Report: North Koreans buying up memory chips, teddy bears

SEOUL, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Toys and media technology are in high demand among North Koreans who shop for the products in the Chinese border city of Dandong, according to a Chinese newspaper.

Reference News, a news service of Xinhua, reported Wednesday memory chips and teddy bears top the list of most sought-after items among North Koreans.

The electronic data storage devices are smaller than a fingernail in size, a Chinese merchant with the surname Yao told Reference News.

"North Korean merchants come to our store and buy large quantities of memory chips," Yao said. "As a bonus, the chip includes movies and television shows, with South Korean television dramas a popular option."

South Korean and other forms of outside media are contraband but are well liked in North Korea, where people secretly watch the shows then circulate it across their community.

According to Yao, the memory chips are popular because of their size, and because they can be used with DVD players and personal computers.

Memory chips are also easier to smuggle into the country because North Korean authorities "strictly enforce rules against flash drives, in order to block the viewing of illegal video content."

Qian Jiang, a Chinese store owner in a popular shopping mall in Dandong, said North Koreans, mostly women, frequent her doll shop to buy teddy bears.

"The young North Korean women who previously just looked around now actively seek purchases," Qian said. "Buying a doll here is probably something they're doing for the first time in their lives."

Qian also said she heard the number of North Korean state workers in China have declined since the adoptions of a new United Nations Security Council sanctions resolution, and that she "could feel it, given [the decrease in] the number of North Koreans visiting" her store.

In November the Security Council adopted a resolution targeting North Korea's nuclear weapons program by tightening restrictions on coal exports.