Original article in Korean is at this link.

It has been learned that even as North Korea demands food aid from the international community it is importing Rolex watches made in Switzerland.

From January through May, North Korea imported 229 Swiss-made watches worth $45,000 (48.43 million won) and 9 watch components, the American network Radio Free Asia reported on the 8th.

Among the Swiss watches imported by North Korea were 174 spring-wound watches and 55 battery-operated watches, worth an average of $198 each.

During the same period last year North Korea had not imported any watches at all.

North Korea imported 284 Swiss watches in 2007, 449 in 2008, and 662 in 2009, an increase each year, but that fell to 339 last year.

Chairman Kim Jong-il has always received watches from civilian and military authorities and civilians on his birthday (February 16) and the birthday of his father Kim Il-sung (April 15).

It appears that North Korean politicians prefer to import foreign watches rather than hundreds of tons of food.

One North Korean refugee who lives in Washington in America said that “the Swiss watches used as gifts in North Korean politics are called ‘business-card watches’ and inscribed with the name of Kim Jong-il. To verify their origin the undersides have serial numbers and if it is discovered that one is sold or lost there will be punishment… in North Korea receiving a Swiss watch makes you important.”

Some believe that North korea has recently been worried about its relationships with Switzerland and other countries and been increasing its watch importation.

The Swiss are known to have leased a spot at the second wharf for Najing-class ships in the North Korean free economic zone, showing that North Korea is not concerned with its relationship with the European Union, including Switzerland.

Hong Ik-pyo, head of policy research at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (대외경제정책연구원), said that “North Korea imports watches not from China, where they would be cheap, but directly from Switzerland, and this provokes the thought that the Swiss are not concerned about it.”

Back in 2006 the Swiss pledged not to export watches and other luxury goods to North Korea.