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Paul French Discusses North Korea

Tuesday, September 18th, 2007

Frontline Club (h/t Kitten Wars)
1/17/2007

Paul French, Director of Access Asia–a market research and business intelligence company specialising in China and North Asia’s economics and markets, spoke to the Economist’s Simon Long about what he has witnessed and learned about North Korea.

He focuses mainly on his perceptions of the US/DPRK relationship, but he also talks about the difficulties of bringing investment capital into the DPRK.

Click on “Frontline club” at the top of the picture above to see the video.

Posted in Economic reform, Foreign direct investment, Juche, Songun | Comments Closed

Narrowing Economic Gap Key to Reunification

Monday, September 17th, 2007

Korea Times
Jung Sung-ki
9/17/2007

Former Unification Minister Park Jae-kyu said reducing economic inequality between the two Koreas is the foremost task to achieve reunification of the two Koreas.

In an exclusive interview with The Korea Times in Seoul on Sept. 6, the former point man on North Korean affairs reiterated the importance for closer cross-border economic ties, which he said would make the North open to the outside world and eventually help achieve reunification.

Park, however, said a “unilateral give-away”policy centered on huge inter-Korean business projects should be refrained from and any economic assistance for North Korea should contribute to opening up the communist neighbor, as well as proceed in tandem with progress in six-party talks over the North’s nuclear program.

He also said big-budget programs for the North, a so-called “Marshall Plan,” touted by some of President Roh Moo-hyun’s aides, is premature and not feasible.

“But a proposal for a second industrial complex on the Gaeseong model may be within the realm of feasibility,” he said. “Even though few people expect the Roh government to make any covert cash payments to the North either before or after the second inter-Korean summit, the possibility that a huge economic cooperation project may be unveiled cannot be ruled out.”

Lee Hae-chan, who served prime minister and as Roh’s political adviser, said last month that President Roh would propose several joint economic projects to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il at the Oct. 2-4 summit in Pyongyang.

He cited plans to build industrial parks in the North’s port city of Nampo and other cities, modeled after the Gaeseong industrial park, as well as invest in the North’s public infrastructure projects, including the renovation of the 170-kilometer Pyongyang-Gaeseong highway.

Launching South Korean-backed tourism projects in the North’s scenic mountains modeled on the Mount Geumgang program is also considered, said Lee, a presidential hopeful of the pro-government United New Democratic Party.

Roadmap for Korean Unification

Park referred to the German reunification process as a case in point from which South Korea should take a cue for the reunification of the peninsula.

“Since March 1970, East and West Germany had held a total of nine summit talks for about 20 years before they achieved the goal of reunification,” said Park, president of Kyungnam University.

“Through the summits spanning two decades, West Germany focused on exchanges and economic cooperation with East Germany,”he said. “In return, the West demanded of the East offsets like the opening of news media and exchanged visits by separated families. Such efforts bore fruit and paved the way for eventual reunification.”

West Germany provided East Germany with $2 billion-worth economic support annually before the reunification. Even after reunification, however, a disparity in economic strength between the sides has caused many social problems in Germany, he said.

“When the two sides were reunified, a gap in economic powers between West and East Germany was a three-to-one level. The West continued to offer $150 billion worth support to the East annually for 16 years after the reunification,” he said. “Still, Germany sees a jobless rate between 15 and 20 percent and has various social problems.”

The German reunification model should serve as an important lesson for South Korea to not try to achieve Korean reunification in a hasty manner without proper preparations, said Park, who served as unification minister between 1999 and 2001 under former President Kim Dae-jung.

“I expect inter-Korean reunification will be achieved 20 to 30 years from now under the condition that a gap in economic capabilities between the South and North is to be narrowed to a five-to-one level,” he said.

“But we should not forget we are still in theearly stage of inter-Korean cooperation. It, therefore, behooves us not to make haste, although envisioning and conducting in-depth research on various ways of attaining unification should not be discouraged,”he said. “If the two Koreas are to be reunified suddenly without preparation, the unified Korea will face severer social problems and conflicts than experienced by Germany.”

Park said the idea of establishing an inter-Korean federation or confederation on the heels of the Joint Declaration issued at the end of the historic 2000 summit is premature at the moment.

The former unification minister added setting the stage for institutionalizing the inter-Korean summit should be a small but most important goal for the upcoming Roh-Kim summit.

“In Germany’s case, the institutionalization of the summit had contributed significantly to exchanges and economic cooperation between East and West Germany, laying the groundwork for tearing down the Berlin Wall,” he said. “The same is the case with Korea. Institutionalizing the inter-Korean summit is a key step toward the reunification.”

POWs, Abduction Issues

Besides issues of the North’s nuclear program and peaceful reunification, PresidentRoh should put high priority on the issue of South Korean abductees and prisoners of war (POWs) in the planned talks with Kim Jong-il, Park said.

“I cautiously anticipated that Kim will make a bold decision on the topic in exchange for Roh’s possible offer for social overhead capital investment in North Korea,” Park said, referring to the meeting between Kim Jong-il and then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in 2002.

In the summit in September 2002, Kim apologized to Koizumi for the kidnapping of Japanese nationals in return for normalizing ties with Japan. After Koizumi’s second visit to Pyongyang in 2004, the North allowed five victims to return to Japan. Japan calls on the North to allow the other victims to return home.

“It is of utmost importance that Roh broach the topic in a conciliatory way, summoning all of his diplomatic skills, love for compatriots, and humanistic instincts,” Park said. “He should find a way of accentuating the benefits that would accrue to the North should it display a constructive attitude.”

“Chairman Kim may be the only person who can spring a surprise that may spawn unexpected consequences, both positive and negative,”he continued. “`Let us hope that the surprise that will emanate from the upcoming inter-Korean summit will be of a positive variety.”

The Seoul government has been reluctant to take up the kidnapping issue not to harm relations with North Korea, especially since the Kim Dae-jung administration that advocated engagement policies toward the North.

NLL Controversy

As for a controversy over a redrawing of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the West Sea, Park said it is not desirable for the issue to be included in the summit agenda.

“Given its controversial nature in politicaland military terms, especially in the context of presidential elections in the South, I believe that it will be prudent to leave the NLL issue for future discussion in inter-Korean military talks,”he said. “But the North is certain to raise it, hence the South should be well prepared to defend its long-standing position on the issue.”

Park said Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo’s planned visit to Pyongyang with Roh would be a good opportunity to help ease tensions between the two militaries.

“Whether it would be an open or closed meeting, if Kim is able to have talks with the North Korean defense chief, that will be meaningful,”he said. “And if the two defense chiefs set a schedule for the second defense ministerial talks, that would be great.”

Kim will be the first South Korean defense minister to visit the North in the 54 years since the armistice was signed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The defense ministers from the two Koreas met in September 2000 following the first summit.

Drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, the NLL has served as the de facto maritime boundary between the two Koreas. But the North has refused to recognize the line and insisted it be nullified and redrawn.

Seoul maintains a firm stance that the NLL cannot be a matter of discussion, which it sees as a territorial concession.

The 1992 Basic Agreement stated inter-Korean inviolable borderlines and boundaries are recognized as in the armistice signedat the end of the Korean War. But the agreement added the two Koreas could discuss the matter later.

The NLL has emerged as a hot potato ahead of the summit as some government officials expressed support for discussing the matter at the summit, citing the 1992 agreement.

Presidential Chief of Staff Moon Jae-in told a National Assembly session last week if the North offers to discuss the issue, the South would accept it.

Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said last month that he believes the NLL isnot a territorial concept open to future discussions. He also said the inter-Korean naval clash in 2002 was caused by Seoul’s refusal to negotiate the NLL.

Park expected that unless the North gives up its “military-first” policy, progress in military confidence building between the South and North would take time, and it is likely to follow the escalation of economic cooperation and the building of a peace structure on the peninsula.

Posted in Economic reform, Foreign direct investment, Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), Mt. Kumgang Tourist Special Zone, Price liberalization, Special Economic Zones (Established before 2013) | Comments Closed

Trading Places

Sunday, September 16th, 2007

Korea Times
Andrei Lankov
9/16/2007

The late 1990s will go down in North Korean history as years of frantic trade activity. As a witty North Korean once put it: “There are two types of people in North Korea now: those who trade and those who are dead.”

I’ve met a number of former North Korean merchants, and today I would like to tell the story of one such woman. The story is typical in many respects, and I suspect that countless thousands of her peers would narrate something similar.

When the Dear Leader died in 1994 and things began to fall apart, Ms. Yoo was in her early 20s, doing semi-skilled work at one of the offices in the North Korean capital.

By autumn 1996, even in privileged Pyongyang, food rations were coming less and less frequently. Ms. Yoo’s office, like many other offices across the country, decided to shrink its workforce.

Every month all workers were given one week free, on the assumption they would somehow fend for themselves. They were not paid that week’s wages, and did not receive rations either.

Essentially, it was Ms. Yoo’s mother who was the brains and energy behind the entire enterprise. A kindergarten teacher, she was a typical Korean “ajumma” at her entrepreneurial best: charismatic, charming when necessary, clever andquick-witted.

Actually, Ms. Yoo did not know much about her mother’s contacts and plans.

Now, a decade later, she still remains ignorant. However, one thing was clear: the mother had good connections among the personnel of the hard currency shops.

How did she manage to acquire such connections? After all, the hard currency shops are staffed with privileged people, while a kindergarten teacher is not very high in the North Korean pecking order.

We know not. At any rate, these connections existed and this fact sealed the fate of Ms. Yoo. It was not what people would talk about so much, but Ms. Yoo believes that many of her colleagues started private trade in those years, when it began to flourish. She was no exception, but her situation was better since her mother would take care of business planning.

Ms. Yoo’s mother chose cigarettes as their major merchandise. The smuggled Chinese cigarettes sold extremely well, the packs were light and so could be easily moved by the girl in her early 20s, and profits were very high.

In late 1996 a pack of ten would cost 280 won in the borderland areas, but could be sold in Pyongyang for 400 won wholesale. Later, Ms. Yoo found ways to buy the cigarettes even cheaper, at 240 won a pack, purchasing the merchandise directly from the smugglers instead of the local go-betweens.

Mother sold the cigarettes to the hard currency shop. It is not clear what happened to the merchandise eventually. It seems that the shop managers simply pocketed the money they received from the sales of the cigarettes.

A single trip would garner a net profit of some 20,000 won, and she could go once a month (sometimes more frequently). Now consider that Ms.Yoo’s official salary was 80 won a month, and her father, a junior college teacher, received something like 150 won a month, so the black market money from the cigarettes ostensibly appears an outrageously large amount of money.

However, in the world of the Pyongyang black market, which began to emerge around that time, this was not seen as a fortune. Still, Ms. Yoo spent no more than 1,000 won a month on herself buying whatever was her fancy.

One of her more extravagant splurges was on a South Korean cosmetics set which cost 800 won, or roughly her official annual salary. At the time she did not quite realize where the goods were produced, since being a good, politically correct girl, she still believed that South Korea was populated by beggars living in constant terror of the sadistic Yankees!

But what about travel permits? After all, for decades no North Korean was allowed to leave the county without a permit issued by the police. Well, by the mid-1990s the travel permit system was in disarray with a single exception: entrance to Pyongyang remained strictly controlled.

However, in most cases money talked, and permits could be issued for a moderate bribe. However, Ms. Yoo and her mother discovered an even easier way. They did not bribe officials but bribed railway policemen, those who were on duty on the North Korean passenger trains.

For 500-1,000 won, plus free booze and some presents, a policeman would make sure that Ms. Yoo would reach her destination and come back with sacks of cigarettes, and he also would take care of her personal security.

Better still, the 500-1,000 won bribe was sufficient for few round-trip commercial expeditions. The trips were hard. The carriages were unbelievably crowded, with people packed everywhere, sitting on roofs and ladders. As Ms.

Yoo describes, “even on the roof one could not see a square centimeter of paint, people there were sitting that tight.” Another problem was the frequent delays, so the journey of some 400-500 kilometers would normally take 2-3 days. Still, the money was good, and Ms. Yoo enjoyed the adventure, and even now, ten years later, she seems to be proud of her ability strike deals, calculate profits and losses, and find suppliers.

However, Ms. Yoo’s business activity did not last for long. Somewhat against her will, she found herself lured (or kidnapped) to China and soon fate turned in a way which made a return home impossible.

Posted in Black markets, Civil society, Economic reform, International trade, Labor conditions/wages, Price liberalization, Private property, Tobacco, Transportation | Comments Closed

Strict Regulation of Underage Prostitution

Sunday, September 16th, 2007

Daily NK
Yang Jung A
9/16/2007

The “Good Friends” reported on the 12th that there has been an arrest of North Korean women who had jumped into the act of prostitution to support their family.

According to the newsletter published by Good Friends, “There was a nation-wide inspection, while there were regular evaluation meetings in the early September. This is when a large sum of the women in the prostitution business were arrested.”

According to the Good Friends, “Most of these women received a sentence of 3 years were sent to Jeungsang, South Pyongan to the labor-detention facility. Most of these women were from poor families who were talked into prostituting themselves by their mothers to supporting their family.”

The arrested women argued that, “If there were more jobs, salary or even rationing, who in their right mind would do such things for a living?”

The newsletter revealed that, “With the worsening shortage of food the number of underage prostitution has been on the rise. In Wonsan, Kangwon province, restaurants were found with rooms on the underground level in which a large group of underage children were forced into be in the activity of prostitution.”

“The seven restaurant owners and managers were sentenced to execution by a firing squad and the 40 underage children that were involved in the prostitution are currently in jail receiving indoctrination.”

The newsletter revealed that, “With the strict inspections being processed per district, the North Korean government is putting a stricter surveillance on prostitution, infiltration and drug smuggling. Last week at Hwoireong, one drug smuggler was executed in public.”

In addition, the newsletter also revealed that there is a shortage of necessities in North Korea nationwide due to the huge flood this summer.

In North Hamkyung province, the civilians are lacking three crucial necessities: rice, water and electricity.

“Due to the paralysis of transportation methods in North Hamkyung, they are not even able to receive the minimum supply for flood victims. Other regions are able to receive the partial amount of the supply for flood victims given by the South, but North Hamkyung is suffering the most out of all provinces.”

There has been a continuance of water shortage in Shinuiju since July.

The newsletter stated that, “There has not been a single drop of water in the entire city of Shinuiju. Only after September 9 were the civilians able to receive some tap water, but the tap water supply only runs from 3:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. for one hour.”

“The people in Shinuiju are not able to go to sleep because they are waiting to receive the water. The electricity is provided for five hours each day, but due to the low electric pressure, they are not even able to use the water pump.”

Posted in Black markets, Civil society, Dating/Courting, Good Friends | Comments Closed

50,000 to Visit Mt. Geumgang in October

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

Korea Times
Ryu Jin
9/12/2007

More than 50,000 people are expected to visit Mt. Geumgang in North Korea in October, breaking the record for visitors in a single month, according to Hyundai Asan, the South Korean operator of the tourism business, Wednesday.

Hyundai Asan said that the number of people who have made reservations for the tour program for October has already exceeded 54,000, some 10,000 more than the previous record of 44,000 set in August 2005.

“All tickets for the Chuseok holiday from Sept. 22 to 26 have already been booked,’’ a Hyundai Asan spokesman said. “An average of 1,500 people will cross the border to visit the North Korean resort area around the Korean version of Thanksgiving Day.’’

In the meantime, Hyundai Asan also said that it plans to hold various cultural events including an ocarina performance by East Kimura Ocarina Band from Japan on Sept. 15 to greet the advent of autumn.

The Mt. Geumgang tourism project was launched in 1998 amid thaws between the two Koreas. The cumulative number of tourists exceeded 1.5 million in early June, boosted by the reconciliation process since the first inter-Korean summit in 2000.

Posted in Mt. Kumgang Tourist Special Zone, Tourism | Comments Closed

DPRK-PRC Friendship Distribution Center Under Construction in Sinuiju

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

Institute for Far Eastern Studies
NK Brief No. 07-9-13-1

It has been reported that Chinese and North Korean governments are working in unison to push forward with a plan to jointly build a goods distribution center in the North Korean city of Sinuiju. According to Yonhap News, China proposed a plan for North Korea to build a ‘DPRK-PRC Friendship Distribution Center’ in Sinuiju, and the two countries are currently involved in negotiations over the idea. North Korea has already signed an investment agreement welcoming Chinese investment firms.

In conjunction with this, North Korean Chamber of Commerce Secretary General Yoon Young-suk held an interview with Yonhap News in the Chinese city of Changchun on September 3. At that time, while refuting a new push for the development of the Sinuiju Special Administrative Region, he stated that “regarding the procurement of a range of goods required in [North Korea], I have heard talk of a plan for a DPRK-PRC Friendship Distribution Center in part of the Sinuiju region.”

The scope of trade between China and North Korea is growing by the day, yet the Sinuiju Customs Office responsible for customs clearance for Chinese imports was limited from the beginning, and the need for a replacement facility has been brought up time and time again. This new distribution center appears to be in response to these calls for a larger facility. The construction of the center will be a cooperative project involving materials and capital from China, while North Korea will provide the land and labor.

A trader from Pyongyang acting as a confidential informant stated, “repairs on the road portion of the [steel bridge spanning the Yalu River connecting Dandong and Sinuiju] carried out from the 10th to the 26th of last month were also part of the material aid from the Chinese.” Officials at the North Korean consulate in Shenyang traveled to the bridge on the 23rd of last month to inspect the progress of the upgrades.

Not long ago, a Chinese trader traveled to Pyongyang, then by road to Sinuiju and over the river to Dandong. He observed, “many construction workers involved in large-scale ground leveling construction work along the railroad tracks running through the heart of downtown Sinuiju,” and, “approximately 10-20 meter deep, very large scale construction appeared to be underway.”

Posted in Automobiles, Chamber of Commerce (DPRK), China, Economic reform, Foreign direct investment, International trade | Comments Closed

Food Makers Set Eyes on North Korea

Wednesday, September 12th, 2007

Korea Times
Jane Han
9/12/2007

While many local food manufacturers have been setting up factories and farms overseas to take advantage of low labor costs and top grade raw materials, some say equivalent conditions await just a few hours up north, in North Korea.

Industry experts say that farmed goods grown in the North are almost free of pesticides, putting it up to par with those imported from well-known clean and green countries like Australia.

And with the forthcoming inter-Korean summit next month, they say a friendlier mood has smoothed out business conditions for them to make inroads through the Demilitarized Zone.

“We’ve had ongoing plans to set up farms there, but on and off political tensions have interfered with progress,” said Choi Yong-sam, a spokesman of Maniker, one of the nation’s leading chicken-processing companies.

But this time, he added, things are looking brighter and company officials are optimistic that the project _ the first direct investment by a South Korean company outside an inter-Korean industrial complex if completed _ will see results.

Maniker executives are set to meet with North Korean officials in mid-September and visit possible farm sites, located between Sariwon, south of Pyeongyang, and Samilpo, which is near Mt. Geumgang, Choi said.

“The farm will be win-win for both North and South,” he explained, hopeful that the cooperation will ultimately benefit the inter-Korean relationship.

Another food maker, Dongwon F&B, recently became the first major corporation to get land parceled out in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex.

The company is planning to produce mainly dried seaweed and “kimchi” (Korean pickled cabbage) at the new facility set to be completed in December next year.

“Because the southern part of the peninsula is growing hotter, the conditions to raise cabbage have been deteriorating,” said company spokesman Sung Jeong-dong. “We’re expecting that farming conditions there will allow better quality products.”

He added that because the lot is quite sizeable at 32,452 square meters, with just 6,500 square meters of it being used for the first phase of construction, the manufacturer is already considering further expansion.

“It’s our first time though, so we don’t know what to expect. There may be some bumps along the road,” Sung explained, referring to Pyeongyang’s strict and frequently changing regulations.

Snack maker Orion in April gave away 150 tons of seed potatoes worth about 200 million won to the North, for both humanitarian and business purposes.

The company is eyeing to have its raw goods for potato chips grown there to meet the demand for potatoes and work around the limited local farming capacity.

“More food makers are definitely turning their eye north, but the whole process is still at early stages with immature systemization so it’s too early to tell the industry-wide impact,” said Jung of Dongwon F&B. “But a reconciliation mood many times happens through economic means, so hopefully this will be one of them.”

Posted in Agriculture, Economic reform, Foreign direct investment, International Aid, Manufacturing | Comments Closed

Inter-Korean trade jumps 36.1 percent in January-August period

Thursday, September 6th, 2007

Yonhap
Sohn Suk-joo
9/6/2007

Inter-Korean trade surged 36.1 percent in the first eight months of this year, compared with the same period of a year earlier, the Unification Ministry said Thursday.

The two-way trade volume increased to US$1.05 billion in the January-August period, up from $775.52 million in 2006, thanks to brisk trade of fishery items and light industry products made at a joint industrial complex in the North Korean border city of Kaesong.

The industrial complex is the crowning achievement of a landmark summit between the leaders of the two Koreas in 2000. South Korean businesses use cheap North Korean labor to produce goods in Kaesong where some 26 South Korean factories employ about 15,000 North Korean workers.

“Inter-Korean commercial trade increased 37.1 percent to $809.71 million, while non-commercial trade rose 32.8 percent to $245.41 million during the same time span,” the ministry said in a statement.

Posted in Agriculture, Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), Light Industry, Manufacturing, South Korea, Special Economic Zones (Established before 2013), Trade Statistics | Comments Closed

N. Korea-Related Stocks Extend Gains

Tuesday, September 4th, 2007

Korea Times (h/t Tim Beal)
Lee Hyo-sik
9/4/2007

Shares of companies engaging in an array of inter-Korean economic cooperation projects have shot up this week, following the news on Sunday that North Korea agreed to dismantle its nuclear weapons development program by the end of the year.

Most firms, which will take part in sending electricity to the Stalinist country in return for the dismantlement of its nuclear reactors, saw their stocks rise to their daily limit up over the past two trading sessions.

Also, shares of those companies operating in the Gaesong Industrial Complex have rallied on expectations that easing of geo-political tensions associated with North Korea will further boost economic cooperation between the two Koreas.

But analysts cautioned that investors should refrain from purchasing inter-Korean project related stocks at the moment as share prices will likely fall once the North Korean hype subsides.

After two days of negotiations with his Pyongyang counterpart Kim Kye-gwan in Geneva, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters Sunday that North Korea had agreed to declare its nuclear stockpile and disable its atomic weapons programs by the end of this year.

Also, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Monday that the U.S. had decided to remove Pyongyang from its list of states sponsoring terrorism.

Shares of Ewha Technologies Information, a power equipment maker, hit its daily limit up on Monday, rising nearly 15 percent to 1,965 won from last Friday’s close of 1,710 won. Ewha shares rose 1.78 percent to close at 2,000 won in Tuesday’s trading session.

Romanson, a wrist watch manufacturer, which operates plants in the Gaesong Industrial Complex, saw its share price increase 14.9 percent to 3,400 won on Monday from 2,960 won last Friday.

“North Korea related stocks went up sharply early last month after the announcement of the second inter-Korean summit. And now, the latest development surrounding the reclusive state is providing a further boost to those shares,” said Lee sun-yup, an analyst at Goodmorning Shinhan Securities.

He said a large number of investors are snatching up shares of companies involved in North Korean economic projects when the local stock market has lost its directions amid volatile investor sentiment in the wake of U.S. subprime loan default risks.

He said investors should be picky, as it will take time before these companies’ profits will benefit from the easing of tension between the North and South.

“It’s risky to jump on the bandwagon at the moment as such shares will likely come down soon as in the past when the North Korean hype dies down and the market regains solid upward momentum,” Kim said.

He advised investors to choose North Korea related shares based on their corporate earnings and long-term prospects.

Posted in Economic reform, Energy, Foreign direct investment, Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), Nuclear, Special Economic Zones (Established before 2013) | Comments Closed

Drain of Antiques from Chosun Central Historical Museum

Tuesday, September 4th, 2007

Daily NK
Kim Min Se
9/4/2007

Recently, a report was issued that Pyongyang’s Chosun Central Historical Museum made a request to a Japanese broadcaster to buy a rare cultural artifact, a bamboo chest with an engraved drawing for $700,000, causing a shock to the domestic historical world.

On June 10th, Japan’s TBS broadcasted a program called, “Special Report – Why was it sold? North Korea’s Historical Treasure,” but its contents were divulged belatedly, so was reported domestically only recently.

The program contained in detail TBS’ freelancer cameraman Gatanoda’s visit to North Korea and his direct exchange of cultural assets with a person who asserted himself as the “Chosun Central Historical Museum’s Vice-Curator.”

The North Korean government’s officials’ chronic corruption and drain of nationally propagated cultural assets due to careless maintenance of the state is well-known. However, the spread of news of the Central Historical Museum’s Vice-Curator directly stepping forward like this time and attempting sales with a foreigner is at its first.

Due to this event, the shock received by South Korean experts on history has been huge. When this event was reported on the 31st of September, domestic cultural experts said, “If they are going to insist on selling to foreigners, they should make a long-term loan to our National Central Museum and receive rental fees instead.”

“There is the possibility of selling fakes.”

However, criticisms on whether such occurrences are actually possible are not negligible. In particular, most of the “bridgeheads” for the outflow of North Korean cultural assets, businessmen in Dandong, China cannot be trusted. In Dandong, 100~150 curio dealers have formed large-sized businesses and are selling North Korean cultural assets to South Korean dealers.

In Dandong, Chae Jung In (pseudonym), who has been selling North Korean cultural assets for 10 years, in a recent phone conversation with DailyNK, retorted, “Think about this how they dare sell the national assets from the Museum?”

He said, “If North Korea is in a dire situation as in the late 90s, I can understand, but there is no way that it is secretly dealing cultural assets with foreigners. Those who know the North Korean situation well will never believe that, considering people can be put to death for secret sales if the treasures are rare.”

He carefully proposed the possibility that the bamboo chest reported this time is a fake, “In the late 90s, I did hear that there were cases of the North Korean museum out flowing fake cultural assets.”

Also, another curio dealer, Lee Myung Hee, said, “A year ago, the North Korean museum, introduced a Japanese person after receiving the request to sell a saber used by the Japanese Lord of the Heaven, but it was revealed as a fake, so they lost face.”

Mr. Lee hinted the possibility of “frauds,” saying, “The tendency of the North Korean people, when conducting such business, is not to directly deal with South Korean or Japanese people.” The reason for this is that, “They can be mistaken for South Korean spies and can be executed.”

Ms. Lee is a veteran who has been selling North Korean cultural assets since the beginning of the 90s. At one time, she entered Kaesung with Chinese identity in order to acquire highly-treasured antiques, but was arrested under the charge of espionage, stayed in a North Korean prison for a year, and came out as a “living witness of North Korean cultural asset drainage.”

One treasure that the North Korean Central Historical Museum surreptitiously tried to sell is a 3rd-century bamboo chest unearthed in Pyongyang by the North Korean Historical Remains Research Committee in 1931 and Japan’s TBS reported at the time that it was a valuable relic deemed as a “top-class world asset.”

Posted in Antiques, Black markets | Comments Closed

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