North Korean Economy Watch

Juche Strong tells the story of the 2010 North Korean World Cup team. That summer was the country’s first Cup campaign in over forty years. And last time North Korea participated they beat perennial powerhouse Italy, in what is generally considered one of the greatest upsets in soccer history. Juche Strong lays out the many twists and turns of the 2010 outing, including a historic 7-0 throttling at the hands of Portugal, at least parts of which were broadcast live in North Korea. The film interlaces that story with a broader analysis of the DPRK’s propaganda apparatus — and posits that it’s much more powerful and well-designed than the average observer gives it credit for. The narrative crafted by the regime — of a morally pure Korean people struggling mightily against imperialist powers — effectively taps into deeply rooted Korean cultural norms and human psychological instincts.

The director, Rob Montz, visited and shot footage in North Korea this summer. The film also includes interviews with many North Korea scholars, including Bruce Cummings, David Kang, Stephan Haggard, Marcus Noland, and Suk-Young Kim, as well as a North Korea refugee now living in the States.

The film’s trailer is here and the official web page is here.

UPDATE: The USA won, 1-0.

ORIGINAL POST: I am watching the game now.

The DPRK team has some amazing skills:

RFA issued a report that the DPRK has imposed new restraints on the operation and functionality of mobile phones. You can read the report here, but it is only available in Korean. Fortunately Yonhap picked up the story and published it in English.

According to the Yonhap article (2012-7-28):

North Korea has disabled video camera and memory card functions in new mobile phones, a news report said Saturday, in what appears to be Pyongyang’s latest move to tighten control over the flow of information within and across its borders.

The North also removed the Bluetooth function, a protocol that allows mobile phone users to exchange data over short distances, and blocked subscribers from using mobile phones beyond the city where they are registered, Washington-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported, citing a Japanese journalist familiar with the issue.

“Mobile phones have played a big role in spreading information,” said Ishimaru Jiro, the publisher of Rimjin-gang Magazine, which is written by undercover journalists inside the North, according to RFA. With the technological restrictions, however, the new mobile phones “have lost key functions for the spread and proliferation of information inside and outside North Korea,” he said.

Pyongyang took the new measures last October when it issued a new first four digit number to new subscribers, RFA said, in an apparent move to differentiate more than 1 million subscribers with phones equipped with camera functions and memory cards.

North Koreans can purchase phones using the previous four digit number and equipped with camera functions and memory cards, but the North has raised their price to about US$1,000, putting them out of reach for ordinary citizens, RFA said.

North Koreans earn an average of 3,000 to 5,000 won a month. The North Korean won is traded at around 3,500 won to $US1 in North Korean markets, though the official rate is 100 won to one dollar, according to North Korean defectors in South Korea.

The North’s move appears to be designed to wean North Koreans off phones with high-technology and eventually restrict any free flow of information and foreign news and materials, which the North sees as a potential threat to its stability.

Additional information:
1. On an related note, here is a North Korean video on cell phone etiquette that I uploaded to YouTube.

2. Here are previous posts on cell phones and Orascom.

Read the full story here:
N. Korea disables key functions in new mobile phones: report
Yonhap
2012-7-28

38 North has launched a video interview series. The first interview is with Bradley Babson and focuses on foreign investmetn in the DPRK:

(This is also the first video I have successfully embedded into my web page!)

“Pyongyang paints history in its own image”
Andrei Lankov
Asia Times
2012-5-11

“Book Review: Secret History of the KLO in the Korean War”
Stephen Mercado
Intelligence in Public Literature

“South Korea-North Korea Relations: Plumbing the Depths”
Aidan Foster-Carter
Comparative Connections 

“NKIDP e-Dossier No. 6: The Origins of the Northern Limit Line Dispute
Terence Roehrig”
Wilson Center North Korea International Documentation Project

“NKIDP e-Dossier No. 7: East German Documents on Kim Il Sung’s April 1975 Trip to Beijing”
Ria Chae
Wilson Center North Korea International Documentation Project 

ITEM 1: The Adventures of Kim Jong-un! An anime perspective on the life of Kim Jong-un (College Humor):

Click image to watch full video.

ITEM 2: Looks like the Korean Friendship Association’s (KFA) “Special Delegation” to the DPRK to celebrate Kim Il-sung’s 100th birthday was not so special–and more expensive to boot! A participant reports on his travel with the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) here, here, and here.

ITEM 3: A reader points out  that KCNA has updated the broadcast background to reflect the new construction on Mansudae Street. Below are two KCNA screen shots (2012-5-4, 2012-5-9):

Also, the news presenters have started wearing the new “double-leader badge” featuring both Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. Below are two screenshots (2012-4-11 and 2012-4-12):

A touristto the DPRK took these pictures a few days ago:

On the left, the new Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il badge. On the right, someone who shares the sentiment but lacks the means (or is not as well connected).

According to a colleague the new “pair” badge was distributed to the delegates of the party conference (3-4 to each delegate), and from them to other people. It is very rare to see these badges right now.

The Daily NK and Ruediger Frank  also wrote about the “pair” badges.

ITEM 4: North Korean art–some great works here. Also a reader send in this painting (3rd place and chosen as a national treasure no less!)

ITEM 5: This is the closest thing to a Kim Jong-il screen-saver that I have seen.

Nat Kretchun and Jane Kim of InterMedia have published a quantitative analysis of the ability of North Koreans to access outside information.  It is quite rigorous!

Download the PDF here

Abstract:

This study assesses levels of access to outside information within North Korea based on research conducted among North Korean defectors, refugees and travelers, as well as outside media content analysis and expert interviews. Survey samples of refugees and defectors are not statistically representative of the home population of North Korea and generally contain a disproportionate number of respondents from the provinces bordering China. Interpretation of all statistics contained within this report should be undertaken only with these caveats firmly in mind. The primary focus of the study was on the ability of North Koreans to access outside information from foreign sources through a variety of media, communication technologies and personal sources. The relationship between information exposure on North Koreans’ perceptions of the outside world and their own country was also analyzed.

The web cast was here (featuring panelists Abraham Kim, Nat Kretchun, Marcus Noland, and Martyn Williams) but I do not know how long it will be archived.

Here is coverage in Reuters, Bloomberg, Associate Press,

“North Korea’s Resource Headache”
The Diplomat
Andray Abrahamian & Geoffrey See

This article brings up the notion of the “natural resource curse”–a topic I briefly mentioned in the context fo the DPRK back in 2010-6-3. Marcus Noland responds to the piece here.

“Will North Korea’s Plans for Foreign Investment Make It a More Prosperous Nation?”
38 North
Bradley Babson

“North Korea redefines ‘minimum’ wage”
Asia Times
Andrei Lankov

And finally, congratulations to Geoffrey See at Choson Exchange. See why here.

1. What if the story of Sin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hui was combined with Laura Ling and Euna Lee…and it was a comedy?

Click image to watch trailer

2. Satellite photo of the military parade in Pyongyang (via AP):

These sorts of events are practiced at the KPA facility in Mirim.

3. Watch North Korean movies (with subtitles)–YouTube

4. Learn North Korean (Defense Language Institute)

5. North Korean tractor simulator. It appears to be more sophisticated than an actual North Korean tractor!

6. The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaușescu. In addition to great Kim Il-sung / Ceausescu footage, there is an amazing scene at the 1hr 59min mark where Constantin Pîrvulescu denounces Ceausescu’s abuse of party procedures.  According to Wikipedia:

In November 1979, at the 12th Party Congress, he took the floor advocating against the re-election of Ceauşescu to the party leadership, accusing him of putting personal interests ahead of those of party and nation. He also accused the congress of neglecting the country’s real problems, being preoccupied in glorifying Ceauşescu.[1] This unprecedented attack came from a man who was a lifelong communist, with a lifelong association with Soviet-style communism (he was the only member of the Central Committee to oppose Khrushchev’s withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1958). Likewise, being 84 years of age, personal ambitions could not be a motivating factor for this speech. Thus, the Western press considered his remarks to be proof of dissatisfaction within the Party’s ranks. Pîrvulescu was kicked out of the room, stripped of his position as delegate to the congress and placed under strict supervision and house arrest.