Cars of North Korea: Pyonghwa part 1.
The urge to have an automotive car-making industry led at the end of the 1990s to an interesting joint-venture between the North Korean state, represented by the ‘Ryongbong company’ and the South Korean ‘Unification Church’ of referend Moon, represented by the Tongil Group.
Sun Myong Moon, born in North Korea in 1920, founded the ‘Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity’ in 1954. Moon visited Kim Il Sung in 1991.
They got along well, despites Moon’s anti-communism. Moon was like Kim very much in favour of the Korean reunity.
The joint-venture was made after the example of the Chinese joint-ventures: the foreign partner comes with the money and the technology, the local partner supplies the facility, the workers and the distribution area.
The Moon Church came with 54 million dollar. They got (via ‘Pyeonghwa Motors Seoul’) 70%, the North Koreans (via Ryongbong) 30% of the joint-venture. The Mekong Auto Corporation in Viet Nam, connected to the Moon Church, had good relations with Fiat and via them the joint-venture got the disposal over Fiat cars.
On the other hand the Moon Church had good contacts in Northern China, with Brilliance in Shenyang and Shuguang in the border city Dandong.
The North Koreans came with a factory site in Nampo (South Pyongan province) near the Youth Hero Highway to Pyongyang. Initial drawings show plans for 11 big halls and one smaller, but until today only one big hall has been built together with the smaller one.
The number of workers varied from 200 to 350.
The first car to be made was the Italian Fiat Siena, a car which was part of a project “Fiat 178 world car”, Fiat’s attempt to produce a car worldwide. The first North Korean Siena’s were assembled from skd parts imported from Viet Nam (semi-knocked down, the cars are partly ready, only some parts have to be assembled) and the production started on April 20, 2002. In 2003 the factory could handle ckd assembly (complete knocked-down, all the parts are imported in crates).
The factory name was a logic one: Pyonghwa (peace). The logo shows two doves of peace.
Four names were chosen for the different kind of automobiles: Hwiparam (Whistle) for low and medium class cars, Zunma (Steed) for the luxury sedans, Ppeokkugi (Cuckoo) for the SUV’s, off-road and light commercial vehicles and Samchonri (Korea) for the minibuses.
So the name for the Siena was Whistle, in Korean Hwiparam, also transcribed as Hwipharam, Fiparam, Hweepaaram or Hviparam. The Siena was the Hwiparam I.
The car was a small sedan with trunk, length 4.10m, a four-seater, available with a 1.2lt or 1.6lt petrol engine. Production of the Hwiparam I ended in 2006. A good guess is that about 500 were assembled.
In August 2003 a second Fiat model was introduced, the small mpv/van Fiat Doblo. This mpv was named the Ppeokkugi I. The Doblo had a short life and was less successful than the Siena. After some production in 2003 and 2004 the mpv disappeared.
The Fiat products were quite expensive to produce and not very profitable. Thanks to their contacts in Dandong the Moon Church came up with suv and pickup products of a Chinese company called Shuguang (later Huanghai). The advantage of these products was that a modest export to Viet Nam was possible, where they were sold (surprise!) by the same Mekong Company.
In March 2004 the first of these Shuguang products came of the line: a 5 meter long 4×2 suv. It was named Ppeokkugi II, in Viet Nam it was sold under the name Pyonghwa Premio. Assembly ended in 2006.
In April 2004 the Ppeokkugi III followed: a double cab pickup based on the suv. In Viet Nam this five-seater pickup was available with a hardtop.
In the same year a 4.7 meter four-wheeldrive suv was also assembled, named Ppeokkugi 4WD. Mekong Auto sold it as Pyonghwa Pronto 4×4.
Production ended in 2007, but in 2009 a refreshed version appeared.
Pyonghwa made more pickups in the following years: a diesel pickup named Premio DX, only for the Vietnamese market, in 2008 the Premio Max (Ppeokkugi Max), named in the DPRK Pyonghwa Ppeokkugi III, assembly of the Shuguang (Huanghai) Plutus.
The last in the Shuguang series was the Shuguang (Huanghai) CUV Landscape, named Ppeokkugi 4WD-1. Made from 2008, since 2013 this car is update and named Ppeokkugi 2405. About these new names I will write in part 2 of the Pyonghwa story.
Less successful was an attempt to seduce the North Korean authorities with assembly of the luxury South Korean sedan Ssanyong Chairman. North Korean government is well known for her love for Mercedes Benz and the Ssanyong Chairman was a local version of the Mercedes E-class (W124). But not the real thing!
The car was named Zunma (also transcribed as Junma), Steed in English, and a small number was assembled in 2005/2006.
More important was the Hwiparam II, introduced in April 2007. The Moon Church made contacts with Brilliance/Jinbei company in Shenyang, China. First product of this cooperation was the assembly of the Brilliance Junjie, named Brilliance BS4 in export. The 4.6 meter long sedan, equipped with 1.8 petrol engine was sold as Hwiparam II.
A smaller version was assembled since 2010, named Hwiparam III (later Hwiparam 1405). This was the Brilliance FSV (BS2). The five-seat sedan was designed by the Italian company Italdesign Giugiaro. You will see them often as taxi in Pyongyang.
From 2005 on Pyonghwa assembled the Jinbei minibus. In fact it was a Jinbei-licensed produced Toyota Hi-Ace (4th generation). Pyonghwa named the nine-seat minibus Samchonri (also transcribed as Samcholri, Samchulri). You can meet them everywhere in the DPRK.
By 2012 the Moon Church made the bill. The production capacity was 20.000 vehicles per year. The best year was 2011 with a production of 1.820 units. Not even 10%. From 2002-2011 only 6.368 cars were made. The profits were nearly zero; the best years were 2009 (profit 700.000 dollar) and 2010 (profit 630.000 dollar).
They decided to pull the trigger. At first Pyonghwa was for sale for 200 billion dollar. Finding no buyer, the Moon Church donated in December 2012 their share to the North Korean government, in exchange for contracts in the hotel business.
What will happen with the Pyonghwa company after 2012 you can read in part 2.