Felix Abt - A Capitalist in North Korea

COPYRIGHT

A CAPITALIST IN NORTH KOREA
My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom
Felix Abt

Copyright 2012 by Felix Abt. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission from the author.

ISBN (ePub Edition): 978-1-937572-92-1

All images in this book are the property of the author, unless otherwise mentioned.
For Permissions, please contact the author via the website:
www.a-capitalist-in-north-korea.com

A Capitalist in North Korea

My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom

by

Felix Abt

ABOUT THIS BOOK

A Capitalist in North Korea: My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom is the memoir of Felix Abt, a Swiss entrepreneur who worked in the worlds most isolated, Stalinist fortress over the past decade. Abt offers in-depth portraits of the thrills, adventures, hurdles and even accusations of spying while working behind the worlds last Iron Curtain. He finds a side of North Korea that is far from sinisterone that has been lost in the flood of accounts from defectors, journalists, activists, and politicians who have pummeled the nation into isolation.

Few outsiders have been granted such wide access to the mysterious hermit kingdom. Abt visited seven out of nine provinces and more than two dozen cities, interviewing hundreds of high-ranking communist officials and ordinary North Koreans. He became a figurehead in bringing capitalism to North Korea through all sorts of whimsical and unexpected projects: the Pyongyang Business School, the European Business Association in Pyongyang, and ventures in pharmaceuticals, precious metal extraction, and bottled water.

Did you know, for instance, that plastic surgery and South Korean drama shows are all the rage among the women of Pyongyang? That the capital offers a line-up of decent hamburger joints? That young North Koreans are eagerly signing up for business courses in preparation for market reforms? And that United Nations sanctions are the biggest obstacle to doing legitimate business in the DPRK? With more than 200 photographs taken by the author, A Capitalist in North Korea offers an account of the unknown aspects of North Korea, looking beyond tales of famine and suffering.

PRAISE FOR A CAPITALIST IN NORTH KOREA

This inside account of life as a Western businessman in North Korea is uniquely first-hand and up-to-date. Combining general insights and precise examples drawn from seven years as a foreign businessman in Pyongyang and from his interaction with the North Korean elite and middle class, Felix Abt supplements and balances important works on the suffering of ordinary North Koreans during the great famine of the 1990s and on the dangerous nuclear gamble played by the countrys leadership. The author offers a multifaceted insight into a facet of reality in North Korea that is often either not seen or deliberately ignored in the West. This book challenges many of our views of an allegedly isolated and static country. It is a must-read for everyone who is seriously interested in understanding important aspects of the inner dynamics and the development of North Korea in the 21st century.

R DIGER F RANK, N ORTH K OREA EXPERT AND ECONOMICS PROFESSOR, U NIVERSITY OF V IENNA

This new book on North Korea is the extraordinary one. The sudden influx of analytical and documentary literature on the DPRK, which the world has seen from the late 1990s, can be broadly divided into the texts that show how terrible life in North Korea is, and the works that speculate on what is wrong with North Korea. Felix Abt, a Swiss entrepreneur who lived and worked in the last communist Hermit Kingdom for seven years, attempts to depict life in North Korea as normal despite the huge ideological pressure from inside and harsh treatment from outside. To date only famed historians, Bruce Cumings and Gavan McCormack, succeeded in showing North Korea from such unusual angle. As a business entrepreneur, Felix Abt prefers to stay apolitical and impartial when sharing his thoughts and memories of the seven-year sojourn. From the book we can see that he loves Korea and cares about its people. In his assessments of North Koreas past and present the author approaches all issues from a human (and humanistic) perspective, trying to show life in the country without political or ideological colouring.

L EONID P ETROV, LECTURER IN K OREAN S TUDIES, T HE U NIVERSITY OF S YDNEY

Very few Westerners can match Felix Abts depth of hands-on business experience in North Korea. Not only similarly adventurous would-be investors and traders in the Hermit Kingdom but also members of my own fraternity of Pyongyang-watchers will want to peruse his useful new book for the otherwise unavailable details and unique insights it provides. Dont look for apologies here. The author strongly believes, and argues, that the use of international sanctions to isolate the country from the global economy is a counterproductive policy.

B RADLEY K . M ARTIN, LONGTIME A SIA NEWS CORRESPONDENT AND AUTHOR OF U NDER THE L OVING C ARE OF THE F ATHERLY L EADER: N ORTH K OREA AND THE K IM D YNASTY

Before there was Orascom there was Pyongsu Pharmaceutical Co. In this book Swiss businessman Felix Abt discusses a cross section of topics related to North Korea, a country about which the author has gathered a great deal of information and business know-how as one of the countrys first western resident investors and social entrepreneurs. The strongest parts of the book are those that deal with the authors first-hand experiences in solving problems that come along with establishing and running a firm that produces high-quality pharmaceuticals in North Korea. Although many expected and unexpected obstacles business persons must address in the areas of operations, logistics, management and finance within the DPRK are discussed, the book is also peppered with interesting anecdotes and stories about cultural and private life in the DPRK that do not typically receive attention in the western media (at one point the author offers a North Korean joke about adultery).

C URTIS M ELVIN, BLOGGER, N ORTH K OREA E CONOMY W ATCH

In certain respects, this book may be compared to Peter Olszewskis Land of a Thousand Eyes. The Subtle Pleasures of Everyday Life in Myanmar (Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2005). Both authors describe their colorful personal experiences in countries whose coverage in the Western mass media has been mostly confined to stories about the repressive practices and military ambitions of their ruling autocrats, and about the political, social, and economic hardship suffered by ordinary citizens. Both Abt and Olszewski seek to counter these simplified and often sensationalist images by more or less skirting subjects of a political and security nature, and instead drawing attention to other, less martial aspects of life in North Korea and Burma, such as cultural traditions, gender relations, social customs, education, forms of entertainment, and last but not least the art of making business.

B ALZS S ZALONTAI, AUTHOR, K IM I L S UNG IN THE K HRUSHCHEV E RA

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Felix Abt is a Swiss entrepreneur and expert on business in North Korea. From 2002 to 2009, he worked as one of the few Western businessmen in Pyongyang. He was co-founder and first president of the European Business Association in Pyongyang, a de facto European Chamber of Commerce and the first foreign chamber of commerce. He also co-founded the Pyongyang Business School, imparting market skills in the next generation of leaders.

Previously, Abt worked all over Europe, Africa and Asia as a senior executive for multinationals such as F. Hoffmann-La Roche and the robotic company, ABB Group. In 2002, ABB appointed him first as resident country director in North Korea. He went on to become a point man for Western investments in the country, representing several multinational corporations and even founding a business of his own.

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