Archive for November, 2018

South Korea gets sanctions exemption for railway survey

Saturday, November 24th, 2018

Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

Reuters:

South Korea said on Saturday it had received sanctions exemptions from the U.N. Security Council for a joint survey of inter-Korean railways, the first step towards reconnecting rail and road links cut during the 1950-53 Korean War.

In April, the leaders of the two Koreas agreed to adopt practical steps to reconnect railways and roads as part of efforts to improve bilateral relationships.

“The sanctions exemption has big implications given that the project has garnered recognition and support from the United States and the international society,” South Korea’s presidential spokesperson Kim Eui-kyeom said.

He expressed hope of quick construction of the railways, which he said will take inter-Korean cooperation to a new level.

South Korea requested an exemption for deliveries of fuel and other equipment needed to conduct the railway survey in the North, Yonhap News Agency said.

Pyongyang is under wide-ranging U.N. sanctions for its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

In October, the two Koreas agreed to carry out joint field studies on transport plans, with a ground-breaking ceremony in late November and early December.

But the plan was delayed amid stalled talks between Washington and Pyongyang following an unprecedented summit in June at which the two sides agreed to work toward nuclearization and peace on the Korean peninsula.

Full article:
South Korea secures U.N. sanctions exemption for inter-Korean railway survey
Hyunjoo Jin
Reuters
2018-11-24

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Mt Kumgang tours unlikely to be resumed this year, because of sanctions

Monday, November 19th, 2018

Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

Reports Yonhap, with comments by ever-optimistic Hyundai Asan officials:

The head of Hyundai Group on Monday expressed reservations about any quick resumption of a stalled tour program to North Korea’s scenic mountain resort.

“At this point, the situation is difficult for the tour program to be resumed within this year, but I think it will be done in the near future,” Hyundai Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun told reporters after returning from Mount Kumgang on the North’s east coast.

She made a two-day visit to Mount Kumgang to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the cross-border tour program.

Earlier in August, Hyun had said she expects the project to be resumed within this year.

She said no detailed discussions on economic cooperation between the two Koreas had been made during her visit.

“We are preparing so that the inter-Korean economic projects can be resumed when the U.S. lifts sanctions,” Hyun said, adding that there is not much for a private enterprise to comment on the matter.

About 100 South Koreans and 80 North Koreans officials, as well as some 500 North Korean residents, attended the first celebratory event in four years at the east coast resort. It was jointly organized by Hyundai Group and the North’s Korean Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, a North Korean body that handles inter-Korean affairs.

Full article:
Tour program to Mount Kumgang unlikely to be resumed this year: Hyundai chief
Yonhap News
2018-11-19

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How should we understand North Korean market crackdowns?

Thursday, November 8th, 2018

By Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

Daily NK reports (in Korean) that a “inspection unit against anti-socialist activities”, is active on Hyesan markets, inspecting goods and confiscating ones deemed either illegally smuggled in from China, or harmful for people’s health, such as narcotics. Such “units” (“그루빠”) are fairly common in North Korea, and typically consist of officials from various public security agencies cooperating to get at a specific, problematic tendency in certain areas or spheres of society.

We’ve seen quite a lot of news over the past few months, and even years, of market crackdowns under Kim Jong-un. On the one hand, this is simply the North Korean state apparatus being itself, and cracking down on “deviant” behavior such as smuggling, and trading of a range of, likely often arbitrarily, forbidden goods, and not least foreign media and information. Unsurprisingly, the agents conducting these searches tend to often quietly disappear if given the right amount of cash or cigarettes:

소식통은 “이 단속 그루빠는 장사꾼들에게 여러 트집을 잡지만 결국 돈이나 담배를 받으면 몇 마디하고 슬그머니 물러난다”면서 “갑자기 그루빠들이 열을 올려서 주민들은 ‘무슨 꿍꿍이가 있느냐, 돈벌이를 하려는 것이냐’며 불평을 한다”고 전했다.

On the other hand, however, one could see this as a process of the state making the market more regularized and based on rules. Kim Jong-un seems to appreciate the stability and wealth brought by the markets, and has worked to integrate them further into the regular economic system. Clamping down on smuggling and trade deemed unsuitable from the state’s perspective, in a way, is part of this process. Clampdowns like this, in a way, seem to go in parallel with increasing regularization of market trade, through the permit regime, designated market buildings, and the like. The North Korean government’s acceptance and institutionalization of the markets has never been driven by an ideological commitment to free-market liberalism, but rather, by the opposite: aspirations for stability, and greater economic control.

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Ri Yong Ho’s Vietnam visit and economic reform in North Korea

Wednesday, November 7th, 2018

By Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

North Korea’s Ri Yong Ho is visiting Vietnam in November, several media outlets have reported. Reuters:

Ri will visit the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, for three days from Nov. 27 to inspect industrial zones and interview economic experts, a diplomatic source with direct knowledge of the trip told Reuters.

[…]

U.S. officials have said Vietnam’s socialist market economy could be an example for North Korea.

Yonhap said Ri had told the Vietnamese government that North Korea hoped to learn from Vietnam’s model of development.

This week Kim hosted President Miguel Diaz-Canel of Cuba – another country under U.S. sanctions – during a lavish visit in Pyongyang, where the two leaders vowed to boost their cooperation.

Full article:
As North Korea ponders economic reform, its top diplomat to visit Vietnam
James Pearson and Hayoung Choi
Reuters
2018-11-7

We don’t know exactly where Ri will go or what the purpose is, but North Korean officials have often spoken of “learning” from other countries’ experiences, without any radical, systemic overhaul being announced. It isn’t doesn’t mean the regime plans to adopt any specific “model” wholesale, or to change the entire system of economic governance tomorrow. North Korea is a country, and like all other countries, there exists a local, national context to which all reforms and systemic changes will be adapted.

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