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Treasury blacklists another DPRK bank

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

The US Treasury Department has targeted the Amroggang Development Bank for its connections with the Tanchon Commercial Bank.

According to Reuters:

Tanchon was previously hit with sanctions by both the United States and the United Nations Security Council for its involvement in Pyongyang’s proliferation activities.

Treasury said assets of Tanchon under U.S. jurisdiction are frozen and Americans are banned from any dealing with it. It said that Tanchon’s president, Kim Tong Myong, also was being added to the list of weapons proliferators.

Treasury described Amroggang as a Tanchon-related company run by Tanchon officials. It said Tanchon helps finance Korea Mining Development Corp’s sales of ballistic missiles and has been involved in Komid’s ballistic missile transactions with an Iranian industrial group.

The US has sanctioned several companies and banks this year (here, here, here).

The UN Security Council has also sanctioned several companies and individuals (here).

Here is a link to the Treasury Department Statement. Some text below:

Amroggang, which was established in 2006, is a Tanchon-related company managed by Tanchon officials. Tanchon, the financial arm of the U.S. and UN-designated North Korean company Korea Mining Development Corporation (KOMID), plays a role in financing KOMID’s sales of ballistic missiles and has also been involved in ballistic missile transactions from KOMID to Iran’s Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG), the U.S. and UN-designated Iranian organization responsible for developing liquid-fueled ballistic missiles. KOMID is North Korea’s premiere arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons.

A North Korean individual Kim Tong Myong was also designated today for acting on behalf of Tanchon. Kim Tong Myong has held various positions within Tanchon since at least 2002 and is currently Tanchon’s President. He has also played a role in managing Amroggang’s affairs using the alias Kim Chin-so’k.

Read the full Reuters article here:
Treasury puts North Korean bank on blacklist
Reuters
10/23/2009

Posted in Amroggang Development Bank, Foreign Trade Bank, Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (aka Kapmun Tosong, KOMID), Tanchon Commercial Bank | 3 Comments »

World Council of Churches visiting North Korea

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

UPDATE 2: Well apparently the World Council of Churches is in bed with the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to their most recent press release:

Nearly 140 leaders from the world’s churches, North and South Koreans among them, have called for the formation of an inter-Korean confederation even before complete reunification of Korea can take place. Agreement was reached at the close of a three-day meeting in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong where the Christian leaders expressed unrelenting hope for peace and reconciliation among Koreans, despite the stark realities of the ongoing division of the Korean peninsula.

The call for a confederation came in a communiqué developed by the group at the end of their international consultation on Korean reunification. The “Tsuen Wan Communiqué” says the confederation option would involve progressive steps such as peaceful co-existence and the furthering of economic cooperation between the two Koreas.

The proposal for an inter-Korean confederation was presented to the group jointly by church leaders from North and South Korea on the final day of deliberations.

The “confederation system would respect both governments”, said the Rev. Kang Yong Sop, chairman of the Korea Christian Federation of North Korea, in a presentation to the group on Friday morning.

“North and South Korea must first recognize each other’s systems and engage in cooperation in any field possible, and institutionalize the results,” said Suh Bo Hyug, a member of the National Council of Churches in Korea’s reconciliation and reunification committee: “Only then will they move closer to reunification.”

The communiqué was the outcome of a consultation on peace, reconciliation and reunification of the Korean peninsula held 21 to 23 October 2009, sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA).

Of course the confederation plan was raised by Kim Il sung years ago and the DPRK is still pushing that vision as an intermediary step towards reunification.

And if there was any doubt remaining:

They also called for all sanctions against North Korea imposed by the United Nations Security Council to be lifted, for immediate bilateral talks between the United States and North Korea, and for North and South Korea to implement fully the 15 June 2000 North-South Joint Declaration and the 4 October 2007 Declaration, both of which spelled out a number of goals and steps toward reunification.

UPDATE 1: The WCC issued an interesting press release following their visit to the DPRK. Here is an excerpt:

Visiting North Korea at the invitation of the Korean Christian Federation of North Korea, Kobia and the delegation visited three churches on Sunday 18 October.

In addition to visiting the Bong Soo Church the delegation also visited the Chilgol Church in the capital, Pyongyang, and a house church of 12 members in the town of Sunam which is near Pyongyang.

Continuing with the Corinthian example Kobia told the Bong Soo congregation that no church is more important than the other. “The body is whole when all the parts cooperate with each other,” he said. “Therefore in his letter to the churches in Corinth, Paul appeals to the community to recognize each other as being a very important part of the body.”

The Bong Soo Church was constructed in 1987 with funding from the North Korean government and the Presbyterian Church of Korea. The church is thoroughly modern with a full sound system, balcony and music text on a large screen in front of the church, a video camera system, a high-lofted ceiling and an area for a large choir.

Bibles and songbooks line the seating areas for the congregations. Within the church compound is a recently constructed theological seminary where 12 students are now enrolled to earn degrees in evangelism.

The Bong Soo worship service overflowed with music from the choir, soloists and several women’s groups, mostly singing traditional hymns. Asked if the abundance of music was especially for the WCC delegation, a congregation member said no, “this happens every week.”

The smaller congregation at the Chilgol Church, which the WCC delegation also visited, has been in existence since the late 1800s. The current building is relatively new, as the original building was destroyed in the Korean War by the U.S. bombing of Pyongyang.

A WCC delegation member asked the congregation about the noticeable absence of children in the churches. While acknowledging this is a challenge within North Korean society, they said the children are involved in a broad range of other activities and some will at a later age come to church. They said it was their job to teach their children at home about Christianity.

On Sunday afternoon the WCC delegation visited a house church of 12 members who meet in a home in the community of Sunam outside of Pyongyang. They said the house church movement within North Korea is growing.

The church meets on Sundays, sitting on the floor of the living room of a member’s home. One member brings an accordion to accompany the singing. The singing in the North Korean church tends to be extraordinarily rich and is a key part, along with prayer and teaching, of any worship service.

Read the full press release here.

ORIGINAL POST: According to the press release on their web page (written before departure):

The visit is at the invitation of and being organized by the Korean Christian Federation (KCF) of North Korea and will take place 17 to 20 October.

“We will be meeting with the churches, government officials and learning about the life and witness of churches in North Korea,” said Dr Mathews George Chunakara, director of the WCC Public Witness programme and the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, who will be a member of the delegation travelling with Kobia. “We will be participating in the worship service at Bong Soo Church in Pyongyang, where the WCC general secretary will preach.”

The churches in North Korea are involved in social development and humanitarian aid assistance, and the members of WCC’s ecumenical fellowship have been supportive to the KCF for the past several years, said Chunakara.

The visit is taking place at a time when intense multilateral diplomatic efforts and negotiations are under way on issues related to denuclearization of North Korea and resumption of Six Party Talks, which were stalled for some time after North Korea withdrew from the talks.

Although North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is said to have made the announcement to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Pyongyang last week during his three-day visit that North Korea would return to the Six Party Talks, it is also reported that Kim Jong-il said the return would be dependent on the progress of its planned bilateral talks with the US.

The WCC has been relating with the churches in North Korea for the past 25 years, with the first official visit having taken place in 1985. In the early 1980s the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs initiated a process aimed at peace, reconciliation and reunification of the Korean peninsula and bringing church leaders from North and South Korea together.

This is the second visit of a WCC general secretary in ten years. In 1999, then general secretary Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser visited North Korea.

After the visit to North Korea, the delegation will travel to Hong Kong to participate in an international consultation on peace, reconciliation and reunification of the Korean peninsula, which will be held from 21 to 23 October.

The WCC general secretary will be accompanied by WCC staff members Mathews George Chunakara, Christina Papazoglou, Mark Beach and Peter Williams, as well as the general secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia, Dr Prawate Khid-arn.

Critics of the DPRK have long argued that the primary purpose of Korean Christian Federation is to attract aid from foreign religious organizations. This is probably true to some extent, but the organization has been around since the 1940s so it is likely that by this point its mission within the political system is more complicated than to function only as an aid magnet.

Here are a few older posts about the KCF.

Posted in Christian Federation, International Aid, Religion, World Council of Churches | 1 Comment »

“150 Day Battle” production campaign stories

Monday, October 12th, 2009

Photo by Eric Lafforgue

North Korean claims record production gains through ‘150-day battle’
Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
NK Brief No. 09-10-12-1
10/12/2009

It has been boasted that North Korea’s ‘150-day Battle’ to boost the economy (April 20-September 16) resulted in record-breaking jumps in DPRK production numbers, and it has been suggested that that by 2012, some enterprises will “attain production numbers higher than the best numbers recorded at the end of the 1980s.” This claim was made by Ji Young-il, the director of the Chosun University Social Science Research Institute, which is run by the pro-Pyongyang “General Federation of Korean Residents in Japan.”

In “Professor Ji Young-il’s Monthly Economic Review: The 150-day Battle and Prospects for Building an Economically Powerful Nation,” an article in the federation’s newspaper, Choson Sinbo, the author wrote, “There are more than a few enterprises that have set production goals for 2012 at more than three times the current level of production.” He also claimed that some enterprises in the mining, energy and railroad transportation sectors had set goals of as much as 6 times today’s production numbers.

Professor Ji went on to write, “Basically, it is an extraordinary goal ensuring growth of 1.3-1.5 times (a growth rate of 130-150%) per year.” He also explained that surpassing production rates as high as those seen in the late 1980s is one of the fundamental markers on the road toward “opening the door to a Strong and Prosperous Nation.”

Citing North Korea’s “Choson Central Yearbook,” he gave production numbers in various sectors of the DPRK economy at the end of the 1980s: electricity, 55.5 billion kWh (1989); coal, 85 million tons (1989); steel, 7.4 million tons (1987); cement, 13.5 million tons (1989); chemical fertilizer, 5.6 million tons (1989); textiles, 870 million meters (1989); grain, 10 million tons (1987).

Director Ji claimed that during the recent ‘battle’, production in the metals industries was up several times that of the same period in previous years, while energy producers generated several hundred million kWh of electricity, coal production was up 150%, and cement and other construction materials were up 140%. He pointed out that in 14 years of the Chollima movement, beginning in 1957, during which socialist industrialization took place in the North, the yearly average production growth was 19.1%, and he stated that the annual growth of 9 to 10% in industrial production over the past several years was a noteworthy record.

Moving to the agricultural sector, Director Ji also noted that while overseas experts have critiqued this year’s harvest, there has been a definite breakthrough in grain production with land cultivation hitting previously unseen levels over the past several years.

Previous 150-day battle stories below:
(more…)

Posted in 150-Day Battle for Production, 2012 Strong and Prosperous Nation (Kangsong Taeguk), Coal, Energy, Institute for Far Eastern Studies, Labor conditions/wages, Manufacturing, Mining/Minerals, Railways, Transportation, Worker's Party | 6 Comments »

No more “communism” in DPRK “constitution”

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

UPDATE 5: Dr. Petrov has some great commentary on the new constitution:

A rough English translation as offered by Northeast Asia Matters in their report here but it mistranslates Article 8 of the Constitution, calling “근로인민의 리익” or “the interests of the workers” as “human rights”, which is not the same.

As for dropping the word 공산주의 or “communism”, indeed is happened in Articles 29 and 40 (Economy and Culture respectively). The mystery is in why Naenara keeps the old English version, where the sensational new Section 2 of Chapter VI “Chairman of the National Defence Commission” is missing?

UPDATE 3: Northeast Asia Matters has posted a copy of the DPRK constitution in English. Click here to read.

UPDATE 2: A reader has posted the new constitution (in Korean) in the comments section below. Click here to read.

UPDATE 1: From the Wall Street Journal:

The average North Korean doesn’t know the country’s national constitution well, but at least he has a solid excuse: Kim Jong Il keeps the working masses ignorant of the rights that are formally granted them, which include freedom of speech and demonstration. But just because Pyongyang’s constitution is hardly worth the paper it is written on does not mean that alterations to it are beneath notice. For the ruling elite, its preamble and first few articles serve as a broad indication of the regime’s ideological direction.

ORIGINAL POST: According to Reuters:

North Korea has revised its constitution to give even more power to leader Kim Jong-il, ditch communism and elevate his “military first” [Songun] ideology, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said on Monday.

Though there is little doubt over the 67-year-old Kim’s power, secured by his role as chairman of the National Defence Commission, the new constitution removes any risk of ambiguity.

“The chairman is the highest general of the entire military and commands the entire country,” according to a text of the constitution enacted by the reclusive North in April and only now released by the South Korean government.

The chairman is now the country’s “supreme leader”. Though the position had become the seat of power under Kim, the previous constitution in 1998 simply said the chairman oversees matters of state.

But the Unification Ministry said the new charter removes all reference to communism, the guiding ideology when Kim’s father Kim Il-sung founded North Korea — of which since his death in 1994 he has been eternal president.

Often in its place is “songun”, the policy of placing the military first and which has been Kim junior’s ruling principle.

South Korean media quoted an official from the North as saying that it made the change because it felt the ideals of communism are “hard to fulfil”.

The new constitution adds assurances for protecting human rights, even though North Korea has one of the world’s worst records.

Experts on the North’s state propaganda said the military first ideology has helped Kim dodge responsibility for the country’s sharp economic decline by arguing that heavy defence spending was needed to overcome threats posed by the United States.

It has also meant that the bulk of the North’s limited resources have gone into beefing up a million-strong military at the expense of the rest of the population who make up one of Asia’s poorest societies.

According to the Associated Press:

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies, says it is the first time the North’s constitution has mentioned human rights.

“I think they created this clause, mindful of international criticism of their human rights record,” Yang said. “It lacks details, such as how they will respect and protect human rights. I think it’s just a formality.”

The new constitution also defined Kim Jong Il as the country’s highest leader in a clearer term, saying that the chairman of the all-powerful National Defense Commission — Kim’s title — is the nation’s “supreme leader.”

The previous version only said the commission is the country’s highest organization.

The new constitution also dropped references to communism and only mentions socialism.

But Yang said the change does not mean much because the charter of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, which is considered higher than the constitution, still says its goal is to build a communist nation.

New York Times:

…Analysts saw the changes as signs that one of the last holdouts from the former Communist bloc was trying to improve its international image in an effort to engage the United States and that the ailing Mr. Kim was trying to burnish his legacy.

North Korea revised its Constitution in April when its rubber-stamp Parliament re-elected Mr. Kim as chairman of the National Defense Commission amid uncertainty over his health. But the outside world was kept in the dark about the details of the amendment until Monday, when South Korea released what it called the text of the North Korean Constitution.

The new Constitution defined one of several titles Mr. Kim holds, chairman of the National Defense Commission, as “supreme leader” of the country. Though Mr. Kim has ruled the country as an undisputed leader, the Constitution revision is the first time he has acquired such an official designation since the death of his father, Kim Il-sung, in 1994.

The chairman “oversees the entire national business,” appointing important military figures, ratifying or abrogating treaties with foreign nations, appointing special envoys and declaring states of emergency or war, the new Constitution said.

The government of South Korea declined to comment, saying it was still scrutinizing the changes. But analysts said Mr. Kim was reasserting his rule by stamping his imprint on the Constitution at a time when doubt persisted at home and abroad about his health and his grip on power.

“After he overcame his health crisis, Kim Jong-il revised the Constitution to show that he was in control and was the person the United States must deal with,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea analyst at Dongguk University in Seoul. “By mentioning human rights and giving up communism, which sounded hollow to his people after the collapse of the Eastern bloc, he is also trying to show that he is a flexible leader sensitive to the changing world order.”

The constitutional revision does little to add to his already absolute grip on power, said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior analyst at Sejong Institute in South Korea. Mr. Kim is already head of the ruling Workers’ Party and the People’s Army. The new Constitution stuck to a socialist system, though it abandoned communism.

But by bringing more portfolios under his National Defense Commission, “Kim Jong-il showed an intention to focus more on the military and foreign affairs” while leaving party matters to Kim Jong-un, the youngest of his three sons, who is reportedly being groomed as his successor, Mr. Cheong said.

North Korea is now ruled by a “Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un coalition,” he added.

In 1998, four years after the death of Kim Jong-il’s father, North Korea revised its Constitution to leave the senior Kim’s title, president, “eternally vacant,” dispersing the roles of the presidency to different agencies. That left outside analysts wondering who officially represented the country, though few disputed Mr. Kim’s authority. With the April revision, Mr. Kim has now left no doubt where the power resides both in reality and in document, analysts said.

Read the full stories below:
North Korea drops communism, boosts “Dear Leader”
Reuters
Jon Herskovitz and Christine Kim
9/28/2009

North Korea’s new constitution calls for respecting human rights for first time
Associated Press
9/28/2009

New Constitution Bolsters Kim’s Power
New York Times
Choe Sang-hun
9/28/2009

Posted in Korean People's Army, National Defense Commission, Political economy, Worker's Party | 5 Comments »

KPA going guerilla

Friday, October 9th, 2009

According to Blaine Harden in the Washington Post (excerpts):

North Korea has massively increased its special operations forces, schooled them in the use of Iraqi-style roadside bombs and equipped them to sneak past the heavily fortified border that divides the two Koreas.

In a conflict, tens of thousands of special forces members would try to infiltrate South Korea: by air in radar-evading biplanes, by ground through secret tunnels beneath the demilitarized zone (DMZ), and by sea aboard midget submarines and hovercraft, according to South Korean and U.S. military analysts.

Their primary mission, in the event of war, is to leapfrog the DMZ and create chaos among the 20.5 million residents of greater Seoul, while harassing South Korean and U.S. forces in rear areas, military and intelligence experts said.

South Korea and the United States agree that the number of North Korean special forces is rising, but they disagree on how much.

The number is now 180,000, according to the South Korean Defense Ministry. That’s a 50 percent increase since the South’s last official count three years ago. But Sharp, the U.S. commander here, puts the number at 80,000 (although that still dwarfs the special forces of any country, including the United States, which has about 51,000.)

Much of the difference appears to be a dispute over the definition of special forces. North Korea has retrained and reconfigured about 60,000 infantry troops as special forces in the past three years, South Korea says. The United States agrees that this reconfiguring has occurred, but it “does not count [retrained infantry] as special forces,” according to Maj. Todd Fleming, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Korea.

Whatever the number, there is widespread agreement that the North’s special forces are increasingly formidable. Sharp describes them as “tough, well-trained and profoundly loyal,” while being capable of illicit activities, strategic reconnaissance and attacks against civilian infrastructure and military targets across Northeast Asia.

But the capacity of North Korea to protect and maintain that frontline armor has declined since the 1990s. Flight hours for the North’s military aircraft have plummeted for lack of fuel, as has training of mechanized ground forces.

North Korea has also begun to question the utility of the tanks and armor it can afford at the front, after seeing the ease with which U.S. precision weapons shredded Saddam Hussein’s armored forces in Iraq, according to a South Korean Defense Ministry report.

“They were really shocked watching how the Americans destroyed Iraq’s tanks,” said Kim, the military affairs editor.

What North Korea still has in extraordinary abundance are boots on the ground, thanks to universal conscription and a mandatory 10 years of military service for men, seven years for women.

“The North Koreans made a decision based on the resources they have,” said Kwon Young-hae, a former director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service. “The best way for them to counterbalance the South’s technological advantage is with special forces. When Kim Jong Il gives pep talks to these troops, he says, ‘You are individually, one by one, like nuclear weapons.’ “

The full article is worth reading here.

I cant help but see the Iranian government involved in this, but that is entirely speculative.

And a personal aside—I recommend that everyone (including Americans) visit Iran. Despite the reputation of the Iranian government in the west, the country is one of the friendliest and most beautiful places I have been fortunate enough to visit. My only regret with regards to my trip there is that I could not spend more time enjoying the company of her beautiful people.

Posted in Korean People's Army, Military | 1 Comment »

Golden Jubilee of FTB Celebrated

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

(KCNA) Pyongyang, September 24 (KCNA) — The 50th anniversary of the founding of the Foreign Trade Bank was significantly celebrated in the DPRK.

Established in Juche 48 (1959), the bank has conducted settlement with other countries and financial transactions in a uniform manner as required by the nation’s developing external economic relations.

The bank has boosted its business relations and satisfactorily ensured settlement with banks of various countries, laying a groundwork for developing the nation’s external economic relations including foreign trade.

The bank has further boosted its business capability and improved international confidence as required by the times when the country’s international prestige and economic potential are rising remarkably and made a brisk way into international financial markets, steadily expanding the business relations with various other banks of the world on the principle of independence, equality and mutual benefit.
A meeting celebrating the golden jubilee of the FTB was held in Pyongyang Thursday.

Present there on invitation were delegations and delegates of various countries participating in the celebrations of the golden jubilee of the bank, staff members of embassies of foreign countries here and foreign guests staying in the DPRK.

O Kwang Chol, president of the bank, delivered a report at the meeting.

Additionally: Previous posts featuring the Foreign Trade Bank here.

Posted in Foreign Trade Bank | Comments Closed

North Korea shuffles cabinet in effort to build a strong and prosperous nation

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Institute for Far Esatern Studies (IFES)
NK Brief No. 09-22-1
9/22/2009

In order to meet the goal of building a ‘Strong and Prosperous Nation’ by the year 2012, North Korean authorities are reshuffling some positions within the Cabinet, which is its ‘Economic Headquarters’. During the first session of the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) last April, Kim Jong Il launched his third regime, and now less than 6 months later, is restructuring the Cabinet. For example, the National Science and Technology Council, which was merged into the Cabinet Academy of Science (now the National Academy of Science) in 1998, has been re-established.

North Korean media briefly reported on the 19th that the SPA Standing Committee brought out the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea National Science and Technology Council” through the announcement of Government Ordinance # 301. The press did not follow up with specifics concerning the announcement, but the recent position of North Korean authorities that “without scientific and technological development, there is no independence, no national defense, and no economy,” it appears that the recent cabinet order is related to attempts by the North to strengthen its economy.

The first National Science and Technology Council established in the North was created in 1962, and was intended to support the national defense industries. The Academy of Science, which had been established 10 years prior, was put under the control of the council, and the council was responsible for the creation and implementation of a national science and technology plan, as well as for providing guidance over research activities. However, as the North’s level of science and technology improved, the council, which was not made up of experts on science and technology, was unable to appropriately guide the research carried out by the academy. In 1982, the academy was separated from the council, and its status was boosted to that of an independent entity.

North Korea is currently in its 3rd 5-year plan to “develop new national science and technologies” by 2012. Currently, North Korea is prioritizing the modernization of factories, enterprises and other industries, and Kim Jong Il has stressed modernization and the introduction of vanguard technologies during his on-site inspections of the nation’s economic facilities. Therefore, it appears that the newly established National Science and Technology Council will be responsible for overseeing cooperation between mechanical and chemical industries and the modernization of the industrial sector, while the National Academy of Science will focus purely on research.

Posted in 2012 Strong and Prosperous Nation (Kangsong Taeguk), Cabinet, National Academy of Science, Supreme Peoples Assembly | Comments Closed

DPRK government goes after informal lenders

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

PSA Cracks Down on Loan Sharks
Daily NK
Jung Kwon Ho
9/20/2009

North Korea’s police, the People’s Safety Agency (PSA), have launched a special investigation into the behavior of loan sharks, or “usurers,” in light of the high numbers of people taking out high interest loans but being unable to keep up repayments and ending up as “kotjebi.”

A source from Shinuiju told Daily NK on Friday, “A decree declaring all-out war against predatory usurers has been handed down to the provincial People’s Safety Agency. They are investigating Korean-Chinese traders and North Koreans repatriated from Japan.”

Loan sharks in North Korea are generally Korean-Chinese with relatives in China or those who have returned from Japan but whose relatives remain there.

The story was confirmed by a source from Hoiryeong in North Hamkyung Province. The source explained to Daily NK on Thursday, “The People’s Safety Agency issued a decree exposing the usury, and conveyed it to every office of the provincial and municipal National Security Agency (NSA) and the PSA. Thereafter, NSA officials attended People’s Unit meetings and gave lectures about harshly sanctioning the practice of earning money through high interest loans.”

According to the Hoiryeong source, the decree, “Map out measures to uproot usury,” was delivered to all NSA officials on September 2.

The decree apparently says, “Although national measures have been adopted to root out usury, this social phenomenon has not been eradicated.”

The Shinuiju source said that the authorities’ new hard-line has come about because the numbers of people who are being turned into “kotjebi” by these predatory loans is increasing.

He noted, “Since 2000, new kotjebi have been people who have gone to ruin and lost their homes to loan sharks. These days their numbers are drastically increasing, so the authorities cannot stand by indifferently.”

According to one source, a Korean-Chinese loan shark called Cho Jung Cheol was recently caught by the PSA on suspicion of taking a total of seven houses from defaulters.

North Korean people usually offer their house as security on a loan. Cho lent money at 30% interest for two weeks to a month, and used gangsters to take houses from those who couldn’t pay.

Those who lose their houses in this way roam the streets with their family members, the family splits up, or sometimes they escape from North Korea. After 2005, this became a common social phenomenon.

The loan sharks have other unethical ways to turn a profit, “Some of these loan sharks hoard up food during the harvest season and earn undue profits from selling it in the difficult spring season,” the source explained.

Sources all agreed that the people unanimously welcome the authorities’ measures.

Posted in Banking, Finance, Ministry of People’s Security (Criminal Police), Real estate | Comments Closed

ROK approves delegation to visit PUST opening

Monday, September 14th, 2009

UPDATE 4: More on the Leadership of PUST from Houston Business Journal:

A Rice University professor has paved the way for a private university in North Korea.

Malcolm Gillis, the Ervin Kenneth Zingler professor of economics and professor of management, is part of a four-person committee that founded the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, which will open next spring.

Members of the committee include founding President James Chin-Kyung Kim; Chan-Mo Park, former president of Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea; and Jung Bae Kim, former president of Korea University.

Gillis, who was president of Rice from 1993 to 2004, said the project goes back to 1997 when he met with the late Kim Dae Jung, then president-elect of South Korea, to engage in peace talks between North and South Korea.

PUST will offer programs for information technology, industry and management, and agriculture studies, with plans to open new schools for architecture, engineering and public health in the near future.

Reference:
Rice University professor co-founds North Korean university
Houston Business Journal
10/9/2009
UPDATE 3: According to Yonhap:

“North Korea is stumping for opening this university,” Kim Jin-kyung, co-president of the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, said, returning from a three-day trip to the North Korean capital.

“There are many difficulties, but we are aiming to open the school within this year,” Kim said. He is also president of the Yanbian University of Science and Technology, run with South Korean non-governmental funding, in the Korean autonomous prefecture of Yanbian, northeastern China.

The school seeks to first accept 150 students in the fields of information and communications engineering; agricultural biotechnology and food engineering; and industrial management, he said.

All lectures will be in English, and students will be required to meet the paper-based TOEFL score of 550, Kim said. North Korea has already recruited prospective students among “carefully chosen elites” who studied at top North Korean schools like Kim Il Sung University and Kim Chaek University of Technology, he added.

“North Korea asked us to get the school to have competent faculty members,” he said. “We expect the South Korean government to lend support in the larger context of inter-Korean reconciliation.”

Park Chan-mo, a science and technology advisor to President Lee Myung-bak who attended the completion ceremony with Kim, said Seoul is supportive.

“The fact that (the government) gave permission to the North Korea trip shows it has a will to lend support,” Park said.

The school will be reportedly co-headed by North Korea’s vice education minister, Jon Kuk-man. North Korean media reported the South Korean delegation’s departure earlier Thursday.

UPDATE 2: According to KCNA:

First-Phase Construction of University of Science and Technology Completed

Pyongyang, September 16 (KCNA) — A ceremony for the completion of the first-phase construction of Pyongyang University of Science and Technology was held Wednesday.

Present there were Jon Kuk Man, vice-minister of Education, officials concerned and members of a delegation led by Chin Kyung Kim, founding-president of the university.

Speeches were made there.

After a certificate on nominating the co-managerial president of the university was conveyed to the founding-president, the participants looked round the building of the university completed as the first-phase construction.

UPDATE 1: CNN published an extensive article on PUST this afternoon. Read the whole story here (Thanks to AFC). According to the story:

James Kim, an American businessman turned educator, once sat in the very last place that anyone in the world would wish to be: a cold, dank prison cell in Pyongyang, the godforsaken capital of North Korea.

Kim, who had emigrated from South Korea to the United States in the 1970s, had been a frequent visitor to Pyongyang over the years in pursuit of what, to many, seemed at best a quixotic cause. He wanted to start an international university in Pyongyang, with courses in English, an international faculty, computers, and Internet connections for all the students.

Not only that — in the heart of the world’s most rigidly Communist country, Kim wanted his school to include that training ground for future capitalists: an MBA program.

During one of his trips to the capital in 1998, with North Korea in the midst of a famine that would eventually kill thousands, the state’s secret police arrested Kim.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il didn’t lock up the educator for being crazy. He got it in his head that the oddly persistent American — who at the time, among other things, was helping to feed starving North Koreans with deliveries of food aid from China — was a spy.

So for more than 40 days, Kim languished in a North Korean prison. An evangelical Christian, Kim wrote his last will and testament during those days, not knowing if he’d ever get out.

Which makes where he plans to be in mid-September all the more astonishing. Kim will lead a delegation of 200 dignitaries from around the world to North Korea for the dedication of the first privately funded university ever allowed in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST).

The school will have an international faculty educating, eventually, around 600 graduate students. Kim dreams ultimately of hosting an industrial park around the PUST campus, drawing firms from around the world — a North Korean version, as bizarre as it sounds, of Palo Alto or Boston’s Route 128.

There will be Internet access for all, connecting the students to an outside world that they’ve heretofore been instructed is a hostile and dangerous place. And among the six departments will be a school of industrial management.

“We ended up not calling it an ‘MBA program,'” jokes David Kim (no relation to James), a former Bechtel and Pacific Gas & Electric executive who has relocated to Pyongyang to help set up PUST, “because they [the North Koreans] think it sounds vaguely imperialistic.”

That the North Koreans are permitting this to happen — that they have given James Kim the nod to create his university, just as he intended — is remarkable.

It’s hard for outsiders to understand just how backward, isolated, and impoverished North Korea is. Since the collapse of the Eastern bloc 20 years ago, fewer and fewer North Korean university students study abroad. Allowing PUST to proceed lets a gust of fresh air into a stilted, frightfully isolated environment.

The rest of the story is worth reading here.

ORIGINAL POST: Although the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) has yet to set an opening date, a South Korean delegation will be visiting the DPRK to commemorate the completion of the facility. According to Yonhap:

South Korea permitted a delegation from a private foundation to visit North Korea this week to celebrate the completion of a science and technology university jointly built with the North, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said Monday.

The ceremony for the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology is scheduled for Wednesday, according to ministry spokesperson Chun Hae-sung. He said the 20-member delegation will make a three-day trip to the North beginning Tuesday.

The delegation includes Kwak Seon-hee, head of the Seoul-based Northeast Asia Foundation for Education and Culture. The foundation was mostly responsible for organizing donations and fundings for the university, the first to be jointly-operated with an organization not based in the North.

The move marks the first time that the Seoul government has approved a non-humanitarian visit to the North since the communist state carried out its second nuclear test in May.

The date of the school’s opening and other administrative affairs, however, have yet to be decided and must be worked out between the North Korean authorities and the foundation.

Kim Jin-kyung, head of the Yanbian University of Science and Technology in China, will serve as president of the university until its official opening, according to ministry officials.

Further information:

1. Here are previous PUST posts.

2. Here is the location of PUST.

3. Here is the PUST Wikipedia page.

4. There are two PUST web pages. Here is the first. Here is the second. (Thanks to AFC)

Read the full story here:
Seoul approves N.K. trip to mark completion of tech university
Yonhap
9/14/2009

Posted in Education, Ministry of Education, Pyongyang University of Science and Technology | Comments Closed

US sanctions more DPRK organizations

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

According to Reuters (via the New York Times):

The United States moved on Tuesday to freeze the assets of two North Korean entities believed to be involved in atomic and missile programs, raising pressure on Pyongyang to resume disarmament talks.

Despite a recent charm offensive by North Korea, the State Department moved against its General Bureau of Atomic Energy, which oversees the nuclear program, and Korea Tangun Trading Corp, believed to support its missile programs.

Both were targeted under a presidential executive order that allows the White House to freeze the U.S. assets of people and entities suspected of developing weapons of mass destruction or the means to deliver them, including missiles.

“These designations continue U.S. efforts to prevent North Korean entities of proliferation concern from accessing financial and commercial markets that could aid the regime’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons and the missiles capable of delivering them,” the State Department said in a statement.

The action requires U.S. individuals, banks and other institutions to block the assets of the North Korean entities.

It was unclear whether either actually had any assets under U.S. jurisdiction but American officials said Washington hoped the move would discourage other countries from doing business with North Korea.

“Are we hoping for a spillover effect? Of course,” said one U.S. official.

These two organizations were targeted by the UNSC earlier this year.

Here is information and (links to information) taken by the US and UN in 2009.

Read the full story here:
U.S. Acts to Freeze Assets Of Two N.Korean Entities
Reuters (via New York Times)
9/8/2009

Posted in General Bureau of Atomic Energy, International trade, Korean Tangun Trading Corp (aka Chasongdang Trading Co.), Military, USA | 1 Comment »