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2011-Q1 DPRK-PRC trade double 2010 level

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

Trade between North Korea and China nearly doubled in the first quarter of this year compared to 2010.

China’s imports of North Korean goods, which were valued at around 401-million US dollars, increased 214-percent, while its exports to the North, worth about 570-million dollars, rose by only 59-percent year-on-year.

As China’s imports significantly increased overall during this period, its trade surplus with its communist neighbor shrank about 27 percent compared to last year.

The top items China imported from the North included anthracite, iron, and zinc alloys, mostly mining resources.

China’s import of anthracite in the first quarter surged about 1300-percent compared to the same time last year.

Meanwhile, North Korea imported items like crude oil, gasoline, wireless phones, and coal from its last remaining ally.

Korea’s YTN News Agency reports that North Korea’s import of mobile phones, which appear to be all old models, increased about 330-percent from a year earlier.

And North Korea’s import of gasoline during the first quarter of this year increased 120-percent compared to 2010.

Experts say that the increase in gasoline imports likely has to do with its intensified military training since its attack on the South Korean warship Cheonan and the shelling of the South’s Yeonpyeong Island last year.

Read the full story here:
China-N.Korea Trade Volume Doubles in First Quarter of 2011
Arirang News
2011-6-6

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

PRC intercepts DPRK meth shipment

Saturday, June 4th, 2011

According to Reuters:

Police in northeast China detained 10 people and seized a haul of methamphetamines smuggled in to the country from North Korea, Chinese state media said on Saturday.

South Korea and the United States accuse North Korea of involvement in a wide range of illicit activities, including drug smuggling, to raise funds for a government under wide-ranging sanctions due to its nuclear programme.

The 10 suspects were caught in Dandong, which faces North Korea on the Yalu River, carrying 450 grams (1 lb) of methamphetamine, a stimulant known as “ice”, the official Xinhua news agency said in an English-language report.

The suspects are all Chinese citizens and were also carrying 150,000 yuan ($23,150) with them, Xinhua said.

Police are looking for two other people in connection with the haul.

While Xinhua did not say where the drugs came from, it pointed out that Dandong is on the North Korean border and that this was a “cross-border drug trafficking case”.

It provided no other details.

There is probably some sort of “lips and teeth” / “meth mouth” metaphor in here somewhere, but I am not a professional writer.

Previous posts on drug smuggling in/from the DPRK can be found here.

Read the full story here:
China cracks ring smuggling drugs from N.Korea
Reuters
Ben Blanchard
2011-6-4

Posted in China, Drug smuggling, Illicit activities, International trade | Comments Closed

DPRK stepping up investigations of border patrol

Friday, June 3rd, 2011

According ot the DailyNK:

The North Korean authorities are conducting an extensive investigation into the actions of soldiers attached to border guard units, based on the presumption that such guards are frequently guilty of aiding and abetting defection. Those found to have done so are being arrested and severely punished.

A source from Yangkang Province explained the news yesterday, “For the third time they are conducting an investigation along the border in Kim Jong Eun’s name, but this time it is focused on the soldiers.”

“The decree says to arrest and severely punish soldiers who have aided and abetted in defection, to pull out the roots; so the investigation has been harsh from the very beginning.”

The two previous investigations into defection from the border region, both said to have been launched in the name of the successor, happened in February and April this year, as reported by The Daily NK. However, this is the first time that attention has turned away from defectors themselves and towards those soldiers who help facilitate a lot of the escapes.

“There are two members of an investigation team from Defense Security Command going to every guard post, and they are questioning the soldiers one by one,” the source said.

It is well known both within and without North Korea that border guards are commonly bribed to turn a blind eye to defection. Through very serious questioning and the threat of severe punishment, the authorities are presumably hoping to kill two birds with one stone; both hindering further defections and re-instilling military discipline.

However, the new investigation has already inspired at least two guards from one post to desert instead of face censure, according to the source.

“Two men from a guard post in the Hyesin-dong area of Hyesan took their weapons and deserted, so now they are in the middle of a house-to-house investigation,” the source explained, adding, however, “People are saying, ‘They’ve already fled to China, why the hell would they still be in the country?’”

Although nobody knows why the two men chose to desert, the source said he had heard that they were indeed involved in defections, and feared punishment.

Across the Tumen River in Changbai, China, meanwhile, there is also an unusually intense investigation going on, according to sources there. It is suspected that the two events are related.

A source explained, “Public security officers and soldiers are stopping and investigating cars one by one. I heard that soldiers from North Korea deserted with their guns, so maybe it is because of that.”

Of course, the investigation is hurting small traders, too.

“Big-time smugglers are not having problems,” the Yangkang Province source explained. “But day-to-day small scale smugglers are complaining about the investigation. Border guards are telling them to put up with it just a little more.”

Read the full story here:
Border Investigators Turned on Soldiers
Daily NK
Lee Seok-young
2011-6-3

Posted in Black markets, Emigration, International trade, Kim Jong Un, Military, Political economy | Comments Closed

Lankov on the rise of China and Korean unification

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

Andrei Lankov recently wrote a paper on the rise of China and the implications for Korean unification for a Korean-language publication.

You can download a PDF of the paper in English here.

Abstract
The rise of China can be seen as the single most important strategic problem which Korea faces currently. In the late 1970s, China entered a phase of high-speed economic growth, which still seems to be almost unstoppable. According to World Bank estimates, the average annual increase in China’s GDP in the years 2000-2009 was 9.7%. This is the world’s highest growth rate. Perhaps for the first time in modern history, the country which has the highest growth rate is the country with the largest population.

The future of Korea depends on its ability to find how to handle the Chinese challenge. It is going to be difficult, but there are hopeful signs, too: Chinese political elite may be remarkably realist, even Machiavellian, in their outlook but also rational and averse to adventurism. This gives Korea some hope that compromises with China will be possible. Without such compromises no unification of Korea will be possible in a new world where China is bound to be a major player.

Posted in China, International trade, Political economy | Comments Closed

DPRK embassy involved in India car smuggling?

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

According to the Choson Ilbo:

North Korean Embassy officials in India are being investigated for involvement in a luxury car smuggling case worth W100 billion (US$1=W1,091).

Senior officials of the North Korean and Vietnamese embassies are suspected of smuggling luxury sedans and motorcycles, evading customs duties estimated at 5 billion rupees (approximately W120 billion) over the past years, the Indian Express reported Monday.

According to India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Sumit Walia, alias Sunny (32) imported stolen or second-hand foreign cars using the embassy officials as frontmen to evade customs duties and sold them as brand-new.

In India, second-hand foreign cars are subject to tariffs of 160 percent and new cars to 109 percent. But diplomats are exempt.

Walia bought stolen cars chiefly from the U.K, and forged their registration documents to disguise them as new cars. He imported them in the name of the diplomats and allegedly sold them to businessmen, politicians, and celebrities.

Indian authorities have confiscated 41 cars. Most of them are top brand cars such as BMW, Ferrari, Lexus, and Porsche.

The DRI estimated the amount of customs duties Walia and his gang have evaded at 5 billion rupees. The agency has asked the Indian Foreign Ministry for cooperation with the investigation to find out what role the North Korean and Vietnamese embassy officials played.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. As regular readers are aware, North Korean embassies self-finance their operations through business opportunities in their host countries. Sometimes these are legitimate business ventures…sometimes not. Plenty of similar stories are archived on this web page.

Read the full story here:
N.Korean Diplomats in India Investigated for Car Smuggling
Choson Ilbo
2011-5-17

Posted in Finance, Illicit activities, India, International trade | Comments Closed

NATO intercepts DPRK weapons shipment

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

This time the shipment was headed for Eritrea. According to the Sudan Tribune (2011-5-11):

NATO Naval forces have reportedly captured a heavy weapon carrying cargo ship destined to Eritrea in the international waters of the Indian Ocean.

…

A UN monitoring group report this week revealed that the cargo originally shipped from North Korea was carrying 15 tonnes of rockets, surface to air missiles and explosives worth $US15 million.

In December 2009, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions against Eritrea, which include an arms embargo, travel restrictions and a freeze on the assets of its political and military leaders for an alleged involvement in training and supplying weapons to Al-Qaida and links Somali Islamic rebels.

It also turn out that there is a UN arms embargo on the DPRK as well, which I suppose is not as big a deal in the Sudanese press.

Here are previous posts on the DPRK’s arms shipments.

Posted in Arms shipment, Illicit activities, International trade | Comments Closed

The DPRK and national/multilateral development and trade agencies

Monday, May 9th, 2011

Marcus Noland has an interesting post on the plethora of obstacles the DPRK must navigate before it can take advantage of the full range of trade and development programs across the globe.

Read his post here.

Posted in International trade, Peterson Institute | Comments Closed

DPRK WIPO patent applications dry up

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

According to Yonhap:

North Korea has not filed a single international patent application with the global patent governing body since last September, a media report said.

The U.S.-based Radio Free Asia (RFA), citing an official at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), reported on April 28 that North Korea has applied for 22 international patents since 1993 but new applications have dried up since September 2010.

North Korea’s previous patent filings included those on finger print-recognition technology and fuel-efficient engines and others. The country joined the United Nations patent body in 1974.

South Korea, meanwhile, has applied for 2,800 patents with WIPO in September last year, averaging about 700 per month.

Ham Yoon-seok, a Korean patent attorney working in the United States, said that North Korean law does not properly recognize the intellectual property rights of inventions and patents, attributing the notion to the weak patent applications.

Read the full story here:
N. Korea’s Int’l Patent Applications Dry up Since Late 2010: WIPO
Yonhap
2011-5-5

Posted in Intellectual Property, International trade, Light Industry, Manufacturing | Comments Closed

Chinese in DPRK, Koreans in PRC

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

According to Yonhap:

The number of North Koreans officially visiting China reached 28,600 in the first three months of the year, up 35 percent from the same period last year, a news report said Wednesday.

More than half of them visited China to work in either factories or restaurants, while 6,000 people visited China for conferences or businesses, the Voice of America reported, citing Chinese government data.

The VOA also said 700 North Koreans toured China for sightseeing, while fewer than 100 North Koreans visited China to meet relatives or friends and 7,300 visitors had other purposes. The report did not elaborate.

The data did not include information on North Koreans staying illegally in China after defecting, the VOA said.

Tens of thousands of North Korean defectors are believed to be hiding in China, a major land route through which many North Korean defectors travel to Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries before resettling in South Korea.

According ot the Choson Ilbo:

Chinese tourists will start visiting Russian and North Korean cities without visas on Wednesday under a formal agreement between Beijing and the two countries. The tour course starts in the Chinese border city of Hunchun in the lower reaches of the Duman (Tumen) River and goes on to eastern Russia and the Rajin-Sonbong special economic zone in North Korea.

A group of 21 tourists left Changchun, the capital of northeast China’s Jilin Province, on Tuesday for the Hunchun. Travelers will then visit Slavyanka, Vladivostok and Khasan, the official Xinhua news agency said. They then go to North Korea by train and tour the cities of the Duman River and the Rajin-Sonbong area.

The four-day tour starts every Wednesday and costs 2,300 yuan (approximately W390,000). Only Chinese travelers are eligible for the visa-free arrangement.

Read the full stories below:
Number of N. Korean visitors to China rises in first quarter
Yonhap
4/27/2011

Chinese Tourists Visit Russia, N.Korea Visa-Free
Choson Ilbo
4/28/2011

Posted in China, Civil society, International trade, Labor conditions/wages, Rason Economic and Trade Zone (Rajin-Sonbong), Russia, Special Economic Zones (Established before 2013), Tourism, Transportation | Comments Closed

DPRK seafood still available in ROK

Monday, April 25th, 2011

Accordign to the Choson Ilbo:

Clams and other seafood from North Korea are openly being sold in the South despite a ban on all trade with the North after the sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan last year. Insiders say that is because customers prize North Korean fisheries products.

Some 30 vendors in the Garak Market and 20 in the Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market sell shellfish from North Korea, including large clams and scallops. “We have openly labeled shellfish that come from North Korea because customers think they taste better,” a vendor said. “They’re between W1,000 to W3,000 cheaper than domestic ones but the quality is good” (US$1=W1,081).

North Korean shellfish have been brought into the South labeled as Chinese since the end of March. “Before the sinking of the Cheonan, North Korean shellfish was directly imported” labeled as North Korean, an official at the Seoul Agricultural and Marine Products Corporation said. “But since the ban on North Korean imports they’ve been imported through Chinese traders.”

According to the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute, demand for fish and shellfish from North Korea is rising in the South because customers shun Japanese seafood products due to concerns over radioactive contamination, while there are suspicions over the quality of Chinese products.

You can read the Choson Ilbo piece here:
N.Korean Shellfish Sold Openly Despite Ban
Choson Ilbo
4/25/2011

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

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