North Korean Economy Watch

From the Standard (China) and LA Times:
3/2/2006

The Kaesong industrial park is only an hour from Seoul but it’s like traveling to the moon, writes Barbara Demick
It takes barely an hour to drive from downtown Seoul to the other side of the demilitarized zone, but the culture shock is such that you might as well be commuting to the moon.

Mobile phones, books, newspapers, magazines, videos, laptops, MP3 players and many other appurtenances of 21st-century life must be checked on the south side of the border.

Also best left behind are any wisecracks about the North Korean regime, or in particular its leader, Kim Jong Il.

“You’ve got to watch what you say,” said Kim Yi Gyeom, a South Korean telecommunications worker standing in a long line of Monday-morning commuters waiting to go north. “The spirit of openness has not come to North Korea yet.”

In the boldest experiment to date with inter-Korean cooperation, nearly 500 South Koreans are working side by side with more than 6,000 North Koreans in a year-old industrial park just north of the DMZ.

South Koreans are assuming all the financial risk, having invested more than US$2 billion (HK$15.6 billion).

The South would like to reduce political tensions and reap the benefit of inexpensive North Korean labor so its manufacturers can compete with China.

For the North Koreans, the Kaesong experiment is a way to build its economy with only the most limited dose of openness to the outside world. But the political risk is all for the North Korean government, which fears that contact with the better-fed, better-clothed South Koreans could endanger its grip on power.

“It is natural that there is a culture gap,” said Hwang Boo Gi, director of the Kaesong Industrial District, who led a group of foreign journalists through the park Monday.

“We are talking about the difference between capitalism and socialism.”

Or as a North Korean official, Han Cheol, said diplomatically, “We like to emphasize what we have in common, like our heritage, and not our differences.”

Nevertheless, the contrast is particularly glaring when coming from Seoul, the high-tech, neon-lit capital of the world’s 12th-largest economy, a mere 58 kilometers away. Around the industrial park, which lies outside the center of the city of Kaesong, there is little but desiccated rice paddies and yellow hills denuded long ago by people scratching for firewood. Nearby is an abandoned agricultural college, its crumbling facade decorated by a faded red sign trumpeting the achievements of the North Korean Workers’ Party. Scrawny goats graze outside two-story white- washed houses with windows made of plastic sheeting.

The industrial park itself is surrounded by 8km of perimeter fencing and poker-faced, rifle-toting North Korean soldiers.

Inside the fenced compound everything from the toilets to the machinery are South Korean-made, mostly the latest, state-of-the-art models. Although all 11 companies now operating in the 9.31-hectare pilot project are South Korean, the North Koreans keep a tight rein over the work environment. No South Korean money is accepted here, even at a Family Mart convenience store set up for the exclusive use of South Korean employees.

North Korean patriotic music in praise of Kim Jong Il blares over the loudspeakers of a futuristic warehouse where North Korean women in crisp royal blue uniforms stitch athletic shoes using brand-new sewing machines.

The monthly salaries of US$57.50 for each North Korean worker – regardless of position – are paid directly to the North Korean government, which in turn gives the workers about US$8, more than double the average monthly salary. South Korean companies have asked repeatedly to pay the workers directly and to give bonuses for better work, but have been refused.

Even New Year’s gifts such as extra food and warm clothing could be given only after elaborate negotiations to make sure everybody was getting the same.

South Koreans, many of whom live for weeks at a time in modular housing in the complex, have their own cafeteria and their own medical clinic, all off- limits to North Koreans.

Last year, stories appeared in the South Korean media about a purported Romeo-and-Juliet romance between a North Korean woman and a South Korean man. But people at Kaesong said the story was apocryphal because the North Korean women are never alone.

There have been countless cases of culture shock. When Shinwon held a fashion show in October – complete with disco music, strobe lighting and slinky models in denim mini-skirts – it offended the conservative sensibilities of some North Koreans.

For their part, some South Koreans were taken aback recently to see the North Koreans workers dancing and singing enthusiastically to an accompaniment of accordion music at a fuel- pump factory. It turned out they were rehearsing in anticipation of Kim Jong Il’s birthday on February 16.

As is often the case, many misunderstandings resulted from acts of kindness.

South Koreans have tried covertly to give medicine from their private clinic to ailing North Koreans.

One South Korean employee was accused of trying to bribe a North Korean soldier when he gave him two packages of instant ramen noodles, according to a military source.

In a more serious incident, a South Korean was caught trying to distribute Christian literature, which is strictly anathema in the communist country, the source said.

“Almost every day something happens, some small quarrel or misunderstanding. But because Kaesong is so important to Kim Jong Il, the North Koreans choose to ignore it,” said Lim Eul Chul, a scholar at South Korea’s Kyungnam University who has written extensively on Kaesong.

Both sides have ambitious plans for Kaesong. When fully completed in 2012, the enclave is supposed to encompass 64.75 square kilometers and employ 700,000 workers.

The biggest impediment to the project’s success might be North Korea’s ongoing nuclear weapons program and its hostility to the United States. The tensions have limited the nature of the products manufactured at Kaesong to low technology – with anything having potential dual use for military purposes prohibited – and mostly confined sales to the domestic market within South Korea.

Although Shinwon Apparel, for example, supplies clothing to Kmart and Wal-Mart, among others, those garments are largely produced in Vietnam. US officials, who earlier this month announced negotiations toward a free- trade pact with South Korea, have said they would not consider Kaesong products to be labeled “Made in South Korea.”

With no progress on the horizon in its long war of nerves with the United States, the North Koreans have no choice but to chum it up with South Korea. If they are merely holding their noses and tolerating the presence of the South Koreans for their money, they go to pains not to show it.

The well-disciplined North Korean cadres who were showing foreign reporters around Kaesong Monday all lavishly praised their South Korean counterparts.

Accoding to the DailyNK:

Moving houses is apparently quite popular, so North Koreans have to “work” with state and cooperative owners.  If land, houses and real estate are registerd as state owned property, however, it is illeal for people to trade in them.  Apparently officials have no problem making transactions under the right conditions, but if the wrong person finds out, you could lose all your money.

Current prices:
City dewlings-single story, near markets (Jangmadang), W2 million (Appx: $666.67)
Cuntry home-Over 10,000W (Appx $3.50)
Central Pyongyang and Sinuiju: W20-30 million.

North Korean Land Ownersip Norms:
There are three kinds of owners in North Korea:
1. the state,
2. cooperative unions (such as cooperative farms)
3. individuals (titiles are registered to individuals for historical reasons) 

1.  State-owned houses are constructed by the City Construction Office. It used to follow a construction plan, but from the early 90’s construction stopped. After units are completed, they are transferred to the City Management Department of People’s Committee. The City Management Department then transfers some units certain organizations (at its own discretion I guess), and distributes others to ordinary people. The City Management Department oversees the ‘Housing Inspection Board’ which controls the dealings, rent, and lease of houses.

Residents can move into their houses after getting a ‘residents certificate’ from the City Management Department. Before the “Economy Management Action” launched in June 1, 2002 (price reforms), the housing purchase prices that the ‘residents certificate’ guaranteed, was a relatively low W180 to W1,000 ($0.06 – 0.33). After the Action, they increased up to W1,000 – W10,000 ($0.33 – 3.33). As the ‘residents certificate’ guarantees, the houses are registered in owners’ names, but because it does not have any ownership concept in it, the owners can not sell the houses.

But tennants still have to pay the equivalent of rent in the form of ‘Management expenses’. ‘Management expenses’ are roughly W100 including water rates, broadcasting charges, and electricity expenses.

2.  Cooperative unions do not allow people other than their own staff to live in their governing houses. No sales and rent are permitted. If a staff member stops working there, he or she leaves the property.

Staff working for the Party, Administrative Ministry, and Law Authority organizations live in specific dwellings in each district. If they are laid off, then they have to leave the houses. In case of personnel changes, they can continue to live in the former living houses. The houses in which high-ranking officials live are rarely sold because of others’ opinions.

3.  Individually owned houses in North Korea are usually located in the country, not in cities. Shortly after the regime was established, most of the individually-owned houses were confiscated under land reform. Some were allowed to reatin ownership in a small sense if they were not wealthy or if the land had been in the family for generations.  These owners are allowed to sell their homes. 

If these homes are later included on a list of ‘forced removal’ (the equivalent of eminent domain I imagine), the owners can build new houses at other sites given to them by the Ministry of Land Administration.  Although the Ministry of Land Administration gives as much land as was taken, the new land can not be sold.

Black Market Trading:
Since there has not been much housing construction in some time, spply and demand are not equilibrating.  So residents are forced to come up with coping mechanisms.

One method appears to be bartering.  Two residents that wish to swap houses go to the City Management Department.  In typical communist fashion, greasing the wheels can get an official in charge to change the names on the residence certificates.  All the official has to do is sign the paper to make it official.  The two trades can make cash paments to each other if necessary at another time. (this suggests that there might be reputable escrow agents available).  If a conflict emerges and becomes public, the CMD can confiscate both properties.

From the JongAng Daily:

The government is being criticized for easing conditions on loans funded from the inter-Korean cooperation funds that were given to the Korea National Tourism Organization for Mount Kumgang tour projects. On Monday, the government decided to lower the interest rate on a loan given to the organization in June 2001 by 2 percent.

The organization originally received a loan of 90 billion won ($93.7 million) with an interest rate of 4 percent and repayment over a five-year period, after a three-year deferment. However, the payback period has now been extended to 10 years at an interest rate of 2 percent.

The Unification Ministry said yesterday that the organization asked the government to make changes to the conditions of the loan, arguing that under the tours’ current profit structure it was unable to repay the funds. This request was acceded to.

The ministry said that after an accounting firm had reassessed the loan, the decision was made with all relevant government organizations involved agreeing to make changes to its conditions.

Nevertheless, the argument that the profit level is too low for the organization to make its payments seems weak as the number of tourists taking trips to the North’s Mount Kumgang has increased over the years.

Only 57,000 people made the trip in the year the loan was granted but by last year the number of visitors had increased to 301,000.

The organization paid the 90 billion won to Hyundai for operating rights to the Kumgang hot springs and resort. Hyundai made a payment of 29 billion won to the North, for which it had been in arrears.

In response, some civic groups argued that public funds should not be used to finance such projects in the North.

You know you have arrived when you are covered by the Washingon Post:

Two Koreas Learn to Work as One: New Industrial Park Matches South’s Capital and Know-How With North’s Low-Cost Labor
By Anthony Faiola, Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, February 28, 2006; Page A10

Here are the highlights:

Layout

• Kaesong Industrial Park is two-thirds the size of Manhattan.  Only a fraction of its real estate currently developed.  15 factories already operating. One is called Shinwon Textile Factory. (Source)
• A South Korean telephone company has installed the first 340 of 10,000 planned phone lines.  Because of the communist state’s chronic shortages of electricity, the South Koreans have had to run power lines across the border to serve their factories.  The goal (starting next month) is 154000 kilowats (source).
• Some company representatives concede that the North Koreans are not always ideal business partners.
• A tall green wire fence marks the zone’s 8.6-kilometer-long boundary (Source)
• South Korea is assuming all the financial risk, having invested more than $2 billion  (source). Kim Dong-keun, president of the South Korean Committee, which co-manages the zone, says the 489 South Koreans who work in Kaesong receive special training on interacting with North Koreans.   For South Korean managers, Kaesong is considered a hardship posting.  As a result, many of them receive as much as $2,500 extra pay per month (Source). No South Korean money is accepted here, even at a Family Mart convenience store set up for the exclusive use of South Korean employees (Source).
• 50 year leases were auctioned off last summer. On Average, there were 4 South Korean companies vieing for each spot. 

Labor Relations and Statistics

• After the first busloads of North Korean workers arrived at the gates 16 months ago, weeks passed before people from the two societies could even understand each other’s dialect.  They had to explain virtually every aspect of modern life to his fresh-faced communist charges — down to how to use the factory’s Western-style toilets.
• The workers put in long hours at often grueling tasks, but life here nonetheless seems a cut above the poverty that is common in most of North Korea. 
• Although the zone currently employs about 6,000 North Koreans here, officials in Seoul project that an additional 15,000 North Koreans will start work as more than 20 South Korean companies move in. By 2012, plans call for as many as 700,000 employees — 4.5 percent of North Korea’s entire workforce.
• Thousands of workers live in on-site dorms, while others arrive by bus from Kaesong. South Koreans are not permitted beyond a bright green perimeter fence that is guarded by armed soldiers and separates the complex from nearby towns.
• North Korean workers are paid a fixed salary of $57.50 a month. That is about 20 times less than the pay of a South Korean worker of the same skill level, but it is a welcome sum in North Korea.  It is unclear how much of that money actually goes to the North Korean workers. The dollar-denominated checks issued by the South Korean companies are paid to a North Korean government agency. Na Un Suk, director general of North Korea’s Central Special Economic Zone Control Agency, said the government makes deductions for room and board provided to the employees before paying them varying amounts in North Korean currency.  The Los Angeles Times reports that workers get $8/month.  About double the average salary (Source).
• Although South Korean managers have some say in promoting workers, they have little role in choosing who arrives on their doorstep. Many employees are from Kaesong city — the ancient capital of the Goryeo kingdom that first united much of the Korean Peninsula. But all are picked by officials from the North Korean government.
• North Korean workers are forbidden from any contact with South Koreans except when necessary on the job.  They enter and leave the zone through a single checkpoint manned by North Korean soldiers. (Source)
• Managers from South Korea live in single-story temporary quarters that resemble military barracks. Typically, they go home twice a month.  “It’s very difficult,” says Kim Ki Hong, general manager of a branch of the only South Korean bank in the zone. “We cannot go outside,” says Mr. Kim. “We are almost prisoners.”(Source). Southerners also have their own cafeteria and their own medical clinic, all off limits to the North Koreans (Source). 
• In response to queries about their wages, a young North Korean woman murmurs, “I cannot say anything,” and another says only, “We get enough.”
• Everyone here has at least a high school education. Many of them are college grads. But the most convenient is the fact that they all speak Korean. It’s easier to train them,” said Ryu Nam-Ryul, a section manager at Taesung Industry
• North Korean patriotic music in praise of Kim blares over the loudspeakers.

Taxes

• Gaesong has also exempted foreign companies from corporate income taxes in the first five years, and gives a 50 percent reduction for three more years. (source)
• Independent labor unions are banned.

Production

• Taesun Hata is exporting compact casings for Clinique and eye shadow holders for Bobbi Brown from its multimillion-dollar plant.
• Southern companies make shoes, textiles, auto parts and kitchen implements
• A branch of a major South Korean bank is open for business, as is a Family Mart convenience store staffed by two North Korean women.
• Inter-korean trade surged 50% since last year, over $1 billion.

Political goals

• The Zone is also key to South Korea’s strategy for lessening what is bound to be a massive economic jolt if it reunites with the North. North Korea’s per-capita income is roughly $1,800 a year, 10 times less than the South’s.
• Officials say Kaesong is also meant to keep on course a program of market-oriented restructuring that the North is undertaking in its domestic economy.
• South Korean companies have received low-interest loans and security guarantees from the South Korean government to locate in Kaesong.
• South Korea no longer has to go to south east Asia for manufacturing.  they can undertake low-cost production in North Korea and undercut Chinese prices.(Source).  It takes only three hours to deliver the products from Gaesong to the South Korean warehouse, whereas it would take more than one week from China.(source)
• “Our workers here are not motivated by material satisfaction. We are motivated by the fact that this is a national business project. We are one nation, and this is an important part of our unification process,” Na Un-Suk, director general of the Central Special Economic Zone Control Agency.

Future plans

• South Korea’s state-run Korea Land Corp. and Hyundai Asan, the North Korea business arm of Hyundai Group, said Tuesday they plan to build a hotel at an industrial complex in the North by June next year. The two companies will invite a private enterprise to construct the hotel to resolve a shortage of accommodation at the complex in the North Korean border city of Kaesong.  To that end, the state land developer and Hyundai Asan will set up a joint venture to take charge of the hotel, they said. (Yonhap)
• To grow as planned, the park will have to win access to world markets. South Korea hopes that products made here will be eligible to enter the United States under any free-trade pact that may be negotiated with the United States (Source).

Apparently the Japanes Post Office (who also holds many personal savings accounts) sends remittances from its depositors to North Korea.

In 2003, there were 503
In 2004, there were 506

I Updated the information on Kimsoft:

The DPRK UN Mission in New York does not issue any visas at all under an agreement reached with the United States. Visas to Americans are issued by the DPRK Embassy in Beijing. You may contact Mr. Kim Ryong Hwan (A representative in Beijing of the Korea International Travel Company, Fax 011-86-1-532-4862) for visa or travel information.
Non-Koreans can reach Pyongyang by train or air by way of Moscow or Beijing. Some Japanese and Koreans resident in Japan are allowed to come to Wonsan by ship.

1. Short-term teaching or other works in N Korea: A letter of recommendation or introduction from Graham Bell, the Eugene Bell Foundation, the Carter Center or a Christian church organization may enhance the chances. If you are a Korean compatriot, all you have to do is either to make a stopover at the UN Mission and identify yourself or to send a letter to the Overseas Compatriots Aid Committee in Pyongyang.

A. Contact the DPRK New York UN Mission by email or smail or phone or Fax or go to New York to visit the mission:

Permanent Representative of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the United Nations
515 East 72nd Street, 38-F, New York, N.Y. 10021
Telephone: (212) 972-3106
FAX (212) 972-3154

B. Write a letter direct to his or her target university or institution in North Korea, offering to teach English, history, engineering and etc. Upon receiving a positive response or letter of invitation, you are to visit the North Korean Embassy in Beijing (Phone: 532-1186 visa section: 532-4148 or 6639).

2.  Travel to the DRPK:
*Koryo Tours: http://www.koryotours.com/
*I visited with the Korean Friendship Association: http://www.korea-dpr.com/

A. AIR KORYO, Flughafen Schoenefeld, D-12521, Berlin, Germany: Fax: +49 (0) 30 – 60 91 36 65.
B. Korea Publications Exchange Association, Ri Chang Sik, Fax: +850-2-3-814 632.
C. National Directorate of Tourism, Central District, Pyongyang, DPR Korea Tel: (2) 381 7201. Fax: (2) 381 7607.
D. Kumgangsan International Tourist Company, Central District, Pyongyang, DPR Korea, Tel: (2) 814 284. Fax: (2) 814 622.
E. General Delegation of the DPRK, 104 boulevard Bineau, 92200 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, Tel: (1) 47 45 17 97. Fax: (1) 47 38 12 50. Telex: 615021F.
F. Regent Holidays UK, 15 John Street, Bristol BS1 2HR, Tel: (0117) 921 1711. Fax: (0117) 925 4866. 
G. David Hunter — Edwards and Hargreaves Holidays Ltd, Portland House, 1 Coventry Road, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, England LE7 7HG, Fax 01858 433427 Tel: 01858 432123
H. Mr. Pak Gyong Nam, Manager — SAM Travel Service, Korea International Travel Company, Central District, Pyongyang, DPR of Korea, Tel: 850-2-817201, Telex: 5998 RHS KP, Fax: 850-2-817607
I. North Asia Consultancy & Services Co, Ltd is in a position to organise business missions into NK for European businessmen.NACS is organising on a regular basis sectorial fact finding missions to North Korea on behalf of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in (South) Korea.

3. Information:
The European Union Chamber of Commerce : Tel : 822-543-9301~3; Fax : 822-543-9304; E-Mail : eucck@eucck.org

Young Koreans United of the USA, P.O. Box 12177, Washington, DC 20005-0677, tel. 202-387-2420

International Korean Alliance for Peace and Democracy, 2530 1/2 South Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90016, tel. 213-733-7785.

Travel Time email, 1 Hallidie Plaza, Suite 406, San Francisco, CA 94102, USA ; phone +1-415-677-0799, fax +1-415-391-1856, 1-800-956-9327 (1-800-9-LOW-FARE) toll-free in the USA

Chugai (Phone: 81-3-3835-3654, Fax: 81-3-3835-3690) based in Tokyo. It is affiliated with Chongryun, the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan. It arranges package tours to Pyongyang every month.

The Kumgangsan International Group ( email or Web Page) handles investments in N Korea. This group also makes travel arrangements. It is operated by Ms. Park Kyung Youhn, a Korean-American woman, who is not associated with Chongryon.

Ryohaengsa Korea International, Pyongyang, Korea; Tel. (850) 2-817 201, Fax (850) 2-817 607

The DPRK Committee for the Promotion of External Economic Cooperation, Jungsongdong, Central District, Pyongyang. FAX 011-850-2-3814664 and Tel: 011-850-3818111,2,3 & 4.

4. Research and Other Scholarly Works: At present, no institution, center, school or university in the DPRK is ready for “official exchanges” with American counterparts. Such exchanges will likely come only after the two ‘enemy’ countries have signed a peace treaty and established diplomatic relations. However, Kim Il Sung University has established a sister rela tionship with Seton Hall University. American scholars and authors are allowed to examine North Korean archives on an individual basis. Contact the Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, Kim Il Sung University, the Party Revolutionaly History Institute or the Asia-Pacific Peace C ommittee.

5. Check with the DPRK UN Mission for the phone and fax number of other agencies: The DPRK UN Mission is not the only gate to North Korea. Americans and other foreigners are being invited to visit the DPRK by way of many other organizations in the States, Japan and other parts of the world.

North Koreans are being invited to visit the United States not necessarily through the good offices of the New York mission. Any American host can establish a direct access to North Korea by mail, fax, and phone or by personal courier.

Warning: There are ‘horror’ stories of bureaucratic bungling by the DPRK Beijing Embassy vis-à-vis invited American guests. They are partly true and partly untrue. A possible explanation is a poor communication between the prospective visitor, th e UN mission and the DPRK. The DPRK Embassy in Beijing makes it the iron rule not to issue a visa even to a carrier of a written invitation from a DPRK organization unless it has been instructed to do so by the Foreign Office in Pyongyang.

The prospective visitor is advised to make it double sure with the host organization or the UN mission that the host organization has arranged for issue of a visa through the Foreign Office and that a visa is ready in Beijing (Phone: 011-86-1-6532-1186 or 1189, FAX: 011-86-1-6532-6056. Visa Section: 011-86-1-6532-4148 or -6639).

From the prolofic Andrei Lankov:

Koreans love eating out _ as every long-time Seoul resident knows from his or her own experience. Going to a restaurant is one of the most common leisure activities in this country. In this regard the North is not much different. Of course, decent restaurants are much more difficult to come across: Communist economies have never been particularly successful in meeting consumers’ demands in this area. Nonetheless, this does not mean North Korean cities do not have good restaurants. Perhaps, the very scarcity of such places, combined with the generally bad diet, make eating out there an even more remarkable experience.

For the last 25 years two major restaurants have defined the Pyongyang’s culinary life ㅡ Okryugwan and Chongryugwan.

Okryugwan (the Jade Stream Pavilion) is located on the left bank of the Taedong River. It commenced operations in 1960, and has since remained the major landmark of the North Korean capital. This large building, in a mock traditional style, boasts a number of dining halls including some special banquet rooms, and can seat up to 2,000 visitors. Obviously, the penchant for large-scale eateries has been common to all Communist regimes (the Soviet restaurants of the era also tended to be of truly mammoth size).

Okryugwan has an officially recognized standing as the major guardian of traditional Korean cuisine, functioning as a type of living museum of culinary arts. Recently it was reported that, together with a local college, it sent special research teams to the countryside. The teams were to gather data on traditional Korean cuisine in order to introduce new dishes onto the Okryugwan menu (I just wonder whether it was a good idea to look for new recipes at the time of famine).

Chongryugwan (the Pure Stream Pavilion) is almost equally famous. It opened much later, 1980, in a new building shaped to resemble a ship. The Chongryugwan sits on the banks of the Potonggang, a minor but capricious tributary of the Taedong River. It has two levels: the ground floor, occupied by a large dining hall, and the upper floor, used for small dining rooms and banquet halls.

Both restaurants specialize in traditional cuisine, with special attention given to cold noodles, a quintessentially North Korean dish. Generally, the cooking traditions in the North and South are slightly different, but South Korean visitors usually have a high opinion of the food in both of these famous restaurants.

Both Okryugwan and Chongryugwan are sometimes described in the South as ‘mass restaurants’, and this description is true. Open to the average North Korean, they are not reserved for bigwigs or dollar-paying foreigners alone. However, this does not mean anyone can wander in off the street and enjoy a bowl of cold noodles at whim. In order to get access, North Koreans initially had to get tickets, and these tickets were notoriously difficult to acquire. One had to have connections or endure hours in long queues. Only in recent years has the ongoing “dollarization’’ of the North Korean economy changed the situation: if one has money then tickets are available (that’s a big ‘if’ of course).

In the countryside there are local analogues to the two Pyongyang heavyweights. Each major North Korean city has its own `special’ restaurant. Usually, their names include the characters ‘kak’ or ‘gwan’. Both words are of Chinese origin: they can be roughly translated as ‘pavilion’ and ‘hall’ and have been a part of the names of the restaurants in East Asian countries for many centuries

Apart from Okryugwan and its less successful rivals, North Korea has a number of smaller eateries. They are not as numerous as eateries in the South, but in major cities they are not so difficult to find. In the past there used to be a clear-cut difference between the hard-currency restaurants, which were off limits to commoners, and establishments for the not-so-well-heeled. However, the recent few years have seen a gradual blurring of this once impassable border.

North Korean specialities are noodles and, of course, dog meat. Incidentally, the latter is not called ‘dog meat’ (kae kogi) in North Korea. Once upon a time, Kim Il Sung decided that such a name was too unceremonious, and had it renamed ‘sweet meat (‘tan kogi’)!

The restaurant industry was one of the first in which private enterprise was reintroduced. This happened at a surprisingly early stage, in the late 1980s, when state control of the economy was still sound. In recent years, these private eateries have sprung up in very large numbers, reflecting the steady disintegration of the Stalinist economy.

According to a pro-Pyongyang newspaper in Japan, in 2005 there were 500 restaurants in Pyongyang. Most of them charge prices well beyond the reach of the average North Korean, and cater to the tastes of the three major groups with money: foreign ex-pats, black-market dealers, and officials. These groups are large enough to sustain a number of quite sophisticated eateries.

There is sashimi to be eaten in the Galaxy, there is ostrich barbecue at the Arirang, and there is a micro-brewery where 5 people can feast on the locally produced dark ale and good noodles for a mere $15! A bargain, of course, at $3 per person ㅡ but, after all, the $3 is exactly how much the average North Korean worker is paid for one month… Some people have this money, of course. How? That is another story…

This new book could be interesting: Art Under Control In North Korea

Jane Portal’s book is the first to be published in the West which explores the role of art in North Korea, a role that has been based on pronouncements made by the Great Leader, Kim Il-sung and his son the Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il, about what the State expected of its artists. Portal makes comparisons with those of other, similar, regimes in the past, and finds a clear connection between North Korean art and the socialist realism of the Soviet Union and China. She places North Korean art in its historical, political and social context, and discusses the system of producing, employing, promoting and honouring artists. Painting, calligraphy, poster art, monumental sculpture, architecture and applied arts are included, together with a review of the way in which archaeology has been used and even created for political ends, to justify the present regime and legitimize its lineage. Jane Portal thus reveals much about art made under totalitarian rule, as well as how the art subverts the regime.

Here are two sites that have good examples of the DPRKs socialist-realism paintings:

http://www.northkoreapropaganda.com/

http://northkorea-art.com/ (Pyongyang Art Studio run by out friends at Koryo Tours)

According to Andrei Lankov in the Korea Times:

The North boasts a huge public bathing facility, one that probably exceeds in size any comparable enterprise in the South, and one that is not much inferior in service quality. This is Changgwangwon, a mammoth bathing complex that opened to the public in March 1980. In 2001 North Korean media reported that during the first two decades of its existence Changgwangwon was visited by some 37 million people.

Changgwangwon can be described as a ‘super-bathhouse’. This granite and marble structure is replete with swimming pool, an impressive array of spas and showers, saunas, and the like. It has its own bars and tearooms. And it is open to the general public.

However, not everybody can just walk in: one has to have a ticket, and the ticket is only valid for a limited time. Actually, the Changgwangwon complex serves some 5,000 patrons a day, but it is not enough to satiate the wishes of the capital residents: many more people would like to get in. Thus people wait in the early morning, from 4:00 AM, in a long queue. Foreigners are luckier: they have a designated day (Saturdays) when the entire complex is reserved for their exclusive use ㅡ much to the dismay of the common people. However, foreigners pay hard currency for the privilege

In the 1980s a handful of other top-class bathing houses were built in Pyongyang. These are moderate if compared to Changgwangon, but quite impressive by the standards of the ‘normal’ North Korean public bathhouses. However, a visit to Changgwangwon is a rare event, even for the inhabitants of privileged Pyongyang; it is the humble public bathhouse that is for daily use.

And what about private bathing facilities? These are nearly absent. Rare is the dwelling in the countryside that has any bathing facilities at all. This is often the case even with the multi-story buildings, especially outside Pyongyang: a tap in the kitchen is the best that one may hope for. Only a minority of North Koreans can wash themselves in their own apartment building, but even then it is seldom done in a private bathroom. The better apartment complexes have small bathhouses for the exclusive use of the residents. Sometimes there is a shower room on every floor, and sometimes a bathhouse is located on the ground floor of a building. Only in a handful of the best apartments in Pyongyang is every flat equipped with its own bathroom.