The Straits Time ran a recent piece on Choson Exchange's work and on the background of Managing Director Geoffrey See. Worth a read, especially if its a slow news week. After all, there is only so much North Korea election news you can read right?
2014: Time for website updates
Welcome to Choson Exchange’s new site!
Give the leanness of our operations, we have always thought about revamping the website but never got around to making it a priority. Thanks to the work of a volunteer with Choson Exchange, we now have an amazing new website, with the following features:
- Focus on our blog: Our blog have been a primary forum for us to share the work we do, and greatly enjoy, in North Korea training young professionals. We have always believed that our work provides us a different angle from which to view the country and its people. We hope that the stories from our work, or our perspective on Korea-relevant issues, contribute to a deeper understanding of an emerging generation in the country.
- Easier navigation: You can now navigate to all pages of our site from the top banner navigation, which exists on every page.
- Community discussions: We welcome the community to engage in meaningful discussions on our site, comments may be written under each blog entry.
- Optimized mobile views: Our new site format makes it easier to read on mobile devices. Read the Choson Exchange blog on the go!
Our team spent a considerable time curating the kinds of data and information to help others understand the work that we do.
Volunteers are the foundation of our work, and a key reason why we can do so much with so little. Our website volunteer has also helped us with various program strategies, and played a role in drawing up the Women in Business program. We are glad for her support, and for the support of other passionate volunteers and workshop leaders.
Rason and Beyond: SinoNK's Tumen Triangle Project
2013 was the first year that we did not visit the Rason International Trade fair, not out of a lack of interest, but when invitations go out barely 3 weeks before the event... Indeed, trade fair promotion, integration beyond the borderlands and investor expectations are issues on which we'd like to work with Rason officials and business people.
As Geoffrey puts it in the most recent edition of SinoNK's Tumen Triangle Project, "local officials there argued that they were at the forefront of knowledge and experimentation in this area, given their long-history as a special zone." Yet, as with so many other projects in the DPRK, "despite agreements to start programs, nothing ever happened."
This trip also featured CE enjoining locals that in the future we should work together and these proposals met with positive responses. Rason's Yanji rep, at the very least, "was excited at the prospect of training, and at our focus on young professionals. He said, 'you are young. I am young. We should be working together!'"
This edition of the TTP also includes fascinating contributions from a variety of sources. Of particular interest is an article by two longtime UK diplomats, Warwick Morris and James E. Hoare, who describe a trip Yanbian in 1990 at a time when Britain "neither recognized the DPRK nor had any form of diplomatic relations with it."
Pop-Up Pyongyang: Training Locals through Small-Scale Projects
(This is part 2 of a two part series by Calvin Chua. The first part can be found here.) Apart from delivering basic infrastructure, such as smooth roads, constant electricity and water supply, leaders in the DPRK need to rethink whether large-scale physical projects, especially for the tourism and service sector, are the only way to achieve their grand visions.
Instead of looking at fulfilling big quantitative targets, perhaps it is time they look towards small-scale quality interventions within the existing city as a possible alternative. These small projects could include short-term pop-up spaces that could host restaurants, cafes and exhibitions, common elements within the developed world but currently absent in North Korea.
Annual Report - in Korean
I don't know how many readers of our blog only read Korean (probably zero), but just in case, and for your friends who don't read English, here is our 2013 Annual Report in Korean.
Journey to the East: Strange Encounters with Shower Villas
(This is part 1 of a 2-part report. The concluding portion will be published next week)The final months of 2013 in North Korea saw a strange concoction of visionary economic targets and political purges. Although such major events do have an impact on the feasibility of projects, but they do not reveal the problems in the way projects are carried out by local leaders, mainly the lack of a technical and qualitative understanding in delivering a project.
CE 2013 Annual Report
This is the moment you have been waiting for...the new Iphone 6 has arrived. Just kidding. You probably were not waiting for this moment, but here's our Annual Report for 2013 anyway.
Before Rodman, there was Inoki
On the plane from Beijing to Pyongyang in November, I ran into Japanese Upper House Parliamentarian Kanji (Antonio) Inoki. He had his trademark bright red scarf on, and his distinctive chin caught my attention. Later that week, he met with the recently executed Jang Sung Taek and became known as the last foreigner who had seen Jang.
Coming Feb 6 - 2013 Annual Report
On February 6, we will be publishing our 2013 Annual Report. The report describes the major milestones accomplished last year, focusing on our Women in Business program in particular. The Women in Business program has been great fun to implement in North Korea, despite the usual frustrations of working in the country. The young and energetic female audiences were enthusiastic, entrepreneurial and incredibly capable. At the same time, access to opportunities for females in the business sector is under-focused on in North Korea.
The Name Given By The Era - a film review
We had the chance recently, thanks to a DPRK film screening by Koryo Group, to see this awkwardly translated film that ironically illustrates the issues with imploring people to work when the only incentives are national, ideological ones. In this 2009 film Jin Ok receives a university affiliation letter after her service in the army. But instead of hitching a ride on the social-mobility train, she goes to the construction site of Hungbong Youth Power Station on Kumjin River. Why does she volunteer to work in a sector involving arduous jobs, giving up her long-cherished dream of studying in the university? Well, the short answer is ideological purity. The longer answer and central tale of the film is that she was inspired by the memory of a self-sacrificing, hard-working exemplar, who gave her life saving a drowning girl.