Reudiger frank has written a couple of related articles on political legitimacy in the DPRK. Here are links to both of them:
1. North Korea after Kim Jong Il: The Risks of Improvisation (38 North)
2. North Korea after Kim Jong Il: The Kim Jong Un era and its challenges (Japan Focus)
Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
2012-1-12
The adoption of Act No. 1194 by the Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK was recently confirmed. “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s Corporate Law” or the “Corporate Law” was reported to have passed more than a year ago in November 11, 2010.
The “Corporate Law” is evaluated as an important indication of the direction of the economic policy of North Korea since Kim Jong-un was appointed as the next successor at the Third Party Conference held on September 28, 2010.
The law consists of five chapters: 1) Basic Principles of the Corporation; 2) Organization of the Corporation; 3) Management Organization of the Corporation; 4) Business Management Activities of the Corporation; and 5) Projects of the Corporation.
The first article of this act “The Mission of the Corporate Law” states that the law was enacted to, “contribute to the development of the people’s economy and to secure the management system of the socialist corporations by establishing the system and order for the organization and management activities.”
The second article, “The Definition of Corporation” defines a corporation as an “economic unit that operates as an organization that directly handles the labor, facilities, equipment, materials, and finances for the production or volunteer activities.”
Article 9, “The Legal Rights and the Legal Protection Principles,” indicates that the “legal rights and interests of the corporations are protected by the government.” Article 10, however, specifically states that this particular law does not apply to the special trade zones and the foreign investment companies.
Article 18, “The Organization of the Corporation,” has a clause that states “the managing organization has the jurisdiction to close down corporations for unreasonable or lack of prospects that does not meet the standards and the demands of the national policy and reality.”
Article 21 depicts a manager as a “person representing the corporation and responsible for the entire business.” The manager, chief engineer, and assistant manager’s specific responsibilities were also explicated. The hierarchy was clearly indicated where the assistant manager was to report to the chief engineer and the manager while the chief engineer has to report to the manager.
Article 29 affirms that a business is to be managed based on established business and corporate strategies in which every year a draft of the people’s economy plan must be submitted to the appropriate authorities. The written economic plan must be followed on a daily, monthly, quarterly, and by index basis (Article 30).
Articles 31 to 37 include specifics on the improvements of production technology while Articles 38 to 43 include regulations to enhance the management system.
In particular, Article 42 stipulates that the corporation must promote sales based on supply plans and contracts. Those sales that do not follow the plan and the contract cannot be sold.”
Article 44 states, “The appropriate amount of labor is scientifically determined and managed based on the socialist distribution principles and a precise socialist wage system must be implemented.”
In other words, socialist principles will be applied to both the sales of merchandise and wage system. While the corporation will receive autonomy in many areas, clear regulations are provided for sales in addition to evaluation and incentive system for labor.
In recent years, North Korea has continuously passed economic laws for economic construction and enhancing the lives of the North Korean people. Such laws include the following: The Agricultural Law passed on November 3, 2009; Real Estate Management Law on November 11, 2009; the Country of Origin for Export Law on November 25, 2009; and Comprehensive Equipment Import Law on November 11, 2009.
According to the Korea Herald:
North Korea imported six times more mobile phones in 2010 than in 2009, a media report said Wednesday, indicating growing mobile penetration in the reclusive country.
North Korea bought 430,000 mobile phones from China in 2010, up from 68,000 phones the previous year, according to Washington-based Radio Free Asia (RFA). In 2010, the country spent US$35 million on importing mobile phones, seven times more than the $5 million outlay in 2009, the report said, citing recent data from the United Nations.
The number of mobile phone users in the communist country has grown rapidly in recent years, from about 90,000 at the end of 2009 to 430,000 a year later and more than 800,000 in the third quarter of last year, the report added, referring to data from Egypt’s Orascom Telecom.
Read the full story here:
N. Korean imports of mobile phones jumped 6 times from 2009-2010: RFA
Korea Herald
2012-1-11
According to ABC’s “The Drum“:
The Dandong Jinhua International Travel Service is just one of a handful of small companies organising tours out of Dandong, Liaoning Province, in the north-east of China.
Dandong, a city of almost 800,000 sits on the Chinese side of the historic Yalu River bridge – which was bombed by the United States at the start of the Korean War. By night, tourists stand on the foreshore taking snaps of the renovated brightly lit bridge that connects the two countries – and the total blackout that exists on the other side.
Staff at the travel company say usually they operate tours of about 60 people per day, or 30,000 per year. But during the Chinese National Holidays, which run for 10 days in October, almost 600 tourists returned in one day alone. The mass number of China travellers highlights how North Korea – known in the West as a reclusive nuclear-armed communist country – is still an attractive tourist destination for their neighbouring comrades.
Once in the reclusive country, there are heavy restrictions on what travellers can see and do.
Photos are limited to official tourist sites and the North Korean guides constantly put the hard word on anyone caught sneaking snaps out the bus or train windows. One the way out of North Korea at Sinuiju city, one Chinese tourist had ‘unsuitable’ photos deleted by the guards.
Tourists are also prohibited from straying too far from the group. On top of that the itinerary is tightly managed, meaning tourists only get to see a glimpse of what Pyongyang and a few other national hotspots have on offer.
Tours have also been met with some unexpected hiccups.
“On one winter trip the train had to stay overnight at the Sinuiju stop, with all the passengers on board. Everyone was so unhappy the North Korean guides gave them a Kim Il Sung pin”, says one tour organiser, adding that the national pins worn by all North Koreans are almost impossible for tourists to purchase.
Now trips are closed from November to January because there’s not enough electricity to run the trains.
…
Other travel groups also operate out of Dandong offering even more favourable prices than the Dandong Jinhua International Travel Service. Their four-day tour is 2,400 yuan ($370) and an additional 800 yuan to see the Mass Games – an enormous synchronised performing arts act, staged every summer in Pyongyang. It’s 4,800 yuan ($739) for foreigners, excluding Americans.
Read the full story here:
A North Korean holiday
ABC “The Drum”
Kitty Hamilton
2012-1-11
According to the Daily NK:
Since Kim Jong Eun arrived in public life, North Korea has been handing out preferential promotions to the children of high cadres in the Party and military to secure the loyalty of the elite to Kim Jong Eun by creating a shared sense of destiny.
According to a well-informed source in Seoul, the children of former senior cadres continue to emerge into top leadership positions while the children of current cadres arrive at the core of Party affairs.
Many of the most recently appointed Party secretaries and departmental vice directors are the sons and son-in-laws of former or current high officials.
For example, International Secretary Kim Young Il and Tae Jong Su, the General Affairs Secretary in the Department of Administration, are sons-in-law to former State Inspection Committee Chairman Jeon Moon Seob and former Deputy Prime Minister Jeong Il Ryong respectively. Also, Oh Il Jung, who was made Vice Director of the Chosun Workers’ Party at just 50 or so years of age, is the son of former Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces Vice Director Oh Jin Woo.
Elsewhere, Choi Yong Hae, the son of former Vice Director of the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces Choi Hyun, as well as being a Party secretary has also been made a military general and elevated to the Party Central Military Commission.
In the cabinet, Baek Yong Chun, who presides over Chosun Central Bank, is the son of former Foreign Minister Baek Nam Sun, and Trade Minister Lee Yong Nam is the nephew of People’s Safety Agency Vice Director Lee Myung Soo. Both have advanced to the Party Central Committee under the watchful eye of Kim Jong Eun. The brother of Kim Ok, Kim Jong Il’s fourth and final partner, has also been elevated on the younger Kim’s watch.
There are many more examples, the source said, going on, “The reason behind these high-speed promotions is that their parents or father-in-laws are in high positions,” before noting one more good example, “Lee Yong Ho’s father Lee Myung Jae was a close confidante of Kim Jong Il, having served as Vice Director of the Party’s Propaganda and Agitation and Guidance Departments, and in Kim’s secretarial office.”
◆ Current high speed promotions for relatives a dangerous game
However, while the close relationship between family history and promotion will serve these young leaders well, it could turn into a double-edged sword.
The source pointed out, “The special treatment these children get is not because their performance or skills are better than anyone else but because their high official parents have or had special relationships with Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. In recent years, this tendency to ‘pass down’ has expanded due to Kim Jong Eun’s succession using it as a way to ensure loyalty by tying them together as a ‘group sharing a common destiny’.”
However, he commented, “Forming these special privilege groups will increase the complaints from the people and of course from other officials, and in the end weaken the cohesiveness of the entire system.”
The Korea Times also reports some similar information:
North Korea has handed out decent jobs to children of former and current North Korean elite in what could be an attempt to help ensure the dynastic power succession goes smoothly, a source familiar with the isolated country said Tuesday.
Jang Yong-chol, a nephew of Jang Song-thaek, became North Korea’s ambassador to Malaysia in 2010 before fully serving out his term as Pyongyang’s top envoy to Nepal, the source said.
Jang Song-thaek, a four-star general and brother-in-law of late leader Kim Jong-il, has long been considered a key official in helping Kim’s son, Kim Jong-un, consolidate power.
Kim Jong-un has recently become the supreme commander of the country’s 1.1 million-strong military as part of his moves to strengthen his power base following his father’s sudden death last month.
Top North Korean officials repeatedly swore their loyalty to the young leader, calling him “the brilliant commander” and “another peerless patriot.”
Children of Workers’ Party secretary Kim Yong-il and Vice Premier Kang Sok-ju, a veteran negotiator and key foreign policy advisor to the late leader, have been dispatched to North Korea’s overseas diplomatic missions, the source said.
Meanwhile, Ri Son-il, son of Ri Yong-ho, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army, and Cha Dong-sup, son-in-law of the People’s Armed Forces Minister Kim Yong-chun, are engaged in works to either earn foreign currency or attract foreign investment, the source said.
The nepotism appears to be the North’s attempt to secure the loyalty of the elite to make sure the third-generation power transition goes smoothly, the source said.
The late leader also assumed power in 1994 when his father, the North’s founding leader Kim Il-sung, died of heart failure at the age of 82. (Yonhap)
Read the full stories here:
Nepotism Running Riot in Kim’s NK
Daily NK
Kim Yong-hun
2012-1-11
Children of NK officials receive job favors
Korea Times
2012-1-11
According to Yonhap:
South Korea has set aside more than 540 billion won (US$465 million) for humanitarian aid for North Korea this year, the Unification Ministry said Wednesday.
Most of the budget is earmarked for the South Korean government’s possible rice and fertilizer aid to its impoverished northern neighbor. It is also designed to provide aid to the North in case of natural disasters, according to the ministry, which handled inter-Korean affairs.
Read the full story here:
S. Korea sets aside more than 540 bln won for humanitarian aid for N. Korea
Yonhap
2012-1-11
UPDATE 3 (2012-2-9): ICNK reports that the amnesty was put into motion before Kim Jong-il’s death:
On January 10, KCNA announced a prisoner amnesty be conducted in February. Within North Korea, the move is being propagandized as a sign of the benevolence of their new leader, Kim Jong Un, in a bid to popularize him, bolstering his position as his father’s replacement.
However, the amnesty was clearly being planned long before Kim’s succession, originally to commemorate the 100th birthday of Kim Il Sung, the 70th birthday of Kim Jong Il and to mark 2012 as the year of the “Strong and Prosperous State”.
The amnesty is also seen as an attempt to pacify discontent citizens within the North, temporarily placating the population while also alleviating international pressure on the regime for its human rights abuses. The amnesty will also benefit authorities in that it will ease some of the burden on the camps’ overpopulation and food supply.
In early February, an ORNK source from Hyesan, Yangkang Province said, “Some elites and upper class people laugh at this amnesty, saying that since the authorities will not be able to meet the promise to make a ‘Strong and Prosperous State’, they did it instead of achieving the strong state so as to cover up their failure.” Meanwhile, others have claimed that, “They carried it out only because they didn’t have any space in prisons, but the authorities try to show off their benevolent policies.”
…
Previous amnesties have been held in 2002, 2005 and 2010 to celebrate Kim Il Sung’s birthday and anniversaries of the establishment of the Workers’ Party. In 2005, North Korean authorities said “The amnesty is to realize the generosity and magnanimity of our Party, which establishes the will and achievements of Suryeong (Kim Il Sung) and brightens the 60th liberation of the country and founding day of the Chosun Worker’s Party.”
UPDATE 2 (2012-2-7): As of today there has been no further information released about the amnesty–either in terms of numbers released, the crimes they are alleged to have committed, or the areas from which they originate or were incarcerated, or the type of facilities in which they were held.
UPDATE 1 (2012-1-11): Accordign to Xinhua, the pardons will be the first in more than six years.
ORIGINAL POST (2012-1-10): According to KCNA (2012-1-10):
Pyongyang, January 10 (KCNA) — The DPRK will apply amnesty to convicts from February 1 on the occasion of the centenary of birth of President Kim Il Sung and the 70th birth anniversary of leader Kim Jong Il, according to a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK on Jan. 5.
The Cabinet and relevant organs will take working measures for those to be released thanks to the amnesty to work and live under stable conditions.
It is the steadfast will of the Workers’ Party of Korea and state to embody generation after generation the noble benevolent and all-embracing politics of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il who energetically worked till the last moments of their great lives, undergoing all sufferings for the people’s happiness throughout them, always finding themselves among them, the decree said.
This story was also covered by the Daily NK, and the BBC.
This may not be Kim Jong-un’s first amnesty. The Daily NK reports that a number of criminals judged to have committed their crimes due to poverty were granted an amnesty in commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the Workers’ Party founding in September 2010.
According to Choson Exchange:
[The] Choson Ilbo has just reported that Ri Chol has left his post as head of the Joint Venture and Investment Committee (JVIC).
As we argued last fall, the name of the game for Pyongyang’s elites is securing trade and investment deals. Two main investment organs exist, the JVIC and the Daepung Investment Group. We have in the past heard rumors of other similar international investment organizations being under consideration, also. From these overarching groups, down to smaller State Owned Enterprises, there is considerable competition to show that one’s organization can deliver.
Ri Chol was a close ally of Kim Jong Il’s and the organization he came to be associated with, JVIC, rose to prominence after he helped put together the Orascom deal and was given stewardship. He was even with Kim on his last official visit, to a joint venture supermarket in Pyongyang.
He also spent most of the 1980’s and 1990’s in Switzerland in various diplomatic capacities, not the least of which was acting as a minder to Kim Jong Il’s children as they studied at private school.
What might his departure portend?
A few possibilities come to mind.
– Has the JVIC fallen out of favor with the new leadership? If this is the case, Ri might be tasked with building a new organization, perhaps with a similar focus. It would seem redundant to add another, rather than reform this one, but redundancy is hardly unheard of in planned economies.
– Has Ri himself fallen out of favor? Is he being put out to pasture? Again, it is impossible to know, but it seems that such a long term friend of the Kims, who has a personal relationship with Kim Jong Un from his school days would be a key ally at this time, especially since his deals are driving economic growth in North Korea. (Though who knows? Perhaps Kim the Younger has never liked him.)
– If not an issue with Ri personally, the move could be a part of a factional reshuffling. Bartering and dealmaking for control of the commanding heights of the economy is no doubt underway as the new government consolidates its power. It might have been deemed necessary to grant control of the JVIC to another group of Pyongyang movers and shakers – of which Ri Chol is not a part.
– Also very possible is that the very top leadership is planning to give Ri some new responsibility elsewhere. JVIC may have been judged to be running smoothly enough that Ri’s skills would be more effectively used another important organization.
This of course is highly speculative. All we really know is that Ri Chol, with a track record of securing investment, has left the JVIC. Whatever the case may be, he is worth watching in the coming months, as Pyongyang is compelled to keep investments from China and elsewhere coming.
You can read a longer bio on NK Leadership Watch.
According to the AFP:
North Korea will compete in at least seven events at this year’s summer Olympics in London including women’s football, the country’s state news agency said on Monday.
The North will also be represented in weightlifting, the marathon, wrestling, table tennis, archery and shooting, it said.
Kang Sung-Hui, a vice department director at the sports ministry, told the agency that qualification for other sports would continue until May and the North could also send contestants in sports such as boxing, judo and diving.
At the Beijing Olympics in 2008 the North won two gold, one silver and three bronze medals to finish in 34th place overall.
The North has competed in eight summer Games and won 41 medals including 10 golds.
Here is the coverage in KCNA:
Pyongyang, January 9 (KCNA) — The DPRK is now qualified to participate in seven events of the 30th Olympic Games.
The DPRK women’s football team proved successful in the Asian regional finals in last September with three wins and two draws in five matches, winning a ticket for the Olympic Games.
Sixteen players (six men and ten women) will compete in weightlifting, marathon, wrestling, table tennis, archery and shooting.
Kang Sung Hui, a vice department director of the Ministry of Physical Culture and Sports, told KCNA that the selection of players will continue till May this year, adding that more players are likely to be qualified for the Olympic Games in such events as boxing, judo and diving.
The DPRK bagged two gold, one silver and three bronze medals in the 29th Olympic Games in 2008.
Here are previous posts on the DPRK’s last olympics showing:
1. IOC aids DPRK athletes to attend Olympics (2010-3-6)
2. DPRK 2008 Olympics round-up (2008-8-21)
3. China Hongxing sponsors 2008 DPRK Olympic team (2007-7-25)
4. 2 DPRK olympians test positive for doping (2008-8-15)
5. Beijing Olympics make life harder for North Korean merchants (2008-7-26)
Read the full story here:
N. Korea eyes seven events at London Olympics
AFP
2012-1-9
NOTE: I have not seen this report yet, so I cannot directly comment. If you see a copy, please send it to me.
Here is the story in the Daily NK:
If 1995 represented a baseline level of 100 for the North Korean economy, then by 2009 it had declined to 86.5 following sharp reductions in inter-Korean aid over the preceding year, according to newly released economic analysis.
The analysis, ‘Research into the State of Inter-Korean Change Seen through Statistics,’ was produced by the Sejong Institute pursuant to a request from Statistics Korea, the South Korean state statistics body.
The report incorporated ten different statistical variables, including North Korea’s estimated food and electricity production, trade and finance volumes and levels of international aid.
During the March of Tribulation, the mid-1990s famine that killed hundreds of thousands of North Koreans, the economy declined to a nadir of 70.3 (in 1998), according to the report’s findings; conversely, at the very peak of ‘Sunshine Policy’ aid deliveries in 2007, it reached a level of 104.7.
Elsewhere, North Korea’s food production had risen to 119 by 2009, while coal and electricity production had reached 107.6 and 102.2 respectively, it also reports. Conversely, steel production declined to 81.8, marine production to 63, and oil imports to 47.1.
Analyzing the situation, it goes on, “Steel and electricity production, the core of the North Korean command economy, did not change much so they could not have much of an effect. The decline of industrial facilities is serious, and due to this worn out equipment mineral production is slumping and there is never enough electrical power for smelting.”
The report notes pessimistically that current difficulties are set to continue, adding that even if North Korea embarked on root and branch reform tomorrow, in many cases it would already be too late for recovery without massive and sustained investment.
“In a society like North Korea where politics dominates everything else and the biggest impediments to state development, dictatorship and the 3rd generation succession, normal economic development is impossible,” it concludes.
The Donga Ilbo also reported on the study:
North Korea`s economic prowess has deteriorated due to stalled inter-Korean relations since peaking in 2007 due to expanded aid from South Korea and trade with China, a report released Monday in Seoul said.
The North`s economic ability peaked to 104.7 in 2007, up from the benchmark score of 100 in 1995, but plunged afterward to as low as 86.5 in 2009, the Sejong Institute said in the report prepared at the request of Statistics Korea. The Stalinist country`s economic prowess was based on 10 indicators including steel and electricity production, trade volume, state budget and the value of the South’s assistance to the North.
The North Korean economy began to deteriorate from the mid-1990s, when millions of people starved to death due to famine, and the economic ability figure fell to as low as 70.3 in 1998. It rose again, however, and reached 104.7 in 2007.
South Korean assistance to the North surged to raise the indicator to a high of 236.9 in 2007, a huge leap from the baseline score of 100 in 1995. The communist country`s trade volume also jumped 43.4 percent due to the expansion of trade with China.
The North`s economy began to shrink from 2008, when the South halted aid. Notably, the indicator fell to as low as 86.5 in 2009 to tie the record-low set in 2000. Due to deterioration of inter-Korean relations, the volume of South Korean government assistance to the North tumbled over the period to 36.2 in 2009, down 84.7 percent from that in 2007.
A decline in external trade except with China due to tougher international sanctions against Pyongyang also hastened the deterioration of the North Korean economy. Due to the participation by Singapore, one of the North`s top five trading partners, in the sanctions, the combined volume of the North`s trade fell about 10.7 percent, resulting in the indicator falling from 186.3 in 2008 to 166.3 in 2009.
The think tank said,“Considering that production of steel and electricity, the cornerstone of the centrally planned North Korean economy, remained largely unchanged, the recent deterioration of the North Korean economy stems from reduction of South Korean aid and contraction of the North`s overall trade volume.”
Here is a link to the Statistics Korea page on North Korea.
Read the full stories here:
NK Economy Lagging Heavy in 2009
Daily NK
Cho Jong Ik
2012-01-09
N.Korean economy plunges after hitting high in 2007: report
Donga Ilbo
2012-1-9
