NK NEWS BRIEF | July 21, 2014

North Korean men ride in a farmer’s wagon in South Hamgyong province. NK has struggled to obtain tractor fuel for more than two decades, and because the country is largely urbanized, there is not much of a rural labor force to pick up the slack. | Photo: David Guttenfelder, AP (Monday, June 16, 2014)

NK INTERNAL

• Daily NK: Seemingly spurred by increased emphasis by KJU on improving the living standards of service personnel, KPA soldiers in southeast NK are being offered 6 months leave in exchange for 500 kg of beans. Daily NK also reports on the continued lack of official provisions forcing soldiers to procure fabric for their own uniforms: “material for a basic uniform costs 10-20 USD, while the material for ranking officers (unit commanders and higher) runs at about 100 USD.”
• RFA: Rising costs associated with sending children to school and limited professional opportunities in the official state system is leading to a high dropout rate across the country, especially in rural areas, and more parents turning to private tutors.
• Daily NK: NK’s tourism agency reported that the number of people entering NK for tourism rose 20% year-on-year in the first half of 2014. Ham Jin, director of KITC: “New tours, like Masikryong Ski Resort tours, hiking tours, and military tours have all received favorable comments from the outset.”
• NK News: Air Koryo confirmed that it is resuming domestic flight services, hinting at increased tourism despite recent arrests of foreign tourists.
• Yonhap: IFRC said NK has begun full-scale preparations for “serious floods” expected this summer.
• Daily NK: A woman in her 40s who attempted to smuggle out sensitive internal documents – a booklet called ‘Political Knowledge’ and the outline of lectures for the military – was arrested by a border guard in Musan and is currently under interrogation.
• RFA: NKoreans are rushing to purchase China-made LED bulbs to light their homes, despite high costs, because of their comparative efficiency over incandescent bulbs. Source from Yanggang Province: “The price of a [incandescent] light bulb is 3 yuan (U.S. $0.50), but the price of an LED bulb varies depending on its shape. LED bulbs which can fit into a regular bulb socket cost more than 10 yuan (U.S. $1.60).”

ECONOMY & FOOD SECURITY

• AP: The combined overall crop production for this year and 2013 is expected to increase by 5%, to 5.98 million tons, according to the UN FAO and WFP. The report, released last November, estimated NK would still need to import 340,000 tons of cereals. About 16 million of NK’s 25 million people rely on state-provided rations of cereals, and stunting from chronic malnutrition is estimated to be as high as 40% in some areas. But according to UN monitors, NKoreans have been getting larger rations of rice, potatoes and corn over the past two years. The production gap in the FAO-WFP report, meanwhile, is the smallest in two decades.
• AFP: For the first time since 2010, the ROK MOU will fund humanitarian projects through NGOs in NK, to the tune of 2.9m USD.

REFUGEES

• Daily NK: PY is eager to coax back more re-defectors. A North Hamkyung Province source says people were told in a meeting that if they happened to make contact with family members who had defected they should tell them that despite having “betrayed the motherland” they will be forgiven and provided with an apartment and a job. Some people who have returned from SK to Hyesan in Yangkang and Yeonsa County in North Hamkyung have reportedly been given apartments but they have also been allocated work in mines and on farms, causing local people to suggest that they are actually being “revolutionized,” meaning undergoing re-education through hard labor and additional ideological indoctrination.

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

• Yonhap: NK revealed plans to send 350 athletes to the Asian Games in Incheon. Seoul said its basic principle is to follow international practice, a break from its tradition of financially supporting visiting sporting delegations from NK. Official: “We express deep regret over North Korea’s unilateral attitude. We hope North Korea’s participation in the Incheon Asian Games will be realized.” Reuters: NK threatened to pull out of the Asian Games a day after the meeting, accusing the South of plotting to block its athletes from taking part. KCNA quoted KJU as saying that the participation of NKorean athletes was important for improving N-S relations.
• Chosun Ilbo: NKorean FM Ri Su-yong reportedly spent more than a week in Switzerland without any official schedule on his return from a tour of the Middle East and Africa.
• Arirang: Obama told President Xi that the two sides have to enhance their communication and coordination to make progress on the NKorean nuclear issue. Obama said the bilateral relationship should be defined by increased practical cooperation and the constructive management of differences.
• Yonhap: ROK and China have agreed to establish a hotline between their defence chiefs within this year. The only other country with which Seoul has such a ministerial-level military hotline is the US.
• KBS: On the 14th anniversary of a friendship pact signed by KJI and Putin in 2000, the Rodong Sinmun emphasised improving bilateral relations with Moscow.
• NK News: Mu Du Bong, a NKorean freighter, reportedly run aground on a reef near the Mexican port of Tuxpan and approximately 7.5 km offshore. There were no injuries or damage to the vessel but the captain was “disorientated.” The vessel was empty but was scheduled to pick up cargo.
• Mainichi Shimbun: US Secretary of State Kerry expressed concerns over Japanese PM Abe’s possible visit to NK to resolve the issue of Japanese abductees, asking Tokyo to hold prior talks with Washington should Abe visit NK.
• Daily NK: The MOU selected 26 private organizations to receive government grants but not one group with a focus on the NKHR issue was chosen, leading to criticism that the ROKG may lack the desire to deal with questions of HR violations. Seven one-time “concert” projects were selected, leading to assertions that the MOU “might as well be an entertainment company.”  
• Reuters: NK recently revealed detailed photos of KJU supervising rocket launches near the SKorean border. The UNSC condemned NK, describing the three rounds of Scud short-range missiles fired in June and July as a violation of Council demands on PY.
• Reuters: Misa Morimoto (50) clings to hope that her identical twin who vanished when they were 20 might still be alive in NK.
• Irrawaddy: Journalists say the NKorean Embassy in Rangoon extended an informal invitation for Burmese journalists to travel to NK and learn about their situation there. Myo Thant Tin: “They want the Burmese media to publish what the Burmese audience should know, because most of the information about their country is based on second-hand sources. They want us to contact them directly—that’s why they came to see us.”
• Korea Times: Seoul official says NK has been accepted as an observer to the APG, an international body combating money laundering and terrorism-related financing. Some say NK’s intentions might be to make attempts to ease some of the international economic sanctions imposed by showing the international community that it is making efforts to combat illegal financing.

ANALYSIS & OPINION

• Hugo Swire (UK FCO): “For too long the North Korean people have suffered terribly. There are no easy answers, but we are determined that we should not simply see this as “too difficult” and put it to the bottom of what is a very busy foreign affairs in-tray. We must remain resolute in tackling the DPRK’s efforts at nuclear development, which remain of deep concern; but we must also not allow this to obscure what is a human tragedy on an epic scale. As I said last month in the UN, we must not allow history to judge us as the generation who looked the other way.”
• Chosun Ilbo: “Japan has nothing to gain by stymieing international sanctions against North Korea, nor does it have the power to achieve this on its own. The problem is that it is prompting North Korea to believe it may be able to break the closed international ranks against its nuclear ambitions. Japan is also seeking to use North Korea as leverage as it becomes increasingly marginalized by South Korea and China.”
• The Diplomat: Why Korea cannot follow Germany’s Reunification Model.
• National Interest: Despite concerns of the international community, the NKorean nuclear program still lives on a “struggle street” and will for some more years.

MISC.

• North Korea Tech: “Hack North Korea,” an event organized by HRF, will take place in San Francisco with the purpose of coming up with new ways to “spark better ideas for getting information into the world’s most closed and isolated society.”
• North Korea Tech: The UK parliament discussed the launch of a BBC Korean-language service when the House of Lords heard a motion to “take note of the role the BBC World Service and the British Council in promoting British values and interests worldwide.” Lord Eames: “From a most unlikely source, there was a remark that will live with me for a very long time… ‘Where’, he said to me, ‘is the BBC?’. If you knew the person who said that, the circumstances and the position that he held, it would set the balance right of many of the impressions that we have of what is going on in North Korea. Those words speak louder than statistics, transmission problems and the facilities needed, and I convey them to the House with great feeling.”
• Chosun Ilbo: PY allegedly asked Beijing to stop the spread of a video clip lampooning KJU. Beijing was unable to oblige. The clip was made by a Chinese man surnamed Zhang from Suzhou, who reportedly studied at Kyonggi University in SK.
• WSJ: NK takes complaint about “The Interview” to the White House. In a statement submitted by NK to UNSG Ban Ki-moon: “The enemies have gone beyond the tolerance limit in their despicable moves to dare hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK.” NK’s ambassador to the UN said the US should ban the production of the film, “otherwise, it will be fully responsible for encouraging and sponsoring terrorism.”

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