North Korean Economy Watch

UPDATE 4: Chinese government confirms Kim Jong-il visit.  According to Evan Ramstad in the Wall Street Journal:

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il met Chinese President Hu Jintao during his five-day visit to northeast China, the Chinese government confirmed Monday night as Mr. Kim left the country, in a surprise get-together that underscored their solidarity as they cope with pressure from the U.S. and other countries to act more responsibly.

The announcement was the climax of what appeared to be a coordinated public-relations push by China on Monday, beginning with stories in several media outlets praising the China-North Korea relationship while also saying Beijing shouldn’t be held responsible for Pyongyang’s provocative actions.

The meeting happened Friday, though China, as it has done with Mr. Kim’s previous visits, waited until he left the country to say he had been there.

In the initial reports confirming the meeting between Messrs. Kim and Hu, China’s state media said that Mr. Kim wanted a resumption of the six-nation talks aimed at striking a bargain for denuclearizing North Korea. They also hinted that Mr. Kim was interested in the economic overhauls that opened China to the world, though they didn’t say he endorsed or would follow them.

Mr. Kim for years has resisted requests of Chinese leaders to open up North Korea’s economy. Late last year, his regime tried to clamp down on market activities but halted the effort when the government couldn’t feed people.

Mr. Hu said on state TV that China should expand its economic cooperation with North Korea. Since Mr. Kim’s entourage was spotted in China on Thursday, analysts have speculated that one reason he made the trip was to seek more money and assistance for the impoverished North.

Analysts also speculated that Mr. Kim brought his expected heir-apparent, son Kim Jong Eun, to meet Chinese officials ahead of a political meeting in Pyongyang next week that may be the son’s public debut in North Korea. The Chinese news reports about the visit did not mention the son, however.

“I think there are other two issues Kim wants to talk about with China,” said Jin Hanyi, head of Northeastern Asian Research Institute at Yanbian University in Jilin. “North Korea recently had a bad flood and, with international sanctions against it and the failure of monetary reform, Kim wants to discuss how to deal with these awful messes,” Mr. Hanyi said. “Second, North Korea will hold a Workers’ Party meeting next month and he wants support from China for new policies.”

Mr. Kim’s entourage twice during the trip stopped in places associated with his father, North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, moves that are likely to be portrayed in North Korea as highlighting the importance of the Kim family as another potential succession looms.

For outside diplomats, the greatest significance of the trip is the symbolism of Messrs. Kim and Hu going to great lengths to meet each other in the aftermath of criticism both countries took following the sinking of a South Korean earlier this year, an incident that South Korea, the U.S. and others blame on a North Korean attack.

China has refused to blame North Korea publicly for the sinking, which killed 46 South Korean sailors, or to examine the results of the South Korea-led investigation.

Instead, North Korea and China have, since late May when the investigation first produced the accusation against North Korea, called for the resumption of the six-party denuclearization talks. The talks began in 2003, producing two agreements that North Korea dragged out and ultimately failed to keep. Pyongyang formally walked away from them last year.

Japan, South Korea and the U.S. have said North Korea damaged the potential for the talks with its attack on the South Korean ship.

The message to restart the talks was also given last week by a different North Korean official to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter when Mr. Carter went to Pyongyang to retrieve an American teacher who entered North Korea illegally in January. Mr. Kim skipped the opportunity to meet Mr. Carter to go to China instead.Mr. Kim doesn’t like to fly and travels by train that is easily monitored by satellite by foreign governments. His entourage is then tracked on the ground by reporters who follow the highly visible security cordons that go up along his route.

On Monday, South Korean and Japanese news agencies reported the action as Mr. Kim took his specially outfitted train from Harbin, the capital of China’s most northeastern province Heilongjiang, to a smaller city called Mudanjiang and then down to the border crossing at Tumen.

Mr. Kim called himself a “witness” to the success of China’s “reform and opening up,” Chinese television reported, but it was unclear whether that meant the North would follow that model. Last year, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, in a visit to Pyongyang, proposed development projects valued at several billion dollars to North Korea, but none have gotten off the ground.

Early Monday, Chinese state media rang with praise for North Korea but also tried to draw a line in the two countries’ relationship.

The state-run Xinhua news agency published a commentary talking about Chinese men who sacrificed their lives for North Korea, during the Korean War of the 1950s and afterward. Its latest example was the tale of a Chinese man who drowned this month after rescuing three North Korean girls adrift at sea.

The man’s “sacrifice led us again to recollect the long history of friendship between the two peoples,” Xinhua wrote.

Another nationalist newspaper, Global Times, wrote an editorial that called the China-North Korea relationship both “special” and “normal.”

“The biggest negative impact the China-North Korea relationship has on China is that the U.S, Japan and South Korea all request that China be responsible for North Korea’s ‘irrational behaviors,'” the newspaper wrote. “However, China has no ability to shoulder such responsibility.”

UPDATE 3: Kim Jong il departs from Harbin and returns home.

UPDATE 2: Kim Jong-il in Changchun. According to Yonhap:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il arrived in a Chinese industrial city Friday, a day after making a pilgrimage to sites bearing footmarks of his late father, on an abrupt trip seen as related to his leadership succession plan.

A convoy of some 30 vehicles, believed to be carrying the reclusive leader, arrived at the South Lake Hotel in the northeastern Chinese city of Changchun, about an hour and a half after leaving the nearby city of Jilin.

Earlier in the day, Kim’s convoy appeared to be traveling to a Jilin train station, where security was heavy, to allow the leader to board his personal armored train to Changchun. However, instead of stopping, the convoy took a highway to the capital city of Jilin province. About 10 police vehicles provided escort for the group of limousines and mini-buses.

Kim’s stay in Changchun is expected to include a tour of advanced industrial facilities.

Kim, 68, began the latest secrecy-shrouded trip a day ago, crossing into China around midnight Wednesday aboard his luxurious special train.

The trip was a surprise because it came as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was in Pyongyang for a widely speculated meeting with him. It was also Kim’s second visit to China in about three months, an unusual move for the isolated leader who rarely travels abroad.

Carter arrived in Pyongyang Wednesday to win the release of an American citizen detained in the North since January for illegal entry. Carter headed home Friday with the freed American, Aijalon Mahli Gomes, Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency said.

It was apparent that he failed to meet with Kim Jong-il.

On Thursday, Kim paid a visit to Jilin’s Yuwen Middle School, which his father and national founder, Kim Il-sung, attended for two and a half years starting in 1927. Kim also visited Beishan Park in the city of Jilin where the remains of anti-Japanese independence fighters are buried.

North Korea has lavishly lauded Kim Il-sung for his anti-Japanese activities during the 1910-45 colonial rule. The late leader, who founded North Korea in 1948, is still revered as eternal president and is subject to a strong cult of personality even after his death in 1994.

Kim’s move suggests that he visited the two sites considered sacred to his family dynasty ahead of handing power over to his youngest son, Jong-un, analysts said. Unconfirmed reports said the heir-apparent could be accompanying his father on the rare trip.

North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party is scheduled to convene a rare leadership meeting early next month in which the younger Kim could be given a key position in the run-up to formally taking over the communist dynasty.

On Thursday, Pyongyang’s state media reported that the country has started holding lower-level meetings of party delegations in the run-up to next month’s conference.

“The meetings were unanimous in saying that the WPK conference … will be a significant conference which will be a landmark of an epochal turn in strengthening the party and a great jubilee of great significance in ushering in a new surge in the revolution and construction,” the KCNA said.

Kim’s trip came as tensions still run high in the wake of the March sinking of a South Korean warship and China pushes to jump start six-nation talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear programs.

Beijing’s chief nuclear envoy has been in Seoul for talks on his trip to North Korea last week.

China is pushing for a “three-step” proposal for resuming the nuclear talks.

The proposal calls for Pyongyang and Washington first holding bilateral talks before all six parties hold an informal preparatory meeting and then an official session. The talks, which involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the U.S., have been stalled since late 2008.

South Korea has expressed its reluctance to reopen the dialogue unless the North shows a “responsible” attitude over the sinking and proves through action that it is serious about abandoning its nuclear programs.

UPDATE 1: Here is KCNA coverage of Cater’s visit to secure the release of Gomes

ORIGINAL POST: Former President Jimmy Carter is in Pyongyang to secure the release of American Aijalon Gomes.  Past stories about his detention can be found here. President Carter last traveled to Pyongyang in 1994  and met with Kim Il-sung (the North Koreans made a propaganda video out of the trip which they sell to foreigners), and discussed terms to freeze the country’s nuclear program. Many were speculating that President Carter might meet with Kim Jong-il while in the DPRK, but Kim appears to be in China.

According to the New York Times:

The man Mr. Carter is seeking to free is Aijalon Mahli Gomes, a 30-year-old Christian from Boston who was arrested in January for crossing into North Korea and sentenced in April to eight years of hard labor and fined $700,000. Last month, North Korea said he tried to kill himself out of “frustration with the U.S. government’s failure to free him.”

The visit by Mr. Carter, an evangelical Christian, is the second to North Korea by a former American president in a year on what the United States described as a private humanitarian missions. Last August, Bill Clinton flew there and met with the reclusive North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, to secure the release of two American journalists held for five months for illegal entry.

The Obama administration kept its distance, emphasizing that Mr. Carter not an envoy. “I’ll just say that President Carter is on a private humanitarian mission and I’m not going to comment more beyond that,” said Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman.

But as with Mr. Clinton’s visit, Mr. Carter’s has deeper diplomatic undercurrents. The North Koreans have used the captive Americans as bargaining chips, promising to release them in exchange for visits from specific high-profile Americans. North Korea can portray the meetings domestically as evidence of its international importance, while the United States has a high-level direct encounter that it cannot officially engage in.

But Mr. Carter has a long history as an independent agent, and some administration officials worried that he might undercut their policy in some way and make it harder to keep up the pressure on Pyongyang to give up its nuclear program.

It was not immediately clear who among the North Koreans would meet with Mr. Carter. The North Korean media reports said that he was greeted at the airport in Pyongyang, the capital, by Kim Kye-gwan, a senior diplomat who has been the North’s main envoy to the six-nation talks on its nuclear weapons program. The talks have been stalled for more than two years, but the North recently said it was willing to return to the discussions.

Higher-level meetings would appear to be likely, since Mr. Carter’s visit comes at a fraught time for North Korea. Its economy remains deeply troubled, and its ravaged agricultural sector has been further damaged by recent flooding. A March torpedo attack that sank one of the South’s warships, killing 46 sailors, drove inter-Korean relations to their lowest point in years and added to tensions with the United States. In addition, there may be a struggle over succession within the government of Kim Jong-il, who has had serious health problems.

The case of Mr. Gomes also touches on efforts of Christians in South Korea and the United States on behalf of North Koreans. His illegal entry was made in support of Robert Park, a fellow Christian from the United States who crossed from China in December to call attention to the dismal conditions in the North’s prison camps. Mr. Park was expelled after about 40 days.

Mr. Carter has been a contentious figure among South Korean conservatives. “Carter is idealistic, not realistic when it comes to North Korea,” said Hong Kwan-hee, director of the Institute for Security Strategy in Seoul. “North Korea always has tried to use prominent Americans, preferably Democrats, as a medium to engage the United States and drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington.

In another development, the South Korean authorities on Thursday morning were looking into indications that Mr. Kim, the North Korean leader, might be visiting China, an official in the presidential office of South Korea said. News media in South Korea, including the national news agency, Yonhap, and the mass-circulation daily, Chosun, reported the same on their Web sites.

“We have signs that Kim Jong-il is visiting China,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the matter. “It’s unclear whether he has arrived or is still on the move.”

If true, this would be Mr. Kim’s sixth trip to China and his second in three months. North Korea and China usually do not confirm a trip by Mr. Kim until after it is over. His previous trips were often preceded by weeks of media speculation. Many journalists waited on the Chinese side of the border to wait for his train to cross. This time, there was no such activity.

According to Bloomberg:

Carter yesterday also met with Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of North Korea, KCNA said. The pair had a “cordial talk” in the Mansudae Assembly Hall, the official news agency said.

Regarding Kim Jong-il’s visit to China, I turn to the Los Angeles Times:

In a trip shrouded in mystery and speculation, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il traveled to China by train with his youngest son, according to two South Korean government officials.

An official in the South Korean Blue House confirmed late Thursday that Kim’s train had crossed the border into China around midnight Wednesday, but said the North Korean leader did not take the usual route through the city of Dandong.

We “detected indications a few days ago,” the official told reporters, asking not to be named. “Chairman Kim’s special train has been confirmed to have left Manpo for China’s Jilin around midnight Wednesday.”

Another official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said earlier that intelligence had detected movement by the reclusive Kim.

South Korea’s Yonhap news service quoted an official speculating that the trip might be associated with the anticipated handover of power in the secretive regime.

“Signs have been detected that Chairman Kim visited China early Thursday morning,” the second unnamed official told the agency. “We are still trying to grasp his exact destination and the purpose of the visit.”

This was Kim’s second trip to China since May, when he embarked on a five-day journey for a summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

The Chinese government Thursday had no immediate comment on the visit. Because of security concerns, Kim’s rare trips outside North Korea to the ally nation are publicly confirmed only after they end.

The Yalu River crossing between North Korea and the Chinese city of Dandong was badly flooded last weekend, disrupting the railroad lines over which Kim normally travels in an armored, luxury train, reportedly equipped with conference rooms, bedrooms and high-tech communication facilities.

Shi Yinhong, a professor at Beijing’s Renmin University, speculated that Kim “must need China’s help in reducing tensions and ensuring a good environment for the succession of his son.”

The visit may signal that North Korea is prepared to return to six-party talks hosted by China on its nuclear program. North Korea also badly needs humanitarian assistance as a result of a series of economic blunders, as well as poor harvests and damage to cropland caused by the recent flooding.

Kim, who is 68 and in poor health after suffering a stroke in 2008, is in the process of naming his youngest son, the little-known Kim Jong Eun, 26, as his successor, a decision which should be announced at a special congress next month of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party.

“It’s likely that Kim Jong Il wants to end the debate on the succession issue in Pyongyang ahead of a meeting next month of the North Korea’s Workers’ Party,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

“There’s been plenty of succession talk between working-level and senior-level officials in Beijing and Pyongyang where they have failed to reach an agreement. Kim Jong Il now seems to be taking matters into his own hands.”

Kim Jong Eun, who was educated in Switzerland and speaks several languages, did not accompany his father during the previous trip to China in June. His presence on this visit might be something of a courtesy call to introduce the future leader to the Chinese.

“China will have no choice but to deal with Kim Jong Eun. Their regime is traditionally a family dynasty and, like it or not, if you deal with North Korea, you have to deal with their ruler,” said Shi.

Kim Jong Il assumed power in North Korea with the death of his father, Kim Il Sung, in 1994.

The rumors come amid tensions on the Korean Peninsula following the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship in March. The south has blamed North Korea for an unprovoked torpedo attack.

The trip also comes the day after former U.S. President Jimmy Carter arrived in Pyongyang to secure the release of a U.S. citizen imprisoned for illegally entering the country.

Here is the original Yonhap story.

Here is more in the New York Times.

Here is more in the Los Angeles Times.

The Road less taken: DPRK railway crossings into China

Click image for larger version

The DPRK does not have many railway crossings into China. From West to East: Sinuiju, Sakju, Manpho,  and Namyang.  Historically there were additional crossings at the Unbon Dam,  Hyesan, and Saepyol, but these do not appear to be used anymore.  Namyang is in the furthest reaches of North Hamgyong Province, so if Kim is going to cross into China by rail, he has to do so from Sinuiju, Sakju, or Manpho.  Coincidentally, he has a private railway station and secure residential compound near each of these border crossings–though the closest leadership compound and train station to Manpho is in nearby Kanggye and the closest compound to the Sakju Bridge is in Changsong County.

Given that the Sinuiju crossing is most convenient, it is a bit of a mystery why he chose to cross at Manpho when Sakju/Changsong is so much closer.  Maybe the Sakju/Changsong railway crossing is not as convenient for some unknown reason?  Maybe the “smaller” Kanggye leaderhip compound is more exclusive and Kim prefered hiding this trip from as many of his cohorts as he could?  Maybe the Changsong elite compound (which is also on the water) is also flooded?  I do not know the reason, but there has to be one…

UPDATE 2 (11/22/2010): Apparently the boy has not given up on his dream and is now protesting in China (well for one minute).  Really.  According to the AP:

A 13-year-old American boy campaigning to turn the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea into a peace park tried to get the Chinese president’s attention Monday, staging a brief protest near Tiananmen Square before being led away by police.

Jonathan Lee unfurled a sign saying “peace treaty” and “nuclear free DMZ children’s peace forest” as he stood outside Tiananmen Gate just north of the square in central Beijing.

The scene of numerous demonstrations over the years, the gate and square remain some of the most tightly controlled public spaces in China and all protests on it are quickly snuffed by security agents, sometimes violently. In 1989, tanks and troops rolled into the square to crush a student-led pro-democracy movement, killing at least hundreds of people.

Less than a minute after Lee began his demonstration, a man presumed to be a plainclothes police officer grabbed the boy’s sign and waved away watching journalists, who had been contacted by Lee’s family ahead of time. Three or four uniformed police officers then hurriedly escorted Lee and his mother away without commotion.

Police held the pair and a few hours later Lee and his mother, Melissa Lee, returned to their hotel where they were joined by the boy’s father and sister. The family arrived unaccompanied at Beijing airport Monday evening to catch a Korean Airlines flight to Seoul, but declined to comment to The Associated Press.

The Lees’ treatment by Chinese authorities was relatively mild compared with the often rough handling and swift, forced deportation given to most foreigners who try to stage protests in China. It was not clear if they were forced to leave the country or had already planned to do so.

The boy, from Ridgeland, Mississippi, is trying to persuade the leaders of North and South Korea, China and the United States to work for reunification of the two Koreas.

“Hopefully my picketing will touch them in a way, so they’ll really consider peace, you know, between North and South Korea,” Lee said in an interview Friday with Joel Clark, a documentary filmmaker who traveled to China with the Lees, that was provided to the AP. “I guess I’m just trying to do, you know, what God would want, making peace.”

His Korean-born father, Kyoung Lee, said in a written statement Monday that his son has sent letters to President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak but had not been able to give a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao. That, the father said, made the Tiananmen protest necessary.

Passionate and strong-willed, Lee is the latest, and perhaps youngest, activist to try to bring peace to the heavily militarized Korean peninsula, divided since the 1950-53 Korean War in which both the U.S. and China fought. The U.S. is Seoul’s ally, stationing troops in the well-off nation, while China is the main economic and diplomatic backer of the isolated, impoverished North.

Lee made a rare visit to North Korea in August to propose his idea of a “children’s peace forest” in the demilitarized zone and was taken on a tour of the 2.5-mile (four-kilometer)-wide buffer zone, which is sealed off with electric fences and studded with land mines. A hoped-for meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il did not materialize, although Lee said the officials forwarded to Kim a letter from him.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman declined to comment on the case, saying Lee family members had not signed privacy waivers.

UPDATE 1 (8/19/2010): According ot the AFP:

A US teenager who spent a week in North Korea to promote an idea for a peace forest on the tense Korean border said Thursday his trip had given him “hope” for the future of the peninsula.

Jonathan Lee, a 13-year-old ethnic Korean, said he felt safe and had been treated well during his visit to one of the most secretive states in the world.

Lee said that he headed to Pyongyang with a letter for North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, proposing the creation of a “children’s peace forest” in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) dividing North and South.

The trip comes amid high cross-border tensions, which grew after South Korea and the United States accused the North in May of torpedoing one of Seoul’s warships with the loss of 46 lives.

“My letter suggesting this (idea) was passed on to Chairman Kim Jong-Il along with my book as a gift to him,” Lee told reporters at Beijing airport, where he stopped for a layover with his parents before flying to Seoul.

“I went to several places but the place that made the biggest impression on me was the DMZ,” said Lee, who hails from the southern US state of Mississippi.

“While at the DMZ, I spoke of my hope of having a children’s peace forest. My suggestion for the motto is ‘Above politics, above conflicts, above borders, above ideology’.”

Lee has sent letters to South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, US President Barack Obama and China’s President Hu Jintao, explaining his idea for the peace forest of fruit and chestnut trees on the world’s last Cold War frontier.

The surrounding area is heavily fortified with concrete, barbed wire, land mines and soldiers from both North and South Korea.

His visit recalled the efforts of 11-year-old US schoolgirl Samantha Smith, who in 1983 travelled to the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, after writing to then leader Yuri Andropov to ask if he planned a nuclear war against the US.

“It’s all about giving hope to the people and children around the world,” said Lee, the founder of a global youth environmental group called I.C.E.Y. H.O.P.E.

“On this trip, I discovered that both sides want reunification, and that Korea is one, so I see hope on the Korean peninsula.”

He told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency that North Korean officials had given a “good” response to his proposal, and that the country’s people were “quite lively”.

The teen also said officials had told his family that progress could be made on his idea only if the United States were to help transform the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War into a full-fledged peace treaty.

North Korea, which has no diplomatic relations with the United States, approved Lee’s trip despite a tense stand-off between the countries over the detention of four American citizens for illegal entry.

Three have been released but but Aijalon Gomes, a 30-year-old former English teacher in Seoul, is still being held in prison there.

Gomes was arrested in January and sentenced to eight years’ hard labour for an illegal border crossing. The North said in July that Gomes had tried to commit suicide and was being treated in hospital.

Lee has previously said his idea was inspired by former South Korean leader Kim Dae-Jung, who died in August last year.

As president from 1998-2003, Kim Dae-Jung held a landmark summit with North Korea’s Kim in 2000 that paved the way for inter-Korean reconciliation and earned him a Nobel peace prize.

ORIGINAL POST (8/11/2010): According to Yonhap:

A teenage American boy says he is traveling to North Korea this week with a letter urging leader Kim Jong-il to allow the creation of a peace forest that would grow over the heavily armed border between the Koreas.

“You may be wondering why a 13-year-old boy wants to go into North Korea, especially right now when there are a lot of problems,” Jonathan Lee, a Korean-American from Mississippi, wrote in his letter.

“Well, I’ve been talking about planting chestnut trees in North Korea for the past three years. The reason I have is because I want to help the environment and help the people at the same time. Now is the right time because many wish for peace right now on the Korean peninsula.”

…

A youth environmental activist who founded in Mississippi the International Cooperation of Environmental Youth – Helping Our Polluted Earth, Jonathan was first moved to pursue the idea of planting chestnut trees on the Korean Peninsula when he met with former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung three years ago.

“His wish for peace between the two Koreas made an impression on me,” he wrote in his letter, recounting the meeting at a celebration of the anniversary of the two Koreas’ 2000 summit.

“Korea has been divided for 60 years and has been officially at war during this time. The children of these countries have never met or interacted with each other. Personally, I think this is sad,” he said.

Jonathan was scheduled to leave Seoul for China on Tuesday, where he will deliver the same letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao. He has already sent the proposal to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President Barack Obama.

Jonathan’s eight-day trip to the communist nation will start Thursday and will include a meeting with a North Korean government official, his father, Kyoung Lee, says. He declined to elaborate.

…

Kyoung Lee believes that safety for his son and his family was guaranteed because their visit was made possible through the North’s U.N. representative in New York.

The family says that they also requested a meeting between Jonathan and the 68-year-old North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il. But the North has only mentioned the possibility of a meeting with a “senior” official.

If Jonathan’s wish to plant a forest of chestnut trees in Panmunjom, along the border between the two Koreas, did come true, it would be a stark contrast to the surrounding area heavily fortified with barbed wire and military personnel, he believes.

Panmunjom, the village where the truce that ended the 1950-53 Korean War was signed, lies within the Demilitarized Zone, a four-kilometer-wide swath of land bisecting the peninsula.

Jonathan says his chestnut trees would “not only help the environment, but would also provide food for the North Koreans.” The North has been suffering from decades of food shortages and deforestation — a consequence of people cutting down trees to plant crops for their survival.

“Above politics; Above conflicts; Above borders; Above ideology; It’s all about giving hope to people and children around the world,” Jonanthan says, referring to his motto for the forest.

“This is the most important part of the letter that Jonathan would like to emphasize,” his father said.

Jonathan’s group, also known as I.C.E.Y.-H.O.P.E., raised funds in South Korea last year and delivered them to the North for use in planting chestnut trees.

Read the full story here:
Teenage U.S. environmentalist to visit N. Korea on bold peace mission
Yonhap
Lee Haye-ah
8/10/2010

UPDATE 8/9/2010: According to Yonhap:

A state-run North Korean bank has lost a lawsuit for not paying back a loan it borrowed from a Taiwanese bank nine years ago, the New York district court said Friday.

The District Court of New York confirmed it ordered the Foreign Trade Bank of Korea to pay compensations of just under US$6.77 million to the Mega International Commercial Bank (MICB) in a ruling made earlier in the week.

And as Josh notes: “By which they really mean the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.”

Some additional case information may be found here.

As an aside, North Korea also recently lost another court case in the US.  Read more here.

ORIGINAL POST (5/6/2010): According to KBS:

The Taiwanese bank filed its lawsuit to claim some five million dollars in interest and principal on August 25th, 2001.

It is unclear whether the North Korean bank will repay the Taiwanese plaintiff, but North Korea experts say this will at least add to the crunch on North Korean finances.

Some reference information can be found here.

According to the Korea Times:

A state-run North Korean bank is facing trial in the United States for failing to pay a $5 million loan that it borrowed from a Taiwanese bank in 2001, according to sources Wednesday.

The District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered the Foreign Trade Bank (FTB) of North Korea to make a court appearance on May 17 and submit a proposed case management plan and scheduling order.

The FTB reportedly borrowed $5 million from the Mega International Commercial Bank (MICB) in Taiwan on Aug. 25, 2001 on the promise to amortize the principal and interest in three installments by Sept. 15, 2004.

No repayment was made until December 2008, when the FTB paid the MICB $100,000 to cover some of the interest. The North Korean bank has thus far paid off a total of $462,000 to the MICB, still owing $1.78 million in interest and $4.7 million in principal.

“It has been almost unprecedented for North Korea to be sued in a commercial dispute, though there were occasions that the North was asked to stand in U.S. courts for terrorist activities,” an official of the South Korean Consulate General in New York told Yonhap News.

The official said the litigation will hamper Pyongyang’s recent move to aggressively attract foreign investment in an effort to revive its flagging economy, given that obviously doubt will arise over its debt repayment capacity.

Despite a recent currency reform, the North’s economy remains in a parlous state as the U.N. sanctions have cut off virtually all sources of foreign currency.

Seoul has also suspended tours to the North’s popular tourist destination of Mt. Geumgang, following the shooting death of a South Korean tourist in the mountain resort in July 2008. The tours were a cash cow for the North, generating more than $500 million between 1998 and 2008.

On May 1, the FTB’s official exchange rate was 96.9 won per dollar, but it was traded at 180 won in Pyongyang and higher in other areas, demonstrating the instability of the North’s economy, according to the sources.

Since established in 1959, the bank has served as the reclusive regime’s main foreign exchange bank, they said. It has branch offices in France, Australia, Kuwait, Hong Kong and Beijing.

Read the full story here:
NK trade bank sued for failure to settle debt
Korea Times
5/5/2010

According to the AFP:

The United States is expected to blacklist three key North Korean figures suspected of handling secret funds for leader Kim Jong-Il as part of its new sanctions, a report said Wednesday.

Washington is devising the measures to punish the North for an alleged deadly March attack on a South Korean warship and to push it to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions.

Yonhap news agency, quoting an unidentified South Korean government source, said one of the three officials is Kim Tong-Myong, head of the North’s Tanchon Commercial Bank.

“The US is paying special attention to three people, including Kim Tong-Myong, who operate North Korea’s secret funds abroad,” the source was quoted as saying.

“If they are included in the new sanctions, it could deal a blow to North Korea’s leadership.”

The foreign ministry had no comment on the report.

Washington also has evidence that nine North Korean financial institutions operating overseas and at least two trading firms have been used for illicit activities such as trading in conventional arms, luxury goods and counterfeit money, the source was quoted as saying.

Overall, the US is expected to add 10-20 North Korean entities and individuals to its blacklist, the report said.

Robert Einhorn, US State Department special adviser for non-proliferation and arms control, said Monday during a visit to Seoul the new measures would designate companies or individuals involved in the North’s illicit activities.

Any property or assets they possessed which were under US control could be blocked.

“By publicly naming these entities, these measures can have the broader effect of isolating them from the international financial and commercial system,” Einhorn said.

He named Tanchon Bank as one of several North Korean companies active overseas. The bank has already been designated by the US and the UN Security Council for suspected illicit activities.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan said details of the new US sanctions will emerge soon.

“We’re expecting concrete measures within the next two weeks that will freeze assets of related North Korean individuals or companies and will prohibit third countries from dealing with such individuals or companies,” Yu told a local radio station.

South Korea, the United States and other countries, citing a multinational investigation, accuse the North of torpedoing a South Korean warship in March with the loss of 46 lives — a charge it denies.

Read the full story here:
US to target secret funds of N.Korea’s Kim
AFP
8/4/2010

According to the Choson Ilbo:

Luxembourg has promised to cooperate with UN and U.S. financial sanctions against North Korea, Radio Free Asia reported Wednesday.

A spokesman for Luxembourg’s Finance Ministry told RFA that the country is closely watching for any illegal activities by the North using offshore accounts and will take “appropriate legal steps” if it finds them.

He claimed Luxembourg regularly updates domestic laws in accordance with international norms to monitor and punish those involved in illegal activities.

The country is committed to implementing sanctions against the North under UN Security Council Resolution 1874, he added.

In March, the Daily Telegraph said North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has a US$4 billion slush fund stashed away abroad in case he has to flee the North. Kim’s operatives “withdrew the money — in cash, in order not to leave a paper trail — and transferred it to banks in Luxembourg,” it said.

But at the time, the office of the grand duchy’s prime minister said it had no information about North Korean financial assets and there was no need to check. Although Luxembourg is a member of the EU, it is not easy to keep track of bank accounts there because it has a different bank payment and settlement system from other members.

On July 22, Hong Kong started a legal review of Taepung International Investment Group, a North Korean firm founded to attract foreign capital, and other North Korean companies.

Open Radio for North Korea on Wednesday quoted a North Korean source as saying the country’s former ambassador to Switzerland Ri Chol returned to the North in March to make sure Kim Jong-il’s secret accounts overseas are safely handed over to Kim Jong-un, his son and heir apparent.

Read the full story here:
Luxembourg to Help Track N.Korean Bank Accounts
Choson Ilbo
7/29/2010

According ot the Choson Ilbo:

Hong Kong government investigators have inspected an office in the territory belonging to North Korea’s Taepung International Investment Group as part of U.S.-led financial sanctions against North Korea. Taepung is charged with attracting foreign investment to the North.

Investigators say that the company registered itself under the address Rm.# 2508, Lippo Centre, Hong Kong with the authorities, but the only office at that address is the Law Office of Ho, Wong and Wong.

Companies registry documents obtained by the Chosun Ilbo show a complicated network of related businesses. It was established in April 2006 with parent company Taepung International Investment Holdings owning all of its shares. Taepung is capitalized at 20 million Hong Kong dollars (W3.2 billion).

It registered a company called Saiying, also listed at the Lippo Centre address, as its corporate secretary, which serves as a bridge with the Hong Kong government. China Deals Finder, which was in turn registered as the corporate secretary of Saiying, also has the same address.

The parent companies of both Saiying and CDF are registered under the same address in tax haven the Virgin Islands. They are paper companies capitalized at 50,000 and 10,000 dollars respectively and have shifted addresses, board of directors and secretaries several times. The law office of Ho, Wong and Wong handled the reporting of each change.

“It appears that Taepung turned to the aid of a legal expert to conceal the identity of its true owner and make it difficult to track its financial activities,” said a financial expert in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong government has stressed its intend to comply with UN resolutions  According to Yonhap:

The government of Hong Kong affirmed its commitment Friday to continue implementing punitive U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea to end its nuclear ambitions.

“Hong Kong will continue to exercise vigilance in enforcing our regulation to effectively implement the United Nations Security Coucil sanctions against DPRK,” Josephine Lo, an official at the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau of the Hong Kong government, told Yonhap News, using the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“Our law enforcement agencies will take appropriate actions on those found in violation of the laws,” she said.

The comment was made after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s announcement Wednesday that the U.S. will hit North Korea with a new set of sanctions to punish it for its sinking of a South Korean warship and prevent it from further provocations.

Those sanctions will “strengthen our enforcement of U.N. Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1874” adopted after North Korea’s first and second nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, Clinton said at a joint press conference in Seoul after a meeting with South Korea’s foreign and defense ministers.

Hong Kong legislated what is called the U.N. Sanctions Regulation in June 2007 to implement the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718, according to Lo.

In January, Hong Kong amended the regulation to implement the new and expanded sanctions against North Korea under the Security Council Resolution 1874, she said.

A source here said earlier Friday that the United States has identified about 200 bank accounts with links to North Korea, and that the country is expected to freeze some 100 of those suspected of being used for weapons exports and other illicit purposes banned under U.N. resolutions.

The U.S. State Department said the U.S. will carry out new sanctions within two weeks to cut off money from illicit trafficking of weapons of mass destruction and counterfeit currency or luxury goods flowing into the North Korean leadership.

North Korea has bristled at the announcement of new sanctions and Seoul’s plan to conduct large-scale joint naval exercises with the U.S., claiming the moves pose grave threats to regional peace.

Read the full stories here:
Probe Reveals Elusive Structure of N.Korean Company
Choson Ilbo
7/26/2010

Hong Kong to continue implementing U.N. sanctions on N. Korea
Yonhap
Kim Young-gyo
7/23/2010

UPDATE 2: More details are coming out about the US led initiative to track down DPRK-owned accounts in foreign banks.

According to the Choson Ilbo:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is believed to have a US$4 billion slush fund stashed away in secret accounts in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.

According to sources, North Korean bank accounts in Russia are being tracked after the U.S. government obtained information that the Russian mafia is laundering money for the North. Kim Jong-il and other officials cannot engage in financial transactions using their real names, so they are believed to operate secret bank accounts or rely on the Russian mob.

Philip Goldberg, the former U.S. State Department envoy charged with enforcing UN sanctions, visited Russia in August last year and reportedly asked Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin to crack down on the mob for its involvement in laundering money for North Korea.

North Korean accounts held in African banks are being tracked, because the reclusive regime has been earning a substantial amount of money in the region by smuggling ivory and selling weapons. “Despite the UN sanctions, North Korea has opened up new markets in Africa and Latin America,” said one North Korean source.

The U.S. sanctions against North Korea are expected to differ from pressure applied to Macao-based Banco Delta Asia back in 2005. “Rather than freezing the operations of an entire financial institution like BDA by getting the U.S. Treasury Department to blacklist it on suspicion of money laundering, the measures this time will probably involve the tracking of individual North Korean accounts directly linked to illicit activities and freezing them,” a diplomatic source said.

Sanctioning entire banks could prompt North Korea to complain that its legal financial transactions are also being blocked and this could make the lives of ordinary North Koreans even more difficult. This is probably why U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said these measures “are not directed at the people of North Korea,” but at the “destabilizing, illicit and provocative policies pursued by that government.”

Others say the latest sanctions could be more comprehensive than previous ones by automatically limiting U.S. transactions with all banks found to deal in a certain amount of money with North Korea, rather than singling out particular banks. Under such pressure, banks could voluntarily sever relations with North Korean businesses or individuals to avoid being blacklisted.

The South Korean government has apparently notified the U.S. of between 10 to 20 North Korean bank accounts under suspicion of being involved in illicit deals. There are fears that massive Chinese aid to the North could render the U.S. sanctions useless, but judging from the vehement protests lodged by North Korea when its accounts at BDA were frozen, experts say financial sanctions are an effective means of pressure.

And according to a different Choson Ilbo story:

The U.S. will freeze North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s overseas secret bank accounts based on a tip-off from a whistleblower at a state-run bank in Liechtenstein in 2006-2007.

The August issue of the Monthly Chosun said since the North’s attack on the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan in March, speculation has been rife among North Korea experts in Washington that the Obama administration will freeze Kim Jong-il’s secret accounts in Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

The tip-off from Heinrich Kieber, a former employee of LGT Bank, which is owned by the Liechtenstein royal family, contributed decisively to the U.S. obtaining information about Kim’s secret accounts. According to the U.S. Senate, Kieber said the “head of department in a socialist government” wanted to deposit more than US$5 million “with no explanation in the files whatever in regard to the source of the vast amount.”

The U.S. recently signed a tax information exchange agreement with Liechtenstein which could allow it to freeze bank accounts suspected of belonging to Kim.

The US also plans to distribute a lack list of North Korean firms to distribute internationally.  According to Asahi:

The United States plans to release a blacklist of North Korean companies and individuals believed to be involved in transactions of weapons of mass destruction and luxury items as part of new sanctions on Pyongyang in the wake of the sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan.

An official with the South Korean government divulged the plan on Friday. Seoul has been contacted by Washington about the blacklist.

The official said financial institutions would be under pressure to freeze or close accounts held by the companies and individuals on the blacklist.

The new measure is designed to avoid the problems that arose in September 2005 when the U.S. Treasury Department designated Banco Delta Asia of Macao as a financial institution suspected of laundering money for North Korea.

That designation caused a run on the bank and the Macao government was forced to place it under its control.

Under the new blacklist proposal, the United States hopes to provide financial institutions around the world with the names of individuals and companies with close ties to North Korea.

A South Korean government official said, “If a foreign government or financial institution does not cooperate with the new sanctions, there is the possibility that it could lose trust so the blacklist would apply silent pressure to conform.”

One problem is that many North Korean-related accounts are held in China and it remains unclear what, if any, cooperation will be obtained from Beijing and Chinese financial institutions.

One report from China does indicate that this strategy will make business with North Korea more difficult.  According to the Korea Herald:

Chinese banks ― mostly bigger institutions with international operations ― will not be able to avoid the sanctions that the U.S. is pursuing against North Korea, an official here said Monday.

“The bigger banks cannot avoid the sanctions because all of its transactions go through the U.S.,” he said.

He stressed that even smaller institutions ― such as Banco Delta Asia in the past ― could come under scrutiny because all wiring services go through New York.

“This means that for everyone dealing with North Korea, it will become difficult for them to send and receive money from the North,” the official said on the condition of anonymity.

The U.S. has already called for a dozen banks around the world including those in China to freeze the North Korean assets in their accounts, according to diplomatic sources in Washington. The accounts are suspected of being used for illicit activities by the North, such as purchasing weapons, luxury goods and trading in counterfeit.

UPDATE 1:  The US has already begun going after DPRK bank accounts.  According to the Donga Ilbo:

The U.S. government will reportedly freeze some 100 illegal bank accounts allegedly linked to North Korea, a diplomatic source said Thursday.

Washington is known to have discovered about 200 bank accounts worldwide linked to Pyongyang in the process of mulling financial sanctions separate from those of the U.N. since the March 26 sinking of the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan.

“The U.S. is closely tracking 100 of the suspected accounts that are highly likely to be illegal,” the source said.

If Washington takes action against the accounts, including suspension of transactions, its sanctions are expected to be stronger than the September 2005 freeze of 25 million U.S. dollars in the North’s accounts at the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia.

“As U.N. Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1874 ban financial transactions that could be used for weapons of mass destruction or missile programs, bank accounts under borrowed names related to such transactions can be seen as illegal,” the source said.

“Investigations by the CIA and the Treasury Department will reveal how many of the 100 accounts are directly linked to illegal transactions.”

The source said the level of sanctions sought will likely be 100 times stronger than the measures taken against Banco Delta Asia.

Even if Washington imposes sanctions on illegal accounts, however, it will likely ask each bank to close them rather than disclosing them on its official gazette, the source said.

“Disclosing the names of the banks where the accounts were opened will likely cause a strong protest from the banks because of possible damage to the banks` reputations and transactions,” the source said. “The U.S. government has continued to consult the banks and will likely induce them to quietly close the accounts.”

A detailed outline of the U.S. financial sanctions is expected to be released by Robert J. Einhorn, new U.S. coordinator for sanctions on North Korea and Iran, when he visits Seoul early next month.

And according to the Joong Ang Daily:

The United States has already begun quietly freezing assets in North Korean accounts at about 10 banks around the world, diplomatic sources familiar with the situation told the JoongAng Ilbo yesterday.

On Tuesday in Seoul, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. would levy additional sanctions on North Korea for the March sinking of the Cheonan.

“The U.S. Treasury Department and intelligence authorities began looking into about 200 bank accounts that showed suspicious activities involving North Korea,” an informed diplomatic source said. “Bank accounts used to deposit money earned from the North’s exports of arms, in violation of UN Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1874, were studied, along with accounts used to purchase luxury goods believed to be supplied to the North’s leadership.”

Of the 200 suspicious accounts, U.S. authorities narrowed their attention to about 100 and began freezing their assets, the source said. The accounts belong to about 10 banks in Southeast Asia, southern Europe and the Middle East, the sources said. All the accounts were opened and operated under aliases, the source said.

Resolution 1718 was adopted on Oct. 14, 2006, after the North’s nuclear test that month. The main sanctions were an arms embargo, inspection of cargo going in and out of the North, an export ban on luxury goods to the North and the freezing of assets of individuals and entities designated by the UN sanctions committee. Resolution 1874 was adopted in June 2009 after the second nuclear test in May 2009, and it reinforced the existing sanctions.

While the U.S. was public about freezing North Korean accounts at the Macao-based Banco Delta Asia in 2005, the latest freezings were done quietly, the source said.

“When the U.S. authorities informed the banks that there were problems associated with certain accounts, the banks quietly froze the assets, making it hard for the media to detect,” the source said. “The assets in those accounts are likely to be money Kim Jong-il needs to operate his regime, so this will deal a serious blow to the North.”

“The U.S. began the freezings before June,” the source said. “The moves should be interpreted as a part of new sanctions on the North to hold it responsible for the sinking of the Cheonan.”

The assets in those accounts were presumably raised through illicit trade of arms, counterfeiting money, money laundering and drug trafficking, the source said. “In the past, the North deposited money in African bank accounts created under aliases and raised through trafficking in elephant ivory, selling of counterfeit Viagra and exporting arms in Africa,” the source said.

The source said the new financial sanctions will be different from what happened in the Banco Delta Asia crisis that stalled the six-party nuclear talks for years due to the North’s protest. Instead of naming and shaming a specific bank as a money laundering institution and pressuring it to freeze North Korean assets, “quiet” moves are now preferred to avoid blowback from Pyongyang, the source said.

Another source confirmed the additional financial sanctions, noting that, “If the charges are very clear, then the Banco Delta Asia method will be used, while the silent method will be used in more ambiguous cases.”

Meanwhile, a senior U.S. official said a package of sanctions aimed at stopping Pyongyang’s illegal activities will be announced in the next couple of weeks. In a press briefing in Washington on Wednesday, Assistant Secretary of State Philip J. Crowley elaborated on the fresh sanctions announced by Clinton in Seoul.

“Much of what we’ve done up to this point has centered on proliferation activities that stem from specific authorities,” Crowley said. “We’re moving into strengthening our national steps to attack the illicit activities that help to fund the weapons programs that are of specific concern to us – things like the importation of luxury goods into North Korea, concerns that we have long had about trafficking in conventional arms. So there are authorities that we will strengthen nationally, and we’ll have more to say about that in the next couple of weeks.”

North Korea’s counterfeiting of banknotes and cigarettes, diplomats’ smuggling of cigarettes, banking transactions that fund weapons programs and support the government and its policies were named as some of the illegal activities to be tackled under the sanctions.

Crowley also said Robert Einhorn, special adviser for nonproliferation arms control, will soon begin a trip to encourage countries that have been reluctant to implement earlier sanctions, noting that the North has found ways to sidestep the measures.

“They look to see if there are seams and gaps in the international effort,” Crowley said. “That’s what Bob Einhorn is going to be consulting with a range of countries where we think there needs to be more aggressive implementation of Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1874.”

Crowley, however, refused to say what Einhorn’s destinations are and if they include China.

“China obviously has a big role to play in this,” Crowley only said.

ORIGINAL POST: Sec. of State Hillary Clinton has announced the US will impose tighter financial sanctions on the DPRK.  According to Al Jazeera:

The United States will impose new sanctions on North Korea in a bid to stem its nuclear weapons ambitions, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said.

Clinton said the measures were designed to stamp out illegal money-making ventures used to fund the nuclear programme.

“These measures are not directed at the people of North Korea, who have suffered too long due to the misguided priorities of their government,” Clinton said after talks with defence and military officials in South Korea on Wednesday.

“They are directed at the destabilising, illicit, and provocative policies pursued by that government,” she said.

She said the sanctions would be aimed at the sale or procurement of arms and related goods as well as the procurement of luxury items.

The US will freeze assets as well as prevent some businesses and individuals from travelling abroad, and collaborate with banks to stop illegal financial transactions, Clinton said.

Also the US Department of the Treasury (h/t Josh) has announced new procedures that apply to U.S. financial institutions maintaining correspondent accounts for “foreign banks operating under a banking license issued by” North Korea.  According to FinCEN:

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has not committed to the AML/CFT international standards, nor has it responded to the FATF’s numerous requests for engagement on these issues. DPRK’s lack of a comprehensive AML/CFT regime poses a risk to the international financial system. DPRK should work with the FATF to develop a viable AML/CFT regime in line with international standards.

…

B. Jurisdictions in FATF Statement Section 2 have been identified by the FATF as having strategic AML/CFT deficiencies and not having committed to an action plan developed with the FATF to address key deficiencies. Based on the FATF’s adoption of the ICRG’s findings, a decision by the FATF in which the United States concurs, FinCEN is advising U.S. financial institutions of their increased obligations under Section 312 of the USA PATRIOT ACT, 31 USC § 5318(i). Accordingly, U.S. financial institutions should apply enhanced due diligence, as described under implementing regulations 31 CFR § 103.176(b) and (c) when maintaining correspondent accounts for foreign banks operating under a banking license issued by DPRK and São Tomé and Príncipe.

Read the full statement here.

Also, the US Department of State has added the DPRK’s Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID) to its list of sanctioned companies.   According to the Chosn Ilbo:

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday put another North Korean company on a list of sanctions targets based on the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act.

The Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation was added to the list due to suspected dealings in weapons of mass destruction or ballistic missiles in violation of the Missile Technology Control Regime since 2006.

The company had already been designated by the U.S. Treasury Department as a target of financial sanctions. The blacklisting came as part of wider U.S. sanctions against the Stalinist country that largely cover well-trodden ground.

KOMID will not be permitted to conclude supply contracts with any U.S. government agencies or to take part in any U.S. government support programs. The newest round of sanctions will be effective for two years from the moment they take effect.

According to the Associated Press:

Trapped by two Chinese divisions, troops of the 8th U.S. Cavalry Regiment were left to die in far northern Korea, abandoned by the U.S. command in a Korean War episode viewed as one of the most troubling in American military history.

Sixty years later those fallen soldiers, the lost battalion of Unsan, are stranded anew.

North Korea is offering fresh clues to their remains. American teams are ready to re-enter the north to dig for them. But for five years the U.S. government has refused to work with North Korea to recover the men of Unsan and others among more than 8,000 U.S. missing in action from the 1950-53 war.

Now, under pressure from MIA family groups, the Obama administration is said to be moving slowly to reverse the Bush administration’s suspension of the joint recovery program, a step taken in 2005 as the North Korean nuclear crisis dragged on.

“If I had a direct line in to the president, I would say, `Please reinstitute this program. There are families that need closure,'” said Ruth Davis, 61, of Palestine, Texas, whose uncle, Sgt. 1st Class Benny Don Rogers, has been listed as MIA since Chinese attackers overran his company — I Company, 8th Cavalry — at Unsan in late 1950.

It was one of Rogers’ I Company comrades, Pfc. Philip W. Ackley of Hillsboro, New Hampshire, whose identifying dog tag appeared in a photo the North Koreans handed over at Korea’s Panmunjom truce village in January of this 60th year since the war started. The North Koreans also delivered photos of remains, a stark reminder that Unsan’s dead still wait to come home.

The U.S. “has developed the humanitarian issue into a political problem,” complained a North Korean statement urging resumption of the MIA search project, which earned hard currency for the Pyongyang government.

The devastating losses at Unsan, in early November 1950, came as China intervened to fend off a final North Korean defeat. In a last letter home, dated Oct. 30, Rogers told his parents, “It is a lot better over here, but it’s not over yet.”

The U.S. command had ignored intelligence reports that China’s army was moving south, and Rogers and the 8th Cavalry had been sent too far north, just 80 kilometers (50 miles) from China, where they stumbled into a closing enemy vise.

Higher headquarters rejected requests for a pullback, then refused to send artillery forward to support a rescue effort. Finally, it ordered the rescue force withdrawn.

Two of the 8th Cavalry’s three battalions managed to escape, with heavy losses. But only small bands from the five companies of the doomed 3rd Battalion made it out as waves of Chinese infantry attacked their 200-meter-wide (200-yard-wide) defense perimeter.

The 8th Cavalry’s abandonment at Unsan became an infamous chapter in Army annals — “one of the most shameful and little-known incidents in U.S. military history,” wrote Korean War historian Jack J. Gifford.

Some 600 of the 3rd Battalion’s 800 men were lost, about half believed killed and half captured, many of whom died in Chinese-run prison camps.

The U.S. and North Korea established the MIA search in 1996 after lengthy negotiations. Over nine years, working across North Korea, the joint teams recovered 229 sets of remains believed to be those of Americans, including 14 subsequently identified as 3rd Battalion men.

But an estimated 260 U.S. dead are still unaccounted for at Unsan, among almost 4,600 U.S. MIAs in North Korea, the Pentagon’s Defense POW/MIA Office says.

When then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld suspended the program in 2005, officials cited what they said were concerns about the security of American personnel working on the territory of a longtime U.S. adversary.

Richard Lawless, the former Pentagon official who recommended the move, defends it today, telling The Associated Press it was a “prudent decision” because the U.S. field teams “were potential high-value hostages as the North Korean nuclear crisis deepened.”

The MIA support groups rejected that rationale, saying they suspected President George W. Bush’s administration instead wanted to break the lone working link with North Korea and pressure Pyongyang in the nuclear showdown.

“This safety aspect from the Pentagon sounds like so much hogwash,” said former 3rd Battalion sergeant Robert J. Earl, 82, of Federal Way, Washington. Earl was not at Unsan, having been wounded earlier, and for years he has sought information on his 8th Cavalry mortar platoon, all of whom may have perished.

Stepping up their lobbying in Washington last year, the MIA families appear to have made headway with the new administration.

“I’m in touch with everyone there, and they all support restoring the program,” said Frank Metersky, 77, a Marine veteran of the war and longtime MIA campaigner.

Larry Greer, spokesman for the Defense POW/MIA Office, said officials are “evaluating” a possible resumption. Other administration officials have pointedly referred to the recovery program as a humanitarian mission unrelated to political considerations. But the recent furor over North Korea’s alleged torpedoing of a South Korean warship “has stopped everything in its tracks for now,” Metersky said.

Nevertheless, U.S. specialists sound ready.

“We are prepared to resume operations in (North Korea) and will request access to the Unsan area,” the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hawaii, home to the field teams, said in its latest annual report.

Its forensic experts, meanwhile, continue the laborious work of DNA identification of remains returned years ago, like those of Master Sgt. Roy Earl Head of the 7th Infantry Division, finally identified, brought home and buried June 5 in a family cemetery in Grit Hill, Virginia.

“It’s remarkable, after 59 years,” said brother David Head, 71, of Kingsport, Tennessee.

All his life he thought daily about Roy, he said. His mind turned sympathetically to others.

“There are still a lot more families out there who might not ever find out, or get the closure we will get,” Head said.

I know where Unsan is, but if there is anyone who can tell me specifically where US soldiers are believed to be buried, I would like to tag these locations on Google Earth.

Read the full story here:
Lost Korean War battalion awaits US MIA decision
Associated Press
Charles Hanley
7/19/2010

According to the Delmar Times:

San Diego neurosurgeon Dr. Kevin Yoo recently spent the first half-day of his medical mission to North Korea assembling a $20,000 surgical operative microscope that his travel partner donated to the Pyongyang University Hospital.

And both he and his fellow neurosurgeon Dr. Kee Park, who retired from private practice in Missouri several years ago to devote himself to humanitarian medical projects, demonstrated the effectiveness of the new scope in a series of operations they performed or assisted in during their three-day teaching visit to the North Korean capital in early June.

Yoo, 45, a Carmel Valley resident and father of three children, who was born in Seoul, South Korea, took time off from his busy practices in La Jolla, Poway and Temecula to join Park in a “special access” mission to the isolated communist state arranged with the help of the United Nations.

Park previously made similar trips to Ethiopia, Nepal and, on four occasions, to North Korea.

Yoo learned of Park’s humanitarian efforts at a meeting of Korean-American Spine Surgeons and volunteered to join Park, who lives in Indiana, on his fifth visit to North Korea last month.

“He didn’t think I would show up, but I did,” Yoo said.

They rendezvoused at the Inchon International Airport in South Korea and traveled together to North Korea via Beijing.

Yoo is a staff physician at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla specializing in head, neck and spine surgery.

Commenting on his visit to North Korea, Yoo said he was impressed with the knowledge, intelligence and skill of the North Korean surgeons. “But,” he said, “they just didn’t have the tools” that American surgeons often take for granted.

“The microscope was a tremendous addition to what they had,” Yoo said. “Dr. Park told me they had an old microscope that was broken down and he had a terrible headache using it because only one of the eyepieces worked and the visualization was pretty poor.”

Initially, Yoo was scheduled to assist in the operations, but, as it turned out, he did most of the work on two lumbar disc operations that the North Koreans were not used to performing “the way I did it.”

Given the tense political climate between Pyongyang and Washington these days, especially after the alleged North Korean torpedo attack and sinking of a South Korean warship in March, we asked if he and Park, as Americans, had experienced any animosity toward them.

“No,” Yoo said, “we were very well received. The gratitude they showed was always present, and I was told many times to come back.

“They were very grateful, and, obviously, very much in need of our help, very much in need of tools. It can be as simple as sterile gloves. They have them, but they have to recycle them. These guys would take the gloves, wash them, re-powder them, and use them again. And, for us, everything is disposable.

“I would just like to be able to share with them what we have,” he said.

He is hoping he may be able to convince Scripps to allow him to collect unused items from the operating room to donate to the hospital in Pyongyang on a return visit to North Korea being planned for next October.

“The need is great,” he said.

Yoo said he is not a political person. He is, however, interested in helping in “people-to-people” missions “that have a medical bent to them.”

Asked what gives him the greatest satisfaction in his work, he said: “Medicine is really tough these days. There are a lot of disappointments. Just to get paid for our services, we have to fight so much. So satisfaction is sometimes very difficult to obtain.

“But the thing that keeps us going on is good results and good patient outcome. But it’s so overshadowed by all the other things we have to deal with, regulations, not being paid … and fighting with the insurance companies.”

But, he said, he is beginning to enjoy the business aspects of his work.

“I don’t like fighting with insurance companies, but I do like the art of the business side of it, just practicing, surviving and making it work.

“The bottom line is, it really is a business. I put my practice on hold and spent several thousand dollars going to North Korea. I couldn’t do that if I wasn’t running a profitable practice.”

Read the full story here:
Neurosurgeon travels to N. Korea on medical mission
Del Mar Times
Arthur Lightbourn
7/8/2010

UPDATE: According to the State Department web page:

Philip J. Crowley
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Public Affairs
Washington, DC

Question Taken at the June 23, 2010 Daily Press Briefing
June 28, 2010

Question: Has a determination been made whether to put North Korea back on the list of State Sponsored Terrorism? Was the Cheonan incident a factor?

Answer: The standards for designating a country as a state sponsor and rescinding the designation are set out in the three separate statutes: Section 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act (22 USC 2371), Section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 USC 278), and Section 6(j) of the Export Administration Act (50 USC app 2405(j)). All three statutes provide for the Secretary of State the authority to designate countries the governments of which “repeatedly provide support for acts of international terrorism.” Therefore, the Secretary of State must determine that the government of North Korea has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism. The United States will follow the provisions of the law as the facts warrant, and if information exists which indicates that North Korea has repeatedly provided support for acts of terrorism, the Department will take immediate action. As a general matter, a state military attack on a military target would not be considered an act of international terrorism.

PRN: 2010/867

ORIGINAL POST: According to Daily Yomuri (Japan):

U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has decided not to relist North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, U.S. sources said Tuesday.

Since South Korea concluded last month that one of its patrol ships was sunk by North Korea in March, some U.S. lawmakers have stepped up calls to reinstate North Korea as a state sponsoring terrorism.

U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley also admitted government officials were considering putting North Korea back on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. But the administration refrained from doing so, as given the current circumstances, it was judged difficult to meet the conditions needed for relisting, the sources said. The administration also wants to avoid provoking Pyongyang to the extent it conducts a third nuclear test.

State sponsors of terrorism, as defined by the U.S. State Department, are “countries determined to have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.” To be considered for the list, it must be proved that the country in question had decisive influence on terrorist groups as they obtained funds, weapons, materials and secure areas for conducting operations.

U.S. officials examined North Korea’s suspected involvement in supplying weapons to radical Palestinian Islamic group Hamas, but had yet to obtain evidence necessary for relisting North Korea, the sources said.

Read the full sotry here:
U.S. spares N. Korea ‘terror sponsor’ status
Daily Yomuri
Keiichi Honma
6/24/2010