Building Africa

Those North Korean "fans" at the World Cup game with Portugal were employees - to use the term loosely - of the Mansudae Construction Company, working in Namibia. What does the Mansudae Construction Company do in Namibia? Well, one thing it does, throughout Africa, is build grandiose monuments and heroic sculptures in Juche-Socialist-Realism style to satisfy the tastes of Africa's rulers. The most famous - or notorious - is Senegal's African Renaissance, a huge muscled bronze figure which is the pride and joy (and source of income: he's taking a hefty cut of the entrance fee) of President Abdoulaye Wade. Equatorial Guinea, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo are also clients....and, yes, Namibia, with much-needed projects such as a Presidential Palace, and the Cemetery of National Heroes.

This piece at the Daily NK has more - with bonus pictures:

A Daily NK source in China revealed on the 18th, “Since 2000, North Korea has been earning colossal quantities of dollars through contracts for the Mansudae Overseas Project Group of Companies under the Mansudae Art Institute to construct sculptures.”

Mansudae Art Institute is an organization primarily dedicated to the idolization of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il through public works, one whose construction of edifices such as the Juche Tower and Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang has added to the status of the country.

It has also been building revolutionary monuments in African countries such as Ethiopia since the 1970s in order to maintain cordial relations with socialist states, but in the early 2000s started doing work in African countries to earn foreign currency as well.

According to the source, North Korea has earned $66.03 million from Namibia alone thanks to the construction of the Presidential Palace ($49 million); the Cemetery of National Heroes ($5.23 million); a military museum ($1.8 million); and Independence Hall ($10 million).

It has also earned almost $55 million from Angola via the António Agostinho Neto culture center ($40 million); Cabinda Park ($13 million); and the Peace Monument ($1.5 million)....

There are around 19.8㎢ set aside for a vacation spot for the president of Equatorial Guinea, which is supposed to earn Mansudae around $800,000, not to mention a government office building ($1.5 million), Luba Stadium ($6.74 million) and conference halls ($3.5 million).

The source also reported, “The money earned from these construction projects is managed by the No. 39 Department. Some of these dollars are used for domestic governance, while the rest go to secret accounts in Switzerland or Macau to become Kim Jong Il’s secret funds.”

Comments

[Peter Harley]

Not to mention the heroic statuary etc etc in Zimbabwe at places such as Blackberry Hill...er sorry, Heroes Acre.
Not sure if much revenue is generated though.

[Martin Adamson]

More info about the North Korean team's post WC prospects (Big houses or down the coal mine and whippings?)

http://www.thefootballramble.com/blog-full.asp?id=116

One interesting point: their mere participation meant big amounts of hard currency (ie their share of sponsorship and TV revenue) which, while trivial for the likes of the English FA, would be enough for the North Korean authorities to want to keep the team as strong as possible.