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.
According to the Daily NK:
The largest of a collection of overseas restaurants run by the North Korean authorities,‘Pyongyang Koryogwan’ opened for business in Dandong, China on Thursday. An opening ceremony was held in front of the restaurant, which is located at the entrance to Dandong’s development zone.
The ribbon-cutting, which lasted for 30 minutes beginning at 9:30AM, included North Korean and local Chinese government officials, the restaurant management team and more than 50 female staff members, over 100 people in total. Staff must have been freezing after spending the whole time in Korean traditional dress despite sub-zero temperatures.
The restaurant is staffed by more than 200 workers from North Korea, 120 of whom are general staff, with the remainder working in the kitchens or on administrative tasks. The menu is mostly a collection of different sets, with the cheapest item being cold noodles at around USD$4.75.
Read the full story here:
Dandong Opening for New NK Restaurant
Daily NK
Choi Cheong Ho
2012-02-17
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
UPDATE 1 (2012-2-13): Thanks Dr. Seliger we now have some photos of the interior of the newly opened Viennese Coffee Restaurant:
And if you don’t feel like coffee, they have more “traditional” drinks on offer:
The sign on the front door reads “Helmut Sachers Kaffee,” but the menu shows another name: Ryongwang Coffee Shop (련광). Perhaps this is the name of the Korean Join-Venture company, but I cannot find any additional information on it.
A reader notes the following:
Helmut Sacher is an Austrian coffee roaster (web page here). It is probably that Ryon’gwang buys beans from Sacher, and/or Sacher owns part of the joint company.
ORIGINAL POST (2011-12-4):
Pictured above (Google Maps): Korean Central History Museum on Kim Il-sung Square–site of the new coffee house.
According to a German reader:
A report published [2011-11-24] in the German Daily “Frankfurter Rundschau” reports on the opening of a “Viennese Coffe House” right on Kim Il Sung Square inside the Museum of Korean History (the one wih the “trumpet soldier”).
In brief: Austrian enterpreneur Helmut Sachers has opened this new Vienna style cofee house in October after training Korean service- and bakery staff. It says that it mainly serves the foreign community in Pyongyang, but alo an increasing number of Koreans appear to be able to pay EUR 2, the equivalent of 5000 Won, for a cup of cappucino.
Then reference is made to two older pizza-places and a a Swiss coffe house …. and various duty free shops serving the international community and wealthy North Koreans… which is contrasted with the children and young soldiers exercising on Kim Il Sung Square, who show indications of malnurishment.
You can read a PDF of the German article here. If a reader has the ability and inclination to provide an English-language copy of this article, I would appreciate it.
UPDATE: Thanks to Mr. Knoll I have a full English translation of the article:
Whipped Cream in Pyongyang
The heart of the North Korean capital Pyongyang now boasts a Viennese coffee house – a sign that the isolation of the country is showing cracks.
By Bernhard Bartsch
A cappuccino is not political, in most places in the world. But the milk foam coffee now being served on Pyongyang´s Kim Il Sung Square has an unmistakably political flavor – and some customers think that´s why it tastes so good. Right next to the parade ground in the heart of the North Korean capital, a Viennese café has opened its doors in late October – a sign the isolation of the arch-communist regime is slowly showing cracks.
The Austrian operator could hardly have asked for a more iconic building: the Museum of Korean History, a Stalinist representative structure, on its roof, a 10 m (30 ft) tall soldier is sounding the charge. Inside, you get a crash course in the history of the Korean revolution, and you´ll be served “Viennese coffee with whipped cream”, but only after passing through a door inconspicuously marked “café” in Korean. Only then the yellow coffeepot-shaped emblem marked “Helmut Sachers Kaffee” becomes visible.
“We have thirty to fourty customers per day” the young waitress says. “Most of them are diplomats or other foreigners living here”. She wears a black pantsuit, and like most North Koreans, she is rather tight-lipped when talking to foreigners. A couple sitting at one of the eleven tables is examining the room, a peculiar mix of Austrian gemuetlichkeit and North Korean drabness. Two fans with gaudily-colored lamps are hanging from the ceiling, there´s wood paneling to half height, pink blinds cover the windows. A large flat screen TV is showing Austrian scenery, waltz is being played as background music.
Payment in hard currency
Expensive coffeemakers can be seen behind the bar, a vitrine shows a variety of cakes: apple tart, cherry streusel, poppyseed-walnut-vanilla. They won´t win any prizes in Vienna, they might in Pyongyang, though. The coffee, the dishes, even the sugar packs are imported from Austria. A cappuccino is two euros, you pay in hard currency. The Koreans prefer euros, Chinese yuan, even US dollars, over their own currency. Two euros are worth about 5,000 Korean won on the black market. That´s about a month´s salary for the average North Korean, not counting food and clothing rations.
The man the café is named after is living in Oeynhausen, near Vienna. “We seem to have a monopoly on exotic export markets” explains Helmut Sachers, owner of a long-standing family-owned coffee-roasting establishment, now doing business in 25 countries. “There´s a Café Sachers in the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator, too”. The cafés, however, are not operated by Sachers himself, but by importers. The one in Pyongyang was the brainchild of Vienna entrepreneur Helmut Brammen. “In 2009 he told me he´s doing business in very unusual destinations”, Sachers says. The negotiations went on for two years, before Sachers and Brammen flew to Pyongyang in March, accompanied by an Austrian baker to train staff. They met very eager men and women, Sachers says. The North Koreans soaked up Austrian coffee culture like a sponge.
The fact that a Viennese coffee house can open its doors in Pyongyang shows that behind the rigid façade things are in a state of flux, a European diplomat says. “Ordinary North Koreans won´t come here, of course, but the elites know what life is like outside the country, and they want a part of it to enjoy at home.Communist Pizza
The Viennese café is not the first international establishment in the city. A member of the Italian Communist Party opened a pizzeria in 2009, the second in Pyongyang, but the first that is partly owned by foreigners. Adra, an aid organization run by Swiss Adventists, opened a Swiss café a few years ago, serving cheese fondue to North Koreans. There are also several stores selling exclusive imported goods. At the “Pyongyang Shop”, where the clientele consists of embassy staff and members of international aid groups, Italian pasta, German jam, Swiss chocolate, and a large selection of wine and whisky are available.
“Those with money can buy almost anything they want in North Korea” the diplomat says. “It is remarkable that more and more customers are North Koreans.” Despite the egalitarian rhetoric in the Communist country, the real-life wealth disparities are much more blatant than in capitalist countries.The scene outside the Viennese café on Kim Il Sung Square is no exception. Schoolchildren are rehearsing in the cold for the celebrations planned for April 2012, the 100th birthday of the country´s founder. A gigantic mass gymnastics show involving hundreds of thousands of participants is supposed to strengthen unity among the Korean people. By command, children turn cartwheels and do flic-flacs, a student band plays military marches. On the other side of the street, an army unit doing construction work has pitched its tents. Clothing has been left to dry on bushes, there are lines of cabbage leaves to be pickled by the unit´s chef, to make kimchi, the national dish.
Almost all of the young soldiers are stunted – a result of the famine in the 1990s that killed millions of North Koreans and left many survivors with permanent health problems. “The food situation is still very bad, but a catastrophe as in those days seems unimaginable today”, says a Western aid worker, who is almost a regular at Helmut Sachers`s. “The country is opening up, and this is irreversible.
Kim Jong-il Flies: Recently KCTV has broadcast many videos on the life and work of Kim Jong-il. One of these videos was on Kim Jong-il’s contributions to the theatrical and cinematic arts. In this video, Kim Jong-il can be seen riding in a plane while he scouts out locations for movie sets:
I have watched more North Korean television footage than a healthy person should, but this was the first video footage I had seen of Kim Jong-il on a plane.
Alejandro Cao de Benos once told me that Kim Jong-il could fly fighter jets, though I have not seen any footage of that.
___________
Koryo Tours has a great Facebook Page. Here are some of the gems that have popped up over the last few weeks:
Pasty, fast food (yum):
DPRK Tourist Card:
In the next few days Koryo Tours will be offering a brand new tourist route in the DPRK, from Rason down the East Coast to Chongjin and Mt. Chilbo, previously only accessible by charter flight from Pyongyang.
Take On Me by a-ha, North Korean Style (YouTube):
A-ha’s “Take on me” performed by young accordion players from the Kum Song School, filmed in Pyongyang, North Korea December 2011. Part of multi-genre project The Promised Land by director and artist Morten Traavik. Here is more information on the video.
Ceausescu’s visit to Pyongyang, North Korea in 1971:
I believe this clip comes from a feature film: The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu (2010) (trailer here).
___________
DPRK Gatorade: North Korea is making its own-style sports drink. Here is a link to the report on KCNA (posted to YouTube):
This drink is manufactured in the Kumkop Combined Foodstuff Factory (금컵체육인종합식료공장) in Mangyongdae District. Satellite image and coordinates here.
The PR of China published official data on the number of North Koreans that visited the country in 2011. The numbers were originally reported in this Voice of America report (in Korean). The VOA story was covered in English by two Korean news sources, and I have posted them below.
It is important to remember that these are official Chinese numbers, therefore they represent a lower bound of the actual numbers of North Koreans crossing the border.
According to the Daily NK:
China’s National Tourism Administration has revealed that the number of North Koreans legally visiting the country reached a new high in 2011.
According to a report carried by Voice of America yesterday, the 152,300 North Koreans who visited China last year exceeded the 2010 figure of 116,400 by more than 30%, and comfortably beat the previous high of 125,800 recorded in 2005.
Approximately half (75,266) the total number of visitors apparently went for work, while a further 39,042 went for business purposes or to attend meetings. 4,589 were tourists. However, the statistics show that just 99 of the visits were for the purpose of visiting relatives.
72,885 of the visitors were age 45 through 64, while a further 64,823 fell into the 25 to 44 bracket. Women were heavily outnumbered by men; 21,828 against 130,472.
Yonhap reported an additional point:
Ferries were the most popular means of transport for the North Koreans at 62,160 passengers, followed by 33,933 who arrived by plane, 31,829 by car, 19,132 by train and 5,246 by foot.
Although the majority of official North Koreans border crossers are men, it is reasonable to assume that the majority of unofficial North Korean border crossers are women.
Read the full stories here:
Largest-ever number of N. Koreans visited China in 2011: report
Yonhap
2012-2-10
Official Visitor Numbers Hit New High
Daily NK
Park Seong Guk
2012-2-10
