2011 Women’s World Cup

August 25th, 2011

UPDATE 6 (2011-11-18): An Australian Women’s team is unhappy with the way the DPRK doping scandal has erupted. Accoridng to the Herald Sun:

A doping storm surrounding the North Korea women’s soccer team has given the Matildas a glimmer of hope they will be able to compete at the London Olympic Games.

The Matildas failed to qualify for next year’s Games after finishing third in the Asian qualifying tournament in September behind Japan and North Korea.

But North Korea was contentiously allowed to contest the play-offs despite being banned by soccer’s ruling body FIFA following a doping scandal involving five players and a team doctor only three months earlier.

The furore erupted in the wake of this year’s World Cup in June and July when the five players tested positive to steroids, earning bans of up to 18 months.

The team doctor was barred for six years and the team was thrown out by FIFA until the 2015 World Cup.

But a FIFA disciplinary committee’s decision to penalise the Koreans in only the World Cup competition meant they were able to remain in Olympic contention.

The Matildas are furious at the decision, especially since no drug tests were taken at the Olympic qualifying tournament in China, where they endured a 1-0 loss to North Korea.

The Australian Olympic Committee has now asked the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Authority to clarify North Korea’s Olympic eligibility.

Ultimately, it is understood the IOC will bow to FIFA rulings because FIFA runs the Olympic tournament.

Football Federation Australia national teams chief John Boultbee said FFA had also asked WADA to appeal FIFA’s decision.

But the FFA is also yet to make any inroads.

“We think it’s strange that a team is banned for 2015 and not 2012 so we have raised the issue with WADA, the IOC and FIFA but so far to no avail,” Boultbee told AAP.

“We recognise there’s an element of self interest from our point of view because we were third in the qualification tournament but also we are not happy that what FIFA has found to be systematic doping, has not been dealt with in the most effective way.”

It’s believed Matildas players were initially instructed not to comment on the issue but they’ve opted to speak publicly because of their frustration with the situation.

Matildas captain Melissa Barbieri stressed the women’s side did not want to make excuses for their failed campaign but simply could not fathom why no drug testing was done at the qualifying tournament.

“It’s surprising to say the least, especially when a team has been caught with drugs in their system for the World Cup a month beforehand and to have no drug testing,” Barbieri said.

“They (North Korea) played better than us and we lost the game.

“But it plays on your mind – do you really believe that they didn’t have any drugs in their system when they were playing us as well? Who knows?”

While the five North Korean players banned at the World Cup did not take part in the Olympic qualification and cannot compete in London, veteran Matildas defender Thea Slatyer said she was concerned a host of new players had been brought into the squad but not tested.

Slatyer, who would have played her last international tournament in London, said the players had been left disheartened.

“We’re a very fair country. We’ve always played fair and played by the rules,” Slatyer said.

“… It does make you really upset to know that a team that has conducted this behaviour is kind of allowed to get away with not being tested.”

FIFA told AAP in a statement the Asian Olympic qualifying tournament had not been considered a priority for doping control.

“As due to logistical reasons, FIFA cannot conduct at all qualifying games doping controls,” the statement read.

“Therefore, an assessment is done by the FIFA Anti-Doping Unit and it is decided at which matches doping controls will be performed.”

UPDATE 5 (2011-8-25): The DPRK women’s team has been banned from the 2015 Women’s World Cup.  According to USA Today:

FIFA banned North Korea from the 2015 Women’s World Cup after five players tested positive for steroids from traditional musk deer gland therapy at the tournament last month.

FIFA on Thursday imposed bans of up to 18 months on all five players, who North Korean officials said were treated with traditional therapy after being struck by lightning at a pre-tournament training camp.

Jong Pok Sim, Hong Myong Hui, Ho Un Byol and Ri Un Hyang were suspended from all soccer-related activity for 18 months, while Song Jong Sun was ineligible for 14 months, FIFA said.

North Korea’s soccer federation was fined $400,000, and team doctor Nam Jong Ae was banned for six years.

The fine “exactly corresponds to the prize money the association would have received for their 13th place in the final ranking of the Women’s World Cup in Germany,” FIFA said.

Defenders Song and Jong failed drugs tests before the World Cup game against Colombia. FIFA then tested the entire North Korean team after its final match.

FIFA’s disciplinary panel also banned Colombia backup goalkeeper Yineth Varon for two years for doping at the tournament.

The doping case was the most serious at a major FIFA tournament in 17 years.

In July, FIFA’s chief medical officer Jiri Dvorak said after extensive testing, “we can really say with far-reaching confidence that these steroids were the result of this so-callled Chinese traditional medicine.”

UPDATE 4 (2011-7-16): Once again, the North Koreans come up with a creative explanation for testing positive in doping tests.  According to the Associated Press:

North Korea officials blame traditional medicine using musk deer glands for five of their players testing positive for steroids at the Women’s World Cup in soccer’s biggest doping scandal in nearly two decades.

Their loss to the US was due to being struck by lightning (see below).

UPDATE 3 (2011-7-16): Three more players have tested positive.  According to Bloomberg:

Three more North Korean soccer players failed anti-doping tests given to the whole squad after two teammates failed a test earlier this month at the Women’s World Cup.

FIFA didn’t name the players or the substance in a statement today. All North Korean players were tested after Song Jong Sun and Jong Pok Sim were provisionally suspended July 7 before a game against Colombia in Bochum. The two had been tested after the team’s previous matches and the results received yesterday morning.

UPDATE 2 (2011-7-11): A new German language documentary has been released featuring may of the players and their training facilities.  See it here.

UPDATE 1 (2011-7-7): Two members of the DPRK Women’s team have been suspended for doping.  According to CNN:

World football’s governing body FIFA announced Thursday that two players from the North Korea side have been provisionally suspended from the Women’s World Cup after failing dope tests.

Jong Sun Song and Sim Pok Jong were prevented from playing in the tournament being held in Germany prior to their team’s Group C tie against Colombia in Bochum yesterday.

FIFA said in a statement that adverse “analytical findings” were present in “A” samples collected in two anti-doping tests conducted after the team’s previous matches.

The statement continued: “In accordance with article 58 of the FIFA Anti-Doping Regulations … the whole Korea DPR team was required by FIFA to undergo an anti-doping test after yesterday’s match between Korea DPR and Colombia. The target testing of the entire Korea DPR team was coordinated with WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency].”

North Korea drew 0-0 with Colombia in their third and final game at the event in which they failed to score a goal; previous defeats to Sweden and the USA consigning the team to an early exit.

Colombia finished below North Korea to bottom Group C after also failing to score a goal in their three group games, a result which preceded the announcement from FIFA that a player from their squad was also subject to suspension.

“In total, there have been three adverse analytical findings in connection with the Women’s World Cup. The chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee [also] provisionally suspended the Colombian player Yineth Varon after an out-of-competition doping test conducted in Leverkusen on 25 June 2011.

“Disciplinary proceedings have since been opened and are still pending. FIFA would like to emphasize once again its determination to keep football free of doping.

“It is FIFA’s duty and will to protect players from harm and ensure that footballers can compete on an even playing field. FIFA is a reliable partner of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in the worldwide collaboration to safeguard the health of athletes and the spirit of fair competition,” the statement said.

Both North Korea and Colombia failed to progress from the group stage to the quarterfinals, the first of which will be played in Leverkusen when England take on France on Saturday.

Funny, this scene must have been cut from the recent DPRK-made television drama about the women’s football team.

The Middlesbrough Women’s team should demand a rematch!

This is one more sign that the North Koreans are just like everyone else—or rather, North Korean athletes respond to incentives in the same way as athletes from other countries.  They just can’t afford the kind of staff that is sophisticated enough to beat the doping tests. Unlike some sports purists, I would just assume allow doping in competition.

But despite being such a small country, the North Koreans do seem to draw their fair share of controversy at sporting events. Two North Korean athletes in the 2008 Olympiad were also punished for doping. North Korean gymnasts have been banned from international competition until October 2012 for age falsification. And up until 2008, the North Koreans were the only team ever disqualified from the International Mathematical Olympics.

ORIGINAL POST (2011-6-28): The US team wins 2-0.  The DPRK gave the Americans a good game for the first half I am told.

Most interestingly, the DPRK coach blamed the loss on a lightning strike!  According to the Los Angeles Times:

North Korea Coach Kim Kwang-Min had an extraordinary explanation for the loss.

“When we stayed in Pyongyang during training, our players were hit by lightning, and more than five of them were hospitalized,” he told the BBC.

“Some stayed in hospital and then came to Germany later than the rest of us. The goalkeeper and four defenders were most affected, and some midfielders as well. The physicians said the players were not capable of participating in the tournament.

“The fact that they played could be called abnormal, the result of very strong will.”

Additional information:
1. In the past, DPRK players have frustrated foreign sponsors by not thanking them for their victories, but rather “you know who”.

2. The DPRK 2011 women’s team was sponsored by Legea (Italy). The 2008 Olympic team and 2007 women’s football team were sponsored by China Hongxing.  Yet a recent North Korean television drama about the women’s team (broadcast last week) featured apparel by FILA.

3. Here is the BBC article mentioned above.

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Posted in Football (soccer), Italy, Sports, USA | 3 Comments »

The DPRK and Russia to Discuss Construction of Gas Pipelines

August 24th, 2011

Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
2011-8-24

Kim Jong Il’s visit to Moscow on August 20 is sparking interest for the future of economic cooperation between the two countries.

According to the KCNA, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed interest to increase trilateral cooperation between the ROK-DPRK-Russia in the gas, energy, and railroad sectors. In the message sent from Medvedev to mark the 66th anniversary of independence from Japanese colonial rule, “plans to expand cooperation with the DPRK and the ROK in gas, energy, and railroad industry” were emphasized.

The cooperation projects are evaluated to have “great economic and political significance contributing to the stability in Northeast Asia and denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.”

In July 4, the KCNA reported that the delegates from the Russian energy giant Gazprom headed by Chairman Alekhsandr Ananenkov visited Pyongyang to discuss energy cooperation, although details of the visit was not elaborated. Ananenkov was reported to have met with North Korean officials in gas and oil industriesto discuss bilateral cooperation in these areas.

Russia has also expressed interest in linking gas pipelines to export natural gas to South Korea via inter-Korean railroad system.

A spokesperson of the foreign ministry of the DPRK reported on the recent visit from the vice-foreign minister and chief representative of Russia on Six-Party Talks, Aleksei Borodavkin, this past March. In the statement, the Russian government expressed concerns for improving inter-Korean relations and stressed prospects of the tripartite economic cooperation projects with North and South Korea including the construction of railways, gas pipeline, and a transmission line linking the three countries. The DPRK also expressed support for the upcoming economic cooperation projects.

In result, the main agenda in the bilateral economic cooperation between Russia and North Korea entails railway, gas pipeline, and transmission line construction.

President Lee Myung-bak has met with the Russian president Medvedev in September 2008 in Moscow. At the summit, the two presidents reached an agreement to pursue projects to export Russian PNG or pipeline natural gas to South Korea through a pipeline via North Korea from 2015.

Immediately following the summit, South Korea’s Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) and Russia’s Gazprom signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly study the possibilities of constructing a long-distance pipeline running from Vladivostok. Under the contract, Russia will send at least 7.5 million tons of natural gas annually for a period of 30 years through a pipeline to South Korea via North Korea.

This joint study between ROK-Russia is expected to serve as a momentum in bringing diverse economic cooperation between North and South Korea as well.

While it is still premature to judge the long-term outlook for such trilateral economic cooperation, its effects are anticipated to contribute to stability and peace in the Northeast Asian region.

Additional Information: here is a summary of the recent Kim Jong-il — Medvedev summit.

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Posted in Electricity, Energy, Institute for Far Eastern Studies, International trade, Natural Gas, Oil, Railways, Russia, Transportation | Comments Closed

On the DPRK’s University of Natural Science

August 24th, 2011

Pictured above (Google Earth): The National Academy of Science and what I believe is the Natural Science Academy (University of Natural Science) on the border of Pyongyang and Phyongsong.  If any readers beleive the facility is in a different location, please let me know. See in Google Maps here.

Choi Sung writes in the Korea IT Times:

The University of Natural Science which is a North Korea’s science education university is located in Eunjunggu in Pyongyang. It used to be in Pyeongseong-si with the National Academy of Science, where the university is affiliated to, but it was moved to Pyongyang to benefit scientists as a citizen of Pyongyang. The National Academy of Science is North Korea’s best scientific research complex. Every year, Kim Il Sung University hosts a science competition in early January. The competition subjects include Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and English and a thousand students who already passed previous competitions in local institutes participate in the final competition.

Students who win first, second and third places in this competition are eligible to enter any Natural Science university of their choice. Also twenty to thirty top students are awarded and are given a chance to sit for an exam at Kim Il Sung University, The University of Natural Science or Kim Chaek University of Technology. However, the top students gets additional points in their admission, so virtually, seats for them are already secured. North Korea’s top talents usually choose between Kim Il Sung University and the University of Natural Science, but the formal is more for the social title and the latter is more for improving science research skills.

The Best Science Educational Institution

The University of Natural Science, where North Korea’s science and technology talents receive full scholarship (including meals, clothes and even underwear) from the government, is affiliated to the National Academy of Science and is nurturing professional science researchers. The National Academy of Science is North Korea’s top scientific research complex, having the University of Natural Science as a branch.

This University was established on 27 January 1967 by Kang Young Chang, the then director of the National Academy of Science and a member of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, and his determination to foster bright scientists. It was rather an unexpected move in the time when the environment variation theory (Lysenkoism- a theory that believes genetic abilities can be changed depending on the circumstance) that doesn’t admit the existence of the gifted was overflowing through the society as well as it was in other socialism countries like Eastern Europe and China. However, as a result of the establishment of the university, North Korea had a significant turning point in its science and technology development.

The University of Natural Science started from Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology departments in Kim Il Sung University, and all of the professors were members of The Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea. Furthermore, this university was financed by the ruling party’s finance and accounting department as its direct institution and was received special treatment until October 1985. Since then, it became a branch institution of the National Academy of Science, and has established its firm foothold as the top science educational university in North Korea up to now.

Admission Process

Generally, in North Korea, which family one comes from or what kind of social background one has is more important than academic records, however, the ruling party’s Central Committee ordered to select students solely by their academic performance or excellence since 1984. Consequentially, the university has more students who just graduated from high schools, and famous for its young graduates’ scientific achievement after their graduation.

Every university in North Korea has to receive certain percentage (twenty to thirty) of discharged soldiers (served longer than three years) or workers (employed longer than five years), however the University of Natural Science is an exception. It means the university education is focused more on academic performance than ideology, so talented young students can study in this school no matter how old they are. If a gifted student achieves early completion from a high school, he or she can enter the University of Natural Science. Most of the professors at school have Doctorate degree from this university and thirty to forty percent of them have studied in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

Generally, the admission process is divided into two parts, and the first part is that the government sends the university’s professors to the high schools that are considered to be the best in each region, and give top thirty students who want to enter the University of Natural Science a pre-exam. The exam subjects are Mathematics and Physics and top five students are selected to proceed to the next part. In the second part, students take extra Mathematics and Physics exams specially set by the professors of the University of Natural Science in July to August which is the same time as the general university exams are conducted. Students who get ten out of ten in any of those extra exams are specially chosen even if their general exam scores are not as good. For the students who graduate early from high schools are only allowed to enter the University of Natural Science.

Curriculum

Six to seven hundred students a year are entered the university and they study at six departments including Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Electronics and Automation, Computing and Biology, and three thousand students are studying at the graduate school, and four thousand researchers and university personnel are working at the research center, and female students account for fifteen percent.

Most of the professors have degrees from this university and currently forty to fifty percent of the professors have studied in China or Eastern Europe, and almost all of them studied abroad at least from six months to a year and they are mostly teaching modern science theories. The University of Natural Science is famous for being the first university to have higher degree graduates in their twenties and the graduates are known for their excellent performance, so now they takes up the major part of North Korean research centers.

Especially, the graduates are the mainstream in the scientific recerch centers of military agencies and the special agencies. The textbooks used in classes are usually written by professors from this university and original books in English. Since 2005, major subjects have been taught in English and the university has quickly adapted revolutionary measures like South Korean style discussion classes and presentation sessions to provide world-class education system.

It takes seven years to receive bachelor’s degree, the longest school system in North Korea and the graduates get the Expert Qualification which is only given to the natural science graduates from Kim Il Sung University while the graduates from other universities are given the Engineer Qualification. Especially, the University of Natural Science requires one to one and half years to finish graduate dissertation, and students conduct research at the research center at the Nationa Academy of Science. Thus it is the only university that has academic-industrial collaboration system which resembles that of South Korea.

In general, foreign books are not allowed to read without permission in universities in North Korea, the University of Natural Science is an exception. The students in this university can read any natural science books even if that was written by authors from capitalism countries, and it is well known that its graduates have no problems in reading in three or more languages.

As for examinations, getting one F means the student will be flunk, and getting two F mean getting expelled automatically. Because there are only ten students in one class, the competition in classes is so intense that one to three students are flunked or kicked out before graduation. It is the only university in NK where actual experiments takes up thirty percent of curriculum and the exams mainly consist of essay questions. Recently, even though major science research institutions welcome its graduates, students in South Korea tend to choose different majors other than natural science because of the economic recession, and the same phenomenon is also found in North Korea.

All of the students in the university live in dormitories. They wake up at five in the morning (six in summer and winter) for stretching and jogging, after that, they line up and sing while they are going to a cafeteria. Every university in North Korea has the same system and lifestyle as those in military base, and the University of Natural Science is not an exception there. After all that, students take ninety-minute-long classes from eight in the morning.

The main text books are written by professors at the university and original English books are used as a subsidiary. Students are not allowed to read foreign books of Social Sciences without permission but they have free access to foreign science books. The library has foreign books mostly from Japan, Russia and the United States. Also, students learn English, Russian and Japanese, mostly focused on reading, and read books written in those three languages fluently.

The exams are taken at the end of semesters in August and January. If a student gets an F in one subject, he or she will be flunked, and two F means getting expelled. Generally, two to three people among fifteen students in a class get flunked and one to two people are expelled before graduation. Because there are only selected intelligent people in the school, competition could get tough.

Educational Achievements

The graduates from the University of Natural Science can have chances to work at special government agencies such as the National Defense Commission, The Central Committee, Ministry of People’s Security and Ministry of State Inspection and also work as a professor at other universities. These incentives seem to attract more students year by year. Especially, it is confirmed that the graduates play the main role to develop strategic technologies such as missiles, nuclear technology and computer hacking.

For example, it was reported in South Korean and international scientific journals that North Korea announced their success in thirty new generic engineering development including embryonic transplant, polytcocia and sex control of goats, and it is known that the graduates from the University of Natural Science are in the center of these cutting-edge scientific achievements.

Recently, a company in South Korea advertised their newly developed Finger Key, a fingerprint recognition system operated by computer, so that people with registered fingerprints can only open the door. However, North Korea already received a gold medal from 22nd International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva with the same technology in 1994, four years ahead of South Korea. NK has also developed a medical program that can diagnose people’s health by the computer-recognized picture of their faces. All these program development projects were led by the first graduates from the computer engineering department in the University of Natural Science.

The GPS system which was the core technology in recent NK’s rocket launch was the work of software developers at the university, collaborating with China.

Read the full story here:
NK’s Top-Notch Science Education and Research Institute
Korea IT Times
Choi Sung
2011-8-24

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Posted in Central Committee, Education, National Academy of Science, Natural Science Academy, Worker's Party | Comments Closed

DPRK bringing domestic and Chinese tourists to Kumgang

August 24th, 2011

Pictured above: North Korean visitors to Kumgangsan wave to the camera in this video posted to Uriminzokkiri’s YouTube page.  The Video is dated 2011-8-20.

According to the Donga Ilbo:

North Korea has reportedly opened the Mount Kumgang resort to its nationals since April after having allowed only a select few to visit the scenic area before with permission.

Pyongyang apparently intends to pressure Seoul by opening the door to the mountain to the North Korean people after failing to attract foreign investment and tourists to the resort.

A Chinese source on North Korea said Tuesday, “North Korea effectively allowed all North Koreans from April to visit the entire Mount Kumgang area, including major rivers in the region.”

North Korea, however, allows only group tourists and not individual visits. North Korean authorities have ordered companies and businesses to visit the site for company picnics or events, and the mountain has 4,000 to 5,000 visitors per month.

A business unit that wants to visit files an application with the provincial government, which then reports to the international tourist authorities of Mount Kumgang. After screening candidates, authorities issue a tourist certificate that allows holders to pass checkpoints on the way to the mountain.

Two days are generally needed to travel the region, and visitors use the accommodation facility called Kumgangsan that can handle 500 people per day. The source said rooms are in short supply because of many visitors.

Each visitor should cover his or her own expenses. The estimated cost is around 1,700 North Korean won (1.43 U.S. dollars) for entry and 19 cents per night, so the combined expense amount is 2,500 to 3,000 North Korean won (2.10 to 2.53 dollars).

The source said, “The expenses almost equal a month`s salary but the popularity (of going to Mount Kumgang) has surprised everyone.”

Speculation is rising over whether the North will use South Korean real estate and equipment belonging to Hyundai Asan Corp., the South Korean operator of the tour, and others. Pyongyang announced Monday that it will dispose of South Korean assets and properties in the resort area.

“North Korea has not yet used any South Korean facilities but has apparently used them for local tourists,” the source said.

Also, according to KCNA, at least one Chinese tour group has visited the resort since July 30:

Pyongyang, July 30 (KCNA) — A Chinese tourist group led by Zhuang Jun, general manager of the Chinese Kanghui Xi’an International Tourist Agency, visited the Tower of the Juche Idea, Party Founding Memorial Tower, Pyongyang Students and Children’s Palace and Mangyongdae, President Kim Il Sung’s native place, in Pyongyang on Friday and Saturday.

The tourist group came to Pyongyang by the Pyongyang-Xi’an international air service.

Yang Rui, manager of the agency, told KCNA:

I was pleased to see an excellent performance of Korean schoolchildren. I hope they will perform in Xi’an. I have long looked forward to visiting Mt. Kumgang. In the afternoon we are leaving for the mountain. I will be happy to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the mountain.

Read about the continuing troubles at Kumgang from the shooting to the present day here.

Read the full story here:
N.Korea allowed its people to visit Mount Kumgang from April
Donga Ilbo
2011-8-24

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Posted in China, Labor conditions/wages, Mt. Kumgang Tourist Special Zone, Special Economic Zones (Established before 2013), Tourism | 1 Comment »

Inter-Korean trade statistics update

August 24th, 2011

According to the Choson Ilbo:

According to the Unification Ministry, 123 firms were operating in the industrial park as of July, with combined production output amounting to US$34.87 million in May, up 25 percent from $27.79 million year-on-year.

The total volume of inter-Korean trade through the industrial park reached $825.88 million in the first half of this year, up 19.5 percent from last year and a whopping 135.8 percent from 2009.

South Korean staff dwindled from 1,461 in 2008, when inter-Korean trade was at its height, to 801 in May this year, but the number of North Korean workers rose from 36,650 to 47,172. And some 3,700 more North Korean workers were hired even since May last year when the South banned new investments there after the North sank the Navy corvette Cheonon in March.

At the moment, the regime is unlikely to shut down the industrial park, since nearly 50,000 North Koreans are working there. But experts stress that the government should take the seizure of the properties in the resort as a warning and be prepared for anything that the regime could do.

“There’s nothing we can be sure of in inter-Korean relations,” said Dong Yong-seung, a researcher at the Samsung Economic Research Institute. “Risk factors always exist because the government launched the Kaesong project without providing any safety net to protect its people and properties, as in the case of the Mt. Kumgang tour project.”

South Korean investments in the industrial park amount to W920 billion (US$1=W1,079) — W540 billion invested by the 123 firms, and W380 billion from the government and public corporations to lay the infrastructure, including electricity and communications facilities, and landscaping.

If the regime shuts down the industrial park, the South would suffer double the losses it incurred from the regime’s seizure of the properties in Mt. Kumgang, which are worth W484.1 billion.

Read the full story here:
Kaesong Firms Worry as N.Korea Seizes Mt. Kumgang Assets
Choson Ilbo
2011-8-24

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Posted in Economic reform, Finance, Fiscal & monetary policy, Foreign direct investment, Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), Labor conditions/wages, Light Industry, Manufacturing, RoK Ministry of Unification, South Korea, Special Economic Zones (Established before 2013), Statistics, Trade Statistics | Comments Closed

Pyongyang seeing more inspections

August 24th, 2011

According to the Daily NK:

With the border area enveloped in ‘Storm Trooper Unit’ inspections, operations against South Korean goods have been stepped up in distant Pyongyang, according to a man from the city who talked to the Daily NK in Dandong, China on Tuesday.

“Inspections by ‘Group 109’, which has been around for a while, have gradually become more intense,” the man, Kim, explained. “Worst of all, they are showing up in the middle of the night without warning to search for CDs, DVDs and recorders, and if there are any materials such as pornography or South Korean merchandise, then the offender is taken away. There are no exceptions.”

“In the past when the National Security Agency or People’s Safety Ministry came to inspect, people would pay them to let it slide, but nowadays the authorities send an agent from both of those agencies and the Defense Security Command as a team, which makes it hard to get out of it if you get caught,” he added.

A Daily NK source from Pyongyang confirmed the story, saying that as recently as July one could escape Group 109 punishment for watching South Korean or American DVDs with a bribe of $100 in central Pyongyang, or less in the surrounding areas.

Group 109 is an organization set up by the Chosun Workers’ Party to crack down on illegal media including CDs and DVDs. The group is one of a number of ‘Gruppas’, as they are locally known, currently operating in the capital, with others including Group 622, which handles juvenile delinquency, and Group 27, actually a branch of the Defense Security Command, which deals with mobile phone usage.

The various groups have been conducting their assorted inspections to weed out myriad ‘anti-socialist’ behavior for some time, but bribery has always provided an escape route, albeit while those without money or connections were made an example of. However in recent times, allegedly since successor Kim Jong Eun ordered more intense inspections and punishments, the ‘Gruppas’ have had to take their tasks more seriously.

The volume of South Korean goods trading in the market has contracted due to the recent crackdowns, but their popularity is undiminished; evasion of inspections is apparently being achieved via house calls to trusted clients. Kim says that the preference is only getting stronger for South Korean goods amongst cadres, a group which has always been safe from inspections.

“The traders go around the city knocking on people’s doors, quietly asking whether the residents would like to buy some South Korean merchandise. For this reason the nickname ‘knock-knocker’ is sometimes used to refer to them,” Kim explained.

Read the full story here:
Pyongyang Seeing Tighter Inspections
Daily NK
Lee Seok Young
2011-8-24

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Posted in Black markets, Film, Ministry of People’s Security (Criminal Police), Ministry of State Security (MPSS, NSA, SSD), Music, Television | Comments Closed

PRC military exports to DPRK

August 23rd, 2011

The Choson Ilbo posts a video of dozens of military vehicles being shipped to the DPRK:

Left: Click image above to see video. Right: Dandong Customs House

According to the article:

Some 3,000 to 4,000 Chinese-made military trucks and jeeps entered North Korea last month, it was confirmed Monday. According to video clips obtained by the Chosun Ilbo, over 100 military trucks and jeeps made in China went to North Korea everyday last month after going through customs in Dandong.

There were eight video clips of varying lengths ranging from two minutes to 16 minutes. The footage shows Chinese-produced military vehicles standing in the 10,000 sq.m parking lot of the Dandong customs office waiting to be cleared along with other civilian cars, and two-story trailers loaded with military vehicles waiting on the side road to enter the customs office. A local source in Dandong said, “Normally, all Chinese-made vehicles going into North Korea were civilian, but in July, a massive number of military cars went to North Korea.”

A senior source in North Korea said that these cars were gifts to military officers by North Korea’s heir apparent Kim Jong-un in celebration of “Victory Day,” or the day the armistice in the Korean War was signed on July 27. “North Korean military vehicles produced in the 1970s and the 80s are too old to carry out drills, and many soldiers were dissatisfied. In order to buy the loyalty of the military and show what he can do, Kim Jong-un replaced the old vehicles thanks to the assistance of China,” the source added.

Jeeps were given to officers to be used to conduct operations, and the trucks were given to soldiers.

Analysis of the footage suggests the trucks were 6-ton trucks made by FAW Car Limited Company. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il visited the headquarters of this firm in Changchun, Jilin, during his visit to China in May. The military jeeps were manufactured by Beijing Automobile Works with engine capacity of 2,200 cc and 100 horsepower. BAW, which specializes in SUVs, trucks and military vehicles, is a subsidiary of Beijing Automotive Group, a partner of Hyundai Motor.

Dump trucks, large buses, sedans, oil trucks, agricultural machines and heavy machinery were also spotted in the video going into North Korea. In the windscreen, the name of the recipients is written. One is Korea Taesong Trading Company, a trading company under the Workers Party that manages Kim Jong-il’s slush funds. It was blacklisted by the U.S. as part of its economic sanctions against the North.

In one video clip, tourist buses pack one side of the parking lot. Another clip shows a queue of several dozens of LNG trucks. A South Korean government official commented, “North Korea depends on China for almost entire amount of fossil fuel it needs.”

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Posted in Automobiles, China, International Aid, International trade, Kim Jong Un, Korean People's Army, Military, Political economy, Transportation | Comments Closed

Health care on hold in Kaesong

August 22nd, 2011

Pictured above (Google Earth): Kaesong Industrial Zone (Sept. 2009)

 

According to Yonhap:

With Seoul’s plan to build a hospital within the inter-Korean industrial park in the North stalled, more than 220 South Korean workers have had to be rushed to hospitals in the South for emergency treatment over the past five years, the Unification Ministry said Monday.

As many as 227 South Korean workers who were injured or fell ill while working in the joint complex in the North’s border town of Kaesong had to be transferred across the border to general hospitals in South Korean border cities between 2007 and June this year, according to the ministry.

Though a small clinic manned by two doctors and three nurses has been in operation in the Kaesong complex since 2005, it is only capable of administering simple first aid, it added.

To cope with steady demand for emergency medical services, Seoul had planned to set up a hospital with 10 beds and a dozen medical staff by the end of last year, and earmarked 326.8 billion won (US$301.7 million) in 2010 and 330 billion won in 2011 to fund the project.

But with the souring of inter-Korean relations over Pyongyang’s two deadly attacks on South Korea last year, Seoul has yet to even take the first steps toward building such facilities, according to the ministry.

“Our plan for a better medical environment for the Kaesong workers will be pushed back in consideration of overall inter-Korean relations and how things will unfold in the industrial park,” a ministry official said.

Around 500 South Koreans, together with more than 46,000 North Koreans, currently work at some 120 South Korean companies in the Kaesong joint industrial park, which has been in operation since 2004.

Read the full story here:
Inter-Korean hostility inconveniences Kaesong complex patients
Yonhap
Oh Seok-min
2011-8-22

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Posted in Construction, Health care, Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), Special Economic Zones (Established before 2013) | Comments Closed

DPRK orders expulsion of South Koreans from Kumgang

August 22nd, 2011

According to the New York Times:

North Korea on Monday gave South Korean tourism officials 72 hours to leave a mountain resort, saying it would start auctioning off South Korean-owned hotels, restaurants and other remnants of what used to be a symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.

…

North Korea gave the ultimatum on Monday after talks failed to resolve a dispute over whether tourism in the resort should resume and under what conditions.

“We consider that the South has completely given up all rights on properties owned by South Korean companies and now start legal disposal of them,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency quoted the North Korean tourism authorities as saying. “All assets owned by South Korean companies in the Geumgangsan resort are banned from being taken out as of Aug. 21.”

The South Korean assets in the resort amount to 480 billion won, or $443 million, according to government data. North Korea said last year that it had confiscated the assets, including a spa, a duty-free shop and other businesses built and owned by the South Korean government.

Fourteen South Koreans were staying in the area maintaining facilities owned by Hyundai and other private South Korean investors. The Unification Ministry, a South Korean government agency in charge of inter-Korean relations, said it would take “all possible diplomatic and legal measures to protect the property rights of our government and enterprises.”

Hyundai Asan, which developed and ran the resort, warned that anyone who bought facilities at the resort would be implicated in international lawsuits.

After attracting 2 million South Korean tourists by sea or by a road built across the nations’ heavily armed border, the project came to an abrupt halt in 2008, after the female South Korean tourist strayed outside the tourism zone one morning and was shot and killed by North Korean soldiers.

Xinhua, the Chinese state media outlet reports that the South Koreans have rejected this move by the North Koreans:

“The government cannot accept North Korea (DPRK)’s arbitrary measures, and we’d like to make it clear the North should be held responsible for all consequences,” Chun Hae-sung, spokesman for the unification ministry in Seoul, told reporters.

“The government will seek all necessary measures including legal and diplomatic ones, and will stay in close contact with business operators involved,” he added, calling Pyongyang’s announcement “regrettable.” The ministry oversees inter-Korean affairs.

The Choson Ilbo points out some additional points of economic interest:

The greatest concern for South Korean officials is the potential conflict over power generators Hyundai Asan installed at Kosong Port to supply electricity to the resort. Since 2008, Hyundai has been operating only one of them to supply power for the remaining staff. If Asan halts the power generators, North Korea cannot use the facilities in the resort. This may be why the North has threatened to take “stern measures” should South Korea “cause damage to assets” left in the resort.

While freezing the South Korean assets, North Korea has been trying to organize tours to Mt. Kumgang on its own. Some analysts say the North hopes to get another country to operate the tours to generate hard cash. Until the tours were suspended in 2008, North Korea made US$487 million from Hyundai Asan.

A separate Choson Ilbo article questions whether the operation will be as profitable if targeted at non-South Koreans:

But of the total 1.93 million visitors to the resort between 1998 and 2008, non-Koreans accounted for only 12,817, or less than 1 percent, which comes to just four a day. It was South Koreans who were willing to pay a large amount of money, including fees to cross the border, to briefly set foot on Korean soil on the other side of the demilitarized zone, But for foreigners, the resort is just a place in the middle of nowhere.

Foreign investors who were cautiously calculating the viability of investments in North Korea were probably shocked to see the seizure of South Korean assets. The North scrapped a 50-year contract with Asan as if it was not worth the paper it was written on and even invented a new law enabling it to sign a deal with somebody else. Which investor in his right mind would want to put his money in a country like that?

The Donga Ilbo breaks down the cost of the fixed capital investments Hyundai-Asan made in the Kumgang Resort:

South Korean assets seized by the North are worth 484.1 billion won (447.2 million dollars). Of the amount, Hyundai Asan invested 226.9 billion won (209.6 million dollars), including hotels in the resort, and the South Korean government spent 124.2 billion won (114.7 million dollars) to build a meeting venue for Korean families separated during the Korean War, duty-free shops and a cultural hall.

Hyundai Asan’s three power generators with a capacity of 1,700 kilometers at Goseong dock are one of the major assets in the tourist region.

North Korea, however, is unlikely to attract foreign tourists to Mount Kumgang on its own or sell the facility to foreign investors. It continues to search for a new partner in China, Japan and the U.S.

Rumor also has it that that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has ordered that the Mount Kumgang tour be made into a luxury business but low feasibility has prevented progress in the project.

A timeline of Kumgang stories from the shooting until the present can be found here.

Read the full stories here:
North Korea to Auction Resort Owned by South
New York Times
Choe Sang-hun
2011-8-22

S. Korea rejects DPRK’s threatened disposal of properties
Xinhua
2011-8-22

N.Korea Orders S.Koreans Out of Mt. Kumgang
Choson Ilbo
2011-8-23

N.Korea Shoots Itself in the Foot Again
Choson Ilbo
2011-8-23

NK declares disposal of S.Korean assets in Mount Kumgang
Donga Ilbo
2011-8-23

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Posted in Economic reform, Foreign direct investment, International trade, Mt. Kumgang Tourist Special Zone, South Korea, Special Economic Zones (Established before 2013) | 1 Comment »

Yonhap on the DPRK’s Basic Medicine Research Center in Pyongyang

August 22nd, 2011

According to Yonhap:

Seok, 46, who defected to the South in 1998, is known for practicing North Korea’s “royal court medicine” that he learned while working at Pyongyang’s top medical research center devoted solely to caring for the health of leader Kim Jong-il.

The research institute is known in South Korea as the Kim Il-sung Longevity Research Institute after the name of the North’s late national founder and father of the current leader. Among North Koreans, it is simply called the “long life research institute,” Seok said, dressed in a white lab coat during a recent interview at his two-story clinic.

“Simply put, the long life research institute is to look after the general,” Seok said, referring to the North’s leader. “I was with the cardiovascular and anti-aging team at the institute.”

Details about the secrecy-shrouded Basic Medicine Research Center in Pyongyang are scarce, but the institute was believed to have hundreds of herbal doctors, physicians, biologists and other scientists working to make sure that the North Korean leader lives for a long time and in good health, Seok said.

Newly developed treatment methods, Seok said, were first tested on people similar to the leader in age and body type and with heart disease, an illness that killed late leader Kim Il-sung in 1994 and the current leader Kim Jong-il, now 68, is believed to be suffering from.

“These people were considered lucky because they were treated with good medicine,” Seok recalled.

Besides medical research, the longevity institute was also charged with growing high-quality organic rice, fruits and other agricultural products for the leader, even burying dogs in the farm fields as fertilizer, he said.

A top graduate from the North’s prestigious Pyongyang Medical College, Seok said he was plucked by authorities and assigned the research center regardless of his desires. Most graduates wanted to work at general hospitals where they could make more money.

“It’s not a place you can apply to work at. It’s a place you are dragged into,” Seok said with a chuckle that appears to imply a sense of relief that he is no longer in the totalitarian nation and lives a happy life in South Korea.

Read the full story here:
Oriental medicine doctor gives S. Koreans tastes of N. Korea’s ‘royal court medicine’
Yonhap
2011-8-22

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Posted in Disease prevention, Health care, Long Life Research Institute, Political economy | Comments Closed

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