This weekend the DPRK changed the appearance and style of its evening news broadcast:
You can see the first news broadcast in this style on Youtube here.
Up until 2006 (I believe) the North Korean news broadcasters presented in front of a plain blue screen:
In 2006 KCTV adopted a news format which placed the anchor persons in front of a background panel which was distinct and consistent for separate news items:
Martyn Williams offers some additional information here.
UPDATE (2012-3-15): Ironically, we have coverage of the photo exhibit from the Associated Press:
“Daily life is really what I try to focus on when I’m there. … It’s unscripted, it’s candid,” said AP Chief Asia Photographer David Guttenfelder, who took some of the photographs in the show, and who has made who has made many reporting trips to North Korea since 2010.
“For people to see their own life in other people’s lives, I think it has a lot of power to break down barriers.”
“Windows on North Korea: Photographs From the DPRK,” is a joint exhibition by The Associated Press and the state-run Korean Central News Agency, and features a mix of archival and contemporary images.
The show was timed to open before the 100th anniversary of the birth of the nation’s founder, Kim Il Sung, on April 15, and comes two months after the AP expanded its operations in Pyongyang to include writers and photojournalists. The AP became the first international news organization to have a full-time presence in the secretive communist country when it opened a video bureau in 2006.
The photographs “give us rare views of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a nation of great interest to the world, though little known,” said Kathleen Carroll, executive editor of the AP.
North Korea and the United States have never had formal diplomatic relations, and the two nations have experienced tensions over the years, particularly over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions. North Korea has tested two atomic devices in the past six years.
Tensions had recently eased somewhat. Late last month, the United States and North Korea announced an agreement that calls for Pyongyang to freeze its nuclear activities in exchange for food aid. But a surprise announcement by the North Koreans on Friday that they plan to blast a satellite into space on the back of a long-range rocket could jeopardize that agreement.
The exhibit’s organizers said they hoped the show would help foster better understanding between the two countries.
“My expectation is that this will be the first step in some peaceful reconciliation, and in a few years there will be trade, cultural exchange and tourists from each country coming to (the) other,” said Donald Rubin, who co-founded The 8th Floor gallery hosting the exhibit.
Images on display included a 1953 KCNA photograph showing residents helping to rebuild Pyongyang’s central district after the Korean War, AP photos documenting visits by such prominent foreigners as Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright, as well as everyday scenes ranging from sunbathers at the beach to shoppers inside a modern department store.
“It is our hope that this exhibition would give exhibition-goers visual understanding of the people, customs, culture and history of the DPRK, thereby helping to deepen mutual understanding and improve the bilateral relations,” Kim Chang Gwang, KCNA’s senior vice president, said in an address at the show’s opening.
“In this exhibit, we are offered two perspectives of the DPRK — as viewed by her native daughters and sons from KCNA and by AP journalists visiting to chronicle news and daily life there. We can appreciate the different styles and techniques and points of view,” Carroll said. “These photographs also show us that different people can find common ground.”
The show also includes images taken by KCNA journalists who participated in a joint workshop in October led by AP instructors. It runs from March 15 to April 13 at The 8th Floor gallery, which was established to promote cultural and philanthropic initiatives.
The AP, an independent news cooperative founded in New York and owned by its U.S. newspaper membership, has operations in more than 100 countries and employs nearly 2,500 journalists across the world in 300 locations.
ORIGINAL POST (2012-3-10): According to Yonhap:
A group of North Korean journalists left for the United States Saturday to attend a photo exhibition set to open next week, marking the centenary of the birth of the North’s late founding leader, Kim Il-sung, the country’s media said.
The North’s delegation, led by Kim Chang-gwang, vice director of the Korean Central News Agency, will attend the opening ceremony of the photo exhibition scheduled for March 15, the news agency said in a report.
The photo exhibition, to be jointly organized with The Associated Press, is scheduled to run until April 13, two days before the late leader’s 100th birthday, the American news agency said in its Web site.
…
The photo exhibition is part of joint programs being pushed by the KCNA to promote its nascent relations with the U.S. news agency. The AP opened a bureau in Pyongyang in January, the first international news agency with a full-time presence in the reclusive country to dispatch texts, photos and video.
The KCNA said the New York exhibition will showcase photos archived by two news agencies, including the North’s late founding leader and his deceased son Kim Jong-il who died of heart failure in December last year, as well as people and life in the communist state.
Additional information:
1. Here is the coverage of the KCNA delegation’s departure from Pyongyang reported by KCNA.
2. Here is the web page of the exhibit.
3. Extensive comments and additional information at OFK.
4. Foreign Policy writes about the conditions under which the aP operated in the DPRK.
5. How the AP selected its North Korea reporter
According to the Daily NK:
The North Korean authorities have ordered the formation of ‘Day of the Sun Gift Preparation Committees’ at the provincial Party level and subordinate ‘Day of the Sun Gift Subcommittees’ at the city and county scale, Daily NK has learned.
A Yangkang [Ryanggang] Province source who spoke with Daily NK on the 6th explained, “The ‘Day of the Sun Gift Preparation Committee’ was formed at the start of this month by the provincial Party Committee to prepare for the Suryeong’s birthday, and groups of areas were banded together to form the ‘Day of the Sun Gift Subcommittees’.”
“There was no distribution for February 16th,” the source recalled. “Possibly because the central Party received reports of popular discontent about this and asked some searching questions of provincial cadres, now they are running around trying to get ready for April 15th holiday distribution.”
“Enterprise traders are mostly bringing in soy bean oil, soap and towels via Chinese customs. They are printing ‘Day of the Sun 100th Anniversary’ on the towels,” he added.
The formation of the committees has also reportedly had a noticeable influence on levels of public expectation of the April 15th festivities, representing as it does the first time that ‘Gift Preparation Committees’ have been formed since they disappeared without a trace in the mid 1990s.
“They are already saying that each household is going to receive a huge gift for this Day of the Sun, so people are really expecting a lot,” the source said, adding, “The rumor among jangmadang traders is that every house is going to get a DVD player made by Hana Electronics in Pyongyang.”
As the source noted, the move comes following significant public discontent at the lack of gifts on February 16th (Kim Jong Il’s birthday).
On February 21st, Daily NK reported new of that discontent, citing a Yangkang Province source as saying, “There was a flood of criticism about the total lack of holiday distribution for Gwangmyungsung Day, so they began telling every organ, enterprise and people’s unit meeting, ‘That is because we are close to the 100th anniversary of the Suryeong’s birth, and the Party is preparing big gifts for that.’”
North Korea began giving snacks, rice and other foodstuffs to the people every year on the birthdays of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, along with things like school uniforms and blankets every 5th and 10th year, in the 1970s. However, the system ceased to function in the 1990s as the country was gripped by famine and economic disintegration.
Meanwhile, sources also report that with the arrival of the early spring lean season, a time when many people on the Korean Peninsula have traditionally struggled to find sufficient sustenance, prices in the market are beginning to creep up.
According to the Yangkang Province source, “Until late last week the Yuan price was 607 won, but now it is up to 635 won. The price of rice has also gone from 3,300 won to 3,800 won.”
Read the full story here:
North Forms Party 4.15 ‘Gift Preparation Committees’
Daily NK
Lee Seok Young
2012-3-5
UPDATE 4 (2013-1-10): Kyodo (via The Telegraph) solves the riddle of just why the Kim statues on Mansu Hill were covered up in October 2012 (See below)–a new version of the Kim Jong-il statue was put up. It replaced a statue that was erected in April 2012.
Below is a before/after comparison.
UPDATE 3 (2012-10-3): A reader sends in this image of the statues covered up.
Ruedeger Frank also publishes an image at 38 North.
UPDATE 2 (2012-4-14):
Pictured Above: Mansudae Grand monument. (L) Google Earth, (R) Digital Globe
UPDATE 1 (2012-4-13): The Kim Jong-il statue and Kim Il-sung statues were unveiled today to much “fan fair”:
Above pictures via KCNA. Compare these with the photo I took of the Kim Il-sung statue in 2004.
Video of the unveiling can be found here (YouTube).
According to KCNA:
Statues of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il were successfully built on Mansu Hill.
The statues portray smiling Kim Il Sung who indicates the way ahead with his hand held forward and smiling Kim Jong Il blessing Songun Korea prosperous morrow while looking far into its bright future in the new century.
Large sculptures on both sides of the statues have been renovated on the highest level.
The unveiling ceremony took place with splendor Friday.
There were huge crowds of people from all walks of life, servicepersons, youth and students, 300 000 in all, on Mansu Hill and nearby streets. They were holding bouquets and balloons.
Supreme leader of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the people of the DPRK Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the WPK, first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army, was present at the opening ceremony.
Present there were senior party, state and army officials, chairpersons of friendly parties.
Also on hand were delegates to the celebrations of the centenary of the birth of the President, creators, officials and employees of the Mansudae Art Studio, officials of the party, armed forces and power bodies, social organizations, ministries and national institutions, anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters, anti-Japanese patriotic martyrs, servicepersons of the Korean People’s Army and the Korean People’s Internal Security Forces (KPISF), officials in the fields of science, education, literature and arts, public health and media, heroes, bereaved families of revolutionary martyrs, men of merits and working people in the city.
Also present there were a delegation of the Koreans in Japan and delegations of overseas compatriots and overseas Koreans, the chief of the Pyongyang mission of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front, diplomatic envoys of different countries and representatives of international organizations here and foreign guests who are participating in the World Congress on the Juche Idea, the international festival and the April spring friendship art festival.
The statues were unveiled by senior party, state and army officials.
The moment thunderous cheers of “Hurrah!” resounded forth, fireworks were displayed and balloons were released.
Laid before the statues were large floral baskets in the joint name of the Central Committee of the WPK, the Central Military Commission of the WPK, the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, Cabinet and in the name of all the Korean people.
Laid were floral baskets in the name of ministries, national institutions, armed forces organs, provinces, cities, counties, important units which were visited by the President and Kim Jong Il, units of the KPA and the KPISF, party and power bodies and factories, enterprises, co-op farms, universities, colleges and schools in Pyongyang and local areas.
Floral baskets were also laid by the diplomatic corps and the military attaches corps here and foreign guests and overseas compatriots.
All the participants bowed to the statues.
Kim Yong Nam, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee who is president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK, made a speech.
He said that Kim Jong Un instructed to build the statue of Kim Jong Il on Mansu Hill together with that of Kim Il Sung and energetically led the work to build them on the highest level in the shortest time possible.
It was possible to erect the statues on the highest level in a matter of some 100 days thanks to the yearning and devotion made by all the soldiers and people, overseas Koreans and the world progressives.
This great auspicious event is a precious fruition of the noble moral obligation of Kim Jong Un and his energetic leadership. It is also a striking manifestation of the unshakable will of the army and people of the DPRK to hold Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in high esteem for all ages.
ORIGINAL POST (2012-3-1): Hannah Barraclough (Koryo Tours) reports on the CanKor web page:
A new statue of Kim Jong Il on a horse was unveiled at Mansudae Art Studio on the 15th Feb. It has been placed alongside the one already existing there of Kim Il Sung on a horse. It also appears that they are making a new large statue of Kim Jong Il which will go on Mansu Hill next to the one of Kim Il Sung there which is currently covered up. This is expected to be completed by April.
Additional Information:
2. Here, here, and here are recent posts on different construction projects in Pyongyang.
3. A memorial to Kim Jong-il has recently been carved into Mt. Sokda and a memorial to Kim Jong-il is reportedly under construction in Hoeryong.
4. Here and here are additional stories on efforts to venerate Kim Jong-il.
Following the unveiling of the Kim Jong-il memorial carved into Mt. Sokda last week, today KCNA announced the unveiling of a Kim Il-sung and a Kim Jong-il statue at the Mansudae Art Studio in Pyongyang.
Click image for a larger version.
You can watch the unveiling in video format on the KCNA page here. You can watch the video on YouTube here.
According ot KCNA:
The statues of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il riding on horses together were erected at the Mansudae Art Studio with approach of the Day of the Shining Star.
Their construction, the first of its kind in the history of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Korean revolution, is a great glory and pride of Kim Il Sung’s nation and Kim Jong Il’s Korea.
A ceremony of unveiling the statues took place on Tuesday.
Present there were senior party, state and army officials Kim Yong Nam, Choe Yong Rim, Ri Yong Ho, Kim Yong Chun, Kim Ki Nam, Choe Thae Bok, Yang Hyong Sop and Kang Sok Ju, officials of party, military and power bodies, social organizations, ministries and national institutions, men and
officers of the Korean People’s Army and the Korean People’s Internal Security Forces, officials and employees of the Studio and working people in the city of Pyongyang.
Senior officials of the party, state and army and officials of the studio unveiled the statues.
Laid at the statues is a floral basket from Kim Jong Un, supreme leader of the WPK and the people and KPA supreme commander.
Placed were floral baskets in the name of the WPK Central Committee, the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly, the DPRK Cabinet, the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces, the Ministry of People’s Security, working people’s organizations, ministries and national institutions,
units of the KPA and party and power organs in the city.The participants made bows to the statues.
Kim Yong Nam, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the C.C., the WPK and president of the Presidium of the SPA, made an address at the ceremony.
It was the unanimous desire and ardent wish of all the Party members, servicepersons and people to erect a statue of Kim Jong Il as well as Kim Il Sung’s in order to hand down for all ages the prominent traits and revolutionary feats of the illustrious great man, the speaker said, adding:
This ardent desire has been realized thanks to Kim Jong Un’s boundlessly noble loyalty and meticulous guidance.
He called for glorifying the revolutionary careers and undying feats of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il forever with the immutable faith that they are always with us.
The participants looked round the statues after being briefed on them.
Though the unveiling displayed BOTH Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il statues, there was previously a Kim Il-sung statue located at this exact spot. I am not sure if this statue has been decommissioned, moved, or incorporated into the new sculpture:
This is only the third Kim Jong-il statue of which I am aware–and the first located outside.
There is a Kim Jong-il statue at the International Friendship Exhibition in Myohyangsan:
The other Kim Jong-il statue is in the Ministry of the Peoples’ Armed Forces:
Both the Kim Il-sung statue and the Kim Jong-il statues were manufactured on location at the Mansudae Art Studio:
Pictured above (Google Earth): The Mansudae Art Studio in Pyongyang. The blue roofs indicate that most of the buildings have recently been renovated.
At the same time, the Daily NK reports that Kim Jong-un has asked that the costs of memorializing his father not be passed on the people (like this).
UPDATES related to the celebrations of Kim Jong-il’s 70th birthday:
1. Kim Jong-il also named “Generalissimo” — a title previously reserved for his father, Kim Il-sung. This clears the way for Kim Jong-un to be promoted to “Marshal”. Many officers were also promoted and awarded the Kim Jong-il Prize. Daily NK coverage here.
2. Commemorative gold and silver coins were issued to celebrate Kim jong-il’s 70th birthday. See more here and here.
4. A military tribute was held in Kumsusan Palace (which was renamed Kumsuan Palace of the Sun). See video here.
5. The KCNA web page added a Kim Jong-il photo album. See it here.
6. A new Kim Jong-il badge is issued.
7. NK Leadership Watch coverage here.
8. Here is my lengthy collection of material published when Kim Jong-il passed away.
According to the Daily NK:
A new unit was formed in mid-January to deal with the amount of ‘illegal’ media circulating in North Korea.
“Unit 114 has been formed following a January 14th order handed down by General Kim calling for a concentrated crackdown on suspicious songs, recorded materials and impure published media,” a source from Yangkang Province told Daily NK on the 12th.
The source went on, “The unit has been organized by the Propaganda Department of the central Party, but the interesting thing is that it also contains people from the National Security Agency.” Interesting, the source noted, because such units, also a very regular feature of the Kim Jong Il era, are commonly made up of people dispatched by the central Party. Indeed, there is already Unit 109 similarly charged with dealing with inflows of outside media.
In addition, the format of the unit’s activities is in marked contrast to some of the past, the source said. “These inspections have not been announced in people’s unit meetings and, since the inspectors are circulating undercover in the jangmadang, people are much more frightened,” she explained. “Someone who was caught selling CDs in the area in front of the jangmadang here told me that the investigation was done by an NSA agent and someone from the central Party Propaganda Department.”
According to the source, the trader in question was selling copies of a recently released North Korean film, ‘Brotherly Love’, when he came under suspicion. Even though it is a North Korean film which portrays Chinese troops in the Korean War and the lives of North Koreans at the time, the trader nevertheless got in trouble because the film was copied rather than being an original.
“The trader made and signed a written statement saying ‘I will not sell copied films again’ and so was let go, but as he was leaving he was asked by an NSA agent to report people possessing or selling South Chosun films and songs or American films. He got really shocked by the experience, and is now at home resting up,” the source said.
“A lot of traders who used to make a living selling CDs are now in hiding. The investigation is harsh, so people with experience selling South Korean CDs in the past are hiding to avoid getting caught.”
Read the full story here:
More Pressure on Illicit Media
Daily NK
Lee Seok Young
2012-2-13
38 North
Randall Ireson
2012-2-8
Despite continuing food shortages in the DPRK, the 2012 New Year’s Joint Editorial and other statements related to the succession of Kim Jong Un suggest there will be no new approaches to revitalizing North Korean agriculture. The editorial labeled the food problem “a burning issue in building a thriving country,” but allocated fewer than 150 words (of 5500) to that issue, only exhorting the masses to increase yields, implement crop rotations, and increase production of farm machinery and farm inputs.
Yet agriculture could lead a revival of the DPRK economy if appropriate policy changes were implemented. The technical means of improving farm production in the DPRK have been known for years. And if farms could use income earned from increased production to purchase improved machinery and other supplies needed for modern agriculture, a virtuous circle of investment in the farms plus support to small industry could lead to the modernization of both sectors. Government investment combined with some international assistance could stimulate sustainable increases in productivity and better incomes for workers on the farms and in related industries.
A few recent projects point the way to a sustainable and highly productive agricultural sector. But without changes in the institutions and infrastructure that support agriculture, there is no hope for any substantial improvement in food security. The leadership succession offers an opportunity to continue and augment some necessary changes begun under Kim Jong Il, though not if consolidation of the new leadership is founded on a reflexive insistence on ideological orthodoxy.
Fifteen years of international aid programs to the agriculture sector have brought a very good understanding of the difficulties faced by DPRK farms as well as the means to overcome them. There are no technical obstacles to greatly increased farm productivity. Nothing exceptional is required-only the widespread application of commonplace good farming practices. A few examples will suffice:
*applying lime to the fields to offset acid soils would increase yields by 20-40%;
*rotating cereal crops (especially maize and wheat) with legumes such as soy or green manure crops would increase yields by around 10%;
*using better seeding equipment would increase yields by around 10% because of better germination and appropriate spacing between each plant;
*using the methods of SRI (system of rice intensification) in paddy fields can increase rice yields by over 20% with no other inputs; and
*conservation agriculture (low tillage farming) would reduce soil erosion, save fuel, and improve soil quality.
These practices are neither difficult nor complex, and many farms in the DPRK already know of and are beginning to adopt these methods. Yet most of these practices are still isolated exceptions because despite their clear benefit, farms lack the support infrastructure and economic resources to implement them fully. The DPRK has largely completed its demographic transition from a rural to an urban society, thus surplus rural labor is not available to offset the loss of industrial support to agriculture. Farms need machinery and fuel as well as the other inputs of modern farming. Use of lime depends on fuel to haul the crushed limestone from quarries. Lack of tractor power makes land preparation slow and difficult, thus impeding the use of off-season green manures or of double cropping. Farms mostly do not have modern seeders for maize, soybean, or wheat. Seed placement by hand is neither uniform nor at a regular depth, causing crowded plants and uneven germination. Use of SRI is impeded by the lack of inexpensive plastic trays that ease handling of the very young rice seedlings…
According to Yonhap:
…
A North Korean economic quarterly has stressed the importance of commercials to help promote the country’s exports, which rely heavily on China.
…
“We should promote our economic prowess abroad and decisively increase exports of products by taking advantage of commercials in foreign trade,” North Korean quarterly magazine, Economic Research, reported in its October edition, a copy of which was obtained by Yonhap News Agency.
The publication, which mostly deals with the North’s economic policies, said exports should contribute to achieving the country’s stated goal of ushering in a prosperous nation by this year.
The year 2012 has political significance to North Korea as it marks the centennial of the birth of the country’s founder Kim Il-sung, grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un.
…
The quarterly also called for high quality commercials to penetrate capitalist markets and increase exports of its products.
The North’s move came more than two years after an earlier short-lived experiment with commercial advertising.
In July 2009, the North’s television aired commercials that showed young women in traditional clothes serving frothy mugs of Taedonggang beer, billed as the “Pride of Pyongyang.”
Other products, including ginseng and quail, soon appeared in television advertisements, fueling speculation the isolated country may start to embrace a capitalist mode of life.
However, the commercials disappeared a month later when then-leader Kim Jong-il sacked his television point man in anger over what he described as aping China’s early reforms.
China has repeatedly pressed the North to follow in its footsteps in embracing reform similar to that which lifted millions of Chinese out of poverty and helped Beijing’s rise to become the world’s second-largest economy.
Additional Information:
1. Here is a link to the infamous Taedonggang Beer Commercial and a longer ten-minute infomercial. Here is the ginseng advert. Here is the quail advert. Yonhap reported that Kim Jong-il was unhappy with these ads.
2. The only commercial billboards that appear in Pyongyang are those for the Phyonghwa Motors vehicles produced domestically by a joint venture deal with the Unification Church. See one of these billboards here.
3. There is apparently a Korea Advertising Company.
Read the full story here:
N. Korea calls for high quality commercials to boost exports
Yonhap
2012-2-3
KCNA reported that North Koreans celebrated the lunar new year by paying tribute to Kim Jong-il:
On the lunar New Year’s Day, the Korean people are ardently yearning for the leader Kim Jong Il.
People are seen laying flowers or floral baskets before portraits of smiling Kim Jong Il displayed throughout the country, recollecting the undying feats he performed for the country and the people.
An old man, Ri Thaek Ju, living in Sosong District, Pyongyang, told KCNA, “I don’t think the leader left his people. He is among the people. He is greeting the Lunar New Year with us.”
They also laid floral baskets at Kim Il-sung statues (video here):
Floral baskets were placed before the statues of President Kim Il Sung in different parts of the country on the lunar New Year 2012.
Service personnel and Pyongyangites from all walks of life and school youth and children and overseas compatriots staying in the socialist homeland, visited his statue on Ryongnam Hill to pay tribute to him.
…And they also performed plays offering well wishes to Kim Jong-un:
Schoolchildren’s performance “Country of Eternal Sun” took place at the Mangyongdae School Children’s Palace Monday on the lunar New Year 2012.
The performance began with prelude “Please accept, the dear respected Kim Jong Un, our greetings on lunar New Year.”
The performers made a deep bow to Kim Jong Un, representing the unanimous best wishes of the younger generation of the DPRK.
So there are “three generations” of post-revolution North Koreans, and each one now has their own leader to pay homage to on Lunar New Year. Interestingly, Lunar New Year was banned by the DPRK until the 1980s as it was classified as a Chinese holiday. But why ban a cultural holiday when you can co-opt it for political purposes?
The AP also published this story.
Read more about holidays in the DPRK here.
UPDATE 2: On January 25, the Daily NK reported some very interesting information from within the DPRK which further shows how the Lunar New Year has been co-opted as a tool for the legitimization of Kim Jong-un’s rule:
A Chinese trader who resides in Pyeongseong, North Korea, arrived in Dandong on January 21 for the start of the Lunar New Year holiday period. The trader, who in this article we will call ‘John’, received permission to visit China after waiting over a month to leave the country since the death of Kim Jong Il. John met with his suppliers in Dandong to order items he would take back into North Korea, before departing for Shenyang to visit relatives.
Daily NK met with John in Shenyang on January 22 to ask him whether or not the rations announced by North Korean authorities had actually been distributed as planned. As he is a Chinese expatriate, he says he did not receive any rations this time, however “ordinary people did get them. The rations were half white rice and half mixed-grain rice.”
“Even within Pyeongseong, people got different rations depending on what street or neighborhood they live in – some got 3 days worth, others got 5. Our People’s Unit gave 3 days. But that wasn’t the problem; in one area people got grain rice mixed with corn, and the really unlucky amongst them were disappointed to find that their rations had already gone off.”
“On the way here I also heard from people living in Sinuiju who were given corn soup rather than rice of any sort,” John says. Given that corn soup costs roughly half as much to provide as other grain rations, evidently the government distributed corn-based rations in some cities and counties in order to help carry out its plan.
According to John, authorities also offered to supply fish to citizens. “They handed out coupons to buy a sailfin sandfish for 2,800 won and called this an order from Kim Jong Eun.” With this coupon citizens could head to a government-run store and purchase the fish for 2,800 won, however John says that most people declined to buy from the government-run stores when fresh sandfish could be bought from the market for 3,300 won.
Regarding crackdowns on foreign currency, John said that “It would be hard for people like me to live if the government stopped people using the Yuan. When I purchase stock I have to pay for it in Yuan, so if I wasn’t able to do that I wouldn’t be able to trade. That might end up being the case again. The ‘gruppas’ (inspection teams) are showing up to carry out crackdowns on illegal foreign exchange transactions, but this has just driven most people to do it in the privacy of their own houses.”
“Even people who lose their foreign currency in the crackdowns can get it back with a bribe. How can you stop that? Even cadres like foreign currency, so how can it work if they order a crackdown?”
Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
2012-1-18
North Korea is continuing to put forward new laws for the special economic zones (SEZs) such as Rajin-Sonbong and Hwangumpyong Island. Recently, North Korea announced special guidelines for the tax investigations of foreign businesses in the zones.
North Korea’s Academy of Social Science Newsletter Volume 4 (published on November 2011) released an article titled, “Suggestions to Improve Tax Investigations in the Special Economic Zone,” which included detailed instructions for the policy improvement for tax investigation for SEZs. Here, particular emphasis was placed on the enhancement of the tax investigation system — to be accurate and rational — for the foreign investment companies.
The article explained, “Based on the principles of equality and reciprocity for the construction of powerful economic state, the tax investigation system in the SEZ must be improved especially at the present time when SEZs are being constructed and expanded to increase economic trade with other nations.”
It also stressed tax officials must be equipped with, “comprehensive knowledge and experience who accurately understand the entire process of business management. They must be capable of creating new tax investigation methods and be able to discern the various forms of tax evasions.”
For the qualifications of the tax officials, the article recommended that the officials be selected based on their knowledge and experience; ability to develop techniques for tax investigation; awareness of rules and regulations of tax laws and bylaws, and regulations of rights and responsibilities of taxpayers; and capability of conducting research on foreign tax investigation policies.
The Academy of Social Science is a government agency of the DPRK, and the recent article on the tax investigation reflects that the government has already begun the process of implementing the tax investigation guidelines and laws in the SEZs.
The article emphasized establishing a tax investigation system acceptable to foreign companies. One can construe this as North Korea’s effort to attract more businesses to the SEZ, which is currently suffering from poor performance.
In addition, North Korea is believed to be placing weight on the tax investigation based on its past experiences with the South Korean companies in the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC). In the past, the officials of the Central SpecialDirect General Bureau toured the industrial districts in China and showed keen interests in the tax management.
On December 8, 2011, the KCNA reported that the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) has adopted the Economic Zone Act for Hwanggumpyong and Wihwa Islands. The law was revised and supplemented to include the Free Economic and Trade Act of Rajin-Sonbong. However, the details of these laws were not disclosed and some experts are predicting that these laws are likely identical to the Chinese laws in China’s flourishing SEZs.
However, on January 11, 2012, Yonhap News Agency of South Korea reported that China rejected the new Special Economic Zone Act of the DPRK because it is “not business-friendly.” The news reported, “China said the law was not business-friendly, telling North Korea that the law had some problemsregarding taxes, accounting, remittance of profits and stability of investment.” It is reported that North Korea is working on the revision of these laws and likely for a new special zone act to be passed by the Standing Committee of the DPRK’s Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA).
