Archive for August, 2006

ROK Ship Carries 1st Flood Relief to DPRK

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

From the Korea Times:
Ship Carries 1st Flood Relief to North
8/30/2006
Lee Jin-woo

The South Korean government has shipped its first batch of flood relief to North Korea via the Red Cross, the Ministry of Unification said yesterday.

The shipment included some rice, the supply of which had been halted since the North’s test-firing of missiles on July 5. The government has made it clear that the humanitarian aid is unrelated to the government’s halted periodic aid provided annually to the communist state.

The shipment comprising 300 tons of rice and 20,000 blankets as well as other emergency relief supplies was made through the Korean National Red Cross (KNRC) and set out from Inchon port, west of Seoul, the ministry said.

The ship, Trade Fortune, is expected to arrive at the North Korean port of Nampo in a day or two. Four Red Cross officials are on board to supervise the delivery, a KNRC official said.

The total aid, comprising 100,000 tons of rice, 100,000 tons of iron rods, 80,000 blankets and more than 200 construction vehicles, will be delivered in 40 installments by mid-October.

“The torrential rain also left damage in South Korea, but we decided to send the flood relief to North Koreans, who face a much more dire situation,’’ said Han Wan-sang, president of the KNRC during a ceremony before the shipment. “I hope the two Koreas can find a breakthrough in the chilly inter-Korean relations through the aid program.’’

Also speaking at the ceremony, Vice Unification Minister Shin Un-sang said the humanitarian flood relief has great symbolic meaning as it was based on bipartisan support from the governing and opposition parties as well as the public.

After a meeting of Red Cross officials from the two sides at Mt. Kumgang in the North on Aug. 19, the government announced its humanitarian aid plan for the North to help repair the damage from recent flooding.

The ministry estimates the rice aid will cost some 195 billion won ($203 million); and the construction supplies and equipment, 26 billion won.

The ministry plans to use the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund to match the contribution made by local private relief organizations. A 10 billion won subsidy will be given to those organizations next month.

The exact number of flood victims in the North has not been confirmed yet due to a lack of information on the reclusive state.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) has reported to the National Assembly that some 900 North Koreans are dead or missing because of flooding, sources said. The number greatly differs from claims by South Korean humanitarian aid groups who say casualties have reached 10,000.

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Relief goods mirror plight of stunted N. Koreans

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

Yonhap
8/30/2006
Sam Kim

Thousands of used but clean shirts, pants and other clothes are stacked in big heaps in warehouses outside Seoul to be sent to poverty-stricken North Korea.  But they can’t be sent as they are, because North Korean officials want to get them their way: all without English writing on them and their size no bigger than “large.”

“In addition, we have color restrictions,” Ahn Jeong-hui, director of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, the donor of the clothes and other relief goods. “Strong colors could easily repulse North Koreans.”

Whenever impoverished North Korea suffers from flood and other natural or man-made disasters, sympathetic South Korean civic organizations usually respond to their appeal for emergency aid with warm hearts.

The shipment-in-waiting is for thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of North Koreans who were made homeless in massive floods in mid-July.

There were no official North Korean announcement on the extent of the flood damage but its media said “hundreds” of people were killed or missing. One South Korean relief group said “thousands” were killed.

The South Korean civilian aid is in addition to more than US$200 million worth of relief goods scheduled to be sent by the Seoul government, which include 100,000 tons each of rice and cement, 50,000 tons of reinforced steel bars and a number of trucks and other construction equipment.

With its economy in shambles, impoverished North Korea turned to international handouts in 1995 to help feed its 23 million people. U.N. relief workers said the largest floods in the country are expected to result in 100,000 tons of crop damage this year.

After years of dealing with North Korea, South Korean donors have learned that helping the communist country is not just about sending large quantities of supplies. It requires certain “customization,”

“The maximum size of clothes we send to North Korea is ‘large,'” said Hyun Il-hyun, secretary at Join Together Society, another South Korean relief agency, “We know anything bigger, like ‘extra large’ or ‘extra extra large,’ won’t fit North Koreans.”

“What will fit elementary school kids in South Korea will usually fit North Korean middle-schoolers,” she said. “Most North Korean adults will fit well into what South Korean teenagers wear.”

Chronic food shortages and malnutrition have stunted many North Koreans, making some look like dwarfs. Television footage broadcast in South Korea showed gaunt North Koreans scouring winter fields for grains left by reapers.

Nearly 8,700 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the Korean War ended in 1953, including 1,139 in 2002, 1,281 in 2003, 1,894 in 2004, 1,383 in 2005 and 1,054 in the first seven months of this year. Many complained of hunger in their communist homeland.

A 2004 survey of 2,300 North Korean defectors showed that average North Korean men and women are 5.9 centimeter and 4.1 centimeters shorter than their South Korean counterparts, respectively. An average 14-year-old boy from North Korea is up to 15.8 centimeters shorter than the same-aged South Korean.

English-embellished clothes are not welcome, either, in North Korea, relief workers said.

“We pick out any clothing that has English writing on it,” Hyun of Join Together Society said. “North Korean authorities apparently don’t want their people to think the clothes are coming from their sworn enemy, the U.S. We also restrict clothes that have the names of South Korean organizations.”

North Korea has asked them to increase shipments of rice and flour instead of instant noodles, according to South Korean relief workers.

“We will comply with the North Korean request and no longer send instant noodles,” said Ahn of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation. “I think the North’s request has do to with the South Korean marks and logos on the packings.”

According to South Korean government officials, North Korea tightly controls the flow of information among its people. All radio sets are pre-set to monitor only state broadcasts.

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DPRK exports to Japan halved amid economic sanctions

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

From Yonhap:
8/30/2006

North Korean exports to Japan dropped by nearly 50 percent last month from June amid Tokyo’s economic sanctions against the communist state for its test-firing of missiles early last month, a report by Japan’s Finance Ministry released on Wednesday showed.

The total amount of North Korea’s exports to Japan last month dropped to some 440 million yen (US$3.75 million), a 44.2 percent decrease from that of June, the report said. The amount is also down 42.2 percent from that of the same period in 2005.

The report failed to provide specific reasons for the drop, but observers believed it was mainly due to the country’s economic sanctions against the impoverished North, which followed Pyongyang’s test-firing of seven ballistic missiles on July 5.

The observers also said trade between the two is likely to further shrink amid Tokyo’s strong reaction to North Korea’s missile tests and the communist state’s alleged preparations to test a nuclear bomb.

The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on July 15, condemning the North Korean missile tests and prohibiting any missile-related dealings with the North. But Tokyo has been taking additional steps to cut off any cash inflow to North Korea from its country.

The country has banned a major North Korean ferry, Mankyongbong-ho, from its ports at least for the next six months, cutting off the largest and almost the only direct means of transportation between the two for North Koreans and some 200,000 pro-Pyongyang Korean residents in Japan.

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DPRK on alert against dissemination of Bibles

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

From the Daily NK:
Park Hyun Min
8/30/2006

North Korean authorities are nervous about South Korean missionaries sending the Bibles via balloons to the North.

Recently, a South Korean missionary organization obtained a (North) Korean Workers’ Party document under a title of ‘Countermeasure Against Enemy’s Evil Activities of Infiltration of the Bibles to Our Country via Balloons.’

The document, which is suggested to be distributed by the Central KWP to the provincial party organization bureau and municipal party guidance bureau, is started with a phrase ‘Here is the Party’s decision, signed by the Dear Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il on June 30, 2004.’

It is stated in the document that ‘the enemies are planning to disseminate the Bibles to brainwash our people with religious idea by means of balloons.’ Also, the document orders every party organization, as soon as it receives the document, to educate party members and workers about the text.

According to the document, ‘activities such as keeping the bible found in balloons or disseminating it are acts of treason,’ and ‘education of the people not to participate in treacherous activities is to be carried out aggressively.’

The document proves North Korea’s anti-religious policy that has been continued since Kim Il Sung’s instruction of criticism on religion for being ‘reactionary and unscientific one that paralyzes class consciousness.’

Moreover, the document articulates “every Party cell must do interim assessment on its activity follow our Great General (Kim Jong Il)’s June 30 instruction against the enemy’s vile plan to distribute small radios and July 17 instruction against the enemy’s plot to disseminate religion to our country via balloons.”

This is the third document containing anti-religious message from North Korea since Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League Central Committee’s anti-religious education material reported by DailyNK last October, and the lecture document on ‘fight against the enemy’s plot to spread religion inside’ released by Good Friends, a Buddhist human rights organization in Seoul, this April.

Even though it is revealed through a series of such inside documents that North Korean regime is violating religious freedom, the country has been advertising its religious freedom to the outside. Last year when the Untied States pointed out North Korea’s suppression of religion, Pyongyang promptly responded with a statement, criticizing rather the United States is the worst violator of religious freedom.

Despite North Korea’s harsh policy against religion, ‘bible distribution movement’ and ‘radio distribution movement’ by South Korean human rights organizations and missionaries are effective to some extent and North Korean regime seems on alert over those activities.

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Red Cross to supervise aid delivery

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

From the Joong Ang Daily:

Four South Korean Red Cross officials are expected to visit North Korea’s Nampo port this week to supervise the delivery of the first government aid package to help the North recover from recent flooding, an official at the Unification Ministry said yesterday.

The Red Cross officials will depart from the port of Incheon at 11 a.m. Wednesday aboard the 3,000-ton ship Trade Fortune, which sails regularly between the Koreas, according to the official.

The shipment includes 300 tons of rice, 20,000 blankets and 10,000 first aid kits, according to the official.

Seoul suspended shipments of its regular humanitarian assistance to the North shortly after Pyongyang launched seven ballistic missiles in early July, including a long-range Taepodong-2, which is believed capable of reaching the U.S. west coast.

The South Korean government says it will not make additional commitments of any economic assistance to the communist state until the North returns to stalled international negotiations with the South, Japan, China, Russia and the United States over its nuclear program.

The government, however, pledged to give 241 billion won ($251 million) worth of aid through the country’s Red Cross as one-time humanitarian assistance to the North after heavy rains there last month reportedly left hundreds of people killed or missing and thousands of others injured.

Pyongyang rejected an initial aid offer from the South Korean Red Cross last month, but its inter-Korean pro-unification organization later asked Seoul’s civic organizations and other “related offices” for rice and construction equipment, while expressing gratitude for the civic groups’ efforts to help the country recover from devastating torrential rains and flooding.

The Unification Ministry has also agreed to provide funds matching amounts raised by each civic organization, expected to total some 10 billion won.

The government’s aid through the Red Cross will include 100,000 tons of rice, 100,000 tons of iron rods, 80,000 blankets and over 200 construction vehicles.

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Red Cross to send first shipment of government flood aid to DPRK

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006

From Yonhap:
Byun Duk-kun
8/29/2006

Four South Korean Red Cross officials are to visit North Korea’s Nampo port this week to supervise the delivery of the first government aid package to help the North recover from recent flooding, an official at the Unification Ministry said Tuesday.

The Red Cross officials are to depart from a port in the country’s western city of Incheon at 11 a.m. Wednesday aboard the 3,000-ton ship Trade Fortune, which sails regularly between the Koreas, according to the official.

“The trip is to supervise the first shipment of the Red Cross’ flood aid to North Korea,” the official said.

The shipment includes 300 tons of rice, 20,000 blankets and 10,000 first aid kits, according to the official.

Seoul suspended shipments of its regular humanitarian assistance to the North shortly after Pyongyang launched seven ballistic missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2, which is believed capable of reaching the U.S. west coast.

The South Korean government says it will not make additional commitments of any economic assistance to the communist state until the North returns to stalled international negotiations with the South, Japan, China, Russia and the United States over its nuclear ambitions.

The government, however, pledged to give 241 billion won (US$251 million) worth of aid through the country’s Red Cross in one-time humanitarian assistance to the North after heavy rains there last month reportedly left hundreds people killed or missing and thousands of others injured.

Pyongyang rejected an initial aid offer from the South Korean Red Cross last month, but its inter-Korean pro-unification organization later requested Seoul’s civic organizations and other “related offices” for rice and construction equipment, while expressing gratitude for the civilian efforts to help the country recover from the flooding.

The Unification Ministry has also agreed to provide funds matching those raised by each civilian organization, expected to total some 10 billion won.

The government’s aid through the Red Cross is to include 100,000 tons of rice, 100,000 tons of iron rods, 80,000 blankets and over 200 construction vehicles.

South Korea provided hundreds of thousands of tons of rice and fertilizer to the impoverished North annually since heavy rains and a nationwide famine in the mid-1990s left over 2 million North Koreans dead and millions of others displaced.

North Korea requested the South to give half a million tons of rice for the year before it launched the seven missiles into the East Sea on July 5.

Government officials say the country will not consider accepting the North’s request until the North agrees to return to the international nuclear negotiations, which have stalled since November due to Pyongyang’s boycott, as well as resumes its self-imposed moratorium on missile tests.

The Koreas remain divided along a heavily-fortified border since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with a cease-fire.

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Suspects Admits Smuggling N.Korean ‘Supernotes’

Monday, August 28th, 2006

From the Choson Ilbo
8/28/2006

A Californian man indicted on charges of smuggling counterfeit dollars into the U.S. testified at his trial that the high-quality counterfeit US$100 bills or “supernotes” were manufactured in North Korea, the National Intelligence Service said Monday. The NIS reported to the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee that the man admitted conspiracy to smuggle the supernotes and admitted where the phony bills were made.

The man is a Chinese-American named Chao Tung Wu, the NIS said. There have been reports in the U.S. media quoting anonymous government officials as saying the supernotes were made in North Korea, but this is the first time the claim was confirmed in legal testimony by a chief suspect.

A joint taskforce of the FBI, the CIA, the Justice Department and the Treasury conducted secret investigations and rounded up 59 suspects around the U.S. on charges of smuggling counterfeit dollars and cigarettes in August last year. The taskforce worked under the code name “Smoking Dragon” and “Royal Charm” between 1999 and 2005. It alleges suspects attempted to smuggle millions worth of forged dollars and some $40 million worth of counterfeit cigarettes.

The case drew much publicity not only because of its sheer scale but also because of North Korea’s suspected involvement. The Treasury Department led the investigation that ended up designating Macao’s Banco Delta Asia as Pyongyang‘s “primary money laundering concern” on Sept. 15 last year, a month after the suspects were arrested.

“We should note that talk of political solutions between the U.S. and North Korea over the counterfeit dollars disappeared in South Korea and China since the end of last year,” a diplomatic source in Seoul said. Some until then claimed the U.S. was pressuring the North without clear evidence, but they lost their ground as Washington acquired evidence to support North Korea’s involvement.

The trial is likely to take one or two years, a diplomatic source said. If it ends with a guilty verdict for the main suspect for smuggling made-in-North Korea supernotes, it would get Pyongyang into serious trouble on the global stage. The North denies the charges and says the resulting sanctions amount to “theft.” The communist country in a statement last Saturday said the U.S. has produced no clear evidence so far. But the suspect’s guilty plea undermines the credibility of that claim.

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Growth of N. Korea-China trade tumbles to five-year low

Monday, August 28th, 2006

From Yonhap:
Byun Duk-kun

The increase in the first-half trade between North Korea and China fell to the smallest volume in five years, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said Monday.

Ministry officials said the slowdown did not appear to be linked to North Korea’s recent provocations, such as the test-firing of seven ballistic missiles in early July.

The amount of North Korea-China trade only increased 4.7 percent on-year to US$780 million in the January-June period, Kim Nam-sik, head of the ministry’s information and analysis bureau, told reporters.

This marked the smallest, as well as the first slowdown of, increase in trade between the close allies since 2002 when trade volume increased by 6.2 percent for the same period from a year before.

The year-on-year growth in the first-half Sino-North Korea trade reached 16.2 percent in 2003, 37 percent in 2004 and 43 percent last year, according to Kim.

The report comes amid reported signs that Beijing may have begun taking measures to reduce or limit its economic cooperation with Pyongyang as a way of expressing its dismay or anger at the North for its test-firing of seven ballistic missiles on July 5.

The ministry official, however, cautioned against interpreting the slowdown as signs of a possible disruption in relations between the communist allies, saying the reason for the slowdown appears to be economic rather than political.

“Many experts believe it (the slowdown) is more due to economic than political reasons,” Kim said.

The amount of North Korea’s exports to China for the first six months of the year decreased by more than 14 percent to some $200 million, also marking the first decline since 2000, according to a report by the information bureau.

Kim said this, too, was mainly because of economic reasons, such as the reduced price of North Korean exports to China “while the amount of exports remains the same” from that of last year.

Analysts here believe China may completely halt its economic and political relations with the North if Pyongyang decides to conduct a nuclear test.

The ministry official said there were no immediate signs of China taking such measures to punish North Korea.

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Rain Death Toll in North Totals 900

Monday, August 28th, 2006

From the Korea Times:
Park Song-wu

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a report to the National Assembly on Monday that the death toll from heavy rain and flooding in North Korea totaled around 900.

In addition the flooding destroyed 40,000 homes and left 24,000 families homeless, a lawmaker quoted the report as saying.

The report also noted that 105 kilometers of railways and 378 kilometers of roads were either inundated or washed away.

NGOs in Seoul have argued that the floods killed around 10,000 North Koreans.

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Pyongyang Selling Missiles in Pieces: Report

Monday, August 28th, 2006

From the Korea Times:

North Korea has recently changed its means of selling missiles to avoid interception, delivering them by air instead of by sea and in the form of components and equipment rather than complete products, a U.S.-based research organization said yesterday.
In its latest report, the Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), headquartered in Monterey, California, said North Korea’s missile program appears to be under the command and control of its air force, not the army, an arrangement similar to Iran, which is believed to be buying missiles from the communist regime, according to the Yonhap News Agency in Seoul.

The report, called “CNS Resources on North Korea’s Ballistic Missile Program,” said that as Western opposition to the deliveries has increased, Pyongyang’s shipments have begun to be made by air rather than by sea, sometimes with the help of Moscow.

“Insome instances, this has been accomplished with private-sector Russian assistance, thereby calling into question the Russian government’s ability and/or willingness to control North Korea’s missile proliferation,” said the report.

The CNS Web site says the report was updated Aug. 11 this year.

North Korea also resorted to selling missile components and production equipment to clients, which include Iran, Pakistan and Syria, the report said.

“These changes will allow more rapid shipping deliveries, and interception of such shipments will become more difficult,” it said.

The CNS noted with interest that North Korea’s ballistic missiles appear to be under air force, not army, command and control.

It was Gen. Jo Myong-rok, then commander of the North Korean Air Force, who led a delegation to Iran in February 1994 to discuss testing of the Rodong missile in Iran, the report said.

“It should also be noted that Iranian ballistic missiles fall under the command and control of the air wing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps,” it said.

North Korea’s missile program came under renewed scrutiny after the secretive regime test-fired seven missiles last month, ranging from versions of its short-range Rodong to its long-rang Taepodong presumed to be able to strike the U.S. west coast.

The CNS said that while the test launches suggest advances in North Korea’s missile capabilities, there are still several technical hurdles before the long-range versions can be fielded.

“The developmental leaps to successful multiple stage systems using large rocket motors cannot be achieved without external technological assistance,” it said.

“Some of this assistance is probably being provided by Russian specialists, both in North Korea and Russia,” said the report, due mainly to Moscow’s inability to completely halt the leakage of information.

It added that while the shorter-range Rodong missiles are operational, since it has exported some to Iran, Pakistan and other nations, “it may not have enough missiles to field a full brigade.”

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