DPRK Business Monthly Volume III, No.12

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  current January 2013 edition here: DPRK Business Monthly Volume III, No.12

Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (left) and Google chairman Eric Schmidt (Photo by AP)

Titles of articles found in this issue include:

• Google Head Visits Pyongyang
• Virtual Suggestions: Google and North Korea
• DPRK Never Has Been Hermetically Sealed
• Another US Entrepreneur Honorary Pyongyang Citizen
• NK Relaxes Cell Phone Rules for Foreigners
• NK Eyes More Foreign Media Outlets: AP Vice-president
• Grain, Fertilizer Imports from China Fall Sharply
• Western Instructors Train N. Koreans in Statistics
• NK Seeks German Help to Open Economy
• Pyongyang Wants Private Sector Cooperation with ROK
• ROK Civic Groups Call for Kumgang Tours Resumption
• DPRK Tablet PC Can Receive TV Broadcasts
• Kaesong Production Up 17.5%
• Row Brews Over Kaesong Holiday Move

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

Comment by the Business Monthly Editor:

“LinkedIn blocked me when I listed my North Korean address — and I was not the only one,” Felix Abt, a Swiss entrepreneur who spent seven years living and doing business in North Korea, said.

France opens cooperation office in Pyongyang

[In early October, Paris opened an office in Pyongyang to help French aid groups in North Korea, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said during his trip to Seoul at the end of October. Fillon said the suffering of North Koreans is behind the decision to open the cooperation office, noting that aiding the nongovernmental organizations is a top priority for the office. Currently, two French aid groups are working inside the country, under the umbrella of the European Union. Publicity about this move has been scarce. The following article by Philippe Rater, appeared in  AFP on 29 September 2011, prior to the opening. — CanKor] 

Pyongyang - Photo by AFP

France is about to open an office in North Korea to develop cultural ties and to represent French aid groups working in the totalitarian state, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.

The office is to be headed by a French diplomat with Asian expertise, Olivier Vaysset, “given the needs that have been identified in the cultural and humanitarian domains,” ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.

Vaysset’s mission does not represent France reopening diplomatic ties with North Korea. With Estonia, France is one of only two European Union powers to have no formal links with Pyongyang.

The French envoy will be the only expatriate staff member at the mission, which will be an office in a building currently used by British, German and Swedish officials. There are no plans to open a full embassy.

DPRK Business Monthly Volume II, No. 7

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 August 2011 edition here: DPRK Business Monthly August 2011.

The new terminal at Pyongyang’s Sunan International Airport opened 15 July 2011, featuring modernized facilities for luggage, security, customs and border control. (Photo from Air Koryo’s unofficial Facebook page)

Titles of articles found in this issue include:

• AP to Open P’yang Bureau Early Next Year
• Reuters Seeks Satellite Video Link with NK
• International Aid to DPRK Doubles
• Russia Seeks Gas Pipeline Via NK
• NK Academics Studying in Canada
• American Religious NGOs in North Korea
• US Company Picked to Revive Mount Kumgang Resort
• ROK Firms May Sue Gov’t Over NK Sanctions
• “Reunification Means Hope, Jobs, Peace”: ROK Presidential Hopeful
• NK Exploring for Rare Earth Elements
• Kaesong Trade Continues to Grow
• Editor’s Comment on Unification tax vs. South-North FTA

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

Please feel free to consult the full issue by clicking on this link: DPRK Business Monthly August 2011

DPRK Business Monthly Volume II, No. 6

Ryugyong Hotel renovated (Getty Images)

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 July 2011 edition here: DPRK Business Monthly July 2011.

Titles of articles found in this issue include:

• China Shipping Goods South via Rajin Port
• France to Open Cooperation Bureau in P’yang
• Incredible Pool of Talent in NK
• NK Citizens Win ROK Lawsuit
• Floods Add to NK Food Woes
• Ryugyong Hotel Completed
• Internet, Mobile Phone Access for Mount Kumgang Visitors
• NK Valve Maker Seeking Export Sales
• Kaesong Wage to Rise by 5%
• Editor’s Comment on 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyongchang, ROK

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

Please feel free to consult the full issue by clicking on this link: DPRK Business Monthly July 2011

Six North Korean professors study economics at UBC

Sauder School of Business (Photo by UBC)

[CanKor Brain Trust member Prof. Park Kyung-Ae, director of the Center for Korean Research at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, is host to six DPRK Professors who are studying economics for 6 months at UBC. CanKor has been aware of this project for some time, but honoured Dr. Park’s request for discretion, considering the sensitivity of the guests and the subject they are studying. The article we are reprinting here appeared first in the Yonhap News Service and is taken from The Korea Times. An earlier article in Asahi.com by Yoshihiro Makino, under the title “N. Korean professors start capitalism studies in Canada” contained some factual errors which have been corrected in the current article. The DPRK’s Ambassador (to Canada) Sin Son Ho, accompanied by two of his colleagues from the DPRK Permanent Mission to the United Nation in New York visited Vancouver from 11 to 14 August to meet with the visiting professors, who are the first group to have been invited under the Canada-DPRK Knowledge Partnership Program, which Professor Park helped launch at UBC last year. –CanKor.]

SAN FRANCISCO (Yonhap) — Six North Korean professors are studying economics and other related subjects at a university in Canada on a months-long program initiated by the school, the program director said Wednesday, opening a rare opportunity for the people of the repressive regime.

2011 Common Prayer for the Peaceful Reunification of South and North Korea

[Since the late 1980s when North and South Korean Christians first met, the (North) Korean Christian Federation (KCF) and the (South) Korean National Council of Churches (NCCK) have agreed to an annual joint day of prayer on or near the 15 August liberation day that is celebrated by both parts of Korea. Here is how NCCK General Secretary the Rev. Kim Young Ju explains it: “On August 15, our nation of Korea will celebrate its Independence Day. That day commemorates our liberation from outside occupation, and the renewal of an independent country from ‘Baekdu Mountain (on the northern border with China) to Halla Mountain (on Jeju Island in the south)’. In the years after that Liberation, tragic events led to the present partition of Korea, and the division of our one people. We pray for the day when peaceful restoration will come and our nation will again be one. The NCCK invites all partners to share in our common prayer on Sunday, August 14.” The text of the common prayer follows here. –CanKor.]

Hana Electronics Opens “The Restaurant at Hana”

[The Phoenix Commercial Ventures, an investment firm operating in the DPRK has recently announced the opening of a restaurant – a joint venture between EU-based PCVL and Pyongyang-based Hana Electronics. — CanKor.]

Pyongyang/London, July 8th 2011

Phoenix Commercial Ventures Ltd (www.pcvltd.com) is proud to announce that Hana Electronics JVC (a 50/50 joint venture based in the DPRK)  completed and moved into its new headquarters based near the T’ongil Market in Pyongyang in Q1 2011.

Commemorating the 6.15 Inter-Korean Summit: A Time for the Future of Peace by Lim Dong-won and Paik Nak-chung

[Lim Dong-won is former ROK Minister of Unification. Paik Nak-chung is Professor Emeritus, Seoul National University. Both are Co-representatives of the Korea Peace Forum. This article was the opening speech for the 11th anniversary commemoration (11 June in Seoul) of the inter-Korean summit meeting that took place on 15 June 2000. Under the original title (“A Time for the Future of Peace: the 11th Anniversary of the 6.15 Inter-Korean Summit”) it appeared in the Northeast Asia Peace and Security Network (NAPSNet), a publication of the Nautilus Institute. –CanKor.]

As we welcome the 11th Anniversary of the 6.15 inter-Korean summit, we increasingly realize how important the spirit and agreements of 6.15 are in times of regressing inter-Korean relations. The various North and South Korean interactions that extended from the 6.15 agreement have come to a standstill, resulting in heightened tension and anxiety. Only disappointments remain in place of cooperation and exchange. Slander and defamation prevail, and instead of exchanging dialogue, we now exchange bullets. The Cold War, which we aimed to curtail through the 6.15 agreement, has now returned and threatens our peace and stability.

North Korea: Hungering for Human Rights

Dr. Robert R. King

In honour of North Korea Freedom Week, the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research hosted an expert panel on Wednesday, 27 April 2011, to discuss human rights in North Korea. The panel discussion included Ambassador Robert R. King, the Obama administration’s special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, who made a presentation on recent events in the DPRK, especially how these impact the US response to the request by DPRK authorities for food assistance.

The panel was moderated by Nicholas Eberstadt, a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Other panelists were: Ken Isaacs, VP for Programs at the humanitarian agency Samaritan’s Purse; Robert M. Collins, retired political analyst with the Strategic Studies Institute of the United States Army War College; and Chuck Downs, Executive Director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.

A video of this event can be viewed here.

Montage of North-South Family Reunions

This heart-wrenching montage portrays the pain of Korean families divided for over 60 years by geopolitical tensions. The reunions, organized by a joint North-South Red Cross task force, are often postponed or cancelled due to inter-Korean strife. For many, time is running out.