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Historically New Zealand has had little contact with the DPRK. However with encouragement from the ROK a semi-official dialogue developed in the late 1990s. In August 2000 New Zealand’s then Foreign Minister, Hon Phil Goff, met his DPRK counterpart, Paek Nam-sun, on the margins of an ARF meeting in Bangkok and subsequently diplomatic relations were formally established in March 2001. New Zealand’s Ambassador in South Korea is also accredited to North Korea. North Korea’s Embassy in Canberra is accredited to New Zealand.
New Zealand has provided humanitarian assistance to the DPRK, through international humanitarian organisations (most recently through WFP and UNICEF), and a small Head of Mission’s Funds (NZ$25,000). Our total funding to the DPRK (through humanitarian organisations, KEDO, and HOMF) as at the end of FY2005/06 amounted to some NZ$8.5 million. Recently New Zealand's humanitarian assistance to the DPRK has been all but stopped (with only the Head of Mission Fund remaining). This decision was taken as a result of changed programme priorities and the DPRK regime’s ambivalence towards receiving assistance.
As noted above, New Zealand has also been a member of and financial contributor to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation (KEDO) since 1995. KEDO was established by the US, ROK and Japan to construct light-water reactors as a source of energy in the DPRK under the 1994 Agreed Framework. New Zealand’s KEDO funding, totalling NZ$4.5 million, went towards the purchase of heavy fuel oil as an alternative energy source for the North Korea while the reactors were constructed. Concerns about the DPRK’s HEU programme saw the KEDO project and fuel oil shipments suspended in November 2003, and the project terminated in November 2005.
There has been little to no recorded trade between New Zealand and the DPRK in recent years, although it is understood some New Zealand products reach the DPRK through China. A number of New Zealanders have provided services to the DPRK, mainly through international organisations and NGOs.
DPRK Ambassadors accredited to New Zealand have visited twice since diplomatic relations were established in 2001. The New Zealand Ambassador in Seoul makes regular accreditation visits to Pyongyang (most recently in June 2006). Delegations from North Korea’s government-run Institute of Disarmament and Peace have visited New Zealand three times to attend security-related conferences and the New Zealand counterpart institute, the Centre for Strategic Studies, paid a visit to the DPRK in 1998. MP Graham Kelly led a small delegation to the DPRK in July 2001 as Chair of the Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Defence Committee that included representatives of the DPRK/New Zealand Friendship Society. A delegation of four North Koreans visited Massey University for two weeks in late November 2006 as part of a German Agro Action hydroponics training programme.
Official Name - Democratic People's Republic of Korea - Land Area - 122,762 sq km - Population - 22.7m (July 2005 estimate) - Capital City - Pyongyang - Religion - Officially atheist, but there are state-run organisations representing Buddhism, Christianity and the syncretic Chondogyo religion - Official Language - Korean - Currency - Won (DPRK won is different to that used in the ROK) - Exchange Rate - According to DPRK regulations, transactions made by foreigners in North Korea should be conducted in Euros, although there are some reports of US dollars being accepted. The official exchange rate for North Korean won displayed in most hotels is around 170 won per Euro. However there are reports of black market rates of up to 3,000 won per Euro (although the DPRK won may be subject to high inflation and information on black market rates is difficult to obtain)
Political system - One-party rule, based on juche ideology of self-reliance -
National government - Korean Workers' Party(General Secretary Kim Jong Il) -
National legislature - Supreme People's Assembly, unicameral, 687 members elected directly for five-year terms. -
Last election - September 2003 -
Next election due - 2008 -
Leader - Kim Jong Il (Chairman of National Defence Commission) holds ultimate executive power. -
Head of State - Kim Yong Nam (President of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly) - Key Ministers - Prime Minister: Pak Pong Ju;
Agriculture: Ri Kyong Sik;
Commerce: Ri Yong Son;
Defence: Kim Il Chol;
Finance: Mun Il Bong;
Foreign Affairs: Paek Nam Sun;
Foreign Trade: Rim Kyong Man;
Public Security: Ju Sang Song;
Light Industry: Ri Ju Oh - Main Political Party - Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) is nominally in coalition with the Social Democratic Party and the Chondoist Chongu Party. There has not been a KWP congress held since 1980
GDP - US$20.8 billion - GDP Per Capita - US$914 - Real GDP Growth - 2.2% (2004), 1.8% (2003), 1.2% (2002) - Exports - US$1.338 billion (2005) - Imports - US$2.713 billion (2005) - Main destinations of exports (2005) - China (37.3%), ROK (25.4%), Japan (9.8%), Thailand (9.3%) - Main origins of imports (2005) - China (39.8%), RO (26.2%), Russia (8.3%), Thailand (7.6%) - Main imports -Oil, other minerals, machinery and electronic goods, textiles and chemicals - Main Exports - Animal products, textiles, machinery and electronic goods, coal, iron ore, other minerals
NZ Exports (FOB) - none in last two years. - NZ Imports (CIF) - none in last two years.
Known formally as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), North Korea is the world’s last remaining unreformed Stalinist state. Following the division of the Korean peninsula in 1945, North Korea became a one-party state ruled by the communist Korean Workers’ Party. Its founding leader, Kim Il Sung, died in 1994 and was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Il, who chairs the National Defence Commission and also heads the party and military hierarchy. The state ideology is juche (self-reliance), which promotes economic self-sufficiency and strong armed forces. North Korea maintains armed forces over 1 million strong, and the Korean People’s Army plays an important role in the running of the country, further to the songun (military first) policy. The regime appears stable, although there are questions about its long-term viability and who will succeed Kim Jong-Il. The last Party Congress was held in 1980.
The DPRK retains a centrally planned economy outside international economic, banking and trade systems. Since July 2002 it has introduced a range of measures that have adjusted wages and prices, seen the opening of commercial markets selling food and other items, and adjusted agricultural and enterprise policies. These changes reflected recognition that policy adjustments were unavoidable in order to manage challenges to the DPRK economy. They have unleashed inflationary pressures, but have failed to turn around the economy, which has struggled since the collapse of the former Soviet Union. North Korea has since backtracked some of these changes (e.g. reintroduction of the rationing system and the banning of sale of crops) partly out of fear that the changes may erode the regime’s control. The government’s songun (military first) policies continue to skew the economy towards defence and military objectives rather than economic growth and development. The DPRK allocated 14 per cent of the total state budget for national defence in 2003 and has declared that it has increased this commitment since then, but reliable statistics are very difficult to come by.
The DPRK has established a free trade zone in the Rajin-Sonbong area in the northeast to promote trade and investment, and is developing a large North-South industrial complex at Kaesung. The first products from Kaesung reached South Korean markets in December 2004, but progress with this project has been slower than Seoul had hoped. In 2002 a further free trade zone was proposed for Sinuiju, near the Chinese border, but has not gone ahead. A tourism project with the ROK at Mt Kumgang on the east coast has attracted large numbers of South Korean tourists to the North and involved financial benefits for Pyongyang. Further tourism cooperation projects were being considered, although the DPRK’s October nuclear test has raised questions about the future of these inter-Korean projects.
The DPRK is heavily dependent upon economic assistance from China and the ROK. There are no reliable figures on Chinese assistance, but food and fuel shipments are particularly important. The South has provided large quantities of fertiliser, as well as food, pesticide, seeds and industrial inputs to enable the DPRK to complete agreed North-South cooperation projects. Private assistance from the South totalled more than US$141 million in 2004.
Reliable economic information on the North is difficult to obtain, but it appears that per capita GDP is less than one-tenth of levels in the South. Following a long period of economic contraction throughout the 1990s, the DPRK recorded 6.2 percent GDP growth in 1999, but has returned to low levels (2.2 percent in 2004). Significant inequalities exist between ruling officials and the common people.
The DPRK has pressing humanitarian needs, including the provision of safe water, medical supplies and support for women and children. It also has serious developmental needs, reflecting the run-down state of infrastructure throughout the country and insufficient funding for the provision of adequate goods and services. Energy shortages have caused a sharp slowdown in industrial production and energy remains a key North Korean demand in negotiations over its nuclear weapons programmes. Structural agricultural problems have continued to contribute to severe food shortages in recent years and agricultural rehabilitation remains a priority for the DPRK. Only a few plains in the south and west are suited to agriculture; farming elsewhere has all-but collapsed. The goal of food self-sufficiency has led to unwise terracing and soil exhaustion. Floods in 1995 and 1996 and droughts in 1997 (and 2001) plunged the North into a famine, the full extent of which remains unknown. In 2006 North Korea has again experienced floods and further to food shortages.
In 2005, the World Food Programme (WFP) estimated that 6.5 million people (29 percent of the population) in the DPRK required food assistance, totalling 504,000 metric tonnes or food worth around US$202 million. However, from 1 January 2006, the DPRK formally ended all foreign humanitarian aid programmes saying they were “no longer needed”. The WFP has said that it hopes to carry on with a reduced programme, defined as “developmental”, albeit covering only one-half as many people, mainly children.
In October 2002, Pyongyang reportedly admitted to Washington that it was developing a secret highly-enriched uranium (HEU) programme. The DPRK’s nuclear programme contravenes its commitments under the 1992 Inter-Korean Joint Declaration on the Denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, the 1994 US-DPRK Agreed Framework, the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards agreement. In the standoff that followed, the DPRK took further steps to escalate tensions, including expulsion of IAEA inspectors, removal of surveillance equipment, restarting of its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, announced withdrawal from the NPT in April 2003, and the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods. These actions, along with evidence of arms trading, drug smuggling and counterfeit currency production, have heightened international concern about the DPRK and its future intentions.
On 19 September 2005, China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Russia and the United States issued a joint statement setting out a broad framework for the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula - the first such statement to be issued in more than two years and four rounds of negotiations under the Six-Party Talks framework. At the time, this agreement was considered to be a significant diplomatic achievement that incorporated at least a nod to the primary concerns of all six parties, and as such represented an important first step towards a comprehensive and enduring resolution to the nuclear issue. However, the DPRK quickly rejected the agreement following the imposition of financial measures by Macau authorities on a bank accused by the US of laundering fake US currency produced in the DPRK. North Korea subsequently escalated tensions further by conducting missile tests (in July 2006) and then a nuclear test (in October 2006). The international community moved quickly to condemn the DPRK’s provocative actions, including the adoption of UN Security Council resolutions 1695 and 1718 which contained measures to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.
Traditionally the North attempted to isolate and/or ignore the South, but has been more positive about reconciliation in recent years. After initially resisting former ROK President Kim Dae Jung’s “sunshine policy” of engagement, Kim Jong Il received President Kim in Pyongyang in June 2000 for the first ever inter-Korean Summit. In subsequent talks, progress was made on reunions of families divided by the Korean War, promotion of tourism links, and economic projects such as the reconnection of North-South rail and road links. More recently, the two Koreas agreed to end propaganda activities along the De-Militarised Zone (DMZ), and to implement confidence-building measures to avoid further naval clashes in the West Sea.
The renewed nuclear crisis has strained inter-Korean relations, but the current ROK President, Roh Moo-hyun, has maintained a commitment to the development of North-South ties, renaming the “sunshine policy” the “peace and prosperity policy”. New tourism projects, expanded development of the Kaesung industrial complex, use of video links for separated families and a range of cultural and social initiatives have been under active consideration. But the nuclear issue has been a barrier to progress, and the DPRK’s commitment to strengthening North-South ties has fluctuated. Roh remains committed to engagement, noting the ROK’s “unique” position vis-à-vis the DPRK, even in the face of the North’s provocative nuclear test. However, the ROK has taken a number of steps following the missile and nuclear tests, such as halting rice and fertiliser shipments, as well as ceasing government subsidies for the Mt Kumkang project.
Traditionally China has been the DPRK’s ally, trade partner and benefactor, providing a significant amount of the North’s fuel oil and substantial aid. Kim Jong Il has visited China several times to see first hand the fruits of China’s economic liberalisation policies. China plays an active and important leadership role in the Six-Party Talks process (scheduled to resume in December 2006).
The DPRK also has a close relationship with Russia though it no longer provides a significant flow of economic benefits. Japan and the DPRK do not have diplomatic relations, a legacy of World War II, and the relationship has been strained by revelations that North Korea kidnapped a number of Japanese citizens in the late 1970s/early 1980s. As a result of negotiations, including travel to Pyongyang by former Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi, the DPRK agreed to allow some family members of abductees to travel to Japan. However, concerns about the DPRK’s missile and nuclear programmes and management of the abductees issue continue to hamper normalisation talks with Japan.
The DPRK has established diplomatic relations with all EU members (except France) and other countries, including Australia and Canada. The DPRK is a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), established to discuss Asia-Pacific security issues on a regional level, and attends meetings periodically. It is not a member of the World Trade Organisation or APEC, but is reportedly considering a request to seek observer status.
Information on the human rights situation in the DPRK is also difficult to come by. The DPRK has ratified some UN human rights instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The UN Human Rights Committee has concluded that North Korea’s periodic reporting on human rights under these instruments lacks credibility, and that improvement was urgently needed in such areas as the right to life and individual liberty, freedom of religion, freedom of the press and expression, freedom of assembly and association, and the status of women. The DPRK has not yet ratified the Convention Against Torture. The UN adopted resolutions declaring deep concern at reports of systemic, widespread and grave violations of human rights in the DPRK in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. New Zealand co-sponsored these resolutions.
The Safetravel website provides a travel advisory for travellers to North Korea [external link].
