DPRK Business Monthly Volume II, No.11

The DPRK Business Monthly, an international business report edited in Beijing, has been made available to CanKor readers by its editor, Paul White. Please check the  second volume of the December 2011 edition here: DPRK Business Monthly December 2011.

Titles of articles found in this issue include:

North Korea - Political Tours

• DHL Pyongyang Office Bustling
• Chinese Company Sets Up Car Wash in North Korea
• NGO Initiatives in DPRK: Christian Friends of Korea
• P’yang Asks Seoul to Restore Economic Ties
• Joint New Year Editorial (Analysis)
• Who Does Business in Rason? Jilin Tobacco Industry Co. Ltd

…plus a number of other items, including a selection of North Korean tours by various tour operators.

Comment by the Business Monthly Editor:

Pyongyang lost no time following the death of Kim Jong Il and the announcement that his son Kim Jong Un would succeed him in declaring that there would be absolutely no dealing with ROK President Lee Myung-bak under the new leadership. Lee, whose term (ROK presidents are only allowed one) ends next December, has pursued a hard line against the North since coming to office in 2008. Relations in every sphere have plummeted, not least those in the business field.
Tension on the Korean peninsula has been ratcheted up so high that the North actually shelled ROK territory in November 2010, in response to a massive ROK-US naval drill. Realizing that his tough approach has backfired, and under pressure from the South Korean people to return to the “sunshine days” of his two predecessors, Lee — like US President George W. Bush before him — is desperately offering olive branches to the North to try to salvage something from the failures of his watch. But as the Pyongyang statement — rushed out only days before the joint New Year editorial, which is the normal channel for policy pronouncements — made clear, relations on the peninsula will remain in limbo until Lee Myung-bak’s successor takes office, and hopefully there is a return to “sunshine.”

Please feel free to consult the full issue by clicking on this link: DPRK Business Monthly Volume II, No. 11  December 2011.

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• DPRK Business Monthly Volume II, No. 7 (CanKor.ca)
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