NK NEWS BRIEF | October 23, 2013

In Rason, people lean out of windows to get a glimpse of Western cyclists. This photo was deleted by a guard and later recovered by an IT specialist | Photo: Johan Nylander/CNN

NK INTERNAL

• Daily NK: Citizens have been warned that the sale or distribution of illegal foreign films and images will result in severe punishment. Viewers of illegal materials will be sent into internal exile; in addition, severe transgressors are to be threatened with labor reeducation.

• Yonhap: Thousands of NKorean military officers and political commissars traveled to PY this week for a rare meeting. The meeting was the first of its kind in over a decade and Seoul analysts suspect it may have been held to express loyalty to KJU.

• RFA: After a series of talks, PY and Beijing were unable to agree on a way China could supply more electricity to NK.

ECONOMY & FOOD SECURITY

• Daily NK: PY has not replied to a proposal for site inspections at the KIC by SK officials. Also, it has increased its surveillance of the complex’s employees, reportedly designating three security personnel for every five workers.

• NK state media reported on an agreement with a Hong Kong-Singapore consortium to construct a new “hi-tech” industrial park near Kaesong as well as a toll road linking the capital to its airport.

• Daily NK: Yoon Yong Suk, Chosun Economic Development Committee: “At the Central Committee meeting last March, it was decided that special economic zones should be established in each province, and tourist areas, too, in order to invigorate the tourist industry, and bring about greater diversity in international trade. Currently, each province is moving forward with the establishment of development zones and the task of attracting foreign currency, in accordance with the plan.”

• Daily NK: Despite a preference for rice, residents in Daehongdan County (Yangkang Province) are welcoming the ample rations of potatoes and fermented soybean paste distributed by local authorities.

• Daily NK: Gov’t officials have been asking wealthy NKoreans to donate ‘loyalty rice’ this year in order to fill up wartime rice reserves. In exchange for donations, people are supposed to receive a letter of commendation which “would result in favorable treatment if [you] were ever caught doing something wrong.”

HUMAN RIGHTS

• Daily NK: From next year the SK military will develop next-generation equipment to broadcast both radio and television across the whole of NK, as well as self-propelled artillery to launch leaflets accurately across the inter-Korea border. The military can currently only broadcast on FM, not AM and also not TV. In addition, SK and the US will conduct joint training exercises involving enhanced psychological warfare components to reduce the morale of the NKorean military. KCNA responded that “the decision to use psychological warfare is no different from openly declaring war against us.”

• WSJ: The ROKG is considering a money-for-prisoner scheme to facilitate the repatriation of around a thousand SKoreans believed to be in NK against their will. Of the 24,000 SK citizens held hostage at the end of the Korean War, 500 are thought by the MOD to still be alive today and over 500 other SKoreans have since been abducted by the NK and not returned, according to SK’s abductee family organization. Though the program is under consideration, a spokeswoman for the ministry says the government is not actively pursuing the policy.

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

• Tehran Times: Despite lacking legal basis, China is holding a petroleum tanker bound for NK from Iran. In its efforts to diversify its energy sources, NK signed a contract last year to import about 500,000 tons of light oil from Iran.

• Reuters: The Chong Chon Gang, along with 33 of its 35 crew members, will be returned to NK, according to a statement by Panama’s foreign minister. The foreign minister stated the crew appeared “to be ignorant of what was in the cargo [and] as a result, if the attorney-general determines they are not criminally responsible for their actions, they cannot be prosecuted.” The ship’s captain and his deputy may still face trial.

• Daily NK: Some analysts and officials in SK are paying more attention to NK’s chemical weapons threat. It is believed that NK has the world’s third largest stockpile of chemical weapons, behind the United States and Russia.   

• Yonhap: NK has about 130 readily deployable hovercraft in its coastal waters, and KJU has regularly observed amphibious assault trainings targeted at SK.

• Mike Gifford, British ambassador to NK: “I wanted my job because I believe active and energetic diplomacy, when intelligently and responsibly applied and backed up by engagement, can make a difference. We must stand up for the values of open societies not only for the sake of our security but also for the hope of better things to come for the North Korean people and a lasting peace on the Korean peninsula.”

ANALYSIS & OPINION

• Evans Revere, Brookings: While leaving the door open to credible negotiations, Washington should expand and intensify current sanctions, thereby greatly raising the economic and political cost to Pyongyang of its nuclear weapons program. The United States should adopt stronger deterrence and counter-proliferation measures and impress on North Korea that its nuclear ambitions will not only prevent the regime from achieving its economic development goals, but could lead to instability. In short, U.S. policy should present North Korea with a stark choice between nuclear weapons and economic survival.

• Bruce Bennett: “I think the most likely way [for regime collapse] is for someone to assassinate Kim Jong Un, to kill him… So, those potentially could happen, and my argument is that we know that in the past the Kim family has done a very good job of balancing the [regime’s] second tier of leadership. They don’t let anybody get too strong. So, even when Jang Sung Taek got too strong in 2000, Kim Jong Il pulled him out of his leadership position for several years to try to control his power. If the leader is assassinated sometime in the future, there won’t be a designated successor among that second tier of leaders. There will probably be a debate who takes the leadership, and maybe even that debate could transition to a civil war.”

• Geoffrey See: “On the export front, [KJU] calls for consumer goods “favored by the people…that receive good reviews” and are “impeccable in the global marketplace.” A key policy that appear to follow up on this is the focus on expanding Special Economic Zones (SEZ) to every province with an eye towards having companies invest to produce exports. In addition, there is a requirement for joint-venture companies selling to the domestic market to export a stipulated percentage of their products.”

• Sino-NK interview with Go Myong-hyun, a research fellow at the Asan Institute, regarding potential refugee outflows in the event of regime collapse: “For most people, essentially it’s a decision-making model. People have to weigh two things: the risk of staying and the risk of leaving. So for most people, the risk of leaving is much higher than the risk of staying. Unless you are witnessing some sort of massacre right next door, you want to stay home, because you can protect your property; you don’t want to risk dying on the road by taking your family out to a crisis. There are a lot of unknowns. You can try to reach China, but what happens when you reach China, unless you have relatives there? That’s the reason why there won’t be a major refugee crisis in North Korea, even if there’s a major contingency.”

MISC.

• Rodman gave an interview with British tabloid The Sun about his second visit to NK. DongA Ilbo also revealed details from the trip (Korean).

• Despite criticisms, the AP’s first PY bureau chief speaks out about the importance of getting “on the ground [in North Korea] and to try to write from as many angles as [they] can.”

• As part of its NK coverage, the UK’s Channel 4 began showing the main evening news from NK with English translations.

• Singaporean director Lee: “And the thing is that in North Korea, films are the same as propaganda. They will tell you that their films are made for the purposes of propaganda. So for someone like Yun-mi who has known nothing but privilege all her life, you know, who lives in a very comfortable apartment, who has everything that she can desire, having the job of making propaganda praising the state ― she has no problem doing that because she really believes in it. It is her life.”

• NYT: A recent visitor to NK considers the pros and cons of tourism in the Hermit Kingdom.

• Former NKorean prograpanda artists apply their talents to depict scenes of modern day China.

• 38 North review of the Samjiyon, NK’s tablet computer.

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