Archive for the ‘South Korea’ Category

DPRK looks to sell (un)spent fuel rods

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

UPDATE:  A reader points out in the comments that the DPRK is in fact looking to sell its remaining UNUSED fuel rods…so I made a fairly substantial mistake here.  My confusion on the subject seems to have come from my reading of the Joong Ang Ilbo‘s coverage, but I take full responsibility for not paying close enough attention to the other stories.

Here is the specific quote: “The North asked us to focus on discussing how to handle the spent fuel rods as much as possible” (Joong Ang Ilbo)

The revised facts:

1. The DPRK has 14,800 fresh fuel rods—equivalent to just over 100 tons of uranium (RIA Novosti)
2. The materials are reportedly worth over US$10 million (Yonhap). 

ORIGINAL POST:
Hwang Joon-gook, a South Korean diplomat in charge of the denuclearization talks with Pyongyang, led a team of South Korean officials and civilian nuclear experts on a fact-finding mission to the DPRK  to decide whether to buy Pyongyang’s spent fuel rods.

The facts:
1. The DPRK has 14,800 spent fuel rods (Joong Ang Ilbo)
2. This is equivalent to just over 100 tons of uranium (RIA Novosti)
3. The materials are reportedly worth over US$10 million (Yonhap). 
4. The rods are apparently up to 15 years old (Yonhap).
5. The US alleges that the DPRK is enriching uranium as well.  Richardson has more information here.

Just last week, Selig Harrson reported that the DPRK told him “it has already weaponized the 30.8 kilograms (67.8 pounds) of plutonium listed in its formal declaration and that the weapons cannot be inspected.” This amount of plutonium could fuel four or five warheads.

According to NTI:

“Even if the D.P.R.K.-U.S. diplomatic relations become normalized, our status as a nuclear-armed state will never change as long as the U.S. nuclear threat to us remains, even to the slightest degree,” said the [DPRK’s] Foreign Ministry, which issued a similar message several days earlier.

For its own reasons, Russia does not consider the DPRK a nuclear power despite the fact that they have detonated a nuclear device—a fact that would raise eyebrows across the DPRK if reported by the local media. In fact, it was the Russians who supplied the DPRK with the Yongbyon reactors in the first place!

In support of Russia’s position, however, Yonhap offers the following:

North Korea detonated its first atomic device in 2006. The relatively small underground test had less than a kiloton in yield, below what is considered a successful nuclear test.

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Jeju to offer pig farm to DPRK

Monday, January 19th, 2009

The people of Jeju Island have shipped tangerines to the DPRK for about 10 years.  Now they are offering a pig farm:

According to Yonhap:

South Korea’s Jeju Island will send equipment to build a pig farm in Pyongyang on Friday to raise the island’s local specialty, black pigs, officials said.

Black pigs, or “heuk-doe-ji” in Korean, are native to the semi-tropical island. They are covered in black hair, and the meat is popular for being chewy and rich in nutrients.

Jeju will send farm equipment worth 220 million won (US$159,190), such as pens, feeders, heat lamps and ventilators, later on Friday aboard a ship also carrying tangerines and carrots as part of the island’s annual aid to the North. When the farm is completed, possibly by May, the island will ship 100 black pigs that can farrow.

“We expect this will help provide nutrition for children and the elderly in the North and pass down our breeding expertise. Jeju Island is a clean area free from animal infectious diseases,” Kang Won-myoung, a provincial official handling the pig project, said over the telephone.

The Jeju provincial government set up the “South-North Black Pig Breeding Cooperation Project” with North Korea when a group of Jeju citizens and officials visited Pyongyang in late 2007. The project was suspended for about a year amid frozen inter-Korean relations until North Korea formally requested to start the farming last September, the island officials said.

The “Jeju Black Pig Farm” will be built inside Pyongyang Pig Farm, North Korea’s largest such facility, established in 1972.

A Norwegian company recently tried to invest in a pig farm in the DPRK.  Unfortunately it did not work out.  Read their story here starting on page 86.  

The DPRK is working to increase meat production as part of its 2012 “Kangsong Taeguk” campaign

Read the full story here:
S. Korea’s Jeju Island to build ‘black pig’ farm in Pyongyang
Yonhap
1/16/2009

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Seoul supporting DPRK IT industry

Thursday, January 15th, 2009

According to Yonhap:

A group of South Korean information technology experts and businessmen will visit North Korea next month on a rare trip to the communist country amid frozen cross-border exchanges, organizers said Thursday.

The 80-member group is scheduled to tour North Korea’s major IT centers and hold a joint software exhibition during its Feb. 7-11 visit, said the non-governmental South-North Cooperation for IT Exchange. They also plan to donate 5,000 IT books and journals to the North.

“IT books we have delivered so far were mostly Korean language books, and the North Koreans requested original texts. So we collected some foreign language texts this time,” said Kim Jin-hyung, a member of the team and professor from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

Through annual visits since 2006, the IT organization has delivered about 30,000 technical books and latest journals. Yoo Wan-ryung, chief of Seoul-based Unikotech Korea which has promoted investment in North Korea, participates in this visit, organizers said.

Read the full article here:
S. Korean IT experts to visit N. Korea
Yonhap
1/15/2008

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Some “good” news from North Korea

Friday, January 9th, 2009

On market regulations:  North Korean authorities issued three decrees restricting market activity: 1. Markets may only open once every 10 days  2. Only vegetables, fruits, and meat from private citizens can be sold in the markets.  Imported goods and products of state-owned companies are prohibited  3. To reduce the influence and growth of professional merchants, market booths will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis (no fixed locations).

The “good” news is that the authorities are having trouble implementing these rules:

A Pyongyang source said in a phone conversation with Daily NK on the 7th, “Until now, markets in Pyongyang have been opening at 2 PM every day and operating normally. They are only closed once a week, on Mondays as usual.”

However, the sale of imported industrial goods from China such as clothing, shoes, cosmetics, kitchen utensils and bathing products has become more restricted in the market. Subsequently, street markets or sales of such goods through personal networks have become increasingly popular.

The source noted, “Inspection units regulate the markets with one eye closed and the other eye open, so it is not as if selling is impossible. With a bribe of a few packs of cigarettes, it is easy to be passed over by the units. However, the sale of industrial goods has rapidly decreased and, if unlucky, one can have his or her goods taken, so the number of empty street-stands has been increasing.”

So many North Koreans now buy Chinese kitchen utensils in the same way Americans purchase cocaine!

But even in Pyongyang they are having troubles enforcing the new rules:

“Since December, rations in Pyongyang have consisted of 90 percent rice and 10 percent corn and in the Sadong-district and in surrounding areas, rice and corn have been mixed fifty-fifty percent.”

“It has even been difficult in Pyongyang, where rations are provided, to convert to 10-day markets due to opposition from citizens, so restricting sales in the provinces, where there is virtually no state provision, is impossible in reality. It is highly likely that the recent measure will end as an ineffective decree, like the ones to prohibit the jangmadang or the sale of grain”[.]

On North Korea’s information blockade:  Radio Free Asia published an informative article on the ability and propensity of North Koreans to monitor foreign broadcasts.  The “good” news is that access to unauthorized information continues to grow.  

The whole article is worth reading (here), but here is an excerpt:

North Koreans manage to gain limited access to foreign media broadcasts in spite of increasing government crackdowns in the isolated Stalinist state.

“We clamped down on the people watching South Korean television sets, but it wasn’t easy,” a North Korean defector and former policeman who monitored North Koreans’ viewing habits said. He said channels fixed by the North Korean authorities could easily be altered to catch South Korean programming.

“You could watch South Korean television such as KBS and MBC in Haeju, Nampo, Sariwon, even in Wonsan,” he said, referring to regions of Hwanghae province, just north of the border with South Korea.

“They reach also to the port cities near the sea. But you can’t watch them in Pyongyang because it’s blocked by mountains.”

He said the police themselves used to watch South Korean television “all the time” along with their superior officers.

“We would enjoy what we watched, but outside in public, we would praise the superiority of our socialist system. We knew it was rubbish.”

“According to North Korean defectors interviewed who came to South Korea right after living in the North, educated, intelligent people in North Korea do listen to foreign stations despite the inherent danger,” Huh Sun Haeng, director of the Center for Human Rights Information on North Korea, said in a recent interview.

He said he made good money fixing people’s radios, so they could get better reception of foreign broadcasts.

“I made good money readjusting channels on radios, or upgrading them with higher frequency parts for local people who want to listen to broadcasts other than the North’s state-run radios. There were at least a few hundred people that I know of who listened to foreign broadcasts,” he said.

He said no television reception reached the northern part of the country near the Chinese border, so people there watched recorded programs on videotape and video CD (VCD) instead.

Read the full articles here:
Pulling Back from Converting to 10-day Markets
Daily NK
By Jung Kwon Ho
1/9/2009   

Growing Audiences for Foreign Programs
Radio Free Asia
Original reporting in Korean by Won Lee
1/8/2009

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South Korea teaching agricultural techniques in DPRK

Thursday, December 25th, 2008

From the Joong Ang Daily:

Seoul and Pyongyang have held annual symposiums on agricultural science since 2000, through which South Korean scientists and officials provide agricultural technology and expertise, with a focus on potato farming, they said.

“If North Korea is able to produce and distribute seed potatoes and learn to effectively control harmful insects, it should be able to produce between 3.3 million and 4.25 million tons of potatoes annually,” Lee added.

A North Korean official attending the inter-Korean symposium said his country’s potato harvest was expected to increase from 2 million tons last year to 3 million tons in 2009.

These efforts are well-intentioned and might help in the short run, but North Korea’s climate and geography are not conducive to agricultural abundance.  The DPRK would be better off in the long run producing the goods and services in which it is competitive and trading them internationally for food. 

Read the ful article here:
North Korea is expecting 3-ton potato harvest
Joong Ang Daily
12/22/2008

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Six party talks: energy aid update

Thursday, December 25th, 2008

In the last round of six party talks, the media focused on North Korea’s deteriorating relationships with Seoul and Tokyo and the DPRK’s reluctance to agree to a credible nuclear verification protocol.  When the talks failed to produce any forward momentum, it looked like energy aid was to be suspended:

After the meeting, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that Japan, Russia, China, the United States and South Korea had allegedly agreed that fuel would not be shipped until progress was made on specific steps to verify Pyongyang’s nuclear activities. (RIA Novosti)

Russia, however, disputes this claim—but likely for for its own economically rational reasons.  Russia has been very strategic in its relations with Pyongang—focusing on securing a stake in the Rajin Songbon port and leaning on Pyongyang to allow construction of a natural gas pipeline to South Korea.  As a result, they have refused to suspend their portion of energy aid:

Russia plans to complete fuel deliveries to North Korea as part of a denuclearization deal, the head of the Russian delegation at six-party talks on Korea’s nuclear problem said on Sunday.

“We expect that we’ll be able to supply our entire quota of 200,000 metric tons in the near future,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and chief North Korea negotiator Alexei Borodavkin said. (RIA Novosti)

and…

[…]Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and chief North Korea negotiator Alexei Borodavkin, who said his country will proceed with a third batch of 50,000 metric tons of fuel oil this month in accordance with previous six-party talks agreements. (UPI)

Despite ending energy assistance, the US maintains it will continue food assistance:

North Korea will receive 21,000 metric tons of U.S. food aid this month as part of an assistance agreement, the State Department said.

“Our humanitarian program will continue,” spokesman Sean McCormacktold reporters in Washington yesterday. The aid will be delivered at the end of December, he said.

The U.S. in May agreed to resume food assistance to North Korea in a deal that will see the communist state receive 500,000 metric tons during the 12 months starting in June. The U.S. has so far provided 143,000 metric tons of aid, McCormack said. (Bloomberg)

Read more here:
Russia to complete fuel supplies to North Korea – envoy
RIA Novosti
14/12/2008

Korea Gas Seeks Stakes in Australia, Oman, PNG Fields, CEO Says
Bloomberg
Shinhye Kang
12/11/2008

Russia to make N. Korea fuel shipment
UPI
12/14/2008

North Korea to Get 21,000 Tons of Food Aid From U.S. This Month
Boomberg
Kevin Cho
12/2/2008

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Inter-Korean trade falls for second straight month

Saturday, December 20th, 2008

Quoting from the Korea Times:

Inter-Korean trade fell 27.7 percent in November from a year earlier to $142.72 million, according to the ministry data posted on its Web site.

“Payments to North Korea are mostly made in dollars or euro, so the weak Korean currency has been the primary reason behind the falling trade,” a ministry official was quoted as saying.

More than 80 South Korean firms produce watches, shoes, clothes and kitchenware at a joint industrial complex in the North’s border town of Gaeseong. North Korea also exports sand to the South.

In October, South and North Korea traded goods and services worth $163.06 million, down 23.2 percent from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, inter-Korean trade from January to November reached $1.69 billion, an increase of 3.7 percent from the same period in 2007.

And According to the Hankyoreh (h/t OneFreeKorea):

According to a report, seven companies have canceled their contracts to build facilities at Gaeseong complex since October. Three of the seven bought space at a site reserved for machinery and metal cooperatives in June, and were in the process of constructing or designing factories. The report was submitted to Rep. Chun Jung-bae of the main opposition Democratic Party by the division supporting the Gaeseong Industrial Complex at the Ministry of Unification.

Two companies are in situations unrelated to the breakdown in inter-Korean relations, one had a fire last summer and another is suffering from losses incurred as a result of investment in KIKO, “knock-in knock-out” currency options trading.

The remaining five companies were believed to have abandoned their plans because of the deterioration in inter-Korean relations. An official at one of the five companies, which canceled its investment contract in December, said, “Although the economic crisis was one of the reasons why we canceled the contract, the main reason was that business prospects have darkened due to strained inter-Korean ties. Other companies that moved to (the Gaeseong complex) at the same time also decided to cancel their contracts for the same reason.”

In canceling their contracts, the seven companies forfeited their initial investments, which ranged from 17 million won (US$12,500) to 70 million won each. Land at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex was sold at 45,000 won per one square meter and the companies paid 10 percent of that price as part of their deposit.

Seven other companies also canceled their contracts last year, but they did so after an on-site feasibility study was conducted and it was determined that their businesses were not financially viable. All seven companies were able to receive their deposits under a special provision on contract cancellation, which allows companies to receive their deposits if the contract is canceled within six months of when it was signed.

The companies that canceled their contracts this year were not able to take advantage of the provision because they canceled over six months after signing their contracts.

There are growing concerns that more companies may be canceling their contracts as well. The head of Company “H,” who signed a contract to build a facility at the Gaeseong complex last year, said, “Though I would lose my initial investment of several millions of won, I’m considering canceling the contract because the tensions inter-Korean relations are likely to continue for another five years.”

Read the full story here:
Inter-Korean Trade Falls for Second Straight Month
Korea Times
12/20/2008

More companies cancel contracts at Gaeseong complex
Hankyoreh
12/17/2008

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South Korean priest to operate mission out of Pongyang hemp factory

Sunday, November 9th, 2008

Sometimes the headlines write themselves.

According to the Union of Catholic Asian News (excerpt):

For the first time in almost 60 years, a Catholic priest will stay in North Korea, and look after the welfare of local workers.

Franciscan Father Paul Kim Kwon-soon says he will stay in Pyongyang, probably beginning in late November, and serve as a “social worker” for factory workers in the first joint North-South business venture.

Returning to South Korea from a visit, Father Kim told UCA News on Nov. 4 that North Korea is allowing him to run a newly built welfare center in Pyongyang that houses a soup kitchen, a free clinic and a public bath, even though “they know I am a Catholic priest.” As a visitor, he will have to renew his visa every two months.

According to Father Kim, the three-story welfare center he will manage is within the factory premises and will provide the workers with services such as medical checkups, meals and haircuts. It will have the capacity to offer free meals to up to 1,500 workers a day.

“I can say that the center will be a turning point in the humanitarian aid to the North,” the priest noted. “We only could send aid materials” in the past, he pointed out, whereas he can now bring aid materials to the North and provide direct service.

Saebyol General agreed last February to establish the center after three years of “great efforts” on the part of his Order of Friars Minor, Father Kim explained.

During the four-day visit to the North, Bishop Lazzaro You Heung-sik of Daejeon presided at the opening ceremony of the center on Oct. 30, the priest reported.

On Nov. 1 Bishop You, former president of Caritas Corea, the Korean bishops’ social service organization, celebrated a Mass at Changchung Church, the only Catholic church in North Korea, to thank God for opening the center. About 50 South Korean Catholics including eight priests and four Religious took part. No North Korean Catholics attended.

Father Michael Lee Chang-jun, secretary of Caritas Corea, accompanied Bishop You. He told UCA News on Nov. 5 that he wished “the center could provide its service not only for the workers, but other North Korean people in the neighborhood.”

Cecilia Lee Seung-jung, North Korea program manager for Caritas Internationalis, the worldwide confederation of Caritas organizations, earlier called the agreement on the center a significant development. She pointed out that inter-Korean exchanges have been limited since the current government in Seoul assumed office last February.

Records of South Korea’s Unification Ministry show aid to North Korea from the South Korean government and civil groups amounting to US$63.6 million from January to September 2008, while in 2007 it totaled US$304.6 million.

According to Church sources, North Korea maintains that 3,000 Catholics in North Korea practice their faith at “home worship places” across the country, with no residing priest or nun. Between 1949 and 1950 all priests and nuns who remained in the North were executed or disappeared.

It is very interesting that the mission will be operated out of a South/North joint venture company rather than North Korea’s Changchung Cathedral in eastern Pyongyang.  There are countless reasons why concerned parties believe this to be a superior arrangement.

To learn more about Pyongyang’s new hemp factory, click here.

To read the full story mentioned ablove, click below:
Catholic Priest To Work In North For Social Welfare
Union of Catholic Asian News
11/6/2008

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Pyongyang Hemp Textiles Co.

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

UPDATE: A Catholic Priest will be operating a mission out of the factory.  Read more about this here. 

ORIGINAL POST: Yes, you read the title correctly.  Billed by Yonhap as the first inter-Korean joint venture in Pyongyang:

Pyongyang Hemp Textiles is a cooperative effort between the South’s Andong Hemp Textiles and the North’s Saebyol General Trading Co., with a total investment of US$30 million shared equally by the two sides, according to the officials.

Around 1,000 North Koreans will be working for the textiles and logistics firm, which is built on 47,000 square meters of land in Pyongyang, they said.

…The opening ceremony for the joint venture was delayed for close to two months due to deteriorating inter-Korean relations, which worsened after a South Korean woman was shot to death while traveling the communist country in early July. Pyongyang refused to apologize for the shooting, and denied requests from Seoul to cooperate in a fact-finding mission into the death.

If anyone has any idea where this company is located on Google Earth, please let me know. 

According to Wikipedia, which is not an authoritative source:

Industrial Hemp is produced in many countries around the world. Major producers include Canada, France, and China. The United States is the only industrialized nation to continue to ban industrial hemp. While the Hemp is imported to the United States more than to any other country, the United States Government does not distinguish between marijuana and non-psychoactive Cannabis used for industrial and commercial purposes.

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South Korea eases DPRK investment regulation

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

The South Korean government seems to have made some significant changes to the way business is to be conducted between themselves and the North.  It seems regulations have been eased on South Korean companies seeking permission to operate in the North—and some new subsidies have been put on the table.

From the Korea Times:

The government Tuesday abolished a system under which companies here must receive a permit to do business in North Korea.

As a result, companies which have been seeking to operate in the reclusive state would see simplified procedures when they start inter-Korean projects.

The Cabinet approved revisions of the law governing trade and cooperation between South and North Korea.

Under the previous licensing system, a permit for both companies and projects were necessary.

But now, companies have to get approval for their projects only and inter-Korean cooperation programs designated by a presidential decree can proceed without the approval.

If firms get the license in a dishonest way, the government can cancel it.

In a bid to diversify trade between the two Koreas, the revision allows services and intangible things as well as goods to be exchanged.

The government also approved a revision bill to encourage foreign investors to invest in inter-Korean trade.

It says that foreigners who invest $10 million or more can get some incentives such as cash grants.

The legislation on South-North cooperation was introduced in 1990 to support exchanges and cooperation between the two Koreas.

The Ministry of Unification has a committee under itself to coordinate related policies and make a decision on important inter-Korean cooperation issues.

To promote economic, cultural and social exchange projects, a permit from the minister has been required.

If caught violating the law, the person will be sentenced to up to three years imprisonment or fined up to 10 million won ($6,770).

Read the full article here:
Inter-Korean Business Procedures Simplified
Korea Times
Kim Sue-young
10/28/2008

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