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A commercial billboard featuring the latest sedan. Sound too familiar? Well, not if you're in the world's most reclusive communist country.
Pictures of cars mounted on four-by-ten meter boards standing six meters off the ground became visible in North Korea from late last year; not one, but in six spots in the heart of the communist regime.
The ad features the first car model the country has ever produced, "Hwiparam," alongside North Korean judo gold medalist Gae Sun-Hee and star actress Chung Hae-young.
"I don't think the billboards were put up to say they are now accepting capitalism. Instead, North Korea seems eager to show the world that it, too, has the technology to produce cars, and that the society has changed and improved that much more." said Kim Young-yoon, a researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
To make their statement even more prevalent, these prize cars can also be seen in seven-minute commercials on the tube in North Korea.
Since the first vehicle rolled off the assembly line in April 2002, a passenger sedan named "Hwiparam," which means "whistle," and a mini van called "Ppeokgugi" or "Cuckoo bird" in Korean, are assembled and sold in the North by a cross-border joint company called Pyeonghwa Motors Corporation.
Company CEO Park Sang-kwon says, the billboards are a symbol of both his success as well as a lesser "hermit Kingdom."
"In the long run, I see this business as the foundation for North Korea's development. So, we try to make it clear to them that this is not only our business, but more-so their business." Park said.
Hwiparam and Ppeokgugi carry a price tag of about US$12,500 to US$14,000, and their primary buyers are executives of the North's Workers' Party, heads of regional administrative bodies, as well as diplomats and foreign business people.
Though Pyeonghwa Motor's lines have a production capacity of 10,000 cars, only 314 were sold in 2003, and 519 is the goal for this year.
While the four-wheeled vehicles may still be a luxury for average North Koreans, Pyeonghwa Motors says times will soon change, adding, now is the time for investors to place their bets.
Arirang TV
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