It’s not yet dawn and I am jogging along the bank of the Taeddong River in central Pyongyang. Men on bicycles make their way slowly to work, military construction workers wash in the river, a group of brightly dressed ladies laugh while they play badminton, and patriotic music wafts from the street corner tannoy. As a lanky bearded foreigner in running shorts I get a few looks, but perhaps fewer than I had expected. My group is asleep back at the hotel, and I’m alone in North Korea.

Recently, we got a chance to visit Liangsui, a subdivision of Tumen city in Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture. Tumen has an agreement with Onsong, a town/country just across the river to develop a joint tourism zone.

Why isn't the Tumen region more integrated?

There are long-term forces at work, such as Moscow’s concerns over Chinese dominance in the sparsely populated Russian Far East. This legacy of mistrust frames cross-border interactions and despite recent warm relations, major cross-border cooperation remains limited. There are also relatively recent roadblocks to cooperation, such as Beijing’s opprobrium over North Korea’s nuclear program. This has prevented the implementation of pre-2013 plans to link Rason – North Korea’s northeastern special economic zone – to the electricity grid in Jilin Province, in Northeastern China.

When we tell people about the work we do at Choson Exchange, there's often surprise, then curiosity, then excitement. Entrepreneurship! In North Korea! What a crazy adventure! But this isn't about thrill. Ultimately, the work we do is about people: supporting ambitious North Koreans who care about their families, follow their dreams, and try to be successful in an extremely difficult environment. If you see value in what we do, please consider donating to Choson Exchange. Donate 100 USD or more before the end of this year and we'll send you a post card from Pyongyang when we are back in the DPRK next time.

On the far eastern stretches of the Sino-Korean border, high speed rail travel is booming, with the Changchun to Hunchun line seeing over 1 million passengers in its first month of operation. That line links Changchun with Hunchun, on the Sino-Russo-Korean border, passing through Yanji and Tumen in the Yanbian Autonomous Korean Prefecture. Tumen, incidentally, hasn't even had traffic lights for a decade; Hunchun is only a city of 200,000 - a quiet hamlet by Chinese standards. At less than 200 RMB for the longest stretch, ticket prices are low enough that bus companies have already been struggling to attract customers.

Sorry, did I hear you say you wanted a DPRK-made car? You did, but you don't know what model to choose? Or even what models exist? Well, you are in luck, because we have digitized and compiled all the materials available as of this autumn, 2015.

Visitors to Pyongyang are often struck by how the only billboards not advertising a combination of the fatherland/party/military/leadership are advertisements for Pyonghwa Motors. Since last year, visitors have also been able to stop by an attractive showroom that has been set up on Gwangbok Street in Pyongyang. It is replete with test-driveable models on display, a spare-parts store and even a cafe. 

USKI at SAIS has just published and worthwhile report by Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein, titled Growth and Geography of Markets in North Korea New Evidence from Satellite Imagery. Silberstein's analysis is helpful in a few ways. It is clear - even though he admits that from above one cannot tell what's happening under the roofs - that markets have generally grown and despite ambivalent policies from above, permanent closures and removals of markets does not seem to have taken place.

CE recently took a group of North Koreans to Malaysia for a study trip. Malaysia is one of a handful of countries with reciprocal visa-free arrangements with the DPRK.

"The Boy General” and his friends from the Gogoryo era, come of age while together with their tigers and the iron will of the Korean people/army, constantly thwart the machinations of wicked, invasive foreigners.