|
This page is graphically intense with long load times due to photos. However, the photos and narratives by the men who served at Osan Air Base makes the wait well worthwhile. The opinions expressed are those of the author and in no way represents any official statement of Osan AB or the USAF. 
RETURN TO MAIN TABLE OF CONTENTS NORTH KOREAN EVENTS 2009January 2009N. Korea softens on nuclear talks, tightens grip on regime in New Year (Jan 2009) North Korea greeted the New Year on Thursday with an increased focus on its ailing economy and a commitment to denuclearization, a conciliatory signal to the incoming U.S. administration on negotiations over its nuclear program, analysts said.Internally, Pyongyang will try to tighten control of its people amid rumors of leader Kim Jong-il's poor health and deepening food shortages, they said. In a joint newspaper editorial that summed up policy goals for 2009, North Korea continued acerbic criticism of Seoul but made no hostile mention of Washington. It also highlighted denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula as its key foreign policy goal, a stark difference from its 2006 editorial that justified its nuclear weapons drive as a deterrent against the U.S. "It did not directly name Obama, but officially clarifies North Korea's policy for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang is suggesting that it will show flexibility with regard to the nuclear issue and its relations with the U.S.," Kim Keun-sik, a professor at the University of North Korea Studies, said. Pyongyang sees the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on Jan. 20 as an opportunity to start afresh after eight years of largely sour relations with the outgoing Bush administration. Obama has said he is willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to persuade Pyongyang to terminate its nuclear drive. Six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program are virtually on hold until Obama takes office. The latest round ended without progress in December due to differences over verifying North Korea's past nuclear activities. South Korea, China, Japan and Russia are the other participants. The editorial jointly issued by the North's ruling party, army and youth military said Pyongyang's foreign policy is "to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and defend the peace and security of Northeast Asia and the rest of the world." There was also no criticism of joint military exercises by South Korea and the U.S. Experts note a tightening grip on the North Korean people. Uncertainty about the regime emerged this past year as the leader remained out of the public eye for more than 50 days until early October and missed a key anniversary celebration for the North's Workers' Party. Seoul and Washington officials believe Kim had a stroke in August and is now recovering. Kim, who turns 67 in February, has not nominated a successor. The tradition in which "the leader believes in the people and the people trust in and follow their leader absolutely" should continue, the editorial said. North Korean media stepped up its reporting of inspection tours by the reclusive leader in recent weeks in an apparent effort to portray him as healthy and in power. "This year's message concentrated on domestic and economic policy, rather than foreign policy," said expert Kim Keun-sik. "The North's main interest seems to be putting down rumors of Kim's ill health and securing the stability and unity of its regime." The lengthy New Year message revived a post-war industrial campaign to mobilize its citizens for reconstruction. It called for all-out efforts "to solve food problems by our own efforts" and modernize its steel industry, a backbone of industrial infrastructure. "The most notable part of this year's message is its commitment to the economy," Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea specialist at Seoul's Dongguk University, said. To get resources to rebuild its economy, Pyongyang will try to improve international relations in the new year, he said. "In the past, it talked a lot about leader Kim Jong-il and the military-first policy, but here it seems to say the country will restore its national system through the party and rebuild its economy," Koh said. Choson Sinbo, a Korean newspaper in Japan that echoes Pyongyang's position, portrayed North Korea as making a "turning point" in its economy in the New Year. The North "ushered in a turning point for the renaissance of its economy," the report said. "The decision came from its analysis of international situations and its assessment of the country's interests and capabilities." South Korea's central bank says North Korea's economy shrank 2.3 percent in 2007, following a 1.1 percent fall a year earlier. The global economic crisis will likely drive down its export volume and outside aid. The U.N. World Food Program says nearly a quarter of its population of 23 million needs outside food aid to get through the winter. Contrary to its warming gestures to the U.S., North Korea continued its acerbic criticism of the South, accusing Seoul of being "steeped in pro-U.S. sycophancy and hostility towards fellow countrymen." Inter-Korean relations dipped to a record low during South Korean conservative President Lee Myung-bak's first year in office. Pyongyang suspended dialogue and Seoul made no shipments of humanitarian aid to the impoverished North. No breakthroughs are expected unless Seoul shifts its policy, experts say. "Inter-Korean relations will have progress only when the Seoul government moves toward a stepped-up position because the North is clear that it won't budge," Koh said. North Korea has issued a joint newspaper editorial on New Year's day as its policy blueprint since 1995. Previously, the New Year's message was read aloud by Kim Il-sung on television and radio. (Source: Yonhap News.) Activists Resume Sending Propaganda to N.Korea (Jan 2009) Activists resumed sending anti-communist leaflets to North Korea after a month of voluntary suspension at the request of the government and the ruling party. Some 50 members of an association of 24 conservative civic groups on Thursday gathered in Imjingak Plaza in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, to attach 3,000 leaflets to one large balloon and 300 other small balloons to send to North Korea for an hour at 2:40 p.m. The leaflets contain criticisms of the North Korean regime, depicting the dire food shortage in North Korea compared to the luxurious life of its leader, Kim Jong-il. Some nightscape pictures of Seoul and Pyongyang, and food aid to North Korea, were also included. Choi Woo-won, co-leader of the association, said, “The Sunshine Policy is obviously a failure since millions of North Koreans have died of starvation despite several billion tons of food aid by the South Korean government over the last 10 years. The Unification Ministry also does not have any right to prevent civic groups sending leaflets.” Due to a mild breeze, the members could only send 3,000 out of 30,000 leaflets they prepared. “We will hold a massive rally in about 10 days,” said Choi. The Family Assembly Abducted to North Korea and the Fighters for a Free North Korea, two groups that normally lead such campaigns, did not participate in Thursday’s event. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: The year of 2008 ended with a note of hope as the North was considering 'selling" the abductees back to the South. The Ministry of Unification was quietly pursuing this avenue. However, on the New Year, the North again blasted its perenial call for the South to rise up and overthrow the government...yawn. The US food aid to the WFP continues -- but slowly. The six-party talks is a shambles.) N. Korea arresting carriers of $1 bills to stop anti-Pyongyang leaflets: activist (Jan 2009) North Korea is arresting citizens who possess U.S. one dollar bills as a way to crack down on packages of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets sent by South Korean activists that include the currency, an activist here said Wednesday. The North's spy agency, the State Security Agency, issued the directive in early November to stop citizens from collecting the leaflets that criticize leader Kim Jong-il and his communist regime, said Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector and leader of Fighters For Free North Korea in Seoul. (Source: Yonhap News.) (SITE NOTE: Yonhap News reported on 9 Jan that South Korean activist groups will attach N. Korean currency to anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent into North Korea, replacing US$1 bills following rumors that citizens found with the notes are arrested.) Activists Defy Government over North Korean Money (Feb 2009) The South Korea government put a ban on the importation of North Korean money into South Korea in an attempt to prevent activists from putting the money into balloons that are being sent to the North. Activists on Monday pledged to float money across the North Korean border for the birthday of the reclusive nation's leader Kim Jong-il, in a show of defiance of the South Korean government. Choi Sung-yong, the president of activist group Family Assembly Abducted to North Korea, told reporters, "We plan to send leaflets bundled with 5,000 North Korean won bills around Feb. 16." Choi and Park Sang-hak, head of the Fighters for Free North Korea, showed reporters a pile of 5,000 North Korean won bills. A government official said, "It is illegal to import North Korean currency without permission from the unification minister" and warned the government could ask police to investigate the activists on charges of violating the South-North Exchange and Cooperation Act. President Lee Myung-bak in a recent TV debate came out against the regular dispatch of propaganda leaflets, saying, "I don't think it's a good idea to irritate North Korea with insignificant matters." (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) N.Korea in Sweeping Shakeup at the Top (Jan 2009) The North Korean regime has carried out a sweeping Cabinet overhaul, replacing at least nine ministers and making some changes to key positions in the People’s Army and the Workers' Party. In addition to three appointments reported in the official North Korean media earlier, the Unification Ministry says Chon Kil-su was appointed new railways minister, Kim Kwang-yong forestry minister and Ri Yong-nam trade minister. "We have learned that the heads of the commerce, finance, and fisheries ministries and the National Economic Cooperation Committee have been dismissed, but we have not yet confirmed the names of the new ministers," a Unification Ministry official said. In the confirmed ministries only, the leadership sacked at least nine out of 37 ministers, or 25 percent. "Economic recovery and firm control over the political system are a must to consolidate the power that will be handed to any successor of leader Kim Jong-il," a South Korean official said. "The large-scale Cabinet reshuffle seems to have been carried out with the succession in mind." (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) North Korea will hold overdue parliamentary elections in March, Pyongyang's official news agency said Wednesday, in what appears to be a sign of the regime returning to normal with leader Kim Jong-il's improving health. The Supreme People's Assembly made its decision on Tuesday to "hold the 12th representatives' election on March 8 in 2009," the Korean Central News Agency said in a brief statement. (Source: Yonhap.) Over 2,800 N. Korean defectors arrive in South in 2008 (Jan 2009) A total of 2,809 North Koreans arrived in South Korea during the past year, bringing the cumulative number of North Korean defectors here to over 15,000, the Unification Ministry said on 5 Jan. The 2008 figure is up 10 percent from a year earlier. The increase was 26 percent and 46 percent in 2007 and 2006, respectively, according to ministry data. (Source: Yonhap News.) S. Korean farmers send rice to N. Korea amid frozen relations (Jan 2009) A group of South Korean farmers will send 175 tons of rice to North Korea on 7 Jan, continuing non-governmental humanitarian aid amid damaged inter-Korean relations. The Korea Peasants League said they had arranged to have a ship collect rice from across the country at ports along the west coast. The boat left the southern island of Jeju on Monday and will depart from the port of Incheon later on 7 Jan afternoon. It will likely arrive at the North Korean port of Nampo on 8 Jan, they said. (Source: Yonhap News.) Kaesong complex teetering (Jan 2009)Kaesong Industrial Complex, once a shining symbol of expanding inter-Korea joint ventures, is teetering. South Korean companies that opened factories in the complex hoping to take advantage of cheaper labor are now lamenting slowing business in an increasingly unfavorable political environment. Admitting Seoul may have few immediate options for improving ties with Pyongyang, analysts here urged the South’s government to try to resume minimal hotline communication channels with the North. SNG, a South Korean men’s suit maker, spent 9 billion won ($7 million) to build a new three-story plant in the Kaesong complex last July and hoped to hire as many as 2,000 North Korean workers. But following the escalating political tensions between the two Koreas, Pyongyang became less cooperative. Authorities there assigned only some 720 workers for SNG’s new plant. As a result, the company’s plan to fully operate the factory is gone. Only the first floor is buzzing with sounds of workers and machines while the two other floors remain vacant, leaving the company little chance to quickly recoup its investment. “I have new orders coming in because the labor cost is rising in China. But my factory remains idle,” said Chung Ki-sup, the head of SNG. And SNG’s troubles do not end with a partially filled factory. The North is now demanding that the South build dorms for North Korean laborers working in the complex, in line with the Oct. 4 joint declaration between the two countries’ leaders in 2007. But the South claims the construction will not begin unless Pyongyang responds to Seoul’s request to resume inter-Korea dialogue. SNG is not alone in facing trouble in the new environment. Chung Yang-geun, the chairman of Taelim Industrial Co., which produces materials for contractors, does not even know how his factory in the North is working, if it’s working at all. There is no way for him to find out since the North kicked all South Korean managers out of the area last Dec. 1.The company entered a joint venture with the North and invested $12 million to buy concrete mixers, excavators and other heavy machinery for stone extraction. The sales were crisp in the beginning, with the company grossing more than 1 billion won a month before the North’s Dec. 1 action. Business has been hit hard. “I’ve completely lost contact with the North and the promised invitation for the visit to the North is not coming,” said Chung. “I don’t even know what the sales for last month were.” The situation is no different for bigger companies. Hyundai Asan, the spearhead for inter-Korea joint economic ventures, has seen its businesses shrink so dramatically for the past month that some 200 of its employees are forced to work at home for 70 percent of their ordinary pay. The company, the sole operator of the tourism program for South Koreans to visit the North, had both its tour programs to Mount Kumgang and the city of Kaesong suspended last year. “A situation far worse than this may arrive if the tourism programs do not resume,” said one employee who wished to remain anonymous. But the governments in both Koreas show no signs of blinking. Seoul is still sticking to its position that it will not repeat the past administrations’ practice of luring Pyongyang to the negotiation table with economic aid. The North is also standing firm. Kim Yong-chul, the North Korean lieutenant general in charge of senior-level military talks, indicated last month the nation was not afraid of a worst-case scenario for the Kaesong complex. “The South predicts that we will never give up on the complex [by completely shutting it down],” Kim said in his last visit to the complex on Dec. 17 last year. “But they are mistaken. We lived well in a situation far worse than this.” The new year could bring an important opportunity for Seoul to change the deadlock not just for the struggling South Korean companies but for its own sake as well, said many analysts here. “The Kaesong complex offers important breathing room for our companies that are suffering from high labor costs,” said Han Wan-sang, South Korea’s former prime minister. “If the current administration actually pursues a pragmatic approach, it should stop thinking that ‘we should teach the North some lessons,’ and instead redirect its policies toward genuine economic coexistence.” Kim Yong-hyun, North Korean studies professor at Dongkuk University, echoed the sentiment and said that no past administration in Seoul has ever been so disconnected from Pyongyang. “We have to reopen the contact points and communication lines in order to help ourselves better detect any irregular moves within the regime and its military,” said Kim. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.) N. Korea scraps agreement on sea border with S. Korea (Jan 2009) North Korea on Friday scrapped all its military agreements with South Korea and declared a western sea border void, sharply raising tensions and the possibility of another naval clash. "The group of traitors has already reduced all the agreements reached between the north and the south in the past to dead documents," the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, a body handling inter-Korean affairs, said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. "Under such situation it is self-evident that there is no need for the DPRK to remain bound to those north-south agreements," it said. DPRK is the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The western maritime sea border in the Yellow Sea, called the Northern Limit Line, was unilaterally drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Pyongyang has claimed it should be re-drawn farther south. The war ended in a ceasefire, not a formal peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically at war. Bloody naval clashes occurred in 1999 and 2002 along the border, claiming the lives of scores of soldiers on both sides. Earlier in January, North Korea's military warned of a possible naval clash, accusing South Korea of preparing for a war against it and saying it had been forced to take "an all confrontational posture" against the South. Friday's statement was more specific. "First, all the agreed points concerning the issue of putting an end to the political and military confrontation between the north and the south will be nullified," it said. "Second, the Agreement on Reconciliation, Non-aggression, Cooperation and Exchange between the North and the South and the points on the military boundary line in the West Sea stipulated in its appendix will be nullified," the statement said, referring to the Yellow Sea. Asked how seriously Seoul takes Pyongyang's latest saber-rattling, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said the government was studying the North's message and that an official statement will soon be released. As to whether the latest move might be an attempt to draw the attention of the new U.S. administration of Barack Obama, the spokesman said, "This is between the South and the North." (Source: Yonhap News.) February 2009N. Korea threatens to invalidate inter-Korean accords (Feb 2009) North Korea announced yesterday (1 Feb) that it will invalidate all inter-Korean agreements made so far to reduce the political and military standoff between the two Koreas, including one dealing with the maritime border between North and South, and said that South Korea’s “confrontational” policy has driven inter-Korean relations to the brink of war.In a statement released early in the day by the Committee for Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland (Jo Pyeong Tong), a state body affiliated with the North’s Workers’ Party of Korea in charge of South Korean affairs, North Korea said, “All of the agreements concerning the issue of putting an end to the political and military confrontation between the North and South will be nullified.” North Korea also declared that “the Agreement on Reconciliation, Non-aggression, Cooperation and Exchange between the North and the South and the points on the military boundary line in the West Sea stipulated in its appendix will be nullified.” The statement went on to say that the “the indiscriminate anti-North Korea confrontational maneuvers by the South’s conservative authorities” have “driven inter-Korean relations to the worst possible state, one close to war.” The CPRF singled out the South Korean government as responsible for the nullification and abandonment of non-aggression pacts made between the two countries, saying that “the regime of Lee Myung-bak mercilessly destroyed and severed the agreements made by the North and the South with reckless remarks about reunification under the ideology of free democracy, a row over human rights, support for the sending of leaflets and (anti-North Korea) broadcasts, and proposals about the ‘preemptive attacks.’” The statement was largely regarded as a follow-up to a statement made Jan. 17, a spokesperson for the North Korean Army who declared an “all-out confrontational posture” against South Korea. All of the statements appear to be aimed at pressing South Korea to change its policy on the North and have increased the level of military tension along the Northern Limit Line, the West Sea maritime border that the North does not recognize. Some analysts have even said it is possible that Pyongyang and Seoul have been brought closer to a military clash. A high-ranking official in the South Korean government said, “The subject of nullification is primarily seen as pointing to the Basic Agreement, which came into force in 1992. Further analysis is needed to determine whether the list of agreements the North plans to nullify includes the ‘Agreement to Prevent Accidental Clashes in the West Sea, to Stop Advertising Activities along the Military Demarcation Line and Remove Advertising Tools,’ which was signed in 2004.” The official said it is highly likely that the list of agreements the North is planning to nullify does not include either the June 15 and Oct. 4 declarations or the military guarantees on inter-Korean economic cooperation projects such land transportation across the Military Demarcation Line. In response, the South’s Ministry of Unification expressed “deep regret” about North Korea’s nullification of the agreements. Won Tae-jae, a spokesman for the South Korean Defense Ministry, said in a regular press briefing that the “South has defended the Northern Limit Line for approximately 50 years. If North Korea violates it, we will respond sternly.” (Source: Hankyoreh.) March 2009760 Stranded as N.Korea Shuts Border Again (Mar 2009) Some 762 South Koreans have been stranded in North Korea for three days over the weekend after North Korea closed the border again. The Unification Ministry on Sunday said, "North Korea has not sent consent on South Koreans entering and leaving the Kaesong Industrial Complex since last Friday. Since then, the inter-Korean border has been closed."A senior government official said that day North Korea "must understand that it will also suffer losses if the operation of the industrial park is suspended. We're considering reducing the amount of money we pay North Korea or suspending payment of monthly wages to North Korean staff for the time being by applying the 'no-work, no-pay' principle in proportion to the reduced working hours." Some 40,000 North Koreans are employed at the joint industrial park in the border city. South Korean businesses pay about US$3 million or $73 per worker to North Korean authorities per month. Seoul expects Pyongyang to lift the de-facto travel ban on Monday or Tuesday. "To put pressure on the South, the North is repeating its hit-and-run tactics” during the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises which started on Mar. 9 and end March 20, an official said. If the blockade continues beyond the end of the drill, another government said Seoul "may consider asking citizens for their safety to refrain from visiting the industrial park or bringing all those staying at Kaesong temporarily back to the South." So far telephone lines to Kaesong remain operational, but if they are cut off as well, the government here could be forced to pull out South Korean businesses. But Prof. Lee Jo-won of Chung-Ang University said that is unlikely. "It'll be difficult for the North to take the initiative to close the Kaesong industrial park, given its monthly cash revenue of $3-4 million and about 40,000 North Korean workers there, but it won't be easy for the South to pull out from a symbol of the inter-Korean economic cooperation either," he said. "So I don't think either side will make any rash decision." (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: The North's on-off again shutting of the border has caused some in South Korea to consider closing Kaesong temporarily. As it is a major source of income for the cash-strapped North, it would be viewed as a political reprissal.) N. Korea refuses to accept further food aid from U.S.: State Dept. (Mar 2009) North Korea has refused to accept humanitarian food aid from the U.S., the State Department said on 17 Mar, amid escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula over North Korea's planned rocket launch and ongoing joint military drills between South Korea and the U.S. "North Korea has informed the United States that it does not wish to receive additional U.S. food assistance at this time," spokesman Robert Wood said. "We will work with U.S. NGOs and the North Korean counterparts to ensure that food that's already been delivered -- or food that's already in North Korea -- is distributed to the intended recipients." He was referring to nongovernmental organizations. The suspension of food aid comes as North Korea is threatening to orbit a satellite, which the U.S. and its allies see as a cover for testing a ballistic missile capable of hitting the mainland U.S. Talk is rife over possible further sanctions on the North after the launch, scheduled for early April, although China and Russia have shown restraint. The U.S. has delivered 169,000 tons of food to North Korea since May, when Washington pledged to provide up to 500,000 tons to help alleviate the North's chronic food shortage. "The last shipment of U.S. food aid, which was nearly 5,000 metric tons of vegetable oil and corn-soy blend, arrived in North Korea in late January, and is being distributed by U.S. NGOs," Wood said. The spokesman said he had no idea what caused the North Koreans to reject further food assistance, hinting that the North's reluctance to issue visas for Korean-speaking monitors at the World Food Program might have played a role. "I know that that was still an issue that was trying to be worked out," the spokesman said. "Whether or not that is the reason -- the real reason that the North decided to do what it's doing, I don't know. I'd have to refer you to them." North Korea has been refusing to issue visas to Korean-speaking monitors, whose mission is to assure that the food aid is not being funneled as suspected to the military and government elite. The spokesman said the U.S. is ready to deliver the remainder of the promised food aid. "As you know, the food situation in North Korea is not a good one, and so we're very concerned about it," he said. "And one of the things I also want to mention is that we have aimed to implement the U.S.-DPRK food aid program according to the terms agreed to by the United States and the North Korean government in May 2008." The WFP said in December that North Korea will need more than 800,000 tons of additional food aid from abroad to feed its 21 million people this year despite a rather good harvest. The conservative Lee Myung-bak government of South Korea did not provide food aid to North Korea last year, demanding as a quid pro quo that the North make progress in the six-party talks on dismantling its nuclear weapons programs. Lee's liberal predecessors had provided 500,000 tons or so of food aid to North Korea every year over the past decade despite North Korea's nuclear ambitions. It is not likely the Lee administration will soon resume food aid to the North as inter-Korean relations plummeted to the lowest point in a decade as Pyongyang occasionally shut down communications and transportation between South Korea and the South's industrial complex in Kaesong, just north of the demilitarized zone dividing the two Koreas, seen as a symbol of the inter-Korean rapprochement of the past decade. Wood said the food aid to North Korea is humanitarian assistance that has nothing to do with the six-party talks. "I mean, clearly this is food assistance that the North Korean people need." The six-party talks are at a standstill as North Korea refused to agree to a verification protocol for its nuclear facilities in the latest round of talks in December. The Barack Obama administration has pledged to continue the multilateral denuclearization talks while concurrently pursuing more direct bilateral engagement. (Source: Yonhap News.) North Korea detains two U.S. female journalists -- who happen to be Korean and Chinese (Mar 2009) North Korea has detained two female American journalists working near its border with China, a diplomatic source here said yesterday (18 Mar). "Two reporters working for a U.S.-based internet news media outlet, including a Korean-American, were detained by North Korean authorities earlier this week, and they remain in custody there," the source said. The journalists were videotaping a scene near the North's border with China despite repeated warnings by North Korean border guards, according to the source. They were arrested after accidentally crossing into North Korea on Tuesday, the source said. The journalists from the California-based online media outlet Current TV were identified by a South Korean pastor as Euna Lee, editor of the news service section, and Laura Ling, a reporter. "I warned them that they should not be close to the border," said Chun Ki-won, the pastor who helps North Korean refugees seek asylum. Speaking by telephone from Washington, Chun said he met with the two in Seoul recently to help them plan their trip to the border to report on North Korean refugees and last spoke to them by telephone early Tuesday morning. The women told him they were in the Chinese border city of Yanji and were heading toward the Yalu River near the Chinese border city of Dandong, according to the pastor. The Yalu and Tumen rivers are frequent crossing points for both trade and the growing number of North Koreans seeking to escape through the porous border between North Korea and China. The United States seems to be trying to resolve the issue quietly due to concerns over the safety of the detainees, observers said, adding that North Korea is likely to release the journalists in the near future. "A U.S. government official may visit North Korea to bring them back," an observer said. The incident comes at a sensitive time in U.S.-North Korean relations, with the communist state preparing what it calls a satellite launch early next month. The United States and South Korea say the launch is a cover for a test of the North's longest-range missile, in violation of a U.N. resolution passed after its missile and nuclear tests in 2006. Journalists who wish to visit North Korea must obtain special visas and are accompanied by official guides during their stay. Few such visits have been allowed in recent years. The North has, in the past, freed Americans it has detained. Then-U.S. congressman Bill Richardson in 1996 negotiated the release of U.S. citizen Evan Hunziker, who was detained for three months on suspicion of spying after swimming the Yalu river. Richardson, who is now New Mexico governor, at the time described Hunziker as a confused young man who engaged in an "adventuresome frolic apparently under the influence of alcohol." In 1994 Richardson helped negotiate the released of a U.S. military helicopter pilot shot down after straying into North Korea. (Source: Korea Herald.) U.S. denies espionage probe of American journalists detained in N. Korea (Mar 2009)The United States Tuesday (24 Mar) denied the report that two American journalists detained in North Korea are being investigated for alleged espionage. "We are in touch with the DPRK through various channels, and the only statement that the DPRK has made to us says only that the DPRK believes that the two journalists crossed the DPRK border illegally," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said in a statement. DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the official name of North Korea. Wood was referring to the report that North Korea has been interrogating the American journalists for alleged espionage. "The U.S. is aware of South Korean press stories reporting on South Korean sources claiming that the DPRK is investigating the two journalists for espionage," he said. In a daily news briefing earlier in the day, the spokesman would not go further due to the sensitivity of the issue involving Pyongyang, with which Washington does not have diplomatic ties, and Beijing, Pyongyang's staunchest communist ally. "I really don't want to go into much more detail, because we're trying to work this issue diplomatically and the less said from here, the better," he said. "I think it's just best right now, in terms of our interest in trying to, you know, make sure that we can get these people released." He also said that the U.S. has asked the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang to contact two American journalists detained by North Korean soldiers on the Chinese border last week. "We have formally requested through our protecting power in Pyongyang, the Swedish Embassy, that the Swedish government be provided with consular access to these two Americans," he said. "The North has assured us that the detainees will be well treated." The Swedish embassy in Pyongyang handles consular affairs involving American citizens as the U.S. does not have diplomatic relations with the reclusive communist state. The reporters from Current TV, a San Francisco-based Internet outlet, were taken by North Korean soldiers along the Tumen River on the Chinese border while filming the North Korean side. He said he was not sure how soon the U.S. can effect the release of the journalists. "It's hard to say, in dealing with the North, whether we can be optimistic or not," he said. "We're trying to work this diplomatically, because it's a very sensitive issue." The spokesman, meanwhile, urged the North to come back to the six-party talks on ending its nuclear ambitions and to refrain from launching a rocket either for a missile or satellite. "We've said over and again that any missile launch by the North would be -- we would view it as provocative, unhelpful," he said. "We want to see the North focus on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, as it has dedicated itself to doing. This type of rhetoric isn't helpful and in fact can be counterproductive." The detention of the journalists came at a time when tensions have mounted on the Korean Peninsula after North Korea's announcement to launch a rocket in early April to orbit a satellite, which the U.S. sees as a cover for a ballistic missile launch. The detention is the third of its kind since 1994, when North Korea detained a U.S. pilot whose military chopper was shot down after straying into North Korea. Two years later, another American citizen, Evan Hunziker, were held for three months on suspicion of spying after swimming in the Yalu River bordering North Korea and China. Then-U.S. congressman Bill Richardson flew to Pyongyang to successfully negotiate their release. Richardson, a former U.N. ambassador, is now governor of New Mexico. (Source: Yonhap News.) N. Korea to Try 2 Detained US Journalists (Apr 2009) North Korea yesterday said it will put on trial two American journalists whom Pyongyang took into custody March 17. The North`s Korea Central News Agency said, “Authorities have concluded the probe of two female American journalists, and have decided to put them on trial based on confirmed criminal data.” Chinese American Laura Ling and Korean American Euna Lee, both of whom work for Current TV of the United States, were arrested while gathering news on North Korean defectors at the North Korea-Chinese border area. They will stand trial in a North Korean court on the 37th day after their arrest. The North announced neither details of its probe of the journalists nor the charges they face. Announcing its plan to indict them March 31, Pyongyang said, “The two were confirmed to have entered our country illegally and acted hostile.” Article 46 of the North’s immigration law says foreigners who enter illegally will face criminal charges. In addition, North Korean criminal law allows punishment of foreigners conducting spy activities and hostile behavior toward North Koreans under provisions on spying in Article 63 and the crime of anti-Korean behavior in Article 69. The North uses a two-tiered trial system. Hence, the two journalists will likely stand trial first at a provincial or municipal court and later at a higher court. Experts on North Korea’s legal system predicted the process will take more than two months. There is a chance, however, that Ling and Lee could be released during their trial if the North and the United States reach a compromise. (Source: Donga Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: In May the Swiss Ambassador was allowed to visit both journalists. No comments were released in the press nor communications to the US Embassy.) N.Korea Sets June 4 Trial Date for U.S. Journalists (May 2009) North Korea says it will put two detained American journalists on trial in three weeks. The two young women were captured near the Chinese-North Korean border and have been in Pyongyang's custody for more than a month, with almost no contact to the outside world. Some analysts see them as pawns in a much broader political game. In a terse, one-sentence report on its main official news agency, North Korea notified the world, Thursday, it will put Euna Lee and Laura Ling on trial on June 4. North Korean soldiers arrested the two Americans in March, as they were gathering video footage in the area of North Korea's Chinese border. The two are employed with San Francisco-based "Current TV," founded in part by former Vice President Al Gore. They planned a documentary about the hardships faced by North Korean refugees, especially women. Pyongyang says an internal investigation has "confirmed crimes" allegedly committed by the two women, which include illegal entry as well as what the North describes as "hostile acts" against the country. There are various estimates of a possible sentence if they are convicted, ranging as high as ten years in a prison or labor camp. Virtually every scholar here in Seoul views the detention of the two women in the context of how North Korea may be planning to use them to achieve diplomatic aims with the United States. Yun Duk-min, a researcher at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, says Pyongyang is clearly taking advantage of the situation. He says the U.S. journalists are basically hostages. He points out that North Korea launched a long-range rocket last month and has since warned it may conduct a second nuclear weapons. He says that indicting the journalists is just another move aimed at Washington. North Korea has pulled out of multinational talks aimed at getting rid of its nuclear weapons arsenal and refuses to engage in any dialogue whatsover with South Korea. The North ejected nuclear inspectors, last month, and says it plans to reprocess nuclear fuel into weapons material. Yun Dae-gyu, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, suggests the charges against the two women are a thin cloak for a deeper agenda. He describes this episode as a trial process in name only, emphasizing it is absolutely a matter of politics. He says North Korea is only likely to release the two journalists after it is completely certain how the United States will respond. Many experts believe Pyongyang wants direct, one-on-one talks with the United States -- preferably in the form of a high-level envoy visit to North Korea. In that context, the North may use the two women as bargaining chips to extract the maximum possible material and diplomatic concessions from Washington. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) N. Korea says trial of two U.S. journalists will begin at 3 p.m. (Jun 2009) Two detained U.S. journalists were to stand trial in North Korea's highest court on Thursday afternoon, Pyongyang's news agency said, facing charges believed to carry a sentence of up to 10 years in a labor camp. The Korean Central News Agency said the trial of Laura Ling and Seung-eun Lee, known as Euna Lee in her home country, will begin at 3 p.m. at the Central Court, the country's top court in Pyongyang. The one-sentence report did not specify the charges leveled against them, only saying the trial will proceed "on the basis of the indictment already brought against them." The news agency earlier said they had illegally entered the country and committed "hostile" acts. (Source: Yonhap News.) (SITE NOTE: It appears that the US embassy officials had word on the two, but there was no word on the contact. Ling and Lee's relatives were in South Korea and basically took an apologetic tone in commenting on the trials -- realizing that antagonizing the North cannot help their loved ones on trial in the North. However, anti-North activists have called for the "direct" release of the two -- as well as the toppling of Kim Jong-il. When the US State Dept was asked of this trial, its response was: Question: Will the Swedish Ambassador attend the trial in North Korea of the two detained American citizens? Answer: The DPRK has told us that no observers will be permitted to attend the trial.)  Laura Ling, Euna Lee, US Journalists, Sentenced To 12 Years In North Korea (Jun 2009) North Korea convicted two American journalists and sentenced them Monday to 12 years of hard labor for crossing into its territory, intensifying the reclusive nation's confrontation with the United States. The Obama administration said it would pursue "all possible channels" to win the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV media venture. There are fears Pyongyang is using the women as bargaining chips as the U.N. debates a new resolution to punish the country for its defiant May 25 atomic test and as North Korea seeks to draw Washington into direct negotiations. (SITE NOTE: GOD DAMN OBAMA AND CLINTON. WHAT A BUNCH OF AMATEURS. THIS WAS COMING AND THEY DID NOTHING. THE NORTH HAS THE PAWNS -- NOW IT IS TOO LATE... THE NORTH HAS BARGAINING CHIPS. President Obama was "deeply concerned" about the sentences handed down to the two American journalists, and his government was using "all possible channels" to obtain their release, the White House said. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently conceded that Washington has exchanged messages regarding the two journalists and said the government would continue to work for their release. Al Gore also was urged by some to show support, but the former vice president has so far declined comment.) Washington's former U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson called the sentencing part of "a high-stakes poker game" being played by North Korea. He said on NBC's Today show that he thinks negotiations for their "humanitarian release" can begin now that the legal process has been completed. Other South Korean analysts also said they expect the two to be freed following negotiations. The journalists were found guilty of committing a "grave crime" against North Korea and of illegally entering the country, North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency said. North Korean guards arrested Ling and Lee near the China-North Korean border on March 17. The two were reporting about the trafficking of North Korean women at the time of their arrest, and it's unclear if they strayed into the North or were grabbed by aggressive border guards who crossed into China. A cameraman and their local guide escaped. The Central Court in Pyongyang sentenced each to 12 years of "reform through labor" in a North Korean prison after a five-day trial, KCNA said in a terse, two-line report that provided no further details. A Korean-language version said they were convicted of "hostility toward the Korean people." The ruling _ nearly three months after their arrest on March 17 _ comes amid soaring tensions fueled by North Korea's nuclear test last month and signs it is preparing for a long-range missile test. On Monday, North Korea warned fishing boats to stay away from the east coast, Japan's coast guard said, raising concerns more missile tests are being planned. Over the weekend, President Barack Obama used strong language on North Korea's nuclear stance and said his administration did not intend "to continue a policy of rewarding provocation." Verdicts issued by North Korea's highest court are final and cannot be appealed, said Choi Eun-suk, a North Korean law expert at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at South Korea's Kyungnam University. He said North Korea's penal code calls for transferring them to prison within 10 days. The United States, which does not have diplomatic ties with Pyongyang, was "deeply concerned" about the reported verdict, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in Washington. He said officials would "engage in all possible channels" to win the reporters' release. At the White House on Monday, deputy spokesman William Burton said in a statement: "The president is deeply concerned by the reported sentencing of the two American citizen journalists by North Korean authorities, and we are engaged through all possible channels to secure their release." The families of Lee, 36, and Ling, 32 had no immediate comment, spokeswoman Alanna Zahn said from New York. Gore also had no comment, spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said. Lee is Korean-American and speaks Korean, but it is not clear how well. She lives in California with her husband and 4-year-old daughter Hannah. Ling is Chinese-American and a native of California. Her sister is National Geographic "Explorer" TV journalist Lisa Ling. Kim Yong-hyun, a professor at Seoul's Dongguk University, said the 12-year sentence _ the maximum allowed under North Korean law _ may have been a reaction to recent "hard-line" threats by the U.S., including possible sanctions and putting North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism. But he predicted the journalists' eventual release following diplomatic negotiations."The sentence doesn't mean much because the issue will be resolved diplomatically in the end," Kim said. (SITE NOTE: This admits it is a political ploy game.) Just weeks after arresting the women, North Korea launched a multistage rocket over Japan in defiance of international calls for restraint. The U.S. and others called the launch a cover for a long-range missile test, and the U.N. Security Council condemned the move. The U.N. censure enraged Pyongyang. North Korea abandoned nuclear disarmament talks, threatened to restart its atomic program and vowed to conduct nuclear and long-range missile tests if the Security Council failed to apologize. The North followed through with its threat and staged its second-ever underground nuclear test. U.S. officials say the North appears to be preparing another long-range missile test at a west coast launch pad. Some analysts called the arrest of the Americans a timely "bonanza" for Pyongyang as the impoverished regime prepares to negotiate for aid and other concessions to resolve the tense standoff over its nuclear defiance. "North Korea refused to release them ahead of a court ruling because such a move could be seen as capitulating to the United States," said Hajime Izumi, professor of international relations and an expert on North Korea at the University of Shizuoka in Japan. But now, "North Korea may release them on humanitarian grounds and demand the U.S. provide humanitarian aid in return," he said. "North Korea will certainly use the reporters as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the United States." Their release could come through a post-negotiation political pardon, said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies. The sentence is "a terrible shock for all those who have repeatedly insisted on their innocence," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement, noting that North Korea is ranked as Asia's worst country for press freedom. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists urged South Korea, Japan, Russia and the U.S., the five countries involved in the stalled disarmament talks with North Korea, to work for the journalists' release." The sentencing comes a month after Iran released Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, who had been sentenced to eight years in prison for on a charge of spying for the United States. An appeals court reduced that to a two-year suspended sentence and she was freed May 11. Little is known about prison conditions in North Korea. But Rev. Chun Ki-won, a South Korean missionary who helped arrange the journalists' trip to China, said inmates in North Korean labor camps frequently face beatings and other inhumane treatment while being forced to engage in harsh labor such as logging and construction work. Chun, however, predicted the North would send the journalists to a labor camp. (Source: AP.) News from Nautilus Institute US on Detained Journalists: The Christian Science Monitor (Donald Kirk, "US WEIGHS OPTIONS TO FREE JOURNALISTS IN NORTH KOREA", 2009/06/08) reported that the sentence of 12 years of hard labor for two American journalists in the DPRK opens a new chapter in efforts at winning their release. "Undoubtedly the North Koreans view them as a trump card," says Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the Asia Foundation, but he warns that any dialogue for their release will be "particularly difficult since the US has been moving toward a tougher approach." One possibility, widely mentioned in recent days, would be for Al Gore, the former vice president and the chairman of Current TV, to go to the DPRK in hopes of bringing the women home – or at least negotiating. The Associated Press ("RICHARDSON SEES TALKS ON JOURNALISTS IN NKOREA", 2009/06/08) reported that former U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson called the detention and sentencing of two young women journalists in the DPRK part of "a high-stakes poker game." But at the same time, the New Mexico governor said in a nationally broadcast interview that the time might be right for the US to work out the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee with the country's leaders in Pyongyang. He said now that the legal process has been completed, he thinks negotiations for their "humanitarian release" can begin. U.S. Journalists 'to Be Sent to Special Camp in N.Korea' (Jun 2009) Two American journalists who were sentenced in North Korea to 12 years of hard labor will probably be sent to the Pyongsong Special Camp near the capital. North Korean sources say ordinary convicts are sent to labor camps, unlike political prisoners who are sent to concentration camps. There inmates are forced to do backbreaking labor such as felling trees, moving rocks from riverbeds, and working in mine pits. Observers speculate that if Euna Lee and Laura Ling are sent there, the international outcry will be so severe that it would be more trouble for North Korea than it is worth, even if it is using the two as a bargaining chip in dealings with the U.S. Instead, they will probably be sent to a special camp originally built to accommodate ranking members of the Workers Party and other figures thought to merit special treatment. Special camps are better furnished than general camps, and inmates reportedly do relatively light work. There are apparently two special camps, one in Pyongsong, South Pyongan Province and one in Wonsan, Kangwon Province. A source speculated that Pyongsong is the likelier option because it is easier for visitors to meet them not far from Pyongyang, while it is also more difficult for outsiders to get a glimpse of the North Korean reality from there. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) 2 pardoned U.S. journalists leave North Korea with Bill Clinton (Aug 2009) Former U.S. President Bill Clinton brought two freed U.S. journalists out of North Korea early Wednesday following rare talks with reclusive leader Kim Jong Il, who pardoned the women sentenced to hard labor for entering the country illegally. Euna Lee and Laura Ling were heading back to the U.S. with Clinton, his spokesman Matt McKenna said, less than 24 hours after the former U.S. leader landed in the North Korean capital on a private, humanitarian trip to secure their release. The women, dressed in short-sleeved shirts and jeans, appeared healthy as they climbed the steps to the plane and shook hands with Clinton before getting into the jet, APTN footage in Pyongyang showed. Clinton waved, put his hand over his heart and then saluted. North Korean officials waved as the plane took off. McKenna said the flight was bound for Los Angeles, where the journalists will be reunited with their families. The White House had no comment. Their departure was a jubilant conclusion to a more than four-month ordeal for the women arrested near the North Korean-Chinese border in March while on a reporting trip for Current TV, the media venture founded by former Vice President Al Gore. They were sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor for illegal entry and engaging in “hostile acts.” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had urged North Korea last month to grant them amnesty, saying they were remorseful and their families anguished.North Korean media characterized the women’s release as proof of “humanitarian and peace-loving policy.” Their families said they were “overjoyed” by the pardon. Lee, 36, a South Korean-born U.S. citizen, is the mother of a 4-year-old. Ling, a 32-year-old California native, is the younger sister of Lisa Ling, a correspondent for CNN as well as “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “National Geographic Explorer.” Clinton’s landmark trip to Pyongyang also resulted in rare talks with reclusive Kim Jong Il that state-run media described as “wide-ranging” and “exhaustive.” The meeting was Kim’s first with a prominent Western figure since reportedly suffering a stroke nearly a year ago. While the White House emphasized the private nature of Clinton’s trip, his landmark visit to Pyongyang to free the Americans was a coup that came at a time of heightened tensions over North Korea’s nuclear program. State media said Clinton apologized on behalf of the women and relayed President Barack Obama’s gratitude. The report said the visit would “contribute to deepening the understanding” between North Korea and the United States. The meeting also appeared aimed at dispelling persistent questions about the health of the authoritarian North Korean leader, who was said to be suffering from chronic diabetes and heart disease before the reported stroke. Kim smiled broadly for a photo standing next to a towering Clinton. He was markedly thinner than a year ago, with his graying hair cropped short. The once-pudgy 67-year-old, who for decades had a noticeable pot belly, wore a khaki jumpsuit and appeared frail and diminutive in a group shot seated next to a robust Clinton. The journalists’ release followed weeks of quiet negotiations between the State Department and the North Korean mission to the United Nations, said Daniel Sneider, associate director of research at Stanford University’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. Clinton “didn’t go to negotiate this, he went to reap the fruits of the negotiation,” Sneider said. Pardoning Ling and Lee and having Clinton serving as their emissary served both North Korea’s need to continue maintaining that the two women had committed a crime and the Obama administration’s desire not to expend diplomatic capital winning their freedom, Sneider said. “Nobody wanted this to be a distraction from the more substantially difficult issues we have with North Korea,” he said. “There was a desire by the administration to resolve this quietly and from the very beginning they didn’t allow it to become a huge public issue.” Speaking out for the first time since their capture, Gore said in a joint statement with Current co-founder Joel Hyatt that everyone at the media outlet was overjoyed by the prospect of their safe return. “Our hearts go out to them and to their families for persevering through this horrible experience,” it said. The Lee and Ling families thanked Obama, the secretary of state and the State Department. “We especially want to thank President Bill Clinton for taking on such an arduous mission and Vice President Al Gore for his tireless efforts to bring Laura and Euna home,” it said. “We are counting the seconds to hold Laura and Euna in our arms.” The Committee to Protect Journalists also welcomed their release. In North Korea, Clinton was accorded honors typically reserved for heads of state. Senior officials, led by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, who also serves as the regime’s chief nuclear negotiator, met his private unmarked plane as it arrived Tuesday morning. Video from the APTN television news agency showed Clinton exchanging warm handshakes with officials and accepting a bouquet of flowers from a schoolgirl. Kim later hosted a banquet for Clinton at the state guesthouse, Radio Pyongyang and the Korean Central Broadcasting Station reported. The VIPs and Kim posed for a group shot in front of the same garish mural depicting a stormy seaside landscape that Clinton’s secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, posed for during her historic visit to Pyongyang in 2000. North Korean state media said Clinton and Kim held wide-ranging talks, adding that Clinton “courteously” conveyed a verbal message from Obama. In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs denied Clinton went with a message from Obama. “That’s not true,” he told reporters. In the past, envoys have been dispatched to Pyongyang to secure the release of Americans. In the 1990s, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a congressman at the time, went twice on similar missions: in 1994 to arrange the freedom of a U.S. pilot whose helicopter strayed into North Korean airspace and again two years later to fetch an American detained for three months on spying charges.Richardson, Clinton and Gore, Clinton’s vice president, had all been named as possible envoys to bring back Lee and Ling. However, the decision to send Clinton was kept quiet, revealed only when he turned up Tuesday in Pyongyang accompanied by John Podesta, his one-time White House chief of staff, who also is an informal adviser to Obama. The trip was reminiscent of one 15 years ago by former President Jimmy Carter when Clinton was in office, also at a time of tensions over North Korea’s nuclear program. Carter’s visit — he met with Kim Jong Il’s father, the late Kim Il Sung — helped thaw the deep freeze in relations with the Korean War foe and paved the way for discussions on nuclear disarmament. Clinton later sent Albright to Pyongyang for talks with Kim in a high point in the often rocky relations with North Korea. Discussions about normalizing ties went dead when George W. Bush took office in 2001 with a hard-line policy on Pyongyang. The Obama administration has expressed a willingness to hold bilateral talks — but only within the framework of the six-nation disarmament talks in place since 2003. North Korea announced earlier this year it was abandoning the talks involving the two Koreas, Japan, Russia, China and the U.S. The regime also launched a long-range rocket, conducted a nuclear test, test-fired a barrage of ballistic missiles and restarted its atomic program in defiance of international criticism and the U.N. Security Council. Last month, the U.S. Navy tailed a North Korean cargo ship as it sailed south suspected of carrying cargo banned under a U.N. resolution on board until the vessel turned around and returned to port. North Korea’s Foreign Ministry recently had harsh words for Clinton’s wife, describing her as “a funny lady” who sometimes “looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping.” Kim inherited leadership of impoverished North Korea upon his father’s death in 1994, 20 years after being anointed the heir apparent. Kim has not publicly named his successor but is believed to be grooming his third son, 26-year-old Jong Un, to take over.(Source: Japan Today.) (SITE NOTE: After the release of the two journalists, it was found that their video tapes was turned over to the Chinese who systematically rounded up the North Koreans in hiding and SENT THEM TO NORTH KOREA. This is the story that will not be published. The two journalists were released at the cost of how many North Korean refugees who had granted interviews in China. The news was released by South Korean activists operating in China.) April 2009Why Korea Can Afford the Cost of Unification (Apr 2009) South Koreans are becoming less enthusiastic by the year about reunification with North Korea. Those in favor of unification accounted for 91.6 percent in a 1994 poll by the Korea Institute for National Unification. But the figure declined to 63.8 percent in a 2007 survey by the Seoul National University Center for Unification and Peace. By contrast, the view that unification is not necessary increased from 8.4 percent in 1994 to 15.1 percent in 2007.Under the engagement policy of the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations, unification became something of a taboo, and that taboo, coupled with a fear of the enormous cost, will have to be overcome if the two Koreas are to become one again. Unification Costs German unification two decades ago gave many Koreans hope that the same can happen here as well as a fear of the high costs. There is a widespread belief that the expense will crush the economy of both sides, a view gaining ground amid the world financial crisis. But experts say it will not be too difficult for the South Korean economy to support the North Koreans, whose income accounts for 1/36 of South Koreans’. Because 1 percent of South Korea's GNI corresponds to 36 percent of North Korea's, difficulties arising from unification can be overcome at a rather less expense by learning from Germany's trial and error in the process of its unification. The estimate of hundreds of trillions of won is based on the sum needed to raise the living standard of North Koreans to 70-80 percent of that of South Koreans all at once. But the belief that the economic gap between the two Koreas must be closed in 10 years is a fiction. Economic disparities now exist between Seoul and the provinces, and even between areas north and south of the Han River in the capital. Experts say with tight fiscal management, unification is feasible even with the rice, clothes and medicines needed for the survival of North Koreans for a year. Unification Benefits The benefits from unification would outweigh the costs, experts say. To begin with, unification spending would raise the income of North Koreans and help industrial development, which, in turn, would hike purchasing power for South Korean products. Millions of jobs would be created in the course of developing the North. Once the North Korean economy is invigorated, revenues are expected to rise and reduce the South's burden. Expenses of national division like propaganda costs could be saved. And significant non-economic benefits could also be expected to arise, such as enhancing Korea's status in the international community, reduced risk of war and resolution of problems relating to families divided between North and South. Exodus Unlikely There are fears that once the country is unified, a mass migration to the South would cause havoc. But North Korean refugees in the South say they would return to the North once the regime is gone. They say there is no reason for them to stay in the South if they can sustain themselves in the North. If their livelihood is secure and they are promised property rights only if they stay in the North, there would be no exodus of North Korean refugees, experts say. Unification Taboo Pyongyang has recently proclaimed a state of confrontation with the South, but the public here seems unconcerned. While there is no need to go overboard, this complacency gives rise to security concerns. Some attribute the complacency to the engagement policy of the last two administrations which stressed inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation without mentioning unification on grounds that it would provoke the North. The policy was based on the hope that North Korea could be gently persuaded to reform with economic aid. But the recent tension indicates that Pyongyang, if determined, could still attack the South at any time. In the past year, North Korea, by a policy of communicating with South Korean civic groups but blocking the government, has achieved the result of pressuring Seoul while securing economic benefits from civic organizations. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) April 2009Power Struggle Looms in N.Korea (May 2009) The North Korean elite lead insecure lives nowadays. Some members of the Unification and Propaganda Department of the Workers Party, accused of having bungled their South Korea policy, have recently been sent to the Yoduk concentration camp.All North Korean intelligence officers assigned overseas were called back home early this year to undergo questioning by the State Security Department. About 30 percent of them have yet to return to their overseas posts, and those who have returned were emaciated from harsh interrogations, according to sources. Asked what the food situation is like in North Korea, a North Korean overseas official said what was more serious in the North is the manhunt. The State Security Department is hunting innocent people in a bid to ferret out spies implicated in South Korea's recently reinforced overseas intelligence activities. With economic aid from the South suspended since the Roh Moo-hyun administration ended, the North Korean elite have begun watching their leadership. The North Korean regime, though it managed without much difficulty thanks to the South's handout aid in the past decade, was unprepared for the post-Roh era. Kim Jong-il and the top leadership, despite an extreme economic crisis, shot dead South Korean tourist in the Mt. Kumgang resort, applied pressure over the joint Kaesong Industrial Estate, and fired a missile. Ordinary North Koreans are pessimistic about these self-destructive acts. The elite fear that if Kim Jong-il goes under, so will they. A recent sharp increase in the defection of senior North Korean figures is not unrelated to that sense of crisis. The elite have witnessed two types of transformation. One was the German unification and the other China's reform and opening. German unification completely deprived all East German Communist party and military leaders of their privileges and made them jobless. Kim Jong-il had the plight of former East German leaders photographed and shown to North Korean cadres. And many members of the elite, though they detested Kim Jong-il, thought they had no alternative but to follow him for fear of losing their privileges if the regime collapsed. That is why the regime did not collapse despite the 1990s famine that starved millions to death. The current crisis, however, stems from the gradually growing power of the masses. The state is unable to ration food, the market has expanded and the power of individuals is growing to an uncontrollable extent. The elite have no choice but to think seriously about Chinese-style reform and opening as a way to survive. They generally agree that the North is not a normal socialist country, and that Chinese-style reform is not the betrayal of socialism the Kim Jong-il regime claims it is. That is why a consensus is emerging in the North that a socialist collective leadership is needed, and that idolatry of the great leader should be abandoned to achieve reform and opening. That the Workers' Party's Operations Department recently shifted its major role from defending the North against the South to safeguarding the political system in the course of revamping the National Defense Commission is one result of that change. The shift shows how determined the regime is to punish anyone who defies it. A power struggle between conservatives, who will share their fate with Kim Jong-il, and the normal elite looms. We should watch closely. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) Kaesong Contracts Void (May 2009) North Korea has declared void all inter-Korean contracts on the joint industrial venture at Gaeseong in the North. The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that the North’s agency in charge of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex will nullify all contracts and regulations regarding the business park, including agreements on rent, land use, wages and taxes. The Central Guidance Bureau for Special Zone Development said the previous contracts gave preferential treatment to South Korean companies. The Cabinet agency said it will draw up and implement a new set of regulations and standards reflecting changes in the status of inter-Korean relations. The agency warned that the South Korean companies operating in the complex must either accept the updated terms unconditionally or leave the industrial complex. Pyongyang blamed Seoul’s alleged insincerity at working-level meetings for deteriorating the situation, adding that future developments will be dependent on Seoul’s attitude. (Source: KBS Global.) (SITE NOTE: So much for the rule of "contracts" -- and a death knell to the cooperation between the two countries. We wonder if anyone dares ask Roh Moo-hyun for a comment of his pet project. Though it is a loss, many companies have tried to get out of their contracts at Kaesong because of the uncertainty in operating there.) S. Korean firms at joint park fail to meet North's accounting deadline (May 2009) Scores of South Korean firms operating at an industrial complex in North Korea failed to submit their yearly accounting reports to the North by the March deadline due to procedural restrictions, officials said Friday (22 May). Such a delay has been a regular annual occurrence, given a regulation that allows only two South Korean accounting agencies to audit more than 100 factories at the joint complex in the North's border town of Kaesong, said Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo. North Korea is pressing for the submission so as to grasp the firms' business performances for the 2008 fiscal year, and inter-Korean discussions are underway to smoothen the process, Lee said. "For the North, it has to get the reports to know how the firms are doing," Lee told reporters. According to North Korea's Code of the Act and Regulations for the Kaesong Industrial Zone, South Korean firms that have invested more than US$1 million in the joint park or whose yearly sales revenue has surpassed $3 million have to submit their accounting reports to North Korea by the end of March. Only two South Korean auditors -- currently Deloitte Anjin LLC and Fine Management & Accounting Corp. -- are commissioned to cross the border to audit the firms according to the North Korean law, which was set up at the outset of the park development in 2002. The traffic restrictions North Korea imposed in March have hampered the firms' ability to meet the deadline, Lee said. The North sealed the inter-Korean border three times that month in protest at South Korea's military exercise with the United States. "With the traffic blockage and so forth, the businesses say their accounting inspection process has been delayed," she said. Among the 106 firms operating at the park, 62 are subject to the accounting reporting, and only about a third of them have done so, Lee said. Last year, the reporting was completed in September. Those who fail to present their audit results are subject to a $10,000 fine, and those file falsified report report can be fined up to $5,000. No firms have faced such charges yet, Lee said. Officials say the two Koreas may consider increasing the number of commissioned South Korean auditors to meet the deadline when government-level talks are held. Seoul wants official talks with Pyongyang, but earlier negotiations to set them up broke down due to an agenda difference. South Korea calls on the North to release its fellow countryman who was detained at the Kaesong park in March on charges of criticizing the North's political system. North Korea refuses to discuss the detained worker, saying official talks should deal with operational issues, such as wages and land fees. Pyongyang sent a letter to Seoul last week, saying it has scrapped all inter-Korean accords on the joint park and would unilaterally set new terms. The Kaesong park, just an hour's drive from Seoul, is the last surviving reconciliatory project between the two Koreas, with other ventures -- tourism programs to the North's attractions -- all suspended last year due to unraveling political relations. More than 40,000 North Koreans work at Kaesong for the South Korean firms producing clothes, utensils, electronic equipment and other labor-intensive goods. Their output reached $250 million last year. (Source: Yonhap News.) What Will Become of the Inter-Korean Biz Complex? (May 2009) The inter-Korean industrial complex in the North Korean border city of Kaesong is in limbo amid the latest threats from North Korea against South Korea. If the South pulls out its workers in Kaesong, the North could shut down the complex. If the staff are left there, they could be held hostage. In short, Seoul is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The North halted the passage of South Koreans to the complex in March in protest of the South Korea-U.S. military drill Key Resolve and took South Koreans in the complex as de facto hostage. Hence, Seoul is deciding whether the complex or the safety of South Korean workers there is more important. A senior South Korean official said yesterday, “In the event of a military confrontation such as battles in the Yellow Sea, the South must seriously consider pulling out South Koreans from the complex.” The Unification Ministry in Seoul has reportedly requested companies operating in Kaesong to leave a minimal number of staff who are absolutely essential to operations and withdraw all others. This means Seoul remains undecided over pulling all South Koreans from the complex, as the North has yet to take an act of aggression against the South. The North indicated that it will continue allowing inland passages of people through the border and ship operations through yesterday morning. Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said, “The North sent approval for normal inland passages of people via the Gyeongeui Line at 7:50 a.m.,” adding, “South Koreans are continuing to visit the North under the normal process.” The North, however, has raised jitters by repeatedly claiming through media outlets around the time of its second nuclear test that the South is responsible for the crisis at the industrial complex. With Our Own People, an online publication in the North, said yesterday, “(The South) has a shrewd plot to shut down the Kaesong industrial complex on the pretext of a South Korean worker detained at the complex, and to hold us accountable.” While hinting at the possible closure of the complex, the North thus expressed its intent to hold the South responsible if the facility is closed. Amid the North’s string of aggressive acts, South Korean companies operating in Kaesong are striving to cope with the situation, including preparing for a pullout of their workers. One company CEO said, “I understand that certain companies that entered the complex have belatedly begun preparation to withdraw staff and find an alternative plant site after suffering from chronic operational deficits.” Another company source said, “Rumors are circulating that North Korea could take steps to halt passage to and from the Kaesong complex,” adding, “If that happens, small-size companies lacking competitiveness will be forced to leave the complex.” Lee Im-dong, director-general at the Association of Kaesong Industrial Complex Companies, expressed a cautious stance on the situation, saying, “The North in principle wants to maintain the complex.” Yesterday, 407 South Koreans visited the complex while 440 returned to the South. The number of South Koreans still in the North was 1,096 as of yesterday afternoon. (Source: Donga Ilbo.) S.Korean Firm Packs Up at Kaesong (Jun 2009) The first South Korean firm on Monday shut up shop at the Kaesong Industrial Complex at a time of crisis for the inter-Korean project after exorbitant demands by North Korea for more money. Apparel maker Skinnet began removing equipment which North Korean employees had used at the industrial park to its plant in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, 15 km across the military demarcation line. All South Korean staff will leave the industrial park on Wednesday after the company pays North Korean staff US$9,400 for June and $6,700 severance. Skinnet's president said, "We had intended to continue operation of our plant at Kaesong until the end of this month, but we decided to withdraw earlier because the future of inter-Korean relations is uncertain." Other South Korean firms at the industrial park seem set to follow suit. About 120 South Korean businesspeople involved in trade and processing-on-demand business in inland North Korea met at the Korea Press Center in Seoul on Monday, urging the government to come up with countermeasures to solve the crisis. Except the 106 South Korean firms at the Kaesong industrial park, a total of 611 South Korean businesses -- 164 processing-on-demand service companies, 399 general trading companies, and 48 investment companies -- are active throughout North Korea. With inter-Korean business projects in crisis, South Korea's hopes to improve political relations through economic cooperation seem to have been dashed. "The government has failed to provide guarantees for free activities of businesses because it hastily pushed for economic cooperation with North Korea in the name of improving the inter-Korean relations," said Cho Myung-chul of the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy. "If inter-Korean economic cooperation is implemented blindly, we'll inevitably see more cases like the Kaesong industrial park project in the future." (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) 2 Koreas Engage in War of Nerves Over Detainee (May 2009) South and North Korea are waging an intense war of nerves in setting the schedule and agenda for a second meeting after holding working-level talks Thursday. The most contentious topic is whether to discuss a South Korean worker of Hyundai Asan Corp., who has been detained in the inter-Korean industrial complex in Kaesong by North Korean authorities for 47 days. (SITE NOTE: The DPRK claim that the worker attempted to convince a North Korean worker to defect.) The South has demanded to discuss the release of the worker, but the North`s authority in charge of the complex says it can deal with monetary matters only, including wage hikes for North Korean workers in the complex. Denying Pyongyang`s suggestions to hold a meeting May 6 and 12, Seoul strongly proposed talks on the worker`s release. After the North rejected the request, the South proposed yesterday to hold working-level talks Monday even if the North does not promise to discuss the issue. But the North rejected the request again, calling it "unilateral." North Korea has tried to speed up the convening of another meeting right after the first meeting April 21. When the South delayed its response to the request, the North sent a notice May 4 proposing to meet two days later. The South rejected the offer, saying "We need time for preparation," and sent a notice to the North May 8, saying, "Let`s discuss pending issues on the Kaesong industrial complex at the inter-Korean economic cooperation office." Seoul considered holding the meeting Tuesday but decided on yesterday, when President Lee Myung-bak returned from his Central Asian tour. The North sent a reply May 9, saying, "Let`s meet sooner," suggesting talks Tuesday. "We are not in charge of the Hyundai Asan worker, and hence are in no position to discuss the issue," it added in repeating its earlier stance. The North, however, did not object to the venue of the meeting, namely the inter-Korean economic cooperation office. The South again sent a notice Monday saying, "Let`s hold the meeting Friday as suggested earlier, as we need time to gather opinions from companies operating in the Kaesong industrial complex," adding, "The worker`s release is a fundamental concern on the complex, and thus should be discussed without fail." On Tuesday morning, the date when North Korea proposed to hold the meeting, three South Korean working-level officials visited the complex and discussed the timing and agenda of the planned meeting. The North demanded in the afternoon that day that Moon Moo-hong, chairman of the South`s Kaesong industrial complex management committee, appear at the office of the North`s authority in charge of the complex. Moon hurriedly went to the North but rejected going to the office, saying "I need time." The North then said, "If you insist, we can unilaterally disclose our demands." Afterwards, the North rejected the South`s requests to meet Wednesday and Thursday. (Source: Donga Ilbo.) Inter-Korean Relations (May 2009) Yonhap News ("SPECIAL ENVOY TO N. KOREA MAY BE GOOD IDEA, BUT NOT FEASIBLE: SEOUL OFFICIAL", Seoul, 2009/05/14) reported that sending a special envoy to the DPRK may help win the release of a detained ROK worker, but that option is not available to Seoul, an official shaping inter-Korean policy said. Kim Chun-sig, chief of the Unification Policy Bureau at the Unification Ministry, said Seoul is not considering an envoy because the two Koreas are "not in such a climate." "It is an attractive idea, and there are many things that can be solved by sending a special envoy," Kim said in a forum on inter-Korean relations in Seoul. "Even if we intend to send him, that doesn't mean he can go. There are conditions to be met. (The two Koreas) are not in such a climate. Our government is not considering it." Yonhap (Kim Hyun, "S. KOREA SEEKS TALKS WITH NORTH NEXT WEEK OVER DETAINED WORKER", Seoul, 2009/05/15) reported that officials of the two Koreas met in Kaesong to try to set up talks next week over a detained ROK worker, but tussling over the agenda doomed their efforts, said ROK Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun. "North Korea's position remains unchanged," Kim said in a press briefing. "North Korean officials said they were not authorized to discuss the detention issue," Kim said. "But we are hoping North Korea will respond to our new proposal." DPRK Pride in Ryugyong Hotel Growing (May 2009)IFES NK Brief ("DPRK PRIDE IN THE RYUGYONG HOTEL GROWING", 2009/05/14) reported that once abandoned, considered a failure and an embarrassment, it now appears that the DPRK’s tallest building will be completed by 2012. The Ryugyong Hotel is becoming the largest symbol of the DPRK’s plan to construct a ‘Strong and Prosperous Nation’ by the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung. The hotel, on the bank of the Botong River, stands 105 stories tall. An article in the May 11 copy of the Choson Sinbo proclaimed, “Like a phoenix ceaselessly reaching for the sky, the high-rising Ryugyong Hotel is one emblem of North Korea, which is soundly knocking on the door of [becoming] a Strong and Prosperous Nation.” (SITE NOTE: For years, the hotel has been the butt of jokes as its upper stories remained uncompleted. It has been hailed as an eyesore of monumental proportions. In 2008, construction was restarted, but for the life of anyone, there was no reason. The hotel is virtually empty. It now has become simply a symbolic gesture to complete the hotel.) N. Korea threatens military response after S. Korea joins PSI (May 2009) North Korea said Wednesday it was nullifying the Korean War armistice and warned of an immediate military strike should South Korea attempt to interdict any of its ships, blasting Seoul's participation in a U.S.-led security campaign as a "declaration of war." The statement, issued by the North's permanent military mission to the joint security area, also said the country can no longer guarantee the safety of South Korean and U.S. military ships and private vessels moving along the western sea border. "As declared to the world, our revolutionary forces will consider the full participation in the Proliferation Security Initiative by the Lee Myung-bak group of traitors as a declaration of war against us," the North Korean military mission said, referring to the South Korean president, in a statement carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). South Korea joined the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) on Tuesday (26 May), reacting sternly to the North's nuclear test a day earlier. The PSI allows participating countries to interdict and seize ships and planes suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction. Pyongyang views the exercise as a violation of the Korean War armistice, which bans any attempt of naval blockage in the region. The North's military "will be no longer bound to the armistice agreement" that ended the 1950-53 war, and the peninsula will be returned to the state of war if the armistice becomes ineffective, the mission said. With the armistice now ineffective, the North can no more guarantee the safety of U.S. and South Korean naval vessels and other commercial vessels sailing along the inter-Korean border in the Yellow Sea, the mission said. "If the armistice agreement is terminated, the Korean Peninsula in terms of law is bound to return to the state of war and our revolutionary forces will get to move on to pertinent military actions," the mission said. "Any trivial attempts, including the act of interdicting and inspecting our peaceful ships, will be acknowledged as an unacceptable violation of the sovereignty of our republic, and we will respond with an immediate and strong military strike," it said. (SITE NOTE: The South is taking the threat seriously and rushed armaments and weapons to the DMZ. The ROK military went on full alert for the possible threat of attack. However, the UNC disregarded the North's statement as not valid.) (Source: Yonhap News.) N. Korea warns new U.N. sanctions will void armistice (May 2009) North Korea said Friday its second nuclear test, which took place this week, was a self-defense measure in response to the U.N. Security Council's punishment for its April 5 rocket launch, and that any further U.N. sanctions would be tantamount to scrapping the Korean War armistice. "Should the U.N. Security Council attempt further provocations, our further self-defense measures will be inevitable in response," the North's foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. "Hostile activity by the U.N. Security Council will be tantamount to nullifying the Korean War Armistice Agreement," it said. (Source: Yonhap News.) Kim Jong Il's bombshell (May 2009) HE HAS been coaxed, cajoled, censured and sanctioned. Yet whenever it suits North Korea’s boss, Kim Jong Il, he spews out new threats. For years he has managed to extort cash, oil and other goodies for then quietening down, only to behave even more threateningly next time. Can nothing be done to make this serial rule-breaker blink? With his second nuclear test and multiple missile launchings, North Korea’s Dear Leader has ignored the hand that President Barack Obama has said he is ready to extend to America’s erstwhile enemies. He has also delivered a nuclear-powered slap in the face to China, his semi-backer and the chief proponent for the past six years of a strategy of come-what-may patience, negotiation and perks in an effort to humour Mr Kim out of the bomb business. But patience is not always a virtue in dealing with a regime as practised at blackmail as Mr Kim’s. For unless he now pays a seriously high price for his defiance, the message heard by others, particularly Iran, still mulling how far they should push their own nuclear plans is that they too can have a bomb—if they are prepared to be belligerent enough, for long enough. Watch what he does, not what he says Mr Kim has long played the nuclear game by his own rules. The aim of the other five around the negotiating table—America, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia—has been to get him to shut down his bomb factories and (after steadily increasing dollops of trade and investment, and in return for diplomatic ties with America) eventually to give up the bombs he has long claimed to have stashed away. Indeed, Mr Kim has promised, more than once, to do just that. Yet he has dragged out the process at every turn. It came as little surprise to those who always doubted his disarming intentions that the six-party talks came badly off track last year just at the point where tight verification rules were to be agreed upon so that outsiders could check that his promises were kept. (SITE NOTE: This is what we have said for years...but no one stops by here to read what we say.) Now Mr Kim says he will “never” go back to the six-party talks. He wants North Korea to be accepted as a nuclear power, his officials say, just as India in practice has been. But you can be sure of one thing if the capricious Mr Kim is persuaded back to the table. With a second nuclear blast to boast of, the price will have gone up yet again. How does he get away with it? And does it really matter that such an isolated and impoverished contrarian keeps breaking all the anti-nuclear rules? Mr Kim does not need his bombs to wreak havoc in South Korea, whose capital, Seoul, has long been within range of the North’s artillery dug into the hills just over the border. Rather, he needs a “deterrent”, he says, to fend off a hostile America. And yet this latest nuclear test surely destroys North Korea’s best chance in years to get on friendlier terms with the country it claims to fear most. That in turn leads dogged optimists to argue that this may be nothing more than a temporary diplomatic setback after all: the ailing Mr Kim needs the backing of nuclear hardliners in the armed forces, they explain, to steady the regime while he lines up one of his sons to take over the family dynasty. (SITE NOTE: Currently rumors are that Number Three son is in line and North Korean children are said to have been forced to memorize a new song about him. We'll see.) The thought should bring little comfort. For whether he is trying to hang on to power at home, or determined to cock an enduring nuclear snook at the world, makes little difference when Mr Kim clearly feels he has licence to bang on regardless and get away with it. He has shrugged off past half-hearted sanctions imposed on him by the United Nations Security Council and others. He knows that, whatever he does, some food aid will keep flowing in, since outsiders care more than he does for the plight of his often malnourished, sometimes starving, people. And he calculates that China, which controls most of the oil taps to North Korea, is fearful of a swelling influx of refugees if the economy collapses further. China says it “resolutely” opposes Mr Kim’s latest nuclear and missile tests, but continues to oppose the sort of truly punishing sanctions that could make Mr Kim ponder the error of his ways. With China’s misguided protection, the harm the radioactive Mr Kim is doing just goes on spreading. There will be no stability in East Asia until he can be induced to cease his nuclear antics. His tests of increasingly sophisticated rockets were causing alarm in Japan—and talk of “rearmament” in some quarters there—even before hints that he is perfecting missile-mountable nuclear warheads to put on them. Leaving Mr Kim free to demonstrate his nuclear wares also increases the danger that he will find new customers for them. North Korea had already secretly built a nuclear reactor in Syria before Israel destroyed it in an air raid. Before that some of Mr Kim’s nuclear material had turned up in Libya, via the nuclear black market, before that country handed in all its bomb-making paraphernalia. A well-tested warhead design is both easier to hawk and more lucrative to sell. North Korea is known to work closely with Iran on building nuclear-capable missiles. No one knows where their co-operation stops. Unlike Mr Kim, Iran insists it has no use for the bomb. Yet suspicions have mounted as Iran has invested in expensive technologies for enriching uranium and making plutonium (both possible bomb ingredients) before having a civilian nuclear-power industry that can make peaceful use of them. And though it claims to co-operate with UN inspectors, Iran refuses to answer their questions about studies and past experiments that have little or no plausible civilian purpose. (SITE NOTE: The main worry is that the PSI may board vessels suspected of carrying WMD -- and the US is monitoring via satellite the North's shipments -- and have even boarded one vessel already (well, it had another country do it). This is a VERY serious area as Iran wants nuclear weapons -- and this could destabilize the entire Middle East and spread into South Asia.) The fallout to come But even if North Korean and Iranian scientists have kept their nuclear distance, the example Mr Kim sets and the failure of the UN, America, China and others collectively to do more than inconvenience him with trade restrictions on fast cars and Rolex watches will only cause Iran’s suspicious neighbours, like North Korea’s, to worry that time and the world’s anti-nuclear rules are not on their side. Unless North Korea is checked, the fear and suspicion Mr Kim has created could set off a chain reaction of proliferation. If China is at all serious about joining America as a global leader, this is the time for it to shoulder its responsibility by helping to punish Mr Kim. (Source: Economist.) N.Korean Navy 'Steps Up West Sea Activities' (Jun 2009) North Korea has apparently instructed naval troops in the West Sea to stockpile more than twice the normal amount of ammunition and artillery shells and staged an unprecedented surprise landing exercise. A South Korean military source on Monday said the North Korean military has recently instructed patrol boats and coast artillery batteries under the West Sea Navy fleet in Nampo to stockpile more than double the amount of ammunition and shells they keep in normal times. That could be preparation for a possible clash with South Korea. The surprise landing exercise on the west coast involved high-speed air-cushioned landing craft. The same source said a landing exercise during the month of June was unprecedented in North Korea. "The exercise seems to be a kind of saber-rattling," he said. He suggested that the North is attempting to show South Korea that it could carry out a provocation by a surprise landing. But South Korean military authorities do not necessarily treat the moves as decisive signs that an armed provocation is impending, though they are watching developments closely. Since a statement calling for an "all-out confrontation posture" against the South on Jan. 17, the People's Army has apparently not given instructions for troops to enter a quasi-wartime state. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) Guided-Missile Boat Deployed to West Sea (Jun 2009) The Navy deployed a brand-new patrol boat armed with state-of-the-art ship-to-ship guided missiles to waters off the country's western coast, Tuesday, where tension has been nuclear test. Along with a 3,500-ton light destroyer and a frigate, the stealthy 440-ton vessel commissioned last December will help the Navy maintain ``dominant'' sea power over North Korean naval forces near the volatile Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the West Sea and deter any maritime provocations, a Navy spokesman said. The lead PKG (Patrol Killer, Guided Missile) class high-speed ship named after late Lt. Cmdr. Yoon Young-ha who was killed during a 2002 inter-Korean naval skirmish near the NLL, is armed with 140-kilomter-range Haeseong ship-to-ship missiles and a 76-milimeter gun with a range of 16 kilometers, he said. The 63-meter-long, 9-meter-wide ship is also equipped with a 40-milimeter gun that can fire 600 rounds per minute and has a maximum speed of 40 knots. The ship has advanced anti-air/anti-ship radar and electronic warfare systems. Its combat system enables the ship to simultaneously detect and monitor up to 100 aerial and surface targets, while its automated weapons control system allows it to engage a multiple number of targets at the same time. The Navy plans to deploy 20 more PKG-class ships by 2015. Sailors near the sea border have been placed on high alert since there is a high possibility that North Korea might provoke an incident again. Two gun battles between the two navies occurred in 1999 and 2002. In the 2002 skirmish, one of the North Korean ships was heavily damaged and some 30 North Koreans were believed to have been killed or wounded. Six South Koreans, including Yoon, were killed and 18 others injured. Meanwhile, the Air Force, for its part, will carry out a training exercise today with its high-tech F-15K fleet, according to the service. The training at a Daegu air base will include the test-firings of SLAM-ER air-to-ground precision-strike missiles and AIM-120 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, as well as Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bombings. The F-15K is capable of air-to-ground, air-to-air and air-to-sea missions day and night, in any weather conditions. It has a 23,000-pound payload and can fly at a maximum speed of Mach 2.3, with an operational radius of 1,800 kilometers. A single aircraft costs about $100 million. (Source: Korea Times.) June 2009N. Korea's Kim taps 26-year-old son as successor (Jun 2009) North Korea's Kim Jong Il has anointed his 26-year-old son - said to be competitive, proficient in English and a heavy drinker - as the next leader of the communist state, news reports said Tuesday (2 Jun). Two major South Korean newspapers said Tuesday that North Korea's military, party and government officials were informed that Kim Jong Un, the youngest of three, is in line to take the world's first communist dynasty into a third generation.The announcement was made in the days after North Korea's provocative May 25 nuclear test, the Hankook Ilbo newspaper reported, citing unnamed South Korean lawmakers briefed by the spy agency. The son already is being hailed as "Commander Kim," and North Koreans are learning the lyrics to a new song praising him as the next leader, the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said. South Korean lawmaker Park Jie-won told a radio show Tuesday that the regime already is "pledging its allegiance to Kim Jong Un." He said he was briefed by South Korea's spy agency. The National Intelligence Service would not confirm the reports.  The apparent anointment comes at a time of mounting tensions over North Korea's April 5 rocket launch and last week's nuclear test. The North also appears to be preparing to test-fire an array of medium- and long-range missiles, reports said. Global powers are discussing how to rein in Pyongyang for its nuclear defiance. Analysts say the saber-rattling is part of a campaign to build unity and support for a successor to Kim Jong Il, who reportedly suffered a stroke last August. Kim has three sons but had not publicly named an heir to lead the nation of 24 million. Kim, once pudgy and renowned for his love of cognac and gourmet meals, made his first state appearance since the reported stroke at the opening session of the new parliament April 12. He was grayer, considerably thinner and limping slightly. He is believed to want to name a successor by 2012 - the centenary of the birth of his father, North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung - and the regime undertook a massive campaign last year to gear the country up for the 100th anniversary celebrations. The regime called the April 5 launch of a satellite into space part of the campaign to show off the country's scientific advancements. The U.S., Japan and others called it a cover for a test of long-range missile technology. Last month, the regime stepped up the pace and launched a "150-day battle" urging North Koreans to work harder to build the country's economy. "Before 2012, North Korea must convince the army and the public that Jong Un is the best successor," said Atsuhito Isozaki, assistant professor of North Korean politics at Tokyo's private Keio University. "To pave the way for Jong Un's leadership, it is highly likely that North Korea will turn recent nuclear and missile tests into his achievements." Analyst Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute, a South Korean security think tank, noted that the "politically driven" 150-day campaign is set to culminate in early October, about the time of the anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party. He said North Korea could hold a national convention then - its first in nearly 30 years - to formally announce Kim's successor. Cheong said that in the 1970s, Kim Il Sung, known as the "Great Leader," arranged for his son to take credit for a "70-day battle" before he was tapped as his father's successor. Kim Jong Il - the "Dear Leader" - formally assumed leadership upon his father's death in 1994. "Since Kim had a stroke last year, North Korea appears to be in a hurry in naming his successor," Isozaki said. Many believe Jong Un might lead with the backing and guidance of his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, a member of the all-powerful National Defense Commission who has strong military and political connections. Little is known about Jong Un, the second son of former dancer Ko Yong Hi, who died of cancer in 2004. He studied at the International School in Bern, Switzerland, in the 1990s. The Swiss weekly news magazine L'Hebdo reported that he used the pseudonym Pak Chol and learned to speak English, German and French. A classmate recalled him as timid and introverted but an avid skier and basketball player who was a big fan of the NBA star Michael Jordan and action film star Jean-Claude Van Damme. He was humble and friendly with the children of American diplomats and often helped break up fights between classmates, a former school director said. A car arrived every day after school to pick him up, the report said; classmates and school officials thought he was the driver's son. The eldest son, Jong Nam, 38, was considered the favorite to succeed his father until he was caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport in 2001. He reportedly told Japanese officials he wanted to visit Tokyo's Disney resort. Kim considers the middle son, Jong Chol, too effeminate for the job, according to his former sushi chef. (Source: AP.) (SITE NOTE: The Chosun Ilbo reported that several intelligence sources say that the designation of the successor was passed down to North Korea's Workers' Party, Supreme People's Assembly and military right after the North carried out a nuclear test last week. There are reports that high-level officials in North Korea had been confidentially notified of the decision, but this is the first time the news was delivered to mid-level apparatchiks. Kim Jong-il apparently made the choice early this year.) Kim Jong-un named next 'Dear Leader' (Jun 2009) North Korean leader Kim Jong-il named his Swiss-educated youngest son Jong-un as his successor, South Korean legislators and media reports said yesterday (1 Jun). Pyongyang has told its main bodies and overseas missions to pledge loyalty to Kim's 25-year-old son, according to the reports, signaling his anointment as heir to the family dynasty that has ruled since the state's founding. "I was notified by the government of such moves and the loyalty pledges," said Park Jie-won, a member of the opposition Democratic Party and close aide to former President Kim Dae-jung, in a radio interview. Park, who is also a member of a parliamentary intelligence committee, declined to name his source, but he was among a group of lawmakers briefed Monday night by the South Korean spy agency about the succession plans. The confirmation by the National Intelligence Service, given to members of the National Assembly information and intelligence committee, is the first word from the Seoul government regarding North Korea's next leader following months of media speculation. Spokespersons for the NIS and the Unification Ministry could not confirm their reported observation regarding Jong-un yesterday, mainly because they cannot publicly speak on anything Pyongyang hasn't officially stated. It has been widely predicted since the elder Kim, 67, reportedly suffered a stroke last summer that he would soon designate his heir. Analysts have said the North's recent military grandstanding, including a nuclear test last week and continued missile launches, were partially timed to help the ailing "Dear Leader" solidify a power base so he can name a successor. "Recent nuclear and missile tests by the North have both domestic and international implications," said Paik Hak-soon, senior researcher at Sejong Institute. "One of the domestic implications may be that Kim Jong-il wants to simplify the succession process to his son, which is determined not just by Kim but also by the senior members of the North Korean government, the Workers' Party and the military." Speculation that Pyongyang was preparing a power succession process and that Jong-un was one of the candidates has mounted since last summer. Jong-un was officially declared as the Dear Leader's successor to the North Korean military, Workers' Party, the Supreme People's Assembly and the cabinet soon after the country's second nuclear test on May 25, South Korean news reports said. Kim Jong-il reportedly informed the senior leadership of the Workers' Party on Jong-un's 25th birthday on Jan. 8 that he would be the next in line to the country's supreme leadership. Kim Jong-il's brother-in-law Jang Song-taek has secretly led the succession project since, according to analysts. In April, Kim Jong-il elevated Jang Song-taek to a powerful military post -- a member of the National Defense Commission -- indicating that Jang would serve as the second in command or act as the "bridge" between Kim and his son Jong-un. Jang is the department director of the Workers' Party and member of the 12-person NDC, of which Kim Jong-il is the chairman. "A department director of the Workers' Party controls the country's police force, prosecution and the court," said Paik of Sejong Institute. "Kim Jong-il would have to live long enough to simplify the succession process to his son because it is something also led by the relationship among the North's Worker's Party, military and the government." Analysts said they see the energetic and urbane Jang, 63, as the real power broker after Kim who will groom the successor. Jang, who once fell out of Kim's favor, has in recent years been Kim's right hand man, they said. Kim Jong-il was officially groomed for decades to take over from his father and state founder Kim Il-sung. But his three sons are unknown to most North Koreans, which would make succession a daunting task for any of them. North Korea's official media for decades let it be known that Kim Jong-il would take over, but it still took him at least two years to fully rise to top leadership after his father died in 1994 and to win the respect of the powerful military and ruling communist party, analysts said. Kim Jong-un, born in early 1984, went to an international school in Switzerland and Kim Il-sung Military University, and intelligence sources have said he appears to be the most capable of Kim's three known sons. Even by North Korea's opaque standards, very little is known about him, whose youth is a potential problem in a society that adheres closely to the importance of seniority. (Source: Korea Herald.) Kim Jong-un on his path to power (Jun 2009) Despite the international spotlight on Kim Jong-un, little is known about the heir-apparent, except for scraps of facts such as that the junior Kim is 25-years-old, graduated from an exclusive international school in Switzerland and enjoys basketball and skiing. North Korea has kept the youngest Kim shrouded under a veil of secrecy, and what bits of information available comes from government sources and the testimony of Kenji Fujimoto, Kim Jong-il's former chef. The photos of the junior Kim circulating on the internet are outdated and show the youngest Kim as a little boy. Kim Jong-il's youngest son, he was mothered by the North Korean leader's third wife, Ko Yong-hi in 1984. Ko died of breast cancer aged 51 in 2004. Of Kim Jong-un's two elder brothers, the eldest Kim Jong-nam was born to Song Hye-rim, who was not formally recognized as Kim Jong-il's wife and was therefore long before dismissed as the successor to the North Korean regime. (SITE NOTE: Kim Jong-nam resides in Macao and has an luxury apartment in China. He was involved in the Delta Bank fiasco where the US basically gave the North money to come back to the six-party talks. Kim Jong-nam was involved as an intermediary between his father and the US. He has been portrayed as a "playboy" and unreliable.) The middle son Jong-chul was also born to Ko, but is said to be of weak character and consequently fell out with his father, according to Fujimoto. The youngest Kim is said to most resemble Kim Jong-il in both physique and personality, Fujimoto and other sources have noted. Kim Jong-un reportedly has a strong sense of authority and manifested an intense desire for power early on. Also, like his father, he is said to suffer from diabetes. The junior Kim currently holds a mid-level position in the National Defense Commission, a branch of the North Korean Military. "He is expected to be appointed to a high-level seat soon," according to Cheong Seong-chang, Seong-chang, direoctor of the Inter-Korean Relations Studies Program at Sejong Institute. The official appointment of Kim as successor also may come as early as October, Cheong said, when the Workers' Party celebrates its foundation. (Source: Korea Herald.) Heightening tensions on peninsula attributed to North Korea's transfer of power (Jun 2009) It is being confirmed that North Korea’s power structure has entered a giant vortex of transformation. This is surfacing as a key factor that could shake up the situation on the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it recently confirmed that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s third son Kim Jong-un, age 26, was named successor. The NIS has reportedly confirmed that North Korean authorities have sent a diplomatic telegram to the country’s overseas missions that includes the fact that Kim Jong-un has been named successor. It is believed that North Korea had already quietly conveyed this to the Workers Party of Korea, military and cabinet. Officially informing overseas missions is thought to be a way of confirming the selection to the outside world. The formulation of a hereditary transfer of power that spans three generations from Kim Il-sung to Kim Jong-il to Kim Jong-un indicates that North Korea is entering a historic turning point. Kim Jong-il, after being named successor by his father Kim Il-sung in 1974, engaged in a fierce power struggle before assuming power. Hwang Jang-yop, the former secretary for the Workers Party of Korea who defected to South Korea, has said it was almost as if Kim Jong-il seized power by stealing it from Kim Il-sung, and because of this, Kim Il-sung had to read his son’s mind. Kim Jong-il knows better than anyone that one’s power can only weaken once a successor is named. Making his son an official successor-designate now suggests he is pressed for time. An intelligence official said it appears Kim rushed into implementing a successor structure after last year’s health problems. In the short term, Kim’s naming of a successor materializes North Korea’s post-Kim Jong-il power structure and removes some uncertainty in North Korea’s domestic situation. In the long term, however, there is great concern that this could bring even greater uncertainty to not only North Korea’s internal situation, but also the entire Korean Peninsula. Chang Yong-seok, director at the Institute for Peace Affairs said if Kim Jong-un, whose power base is week and unlike his father’s, were to take power without sufficient preparation, it is also possible the succession could instigate internal opposition and confusion in North Korea. This could have grave results for the entire Korean Peninsula. Observers are saying North Korea’s recent hardline policies are not just the result of attempting to leverage negotiations with the U.S., but are also closely related to the building of a successor system. In this light, North Korea’s various acts of heightening tensions, including the recent nuclear test and preparations for a long-range missile test, are perhaps intended to leave Kim Jong-un the “accomplishment” of having led the forging of a “strong and prosperous state” that North Korea has pledged to build by 2012. (Source: Hankyoreh.) (SITE NOTE: ROK newspapers have started saying that it is Kim Jong-il's failing health that is prompting the elevation of Kim Jong-un. This had been forecast a few months ago as defectors were saying that children had to memorize a song to Kim Jong-un before they were released from school.) Rough road of succession in North Korea (Jun 2009) Kim Jong Il's son could face a military coup, if not some other threat to his power, when -and if- he takes control of North Korea, analysts say. The ailing Kim reportedly named the youngest of his three sons, Kim Jong Un, as his successor. Little is known about the younger Kim, who is believed to be 26 or 27 years old, educated in Switzerland and eager to improve his English proficiency. But his youth and lack of political experience mean he could end up as a figurehead, without the complete control over North Korea that his father has. "He may end up being an important player, but he's not going to be the only player," said Brendan Howe, a professor of international relations at Troy University. Howe said Kim Jong Un could eventually secure some power and authority, and perhaps even be invited to join the military leaders in control of the country. He said it was notable that Kim Jong Un was recently appointed to North Korea's National Defense Commission "alongside a bunch of generals." "He could be brought in to be the figurehead, and to give the generals legitimacy," he said. But in a strict Confucian society that values age, Howe said, some won't want Kim Jong Il's young son to end up as supreme leader. "My money is actually on a military junta taking over, a group of military commanders sharing the power," he said. Some doubt reports that Kim Jong Un will succeed his father. "I still don't believe he is selected to become the next leader. He's just 27 years old," said Kim Taewoo, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. If he succeeds his father, Kim Jong Un will be the third ruler in the communist dynasty. But his rise to power would come under vastly different circumstances. His grandfather, Kim Il Sung, appointed Kim Jong Il as heir years before his death. "Kim Il Sung was strong, and Kim Jong Il had enough time to be educated as the next leader," Kim Tae-woo said. Kim Jong Il reportedly suffered a stroke last year, and recent photos show him looking thin and weak. If Kim Jong Un replaces his father, the personality cult that helped prop up his father and grandfather will likely end because he doesn't share their power, personality or policymaking ability, Kim Tae-woo said. The U.S. and South Korea should expect instability in the North when the younger Kim takes over — through a number of possibilities including a military coup or Chinese intervention, he said. Or, Kim Jong Un may be named the official leader but will be supported behind the scenes by others, possibly his uncles. Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University, said information out of North Korea is often unreliable, and he doubts reports that say Kim Jong Un is the designated successor. According to South Korean media, lawmakers on a National Assembly intelligence committee were briefed Tuesday that Kim Jong Un had been named successor. Several government agencies said they could not confirm those reports, but an aide for lawmaker Park Ji-won said he attended the briefing and was told Kim's youngest son would replace him. Among Kim Jong Il's sons, Kim Jong Un is considered to be most like his father in personality and leadership style, said Cheong Seong-chang, director of the inter-Korean relations program at the Sejong Institute. But the younger Kim's exposure to the outside world will make him a better ruler who is possibly open to talks with the West, though he is unlikely to open the communist nation to the outside world, he said. He said Kim Jong Un was chosen over his oldest brother, who was not considered a legitimate heir by Kim Il Sung because he disliked the oldest son's mother, an actress Kim Jong Il had an affair with and then married. Kim Jong Il believes his secondoldest son, born to a different mother, is too effeminate, Cheong said. He added the military will fight to put a leader of its own in power after Kim Jong Il dies. Because they expect an internal fight, he said North Korea won't start a war with South Korea or other countries. When Kim Jong Il took over, he had a network of political contacts to support him, though not a strong connection with the military — a powerful player in North Korea's power structure, said David Garretson, a professor of international relations at the University of Maryland University College. The younger Kim might be able to pick up his father's political supporters, Garretson said, but whoever succeeds Kim Jong Il has to have the military on his side. And there could be behind-the-scenes jockeying for power that leaves the military with more control over the rogue nation. "Would he be a puppet of the military because he's so young?" Garretson said. "Whether they (the military) end up more important in North Korea than they are very much depends on whether his son takes over and who advises or helps his son." (Source: Stars and Stripes.) Kim Jong-il's Health 'Getting Rapidly Worse' (Jun 2009) The health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is rapidly deteriorating, prompting the hasty decision to name his third son Jong-un as heir apparent, sources told the Chinese press. The Global News, a sister paper of the official People's Daily, on Thursday quoted a foreign ambassador in Pyongyang as saying that Kim Jong-il's fragile health made the situation in North Korea "very complicated." The envoy told the Global News that authorities in Pyongyang are keeping tight lid on information about Kim's health. A North Korean source in Beijing said Beijing-based North Korean officials from Ponghwa Hospital, which is treating Kim's illness, are looking to import expensive medical equipment, which has become contraband since the North conducted its first nuclear test in 2006. Pyongyang is also seeking to import an emergency helicopter from overseas. "Kim seems to be in serious condition," the source added. North Korea's nuclear test and imminent test of an intercontinental ballistic missile is an attempt to reduce the power vacuum and hand over a stable regime to Kim Jong-un, the source speculated. Since early this year, Kim Jong-il has tripled the frequency of so-called "on-the-spot guidance" to local areas and military units across the country out of impatience to hand over power to his son before it is too late, the source added. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) NK Leader Gives Son Control of Secret Police (Jun 2009) The heir apparent to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has received control of the Stalinist country's secret police in the first step of his succession process, a well-informed source on the North said yesterday. Kim Jong Un and his father are known to have visited the head office of the National Security Agency around March at the foot of Mount Ami in Pyongyang. The source said Kim Jong Il told key agency officials to consider Kim Jong Un their boss and defend him with their lives. The source said Kim Jong Il made similar comments early last month while visiting National Security Agency University in Pyongyang, a school which trains the agency's elite agents. He is said to have given to agency officials in March five imported luxury cars worth around 80,000 U.S. dollars each as gifts. The security body monitors the ideological trends of the North Korean people, looks for dissidents, and conducts overseas spy operations. It has branches in provinces and dispatches captain-level agents to each battalion-level military unit to keep watch over military organizations. Since 1987, Kim Jong Il has been the agency's official leader but the organization's chief deputy director has represented it officially. The current chief deputy director is U Tong Chuk, who is also a member of the powerful National Defense Commission. The source said Kim Jong Il probably handed over his power as the agency's chief to his heir apparent, rather than appointing his son chief deputy director. Agency cadres are known to take orders from an authority higher than the chief deputy director, such as those from Kim Jong Un. Signs also suggest that the security agency has grown more powerful. The source said the North's estimated 100,000-man border guard unit will be placed under the agency's control next month at the latest. The unit had belonged to the agency until 1992, when it was moved to the People's Armed Forces Ministry. Officers of the unit are said to be pleased over the planned transfer to the agency on the expectation of better treatment. In addition, the security agency in April also took over control of the border immigration office from the military. As the heir apparent, Kim Jong Un is also known to be involved in personnel appointments at the organizational department of the North's ruling Workers' Party. The source said the junior Kim will follow in his father's footsteps in becoming the party's organizational secretary, second only to the general secretary, to take control of the party. The next step will be inheriting the post of supreme commander of the North Korean military. According to the source, a review of the ideology of party members is under preparation so that they can confess all of their previous misdeeds and get off to a fresh start. Taking over the security agency first among his father's powerful posts could suggest that Kim Jong Il is most fearful of possible resistance within the inner power circle in the succession process. That is why attention is being drawn to how he will eliminate those standing in the way of his plan. (Source: Donga Ilbo Tenant companies are moving out of Kaesong (Jun 2009) With tensions between South Korea and North Korea heightening following North Korea’s second nuclear test and South Korea’s decision to participate fully in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) on weapons of mass destruction, a number of businesses have been pulling out of the Kaesong (Gaeseong) Industrial Complex. It was confirmed on Tuesday that some of the tenant companies have been moving facilities south to prepare for a possible closure of the complex, while others have been looking at relocating production bases overseas in countries like Vietnam and Indonesia. A number of tenant business officials noted that a company identified by the initial “M” had recently moved its entire facilities south out of the Kaesong complex. “From what I have heard, the contracting company was not providing materials due to concerns about production problems resulting from the hardening of inter-Korean relations, so on May 27 they made the decision and shut down factory operations,” said one tenant business official. Tenant firms also relayed that two companies identified as “B” and “K” had already taken their core facilities and equipment back to South Korea to resume operations again there. In the past, some tenant companies in Kaesong had temporarily taken some of their equipment back into South Korea in order to allay purchasers’ concerns, but there have been no cases until now of companies moving their equipment due to concerns of the complex’s potential closure. The fact that some tenant companies are preparing to withdraw their equipment is giving rise to concerns about a possible chain of withdrawals. An official with another company identified as “K” commented, “Concerns that the Kaesong complex might close makes it unclear whether we can meet buyer orders.” The official added that the company plans to move its core equipment out of the complex within this week or next week. Some other companies are showing indications of considering establishing other overseas production bases in countries like Vietnam and Indonesia as an alternative. The majority view among Kaesong Industrial Complex tenant companies is that activities of withdrawal became visible following South Korea’s decision to fully participate in PSI. Yu Chang-geun, vice chairman of the Association of Gaeseong Industrial Complex Tenant Companies, said tenant firms “feel it has already gotten beyond a level that they themselves can control” following the government’s decision to join PSI as a full member. “If they pull out now, many tenant companies will not be able to receive insurance money, so they have no choice but to get through this difficult situation,” Yu said. (Source: Hankyoreh.) Companies Getting Ready for Exodus from Kaesong (Jun 2009) Growing uncertainty over the future of the joint-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex is driving South Korean firms operating there back across the border. Apparel manufacturer Skinnet on Monday became the first company to decide to stop operations at the complex. Stopping short of full withdrawal, some South Korean firms have already brought some of their facilities back to the South. Other firms have transferred production from Kaesong to China or Vietnam. The moves are seen as preparations for a full withdrawal from the complex. (SITE NOTE: Yonhap News ("S. KOREAN FIRM DECIDES TO WITHDRAW FROM KAESONG COMPLEX", Seoul, 2009/06/08) reported that a ROK apparel maker decided Monday to pull out of an industrial complex in the DPRK due to worsening inter-Korean relations, the company's president said. "We made the decision as deteriorating ties between the two Koreas resulted in canceled orders and raised concerns over the security of company staff," the president of the company said. "Related documents have been submitted to the management committee of the complex," he said. The company, identified only by its initial of S, is the first ROK company operating in the complex to withdraw.) According to the Unification Ministry, the export volume of the industrial park in January-April this year dropped 56.1 percent and output 6.6 percent year-on-year. Cho Myung-chul, a senior researcher at the Korean Institute for International Economic Policy, said, "If wages at the Kaesong complex increase as to the level of China and more buyers ignore products from the complex, there will probably a domino effect of companies pulling out of Kaesong." (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) N.Korea in Extortionate Demands for Kaesong Complex (Jun 2009) North Korea wants South Korea to quadruple wages for North Korean workers and pay 31 times the rent at the joint Kaesong Industrial Complex. The North made the new demand in a second round of inter-Korean talks at the industrial park Thursday. That dims prospects for the project even further, but the two Koreas agreed to meet again on June 19 to continue talks. The Unification Ministry said North Korea demanded that workers' wages are raised from the current US$75, including social insurance, to $300 per month. Most of the wages already go to the regime, not the workers. It also demanded $500 million in rent for 3.3 million sq. m land put aside for the first phase of the industrial park, for which Hyundai Asan and the Korea Land Corporation in 2004 already paid in $16 million for a 50-year lease. In addition, the North wants another $10 per 3.3 sq. m for 1.98 million sq. m land currently allotted to the industrial park a year from 2010. An intelligence officer said, "If we pay $500 million in rent and increase the per capita wage to $300 per month, North Korea will earn $600 million to $700 million in cash this year alone. That’s nearly 70 percent of North Korea's annual export volume of $900 million" as of 2007. The South Korean side called on Pyongyang to release a Hyundai Asan staffer identified as Yu who has been held incommunicado in Kaesong for some 70 days. It wants the two sides establish a committee on travel between the two Koreas, which will serve as a forum to discuss the safety of South Koreans traveling to the North. Seoul also urged Pyongyang to stop conducting nuclear tests and creating military tension, resume inter-Korean talks and return to the six-party nuclear talks. Prof. Nam Ju-hong of Kyonggi University commented, "North Korea may want to close the Kaesong industrial park unilaterally, but it also has to be mindful of Chinese and other foreign investors who have money in the North. It is apparently attempting to choke off South Korean firms to make them leave of their own accord." But some feel there still is room for negotiations with the North. Prof. Kim Yong-hyun of Dongguk University said, "If it had decided to close down the industrial park, the North would have unilaterally told Seoul that it would do so, without setting a date for the next round of talks. It seems that Pyongyang is trying to see how Seoul would respond to a maximum demand." (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) Kaesong Companies Ask for Help in Pulling Out (Jun 2009)South Korean companies operating in the Kaesong industrial complex are urging the government to prepare to help them pull out of the facility. A number of South Korean companies have previously withdrawn or considered doing so, but the association of such enterprises has made an official request to Seoul to support their withdrawal. In a meeting of its 24 member companies at its office in Seoul yesterday, the association in a statement asked for these and other measures from the South Korean government. “We cannot accept any demand for pay raises that fail to comply with contracts and regulations guaranteed by the South and North Korean governments at the time of our entry into the complex,” the statement said. “We call on our government to come up with measures to provide companies operating in the complex with operational funds and ways to pull out to reduce damage incurred to them.” “Discussion of pay raises should be held only when security of personnel is guaranteed, the business environment is improved, and low labor productivity is increased and within the boundary of the basic conditions.” The association also demanded the construction of dormitories and childcare centers for companies that stay in the complex, as originally agreed upon. Association chairman Kim Hak-kwon said, “The North’s unilateral demand for pay raises violates the provision on a maximum annual pay raise of five percent, and (Seoul) should allow companies to pull out of the complex.” In working-level talks Thursday at the complex, the North demanded that the monthly pay for North Korean workers in the complex be raised to from 75 to 300 U.S. dollars and additional rent of 500 million dollars, or 31 times the original amount. Many companies operating in the complex are reluctant to withdraw, even if they have incurred losses. An inter-Korean economic cooperation insurance program compensates up to 90 percent of losses under a ceiling of seven billion won (5.582 million dollars) in the event of a crisis. Premiums can be paid out only if a company suffers business suspension for more than a month due to North Korea’s unilateral revocation of an agreement or if the North confiscates the company’s assets. No premium is paid if a company voluntarily withdraws. The association’s vice chairman Yoo Chang-geun said, “We applied for business stabilization funds with South Korea’s Unification Ministry to support companies operating in the Kaesong complex, but we have received no reply yet.” “Under these circumstances, it is important that the government creates an environment to allow companies on the brink of collapse to pull out from the complex.” (Source: Donga Ilbo.) Key health care senators have industry ties (Jun 2009) Influential senators working to overhaul the nation's health care system have investments and family ties with some of the biggest names in the industry. The wife of Sen. Chris Dodd, the lawmaker in charge of writing the Senate's bill, sits on the boards of four health care companies. Members of both parties have industry connections, including Democrats Jay Rockefeller and Tom Harkin, in addition to Dodd, and Republicans Tom Coburn, Judd Gregg, John Kyl and Orrin Hatch, financial reports showed Friday. Jackie Clegg Dodd, wife of the Connecticut Democrat, is on the boards of Javelin Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cardiome Pharma Corp., Brookdale Senior Living and Pear Tree Pharmaceuticals. Dodd is filling in for ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which will soon start work on a health care bill. Other publicly available documents show Mrs. Dodd last year was one of the most highly compensated non-employee members of the Javelin Pharmaceuticals Inc. board, on which she has served since 2004. She earned $32,000 in fees and $109,587 in stock option awards last year, according to the company's SEC filings. Mrs. Dodd earned $79,063 in fees from Cardiome in its last fiscal year, while Brookdale Senior Living gave her $122,231 in stock awards in 2008, their SEC filings show. She earned no income from her post as a director for Pear Tree Pharmaceuticals but holds up to $15,000 in stock in Pear Tree, which describes itself as a development-stage pharmaceutical company focused on the needs of aging women. The annual financial disclosure reports for members of Congress are less precise. They only require that assets and liabilities be listed in ranges of values. Dodd sought a 90-day extension to file his report covering last year, giving him until mid-August to submit his report, but released his report Friday to The Associated Press. Bryan DeAngelis, Dodd's spokesman, said, "Jackie Clegg Dodd's career is her own; absolutely independent of Senator Dodd, as it was when they married 10 years ago. The senator has worked to reform our health care system for decades, and nothing about his wife's career is relevant at all to his leadership of that effort." DeAngelis said that Mrs. Dodd has hired a personal ethics lawyer to avoid any conflicts of interest and is not a lobbyist. Other reports showed:
One of Dodd's investments showed a vast improvement. A new appraisal more than doubled the value of his vacation cottage in Ireland, which has been subject of a Senate ethics complaint filed by a conservative group questioning if the undervalued property was really a gift. The property is valued at 470,000 euros, or about $660,000, on Dodd's disclosure report. The previous year's report valued the seaside home, located in County Galway, at between $100,001 and $250,000. DeAngelis, the spokesman, said Dodd and his wife decided to have the property appraised because they felt it was time to update the information. (Source: AP.) U.S. not to relist N. Korea as state sponsor of terrorism: State Dept. (Jun 2009) The United States Wednesday said it has no intention of relisting North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism despite nuclear and missile tests that escalated regional tensions. The remarks by Philip Crowley, assistant secretary of state for public affairs, came in response to a letter from several U.S. senators to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday asking for the North's relisting."As for North Korea, I think we're aware of that letter, but as far as I know, firing off missiles and overheated rhetoric is unwise, unhelpful, but does not meet the legal definition of terrorism," Crowley said. "To list a country on the terrorism list, there's a legal requirement there. And what we've seen so far I don't think meets that legal test." (SITE NOTE: The State Department is sticking with the Does Not Meet Legal Criteria to be relisted. This comes after its UN sanctions approach died after China and Russia vetoed it on the UN Security Council. It is still trying to get the North to NOT launch the missile -- which creates a big problem as it will force the US to test its Ground Based Interceptors in Alaska against the IC BM headed towards the US -- and it will go from implied threat to actual confrontation.) The United States delisted the North in October as Pyongyang agreed verbally to a protocol for verification of its past and current nuclear activity as part of the disabling process of its nuclear facilities under a six-nation deal. However, at the latest six-party meeting in December, Pyongyang refused to sign an agreement on the verification regime, saying that it will accept that in the third and final phase of the denuclearization process, which involves dismantlement of the nuclear facilities in return for hefty economic aid and other political and diplomatic benefits. In the second phase of disablement, the North was to get 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil. The multilateral nuclear talks appear doomed as North Korea in recent months has pledged to abandon them, citing the U.N. Security Council's condemnation of its rocket launch in early April. The council is also reviewing a draft resolution for further sanctioning Pyongyang for its nuclear test last week, the second in three years. Financial sanctions and overall arms trade embargoes are being considered, but China, North Korea's staunchest communist ally, is trying to soften the sanctions. Some U.S. officials and experts see the North's recent provocations as an attempt to revive bilateral negotiations with Washington. Others say Pyongyang has no intention of abandoning its nuclear arsenal. Nuclear clout might help North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's third and youngest son, Jong-un, consolidate power in the coming years as the senior Kim's health weakens. A U.S. delegation led by Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg is currently in Seoul as part of its Asian tour to discuss how to sanction the North. "We continue to act both in the region, with this delegation led by Deputy Secretary Steinberg, and also in New York," Crowley said. "We've been in intensive discussions with our partners in the Security Council, you know, and looking for a very firm resolution." The spokesman repeated calls for the North to return to the six-party talks. "We're obviously going to look for ways that are both, you know, multilateral, bilateral, to help North Korea understand it has obligations under international law and it has made commitments within the six-party process, you know, back to the agreement in September 2005," he said. "We're looking for North Korea to return to a process and to pick up where we left off with that agreement and fulfill its obligations, you know, towards the international community's objective of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula. "Clearly, North Korea is, in my judgment, signaling it wants to have nuclear weapons and a normal relationship with the region and the world," he said. "And we're clearly communicating to North Korea that they'll have to make a choice." (Source: Yonhap News.) DPRK Military Possibly Taking over Trade (Jun 2009) IFES NK Brief ("DPRK MILITARY STRENGTHENS HOLD ON ECONOMIC INTERESTS", 2009/06/10) reported that the DPRK military, which has recently taken a hard-line position internationally with rocket launches, a nuclear test and inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch preparation, appears to be strengthening its position domestically, as well. It has reportedly taken charge of coal exports, previously the responsibility of the Cabinet, and other key economic interests. According to sources inside the DPRK, authority to export anthracite, the DPRK’s most valuable export item, was transferred from a trading company under the control of the Cabinet to a military trading company earlier this year. Goodfriends ("DPRK UNIV STUDENTS GIVING AID IN COUNTRYSIDE, NO FOOD", 2009/06/09) reported that DPRK university students who are giving aid in the countryside cannot stay in the village and instead commute from their school dorms. That is because they cannot be provided with food in the countryside. This makes it difficult for the students to stay on course. U.S. to press ships from N. Korea for inspections (Jun 2009) The U.S. Navy, acting on authority granted by the United Nations, is prepared to intercept North Korean ships and request permission to search them for arms or nuclear technology, a Pentagon official said Tuesday. Sailors cannot board a ship by force, but if an inspection is refused, the Navy can follow it to the next port and again press for an inspection. The approach is authorized by a U.N. Security Council resolution approved Friday. President Barack Obama and visiting South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said at the White House on Tuesday that the resolution must be fully enforced, but noted that it did not authorize military force. Lee said he and Obama agreed that “under no circumstance are we going to allow North Korea to possess nuclear weapons.” The communist government has tested two underground nuclear devices and is believed by U.S. intelligence to possess material to make several nuclear bombs. At the Pentagon, press secretary Geoff Morrell said the U.S. has yet to intercept a North Korean ship. “At this point, all we’re doing is monitoring North Korean shipments and, hopefully, it does not become necessary,” he said. On Tuesday morning, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., criticized the U.N. resolution in a Twitter message, writing, “This is a half measure — those ships should be stopped and searched … if there is probable cause.” Morrell said the resolution represented definite progress by a unified Security Council and that the U.S. would not be alone in the effort. “So presumably, this would not just be us, should we find reasonable grounds to presume that one of these ships is carrying banned goods, but similarly if the Russian navy were to see that, or the Chinese navy were to see that, or the Republic of Korean navy or the Japanese navy. Other navies are also empowered by this resolution to deal with this problem, and that is a step in the right direction.” On Capitol Hill, Pentagon officials told a Senate committee that North Korea’s missiles could hit the United States in as few as three years if the North continues progress on its weapons system. U.S. officials have said the North Koreans appear to be making preparations for a third nuclear test. North Korea also has said it would regard efforts to enforce U.N. sanctions as an act of war. Asked by a reporter whether he believes his country is under threat of attack from the North, Lee said, “They will think twice about taking any measures that they will regret. North Korea may wish to do so, but of course they will not be able to.” Obama said that North Korea’s record of threatening other countries and spreading nuclear technology around the world means it should not be recognized as a legitimate nuclear power. “We will pursue denuclearization on the Korean peninsula vigorously,” Obama said. “So we have not come to a conclusion that North Korea will or should be a nuclear power. Given their past behavior, given the belligerent manner in which they are constantly threatening their neighbors, I don’t think there’s any question that that would be a destabilizing situation that would be a profound threat not only to United States’ security but to world security.” Nor will the international community respond to North Korean provocations, such as additional underground nuclear tests, by offering financial incentives, Lee said. “They will not be able to gain compensation by provoking a crisis,” he said. (Source: Stars and Stripes.) Officials: US tracking suspicious ship from NKorea (Jun 2009) The U.S. military is tracking a ship from North Korea that may be carrying illicit weapons, the first vessel monitored under tougher new United Nations rules meant to rein in and punish the communist government following a nuclear test, officials said Thursday. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he has ordered additional protections for Hawaii just in case North Korea launches a long-range missile over the Pacific Ocean. The suspect ship could become a test case for interception of the North's ships at sea, something the North has said it would consider an act of war. Officials said the U.S. is monitoring the voyage of the North Korean-flagged Kang Nam, which left port in North Korea on Wednesday. On Thursday, it was traveling in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of China, two officials said on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence. What the Kang Nam was carrying was not known, but the ship has been involved in weapons proliferation, one of the officials said. The ship is among a group that is watched regularly but is the only one believed to have cargo that could potentially violate the U.N. resolution, the official said. The USS John S. McCain was shadowing the vessel, the Kang Nam, the first ship to be monitored under a UN resolution imposed a week ago that bans arms shipments to and form North Korea, the official said. "We are keeping an eye on that ship," the official, who asked not to be named, told AFP. Another defense official said the North Korean ship was one of a group of vessels previously linked to illicit missile-related cargo. It was unclear what cargo the ship was carrying in this instance but, he said: "Once a suspect, always a suspect."Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen did not specifically confirm that the U.S. was monitoring the ship when he was asked about it at a Pentagon news conference Thursday (18 Jun). "We intend to vigorously enforce the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874 to include options, to include, certainly, hail and query," Mullen said. "If a vessel like this is queried and doesn't allow a permissive search," he noted, it can be directed into port. The Security Council resolution calls on all 192 U.N. member states to inspect vessels on the high seas "if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the cargo" contains banned weapons or material to make them, and if approval is given by the country whose flag the ship sails under. If the country refuses to give approval, it must direct the vessel "to an appropriate and convenient port for the required inspection by the local authorities." The resolution does not authorize the use of force. But if a country refuses to order a vessel to a port for inspection, it would be in violation of the resolution and the country licensing the vessel would face possible sanctions by the Security Council. Gates, speaking at the same news conference, said the Pentagon is concerned about the possibility of a North Korean missile launch "in the direction of Hawaii." Gates told reporters at the Pentagon he has sent the military's ground-based mobile missile system to Hawaii, and positioned a radar system nearby. The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles in their last stage of flight. "We are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect Americans and American territory," Gates said. A Japanese newspaper reported Thursday that North Korea might fire its most advanced ballistic missile toward Hawaii around the Fourth of July holiday. A new missile launch - though not expected to reach U.S. territory - would be a brazen slap in the face of the international community, which punished North Korea with new U.N. sanctions for conducting a second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of a U.N. ban. North Korea spurned the U.N. Security Council resolution with threats of war and pledges to expand its nuclear bomb-making program. The missile now being readied in the North is believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles and would be launched from North Korea's Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast, the Yomiuri newspaper said. It cited an analysis by Japan's Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites. (Source: Stars and Stripes.) N.Korea 'Made Millions from Insurance Scam' (Jun 2009) North Korea amassed a U.S. dollar fortune to buy luxury goods for leader Kim Jong-il through international insurance scams, the Washington Post reported Thursday. Based on testimony of Kim Kwang-jin, a former executive of North Korea's state insurance firm, the daily said US$20 million North Korea received from foreign insurance companies was delivered to Kim Jong-il through Beijing in February 2003. The North made millions of dollars from major insurance firms for transportation accidents, burning of factories, and damages from natural disasters such as floods. "Some details emerged in London last year when lawyers for German insurance giant Allianz Global Investors, Lloyd's of London and several other reinsurers disputed a North Korean reinsurance claim for the 2005 crash of a helicopter into a government-owned warehouse in Pyongyang," the paper said. The insurance companies suspected that the crash as well as a ruling of the North Korean court was fabricated but withdrew their case during trial in London and settled with North Korea, a near-complete victory for the communist country. The article appeared as the global community tries to implement sanctions against North Korea in accordance with the United States Security Council Resolution 1874, and this implies vigorous tracking of North Korean practice of accumulating Kim Jong-il's slush funds through global insurance fraud. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) US, UN Continue Humanitarian Aid to NK (Jun 2009) The United States and the United Nations will continue humanitarian aid projects to North Korea, despite the U.N. Security Council’s latest sanctions on the North for nuclear provocations. In a Saturday interview with Voice of America, spokesman Stephane Dujarric from the U.N. Development Program said that aid projects will continue as planned regardless of the sanctions resolution. The U.S. State Department's Agency for International Development (USAID) also plans to continue its medical aid projects for the North. Speaking to Radio Free Asia, a State Department official said the U.S. is concerned about the North Korean people's welfare. The source said the U.S. government and four civic groups are currently involved in a four-million-dollar project to provide electricity and equipment to a North Korean hospital. The official said Washington seeks not only short-term aid, but long-term changes in the North's medical environment. (Source: KBS Global.) July 2009No Food for N.Korea without Monitoring, Says U.S. (Jul 2009) The U.S. will not resume food aid to North Korea unless there is a guarantee that the food will be distributed properly among North Koreans who need it. U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters Wednesday, "We currently have no plans to provide additional food to North Korea. Any additional food aid would have to have assurances that it would be appropriately used." "We remain very concerned about the well-being of the North Korean people, but we are very concerned because we need to have adequate program management in place, monitoring and access provisions, and we don't have that right now," he added.Kelly said North Korea rejected U.S. food aid in March, expressing regret that Pyongyang threw out all NGO food monitors by the end of March. Meanwhile, the World Food Programme said there has been no single donation for the food aid program for the North since its nuclear test in May, and the program has been downsized to one-third of the original plan. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)  Kim Jong-il 'Won't Live Another 5 Years' (Jul 2009) The CIA has told South Korean intelligence that the chances of ailing North Korean leader Kim Jong-il surviving another five years are one in three. A South Korean government source on Friday said the CIA last month informed intelligence authorities here of a long-distance analysis of Kim's health that suggests there is a 71 percent probability of Kim, who has been battling complications from a stroke and diabetes, dying within the next five years. The CIA speculation is apparently based on analysis of medical data including Kim's age, medical history, physical condition, and changes in his physical condition between the time of the stroke and more recently. It indexed Kim's physical condition based on various intelligence reports including brain scan pictures obtained by South Korean intelligence and testimonies of senior informants, in addition to information such as photos of Kim's on-the-spot guidance tours. The Washington Times last Thursday gave Kim even less time. "New reports from U.S. and diplomatic sources say that the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il continues to decline and that he may have only one more year to live," the daily said. South Korean intelligence services agree that Kim is not in a good health, but different agencies apparently have different views about how serious his condition is. (Source: .) Kim Jong-il's Death 'Could Lead to Power Struggle' (Jul 2009) A power struggle could erupt in North Korea following the death of leader Kim Jong-il between his son and heir apparent Jong-un and his brother-in-law, intelligence services here speculate. The National Intelligence Service told a recent session of the National Assembly Jang Song-taek, the purported no. 2 man in North Korea, director of the Workers' Party administrative department and member of the National Defense Commission, will lead a power struggle. The NIS said it seems certain that power in North Korea will be handed down to a third generation to Kim Jong-un. But that is expected to result in a weak power structure given Kim Jong-il's current ill health and unstable political and economic factors in the regime. Chances are that Jang and his followers could try to seize power from Kim Jong-un and his faction, it speculated. Jang is currently helping smooth Kim junior's succession to power but apparently supported Kim's eldest son Jong-nam for the leadership at first. The NIS said another possibility in case Kim dies before the succession has been firmly cemented is a collective leadership of party and military. The NIS points at Kim Kyong-hee, Jang's wife and the Kim senior's younger sister, as another guardian of Kim junior. It says Kim Kyong-hee stopped engaging in public activities after September 2003, when she was head of the Workers' Party light industry department. She had treatment for hypochondria and alcoholism. An NIS official said, "Kim Kyong-hee has been playing the role as a guardian for Kim Jong-un since she resumed her public activities as director of a party department on June 7." The NIS predicts that Kim Jong-un will officially be declared his father's successor in 2012, the year North Korea has designated as the start of building a "powerful nation," in the latest slogan. It said it will take some time to formalize the succession given Kim Jong-un's lack of political experience and problems at home and abroad. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) August 2009Yu Recalls 136 Days of Hardship in N.Korean Detention (Aug 2009) The South Korean freed on Aug. 13 after 136 days of being held incommunicado in North Korea went on hunger strike at one point and was forced to sign a false confession that he was a spy, the government revealed Tuesday. Yu Seong-jin, an engineer with Hyundai Asan, was arrested in Kaesong on March 30 and released to coincide with a visit to Pyongyang by Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun.The government said Yu had written several letters to a North Korean woman working at the joint Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex, whom he had met around 2005. In some of them, he criticized North Korea's political system, including the private life of leader Kim Jong-il and the situation of North Korean defectors. "Another main reason for his detention was that Yu had talked to those around him about his close relationship with another North Korean woman whom he had met in Libya where he worked for Daewoo Construction in 1998," the government said. The woman was reportedly called back to North Korea later on suspicion of attempting to defect to South Korea. Yu was summoned to the North Korean immigration office on March 30, where he was arrested. He was held at the Janamsan Inn in downtown Kaesong. Interrogations usually took between 30 minutes and two hours a day in the morning and afternoon. In some cases, they continued until midnight or 1 a.m. the following morning. Investigators from Pyongyang reportedly wanted Yu to confess what he had said, what motives he had, and who was behind him, accusing him of "criticizing the supreme leader" and attempting to talk the woman into defecting. They also questioned him about the nature of his relationship with the woman in Libya between 1998 and 2000 and about whether he was involved in helping her to defect, the government said. Yu denied his charges at first, but when the investigators presented evidence including the letters, he admitted them and wrote a confession. Investigators forced him to make a false confession that in Libya he had worked at the instructions of a South Korean intelligence agency. In protest, he even went on a hunger strike on April 23-25 but failed to stick it out and submitted a false written confession around May 17. The investigators did not torture him in detention but interrogated him for long periods making him sit upright on a wooden chair. Investigators and security guards also shouted at and insulted him, forcing him a dozen times to get on his knees for three to five minutes. "They treated him inhumanely to the point of not turning off the lights when he had to sleep," the government added. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: The irony of the situation is that North Korea submitted a bill for Yu's lodgings in a cheap hotel at $100 a day or about $141,000 dollars. Hyundai stated it would pay the charge from the insurance that all companies must have while working in Kaesong.) N.Korea Reopens Hotline, Agrees to Red Cross Talks (Aug 2009) North Korea on Tuesday agreed to talks between the Red Cross agencies of the two sides to discuss a resumption of reunions of families separated by the Korean War. Through an inter-Korean hotline at the truce village of Panmunjom, the North agreed to the Souths suggestion to hold the talks at Mt. Kumgang on Aug. 26-28, a year and nine months after the last Red Cross contacts. The reunions are to start up again on Chuseok or Korean Thanksgiving, which falls on Oct. 3. North Korea reconnected the Panmunjom hotline to agree the talks, which it had cut off last November over the South Korean government's support for a UN resolution on North Korean human rights. The east coast route to Mt. Kumgang was also reopened that day. North Korea has launched a charm offensive, lifting border restrictions, offering to restart business projects and resuming dialogue with the South. But it has made no progress in dismantling its nuclear program, the main bone of contention between the two Koreas. After a series of missile tests and other saber-rattling, the North is suddenly all smiles, starting with the visit to Pyongyang by former U.S. president Bill Clinton, when it agreed to free two U.S. journalists detained at the border with China. Since then, developments have come thick and fast. A Hyundai Asan staffer who had been held incommunicado in North Korea for 136 days was freed on Aug. 13, and leader Kim Jong-il met with Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun, agreeing to resume tourism programs, put the Kaesong Industrial Complex back on track and lift travel restrictions. A North Korean delegation attended the funeral of former president Kim Dae-jung and met with President Lee Myung-bak on Sunday. The Choson Sinbo, a mouthpiece for Pyongyang published in Japan, said Monday, "The situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula is changing remarkably." It added the delegation's visit to Cheong Wa Dae had provided the momentum for "irreversible change" to begin. But on the nuclear issue, North Korea's position is the same as it was when no. 2 leader Kim Yong-nam on July 15 declared the six-party talks "are over for good." A security official said, "North Korea seems willing to do anything except on the nuclear issue, so (relations) can return to confrontation anytime unless there is a change in this fundamental issue." Prof. Lee Jo-won of ChungAng University warned that by behaving as though it is determined to behave reasonable, North Korea “is giving us the wrong impression that it may have changed." Experts urged the government to stick to principles. Suh Jae-jean, the president of the Korea Institute for National Unification, said, "The government should maintain principles based on Seoul-Washington cooperation until North Korea makes a strategic decision on the nuclear issue." (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) Tours to N. Korea Could Resume Next Month (Aug 2009) Hyundai Asan Corp. is seeking to resume tours to North Korea’s Kaesong and Mount Kumgang next month. The tour to Kaesong, a border city in the North where an inter-Korean industrial complex is located, was halted in December last year. That to the scenic mountain has been on a 14-month hiatus since the shooting death of a South Korean tourist in July last year. Whether the tours will resume next month is unclear since they are contingent on South and North Korean authorities concluding negotiations. The Hyundai Group yesterday said its subsidiary Hyundai Asan will resume the Kaesong tour Sept. 14 and the Mount Kumgang tour Sept. 21. Accordingly, the company began practical preparatory steps. A Hyundai Asan source reportedly held talks with the Unification Ministry in Seoul Tuesday to explain the schedules and ask for support. The company, however, said, “We’re not taking steps to resume the tours by setting a certain deadline.” Whether the tours are resumed is not something the company can unilaterally decide without coordination with the government or negotiations between the two Koreas. As such, analysts say the Hyundai Group has reached partial agreement with the South Korean government. Philip Goldberg, a U.S. diplomat in charge of sanctions on North Korea, said, “The resumption of tours to Mount Kumgang and Kaesong and the galvanization of the inter-Korean Kaesong industrial complex are not subject to the U.N. resolution on sanctioning North Korea.” His comment also added momentum to Hyundai Asan’s bid to reopen the tours. Seoul, however, said it is premature to predict when the tours will resume. One government source said, “If tours to Mount Kumgang and Kaesong are to resume, talks between South and North Korean authorities are a prerequisite.” “It’s impossible to predict the timing of the tours’ resumption given that the schedule for talks has not been fixed.” The source added, “Hyundai Asan might have predicted a certain timeline on its own in preparing for the resumption of the tours.” Once talks between both sides are held, Seoul plans to urge Pyongyang to apologize for the shooting death of the tourist at Mount Kumgang in July last year. The South is also expected to demand solid safety guarantees for South Korean tourists and change the way payments are made for the tours. (Source: Donga Ilbo.) N.Korea 'Invites U.S. Special Representative' (Aug 2009) North Korea has apparently invited the U.S. special representative for the Stalinist country Stephen Bosworth to Pyongyang. Diplomatic sources in Seoul and Washington on Monday said the North asked on two or three occasions recently whether Bosworth and the U.S. special envoy on North Korean affairs, Sung Kim, could visit Pyongyang, a clear shift from early this year, when it declined a visit from Bosworth. Such a visit could signal the first step in bilateral talks between the United States and North Korea. The U.S. government is saying North Korea must return to the six-party nuclear talks and any dialogue would be possible only in that framework. A decision about a visit from Bosworth would be made only if North Korea demonstrates its willingness to scrap its nuclear program. "Bosworth's visit will happen someday," one diplomatic source in Seoul said. "But it's not likely to happen in September." However, other speculation has it that the U.S. government could be more ready to accept Pyongyang's request if there are hopes of an early resumption of the stalled six-party talks. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: Reports state that the US government is NOT interested at this time. The US wants an agreement to return to talks BEFORE any contact.) September 2009SKorea to buy Israeli radar to detect NKorean missiles (Sep 2009) South Korea will buy an advanced radar system from Israel to detect and track North Korean ballistic missiles, officials said Thursday. The Defence Acquisition Programme Administration said it would place an order soon with Israel's Elta group for its Green Pine Block-B radar system. Elta scored higher than France's Thales in a performance test in August, spokesman Kim Young-San told reporters. "If deployed here, the system will significantly improve our anti-missile defence capabilities," he said, adding it could track any ballistic missiles fired by North Korea at an early stage.The radars would be capable of monitoring ballistic missiles in flight at ranges of up to 500 kilometres (312 miles), covering nearly all North Korean soil if deployed in South Korea by 2012, Kim said. "We hope the radars will significantly improve our anti-missile defence capabilities," he said, declining to specify the cost of the order. The air force last November took delivery of a first shipment of US-made Patriot air defence missiles, which were bought second-hand from Germany. The North has about 600 Scud missiles capable of hitting targets in South Korea, and possibly Japanese territory in some cases. There are another 200 Rodong-1 missiles, which could reach Tokyo. In addition, the North has three times test-launched long-range Taepodong missiles, most recently in April. (Source: Space War.) (SITE NOTE: The Missiles are PAC-2s which are more limited than the PAC-3s the USFK has deployed in Korea.) SKorea rules out deliberate water attack by NKorea (Sep 2009) South Korea's new defence chief said Thursday there was no evidence that the sudden discharge of water from a North Korean dam which killed six southerners was a deliberate attack. The North on September 6 released millions of tonnes of water into a cross-border river, which killed six South Koreans camping downstream. "We have no solid information to say the discharge was for a water attack," Kim Tae-Young, appointed defence minister on September 3, said in a report to parliament. He said the dam's floodgates were opened after it was full of water. The report tallies with accounts by the North, which said a sudden surge in the dam's water level prompted an "emergency" release. Seoul officials had previously questioned the explanation of the incident which has strained cross-border relations. In a related development Thursday, North Korea accepted a protest letter sent by South Korea's parliament speaker Kim Hyong-O to his northern counterpart, Choe Thae-Bok, calling for a "sincere" apology from its neighbour and a full explanation. He also suggested that Pyongyang should allow South Korean lawmakers to visit the site for an investigation. There was no immediate response from the communist country. After months of bellicose moves, the North in August began making conciliatory gestures towards the United States and South Korea. It freed two US journalists after a visit by ex-president Bill Clinton and called for direct talks with Washington on the nuclear standoff. The North also released five South Korean detainees, eased curbs on the operation of a joint industrial estate in the North, sent envoys for talks with President Lee Myung-Bak and proposed a new round of family reunions. However, Pyongyang announced that its experimental enriched uranium programme -- a second way to make nuclear weapons -- was almost complete. The South's Unification Minister Hyun In-Taek has expressed scepticism about the North's recent peace overtures, saying the nuclear-armed state had not changed its fundamental attitude. Some analysts believe the North just wants to boost revenues from the South to ease the impact of tougher United Nations sanctions imposed in June. (Source: Space War.) US to see if Japan has 'revised' thinking on NKorea (Sep 2009) A top US envoy is in Tokyo this week in part to determine if Japan's new government has "revised" the country's approach to North Korea's nuclear disarmament, the State Department said Thursday. Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters that Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, has arrived in Japan for a range of talks with the new center-left government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. Japan's new government has said it wants a less subservient relationship with Washington on foreign policy. The State Department has said that its partners in the six-party disarmament negotiations agreed that the United States should hold direct talks with North Korea in a bid to bring Pyongyang back to the talks they abandoned in April. But Washington consulted its negotiating partners -- South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan -- before the new Japanese government was formed. "There is a new Japanese government in place. We've had extensive conversations with the Japanese government. Obviously, there's just been a changeover," Crowley told the daily news briefing. "We're are going to compare notes with where we are in the process. We will, obviously, seek... any revised thinking that Japan might have on this topic," he said. "I think that we do have a broad consensus on a strategy with respect to North Korea. I think we would welcome, you know, any thinking that Japan has," he added. "We would fully expect that Japan will continue to play an integral and constructive role in the six-party process," he said. "But let's have the discussions first, and then... we can figure out whether any adaptations in our current thinking are necessary." North Korea bolted from the disarmament talks after the United Nations censured Pyongyang for a long-range rocket missile launch in April. It then staged an underground nuclear weapons test in May, prompting a tightening of UN sanctions. (Source: Space War.) Sanctions forcing NKorea to make peace overtures: SKorea (Sep 2009) North Korea is making peace overtures because sanctions are biting harder than expected but there are no signs it is willing to give up nuclear weapons, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak said Tuesday. Lee said nations negotiating with the North must stay united to thwart its attempts to win tacit acceptance as a nuclear-armed nation. The president, in an interview with Yonhap news agency and Japan's Kyodo News, said Pyongyang is beginning to feel the pinch of the tougher United Nations sanctions imposed after its May 25 nuclear test. "I believe North Korea was thrown off because these measures are having a stronger impact than earlier anticipated," Yonhap quoted the conservative leader as saying. "As a result of North Korea facing such a crisis, it is taking somewhat reconciliatory gestures toward the United States and South Korea to avoid the situation. "But it is still not showing any sincerity or signs that it will give up its nuclear ambitions," Lee said. In an unexpected volte-face following months of hostility, the North last month made peace noises to Washington and Seoul. It freed two US reporters after ex-president Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang, released five detained South Koreans, eased border curbs for visitors from the South and dropped demands for huge pay rises at a Seoul-funded industrial estate. Leader Kim Jong-Il sent envoys to join mourning for former South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung. The envoys also held talks with Lee, whom Pyongyang previously reviled as a "traitor" and US sycophant. Earlier Tuesday the two Koreas exchanged list of relatives for a family reunion programme later this month, the first for two years. Yet the North also claimed this month that it was in the final stages of completing uranium enrichment, and was also building more plutonium-based atomic weapons. Lee said the North's strategy of continuing nuclear development while improving relations with neighbours was an attempt to regain access to international assistance and secure tacit approval for its nuclear programmes. "That is why member countries of the six-party talks must redouble their efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions through a unified strategy," he said in the interview. The six-party talks group the two Koreas, Japan, China, Russia and the United States. The North quit the forum in April after the United Nations censured its long-range rocket test, and has instead sought direct talks with Washington. Washington said Friday it was prepared to talk directly with the North but only to bring it back to the six-nation talks. (Source: Space War.) October 2009N. Korean defectors sailed far out to sea to avoid radar detection (Oct 2009) Eleven North Koreans who recently defected to South Korea aboard a small boat in the East Sea had detoured through international waters to avoid being detected by the North's radar, a government source said Sunday. The asylum seekers -- six women and five men -- came aboard a 3-ton wooden boat off the east coast on Friday and are now undergoing questioning by South Korea's Coast Guard. Nine are family members who expressed their desire to defect to the South, while the other two had yet to make their decisions, it said earlier.Investigators found that the North Koreans departed from the Kimchaek port on the North's east coast on the night of Sept. 27 and sailed as far as 250km southeast into international waters to avoid the North's radar, the official involved in the inquiry said, requesting anonymity. "The North Korean boat appears to have departed the port late at night under the guise of a fishing boat," the official said. "It sailed as far from the coast as possible not to be caught by the North Korean military radar and then turned toward (South Korean) waters." The North Koreans told South Korean investigators they had prepared for the defection for about one year, officials said earlier. The Coast Guard towed the boat to the port town of Jumunjin on the east coast. The alleged defections occurred at a sensitive time, when North Korea was reaching out to improve ties with South Korea's conservative government. More than 16,000 North Koreans have defected since the 1950-53 Korean War. Most of the defectors first flee to China and pass through Southeast Asia before arriving in South Korea. Defections by sea are rare. Twenty-one North Korean asylum seekers arrived by wooden boat in the port of Incheon, west of Seoul, in 2002. The defectors -- 14 males and seven females -- were members of three families. In 1987, North Korean doctor Kim Man-chol's family of 11 came to South Korea via Taiwan after reaching Japan in a small boat. The family of Yo Man-chol, a former North Korean People's Security Ministry captain, defected to the South via Hong Kong in 1994. (Source: Yonhap News.) (SITE NOTE: North Korea demanded that the 11 defectors be returned to North Korea.) Analysis: US leery of direct talks with NKorea (Oct 2009) North Korea's suggestion that it may return to nuclear negotiations could open the way to its first talks with the Obama administration, but there are warning signs that the North has no intention of fully disarming. The administration is eager to get North Korea on track toward giving up its nuclear weapons capability even though the White House remains leery of the regime's pattern of progress followed by provocation. The North agreed in 2007 to dismantle its nuclear arms program but then reversed course. Last April and May it conducted nuclear and missile tests, coupled with a declaration that negotiations were dead, then reversed course again, reaching out to the U.S. after former President Bill Clinton met in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang with North Korean leader Kim Jong Ill. The State Department on Tuesday declined to comment on news reports that Kim told Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday that he might be prepared to resume so-called six party negotiations with the U.S., China, Russia, Japan and South Korea. Kim was reported to have said a resumption depended on progress in talks with the U.S. But a State Department official said Tuesday that the U.S. will not agree to one-on-one talks unless it is given assurances in advance that the outcome will be a deal to resume six-party negotiations. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations, said the U.S. hopes to hear from China on Wednesday whether Kim gave such an assurance in Monday's meeting with Wen, who was in Pyongyang for the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The Obama administration has said it is willing to hold one-on-one talks with North Korea so long as it leads to a return to the six-party effort, which Washington sees as a more effective way of applying diplomatic leverage. The last six-party talks were held in December 2008; in April the North Koreans announced that they would never return to that format and that they were expanding their nuclear force. Scott Snyder, director of the Center for U.S.-Korea Policy at the Asia Foundation, said it's unclear whether the administration would be wise to go ahead with either one-on-one or multiparty talks. "Without North Korea's recommitment to complete denuclearization, neither form of dialogue can achieve U.S. objectives," Snyder said. Bruce Bennett, a North Korea watcher at the RAND Corp. think tank, said it appears the North Koreans are trying to "bait" the Americans into negotiations that have no realistic chance of achieving disarmament. "I don't think North Korea at this stage is willing to give up its nuclear weapons," Bennett said in an interview. "It would appear the North Korean objective is to be recognized as a nuclear power, not to denuclearize." In anticipation of a North Korean assurance that the one-one-talks could lead to the return of six-party negotiations, the administration has been laying the groundwork for a one-on-one dialogue. That preparation has included sorting out who would participate and where the talks would be held, according to another State Department official who also spoke on condition of anonymity. Richard C. Bush III, an Asia expert at the Brookings Institution and former U.S. government intelligence officer, said the administration may send Stephen Bosworth, its special envoy on North Korea, to Pyongyang for any one-on-one talks. The purpose, he said, should be to assess the North Korean attitude and to emphasize the importance of denuclearization, but not to negotiate one-on-one. "But I don't really see much in what Kim Jong Il reportedly said (Monday) to indicate that the situation has really changed," Bush said, adding that the Koreans' apparent aim is to negotiate over what they perceive to be a hostile U.S. policy, not to negotiate an airtight elimination of their nuclear weapons. "Until there is credible evidence that North Korea again might be willing to give up its nuclear weapons in a complete and verifiable way, it's not clear that the six-party talks - or any venue, for that matter - is an appropriate way to reach that goal," Bush said. (Source: AP.) (SITE NOTE: The Chinese envoy to North Korea was surprised by the "ifs and buts" that accompanied the suggestion of a return to the talks. Again it looks as though it will be a conditional proposal -- the same as before.) U.S.' N.Korean Refugee Policy Under Scrutiny (Oct 2009) U.S. President Barack Obama last week nominated Robert King, a former aide to the late Tom Lantos, as a special envoy for North Korean human rights. Now a bipartisan group of U.S. congressmen have called for a reexamination of the issue of North Korean defectors. On the initiative of Democrat Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Senator Sam Brownback, Congress has recently instructed the Government Accountability Office to inspect government offices' North Korean refugee policy, a source in Washington said. According to the source, U.S. Congress instructed the GAO to inspect the U.S. administration, in the belief that there has been no significant change in the U.S. administration's policy on North Korean refugees even after Congress passed the North Korean Human Rights Act in 2004. The U.S. has been criticized for having accepted only about 90 North Korean refugees so far, despite the legal ground for accepting such refugees under the act. As a result, the GAO is conducting an intensive investigation of the status of North Korean refugees in China and Southeast Asia and on how cooperative U.S. embassies in that area are when they apply for entry to the U.S. It will also interview North Korean refugees who have recently settled in the U.S. The source said this is the first time the GAO has conducted a comprehensive audit of the North Korean refugee issue. It seems likely that the outcome will be used to raise public awareness about North Korean refugees and North Korean human rights issues. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) N.Korean Officials 'Use Gulag to Extort Bribes' (Oct 2009) North Korea's concentration camps have "evolved into a mechanism for extorting money from citizens trading in private markets," wrote the Washington Post on Tuesday quoting a report about to be released by U.S. Congress. The East-West Center, a research organization established by Congress, will release the report which surveys North Korean refugees in China and South Korea about the gulag in North Korea this week. It interviewed 1,346 North Korean refugees in 11 locations across China in 2004-2005, and 300 in South Korea in 2008. Most were in their late 30s and had been farmers or laborers, the daily said. It reports an "explosive rise in market activity" in recent days in North Korea. Markets reportedly are the only "source of food for a poor population" suffering from a serious food shortage. But the North Korean regime has banned such market activities and arrested those trading there as "economic criminals" and sent them to the camps. "Authorities appear to have 'extraordinary discretion' in deciding whom to send to labor camps for economic crimes and in deciding when to let them out," it said. Those arrested can apparently bribe their way out. "About two-thirds of those held in low-level labor camps said they were allowed to go home within a month," the Post added. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) N.Korea's Concentration Camps Are a Burning Issue (Oct 2009) Twenty years since the cold war ended with the demise of the Soviet Union and changes in China, the international community has begun to understand North Korea but is still far from seeing it whole. The Lee Myung-bak administration intends to offer the North sizable aid once the North is denuclearized. The international community, led by the United States, also equates the North Korea problem with the nuclear issue. But the nuclear issue is merely one of many problems with the North, and the fundamental problems will remain unsolved even if it dismantles its nuclear program and weapons under international pressure. Almost all socialist countries have collapsed or been transformed except Cuba and North Korea. And it is not because of its nuclear weapons and missiles that the North survives without reform and opening stuck between South Korea, China and Japan. The strongest prop of the North Korean regime is concentration camps. These are less like Stalin's Siberian gulags or Mao Zedong's Laogai concentration camps than Hitler's Auschwitz. After World War II, humanity promised never again to permit such camps on earth, and the world community intervenes in crimes against humanity across borders. The collective insanity of the Hitler regime was intricately linked with the concentration camps, which crushed all dissent. By running the concentration camps, the North Korean regime has been able to maintain power even after starving 3 million people to death in peacetime. These camps house some 200,000 to 300,000 political prisoners and their families, who are systematically slaughtered. Even party officials are afraid of being sent there. Hwang Jang-yop, a former secretary of the Workers' Party who defected to the South, said, "Even senior party members can't talk freely at homes for fear of being wiretapped, so they always have important conversations outside." The silence of the international community on the barbaric massacres in the concentration camps committed by Kim Jong-il borders on the criminal. Some 17,000 North Korean defectors in the South are complaining about the atrocity, but no country pays any attention. Even the South Korean government and people do not realize how serious the problem is. As a surgeon may kill a patient with a wrong diagnosis, so more and more North Korean citizens may lose their lives if the international community makes a wrong diagnosis of the North Korea issue. Had the U.S. diverted a tenth of the effort it invested in freeing the two journalists imprisoned in the North on the concentration camp problem, the groundwork for resolving the North Korea issue would already have be done. Had the Seoul government demanded the elimination of the concentration camps in return for the massive economic aid it provided to the North a decade ago, the North would have long started on the path to reform and opening. The closure of the concentration camps would end the reign of terror, and the public would be able to criticize the regime. This would lead to weakening the totalitarian system and forming a new leadership, resulting in reform and opening. Once the North achieves a collective leadership similar to China's under Deng Xiaoping, its people would be able to think rationally and build a society where the priority shifts from leader Kim Jong-il's personal interests to the public interest. Once the dictatorship ends, the North would, like Ukraine, denuclearize even without international pressure. We need a paradigm shift for the resolution of the North Korean issue. Six-country human rights talks must be held, and the Lee administration must shift its priority and tell the North that it will help only if it shuts down all the concentration camps before denuclearizing. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) 'Seized NK Containers Were Headed for Syria' (Oct 2009) Four North Korean containers allegedly storing items related to chemical weapons seized in Busan last month were headed for Syria, a government source in Seoul said yesterday. The North has long been suspected of transferring nuclear technology to Syria. “(South) Korean and U.S. intelligence are focused on the fact that the seized containers were heading for Syria,” the source said. “They are concerned that protective clothing in containers can be used to develop weapons of mass destruction in Syria, such as nuclear or biological chemical weapons.” “The (South Korean) government is testing whether the protective clothing in the seized containers guards against nuclear, biological and chemical weapons or are used in the development or use of nuclear and biochemical weapons, and analyzing the results.” The protective clothing was reportedly made in Russia. The South also believes that the North might have copied, mediated or reprocessed Russian products. The Australia Group, a group of 33 countries launched in 1985 to prevent the production and spread of biochemical weapons, defines protective clothing as devices related to biochemical weapons and controls their import and export. The four containers were loaded onto the MSC Rachele, a Panama-registered cargo ship, not in North Korea but in a third country through cargo laundering, in which trading companies in a third country are recorded as sender and recipient in export and import documents. “This container ship goes to every port in the world, including Busan New Port,” another South Korean government source said. “It seems to have selected a ship able to carry many containers to avoid tracking.” The vessel is known to have been carrying 7,000 to 8,000 large and small containers when it was seized. (Source: Donga Ilbo.) China Detects Nerve Gas at its North Korean Border (Oct 2009) China has detected a deadly nerve gas at its North Korean border and suspects an accidental release from its neighbor, according to a Japanese news report on Oct. 9. The Chinese military is intensifying its surveillance activities after identifying the highly virulent Sarin gas in November last year and again in February, according to a report from the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, that cited anonymous sources from the Chinese military. The gas was found in Liaoning Province. Chinese special operations forces found trace levels of Sarin gas when conducting regular surveys in winds blowing from North Korea, the report said. Yongbo Liang, a chemistry professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong said a very small dose of Sarin gas could paralyze the nervous system. Though Sarin is volatile and less lethal in the open air, it is still harmful, he said. Liang said the incident is worthy of attention and the source should be determined. A chemical plant in Sinuiju, near the North Korea border is suspected of being connected to the North Korean military, said the report. According to South Korea's Defense White Paper in 2008, North Korea began chemical weapons production in the 1980s and is thought to store up to 5,000 metric tons of these weapons. China suspects that the gas resulted from an accident or experiment. A resident at the border in Dandong City, Liaoning Province, told Radio Free Asia that he hadn't seen any reports in the media and was worried about safety. Another resident said he felt helpless since they have no channels to confirm whether the incident was true or not. A Dandong City government official told the reporter that they had been briefed on the report and had requested details about the incident. “We learned it through our Environmental Protection Bureau this morning,” the official said. “We need to confirm whether the report is true and will take action afterward.” Sarin gas, which was developed in Germany before World War I, was used in a deadly nerve gas attack on Tokyo’s subway in 1995. (Source: Epoch Times.) Seoul, Washington round out plans to handle N. Korean regime collapse: source (OPlan 5029) (Oct 2009) South Korea and the U.S. have completed joint action plans to respond to a regime collapse and other internal emergency situations in North Korea, a ranking government source said Sunday. The so-called "Operational Plan (OPLAN) 5029," drawn after years of bilateral consultation, dictates respective military responses by Seoul and Washington to several types of emergency situation in the communist North -- a civil war, an outflow of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the kidnapping of South Korean citizens, a mass influx of refugees or a natural disaster, said the source. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source also noted that South Korea's military will play a leading role in enforcing OPLAN 5029, with the exception of the elimination of nuclear weapons and related facilities that will be handled by the U.S. "South Korea and the U.S. had long worked on Concept Plan 5029 to prepare for a regime collapse and other internal emergencies in North Korea. Since its inauguration last year, the Lee Myung-bak government has pushed to convert the concept plan into an operational plan and it was recently completed," said the source. "If the South Korea-U.S. combined forces intervene in North Korea's internal instabilities, the South Korean military will assume the leading role in consideration of neighboring countries, while the U.S. military will be responsible for the removal of the North's nuclear facilities and weapons." He noted that South Korea and the U.S. will continue to complement and develop specific details of OPLAN 5029. The two countries have expressed concern that the outbreak of an internal emergency in North Korea could lead to the transfer of its WMDs and relevant technologies to terrorist groups or other countries. The two Koreas remain technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. South Korea's 655,000-strong military, bolstered by 28,500 U.S. troops, confronts North Korea's 1.2-million-strong force along the world's most heavily militarized border. (Source: Yonhap News.) (SITE NOTE: Oplan 5029 is KOREA's plan when it takes over the war-fighting command in 2012. Roh Moo-hyun fought this Oplan tooth-and-nail and now it is fact because the USFK will NOT back down from the 2012 turnover date.) November 2009North and South Korean warships in naval skirmish (Nov 2009) The clash comes at time when relations between the divided nations appeared to be thawing following several months of increased tensions caused by North Korea's decision to test a second nuclear device earlier this year.Initial reports said that there were no casualties from the exchange, which took place after a South Korean warship fired shots across the bow of a North Korean naval vessel that had crossed the disputed border, according to the Yonhap news agency in Seoul. The North Korean vessel then returned fire according to an unidentified government source in South Korea, who declined to provide further details. "A North Korean patrol ship crossed the Northern Limit Line and did not cease when we fired warning shots," the defence source added. North and South Korean navies fought deadly skirmishes along the western sea border in the Yellow Sea in 1999 and 2002. Last month the North's navy accused South Korea of sending warships across the border to stir tensions, warning that the "reckless military provocations" could trigger armed clashes. The incident comes as the US President Barack Obama prepares to begin a five-day visit to Asia during which the issue of North Korea's nuclear disarmament is expected to be among leading item on the agenda. North Korea has said it is prepared to return to stalled Six Party talks on its nuclear disarmament, but is seeking direct talks with the US as a pre-condition to rejoining talks. However in recent days Pyongyang announced it had produced more weapons-grade plutonium, in a move which analysts said was typical of the cat-and-mouse diplomacy that the North uses to extract concessions from the international community. A United Nations report published last month estimated that the North is feeling the severe impact of UN sanctions imposed last June after the second nuclear test, with some 8 million people, or a third of the population, suffering serious food shortages. The South Korean won retreated on the news of the skirmish, however stock and bond markets held firm. (Source: Telegraph UK.) Koreas clash in Yellow Sea, blame each other (Nov 2009) A North Korean naval boat returned home "wrapped in flames" after a brief but fierce skirmish in South Korean waters off the west coast on Tuesday, Seoul officials said. North Korea disputed the account, saying in a statement that the South must apologize for sending warships into its waters and shooting at its boat as it was returning to port after a routine patrol. No South Korean sailors were killed in the clash that erupted shortly after the North's patrol boat crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) at 11:27 a.m. in the Yellow Sea, officials here said. The shooting lasted about two minutes, R. Adm. Lee Ki-shik told reporters here, with the South Korean boat taking about 15 shots from the North Koreans, who apparently fired about 50 rounds. "This is a regrettable incident in which the North directly aimed at the South. We protest sternly," Lee said. South Korea retaliated by firing back with its onboard guns, Lee said. Other South Korean officials said they could not immediately verify how many rounds were fired from their side. "We fired heavily on the North Korean vessel," a Navy official said earlier, speaking on condition of anonymity. In a 1999 skirmish near the NLL, South Korea suffered no casualties, but six of its sailors were killed when North Korea attacked in 2002.  Skirmish 10 Nov 2009 South Korean Prime Minister Chung Un-chan told lawmakers during a televised parliamentary session that the North Korean boat returned across the border while "wrapped in flames." He also said the incident was "accidental." President Lee Myung-bak convened an emergency national security meeting, calling for "calm" in dealing with the situation. "The president instructed the military to react decisively, yet calmly to make sure the situation does not further deteriorate," Lee Dong-kwan, a presidential aide, said in a release. The South Korean Navy sounded a warning twice before the North Koreans crossed the NLL -- a de facto border drawn at the end of the Korean War -- and three times afterward, according to Lee Ki-shik. The naval boats were a little over 3km away from each other when they exchanged fire, Lee said, stressing the South Korean Navy followed standard operating procedure before the shooting erupted. The North's Korean People's Army said in a statement released through official media that a "group of warships of the South Korean forces hastily took to flight" after violating the NLL. The "combat-ready" North Korean patrol boat "lost no time to deal a prompt retaliatory blow at the provokers," the statement said, carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and monitored in Seoul. South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said in a parliamentary session that "no additional moves" by the North Korean military were detected north of the heavily armed border. South Korean analysts gave mixed views about North Korea's possible motive behind the incident, which took place only a week ahead of an Asian trip by U.S. President Barack Obama. "It appears to be a move to raise tension ahead of Obama's visit to South Korea," said Yoo Ho-yeol a North Korea professor at Korea University in Seoul. "North Koreans believe tension helps them strengthen their bargaining power." Ryu Gil-jae, professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, disagreed, saying the incident appeared aimed at testing the South Korean government. "North Korea would have test-fired missiles if it had wanted to vex the U.S.," he said. "The Yellow Sea clash is more of a message to the South that it should be taken more seriously." The clash came amid an accelerating thaw between the Koreas, whose relations turned frosty following the inauguration of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak early last year. It also came as French President Nicolas Sarkozy's special North Korea envoy was in the communist state for talks with its foreign minister on "matters of mutual concern," according to KCNA. Slapped with sanctions for its May nuclear test, North Korea has in recent months extended peace overtures to the outside world, while South Korean media speculated the two Koreas were working secretly to set up summit talks. Kang Sung-yoon, a North Korea specialist at Seoul's Dongguk University, said the North Korean attack on the South appears to serve more than one purpose. "It could be aimed at pressuring both the U.S. and South Korea to engage in dialogue with Pyongyang more seriously," he said while warning against reaching a quick conclusion on the issue. "Details regarding the incident should be looked at to understand what the North Korean intent really was," he said. (Source: Yonhap News.) |
