North Korean Economy Watch

Yonhap
5/2/2007

South Korea on Wednesday proposed a joint survey of two North Korean mines in part of efforts to facilitate cross-border economic exchanges, a South Korean official said.

The proposal was made when working officials of the two Koreas met in the North Korean border city of Kaesong to discuss the South’s agreement to provide the North with raw materials in return for natural resources, said the official at the Unification Ministry.

The South suggested the two Koreas conduct a joint exploration of mines in the mountains of Ryongyang and Geomdeok, both in the North’s northeast Hamkyong Province, the official said on condition of anonymity.

“The two mines are the best place for cooperative projects for underground resources both economically and geographically,” the official said, adding Ryongyang is rich in magnesite and Geomdeok in lead and zinc.

Last month, South Korea agreed to provide raw materials worth US$80 million to the North to help it produce clothing, footwear and soap in exchange for its natural resources. Wednesday’s meeting was the first of two-day talks, with both sides sending an eight-member delegation.

The two Koreas reached a similar swapping agreement in 2005, but it has never been implemented amid the North Korean nuclear dispute.

Yonhap
5/2/2007

A group of lawmakers from the pro-government Uri Party left for North Korea on Wednesday with a package of new proposals to boost economic and sports exchanges, including the construction of a second joint industrial park.

The five-member delegation, accompanied by agricultural and coal industry officials, will meet with top North Korean officials, including the North’s No. 2 leader Kim Yong-nam, during its four-day visit until Saturday, party officials said.

High on the agenda of the meetings will be the South’s proposals to create another South Korea-developed industrial complex such as one under operation in Kaesong; designate the mouths of the North’s Imjin River and the South’s Han River as a “joint security area”; and jointly collect sand from their beaches and build a cross-border canal linking Seoul and Kaesong.

The sides will also discuss the North’s proposed entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the hosting of a joint academic forum and the possibility of North Korean footballers playing in the South Korean professional league, he said.

“I hear some critics asking what right our party has to do this, but we can play a role as a messenger between officials of the South and the North about important current issues,” Rep. Kim Hyuk-kyu, the delegation’s leader, said before departing at Incheon International Airport.

There have been a series of visits to North Korea by Uri Party lawmakers in recent months, prompting speculation that they were laying the groundwork for a summit between President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The first and only inter-Korean summit, which took place in 2000, generated a series of economic and cultural exchanges.

Kim said the summit issue was not on the agenda, but acknowledged the delegation will respond if Pyongyang brings it up.

Accompanying the lawmakers are Nam Kyong-woo, livestock director of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, and Kim Weon-chang, head of the state-run Korea Coal Cooperation.

Korea Times
Jung Sung-ki
5/2/2007

A North Korean-made distilled liquor of soju is expected to make a foray into the U.S. market as early as this month, the Hankook Ilbo, a sister paper of The Korea Times, reported Wednesday.

The report said the “Pyongyang Soju’’ made by a factory in the North Korean capital has been exported to the U.S. since early last month through the Korea PyongYang Trading U.S.A. owned by a Korean-American Park Il-woo, 59.

Park and his business partner visited the North last month for the shipment of about 64,800 bottles of soju in three containers, it said.

“If the customs procedures go as scheduled, the soju will be sold at U.S. stores, marketplaces and restaurants as early as late this month or early next month,’’ Park was quoted as saying.

“The North Korean government shows a positive response to this business in that its product is to be exported to the U.S., which has long been considered as a hostile country, through legal procedures,’’ he said. “I think this will serve as a good opportunity to improve the relations between the two countries in the future.’’

On April 9, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il held a ceremony for Park when the soju shipment took place at the port of Nampo on the west coast, the report said.

Park received approval for the import of the North Korean-made soju from the U.S. government last July, according to the report.

The North Korean liquor will be first sold in the eastern states including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland with the help of Tang’s Liquor Wholesale, a liquor agency, it said.

N.K. soju to debut in U.S.
Korea Herald
Lee Joo-Hee

Americans will soon be able to get a taste of North Korea, in the form of soju – a traditional Korean rice liquor – that will debut in the U.S. market this month.

Steve Park, a South Korean-American businessman, said 2,520 boxes of Pyongyang Soju with a lowered alcohol content of 23 percent left for the United States last month.

“The North Korean government is pretty hyped about having its products exported to the United States through formal customs process,” Park was quoted as saying by Hankook Ilbo, a South Korean news daily.

Park, who runs Korea Pyongyang Trading USA, has been devoting a lot of time trying to get U.S. approval to bring in the North Korean beverage.

“When calculating the customs process, I believe Pyongyang Soju will be able to go on sale in the eastern region of the United States at the end of this month or early next month,” Park said.

“It can be a positive sign for the trust level of the two countries that the United States approved the import of liquor that usually requires a strict customs process,” Park was quoted as saying.

Park has completed producing a poster and advertisements to promote sales of the soju.

Park immigrated to the United States in early 1980s and has been involved in businesses with North Korea for the past 10 years.

He most recently visited North Korea’s Nampo Port between April 4-12 to oversee the shipment of the products.

Pyongyang Soju is the representative soju of North Korea and is made with corn, rice and glutinous rice flour. It has been exported to Japan and China.

The total shipment of Pyongyang Soju to the United States includes some 60,000 bottles.

The items received permits from the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Food and Drug Administration, the news reports said.

Addendum: From the KFA forum:

Korea Pyongyang Trading U.S.A. Inc.
98 Thayer Street, Apt. 1B
New York NY 10040-1108

Korea Times
5/2/2007

Despite Pyongyang’s ardent plea, Washington has recently decided to retain North Korea on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism. In its annual report called “Patterns of Global Terrorism,” the United States stipulated North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, along with Iran, Cuba, Syria and Sudan. However, the U.S. State Department has considerably reduced and revised the grounds for designating it as a terrorism-sponsoring state, opening the way for dropping Pyongyang from it.

In other words, Washington is hinting if the North shows sincerity in abiding by the Feb. 13 agreement on denuclearization, it could de-listing Pyongyang from the list. The latest U.S. decision to keep the North on the list appears to reflect Washington’s judgment that actual situations in the Stalinist country have not changed much, although Pyongyang has persistently called for its exclusion from the list since the landmark agreement.

Everyone knows now the frozen funds at the Banco Delta Asia have obstructed the implementation of the Feb. 13 agreement. Still it is clear what Pyongyang has to do to extricate itself out of the current doldrums and move further towards being dropped from the list: Put the Feb. 13 accord into action without delay. The reclusive regime should show visible actions, such as inviting back international inspectors to its Yongbyon reactor site, indicating Pyongyang thinks the BDA issue has all but been settled.

It is not hard to understand North Korea’s position, but doing nothing only citing the BDA funds would solve nothing. Pyongyang should explain its current circumstances to the international society and ask for its help. By keeping to its original stance of linking the initial steps to the funds issue, the isolationist regime will have little to gain, only deepening its isolation from the rest of the world.

Aside from North Korea, South Korea needs to take issue with the U.S. State Department’s annual report that erased the part that “the South Korean government estimates about 485 persons were kidnapped or detained by North Korea since the Korean War (1950-53).” Washington, which must be well aware of two Koreas being at odds over the POW and abductee issue, has all but raised the ire of Pyongyang by removing the part on South Korean abductees. This would have a negative effect on Seoul if and when the two Koreas retake this issue.

The U.S. action comes as all the more regrettable, considering it has retained the Japanese abductee issue in close linkage to excluding Pyongyang from the list. The government should ask for a proper explanation and call for its correction.

And from the US State Department:

North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since the bombing of a Korean Airlines flight in 1987. The DPRK continued to harbor four Japanese Red Army members who participated in a jet hijacking in 1970. The Japanese government continued to seek a full accounting of the fate of the 12 Japanese nationals believed to have been abducted by DPRK state entities; five such abductees have been repatriated to Japan since 2002. In the February 13, 2007 Initial Actions Agreement, the United States agreed to “begin the process of removing the designation of the DPRK as a state-sponsor of terrorism.”

(no mention of Myanmar, with which the DPRK just re-established diplomatic relations)

The Christian Post
Michelle Vu
4/29/2007

In a country described as a spiritual vacuum surrounded by the watchful eyes of a totalitarian regime and oppressed by a quasi religious cult centered on its leader’s family, North Koreans desperate to keep the Gospel alive have found innovative methods to smuggle in the Word of God.

Whether it is through human transport of Bibles or North Koreans risking their lives to testify to their families upon return or balloons filled with Christian tracts, the Word of God is penetrating the country where being openly Christian can result in execution.

From within the country, evangelism is taking place through disguised missionaries and North Korean Christians repatriated by China or returning on their own free will, according to North Korean defectors at the Open Doors USA panel discussion this past week on religious persecution in North Korea.

One North Korean defector, Ms. Eom Myong-Heui, said that she was evangelized through a Chinese-Korean missionary disguised as a businessman while still living in North Korea.

Eom – who is now an assistant pastor of a church in South Korea for North Korean defectors – said that she was desperate for food during the North Korea famine in the 1990s and had resorted to partnering with the disguised missionary businessman to earn money.

The Korean-Chinese missionary would teach her the Bible whenever they met and eventually Eom became a Christian.

Yet she and the other North Korean defector on the panel agreed that the best method to spread the Gospel in the closed society is through training North Korean refugees.

“The best and most effective way is using the North Korean refugees,” stated Eom, who said defectors can call their family and relatives in North Korea and share the Gospel.

Eom explained that she speaks to her two daughters still in North Korea through a cell phone from China that cannot be monitored by the North Korean government.

“We can train those North Koreans as strong believers and connect to relatives in North Korea … and conversations can spread [the] Gospel,” she said.

“Philip Lee,” a North Korean defector now living in South Korea. added that some North Koreans are even willing to return to the North and spread the Gospel. Lee, whose real name is withheld for security reasons, said that one of the main ministries in his church composed of North Korean defectors is to train strong Christian leaders who are willing to return to North Korea and witness.

But he noted that even refugees forcefully returned to North Korea can become powerful witnesses.

Lee recalled a repatriated North Korean Christian named Brother Luke who would daily urge his prison guards and officers, “You should believe in Jesus! You should accept Jesus!” Luke reportedly continued his exclamations even during torture and before a judge in court, according to Lee. Before his martyrdom one year later, one prison guard had accepted Christ.

Meanwhile, other North Korean defectors have found innovative ways to spread the Gospel in the North while still remaining in South Korea.

Lee Minbok, founder of North Korea Christian Association, began sending large balloons filled with thousands of Christian tracts across the North-South border about three years ago. Lee, previously a scientist in North Korea, is mostly joined by a small group of defectors or those who have worked with North Korean refugees. The balloons are said to land in North Korea within 20 minutes to 1 hour from its departure in the South.

“I’m proud that North Korea is angry,” said a grinning Choi Yong-Hun, a volunteer at NKCA and a South Korean who spent nearly four years in prison in China for helping North Korean refugees, to The Christian Post. “They ask, ‘Who sent it?’ We say that God sent it. It is a very effective way to send the Gospel.”

Other ways given to evangelize North Koreans include smuggling in Bibles, as Open Doors has done over the past ten years; Christian radio broadcast; and through organizations working with North Korean refugees along the border in China.

Last week’s panel discussion in Washington was part of North Korea Freedom Week, Apr. 22-29, which seeks to raise awareness of the brutal North Korean regime and to urge stronger actions by the U.S. government and international community to press North Korea on its human rights abuse.

The week mainly ended on Saturday with international protests against China’s violent treatment or North Korean refugees at Chinese embassies around the world.

Daily NK
Kwon Jeong Hyun
4/26/2007

Since February, the Party began inspections at Shinuiju customs in an attempt to punish and prosecute customs officers that were requesting irrational demands to the people. In particular, authorities conducted strict investigations over customs officers in charge of rail cargo.

A source in North Korea said, “Authorities identified that an employee of a trading company in Shinuiju, Kim Jung Man (pseudonym) had secretly transported about 1000 tons of copper to sell in China over the past 3 years” and added, “It seems that organized groups incorporating Chinese customs officers have been engaging in smuggling.”

He said, “He (Kim) disappeared instantly. He is probably sentenced with a serious punishment. The atmosphere is melancholic as 6 other customs officers were also caught.” In addition to this, bag inspections are conducted and at the end of every day, customs officers must report the total amount of goods that passed through as well as receive feedback.

“Not only is the central authorities conducting inspections, the National Safety Agency has sent 3 pair teams to run investigations on customs at the station, ports and bridges” he said.

Inspections were conducted until April 15th, Kim Il Song’s birthday. Though the most part of North Korea’s social regime is corrupt, customs officers have received the greatest complaints and have the worst reputation for bribery. It seems that North Korean authorities have used inspections at Shinuiju customs as an example to set public order over the city of Shinuiju.

The moment inspectors enforced control over customs, the reduction of cargo trucks entering North Korea was quite noticeable. On average about 50-60 trucks passed through customs daily. Today only 20 are in operation of which Chinese cargo trucks are transporting the goods. Overall, the amount of trade has returned to the days of the past.

Further, investigations are being held throughout all of Shinuiju city. Authorities, the Safety Agency and investigating teams have united to confiscate items such as foreign CD’s, capitalist-style clothing and computer programs. Also, any devices that could be used as a means of foreign communication such as TV’s, radios and mobile phone are also being strictly regulated.

The source said, “Authorities are enforcing strict control over Shinuiju city to use it as a confrontation with capitalism and socialism” and “An order was made to protect the border gateway and that the former guard post (Shinuiju) must not be shaken.” The source confirmed that the goods caught at customs included computer software, CD’s, and foreign books including the bible.

Korea Herald
4/23/2007

South Korea and the United States have agreed not to apply International Labor Organization regulations to an inter-Korean industrial park in North Korea’s border city of Gaeseong, a South Korean lawmaker claimed yesterday.

Kim Won-woong, head of the National Assembly’s unification, foreign affairs and trade committee, said the Gaeseong industrial park is certain to remain an exception to the ILO’s labor rules, paving the ground for Seoul and Washington to designate Gaeseong as an “outward processing zone” (OPZ) on the Korean peninsula.

Gaeseong, located just north of the inter-Korean border, currently houses 23 manufacturing plants, which combine South Korea’s capital with North Korea’s cheap labor.

Under an FTA deal concluded at the beginning of this month, South Korea and the United States agreed to set up a joint OPZ review committee that will identify areas in North Korea that might be designated as OPZs and consider their qualifications if they meet the necessary criteria, including labor and wage practices. But the labor sector was expected to pose a dilemma as North Korea is not a member of the ILO, which stipulates three basic labor rights, namely the right to unionize, collective bargaining and industrial action.

“South Korea and the United States agreed to consider North Korea’s non-ILO member status and unique labor circumstances in the designation of OPZs in the communist state,” said Kim, citing a document he obtained from the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry.

In related news, the two Koreas agreed yesterday at the 13th economic cooperation talks in Pyongyang to continue discussing how to fortify the operations at the industrial complex from next month.

Gaeseong park is considered a signature inter-Korean project symbolizing the efforts of expanding exchanges.

South Korea, under the engagement policy of President Roh Moo-hyun, aims to gradually open up North Korea towards market economy for an eventual reform.

Yonhap
4/19/2007

South and North Korea on Thursday discussed a range of economic issues, including food aid, at a belated session of talks after the North withdrew preconditions for the formal opening, pool reports said.

But the plenary session, which took place about eight hours later than scheduled, did not appear to go smoothly as Chu Dong-chan, chief of the North Korean delegation, left the conference room, slamming the door shut behind him, just half an hour after the start of the meeting.

“Both sides delivered their position to each other during the meeting. We have to be engaged in further discussion, but the situation is not that good,” Chin Dong-soo, chief of the South Korean delegation, was quoted as saying by reports from Pyongyang, the venue of the talks.

The session was supposed to be held at 10 a.m., but failed to materialize because the North abruptly demanded to exchange keynote speech texts prior to the meeting.

The North also called for seeing a draft of a written agreement on the South’s provision of rice aid, as well as a draft of the joint press statement to be issued at the end of the four-day talks.

But the South rejected all of the requests, calling them “unprecedented” and “unproductive.”

Instead, they started the closed-door plenary session at 5:30 p.m., and the keynote speech texts were exchanged just before the session in the same manner as in previous meetings, a South Korean delegate was quoted as saying.

“Let’s work hard together and come up with good results for the Korean people,” Chu said in his opening remarks.

Chin echoed his view, saying, “Let’s pool efforts to make the talks benefit us mutually and become a stepping-stone on the path of joint prosperity.” The South is scheduled to hold a press briefing in Pyongyang to explain what they discussed during the meeting later Thursday.

South Korea was to call upon North Korea to fulfill its promise to shut down its main nuclear reactor at the earliest possible time.

According to South Korea’s keynote speech text obtained by pool reporters, Vice Finance Minister Chin was to call for the North’s immediate action on the denuclearization process.

“The quick implementation of the Feb. 13 agreement is a shortcut to draw firm international support for inter-Korean economic cooperation,” the text said.

South Korea was also to propose to conduct test runs of reconnected cross-border railways sometime in May, according to the reports. The two sides are scheduled to hold a series of negotiations until Saturday, the last day of the four-day meeting.

“The overland transportation of economic cooperation goods will be offered in consideration of the high cost of logistics from maritime transportation,” a South Korean delegate said, asking to remain anonymous.

The two Koreas will also address the North’s request for 400,000 tons of rice in the form of a loan. South Korea is likely to accept the request unless the situation surrounding the North’s nuclear reactor shutdown gets worse.

Shortly after the North conducted missile tests in July, the South suspended food and fertilizer aid. But fertilizer aid was resumed in late March, a few weeks after the two sides agreed to repair their strained ties.

The inter-Korean dialogue came just days after the communist nation failed to meet a Saturday deadline to shut down and seal its nuclear facilities under a landmark six-nation agreement signed in Beijing in February.

Last Friday, North Korea said it would take first steps toward nuclear dismantlement as soon as it confirms the release of its funds frozen in a Macau bank since September 2005.

Macau’s financial authorities unblocked the North’s US$25 million in the Banco Delta Asia, but the deadline passed with no word from the North on whether it has confirmed the release of the funds or when it will start implementing the initial steps.

In the February accord, North Korea pledged to shut down its main nuclear reactor and allow U.N. inspectors back into the country within 60 days. In return, North Korea would receive aid equal to 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil from South Korea.

The U.S. promised to resolve the financial issue within 30 days, but it failed to do so because of technical complications.

Meanwhile, during a luncheon meeting with South Korean delegates, Chu flatly denied that North Korea is considering sending back the USS Pueblo to the United States.

“Return? Why do we return such an important thing?” Chu said when asked about press reports on the possible repatriation of the warship.

The USS Pueblo, docked on the bank of the Taedong River in Pyongyang, is used to stoke anti-American feeling among the North Korean public. It was seized on an intelligence-gathering mission off North Korea’s east coast in 1968.

On Wednesday, U.S. Republican Sen. Wayne Allard introduced a resolution demanding that North Korea return the Pueblo in exchange for a Korean battle flag captured in the 19th century and now on display at the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland.

South and North Korea had already expressed their commitment to carry out what they had already agreed upon at the latest ministerial meeting held in March. The Koreas agreed to discuss food aid and schedules for test runs of cross-border trains as part of efforts to expand economic cooperation for the sake of joint prosperity.

“Let’s implement already agreed-upon issues, overcome barriers bravely and advance grandly as united people,” Kwon Ho-ung, chief councilor of the North Korean cabinet, said in a welcoming speech during the reception for the South Korean delegation Wednesday evening.

In response, Chin stressed that the two sides should upgrade their economic ties. “I expect that the meeting will actualize and develop economic cooperation,” he said.

The six-member South Korean delegation arrived in Pyongyang Wednesday afternoon on a direct flight from Gimpo Airport. The delegates attended a banquet hosted by Kwon, following a brief meeting with their North Korean counterparts.

Also high on the agenda are test runs of the cross-border railways in the first half of this year, and the implementation of an economic accord in which South Korea was supposed to provide raw materials in exchange for the North’s natural resources.

North Korea abruptly called off scheduled test runs of the railways in May under apparent pressure from its hard-line military. The cancellation also led to the mothballing of the economic accord. North Korea’s subsequent missile and nuclear weapons tests further clouded hopes of implementing the agreement.

The tracks, one line cutting across the western section of the border and the other crossing through the eastern side, were completed and set to undergo test runs. A set of parallel roads has been in use since 2005 for South Koreans traveling to the North.

South Korea has repeatedly called on North Korea to provide a security guarantee for the operation of the railways, but the North has yet to respond on the issue.

The reconnection of the severed train lines was one of the tangible inter-Korean rapprochement projects agreed upon following the historic summit between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000.

In 2005, South Korea agreed to provide the North with $80 million worth of raw materials to help it produce clothing, footwear and soap starting in 2006. In return, the North was to provide the South with minerals, such as zinc and magnesite, after mines were developed with South Korean investments guaranteed by Pyongyang.

Chosun Ilbo
4/18/2007
 
The inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea, now in its second year, is in trouble due to “unreasonable” demands from Pyongyang, South Korean companies there say.

North Korea late last year suggested that South Korea pay North Korean workers according to their academic background. “North Korea demanded that we pay four-year college graduates 30 percent more and two-year college graduates 10 percent more than high school graduates, depending on their type of work,” a businessman said. As of last year, North Korean workers in the industrial complex got an average monthly salary of US$67, including overtime.

But businesspeople in the complex said the demand ignores realities. “Most of the workers at the Kaesong Industrial Complex are doing menial jobs, so staff with a higher academic background are not necessarily more productive,” one said. “Moreover, if we should introduce the system, the North Korean authorities would inevitably intervene in the hiring process. Our autonomy in personnel management and governance structure could suffer.”

Some 13,000 North Koreans work at the Kaesong complex. Four-year college graduates and two-year college graduates account for about 10 percent of them. A South Korean government official said, “If we introduce this system, businesspeople say their spending on wages will rise by about 4-10 percent.” Seoul wants to continue negotiations with the North. Pyongyang, which takes most of the workers’ salaries, is already demanding considerable fees for issuing permits to South Korean businesspeople and officials who want to stay for extended periods.

Even if the fee and wage issues are resolved, nobody knows what requests North Korea will make next. Kim Kyu-chul, the chairman of civic group Citizen’s Solidarity for Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation, said Tuesday, “We’re not sure if the free trade agreement with the U.S. will recognize products made at the Kaesong Industrial Complex. And the productivity there is not high due to various regulations. If there are wage hikes, South Korean businesses there will suffer.”

Daily NK
Kim Min Se
4/18/2007

Cigarette prices escalate as Japan toughens economic sanctions

Following Japan’s economic sanctions, North Koreans are finding it to difficult to splash out on luxury goods, an inside source informed on the 17th.

Though only a minority of the rich are experiencing this hardship as the import of Japanese cigarettes and foods slowly come to a halt, it will be interesting to note what further repercussions will follow as a result of Japan’s sanctions.

The North Korean rich often lavish on “Seven” cigarettes, made in Japan which is known to be different to “Mild Seven” sold in South Korea. It is a much stronger cigarette containing 14mg of tar and 1.4mg of nicotine,

Seven was first introduced to North Korea in the mid-1980’s and has captivated tobacco preference of North Koreans ever since. As living standards deteriorate in North Korea Seven cigarettes have become a rare commodity for an average person to have today, though earlier in the 90’s, Seven was a luxury cigarette smoked by the majority of North Koreans. In particular, merchants who accumulated wealth through North Korea-China trade still prefer this brand to others.

Unlike other popular luxuries, smoking is a habit which becomes easily addictive. Hence, a handful of North Korean elites who in the past commonly smoked Seven’s and acquired its taste are experiencing withdrawal symptoms today, due to Japan’s economic sanctions and consequent ban of Seven.

Seven is a strong cigarette and though it sells well throughout the Japanese, it is not a preferred brand in South Korea. While Japan places export bans towards the North, conversely North Korean authorities are also regulating Japanese goods. For this reason, North Korean citizens are smoking these cigarettes in secret.

As supply does not meet demand, the cost of Seven cigarettes has skyrocketed in the cities of Pyongyang and Nampo.

Nowadays, a packet of Seven’s in Pyongyang sells at around 40 Yuan (11,000 North Korean won, US$3.6). This is 7~8 times more expensive than the common North Korean brand of cigarettes “Cat.” Considering that a kilogram of rice costs 800 North Korean won (US$0.26) and the average monthly salary of a worker 3,000~4,000won (US$0.98~1.3), the price of Seven’s is phenomenal.

However, as supply continues to be depleted, rich merchants and powerful ministers face a difficult test.

Furthermore, the rich and former Korean residents of Japan are unable to taste the flavors of popular Japanese foods that they have become accustomed to such as soy sauce, bean paste and instant noodles for a long time.