DPRK Premier Visits PY Autumn International Trade Fair

DPRK Premier Pak Pong Ju tours the 9th Pyongyang Autumn International Trade Fair at the Three Revolutions Exhibition in Pyongyang on 24 September 2013. The trade fair will run until 26 September 2013 (Photo: Rodong Sinmun).

DPRK Premier Pak Pong Ju toured the 9th Pyongyang Autumn International Trade Fair on 24 September (Tuesday).  According to KCNA, Pak looked at “CNC [computer numerical control] lathes, automobiles, tractors, a variety of tiles and other goods produced by technicians and workers of the DPRK and exhibits presented by different countries and regions” and he “underscored the need to produce more goods of world competitive edge and popular among people.”  Pak also “stressed that the trade fair would serve as a good opportunity for promoting friendship and unity among countries and expanding wide-ranging and many-sided economic trade dealings, introduction of goods and exchange of science and technology.”

Director of the Korean International Exhibition Corporation Pak Ung Sik (L) and DPRK Vice Minister of Foreign Trade So Kil Bok (R) speak at the trade fair’s opening ceremony in Pyongyang on 23 September 2013 (Photo: KCTV screengrab).

DPRK Vice Premier Kang Sok Ju (1) and Minister of Foreign Trade Ri Ryong Nam (2) visit a company booth at the 9th Pyongyang Autumn International Trade Fair on 23 September 2013 (Photo: KCNA screengrab).

Juana Navarrete Mendoza of the Cuban chemical and pharmaceutical company LABIOFAM is interviewed by DPRK state media at the 9th Pyongyang Autumn International Trade Fair (Photo: KCNA).

Images of the opening day of the 9th Pyongyang Autumn International Trade Fair at the Three Revolutions Exhibition on 23 September 2013 (Photos: KCNA).

The trade fair began on 23 September (Monday) with an opening ceremony.  Attending the ceremony were DPRK Vice Premier Kang Sok Ju, Minister of Foreign Trade Ri Ryong Nam, Vice Chairman of the Pyongyang Municipal (city) People’s Committee Kim Song Dok, DPRK Chamber of Commerce Chief and Commercial Office Director Ri Hak Gwon along with “delegations of foreign countries and regions, diplomatic envoys of different countries here and their embassy officials” and participants in the trade fairs (North Korea Tech provided a list of companies and countries represented in its report on the trade fair’s opening).  Director of the Korean International Exhibition Corporation Pak Ung Sik and Vice Minister of Foreign Trade So Kil Bok delivered speeches in which they said “the trade fair will offer a good occasion in promoting friendship and unity and boosting broad and multi-faceted economic trade, introducing goods and conducting scientific and technological exchange among countries” and “expressed their will to steadily expand and develop bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the fields of the economy and trade with foreign countries and regions on the principle of equality and mutual benefit.”