Sleeping a little better.

I was interested in seeing in the news today that South Korea have added their own version of the cruise missile into their military arsenal. The Hyunmu-3C missile has a range of 1,500 kilometres and a payload of 450 kilograms, which I’m sure is enough explosive force to knock a North Korean solider off his bike (and probably a lot more).  It is the longest range missile the South Korea military possess, though far short of the North Korean’s Taepodong-2 missile, which has a range of 6,700 kilometres, and based loosely on a Scud rocket design (so I’m guessing a rocket aimed at South Korea would most likely ended up hitting my apartment block here in Beijing).

Keeping in mind that North Korea, as well as China and Russia, both lie within 1,500 kilometres of South Korea, one has to argue do they need a missile to travel any further? No one really has any qualms with South Korea, except of course the North, but I’m sure a few Hyunmu-3C missiles would be much more effective than the North Korean equivalent.

I do wonder, however, how well protected I am here in Beijing. Being so close to both North and South Korea, as well as the always dodgy Russian’s, it’s not that incomprehensible to think that China may get hit with a stray missile. So how would China react? Well in the worst case scenario, I can see China rolling out some of it’s ‘Dong-Feng 5‘ missiles, all carrying 3,000 kT nuclear warheads with a range of 13,000 kilometres. Probably a little extreme, but a good enough deterrent to ensure one accurately spends the time pointing their own missiles in the right direction.

Combined with an army over 2.5 million people, and a defensive budget of $700 million US dollars this year alone, I’m actually starting to feel rather safe here in the good old People’s Republic!

North Korea v Portugal, live in Pyongyang!

I have to confess that I was one of the few people hoping the Democratic People Republic of Korean (aka North Korea) would do ok in the World Cup, for no other reason than everyone else thought they would do poorly. After a 2-1 loss to Brazil, the North’s won enough praise from most in the football world for their commendable effort. So much so, that the North Korean Government decided to show the next game against Portugal, live, an unprecedented move.

For the most part, and World Cup soccer matched involving North Korea usually take at least 2 or 3 days for the government to release the result (and perhaps doctor them to a more favorable outcome depending on the result of the team). However there was no hiding North Korea’s 7-0 loss to Portugal last night, a hiding in anyone’s language.

I was watching CCTV this morning (China’s official TV station) I was surprised to see they had a report from North Korea of some supporters watching the game live on their TV. While they were visibly upset with the result, they were quick to cover their side abysmal performance. Their excuses ranged from the team having to travel the furthest of any team, hence were tired, the weather was poor and that the North Korean team don’t usually play in such poor conditions back home, and that their lack of games against European countries was a result of the negative influence caused by the US, thus making them unprepared to play a team such as Portugal.

Rrrrright.

Still, I’m glad to know that the very few, lucky North Korean’s who were able to watch the game, were able to view a very small window to the outside world. While I don’t think it’s a sign of North Korean opening up, it does show that the government isn’t completely deaf to their people wanting something as simple as a live game of soccer involving the national team.

7-nil or not, there is always a sense of pride watching your team on the world stage, it’s just a pity they could have seen the game against Brazil, live, as that would have given a better indication of how well the team has done over the past 4 years.

PS – It was a great game to watch, but who didn‘t feel bad for the North Korean’s at about the 75 minute mark?

Kim Jong-Il takes a trip to China’s North.

It looks like North Korea’s Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-Il, has taken a little trip to North-East China, no doubt scoping out some prime real-estate for more Sino-North Korean economic development. Of course, when one says ‘economic development’ and ‘North Korea’ in the same sentence, it’s more along the lines of some token charity business that will help a select few North Koreans from not starving this year.

Either way, it was Kim Jong-Il’s first overseas visit in a few years, marking a strong indication that the leader has recovered well from his strokes from a couple of years back.

The Republic of Korea (ROK) based Yonhap News reported that Kim entered China by a 17-carriage train on Monday and spent the night in Dalian, a northeast port city known as a model of market reforms.

He was found to have traveled to a development project area, some 30 kilometers from Dalian, and inspected a port under construction there

Source: China.org.cn

The trip is closely being watched by sources in both Japan and South Korea, the second of which has pointed the finger directly at North Korea (unofficially) for the sinking of one of it’s navy craft. China, on the other hand, have wisely decided to remain neutral in the debate until further evidence can be made indicating that indeed a North Korean submarine did in fact sink the South Korea ship. China’s main priority is getting North Korea back to the six-party talks, so this little economic sweeter may just be the key for that.

Kim Yong-hyun, a DPRK expert at Dongguk University, was quoted by Chosun IIbo as saying, "The DPRK’s main interest is in economic assistance from China, and China’s top priority is to set a date for DPRK to return to the Six-Party Talks and reaffirm Pyongyang’s willingness to scrap its nuclear weapons."

I’m always amazed that no matter how bad the North Korean’s are, they always manage to persuade some concessions out of either China and the United States when they have decided to walk away from talks. Of course the concessions both super-powers to concede are relatively small-potatoes, but the principal of giving in remains a problem. Still, if they can get away with it, even if only a few times, then why wouldn’t they. Let’s face it, they have nothing to lose (the people, that is).

The more time I spend reading Chinese news the more I begin to realize that the whole North-South Korea-United States tensions are somewhat an annoyance and problematic to the Chinese people. I would go far to say that China sees these problems are a hindrance to doing some serious business in North Korea, where the labor is cheap, resources are to be had, and would have huge bargaining power over an otherwise bankrupt country. China loses a lot of these powers having to play a role as mediator to all parties concerned.

As for the developing news with the sinking of the South Korean Cheonan naval ship, it’ll be interesting to see how China approach North Korea should the verdict be that they indeed did fire a torpedo at the vessel.

In all seriousness, I wouldn’t be so worried about China, the South response will be a lot more interesting and no doubt China will again have to play mediator to stop any sort of retaliation.

*Photo above: Kim Jong-Il inspects a cake factory. ‘Where’s the Uranium?’ Feel free to add your own caption.

Burger resturant opens in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Sorry to make it two North Korean posts in a row but I could let this one slip. I’m happy to see that North Korea has it’s first hamburger joint in the country’s capital, Pyongyang.

Once condemned as evil “U.S. imperialist” fare, Western-style fast food is now available in North Korea thanks to a Singaporean entrepreneur who is already drawing up expansion plans just months after opening his first outlet.

The first branch of Samtaesong (“three big stars”), as Waffletown is known in North Korea, started operating in May after Soh’s company got the first license awarded to a foreign fast food outlet.

Well done. I’m a little surprised it’s a Singaporean company, one of the Mecca’s of capitalism in Asia, but I figure their burger have to be miles better than the local burger places in China.

Burgers, called “minced beef and bread” to mask their American association, are the biggest attraction at the eatery, which also sells fries, crispy Belgian waffles, fried chicken and — the latest addition — hotdogs.

I’m sure marketing have along way to go. Minced Beef and Bread isn’t quite the same as a Big Mac, although one does have to admit that it does have a very North Korean touch to it.

A North Korean delegation paid a visit to Singapore early this year to sample the fare at a Waffletown outlet.

“They came and tried the food and liked the waffle, burgers and fried chicken,” Soh said over coffee at the outlet, located in an upmarket neighborhood near Singapore’s Orchard Road shopping belt.

I’m fairly confident I could cook anything for a few North Korean’s and they’d be happy to eat it, as long as it wasn’t made from bark or grass. Still, one can only imagine the reaction when they took their first bite of a juice cheeseburger, a greasy piece of chicken, or a waffle smothered with cream and apricot jam.

Local worker are very intelligent and eager to learn, Soh said.

“I don’t need to spend much time to train them. I take about two, three days and they have a grasp of the work.”

God only know what what happen to them if they lost their job. Still, it highlights how important a job is to how well one will go about doing it. In a society where we can easily chop and change our own jobs, we somehow take a lot of it for granted. I’m pretty sure any Australian teenager would have a hard time matching the efficiency or dedication to a North Korean Samtaesong employee.

A “minced beef and bread” costs 1.20-1.70 euros (US$1.77 to US$2.50) and about 300 are sold each day, said Soh.

With an average GDP of $1,140 US dollars a year, that’s a hefty price to pay for a Minced Beef and Bread. Compared to an average Australian income of $46,000 US a year we can work out the following (for the cost of the cheapest burger);

If the average weekly pay for a NK citizen is ($21US) and Australian ($884US) one burger represents 8.4% of a NK’s average weekly pay (0.2% for Australia)

I don’t see many Pyongyang citizen’s going out and buying them.

Let’s consider a Mac Donald’s Cheeseburger which costs $1.95US ($1.76US). That’s almost identical to what the cheapest Minces meat with Bread is going for. Basically, in a nutshell, the people of Pyongyang are paying the same price for a Minced Beef and Bread as they would a Mac Donald’s cheeseburger in Australia despite the fact that they earn 40 times less than Australian’s per year (and one has to assume that most of that money is in the upper level of North Korean government).

So when Mr. Kim of Pyongyang buys his Minced Beef and Bread, it’s like you buying 40 cheeseburgers from Mac Donald’s.

I’m sure I could have worked all that out a lot quicker.

Source: China Post

Memorabilia from North Korea: North Korean Pins.

Series 4 in my North Korean Memorabilia displays a selection of pins I was able to purchase during my stay in Pyongyang. Sadly, there is no interesting story to how I acquired these pins, most of them were on sale usually at different venues, although I do recall I purchased some in a book store. I may have also purchased some from the post office I visited, too.

I’m not a pin collector, but I thought they would be wonderful souvenirs to give to friends. I actually purchases a small North Korean flag pin for all the Korean teachers at my previous place of work. To my utter shock, they quickly said thank you before locking them away in their drawers or into their handbags. Only later did I realize that to own North Korean articles, such as pins, is strictly forbidden (although I’m not too sure how they could outlaw this).

Suffice to say, I never saw or heard about those pins again. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they were quickly disposed of.

I also have a lot of people asking me if I was able to get hold of Kim Jong-Il or Kim Il-Sung pin’s while I was there. The answer is a sad ‘no’. Although that’s not to say I, and most others, didn’t try to get one. We even jokes about mugging a couple of our guards to get one and then time-sharing it. They just won’t allow outsiders to have one, mainly because the pins are not seen as merely a pin, but a display of respect and gratitude too the two men.

Anyway, I was able to score 23 pins (1 identical one not shown), which I have scanned and posted here. Clicking on the thumbnails will enlarge them for you.

I’ve added some descriptions, but the pins, for the most part, speak for themselves. My translations are loose, so if you can do a better job, please leave it in the comment section for me to edit later on. Click here to see the pins… Read more »

150 day struggle.

You often hear me whine about my job here in Korea and the job I had in Australia. Complaining about work is one thing most, if not all, of us do. I’m not sure there aren’t many jobs out there which offer 100% satisfaction. Truth be told, I kind of like my job, for no other reason that it’s relatively stress free and I don’t have to work long hours. The pay isn’t great, but by Korean standards it puts me firmly into the middle class fold.

Of course there’s always someone with a less desirable job, just ask our friends over the border in North Korea who have just completed their ‘150-day struggle’.

North Korea launched a "150-day struggle," a press-ganged mobilization to increase production of collective farms from April 20 to Sept. 19 on the road to building a "powerful and prosperous nation" by 2012.

The North has undergone major changes. With the ration system suspended in many regions since 2000, the market economy has made rapid inroads into North Korean society. North Korean defectors say the struggles are a means of keeping the market at bay by forcing people to work in the fields or on collective projects.

Source: Chosun Ilbo

Christ, I would like to see a government official in Australia drag me to a farm and insist that I plow some crops. Although I’m sure the North Korean government is a little more persuasive than their Australian counterparts.

So just when you think 150 days of toiling through the hot North Korean summer was over…

No sooner had the one struggle ended than a "100-day struggle" ensued.

No. Way.

The 100-day struggle in the wake of the 150 struggle, despite propaganda that "great results were achieved," means that the North failed to achieve its goals.

"Marauding and looting, sometimes even by hungry soldiers, are rampant in the North and giving rise to serious public unrest," one recent North Korean defector said. "It’s all caused by the 150-day struggle. If North Koreans are driven further in the 100-day struggle until the end of the year, public unrest could get out of hand, and the results for the regime could be devastating."

I’m not sure I would ever want to be a North Korean citizen, solider, or government official.

All of this is due the pig-headedness of the North’s way of thinking and their ‘Juche’ philosophy of self-sustainability, which is slightly ironic seeing as they receive so much foreign aid. Self-sustainability is all well and good, but if your people are being forced to work on farms and still are hungry because of it, they may want to rethink their strategy.

Hell, even Tom and Barbara Good ask for help from the Leadbetter’s in the ‘Good Life’!

With that said and done, I should go to work tomorrow with a big smile on face and be thankful that I’m not pulling onions out of the ground.

Taedonggang Beer – North Korean Advertisement.

Mark from Daejeon (no blog) found this gem which he posted on his Facebook page. It’s a North Korean picture-wireless commercial for Taedonggang Beer, probably one of the best beers I’ve ever had when it used to be on sale here in South Korea (although I haven’t seen a bottle for a couple years now). I drank a lot of it when I was in North Korea and was certainly the choice of high-end beers in Pyongyang (there was another brand, but I forget it’s name, which was significantly of poorer quality but much more readily available in hotels there).

In 2000, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il purchased all of the dismantled formerly British-based and now-defunct Ushers Beer Brewery^[2] plant and all the necessary brewing equipment and components. The brewery uses
German-made computerized brewing control technology and official production of beer started in 2002.

With an alcohol content of 5% and a taste significantly more bitter than most Asian beers, indeed resembling British ale, Taedonggang beer is targeted primarily at domestic consumers, but in 2005 limited export began to South Korea, where it is imported by Vintage Korea, a company based in Dogok, Gangnam, Seoul. In mid-2007, however, availability of Taedonggang beer in South
Korea began to lessen and it is widely believed now that it is no longer being imported into the country, after the brewery increased the price 70% without warning.

Source: Wikipedia.

It’s a damn shame you can no longer get it. I’d be happy to pay the extra 70-odd percent, not to mention help fund a new ivory back scratcher for Dear Leader.

So here’s the advertisement. Neither Mark or I can take credit for the commercial, as it was taken from metkere.com, another blog out there. So kudos to him.

Brilliant stuff huh? Not quite VB but they’re getting there.  Beer girls not quite the same either, but I doubt there would be many North Korean lads complaining about that.

Seoul Podcast with ‘Dave in Daegu’ is now up.

For all those who have been asking, the latest Seoul Podcast, with yours truely, is now available to download.

I sound weird.

Will listen to it tomorrow while at the gym.