NK NEWS BRIEF | July 3, 2013

The world according to North Korea | Image via New Focus International

NK INTERNAL

• KJU is promoting plans to construct three special districts in Wonsan in order to transform the area into a tourist destination, with plans to solicit foreign investment. There are also designs for a 200m USD airport at Wonsan on the east coast to serve as a transportation hub for the Kumgang Tourism Zone, which may now be on hold.

• Daily NK: Stronger restrictions on homeless children (“kkotjebi”) have been enacted, reportedly in response to the repatriation of the 9 young refugees repatriated from Laos. Source: “It looks like this is less about protecting them and more about keeping them together to make sure they don’t defect. Oversight of kkotjebi is being ramped up just as we are hearing about the return of those defectors trying to go from Laos to South Korea… There are also these lectures for them about how ‘even if you escape you will unquestionably be captured in just the same way, so don’t even think about it.’”

• Daily NK: PY’s “100,000 Homes” prestige project has been stopped under KJU, which has resulted in buildings “half-built and collapsing into a state of disrepair.” Some building collapses have even reportedly caused deaths.

• RFA reports that KJI’s widow (and KJU’s stepmother), Kim Ok, and her father have been purged from their political posts.

ECONOMY & FOOD SECURITY

• SK’s KREI reports that NK’s imports of Chinese grain in the first five months of 2013 fell by 14.2% compared to last year, possibly indicating improving harvests.

• NFI: Remittance brokers hired by NK defectors to send money to family members in country charge up to 30% commission, but even this seemingly high rate is much preferable to sending money by semi-official channels, which defectors report can entail several layers of extortion.

• Daily NK: Rice prices in NK have lowered due to seasonal factors and a more consistent food distribution of wartime rice stocks.

• RFA: There are over 1,700 legal NK workers in Mongolia.

• Daily NK: Solutions to the closing of the Kaesong Industrial Complex seem far off as it has been closed for three months and reaching technical “irretrievability.” A manager at one of the Kaesong firms stated “If there had been a solution within a month and a half or so, it may have been possible to normalize the factory. Now, however, the supplies and machines have all rusted and clearly will have become useless. I don’t think they’re even thinking about reopening the complex.”

HUMAN RIGHTS

• The NK regime threatened to attack Human Rights Foundation (a US-based NGO) and its partnership with Freedom Fighters of North Korea, lead by defector Park Sang Hak, for their plans to send balloons over into NK to disseminate information through leaflets, USB sticks, etc. Their launch was stopped by the SKorean police.

• In a new report, Citizens Alliance for North Korean Human Rights accused the NK regime of conducting chemical- and biological-weapon experiments on disabled children.

• Choson Sinbo released a video interview with Kenneth Bae in which he asks for the USG’s help in securing his release. He is visibly thinner in the video.

REFUGEES

• RFA: There has been a greater turn around of border guards between NK and China in order to prevent corruption and in effect prevent defection. Border guards last year were only changed once but this year reports say that guard positioning has changed twice in the last six months.

• SK’s MOU: Job protection for talbukin will be extended to 3 years from the current 2. On a visit to Hanawon, PM Chung said it was the govt’s duty to take care of those who risked their lives to come to SK.

• The 9 young NKorean refugees that were repatriated from Laos last month are reportedly attending a “Children of the World” camp in Vladivostok.

• NK defectors on differences in time in SK compared to NK. “In South Korea, people wake up and shower comfortably, have a simple breakfast, and take public transportation to get to work quickly. In the evening, there is time to socialize with others, and you can choose what you want to do: watch a movie, go for a drink and so on. So much can be done in one day. It feels as if I am living three days in one.”

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

• Top diplomats at the ARF (including Secretary of State Kerry) in Brunei called on NK to denuclearize.

• NK’s deputy foreign minister Kim Kye-gwan will meet with Russian officials for discussions about their nuclear program this Thursday.

• After last week’s summit between SK and China, they each publicized conflicting statements on the denuclearization of NK.

• NK launched 4 short range projectiles into the East Sea ahead of President Park’s visit to China last week.

• General Kim Kyok Sik visits Cuba for a goodwill visit. Source: “Gen. Kim also said that Cuba and the DPRK would ”continue consolidating relations of friendship and brotherhood” and that the two countries “share the same trench.”

ANALYSIS & OPINION

• Scott Snyder: “A positive framework for U.S.-China relations provides South Korea with an opportunity to establish much more comprehensive cooperation with China without feeling that it has to choose between China and the United States. It also created hopes that South Korea could finally achieve a strategic breakthrough in its relations with China, at least to the extent that Seoul might be able to win recognition from Beijing that it is likely to be the dominant and most beneficial partner for China on the peninsula.”

• Roberta Cohen: “On this 60th anniversary of the US-ROK alliance, it is time for the US and South Korea to begin to end the exceptionalism accorded North Korea in the human rights area, and to develop a strategy with other countries and international institutions for bringing onto the diplomatic agenda international access to North Korea’s political prisoners.”

• Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt: “Strategists argue that particularly when PRC-DPRK relations are so weak, applying pressure too heavily could backfire. Some go so far as to say that Beijing will lose all leverage over North Korea the moment it is applied. The Chinese challenge is that the more it tries to extend influence, the more North Korea is at pains to show its independence. It will therefore be many more years before we might see China’s much-anticipated policy shift. Until then, the most we can expect from Beijing is to try to persuade North Korea to control its temper and halt its provocations, if not give up its nuclear program.”

• Peter Ward: “The North Korean state now has to move to harness this dynamic economy. It has been living on borrowed time for awhile; without reform it is surely doomed. Its people are becoming more aware of how backward their country is and how much their state is to blame for their continued poverty. The regime has held on thus far, but given the circumstances inside the country, reform is increasingly looking like a necessity for continued regime survival.”

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