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NK NEWS BRIEF | FEB 12, 2015
POSTED February 12, 2015
Babies at an orphanage in Sariwon, Hwanghae Province, in August. | Photo: Yonhap
NK INTERNAL
- Daily NK S Pyongan source: “Fifteen quarantine officials were each sent to customs offices in order to step up surveillance against the Ebola virus… They are carrying out measures… from the Central Party and are in control of all cross-border movements… The team threatened everyone, saying if anyone violates Ebola measures it will be considered a direct challenge to the Marshal [Kim Jong Eun]… Some had speculated with anticipation that tourists will soon be allowed back in, but it seems more likely that the ban will not be lifted easily.”
- Daily NK China source: “Recently North Korean traders that came to China go out to karaoke bars every evening… It was quite shocking to hear them just belt out these South Korean songs without the slightest hesitation… Some of them were singing a song by the famous Trot singer Jang Yoon Jeong that I have never heard of… It’s common for Party cadres to evade repercussions by simply claiming their contact with South Korean media content to be because ‘they need to know what these songs and dramas are so that they can keep an eye on them.’”
- KCNA via Yonhap: The Central Committee and the Central Military Commission of KWP announced 310 slogans to mark the 70th anniversary of national liberation and the founding of KWP. Some slogans focused on the people’s livelihood: “Make tireless efforts with an extraordinary determination to resolve the problems of the people’s living at any cost!”
- NK News: Foreigner-only SIM cards that can access PY’s Wi-Fi at access points around the capital are available for purchase for 200 USD, and for a 22 USD monthly fee subscribers get 50MB of mobile data.
ECONOMY
- Daily NK N Pyongan source: “Many don’t have enough money to afford to pay for a stall in the marketplace, so they either sell goods in the alleys of villages or by crossroads in close proximity to the jangmadang… it becomes increasingly difficult for officials to crackdown on merchants selling in the surrounding areas of the markets, entirely reliant on selling goods to survive.”
- Daily NK: With frequent power shortages, better-off merchants prefer to use diesel-run locomotives to distribute their goods, and the government is responding to their demand. Gangwon source: “The Ministry of Railways and fisheries enterprises are mobilizing diesel locomotives and all kinds of boats to rake in foreign currency… Foreign-currency earning enterprises and even individual vendors are able to get diesel locomotives and freight cars assigned to them as long as they pay the fee in USD to the Ministry of Railways in Pyongyang or the corresponding province… From Wonsan to Sinuiju, electric trains can take as long as up to a week, but diesel trains arrive on the same day.”
- RFA: NKorean businessmen are being told by the authorities that they do not need to avoid SKoreans when they do business in China. A Chinese businessman: “[The NKoreans are told,] If you meet South Korean businessmen, you don’t have to avoid them… Roll with the punches, but do not get too close to them… Many trade workers in China have traded with South Koreans both directly and indirectly… North Korean authorities had overlooked this situation, and now they allow it officially.”
- KITA via Yonhap: NK’s exports of anthracite to China dropped 17.6% in 2014, marking its first drop in 8 years. The export of iron ore from NK to China also dropped 25.7% in 2014.
HUMAN RIGHTS
- HRW: “The interviewees provided consistent testimonies on North Korea’s crackdown in communications and border tightening, and describing how punishments have become harsher for those repatriated from China after trying to flee to South Korea and those who help them.”
- Yonhap: US Senators have introduced a resolution calling for protecting religious freedom in NK and 10 other countries.
REFUGEES & BORDER SECURITY
- Yonhap: Korea Hana Foundation has protected refugees in China, and is seeking to expand the project in cooperation with related aid groups.
- Korea Hana Foundation via RFA: 67.6% of NKoreans in ROK are satisfied with their lives, of which 47.4% are happy because they are free do what they want, and 42.3% because they have more economic power compared to their previous lives in NK (Korean).
- NKDB via VOA: 59% of defectors in ROK stated they have sent money back to their families in NK. 36% of defectors have sent back 900 USD to 1,800 USD. 71% of defectors said that the brokers take 21-30% of their remittances as the transaction fee (Korean).
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY
- Yonhap: NK test-fired five short-range missiles into the East Sea., which flew 200 km before landing in the sea. ROK JCS spokesman: “It appears to be the North’s saber-rattling, particularly after its relations with the U.S. have been deteriorating in recent months.”
- ROK DM Han: “Since November when the North began to stage winter drills, Kim [Jong-un] has visited military units 10 times. While leading some aggressive exercises, he has encouraged the military to complete their readiness this year to fight… Claiming our naval ships violated the inter-Korean border near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea, the North has sent warnings and continued firing drills.”
- Yonhap: 200 ROK Marines and 20 American service personnel held a joint maritime infiltration drill in the waters off Ganghwado Island in the West Sea. It was a first time such a drill has taken place in a region adjacent to NK.
- Yonhap: PY rejected ROK Red Cross’ offer of 25 tons of powdered milk.
- ROK MOU spokesman: “We expect North Korea to respond positively to our proposal even after the Lunar New Year Day in order to hold a separated family reunion event in consideration of the wishes of related families.”
- Obama: “No threat poses as grave a danger to our security and well-being as the potential use of nuclear weapons and materials by irresponsible states or terrorists. We therefore seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons… Our commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is rooted in the profound risks posed by North Korean weapons development and proliferation.”
- Rodong Sinmun via WSJ: “They [North Korea’s detractors] clap their hands and get loud over a satellite picture of our city with not much light, but the essence of society is not on flashy lights… An old superpower that is meeting its sunset may put up a face of arrogance but it can’t avoid its dark fate.”
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