Anju Links for 8 June 2008
THE DAILY NK HAS POSTED some pictures of rice-planting time in North Korea. These appear to have been taken surreptitiously. These, on the other hand, appear to be taken from the Chinese side of the border, and show North Korean soldiers and kids catching frogs to eat in the paddy fields.
ONCE AGAIN, YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST: More details of U.S.-North Korean food aid talks have leaked out:
The United States is ready to ship 500,000 tons of food to North Korean ports – enough to avoid short-term starvation. This remedy, however, is being deliberately delayed.
A specialist US technical team spent three days locked in negotiations in Pyongyang, the capital, last weekend to try to get the North Koreans to agree on how the food could be distributed, according to sources familiar with the talks. The issues under dispute included whether the United States could monitor the aid, whether American citizens could be on the team, and how much notice the monitors would give for any spot inspections, the sources said.
In the past, some international aid has been diverted by Kim’s regime to the army and the internal security forces, while priority is always given to privileged parts of the country such as Pyongyang. “It’s meticulous stuff, just what Kim Jong-il loves,” said an official briefed on the issues. “The North Koreans were the tougher negotiators – even though they are the recipients.
The technical team left Pyongyang last Tuesday after reaching an outline accord but veteran diplomatic observers of North Korea predicted there will be endless haggling ahead. [Times Online]
Interesting that the Times says these talks were in Pyongyang. The ones I described here supposedly took place in Beijing.
AS THE READER WHO SENT ME THIS LINK put it, “fat chance:”
President Lee Myung-bak yesterday urged North Korea to cooperate on humanitarian matters, saying the problems of prisoners of war, separated Korean families and kidnap victims remain unresolved.
In a speech at a Memorial Day ceremony in Seoul, President Lee also said, “(The government) will not fail to realize its will on the unlimited duty of a nation to take responsibility for those who sacrificed themselves for their country.
“First-generation prisoners of war and separated families have aged and are now in their 70s and 80s. The government will do its best to allow contacts with their separated families and return to their homeland as they have long dreamed of. [Donga-A Ilbo]
The gold print on the red banners in the last of the rice planting photo set appears to be Chinese, not Korean. I cannot read them clearly, but on the first banner on the left, I think the second syllable/character is “ren,” meaning “know.” On the last banner, I believe I can see the Chinese character for “power,” pronounced “li.”
Nevermind. I saved the image to my computer and enlarged the size. The banners are seen from the back, so the letters are reversed. The woman washing clothes in the cold stream isn’t particularly unusual. While visiting friends of my Chinese housekeeper in a village outside the developed coastal city of Qingdao, I saw locals washing clothes and dishes in a polluted creek.