North Korea began two days of talks with the US in New York on Monday in what Washington officials described as a bid to educate the country about international financial standards of conduct.
The talks are part of a thawing in US-North Korean ties that began when Pyongyang agreed to abandon its nuclear arms programs.
According to a German expert, Pyongyang is keen to learn how capitalism works but fears that efforts to open up the economy could destabilize its system.
"They are not sure about the effects on their own society or their own position," said Bernard Seliger, the Seoul-based representative of a German think tank, the Hans Seidel Foundation.
"They know what happened in Eastern Europe and the consequences for the ruling elite there," he said yesterday.
The foundation runs regular EU-funded workshops in Pyongyang to teach North Korean officials how to do business with the West and establish an export strategy.
Seliger, who returned on Sunday from his latest visit, said North Korean officials are especially interested in the mechanics of foreign trade and in the global economy.
But leaders are moving carefully out of fear of domestic instability.
"They want cooperation, but in a very minimal way," Seliger said.
"They want foreign currency, they want to be able to export their goods and they want access to the international financial system -- but somehow without having to make any institutional changes," Seliger said.
Seliger said participants in the foundation's programs -- around 50 people at a time on average -- still bristled at words like "integration" or "reform," but there was extensive discussion on international affairs.
After decades of isolation during which its command economy foundered, North Korea appears to be opening up to the world.
Senior officials have toured Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Russia in recent months and diplomatic relations with several countries have been established or restored.
Seliger, whose foundation began its training programs in 2003, said course members were becoming significantly more relaxed in their interaction with foreigners.
North Korean officials have also been working with the Swiss Foreign Ministry recently to try out a bank credit program for farmers, he said.
"I'm confident that all this contact with the wider world will change people in the long run," Seliger said.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
RSS