Category: DPRK Government

China’s legal (and illegal) trade with North Korea

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With decades of breakneck growth, Communist China has become a testament to capitalism and urban living. North Korea, which also describes itself as a socialist state, is still sealed and secretive — almost.

China is North Korea’s largest trading partner by a long way, and despite Beijing’s official displeasure with the DPRK’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, this trade continues to grow. China has rebuffed any attempts to strengthen economic sanctions further against Pyongyang.

Dandong (China) is a thriving border town on the Yalu River within throwing distance of the Hermit Kingdom of North Korea. And Dandong is the lifeline, say critics, of the autocratic regime led by Kim Jong Un. Whole neighborhoods in the back streets of the city are lined with trading shops quietly run by North Korean officials.

Up to 70% of all China trade with North Korea runs through Dandong, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, and it takes the form of both legal trade and illegal smuggling.

“Chen,” a smuggler who makes midnight runs across the Yalu several times a month to trade with North Korean soldiers, claims that Dandong is crawling with North Korean spies. “Don’t say anything sensitive around the North Korean waitresses,” he whispers to us. “They speak Korean and English.” And you can find them all across Dandong in North Korean themed restaurants, karaoke bars, and musical review shows.

If refugees are caught trying to escape from North Korea, they are shot, but in restaurants in the gaudy two-story tourist trap, North Koreans are allowed to work in China on special three-year permits. They are often the children of mid-level Korean Workers’ Party loyalists and their movements and earnings are tightly controlled.

And as the four-piece all-female North Korean band plays to the Chinese tourists drinking North Korean beer, I think how perfectly it sums up this city: extremely bizarre and perhaps a little tragic.

[Full CNN article] 

Kim Jong Un’s public reappearance with a cane

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After vanishing from the public eye for nearly six weeks, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is back.

kim jong un walking with caneNow, a new, albeit smaller, mystery has emerged: Why the cane?

Kim, who was last seen publicly at a Sept. 3 concert, appeared in images released by state media Tuesday smiling broadly and supporting himself with a walking stick while touring the newly built Wisong Scientists Residential District and another new institute in Pyongyang.

A South Korean analyst, Cheong Seong-chang, said Kim probably broke his media silence to dispel outside speculation that he wasn’t in control and to win sympathy from a domestic audience by creating the image of a leader who works through pain.

It was the first time a North Korean leader allowed himself to be seen relying on a cane or crutch, South Korean officials said.

Archive footage from August showed him overweight and limping, prompting the South Korean media to speculate he had undergone surgery on his ankles.

Cheong said Kim appeared in the recently released images to have lost about 10 kilograms (22 pounds) compared to pictures from May. He speculated that since Kim was holding a cane on his left side he may have had surgery on his left ankle.

[AP]

North Korea media reports Kim Jong Un has reappeared

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Kim Jong Un has reportedly made his first public appearance in more than a month.

The North Korean leader gave “field guidance” to a newly built residential district and visited the Natural Energy Institute of the State Academy of Sciences, state news agency KCNA said early Tuesday.

While KCNA reported Kim had a photo session with scientists, it did not publish those photographs, nor any video of his visits. The news agency also did not report when the North Korean leader purportedly made those visits.

Before this absence, Kim’s longest disappearance from public view as Supreme Leader was 24 days between June 7 and July 1, 2012. His second longest absence was for 29 days between July 28 and August 27, 2011 — while his father was still alive, NK News said.

[CNN]

NSA indicates no transfer of power in North Korea

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The United States has not seen any definitive indication of a transfer of power in North Korea, where state media have not mentioned leader Kim Jong Un’s activities in weeks, a top U.S. official said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

Kim’s absence from the public eye has fueled speculation over the state of his health and whether he may have been sidelined in a power struggle.

“Obviously we are watching very carefully what’s happening in North Korea,” national security adviser Susan Rice said in an interview broadcast on NBC’s Meet the Press. “We have not seen any indications of a transfer of power at this point in North Korea that we view as definitive but we’ll continue to watch it carefully.”

[Reuters]

Kim Jong-un is healthy declares North Korean Ambassador to UK

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North Korea’s ambassador to the UK, Hyon Hak Bong, has told the BBC that Kim Jong-un is healthy, adding that there is “no doubt about it”.

His words seem to contradict those of the state media, which reported in September that Kim was “suffering discomfort” in a voiceover for a pre-recorded documentary.

Reuters had previously been told that Kim had injured his ankle and would need “about 100 days” to recover, while experts believe the leader has been deposed in a military coup and removed from the capital.

Kim has not been seen in public since 3 September, where his weight appeared to have ballooned and he was walking with a limp.

Michael Madden, an expert on the North Korean leadership and a contributor to the North 38 website, said of Kim’s appearance on his last outing: “Based on his gait, it appears he has gout – something [due to] diet and genetic predisposition that has affected other members of the Kim family.”

[The Independent]

EU and Japan press for war crimes probes in North Korea

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The European Union and Japan are asking the United Nations to press for war crimes prosecutions in North Korea. The measure to be presented to the U.N. General Assembly in the coming weeks would ask the Security Council to consider targeted sanctions against North Korean leaders “who appear to be most responsible for crimes against humanity.” It added that these crimes were “pursuant to policies established at the highest level of the state for decades.”

The draft resolution, which was obtained by AFP, draws heavily from a U.N. rights inquiry released in February that revealed a vast network of prison camps and documented cases of torture, enslavement, rape and forced abortions among other violations.

“The draft resolution represents a clear shift towards recognizing that responsibility for the horrific abuses in North Korea lies squarely on the shoulders of the government,” said Param-Preet Singh from Human Rights Watch.

The draft calls on the Security Council to take stock of the report’s findings and take “appropriate action, including through consideration of referral of the situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the International Criminal Court.” It also calls for “concrete and positive results” in efforts to account for all Japanese nationals including victims of North Korean abductions during the Cold War.

A vote is expected at the 193-nation Assembly in late November.

North Korea’s ally China, which has a veto at the Security Council, was seen as likely to reject any referral of North Korean rights abuse cases to the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

[The China Post]

North Korean diplomats on the go in Kim’s absence

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may have disappeared from the public eye, but his diplomatic representatives sure haven’t.

There’s Ri Su Yong, who’s been everywhere from Burma and Indonesia to Ethiopia and Iran since he became foreign minister in April. Last month, he addressed the United Nations, the first North Korean to do so in 15 years, and on Friday, he wrapped up 10 days in Russia.

There’s Kang Sok Ju, the international affairs secretary of the Korean Workers’ Party, in Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and then met the Mongolian president in Beijing on his way home.

And then there are the top officials — including the No. 2 (Hwang Pyong So) and No. 3 (Choe Ryong Hae) behind Kim — who showed up in South Korea last weekend, meeting with the prime minister and unification minister and promising to talk again soon.

Kim himself hasn’t been seen in five weeks, and on Friday, he failed to show up for the 69th anniversary of the founding of the Korean Workers’ Party. The state-run Korean Central News Agency notably left Kim’s name off a list of dignitaries who paid their respects to his father and grandfather, Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, at the mausoleum where their bodies lie.

It has become a ritual for top leaders to go to the mausoleum — a huge, marble-lined palace on the outskirts of Pyongyang officially known as the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun — just after midnight as the anniversary begins. But the news agency reported only that a basket of flowers bearing the current leader’s name was placed before statues of the first two Kims. It was the first time since he succeeded his father almost three years ago that Kim Jong Un had missed the event.

Still, North Korea is embarking on the most intensive outreach since Kim took over, and most analysts agree that such frenzied activity abroad would be unlikely if there were real turmoil at home.

“This is the most active period of foreign diplomatic activity that we’ve seen out of Kim Jong Un for sure,” said Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. “They’re really reaching out, and the question is why. What’s motivating them? I don’t think anybody knows for sure.”

[Washington Post]

Analyzing Kim Jong Un’s Absence

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This isn’t the first time that Kim Jong-un has gone missing but it’s just the North Korean leader is breaking his own record by staying out of the public eye for this long.

His father. Kim Jong-il, “went missing” for up to 80 days when he reportedly had a stroke in 2008. And a potential health issue remains the most likely reason for Kim Jong-un’s notable absence.

“No one knows why Kim Jong-un is out of sight, but he has been the most public of the three dynastic leaders,” Katherine Moon, a senior fellow for the Center for East Asia Policy Studies, told ABC News, referring to the line of leadership that began with Kim Jong-un’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung.

Moon said that Kim Jong-un’s increasing weight, alcoholism, heart or ankle problems and stress are all among the health factors that could be ailing him, though nothing has been confirmed. “He may also be facing personal challenges — he does have a family — a wife and at least one child. Perhaps there is illness or some other problem. Again, who knows?” Moon said.

North Korea expert Michael Madden, who runs a leadership watch blog and contributes to Johns Hopkins University’s Korean Studies site, told ABC News that there were two other times that he has gone missing since taking control of the country following his father’s death in December 2011. “There’s no reason to really think it was his health back then,” Madden said. “He was more muscular than he is now.”

One factor that makes Kim Jong-un’s ongoing absence different from the rest of the dictatorial pack is his age. Though his health is clearly a cause for concern — since he has grown noticeably larger and was seen limping in his last public appearance — his age makes the prospect of a grave medical issue less of a concern.

The Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s largest newspaper, reported on Tuesday, citing an unnamed source, that Kim had fractured both of his ankles and had surgery in Pyongyang in the middle of September to treat them.

When Kim Jong-il is believed to have had his stroke in 2008, North Korean press officials did their best to prevent any admission of ill health. Madden said that officials claimed Kim Jong-il attended two public events during his roughly 80-day absence, though there were no photos taken at one event and the images released from the second were believed to be doctored.

[ABC]

Rival Koreas trade fire over propaganda balloons

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North and South Korea traded machine-gun and rifle fire Friday after South Korean activists released anti-Pyongyang propaganda balloons across the border.

North Korea opened fire nearly two hours after the release of the balloons, Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said, and several 14.55 mm machine gun bullets fell south of the border near a South Korean base and a residential area. Kim said South Korea then fired 40 rounds from K-6 machine guns. The North then opened fire with rifles, which South Korean soldiers responded to in kind, Kim said. There were no reports of damages or injuries. It wasn’t immediately clear if North Korea was firing at the balloons.

The exchange of fire comes as speculation grows about the condition of North Korea’s authoritarian leader, Kim Jong Un, who has been out of public view for more than a month. He missed a major anniversary event on Friday for the first time in three years.

South Korean activists and North Korean defectors frequently release balloons carrying leaflets into the North, but Friday’s action was especially provoking because it came on the founding anniversary of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party.

South Korean civic organizations mainly made up of North Korean defectors sent 10 balloons northward from the South Korean side of the border. They contained 20,000 anti-North Korea leaflets, 1,000 U.S. $1 bills, 400 propaganda DVDs and 300 propaganda thumb drives.

North Korea’s Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea released a statement Thursday criticizing the planned leaflet launch, calling it “little short of a declaration of a war.”

“If the South Korean authorities allow or connive at the projected leaflet-scattering operation, the north-south relations will again be pushed to an uncontrollable catastrophe and the provokers will be wholly accountable for it,” the statement said.

North Korea has issued similar warnings on the leaflets in the past but hasn’t acted on its threats.

[AP]