Erik van Ingen Schenau of the China Motor Vehicle Documentation Centre has posted a collection of photos of vehicles manufactured in North Korea. A larger variety than I realized, and more than a few named Chollima (천리마).
After missile and nuclear tests and uranium enrichment, the U.S. sanctions North Korean firms while Pyongyang reverses, making overtures. It’s not an accident, it’s a pattern of strategic disengagement.
- #Vanity Fair, of all publications, has a lengthy article on North Korea’s counterfeiting operations, including Office 39. Well worth a read. (h/t NE Asia Matters)
- #The Chosun Ilbo has an article about a new book by Chang Jin-song (formerly affiliated with the North Korean Workers' Party) that details Kim Jong-il private life, including the inside scoop on all his lady friends. According to Chang, one unfortunate young lady to get Kim's attention was, "brutally executed after she spurned Kim's persistent advances and fell in love with another man."
- #Gizmodo has an excellent array of Kim Jong-il photos; In Which We Provoke Kim Jong Il in 77 Offensive and Hilarious Ways. Some are sure to become often used classics.
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September 7th, 2009 at 11:55 am
[...] DPRK Studies) Erik van Ingen Schenau of the China Motor Vehicle Documentation Centre has posted a collection of [...]
September 15th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Some of the depicted vehicles look so close to Eastern Bloc products (like the Hungarian “Ikarus” bus) that I doubt that they were manufactured in DPRK.
January 4th, 2010 at 11:35 pm
“Made by” some DPRK organization may be a misnomer. It’s not uncommon in the automotive industry to export vehicles in a semi-finished or completely knocked-down (CKD) state for final assembly in the destination state. This is done for a variety of reasons — mostly tax driven (where the tariffs on finished manufactured goods are very high) — and national pride in pretending to have built some vehicle yourself is not at all unlikely to be one of them.