North Korean Economy Watch

Chosun Ilbo
6/1/2007

According to Russia’s Itar Tass news agency on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree imposing sanctions on North Korea in compliance with a UN Security Council resolution in the wake of Pyongyang’s nuclear test last October.

The presidential decree applies a full weapons embargo against North Korea in pursuance of UN Security Council Resolution 1718. All Russian government agencies and enterprises will be banned from exporting to North Korea tanks, fighter jets, warships, heavy artillery pieces, missiles, and missile launchers, as well as materials that can be used for nuclear weapons development.

In addition, North Korean officials involved in development programs for weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons are banned from entering Russia. Shipments of luxury goods to North Korea are also banned.

The measure will likely have no tangible effects, however, given that the current annual trade volume between Russia and North Korea is only about $200 million.

The decree comes as North Korea continues to delay implementing the conditions of the Feb. 13 nuclear disarmament agreement. The decree may put pressure on North Korea to follow the agreement.

After the UN approved the sanctions against North Korea in October last year, Russian government agencies had consultations amongst themselves and coordinated with the Russian parliament. Putin finally signed the sanctions decree on Sunday.

Kyodo (Hat Tip DPRK Studies)
6/1/2007

China, North Korea’s major food supplier, exported roughly the same amount of grain to the country in the first four months of the year as it did a year earlier, according to recently released Chinese customs figures.

China’s January-April exports of maize, rice and wheat flour to the country totaled 55,446 tons, up 0.6 percent from the same period in 2006, according to the figures.

When compared to 2005, exports were down 66.7 percent.

The World Food Program warned earlier this year that the food shortage in North Korea is worsening.

While North Korea has faced a chronic food shortage, the shortfall had been made up in the past by multilateral aid channeled through the WFP as well as bilateral shipments from countries such as China and South Korea.

But external food aid has gone down recently, leaving the North with a huge food deficit.

China does not explicitly reveal its food assistance to North Korea, and analysts rely on export figures to assess the amount of aid Beijing gives Pyongyang.

Choson Ilbo
5/31/2007

All North Korean students studying in Beijing have returned to their home country, and some have dropped out of their schools, sources said on Wednesday. According to Peking University, 19 North Korean students from that school left for home before the weeklong May Day holidays starting May 1. None had returned as of Wednesday.

One North Korean student who was majoring in economics at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management has reportedly quit the school. Many other North Korean students have apparently submitted applications to drop out and have returned to their home country.

Currently there are very few North Koreans studying in Beijing. About 200 North Korean studied in the Chinese capital in the 1980s, but now only 50 or 60 are studying there on North Korean and Chinese scholarships.

An official with the South Korean Embassy in China said, “The North Korean government has recalled students studying abroad and children of overseas residents, including diplomats, for ideological education every summer vacation. However, it is difficult to understand why the North Korean government has recalled students in foreign countries during the school semester.”

Korea Times
Lee Jin-Woo
5/30/2007

U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Alexander Vershbow said on Wednesday Washington is prepared to move forward toward the establishment of normal relations with North Korea.

“We are ready to begin the process of removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and from the application of the Trading with the Enemy Act,” Vershbow said at a symposium in Seoul.

But progress on all these tracks depends on achieving the complete elimination of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programs, he said.

“We’re not ready to settle for a partial solution. It is only with complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization that we can contemplate the full normalization of relations,’’ he said.

Under the Feb. 13 accord in the six-party talks, the United States agreed to begin talks with the communist North over normalizing diplomatic relations. The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since the 1950-53 Korean War, which divided the Korean Peninsula into the two Koreas. The conflict ended in a cease-fire, but no peace treaty was signed.

The ambassador also hinted that the United States might urge the Banco Delta Asia (BDA), a bank in Macau where the North funds have been frozen, to replace its management, who they hold responsible for helping the North with counterfeiting and money laundering.

Meanwhile, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said in Beijing North Korea is appeared ready to follow through on the February agreement.

“Once they have their funds from the bank, they are prepared to do their part of the bargain, which is to shut down the Yongbyon plant,’’ Hill was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. The U.S. envoy was referring to the BDA issue.

Hill rejected suggestions that the six-party disarmament negotiations, which have been stalled since February, were dead.

Hill exchanged ideas with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei on ways to resolve the stalled nuclear issue but did not give specific details, the AP reported.

Joong Ang Daily
5/28/2007

Russia has its own dreams of a cross-border railway, linking its tracks to North Korea.

The former communist country has signed a non-binding deal with the communist country to rebuild a section of railway from the Russian border station of Khasan to the North Korean port of Najin, a Russian radio station reported yesterday.

Representatives of the Russian Railways and the North’s Ministry of Railways signed the memorandum last April at the end of the four-day talks held in Pyongyang, the Voice of Russia said.

A container terminal in Najin is the end goal of the new joint venture. After the repairs and reconstruction are completed, the two sides plan to ship freight from Northeast Asia to Russia and Europe, it said.

To solve technical and financial issues connected with this project, working groups will be set up. The first meeting is scheduled in Pyongyang next month.

After resolving practical issues, the two sides plan to organize a meeting of the leaders of the two countries’ railways to sign an agreement.

The restoration of the railway from Khasan to Najin will make it possible in the future to link the Trans Korean Railway to the Trans Siberian Railway, according to Russian media reports.

On May 17, two trains crossed the Military Demarcation Line dividing the two Koreas for the first time since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. South Korea hopes the historic test runs will lead to the connection by railway of the Korean Peninsula, China and Europe.

Yonhap
5/24/2007

South Korea has decided to put off food shipment to North Korea until the communist country fulfills its promise to shut down its main nuclear reactor, government sources said Thursday.

South Korea had planned to start sending 400,000 tons of rice to the impoverished North late this month in the form of a loan to be paid back over 30 years after a 10-year grace period.

In inter-Korean economic talks in April, however, South Korea made its food aid conditional on the North’s fulfillment of its obligation to start denuclearization steps in return for energy aid within 60 days of a Feb. 13 six-party deal.

The North failed to meet the April 14 deadline, citing a banking dispute with the United States over $25 million of its funds frozen at a Macau bank, Banco Delta Asia. In a separate deal, the North Korean money was unblocked but the communist country has yet to withdraw it.

Hoping that the banking dispute would have been resolved by the end of May, South Korea’s government last Tuesday approved budget spending for the rice aid worth $170 million and raw materials worth $80 million for the North to make soap, footwear and clothing.

“As we made clear in inter-Korean economic talks last month, however, we will wait and see if North Korea will carry out the Feb. 13 agreement,” a government official said, asking that he remain anonymous.

The South Korean government has yet to sign a commercial contract to purchase rice aid for North Korea, so it would be next to impossible to keep the inter-Korean agreement to start shipment in late May.

South Korean officials have expressed frustration over the prolonged financial dispute which was touched off by Washington’s accusations that North Korea laundered illicit money through the Macao bank.

North Korea has been free to withdraw the money but it reportedly insists that it gets it back through a U.S. bank. The U.S. government said last week that arrangements were being made to address the North Korean demand.

Korea Times
Lee Jin-woo
5/23/2007

A middle-aged American doctor who grew up in South Korea has stressed that it’s time to move on to helping North Korea with public health issues.

“North Korea’s food situation is at least better. We need to move on to public health issues including rebuilding the North’s nine provincial and 200 county hospitals,” John A. Linton of Yonsei University’s Severance Hospital in Seoul told The Korea Times in an interview on Monday. The 47-year-old doctor heads the hospital’s international health care center.

Linton, who is well-known for his Korean name Yin Yo-han and thick South Jeolla Province accent, proposed a three-stage medical support program for North Korea from the South Korean government.

“Number one, we need to help them with a vaccination program, which should be followed by supplies of diagnostic equipment,” he said. “The final stage should be an exchange of doctors between the two Koreas.”

He said North Korean doctors need basic diagnostic equipment _ ultrasound and x-ray machines, and clinical pathology supplies _ as well as more operating theaters.

“You have to have a healthy population in the North, for them to survive and become competitive enough to receive economic finance and business opportunities.”

He hoped that large-scale medical support to the North on a regular basis would be discussed during ministerial talks between the two Koreas in the near future.

“Nobody can argue with health care,” he said. “North Korea has been an enemy, but now at the same time they are brothers. Even if they are an enemy, you must help them.”

Linton, who visited the North 17 times between 1997 and 2003 to help eradicate tuberculosis in the Stalinist state, said it should be South Korea, not the United Nations or the World Health Organization (WHO), that needs to take the lead in helping the North.

“You have to be very, very careful with the U.N. and WHO. They treat the two Koreas as two separate countries differently,” he said. “Eventually policy should be looking towards unification. South Koreans should take the lead.”

Asked whether he is a big fan of South Korea’s engagement policy toward Pyongyang, dubbed the `Sunshine policy,’ he said he supports it wholeheartedly. Linton, however, emphasized the need to guarantee transparency in the process.

“We should not encourage some of the North Korean leadership as middle management is very corrupt. We should not reward corrupt people there. That’s not for us that’s for North Korea.”

His dedication toward helping the North was initiated by his mother, who worked to eradicate tuberculosis in Suncheon in South Jeolla Province for some 40 years. She decided to donate ambulances to North Korea in 1997.

“When we got there in Pyongyang, we suddenly received a special request from North Korea asking for assistance treating TB throughout the whole country,” he said. “We visited the entire country while helping them fight TB.”

In his autobiography published last year, Linton recalled his unforgettable experiences as an interpreter during the bloody Kwangju pro-democracy movement in May 1980.

He served as a translator to people who occupied the provincial capital against the then military regime led by former President Chun Doo-hwan.

“Immediately following this experience, I was labeled as an insurgent ,” he said. “The American embassy in Seoul asked me to leave Korea, just for translating for three to four hours for reporters.”

He said his experience in Kwangju changed his personal life and made him understand what injustice is and how dangerous newspapers are.

He said such a great sacrifice should never ever happen again on the Korean Peninsula.

AFP
Philippe Agret
5/21/2007

After being ravaged by famine in the 1990s, North Korea again faces serious food shortages, with a UN official based here saying that politics are making things worse.

On the road from the capital Pyongyang to Kaesong in the south, every hill lot is developed for agriculture, with all farm work done by hand.

But only 17 percent of the land in North Korea is arable, one of the lowest ratios in the world, according to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP).

“North Korea is suffering a chronic food shortage due to structural problems and limited food imports and food aid,” said Jean-Pierre de Margerie, the WFP’s representative in the communist state.

He lamented the international community’s lack of commitment to North Korea amid the deadlock in six-nation talks on disarming Pyongyang, and what some consider to be “hidden sanctions” linking a large part of aid to politics.

“There is no evidence that holding back food or humanitarian aid destined to civilian populations would have an impact on the government or its behaviour,” he said.

North Korea’s worst period came from 1995 to 1999 when drought, flooding and the disappearance of Soviet aid led to a famine that killed between 800,000 and two million people, according to independent estimates.

The scars of the famine still run deep, with a 2004 United Nations study finding that 37 percent of North Korean children suffered chronic malnutrition.

Some experts use the term “7, 8, 9, 10” — as an adult, a seven-year-old born during the famine will be eight kilograms (18 pounds) lighter, stand nine inches (23 centimeters) shorter and live 10 years less than a South Korean of the same age.

The groups most at risk are young children and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.

After a record harvest in 2005, 2006 was “very difficult” due to heavy floods in the summer and a dramatic drop in food aid and food imports; 2007 could also be dire, de Margerie warned.

Amid the international furore over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests last year, China reduced its aid by half and        South Korea temporarily halted shipments.

Seoul has since resumed fertiliser aid and promised to provide 400,000 tons of rice to North Korea starting in late May.

But the food aid is linked to political conditions, such as Pyongyang shutting its nuclear reactor in line with a multilateral disarmament deal reached in February.

The impoverished country faces a shortfall of one million tons of food this year, or 20 percent of its needs, according to the WFP and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Up to one third of North Korea’s 23 million people may need assistance ahead of the next harvest, warns the WFP.

So is there a danger of another famine?

“No, not yet,” said de Margerie. “But if the trend continues, pockets of severe malnutrition could develop.”

In Pyongyang, not everyone is pessimistic as there is a lack of reliable agricultural data. Some observers say the problems lie in the distribution system and access to food, rather than in actual production.

North Korea’s leaders — whose ruling motto is “juche,” or self-reliance — say they have made food security their priority, but Pyongyang has nonetheless relied on foreign help.

The WFP has collected two billion dollars in 10 years, supplying four million tons of food between 1995 and 2005 that assisted one-third of North Korea in its biggest operation at the time.

Since 2001, multilateral aid from the WFP has been gradually replaced by assistance from China and South Korea. While bilateral aid goes to the government and may be distributed to the elite, the WFP says it closely monitors its aid so that it reaches those most in need.

This year, donor countries have promised only 12,000 tons of food.

The WFP has received only 20 percent of the financing for its programme up to March 2008, assisting three percent of the population, or 600,000 people, instead of the initial objective of reaching nearly two million North Koreans.

De Margerie says he hopes the international community will set aside political concerns to focus on the human tragedy unfolding in North Korea.

“You only see negative images of North Korea. But it has a human face,” he stressed.

“An eight-month-old child or pregnant woman does not engage in politics. It’s the most vulnerable in the civilian population who pay the price.”

McClatchy Newspapers
Kevin Hall
5/22/2007

Swiss police who closely monitor the circulation of counterfeit currency have challenged the Bush administration’s assertions that North Korea is manufacturing fake American $100 bills.

President Bush has accused North Korea of making and circulating the false bills, so perfect they’re called supernotes, and in late 2005 the U.S. Treasury took measures to block that country’s access to international banking. North Korea subsequently halted negotiations over dismantling its nuclear weapons program, a process that remains in limbo because of the dispute.

The Swiss federal criminal police, in a report released Monday, expresses serious doubt that North Korea is capable of manufacturing the fake bills, which it said were superior to real ones.

The Swiss report includes color enlargements that show the differences between genuine bills and counterfeit supernotes. The supernotes are identical to U.S. banknotes except for added distinguishing marks, which can be detected only with a magnifying glass. In addition, under ultraviolet or infrared light, stripes appear or the serial numbers disappear on the supernotes.

The Bundeskriminalpolizei didn’t hazard a guess as to who’s been manufacturing the supernotes, but said experts agreed that the counterfeits weren’t the work of an individual but of a government or governmental organization.

The U.S. Secret Service, the lead federal agency in combating counterfeiters, declined to provide details or respond to the Swiss report. But spokesman Eric Zahren said the agency stood by its allegations against Pyongyang.

“Our investigation has identified definitive connections between these highly deceptive counterfeit notes and the North Koreans,” Zahren said. “Our investigation has revealed that the supernotes continue to be produced and distributed by sources operating out of North Korea.”

The Swiss report says the Secret Service has refused to provide any information about its investigations. It notes that if the United States produced concrete evidence to back up its allegations, “it would have a basis for going to war.” Under international law, counterfeiting another country’s currency is considered a cause for war.

But if the U.S. has a reason to go to war, against whom?

The Swiss police noted that before charging North Korea with counterfeiting, U.S. officials had mentioned Iran, Syria and East Germany as possible manufacturers. North Korea’s capacity for printing banknotes is extremely limited, because its banknote printing press dates from the 1970s. Its own currency is of “such poor quality that one automatically wonders whether this country would even be in a position to manufacture the high-quality `supernotes,’ ” the report says.

For years, analysts have wondered why the supernotes – which are detectable only with sophisticated, expensive technology – appear to have been produced in quantities less than it would cost to acquire the sophisticated machinery needed to make them. The paper and ink used to make U.S. currency are made through exclusive contract and aren’t available on the open marketplace. The machinery involved is highly regulated.

In theory, if North Korea were producing the notes, it could print $50 million worth of them within a few hours – as much as has been seized in nearly two decades, the report said.

“What defies logic is the limited, or even controlled, amount of `exclusive’ fakes that have appeared over the years. The organization could easily circulate tenfold that amount without raising suspicions,” says the Swiss police report, which also says Switzerland has seized 5 percent of all known supernotes.

Moreover, it noted that the manufacturer of the supernotes had issued 19 different versions, an “enormous effort” that only a criminal organization or state could undertake. The updates closely tracked the changes in U.S. currency issued by the Federal Reserve Bank.

The fact that the Swiss are questioning the veracity of the U.S. allegations against North Korea carries special weight in the insular world of banknote printing.

“The producers of the most sophisticated products used in banknote printing are Swiss or at least of Swiss origin. That goes for the (specialty) inks and that goes for the machines,” said Klaus Bender, a German foreign correspondent and the author of “Moneymakers: The Secret World of Banknote Printing.”

“Can the North Koreans do it, are they doing it? The answer is couched in diplomatic language, (but) the answer is clearly no,” Bender said.

—

EXCERPT FROM THE REPORT:

“According to the US Secret Service, $50 million worth of `super-fakes’ were confiscated worldwide over the past 16 years, only a small portion of them within the United States. Measured against the US annual counterfeit damage of $200 million, the damage from $50 million worth of `super-fakes’ is not that significant. The Federal Reserve Bank produces genuine $100 dollar bills mainly for the foreign market. On their return to the U.S., the issuing bank after examination can easily distinguish the `supernotes’ from originals using banknote testing equipment, due to altered infrared characteristics. For this reason, the United States over the years has hardly suffered economic damage due to the `super dollar.’

“A (banknote) printing press like the one in North Korea can produce $50 million worth of bills in a few hours. Using its printing presses dating back to the 1970’s, North Korea is today printing its own currency in such poor quality that one automatically wonders whether this country would even be in a position to manufacture the high-quality `supernotes.’ The enormous effort put into the making of the 19 different `super-fakes’ that we know of is unusual. Only a (criminal) governmental organization can afford such an effort. What defies logic is the limited or even controlled amount of `exclusive’ fakes that have appeared over the years. The organization could easily circulate tenfold that amount without raising suspicions.”

The Japan Times (Hat tip to the Marmot)
Jason Williams
5/22/2007

In February this year over 300 people attended the performing arts festival at a junior high school in Okayama. It was much the same as any other arts festival at any other junior high school in Japan; the students sang, danced, played music and performed skits for an audience made up of family and friends.

There was, however, one major difference — the program wasn’t Japanese. It was Korean. Korean in song, Korean in dance and Korean in language.

The festival was at the Okayama Korean Primary and Middle School, a school for Korean residents of Japan run by the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, or Chongryun, which has close ties to North Korea.

As a teacher and “insider” at a Korean school in Japan, I would like to share some of my experiences and observations to demonstrate how these schools are at the same time similar to and uniquely different from other schools here.

When I mention to others that I teach at a Korean school, I can usually expect one of three reactions. First, most people, Japanese and non-Japanese alike, are surprised to learn that such schools exist. In fact, Chongryun operates about 70 schools throughout Japan, from kindergarten to university, and in 2006 the organization celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of its schools.

Second are those who have at least heard of the schools but say that they know very little about them.

The third, and most damaging, reaction is rooted in the misconception that the schools are similar to the way that North Korea is portrayed in the Japanese media. I am often asked if the school is militaristic or if the students and teachers are brainwashed, communist fanatics who hate Japan and America. I have even been asked if the school has spies or if I feel safe being at the school. I can’t help thinking, “Why don’t you just come see for yourself?”

The school I teach at is located near Kurashiki in Okayama Prefecture. The school building, as I approached it for the first time nine years ago, looked like others I had seen in Japan but a bit smaller and older. When I arrived at the school, I was met with the usual pointing, giggling and staring from students that most foreigners experience when they go to a local school.

The first difference I noticed was the clothes of the female students and teachers. They were all wearing the traditional Korean “chima chogori.”

“The chima chogori is a symbol of our natural culture, national pride and history. To wear it is to recognize ourselves as Korean,” explains Pak Kum Suk, a former English teacher at the school.

I also noticed was that the Korean language was ubiquitous in the school. Writing on chalkboards and bulletin boards, announcements and conversations were all in Korean.

Knowing almost nothing about the Korean community in Japan at that time, I assumed that the students and teachers were from Korea and were living in Japan because of work, study or some other reason. Later on I learned about the history of ethnic Korean residents of Japan, known as “zainichi” Koreans in Japanese, and that all of the students and teachers were actually born and grew up in Japan.

Other than the uniforms and language, is there a lot that distinguishes this school from other elementary and junior-high schools in Japan?

Well, yes and no. Like most schools, the students study a basic curriculum that includes math, science, history, Japanese and English. Unlike other schools, the classes, except for English and Japanese, are all taught in Korean. Korean is not just the language of communication at the school; it is the language of instruction as well.

“The original purpose of the schools founded by the first generation of Koreans in Japan was to teach their children Korean language,” says Pak.

This does not mean that students are unable to speak Japanese. On the contrary, the combination of Korean-language immersion in school and the Japanese-language world outside the school mean that the children tend to be naturally bilingual.

“When I say I’m Korean,” says the school’s English teacher, Kang Yun Hwi, “some Japanese ask me why I can speak Japanese so well. I have to explain that I was born in Japan.”

The school also has clubs for students to participate in. In addition to soccer and volleyball there are Korean dance and music clubs. Such activities play an important role in helping students develop a sense of ethnic identity. Events at the school include sports festivals, parents’ day, field trips and graduation ceremonies. These are similar to the ones I have seen at Japanese schools, but with an emphasis on Korean language and culture.

The students are typical middle-schoolers. The boys talk about sports and computer games, the girls about singers and idols. Both worry about high-school entrance exams.

“When I was a junior high school student, my classmates and I talked about popular musicians like Hikaru Utada, Namie Amuro and Mr. Children. We also took “purikura” (photo booth snaps) whenever we went out,” recalls Kim Woo Ki, a recent graduate of Chongryun-operated Korea University.

The unconventional thing about the school is that staff and students make an open effort to maintain their ethnic identity and cultural heritage. Once when the students were making the Korean food “chijimi,” I mentioned that it is Korean “okonomiyaki” only to be lightheartedly corrected — okonomiyaki is Japanese chijimi.

In the teachers’ room there are pictures of the late North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung and his son, current leader Kim Jong Il, which surprised me the first time I saw them. However, they are the only ones I have seen in the school.

“From the beginning, North Korea has given a lot of funding, educational aid like musical instruments, and concern to the schools,” explains Pak.

Conversations I have with teachers tend to focus on current events and culture rather than politics. The one time a political topic did come up was after the admission of the abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korea. I taught at the school just after this news broke and the staff all expressed seemingly honest shock and sincere remorse and regret. They seemed to be just as surprised as everyone else I knew. Nobody denied the facts of these incidents as many Japanese people I have talked to believe.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., teachers and students expressed shock and worry, asked if my family and friends were OK and offered me, an American, their condolences.

I have seen no flags, military drills, marches or propaganda at the school. The only open, perhaps hopeful, political statement I see are maps of the Korean Peninsula that have no border separating North and South.

“The relationship between the North and South is better than most Japanese people think,” argues Pak.

I have noticed that everyone refers to themselves, their clothes, language and customs as “Korean” — not “North” or “South,” just “Korean.”

“The term ‘pro-Pyongyang’ (for Chongryun) is not completely appropriate,” says Pak. “Everyone in Chongryun and all people who send their children to our schools do not necessarily support the North. Some people simply place an importance on Korean ethnicity and identity, support our curriculum, and emphasize ties among community members.”

The school is very open to people who would like to visit and has welcomed my mother, wife (Japanese), and friends and coworkers from Australia, Canada, America and Japan. I have seen exchanges with Japanese schools and visits by community groups.

“We would like to have friendship with whoever wants to sincerely know about us and not people who are interested in gossip,” Pak says.

Even though I have mentioned that many people are unaware of the existence of the Korean schools, certain people, unfortunately, are. Beginning with the admission of the abduction of Japanese nationals, acts of aggression toward Chongryun schools and their students have increased. The number of recorded incidents nationwide since October of last year has already exceeded 150 and includes attacks on students, damage to the schools, and threatening telephone calls and mail.

“We have had our windows broken and (rightwing) sound buses drive around the school,” explains Pak.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of media interest in these schools, many people are unaware of these incidents.

I hope that in this article I have not idealized the school I teach at or my experiences there. Also, I am not trying to justify or support any of the political policies of North Korea. My intent is to help people understand what the Chongryun schools and their students are actually like and to encourage others to visit the schools and discover more first-hand.

I do not want people to develop misconceptions based on political affairs between North Korea and Japan. The Chongryun schools are not about politics. They are about older generations helping younger generations learn their traditional culture and appreciate their ethnic identity.

Whenever I go to the school, I can’t help thinking how much easier it would be if the students to went to Japanese schools. The building would be bigger, there would be more facilities and more classmates to get to know.

But at what cost? The loss of language, history, culture and ethnic identity is a heavy price to pay. The desire and ability of the teachers, students and parents to preserve and promote their heritage is certainly to be admired and, I hope, respected by others in Japan.