North Korea

[KimJongilia]

N. Korean purge rumors don’t mean instability: Report

Kim Jong Un trying to downsize military leadership positions to overcome inefficiency, expert says

October 1st, 2015
Ha-young Choi

A report published last week on the dynamics in the North Korean power elite under Kim Jong Un asserted that there is a “low possibility of instability” in the North Korean leadership.

In it the report’s author Cheong Seong-chang, chief of the Unification Strategy Team at the Sejong Institute, asserts that the dismissal of officials doesn’t necessarily mean they have been “purged,” saying that it appears only two officials – Ri Young Ho and Hyon Young Chol – have been purged. Among the two, Hyon is the only one reportedly executed, the report reads.

Cheong also criticized the prevailing analysis about Kim Jong Un’s “immature” leadership skills in comparison to Kim Jong Il, his father and North Korea’s previous leader. He writes that it is inappropriate to judge the stability of the leadership simply by Kim Jong Un’s young age.

“Kim Jong Il excessively promoted officials to the position of general, promoting 524 to major general and 96 to lieutenant general in April 1992 to attain their loyalty, which resulted in the privileged, inefficient character of the Korean People’s Army,” Cheong writes in the report.

He explained that Kim Jong Un is currently downsizing the higher echelon of the North Korean army, which had become too old and bloated during the Kim Jong Il era, by strengthening training and demoting officials.

Cheong also traced the change of three pivotal positions, including the General Political Bureau (GPB), chief of the General Staff and the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces (MPAF).

Specifically, Cheong writes that the position of head of the MPAF has changed frequently, as it requires proven leadership due to the frequent input of the military into construction projects.

“Over three years and nine months, the head of the MPAF changed five times due to various reasons like a generational transition, insufficient leadership, a promotion and a purge (in Hyon’s case),” the report reads. Currently Park Young Sik is serving in the position.

As Park is from the GPB, the influence of political officials over the military will grow, as will the control of Kim Jong Un and the Workers’ Party of Korea, the report reads.

Cheong writes that former officials like Kim Young Chun and Kim Jong Gak, formerly of the MPAF, and Ri Myong Soo, the former Minister of People’s Security, took other positions after dismissal and were well-treated as senior staff.

“It is not true that Kim Jong Un is mainly depending on purges to dominate the military,” Cheong writes.

As a policy proposal, Cheong suggested that South Korea should prepare its response to North Korean military power, which is reforming to become an army that can actually fight.

Featured Image: Korea Central News Agency

 

[KimJongilia]

Photos emerge of partial China–North Korea bridge collapse

Cargo truck appears to have overturned, possibly due to road surface collapse

September 30th, 2015
Chad O'Carroll

Photos on an internet discussion portal have revealed details of an accident which led to a temporary suspension on Monday of traffic between the Chinese and North Korean border cities of Dandong and Sinuiju.

The photos, posted over the past two days on the Baidu web portal, show an overturned truck with its cargo container tipped onto the single train track crossing the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge.

A photo taken after the overturned truck and cargo was removed shows damage to the single lane adjacent to the track, with a small area of the road surface appearing to have completely collapsed into the river below.

But the photos, showing only one overturned vehicle, cast doubt on earlier South Korean media reports by YTN that suggested as many as three or four trucks had overturned.

Picture credit: 紫色小孩

While South Korean media reported on Tuesday that the bridge had quickly reopened following repairs, commentary between Baidu users suggested alterations in loading have resulted from the accident.

One apparently official notice posted on Baidu reveals new weight restrictions resulting from the accident, requesting heavy cargoes to cross the river by boat or train.

And another notice pictured from the Dandong Border Authorities indicates that the road will be closed from Oct 1 to 4 to all traffic except party, government, military and tourist vehicles.

The 1943 Sino-Korean bridge is one of North Korea’s main trade arteries to China, handling well over half the entire volume of trade between the two countries.

Because it is narrow, it is only suitable for one-way traffic, meaning the direction usually changes every two hours.

“So first North Korean trucks drive into China, and then it comes time for Chinese trucks drive south to North Korea,” wrote North Korea watcher Dr. Andrei Lankov in a recent column about Dandong.

“Due to the technical conditions of the old bridge, the maximum size of trucks is limited to 20 tons, and their speed must not exceed 5 km an hour. It means that only about 300-500 trucks combined cross the border per day in both direction.

“It seems that trains are real mover of cargo between the two sides. Given the sorry state of North Korea’s motor roads, this is not surprising,” Lankov added.

A modern, $350M bridge connecting Dandong to an area near Sinuiju in North Korea was completed last year but remains to be opened.

Satellite imagery indicates that the North Korean side is yet to connect any infrastructure to it.

No official reason has been given for the delay in opening the new bridge, but some analysts have suggested a cooling of relations between Beijing and Pyongyang could be the cause.

Main picture: changhai5211

 

[KimJongilia]

North Korea suspected of hacking Seoul subway operator

PUBLISHED : Monday, 05 October, 2015, 7:44pm
UPDATED : Monday, 05 October, 2015, 7:44pm

Agence France-Presse in Seoul

South Korea has blamed North Korean hackers for a series of cyber attacks in recent years. Photo: Tribune News Service

North Korea is suspected of having launched a cyber attack last year on the South Korean capital’s subway system that carries millions of commuters every day, a Seoul lawmaker said, citing intelligence reports.

The attack, staged between March and August 2014, affected several servers of Seoul Metro, which runs four major subway lines, ruling party legislator Ha Tae-Kyung said.

Nearly 60 employee computers were infected by malware, Ha said.

After analysing the hacking records, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) found that the malware codes were similar to those North Korean hackers have employed before, he added.

A Seoul Metro spokesman confirmed the hack, but stressed that computers used for the direct operation of subway lines were not compromised.

“There were data and information leaks, but none related to direct operations,” the spokesman said.

“We still don’t know who was behind the attack,” he added.

Seoul’s subway network is one of the busiest in the world, carrying around 5.25 million passengers a day.

South Korea has blamed North Korean hackers for a series of cyber attacks on military institutions, banks, government agencies, TV broadcasters and media websites in recent years.

Last December Seoul accused Pyongyang of launching a cyber attack on South Korea’s nuclear power plant operator. Pyongyang denied any involvement and accused Seoul of fabricating the incident.

South Korea has strengthened Internet security since it set up a special cyber command in 2010, amid growing concern over its vulnerability.

The South’s defence ministry believes North Korea runs an elite cyber warfare unit with up to 6,000 personnel, and regards its ability to launch hacking attacks as a major security threat.

 

[KimJongilia]

North Korea releases detained South Korean student 6 months after he was arrested for crossing Chinese border

PUBLISHED : Monday, 05 October, 2015, 7:22pm
UPDATED : Monday, 05 October, 2015, 7:22pm

Associated Press in Seoul

South Korean Joo Won-moon, who has a permanent resident status in the United States, is escorted by a South Korean official at the border village of Panmunjom. Photo: The South Korean Unification Ministry via AP

North Korea has freed a South Korean national who is a student at New York University, in a possible sign it wants better ties with rival Seoul and may back away from a recent threat to launch a long-range rocket later this month.

North Korean state media said it “deported” Joo Won-moon, 21, at the border village of Panmunjom as a “humanitarian” measure about six months after he had been arrested for crossing the Yalu River into the North from the Chinese border city of Dandong on April 22. It didn’t elaborate.

South Korean officials confirmed Joo’s repatriation. The National Intelligence Service, South Korea’s main spy agency, said it will investigate whether Joo violated the country’s anti-North Korean security law, which prohibits unapproved travel to the North.

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Joo has permanent residency status in the United States. The exact motivation for his travel to North Korea wasn’t clear.

Joo’s release came after he was presented to the media in Pyongyang on September 25 and read out what appeared to be an officially approved statement, admitting his guilt and singing the country’s praises. Photo: Kyodo

North Korea often uses detainees in attempts to win political concessions and aid from rivals Seoul and Washington, and a South Korean analyst said it may have calculated that since Joo’s alleged crime was relatively minor, his release might boost the impoverished, authoritarian country’s international image and lead to more investment and tourism.

Ten days ago, Joo was presented to the media in Pyongyang and said he had not been able to contact his family but wanted them to know he was healthy. For most of the 30-minute appearance, he read a prepared — and probably coached — speech praising the country, its government and people. Other foreigners who have been detained in North Korea have said after their release that they were coached closely on what to say in such statements.

Joo is one of four South Koreans known to be held in North Korea. The other three are accused of more serious espionage acts or attempts to establish underground Christian churches in the country.

The release comes amid speculation that North Korea may not go ahead with an earlier threat to launch what it calls a satellite aboard a long-range rocket to mark this week’s 70th birthday of its ruling party.

A North Korean soldier stands guard on the banks of Yalu River, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong. Photo: Reuters

A launch would deepen an international standoff. The U.S., South Korea and their allies say North Korea’s launches are disguised tests of long-range missile technology that are banned by the United Nations. Recent commercial satellite imagery, however, showed no signs of preparations at the North’s main launch site. South Korean defense officials also have seen no indication of an imminent launch.

The launch plans earlier cast doubt over a possible easing in animosity between the Koreas. In late August they agreed to resume the reunions of families separated by the Korean War after ending a military standoff caused by a mine blast on the border that the South blamed on the North. The blast seriously injured two South Korean soldiers.

By freeing a South Korean detainee, North Korea showed it still wants better ties with South Korea and won’t likely push ahead with its rocket launch plans, said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul’s Dongguk University. He said the planned reunions will likely happen later this month as earlier agreed.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry described the North’s decision to release Joo as “fortunate” and urged it to free the three others.

 

[KimJongilia]

The Chinese village living in fear of North Korean intruders

Nanping has seen a wave of murders as desperate soldiers cross border to carry out robberies

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 29 September, 2015, 4:13am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 29 September, 2015, 4:13am

Agence France-Presse in Nanping

A three-metre-high barbed wire fence and the winding Tumen River are all that separate Nanping in China from North Korea, and after a spate of murders - allegedly by frontier-crossing intruders - frightened villagers are increasingly keen to leave, fearing neither the water nor the barrier are enough to protect them.

Over the past year at least 10 people have been killed by North Koreans - mostly soldiers - attempting robberies in the area, according to Chinese officials and state-controlled media reports.

Food security is a perennial issue in North Korea, raising the spectre of individuals driven by desperation to attack their wealthier neighbours in China.

Officially Nanping's population is more than 6,000, but in reality it is becoming a ghost town.

Most houses and buildings have been abandoned for years, many with broken windows and overgrown gardens.

Its people are ethnic Koreans and the younger generation's multilingual abilities give them far better employment opportunities with South Korean firms elsewhere.

All have left, leaving only the elderly and a small Chinese military contingent, along with local Communist Party secretary Wu Shigen, who is in his 30s and said he was by far the youngest person in the village.

He has a two-pronged plan for keeping the peace: a voluntary curfew and an information blackout.

"I tell all the residents not to go out at night, and to pay attention to their safety," Wu said - although most of those killed were murdered in their homes.

"There are no witnesses for any of these attacks and we don't tell the residents much," he added. "The less people know, the less they will be afraid."

Security cameras watch the two streets running parallel to the border and China earlier this year announced civilian-military patrols for the area.

Just a barbed wire fence and a river separate the North Korean town of Musan, across the border from Nanping, where residents feel increasingly vulnerable. Photo: AFP

However, residents said the militia was never set up, with a shop owner adding some elderly villagers had joined the exodus in recent months, scared away by the violence.

In April, a trio of North Korean soldiers searching for food and money killed three people near Nanping, according to local authorities and Chinese media.

That came after a North Korean soldier was fatally shot in December having murdered two elderly village couples while stealing 100 yuan (HK$120) and some food, they said.

In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said after the quadruple killing that it had "lodged representations" with Pyongyang and both sides took the case "very seriously", adding the North had "expressed its regret that such [an] incident happened".

It was a rare open censure of a long-standing ally.

Three months earlier a North Korean civilian was captured after killing a family of three during a robbery, The Beijing News reported, also confirmed by officials in the area.

Beijing's willingness to publicise the deaths may reflect frustration with North Korean authorities, analysts say, pointing out there may have been earlier murders that were not disclosed at the time.

The two Communist countries have long been partners, their ties forged in fire when Beijing sent more than a million troops to fight for Pyongyang in the Korean War.

It remains the North's main diplomatic protector and aid provider.

At the same time it fears instability, and nuclear-armed North Korea has long oscillated between conciliatory offers and blood-curdling threats against its enemies, while leader Kim Jong-un has yet to visit Beijing.

Although North Korea's military enjoy a privileged position and first call on its limited resources, those posted along the sleepy frontier towns may still be struggling to survive.

Any border guard illegally crossing into China must be in dire straits, said Scott Snyder, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, as they faced execution if returned to North Korea.

"Within North Korea's distribution system, the farther away you are from Pyongyang or other large concentrations of people, it's the end of the line," Snyder added.

"These soldiers may not be getting what they need due to corruption, inefficiency, system failures, and probably a combination of all those."

In Nanping, surviving captives are handed to the military, party secretary Wu said, adding: "I don't know what happens to those North Korean soldiers. The military deals with them."

Local Chinese army officers declined to discuss their fate.

According to Seoul-based website DailyNK, the head of Pyongyang's General Bureau of Security, which guards the North Korean side of the border, was dismissed along with three regional commanders over last year's killings.

Relations on the ground used to be much closer.

Beijing's policy is to repatriate any fleeing North Koreans, who have to pass through China to reach third countries and travel on to the South.

But tens of thousands escaped to China during famines in the 1990s and 2000s, and were once greeted warmly, and with gifts of food, by their ethnic kinfolk.

"That was before," said a grocer surnamed Cai. "Now maybe it's better for them to stay on their side of the border."

 

[KimJongilia]

Ma Won Chun reappears after 11-month absence, purge rumor

North Korean senior architect likely sent away for punishment, rehabilitation before return

October 8th, 2015 John G. Grisafi0

North Korean official Ma Won Chun made his first public appearance in more than 11 months, a report by the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency revealed Thursday.

Ma accompanied North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un on a visit to the newly (re)built village of Paekhak-dong, Sonbong District, Rason City, according to the KCNA. His last public appearance was on November 1, 2014, when he accompanied Kim Jong Un on field guidance to the construction site of Terminal No. 2 at the Pyongyang International Airport.

Ma stopped appearing in state media after the airport inspection, when Kim Jong Un publicly expressed dissatisfaction with the construction of the terminal. Ma, who had a professional background in construction and architecture, had served as director of the Designing Department of the National Defense Commission, placing him in a position of responsibility for most of the country’s major construction projects. Because of his position and the fact that his last appearance coincided with this event, it was widely believed that Ma had been purged.

It was unclear, however, if Ma’s disappearance was permanent, let alone if he had been executed. NK Reform Radio reported in May that Ma had been sent to work on a collective farm in Ryanggang Province as a form of rehabilitation and punishment.

This, along with reports that Jang Jong Nam similarly had not been executed, was taken as a possible sign that Kim Jong Un may not have been executing all purged officials as suspected. Instead, as NK News reported in June, Kim may have been more closely following the practice of his father and grandfather, who often sent purged officials into rural exile, sometimes temporarily and resulting in their return to prominence months or even years later.

With Ma’s recent appearance being at an inspection of a newly constructed village, it appears that he is once again serving in some role related to the construction industry, perhaps having reassumed his previous position. North Korea’s state media never reported any other official occupying the post of director of the Designing Department of the NDC after Ma’s disappearance in November.

Although Ma has resumed making public appearances alongside Kim, he was listed last among the officials with Kim by state media and appeared far behind Kim in photographs of the event. Previously, prior to his 11-month absence, Ma appeared close to Kim. It is likely that Ma will need to regain Kim’s trust after the perceived failure regarding the construction of the airport terminal in Pyongyang.

 

[KimJongilia]

Korean student-detainee faces Security Law investigation

Lawyers said intentions, cultural background should be considered; Joo unlikely to face punishment despite violating law

October 7th, 2015 Ha-young Choi0

The New York University student repatriated from North Korea earlier this week is currently under investigation for violating South Korea’s National Security Act, South Korean media have reported.

Because Joo, 21, entered into North Korea without permission and made pro-North remarks during an interview in North Korea, he appears to have violated the law, which South Korea has had on the books since the late 1940s.

“I would like to say that I’m well and there’s no need to worry because the people here have treated me with the best of humanitarian treatment,” Joo told CNN in May.

Lawyers said an investigation by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) is likely ongoing, though Yonhap said late Wednesday that he had now been released from interrogation.

The law regulates activities benefitting the Republic of (South) Korea’s enemies, namely North Korea. Lawyers specializing in the application of the NSL said Joo’s age and other factors made his case unusual and should be taken under consideration.

“The charge of escaping (to the North) is likely to be established. Regarding the charge of praising and encouraging (Pyongyang), however, the purpose of his activities should be considered,” Park Joo-min of Lawyers for Democratic Society told NK News. Joo did say after his arrest that his purpose was to help inter-Korean relations.

“I thought that by my entrance to the DPRK, illegally I acknowledge, I thought that some great event could happen and hopefully that event could have a good effect on the relations between the North and (South Korea),” Joo said in remarks quoted by CNN in May.

Park did say that Joo should answer to the South Korean legal system because that is his nation of citizenship.

Attorney Jang Kyung-wook, who has experienced numerous cases involving the NIS, including Yoo Woo-seong‘s, said Joo’s cultural background also should be considered.

“He has been residing in the U.S. for a long time, therefore he might not be aware of the existence of NSL and the anti-communist atmosphere of South Korea,” Jang told NK News. Joo immigrated to the U.S. in 2001 with his family when he was 7.

Jang also compared this case with other NSL cases.

“When Noh Soo-hui was repatriated, NIS agents arrested him right after he walked across Panmunjom (at the DMZ). As (Joo) has a green card from the U.S., it seems like the NIS is taking precautions due to international attention,” Jang told NK News.

Noh Soo-hui, the executive of Beomminjok (the Reunification of the Union), visited North Korea in 2012 and praised North Korean leaders. He was sentenced four years in prison in 2013.

Jang said the NIS may strike a deal with Joo, perhaps one in which he promises not to talk to foreign media after returning to the U.S.

Another human rights lawyer, Lee Gwang-cheol, said Joo’s activities could be sent to the prosecutor, as he is South Korean citizen. Lee questioned North Korea’s intentions in sending Joo to the South, as opposed to the nation he has lived in for the past 14 years.

“Joo intentionally entered into North Korea. In cases like Lim Soo-kyung, Pastor Moon Ik-hwan and Noh Soo-hui, who visited North Korea and made pro-North remarks, they were punished under the (National Security Act). I can’t understand why North Korea repatriated him to South Korea, even though they acknowledge he will be detained under the National Security Act in the South, and his main residence is in the U.S.”

Featured Image: Korea Central News Agency

 

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[KimJongilia]

Smartphones, intranet transforming business in NK

Choi Song Min; Seol Song Ah | 2015-10-08 15:32

Recently, North Korean citizens have been able to use smartphones to download not only movies and music, but also the state-run publication, Rodong Sinmun. Although North Korean phones cannot access the Internet, activity on the domestic intranet, known as Kwangmyong, has been flourishing with the increased availability of propaganda films and news.

“Even if you have a good computer or smartphone here in North Korea, access to the outside internet is blocked and it is impossible to connect to it. But we do have our pathetic intranet system through which we can share biased information provided by the authorities,” a source in South Pyongan Province reported to Daily NK over the phone on October 5.

Signing up for domestic intranet is required for Party cadres and other elites with their own personal computers at home or in the office, she explained. While most citizens who have smartphones avoid downloading files through because it is so expensive, a portion of the population does use them to acquire movies and music.

The cost of a smartphone in North Korea currently averages 500 USD or more, putting it out of reach for most ordinary citizens, who instead continue to use older cell phone models. Despite this extraordinary expense, the number of people who own smartphones is slowly rising, which means the number of people hopping on the intranet is on the rise as well. To keep up, the smartphones themselves are improving in quality and function, according to the source.

People who can afford the luxury of a smartphone take pride in showing off their wealth by consuming the media accessible via the intranet in public places. Cell phones are billed at the beginning or end of every month using a card that keeps track of the number of downloads and duration of phone usage. In other words, the more a person downloads, the more expensive the bill.

“These days, you can see more and more young people dancing to music played from their smartphones on trains and in parks. People walk around with headphones in watching movies or listening to music. It has become a part of the culture,” she asserted.

“But almost no one downloads the Rodong Sinmun because it’s so boring. High-level cadres at state-run enterprises only download and read it because they feel an obligation to do so and these days there are so many issues with the distribution of the physical newspaper.”

Outside of Pyongyang, the publication often fails to be delivered for 3 or 4 days at a time due to power shortages besetting the nation’s postal services. Rather than wait around to read out of date news, it is easier to simply download and read it online. This also helps cadres leery of the greater scrutiny coupling Rodong Sinmun subscription recently.

A source in North Pyongan Province confirmed these developments while adding that in addition to news, the intranet provides information regarding commodity prices, exchange rates, the weather, airport and train schedules. In fact, smartphone users can compare commodity prices across the provinces and track goods as they are shipped.

Market retailers and wholesalers who pay extra to have their goods shipped by train can keep track of the train schedules by pressing 113, cutting down on uncertainty about when to expect deliveries, he said, noting the development as a “distinct improvement for travelers and sellers who previously might spend the whole night waiting at the station, fearful of missing their train.”

Additionally, the intranet homepage offers information about popular restaurants, entertainment programs, and even factories. Intranet users can view the location, product images, prices, and information, and phone numbers of state-owned factories.

Although the homepage recommends different popular restaurants, market sellers as yet cannot check the prices of goods or the exchange rates in individual markets and must still rely on old fashioned phone calls to obtain such information. According to the source, people are hoping that in the future they will be able to check not only factory and restaurant information, but also the prices of goods in each market across the nation.

*Translated by Natalie Grant

 

[KimJongilia]

North Korean news channel uses Mac OS wallpaper for backdrop

Archive U.S. tech company's wallpaper design used for North Korean broadcasts since May 2015

October 15th, 2015
JH Ahn

A North Korean state run news outlet is using a prominent desktop wallpaper from Apple’s Mac operating system as a backdrop for its daily news packages, an analysis of their videos shows.

Uriminzokkiri, or “Our Nation By Itself,” has since 2010 distributed North Korean video news segments through a Youtube channel and its China-based website, mainly repackaging existing domestic propaganda for an international Korean audience.

But the user of a South Korea bulletin board last week noticed similarities between one of Apple’s main desktop wallpapers and the backdrop image used when Uriminzokkiri’s North Korean news anchors present the daily news.

“I knew I saw that wall paper from somewhere else,” said the user, after finding out that the backdrop in Uriminzokkiri’s news report was identical to the wall paper from Apple’s Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

According to Uriminzokkiri’s Youtube video list, North Korea may have been using Apple’s wallpaper since as early as May 17, 2015.

When aligned in photo editing software, Uriminzokkiri’s backdrop perfectly matched the Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger’s wall paper, with it appearing that North Korean video producers changed the angle and edited the size of the wallpaper for their own use.

The Mac OS wallpaper appears to have been a fixture since at least May, 2015 | Picture: Uriminzokkirri

Precedence suggests it is unlikely that the California-based Apple Inc. provided authorization to North Korean video producers at Uriminzokkiri to use the Mac desktop wallpaper in this way. Apple’s South Korean office did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

The use of the desktop wallpaper is not North Korea’s first time using Western-produced imagery and graphics without the consent of original producer.

In February 2013, North Korea uploaded a three and half minute propaganda video on Youtube, starring a North Korean man dreaming of his nation becoming a nuclear power state. In the video, a burning New York is shown as the result of a North Korean attack, but it quickly emerged the video footage was taken from video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

That particular North Korean video was quickly removed from Youtube, with many Call of Duty fans reporting the video for violating copyright.

The original Mac OS desktop screensaver | Picture: Apple Inc.

“Practically, there will be nothing much Apple can do against Uriminzzokkiri,” Han Myung-seop, a North Korean copyright law researcher in North Korean Law Center told NK News on Thursday. “North Korea does have its own copyright law, but in real practice it would not work the way we expect it to.”

Han said North Korea first enacted the copyright law in 2001, and later added and updated some articles in 2006.

“They are certainly aware of the concept of copyright law. A few years ago, South Korean law scholars published a book explaining the law structures of North Korea. Later, North Korea complained that South Korean scholars were using their intellectual properties for profit making purpose. They claimed that their law is also part of their nation’s intellectual property.”

Han added that even if Apple or the United States government were to ever sue North Korea in an international court, there would be no practical way to enforce potential compensation for Apple.

“Uriminzzokkiri is not a private company; it is North Korean state owned propaganda media arm. So most likely, North Korea would not do anything as the enforcer of the law is equal to the violator of the law in this case,” said Han.

*Main image from Uriminzzokkiri

 

[KimJongilia]

The plot to smuggle 100 kg of ‘N. Korean’ meth into America

The larger-than-life attempt to bring (allegedly) DPRK-made drugs into the U.S. and what it tells us about N.Korea’s links to the international drug trade

October 16th, 2015
Oliver Hotham

It was the 27th of August, and on the dock at New York City’s southern district court Scott Stammers was pleading guilty of planning to bring 100 kilograms of crystal meth – allegedly made in North Korea – into the United States. If sold on the streets, it’s estimated the drugs would have been worth $6 million.

A British citizen, Stammers was on trial with his alleged accomplices in the scheme: Philip Shackels, also a Brit, Ye Tiong Tan Lim, Allan Kelly Peralta Reyes – Chinese and Filipino respectively – and Adrian Valkovic of Slovakia. All have pleaded guilty with the exception of Shackels, who is set to take the stand any day now.

So who was Scott Stammers, the ringleader of this motley crew of wannabe Tony Montanas, and where did he come from?

SECURITY TO SMUGGLING

Stammers’ background was in private security, and on his LinkedIn profile he claims to have experience with everything from training unnamed national police and armed forces in the Asia-Pacific region to organizing protection for corporate events at luxurious hotels.

Stammers grew up and was educated in Hong Kong, and in 1992 he began working as an operations officer for a company called Guardforce Limited before leaving to work for a number of security firms in the Philippines. He ended up in Thailand, working as director of operations – security and aviation services for the ASA Group, a company providing private aviation and VIP services for wealthy corporate clientele, where he worked for three years.

His boss at ASA was founder and CEO Simon P. Wagstaff, who insisted in an email to NK News that Stammers worked for the company “briefly” and that the two men parted ways in 2010 and have not been in contact since. But, as noticed by the eagle-eyed Andrew Drummond, a British journalist who has covered the case extensively, Stammers appeared in an article in Charter Broker magazine in February of that year, where he was named the newly appointed head of ASA’s Singapore office and as a “senior executive” of the company. Wagstaff said that Stammers left that year because there was no job for him to return to in Thailand, and so decided to go into business for himself.

“Scott worked for us for I think a little under three years up to early September 2010,” Wagstaff told NK News. “He left by mutual agreement on contract completion over five years ago and we have had no further contact.

“I don’t recall anything unusual about him or his behavior at that time and was shocked to learn of his involvement in the illegal activities mentioned.”

After leaving ASA, Stammers became Operations Director of a company called SAS Consulting & Management Services Company Limited, a company naming Stammers as its only employee on LinkedIn and which remains listed as “active” on Thai government business registries, citing an office address in the Suriya Wong neighborhood in Bangkok.

So what drove an experienced and professional expat, with excellent contacts and references, into organized crime? A source familiar with the world of Western expats working in private security in Thailand, and who had worked with Stammers in the past but wished to remain anonymous, told NK News over email that theirs is a world full of people with difficult backgrounds willing to do a lot just to get by – but said that in all his interactions with him there was nothing to hint he was involved in criminal activity.

“From my understanding a number of expats living in Thailand are usually getting away from the world for one reason or another,” he wrote in an email. “And if he had fallen on hard times financially then it’s not inconceivable to come into contact with the types of characters that were mentioned in the story.

“In my dealings with him he came across as above-board and professional – in the security sector reputation is hugely important as a lot of the industry, in our pocket of it, anyway, is referral-based.”

According to police, the stimulants had a purity of greater than 99 percent – virtually heard of

Despite this, Stammers was certainly involved in a conspiracy stretching back to 2012, it seems, when he came close to getting caught – and the men on the docks in New York had worked together before getting busted. That year, law enforcement agents seized 30 kilos of methamphetamines supplied by Lim and Peralta Reyes, with Shackels and Stammers having agreed to store and protect the drugs once they had been delivered to them in Thailand. According to police, the stimulants had a purity of greater than 99 percent – virtually heard of, since crystal meth is notoriously impure, with a street purity of, on average, only 10 percent.

Despite their scheme having been foiled, the quartet were determined. A year later they again got in touch, but this time they were hoping to acquire 100 kilos of meth – and it was destined for the United States. Once again, Lim and Peralta Reyes were to be the suppliers, providing samples of the allegedly North Korean meth “for testing in the New York market,” and the Brits agreed to look after the drugs, and arranging for the test sample to be moved around in advance of its journey to New York.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE

This is where defendant No. 4 comes in. Also referred to as “Alexander Checo” and “Alexander Semenco,” he’s referred to as Alexander LNU (last name unknown) in court documents from the first indictment but Adrian Valkovic in more. A Slovak resident of Thailand, Valkovic played a particularly important role for anyone hoping to move a lot of drugs: He was sergeant at arms (MC slang for the senior member responsible for security) for the Thailand branch of the Outlaws Motorcycle Gang, and was well-connected. Court documents say Valkovic agreed that “eight armed associates from his motorcycle gang” would protect the drugs.

Just how a legitimate private security professional came to know members of a violent motorcycle gang is something of a mystery.

There’s also little information about the other Brit, Philip Shackels. A discussion on a forum from 2013 suggests he came from Dungannon, Northern Ireland, and had been “scooped with a load of drugs in Thailand a few years ago,” and that his father had raised 25,000 from an unspecified currency for his bail and had subsequently fled the country. It’s impossible to verify these claims.

But the DEA was now on their trail, and on or near January 24, 2013, according to court documents, in Thailand Ye Tiong Tan Lim, identified in an article in Chinese state media as a “Hong Kong gangster,” and Reyes Peralta – his Filipino colleague, met with a Drug Enforcement Administration source posing as another dealer. With secret video and audio rolling, the DEA source said he’d heard that the methamphetamine “comes from the ‘NK’ place.” Peralta and Lim replied “yes,” before boasting that theirs was now the only organization capable of getting the coveted pure meth from North Korea.

“Because before, there were eight,” Lim said. “But now only us, we have the NK product … (I)t’s only us who can get from NK.”

Curiously, the DEA’s source then asked whether he might be able to visit North Korea to get a firsthand glimpse at the country’s meth production facilities and, presumably, direct evidence of the government’s role in the drug trade.

“No, we can’t go to North Korea,” Lim responded. “We take it out. If we don’t talk Korean language, they’ll have suspicions.”

Fearful of the American government finding out, he said, the North Koreans had “burned all the labs,” save one – Lim’s supplier.

They met again the next day, with an associate of the DEA source and another undercover agent – also posing as a drug trafficker. When the source asked Lim to confirm the quality of the drugs, Lim simply responded with “NK.”

“NK, okay, North Korea?” the DEA source pressed.

“Yes.”

A few days later, Scott Stammers showed up, meeting with the two DEA sources in Thailand. When they expressed an interest in acquiring North Korean meth, Stammers said that would be hard to pull off.

“The NK stuff,” he told them, “it’s expensive first of all, and it’s so hard to get in.”

“The NK one is gonna be difficult,” he added. “What I’m gonna do is, I’m gonna leave there and call my guys, because Phil (Shackels) is the one dealing with this one.”

The DEA sources arranged with the defendants for a sample of the drugs to be shipped to New York testing in the market, before the larger shipment could be arranged, to be smuggled into the U.S. in auto parts, via Liberia. On March 7 Stammers sent an email to an associate of the DEA’s source, who was purportedly another dealer involved in the case, letting him know the tracking number for the package. Liberian law enforcement intercepted the package – testing the two samples of meth as being 96 percent and 98 percent pure, before letting it go on its way.

Again, the DEA sources met with Stammers and Shackels, who confirmed the drugs had come “from these North Korean people – sample ‘A’ and sample ‘B.’”

A month later Stammers emailed his accomplices – the New York connection (linked to the DEA) claimed to have liked the samples, and wanted more – much more.

“HQ likes both samples … and asked for prices and manufacturing quantities/capabilities,” he told them.

But to move the drugs, they would need the skills of Valkovic, who met the DEA’s sources, along with on May 17, 2013 to discuss the operation. The same day, they met Lim and Reyes Peralta, who agreed, on camera, to supply the meth for $60,000 a kilo. But at the last minute, they decided to take their chances and up the sale.

“My friends, can you do the 60, a little bit, a little more, like a hundred if we’re doing the same risk,” asks Reyes Peralta, once again being recorded.

“Yes, yes and, uh, I am more concerned because maybe after next year, my stuff will not last after next year,” adds Lim.

Lim argued that the supply of North Korean meth was running dry, and that amid tensions on the peninsula had been moved from the DPRK to the Philippines – where they had over a ton in storage.

North Korea’s involvement in drug smuggling for the purpose of earning extra cash is believed to stretch back into the 1970s under Kim Il Sung. Photo by panaxy

“North Korea, we cannot get things out from North Korea,” he said. “Because we already anticipated this thing would happen between America, Korea, North Korea, South Korea, Japan – all the satellites are now – we cannot bring out our goods right now.”

The DEA sources agreed to the sum, and they soon met with Valkovic, who was to be “ground commander” for the operation, along with a crew of OMC comrades.

But you don’t try to smuggle 100 kg of meth from Southeast Asia to the United States without being completely certain your supply routes are secure. They carried out a “dry run,” transporting a shipping container of tealeaves from the Philippines to Thailand.

When this was successful, they were good to go, and the plan was made that Stammers, Valkovic and Shackels would protect it when it arrived in Thailand. The drugs were to land by boat, and Stammers and Shackels were to take it to a warehouse where it would be counted, re-packaged, and then taken to the docks to be transported to the U.S., with Valkovic and his OMC colleagues in tow.

LOOK NORTH

It was all, of course, a sting operation. There was no big-time client in New York waiting for their drugs – it was the cops. On September 23, 2013, Lim and Peralta arrived in Thailand to claim their money, and two days later – along with Stammers and Shackels – they were arrested by Thai law enforcement.

Before long, the group was extradited to the United States to face trial and a triumphant DEA, thrilled they had busted a drug smuggling ring – and exposed a former member of George W. Bush’s so-called “Axis of Evil” in one fell swoop.

“Like many international criminal networks, these drug traffickers have no respect for borders, and no regard for either the rule of law or who they harm as a result of their criminal endeavors,” DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart told the press in New York.

“This investigation continued to highlight the emergence of North Korea as a significant source of methamphetamine in the global drug trade,” she added. “I wish to thank the Thai government for their outstanding efforts and partnership in completely dismantling this sophisticated and dangerous international criminal enterprise.”

Despite the evidence the case presents, not everyone is convinced, however, that North Korea is even involved in the case. Drummond, a British journalist who has covered the case extensively, told NK News that he doesn’t see any evidence that that’s where the meth came from.

It’s not a secret … that the North Korean state has long been desperate for hard currency to fund military projects

“I am not convinced North Korea is involved at all and there is nothing in the indictment to suggest a named person from Korea,” he told NK News in an email. “Only a statement by the defendant as to where it was coming from.”

It’s not a secret, however, that the North Korean state has long been desperate for hard currency to fund military projects and keep the country’s elites supplied with Danish Ham and Cognac, among other things, and the trade of methamphetamine is one of a number of ways this has been accomplished

It’s been long known, too, that the North Korean government has surreptitiously developed an internal market for producing and exporting crystal meth. A report published last year by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea lays out in stark terms the extent to which Kim Jong Un’s government is involved in the drug trade – and the international networks it has developed to generate hard currency for the regime.

“For almost 40 years, North Korea has exhibited extensive involvement in transnational criminal smuggling networks,” it argues, pointing to numerous incidents involving the country’s diplomats and overseas agents that demonstrate the country not only exports the drug for sale, but that there is a significant problem with its use among the general population.

Unsurprisingly, the government of North Korea denies this charges. In response to the extensive press coverage which followed the beginning of the case back in 2013, a KCNA report, citing a spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry, in traditionally bombastic tone rejected the allegations, blaming South Korea for the offense, and calling for the U.S. and its allies to “mind their own business.” It is one of the few times that the country has ever addressed these allegations.

“In recent days the Western reptile media are spreading sheer sophism that the DPRK is a major hotbed of international drug-related crimes,” the spokesman said. “Its origin is none other than the U.S. and the south Korean puppet regime.”

“The DPRK totally rejects it as it is another politically motivated puerile charade invented by those hostile forces keen on the base smear campaign aimed to isolate and stifle it. Drug manufacture and smuggling are strictly banned in the DPRK, and such practices are never tolerated under its social system.”

Someone with first-hand experience of North Korea’s alleged role in the meth trade is former FBI agent Bob Hamer, who worked in undercover cases for the Bureau for 26 years. One of his last assignments was a case known as Operation Smoking Dragon, an operation which began as an attempt to break up an Asian gang running counterfeit cigarettes – and ended with a plan to smuggle surface-to-air missiles, North Korean printed “super notes,” and drugs into the U.S.

Posing as a wealthy benefactor keen to make illicit investments, Hamer spent significant time infiltrating a group run by two Chinese gangsters, who he calls “John Wu and Chen,” who tried to involve him in a plan to build a crystal meth manufacturing facility they were gathering funds for. While having not discussed the plan with any North Korean officials himself, Hamer says that the North Koreans had given the idea their seal of approval, they just needed money, and that the plan was to manufacture a set amount of crystal meth in the facility, before it was transformed into a laundry detergent factory.

“The deal was, it was gonna be a one time use manufacturing facility,” he told NK News, “where we were gonna make 600 kilos of crystal meth, we had to give 200 kilos to the North Koreans, John (Wu) and Chen were gonna take 200 kilos and I was gonna take 200 kilos.”

“The North Koreans would guarantee it and then once we got our 600 kilos … we had to turn to manufacturing plant over to North Korea and they were gonna make it a laundry facility.”

But despite the lack of a distinct “smoking gun” evidence that the DPRK supplied the drugs for the Stammers and co, the U.S. government and its officials seem certain that the crystal meth was made in North Korea, with the endorsement of the government.

“Scott Stammers conspired to import into the United States 100 kilograms of dangerously pure North Korean methamphetamine,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara triumphantly told reporters after Stammers’ guilty plea.

“Thanks to the work of the DEA and the cooperation of law enforcement partners around the world, including in Thailand, Liberia and Romania, Stammers’s scheme ended, not with the North Korean methamphetamine flooding American streets as he had intended, but rather with a guilty plea in a Manhattan federal court.”

The DEA, the FBI, as well as the defense’s legal team, could not comment while Shackels remains on trial, and the Thai branch of the Outlaws MC declined to answer NK News‘ requests for comment. But it is clear that Stammers and his comrades face a long time in prison. With his guilty plea, he faces the potential of life imprisonment. Valkovic, Lim, and Peralta have all plead guilty, too, and Shackels’s plea is due any day now.

Featured Image: 2011-10-05; meth cleanup at Rice Terrace in Bristol, Virginia by robspiegel on 2011-10-05 16:10:21

 

[KimJongilia]

North Korea regime members defect from overseas postings

At least 20 senior members of the North Korean regime have defected to Seoul this year, up from eight in 2013

The number of North Korean defectors is up this year Photo: KCNA/AFP/Getty

By Julian Ryall in Tokyo
2:26PM BST 23 Oct 2015

At least 20 senior members of the North Korean regime have defected to Seoul this year, up from eight in 2013, according to reports.

The defectors include a high-ranking officer of the People's Army Politburo, who opted to go to South Korea rather than to return to Pyongyang after being posted to Beijing, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported.

The others are diplomats stationed abroad, while at least one was a member of the General Bureau of Reconnaissance, which is tasked with conducting operations against South Korea, according to the South's National Intelligence Service (NIS).

The spike in defections was reported by the NIS to the National Assembly this week, while analysts believe that more senior North Koreans have opted to seek refuge in the United States or European countries.

The number of defectors from the North's "elite" class is up from eight in 2013 and 18 last year, suggesting that more of the regime's trusted servants are seizing opportunities to flee.

"It is clear that Mr Kim's rule is becoming increasingly unstable," Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor at Tokyo's Waseda University and an authority on the North Korean leadership, told The Telegraph.

"Defections of senior people first began after the arrest and execution of Jang Song-taek, Mr Kim's uncle and mentor, in December 2013," he said. "Many decided to get out simply because they feared they were to be next, and that fear is clearly lingering."

Prof Shigemura said the North Korean military was becoming restless under Mr Kim's rule, particularly since Pyongyang backed down from plans to launch an intercontinental missile or to carry out an underground nuclear test earlier this month to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party.

The desperation of the defectors is underlined by the fact that they are essentially abandoning family members who are effectively held as hostages in Pyongyang during their overseas postings.

"Mr Kim has purged a lot of people since he came to power – which is not really a surprise as that's what a Stalinist system is all about – but these defectors must have been certain that they would be executed if they returned home to leave their families," he said.

"Alternatively, they might feel that the regime is on its last legs and that they will be able to rescue their families as soon as it collapses," he added.

 

[KimJongilia]

More than 50,000 North Koreans forced to work abroad: UN

AFP
October 29, 2015, 9:40 am

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - More than 50,000 North Koreans have been sent to work abroad, mainly in Russia and China, in conditions that a UN rights expert said Wednesday amounted to forced labor.

UN special rapporteur Marzuki Darusman said Pyongyang was increasingly resorting to exporting its workers to earn hard currency, which he estimated at between $1.2 billion and $2.3 billion per year.

Darusman detailed the plight of North Koreans working abroad in his annual report to the General Assembly, which this year again is set to adopt a resolution condemning Pyongyang's rights record.

"DPRK nationals have been sent to work in many parts of the world, laboring under conditions that amount to a subjection to forced labor, both by their own and host governments," Darusman, the UN's special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People?s Republic of Korea, told a news conference Wednesday.

Scaling up UN attention on North Korea's foreign workers, Darusman warned in his report that companies that hire them "become complicit in an unacceptable system of forced labor."

He said the overseas workers are mainly employed in construction, mining, logging and textile industries, and are kept in the dark about their contracts, negotiated by Pyongyang.

The vast majority of North Korean foreign workers are employed in Russia and China, but the rapporteur's report also listed 15 other countries, including Algeria, Angola, Kuwait and Poland.

A construction company in Qatar this year sent back 90 North Koreans whose supervisors forced them to work more than 12 hours a day and underfed them.

One of the workers died from the appalling treatment, said the report, to be discussed at the General Assembly this week.

Overall, there has been no improvement in the dire human rights situation in North Korea, Darusman said.

Pyongyang continues to operate a vast network of prison camps and resorts to widespread use of summary executions, torture and arbitrary detentions to impose a "near-total denial of human rights," he said.

At the same time, he cited "incremental changes" in North Korea, such as increased use of mobile phones, the opening of small businesses and imports of South Korean pop music and videos.

Darusman renewed his call for the UN Security Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Such a move however is widely expected to be blocked by North Korea's ally China, which holds veto power in the council.

 

[KimJongilia]

Insight - North Korea's black market becoming the new normal

Reuters
October 29, 2015, 11:16 am

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attends a meeting of Korean People's Army (KPA) battalion commanders and political instructors in this undated photo released November 5, 2014. REUTERS/KCNA

By James Pearson

PYONGYANG (Reuters) - When North Korea's late "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il opened the Pothonggang Department Store in December 2010, he called on it to play "a big role" in improving living standards in the capital Pyongyang, official media said.

Five years later, judging by the long lines inside the three-storey store that sells everything from electronic gadgets and cosmetics, to food and household goods, the Pothonggang is meeting Kim's expectations - at least for privileged Pyongyang residents.

But the department store also starkly illustrates the extent to which the underground market has become the new normal in isolated North Korea.

And that poses a dilemma to the Kim family's hereditary dictatorship, which up until now has kept tight control of a Soviet-style command economy, largely synonymous with rationing and material deprivation.

Now that the black market has become the new normal, Kim Jong Un’s government has little choice but to continue its fledgling efforts at economic reforms that reflect market realities on the ground or risk losing its grip on power, experts say.

A Reuters reporter, allowed to roam the store with a government minder for a look at the North Korean consumer in action, noted almost all the price tags were in dollars as well as won. A Sharp TV was priced at 11.26 million won or $1,340 (£878); a water pump at 2.52 million won ($300). Beef was 76,000 won ($8.60) a kilogramme.

North Korean-made LED light bulbs sold for 42,000 won ($5). The exchange rate used in these prices - 8,400 won to the dollar - is 80 times higher than the official rate of 105 won to the dollar. At the official rate, the TV would cost over $100,000; the light bulb, $400.

Shoppers openly slapped down large stacks of U.S. dollars at the cashier's counter. They received change in dollars, Chinese yuan or North Korean won - at the black market rate. The same was true elsewhere in the capital: taxi drivers offered change for fares at black market rates, as did other shops and street stalls that Reuters visited.

For the last twenty years, North Korea has been undergoing economic changes, the fruits of which are now more visible than ever in the capital, Pyongyang, where large North Korean companies now produce a diverse range of domestically made goods to cater to this growing market of consumers. People are spending money they once hid in their homes on mobile phones, electric bicycles and baby carriers.

The latest sign that the workers' paradise is going capitalist: cash cards from commercial banks.

GREW OUT OF FAMINE

Four months before Kim opened the Pothonggang Department Store, the United States imposed sanctions on North Korea, including its imports of luxury goods, for torpedoing a South Korean ship - a conclusion Pyongyang rejected. Since then, the U.N. has imposed more sanctions on North Korea for violating restrictions on its nuclear and missile programmes.

None of that has had much effect on the vast majority of North Koreans living in the countryside, where a rudimentary market has evolved considerably over the past two decades.

Agricultural mismanagement, floods and the collapse of the Soviet Union led to famine in the mid-1990s. The state rationing system crumbled, forcing millions of North Koreans to make whatever they could to sell or barter informally for survival.

The regime penalised this new class of entrepreneurs in 2009 when it redenominated the won by lopping off two zeros and setting limits on the quantity of old won that could be exchanged for the new currency. That move ended up destroying much of the private wealth earned on the market.

Demand for hard currency surged after the bungled currency reform as more and more merchants in the underground markets required transactions to be conducted in foreign currency. It triggered two years of hyperinflation.

But the government of Kim Jong Un, who became North Korea's leader after his father's death in December 2011, has essentially accepted the ubiquity of the black market rate and a widespread illicit economy, North Korea experts say. "Under Kim Jong Un, not a single policy has been implemented which would somehow damage the interests and efficiency of private businesses," said Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul.

"It's a good time to be rich in North Korea".

THE NEW CONSUMER

Many of the goods inside the Pothonggang Department Store, a grey building nestled between willow trees and a river of the same name, are still beyond the reach of many North Koreans.

An air conditioning unit sells for 3.78 million won ($450 dollars) - which if paid in won would require a bag of 756 five thousand won notes, the highest denomination note in won.

A growing middle class called "donju", meaning "masters of money", who made cash in the unofficial economy are starting to spend it on these new products, along with the long established elite of Humvee-owning individuals with powerful political connections.

Only recently an elite item, mobile phones are now common in the capital, with nationwide subscriber numbers topping three million, an employee with Koryolink, the cellular carrier controlled by Egypt's Orascom Telecom told Reuters.

The number has tripled since 2012 and indicates one in eight of North Korea's 24 million people now have a mobile phone.

Energy-saving products are a fast-growing sector of North Korea's new consumer market and were one of the hottest items in the department store.

Domestically produced LED bulbs are ubiquitous in North Korea, where satellite images have shown a country almost completely black at night. The 9-watt bulb costs $5 and is a best-seller at the Pothonggang store, said a staff member. The energy-saving bulbs are used inside homes and on street lamps that now bask the formerly darkened streets of the Pyongyang night in a dull, faint glow.

Solar panels with USB-enabled inverters and batteries are available in the store alongside water pumps and small generators - exactly the kind of systems North Koreans now use to take power into their own hands.

CASH CARDS

Baby products are another booming consumer item. A large section of the department store is devoted to strollers and baby carriers produced in hina and South Korea.

Many residents of Pyongyang can be seen riding Chinese-made battery powered bicycles, which only began to appear in the capital over the last year, locals said.Some of these transactions are done with the Narae Card, a cash card run by North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank - a designated entity under U.S. sanctions since 2013 for the part it reportedly played in nuclear weapons procurement.

Cash cards have been in the hands of the few for the last several years but have recently become a new growth industry. Narae cards are topped up with U.S. dollars and are mainly used for foreign currency purchases. They can also be used to top up mobile phone accounts.

Foreign investors can also set up banks in North Korea and are allowed to lend money and provide credit-based financing schemes to North Korean companies, according to a bilingual book of North Korean law available to foreign investors.

Ryugyong Commercial Bank, for instance, offers shopping discounts as well as gold or silver card options for its customers. As with the Narae card, customers are encouraged to top up their accounts with dollars.

LOSING FACE?

After a $4 dollar taxi ride, the driver reluctantly handed the change from a twenty dollar note to a Reuters correspondent who insisted on getting change in North Korean won.

Foreigners are not officially permitted to use the currency, so the openness of the transaction - in the presence of a government guide - was another sign of the black market turning white in north Korea. The driver's reluctance to hand over won was because of its inconvenience, not because he was afraid of being caught.

"It's a lot of notes in our money," he grumbled, counting out 130,000 won from a large crumpled bundle of discoloured 5000 won notes.

That note, still the highest denomination, once carried a smiling portrait of founding president Kim Il Sung but is being gradually phased out by a version with no portrait - an indication a larger denomination note may one day replace it to accommodate the widespread use of black market pricing.

That would also get around the embarrassing problem that the faces of American and Chinese leaders, not the Kims, adorn much of the cash used in the country now. For a regime that has cultivated a personality cult around the Kim dynasty, it is quite literally losing face on its own money.

MATTER OF TIME

Where there's commercial enterprise, advertising is sure to follow. Sprinkled in among the roadside signs and billboards, once the exclusive domain for propaganda, are small notices that tout car repair services, electronics and trading companies.

One prominent company, Naegohyang (my homeland) advertises at football games and has a women's football team by the same name. It produces everything from clothes and sanitary pads to 7.27 brand cigarettes, a favourite of Kim Jong Un's who can be seen smoking them on state TV. They also make 'Achim' cigarettes for export to Iran with printed health warnings written in Farsi.

At a speech following a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the ruling Workers Party, Kim Jong Un promised to introduce "people-first" politics. It remains unclear, however, how committed he and his Workers Party - not to mention the powerful military - are to market-based reforms.

But it's only a matter of time before the Kim regime formally adopts a market-based economy - as China did 35 years ago under Deng Xiaoping, said Kookmin University's Lankov, who lived in Pyonyang in the 1980s.

"That'll be a great day, but it'll be relatively meaningless in one regard," he said. "It'll be a formal recognition of something which has happened anyway".

(Reporting by James Pearson. Edited by Bill Tarrant.)

 

[KimJongilia]

N. Korean media reveals message from defector’s daughter

Supporters of Pyongyang native who wishes to return face scrutiny under National Security Act

Ha-young Choi
November 17th, 2015

The native North Korean who has been pleading for the right to leave South Korea and return to Pyongyang received a message from her daughter via North Korean media on Monday.

The letter, written by Kim’s daughter Ri Ryun Kum, was released on North Korea’s Mothers’ Day via the Uriminzokkiri media outlet.

“Mom, please come to your homeland as soon as possible. The whole family is waiting for you. The door to the homeland is always open,” the letter reads.

The letter criticized South Korea’s human rights environment for preventing Kim’s repatriation.

A tearful Kim told NK News what she would like to say to her daughter.

“I read this letter yesterday while preparing for the press conference. I just became a fool, I couldn’t say anything. I feel really thankful to my daughter, who grew up without her mom’s care. Please stay bright and don’t forget you are not only my daughter but also the nation’s daughter,” Kim told NK News.

Kim, who is currently staying in Seoul, faced another hardship last week. The group of Christians who have supported Kim in her quest to return to the North were accused of violating the National Security Law last Friday.

“The National Intelligence Service (NIS) is trying to divert attention,” Kim said.

One member of the group, Pastor Kim Seong-yoon, has been detained since last Friday, and a fellow pastor said that that the conditions of his detention are unnecessarily strict because he cannot escape.

“Kim is a physically challenged person due to polio. His hands were tied for seven hours from midnight to about 7 a.m., and he is still currently under arrest,” Choi Jae-bong told NK News.

Choi himself is currently under investigation for contacting a “North Korean agent” in China last week.

“I gathered money for three years with four friends to travel. It was just a tour with my friends and we just stopped by a North Korean restaurant to taste the food where I visited four or five years ago,” Choi told NK News.

Choi said he has been motivated by his religious conscience to help Kim. The group of pastors from Christianity Peace Action, and Kim is demonstrating since Monday.

Kim’s story was publicized in July by a report from South Korea’s Hankyoreh newspaper. She has been argued that she is a DPRK citizen who mistakenly came to South Korea in 2011 after being deceived by a broker. Observers have indicated mixed opinions regarding her story.

“I can’t understand why I can’t go, while such a number of people are heading for (North Korea). I want to hold their hand when they come back from the North, hope to get a bottle of water from (North Korea),” she said, speaking from Incheon International Airport where South Korean labor unions held press conference before departing to Pyongyang.

Featured Image: Uriminzokkiri

 

[KimJongilia]

S. Korea to develop unmanned sensors for DMZ surveillance

Military analyst says ROK military will remain overburdened without improvement in inter-Korean ties

JH Ahn
November 18th, 2015

The South Korean military has signed a contract to develop unmanned surveillance sensors aimed at strengthening surveillance capabilities in the DMZ and the surrounding area.

While the development of these sensors would help to ensure the safety of troops stationed near the DMZ, a military expert said that such an effort must be undertaken in parallel with efforts to lower tensions with North Korea.

Hanwha Thales, a domestic defense manufacturer, has signed a 3.6 billion-won ($3.1-million) contract to help in the development of these sensors with South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).

A DAPA representative told NK News that the sensors will greatly improve South Korea’s capacity to detect North Korean troops attempting to infiltrate and potentially endanger South Korean lives.

“The sensors will be offered to South Korean military units that are at least the size of a company,” said the DAPA official.

“Sensors will be planted at the lanes that are expected to be used by North Koreans during their infiltration attempts. Also, the sensors will be implemented at the zones where South Korean military personnel cannot reach. The system will greatly improve the overall surveillance capacity at the DMZ and its surrounding regions.”

Last August, two South Korean non-commissioned officers (NCO) both lost their legs due to the explosion of mines allegedly planted by North Korean troops.

“Unfortunately these sensors will not be able to detect mines buried in the ground,” said the official.

“But we will be able to track the movement of infiltrators and prevent any of their offensive attempts against our troops. The sensors will help to make sure that our service members are not exposed to similar dangers.”

But the system will take at least four years to be adapted to the DMZ.

“By next year, we will analyze if the project is worth continuing and pouring money in to. Should we decide whether to continue the project we will soon get into its second phase, which will include the building of prototype sensors,” said the official.

“After this phase, manufacturers will be able to mass produce the sensors and they will be deployed to the South Korean Army and Marine Corps.”

Kim Min-seok, senior researcher from the Korea Defense and Security Forum, believes that the development of this sensor system must happen in parallel with government attempts to improve relations with North Korea.

“The soldiers guarding the DMZ are isolated from society and stressed with the burden of daily surveillance missions,” said Kim.

“Decreasing soldiers’ workload with new sensors will only work as the temporary solution. In the long term, we need to decrease the number of soldiers stationed near the DMZ, and this can only be achieved through the South Korean government’s effort to relieve tensions between the two Koreas.”

Main Image: ROK MND Flickr

 

[KimJongilia]

N. Korea completes 10 hydro plants

DPRK media claims hydro facilities are operational, will likely provide power to Pyongyang

Leo Byrne
November 18th, 2015

A series of North Korean hydro power plants along the Chong Chon River are now operational, according to an article from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) published Wednesday.

If accurate, the project would be the second North Korean hydro facility completed since the start of October.

“The 10 multi-tier power stations in the 80 km-long section of the River Chongchon would contribute to the building of an economic power and improvement of people’s living standard,” the KCNA article reads.

Like the Mount Paekdusan hydro plant, the new facilities’ completion was timed to roughly coincide with 70th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party last month.

However while the Paekdusan generator was under construction for more than 10 years, the 10 power plants along the Chong Chon River were only announced in December 2014.

“If the capacity is similar with the Huichon power station completed last time, the 10 stations would have quite a large power generating capacity. However, it’s quite hard to complete 10 stations in that little time,” Lee Seok-gi of the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade told NK News.

According to a report from the Tokyo-based Chosun Sinbo published late last year, the plants would generate between 120,000 and 300,000 kilowatts. The regime mobilized 14,000 people were mobilised to complete the project, which will reportedly send their output to Pyongyang.

The Chong Chon River runs from North Korea’s west coast and is under 70 km from the capital at its closest point.

In September Korean Central Television (KCTV) featured a report indicating the plants were being connected to North Korea’s electricity grid.

The broadcast showed teams adding pylons and infrastructure through North Korea’s Huichon region.

“Building pylons usually comes at the later step after the generator construction, the generator turbines are the priorities,” Lee said at the time.

North Korea struggles with generating electricity, and is generally reliant on soviet era coal power plants and hydroelectric generators for the majority of its energy needs. A recent NK News investigation indicated that power outages in North Korea had become more common in recent years.

Additional reporting by Hyunbi Park

Featured image: Rodong Sinmun

 

[KimJongilia]

Defectors groups accuse protesters of ‘pro-North,’ anti-state actions

Conservative defector groups accuse protesters of violent tactics against 'liberal democracy'

Ha-young Choi
November 19th, 2015

Defector activists who support the idea of a government-designated history textbook on Wednesday tore into demonstrators who protested in Seoul last Saturday, accusing them of violent tactics and anti-state activities.

Members of the Freedom Unification Youth Alliance organization gathered in front of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office.

“The demonstration on Saturday turned into an illegal demonstration with excessive violence from the beginning. It was obviously anti-state activities aimed at undermining liberal democracy,” the press release read.

The defectors asserted that some leftists are trying to overturn the foundation of Republic of Korea, in keeping with North Korea’s strategy of threatening South Korea.

“Among the leading demonstrators, there were obviously those who were pro-North (jongbuk),” Choi Hyun-jun, president of Unification Future Alliance, told NK News.

Unification Future Alliance (Tongil Mirae Yeondae) and Freedom Unification Youth Alliance (Jayu Tongil Cheongnyeon Yeondae) are identified as separate organizations.

Choi said it was evident that demonstrators had prepared violent actions, regardless of the government reaction.

“The protestors argued for the overturning of society and the liberal democratic ideology,” Choi told NK News.

Choi said that there are “professional protestors,” with farmer Paek Nam-ki serving as an example.

Paek remains in critical condition after being hit by a blast from a police water cannon, resulting in complaints of excessive force. Paek was a leader in anti-military dictatorship student movements during 1970s and ’80s, and currently works in a Catholic farmers’ community.

Professor Song Jiyoung of Singapore Management University said that it is not uncommon for refugee groups, particularly from former communist countries, to turn to the political right.

“Earlier East European immigrants who settled in Britain, Germany and France tended to … turn rightist as a way to survive,” Song told NK News.

Song said that this is a natural result, as they settled down in South Korea with the support of certain parties, something also seen in Cuban refugees in the U.S.

Song also argued that the defectors do not fully grasp concepts such as democracy and human rights, having grown up in North Korea.

South Korea’s demonstrations and the government response to them have been controversial recently.

Some legal experts have argued that the diminishing right of demonstration in South Korea has caused violence between police and citizens, and demonstrators have responded by trying to tip over police buses used as barricades.

Attorney Keum Tae-seop blamed the government’s reactions to protests for the violence.

“(In South Korea) the government first creates barricades with cars and considers the demonstrations negatively. As the car barricades are established whenever demonstrations happen, tipping them over has become the protestors’ purpose, which is not desirable.”

Saturday’s demonstration, the largest since anti-U.S. beef protests in 2008, called for improved labor conditions, withdrawal of the government-designated history textbook project, greater responsibility among chaebol (family-owned conglomerates in Korea), protections for Korea’s rice markets, and other things.

 

[KimJongilia]

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un expels top aide to farm for ‘re-education’ over power plant leak

North Korean leader punishes Choe Ryong-hae, who was one of his closest confidantes

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 24 November, 2015, 3:24pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 24 November, 2015, 3:26pm

Agence France-Presse in Seoul

Choe Ryong-hae (right) shakes hands with Liu Yunshan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, in Pyongyang last month. Photo: Kyodo

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has sent one of his top aides to a farm for “re-education” to punish him for the sloppy construction of a power plant, South Korea’s spy agency said on Tuesday.

Choe Ryong-hae, a member of the ruling party’s politburo standing committee, was purged earlier this month, Seoul lawmakers said after the National Intelligence Service (NIS) briefed them in a closed session.

Questions have swirled about the fate of Choe - one of Kim’s closest confidantes - after his name was omitted from an official funeral committee list this month.

Kim has earned a reputation for ruthlessness after eliminating previous high-ranking officials from his ruling party.

He had his powerful uncle Jang Song-thaek executed in December 2012 on charges of treason and corruption.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ruthlessly purged a number of people from his inner circle in recent years. Photo: EPA

The NIS said Choe was probably purged to take the blame for a water leak at a power station completed in late October at Mount Paekdu near the border with China.

Choe had been chosen to take a personal message to President Xi Jinping in 2013.

Only last September he was selected to visit Beijing as North Korea’s representative at China’s giant second world war victory anniversary parade.

He was mentioned in state media as recently as October 31, when he made a statement about a ruling party congress to be held next year.

But Choe’s name was omitted from an official list of 170 names published on November 9 for the state funeral of Marshal Ri Ul-sol, who died of lung cancer.

Rumours of political purges and even executions regularly emerge from the isolated North. Sometimes these are rebutted when the official in question resurfaces in state media.

The Kim dynasty has ruled the impoverished North for more than six decades with an iron fist and no tolerance for dissent.

 

[KimJongilia]

Rich-poor gap drives resentment in Pyongyang

Lee Sang Yong | 2015-12-03 16:20

In order to take care of loyal inner circle, Kim Jong Un is building luxurious apartments and private housing in Pyongyang. However, this is causing serious resentment from those who do not stand to benefit from the exclusive provisions.

In a telephone conversation with the Daily NK on December 1st, an inside source from Pyongyang said, “Lately, people have been using the word ‘economic stratification’ more frequently. This frustration and discontent stems mainly from the high-cost construction projects occurring around Mirae (future) Scientists' Street. The brunt of this criticism is that the regime has stopped the public food distribution system, yet continues to cater to the rich and politically connected class.”

Daily NK crosschecked this information with an additional source in the capital.

“Residents who live on the outskirts and suburbs of central Pyongyang do not receive electricity in a reliable manner. They are forced to exist in pitch black darkness. Some people are saying things like, ‘The cadres exist in a separate world from us,'" he said, adding that one residents "cursed the regime while lamenting his hard fate."

“Cadres who are in the Central Party or work in foreign currency-earning companies show off their wealth by blowing through US $1000 in a single meal. An entire family of ordinary people could survive off that amount for a whole year. That’s why people feel animosity towards high-level cadres.”

According to our source, Pyongyang is designated as a ‘Special Supply Region’ and was therefore the first to receive public distribution. It also means that Pyongyang plays host to spas, health clubs, cafes, and fancy restaurants. The living standard in Pyongyang has improved markedly over the years.

However, compared to the skyrocketing standards of central Pyongyang, North Korean authorities have neglected and cast aside the needs of residents on the outskirts of town. Development of these areas has slowed as a consequence. New buildings shoot up in the city center all the time, but according to residents in the outer regions, “nothing much has changed in over a decade.”

“The monthly salary for a worker in Pyongyang’s textile factory is anywhere from KPW 300,000(about US $36.00) to KPW 1,000,000(about $121.00). At companies in fringe areas, the going rate is between KPW 3,000 (US 0.36) and KPW 4,000(us 0.48). In this sort of situation, the residents are forced to go to the markets and sell in order to make a living,” he explained.

By the source’s estimation, high-level cadres such those in the Korean Workers’ Party and Ministry of People’s Armed Forces account for 10% of the population but hold most of the country’s wealth. Below them are the donju (masters of money, or new moneyed class), who occupy about 20-40%. The remaining 50% is made up of “normal folks, who really do struggle to get by and provide for their family.”

“A while ago, it was said that even though we were subsisting on corn meal soup and scraping to get by, those in Pyongyang weren’t much better off. But things have changed. Now there are residents who say they’d prefer to farm in the countryside rather than watch the cadres show off their extravagant wealth,” the source concluded.

*The content of this article was broadcast to the North Korean people via Unification Media Group.

*Translated by Jonathan Corrado