NK NEWS BRIEF | JAN 22, 2015

A North Korean female shopkeeper in Pyongyang. | Photo: Jonas Gratzer / LightRocket via Getty Images

NK INTERNAL

• Daily NK N Hamkyung source: “Two months ago, operations at Musan Mine came to a complete halt… With the prolonged suspension, there had been rumors of potential layoffs late last year, and starting this month, they have officially started cutting people… Workers that arrive late to the job, duck out early, or fail to show up at all without proper excuse or notice are the first ones on the list for the layoff… Officials at the mine may say that they’re struggling with deciding on whose names to add to the list, and workers are irate, saying that ‘they can’t get away with this!’”
• Daily NK: Phone numbers and area codes in NK are now organized by regions. Yangkang source: “Before this, we only had two area codes for home phones in Hyesan, but now they changed the numbers according to neighborhoods… Since each neighborhood has a unique set of digits, just by looking at the phone number you can tell which area it is from… Since the new numbers are assigned by neighborhood, if someone is exposed during a wiretap, it would be easy for the State Security Department [SSD] to figure out where it’s from.”
• The Guardian: Pyongyang Tourism College is now accepting volunteers from abroad to teach English or tourism in PY.

ECONOMY  

• Chosun Sinbo via Daily NK: New chain stores are being established in NK under the name ‘Hwanggeumbeol Shops’. Hwanggeumbeol Trade Company, an SOE, runs the stores, which buy goods in bulk and resell them to consumers at affordable prices, and try to offer uniform quality, price, and service to the customers. New stores opened in three locations in PY, and the business plans to open 20 more. The stores are open from 6 am to midnight. Their stated aim: “To put people’s interest above anything and to serve the people’s convenience are the aims of our service.”
• Daily NK: Although a historic landmark of the Kim family visits, the Kim Chaek Air Force Academy in Chongjin will be relocated, stirring rumors that Chongjin city will be developed into an SEZ. N Hamkyung source: “Rumors about Chongjin opening up have been ongoing, but now it looks like those plans will materialize this fall… Considering it has the honor of being a permanent ‘historic landmark’ with all leaders across three generations conducting ‘field guidance’ there, it is highly unusual for the academy to be moved… Now that the third year of mourning [for Kim Jong Il] is over and the Kim Jong Eun era has truly commenced, it’s a time to reap in economic results… Rather than exposing military facilities to outside investors, the move seems to be in order to show investors a more proactive image aimed at opening up.”
• Daily NK Yangkang source: “Starting late last year, [officials] abruptly instigated a crackdown on the use of foreign currency in the marketplace, and now in the new year, it’s hard to find vendors who still use cash from outside… When it was common to use foreign currency, it was used not only to purchase expensive products but even simple goods such as tofu, which was bought with Chinese money [RMB]… It’s hard to tell how long this will continue on for, but no vendor is dumb enough to swap out his or her money for domestic money.” N Pyongan source: “Using foreign currency is not an option, it’s a must.”
• RFA N Hamkyung source: “For North Koreans, US dollar bills are more important than the Suryong and Marshal, but everyone avoids holding old dollar bills because they are useless. Those holding worn-out dollar bills due to the long circulation period are anxious… Even if it’s the same 100 US dollar bill, the newer bill will be worth 1,000 KPW more, and the older bills will leave one with less KPW after an exchange.” N Pyongan source: “Though popular, the US dollar bills never enter the bank and only circulate among the residents, only adding up the pile of old US dollar bills.” (Korean).
• Reuters: PY sent a tourism representative to a travel fair in Switzerland. Representative Ri: “Mostly, they are interested to see our system, how it works, how the people are living and what the present situation is.”
• Yonhap via Korea Herald: PY is planning to invite investors to the eastern coastal areas of Wonsan and Mount Kumgang in April to hold investor relations session and tour.

HUMAN RIGHTS  

• Shin Dong-hyuk, WP: “When I agreed to share my experience for the book, I found it was too painful to think about some of the things that happened… So I made a compromise in my mind. I altered some details that I thought wouldn’t matter. I didn’t want to tell exactly what happened in order not to relive these painful moments all over again.” Shin, NYT: “I am sorry to a lot of people… I knew I could hide it no longer, but I dithered because friends feared the damage my coming out might do to the movement for North Korean human rights.”
• Kirby: “It’s part of the testimony of one witness whose testimony is referred to on one page of a 350-page report that includes the testimony of hundreds of other people, so keep it in proportion… It appears to be related to whether he was in one detention camp or in another. It’s a question of whether he was in the most gruesome or simply one that is very gruesome.”
• Uriminzokkiri via Reuters: “Now that the true nature of these human scum has become clear and all the records they presented are proven as false, the documents on so-called North Korean human rights that have been fabricated on that basis must be scrapped.” Uriminzokkiri via NYT: “It’s not ‘parts’ of his story that are untrue. Everything he said and the things the so-called ‘defectors’ said and submitted to their American boss and the United Nations Human Rights Commission are all lies, woven with trickery.”
• US Department of State spokesperson: “This report should not distract from the issue at hand, which is the DPRK’s deplorable human rights situation, for which more than ample evidence exists.”
• Curtis Melvin (NK Econ Watch): “Shin’s father claims that they did not live in a political prison camp [Camp 14] (1:52, Video 1), but in Pongchang-ri (봉창리, 39.562650°, 126.077345°). … So revealing that Shin lived in Pongchang-ri as a child is admitting he was in a prison camp (Camp 18)… just not the one he claims to have been from (Camp 14). So now the North Koreans and Shin can at least agree he was in Camp 18.”
• Yonhap: The ROK National Assembly remains deadlocked on the NK human rights bill, as NPAD and NFP continue to disagree on the details of the bill.

REFUGEES

• Reuters: A 17-year-old boy who claims he is a kkotjebi from NK is seeking asylum in Sweden, but Swedish authorities suspect he may be Chinese. Defector Han Song (pseudonym): “I can’t speak Chinese… But it’s hard for me to prove anything.”

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

• INTER-KOREAN: ROK MOU official: “The government has set this year as a starting point for widening discussion over unification and making progress in inter-Korean relations as it marks the 70th anniversary of independence from Japanese colonial rule, as well as the South-North division.”
• KCNA via Yonhap: “It is possible to resume the suspended high-level contact and hold inter-sector talks if the South Korean authorities are sincere in their stand on improving inter-Korean relations through dialogue… If (South Korea) refuses to stop the annual war rehearsal for the northward invasion and justifies it as defensive, tensions on the Korean Peninsula will never die down and the danger of nuclear war will not be driven out.”
• Rodong Sinmun via Yonhap: “The U.S. should at least halt its Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises in accordance with our pacifist efforts and the overall trend… If (they) push ahead with joint military drills again, our military and people cannot help taking defensive counteraction to safeguard the sovereignty and dignity of the country.”
• Reuters: A defector activist group launched about 100,000 leaflets despite the ROKG’s advice against the launches. The representative of the group threatened to send in USB copies of “The Interview” into NK should PY not respond by February 18th to Seoul’s call for a meeting.
• Yonhap: The ROKG plans to develop military spy satellites that will detect imminent NKorean nuclear or missile provocation. ROK military officer: “A total of five units will be put into service by 2022 starting 2020… The satellites will allow us to detect North Korea’s transporter erector launchers within some two to three hours of their deployment.”
• Yonhap: SKorean firms operating in KIC have had a steady 11.75% growth annually from 2005 to 2013.
• US: A delegation of US academics and former officials held a 2-day informal meeting with NKorean diplomat Ri Yong-ho in Singapore. Former US envoy Bosworth: “[US sees a] priority need to get official discussion back underway to resume a dialogue.” NK’s envoy Ri: “… [the] root cause that aggravates the tension on the Korean Peninsula is none other than the large-scale joint military exercise between U.S. and South Korea, which is being held annually.”
• NYT: US NSA has been tapping into NKorean computer networks since 2010, which enabled the USG to pinpoint the source of the cyber attack on Sony Pictures.
• RUSSIA: Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, on Russia’s invitation to KJU: “… the first signal was positive.”
• The Diplomat: The Russian govt acknowledged that Russian businesses trading with NK can make payments in rubles through NK’s Foreign Trade Bank. The bank was placed on the US sanction list in 2013.

ANALYSIS & OPINION

• Abrahamian: “We also know of people trying to start a chain of stores as well as dry-cleaning and delivery services in Pyongyang… There is definitely a generation of business people thinking creatively, asking ‘why not?’ when it comes to new ways of doing things.”
• Choson Exchange: “On a Women in Business workshop in Singapore last year, the businesswomen were obsessed with how retail worked elsewhere… it took ages to drag them through a mall, not because they were shopping, but because they were taking notes on everything. They were extremely curious about how customers could be attracted, engaged and kept.”
• Lankov: “From Mr. Kim’s point of view, it makes sense to usher in economic changes: The old system was slowly falling apart, eroding from within by the development of an unofficial economy and growing disappointment in the official ideology. The reforms are risky, but without reforms the regime is certainly doomed. While the changes are positive for regular North Koreans, one should harbor no illusions: North Korea will remain a problematic place. The regime will never surrender its nuclear weapons… Still, a prospering North Korea will be less inclined to deliberately destabilize the environment: Its leaders will need stability in their neighborhood to make money.”

MISC.

• CNBC: The PY marathon in April expects a high number of participants from abroad. Koryo Tours: “We expect a large number of foreign runners this year, possibly around 500 or so. Last year there were around 200 foreign amateur runners and about a dozen or so professionals.”

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