Archive for June, 2014

Chinese investment in the DPRK

Friday, June 13th, 2014

Stephan Haggard posted some interesting information on Chinese investment in the DPRK. See his posts here and here.

In this graph, Dr. Haggard breaks down the Chinese investment data by year and industry:

registered-investments-in-China-by-industry

It is worth noting that the graph only sums the number of registered projects, not the value of the investments. Based on satellite imagery and trade data, I think we can make a strong case that the mining sector would be the area receiving the largest infusion of Chinese investment inflows.

Dr. Haggard also shows that most Chinese investment flows into the DPRK originate from the provinces along its border:

china-investment-in-dprk-by-province

In a second post, Dr. Haggard offers a graph of cumulative direct investment from China:

 China-FDI-in-NK-stock-and-flow

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North Korea encourages completion of large-scale projects to coincide with 2015 Party Foundation Day

Thursday, June 12th, 2014

Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
2014-6-12

North Korea is attempting to complete the construction of a large scale stockbreeding base and a power plant as symbols of “self-rehabilitation” by October 10, 2015 to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Worker’s Party of Korea (WPK). Adorned with these economic achievements, next year’s Party Foundation Day will seek to inspire confidence in the North Korean people and strengthen the foundation of the Kim Jong Un regime.

The Choson Sinbo, a news affiliate of the pro-North Korean General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, published an article on June 2, 2014 which introduces the Sepho County area of Kangwon Province and the current situation of construction at the stockbreeding complex, reporting that “all construction is planned to be completed by next year’s Party Foundation Day.” Sepho Tableland Construction Company, which began construction of the Sepho County stockbreeding complex toward the end of 2012, is a national company propagandized by Kim Jong Un as the “Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature.”

The construction of the North Pyongan Chongchon River Power Plant, another one of North Korea’s large scale projects, began in January 2013 and is also projected to be finished by next year’s anniversary. Secretary of the Worker’s Party of Korea Kim Ki Nam was quoted at an April 10, 2014 Pyongyang mass rally, saying, “We must magnificently complete the Chongchon River Power Plant and Sepho County Stockbreeding Base by the Party’s 70th anniversary as a proud gift to our motherland.”

The Chongchon River Power Plant and the Sepho Tableland have been chosen as the two main tasks to be completed in celebration of next year’s anniversary of the foundation of the WPK. The news outlet of the Worker’s Party, the Rodong Sinmun, pointed out in a May 11, 2014 article that the Chongchon River Power Plant will help alleviate the nation’s electricity shortage and stand as a symbol for the nation’s “self-rehabilitation spirit.”

In the past, North Korea has revealed new buildings and symbolic structures before and after major anniversaries in order to brighten the public mood; however, the Kim Jong Un regime’s decision to undertake two large-scale construction projects and finish them both by the anniversary date is worthy of attention.

North Korea is expected to raise their agricultural production goals based on the successful completion of the Sepho Tableland and Chongchon River Power Plant. In his letter to the National Conference of Agricultural Subworkteam Leaders in February 2014, Kim Jong Un stated, “From the year 2015, when we will greet the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea, [the agricultural sector] must hit higher grain production targets.”

Coinciding with the projected agricultural increase, the Choson Sinbo reported that production of livestock will also increase with the completion of the Sepho Tableland: “Annual meat production is expected to increase in stages, from five thousand tons in 2017 to ten thousand tons annually by the year 2020.” Provided that these two large-scale projects can be completed according to plan and produce successful results, it is expected that Kim Jong Un’s position within the Party will be strengthened considerably.

As much as the Sepho Tableland and Chongchon River Power Plant give confidence to the North Korean people that their food shortage problem is being solved, it is also assumed that Kim Jong Un will use the success of these projects in order to begin a legacy of his own “achievements.”

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Some western tourism numbers

Thursday, June 12th, 2014

According to Reuters:

While the country does not publish tourist numbers, travel agencies estimate as many as 6,000 Westerners visit the country every year, compared to just 700 a decade ago. Most are adventure-seekers curious about life behind the last slither of the iron curtain, and ignore critics who say their dollars are propping up a repressive regime.

Beijing-based Koryo Tours, one of the biggest operators sending Westerners into North Korea, has seen a tenfold rise in business in the past decade, peaking at about 2,100 visitors in 2012, according to Simon Cockerell, its general manager.

Around a quarter of those, Cockerell said, were American.

Troy Collings of Young Pioneer Tours, another China-based foreign travel agency specialising in trips to North Korea, says his company is seeing business double annually, and had nearly 1,000 clients in the past year.

Read the full story here:
Isolated North Korea a visitor draw, but sometimes literally a tourist trap
Reuters
James Pearson
2014-6-11

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Data on Kaesong’s cumulative performance

Thursday, June 12th, 2014

According to Yonhap:

Cumulative production of the inter-Korean industrial park has come to US$2.3 billion as the most salient outcome of rapprochement between the Koreas marks its 10th anniversary of operations this week, the unification ministry said Thursday.

The joint factory complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong opened a decade ago following the first inter-Korean summit meeting in 2000, in which their leaders adopted a joint declaration calling for closer cooperation and exchanges.

On June 14, 2004, a group of 15 South Korean groups signed contracts to operate factories in the then-newly built complex, inaugurating the era of the Kaesong Industrial Complex. In December that year, the joint complex saw its first batch of goods produced in its factories.

In the first full year of operations in 2005, annual output reached $14.9 million before jumping by more than 30-fold to $469.5 million in 2012, according to the unification ministry.

But yearly output nearly halved last year from 2012 after Pyongyang suspended operations of the Kaesong complex for five months from April amid inter-Korean tensions. The figure rose to $168.1 million in the first quarter of this year.

The value of inter-Korean trade through the park came to an accumulated $9.45 billion, according to the ministry.

A total of 940,000 people have visited the inter-Korean economic zone, with 125 South Korean firms currently operating in the complex designed to match deep-pocketed South Korean companies with cheap North Korean labor.

Among the firms, 73, or 58.4 percent, are textile firms, while another 24 firms are machinery or steel makers. The complex is also home to 13 electronics makers and 9 chemicals firms, the ministry noted.

The Kaesong complex also saw the number of North Korean workers grow from around 6,000 in 2005 to 52,000 as of recently, along with monthly salary more than doubling from $50 to more than $130.

Although this story reports salaries of $130, a separate story released just a couple of days ago claims the monthly incomes are just $70. I am not sure why the discrepancy.

Read the full story here:
Cumulative output of Kaesong park reaches US$2.3 bln
Yonhap
2014-6-12

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German firm to set up in Kaesong Zone

Tuesday, June 10th, 2014

According to the Wall Street Journal:

A German industrial needle maker will open an office in the joint inter-Korean industrial complex inside North Korea, South Korea said Tuesday.

The move will mark the first non-Korean business entity inside the plant but falls short of Seoul’s goal to bring in manufacturing operations from foreign companies to help ensure North Korea doesn’t unilaterally close the complex again.

The plant was shuttered for five months last year after Pyongyang withdrew its labor force during a sharp escalation in threatening rhetoric. Seoul officials in recent years have mulled over the possibility of attracting foreign companies, which they say would help the factories run without interruption.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said Groz-Beckert, a maker of industrial needles and other tools for textile manufacturers, will open a sales office inside the facility, located a few miles north of the border. The ministry didn’t specify a schedule.

Here is coverage in AFP.

Here is coverage in Voice of America.

Read the full story here:
German Firm to Open Sales Office Inside North Korean Complex
Wall Street Journal
Jeyup S. Kwaak
2014-6-10

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Jeffrey Edward Fowle and Matthew Miller [UPDATED]

Tuesday, June 10th, 2014

UPDATE 15 (2014-11-16): Clapper details his trip to the DPRK (Washington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic).

UPDATE 14 (2014-11-12): Fowle speaks to the press about his time in North Korea and his release. Voice of America.

UPDATE 13 (2014-11-9): 38 North has more on Clapper’s mission here.

UPDATE 12 (2014-11-8): Matthew Miller and Kenneth Bae have been released! According to the New York Times:

North Korea released two Americans who had been accused of trying to subvert the secretive state, after the director of national intelligence for the United States flew to the country on a secret mission and left on Saturday with the men aboard his aircraft.

The plane carrying the Americans — Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller — and the national intelligence director, James R. Clapper Jr., landed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, Wash., about 9:15 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday.

Mr. Bae walked off the plane and into the embrace of relatives on the tarmac. Mr. Miller, his head shaved, sprinted down the steps into the arms of his parents, who were waiting for him at the bottom.

Securing the releases was an unusual role for Mr. Clapper, the nation’s most senior intelligence official, whose job is to coordinate policy and operations among the nation’s 16 spy agencies. Gruff, blunt-speaking and seen by many in the Obama administration as a throwback to the Cold War, the retired general is an unlikely diplomat but, in the words of one American official, “perfect for the North Koreans.”

Mr. Miller, 25, entered North Korea seven months ago and reportedly tore up his visa, and by some accounts sought asylum. He was charged with unruly behavior, and North Korean officials suspected he was trying to get inside one of the country’s feared prison camps, to write about it later.

Together with the release last month of Jeffrey E. Fowle, who had been held for six months, the decision to let the two Americans go is the latest evidence that Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s unpredictable and untested young leader, is trying his first approaches to the Obama administration since taking power. Officials would not say whether Mr. Clapper traveled with a letter from President Obama — which would be a usual approach — but a senior administration official said he “was there to listen,” and to “reiterate our views.”

Mr. Obama said Saturday that “we’re very grateful for their safe return,” and praised Mr. Clapper for successfully completing what he called “a challenging mission.”

The administration issued almost no details of the trip to North Korea, saying communications from Pyongyang were so scant that they did not immediately know what had taken place in the discussion.

Mr. Miller, of Bakersfield, Calif., had seemed a bit lost in the interviews he had been allowed to conduct for American television from the North. He went through a brief trial this fall; photos released by the North showed him with eyes downcast, and flanked by uniformed security officials.

He was accused of entering North Korea with the “ambition” to deliberately violate North Korean law so he could experience life in a North Korean prison and become a first hand witness about the human rights conditions in the North, The Associated Press and The Choson Sinbo, a South Korean paper, reported at the time of the trial.

Here is coverage in the Wall Street Journal.

UPDATE 11 (2014-9-25): Matthew Miller reports on prison life.

UPDATE 10 (2014-9-19): Jeffrey Fowle has been removed from his job at the city of Moraine, Indiana. Sounds like he got a severance package and the ability to be reinstated. Read more here.

UPDATE 9 (2014-9-14): Miller has been sentenced:

nkf0sulfMy0

Read more at the BBC and Associated Press. Here is the AP’s video.

Here is the report in KCNA:

U.S. Citizen Tried in DPRK

Pyongyang, September 14 (KCNA) — A trial of U.S. citizen Miller Matthew Todd was held at the Supreme Court of the DPRK on Sunday.

He committed acts hostile to the DPRK while entering the territory of the DPRK under the guise of a tourist in last April.

The court sentenced him to six years of hard labor.

Several days later, on September 20, KCNA published this longer piece on Miller:

KCNA Releases Detailed Report on Truth about Crime of American

Pyongyang, September 20 (KCNA) — The Korean Central News Agency released the following detailed report on Saturday:

Recently another American was arrested and tried for committing criminal acts against the DPRK.

A due legal judgment was passed on the American for his crime committed as part of the U.S. anti-DPRK human rights campaign and he admitted his crime and accepted the judgment.

However, officials of the present U.S. administration responsible for his crime took issue with the just legal action taken by the DPRK like a guilty party filing the suit first. They raised unreasonable “human rights issues” in a foolish attempt to cover up the crimes perpetrated by Americans.

Upon the authorization, the KCNA discloses the truth behind the crimes committed by American Miller Matthew Todd.

He was sentenced to six years of hard labor at a trial held on September 14. He entered the DPRK as a tourist on April 10, 2014 and rudely behaved, tearing off his tourist visa when he was going through formalities for entry at Pyongyang Airport. So, he was put in custody by a relevant organ.

The results of the investigation made it clear that he did so not because of simple lack of understanding and psychopathology but deliberately perpetrated such criminal act for the purpose of directly going to prison after being intentionally reprimanded by a legal organ of the DPRK, pursuant to the present U.S. administration’s anti-DPRK campaign, spying on “human rights” performance and making it known to the world.

On the basis of this investigation the DPRK Supreme Public Prosecutors Office issued warrant of arrest for Miller Matthew Todd and accused him of criminal responsibility according to Article 64 of the Criminal Law of the DPRK and put him in custody.

According to the preliminary examination, Miller Matthew Todd left a university halfway and remained jobless in Yongdungpho District, Seoul City of south Korea. There he had inveterate hostility towards the DPRK while systematically listening broadcasting programs and reading publications of the U.S. and south Korea slandering the DPRK.

He believed that people in the DPRK have neither freedom nor human rights and if they disobey the government they would be subject to a miserable prison life. So, he had a foolish idea of spying on prison and human rights situation while experiencing “prison life” after intentionally committing crimes in violation of the law in the DPRK.

He tried to find a way for entering the DPRK. It was his calculation that when he kicked up a fuss tearing off tourist visa while going through formalities for entry as a tourist he would be arrested by a relevant organ and taken to “prison”. So, he applied for tour through a travel agency in the U.S.

Prompted by the intention to refurnish his image before finding his way to “prison” he had prepared a memo book in advance. It contained the following sentences: “I seek a political asylum. I am seeking refuge after failing in my attempt to collect information about the U.S. Government. I am planning to open to public information like Snowden.”

He, at the same time, prepared iPad and iPod he claimed containing important information about the military bases of the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces in south Korea which he gathered by having access to internet and papers containing invectives against the north let loose by defectors from the north he obtained by visiting them.

According to the already worked out scenario, he tore off his tourist visa while going through formalities for entry and insisted that he came in pursuit of “refuge” and he sought “political asylum”.

He confessed during the preliminary examination that he tried to meet American Kenneth Bae who had been sentenced to hard labor if he succeeded in going to “prison” and have negotiations for Bae’s “release” and become “witnesses” together with Bae disclosing the “human rights” situation in the DPRK after leaving prison.

As proved by his confession, the crime committed by Miller Matthew Todd was prompted by his sinister political aim to deliberately slander the DPRK in the light of his aim, preparations and implementation of his plan.

He perpetrated the above-said acts in the hope of becoming a “world famous guy” and the “second Snowden” through intentional hooliganism. This is an intolerable insult and mockery of the DPRK and he, therefore, deserved a punishment.

What mattered was that his crime timed to coincide with the reckless remarks made by officials of the present U.S. administration including Secretary of State Kerry terming the dignified DPRK a “country of evil” over its rocket firing and elections to power bodies in March and April this year, and the smear campaign over its “human rights issue.”

What he committed was espionage coming under Article 64 of the Criminal Law of the DPRK.

This case of the American helps the army and people of the DPRK recollect what miserable end American spies met after being arrested before infiltrating into the prisoners’ camp where a lot of American POWs including Dean, commander of the 24th Division of the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces, were in custody, for the purpose of spying on it during the last Fatherland Liberation War.

Much water flowed under the bridge and old generation was replaced by a new one but the shameful tradition of the U.S. in which it was hit hard and sustained heavy setbacks by the DPRK historically and the latter’s proud tradition in which it meted out a stern judgment to the former, the kingpin of plot-breeding, are given steady continuity and these law-governed two traditions will last forever.

The Supreme Public Prosecutors Office of the DPRK brought the Supreme Court an indictment against the American as the truth about the crime committed by the accused was confirmed by his statement and evidence.

The Supreme Court of the DPRK held a trial of him on Sept. 14.

There was no pleading by the counsel as the accused rejected it and the trial was held in camera according to his request.

At the trial he admitted that he committed the crimes, prompted by his political motive to personally spy on the “human rights” situation in the DPRK and disclose it in a bid to isolate and stifle the DPRK’s system.

The Supreme Court of the DPRK sentenced Miller Matthew Todd to six years of hard labor according to Article 64 of the criminal law.

The army and people of the DPRK are now watching with vigilance the forces behind the scene as Miller’s crime was committed in pursuance of the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK and strongly calling for ferreting out all those who dare provoke the dignified DPRK and meting out a merciless punishment to them, no matter who they are and where they are.

The disgusting U.S. which is behaving in the international human rights arena as if it were an inborn “judge” and those who are acting like tiger moths, talking about “human rights” pursuant to its line will not be able to escape a judgment by the era and history and the present U.S. administration clinging to the evil repugnancy toward the DPRK and its inveterate hostile policy toward the latter will not be able to evade the responsibility for the recent case of the American.

UPDATE 8 (2014-9-1): CNN was given an interview with the three detained Americans, Mr. Fowle, Mr. Miller, and Mr. Bae. Here is coverage in Reuters.

You can see the video of Mr. Miller’s interview here.

You can see the video of Mr. Fowle here.

UPDATE 7 (2014-8-2): Fowle and Miller interviewed:

Eric Talmadge writes in the AP:

In their first appearance since being detained more than three months ago, Matthew Todd Miller and Jeffrey Edward Fowle told a local AP Television News crew that they were in good health and were being treated well. They also said they were allowed to take daily walks. The brief meeting was conducted under the condition that the specific location not be disclosed.

Fowle said he fears his situation will get much worse once he goes on trial.

“The horizon for me is pretty dark,” he said. “I don’t know what the worst-case scenario would be, but I need help to extricate myself from this situation. I ask the government for help in that regards.”

It was not clear whether they were speaking on their own initiative, or if their comments were coerced. The TV crew was permitted to ask them questions.

North Korea says the two committed hostile acts which violated their status as tourists. It has announced that authorities are preparing to bring them before a court, but has not yet specified what they did that was considered hostile or illegal, or what kind of punishment they might face. The date of the trial has not been announced.

Ri Tong II, a North Korean diplomat, declined to answer questions about the Americans at a news conference Friday at the United Nations. But when pressed in a follow-up question he said their cases were “legal issues” and they had “violated our law.”

Fowle arrived in North Korea on April 29. He is suspected of leaving a Bible in a nightclub in the northern port city of Chongjin, but a spokesman for Fowle’s family said the 56-year-old from Miamisburg, Ohio, was not on a mission for his church. Fowle works in a city streets department. He has a wife and three children, ages 9, 10, and 12.

“The window is closing on that process. It will be coming relatively soon, maybe within a month,” Fowle said of his trial. “I’m anxious to get home, I’m sure all of us are.”

Fowle also produced a letter he said he had written summarizing his experience in North Korea.

The attorney for Fowle’s family said Friday his wife hadn’t seen the video, but had read news reports about his comments.

“I can tell you that she is very upset, as you can imagine,” said attorney Timothy Tepe. He said he and the family were still gathering information and likely would have a statement on Monday.

Less is known about Miller, or about what specific crime he allegedly committed.

North Korea’s state-run media have said the 24-year-old entered the country April 10 with a tourist visa, but tore it up at the airport and shouted that he wanted to seek asylum. A large number of Western tourists visited Pyongyang in April to run in the annual Pyongyang Marathon or attend related events. Miller came at that time, but tour organizers say he was not planning to join the marathon.

“I expect soon I will be going to trial for my crime and be sent to prison,” Miller said. “I have been requesting help from the American government, but have received no reply.”

James Pearson writes in Reuters:

American tourist Jeffrey Fowle was arrested by North Korean authorities for leaving a bible under a bin in the toilet at a club for foreign sailors, a source familiar with Fowle’s case told Reuters.

During his ten day trip to North Korea, Fowle’s fellow travellers described the middle-aged street repairs worker from Miamisburg, Ohio as a warm, amiable, quiet man.

On May 4, towards the end of an evening spent eating and drinking in Chongjin, a large industrial city on North Korea’s east coast, Fowle’s action led to him being thrown in jail, where he is awaiting trial in one of the world’s most inhospitable countries.

He left a bilingual English-Korean bible in the restaurant he and his fellow travellers were about to leave, the source, who wished to remain anonymous because of the sensitivities surrounding the case, told Reuters.

In it, Fowle had written his name and phone number, and inserted photos of himself and his family between its pages.

He was arrested three days later at the airport where he was due to board a flight out of North Korea.

Fowle and fellow detained U.S. tourist Matthew Miller – who was arrested in April for a separate incident – said they will face trial soon and have called on the U.S. government to help secure their release in an interview to the Associated Press, released on Friday.

A hand-written letter from Fowle shown in the interview confirmed he was arrested for intentionally leaving a bible in the northern city of Chongjin.

It is unclear why Fowle left the bible, the source familiar with Fowle’s case said. Media reports in Ohio said the 56-year-old is a church goer and was once a member of his school’s bible club – but there is little evidence to suggest he was a missionary.

The source familiar with Fowle’s arrest also said he did not seem overtly religious.

Yet, at the Chongjin Seamen’s Club – a faded compound originally designed as a hostel for visiting mariners that sells foreign whiskeys and serves local food – Fowle wrapped a bilingual English-Korean bible bound in fake leather in a Chinese newspaper and hid it the restroom, under a bin designed to discard the used toilet paper North Korea’s ageing plumbing can’t handle.

A cleaner found the package, and alerted local authorities.

When his guides asked if anyone had left anything at the club – a small cluster with shops, a sauna and noodle restaurants also open to locals with the cash to spend on cheap drinks – he said it was him, and that he “must’ve dropped it.”

Fowle said at the time the bible had “fallen out of his pocket” when using the squat toilet, but the bible was too big to be pocket-sized, the source said.

While North Korea technically espouses freedom of religion it is ranked as one of the world’s most oppressive regimes in terms of such freedom. Pyongyang has dismissed recent reports on its oppression of religion as an attempt by the United States to “tarnish the image” of the isolated country.

Two months before Fowle visited North Korea, Australian missionary John Short had been arrested for leaving bible tracts at areas open to tourists in the isolated country. Short, 75, was released on account of his advanced age after state media released a written apology.

Fowle appeared in an Associated Press video on Friday alongside Miller, who was arrested for ripping up his tourist visa and attempting to claim political asylum, according to state media.

North Korea has three U.S. citizens in custody, including Kenneth Bae, a missionary of Korean descent who was arrested in November 2012 and convicted and sentenced to 15 years hard labour last year.

FOWLE’S ARREST

Chongjin is one of the most sensitive cities open to tourists visiting North Korea. The scene for much of journalist Barbara Demmick’s ‘Nothing to Envy’ book, based on a collection of interviews, it is the very epitome of the grim, grey Orwellian North Korea recalled by defectors.

“They don’t mess about in Chongjin,” one tourism source with experience of working in the city said.

If Fowle had hidden a bible anywhere else in North Korea, he probably wouldn’t have been arrested, sources in the North Korean tourist industry said. Sources working in North Korea are often forced to remain anonymous when talking to the press for fear of state reprisal or loss of business.

If the staff at the Seamen’s Club who found the bible had told Fowle’s guides, and not the authorities, they might have avoided the arrest too, the source familiar with his arrest said.

Fowle hid the bible on May 4. He later admitted to the group that he had left it there deliberately, for “someone to read.”

The rest of Fowle’s group didn’t talk to him when they heard what he had done. They felt he had put them in danger.

After the incident, Fowle had two days of normal sightseeing in Pyongyang, where he took photos of large bronze statues of North Korea’s former leaders, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

He was arrested on May 7, once he cleared customs at Pyongyang’s Sunan airport.

UPDATE 6 (2014-6-30): KCNA (see also here) reports the following:

Suspicions about Hostile Acts by American against DPRK Confirmed

Pyongyang, June 30 (KCNA) — The Korean Central News Agency made public the following report on Monday:

The relevant organ of the DPRK has made investigation into American tourists Miller Matthew Todd and Jeffrey Edward Fowle who were detained while perpetrating hostile acts after entering the territory of the DPRK.

According to the results of the investigation, suspicions about their hostile acts have been confirmed by evidence and their testimonies.

The relevant organ of the DPRK is carrying on the investigation into them and making preparations for bringing them before court on the basis of the already confirmed charges.

Contact with an official looking after consular affairs, treatment, etc. in the course of investigation are being made in line with the laws of the relevant country.

Here is coverage of the announcement in the Wall Street Journal,

Reuters offers this helpful summary of related events:

HAPHAZARD LEGAL SYSTEM

North Korea’s haphazard and inconsistent legal system makes it difficult to predict the outcome for the detained tourists.

It has detained and then released other Americans in the past year, including Korean War veteran Merrill Newman, whom it expelled last December after a month-long detention based on accusations of war crimes related to his service history.

Australian missionary John Short was arrested in February this year for leaving copies of bible verses at various tourist sites during his stay. Short, 75, and Newman, 86, were released on account of their advanced age and health condition, state media said in the wake of published confessions from the two men.

Another U.S. national, Kenneth Bae, a Christian missionary who had been arrested in November 2012, was convicted and sentenced by North Korea’s supreme court to 15 years hard labor last year.

Pyongyang has detained a number of U.S. citizens in the past, using them to extract visits by high-profile figures, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton who in 2009 helped secure the release of two U.S. journalists who had secretly entered the country by crossing into the country from China.

The journalists, Laura Ling and Korean-American Euna Lee, were released after being tried by a city court in Pyongyang and given a ten-year hard labor sentence.

But North Korea has twice canceled visits by Robert King, the U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, to discuss Bae’s case.

UPDATE 5 (2014-6-8): Jonathan Cheng writes more information about Mr. Fowle in the Wall Street Journal:

Jeffrey Edward Fowle, the American citizen detained by North Korea, is a municipal road-maintenance man from southwestern Ohio with a globe-trotting past.

Mr. Fowle, who was arrested by North Korea after arriving for a tour on Apr. 29, is a 56-year-old resident of Miamisburg, Ohio, a city of about 20,000 residents on the outskirts of Dayton. He attends church in nearby West Carrollton, Ohio, and repairs streets for Moraine, Ohio, population 6,307.

But Mr. Fowle’s small-town roots belied a keen interest for the wider world. Before venturing into North Korea, Mr. Fowle made regular trips to Russia with his wife and traveled to war-torn Sarajevo in early 1997, less than a year after the four-year siege of the Bosnian city was lifted.

Timothy Tepe, a Cincinnati lawyer who represents Mr. Fowle’s family, said Mr. Fowle wasn’t on a mission for Urbancrest Baptist Church in Lebanon, Ohio, where he attended church. Mr. Tepe didn’t immediately reply to requests for further comment.

Joseph Shihady, a pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in West Carrollton, where Mr. Fowle attended services on Sundays and Wednesday evenings, said Mr. Fowle traveled to North Korea as a tourist.

“He’s a fine fellow, and we’re praying that he’ll get home safely,” Mr. Shihady said. “We know he’s in danger, and we’re concerned for him.”

In Washington, the State Department said that it was aware of reports about a third U.S. citizen who had been detained in North Korea, but declined to offer more details.

Mr. Fowle and his Russian immigrant wife live with their three children and the wife’s mother, according to a September 2010 interview with Mr. Fowle by the Dayton Daily News.

WHIO, a Dayton-based CBS affiliate, on Saturday cited a family friend as saying that Mr. Fowle’s wife had tried to dissuade him from going to North Korea, calling it too dangerous.

During his eight-day trip to the former Yugoslavia in 1997, Mr. Fowle spent four days in downtown Sarajevo with a Muslim family whose apartment walls were scarred by shrapnel following a missile attack, according to an earlier interview Mr. Fowle gave to the Dayton Daily News.

Nearly two decades later, Mr. Fowle finds himself at the center of a diplomatic tangle. Rep. Michael Turner (R., Ohio), which represents Mr. Fowle’s town, said in a statement that he was “deeply troubled” that Mr. Fowle had been held.


Late last month, North Korea sentenced a Christian missionary from South Korea, Kim Jung-wook, to a life of hard labor, following his October arrest on charges of working to overthrow the regime. Seoul had pleaded for his release.

UPDATE 4 (2014-6-6): WDNT in Ohio has some information on Mr. Fowle and a photo of him and his family.

The Christian Science Monitor has more.

UPDATE 3 (2014-6-6): Choe Sang-hun and Rick Gladstone report in the New York Times that  Mr Fowle is a “A municipal worker from Ohio on a tour of North Korea”.

The Korean Central News Agency provided no further details about Mr. Fowle but local media in the Dayton, Ohio, area said that he was a 56-year-old municipal worker in the suburb of Moraine and had a wife and three children. The website of the Dayton Daily News said the Moraine city manager, David Hicks, had described him as a longtime employee. Telephone messages left on Mr. Fowle’s home telephone answering machine and with Mr. Hicks’s office were not returned.

UPDATE 2 (2014-6-6): The Guardian reports (via other sources) that Mr. Fowle was being detained for leaving a Bible in his hotel room.

Jonathan Cheng reports in the Wall Street Journal.

UPDATE 1 (2014-6-6): According to KCNA:

American Citizen Detained in DPRK

Pyongyang, June 6 (KCNA) — American citizen Jeffrey Edward Fowle entered the DPRK as a tourist on April 29 and acted in violation of the DPRK law, contrary to the purpose of tourism during his stay.

A relevant organ of the DPRK detained him and is investigating him.

ORIGINAL POST (2014-6-5): According to Reuters:

North Korea detained another U.S. citizen in mid-May, bringing the total to three currently being held in the country, Japan’s Kyodo news agency said on Friday, quoting diplomatic sources.

The man was part of a tour group who was detained just before he was set to leave the country, according to the sources.

In April, the North said it had detained an American, Matthew Todd Miller, who had arranged a private tour of the country through a U.S. company. North Korea is also holding Kenneth Bae, a Korean American missionary who was arrested in 2012 and has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor on charges of state subversion.

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Seoul to raise wages of Kaesong workers (2014)

Monday, June 9th, 2014

The actual headline should read “Seoul increases payments to DPRK goverment by 5% for each Kaesong worker” since it is no secret that “employees” receive little if any of their wages.

According to Yonhap:

South Korea will hike the salary of North Korean workers at an inter-Korean industrial complex by 5 percent from this month, the unification ministry said Monday.

The wage hike came after the two Koreas made the agreement about three months earlier than their usual annual wage talks for July.

The countries had annually agreed to a 5 percent wage increase in July, which starts to take effect from August, but this year’s earlier-than-usual wage hike came after the workers missed their annual hike last year due to a temporary suspension of the complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.

Amid worsening inter-Korean tension, Pyongyang had suspended the operations of the Kaesong Industrial Complex for five months from April.

The latest 5 percent hike in the North Korean workers’ minimum wage takes effect from their May salary, to be paid in late June, according to the Unification Ministry.

The two sides “agreed to hike the North Korean workers’ wage at the Kaesong Industrial Complex to US$70.35, an increase of 5 percent from now,” unification ministry spokesman Kim Eyi-do said in a briefing.

“So far, the minimum wage had been raised from August, but (we) decided to bring it forth by three months this year in consideration of (South Korean) companies’ opinions at the complex,” Kim said.

Citing the absence of a wage hike last year, Pyongyang had demanded a 10 percent wage hike this year.

About 52,000 North Korean laborers are employed by more than 100 South Korean companies operating in the joint factory park, a major cash cow for the communist country. Each North Korean worker receives up to $150 in monthly wages, including social benefits and overtime.

Read the full story here:
Seoul to raise salary of N.K. workers at Kaesong complex
Yonhap
2014-6-9

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Yanbian University seeks involvement in Rason Zone

Saturday, June 7th, 2014

According to Yonhap (2014-6-7):

A Chinese university near the northern border with North Korea said Saturday it has signed an agreement to help develop a North Korean free trade zone, one of high-profile joint economic projects between Pyongyang and Beijing.

The agreement calls for Yanbian University in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of China’s Jilin province to train workers and provide technological and legal services to the Rason economic zone, the university said in a statement.

China reportedly agreed in late 2011 to invest about US$3 billion in developing the free trade zone in a North Korean border city of Rason, formerly known as Rajin and Sonbong. The special trade zone sits across the border from Jilin province.

North Korea and China set up a joint management committee in Rason in October 2012, but it is unclear whether Chinese projects for the economic zone have remained on track since the North’s third nuclear test in February last year.

The agreement was signed on Wednesday between Park Young-ho, president of Yanbian University, and Wang Yonggang, a director of the Rason management committee, according to the statement.

In the statement, Park said the university “will actively provide human resources, technological innovation and legal advices to build and develop the Rason economic zone.”

China has grown increasingly frustrated with the North’s wayward behavior, but many analysts believe that Beijing would not suspend all economic supports for Pyongyang because it could lead to a regime collapse in North Korea.

Read the full story here:
China university helps N. Korea develop trade zone
Yonhap
2014-6-7

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Friday fun: Pyongyang needles and “Phantom of the Opera”

Thursday, June 5th, 2014

A valued reader sent in this photo from a restaurant in the DPRK:

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And the DPRK’s premier music ensemble, “The Moranbong Band” performed “Phantom of the Opera” in Pyongyang:

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High-tech development zones: The core of building a powerful knowledge economy nation

Thursday, June 5th, 2014

Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
2014-6-5

It appears that the Kim Jong Un regime’s core slogan of “constructing a powerful knowledge economy nation” is being propelled by the development of high-tech development zones.

The need to switch to a knowledge economy is emphasized in the newest issue of the quarterly North Korean academic journal Kyongje Yongu (published April 30, 2014). According to a thesis included in this quarter’s issue (entitled “The Creation of High-Tech Development Zone is Necessary Step in the Knowledge Economy Era”), “Using high-tech development zones as a model, the establishment of a high-tech industry and the shifting of the entire economy towards a knowledge economy is both a Party initiative and legal demands to the construction of a knowledge economy.”

Alongside the national goals of becoming both an economic superpower as well as an athletically powerful nation, the Kim Jong Un regime has also established the national goal of becoming a leader among knowledge economy countries. In order to establish a foothold for building the country’s knowledge economy, the regime has proposed the construction of high-tech development zones.

After attracting foreign investments to fund economic development zones (EDZ) last year, North Korea has begun pushing forward for the construction of a high-tech development zone in the city of Pyongsong, located in South Pyongan province. The high-tech development zone will be built in the same area as the Unjong Science and Technology Zone and will share a similar locale with the National Academy of Sciences, both of which are located in the South Pyongan Province.

According to the thesis, high-tech development zones will “act as regional bases that bring technology and production closer together, unifying the research-development-production-export process.” The thesis also explains the characteristics of the high-tech development zone, calling it a “new type of development region with a high concentration of information, technology, and talented individuals” and “a place where education, scientific research, and production are brought together to become one.”

Furthermore, the thesis continues, “Through the improvement of the high-tech development zone, existing businesses have begun to change to information-related businesses,” and noted that, “Just as the foundation of the high-tech development zone is important to the construction of a powerful knowledge economy, it is also important to provide support from the state and the Party.”

In November of 2013, North Korea formed an international consortium of foreign companies to initiate the building of the Kaesong High-Tech Development Zone; however, construction has reportedly been suspended.

North Korea is currently pressing for construction of a type of cooperative complex to be built in the high-tech development zone where research and development, as well as production itself can take place in order to produce technologically-intensive products with high added value. However, due to sanctions imposed by the international community, North Korea is unable to acquire the advanced machinery it needs to construct the high-tech zone, and for now has only drawn out a rough sketch of the framework.

On the other hand, North Korea has also spurred progress in light industry in other regions by rewarding exemplary factories. This is seen as an attempt to increase the standard of living for the locals living in those regions, who have taken it upon themselves to improve light industry to best suit their situations.

Companies in Hoeryong, North Hamgyong Province, Wonsan, Kangwon Province, Chinchon [?], Chagang Province, and other regions have become recognized in North Korean media for their “innovations.” In Hoeryong, a chemical commodities factory developed fuel additives for lignite that increase its burning ability and efficiency, and was commended for its contribution in solving its citizens’ fuel problems. Other factories that were chosen to receive rewards include a glass bottle factory in Wonsan, and a wooden commodities factory in Chinchon[?] for increasing the production quality of their respective goods.

In a situation where the central authorities are in a vulnerable situation financially, North Korea has been encouraging regional businesses to grow and develop on their own. This not only increases the standard of living for the people, but encourages balanced regional development as well. Another thesis appearing in the most recent issue of Kyongje Yongu argues, “The comprehensive development of the regional economies has greatly reduced the state’s burden by allowing households to take it upon themselves to meet their needs according to their own situation.

Furthermore, regarding the growth of regional light industry, the thesis says, “general consumer goods are now being mass-produced, and are able to fulfill the region’s supply and demand needs,” emphasizing the use of “small quantity batch production.” Other light industry factories are also being built across the nation as part of the efforts to revitalize North Korea’s local economies.

Recently, construction of the Haeju Unjong Beer Factory was finished. Operations have commenced in Southern Hwanghae Province, and construction of the Musanryong Spring Water Factory was completed in late 2013. While North Korea’s plan to develop its local economies is not exactly breaking news, advances are slowly being made toward achieving the Kim Jong Un regime’s national goals.

* NKeconWatch: I have no idea why this article references a place in Jagang Province called “Chinchon”. Maybe they mean Huichon?

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