Archive for April, 2008

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China/North Korea financial integration

Saturday, April 12th, 2008

Last week we discussed the growing presence of North Korean companies in Russia.  This week, the Daily NK reports on China’s first steps at financial integration with North Korea:

China has introduced a new settlement system which allows North Korean business to open bank accounts in China and settle business transactions in Yuan, the Nikkei reported on Sunday.

With the adoption of the system, North Korean people and companies can open Yuan bank accounts within China after some formalities and use the accounts for trade settlement with their Chinese business partners. Accordingly, North Korea is now able to buy foreign currencies such as dollars and euros with its Yuan income from trade. In addition, North Korea can legally bring in foreign currencies or send them to third countries.

North Korean companies used to have difficulties of making a trade settlement with China in cash or by barter since the U.S. enacted financial sanctions on North Korea and China imposed economic sanctions regarding remittance and bank accounts after North Korea’s nuclear tests. However, China too suffered from the sanctions as the amount of Yuan smuggled into North Korea has skyrocketed proportional to the increasing volume of trade between North Korea and China.

The new settlement system will help reinvigorate the trade between two countries. However, the system can cause concerns at the Six Party Talks as it lowers the bargaining power needed to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear programs, the Nikkei said.

Meanwhile, the People’s Government of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture announced last February that Jilin Province would allow North Korean people and companies operating in China to open Yuan bank accounts for trade purpose starting with February 20, 2008.

You can read the full article here:
China Lifts Sanctions on North Korea
Daily NK
Park Eun Jae
4/9/2008

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Posted in Banking, China, Finance | Comments Closed

A School Girl’s Diary at NKIDP

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

I just returned home from a screening of the North Korean film, A School Girl’s Diary (ASGD), hosted by James Person at  the  North Korean International Documentation Project (NKIDP) and  Suk-Young Kim from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Although times have changed significantly in North Korea since the famed Sea of Blood was released, the purpose of the cinematic arts within the North Korean system has not.  In short, film in the DPRK is meant to be regime enhancing—reinforcing official social and political norms.  What is interesting about ASGD compared with previous North Korean films, however, is the muted use of propaganda and tacit admission that things are not perfect in the Workers Paradise.  Is it possible the change in communications tactics is the result of changing attitudes within North Korean society?

Sea of Blood is as subtle as a pulp comic.  It offers action, intense feelings, flat characters (clear protagonist/antagonist), and a simple “us vs. them” plot line.  In the film, Koreans are the victims of brutal Japanese imperialism and Kim il Sung is the savior who delivers them from oppression.  At the time Sea of Blood was released, however, the first generation of revolutionaries was in control of the country, memories of Japanese colonialism were fresh, and people were more enthusiastic about their country’s future.

Today, the North Korean government is struggling to indoctrinate its “third generation (3G).”  The 3Gs have no memories of Japanese colonialism or of the Korean War.  Children, who have likely never met an American, do not hate the “American Imperialists” like their parents and grandparents.  3Gs have seen many state institutions collapse; they have seen the social contract broken; they have seen economic decline; and they have survived a famine.  Additionally, they have grown up buying and selling in markets and are more familiar with South Korean and Chinese culture than their parents could have imagined at their age. 

Given these huge demographic changes, it seems probable that the style of ASGD represents the regime’s most recent efforts to socialize this new generation of comrades.  A School Girl’s Diary makes only one explicit reference to the leader and portrays life as less than ideal.  After sixty years of revolutionary struggle, people fight with each other, express their egos, and feel jealousy. In short, the film portrays characters, locations, and motivations that many contemporary North Koreans could probably identify with.  As was noted in the discussion following the film, Mickey Mouse made a cameo on a backpack (likely imported from China and bought at a market), there was a veiled reference to sex, or lack thereof, and the star of the film complained about her absentee father (the metaphorical Kim Jong il).

You can read a professional review of the film in Variety here.

You can read academic discussion of the film here. (h/t Werner Koidl)

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Posted in Art, Civil society, Film | 4 Comments »

North Korea home brews…

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Where do North Koreans get their alcohol?  The Daily NK has the scoop:

North Korean citizens started producing/distributing home-brewed liquor in 1987 after the prohibition of the production and sale of liquor in North Korea was lifted. 

Liquor made in the home of an average North Korean citizen consists of ingredients such as corn or rice and malt. The yeast cultivated from rice powder is combined with porridge prepared from the powder and fermented in a vat. After 12~14 days, the rice porridge and the yeast will produce a chemical reaction and will turn into a thick porridge, which is called “liquor porridge” in North Korea.

Refrigerating the steam from the cultivated liquor porridge and turning it into fluid produces liquor. North Korean citizens enjoy over 40% of alcohol content-liquor and approximately 800ml of liquor is produced from a kilogram of corn. A bottle of liquor (500 ml) is close to the price of a kilogram of corn, so selling liquor made from this produce can bring in a small profit.

Read the full story here:
North Korea’s Inspection of Home-Brewed Wine by the Party
Daily NK
Jung Kwon Ho
4/9/2008

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Posted in Alcohol, Civil society, Food, General markets (FMR: Farmers Market), Price liberalization, Private property | Comments Closed

The Supreme People’s Assembly to Be Held on the 9th

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Daily NK
Park In Ho
4/9/2008

The 6th round of the 11th term of Supreme People’s Assembly will be held at Mansudae Assembly Hall on the 9th of April.

The Supreme People’s Assembly consists of 687 delegates from districts, cities, counties, and even sub-organizations of Chongryon (General Association of North Korean Residents in Japan). It also includes Kim Jong Il himself as the delegate of election district number 649.

The 687 delegates of the 11th term were elected in August 2003, and Kim Jong Il, the Top Secretary of the Chosun (North Korea) Workers Party, was also reselected to the de facto presidency of the National Defense Chairman in September of the same year. The term of office is five years, so the 6th round Assembly will be the last one for the 11th term delegates.

During this round, the Assembly is expected to evaluate the Party’s tasks as suggested by the 2008 New Year’s Common Editorial, to settle the year 2007 accounts and to ratify the budget for 2008.

Additionally, they will address more cases adopted by the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, such as bills, economic issues and foreign affairs.

People pay attention on what kind of blueprints will be suggested, regarding what the New Year’s Common Editorial of this year proposed with regards to the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the regime’s foundation, that is, “We will build ‘the strong great nation’ by 2012 when it will be the 100th year anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s birth.”

It seems that details of the nuclear programs declaration issue, along with North Korea-U.S. relations and cold relations between the South and the North, will be ignored. However, at least with regard to North-South relations, a resolution supporting the position of the Party may be adopted.

Chief researcher of the Institute for National Security Strategy Lee Ki Dong predicted through a telephone interview with Daily NK that “Although there will not be any presentation on the current issues in North Korea-US relations, they may possibly mention some issues with the South. The most likely way of doing this would be a statement criticizing the ‘Vision 3000: Denuclearization and Openness’ of the Lee Myung Bak administration.”

It is predicted that after the Assembly elects the 12th term of delegates in late 2008, it would rebuild the structure of the national power system by the reselection of Kim Jong Il as the National Defense Chairman.

The delegate’s term of office in the Assembly is 5 years and one delegate per 30,000 people is elected by 100 per cent of favorable votes, with a 100 per cent voting rate. The general laws and ordinances are adopted by a majority vote and a revision of the constitution is ratified by a two-thirds vote of the enrolled delegates.

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Posted in 2012 Strong and Prosperous Nation (Kangsong Taeguk), Supreme Peoples Assembly | Comments Closed

Koryo Tours quarterly update published

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Koryo Tours, run by Nick Bonner, Simon Cockerell, and Hannah Barraclough, has published its quarterly report.  Read it here.

Inside, readers will learn about the upcoming year in North Korean tourism (Americans likely allowed in for Arirang in the fall) as well as other information on the NY Phil’s performance in Pyongyang and the World Cup qualifier in Shanghai. 

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Posted in Koryo Tours, Tourism | Comments Closed

Logistics of filming in North Korea

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

My friend Paul at Knife Tricks recently interviewed the producers of Crossing the Line about the logistics of filming in the DPRK.  Here are some excerpts:

Gordon and his crew brought their own equipment to North Korea because local film technology was not compatible with the needs of a modern documentary shoot. “As far as equipment goes, they film on 35mm, and we were filming on DigiBeta for the first two films and hi-def video for Crossing the Line,” says Gordon.

“I used standard Canon lenses,” notes Bennett. “When I needed to light, I used Kino Flos, but much of the film was shot with available light.” Gordon adds, “In North Korea, the electricity isn’t necessarily on, and when it’s on, it isn’t necessarily constant, so we tried to use available light wherever we could.” He carried batteries at all times and hooked into mains when possible.

In addition to Gordon, Bennett, soundman Stevie Haywood and co-producer Nicholas Bonner, the crew included one or two North Koreans assigned to the shoot by the Ministry of Culture. Gordon notes, “Your immediate suspicion is that they’re government plants — security people pretending to be film people. But the longer you work with people, you tend to find out what they are and what they’re not, and the people we worked with day by day were absolutely film people.”

“They basically took it upon themselves that they were going to work for us and get us the access that we wanted, whatever that took and whatever personal risks that took on their part,” he continues. “Had it all gone wrong, there would have been quite nasty consequences for everyone involved.”

The filmmaking process involved many nights of discussions with the North Koreans about access or other issues concerning the next day’s shooting. The topics to be discussed with Dresnok were provided to the North Koreans in advance, with the understanding that new topics would arise over the course of the interview. The minders occasionally reviewed the dailies. “There was never an occasion when they said, ‘No, you can’t shoot that,’” Bennett recalls. “There were lots of occasions where they’d hem and haw as to whether they wanted us to film something, and we shot it, and they had a look at it afterwards and said, ‘Yeah, it’s fine.’ You’re not always aware of what they’re looking for.”

“No footage was ever taken away from us,” adds Bennett. “We came away with everything we shot.”

The North Koreans had no hand in the edit, either. Gordon says the final cut was not shown to North Korean officials until after it was screened at the Busan Film Festival in South Korea.

Read the full article here:
Documentary filmmakers are granted rare access to shoot a project that provides glimpses of life in the closed-off society.
American Cinematographer
Paul Karl Lukacs
March 2008

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Posted in Film, Ministry of Culture | Comments Closed

Haggard-Noland on North Korea’s economic integration

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

Stephen Haggard and Marcus Noland published a piece focusing on North Korea’s economic integration.  Download it here: petersoninstitute.pdf

Although not the focus of the piece, here is an excerpt:

A first corollary of the injunction to avoid top-down approaches is that any collective development assistance must be extended in support of economic reform. Experience throughout the developing world demonstrates that assistance will have only marginal effects and may even have negative consequences if not coupled with policy changes. It is not simply that aid sustains the regime; since aid is fungible, even purely humanitarian aid will have that effect. The problem is that too much aid can delay or even undermine the reform process. Whatever the multilateral mechanism that ultimately emerges, it should encourage reform and economic opening in the North.

A second corollary of the injunction against top-down approaches is the importance of engaging the private sector: through trade, foreign direct investment, private capital flows (including remittances), and sheer expertise. Economic rehabilitation will require investment in social overhead capital, which will be led primarily by the public sector. But if North Korea is to evolve toward a self-sustaining market-oriented economy, private-sector involvement will be crucial. Participation of foreign firms means that projects are subject to the market test of profitability, and it encourages North Korean authorities to think of economic engagement in terms of joint gain rather than as political tribute.

(and)

North Korea is in need of depoliticized technical assistance for a whole panoply of issues running from the mundane but critical, such as developing meaningful national statistical capabilities, through basic agricultural and health technologies, to social infrastructure of a modern economy. This infrastructure includes policy mechanisms to manage macroeconomic policy, including through reform of the central bank; specify property rights and resolve commercial disputes; regulate markets, including financial markets as they emerge; establish and implement international trade and investment policies; and so on.

Read the full paper here:
A Security and Peace Mechanism for Northeast Asia: The Economic Dimension
Staphen Haggard and Marcus Noland
Peterson Institute Policy Brief
April 2008

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Posted in China, Economic reform, Foreign aid statistics, Foreign direct investment, International trade, Price liberalization, Private property, South Korea, Trade Statistics | Comments Closed

An In-depth Look at North Korea’s Postal Service

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

Daily NK
Moon Sung Hwee
4/8/2008

April 8th is Postal Service Day in North Korea. Each province has a branch office of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and Communication Maintenance Bureau. The postal system manages the distribution of letters, telegrams, telephone calls, TV broadcasts, newspapers and magazines. Additionally, they mint stamps and also operate an insurance agency in name only.

In the late 1990s, the national postal system was completely ruined

In North Korea, postal service offices are set up in each “ri”—a small village unit–, of each county to deliver letters, parcel posts and telegrams. Following the March of Tribulation in the late 1990s, the delivery system was completely destroyed and its formal structure was left in tatters. Even in the 1980s when the North Korean economy and people’s lives were relatively stable, it took around 15 days to two months on average to deliver a letter from Pyongyang to a rural village.

In the case of a telegram, it took generally 3 or 4 days to reach a postal office in a rural area. In the late 1980s, to guarantee efficiency within the telegram delivery system, the authorities supplied the offices with second-hand bicycles from Japan.

After the March of Tribulation, letters disappeared due to train delays and frequent blackouts, and the telegram service was virtually incapacitated due to the lack of electricity.

Telephones were restricted to control the outflow of national secrets

North Korea uses a separate electricity supply for its telephone system. Even if there is a power blackout in a village, villagers can still use the telephone network. In 1993, fiber-optic cables were installed and the use of mail and telegram services began to decline. North Korean people call fiber optic cable a “light telephone.”

North Korea built an automatic telecommunicates system by developing multi-communication technology with imports of machinery and by inviting engineers from China in 1998.

In 2003, authorities allowed cadres to use telephones in their houses and in 2005, they also allowed people to use the telephone at home as long as they paid 2,000 North Korean won (approx. USD0.6) a month (a monthly salary is 1,500 won per laborer).

In August, 2007, the government tightened regulations regarding the telephone system. People could make calls only within their province. Authorities said the reason was to prevent the outflow of national secrets.

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications controls TV and other broadcasting. There is no cable TV in North Korea. Authorities set up an ultra-short wave relay station in each county to relay television broadcasts.

North Korea signed a contract with Thailand for satellite broadcasting and installed U.S.-made transmission and relay facilities in 2000.

People can now listen to “Chosun Central Broadcasting,” but in rural areas, it is difficult to recieve signals because the broadcasting facilities and cables have already begun to deteriorate.

People sarcastically say a “newspaper is not about news but about “olds.” The authorities pay special attention to the successful delivery of the Workers Party Rodong Shinmun bulletin. To deliver Rodong Shinmun from Pyongyang to each province or even to each city and county by train, it normally takes 4-5 days. Sometimes, it takes more than a week.

People also say they use an “oral-paper” to get information because rumors are faster than the Rodong Shinmun.

Postal service workers were dragged to prison camps

In 1992, the Minister and all related officials of Posts and Telecommunications were fired, and the Minister, the Vice Minister and their families were sent to political prison camps for having wasted national finances for the import of factory machinery to produce fiber-optic cables from the U.K.

They submitted a proposal to Kim Jong Il to buy factory machines in order to earn foreign currency through the production and export of fiber optic cables. However, in the end they eventually bought worn-out machines from the U.K. and failed to earn profits. In addition, they embezzled some of the funds.

In 2001, in Lee Myung Soo Workers-District of Samjiyeon, Yangkang Province, two office workers and a manager of a relay station broadcasted Chinese TV programs that they were watching to residents by mistake, so they were sent to a political prison camp and their families were expelled to a collective farm.

Agents of the National Security Agency are stationed at the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in order to scrutinize mail, parcels, to tap telephone wires and to supervise residents.

The Ministry regularly dispatches professional engineers to the 27th Bureau, to the airwaves-monitoring station, and to the 12th Bureau, which was newly established to censor mobile phones.

On Postal Service Day, Chosun Central Agency often delivers praise for the development of North Korea’s postal system and facilities under the General’s direction.

However, most ordinary citizens will not be able to watch or read about it in time, for the lack of paper, electricity, infrastructure, and delivery systems.

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Posted in 1990s Famine, Arduous March, Bicycles, Communications, Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, Radio, Railways, Telephones, Television | Comments Closed

Several Hundred Casualties in Train Incidents

Monday, April 7th, 2008

UPDATE: It looks like the  DPRK’s market for scrap metal has a human cost.

From the Daily NK:

Train wrecks which occurred in Yangkang Province last month were found to be caused by stolen railroad spikes, a source from the province said.

“The train derailed because somebody had stolen railroad spikes. Four passenger coaches fell into ravine, claiming hundreds of casualties,” said the source in a phone interview with DailyNK on April 9.

[T]he source said that the March 24 accident took place in Youngha-ri, Woonheung of Yangkang Province, not in Yanghwa-ri, Shinpo of South Hamkyung Province as reported by Daily NK on April 4.

The full update can be read here:
North Korean Train Wreck Caused by Missing Railroad Spikes
Daily NK
Lee Sung Jin
4/14/2008

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: 

Several Hundred Casualties in Train Incidents
Daily NK
Lee Sung Jin
4/7/2008

On the 24th and 27th of March, there were two cases of trains overturning, killing or seriously wounding hundreds of people in the workers’ area of Goeup, Kim Hyung Jik (a county), Yangkang Province and in Shinpo, South Hamkyung Province.

A source from North Korea, during a telephone conversation with Daily NK on the 4th, revealed that “At the end of last month, on the Hyesan-Manpo Line and Hyesan-Pyongyang Line, the two trains overturned after leaving Hyesan, causing a few hundreds casualties.”

The source said that “On the 27th of March, the No. 2 train on the Hyesan-Pyongyang was overturned around Yanghwa-ri in Shinpo and a few days earlier than that, on the 24th, the train on the Hyesan-Manpo – bringing people visiting the revolutionary memorial site – was also overturned in Kim Hyung Jik (formerly Hoochang).”

However, the cause, the whole story of the incidents, the exact spots and total casualties were not reported. The instruction to immediately produce coffins was conveyed to each city and county, according to the source.

The source explained the incident in Kim Hyung Jik on the 24th. In Goeup in Kim Hyung Jik, a carriage of trains fell off the tracks and 4 passengers and crew were killed, with dozens of passengers wounded.

The incident site in Yanghwa-ri in Shinpo is located near the light water reactor being supposed to be supported by KEDO in Kangsang-ri. Both Yanghwa and Kangsang-ri are located in Geumho Special Zone.

The source was concerned that “Due to these continuous incidents, people worry that the authorities might end up pressing espionage charges against innocent residents.”

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Posted in Railways, Transportation | Comments Closed

Film Screening: “The Schoolgirl’s Diary” (2006)

Monday, April 7th, 2008

(NKeconWatch: “I hope to see you there”) 

April 09 2008, 4:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
6th Floor Auditorium
Woodrow Wilson Center
One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20004

Learn more and REGISTER here. 

The Schoolgirl’s Diary (Han Nyeohaksaengeui Ilgi-2006, in Korean–no subtitles) is the story of a self-absorbed North Korean teenager, Soo-Ryeon, who yearns to move to an apartment from her home in the countryside and questions the values of her father and mother; a scientist and a librarian at the academy of sciences who put the good of the nation before that of their family. Soo-Ryeon realizes how selfish she is only after her mother falls ill and her father makes a major breakthrough in his research. The film’s screenwriters reportedly received guidance in drafting the script from North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Following the screening: Suk-Young Kim will discuss the film and offer comments.  Suk-Young Kim is assistant professor of theater and dance at the University of California at Santa Barbara and an expert on North Korean propaganda. She is currently completing a book project titled Illusive Utopia: Theater, Film, and Everyday Performance in North Korea, which explores how state produced propaganda performances intersect with everyday life practice in North Korea. Another book project, Long Road Home: A Testimony of a North Korean Camp Survivor (coauthored with Kim Yong) is forthcoming from Columbia University Press.

Sponsored by: North Korean International Documentation Project

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Posted in Art, Civil society, Film | 1 Comment »

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