NK NEWS BRIEF | Nov 20, 2014

Seamstresses at a textile factory in Rason who are paid around 80 USD a month | Photo: Rudiger Frank via Foreign Policy

NK INTERNAL

• RFA: Sources report the partial collapse of a 38-floor apartment building in Pyongyang during construction, causing the death of a 23 year-old female builder.
• Daily NK: PY has heightened its propaganda as the 3rd anniversary of KJI’s death approaches. Source: “Unlike regular study sessions conducted once a week, this time they’re alternating between intensive studies, film and book-based studies, and recorded lectures every day… In the afternoon, they conduct quiz-based lectures among different groups and you can only go home if you pass.”
• RFA via Chosun Ilbo: The once famous Sunchon vinylon factory that produced chemical fertilizer and fiber for clothes in the 1980s, and built by KIS with 10 billion USD over an area as big as that of 467 baseball fields now lies in ruins. Most of the factory machines have been transferred elsewhere, and the land area near the factory have turned into corn fields (Korean).
• RFA: Young NKoreans are trying to avoid being drafted, as the army tries to bolster recruitment including from among young people dispatched to construction sites, which had been seen as a preferred route for young people because they get more leave compared to regular soldiers. (Korean).
• News1 via Chosun Ilbo: PY has been restricting cadres’ usage of Mirim Equestrian Riding Club, and encouraging ordinary citizens to ride on the tracks. GPI Consultancy that led a group of tourists into the city told VOA that reporters were amazed at the number of residents enjoying horse-riding at the track (Korean).

ECONOMY & FOOD SECURITY

• Global Times: Ji’an, one of the 3 biggest border crossing points to NK (Manpo) from China, is to get a new bridge which will be “8.77 kilometers long and meet China’s highest highway quality standards, allowing for average travel speeds of 60 kilometers per hour.”
• RFA source: “Yearly harvest from south and north Hwanghae provides food for PY residents and should yield around 1,000,000 tons of rice. This year’s harvest reached less than 70% of this target.” (Korean).
• Daily NK: ROK MOU and WFP will sign a Memorandum of Understanding in providing humanitarian assistance to NK.

HUMAN RIGHTS & UNGA RESOLUTION

• AP: UNGA Third Committee approved the resolution encouraging the SC to consider referring PY to the ICC. Vote tallied to 111 yes, 19 no (including China and Russia), and 55 abstentions. The full formal GA vote will be held in December.
• ROK MOFA: “The adoption of the resolution reflects the international community’s concerns and willingness that the recommendations by the COI should be thoroughly implemented to improve the dismal situation in North Korea… We expect NK to take concrete actions to improve its human rights situation by accepting the recommendations.” Both major SKorean political parties also welcomed the news of the resolution’s adoption.
• US Dept of State spokesman: “We think this resolution sends a clear message from the international community that the DPRK’s egregious violations of human rights are not going unnoticed by the international community and that those most responsible must be held accountable.”
• NK Rep Choe Myong-nam: “The outrageous and unreasonable human rights campaign staged by the United States and its followers in their attempts to eliminate the state and social system of (North Korea) is compelling us not to refrain any further from conducting nuclear tests.” KCNA later repeated the nuclear test threat.

REFUGEES & BORDER SECURITY

• New Focus: Bowibu crackdowns increase in early November every year, as officials are pressured to produce results in confiscating smuggled goods in the market. Source: “There is a reason for the focused crackdown by security officials. The officials guarding the border areas need to flatter their superiors to keep their positions… The smuggled goods should be confisticated in its original state and handed over to receive rewards.” (Korean).
• Daily NK: SSD is now investigating brokers to arrest residents who have obtained Chinese mobile phones. Source: “In Hoeryong City, seven families were discovered with phones obtained from brokers; during the investigation, household members are divided and undergo separate interrogations after which they are sent to labor-training camps.”
• RFA: A new clinic to treat defectors’ psychological health will open at the Seoul National Hospital at the end of this month. The doctor who has been treating defectors at Hanawon will be in charge of the clinic, with two NKorean nurses. (Korean).
• Yonhap: NKorean agents attempted to abduct and repatriate a NKorean student studying in Paris, but failed. The student’s father was reportedly purged for his relation to Jang Sung-taek.
• NYT: Peter Hahn, a Korean-American Christian aid worker who has operated on China’s border with NK for over a decade has been detained by Chinese authorities. His vocational training school had been shut down in July and he had been questioned for months.

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

• RUSSIA: Putin and Choe Ryong-hae met in Moscow. Putin: “A further deepening of political ties and trade and economic cooperation is definitely in the interests of the peoples of both countries and ensuring regional stability and security.” FM Lavrov: “Pyongyang is ready for the resumption of the six-party talks without any preconditions.”
• INTER-KOREAN: ROK Unification Minister: “Should the second high-level talks commence, ROKG is open to discuss inter-Korean problems, including restarting the Kumgang mountain tours.” (Korean). The minister is planning a trip to DC and NY to meet with USG officials and publicize Seoul’s preparations for unification.
• Chairwoman of Hyundai Group after visiting NK for the 16th anniversary event of Kumgang mountain tour: “We and North Korean officials jointly held the commemorative event and vowed to make efforts to resume the tour program within this year.”
• ROK Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs will hold a memorial mass this Sunday to mark the 4th year anniversary of PY’s shelling of the Yeonpyeong island. Tensions remain high in the border region. A ROK marine officer: “We’ve been pushing to set up a new combat unit in the Yellow Sea region armed with high-speed rigid inflatable boats and landing craft air cushions… For enhanced surveillance capabilities, we will set up a system for unmanned aerial vehicles and push for the project to launch aerostats in the border regions.” SKorean border soldiers have been relieved from daily duties such as weeding or cleaning their barracks, and instead will focus more on border patrol and combat preparations. ROKG recently sought to buy PAC-3 interceptors from the US to upgrade its air defense system, a plan that PY criticized.
• SNP lawmaker Ha Tae-kyung criticised SKorean leaflet balloon activists: “We requested wind data from the Korea Meteorological Administration from seven dates this year when the civic group launched balloons. Of those seven days, there were six days that the currents blew in a way that prevented the leaflets from reaching the North… I urge civic groups engaged in the leaflet campaign to promise that they will never disclose their launchings to the public in advance, as doing so only adds tension to inter-Korea relations and does nothing to deliver information to North Koreans.”
• WSJ: ROK Financial Services Commission proposed debt financing and private investment as tools to reduce unification costs. FSC expects that 500 billion USD will be needed to build up NK’s economy, of which debt financing will attract up to 300 billion USD, and private investment up to 190 billion USD.

ANALYSIS & OPINION

• USG’s Clapper: “I think the major message from them (PY) was their disappointment that there wasn’t some offer or some big – again, the term they used was `breakthrough.'”
• 38 North: “Recent commercial satellite imagery indicates that the 5 MWe plutonium production reactor at North Korea’s Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center remains shut down after 10 weeks, longer than what is required for routine maintenance. While it is too soon to reach a definitive conclusion, new evidence is accumulating that suggests: 1) the shutdown may have allowed the North to remove a limited number of fuel rods, possibly failed, from the reactor; and 2) Pyongyang may be preparing to restart the Radiochemical Laboratory, which separates weapons-grade plutonium from waste products in spent nuclear fuel rods.”
• Jeffrey Lewis & Catherine Dill: “Despite being subject to an asset-freeze, Ryonha remains active internationally. For example, the firm participated in a trade fair in Dandong, China in May 2013 under its own name. The UN Panel of Experts found no evidence in its March 2014 report that the Chinese government took any steps to prevent Ryonha from participating in the fair or to seize its assets. The PoE also noted that the firm appeared to operate in a number of countries under various aliases.”

MISC.

• Daily NK: A SKorean man in his 30s was arrested for violating the National Security Law by running illegal software programs and sharing the profits with NKorean spies.

NK News Brief acronyms.

Sign up to receive the NK News Brief by email here.

Donate

Your generous donation will rescue and support North Korean refugees.

Donate

100% funds programs.