By Some how I just cannot picture the streets of Pyongyang filled with Vietnamese tourists:
Vietnam and North Korea signed agriculture, sport, tourism and cultural agreements on Saturday on the first stop of a rare Southeast Asian tour by North Korea’s Premier.
Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung formally welcomed Premier Kim Yong-il before senior officials of the two communist-run countries signed memorandums of understanding to share agriculture technology and promote cultural exchanges.
"We are convinced that our current visit will bear out good results," said a statement by the North Korean delegation, which includes several cabinet ministers. [Reuters]
Kim Yong-il isn’t just satisfied with looking for Vietnamese tourists either:
Kim, who is in charge of economic policy, arrived in Hanoi on Friday and will visit a coal mine, a port, an agricultural institute and an industrial zone until Tuesday before going to Malaysia, Cambodia and Laos.
North Korea must be getting desperate for cash if they are this hungry for potential tourists. They are probably just hoping to get more southeast Asia tourists to take the Hyundai Kumgang mountain tour which is seeing less and less South Korean tourists.
Here is the quote of the article:
"North Korea tried to reform (its economy) according to the Chinese economic reform. But the Chinese reform is not for all North Koreans," said Jeong Hyung-gon, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy in Seoul.
Chinese economic reform was not implemented in North Korea because it would open up the country to many foreign influences which would lead to the collapse of the regime. The only economic reform Kim Jong-il is interested in is money that goes to him to keep the ruling elite loyal while the people remain impoverished. A more truthful statement by this assuredly card carrying sunshine policy club member would be to say, "Chinese economic reform is for all North Koreans except Kim Jong-il and the ruling elite".
6:05 am on October 29th, 2007 1
Just as much of the populace of northern Korea has had to glean the hills for blades of grass time and again in the last decade and one-half, so now loyal minions of the Kim family regime glean Asia looking for controllable income opportunities. There must be the means to satisfy the Party and army elements who are critical to keeping the regime in power. However, just as grass is not very nutritious, so as is said, it is unlikely that Pyongyang will find financial salvation in hosting Vietnamese tourists. The interested ones know that ???? is not set anywhere near Pyongyang. If the Japanese continue to crimp remittances from Pachinko parlors and the Australians sink dope-carrying freighters and the Israelis interrupt nuclear consulting projects, then perhaps deliverance in the form of one Chung Dong-young looms the larger, if also unlikely.
What continues to amaze and disgust is the head-in-the-sand attitude of the under-thirty set south of the Imjin toward the plight of their northern kin, as exemplified by KIIEP researcher Jeong Hyung-gon.
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