This is not North Korea related, but Google published high quality imagery of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Google Earth.
The level of damage is staggering.
You should definitely check out the imagery–then please make a contribution (somewhere) to help relieve the suffering there.
…it is very cold in the DPRK right now. The image below was taken January 3, 2010:
Click on image for much larger version.
According to ABC News:
North Korea has banned the use of foreign currency, another sign its hard-line communist government is intent on reasserting control over the country’s nascent market economy.
Reports say the decree warns of severe punishment for anyone using U.S. dollars, euros, yuan and other non-North Korean currencies. Foreign currencies previously were accepted in some shops, restaurants and other outlets, particularly those catering to foreigners.
The order, issued by North Korea’s state security bureau and going into effect Jan. 1, aims to “forbid the circulation of foreign currency,” China’s state-run CCTV television said in a brief report late Wednesday.
There was no mention of the new ban Thursday in official North Korean state media. In Seoul, a South Korean official confirmed the ban, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media on intelligence matters.
The latest currency decree gives businesses 24 hours to deposit all foreign currency in banks. “When it is needed for trade, it can be withdrawn after obtaining approval,” it said, according to the Daily NK.
The ban is aimed at seizing foreign money tucked away by those still engaging in private market commerce, analysts said.
“North Korea has a problem with people trying to exchange their money for foreign currencies, and then storing the savings in their cabinets since they don’t know how the value of the local currency might change, said Jeong Kwang-min, a research fellow at the state-run Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul.
The new ban shows the regime’s intention to “firmly” resolve and bring the black market under control, Jeong said.
“The ban is meant to root out people still trading at markets,” said Yang Moo-jin of Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies. “More broadly, it’s aimed at smoothly completing the currency reform by restricting the use not only of local currency but also foreign currency.”
The latest ban also applies to foreigners, who must exchange foreign bills into North Korean won in order to purchase items, reports said.
Sweden’s ambassador to North Korea, Mats Foyer, said by e-mail Thursday that he had received no official notification of the decree.
If this policy change does take effect, it will represent the republic’s third foreign exchange management regime.
Initially, the DPRK (like most communist countries) used Foreign Exchange Certificates (FECs) to control the circulation of foreign currency. When foreigners arrived in Pyongyang, they changed their local money for FECs which could be spent in various sanctioned retail outlets. The DPRK’s Foreign Trade Bank issued FECs which were different from local North Korean won (issued by the central bank) in both color and and purchasing power. Capitalist Westerners received green FECs and expats from fraternal socialist governments received red FECs. Coins were also differentiated.
Shopping could be a bit confusing, however. Price tags could potentially hold three numbers: the green FEC price, the red FEC price, and the won price. I believe that shops that catered to repatriated Japanese Koreans (such as the Rakwon Department Store near the Changwang Health Complex) were priced in actual yen, but it is possible these individuals were forced to exchange their yen into green FECs. Expats from fraternal socialist countries reportedly complained because although their governments were underwriting the DPRK, the red FEC prices in department stores were often higher than the green prices.
As in China, FECs were eventually abandoned and hard currency shops and state-owned retailers began accepting hard currency directly. I am not sure how, why, or when this transition occurred, but it was in effect until this week. Under this regime, tourists, diplomats, business persons and other visitors spent their dollars, euros, yen and yuan directly on goods and services in the DPRK, but the retail outlets in which they were allowed to make purchases were severely limited. Prices were originally denominated in dollars but in 2004 they were changed to euros (though dollars remained just as acceptable).
Under this regulatory regime, most visitors to the DPRK could arrive and leave without ever seeing any local currency. Some percentage of the foreign exchange undoubtedly ended up in KWP, KPA, and state coffers, however it is likely that quite a bit was skimmed off the top, legally or otherwise, in the process. This would explain the shift to the new regime.
This third foreign currency management regime is interesting but not for the reasons cited in the media. In addition to striking a blow at the country’s markets, which it most definitely will, this policy brings all of the overseas trading companies operating under the protection of the KWP, KPA, and select ministries, under the indirect control of the Foreign Trade Bank. Whereas these organizations were previously allowed to hold some level of foreign currency on site for discretionary purposes, they will now be forced to deposit these funds in a Foreign Trade Bank branch or exchange them for won at the official rate. Additionally, all of the future earnings that these organizations generate abroad will need to be handed over for won when their agents return from assignments overseas. It is highly likely that these companies will choose to keep their earnings overseas rather than repatriating them, or use their earnings to purchase cheaper goods which they can import into the DPRK (while pocketing the difference and keeping it in a foreign bank account).
The implications for tourists, visitors, and expats are also interesting. This new policy would imply that the Korea Trade Bank will set up currency exchange kiosk at the airports, border crossings, retail outlets, and hotels for foreigners to swap their currency for local won. Although we will have to declare our hard currency when entering the country, the fact that we are carrying local currency makes it easier for us to take advantage of spontaneous purchases–even potentially from private merchants and restaurants. In other words, knowing that locals will not come into possession of hard currency, the North Korean government might give us more “economic freedom” in our time there. Of course this is probably just wishful thinking. The gap between the official and market exchange rate will also give rise to black market currency traders who will seek out foreigners to the best of their abilities.
Overall, it is difficult to see this policy as anything but a power grab. Foreign exchange will become more difficult to obtain and so will the goods manufactured or grown overseas (including China). North Koreans will be left with fewer choices and as a result will come under greater control of the state. I am willing to believe that most North Koreans have enough sense to predict this outcome as well. It will be interesting to see how well this policy sticks or whether entrepreneurial North Koreans will find ways to evade the new rules as they have done countless times before.
Additional Links:
1. Here is a link to the original ABC story.
2. Here is a wikipedia page about the DPRK’s monetary history.
3. Here is the Daily NK story mentioned above.
4. Here are previous posts related to the DPRK’s currency revaluation.
5. This Reuters article adds additional information.
6. Here is a report by the Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
NK Brief No.09-12-22-1
12/22/2009
The latest on-site visit by Kim Jong Il, in mid December, marked the 156th inspection of the year. This is an increase of approximately 170 percent over last year. Among those accompanying the ‘Great Leader’, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Korean Workers’ Party Kim Ki-nam was seen most frequently, traveling with Kim Jong Il on 107 different occasions. Others seen frequently with Kim include Jang Sung-taek, brother-in-law and right-hand man, as well as Party Central Committee Vice-chairman Pak Nam-ki.
According to North Korean media officials, Kim Jong Il’s on-site inspections this year include 64 visits to economically important locations, 43 to military installations, 13 to sites related to foreign affairs, and 36 to other sites, for a total of 156 visits. Kim made only 90 visits during 2008.
Last year, 55 percent (50 visits) of Kim Jong Il’s on-site inspections were to military sites, while 26 percent (24 visits) of trips were to sites related to the economy. This year, 41 percent of site visits were to economically-relevant sites, while only 27 percent were to military sites.
These visits are linked to the recent ‘100-day Battle’ and ‘150-day Battle’ to boost domestic production in order to meet North Korea’s goal of being a ‘strong and prosperous nation’ by 2012.
North Korean authorities are undertaking massive construction projects across the country, such as the building the Huicheon Thermoelectric Plant, tens of thousands of new housing units, and other large-scale construction projects.
Broken down monthly, Kim Jong Il has ventured out to on-site visits 10-19 times per month, with the exception of July (8 visits). He has made 8 visits in December up until the 17th.
It is also important to note those who have travelled with Kim. As mentioned previously, Kim Ki-nam was seen 107 times and Jang Sung-taek travelled with Kim 82 times. In addition, Hyon Chol-hae, a former bodyguard of Kim Il Sung and confidant of Kim Jong Il, made 56 visits, General Ri Myong-su was seen with Kim 48 times, and Vice Marshal of the Korean People’s Army Kim Yong Chun was seen on 30 different occasions.
Of particular interest among all of Kim Jong Il’s public appearances this year is that in November he made a visit to the headquarters of the Ministry of People’s Security. Kim also visited the naval complex in Nampo in mid November, and made his first visit to the North’s very first free-trade zone, in Rason, North Hamgyong Province, inspecting the Rasong Dae-heung Trade Fishery Complex. Both of these followed the inter-Korean naval clash in the Yellow Sea on November 10th.
According to the Donga Ilbo:
North Korean organizations in charge of raising foreign currency are bringing in and burying industrial waste from China for money, a report released yesterday said.
The report also said North Korean scientists who complained that their country is turning into China’s industrial waste site have been purged in North Korea.
Daily NK, a media outlet on North Korean affairs, quoted a source in the North’s South Hamkyong Province as saying, “The soil survey research center at Hamhung Institute of Technology released a research paper on its study of land pollution resulting from burial of industrial waste from China and a letter urging countermeasures to the Central Committee of the (North Korean) Workers’ Party. The institute was dismantled and senior officials and researchers were all purged.”
“The research paper details how China’s industrial waste is sent to North Korea and dumped,” the source said, adding, “It also strongly warns against the practice of North Korean factories lacking sewage treatment facilities and freely dumping sewage into rivers freely.”
One North Korean scientist said, “Our country in effect is turning into China’s industrial waste site,” adding, “Even tap water in Pyongyang has become so polluted that it is no longer potable.”
The source also said North Korean scientists sent the research paper and the letter to committee secretary Choe Tae Bok. The committee soon closed the institute and purged its staff, saying, “The scientists violated rules by reporting the matter directly to the party secretary without going through the required process.”
North Korea is reportedly taking in foreign industrial waste in secret in the form of its border trade with China.
Dong Yong-seung, head of the economics and security team at Samsung Economic Research Institute in Seoul, said, “Though no data is available that can tell us the exact situation, Chinese companies might believe that sending industrial waste to North Korea for burial is cheaper than disposing of it in China in compliance with Chinese environmental regulations.
North Korea is also not just bringing in waste just from China. Former North Korean defector Kim Heung-kwang, now head of a coalition of former North Korean intelligentsia in South Korea, said, “Companies that earn foreign currencies brought in waste vinyl from Germany and France for 300 U.S. dollars per ton in early 2000 and buried it in soil.”
The fact that the DPRK imports waste from other countries is not new or surprising given its international trade capacities. Back in June 2008 Michael Rank wrote about North Korea’s efforts to import toxic waste from other countries.
Read the full story below:
Report: NK Turning Into China`s `Industrial Waste Dump`
Donga Ilbo
11/26/2009
About the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art:
Established in 1993, the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT) is the Queensland Art Gallery’s flagship international contemporary art event. It is the only major series of exhibitions in the world to focus exclusively on the contemporary art of Asia, the Pacific and Australia.
Since the first Triennial in 1993, more than 1.3 million people have visited the exhibitions, peaking with more than 700 000 visitors to APT5 at the new Gallery of Modern Art and Queensland Art Gallery in 2006.
The first three Triennials demonstrated the diversity of contemporary art practice across the region (from Pakistan to Niue) by profiling 220 artists from 20 different countries. APT 2002 was radically different in that it considered developments in contemporary art over recent decades through in-depth explorations of 16 individual artists. APT 2006 continued to develop the model of 2002 with a strong emphasis on the Gallery’s Collections, and featured a selection of works from 35 artists and 2 multi-artist projects (a total of 66 artists) from our region across generations.
In 2009, APT6 will profile the work of over 100 artists from 25 countries in the region, including a number of artists and artist collaborations never seen in Australia before.
Internationally renowned for its collection of Contemporary Asian and Pacific art, an ongoing element of the APT series is the commissioning of new works in tandem with an acquisition program for the Gallery’s permanent Collection.
This year the exhibition features paintings by North Korean artists from the Mansudae Art Studio:
APT6 will include for the first time contemporary artists from North Korea, Iran, Turkey, Tibet, Cambodia and Myanmar (Burma). Australian artists presented in APT6 are the Philippines-born, Brisbane-based husband-and-wife team Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan; the Melbourne collective DAMP; Raafat Ishak (Melbourne); and Tracey Moffatt, who lives and works in New York and on the Sunshine Coast.
However, according to Nick Bonner:
[The North Koreans] were invited by Brisbane Modern Art Gallery Asia Pacific Trinennial (government insitiution) and their work was allowed in – 5 big inks 2×2 metres and a ten square meter moziaic, and 2.6 metre oil…all beautifully on display and appreciated by the public (expecting over 700,000 visitors). The 5 artists and one translator who had been issued DPRK passports to travel have been refused visas stating that their ‘presence in Australia is, or would be, contrary to Australian’s foreign policy interests.’
So it seems to me that the moral of this story is: you can’t hold an art show in Australia without the national government getting in the way. That is a shame for the Australian people and the North Korean artists.
According to Australia’s Courier Mail:
A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said the artists’ studio produces favourable propaganda images of despotic leader Kim Jong-il.
The spokesman said the ban was also part of the Australian government’s response to North Korea’s missile and nuclear and weapons program.
“The artists concerned are from a studio that operates under the guidance of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il,” the spokesman said.
“The studio reportedly produces almost all of the official artworks in North Korea, including works that clearly constitute propaganda aimed at glorifying and supporting the North Korean regime.
“To make an exception in this case would have represented a relaxation of Australia’s visa ban and sent an inappropriate message to the North Korean regime.”
Tony Ellwood, gallery director, said. “We were hopeful there might be an exception, but we have to respect the wishes of the federal government on this.
“However, we are very disappointed.”
Unfortunatley this is probably the outcome the North Korean government would have preferred. The Mansudae Art Studio gets exposure at an international art exhibition while the artists themselves stay nicely protected in Pyongyang and unable to expand their knowledge of and connections with artists from other countries. Even if the North Korean government truly desired their artists to make an appearance at the exhibit, it is unlikely that denying artists entry visas to Australia is going to affect the DPRK’s foreign policy one little bit.
UPDATE 1: Here is a list of the painters involved. An explanation of Choe Yong Sun’s The Construction Site (2005) can be found here.
UPDATE 2: Here are some more pictures of Choe Chang Ho and his work: Picture of a Retired Man, Kangson Steel Works, On the Way to Work.
UPDATE 3: More pics at The Times.
UPDATE 4: The Los Angeles Times covers the story:
Bonner, who has made several documentary films in North Korea, in 2006 commissioned the Mansudae Art Studio to produce 15 pieces dealing with industrial landscapes for showing at the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in South Brisbane, Australia. The display, which will be up through April, features the works of 100 artists in 25 nations.
Though he acknowledged that North Korea’s art studios are government-run, as are most organized activities in the country, he said that doesn’t mean that all the works produced there are political.
Mansudae, which houses 1,000 artists, has produced work for several exhibits in Italy, according to the studio’s website.
Bonner encouraged the artists to avoid the socialist realism style typical of most communist propaganda.
“We didn’t want works that glorified workers, but something more understandable to Australians — their humility,” he said.
Still, for many of the artists the assignment was a stretch. Finally, a painter showed Bonner a photograph of a blue-collar worker smoking a cigarette. “He said, ‘Is this what you mean?’ and we said, ‘Yes!’ It was a real breakthrough,” Bonner said.
He said the completed works — including sketches and portraits in oil paint and ink — express ideas that are groundbreaking for the North Korean artists, such as a painting that shows the smoky fires of an industrial foundry.
“I’ve let them down,” Bonner said of the artists. “I promised them an opportunity to explain their work. They paint beautifully; that’s why they were invited. For them to speak to other artists and patrons from a foreign land would have been a real breakthrough.”
Bonner said the project was never intended to be political.
“But the Australian government has managed to turn it into that,” he said. “It’s bloody frightening when a government steps in to overrule an art gallery. That’s just wrong.”
UPDATE 5: From The Australian:
WHEN Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith turned down visa applications for a group of North Korean artists, the Queensland Art Gallery and curator Nicholas Bonner were disappointed but understood the decision.
Bonner had been working with the Brisbane gallery for many years to bring the artists and their work to Australia for the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art.
The initial refusal of visas had been made on the grounds the artists were “persons whose presence in Australia was contrary to Australia’s foreign policy interests”.
That was fine, says Bonner, who travelled from his base in Beijing to see the work installed for the exhibition opening on December 5 and, he had hoped, to help present the North Korean artists to Australian audiences.
It was when the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade responded to inquiries about that decision by commenting on the art, sight unseen, that Bonner became agitated.
“When [DFAT is] not allowing the artists to visit specifically because the Mansudae Studio is involved in the production of propaganda, [it] went too far,” Bonner says. “If you allow the art in but then you don’t allow the artists who made the work in, that’s censorship. The frightening thing about this is that whoever is advising the Australian government on this is showing a massive level of ignorance.”
Bonner is a British landscape architect who left the University of Sheffield in 1993 to spend a few years working in China.
By chance more than design, he became involved in various projects in North Korea, setting up a tourism business as well as organising sports visits and making films.
He is based in Beijing because that city is the gateway to North Korea, which he visits monthly.
“When we went to North Korea, we had our own preconceptions almost delivered in Fox News style – the massive parades – and you think, how funny,” he says. “But if you’re at the other end of the parade waiting for one of your friends and you see them when they stop, when they come to you and say, `Right, fancy a beer Nick?’, then you see the other side.
“I know how the situation is in North Korea and it makes me more determined.
“You can go two ways: say, `Forget this place, I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole’, or you do, and I’m the latter.
“What we found was that interaction with individuals allowed us to do the most amazing things we never thought we could do.”
If even a few of those artists had been able to visit Brisbane to see their work hanging in QAG’s Gallery of Modern Art alongside mirror mosaics from Iran, video from Vietnam and sculptural drums from Vanuatu, Bonner believes Australian audiences would have enjoyed hearing about the experience of working in the most esteemed art studio in North Korea. He also believes the North Korean artists would have benefited. “You never know what might have happened,” he says. “If you are creative and see the wealth of art around you, it is going to have a massive effect.”
A statement released by DFAT, following the publicity surrounding Smith’s decision not to grant visas to North Korean nationals, said the ban was “part of the government’s response to North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons program”.
Although the statement said the nature of the artwork was an “incidental consideration”, DFAT made reference to the fact Mansudae studio is under direction of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Because the studio “reportedly produces all the official artworks in North Korea, including works that clearly constitute propaganda aimed at glorifying and supporting the North Korean regime”, DFAT decided on the visa ban, a sign to that country’s leader of this country’s disapproval.
Bonner becomes almost speechless with despairing rage at this statement and the damage it may do to the project that took so long to achieve. He apologises, saying he hopes he doesn’t sound like a crackpot, but he admits he would never have got involved in the first place if he had known this would be the outcome.
“North Korean artists have never done anything on this scale before,” he says.
“There’s never been work shown on this scale ever, but with the expertise of Suhanya Raffel [one of the APT curators at QAG] and my specialty, we’ve been able to show work on this scale.”
Mansudae is, indeed, the North Korean leader’s favoured art studio: artists compete to be accepted there following their six or eight years of university training because of the prestige. Mansudae also does produce much of the state’s official propaganda.
But, says Bonner, the artists at Mansudae also specialise in many other kinds of art.
Bonner is particularly proud of being able to show several portraits where the subjects are shown as individuals, rather than as stereotyped joyful workers, such as those depicted in the large mosaic work that greets visitors to this landmark exhibition.
Some of the works come from Bonner’s personal collection and he talks about discussing innovation with individual artists. One group of seven chosunhua, or brush-and-ink paintings, commissioned for APT, “tests the boundaries” of this traditional form by depicting domestic interiors, “humble illustrations of a familiar scenario expressed in an unpretentious manner”, Bonner says.
As with all the works in APT6, QAG has lavished care and respect on the display, and the overall effect in the spaces devoted to the Mansudae artists is eerie.
The almost comical optimism of a print of a young woman cleaning a bus or of a group of workers cycling to a factory is balanced against the tender realism of beautifully rendered portraits.
A large work by O Sung Gyu, depicting a foundry scene, is presented in isolation, so the viewer can appreciate its ambition and technical skill, noticing how the artist has also attempted to depict the fierce flames with more loosely applied blocks of colour.
In the room alongside, Im Hyok’s big brush-and-ink portrait of a worker, ubiquitous cigarette in his hand, eulogises the work ethic with predictable doggedness, but another study, by Kim Yong-il, shows a pensive man, posed like an Asian Byron, on a shoreline, with what looks like a fishing village in the background.
The smokestack is everywhere, even shown in the view through the window in a brush-and-ink interior of what seems to be a typical North Korean apartment.
Bonner, before the disappointment of the refused visas, expressed his satisfaction at working with these artists as they experimented with traditional techniques and composition.
Dismissing this work as propaganda “suits the way we are managing the world”, Bonner says.
At the opening he was told by some viewers that they found the images of happy workers disturbing, but he says such a response shows a “lack of depth and understanding”.
He hopes viewers will see the difference between propaganda and the humility of these works, the way each has, behind its making, the story of an individual artist working at a craft.
Even if a viewer decides the message is too ideological, Bonner’s response is, “So what?”
“To be quite honest, if they said it was propaganda, so what? It is still interesting to see that.
“You have to ask, how ignorant do you want the Australian population to be?”
Accoding to Voice of America:
North Korea has experienced chronic food shortages for about two decades, mainly due to the government’s political isolation and mismanagement. Belts in the North have tightened even further since South Korea’s president stopped sending large amounts of rice. Now, South Korean farmers say there is too much rice on the market here, and they find they have a vested interest in rekindling generosity toward the North.
Demonstrations like this one, just a few hundred meters from South Korea’s parliament in Seoul, are frequent.
The livelihood of South Korean rice farmers is one of the country’s most sensitive political topics. The government subsidizes rice production and shields the market from most imports. Still, farmers make impassioned pleas, and sometimes take drastic action, to demand even more aid.
These days, politics add a new twist to the usual drama.
“We have been crying at the top of our voices, start sending rice to North Korea again! We should try to consume more rice here at home, but if we can’t consume it all, then we must resume North Korean rice aid,” said Democratic Party chairman Chung Sye Kyun.
For most of the past 10 years, South Korea annually shipped nearly half a million tons of rice to impoverished North Korea.
That ended last year, when President Lee Myung-bak adopted a harder policy toward Pyongyang, saying significant aid could only take place if North Korea took real steps to end its nuclear weapons programs.
The problem is the rice shipped north effectively subsidized South Korean farmers; it was taken off the market, shoring up prices, so farmers earned more.
Kim Jin-beum, chairman of the Korean Alliance of Farmers, says now South Korea has too much rice, and prices are down.
Read the full story here:
North Korea Finds Latest Ally: South Korean Rice Farmers
Voice of America
11/26/2009
According to the Choson Ilbo:
Nachod is a small village in the Czech Republic around three hours by car from the capital Prague. It is an isolated place sparsely dotted with farm houses. On the outskirts of the village is a two-story factory called Snezka that manufactures sheets for cars and travel bags. Until 2007, the factory was filled with North Korean women who had gone there to work.
The European press described the women as “21st century slaves,” being watched 24 hours a day by North Korean minders and required to wire most of their earnings back to North Korea. The Czech government eventually sent back all North Korean workers by 2007, including the 90 women who had been working for Snezka.
As orders from European automakers skyrocketed, the number of staff at Snezka rose to around 700, but it was difficult to find cheap and dependable workers in such a remote place. That was when the North Korean Embassy in the Czech Republic called to offer the services of “loyal” workers. The first handful of North Koreans who were hired proved to be excellent workers and the factory kept on hiring more. “From an employer’s perspective, they were ideal workers,” one executive recalls. “Unlike Czech or Ukrainian workers, the North Koreans never wasted time drinking coffee and chatting. They were very good with their hands too. They were extremely accurate in their sewing, as if machines had done it.”
The executive objects to the term “21st century slaves.” The North Koreans worked eight hours a day, five days a week in two shifts — 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 2 p.m. until 10 p.m. Weekends earned them an extra 75 percent of their daily incomes, a standard uniformly applied to both North Korean and other workers. Factory staff say the North Koreans led a dull existence. Three or four lived in a house supplied by Snezka, and they traveled in groups of five or six even when they were going for a short walk around the factory.
They rarely talked to other workers. One worker from Poland says, “I never heard them say a single word about their family, friends or hometowns.” In time, around half of the 90 North Korean workers were able to communicate in Czech, but they were still said to be “quiet.”
Here is the town of Nachod. I have not located the factory yet.
Previous posts on this story here (first) and here (second).
Also, North Korea gets trams from the Czech Republic.
Read the full sory below:
Czech Factory Regrets Departure of N.Koreans
Choson Ilbo
10/28/2009
Peter Hayes writes an interesting article in Global Asia in which he discusses the DPRK’s deforestation. I have posted some excerpts below and converted the article into a PDF for download. Here are some excerpts:
One of the most acute environmental problems in North Korea is deforestation. This problem has a long history, stretching back to over-cutting by Japanese colonialists, the impact of the Korean War and poor reforestation practices by North Korean agencies. The reforestation effort relied on mobilized adult and youth mass labor units working with simple tools. Specialized nurseries and well-trained foresters grew seedlings, but without good fertilizer and seed stock, the success rate was small, especially on steep, north-facing slopes.
These basic problems were made worse by land-use decisions in the early and mid-1990s when food shortages led authorities to direct farmers to cultivate steep slopes, to convert forested areas into agriculture, and in some cases, to actually re-engineer landscapes. When unprecedented floods hit North Korea, much of the topsoil in these areas was washed downstream (also thereby silting up many of the run-of-the-river hydro-electric dams in North Korea).
Is it possible to estimate the scale of the reduction in North Korea’s forest resources? In 1990 North Korea reported that it had about 9 million hectares of forest out of about 12 million hectares in national territory. In 1994, the GEF forester who I sent to North Korea estimated that the nominal North Korean forest in 1993 actually was about 9 million hectares, but that only 7.8 million hectares were “in practice” forested. Overall, North Korea itself says that its forests are about 42 percent coniferous, 35 percent deciduous/hardwood species, and 23 percent mixed conifer and deciduous forests. Pine species dominate the coniferous forests, and oaks dominate the deciduous species. However, the conversion and usage described below may have shifted these ratios far from the official figures.
Luckily, these days we don’t have to rely on official North Korean data to estimate the country’s forest cover. Both international and South Korean remote sensing techniques using satellite imaging have been used to evaluate the status of North Korea’s forests. Using these sources, Professor Lee Seung-ho from the Korea Forestry Research Institute in Seoul has estimated North Korea’s total forest cover as follows: 9.77 million hectares (Mha) in 1970 (North Korean source), 8.97 Mha in 1987 (FAO source), 8.45 Mha in 1994 (KFRI Satellite Image Analysis), 7.53 Mha in 1997 (North Korea from UNDP Round Table Meeting) and 7.53 Mha in 1999 (KFRI Satellite Image Analysis). An additional time-series of North Korea’s forest area from the UN FAO 2005 Global Forest Resource Assessment shows a trend from 8.20 to 6.82 to 6.19 Mha in 1990, 2000, and 2005, respectively.
Download a PDF version of the full article here.
Here are previous posts related forestry, lumber, and the Ministry of Forests.
On my trips to Turkmenistan and Tajikistan I encountered ethnic Koreans who grew up in the region and spoke only Russian. Since then I have done some cursory research on the Central Asian Koreans, but not enough to satisfy my interest in this chapter of history. This is all to say that Lankov’s most recent article on the Korean diaspora was a fulfilling read. I have posted the first few paragraphs below but really you should just go to the Asia Times and read the whole thing.
Koreans left high and dry
Asia Times
Andrei Lankov
10/16/2009While walking the streets of this Russian city, the capital of Sakhalin Island, a large, nearly 1,000-kilometer-long sliver of land in the north Pacific, one clearly sees manifold signs of the Korean presence.
This is not only because of the billboards advertising big Korean eateries; many people are ethnic Koreans, forming over 10% of the city population of about 185,000 people. They are present due to an unusual set of circumstances, not widely known outside their community.
Just before the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1989, there were some 450,000 ethnic Koreans in this huge country. Most of them then lived in Central Asia. Ethnic Koreans of the ex-Soviet Central Asia are descendants of the poor farmers who in the late 19th and early 20th centuries moved to Russia from Korea’s northern provinces. They went there because land was plentiful and taxes were light.
During the 1917 Russian revolution and subsequent civil war, ethnic Koreans overwhelmingly supported the communists, but in 1937 they were deemed politically unreliable and forcefully relocated from the border with Japan (leader Joseph Stalin and his advisers were afraid that in case of war with Japan, the ethnic Koreans would side with the Japanese). They were then settled in Central Asia.
