North Korea

[KimJongilia]

North Korea confirms new military chief following reports of execution

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 21 February, 2016, 3:48pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 21 February, 2016, 3:48pm

Agence France-Presse

Late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (centre), inspects the People's Army 763th unit with Ri Myong-su (second from right). Photo: AP

North Korean state media on Sunday confirmed the country has a new military chief following earlier reports in Seoul that the previous holder of the post had been executed.

Ri Myong-su, former People’s Security Minister, was referred to as “chief of the Korean People’s Army General Staff” when the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on an army exercise guided by leader Kim Jong-un.

Ri Myong-su was again mentioned in a separate KCNA report on Kim’s inspection of an air force exercise.

His predecessor Ri Yong-gil was reportedly executed early this month in what would be the latest in a series of purges and executions of top officials.

Ri Yong-gil was accused of forming a political faction and corruption, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said, citing a source familiar with North Korean affairs.

Ri Yong-gil (left), former chief of the Korean People's Army seen here enjoying a military event with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who is believed to have had him executed. Photo: AFP, KCNA, KNS

In May last year South Korea’s spy agency said Kim had his defence chief Hyon Yong-chol executed -- reportedly with an anti-aircraft gun.

Hyon’s fate was never confirmed by Pyongyang but he has never been seen or heard of since. Some analysts have suggested he was purged and imprisoned.

Former vice marshal Hyon Yong-chol, who is also thought to have been executed. Photo: AP

Reports – some confirmed, some not – of purges, executions and disappearances have been common since Kim took power following the death of his father Kim Jong-il in December 2011.

A large number of senior officials, especially military cadres, were removed or demoted as the young leader sought to solidify his control over the powerful military.

In the most high-profile case, Kim had his influential uncle Jang Song-thaek executed in December 2013 for charges including treason and corruption.

Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul said the new military chief was one of Kim’s top three aides and was known to be well-versed in missile technology.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test last month and launched a long-range rocket this month, sparking international outrage.

 

[KimJongilia]

North Korea says detained US student confessed to stealing political slogan

PUBLISHED : Monday, 29 February, 2016, 3:21pm
UPDATED : Monday, 29 February, 2016, 3:20pm

Reuters

Otto Frederick Warmbier (right), a University of Virginia student who has been detained in North Korea since early January, bows during a new conference in Pyongyang. Photo: Reuters/Kyodo

An American student held in North Korea since early January was detained for trying to steal a propaganda slogan from his Pyongyang hotel and has confessed to “severe crimes” against the state, the North’s official media said on Monday.

North Korea has a long history of detaining foreigners, and has used detained US citizens in the past to extract high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no formal diplomatic relations.

Otto Warmbier, 21, a student at the University of Virginia, was detained before boarding his flight to China over an unspecified incident at his hotel, his tour agency said in January.

“I committed the crime of taking out a political slogan from the staff-only area of the Yanggakdo International Hotel,” the North’s KCNA news agency quoted Warmbier as telling foreign and domestic media in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.

Otto Warmbier confessed to

Warmbier said an acquaintance who belonged to a church had offered him a used car worth US$10,000 if he could present the church with the slogan as a “trophy” from North Korea, according to the agency.

The acquaintance also said the church would pay his mother US$200,000 if he was detained by the North and did not return, KCNA quoted Warmbier as saying.

Warmbier was presented to reporters on Monday, February 29, 2016. Photo: AP

“My crime is very severe and pre-planned,” Warmbier was quoted as saying, adding that he was impressed by North Korea’s “humanitarian treatment of severe criminals like myself.”

Other Westerners detained in North Korea have previously confessed to crimes against the state.

Warmbier at the People's Cultural House. Photo: AP

North Korea’s state media said in January that Warmbier “was caught committing a hostile act against the state”, which it said was “tolerated and manipulated by the US government”.

Warmbier was on a five-day New Year’s tour of North Korea with a group of 20 people and was delayed at immigration before being taken away by two airport officials, according to a tour operator that had sponsored the trip.

While the vast majority of tourists to North Korea are from China, roughly 6,000 Westerners visit the country annually, though the governments of the US and Canada advise against it.

Most are adventure-seekers curious about life behind the last sliver of the iron curtain, and ignore critics who say their dollars prop up a repressive regime.

 

[KimJongilia]

State attempts to soothe jittery donju nerves

Seol Song Ah | 2016-03-09 16:16

With China having cut off North Korea’s mineral exports, Pyongyang’s Central Party propaganda officials have been disseminating rumors that resumption of coal and mineral shipments is imminent in order to dissuade the country’s newly affluent middle class, known as the donju, from halting their investments in related facilities.

Donju are the fulcrum of North Korea’s coal industry, their massive dollar investments propping up foreign-currency earning enterprises tasked with production and export of a product providing North Korea with much-needed cash from a resource-strapped China. These "money masters," as literally defined in Korean, wield their sizable monetary influence to secure the land surrounding coal mines, the ports exporting portions of it, and every logistical detail connecting the two. The greater Jikdong Mine area in South Pyongan Province is known to have a high concentration of such operations helmed by donju from across North Korea.

“On news that coal exports have come to a halt, donju, the chief actors in the country’s coal distribution industry, have stopped investing,” a source from South Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Tuesday. “Some had been thinking of completely giving up their coal handling and storage facilities, but with the new rumors surfacing about exports resuming in a few months, they’re now mulling over whether to reinvest.

This news was corroborated by two separate sources in the same province.

It is important to note that these rumors are not coming from members of the public, but from ‘above’ (state authorities), the source explained, stating, “The Party’s Department of Propaganda and Agitation is even creating chatter that people should invest during the temporary suspension so they can benefit from the lower prices.”

Such talk has cast many donju into a state of confusion, scrambling to determine if current circumstances should be considered a “perfect opportunity,” or “a dangerous gamble.” Most have solicited trusted Chinese traders with whom they share personal and professional ties to help them arrive at a decision.

Certainly, such deliberation is distressing for officials, who know full well that a prolonged strangle on donju investment could eventually challenge the operation of the mines themselves, and by extension stymie a robust source of funds buttressing the leadership. Moreover, rations, however meager they may be, are nevertheless anticipated by the workers and miners moored to these enterprises. To cut them off suddenly could sow further discord and have disastrous repercussions for management and further up the chain of command.

For their part, ordinary residents welcome the chance to see coal banned from export trickle down to them for fuel instead. This is improbable, said the source, because "the priority for those above [Kim Jong Un] is securing funds for the Party; they’d never sell it off cheaply."

 

[KimJongilia]

MPS steps up surveillance to suppress potential 'pot stirrers'

Kang Mi Jin | 2016-03-11 10:22

The North Korean government has recently ordered for a thorough investigation and reports on the movements of the “wavering” class within North Korea's songbun classification system, which is based on family political background and loyalty.

The boost in surveillance is interpreted as a move by the regime to nip in the bud any rumblings of political unrest engendered by members of society more likely to speak out about the pressure squeezing North Korea. Those tracing the lines of the circumstances leading to this pressure, namely a volley of sanctions lobbed at North Korea by the international community in response to its nuclear test and rocket launch, are a threat to the regime's authoritarian grip over the population.

A source with the Ministry of People’s Security [MPS, or North Korea’s equivalent of a police force] informed Daily NK on March 8 that internal orders came down at the beginning of March for the MPS to survey and track the recent movements of those anyone ascribed to the “wavering” cohort. Two separate sources in the same province verified this information, but Daily NK has not yet confirmed if the same orders are in effect in other provinces.

North Korea ascribes its citizens to 3 broad hereditary-based groups: core, wavering, and hostile. From there these classes are further divided into some 51 subcategories. Although in the past the authorities prioritized tracking of the hostile class, recently it has expanded its surveillance activities to include traders, donju, and lower-ranking cadres whom throws into the “wavering”’ class.

"The directive from the regime included instructions to pay special attention to those with family members originally from South Korea prior to the war, the Hwagyo [overseas Chinese community], and, most importantly, anyone with any ties to defectors,” the source explained.

Core market players like the donju also pose a considerable threat from the regime's perspective, he added, explaining the rapidly expanding scope of the surveillance. If the market suffers considerably in the face multifaceted, unyielding sanctions raining down on the country, "backlash from the donju is a real possibility," he asserted.

So, in a bid to stave off utter chaos, the fresh mandate obliges MPS personnel to investigate everything with an exacting and rigorous standard, regardless of how seemingly small or insignificant the activity in question may outwardly appear. A legion of inminban [people's unit, an elaborate neighborhood watch system] leaders, who frequently collude with the MPS to carry out their work, as well other elites in the core class, are also said to be actively contributing to this pursuit.

Prior to this, the MPS in the area were primarily kept on citizens who had been identified as having “ideological problems,” but with their purview recently expanded to encompass a larger section of the population--"even the movements of those who are at various mobilization sites [like railway construction] related to the '70-day struggle'"--and no additional compensation for their efforts, the directive's efficacy is dubious, according to the source.

Moreover, these intelligence-gathering exercises stretch well into the night, thereby quickly earning the ire of the patrol teams mobilized to carry them out. The MPS teams cannot state their dissatisfaction in an direct manner, of course, but for all the time diverted to surveillance, as much if not more is spent complaining among themselves about a task they see as futile.

“Do we really need to watch these people every single day?" Who would do something when things are as tense as they are right now?” the source said, relaying some of the grievances aired by members of his patrol group.

 

[JohnTan]

]Ri Yong-gil was accused of forming a political faction and corruption, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said, citing a source familiar with North Korean affairs.

What a bastard! He deserves to be executed by anti-aircraft gun!

Any comment from the Workers' Party branch of Singapore regarding the WP of North Korea?

 

[KimJongilia]

Panic sets in as sanctions specifics circulate

Choi Song Min | 2016-03-08 18:01

As the news about the tough set of sanctions contained in the recently adopted UN resolution spreads in North Korea, the number of concerned residents is growing. Merchants connected to the export of minerals are reeling after hearing that trucks bound for export have been stopped at the customs office in Sinuiju, North Pyongan Province.

“The news that the UN resolution containing sanctions against North Korea passed unanimously is spreading like wildfire through [domestic] cell phones. People in the North had little interest in sanctions in the past, but these days they are expressing concern that ‘this time things are going to be different,'” a source in South Pyongan Province reported to Daily NK on March 7.

A source in North Hamgyong Province corroborated this news, reporting the same developments on the ground in that region.

“Sinuiju is known as the gateway to China and the ultimate symbol of friendly relations between our two nations. That’s why news of its closure to mineral exports is causing dismay,” she explained, adding that a rumor has also taken off that international customs offices in other border towns such as North Hamgyong’s Rajin and Hoeryong will be shuttered.

Further anxiety is being stoked by the fact that trusted allies such as China and Russia are participating in the sanctions and the fact that residents are getting detailed information about the resolution’s specific clauses.

“People are further concerned because things have apparently changed significantly since China helped the country to overcome the difficulties during the ‘Arduous March,’ [famine] in the mid 1990s. People from all over the country are concerned that China might shut the border down totally. If that happens, it will become difficult for everyone to make a living,” the source indicated.

“Wholesalers and market vendors are feeling the most vulnerable to the UN sanctions. Their greatest fear is that they won’t be able to buy products. Merchants who have been selling Chinese products at cheap prices are expecting a cost increase and have momentarily discontinued sales.”

According to the source, the North Korean authorities have indicated that they plan to hold mass meetings to criticize the UN resolution; however, the residents are not pointing their finger at the international community. Instead, they are blaming the authorities.

“I keep hearing, ‘‘Those cadres don’t care if us normal people starve. If I don’t look after myself, I’ll surely suffer,’” she said, adding that to this end, people are busy providing food for themselves and their families, and in some areas, panic buying necessities such as rice before the projected rise in prices. Fears that the customs door to China may close and make accessing food much harder has also contributed to this hoarding trend.

"This is what happens when the authorities pursue useless things [nuclear weapons, missiles] and go around bragging about it," she concluded.

*Translated by Jonathan Corrado

 

[KimJongilia]

Anger mounts as police crush street sales

Kang Mi Jin | 2016-03-09 10:17

After unleashing a “70 day battle” to increase mobilized labor and limit market hours ahead of the May Party Congress, North Korea has also started to clamp down on unofficial alley markets and street vendors. Until now the response from the public had remained somewhat tempered regarding the mobilization, but the crackdown on street sales has fired up complaints.

“We haven’t been able to sell things properly because of the mandate forcing every resident to take part in mobilization and ‘uphold the Party with loyal beads of sweat to build a strong nation’ in relation to the 70 day battle,” a source from Ryanggang Province told Daily NK on March 6. “These days, MPS [Ministry of People’s Security, or North Korea’s police force] agents are on patrol all the time to crack down on street vendors.”

This chain of events has been particularly distressing for vendors in Yonbong 1-dong, Songhu-dong, Baenamugol, and Yonpung-dong of northerly Ryanggnag Province. For sellers in those locales, unfettered street selling is the primary, it not sole, means of livelihood. In the face of continual crackdowns, worries about weathering the new host of difficulties brought on by the “70-day battle” thus weigh heavily on already weary minds.

“Some people have tried bringing a bit of food out with them to sell before mobilization work, but they’ve had all of it confiscated,” the source said. “In the recent years, people weren’t really worried about being mobilized because the state didn’t crack down on market actors and their activities. So of course when you suddenly slap restrictions [on what residents see as their right] people are going to complain.”

Indeed, the decree runs contrary to market regulations, or rather lack there of, during the Kim Jong Un era. Since assuming power in 2011, he has pivoted away from the suffocating market policies of his father while incrementally expanding the nation's official marketplaces.

However, following the pronouncement of plans to hold the first Party Congress scheduled in 36 years, Kim Jong Un has severely diminished people’s primary channel of survival in order to produce more "achievements" ahead of the gathering.

This unforeseen change of tack, a different source in Ryanggang Province reported, is what local residents find impossible to reconcile and has precipitated such a strong response.

“Who would want to work hard during mobilization if they’re choking our businesses like this? We’re not doing this to save up cash--we’re doing it simply to survive!" the source said, citing a number of merchants in the area.

She then added her own voice to the roiling mix, pointing out that "if you want to eat, you’ve got to work. How are you supposed to defend your country if you can’t do that?”

*Translated by Jiyeon Lee

 

[KimJongilia]

North Korean submarine ‘missing’, as Pyongyang threatens South with ‘ultra-precision blitzkrieg’

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 12 March, 2016, 12:36pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 12 March, 2016, 1:05pm

Associated Press

A rocket launched by the Strategic Force of the Korean People's Army. Photo: Reuters

North Korea said on Saturday its military is ready to pre-emptively attack and “liberate” the South in its latest outburst against the annual joint military drills by the United States and South Korea.

In a statement carried through state media, the general staff of the North’s Korean People’s Army said its frontline units are prepared to strike first if they see signs that American and South Korean troops involved in the drills were attempting to invade the North.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un watching a missile launch. Photo: EPA

The KPA said it will counter the drills by the United States and South Korea it says are aimed at advancing into Pyongyang with plans to “liberate the whole of South Korea including Seoul” and also that it is capable of executing “ultra-precision blitzkrieg” strikes against enemy targets.

At the start of the drills on Monday, the North warned of an indiscriminate “pre-emptive nuclear strike of justice” on Washington and Seoul.

In response to North’s statement, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff called for North Korea to stop its threats and “rash behaviour” and warned that a provocation from the North would result in the destruction of its highest leadership.

North Korea has condemned the annual military drills staged by Seoul and Washington in South Korea, calling them preparations for an invasion. The allies say the drills, which this year are described as the biggest ever and follow the North’s recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch, are defensive and routine.

Kim appears to be synchronising watches with an army official at the rocket launch drill. Photo: Reuters

At the same time, a North Korean submarine is said to be missing.

The unknown class of vessel was reportedly operating off the North Korean coast earlier in the week when it disappeared.

A South Korean defence ministry said Seoul was investigating the reports. Pentagon officials declined to comment on the matter.

The US military had been observing the submarine off the North’s eastern coast, CNN said, citing three US officials familiar with the incident.

Kim on board a submarine in this photo released by Pyongyang in June, 2014. Photo: EPA

American spy satellites, aircraft and ships have been watching as the North Korean navy searched for the missing sub, the report added.

The US is unsure if the missing vessel is adrift or whether it has sunk, CNN reported, but officials believe it suffered a failure during an exercise.

The US Naval Institute (USNI) News said the submarine was presumed sunk.

“The speculation is that it sank”, an unidentified US official was quoted as telling the USNI News.

“The North Koreans have not made an attempt to indicate there is something wrong or that they require help or some type of assistance.”

Kim looking through a periscope of a submarine. Photo: Reuters

North Korea’s navy operates a fleet of some 70 submarines, most of them being rusting diesel submarines that are capable of little more than coastal defence and limited offensive capabilities.

But the old, lo-tech submarines still pose substantial threats to South Korean vessels.

In 2010, a South Korean corvette was reportedly torpedoed by a North Korean submarine near their sea border.

In August last year, Seoul said 70 per cent of the North’s total submarine fleet – or around 50 vessels – had left their bases and disappeared from South’s military radar, sparking alarm.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

 

[KimJongilia]

North Korea sentences US student to 15 years hard labour for stealing propaganda sign

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 16 March, 2016, 12:28pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 16 March, 2016, 12:44pm

Agence France-Presse

Otto Warmbier at his high-profile confession to the international media in February. Photo: Kyodo

North Korea on Wednesday sentenced an American student, who admitted to stealing propaganda material, to 15 years hard labour for crimes against the state, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.

The sentence was handed down on Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old student from the University of Virginia, by North Korea’s Supreme Court, Xinhua said in a brief despatch date-lined Pyongyang.

There was no immediate confirmation of the sentence on North Korean state media.

Warmbier, who was arrested in early January as he was leaving the country, later said he had removed a political banner from the staff only area of the Pyongyang hotel being used by his tour group.

His detention came at a sensitive time, as the United States took a leading role in efforts to secure tough international sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear test on January 6 and a long-range rocket launch a month later.

In recent weeks, Pyongyang has maintained a daily barrage of nuclear strike threats against both Seoul and Washington, ostensibly over ongoing, large-scale South Korea-US military drills that the North sees as provocative rehearsals for invasion.

Warmbier had entered North Korea as part of a New Year tour organised by China-based Young Pioneer Tours. He was arrested when the group was set to return to Beijing on January 2.

The United States has no diplomatic or consular relations with the North, and the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang provides limited consular services to US citizens detained there.

Warmbier is one of three North Americans currently detained in North Korea, which last month sentenced a 60-year-old Canadian pastor to life imprisonment with hard labour on sedition charges.

In the past, North Korea has used the detention of US citizens to obtain high-profile visits from the likes of former US president Bill Clinton in order to secure their release.

Detained foreigners are often required to make a public, officially-scripted acknowledgement of wrongdoing, and Warmbier was paraded in front of reporters and diplomats in Pyongyang at the end of last month.

Warmbier bowing in shame during the press conference in Pyongyang in February. Photo: AFPFootage of the event showed a sobbing Warmbier pleading to be released and saying he had made “the worst mistake of my life”.

According to the North’s state media, Warmbier said he had been tasked with stealing the banner by a member of the Friendship United Methodist Church in Wyoming, Ohio, who wanted it “as a trophy”.

The member – the mother of a friend of Warmbier’s – had promised him a used car worth $10,000 if he succeeded and a payment of $200,000 to his family if he was detained, the media said.

“Since my family is suffering from very severe financial difficulties, I started to consider this as my only golden opportunity to earn money,” he was quoted as saying.

Political slogans, extolling the achievements of the country and its leaders and encouraging citizens to work harder and demonstrate their loyalty, are all-pervasive in North Korea.

They can be seen on the streets and in nearly every public building, as well as every work unit.

According to KCNA, the slogan on the banner removed by Warmbier was aimed at inspiring “the Korean people’s love for their system”.

 

[KimJongilia]

North Korean ski resort’s amenities defy UN luxury-imports ban

Masik Pass is a shining example of how Kim Jong-un’s regime has been able to pour resources into prestige projects and flaunt restrictions designed to block its access to imported luxury items

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 17 March, 2016, 11:05pm
UPDATED : Friday, 18 March, 2016, 3:00am

Associated Press in Masik Pass, North Korea

Hotel building at the Masik Pass Ski Resort in Wonsan, North Korea. Photo: AP

To view the humbling limits of round after round of international sanctions against North Korea, come to Masik Pass. It isn’t a secret military facility where Kim Jong-un’s best and brightest are hard at work developing nuclear warheads and long-range missiles.

It’s a ski resort.

The UN has been trying for years to punish North Korea for its nuclear programme by barring trade not only in weapons but in luxury items, in hopes of making Pyongyang’s elite feel some pain. If they feel pain at Masik Pass, it’s more likely because they’ve had a tumble on their French Rossignol skis.

The resort boasts the amenities of a first-world ski destination – a luxury hotel, a half-dozen upscale restaurants and a well-equipped, professionally staffed ski rental shop. Visitors can stock up on European chocolates, drink their fill of Heineken beer, even buy T-shirts with themselves and the slopes Photoshopped and emblazoned across the back.

Imported snowmobiles from China were buzzing up and down its slopes even as the UN Security Council was discussing how to crack down after the North’s latest nuclear test in January and subsequent rocket launch. Despite an occasional power outage, its Doppelmayr chairlifts from Austria were working just fine.

To its critics, Masik Pass is a shining example of how Kim’s regime has been able to pour resources into prestige projects and flaunt restrictions designed to block its access to imported luxury items, set through four prior rounds of UN sanctions. Part of the problem is that countries disagree over what items are banned.

Masik is also important because it is a signature project of Kim Jong-un himself. It opened in 2013, just two years after Kim, who lived in Switzerland when he was a teenager, assumed power.

Adding salt to the wounds of ardent sanctions supporters, the resort has become a big hit with Western tourists.

One of ten ski slopes is visible from the hotel at the Masik Pass Ski Resort in Wonsan, North Korea. Photo: AP

Though exact figures on how many have gone and how much they have spent are not available, Masik Pass is part of package tours offered by the main tourism agencies that specialise in North Korea, which has for several years been trying hard to build its still-nascent tourism sector.

Andreas Hofer, a well-travelled skier and lawyer from Austria who recently visited the resort, described it as “surprising, and full of unexpected luxury”. He rated its slopes as somewhat less than stellar for the true ski enthusiast, but gave it bonus points for being among the most exotic ski locations on the planet.

“Nobody from abroad will come for the skiing only,” he said in an interview by email. “They want to have an idea about new ways and developments in North Korea. And the hospitality and friendliness and welcoming are ample compensation for the more limited skiing.”

North Korea, which obviously opposes the sanctions, argues that skiing isn’t a luxury anyway, but a sport for the masses.

Masik, it claims, has opened up the door for the country to provide large numbers of common people with recreation enjoyed by millions all over the world. It’s a facility where the North can train serious skiers who may one day compete internationally, maybe even in the upcoming Winter Games – which, it’s worth noting, will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018.

Chairlifts at the Masik Pass Ski Resort in Wonsan, North Korea. Photo: AP

Indeed, most skiers on Masik are North Korean. Many come in groups organised by their work units, trade or community associations or schools. The prices for North Koreans are far lower than for foreigners and the lodgings are much more modest.

But Washington, the strongest advocate of sanctions, sees Masik within the larger context of cracking down on any income streams Pyongyang can use to fund its nuclear programme, or reward the North Korean elite for their loyalty to the regime.

“We have eyes on how they spend their money, what they look at, what merchandise, what goods that they purchase from abroad. We try to target those to limit, frankly, their ability to enjoy themselves,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said at a recent news conference.

Actually cracking down, however, has been a challenge.

According to the latest UN Security Council report examining enforcement of sanctions, efforts have been severely undermined by the North’s ability to use its diplomatic missions abroad to get the goods it wants. It also has acquired goods in roundabout ways that involve passage through multiple countries. Manufacturers, it said, often have “no idea about their final destination”.

The report also noted that not all countries agree on what they are supposed to be banning to begin with.

North Korean children attend a ski class at the Masik Pass Ski Resort in Wonsan, North Korea. Photo: AP

Sanctioned luxury items range from caviar and gems to yachts and limousines. But each country is essentially allowed to choose what it does or does not ban. That gives the North a lot of wiggle room.

In a section devoted to Masik Pass, the report said Beijing acknowledges Chinese companies provided ski lifts and other equipment but said it was “of the view that skiing is a popular sport for people, and ski equipment or relative services are not included in the list of prohibited luxury goods”.

Other countries interpreted the same luxury goods category to include such things as snowmobiles and certain makes of snow groomers.

“This creates a situation of uneven practice by member states,” the report concluded.

Masik’s success and past failures to enforce sanctions have exasperated Washington.

“China does not enforce the mandated ban on luxury goods,” Bonnie Glaser, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said in testimony before the US Congress in January. “Chinese customs data shows that North Korea imported US$2.09 billion worth of luxury goods between 2012 and 2014.”

Her conclusion? Washington should consider sanctioning Beijing, too.

The latest sanctions on North Korea, announced by the Security Council earlier this month, try to close some of those loopholes.

Explicitly banned are “luxury watches: wrist, pocket, and other with a case of precious metal or of metal clad with precious metal”, “aquatic recreational vehicles [such as personal watercraft”, items of lead crystal” and “recreational sports equipment”.

And just to make sure everyone is on the same page, the Security Council added: “snowmobiles (valued greater than US$2,000)”.

 

[wzvsce]

lately a lot of old threads bumping up. how about this one?

 

[jw5]

lately a lot of old threads bumping up. how about this one?

Sure, why not?

 

[KimJongilia]

Korean-American held in North Korea confesses to trying to steal military secrets

Kim Dong-chul, who previously said he was a naturalised American citizen and was arrested in North Korea in October, asked for mercy.

PUBLISHED : Friday, 25 March, 2016, 4:00pm
UPDATED : Friday, 25 March, 2016, 4:00pm
Reuters

A Korean-American man who had been detained in North Korea has confessed to trying to steal military secrets from the isolated state, Japan’s Kyodo and China’s Xinhua news agencies reported on Friday.

Kim Dong-chul, who previously said he was a naturalised American citizen and was arrested in North Korea in October, asked for mercy during a meeting with media organisations in Pyongyang, Kyodo said.

Kim apologised for trying to steal military secrets in collusion with South Koreans and described the acts as aimed at overthrowing the North Korean regime, Kyodo said.

A source in Pyongyang said that diplomats in the North Korean capital were notified in the morning of Kim’s confession and his comments were similar to the confession made by another American, Otto Warmbier, being held in the North.

Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour earlier this month for trying to steal a propaganda banner, and the North is also holding a Korean-Canadian Christian pastor, who is serving a life sentence for subversion.

An official introducing Kim to the media began the meeting by praising North Korea’s nuclear achievements and its leader Kim Jong-un, said the source, who had direct knowledge of the meeting.

A defector from the North previously said Kim, who is one of three known Western citizens held in the North, was a Christian pastor who had worked in China and the United States and sent medical aid into the North.

CNN reported in January that Kim was 60 and from Fairfax, Virginia, and that he said he had spied on behalf of South Korea.

North Korea, which has been criticised for its human rights record, has in the past used detained American citizens to extract high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no formal diplomatic relations.

It faces the prospect of further international isolation after the UN Security Council imposed new sanctions after its fourth nuclear test in January.

 

[KimJongilia]

North Korean consulates selling laborers to Chinese businesses

Seol Song Ah | 2016-03-21 14:32

Exploiting their official role in order to earn in foreign currency as labor suppliers, North Korean consulates to China have introduced North Korean laborers to Chinese businesses in the textiles and seafood industries for 200 Yuan a head per month, Daily NK has learned.

“Starting from about a few years ago, officials in the North Korean consulates in China started to provide young female workers to ethnic Korean owned toll processing businesses for a fee. Recently, one such consulate has been receiving a 200-Yuan per month fee in similar transactions with a wig-making factory. The fee in this case is transferred from the worker’s account in accordance with the contract,” a North Korean source currently residing in China reported to Daily NK on March 18.

This development was corroborated by an additional source close to the issue in China.

The brokering of these deals originated in Shenyang, where ethnic Korean managers of seafood processing and packaging, textiles manufacturing, and wig and artificial eyebrow making factories started hiring young, cheap female workers from Pyongyang. The number of Chinese businesses looking to hire young, pretty, 20-something natives of Pyongyang is so large that the consulates have stepped in to facilitate.

Demand from Chinese businesses in the Northeast cities of Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Liaoning quickly built on the momentum, meeting supply from North Korean authorities looking to export labor for a profit. There is a heavy emphasis on beautiful young girls from big cities like the capital. Even now, in the face of strict primary and secondary sanctions targeting the North Korean regime, the demand for young North Korean female workers has not abated.

This is unlikely to change, according to the source, who suggested that the power of consulates to manage these operations should not be dismissed. “North Korean consulates operate as part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Their function is partly to read the current domestic and international situation as it relates to trade. They therefore have a monopoly over such information that they can make good use of. North Korea-China merchants and managers of joint ventures active in border cities such as Dandong, Beijing, and Shenyang cannot afford to ignore the power of the consulates," she said.

“The consulates use their privileged access to information about overseas market trends to engage in illegal foreign-currency earning schemes. The consulate has been known to assist managers of North Korean trading companies by helping them secure favorable contracts with Chinese companies on the rise in exchange for bribes that can be worth tens of thousands of dollars.”

By the source’s estimates, there are approximately 100 companies in Dandong and Shenyang that are employing young North Korean females. Of these companies, the vast majority paid a fee to the consulate in exchange for the workers. “But since this intermediation has been done and paid for in secret, it is difficult to know just how long it has been going on for,” she noted.

“The consulates have used their authority in order to expand their secret foreign-currency earning operations. The Consul General is closing his eyes and putting out his hand, allowing this to happen for a bribe. There have been plenty of cases of cadres at consulates who were unable to get the hang of this secret business scheme. The ones who aren’t able to earn money and then hand over loyalty funds to superiors are given the axe in due course and sent back home.”

*Translated by Jonathan Corrado

 

[KimJongilia]

Regime intensifies signal jamming against foreign radio broadcasts

Kim Seong Hwan | 2016-03-22 16:17

North Korea has been from the beginning of March continually signal jamming radio broadcasts on the shortwave frequency used by the South Korean non-profit broadcaster Unification Media Group (UMG). Given the present situation, in which North Korean residents might be influenced by outside information condemning the regime and explaining the purpose of the sanctions imposed by the United Nations, the regime has showed the will to block sources of outside information that might cause unrest.

The shortwave frequency in question--7515 kHz, in the 41 meter band--has been actively jammed, making it extremely difficult for North Korean listeners to tune in. On the 15, UMG began using three receivers to test out reception at that and adjacent frequencies on a daily basis and was able to confirm that the exact signal is being jammed.

The blocking effort is being concentrated on the time period from 10pm- midnight. Specifically, from 10-11pm the jamming is very strong. The signal jamming is undetectable from midnight to 1am. The signal blocking became weaker at midnight on March 15, from which point onward the entire three hour broadcast was audible. Starting on the 17, UMG moved the frequency, but the jamming operators seemed not to notice because the interference continued on the old wavelength.

Unification Media Group estimates that the North Korean authorities are the responsible party. From the very outset of the consortium's radio leg activities, which date back to December 2005, the regime has frequently looked for ways to jam its frequencies. While sporadic jamming has been common over the past decade, it has had limited impact on receivers. However, starting from March of this year, stronger jamming signals have been deployed. The result: fuzzy reception and sometimes even completely blocked signals. This is the first time that such a strong jamming effort has been continuously maintained.

“This is the strongest signal jam in the last few years. As the regime is pushed into further isolation by the strongest round of sanctions yet, they have become concerned that the residents will be awakened by exposure to outside information,” Unification Media Group (UMG) President Lee Gwang Baek said.

“North Korean authorities can not signal jam at high strength across multiple channels, so right now, the most effective thing to do would be to expand our frequencies and signal strength. We need direct [South Korean] government assistance to do that.”

If the government were to grant permission for civil society organizations broadcasting to North Korea to use the former's powerful and far-reaching medium wavelengths, the broadcasts would be able to reach far more people despite the jamming attempts.

About this, National Intelligence Service First Deputy Director Yeom Don Jae said, “The regime’s efforts to block radio signals from South Korean civic groups is actually confirmation of the potency of these broadcasts. This will cause considerable agitation for the listeners who have become accustomed to tuning in to foreign radio.”

He added, “Therefore, we need to let the North Korean residents know about this situation and use the strength of the regime as a weapon against them. We need to use multi-dimensional methods to pump the North full of information.”

UMG currently broadcasts from 10pm-1am nightly on shortwave frequencies via a transmission station in Dushanbe, Tajikstan. This content is rebroadcast daily from 3-5:00am on AM and FM frequencies via towers in South Korea’s Gangwon Province; however, these channels are borrowed from other private broadcasters and therefore limited in range and potency relative to those allocated by the government.

*Translated by Jonathan Corrado

 

[KimJongilia]

Rare funeral held for construction accident victims

Kang Mi Jin | 2016-03-25 15:36

Sources have informed DailyNK that a second round of deaths has recently occurred during the construction of the Samjiyon railway in Ryanggang Province. Ten people were killed while digging into a wall of earth, which suddenly collapsed and buried them. The construction of the railway, which began in June, has seen a significant number of deaths of stormtroopers resulting from landslides and cars being overturned by blasts.

On the 24, a source in Ryanggang Province told Daily NK that 10 construction workers on the Rimyongsu section of the track were killed very recently in a flood of m&d and rock. Public reporting of accidents of any kind remains extremely rare in North Korea, and funerals for victims even more so.

Two additional sources in Ryanggang Province were able to verify this news.

Party cadres, wary of negative public opinion following the series of accidents that have been killing workers since the project began, held the first funeral in the project’s history. The cadres themselves made sure to attend.

“The workers who were killed had been digging out a section of the ground alongside the tracks when they were overwhelmed by a sudden collapse of the earth nearby. Due to recently warming temperatures, the dirt had started to crumble and become fragile, making the task significantly more dangerous,” he explained.

The source also informed Daily NK that the workers mobilized to build Samjiyon railway have been forced to work beyond what the regulations stipulate on a daily basis. An additional source reported that this was in an effort to complete the railway in time for the Party Congress in May. Under considerable pressure to meet the tight deadline, these disasters have arisen.

It is being reported that members of the public are also being mobilized each day at the Samjiyon railway construction site in Hyesan City. A fee of 12,500 KPW per day is charged to each individual who wishes to engage in market activities or private business there. Furthermore, some members of the Korean Democratic Women’s Union are being mobilized to work on beautification projects for the city and buildings in glorification of Kim Jong Un.

Daily NK previously reported in January that two mobilized construction workers and a member of the public were killed when their cars were overturned by blasts from a nearby Samjiyon railway construction site.

*Translated by Natalie Grant
*Edited by Lee Farrand

 

[KimJongilia]

Military body armor scandal hits South Korea

Report reveals armor's capabilities reduced, could not stop certain North Korean bullets

JH Ahn
March 24th, 2016

A report on the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) military body armor – which was later proven to not be sufficient for stopping North Korean bullets – has opened the door on a corruption scandal in South Korea.

The report from the Board of Audit and Inspection issued on Thursday claims the MND gave preferential treatment to a single company, which allowed it to supply “penetrable” body armor to the South Korean military. While the report did not name the company, subsequent articles in South Korean media revealed it was the Seoul based Samyang Comtech.

“According to analysis, the North Korean military uses common rounds as well as Armor Piercing (AP) rounds … test results from June 2015 showed that body armor produced by the company were completely penetrated by the AP rounds,” the reports reads.

At the time of writing, Samyang Comtech were not available to comment on the news.

The South Korean military in 2007 launched a project to develop its own Liquid Armor, an advanced type of bullet proof armor that can effectively stop both common rounds and AP rounds fired from the North Korean variant of the AK-74.

However, the new liquid armor project was suddenly aborted in October 2011 and at the time the MND explained the liquid armor was unsuitable for use.

The Board’s investigation revealed that the actual reason for the abortion of the liquid armor project was because of an MND official who was in a “back-scratching agreement” with Samyang. The secret deal meant the company would be the only supplier of the body armor to the South Korean military.

The inspection showed that to monopolize the business, Samyang Comtech lobbied the MND to lower the armor’s Required Operational Capability (ROC), to the point where it was no longer bullet proof against North Korean AP rounds.

The report reveals Samyang would have provided more than 300,000 failed units to the South Korean military until the year 2025, at a cost of 270 billion Korean won (U.S. 240 million).

Military experts pointed out two reasons behind the production of the unsuitable body armor.

“Failing to set the right ROC before production begins is what usually causes this kind of trouble,” Kim Dong Kyu, the former military adviser to South Korea’s National Defense Committee told NK News.

“Logistic issues such as body armor or uniforms are only allowed to be produced by a few companies owned by former military personnel, in this structure there can be no fair competition,” a civilian military adviser working between South Korea and international authorities told NK News under the condition of anonymity.

The MND on Thursday announced they will closely review the inspection result and faithfully carry out any follow-up measures, Newsis agency reported.

Featured image: DPRK Today

 

[KimJongilia]

Philippines releases ship with North Korean crew

Ship leaves after UN removal from UN blacklist, status of N. Korean ships in China remains unclear

Leo Byrne
March 25th, 2016

A ship which was recently removed from the UN’s blacklist of 31 DPRK associated vessels was allowed to leave the Philippines on Thursday, were it was held since shortly after the passage of UN Resolution 2270 on March 2.

The Jin Teng was seized in accordance with the new resolution, due to its supposed ties to Ocean Maritime Management (OMM), a North Korean shipping company involved in weapons smuggling.

But pressure from Beijing led to four vessels being removed from the blacklist, after the UN Security Council (UNSC) said they had received further evidence dissolving the ties to OMM.

“At the policy level, there is no more basis to continue to hold M/V Jin Teng after UN Security Council delisted it from the annex of UNSC Resolution 2270,” foreign ministry spokesperson Charles Jose told Reuters.

The NK News ship tracker showed the Jin Teng leaving the Philippines 19 hours ago, headed for China. Reuters reported its North Korean crew were abroad and that no team from the UN had made to it the Philippines to inspect the vessel.

Two of the other vessels removed from the blacklist have not reported their positions since shortly after Resolution 2270 came into effect. While the Grand Karo, the vessel with the most apparent ties to North Korea’s illicit shipping network remains near the Chinese port of Rizhao.

Earlier this month media reports indicated the ship had been denied entry to the port on the strength of the new designation. The Grand Karo however has not moved since it was officially removed from the blacklist on March 21.

CHINESE PORTS

How Chinese ports are currently treating North Korean ships still remains unclear. After a report on March 23 which claimed a number of ports near the DPRK were barring all North Korean vessels from entering, the NK News vessel tracker showed unusually large queues of vessels at other, nearby ports.

The Chinese government however denied the reports at the Foreign Ministry’s regular press briefing.

“We also notice from some recent media reports that Chinese ports have completely banned DPRK vessels. After serious and thorough check, relevant Chinese authorities found that those reports have no truth in them at all,” Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Wednesday.

The current picture seems a little more complicated. While a number of North Korean flagged vessels are currently in the vicinity of Chinese ports, only four are actually docked. Two vessels in Dandong, one in Weihai and a small fishing vessel in Bayuquan. There are no ships with DPRK flags at any of the ports which were reportedly denying them entry.

But ship inspection records show that one North Korean vessel was inspected at Yingkou – one of the ports on the list published by the Asahi Shimbun – on March 23, more than a week after the embargo was supposedly enacted.

The NK News tracker does show a relatively large number of other vessels docked in Chinese ports, however they either do not have North Korean flags, or haven’t broadcast any recent positional information.

For example, none of DPRK ships docked near Shanghai have signaled any location data within the last two months, making it harder to ascertain their current positions.

At the time of writing, NK News was unable to reach any of the port authorities concerned to clarify the situation.

The largest concentration of North Korean ships actively broadcasting their positions is at Longkou, where ten vessels are currently moored a short distance from port.

Featured image: Marine Traffic

 

[KimJongilia]

[video=youtube;7xyF6LHljgI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xyF6LHljgI[/video]

Washington ‘nuked’ by submarine attack in latest North Korean propaganda video

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 26 March, 2016, 2:08pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 26 March, 2016, 2:14pm

Agence France-Presse

North Korea released a new propaganda video Saturday menacingly titled “Last Chance”, showing a submarine-launched nuclear missile laying waste to Washington and concluding with the US flag in flames.

The four-minute video romps through the history of US-Korean relations and ends with a digitally manipulated sequence showing a missile surging through clouds, swerving back to the earth and slamming into the road in front of Washington’s Lincoln Memorial.

The US Capitol building ‘exploding’. Photo: SCMP Pictures

The US Capitol building explodes in the impact and a message flashes up on the screen in Korean: “If US imperialists budge an inch toward us, we will immediately hit them with nuclear [weapons].”

The video was published on the North’s propaganda website DPRK Today and shows images from the Korean War, the capture of US spy ship Pueblo in 1968 and the first crisis over North Korea’s nuclear programme in the early 1990s.

Pyongyang has upped the rhetorical ante in recent weeks, with near daily threats of nuclear and conventional strikes against the South and the US mainland in response to large-scale South-US war games.

The threats have turned increasingly personal, and North Korea leader Kim Jong-un on Friday watched a live-fire long-range artillery drill simulating a strike on the official residence of his South Korean counterpart.

Tensions between the two Koreas been on the rise since Pyongyang carried out its fourth nuclear test in January, and a satellite rocket launch a month later that was widely seen as a disguised ballistic missile test.

The closing shot of the video appears to show Arlington National Cemetery and a burning US flag. Photo: SCMP Pictures

North Korea has been pushing to acquire submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) capability which would take its nuclear strike threat to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula and the potential to retaliate in the event of a nuclear attack.

The North has conducted a number of what it says were successful tests of a SLBM.

But experts have questioned the veracity of those tests, suggesting Pyongyang had gone little further than a “pop-up” test from a submerged platform.

 

[KimJongilia]

North Korean defector criticises China in rare Beijing talk

AFP on March 27, 2016, 3:32 am

Beijing (AFP) - A North Korean defector made a rare public appearance in China on Saturday, criticising Beijing's repatriation of asylum seekers despite alleged warnings from South Korea not to speak out.

Hyeonseo Lee, who escaped from North Korea to China in 1997, called on Beijing to let refugees from her original homeland -- who it routinely sends back -- pass "safely without being caught by the Chinese authorities".

Human rights groups have for decades condemned Beijing for deporting North Korean asylum seekers, who they say face torture and imprisonment when repatriated.

China is North Korea's sole major ally and chief trading partner. It has recently supported UN sanctions on Pyongyang after its fourth nuclear test, but restricts criticism of its neighbour in the media and in public venues. It generally says those deported are illegal economic migrants.

Lee said she was detained and interrogated by police after arriving in China in the 1990s. Though later released, she said she subsequently had to hide from authorities during her near 11-year stay in the country, fearing repatriation.

Speaking at a book festival to promote her recently published title "The Girl With Seven Names" -- which describes living in constant fear of Chinese authorities -- Lee told an audience that China "has no obligation to listen (to) the North Korean regime".

"China is a heaven compared to North Korea", she said, but also described harassment by Chinese police.

"I want to tell the very basic things about what is happening to North Koreans here," she said, speaking in English to an audience of several dozen mostly non-Chinese listeners.

"China is the place we have to cross, but here many people are caught, less than 50 percent will succeed".

Lee said intelligence officials from South Korea, where she now lives, tried to dissuade her from visiting China, warning of possible damage to diplomatic relations.

"They are telling me I had to be careful in China, saying only talk about North Korea, don't ever touch China, especially don't touch the Chinese government," she said.

- 'Many evils' -

China's attitude towards North Korea has hardened as Pyongyang continues with an internationally-condemned nuclear program, but it defends the isolated communist state against criticism of its human rights record and routinely censors media which take too critical a stance.

North Korea released a video Saturday showing a nuclear strike on Washington and threatened South Korea with a "merciless military strike" for slandering leader Kim Jong-Un.

AFP could find no record of a North Korean defector previously giving a public speech in mainland China or publishing a book there.

"No defector made a public speech in China, but I have to make a stand & tell Chinese people the truth," Lee said on Twitter.

She was encouraged by the reception of an earlier subtitled video in which she described her stay in China, viewed more than 110,000 times on Chinese video sites.

Speaking to AFP, she said: "I will not change the Chinese government," adding: "people in the mainland, to let them know what their government is doing, that's really crucial".

"There are many evils living in China, human traffickers, but at the same time there are many good people," she said.

"I'm grateful to those good people, but not the Chinese government".