Built by Pyongyang: The North Korean Company Behind Africa’s Most Iconic Monuments
April 6th, 2026
Courtesy of Daily NK, a look at satellite imagery from Dakar to Windhoek which shows the scale of North Korea’s state-sponsored construction empire in Africa: North Korea has long relied on unconventional means to earn hard currency in the face of sweeping international sanctions that have effectively shut off most legitimate export channels. One of the more distinctive methods […]
Read more »North Korea Courts Chinese Private Investors for Pyongyang Commercial Complex
April 6th, 2026
Via Daily NK, a report that the the Ministry of External Economic Affairs is leading effort to secure goods and foreign currency through private Chinese capital, as legal risks give investors pause: North Korea is pushing to develop a large commercial complex in Pyongyang’s Hwasong district and is actively courting Chinese private investors to fund it. According to a Daily NK source, […]
Read more »How North Korean Built Its African Empire of Stone and Steel
April 6th, 2026
Courtesy of the Daily NK, a look at how – from Zimbabwe to Botswana – Pyongyang’s monument builders left their mark For decades, North Korea has generated foreign currency by designing and constructing commemorative monuments across Africa — statues, museums, and public memorials built for governments from Algiers to Harare. International sanctions targeting this network have curtailed […]
Read more »How China Reinvented the BRI
April 3rd, 2026
Via Foreign Policy, a look at how Western tariffs accelerated the BRI’s transformation into a sophisticated extension of China’s industrial policy: Not long ago, Western policymakers were writing the obituary of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). That verdict is now dangerously obsolete. The stark reality of 2025 has shattered the narrative of a Chinese retreat. […]
Read more »Dominican Republic Is Next Frontier in US-China Space Race
March 26th, 2026
Via Bloomberg, a look at the Dominican Republic’s space ambitions: The retired US colonel behind a privately financed rocket launch site in the Dominican Republic sees the project as a response to China’s dominance of the space race in Latin America. Florida-based Launch on Demand is slated to begin building a $600 million facility in […]
Read more »The Politics of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway
March 26th, 2026
Via The Diplomat, a look at the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway: In late March 2026, during the celebration of the Central Asian new year, Nawruz, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov announced the latest target for the completion of China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan (CKU) railway: 2030. “If now we live in a ‘dead-end’ country between Europe and China, with the completion of the construction of […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.