Curious world of North Korea's exports – from badger furs to 'strength pills'

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/12/north-korea-exports-badger-furs-strength-pills

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Fur coats and pills that claim to increase strength are among North Korea’s more unusual exports, according to the most recent issue of a trade magazine covering DPRK companies looking to sell their products abroad.

Other products advertised include: 'tea for good health', hosiery and high performance plastic pipes

Foreign Trade – a state owned magazine – carries a prominent two-page spread featuring the products of the Taehung Fur Trading Corporation. It claims to deal in leather, fur garments and artificial furs for export, and has shipped its products to “Asia and Europe”.

“The corporation is striving to further develop furskin (sic) processing techniques, put the production lines on a modern footing and strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the outside world,” the article reads.

The corporation claims to use furs from various animals including some that are not indigenous to North Korea: it lists silver fox, nutria (also known as a river rat), otter, badger and rabbit.

In February, an article in South Korean media indicated Pyongyang elite were wearing fur coats that were being dubbed “Putin winter coats”, though this appears to be the first time North Korean furs have been advertised specifically for export.

“I have not heard about [North Korea’s] fur trade,” says Kim Young-hui, the head of the North Korea economy team at the Korea Development Bank.

Other products advertised in the magazines pages include: “different kinds of tea for good health”, hosiery, high performance plastic pipes and jewellery to “purify the blood”.

Related: North Korea’s budding entrepreneurs get a taste of western business

According to the International Trade Centre and the UN, clothes and textiles are one of the DPRK’s largest exports, though are a distant second behind coal. The majority of North Korean products end up in neighbouring China.

Cure-all pills?

A pill with a wide array of supposed health benefits is also advertised in the most recent issue of the trade magazine.

While companies purporting to sell elixirs are by no means limited to North Korea, the advertised advantagesof taking the “nutrition” pills are remarkable.

Among the supposed benefits are “strengthening growth hormones” and “increasing sexual function in the elderly”. The pill can also be taken by children to promote growth, help with mental concentration and benefit athletes, help relieve fatigue, car sickness and anaemia, the article claims.

The pill’s ingredients are a mix of various vitamins and “physiological activators”, it reads.

This is not the first time North Korea has produced medicinal products for export, according to experts.

“If they’re capable of manufacturing Viagra , it must be easy for them to make somemedicine pill that is believed to have all kind of positive effects,” Kim Seung-chul from NK Reform Radio said.

The article does not mention any side effects of taking the pill, and gives only vague instructions on dosage. Two or three pills should be taken “several times a day”, but children should take only one or two.

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“North Korea certainly does not have to care about global medical standards. As I believe most of those pills go into the market in China and some in Korea (where oriental medicine is more common),” Bang Jun-seok, a professor of medicine at Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul,said.

“What is equally important as the effectiveness of medicine, is it’s toxicity. All of medicines are double-bladed sword. If North Korea has not proven the toxicity of above medicine, it could cause big problem in the future.”