North Korean Economy Watch

UPDATE 4 (2014-10-23): Here is coverage in the Choson Ilbo:

North Korea signed US$1.3 billion worth of investment deals with Chinese businesses at a trade fair in the Chinese border city of Dandong last week.

China’s Xinhua news agency on Monday quoted one of the organizers of the trade fair as saying, “North Korean and Chinese businesses signed letters of intent covering 60 trade and investment pacts amounting to $1.26 billion.

“Another eight letters of intent were signed between North Korea and businesses in other countries involving $11.6 million worth of trade and $100 million worth of investments.”

Around 500 North Korean officials attended the trade fair, including those in charge of economic development.

But the amount of deals struck was smaller than last year (93 deals worth $1.6 billion), due to deteriorating relations between Beijing and Pyongyang.

Skeptics also point out there is no guarantee that the letters of intent will materialize into concrete investments.

UPDATE 3 (2014-10-20): Here is additional coverage by Yonhap:

In an apparent bid to lure Chinese investors, North Korea has publicized somewhat detailed information about its workforce during an annual trade with China, boasting of a well-educated pool of labor.

The North’s National Economic Development General Bureau released a booklet to show off its labor force at the five-day trade fair, which ended on Monday in the Chinese border city of Dandong.

According to the booklet, North Korea’s total population stood at 24.34 million as of last year. About 12.17 million people constituted a “prepared labor force that can adapt to randomly-chosen professions,” according to the booklet.

North Korea also boasted that it extended compulsory education by one year to 12 years from this year.

“In our country, the level of education is high and the potential of intellectual capability is solidly prepared,” the booklet said. “There is no unemployment, labor striking or sabotage in our country.”

North Korea sent 68 business entities to this year’s North Korea-China Economic, Trade, Culture and Tourism Expo, the third of its kind, down about 30 percent from last year.

The decline in North Korea’s participation at this year’s show underscored the continued strain in bilateral relations, particularly since the North’s third nuclear test in February last year and the execution of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s once-powerful uncle, Jang Song-thaek, who had close ties with Beijing.

UPDATE 2 (2014-10-20): Here is coverage from Xinhua:

A 500-strong trade delegation from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is promoting the country’s investment opportunities at a four-day expo in China’s border city of Dandong, Liaoning Province.

The third China-DPRK Economic, Culture and Tourism Expo, closing on Tuesday, has seen 70 million yuan (about 11.6 million U.S. dollars) of trading, agreements on eight investment contracts worth 100 million U.S. dollars, and 60 trade agreements worth 1.26 billion U.S. dollars in total.

Shi Guang, mayor of Dandong, said the expo has drawn 100 DPRK exhibitors, 96 companies from Russia, India, China’s Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well 210 companies from the Chinese mainland. About 250,000 visitors from 20 countries and regions have attended.

The DPRK is developing a Special Economic Zone to help implement its opening-up policy.

Kim Jong Sik, an official with the DPRK Economic Development Association,ssaid the zone is open up to any countries interested in establishing economic and trade relations with the DPRK.

The zone will be dedicated to external trade, assimilating foreign investment and improving the country’s economy, he said.

According to the official, the DPRK has clinched bilateral trade and investment protection agreements with more than 30 countries and mapped out an economic structure including metallurgy, mining, production of construction materials, machinery, garment making, shipbuilding, agriculture and aquaculture.

Kim said the country’s human resources, environment and tourist resources are key factors to appeal to foreign investment. It has been working to optimize investment laws.

The city of Dandong faces the DPRK across the Yalu River. Construction of a bridge linking both sides has been basically completed. It is expected to help facilitate the DPRK’s exchanges with the outside world.

UPDATE 1 (2014-10-18): According to Yonhap:

North Korea is still showing off its products at an annual trade fair with China, but the number of North Korean business entities attending the event this year was about 30 percent less than last year.

The mood is subdued at the five-day trade fair in the Chinese border city of Dandong, reflecting strained political ties between North Korea and China amid Beijing’s signals of displeasure with Pyongyang’s nuclear ambition.

Organizers had said that about 100 North Korean business entities would attend the annual exhibition, but only 68 of them actually attended this year’s event. About 100 North Korean business entities attended last year’s exhibition.

The crowd was also noticeably smaller than it was last year.

“This year, we didn’t bring many products. Instead of selling products, we come here with hopes to meet with Chinese people who want to invest in our factory,” said an official at a North Korean trading firm who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The decline in North Korea’s participation at the North Korea-China Economic, Trade, Culture and Tourism Expo, which began its five-day run Thursday, underscored the continued strain in bilateral relations, particularly after the North’s third nuclear test in February last year and the execution of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s once-powerful uncle, Jang Song-thaek, who had close ties with Beijing.

In what many analysts believe was a message to North Korea, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a two-day visit to South Korea in July this year, breaking a long-standing tradition by Chinese heads of state of visiting Pyongyang before Seoul.

North Korea’s bilateral trade with China stood at US$4.05 billion in the first eight months of this year, down 1.1 percent from the same period last year, according to Chinese customs data.

Economic development, along with the expansion of its nuclear capability, has been a new focus of North Korea’s policy under young leader Kim Jong-un, who took over in late 2011 after his father, Kim Jong-il, died.

North Korea, beset by poor infrastructure and international sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs, has announced plans to set up an economic development zone in each of its provinces.

Despite sanctions that discourage foreign investment, Kim Jong-sik, an official at the North’s National Economic Development General Bureau, told an audience at the exhibition that Pyongyang would set up a “one-stop service” that makes it easier for foreigners to invest in the country.

“With regard to economic development zones, we will simplify immigration procedures and build a one-stop service, which has been widely introduced around the world, to try to fully guarantee conveniences of foreign investors,” Kim said.

ORIGINAL POST (2014-10-16): According to Yonhap:

North Korea and China kicked off an annual trade exhibition on Thursday, with about 2,000 Chinese companies attending, organizers said.

The five-day trade fair in the Chinese border city of Dandong, where more than 70 percent of bilateral trade between the two nations is conducted, suggests economic ties between Beijing and Pyongyang remain largely unaffected despite the North’s nuclear and missile programs.

About 100 North Korean business entities will attend the North Korea-China Economic, Trade, Culture and Tourism Expo, the third of its kind.

At last year’s exhibition, North Korea and China signed 93 preliminary deals worth US$1.6 billion. It has not been confirmed whether the deals usually lead to actual shipments.

Besides North Korea and China, companies from Hong Kong, Russia, Thailand and Taiwan will join this year’s exhibition, organizers said.

North Korea’s bilateral trade with China stood at US$4.05 billion in the first eight months of this year, down 1.1 percent from the same period last year, according to Chinese customs data.

North Korea’s exports to China declined 0.8 percent on-year to $1.84 billion during the eight-month period, while imports fell 1.2 percent to $2.21 billion, the data showed.

Here is coverage of the first and second expo.

Read the full story here:
N. Korea, China kick off annual trade fair
Yonhap
2014-10-16

Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)

It appears that North Korea has drastically increased Chinese grain imports in the months of July and August compared to the first half of 2014. Up until June, North Korea had imported a total of 58,387 tons of grain from China at nearly 10,000 tons per month. However, in July and August, North Korea imported 19,559 tons and 25,217 tons of grain, respectively. August showed the largest amount of grains imported per month so far this year, and the combined figures of July and August are equal to an astonishing 77 percent of the total amount of grains imported in the first six months of 2014.

The large increase in grain imports beginning in July is interpreted as an early move by North Korea to secure grain supplies for the winter after a double-crop harvest in June which failed to reach expected quantities, and a lackluster fall harvest compared to the previous year.

The grains North Korea has imported so far this year consist of flour (46.6 percent), rice (42.3 percent), and corn (8.9 percent), with flour and rice being the main imports. Compared to 2013, corn imports are down, but have been replaced by an increase in rice imports. Despite the sharp increase in grain imports during recent months, it appears that the overall food situation in North Korea has actually improved. North Korea imported a total of 103,163 tons of grain from January to August of 2014, a mere 59 percent of the 174,020 tons of grain imported during the same time period last year.

Chemical fertilizer imported from China up until August of this year has also decreased by an estimated 37 percent compared to the previous year, from 183,639 tons to 115,337 tons. This decrease in imported fertilizer is thought to be due to improvements made in fertilization equipment, leading to an overall higher rate of operation. It appears that the total amount of fertilizer used by North Korea this year should not differ greatly from the amount used last year, and fertilizer shortage is not expected to cause a major decrease in grain production.

According to Yonhap:

The communist country’s imports of Swiss tobacco machinery components reached US$180,000 in the January-June period, far more than the $24,000 worth of imports recorded for all of 2013, according to the report by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA).

The latest spike is seen as indicating North Korea’s growing interest in investing in the country’s cigarette industry.

According to a previous KOTRA report, North Korea’s cigarette imports far exceeded its exports last year.

The country imported $65.28 million of tobacco in 2013, about 77.8 times what the country sold overseas, the report showed.

Another academic report showed that the smoking rate among North Korean men aged 15 or more stood at 45.8 percent, while the global average was 31.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the latest KOTRA report said North Korea’s imports of Swiss watches and related watch components fell to zero in the first six months of this year. The country imported $116,000 worth of Swiss watches and related goods for the whole of 2013.

Read the full story here:
N. Korean imports of Swiss tobacco machinery parts jump in H1
Yonhap
2014-10-15

Pictured Above (Google Earth): The road linking the KIC and South Korea

According to the Daily NK:

A bridge and northern parts of a road and connecting South and North Korea built by Pyongyang, for which Seoul provided 25.3 billion KRW [23.6 million USD] worth construction materials and equipment, are in decrepit conditions, according to documents obtained by a South Korean lawmaker.

“A strip [5km] of the northern side of the road connecting to the Kaesong Industrial Complex and parts of Tongil Bridge [220m] are extremely run-down, with cracks and severe forms of distortion,” representative Ha Tae Keung from the ruling Saenuri Party said, citing data submitted by Korea Land and Housing Corporation and Korea Expressway Corporation on Thursday. “However, the southern part of the project [5.1km], which cost us 68 billion KRW [63 million USD] is in good condition,” he stated.

“According to safety tests, the bridge and road are expected to progressively deteriorate, raising concerns of a major accident,” Ha said. “We may face another disaster such as the Seongsu Bridge collapse [in South Korea in 1994].”

…

The connecting road from South Korea to the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Park in the North began in September 2002 and was completed in 14 months. Seoul put 68 billion KRW [63 million USD] behind the project for its side and provided 25.3 billion KRW [23.6 million USD] worth of construction materials and equipment for Pyongyang to build its section.

Read the full story here:
Dilapidated Roads to Kaesong a Major Safety Concern
Daily NK
Lee Sang Yong
2014-10-14

Institute for Far Easter Studies (IFES)

In a September 29, 2014 interview by the Choson Sinbo, Director of North Korea’s Ministry of External Economic Affairs, Oh Tae Bong, reported that business in North Korea’s newly established economic development zones (EDZ) is gradually being ramped up. In the interview, Oh mentioned the Jindo Export Processing Zone in Nampo City as an example where foreign investment capital is being prepared for the construction of substructure facilities such as piers and power plants and factories for heavy industry like cement and steel.

The Jindo Export Processing Zone carries out technology transfers and exports completed industrial products to foreign countries. Specifically, Secretary Oh emphasized, “Several countries have expressed great interest in the Jindo Export Processing Zone, and investment contracts have already been signed with a few targets such as Hong Kong.” If the Jindo Export Processing Zone succeeds, it is expected that more processing zones will be developed around the country. If development goes smoothly, the structure of primary export products, including underground resources, would change drastically and promote product diversification.

Secretary Oh also talked about the results achieved through economic cooperation with neighboring countries, saying, “Our nation is consulting with Russian governmental organizations regarding the cooperation issues experienced with railroad reconstruction and modernization.” He mentions that certain agreements have already been made in August 2014, and commented that “Relations between two countries have great effect on foreign economic activity, such as investments.” In other words, despite the US and UN imposed economic sanctions against North Korea, Russia has taken an active stance toward economic cooperation with North Korea.

With regards to the Ministry of External Economic Affairs (formerly the Ministry of Foreign Trade), Director Oh explained that the ministry was newly reorganized in June 2014 to expand the state’s foreign economic activities. According to Oh, the ministry will contribute to the strengthening of economic ties between nations, and take unified command over trade, joint ventures, attraction of foreign capital, and economic development zones.

More specifically, Secretary Oh stated that “Since the Ministry of Trade, the Joint Venture and Investment Commission, and State Economic Development Committee have all been combined into one body responsible for foreign economic enterprises, business complexity has disappeared and unity has been secured.” It is said that, first, the process procedures necessary in economic trade activities have been simplified. Second, the combining of various departments among the three committees into one single organization has improved work efficiency. Finally, the agency-centered system has disappeared, allowing for a much more efficient foreign economic industry.

According to Yonhap:

North Korea imported US$644 million worth of luxury goods last year despite U.N. sanctions banning the transfer of such goods to the country, a South Korean lawmaker claimed Tuesday, citing Chinese customs data.

Luxury goods, including certain kinds of jewelry, precious stones, yachts, luxury automobiles and racing cars, have been banned from transfer to North Korea under a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in response to the North’s nuclear test in February 2013.

Still, North Korea continues to buy luxury items from China, Europe and Southeast Asia, Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the ruling Saenuri Party said, citing Chinese customs data on two-way trade with North Korea and studies on North Korean trade patterns.

“(North Korea) is increasing the supply of goods at department stores for Pyongyang’s elite, while also increasing the import of goods to be used as gifts for senior party and military officials who form the core class that preserves the regime,” Yoon said.

In recent years, the communist country has especially bought more liquor, watches, handbags, cosmetics, jewelry and carpets, leading to a doubling of imports of luxury goods under the current leader, Kim Jong-un, from an average of $300 million under his father and former leader Kim Jong-il, who died in December 2011.

North Korea also spends about $200,000 annually on imports of purebred pet dogs, such as shih tzus and German shepherds — which are not classified as luxury goods — and related care products from Europe, Yoon said.

With the money spent on importing luxury goods last year, North Korea could buy more than 3.66 million tons of corn or 1.52 million tons of rice, far more than the country’s food shortage of 340,000 tons estimated by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Program for the year 2013-2014, he added.

Here is coverage in the Daily NK.

Read the full story here:
N. Korea imports US$644 mln worth of luxury goods in 2013: lawmaker
Yonhap
2014-10-7

The Congressional Research Service “recently” published two reports which relate to the DPRK:

The U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA): Provisions and Implementation
September 16, 2014: 2014-9-16-KORUS-Kaesong
June 2, 2011: Imports-from-North-Korea-2011

(Although this report focuses mostly on US-ROK issues, there is detailed discussion of the complex negotiations around the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC).)

Iran-North Korea-Syria Ballistic Missile and Nuclear Cooperation 
April 16, 2014: 2014-4-16-Iran-Syria-Missile

You can download most former CRS reports dealing with the DPRK here.

UPDATE 2 (2014-10-9): AEI’s Nick Ebestasdt offers analysis on the delegation visit:

Once again the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (aka DPRK or North Korea) is back in the news—and this time it did not secure global headlines by testing a nuclear device, or shooting rockets near its neighbors, or threatening to turn Seoul/Tokyo/Washington/etc. into a sea of fire.

Instead the world’s only ever Communist-dictatorship-cum-hereditary-Asian-dynasty has piqued international curiosity through the conjuncture of a carefully staged diplomatic event and a potentially important domestic non-event.

The event was the surprise visit by an 11 person North Korean delegation to the South—ostensibly to attend the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, but in reality to propose a resumption of inter-Korean dialogue, which has been in a deep freeze since the 2013 inauguration of President Park Guen Hye.

The non-event is the disappearance from public view of North Korea’s “Dear Respected Leader” Kim Jong Un. At this writing, Dear Respected was last seen in public on September 3—over a month ago. Although North Korean footage of Dear Respected is always carefully doctored, he was last seen walking with a limp. He was a no-show for the Supreme People’s Assembly on September 25, a ceremony whose pageantry he would ordinarily be expected to figure in, if not center around. North Korean authorities, a group not known for indulging in glasnost, have offered no official explanation for this prolonged public absence. The most the officialdom has had to say so far is that Kim Jong Un is “suffering from discomfort,” as state television put it last week.

Unsurprisingly, both Western media and those who call themselves “North Korea experts” have been in an economy-class dither over these two developments, speculating about what each of them might mean—and also trying to fabricate a link between them. By one rumor, Dear Respected has gotten so fat that he has broken both his ankles falling off his fancy elevated shoes. No, says another whisper—he is gravely ill and his sister is in charge. Wrong again, insists a third—there has been a coup, and he has been deposed by the military. That is why the North Koreans have sent all these military types to Seoul for talks!

Having followed North Korean affairs for over thirty years myself, I have to confess that there is nothing new about the current jumble of conflicting and sometimes outlandish guesses that passes as commentary on North Korean current events. Given the DPRK government’s ruthless control and manipulation of information—two of the few things Pyongyang can actually do well—outsiders are often left more or less divining signs from chicken entrails. Add to the mix the South Korean intelligence community’s unhealthy but longstanding history of attempting to play the local and global press in accordance with its own short term agenda, and one can see how easy it is for unseasoned reporters, or even more inveterate “North Korea hands,” to get caught up in a hologram of lies.

Early on in my own research, I realized that one had to approach the North Korean puzzle as if one were in a Miss Marple murder mystery, that is to say, by proceeding under the assumption that everyone is a liar and has their own reason for misrepresenting the truth. If one starts with that premise, and takes William of Ockham as one’s guiding star, you have a chance of figuring out what is going on—but only a chance.

With this in mind, let’s start by trying to make sense of Dear Respected’s continuing absence from the propaganda stage. Is this the first time he has gone missing from action in this fashion? No. In his brief reign—since the Dear Leader’s passing in late 2011—he has been secluded from his adoring local fans at least twice before. Moreover, both his father and his grandfather made it a habit of disappearing from public view, too. Of course, rumors would fly: Kim Il Sung is dying of cancer from the big wen on the back of his neck; Kim Jong Il has died in a car crash; no, Kim Jong Il has fallen off a horse and is now a zombie. Such speculation—or should we say, wishful thinking?—always proved to be wrong. Each and every time, the Supreme Leader has come back on camera. We outsiders must recognize the obvious truth that we know so little about the dynamics of North Korean rule that we cannot even explain ex post facto why these various and repeated Kim eclipses took place. Of course, there is always a first time. This time, Dear Respected’s public hiatus may be different. But this would be a first.

And what about the North Korean delegation’s surprise visit? To begin, the North always tries to do things by surprise—that is how Pyongyang keeps control of the show. (It’s no surprise that the South Korean side would do anything they could to accommodate a North Korean official delegation—any open democracy would likewise do whatever it could to accommodate the possibility of dialogue with an implacably hostile neighbor.)The North Korean delegation certainly came south to do something more than admire the sports show—but the notion that they were coming to announce a change of regime, as some have suggested, is silly season at its silliest.

Many writers have noted the heavy military and security complexion of the visiting team, which reportedly includes the number two man in the DPRK military, the former head of the North Korean People’s army, and a fellow who might be the spy chief of the police state. Military plot? Hardly. In a state like the DPRK, most of the important jobs perforce are military, security, and intelligence. And note, inter alia, that all of these heavyweights are members of the DPRK Workers’ Party Central Committee. They’re Party boys, though not in the sense we use in Western universities. Like all other Marxist-Leninist states, North Korea’s political Party keeps the military on a tight choke chain: no one in command wants to see their regime overturned by an Asian variant of Julius Caesar or Napoleon Bonaparte. Highly decorated as they may be, these men are errand boys sent south to do their masters’ bidding.

And just what might that bidding be? If William of Ockham were wielding his famous Razor, the parsimonious surmise might whittle our guesses down to be: money. As we know from other sources, the North Korean state has become desperately dependent on the largesse of just one power: China. As we know from other sources, North Korea has never in its entire history been as desperately dependent on the largesse of a single benefactor as it is on China today. Since North Korea is perennially in need of external support, diversifying those sources of subvention is now a state imperative. To judge from early reportage, the visiting North Korean fundraising show has not done so badly on its southern tour: according to news accounts, Seoul has already been talking about easing economic sanctions, and even possibly resuming the lucrative tours to the North that were shut down after that unfortunate deadly shooting of a South Korean visitor by a guard on a beach.

The DPRK delegation may of course have more in mind than just money—South Korea has so much more to give, including its territory and its very sovereignty! But as a first guess, extracting money for the mothership may not be such a bad one.

Long ago, a memorable South Korean booklet described North Korea as “the land that never changes.” Appealing as that title may be, it is highly misleading. North Korea is constantly—in fact, almost incessantly—in flux. It has buried two Supreme Leaders, and may be working on a third. It has experienced the first-ever mass famine in any urbanized literate society during peacetime. It has achieved the most epic long-term economic fail of any standing state in the modern era. It is the first country with a Sahelian-style international trade performance profile to test nuclear weapons. And just last December, with great fanfare, it publicly announced its first-ever execution of an inner member of the royal family.

Things are always changing in North Korea. It is instead our inability to understand this country that seems to be the unchanging factor in the equation.

UPDATE 1 (2014-10-6): Following the buzz of speculation around the DPRK delegation visit to the ROK, ships exchange warning shots. According to the BBC:

North and South Korean ships exchanged warning shots after a North Korean patrol boat crossed a disputed maritime border, say officials from the south.

The incident happened around 10:00 local time (03:00 BST) on Tuesday, said South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

It comes three days after North Korean officials agreed to resume high-level talks with the South.

Here is coverage in the JoongAng Ilbo.

Original Post (2014-10-3): According to Reuters:

Three senior North Korean officials will make a rare visit to South Korea on Saturday to attend the Asian Games closing ceremony in what could potentially bring a breakthrough in tense ties between the rival Koreas.

Heading the delegation will be Hwang Pyong So and Choe Ryong Hae, who are senior aides to North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un, South Korea’s Unification Ministry spokesman told a news briefing.

The announcement of the visit comes as a surprise because Pyongyang has been issuing invectives toward the South and President Park Geun-hye, criticising her calls for Pyongyang to end its arms programme and improve human rights conditions.

…

Hwang is the head of the North Korean army’s General Political Department, a powerful apparatus loyal to the secretive country’s leader and a key post overseeing the 1.2-million-member military.

Here is coverage in the Associated Press.

Here is coverage in Yonhap.

Here is coverage in the New York Times.

Here is coverage in the Korea Times.

Here is coverage in the Washington Post.

Here is Aidan Foster Carter in NK News.

Interesting analysis on the story in the Daily NK which provides a rational for the visit based on domestic politics.

Here is coverage in The Diplomat.

Additional Information

1. NK Leadership Watch has bios of the men: Hwang Pyong So, Choe Ryong Hae, Kim Yang Gon

2. Here are bios on Wikipedia: Hwang Pyong So, Choe Ryong hae, Kim Yang Gon

3. Here is the South Korean MOU leadership organization chart where you can see these individual’s positions within the system.

4. Andray Abrahamian writing in 38 North last year on sports.

The Hankyoreh reports on some agricultural aid heading to the DPRK:

Picture above via the Hanhyoreh

The article reports:

Trucks carrying materials for greenhouses, fertilized soil and plant seeds for North Korea crosses Unification Bridge in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Sept. 30. The 200 million won worth of goods were donated by Ace Gyeongnam.

Greenhouses have been constructed all across the DPRK in the last few years.

Pictured Above (Google Earth): SEK Studios in Pyongyang

According to Yonhap:

North Korean animation films have been put on display at an international animation fair in China, with a North Korean official admitting that the country’s animators have been increasingly sub-contracted by foreign studios, according to a Chinese state media report on Wednesday.

About 200 companies from South Korea, North Korea, Australia, Canada, Japan, Russia and other nations joined the five-day animation fair in Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital of Hebei, starting Tuesday, the China News Service said.

North Korea’s state-run SEK studio set up a special exhibition hall at the fair, according to the report.

Ho Yong-chol, head of SEK’s office in Beijing, told the Chinese media that the SEK studio employs more than 1,500 animators and has “an annual production of up to 8,000 minutes” of animated films.

“OEM (overseas export market) has become a main source of productions for North Korean animation studios,” Ho said, adding that the North can produce an animated film with “even less than half” of a European studio’s budget.

North Korea has quietly developed its animation industry. One of South Korea’s popular animation films, “Pororo the Little Penguin,” was produced jointly with North Korean cartoonists.

Read the full story here: