North Korean Economy Watch

KCNA
5/7/2007
The 10th Pyongyang Spring International Trade Fair will be held at the Three-Revolution Exhibition from May 14 to 17. 

Participating in it will be companies from the DPRK, China, Russia, Syria, the Netherlands, Germany, Bangladesh, Switzerland, Singapore, Australia, Italy, Indonesia, Pakistan, Poland and Taipei of China. 

Machine tools, electric and electronic equipment, vehicles, medicaments, daily necessities, foodstuffs and so forth are to be on display in the fair.

KCNA
5/7/2007

Renovation work of sanatoriums in Kyongsong County of North Hamgyong Province, Samchon County of South Hwanghae Province, Thongchon County of Kangwon Province and other parts of the DPRK are progressing apace so as to deliver better medical service to people. 

The Kim Jong Suk Sanatorium has facelifted various buildings including the balneotheraphy building and furnished them with more convalescence and treatment facilities. 

In the Talchon Disabled Soldiers Sanatorium, the renovation project for the existing buildings including the general infirmary and the infirmary for disabled soldiers has been wound up and preparations for building 50 houses similar to rural dwelling houses are being made so that working people may lodge there and receive spa treatment. 

Besides, tens of sanatoriums including Chongsan Medicinal Spring Water Sanatorium and Naegok Spa Sanatorium across the country are changing their looks as the days go by.

Joong Ang daily
5/7/2007

South Korea agreed late Friday to send North Korea raw materials that it can use in its light industries, but scheduled it to happen June 27 ― after next week’s scheduled test-run of an inter-Korean railroad, the Unification Ministry said.

The South could halt the shipment if the North cancels the test, as it has done several times in the past.

“At the economic talks for the light industry projects and the railroad projects, North Korean officials repeatedly said the train tests will occur this year,” a South Korean official who refused to be named said yesterday. “I am not sure if they had reached a consensus with the military or not, but their statements were very decisive.”

The two Koreas will hold general-level military talks from Tuesday to Thursday to guarantee the safety of passengers and trains that will travel across the demilitarized zone.

On Friday, South Korea agreed to begin the shipment of raw materials, worth $80 million, on June 27.

Joong Ang Daily
Lee Ho-jeong
5/7/2007

The wearing of the hanbok, the Korean traditional dress, is undoubtedly one of Korea’s most cherished traditions. Once worn everyday, it is now most commonly worn on special occasions, such as the Lunar New Year and Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving), or at weddings and funerals.

Although most people in Korea today wear western suits or sneakers and jeans, the hanbok has a special meaning for many Koreans and that is reflected in the high prices, particularly for some of the more elaborate examples.

Many experts say that Korean hanbok makers, in an effort to reconnect with the wider public, are researching ways to integrate the hanbok’s essential elements with Western fashion.

Bae Young-ja and Choi Hye-yool, authors of the book “The History of Korean Clothes,” said the hanbok, which consists of pants and a jacket, has its roots in the outfits of the Northern Altaic peoples.

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Korea Times
5/6/2007

South Korea has expressed its willingness to back North Korea’s move to join the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

At a news briefing in Seoul Sunday, five lawmakers from the Uri Party, who visited Pyongyang for four days from May 2, said the North is considering applying for membership of the Washington-based World Bank and the IMF.

“We’ve promised to help North Korea become a member of international organizations,” said Rep. Kim Jong-yull who met North Korean leaders, including Kim Yong-nam, chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly.

The United States and several developed countries have shown a lukewarm attitude over North Korea’s entry into international organizations, including the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

According to South Korean government officials, the U.S. _ a major shareholder in the IMF, World Bank and ADB _ has played a major role in rejecting Pyongyang’s repeated applications for admission, demanding the disposal of nuclear facilities.

The five lawmakers of the Uri Party and the North’s leaders also discussed ways to create a joint peace zone at the mouth of the Han, Imjin and Yeseong rivers.

According to the lawmakers, North Korea reiterated its willingness to normalize diplomatic ties with the United States. The North Korean authorities want their willingness to be conveyed to President Roh Moo-hyun and Washington, said Rep. Kim Hyuk-kyu, chief of the delegation.

He also said the two Koreas have shared a consensus on the need to launch an inter-Korean agency to build a waterway between Seoul and Gaesong, and an ecology park, and to open border rivers along the Demilitarized Zone for joint development and utilization.

They also discussed the development of a joint special economic zone, named the New Yellow Sea Joint Special Economic Zone. Seoul also promised to help the North develop a heavy industrial complex near Haeju. The two sides also agreed to jointly develop coalmining in Dancheon, South Hamgyeong Province, North Korea.

The two sides also discussed sports exchanges for national reconciliation and a joint team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The North will consider allowing its soccer players to join in K-League matches in the South, he added.

The lawmaker said, “North Korea predicted the issue over its funds at Banco Delta Asia (BDA) will be resolved soon.”

The North’s funds at BDA have become a stumbling block to implementing the Feb. 13 accord reached in the six-party talks.

North Korea had promised to shut down and seal its primary nuclear facilities by April 14, but it refused to meet the deadline, and insisted it will comply with the February promise only after the money is released.

The money, which was suspected of being related to Pyongyang’s irregular activities such as money laundering and counterfeiting, has been available for withdrawal since earlier this month, but Pyongyang has yet to move the funds.

Yonhap
5/5/2007

European companies operating in North Korea have been running a business coalition to better coordinate trade ties with the reclusive nation, a businessman said Saturday.

“Our purpose is to build bridges between Europe and North Korea,” Felix Abt, chairman of the European Business Association (EBA), said in an interview with Washington-based radio station Radio Free Asia. The association was founded in April 2005.

The businessman, who is also president of the joint venture PyongSu Pharma Co., said European firms need to do more business with Pyongyang, whose business ties are heavily dependent on Northeast Asia.

The association comprises 11 companies, mostly European or joint ventures between European and North Korean state-run firms. DHL, the logistics arm of Germany’s Deutsche Post AG, is also a member.

North Korea’s trade with the European Union accounted for less than 10 percent of its total volume in 2004, while trade with China surged by 35.4 percent, according to the EBA’s Web site.

KCNA
5/4/2007

The Korean Documentary and Scientific Film Studio recently released the documentary “Grand Hydropower Base in Thaechon Area”.

The film vividly depicts historic facts showing that the Thaechon area has been converted into a huge power base under President Kim Il Sung’s grand nature-remaking plan and Kim Jong Il’s wise guidance. 

It presents scenes of Kim Jong Il forming a highly qualified construction team involving servicemen and wisely leading the construction of the power stations, visiting the area several times to solve all the problems and bestowing great loving care upon the builders. 

It also shows how heroically the builders including servicemen and youth shock brigade members worked to build the gigantic Songwon and Thaechon dams, excavate huge water tunnels and build five power stations. 

The film says that Kim Jong Il spoke highly of the strenuous fighting spirit, the working manner of self-reliance and the optimistic way of life displayed by the builders and set them up as the spirit of Thaechon.

Yonhap
5/4/2007

North Korea Saturday examined its side of railways that run across the heavily-fortified inter-Korean border as the divided Koreas are set to test them on May 17, a Defense Ministry official said.

“As North Korea notified our side Friday, (its officials) inspected the tracks inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) early Saturday and returned,” the official said, adding a one-carriage North Korean train came to within a “few hundred meters” from the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) after departing from a station located some 2 kilometers north of the border and returned after the test run. The DMZ stretches two kilometers each to the north and south from the MDL.

The North told the South Friday that it will “check the tracks in the northern section” of a railroad connecting Seoul to the North’s northwestern city of Sinuiju for two hours from 10 a.m. Saturday.

The Seoul-Sinuiju railway was reconnected two years ago for the first time since the end of 1950-53 Korean War. Another railway connecting South Korea’s eastern Kangwon Province and North Korea’s Mount Geumgang is new.

The Koreas had agreed to conduct trial runs of passenger trains on the railways last year, but no train from either side has crossed the border amid opposition from the North Korean military, which fears possible exposure of its sensitive military installations along the tracks.

The sides have agreed to conduct a test run on the railways on May 17 following high-level military talks next week to discuss security guarantees and other issues related to the test.

Joong Ang Daily
5/4/2007

At Jejin Station on the east coast of South Korea, railroad officials yesterday checked a train to be used in the scheduled test of the restored inter-Korean railroads on May 17. In the pilot operation to reconnect the East Coast Line and the Gyeongui Line, trains from both sides will cross the demilitarized zone. North Korea has broken a promise to hold similar trial runs three times in the past.

Joong Ang Daily
5/3/2007

North Korea recently issued a new postage stamp on the prevention of bird flu, Choson Sinbo, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper published in Japan, reported yesterday.

“North Korea’s Stamp Company has been creating new stamps with world topics and urgent international issues. Among those is the avian influenza prevention stamp,” the newspaper said. “In North Korea, bird flu prevention measures have been conducted continuously as a national project.”

The newspaper quoted a North Korea Stamp Company official as saying, “This stamp was created to promote North Korea’s health policy and to warn the public about the need to be careful about the disease.”

The price of the stamp is 85 North Korean won.

In February 2005, bird flu outbreaks were reported in poultry farms near Pyongyang. Sources close to North Korea’s affairs have said more than 210,000 chickens have been slaughtered to contain the disease.