Publication Store

This issue looks at the recently signed 50-year investment pact signed between North Korea and China as well as an NGO initiative in the DPRK undertaken by the Hans Seidel Foundation (Christian Social Union - Germany). Also included in this issue is an article about a magazine “secretly published by North Korean journalists.” The magazine, Rimjin-gang, was launched in 2007 and is edited in Seoul by North Korean defector Choi Jin-i. Following a rash of hostile incidents on the Korean Peninsula this year, this month’s issue also looks at the 30 percent drop off of inter-Korean trade in 2010.

An interesting piece from the China Daily on the gradual decline of the DPRK over the last few decades is also included. Not many people know that as late as 1990, North Korea had the largest per-hectare output of rice in the world, but the DPRK economy started declining in the 1990s when a lot of its resources were diverted to defense and heavy industries. Another article taken from South Korea’s IT Times is also included discussing the success of the Pyongyang Information Center and the emergence of the DPRK’s IT industry.

DPRK Business Monthly is produced by North Korea expert Paul White.