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Middlesbrough vs. DPRK Ladies

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

Pictured above: April 25th Sports Club field in Sadong-guyok (사동구역) where the matches were held (Google Maps)

UPDATE 4 (2011-4-25): To mark the ten-year anniversary of DPRK-UK diplomatic relations in September 2010, the British Embassy in Pyongyang and Koryo Tours arranged for the Middlesbrough Ladies Football Club to travel to the DPRK for two friendly matches against the DPRK’s national ladies team.  In addition to the two matches, the ladies team spent an afternoon training children at a local school, and an edited version of the film Bend it like Beckham was shown on North Korean television.  If you can access Facebook, you can see pictures of the visit here and  some videos here.

I managed to get video of one of the matches that was aired on North Korean television, so I edited it and posted it to YouTube:

It is in severn parts.  Part 1 of 7 is here.  The resolution is not great, but I am not a professional video editor!

Koryo Tours now has the ambitious goal of bringing a DPRK women’s football team to Middlesbrough.  According to a recent Koryo Tours newsletter:

We are therefore looking to take a North Korean women’s football team to the UK in 2012.  We also plan to bring a female DPRK film crew to accompany the squad and make a documentary of their time in the UK for both North Korean and international screening.

We do have support from both the British Embassy in Pyongyang and various international institutions but we also need financial support.  It would be extremely useful to have introductions to companies or individuals who you think might be interested in helping us.

Contact Koryo Tours for more information.

UPDATE 3: Sky News has a good summary of the events and a video.

UPDATE 2: According to the BBC, the Middlesbrough FC Ladies lost their second game.

UPDATE 1: According to the AFP, the Middlesbrough FC Ladies lost their first game.

ORIGINAL POST: According to the Guardian:

North Korea, the most secretive country on earth, the nation George Bush located on the Axis of Evil, where the flame of Marxism-Leninism still burns strong, will this week welcome its first British football team: 14 Teesside women players aged from 17 to 23, and their manager, Marrie Wieczorek.

On Thursday, Middlesbrough FC Ladies set off on a football tour with less bar-hopping (it’s illegal to leave your hotel without your guide) and probably more talk about dialectical materialism than usual. “I think it is going to be a bit of a culture shock,” says Wieczorek. “The whole place is shrouded in secrecy.”

At a time of mounting speculation that Kim Jong-il may be stepping down and appointing his son as successor, the team will fly to Beijing and then board an Air Koryo flight to Pyongyang, where they will play two games.

Middlesbrough Ladies will, in their way, be making history. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (as it prefers to be known) has so little contact with the outside world that the tour represents one of the most significant cultural exchanges of recent years. But it is also the latest episode in the entirely unlikely relationship between Middlesbrough and North Korea.

Historical link

Back in 1966, when England hosted the World Cup, North Korea played its three group games in the town, and Dave Allan, Middlesbrough’s media manager, said that a bond had existed ever since.

“It wasn’t that long after the Korean War and there were people in Teesside who’d fought in that, and when the Korean team came they were seen as the enemy,” Allan said. “But people really just took them to their hearts. It helped that they played in red, which was the Middlesbrough team colour. But it really was the people themselves, non-stop smiling, and very friendly and open.”

In 1966, North Korea beat Italy in what is routinely referred to as “one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history”, but the team’s failure to win a single game in this year’s finals – the first time they had qualified since then – led to rumours that the national coach had been sent to be “re-educated” on a building site on his return home.

In 2002, Nick Bonner of the travel company Koryo Tours tracked down the 1966 players and brought them back to Middlesbrough in what is still North Korea’s most important non-political exchange with the outside world.

“You don’t hear much about Middlesbrough in this country. But in North Korea they love us,” said Wieczorek. Even more astonishing, she said, they also love women’s football. The North Korean women’s team is currently fifth in the world, and it is as popular a spectator sport as the men’s game.

“Here, on the other hand, it was a battle to even play it when I started out 34 years ago,” said Wieczorek, “and although we’re supported by Middlesbrough FC we still have to raise our own money for transport.”

Culture shock

In North Korea, visitors are expected to bow before statues of the Supreme Leader. Do the Middlesbrough team have any idea what to expect?

Acting captain Rachael Hine, a mortgage adviser with Santander, said: “We know it’s going to be different. But nobody really knows how different.

“We’re just trying to go there with an open mind.”

This was a philosophy that has already been tested. “I told the girls their mobile phones will be confiscated at the airport,” said Wieczorek. “Their jaws just dropped.”

Read the full story here:
Middlesbrough Ladies’ North Korean football tour guarantees place in history
Guardian
Carole Cadwalladr
9/12/2010

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Posted in Civil society, Football (soccer), Koryo Tours, Sports, United Kingdom | 1 Comment »

Pyongyang night life

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

According to Sify News:

Life in Pyongyang, capital city of North Korea, is boisterous and fun-filled even as the country is threatened with military action from the West due to its nuclear programme, reports Xinhua.

Screams from roller coaster rides, karaoke and clink of beer glasses at night clubs seem to be quite a picture of metropolitan areas like New York, Tokyo or Beijing.

Well, make no mistake. This is what actually happens at night in Pyongyang.

Though without dazzling neon signs, the hustle and bustle of discos or the notorious red-light districts, night life in Pyongyang is not cloaked in silence.

Built in the 1980s in Pyongyang’s Moranbong area, the Kaeson Youth Park used to operate only a handful of simple rides and was open to the public only during the daytime and on holidays. With a restoration being done by authorities, tourists can now have fun, even at night, with an Italy-made ‘jumping machine’, pirate ship and roller coaster being rated at the top by visitors.

There are also video-game lounges, where children were seen shooting flying saucers and racing cars.

‘Over 5,000 people visited the park every night. And it is a good place for people to be relaxed after a day’s work,’ Kim Hyok, the park’s director, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

While a visit to the park is not free of charge, it does not cost that much either.

An adult ticket costs 20 won (21 cents) and one for a child 10 won. And it costs about 250 won or $2.65 to take part in all the facilities. For foreigners, however, the ticket costs one euro ($1.27).

Even though electricity is in short supply in North Korea, authorities have specially laid two cables to guarantee regular service to the park.

Karaoke – popularly known in Pyongyang as ‘film-accompanied music’ – is another popular night time entertainment.

Even the country’s leader, Kim Jong Il, has supported popularising karaoke as he says it was a good way to make the lives of all people varied and rich.

In many restaurants in the capital city, karaoke as well as popular music is played for the pleasure of customers. To liven things up, waitresses are also trained to sing.

Beer bars and pubs are also reporting huge turnouts as night falls upon Pyongyang.

Bars are seen filled with laughter, cheers, and the aroma of tasty homemade beer.

The Qingxing beer house, Pyongyang’s largest bar, opened in April this year with a capacity of 1,000 people.

While retired people and housewives are seen in the daytime, government officials, public servants and workers would arrive after office hours.

Interestingly, the beer bar prepares only tables for customers and provides no chairs. Drinkers have to stand, while waiters serve beverages in carts.

During summer, the beer bar receives an estimated 3,500 to 4,000 customers per day.

Meanwhile, in a bid to attract more female customers, the Taedong Beer Brewhouse, which produces beer in a Pyongyang surburb, was preparing a fruity flavour.

Read the full story here:
North Korean capital has a night life – minus the dazzle
Sify News
9/12/2010

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Posted in Alcohol, Civil society, Restaurants | 7 Comments »

Weekend fun: Pyongyang fashion

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

Below is an interesting photo of a North Korean girl in pants speaking on her Koryolink mobile phone. The photo is from this Russian language web page.

Click image for larger version

Her outfit is pretty trendy: Pink-rimmed square glasses, Chinese-style purse, pants, and apparently two mobile phones (one in each hand). Not the typical scene in Pyongyang.

Previous posts about women’s fashion can be seen here, and here.

Other posts about clothing in the DPRK can be seen here.

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Posted in Cell phones, Civil society, Clothing, Communications | Comments Closed

Recent fees and taxes in the DPRK

Monday, September 6th, 2010

According to the Daily NK:

North Korea is a “Tax-free country,” according to one of its many propaganda slogans, but this is contradicted by defector testimony, which suggests that residents carry a very heavy burden. According to defectors leaving the country after the North’s currency redenomination, North Korean people pay at least 20 to 30 percent of their monthly living expenses in the form of quasi-taxes to the state.

Since the redenomination, the minimum cost of living for a family of four has been in the vicinity of 50,000 to 60,000 won: around 35,000 for food and some 10,000 for other day-to-day necessities.

Next, North Korean residents pay at least 15,000 won for electricity and other utilities to the state.

Water and sewage and electricity cost, in total, around 1,000 won. Additionally, people have to give 30 percent of the earnings from their private fields every year. For a private field of around 40 pyeong (approximately 132m²), which is the general area for a single household, the farmer of the land has to pay around 3,000 won on average per month in usage fees, according to defectors.

In addition, if one adds other kinds of funding such as that for various kinds of local construction, military aid, fees for child education etc, the sum easily surpasses 10,000 won.

One defector, who arrived from Onsung in North Hamkyung Province in July of this year, said, “An elementary school in Onsung is instructing students to collect 10kg of apricot stones. If they cannot do that, the school forces them to give 5,000 won in cash. There are many cases of students who are unable to provide the apricot stones quitting school since they do not want to suffer under the burden.”

Another defector, who escaped from Hoiryeong in December last year, said, “Kim Ki Song First Middle School students had to pay 30,000 won every each three months for a school beautification project. However, many workers’ children were not able to tolerate that situation and quit.”

Another, who arrived in June from Hoiryeong, explained, “Even though the people were having to get food for themselves because of the absence of food distribution, the authorities took dogs, rabbits, leather or scrap from us all the time and, in addition, for the construction of a road, they pushed us to provide them with cement and bricks, so we had to offer all our income for several days.”

Besides all of this, the around 30 percent of people who do not have their own house have to pay at least 30,000 won in monthly rent.

Then, those who do businesses in the jangmadang have to pay between 300 and 2,000 won for each stall per day.

A defector, who did business in Chongjin until she defected in July last year, said, “The Provincial Committee of the Party took 300 won from each stall every day, and used 60,000 won of that for official expenses, gas for cars and entertainment for other cadres.”

Defectors say that the reason why the number of vagrants, so called kotjebi, has been increasing is also that they cannot afford to pay those fees.

Needless to say, while general people are weighed down by this heavy burden, high cadres in the Party, military or foreign currency earning bodies accumulate property through corruption, privilege, access to foreign currency earning businesses and the like, and enjoy their luxurious lives in high-class apartments in Pyongyang.

One defector who escaped from Pyongyang in February this year explained, “Since the currency redenomination, the preference for products rather than cash has been striking, so the price of apartments has risen a lot. In 2007, an apartment by the Daedong River was around $60,000, but now it is around $80,000 or $90,000.”

“While running errands, I visited one such apartment where high officials lived several times. It was amazing. They had foreign TVs, refrigerators and many other appliances. They used Korean or Japanese cosmetics and their shoes were all designer.”

A diplomat from the U.K. who visited Pyongyang in April, recently told the media that when he dropped by a fast food restaurant in Pyongyang most of the guests were students and some of them were wearing blue jeans and carrying cell phones.

The defector from Pyongyang criticized, “Newly built pizza or fast food restaurants in Pyongyang are like a playground for high officials’ children,” and concluded, “General local people are now struggling to feed this privileged class.”

The Daily NK conducted the interviews with defectors in this article with people who had just passed through the education course at Hanawon (the South Korean resettlement education center for North Korean defectors).

Read the full story here:
Tax Free North Korea Exists Only on Banners
Daily NK
Shin Joo Hyun
9/2/2010

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Posted in Black markets, Civil society, Energy, Finance, Fiscal & monetary policy, Food, Price liberalization, Real estate | Comments Closed

South Korean religious organizations donate flour to DPRK

Friday, August 27th, 2010

According to Yonhap:

A joint delegation of five major religious organizations in South Korea traveled to North Korea Friday to deliver food aid, the second civilian visit to the communist state since Seoul imposed a travel ban in May.

The nine-member delegation of the Catholic, Protestant, Cheondo, Buddhist and Won-Buddhist orders drove to the North from this western border town of Paju, Gyeonggi Province, accompanied by about a dozen trucks carrying 300 tons of flour.

The 250 million won (US$209,170) worth of aid was the second inter-Korean assistance since Seoul imposed a North Korea travel ban in May in protest of the sinking of a South Korean warship two months earlier. North Korea denied involvement in the sinking that killed 46 sailors.

Seoul allowed the first civilian visit on Aug. 17, in which an aid organization delivered 400 million won worth of anti-malaria aid to North Korea.

“The denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is important, but the lives of the people on the Korean Peninsula take priority over any other issue,” the group said in a joint statement at a ceremony attended by some 150 people, ahead of its departure. “We religious communities from the left and the right are taking a step toward opening the door for reconciliation and peace in the inter-Korean relations.”

During its one-day visit, the delegation will deliver the flour to Kaesong, just north of the inter-Korean border, which will be distributed to inhabitants in the border town and counties in North Hwanghae Province.

Read the full story below:
S. Korea’s pan-religious delegation travels to N. Korea with flour aid
Yonhap
8/27/2010

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Posted in Foreign aid statistics, International Aid, Religion, South Korea | Comments Closed

DPRK unveils “Storm Tiger” tank

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

According to Strategy Page:

North Korean TV recently showed video of a new tank, called the Storm Tiger. South Korean officials call it the M2002, after the year they first became aware of it. The new North Korean tank appears to be based on the Russian T-62, an unsuccessful design that North Korea produced under license. The M2002/Storm Tiger was apparently developed in the 1990s, based on 1980s technology. It appears to be a 40 ton vehicle, a little longer than the T-62 and may have some modern electronics (beyond a laser range finder.) The North Koreans describe the vehicle as “modern”, but even if they have modern fire control (which China or Russia won’t give away and which North Korea cannot really afford to buy), they are several decades behind Western (and South Korean) tank technology. North Korea has about 4,000 tanks, most of them based on 1950s and 60s technology. About half of them are Russian T-62s (or North Korea variants of that design). Against modern tanks, the North Korea vehicles perform more as targets than adversaries.

North Korea imported 500 T-62s in the 1970s. Then, in the 1980s, North Korea produced 1,200 lighter and modified versions of the T-62 (as the Chonmaho). There were five different models, with later ones having the ERA (Explosive Reactive Armor) and laser range finder.

Most Chonmaho tanks have since died of old age and lack of spare parts, with about 500 still available for service. This vehicle weighed 40 tons, had a four man crew, a 115mm gun (plus a 14.5mm and 7.62mm machine-guns) and added ERA. Top speed was 50 kilometers an hour and range on fuel carried was 450 kilometers. The original T-62 was an improved T-55, weighed 41.5 tons, entered service in 1961. Over 22,000 were eventually built, when production ended in 1975. There have been many improvements since. It is a simple tank, and over a thousand remain in service around the world. Russian T-62s most recently saw combat two years ago in Georgia. The T-62 can trace its design back to World War II. That’s because the T-54, which the T-62 evolved from (via the T-55), was developed in 1944. The basis for the T-54 was the T-44, an advanced model of the legendary T-34. The T-62, however, was the end of the line, in more ways than one.

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Posted in Military, Television | Comments Closed

New Koguryo tombs discovered in Pyongyang

Monday, August 16th, 2010

According to the Choson Ilbo:

Academics from North Korea and Japan have unearthed a large tumulus from the Koguryo period in Pyongyang, providing valuable material for studying the history of ancient East Asia, Japan’s Kyodo news agency said Saturday. About 4.5 km away from the downtown Pyongyang, the tomb was discovered during construction work in Tongsan-dong, the Lelang District of the Koguryo era and is presumed to have been created around the 5th century.

According to the news agency, the mural paintings in the tomb show a man in horn-shaped headgear on horseback, a procession of men holding flags on armored horses, and warriors with swords. The antechamber and main chamber at the back are connected with a narrow passage, while the bones of a man and two women have been found in the back chamber. The tomb has some unique features, including the antechamber’s arched ceilings with three layers of triangular props and the mound created by piling up alternate layers of lime, charcoal and red clay to cover the stone chambers beneath, the report said. The mound is 35 m in diameter and 8 m high.

Pyongyang plans to register the tomb with UNESCO as a World Heritage site. Japanese scholars said the tomb’s murals are comparable to those of Tokhung-ri Tomb in Nampo, South Pyongan Province, which is included in the Complex of Koguryo Tombs inscribed in the World Heritage List in 2004.

The team also found relics offering a glimpse of how sophisticated Koguryo culture was, such as gold and silver ornaments, tiger-shaped pottery, bronze coins and nails for coffins. The celadon candlestick is the first of its kind to be excavated in the North, the report added.

The team consists of researchers with the Archaeological Institute of the North’s Academy of Social Sciences and Japanese scholars sent by Kyoto news agency including Prof. Masahiro Saotome, an archaeologist at the University of Tokyo, and Shigeo Aoki, a Cyber University professor specializing in the preservation of historic remains. Saotome said the tomb “was unearthed in an area where experts believed there would be no Koguryo mural tombs.”

Ahn Hwi-joon, a Korean art historian and professor emeritus at Seoul National University, echoed him saying, “It is the first time that Koguryo tomb murals have been unearthed in the area once controlled by the Chinese Han Dynasty Commander of Lelang. They are especially valuable as they were executed in the late fourth to the fifth centuries, immediately after Koguryo incorporated Lelang.”

Read the full story here:
N.Korean-Japanese Team Finds Koguryo Tomb in Pyongyang
Choson Ilbo
8/16/2010

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Posted in Art, Civil society, Japan, Religion, UNESCO | Comments Closed

DPRK delivers Kasavubu statue to Kinshasa

Friday, August 13th, 2010

UPDATE: Google just updated their satellite imagery over Kinshasa.  Now we can see where the statue is located:

ORIGINAL POST: The DPRK’s Mansudae Overseas Development Group has designed and built many buildings and statues across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.  I have been trying to map out these projects on Google Earth.

The most recent project appears to be the statue of Joseph Kasavubu in the DR Congo.  June 30th 2010 was the DRC’s 50th independence day and the statue of its first president was unveiled as part of the celebrations:

Here is a story in French about the unveiling of the new statue.

Using Google Translate, I pulled out the following blurbs:

(June 29, 2010) President Joseph Kabila unveiled Tuesday in Kimpwanza Square in the town of Kasavubu, to the cheers of the people, the monument to the first president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kasavubu.

…

It is a bronze monument of 5 tons, 5.45 meters high.

The story incorrectly notes that the statue was made in South Korea.

I have so far been unable to locate the square where this statue is located.  Help appreciated. A reader called “NKObserver” identifies the location here: 4° 20′ 17.19S 15° 18′ 18.38″E.

Additional information:

1. Here is a set of photos of the statue taken by a visitor.

2. Here is an interesting video clip of a Chinese protest of Kasavubu in 1961 featuring Zhou Enlai.

3. Here are previous posts on the Mansudae Overseas Development Group.  They do not reflect all the projects I have identified, but if you know of any others, please pass the information to me.

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Posted in Art, Congo (DRC), Google Earth, International trade, Mansudae creative Company (art studio), Mansudae Overseas Development Group | 3 Comments »

Daily NK proposes “pet sanctions”

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

According to the Daily NK:

It has been suggested that pets should added to the list of “luxury goods” sanctioned and supposedly out of reach of the Kim Jong Il regime.

While “thoroughbred horses” are already a luxury good on the EU’s list of banned products published in the final version of the “Report to the Security Council from the Panel of Experts Established Pursuant to Resolution 1874”, there is nothing about pets.

However, according to one anonymous source well-versed in North Korea matters, Kim Jong Il has been known to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on pets from France and Switzerland.

The money for his purchases apparently comes from the No. 39 Department of the Central Committee of the Party, according to a Daily NK source, and since the funds generated by the No. 39 Department come from illicit activities such as selling weapons, drugs, counterfeit cigarettes and super notes, he believes this pet-related trading must also be put on the list of sanctioned “luxury goods.”

Among dogs, for example, Kim apparently has a preference for the Shitzu and has spent many thousands of dollars purchasing and raising them. Kim Chun Hyung, a Seoul-based veterinarian, confirmed the price of such fine breeds, saying, “The price of pets is very diverse, but when you import a purebred you may need to pay tens of thousands of dollars.”

Jang Jin Sung, a poet who was said to be Kim Jong Il’s favorite poet in North Korea until he defected in 2004, described how much Kim Jong Il loves his pet dogs in an interview on Wednesday, explaining, “I was invited to a no.1 event, in which Kim Jong Il is set to appear, at Kim’s Kalmacheon Villa in Wonsan, Kangwon Province. Security was so fussy that they forced us to disinfect our hands, and then I waited for him nervously.”

“All of sudden a small white puppy appeared, which made me wonder, but then Kim Jong Il entered the hall behind it,” Jang said. “While Kim was having dinner, the puppy walked around without restriction. When it approached Kim, he petted it many times.”

The anonymous source said that Kim is always accompanied by dogs to his onsite inspections, adding that their food and shampoo is all imported, from France in the case of shampoo.

When the animals fall sick, top quality vets from foreign countries are invited to Pyongyang or the animals are taken overseas for treatment, the source said, adding, “The reason why they go by plane is for ease of customs clearance.”

The responsibility for importing pets is the job of overseas-based officials, but due to Kim Jong Il’s picky taste, especially in cats, they find it hard to match the color of fur or eyes that Kim likes, according to the source. 

Read the full story here:
Pets Are Luxury Goods, Too
Daily NK
Shin Joo Hyun
8/12/2010

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Posted in Bureau 39, Civil society, International trade | Comments Closed

Chongryun on YouTube?

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

UPDATE: As noted in the comments and in this post, Uriminzokkiri is run by the North Koreans, not the Chongryun.

ORIGINAL POST:

The pro-Pyongyang ethnic Korean community in Japan (Chongryun, Chosen Soren) has apparently opend a YouTube channel named “uriminzokkiri” (“On our own as a nation”) where they are uploading pro-DPRK and DPRK-made videos.

The Chongryun operate a number of web pages on behalf of themselves and the North Korean government (Chongryon.com, Naenara, elufa.net, uriminzokkiri.com, and more) all of which host video content.  So why open a YouTube account?  All these web pages are blocked in South Korea—so I am wondering if South Korean readers see these YouTube videos? 

UPDATE: Gag notes the following in the comments: “The ‘uriminzokkiri’ account is presumably run by the website of the same name, which links to it. The uriminzokkiri.com homepage lists two email addresses on silibank.com, so I doubt that it’s run by the Chongryon either. (elufa.net, which is in Japanese, has an email address on its own domain.)

I wonder also whether it is just a matter of time before the US Justice Department/Treasury Department goes knocking on YouTube’s door.  If this account is sponsored by the official Chonryon organization, the US government might have a problem with that.  I suspect, however, that the account is “maintained” by a “private” individual so that it cannot be construed as engagement in a business trade with the DPRK.  In the past, on line chat services owned by Yahoo and Linkedin have been asked to close accounts of individuals in sanctioned countries like the DPRK.  

As of now, the account hosts nearly 40 videos.  Unfortunatley not a single one is of the North Korean evening news.  The North Korean news is usually posted on Elufa.net, but has not been updated since July 26. Rather than running 10 pages poorly, they might consider consolidating and running 2 pages well!

According to Yonhap:

North Korea has apparently registered an account with the iconic U.S. video-sharing site YouTube, uploading clips that praise the isolated regime and defend itself against accusations that it attacked a South Korean warship.

…

The name in Korean means “on our own as a nation” and was registered July 14.

The uploaded footage contain regurgitations of official cant that honor the North’s leader, Kim Jong-il, and the usual South Korea bashing. The Aug. 2 upload contained an elaborately produced three-minute clip lashing out at South Korea’s foreign minister.

Another clip, uploaded the same day and also produced in Korean, ridicules Seoul for its failure to stop the U.N. Security Council from placing Pyongyang’s denial in its statement deploring the deadly March sinking of the Cheonan warship.

 

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Posted in Chongryun, Domestic publication, Film, Japan, Music, Television | 6 Comments »

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