NK NEWS BRIEF | May 15, 2013

Prime Minister Pak Pong Ju (C) inspecting a farm in South Hwanghae province | Photo: AFP via KCNA

NK INTERNAL

• Jang Jong-nam was appointed as minister of the People’s Armed Forces, replacing Kim Kyok-sik (74), who was believed by ROKG officials to have commanded the units responsible for the 2010 attacks. In NK, the armed forces minister is not the top defense job. Lankov: “… the North Korean armed forces are in political retreat, being pushed aside by the civilian bureaucracy, largely embodied in Jang Song Taek and other old Party hands.”

• Yun Duk-min, chancellor of Korea National Diplomatic Academy: “In the current second phase [of NK’s succession], there is power reshuffling happening inside the guardianship group organized by Kim Jong Il… The Jang Sung Taek (Kim “royal family”) and Choi Ryong Hae (descendants of founding revolutionaries) group is in the process of removing the ‘new military’ faction. While returning political power to the Party, they are handing over economic rights the military used to have to the Cabinet. These rights partly provided operating funds for military units and unofficial income for officers, so discontent will be building up in the military.”

• Daily NK: NK authorities are taking some former KIC laborers and their families out of the region and sending them back to their registered areas of residence.

ECONOMY & FOOD SECURITY

• NK cabinet officials have formally acknowledged through the Choson Sinbo that some factories, enterprises and cooperative farms in the country have been experimenting with new economic management methods since last year.

• Asahi: NK notified a firm in Liaoning Province near the border some time last month, when the closure of the KIC appeared imminent, that it could supply hundreds of workers. As a prerequisite, the NKorean company requested dormitories so that it can monitor the workers’ whereabouts.

• Daily NK source: “The Chinese authorities started doing more checks on imports from March, so the volume of North Korea-China trade noticeably declined. At the beginning of this month the process was eased, though, and volumes have risen again.”

• Daily NK: With the recent recovery of Sino-NK trade, NK foreign currency earning enterprises are seeking private Chinese investors for potential partnerships in jointly operated enterprises in China. Chinese-Korean trader: “In the past Chinese investors invested in the opening of things like factories but they took damage or got swindled. The only opportunity here is for [the North Korean side] to provide cheap labor like this. The North Korean authorities must provide confidence that they can supply the necessary human resources.”

• NFI: A detailed set of guidelines for making “loyalty offerings” of foreign currency has recently been issued to overseas NKoreans, including a guarantee of direct entry to the Workers’ Party for an offering of 10,000 USD.

• RFA: China is providing large amounts of fertilizer to NK as free aid, and plans to send additional food aid. Meanwhile, Daily NK reports that NK authorities have instructed foreign-currency earners to import fertilizer.

• Trade volume between NK and the EU in 2012 was 43.4% of 2011 levels, due to NK cutting exports of mineral resources.

HUMAN RIGHTS

• SKorean head of the ICC, Song Sang-hyun: “It is possible to intervene with North Korea’s human rights issues when the UNSC refers the case to the court.” However he also acknowledged that it would be legally difficult to bring NK to the court as it is not a party to its statute.

• The KNCA has listed the crimes Kenneth Bae has been convicted of, including carrying the documentary “Don’t Tell My Mother I’m in North Korea”, as well as other “propaganda materials” all used in an alleged plot to overthrow the government. Rodman has stated his plan to return to NK on August 1st to assist in Bae’s release. AP: State media has reported that Bae has started life at a “special prison,” and Bae told his family in a phone call that they should urge the USG to push for his amnesty.

• Ambassador King will visit Seoul next week.

REFUGEES

• MOU: The number of NKorean defectors that have arrived in SK this year (up to early May) is 556, leading to a prediction that around 1200 will arrive this year – a 20% decrease on 2012.

• CNN covers the stories of street children (kotjebes) in NK.

• Lee Hyeon-seo was reunited with Dick Stolp, the Australian man who gave her 645 GBP to get her family out of prison in Laos during their defection.

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

• The Bank of China announced that it would close accounts held by NK’s Foreign Trade Bank and halt all financial transactions. Other Chinese state banking entities including China Construction Bank, and the Agricultural Bank of China have also joined in halting business with FTB and other NK banks. According to a source in Beijing, Chinese authorities have combed through all NK related accounts in major Chinese banks in an effort to implement sanctions imposed by the UNSC.

• The (North) Korean Committee for the Peaceful Unification of the Fatherland: “The US is making a huge mistake if it thinks that the DPRK can be horrified with nuclear-powered aircraft carriers… The Armed Forces of the republic will not let the provocateurs get away easily and will send The Nimitz to the sea floor if the aggressors venture to attack the country.”

• Park and Obama made it explicit that the days when Pyongyang could enjoy awards and concessions by manipulating threats and crises were over and would not be repeated. However both leaders focused on the deterrence commitment, rather than a pathway to reconciliation.

• The US Department of Treasury blacklisted Trans Multi Mechanics Co. Ltd. and Chang Wen-Fu for their links to Alex H.T. Tsai, an alleged DPRK procurement agent.

• PY rebuffed a proposal from the ROKG for talks on arranging the return of materials from the KIC.

• A coalition of SKorean businessmen who were traders or investors in NK-related projects outside the KIC advocated for the restoration of all inter-Korean businesses.

• During her address to Congress, PGH invited NK to take part in a peace regime in Northeast Asia.

• UN Panel of Experts: “While the imposition of sanctions has not halted the development of nuclear and ballistic missile programs, it has in all likelihood considerably delayed (NK’s) timetable and, through the imposition of financial sanctions and the bans on the trade in weapons, has choked off significant funding which would have been channeled into its prohibited activities.”

• Isao Iijima, aide to Japanese PM Abe made an unannounced visit to NK.

ANALYSIS & OPINION

• Lankov: “What is remarkable though, is the general mood I encounter nowadays is remarkably similar to that of the Soviet Union in the late 1970s. People are not prepared to openly challenge the system, but they speak frankly about the fact that system is moving in the wrong direction. They say that something must be done, even though they disagree on what must be done, and they understand that North Korea cannot go on like this forever.”

• Snyder: “At present, there is no intersection of interests between the positions of North Korea and the United States that can justify a return to negotiations. North Korea demands the end of U.S. hostility toward the North as a prerequisite for denuclearization, while the United States seeks North Korea’s denuclearization in return for an improvement of relations based on the 2005 six party joint statement.”

• Bradley Babson: “By denying these [Kaesong workers] those benefits and their current lifestyle, I can’t imagine they’re very happy. You raised the question of workers’ ideological contamination—but they’ve been ideologically contaminated for years, and it’s nothing new. So, I don’t think that’s a current factor. The change in mindset of the people in Pyongyang becoming more engaged in market trading and market economies, and making money from entrepreneurship is much more threatening to the regime’s longer-term interests than a bunch of factory workers in Kaesong. I don’t think ideological contamination was a rationale for making this move now.”

• Feffer: “Treating North Korea as a spoiled child is not an accurate description of Pyongyang’s behavior. It prevents us from understanding how our own actions contribute to the crisis… And it generates a false dichotomy – sweets versus sanctions – in terms of policy options. It’s time for us to grow up in our assessments of North Korea. Belittling North Korea, literally and figuratively, ultimately prevents us from developing our own mature alternatives.

• TNS poll: More than twice the percentage of Americans than South Koreans believe that NK is capable of striking their country with a nuclear weapon.

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