Undecided
06-03-04, 06:45 PM
Profit is good, North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, told factory workers in a rare economics lecture
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"It is very gratifying that this plant has abided by the principle of profitability,"… "to thoroughly ensure profitability in production."
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About 16 kilometers, or 10 miles, south of the Chinese border, the lathe factory, with its 1,000 workers, has increased productivity and exports, largely because of incentives giving hard-working employees more money and chances at promotion.
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Two summers ago, North Korea, long a follower of orthodox communism, started to move gingerly toward a market economy
[Kim] endorsed the economic changes, which have included abandoning rationing and allowing prices and exchange rates to float.
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.Under nearly six decades of Kim family rule, North Korea's per capita income has fallen to 8 percent of that of South Korea.
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.On Wednesday, a five-member South Korean delegation, led by the vice finance minister, Kim Gwang Lim, left for Pyongyang for talks aimed at increasing investment and trade with the North. The first phase of a $180 million industrial park for South Korean companies is to open this year just over the border in North Korea.
North Korea has set up about 300 markets where food and clothing are bought and sold, including 10 in Pyongyang, according to the unification minister of South Korea, Jeong Se Hyun. Recent visitors to Pyongyang report signs of commercial bustle in the once drab city.
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"There is a new freedom to start up small enterprises - restaurants, mom-and-pop stalls and stores - not everywhere, but evident,"…the big shock is a visit to Tong-Il market in Pyongyang.
.***************************
"There is a huge armory and inside there are thousands of vendors, I came up with 2,200," …"It is a picture of competition," he added. "There are price limits, but people bargain quite a lot. It is very competitive. Everyone is concerned about making money, getting money."
*********************
"What is happening in North Korea now is comparable to the early stages of economic reforms of China, say around 1982," said Harrison who said he believes that North Korea is trying to follow the model of China and Vietnam, where the economies were opened without the government's losing control.
Nambaryn Enkhbayar, prime minister of Mongolia, an Asian nation that has moved from communism to capitalism in the past 15 years, said in an interview last week that the North Korean officials he met during a trip last fall to Pyongyang "were very interested in how Mongolia was transforming itself."
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"They see the shift to markets as inevitable," Enkhbayar said, noting that North Korea plans to reopen its embassy in Ulan Bator later this year. "They want to study our experience, our mistakes. They understand that it is very difficult to control."
http://www.iht.com/articles/523266.html
North Korea is on the verge of opening up to the world, the reclusive ideological state now seems to understand that she can’t be Juche for much longer. The economy of NK was really quite good by the early 80’s, but it really began to decelerate by the 90’s. The North Korea economy suffered its biggest blow with the floods of 1995 when massive amounts of the countries weak infrastructure, and farmland were inundated by the flood waters. The country also faces a large energy problems:
In 2001, coal accounted for about 86% of the country's primary energy consumption.
-----------------------
The country's total electricity consumption in 2001 was only 58% of what it had been in 1991. The only year-on-year increase in electricity consumption during the entire period from 1992 to 2001 was for 1999 -- and that was only 1%.
----------------------
As a result of its electricity shortage, the country often experiences blackouts for extended periods of time, and power losses due to an antiquated transmission grid are high. Some hydroelectric facilities are believed to still be out of operation due to flood damage from major flooding in 1996.
-----------------------------------
Problems with the North Korean coal industry are closely related to the problem with electricity supply. Coal-fired power plants have been running well under capacity in recent years, due in part to problems with rail transportation of coal.
The crisis on the Korean Peninsula is really quite unnecessary. North Korea is moving from its ideological tinge to one of pragmatism. The country cannot afford to be Juche anymore, and the US has a golden opportunity to strike a deal with NK. You must understand NK’s position vis-à-vis the US in this instance. For a country like NK whose infrastructure is virtually destroyed, whose economy is only now growing again, and reforming. The prospect of having a nuclear weapon, and IRBM’s/ICBM’s to show your military might is not so illogical after all. Kim doesn’t want war, the old time members of the party do. What Kim wants is that NK opens up and is respected internationally. Now I am not 100% how sincere Kim is with his nuclear weapons, but if it means becoming the new Vietnam or China I think he would be wiling to seriously contemplate that scenario. People call NK, and its regime “insane” or “megalomaniac”, if anything the NK regime is calculating. Kim understands that NK needs to reform, or die, and die in NK lingo involves everyone. With the capitalistic growth in NK now evident, the US and the region has a grand opportunity to sway NK politics.
*************************
"It is very gratifying that this plant has abided by the principle of profitability,"… "to thoroughly ensure profitability in production."
*************************’
About 16 kilometers, or 10 miles, south of the Chinese border, the lathe factory, with its 1,000 workers, has increased productivity and exports, largely because of incentives giving hard-working employees more money and chances at promotion.
************************
Two summers ago, North Korea, long a follower of orthodox communism, started to move gingerly toward a market economy
[Kim] endorsed the economic changes, which have included abandoning rationing and allowing prices and exchange rates to float.
.**************************
.Under nearly six decades of Kim family rule, North Korea's per capita income has fallen to 8 percent of that of South Korea.
*******************************
.On Wednesday, a five-member South Korean delegation, led by the vice finance minister, Kim Gwang Lim, left for Pyongyang for talks aimed at increasing investment and trade with the North. The first phase of a $180 million industrial park for South Korean companies is to open this year just over the border in North Korea.
North Korea has set up about 300 markets where food and clothing are bought and sold, including 10 in Pyongyang, according to the unification minister of South Korea, Jeong Se Hyun. Recent visitors to Pyongyang report signs of commercial bustle in the once drab city.
.********************************
"There is a new freedom to start up small enterprises - restaurants, mom-and-pop stalls and stores - not everywhere, but evident,"…the big shock is a visit to Tong-Il market in Pyongyang.
.***************************
"There is a huge armory and inside there are thousands of vendors, I came up with 2,200," …"It is a picture of competition," he added. "There are price limits, but people bargain quite a lot. It is very competitive. Everyone is concerned about making money, getting money."
*********************
"What is happening in North Korea now is comparable to the early stages of economic reforms of China, say around 1982," said Harrison who said he believes that North Korea is trying to follow the model of China and Vietnam, where the economies were opened without the government's losing control.
Nambaryn Enkhbayar, prime minister of Mongolia, an Asian nation that has moved from communism to capitalism in the past 15 years, said in an interview last week that the North Korean officials he met during a trip last fall to Pyongyang "were very interested in how Mongolia was transforming itself."
*************************************.
"They see the shift to markets as inevitable," Enkhbayar said, noting that North Korea plans to reopen its embassy in Ulan Bator later this year. "They want to study our experience, our mistakes. They understand that it is very difficult to control."
http://www.iht.com/articles/523266.html
North Korea is on the verge of opening up to the world, the reclusive ideological state now seems to understand that she can’t be Juche for much longer. The economy of NK was really quite good by the early 80’s, but it really began to decelerate by the 90’s. The North Korea economy suffered its biggest blow with the floods of 1995 when massive amounts of the countries weak infrastructure, and farmland were inundated by the flood waters. The country also faces a large energy problems:
In 2001, coal accounted for about 86% of the country's primary energy consumption.
-----------------------
The country's total electricity consumption in 2001 was only 58% of what it had been in 1991. The only year-on-year increase in electricity consumption during the entire period from 1992 to 2001 was for 1999 -- and that was only 1%.
----------------------
As a result of its electricity shortage, the country often experiences blackouts for extended periods of time, and power losses due to an antiquated transmission grid are high. Some hydroelectric facilities are believed to still be out of operation due to flood damage from major flooding in 1996.
-----------------------------------
Problems with the North Korean coal industry are closely related to the problem with electricity supply. Coal-fired power plants have been running well under capacity in recent years, due in part to problems with rail transportation of coal.
The crisis on the Korean Peninsula is really quite unnecessary. North Korea is moving from its ideological tinge to one of pragmatism. The country cannot afford to be Juche anymore, and the US has a golden opportunity to strike a deal with NK. You must understand NK’s position vis-à-vis the US in this instance. For a country like NK whose infrastructure is virtually destroyed, whose economy is only now growing again, and reforming. The prospect of having a nuclear weapon, and IRBM’s/ICBM’s to show your military might is not so illogical after all. Kim doesn’t want war, the old time members of the party do. What Kim wants is that NK opens up and is respected internationally. Now I am not 100% how sincere Kim is with his nuclear weapons, but if it means becoming the new Vietnam or China I think he would be wiling to seriously contemplate that scenario. People call NK, and its regime “insane” or “megalomaniac”, if anything the NK regime is calculating. Kim understands that NK needs to reform, or die, and die in NK lingo involves everyone. With the capitalistic growth in NK now evident, the US and the region has a grand opportunity to sway NK politics.