Category: Kim Jong Un

Is China impotent when it comes to North Korea’s actions?

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North Korea’s latest nuclear test will pile the pressure on China — the country’s economic benefactor and only real ally — to rein in Kim Jong Un’s regime.

But, even if it were willing, Beijing increasingly appears unable to influence its unruly neighbor.

“It won’t cut off economic ties completely; that would make China vulnerable to North Korea threats… and a potential collapse,” says Tong Zhao, an associate at the Carnegie Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing.

Relations between Pyongyang and Beijing have been frosty since Kim Jong Un succeeded his late father as dictator, promptly purging several key government figures — such as his uncle Jang Song Thaek — with strong ties to China.

Kim has never visited China as leader, nor has he met President Xi Jinping, despite reportedly lobbying to do so for several years.

Concerning the North Korean nuclear test back in January, Mike Chinoy, former CNN international correspondent and the author of “Meltdown: The inside story of the North Korean nuclear crisis,” had called it a “real slap in the face” for China.

In March, China joined the international community in placing the toughest ever sanctions on the country. Speaking on Friday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying declined to say if China would support new, tougher sanctions.

[CNN]

North Korea carries out biggest ever nuclear test

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The United States condemns North Korea’s Friday nuclear test “in the strongest possible terms as a grave threat to regional security and to international peace and stability,” President Barack Obama said in a statement.

North Korea said it has hit the button on its fifth and potentially most powerful nuclear test Friday morning, claiming to have successfully detonated a nuclear warhead that could be mounted on ballistic rockets. State media said the test would enable North Korea to produce “a variety of smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear warheads of higher strike power.”

A blast detected in North Korea around 9 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET) is estimated to have had the explosive power of 10 kilotons, almost twice as large as its most recent test in January, said Kim Nam-wook of South Korea’s Meteorological Administration. (By comparison, the nuclear bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima in World War II yielded about 15 kilotons.)

South Korea, Japan and China condemned the test, saying it was a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions. The Security Council plans to hold an emergency meeting on the issue Friday, a senior US official and a UN official said.

Seismic activity was detected Friday morning near Punggye-ri — the same location as four other tests. The US Geological Survey reported a 5.3-magnitude earthquake but later termed it an explosion.

Though North Korea has continued to improve its nuclear and missile capabilities, it has yet to pair the two successfully. But concern has been growing that the country is testing weapons at an unprecedented pace this year, CNN international correspondent Paula Hancocks said.

The test is another slap in the face to the North’s chief ally China which has been under pressure to rein in its behavior, and diminishes any chance of a resumption of six-country talks on North Korea’s nuclear program.

[CNN/AFP]

Large increase in North Korean defectors from the middle class

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It’s understandable why many North Koreans desire to flee the Hermit Kingdom. What’s interesting to note, however, is the economic class of defectors that have found their way out of North Korea.

According to a survey from the Korean Unification Ministry, the percentage of defectors from the “middle-class” rose from 19% (in 2001) to 55.9% after 2014.

The increase stems from the fact that more defectors from higher statuses in the North possess the resources to escape, said the Unification Ministry.

The latest high-profile defection comes from Thae Yong-Ho, North Korea’s deputy ambassador to London. As one of the highest-ranking North Korean officials to have defected, it wouldn’t be farfetched to believe that others will eventually follow suit.

Although the reasons to cross the border, or in some exceptional cases remain away from, are numerous, it’s noteworthy that one of their highly-publicized punishments in North Korea seems to have decreased: North Korea leader Kim Jong Un is estimated to have executed about 130 officials in the 5 years he’s been in power, while Kim Jong Il, his father, had put to death over 2,000 officials in a 6 year span.

[Business Insider]

North Korea defections to South Korea climbs by 15%

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The number of North Koreans defecting to South Korea rose 15 percent in the first eight months of 2016 compared with last year, government data showed Wednesday. From January to August, 894 North Koreans arrived in South Korea compared with 777 the previous year’s eight months, according to data by the Ministry of Unification.

In all, the total number of North Korean defectors has reached 29,688.

Defection peaked in 2009 as the previous regime of Kim Jong Il had widespread famine and slowed since 2011 as new leader Kim Jong Un strengthened border control and surveillance over the country’s population.

But it increased this year as North Koreans are escaping his stronger control of the communist country.

Another reason is economic. “Compared with the past, the number of North Korean defectors seeking more opportunities and better lives for themselves in South Korea has increased,” a government official said.

Overseas workers and diplomats are defecting as North Korea is pressuring them to send more money to the North.

“The costs [North Koreans have to bear] for defections have increased as the Kim Jong Un regime has intensified crackdowns on those who attempt to flee the nation,” Jeong Joon-hee, South Korea’s unification ministry spokesman, told a press briefing.

[UPI]

Information to the most information-starved nation on earth

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The theory of Jung Gwang Il’s work is essentially this: Tiny packets of information just might bring an end to decades of tyranny in his homeland. From his base in South Korea, he sends USB drives, SD cards, and other devices—loaded with Hollywood movies, South Korean television shows, and testimonials from North Korean defectors—across North Korea’s borders.

Jung runs No Chain, one of several defector-led organizations trying to pump data into North Korea through helium balloons, human smugglers, and even helicopter drones. The idea is that the contraband flash drives and memory cards will then make their way to North Korea’s black market, where they can be sold and plugged into a computer or the Chinese-made portable media player known as a “notel.” By some rough estimates, 10 percent of North Korean households have a computer at home, and up to half of urban households own a notel.

In conversations with Jung, I’ve asked the 53-year-old activist many questions in hopes of answering only one: Why has he decided to do what he does? What I’ve come to understand is that the trajectory of Jung’s life as he relayed it to me—from his immigration to North Korea as a child to his military service as a young man to his nightmarish ordeals as a political prisoner—is, at its core, a story about the power of information.

With all the focus on North Korea’s nuclear weapons and various provocations, people don’t always recognize “how powerful information can be,” Jung told me. He argues that it’s this information  that Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s 32-year-old leader, fears most.

[The Atlantic]

South Korea: North Korea executes vice premier in latest purge

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North Korea has executed its vice premier for education and rebuked two high-ranking officials, South Korea said on Wednesday, which, if true, would mark a new series of measures by leader Kim Jong Un to discipline top aides.

Kim took power in 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, and his consolidation of power has included purges and executions of top officials.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said the government had confirmed the execution of the education official, Kim Yong Jin, “through various channels” but declined to provide details. The execution, by firing squad, apparently took place in July.

Additionally, Kim Yong Chol, the influential head of the North’s United Front Department which handles inter-Korean relations, was made to undergo “revolutionary measures,” Jeong told a briefing. Kim Yong Chol was re-educated at a rural farm for a month until mid-August, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency said. Kim Yong Chol, an Army general, headed the North Korean intelligence agency before taking his current position this year.

Another ruling party official in the propaganda department was also reprimanded, Jeong said.

The South’s comments follow a news report on Tuesday that the North had executed two high-ranking officials for disobeying leader Kim Jong Un.

It is difficult to independently verify news about top officials in the North or the inner circle around the leader. Some previous reports of executions and purges in the reclusive state have proven inaccurate.

North Korea rarely announces purges or executions, although state media confirmed the 2012 execution of Kim’s uncle, Jang Song Thaek, widely considered the country’s second most powerful man, for factionalism and crimes damaging to the economy.

[Reuters]

Kim Jong-un still purging traces of his uncle’s influence

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is still struggling to wipe out the network of businesses and influence established by his uncle Jang Song-taek, whom he executed in December 2013.

A source last week said Kim is especially allergic to facilities with names like “Haedanghwa” or “Daedonggang,” which were commonly used by businesses Jang controlled.

In June this year, Kim was touring the Haedanghwa kimchi factory in Pyongyang when he suddenly became angry and ordered the name to be changed to Ryugyong.

A landmark mall in the capital called Haedanghwa, a pet project of Jang’s, has also been renamed.

In April, Kim ordered the demolition of a folklore park in Pyongyang, another pet project of Jang’s that opened in 2012. The following month Kim ordered officials to delete all images of the park in various publications.

Kim is also said to complain frequently of the vast influence Jang had in North Korea.

[Chosun Ilbo]

Rights Group builds legal case against Pyongyang abusers

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A human rights group is beginning to build the case for the eventual prosecution of Kim Jong Un and other North Korean leaders for crimes against humanity by detailing information about thousands of individuals who have been sent to political prison camps.

The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB) has published a list of political prison detainees, staff and victims of enforced disappearance, including names, dates of incarceration, alleged crimes and the locations of camps still in operation.

“By providing specific information on individual perpetrators we can show them that they are responsible for their actions in the event of an opening up in North Korea,” said Kim In-sung, a researcher at NKDB.

The catalogue was based on surveys and interviews with more than 1,000 North Korean defectors. It is intended to provide further evidence to support the 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry investigative report documenting a network of political prison camps in the country and widespread atrocities, comparable to what the Nazis did before and during World War II.

[VoA]

Portrayal of defections reflect the state of relations between North and South Korea

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This year we have learned that a growing number of North Korean diplomats and other North Koreans working for the regime overseas are defecting from their posts.

Information about defections usually comes primarily, if not entirely, from South Korea, which means that country sets the tone for how important the case is.

Under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, who took power after his father died in 2012, around 1,400 North Koreans renounce their citizenship and wind up in South Korea each year.

North Korea watchers tend to focus less on these “general population” defections, and more on defections by key North Korean officials who work abroad.

Some analysts say the South Korean government plays up or plays down defections depending on the state of relations between the two countries. continued

[NPR]

Quite a number of North Korean diplomats have recently defected

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Something curious is happening to North Korean officials abroad. A growing number of diplomats and other North Koreans working for the regime overseas are defecting from their posts.

Thae Yong Ho is probably not the only one in North Korea’s broadly defined diplomatic orbit to disappear from his post this year. The South Korean newspaper Joongang Daily, citing anonymous sources in South Korean intelligence, puts the number of diplomatic defections at as high as seven. More conservative estimates say it’s probably more like three.

“There’s a diplomat that works in Africa. Another fellow in Asia, somewhere in Southeast Asia. And then there’s Thae Yong Ho,” says Michael Madden, a visiting scholar at the U.S.-Korea Institute who tracks changes in North Korean personnel at North Korea Leadership Watch. “Those are the three that I know have vacated their posts. The other two [besides Thae], it’s never been clear where they have gone.”

The South Korean government said Friday that it’s seen a “series” of senior defections.

Jeong Joon-hee, a Unification Ministry spokesman, told a press briefing that these defections are believed to be “the result of Kim moving to consolidate his power and growing internal insecurity.” Jeong added, “We’re concerned that North Korea could make more provocative acts as it takes steps to prevent further defections.”

[NPR]