The U.S. yesterday implemented a new set of sanctions against North Korea, and Pororo, a cute blue cartoon penguin loved by children around the world, may be one of its victims.

Executive Order 13570, which was signed by U.S. President Barack Obama in April, states that “the importation into the United States, directly or indirectly, of any goods, services or technology from North Korea is prohibited.”

The order, now in effect through the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, bans all exports from North Korea, including products made with parts from North Korea exported from another country.

The ban endangers Pororo, the penguin star of “Pororo the Little Penguin,” a popular Korean animation series. The series was launched in 2003 with the help of a North Korean software animation company, Samcholli General Corporation.

Total revenues from the series were estimated at 383.9 billion won ($357.4 million) last February by the Seoul Business Agency, a public organization that supports the growth and marketing of small and medium sized businesses in Seoul.

“The reports have been greatly exaggerated,” said Kim Jong-se of Iconix Entertainment, producer of the series. “We have not received any news yet over the order or even whether the U.S. will deliberate over the episodes.”

Three 52-episode seasons of the show have been made. Samcholli helped with the animation for 18 episodes: 12 from the first season and six from the second.

“The work [Samcholli] did accounted for less than 10 percent of the total work on the episodes,” said Kim.

He said Samcholli was responsible for key frame animation, rendering and synthesizing images. Kim also said Samcholli was a subcontractor and was given $10,000 per episode for season one and $7,500 per episode for season two.

The idea to hire Samcholli wasn’t Iconix’s, but that of Hanaro Telecom, which was acquired by SK Telecom in 2008. Hanaro Telecom had been involved in joint inter-Korean projects in the early 2000s and proposed North Korea take part in animation from 2001 to 2005.

Kim said Pororo has been available in Spanish and Chinese on cable stations in the United States from 2006, but exports there have accounted for only a fraction of their total sales from the series.

Pororo is a joint project between ICONIX Entertainment, Ocon Co.,

SK Broadband and the Education Broadcasting Service.

The order implemented in the U.S. yesterday didn’t go into detail about what goods would be banned from the United States. But it will include all products manufactured in the newly opened Hwanggumpyong economic zone, a joint complex set up by North Korea and China to boost production in the North, and the Rason free economic zone.

The fate of products from Kaesong, the joint industrial project between South and North Korea established six years ago, is uncertain.

Dick Nanto, a specialist in trade and foreign affairs with the Congressional Research Service, said during a forum in June that the word “indirect” had been added to the order to specifically keep Kaesong-made products from the U.S.


By Christine Kim [christine.kim@joongang.co.kr]