The OECD just published a paper on North Korea’s economy. It is a solid and expansive summary of the changes that have taken place over the years, and effectively captures the changes in economic structure (economic “reform”). We have reform in quotes as North Koreans generally tend to prefer to call it “experimentation” to avoid close comparisons to the Chinese path, although the rest of the world would see the policy changes as reform. For those of you who follow the country’s economy or our work closely, there is nothing surprising in the report. Please take a look at this excellent summary of the current state of DPRK’s economy and economic policies from an international perspective.

On Nov 3-4, Choson Exchange was represented at the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council for the Korean Peninsula in Dubai by Geoffrey. The World Economic Forum’s GFCs are working groups organized by the World Economic Forum to discuss pressing global issues, define an agenda on those issues, and to drive action towards improving the state of the world. The Council Members for the GFC can be found here. The Council is co-chaired by Angela Kane, former under-secretary of the United Nations and Moon Chung In, Special Advisor to the President of the Republic of Korea for National Security, Foreign Affairs and Unification.

This July, we were glad to have an amazing ASEAN (Southeast Asia) delegation join us in DPR Korea. This group was led by George Yeo, former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trade & Industry, Health and Information, Communications and the Arts for Singapore. George last visited Korea in 2011 as Foreign Minister and was keen to return with his wife to see how the country has changed.

Today, we read that the US Government has issued new restrictions on visa-free entry into the US for visitors to the DPRK since 2011. The wording of the regulations can be seen at the Customers and Border Protection homepage. Further reporting on this topic can be found at NKnews. This is similar to restrictions the US has imposed on other countries such as Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia and Yemen. What does this mean to our past and future workshop leaders?

We are proud to have brought DPR Koreans to participate in a historic first at the St Gallen Symposium. This marks the first time we have brought Koreans not just to Switzerland, but to engage in an economic dialogue at a prestigious international event. The Koreans did not just listened to the interesting sessions at the event, but also mingled and discussed topics with fellow participants, met with a number of Choson Exchange alumni or friends at the event (who helped our Koreans feel comfortable at this event), and even hosted a session moderated by Choson Exchange on the topic of “Change” in DPR Korea.

For us, this is an opportunity to raise the global issue of North Korea at the World Economic Forum, and to encourage individuals from that community to contribute their ideas, voices and actions to the long, difficult and continuing challenge on the Korean Peninsula. We expect the period ahead to continue to be difficult so long as the US and DPRK are unable to reconcile their differences. And post-reconciliation, there will be the difficult task of integrating and developing this country to ensure stability. Read Geoffrey’s call here on the World Economic Forum’s blog for more direct people-to-people exchange between individuals outside and inside North Korea.

Mapping out where the North Koreans will go and what they will do will not be easy. Unlike Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi has a very dispersed urban landscape. There is a central government complex which will definitely host a state visit for Kim Jong Un. This is centered around Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum (see map). The Pullman Hotel is nearby. The Opera House is beautiful, and the new parliament building is impressive too. You can find the DPRK embassy nearby in the embassy district. The Metropole Hotel is swanky and President Trump stayed here for his last visit to Hanoi.

Held from 20th to 27th April this year, the DPRK Economic Forum will include three days of interactive business trainings where workshop leaders will not only teach but also interact with locals whose entrepreneurialism have left an indelible impression on past workshop leaders like Julian Rossy and Laura Ashton.  

Who is Dr Kwon, the new head of President Moon’s committee on Northern Economic Cooperation? We first came across him in 2009, when he wrote this Goldman Sachs research briefing on the economic potential of a unified Korean economy. 2009 was an interesting time to write this, given that it was at the start of the end of the sunshine years, close to a year into President Lee Myung Bak’s term.

We recently held an entrepreneurship ideation workshop with some DPR Koreans in Shanghai. This new micro-format we are testing is meant to pilot creative legal approaches towards solving the key issues we have identified over the years that prevent the creation of an innovative startup ecosystem. On this session, we went over the need for a cheap and accessible legal construct that would allow startups to be created in DPRK.