NK NEWS BRIEF | Jan 9, 2015

A man walks through a deserted film set at the Korean Feature Film Studio just outside Pyongyang in a file photo. | Photo: AFP

NK INTERNAL

• Daily NK: One hour of electricity was granted for the residents to watch KJU’s New Year’s address. Yangkang Province source: “On January 1st they only provided exactly one hour of electricity during Kim Jong Eun’s New Year’s Address, and that after that there was no power for the rest of the day.”
• Daily NK: Citizens are being tested on their retention of the New Year’s address. N Hamkyung Province source: “Generally, residents can get an idea of the projects planned for the upcoming year in the New Year’s address, but this year there were a few parts that were difficult to understand.” Yangkang Province source: “People were already worried when they gauged how long the text would be as they were watching the New Year’s Address.”
• Daily NK: In following the guidelines provided in the New Year’s address, residents were mobilized to collect compost on KJU’s birthday. N Hamkyung Province source: “I don’t think the Marshal actually said anything, rather it’s the central Party cadres driving people out to take part in this ‘compost battle,’ vowing to attain goals laid out in the [Marshal’s] New Year’s address. Because the Marshal made numerous references during his address to economic issues, Party cadres are already engaged in heated competition.”
• Daily NK: Approximately 30 N Hamkyung Province residents have been arrested for making overseas phone calls. Instead of an arrest, some residents face a heavy fine of 10,000 RMB (cited as 1.3 million KPW) when caught. N Hamkyung Province source: “One or two minutes after you switch on your phone and start talking, security agents with detectors show up. So you’re putting your life at risk when you make calls to other countries.”
• Daily NK Yangkang Province source: “Due to the recent regulation on South Korean goods, State Security Department [SSD] agents have been walking around the marketplace with ‘daggers in their eyes’ [watching keenly], making the atmosphere of the market places cold.”
• Daily NK N Hamkyung Province source: “The secretary who was hosting the year-end workers’ lecture at the Musan Mine was arrested by the SSD… After the lecture he is said to have complained about the teaching material, saying it was all ‘a lie.’”
• RFA PY source: “These days, no foreign films are broadcast and we can only watch reruns of domestic movies… The state stopped broadcasting foreign movies because of an order from Kim Jong Un to block the influx of foreign culture.”
• NYT: Kim Yo-jong was spotted wearing a gold ring while accompanying her brother KJU on a visit to a nursery in PY. She is speculated to have wed Choe Ryong-hae’s son.

ECONOMY & FOOD SECURITY

• Daily NK N Hamkyung Province source: “These days is when the customs office is supposed to be busy with products coming through for the New Year, but things are quiet… This is because of the burdensome ‘homework’ trading companies have received from customs officials… The officials have been swarming around traders whenever they appear, asking, ‘How about doing some homework for customs?’ and then writing down a long list of their requests. If you deny their request for free gifts, the next time they pass through customs, it always comes back and bites them.”
• Daily NK: After a few NKorean fishing boats were rescued in SKorean waters last year, NK authorities have been limiting the issuance of fishing permits. N Hamkyung Province source: “People in North Hamkyung Province and those who live on the east coast near the ocean have never struggled so much to get by… With the start of the New Year, people from district offices in Chongjin City and inminban [people’s unit] heads are going around from door to door getting people to sign documents stating that ‘under no circumstances will anyone in this family will ever commit suicide.’”

HUMAN RIGHTS

• Daily NK: ROKG official: “In the past, the nuclear issue was the main focal point, but now we need to respond to the other problems persisting in North Korea… North Korean human rights are a serious issue. 111 UN member states voting to pass the draft resolution on human rights conditions in North Korea is a significant figure and dealt a huge shock to the country.”

REFUGEES & BORDER SECURITY

• Chosun Ilbo: A new consular agreement between Seoul and Beijing allows a ROK consular official to meet with SKorean citizens within four days of their arrest or imprisonment in China, and vice versa for Chinese citizens in SK. The agreement is also said to apply to “the individuals with unsubstantiated declarations of their citizenship to a country,” which may include NKorean refugees who claim to be SKorean citizens.
• Daily NK: A NKorean soldier deserted his post and crossed the Tumen river into Helong city in China, possibly in search of food. During a few robbery attempts he killed four and injured one Chinese citizen, and later died from injuries suffered during his capture. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman: “We have lodged a representation with the North Korean side and China’s public security authorities are dealing with the issue… The North Korean side expressed regret over the incident and extended sympathies to the families of the victims.”

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

• KJU: “We believe we can resume suspended senior-level talks and hold other talks on specific issues if South Korea sincerely has a position that it wants to improve North-South relations through a dialogue. And there is no reason not to hold the highest-level talks if the atmosphere and conditions are met.”
• PGH: “North Korea should quickly come forward for inter-Korean dialogue and cooperation and substantially handle with us specific projects for the establishment of peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula.”
• Yonhap: A defector activist group launched about 600,000 leaflets from Yeoncheon on Tuesday. KCNA via Yonhap: “Do the South Korean authorities have an idea of bring about a great change through dialogue … or to persist in the confrontational racket such as leaflet scattering? They should make clear on their stand on the problems.”
• ROK MOU official: “If inter-Korean ties move forward and trust is established, the North will be able to dispel its misunderstanding that the [South Korean] government is condoning and protecting [the leaflet campaigns]… Once the North understands our system and exchanges are established, this problem will come to sort itself out.”
• AP: ROK MOD reported that NK has a 6,000-member cyber army dedicated to “paralyzing the South psychologically and materially,” and that PY has made significant advance toward making a nuclear warhead small enough to fit onto a long-range missile that can reach the US West Coast.
• Yonhap: ROKG will be providing NK 620,000 USD in aid through UNESCAP, honoring an agreement established with the UNESCAP in 2006. ROK MOU spokesman: “UNESCAP plans to carry out its technology aid program in various fields in the first half of next year.”
• ROK MOU spokesman: “The 20 tons of sweet potato aid at the end of last year were intended as nutritional assistance for babies and infants including those at an orphanage in the Sinuiju area.”
• Yonhap: Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office decided to deport the Korean-American woman who was deemed to have made positive remarks about the North Korean regime in public discussions in South Korea.
• US: AP: The USG imposed sanctions on 3 state-controlled entities and 10 officials in NK in response to the cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment. Obama’s letter to House and Senate leaders: “The order is not targeted at the people of North Korea, but rather is aimed at the government of North Korea and its activities that threaten the United States and others.”
• NK Foreign Ministry spokesman: “The persistent and unilateral action taken by the White House to slap ‘sanctions’ against the DPRK patently proves that it is still not [moving] away from inveterate repugnancy and hostility toward the DPRK.” KCNA via Yonhap: “The U.S. should lift all unreasonable sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in all fields.”
• FBI director: “The Guardians of Peace would send emails threatening Sony employees and post online various statements explaining their work… But several times they got sloppy… We could see that the IP addresses they used … were IPs that were exclusively used by the North Koreans. It was a mistake by them. It was a very clear indication of who was doing this. They would shut it off very quickly once they realized the mistake, but not before we saw them and knew where it was coming from.”
• NYT: Japan-ROK-US signed a non-legally-binding agreement to share classified information regarding NK’s missile and nuclear weapons programs. Japan’s Defense minister: “For Japan, the United States and Korea, how to deal with the threat of North Korean nuclear weapons and missiles is a shared security concern… This memorandum of understanding is meaningful because it improves the national security of the three nations.”

ANALYSIS & OPINION

• Lankov: “For the last two years North Korean government has been quietly and cautiously implementing reforms, rather similar to what China did in the late 1970s. Until recently, the official media remained silent about the changes, but in December Rodong Sinmun mentioned the new system of the agricultural management… No such references can be found in the 2015 New Year speech, even though some wording can be interpreted as a signal for greater flexibility… it seems more likely that the North Korean decision makers do not want to attract too much attention to the quietly unrolling reforms which ostensibly contradict much of the official ideology.”
• Chung-in Moon: “Sometimes, though, the most significant part of a North Korean speech is what is left out… In the previous New Year’s speeches, Kim Jong Un made it clear that his rule is founded on two pillars of governance, namely Kim Il Sungism and Kim Jong Ilism. But in this latest New Year’s address… Only the strengthening of monolithic leadership, the revolutionary cause of juche, and the importance of songun (military-first) politics were routinely mentioned. This could be a sign of the advent of a new guiding ideology under the initiative of Kim Jong Un.”
• Jang Jin-sung: “… the fact that no new key terminology was introduced in the inter-Korean sphere leads to the conclusion that the suggestion of highest-level summits was thrown in only to extract maximum advantage for its system from the present circumstances. In fact, the suggestion appears to be tactically rather than strategically motivated, for establishing convenient grounds to point the blame at the South Korean government in the event that 2015 sees no progress made in the inter-Korean relationship.”
• Asan Institute: 28.2% of SKoreans in their 20s are not interested in reunification, compared to 10.1% of those in their 50s and 8.3% of those in their 60s and above. 32.3% of adults chose ethnic identity as the reason for reunification, while 7.6% answered divided families, and 23.0% economic advancement (Korean).
• Andray Abrahamian: “… there have been signs of experimentation recently, and it does seem as if more and more companies and organisations have been getting online in North Korea in a limited fashion… Yet for Pyongyang, its appears the certainty of the advantages of its closed systems is currently a far greater comfort than the uncertain returns of broader connectivity. And the Sony affair – specifically the reprisals that will come either from states or hacktivists – will likely discourage Pyongyang from taking risks.”

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