North Korean Economy Watch

Pictured above is the Wonsan Revolutionary Museum (source here). Under the Japanese colonial government this site was the home of the Wonsan Customs Office.  A visitor posted some very helpful information:

Former Wonsan Customs Office, built in 1907 by the Japanese. This is a reconstruction – the original building was destroyed during the Korean War. It houses an exhibition about the “triumphal return” of Kim Il Sung to Korea on September 19th, 1945.

…

In the early 1970s, when the personality cult around the “Great Leader” reached a peak, the sites of his “triumphal return” were refurbished as “revolutionary sites”. Unfortunately, most of them had been destroyed during the Korean War or the postwar reconstruction, so the propaganda department had to put up replications. Thus, Wonsan Customs Office, the former railway station, an inn and a Japanese residence were carefully reconstructed following the original design. It is a certain irony of history that all these buildings (which had been designed and used by the Japanese) now serve as silent witnesses of Korea’s colonial past to the knowledgeable observer.

Below is a satellite picture of the facility on Google Earth taken on December 23, 2007 (39.168226°, 127.439217°):

The museum was an important part of the narrative of Kim Il-sung’s triumphant return to Korea after World War II.  It sits right next to Pier No. 2 where Kim Il Sung disembarked on September 19th, 1945.  A new monument to this pier was apparently installed in September 2008,  however, according to new satellite imagery, both the museum and the monument vanished sometime in 2009.

The above satellite picture is dated 2009-10-3.  Neither the museum nor the monument remain.

KCNA only mentions the museum once.  Here is the article dated 2002-7-15:

The Wonsan revolutionary site is the first stop in President Kim Il Sung’s triumphal return home after the country’s liberation. Located in Wonsan city, Kangwon Province, the revolutionary site consists of the Wonsan Revolutionary Museum, lodgings and former Wonsan railway station and Tongyang (Orient) Hotel, etc. In the museum there are historical materials and relics and a room where the president presided over the first meeting to carry out the three tasks of building the party, the state and the army.

At that conference room, he had a historic talk with political workers to be dispatched to local areas about the building of new Korea in September 1945.

A monument to his revolutionary activities was built at Wonsan railway station where a train used by him is preserved in the original state. There is also a monument of a poem that tells about his revolutionary exploits and noble virtues.

It will be interesting to see what they do with the space.

Wonsan military elite compound updated: (39.188339°, 127.478190°)

The picture on the left is dated 2002-11-11. The picture on the right is dated 2009-10-3.

Additionally, some of the housing units bordering the Wonsan AFB runway have been upgraded.

In a previous post I pointed out the growth of Wonsan’s markets.

According to the Choson Ilbo:

China said that North Korea has been at the forefront of its international foreign aid efforts which it has been carrying out for the past 60 years.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, China’s Vice Commerce Minister Fu Ziying spoke in detail for the first time about the aid his country has given to the North.

He said that China helped to build Pyongyang’s public infrastructure such as its subway system, but he emphasized that no cash aid has been given.

Beijing issued a white paper last week that outlines its foreign aid policy to Africa and Asia.

Read the full story here:
China Releases Details on Aid to N.Korea
Choson Ilbo
4/28/2011

According to Yonhap:

South Korea has turned down a request by two umbrella labor unions to visit North Korea for talks with their counterparts, an official said Thursday, attesting to ongoing hostilities between the sides.

South Korea’s two main umbrella unions — the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions — applied for permission earlier this week to send four of their members to the North Korean border town of Kaesong for talks with their northern counterparts. They hoped to discuss possibilities for another general meeting among their members, the last of which was held in 2007 before inter-Korean relations grew tense.

South Korea’s Ministry of Unification, which handles inter-Korean affairs, rejected the visit planned for Thursday, citing a breach of regulations enforced after last year’s deadly sinking of a South Korean warship. Seoul blames Pyongyang for the March torpedo attack that killed 46 South Korean sailors, an allegation that the North vehemently denies.

“Not only is it required by law to apply for permission at least a week in advance, but our nationals are currently prohibited from visiting North Korea” under a set of post-attack measures that also ban cross-border trade, a ministry official said on customary condition of anonymity.

The two labor groups were informed of the decision on Wednesday, he added.

In protest, the KCTU held a rally outside the main government complex in Seoul earlier in the day, saying the ministry denied “the earnest request of workers from the South and North who long for peace on the Korean Peninsula.”

“We will achieve a South-North workers’ general meeting at all costs even if we can’t be together in one place,” the KCTU said in a statement, indicating it may issue a joint statement with its North Korean counterparts after holding separate meetings in Seoul and Pyongyang.

The South Koren government has been allowing some private aid to be delivered to th DPRK.

Read the full story here:
Gov’t rejects labor groups’ request to visit N. Korea
Yonhap
4/28/2011

According to Yonhap:

The number of North Koreans officially visiting China reached 28,600 in the first three months of the year, up 35 percent from the same period last year, a news report said Wednesday.

More than half of them visited China to work in either factories or restaurants, while 6,000 people visited China for conferences or businesses, the Voice of America reported, citing Chinese government data.

The VOA also said 700 North Koreans toured China for sightseeing, while fewer than 100 North Koreans visited China to meet relatives or friends and 7,300 visitors had other purposes. The report did not elaborate.

The data did not include information on North Koreans staying illegally in China after defecting, the VOA said.

Tens of thousands of North Korean defectors are believed to be hiding in China, a major land route through which many North Korean defectors travel to Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries before resettling in South Korea.

According ot the Choson Ilbo:

Chinese tourists will start visiting Russian and North Korean cities without visas on Wednesday under a formal agreement between Beijing and the two countries. The tour course starts in the Chinese border city of Hunchun in the lower reaches of the Duman (Tumen) River and goes on to eastern Russia and the Rajin-Sonbong special economic zone in North Korea.

A group of 21 tourists left Changchun, the capital of northeast China’s Jilin Province, on Tuesday for the Hunchun. Travelers will then visit Slavyanka, Vladivostok and Khasan, the official Xinhua news agency said. They then go to North Korea by train and tour the cities of the Duman River and the Rajin-Sonbong area.

The four-day tour starts every Wednesday and costs 2,300 yuan (approximately W390,000). Only Chinese travelers are eligible for the visa-free arrangement.

Read the full stories below:
Number of N. Korean visitors to China rises in first quarter
Yonhap
4/27/2011

Chinese Tourists Visit Russia, N.Korea Visa-Free
Choson Ilbo
4/28/2011

According to the Korea Herald (4/26/2011): The EU has announced it is maintaining the policy established last year.

Antiquated North Korean airliners have been banned from operating in European countries for six years in a row as part of the European Union’s prohibition on 21 states that have failed to meet its safety standards, a U.S.-funded private radio station reported Tuesday.

Under the EU ban, Pyong­yang’s Air Koryo can only fly two new airliners it purchased from Russia last year to the E.U. member states, according to Radio Free Asia.

Read the full story here:
EU prohibits N. Korea’s aged planes for six years
Korea Herald
4/26/2011

According to the Daily NK (3/31/2010): Recently purchased Tupolev’s allowed to fly to EU.

Air Koryo, North Korea’s flag carrier, has been given back partial permission to fly in EU airspace following the quarterly update to the EU’s list of banned airlines.

The lifting of restrictions against the airline is highly conditional, only allowing for entry by two of the airlines’ mostly Soviet-era fleet.

According to European Commission press release IP/10/388 which was released yesterday, March 30th;

“With this update, the Air Koryo licensed in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, subject to an operating ban since March 2006, is allowed to resume operations into the EU with two aircraft which are fitted with the necessary equipment to comply with mandatory international standards and following appropriate oversight by its authority. The rest of its fleet remains barred from operating into the EU.”

The two aircraft permitted to operate in EU airspace are a Tupolev Tu-204-300 delivered to Air Koryo in 2007 and currently serving on the Pyongyang-Beijing route, and a Tu-204-100B.

European Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas also said in yesterday’s statement, “Safety comes first. We are ready to support countries that need to build up technical and administrative capacity to guarantee the necessary standards in civil aviation. But we cannot accept that airlines fly into the EU if they do not fully comply with international safety standards.”

It is unclear whether Air Koryo plans to exercise its right to enter the EU, though there have been rumors that it plans to begin some kind of service between Pyongyang and Berlin.

Read the full article here:
Two Air Koryo Jets Back in EU Good Books
Daily NK
Chris Green
3/31/2010

According to Yonhap (3/25/2010):

The European Union is expected to relax its four-year ban on the North Korean state carrier, Air Koyro, from all operations in its member states, a source at the European Commission said Wednesday.

Air Koryo has been on the EU’s blacklist of airlines failing to meet international safety standards since the list was first put together in 2006. Currently, five individual carriers, including Air Koryo, and all carriers from 15 countries — 228 companies in total — are on the blacklist.

The EU’s Air Safety Commission met last week to review the list and recommended that the restrictions on the North Korean airline be relaxed to “Annex B,” which means that the carrier can operate in the region under “specific conditions,” the source said.

Air Koryo officials attended last week’s meeting to brief the commission on the safety measures they have taken so far, the source said. It was unclear what conditions would be imposed for Air Koyro if the ban is relaxed.

The Air Safety Commission is an advisory panel without decision-making power, but its recommendations are usually reflected when the blacklist is updated. The list is revised three times a year, with this year’s first update slated for late this month.

Read the full story here:
EU expected to relax ban on N. Korean carrier Air Koryo
Yonhap
3/25/2010

According to Yonhap (1/9/2010):

Air Koryo, North Korea’s air carrier, has been banned from offering flight services to Europe for a fifth year after having failed to meet international safety requirements, U.S. international broadcaster Radio Free Asia (RFA) said Saturday.

The North Korean carrier has been involved in the list of carriers prohibiting from flying to the 27 members of European Union that was released this year, RFA said.

Air Koryo reportedly has a fleet of about 20 planes made between the 1960s and 1970s in the Soviet Union.

Read the full story here:
N. Korean airline banned from flying to Europe
Yonhap
1/9/2010

According to the Daily NK:

Which military unit is the most popular for North Korean soldiers about to serve their ten-year term in the army?

In the end, the answer is undoubtedly the Escort Bureau.

Although all North Korean middle school students submit an application, in which they write which unit they want to serve in to their city or county’s Military Mobilization Department before they graduate, the Escort Bureau is literally the only corps they “want.” Placement in the bureau, however, depends entirely on the applicant’s family background.

Only those students who have passed the military physical exam and have a good family background are allowed to participate in the two-month educational training sessions that are offered when students graduate from middle school around the age of seventeen. These sessions are offered to recruits at the training center of each unit or division and differ according to the branch of the military that the recruit will be serving in. However, the branches have in common the fact that if a recruit comes from a family of good political or economic standing or has a strong family background, he will be able to serve in a favorable unit.

Once soldiers serve in the Escort Bureau, they can live in Pyongyang and, if lucky, be allowed to remain in the capital after their discharge from the military. Additionally, they may receive a recommendation for college due to Kim Jong Il’s especial consideration for discharged soldiers from the Escort Bureau.

In addition, since it is a well-known fact that discharged soldiers from the Escort Bureau have good family backgrounds in politics and the economy, they become sought after by women as desirable bridegrooms.

The military attire of the Escort Bureau, including its hat, uniform, shoes, and belt, for even regular privates are furthermore special on a level similar to that of generals’ attire.

When they are discharged from the army, these soldiers must pledge not to expose what they have seen, listened to, and felt to the rest of society.

Lee Young Kuk recalls the time when he was being discharged from the army in his book I Was Kim Jong Il’s Bodyguard (Zeitgeist 2004), “When bodyguards are discharged from the army, they have to attend a debriefing lecture and sign a written pledge with their thumb, avowing that they will never disclose the secrets they know about Kim Jong Il .”

The border guard units dispatched to Shinuiju, North Hamkyung Province, Yangkang, North Hamkyung Provinces, and other border areas have also emerged recently as units popular with incoming recruits. The head officers of the border guard even come directly to the Military Mobilization Department of each area to select recruits for themselves.

Parents tend to do their best to have their children serve in border guard units through the use of human networking as well as bribes. The reason for this is that soldiers in border guard units are able to earn enough money to afford a wedding after their discharge from the military through the taking of bribes from traders and smugglers.

Choi Cheol Ho, who served in a border unit stationed in Manpo, Jagang Province, and defected in 2007, stated that, “Parents try to send their children to border units even if it means they must give up all of their property because they believe that the cost will be worth it for their children after just three years in the border unit.”

He added that he also offered a substantial bribe in order to enter the unit.

The next most popular areas of the military are the air force and navy. In order to serve in both the air force and navy, applicants must have a good family background and be in good health. If any of their relatives have crossed over to South Korea, they are automatically disqualified from serving in the air force and navy.

On the other hand, if a suspected criminal has relatives serving in air force or navy, they may be able to escape punishment.

Kim Dong Il, who defected to the South from Hamheung, South Hamkyung Province, in 2009, testified to this situation, “A friend of mine, Cheol Nam, went through a preliminary trial on suspicion of selling ‘Bingdu’ (methamphetamines) and was sentenced to a few months in a labor-training camp, which is like a detention center, while his accomplice was sentenced to three years in a reeducation camp, which is tantamount to being sentenced to time in a regular prison in most countries. The reason for the leniency Cheol Nam was shown was that his brother was a pilot in the air force.”

Some applicants attempt to serve in the Civilian Affairs Administrative Police Unit, which is located in the Panmunjom area and along the border with South Korea, out of curiosity.

The Civilian Affairs Administrative Police Unit and light infantry are special branches, so life for these soldiers is tough. However, soldiers discharged from these units are often able to receive a recommendation to enter a university after their military service.

“While I was serving in the Civilian Affairs Administrative Police Unit, I was able to listen to South Korean broadcasts. Therefore, we had to sit through ideology lectures every day,” Park Cheol, a defector who came to South Korea in 2009, recalled about his military service.

He added, “After they discharge soldiers from these units, the authorities send them to local universities. If they want to enter a university in Pyongyang, their family background must be superior to that of others. Entering even a regular university is quite advantageous because most discharged soldiers are sent to mines or other rural areas.”

Those who are rich but have been deprived of the chance to send their children to popular and advantageous military units because cadres’ children have taken all of the spots in these units tend to choose a different route, which is to have their children enter an infantry unit in Pyongyang. To achieve this, they need to offer bribes to the Military Mobilization Department. Units in Pyongyang have better food provisions than those in the provinces, and parents also have the chance to see the capital when they visit their children.

Read the full story here:
What Military Unit Is Most Sought After by North Korean Soldiers?
Daily NK
4/26/2011
Lee Seok Young

Pictured above on Google Earth: Ryongyang Mine Ore Dressing Plant (Pre-renovation)

According to the Hankyoreh:

“We invested a lot of money, and now we cannot even find out the present status.”

Korea Resources Corporation (KORES) President Kim Shin-jong let out a deep sigh as he explained about the development status of the Hwangnam graphite mines in North Korea at a forum held by the corporation on Apr. 15. The event was organized amid a sense of profound concern, with a number of North Korean mineral resources development efforts running aground amid worsening inter-Korean relations.

According to accounts Sunday from officials with the Ministry of Unification and KORES, South Korea is currently involved in a total of ten North Korean coal mine development efforts. Investment for seven of these comes from the government, including the ministry and KORES, while the other three involve private sector investments. None of them has followed their original schedule since the Lee Myung-bak administration came into office.

The most representative case is that of the Hwangnam graphite mines. This was the first North Korean resource development effort undertaken as an inter-Korean economic cooperation venture, and progress was quick enough that the graphite produced there was being imported into the South right up until the Lee administration came into office. Now, the situation has changed completely.

A company official conveyed the situation by saying, “Since 2008, the Hwangnam Coal Mine has been forgotten completely.”

The situation is the same for the Komdok, Ryongyang, and Taehung coal mines in the area of Tanchon, South Hamgyong Province, an effort spearhead directly by the Unification Ministry.

An official with the ministry said, “We had already finished the third feasibility examination by February 2008, but since then there has been no further progress as inter-Korean relations have worsened.”

The Ryongyang mine contains large deposits of the rare metal magnesite, a material South Korea does not produce.

Exploration has also been effectively halted at the Ayang mine in Sinwon County, South Hwanghae Province, where KORES completed an on-site investigation following the signing of a September 2007 memorandum of understanding on mineral development with North Korea, and the Pungchon mine in Yonan County, South Hwanghae Province, where the first inter-Korean joint drilling effort was undertaken in October 2008.

The situation has been particularly severe for the privately invested projects.

An official with one company engaged in a fertilizer effort said, “We carried out three rounds of working-level discussions in North Korea and China regarding the mining of apatite, but all of them have been suspended since the current administration took office.”

“If these projects had just gone ahead properly, we would not have had to buy apatite at high prices from faraway places like Nauru,” the official lamented.

Apatite, one of the key ingredients in fertilizer, is one of the mineral resources for which South Korea depends entirely on imports.

With South Korea’s development projects in North Korea at a standstill, China’s have taken flight. According to KORES figures, Chinese exports of North Korean military, which stood at the $300 million level in 2005, showed a sharp rate of annual increase to reach more than $900 million in 2010. In the space of five years, the amount of North Korean minerals purchased by China rose more than threefold. Industry observers are calling the situation “hoarding” of North Korean minerals by China. Government authorities are known to have determined that even strategic minerals listed as forbidden for overseas export, including uranium, have been going into China since late last year.

The problem is that the situation is becoming more severe as time passes. Because North Korea’s mineral transportation infrastructure of highways and ports is still deficient, the focus has been on developing minerals in areas near the North Korean-Chinese border, but there is a strong chance that China will extend its reach further into the country going ahead.

“China wants to seize North Korea’s mineral resource industry through expanded infrastructure cooperation with North Korea,” said Jeong U-jin, head of the natural resource strategy office at the Energy Development Institute.

Many observers are saying that thawing inter-Korean relations is an urgent priority if South Korea is to take full advantage of the value of North Korean mineral resources. Noting that the potential value of North Korean mineral resources is as much as 7 quadrillion won, a KORES official said, “Suffice it to say that as improvements in inter-Korean relations get put off, North Korean resources will all head overseas.”

According to the North Koreans, production at the mines is up nonetheless!

Read the full story here:
Inter-Korean coal mine projects suspended during Lee administration
Hankyoreh
Ki Kyung-rok
4/25/2011

Pictured above on Google Earth: hill-side farming plots in the DPRK

Lankov writes in the Korea Times:

Every visitor to North Korea who has passed through mountainous areas in the country has seen some peculiarities of the modern North Korean landscape.

Somewhere high in the mountains one can see small fields of strange, irregular shapes which look quite different from the orderly, rectangular shapes of the cooperative farm fields. If asked about these fields, North Korean minders will probably avoid giving a straight answer. This is understandable ― even though the existence of such fields is tacitly accepted by the authorities, from a purely ideological view, which minders are obliged to present, these fields are not supposed to exit.

We are referring to sotoji, private plots, which have been spreading across North Korea over the last 15 years and now play a major role in food production in North Korea.

It would be only a minor exaggeration to say that in his policies, Kim Il-sung tended to be more Stalinist than Joseph Stalin himself. He took the state-run economy to its natural (or unnatural) extreme and collective farming was no exception. Once upon a time, the North Korean peasantry was herded into so-called “agricultural cooperatives.” The description of these institutions as cooperatives is actually misleading because they were essentially state-run farms, where farmers had basically no influence over management or income distribution.

But North Korea has one important peculiarity: unlike Stalin’s Soviet Union, in North Korea farmers were not allowed to cultivate even small private plots. In the Soviet Union a farming family would be allowed a plot which might have been as large as a few thousand square meters. In North Korea, the maximum size of an individual plot was limited to a paltry 100 square meters – barely enough to grow some pepper and spice and clearly not enough to make any meaningful economic difference.

This was done on purpose ― North Korean policy planners assumed that farmers, being deprived of any alternative means of existence, would work more efficiently in state-owned fields. In agricultural cooperatives farmers essentially worked for their daily ration ― one full day of work was rewarded with 700g of grain (similar to the ration of the average worker in a city).

This system was never especially efficient but for a few decades it managed to exist and function somehow. However the collapse of the North Korean economy in the early 1990s produced a devastating blow to state-run agriculture. In 1995 and 1996 the harvests were around half of what was necessary to keep the North Korean population alive, so many North Koreans starved to death (the exact numbers are disputed but it seems that between 500,000-1,000,000 perished) and the survivors began to look for ways to make a living outside the state-run-economy. Predictably enough, farmers did what one would expect them to do ― they began to develop their own food production.

Unlike their Chinese counterparts, the North Korean elite refused to disband the state-run agricultural cooperatives. Therefore farmers had no choice but to acquire land on their own, outside of what would be normally considered arable land. Usually they went to the mountains, since all arable land in the valleys had long been cultivated within state-run farms.

In some cases, farmers would make agreements with local forestry departments whose officials agreed to turn a blind-eye to unlawful activities in protected forest areas. In some other cases the local authorities tolerated and even encouraged the sotoji cultivators.

A quick look through satellite images of North Korea shows the widespread nature of the sotoji phenomena. In some counties near the Chinese border, the percentage of land under the cultivation of sotoji owners roughly equals that under cultivation by state-run farms. In other areas the level of private production may be smaller but it seems clear that private food production makes a major contribution to North Korea’s food supply today.

Indeed, in the above-mentioned borderland counties, sotoji fields seem to produce as much as 60 percent of all food sold on the local market. This might be an exception because the current county in question is covered by mountains and contains a lot of places where people can hide from police. Nonetheless sotoji produced food is found widely in the country’s markets.

In the last 15 years or so, North Koreans have developed a large and successful private economy of which the sotoji phenomenon is an important part. However their cultivators are not high on the newly emerging social ladder. Sotoji are usually tilled by people who do not have the money, skills or inclination to start a more conventional business. Some of them are essentially market-orientated enterprises which make profit but the majority lose money.

Nonetheless, the random new shapes of North Korean mountains nowadays are yet another reminder of how much the country has changed over the last two decades.

Read the full story here:
Sotoji — small private plot
Korea Times
Andrei Lankov
2011-4-24

Accordign to the Choson Ilbo:

Clams and other seafood from North Korea are openly being sold in the South despite a ban on all trade with the North after the sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan last year. Insiders say that is because customers prize North Korean fisheries products.

Some 30 vendors in the Garak Market and 20 in the Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market sell shellfish from North Korea, including large clams and scallops. “We have openly labeled shellfish that come from North Korea because customers think they taste better,” a vendor said. “They’re between W1,000 to W3,000 cheaper than domestic ones but the quality is good” (US$1=W1,081).

North Korean shellfish have been brought into the South labeled as Chinese since the end of March. “Before the sinking of the Cheonan, North Korean shellfish was directly imported” labeled as North Korean, an official at the Seoul Agricultural and Marine Products Corporation said. “But since the ban on North Korean imports they’ve been imported through Chinese traders.”

According to the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute, demand for fish and shellfish from North Korea is rising in the South because customers shun Japanese seafood products due to concerns over radioactive contamination, while there are suspicions over the quality of Chinese products.

You can read the Choson Ilbo piece here:
N.Korean Shellfish Sold Openly Despite Ban
Choson Ilbo
4/25/2011

UPDATE 2 (2015-9-9): The Justice Department has suspended Steve Park, importer of North Korean beer. According to UPI:

Steve Park, also known as Park Il-woo, is a veteran businessman and president of Korea Pyongyang Trading U.S.A. Radio Free Asia reported in 2011 Park received permission from the U.S. government to import North Korea’s Taedonggang Beer, but Park’s failure to file tax returns starting in 2008 was one of the reasons his agent status was recently terminated.

The Foreign Agents Registration Act, which was passed in 1938, requires agents like Park to disclose information about their relationship with a foreign government.

…

Park, who was registered under FARA in December 2011, has been involved in other North Korea promotion projects in the United States. Park has been connected to tourism projects in North Korea’s Mount Kumgang region and investment proposals in the reclusive country.

Park was found in violation of FARA for not regularly reporting his income. Under the law, all foreign agents must report revenue and expenditures to the Treasury every six months, according to RFA.

In 2012, Park’s Korea Pyongyang Trading U.S.A. was shut down in New York State after receiving an order of dissolution.

UPDATE 1 (2011-4-22): Apparently extended/new sanctions announced by the Obama administration this week will not affect the import of Taedonggang Beer by Mr. Park.  According to KBS:

Following the latest sanction passed by the Obama administration, the United States importation of the North Korean beer brand Taedonggang was in doubt.

But a U.S. State Department official said that individuals or companies who gained import permits for North Korean goods before the order passed can continue with importation.

The official added that the new directive does not affect any North Korean imports that have been approved by the United States government.

U.S.-based firm Korea Pyongyang Trading U.S. has been given the green light to import 400-thousand bottles of Taedonggang beer this June.

ORIGINAL POST (2011-3-6): According to the Korea Times:

The VOA also confirmed that the U.S. government last year authorized the import of a North Korean beer, called “Daedonggang”.

“I received the final authorization on Sept. 30,” said Steve Park, a U.S-based importer. The first 2,000-2,500 cases of beer will be on sale this summer.

Steve Park first gained notoriety trying to import North Korean soju to the US. He was also prosecuted for being an unregistered foreign agent. You can read about these stories here.

But I wish him all the best in this endeavor.  Taedonggang beer tastes pretty good. It is a British lager after all.

Read the original story here:
N. Korean delegation to visit NY
Korea Times
Kim Se-jeong
3/4/2011