Chinese Investors Bet on North Korea Opening, Home Prices Double in 2 Weeks

iFeng: 丹东楼市：浙江炒房团杀到 两亿元谈整栋楼购买

"China Business" reporter observed that due to North Korea peace talks and North Korea announced the abandonment of nuclear and will focus on all forces to carry out economic construction and other factors, China's border with North Korea, Dandong City, Liaoning Province once again attracted attention. The most obvious is the real estate market in Dandong. In a short period of time, Dandong's housing prices have seen a new round of skyrocketing prices.

However, during a multi-day investigation visit, the reporter found that along with the skyrocketing housing prices, the supply side of the real estate market is still “a fiendish dance”, and it is not uncommon for sellers to reluctantly sell, illegal pre-sale, or drop houses.

In addition, people in the industry have stated that although the general public are generally optimistic about the future of Dandong, China and the DPRK have great differences in terms of national conditions and other aspects. Coupled with the fact that Dandong “seeks to develop”, investors should face it squarely. In an interview with reporters, a number of industry experts suggested that investors or home buyers going to Dandong should avoid blindly following the trend.

...Many local real estate professionals in Dandong said that before April 20th, the housing price in the Dandong New Area is 3,000 to 4,000 yuan per square meter, and the average price is now 6,000 to 7,000 yuan. Linjiang and the school district also said that About 8,000 yuan.

North Korea Rhetoric and Reality

The South Korean stock market looks like it is about to explode to the upside. It made a new closing high in April. The intraday high from 2011 is 2231.47. A 1 percent gain will take out that high. EWY is also near its all-time high, showing that the advance in the KOSPI is not due to currency devaluation.

If any market should be nervous about a war on the Korean Peninsula, it would be the South Korean stock market. Seoul is within range of North Korean artillery. As the economic, cultural and population center of South Korea, it is a prime target for a North Korean attack. Even if South Korea wins a total victory in a war, Seoul could still suffer substantial damage. The South Koreans do not appear worried though.

North Korea Opens

A story almost completely ignored by the American media.

Under Kim Jong-un, North Korean property prices are soaring

The new entrepreneurial class is openly, if passively, tolerated. Some are merchants who have got rich from buying and selling food and household items. Others are officials in charge of state-run enterprises who effectively run them as private businesses.

“If you’re a rich North Korean, there’s not much you can do with your money,” Lankov says. “The banks pay no interest, so the only way to accumulate capital is by buying real estate.”

All property is officially owned by the state and bestowed by the government on families, who have no title deed.

Property dealers get around this by “swapping” homes. The one moving to the less desirable property is “compensated” with US dollars — and a bribe to a helpful bureaucrat ensures that all the official paperwork is in order.

What Is Money?

Illegal Sale of ‘Double Portrait’ Lapel Pins Flourishes in North Korea

Ordinary North Koreans are illegally buying highly sought-after lapel pins of the reclusive country’s founder Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il and using them in lieu of cash to pay for accommodations, meals and drinks, sources inside the country said.

Low-level administrators who work for North Korea’s Workers’ Party and judiciary, university students, and members of the middle class who have money to buy the rare “double-portrait” pins are obtaining them illegally in local markets.

“With the double-portrait [lapel pin], people can take care of one day of room and board in other regions [of the country] or drink with their friends by using it when they need money,” said a source in Yanggang province, which is bordered by China to the north.

“In a restaurant or [when paying for] accommodations, the double-portrait is worth 20 Chinese yuan (U.S. $3.20),” he said.

Not only are these pins being used as money, but they are also serving as a way to preserve capital. Furthermore, even though the double portrait pins are only issued to officials, production of the pins has kept up with demand and the price has been falling......

North Korea prepares for speedy opening of the economy

North Korea prepares for speedy opening of the economy

North Korea is planning an economic opening of the country to foreign investors. According to the FAZ, the communist country and with the advice of discreet German economists and lawyers. "There is a master plan," said a scientist involved in the deliberations of this newspaper. "They want the opening later this year."

Interest in the impoverished and isolated country shows especially in a modern investment legislation. For the opening, however, apparently does not copy the Chinese model primarily with special economic zones for foreign investors. "Rather, they are interested in the Vietnamese blueprint, where companies are specifically selected for investment," said the scientist, who teaches at a prestigious German university.

This is completely under the radar in the U.S., but the Chinese financial pages have had non-stop coverage of North Korea's opening. In fact, there are even North Korea concept stocks in China—companies that have some business or plan business in North Korea were a hot topic last autumn.

North Korea's opening will be a big story in 2013 and it also has major foreign policy implications. The future of America's role in East Asia will even come into question.

North Korea is opening up

North Korean leader seeks end to confrontation with South

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict, in a surprise New Year speech broadcast on state media.

The address by Kim, who took over power in the reclusive state after his father, Kim Jong-il, died in 2011, appeared to take the place of the policy-setting New Year editorial published in leading state newspapers.

But North Korea has offered olive branches before and Kim's speech does not necessarily signify a change in tack from a country which vilifies the United States and U.S. ally South Korea at every chance it gets.

I believe it is different this time. Korea is opening up its economy and their only supporter, China, would like to push the United States out of Northeast Asia. North Korea has its owns reasons to end 60 years of self-imposed exile, while China sees reunification as positive for China.

Know your social mood: North Korea is opening up

North Korea is slowly opening up the country with economic reforms. Chinese businessmen are the main participants given North Korea's political isolation.

Evolving Pyongyang

However, the interpreter also told him that the unofficial private markets in North Korea, which were highly opposed by Kim Jong Il, are thriving nowadays. The middle-aged women who sell products on the streets of Dacheng and Shunan districts no longer need to worry about being arrested. Farmers are allowed to sell 30-50 percent of their harvest in these markets.