Free North Korea!

Several More South Korean POWS Said To Have Escaped NK And Are Hiding In China

Its about time. Several defectors who have served as both inmates and guards in various prison facilities in North Korea have stated that both South Korean and American POWs still languish in North Korean prison camps. A much larger number are known to be living involuntarily as civilians in North Korea. Why does the South Korean government downplay this issue so aggressively? They have enough leverage. If they made the effort, they could quite possibly get these people and even their families as well, back.

12/28/03

More Southern POWs Said Hiding in China

The government has confirmed that besides Jeon Yong-il, 72, who returned to South Korea last Wednesday from China, three or four more South Korean prisoners of war (POW) are hiding in China after having escaped from North Korea. The government is currently trying to locate the POWs.

A government official said Sunday that after referencing the list of the names of those who were killed in the wars and mortuary tablets in the National Memorial Board, three or four North Korean escapees, including a 70-year old man named Ha in Yanji, China, have been confirmed to be southern POWs.

The profiles of the POWs had been submitted to related ministries, such as the Ministry of Defense, by non-governmental organizations that support North Korean defectors. Some of the POWs are said to have been high-ranking officers.

An official at the Ministry of Defense said that as the existence of South Korean POWs has been confirmed, once their exact whereabouts are verified and government officials make contact with them, the government would take an active role in bringing the POWs back by negotiating with the Chinese government.

Meanwhile, 19 North Korean defectors and one South Korean woman were arrested on Thursday and are being held by the Chinese police.

Chinese security forces raided Hong Jin-hee's residence in Beijing, and arrested the 19 North Koreans last Thursday night, said Hong's mother. Hong, 35, has been helping North Koreans in Beijing who want to go to South Korea. Hong's mother pleaded with the government to promptly investigate the case and asked for diplomatic efforts to keep the defectors from being forcefully repatriated.

The government ordered the South Korean Embassy in China to inquire into the situation before beginning negotiations with the Chinese government for the safe passage of the North Koreans, an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.

Chosun Ilbo

40 N. Korean Asylum Seekers in Thailand Hope to Land in S. Korea

SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Yonhap) -- Forty North Koreans have sneaked into Thailand and are now seeking asylum in South Korea, a U.S.-based broadcaster said Friday.

The 30 women and 10 men arrived in Thailand via China and Laos, hoping for a chance to defect to South Korea, said Radio Free Asia. They were put either under Thai government custody or protection by a religious group in Thailand, it said.

Yonhap News Agency

Nineteen North Korean Escapees, One South Korean Helper Detained By Chinese Authorities In Foil Of Freedom Bid

One S.Korean, 19 N.Koreans Under Detention in China

SEOUL, Dec. 28 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean activist was arrested by Chinese authorities along with 19 North Koreans he was trying to help defect to South Korea, the activist's mother said Sunday.

Ju Young-hui said she was informed of the arrests by a Korean-Chinese driver who was arrested along with others but released on a bail.

Yonhap News

In Interview, Hwang Jang-Yop Says Best Way To Pursuade North To Change Is Strong-Willed Policy

NK Defector Says U.S., Japan Should Prepare for War
(Chosun Ilbo)
by Jung Kwon-hyun (khjung@chosun.com)

TOKYO - Hwang Jang-yeop, the former secretary of the North Korean Workers’ Party and the highest-ranking Northern defector in history, said in an interview with the Japanese newspaper Sankei that the United States and Japan should not yield to North Korea and should be determined to go to war if diplomacy on the Korean peninsula fails.

Hwang said that he was not saying the United States and Japan should go to war against North Korea. But the powerful alliance and determination of the two countries could drive a wedge between North Korea and China, which would consequently facilitate the fall of Kim Jong-il’s regime, Hwang said.

Hwang said that some people think that China could persuade North Korea to change its policy, but China would not do so and is not even willing to do. Kim Jong-il will now resort to threats of war, he said, adding that if the United States and Japan give in to the threat, compromise or to ask China to arbitrate, it would be exactly what Kim Jong-il wants.

The best way to bring down Kim’s regime is to induce an internal collapse without a war, Hwang said. It is also important for the world community to put pressure on the North regarding the country’s violations of human rights, he added.

Asked if he thought that Kim Jong-il might consider the arrest of Hussein a kind of pressure-tactic, Hwang said that only Kim would know.

Outgoing World Food Program NK Country Director Sees Progress, Frustration, but Appears Guardedly Optimistic

This article is from channelnewsasia.com

After three long years in North Korea, WFP director still hopeful

BEIJING : After three long years in North Korea, Rick Corsino, the former country director for the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP), remains hopeful in the face of a dire situation.

Although he is firmly dedicated to his mandate to help feed the world's poor, he is well aware of the difficulties ahead, both politically and economically, if North Korea ever hopes to return to any semblance of self-sufficiency.

Corsino, who departed last week for a posting in Angola, spoke with AFP about the situation in the Communist country, which has survived nine straight years of food shortages largely by becoming the biggest recipient ever of WFP aid.

"We are doing the right thing by being there," said Corsino, the longest-residing US resident in one of the world's most closed societies.

"Over the time I've been there, there have been improvements. We've seen the nutritional levels of the children rise, but still there is a lot of work that needs to be done."

The Pennsylvania native does not like to comment on the stalled six-nation talks on Pyongyang's nuclear capabilities, nor think too much about the improvements North Korea could expect if it normalized relations with South Korea, the United States and Japan.

What has been on his mind is how to feed and care for 6.5 million starving people who are going through another brutal winter.

He also rejected accusations that WFP aid has only worked to extend the reign of Kim Jong-Il, while acknowledging that all issues in North Korea revolve around how to guard against "outside military threat."

"Certainly there is a correlation between successful (six-nation) talks and improving the situation there, but I'm not certain how strong that correlation is," Corsino said.

Although a successful conclusion to the talks, which also involve China, the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia, will not necessarily open diplomatic relations between the main antagonists, it could work to bring in more aid.

"If the (North Korean) government opens more, it could allow more multilateral agencies to get in there to do more," Corsino said.

"Multilateral banks, like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, could be a source of infrastructure investment and could provide North Korea with the commercial direction that is badly needed."

For this, however, North Korea would have to bring its transparency levels up to that expected by international agencies and donor governments, an issue that the WFP has constantly urged Pyongyang to do.

"What they need is improvements in infrastructure, they need to be able to produce fertilizer, good seeds, improve irrigation, energy, and transportation," Corsino said.

"If they can get help with their infrastructure, they can increase and stabilize food production, which will help improve the whole situation."

With over 1.5 billion dollars worth of food aid already channeled by the WFP into North Korea over eight years, Corsino said he has detected friction among government officials over the extent to which the country should open up.

"There is a cadre of officials within the country that believe engagement is a good thing, but you have to remember that North Korea is an extremely closed-off country and there is no homogenous view on how to deal with foreigners," he said.

"I think there are a lot of people in North Korea who understand that greater openess will help the country, but whether or not they can convey it to the decision makers is another question."

Although North Korea in 2003 had its best harvest in nine years, a cut-off in fuel aid by the United States, South Korea and Japan two years ago ensured that much of the country will be without sufficient heat and electricity this winter.

"The winter is cold, there is not enough food, sanitation is bad, water is not always available and it is not clean, these things all add up," he said.

"The smallest thing can be disastrous. If you catch a cold, it can easily become pneumonia, if you get pneumonia you are gone, there is no medical treatment."

China Upholds Ruling on Korean Photographer

(Korea Times, Dec 23, 2003)
By Seo Soo-min
Staff Reporter

A Chinese appeals court last week upheld a lower court’s ruling sentencing a South Korean journalist to two years in prison for helping North Korean refugees out of China, officials said on Tuesday.

``At a court session last Friday, a Chinese judge gave Seok Jae-hyun a two-year prison term and fine of 5,000 yuan (about 720,000 won), rejecting his appeal,’’ a Foreign Affairs-Trade Ministry official said on Tuesday.

Seok, 33, is a freelance photojournalist who did work for The New York Times.

He was caught last January assisting in a failed attempt to smuggle North Korean refugees out of China by boat.

``We were hoping the Chinese government would listen to our repeated appeals to release Seok at an early date,’’ the official said.

Seok’s family are planning to apply for his extradition after Jan. 18, when he will have served half of his prison term and be eligible for parole, he added.

About 10 South Korean citizens have been caught by Chinese authorities helping North Korean refugees escape to South Korea. Many of them are Christian pastors or missionaries affiliated with other religions.

``This is too severe a punishment for helping North Korean refugees,’’ an activist campaigning for Seok’s release told Yonhap News Agency.

South Korea is wedged between those who demand Seoul play a more proactive role on the refugee issue and China, which stands firmly by North Korea and argues the defectors are lawbreakers.

ssm@koreatimes.co.kr

Human Rights Watch Asks Us To Protest Sham Trial of Vietnamese Dissident for Among Other Things, Testifying Before US Congress

Human Rights Watch: Vietnam: Protest Trial of Dissident

Charges Include Testimony to U.S. Congress

(New York, December 30, 2003) - The international community
should protest the trial of a Vietnamese dissident on spying
charges scheduled for December 31, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty
International said today.

In a joint statement, the two human rights organizations called
for Nguyen Vu Binh's immediate and unconditional release.

According to Vietnamese sources, Nguyen Vu Binh - a 35-year-old
journalist, writer and advocate of peaceful political reform -
will be tried on spying charges on December 31. The case against
him includes slandering the Vietnamese state for abuse of human
rights in written testimony to the U.S. Congress in July 2002.

Political trials of this kind in Vietnam routinely conclude in a
matter of hours, without due process and with heavy jail
sentences handed down to those convicted, decided in advance by
the Vietnamese government. Under article 80 of Vietnam's Penal
Code, spying is punishable by 12 to 20 years' imprisonment, a
life sentence, or the death penalty.

"Nguyen Vu Binh faces a summary trial and hefty jail term for
speaking out against abuse," said Rory Mungoven, global advocacy
director at Human Rights Watch. "The U.S. Congress, which heard
testimony from Binh last year, has a responsibility now to
protest his case."

Binh, who received the prestigious Hellman/Hammett writers' award
in 2002, was a journalist at the official Communist Party of
Vietnam journal, Communist Review (Tap Chi Cong San) for almost
10 years. In December 2000 he resigned from his post to attempt
to form an independent political party - the Liberal Democratic
Party. He was also one of several dissidents who attempted to
form an Anti-Corruption Association in 2001.

Binh was arrested on September 25, 2002 and has since been held in
incommunicado detention. His wife and family members were refused
access to him in prison. One month before his arrest, Binh
criticized a controversial border treaty with China in an article
entitled "Some Thoughts on the China-Vietnam Border Agreement,"
which was distributed on the Internet.

"Vietnam should stop criminalizing free expression by arresting
democracy activists on charges of spying and other vaguely-worded
`national security' crimes,' said Daniel Alberman, Southeast Asia
researcher from Amnesty International. "Nguyen Vu Binh has never
advocated the use of violence."

Binh was earlier detained on July 20, 2002, when he was brought in for
several days of questioning by the Public Security Ministry after
he signed a group petition to the government and sent written
testimony about human rights violations in Vietnam to a briefing
sponsored by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in Washington,
D.C.

To read Binh's July 2002 testimony to U.S. Congress, go to:
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2003/12/29/vietna6887.htm

North Korea "Agrees" to Talk about Nukes

N Korea 'agrees to nuclear talks'
North Korea has agreed to take part in a new round of six-nation talks on the future of its nuclear programme, China's vice foreign minister has said.

"North Korea has agreed to a new round early next year," Wang Yi said on Chinese television after returning from a trip to Pyongyang.

A first round of talks ended in August without agreement.

Earlier this week Washington said it would donate 60,000 tonnes of food aid to North Korea.

But the United States has also urged North Korea to follow Libya's example in pledging to abandon weapons of mass destruction.

Speaking on 24 December, the same day as the aid announcement, Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Pyongyang to "get smart" and join the international community in productive co-operation.

No date has been fixed for the resumption of talks.

China, the two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia, held inconclusive talks in August aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.

Correspondents say Beijing has continued to play a key role in seeking to convey North Korea's concerns to the West.

The nuclear crisis was sparked in October 2002 when Washington accused Pyongyang of having a secret nuclear weapons programme in violation of a 1994 agreement.

Washington suspended oil fuel shipments to North Korea, and North Korea responded by removing monitoring devices from its Yongbyon nuclear plant and kicking out nuclear inspectors.

Pyongyang has since pulled out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and announced it had started reprocessing its spent nuclear fuel rods.

North Korea has demanded a formal non-aggression treaty which promises that the US will not attack.

Washington wants the nuclear programme scrapped first, but it has offered Pyongyang a written security guarantee stopping short of a formal treaty.

South Korean POW Returns After Long Imprisonment in North

There are literally tens of thousands of these forgotten South Korean prisoners and abductees in the North. When will the South put some more energy into getting them back!? This man was almost returned to North Korea, where he would have faced a very harsh punishment for trying to escape.

Ex-POW Has Teary Reunion With Long-Lost Family

By Ryu Jin
(Korea Times)

A South Korean prisoner of war who recently returned home after 50 years in North Korea had an emotional reunion with his family on Friday.

``Please forgive me, a foolish brother,’’ the 72-year-old Chon Yomg-il said, embracing his two sisters and brother during their teary reunion at the Defense Ministry.

The banquet hall turned into a sea of tears as Chon’s siblings, who took a train to Seoul early in the morning, walked into the meeting room. They hugged and rubbed cheeks in a mixture of sorrow and happiness.

Chon showed special affection for his younger sister Chon Pun-i, calling her childhood name ``kkutppun.’’

``Kkutppuna! I promised to give you a ride on my back,’’ the elderly returnee said.

``You returned alive! Now it’s okay,’’ his 58-year-old sister replied. She was just five when her brother joined the Army during the war.

A native of Yongchon, North Kyongsang Province, Chon was conscripted in December 1951 at the age of 19. He was captured in one of the last battles of the 1950-53 Korean War, starting a 52-year-long separation.

He escaped North Korea in May by swimming across the Tumen River into China, where he was detained for 41 days after being arrested while trying to board a Seoul-bound flight with a forged passport. He came close to being deported to the North, but the South Korean government intervened after pleas from human rights activists.

Chon will likely be allowed to live together with his family members from late January after being questioned by the state intelligence agency for the next couple of weeks.

He is expected to receive at least 420 million won ($350,200) from the government in delayed payments, military pension and the housing expenses, according to the ministry.

North Korea Holds out Family Visits as Bait In Hopes Of Re-Capturing Ex-Abductees

North Korea offers family reunion for kidnapped Japanese in Pyonyang; Japan rejects proposal

Associated Press

TOKYO - North Korea has offered to reunite five Japanese abductees _ now at home after decades in the communist country _ with the families they left behind in the North and to consider letting them all settle permanently in Japan, an official said Thursday.

But the abductees would have to visit Pyongyang first, said Katsuei Hirasawa, a Japanese lawmaker who met with North Korean officials over the weekend.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said if North Korea was serious, it should contact the government directly. But some officials were critical of the offer, saying there was no guarantee the abductees or their families would be allowed to return to Japan.

The dispute over the fate of the abductees has chilled relations between the two countries, after a brief thaw following a historic summit in September last year.

During the summit in Pyongyang, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il reversed decades of denials and acknowledged that its spies had kidnapped 13 Japanese during the 1970s and 80s to train the North's agents in Japanese language and customs.

North Korea later agreed to let the five known survivors return for a brief visit in October 2002, but they were forced to leave behind their seven children. One of the survivors left behind her American husband, an alleged Army deserter.

After arriving in Japan, the five decided to stay for good, prompting angry recriminations from the North.

North Korean officials met Japanese lawmakers in China on Saturday and Sunday and told them Pyongyang was ready to solve the kidnapping issue, Hirasawa said.

"The North Korean side wanted the abductees to fly to Pyongyang to see their families and said it would do its utmost to let those who wanted to come to Japan do so," Hirasawa told reporters.

Tsutomu Nishioka, a member of the abductees' support group who attended the meetings as an observer, said they also offered to let Japanese lawmakers and reporters accompany the abductees.

Pyongyang had previously made the abductees' trip to Pyongyang a precondition for talks about their future.

But Hirasawa called the proposal "unacceptable."

"North Korean officials didn't offer 100 percent guarantees that the abductees could return to Japan," he said.

Prime Minister Koizumi said such discussions should be arranged between government representatives.

"If North Korea really intends to allow the abductees' families to come to Japan, it should be contacting the Foreign Ministry. But we haven't heard from North Korea," he told reporters Thursday.

Yasushi Chimura, an abductee, was optimistic that North Korea might be softening its negotiating stance.

"I'm not sure how much of what North Korea says is believable," Chimura said at a televised news conference in northern Fukui prefecture (state). "But I think the North's position has changed slightly."

North Korean Forward Deployments Up, Suggest Offensive Move Towards South Might Be Planned "If Diplomacy Fails"

What a depressing situation. Looks like Kim Jong Il might be "feeling lucky" as Clint Eastwood might say...Or, is he just posturing, bluffing. Time Will Tell.

All I can say is that if he does, ('feel lucky') and acts on it, like in the movies, he is sadly and almost certainly 'dead' wrong! But does his delusional, narcissistic mind realize that? No, probably not. Narcissists rarely let facts intrude on their grandiose fantasies of directing great events, etc.. North Korea is a giant 'reality adjustment field' of Kim-adulation and of course, none of his many 'yes men' would risk certain and probably instant death by contradicting him. A suicidal push to 'conquer' the South, even if it ends in death for millions from both North and South, and North Korea being rendered close to uninhabitable, probably looks better to Chairman Kim's twisted, heartless, selfish mind than the probable alternative, increasing irrelevance to his people and their justified resentment for corpulent "Dear Leader" because of their lost lives and hopes, as his people realize just how VERY much they have been lied to in an increasingly technological world in which they are starving and physically stunted anachronisms. My suggestion to Kim if he is listening? Take "Early Retirement" - IF YOU CAN!!!?

North Korea Might Attack Across the Border Once Diplomacy Fails

On December 23, USA Today reported that North Korea might wage a full-scale strike across the border if diplomacy fails to solve its nuclear issue.

In an analysis on the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), realignment of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), and the military forces of the two Koreas, the newspaper cited U.S. military officials saying that if North Korea attacks across the border, “The aim would be a decisive defeat of U.S. and South Korean forces in less than 30 days, before North Korea`s economic weakness hampers its military.”

The newspaper said, “Though there have been no significant changes since the nuclear crisis erupted 15 months ago, North Korea has more than doubled the number of troops deployed between its capital Pyongyang and the DMZ. Of its 1.2 million man military, 70 percent is stationed in that forward area.”

Commander of USFK, General Leon LaPorte, pointed out in an interview with the newspaper, “Over the past two years, North Korean forces have trained less often with fewer pieces of equipment than in previous years,” and added, “Much of Pyongyang`s armor and aircraft is obsolete, but the regime has been unable to modernize its aging conventional force.”

According to USA Today, the United States has already built new computer networks that would allow U.S. and Korean commanders to exchange classified emails and battle data when the combat becomes violent.

The newspaper reported that although the U.S.’ plan to realign USFK has left Korea’s defense analysts puzzling over the issue, “the reconfiguration will boost allied combat power,” according to General LaPorte.

North Korea wants tech-savvy citizens

It's great to see that computer science is still a hot major in North Korea. Kids here in the US are increasingly seeing computer science as a 'bad' major, because of the dearth of tech jobs and rapidly declining computer technology salaries. I think that that situation bodes major ill for the US economy. But nobody seems to care! Despite the hype, it's pretty clear to me that it wont just be "low-level coding jobs" we are losing, its the design and project-management jobs as well. And ultimately that means third world status for millions of US workers, because the job and political markets are closed - they are a captive group that can't relocate to where the jobs are, or choose their politicians and political environment in a truly competitive marketplace.

(Globe and Mail, Canada)
Seoul, South Korea — North Korea's Dear Leader Kim Jong Il, whose sayings are followed by his people with a religious fervor, has defined three types of fools in the 21st century: people who smoke, people who don't appreciate music and people who can't use a computer.

Small wonder, then, the communist state's elite are rushing to become tech savvy in the Internet age.

"In North Korea, a job with the computer is considered a token of privilege," said Tak Eun Hyok, a North Korean army sergeant who defected to South Korea last year. "Everyone wants to learn the computer, believing they can get good jobs."

After leading his impoverished country into the elite ranks of countries that can launch multistage rockets and build atomic weapons, the North's reclusive Kim has set his eyes on a new frontier: computer technology. Under his order, the North is now pushing its best and brightest to learn the new technology.

His campaign is making fitful progress, however, hamstrung by U.S.-led economic sanctions that block the country from importing the latest computer hardware, and slowed by North Korea's self-imposed ban on e-mail and the Internet, where seditious, yet eye-opening insights on the outside world lurk just a few mouse clicks away.

Nonetheless, the North's 1.1 million-soldier military, the backbone of Kim's totalitarian rule, has been quick to embrace the Dear Leader's new directives. Today, the military, down to the battalion level, receives orders by computer, Tak said in a recent interview.

Computer science tops the list of subjects young military officers and college students want to study.

"We get some of the brightest North Koreans in our projects," said Lee Kwang-hak at South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co., which has been outsourcing to Pyongyang's Korean Computer Center since 2000.

Samsung asks North Korean engineers to build software for Internet search engines and media players. But so far, their productivity is only about half that of Russian and Indian engineers assigned with Samsung projects, Lee said.

"Working with North Koreans, you feel like you are using a shovel to do a job you can do with an industrial earthmover," Lee said. "But they are working hard and eager to learn. We are there to secure the cream of North Korean brain power. For us, it's a long-term venture."

Free flow of Internet data and e-mail would be anathema to the North Korean regime, which has vowed to shut out "degeneration, violence, and corrupt sex culture" of the West. Although military units, cooperative farms and government agencies are rapidly installing computers, few ordinary North Koreans have computer or e-mail access. Televisions and radios come with channels fixed for government-controlled media.

"What would normally take a few minutes to send by e-mail now takes us three days to send to our clients in Pyongyang," said Kim Jong-se, an official at South Korea's Hanaro Telecom. "We have told them many times about the necessity and convenience of e-mail, but it falls on a deaf ear."

South Korea's EBS educational TV channel began broadcasting Hanaro's Pororo The Penguin, a 3-D animation series, last month. It is the first cartoon show made in North Korea and broadcast in the South.

Hanaro sends its files by e-mail to its Beijing agent, which downloads them and send them in a compact disc to Pyongyang by air mail - all because North Korea wouldn't do business through e-mail.

North Korea staged a trade show in Beijing in April last year to promote its software. Last month, it said it has begun an international e-mail service that "guarantees the privacy of correspondence," but revealed little detail. Outside visitors say that only a few North Korean organizations, such as tourism authorities, have e-mail.

"Although a late starter, North Korea is eager to do business involving computers," says Nelson Shin, head of the Los Angles-based KOAA Film Inc., which is making a $6.5-million animation film, hiring work from a well-known animation producer in North Korea, SEK Studio.

"They seem to be recognizing the computer as an important source of national power," he said.

Kim Jong Il visited software labs and high-tech hubs during his rare trips to China and Russia in 2000 and 2001. When then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang in 2000, he asked for her e-mail address. Under Kim's rule, North Korea has opened computer labs, made computer education compulsory at schools and even claims to have developed a drink for computer fatigue. In 2001, Kim declared he would "computerize the whole country."

"Kim Jong Il is the driving force behind all of this," said defector Tak, who now attends Seoul's Yonsei University as a journalism student. "The big change in my life is I can play a lot of computer games in the South. I play them every day."

Possible Changes In Food Aid Monitoring Access In North Korea? Or More Stonewalling? Time Will Tell.

US Pledges Additional Food Aid for North Korea
(Voice of America)

The United States announced Wednesday it is providing another 60,000 metric tons of food aid to North Korea. Bush administration officials say they're still dissatisfied with the transparency of food distribution in North Korea, but are responding to an emergency appeal by the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP).

The United States had pledged up to 100,000 tons of food aid to North Korea this year. But until Wednesday it had committed only 40,000 tons of that because of Pyongyang's reluctance to let outside aid workers monitor food distribution.

James Morris
(2003 © WFP/Paul Cadenhead)
In the Christmas-eve announcement, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States decided to provide the remaining tonnage after receiving written appeals from World Food Program Executive Director James Morris.

Mr. Morris told U.S. officials that four million of the most-vulnerable North Koreans will be threatened by famine this winter unless more contributions are received now to sustain the U.N. agency's feeding programs.

Children at a government-run orphanage in Pyongsong, South Pyongan province eat lunch
(2003 © WFP/G.Bourke)
The WFP official said more than 70,000 North Korean children are suffering from severe malnutrition, as are 30 percent of the country's pregnant and nursing women.

Spokesman Boucher said Mr. Morris reported "some progress" on transparency over the past year, saying North Korean officials had granted the WFP access to an additional district, increased the average number of monthly monitoring visits, and provided some statistical information helpful in determining needs.

However, the spokesman said the WFP chief stressed in the letters that his and U.S. concerns about overall monitoring and access are "exactly the same."

Mr. Boucher said the United States again calls on North Korea to adhere to the same standards of humanitarian access that apply to other recipients of international food aid.

U.S. food aid to North Korea has declined by about one-third from past years. But the United States remains the single-biggest supplier of such aid to Pyongyang.

Spokesman Boucher said the United States is committed to providing what he termed "our fair share" without linkage to U.S. concerns about North Korea's policies.

In an interview with Japan's Nikkei news agency released Wednesday, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage reiterated President Bush's commitment not to use North Korea food aid as a weapon.

He said the administration hopes for an early resumption, sometime in January, of six-way talks hosted by China on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

Mr. Armitage said if North Korea followed the lead of Libya in volunteering to dismantle weapons of mass destruction it would rapidly find itself "integrated into the vibrant community of East Asia," though he said he doubted this will happen.

Millions of N. Koreans to lose food rations

(Miami Herald)
by Tim Johnson

BEIJING - Food rations for more than three million hungry North Koreans will end within weeks in mid-winter because the country's leaders refuse to let donor nations adequately monitor how food aid is delivered, the chief of the United Nations World Food Program said Saturday.

"Progress is seriously at risk, especially to feed children," said James T. Morris, the U.S. executive who now heads the U.N. food agency. "It's a very serious problem."

Sometime in January, Morris told reporters in Beijing, emergency food handouts to three million North Koreans will halt, and by February 3.8 million of North Korea's 23 million citizens may find their food assistance cut off.

The suspension will cripple a program that has provided famished North Koreans each with about 10.5 ounces of cereal per day. That's less than half of a basic survival ration but enough to have reduced North Korea's high rate of severe malnutrition.

Morris said the World Food Program has made "enormous progress" in North Korea since it began providing food to the nation's starving in 1995, following a famine that experts say may have killed two million people. A recent U.N. survey shows that the percentage of acutely malnourished children since 1998 has dropped from 16 percent to nine percent.

But donor countries are wary of giving money that must be channeled through a government that does not open doors to monitoring efforts, Morris said. "We've been asking for a list of the hospitals and the orphanages and the schools and the other institutions that receive our food. We simply want a list of where our food is going," Morris said. "For two years, they've not been able to give us that list."

Lacking clarity on who's getting the food, the Rome-based agency has been able to raise only 60 percent of the funds for its $200 million program for North Korea this year, Morris said.

"This is a basic issue of credibility and confidence with our donors. They want to know where our food is going," he said.

Washington has reduced its food commitment to the North Korea program from 155,000 metric tons to 40,000 tons this year, Morris said, although "we're in the process of discussing a significant additional gift."

Some U.S. legislators and Bush administration officials believe Pyongyang diverts food from hungry civilians to ensure that North Korea's army is well fed.

"The American people will not tolerate food aid being skimmed by the North Korean regime for its army and the elites. We must be able to verify and monitor the distribution of food in all parts of North Korea," Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., told a Senate foreign relations subcommittee in early November.

Morris predicted donor nations would respond promptly and generously were North Korea to be more open.

Morris is in Beijing for talks on closing the last World Food Program serving China.

"China simply doesn't need aid today as it did 25 years ago," Morris said, "and that's something to celebrate."

The World Food Program feeds 110 million people in some 80 countries around the globe, and all recipient countries except North Korea allow the U.N. program to independently ensure that food aid reaches the famished, particularly mothers and children, Morris said.

He noted some improvement in the access given to World Food Program officials in North Korea. The officials now make an average of 510 monitoring visits a month, and can go to markets and carry satellite communications equipment. But the government still must sign off on every visit, and normally sends minders to tag along, he said.

"Nowhere else in the world do we have that kind of process in play," he said.

World Food Program says North Korea needs to be more open with donors

BEIJING : World Food Program (WFP) chief James T. Morris said North Korea needed to be more open towards donors providing aid to the starved and isolated country.

"The issue is North Korea's need to be accountable, accessible and transparent like every other country we serve in the world," he told a briefing in Beijing.

"Monitoring and accountability is really important in terms of the trust relationship we have with our donors," he said.

The WFP must file applications with the North Korean government if it wants to carry out monitoring visits to find out where its aid is ending up, and if the visits are approved, monitors are often accompanied by local officials.

"Nowhere else in the world do we have that kind of process in play," he said.

North Korea, which relies on the WFP for the feeding of 6.5 million of its people, is more closed than any other country served by the United Nations agency, he said.

"Every place else we work we go everywhere," he said. "Our only objective is to feed the hungry poor. We don't want to go anywhere for any reason other than feeding hungry people, especially vulnerable women and children."

Channel News Asia

Russian governor offers jobs to North Korean refugees

(ABC Asia Pacifc TV / Radio Australia)

A governor in the far-eastern Russian republic of Primorsky Kray has offered jobs to 200,000 North Korean refugees estimated to be living in China.

Governor Sergei Darkin, who's on a visit to Tokyo, told reporters he was ready to accept the refugees if they were willing to work.

It's not clear exactly what jobs were being offered, but the Russian region which borders north-eastern China and North Korea is reportedly suffering a labour shortage.

For N. Korean Regime, No News Is Good News

(Los Angeles Times)
by Barbara Demick

The government goes to great lengths to prevent its citizens from being exposed to the outside world. But information still leaks through.

SEOUL — About two years ago, a North Korean who worked in the state fisheries division was on a boat in the Yellow Sea when his transistor radio picked up a South Korean situation comedy. The radio program featured two young women who were fighting over a parking space in their apartment complex.

A parking space? The North Korean was astonished by the idea that there was a place with so many cars that there would be a shortage of places to park them. Although he was in his late 30s and a director of his division, he had never met anyone who owned their own car.

The North Korean never forgot that radio show and ended up defecting to South Korea last year.

"I realized that if there is a shortage of parking spaces, this is a different world than the one we know," said the North Korean, who now lives in Seoul and asked that his identity not be revealed.

The North Korean government goes to extraordinary lengths to prevent its citizens from being exposed to the outside world, having apparently concluded that no news is good news for the survival of its regime.

In an age of globalization and instant communications, North Korea is almost a black hole for information from the outside world. Radios have their tuners fixed to a single official station and satellite dishes are banned to keep out foreign television broadcasts.

Although North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is said to surf the Internet and tune into CNN, most of his fellow citizens have access to little more than blatant propaganda.

"The North Korean people are like frogs in a well. They don't know the outside world at all," said a Chinese merchant who lives in the Yalu River city of Dandong and travels frequently into North Korea.

North Korea has made halting steps toward ending the information blockade. This year, the regime said it was easing restrictions on foreign merchants. Last week, it announced plans to launch an international e-mail service. The government seems well aware that opening the door some degree is inevitable if North Korea is to attract desperately needed foreign investment.

But many North Korea watchers believe it's unlikely the regime will lift its restrictions on the flow of information.

"The North Korean leadership isn't stupid. They know that they cannot liberalize information. If North Koreans started watching South Korean television, the regime would completely collapse," said Kim Young Ju, a professor of mass communications at Kyungnam University in Seoul.

"It is a matter of life and death," said Choi Jin I, a North Korean writer who defected in 1998. "If people were exposed to the outside world, North Korea would cease to exist. The whole place would collapse."

At the time she left, Choi had never heard of the Internet or used a computer, even though she worked at the Authors' Federation Central Committee in the capital, Pyongyang. Today, there is only an intranet through which a small number of the elite in universities and government ministries can communicate with one another inside the country.

Masood Hyder, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Pyongyang, said the lack of Internet access became an issue this year during the panic over severe acute respiratory syndrome. The North Korean Health Ministry was unable to access information from the World Health Organization.

"It is staggering that in this age of interconnectivity there is a hole in the Web, that there is a part of the world that is not connected," Hyder said in an interview in Seoul.

Foreigners who work in North Korea say that they are often shocked by its people's ignorance of current events. A British aid official who lives in Pyongyang says that North Koreans seem as unaware of what's happening in their own country as they are of events in the outside world — especially the ongoing confrontation over the nation's nuclear weapons.

"Even in Pyongyang, where you are dealing with an elite, people don't know much. I'll say, 'I see that your government test-fired a missile yesterday,' and they'll respond, 'Oh, did we?' " said the aid official, who asked not to be identified.

North Korea has at least 16 national newspapers as well as various regional publications, according to Kyungnam University's Kim. He described the content as a "subtle mix of news and opinion with news stories loosely based on fact, but mostly fabricated."

The best known of the newspapers is Rodong Shinmun, which means Workers' Newspaper. It has only a smattering of what might be called news. "Let's Work for the Great Leader" and "Let's Live With the Mind and Spirit of Revolutionary Soldiers," read two of the front-page headlines from the edition of Nov. 20.

International news is on the last page and is made up entirely of bad things that happened in capitalist countries — usually four or five days earlier. The Nov. 20 issue reported on the collapse of a ship's gangway in France, a train derailment in Japan and a protest in Seoul against the visit of U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

The merest sliver of real news can be enough to puncture the fragile illusions held by North Koreans. Many defectors have said that the incessant coverage in the North Korean media of demonstrations next door had the unintended effect of convincing them that the South Koreans were better off for being free to voice their grievances.

Kim Tae Jin, a 53-year-old defector who lives in Seoul, remembers as a young man in North Korea seeing a photograph of what were said to be impoverished and oppressed South Korean workers. What he noticed, however, was that they wore jackets with zippers and that one had a ballpoint pen in his pocket — luxuries at the time in North Korea.

Regulations for the possession of radios in North Korea are structured much like gun-control laws in other countries, according to a study published in August in Keys, a journal published in Seoul about North Korea.

A buyer must immediately report the purchase to police and submit the radio to have its stations fixed to government channels. If an unlicensed radio is discovered, it is confiscated and its owner punished as a political criminal.

Not surprisingly, opponents of the North Korean regime often have tried to promote the free flow of information as a means to subvert the system.

In August, a German activist tried to use balloons to drop radios over the demilitarized zone. He was foiled by South Korean police.

The U.S. government-sponsored Radio Free Asia has been broadcasting Korean-language programs into the North since 1997, while South Korea has been piping in songs, news and talk shows for half a century.

Because any North Korean caught listening to such a program can be sent to prison camp, it is impossible to know how many people hear them. Two years ago, a study of 60 North Korean defectors, which was conducted in Seoul by the Korean Broadcasting Institute, found that 70% had listened at least a few times to South Korean broadcasts.

The North Korean regime appears to be fighting a constant battle against the encroachment of information from the outside.

Although the DMZ that severs the Korean peninsula is in effect impregnable, the border with China is not. North Koreans cross into China in search of work and food and return with tales of the relative abundance on the other side. Some people living in border cities, such as Sinuiju, are able to adjust their television sets to pick up Chinese broadcasts.

Increasingly, businesspeople are smuggling in Chinese cellphones. Although the phones can be used only in border areas and in extreme secrecy, they are giving a few North Koreans something they had never had: uncensored, unrestricted communication with the outside world.

Defectors say North Koreans are increasingly aware that they are poorer than their neighbors, although they tend to blame the United States rather than their own government.

Eventually, they do find out about major world events — albeit through the eyes of the propagandists.

"What we heard about Eastern Europe [after the collapse of the Soviet Union] was about people fighting and getting drunk and digging through garbage for food. The message was this is what happens when socialism collapses," said Kim Sun Ae, a 37-year-old nursing student in Seoul who fled North Korea in 1998.

Kim said that in her village in North Hamgyong province, people sought out newspapers mainly because they so desperately needed any kind of paper.

"The newspaper was free, but only the elite in my village got it regularly and it was very precious," said Kim, who changed her name when she moved to Seoul.

"When we'd get one, we would cut out the margins so that the children could practice writing. My husband used it to roll tobacco."

Interesting Solar-Heated Balloon Product

It's been awhile since I posted a balloon story/idea, sadly..

But today I ran into this toy on a scientific toy website.. and my thoughts immediately turned to North Korea..

Basically, all this is is an extremely thin, airtight dullblack bag.. The sun's heat generates lifting power.. it should fly as long as the sun shines.. I wonder how much weight it would carry..

http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp?cs=p&pn;=3053627

Dear Leader Blusters In Saddam's Wake

Interesting! I had often thought that Saddam might have been hiding in North Korea. Now it turns out that he was seemingly offered asylum there!

Intelligence agencies from Seoul to Singapore would pay dearly for the answer to perhaps the most intriguing question in Asia arising from the capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq:

What does the "Dear Leader" of North Korea, Mr Kim Jong Il, like Saddam a charter member of United States President George W Bush's "axis of evil", think of this turn of events?

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), through which the hermit kingdom communicates with the rest of the world, was defiant several days after Saddam's arrest last weekend, linking Iraq with North Korea as the US has "designated the Middle East and Northeast Asia as major targets in realising its ambition for world domination".

Without mentioning Saddam by name, KCNA asserted, "The US claims that it has laid a springboard from which to put the Middle East under its control after occupying Iraq, a sovereign state. It is now concentrating its efforts on carrying out its Northeast Asia military strategy."

It seems fair to speculate that Kim, who lives in luxury as did Saddam, may have been taken aback when he saw the pictures of a shaken Saddam being dragged from a filthy rat hole not far from one of his former palaces.

That reaction may have been intensified by pictures of Saddam being treated like a common criminal - giving him a medical inspection, looking for lice in his hair, making him shave his scruffy beard, and taking the identification picture that an American TV commentator called "the mother of all mug shots".

The "Dear Leader" has probably gone to some lengths to prevent the North Korean people from seeing those pictures of Saddam's ignominious surrender and the message to be drawn from them. Saddam and his ilk are quite willing for others to die for their cause but when it came to his own end, he quit without a struggle. He was no honourable warrior.

It remains to be seen whether all this will make the North Koreans more amenable in negotiating with the US, Japan, South Korea, China and Russia in the 6-party talks intended to dissuade the "Dear Leader" from his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, or make him more adamant.

North Korea, whose formal name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), has been negotiating with the US through KCNA. In its latest pronouncement, KCNA said, "As the US urges the DPRK to dismantle its nuclear weapons completely, verifiably and irreversibly, the latter has the same right to demand that the US, the dialogue partner, give it complete, verifiable and irreversible security assurances."

North Korea has been demanding that the US agree to a non-aggression treaty in which America would pledge not to attack it. The Bush administration has refused because it has next to no chance of getting a treaty through the US Senate.

Bush, however, has said repeatedly that the US will not invade North Korea. Press reports said the US has offered to sign a non-aggression pledge along with the others in the six-party talks.

Bush was non-committal in his press conference this week, other than to emphasise the diplomatic approach, "In North Korea, we're now in the process of using diplomatic means and persuasion to convince Kim Jong Il to get rid of his nuclear weapons programme."

Referring to Kim, the President said, "I hope, of course, he listens."

KCNA said if the US would accept what North Korea has called "the principle of simultaneous actions", then "the DPRK is ready to respond to it with the elimination of all its nuclear weapons".

The North Koreans warned, however, that delay "would only result in compelling the DPRK to steadily increase its nuclear deterrent force".

That there may have been ties between Saddam and Kim was rumoured in the days before the US invasion of Iraq. A wealthy entrepreneur in Hong Kong, Stanley Ho Hung-sun, was quoted in the South China Morning Post as saying Kim had offered Saddam asylum in North Korea.

Ho, who is known to have had business connections with Pyongyang, said then, "North Korea is willing to give Saddam and his family a mountain in the country."

Kim may be regretting the offer, if indeed it was genuine. As Pravda, the Russian newspaper, asserted about the same time, "One thing is perfectly clear now: The North Korean leader would not like to share Saddam's fate."

By Richard Halloran
The Straits Times/ANN

North Korea pins hopes on computer technology

(Channel News Asia, Singapore)

SEOUL : Computer technology has been given top priority in North Korea, with the eldest son of the country's ruler leading the campaign to bring the military into the hi-tech age, a defector claims.

North Korea's supremo Kim Jong-Il, who is known to be well versed in computers and enjoys web surfing, has issued a special directive to elevate the information technology (IT) sector in the impoverished communist state to the level of strategic industry, said defector Tak Eun-Hyuk.

The former corporal of North Korea's People's Army said the fact that Kim Jong-Il's eldest son, Kim Jong-Nam, is in charge of developing North Korea's IT industry shows the importance Pyongyang attaches to the sector.

"North Koreans accept as a matter of fact that Kim Jong-Nam is an heir to the throne," Tak said.

Tak, 22, who fled to South Korea in February by crawling his way through the heavily mined buffer zone that divides the two Koreas, said North Korean-assembled computers had been provided to battallions of the 1.1-million-strong army.

Each battallion currently has 15 computers and by the end of next year machines were expected to be provided to the level of army companies.

The capacity of these computers is limited, however, and their use is confined to exchanging documents between command posts and military units and searching archives of Kim Jong-Il's directives and Communist Party dailies.

North Korea's IT industry is still very much in its infancy, focused mainly on developing software for design, communication, animation and games as it lacks the capital and technology to produce hardware, North Korea watchers here said.

Computer lessons only began in schools around 1994 and only a limited number of privileged North Koreans have access to Internet links with the outside world.

"Kim Jong-Il said in 2000 that there were three kinds of fools in the 21st century -- those who are blind to computers, those who still smoke and those who don't appreciate music," Tak said in an interview with AFP.

"Some 100 hackers graduate from the military academy every year," said Tak, whose love for computers was one of his motives to defect to South Korea, an IT powerhouse.

Kim Jong-Nam, 33, is believed to have been promoted to the rank of a vice director of the powerful central committee of North Korea's ruling Korean Workers Party as his father grooms him as a successor, Tak said.

"He is also in charge of controlling foreign exchange flows," he said.

Analyzing events inside the isolated Stalinist state is notoriously difficult and analysts here say there are no visible signs yet that could indicate that a successor to Kim Jong-Il is being prepared.

Kim Jong-Il has produced at least three sons from two different women. The eldest one was born to Sung Hae-Rim, a North Korean movie star who suffered from depression and reportedly died in Moscow last year.

Two others, Kim Jong-Chol and Kim Jong-Un, were produced by Kim Jong-Il's current wife, Ko Yong-Hi, 50, who is known to be suffering from cancer. Born in Japan, Ko was a member of an art troupe in Pyongyang.

The eldest son was once dismissed as a possible successor to the leadership after he was caught with a bogus passport at a Japanese airport in 2001, an incident that deeply embarrassed Pyongyang.

Before being expelled to Beijing, he said he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.

- AFP

Is There Software Built To Analyze International Positions, Goals, etc.

I don't know if such a thing exists, but I suspect it does. What I'm looking for is some kind of open-source toolkit that allows a person to weigh the influences on countries in a way that allows one to simulate international interactions. Not war games.. more like diplomacy games. And ideally, it should be free or open-source... *laugh* If it doesnt exist, someone should write it..

Anyway, just thinking out loud..

China Outreach On North Korean Human Rights Proposal

I've been thinking a lot about the terrible ignorance seemingly experienced by many Chinese on the human rights situation in North Korea. It is pretty clear to me that a massive campaign on the part of those of us interested in improving the human rights situation there to inform both overseas Chinese and the most educated and cosmopolitan Chinese people living in China on the terrible situation in North Korea would effectively put pressure on the Beijing givernment to change its policies. So why aren't we doing it? We should not just accept that Chinese people know what is going on, they don't. And Beijing is making an effort to keep them in the dark. Perhaps a massive email campaign would be in order. Many Chinese government agencies and firms maintain email addresses. Unsolicited email to those addresses might get through, if it was structured correctly.. Lets discuss this. What do people think?

The paranoid state

This is a travel article on North Korea from The Observer (UK)

It's one of the most secretive countries in the world and delivers one of the last mind-boggling travel experiences. Andy Kershaw infiltrates North Korea

It is the scariest, most dangerous, most volatile place on earth. Panmunjom, at the 38th Parallel, where North Korea meets South, is the world's last Cold War frontier. Here the ancient tectonic plates of capitalism and communism still grind relentlessly and terrifyingly together. Concealed in the surrounding countryside, on both sides of the border, beyond the trim lawns, fragrant flowerbeds and ornamental trees, is rumoured to be the deadliest arsenal in the world - conventional, chemical, biological and nuclear - just a few hundred yards from the gift shop.

The day out at Panmunjom is the high point of any holiday in North Korea. (This was my fourth visit.) In the spirit of a school trip, we were driven to the border, 100 miles south of Pyongyang, in a bus laid on by the state tourism agency (not a terribly busy organisation) and chaperoned, as ever, by our jolly government minders.

The showpiece motorway to Panmunjom - in places six lanes wide on both sides - is, shall we say, unspoilt by traffic. Still, drivers must be on their mettle to avoid uniquely North Korean road hazards: deer grazing on the central reservation or a herd of goats being shooed along the fast lane. Giant columns of concrete, dotted along the hard shoulder, stand ready to be dynamited to block the carriageway in the event of an invasion from the South. In the paddy fields, incongruous billboards carry slogans to uplift those working up to their knees in thin mud: "Unity Is Victory", "Let Us Live In Our Own Way" and "Long Live The Great General, Comrade Kim Jong Il, The Sun Of The 21st Century."

It doesn't take long in the People's Paradise to get used to this sort of stuff. We had rattled into Pyongyang station at 3.30am, shattered after a 31-hour train ride from Beijing. Nevertheless, we were whisked immediately up to Mansundae hill to pay our respects at the 100ft-high, floodlit bronze statue of the Great Leader, Comrade Kim Il Sung, which stares out and stretches a fatherly hand to the whole city. From speakers concealed in the shrubbery a military choir sang "Peace Is On Our Bayonet". Only after these formalities were completed could we check in at the spectacular (and virtually empty) 500-room Yangakdo Hotel with its spectacular (and virtually empty) revolving bar and restaurant on the 47th floor.

Driven by juche, his home-brewed ideology of self-reliance, Kim Il Sung ruled the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - the official name - from its foundation in 1948 till his death in 1994. At which point, in the communist world's only dynastic transfer of power, his son Kim Jong Il - known as the Dear Leader - took control. Kim Snr, who was stuffed by the same taxidermists who service Chairman Mao, and now lies in a crystal case in a climate-controlled chamber in his former palace, has been elevated recently to the office of Eternal President - the world's first and, so far, only dead incumbent head of state.

Images of, and references to, father and son are pervasive. In conversation, however brief, with a North Korean they are routinely acknowledged. ("It is thanks to the wise guidance and warm benevolence of the Great/Dear Leader that we are enjoying this breakfast of cold flounder . . ." etc). A tourists' phrasebook includes these helpful ice-breakers in the section called Sightseeing of City: "Comrade Kim Il Sung was the most distinguished leader of our times"; "The death of Comrade Kim Il Sung is a great loss to the Korean revolution and the world revolution."

On a supervised stroll around the city centre one evening, I looked up at a 20-storey block of flats and saw in every apartment, with the repetition of a Warhol, the same standard-issue portraits of father and son, positioned alongside each other, staring down into the living rooms. From the same wall.

It's not only the people of North Korea who advertise their admiration and affection for the leaders Great and Dear. In the 1970s, a British Left-wing activist was invited by the government in Pyongyang to visit the country. After a few days of being bussed around the achievements of the Great Leader the visitor asked if he might do something a little different, such as visit Pyongyang zoo.

His guides went into a huddle. This was not on the itinerary. Phone calls were made to superiors. Eventually, they announced that, yes, he might go to the zoo, but only under their supervision. Almost giddy with the spontaneity of his big day out, the visitor was escorted around the many impressive animal enclosures. Then they came upon a cage in which sat a large parrot on a swing. The visitor looked at the parrot. The parrot eyed up the visitor, blinked and squawked: "Long live the Great Leader, Comrade Kim Il Sung." In English.

To better appreciate his contribution we were marshalled around the feet of a huge, dazzling white statue of a seated Kim Il Sung in the entrance hall of Pyongyang's Grand People's Study House. This ornate, sprawling pagoda - more than one million square feet, 10 floors, 600 marbled rooms - is a public library "for the study of the works of Kim Il Sung", according to the guide.

In a typical reading room, and under the gaze of the ever-present portraits, dozens of Koreans of all ages sat silently at school desks, absorbed in the writings of the old man. No one looked up at us. It was the desks that most excited the guide. "When we opened the library, all desks were flat desks," she explained.

"When the Great Leader, Comrade Kim Il Sung, came to this room he personally sat at a desk and said that this kind of desk was not comfortable for the readers. So it would be better to change the older desks into desks with an adjustable, angled surface."

"And how many desks had to be modified?" I asked.

"Six thousand," she said matter-of-factly.

For students experiencing any difficulties with their work, help is at hand in Room 142, the Question-and-Answer Room. In this poky, windowless office sits a small, bespectacled man, blinking at the wall. His desk is bare except for a telephone. Those seeking elucidation on any subject - philosophy, sciences, the arts - can drop in any time for a consultation. For this is the Man Who Knows Everything.

"Please," called the guide to get our attention. We were now at the counter where books ordered from the card index are delivered. They arrive, bobsleigh fashion, down a chute. "Let me call for something from our English-language collection," she announced. Zap! Two books swept down the chute and thudded on to the desk.

The first was called "Applied Polymer Symposia. Proceedings of the 8th Cellulose Conference - Wood, Chemicals and Future Challenges, 1975. Volume 28". The other page-turner was a medical paper from Massachusetts: "Deaths and Injuries in House Fires".

Western visitors to North Korea find few common cultural reference points. At a co-operative farm near Wonsan we were invited into a family's home. This is rare. Never before, in four visits, had I been inside someone's house. The three utilitarian rooms were brightened by a big television, a map of the world along one wall, the portraits of father and son on another.

The children - two boys and a little girl - wanted to sing for us. Their mother fetched her accordion and we were treated to "The Great General, Kim Jong Il, Is Our Sun". When the song was finished, I asked the mother, "Do you know much about music from the outside world? Have you heard, for example, of the Beatles or Elvis Presley or Michael Jackson?"

"No," she smiled. "I have not heard of these. I am just a farmer."

But changes are taking place. Contacts are being made with the wider world. I noticed a striking increase - albeit from an almost zero base - in the number of cars on Pyongyang's mighty boulevards. There is now email and a mobile phone network for the party elite, charity workers, diplomats and foreign businessmen.

The last are gradually creeping in to capitalise (crikey!) on a workforce that is the most disciplined, abundant and obedient in the world. And very cheap. Over the past three years most European countries have opened embassies in Pyongyang and the euro is now the favoured foreign currency. Three months ago the first market opened in the capital and business there is flourishing. And in South Korea, president Roh Moo Hyun has maintained the reconciliation Sunshine Policy towards the north of his predecessor, Kim Dae Jung.

"There are signs that the regime wants to change things," said one European expatriate who didn't want to be named. "But it wants to do it without losing face. That's very important here. Everyone in Pyongyang is now trying to do business. It's unofficial but it's happening.

"They're learning quickly how to turn a buck and that is the best hope for a soft landing. The only worry then would be a gulf opening between a relatively rich urban population and a peasantry for whom the currency is cabbage."

The last time I was in Pyongyang, in October 2000, the future looked bright. Kim Dae Jung had made an historic visit to the North. Kim Jong Il met him at the foot of the aircraft steps. (In his self-designed, utilitarian brown outfit he was taken by the South Korean president's security men for some bloke who'd been sent to refuel the plane). Madeleine Albright made an equally courageous trip to have talks with the Dear Leader.

Jimmy Carter was another hands-across-the-ocean guest of Pyongyang, after which the North Koreans agreed to put aside any nuclear naughtiness in exchange for fuel oil, food aid and benign nuclear reactors.

Foreign embassies were opening across town. And, unbelievably, the US dollar was the currency of business and tourism. Then George Bush came into office.

Bush has gone on the record to declare his intention to topple the Dear Leader. "I loathe that man," he has said, describing him as "a pygmy" and "an evil-doer".

"Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz have no understanding of the North Korean character," another nameless European told me in Pyongyang. "Koreans feel personally insulted to be included in the Axis of Evil. And, post Iraq, they feel very threatened by the United States but very defiant."

Nick Bonner, an Englishman who runs Beijing-based Koryo Tours, has been taking tour parties into the North since 1993. He believes Pyongyang needs only kindness and assistance in its fumblings towards liberalisation. "Dialogue is the only way ahead. If people just said, 'Look, what can we do to help? What do you need?', as opposed to, 'How can we stop you doing this, that and the other?' and stopped telling them what to do, I think big changes would happen quickly.

"The attitude we pick up from them in the West is a very aggressive one but, in fact, they are defensive. They don't have ambitions to head off to South Korea or any incentive to do so."

Ten days ago, Pyongyang tossed out another olive branch, offering to freeze its nuclear weapons programme in return for energy aid, lifting of economic sanctions and removal from the United States' list of countries that sponsor terrorism. George W Bush said it wasn't enough: the programme has to be scrapped, not frozen. (Odd how he never makes such demands of Pakistan or Israel.)

Meanwhile, Donald Rumsfeld has recently had revised Operations Plan 5030, the Pentagon's war strategy for North Korea. Should its initial objective fail - to destabilise the military, who would then overthrow Kim Jong Il - the fallback is a huge number of nuclear strikes across the country. By the Pentagon's own estimation, casualties during the first hour of a conflict between the North and the US/South Korea would number a million or more.

With that in mind, a tour of Pyongyang's war museum only reinforces an understanding of North Korea's siege mentality. In one room is a shocking black- and-white 360-degree photograph of Pyongyang at the end of the Korean War in 1953. Not a single building was left standing. It is a panorama of rubble.

This might also explain the depth of the Metro, Pyongyang's underground railway, more than 330ft below the surface. In 1995, I met an Austrian businessman in the Koryo Hotel, in the capital. He was setting up a joint venture with the government to recycle plastics. He asked whether I had travelled yet on the Metro. "As a matter of fact," I told him, "I was down there this afternoon."

"Did you notice," he asked, "a lot of heavy, unmarked, steel doors?"

"Yes, I did. What's behind those?"

"Stairs," he said. "They go down as deep again. And they've got factories down there."

"What?" I said, suggesting to him a few women sitting at sewing machines.

"No," he laughed. "They're driving f***ing trucks around down there."

Back at Panmunjom, I lingered for as long as possible at the Demarcation Line. And that's all it is: a line of concrete, standing proud of the asphalt by less than an inch. If they wish to do so, North Korean and South Korean or American soldiers can put the toes of their boots to the line and stand, literally, eyeball to eyeball. From 20 yards south of the line, two South Korean soldiers photographed my every movement. The only sound in what is, potentially, the world's most explosive flashpoint was birdsong.

It was time to get back on the bus for our short drive to the gift shop (stuffed pheasants, blue plastic washing-up bowls, bottles of snake wine). On the way, I chatted to one of our guides about the threat from the 37,000 American troops south of the border. Never mind the one million-strong North Korean army, I said; how would the North Korean population react to an American invasion?

"We would fight to every last man and woman," he replied. "And if the Americans arrived at my apartment block I would give out hand grenades to my children."

"And how old are your children?" I asked.

"Two and four."

Apology on Website

Some of you may have been wondering why my postings to the site have been down a bit in the last few weeks. Well, basically, its been because I lost my job and so I've been looking for a new one pretty aggressively.

It's all for the best, it was time to move on.

So I've been busy. :)

Rules for Kaesong participants published in South Korea

A community member has sent me an abbreviated list (perhaps just some of) the rules that North Korean government is making mandatory for business visitors involved in the Kaesong industrial park project. I think that this is pretty interesting. I have very mixed feelings on this project. (I'm sure we all do.)

Here they are:
A brief summary:
*Entry to businessmen and tourists only permitted with an invitation by the complex management authority.
*Short term stays up to 90 days is possible. A resident permit required for stays over one year.

*Materials to be used or processed at Kaesong will be exempt from taxes, but finished goods sold in North Korea will be levied import duties.
*Weapons, two way radios,poisonous, radiological or addictive materials, binoculars with magnifying powers over 10, and cameras with lenses in excess of 160mm may not be imported or exported.
*Books and pictures deemed hazardous to North Korean customs and traditions will not be allowed into North Korea.
*No limit on the amount of currency taken into or out of North Korea and no need to declare it, but jewelry must be registered beforehand.

North Korea Releases Rules For Development Zones

Does anyone have a copy of these rules?

North Korea sets rules for border area

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea announced complex regulations yesterday for those who would do business in its heralded Kaesong Industrial Zone.

The long list of customs and immigration rules, adopted last Thursday by the Supreme People's Assembly, were seen as the next step toward the opening of a joint North-South industrial park.

The site now is just a field outside the ancient Korean capital of Kaesong, a city of 400,000 just north of the no man's land that separates North from South.

The Seoul government in the south said the regulations were a positive sign that the reclusive North was moving ahead with the opening despite being increasingly at odds with the United States over its nuclear-weapons program.

Poverty-stricken North Korea says it will promote construction of light and high-tech industries in the Kaesong zone. Investors will receive tax incentives and other benefits. They will be required to build their own communications systems and other infrastructure.

About 900 South Korean businesses have applied for spots in the industrial zone.

North Korea becomes China's bete noire

This is an essay on China's mistakes in handling its North Korean dilemma, that appeared in Asia Times

By Marc Erikson

As little as a year ago, few if any of China's top policymakers gave more than a passing thought to North Korea. Today, few if any of them would disagree that this onetime ally has become China's No 1 headache and puts several of its essential strategic interests at risk - no matter what the outcome of the present standoff over North Korea's nuclear programs. Here are some of the reasons.

In a worst-case scenario, full-scale war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula. China could and probably would stay out of it. But the collateral damage to Chinese interests would be massive. The United States, South Korea, and a peripherally involved Japan lending logistic support would win such a war, at the expense of possibly hundreds of thousands of casualties. Regime change in Pyongyang and Korean unification, unplanned and under chaotic circumstances, would be inevitable - to the long-term detriment of China's regional strategic and global economic interests. South Korean foreign investment, the bulk of which now flows to China, would be diverted to Korean reconstruction, as would substantial portions of other foreign investment now flowing to China. Instead of having two Korean quasi-allies, China would face a unified nation of uncertain allegiance. Japan almost inevitably would emerge as a major new regional military power. Unification of mainland China with Taiwan would likely be postponed for generations in the context of the newly emerging strategic constellation. The United States, now in the process of long-term thinning out of its military strategic presence in East Asia, would be re-ensconced there.

But even short of such a strategic nightmare, other outcomes are not exactly palatable for China. Even now, in response to the nuclear standoff since last October and North Korean missile tests, Japan has geared up its military posture. New laws defining the role of Japan's military in case of attack or clear and present danger of attack have been passed in parliament. The Defense Agency has requested US$1.2 billion in next year's budget for theater missile defense. The public mood in Japan, until not so long ago staunchly pacifist, is undergoing rapid change. A nuclear-armed Japan is no longer unthinkable. Take just one example: A couple of years back, Nisohachi Hyodo, author of a four-year plan for nuclear armament of Japan, was considered a nut case. But now he has his own program on a major Tokyo radio station and is frequently invited to speak on university campuses or to address civic associations. That not enough (to China's taste), Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba told a parliamentary committee in March that in case of imminent missile launch by North Korea, preemption must be considered and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said there was nothing in Japan's pacifist constitution that prevented the country from possessing nuclear weapons.

Potent Japanese missile defense, China fears, could also bring Taiwan under a protective umbrella and nullify any Beijing military threat to the island. But even nuclear-weapons possession by North Korea is worry enough. China does not in the least welcome the prospect of a potentially nuclear-armed unified Korea in the future. Yet another concern is that even peaceful resolution of one kind or another of the current crisis is wrought with danger. If and when economic and personal contacts between South and North Korea increase rapidly as the result of peaceful settlement, it is entirely possible that - much as happened in the case of Germany - unification could come much faster than expected or planned for by anyone. Again, in the economic arena, China would be the initial loser as investment would be diverted to the newly unified nation.

It is fair to say that anything but maintenance of the status quo somehow is to China's detriment and utter dislike. The question Beijing must ask itself is how things got to this point and how China got maneuvered into a lose-lose position.

The answer, unpleasant as it may be to Beijing policymakers, is not that difficult to come by. During the previous North Korea crisis in 1993-94, temporarily resolved by then US president Bill Clinton and former president Jimmy Carter, China acted as no more than an interested bystander, largely sat on its hands, and quietly enjoyed US discomfort. It was not China's problem. Top Chinese military leaders like former defense minister Chi Haotian, a onetime military attache in the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang with excellent connections in the North Korean military, did nothing to help make the "Agreed Framework" of 1994 a success. Zhang Wantian, a former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and chief political officer of the Jinan military region that borders North Korea, had equally good connections and did nothing. Kim Jong-il was considered a loose cannon, but "our loose cannon" rumbling on someone else's deck.

But, of course, as things turned out, reining in North Korea was precisely China's problem - and foreseeably so. Serious efforts by China at that time to dissuade North Korea from continuing its nuclear programs in violation of the Agreed Framework and diplomatic efforts in any way commensurate with the major and unprecedented ones China has been making since the beginning of this year could well have forestalled the present impasse.

That's hindsight and history now. But much as - in effect - it was in the mid-'90s, the ball is firmly in China's court if the current crisis is to be resolved. The difference between now and then is that China's clout with Pyongyang may well be substantially reduced.

North Korea's New Industry: Human Trafficking In And Exploitation Of Its Women

Sorrows of a North Korean girl
By Alan Fung
(Asia Times)

HONG KONG - Although it is widely known in Yanbian Choson (ethnic Korean) Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin province that 150,000 People's Liberation Army troops have been deployed on the Sino-North Korean border, this news has not put a damper on local people's nightlife.

Yanbian boasts beautiful scenery. One of its most famous scenic spots is the Changbai Mountains, a great attraction to Choson people from both sides of the border. However, behind all these beautiful landscapes is the grief and sorrow of many young women from North Korea.

Yanji, which is scarcely larger than Hong Kong with an area of 1,345 square kilometers, is in the eastern part of Jilin province. It is the capital of Yanbian Choson Autonomous Prefecture. During the day the city seems very ordinary, and lacking in character. All that changes when the sun sets.

When night falls, the neon lights of shop signs shine through the whole city. No longer seen are the dust and sand raised by trucks passing during the daytime. Instead, the city is alive with people dressed to the nines headed to nightclubs. Although the public order at night is marred by crimes as serious as murders committed by illegal immigrants, this has not hindered the development of the entertainment business.

And as is the case elsewhere in mainland China, the entertainment business always seems linked with the sex industry. "In my homeland, we do not even have enough food to feed ourselves. If I did not leave for work, my whole family would starve to death," said Hae Jung, a North Korean girl.

Hae Jung grew up in a suburban area of Hae San, North Korea, and unlike many of her compatriots, her appearance does not reflect the harsh life in that country. With her delicate face, fair skin and tall, trim body, Hae Jung resembles South Korean entertainment idol Son Ye-jin. And it is her beauty that changed her life and brought her to Yangji; it may have saved her family, but it also hurt her in the deepest way.

At the end of last year, a number of Chinese people came to Hae San to hire some Choson girls to work in China. They claimed that the girls would be working as hotel waitresses and Choson dance performers. The offer they made was irresistible to any North Korean: a salary of 600 yuan (about US$72) a month, which is four times what a worker in North Korea can earn. The selection process was harsh, as the hirers wanted nobody but absolute beauties. Therefore, only seven, including Hae Jung, were selected from among several hundred girls.

"North Korea seldom allows people to work in China," said Hae Jung. "We were able to go to China only because the sa jang nim [Korean for boss] made some arrangement with the leaders. My family and I were overjoyed then. We thought we were going to be able to support ourselves and improve our living standard. Only heaven knew we would have to do this kind of work!" The "work" Hae Jung mentioned obviously implied something other than simply a waitress job.

After the girls were hired, they were sent to a nightclub in a high-class hotel that provides Choson cuisine and Choson dance shows at night. For a "tip" of 100 yuan, a North Korean girl will fill the glass for guest; a 200-yuan tip enables a Korean girl to drink together with the customer. If he wants "further development" with her, he must discuss the price with the hotel manager. Normally it will cost 600-800 yuan, but these Korean girls get nothing from that, as the hotel has its own "management system" for these "foreign workers".

"We do not have any relatives or friends here, so to escape is impossible. Not to mention that our families are all in North Korea. If we try to escape, we might put them in trouble," Hae Jung said sadly. "I can never imagine that, in a country as noble as China, I would have to do this kind of work. I have to face hundreds of people whom I do not want to meet, yet I have to put a happy face on to please them. How can I face my family when I go back to North Korea one day?" said Hae Jung miserably.

In Yanji there are three or four "high-class" hotels of a similar kind where about 50 Korean girls work. They are hired through different channels. In Yanji this is universally known, and nobody sees anything wrong with it.

As there are only a few North Korean girls working in Yanji, they are in demand. But rumor has it that Kim Jong-il, the leader of North Korea, does not like girls from his country selling themselves in another country, so people involved have to play it down. It is said that it is already difficult to arrange for 50 girls to come to here.

Apart from these "high-class" hotels, there are other recreational facilities providing sexual services. The most popular and widespread are the yu gwan, a Korean term for public bathing facilities.

It is an everyday practice for Choson people to go to the yu gwan for a bath. These public bathing facilities are distributed in all the cities of Yanbian, including Yanji, Tumen, Hunchun, Longjing and Tonghua as well as the Tianchi area of the Changbai Mountains. You can even find one in a gas station near a highway. The normal charge for using these bathing facilities ranges from 5-10 yuan. However, the managers of some of the yu gwan seldom miss the chance to make money by offering sexual services through the guise of providing massage services.

Some Choson people reveal that massage services are offered in most of the yu gwan. Sex services are provided in the name of "Korean massage" and "Thai massage". Usually, the fee for a 90-minute massage service is 200 yuan, which is cheaper than one in a hotel. It is said that there are prostitutes from North Korea working in some yu gwan, mostly illegal immigrants.

A jolly jaunt through North Korea

By Aidan Foster-Carter

(Asia Times)

As a not very patriotic Brit, one thing I do feel proud of is the BBC. Compared with other broadcast media, not least US ones, on the whole the good old Beeb really does try to tell it like it is, in depth. It gives all points of view - then leaves you to make up your own mind. Which is how it should be.

Yet even the BBC can err, or be deceived. If, as I trust you do, you regularly access its online Asia-Pacific news homepage, you'll know that in any Korea story there are a lot of sidebars on the right, giving links to further sites. Intriguingly, one of these is said to be the "North Korea Government", no less. It's at http://www.korea-dpr.com.

Hold it. Dot.com? That sounds strangely capitalistic. Wouldn't the DPRK government use its official country suffix .kp, conspicuous so far by its total absence from the web? It's the only nation to remain a virtual blank in this way. (In my country, KP is a brand of nut - but I'm sure no slight was intended.)

Well, the page duly opens with the DPRK state emblem: a big red star over a hydro-electric dam and power lines, framed by golden sheaves of grain. (All highly ironic in an era of blackouts and famine, no?) It proclaims "Official Page: Democratic People's Republic of Korea" on a black background (very Goth, somehow). A red pentagon, morphing into the North Korean flag when you click it, bids you enter.

It sure looks like the right place. Next up: Two big photographs of the Great and Dear Leaders, each waving to the masses. Yet at least when I accessed it, Kim Il-sung's pic and caption were a tad blurry. Careful, comrade! Folks have been sent to the gulag for less: 20 years for accidentally sitting on a newspaper picture of Kim, for instance. (Yes, truly. In the final analysis, North Korea is Not Funny.)

'Twixt father and son, a bar says Welcome. That leads on to more photos, this time of Korean unity. Kim Jong-il and former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung hold hands in Pyongyang, at the June 2000 summit that got us all so excited (until we learned it was paid for by a US$500 million bribe). The other pic is presumably a joint North-South Korean athletic team, but there is no caption to say when or where. Between the two pictures, a map of the peninsula proclaims "Korea Is One!"

Clicking the map takes you to something a whole lot more specific: an invitation to "join us in the 'March for the Reunification of Korea' - July 2004". This is attributed, copyrighted, even - to a body called the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) - even though the next line repeats the claim that this is the "Official Webpage of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea". Curiouser and curiouser.

A jolly Flash presentation - which crashed a couple of times - has an authentic North Korean feel. But the further details on the reunification march are by the KFA, in an English even more peculiar than the DPRK's own. ("The KFA pretends in this way to approach the reality of North Korea to the foreign friends and combine a passion for culture and tourism with a solidarity compromise." Er, quite so.)

It sounds an intriguing trip, and at 1,320 euros ($1,627) for 12 days (less for KFA members) not badly priced - although flights are extra. But not everyone is welcome. US and South Korean citizens need not apply, except that "two exceptional visas may be awarded to US citizens that demonstrate their work towards the friendship with the DPR of Korea and the reunification". The application ("pre-inscription") form has a compulsory box to confess whether you are or are not a journalist, and also requires a declaration "that that [sic] I am honest and sincere ... and that my intentions and ... my stated job/occupation is correct".

Evidently you can't be too vigilant lest the enemy sneaks in under false pretenses. They even warn that "any participant that won't follow the regulations of the DPRK will be treated accordingly [sic] to its national law. (From expulsion to jail terms)." Come to North Korea, and experience the gulag! A better bet: "Offer an special gift from your country, company or organization to the Leaders." This wins you "a personal meeting with a representative of the DPRK Government". (Not the police, presumably.)

Those who pass the honesty and sincerity tests get the chance to do what, deep inside, you've been waiting all your life to do. Yup, this is your chance to march the entire length of North Korea! From Mount Paekdu to Panmunjom! It sounds pretty strenuous - but just in case this long march leaves you craving yet more exercise, it's all been laid on. For along the way, you'll be "participating in the daily life of the Korean people (helping in construction, farming, etc ...) and organizing joint traditional games and competitions (pull the rope, swimming ...) by passing through [sic]".

This all climaxes at the Demilitarized Zone, "face to face with the South Korean and US soldiers. We'll read statements for the end of the division of the Korean peninsula and the expulsion of the American troops." You tell 'em!

Sadly, I won't be going along. Something tells me I might not pass the test, even (or especially) if I fill out the form with full disclosure. But you, dear reader, should go. Seriously. This sounds a unique trip, as the Korean Friendship Association claims. Go see for yourself. Don't fancy all that work and play? Don't worry: they don't really mean it. Like much in North Korea, it's just for show. The small print adds: "All sport competitions are optional, and the volunteer work will be assigned according to the desire of each participant." Phew. (But as you opt out, remember that for North Koreans, optionality is not an option. That's an order.)

Still, who exactly are mine hosts here? Plainly, despite the website's earlier claims, the KFA is not the DPRK. Lest there be any doubt, just read the "Disclaimer Note": "The KFA doesn't take responsibility for any personal, material damage or other problem related to this trip, but just offers this service as a consultant organization between the DPRK authorities and the 'participant'." What's more, it's up to you to arrange your own insurance. You're on your own, comrade. It's called juche. Bon voyage!

Yet who is korea-dpr.com really, if not - sorry, BBC - the North Korean government? Stay tuned ...

Aidan Foster-Carter is honorary senior research fellow in sociology and modern Korea, Leeds University, England.

North Korea Sharply Increases Missile Sales To Mideast

LONDON [MENL] -- North Korea was said to have delivered a total of approximately 400 ballistic missiles to clients in the Middle East since 1985, and has sharply increased those sales over the last year.

The South Korean Defense Ministry told parliament in a report that Pyongyang delivered 400 Scud-class missiles to a range of Middle East countries since 1985. The report said the missile export constituted the largest source of hard currency for the Stalinist regime.

The report said the best clients of North Korea were Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. The report did not say how much Pyongyang earned from the exports. But the Yonhap News Agency said the figure was $110 million.

"Since the middle of the 1980s, North Korea has exported 400-odd Scud missiles along with missile-related parts to the Middle East region," Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Ki-Beom, quoting the report, said.

N. Korea’s Kim Jong Il back in public eye

Reclusive leader steps up army tours amid nuclear tensions

(AP) SEOUL, South Korea -- From inspecting washrooms at remote army bases to posing for photos with adoring troops, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is making the military rounds in an apparent attempt to polish his army credentials amid the deepening nuclear crisis with the United States.

The secretive leader had been absent from public appearances in the North’s normally doting state-controlled media since Oct. 30, when he was seen greeting senior Chinese leader Wu Bangguo in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

But the "Supreme Commander" resurfaced last week with a visit to Unit 350 of the Korean People’s Army and has since captured the country’s headlines with a flurry of other garrison trips.

It’s little surprise Kim has finally broken his media silence with a parade through seven army units in almost as many days, North Korea experts say.

The communist government in Pyongyang is stalemated with Washington over restarting international talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs. And the army visits are seen as a time-tested tactic to galvanize support among the military and emphasize Kim’s resolve in standing firm against the United States.

On Monday, the North’s Rodong Sinmun dedicated its whole front page, complete with photo, to Kim’s visit to Unit 3993, where he doled out automatic rifles as gifts and expressed pride that his soldiers "always live full of optimism and joy wherever they are stationed," the North’s official news agency, KCNA, reported.

"He’s clearly projecting an image to the outside world that he’s taking care of the military first and showing resolve in a straightforward way that he will not be giving up as far as the nuclear issue is concerned," said Paik Haksoon, a North Korea expert at the Sejong Institute, a South Korean think tank.

News of Kim’s Dec. 9 visit coincided with North Korea’s rejection of a U.S.-backed plan that would bring the United States, Russia, China, Japan and the two Koreas back to the negotiating table. North Korea wants a deal that would trade aid and security guarantees for the dismantling of its nuclear program. But talks have bogged down because the United States says North Korea must first give up its nuclear weapons.

The six nations have been trying to organize a round of talks for weeks. They had been aiming for sometime this month but now hope for a meeting in mid-January.

North Korea upped the pressure Monday, saying that delays in establishing new talks would only prompt the communist country to speed up its development of nuclear weapons.

Kim’s trips to army outposts, where he chats with troops, poses for photographs and tours barracks, mess halls and kitchens, are not seen as menacing. But they help highlight his military’s loyalty and readiness and, in turn, his grip on political power in times of diplomatic turmoil, Paik said.

Kim rules not as prime minister or president, but as chairman of the National Defense Commission.

Kim disappeared for nearly seven weeks during the outset of the war in Iraq. He kept a low profile for three years after the 1994 death of his father and predecessor, Kim Il Sung, prompting speculation that his hold on power was shaky.

Now, Kim seems to be using strategically timed appearances to strengthen his rule, said Kim Tae-hyo, a professor at South Korea’s Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security.

North Korea: Talk or we arm

It's clear from the international press that the US is not making an IMPORTANT point about North Korea to the international community - that North Korea is not by any means a 'normal' nation and cannot be treated with the respect accorded to one.

Barring a renewed committment to nuclear disarmament and 'no first use' from the US, that is the only available argument that will hold water with the Third World. Why are we ignoring it?

(Reuters)
caption:
Last October's talks ended with no substantial progress

North Korea plans to increase its nuclear arsenal if talks with the United States are delayed.

Pyongyang also accused Washington on Monday of "wasting time" by rejecting an offer to freeze its nuclear arms programme.

The claim was made in the country's ruling party newspaper – the Rodong Sinmun.

China has also weighed in on the side of its communist neighbour, urging the United States to be more flexible in the next round of six-party talks, aimed at ending the North Korean nuclear dispute, Xinhua news agency reported.

Previous rejection

The Whitehouse came in for particular criticism after rejecting the North's proposal last week for a "simultaneous package solution".

This proposal would have 'frozen' the North's nuclear programme in exchange for energy aid.

"Its delaying tactics would only result in compelling the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to steadily increase its nuclear deterrent force," said the newspaper in a report published by the official KCNA news agency.

Despite a flurry of shuttle diplomacy, expectations that North Korea would join South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia in talks on DPRK's nuclear programme this month have given way to plans to convene the meeting in January.

Proposal and counterproposal

Last week, South Korea, the United States and Japan conveyed their proposed wording for a resolution to end the 14-month-old dispute, under which both sides would set up a step-by-step process or "road map".

Pyongyang - apparently responding to media reports about elements of that US-led plan - denounced it as "greatly disappointing" and published a counter-proposal.

It repeats demands for energy aid and diplomatic concessions in exchange for freezing its nuclear programme.

The Rodong Sinmun elaborated on the nuclear freeze proposal North Korea's Foreign Ministry issued on 9 December.

"If the US fully accepts the DPRK-proposed simultaneous package solution, though belatedly, the DPRK is ready to respond to it with the elimination of all its nuclear weapons," it said.

US rejection

The United States rejected the call for simultaneous actions, because it says the onus is on North Korea to disarm after violating a 1994 nuclear freeze agreement with a covert programme that was uncovered last year.

But the North Korean government newspaper also turned the tables on Washington's demand for a verifiable and irreversible end to Pyongyang's nuclear programme.

"As the US urges the DPRK to dismantle its nuclear weapons completely, verifiably and irreversibly, the latter has the same right to demand the US... give it complete, verifiable and irreversible security assurances," it said.

The statement was a guarded reference to the Bush administration's quest for a new generation of small nuclear bombs that the Pentagon might actually use in battle.

Saddam Hussein Captured, Expresses No Remorse For Millions Killed In His Bloody Reign

Ex-Leader, Found Hiding in Hole, Is Detained Without a Fight
By Susan Sachs and Kirk Semple

Saddam Hussein Expressed No Remorse For His Crimes

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 14 - A force of 600 American soldiers captured Saddam Hussein in a raid on Saturday night on an isolated farm near Tikrit, American military officials said today. The former Iraqi president was found, haggard and disoriented but alive, hiding at the bottom of an 8-foot-deep hole.

Mr. Hussein was armed with a pistol at the time of his capture, but he offered no resistance and not one shot was fired in the operation, military officials said.

American authorities, along with members of the Iraqi Governing Council, said they were convinced that the captive was Mr. Hussein, in part because of positive DNA tests, and described him as a talkative man who seemed alternately resigned to his fate and belligerently defensive about his 35 years in power.

``He was unrepentant and even defiant,'' said Adnan Pachachi, the elder statesman of the council and one of four members who were ferried by helicopter today to the secret location where Mr. Hussein was held.

``He tried to justify himself by saying he was a just and firm ruler,'' said Mr. Pachachi, speaking at a news conference in Baghdad in which the Iraqi political leaders promised to eventually take custody of Mr. Hussein and try him in public on charges of genocide. ``Of course, our answer was that he was an unjust ruler responsible for the deaths of thousands of people.''

The capture of Mr. Hussein solved one of the great mysteries that tormented the American-led occupation force in Iraq: whether he was still alive and, if so, where he was hiding.

The news was greeted by the fierce staccato of celebratory gunfire in the streets of the capital. Some people wept openly, pulling out worn photographs of relatives who they said were executed in the waves of political repression that marked the Iraqi leader's rule.

In a nationally televised address from the White House, President Bush said the capture of Mr. Hussein was ``crucial to the rise of a free Iraq.''

He added: ``In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over. A hopeful day has arrived. All Iraqis can now come together and reject violence and build a new Iraq.''

The raid was organized in the space of a few hours, after officers with the Fourth Infantry Division received information about Mr. Hussein's whereabouts from a person with close ties to Mr. Hussein's family, said Maj. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the division commander.

General Odierno did not identify the tipster, who had been arrested about one week ago, but said that as many as 10 people with family and tribal connections to Mr. Hussein had been detained over the last week and a half and that their interrogations had produced credible intelligence that spurred the soldiers to act.

General Odierno said his troops had to move swiftly and discreetly to the remote farm, which is located near the village of Ad Dwar about eight miles southeast of Tikrit, because the fugitive Iraqi leader was believed to change hiding places as frequently as every three to four hours.

Military officials said they did not know how long Mr. Hussein had been in the hole, which had an air pipe and a small fan embedded in a wall, but General Odierno said the former leader may have had as many as 30 similar hiding places around the country.

The former Iraqi leader might have been using a small hut, with a bedroom and a rudimentary kitchen, near the hole on the rural compound. The compound was close to the Tigris River, the general said, and several boats were found on the riverside.

The opening to the underground crawl space was covered by a rug and a smooth layer of dirt, with a styrofoam insert that could be lifted up and down easily, he added.

``He was caught like a rat,'' General Odierno told reporters.

He said T-shirts, socks and other items of clothing, some of them new and still in packages, were found in the bedroom.

Since April, when coalition forces pushed into Baghdad and declared the start of the occupation, American-led troops have tried to wipe away all vestiges of the old government in part by capturing or killing many of Mr. Hussein's former advisers and associates.

North Korean soldier found on boat drifting in East Sea

North Korean vessel found off east coast

A North Korean fishing boat was towed into Sokcho port on Korea's east coast by a South Korean maritime police patrol boat yesterday.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the boat was found adrift about 28 miles off Geojin, Gangwon province, at 9:30 p.m. Saturday by a Navy patrol plane.
The military said that a North Korean soldier, whose name they did not release, was found aboard the ship. He reportedly told the maritime police that bad weather had broken the boat from its moorings in the North Korean port of Wonsan and the vessel drifted out to sea.

North Korea yesterday asked that the soldier be repatriated; but South Korean authorities are still looking into the case to rule out the possibility of attempted espionage or a bid by the soldier for asylum here.

North Korea denounces China's claim on Goguryeo

It seems that China often wants to claim that this kind of relationship in the distant past justifies a territorial claim in the present. Does this mean that China is 'keeping its options open' to invade North Korea on the grounds that it is part of its 'historical' territory?

The North Korean government recently confirmed its opposition to China's controversial "Northeast Asia Project," the five-year government program on the regional studies of Northeast Asia, denouncing it as a political attempt at distorting the historical legacy of the Korean Peninsula.

The Northeast Asian Project, launched in February 2002, has released several documents on the history of ancient Manchuria that claim the Goguryeo Dynasty (37 B.C.-668 A.D.) - which extended from the northern part of the Korean Peninsula to the greater part of Manchuria in its prime - as part of Chinese national history.

"Beijing's theory that has Goguryeo merely as a subject state of China is a pathetic attempt to manipulate history for its own interests, while ignoring the larger context," said Kang Se-kwon, a researcher from North Korea's social science institute, in an article that appeared in the Nov. 27 edition of Rodong Shinmun, the official daily of the ruling Korean Workers Party.

"It could be true that Goguryeo paid tribute to the Chinese dynasties, as recorded in several documents from that time, but to interpret that as political submission is certainly irrational," Kang said.

He also claimed the Qin's Dynasty's building of the Great Wall was an effort to guard against the possible military intrusions by Goguryeo, Gojoseon (dismantled in 108 B.C.) and other states of the time that sought expansion.

Gong Myeong-seong, who heads the social science institute's modern history studies, pointed out in his recently released paper "The Studies on the State Names of Joseon History" that the Manchuria-based states of Gojoseon, Goguryeo, Balhae (698-926) and the medieval kingdom of Goryeo (918-1392) share the meaning of "the eastern land where the sun rises" or "the bright land of the sun" in its name, rejecting the Chinese theory that denies significant continuity between Goguryeo and Goryeo.

The recent issue of "The Democratic Chosun," a daily that is published exclusively for bureaucrats and civil servants in North Korea, condemned China for "intentionally distorting historical facts through biased perspective."

The recent standoff between North Korea and China over the "historical sovereignty" of Goguryeo was triggered last June, when Pyeongyang's bid to put its Goguryeo tomb murals on the U.N. World Heritage List was put on hold after the Chinese opposed the move at the International Council of Monuments and Sites, a UNESCO subcommittee.

The two countries' conflict over the legacy of ancient Manchuria dates back to the early 1960s, when the North Korean academia officially declared Gojoseon, Goguryeo and Balhae as part of their national history, under the historical perspective in accordance with the "Juche (self-reliance) Ideology," the official ideology of North Korea. China, which held a joint archaeological research project with North Korea on Manchuria from 1963 to 1965, balked at such actions and has been refusing to cooperate on the studies of ancient Manchuria with its communist neighbor ever since.

The South Korean government recently promised to support the North Korean bid at the upcoming UNESCO general meeting scheduled for next June in Suzhou, southern China. Seoul is also planning to launch an international study group with the participation of North Korea, Japan, Mongolia and possibly China, in an effort to iron out the differences in the historical interpretations of the subject matter.

(thkim@heraldm.com)

By Kim Tong-hyung

North Korea's Infant Mortality Rate Still High

(Radio Free Asia)

North Korean infants are 11 times more likely to die during their first year of life than those in South Korea, according to UNICEF's State of the World's Children 2004 report, issued this week.

Fifty-five out of every 1,000 North Korean infants die, compared with only five of out 1,000 in South Korea, the report said.

Pregnancy and childbirth are also far riskier North of the Demilitarized Zone, the report said. Some 70 of every 100,000 pregnant women die in North Korea, or roughly 3.5 times as many as in South Korea.

A group of United Nations agencies last month announced a new appeal for U.S. $221 million in international aid for North Korea to address food and health care shortages that a U.N. spokesman described as a "chronic emergency" without an end in sight.

Fifteen U.N. agencies and non-governmental organizations launched the appeal Nov. 19 in Geneva, Rick Corsino, director of the World Food Programme (WFP) in North Korea, told a Beijing news conference.

The Rome-based WFP is asking for U.S. $192 million; UNICEF U.S. $12.7 million; the World Health Organization U.S. $7 million; the Food and Agriculture Organization U.S. $3 million; and the U.N. Population Fund U.S. $672,000.

Pierrette Vu Thi, UNICEF's representative in North Korea, said 40 percent of children were chronically malnourished last year compared with 60 percent in 1998.

Some 70,000 children remain malnourished and at risk of dying without medical treatment, she said.

North Korea has received about 8 million tons of food aid since 1995, when the secretive Stalinist regime revealed that its state farm industry had collapsed from decades of mismanagement and the loss of Soviet subsidies.

Spokesmen for several U.N. agencies cited improvements over the last several years in crop production and rates of child malnutrition.

Donations to North Korea failed to meet demand over the last two years, with UNICEF projects underfunded by half, Corsino said. He declined to link the crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons program to the shortfall.

Critics complain that sending any aid to North Korea props up the regime and feeds mainly the military, which comprises 1.14 million people.

In Reversal, U.S. May Send Additional Food Aid to North Korea

By Christopher Marquis
(New York Times)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 — The United States is considering releasing roughly 66,000 tons in additional food aid to North Korea this year as that country faces a winter famine, administration officials said Thursday.

Administration officials had withheld the aid to protest North Korea's failure to comply with international monitors seeking to ensure that the provisions go to the people who need it.

But given predictions of an imminent humanitarian crisis and a plea for more donations from the United Nations agency that distributes food aid, the officials said they were rethinking their stance.

"We are still considering whether to provide additional food aid to North Korea through the World Food Program under the 2003 appeal," a State Department official said.

The new stance on food aid comes as North Korea continues to defy calls to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. But Bush administration officials said they would not let political differences with North Korea interfere with their decisions on food aid. At the moment, the United States and four of North Korea's neighbors — Japan, South Korea, China and Russia — are trying to bring North Korea back into negotiations over its nuclear weapons program, with safeguards for verification.

The United States, which has sent food to North Korea since 1996, has already provided about 44,000 tons of food to the country this year.

On Thursday, Richard A. Boucher, the State Department spokesman, chided the North Korean government, saying it was impeding the work of the World Food Program, a United Nations agency, which seeks to ensure that food aid is not diverted to the million-member military or other government organizations.

"North Korea has not allowed the World Food Program access to all the vulnerable North Koreans, and has restricted in many ways the World Food Program's ability to monitor the distribution of food aid," Mr. Boucher said.

He called on North Korea to remove the obstacles, and indicated that the administration would make a decision soon on the additional aid.

"I'm holding open the possibility that we'll make a decision between now and the end of the year," he said. He added that North Korea could improve its prospects for food aid by improving the degree of access by international monitors "even at this late date."

The World Food Program warned Thursday that dwindling donations would force it to reduce its donations in North Korea by about 2.2 million recipients. Japan, which has made large contributions in the past, withheld aid this year in anger over the treatment of kidnapped Japanese citizens and other political disputes.

The United Nations estimates that 13.2 people are malnourished in North Korea.

"It's critical that we get more food in there," said Trevor Rowe, a spokesman for the World Food Program. "The needs are real. There is a hunger problem. It's affecting everyone from schoolchildren to the elderly."

As Donations Fall, U.N. Plans to Reduce North Korea's Food Aid

By James Brooke

TOKYO, Thursday, Dec. 11 — As winter grips North Korea, 2.2 million people, or 10 percent of the population, will no longer receive food rations provided by the World Food Program, agency officials said Thursday.

This year the program, a United Nations agency, expects to distribute only 300,000 tons of food, 62 percent of the amount the program had requested from donors.

The food, a ration of 300 grams of cereal a person a day, is less than half of a survival ration.

The program is seeking new donations to assist the hungry in North Korea, which has been crippled by famine for several years.

According to a survey conducted a year ago by the World Food Program and Unicef, about 41 percent of North Korean children under 7 suffer from severe malnutrition, which stunts their growth.

Unless new food aid comes quickly, as the winter progresses the program will cut rations further, eliminating A total of 3.5 million people from food distribution rolls, program officials said on Thursday.

After more than half a century of Communist economics, North Korea is making moves toward freer markets. Farmers have responded with slightly better autumn harvests, but city residents, the majority of North Korea's 22 million people, are struggling with the end of government food rationing and price controls.

Last week in Seoul, South Korea, Masood Hyder, the program's representative from Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, warned that more and more workers were spending their entire salaries to feed themselves.

Starting a campaign to raise $221 million for North Korean aid this winter, Mr. Hyder said, "A million people fall into this new category of underemployed beneficiaries, underemployed urban workers who need assistance."

After a decade of campaigns to feed North Koreans, donor nations seem increasingly disenchanted. Critics complain that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, prefers to spend his scarce foreign exchange on weapons, leaving the feeding of his most vulnerable citizens to foreign charity.

Because the country is largely closed to foreign reporters, there were virtually no reports in the world's news media this year about food deliveries and the fate of aid that comes into North Korea. In the past, some of the food was believed to have been siphoned off by the military and government workers before it reached the people in general.

In coming weeks, as ice covers large stretches of the Tumen River, the border between China and North Korea, many North Koreans are expected to try to escape from the country. Fearing such an exodus, China has moved troops into the border region earlier this fall, witnesses from the area have said.

On Monday, a South Korean human rights group released a report estimating that China was forcibly repatriating 100 refugees to North Korea a week. As of last Friday, 852 North Koreans were detained in four Chinese camps, awaiting deportation, according to the report by the Commission to Help North Korean Refugees, a private group based in Seoul.

In the past, China has justified returning the refugees by saying they are economic migrants. Last summer, in the face of international protests and calls for a boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China reportedly told visiting human rights officials that the deportations had quietly been suspended.

China Sends Back 100 N.K. Defectors Every Week: Rights Group

Some 100 NK Defectors Sent Back a Week

Arousing fresh censure of its human rights policies, China has been recently repatriating about 100 North Korean defectors each week, a Seoul-based human rights group said Saturday.

In a report made by human rights activists active in China, the Commission to Help North Korean Refugees said 482 North Korean defectors are being detained in the Chinese town of Tumen on the border with the North.

The civic group, affiliated with the Christian Council of Korea, said 56 North Korean refugees are being held in Hunchun and 162 each in Lungjing and Shenyang.

It also said Chinese security authorities caught 36 North Korean defectors during a massive four-hour sweep Thursday in Nanning, the capital of southern Guangxi Province.

About 13 South Koreans are being detained in a hotel in the northeastern city of Yanbian and 21 Korean-Chinese and three South Koreans are jailed in Yanji on the border with the North for helping North Koreans travel illegally to a third country, according to the report.

Experts estimate at least 300,000 North Koreans have illegally crossed into neighboring China to flee starvation and oppression at home. China says it is obligated to deport North Korean defectors to the North under bilateral agreements with the North.

The group said it will hold a rally in central Seoul Monday to urge the Chinese government to stop sending North Korean refugees back to their homeland against their will.

International Olympic Committee Urged To Prevent Olympics Being Held In China Due To Illegal 'Repatriation' Of NK Refugees To Execution, Torture

IOC Urged to Reconsider Beijing Olympics Over N. Korean Defectors

SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Yonhap) -- A local activist group urged the International Olympic Committee to reconsider holding the 2008 Olympics in Beijing unless China changes its policy of repatriating North Korean refugees to their impoverished homeland.

The Seoul-based Headquarters for the Protection of North Korean Refugees accused China of forcibly sending Northern refugees back to their homeland, despite the risks of punishment they may face there.

Yonhap News
09 December 2003

North Korean Refugees - (Miraculously)Are Increasingly Seen as Solving Many Problems For Russian Far East

Taking the 'Russia' out of Asia
By Stephen Blank

(Asia Times)

While traveling in Russia's Far East in 2000, President Vladimir Putin warned the region's leaders and peoples that if those provinces could not get their economic act together, they would soon be speaking either Korean, Chinese or Japanese. Even though Russia has since experienced substantial economic growth, the Russian population in the Far East has continued to fall as migrants leave a region of hardship and demoralizing climactic - as well as economic - conditions for better opportunities elsewhere.

Under conditions of economic growth, the resulting shortfall in population has produced a labor shortage. As a result, Moscow has had no choice but to accept the situation that Putin warned against, namely an influx of Asian gastarbeiters or guest workers.

In the first instance these immigrants to Russia have been Chinese, and throughout the 1990s the prospect of this migration, even more than its reality, whether legal or illegal, created a local picture of the "yellow peril" that was successfully employed to block cooperation with China and entrench local politicians in power. This perception vastly exaggerated the actual numbers of Chinese coming to settle in Russian Asia but, as is the case elsewhere, the prospect of illegal migration by disliked minorities or ethnic groups served a useful political purpose for local politicians.

However, by 2001-02 it became clear that there was no alternative to such migration and the government began to argue in favor of accepting this immigration, provided it could channel it by registering immigrants and as long as they came legally. Essentially, Moscow had to compromise by accepting that under freer economic conditions, labor migrates to places where opportunity exists.

Moreover, Russian census results now show that the Chinese are the fastest-growing minority in Russia as a whole. Certainly, this fact will be used in Russian domestic politics by those seeking to exploit the age-old fear of the Mongols and the Chinese, but it is unlikely to have more than a local or minor resonance because the economic need to develop the Russian Far East - the so-called Primorskii Krai or Maritime Province - is too great, and nobody else will do it.

Indeed, as these labor shortages continue, the provincial government in Primorskii Krai is now entertaining the idea of inviting up to 150,000 refugees from North Korea to become guest workers in the province. This proposal has several aspects to it. First of all, there is a humanitarian element to it as North Korea's economy is obviously going nowhere, and this opportunity would eagerly be grasped by North Koreans desperate to improve their lives.

Certainly, many have already tried to flee to China out of similar desperation with local economic conditions. Obviously this move also alleviates the local labor shortage and adds to a reasonably large community of Koreans who have settled in Russia since about 1860. Third, and the regime in North Korea can well understand it since it, too, originated in Russia, it creates the base for a Russian-based Korean diaspora that could come to have an influence on North Korea's future political and economic evolution. Fourth, and again something that is not lost on North Korea's authorities, such a proposal emulates what Hungary did in 1989 by opening the door to the West for East Germans who sought to emigrate.

In the European case this move was a decisive point in the acceleration of the velvet revolutions of that year that destroyed the Soviet bloc and brought about the unification of Germany. While bringing refugees out of North Korea may not necessarily have so immense an effect on the Korean peninsula, this is not a risk that Pyongyang is likely to take lightly, or probably support. A fifth consideration is that a proposal for such mass emigration to Russia, if not other places too, might be broached as part of a package deal in the upcoming negotiations with North Korea to alleviate its awful economic conditions. But it is not yet clear if that proposal will make it onto the agenda of those or any subsequent negotiations.

But beyond those considerations, the proposal, along with the continuing growth of Chinese immigration, suggests that the complexion of Russian Asia is changing exactly as Putin has warned because of an inability to develop the region so that its economy rests on something more solid than the price of massive oil and natural gas exploits to other Asian states. In fact, even as Russia strives with difficulty to negotiate those huge deals, it is gradually leaving Asia.

Whether de facto or ultimately de jure, the inability to convert Russian Asia into a truly integrated and thriving economy that links European Russia to it and/or that connects as well to East Asia's developed economies signifies the continuing failure of Russia's economic and administrative policies in Asia. Hence, Putin's warnings may be coming true. It could well be the case that a major transformation of East Asia, eg, Korean unification, is necessary to stimulate Russian Asia's economic development to the point where the entire Russian nation could benefit from it. Certainly one cannot rule out such a possibility.

But in the meantime, people and governments are following their own urgent economic imperatives and creating facts on the ground. And in a demographic, if not juridical sense, Russian Asia is being reclaimed by its original rulers, and may yet soon be seen as Asian Russia. And in view of the spreading influence of Chinese economic power and the economic capabilities already present in South Korea and Japan, it may well become those states which become the engine of development in Primorskii Krai and its neighboring provinces, rather than Moscow.

In that case, Moscow's de jure title to the land will become of progressively less significance compared to the economic realities on the ground. In opening up Russian Asia to foreign workers, Moscow was forced to bow to the inevitable. But the question then becomes exactly what does the inevitable really signify for the future of those provinces?

Press Release: Protest of South Korean government's discrimination against N.K. Defectors in the issuance of passports

Seoul, South Korea

Place: In Front of the Korean Commision on Human Rights - Near City Hall Station
Date: Wednesday December 10th, 2003
Time: 1:30 P.M.
Attending: Several North Korean Defectors Groups
Purpose: Please Note the following request to the Korean Commission on Human Rights

Protest of Discrimination in Passport Issuance to N.K. Defectors

If you are not a violator of passport law or subject to military duty, a South Korean citizen may obtain a passport easily. But, the case for North Korean Defectors is not so. The relative government agencies declare that because N.K. Defectors can break the law or are a risk for espionage they have the right to restrict passport issue to them.This is an un-excusable and unfair assumption that all N.K. Defectors are criminals and illegal immigrants