NK NEWS BRIEF | October 2, 2013

A tablet PC displayed at the 9th Pyongyang Autumn International Trade Fair. The tablet reportedly comes equipped with DMB technology | Photo: Yonhap, via Daily NK

NK INTERNAL

• Daily NK: Regarding the recent rumors about Ri Sol Ju, the regime has taken noticeable steps to eliminate any speculation about the situation. At a meeting of the Women’s Union, NKoreans were told “don’t try to learn more about the issue,” which, in turn, created even more curiosity because “there is something that [the government doesn’t] want us to know.”

• Last September, KJU extended compulsory education from 11 years to 12 years. One year later, the Rodong Sinmun has praised KJU for raising NK’s education quality “to meet the practical demands of the knowledge economy era, and to keep abreast of world developments.”

• KJU inspected PY’s May Day stadium, capable of seating 150,000 spectators, and called for its renovation. He pointed out the grass on the field, seats in the stands, and lighting facilities as things that need improvement.

• KJU reportedly gave a television to each household for educators at Kim Il Sung University. KJU claimed “no expense will be spared for the faculty and researchers of the university, who are fostering the scientific talent who will carry the future of the fatherland on their shoulders.”

ECONOMY & FOOD SECURITY

• Daily NK: In efforts to improve its economy, NK has asked provincial administrators to select two cities from within their province to serve as potential “Open Cities.” These locations are intended to be similar to the Special Economic Zone at Rasun. While details remain uncertain, foreign businesses will be expected to control management and production issues, while NK will control personnel matters.

• The KIC management committee’s permanent secretariat officially opened on Monday morning. The secretariat will be staffed by officials from both NK/SK and will be in charge of the practical operation of the KIC’s joint committee.

• Last week, NK postponed a KIC subcommittee meeting regarding customs issues. While NK provided no reason for the postponement, some see this as a logical follow-up to NK’s unilateral decision to call-off family reunions.

• SK will provide the WHO with 6.3 million USD from inter-Korean cooperation funds to support the WHO’s project to improve infant care in NK, covering half the projected costs. The project aims to repair and improve public health facilities, train public health practitioners, and provide essential medicines.

• Daily NK: The potato harvest has begun around Mt. Baekdu in Yanggang Province. A significant proportion of the workers from Party and security agencies are paying exemption fees (ranging from 150,000 to 180,000 won) to avoid going out to the fields.

• KBS: NK’s unusually good harvests are expected to ease the country’s chronic food shortage. Despite floods in July, a Chinese source estimated NK will have a 5.3 million ton crop yield, which represents a 10% increase from last year’s estimates. Yonhap puts the increase at 7.7%.

REFUGEES

• Two NK defectors returned to NK and recently held a press conference in PY. Park Jin Geun (49) and Jang Gwang Chol (33) were introduced as returnees who “were dragged to South Chosun by the scheming of the puppet state.” Park noted that “people like us have no money and cannot obtain work [in South Korea], so there is no possible way to make ends meet,” while Jang added that “every day of the year [he] spent in South Chosun was a nightmare. [South Korea] is a society of darkness, not only to the people like me who were dragged there but to the South Chosun people themselves.” The motives for Park and Jang’s re-defection still remain unclear, though the regime has previously used re-defectors for to put it’s own propaganda spin on the defector issue, regardless of a re-defector’s actual motives.

• CNN video feature on the ‘Laos 9’ young refugees repatriated from Laos in May.

• ORNK: In exchange for reporting on and capturing a defector, the govt is offering border guards a chance to join the party as reward.  

• A NKorean defector has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for attempting to re-defect to NK and intending to provide personal information on 34 defectors to NKorean authorities.

HUMAN RIGHTS

• The Canadian government has decided to designate September 28th as “North Korean Human Rights Day.” A conference held in Toronto and Ottawa heard from human rights experts and survivors of NK’s prison camps.

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

• SK commemorated its Armed Forces Day by showcasing a missile capable of hitting all parts of NK and other advanced weaponry. The event, held and televised on Tuesday at a military airport near Seoul, involved over 10,000 troops. SK’s display comes on the heels of its discussions about purchasing stealth aircrafts to protect itself from NK.

• The Rodong Shinmun on the SK military parade: “No matter how the puppets say they wish to ‘enhance the alliance,’ the fact can never be concealed that they utterly betrayed the nation to foreign powers, sold the country like lackeys with the intention of harming our homogeneous race, and maintain an aggressive system. At this so-called ‘event,’ collusion between the military and the American masters is increasingly intensifying. It is yet another confrontational farce aimed at stirring up antagonism between members of the same race, and to open up an invasion of the North.”

• SK, US and Japan have been carrying out joint naval drills involving an American aircraft carrier and SKorean and Japanese Aegis destroyers.

• NK’s chief negotiator to the SPT Ri Yong-ho met with former USG officials Bosworth and Detrani for two days of talks in London.

• SK plans to soon float high-tech surveillance blimps over the SKorean islands in the West Sea, where provocations often play out due to the disputed maritime border.

MISC.

• Daily NK: Photographs of NKorean towns along the Chinese border provide a glimpse into village life.

• Interview with Monique Macias, the daughter of Equatorial Guinea’s dictator, who lived in PY for 15 years.

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