North Korea’s Efforts to Monopolize Its Food Supply
April 15th, 2023
Via The Diplomat, a report on North Korea’s food markets: Recently there have been reports from inside North Korea that a ban on the sale of rice and corn has been implemented in some parts of the country. News of the ban, which took effect in January, emerged as the North Korean government has moved […]
Read more »A Chinese Businessman on Doing Business Inside North Korea
April 10th, 2023
Via The Diplomat, commentary from a Chinese businessman doing business inside North Korea: The land route between Hunchun in China and Najin-Sonbong in North Korea was recently reopened after being closed for close to three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The reopening has enabled Chinese business owners who built factories in Najin-Sonbong – but […]
Read more »North Korea Wants More Control Over Farming Amid Food Shortage
March 4th, 2023
Via The Diplomat, a report that – as prospects for quickly resolving its food insecurity are dim – North Korea is restricting the operation of markets and devoting much of its scarce resources to its nuclear program: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to strengthen state control over agriculture and take a spate of […]
Read more »In North Korea, Almighty US Dollar Still Reigns Supreme
February 8th, 2023
Via NK News, commentary on how repeated currency reforms have eroded trust in the DPRK won, making foreign money essential for many transactions: North Korea has long allowed an unusual degree of private trade in foreign currency for a communist bloc country, and a new study has shone a light on just how common it […]
Read more »North Korea Mines New Revenue Sources in Its Trade With China
January 27th, 2023
Via The Diplomat, a report on the latest data which shows Pyongyang is continuing to adapt to U.N. sanctions, while trade is beginning to rebound from pandemic lows: North Korea has spent much of the pandemic financing its weapons programs and imports with stolen cryptocurrency. However, with trade between North Korea and China expanding in 2022, there […]
Read more »Russia, China: Bringing North Korea In From The Economic ‘Cold’?
January 25th, 2023
Courtesy of East Asia Forum, a look at North Korea and the potential for improved economic growth in 2023: At the beginning of 2022, North Korea’s strategic position looked bleak. The regime clung to its zero-COVID claim, leading to an almost total closure of the border with China and bringing trade to record lows. There were strong indications that […]
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.