NK NEWS BRIEF | MAR 06, 2015

A rare photo of a North Korean smuggler, carrying a bag of illegal USB drives on the Chinese side of the Tumen River as he prepares to cross back to his homeland. | Photo: Jung Kwang-il via WIRED

NK INTERNAL

• Daily NK Yangkang source: “The North Korean authorities have started to restrict the promotions for officials with defectors in their families… Even if they are exemplary in carrying out their duties, if defectors are known to be within their immediate or extended family, they have absolutely no chance to progress further up the ranks… For cadres affiliated with the MPS or the State Security Department, the investigation extends to the background of the official’s daughter or son-in-law’s parents–most go back all the way to the third cousins.”
• Daily NK: Kkotjebi are being rounded up from the market places and taken into facilities, some of which provide elementary-level education and three meals a day. N Hamkyung source: “The kkotjebi have been disappearing from Chosun’s markets… Even if only one of the kkotjebi is spotted, he or she is forcibly removed and taken to a designated facility.” Source: “Only the orphanages receive state funds; other regional facilities don’t receive a thing… there are various complaints about how they procure money from ordinary, struggling residents in the region to take care of the kkotjebi.”
• Daily NK: A KWP Central Committee secretary affiliated with Musan Mine was dismissed after being caught with 1kg of crystal meth, discovered by two burglars who raided his house. N Hamkyung source: “There have been a number of high-ranking Party cadres implicated in drug trafficking recently. This practice continues to increase because 1kg of ‘ice’ can rake in 100,000 RMB [in NK]… If the kilo he had was passed on to a Chinese trader, the price would be around 300,000 RMB for the same quantity.”
• Daily NK N Hamkyung source: “At the beginning of this month, there has been major construction to repair and expand the roads near the Chilbo Mountain area in Myongchon County for tourism… and residents in the province are being mobilized for work… The cadres in charge of the directive have been pushing people to work faster, saying the construction needs to be completed soon so they can accept tourists from China and Russia during the spring season.”
• RFA: A crackdown on smartphones has led some residents to cancel their services voluntarily, while others are turning to unregistered smartphones to avoid surveillance. Source: “As soon as they see a cell phone, the agents of ‘Bureau 1080’ appear out of nowhere and confiscate the phone to examine the contents within.” (Korean).
• RFA: Heavy snow in the northern regions is not only helping the farmers cope with the drought, but also the border guards. The snow hid smugglers’ footsteps in the border region just days before the official state investigations on border security (Korean).
• Bloomberg: 52.3% of NKorean men smoke, including KJU, who is often photographed smoking. Senior policy adviser, WHO: “They’re facing the headaches health officials all over the world are: it’s the same product, same concerns, same consequences… At this moment in time, North Korea has a unique opportunity to stub out this epidemic… Action can happen quickly if North Korea decides to do it. Not many countries in the world are in that position.”

ECONOMY & FOOD SECURITY

• AP: May 30 measures are being expanded throughout the country, whereby managers can now determine salaries, factories and enterprises can directly negotiate trade deals with foreign entities and hire and fire at their discretion, and smaller subunits of 4 or 5 people have been established on cooperative farms. Sinuiju Cosmetics Factory, for instance, has raised its average monthly salary from 3,000 KPW to 80,000 KPW, to align with actual living costs in NK.
• AP: New chain stores in PY are gaining popularity. Store director: “We thought that if we’re selling the things that people need in everyday life, and our opening hours are longer than other shops, our prices are reasonable and we provide guaranteed quality, then people would like it… That’s why we started this business.” Customer: “Because I go to work early in the morning and get back late, it’s not easy for me to go shopping for food and daily necessities… I’m really glad to have this shop that has opened near my house and that sells us the things we need.”
• Daily NK: Diesel trains are running in addition to electric ones, allowing the trains to depart and arrive on time regardless of power shortages. N Hamkyung source: “A limited number of tickets for these trains are sold in the official railway offices for 1,300 KPW (cited as 10 RMB) to regular customers. But it’s all a facade. Behind the scenes, dozens of women are being mobilized to sell tickets for 100 times the actual price… It’s already difficult enough for most travelers to purchase tickets for a train bound for Chongjin from Pyongyang, and now the only real option is to get them on the black market, where the cost is exponentially higher.”
• Daily NK: The cost to build a water purification system is being imposed upon the residents in Hoeryong city. N Hamkyung source: “A gold mine was built around Changdu near Hoeryong, and the water coming from there has severely polluted the Hoeryong Stream… The problem eventually got so out of control the authorities decided to build a water treatment facility… But since the inminban are currently low on funds, they ordered each household to pay 100,000 KPW (cited as 12.50 USD)… When people suggest building a water treatment, the authorities unfailingly respond, ‘Then pay up.’”
• RFA: 54 NKorean overseas workers in Nepal were deported for working at a construction site on tourist visas (Korean).
• RFA: WFP support into NK hit its lowest level in February since the summer of 2011 due to the shortage of international funding (Korean). UN FAO relisted NK as a country with a food security problem, and stated that the 26,200 tons of foreign grain secured so far this year is only 6.4% of the total amount needed to feed the people and livestock through October.

BORDER SECURITY

• AP: The four-month Ebola travel ban for foreigners and 21-day quarantine period for residents have been lifted. Daily NK N Hamkyung source: “Including the hotel quarantine procedure, the sequester of residents entering North Korea from overseas has been lifted… Those coming into North Korea from abroad no longer need the previously required ‘sanitation certificates’ proving that they spent three weeks in quarantine after reentry.”
• Daily NK: Border security officials now have to sign an agreement consenting to harsher punishment for aiding defections and smuggling activities. Yangkang source: “At the beginning of February, an order was handed down to root those abetting defectors and smugglers… The affiliated military security headquarters has been demanding consent forms from soldiers patrolling border areas, stating that they will be punished if caught in any of these illicit activities.”
• RFA: The border security crackdown has intensified, and the authorities are providing various incentives to informants, including food rations and party membership. N Hamkyung source: “As the ice of the Tumen River has not melted yet, a unit of the State Security Department (SSD) which was deployed to crack down on defectors during the winter has not been withdrawn… The SSD is cracking down hard on asylum seekers and smugglers, and it has promised incredible rewards to anyone who fingers defectors or smugglers.”
• Daily NK: Heightened travel restrictions have been placed on residents to combat defections. Yangkang source: “The procedure for getting travel certificates from the local MPS (Ministry of People’s Security) units of provinces, cities or counties has changed significantly… In the past, those who wanted to enter border areas could obtain travel papers from the city or county MPS units, but from this point on, they will only be issued at the No. 2 MPS provincial offices.”

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

• The US Ambassador to ROK was attacked with a knife by a political activist who condemned the US-ROK joint military exercises which began this week. KCNA: “(the attack was)… just punishment for U.S. warmongers.” PGH: “This incident is not only a physical attack on the U.S. ambassador, but an attack on the South Korea-U.S. alliance and it can never be tolerated.” Amb Lippert: “Doing well & in great spirits! Will be back ASAP to advance US-ROK alliance.”

• Reuters: PY fired two short-range missiles from the  east coast, as an act against joint ROK-US military exercises. ROK MOU: “[The ROKG] expresses deep regret that North Korea launched missiles in a provocative way, criticized South Korea’s president by name, and passes the responsibility for the current situation in the South-North relations [to the South], while not responding positively to our dialogue offer… It’s an unpardonable behavior.” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga: “The ballistic missile launches by North Korea are extremely problematic conduct in terms of aviation and navigation safety… We swiftly lodged a stern protest with North Korea.”
• NK’s Committee for Peaceful Unification of Korea: “Now that the puppet warmongers are making an open challenge by kicking off the war drills against the North, together with the U.S., the opportunity of the North-South dialogue and improvement of relations have already passed and there will only be a final stand-off by force.”
• NK’s Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong: “The DPRK cannot but bolster its nuclear deterrent capability to cope with the ever-increasing nuclear threat of the U.S…. Now the DPRK has the power of deterring the U.S. and conducting a pre-emptive strike as well, if necessary.”
• ROKG official: “The Chinese side’s stance is that Kim Jong-un should visit China first before making a visit to Russia… China expressed that it is not nervous even if Kim Jong-un visits Russia first.”
• US: US House of Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously passed a bill (H.R. 757) that calls for stronger sanctions on the NK govt.
• CANADA: A Canadian citizen who is a pastor of a Korean church in Toronto is being held in NK after a humanitarian mission trip.

ANALYSIS

• Kang Chol-hwan: “When North Koreans watch Desperate Housewives, they see that Americans aren’t all war-loving imperialists. They’re just people having affairs or whatever. They see the leisure, the freedom. They realize that this isn’t the enemy; it’s what they want for themselves. It cancels out everything they’ve been told. And when that happens, it starts a revolution in their mind.
• Jung Kwang-il: “What I do is what Kim Jong-un fears most… For every USB drive I send across, there are perhaps 100 North Koreans who begin to question why they live this way. Why they’ve been put in a jar.”
• 38 North: “The report (by UN Panel of Experts on NK Sanctions) also focuses on the DPRK’s procurement of foreign components for its nuclear and missile programs, as well as for its conventional defense industrial pursuits. This is by no means a new phenomenon… This year’s report offers yet more evidence of the difficulties in identifying and preventing exports of arms-related material to the DPRK and the consequences of failing to do so.”
• Economist: “In other words, the regime may not be leading change so much as responding to it. The collapse of the public distribution system, through which the command economy used to apportion goods, including food, was both a cause and consequence of the famine. Informal trading and smuggling networks, and black markets for food, sprang up as a result of it. The state has on occasion tried to suppress these markets, but has no more succeeded than with its attempts to reinstate the distribution system. Today, three-quarters of what most people earn probably comes from an unregulated private economy.”

MISC.

• Korea Times: NK will send 108 delegates to the 2015 Gwangju Summer Universiade.

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