NK NEWS BRIEF | Dec 11, 2014

A female NKorean soldier checks her cell phone while leaning on a sentry box on the border with China | Photo: Jacky Chen/Reuters

NK INTERNAL

• Daily NK: NKorean students are carrying US one dollar bills as lucky charms. N Pyongan Province source: “Last month along with the Marshal’s visit to the Sinchon Museum, there was ideology training at factories, companies, and even high schools– all based on anti-American teachings… But these students learning anti-imperialism and anti-American teachings keep a one dollar bill in their uniform pocket for good luck.”
• Tokyo Shimbun: According to an anonymous ROKG source, 80 labourers and soldiers may have died when an under-construction NDC building collapsed.
• Daily NK: Workers of Musan Mine received only 10% of a promised wage increase. N Hamkyung Province source: “Last year in September, it was announced that Musan Mine workers would be compensated in the amount of 300,000 KPW [cited as 36 USD] a month, but in reality they’ve only been paid 30,000 KPW [3.6 USD].” The miners started to receive supplies in place of wages once the production level hit a plateau: “The supplies received are cheaper than what sells in the market, but it’s something that gets distributed to thousands of workers at the same time, so it’s hard to sell.”
• Yonhap: Koryo Tours: “The latest information we currently have from our contacts is that the temporary suspension of tours to North Korea – enacted by the DPRK government on 25 October 2014 in response to the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa – will be lifted at some point during Q1 of 2015.”
• Joongang Ilbo: KCTV footage showed KJU limping again as he met with female pilots at the end of last month.

ECONOMY & FOOD SECURITY

• Daily NK: Kim Jong Suk County residents are having trouble reaching the state-mandated output goal outlined in the June 28 Measures due to severe drought and lack of fertilizer. When the residents fail to meet the required production level, they take on a debt which needs to be settled by next year’s harvest.  
• Yonhap: KOTRA Vladivostok office: Russia’s exports to NK dropped 10.1% on 2013, reaching 59M USD for the first 9 months of this year. Imports from NK also dropped 7.9%, totalling 6.46M USD. Meanwhile, Russia’s import of NK-made clothes rose 35.5%, and NK’s import of Russian electronics and coal dropped 61% and 44.6% respectively.
• RFA: American NGO Feed My Starving Children has been sending 4,200,000 meals annually to N Hwanghae and S Pyongan Provinces, and to PY orphanages and centers for the disabled for the last 8 years, and will continue to send food aid next year (Korean).

HUMAN RIGHTS

• AP: 10 out of 15 members of the UNSC signed a letter calling for a formal Council meeting on NK HR. The 10 members were: Australia, Chile, France, Jordan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, South Korea, Rwanda, UK, and the United States. Robert King: “We’ll see that the North Korea human rights issue is put on the agenda of the Security Council… There may be a discussion at the Security Council later this month. But certainly if it does not happen later this month, it will happen next year.”
• USG’s Malinowski’s warning to regime officials: “We see this (a satellite image of a NKorean prison camp), we see you, we know who you are and what you are doing … you cannot hide any more… The message to these individuals is, ‘do not be part of this, because one day there will be change on the Korean Peninsula and we know your names and you do not want to be associated with that.'” He also said NK HR will “stay on the agenda of the U.N. Security Council permanently, until it no longer needs to be there… One day, the North Korean people will be free. That is inevitable. The Korean Peninsula will be whole and our goal is to try to do whatever we can to accelerate that progress.” At the same event, on Human Rights Day, young defectors Joseph Kim and Yeonmi Park also made speeches to a State Dept audience.
• National Unification Advisory Council via Daily NK: 35.6% of SKoreans thinks that the NK HR situation is “extremely severe,” while 41.2% considers it “to some extent severe,” (combined: 76.8%). In regard to “providing humanitarian aid to the North,” 65% said “it should only be provided if it is properly distributed to the people in the North,” but as to prospects for changes in inter-Korean relations next year, 62.8% believed there will be “no change.”
• WSJ interviews with Seoulites on NK HR: “I am concerned, but it’s a matter beyond my control. Realistically there’s nothing I can do to provide help. So I am aware of the North Korean human rights situation but not able to take any action.”
• Daily NK: NK’s Uriminzokkiri website revealed footage of four students who were repatriated from Laos last year. PY is thought to be using the footage to counter international human rights criticism.
• Daily NK: NK’s Ambassador submitted a formal letter to the UN SG protesting the recently adopted resolution on NK HR violations. Letter: “Hostile policies of the U.S. seek to prevent us from conducting a new nuclear test. North Korea will act freely, without regard to any international resolutions.” PY also pointed to the recent report on CIA’s treatment of terror suspects, and criticised the UNSC’s lack of attention on US human rights issues.
• Curtis Melvin satellite imagery analysis of changes to Camp 15: “Mines have been closed along with Sorimchon District, but guard housing has increased, as have security units. I also saw no change in the security perimeter.”

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

• INTER-KOREAN: ROKG official on resuming family reunions: “If we fail to resolve the problem, it means the government is not carrying out its duties. It’s an international shame… I think the government will actively consider incentives for North Korea if necessary.”
• Chosun Ilbo: NKorean military winter drills are more intense this year, with more than 10,000 special troops and twice as many artillery pieces involved.
• Yonhap: Korea Electric Power Corporation is considering joining the Rajin-Khasan railway project, along with ROK’s POSCO, Hyundai Merchant Marine Company, and KORAIL that have already joined.
• Joongang Ilbo: PY overrode the previous inter-Korean agreement on KIC wage system, which stated that the yearly wage increases would be limited to 5%, and instead unilaterally authorized the Central Industrial District Guidance Office to determine the minimum wage level. ROK MOU spokesman: “The two Koreas had agreed to improve the wage system of the Kaesong Industrial Complex to meet international standards, but any revision should be made through inter-Korean consultations… The North’s recent announcement is a unilateral move in violation of inter-Korean agreements and we regret the situation.”
• Yonhap: ROK unification minister: “Until now, Seoul and Washington focused on inducing Pyongyang to change by cooperatively putting pressure upon it. However, to make the pressure more effective, dialogues and cooperation are also necessary… Our two countries should therefore strengthen our coordination for engagement as well.”
• Yonhap: US House of Representatives’ bill on increased missile defense cooperation between Japan, ROK, and the US: “It is the sense of Congress that increased cooperation on missile defense among the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea would enhance the security of allies of the United States in Northeast Asia, increase the defense of forward-based forces of the United States, and enhance the protection of the United States with regard to threats from the Korean Peninsula.”
• Yonhap: Nuclear envoys of China and Japan “exchanged views on promoting denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and restarting the six-party talks.”
• Yonhap: A Chinese tour company in Dandong: “As the [Ebola] entry ban has continued for more than 40 days, our revenues have nose-dived.”

ANALYSIS & OPINION

• Siegfried Hecker: “North Korea is presumed to have the capability of producing some four nuclear bombs per year, and it appears that the North will possess some 20 nuclear bombs by 2016.” 38 North: No preparations are being made for a nuclear test in the near future according to the satellite images of Punggye-ri site.

• KDI: International aid into NK decreased from 63M USD in 2013 to 28M USD this year (through November). Prof Hwang Ji-hwan of SNU: “The greatest factor that caused aid to drop this year is the reluctance of North Korean authorities to allow outsiders to monitor where the humanitarian shipments are going to.”
• Lankov: “Cooperation between Russia and North Korea will have to be based largely on reciprocity and commercial viability, even though these principles are not all that popular in Pyongyang… A good example is the recent shipment of Russian coal to the South Korean Pohang Steel mill via the North Korean port city of Rason, which is connected to Russia by a recently built railway. This project has some political support, but is also economically viable for both sides, and so is likely to continue. Thus, people who worry, or hope, that the ongoing improvement in relations with Moscow will end with North Korea gaining another sponsor are wrong.”

MISC.

• Reuters: Defectors spoke about Bureau 121, where as many as 1,800 people are trained in cyber warfare. Jang se-yul, who studied with military hackers at the University of Automation: “For them, the strongest weapon is cyber. In North Korea, it’s called the Secret War… My friend, who belongs to a rural area, could bring all of his family to Pyongyang. Incentives for North Korea’s cyber experts are very strong … they are rich people in Pyongyang.”

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