Yes, North Korea makes cars, and here are the latest models

Mashable

World

The United States has Ford. Germany has Volkswagen. Japan has Toyota. And North Korea has Pyeonghwa Motors.

Run by Kim Jong-un’s regime, the company produces a lil’ number of vehicles at its factory in the city of Nampo, a seaport on North Korea’s west coast. At its foot dealership in the capital Pyongyang, visitors can view its lineup up close, take a test drive and even purchase spare parts.

Andray Abrahamian, research director at North Korea-focused nonprofit Choson Exchange, visited the showroom last month, and provided Mashable brochures on the current selection of twenty five models:

The promotional materials list specifications such as fuel consumption and max speed for models with names such as “Cuckoo” and “Land of Korea.”

Tho’, despite their powerful-sounding nameplates, the cars are decidedly lacking in the horsepower department. In fact, most produce around eighty or fewer horsepower. To put that into perspective, the best-selling car in America, the Toyota Camry produces one hundred seventy eight horses.

What the cars lack in off the line oomph, tho’, they more than make up for with distinctive styling. While some look like Kia or VW rip-offs, others seem to have been conceived during a toddler’s fever desire. That grey SUV thing is especially questionable.

“If there is a parking lot with a duo dozen cars, at least a duo will be Pyonghwa,” Abrahamian says.

He says the vehicles advertised were priced at $Ten,000 to $30,000, and mostly appeared to be built from knock-down kits (things that are manufactured in one country but sent to another for final assembly) — in keeping with Pyeonghwa Motor’s beginnings, when its cars were known to be based on models from Fiat and Chinese carmaker Shuguang, also known as SG Automotive.

Pyeonghwa Motors, whose name is Korean for “peace,” was formed in one thousand nine hundred ninety nine out of a partnership inbetween South Korea’s controversial Unification Church and Ryonbong General Corp., a corporation managed by the North Korean government.

Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the late leader of the church, preached against communism, but spotted the joint venture as a way to foster peace and reconciliation inbetween North and South Korea, which had been locked in a tense standoff since the division of the peninsula after World War II.

In 2013, the church transferred total ownership to North Korea, following complaints about poor sales and meagre profits. Since then, information about the hard — like most things in North Korea — has been hard to come by. There’s been even less official information released from the rock-hard, and no one who has visited has been permitted to report about its internal workings.

What is certain is that Pyeonghwa’s operations are petite. Abrahamian said one staff member at the dealership told him it produced 1,600 cars last year. In 2011, the carmaker, which then had a South Korean office, reported that it made 1,450 cars that year.

Simon Cockerell, general manager of North Korea travel company Koryo Tours, said the cars make up a sizable minority of the vehicles on the country’s streets, where imports are more commonly seen.

“I would estimate around ten to 20% of the cars in Pyongyang are Pyeonghwa vehicles,” he said. “In the other cities and countryside, it’s not as high a proportion. Overall, they are reasonably common.”

While billboards lauding the automaker are among the only advertisements in the country, most North Koreans can only fantasy of actually possessing one of its cars. Not only does most of the population live in dire poverty, the regime strenuously restricts private car ownership to a select few. Even tho’ visitors to the capital say traffic in Pyongyang has enlargened considerably in latest years, vehicles still remain few and far inbetween via the country.

Yes, North Korea makes cars, and here are the latest models

Mashable

World

The United States has Ford. Germany has Volkswagen. Japan has Toyota. And North Korea has Pyeonghwa Motors.

Run by Kim Jong-un’s regime, the company produces a lil’ number of vehicles at its factory in the city of Nampo, a seaport on North Korea’s west coast. At its foot dealership in the capital Pyongyang, visitors can view its lineup up close, take a test drive and even purchase spare parts.

Andray Abrahamian, research director at North Korea-focused nonprofit Choson Exchange, visited the showroom last month, and provided Mashable brochures on the current selection of twenty five models:

The promotional materials list specifications such as fuel consumption and max speed for models with names such as “Cuckoo” and “Land of Korea.”

However, despite their powerful-sounding nameplates, the cars are decidedly lacking in the horsepower department. In fact, most produce around eighty or fewer horsepower. To put that into perspective, the best-selling car in America, the Toyota Camry produces one hundred seventy eight horses.

What the cars lack in off the line oomph, tho’, they more than make up for with distinctive styling. While some look like Kia or VW rip-offs, others seem to have been conceived during a toddler’s fever wish. That grey SUV thing is especially questionable.

“If there is a parking lot with a duo dozen cars, at least a duo will be Pyonghwa,” Abrahamian says.

He says the vehicles advertised were priced at $Ten,000 to $30,000, and mostly appeared to be built from knock-down kits (things that are manufactured in one country but sent to another for final assembly) — in keeping with Pyeonghwa Motor’s beginnings, when its cars were known to be based on models from Fiat and Chinese carmaker Shuguang, also known as SG Automotive.

Pyeonghwa Motors, whose name is Korean for “peace,” was formed in one thousand nine hundred ninety nine out of a partnership inbetween South Korea’s controversial Unification Church and Ryonbong General Corp., a corporation managed by the North Korean government.

Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the late leader of the church, preached against communism, but spotted the joint venture as a way to foster peace and reconciliation inbetween North and South Korea, which had been locked in a tense standoff since the division of the peninsula after World War II.

In 2013, the church transferred utter ownership to North Korea, following complaints about poor sales and meagre profits. Since then, information about the hard — like most things in North Korea — has been hard to come by. There’s been even less official information released from the hard, and no one who has visited has been permitted to report about its internal workings.

What is certain is that Pyeonghwa’s operations are puny. Abrahamian said one staff member at the dealership told him it produced 1,600 cars last year. In 2011, the carmaker, which then had a South Korean office, reported that it made 1,450 cars that year.

Simon Cockerell, general manager of North Korea travel company Koryo Tours, said the cars make up a sizable minority of the vehicles on the country’s streets, where imports are more commonly seen.

“I would estimate around ten to 20% of the cars in Pyongyang are Pyeonghwa vehicles,” he said. “In the other cities and countryside, it’s not as high a proportion. Overall, they are reasonably common.”

While billboards lauding the automaker are among the only advertisements in the country, most North Koreans can only wish of actually wielding one of its cars. Not only does most of the population live in dire poverty, the regime intensely restricts private car ownership to a select few. Even tho’ visitors to the capital say traffic in Pyongyang has enhanced considerably in latest years, vehicles still remain few and far inbetween across the country.

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