First foreign retailer for North Korea

Wenzhou-based Zhongzu Group signed a 10-year lease to run North Korea's biggest department store, the South China Morning Post reported. Zhongzu Group Chairman Zeng Changbiao said that by selling goods at half the price of the competition he expected the 36,000 sq m Pyongyang No1 Department Store, with its new lease on life, to be profitable from day one. The deal marks the first time Pyongyang has allowed a foreign party to enter the country's sparse retail space. Zhongzu will spend RMB 50 million sprucing the store up before filling it with clothes, food, cosmetics and other consumer goods sourced largely from the company's shopping center in Chaoyang in China's border province of Liaoning. The company aims to open four more stores in 2005.