With North Korea stabilizing its economy and giving development a high priority, Chinese companies and entrepreneurs have been actively but cautiously exploring more investment opportunities in the North Korean market.
They are more inspired as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was on Monday reported to have visited the renovated and expanded Taesong Department Store in Pyongyang, which is seen as a positive sign for the country to further develop its economy.
According to nkews.com, Kim said the new "modern department store" would provide Pyongyang residents with "fine quality" goods including groceries, clothing, shoes, housewares and stationery. He was also reported to have said that the shop will "sufficiently produce and sell quality daily necessities and mass consumer goods for the convenience of the people," the report said.
Lü Chao, a research fellow at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday that the move could inspire many Chinese companies, since it could be seen as a sign of North Korea's willingness to import more daily necessities as it strives to improve its residents' living standards.
Li Guang, foreign trade manager of Hot Tex Woolen Co, a fabric supplier in East China's Jiangsu Province, told the Global Times on Monday that North Korea has huge demand for textiles, and the move is a positive signal for companies like his that always want to ship more products to the country. "But since uncertainties remain, our export volumes are limited," Li said. Li's company exported fabrics worth $20,000 to North Korea last year.
Li said he's also planning to attend the Pyongyang International Trade Fair to assess the situation and look for more opportunities in the country. North Korea offers "an ocean of opportunities," said Li.
And Americans call this a shithole >inb4 actual majority of the population is still starving
Lincoln Miller
That's a reaction image face right there.
Eli Green
Walking around that store must feel so surreal. The colors, how perfect the products are stacked.
Its like a set from some Asian Truman show.
Camden Jones
Based, North Korean is best Korea.
Chase Gonzalez
Somehow I cannot take this news seriously. It actually feels quite sad to see this being news in the first place, Kim boy visiting a fucking mall. Jesus... how backwards is NK anyway? I should reassess my knowledge of the country.
Cameron Parker
The first steps toward Norks getting pozzed. What a shame.
Colton Cooper
That's how most well-stocked stores look, user.
Are Canadian stores super shithole, leafbro?
Adrian Powell
I just think everything in these pictures look so staged. Like they were never mean't for real people to enjoy. It's so fun to see these pictures, I ask myself if those bags of chips have real chips inside or just balls of Styrofoam to create volume?
These pictures just lack any sign of human activity in them. Like a really good CGI.
Blake Lee
Why do Asians countries continue to look better while European countries are getting worse by the day?
Hunter Long
Because they want it that way.
The West has a fascination in its own decline.
Wyatt Reyes
>he doesn't know what a properly stocked and organized supermarket looks like i didn't know things were this bad in leafland
Logan Mitchell
It's just one of many already existing malls in Pyongyang, just renovated recently as it is written in the passage And no, it's not staged, people do actually shop in those places even though it's mostly upper middle class who do so youtube.com/watch?v=XwQa7bcTdAU
Another recent example of socialist failure. This is a reminder that authoritarian nations will always turn to market-type economies since they can't and will never sustain themselves by themselves. Only way they can exceed is if they invade more land and take up more resources just like the USSR did and dissolve once the government debt is off of the charts or they quit and become a market economy.
Ryder Clark
>This is a reminder that authoritarian nations will always turn to market-type economies Supermarkets had already existed in communist nations for long, in fact it's one of the earliest things they've decided to implement from the west So it doesn't necessarily mean the end of socialism itself
Austin Howard
I assume they write down anything that could be taken as criticism?
Camden Green
NK looks comfy as heck. And there are white people there?
Anyone else have the feeling that North Korea is just a film set built by the US after they nuked the entire place in the 1950s. Big empty cities, everything looks like the Truman show, and the constant american propaganda that US uses them for: 1. North Korea is launching empty, film-prop missiles over japan!!! (300km above the planet's surface you fucking retards) 2. Evil loony leader just fed his government to dogs!! (who was later revealed to still be alive) 3. Evil loony batman villain just had his ex-girlfreind executed for blinking!! (who was later shown to still be alive) etc
