North Korean Economy Watch

According to UPI:

The United States is now home to 186 North Korean refugees who first began to arrive in 2006 – two years after the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 was signed into law by President George W. Bush.

The North Korean refugee population in the U.S. is still small and just a fraction of other communities, Voice of America reported on Tuesday.

Major refugee communities in the U.S. include 1,078 Burmese, 879 former nationals of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and 818 Somalis.

In fiscal year 2015 – which began in October 2014 for the State Department – Washington granted asylum to one or more North Koreans per month.

In July, the United States accepted four North Korean refugees, the second highest for the fiscal year.

As refugees North Koreans receive some financial support, including a monthly stipend between $200 and $300 for eight months to cover food and medical expenses, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

After a year of residence, refugees are eligible for permanent resident status and after five years are permitted to apply for U.S. citizenship.

But the financial support Washington provides North Korean refugees pales in comparison to the support South Korea provides similar defectors.

Seoul’s resettlement dollars awarded to North Koreans have decreased over the years as more North Koreans find their way to the South, but a North Korean defector still qualifies for $5,967 in financial grants, in addition to $11,000 that goes toward long-term housing.

In some cases the U.S. government works with NGOs to resettle the North Koreans, but problems have surfaced in recent years.

In July, The Washington Post reported how a U.S.-based North Korean refugee was deprived of food by his American foster family in Richmond, Va., because they wanted to make their budget stretch.

Joseph Kim, who was then 16, said he found himself hungry in the world’s wealthiest country after years of surviving on weed soup and roasted grasshoppers in North Korea.

Read the full story here:
State Department: 186 North Korean refugees now reside in the United States
UPI
Elizabeth Shim
2015-8-4

According to the Wall Street Journal:

For decades after North Korea’s founding in the 1950s, financial security wasn’t a major concern for its citizens. A communist system provided most daily needs, and for many years living standards outstripped those of South Korea.

Then a devastating famine in the 1990s and a subsequent economic collapse crippled the public distribution system and forced citizens to fend for themselves.

The semimarket economy that emerged has expanded rapidly in recent years, providing a living for up to three-fourths of the country, according to observers, defectors and those with contacts in a state that is largely closed off from the rest of the world. As unauthorized private commerce has bolstered North Koreans’ incomes, an unregulated system of lending and currency exchange has also emerged, they said.

“People are investing and are making money,” says Kim Young-hui, a former North Korean banking official and an analyst on the North Korean economy at KDB Bank in Seoul. Observers such as Ms. Kim, who left North Korea in 2003, say refugees from all provinces have reported private lending activities in their respective hometowns.

There is no reliable study to measure precisely how much money is flowing in and out of the country, observers and defectors say, and North Koreans remain excluded from anything close to a modern financial system. There are no commercial banks and little trust in the state for economic security.

Defectors’ accounts depict a system in which private savings are being funneled into lending to generate a profit, but without any legal framework or guarantee on investments. Scams occurred in the early years but in the last three years, a culture of credit has settled in, says Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul who studies the North Korean economy.

“As businesses expand, the importance of credit goes up. Now you are doing business with more than just people you know,” said Mr. Lim, adding that friends or family often guarantee payment.

According to observers and defector accounts, some North Korean lenders and investors are funding seed and fertilizer purchases in return for a cut from the following year’s harvest, or lending money to merchants to import goods that range from apples to Italian luxury goods. They are borrowing and lending with interest, dodging North Korea’s ban on usury. Even state traders are borrowing money from them, some defectors say.

Pawn shops have opened up under official blessing and people leave anything of value for small loans, they say. Some private-property ownership, such as apartments, has been allowed since 1998, and some lenders independently appraise the value of real-estate properties to collateralize larger loans. A default on a loan can lead to confiscation of goods by the private lenders, they say.

It is impossible to independently verify accounts of private commerce and lending inside the reclusive country. But since taking power at the end of 2011, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has promised to improve living standards and appears to have taken a relatively laissez-faire approach to market activity.

Such activity—from selling toothpaste to buying 3G-enabled smartphones on the street—still isn’t officially allowed in North Korea, but the regime often turns a blind eye to the commerce, some observers say. The regime even appears to be collecting some money from the activity, in the forms of bribes to authorities or fees for securing a market stall, they said.

North Korea observers such as Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul, say that between half and three-quarters of North Korea’s household income comes from the private sector. Those who have some money aren’t just lending, they are opening up restaurants, computer stores, karaoke shops or communal bathhouses. Private taxi and delivery services have emerged in recent years.

Those who engage in commerce are reaching consumers and intermediaries more than before, thanks to the recent proliferation of cellphones. Buyers and sellers no longer have to exchange cash in person, they can tell their financiers to settle the bill.

The regime has kept track of these developments and has tried to regulate private wealth, albeit with little success, some observers say.

Trust in the state took a heavy blow following a 2009 currency devaluation that caused a panic over the sudden loss of wealth. The policy damaged the flourishing black market and reinforced the public’s preference for foreign currency. Now, most private deals are in U.S. dollars and Chinese renminbi, observers say.

“In large cities like Chongjin [a port near the northeastern tip of North Korea where China and Russia meet], it’s 100% renminbi,” says one former North Korean farmer, who fled to South Korea in 2013.

A recent attempt by the regime to introduce a degree of personal finance came with the introduction of a card-payment system. Kim Chon Gyun, president of the central bank, told Japan-based newspaper Choson Sinbo in February that North Korea is working to fuel economic development by “smoothly circulating internal capital.”

Mr. Kim said the country was developing an unspecified “new financial product” and was encouraging the use of bank cards in ordinary people’s lives, in a rare public disclosure of economic policy.

Peoples’ accounts vary, but they say North Korea since 2011 has been issuing at least two kinds of chip-bearing plastic cards that allow users to load domestic or foreign currencies. The cards can be used for payment at some stores, and the salaries of some government officials appear to be wired to such accounts, they say. They are being used in provinces as well as in the capital.

But some observers say the system’s adoption among ordinary citizens appears low, and its success is contingent upon conditions such as a guarantee of deposit and the regime’s assurance that the origin of the money won’t face scrutiny.

Read the full story here:
North Korea’s Private Finance: No Banks but Lots of Loans
Jeyup S. Kwaak
Wall Street Journal
2015-8-4

According to UPI citing World Food Program sources, aid to North Korea increased by more than 100 percent from June to July of this year:

Food aid to North Korea more than doubled from June to July and over 3,000 tons were distributed to pregnant women and children, according to the World Food Program.

Damian Kean said Monday the July delivery of 3,231 tons of highly nutritional food items for infants and expectant and nursing mothers is this year’s largest, Voice of America reported.

In June, the World Food Program said 1,528 tons of food was sent to North Korea, and aid reached a low in February when only 1,187 tons of food reached the reclusive country.

South Korean news agency Yonhap reported the July food aid package was the biggest in 19 months, but the number of aid recipients decreased from 632,000 to 620,000 between June and July.

The World Food Program’s fundraising goal of $168 million – needed to provide highly nutritional food packages to 1.8 million hungry North Koreans – has only reached half, or $82.9 million, of its target number.

The U.N. organization has postponed the termination of its North Korea food aid program, due to an ongoing drought in the country that is posing risks to the food supply.

According to Reuters:

From the dark alleys of Pyongyang, the showpiece North Korean capital, tiny specks of torchlight shine carefully into the eyes of passersby, leading to bustling and illegal street markets where traders, usually women, call out “buy, buy!”

The “maeddugi shijang”, or “grasshopper markets,” get their name from the lightning-quick way traders must pack up and hop from place to place to evade authorities in a country making a grudging embrace of free enterprise.

As markets have taken hold in North Korea, the government has sporadically legalized and formalized them, while at the same time imposing new crackdowns, taxes, and bribes, forcing smaller traders back on to the streets where they set up “grasshopper markets” selling goods for cash.

“The grasshopper markets form in places near stations, on the roads to the (official) market, and around schools and parks,” said Seol Song Ah, a defector who left North Korea in 2011 and now works with the Daily NK, a Seoul-based website with sources inside North Korea.

“Wherever there are people, there are grasshopper markets.”

The markets are less well-stocked than official shops but offer convenience, carrying items from pots, socks, batteries, and cigarettes to fresh meat, according to residents of Pyongyang and defectors from the isolated country.

The informal, movable markets represent the new, grassroots driven economic reality in a country which is no longer truly collectivized, or communist – a change that began during the devastating famine of the 1990s and has since gained momentum.

‘TICK MERCHANTS’

Grasshoppers date to the 1980s, when old women started selling sweet potatoes and bean curd by roadsides, according to Seol, and have proliferated in recent years as more people, squeezed by new government regulations on the marketplace, have returned to underground trade.

In recent months, those who trade in the grasshopper markets have become known as “tick merchants” because they are hard to remove, and have therefore had restrictions on them slowly eased as security services struggle to shut them down, according to the Daily NK.

Still, because grasshopper markets are illegal, they are highly sensitive in the authoritarian country. A diplomatic source in Pyongyang who has visited grasshopper markets said he was followed by the “bowibu”, or secret police, down the dark grasshopper alleys.

“Trying to take a photo of a grasshopper market is one of the only times I’ve been seriously apprehended by the secret police,” the diplomatic source said.

A former foreign resident of Pyongyang said he had also never managed to photograph a grasshopper market.

“The one time I tried, the market ladies had vanished in the time it took me to get my camera from my pocket and raise it to take the shot,” the resident said.

“They are used to disappearing very, very quickly”.

Read the full story here:
In North Korean grassroots capitalism, ticks and grasshoppers skip
Reuters
James Pearson
2015-8-3

According to KCNA:

Development of Marine Resources Spurred in DPRK

The development of marine resources has been pushed forward in a far-sighted way in the DPRK according to a new national strategy for developing marine resources.

The Ministry of Land and Maritime Transport, the Ministry of Fisheries and the State Hydro-meteorological Administration are paying deep attention to marine survey and observation and research into marine resources, while laying sound material and technical bases for them.

Researchers of Kim Il Sung University have made successes in the research into marine energy resources, marine information system and marine environmental protection. They are also pushing ahead with the research into searching for fishing ground on the East and West seas of Korea and the ocean and into aquaculture and marine mineral resources.

The establishment of a latest marine technology park progresses apace.

Kwak Il Hwan, secretary of the DPRK society for marine studies, told KCNA:

It is one of important national policies to protect and develop marine resources.

Students and citizens are encouraged to get more knowledge about the sea through different occasions like the Day of Sea (July 12) and months for maritime physical culture (July and August).

Big efforts have been paid to putting the research into marine resources on a higher scientific basis.

And here is coverage of the report by the Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES):

Marine Development Projects Underway in North Korea
2015-7-30

North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on July 24, 2015 that marine resource development projects, such as the establishment of an Advanced Marine Technology Development Zone, are currently being pursued in North Korea.

While KCNA reports that the establishment of the Advanced Marine Technology Development Zone is moving along, Choson Marine Association head clerk Kwak Il Hwan adds, “Protecting and increasing marine resources while actively developing and using them is becoming one of the state’s main policies.”

The news agency also revealed, “As a marine space resource, ports will be constructed, navigation channels will be developed, and there were will be tidelands and marine tourist spots; on the west coast it will become a tideland capable of development as well as a wealth of information.” This statement indicates that the Advanced Marine Technology Development Zone will be designated on the west coast.

“A training system for our country’s experts and engineers in the marine sector is in place, and a technological foundation for the development and use of marine resources, including research bases in each field all over the country, has been secured,” KCNA reported.

Along with this, the news agency revealed that in the Ministry of Land and Marine Transport, the Ministry of Fisheries, and the meteorological observatory, they are proceeding with projects like maritime studies, marine observations and research projects, and maintenance reinforcement work through material and technical means.

In addition, Kim Il Sung University is pushing for the effective development and use of marine resources, invigorating the exploration of fisheries, sea farming, a marine ecology and environmental information management system, the exploration of marine mineral resources, and collection research projects on the East and West coast and in ocean waters.

KCNA also revealed that research in areas like marine energy resource development, marine environment protection technology, and a marine information system are achieving results.

According to Yonhap:

Scud missiles fired into Saudi Arabia by Yemeni rebels in recent months came from North Korea, a South Korean intelligence official said Wednesday, in the latest case that illustrated North Korea’s support for the weapons programs of some countries in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia has shot down about 40 percent of some 20 Scud missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, said the official, who is familiar with the issue.

He did not give further details on how South Korea reached the conclusion that the missiles originated from North Korea. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

Missile exports have long been a major source of hard currency for North Korea.

“North Korea has sold missiles to Yemen and sent missile engineers to that country in the 1990s,” said a former North Korean official, who was in a position to know about the arms deals.

Another former North Korean intelligence official in Seoul said North Korea sold many Scud missiles to countries in the Middle East, noting Egypt was the hub of North Korea’s arms trade in the region.

The two former North Korean officials, who later defected to South Korea, asked not to be identified, citing the issue’s sensitivity.

North Korea’s Scud-B missiles and Scud-C missiles have a range of 300 kilometers and 500 kilometers, respectively, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry.

Read the full story here:
Scud missiles fired into Saudi Arabia from Yemen traced to N. Korea: official
Yonhap
2015-7-29

According to Yonhap:

The Unification Ministry said Monday it has decided to overhaul ways to operate a government fund designed to promote inter-Korean cooperation in a bid to offer humanitarian aid to North Korea on a project basis.

South Korea set up the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund in 1991 in order to facilitate inter-Korean exchanges and economic cooperation. As of end-June, the fund stood at an outstanding 12.4 trillion won (US$10.7 billion).

The ministry said it will overhaul ways to run the fund so as to provide project-based assistance to the North, a departure from its current practice of offering only emergency relief.

To this end, the government plans to specify the areas where civilian groups could offer humanitarian aid such as healthcare, agriculture and forestation.

“Through the overhaul, necessary aid including food and others could be delivered (to the North) on a project basis,” Jeong Joon-hee, the ministry spokesman, said in a regular press briefing.

South Korea has almost suspended its massive assistance to North Korea at the government level since 2010, when it imposed economic sanctions on Pyongyang following the North’s attacks on a South Korean warship and a border island that year. But Seoul has continued to allow civilian groups to extend aid to the North.

Seoul said in May that it will encourage more civic groups to increase support to North Korea in non-political areas if they are deemed to promote national unity and reconciliation.

Read the full story here:
S. Korea to overhaul fund on inter-Korean cooperation
Yonhap
2015-7-27

UPDATE 2 (2015-8-3): The Singaporean firm is being prosecuted. According to the Straits Times:

In the first case of its kind, a Singapore-registered company was prosecuted on Monday for facilitating payment for costs related to the shipment of arms and related material bound for North Korea from Cuba.

Chinpo Shipping Company is alleged to have transferred US$72,017 from its Bank of China account to that of a shipping agent in Panama – C.B. Fenton and Co – on July 8, 2013.

Under the United Nations (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) Regulations 2010, it is an offence to transfer financial assets that could help North Korea in its nuclear and ballistic programmes, or efforts to produce other weapons of mass destruction.

Chinpo, whose representative is Mr Tan Cheng Hoe, 82, a director of the company, also faces a second charge of carrying on a remittance business without a valid licence between April 2, 2009 and July 3, 2013 .

The court heard that a North Korean Cuba-bound cargo ship, the Chong Chon Gang, docked in Mariel, Cuba, on June 20, 2013, and loaded 25 containers and six trailers of arms and related material weighing 474 tons.

This included two MiG-21 jet fighters, anti-tank rockets and SA-2 and SA-3 Russian surface-to-air missile systems and their parts.

All were bound for North Korea and hidden in the cargo hold under 10,500 metric tons of sugar, said the prosecution in its opening statement.

The company that managed the ship, Ocean Maritime Management (OMM), wanted someone to make payments for them to hide the fact that the money was coming from a DPRK entity.

Chinpo stepped in to help. On May 28 that year, it transferred US$54,270 to pay for the passage of Chong Chon Gang to and from Cuba through the Panama Canal. Another payment of US$72,017 was made on July 8 that year.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Sandy Baggett said that was not the first time Chinpo had transferred money for North Korean companies or OMM.

For at least four years, Chinpo remitted a total of over US$40 million without a licence and without regulation by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

MAS requires companies to exercise due diligence when dealing with customers and to guard against money laundering.

Mr Edmond Pereria is defending the company, which can be fined up to $1 million if convicted under the UN Act. The penalty for operating a remittance business without a licence is a $100,000 fine.

A joint Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs statement last week said Singapore takes a serious view of its obligations to prevent the illicit trafficking of weapons of mass destruction, their means of delivery and related materials.

“We will not hesitate to take action against individuals and/or companies that fail to comply with the relevant Singapore legislation that we have put in place to give effect to measures prescribed by United Nations Security Council regulations,” it said.

UPDATE 1 (2015-7-24):  Blacklisted Singapore shipping firm denies arms link to North Korea. According to the AFP (via Straits Times):

A Singapore shipping firm blacklisted by the United States government for allegedly supporting illicit arms shipments into North Korea strongly denied the allegation Friday (July 24) and vowed to clear its name.

Senat Shipping and Trading Pte Ltd said it had “for many years chartered North Korean vessels to operate on the global spot market” but all these were legitimate commercial transactions.

“Senat wishes to stress that all its dealings were legal and involved commercial shipments of commodities on behalf of international commodity traders. These transactions have always been transparent and can survive any form of scrutiny,” it said in a statement.

In imposing sanctions on Senat and its president, Leonard Lai, on Thursday, the US Treasury Department alleged that the company was providing “extensive support” to Ocean Maritime Management Company (OMMC), a North Korean firm that already was under sanctions.

The blacklist freezes any US assets held by Senat and Lai, and prohibits US citizens from conducting any transactions with them.

Chong Chon Gang, a ship operated by OMMC, was seized in July 2013 near the Panama Canal carrying undeclared Soviet-era weapons and fighter jets under thousands of sugar sacks.

The cargo, which came from Cuba, was intended for North Korea.

The US Treasury Department on Thursday claimed that Senat provides support to OMMC by “arranging the purchase, repair, certification, and crewing” of ships for that company.

“Arms shipments transported by OMMC serve as a key resource for North Korea’s ongoing proliferation activities. Sales from these shipments contribute to North Korea’s other illicit programmes,” said Adam Szubin, the Treasury’s acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

Senat in its statement said that it had chartered the Chong Chon Gang on a regular basis but stressed that it was not the charterer at the time the vessel was intercepted in Panama.

“We strongly stress that Senat was not the charterer of the vessel at the time of its arrest and Senat has not chartered the vessel at all since its arrest,” the company said.

OMMC was blacklisted by the United Nations after the ship was caught, and Senat said that Chinpo Shipping Services, a Singapore firm which had acted as the agent for the vessel, was prosecuted by local authorities at that time.

Senat said it “strongly refutes these groundless and unwarranted allegations” and that it was in the process of contacting the US Treasury Department to explain its side.

ORIGINAL POST (2015-7-23): According to the Wall Street Journal:

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Thursday against a Singaporean company and its president for their links to a North Korean shipping firm that allegedly helped an attempt to move weapons from Cuba to Pyongyang.

Senat Shipping Ltd., the U.S. Department of Treasury said, helped arrange the purchase, repair, certification and crewing of vessels belonging to North Korea’s Ocean Maritime Management Co., which the U.S. targeted last year with sanctions for allegedly managing a vessel sailing from Cuba to Pyongyang that carried illicit cargo falsely declared to be sugar and spare plastic. The vessel was interdicted by Panama in July 2013 on suspicion of moving drugs; it was freed in February 2014 to sail back to Cuba after Pyongyang paid a fine.

“Arms shipments transported by OMMC serve as a key resource for North Korea’s ongoing proliferation activities. Sales from these shipments contribute to North Korea’s other illicit programs,” said Adam Szubin, acting undersecretary of Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, in a statement.

Leonard Lai, president of Senat, was also targeted Thursday with sanctions, as was the vessel “Dawnlight,” which Treasury identified as blocked property of Senat.

Neither Senat nor Mr. Lai could be reached.

Treasury also said Thursday it updated its sanctions designation on OMMC, saying the company has continued to operate through multiple front companies and representative offices to evade sanctions. It also updated its listings on two officials who work for Tanchon Commercial Bank under aliases.

The US Treasury Department sent out this information:

North Korea Designations and Updates; Non-proliferation Updates
7/23/2015
​
OFFICE OF FOREIGN ASSETS CONTROL
Specially Designated Nationals List Update
The following individual has been added to OFAC’s SDN List:

LAI, Leonard (a.k.a. LAI, Yong Chian); DOB 16 Jun 1958; Passport E3251534E (Singapore) expires 20 Mar 2018 (individual) [DPRK].

The following entity has been added to OFAC’s SDN List:

SENAT SHIPPING LIMITED (a.k.a. SENAT SHIPPING & TRADING PTE LTD; a.k.a. SENAT SHIPPING AGENCY LTD; a.k.a. SENAT SHIPPING AND TRADING LTD; a.k.a. SENAT SHIPPING AND TRADING PRIVATE LIMITED), 36-02 A, Suntec Tower, 9, Temasek Boulevard, Singapore 038989, Singapore; 9 Temasek Boulevard, 36-02A, Singapore 038989, Singapore; Panama City, Panama; PO Box 957, Offshore Incorporations Centre Road Town, Tortola, Virgin Islands, British; Identification Number IMO 5179245; alt. Identification Number IMO 5405737 [DPRK].

The following vessel has been added to OFAC’s SDN List:

DAWNLIGHT General Cargo Mongolia flag; Vessel Registration Identification IMO 9110236 (vessel) [DPRK].

The following changes have been made to OFAC’s SDN List:

KIM, TONG-MYO’NG (a.k.a. KIM, CHIN-SO’K; a.k.a. KIM, TONG MYONG; a.k.a. “KIM, JIN SOK”), c/o Tanchon Commercial Bank, Saemul 1-Dong Pyongchon District, Pyongyang, Korea, North; DOB 1964; nationality Korea, North (individual) [NPWMD]. -to- |KIM, Tong-Myo’ng| (|a.k.a. KIM, CHIN-SO’K; a.k.a. KIM, HYOK CHOL; a.k.a. KIM, TONG MYONG; a.k.a. “KIM, JIN SOK”|)|; DOB 1964; alt. DOB 28 Aug 1962; nationality Korea, North; Passport 290320764| (individual) [NPWMD] (|Linked To: TANCHON COMMERCIAL BANK|).

OCEAN MARITIME MANAGEMENT COMPANY LIMITED (a.k.a. EAST SEA SHIPPING COMPANY), Dongheung-dong Changgwang Street, Chung-ku, PO Box 125, Pyongyang, Korea, North; Donghung Dong, Central District, PO Box 120, Pyongyang, Korea, North; No. 10, 10th Floor, Unit 1, Wu Wu Lu 32-1, Zhong Shan Qu, Dalian City, Liaoning Province, China; 22 Jin Cheng Jie, Zhong Shan Qu, Dalian City, Liaoning Province, China; 43-39 Lugovaya, Vladivostok, Russia; CPO Box 120, Tonghung-dong, Chung-gu, Pyongyang, Korea, North; Bangkok, Thailand; Lima, Peru; Port Said, Egypt; Singapore; Brazil; Identification Number IMO 1790183 [DPRK]. -to- OCEAN MARITIME MANAGEMENT COMPANY LIMITED (|a.k.a. EAST SEA SHIPPING COMPANY; a.k.a. HAEYANG CREW MANAGEMENT COMPANY; a.k.a. KOREA MIRAE SHIPPING CO. LTD.|)|, Dongheung-dong Changgwang Street, Chung-ku, PO Box 125, Pyongyang, Korea, North; Donghung Dong, Central District, PO Box 120, Pyongyang, Korea, North; No. 10, 10th Floor, Unit 1, Wu Wu Lu 32-1, Zhong Shan Qu, Dalian City, Liaoning Province, China; 22 Jin Cheng Jie, Zhong Shan Qu, Dalian City, Liaoning Province, China; 43-39 Lugovaya, Vladivostok, Russia; CPO Box 120, Tonghung-dong, Chung-gu, Pyongyang, Korea, North; Bangkok, Thailand; Lima, Peru; Port Said, Egypt; Singapore; Brazil; Hong Kong, China; Shenzhen, China; Identification Number IMO 1790183| [DPRK].

RA, Kyong-Su, Beijing, China; Tanchon Commercial Bank Representative to Beijing, China (individual) [NPWMD]. -to- RA, Kyong-Su (|a.k.a. CHANG, MYONG HO; a.k.a. CHANG, MYO’NG-HO; a.k.a. CHANG, MYONG-HO|), Beijing, China; Tanchon Commercial Bank Representative to Beijing, China (individual) [NPWMD] (|Linked To: TANCHON COMMERCIAL BANK|).

Here is additional coverage in The Guardian, and Channel News Asia.

Read the full story here:
U.S. Targets Singaporean Supporter of North Korean Maritime Firm
Wall Street Journal
Samuel Rubenfeld
2015-7-23

According to KCNA:

Rules of Real Estate and Insurance in EDP Adopted

Rules of real estate and insurance in the economic development parks (EDP) were adopted according to the decision of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK.

The rule of real estate consists of seven chapters and 59 articles and the rule of insurance four chapters and 52 articles.

The rules deal with possession, registration and employment of real estates, their rent and rate, conclusion of insurance contract, formalities of insurance offices, etc. in the EDP.

According to the Daily NK:

Python, a joint company between North Korea and Russia, which had manufactured health supplements during Kim Jong Il’s era, has recently renewed its contract and is set to manufacture products using materials produced in North Korea, Daily NK has learned.

“Python closed down due to financial difficulties but has recently renewed its contract with North Korea,” a source in Russia told Daily NK. “On the 7th, the North Korean consul general and the deputy prime minister of Zabaykalsky Krai signed related contracts to operate the Python factory.”

An additional source in Russia confirmed this development.

The factory, located in Russia, is currently shuttered due to financial restraints, but the North Korean state authorities have been providing cadres dispatched to the facility for management with living expenses. The source said the factory is expected to give the Russian city Chita a boost in its local economy, helping to propel the deal.

“Before production ground to a halt, Python had been sending hefty sums of money to North Korea. Russia can also rake in profits from the company, so neither wants to give up on the endeavor,” the source speculated. “Once production begins, North Korea will select and dispatch workers to Russia who will produce medicine and health supplements.”

He added, “We can’t tell exactly how much was being made from the production, but former workers say under normal operations, the sum going to the North was significant,” the source said, noting that North Korea is surely hoping the deal can try to make in a dent in the dearth of state foreign-currency funds.

“In the past, Python mainly produced health supplements, such as ‘baljam’ (herbal wine) and ginseng extract,” he explained. “But after Russia was introduced to capitalism, financial, ideological, etc. difficulties emerged and operations took a toll. Over the past few years, only a few North Korean managers have been left behind.”

He added that the North Korean laborers who worked at Python were guaranteed housing and food in addition to receiving a monthly salary of 50 to 60 USD, and given that the organization is a pharmaceutical company, most of the Party cadres dispatched there are college graduates; some researchers were sent with their families as well.

Meanwhile, earlier on the 14th, Radio Free Asia [RFA], citing Russian internet publication ‘Business Buryatia,’ also reported that “North Korea and Russia are planning to co-produce medical products in Chita, a city in Eastern Siberia as early as before the end of this year.”

Read the full story here:
Joint NK-Russia pharmaceutical company revamps operations
Daily NK
Kang Mi Jin
2015-07-21