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Kwanliso No. 16 imagery update

Friday, July 19th, 2013

I have previously noted changes to Camp 14 (Kaechon) and Camp 25 (Chongjin). Here we have a look at Camp No. 16, the interior of which to date has not been comprehensively mapped for any publication (Joshua has some info on the perimeter here).

Kwanliso No. 16 lies within the borders of Orang and Myonggan (formerly Hwasong) counties.

The entrance to the prison camp lies just 8km from the outskirts of the town of Myonggan (formerly Hwasong).

First let’s look at new residential construction in the camp.

Area 1 coordinates: 41.317569°, 129.336758°

Between 2011-6-19 and 2013-2-12 the number of housing units in this area increased 18% from 43 to 51. The new buildings appear to be similar to the incumbent buildings, which were constructed before 2004-6-12 (the earliest available commercial imagery). It is impossible to determine from satellite imagery how many individuals live in each building, but the approximate dimensions of each building are 16m x 7m.

Area 2 coordinates 41.313945°, 129.345299°

In this area, 14 housing units were torn down and replaced by 11 housing units sometime between 2008-6-10 and 2010-6-12. These newer housing units seem slightly larger, but it is unclear how they are distinguished from those they replaced.

Nearby, six housing units were added between 2010-6-12 and 2011-6-19.

Just 700m southeast of here, construction on another 17 housing units were completed sometime between 2008-6-10 and 2010-6-12.

New Facilities:

Area 1: 41.305616°, 129.420913°

There is also some new non-residential construction inside the camp’s perimeter the purpose of which remains unknown to me.

I suspect that this is a fishery and agricultural site, but I am not sure at this point. Construction started sometime between 2010-8-14 and 2013-3-21.

Area 2: 41.309849°, 129.347631°

This is a new building for a purpose that remains unknown. The building was constructed between 2010-6-12 and and 2011-6-19:

The perimeter is 75m x 42m.

Area 2: 41.315346°, 129.342687°

A building appears to be under construction at this site. As of February 2012, not much progress has been made.

Area 3: 41.259485°, 129.373353°

This coal mine has been growing consistently between 2008 and 2013. It is unclear what happens to the coal.

Foreign Exchange

Unfortunately satellite imagery also reveals that the camp likely earns hard currency by exporting timber, which it has been doing since at least 2004:

I do not know where the timber goes once it leaves Camp 16. Those with deeper pockets than me can purchase satellite imagery of the trucks hauling it away or try to obtain information from the handful of North Korean defectors that may know the answer.

Posted in Forestry, International trade, Lumber | Comments Closed

Report: Korean Workers’ Party sets up Economy Department

Friday, July 12th, 2013

According to Radio Free Asia:

The party has created a centralized department with branches throughout the nation to formulate and oversee policies ranging from appointment of top economic officials to approval of companies and implementation of foreign exchange controls, a source from Jagang province, near the border with China, told RFA’s Korean Service.

The Party’s Department of Economy was set up last month.

“From last June, each [Party] committee in the provinces and cities established a [a branch of the] Department of Economy,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

“It will further strengthen the control and management of the Party,” he said.

The move by the Workers’ Party Central Committee was part of a shakeup within the Party and led to several branches of existing departments being transferred to the Department of Economy, he said.

A source in Yanggang province, also along the Chinese border, told RFA that the newly-formed department would wield as much power as the Department of Organization Management, which oversees the entire Workers’ Party.

“From now on, all officials in charge of economic matters have to be approved by the Department of Economy, while all companies also require approval from the department when they are established, shut down, or merged,” the Yanggang source said.

The Department of Economy also has the power to punish and appoint officials in charge of economic matters, he said, adding that he expects it to become “the strongest department in the Party.”

Even if the North Korean military, judicial agencies, and the Cabinet—or executive branch of the government—seek to establish new units for earning foreign currency or production, they are required to obtain permission in advance from the department, he said.

…

“Establishing the Department of Economy is related to the so-called ‘reformed economic management system,” the source in Yanggang province said, referring to a new policy announced in June last year which grants individuals greater authority in the distribution of goods.

“It means the Party never wants to lose its control over the economy, even though the ‘reformed system’ takes place everywhere,” he added.

The source said that the lack of central control had led to situations in which bogus companies and organizations were running businesses and generating foreign currency revenue without reporting them, creating a need for the Party to more efficiently oversee these groups.

For example, he said, several companies and restaurants which were established under the guise of being welfare organizations to feed and clothe the poor are really generating foreign currency for the North Korean Cabinet.

But he noted that even as the Department of Economy sought to rein in these businesses, it would inevitably generate conflict within the Party as it grew in power, leading different factions to jockey for control.

“[Some of] the functions of [the Party’s] Department of the Executives and Department of Organization Management were already taken away by the Department of Economy, and also the Department of Administration has seen interference from the department as well,” the source said.

“In the future, the scope of Department of Economy’s activity will surely conflict with other departments of the Workers’ Party.”

Read the full story here:
North Korea’s Workers’ Party Takes Economic Control
Radio Free Asia
Sung Hui Moon
2013-7-12

Posted in 6.28 Policy on Agriculture (June 28), Banking, Economic reform, Economy Department, Finance, International trade, Worker's Party | Comments Closed

China keeps fishing boats out of North Korean waters

Monday, July 8th, 2013

According to Bloomberg:

China banned its fishing fleet from working in waters off North Korea’s east coast after the totalitarian regime demanded Chinese vessels buy fuel from North Korean suppliers.

The North decreed late last month that Chinese ships, which previously made their own fueling arrangements, had to abide by the rule, China’s Agriculture Ministry said in a June 28 announcement that was posted to its website today.

“Fishing boat owners and and businesses believe that the North Korean decision will have a serious effect on production and operations and job security, causing huge potential risks,” the ministry said.

The statement reflected Chinese concerns after North Korea seized a Chinese fishing boat and its crew on May 5 and demanded a 600,000 yuan ($97,800) ransom. The ship and crew were freed later in May after Chinese diplomats negotiated their release, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Here is coverage in The Guardian.

Read the full story here:
China Bans Its Fishing Fleet From Waters Off Eastern North Korea
Bloomberg
2013-7-8

Posted in Agriculture, China, International trade | 1 Comment »

North Korea expanding cooperation with Mongolia in IT, distribution, and livestock industries

Friday, July 5th, 2013

Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
2013-7-5

Economic cooperation between North Korea and Mongolia is increasing. In July 2013 alone, Mongolian authorities made two trips to North Korea, actively displaying exchanges between the two states. According to North Korean media, on July 3, 2013 a Mongolian delegation representing information and technology, postal, and communication industries signed an agreement with North Korea to promote exchanges and cooperation in the IT sector.

On July 15, Lundeg Purevsuren, national security and foreign policy advisor to the Mongolian president, and Avia Baatarhuyag, director general of the Mongolian News Agency, visited North Korea. Last month, Mongolian oil trading and refining company HB Oil JSC acquired a 20 percent stake in the North Korean state-run entity operating North Korea’s Sungri Refinery, representing the first purchase by a Mongolian-listed company of a foreign asset.

In particular, one of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s focal projects is the development of the Sepho tableland (in Gangwon Province) into a large-scale stockbreeding base. North Korea is reportedly cooperating with Mongolian experts in the livestock industry in this regard.

North Korea and Mongolia are strengthening economic cooperation as national interests of the two states overlap in many areas. As Mongolia is a landlocked country, Ulaanbaatar wants to take advantage of North Korea’s Rajin Port as a conduit to export Mongolia’s natural resources to foreign countries since access to the East Sea via use of the port can significantly reduce transportation costs.

In November 2012, when North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly Chairman Choe Tae Bok visited Ulaanbaatar, Chairman of the Mongolian Parliament Zandaakhuu Enkhbold expressed interest in cooperating with North Korea in trade, IT, and people-to-people exchanges and affirmed Mongolia’s interest in use of the harbor. In response, Chairman Choe also conveyed North Korea’s interest in leasing the harbor, as well as in cooperating with Mongolia in the coal and mining industries. North Korea is promoting the development of Rajin Port as an international harbor to attract foreign investment, including Mongolian investment.

In addition, as a means of earning foreign currency, North Korea sends a large number of workers to Mongolia to work at construction sites. Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on July 3 that there were 1,749 North Korean workers dispatched to Mongolia as of April — the second largest group of foreign laborers in Mongolia (second only to the Chinese at 5,976 workers), which has a total of 12,064 workers from 103 countries.

North Korea and Mongolia established diplomatic relations in 1948. Pyongyang closed its embassy in Ulaanbaatar in August 1999 for economic reasons, but re-opened it in August 2004.

Posted in International trade, Mongolia, Sea shipping | Comments Closed

Inter-Korean trade dries up in May

Monday, June 24th, 2013

According to Yonhap (via Global Post):

Trade between South and North Korea came to virtually zero in May after inter-Korean tensions led to the shutdown of the Kaesong Industrial Complex seen as the last symbol of bilateral economic cooperation, the government said Monday.

The volume of inter-Korean trade reached only US$320,000 last month, which accounts for just over 1 percent of the $23.4 million recorded in April, according to the Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs.

The majority of the May trade represents electricity costs the South spent to maintain the plant facilities in the factory park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, according to the ministry. The South exported about $260,000 worth of electricity while importing $60,000 worth of periodicals from the North last month, the ministry said.

Inter-Korean exchange came to an abrupt halt in mid-April as the North withdrew North Korean workers employed by South Korean firms in the Kaesong industrial zone in protest against South Korea’s joint military drills with the U.S. in March.

The joint factory park made up almost all of the inter-Korean trade as chilly relations cut off other exchanges.

The number of cross-border trips permitted during May came to only seven, the ministry said, adding that they were the last batch of the seven South Korean workers who returned to the South after the closing of the Kaesong complex.

As inter-Korean relations remain frosty, the hiatus in inter-Korean trade is expected to continue, analysts said.

Read the full story here:
Inter-Korean trade comes to almost naught in May
Yonhap (via Global Post)
2013-6-24

Posted in 2013 aid from South Korea, International Aid, International trade, Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), South Korea, Special Economic Zones (Established before 2013), Statistics, Trade Statistics | Comments Closed

DPRK to import 500,000 smartphones from China this year

Tuesday, June 18th, 2013

According to Yonhap (via Global Post):

North Korea plans to import about 100,000 smartphones from China this year, a report said Tuesday.

China is planning to export a total of 500,000 mobile phones to the North and 100,000 of them will be smartphones, the Washington-based Radio Free Asia report said, referring to a Chinese government official’s posting on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website.

Chinese smartphones sell for about 1,000 Chinese yuan (US$163.27) per unit in China, but the price tag comes to 2,800 yuan per unit in North Korea, the report said, adding profits from the price difference will go into the pocket of the North Korean regime.

Read the full story here:
N. Korea to import 100,000 smartphones from China this year
Yonhap (via Global Post)
2013-6-18

Posted in Cell phones, Communications, Computing/IT, International trade, Trade Statistics | Comments Closed

Mansudae Art Studio repaired German fountain

Thursday, June 6th, 2013

According to Bloomberg:

In November 2005, two Germans flew to North Korea on official business. Their goal was not to discuss nuclear disarmament or diplomatic relations. Rather, they went to check on the progress of a sculptural commission: the reconstruction of Frankfurt’s so-called Fairy Tale Fountain, an art nouveau relic from 1910 that had been melted down for its metal during World War II.

Blueprints for the original Fairy Tale Fountain had gone missing, and the City of Frankfurt needed sculptors who could work from old photographs to re-create the naked beauty gazing down on an array of cherubic children and enormous water-spewing reptiles and fish. For this intricate job, the Germans had turned to Pyongyang’s Mansudae Art Studio.

…

Klaus Klemp, deputy director of Frankfurt’s Museum of Applied Art, discovered Mansudae back in 2004 and was impressed enough by the craftsmanship to convince Frankfurt officials to hire the atelier. “It was a purely technical decision,” he says. “The top tier artists in Germany simply don’t make realist work anymore. North Koreans on the other hand haven’t experienced the long evolution of modern art; they are kind of stuck in the early 1900s, which is exactly when this fountain was made.” North Korea’s price tag for reconstructing the ornate bronze fountain was also attractive: €200,000, including shipping and handling.

In Pyongyang, Ministry of Culture officials escorted Klemp and his colleague, Philipp Sturm, to an expansive, well-lit factory space hung with banners touting slogans like, “When the Party Gives Orders, We Execute!” and “Self-Sustenance Is the Only Path To Survival!” There, a full-size plaster model of the German fountain stood among other works-in-progress, including a 25-foot-tall white marble statue of North Korea’s first leader, and a smaller statue of three revolutionary heroes, one of them brandishing an enormous flag.

The quality of the work was impeccable, but the Germans did have one complaint: Their art nouveau fountain had been rendered with a slightly hard, angular communist touch. “The woman had kind of a cement block hairdo,” recalls Sturm. “It wasn’t anything that couldn’t be fixed. We explained to the head sculptor that the socialist realist style wasn’t really in vogue in Frankfurt at the moment. He was very receptive and softened the look accordingly.”

…
Germany is the only Western democracy to have hired Mansudae’s art army, and it did so before North Korea further sank into isolation by launching the country’s first nuclear and missile tests in 2006. “There’s no question that North Korea was a criminal country, even then,” says Klemp, but Germany at the time hoped a policy of rapprochement might help the Hermit Kingdom embark on a better, more humanitarian path. “It would be very difficult to hire them today,” Klemp says.
…
Frankfurt’s Fairy Tale Fountain was completed entirely in North Korea, and went off without a hitch. The Germans took precautions early on to supply Mansudae’s sculptors with photos of European children, so the sculptures “wouldn’t end up looking too Korean,” says Klemp. “We knew that could be a problem, but so did they.” Once complete, the fountain got shipped from China to Hamburg, and then trucked to Frankfurt where it was installed. “We were all really pleased with the work,” says Klemp. “Everything was done on time, and everyone we worked with was exceptionally professional and personable … for me, the most interesting part was how normal it all was.”

Read the full story here:
Mansudae Art Studio, North Korea’s Colossal Monument Factory
Bloomberg
Caroline Winter
2013-6-6

Posted in International trade, Mansudae creative Company (art studio), Mansudae Overseas Development Group | Comments Closed

Growth of N. Korean trade slows in 2012

Wednesday, May 29th, 2013

According to Yonhap:

The growth of North Korea’s exports and overall trade volume slowed down significantly last year, apparently due to international sanctions condemning its nuclear test and other provocations, Seoul’s trade promotion agency said Wednesday.

According to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, better known as KOTRA, North Korea’s overall trade reached US$6.81 billion in 2012, growing 7.1 percent from a year earlier and reaching a record high since 1990 when such data began to be compiled.

The growth, however, marked a sharp slowdown from a 51.3 percent on-year hike in 2011.

“Such a significant slowdown of growth last year appears to have been caused by the fact that North Korea has only a limited number of export products and that sanctions by the international community continued,” KOTRA said in a press release.

The North’s overall exports gained 3.3 percent on-year to $2.88 billion with imports surging 10.2 percent to $3.93 billion.

Still, the North’s trade relations with its communist ally China strengthened with the countries’ bilateral trade reaching $6.01 billion, accounting for 88.3 percent of the North’s overall trade in 2012.

Trade with China has also slowed. According to Yonhap:

North Korea’s imports from China for this year registered its first drop in three years due apparently to China’s tightened grip on transactions with its ally under United Nations sanctions, Beijing’s customs data showed Wednesday.

The North brought in US$1.01 billion worth of Chinese goods during the January-April period, down 8.68 percent from a year earlier, according to China’s online customs data analyzed by Yonhap News Agency.

It was the first annual drop for the four-month period since 2010 when Customs-info, the online customs data provider, started to provide related information.

The North’s imports from China stood at $525.8 million for the same four-month period in 2010. It had posted two successive annual increases to reach $1.1 billion in 2012 before registering a fall this year, according to the data.

The on-year reduction this year can be attributable to China’s increased efforts to strictly apply punitive U. N. sanctions adopted to punish the North for its long-range rocket launch, believed to have been a test of its ballistic missile technology, and its third nuclear test, which occurred on Feb. 12.

Taking a step back from its previous stance to keep neutral about its ally, China joined punitive international moves by tightening its customs and immigration inspections toward the North.

The data, however, showed that the North’s exports to China grew 6 percent on-year to $842.8 million during the January-April period.

Read the full stories here:
Growth of N. Korean trade slows in 2012
Yonhap
2013-5-29

N. Korea’s imports from China drop amid tensions
Yonhap
2013-5-29

Posted in China, International trade, Statistics, Trade Statistics | Comments Closed

DPRK fertilizer imports 2013

Monday, May 27th, 2013

UPDATE 1 (2013-5-27): The DPRK has significantly its imports of Chinese fertilizers. According to Yonhap:

North Korea’s fertilizer imports from China jumped nearly five-fold last month from a year earlier, a report showed Monday, pointing to Pyongyang’s efforts to increase agricultural produce.

The North brought in 91,318 tons of Chinese fertilizer in April, compared with 15,218 tons a year earlier, according to the report released by Kwon Tae-jin, an analyst at the Korea Rural Economic Institute.

For the January-April period, the total fertilizer imports from China, the North’s closest provider of resources, came to 121,109 tons, 4.6 times more than those shipped in for the same four months last year, according to the report based on data from the Korea International Trade Association.

The sharp increase in fertilizer imports seems unexpected, given that China is imposing high-rate export customs in order to limit outbound shipments of Chinese fertilizer, Kwon said.

“The increase this year shows that the North is putting top priority on boosting productivity in the agricultural sector as well as that the conditions for fertilizer production in the North Korea are in a bad shape,” the analyst said.

The report also showed that the North imported 25,850 tons of grains like rice and corn from China last month, only half of what it brought in from China a year earlier.

Read the full story here:
N. Korea’s fertilizer imports from China jump 5-fold in April
Yonhap
2013-5-27

Original Post (2013-4-30): According to Yonhap, the DPRK has increased its imports of Chinese fertilizers.

According to the report by the Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI), Pyongyang bought 29,791 tons of chemical fertilizers from its neighbor, up 3.6 fold from the 6,530 tons it imported for the same three month period in 2012.

It said for March alone, the country brought in 28,725 tons of fertilizer.

“Normally the North imports fertilizers in April,” said Kwon Tae-jin, a research fellow at KREI. He said the fact that it bought so much ahead of when it usually imports the product means Pyongyang may be interested in improving farm output.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had said earlier in the year that the North needs to concentrate on farming and light industries in 2013 because they directly impact the everyday lives of people.

The expert, in addition, speculated that a surge in imports could be the result of problems in local fertilizer production.

The latest findings based on data provided by Korea International Trade Association, meanwhile, showed the North importing 54,178 tons of grain from China in the first quarter, an increase of 31.6 percent from the year before.

Total imports as measured in dollars also jumped 39.2 percent on-year to US$24.71 million from $17.75 million in the first three months of last year.

Read the full story here:
N. Korea’s imports of Chinese fertilizers jump in Q1: report
Yonhap
2013-4-30

Posted in Food, International trade, Statistics, Trade Statistics | Comments Closed

DPRK in default on ROK food loans

Friday, May 24th, 2013

UPDATE 2 (2013-5-24): South Korea has again requested that the DPRK repay past food loans. According to Yonhap:

South Korea again called on North Korea Friday to repay millions of dollars in loans provided in the form of food since 2000, the Unification Ministry said.

The impoverished North missed the June 7, 2012 deadline to repay South Korea US$5.83 million in the first installment of the $724 million food loan extended to the North in rice and corn. The latest call is the South’s fifth demand made on the North to repay its debt.

Seoul’s state-run Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) sent a message on Thursday to Pyongyang’s Foreign Trade Bank, calling for the repayment, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk said in a briefing.

The South Korean bank also sent another message the same day, notifying the North of its forthcoming June 7th deadline to repay the second installment of $5.78 million, the spokesman said.

“North Korea should faithfully abide by what they previously agreed to with the South,” Kim said, calling for the repayment of food loans.

Amid a conciliatory mode under the liberal-minded late President Kim Dae-jung, Seoul started to provide food loans to the famine-ridden country, providing a total of 2.4 million tons of rice and 200,000 tons of corn from 2000-2007.

Under the deal, the North is required to pay back a total of $875.32 million by 2037.

Read the full story here:
S. Korea again asks North to repay food loans
Yonhap
2013-5-24

UPDATE 1 (2012-7-15): South Korea claims the DPRK missed a deadline for explaining how it intended to repay South Korean “loans”. According to Yonhap:

North Korea missed the deadline Sunday for notifying South Korea of how it will repay millions of dollars in loans provided in the form of food in 2000, resulting in Seoul having the right to declare Pyongyang has defaulted on its debt, an official said.

South Korea sent the North a message on June 15 that the communist nation was supposed to have paid back US$5.83 million in the first installment of a 2000 food loan worth $88.36 million by June 7. The North was required to respond to the message in 30 days.

That deadline passed on Sunday with the North remaining silent, giving South Korea the right to declare the North has defaulted on the debt, according to a government official in Seoul.

But South Korea is unlikely to go ahead with the declaration any time soon as it would have little effect on the North. The communist nation remains largely outside of the international financial system and the prospect of national default is unlikely to force it to repay its debt.

Officials said they are considering sending Pyongyang a message again calling for debt repayment.

Widespread views are that it won’t be easy for the North, which is still struggling with food shortages, to pay back its debt, but officials said the country could repay the debt in kind as it did before. In 2007 and 2008, the North repaid some debt with $2.4 million worth of zinc ores.

After the two Koreas held their first-ever summit in 2000, South Korea provided the North with a total of US$720 million in loans of rice and corn until 2007. Including interest accrued on the loans, the North is required to repay some US$875 million by 2037.

Such aid has been cut off after the South’s President Lee Myung-bak took office with a pledge to link any assistance to the North to progress in international efforts to end Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programs.

The Daily NK also covered the story.

ORIGINAL POST (2012-6-8): According to Yonhap:

North Korea has not shown any signs of repaying the loans South Korea extended in food grains since 2000 although the initial day of the scheduled repayment passed as of Thursday. The South Korean government provided North Korea grain loans worth US$725 million for seven years until 2007, including 2.4 million tons of rice and 200,000 tons of corn. The total principal and interest North Korea should repay for the next 20 years is estimated at $875.32 million.

North Korea was scheduled to pay South Korea $5.83 million by Thursday for the loans extended to it in 2000. Korea Eximbank, which is in charge of trade finance with the North, notified its counterpart the Chosun Trade Bank of North Korea of the repayment obligation Monday but North Korea had not responded of Friday.

The former South Korean governments led by President Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun provided an estimated 1 trillion won (US$850 million) to North Korea from 2000 to 2007 under the sunshine policy. South Korea provided an additional 1.37 trillion won to North Korea to finance the construction of a light water reactor in order to suspend North Korea’s nuclear development. All the loans to the North were taxpayer’s money.

…

North Korea should show sincerity in the repayment of these loans for the sake of its future. If it fails to do so, the North will encounter substantial difficulties in accessing further loans from the international community. North Korea also has failed to repay loans it borrowed from the old Soviet Union. Russia reportedly had to reduce 90 percent of the Norths loans, worth $11 billion.

If North Korea has difficulties repaying its debts to South Korea in cash, it should sincerely discuss alternative measures to repay the loans with the South Korean government.

The South Korean government should positively consider measures to get the money back in kind, such as in mineral resources. North Korea should understand that if it fails to show the minimum sincerity on the repayment of its debts, it will experience much more difficulty in attracting economic assistance from the outside world.

The Choson Ilbo reports this additional information:

In 2007 and 2008, South Korea also gave the North $80 million worth of raw materials to produce textiles, shoes and soap. At the time, North Korea repaid 3 percent of the loan with $2.4 million worth of zinc ingots. Repayments of the remaining $77.6 million become due after a five-year grace period, so North Korea must start repaying $8.6 million a year every year for 10 years starting in 2014.

Seoul also loaned Pyongyang W585.2 billion (US$1=W1,172) from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund so it could re-connect railways and roads with the South that were severed in the 1950-53 Korean War. And it provided W149.4 billion worth of equipment to the North. The North must repay that loan in 20 years with a 10-year grace period at an annual interest of 1 percent.

It also seems unlikely that South Korea will be able to recoup W1.37 trillion plus around W900 billion in interest it provided North Korea through an abortive project by the Korean Energy Development Organization to build a light-water reactor.

The loans amount to a total of around W3.5 trillion, which the South will probably have to write off.

The Daily NK also reported on this story.

Read the full story here:
North Korea should show sincerity in repaying South Korea loans
Yonhap
2012-6-8

N.Korea Misses 1st Loan Repayment Deadline
Choson Ilbo
2012-6-8

Posted in Banking, Debt, Finance, Food, Foreign aid statistics, Foreign direct investment, International trade, South Africa, Statistics | Comments Closed

North Korean Economy Watch