North Korea began two days of talks with the US in New York on Monday in what Washington officials described as a bid to educate the country about international financial standards of conduct.
The talks are part of a thawing in US-North Korean ties that began when Pyongyang agreed to abandon its nuclear arms programs.
According to a German expert, Pyongyang is keen to learn how capitalism works but fears that efforts to open up the economy could destabilize its system.
"They are not sure about the effects on their own society or their own position," said Bernard Seliger, the Seoul-based representative of a German think tank, the Hans Seidel Foundation.
"They know what happened in Eastern Europe and the consequences for the ruling elite there," he said yesterday.
The foundation runs regular EU-funded workshops in Pyongyang to teach North Korean officials how to do business with the West and establish an export strategy.
Seliger, who returned on Sunday from his latest visit, said North Korean officials are especially interested in the mechanics of foreign trade and in the global economy.
But leaders are moving carefully out of fear of domestic instability.
"They want cooperation, but in a very minimal way," Seliger said.
"They want foreign currency, they want to be able to export their goods and they want access to the international financial system -- but somehow without having to make any institutional changes," Seliger said.
Seliger said participants in the foundation's programs -- around 50 people at a time on average -- still bristled at words like "integration" or "reform," but there was extensive discussion on international affairs.
After decades of isolation during which its command economy foundered, North Korea appears to be opening up to the world.
Senior officials have toured Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Russia in recent months and diplomatic relations with several countries have been established or restored.
Seliger, whose foundation began its training programs in 2003, said course members were becoming significantly more relaxed in their interaction with foreigners.
North Korean officials have also been working with the Swiss Foreign Ministry recently to try out a bank credit program for farmers, he said.
"I'm confident that all this contact with the wider world will change people in the long run," Seliger said.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It