North Korea looks to southern China to attract tourists

September 27th, 2009

By Michael Rank

North Korea is spreading its net wider in its quest to attract more tourists from China, and now has its eye on the southern province of Guangdong as well as Shanghai.

A Chinese website (link here) reports that a delegation of North Korean travel agents is expected to travel to Guangzhou next month and that local tour operators in Guangzhou and nearby Shenzhen, on the Hong Kong border, are eager to do business.

Tourists will have a choice of two routes to North Korea – they can either fly to Shenyang or Dalian in northeast China and then take the train to Pyongyang via Dandong, or they can fly to Pyongyang via Shenyang. It puts the price at 5,000 yuan ($730) but doesn’t say how many days the tours last or any further details. It says the main attractions will be the usual ones of Pyongyang, the DMZ at Panmunjom, the Myohyang mountains and the annual Arirang pageant.

As NKEW reported in July, North Korea is also targeting Shanghai as a source of tourism revenue, and there is further talk of charter flights from Qingdao in Shandong province to Pyongyang.

Quite apart from the question of how many Chinese are likely to be tempted to visit a Cultural Revolution-type theme park like North Korea, there are also bureaucratic hurdles to overcome. North Korea does not have “approved destination status” for Chinese tourists, which means in theory at least that travel there is restricted to business groups and official delegations. (Incidentally, South Korea doesn’t seem to be an ADS country either).

As the website notes, “An important issue within ADS is to avoid possible illegal immigration through tourism channels. All tourism groups travelling within the ADS framework are supposed to be monitored by both Chinese and foreign authorities to ensure they return to China. Embassies and consulates apply different methods to monitor the return of the Chinese tourists. Whenever a tourism group member does not return to China, the local travel agency is held responsible and sanctions are applied.” Not that there is much likelihood of Chinese tourists defecting to North Korea.

Furthermore, China is encouraging tourists to counter the world recession by spending their money at home, and although this is China-DPRK year marking the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations, a further obstacle is the fact that Chinese citizens now need a passport to travel there, not just a border pass that was all that was needed previously to cross into the country at Dandong by train.

Nick Bonner of Koryo Tours says: “We have noticed a sharp drop in Chinese tourists visiting DPRK in comparison to this time last year – even though the spectacle of the 100,000 strong performance of the mass games is still going on and has been extended to October 15th.

“I think next year Chinese tourism will be coming back strong – there is a certain ‘busman’s holiday’ attraction for Chinese tourists to visit DPRK.”

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Posted in China, Koryo Tours, Tourism | 2 Comments »

Family Reunion update

September 27th, 2009

UPDATE: As usual, Lankov hits the nail on the head:

The reunions are emotional, as the relatives are quite elderly and may never see each other again. Observers say many South Koreans feel sympathetic for the divided families and calls for greater cooperation with North Korea tend to increase when reunions are held.

North Korea analyst Andrei Lankov at Seoul’s Kookmin University says that is exactly what Pyongyang wants.

“It is obviously in hope to mobilize some pro-North Korean support to increase pressure over the [South Korean] government on the assumption that the government will be more willing to give more concessions to the North Koreans,” Lankov said.

…Analyst Andrei Lankov says he expects the South to offer some sort of concession.

“Dealing with North Korea is largely about giving them money and concessions,” Lankov said. “We are dealing with a very brutal government, which is ready to create trouble for everybody, so it is important to give something that will at least partially go to the people, not the government.” (Voice of America)

ORIGINAL POST: The DPRK-ROK family reunion footage always makes me sad and angry. Anyhow, Evan Ramstad has some interesting information:

Since their start in 2000, 16 in-person reunions have been held at Mount Kumgang or other places, involving about 1,680 families. There have also been seven videoconference reunion events, involving about 280 families. In all, 19,960 people from the two Koreas have met through the reunions.

In the newest reunions, relatives will be with each other for roughly six to seven hours under conditions largely dictated by North Korea, which tightly controls the movement of its citizens and the information they receive. The relatives will meet for just two hours out of view of North Korean minders, South Korean officials said.

North Korean participants in the reunions receive several days of guidance about what they should and shouldn’t talk about. The South Koreans, for their part, are briefly advised not to talk about the North’s authoritarian government.

North Korea stopped participating after the October 2007 reunion because it was upset at the behavior of new leadership in the South and pressure to give up nuclear weapons.

North Korea agreed last month to restart the reunions after its leader Kim Jong Il in July met Hyun Jeong-eun, the chairwoman of Hyundai Group, whose Hyundai Asan unit manages the resort and has played an important role in establishing commercial relations between the two Koreas.

The BBC has more, including video.

Read the full story below:
In Koreas, Reunions Set to Begin
Wall Street Journal, A16
Evan Ramstad
9/25/2009

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Posted in Civil society | 1 Comment »

British pilot burried in DPRK

September 27th, 2009

UPDATE:  Michael posts much more, including pictures, here.  Despite locating the ri and seeing pictures of the grave I have been unable to find it on Google Earth.  Let me know if you have better luck.

ORIGINAL POST: Michael Rank uncovered an interesting story about a British pilot shot down during the Korean War who is now buried near Pyongyang’s Sunan Airport. According to the article:

There can be no lonelier grave anywhere on Earth. Amid fields close to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, lie the remains of Flight Lieutenant Desmond Hinton, a British fighter pilot who flew for the United States Air Force as a member of United Nations forces in the Korean War.

Hinton is officially listed as missing in action (MIA), but his brother David, himself a retired Royal Air Force pilot, traced records of how and where Desmond died and managed to visit his grave in highly secretive North Korea.

David discovered in RAF archives a graphic report of how his brother died on January 2, 1952.

F/Lt [Flight Lieutenant] DFW Hinton had been ordered to undertake an interdiction and reconnaissance mission in the area of Sunan-Pyongyang with three other aircraft from his unit … After making a bomb run on railroad tracks just north of Sunan, he called the other members of his flight saying he was hit and on fire.

The aircraft was then seen to crash into the ground and explode on impact. The remaining three aircraft flew over the wreckage of F/Lt Hinton’s aircraft for 15 minutes, but returned to their home base after seeing no evidence that F/Lt Hinton was alive. Sadly, F/Lt Hinton is still reported as missing.

From this account, David had a good idea of where his brother had gone down in his F84e Thunderjet, over the Sunan area of Pyongyang which is now the location of the city’s airport.

He managed to buy a US military map of North Korea, and contacted the Foreign Office in London in the hope that the recently opened British Embassy in Pyongyang would be willing to ask the North Koreans if they could provide any further evidence concerning his brother’s fate. The British ambassador David Slinn and his colleague Jim Warren were only too happy to help, and found the North Koreans surprisingly cooperative.

It turned out that despite the North Korean government’s reputation of being deeply xenophobic, the remains of Desmond Hinton, who was fighting for the hated “Yankee imperialists”, had been given a decent burial close to where his body fell to ground.

David was therefore determined to pay his respects to his brother at his grave and in 2004 embarked on a remarkable journey to North Korea, taking the train from Beijing to Pyongyang.

The grave consists simply of a mound of earth surrounded by a white picket fence, without any inscription. It lies close to a narrow footpath on a hillside 200 meters from the road, near the village of Kuso-ri and 2.5 kilometers east of Pyongyang airport.

David was told that not long before his visit, his brother’s remains had been moved about 50 meters to a more accessible location.

He was introduced at the grave to two witnesses to Desmond’s crash, a Mr Ri and Mr Han, local villagers who were only 13-years old at the time but appeared to have perfect recollections of the event. “They told how the aircraft passed directly over their houses at very low level and they were at the crashed aircraft within minutes,” David said.

He asked his hosts if they could dig up a piece of Desmond’s clothing, and was deeply moved when he was presented with part of his flying suit.

He would have loved to have been given Desmond’s identity disc too, but was told this had been taken by Chinese troops who were fighting with the North Koreans against the US and other forces.

David gave a short speech at the grave, thanking Colonel Kwak and the ambassador for making his visit possible, while the head of the village promised to tend the grave and paint the fence regularly.

As a former RAF officer, David was also anxious to fix the position of the grave. “I went to the memorial to the Great Leader Kim Il-sung near the village in sight of the grave and took a compass bearing. The grave bears 160 degrees, 500 meters from the obelisk,” he noted in his diary.

Read the full story in the Asia Times:
Finally, laid to rest in Pyongyang
Asia Times
Michael Rank
8/14/2009

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Friday Fun: DPRK-3D, BBC photos, and Jenkins unplugged

September 25th, 2009

DPRK 3D
Several prominent buildings have been modeled in 3D for viewing in Google Earth.  Check them out here:

1. Mansu Hill
2. Moument to Party Founding
3. Monument to 3 Charters for National Reunification
4. Tower of the Juche Idea
5. May Day Stadium
6. You can also access a 3D model of the Ryugyong Hotel through Google Earth.

BBC photos
The BBC published some interesting photos of life in the DPRK.  See them here.

Jenkins Unplugged
An intrepid traveler ventured to Sado to speak with Jenkins. A couple of interesting new data points come out.

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Golden Jubilee of FTB Celebrated

September 24th, 2009

(KCNA) Pyongyang, September 24 (KCNA) — The 50th anniversary of the founding of the Foreign Trade Bank was significantly celebrated in the DPRK.

Established in Juche 48 (1959), the bank has conducted settlement with other countries and financial transactions in a uniform manner as required by the nation’s developing external economic relations.

The bank has boosted its business relations and satisfactorily ensured settlement with banks of various countries, laying a groundwork for developing the nation’s external economic relations including foreign trade.

The bank has further boosted its business capability and improved international confidence as required by the times when the country’s international prestige and economic potential are rising remarkably and made a brisk way into international financial markets, steadily expanding the business relations with various other banks of the world on the principle of independence, equality and mutual benefit.
A meeting celebrating the golden jubilee of the FTB was held in Pyongyang Thursday.

Present there on invitation were delegations and delegates of various countries participating in the celebrations of the golden jubilee of the bank, staff members of embassies of foreign countries here and foreign guests staying in the DPRK.

O Kwang Chol, president of the bank, delivered a report at the meeting.

Additionally: Previous posts featuring the Foreign Trade Bank here.

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New Evidence on Inter-Korean Relations, 1971-1972

September 24th, 2009

North Korea International Documentation Project (NKIDP)
September 23, 2009

NKIDP is pleased to announce the publication of NKIDP Document Reader #3, New Evidence on Inter-Korean Relations, 1971-1972.

This latest addition to the NKIDP Document Reader series features newly available South Korean, Romanian, East German, and Bulgarian documents on the North-South dialogue which marked the first significant thaw between the rival regimes on the Korean Peninsula.

New Evidence on Inter-Korean Relations, 1971-1972 , like all NKIDP publications, is available for download free of charge from the NKIDP website.

Yonhap reports on this publication here.

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North Korea names new head of public finance

September 24th, 2009

Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
NK Brief No. 09-24-1
9/24/2009

North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly Standing Committee has removed Kim Whan-su from his position as head of public finance, naming Pak Su-kil as the new financial chief and giving him the title Deputy Prime Minister. This news was carried by (North) Korea Central Broadcasting on September 18.

This brings the number of North Korean deputy prime ministers to five, and the inclusion of the prime minister of public finance is meant to further strengthen public finance capacity. This is but one more indication of the importance North Korean authorities have placed on economic reform policies and the establishment of a Strong and Prosperous Nation by 2012. The other four deputy prime ministers are Kwak Bum-ki, Pak Myung-sun, Rho Du-chul, and Oh Su-yong.

This latest reshuffle was ordered through a Standing Committee ordinance. With the approval of the cabinet prime minister and at times when the SPA is not in session, the Standing Committee has the power to appoint cabinet members, department heads, committee chairs and deputy prime ministers.

The head of public finance is responsible for the national budget, but the national budget is limited to the ‘people’s economy’, and does not include the ‘second economy’ run for and by the military. It is the military budget that actually makes up the majority of the nation’s financial dealings. Therefore, despite the naming of the new vice prime minister, it is expected to be difficult to see any substantial change in the implementation of the national budget.

It is not yet known what led to the removal of former financial chief Kim Whan-su. It is possible that his dismissal resulted from poor returns on the nation-wide ‘150-day Battle’, which was brought to a conclusion on September 17. The naming of the new chief and empowering him as a deputy prime minister may be an attempt to squeeze more production out the ‘100-day Battle’ which is expected to commence soon.

The reports on the appointment made no mention of Pak Su-kil’s personal situation, but it is likely that this is the same Pak that has been repeatedly appointed by the SPA as the committee chairman of the North Hamgyong Province People’s Committee. Chairman Pak is known to have risen to the provincial chair position from his former role as chairman of a county administrative economy committee.

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Posted in 150-Day Battle for Production, 2012 Strong and Prosperous Nation (Kangsong Taeguk), Finance, Fiscal & monetary policy, Military | Comments Closed

DPRK-China trade (Q1,Q2 2009)

September 23rd, 2009

According to Yonhap:

Trade volume during the January-June period totaled US$1.1 billion, down 3.7 percent from a year earlier and the first decline since 1999, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) said in an emailed release that cited official Chinese data. The drop was in striking contrast with a 41 percent increase during the same period last year and a 16 percent gain in 2007.

North Korea was put under U.N. sanctions for its nuclear test in May, barring its weapons trade and strictly limiting cash flows into the country. The sanctions, however, do not appear to have affected North Korea’s trade with China, an official at South Korea’s Unification Ministry said.

Prices of crude oil, which account for a quarter of North Korean imports from China, subsided this year after steep hikes in 2007 and 2008, said Jeon Dong-myeong, a ministry official overseeing North Korean trade.

“It’s not a steep decline. The 3.7 percent decline in trade volume can arise from price differences,” Jeon said.

North Korean imports from China amounted to $750 million, down 8.4 percent, while exports increased by 8.2 percent to $352 million, according to KOTRA.

By item, North Korea’s crude oil imports showed the steepest decline of 54 percent, or $111 million.

Food imports slightly increased to $23 million, and fertilizer imports considerably grew to $11.9 million, close to the amount the North brought in during all of 2008, $12.7 million.

Despite the international sanctions on the country, North Korea’s trade with Germany gained by 46.53 million euros during the first half of this year, according to KOTRA. Citing Germany’s figures, it said trade volume was up 160 percent from the same period last year, and up 30 percent from the total trade volume the two countries registered for last year.

Read the full story here:
N. Korean trade with China falls slightly in first half of 2009
Yonhap
9/23/2009

Further information and requests:
1. Here is the PR of China’s Ministry of Commerce database where trade data is published (does not work well with Mozilla). The usual caveats apply.

2. I have given up on the KOTRA web page.  Can someone please send me the KOTRA email mentioned in the Yonhap story?

3.  Here are general stories about North Korea’s trading activities. Here are stories mentioning specific trade statistics.

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Posted in China, International trade, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), Statistics, Trade Statistics | Comments Closed

DPRK harvest to decline

September 22nd, 2009

According to Yonhap:

The North’s corn crop for this year is estimated to be less than 1.5 million tons, considerably down from the 2.5 million to 3 million tons it usually garners, said Kim Soon-kwon, a leading corn biologist and head of the International Corn Foundation. The forecast yield portends a severe food shortage in the country where corn is believed to make up 40 percent of the total food supply.

“Of all the corn harvests I’ve seen while visiting North Korea over the past 12 years, this year’s crop was the worst,” Kim said over the telephone from China where he was staying after last week’s trip to the North.

During the Sept. 12-16 trip, he surveyed corn farms on the outskirts of Pyongyang and around Mount Myohyang and found a widespread shortage of fertilizer had slowed corn growth. Also, a drought in July — a critical period for the crop — followed by heavy downpours further damaged corn fields, he said.

“Corn needs fertilizer more than any other grain,” Kim explained. “The fact that the fertilizer had not been provided appropriately because of the limbo in inter-Korean relations is a major factor in the bad crop.” said Kim, who spent 17 years in Africa helping develop higher-yield corn seeds and spreading farming technologies.

Since 1999, the South Korean government has provided an average 300,000 tons of fertilizer worth 96 billion won (US$77 million) to the North every year to help ease the country’s chronic food shortages. But the aid was suspended after conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office last year, linking inter-Korean aid to progress in North Korea’s denuclearization.

North Korea’s own fertilizer output is estimated at less than 500,000 tons a year, about a third of the 1.5 million tons the country needs for its grain farming, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry.

Aid activists from World Vision, who visited North Korea last month, said rice paddies were more yellow than green this year due to a fertilizer shortage, which will equate to low yields in the harvest season.

Seoul expects the North will fall more than one million tons short of the 5.48 million tons of food needed to feed its population of 24 million this year.

Read the full story here:
N. Korean corn crop to fall by 40 percent: agronomist
Yonhap
9/22/2009

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North Korea shuffles cabinet in effort to build a strong and prosperous nation

September 22nd, 2009

Institute for Far Esatern Studies (IFES)
NK Brief No. 09-22-1
9/22/2009

In order to meet the goal of building a ‘Strong and Prosperous Nation’ by the year 2012, North Korean authorities are reshuffling some positions within the Cabinet, which is its ‘Economic Headquarters’. During the first session of the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) last April, Kim Jong Il launched his third regime, and now less than 6 months later, is restructuring the Cabinet. For example, the National Science and Technology Council, which was merged into the Cabinet Academy of Science (now the National Academy of Science) in 1998, has been re-established.

North Korean media briefly reported on the 19th that the SPA Standing Committee brought out the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea National Science and Technology Council” through the announcement of Government Ordinance # 301. The press did not follow up with specifics concerning the announcement, but the recent position of North Korean authorities that “without scientific and technological development, there is no independence, no national defense, and no economy,” it appears that the recent cabinet order is related to attempts by the North to strengthen its economy.

The first National Science and Technology Council established in the North was created in 1962, and was intended to support the national defense industries. The Academy of Science, which had been established 10 years prior, was put under the control of the council, and the council was responsible for the creation and implementation of a national science and technology plan, as well as for providing guidance over research activities. However, as the North’s level of science and technology improved, the council, which was not made up of experts on science and technology, was unable to appropriately guide the research carried out by the academy. In 1982, the academy was separated from the council, and its status was boosted to that of an independent entity.

North Korea is currently in its 3rd 5-year plan to “develop new national science and technologies” by 2012. Currently, North Korea is prioritizing the modernization of factories, enterprises and other industries, and Kim Jong Il has stressed modernization and the introduction of vanguard technologies during his on-site inspections of the nation’s economic facilities. Therefore, it appears that the newly established National Science and Technology Council will be responsible for overseeing cooperation between mechanical and chemical industries and the modernization of the industrial sector, while the National Academy of Science will focus purely on research.

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Posted in 2012 Strong and Prosperous Nation (Kangsong Taeguk), Cabinet, National Academy of Science, Supreme Peoples Assembly | Comments Closed

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