NK NEWS BRIEF | May 8, 2013

President Park Geun-hye addresses a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, May 8, 2013 | AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

NK INTERNAL

• Daily NK source: “All the workers who used to be in Kaesong have been dispatched to factories, enterprises and cooperative farms in the North Hwanghae Province region. The workers are getting annoyed, because the authorities are forcing them to attend thought reform study sessions on Party policy for more than two hours a day.”

• Daily NK: On Labor Day, KJU decided to visit the Ministry of People’s Security instead of the usual cultural event or industrial enterprise, a possible sign that “the regime is insecure and complaints from the people are increasing.”

• Defector: “North Koreans think their life is hard because of the US and South Korea so they never really blame the government. Information from outside showing how the world lives or showing [internal] corruption can bring change.”

ECONOMY & FOOD SECURITY

• The NGO, “Christian Friends of Korea” will visit PY in mid-May and start construction of a center designed to train medical doctors and researchers for tuberculosis treatment and prevention.

• To reconsider the closure of the KIC, the NK regime demanded an end to “hostile acts and military provocations”, to which the ROKG refused, calling the demands “incomprehensible” and “unfair”. Paying the 13 million USD demanded by NK for “back pay” and “taxes”, the last seven SKorean workers withdrew from the KIC. However water and power is still running to the KIC, with NK and SK having agreed to additional talks.

• WSJ: Chinese exports to the NK shrank 13.8 percent in the first quarter of 2013 to $720 million.

• New Focus Intl: NK seems to have restarted the public distribution system. “Many of us were surprised at the third consecutive distribution of rations. We expected it to end after one or two cycles as it had before. Now people are anticipating the cycle to continue for at least another round; and rice prices are continuing to fall in the jangmadang.” Kim Jong-un reportedly said, “The modern day war will only last for three days, and so there is no need to keep six months worth of rice in storage.”

• A WFP report finds that 8/10 NKoreans suffer from malnutrition, mainly due to a lack of protein intake.

• Rodong Sinmun: “The food price shocks that are destabilizing the world cannot be separated from the imperialists’ strategy to dominate food supply.”

• Both Western and traditional Korean medicine are used to treat illness in NK, due in part to supply shortages. “By the government’s own account, more than 80 percent of village clinics suffer from ‘chronic shortages of medicines and supplies at all levels of the system’.”

• RFA: Black-market sales of homes in NK is thriving, made possible through bribery.

HUMAN RIGHTS

• NK sentenced Kenneth Bae to 15 years of “labor reeducation” for “anti-Republic activities”; there are reports that took pictures of street children in Rason. NK has denied that he will be used as a political “bargaining chip”.  USG: “We urge the DPRK to grant Mr. Bae amnesty and immediate release.” NK News covers Kenneth Bae’s missionary background.

• Rodman: “I’m calling on the Supreme Leader of North Korea or as I call him “Kim”, to do me a solid and cut Kenneth Bae loose.”

• OHCHR: Michael Donald Kirby of Australia and Sonja Biserko of Serbia who will join Marzuki Darusman on the UN Commission of Inquiry on NK.

REFUGEES

• The story of NK defector Jo Jin-hye. She is the founder of NKUS, an organization that assists refugees in escaping NK, and supports defectors in the US.

• NKorean defector on holidays in NK: “Technically, the “gift” [received on holidays] should be around 1Kg (about 2.2lbs) and every child in North Korea can receive it until age 11, but since 1996 the “gift” became lighter and lighter and finally reduced to 0.5Kg (1.1lbs). My last “gift” in 1998 was the worst one I had ever received because it was barely 0.5Kg and there were only a small bag of cookies and candies. That time my father didn’t divide it and allowed us to eat it all.”

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

• It has emerged that the ROKG approved 14 business projects related to the Mount Gumgang resort back in February, for the first time since September 2010.

• SK authorities prevented defectors from releasing over 200,000 balloons with leaflets critical of the NK regime into the DMZ.

• PGH began her visit to the US, marking 60 years of alliance between SK and the US. Dialogue will include policy toward NK, and cooperation toward the peaceful use of nuclear power.

• Joint Declaration in Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the Alliance between the ROK and the US: “We pledge to continue to build a better and more secure future for all Korean people, working on the basis of the Joint Vision to foster enduring peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and its peaceful reunification based on the principles of denuclearization, democracy and a free market economy. In this context, the United States and the Republic of Korea will continue to work through the Alliance to bring North Korea into compliance with its international obligations and promote peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula, including through the trust-building process initiated by President Park.”

• Obama: “If Pyongyang thought its recent threats would drive a wedge between South Korea and the United States or somehow garner the north international respect, today is further evidence that North Korea has failed again.”

• PGH: “I will open the road to common development of the two Koreas through the trust-building process of the Korean Peninsula whenever North Korea stops its provocations and chooses to take the right path recognized by the international community.”

• MOU: NK is releasing fewer threats than in previous months.

• The Bank of China has halted the transactions and closed the account of the “Foreign Trade Bank”, which was sanctioned by the US, accusing it of helping finance NK’s nuclear programme.

• ROKG Official: “China did all these exchanges with North Korea and hoped that they would make a genuine effort at economic development through reform and opening, but they just went for the missile launch and nuclear test, dashing Chinese hopes. Their disappointment was not insignificant.”  

• The ROKG will provide 272 million USD for firms affected by the closure of the KIC.

• NK has lifted their highest alert level, and withdrew two Musudan missiles from the East Coast.

• U.S. prosecutors have indicted a Taiwanese father and son on charges related to the supply of machinery to NK that could be used in the production of WMDs.

ANALYSIS & OPINION

• Shin Dong-hyuk: “I see commercials on TV [in South Korea] about helping African children. But those born in North Korean political prisons are also children that need help.”

• Global Times (Chinese state-run agency) Op-Ed: “Nonetheless, no matter what causes such worries, reform and opening-up is the only way for North Korea, a country of only 20 million people, to develop and prosper. No country in the world became powerful when it was closed. It’s even more impossible in this globalized world.”

• Leon Sigal: “In a world where money flows like water, trying to plug all the leaks is doomed to fail. Circumventing the international banking system may make transactions more costly for North Korea, but financial sanctions have not slowed legitimate trade—or stemmed the trade in weapons-related technology that is rightly the focus of those sanctions.”

• Interview with Tony Namkyung. “For example, in the official talks, I’ve always believed that the issue of human rights should be right up there with the nuclear issue, and that if the U.S. were to offer the normalization of relations and a peace treaty, they also ought to put on the table that North Korea’s political camps be opened to the Red Cross as a start, and ultimately at some point be dismantled in the interest of human rights.”

• NYT on the ongoing intelligence failure that is NK: “Who is in charge in North Korea? It’s hard to say,” said a senior South Korean policy maker. “How strong is Kim Jong-un? We don’t know exactly. Who is giving orders in Pyongyang? Apparently, it’s Kim Jong-un, but we are not sure about the inner-circle decision-making process.”

MISC.

• David Guttenfelder’s photos of NK.

• NK News on the “U.S. Songun Politics Study Group” in the US, and its connection with white supremacy, antisemitism, and radical Islam.

• Kim Tae-hee is the most hated celebrity among NKoreans. “They [defectors] also revealed how ‘Stairway to Heaven’ is such a popular drama that if people didn’t watch it at least once during their lifetime, they would have nothing to talk about.”

• New music video from NK on the ‘Byungjin’ line of simultaneous development of nuclear capabilities and the economy.

• Uriminzokkiri posted a cartoon entitled ‘Accomplices’ that responds to recent hacking incidents against state run websites.

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