Moon Generates Funds for Dr. Laura Through Slave Labor in Communist North Korea Company linked to Sun Myung Moon's Church Opens Car Assembly Plant in North Korea By BARBARA DEMICK, LOS ANGELES TIMES STAFF WRITER March 28, 2002 KEY EXCERPTS: SEOUL -- At first glance, there couldn't be a more improbable business proposition than opening an automobile factory in North Korea, where hardly anybody owns a car or knows how to drive. Even more surprising is that the company making this investment is an affiliate of the Unification Church, headed by the thumpingly anti-communist Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Against all odds, Pyonghwa Motors next month is opening a $55-million auto assembly plant where there once were rice paddies in the western coastal city of Nampo. It is one of the largest private ventures in North Korea, a bastion of militant communism that only recently has cracked open its doors to foreign investment in a desperate quest for hard currency… The communist government, which also owns a stake in the company, has contracted to buy 1,000 cars in the first year. After that, the company hopes to sell vehicles in China, Russia and, if the political situation allows, South Korea. The plant has the potential to turn out 20,000 cars a year. The unlikely relationship between the Unification Church and North Korea dates to 1991, when Moon visited the country's founder and chief ideologue, Kim Il Sung. That paved the way for Moon, an archconservative who nonetheless supports dialogue with the North, to buy two hotels in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, including the 161-room Potonggang, which boasts of being the only hotel in the isolated country with satellite television. The North Koreans also allowed Moon's followers to develop Jongju, the northwestern town where Moon was born, into a pilgrimage site-another coup for the Unification Church because the communist nation bans all practice of religion. In addition to the car assembly plant, Pyonghwa wants to open a department store, gas stations, automobile showrooms and what the company described as a "World Peace Center" in Pyongyang to promote cultural and educational exchanges. "We are bound to succeed," [Company President] Park said. "There are no unions, low labor costs. The workers are very clever, very quick to learn, and they are harshly controlled by their superiors." Pyonghwa also owns a Fiat assembly plant in Vietnam and has tried various automotive projects in China, which so far have been unsuccessful. From March 22 Reuters story: Park painted a picture of life in the North Korean capital far different from the horrific images of outer regions described by aid workers. "There's a nine-hole golf course in the city, as well as a driving range," built by ethnic Koreans in Japan, Park said.              Printer-friendly version Click here to be added to our mailing list.