NK NEWS BRIEF | November 27, 2013

A 23 November 2013 meeting in Kangryong County, South Hwanghae Province, marking the 3rd anniversary of the Yonpyong Island incident | Photo: Rodong Sinmun, via NK Leadership Watch

NK INTERNAL

• NK held the second meeting of internal military security officials in its history, the first taking place in 1993. The meeting was likely held to enhance the regime’s military security service.

• NK marked the third anniversary of the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island with a ceremony in South Hwanghae province.  

• Daily NK: In its continued efforts to attract foreign investors, NKorean authorities have started granting full internet access to representatives of companies visiting NK for investment meetings and seminars.

• RFA: Despite increasing costs, NKoreans continue to purchase Chinese hand-operated power generators and other sources of electricity. The colder winter months reduce NK’s hydroelectric capacity so consumers are looking to purchase alternative sources of energy like generators, solar panels, and rechargeable batteries. The generators are essential for the winter and can cost anywhere from 5 to 50 USD.

• Reuters: With investment from China and Russia, KJU has presided over a construction boom that extends far beyond his widely publicized prestige projects. Bridges, railways, and improved roads are increasing the quantity and quality of reliable infrastructure in the country. Curtis Melvin: One of NK’s goals is “to link all provincial capitals to Pyongyang by paved highway [and] increase road transport integration with the Chinese economy.”

ECONOMY & FOOD SECURITY

• NK’s new SEZs have been officially announced by the Supreme People’s Assembly. The zones will be designated for industrial use, agricultural use, and tourism. South Hwanghae province was left out of the SEZ decree.

• Forbes: While Rason is the region’s northernmost ice-free port and has plenty of cheap labor, it languished for almost 20 years, a result of indifference from PY and its challenging geopolitical situation. But the tide has finally turned.

• Inter-Korean trade is recovering following the reopening of the KIC. In October, two-way trade amounted to 152.15 million USD, an amount approximately 80% of bilateral trade from the same month last year.

• Daily NK: NK is increasing its exports of marine products to the Yanbian region of China. According to an ethnic Korean-Chinese trader, exports of “seafood products out of North Korea have skyrocketed.”

• Daily NK: Despite claims that threshing is finished, NKorean authorities continue to mobilize manpower, electricity and materials to regions that usually produce large rice yields.

REFUGEES

• Last week a NKorean man was found unconscious in the Yellow Sea. After receiving treatment at a local hospital the man requested to be sent back to NK. According to the MOU, the man “made his intent clear on returning to the North.” The man was handed over to NKorean authorities at Panmunjom.

• Yonhap: Defector-turned-lawmaker Cho Myung-chul sued for defamation Yoon Jae-man, a Daegu University professor, when he called for the execution of NKorean refugees. Yoon allegedly characterized defectors as being worse than collaborators with colonial Japan. He also said in the message posted Monday that just as France executed Nazi collaborators, defectors must be punished for wreaking havoc on South Korea’s democracy.

HUMAN RIGHTS

• Merrill Newman, an 85-year old American citizen and Korean War veteran, has been held and detained by NK authorities since last month. Breaking a four-week silence, NK confirmed that the country had detained Newman as he was concluding an officially approved nine-day tour of the country. This week Newman’s family asked NK for his release so he could join them for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.

• SK’s MOU released a formal statement demanding NK release and return the SKorean national it detained earlier this month. NK has repeatedly ignored the South’s requests to provide information on the detained SKorean.

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

• The SK govt hailed the historic deal to end Iran’s nuclear weapons programs, calling on NK to take the same path to denuclearization.

• NK’s People’s Army: “If the South recklessly provokes us again, the sea of fire at Yeonpyeong will turn into a sea of fire at the Blue House.”

• Jim Yong Kim said the World Bank is ready and willing to help NK with aid, provided there is a “political breakthrough” similar to that in Myanmar to get things going.

ANALYSIS & OPINION

• WSJ: “Following the deal, Seoul called on Pyongyang to follow Iran towards dialogue and halt its nuclear weapons program. But experts say the accord may actually push North Korea in the opposite direction. Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University, said the sole aspect of the deal that will interest the North Korean leadership is that Iran managed to keep its uranium enrichment capabilities.”

• Isaac Stone Fish: “A former bicycle smuggler, who defected in 2009, told me the “word on the street” was that when then North Korean president Kim Jong Il “found out about Ice in 2003, he started asking around who had started this, and discovered it was the chemists and learned people in Hamhung. Originally he was going to have them sent up,” the trader said, either to concentration camps or remote villages up north, riddled with starvation. But because it would destroy the field of chemistry, Kim Jong Il forgave them. He decided Ice would be called a “strong antibiotic.” With the government’s blessing, the drug spread.”

• Yonho Kim takes an in-depth look into the dramatic increase in cell phone users in NK.

MISC.

• Five men have been charged with conspiracy to import 100 kilograms of allegedly NK-produced methamphetamine into the US. The men were arrested in Thailand in September and extradited to the US last week.

• Dennis Rodman plans to visit NK again in December with other former NBA players.

• A NKorean tablet sold for 546 USD on ebay. The tablet’s opening bid was 4.15 USD, presumably a reference to KIS’ birthday, and attracted 53 bids over ten days.  

• Details on web traffic to the KCNA’s website.

• NYT: A book by former deputy director of the NIS Ra Jong-yil, Forgotten Terrorist, considers the fate of Kang Min-chul, a NKorean agent involved in the plot to assassinate SKorean president Chun Doo-hwan in Myanmar/Burma 30 years ago.

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