Daily NK: New Zealand halts beef exports to DPRK

November 5th, 2010

According to the Daily NK:

It has been confirmed by The Daily NK that North Korea failed in a recent attempt to import beef from New Zealand for the purpose of providing special gifts to cadres on Kim Jong Eun’s birthday, January 8, after the plan ran afoul of the New Zealand government, which froze the funds.

According to a source from North Korea today, “$170,000 remitted by ‘Myohyang Bureau’ to a New Zealand bank in October to import parts for Japanese tourist buses and beef has been frozen by the New Zealand authorities.”

The source added, “The New Zealand authorities are investigating whether or not the money is related to (North Korea’s) drug dealing.”

The source explained, “The beef is for special distribution to cadres on the Youth Captain (Kim Jong Eun)’s birthday, while the parts of Japanese buses are to repair buses operated by the Tour Bureau,” adding, “Myohyang Bureau is alarmed that there might be a snag in Comrade Youth Captain’s birthday special distribution.”

In North Korea, workplaces have already started to prepare presents for Kim Jong Eun’s birthday. There are two types of presents: the first is from cadres to Kim Jong Eun; and the latter is special distribution to cadres in Kim Jong Eun’s name. However, even though the special distribution is like a gift handed out by a monarch, factories and Party organs have to prepare it. According to the source, the Myohyang Bureau’s duty this time is to supply beef.

The Myohyang Bureau is directly in charge of tour events including Arirang performance-related tours and Mt. Baekdu and Geumgang tours. It sends the profits from these businesses involving foreign tourists to the No. 39 Department of the Central Committee of the Party.

The source explained further, “Due to Japanese sanctions against North Korea, the Tour Bureau has not been able to obtain parts for Japanese buses, so the Myohyang Bureau asked a New Zealand business partner to obtain them for them. In doing that, they also asked for beef.”

“Since the Myohyang Bureau sent the money via a secret bank account held with a bank in Latvia to a bank in New Zealand, it incurred the suspicion of the New Zealand government. Money is still money, but the bigger problem is to expose the Latvian account.”

This is the first time that a Latvian account has been linked to North Korea, adding to known secret accounts in Switzerland, China, Macau and the Caribbean.

The source said, “The Myohyang Bureau opened the account in the name, ‘RUSKOR International Company Ltd’ in a bank of Latvia,” adding, “The account name is the connecting of the words Russia and Korea.”

“Gift rations” have been in the news a lot lately.  Links to previous posts about the DPRK’s “gift rations” can be found here.

Read the full story here:
North Korean Funds for Beef Frozen by New Zealand
Daily NK
Park In Ho
11/5/2010

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Posted in Banking, Finance, Food, International trade, Kim Jong Un, New Zealand, Political economy, RUSKOR International Company Ltd | Comments Closed

US Treasury adds rules on DPRK sanctions implementation

November 5th, 2010

According to KBS:

The U.S. Treasury Department has announced detailed rules concerning the implementation of U.S. sanctions on North Korea.

The Treasury listed additional regulations relating to the implementation of sanctions placed on the North in June 2009 for weapons testing and in August of this year in response to North Korea’s sinking of a South Korean warship.

The rules stipulate the definition and interpretation of terminology and procedures for implementing the sanctions by U.S. government agencies and financial institutes.

At present, there are two sets of sanctions effectuated by administrative orders in the U.S. that specifically target North Korea.

The sanctions have frozen assets of certain North Korean organizations and individuals and they also ban U.S. transactions with the designated entities.

The US Treasury Department has updated their North Korea page with all relevant information. You can see their web page here.

I have added this resource to my Economic Statistics Page and Business Resources Page.

Read the full story here:
US Treasury Adds Rules on NK Sanctions Implementation
KBS
11/5/2010

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Posted in International trade, USA | Comments Closed

DPRK presents vision of Rason

November 5th, 2010

According to the Choson Ilbo:

North Korea is pushing the implausible dream of turning the city of Rajin-Sonbong in North Hamgyong Province into an international freight brokerage, export processing and finance hub. A 3D video elaborating on a blueprint for the development of the city was made right after leader Kim Jong-il visited China in May.

The video, obtained by the Chosun Ilbo from a North Korean source in China, says the North worked out a plan in June to develop the city by giving distinctive roles to each of its six districts. “The video was made as material for reporting to Kim Jong-il,” the source said. “Discussion on the blueprint started right after Kim’s visit to the city in December last year and it was then hastily completed when people were talking about possible Chinese aid to the North after Kim’s visit to China in May.”

In December, Kim reportedly reprimanded senior officials there for making no progress in two decades since it was designated a development zone.

The regime upgraded Rajin-Sonbong to a special city in January. Rumor has it that Kim’s brother-in-law Jang Song-taek, the influential director of the Workers Party’s Administration Department, is pushing for development there.

The narrator in the video says, “In the future, Rajin-Sonbong will turn into a world-class economic and trade zone based on international freight brokerage, export processing and finance business and into a beautiful cultural port city in the era of the Songun (military-first) ideology.”

The narrator quotes regime founder Kim Il-sung as saying, “Rajin-Sonbong must become a better city than Singapore when you establish an economic and trade zone there.” Kim Jong-il is quoted as saying, “To build Rajin-Sonbong well, we must carry out the construction project according to an urban development plan.”

The video says the regime made a detailed plan to develop the city. A Kim Il-sung statue and public buildings such as an exhibition hall will be built in the Jungsim District. Changpyong District, which lies close to Rajin-Sonbong Port, will become a residential area. Anju District will become a finance center with hotels, banks and a department store will be built. High-risers including a 40-story office building will be built in Sosan and Dongmyong, and light industry will be built on both sides of Rajin Railway Station in Yokjon District.

Six design research centers in Pyongyang and Rajin-Sonbong were tasked with producing the blueprints.

But experts say chances that the project will come to fruition are near zero. “If Rajin-Sonbong is to be developed according to the blueprint in the video, the North would have to reform and open up. It can’t become an international trade and finance center without huge investment from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan,” a South Korean government official said.

So far, only a road linking the Chinese city of Hunchun with Rajin-Sonbong Port is being built in accordance with Chinese plans to ship goods from there.

Cho Bong-hyun, a researcher at the Industrial Bank of Korea’s economic research center, said an estimated 5 million tons a year of grain, coal and timber from northeastern China are being transported to southern China, and China can save up to US$10 per ton or $50 million a year in transport costs if it uses Rajin-Sonbong Port instead of railways.

The port could also be of help to China for exports. There are also rumors of a joint industrial complex in the area where North Korea would provide the labor for Chinese firms.

But a Chinese businessman operating in the North said the North and China have different ideas about the development plan, so nobody knows if and when development will get under way.

The video can be seen at the Choson Ilbo web page below.

Read the full story here:
N.Korea Pursues Dream of Int’l Business Hub
Choson Ilbo
11/5/2010

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Posted in China, Economic reform, Foreign direct investment, International trade, Rason Economic and Trade Zone (Rajin-Sonbong), Sea shipping, Special Economic Zones (Established before 2013), Transportation | Comments Closed

Samsu Dam construction disrupts local electricity service

November 4th, 2010

According to the Daily NK:

Although it is just 10 kilometers from Hyesan, the capital of Ryanggang Province, no electricity has been supplied to Nojoong-ri since construction began on the Samsu Power Plant in 2004. In fact, there are no longer any transmission cables connected to the village at all.

The North Korean authorities, in preparation for the construction of the power plant in 2002, put in place relocation plans for the residents of the Unchong River Basin in areas they designated as “probable watersheds” for the lake which would form behind the proposed dam. District Four of Nojoong-ri was one of those areas, and as a result had all of its power cables removed.

However, in a follow-up plan completed right before groundbreaking on the project in 2004, the water storage capacity of the Samsu Power Plant was reduced on account of analysis that cautioned against over-filling the reservoir. This resulted in District Four of Nojoong-ri being re-designated as outside the flood zone, but none of the services were resumed, including the provision of electricity

After a year of living without power, the residents, who were still waiting to be assigned new homes, eventually pleaded their case to have the village’s power lines restored to the “Standing Committee on Flooding”, a special organ of government in charge of the relocation of flood-area residents. However, the response was that they were ineligible for aid because their village was not in a flood zone. The villagers then filed petitions with the Party at Hyesan City and provincial level, but to no avail. They were only to hear the same repeated response, “We were not the ones who removed the power lines.”

If electricity were to be provided to the area, quite a few power lines would need to be installed. But the only place where electricity for the village could be obtained is “Military Supplies Factory No. 95”, located four kilometers from the village on the other side of a hill. The 50-megawatt Samsu Power Plant stands adjacent to the village, but the electricity generated there is supplied exclusively to “Kim Jong Il Birthplace Heritage”, otherwise known as the “Baekdu Hideout”, in Samjiyeon. At one point there was talk of the residents putting their money together to provide for their own power cables, but the plan was prohibitively expensive.

Thus, the residents of this part of Nojoong-ri have been living without electricity for nearly seven years. They depend entirely on candlelight and firewood as they scrape a living off potato farming and alluvial mining.

“It is hard to say that it is even a place where people should live. People from as far away as South Pyongan and North Hamkyung come here to mine alluvial gold, but are shocked to find the state that the village is in,” according to an anonymous Yangkang Province source.

Of course, with the original designation came many more changes, including work and schooling. The one-way commute that the village’s men take every morning is seven to eight kilometers, while the women cannot easily reach the market to sell their produce. Children are also suffering the consequences; having to walk 15 kilometers a day to attend Nojoong-ri Middle School has led to a rising number of student dropouts.

Here are previous posts about the Samsu Dam: here, here, here and here.

Read the full story here:
Seven Years of Blackness
Daily NK
Kang Mi Jin
11/4/2010

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Posted in Construction, Dams/hydro, Electricity, Energy, Political economy | Comments Closed

ROK installs bullet-proof windows in ‘Freedom Village’

November 4th, 2010

According to the AFP (via Straits Times):

South Korea has installed bullet-proof windows at an observatory in a border village to guard tourists against possible gunfire from North Korea, officials said on Thursday.

Three bullet-proof windows were fitted at the observatory pavilion at Daeseongdong village, inside the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) which bisects the peninsula.

Daeseongdong, inhabited by about 200 people, is just half a mile from North Korean guardposts inside the zone. The pavilion was built in 1980 to give tourists a better view of the world’s last Cold War frontier.

Tensions have been high since Seoul accused Pyongyang of torpedoing one of its warships in March with the loss of 46 lives.

North and South Korean troops exchanged fire briefly last Friday across their land border, without apparent casualties.

‘The installation was made at the request of villagers who have felt uneasy at growing tensions,’ Kim Young-Sea, an official in nearby Paju city, told AFP. ‘They have been living within the range of North Korean gunfire. Since March, civilian visitors have not been allowed into the village due to security concerns.’ The bullet-proof windows are aimed at restarting the visits.

Here is a satellite image of “Freedom Village”.

Read the full sotry here:
Bulletproof windows at border
AFP via Straits Times
11/4/2010

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Posted in Military, South Korea | Comments Closed

DPRK premier visits China

November 4th, 2010

According to the AFP (via Straits Times):

North Korea’s premier, who is reportedly close to the son and heir apparent of leader Kim Jong Il, has visited north-east China this week for talks with Chinese officials, state media reported.

Choe Yong Rim – who in late September was named a member of the ruling party’s politburo presidium, of which Mr Kim had been the only member – met with Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Dejiang in Changchun, Xinhua news agency said.

It is the same region bordering the North that Mr Kim toured for five days in late August – a visit that state media said had largely focused on economic issues and analysts speculated included calls from Beijing to speed up reform.

Mr Choe ‘congratulated China on its economic and social development’ and said Pyongyang was ‘willing to draw experience from China and further strengthen its exchanges and cooperation with the country,’ Xinhua said late on Wednesday.

Mr Zhang said Beijing would work with the North to ‘promote the China-DPRK friendship to a new height’, the report said. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing unnamed sources, said Mr Choe toured electronics and pharmaceutical companies in the region this week, as well as an agricultural research centre in the city of Harbin.

Xinhua did not specify when Mr Choe and Mr Zhang had met, nor did it say when Mr Choe was due to return home. Yonhap also reported that Mr Choe was believed to be a key aide to Mr Kim’s son Jong Un, in his late 20s, who in September was promoted to a four-star general and given powerful posts in the ruling party.

KBS also reported on the story.

Read the full story here:
N.Korea premier visits China
AFP via Straits Times
11/4/2010

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Posted in China, International trade | Comments Closed

WFP: DPRK children malnourished

November 4th, 2010

According to the Associated Press:

The head of the World Food Programme said on Thursday she saw many children in North Korea who are “losing the battle against malnutrition” during a visit there.

Executive director Josette Sheeran made the remarks in Beijing on her return from a three-day trip to Pyongyang, the UN agency’s first top-level visit to the communist country in nearly a decade.

She said she visited an orphanage, a factory, and a hospital where children were being treated for malnutrition.

“I saw many children that are already losing the battle against malnutrition and their bodies and minds are stunted,” she said, adding that “the need there for special fortified food for the children is very strong”.

Sheeran said she was able to meet with Kim Yong Nam, the head of the country’s parliament, the foreign minister and agriculture department officials.

She was also able to visit the agency’s operations there. The World Food Programme has been providing food aid to North Korea since 1995. The UN agency says nearly a third of North Korea’s 24 million people are undernourished.

Sheeran said she has worries about the current funding for food aid to North Korea, which has relied on foreign assistance to feed its 23 million people since the mid-1990s.

Read the full story here:
WFP: N Korea children malnourished
AP
11/4/2010

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Posted in Food, Health care, Pediatrics, UN, UN World Food Program | Comments Closed

Russian blog debuts DPRK PDA device

November 3rd, 2010

UPDATE: Martyn Williams writes in PC World (11/5/2010):

A new PDA (personal digital assistant) has hit stores in North Korea, according to a student who writes a blog from the secretive state.

The device, which doesn’t appear to carry any branding, has a color touchscreen display that occupies its entire front, according to photos published on the “Pyongyang Show and Tell” blog. The Russian-language blog is maintained by a Russian student who is studying in the country.

Installed software includes a Korean dictionary and translation dictionaries pairing Korean to and from Russian, English, Chinese and German, the blog report said. There are several basic utility programs and an electronic map of the country although the PDA does not feature GPS (global positioning system).

There is also no wireless networking so data transfer has to take place via a USB connection to a Windows or Linux computer. Data can also be transferred via MicroSD card, which is the same as used in domestic cell phones.

“Comparing it to modern things like, let’s say, the iPad, it’s nothing,” the blog’s author, who didn’t wish his name to be used, told IDG News Service via email. “It’s still good as a dictionary, except I don’t see any other advantages.”

It’s not the first PDA in North Korea.

In 2003 the country’s media said “Hana 21,” a PDA developed by the Samilpo Information Center, had been put on sale. The device included English-Korean and Korean-English dictionaries as its main function and also had several games and a basic word processor. Input was by pen and touchscreen.

According to published images of the Hana 21, the two devices are different.

At the time the Hana 21 was said to cost around 200 euros (US$182 at the exchange rate of the time).

The new PDA that hit stores recently costs around US$140.

“It’s still hard to buy for a Korean, but there are many people who keep their money for years and can afford it,” the student said via email.

PDAs have long been out of fashion in many countries after their features and functions were duplicated by smartphones. North Korea has a 3G cellular network, but most cell phones have only basic features.

ORIGINAL POST: Show and Tell Pyongyang introduced the world to the DPRK’s version of Linux: Red Star.  Now he has introduced us to the DPRK’s new Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

Here are pictures from the Russian web page:

According to the Russian-language web page (via Google Translate):

A few weeks ago in North Korea has started selling the first PDA. In all the computer shops you can see the advertising of the new items. [I] offer a small review of this device.

On sale are a few options. The difference between them – is the amount of internal memory and a built-in slot for the stylus. The most feature-rich [costs] $ 140 and has 8 gigs of internal memory and a slot for the stylus, so you do not accidentally lose it.

In addition, there is a slot for MicroSD memory cards – the same as in the local mobile phones.

The main function of which is worth noting (and more generally for which there is a fly sabzh), an electronic dictionary Samhyn (삼흥) with the Russian language. It is no secret that South Korea produced electronic translators, but, according to eyewitnesses, the Russian language is absent in them as fact. And in this case, Russian-Korean and Korean-Russian dictionaries most voluminous in the number of vocabulary words. Besides, there are English, Chinese and German. Also has a large Korean Wiki Grand Korean Dictionary.

So for me personally, the main value of the PDA – is an electronic dictionary, which can carry with them always and everywhere. And the rest is not so important.

So what else is there? There is a map of Korea’s system of teaching foreign languages (English, Chinese). By the way, about a month ago there was an opportunity to put maps on your mobile phone. Application free of charge and requires activation. Put it on a large computer center of the city. []

Device has access to TV, headphones and a USB-slot. Possible to connect devices to both Windows, and Linux (in this case, Red Star)

On the whole – everything is simple and works quite well. At the moment, the firmware needs some work, not all features fully implemented, but the Korean comrades promise to update and refine.

If anyone else has more information, please let me know.

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Posted in Automobiles, Computing/IT, Light Industry, Manufacturing, Russia, Telephones, Transportation | 3 Comments »

Wonsan leadership compound upgraded

November 3rd, 2010

Several days ago, the Daily NK reported on the reconstruction of a few elite compounds in the DPRK.  See the previous post here.  Satellite imagery on Google Earth also reveals that a compound in Wonsan has been refurbished.

Wonsan compound 2002
(click image to enlarge)

Wonsan compounf 2009
(click image to enlarge)

Although the satellite imagery for 2009 is not particularly clear, it is easy to observe that the main complex, in the center of the screen, has been rebuilt and modernized.  There is no more lake.  It also appears that several beach guest houses or cabanas have been built on the eastern shore.

Given the sum of my knowledge about this particular location (which is minimal), I believe this compound is intended for use by KPA officials.  This is because it is located across the Wonsan Bay from a much larger elite complex for members of the Worker’s Party. See the map below:

Additionally, this site has been the location of two high-profile artillery tests by KPA units 681 and 851. See here and here.

If you are aware of any publications which discuss this compound, please let me know.

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Posted in Construction, Google Earth, Military, Real estate | 2 Comments »

DPRK 11th largest recipient of UN CERF funds

November 3rd, 2010

According to the Korea Times:

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported Wednesday that North Korea is the 11th largest recipient of its emergency funds in the world, and third in Asia.

Pyongyang received $13.4 million or 3.6 percent of the $372 million that the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) allocated from January through September.

CERF, established in 2006, is a U.N. fund created to aid regions threatened by starvation and natural disasters.

Pakistan, which suffered catastrophic floods in August, received 40 million, the largest allocation in CERF’s history, followed by Haiti, Niger and Congo.

Sri Lanka, which received $13.8 million, placed second among Asian recipient countries.

North Korea ranks 173 among 177 countries on the human development index, according to the Human Development Report 2007/2008, published by the U.N.

The U.N. estimates that five out of 1,000 children in the North die before they reach the age of five.

Experts say some 23 percent of North Korean children under five were malnourished between 2000 and 2007 and 32 percent of the population in the Stalinist regime was undernourished between 2003 and 2005.

Josette Sheeran, head of the World Food Program (WFP), claims that the U.N.’s flagship agency is falling short of funds to feed hungry people in the impoverished and reclusive nation.

The WFP received $106.2 million, the largest amount among aid agencies, from CERF in 2010, followed by UNICEF, which received 86.1 million.

The WFP claims that it can only help a quarter of the 2.5 million North Korean children suffering from malnourishment due to a shortage of funds.

The WFP helps feed some 670,000 people, mainly children in the communist North.

Read the full story here:
NK is 11th largest receiver of UN CERF cash
Korea Times
Lee Tae-hoon
11/3/2010

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Posted in Food, Foreign aid statistics, International Aid, Statistics, UN, UN Central Emergency Response Fund, UN World Food Program | Comments Closed

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