NK NEWS BRIEF | Oct 15, 2014

NKorean supporters at the Incheon Asian Games men’s freestyle wrestling, where Jong Hak-jin won gold. | Kin Cheung, AP

* This Bumper News Brief contains articles from more than one week *

HE’S BACK  

• WSJ: After 40 days, KJU ended his longest absence from the public eye since assuming power by being photographed viewing a newly finished complex for rocket scientists. The pictures show him using a walking cane, supporting the hypothesis that his absence was due to taking time off to recover from a foot/leg injury.  
• Reuters source: “[KJU] ordered all the generals to take part in drills and he took part too. They were crawling and running and rolling around, and he pulled a tendon… He injured his ankle and knee around late August or early September while drilling because he is overweight. He limped around in the beginning but the injury worsened.” KJU had been seen limping since July, implying he may have aggravated an earlier injury. According to the source KJU needs about 100 days to recuperate, but “is in total control.”  

NK INTERNAL

• Daily NK: The government has abandoned the PY 100,000 home-building project originally intended for completion by 2012, as it was increasingly difficult to obtain raw materials for construction. Source: “In the end, the state determined it is unable of completing it, so it’s telling people to do whatever they want with it… to encourage people with money to get involved, they have allowed the owners to keep 50 percent of the income, after paying the rest to state coffers.”
• Daily NK: NKoreans are facing heightened restrictions in visiting their relatives in China. The daily average number of NKoreans crossing the border has dropped from 50-100 to 5 per day. Those able to cross are usually involved in trade and business.
• Yonhap: KIS University is undergoing reforms, strengthening foreign language courses and providing advanced classes on mathematics and physics (Korean).
• Yonhap: A NKorean magazine on culture published a section on mobile phone etiquette. “On mobile phones, unlike on land lines, conversations usually take place with knowledge of the other person. However, even in such cases, one must not neglect to introduce oneself or offer greetings.”

REFUGEES

• AP: Smuggled Chinese mobile phones are being used by defectors to send remittances to their families. A recent survey revealed that 50% of defectors send money back to families in NK, with the amount ranging from 500,000 KRW (470 USD) to 3 million KRW (2,820 USD) per year.
• Daily NK, North Hamgyung source: “They have recently doubled the number of nighttime stakeout posts along the Tumen River… Not only that, nighttime surveillance, which was previously only carried out by soldiers on the border, now includes security agents, creating a joint surveillance team.”
• Daily NK: NPAD lawmaker cited govt data revealing that 112 NK refugees have sought asylum in third countries after receiving ROK citizenship in the past 5 years. Reasons vary from seeking a better life abroad after facing resettlement difficulties in ROK, to securing a better environment for the children to study English.
• The Guardian: Famous K-pop singer Lee Seung-chul accompanied a choir consisting of defectors to raise awareness on North Korean human rights issues and advocate for a united Korea.
• Defector-turned-boxer, Choi Hyun-mi on CNN: “Thinking about fighting against those North Korean boxers makes me go blank… They have to win the gold medal to eat and make a living. I could be the reason they lose their job.”

FOOD SECURITY & ECONOMY

• Daily NK: Imported water from China costs 0.8 RMB or 1,000 KPW for a 0.5L bottle, but with increasing demand, some NKoreans have made a business out of spring water from Chongsongri which is more affordable at 500 KPW for a 1L bottle, ¼ the price of Chinese bottled water. Source: “With the growing market for drinking water, people are worried that powerful foreign currency earning companies will take over this field as well.”
• Chosun Ilbo: Agricultural policy reforms designed to increase food production have changed the crop-sharing ratio between the government and farmers from 7:3 to 6:4.  
• WSJ: The WFP may have to close down their food program in NK due to lack of funds. In September, the ROKG provided funding to the NK program for the first time since 2007, but the US, historically the largest donor to WFP programs in NK, has not contributed since 2009.
• Joongang Ilbo: Ace Gyeongnam (SK bed-manufacturing company) shipped 20 trucks of agricultural aid worth 200M KRW (190,000 USD) to North Hwanghae Province. This was the first time inland highways between North and South were used to deliver aid.
• Korea International Trade Association: Textile exports from NK to China are expected to reach 800M USD by the end of this year, marking a four-fold increase on 2010 levels. (Korean).
• ROK Shenyang Consulate: “We have estimated that there are around 2,500 North Korean workers in Dandong and some 4,500 North Korean workers in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture.”

HUMAN RIGHTS

• Yonhap: SKorean lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun: “Based on material from research institutes at home and abroad and the analysis of satellite imagery, the total area of NK’s five prison camps was found to be 1,247.9 square kilometers. This amounts to twice the area of Seoul, which is 605.2 square kilometers.”
• AP: The EU-Japanese draft UNGA resolution on NK human rights contains language calling for a UNSC referral of NK to the ICC and “for effective targeted sanctions against those who appear to be most responsible for crimes against humanity.”
• AP: NKorean official Choe Myong-nam: “Both in law and practice, we do have reform through labor detention camps – no, detention centers – where people are improved through their mentality and look on their wrongdoings.” [NB. The use of the word ‘camps’ was a slip of the tongue].
• CNN: When asked to identify human rights problems in their country, Choe Myong-nam responded, “We need some facilities where people go and enjoy a bath. … Right now, due to problems in the economic field — that is due to the external forces hindrance — we are running short of some of the facilities.” NKorean officials also announced they will hold a human rights dialogue with the EU at the end of this year.
• Witness to Transformation: NK’s letter to all UN member states warned other developing countries that the UNGA resolution would set a dangerous precedent, and also made it known that they will submit their own counter-resolutionon its human rights situation to the UNGA.
• WSJ: “Ultimately, [PY’s new willingness to discuss human rights] appears to be tactical. North Korea appears to be trying take some of the heat out of the issue ahead of a U.N. General Assembly resolution on North Korean human rights.”
• PGH at the UNGA: “Unification on the peninsula will be the beginning of a nuclear weapons-free world and a fundamental solution to human rights abuses, resulting in a peaceful and cooperative Northeast Asia.”

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

• INTER-KOREAN: Just three days after the Pyongyang big shots visited Incheon on Oct 4th, NK and SK naval boats traded warning shots after a NKorean boat crossed the disputed NLL sea border. Three days after that, following warnings in the Rodong Sinmun and ROK MOU calls for activists to show restraint, NK trained anti-aircraft fire on leaflet-balloons being launched from SK, with SK responding with heavy machine gun fire.
• On Oct 15th, the first high-level military talks in seven years were held at Panmunjom but ended without any breakthrough. According to ROK MOD, PY demanded Seoul “ban its ships from entering the areas it claims as the inter-Korean sea border, stop civic groups from sending propaganda leaflets and refrain from slander including in the press.” PY has yet to respond to an offer from Seoul to hold high-level talks at Panmunjom on 30 Oct to follow-up the Incheon meetings.
• RUSSIA: NK FM Ri Su-yong visited Russia to meet Russian FM Lavrov and seek economic cooperation. At a later event in Pyongyang, Kang Sok-ju thanked Russia for providing food aid even though Russia faces ‘unfair sanctions’.
• UNITED STATES: Glyn Davies: “There are other efforts behind the scenes to seek to have this conversation with North Korea. They simply won’t engage with us… Sadly, we just concluded that North Korea doesn’t have any interest in coming back to the international system as a responsible country.”
• Meanwhile, KCNA put out a reminder that US troops’ remains still lie in NK and are being  “carried away en masse due to construction projects of hydropower stations, land rezoning and other gigantic nature-remaking projects, flood damage, etc.” Joint search and recovery operations have previously been seen as a confidence-building measure and source of income for PY.
• CHINA: PY’s news media reportedly passed on mentioning the 65th anniversary of ties with the PRC, in marked contrast to their celebration of 66 years of ties with Moscow. KJU’s message to Xi to mark the anniversary was also toned down compared to previous messages.
• China’s Global Times oped: “There will be many concerns about “opening-up” in Pyongyang. However, the closed-door policy has been proven wrong in history. If North Korea wants to develop, it has to emerge into the current of globalization… Facing a capricious Pyongyang, China must firmly stick to its standpoint. We won’t be enemies of Pyongyang at any time. We support it to improve ties with any other countries, and have confidence in our influence on the Korean Peninsula.”

ANALYSIS & OPINION

• SNU: 49.1% of adults in SK think ROKG needs to take action against the launching of leaflets into NK by activists (N=1,200). Last year’s result on the same question was 44.5%. The survey was conducted in July, with a margin of error of ±2.8%. On 15 Oct, DMZ-area residents staged a protest calling on ROKG to stop further balloon launches.
• Reuters: Francis-Xavier Roux, who tended to KJI as a doctor, on his impression of KJU when he met him in 2008: “When I saw him he was a young man who seemed to have normal emotions concerning his father, who was ill. He seemed to be very anxious about that. He was very discrete, he didn’t present himself as being a huge leader… Physically speaking, he didn’t look as he does now. He was a young, thin man.”
• Snyder: “But perhaps what is more notable is that international media seem to “need” Kim Jong-un more than the domestic media, even while deriding North Korean media coverage of Kims pointing at things. The divergence in domestic and international media responses should give pause precisely because it reveals the way that the Kim cult of personality has distracted from our understanding of the underlying state of the North Korean regime…”
• David Kang: “True, talk of coups against successive Kim regimes has been a staple of North Korea-watching for decades. But the legitimacy of North Korea’s rulers has been centered on the Kim family since the country was founded, some seven decades ago. A coup would therefore not only have to physically replace Kim, but provide some sort of justification and legitimation for such action to the North Korean people.”

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