North Korean Economy Watch

Nat Kretchun and Jane Kim of InterMedia have published a quantitative analysis of the ability of North Koreans to access outside information.  It is quite rigorous!

Download the PDF here

Abstract:

This study assesses levels of access to outside information within North Korea based on research conducted among North Korean defectors, refugees and travelers, as well as outside media content analysis and expert interviews. Survey samples of refugees and defectors are not statistically representative of the home population of North Korea and generally contain a disproportionate number of respondents from the provinces bordering China. Interpretation of all statistics contained within this report should be undertaken only with these caveats firmly in mind. The primary focus of the study was on the ability of North Koreans to access outside information from foreign sources through a variety of media, communication technologies and personal sources. The relationship between information exposure on North Koreans’ perceptions of the outside world and their own country was also analyzed.

The web cast was here (featuring panelists Abraham Kim, Nat Kretchun, Marcus Noland, and Martyn Williams) but I do not know how long it will be archived.

Here is coverage in Reuters, Bloomberg, Associate Press,

“North Korea’s Resource Headache”
The Diplomat
Andray Abrahamian & Geoffrey See

This article brings up the notion of the “natural resource curse”–a topic I briefly mentioned in the context fo the DPRK back in 2010-6-3. Marcus Noland responds to the piece here.

“Will North Korea’s Plans for Foreign Investment Make It a More Prosperous Nation?”
38 North
Bradley Babson

“North Korea redefines ‘minimum’ wage”
Asia Times
Andrei Lankov

And finally, congratulations to Geoffrey See at Choson Exchange. See why here.

1. What if the story of Sin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hui was combined with Laura Ling and Euna Lee…and it was a comedy?

Click image to watch trailer

2. Satellite photo of the military parade in Pyongyang (via AP):

These sorts of events are practiced at the KPA facility in Mirim.

3. Watch North Korean movies (with subtitles)–YouTube

4. Learn North Korean (Defense Language Institute)

5. North Korean tractor simulator. It appears to be more sophisticated than an actual North Korean tractor!

6. The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaușescu. In addition to great Kim Il-sung / Ceausescu footage, there is an amazing scene at the 1hr 59min mark where Constantin Pîrvulescu denounces Ceausescu’s abuse of party procedures.  According to Wikipedia:

In November 1979, at the 12th Party Congress, he took the floor advocating against the re-election of Ceauşescu to the party leadership, accusing him of putting personal interests ahead of those of party and nation. He also accused the congress of neglecting the country’s real problems, being preoccupied in glorifying Ceauşescu.[1] This unprecedented attack came from a man who was a lifelong communist, with a lifelong association with Soviet-style communism (he was the only member of the Central Committee to oppose Khrushchev’s withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1958). Likewise, being 84 years of age, personal ambitions could not be a motivating factor for this speech. Thus, the Western press considered his remarks to be proof of dissatisfaction within the Party’s ranks. Pîrvulescu was kicked out of the room, stripped of his position as delegate to the congress and placed under strict supervision and house arrest.

Opening conference of the “EU-Korea Human Rights and Democratic Transition Dialogue Program”
March 20, 2012
National Assembly Members’ Office Building (South Korea)

Recently, the situation of defectors from North Korea has once again been in the spotlight. The outcry against deportations from China revealed once again the humanitarian plight of North Koreans. In light of these events, the Hanns-Seidel-Foundation, PSCORE, NKDB and NKIS, supported by the European Union, are proud to host the Opening Conference of the EU-Korea Human Rights and Democratic Transition Dialogue Programme, “Human Rights and Democratic Transition in North Korea,” on March 20, 2012. Outstanding guests from Europe and Korea will discuss human rights issues and perspectives of democratic transition in North Korea. We would like to cordially invite you to attend this timely conference. Your participation will make the conference more valuable and successful.

Here is a PDF with information on the program.

A valued reader (and North Korea researcher) sent me this latest example of an email attack which tries to install malware onto the users computer:

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: John Burba <john_burba@yahoo.com>
To: [DELETED]
Cc:
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2012 22:43:07 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Dear [DELETED]
I send your photos from last meeting.
I know we took pictures several months ago, but I’m deeply sorry that I’m now sending photos.
Please check your photos, and if you have any queries, give me a reply.

You can download photos on the link below.
Download photos

or

view the photos on my blog.
Visit my blog

Thank you, and have a nice day~

The phrases “Download photos” and “visit my blog” link to these URLs:

ttp://dailypersonal.net/ecard/view/downloader.hta

ttp://dailypersonal.net/ecard/view/goBlog.hta

I removed the “h” at the beginning of the URLs to prevent accidental linking.

I have been blogging about these malicious email attacks for a couple of years now.  See information about and examples of past attacks here.

For internet security professionals, I attach the email header below:

(more…)

UPDATE (2012-3-15): Ironically, we have coverage of the photo exhibit from the Associated Press:

“Daily life is really what I try to focus on when I’m there. … It’s unscripted, it’s candid,” said AP Chief Asia Photographer David Guttenfelder, who took some of the photographs in the show, and who has made who has made many reporting trips to North Korea since 2010.

“For people to see their own life in other people’s lives, I think it has a lot of power to break down barriers.”

“Windows on North Korea: Photographs From the DPRK,” is a joint exhibition by The Associated Press and the state-run Korean Central News Agency, and features a mix of archival and contemporary images.

The show was timed to open before the 100th anniversary of the birth of the nation’s founder, Kim Il Sung, on April 15, and comes two months after the AP expanded its operations in Pyongyang to include writers and photojournalists. The AP became the first international news organization to have a full-time presence in the secretive communist country when it opened a video bureau in 2006.

The photographs “give us rare views of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a nation of great interest to the world, though little known,” said Kathleen Carroll, executive editor of the AP.

North Korea and the United States have never had formal diplomatic relations, and the two nations have experienced tensions over the years, particularly over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions. North Korea has tested two atomic devices in the past six years.

Tensions had recently eased somewhat. Late last month, the United States and North Korea announced an agreement that calls for Pyongyang to freeze its nuclear activities in exchange for food aid. But a surprise announcement by the North Koreans on Friday that they plan to blast a satellite into space on the back of a long-range rocket could jeopardize that agreement.

The exhibit’s organizers said they hoped the show would help foster better understanding between the two countries.

“My expectation is that this will be the first step in some peaceful reconciliation, and in a few years there will be trade, cultural exchange and tourists from each country coming to (the) other,” said Donald Rubin, who co-founded The 8th Floor gallery hosting the exhibit.

Images on display included a 1953 KCNA photograph showing residents helping to rebuild Pyongyang’s central district after the Korean War, AP photos documenting visits by such prominent foreigners as Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright, as well as everyday scenes ranging from sunbathers at the beach to shoppers inside a modern department store.

“It is our hope that this exhibition would give exhibition-goers visual understanding of the people, customs, culture and history of the DPRK, thereby helping to deepen mutual understanding and improve the bilateral relations,” Kim Chang Gwang, KCNA’s senior vice president, said in an address at the show’s opening.

“In this exhibit, we are offered two perspectives of the DPRK — as viewed by her native daughters and sons from KCNA and by AP journalists visiting to chronicle news and daily life there. We can appreciate the different styles and techniques and points of view,” Carroll said. “These photographs also show us that different people can find common ground.”

The show also includes images taken by KCNA journalists who participated in a joint workshop in October led by AP instructors. It runs from March 15 to April 13 at The 8th Floor gallery, which was established to promote cultural and philanthropic initiatives.

The AP, an independent news cooperative founded in New York and owned by its U.S. newspaper membership, has operations in more than 100 countries and employs nearly 2,500 journalists across the world in 300 locations.

ORIGINAL POST (2012-3-10): According to Yonhap:

A group of North Korean journalists left for the United States Saturday to attend a photo exhibition set to open next week, marking the centenary of the birth of the North’s late founding leader, Kim Il-sung, the country’s media said.

The North’s delegation, led by Kim Chang-gwang, vice director of the Korean Central News Agency, will attend the opening ceremony of the photo exhibition scheduled for March 15, the news agency said in a report.

The photo exhibition, to be jointly organized with The Associated Press, is scheduled to run until April 13, two days before the late leader’s 100th birthday, the American news agency said in its Web site.

…

The photo exhibition is part of joint programs being pushed by the KCNA to promote its nascent relations with the U.S. news agency. The AP opened a bureau in Pyongyang in January, the first international news agency with a full-time presence in the reclusive country to dispatch texts, photos and video.

The KCNA said the New York exhibition will showcase photos archived by two news agencies, including the North’s late founding leader and his deceased son Kim Jong-il who died of heart failure in December last year, as well as people and life in the communist state.

Additional information:

1. Here is the coverage of the KCNA delegation’s departure from Pyongyang reported by KCNA.

2. Here is the web page of the exhibit.

3. Extensive comments and additional information at OFK.

4. Foreign Policy writes about the conditions under which the aP operated in the DPRK.

5. How the AP selected its North Korea reporter

…from the BBC.

I will post more later today, but this was too cute to wait.

Kim Jong-il Flies: Recently KCTV has broadcast many videos on the life and work of Kim Jong-il. One of these videos was on Kim Jong-il’s contributions to the theatrical and cinematic arts.  In this video, Kim Jong-il can be seen riding in a plane while he scouts out locations for movie sets:

I have watched more North Korean television footage than a healthy person should, but this was the first video footage I had seen of Kim Jong-il on a plane.

Alejandro Cao de Benos once told me that Kim Jong-il could fly fighter jets, though I have not seen any footage of that.

___________

Koryo Tours has a great Facebook Page.  Here are some of the gems that have popped up over the last few weeks:

Pasty, fast food (yum):

DPRK Tourist Card:

In the next few days Koryo Tours will be offering a brand new tourist route in the DPRK, from Rason down the East Coast to Chongjin and Mt. Chilbo, previously only accessible by charter flight from Pyongyang.

Take On Me by a-ha, North Korean Style (YouTube):

A-ha’s “Take on me” performed by young accordion players from the Kum Song School, filmed in Pyongyang, North Korea December 2011. Part of multi-genre project The Promised Land by director and artist Morten Traavik. Here is more information on the video.

Ceausescu’s visit to Pyongyang, North Korea in 1971:

I believe this clip comes from a feature film: The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu (2010) (trailer here).

___________

DPRK Gatorade: North Korea is making its own-style sports drink. Here is a link to the report on KCNA (posted to YouTube):

This drink is manufactured in the Kumkop Combined Foodstuff Factory (금컵체육인종합식료공장) in Mangyongdae District. Satellite image and coordinates here.

Huichon Power Station on Google Earth
The Huichon Power Stations 1 & 2 (희천1호발전소, 희천2호발전소) are too new to appear on Google Earth satellite imagery. I have, however, mapped them out by hand on the old imagery to give a better idea of their locations. I have also tagged them on Wikimapia.

In the picture above you can see that the Huichon Power Station’s headwaters begin in Ryongrim County (룡림군) where the newly-built Ryongrim Dam holds back a large reservoir. This reservoir drains through a tunnel [in orange in the image above] approximately 30 km long (18.5 miles) and empties through the Huichon Power Station No. 1 in Tongsin County into the Chongchon River. The river flows south where it crosses into Huichon County and builds up behind a second reservoir.  From this second reservoir the water drains out directly through the Huichon Power Station No. 2.

The construction of the Ryongrim Dam has resulted in the destruction of at least two villages, Toyang-ri (도양리) and Sinchang-ri (신창리).  Toyang-ri was destroyed for the dam itself. Sinchang-ri was flooded by the reservoir.  A third village, Kuryong-ri (구룡리), was also likely flooded or relocated—although this cannot be confirmed with current satellite imagery. The destroyed villages were probably relocated to Ryongrim Town itself. On several recent occasions North Korean television has highlighted improvements in housing and leisure facilities within the town.

When Kim Jong-il gave guidance visits to this site he often stood on the eastern side of the dam which offers the view captured in the image above (R).

The Huichon Power Station No. 1 itself is located in Tongsin County aproximately 30km due south from the Ryongrim Dam (40.273568°, 126.526565°).

In the satellite image above I have drawn the physical location of the power plant.  Next to and below it I have posted images from KCTV dated 2011-3-10.

The Huichon Power Station No. 2 lies on the Chongchon River just south of the border with Tongsin.

This project might have resulted in the destruction of one village, Kyonghung-ri (경흥리), in Tongsin County, but this is impossible to confirm without better satellite imagery.

So where will the electricity produced at these new power stations be consumed? On January 21, 2012, Rodong Sinmun reported the answer:

Like the warm hands of leader Kim Jong Il, the transmission lines from the Huichon Power Station are now almost stretching out for the capital city of Pyongyang.

To meet the great expectations of Kim Jong Il who entrusted them to such a gigantic work, the builders of the power station have gained great successes.

They have erected big dams, cut waterway tunnels and carried out other bulky tasks that were said to take ten years and more; and in the wake of trial operation of generating equipment at the Huichon Power Station No. 1, they successfully assembled the hulks of generators at the Huichon Power Station No. 2.

These successes had an immediate chain reaction on the scaffold workers laying transmission cables from the power station to the capital city.

They have already laid transmission cables in scores of kilometer long section, while preceding the construction of pylons in two months.

By their heroic labor, the excavation work to lay the foundation for the pylons have been wound up, too.

Now, their job is concrete tamping of the pylons’ foundations. By introducing new work methods they are hastening their work of erecting pylons as firm as would stand for many hundred years.

Now that power lines have been lain in major sections, they have buckled down to laying the power lines in the remaining sections and erecting transformer substations to reach the capital city as early as possible.

It won’t be long before we can see the power lines reach Pyongyang amid the cheers of the citizens.

Since I have mapped out a significant portion of the North Korean electricity grid on Google Earth, I can point out an area where I believe these power cables are being constructed. In the image below, dated 2010-9-14, I have connected the power cable tower construction sites with a yellow line:

In the image above there are approximately 146 power cable towers under construction between Pakchon (North Pyongan-top of image) and Sunan (Pyongyang-bottom of image). Of course, to be certain that these are the specific lines connecting Huichon and Pyongyang,  I will need more imagery.

 More on the Huichon Power Stations here.

Ryesonggang Power Station 2 update

I previously wrote about the Ryesonggang Power Station No. 2 here. Since a newer satellite image has come to my attention that shows the project completed, however, I thought I would post an update.

Ryesonggang Power Station No. 3 

On June 25, 2011 North Korean television showed construction of the Ryesonggang Power Station No. 3 had begun.  The DPRK submitted this project to the UNFCC’s Carbon trading program. Using satellite imagery, we can see that construction is indeed well under way:

The satellite images above are dated 2007-10-4 (L) and 2011-3-23 (R). In the right-hand photo I have boxed in the construction site and the quarters and facilities of the construction workers.

UPDATE: This was picked up by Radio Free Asia.

Kwang On-yoo sent me a link to some very interesting historical photos of the Korean Peninsula which are archived by the University of Southern California’s Digital Library. Below are some choice pictures from what is now the DPRK:

Pyongyang Anchor Stones

Click here for larger version of image.
Click here for image description.

Pyongyang High School (Under Construction)

Click here for larger version of image.
Click here for image description.

Pyongyang High School, boys dormitory

Click here for larger version of image.
Click here for image description.

Pyongyang church congregation

Click here for larger version of image.
Click here for image description.

Kija’s Tomb (Pyongyang)

Click here for larger version of image.
Click here for image description.

View of Pyongyang

Click here for larger version of image.
Click here for image description.

Pyongyang Hall Memorial Hospital

Click here for a larger version of the image.
Click here for image description.

Seven Star Gate

Click here for a larger version of the image.
Click here for image description.

Spirit House (Haeju)

Click here for a larger version of the image.
Click here for image description.

Haeju Hospital nurses

Click here for larger version of the image.
Click here for image description.

North Korean nature

Click here for larger version of the image.
Click here for image description.

A while ago I posted a map of Pyongyang in 1946.  I spent some time looking for thess Pyongyang locations but did not have any luck. Kija’s Tomb still exists today on Moran Hill.  Let me know if you can find where any of these buildings used to be located.

UPDATE 1: Here is the Chilsong Gate.