[imText1]It is reported that a great quantity of pine mushrooms from North Korea has been smuggled into China. Pine mushrooms, a major source of earning foreign currency in North Korea, have become a topic of conversation in South Korea since Kim Jong Il gave the product as a gift to President Roh during the Inter-Korea Summit.<\/p>\n
Since the authorities in North Korea hold a monopoly on pine mushrooms, the domestic circulation and sale of this product is banned. The authorities punish severely individuals guilty of illegally circulating or smuggling pine mushrooms. <\/p>\n
Mr. Lee, a Chinese man who lives in North Korea and is engaged in trade between China and North Korea told DailyNK on October 20th in Dandong, China, \u201cIn spite of the risk of being caught, North Korean farmers are more and more willing to sell pine mushrooms to individual businessmen like myself because we pay additional 1,000 won for one kg of pine mushrooms as compared to what the state pays.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mr. Lee said, \u201cNorth Korean authorities purchase pine mushrooms for 2,000~3,000 won \/kg (equivalent to the price of 1~2kg of rice in late September). But we buy the product for about 3,000~4,000 won\/kg. Normally, an individual farmer produces about 20kg of pine mushrooms a year. This means, if the farmer sells the whole product to private businessmen, he can make extra 20,000 won. However, North Korean farmers usually sell us no more than 3~4kg of pine mushrooms due to fear.” <\/p>\n
Currently, the price of pine mushrooms is 10,000 won\/kg (approx. USD3.00) in Jangmadangs (markets) in Hamheung, the county\u2019s leading producer of pine mushrooms. Once they are circulated outside North Korea, the price for the finest product goes up to 200,000 won\/kg in South Korea (equivalent to 600,000 won in North Korea, approx. USD215).<\/p>\n
Pine mushrooms are mainly produced in Hamkyung and Kangwon Province and some parts of Pyongan Province. Around August and September, the authorities encourage the locals in these areas to pick mushrooms without any restrictions. Once collected the authorities exchange the picked mushrooms with rice or corn or buy them for a minimal price and then make a huge profit selling the product overseas. <\/p>\n
Mr. Lee said that the smuggling of pine mushrooms would be impossible if it had not been for assistance from border guards. He said that the smugglers conspire with the guards in advance, and then, prepare for smuggling; first they place the mushrooms into boxes, attach floating material to the bottom, and tie a rope around them so that they can swim across the river trailing the boxes. <\/p>\n
Mr. Lee said, \u201cSince pine mushrooms are banned from circulation, we need to conspire with relevant state bodies and the officers at every checkpoint in order to smuggle them into China. Moving those boxes into China is not that difficult as long as we have a deal with the border guards. It is surely less dangerous than smuggling people. In fact, the guards prefer making money in this way to making a profit through human smuggling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[imText1]It is reported that a great quantity of pine mushrooms from North Korea has been smuggled into China. Pine mushrooms, a major source of earning foreign currency in North Korea, have become a topic of conversation in South Korea since Kim Jong Il gave the product as a gift to President Roh during the Inter-Korea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":5372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n