NK NEWS BRIEF | Nov 13, 2014

NK’s Paek Chung-song celebrates after scoring in a 3-0 win over a SKorean team during a U-15 football tournament in Yeoncheon, SK | AP Photo/Ahn Yong-joon

NK INTERNAL

• Daily NK: Foreigners visiting NK now have to pay extra for their stay during and beyond the 21-day Ebola quarantine period. Source: “Chinese merchants in Rasun and visiting foreign tourists…  have been asked to pay 600 RMB a day for room and board… It looks like a ploy to make more money off of them using Ebola as an excuse.” Another source reported that in a recent People’s Unit meeting in Yangkang province, the citizens were warned, “Ebola is a disease where your blood vessels explode and all patients die.”
• Daily NK: Day care centers have become essential for PY women who are employed or regularly participate in market activities. Parents reportedly pay nannies a monthly fee equivalent to 25 kg of rice for babies and 10 kg of rice for toddlers. Source: “Personal day care centers… are popular with younger women who don’t have enough time for childcare because of work… Women who must travel far and wide to sell their wares look for nannies or have their children stay at individually-run day care centers.”
• Chosun Ilbo: Foreign smartphones are popular among the new rich in PY. It is reported that KJU and high-level officials gain access to the latest iPhones and foreign cellular gadgets via routes such as NKorean diplomats abroad. An estimated 70% of all cellphones in NK are concentrated in PY. It is reported that a 2G mobile phone costs 110-240 euros (136-300 USD), an Arirang phone costs 370 euros (460 USD), a PY Touch 650 euros (807 USD), and an iPhone or a Galaxy smartphone 1,000-1,500 euros (1,240-1,860 USD). Activating a smartphone costs about 50 euros (62 USD) in NK.
• Daily NK: Consumer demand for bras has increased among older women in NK as part of a new fashion trend. Source: “If a woman in her 40s was wearing a bra, it was considered fascinating, but now those in their 50s and 60s do so as well, as wearing a bra is now seen as being part of an advanced culture that respects femininity. Now there are even stalls at the markets that specialize in bras.”
• Daily NK: KJU visited a tree nursery in PY to make calls for a nationwide reforestation program. He also made a rare mention of the problem of deforestation in the Arduous March period.
• RFA via Chosun Ilbo: It is reported that a woman with the same name as KJU’s wife, Ri Sol-ju, was expelled from PY along with her family. PY has had a history of asking those who have the same names as KIS, KJI, and KJU to change their names. When the woman named Ri Sol-ju refused to comply, she was forced to leave the city.

ECONOMY & FOOD SECURITY

• Daily NK: The Rodong Sinmun published an editorial, “Let the Entire Country Rise in the Battle to Secure Water,” saying: “There has not been a year in the past century when there has been such little rainfall. As a result, the output from our hydropower plants has dropped and many reservoirs for farming have dried up or carry less water, meaning we face a severe shortage in water for next year’s farming.”
• Daily NK: Rice prices dropped in PY due to an increased market supply. Source: “The price of rice has plunged to 4,500 KPW [0.54 USD] per kg in the markets… The harvest is underway and freshly harvested rice is pushing down prices… This year, not only collective farms but also individuals planted a lot of rice.” As of mid-October, 1 kg of rice cost 6,800 KPW (0.82 USD) in public markets. There is a rumor that due to the dry spell and scant fertilizer, 5,000 tons of rice were imported from Russia.
• AP: The WFP has enough funds to operate in NK for the rest of the year, but whether the organization can stay in the country beyond March next year remains unclear.
• Guardian: NKorean construction workers in Qatar have a reputation for being dilligent but are rarely paid in full for their labor. A NKorean recruitment representative at the Lusail city construction site: “The workers receive 3,000 rials [824 USD] per month and work for 12 hours a day… About 50% is sent back to workers’ families. Our company makes money from taking a cut of workers’ salaries.” There are reportedly up to 65,000 NKoreans working in around 40 countries, of whom 3,000 are in Qatar, more than 2,000 are in the UAE, and more than 4,000 are in Kuwait. A project manager in Doha: “[NKoreans] follow the rules of the army. They have their own targets, and the managers know how to control their people skilfully. They are very productive.”
• Yonhap: The number of NKoreans entering China to find work has risen by an average of 20% annually for the past 3 years, reaching 93,000 in 2013. It is reported that a NKorean worker is usually paid 260,000-280,000 KRW (cited as 238-256 USD) per month, just over half what a Chinese citizen might expect (440,000-530,000 KRW; 402-484 USD).
• Yonhap: The Eugene Bell Foundation, a US charity, will build 3 new wards for TB treatment in PY. The foundation is sending 770 million KRW (cited as 750,000 USD) worth of TB medication to NK.

HUMAN RIGHTS

• Daily NK source: “That political prison camp that used to be in Yodeok County in South Hamkyung has already been broken up. There’s not a trace of it left… The political prisoners who were there have been divided up and moved to camps 14 and 16.”
• UN SR Darusman: The COI “was able to point unequivocally to the responsibility and the culpability (for) these massive human rights violations to a single source of policy decision-making in the country. And therefore it’s only now that we are in the position to in fact directly put culpability on the supreme leader for these massive human rights violations.”
• Reuters: In a statement dated 30 October, PY announced they had suspended consultations with the EU with regard to the draft UNGA resolution on NK human rights.  
• Reuters: Cuba has circulated an amendment to the draft resolution, replacing the language encouraging the UNSC to refer the situation to the ICC with language calling for a “new cooperative approach.”
• Yonhap: The UNGA Third Committee will likely vote on the adoption of the resolution on NK human rights next week, with the full UNGA vote coming in mid-December.  
• KCNA, via Daily NK: PY formally “ratified the optional protocol on banning child trafficking, prostitution and pornographic literature, annex to the UN Convention on Children’s Rights… Its ratification of the protocol is a demonstration of the government’s policy of attaching importance to the children and a manifestation of its will to fulfill its commitment and promote international cooperation in the field of human rights.”

REFUGEES & BORDER SECURITY

• Daily NK: SSD officials are now posing as travelers to weed out defectors and brokers in China. Source: “Late last month, two officials from the Hoeryong SSD office were chosen to pose as travelers visiting relatives in China, and went to different regions such as Yanji, Helong, and Changbai.”
• Daily NK N Hamkyung Province source: “It has become very difficult to make mobile phone calls from the North Korea-China border area… Security officials have set up [German-made] high-tech frequency tracking devices here and there along the border and are listening in on phone calls.”
• Daily NK Yanggang Province source: “In a recent inminban [people’s unit] meeting, there was a lecture on how certain areas adjacent to the border such as Hyesan and Baekam County have been designated ‘danger zones’ by the SSD.” In the meeting, people were informed, “Compared to other areas, anti-state crimes are more prevalent in Yangkang Province,” and “just like infected areas need to be cut off in order to prevent the infection from spreading, rebellious groups in society need to be discarded.”  
• NK News: Russia and NK have signed a deportation agreement on illegal immigrants. It also covers requirements for lawful entry and includes provisions for each state to deny a repatriation request if it believes that the individual would be “subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the death penalty or persecution” upon their return. The COI Report documented cases of NKoreans who were tortured after being deported from Russia, including one who said he had been subject to six months of interrogation and torture and was subsequently sent to a prison camp where the ill treatment continued.
• Song Byeok, defector artist: “My experience of defecting through China showed me how important it was to have the ‘freedom to be full.’ I imagine it would be hard for North Koreans to return to North Korea after tasting the slice of freedom in China.”

APEC SUMMIT

• PGH: “NK previously followed a repetitive pattern of provocations followed by peace offensives, but has recently changed to doing both at the same time, making them hard to predict… NK must understand that no country accepts their nuclear weapons program and that economic development will be impossible while they continue to develop nuclear weapons.” (Korean).
• Obama: “President Xi and I reaffirmed the commitment of complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and we agreed that North Korea will not succeed in pursuing nuclear weapons and economic development.”
• Xi: “China is firmly committed to achieving denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula… We maintained that we should address the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and negotiation… Relevant parties should have active contacts and dialogues so as to create conditions for an early resumption of the six-party talks.”
• PGH to Xi: “As the meetings with you repeat over time, I feel friendlier with you and Korea-China ties seem to deepen.” PGH and Xi also signed a “substantial conclusion” of a ROK-PRC FTA.
• Japan FM Fumio Kishida: “(PGH and Abe agreed to) advance in a smooth manner the director general-level talks between Japanese and South Korean foreign ministries which have been regularly held between Japan and South Korea since April… Difficult issues exist between the two countries but efforts by the leaders to communicate should be welcomed.”
• Abe: “Japan and China, we need each other… We are, in a way, inseparably bound together.”
• Xi: “Severe difficulties have emerged in Sino-Japanese relations in recent years, and the rights and wrongs behind them are crystal clear.”

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

• INTER-KOREAN: SK began the 12-day Hoguk exercise of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps, with some of the drills joined by the US military. ROK JCS official: “As North Korea is believed to have carried out intensive military drills in recent months, we’ve decided to launch the largest-ever scale of the drills in response in order to boost our capabilities.” NK’s CPRK protested against the drills as an act of “preliminary war”.
• AP: SK fired 20 warning shots when about 10 NKorean soldiers approached too close to the border. The NKorean soldiers retreated without returning fire.  
• Yonhap: ROKG plans to build a new complex for cyber command to bolster national capacity for cyber warfare and research. SK has reportedly come under 1,202 hacking attempts this year, double the amount of cases last year.
• Yonhap: ROK MOU agreed to install thermal scanners for Ebola detection at KIC at the request of PY. Each device costs about 15 million KRW (cited as 13,000 USD).
• Yonhap: PY bashed PGH’s commitment to declare a new reunification charter, stating that the charter “demonstrates the South’s pursuit of unification by absorption.”
• RUSSIA: NK’s Defense Minister met Putin during a trip to Russia. KCTV reported that KJU’s greetings were delivered to Putin, who responded with “deep gratitude.”
• US: The last two Americans detained in NK, Bae and Miller, were released after the USG agreed to send Director of National Intelligence James Clapper with a letter from Obama to retrieve them. USG officials, and Obama, have since moved to downplay the significance of PY’s release and Clapper’s trip.

ANALYSIS & OPINION

• Straub: “After accompanying President Clinton to North Korea in 2009, including sitting in on his meeting with its previous ruler, Kim Jong Il, I was even more puzzled as to why the North Koreans would go to so much trouble to force senior Americans to come to retrieve incarcerated American citizens. After much reflection, my working hypothesis is that the North Koreans must get great psychological satisfaction from forcing the U.S. government to bend to their will, even if they get nothing substantive in return—even if, in fact, they only increase the American disinclination to deal with them otherwise.”
• Jannuzi: “Coming literally on the eve of President Obama’s departure to Beijing to meet with Asian leaders at the APEC Summit, the North’s move may have been designed to deprive President Obama of a talking point when explaining his administration’s reluctance to resume the Six Party Talks to President Xi Jinping. Beijing has been pressing the Obama Administration to accept the North’s repeated offers to resume dialogue ‘without preconditions.’”
• Sanger: “The warning about broken promises that Robert M. Gates described as defense secretary—‘I am tired of buying the same horse twice’—has outlasted his tenure. There appears to be no enthusiasm in Washington for resuming the “Six Party Talks” with the North… until Pyongyang begins to dismantle nuclear facilities it has promised to take apart.”
• ROK Amb Lee Jung-hoon on the NKorean diplomats’ response to the UNGA resolution: “The idea is to keep the supreme leader’s name out of it and to try to weaken the language as much as possible… This is perhaps a matter of making or breaking their careers.”  
• Georgy Toloraya: “Russians know through decades of experience how difficult a partner North Korea can be… However, the greatest problem for the success of these projects is financing. Independent loans will be hard to find. The answer may be South Korea. Trilateral projects have long been the backbone of Russia’s economic strategy towards the North, which, first and foremost, is designed to involve Russia economically—and as a consequence, politically—in Northeast Asia.”  
• CNBC on NK’s millennial generation: Joo Yang: “Our parents’ generation had rations. They have strong ideology and they really respect Kim Il Sung. But I don’t know about rations. So we did private business.”

MISC.

• Chosun Ilbo: The Christian Council of Korea regretted that the ROK MND pulled down the Christmas tower facing NK without consulting Christian communities in SK, and began rebuilding the tower in Gimpo. PY media has flared up against this, protesting against hypocrisies in SKorean policies.
• Daily NK: A US-based tour agency will offer package tours for the 2015 PY Marathon, which has been held annually for the past 27 years. Unlike past occasions, the marathon participants will not be tagged with NKorean minders.

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