(单词翻译:单击)
North Korea is known as one of the world's most totalitarian, closed-off nations, with a claim to fame consisting of shoddy missiles, nuclear weapons of questionable yield, and a starving population.
朝鲜是世界上最著名的封闭极权主义国家,以其劣质导弹、核武器以及贫穷等问题闻名于世。
But despite its general malaise, the Hermit Kingdom exports things of some value for foreign currency. There are both legitimate and illegitimate items North Korea sells abroad.
但除了这些让人不安的因素,这个"隐士之国"还出口一些价值不菲的物品来换取外汇。下面,前十君就向各位介绍朝鲜远销海外的那些或合法或不合法的产品。
10.Coal
10.煤
When we think of China's largest foreign source of coal, we do not think of North Korea. However, that's exactly what North Korea recently became.
说到中国最大的煤炭进口国,我们怎么也不会想到朝鲜。然而朝鲜却正逐渐成为中国最大的煤炭进口国。
Coupled with an overall fall in China's coal imports from other nations, shipments from North Korea jumped 25 percent to a total of 1.8 million tons of coal in May 2015.
相比于中国对其他国家的煤炭进口量的整体下滑,2015年5月,中国从朝鲜进口180万吨煤,进口量猛增25%。
Exporting natural resources is an easy way to earn foreign currency for the Kim regime, without the structural and institutional reforms required to deregulate the broader, "official" economy.
出口自然资源对于金氏政权来说是一种赚取外汇的便捷之策。他们不用担心为了打开国门而出台变革社会结构和政府机构的政策,这种出口是"官方的"经济出口。
In other words, exporting coal allows North Korea to earn money without making hard choices and loosening its totalitarian hold over its population.
换句话说,煤炭出口可以让朝鲜不必费尽心思做出抉择,更不必放松对人民的极权管制就能赚到钱。
And while coal mining in the first world requires complex heavy machinery, in North Korea, where human life is cheap, many things are still done by hand.
在发达国家,开采煤矿需要复杂的重型机械设备,而在人命都不被重视的朝鲜,很多事情都是靠双手解决。
Another advantage is that while North Korea has been slapped with UN sanctions, the export of natural resources has not been sanctioned, so the country can make money from coal exports legally.
煤炭出口的另一个好处就是尽管朝鲜受到了联合国的制裁,但是自然资源的出口没有受限,所以朝鲜可以通过煤炭出口合法赚钱。
9.Ballistic Missiles
9.弹道导弹
North Korea is well known for firing ballistic missiles in provocative ways, usually accompanied by bombastic rhetoric about raining fire down on the evil capitalists.
大家都知道,朝鲜发射弹道导弹总是充满了挑衅意味,他们吹嘘自己要发射导弹干掉邪恶的资本主义。
However, North Korea's ballistic missiles serve another, more immediate function to the regime, with ballistic missile exports netting North Korea tens of millions of dollars annually.
然而朝鲜的导弹还有另一个用途,一个对于朝鲜政权来说更加方便快捷的用途——导弹出口每年可以为朝鲜带来上千万美元的纯利润。
Exports of ballistic missiles not only earn the regime cash, they also make it easier for North Korea to continue producing missiles for domestic use due to economies of scale.
弹道导弹的出口不仅可以为朝鲜政府赚钱,还可以提升国内经济,便于政府继续生产导弹以供内需。
However, North Korea appears to have shot itself in the foot. Instead of exporting just the missiles themselves, it was also willing to export manufacturing equipment and technical knowledge to other countries, including Pakistan and Iran.
然而,朝鲜似乎搬起石头砸了自己的脚。他们不仅出口导弹,还乐意向包括巴基斯坦和伊朗在内的其他国家出口生产设备,并教授他们技术知识。
This means that their customers will eventually rely less on North Korea, reducing sales over the long term.
这意味着这些国家最终将不再依赖朝鲜,而长此以往,朝鲜的出口贸易额也会有所减少。
Another issue for North Korea is that its customers have been at peace, so they have not been using their ballistic missiles and do not need to buy more.
朝鲜面临的另一个问题就是,与之贸易往来的国家一直都处于和平安定的状态,所以他们不需要使用并且也不会再继续购买朝鲜的导弹。
Maybe North Korea should have slapped an expiration date on those rockets?
要是朝鲜专门在这些导弹上加个有效日期,倒是说不定他们会常来光顾……
8.Arms Factories
8.兵工厂
North Korea is one of the most militarized nations in the world, with over one million men under arms. Those men have to be equipped with weapons.
朝鲜是一个军国主义国家,军队人数超过一百多万,每个人都配备武器。
North Korea's extensive domestic arms industry is another way to earn foreign currency for the cash-strapped nation, with exports of heavy weaponry including rocket launchers and surface-to-air missiles.
朝鲜国内遍布的军工厂也是这个囊中羞涩的国家赚取外汇的另一渠道:出口包括火箭发射器和地对空导弹在内的重型武器。
But North Korea goes even further than this, sometimes offering to help build arms factories for clients for quick cash at the expense of long-term profits. Or does it?
但是朝鲜所做的远不止这些,有时它还会为了赚外快而牺牲长远利益,主动帮助贸易国修建兵工厂。而朝鲜真是主动的吗?
For almost 30 years, North Korea has been involved in two Ethiopian arms factories, supplying industrial equipment and providing expertise to keep the factories running.
近30年来,朝鲜一直与埃塞俄比亚的两个军工厂有联系,朝鲜为保证工厂的正常运作,提供了很多工业设备和专业技术。
We would think that after building the factory, the Ethiopians would no longer need to keep the North Koreans around, but it turns out that the Ethiopians do not have the scientific or engineering knowledge to run the facility themselves.
我们想想,工厂修建成功后,埃塞俄比亚应该不再需要朝鲜的帮忙了,但是结果却是埃塞俄比亚人自己根本没有科学或工程方面的技术来运营工厂。
And given that the factory was designed by North Korea, only North Korea can provide spare parts for its industrial machinery, forcing Ethiopia to continue to rely on it.
而且,鉴于工厂是朝鲜人设计的,那么只有朝鲜人可以为这些机器提供配件,这样就可以迫使埃塞俄比亚继续与之合作了。
North Korea has also built other facilities in other African countries, such as Nigeria and Madagascar, which presumably also rely on North Korean spare parts.
朝鲜在其他非洲国家,包括尼日利亚和马达加斯加,都建有兵工厂。这些国家大概也依赖朝鲜的配件。
And given North Korea's attempts to hide its illegal activities, there are likely more such facilities that have not come to light.
而且鉴于朝鲜有意隐藏其不合法交易,很可能还有很多兵工厂我们都不曾知晓。
It turns out the Stalinist North Koreans have a keen nose for capitalism that would make Henry Ford proud.
这也充分证明奉行斯大林主义的朝鲜对让亨利·福特倍感骄傲的资本主义特别警惕。