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‘Bad apples’ sour relief in North Korea

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

Asia Times
Sunny Lee
11/1/2007

The people in Dandong in China’s northeast Liaoning province know more about North Korea than any other people on the planet. They see it every day – literally. Dandong neighbors North Korea just across the Amnok River (Yalu River in Chinese). Even on a foggy day, one is able to see North Korean fishermen at work.

This city of 2.4 million people is, once in a while, highlighted in the international media because it is the major land route where China’s aid to North Korea – both food and fuel – is shipped. It also becomes a major destination for foreign journalists when a rumor of an imminent visit by the secretive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to China smokes up. Dandong is a place where Kim’s train has to pass through when he visits China.

Given its special geographical proximity to North Korea, naturally this is also a key outpost to which many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in North Korean refugees are paying keen attention.

In Dandong, the name “NGO” is almost a synonym for “groups working on North Korean refugees”. Unfortunately, it often carries a negative overtone. This may sound odd, but that’s how things are here. “If you really know what NGOs actually do, you will feel quite turned off,” said a local resident.

He said many of these NGOs are commercial brokers in disguise. That is, they help North Korean refugees to flee from China. But they do it, really, for money. They charge money and even take advantage of the refugees’ vulnerability. He indignantly said he knows an NGO representative who slept with North Korean female refugees in his care.

That’s just one of the examples that he shared. In fact, he said he had seen so many depraved NGOs that it now gives him goose-bumps when he hears the word “NGO”.

Stories about bad NGOs are also coming out from those who are in the know – journalists. But they seldom write about it because doing so makes them unpopular among some interest groups or even backfire. For example, a writer could be accused of maligning the good work that most NGOs do, and worse, being a “pro-North Korea” figure who closes his eyes to the human-rights tragedy of North Korean refugees. That is a very powerful argument.

With increasing international attention on North Korean human-rights conditions and widely circulated harrowing stories of North Korean refugees in the news media, NGOs working on this field usually receive strong moral support from the mainstream media that provide them with legitimacy, which in turn helps NGOs receive financial support from sympathetic supporters.

Critics, however say that as NGOs rely on donations, when they are cash-strapped they sometimes resort to publicity stunts to raise their profile, and more importantly, to raise money.

Some NGOs even go as far as to deliberately put the refugees in danger to draw international attention, critics argue. One of the most controversial cases was a January 2003 incident in which a group of as many as 78 North Korean defectors was caught by Chinese police while they were attempting to escape on boats from China’s east coast shores to South Korea and Japan respectively.

A South Korean reporter later trailed the same route and deplored: “It’s a place you don’t want to choose. The Chinese North Sea Navy Fleet of the People’s Liberation Army base is just around the corner. How would anyone in his sane mind choose this place as an escape route unless you wanted to get caught?” he fumed.

The Durihana Mission, probably the most well-known group in Seoul that helps North Korean refugees to come to South Korea, is also alluded to in that criticism. The group’s founder, Cheon Gi-won, is dubbed as the “Godfather of Refugees”. He has reportedly brought more than 500 North Korean refugees to the South.

Cheon himself was once arrested by Chinese police and served a 220-day prison term. His incarceration, however, also helped him to become known internationally. After this year’s recipient for Nobel Peace Prize was announced, for example, the Asian Wall Street Journal ran an article mentioning Cheon as someone who deserved the prize for his work on North Korean refugees.

Cheon pioneered the so-called “Mongolian route”. That is, his team takes North Korean refugees in China to the Sino-Mongolian border and helps them to escape to Mongolia, from where they go to another country, usually South Korea.

“There was a case where his team took a group of North Korean refugees to near the Mongolian border from China. But instead of taking them safely to the border and making sure they crossed it, they simply dropped the North Korean refugees in the middle of nowhere near the border on a dark night and just drove away,” said a person who has knowledge of the incident. They reportedly didn’t even give them a flashlight or anything that could help them orient their direction in the dark.

Confused and fearful, the North Koreans tried to find their own way to freedom. But their panic drew attention from Chinese border patrols. Some got shot, the rest were arrested.

“They then made an all-out media stunt, letting the world know the atrocity and how China mistreats North Korean refugees. We also used to run articles on it. But after we got an idea of how the thing had played out, we stopped writing about it,” a South Korean journalist said.

With the dropping of media coverage in South Korea, he said Cheon has recently turned to the Western media and is now actively working in the US, where he set up a branch office last year.

Cheon was not available for comment. But Lee Chung-hee of Durihana, who answers inquires during Cheon’s absence, said: “That doesn’t even make the slightest sense.”

“It’s very difficult to engage in a constructive dialogue with such critics. Think about it from a common sense point of view The consequence of a failed escape would mean death for North Koreans. If there was any deliberate intention, it would be beneath human dignity to do so,” Lee said. Those who follow this logic believe that NGOs simply didn’t plan the escape well enough.

In Dandong, Cheon is a well-established name. People who know Cheon said that even though the allegations might be true, Cheon himself is not likely to be involved. One pointed out that as Cheon has become internationally known, there are people who become jealous and want to undermine him.

A former official with a major South Korean NGO said that he strongly doubts whether Cheon himself was part of any alleged incidents. But he pointed out that some NGOs act without considering how their irresponsible acts harm others who are sincerely helping North Korean refugees.

Critics point out that NGOs’ media stunts and big-scale, organized escapes also draw the Chinese authorities’ attention to the many North Korean refugees who are hiding in China.

Some view that it’s unfair to blur the big picture of the good work that most NGOs do. They also point out that most NGOs are victims of some “bad apples” or commercial brokers who pose as NGOs or even as missionaries.

A good number of commercial brokers are former North Korean refugees. As many NGOs were arrested or deported from China in recent years, North Korean refugees who have settled in South Korea began to take the job. The reason they take up this risky business for themselves, and even are willing to walk again the same route that they themselves had escaped from, is because of the economic difficulties and job discrimination they face in South Korea.

Some of these commercial “pay-for-escape” brokers demand as much as one third of the “settlement money” that North Korean refugees expect to receive once they arrive in South Korea. Unfortunately, things have started to have a chain effect. Looking at some “NGOs” making money, now even those NGOs which otherwise do the same work non-profit, have started to charge a minimum of US$2,000 to $3,000 as a “logistical fee”.

Sunny Lee is a writer/journalist based in Beijing, where he has lived for five years. A native of South Korea, Lee is a graduate of Harvard University and Beijing Foreign Studies University.

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Posted in Emigration, International Aid, International Governments, International Organizaitons | Comments Closed

Freed N. Korean vessel opens new window for U.S.-N. Korea ties

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

Yonhap
Byun Duk-kun
10/31/2007

A U.S. Navy destroyer helped a North Korean cargo ship escape a hijacking by pirates off the coast of Somalia on Tuesday, an incident which may bode well for the growing detente between the two nations, as sentiments remain upbeat over ongoing talks on the North’s denuclearization.

Officials here noted the incident will work positively in efforts to denuclearize the communist North, as it came just one day before the chief nuclear negotiators of the U.S. and North Korea were to meet for discussions on denuclearization, normalization of ties between the former Cold War foes and other issues.

It was early Tuesday when the USS James E. Williams, operating near Somalia, received a request from the International Maritime Bureau to investigate a North Korea-flagged ship reportedly hijacked by pirates.

The U.S. destroyer reacted with little hesitation, dispatching a helicopter to investigate the reported hijacking and then sailing at full speed to arrive at the site at midday to lend assistance, the U.S. Navy said in a press release.

The 22 crew members of the North Korean freighter eventually regained control of the ship after a firefight with the pirates, while the Williams demanded by radio that the pirates give up their weapons.

Two pirates were reportedly killed in the deadly gunfight, while five others were captured in the tense standoff.

After the hijacking situation was resolved, three injured crew members of the North Korean ship who may have received relatively serious wounds were brought onboard the U.S. destroyer for medical treatment, and were then sent back to their ship in stable condition, a message sent by the U.S. Navy to Yonhap News Agency said. It said the injuries sustained by the three merchant sailors were not life-threatening.

Besides giving first aid, the U.S. warship did not receive any further requests for assistance from the North Korean vessel, the message said.

Washington tried not to brag, saying piracy was a “scourge” in Somalia’s waters and that U.S. vessels were available to intercede when necessary.

“When we get a distress call, we help,” Lydia Robertson, commander of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, was quoted as saying by the AP.

South Korean officials agreed, saying the U.S. would have acted the same way had the incident taken place a year ago. They, however, noted the U.S. would not have acted so swiftly or as willingly had the incident happened before Feb. 13, when Pyongyang agreed to shut down and later disable its key nuclear facilities.

“Piracy is a crime that does not choose its victims by their nationality,” a ministry official said, asking that he remain unidentified.

“The U.S. and NATO forces have long operated missions in the (Somali) area to intercept pirates, so I don’t think the U.S. would have acted any differently had the incident happened a year ago,” said the official, whose job mainly deals with U.S. affairs.

Other officials said the incident demonstrates the changed mood between the former enemies as multilateral talks aimed at denuclearizing the communist North maintain an upbeat mood.

Washington and Pyongyang have held two rounds of working-level talks this year under a six-nation accord signed in February, which binds North Korea to shut down and disable its key nuclear facilities and declare all its nuclear programs.

In return, the communist nation will receive 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent assistance, as well as other political benefits such as its removal from the U.S. list of terrorism sponsoring states and the normalization of its diplomatic relations with the U.S. and Japan.

North Korea has already shut down all its key nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and promised earlier this month to disable the Yongbyon complex and submit a full list of its nuclear programs by the end of the year.

Christopher Hill, the top U.S. envoy in six-way talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear ambition, was expected to hold bilateral talks with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan in Beijing later Wednesday to discuss various issues including the normalization of ties between their nations, according to officials here.

“The incident will have a positive impact as a result of the efforts by both the U.S. and North Korea to normalize their diplomatic ties,” a ministry official said, asking to remain anonymous.

North Korea has yet to officially acknowledge the U.S. assistance in regaining the freedom of its vessel and treating the ship’s wounded North Korean crew members.

Crew wins deadly pirate battle off Somalia
CNN
10/30/2007

The crew members of a North Korean freighter regained control of their ship from pirates who hijacked the vessel off Somalia, but not without a deadly fight, the U.S. Navy reported Tuesday.

When the battle aboard the Dai Hong Dan was over, two pirates were dead and five were captured, the Navy said.

Three wounded crew members from the cargo ship were being treated aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS James E. Williams.

The captured pirates were being held aboard the North Korean vessel, the Navy said.

The bandits had seized the ship’s bridge, while the crew kept control of the steering gear and engines, the Navy said.

The Koreans moved against the attackers after the Williams — responding to reports of the hijacking — ordered the pirates to give up their weapons, according to the Navy.

When the crew members stormed the bridge, the deadly battle began. After the crew regained control, Navy sailors boarded the Dai Hong Dan to help with the injured.

North Korea and the United States have no diplomatic relations.

The incident took place about 70 miles northeast of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, the Navy said.

It is the second incident of piracy reported in recent days. A second U.S. Navy destroyer was searching waters off Somalia for pirates who hijacked a Japanese-owned ship, military officials said.

Over the weekend, gunmen aboard two skiffs hijacked the Panamanian-flagged Golden Nori off the Socotra archipelago near the Horn of Africa, said Andrew Mwangura, a spokesman for the Kenyan-based Seafarers’ Assistance Program.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke has been pursuing the pirates after entering Somali waters with the permission of the troubled transitional government in Mogadishu, U.S. officials said Monday. In recent years, warships have stayed outside the 12-mile limit when chasing pirates.

Two military officials familiar with the details confirmed the ongoing operation.

The Navy’s pursuit of the pirates began Sunday night when the Golden Nori radioed for help. The Burke’s sister ship, the USS Porter, opened fire and sank the pirate skiffs tied to the Golden Nori’s stern before the Burke took over shadowing the hijacked vessel.

When the shots were fired, it was not known the ship was filled with highly flammable benzene. U.S. military officials indicate there is a great deal of concern about the cargo because it is so sensitive.

Benzene, which U.S. authorities have declared a known human carcinogen, is used as a solvent and to make plastics and synthetic fabrics.

Four other ships in the region remain in pirate hands, the Navy said.

U.S. and NATO warships have been patrolling off the Horn of Africa for years in an effort to crack down on piracy off Somalia, where a U.N.-backed transitional government is struggling to restore order after 15 years of near-anarchy.

On Monday, the head of the transitional government resigned as his administration — backed by Ethiopian troops — battled insurgents from the Islamic movement that seized control of Mogadishu in 2006.

Hospital officials reported 30 dead in three days of clashes on the city’s south side.

In June, the ship USS Carter Hall fired warning shots in an attempt to stop a hijacked Danish cargo ship off Somalia, but the American vessel turned away when the pirated ship entered Somali waters.

In May, a U.S. Navy advisory warned merchant ships to stay at least 200 miles off the Somali coast. But the U.S. Maritime Administration said pirates sometimes issue false distress calls to lure ships closer to shore.

The pirates often are armed with automatic rifles and shoulder-fired rockets, according to a recent warning from the agency.

“To date, vessels that increase speed and take evasive maneuvers avoid boarding, while those that slow down are boarded, taken to the Somali coastline and released after successful ransom payment, often after protracted negotiations of as much as 11 weeks,” the warning advised.

The agency issued a new warning to sailors in the Gulf of Aden, between Somalia and Yemen, after Sunday’s hijacking.

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Posted in International trade, Sea shipping, Transportation, USA | 2 Comments »

Korea allows aid group to reach flood victims directly: RFA

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

Yonahp
Sam Kim
10/31/2007

North Korea has allowed an international relief group to bring supplies directly to the North’s southeastern region hit hard by recent floods, Radio Free Asia (RFA) has reported.

The U.S.-funded broadcasting station cited Tom Henderson of England-based civic group, Shelter Box, Tuesday as saying that North Korean authorities made the rare decision, allowing aid officials to deliver food and other supplies to flood victims in the region southeast of capital Pyongyang.

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Odd couple: The royal and the Red

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

Asia Times
Bertil Lintner
10/31/2007

North Korean Premier Kim Yong-il is scheduled to pay a four-day visit to Cambodia in early November, underscoring the curious close relationship between one of the world’s last communist dictatorships and one of Asia’s most ancient monarchies.

Kim Yong-il, who should not be confused with the North Korean supremo, “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il or any of his relatives, will hold talks with Cambodia’s retired king Norodom Sihanouk, the Cambodian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

The North Korean premier will also hold “official talks” with his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen, and “pay courtesy calls” on Senate president Chea Sim, and the president of the National Assembly, Heng Samrin, according to the statement.

Cambodia has long served as a link between North Korea and Southeast Asia and beyond, so it is plausible to assume that trade and related issues will be on the agenda. For years the two countries ran a joint shipping company, and before the China-led six party talks, Cambodia had offered to mediate over Pyongyang’s contentious nuclear program.

Kim Yong-il’s visit to Cambodia is not the first by a North Korean dignitary in recent years. Kim Yong-nam, president of North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly, also visited the country in 2001 at the invitation of Sihanouk, who had then not yet abdicated in favor of his son, Norodom Sihamoni, the current serving monarch.

Kim Yong-nam now functions as de facto head of state, as Kim Jong-il’s father, “Great Leader” Kim Il-sung was elevated to the position of “eternal president” before his death in 1994, making North Korea not a monarchy, but rather the world’s only necrocracy.

As incongruous as it may seem, Cambodia is North Korea’s oldest ally in Southeast Asia. It all began when Sihanouk met Kim Il-sung in 1961 at a Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Belgrade and a personal friendship developed between the two leaders. When Sihanouk was ousted in a coup in 1970, Kim Il-sung not only offered him sanctuary in North Korea but also had a new home built for him about an hour’s drive north of Pyongyang.

A battalion of North Korean troops worked full-time on it for almost a year, and when it was finished, only specially selected guards were allowed anywhere near the 60-room palatial residence. Overlooking the scenic Chhang Sou On Lake and surrounded by mountains, the Korean-style building even had its own indoor movie theater. Like the Great Leader’s son, Kim Jong-il, Sihanouk loves movies.

Sihanouk has both directed and acted in his own romantic feature movies and a few more were made in North Korea, with Cambodian actors strutting their stuff against the backdrop of Korea’s snow-capped mountains.

French wines and gourmet food were flown in via China, and Sihanouk and his entourage were treated as royals would have been in any country that respects monarchy – as North Korea evidently does.

By contrast, North Korea has maintained less cordial relations with neighboring communist Vietnam, which still exerts behind-the-scenes pressure on Cambodia. Kim Yong-il will nonetheless also visit Hanoi during his diplomatic tour of Southeast Asia.

Throughout the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia, North Korea refused to recognize the regime that Hanoi installed in Phnom Penh in January 1979 – and that despite immense pressure at the time put on Pyongyang from Moscow. During a meeting between Kim Il-sung and Sihanouk seven years later on April 10, 1986, in Pyongyang, the Great Leader reassured the then prince that North Korea would continue to regard him as Cambodia’s legitimate head of state.

When Sihanouk returned to Phnom Penh in September 1993, after United Nations-led mediation to end Cambodia’s civil conflict, he arrived with 35 North Korean bodyguards, commanded by a general from Kim Il-sung’s presidential guards. They are still there, now guarding Sihanouk as well as the new king, Sihanomi, who is not as close to North Korea as his father, but has paid at least one visit to Pyongyang.

Sailing buddies
Sihanouk and the Cambodian royals showed their gratitude to the North Koreans when in the late 1990s they set up a privately-owned shipping registry, the Cambodia Shipping Corporation (CSC). The flag of convenience was used by the North Koreans, and it enjoyed royal protection as it was headed by Khek Vandy, the husband of Sihanouk’s eldest daughter, Boupha Devi.

CSC was also partly owned by a Phnom Penh-based North Korean diplomat and for a few years aggressively marketed itself as a cheap and efficient “flag of convenience” service for international shippers. A series of embarrassing maritime incidents, including the interception in June 2002 of a Cambodian-registered – though not North Korean owned – ship by the French navy, in a joint operation with US, Greek and Spanish authorities, of a massive haul of cocaine off the West African coast prompted Hun Sen’s government to cancel CSC’s concession and reportedly give it to a South Korean company, the Cosmos Group.

At the time, International Transport Federation general secretary David Cockroft told the Cambodia-based fortnightly newspaper the Phnom Penh Post that “they’ll need to be able to walk on water, because nothing short of a miracle will clean up the name of Cambodian shipping”. Indeed, little appeared to change, including North Korea’s use of Cambodia’s flag of convenience for controversial shipments.

In December 2002, a Cambodian-registered, North Korean-owned ship named So San was intercepted by Spanish marines, working on a US tip, in the Arabian Sea. It was found to be carrying 15 Scud-type missiles, 15 conventional warheads, 23 tanks of nitric acid rocket propellant and 85 drums of unidentified chemicals under a cargo of cement bags.

The destination of the weaponry was said to be Yemen, and following protests from both Yemen and North Korea – and intervention by the US, which apparently did not want to antagonize Yemen, a supposed ally in Washington’s “war on terror” – the ship was allowed to continue to Yemen. Later revelations indicated that the cargo was ultimately delivered to Libya, which caused considerable embarrassment in Washington.

Premier Kim Yong-il is likely to be quite familiar with the CSC, as he served as minister for land and marine transport from 1994 until the Supreme People’s Assembly appointed him to the premiership in April this year. But since the scandal-ridden CSC was reorganized five years ago, Cambodia’s economic importance to Pyongyang would appear to have waned, and North Korea’s only known activity in the country today is in the restaurant business, including eateries in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.

Yet as a diplomatic link to the wider region, Cambodia is still important to North Korea. In April 2003, the Cambodian government, at the urging of Sihanouk, had plans to send an envoy to Pyongyang in a bid to persuade the North Korean leadership to be more flexible about talks on its nuclear program, which at that time had stalled.

The mission never materialized, but North Korea no doubt remembers that its trusted ally Cambodia tried first to mediate – and that Phnom Penh in future could still serve as a gateway for improved contacts with the outside world. It remains to be seen what message Kim Yong-il will bring to Phnom Penh, but it is reasonable to assume that his visit will, despite the official announcements, be confined merely to “courtesy calls” and royal audiences.

Bertil Lintner is a former correspondent with the Far Eastern Economic Review and the author of Great Leader, Dear Leader: Demystifying North Korea under the Kim Clan. He is currently a writer with Asia-Pacific Media Services.

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Posted in Arms shipment, Cambodia, Illicit activities, International trade, Military, Political economy, Sea shipping, Supreme Peoples Assembly, Transportation, Vietnam | Comments Closed

Police agency abolishes rewards for turning in N. Korean propaganda leaflets

Tuesday, October 30th, 2007

Yonhap
10/30/2007

Police said Tuesday they have abolished rewards for those who turn in North Korean propaganda leaflets discovered in South Korean territory, as almost none have been found over the past few years amid thawing inter-Korean relations.

“In recent years, the number of North Korean leaflets that have been reported to us is close to zero,” said a spokesman for the National Police Agency, adding that the reward policy is already useless.

Leaflet dissemination was a key element of propaganda warfare between the archrival countries during the Cold War. The two Koreas, which are technically in a state of war, attempted to secretly distribute the leaflets in each other’s territory ever since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice.

However, the number plummeted in recent years amid a thaw in two-way ties, especially after the first summit between the leaders of the two Koreas in Pyongyang in 2000. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il held the second inter-Korean summit in the North Korean capital early this month.

The North attempted to disseminate millions of propaganda leaflets in the South every year until the 2000 summit.

The North Korean leaflets, often found in the countryside or on university campuses, were allegedly distributed by South Korean sympathizers or sent by balloon from the communist state.

The leaflets contained messages or pictures aimed at enticing South Koreans to defect to the North or criticizing the Seoul government.

Police had previously urged citizens to be aware of the leaflets in April and August, as strong northwestern winds enabled more balloons carrying the propaganda to reach the South.

Police used to grant medals to adults who collected a large number of the leaflets, while children were rewarded with new pencils and notebooks.

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The Price of Cabbage in North Korea Is Prohibitive

Monday, October 29th, 2007

Daily NK
Lee Sung Jin
10/29/2007

South Korean housewives are afraid to open their wallets due to the threefold increase in the price of cabbage and radish compared to last year with the kimchi preparation season ahead. The skyrocketed price of cabbage in North Korea has also caused concerns about disturbance to the kimjang (kimchi preparation) season.

Lee Ok Ran (45), who trades in Hoiryeong, relayed in a phone conversation with DailyNK on the 25th, “Due to the flood damage and the delayed seedtime, the amount of the cabbage harvest has decreased significantly. In the middle of October, we have to enter the kimjang season, but are worried because the price of cabbage has risen exorbitantly. The saying that the price of cabbage is like the price of gold seems fitting now.”

Ms. Lee said, “Large cabbage has not been reaped yet, so cabbage from China has mostly been sold in the jangmadang (markets). Unripe cabbage made in North Korea is being sold at 450~500 won per bundle and Chinese-produced cabbage costs around 1,800~2,000 won.” Last year, North Korean-produced cabbage was sold for 200~250 won per bundle.

He explained, “Chosun (North Korea) cabbage has a lot of insect marks and the leaves are tough, but on the other hand, Chinese-produced cabbages have better quality, so generally reflect over a twofold difference in price. Mostly, the party leaders buy and eat these cabbages rather than average civilians.”

However, with the soaring price of North Korean cabbage, the cost of imported cabbage has increased significantly.

Ms. Lee added, “In the winter, there is only one type of a sidedish—kimchi–so they are called ‘a half-year’s gourmet food.’ At this time, if we cannot prepare kimchi, we will not see kimchi for the entire year next year.”

North Korean civilians have prepared for kimchi by harvesting cabbage or radish seeds, planted starting late July immediately after reaping wheat and corn, from the end of October.

The reality of the cabbage scarcity is due to the loss of the majority of cabbage, which had just started sprouting in early August, in the flood.

The North Korean Central News Agency and the Chosun Shimbo issued by Chongryon (General Association of North Korean Residents in Japan) reported on the 10th, “In some areas of South Pyongan and Kangwon, collective farm laborers plowed the fields submerged in the flood and have started re-sowing.”

The North Korean farmers started sowing cabbage and radish seeds again, but the amount of the harvest is expected to be half of the annual average amount. Due to this, North Korea’s “kimjang combat,” which is supposed to start the middle of October, is supposed to be hit with a huge setback.

In North Korea, using military language such as “combat” for important events is customary. Just as there is the spring rice-planting combat, the summer weeding combat, and the fall harvesting combat, the words, “kimjang combat,” are used during kimjang season.

In northernmost Yangkang, North Hamkyung, kimjang season begins in the middle of October. Come November, all regions of North Korea, such as South Hamkyung, Jagang, North Pyongan, South Pyongan, and Hwanghae are swarming from the combats.

However, the price of cabbage has exorbitantly this year and by kimjang season, the price of hot pepper and seasoning skyrockets, so the concern of North Korean ordinary people for surviving the winter will be raised a notch.

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Posted in Agriculture, Chongryun, Economic reform, General markets (FMR: Farmers Market), Price liberalization | Comments Closed

N. Korea Eager for Economic Modernization

Monday, October 29th, 2007

Korea Times
Jung Sung-ki
10/29/2007

North Korea has a keen interest in economic modernization program aimed at luring foreign investment through business cooperation projects with other countries, a member of the European Parliament said Monday.

In a press conference in Seoul, Hubert Pirker, an Austrian member of the European Parliament, said the North clearly understands the fact that without economic modernization, it will not be able to attract foreign investment into the country.

Pirker and two other EU representatives _ Jas Gawronsky of Italy and Glyn Ford of Britain _ visited North Korea from Oct. 20-27 and met the North’s Prime Minister Kim Yong-il. They also held an economic forum with North Korean officials.

During the forum, North Koreans’ attitudes “were not closed or hostile,” said Pirker.

“We visited the railway station, for example, and also parks and restaurants. I could say we could see more modern-style restaurants and more cars than ever before,” the European lawmaker was quoted by Yonhap News Agency as saying.

The European lawmakers discussed ways of modernizing North Korea’s agriculture, light industry, information technology and finance sectors with officials there, Pirker said.

North Korea’s Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun expressed his wish to visit Europe next year, as Pyongyang seeks to send its young officials and industrial trainees there to learn information technology and other advanced knowledge from European nations, he said.

Pirker said the delegates had advised the North Koreans that upgrading the level of communications and finance systems in the North to global standards was essential to securing foreign investments in a stable manner.

Progress at the six-party talks aimed at scrapping Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program and expanding inter-Korea economic cooperation would help the North achieve its goal of inviting foreign capital, the legislator added.

The European Union has so far sent about 50 million euros worth of aid to North Korea, he said.

The impoverished North has recently shown strong interest in the economic reform programs of other countries.

Reports said North Korean leader Kim Jong-il expressed intentions last week copying Vietanam’s economic reform and openness policy, called “Doi Moi,” during a meeting with Nong Duc Manh, the secretary-general of the Vietnamese Communist Party, in Pyongyang.

The ongoing visit to Hanoi by the North Korean premier appears to have something to do with Kim’s remarks, they said. The reclusive leader is reportedly planning to visit Vietnam in the near future.

North Korean officials expressed firm commitment to denuclearization under the Feb. 13 nuclear deal, according to Pirker.

Under the pact signed by the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, Pyongyang pledged to disable its nuclear facilities and declare all of its nuclear programs by the end of this year in return for economic assistance and political concessions.

North Korea has received 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil from South Korea and an equal amount from China for closing five of its nuclear facilities in July. The regime is to receive an additional 900,000 tons of oil or equivalent energy aid if it goes through the second stage of denuclearization.

The EU delegates are scheduled to pay a courtesy call on Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and hold meetings with South Korean business leaders including Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo before leaving South Korea on Nov. 2.

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Posted in Communications, Computing/IT, Economic reform, EU, Foreign direct investment, Political economy, Price liberalization, Vietnam | Comments Closed

GS Caltex to supply heavy oil to N. Korea

Sunday, October 28th, 2007

Yonhap
10/28/2007

GS Caltex Co., South Korea’s second-biggest oil refiner, said Sunday it is set to supply 21,000 tons of heavy oil to North Korea as part of a nuclear disarmament agreement.

The oil shipment will be sent later Sunday via the port of Yeosu, a port city about 455 kilometers south of Seoul, to arrive at the North Korean ports of Songlim and Sunbong.

GS Caltex and European oil trading company Vitol have recently won a tender issued by the U.S. Agency for International Development to supply a combined 50,000 tons of heavy oil to the North as part of the disarmament-for-aid deal.

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Kim Jong-il Interested in Vietnam-Style Reform Policy

Sunday, October 28th, 2007

Korea Times
Jung Sung-ki
10/28/2007

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has expressed intention to model after the Vietnam-style economic reform and openness policy, dubbed “Doi Moi,” a report said Sunday.

Vietnam adopted the reform policy in 1986 to establish a market economy such as liberalization of trade and finance with foreign countries, decentralization of state economic management and reliance on the private sector as an engine of economic growth.

Kim made the remarks during a meeting with Nong Duc Manh, secretary-general of Vietnam’s Communist Party, in Pyongyang last week, Yonhap News reported, citing the Sunday edition of the weekly Yazhou Zhoukan, a Hong Kong-based international Chinese business daily. The newspaper carried an interview with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem who accompanied the secretary general on his Pyongyang visit.

“Chairman Kim highly evaluated the achievements Vietnam’s Doi Moi has made in the past 20 years while meeting with Secretary General Manh,” Khiem was quoted as saying, adding the North Korean leader accepted Manh’s proposal for Kim’s visit to Hanoi.

The ongoing visit to Hanoi by North Korean Prime Minister Kim Yong-il aims to prepare for Kim’s visit to Vietnam, the report said.

The North Korean premier, who arrived in Hanoi Friday, visited several industrial and tourist sites in Vietnam, including Halong Bay, one of the biggest tourist attractions for foreigners, reports said.

Diplomatic sources in Hong Kong, however, were quoted as saying it is remarkable that Kim Jong-il expressed an interest in Doi Moi, but it is not likely for the communist North to closely follow the reform program.

The reason why the North is eyeing Vietnam’s economic program could have something to do with China’s lukewarm attitude to Pyongyang’s efforts to build special economic zones near the North’s border with China, they said.

Hanoi’s reform has often been referred to as a model for North Korea’s underdeveloped economy to emulate.

Chief U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said during a visit there in May that North Korea should “move on in the way that Vietnam has done so well.”

North Korea, Vietnam agree to boost bilateral ties
Yonhap
10/27/2007

North Korea and Vietnam said Saturday they have agreed to forge closer cooperation in the sectors of agriculture, culture and tourism, in their first high-level meeting in five years.

The agreement was reached after a meeting of visiting North Korean Premier Kim Yong-il and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

Kim, who is in charge of economic policy, arrived in Hanoi on Friday for a five-day stay, as part of the first leg of a tour to Southeast Asian nations that include Malaysia, Cambodia and Laos.

Vietnam has shifted to a market economy since the mid-1980s and Hanoi’s reform is seen by many as a model for North Korea’s underdeveloped economy to emulate.

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Posted in Banking, Economic reform, Finance, Foreign direct investment, General markets (FMR: Farmers Market), International trade, Price liberalization, Vietnam | 1 Comment »

British singer charms North Koreans into a tour

Wednesday, October 24th, 2007

Times of London
10/24/2007
Lucy Bannerman

She is one of the few Westerners to be invited behind the borders of the world’s most secretive state, and is surely the only soprano from Middlesbrough to perform for Kim Jong Il.

Having become an unlikely celebrity in North Korea over the past six years, the opera singer Suzannah Clarke has pulled off perhaps her greatest coup by getting permission to take the state’s national orchestra to Britain. The Times has learnt that plans are under way for 120 musicians to perform at a number of big venues across the UK early next year.

The Foreign Office has already given its support to the project and the search is now on for sponsors.

For the performers, it will be their first experience of the outside world; for Clarke, 38, it will be the culmination of years of work, using her position as the darling of Pyongyang to build close relations with North Korea’s leaders. She said: “This is not an easy project. Two years ago I wouldn’t have had any hope of succeeding. But when I went out there last April, I could feel a change in the air, a warmer atmosphere. This is the first time the North Koreans have ever let their orchestra abroad.

Clarke, who opened the Euro 96 football championships at Wembley, claims that ending isolation is the best way for the West to build relations with the hardline state, which has a dismal record on human rights and is thought still to be holding up to 200,000 political prisoners, and has presided over millions of deaths from famine and economic mismanagement. However, she argued that isolation was not the answer. The idea of a British tour came to her as she watched the orchestra perform during the annual Friendship Festival this year.

As befits the tough standards set by the dictatorship, the musicians displayed the same discipline and technical prowess demonstrated by the thousands of dancers who take part every year in the synchronised gymnastic games marking Kim Jong Il’s birthday. “They played a cheeky medley of tunes – Shostakovich, Mozart, as well as some of their own repertoire. It was powerful, passionate, but funny as well, and I thought, ‘Gosh, British audiences would love this’,” she said.

She is seeking sponsors and dealing with the considerable logistical challenge of arranging transport and accommodation for 120 North Koreans and their chaperones during their visit. “I wake up from mini-nightmares of losing a North Korean on the Tube,” she said.

Supporters include Lord Alton of Liverpool, chairman of the British-North Korean All Party Parliamentary Group and official patron of the project, and David Heather, a British financier who curated Britain’s first exhibition of North Korean art in Pall Mall, this year.

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Posted in Civil society, International trade, Music, Tourism, United Kingdom | 1 Comment »

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