PRAGUE—Officials with the Czech Finance Ministry said North Korea has offered to repay nearly $10 million in debt to Czechoslovakia in ginseng roots, according to news reports. When the countries were both part of the communist bloc in the 1980s, the Czechs supplied North Korea with heavy machinery and trams, a debt that now totals $9.8 million, according to BBC News. The news outlet reported 20 tons of ginseng root was offered as a down payment—in excess of the Czech Republic’s annual ginseng consumption, which is around 1.5 tons—and more ginseng to come to cover 5 percent of the debt.
BBC News reported Deputy Finance Minister Thomas Zidek told news agency Agence France-Presse: “At a working meeting we asked them for some goods and one of the options was ginseng imports. … It would be good business for the state."
