demanding that the North first show “sincerity,” indicating Pyongyang must apologize for the series of provocations blamed on it.

Read the full story here:
New S. Korean company begins operating in N. Korean factory park
Yonhap
Sam Kim
1/6/2011

According to Yonhap:

A pre-dawn fire completely destroyed a South Korean factory in a joint industrial complex in North Korea Friday, an official here said, citing an electricity leakage as the possible cause.

No injuries were reported from the fire that began at 2:30 a.m. at a container building and spread to a nearby factory owned by a kitchenware manufacturer, the Unification Ministry official said, asking not to be named or have the firm identified in the media.

Read the full story here:
Fire destroys S. Korean factory in N. Korea: official
Yonhap
Sam Kim
12/24/2010

According to Yonhap:

Inter-Korean trade has fallen about 30 percent this year, largely affected by South Korea’s move to cut almost all business relations with North Korea after the North sank one of its naval ships in a torpedo attack in March, the customs office said Wednesday.

According to data provided by the Korea Customs Service (KCS), trade between the two Koreas amounted to US$464 million during the January-November period, down from $649 million recorded a year earlier.

In May, a multinational team of investigators released a report saying that North Korea torpedoed the South Korean warship Cheonan on March 26 near their disputed western maritime border, killing 46 sailors. The North has denied any involvement.

In response, the Seoul government suspended almost all business relations with Pyongyang on May 24 with the exception of the industrial complex in the border town of Kaesong, where South Korean firms are doing business in cooperation with workers from the North.

South Korea’s exports to the North came to $130 million during the cited period, down 28 percent a year earlier, while imports dropped 29 percent on-year to $334 million, the data showed.

Despite such a sharp shrinkage, trade through the Kaesong industrial complex, tallied in a separate statistic, remained robust. Trade amounted to $1.31 billion during the 11-month period, up 62 percent from a year earlier.

“There have been some disruptions due to heightened geopolitical tensions but the overall number of companies operating there increased compared with a year earlier, which resulted in a hike in production,” a KCS official said.

The official said that companies in the North Korean border town numbered 121 as of November this year, up from 93 a year earlier. An economic recovery in the South also helped boost production in factories there, the official said.

South Korea is the North’s second-largest trade partner after China. A suspension of inter-Korean business would significantly impact the reclusive communist nation’s efforts to secure cash, according to experts.

The two Koreas remain technically at war as their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

Read the full story here:
Inter-Korean trade falls sharply amid heightened tensions
Yonhap
12/22/2010

According to Yonhap:

Output at an inter-Korean industrial complex in the North Korean border city of Kaesong rose by over 10 percent in October from the previous month, data released by the Unification Ministry said Sunday.

In October, companies in the Kaesong complex produced goods totaling US$29.41 million in value, up by $2.72 million, or 10.2 percent, from $26.69 million in September, according to the data.

The figure increased by 8.9 percent from the same month last year, they showed.

Total output for the Kaesong complex had been on the decline since the Cheonan incident in March, in which 46 sailors died in a torpedo attack blamed on North Korea. The figure hit $26.41 million in July.

The data also showed that the number of North Korean workers in the border town complex marked 44,958 in October, rising steadily from 42,397 in March.

“Although the North shelled Yeonpyeong Island on Nov. 23, North Korean workers have been on the rise,” said a ministry official. “According to unofficial statistics, 45,300 North Koreans are working in Kaesong today.”

The Kaesong industrial park is considered the last remaining major symbol of reconciliation efforts between the two Koreas, whose relations have been tense over the past three years. The park began operating in 2004 as a product of the first inter-Korean summit held four years earlier.

Read the full story here:
Output for Kaesong industrial complex increases 10 pct in October
Yonhap
12/19/2010

According to Yonhap:

Once hailed as vanguards of reconciliation but now threatened by simmering animosity between the Koreas, a group of South Korean businessmen pleaded Thursday with senior lawmakers to safeguard their operations in North Korea against further political fallout.

Since North Korea mounted a deadly artillery attack on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong on Nov. 23, these seasoned businessmen have had jitters over the fate of their factories built in the western North Korean border town of Kaesong.

Considered the last remaining symbol of reconciliation between the divided countries, the joint industrial complex houses more than 120 South Korean firms employing 44,000 North Korean workers.

Holding a commercial fair at the National Assembly, representatives from eight companies and officials from their association mingled with two dozen lawmakers and scrambled to tout their products as bearing the messages of hope and peace.

“We have achieved a level of quality that enables us to compete with any other industrial complexes in the world,” Bae Hae-dong, chief of the association of South Korean factories, said in a speech. “Yet, we remain easily affected by inter-Korean political circumstances. We especially deplore the situation that has arisen since North Korea attacked Yeonpyeong.”

The shelling of the small fishing community killed two marines and two civilians in the most indiscriminate attack on South Korean soil since the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce.

A travel ban imposed on North Korea a day after the attack remains in place, allowing only a limited amount of raw materials to be sent to Kaesong and hamstringing manufacturing operations there.

“We are suffering a 10-15 percent decline in production due to the ban,” said Kim Ssang-kyu, general manager at Pyxis Inc., which produces jewelry cases and other accessories.

Sung Hyun-sang, president of Mansung Corp., which makes women’s clothing, claimed the damage in production amounts to as much as 50 percent.

“We understand the ban is for the sake of our safety, but we’re sure the North Koreans won’t hurt us. They know how important we are” to their cash-strapped economy, Sung said.

“We can only worry and pray for now,” an official at Shinwon, which produces men’s suits, said, asking not to be named because his remark could be taken sensitively.

About 410 South Koreans remained in Kaesong as of Thursday, a drop from 760 on Nov. 23 when the artillery exchange erupted between the Koreas, according to the Unification Ministry in Seoul.

The Kaesong complex produced its first articles — kitchen pans — in 2004 even though the two Koreas had agreed four years earlier on the project in an effort to lessen border tension.

Combining South Korean capital and know-how with the cheap labor in North Korea, the park recently reached a total of US$1 billion in production. Supporters of the estate say its significance goes far beyond economic benefits.

“Kaesong has been a safety pin whenever the security on the Korean Peninsula sagged to a dangerous level,” Kim Choong-whan, a legislator with the ruling conservative Grand National Party (GNP), said in a speech.

Park Joo-sun, who is with the liberal Democratic Party (DP) and sponsored the fair, expressed hope that the park will survive the crisis sparked by the North’s shelling.

The fair was scheduled before the crisis, organizers said. The lawmakers who attended it included Park Jie-won, a DP lawmaker who led the organization of the 2000 summit, and Lee Sang-deuk, President Lee Myung-bak’s older brother who is a GNP legislator.

“Sir, please help us,” Bae told the influential lawmaker touring the booths set up at the fair.

Gently embracing Lee with his arm in a show of friendship, another businessman smiled widely and whispered to Lee, “This is the lifeline of peace.”

In a brief interview on the sidelines, Lee downplayed the economic damage the South Korean firms said they have incurred since the travel ban on North Korea came into effect on Nov. 24.

“They should and can withstand this. It is a risk they were willing to take,” he said as he stepped onto the elevator taking him to his office inside the building.

Vice Unification Minister Um Jong-sik, who admitted in a speech that the companies were suffering drops in production, would not say how long the ban will stay in effect.

“All things and situations must be considered before we can make a decision,” he said after a long pause, when asked if South Korean artillery drills planned for next week in the Yellow Sea would prompt the ministry to extend the ban.

“For now, we’re doing our best to listen to these companies and address their needs as much as we can,” he said as he left the fair with two bags full of clothing he bought from Mansun Corp.

South Korea and the United States ended their four-day joint naval drills mobilizing an American aircraft carrier in the Yellow Sea on Wednesday, a move they believed would intimidate North Korea into calling off further acts of provocation.

The U.S. has 28,500 forces stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the Korean War in which it led U.N. forces to fight against North Korea. Since a U.S. commander drew a line separating the waters of the Koreas at the end of the war, the North has denied its validity, triggering a series of deadly naval clashes there with the South.

North Korea says any further artillery drills by the South on Yeonpyeong, less than 10 kilometers from the North Korean coast, are bound to violate its waters because the Northern Limit Line is null.

The communist state maintains that it fired at Yeonpyeong because it had been provoked by South Korean forces shooting artillery shells at its side across from Yeonpyeong.

Read the full story here:
Businessmen plead for help as tension threatens their factories in N. Korea
Yonhap
Sam Kim
12/2/2010