DANDONG, China – North Korean trade with China has risen dramatically since Kim Jong Il’s regime tested a nuclear warhead, according to retailers in the Chinese border town of Dandong.

At Dandong’s two outlets of Tesco, the U.K.’s largest retailer, North Koreans have increased purchases of items such as Marmite, cocktail sausages and goat’s cheese puff pastry tarts by 49 percent, said Han Lipang, a customer service clerk.

Han added that sales pickaxes, mining helmets and generators destined for the North had also doubled in the past three months.

Bing Ranfong, a Beijing University professor specializing in North Korea said the rise in sales was the result of misguided United Nations sanctions, which have failed put the screws on the North’s economy.

“The West’s sanctions have not had major impact on bilateral trade,” said Bing. “That said, it seems North Korean consumers have gone into survival mode. It’s obvious that the many of them intend to hole up in caves.”

Yet China has long run a surplus with the country, according to Greg Nunn, a North Korea specialist at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. That rose to USD 386 million in the first half of this year from USD 489,990 in all of 2008.

Data from China’s Ministry of Commerce shows that Marmite sales account for the bulk of the rise.

Marmite is traditionally eaten as a savory spread on bread, toast, and biscuits. Owing to its concentrated taste it is usually spread thinly. Marmite is also often made into a drink by diluting it with hot water. Its distinctive, powerful flavor has been compared to soy sauce.

Official trade statistics, incomplete and not including smuggled goods, show two-way trade between China and North Korea rose 2.5 percent in the first six months of this year, according to China’s Commerce Ministry. Trade between China and South Korea during the same period was $67.6 billion.

At the Tesco store, Han said more North Koreans are coming in, but the trend in purchasing has changed drastically in recent months.

Another Tesco employee, Ding Xin, said that in addition to flogging Marmite by the case, he now sells about 100 generators a month to North Koreans. “In the past, we sold about 10 a month, all to government officials. They seem to be in need of more electricity of late.”

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DANDONG, Liaoning – Sales of anti radiation suits and related products have increased 10,000 fold since Monday following North Korea’s threat of a nuclear exchange if provoked.

In the latest challenge to regional and global stability, North Korea’s leadership cited its ability to utilize a ‘merciless offensive’ against its neighbors.

The increasing tensions arising from the DPRK startled citizens of Dandong in China’s Liaoning Province, which is connected by the China-Korea Friendship Bridge to Sinuiju in North Korea.

Goodwill has been evaporating quickly in the wake of North Korea’s nuclear test on May 25 and subsequent missile tests.

Liu Qijin, the manager of EMR Co. Ltd, a protective equipment factory in Dandong, said sales of anti radiation apparel and accessories have boomed to more than 11,000 items per day. Prior to North Korea’s threat of nuclear war, the company sold a few dozen items, mostly anti radiation maternity wear.

“Now, it’s like the whole city is knocked-up,” said Liu, adding that radiation could easily become an uninvited guest in everybody’s life. “It’s a serious issue that needs to be looked into uncompromisingly,” he said. “EMR offers 24-hour protection against this destructive force.”

North Korea raised tensions a notch by reviving its warning in a commentary in the state-run Minju Joson newspaper on Monday.

“Our nuclear deterrent will be a strong defensive means … as well as a merciless offensive means to deal a just retaliatory strike to those who touch the country’s dignity and sovereignty even a bit,” said the commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

It appeared to be the first time that North Korea referred to its nuclear arsenal as “offensive” in nature. The country has long claimed that its nuclear weapons program is a deterrent and only for self-defense against what it calls US attempts to invade it, but residents of Dandong have taken the threat for real.

“Some people bought five or more items at a time,” Liu said. “They bought them as presents for friends and relatives.”

The anti radiation products are priced from RMB 210 to 340 for a maternity dress, RMB 90 for protective swimwear. RMB 559 buys a three-in-one suit that includes a flashlight, compass, and knife for fighting invaders.

Every store in Dandong that carries anti radiation products is running low on stock. One store, Li’s Protection Ltd., that carries the three-in-one suit sold 3,881 units in two day, equivalent to the entire sales volume from January 2004 to May 2009.

“North Korea’s latest threat put everyone on alert,” said Ho Yaobing, a Li’s Protection customer. “Though I have faith in the Central Government and hope they will reach a peaceful settlement with North Korea, I’d rather be safe then sorry. I will buy another suit for my father.”

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CANNES, France - Production companies from North Korea, South Korea, the U.S. and China will team up to bring a stereoscopic 3-D remake of John Woo’s action film “Face/Off” to the big screen.

The move follows North Korea’s latest nuclear test Monday and raises the question of just how deep the bonds forged between old communist allies and its new partners will go.

The test was conducted barely 50 miles from the Chinese border. The ground rumbled in northeast China, and some schools were evacuated because of fears of an earthquake.

North Korea’s action brought initial condemnation from Japan, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, as well as the United Nations. Meanwhile China called on “all parties concerned to seek calm and proper response, and to pursue peaceful resolution of the issue through the medium of film.”

Announced Tuesday during a news conference at the 62nd annual Cannes Film Festival, the USD 180 million remake will be led by Kim Joon II’s Big Blast Entertainment.

South Korea’s Kim Jong-hak Productions, China Film Co-Production Corporation and America’s Touchstone Pictures will fund the film and provides technical assistance. At the request of the North Korean government, Sony Pictures will not be participating in the production.

“Based on Korean legends and folklore, I’ll be directing this film and we’ll try to reach out to the world through this project,” Kim Joon Il stated in a press release read by his youngest son, Kim Jong-woon.

“We are currently in negotiations with Won Bin and Rain to take on the film’s leading male roles and we’ll come to an agreement once the script has been completed and finalized. If they aren’t available, President Obama has agreed to put pressure on Nick Cage an John Travolta to reprise their roles.”

Production will begin early next year and is set for release in late 2011 or early 2012.

Kim Jong Il warned that any delay could result in more nuclear tests.

“I intend to shoot the film in 3-D so that the audience can feel the dangers and delights of the story as if they are really traveling alongside the characters on their epic journey, feeling their emotions and heartache,” Kim elaborated. “If this doesn’t work out, they will feel it for real.”

The lead actress will be Taiwan-born bombshell Shu Qi, one of the judges at this year’s Cannes festival.

“I personally love fantasy films and I feel honored to be in such a grand scale project working with director Kim,” she said at the news conference. “I just hope he lets me go when we’ve finished shooting.”

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NEW YORK – North Korea released television footage of its rocket launch late Tuesday night, revealing for the first time that the supposed communications satellite was in fact doctored footage of a soda bottle rocket.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency aired the clip last night, showing a plastic rocket printed with the word “Choson” in red. The footage showed the rocket blasting off from the launch pad as well as shots of the control and command center where a small dot, apparently indicating the rocket, was on display on a radar screen. From the footage, the bulbous-shaped payload at the top of the rocket appeared to be a modified bottle cap.

Pak Tok-hun, North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the UN, said “the launch was a hoax”, and warned yesterday that the North was “only having a little fun at the expense of the neo-imperialist war mongers

In a printed statement, Pak wrote that, “Building and launching a classic soda bottle rocket fueled by basic rubbing alcohol is fun and an educational lesson in physics. An alcohol fueled soda bottle rocket closely resembles that of a ballistic flight pattern. Bottle rocket designs may vary, but are all subject to four forces in flight: weight, thrust, lift and drag.”

Meanwhile, the South Korean government said on Sunday that the North “appeared to have tried to launch a rocket” but has yet to make a conclusive announcement on its nature. The United States has categorically termed the payload a missile in previous statements.

On the day of the launch, U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the North for launching a “Taepodong-2,” referring to the North’s ballistic missile. Marine Corps General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, has told the Pentagon that North Korea failed in its “transition from one stage of boost to the next,” suggesting that the last two boosters of the three-stage rocket had not separated before apparently plunging into the Pacific Ocean.

South Korea said it needed more time to get a conclusive report on whether the separation took place.

Separately, a South Korean government source told the JoongAng Ilbo that the North Korean rocket traveled upward 485 kilometers (301.4 miles) before coming up short of putting its payload into orbit.

South Korea’s King Sejong the Great Aegis vessel tracked the flight, according to the source. However, the KCNA, the North’s state-run news agency, reported that its rocket was orbiting at between 490 feet and 1,423 feet above Earth.

The South Korean source said the rocket appeared to lack standard propulsion. According to sources, a satellite needs to travel at about 7.9 kilometers per second to enter orbit but the North Korean rocket was traveling at 1.2 kilometers per hour.

As scientists and experts tried to determine the fate of the rocket, the United Nations Security Council canceled its meeting yesterday. According to anonymous sources, ambassadors from the U.S., Britain and France, three of five permanent member nations, met privately.

The United States, along with non-standing member Japan, is pushing for a strong measure, likely a legally binding new resolution, while China and Russia are among those urging a more muted response.

Pak insisted that Pyongyang launched a soda rocket and said the Security Council was “undemocratic” in criticizing North Korea for launching the rocket while other countries were allowed to send much larger objects into space.

“This is a soda bottle rocket. Everyone can distinguish it and a missile,” Pak said. “Every country has the right, the inalienable right, to use outer space for whatever purposes it wishes.

“Not a few countries, many countries, they’ve already launched a satellite, several hundred times,” Pak added. “Does it mean that it is O.K. for them to launch a satellite, but we are not allowed to launch a bottle rocket? This is not fair.”

Pak said if the Security Council takes any step, the North will consider that an infringement upon its sovereignty and “the next option will be ours. We have necessary and strong steps that will follow.” He added that the governments of the U.S., Japan and South Korea benefited from the popular distraction to take attention away from the “miserable failings of the capitalist economy.”

Any attempt to punish North Korea will infuriate Pyongyang, which has also threatened to restart a plant that makes arms-grade plutonium and quit nuclear disarmament talks if the UN takes action.

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