- Title: VARIOUS: Joint North-South Korean soccer shoe factory pioneers new turf
- Date: 30th October 2012
- Summary: DANDONG, CHINA (OCTOBER 24, 2012) (REUTERS) YALU RIVER BRIDGE ON CHINA-NORTH KOREA BORDER CHINESE NATIONAL FLAG TRUCK COMING INTO CHINA SMOKE TACKS OF NORTH KOREAN TOWN SINUIJU SOCCER SHOE FACTORY IN SUBURBAN DANDONG VARIOUS OF NORTH KOREAN FEMALE WORKERS MAKING ARI-BRAND SHOES (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) NORTH KOREAN WORKER, KWON OK-KYUNG, SAYING: "In the beginning, when I d
- Embargoed: 14th November 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: China, Korea, Republic of
- City:
- Country: Korea, Democratic People's Republic of
- Topics: Business,International Relations,Industry,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAAKZKZ7O2XYGRWG4OQMYWFPKO0
- Story Text: At a temporary factory in a village on the edge of the bustling city of Dandong that serves as a bridge between China and impoverished and isolated North Korea, 20 North Koreans hand-sew football boots.
It's a rare joint project between North Korea and South Korea, which remain technically at war.
The factory, overseen by three managers sporting badges showing North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung, have sold 1,000 pairs of boots at 100 U.S. dollars apiece since it started full-scale operations in July, half of them to South Korea.
North Korea itself gets 100 pairs of boots a month from the factory as payment, rather than receiving cash.
Kwon Ok-Kyung works eight hours a day, five days a week at her sewing machine.
"In the beginning, when I didn't know anything about sewing, it was hard but now it isn't hard any more. There's no problem now," she said.
One of the North Korean supervisors of the visit by Reuters reporters stopped Kwon talking when she was asked about what it felt like to be sent abroad by her family.
Due to the risk of defections, North Korean workers sent abroad are generally loyal to the Pyongyang leadership. Their families back home act as guarantors that they will come back, according to defectors in the South.
Far from being slave labourers, many of the tens of thousands of North Koreans working abroad actively seek those jobs as a way of earning hard currency, defectors say.
Chung Nam-chul, a veteran shoemaker in his early forties, and his fellow workers, are members of the April 25 Sports Club, one of the most successful North Korean football league teams, which is run by the Korean People's Army, the North's armed forces.
"Why hand-made boots? Yes, generally shoes can be made by machines but we make hand-made shoes to match individual preferences and be more comfortable," said Chung.
Like formerly communist eastern Europe, football teams tend to be part of the state apparatus with businesses attached to them.
These workers are the tip of an iceberg of an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 North Koreans working overseas in a bid to earn desperately needed hard currency for the state, which has been heavily sanctioned for its nuclear programme.
Kim Kyung-Sung, standing chairman of the North-South Korean Sports Exchange Association, described the financial opportunities the factory has offered the North Korean migrant workers.
"Monthly pay is about 200 U.S. dollars. That is given via a leader of the North Korean workers, who delivers 100 percent of the pay to the workers. They take it all for living expenses. And they go shopping a couple of times a month," he said.
A South Korean official at the factory told Reuters that workers got to keep the 200 U.S. dollars a month they were paid.
Many of the North Korean workers in Russia, China and the Middle East are paid in vouchers rather than hard cash which goes straight into the coffers of the North Korean state, according to refugee bodies in South Korea.
The North and South remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice. Apart from an economic zone on the border between the two countries, co-operation between the rich South and the poor North is rare.
In comparison with the grinding poverty of most North Koreans - where the United Nations says a third of children are malnourished - the workers in Dandong appear well off.
The two-story green-coloured building has dorms, cafeteria, and a recreation room.
While many of the North Koreans working overseas are in the Middle East or isolated in Siberia, working in logging camps, those in Dandong are at least close to home.
They are also allowed to meet their families in a North Korea city across the river with China once a month and take bags of gifts home.
The boots can be seen worn by South Korean Players of the Incheon United FC professional soccer team during training sessions.
Incheon United FC player Yoo Jae-Ho said that the boots had just the right fit, but still needed some perfecting.
"Wearing the shoes feels good, but the inner soles and studs at the bottom need improvement. Nevertheless, wearing these I don't feel any discomfort when I'm playing soccer," he said.
The boot factory was originally built in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, on land provided by the North Korean government but after the South accused North Korea of sinking one of its naval vessels in 2010 most economic ties were cut.
It moved to Dandong with a 415,000 U.S. dollar cash injection from the South Korean city of Incheon, whose soccer team wears its boots.
With the North's economy in tatters and imports outstripping exports by 3.3 billion U.S. dollars, according to data from the International Monetary Fund in 2010, North Korea has been forced into China's arms, exporting much of its mineral wealth to its huge and now-prosperous neighbour.
North Korea's official ideology is based on economic self-dependence but in reality it has been unable to feed its population for decades. Plants and equipment lie idle due to lack of electricity and much of it is too old to be of use.
Adding to its problems, reports are increasing that this year's grain harvest, never enough even in good years, has been badly hit by poor weather which means that the country has become increasingly reliant on exports of its mineral wealth to China.
While the small football boot factory isn't likely to make enough money to make a significant difference to the North Korean economy, it provides a rare opportunity at least for its workers. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None