Archive for the ‘Google Earth’ Category

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Pyongyang University of Dramatic and Cinematic Arts

Friday, February 18th, 2011

Pictured above (Google Earth): the Pyongyang University of Dramatic and Cinematic Arts (평양연극영화대학: 39.017329°, 125.792912°)

Al Jazeera filmed a short documentary with some students at the Pyongyang University for Dramatic and Cinematic Arts.  This organization is tasked with training the country’s film actors.  According to Al Jazeera:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s love of film is well-documented, but few outsiders know that he is revered as a genius of cinema by his own people. On this episode of 101 East we gain a rare insight into the beating heart of North Korea’s film industry.

Watch the high quality video below (Youtube):

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Posted in Art, Civil society, Education, Film, Google Earth | 2 Comments »

DPRK television broadcasts Google Earth Imagery

Friday, February 18th, 2011

As far as I am aware this is the first use of Google Earth imagery on North Korean television.  Satellite images of Mt. Paektu (백두산) were used in a show about the revolutionary sites of Sobaeksu Valley (소백수골): Kim Jong-il’s official birthplace and a few other places.  The show was broadcast on North Korean television on February 16th, 2011 (Kim Jong-il’s official birthday). The imagery used is now dated, so we know this segment of the show was recorded before December 11, 2010.

Wouldn’t it be great if they told the North Korean people these images came from Kwangmyongsong 1 or 2?

I uploaded a clip of the show to Youtube.  You can see it here.

So how many North Koreans are using Google Earth?

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Posted in Domestic publication, Google Earth | Comments Closed

Friday Fun: Socialist haircut, CNC award, and some culture

Friday, February 18th, 2011

Socialist Haircut: Steve Gong has become the first non-North Korean (of whom I am aware) to receive one of the DPRK’s tradmark “socialist haircuts“:

Kim Il-sung Prize: The CNC Instrument Automatic Streamline is the 2011 winner of the prestigious Kim Il-sung prize.

cnc3-thumb.jpg

According to KCNA:

Kim Il Sung Prize was awarded to the CNC instrument automatic streamline, according to a decree of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People′s Assembly issued Wednesday.

The streamline was newly developed by workers of the Unsan Instrument Factory and technicians of the Ryonha Machine Management Bureau.

Maybe the CNC machine will use the award funds to take the workers out to dinner!

You can learn more about the DPRK’s CNC campaign here.

Previous non-human award winners include: Arirang and the “light comedy,” Echo of Mountain [sic].

Some Culture: Suhang Pavilion, Jongsong Worker’s District (종성로동자구: 42°45’47.78″N, 129°47’40.13″E)

According to KCNA:

Pyongyang, August 3 (KCNA) — Suhang Pavilion which is located in Jongsong workers’ district in Onsong County, North Hamgyong Province, DPRK is valuable architectural heritage permeated with the wisdom and patriotism of the Koreans.

The pavilion is the only three-storied wooden building of loft-form in Korea. It was built as the general’s terrace of the walled town against foreign invaders in the early days of Ri Dynasty.

It is about 14.8 meters high. It dwindles from down to top to give a safe feeling. It, with hip-saddle roof and single eaves with plain pillar supporting device, has pillars arranged in a peculiar way.

The pavilion was used as frontier guard post at ordinary times and as commanding post of battle in a contingency.

It was called Roechon Pavilion at first. Later it was renamed Suhang Pavilion in the meaning that Koreans beat back foreign invaders and captured their boss to bring him to his knees there in 1608. The present building was rebuilt in the latter part of Ri Dynasty.

Today the pavilion, which was repaired as it was after the liberation of the country, serves as a cultural recreation place of the working people.

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Posted in Art, Civil society, CNC, Construction, Google Earth, Manufacturing, Uncategorized | Comments Closed

Daily NK reports submarine construction in Chongjin

Thursday, February 17th, 2011

Pictured Above: Google Earth satellite image of the Hambuk Shipyard, Chongjn (Source: Daily NK)

According to the Daily NK:

A 33m-long submarine is being assembled at a munitions factory in Chongjin, North Hamkyung Province, a source has revealed.

This is the first time that news of submarines being assembled at Hambuk Dockyard has come to light. The source from Chongjin said, “Since they have been keeping totally silent about it, it was not revealed. But they have been assembling and producing submarines for a long time.”

The source went on, “The submarine is being assembled at the munitions factory at Hambuk Dockyard.” He explained further, “They brought the 33m-long main body of the submarine from Bongdae Boiler Factory in Shinpo, South Hamkyung Province and are installing the innards like electronic devices.”

The time when the main body was brought to Hambuk Dockyard was around the time of the Party Delegates’ Conference on September 28 last year, according to the source.

At that time, munitions factories under the Second Economic Commission in charge of weapons production decided to commemorate February 16th with weapons production achievements.

The source said that in a convention of factory workers, cadres read out a resolution, “Let’s face the glorious Party Delegates’ Conference with achievements of high political passion,” and “After completing the assembly of a submarine before February 16th, let’s offer gifts of loyalty to the General.”

However, he explained the current situation, “Since the economic situation has gotten worse and workers are frequently absent, it has not been completed yet. Their enthusiasm has gradually disappeared.”

He also said, “Some of the workers who were involved in the production process stole imported equipment such as cables, high-tensile paint and manometers and sold them in the market in secret, causing a commotion.”

Hambuk Dockyard is one of the three biggest dockyards in North Korea alongside Najin and Yudae. There, the 7,500 workers can produce freight vessels up to a displacement of 14,000 tons.

Meanwhile, Shinpo Boiler Factory is a front company run by Shinpo Dockyard. The dockyard produces fishing boats and has around 1,500 workers. Since 1980, they have produced submarines, mini-submarines and hovercraft.

Read the full story here:
Submarine in Production in Chongjin
Daily NK
Im Jeong Jin
2/15/2011

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Posted in Google Earth, Manufacturing, Military | 1 Comment »

Guard Command tanks in Taedonggang-guyok

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

Pictured above: The Choson Ilbo and Radio Free Asia claim this area behind the middle and high schools in Muhung 1-dong, Taedonggang-guyok (문흥1동, 대동강구역, 39.028720°, 125.786633°)  contains tanks operated by the Pyongyang Guard Command.

According to the Choson Ilbo:

The North Korean Army’s Guard Command, a military unit tasked with protecting leader Kim Jong-il, is hiding scores of tanks in Pyongyang to quell any popular uprising, Radio Free Asia claimed Tuesday.

The U.S.-funded radio station quoted a defector from Pyongyang as saying, “There is a battalion of about 50 tanks from the Guard Command in the Taedong River area in eastern Pyongyang. They stage a field exercise about once a year.”

He said the tanks used to move only at the night to escape public notice. “All are hidden underground. I heard from families of officers of the tank battalion that there are also tanks in an underground near Moranbong,” a hill in downtown Pyongyang.

Kim Kwang-jin, another defector who works for the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said there used to be a battalion of tanks in an underground area beneath the Kumsusan Assembly Hall while Kim Il-sung was alive, but he was unsure whether it is still there.

Read the full story here:
Tanks ‘Ready to Be Used Against Uprising in Pyongyang’
Choson Ilbo
2/16/2011

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Posted in Google Earth, Military | Comments Closed

Kim Jong-il birthday roundup (2.16)

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

Pictured above are Kim Jong-il’s two birthplaces. On the left is Vyatskoye, Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, where Kim Il-sung was reportedly stationed with the Red Army and where Kim Jong-il is believed to have actually been born.  Learn more here.  On the right is Kim Jong-il’s official birthplace southeast of Mt. Paektu and the nearby “Jong-il Peak”.  Both images via Google Earth.

But although Kim’s birthday is supposed to usher in a period of celebration, by most accounts times are tough in the DPRK.  According to the Associated Press (via Washington Post):

But this year many North Koreans are hungry, and a brutal winter is threatening the early spring harvest. The country is coping with natural disasters: foot-and-mouth disease has devastated its livestock and heavy flooding swamped precious farmland last year. There is also the ever-present tension with neighboring South Korea; conservative lawmakers in the South planned to mark Kim’s birthday Wednesday by floating balloons filled with anti-Kim propaganda across the border.

…

North Korean diplomats have been asking for food aid when meeting officials in foreign countries, a South Korean intelligence official said. North Korea’s food shortage is grave, and the North is likely looking to stockpile food to distribute to citizens next year, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to reporters.

The North has also reached out to the U.N. World Food Program, saying it needs help because of the severe winter and a bad vegetable harvest. On Monday, the United Nations said it had begun a new assessment of North Korea’s food needs and planned more than 300,000 tons of humanitarian assistance.

These signals seem to point to skimpy holiday gift distributions to everyone outside Pyongyang and senior party/military leaders. However, with the rise of markets, these gifts have meant less and less over the years.

Though according to KCNA, the North Koreans are in a celebratory mood nonetheless.  Pyongyang held a rally, a figure skating competition (with Japanese participation), a synchronized swimming  show (Footsteps was played), Kimjongilia flower exhibition, an art show, and a photography exhibition all in celebration of Kim’s birthday.

The AFP also reported on some other activities highlighted by the official North Korean media:

Aircraft delivered gifts on eight islands in the Yellow Sea as part of an annual handout of candy, chewing gum and cookies to all children, the agency reported.

Spring has even come early to the leader’s claimed birthplace at Mount Paekdu on the border with China, the agency said Monday, and a solar halo appeared above Jong-Il Peak there.

Although times are tough for the vast majority of North Koreans, I still see the DPRK as relatively stable, so maybe Kim and his supporters have something to celebrate after all.

Here is additional coverage of KJI’s birthday:
Hankyoreh
AFP
BBC
Daily NK
Donga Ilbo
Yonhap
New York Times
KCNA: Natural wonders

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Posted in Food, General markets (FMR: Farmers Market), Google Earth, Political economy | Comments Closed

Pyongyang getting smaller…

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

There have been several news reports this week that Pyongyang has gotten smaller as periphery areas were transferred to another province.  I was a little confused by this news because I first read about it back in July 2010.

But anyhow, since there are not any good maps out there of the reapportionment, I will post this one I made on Google Earth:

The red and green areas combined represent Pyongyang’s boundaries up until the change.  The red areas, kangnam-gun, Junghwa-gun, Sangwon-gun, and the Sungho district, are all now counties (gun, 군 ) in North Hwanghae province.

Update (2/25/2011): The Daily NK writes about this as well.

To read speculation as to why these changes were made, check out the stories below:

N. Korea halves Pyongyang in size in apparent economic bids: sources
Yonhap
Sam Kim
2/14/2011

Pyongyang Downsized
Choson Ilbo
2/15/2011

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Posted in Food, Google Earth, Political economy | Comments Closed

More DPRK efforts to boost food production

Monday, February 7th, 2011

Punjiman Tideland
In November of last year, the North Koreans announced that they had dammed up the Punjiman Tideland (bay) in Ongjin County to expand the quantity of arable land, build fish farms, and extract sea salt.  Here is a picture of the project on from DPRK television:

Thanks to a friend for translation help.

According to KCNA:

November 9 (KCNA) –The project for reclaiming Punjiman Tideland in Ongjin County of South Hwanghae Province was completed.

The reclaimed tideland is the country’s another asset of eternal value created in its western coastal area thanks to President Kim Il Sung’s great idea of remaking the nature and under the wise leadership of Kim Jong Il.

The reclamation of hundreds of hectares of tideland will help achieve an advance in the nation’s agricultural development and the improvement of the standard of people’s living.

A ceremony for its completion took place on Nov. 9.

KCNA does not offer much information on the project.  Here is a rough sketch of the project on Google Earth:

Before on top. After on bottom.

The area in yellow represents expanded farm land.  The area in red represents new fish farms.  The area in white represents a new salt farm.

According to Google Earth the width of the bay (east-west) is approximately 3.74km (2.33 miles).  The bay is  1.98km (1.23 miles) tall (North South)–so appx. 3.7 sq km. I did not grow up in the agriculture business, so I have no idea what the project is capable of producing. If any readers are qualified to make those calculations, I would be happy to hear them.

Chongdan County Land Reclamation
On December 28, 2010, the  DPRK held a ground breaking ceremony for the Ryongmae Island (룡매도) land reclamation project on the coast of Chongdan County in the Haeju Bay.  The scale of the project is enormous.  The surface area of the reclamation project is larger than the city of Haeju.  Below are pictures from North Korean television and Google Earth:

There is not much information on this project in KCNA either.  From Top to bottom, the project is nearly 20km (12 miles) long. Although the groundbreaking was in December, the project has been in the works for some time.  Development of the project was first announced in 1998.  The Project is supposed to be completed by 2012. According to KCNA:

Pyongyang, July 10 (KCNA) — More than 26,600 hectares have been reclaimed from the sea on the western coast and are now ready for agriculture. This was the result of a nationwide win-soil-from-the-sea campaign launched a decade ago to gain additional agricultural land. From Pidan island at the northwestern tip of Korea at the mouth of Amnok River to the middle of west coast Rimhan-ri of Phanmun county sea walls have been erected to bring tidal flats into active agricultural use and thus create new highly intensive granaries. More than 100 islands and islets have been linked with the mainland to reduce the length of coastline by more than 500 kilometres, thus pushing the coastline 12 kilometres offshore. In the newly-reclaimed land, dozens of reservoirs and many salterns, fish-culture ponds and chemical-fibre producing centres, as well as the state and cooperative farms and workteams, have come into being. The drive to reclaim tidal flats, initiated by the DPRK government and the Workers’ Party of Korea, reached a high-water mark in the 1980s. More and more sea walls were erected to link one peninsula with another and islands with the mainland. To take a few examples, a dozens-of-kilometre-long dike connecting the Tasa islet in Yomju county and Rihwa-ri, Cholsan county to create a new granary of 8,800 hectares, Taegye islet, 68-km long dikes across the sea off Haeju connecting Kumhak, Chongdan county and Ryongmae islet to create new areas of agricultural use covering 2,500 hectares, 5,200 hectares in Kangryong, 3,300 hectares in Kumsong, 3,200 hectares in Unryul, 2,600 hectares in Kwaksan and 1,000 hectares in Chongsu islet. The lands thus won from the sea are equivalent to the total arable land of five counties.

UPDATE 1: According to KCNA (2011-8-13):

A tideland reclamation project has made progress around Rongmae Islet, opposite to the Haeju Bay on the south coast. The islet belongs to South Hwanghae Province.

Since the project was launched in January, the South Hwanghae Provincial Tideland Reclamation Complex moved about 250 000 cubic meters of earth and laid some 76 000 square meters of stones to build up a 2 100 meter-long embankment on the sea.

It was very cold when the project started. But the complex pushed ahead with it, overcoming difficulties.

It has also applied new reclamation methods suitable to geographical condition of the area.

Recent heavy rainfalls severed roads and bridges there. The builders are working on rebuilding them, while carrying on the project as scheduled through tunneling and blasting.

When the project is finished, a new arable land as large as that of a county will appear on the tideland.

UPDATE 2: According to KCNA (2011-8-15), the DPRK claimed that it did not fire on South Korea but was detonating explosives for this project.

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Posted in Agriculture, Food, Google Earth | 2 Comments »

North Korea increasing coal production – seeking to ease power shortages and boost exports

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

Pictured Above: Pongchon Coal Mine (Google Earth)

Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
NK Brief No. 11-01-18
1/28/2011

The DPRK Workers’ Party’s newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, recently featured a front-page editorial urging the North Korean people to increase coal production. On January 26, the KCNA reiterated the call, reporting that the newspaper editorial highlighted fertilizer, cotton, electricity, and steel as products suffering from a lack of coal, and that “coal production must be quickly increased in the Jik-dong Youth Mine, the Chongsong Youth Mine, the Ryongdeung Mine, the Jaenam Mine, Bongchon Mine [Pongchon Mine] and other mines with good conditions and large deposits.”

The editorial also emphasized that “priority must be placed on the equipment and materials necessary for coal production,” and, “the Cabinet, national planning committee, government ministries and central organizations need to draft plans for guaranteeing equipment and materials and must unconditionally and strongly push to provide,” ensuring that the mines have everything they need. It also called on all people of North Korea to assist in mining endeavors and to support the miners, adding that those responsible for providing safety equipment for the mines and miners step up efforts to ensure that all necessary safety gear is available.

In the recent New Year’s Joint Editorial, coal, power, steel and railways were named as the four ‘vanguard industries’ of the people’s economy. Of the four, coal took the top spot, and all of North Korea’s other media outlets followed up the editorial with articles focusing on the coal industry. On January 15, Voice of America radio quoted some recent Chinese customs statistics, revealing that “North Korea exported almost 41 million tons of coal to China between January and November of last year, surpassing the 36 million tons exported [to China] in 2009.” It was notable that only 15.1 tons were exported between January and August, but that 25.5 tons were sent across the border between August and November.

North Korea’s coal exports to China earned it 340 million USD last year, making the coal industry a favorite of Pyongyang’s economic and political elites. Increasing coal production is boosting output from some of the North’s electrical power plants, while exports to China provide much-needed foreign capital. However, even in Pyongyang, where the electrical supply is relatively good, many houses lack heating and experience long black-outs. Open North Korea Radio, a shortwave radio station based in the South, reported on January 24, “As electrical conditions in Pyongyang worsen, now no heating is available.” Farming villages can find nearby timber to use as firewood, but because prices are so high in Pyongyang, even heating has become difficult. Some in the city even wish for rural lifestyles, just for the access to food and heat.

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Posted in Cabinet, China, Coal, Domestic publication, Energy, Google Earth, International trade, Mining/Minerals, Planning and Fiscal Affairs (KWP), Railways, Statistics, Trade Statistics, Transportation | Comments Closed

DPRK, NGO to film Paek Son Haeng film

Monday, January 17th, 2011

Pictured above: Paek Son Haeng Memorial Hall, Pyongyang (Google Earth)

According to the Daily NK:

North Korea has apparently agreed to accept foreign funding to produce a movie which shows Christians in a positive light. It will be the first movie made in North Korea to show the life story of a Christian.

An activist working in New Zealand for “Team and Team International”, a South Korean NGO working on international disaster relief, reported today, “A North Korean movie import-export company (Chosun Movie Company) has decided to produce a movie, ‘Paek Sun Haeng’, with the support of an organization from New Zealand,” and added, “They are at the last stage of working on the scenario and plan to start filming this coming September.” A budget production, it will cost a reported $1.5 million.

The activist said that the two sides have agreed to show the movie in movie theaters across the country and on Chosun Central TV. The purpose behind the investment is apparently to depict the positive side of Christianity and Christians to the North Korean people.

He explained, “Based on the idea that the figure, Baek Sun Haeng, has been defined as a good capitalist in North Korea, the organization has been negotiating production of a movie about her with North Korea since 2008.” Additionally, he said “They will describe fully the image of Baek as a philanthropist as well as a Christian in the movie.”

The scenario was reportedly written by the head of Chosun Movie Company, Choi Hyuk Woo, but there has been conflict over the degree of Christian content.

The source explained, “Problems when the North Koreans tried to change one line or scene have not been small.” However, “They were able to persuade the North Korean staff by sticking stubbornly to the fact that it would have been impossible to invest in the movie without Christian content.”

North Korea’s bad situation vis a vis foreign currency may have influenced the North’s decision-making, the source agreed, saying, “I am aware that North Korea’s internal capital situation is rather difficult. That economic difficulty may have influenced this contract somewhat.”

Chosun Movie Company oversees the export and import of movies under the Culture and Art Department of the Propaganda and Agitation Department, which is within the Central Committee of the Party.

The activist emphasized, “Aid activities for North Korea should give dreams and hope for new things to the North Korean people through diverse cultural approaches beyond food or essential aid.”

The movie’s main character, Baek Sun Haeng (1848-1933) is a well-known philanthropist in North Korea who has been mentioned in North Korean textbooks, in Kim Il Sung’s memoirs and elsewhere.

After her husband died when she was 16 years old, she is said to have accumulated wealth relentlessly. After that, she built both “Baek Sun Bridge” across the Daedong River and a three-story public meeting hall in Pyongyang. She also donated real-estate for Pyongyang Gwangsun School and Changdeok School.

Baek, as the deaconess of a church, also contributed to the education of Korean Christians by donating capital and land for Pyongyang Presbyterian Church School, which was built by Rev. Samuel Austin Moffett, the then-reverend at the First Church of Pyongyang, and Soongsil School, the forerunner to Soongsil University in Seoul, which was established by Dr. W. M. Baird, an American missionary, in Pyongyang on October 10th, 1887.

Additionally, she dedicated all of her property to an organization dedicated to the relief of poverty in 1925, so the Japanese government general tried to present her with a commendation, but she refused it. Therefore, she has been praised highly as a “people’s capitalist” in North Korea.

In 2006, the North Korea media reported that an existing monument to Baek had been restored and moved into “Baek Sun Haeng Memorial Hall” in Pyongyang on the instructions of Kim Jong Il.

Read the full story here:
Christian Movie Being Shot inside North Korea
Daily NK
1/17/2011

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Posted in Agitation and Propaganda Department, Art, Film, Google Earth, New Zealand, Religion | 1 Comment »

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