The Marmot’s Hole

The Swiss current events magazine Facts (German) ran a piece by Harald Maass detailing a recent trip he took with fellow journalists and Chinese tourists to North Korea’s Rajin-Sonbong Free Economic and Trade Zone. The local South Korean press picked up on the story, with Yonhap providing a Korean-language summary of the piece (which, in turn, has been translated into an English-language summary by the Marmot’s Hole). Anyway, if you’d like to know more about the sordid dealings going on in North Korea’s oasis of capitalism, you’re encouraged to read on, comrades.

The Chinese tourism bus passed over the border bridge. “I’ll have to give North Korean girls a look tonight,” said a Chinese from Shanghai by the name of Kong. The middle-aged Chinese men who made up most of the tour group looked like they were enjoying themselves. After the bus out of Yenji, China entered North Korea, it followed a rough road for about two and a half hours. Along the way, we passed haggard-looking farmers and half-dilapidated wood-board houses. Our destination was the Rajin-Sonbong Free Economic and Trade Zone’s Emperor Hotel.

The hotel staff bowed and said in Chinese, “Welcome,” greeting the Chinese tour group. Mr. Kong and his group paid them no attention and made a beeline for the casino in the hotel lobby. Gambling is strictly prohibited in China. This is why countless Chinese come to Rajin-Sonbong every year.

The Emperor Hotel, built by Hong Kong’s Emperor Group four years ago, is a unique place in North Korea. It’s an oasis of capitalism in an extremely socialist nation that not so long ago had banned even markets for agricultural goods. The North Korean staff brought over hamburgers and Coke to the table. The symbolic foods of “The Enemy” here in North Korea! Ms. Park, our guide, smiled and explained that there were many Americans who wanted to come to Rajin-Sonbong, but because of the hostility of the U.S. government, the were unable to visit. She followed the journalists around persistently, not letting them alone even for a second. She said we were the first Europeans to visit Rajin-Sonbong this year. She said we could take photographs, but asked that we take photos of only good things.

The Emperor Hotel has 150 guest rooms, and only Chinese yuan and U.S. dollars are honored. North Koreans other than the staff or guides are unable to enter the Free Economic and Trade Zone. The young staff in the restaurant were wearing black baseball caps. They yearned for the kind of life in China. One staff member in his [or her] early 20s said, “I want to learn English and computers.”

The staff was forbidden from watching the Chinese or Japanese satellite TV channels available in the guest rooms. The North Koreans were only allowed to watch the propaganda broadcasts that praised the “Dear Leader.” The Emperor Hotel was the only place in the country were one could watch porno channels.

Besides gambling, sex was also very important for attracting Chinese tourists. There were advertisements that said if you went to the hotel’s sauna, satisfaction was guaranteed. Going into the karaoke bar, there were heavily made-up young Chinese women sitting and entertaining the male guests.

The casino was open 24 hours a day, but when it turned afternoon, Chinese were already occupying about half the tables. Most were playing baccarat or blackjack. A Mr. Wang from Shenyang said he came here to gamble. At the entrance were a couple of slot machines that seemed as if they came from the United States, and two young Chinese were putting in coins, cigarettes in hand. 750 yuan was sufficient for casino entrance and two day’s lodging. That’s about 115 Swiss francs.

The birth of the Rajin-Sonbong Free Economic and Trade Zone was thanks to late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung and the United Nations. Following China’s line of economic reform and opening, Kim made the zone in 1994, three years before he died [I think the writer was mistaken here, as Kim the Elder died in 1994 -- Marmot]. He accepted a blueprint from the United Nations Development Programme. Rajin-Sonbong was unsuccessful, however. By 2000, no more than US$35 million in foreign investment had entered the area. Only Hong Kong’s Emperor Group boldly invested large sums in the area.

Hong Kong business magnate Albert Yeung, who runs the Emperor Group, was arrested last year on charges of corruption. It’s known that most of the Chinese money spent in the Emperor Hotel is illegal cash. According to one of the Chinese, the president of one Chinese oil company hung himself in the basement after losing US$300,000 in the place.

In the evening, we took a bus tour of the downtown area with Ms. Park as guide. Most of the lights in the building were out, and there weren’t many vehicles on the roads. Most of the pedestrians looked as if they had been walking for some distance. The first place we stopped was a foreign language book store. On the back of the dusty bookshelves were two volumes of Kim Il-sung’s anthology. When we went to the market, old women were selling batteries, soap and other household goods brought from China. The commodity supply appeared relatively good.

When we returned to the casino, the atmosphere was in full swing. There was a brief commotion at the casino entrance; I went to find out why, and was told two North Korean had tried to sneak in, but were stopped by staff. A Chinese business man said to me, “This country isn’t normal. It’s still in the Cultural Revolution.”

Ms. Park sat in the lobby from start to finish, as if she were concerned we might try to head downtown on our own. Right before the bus left, she told us to pay. I paid in Chinese money. When I asked how much I should pay, she responded, “The more the better.”

An American grad student teaching at China’s Yanbian University of Science & Technology visited Rajin-Sonbong in 2001 — you might wish to read his description of the place as well.