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.
DISASTER: The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded a magnitude 5.7 and tremors reached as far as Kolkata, India, more than 300km away from the epicenter A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday outside the crowded capital, Dhaka, killing at least five people and injuring about a hundred, the government said. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 10:38am near Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 33km from Dhaka, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The earthquake sparked fear and chaos with many in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people at home on their day off. AFP reporters in Dhaka said they saw people weeping in the streets while others appeared shocked. Bangladesh Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his “deep shock and sorrow over the news of casualties in various districts.” At least five people,
ON THE LAM: The Brazilian Supreme Court said that the former president tried to burn his ankle monitor off as part of an attempt to orchestrate his escape from Brazil Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro — under house arrest while he appeals a conviction for a foiled coup attempt — was taken into custody on Saturday after the Brazilian Supreme Court deemed him a high flight risk. The court said the far-right firebrand — who was sentenced to 27 years in prison over a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 elections — had attempted to disable his ankle monitor to flee. Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes said Bolsonaro’s detention was a preventive measure as final appeals play out. In a video made
It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos. The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far. Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response. Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4
SHOW OF FORCE: The US has held nine multilateral drills near Guam in the past four months, which Australia said was important to deter coercion in the region Five Chinese research vessels, including ships used for space and missile tracking and underwater mapping, were active in the northwest Pacific last month, as the US stepped up military exercises, data compiled by a Guam-based group shows. Rapid militarization in the northern Pacific gets insufficient attention, the Pacific Center for Island Security said, adding that it makes island populations a potential target in any great-power conflict. “If you look at the number of US and bilateral and multilateral exercises, there is a lot of activity,” Leland Bettis, the director of the group that seeks to flag regional security risks, said in an
RSS