The Korea National Insurance Corp., North Korea’s state insurance company, has its own website.
The company, which in the past has been accused of orchestrating international insurance fraud, offers basic information about itself and its financial health. While the site appears to be new, the information on it in both English and Korean dates to only 2012.
The official financial information shows a business that’s growing — just be sure to read the chart from right to left — with the amount of premiums and net worth up every year since 2008. But net profits have been sliding in recent years, down 40 percent in the two year period from 2010 to 2012.
According to the data, which cannot be independently verified, the KNIC made a profit of 5.5 billion North Korean won in 2012 and its net worth was 61.3 billion won. That’s $42.6 million and $471.3 million respectively at the official exchange rate of 130 won to the U.S. dollar. At the black market exchange rate of 8,000 won to the dollar, those figures drop to $693,000 in profit and a net worth of $7.6 million.
The Korea National Insurance Corporation’s main financial indicators (Image: KNIC/NorthKoreaTech)
The North Korean Website List has been updated to list the site, which is available at http://www.knic.com.kp.
KNIC is the second North Korean business to get a website on a North Korean server. The other is national airline Air Koryo.
There’s more on KNIC at NKEconWatch.
Not a bad looking website design for the North Koreans must say. Could do with some text overlaying the images and maybe a bit more content but hey ho.
I don’t really see why they need this site online though. It’s not like any outsider’s going to want DPRK insurance.