Polestar Insurance Company was established against a background of dynamic growth in national economy, with forward momentum gathered over recent years, followed by rise in the need of individuals and entities for secure and wider insurance coverage combined with heightened insurance awareness among the community.

Polestar’s cover initially comprised fire, engineering and credit, but thus far has been extended to further interests like crop, fruit, aquaculture, travel and professional indemnity insurance, thereby ever broadening our overall customer base and market share.

With ethical standards such as honesty and equal opportunity flowing into its every business decision, Polestar has built its early reputation among the masses and has grown into a prominent player on its values of expertise, quality and sustainability under direct supervision of experienced and skilled team leading qualified underwriters with professional career.

Polestar is determined to live up to the expectations of people and entities, and repay them for every support they have lent to our development by delivering “Insurance for the Masses” in all days to come.

On behalf of the management of Polestar Insurance Company, I am delighted to present to you 2023 Annual Report and Financial Statements for the financial year ended 31st December 2023 and to review the performance of our Company during the financial year.

I would like to express our sincere thanks to all our customers, business allies and partners for unwavering commitment, loyalty, continued support and patience which have distributed immensely to the continued success of our Company.

2023 can be characterized by remarkable successes when the whole sectors energetically rose up with animation and that national economy enjoyed an obviously stable and sustaining growth trend.

Under the Five-Year Plan for the National Economic Development in 2021-2025, the growth of several sectors of the national economy was largely witnessed in 2023 and the GDP grew up 1.4 times, compared with the total growth of the economic sector in 2020.

Attributable to these performances were grain production, housing construction and key industrial sectors, central pivot of national economy such as metal, chemistry, electric power and coal. The entire national economy entered a period of great prosperity track for its stable development, which exerted a positive influence on development of the insurance industry.

2023 has become for the Company the period of successful development, expanding market share in the insurance industry as well as of building up the financial stability and reliability. The records of performance in 2023 showed that the Company has successfully retained its position as one of the players in the national insurance market.

Since the insurance industry channels back the resources it generates from premium income to the economy through claim payments, the Company plays a certain role in the betterment of the people’s livelihood as well as the development of the national economy by providing financial compensation to the clients.

During the past year, the Company’s efforts were aimed at the expansion of the range and quality enhancement of the insurance services. The Company continued to carry out improvement of services and development of insurance products to the customers in which it enabled the Company to achieve a 105.6% increase in gross written premiums from KPW 3.92 billion in 2022 to KPW 4.14 billion, in 2023.

The Company incurred net acquisition costs of KPW 385.7 million, increased of KPW 230.7 million due to increase of risk survey fee and agency commission. Operating expenses of KPW 136.4 million, increased by KPW 53.2 million.

Our underwriting profit grew by 147% from KPW 1.04 billion to KPW 2.56 billion. Profit before payment to state increased to KPW 2.46 billion, while profit after payment to state climbed by 146%, from KPW 749 million to KPW 1.84 billion. The total assets grew from KPW 10.73 billion to KPW 12.35 billion, an increase by 15.1%, while the owners’ assets increased by 18.4%, from KPW 9.2 billion in 2022 to KPW 10.89 billion in 2023.

The major efforts to bring about an improvement in the quality of the portfolio and the consistent implementation of an active risk management have been made for 2023 when an exceptionally lowest level of claims incident recorded. The very positive claims experience was the main contributor to this pleasing result. The strength and depth of our underwriting talent and the commitment of our supporting teams, coupled with the strong contribution of contingency reserve from prior years have been the major factors in achieving a solid financial result in 2023.

2024 is a crucial year for all sectors of national economy to put steady spurs to the growth of production and concentrate their efforts to finish the work for readjustment and reinforcement as well as the first year of Party’s regional development policy aimed at radical improvement of regional and rural living environment.

In 2024, the Company will seek opportunities to expand insurance operations arising from the implementation of regional development policy, construction of dwelling houses, public and industrial establishments on a nationwide scale, and to enhance the customer-oriented service and level of risk prevention for steady and sustainability development.

I would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all staff for always dedicating such talents and efforts to fulfillment of corporate policies in achieving steady growth and success for the Company.

Kim Kyong Hun

CEO

Polestar Insurance Company

- Head office: Pyongyang

- Regional branches: 11(Pyongyang, Phyongsong, Sinuiju, Kanggye, Haeju, Sariwon, Wonsan, Hamhung, Chongjin, Hyesan, Nampho)

- Distribution channels: 108 local agencies active across DPRK

With its service network widened throughout the country, Polestar has made itself more proximate and accessible to applicants and consumers. It is tapping into this previously distant customer-base thus ever-broadening its experience at the same time.

Polestar demonstrates high levels of appreciation and trust towards its employees, who with their diverse qualifications and personalities ensure our business' success.

Utmost importance is given to our employees as they are the ones to undertake the biggest duty in carrying out the key policies of our new business. For this reason, the primary goal of our human resources policy and practice is to identify our company's needs for personnel in line with its objectives and strategies and assist the creation of human resources that are open to change and are focused on the nearest success by recruiting high-quality people, motivating them, evaluating their performance, and encouraging interaction, communication and competition among individuals and groups.

We are running a system in which our employees are evaluated every month in line with specific performance criteria. On the basis of the results of these performance evaluations, an employee's training needs are identified and a career plan is developed.

Training has special importance at Polestar owing to the fact that, in line with the diversification of portfolio and distribution channels, increase in employment is expected to continue at a steady pace and new managerial positions need to be filled from within. Therefore, orientation training and basic insurance training are provided to new-hires; the training programs needed at any stage of their careers are identified for all employees so as to develop and equip them with the competencies called for by their positions and growing them into prospective pillars of Polestar.

Apart from managerial careers, Polestar also offers its employees to establish themselves within the company as experts.

We actively encourage intellectual curiosity at Polestar. We are proud to have innovative staff who are always open to new ideas and challenges.

"When lost in the dark, you always need a GUIDING STAR!"

Choosing a name for itself "Polestar", the company has declared its business motto as above.

Our vision is to be the leading underwriter recognized for its professionalism, integrity and innovation, making the local market as its home ground with credible and quality service!

You can wait and witness Polestar playing a guiding role in the industry for bringing you protection you can trust and security you can rely on.

- Aspiration for greater successes
- Technological innovation
- Fresh idea & approach

Polestar is a member of the Federation of Afro-Asian Insurers & Reinsurers "FAIR".

FAIR is a professional organization that is aiming at promoting cooperation among insurance and reinsurance companies in Africa and Asia through the regular exchange of information, expertise and the development of reinsurance relations.

Accessing FAIR, whose members are now more than 250 companies from 51 Afro-Asian countries, means increased opportunities for Polestar to expand its global presence and interaction with prestigious insurance and reinsurance companies and brokers from international markets.

Keeping steadfast pace in this evolving market, we are ready to reach out to all those who demand co-development in the same industry and we will always exceed expectations of all our clients and partners.