Three years into the pandemic, Choson Exchange thrives with online programmes in North Korea
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.
At Choson Exchange, we are excited when we work with motivated entrepreneurs in North Korea with great ideas they would like to see become startups someday. Our programs all educate and support local entrepreneurs, but it is the coming-together of ideas, pitches and products at our Pyongsong Startup Bootcamp that brings out this excitement and sense of accomplishment.
We plan to take that sense of accomplishment a notch higher by transforming our upcoming November workshop into the inaugural Pyongsong Startup Festival. This isn’t just a branding exercise — we expect a bigger, better and more exciting workshop experience this year.
During the 5th Inter-Korean Summit, which was held from 18th to 20th September in the DPRK capital of Pyongyang, the scope of issues discussed and agreed upon between South Korea and North Korea had noticeably expanded beyond familiar humanitarian and security concerns to include bilateral and regional projects intended to foster stronger inter-Korean economic and business links.
Our colleague Tian Wen provides the following analysis of potential avenues for economic and business collaboration between the two Koreas.
Earlier in August, Choson Exchange was invited to participate in the 2018 Future City Summit held in Hong Kong and Guangzhou.
Together with our associate, Calvin, 3 participants from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) — notably Mr Kwak, a chief city planner in Pyongyang, and Ms Hwang, a senior architect responsible for the design of the Mirae Scientist Street — took part in the summit. Calvin provides the following summary of the delegation’s experience.
On 12th July, Choson Exchange was invited by Singaporean President Halimah Yacob to a State Dinner hosted for the visiting President of South Korea Moon Jae-In at the Istana. As the only NGO present at the event, we were honored and excited to have an opportunity to meet the man and his team that have been one of a small number of key figures central to changes in the geopolitical dynamics of northeast Asia.
Our colleague Tian Wen has put together the following summary of President Moon’s speech on the day after the State Dinner.
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.
While Trump is pitching Kim Jong Un on beachview condos in Wonsan, frontier entrepreneurs in North Korea have been launching startups in one of the world’s most challenging markets. Choson Exchange has been teaching startup skills in the DPRK for more than half a decade. Join us in Hong Kong for talk on the state of business and startup culture in the DPRK, and whether North Koreans are ready to face the global market.
