Archive for the ‘Civil society’ Category

What about Supporting North Korean Schools and Students?

Tuesday, September 18th, 2007

Daily NK
Lee Kwang Baek
9/18/2007

According to the newsletter of “Good Friends” published recently, the students living in the dormitories of technical colleges have not been able to eat anything due to the shortage of food for more than 10 days.

If this were to be true, there is a sentiment of utter despair and helplessness since there is both the South Korea and the international society’s food support going into North Korea at the moment. There has been a food supply of 400,000 ton being exerted to North Korea since July, and there is continually a grand supply of food to assist the flood victims. How is it possible that in spite of all these efforts, there are still starving North Korean youth?

According to the newsletter, the situation has worsened to the point where the teachers and principles in schools and kindergartens have to go out on a limb to retain some food supply. In Wonsan, children of the school age are unable to attend school. They are spending their time at the market selling ice cream, vegetables or carrying goods to earn money for living. There have been schools in Hamkyung province reported to have stopped running due to this reason.

It is difficult to determine whether this phenomenon is spread out nationwide, or simply applicable to some students or specific region. However, in spite of the difficulty in determining the extent of these effects, considering the non-transparent state of the distribution of food provision, it is highly likely that these effects are spread out nationwide.

The newsletter states that students are not only responsible for their own stationeries and backpacks, but they are also for the necessary cleaning tools, desks and chairs, and even the chalks used by the teachers.

North Korean government enforced the students to pay for the operation of schools since the mid 1990s. The government collects fees for school operation, oil, and even the fee for designing tank constructions. It is said that students face hard times in even attending schools if they don’t pay these fees.

The children who should be spending their youth running around and being free are spending their study time in the market earning money. The level of begging has expanded to group theft on the streets. According to the villagers in Donglim, North Pyongan, 1 out of the 3 children is unable to attend school due to the lack of money. This is sufficient evidence of “School Breakdown” phenomenon.

There is a proverb that even God cannot salvage poverty. However, perhaps North Korea may be an exception to this proverb. The fault of school breakdown and poverty lies not in the civilians, but solely in Kim Jong Il. All of these phenomenons after one another are tragic ramifications of the ignorance and inhumane dictatorial leadership of Kim Jong Il. It is difficult to hide our distress and sorrow on the issue.

However, in retrospect, this phenomenon of school breakdown can also be perceived as the breakdown of North Korean free education system. What is the “free education system” that Kim Jong Il has so much bragged about? The nature of North Korean education is nothing but a systematic tool to make children as bullets and bombs to protect Kim Jong Il.

Was it not a tool to crush the creativity of young, intelligent minds to force them into becoming the slaves of the system? It wouldn’t be an exaggeration if we were to say that it was this education system that has created the North Korean society of today.

School breakdown phenomenon can also be interpreted as the destruction of idolization education revolved around Kim Jong Il glorification. The ideology inculcation system that bound all children and students in North Korea is finally coming to collapse.
The reason for the collapse is simple. Kim Jong Il regime is losing the strength to control it. We must carefully analyze this trend. While we must strive to stop the phenomenon of children starving and/or dropping out of schools, we must actively be supportive of the current situation that the North Korean government is losing its reign of its people.

We must focus our attention to the independent economic activities taken by the North Koreans, rather than them being dependent on the government sponsored rations. We must put our focus on restoring the practical right to live for the North Korean civilians and allow them to feel more connected to the international society, rather than Kim Jong Il ‘s regime.

The international community must come up with discerning measures to support the students and the parents to experience their independent economic activities and understand the vanity of the glorification-based education system of North Korea. It is time to carefully discern the possible remedies for individual schools and students, rather than continuing the sponsorship through Kim Jong Il regime and South Korean government.

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

Monday, 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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Trading Places

Sunday, 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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Strict Regulation of Underage Prostitution

Sunday, 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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KFA Friday!

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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N. Korea Ties Heavily Favored U.S. in Women’s World Cup

Tuesday, September 11th, 2007

Washington Post
Steven Goff
9/11/2007

CHENGDU, China, Sept. 11 — North Korea wrested a tie from the heavily favored United States women’s soccer team in the opening round of the World Cup Tuesday night, scoring two goals within four minutes after an injury to a star U.S. forward left the Americans with just 10 players on the field.

U.S. Coach Greg Ryan elected to play shorthanded in anticipation of star striker Abby Wambach returning later in the game. Wambach did return, but only after the Americans lost their one-goal lead and fell behind, 2-1.

In the 69th minute, Heather O’Reilly ripped a perfectly placed shot to the upper corner to salvage a 2-2 tie before 35,100 spectators on a rainy night at Chengdu Sports Center Stadium.

The U.S. team — which has never finished worse than third in four previous World Cups — will face 2003 runner-up Sweden here Friday and play African champion Nigeria next Tuesday in its Group B finale. The top two finishers in that group will advance to the quarterfinals.

Despite their status as the tournament favorite, the Americans learned very quickly that Tuesday’s match was not going to be easy.

Ryan offered a mild surprise in his starting lineup, moving left back Stephanie Lopez — at age 21,the team’s youngest player — into the midfield and playing with only three defenders. There had been speculation that he might also use two forwards instead of the usual three to offset North Korea’s midfield strengths, but on this night, Ryan stuck with his dangerous trio of Wambach, O’Reilly and Kristine Lilly.

The North Koreans adapted better than the Americans to the wet conditions, using their technical skill to take the early initiative and mount a steady attack. An early shot on goal skipped wide in the opening minute, and a long ball out of the back forced U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo to come off her line and smother the ball before a Korean forward could make contact.

The Americans then began to find their footing and put pressure on North Korea’s keeper. Lori Chalupny poked an eight-yard attempt wide, O’Reilly created space on the left side of the penalty area and Cat Whitehill pounded three free kicks from distance into the box.

In the 26th minute, Korean midfielder Ri Un Suk nearly broke the scoreless deadlock with a 25-yard shot that streaked fractionally wide of the left post. Thirteen minutes later, Kim Yong Ae, who had replaced the injured Ho Sun Hui midway through the half, sent a glancing header just beyond the left corner.

The best threat, however, belonged to the Americans as Wambach headed Lopez’s corner kick off the crossbar and Lilly’s rebound bid was deflected wide.

Intermission arrived without a goal. But in the second half, the match opened up.

The Americans went ahead in the 50th minute when Lilly supplied a superb pass to Wambach clear on the right side of the box. Wambach’s 14-yard attempt had just enough pace and direction to skip off goalkeeper Jon Myong Hui’s hands and fall into the far corner of the net. It was her 78th goal in 97 international appearances.

After Lilly sent a 20-yard free kick just wide of the left post, the match took a wild and unexpected turn.

Wambach bumped heads with a Korean player and suffered a cut in the back of her head. Wambach had to leave the game with blood pouring from her head. She headed toward the locker room for repairs, and had just passed behind the U.S. bench when the Koreans struck for the 58th-minute equalizer.

Solo was in proper position to handle Kil Son Hui’s rising 22-yard shot, but let the ball slide between her wet gloves and drop into the net.

Things continued to unravel for the Americans when, in the 62nd minute, Kim Yong Ae took advantage of a wayward U.S. clearance and slid a 12-yard shot into the far corner, putting the Koreans ahead and sparking a wild celebration on the field and in the stands.

Wambach returned two minutes later, bringing the U.S. team back to full strength. In the 69th minute, Lilly’s cross was deflected twice to O’Reilly, who stung a 10-yarder into the top far corner.

Solo made amends for her earlier gaffe with a spectacular diving save on a laser shot by Ri Un Gyong. In a pregame news conference, FIFA President Joseph “Sepp” Blatter expressed concern about the lopsided result of Monday’s tournament opener — an 11-0 victory by Germany over Argentina — and the ramifications it might have on the organizing body’s decision on whether to expand the field to 24 teams from 16 in 2011.

“Definitely, I did not like this result,” he said. “This is not good when we look forward to the future to perhaps have 24 teams.”

However, in response to a follow-up question, Blatter added: “It’s only the first match. For us, it will be good if we can open this competition because in 1995 I said the future of football is feminine and it is still feminine.”

FIFA (the International Federation of Association Football) will decide this fall whether to expand the field and also determine the host country for the 2011 tournament. Canada, Germany, Australia and Peru are the top candidates, Blatter said.

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U.S.-N.K. exchanges flourishing

Tuesday, September 11th, 2007

Korea Herald
Lee Joo-hee
9/11/2007

Informal exchanges between the United States and North Korea are thriving against the backdrop of maturing nuclear negotiations at the six-party talks, news reports said yesterday.

The exchanges vary from invitations to cultural and sports events, to a sightseeing tour in the United States by North Korean officials.

North Korea invited the New York Philharmonic Orchestra last month to play in Pyongyang. The renowned orchestra is yet to accept the offer, but the U.S. State Department has already said that it was up to them to make the decision, despite the embargo on travel and trade with the North.

Washington has also approved a tour around the capital city by the members and families of North Korean U.N. representatives this past weekend. The North Korean diplomats were usually restricted from traveling outside New York City.

A North Korean Taekwondo sports team is set to compete in exhibition matches in the United States next month.

The string of events is in stark contrast to just a year ago, when the North’s missile test in July chilled relations between the United States and North Korea.

Back then, bilateral contacts with the communist regime were still taboo under President George W. Bush’s policy.

With progress in the six-party talks, the cultural and informal exchanges appear to be flourishing hand-in-hand with increasing political exchanges, the reports said.

The latest progress on the nuclear front is the arrival of a U.S. delegation headed by Sung Kim, deputy chief of the U.S. negotiating team to the nuclear talks. He arrived in Seoul yesterday before starting a five-day trip to the North to discuss disabling the North’s nuclear facilities.

In the meantime, three North Korean boxers are to participate in the World Boxing Championships opening in Chicago next month — for the first time in over 10 years.

An information and human resources exchange program between Syracuse University of the United States and Kim Chaek University of Technology of North Korea also resumed recently. The program was halted following Pyongyang’s nuclear test last October. Upon the resumption, the United States reportedly approved a three-month visa for North Korean officials this month, compared to a 10-day visa in the past.

In February, the American Association for the Advancement of Science hosted an academic seminar with North Korean officials to discuss science and technology cooperation.

The United States and North Korea are currently discussing ways to normalize diplomatic relations in return for the North’s nuclear disablement as part of the denuclearization agreement reached at the six-party talks.

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North Korea: Brainwashing in reverse

Tuesday, September 11th, 2007

Asia Times
Sunny Lee
9/11/2007

BEIJING – This was certainly not one of your normal press briefings. The venue was unusual – Pyongyang. Last week, North Korea’s National Security Agency invited its propaganda news arm and a handful of foreign media there to announce a botched espionage plot against its “major military facilities and places of vital strategic importance”.

“The state security organ of the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] arrested moles working for a foreign intelligence service, a [foreign] agent, and seized their spying equipment,” North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. 
 
The foreign intelligence service had approached some North Korean citizens traveling abroad with “money, sexual gratification and blackmail” and turned them into its spies, National Security Agency spokesman Li Su-gil said at the briefing, held at the People’s Palace of Culture in Pyongyang on Wednesday.

According to Lee, the foreign intelligence body had these recruits undergo an anti-communist brainwashing session and taught them how to collect intelligence data as well as how to use electronic equipment for spying.

“Their duty was also to collect information on the ideological tendencies of the [North Korean] people and, at the same time, to create an illusion about the ‘free world’ among some key officials and lure them out to third countries,” the KCNA said.

Pyongyang said the foreign intelligence service had sent its agent to North Korea posing as a businessman and commanded the spy activities. But “the counterespionage officers of the DPRK who had watched every movement of the enemy arrested them on the spot while they were exchanging the data”, the KCNA said.

“This is the first time North Korea has announced such news publicly,” said Li Dunqiu, a well-known Chinese government analyst on North Korea. Li, however, politely declined to discuss the issue further, citing its sensitivity.

Yoo Ho-yeol, professor of Korean politics and foreign policy at Korea University, said, “Not only did they announce it publicly, but the press briefing also included very concrete details. Further, the spokesman of the secretive National Security Service made the announcement himself. That’s unusual.”

At the security agency’s press conference, spokesman Lee went into details about the case, including that the spies had used the Global Positioning System and Sony transmission equipment, and then took questions from reporters. The whole scene was staged very much like a press conference.

China’s Xinhua news agency aired the news first. There are a handful of foreign reporters in North Korea, including from China and Russia. Pyongyang also has a bureau for the television arm of the Associated Press, where locally hired employees transmit television footage to the that media agency. Reporters with Japan’s Kyoto news agency are also allowed to visit Pyongyang roughly once every two months.

At the press briefing, neither the identity of the spy nor his nationality was disclosed. The fact that North Korea didn’t name the country was meant “to warn any country that attempts to overthrow the regime”, said Koh Yoo-hwan, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University in Seoul.

“As North Korea is slowly opening up to the outside world, more and more foreign humanitarian-aid organizations and businessmen are visiting North Korea these days. That means more North Koreans are meeting foreigners,” Koh said. “That, however, poses a threat to the North. So the announcement has two purposes. On one hand, it was meant to overhaul its internal system, and on the other hand, it was an expression of will to let the world know that it won’t allow any outside attempt to overthrow the regime.”

Yoo concurred with Koh: “North Korea is already on a track to open up to the outside world. In the process, there will be increased contact between North Koreans and foreigners. In this transitional period, Pyongyang feels the need to strengthen its internal supervision.”

Li Su-gil warned that although on the surface there has been an improvement of relations between North Korea and other countries, “There is also an intensifying foreign intelligence effort to oppose our system and our people. That is happening even when there are dialogue and negotiation under way. Especially, the dark tentacles of the foreign intelligence agencies are focusing on our military facilities and gathering information necessary for preemptive strikes.”

Yoo, who visited North Korea early last month, said the country appears somewhat edgy during this “opening-up” period. “In my previous visits, they had allowed me to take pictures freely, but this time they wouldn’t. They only allowed me to take pictures at tourist spots and at certain angles.

“North Korea knows that when foreigners take pictures, the pictures can be circulated in the outside world. So they carefully choose what to show and what not to show to the outside world. I got the feeling that they have become much more sensitive on that lately,” Yoo said.

Nonetheless, Yoo believes that the fact that North Korea went public about the case is a departure from its past secretive practices. “Spy activities in any country are subject to legal punishment, including in the US. Although North Korea is a somewhat peculiar country, it also has relevant laws. In a sense, it is using the tools used by the international community.”

Yoo added that North Korea is expected to do a follow-up announcement and disclose the identity of the spy and the prison term he will receive.

While Pyongyang keeps the identity of the spy in the dark, Professor Yoo believes he is very likely Japanese. “Only certain nationalities in the world can enter North Korea relatively easily and frequently. There are Chinese and Russians. If the spy were from one of these countries, given that they are ideological allies to North Korea, Pyongyang would have resolved it quietly.”

According to Yoo, using the media is a strategy publicly to pressure the country from which the spy came. And the timing of Pyongyang’s announcement is the key: it came on the same day North Korea started normalization negotiations with Japan in Ulan Bator.

At the negotiation, North Korea demanded Japanese compensation for its past occupation of the Korean Peninsula and the lifting of economic sanctions, while Japan demanded a full account of 17 of its nationals allegedly kidnapped by North Korea some three decades ago.

The talks, however, ended without a breakthrough. Over the weekend, Japan announced that it would extend economic sanctions on North Korea for another six months.

Professor Yoo did not raise the possibility of the spy being a South Korean. Many South Korean business people travel to the North via China. North Korea is scheduled to hold a summit with the South early next month.

North Korea’s past nabbing of foreign spies includes citizens from the US and Japan, and Chinese of Korean descent.

Koh of Dongguk University said the very fact that the leaders of the two Koreas meet is an achievement in its own right, adding that the meeting will yield some “meaningful results”.

“It’s a meeting that the top leader of North Korea himself attends. If it doesn’t bear any fruit, then it will also become a burden for Kim Jong-il,” Koh said.

Koh reasons that if Kim doesn’t score major achievements at the summit, it will corner the Dear Leader politically, because it will give more political leverage to the hardline military faction that opposes engagement with South Korea.

Yoo disagreed. “The timing [of the summit] is very bad. It comes right before the presidential election in South Korea. It will be a gamble if the Seoul government tries to use the summit to influence the election outcome. For that to happen, North Korea has to make some surprising decisions, including those related to the six-party talks [on nuclear disarmament]. Seoul, in response, will pledge massive economic aid.

“But North Korea knows well that whatever promises the current South Korean government makes, it is up to the next administration to decide whether to carry them out. So there is this uncertainty. I think the two sides approach the summit with a relatively low expectation.”


Joong Ang Daily

9/6/2007

North Korea said yesterday it had arrested spies working for an unspecified foreign country who were collecting intelligence on the communist state’s military and state secrets.

It said a foreign spy agency had trapped “some corrupt” North Koreans traveling abroad by using money, sex and blackmail and turned them into moles, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

“Recently, the National Security Service of the DPRK has arrested spies who were recruited by a foreign spy agency and the agent who was directing them,” it said.

The agent posed as a businessman, it said, adding the spies’ missions included taking pictures and drawing maps of key military facilities.

They were also asked to collect documents on military and state secrets and spread the ideas of freedom and democracy to key figures so that they would flee the authoritarian North, the KCNA said.

“Anti-espionage agents of the DPRK, who had been watching them closely, arrested on the spot those spies and the agent who had been giving the spies espionage equipment including global positioning systems,” it said.

Neither their identities nor the foreign country involved were revealed.

Earlier, a spokesman for North Korea’s National Security Service told reporters in Pyongyang that an unspecified number of foreigners were caught as they were conducting espionage activities, according to Xinhua.

Several North Korean nationals were also arrested for helping the alleged spies, Xinhua cited the spokesman, Li Su-Gil, as saying.

“We arrested those spies when they were busy transmitting information, and they will be brought to justice under DPRK law,” said the spokesman.

Li said the arrests of the spies showed espionage activities against communist North Korea were on the rise, despite a recent improvement in its relations with other nations.

“The situation on the Korean Peninsula seems to be easing up on the surface, but in fact hostile forces are intensifying their espionage against the DPRK,” Li said.

“The goal of hostile forces is to start a psychological war against the DPRK and overthrow socialism and the regime in our country. The people and security service will remain on high alert for this.”

The talk of an improving situation on the peninsula was apparently a reference to progress in multilateral talks aimed at disarming North Korea.

Those talks have led to North Korea and the United States beginning discussions that could eventually see them establish normal diplomatic relations.

Li said the spies had used a wide range of equipment including digital and pinhole cameras.

At the press conference, footage was shown of apparently captured spy equipment, including a fake rock containing a satellite communications gadget and a listening bug in a flower pot, according to Xinhua.

China is North Korea’s closest political and military ally, and one of the few nations allowed to have journalists based in Pyongyang.

North Korean NSA Arrested Foreign Spies
Daily NK

Yang Jung A
9/6/2007

The Xinhua, a Chinese news agency, reported on the 5th that the National Security Agency (NSA) of North Korea arrested a number foreign spies and North Korean citizens on suspicion of espionage.

The NSA held a press conference and announced that it had arrested foreign alleged spies and native citizens working for a foreign intelligence service, according to the Xinhua.

It is unprecedented that the North Korean authorities revealed the espionage issue publicly; even more surprising is the fact that authorities released this information to the foreign media. Therefore, the underlying reasons for these actions are under speculation.

The spokesperson, Li Su Gil claimed that the foreign spies had collected North Korean official documents and information on important military facilities and had spread the idea of democracy and freedom to the people. Additionally, Li proclaimed they would be brought to justice under North Korean law.

However, the NSA did not reveal further details on the alleged spies such as the number of suspects, their nationalities, when, where or how they were arrested.

According to Xinhua, Li said they had performed their tasks using advanced technology such as digital cameras, pinhole cameras, GPS, even a fake rock containing a satellite communications device, a bug in a flowerpot and other devices of espionage. The NSA showed footage which captured the rigging of these devices at the press conference.

Spokesperson Li stated that the situation of the Korean Peninsula seems to be easing up on the surface, but in fact hostile forces are intensifying their espionage against North Korea.

He added that “The goal of hostile forces is to instigate psychological warfare against North Korea and overthrow socialism and the regime in our country. The people and the security service will remain on high alert.”

So far, the North Korean authorities have been communicating the “espionage issue by the American imperialists” to the people through public lectures, but have yet to release information regarding the NSA’s formal announcement to Rodong Shinmun, North Korea’s state-controlled newspaper.

Therefore, there is much speculation as to the nature of the NSA’s sudden announcement to the foreign media regarding this espionage issue.

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Spread of Religion among North Korean Soldiers

Monday, September 10th, 2007

Daily NK
Kim Yong Hun
9/10/2007

It was reported that a religion criticizing Socialism has been on the spread in North Korea’s army, and various publications and CDs relaying information on South Korea has been transmitted in secrecy.

It is the first time ever to be reported that there has been a spread of religion within the North Korean army.

On the 6th of September, the Committee for Democratization of North Korea collected and revealed an educational-purpose document, which was issued by the Chosun People’s Army Publishing Department. This 18-page manuscript, issued in March, 2007, was used in the two months following to educate soldiers and commissioned officers about the increase in soldiers relying on religion and foreign publications. According to the document, there is a need to re-indoctrinate the North Korean People’s Army in order to suppress the inflow of capitalism.

It warned that, “We should not look, listen, read the documents, broadcastings and video or audio materials made by the enemy. The enemy is using Radio and TV to launch false propaganda through well-made, strategic news and intrigue.” and “While the enemy continues to attack us with their political indoctrination, our soldiers must not sway to their influence. We must block off all means of broadcasting through which the enemies can trespass.”

The document states that “the CDs, recordings and publications from the enemies all contain information about their development of and the prosperity of capitalism. Their corruptive culture and lifestyle is embellished ingeniously in such a strategic manner. The signalmen must comply with all rules when using their radiotelegraph and every soldier must work to confiscate small-sized semiconductor radios and pocket-sized TVs.”

The reason why the North Korean military is complying with educational-purpose philosophy indoctrination is because the wide-spread transmission among soldiers of South Korean dramas, CDs, and publications that contain information on capitalistic society is seen as a serious problem.

In particular, the report advises very strictly that the soldiers not be dazzled by religion, and to pursue socialism no matter what. It conveys that religion is not only taking over the regular citizens but is becoming an influence within the army of North Korea.

The document states that, “The enemy is sending bibles, audio and video materials related to religion and superstition through various routes. They are placing spies within international delegations entering our borders to spread their religions and superstitious beliefs and win our citizens over to their side.”

In addition, “Religion and superstition are like poison that corrupts socialism and paralyzes class consciousness. Our soldiers must, more than ever, instigate a revolutionary awakening to defy the enemies’ maneuvers.”

It continues on, cautioning that “soldiers must be wary of superstition, religion and the foreign lifestyle, and when they find evidence of such things, must immediately stop them from spreading further. We must not get involved in the enemy’s strategic propaganda. Getting involved in the psychological warfare of enemies is considered high treason; and therefore, we must fight against it, considering this issue an emergency.”

It is also emphasized that, “Alcohol, Sex and Money are poisons that ruin our ideology and belief. We must increase the ideological indoctrination, ideological struggle and legal struggle in order to fight the spread of these elements of capitalistic ideology.”

The Committee for Democratization of North Korea revealed that “According to North Korean defectors, there have been consecutive economic downfalls since the nuclear tests, causing much difficulty in the daily lives of North Korean citizens. It is known that the situation for soldiers has worsened as well.”

The educational-purpose document is a kind of propaganda tool explaining background, measures, and outlines of the domestic state. Different indoctrination documents are distributed to different groups of individuals: what is disseminated among politicians differs from that which is given to workers or military.

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Pyongyang Vice: Tale of Veteran-Students

Monday, September 10th, 2007

Daily NK
Park Choel Yong
9/10/2007

Army Veterans in North Korea can have bright futures once accepted into college. In North Korea, serving in the Armed Forces, party membership, and college diplomas are three main keys for success.

However, a Veteran matriculate is not necessarily awarded with a diploma after four years.

Veteran-students without money or parental auspice would have to suffer turbulent years leading up till graduation.

First of all, most of them acknowledge that they are too old to study ardently (since veterans have spent at least seven to eight years in the Armed Forces); therefore, Veteran-students do not hesitate to take shortcuts.

Every North Korean university/college is organized as if it were a military academy. In this semi-military college student environment, Veterans usually take an officer role and often take advantage of their position, taking bribes from other students.

As another vice, some Veteran-students commit adultery while in college. An ex-serviceman studying in college and communist party members are the most eligible bachelors in North Korea. Many rich parents encourage their daughters to marry with collegiate Veterans.

Exploiting their popularity, some Veterans have wives to support in their hometowns, but engage with another woman in Pyongyang. Some even divorce their under-educated and less-privileged wives to marry their mistresses.

Often times, a divorced wife of a Veteran-student will come to the college in Pyongyang and seek help at the party office.

Some Veteran-students boast “There is a nice way to shut them (divorced wives) up!” The ‘way’ is demanding huge sums of money from the parents-in-law. The wife’s parents will be shocked, will tire of the petition, and eventually, the call for divorce will come from the other side.

A Veteran-student from my college never let his wife leave his hometown to visit him in Pyongyang because she was too rustic.

An additional area of concern is that Veteran-students frequently instigate fist fights.

The Veterans, who sweat and bled on the drill field, can not allow other students to regard themselves as being in the same class. So they bully other students into revering them, and often fight with those who refuse to do so.

At other times, these Veteran-students will provoke quarrels with police or traffic officers.

Their fighting ability ranks top, but academically, they are pitiful; yet they make no efforts to overcome the disadvantage.

Veteran-students learn how to exploit a situation. And as soon as they are appointed as party leaders after graduation from college, ex-servicemen tend to pursue power and money by preying on their subordinates.

North Korean people used to call American imperialists “wolves” (a very derogatory term). However, more people now have begun to redirect the term toward party officials, who were once Veteran-students themselves.

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