North Korea

[JohnnyRico]

N.Korea Fires 46 Rockets in 2 Days

englishnews@chosun / Mar. 24, 2014 09:34 KST

North Korea 46 short-range rockets into open waters in the East Sea on the early morning of Saturday and Sunday.

A spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff here said the North launched 30 short-range rockets into the East Sea from near Wonsan, Kangwon Province from 4:00 a.m. to 6:10 a.m. on Saturday and 16 rockets from 00:52 a.m. to 2:21 a.m. on Sunday. They flew about 60 km and fell into open waters, the spokesman added.

The projectiles, presumed to be Soviet Free Rockets Over Ground, were part of a campaign in response to the ongoing annual South Korea-U.S. military exercises. The North has fired 88 rockets and missiles since Feb. 21, right before the start of the joint South Korea-U.S. drills.

"We've been detecting constant movement of mobile missile launch vehicles around Wonsan recently," the spokesman said. "We're maintaining higher-level surveillance in the belief that the North will continue low-level provocations until April 18, when the joint exercises come to a close."

Meanwhile, the North has reportedly been testing a so-called Very Slender Vessel that is designed to infiltrate South Korean waters at a speed of 100 km/h carrying commandos.
Read this article in Korean

 

[JohnnyRico]

Released missionary thinks hunger strike helped end N. Korean imprisonment

Australian speaks with Australian newspaper about his 15-day interrogation process

March 24th, 2014
Ole Jakob Skåtun

John Short, in his first long-form interview since being released from North Korean custody earlier this month, told Australia’s Advertiser newspaper about his time in North Korean detention, including his 11-day hunger strike.

Short, 75, was arrested in Pyongyang in mid-February for distributing leaflets with biblical messages translated into Korean, an activity he confirmed during the interview.

He said that when visiting a Christian church in Pyongyang on the second day of a four-day cultural tour, he had handed an envelope containing A$160 (US$145) worth of Chinese currency, along with several religious leaflets, to its pastor. It was when he attempted to do the same at a Buddhist temple later that day that he was noticed and his activity reported to the authorities.

While under arrest, he was asked to reveal the name of the person who had translated the bible tracts into Korean, a man Short reluctantly identified to the North Koreans as a South Korean national named Paul Baek.

Short said he began his hunger strike on the fourth day of his 15-day interrogation process. During this time he also learned that North Korean agents had entered his Hong Kong home and office to look for material they might use against him.

Upon being released by North Korean authorities, he paid 4,000 Chinese yuan as compensation for having overstayed his visa, promising to pay an additional US$300 when he arrived in Beijing. On advice of Chinese officials, Short let his wife settle the account, handing the money to a North Korean agent in a Beijing shopping center, for which she demanded a receipt while taking “surreptitious photos of the agent as he wrote it out.”

Missionary work in North Korea is illegal, and Short was facing lengthy jailtime. Following his release, the North Korea’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency reported that he had apologized and admitted to violating North Korean law, adding that the decision to expel him was partly due to his age.

Short told the Advertiser that his release might have had something to do with his hunger strike.

Asked whether he would return to North Korea if he hasn’t been blacklisted, he said yes, adding that he probably wouldn’t carry his bible tracts with him.

“I would take my Bible,” he said.

Several foreign missionaries have been arrested for proselytizing in North Korea, including Kenneth Bae, an American citizen currently serving 15 years in a labor camp, convicted of planning to overthrow the North Korean government.

 

[JohnnyRico]

Anti-China sign hung at N. Korean military academy – Chosun Ilbo

Messages blasting North's long-time ally have been hung before during periods of tension

March 24th, 2014
Kang Tae-jun

A sign with an anti-China message has been hung at North Korea’s Gang Gun Military Academy, a conservative South Korean daily reported on Monday.

The source used by the Chosun Ilbo newspaper, however, was unnamed, a practice for which it has been criticized in the past.

Gang Gun Military Academy, the site where the sign, reading “China is a betrayer and is our enemy” was allegedly hung, is one of North Korea’s higher military education institutions, nurturing high-level generals.

However, the move would not be unprecedented at the academy and the report came as South Korean President Park Geun-hye has met Xi Jinping, the President of the People’s Republic of China, on Sunday (local time) at the Nuclear Security Summit in Netherlands.

“(If the Chosun’s report is true) a meeting of two presidents from South Korea and China has likely affected North Korea’s decision to hang the sign again,” said Ahn Chan-il, president of the World Institute For North Korea Studies.

Ahn said that North Korea has for some time been afraid of having its political and economic system affected by China.

“China has successfully adopted a market economy while maintaining its communist idea. But Pyongyang knows it will be impossible for North Korea to do same thing,” Ahn said.

“That’s why North Korea is afraid of China’s influence, and hanging the sign is one of its efforts to resist any kind of influence from China.”

Though the news of the sign could not be independently verified, it would not be the first time North Korea has displayed a negative message about China. When South Korea and China officially established a diplomatic relations in 1992, Kim Il Sung, the first North Korean leader, visited the Gang Gun Military Academy, telling cadets that China was an enemy of North Korea and that the North might have to go to war with China.

At that time, a sign of this nature was hung at the academy for the first time.

A sign like this was once again hung at the academy on Kim Jong Un’s orders when China joined in international sanctions from the UN last year, and Kim stressed that North Korea should reconsider its attitude toward China.

The Chosun is a conservative daily noted for its anti-North stance, and it has been criticized for sensationalistic reporting on the North based on unverified sources in the past.

Picture: Roman Harak, Flickr Creative Commons

 

[JohnnyRico]

Japan should press 'changing' North Korea to find closure over abductees

By Elaine Lies
TOKYO Mon Mar 24, 2014 5:03am EDT

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe poses for photos as he attends a news conference at his official residence in Tokyo March 20, 2014, after Japan's parliament enacts a budget for fiscal 2014. Abe said on Thursday he hopes to resume formal talks with North Korea as soon as possible. REUTERS/Yuya Shino

(Reuters) - The ageing parents of a 13-year-old Japanese girl abducted nearly 40 years ago by North Korea urged their government on Monday to heed signs of change in Pyongyang in order to find out what happened to their daughter.

Japan and North Korea are set to resume high-level talks next week over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs, as well as the fate of Japanese abducted decades ago to help train spies, after a hiatus of more than a year.

Earlier this month, the parents of Megumi Yokota, who was snatched off a northern Japanese beach on her way home from school in 1977, met their North Korean-born granddaughter and great-granddaughter for the first time.

"We think North Korea has changed a bit," Shigeru Yokota, Megumi's father, told a news conference, citing pressure from food shortages and international sanctions. "We should use this opportunity to reach a conclusion."

Megumi is one of 13 Japanese that North Korea admitted in 2002 had been kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s. Pyongyang says that eight of them are dead, including Megumi, but Japan wants more information and the issue has been a major stumbling block in normalizing ties between the two countries.

The United Nations released a report last month calling on North Korean leaders to face international justice for crimes against humanity, including the abductions.

The Yokotas had long wanted to meet Megumi's daughter, now 26, since learning of her existence roughly a decade ago, but rejected proposals to meet in North Korea out of concern it would make it seem as if they accepted the explanation of Megumi's fate.

The meeting earlier this month took place in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, a venue that Japan and North Korea often use for unofficial contacts.

"We felt strongly that we didn't have much more time left," Shigeru Yokota said. He is 81 and his wife, Sakie, is 78, but they are among the youngest surviving parents of abducted Japanese. Many others have died.

Looking back on their decades-long ordeal, Sakie said the first five years were the worst.

"I would scream and hit the floor, I would run across the beaches crying out Megumi's name," she said. "How could a person just disappear from the earth?"

Meeting granddaughter Kim Eun Gyong and cradling her chubby 10-month-old great-granddaughter was "like a dream," but they limited talk of Megumi to a few memories her daughter had of keeping a pet cat and how her mother had had to visit the dentist often.

"There was absolutely no information on Megumi, even though that was what we wanted most," Sakie said. "She (Eun Gyong) is our granddaughter, but we had to remember that she definitely grew up in North Korea."

(Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

 

[JohnnyRico]

Asia's hottest property market is also its most unlikely - North Korea

Reuters
March 26, 2014, 8:05 am

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects the construction site of the apartment houses for scientists close to completion in this undated file photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang in this August 7, 2013 file photo. REUTERS/KCNA/Files

By Ju-min Park

SEOUL (Reuters) - One of the world's fastest developing property markets is also in one of its least likely places - North Korea.

Even though the buying and selling of houses and apartments is illegal, it is becoming more widespread and sophisticated, said defectors as well as experts who study the ruined economy.

On paper, the socialist state owns all property. But the percentage of North Koreans who are buying their own home - as opposed to waiting for the government to assign one - is growing rapidly, surveys of defectors show.

Brokers can be found with lists of property for sale in private markets selling food and cheap consumer goods that are tolerated by the government in cities and towns around North Korea, the defectors and experts said.

"You can find a house you want by asking brokers," said Kim Young-il, a defector and activist in Seoul.

Deals are done in U.S. dollars in the capital Pyongyang and in Chinese yuan along the border with China, where most of the North's trade with the outside world takes place. The buyers and sellers then bribe housing officials to effectively approve the transaction by issuing or modifying residency documents, the defectors and experts said.

It's another example of how the regime of leader Kim Jong Un is turning a blind eye to a black market that is offering North Koreans a chance to upgrade their living conditions, move from one location to another or to simply make some money, especially given that house prices have been rising steadily.

It is common for defectors to send money to the North so their families can buy better homes. Activist Kim and two other defectors say they have also heard of some people buying property as an investment ahead of what they hope will be the eventual reunification of their impoverished homeland and the wealthy South. Reuters could not confirm those accounts.

Defectors send an estimated $10 million each year to help their families in the North, according to the Organization for One Korea, a South Korean support group for defectors. The money is routed through agents on China's side of the land border.

"Money talks in North Korea. If you have money, send it to somebody you trust. You can buy a decent house in the border region with China," said Kim, the defector, who runs a non-governmental organisation called People for Successful Corean Reunification, which uses the ancient spelling of Korea.

Kim told Reuters he had a friend who needed to raise money last winter to fund his escape to the South, so the friend sold his apartment in the North Korean border city of Hyesan for 40,000 Chinese yuan ($6,600).

He declined to identify his friend, who he said was at a re-settlement centre south of Seoul that helps defectors try to get to grips with life in South Korea.

MISSILES INSTEAD OF HOUSING

Under the socialist system erected by Kim Il Sung, the young leader's grandfather, the government built and allocated housing to its citizens.

Then famine killed an estimated one million people in the mid-1990s, causing the collapse of the state food distribution system. That opened the door to private markets selling food in the late 1990s.

Trading in property soon followed, especially since the increasingly cash-starved state spent money on its 1.2-million strong military instead of public housing.

Under North Korean law, anyone who sells, buys or rents a house can be sentenced to hard labour.

But a survey last year of 133 defectors by the Seoul National University's (SNU) Institute for Peace and Unification Studies found 67 percent of them had bought their own homes, compared to 14 percent who had been given accommodation. The defectors left North Korea in 2012.

A similar survey of 126 defectors who left in 2011 showed 46 percent bought their own home.

"With market forces spreading, North Koreans are becoming able to dream of moving into a better house," said Jeong Eun-mee, an SNU research professor involved in the survey.

"Homes, one of the few resources North Koreans have, are now extensively traded unofficially. The regime has no option but to tolerate this ... because officials are involved as well."

CIGARETTES OR FOOD WILL DO

In a 2013 report, the Korea Institute for National Unification, a South Korean state-run think tank, said housing officials were usually bribed with cigarettes or food to approve a property transaction in one of the world's most corrupt countries.

While it is impossible to independently confirm anything in North Korea, similar studies support the suggestion of growing property ownership.

Defectors are also among the best sources of information since better communications have opened the way for regular contact with their families. Defector groups in Seoul estimate 3,000 phone calls are made each day to the North, routed through Chinese mobile networks along the border.

There is no hard data, but apartment prices have risen in the last decade in Pyongyang and small cities on the Chinese border, defectors said.

Housing now acts as a store of value for North Koreans looking for ways to earn money outside the poorly paid government sector, they added.

Lee Yun-keol, a biologist who came to Seoul in 2005, said he had heard that an apartment he used to own in Pyongyang was worth $100,000, nearly 15 times what he paid more than a decade ago.

Properties close to statues of Kim Il Sung or his son Kim Jong Il in the centre of Pyongyang command a higher price thanks to constant water and electricity supplies, defectors said.

They added that the property market revolved around the brokers, who keep a low profile in private markets but can be found by asking around. Once a buyer and seller agree the price, they bribe housing authorities to alter names on mandatory residence permits that give an address.

North Korea only allows one house to be registered against one name, so people use the names of relatives if they want to buy more.

PRIVATE CONTRACTORS

Outside Pyongyang, where there is more scope for private commerce because state scrutiny is less intense, the property market has also created a new class of businessmen who employ workers outside the broken state system and raise funds to buy building materials, defectors and experts said.

Kim Joo-sung, a North Korean scientific researcher who defected in 2008, said he had a friend in his home city who became a construction contractor as far back as 2002.

The friend worked with brokers who promoted unit sales by phone before they were even built, the researcher said, adding he paid off officials by giving them new homes.

"He became one of the richest men in my community," said Kim, who declined to name his home city for fear of reprisals against his family in North Korea. He also declined to reveal his friend's identity, saying he had lost contact with him when he fled North Korea.

The North Korean state has also been getting in on the property trade.

Since taking office more than two years ago, Kim Jong Un has presided over a construction boom with the aid of funds from China, the North's major backer, and Russia, a former Cold War ally.

The state-run KCNA news agency, for example, reported in January that the government had built apartments for 1,000 families of scientists in Pyongyang.

For some newly built flats in Pyongyang, government firms sell the units, keeping the money as profit to stay viable, experts and defectors said.

"With the government's knowledge, state agencies and institutions are selling houses they have built," said an ex-senior intelligence official, who came to Seoul in 2008 but declined to be identified because of concerns for his safety.

(Editing by Dean Yates)

 

[JohnnyRico]

North Korea slams South's president, likens her to 'blabbering peasant'

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 27 March, 2014, 10:47am
UPDATED : Thursday, 27 March, 2014, 11:32pm

Agence France-Presse in Seoul

South Korean President Park Geun-hye addresses a press conference in Berlin on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

North Korea issued a personal attack on South Korean President Park Geun-hye yesterday, accusing her of breaking a moratorium on cross-border insults and behaving like a "blabbering" peasant woman.

The attack referenced a speech Park made on Monday at a nuclear summit in The Hague in which she voiced concern that Pyongyang's nuclear material could end up in terrorist hands, and warned of a possible Chernobyl-style disaster at the North's main Yongbyon nuclear complex.

A spokesman for the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said Park's remarks "violently trampled" on an agreement reached at high-level talks last month for the two Koreas to stop "slandering" one another.

If Park genuinely wanted to see improvements in inter-Korean relations, "she first has to stop rambling recklessly and learn how to speak with discretion", the spokesman said in a statement carried by the North's official KCNA news agency.

"Even if someone else wrote the dumb speech for her to read from, she should at least know what and what not to say … in order not to embarrass herself.

"She should realise she is no longer a peasant woman blabbering to herself in the corner of her room but the occupant of the [presidential] Blue House," he said.

North Korea has made similarly vitriolic attacks on Park in the past. This was the first since last month's agreement. North Korea had pushed hard for the "no slander" clause, which observers said was always going to prove problematic.

North Korea insisted it should extend to the media and private groups and individuals. South Korea argued it could not restrict freedom of speech.

Seoul is also unlikely to accept that Park's comments at the nuclear summit amounted to slander.

The North on Wednesday test-fired two medium-range ballistic missiles, as US President Barack Obama hosted a Japan-South Korea summit aimed at uniting the three nations against Pyongyang's nuclear threat.

United Nations resolutions prohibit North Korea from conducting ballistic missile tests and the UN Security Council was set to hold closed-door consultations yesterday to discuss a possible condemnation of the latest missile launches.

Merkel's 'duty' to aid Korean unity

Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged Germany's support during a visit by South Korea's president for efforts to unify the Korean peninsular, saying its own reunification gave it a "duty" to help others.

Merkel was speaking with President Park Geun-hye, who is on a state visit to Germany. "Germany was divided for 40 years … Therefore it's our goal and also, a bit, our duty to help others when they would like to establish their national unity," she said.

Merkel said German and South Korean foreign ministries would hold talks on the issue.

Park said her country and Germany had a "bond" as they shared the "painful experience" of division.

Agence France-Presse

 

[steffychun]

North Korea slams South's president, likens her to 'blabbering peasant'

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 27 March, 2014, 10:47am
UPDATED : Thursday, 27 March, 2014, 11:32pm

Agence France-Presse in Seoul

South Korean President Park Geun-hye addresses a press conference in Berlin on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

North Korea issued a personal attack on South Korean President Park Geun-hye yesterday, accusing her of breaking a moratorium on cross-border insults and behaving like a "blabbering" peasant woman.

The attack referenced a speech Park made on Monday at a nuclear summit in The Hague in which she voiced concern that Pyongyang's nuclear material could end up in terrorist hands, and warned of a possible Chernobyl-style disaster at the North's main Yongbyon nuclear complex.

A spokesman for the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said Park's remarks "violently trampled" on an agreement reached at high-level talks last month for the two Koreas to stop "slandering" one another.

If Park genuinely wanted to see improvements in inter-Korean relations, "she first has to stop rambling recklessly and learn how to speak with discretion", the spokesman said in a statement carried by the North's official KCNA news agency.

"Even if someone else wrote the dumb speech for her to read from, she should at least know what and what not to say … in order not to embarrass herself.

"She should realise she is no longer a peasant woman blabbering to herself in the corner of her room but the occupant of the [presidential] Blue House," he said.

North Korea has made similarly vitriolic attacks on Park in the past. This was the first since last month's agreement. North Korea had pushed hard for the "no slander" clause, which observers said was always going to prove problematic.

North Korea insisted it should extend to the media and private groups and individuals. South Korea argued it could not restrict freedom of speech.

Seoul is also unlikely to accept that Park's comments at the nuclear summit amounted to slander.

The North on Wednesday test-fired two medium-range ballistic missiles, as US President Barack Obama hosted a Japan-South Korea summit aimed at uniting the three nations against Pyongyang's nuclear threat.

United Nations resolutions prohibit North Korea from conducting ballistic missile tests and the UN Security Council was set to hold closed-door consultations yesterday to discuss a possible condemnation of the latest missile launches.

Merkel's 'duty' to aid Korean unity

Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged Germany's support during a visit by South Korea's president for efforts to unify the Korean peninsular, saying its own reunification gave it a "duty" to help others.

Merkel was speaking with President Park Geun-hye, who is on a state visit to Germany. "Germany was divided for 40 years … Therefore it's our goal and also, a bit, our duty to help others when they would like to establish their national unity," she said.

Merkel said German and South Korean foreign ministries would hold talks on the issue.

Park said her country and Germany had a "bond" as they shared the "painful experience" of division.

Agence France-Presse

pot calling the kettle black. Fatty youngster despot leader.

 

[JohnnyRico]

N. Korea missile launch coincides with Nuclear Security Summit press conf.

Park, Abe and Obama show a united front over North Korea's nuclear prgram as missiles fired into the East Sea

March 26th, 2014
Hamish Macdonald

North Korea test-fired two mid-range missiles as leaders from the U.S, Japan and South Korea held a press conference following a trilateral meeting at the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) yesterday in The Hague, Netherlands.

North Korea test-fired the two Rodong-type missiles off its east coast at 2:35 a.m. and 2:42 a.m. local time on Wednesday morning, just as President Barack Obama, President Park Geun-hye and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued post-trilateral meeting statements at 2:38 a.m. KST.

“I assume the timing was purposeful, just as several times in the past when the North Koreans timed provocations to coincide with the U.S. Independence Day and other celebrations. They seem to take delight in raining on the parade,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, Director of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Programme IISS London.

The three leaders had met for the first time on the sidelines of the NSS to discuss their concerns regarding North Korea’s continued efforts to develop nuclear weapons and to reaffirm their strategic coordination on the matter.

Following the meeting Obama reiterated their collective position that “a nuclear North Korea is unacceptable” and, unaware of the missile launch at the time, claimed that existing trilateral efforts had already proved fruitful.

“Over the last five years, close coordination between our three countries has succeeded in changing the game with North Korea,” Obama said.

The trilateral meeting was meant to show a consolidated effort to counter North Korea’s nuclear proliferation. Despite public disagreements between Japan and South Korea over territorial disputes and recognition of crimes committed during Japanese colonization of the Korean Peninsula, Park and Abe did present a unified front.

“I am so very happy to be able to see President Park Geun-hye,” Abe said, also urging North Korea to take a positive stance on not just nuclear issues but on reunions for families in North and South Korea separated by national division.

Park took the opportunity to say that North Korea taking steps to eliminate its nuclear program would act as a catalyst in solving other issues.

“Should North Korea embark on the path to denuclearization on the basis of sincerity, then there will be a way forward to address the difficulties confronting the North Korean people,” Park said.

The missile used is the longest-range missile launched by North Korea since December 2012 and, unlike North Korea’s multiple short-range missile launches earlier this year, constitutes a direct breach of United Nations Security Council sanctions preventing the use of ballistic missiles.

Picture: Korea Net, Flickr Creative Commons

 

[JohnnyRico]

North seeks Comfort Women compensation in Japan talks

While Japan pushes for abductions issue resolution Pyongyang seeks compensation of its own

March 26th, 2014
Joseph Sugarman

North Korean officials have reiterated their demand for compensation for Japanese use of Korean “Comfort Women” during World War II.

In addition to North Korea’s continued pursuit of reparations for Korean women taken as sex slaves by the Imperial Japanese Army in WWII, this month’s talks will also address the DPRK’s nuclear program and Japanese citizens abducted by the DPRK in the 1970s and ’80s.

This will be the first such high-level meeting between the two countries since talks were stalled in late 2012 following a North Korean long-range missile test.

“Our goal is to properly settle outstanding issues of both sides,” said Ryu Song Il, a North Korean official in charge of Japanese affairs at the North Korean foreign ministry. “I believe it is important that relations between the two countries can be improved soon.”

This opinion was not completely endorsed by So Se Pyong, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.

“From Japan they just said that the abduction case is not solved yet, but we said that case is fully solved, there is not any problem for that,” he said.

“Instead, we are asking Japan to compensate (for) their crimes, such as the 8.4 million people abducted into Japan during the colonial time and not only that but also some of the Comfort Women case also should be solved.”

North Korea had previously admitted its abduction of 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, to be used to advance its spy program.

So also insisted that the DPRK would continue to “strengthen its nuclear deterrence as long as the U.S. antagonistic policy toward the DPRK remains unchanged.”

Over the past week, North Korea has conducted four separate short-range rocket and long-range missile tests, in an apparent response to the joint military exercises underway in the region between the United States and South Korea.

So defended the various launches into the Sea of Japan as a proportionate response to the military drills.

“During that military exercise they are doing, if we are doing nothing then who knows what will happen? So we are doing that kind of exercise, also that is normal and that is the usual exercise,” he said.

Japanese officials have commented that North Korea’s latest missile tests would not affect the upcoming talks.

Compensation for the annexation was addressed in the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea. This treaty normalized relations between South Korea and Japan in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars in loans and grants from Tokyo, but most of this was used for the South’s economic development and none went to the North.

Picture: UN Geneva, Flickr Creative Commons

 

[JohnnyRico]

China may no longer need North Korea as buffer zone – Japanese expert

Economic interdependency may be pushing S. Korea, China together at North's expense

March 27th, 2014
Kosuke Takahashi

A respected Japanese expert on Korean affairs on Wednesday said that China may support the South Korea-led unification of the Korean Peninsula because China no longer needs North Korea as a buffer zone vis-à-vis the U.S.

Hajime Izumi, a professor of international relations at the University of Shizuoka, said China and South Korea have been becoming increasingly close since last year. He said that this has put huge pressure on North Korea and driven Pyongyang to re-enter official talks with Japan.

Izumi said South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s approach to China was quite predictable, but that China’s aggressive engagement of South Korea had been greater than expected.

“I don’t think North Korea had assumed China would go that far, and this change in Chinese attitude is making North Korea very anxious now,” he said.

Izumi was speaking to dozens of overseas journalists at the Foreign Press Center in Tokyo on Wednesday in a speech entitled, “The Outlook for Japan-North Korea Relations.”

“As a countermeasure against closer China-South Korea ties, North Korea is trying to improve its relationship with Japan,” Izumi said of Pyongyang’s recent proactive dialogue toward Tokyo.

Japan and North Korea plan to resume their intergovernmental talks at the director-general level on March 30-31 — the two nations’ first high-level official talks since November 2012. Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Park met in The Hague, the Netherlands, on Sunday on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit. Xi called on South Korea to strengthen bilateral communication and coordination to safeguard their common interests, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

SOUTH KOREA-LED UNIFICATION

Izumi said China’s engagement of South Korea will likely continue for some time and that China might eventually accept South Korea-led reunification of the Korean Peninsula – in other words, the South’s absorption of the North – in the future.

“North Korea would become worried that both China and South Korea are trying to collapse it, and there is a possibility such concern will arise in Pyongyang,” Izumi said. “This will cause North Korea to willingly accept significant concessions with Japan to make relations with Tokyo much closer. This would be necessary for North Korea to survive.”

Behind a shift in China’s attitude toward South Korea is its increasing confidence that a unified Korean Peninsula led by South Korea would not be anti-China, especially considering the two nations’ deepening economic interdependence, Izumi said.

“Previously China had been negative about South Korea-led reunification of the Korean Peninsula, or the South’s absorption of the North, but now this is gradually changing mainly due to China’s stronger confidence,” Izumi said.

Furthermore, Izumi said China also will likely become more confident about the so-called “New Type of Major Power Relationship” with the U.S., without worrying about losing North Korea as its defense and strategic buffer zone vis-à-vis the U.S.

“Under this new type of major power relationship, it’s necessary to have some sort of demarcation and mutual trust between China and the U.S. for them to partner with each other,” Izumi said.

“With China becoming confident about this, there is a possibility China will support South Korea-led unification in the future,” Izumi said.

Asked about North Korea’s firing of two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday, Izumi denied widespread views that the launches were a demonstration of defiance in reaction to a summit meeting among the leaders of Japan, the U.S. and South Korea that took place around the same time in the Netherlands.

“North Korea is not such a good guy to send a special gift to us,” Izumi said. “If North Korea launched those missiles consciously thinking about the trilateral summit, they are really a very good guy because the threat of the North is most needed for the three nations to smoothly coordinate trilateral policies.”

Instead, the missile-firing, the latest in a series of test launches in recent months, should be regarded as a continuing warning or wake-up call, mainly for South Korea, which tends to take North Korea’s nuclear program less seriously.

Picture: Kosuke Takahashi

 

[JohnnyRico]

Algerian Leader Mocked as Kim Jong-un 'Wannabe'

chosun.com / Mar. 27, 2014 12:04 KST

Courtesy of Le Matin

The Algerian newspaper Le Matin has upset the country's long-time president Abdelaziz Bouteflika with a doctored image that shows him looking like North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The paper printed the image after the Bouteflika (77) said he would run for office for a fourth term, the BBC reported Tuesday.

The picture shows Bouteflika with Kim's distinctive close-cut hairstyle.

Bouteflika has been in power since 1999. In 2009, he was elected for a third five-year term after abolishing the constitutional term limit.

He recently announced his plan to run for a fourth term but suffered a stroke in April last year and has rarely appeared in public since then.

 

[JohnnyRico]

USFK Chief Warns of N.Korea's Nukes

chosun.com / Mar. 27, 2014 11:30 KST

The North Korean regime is pursuing a "coercive strategy" to ensure in its own survival, said Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea.

Scaparrotti was speaking at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

The new USFK chief expressed concern that North Korean leader Kim Jon-un is trying to pressure South Korea and the U.S. with threats that he claimed are highly calculated but dangerous.

The regime's drive to develop nuclear weapons and missiles and boost its military power near the demilitarized zone could lead to severe misjudgments, Scaparrotti added.

He said Kim is "clearly" in charge of his regime and the execution of his uncle Jang Song-taek is not a signal that the regime is unstable.

"From what I've seen, he also is an independent actor and will tend to go his own way, which believe has frustrated China as well," he added.

But increasing access to outside information could destabilize the regime, Scaparrotti said, and prompt Kim to escalate efforts to control that flow.
Read this article in Korean

 

[JohnnyRico]

Prepare for War in 2015, Kim Jong-un Tells Officers

chosun.com / Mar. 26, 2014 13:05 KST

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and military politburo chief Choe Ryong-hae (far left) watch a shooting competition at a military school in Pyongyang, in this March 12 file photo from the Rodong Sinmun.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has mentioned the possibility of a war breaking out on the Korean peninsula in 2015, it was revealed Tuesday. According to a source, Kim told military commanders earlier this year that an "armed confrontation could take place on the Korean peninsula in 2015" and ordered them to stock up on strategic supplies and remain combat ready.

The comments were made at about the same time that Kim spoke about improving relations with South Korea during his New Year's address.

At a loyalty rally in Pyongyang on Feb. 25, Kim also spoke about an "all-out war with the enemy in the name of revolution and final victory." Last year, Kim told key officials his aim of "reunification through force within three years."

The source said, "Since he came to power in late 2011, Kim Jong-un has often said that his aim is reunification 'through force' and that he would personally drive a tank and advance into Seoul."

Intelligence officials here were given the information and are monitoring possible provocations.

"Even amid its peace gestures, North Korea continues to harbor ambitions of reunification through force," a government official said. "We're doing everything to prepare against additional provocations including a missile launch and fourth nuclear test."

The year 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of North Korea's Workers Party and the division of the Korean peninsula.

◆ Committed to Revolution

Revising its founding principles last year, the Workers Party places the top priority on reunification based on the "juche" doctrine of self-reliance and "nationwide victory." Those words appear to refer to reunification through force.

The South Korean government is on the alert for intensifying provocations from North Korea in recent months. Over the last two months alone, the North fired 88 short- and mid-range missiles and on Tuesday shot two medium-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea.

The official KCNA news agency in August 2012 reported that Kim issued an order to troops to carry out an offensive to achieve “the great task of reunification."

"Marking his third year in power, Kim Jong-un is seeking to rally the military behind him in order to deal with inter-Korean and international relations," said Nam Sung-wook at Korea University. "We may even see further provocations."

North Korea is annoyed by increased discussion in South Korea about reunification. The North Korean propaganda website Uriminzokkiri on March 2 accused the South of harboring ambitions to "absorb" North Korea.

◆ Tactics

The North Korean military is under orders to familiarize itself with South Korean terrain. The Chosun Ilbo obtained a copy of a handbook that advises soldiers to get to know the landscape of the South. It details mountains, rivers, lakes, roads, railways and coastlines in South Korea and how they can affect combat conditions.

The handbook also explains how to change South Korean coordinates into figures and measurements used by North Korea as well as instructions on how to use GPS receivers.

A source said, "A mountain in South Pyongan Province contains a compound modeled on Cheong Wa Dae and surrounding terrain, where special forces troops train during summer and winter months."

 

[JohnnyRico]

Mandatory Korean Kim haircuts a net rumour

AP
Eric Talmadge AP March 28, 2014, 6:10 am
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's distinctive hairstyle is the 'do of the day on the internet, thanks to a viral report that every male university student in the capital is now under orders to get a buzz just like it.

But it appears the barbers of Pyongyang aren't exactly sharpening their scissors.

Recent visitors to the country say they've seen no evidence of any mass haircutting.

North Korea watchers smell another imaginative, but uncorroborated rumour.

The thinly sourced reports say an order went out a few weeks ago for university students to buzz cut the sides of their heads just like Kim.

Washington, DC-based Radio Free Asia cited unnamed sources as saying an unwritten directive from somewhere within the ruling Workers' Party went out early this month, causing consternation among students who didn't think the new hairdo would suit them.

"I was there just a few days ago, and no sign of that," said Simon Cockerell of Koryo Tours, which specialises in bringing foreign tourists to North Korea.

"It's definitely not true."

Wide interest in the reports reflect the fascination the outside world has had with the unique hairstyles of both Kim Jong Un and his father, the late Kim Jong Il, who had a one-of-a-kind bouffant.

Though the forced grooming story may be one of many reported oddities about North Korea life that turn out to be false, it is true that the government has its own "fashion police."

Choe Cheong-ha, a defector who left North Korea in 2004, said members of a government-run youth organisation routinely check for people who are not dressed appropriately.

He said they look for whether people are wearing the mandatory lapel pins with the images of former leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, or for violations such as blue jeans, clothes with English words or above-the-knee dresses.

But Choe said directives on hairstyles weren't much of an issue, since most people voluntarily keep their hair neat and conservatively styled.

In 2005, however, the government waged war against men with long hair, calling them unhygienic anti-socialist fools and directing them to wear their hair "socialist style" and derided shabbily coifed men as "blind followers of bourgeois lifestyle."

The country's state-run Central TV even identified violators by name and address, exposing them to jeers from other citizens.

The hair campaign, dubbed "Let's trim our hair according to socialist lifestyle," required that hair be kept no longer than five centimetres.

Older men received a small exemption to allow comb-overs.

The campaign claimed long hair hampers brain activity by taking oxygen away from nerves in the head, but didn't explain why women were allowed to grow long hair.

With women's hair, too, there have been misperceptions.

Photos of suggested hairstyles posted outside women's hair salons, which allow customers to show her hairdresser what she wants, are regularly depicted by foreign media as showing the only sanctioned styles North Korean women can choose from.

Not true. But don't tell that to the internet.

 

[JohnnyRico]

S. Korea fires warning shots, seizes N. Korea fishing boat

AFP
March 28, 2014, 2:21 am

Seoul (AFP) - A South Korean naval ship fired warning shots Thursday and seized a North Korean fishing boat intruding across the disputed Yellow Sea border, military officials said.

The vessel sailed a nautical mile south of the sea boundary at 5:26 pm (0826 GMT), prompting a South Korean patrol ship to take action, the South's defence ministry said.

"Our side fired warning shots as the North Korean vessel ignored repeated warnings to retreat," a ministry spokesman told AFP.

The vessel with three people aboard was captured about two hours later as it failed to sail back into northern waters probably due to foggy weather and strong currents, he said.

The vessel's crew will be investigated to see whether the incursion was accidental, he said.

The spokesman said a tough response from South Korea was inevitable given the high tensions along the disputed sea boundary.

The South Korean naval ship radioed a message to a North Korea military vessel staying near the sea boundary that the seizure was aimed at ensuring the safety of the crew, he said.

The maritime border, which Pyongyang does not officially recognise, was the scene of brief but bloody naval clashes in 1999, 2002 and 2009.

North Korean incursions over the maritime border are not unusual.

A North Korean patrol boat violated the sea boundary on February 25 at the start of South Korea-US military drills, and retreated after warnings from the South Korean navy.

Thursday's incursion came after nearly 15,000 South Korean and US troops kicked off a 12-day amphibious landing drill, the largest for two decades.

The joint military exercise is taking place off the country's southeast coast. It will last until April 7 and involve around 10,000 US troops.

North Korea views such exercises as provocative rehearsals for invasion and there is a risk they could further fuel already simmering military tensions.

Pyongyang has carried out a series of rocket and short-range missile launches in recent weeks, sparking condemnation from Seoul and Washington.

On Wednesday, it upped the ante by test-firing two mid-range ballistic missiles capable of striking Japan.

United Nations resolutions prohibit North Korea from conducting ballistic missile tests and the UN Security Council was set to hold closed-door consultations Thursday to discuss a possible condemnation of the latest missile launches.

 

[JohnnyRico]

S. Korea detects suspected N. Korea hacking attempt

AFP
March 28, 2014, 2:17 am

Seoul (AFP) - South Korea detected a suspected North Korean hacking attempt Thursday to steal military data by using a journalist's notebook computer, defence ministry officials said.

The military cyber warfare command found that a notebook infected with a malicious code was used in a bid to attack the defence ministry's computer network, a ministry spokesman said.

The notebook belonged to a reporter covering defence, he said, adding notebooks used by reporters are connected to the ministry's Internet network.

There was no loss of data because the cyber command detected the hacking attempt in advance, the spokesman said.

After retracing the IP of the malicious code, the command concluded that hackers had used a server in Austria, he said.

"We believe the code has been produced by North Korea, or North Korean hackers are behind today's cyber attack," the spokesman told AFP.

The tracked server was used on March 20 last year when hackers attacked South Korean financial institutions and broadcasters, he said. At that time South Korea blamed the North's military for the attack.

In recent years, hackers have used malware deployments and virus-carrying emails for cyber attacks on South Korean military institutions, commercial banks, government agencies, TV broadcasters and media websites.

Investigations into past large-scale cyber assaults have concluded that they originated in North Korea.

The North is believed to run an elite cyber war unit of 3,000 personnel, but it has denied any involvement and accuses Seoul of fabricating the incidents to fan cross-border tensions.

 

[JohnnyRico]

N Korea warns of ‘war’ over South’s anti-Pyongyang leaflets

North claims relations with South 'catastrophic' and will bolster its 'war deterrent' in response to scattering of leaflets Seoul denies

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 29 March, 2014, 2:03pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 29 March, 2014, 2:03pm

Agence France-Presse in Seoul

South Korean activists burn disfigured portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during a rally in Seoul. Photo: EPA

North Korea said on Saturday its relations with South Korea had been driven into a “catastrophic” phase again, warning the South’s scattering of anti-Pyongyang leaflets could spark a war.

The statement came hours after Pyongyang’s foreign ministry said the North would bolster its “war deterrent”, accusing the United States of deliberately escalating tension through ongoing joint military drills with the South.

Earlier, North Korea’s military condemned the South Korean navy’s seizure of a North Korean fishing boat near the disputed sea boundary as a “grave provocation” and threatened to retaliate.

South Korea handed back the boat which was captured with three sailors aboard near the disputed Yellow Sea border late on Thursday.

“The North-South relations have been driven into a catastrophic phase again due to the South Korean authorities’ frantic scattering of anti-DPRK [North Korea] leaflets”, said a spokesman for the North’s delegation to the high-level contact with the South.

“The leaflet scattering operation and smear campaign ... going beyond the tolerance limit are undisguised acts of declaring a war”, he said.

The North’s Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Korea said on Wednesday the South’s military scattered leaflets denouncing its regime and leader Kim Jong-un by using gas-filled balloons floated from frontline islands near the disputed sea border in the Yellow Sea.

The South Korean defence ministry denied the allegation. An unidentified military official told Yonhap news agency the leaflets were launched by a local Christian group.

“Does she really want to see such leaflets becoming a source of war for reducing the base of provocations to ashes? She should bear in mind that now is the time to make a choice herself”, the North’s spokesman said, referring to South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

Pyongyang was also angered by a speech Park made on Monday at a nuclear summit in The Hague in which she voiced concern that Pyongyang’s nuclear material could end up in terrorist hands.

On Thursday, nearly 15,000 South Korean and US troops kicked off a 12-day amphibious landing drill, the largest for two decades, a day after North Korea launched two mid-range ballistic missiles.

Code-named Ssang Yong (“Twin Dragons”), the exercise on the South’s southeastern coast will last until April 7 and involve around 10,000 US troops.

North Korea SA-3 ground-to-air missiles on display during a military parade in Pyongyang. Photo: AFP

North Korea views such exercises as provocative rehearsals for invasion and there is a risk they could further fuel already simmering military tensions.

Pyongyang has carried out a series of rocket and short-range missile launches in recent weeks, sparking condemnation from Seoul and Washington.

On Wednesday, it upped the ante by test-firing two mid-range ballistic missiles capable of striking Japan.

United Nations resolutions prohibit North Korea from conducting ballistic missile tests. The UN Security Council on Thursday condemned the missile tests.

There are 28,500 US troops permanently stationed in South Korea and the two countries stage annual military drills that are routinely condemned by Pyongyang.

Earlier this month, the North’s powerful National Defence Commission threatened to “demonstrate” its nuclear deterrent in the face of what it called US hostility.

Seoul’s defence ministry warned on Wednesday that North Korea could be building up towards a major provocation, but added there were “no signs” of Pyongyang preparing an imminent nuclear test.

Rare talks between the two Koreas last month ended in a rarer note of agreement, with the high-level contact resulting in the realisation of a one-off reunion of families separated by the 1948 division of Korea.

 

[JohnnyRico]

SKorea fires shells at NKorean waters after drills

By HYUNG-JIN KIM and JUNG-YOON CHOI 31 March 2014

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea on Monday returned fire into North Korean waters after shells from a North Korean live-fire drill fell south of the rivals' disputed western sea boundary, a South Korean military official said. Residents on a front-line South Korean island said they were evacuated to shelters during the exchange.

No shells from either side were fired at any land or military installations, an official with South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said. He provided no other details and spoke on condition of anonymity because of office rules.

Kang Myeong-sung, speaking from a shelter on Yeonpyeong island, which is in sight of North Korean territory, said that anxious islanders were huddled together in shelters. Kang said he didn't see any fighter jets, but he could hear the boom of artillery fire. In 2010, North Korean artillery killed four South Koreans on Yeonpyeong.

The exchange of fire followed Pyongyang's earlier, unusual announcement that it would conduct the live-fire drills, a move seen as an expression of Pyongyang's frustration at making little progress in its recent push to win outside aid.

The North in recent weeks has increased threatening rhetoric and conducted a series of rocket and ballistic missile launches that are considered acts of protest against annual ongoing springtime military exercises by Seoul and Washington. The North calls the South Korea-U.S. drills a rehearsal for invasion; the allies say they're routine and defensive.

Pyongyang threatened Sunday to conduct a fourth nuclear test at some point, though Seoul says there are no signs of an imminent detonation.

After the North's earlier announcement Monday that it would conduct firing drills in seven areas north of the sea boundary, South Korea responded that it would strongly react if provoked.

Pyongyang routinely test-fires artillery and missiles into the ocean, but it's rare for the country to disclose such training plans in advance. Wee Yong-sub, a deputy spokesman at the South Korean Defense Ministry, said the North Korean message was a "hostile" attempt to heighten tension on the Korean Peninsula.

The poorly marked western sea boundary has been the scene of several bloody naval skirmishes between the Koreas in recent years. In 2010, North Korea launched artillery strikes on a front-line South Korean island near the boundary, killing four. Pyongyang said it was responding to earlier South Korea's artillery drills that day.

Last spring, tension spiked after a near-daily barrage of North Korean threats, including warnings of nuclear strikes against Seoul and Washington, following international criticism of Pyongyang's third nuclear test in February of last year. The North has since gradually dialed down its threats and sought improved ties with South Korea in what foreign analysts say is an attempt to lure international investment and aid. There has been no major breakthrough in the North's reported push to win outside aid, however, with Washington and Seoul calling on the North to first take disarmament steps to prove its sincerity about improving ties, analysts say.

The North Korean live-fire drills and the country's hints at a nuclear test are meant to express anger and frustration over what the North sees as little improvement in progress in its ties with South Korea and the U.S., said Lim Eul Chul, a North Korea expert at South Korea's Kyungnam University. Lim said the North might conduct a fourth nuclear test and launch other provocations to try to wrest the outside concessions it wants.

The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 American troops are deployed in South Korea to deter potential aggression from North Korea.

 

[JohnnyRico]

Magnitude 5 earthquake occurs 132KM from North Korea

Location of quake suggests DPRK nuclear testing not cause

March 31st, 2014
Chad O'Carroll

A magnitude five earthquake occurred 132km from the Korean peninsula early on Tuesday morning, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) has said.

The quake, which was said to have occurred at approximately 03:48 local time, took place at a depth of nearly 16km in the sea west of the Korean peninsula – just days after North Korea threatened to carry out a “new form” of nuclear test.

While North Korean nuclear tests have previously been detected by the USGS quake monitoring center, the location and depth of Tuesdays earthquake did not immediately suggest North Korean nuclear testing was the cause.

Although its December 2012 test M5.1 shockwave was similar in size to Tuesday’s M5.0 event, it was detected by geological surveys in China and the U.S. as having occurred in a North Korean mountain range well known for weapons testing, and at a depth of only 1km.

On Sunday North Korea threatened to carry out a “new form” of nuclear test, but did not clarify what it meant. Since then some observers have suggested that, angry with recent United Nations Security Council discussions about missile testing last week, Pyongyang may test a fourth nuclear device in the coming months.

Picture: USGS

On Monday the two Koreas fired hundreds of rounds of artillery into waters along the disputed Northern Limit Line.

North Korea warned its southern neighbor at short-notice that it would commence the live fire drills, which some analysts said was Pyongyang’s way of protesting ongoing joint U.S. – South Korea military drills.

Previously, North Korea has also warned its neighbors of impeding nuclear tests, usually also at short-notice.

Picture: USGS

 

[JohnnyRico]

Pyongyang sports new Chinese-brand taxis

Taxis in Pyongyang cater to well-residents, making sudden increase in numbers unusual

March 31st, 2014
Kang Tae-jun

The Singapore-based Choson Exchange has posted three photos of new taxis in Pyongyang, identifying the latest vehicles to be added to North Korea’s growing taxi fleet as being from a Chinese brand.

Choson Exchange said the latest cars to be added to the fleet mean the number of taxis in the city has now swelled to more than 1,000 vehicles – a dramatic increase in less than a year.

“There is an expanding class of people that can afford such things,” Andray Abrahamian, Executive Director at Choson Exchange told NK News.

“I think clearly there is still room in the (taxi) market for growth,” he added.

NK News reported in November that the size of Pyongyang’s ‘Beijing’ taxi fleet had risen to as many as 800 vehicles, indicating a 900% increase since August 2013.

Ahn Chan-il, a defector who now serves as chief of the World Institute for North Korea Studies, said on South Korea’s Channel A that the number of taxis is large for a population of 2.5 million.

He said that the taxi fare is 700-800 won per 4 kilometers, so the taxis are primarily used by a limited group of people such as celebrities and newlyweds. Because a median salary range is 3,000-4,000 won, the average Pyongyang resident can’t afford the fares, Ahn said.

Ahn also said that because taxi driving in DPRK is well-compensated and requires advanced knowledge of car assembly, former soldiers and Pyongyang construction officers offer bribes and pull strings to become licensed taxi drivers.

Jee-Yeon Shin contributed to this report from Seoul

Picture: Choson Exchange