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When Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Seung-yu was in Pyongyang for the inter-Korean summit as a representative of the financial sector, he was most impressed by the faces of North Korea's women.
"I was surprised to see how many North Korean women have had double eyelid cosmetic surgery," Kim said. "I commented on it to Hyundai Business Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun, and she said the surgery is booming among North Korean women."
Kim paid keen attention to the appearance of the women of the North because he believes it's possible to divine the state of a nation's economy by how its women tend to their appearance.
"The fact that women are interested in cosmetic surgery means they don't have to worry about bread-and-butter issues," he said. "Finance has to follow the real economy, so I saw a possibility for the South's finance industry to advance into the North."
He has more evidence to back up his theory. "The waitresses and female staff at restaurants and hotels were all wearing makeup. And their makeup looked pretty good, so I guess this indicates they wear it regularly," he said.
Kim also saw potential for progress in North Korea by examining its buckwheat noodles. "Traditional North Korean noodles break apart easily, but this time the buckwheat noodles in the North were quite similar to the ones in the South," he said. "That suggests that the exchanges between the two Koreas are bringing change to the North."
One idea that Kim has for Pyongyang's financial leaders is micro-credit loans to allow low-income North Koreans to start their own businesses. He got the idea from Chinese-Korean private money lenders. Small markets are currently mushrooming in North Korean cities, and people buy and sell booths for a premium. Chinese-Korean private money lenders are dominating this area.
"They say money lending and prostitution are the oldest professions in history," Kim said. "With the ideas of markets and private property being gradually introduced into North Korea, I think there's a lot of room for commercial lenders to take root there."
Meanwhile, some industry insiders wonder why the Hana Financial Group chairman was selected to represent the finance industry, instead of the heads of state-run financial institutions or Woori Bank or Nonghyup, which operate in North Korea.
In response to this, Kim said he is deeply interested in the North Korean economy so he completed a six-month course at Kyungnam University¡¯s North Korean Studies.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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