Archive for August, 2022

Putin’s letter to Kim Jong-un

Monday, August 15th, 2022

By Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

In another data point on Russia and North Korea growing increasingly close, President Vladimir Putin sent a congratulatory letter to Kim on the occasion of North Korea’s Liberation Day (August 15th) from Japanese rule. There are clear limits on how far increased economic exchange can go at the moment between the two countries, but interest from both seems genuine and high. From KCNA:

Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Receives Congratulatory Message from President of Russian Federation

Pyongyang, August 15 (KCNA) — Kim Jong Un, president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, received a message of greeting from Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, president of the Russian Federation, on August 15.

In the message, Putin extended sincere felicitation to the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un on the occasion of the day of liberation, a national holiday.

The message noted that the two countries have deeply kept the memories of servicepersons of the Red Army and patriots of Korea who fought shoulder to shoulder for the liberation of Korea.

The glorious traditions of friendship and cooperation gained in the grim days serve as a durable foundation for developing the good neighborly relations between the Russian Federation and the DPRK today, it stressed.

It said that we would continue to expand the comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations with common efforts, adding that this would entirely conform with the interests of the peoples of the two countries and contribute to strengthening the security and stability of the Korean peninsula and the whole of the Northeastern Asian region.

It wished Kim Jong Un good health and success and all citizens of the DPRK happiness and prosperity.

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North Korea’s agricultural production grew last year, South Korean data says

Thursday, August 11th, 2022

By: Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

South Korea’s Bank of Korea (BOK) recently published its GDP estimates for North Korea in 2021. Overall, their estimates (the faults and flaws of which are many) are consistent with the general impression that last year wasn’t great for North Korea, but also relatively stabile.  An estimated GDP decrease of 0.1 percent in 2021, after all, is a whole lot less than the contraction estimated by BOK for 2020, minus 4.5 percent.

Agriculture (including forestry and fisheries) is, interestingly, estimated to have grown by 6.2 percent. Such precise numbers are rather pointless in estimates like this. Nonetheless, the direction seems to confirm assessments by the World Food Program and others that agricultural production last year performed somewhat better than the years before.

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North Korea-China railway freight could start again soon, for two reasons

Monday, August 8th, 2022

By Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

Railway freight between Dandong in China and Sinuiju in North Korea, a crucial channel for the flow of goods between the two countries, started back up in January after a two-year border closure, and was shut down again in April due to the Covid-19 situation in both China and North Korea. Now, Radio Free Asia reports that railway freight could start again today or tomorrow (August 8th or 9th), citing North Korean sources:

Rail freight shipments between the northern Chinese city Dandong and North Korea’s Sinuiju will resume next week, providing a vital lifeline of goods to the pariah state, North Korean sources said.

“Starting around Aug. 8 or 9, the international freight train between Sinuiju and Dandong will resume its operation,” an official from a trading organization in North Pyongan province told RFA on Thursday.

“There has been an order from the Central Committee for all trading companies to prepare import and export materials to load,” he said, referring to the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of North Korea.

North Korean authorities proposed the resumption of service to the Chinese government because the country faces economic difficulties due to a serious shortage of supplies, he said.

North Korea is dependent on trade and aid from China, its main ally and trading partner. Restrictions on the flow of goods from the country during COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns devastated North Korea’s already chronically unstable economy.

Freight train service between Sinuiju and Dandong, the hub of North Korea-China trade, was halted in August 2020 because of the pandemic. It resumed on Jan. 16, but was closed by the Chinese again on April 25 after outbreaks in both countries.

Maritime trade with North Korea was also halted at that time but was partially resumed in mid-July after repeated requests from authorities in North Korea.

Trading company representatives, including ones from firms in the North Korean capital Pyongyang, are stationed in Sinuiju, which sits across the international border of the Yalu River from Dandong, the source in North Pyongan said.

“They have been ordering goods from their Chinese counterparts to import construction materials and basic food. They are trying to secure foreign currency to pay for the imports,” he said.

A North Korean source in Dandong, with knowledge of the situation, also told RFA on Thursday that the Dandong-Sinuiju freight train service was about to resume.

“Since yesterday, a Dandong-based logistics company has been recruiting truck drivers to transport goods to the Dandong freight station and manpower to load goods on the freight train in preparation for the resumption of Dandong-Sinuiju freight train operations,” he said.

The logistics company must collect basic food such as sugar and flour, iron products, and construction materials ordered from North Korea from all over China and transport them to Dandong freight station, said the source, who declined to be named so as to speak freely.

Additionally, Dandong quarantine authorities will directly manage the freight station and the trains that return to China after transporting goods to North Korea, he said.

Chinese workers who load and unload goods on freight trains in Dandong must have received COVID-19 vaccinations, the source added. Workers will be tested daily for the virus and can continue on the job if their results are negative.

The freight train will operate 15 to 17 cars at a time and will go directly to the Uiju quarantine facility, formerly the Uiju Airfield, near North Korea’s northern border with China, the source said.

(Source: Hyemin Son, “Rail freight service between China and North Korea to resume in days,” Radio Free Asia, August 5th, 2022.)

This may just be one individual news report, but the overall context also seems to speak for this in many ways. North Korea recently announced the end of its first Covid-19 wave. It might not be a coincidence that this report comes at the same time. Indeed, declaring the Covid wave over was more or less a prerequisite for re-opening rail freight traffic. It may be that signals from the Chinese government that they were willing to re-open the railway link factored into the North Korean authorities’ decision to declare the first wave over.

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North Korea and Syria discuss economic cooperation

Thursday, August 4th, 2022

By: Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein 

If this development actually goes somewhere (a similar meeting was held in 2014 without any significant results) it’d provide a terrific data point on the increasingly emerging global, sanctions-evading sphere of authoritarian states. Here’s what the Syrian state news agency wrote on a meeting between Syria’s Minister of Industry and North Korea’s chargé d’affaires in the country:

Minister Sabbagh underscored the importance of working to strengthen joint cooperation between Syria and the DPRK to upgrade bilateral relations in the industrial field to be up to the level of the political relations in order to achieve the common benefit of the two friendly countries and peoples.

The Minister stressed the need to activate the memos of understanding and industrial agreements concluded between the ministry and the Korean side, which were suspended due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.

In turn, Chargé d’affaires, Kim Hey Ryong, stressed standing in the face of the imperialist sanctions imposed on both friendly countries and the need to confront them with their own resources to advance in the face of the imposed economic blockade.

Ryong expressed his country’s interest in the projects proposed by the Syrian Ministry of Industry for investment, particularly in the field of pharmaceutical industries, alternative energies and the aluminum industry.

During the meeting, it was agreed to form a joint technical committee to set the initial principles for the fields of joint industrial cooperation, follow-up and activate the memo of understanding signed between the two sides.

(Source: Manar Salameh/ Ruaa al-Jazaeri, “Syria, DPRK discuss ways to enhance industrial cooperation,” Sana, 3/8/2022.)

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