NK NEWS BRIEF | May 29, 2013

Xi meets Choe | Photo: Xinhua/Rao Aimin

REFUGEES

• SKorean media reported that nine young NKorean refugees who had been detained in Laos have been forcibly taken to Pyongyang via China. In the group were two girls aged (in Korean age) 15 and 16, and seven males aged 23, 20 (x2), 19, 18 (x2), and 16. They were reportedly accompanied by a Korean-American couple who were also detained and have now been returned to Seoul. There are no direct flights between Laos and NK, but using transit visas the NK authorities were reportedly able to fly the refugees first to Kunming, then to Beijing, and on to Pyongyang in one day without the involvement of the Chinese authorities. The case is drawing attention because it is rare for NKorean refugees to be repatriated from a third country, not China, and is being seen by analysts as an example of the KJU regime’s increased efforts to tackle the issue of defections. Such measures include dispatching Bowibu agents tasked with bringing back defectors, increasing control over citizens in the border regions, expelling people from certain villages, increasing checkpoints, building barbed-wire fences, and increasing the jamming of mobile phone signals.

• ROK MOFA is also under criticism because it is reported that SKorean embassy officials in Vientiane failed to show up at the detention center, but NKorean officials did.

• Interview with a Toronto-based NKorean refugee claimant, at the “North Koreans in Canada centre” (open for one month).

NK INTERNAL

• AP reports that after a trial period, PY is relaxing controls on salaries, introducing a new policy which gives managers of factories and other businesses the right to determine workers’ salaries if they are able to improve productivity. “Companies must also put aside funds for investment, continued production, development of technology and cultural activities.”

• Koryolink has reached 2 million subscribers. Sawiris: “When we first acquired the license in North Korea, people thought the service will only be provided to a few privileged individuals. We are very proud today to witness our subscriber base in North Korea increasing at a growing rate, emphasizing the right of the North Korean citizens in DPRK to communicate.”

ECONOMY & FOOD SECURITY

• (South) Korea Rural Economic Institute: NK’s fertilizer imports from China jumped more than three-fold last month from a year earlier.

• The effects of financial sanctions and the Bank of China’s decision to close the accounts of NK’s Foreign Trade Bank is threatening the operations of European NGOs who used the FTB to remit funds to their offices in PY.

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

• Xinhua: Choe Ryong Hae met with Xi Jinping and gave him a letter written by KJU. Xi underlined China’s commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and called for a restart of the SPT. Choe also said NK is willing to settle issues through the SPT.

• NK state media reports omitted Choe’s promise to resolve the nuclear issue or Xi’s calls for a nuclear-free peninsula.

• The ROKG said they are not interested in talk for the sake of talk and that such dialogue would only be worthwhile if PY first showed “sincere” intent to denuclearise.

• China’s Xinhua: “Int’l community welcomes DPRK’s willingness for nuclear talks”

• NK invited ROK businesspeople and certain officials for talks on reopening KIC. The ROK MOU responded that govt-level talks should come first.

• NK’s proposal of joint events between private organizations to mark the anniversary of the June 15 2000 agreement was rejected by the ROKG, who warned NK against trying to stir internal discord within SK.

• Rodong: “There is an urgent need to replace the armistice agreement, which is a relic of the war, with a permanent state of peace.”

• NK state media honoured SKorean Pres Park by calling her by her name for the first time, three months after her inauguration. They also called her a puppet president and told her to carefully consider why her father had ended up being killed and why former president LMB is treated as a “living dead”. The previous day they also called her a “mental patient” (정신병자).  

• Survey evidence suggests old political fault-lines in SK on NK and the US may be diminishing, as progressives become less anti-American and conservatives become less hardline on NK.  

ANALYSIS & OPINION

• Lankov: “Internal pressure is the only type of pressure that has a chance of succeeding in changing the North Korean government’s attitude. The government is deeply suspicious of reforms. However, if it faces mounting pressure from below, it is possible that the government will take significant risks and start changes in order to avoid domestic crisis… Diplomatic isolation is actually helpful in the North Korean government’s efforts to keep its people ignorant about the outside world.”

• Prof Lim Eul-chul: China could be pushing for a resumption of the talks as a means “of very temporary face-saving,” showing it is acting responsibly to calm the North. But the North’s officials “cannot abandon their strategy of nuclear weapons. If they give up that strategy, the Kim Jong Un regime will be in big trouble.”

• NFI on petty crime: ”An army exists to protect citizens against foreign forces. But in North Korea, not only do they regularly steal from civilians, those in the border regions are ordered to prevent citizens from leaving the country. A blind eye to petty crime in North Korea among the people; a blind eye to institutional crime among the leadership.”

• Branigan on SKorean people’s changing identity and views on reunification.

• Weingartner on the differences between “human rights” and “humanitarian” approaches towards NK, and the need for more understanding and cooperation between those working from different angles: “There is no necessary contradiction between activities that favor human rights and activities that respond to humanitarian needs. Both intend to save lives and improve the well-being of people in need… Unfortunately, political motivations—whether explicit or implicit—have entrenched the divide between these two communities. Regime change activists tend to gravitate toward North Korean human rights organizations, while those who believe in incremental change tend to support humanitarian and development assistance.”

• Zhu Zhangping in the Global Times: “The US deliberately irritates North Korea through drills and conferences. The longtime stalemate between North Korea and the US has become even worse, so North Korea is almost unlikely to abandon nuclear weapons despite China’s pressure.”

MISC.

• Good new Flickr photo set from Joseph Ferris.

NK News Brief acronyms.

Sign up to receive the NK News Brief by email here.

Donate

Your generous donation will rescue and support North Korean refugees.

Donate

100% funds programs.