North Korea has always had the ambition to be an exporting nation. To help bring that about, a fleet of maritime cargo vessels was acquired, often from abroad. Now with sanctions on North Korea, as a result of the country’s nuclear program, there can no long be stamps showing off assets, lest they be seized. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
North Korea did later have a new stamp issue of Korean ships in 2013. The lead stamp was a ship that did dinner cruises.
Todays stamp is issue A952, a 5 Chon stamp issued by North Korea on May 5th, 1978. It was a five stamp issue showing various cargo ships, freighters, and tankers belonging to North Korea. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.
The ship on this stamp is the Hyok Sin. It was built in Japan at Mukaishima Shipyard in 1971. The name is a Korean male name but the only prominent Korean with that name I could find was a soccer star born 21 years after the ship was built. The ship served for 33 years before it was broken up in China in 2004. The Hyok Sin 2 still exists but is not of the same design.
The North Korean merchant fleet is managed by a government owned company called Ocean Maritime Management. In 2001 North Korea was named part of the axis of evil by the United States. By 2013 sanctions became universal and United Nations enforced. The sanctions apply directly to Ocean Maritime Management and even the administrators of the company are subject to having their bank accounts seized.
To try to get around the sanctions, North Korean ships now have often changing names. Also shell companies based out of Hong Kong are given theoretical title to the ships. The North Koreans have a sense of humor about it. Among the names chosen for the shell companies are “Trendy Sunshine Limited” and “Advance Superstar”.
It now being almost impossible to acquire new ships from the outside and the fleet aging and indeed shrinking due to ships being seized, North Korea has begun to try to build their own ships. The former ship repair facility at Ryoungnam is now a full shipyard although the output is quite small. The third vessel, the Jang Su San was launched late last year. It was not registered with the International Maritime Organization.
Well my drink is empty. I wonder if Russia is about to receive the same treatment as North Korea. By the time the cancelers are done, perhaps every nation will have been given the same treatment. Come again next Monday for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.