[Cankor] Report #225
cankor at cankor.ca
cankor at cankor.ca
Fri Nov 4 16:45:16 CST 2005
Dear subscriber,
Welcome to issue #225 of the CanKor Report.
For articles not original to CanKor, direct links are available in the
Contents section, should you wish to consult the originals on the internet.
If the links no longer function, you may refer to the full text articles
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The CanKor team
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CANADA-KOREA ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SERVICE
CanKor # 225
Friday, 4 November 2005
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Canada's International Institute for Sustainable Development organizes an
international workshop in Beijing to provide training for DPRK officials on
environmental assessment and sustainable development strategies.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirms that the fifth round of Six-Party
Talks will resume in Beijing on Wednesday 9 November. This round may be held
over several phases, with a break to allow negotiators to attend the APEC
summit slated for 18 and 19 November in Busan, ROK.
Japan and DPRK meet in Beijing for talks on bilateral relations; the first
formal meeting of the two nations since November 2004. UN special rapporteur
Vitit Muntarbhorn releases his report on the DPRK human rights situation. In
the most symbolic of a series of recent moves toward rapprochement, the two
Koreas agree to send a joint team to the Beijing Olympics in 2008. In line
with DPRK's demand that foreign aid agencies end their emergency relief
work, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the
World Food Programme (WFP) are prevented from carrying out their annual
harvest assessment this year.
This week's CanKor FOCUS discovers that despite the fact that the DPRK is
challenged by virtual business quarantine, its international trade is
accelerating. The ROK government announces the opening of the Office of
Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation in Kaesong. The office promotes economic
cooperation by reducing trade costs and investment risk. Inter-Korean trade
is expected to reach $1 billion this year. However, the ROK is not the only
country whose business engagement with the DPRK is on the rise. The PRC
doubles exports of crude oil and cereals, as well as increasing exports of
automobiles and spare parts. The DPRK also signs its first mining deals with
PRC companies, for coal and iron ore. British American Tobacco has been
secretly operating a cigarette factory in the DPRK for the past four years.
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Contents:
1. CAPACITY BUILDING WORKSHOP HELD IN BEIJING
Original article, copyright CanKor
2. NUCLEAR TALKS TO RESUME 9 NOVEMBER
http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20051103-043301-9268r
3. DPRK TO HOLD TALKS WITH JAPAN IN BEIJING
http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/2239/2005-11-1/118@279692.htm
4. UN RELEASES NORTH KOREAN HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=050000&biid=2005100525418
5. KOREAS TO JOIN FORCES IN FIGHT FOR OLYMPIC GOLD
http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,2763,1606506,00.html
6. DPRK NIXES CROP ASSESSMENT MISSION BY UN AGENCIES
http://www.interfax.cn/showfeature.asp?aid=7018&slug=IRON%20ORE
FOCUS: Accelerating DPRK international trade
7. TWO KOREAS TO OPEN JOINT ECONOMIC OFFICE IN KAESONG
http://www.korea.net/news/news/newsView.asp?serial_no=20051027019&part=102&SearchDay=
8. INTER-KOREA TRADE TO REACH $1 BILLION
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/13/business/hot.php#
9. CHINA'S EXPORTS OF CRUDE OIL, CEREALS TO DPRK UP IN FIRST HALF
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-10/12/content_3609461.htm
10. DPRK SIGNS FIRST JOINT COAL MINE DEAL WITH PRC FIRM
http://www.blackenterprise.com/yb/ybopen.asp?section=ybbf&story_id=84775296&ID=blackenterprise
11. CHINA'S TONGHUA STEEL TO DEVELOP DPRK IRON ORE DEPOSIT
http://www.interfax.cn/showfeature.asp?aid=7018&slug=IRON%20ORE
12. TOBACCO GIANT CAPITALISES ON NORTH KOREAN REGIME
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/tobacco-giant-capitalises-on-north-korean-regime/2005/10/17/1129401197225.html
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1. CAPACITY BUILDING WORKSHOP HELD IN BEIJING
by Miranda Weingartner, CanKor, 1 November 2005
The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) in
conjunction with the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences will host a
ten-day workshop for five officials of the DPRK Department of Environment
Protection (DEP). The workshop, to be held in Beijing from November 5 to 15,
will provide training in sustainable development strategies and
environmental assessment and reporting.
Over the last year, the (IISD) has worked with the DPRK Department of
Environment Protection (DEP) to develop a programme that will strengthen
their capacity for sustainable development. The initiative is the outcome of
meetings between IISD's Graham Ashford and DPRK officials that were made
possible through the Canada DPRK Association's delegation that visited the
DPRK in September 2004.
The DPRK delegation will visit Chinese institutions involved in designing
and implementing these measures at the national and local levels. The
workshop has been made possible through financial support from Canada's
International Development Research Centre.
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2. NUCLEAR TALKS TO RESUME 9 NOVEMBER
United Press International, Beijing, 3 November 2005
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan announced Thursday the fifth
round of the six-party talks is set to resume in Beijing on Nov. 9. The
talks, hosted by China, involve North and South Korea, the United States,
Japan and Russia. Negotiations, which began in August 2003, are focused on
eliminating North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. Kong said he did not
have information on how long the next round of talks would last.
November is a busy month for diplomacy in East Asia, with South Korea
hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit followed by US
President George W. Bush making state visits to both Japan and China.
Kong mentioned the possibility the fifth round may consist of several
sessions, as was the case in the previous round. The second session of the
fourth round of negotiations held in September resulted in a breakthrough
document of agreed upon principles for the "denuclearization of Korean
peninsula." The experience in the last round of the talks proved it is a
"good idea" to hold the talks by phases, the spokesman noted.
"Holding the talks by phases in the new round could have a better result" as
the chief negotiators of the six parties may also attend the APEC summit
slated for mid November in Seoul. The spokesman told reporters: "We hope
participants in the new round of negotiations will have an in-depth exchange
of views on the consensus reached in the last round."
Analysts expect the fifth round of negotiations to begin tackling the
difficult questions of setting out the road map for North Korea to
verifiably dismantle all its weapons programs in exchange for security
guarantees and economic aid.
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3. DPRK TO HOLD TALKS WITH JAPAN IN BEIJING
Xinhua, 1 November 2005
North Korea's delegate to talks with Japan arrived in Beijing on Tuesday.
Vice-Director of North Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Asia Affairs
bureau, Song Il Ho expressed his opinions when he pushed his way through
crowds of reporters before driving away.
"This is right before the nuclear talks, so we have to meet once and will
respond to reporters at a later time."
Japan and North Korea will hold talks on the latter's nuclear weapons
program and other bilateral issues, which is to start on Thursday in
Beijing. According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, talks will also involve
missiles and abduction issues. The two countries, which do not have
diplomatic relations, have not had formal two-way talks since November 2004.
Japan's negotiator in this week's talks, Akitaka Saiki, is expected to
arrive in Beijing on Wednesday.
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4. UN RELEASES NORTH KOREAN HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT
by Jung-Ahn Kim, Donga Ilbo, 5 October 2005
The United Nations' report on North Korean human rights situation, to be
discussed in the ongoing UN General Assembly 60th Session, has recently been
disclosed on the UN website.
The 22-page report, written by Vitit Muntarbhorn from Thailand, the UN
special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea, is a revised version of the original document submitted
in April to the UN Commission on Human Rights that includes details about
abduction of Japanese nationals and status of North Korean defectors in
Mongolia, among others.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade believes that a stringent
resolution on North Korean human rights is likely to be adopted with the
release of the report in the current session of the UN General Assembly.
The report reviewed in the UN General Assembly on the 27th last month
expressed strong concerns over the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by
the North and recommended Pyongyang promptly and efficiently respond to the
Japanese government's demand for the victims' return.
"Some have been saying that far more than the already known 15 victims were
kidnapped by the North. Pyongyang must deal with this issue without leaving
any suspicions," the report noted.
It also mentioned the mismatch of the late abductee Yokoda Megumi's remains
with the examination results and specified, "North Korea must present
objective and credible evidence for those who are missing."
Muntarbhorn, after visiting Mongolia early this year, said that the number
of North Korean children and women in their 20s to 30s fleeing their country
and crossing the Mongolian border via China is rapidly rising, and expressed
appreciation to the Mongolian government for accepting them from a
humanitarian perspective.
The report, however, claimed, "The Mongolian authorities are not granting
refugee status to the North Korean defectors, although they qualify." In
response, the document recommended the Mongolian government treat North
Korean defectors in the nation according to the Convention Relating to the
Status of Refugees (adopted July 1951 in Geneva, Switzerland) and modify its
relevant national law.
The UN Human Rights Commission adopted a statement in April that called for
readdressing the North Korean human rights issue at the UN General Assembly.
"Such a statement is unprecedented, and we cannot exclude the possibility of
intensive discussions on North Korean human rights and a North Korean human
rights resolution at the UN General Assembly," said a Foreign Ministry
official.
Strong resistance from Pyongyang is expected if the general assembly adopts
a resolution on North Korean human rights ahead of the fifth round of
six-party talks to be held in early November.
The General Assembly's Third Committee (which deals with social, cultural
and humanitarian affairs) that convened on October 3 will determine whether
to adopt the resolution after fully discussing the human rights situation in
North Korea and the commission's report starting October 25.
[Read the original Report on the situation of human rights in the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea submitted by the Special Rapporteur of the
Commission on Human Rights, Vitit Muntarbhorn at the following website:
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/474/77/PDF/N0547477.pdf?OpenElement]
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5. KOREAS TO JOIN FORCES IN FIGHT FOR OLYMPIC GOLD
by Jonathan Watts, The Guardian, 2 November 2005
North and South Korea will re-unite at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 by
fielding a joint team for the first time since the troubled peninsula was
divided 60 years ago. The sporting union, which was announced yesterday, is
the most symbolic in a recent series of moves toward rapprochement across
the world's last cold war border. Seoul and Pyongyang have yet to sign a
peace treaty since the bloody 1950-53 Korean war, which claimed millions of
lives on both sides.
They have been bitter sporting as well as political rivals. North Korea
boycotted the 1988 Seoul Olympics and football matches between the two
countries have often caused security concerns. But the atmosphere has warmed
considerably since a summit between the countries' leaders in 2000. Teams
from the two marched together at the Sydney and Athens Olympics, and at the
opening ceremony of the East Asia Games, now under way in Macau. But apart
from a brief experiment in table tennis and football in the 90s, athletes
from the two sides have been rivals rather than teammates.
Sporting officials from the two countries said it was now time to take a
step forward, first by fielding a joint team at the next Asian Games and
then at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
"We had discussed making a single team since we jointly marched in such
international events six times," Baek Sung-il, a spokesman for South Korea's
Olympic Committee, told Reuters. "As exchanges between South and North Korea
have been progressing, the mood was ripe for reaching such an agreement."
The two sides issued a joint statement that said they would meet on December
7 in the North's border city of Kaesong to discuss how to select and train
athletes.
If chosen on sporting rather than political grounds, the team is likely to
have a strong South Korean bias. Athletes in the impoverished North are
disadvantaged by a lack of facilities and - for much of the past decade -
food shortages. At the Athens games, South Korea won 30 medals, including
nine golds, while North Korea won only four silvers and one bronze. They won
medals in featherweight boxing, women's singles table tennis and women's
weightlifting.
On both sides of the border there is a desire to score diplomatic points
against the US ahead of the next round of six-nation nuclear talks later
this month. Despite concerns about Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme,
most South Koreans believe the US - a traditional ally - has become a
greater threat to peace than North Korea.
South Korea has stepped up supplies of food and economic aid to its
impoverished neighbour. Tens of thousands of tourists from the South have
crossed the border this year. Test runs are expected to begin soon on a
railway linking the two capitals. Last month, the South Korean government
opened its first office in the North since the two sides were divided along
the 38th parallel.
The fielding of a joint team at the next Olympics would be the clearest
declaration to the outside world of the improved relations. It would also be
a coup for the host, China, which has led efforts to defuse tensions on the
peninsula.
The North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is urging workers to produce more
bicycles to cope with the lack of transport, improve people's health and
prevent pollution just days after the country's first bike factory opened,
Reuters reports. North Korea's official KCNA news agency reported on Monday
that Mr Kim visited the Pyongyang Joint Venture Bicycle Factory. Previously
most bikes have been cast-offs from China and Japan.
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6. DPRK NIXES CROP ASSESSMENT MISSION BY UN AGENCIES
Interfax, 6 October 2005
Two UN agencies that have carried out harvest assessments in North Korea
every year for the past decade will not do so this year at the request of
the host government, a UN World Food Program spokesman said Wednesday.
The request to the WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization is in line
with North Korea's demand that foreign aid agencies end their emergency
relief work in the country by the end of the year and concentrate instead on
longer-term development aid, Gerald Bourke said.
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FOCUS: Accelerating DPRK international trade
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7. TWO KOREAS TO OPEN JOINT ECONOMIC OFFICE IN KAESONG
Korean Overseas Information Service (KOIS), 27 October 2005
The Office of Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation will open at the industrial
complex in Kaesong on Friday (Oct. 28), marking the first-ever establishment
of a permanent South Korean government branch in the North since the
nation's division in 1945. After the opening ceremony with dignitaries from
the two Koreas attending, the 11th round of inter-Korean talks on promoting
economic cooperation will be held.
"South and North Korea agreed to set up the office to support direct trade,
boost investment and build a permanent consultation channel between the two
authorities," Vice Unification Minister Rhee Bong-jo said in a briefing
Thursday. "We think it's significant in that the office will
institutionalize inter-Korean economic cooperation and help it to develop
further both in quality and quantity," Rhee said.
Located in an annex of the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee,
the office will facilitate the services of 14 South Korean officials, headed
by Hwang Pu-ki, a Unification Ministry official. Four employees from the
Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, the Korea International Trade
Association, the Small Business Corporation and the Export-Import Bank of
Korea, will also be part of the personnel to be stationed in the new office.
Ten North Korean officials will be stationed on the third floor, headed by
Jun Sung-keun, former director of the North's National Economic Cooperation
Federation in Dandong, China.
"We have agreed to hold a regular weekly directors' meeting," Rhee said.
Once cranked up, the office will greatly accelerate economic cooperation
between the two Koreas by reducing trade costs and risk of investment via
third country brokers." he added.
Some 200 South Koreans, including Lim Chae-jung, chairman of the
Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee of the National Assembly,
will attend the opening ceremony. Some 80 North Koreans such as Choi
Young-kun, the North's chief delegate to the economic talks, will also be
present.
In preparation of the 11th round of economic talks, the two sides have held
two rounds of meetings in October. On the agenda to be discussed during the
talks will be the linking of inter-Korean railways, road traffic and marine
cooperation as well as economic cooperation in light industries and mine
development.
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8. INTER-KOREA TRADE TO REACH $1 BILLION
International Herald Tribune, 13 October 2005
SEOUL Trade between South Korea and North Korea is expected to reach a
record $1 billion this year, a South Korean official said Thursday.
>From January to September, this trade totalled $789 million, a 60 percent
jump from a year earlier, said the official, Rhee Bong Jo, vice minister of
the Unification Ministry. The previous high for annual North-South trade is
$724 million, in 2003.
"If the current trend continues, the figure will top $1 billion this year,"
Rhee said at a news conference, without elaborating on reasons for the
increase. Tensions have eased considerably in recent years between North
Korea and South Korea, particularly after a historic summit meeting in 2000
led to increased exchanges and more business deals. The North Korean resort
at Diamond Mountain, the only North-South tourist venture, has drawn more
than one million visitors since it opened in 1998.
The sides also jointly run an industrial complex in the North Korean border
city of Kaesong. South Korean companies began delivering goods as varied as
kitchen pots and semiconductor parts from the complex in December. The
complex is expecting to play host to 15 South Korean companies by the end of
the year at its pilot site. Other traded goods included clothing and
agricultural and fisheries products, as well as South Korean relief supplies
like rice and fertilizer for the North Koreans.
"In relations between South and North Korea, starting from this year,
contacts have remarkably increased and intensified," Rhee said. The number
of South Korean visitors to the North is expected to reach 100,000 this
year, he added.
>From January to September, South Korea's exports to the North totalled $559
million, while imports stood at $229 million, according to data from the
Unification Ministry. China is North Korea's biggest trading partner, with
last year's trade between the two countries reaching $1.39 billion,
according to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, a South Korean
entity.
South Korea's top government research agency raised its forecast for 2005
economic growth, citing a pickup in private consumption, Reuters reported
from Seoul. The economy is expected to grow 3.9 percent this year from 2004,
when it grew 4.6 percent, said the agency, the Korea Development Institute.
In July, the institute projected growth of 3.8 percent this year. The
institute, the research arm of the Finance Ministry, recommended that the
authorities shift fiscal and monetary policies toward stabilizing the
economy instead of further stimulating it.
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9. CHINA'S EXPORTS OF CRUDE OIL, CEREALS TO DPRK RISE
Xinhua, October 12 2005
China's exports of crude oil and cereal products to the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (DPRK) grew by 45.4 percent and 95.6 percent,
respectively, year-on-year, the latest statistics of the local customs in
northeast China's Liaoning Province show. From January to June, China
exported 295,000 tons of crude oil worth 100 million US dollars to DPRK, up
45.4 percent year-on-year, according to statistics of the customs of
Dandong, which is separated from the DPRK by the Yalu River.
During the same period, China exported 132,000 tons of cereal products to
the DPRK, 1.7 times that of last year, worth 21.19 million US dollars, up
95.6 percent year-on-year, statistics show. In the first six months, China
exported 13,000 tons of fresh vegetable, fruit and nuts to the DPRK, valued
at 2.31 million US dollars, indicating a drop of 30.7 percent and 39 percent
year-on-year. During the first half year, China exported 736 autos to the
DPRK valued at 8.11 million US dollars, a yearly rise of 40 percent and 184
percent, according to the Dandong customs.
Meanwhile, China's exports of auto spare parts and accessories to DPRK rose
by 33 percent year-on-year to reach 80,000 US dollars, and its exports of
tyres reported 1,159 tons, worth 1.35 million US dollars, up 27.7 percent
and 58.8 percent year-on-year, respectively. In the first half of this year,
China imported 630,500 tons of electrolytic nickel worth 985,900 US dollars,
showing a yearly increase of 55.9 percent and 96.7 percent, respectively,
statistics of the Dandong customs show. Experts attributed China's import
growth of electrolytic nickel to the recovery of the steel market and the
drastic rise of the steel price in the country.
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10. DPRK SIGNS FIRST JOINT COAL MINE DEAL WITH PRC FIRM
BBC, 1 November 2005
According to China Minmetals Corporation, it recently signed the "Agreement
on Establishing a Joint Venture in the Coal Sector in the DPRK" with the
Ministry of Foreign Trade of the DPRK. The DPRK side said: The establishment
of the joint venture with China Minmetals Corporation in Yongtung [long
deng] Coal Mine is not only the first joint venture outside the special zone
but also the first one with foreign companies in the sphere of resources.
Yongtung Coal Mine, where the joint venture will be located, is the biggest
coal mine in the DPRK with an annual production of one million tons of
anthracite.
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11. CHINA'S TONGHUA STEEL TO DEVELOP DPRK IRON ORE DEPOSIT
Interfax, 1 November 2005
Tonghua Iron and Steel Group, a mid-sized steel maker in northeastern China,
has been granted rights to develop the largest iron ore deposit in North
Korea, according to local government officials.
"I've heard that the Tonghua Steel is going to a sign contract with the
Musan iron ore mine, however, I do not know details about the project," an
official with the industry department of the Jilin Development and Reform
Commission, who asked to remain anonymous, told Interfax.
Tonghua Steel, a state-owned steel maker based Tonghua City in Jilin
Province, will be granted 50-year exploration rights at the Musan iron ore
deposit in North Korea, according the Jilin-based East Asia Economic News.
The steel company will pay RMB 7 bil. (USD 867.41 mil.) to launch the
project in North Korea, the Jilin government-owned newspaper reported.
According to the newspaper, the total investment will be RMB 7 bil. (USD
867.41 mil.) - RMB 2 bil. (USD 247.83 mil.) for construction and RMB 5 bil.
(USD 619.58 mil.) for equipment and technology for the mining project.
Additionally, Tonghua Steel has established an agreement with the National
Development Bank for RMB 2.4 bil. (USD 297.40 mil.) in loans. Jilin's
Yanbian Tianchi Stock Holding Co. and Sinosteel Corporation will probably
join the project.
Musan Iron Ore Mine, the largest iron ore deposit in North Korea, owns 7
bil. tons of iron ore with an average grade of 66%. The Musan mine will
provide 10 mil. tons iron ore to Tonghua Steel per year once the project is
operational.
An official with Northeast Asia Division of Jilin Department of Commerce,
who asked to remain anonymous, told Interfax that Tonghua Steel planned to
boost steel capacity to 10 mil. tons per year by 2010, which means the
company needs to increase iron ore supply.
The official said it was inappropriate to say too much right now because the
provincial government has not officially approved the project. Tonghua Steel
is capable of producing 2.52 mil. tons of steel products per year, and must
import 1.62 mil. tons iron ore yearly.
A neighbour of North Korea, the Jilin government hopes to benefit from the
country's mineral resources. The provincial government has negotiated deals
with the North Korean government to swap power for mineral ore. Jilin has
been eyeing for a long time North Korea's Musan Iron Ore Mine, Hyesan Youth
Copper Mine, and Manpo lead & Zinc Mine.
*************************************************
12. TOBACCO GIANT CAPITALISES ON NORTH KOREAN REGIME
by Ian Cobain and David Leigh, Guardian, 18 October 2005
British American Tobacco, the world's second-largest cigarette company, has
been secretly operating a factory in North Korea for the past four years.
The company opened the plant in a joint venture with a state-owned
corporation shortly before the North Korean regime was denounced by the US
President, George Bush, as a member of the "axis of evil", and despite
widespread concern over the nation's human rights record.
BAT has never mentioned the factory in its annual accounts. The discovery of
the secret factory comes two years after BAT was forced to pull out of
Burma, under pressure from the British Government and human rights
campaigners.
The anti-smoking group ASH said: "It seems that there is no regime so awful
and no country so repressive that BAT does not want to do business there."
BAT launched its business in North Korea in September 2001 after forming a
joint-venture company with a state-owned enterprise called the Korea Sogyong
Trading Corporation, whose main interest had previously been exporting
carpets. BAT made an initial investment of $US7.1 million in the enterprise
and owns 60 per cent of the company formed, known as Taesong-BAT. BAT has
since increased its investment but declines to say by how much.
Taesong-BAT employs 200 people at its factory in Pyongyang, producing up to
2 billion cigarettes a year. Despite its previous involvement in smuggling,
BAT denies any of the cigarettes are intended for China, insisting they are
all for North Korean consumption. The company says it has worked to improve
the working conditions of its employees in Pyongyang, that it provides
workers with free meals, and that they are "well paid".
Questioned about its apparent reluctance to disclose the existence of its
North Korean operation, BAT said it listed only its "principal subsidiaries"
in its accounts, and added that it was not obliged to inform investors about
an investment of that size. The spokeswoman denied the factory was a secret:
"If we are asked about our investment there, we respond appropriately. The
investor community know of it."
Asked about North Korea's human rights record, the spokeswoman said: "It is
not for us to interfere with the way governments run countries." She said
BAT could "lead by example" and assist the country's development by meeting
internationally accepted standards of businesses practice and corporate
social responsibility. In launching its North Korean enterprise, however,
BAT is doing business in a country regarded by some as having the worst
human rights record in the world. Even one of BAT's own public relations
officers, in Japan, was astonished when asked about the joint venture.
"Business with North Korea?" he asked. "Where there are no human rights?"
Last August, in an excoriating report to the United Nations General
Assembly, Vitit Muntarbhorn, special rapporteur on North Korea for the UN
Commissioner on Human Rights, pointed to the "myriad publications" detailing
violence against detainees. According to human rights observers in South
Korea, about 200,000 people are held as political prisoners in the north.
Human Rights Watch describes the Pyongyang regime as being "among the
world's most repressive governments".
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End CanKor # 225
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