In April 2004 the Ppeokkugi III followed: a double cab pickup based on the SUV. It was named Ppeokkugi II, in Vietnam it was sold under the name Pyonghwa Premio. In March 2004 the first of these Shuguang products came off the line in Nampo: a 5 meter long 4x2 SUV. The advantage of these products was that a modest export to Vietnam was possible, where they were sold by the Mekong Company, another Church connection. Thanks to their contacts in Dandong the Moonie Church came up with the SUV and pickup models of a Chinese company called Shuguang (later Huanghai). After some production in 20 this model disappeared from the production line.įiat products were quite expensive to produce and not very profitable. The Doblo had a short life and was less successful than the Siena. ![]() In August 2003 a second Fiat model was introduced, the small van Fiat Doblo. A good guess is that about 500 were assembled. Production of the Hwiparam I ended in 2006. The car was a small sedan with a trunk, 4.10m in length, a four-seater, available with a 1.2lt or 1.6lt petrol engine. So, the name for the Siena was Whistle - in Korean Hwiparam (alternatively transliterated as Hwipharam, Fiparam, Hweepaaram, or Hviparam). (note: this word would be transliterated in North Korean style as ‘Pyonghwa’ but almost always the Southern-style ‘Pyeonghwa’ is instead used)įour 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 SUVs, off-road, and light commercial vehicles, and Samchonri (3000-ri, a term of distance referring to the length of Korea) for the minibuses. The factory and company name was a logical one: Pyeonghwa (Meaning: Peace). In 2003 the factory could handle CKD assembly (Complete Knocked Down, all the parts are imported in crates). The first North Korean Sienas were assembled from ‘SKD’ parts (meaning Semi Knocked Down, the cars are partly ready, only some parts have to be assembled) and production started on April 20, 2002. 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 number of workers at the factory has varied from 200 to 350. Until today only one big hall has been built together with the smaller one. Initial drawings show plans for 11 big halls and one small one. ![]() The North Koreans came with a factory site in Nampo (South Pyongan province) near the Youth Hero Highway to Pyongyang. Additionally, the Church had good contacts with car companies in Northern China, with Brilliance in Shenyang and Shuguang in the China/DPRK border city Dandong. The Mekong Auto Corporation in Vietnam, connected to the Church, had good relations with Italian carmaker Fiat and via this connection the joint-venture received Fiat model cars to assemble. They got (via ‘Pyeonghwa Motors Seoul’) 70%, the North Koreans (via Ryongbong) 30% of the joint-venture. Moon’s church funded the deal with a 54 million dollar investment. 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. Moon visited Kim Il Sung in 1991 and they got along well, despite Moon’s anti-communism, they found common ground in a passion for Korean reunification. Moon, born in North Korea in 1920, founded the ‘Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity’ in 1954. The History of Pyeonghwa Motors - Part 1 (1999-2012).Ī very special guest blog from Erik van Ingen Schenau of A strong 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 Reverend Sun Myung Moon (known colloquially as ‘the Moonies’), represented by the ‘Tongil Group’.
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