Archive for October, 2007

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N. Korea sees Koguryo legacy as way to promote inter-Korean relations

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

Yonhap
10/11/2007

North Korea sees the legacy of Korea’s ancient kingdom of Koguryo, which controlled northern Korean Peninsula and northeastern China for more than 700 years, as a means of improving inter-Korean relations and an eventual unification of the two Koreas, a senior North Korean official said Thursday.

“I’m passionate about opening this exhibition, as I am confident that it will further boost our people’s struggle to achieve a unified powerhouse nation and promote the improvement of (North) Korea and Japan relations based on a drastic clearance of their past,”said Hong Son-ok, a North Korean official in charge of external cooperation in cultural cooperation.

Hong made the statement to Yonhap News Agency at a ceremony here to open an exhibition of photos of artifacts of the Koguryo kingdom co-hosted by Yonhap News Agency and Japan’s Kyodo News Service. Hong’s statement was referring to North Korea’s chilly relations with Japan, which colonized the Korean Peninsula for about 35 years until 1945.

The exhibition is taking place at the Korean Central History Museum here amid signs of warming inter-Korean relations just a week after the leaders of South and North Korea held their second summit in seven years.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il “paid special care and courtesy” to the exhibition, Hong said.

It is the first time that the South Korean news agency has hosted an event in North Korea. The exhibition of 121 photographs of tombs and murals of the Koguryo Kingdom (37 B.C.-668 A.D.) continues until Nov. 10, and includes World Heritage sites.

“The murals of the Koguryo kingdom, which controlled the northern part of the Korean Peninsula and Manchuria (northeastern China), are an element that links the people of South and North Korea,”Yonhap President Kim Ki-seo said.

Kim cited the popularity in South Korea of television dramas and literature featuring the ancient kingdom, which he referred to as a spiritual root shared by the two Koreas. Kyodo’s president, Satoshi Ishikawa, was also on hand at the opening ceremony.

About 100 Pyongyang citizens attended the ceremony with most of the women guests wearing Korea’s colorful traditional costume, hanbok.

Citizens expressed pride in their ancient legacy.

“It’s a centennial powerhouse in the East,” a North Korean said. “We should inherit the great spirit of our forefathers and develop our nation into a unified powerhouse.”

Horse-riding warriors of Koguryo dominated politics and culture in Northeast Asia until they were defeated by joint attacks from the southern Korean kingdom of Silla and China’s Tang Dynasty.

The Koguryo people left paintings on the walls and ceilings of tombs depicting their daily lives and mythical beliefs. A mural from Anak Tomb No. 3 shows a vivid image of a woman in white stirring soup in a big pot in a kitchen beside a meat storeroom. Other murals show a hunting scene of horse-riding warriors and a nobleman enjoying an acrobatic performance.

A total of 107 Koguryo tombs have been discovered, 76 in and around the North Korean capital of Pyongyang and the rest around the North Korean border with China.

As much of the kingdom was located in what is now northeastern China, Chinese scholars have recently begun claiming that the Koguryo kingdom is part of Chinese history. Last year, Yonhap and Kyodo co-hosted an exhibition in Seoul of photos that Kyodo took at Koguryo tombs in North Korea.

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Posted in Art, Civil society, Political economy | Comments Closed

Washington Considers Representative Office in Pyongyang

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

Korea Times
Yoon Won-sup
10/11/2007

The United States is considering setting up a representative office in Pyongyang as a diplomatic mission, according to a report Wednesday.

Radio Free Asia said the United States will set up a diplomatic mission in Pyongyang, and its form would most likely be a representative office, not a liaison office or an embassy.

The U.S.-based media quoted a source as saying that the U.S. government and Congress are discussing the level of a diplomatic mission in Pyongyang, which will depend on progress in North Korea’s dismantlement of its nuclear weapons program.

Washington reportedly plans to remove North Korea off its list of terror-sponsoring states this year after North Korea disables its nuclear facilities and declares all its nuclear weapons programs. After the removal, the United States will likely begin the process of normalizing relations with North Korea, according to the report.

Experts showed optimism on the moves to normalize relations with North Korea.

A U.S. official who worked on the creation of a diplomatic mission in Pyongyang in 1994 told the radio station that it would be good for Washington to have representation in North Korea in order to understand it.

The official stressed that the absence of a mission may lead the United States to make policy based on wrong information.

However, the experts agreed that the prerequisite for the diplomatic mission was the denuclearization of North Korea.

“It is not so meaningful a debate to discuss whether to set up a representative- or embassy-level mission in Pyongyang because there will be a U.S. Embassy in the end,” a senior Korean government official said. “But the more important thing is that North Korea moves toward denuclearization for this to be realized.”

The United States promised to establish full diplomatic relations with North Korea, depending on North Korea’s actions toward denuclearization on the Oct. 3 agreement reached at six-party talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.

U.S.-North Korea relations have recently been improving. In early September, Christopher Hill, the top U.S. negotiator to the talks, had a successful meeting with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan in Geneva on the normalization of relations.

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Posted in Political economy, USA | Comments Closed

Gov’t refrains from using “reform, openness” to describe Kaesong industrial park

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

Yonhap
10/10/2007

The Unification Ministry has dropped the words “reform and openness” to describe the South Korea-invested industrial park in the North’s border town of Kaesong from its Web site in an apparent bid not to provoke the North.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il complained in the second-ever inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang last week that South Korea has been using the Kaesong industrial park as a scheme to force reform and openness in the communist North, whereas Pyongyang had gained little from the inter-Korean economic cooperation project.

President Roh Moo-hyun responded by saying in the North Korean capital that North Korea should not be described as a subject of reform and openness.

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Posted in Economic reform, Foreign direct investment, Inter-Korean summit, Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), Mt. Kumgang Tourist Special Zone, Political economy, RoK Ministry of Unification, Special Economic Zones (Established before 2013) | Comments Closed

EBA Press Release: Pyongyang International Trade Fair

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

Europen Business Association
October 2007

EBA.JPG18 European companies are participating at the European booth organized by the European Business Association (EBA) in Pyongyang. This has been the largest ever participation of European companies at a Trade Fair in Pyongyang. The 18 EBA-member companies come from 6 European countries and are engaged in banking, IT, pharmaceuticals, maritime transportation, railways, courier services, industry, mining, solar driven water pumps, energy saving technology, commodity inspection, cosmetics and other consumer goods and general trading. Some already operate in joint ventures with Korean partners or found other forms of close business cooperation, particularly in the fields of banking, mining, internet services, logistics, software development and pharmaceuticals.

The EBA will continue to make efforts to attract more European companies to invest and do business in the DPRK in the coming years and will share its experience to help make the endeavors of the newcomers and their Korean partners a success. The EBA closely cooperates with the DPRK Chamber of Commerce and the Korea International Exhibition Corporation to facilitate the participation at exhibitions, to intensify trade between European and DPRK-enterprises and to enhance the identification of suitable business and investment opportunities for European companies.

Pictures of the European booth will be published on http://www.eba-pyongyang.org/
Felix Abt, President
Dr. Barbara Unterbeck, PR-manager
European Business Association
President´s Office
Chang Gwang Foreign Residential and Office Building
10th Floor, No. 10-2
Central District
Pyongyang
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
http://www.eba-pyongyang.org/

 

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Posted in Banking, Communications, Computing/IT, European Business Association, Finance, Light Industry, Mining/Minerals, Pharmaceuticals, Pyongyang International Trade Fair, Railways, Sea shipping | Comments Closed

Reports cite high cost of North business

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

Joong Ang Daily
Limb Jae-un
10/8/2007

Days after both Koreas vowed to heighten cooperation, a lawmaker said yesterday in a report that the Kaesong Industrial Complex, the experimental site combining South Korean technology and North Korean labor, has been unprofitable so far.

In addition, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation said in a report yesterday that repairs to the airport on Mount Paektu will cost 280 billion won, or $304 million.

One of the agreements signed at the inter-Korean summit Thursday calls for allowing South Korean tourists to visit the scenic mountain on the Korea-China border.

“In terms of the runway length, Samjiyon Airport can accommodate large airplanes, such as a Boeing 747, but the condition of the airport is bad,” said an official of the construction ministry, who asked for anonymity. The airport, located on a plateau 1,000 meters, or 3,280 feet, above sea level, needs advanced navigation facilities, he said.

Despite the optimistic discussions during last week’s summit, inter-Korean economic cooperation has so far had dismal results, according to a report from Grand National Party Representative Lee Han-koo. Thirteen out of 16 companies operating at the Kaesong Industrial Complex are currently in the red, he said. Their debt is four times higher than their assets, he said. The combined assets of the 16 companies is only 4.5 billion won and their average annual sales is 790 million won.

“The biggest problem of the economic cooperation is that the relevant information has been held back from the public,” Lee said.

Meanwhile, a top European official said North Korea must go through serious reforms to become a viable investment destination for Europe.

North Korea is unattractive for Europe because “the conditions for investment are not safe enough and the regulatory environment is not predictable,” Guenter Verheugen, the EU Industry and Enterprise Commissioner, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Saturday.

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Posted in Aviation, Economic reform, Inter-Korean summit, Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), Political economy, Special Economic Zones (Established before 2013), Tourism, Transportation | Comments Closed

Sound economics

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

Joong Ang Daily
Jo Dong-ho
10/9/2007

The summit meeting was quite successful. Some say it was because North Korea’s nuclear program was not on the agenda. Relinquishing its nuclear ambitions is the North’s card for normalizing ties with the United States and receiving rewards.

Costs cannot worry us either, because South Korea’s economy has grown so much that we can now pave a road even for a village on a remote mountain. If the size of government projects for culture cities or innovation cities were reduced, we would have trillions won, or billions more dollars, available.

As an economist, I would like to focus on roles of the government and the market discussed in the summit meeting. The ultimate question of economics can be summarized as how the market and the government will divide their roles to get maximum benefits out of limited resources.

The economics of past 200 years concludes that the best way is for the private sector to make independent decisions in economic activities and for the government to manage the rules so that those activities will be carried out fairly and smoothly. This can be likened to the relationship between players and referees in a sporting event.

The same principle applies to economic cooperation between South and North Korea.

Easing military tension, which will reduce the risk of investing in North Korea, is something that only the government can do. Repairing railways and roads is also the responsibility of the government. To improve transportation, communication and customs are the same. The private sector cannot do those jobs on its own.

However, building a shipyard or developing tourism on Mount Baekdu is for the private sector to carry out. But as these projects were agreed upon in the summit meeting, they must be carried out without feasibility studies. These projects were being discussed even before the summit meeting.

Private companies have been interested in them for years, but they have not made the decision to pursue them for many reasons, including low profits. Now the leaders of the two Koreas have made an agreement so these projects must be carried out. North Korea will probably make more unreasonable demands. The South Korean government will have to provide subsidies, and that will increase the burden on the South Korean people.

Some may find it disturbing that I criticize a few projects when there were many other good agreements reached. But these projects show the South Korean government’s basic view on economic cooperation with the North.

In fact, in all the projects agreed upon, there is a vague guideline for the division of roles between the government and the market. The same is true with the agreement to complete the first step of construction at the Kaesong Industrial Complex earlier than planned and to start the second step. The Hyundai Asan Corporation and the Korea Land Corporation are the ones doing the industrial park project, not the government.

These companies have their reasons for managing the industrial park project in its first stages. The government cannot and should not agree to implement the project at a faster speed. After North Korea tested its nuclear bomb, there was pressure to halt that project. Then the government said it could not intervene because it was led by the private sector. But the government has now agreed to complete it at an earlier date.

Some maintain that these agreements will improve inter-Korean relations so there is no use in dividing the government and the market. But it is more important that economic cooperation between South and North Korea improves properly than quickly. Let’s say the improvement of economic cooperation between South and North Korea is of the utmost value so the government can lead economic projects. But there must be good reasons for the government to intervene in the market.

The government has said until now that it supported economic co-operation with the North in an attempt to induce North Korea to open its doors and reform its economy. But that no longer sounds like enough. When providing assistance, the supporter must make sure that the party that receives assistance tries to stand on its own. But the president said we should not mention this in the summit meeting.

Six months ago, at an event for businessmen in the fisheries industry, the president said the government would provide support if need be, but what is most important is their own will and efforts.

One of President Roh’s strengths is that he is not afraid to say what he needs to say. That he could not say what he had to say to Kim Jong-il is what is most regrettable about the meeting.

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Posted in Foreign direct investment, Inter-Korean summit, International Aid, Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), Political economy, Special Economic Zones (Established before 2013), Tourism | Comments Closed

Japan extends N Korea sanctions

Tuesday, October 9th, 2007

BBC
10/9/2007

Japan has extended economic sanctions on North Korea, citing a lack of progress in a row over Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang.

The measures – which ban imports from North Korea and visits by its ships – will continue for another six months.

A top official said Japan was seeking advances on both the abduction and nuclear issues.

The move comes exactly a year after North Korea carried out its first nuclear test, on 9 October 2006.

Since then, Pyongyang has agreed to end its nuclear programme in return for millions of dollars worth of aid.

It has closed its main Yongbyon reactor and last week committed to a timetable for disclosing and dismantling all its nuclear facilities by the end of the year.

Later this week, a US-led team of experts are due to visit North Korea, where they will begin supervising the process of dismantling its nuclear installations.

‘No progress’

Japan is one of the five countries involved in the nuclear deal with North Korea.

But a major sticking point in the bilateral relationship has been the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang in the late 1970s and early 1980s to train spies.

“We saw the need to extend the sanctions because there has been no progress over the abduction issue,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told journalists after the move was agreed at a Cabinet meeting.

North Korea admitted in 2002 that it had kidnapped 13 Japanese nationals. It has returned five of them and says the remaining eight are dead. It says the issue has now been resolved.

But Japan wants concrete proof of the deaths and believes that several more of its citizens were taken. There is huge public concern over the issue in Japan.

Talks in Mongolia last month aimed at resolving the dispute came to nothing.

The abduction row was not the only factor behind the decision, Mr Machimura said.

“We also took into comprehensive consideration the overall situation involving North Korea, including the nuclear issue,” he said.

A foreign ministry official told the Associated Press news agency that Japan wanted to see concrete steps from Pyongyang towards disabling its nuclear programme.

The sanctions – imposed last October after North Korea’s nuclear test – prevent visits by the Mangyongbong-92 ferry, the only direct link between the two countries, and ban imports from the impoverished nation.

They have now been extended until 13 April, officials said. The decision needs the endorsement of parliament, but the opposition have already agreed to the step.

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Posted in Chongryun, International trade, Japan | Comments Closed

North Korea, Illegal Sex Trafficking Prevention

Tuesday, October 9th, 2007

Daily NK
Kim Min Se
10/9/2007

Recently, it has been made known that sealed or closed-off rooms in up-scale restaurants and popular “karaokes” in North Korean provincial cities have been removed.

Since 2000, sex trafficking has rapidly increased at inns, saunas, spas, and karaoke bars in large provincial cities such as Shinuiju, Chongjin, and Hamheung.

In particular, corrupt businesses such as massage parlors and steam baths with the purpose of sex trafficking have proliferated, increasing incidents of solicitations in front of large-city stations and metaphoric advertisements, such as “flower” and “bed sales.”

Good Friends has released on the September Newsletter that after creating rooms in the basement of a restaurant in Wonsan, Kangwon Province and organizing young girls for prostitution and the owner of the restaurant and affiliates received maximum punishment such as the death penalty for forcing sexual trafficking.

After inspections and punishment, an inside source relayed that an order came down preventing operations of illicit rooms by karaoke and entertainment venues. Karaokes removed entrance and exit doors and restaurants enforced the opening of doors of each room. Due to such management, the number of guests has greatly decreased.

North Korean businessman Mr. Park, who is residing in Dandong, China, said in a phone conversation with DailyNK, “Most sealed or closed-off rooms in restaurants or karaoke bars of large provincial cities such as Shinuiju and Hamheung have mostly disappeared.”

Mr. Park said, “I would often use sealed rooms because I could talk about business and entertain guests while not worrying about the eyes of others. However, recently, the government gave an order to get rid of these rooms due to prostitution.”

Further, he said, “Field security agents are checking up on internal facilities by making rounds at restaurants and karaokes. If sealed-off or blocked-off rooms are still reported, the business has to be shut down and the owner is taken to the Security Agency.”

He said, “People who have money nowadays seek out upper-scale restaurants for sharing important businesses. The presence of female entertainers elevates the atmosphere, but in some cases, the women are forced to ‘serve’ them.”

However, Mr. Park said, “Even if the government gets rid of sealed rooms and dividers, it is difficult to remove the root of the problem because women want to continue making money, and such “popular” spots have already become established as a means of doing so.

Mr. Park also said, “In Shinuiju alone, sex trafficking is known to have spread significantly. Women who are sold have separately rented rooms and receive 10,000 won ($3.30) per night.”

A Chinese businessman Lio Jilong confirmed these details. He, who frequents Shinuiju for trade with North Korea, said, “Even when I went to Shinuiju at the end of August, restaurants with special (sealed-off) rooms and dividers were common, but they have all disappeared by now.”

He also expressed discontent, “With the exception of restaurants and karaokes, there are no places where one can discuss business; other restaurants have been harmed by prostitution in Chosun (North Korea).”

The North Korean government sent “first-offender” women engaging in prostitution to a “labor detention facility” for six months at the discretion of the security agency and “repeat-offenders” were punished to the second-degree by being sentenced to over a year.

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Posted in Art, Black markets, Civil society, Dating/Courting, Good Friends, Music | Comments Closed

Most N. Koreans Don’t Receive Rice Aid From South

Tuesday, October 9th, 2007

Korea Times
10/9/007

Most impoverished North Koreans do not have access to food aid sent by South Korea due to corruption and lack of proper monitoring, a human rights group said Tuesday.

“Many North Korean defectors have said they heard about a considerable amount of food aid from South Korea, but they have not received any of it,” said Kay Seok, a researcher for the United States-based non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch, citing North Koreans who recently defected from one of the world’s poorest countries.

The remark comes amid accusations by critics here that hundreds of thousands of tons of South Korean rice aid may be funneled each year to the North Korean military and elite groups.

The Roh Moo-hyun administration, which has engaged the communist North despite Pyongyang’s detonation of a nuclear bomb in October last year, has often been criticized for failing to ensure that the food aid is distributed to those in need.

In an interview with Washington-based Radio Free Asia, Seok said the food aid is sold for profit in the North, stressing that South Korea needs to demand proper monitoring to ensure that the aid reaches the intended recipients.

One of the reasons that South Korean food aid does not reach poor North Korean people is that the food is given to privileged people or sold for profit by them, she explained.

“At the moment the food aid arrives at the port, merchants flocked about and buy it with U.S. dollars,” she said.

“In the course of the shipment to the final destination, shippers, stationmasters and high-ranking officials take the food either for themselves or for sale. Even sentinels take it,” according to defectors who witnessed it, she said.

South Korea has been providing North Korea with food aid since the mid-1990s. It resumed shipping aid to North Korea in June after a hiatus of more than one year as the North began taking steps toward nuclear disarmament. The promised aid, which consists of 400,000 tons of rice, will be delivered over the coming months.

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Posted in International Aid, Political economy | Comments Closed

30 Days Imprisonment Penalty Revived

Monday, October 8th, 2007

Daily NK
Kwon Jeong Hyun
10/8/2007

It was revealed that North Korea has revived the “30 days imprisonment penalty” to workers who were lazy or failed to complete their duties among the executives of factories and companies in their concentration of flood assistance of city.

The 30 day imprisonment penalty is a policy that confines executives, managers of factory or company in the prison for 30-50 days in case of their over usage of electricity, resources or laziness or failure to conduct their duty.

The inside source in North Korea revealed on the 28th of September that, “The authorities said that if the target figure is not achieved, they called it as neglect of duty and inflicted the “30 days imprisonment penalty” on them. It had disappeared during the famine but it is now revived again, causing the company managers and executives to become anxious. ”

According to the inside source, this treatment can be interpreted as a method to ask for business responsibilities in case the managers or executives takes the profit into their personal use and to create a scapegoat in case of low revenue.

The 30 days imprisonment penalty was established in 1990 at first. Back then the company workers was forced upon mobilized labor every day to assistance of agriculture or construction of houses and evaders increased, so that there needed to be a scapegoat who would take responsibility upon the people who would avoid the workforce.

However, with the March of the Tribulation (Mass starvation period in the 1990s) and with the factory’s operation rate at lower than 30%, this appeared to have been abolished.

The initiation of the 30 days imprisonment means there will be an additional method for the Party secretary posted in each factory to take political control over the manager of factories and companies. Therefore, there will be increased control by the Party departments. However, there was the structure of connection between the Party secretary and the manager in many of the companies even along with the corruption of the inspection groups. It is highly doubtful whether this measurement will be successfully implemented.

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Posted in Civil society, Labor conditions/wages, Manufacturing | Comments Closed

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