At a Pyongyang car dealership, only the logos are local
PYONGYANG, Korea, Democratic People’s Republic Of — Salespeople at Pyongyang’s premier car dealership wait patiently beside racks of glossy brochures in a showroom filled with that unmistakable new car smell from a couple dozen Whistle sedans and Cuckoo SUVs — all bearing the distinctive, double-pigeon logo of Pyonghwa Motors, North Korea’s only passenger car company.
The streets of Pyongyang are more crowded than ever, but Pyonghwa, whose sole factory just south of the capital was designed to produce as many as 10,000 cars a year, appears to be stuck in neutral. Experts say just about everything its pigeon hood ornaments are attached to these days comes straight from China.
“I am afraid that since November 2012 there has not been any production of a Pyonghwa vehicle,” said Erik van Ingen Schenau, an expert on the Chinese automobile market and author of a book documenting North Korean vehicles. “The newer models with the Pyonghwa badges are all Chinese-made.”
If any assembly is being done locally, it is likely very small scale — such as putting on tires, inserting batteries or finishing the cars’ interiors, he said. Recent satellite imagery on Google Earth shows no cars in the lots around the factory.