Kaengsaeng 88

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Kaengsaeng 88 ( 갱생 88 ) is a four-door sedan made in North Korea , of which a few were made in the late 1980s. The car was an unlicensed replica of the Mercedes-Benz W 201 . An alternative name was Pyongyang 4.10 .

background

After North Korea suffered considerable damage in the Korean War , reconstruction began in the mid-1950s under the leadership of the Labor Party of Korea . In economic terms , following the Chinese model, the main focus was on heavy industry. In the years immediately following the war, the three-year plan (1954–1956) succeeded in raising industrial production to the pre-war level. North Korea received support from other socialist countries, particularly the Soviet Union and China , which helped the regime to achieve strong economic growth in the post-war years. Following the idea of self-sufficiency , North Korea also started its own automobile production at an early stage. First of all, various commercial vehicles were primarily created that were primarily intended for military use; later buses were added. In addition, passenger vehicles were created that were intended to supplement imported vehicles from Japan, Germany or Sweden on the very limited national market.

The North Korean commercial and passenger cars were never in-house designs. Rather, imported Soviet or Chinese automobiles were taken apart by North Korean technicians and copied down to the last detail. In this way, replicas of the Chinese representation limousine Hongqi and the Soviet GAZ-M20 Pobeda were created in the passenger car sector .

One of the last automobiles to emerge as so-called clones before the country's economic collapse in the 1990s was the Kaengsaeng 88. Its development was in any case indirectly due to the then North Korean President Kim Il-sung , who in April 1987 intended to create his Landes had declared that it would compete with the South Korean automotive industry in the future .

construction

Prototype for the Kaengsaeng 88: Mercedes-Benz 190 (W 201 series)

The model for the Kaengsaeng 88 was the Mercedes-Benz 190 (W 201 series) presented in Germany in 1982, which was popularly known as the "Baby Benz". According to one source, a Mercedes-Benz 190 imported from Thailand was examined by North Korean technicians from around 1987. After taking the car apart, they used the individual parts to create construction plans for their own North Korean model. There was no license from Daimler-Benz .

Externally, the car largely corresponded to the German model. In contrast to the original, however, the radiator grille did not have a “ star ”, only had horizontal chrome-plated trim strips (without the typical Mercedes central axis) and the emblem of the Korean manufacturer in the middle. A replica of a Soviet four-cylinder gasoline engine served as the drive ; further details about the engine are not known.

In 1987 and 1988 several vehicles were built according to this model in the Pyongsang Auto Works . There is no evidence of series production. How many copies were made is unclear. Sometimes there is talk of “a handful of prototypes”, some of which will be in use in the North Korean capital in 2015.

There have been reports of significant workmanship. The vehicles were not equipped with either heating or ventilation. As a result of the poor quality of the passport, the windows did not close reliably, so that the passengers were dusty after a journey overland.

Model names

The name of the model Kaengsaeng (갱생) can be translated as "rebirth" in German. The alternative name Pyongyang 4.10 (Pyongyang = English name of the North Korean capital Pyongyang ) refers to April 10, 1987; On that day, Kim Il-sung had declared the expansion of North Korean automobile production to compete with the southern part of the country.

Further developments

A very similar vehicle called the Paektusan was at times in the exhibition of the three revolutions in Pyongyang . It is unclear whether this was a further development of the Kaengsaeng 88 or a German original vehicle with changed brand emblems.

literature

  • Erik van Ingen Schenau: Automobiles Made in North Korea. 2015.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Erik van Ingen Schenau: PYONGYANG 4.10, also named KAENGSAENG 88 . In: chinesecars.net. Retrieved December 3, 2015 .
  2. ^ Adrian Buzo: The Guerilla Dynasty. Politics And Leadership in North Korea In: IB Tauris , New York, 1999, ISBN 1-86064-415-5 , p. 64 (English).
  3. ^ Peter Schaller: North Korea. A country under the spell of the Kims. In: Anita Tykve Verlag , Böblingen, 1994, p. 30.
  4. ↑ Kim Mi-Young: The Struggling North Korean Automobile Industry. In: Chosun Ilbo , February 5, 2002 (English).
  5. ^ Erik van Ingen Schenau: Made in North Korea . In: chinesecars.net. Retrieved December 3, 2015 .
  6. ^ A b Justin Berkowitz: Cars from the Axis of Evil: North Korea. In: cardanddriver.com. Retrieved December 3, 2015 .
  7. ^ Egbert Schwartz, Theo Gerstl: Mercedes 190. In: GeraMond Verlag , Munich, 2012.
  8. ^ A b Sophie Mühlmann: Kim is now even copying Mercedes and Volkswagen . In: The world . November 19, 2015, accessed December 3, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Kaengsaeng 88 - Perro ladrador, poco mordedor. Retrieved January 6, 2016 (Spanish).
  10. ^ Peter Schaller: North Korea. A country under the spell of the Kims. In: Anita Tykve Verlag , Böblingen, 1994, p. 77 f.
  11. ↑ Erik van Ingen Schenau: Paektusan. In: chinesecars.net. Retrieved December 3, 2015 .