The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- All aboard for cruising, North Korean style
- FACTBOX - Cost estimates of Storm Irene on U.S. states
- China, Russia rush to rebuild North Korea's transport links
| All aboard for cruising, North Korean style Posted: 30 Aug 2011 09:29 PM PDT ABOARD THE MANGYONGBYONG, North Korea (Reuters) - When you think of taking a cruise, usually it's the Bahamas, Fiji or the Maldives that generally come to mind. How about North Korea? On Tuesday, the mysterious state launched itself into the glitzy world of cruise tourism when about 130 passengers set sail from the rundown port of Rajin, near the China-Russia border, for the scenic Mount Kumgang resort near the South Korean border. Isolated North Korea's "state tourism bureau" has teamed up with a Chinese travel company to run the country's first ever cruise aboard an ageing 9,700 tonne vessel which once plied the waters off the east coast of the divided peninsula shuttling passengers between North Korea and Japan. The ship was later used to transport cargo before Tokyo blocked its entry as part of economic sanctions over Pyongyang's missile and nuclear tests in 2006. Some 500 North Koreans, about half dressed in dark workers clothes and the others in office and traditional attire, waved off the ship in a strictly choreographed performance on the potholed dock. The spectators waved North Koreans flags and fake flowers, and let off a blast of paper fireworks to mark the occasion. Carnival music blared from two minivans with speakers on their roofs. Before the setting off, the vice mayor Hwang Chol-nam of Rason City, of which Rajin port is a part, gave a speech lauding the venture as part of the region's push to attract tourism. Hwang hailed what his city's rule which allows any nationality to visit the area visa-free. They must, however, arrange the trip through a designated tour companies. "Any country, people from America, Japanese, Singaporean can come to Rason, that's the reality today, and that's the same for the Kumgang special economic zone," he told reporters aboard the vessel. "If any foreign companies have an interest in conducting tours they just need to contact our companies." The region has this year stepped up its campaign to woo foreign capital and in June broke ground on joint project with China to develop the area as special economic zone in attempt to make much needed hard currency. The secretive North has been squeezed by international sanctions for its pursuit of nuclear weapons. The North's move to attract foreign tourists comes amid a dispute with South Korea over their stalled joint tour programme at Mount Kumgang, just north of the border with rival South Korea. Last week the North expelled the last remaining South Koreans at the resort and said it would now sell off South Korean assets valued at nearly $320 million in a move that prompted Seoul on Tuesday to ask others not to invest. Earlier this month, a New York-based company said it had signed a deal with North Korea to run tours to the Kumgang resort. The bizarre "test" sail was scheduled to take about 18 hours. A second trip is planned for businessmen next month. The cruise, which sails the length of North Korea's picturesque eastern coastline, will appeal not only to the adventurous seeking "something different", but also to gamblers wanting to try their luck at the North's casinos in Rason and Kumgang. (Editing by by David Chance) Copyright © 2011 Reuters | ||
| FACTBOX - Cost estimates of Storm Irene on U.S. states Posted: 30 Aug 2011 09:29 PM PDT REUTERS - The following are preliminary estimates of costs and damage left in the wake of Hurricane Irene on a state-by-state basis of affected areas.
WASHINGTON, D.C. The city's chief financial officer received a request from the mayor for $10 million from the city's emergency contingency fund for recovery from both Irene and the earthquake that hit the city earlier in the week. The money will be released quickly, according to a CFO spokesman. Mayor Vincent Gray said that the nation's capital "fared relatively well." The dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial was postponed from Sunday, during the brunt of Irene's deluge. Lost tourism-related revenue will not show up in the city's sales tax reports until October. NORTH CAROLINA State officials in North Carolina are assessing damage and are not yet issuing broad estimates of losses, though farmers and seaside businesses are among those bracing for possibly substantial financial fallout. Farming and agribusiness in North Carolina are a $70 billion industry and 75 percent of the industry is in the state's eastern counties hit by the storm just at the start of the harvest season. Hotel operators, restaurants and vacation-home renters in North Carolina's Outer Banks worried that tourists in large numbers will skip a Labor Day-weekend visit to the resort region, even as parks and other attractions reopened. "Flooding remains a serious concern for a number of areas down east," North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue said Monday. "Homes and buildings are at risk along portions of the Northeast Cape Fear and Tar rivers." NEW YORK As a result of the record heavy rains caused by Hurricane Irene, there is historic flooding occurring in the region that has damaged numerous roads and bridges, destroyed 500 to 600 homes and devastated thousands of acres of farmland. On Tuesday, New York State formally asked the federal government for an "expedited major disaster declaration" to cope with the widespread damage caused by Hurricane Irene, with at least 26 counties still devastated, the governor said. "The public assistance would reimburse communities for the costs incurred for debris removal and emergency protective actions taken in response to Hurricane Irene," Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. NEW JERSEY New Jersey is one of the hardest-hit states, partly because it is so vulnerable to flooding. The price tag for damage could be substantial, perhaps in the "billions of dollars," Governor Chris Christie told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. On Tuesday, Christie asked the federal government for the same expedited disaster declaration for the state as New York. Atlantic City casino resorts, closed ahead of the storm, reopened on Monday and Christie, who ordered tourists and residents of vulnerable barrier islands to evacuate, tried to lure them back. Shore hotels, restaurants, fishing boats and others see their profits rise and fall with the weather, and Labor Day, often one of their most profitable weeks in summer, is Monday. Still, in a sign of how much damage was done, some localities in coastal areas have not been able to reopen offices. PENNSYLVANIA No estimates available CONNECTICUT No estimates available MASSACHUSETTS Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency spokesman Peter Judge said they have no idea what the cost estimates are at this point. It will only be the latter part of this week that preliminary damage assessment teams venture out to start to put an early dollar figure on the hurricane damage. Between last Wednesday and the end of today, Cape Cod and the Islands are estimated to have lost about two-thirds of their normal hospitality business, amounting to about $35 million, according to Wendy Northcross, CEO of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce. Northcross said that some of the losses are being made up as residents who lost power seek out hotels, and restaurants are packed. "I hate to say it, but we are also getting people who say, "We were planning on going to Vermont but we're thinking of changing our plans." VERMONT It is a little too early to assess the impact on tourism, the second largest industry in Vermont after agriculture. "We're still gathering that information and assessing it," said Vicky Parra Tebbetts, senior vice president of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. "I don't anticipate whole towns are going to be stranded and cut off from the rest of the world for months on end, but the long-term repair of roads is another issue." Jerry Goldberg, Executive Director of the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce, one of the areas in Vermont hit hard by flooding, said that most of downtown Brattleboro businesses will not be affected by the flooding in terms of lost inventory or direct impact. But he said tourism will be affected for a long time because people will have difficulty moving around the state. "The real devastation is to our roads and bridges and access and egress issues," he said. "The impact of all of that is yet to be felt." RHODE ISLAND Rhode Island Governor spokeswoman Christine Hunsinger said it is still early and she does not have any cost/damage estimates. She expects a briefing but could give no timeframe. MAINE No estimates available VIRGINIA The state's emergency management agency told Reuters damage assessment teams are going out and it will have a better idea about when estimates will be available by the end of the week. MARYLAND No estimates available DELAWARE No estimates available (Reporting by Joan Gralla in New York, Lisa Lambert in Washington, Michael Connor in Miami and Toni Clarke and Lauren Keiper in Boston; Editing by James Dalgleish) Copyright © 2011 Reuters | ||
| China, Russia rush to rebuild North Korea's transport links Posted: 30 Aug 2011 09:29 PM PDT RAJIN, North Korea (Reuters) - Destitute North Korea's push to breathe new life into economic relationships with its neighbours China and Russia appears to be bearing fruit in its far north of the country where foreigners are busy helping rebuild a crumbling infrastructure.
A top local official told reporters on Tuesday that China and Russia had invested heavily in the region in order to gain access to its three east coast ports in the towns of Rajin and Songbon, which are the main centres for the secretive North's Rason Special Economic Zone. "Rason is situated well geographically, and provides favourable conditions for investment," the city's vice mayor Hwang Chol-nam said through an interpreter. The ports would more than halve the distance Chinese firms needed to ferry goods from landlocked Yanji in Jilin province to the major industrial centre of Dalian which is also a shipping hub for northeast China. Impoverished and squeezed by international sanctions for conducting a series of nuclear and missile tests from 2006, North Korea has reached out to Moscow and Beijing for help to fill the gap left by the drying up of South Korean and the U.S. economic assistance. Over the past 15 months leader Kim Jong-il, who in the past rarely travelled abroad, has visited China four times and last week made his first trip to Russia in nearly a decade. Kim's visits were mainly aimed at winning economic support, and have raised speculation he may finally be opening one of the world's most closed economies. The North announced in June it would work with Beijing to make the Rason zone work, along a similar zone in the west at Hwanggumpyong island near the Chinese city of Dandong. VISIT TO RASON North Korean authorities this week escorted a group foreign journalists to the lush Rason area where they are hoping to secure foreign investment and raise much needed hard currency. Over 100 Chinese bulldozers and diggers were seen working on a new mountain road connecting the Chinese border post of Jing Xin and the North Korean ports, while a new railway line linking the area with Russia is all but complete. Hwang said that the North had also agreed in principle with a Chinese company to build a coal-fired power plant in the so-called Rason Special Economic Zone, where like the rest of North Korea, there is little power. "We have finished all the feasibility studies," he told reporters visiting the area, adding he hoped construction on the new thermal plant would start next year. Asked the name of the Chinese company, he said: "It's a secret". Hwang said the power plant would be coal-fired with a maximum capacity of 600,000 kilowatts. "Power is the lifeline of industry, that is the first urgent problem for developing the Rason Economic Development Zone," he said, adding the zone had introduced new laws permitting international banking transactions, as well as tax incentives. The North faces acute energy shortages, and in Songbin a massive thermal coal-fired plant lies idle, while oil refinery, complete with 30 massive tanks, sits derelict. At night, Rajin is pitch black except for the few buildings with their own generators. Russian engineers were seen working on the new rail line just outside of Songbon, about 20 km north of Rajin. "The Russians have constructed the railroad from the border city of Khasan to Rajin port, and they are finishing the project this year," he said, adding Russia has leased one of the ports. The special economic zone near the border with Russia and China, was initially instigated in the early 1990s, but the project fell by the wayside due to lack of interest from foreign investors. Hwang said the country's leader Kim Jong-il visited the area in 2009, and issued a directive to push ahead with the plan to promote international trade in cargo, and to develop the local fishing and tourism industries. But even with the improved infrastructure, the twin ports still have a long way to go. A port meant for timber appeared to be in ruins, while the ports in the Songbon were rundown. Rusted and hole-ridden giant water pipes ran along another port near the derelict thermal power plant. In the biggest port, Rajin, a 250-metre Russian transport vessel, named "Friendship", was moored with a trickle of smoke coming from its engines. It was unclear if it was operational. None of the 15 giant cranes cargo were operating on the any of the three piers. A few fishing trawlers and small boats were tied to the piers, the longest of which measured about 500 metres. Foreign experts say the North's plans to develop the port may just work given China's close involvement but doubt it will ever turn into major cargo hub. Hwang said there had been considerable interest, mostly from Chinese and Russian companies, but also from Thai and Swiss investors. He said China's biggest cement manufacturer, Jilin Yatai (Group) Co. had agreed to build a factory with a 1 million tonne per year capacity. Textile companies from China and Taiwan have also expressed their interest. Hwang also had his eyes on even bigger things -- shipbuilding, auto manufacture and the hi-tech industry. "I think one year after the completion of infrastructure we will be at a high stage." (Editing by David Chance and Jonathan Thatcher) Copyright © 2011 Reuters |
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