NK NEWS BRIEF | APR 03, 2015

A Chinese-made portable media player, which North Koreans call “notel” | Photo: Reuters

NK INTERNAL

• Daily NK: Donju are creating more transportation options, though at high prices. N Hamkyung source: “There is a growing number of bus and truck companies operating not only in Pyongyang but nationwide… People are buying buses or trucks and then paying the state a certain fee to open up transportation companies authorized by the central authorities.”
• Reuters: Notel, a recently legalized portable media player in NK, is one of the major technologies aiding foreign media access in NK. Defector Lee Seok-young: “To avoid getting caught, people load a North Korean DVD while watching South Korean dramas on a USB stick, which can be pulled out… They then tell the authorities, who feel the heat from the notel to check whether or not it has been recently used, that they were watching North Korean films.”
• Daily NK: A high govt quota for collecting scrap metal is taking a toll on some enterprises. S Pyongan source: “The collection of steel scrap and waste has taken place since Kim Jung Eun’s 2015 New Year Address… Contrary to the past when quotas were calibrated for individuals, this year quantities are based on the total number of workers at a given enterprise. This means large factories are having to procure hundreds of tons of steel to hand over to the state.”
• Daily NK: Conscripted soldiers with bad songbun are relying on bribes to avoid assignment to difficult tasks such as construction work. “When conscription begins, the mobilization units naturally start digging for bribes… Party cadres receive bribes from the parents of draftees and then assign them to areas like the Pyongyang guard service, the general rear service department, military police, and border areas, where rations are regular and working conditions are relatively superior.”
• Daily NK: Forest worker is becoming a more popular career choice. Yangkang source: “People are also thinking that if they volunteer to go work in the forest by saying they would like to dedicate their lives to the Marshal–for whom reforestation is such an allegedly important issue–they’ll surely be seen as patriotic… Forest workers can freely cultivate fields without constant state monitoring… even using solid wood (used in construction) to stoke their hearths.”
• Reuters: PY has expelled without explanation the country director of Welthungerhilfe, one of the few foreign aid groups operating in NK, drawing protest from the German government.

ECONOMY

• Daily NK: The ineffective foreign currency ban in markets is leading some vendors to question the validity of state regulations. Yangkang source: “These days we aren’t allowed to use Chinese money at the markets, but that hasn’t stopped the market management from accepting the vendor fees in Chinese Yuan… [Residents] demand to know why they are forbidden from using foreign currency while authorities are seemingly exempt from this regulation… We worked hard to earn and save money but we were all ruined by the currency reforms in 2009. After an experience like that, who would want to rely on the KPW? These days, even little kids know that Chosun cash is of no value.”
• Daily NK: State regulation of markets have loosened up lately, allowing women below 50 years old to sell. Yangkang source: “The shift in sanctions feels like hell has frozen over… [people] finally have the opportunity to make ends meet… There are thousands of stalls in Hyesan Market; this yields huge profits for the state who collect the fees vendors pay to use the space.”
• Daily NK: With varying levels of economic affluence, different scales of weddings are emerging in NK. N Pyongan source: “During spring, you can see a lot of couples holding weddings and receiving blessings in their villages… Poor people wear cheap hanbok (Korean traditional attire) from local markets in their wedding photos, while couples part of the donju spend 150 USD on hanbok or western suits, and they even ride around in a Mercedes that they’ve rented out for photo shoots.”
• RFA: Donju in Sunchon city of S Pyongan province spearheaded and invested in building a heated swimming pool and a public bath that utilizes hot steam from a large thermal power station.
• RFA: Some NKorean urbanites are starting to prefer working inside NK to overseas opportunities with unstable salaries. PY source: “A man who went to Namibia in Africa returned to North Korea after working hard there, but cannot collect even half the money he was owed.”

BORDER SECURITY

• Daily NK: While not all defector-families inside NK are targeted, some families of missing persons face punishment when defection is suspected. S Hwanghae source: “After their parents defected, two twenty-year-old children were forced to do hard labor in the blast furnace of an agricultural machinery plant in Daegok District of Haeju City.”
• RFA: High-level overseas NKorean officials and businessmen are keen on financially supporting their poor relatives inside the country, lest they defect and impose collective punishment on the whole family. PY source: “To prevent relatives in need from making the worst decision, officials who are worried about it sometimes support them financially, but the officials find it difficult to help them all of the time.”

HUMAN RIGHTS

• Yonhap: The UN HRC adopted a resolution on NK’s human rights violations, urging PY to release political prisoners and address foreigner abduction. NK’s Foreign Ministry official: “We firmly reject the so-called resolution adopted at the U.N. Human Rights Council as an outcome of anti-DPRK campaign by hostile forces in the U.S. and again affirm our firm determination to thoroughly destroy the fanatic anti-DRPK campaign.”
• KBS: PY warned Seoul against opening up a UN field office to monitor and record NK’s human rights violations.
• Telegraph: The BBC World Service is examining how to set up a Korean service that could reach the North Korean people.

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

• AP: The ROKG requested release of two SKorean citizens detained in NK for allegedly collecting confidential state information, and is seeking international cooperation in the matter.  
• Yonhap: The NKorean government urged the ROKG to lift the May 24 measures, denied its responsibility in the Cheonan sinking and blamed the US for the incident. NDC: “… [the sanctions are] based on the fictitious story about the North’s ‘involvement’ in the sinking… If the South Korean authorities truly wish for the improvement of the North-South relations, they should bear in mind that they have to move first to lift the measure.” ROK MOU: “It was clearly found through an international probe that the Cheonan sinking was done by North Korea.”
• Yonhap: Nine SKoreans, mostly from the Korean Foundation for International Healthcare, toured medical facilities and daycare centers in Kaesong. Forty-two overseas businessmen also visited the KIC to discuss business opportunities.
• US JCS chairman: “[The US-ROK annual military exercises are a] credible deterrent against provocation… Besides the deterrent, [the exercises ensure] that we’re also prepared with our military capabilities should [NK] do more than just provoke.”
• China’s Foreign Ministry: “Both sides (China and Russia) exchanged views on the situation on the Korean peninsula and the issue of resuming the six party talks.”
• JAPAN: The Japanese government announced they will extend the sanctions on the NK government after a lack of progress on the abductions issue. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga: “At this point, we are asking North Korea to ensure it quickly conducts the investigation into the abductions and other areas and make sure they report to us.”

ANALYSIS

• Doug Bandow: “While the DPRK offers some economic possibilities, the latter’s poverty and unpredictability reduce its attractiveness as a market. Nor is resource-rich Russia looking for new mineral supplies. Ironically, Moscow’s chief economic interest in the North is as a transit route to South Korea.”
• Andrei Lankov: “State managers act rationally when it comes to state business: they keep their mouths shut and their heads down, while making sure that their superiors are well aware of just how zealous their workers are in their studies of the works of the leaders Kim. Private entrepreneurs, on the other hand, smelled the possibility of profit, and acted accordingly. The same prospect of making money out of seemingly useless steam obviously had some impact on officials as well, but officials only had the chance of enriching themselves so long as private capital took all the risks.”
• Jeffrey Lewis: “The field of people watching North Korea is especially vulnerable to this sort of nonsense for any number of reasons—the Kim family functions as a monarchy and the tales about it are bizarre to begin with. But more than anything else, the endless speculation probably reflects our collective wish that the regime collapse. For whatever reason, people focused on the fact that Kim had fallen ill, not the fact that he was recovering and remained in power. If anything, a prolonged absence suggests stability.”

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