Want some ginseng?
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Posted on 07/27/2010 6:55:12 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
07-26-2010 18:39
North Korea wants to pay back debt in ginseng
By Kim Se-jeong
Staff reporter
North Korea has offered to pay its debt to the Czech government with ginseng, according to a local Czech daily newspaper.
MF DNES, a daily newspaper based in Prague, reported last Saturday that North Korea has recently suggested to the Czech Finance Ministry that it would pay 5 percent of its debt — approximately $500,000 — with ginseng.
“We are trying to persuade them (North Korea) to give us, for example a bulk of Zinc instead, so that we could sell it to someone else,” Tomas Zidek, deputy finance minister, told the newspaper in Czech.
North Korea is believed to have a significant amount of zinc in deposits.
The paper went on to say the consumption of ginseng in the Czech Republic is very small, and it only imported 1.4 tons last year. The amount of ginseng worth $500,000 will be roughly 400 tons, securing the supply for more than 200 years.
But, to Czech’s disappointment, North Korea seemed to have made up its mind, as it sent a delegation with samples of ginseng.
North Korea is known to be Czech’s 10th biggest debtor, which goes back to the communist governments. The North bought many trams and vehicles from former Czechoslovakia.
lol. No thanx
Thats BIG MONEY TLR.
I’ll take it if you’re giving it away!
Nothing gives a country confidence like knowing the have a 200 year supply of Ginseng.
I tell you what...I could get a lot more than 500K for 400 tons of North Korean Ginseng.
Right. You can easily fetch $1 million. Chinese customers will be lining up at your doorstep, and the line would be very long.:-)
Hey...they will be horny...look younger and remember it all
Which of course points out the problem.
China IS on North Korea's doorstep, and they evidently don't want anything to do with arbitrage of this stuff. Probably because of NK's notorious pillaging of rolling stock.
It sucks being a notorious trade risk. The Norks are discovering that.
It’d be easier to sell the ginseng to South Korea, who for some reason think North Korea ginseng is the best form of ginseng on earth.
Then use the money to pay off the debt.
Wait... that’d be mighty capitalist of them to try. So, nevermind.
I knew there was money in ginseng but I didn’t know it was this much.
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