ID :
37516
Fri, 12/26/2008 - 18:31
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/37516
The shortlink copeid
N. Korea cautions against foreign investment
(ATTN: ADDS last three paras on foreign investment in N.K.)
SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea believes the global economic crisis has
left lessons to be learned, including the danger of foreign investment, according
to the North's official newspaper obtained on Friday.
Pyongyang has been encouraging foreign direct investment into the country since
the 1990s to resuscitate its ailing economy. An Egyptian mobile operator, Orascom
Telecom, became the latest firm to invest in North Korea this month, launching a
third-generation mobile service and reportedly promising US$400 million for it.
"If a country does not base its economic development on righteous economic
theories and science technology but goes after reckless growth based on survival
of the fittest, an economic crisis will come at an unexpected time," Rodong
Sinmun, a newspaper published by the North's Workers' Party, said in its Dec. 17
edition. The current crisis "shows that a reckless inflow of foreign capital can
destroy the nation's economy," it said.
The commentary titled "What the Global Financial Crisis Teaches Us" also blamed
huge U.S. spending on the Iraq war as one of the primary reasons for the
country's current turmoil and called on western powers to "immediately withdraw
aggressive foreign policies that infringe upon other nations' sovereignty."
North Korea has been seeking to attract investment from China, Thailand and
European nations, as well as Korean residents in Japan, to spur development of
the country's moribund light industry, said Kim Young-yoon, an economics
researcher with the Korea Institute for National Unification.
The communist country opened a free economic and trade zone in its northern
Rajin-Sonbong region in the early 1990s, where Chinese clothing and shoe
factories now operate.
South Korea also opened an industrial complex in North Korea's border town of
Kaesong in 2004 as part of inter-Korean reconciliatory projects, but Pyongyang
recently halved the number of South Koreans allowed there in retaliation against
Seoul's hardline policy toward it.
More than 80 South Korean firms produce shoes, clothes, kitchenware and watches
in Kaesong with around 36,000 North Korean workers. A North Korean worker is paid
US$60-$80 a month on average.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea believes the global economic crisis has
left lessons to be learned, including the danger of foreign investment, according
to the North's official newspaper obtained on Friday.
Pyongyang has been encouraging foreign direct investment into the country since
the 1990s to resuscitate its ailing economy. An Egyptian mobile operator, Orascom
Telecom, became the latest firm to invest in North Korea this month, launching a
third-generation mobile service and reportedly promising US$400 million for it.
"If a country does not base its economic development on righteous economic
theories and science technology but goes after reckless growth based on survival
of the fittest, an economic crisis will come at an unexpected time," Rodong
Sinmun, a newspaper published by the North's Workers' Party, said in its Dec. 17
edition. The current crisis "shows that a reckless inflow of foreign capital can
destroy the nation's economy," it said.
The commentary titled "What the Global Financial Crisis Teaches Us" also blamed
huge U.S. spending on the Iraq war as one of the primary reasons for the
country's current turmoil and called on western powers to "immediately withdraw
aggressive foreign policies that infringe upon other nations' sovereignty."
North Korea has been seeking to attract investment from China, Thailand and
European nations, as well as Korean residents in Japan, to spur development of
the country's moribund light industry, said Kim Young-yoon, an economics
researcher with the Korea Institute for National Unification.
The communist country opened a free economic and trade zone in its northern
Rajin-Sonbong region in the early 1990s, where Chinese clothing and shoe
factories now operate.
South Korea also opened an industrial complex in North Korea's border town of
Kaesong in 2004 as part of inter-Korean reconciliatory projects, but Pyongyang
recently halved the number of South Koreans allowed there in retaliation against
Seoul's hardline policy toward it.
More than 80 South Korean firms produce shoes, clothes, kitchenware and watches
in Kaesong with around 36,000 North Korean workers. A North Korean worker is paid
US$60-$80 a month on average.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
