North Korean Economy Watch

Yonhap reports on an interesting development in the Kaesong Industrial Zone: the development and enforcement of workplace conduct policies.

According to the report:

A South Korean worker was banned from working in an inter-Korean industrial zone in North Korea’s border city of Kaesong for two weeks in May for a minor offense, the Unification Ministry said Thursday.

It was the first time a South Korean has been denied access to the complex under a demerit point system designed to strengthen law and order among the hundreds of South Koreans in the complex.

The construction worker received 3 out of maximum 10 penalty points in May for causing a quarrel and breaking a glass in a karaoke room inside the complex, said the ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs.

South Korea introduced the penalty system in January for more than 700 South Korean workers in the complex to handle offenses ranging from traffic accidents to violence and murder, including sexual crimes.

The penalty points range from 2 to 10, depending on the offense.

If the total cumulative points exceed 10, the offender is permanently banned from the complex while those who earn nine demerits are suspended from visiting the complex for three months, according to the ministry.

South Korean workers with seven or eight demerits are suspended from the complex for two months and those with three or four demerits are suspended for two weeks.

Read the full story here:
Unruly S. Korean worker suspended from Kaesong complex in May
Yonhap
2012-7-5

Pictured Above: Tianjin’s location relative to the DPRK

The Daily NK reports:

“A group of 20 trainees made up of economic officials and academics from the DRPK Ministry of Trade has been receiving training in Tianjin since the end of May upon an invitation from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.”

“The aim of the training is the vitalization of North Korea’s special economic zones at Hwanggeumpyeong, Wihwa Island and Rajin-Sonbong,” he added.

According to the source, the North Koreans, who come from the finance and economics, administration and taxation sections of the ministry, will remain in China for two months. The costs of the program, including accommodation and training fees, are being covered by the Chinese side, and they are staying in a state guest house.

For the first month, the 20 were reportedly due to receive training in techniques pertaining to the operation, management and attraction of investment to SEZs from Chinese experts. For the second, they are set to receive field training in Shanghai, seeing how China’s SEZs operate.

Previous posts on Hwanggumphyong are here.

Previous posts on Rason are here.

Read the full Daily NK story here:

20 NK Officials Getting Schooled in Tianjin
Daily NK
Chris Green
2102-7-4

According to the Daily NK:

Japanese-made vehicles are disappearing from the streets of North Korea, six years after Kim Jong Il decreed that it should happen. Indeed, just two years ago it seemed that a majority of the vehicles on the streets were still those made by Toyota, Nissan and Mitsubishi, but this is no longer the case.

According to a Chongjin source who spoke with Daily NK yesterday, “In accordance with a 2010 National Defense Commission order saying that all Japanese cars had to be off the streets by last December, now you can hardly see any Japanese private cars or vans in the entire country.”

The NDC order reportedly pertained to private cars and vans of 1.5T or less, although the source said that trucks of Japanese origin are also meant to be phased out over the next couple of years as well.

The move is said to relate to a decree issued by Kim Jong Il in 2006 in which he demanded that all Japanese cars had to be gotten rid of. He apparently issued it after watching unhappily as a Japanese car overtook his own on the Pyongyang-Wonsan highway.

Another case is instructive in showing the degree of official dislike. In 2008, Namkang Trading Co. had already been importing second hand Japanese cars through Rasun for some time. However, a provincial Party secretary received a report on the removal of Japanese cars, and as a result more than 300 such cars were gathered in a local stadium and turned into scrap metal using fork cranes as cadres watched on.

But it was not really until four years after Kim’s original decree that implementation hit its stride, because it took some time to secure sufficient replacement vehicles. Pyongyang municipal, Party, state and security organs were the first to lose theirs in 2010, followed in 2011 by factories, enterprises and foreign currency earning units.

According to the source, “At the time, there were more than 100 perfectly good vehicles taken from North Hamkyung Provincial Party Committee alone.” The transportation head in the province apparently commented that “tens of thousands of perfectly sound vehicles have been gotten rid of nationwide.”

However, in October, 2010, Kim Jong Il delivered cars as gifts to key individuals and organizations. There were nationwide events held to celebrate receipt of the vehicles. Cadres at provincial Party departmental head and above received Chinese vehicles, while local Party secretaries and people’s committee chairmen received Russian ones. Factories and enterprises were subsequently ordered to purchase vehicles produced domestically in Nampo by ‘Pyeonghwa Motors’, a joint venture with the Seoul-based Unification Church, but this didn’t always happen.

The relative popularity of Japanese vehicles in North Korea stems in part from their build quality, which allows them to traverse the often sketchy North Korean roads, and in part from the fact that they used to represent a good trading opportunity in the 1980s and 90s. At that time, such vehicles could be imported from Japan and sold on to Chinese businesses at a profit margin of up to 400%. Domestic popularity was one of the inevitable side-effects of this trade.

Previous posts on this topic here (2007-7-11) and here (2007-7-27).

Read the full story here:
Japanese Cars Crashing Out
Daily NK
Choi Song Min
2012-5-31

According to Choson Exchange:

Chinese tourists will have visa free access to the border regions linking Yanbian Autonomous Region, Rason Special Economic Zone and Russia, according to a report originating with Jilin Radio that surfaced in South Korean media today.

The report doesn’t give an date for implementation, but does state that the previous tourism agreement governing the border region (signed in 2010) will be streamlined. It still takes 10 days for a Chinese traveler to get permission to visit Rason. This process will drop to 2-3 days.

If accurate, this could go a long way towards boosting tourism in the SEZ. After all, a Beijinger or Shanghaiian might well be more willing to spend the money to visit the region if they can get two countries in the same trip. At the risk of overgeneralizing, Asian tourists seem eager maximize passport stamps above all else on international tours. This desire could be effectively exploited if Rason and Russia’s Primorsky Krai province coordinate their marketing.

Also, now that the road to Rason is paved, the ease with which Chinese gamblers can reach the Emperor Casino and Hotel greatly increases and arguably makes the destination seem more normal and therefore attractive. One wonders if the casino’s fleet of crimson humvees, once needed to whisk high-rollers along the laborious dirt road from, will now be replaced by Mercedes or Lexuses. (Lexi?)

Last year, the SEZ experimented with self-drive tours for Chinese citizens, though there has yet to be any follow-up on it.

For westerner tourists thinking of visiting Rason, we recommend Krahun, a company that has had a presence in Rason for over a decade and know the region exceptionally well.

Read the full story here:
Visa Free Rason Tourism for Chinese Citizens
Choson Exchange
Andray Abrahamian
2012-5-29

According to the Hankyoreh:

South Korean businesses have suffered losses of up to ten trillion won (US$8.3 billion) from the cutbacks in inter-Korean economic cooperation under the Lee Myung-bak administration, figures show.

The losses taken by South Korean firms are fives times the 1.8 trillion won (US$1.7 billion) North Korea’s estimated losses. The results show an unintended effect of Seoul’s May 24 sanctions, which were meant to punish North Korea economically for the shooting death of a tourist at the Mt. Kumkang resort, the sinking of the Cheonan warship, and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island. North Korea has offset these losses with increased cooperation with China.

Read more below…

(more…)

The Joongang Ilbo reports some recent statistics from, the Kaesong Industrial Zone and some trade statistics between the two Koreas and China.

Inter-Korean and China trade (Joongang Ilbo):

Exactly two years ago, on May 24, 2010, in the aftermath of the deadly sinking of the Cheonan warship, the Lee Myung-bak administration imposed sanctions against North Korea that forbade all inter-Korean trade and South Korean investments in the North.

[…]

Statistics from the Korea International Trade Association show that the volume of inter-Korea trade in 2011 dropped by 10.4 percent, falling to about $1.7 billion from $1.9 billion in 2010. The Kaesong Industrial Complex, which was exempted from the sanctions, accounted for most of the inter-Korean trade.

In contrast, the volume of trade between North Korea and China surged by 62.4 percent in 2011, from $3.4 billion in 2010 to $5.6 billion.

“After stopping trade with South Korea, factories in Pyongyang and Nampo cities turned to Chinese companies and now work for them,” a South Korean businessman said on condition of anonymity. “It took so much time and money for us to teach North Korean employees and now Chinese companies enjoy the fruits of our labor.”

The North Korean government responded to the South Korean sanctions:

As talks between the two authorities have been halted, North Korea has unilaterally decided to raise taxes on income and management of the complex.

In fact, the North Korean regime earns significant money from the complex. South Korean firms pay the North Korean government an average of $126.4 per month for each North Korean worker. The government then distributes 5,000 won of North Korean currency and some food coupons to each employee per month. This wage is desirable compared to other worker payments in the North.

Analysts calculate that the regime is holding at least $50 million from the $77.8 million of the North Korean employees’ annual income.

At current black market rates, there are appx 4,450 DPRK won to for US$1.

The article notes, however, that the Kaesong Industrial Zone continues to grow:

Located only three kilometers away from the Military Demarcation Line, the inter-Korean complex has 123 South Korean companies and about 51,000 North Korean employees.

…

Currently, the South Korean government is implementing a scheme to build more roads and infrastructure for South Koreans crossing the border to commute to the complex (see here and here).

“Although Kim Yong-chol, former head of the policy planning office of the North’s powerful National Defense Commission, who has exerted a huge influence on operating the Kaesong complex, repeatedly threatened to shut down the complex since the May 24 sanctions, he’s recently been more cooperative, saying ‘Let’s make it better,’” a high-ranking government source told the JoongAng Ilbo.

Unlike the frosty inter-Korean relations, the sales performance of the joint industrial complex is positive. For the past three years, 55 South Korean firms additionally moved into the complex and the annual output value surpassed $400 million in 2011, jumping from $180 million in 2007.

Last year’s volume is 30 times that of the $14.91 million in 2005, when the complex made its first yearly outputs. The total output value since 2005 has accumulated to $1.5 billion.

[…]

Currently, roughly 160,000 people are living in Kaesong city and approximately one out of three are working in the complex

The article also reports on additional DPRK-China projects that are not necessarily a result of higher barriers to commerce between the two Koreas (dredging, mining, labor mobility, and SEZs):

“A Chinese firm based in Yanji is now implementing a 60-kilometer-long (37-mile) dredging project in the Tumen river bed,” a government-affiliated research official said.

“It’s not simple dredging work, but a plan to mine the iron ore buried nearby.”

“In the river bed, about 30 percent of the sand contains iron ore,” the official said.

The regime also exports their labor forces to their closest ally.

“Most of the local people left for South Korea to get a decent job and the average wage for a Chinese worker is increasing,” a Chinese factory manager in Yanji said. “So we are planning to hire North Korean workers instead.”

Pyongyang and Beijing are also focusing on developing the two special economic zones, Rason and Hwanggumpyong in northeastern North Korea.

When Chen Deming, the Minister of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce of China, and South Korean Trade Minister Park Tae-ho had a bilateral meeting on May 2 to start negotiations on the Korea-China free trade deal, they included a provision stating the two countries will allow preferential tariffs on goods produced in designated zones.

“Hwanggumpyong is like a Kaesong Industrial Complex to China,” a South Korean authority said. “The Hwanggumpyong zone has the same function as Kaesong, composed of China’s capital and technology and North Korea’s land and labor forces.”

In the Rason Economic Zone, China has finished construction paving the 53-kilometer-long road connecting the Rason zone and a local tax office in Wonjong-ri, a North Korean village close to China.

The Chinese government also arranged a harbor near the Rason area, constructing a pier that can accept a three million-ton ship and building a bus route between an express bus terminal in China and the zone.

“If China uses the Rason harbor, they can save $10 per metric ton,” Jo Bong-hyeon, a senior official at the Industrial Bank of Korea, said. “It’s really good business for China, enough to invest money on building infrastructure in the zone.”

Read the full story here:
Kaesong complex running well despite sanctions
JoongAng Ilbo
2012-05-23

According to Yonhap:

Despite rising cross-border tension, the trade between South and North Korea surged 36 percent from a year ago to US$320 million in the first two months of this year, government data showed on March 16.

The data provided by the Korea Customs Service indicated that the trade via the inter-Korean industrial complex has not been affected by tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea slapped sanctions on the North in May 2010 in retaliation for the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship earlier that year, though it keeps intact the complex in the North’s western border city of Kaesong.

The complex, a key outcome of the inter-Korean summit in 2000, marries South Korean capital and technology with cheap labor from the North. It is now home to more than 120 South Korean small and medium-sized companies.

Tensions have flared anew in recent weeks as the two Koreas traded militaristic rhetoric against each other over Seoul’s defamation of the dignity of North Korea’s new leader Kim Jong-un and his late father, former leader Kim Jong-il.

Read the full story here:
Inter-Korean Trade Surges 36 Percent This Year
North Korea Newsletter No. 202 (March 22, 2012)
Yonhap

According to Business Week:

Gaeseong, which is within sight of South Korean and U.S. guard posts along the Demilitarized Zone, was developed as a joint special economic zone in 2005 and now employs about 50,000 North Koreans, according to the Unification Ministry in Seoul.

More than 120 South Korean companies, including Daewha Fuel, underwear maker Good People Co. and watchmaker Romanson Co. (026040) paid the North Korean government about $60 million to $70 million last year to cover labor costs for workers, said Park Soo Jin, the deputy spokeswoman at the Unification Ministry. Authorities in Pyongyang then paid the employees in local currency and vouchers, she said.

Trade Minister Bark Tae Ho said on March 14 that he will try to persuade the U.S. and European Union to recognize products made in Gaeseong as South Korean.

Singapore Tariffs
The EU and South Korea have agreed to establish a committee this year to examine the issue, Tomasz Kozlowski, ambassador for the EU delegation in Seoul, said in an e-mailed statement. Aaron Tarver, a spokesman at the U.S. Embassy, said in an e-mail that the trade pact does not include any products from North Korea, including those from Gaeseong, without commenting further.

Singapore has reduced tariffs covering more than 4,000 products from Gaeseong under its bilateral trade pact with South Korea, said Lee Sang Mok, Deputy Director at Korea Customs Service. Some products are also covered by agreements with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, India, Peru and the European Free Trade Association consisting of Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, Lee said via e- mail and telephone.

The value of output from Gaeseong jumped from $14.9 million in its first year to $402 million in 2011, according to the Unification Ministry. During the past seven years, its production totaled $1.5 billion. That compares with $40 billion for North Korea’s annual gross domestic product, according to the CIA World Factbook.

“The U.S. seems to want more progress in North Korean nuclear and human rights issues before including Gaeseong in FTA,” IBK’s Cho said.

…

Yoo of Daewha Fuel Pump said he plans to spend 1 billion won ($885,000) this year to boost capacity in Gaeseong by 50 percent and forecasts sales to jump to 65 billion won this year from 45 billion won in 2011. His company, which also makes parts in plants in South Korea, supplies automakers including Hyundai Motor Co., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co., he said.

The minimum monthly base salary paid by companies at Gaeseong is about $64, according to the Unification Ministry’s Park. Yoo, who was speaking at Incheon near Seoul, estimated labor costs would be 20 times higher in South Korea and three times higher in China.

“The security issue is of course a big risk but every business has a risk,” Yoo said. “Gaeseong has survived all the clashes and threats, including the sinking of a warship and the shelling of a South Korean island”.

Read the full story here:
North Korea’s Gaeseong Pushed for Inclusion in FTA
Business Week
Eunkyung Seo and Sangwon Yoon
2012-3-22

Just a few days after Choson Exchange published a PDF copy of the “Law of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on the Rason Economic and Trade Zone”, KCNA published laws on both of its recently announced special economic zones along the Chinese border (Rason and Hwanggumphyong). I have posted both laws below in text-recognized PDF format.

Law of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea of the Hwanggumphyong and Wihwado Economic Zone
Published by KCNA on March 17, 2012
Download PDF here.

Law of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on the Rason Economic and Trade Zone
Published by KCNA on March 17, 2012
Download PDF here.

Here is the original 1993 Law on Rason (in Korean) along with 1999 and 2002 revisions (PDF).

UPDATE 1: See Marcus Noland’s comments here.

UPDATE 2: The Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES) published the following…

Details Released for the Law on the Hwanggumpyong and Wihwado Economic Zone
Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
2012-4-4

North Korea recently announced that the Law on the Hwanggumpyong and Wihwado (Islands) Economic Zone, with seven chapters and 74 articles, was approved by the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) on December 3, 2011.

On the same day, the text of the amended Law on the Rason Economic and Trade Zone was also released.

The newly passed law on Hwanggumpyong and Wihwado included the details of the management policy stating,“Management and operation of the industrial parks and designated areas of the Zone shall be undertaken by the management committee under the guidance and assistance of the central guidance authority of special economic zones and the North Pyongan Provincial People’s Committee” and asserted, “Other institutions shall not get involved in the work of the management committee.”

The details of the law are as follows:

Article 1 specifies the objective of the zones is to provide strict guidelines that can contribute to the development and expansion of foreign economic cooperation and exchange. Hwanggumpyong and Wihwado Economic Zone was designated as the “special economic zone of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” under the jurisdiction of North Pyongan Province and Hwanggumpyong Island and Wihwa Island districts.

Article 3 states the development of the Zone was to be carried out regionally and in phases, centered around several industries — IT, light industry, agricultural, commerce, and tourism — in Hwanggumpyong Island and Wihwa Island, and will follow the Wihwa Island Development Plans.

In comparison, the Rason Economic and Trade Zone passed on January 31, 1993, was announced as a development area for high-tech industry, international logistics business, equipment manufacturing, primary processing industry, light industry, service business and modern agriculture industries.

Article 6 on the section for “Promotion, Prohibition, and Restriction of Investment,” specifies that the government will encourage investments particularly in the highly competitive sectors in the international market. In contrast, those investments or business activities that can harm the safety, health, and morality of the (North Korean) people or the environment will be prohibited or restricted.

Article 7 stipulates that management and operation of the zone will fall under the central guidance authority of special economic zones and North Pyongan Provincial People’s Committee. Here, it was emphasized that no other organizations can meddle with management and operation of the zone.

Article 8 covers the interests of the investors, in protecting their property, interest and rights. It states, “The property, legitimate income and invested rights of investors in the Zone shall be protected by the law. The State shall not nationalize or expropriate the property of the investors.”

Article 9 provides guidelines for the protection of personal safety, human rights, prohibition of illegal detention and arrest.

Article 13 (Development Method of the Zone) states that the land in Hwanggumpyong will be leased to companies but will be developed and managed comprehensively. The land lease term is set at 50 years from the date of issuance of the land use certificate, with options for renewal.

Chapter 4 (Establishment of Enterprises, Economic and Trade Activities), considered the core section of this law, indicates the specifics of business activities, from establishment, accounting, taxes, wages, employment, and other technical and administrative contents.

Article 36 is particularly eye-catching, which indicates that priority in employment must be given to North Korean residents and the minimum monthly wage will be determined by the management committee.

Lastly, corporate income tax rate set at 14 percent of the profit will be reduced to 10 percent to those businesses in the sectors encouraged by the state (Article 43).

According to  Choson Exchange:

In 2010, the DPRK revised the laws governing Rason Special Economic Zone.

This booklet, scanned into pdf form, sketches out the new laws in both Korean and English (English is in the back half). It was at this time that the authorities removed Rason from provincial administration, giving it more autonomy in some ways, while also giving authorities in Pyongyang a more direct link to planning for the SEZ.

Potentially interesting clauses include:

– Ships regardless of nationality are permitted to port (article 26)

– Business licenses can be revoked if DPRK law is “seriously” violated. (article 15)

– Prices will be set between the buyer and seller, though some basic consumer goods may be fixed by the local government. (article 26)

– Disputes may be resolved by arbitration either in the DPRK or a 3rd country. (article 45)

Additional information:

1. Download a PDF of the full publication here.

2. Previous posts on this topic here.

3. Choson Exchange home page.