Narrowing Economic Gap Key to Reunification

September 17th, 2007

Korea Times
Jung Sung-ki
9/17/2007

Former Unification Minister Park Jae-kyu said reducing economic inequality between the two Koreas is the foremost task to achieve reunification of the two Koreas.

In an exclusive interview with The Korea Times in Seoul on Sept. 6, the former point man on North Korean affairs reiterated the importance for closer cross-border economic ties, which he said would make the North open to the outside world and eventually help achieve reunification.

Park, however, said a “unilateral give-away”policy centered on huge inter-Korean business projects should be refrained from and any economic assistance for North Korea should contribute to opening up the communist neighbor, as well as proceed in tandem with progress in six-party talks over the North’s nuclear program.

He also said big-budget programs for the North, a so-called “Marshall Plan,” touted by some of President Roh Moo-hyun’s aides, is premature and not feasible.

“But a proposal for a second industrial complex on the Gaeseong model may be within the realm of feasibility,” he said. “Even though few people expect the Roh government to make any covert cash payments to the North either before or after the second inter-Korean summit, the possibility that a huge economic cooperation project may be unveiled cannot be ruled out.”

Lee Hae-chan, who served prime minister and as Roh’s political adviser, said last month that President Roh would propose several joint economic projects to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il at the Oct. 2-4 summit in Pyongyang.

He cited plans to build industrial parks in the North’s port city of Nampo and other cities, modeled after the Gaeseong industrial park, as well as invest in the North’s public infrastructure projects, including the renovation of the 170-kilometer Pyongyang-Gaeseong highway.

Launching South Korean-backed tourism projects in the North’s scenic mountains modeled on the Mount Geumgang program is also considered, said Lee, a presidential hopeful of the pro-government United New Democratic Party.

Roadmap for Korean Unification

Park referred to the German reunification process as a case in point from which South Korea should take a cue for the reunification of the peninsula.

“Since March 1970, East and West Germany had held a total of nine summit talks for about 20 years before they achieved the goal of reunification,” said Park, president of Kyungnam University.

“Through the summits spanning two decades, West Germany focused on exchanges and economic cooperation with East Germany,”he said. “In return, the West demanded of the East offsets like the opening of news media and exchanged visits by separated families. Such efforts bore fruit and paved the way for eventual reunification.”

West Germany provided East Germany with $2 billion-worth economic support annually before the reunification. Even after reunification, however, a disparity in economic strength between the sides has caused many social problems in Germany, he said.

“When the two sides were reunified, a gap in economic powers between West and East Germany was a three-to-one level. The West continued to offer $150 billion worth support to the East annually for 16 years after the reunification,” he said. “Still, Germany sees a jobless rate between 15 and 20 percent and has various social problems.”

The German reunification model should serve as an important lesson for South Korea to not try to achieve Korean reunification in a hasty manner without proper preparations, said Park, who served as unification minister between 1999 and 2001 under former President Kim Dae-jung.

“I expect inter-Korean reunification will be achieved 20 to 30 years from now under the condition that a gap in economic capabilities between the South and North is to be narrowed to a five-to-one level,” he said.

“But we should not forget we are still in theearly stage of inter-Korean cooperation. It, therefore, behooves us not to make haste, although envisioning and conducting in-depth research on various ways of attaining unification should not be discouraged,”he said. “If the two Koreas are to be reunified suddenly without preparation, the unified Korea will face severer social problems and conflicts than experienced by Germany.”

Park said the idea of establishing an inter-Korean federation or confederation on the heels of the Joint Declaration issued at the end of the historic 2000 summit is premature at the moment.

The former unification minister added setting the stage for institutionalizing the inter-Korean summit should be a small but most important goal for the upcoming Roh-Kim summit.

“In Germany’s case, the institutionalization of the summit had contributed significantly to exchanges and economic cooperation between East and West Germany, laying the groundwork for tearing down the Berlin Wall,” he said. “The same is the case with Korea. Institutionalizing the inter-Korean summit is a key step toward the reunification.”

POWs, Abduction Issues

Besides issues of the North’s nuclear program and peaceful reunification, PresidentRoh should put high priority on the issue of South Korean abductees and prisoners of war (POWs) in the planned talks with Kim Jong-il, Park said.

“I cautiously anticipated that Kim will make a bold decision on the topic in exchange for Roh’s possible offer for social overhead capital investment in North Korea,” Park said, referring to the meeting between Kim Jong-il and then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in 2002.

In the summit in September 2002, Kim apologized to Koizumi for the kidnapping of Japanese nationals in return for normalizing ties with Japan. After Koizumi’s second visit to Pyongyang in 2004, the North allowed five victims to return to Japan. Japan calls on the North to allow the other victims to return home.

“It is of utmost importance that Roh broach the topic in a conciliatory way, summoning all of his diplomatic skills, love for compatriots, and humanistic instincts,” Park said. “He should find a way of accentuating the benefits that would accrue to the North should it display a constructive attitude.”

“Chairman Kim may be the only person who can spring a surprise that may spawn unexpected consequences, both positive and negative,”he continued. “`Let us hope that the surprise that will emanate from the upcoming inter-Korean summit will be of a positive variety.”

The Seoul government has been reluctant to take up the kidnapping issue not to harm relations with North Korea, especially since the Kim Dae-jung administration that advocated engagement policies toward the North.

NLL Controversy

As for a controversy over a redrawing of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the West Sea, Park said it is not desirable for the issue to be included in the summit agenda.

“Given its controversial nature in politicaland military terms, especially in the context of presidential elections in the South, I believe that it will be prudent to leave the NLL issue for future discussion in inter-Korean military talks,”he said. “But the North is certain to raise it, hence the South should be well prepared to defend its long-standing position on the issue.”

Park said Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo’s planned visit to Pyongyang with Roh would be a good opportunity to help ease tensions between the two militaries.

“Whether it would be an open or closed meeting, if Kim is able to have talks with the North Korean defense chief, that will be meaningful,”he said. “And if the two defense chiefs set a schedule for the second defense ministerial talks, that would be great.”

Kim will be the first South Korean defense minister to visit the North in the 54 years since the armistice was signed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The defense ministers from the two Koreas met in September 2000 following the first summit.

Drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, the NLL has served as the de facto maritime boundary between the two Koreas. But the North has refused to recognize the line and insisted it be nullified and redrawn.

Seoul maintains a firm stance that the NLL cannot be a matter of discussion, which it sees as a territorial concession.

The 1992 Basic Agreement stated inter-Korean inviolable borderlines and boundaries are recognized as in the armistice signedat the end of the Korean War. But the agreement added the two Koreas could discuss the matter later.

The NLL has emerged as a hot potato ahead of the summit as some government officials expressed support for discussing the matter at the summit, citing the 1992 agreement.

Presidential Chief of Staff Moon Jae-in told a National Assembly session last week if the North offers to discuss the issue, the South would accept it.

Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said last month that he believes the NLL isnot a territorial concept open to future discussions. He also said the inter-Korean naval clash in 2002 was caused by Seoul’s refusal to negotiate the NLL.

Park expected that unless the North gives up its “military-first” policy, progress in military confidence building between the South and North would take time, and it is likely to follow the escalation of economic cooperation and the building of a peace structure on the peninsula.

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Posted in Economic reform, Foreign direct investment, Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), Mt. Kumgang Tourist Special Zone, Price liberalization, Special Economic Zones (Established before 2013) | Comments Closed

Rationing in Chongjin, Increased Control of the Civilians

September 17th, 2007

Daily NK
Moon Sung Hwui
9/17/2007

According to the inside source in North Korea, it was revealed on 13th that there has been partially a rationing in Chongjin, North Hamkyung since August.

This is the first time to have checked about nation rationing in Chongjin since the first Summit held on June 15, 2000.

This rationing has begun even before the flood occurred, which was prior to August. This is strong evidence that the North Korean food shortage was not in serious state. There has been acknowledgement that there has been food rationing even after the flood in the beginning of September.

There has been a case of rationing in Moosan, North Hamgyung and some other regions during the first Inter-Korea Summit in 2000. There is high probability that this rationing could have relation to the upcoming 2nd Summit in October.

The insiders spoke on the phone that, “All of a sudden the Chongjin distribution center opened and started supplying to the workers and their families, an old and feeble persons and wounded soldiers with a 15-days-worth of food since August.”

The special rationings that occurred on special occasions, like the birthdays of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung was only given through the factories or People’s Units. The distribution center were often closed or usually used as the place for selling Chinese merchandises. The reason why the rationing has restarted through the distribution center is that the authorities are thinking of long-term rationings.

According to the inside source, the distributed food include corn, wheat and rice. It is hard to tell whether the rice was produced in the South or North because the rice was immediately packaged after it’s been produced from rice-polishing machines.

The inside source said that “Civilians are not in belief that there will be a continuance of rationing even in October, because there was just a 15-days-worth of rationing being distributed in September.” The rationing was only given to people who worked at particular factories which made profits.

Kim, who resides in Chongjin, staying in Hwoiryeong for his export business, claims that, “We have to get our attendance ballot stamped every day in our factory. For people who skip work for no particular reason, they are being ferreted out by the factory manager, and even the secretary of the Party. In the morning, there are so many meetings and conferences being held that it is difficult for us to think straight.”

Also, factories that had stopped functioning due to the electricity and resource loss, made workers show up at work and emphasized the importance of production culture and lifestyle culture, reinforcing the projects of fixing the buildings and cleaning the buildings.

“Our attendance is being reported on daily basis, so if we don’t go to work for several days, we are automatically taken to People’s Safety Agency immediately.”

For people who have made their livings through business are becoming increasingly dissatisfied by having to work in an inefficient factory. Some claim that, “Are we going back to how we used to be,” raising more concerns.

Kim states, “It’s not like they’re giving us abundant supply of food. We were able to breathe a little bit by doing our own business, but now it’s suffocating us to death.”

He added “We are now so strictly controlled with only a 15-days of rationing; can you imagine how much worse it can get if the rationing continues to supply fully in the future?”

The background of rationing has not been clear as of yet.

Kim Jong Il visited North Hamkyung for the onsite inspection in the beginning of August. This could be a temporary remedy taken by Kim Jong Il, to increase the effect of his visit. Furthermore, it could be his ways of increasing control on Hamkyung area, where the commute and trade with foreign countries is active.

The North Korean defector who came to South Korea in 2005, Park Jeong Chul (pseudonym) said, “The rationing can be a temporary remedy to appease the public anxiety with the upcoming Inter-Summit in October. It’s because North Korea has enough provisions for the army and there is pressure from the international society for North Korea to become more transparent, North Korea is pretending to oblige.”

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Posted in Agriculture, Labor conditions/wages, Public Distribiution System (PDS) | Comments Closed

North Korean Teenagers’ Drinking & Dating during the Farm Supporting Activity

September 17th, 2007

Daily NK
Kim Min Se
9/17/2007

The ethics of youth regarding sex has always been a noticeable issue in all societies. It is the same in North Korea. The fear of the youth misdemeanor is worried by both South and North Koreas.

The North Korean defectors claim that the most frequently asked question since they’ve been here was whether North Korean youth also dated.

North Korea is a place with people as well. Like all other societies, personal problems of love, hate, conflicts and atonement exist. However, due to the restriction of freedom, there is also limitation on human relationships that cannot be made single-handedly.

The North Korean youth also date. While it was forbidden to date back in the 1960s and 1970s, with the changing era, the restriction on dating has disappeared as well.

According to the North Korean defectors, the trend of dating by the youth has initiated in the main cities of North Korea from the late 1980s.

The normalization of the teenagers’ dating was from the 1990s. The coeducational school became the wildfire that incurred the trend of public dating for all middle school students in North Korea.

The differentiation of girls and boys school was changed by the single statement of Kim Il Sung.

“It is quite distressing that there is a barrier between North and South, why should we have a barrier between men and women,” encouraging all differentiation of gender to disappear in all schools nationwide. Hence then, the official names of differentiating gender on official school names have disappeared.

According to a North Korean defector Park Myung Gil (pseudonym), “In middle school, in the age of 16, it is very important for students to have a girlfriend and also participate in the gang fight.” Unless you were stupid, these two things were very important for all students.” 1990s was an era where gang fights between schools and villages were rampant.

Month-long Farm Supporting Activity Is another Factor

Park stated that, “When we go onto farm supporting activity, it is easier for us to date the female students. The fellow students would pay a visit to the dormitory of the girl until she said yes.”

Middle school students in the age range of 14 to 15 go out to the field to help farming. They go out for 40 days in spring and 15-20 days in the autumn to participate for the farm supporting activity. It is during this phase that they learn how to smoke and drink.

They gather around to drink and smoke after their fieldwork is over at night time. When you don’t participate in this night gathering, you become isolated and rejected from the crowd. Although this is supposedly done in secrecy, the teachers, even when they are aware of this, turn a blind eye to the students.

While there are many similarities between the North and the South Korean students, there are also many differences. The North Korean students drink with their teachers. They usually take a bottle of alcohol to their students and drink with them out of good will. While it is hard to imagine such things happening in South Korea, the students do not get in trouble for drinking in North Korea.

When these students participate in the long term farm supporting activity, there are accidents that follow. There are many cases of female students’ impregnation after their field-work term.

The current teenagers of North Korea are surely much more free and independent. As a result of China-North Korea trade, with the influx of cheap VCR disseminated nationwide, this would play a crucial role in liberalizing the minds of these youth. However, the sentiments felt by their parents, regardless of that be North or South, must be along the line of anxiety and worry.

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Posted in Agriculture, Alcohol, Civil society, Dating/Courting, Education | Comments Closed

Trading Places

September 16th, 2007

Korea Times
Andrei Lankov
9/16/2007

The late 1990s will go down in North Korean history as years of frantic trade activity. As a witty North Korean once put it: “There are two types of people in North Korea now: those who trade and those who are dead.”

I’ve met a number of former North Korean merchants, and today I would like to tell the story of one such woman. The story is typical in many respects, and I suspect that countless thousands of her peers would narrate something similar.

When the Dear Leader died in 1994 and things began to fall apart, Ms. Yoo was in her early 20s, doing semi-skilled work at one of the offices in the North Korean capital.

By autumn 1996, even in privileged Pyongyang, food rations were coming less and less frequently. Ms. Yoo’s office, like many other offices across the country, decided to shrink its workforce.

Every month all workers were given one week free, on the assumption they would somehow fend for themselves. They were not paid that week’s wages, and did not receive rations either.

Essentially, it was Ms. Yoo’s mother who was the brains and energy behind the entire enterprise. A kindergarten teacher, she was a typical Korean “ajumma” at her entrepreneurial best: charismatic, charming when necessary, clever andquick-witted.

Actually, Ms. Yoo did not know much about her mother’s contacts and plans.

Now, a decade later, she still remains ignorant. However, one thing was clear: the mother had good connections among the personnel of the hard currency shops.

How did she manage to acquire such connections? After all, the hard currency shops are staffed with privileged people, while a kindergarten teacher is not very high in the North Korean pecking order.

We know not. At any rate, these connections existed and this fact sealed the fate of Ms. Yoo. It was not what people would talk about so much, but Ms. Yoo believes that many of her colleagues started private trade in those years, when it began to flourish. She was no exception, but her situation was better since her mother would take care of business planning.

Ms. Yoo’s mother chose cigarettes as their major merchandise. The smuggled Chinese cigarettes sold extremely well, the packs were light and so could be easily moved by the girl in her early 20s, and profits were very high.

In late 1996 a pack of ten would cost 280 won in the borderland areas, but could be sold in Pyongyang for 400 won wholesale. Later, Ms. Yoo found ways to buy the cigarettes even cheaper, at 240 won a pack, purchasing the merchandise directly from the smugglers instead of the local go-betweens.

Mother sold the cigarettes to the hard currency shop. It is not clear what happened to the merchandise eventually. It seems that the shop managers simply pocketed the money they received from the sales of the cigarettes.

A single trip would garner a net profit of some 20,000 won, and she could go once a month (sometimes more frequently). Now consider that Ms.Yoo’s official salary was 80 won a month, and her father, a junior college teacher, received something like 150 won a month, so the black market money from the cigarettes ostensibly appears an outrageously large amount of money.

However, in the world of the Pyongyang black market, which began to emerge around that time, this was not seen as a fortune. Still, Ms. Yoo spent no more than 1,000 won a month on herself buying whatever was her fancy.

One of her more extravagant splurges was on a South Korean cosmetics set which cost 800 won, or roughly her official annual salary. At the time she did not quite realize where the goods were produced, since being a good, politically correct girl, she still believed that South Korea was populated by beggars living in constant terror of the sadistic Yankees!

But what about travel permits? After all, for decades no North Korean was allowed to leave the county without a permit issued by the police. Well, by the mid-1990s the travel permit system was in disarray with a single exception: entrance to Pyongyang remained strictly controlled.

However, in most cases money talked, and permits could be issued for a moderate bribe. However, Ms. Yoo and her mother discovered an even easier way. They did not bribe officials but bribed railway policemen, those who were on duty on the North Korean passenger trains.

For 500-1,000 won, plus free booze and some presents, a policeman would make sure that Ms. Yoo would reach her destination and come back with sacks of cigarettes, and he also would take care of her personal security.

Better still, the 500-1,000 won bribe was sufficient for few round-trip commercial expeditions. The trips were hard. The carriages were unbelievably crowded, with people packed everywhere, sitting on roofs and ladders. As Ms.

Yoo describes, “even on the roof one could not see a square centimeter of paint, people there were sitting that tight.” Another problem was the frequent delays, so the journey of some 400-500 kilometers would normally take 2-3 days. Still, the money was good, and Ms. Yoo enjoyed the adventure, and even now, ten years later, she seems to be proud of her ability strike deals, calculate profits and losses, and find suppliers.

However, Ms. Yoo’s business activity did not last for long. Somewhat against her will, she found herself lured (or kidnapped) to China and soon fate turned in a way which made a return home impossible.

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Posted in Black markets, Civil society, Economic reform, International trade, Labor conditions/wages, Price liberalization, Private property, Tobacco, Transportation | Comments Closed

Strict Regulation of Underage Prostitution

September 16th, 2007

Daily NK
Yang Jung A
9/16/2007

The “Good Friends” reported on the 12th that there has been an arrest of North Korean women who had jumped into the act of prostitution to support their family.

According to the newsletter published by Good Friends, “There was a nation-wide inspection, while there were regular evaluation meetings in the early September. This is when a large sum of the women in the prostitution business were arrested.”

According to the Good Friends, “Most of these women received a sentence of 3 years were sent to Jeungsang, South Pyongan to the labor-detention facility. Most of these women were from poor families who were talked into prostituting themselves by their mothers to supporting their family.”

The arrested women argued that, “If there were more jobs, salary or even rationing, who in their right mind would do such things for a living?”

The newsletter revealed that, “With the worsening shortage of food the number of underage prostitution has been on the rise. In Wonsan, Kangwon province, restaurants were found with rooms on the underground level in which a large group of underage children were forced into be in the activity of prostitution.”

“The seven restaurant owners and managers were sentenced to execution by a firing squad and the 40 underage children that were involved in the prostitution are currently in jail receiving indoctrination.”

The newsletter revealed that, “With the strict inspections being processed per district, the North Korean government is putting a stricter surveillance on prostitution, infiltration and drug smuggling. Last week at Hwoireong, one drug smuggler was executed in public.”

In addition, the newsletter also revealed that there is a shortage of necessities in North Korea nationwide due to the huge flood this summer.

In North Hamkyung province, the civilians are lacking three crucial necessities: rice, water and electricity.

“Due to the paralysis of transportation methods in North Hamkyung, they are not even able to receive the minimum supply for flood victims. Other regions are able to receive the partial amount of the supply for flood victims given by the South, but North Hamkyung is suffering the most out of all provinces.”

There has been a continuance of water shortage in Shinuiju since July.

The newsletter stated that, “There has not been a single drop of water in the entire city of Shinuiju. Only after September 9 were the civilians able to receive some tap water, but the tap water supply only runs from 3:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. for one hour.”

“The people in Shinuiju are not able to go to sleep because they are waiting to receive the water. The electricity is provided for five hours each day, but due to the low electric pressure, they are not even able to use the water pump.”

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Posted in Black markets, Civil society, Dating/Courting, Good Friends | Comments Closed

KFA Friday!

September 14th, 2007

kfa.JPGDPRK watchers are generally familiar with the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) and its president, Alejandro Cao de Benos.  Alejandro has joined the rest of the DPRK blogging community and launched his own blog (in Spanish).  His blog is here.

He only has a few posts so far, but he has several pages typed up on an argument he is having with a journalist from the Spanish television station, Cuatro (4).  Apparently, Alejandro took some Spanish journalists on a recent KFA delegation, and like other journalists/film makers he has delt with (here and here), he did not like their final product.

The entire show “Love the Leader of all Things” can be seen on YouTube, but it is in Spanish: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.

Here are Alejandro’s comments about the show.

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Posted in Civil society, Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, Tourism | 2 Comments »

N. Korea, Myanmar sign agreement on diplomatic cooperation

September 14th, 2007

Yonhap
9/14/2007

North Korea and Myanmar on Friday signed an agreement on cooperation between their foreign ministries, the North’s official news agency reported without providing details.

“An agreement on cooperation between the foreign ministries of the DPRK and Myanmar was inked here on Friday,” the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a dispatch from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

The DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.

The agreement is viewed as the first concrete step toward normalizing the countries’ relations since they agreed to re-establish diplomatic ties in April.

Myanmar severed its ties with the communist North in 1983 following a failed assassination attempt by North Korean agents on then South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan, who was visiting the south Asian nation.

Twenty-one people, including South Korean Cabinet ministers and presidential aides, were killed in the 1983 bombing.

Friday’s agreement was signed by the North’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong-il and his Myanmarese counterpart U Kyaw Thu, according to the KCNA report.

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Posted in Myanmar, Political economy | 1 Comment »

N.K. metals, minerals to be sold directly to South

September 13th, 2007

Hankyoreh (h/t Tim Beal)
9/13/2007

Deal would see such shipments cross the DMZ for the first time

For the first time in the more than 50 years since the Korean War, minerals produced jointly by the two Koreas will be sold in South Korea. The two countries will also start to work on developing new mine projects and will launch drilling as early as next month, Lee Han-ho, head of the Korea Resources Corp. (KORES) told the Hankyoreh in a recent exclusive interview.

Lee is one of the group of business leaders and government officials that will accompany President Roh Moo-hyun during the second-ever inter-Korean summit slated for Oct. 2-4.

“On September 5, I met with Chung Un-up, North Korean head of the Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation Association in Pyongyang, and signed a deal to sell black lead products that two Koreas jointly produced at a mine in Hwanghae Province,” Lee said. “We also agreed to work together in developing a limestone mine in Shinwon of the same province and start drilling for black lead in the Pungcheon region.”

So far, minerals produced in the North have been sold in South Korea through a third country, such as China. Every year, US$10 million to $100 million worth of originally North Korean-produced non-metals were shipped to the South. This new project will be the first time such materials produced by the two Koreas will directly cross the line that has divided the peninsula since the 1950-53 Korean War.

The cross-border shipments would also come at a time when China is working on joint ventures with the North to develop resources in the communist country. Experts see the first-ever joint production and shipment of minerals as providing a boost for inter-Korean cooperation in the resources field.

Lee was invited to the North by the Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation Association. The first shipment, amounting to 200 tons will be on the South Korean market earlier next month, with 800-1,000 tons of black lead to follow. Wonjin Co. will be responsible for the sale of the black lead, which will be used in making fire-resistant materials and carbonized steel. Eight hundred tons of black lead would be priced at around $150,000.

KORES opened a 50-50 joint venture with a North Korean firm in April last year, but its full-blown operation has been delayed until recently due to electricity shortages in the North.

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Posted in Copper, Gold, Graphite, International trade, Iron Ore, Mining/Minerals, Sand, Trade Statistics | Comments Closed

Chinese Envoy Gave N. Korea Data to South, Officials Say

September 13th, 2007

Washington Post, Page A12
Edward Cody
9/13/2007

For years, Ambassador Li Bin was China’s go-to diplomat for the tense Korean Peninsula. After studies in North Korea, Li had served several tours in the Chinese embassies in Pyongyang and Seoul. Fluent in Korean and gregarious in nature, he also struck up an unusually personal relationship with Kim Jong Il, the secretive North Korean leader.

It turns out, according to knowledgeable Chinese officials, that Li was also a resource for the South Koreans, who exploited his insider knowledge about Kim and the closed-door North Korean government. During a tour as China’s ambassador to Seoul from 2001 to 2005, the officials said, Li regularly provided the South Koreans with information on Kim, the North and China-North Korea relations.

Li’s willingness to talk got him arrested in Beijing late last year for betraying state secrets, officials said, but the exact nature of Li’s alleged transgressions remained opaque. Now, after months of interrogation, his case is being treated at the Foreign and State Security ministries as a major breach. It is believed to be the most damaging state secrets case in China since 1994, when an army general was discovered to be a spy for Taiwan.

Allegations of wrongdoing by Li first surfaced in February when South Korean media reported that he was under investigation for speaking with a journalist and leaking news of an impending visit to China by Kim. During that visit, as news outlets in most of the world reported that Kim was in Beijing, China’s government-controlled reporters kept silent, gagged by Chinese officials at the request of the security-obsessed North Korean leader.

But the Beijing-based South Korean journalist who was said to have benefited from the leak and broke the story, Park Ki Sung, wrote on a blog earlier this year that Li was not his source. The tip came from a businessman in Dandong who saw Kim’s train cross the Yalu River border and head for Beijing, Park explained.

In any case, the Chinese officials said, interrogators have discovered that Li’s disclosures went far beyond leaks to a journalist. They included a sustained supply of information on Chinese and North Korean diplomatic exchanges, the officials said, as well as gleanings from Li’s personal contacts with Kim. These tidbits were current, they added, because Li had served as Kim’s escort and interpreter during recent visits to China and again had a chance to observe the North Korean leader up close.

Li’s leaks were provided to U.S. as well as South Korean officials, the Chinese sources said. But it was unclear whether they meant Li dealt with U.S. officials or whether the information passed to South Korean officials was relayed as part of an arrangement between the closely allied U.S. and South Korean intelligence establishments.

Li also was in position to provide information on six-party negotiations led by China designed to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. In addition to China and North Korea, the talks include South Korea, the United States, Russia and Japan.

After his return to Beijing in August 2005, Li was named the Foreign Ministry’s special envoy for the Korean Peninsula, making him a point man in the six-party negotiations. During his time in that post, he gained a reputation among diplomats from other countries in the talks as a friendly and outgoing colleague, square-jawed and younger-looking than his actual age, 51.

But nine months later, Li was suddenly transferred out of the Foreign Ministry and assigned to serve as deputy mayor of Weihai, a medium-size city 380 miles southeast of Beijing on the Yellow Sea.

Such assignments are not unusual in the Chinese system, designed to broaden the experience of officials destined to rise in the party hierarchy. Four months after arriving in Weihai, however, Li was reported to be back in Beijing and under interrogation for leaking state secrets.

Some reports said he was quartered at a foreign affairs think tank through this spring, others that he was at some point put into full-time police custody. Asked about his fate, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Li no longer is associated with the ministry and its officials have no idea where he is. The government has made no announcement about the case.

In Seoul, Li earned a reputation as an extraordinarily accessible diplomat who spoke freely in South Korean society at all levels. Acquaintances said he showed a particular fondness for late-night drinking parties — a South Korean custom — and regularly downed what Seoul night owls call “bomb shots,” or whisky mixed with beer.

One acquaintance, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity, said Li’s language skills allowed him to bypass the ethnic Chinese community in South Korea and establish his own contacts. This led to feuding with the leadership of South Korea’s Chinese associations, he said, and may have resulted in negative reports to Beijing about Li’s freewheeling ways.

Several people who knew Li during his years in Seoul expressed doubt that he would take money for information, saying he had a promising future in the Communist Party and thus had little motive to enter into an overt relationship with South Korean intelligence.

“His problem was that he loved drinking too much,” said another observer who knew Li in Seoul. “And when you drink too much, you make mistakes. You become a blabbermouth.”

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50,000 to Visit Mt. Geumgang in October

September 13th, 2007

Korea Times
Ryu Jin
9/12/2007

More than 50,000 people are expected to visit Mt. Geumgang in North Korea in October, breaking the record for visitors in a single month, according to Hyundai Asan, the South Korean operator of the tourism business, Wednesday.

Hyundai Asan said that the number of people who have made reservations for the tour program for October has already exceeded 54,000, some 10,000 more than the previous record of 44,000 set in August 2005.

“All tickets for the Chuseok holiday from Sept. 22 to 26 have already been booked,’’ a Hyundai Asan spokesman said. “An average of 1,500 people will cross the border to visit the North Korean resort area around the Korean version of Thanksgiving Day.’’

In the meantime, Hyundai Asan also said that it plans to hold various cultural events including an ocarina performance by East Kimura Ocarina Band from Japan on Sept. 15 to greet the advent of autumn.

The Mt. Geumgang tourism project was launched in 1998 amid thaws between the two Koreas. The cumulative number of tourists exceeded 1.5 million in early June, boosted by the reconciliation process since the first inter-Korean summit in 2000.

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Posted in Mt. Kumgang Tourist Special Zone, Tourism | Comments Closed

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