NK NEWS BRIEF | March 20, 2014

North Korean women wearing colorful dresses on a street in central Pyongyang | Photo: AFP via RFA

NK INTERNAL

• Daily NK: NK authorities warned residents in border areas that market prices are “state secrets”, so any information shared with the outside world will result in harsh punishment. Source: “Recently lectures at People’s Units have emphasized that the Republic’s secrets are being leaked to the outside via phone conversations. We were threatened that if anyone was caught in the act of calling someone outside of the country they would be sent to a prison camp.”

• Daily NK: USD and RMB are used for “servi-cha,” one of the few reliable means of mass transit, instead of NK won. Source: “You can get anywhere in the country that you want for 200 yuan (32 USD).” Servi-chas are privately run buses, and a well-run business can earn 3,000 USD per month where as a vehicle, usually from China or second-hand from Japan, would cost an average of 12,000 USD. Servi-cha owners deliver regular bribes to senior security service officials running No. 10 Checkpoints, which are placed on major roads connecting regions for the purpose of checking transit papers, to ensure rapid transit for customers.

• KCNA announced the inaugural session of the 13th Supreme People’s Assembly is anticipated to be held in PY on April 9. The members are likely to discuss the nation’s budget as well as measures to strengthen Kim’s grip on power following the abrupt execution of JST. (Korean).

• Glynn Ford: “Pyongyang looked better than when I visited last year,” he said. “There were more cars and more facilities and more mobile phones. People living in Pyongyang have never had it so good. As there were more cars, we even had traffic problems… About 20 or 30 North Korean officials, including two students at Cambridge, are currently in Europe [for training in economic development]… It is realistic for them to send 200 or more. If you want to develop 13 special districts, you need to send dozens of people [to Europe].”

• Daily NK: Kim Kyong-hui, who has been accused of “preying” on husband JST, has lost every last vestige of “face” in elite circles. Her non-appearance in public made people wonder if she, who had previously been treated for a heart attack, had a stroke.

• RFA: NKoreans prefer SK-made fabric for their “choson-ot” (hanbok). Chinese merchant in Dandong: “All the fabrics I sell are from South Korea and most of my customers are North Korean.” The fabric NKoreans buy at shops in Dandong range in price from around 700 to 800 yuan (about 115-130 USD) for one dress’s worth, and can go up to 4,000 yuan ($650) for more elaborate, embroidered designs. The average NKorean worker officially makes the equivalent of only several Chinese yuan or about U.S. $0.50 per month based on prevailing market rates, though many supplement their income in other ways.

• Daily NK: North Hamgyung source: “Nowadays people are getting their change in foreign currency when they pay with a $100 or 100 Yuan bill. There are 10 Yuan bills around, and even 5 Yuan and 1 Yuan bills are circulating freely… Volumes of foreign currency are increasing now that there are more Chinese tourists about and the number of us going to China to work is also rising.” South Pyongan source: “In Pyongyang the price of private English tutoring for people’s kids is given as $10 a month for two hours a week, and for three hours a week its $15.”

ECONOMY & FOOD SECURITY

• NK has turned to online promotion of Mt. Kumgang tours which observers say is apparently linked to its efforts to earn much-needed hard currency.

• Private groups want to donate fertilizers while the ROKG is insisting on slowing things down. Minister of Unification Ryoo: “This is not to time to send fertilizer to NK.” KCRC plans on continuing their campaign to send one million bags of fertilizer (20,000 tons) to NK despite the government’s announcement.

• Hyundai Research Institute: NK’s per-capita GDP rose 4.8% on-year to 854 USD in 2013 due to an improved grain harvest and expanded investment in mining, railroads, metal and power generation. Trade with China jumped 10.4% to reach 6.5b USD.

• The NK govt is demanding a 10% pay increase for its workers at the KIC instead of the usual 5% raise. The base pay is 67 USD/month without overtime. Output totalled 353m USD in December, slightly lower than 364m USD a year earlier, showing a near complete recovery over the shutdown in April.

REFUGEES

• Chosun Ilbo: Many NKoreans are satisfied with their life in SK but feel that fierce competition, discrimination and economic disadvantages are hard to overcome. Chosun Ilbo surveyed 200 defectors the end of January: 71.5% said they are satisfied with their life in the South, 22.5% said neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, and 4.5% were not satisfied. 91% said they were familiar with the ways of SKoreans. 63% describing themselves as SKorean, 25% still identified themselves as NKoreans and 10% as neither. 51% said they would like to bring family members from NK as soon as possible and 42.5% said they would like to if they get the opportunity. 82% said their image of SK improved once they arrived and 5.5% said it got worse. Freedom and affluence were cited as the most satisfying elements of life in SK.

HUMAN RIGHTS

• NK NDC statement: “The U.S. should stop at once its groundless “human rights” racket against the DPRK which began as part of its new hostile policy towards the latter. National sovereignty is more important than human rights.”

• Yonhap: USG will not necessarily tie the NK nuclear issue to efforts to improve human rights conditions. Amb King: “I think we’ve taken the view that an improvement in the relationship between North Korea and the United States will depend on improvement in the North Korean record on human rights.”

• CNN: China and NK slammed the UN COI report at the HRC. China’s representative criticized it as being “divorced from reality,” indicating that China may block attempts to refer NK to the ICC. PY’s representative accused the entire commission of being spurred by “lies” and and that the US and “other hostile forces” had fabricated the report in an attempt to “defame the dignified image of the DPRK and eventually eliminate its social system.” COI chief Kirby: “If this report does not give rise to action, it is difficult to imagine what will.”

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

• Yonhap: Hong Kong media said China should “take tough actions against NK over a recklessly fired missile.” South China Morning Post: “The near-miss of a Chinese airline by a recklessly fired missile should have elicited a tough response… The near-miss is a reminder that the North remains as dangerous a threat as ever.” The paper called for China to do more rein in NK.

• Yonhap: NK state media reported an enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission to discuss ways to improve combat readiness and improve the livelihoods of its soldiers. NK’s NDC also vowed to keep up its efforts to bolster its nuclear deterrence and take additional measures to demonstrate its might continually as long as nuclear threats and blackmailing from the US persist.

• KBS: NK launched 25 short-range rockets towards the East Sea. Psaki said the USG is calling again on NK to “refrain from provocative actions that aggravate tensions: and urged PY to exercise restraint.

• Yonhap: ROK MOD says NK rocket launches could be seen as a protest against the ongoing Seoul-Washington military drills. MOD: “NK should stop raising military tension and provocations that cause concerns to the neighboring nations.”

• PGH has decided to serve as the chair of the preparatory committee for unification, signalling her seriousness in working towards “jackpot reunification.”

• Reuters: Parents of Megumi Yokota, a Japanese girl who had been abducted at the age of 13 in 1977, met their child’s daughter, Kim Eun-gyong (26), for the first time in Ulan Bator for five days. NK admitted in 2002 for having kidnapped 13 Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s to help train spies and said eight of them had died. Japan is unconvinced by NK’s explanation of Yokota’s death as bones NK said were Yokota’s were found to be those of a man after DNA testing. The parents described the meeting with Eun-gyong as miraculous.

ANALYSIS & OPINION

• Former SKorean FM Song Min-sun: “If unification of the Korean peninsula cannot be achieved until US troops pull out of the country… we are faced with the vexing question of whether to choose unification or a US military presence.” He also offered a solution involving playing up the Japanese threat to convince China of the need for the US military to remain stationed in South Korea after unification, because as soon as US forces withdraw, Japan will start re-arming and that China wouldn’t want a power vacuum to form in Korea. Song: “Living with a nuclear-armed North Korea on the border is kind of like living with a kidnapper waving around a grenade. In a sense, North Korea is holding us hostage. We must not tolerate this, and we must take the lead in resolving the nuclear issue.”

MISC.

• In effort to address concerns among his new political partners in the Democratic Party, Ahn Cheol-soo proclaimed he has always honored the spirit of the two Seoul-Pyongyang summits. “Since well before the presidential election [in 2012], I have always said we should adhere to the principles of the June 15 [2000] and Oct. 4 [2007] summit declarations [by Kim and Roh]. And I believe that the new party should also embrace such spirits.”

• WSJ on SK’s five governors for the provinces in NK, where they cannot go. It was set up in 1949 as part of Seoul’s claim to jurisdiction over the whole peninsula, and the governors meet every Monday.

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