Courtesy of The Economist, a look at a new breed of conglomerates is helping to prop up North Korea: “A UNIQUE and sweet taste,” says a poster describing a new brand of soju, a local firewater, made by Naegohyang. The North Korean company started out making cigarettes (reportedly puffed on by Kim Jong Un, the country’s dictator). […]
Read more »Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, a look at some of the joint ventures operating in North Korea: Global businesses faced a deadline last week to exit joint ventures operating in North Korea. But dozens of them are still there, experts say, operating under opaque structures that help conceal their links to North Korea, providing the […]
Read more »Via Business Insider, a look at how North Korea is incorporating free markets into its economy — and undergoing a ‘social revolution’ as a result: North Korea’s economy has advanced since the famine of the 1990s, and has begun encouraging entrepreneurship. Unlike earlier times, many citizens now earn wages instead of having the state provide everything […]
Read more »Courtesy of the Financial Times, a look at the web of rusty ships and shell companies keeping North Korea afloat despite tightening sanctions: For a Hong Kong company managing a small fleet of cargo ships, Union Link International hoists an exotic array of flags, from China and Tanzania to the Pacific island nations of Niue […]
Read more »Via Bloomberg, a report on North Korea’s economic growth: North Korea’s economy grew in 2016 at the fastest pace since 1999, helped by a recovery from a drought in 2015. Military spending, including on testing nuclear weapons and missiles, also boosted growth, and raised tensions in the region. Gross domestic product expanded 3.9 percent from […]
Read more »Via the Asia Times, a report that more business projects are starting in North Korea: While the eyes of the world are on North Korea’s development of an intercontinental ballistic missile, observers say innovation of another kind is occurring in the secretive socialist country. North Koreans are increasingly starting business projects and “essentially managing their own economic destiny,” […]
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