North Korea

[steffychun]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-north-korean-leader-kim-jong-gotta-give/story?id=36198345

Trump loves Kim

 

[KimJongilia]

UN special rapporteur visits Japan to discuss abduction issue

Darusman promises more pressure on North Korea to settle abduction issue

Jiwon Song
January 19th, 2016

Marzuki Darusman, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the DPRK visited Japan to discuss North Korea’s abduction of Japanese citizens.

Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday evening said Japan would like to “cooperate with the U.N.” to complete the report about the human rights situation in North Korea.

Katsunobu Kato, the cabinet minister in charge of the abduction issue, spoke with Darusman Monday night, where Darusman told him the abduction issue would be resolved through “continuous dialogue between the two countries,” and that the issue has drawn international attention. Kato also said Japan would demand that North Korea take “specific action to settle the abductions,” as well the nuclear and missile testing issues.

Prior to the talk with officials, Darusman met with the family members of abductees, saying abduction is undoubtedly a “crime against humanity” and adding that he would make full efforts to “call North Korea to account.”

The families called for effective resolution that would lead to the abductees’ return home, NHK reported.

North Korea’s human rights situation, including the abduction issue, has been drawing international attention, as the relevant resolution has been adopted at the U.N. General Assembly in each of the last two years.

Since appointed as special rapporteur in 2010, Darusman has annually submitted a report about North Korea’s human rights situation to the U.N. General Assembly and Human Rights Council. His visit this time is to submit a final report about it.

One source said Darusman’s report probably concerns North Korea more than his visit itself.

“Darusman’s visit itself won’t make a significant change to Japan-DPRK relations,” Robert S. Boynton, author of the recently published The Invitation-Only Zone: The True Story of North Korea’s Abduction Project told NK News.

“Darusman, however, is involved in the U.N. Commission Of Inquiry (COI) to investigate and report on details on the human rights situation in North Korea, including abduction issue. Darusman himself doesn’t scare North Korea but the bigger group like the COI is what scares them indeed.”

Picture: UN Geneva, Flickr Creative Commons

 

[KimJongilia]

Chinese border town residents distrust N.Koreans, outsiders

At tense times, Changbai residents aren't shy in expressing distrust of visitors, especially Korean

Lawrence Steele
January 18th, 2016

CHANGBAI, China – Like the smell of coal that wafts from across the narrow Yalu River, suspicion and hostility toward outsiders hang thick in the air of this quiet border town, which peers into a dilapidated North Korean city.

Arriving after nightfall, our first interaction with a local besides our hotel’s receptionist makes it clear that foreigners aren’t welcome in the urban center of Changbai Korean Autonomous County, from which North Korea’s Hyesan is separated by as little as 30 meters (a little less than 100 feet) of water. When we enter a fruit and vegetable shop to ask about the origin of the produce, the owner immediately accuses our Chinese interpreter of being a prostitute. Back out on the dimly lit street, an elderly man follows our party for several minutes before apparently losing interest and resuming what seems like an aimless stroll.

The next morning, Chinese police, decked in heavy green coats and fur hats, are waiting in our hotel lobby. After they leave, the receptionist informs us they were looking for journalists. If we are media, she warns, we will likely have our equipment smashed and spend at least a week in jail.

The disdain for visitors in this town, which takes several hours to reach on the decrepit road leading from Changbaishan – the Chinese side of North Korea’s sacred peak Baekdusan – is surely because of what lies across the water, which only becomes visible in the day (such is the absence of artificial light at night). At the riverfront, under the glare of CCTV, signs direly warn against taking photos of North Korea, although Chinese have little hesitation about flouting the rules. Up close, Hyesan, a small city with an estimated population of fewer than 200,000 people, is a grim patchwork of gray and brown, interspersed with the occasional streak of red or blue from a painted roof.

Closest to the river, run-down, single-story buildings form a busy constellation against a backdrop of high-rises and bare mountains. Despite reports of North Korea’s economic revival, there are few signs of recent development, although a large concrete shell right on the river’s edge suggests some ongoing – or abandoned – construction. The surrounding Ryanggang Province is among the country’s poorest and was one of the worst affected by the famine of the 1990s, according to Wheat Mission Ministries, which has done charity work inside the country.

Apart from a handful of buses, vans and motorbikes that join residents traveling on foot or bicycle, the scene is almost static on a November afternoon, as well as disarmingly quiet. Noticing our gaze, a pair of North Korean pedestrians break the near-silence to whistle and jeer in our direction. Below the cityscape, North Koreans wash their clothes in the brown waters of the Yalu.

As we walk toward the outskirts of the town, a car with no license plate slowly rolls by. Soon, we are approached by a man in normal clothes, who admonishes us for taking photos. He describes himself as a “manager” of the area, and asks us to come with him to meet someone he calls his boss. When we decline, he calls his superior to come and examine our pictures. After 15 minutes, his much more genial boss arrives. Without checking our cameras, he tells not to take pictures of across the river and bids us goodbye.

TOUGH TIMES

‘The PRC has stepped up efforts in the border area this past year to detect foreigners nosing around’

While China is generally sensitive about its border with North Korea, we have arrived at what seems to be a particularly tense time. Just weeks earlier, Chinese police in the area arrested a Japanese man on suspicion of spying on military facilities.

“The PRC has stepped up efforts in the border area this past year to detect foreigners nosing around, and unfortunately for academics and journalists, the Chinese Communist Party has returned to its early 1950s roots and encourages locals to see any foreigner taking a photo as a potential spy,” says Adam Cathcart, founder of the Sino–NK website, who has visited the town.

Apart from its striking proximity, North Korea’s presence is felt in various corners of the town. At a local jade shop, the owner tells us much of the precious stones she sells comes from across the border.

“It comes from North Korea but it’s made in this sort of style by Chinese,” the owner says of items ranging from a thumb-sized Chinese cabbage, reported to bring luck to whoever shells out the 300 yuan ($45) price tag, to a foot-high stallion.

She doesn’t know where the jade comes from in North Korea, she said, because it’s bought from Korean-Chinese middlemen. Most of her customers are Chinese from Beijing or Shanghai, as well as Singaporeans and Indonesians.

A few miles outside of town, Changbai-Hyesan International Bridge acts as the official conduit of trade between the countries. A nearby shop sells North Korean Ponghak beer, blueberry wine and cigarettes, all illicitly traded by North Korean truck drivers who do supply runs across the border. As we browse the shop, a North Korean driver is preparing to take a load of Chinese goods back across the bridge. Among the booty are a few dozen large bottles of Coca-Cola.

“North Korean truckers get paid to pick up stuff. On their way in, they sell cigarettes, they sell booze and stuff,” says a source in North Korea’s tourism industry who has traveled the border.

Yet this mix of sanctioned and unsanctioned commerce cannot obscure the tensions between China and its wayward neighbor, which are keenly felt on the border. In September, South Korean media reported that two Chinese had been shot and injured by North Korean soldiers in the area for reasons unknown.

A local business owner we meet claims to know the motive: a dispute that broke out after the North Koreans told the Chinese to stop fishing in the river.

“The Chinese farmer said, ‘No, no way, it’s my fish.’ And then as he tried to get away in his car, the North Korean solider followed and fired five shots at his car and one into his body,” he says.

Local antipathy toward the North Koreans is also felt over more mundane annoyances. Changbai and Hyesan are so close that phone jammers used by the North Korean authorities interfere with Chinese phone signals. As a result, even tiny, nondescript family restaurants have Wi-Fi on their premises for ease of communication.

The business owner’s wife complains that protesting to the Chinese authorities is useless: “The government doesn’t care because everyone is the same.”

Amid rumblings of Beijing’s exasperation with Pyongyang over the latter’s repeated missile and nuclear weapons tests, residents express their own discontent.

Of the state of relations between the countries, the husband is blunt: “The relationship is not good.”

All images: Lawrence Steele

 

[KimJongilia]

Activist defector ‘redefects’ back to North Korea: Uriminzokkiri

Defector previously wrote book on hardships experienced in North Korea

Ha-young Choi
January 18th, 2016

A North Korean human rights activist defector who previously lived in South Korea has redefected to the North, state media outlet Uriminzokkiri said on Saturday.

Son Ok-soon, formerly a Christian human rights activist who also authored a Korean-language book about her difficulties in the North, used a 20-minute interview video to express regret for criticizing the DPRK system.

“Watching through the television, I realized that my fatherland changed remarkably in the past 10 years,” Son said in the video, with a noticeable South Korean accent.

“I became speechless to hear that the county provided luxury houses at Mirae Scientists Street,” she said.”This is impossible to imagine in in other countries.”

Son published a book entitled Missing the Light in June 2012 under the name of Ju Esther.

In the book – a copy of which she tore up during the interview – she wrote about her experiences during North Korea’s famine, her defection and subsequent seven years in China, including her arrest by Chinese police.

But Son used the interview to express admiration for the North Korean system, remarking about its free health and education services and lack of taxes. She also shared details about her life in South Korea, saying it was “dizzy.”

“There are so many political parties (in the South), who often fought in the middle of their meetings,” she said. “The most surprising thing was (South Korea having) the No. 1 suicide rate in the world.”

Son also criticized anti-DPRK propaganda activities, in particular led by Christian activists.

“They are involved with organizations such as National Intelligence Service or any American organizations,” she said. “They are doing so due to money.”

Since Kim Jong Un assumed leadership in late 2011, North Korea has published several videos of defectors who went back to North Korea.

But on Monday South Korea’s Ministry of Unification (MoU) told NK News it was unfamiliar with Son’s case.

“There were 13 cases before, according to our statistics,” a staff member – who requested anonymity – told NK News.

“If somebody who returned North Korea came back to South, a legal procedure will follow,” the staff member added.

Park Gwang-il, president of defector organization Two for One, told NK News that Son had appeared at Christian prayer meetings on occasion.

However, other Christian human rights activists contacted by NK News on Monday said they had never heard of Son.

HARDSHIP AND ISOLATION

The president of NK Reform Radio, Kim Seung-cheol, said Monday that those who go back to North Korea often do so because of economic hardships and social isolation.

In South Korea, data has shown that defectors often have difficulties in becoming integrated into local society, with lawmaker Shin Kyoung-min saying as of last September that 31 defectors had committed suicide.

One student defector contacted by NK News, who requested anonymity, underscored the difficulties members of her community currently faced.

“I once conducted research about defectors’ lives, and during the research period I heard of two suicide cases,” the student told NK News.

“Life in South Korea left me with lots of shocking memories, such as the Sewol ferry disaster,” the defector said. “The only thing I achieved is freedom. In return for it, I lost lots of things such as family,” she said.

At the same time, North Korea has been making increasing effort to attract defectors back to the country that visit the China-North Korea border area.

“In the mid-2000, North Korea used to target defectors and attract them and in those cases, Pyongyang didn’t use them for propaganda,” said Kim of NK Reform Radio.

“These days, North Korea still attracts people, but it only makes effort with certain defectors, not ordinary people,” Kim said.

As of Monday, the video had only appeared on Uriminzokkiri’s YouTube channel, with nothing about the case shown on domestic TV or the flagship Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) service.

“This video is coming to us via a channel that is intended for consumption by sympathetic South Koreans and North Korean escapees who may be struggling in South Korean society and open to the possibility of returning northward,” said Christopher Green, a Ph.D candidate at the University of Leiden.

“Were it to be shown on domestic North Korean television in some form, that would change our assessment of the audience somewhat.”

Main picture: Uriminzokkiri

 

[KimJongilia]

From childhood to nuclear tests, insiders say Kim Jong-un has always been 'erratic'

Sources inside the country say criticism of the leader by party cadres has increased in recent months. Daily NK reports

Lee Sang Yong for Daily NK, part of the North Korea network
Wednesday 20 January 2016 03.00 EST Last modified on Wednesday 20 January 2016 03.33 EST

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signs a document about the test of a hydrogen bomb in January 2016. Photograph: Reuters

Kim Jong-un’s decision to carry out a fourth nuclear test regardless of international sanctions has drawn criticism from colleagues in the ruling party, sources inside the country claim.

Speaking under the condition of anonymity from Pyongyang, a source said party cadres had described the nuclear test as a sign of the leader’s “irresponsible and immature personality”.

High-ranking personnel in the North Korean regime have been talking about about Kim’s “aggressive personality” since he was a child, the source added, although the claim are impossible to independently verify.

“If Kim had been a bit more of a nerd he never would have been selected as Kim Jong-il’s trainee for the role of successor.”

Another source, speaking from North Hamgyong Province, corroborated the claims, and said evidence of Kim’s erratic behaviour could be seen in December in the last-minute cancellation of the Moranbong girls’ band tour of China.

The young leader was also reported to have suddenly called off UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon’s visit just a day before the scheduled date in May.

“Kim Jong-un has been treated like a king since he was a child and has a difficult time hearing other people’s points of view,” the second source claimed.

“Nervous about what he might do, both party cadres and citizens tread lightly around him.”

A Japanese sushi chef, under the pen name Kenji Fujimoto, wrote about his experiences with Kim in his memoir, Kim Jong-il’s Cook.

He prepared meals for Kim’s father the former leader from the late 1980s until fleeing Pyongyang in 2001, and described the current leader as “tempestuous” even at an early age, and “hating to be treated like a child”.

“If you called him ‘young commander’, he would get very angry,” said Fujimoto in the 2003 book.

A version of this article first appeared on Daily NK – part of the Unification Media Group

 

[KimJongilia]

Choe Ryong Hae re-emerges, accompanies Kim Jong Un

A few months of revolutionary education normal even for top officials, expert says

JH Ahn
January 20th, 2016

High-ranking North Korean official Choe Ryong Hae has made an appearance in the Wednesday edition of the Rodong Sinmun following a three-month absence from the public eye.

On the front page of the Wednesday edition, Choe could be seen standing next to Kim Jong Un during a visit to the newly built Youth Movement Museum on Tuesday. The article said that Kim Jong Un was escorted by officials including Hwang Pyong So, Choe Ryong Hae, Lee Il Hwan, Cho Yong Won and Kim Yo Jong.

Choe Ryong Hae, the secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea Central Committee, made his last public appearance in October, escorting Kim Jong Un to a Moranbong Band performance.

Rumors of Choe’s disappearance started to spread rapidly in the Korean media when his name was not included among the members of the funeral committee for Marshal Ri Ul Sol, who died in November.

An unnamed source from South Korea’s intelligence community told the Yonhap News Agency in November that Kim Jong Un had sent Choe to country’s top school for re-education.

Many Korean media outlets reported rumor that he had been dismissed from his position, or even purged from North Korean politics and sent to the countryside to participate in revolutionary education programs.

Choe’s presence was reaffirmed in the last week of December, when his name was spotted as the part of funeral committee for Kim Yang Gon, director of the United Front Department of the WPK.

“Choe being named right after Hwang Pyong So reaffirms that he remains in good standing,” said NK News director of intelligence John Grisafi.

It is not the first time rumors of a purge have followed Choe. South Korea’s Ministry of Unification made a public statement in May 2014 that the chances of Choe Ryong Hae being purged were low when he stepped down as director of the North Korean military’s General Political Bureau, NK News previously reported.

“There is no need for North Korea watchers to make an early judgment,” said Kim Byung-ro from Institute for Peace and Unification Studies.

“Anyone in North Korea, except the national leader, can be subject to revolutionary education if needed. It is the norm in North Korean politics to take such education as a form of reprimand.”

Kim is among those saying there is high chance that Choe received revolutionary education during his absence from North Korean politics.

“Revolutionary education for the period of less than six months can be given to anyone without trial.”

Other South Korea media such as the Hankyoreh reported Choe’s reappearance as early as last Friday, when Choe was identified in state media as “Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea’s Central Committee.”

Featured image: Rodong Sinmun

 

[KimJongilia]

 

[KimJongilia]

Ask 10 people what they think about the hydrogen bomb, 9 'don’t care'

Lee Sang Yong | 2016-01-20 15:28

Amid daily propaganda proclaiming the purported success of hydrogen bomb test in North Korea, its citizenry continues to display little interest in the subject, choosing to devote its attention to doing as much business as possible at the markets.

On the 17th, Daily NK spoke with a source in North Pyongan Province, who told us that nine out of ten citizens, when questioned about their opinion of the latest nuclear test, said “they don’t care.”

"Although the remaining one citizen out of this survey went against the current, citing state propaganda about the nation's status as a powerful military state, the majority of people express zero interest in the subject, wondering instead why the regime is not taking steps to improve the daily lives of the people," she reported.

Daily NK spoke with additional sources in both South Pyongan Province and North Hamgyong Province who confirmed that these findings closely reflected sentiments in their respective regions.

With all of the attention around the New Year’s Address and Kim Jong Un’s birthday celebrations, coupled with state media trumpeting the success of the nuclear test at every turn, citizens are “quite sick of it all,” the source added, explaining that amid all the strained jubilation “all anyone really has on their mind is how to do better in the markets.”

And stabilizing market prices suggest that they have indeed done everything in their power to work around these events, squeezing as much economic activity as possible into daily life despite all the background noise. Facilitating this processes is the fact that, following the nuclear test, there have been no crackdowns on market activities and trade with China “continues mostly uninterrupted," she asserted.

Some nervous members of the new affluent middle class [donju], concerned about potentially negative effects on import and export prices wrought by the latest nuclear test, frantically contacted their trading partners in China in an effort to ascertain the degree of the potential fallout. To their surprise, however, their concerns were quickly assuaged by their Chinese counterparts, who reminded them that as the sanctions imposed on North Korea following the first three tests failed to deliver the desired blow, little attention is being paid this time around as well.

Moreover, after the crackdown on limits on the amount of rice that could be sold at the end of last year ended, the price of rice finally fell and people’s livelihoods began to stabilize again, eliciting sighs of relief for most. At the time of writing, rice was trading for 5019 KPW per kilo in Pyongyang, 4970 KPW per kilo in Sinuiju, and 4980 KPW per kilo in Hyesan, a drop of about 300-500 KPW from last month.

The RMB-KPW exchange rate has also dropped slightly. As the Lunar New Year holiday (February 8) fast approaches, North Koreans are anticipating an influx of RMB to pour into the country via the Hwagyo community (overseas Chinese residents). Consequently, the RMB exchange rate has dropped slightly from 1320 KPW to 1290 KPW.

The takeway from these trends is a cognizance among the majority of the population that "nuclear tests will not fill their bellies." Although Party cadres have little choice but to carry on with their daily propaganda, stating, “We have become a powerful nation that the rest of the world fears,” the number of people who buy into this narrative remain in the minority, the source concluded.

*Translated by Natalie Grant

 

[Narong Wongwan]

Apart from the material hardship part.....North Korea is very much like sinkieland

 

[KimJongilia]

North Korea faked sub-launched missile test footage, analyst says

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 12 January, 2016, 2:15pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 12 January, 2016, 9:35pm

Reuters

A California-based think tank believes the footage of a North Korean submarine-launched ballistic missile test announced last week was faked.

Footage of a North Korean submarine-launched ballistic missile test released by Pyongyang two days after it announced it had conducted the country’s fourth nuclear test last week was faked, according to an analysis by a California-based think tank.

In defiance of a UN ban, the isolated country has said it has ballistic missile technology which would allow it to launch a nuclear warhead from a submarine, although experts and analysis of North Korean state media cast doubt on the claim.

North Korean state television aired footage on Friday of the latest test, said to have taken place in December. Unlike a previous SLBM test in May, it had not been announced at the time.

“The rocket ejected, began to light, and then failed catastrophically,” said Melissa Hanham, a senior research associate at the California-based Middlebury Institute’s James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS).

South Korea’s military said on Saturday North Korea appeared to have modified the video and edited it with Scud missile footage from 2014 although an official told Reuters that the ejection technology might have improved since the May test.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears jubilant following the test-fire of the strategic submarine underwater ballistic missile. Photo: Reuters

The CNS analysis shows two frames of video from state media where flames engulf the missile and small parts of its body break away.

“North Korea used heavy video editing to cover over this fact,” Hanham said in an email.

“They used different camera angles and editing to make it appear that the launch was several continuous launches, but played side by side you can see that it is the same event.”

North Korean propagandists used rudimentary editing techniques to crop and flip old video footage of a more successful ejection test from May and a Scud missile launch from June last year, the video analysis showed.

The North’s claim that its fourth and most recent nuclear test, conducted last Wednesday, was of a more advanced and powerful hydrogen bomb has drawn scepticism from the US government and experts.

It is also unclear if North Korea has developed a nuclear device small enough to mount on a missile.

 

[KimJongilia]

Alternative school director says unification starts with education

Lee Kyoung Ju | 2016-01-21 18:25

[video=youtube;yEggiWEfWps]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yEggiWEfWps[/video]

​

 

[KimJongilia]

 

[KimJongilia]

US student detained in North Korea ‘over hotel incident’

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 23 January, 2016, 3:21pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 23 January, 2016, 3:22pm

Reuters in Seoul

Small American flags have been placed in the trees in front of the Warmbier family home, in Wyoming, Ohio. Photo: AP

Otto Warmbier, the American university student being held by North Korea, was detained before boarding his flight to China over an unspecified incident that had taken place earlier in the trip at his hotel, his travel company said on Saturday.

North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said on Friday that Warmbier “was caught committing a hostile act against the state”, which it said was “tolerated and manipulated by the US government”.

Charlotte Guttridge, a tour leader at Young Pioneer Tours and the only outside witness to Warmbier’s detention, said the 21-year-old University of Virginia student was not with other tourists when the events that appear to have prompted his arrest occurred.

“What happened, happened at the hotel and my belief is that Otto kept it to himself out of hope it might go unnoticed,” Guttridge said.

Guttridge and colleagues at Young Pioneer Tours declined to share further details of exactly what had taken place, citing the safety of their client.

Warmbier had been staying at the Yanggakdo International Hotel when the incident that led to his arrest occurred. The Yanggakdo is a towering structure on an island in the middle of the Taedong river, which cuts through central Pyongyang.

China-based Young Pioneer Tours is a North Korea travel specialist that describes itself on its website as “an adventure tour operator that provides ‘budget tours to destinations your mother would rather you stayed away from’”.

During his five-day New Year’s tour of North Korea, staff at Young Pioneer Tours said Warmbier had acted normally, and was keen to see daily life in one of the world’s most isolated countries, which is visited by around 6,000 Western tourists a year. Ten other US citizens were on the tour.

“Throughout the trip, Otto behaved as a typical tourist – taking pictures, enjoying himself. We had no indication that anything untoward had happened until the airport,” Guttridge said.

When Warmbier’s group reached the airport, he appeared to have been purposefully delayed at immigration, Troy Collings, director of Young Pioneer Tours, told Reuters.

As the tourists checked-in at the gleaming, recently-renovated terminal, Warmbier was taken aside by two airport officials and escorted into a small immigration room behind a wooden door to one side of the check-in area.

“He was not dragged away and he wasn’t yelled at,” Guttridge said.

As Guttridge waited for Warmbier to come out of the room, she instructed the rest of her tour group to board the North Korean Air Koryo flight bound for Beijing.

“When it became clear that he wasn’t coming, I had to board the flight before it departed,” said Guttridge, who still had colleagues in Pyongyang with another group of tourists. “I was the last to board the flight.”

As the Russian-made Tupolev airliner prepared to leave the terminal, an airport official boarded the plane and told Guttridge that Warmbier had been “taken to hospital”.

Soon after, a North Korean contact passed on a message concerning Warmbier’s detention to Young Pioneer Tours founder Gareth Johnson, who was in Pyongyang with a separate group due to catch a train to the Chinese border.

“I stayed back when I heard Otto had been detained,” Johnson said. “It was an automatic response. I wanted to try and work out what the situation was and it was my hope that I would at least be able to speak with him.”

Johnson said his company was in contact with Warmbier’s family, US officials and the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, which represents US interests in North Korea.

Staff at the tour operator said as far as they knew Warmbier had not been in possession of any religious or political literature. Foreign visitors have been detained in the past for attempting to distribute religious literature in the country. The US and Canadian governments advise against travel there.

The US State Department, in a statement, said it was aware of reports that a US citizen had been detained in North Korea but gave no further details, citing privacy concerns.

Calls to the Warmbier family home in Cincinnati, Ohio, were not immediately answered on Friday and nobody answered when a Reuters reporter knocked on the door of the house.

 

[KimJongilia]

N.Korea dissatisfied with Iran’s improved Western ties

U.S. deals with Iran, Cuba, Myanmar leave North Korea in isolated, exposed position: expert

JH Ahn
January 26th, 2016

North Korea’s state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Monday expressed worries over Iran’s steps to shrink its nuclear program and their closer ties with the West.

From Implementation Day on January 16, when the International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran has curbed its nuclear program enough to begin receiving sanctions relief, through Tuesday the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) has published more than 10 stories related to Iran. These stories have included those political in nature, such as coverage of the U.S. Navy vessel that was briefly detained after drifting into Iranian waters.

But the KCNA had remained silent as to any news related to the West’s lifting of sanctions on Iran after its successful fulfillment of steps to shrink its nuclear program. The Monday Rodong editorial may be regarded as North Korea’s first public recognition of the Iran’s recent changes.

“The Western world is bustling over the recent Iran–U.S. change in relations, calling it as the ‘model for settling an international dispute.’ But this is their misappraisal of the subject,” the editorial reads.

The 500-word editorial indicates that Pyongyang is concerned about Iran’s denuclearization policy bringing it closer to the West.

“Recently the U.S. has brought up new sanctions against the 11 Iranian entities and individuals just because they were involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program,” wrote the Rodong editorial, referring to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s announcement on January 17.

“Raising new sanctions on Iran right after lifting the previous ones vividly shows what the U.S. is aiming at. They are trying to diminish and restrain Iran’s national power to turn the state into one more obedient to the U.S.”

Balazs Szalontai of Korea University in Seoul told NK News that North Korea is strongly dissatisfied with the post-2013 Iran-U.S. rapprochement, especially because the Obama administration also improved relations with Myanmar and Cuba.

“This has left North Korea in an isolated and exposed position, and enabled the U.S. government to claim that the main obstacle to U.S.-North Korean rapprochement is North Korea’s inflexibility,” Szalontai said.

Szalontai said that Iran and North Korea might have argued over North Korea’s recent nuclear test, which can explain why North Korea has found it necessary to publicly express its disapproval of Iran’s foreign policy.

“The U.S. will keep pushing to sanction Iranians further,” the Rodong reads.

“The U.S. even threatened the Iranian government that it would bar the country again from the rest of the world if the Iranians violate their recently signed agreement. This shows that the U.S., if they wish, can shred the recent Iranian-U.S. agreement like a scrap of paper.”

“Bloody lessons learnt from the recent Iraq and Libya incidents show that obeying the U.S.’s manipulations will only be paid back with destruction, chaos and death.”

On Monday Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Italian President Sergio Mattarella signed an $18.4 billion contract covering cooperation in sectors from oil services to agriculture.

Featured image: Wikipedia

 

[Callisto]

Chinpo fined $180K over illegal arms case and running remittance business without licence

Chinpo Shipping Company was convicted last month of transferring US$72,017 from its bank account to that of shipping agent CB Fenton and Co.PHOTO: ST FILE

Published 8 hours ago
Elena Chong
Court Correspondent

SINGAPORE - A local shipping company was fined a total of $180,000 on Friday (Jan 29) for transferring funds that could reasonably have been used to contribute to North Korea's nuclear programme and for running a remittance business without a valid licence.

Chinpo Shipping Company was convicted last month after an eight-day trial of transferring US$72,017 (S$103,000) from its bank account to that of shipping agent CB Fenton and Co operating at Panama Canal on July 8, 2013 for the return passage of the cargo ship Chong Chon Gang - owned by North Korea - through the Panama Canal. The transfer was a necessary payment to transport the arms and related material from Cuba to North Korea.

The ship was managed by North Korean company Ocean Maritime Management (OMM), a long-time client of Chinpo, which is in the ship agencies and chandlers business.

The Chong Chon Gang, intercepted by Panama, was found loaded with 25 containers and six trailers of arms and related material weighing 474 tonnes in July 2013.

The cargo included two MiG-21 jet fighters and anti-tank rockets, as well as SA-2 and SA-3 Russian surface-to-air missile systems and their parts. All were bound for North Korea and hidden in the cargo hold under 10,500 tonnes of sugar. The shipment constituted the largest amount of arms and related material interdicted on the way to or from North Korea.

The court heard that Chinpo agreed to help send funds and make transfers for OMM which wanted to hide the fact that the money was coming from a North Korean entity.

Chinpo transferred US$54,270 to pay for the passage of the ship through the Panama Canal on its way to Cuba on May 28 that year. On July 8 the same year, it made another transfer of US$72,017 to pay for the ship's passage back through the Panama Canal to North Korea.

The prosecution had asked the court to impose the maximum fine of $100,000 on each of the two charges.

In passing sentence, District Judge Jasvender Kaur said that there was a strong public interest in preventing breaching of United Nations sanctions.

For the second charge, she said the company's culpability fell within the "high'' category. When convicting the company, she had said there were circumstances which called for enquiry, but Chinpo took the position that it would pay whoever Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) entities that wanted them to pay.

"They conducted no due diligence. Such irresponsible conduct must be deterred,'' she said.

Chinpo's lawyers Edmond Pereira and Richard Kuek said in mitigation that Chinpo was not informed nor warned about representing OMM and DPRK shipowners.

There was no notice or notification from Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore or PSA on attending to the DPRK vessels when they come to Singapore.

They said Chinpo had no reason to doubt the authenticity of the business activities of OMM and DPRK shipowners, and it was far too presumptuous and onerous to assume that Chinpo should know about the activities of OMM and DPRK shipowners outside Singapore.

 

[KimJongilia]

 

[KimJongilia]

Seeking promotion, soldier arrested for looting elementary school

Kang Mi Jin | 2016-02-02 16:05

Multiple gifts bestowed on a Pyongyang elementary school by Kim Jong Un were stolen last month, leading to the arrest of an administrative supply soldier at a reserve military training unit, who said he had carried out the act to curry favor with a high-ranking cadre, Daily NK has learned.

“There was a burglary at Unha Elementary School in the Ryongsong district around mid-January, and the perpetrator was later apprehended,” a source from Pyongyang told Daily NK on Monday. “The individual is an administrative soldier at a reserve training unit near Unha Scientists’ Street, so the atmosphere there is pretty fraught.”

An additional source in the capital corroborated this news.

He continued, “What’s adding to this is the fact that the man arrested for the crime claimed, ‘This was not just for my own benefit,’ ‘I won’t go down for this alone,’ implying there were others involved, and that’s why his brigade is on high alert."

The pilfered gifts included a computer, television, and musical instruments that Kim Jong Un had presented to the school in 2013 after conducting an on-site tour. The offerings were touted as evidence of the “supreme leader’s benevolence,” and as such, the failed burglary attempt will not be treated like an average theft.

“If it were just a simple burglary, it could have ended with a labor-training sentence, but there’s already word from the judicial office handling it that will not be the case,” the source said. “Stealing presents gifted by the Marshal (Kim Jong Un) is bad enough, but the fact that he sold it and used the money to pay up bribes to high-ranking cadres is worse, so everyone who has ties with this individual is under interrogation."

The leadership is highly sensitive to the issue of “doing damage to the highest dignity,” and is expected to interpret the recent incident in the harshest light possible. "Kim Jong Un may deduce that his fearpolitik path has yet to root out the issues of corruption and bribes and try to use this instance to set an example--execution looming in the most severe case ,” speculated the source.

Strong reactions are already brewing among those in the lower echelons of society. Many point their fingers both at the soldier who chose such extreme measures to climb up the ranks as well as the high-ranking cadres inciting these corrupt practices. Incidents like this one, according to the source, fan the flames of exasperation among those forced to sustain a system of ubiquitous bribery among cadres in order to survive.

“People say that officers practically leave soldiers with no choice but to steal, and they’ve been very critical of the State Security Department agents and Party cadres who took bribes at the training unit," he reported.

“As far as the soldier in question, who jumped at the chance to carry out the school heist during winter vacation while students were out collecting compost and scrap metal, people comment on the audacity he would have had to to muster up to rob a school to get a promotion."

Some people even joke that the General’s (Kim Jong Un’s) gifts have “played into the hands of this bribery culture.” While the incident will likely invite tighter monitoring accompanied by myriad events underscoring Party loyalty, North Korean residents, all too familiar with this predictable chain of events, note that “none of it will last long; the bribery issue will persevere," he concluded.

*Translated by Jiyeon Lee

 

[KimJongilia]

Camp 16 prisoners forced to bear brunt of NK's nuclear pursuits

Lee Sang Yong | 2016-01-28 14:31

It has come to light that political camp prisoners in North Korea were mobilized for the tunnel excavation and other construction of a nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, Kilju County, North Hamgyong Province, where Pyongyang recently carried out its fourth nuclear test.

“My understanding is that the state had mobilized prisoners from kwanliso [political prison camp] 16 to the Punggye-ri site for digging purposes,” a source from North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Tuesday. “Before they carry out the test, everything needs to be done secretly, which is why they mobilized political prisoners, who are easy to control rather than members of the general public."

Daily NK crosschecked this information with two additional sources in North Hamgyong Province.

“The state is further abusing those already languishing in dire conditions, subjected to forced labor among a host of other unspeakable human rights violations; on top of all this they've been forced to do the debris clean-up following the test without any protective gear, which obviously means they've been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation.” the source said

North Korea also mobilized political prisoners for construction work during the past three nuclear tests at the Punggye-ri site. Camp 16’s close proximity to the test site, roughly 2.5 km away, and its isolated position amid rugged terrain make it an ideal location to work quickly while keeping a lid on the operations.

“Camp 16 prisoners were mobilized from the very beginning when the test site was created, according to the source. Much of the work the prisoners carry out for the state involved digging for coal and cold, so "boring shafts [at the site] wasn't much of a leap for the authorities."

"These prisoners are forced to endure relentless, excruciatingly arduous labor only to eventually die from exposure to radiation, their bodies dumped in a restricted area as part of nuclear waste disposal," he said, lamenting the North's egregious use of political prisoners as non-human "production tools and nothing more."

“The state feels no sense of guilt as it herds out these prisoners, labeled ‘anti-republic forces,’ to force them to do fulfill is dangerous pursuits,” said the source. “They’re taught that it’s okay to just kill them and the guards on watch treat them accordingly; they don't care in the least if and when these helpless souls become paralyzed or worse due to the radiation exposure.”

In December 2015, concerns that Camp 16 prisoners may be working at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site were first raised by The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea [HRNK], which works to document and expose rights violations in the North, based on analysis of satellite photos of the area.

*Translated by Jiyeon Lee

 

[KimJongilia]

Residents forced to work, pay to prep for 7th Party Congress

Choi Song Min | 2016-02-02 13:27

North Korean residents are being forced to contribute labor to construction projects and hand over money to the authorities in order to support the 7th Korean Workers’ Party Congress this May. The large political gathering last took place in 1980, wherein it was announced that Kim Jong Il would succeed his father, Kim Il Sung. In order to fund and prepare for the large celebration, regional offices and inminban [people's unit, or neighborhood watch] groups are pressuring residents to participate in work mobilizations and give so- called “material contributions.”

In a telephone conversation with the Daily NK on January 28, a source from South Pyongan Province said, “These days, posters and catchphrases about the 7th Party Congress are popping up everywhere you look. Cars blasting propaganda messages about the congress are driving around. Party cadres from regional offices are carrying megaphones and asking residents to contribute to the mobilizations starting at the crack of dawn. Inminban heads are stepping up the pressure for residents to fork over cash to help fund the event.”

Sources in North Pyongan Province as well as North and South Hamgyong Provinces reported the same news in their respective regions.

He continued, “For the next four months, residents are going to be particularly pestered because there is an overlap between efforts to realize goals set out by Kim Jong Un’s New Year’s Address and efforts to prepare for the 7th Party Congress. Some residents have been sent to participate in a new third stage of construction at the Mt. Baekdu Songun Youth Power Plant Under the pretense of ‘material support,’ residents are also being asked to submit cash to the regime. The amount of cash required depends on one’s age, job, and school.”

There are orders to complete construction projects such as the power plant before Kim Il Sung’s birthday on April 15. To accomplish this aggressive schedule, the regime is asking for the “full emotional and physical support of its residents,” which includes, according to the source, sending even young school children to work at the construction site.

Everyone from primary school students to young men to housewives must make contributions to various drives when their cohort is targeted. "Because of the contributions families are making to such drives, there are many households that have given up all their kitchen tools and been asked to contribute cash on top of that,” the source said.

All around the country, elementary school and college students are being obliged to collect 10 kg of copper and colored metal each, and 40-50 kg of iron each. If the students fall short on their quotas, they are forced to pay KPW 30,000- 40,000 (approximately USD 4.24). In order to purchase shovels, pickaxes, gloves, foodstuffs, and toiletries, each resident is also required to hand over as much as KRW 50,000 (about USD 6.00), depending on one’s age.”

He added, “As a result of goals and orders set by Kim Jong Un’s New Year’s Address, residents also need to pay enough money to cover one ton of manure. This is in addition to expenses related to the 7th Party Congress. Since these money raising activities overlap, the burden on each resident is that much harder to bear, going as high as tens of thousands of KRW. To collect the cash, factory company cadres are dividing workers into ‘Earning Teams’ composed of clever youngsters. Local cadres are also offering Party membership in exchange for ‘volunteer donations.’”

When asked about the residents’ reaction to these developments, he reported that people are unsurprisingly weary of these yearly tasks and taxes, having been forced to turn out their pockets and give everything they have to support these events time and time again. Most point out that hardly any time has elapsed since they were forced to go to similar extremes to prepare for the 70th anniversary of the Workers’ Party foundation.

For their part, market vendors did not mince their words when pressed on the issue by Daily NK's source, sarcastically stating, “They want me to pay for Party membership? I think they should pay me to join up!”

*Translated by Jonathan Corrado

 

[SunWukong]

N.Korean defector in Russia faces repatriation

Local news agency says that asylum-seeker called 'Kim' denied in second attempt to stay in Russia

Ha-young Choi
January 29th, 2016

A North Korean defector who sought asylum in Russia has been denied temporary asylum, the Russian news agency RBC reported on Wednesday.

The defector identified only as “Kim” tried to achieve permanent refugee status in November 21, 2015 and previously in January 2014, but was rejected. On December 17 he applied for temporary refugee status but failed again.

Russia’s Federal Migration Service (FMS) refused Kim’s application, saying Kim’s life was not in danger should he return to North Korea. FMS believed that Kim considers Russia a “transit country,” according to RBC.

Human rights activists filed a complaint against the decision, seeking to ensure him one year of refugee status.

If this complaint is not accepted, Kim is likely to face repatriation to North Korea under an agreement signed last November 17. According to the agreement, Russia is supposed to repatriate North Korean criminals.

The UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed concern over this treaty.

“In this regard, I am disappointed to learn that Russia signed an extradition treaty with the DPRK,” UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in North Korea Marzuki Darusman said in November.

“Despite Russia’s assurance that this treaty will not be used to return anybody at risk of persecution, I am deeply concerned that it could de facto facilitate forced repatriation of DPRK asylum seekers. This may put the returnees at risk of serious violations, including torture,” he said.

Kim reportedly left North Korea in 1997, when he was 17 years old. He was repatriated to North Korea after 10 years in China after being caught at the border between Kazakhstan and China. He managed to escape the prison camp with 30 people and arrived Russia in spring 2013, through China.

“Russia has previously accepted some North Korean defectors, but the migration service has judged differently case by case,” Ahn Myeong-cheol, president of NK Watch told NK News.

Ahn cited the past defection of about 30 North Korean loggers in the 1990s.

“North Korea strongly criticized Russia then,” Ahn said.

The Guardian reported that Russia has accepted 90 temporary asylum seekers and two permanent asylum seekers, out of the 211 applicants between 2004 and 2014.

Ahn said these are the people who defect to North Korea through Russia, including some loggers.

In 1999, Russia has repatriated seven North Koreans, even though they were approved as a refugee by the UN High Commissioner for Refugee.

Featured Image: freedom line by Genista on 2003-06-30 11:31:50