NK NEWS BRIEF | June 19, 2013

The “Torure” Human-powered Rail Transportation System in NK | Photo: Siyang Xue, Flickr

NK INTERNAL

• NK’s Ministry of Land and Environment Protection announced a project to build a road between Pyongyang and Phyongsong to improve travel on the western side of the country.

• NFI: Kim Jong-un has reportedly given out copies of Adolf Hitler’s autobiography Mein Kampf to high ranking officials. Source: “Mentioning that Hitler managed to rebuild Germany in a short time following its defeat in WWI, Kim Jong-un issued an order for the Third Reich to be studied in depth and asked that practical applications be drawn from it.” In response to this report, the NK Ministry of the People’s Security warned it will take “substantial measures to physically remove” those defectors who slander the NK regime. After the report was picked up in the WaPo, KCNA condemned New Focus as “media of human scum in south Korea” which made “a mockery of media whose basic mission is objectivity, impartiality and neutrality.”

• Daily NK: Two miners died after falling more than 60m down a mine shaft in Baekam County. Local sources blame the deaths on the poorly constructed ladder the miners are forced to use.

• NK’s Minju Joson newspaper capitalized on the NSA revelations: “This clearly proves once again the U.S. is a kingpin of human rights abuses as it puts the world under its watch network and has conducted espionage against mankind.”

• Daily NK: Approximately 1000 discharged soldiers in Baekam County have been stealing from the people. Source: “Since April this year when the discharged soldiers were dispatched to the farm, they have been going into people’s homes in secret and stealing food and kimchi. Worse still, they are even taking soybean paste. The spring hardship period makes life exceedingly difficult as it is, but with discharged soldiers going around like insurgents stealing stuff, it feels like we’re fighting a war every single day.”

• NK News: KJU seemingly used a 7m USD luxury yacht on a 10 day tour of NK’s east coast – a direct infringement on UN sanctions against NK procuring luxury goods.

ECONOMY & FOOD SECURITY

• RFA: NK authorities have enforced stricter restrictions on SKorean products entering the country. Goods that were normally allowed in through bribes or label switching are no longer allowed. Source: “The North Korean government is scrutinizing not the only sellers and buyers of South Korean products in the marketplaces, but also customs officials [who let the goods through.]”

• Satellite imagery has been used to track the status of the market economy in NK, which is seen to be growing. Satellite imagery is also showing that work on the “Two Islands Economic Zone” between China and NK has been accelerating despite reports that the project may have been suspended.

• HBOil JSC, a Mongolian oil trading and refining company has acquired 20% of North Korea’s state run Sungri oil refinery in order to export refined products back into Mongolia.

• NK News: NK entrepreneurs are using simple cart technology called “torure” on railroad tracks to transport goods and people for money.  

• RFA reports that China is planning on exporting 500,000 cellphones to N Korea, including 100,000 smart phones.

REFUGEES

• On Sunday, Suncheon, SK hosted “North Korean Refugee Day” in order to foster greater mutual understanding between NK defectors and South Koreans through art, performances and games.  

• SKorean officials report that the group of 20 NK defectors that sought refuge at the SK embassy in Laos have arrived in Seoul in good health. Although this group has been guided to safety, recent events regarding North Korean refugees and the Laos government has left the SKorean government and NGOs working with refugees unsure of the refugees’ safety in Laos.

• ROK MOFA pledged to increase diplomatic efforts and cooperation with other nations in order to ensure the safety of NK defectors.

• Meanwhile, KCNA criticised the Blue House for bringing 18 defectors to SK from Laos, saying that such “abductions” represent “intolerable and severe provocations,” also saying that it proves that the ROKG has no mind to improve N-S relations.

• The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency busted a racket that sent defectors to European countries to apply for political asylum while denying they ever spent time in SK. Brokers lured defectors to seek asylum abroad and take out loans and credit cards before they left.

• The Chinese govt has reportedly promised to help surviving SKorean prisoners of war who escape from NK. The pledge came when Gen. Jung Seung-jo, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met his Chinese counterpart Gen. Fang Fenghui last week. ROK MOD believes around 500 POWs are still alive in NK.

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

• After N-S talks were cancelled last week, phone calls from the South were left unanswered by the North. Despite NK’s lack of further engagement with the South, they declared interest in talks with the US aimed at “diffusing military tensions”. US National Security Council spokesperson: “As we have made clear, our desire is to have credible negotiations with the North Koreans, but those talks must involve NK living up to its obligations to the world, including compliance with U.N. Security Council resolutions, and ultimately result in denuclearization.”

• Remarks by Glyn Davies on June 14 outlined the USG position, including emphasising the importance of NK’s two-week-turnaround on last year’s Leap Day Deal which took 9 months to establish and was “intended to test each side’s sincerity.” He also claimed that humanitarian assistance was then cancelled “not because we linked humanitarian and diplomatic efforts. Rather, it was because we could not trust Pyongyang to live up to its end of the nutritional assistance deal.” Also: “We have every expectation that Beijing will use its special relationship with the DPRK to encourage Pyongyang to choose a different path. And we very much look forward to continuing to work with our Chinese partners on this in the months ahead.”

• G8 Leaders Communiqué: “North Korea must meet its international obligations by completely, verifiably and irreversibly abandoning its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes… We urge North Korea to address the concerns of the international community over its human rights violations, including the abductions issue and treatment of refugees returned to North Korea.”

• NK VFM Kim Kye-gwan visited Beijing for talks. “If China’s stance is still firm, North Korea will understand that there are no loopholes to exploit” – Wang Dong, Peking University.

• Diplomatic sources say that there is mounting evidence that NK has been supplying the Syrian regime with the tools to enact chemical warfare against their citizens. Source: “North has transferred technologies for synthesizing chemical agents and making chemical warheads to Syria since the mid-1990s by dispatching chemical weapons experts there.”

• NK’s Vice Minister for People’s Security Ri Song Chol travelled to Uganda to learn more about their NK based security initiatives such as trainings based off N Korean tactics and and to sign joint security initiatives.

• SKorean companies in Kaesong expressed anguish over the rusting of facilities. “We had no expectations on North Korea in the first place, but the [SKorean] government should immediately hold talks with the North, and worry about ‘levels of negotiators’ later,” said Jeong Ki-seop, vice chairman of the business association in the Kaesong Industrial Park.

ANALYSIS & OPINION

• Shin Joo Hyun and Chris Green: “This latest false dawn for inter-Korean dialogue has only made the situation worse still, driving the Park government toward a much less pragmatic view of inter-Korean relations than would otherwise have been the case… North Korea won’t find it easy to change its tune at this point and return to the negotiating table. But it won’t find it easy to pass the buck for this latest debacle to South Korea while ignoring China’s demands for dialogue, either. It goes without saying that the creator of this impossible situation, marked by nothing so much as the irreconcilability of its goals, is none other than Kim Jong Eun.”

• Scott Snyder: “Although North Korea’s statement provides Pyongyang’s first public recognition of the need for an exit strategy from its current situation, it is cloaked in defiance and makes an odd call on the United States to drop preconditions for talks while adding preconditions of its own. The preamble to North Korea’s offer of “high-level” dialogue demands that the United States stop “all forms of provocation, including sanctions.”

• Andrei Lankov: “North Korean private business is in a peculiar situation. It makes a significant contribution towards the survival (and even the modest growth) of the North Korean economy. However, due to government suppression and the absence of property rights, it is unlikely to ever produce the economic breakthrough that North Korean desperately needs.”

MISC

• SK has invited NK to participate in next year’s Asian Games hosted in Incheon, SK. NK has not responded yet.

• Uri Tours CEO Andrea Lee: “One of the values we see in tourism is really exporting our culture and really learning about theirs.”

• A NK travel agency may start allowing SKorean tourists to visit Mt. Kumkang via. boat. If approved by both governments, it would be the first time SKoreans could visit the historic site since 2008.

• Peter Cox writes about his experience with the NK hockey team in the division III championships in South Africa.

• Feature on On My Way to Meet You, a SK talk show that brings NK defectors on to speak about their experiences in NK and their assimilation to SK. The writer of the show strives to break down misunderstanding of NK defectors: “Beautiful, talented and entertaining women talk about the reality of North Korean life. It’s a more effective way to teach people, and grab viewers, than the usual, tragedy-heavy programming about the North.”

• NK’s fashion capital is not the capital city of Pyongyang but is Chongjin, a “trade hub” near China that exposes North Koreans to different fashion styles. Source: “Pyongyang is a city where people are supposed to be very loyal to the state, so control is that much more strict…In Chongjin, security officers aren’t very strict about the way people dress. The trend of wearing skinny jeans also started in Chongjin.”

• Joseph Kim TED Talk: The family I lost in North Korea. And the family I gained.

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