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Supreme People’s Assembly’s 2007 Budget… Financial Estimate $3.1bn

Friday, April 13th, 2007

Daily NK
4/14/2007
Park Hyun Min

Changes to the North Korean Cabinet Ministry, Kim Young Il elected as the new Prime Minister, Kim Young Choon as Vice-Chairman of the National Defense Commission

At the 5th round of the 11th Supreme People’s Assembly announced on the 5th, the change in economic policies that would in future concentrate on the people’s livelihood and suspend the advancement of technological skills.

In the report, the deputy Prime Minister revealed that the major economic task for the upcoming year included light industries and agriculture, which had already been completed, and the improvement of the people’s livelihood. He said that the issue of social economic management had been discussed and that it would be resolved “our way.”

The 2007 report by the Supreme People’s Assembly proposed to, i) improve the basic standards of living in relation to agriculture and light industries, ii) enhance the manufacture of potential energy starting with the prioritizing the department into 4 divisions, iii) modernization of public economy and iv) manage sosicalistic economy through the our own.

Furthermore, foreign collaboration was proposed to further investments into advanced technology. In relation, the third phase proposal was made over a 5 year period (`08~`12) to improve technological skills such as the advancement of basic skills, high technology and software.

In contrast to last year, North Korea estimated an increase in revenue at 433.2bn won ($30.9bn, $1=141won). Last year, 5.9% were considered the public revenue, whereas this year, this figure was raised to 7.1%.

As for tax resources, national business gains tax was increased to 6.4%, cooperative organizations fund set at 4.5%, depreciation amount 9.6%, real estate fees 15.4%, and social welfare tax at 15.1%

Regarding expenses, science-technological skills among people’s economic expense increased to 60.3%, net business income is estimated to be 2% which will aid new measures to develop enterprise skills. In addition, proposals were made to increase agricultural expenses to 8.5%, light industries to 16.8%, energy, coal, metalwork and railroad to 11.9%

In relation to this, a South Korean governmental official revealed, “At this Supreme People’s Assembly, economic improvement proposal was mainly revealed without any announcement on foreign policies or sort of legislation of reform or openness.

Since last year, there have been rumors that a change in government would occur amidst the North Korean Supreme People’s Assembly. While Park Bong Joo stepped down from his position, Kim Young Il, formally in charge of transportation was elected as the new prime minister. It has been three and half years since Park Bong Joo first took his prime ministerial post at the first round of the 11th Supreme People’s Assembly in September 2003.

Former Prime Minister Park is known to have ceased his duties since last year June. He has been suspected of transferring money from the agriculture’s oil funds. At the 20th High Level Cabinet Talks in Pyongyang in February, a South Korean representative did mention that Prime Minister Park had made a welcoming speech. However, it seems that he has been ousted from his position.

Additionally, with the death of Yeon Hyung Mook in October 2005, Kim Young Choon is known to have succeeded the position of Vice Chairman as well as taking on the role of military counselor.

Regarding, the new appointments, a governmental official said that the Cabinet’s Prime Minster, Kim Young Il would aim to solve the economic issue while Kim Young Choon as the new Vice Chairman would aim to organize the structure of the ministry and strengthen the military.

While Kim Jong Il did not attend the last round of meetings, the fact that he participated in the recent meeting has also gathered much interest.

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Posted in Agriculture, Energy, Fiscal & monetary policy, Light Industry, Political economy, Supreme Peoples Assembly | Comments Closed

China Investing Heavily in N.Korean Resources – Report

Thursday, April 12th, 2007

Choson Ilbo
4/12/2007

Last year a Chinese company took a 51-percent stake in Hyesan Youth Cooper Mine in Yanggang Province, North Korea. Hebei-based Luanhe Industrial Group now has the right to develop the mine for the next 15 years.

North Korea also sold a 50-year development claim to the Musan iron mines, Asia’s largest open-air mine, to China’s Tonghua Iron & Steel Group. Since 2006, North Korea has sold the rights to develop more than 10 mines to Chinese firms.

KDB Research Institute, an affiliate of Korea Development Bank, has raised concerns with a report released Wednesday that details China’s intensive investment in North Korean natural resources. According to the report, since 2002 China has invested US$13 million (US$1=W932), more than 70 percent of its total investment in North Korea, in iron, copper and molybdenum mines.

The major investors come from the three northeast provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning. They have moved the focus of their investment from small-scale, commercial opportunities to strategic deals to secure energy resources, the report said.

According to the report, China’s Wukang Group bought the rights to dig the Yongdeung mine, North Korea’s largest hard coal mine, and another Chinese company invested in a North Korean project to develop an oil field in the West Sea. The North has also allowed Chinese fishermen to fish off the coast of Wonsan, a North Korean port city on the east coast, in return for 25 percent of the catch.

Since North Korea lacks funds while China suffers from a shortage of natural resources the two are forming joint development projects, said KDB Research Institute researcher Chung Eui-jun, the writer of the report.

Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul, said in the Wall Street Journal last July that the Chinese government seems to have made a strategic decision to encourage Chinese firms to invest in North Korea as a way to maintain its influence with its long-time ally in the post-Kim Jong-il era.

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Posted in China, Foreign direct investment, Hyesan Youth Cooper Mine, Iron Ore, Mining/Minerals, Musan Mine, Yongdeung mine | 1 Comment »

Kim Yong-il Elected North Korean Premier

Thursday, April 12th, 2007

Korea Times
Lee Jin-woo
4/12/2007
 
North Korea’s legislature on Wednesday elected Transport Minister Kim Yong-il as the country’s new premier, the North’s state-controlled news agency reported.

He replaces Pak Pong-ju who has been accused of embezzling some of the national budget, the report said.

According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim was elected as the new premier in a plenary session of the North’s Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA), a rubber-stamp legislature of the Stalinist state.

Kim, 62, rose to his position after starting his bureaucratic career as a rank-and-filer in the Ministry of Land and Marine Transport. He is known to have expert knowledge in economic affairs.

He accompanied North Korean leader Kim Jong-il twice in 2005 on trips to government facilities, and led a delegation of ministry officials to China, Cuba and Syria over the last seven years. He visited Syria in 2005 to conclude a maritime transport agreement.

After graduating from Rajin University of Marine Transport, he served in the military for nine years beginning in 1961. He has served in the minister post for more than 10 years since the early 1990s.

The SPA also tapped Kim Yong-chun, chief of general staff of the Korean People’s Army, as the vice chairman of the National Defense Commission (NDC), a position that has been vacant since the death of Yon Hyong-muk in October 2005.

The SPA, which convenes once or twice a year at irregular intervals, is headed by Kim Yong-nam, the official president of the Presidium of the SPA. He also serves as the titular head of the communist state.

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Posted in Cabinet, Economic reform, Political economy, Supreme Peoples Assembly | Comments Closed

N. Korea to focus on improving livelihoods this year

Thursday, April 12th, 2007

Yonhap
4/12/2007

Saddled with a severe food shortage problem, North Korea is poised to raise people’s standard of living this year by concentrating on agriculture and light industry.

In a session of its parliament held on Wednesday, North Korea said its major economic goal is “to improve the living standards of people on the basis of the existing foundations of agriculture and light industry.”

In a related move, the North replaced Prime Minister Pak Pong-ju, the control tower of its economy. It named Transport Minister Kim Yong-il as its new premier. Pak is believed to have been in conflict with senior North Korean officials over electricity supplies.

“Kim is in his early 60s, relatively young for North Korean cabinet members, and he has no prestigious political or educational background. He seems to be credited by his track record of economic expertise and achievement,” a senior Unification Ministry said, asking to remain anonymous.

The impoverished country has depended on international handouts to feed a large number of its 23 million people.

In a recent meeting with U.N. World Food Program officials, a North Korean vice agriculture minister acknowledged that the communist country has a shortfall of about 1 million tons of food and called for aid from the outside world.

“The cabinet will concentrate state efforts on agriculture this year, too, considering it as a mainstay, to thoroughly implement the WPK’s policy of agricultural revolution and make a signal advance in the efforts to settle the people’s problem of food,” Vice Premier Kwak Pom-gi said in a report to the delegates at the session. WPK is the acronym for the North’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.

To that end, North Korea plans to raise spending on agriculture by 8.5 percent and on light industry by 16.8 percent compared with last year.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il also attended the meeting of the parliament, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The North is officially headed by its titular leader Kim Yong-nam, the president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the country’s parliament.

But Kim Jong-il rules the country with an iron grip. He is officially the chairman of the National Defense Commission and general secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party. He reserves the office of president for his late father as a way of showing filial piety.

The North also said it will kick off a drive to modernize major light industrial factories and reinforce the production of daily necessities, while state efforts will be channeled into the construction of houses in major cities, the KCNA said.

The North earmarked 40.8 percent of the total budget expenditure for the national economy this year, and in particular, spending on the development of science and technology will rise as much as 60.3 percent compared with last year.

Based on the report from the North’s parliament, South Korea’s Unification Ministry estimated the North’s 2007 budget at US$3.09 billion, up 5.9 percent from a year earlier.

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Posted in Agriculture, Cabinet, Economic reform, Electricity, Energy, Finance, Fiscal & monetary policy, International Aid, Light Industry, Manufacturing, Political economy, Supreme Peoples Assembly | Comments Closed

North Korea elected new premier

Thursday, April 12th, 2007

Korea Herald
4/12/2007

The Supreme People’s Assembly, North Korea’s legislature, elected Transport Minister Kim Yong-il as the country’s new premier, replacing Pak Pong-ju, at its fifth plenary session held on Wednesday, Yonhap News Agency quoted a state-run North Korean news agency as reporting.

The SPA also elected Kim Yong-chun, chief of general staff of the Korean People’s Army, as the vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, a position which has been vacant since death of Yon Hyong-muk in October 2005, the Korean Central News Agency said. Kim Jong-il is the NSC chairman, and the NDC has two vice chairmen.

The 62-year-old new premier has served as the land and maritime transport minister since 1994. He visited Syria in 2005 to conclude a maritime transport agreement.

The SPA convenes once or twice a year at irregular intervals. The SPA is headed by Kim Yong-nam, the official president of the Presidium of the SPA. He also serves as the titular head of the communist state.

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Posted in Korean People's Army, Ministry of Transportation, National Defense Commission, Political economy, Supreme Peoples Assembly | Comments Closed

Rice bought, sought at markets in N. Korea: source

Tuesday, April 10th, 2007

Yonhap
4/10/2007

North Korean authorities have scaled back their country’s food rationing system and allowed rice to be bought and sold at open markets in major cities, sources here said Tuesday.

In July 2002, the communist country reduced food rationing and introduced an economic reform program under which wages were raised and farmers’ markets were expanded so that people could buy food. But the policy has zigzagged on the purchase and sale of cereals and rice. 

“Since last year, rumors have spread about the sale at state-run stores as the food rationing system did not function well. Currently, not only corn but also rice is being traded at the markets,” a government source said, asking to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The source added that North Korean authorities permitted the sale of imported rice at state-run stores. “The authorities hope to clamp down on high rice prices at black markets by diversifying the sources of rice distribution,” the source said. On the North’s black market, the product costs about 20 times more than rice at state-run stores. 

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Posted in 2002 Economic reforms, Agriculture, Black markets, Economic reform, General markets (FMR: Farmers Market), Price liberalization, Public Distribiution System (PDS) | Comments Closed

Marathon Race for Mangyongdae Cup Held

Sunday, April 8th, 2007

KCNA
4/8/2007

The 20th International Marathon Race for Mangyongdae Cup was held here on the occasion of the Day of the Sun.

Its opening ceremony was held at Kim Il Sung Stadium Sunday.

The ceremony was attended by Kim Jung Rin, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Tong Jong Ho, minister of Construction and Building-Materials Industries who is chairman of the DPRK Marathon Association, Pak Kwan O, chairman of the Pyongyang City People’s Committee, officials concerned, working people in the city, sports fans, foreign guests and overseas Koreans.

Marathoners of Namibia, Russia, Malaysia, Botswana, Switzerland, Ethiopia, China, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Poland and the DPRK competed at the race.

Pak Song Chol and Jong Yong Ok of the DPRK came first at the men’s and women’s race.

N. Korea holds int’l marathon to celebrate late leader’s birthday
Yonhap
4/8/2007

North Korea hosted an international marathon Sunday as part of the early events commemorating the birthday of the country’s late founder, Kim Il-sung, the North’s state media reported.

Kim died of heart failure in 1994 at age 82, but his birthday, dubbed “The Day of Sun,” is still celebrated as one of the most important holidays in North Korea, together with the birthday of his son, the current leader Kim Jong-il.

The 20th International Marathon Race for Mangyongdae Cup, named after the birthplace of Kim Il-sung, drew marathoners from Namibia, Russia, Malaysia, Botswana, Switzerland, Ethiopia, China, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Poland, according to the North’s Korean Central News Agency, monitored in Seoul.

North Korea’s Pak Song-chol and Jong Yong-ok clinched first place in the men’s and women’s races at the Kim Il-sung Stadium in Pyongyang, it said.

South Korean marathoners earlier left for North Korea to take part in the race, but the North Korean news agency didn’t report their names.

Kim’s birthday falls on April 15, and in past years, the North has usually begun drumming up a festive mood by holding art festivals, sports activities and dance galas one or two weeks before his actual birthday.

The two Kims hold god-like status in the North, as all North Koreans are required to wear lapel pins with their images and hang their portraits side-by-side on the walls of their homes.

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Posted in Central Committee, Civil society, Sports, Worker's Party | Comments Closed

Pyongyang fills a long-vacant post

Thursday, April 5th, 2007

Joong Ang Daily
Lee Young-jong and Ser Myo-ja
4/5/2007

As relations between the two Koreas warm, North Korea filled a key post that had been empty since August with a veteran diplomat, intelligence sources in Seoul said yesterday.

Kim Yang-gon is now director of the unification front of the Worker’s Party, a position roughly equivalent to South Korea’s unification minister.

“Kim was appointed to the post last month, shortly after inter-Korean relations were restored [in February],” a senior intelligence official said. “We assessed that North Korea was realigning its South Korea policy makers.”

Kim, 69, had been the councilor of the National Defense Commission, headed by Kim Jong-il. The Workers’ Party had left the unification front director post empty since Rim Tong-ok died in August of last year.

Since the 1980s, Kim Yang-gon has served in various key foreign affairs posts, including vice director and director of the international department of the party. Sources said Kim Jong-il wanted someone with international affairs ability because inter-Korean relations depend upon the six-nation nuclear talks and U.S.-North Korea relations.

Kim Yang-gon is also one of Kim Jong-il’s closest aides. After Workers’ Party Secretary Hwang Jang-yop defected to the South in 1997, Hyon Jun-guk was fired as the party’s international department director. Kim Jong-il appointed Kim, and he has accompanied the North Korean leader on many important meetings with foreign visitors. Kim also accompanied Kim Jong-il during rare trips to China and Russia. “We will look forward to appointments to other empty posts, such as the secretary of the Unification Front for the party and the chairman of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland,” the intelligence source said.

The two posts to be filled were left vacant after Kim Yong-sun died in a 2003 traffic accident. They are both key North Korea organs that make policy with regard to South Korea.

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Posted in National Defense Commission, Political economy, Worker's Party | Comments Closed

Education institutions in the DPRK

Thursday, April 5th, 2007

NK Choson.com

Kimchaek University of Technology, the top college of science and engineering as well as a central higher educational institution of North Korea, is located in Pyongyang, not in Kimchaek.

Colleges and universities in North Korea are classified into two: central and regional. But criteria for the classification differ from those of the South. It’s wrong to assume that those located in the capital are central institutes of higher education, and those housed in provincial cities and towns are regional ones.

Central higher educational institutions as referred to in the North denote “central-grade institutions of higher education founded in Pyongyang and elsewhere in the provinces for the purpose of educating prospective national leaders, engineers and scientists.” Accordingly, colleges and universities located in Pyongyang are not necessarily central institutions of higher education; nor those situated in the provinces are all regional colleges and universities.

Chongjin Mining and Metallurgy College, the only one of its kind not only in the North but in Asia, and Wonsan Agriculture College, the first of its kind in the North, for example, are definitely central colleges, though the former is located in North Hamgyong Province, and the latter in Kangwon Province, respectively. The same applies to Shinuiju Light Industry College located in North Pyongan Province; Sariwon College of Koryo Pharmacy in North Hwanghai Province; and Hamhung Hydrographic and Power College in South Hamgyong Province. Though located in provincial cities, they are all central colleges founded with regional features taken into account.

On the other hand, Pyongyang Machinery College, Pyongyang Agriculture College, Pyongyang Printing Industry College, though all are located in the capital, are classified as regional colleges. Each province or special city under the direct jurisdiction of the central government in the North has two normal and teachers colleges and one arts and physical education colleges, all of which are typical regional ones. Factory, farm and fishing farm colleges attached to industrial entities also belong to the regional category.

What is the central criterion separating central high educational institutions from their regional counterparts? It depends on who administers and manages them. Those administered directly by the Education Ministry are central institutions of higher education; those administered by the Education Department of the People’s Committee of a relevant province or special city placed directly under the jurisdiction of the central government are regional colleges or universities. Needless to say, no regional institutions of higher education are free from Education Ministry guidance; the guidance is only given indirectly through the People’s Committee Education Department of a pertinent province or special city. In an exception, Kim Il Sung University, the most prestigious higher educational institute in the North, is placed under the direct jurisdiction of the cabinet.

Central colleges and universities, wherever they are located, recruit students from across the land, and their graduates are assigned to any agencies, factories, corporations or research institutes in the country. On the other hand, only seniors and graduates from senior high schools in pertinent provinces and special cities are eligible to enter regional institutes of higher education, whose graduates, when given job assignments upon graduation, are confined to offices or factories in their respective administrative areas.

North Korea has quite a few institutes of higher education that are called colleges, entirely unrelated to central and regional colleges, but whose nature and curricula are totally different. The Yalu River College trains espionage agents sent to the South under the jurisdiction of the Reconnaissance Bureau of the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces; Pyongyang College of Technology, also called the State Security Agency Political College, produces prospective leaders of the intelligence agency.

The Automation College, once called Mirim College, is a special college founded for the purpose of turning out manpower needed for waging electronics information warfare, placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces. The College of People’s Economics and International Relations College are institutes retraining leading staff of the party headquarters; the College of Communism run by each province or special city is a special educational institute retraining junior leaders of regional chapters of the Workers’ Party.

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Posted in Computing/IT, Education, Kim Chaek University of Technology, Kim Il Sung University, Light Industry, Manufacturing, Shinuiju Light Industry College, Wonsan Agriculture College | Comments Closed

South, North Korea to open joint college in September

Wednesday, April 4th, 2007

Yonhap
4/4/2007

South and North Korea will open their first joint college later this year in a show of warming ties between the two sides, officials said Wednesday.

The Pyongyang Science and Technology College is scheduled to open in the North’s capital on Sept. 10 and will initially house 150 graduate students for such courses as master of business administration (MBA).

“We had originally planned to open it in April but strained inter-Korean ties delayed the project. The favorable environment will make the project go smoothly this time,” said Lim Wan-geun, a boarding member of the Northeast Asia Foundation for Education and Culture.

Kim Jin-kyong, dean of Yanbian Science and Technology College, will be the first dean of the inter-Korean college, the official said. The college will consist of a five-story building for lectures, a four-story building for a library, dining facilities and research and five dormitory buildings.

Inter-Korean relations have warmed considerably since the 2000 summit of their leaders, but tension persists since the rival states are still technically in a state of war, as no peace treaty was signed at the end of the Korean War.

South Korea suspended its food and fertilizer aid to North Korea after it conducted missile tests in July. A possible resumption of the aid was blocked due to the North’s nuclear bomb test in October.

But the relationship was revived after North Korea promised to end its nuclear weapons program in return for energy aid, and the two sides held the first ministerial talks in seven months in March.

Koreas to open first joint university
Korea Herald
Cho Ji-hyun
3/15/2007

The first joint university between South and North Korea will open in Pyongyang in September, a senior member of the founding committee told The Korea Herald.

South Koreans including Park Chan-mo, president of POSTECH in Pohang, visited Pyongyang yesterday to discuss the establishment and operation of Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, or PUST.

Early last year, the Northeast Asia Foundation for Education and Culture, a Seoul-based nonprofit organization, agreed with the North’s education authorities to open PUST as early as last October.

The schedule has been delayed due to the lack of progress in their talks amid tensions caused by North Korea’s missile and nuclear tests last year.

Their contacts have recently resumed as the ties between the two Koreas improved following the six-party agreement on the North’s nuclear programs in Beijing.

In an interview with The Korea Herald, Park, a member of the founding committee, said the school will open in September and that further discussions will take place before the opening.

The visiting delegation includes Kim Chin-kyung, president of Yanbian University of Science and Technology, who assumes the post of founding president of the Pyongyang university.

Choi Kwang-chul, professor of Seoul’s Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, also joined the trip.

For the four-day trip, they are to inspect the progress of construction work, and discuss the cross-border passage of faculty and internet connections for the school.

“We will raise two demands – constructing a land route between the two Koreas to allow professors to travel across the borders and providing internet connection,” Park said.

A Seoul government official also confirmed that the school will open in September.

The project was first initiated in 2001. The Northeast Asia Foundation for Education and Culture plans to expand the school into a university with 240 professors and more than 2,000 students from both countries.

However, the university plans to open with 50 professors and 200 students participating in master’s and doctoral programs in its first year, university officials wrote on their school website.

The university project is led by Park, Lee and Malcolm Gillis, former university president of Rice University in Texas.

In a separate effort, POSTECH has worked on a joint project with the Pyongyang Informatics Center, or PIC, since April 2001, according to Park.

Using PIC’s three dimensional computer aided design program, POSTECH has completed the development of a software called “Construction,” which offers a virtual walk through the construction site to detect errors, he said.

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Posted in Education, Foreign direct investment, Pyongyang Informatics Center (PIC), Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, South Korea, State Offices | Comments Closed

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