4 April 2010: Kim Jong Il in China; More Tension Along the DMZ

Sounds like the perfect time for a coup: Kim Jong Il, and possibly his son Jong-Eun, are rumored to be in China.

North Korea has accused South Korean soldiers of firing on a police post on the North Korean side of the DMZ.

Vitit Muntarbhorn calls for the U.N. to set up a commission of inquiry into North Korea’s crimes against humanity. If only someone at the U.N. really understood and cared about the history, suffering, and han of the Korean people ….

Blaine Harden of the Washington Post has a fairly good track record for analyzing North Korea, and in particular, I’d point to this story of his as an example of one that has help up particularly well. But I don’t put much stock in his conclusion that North Korea is opening itself up to China, even of necessity. North Korea is too hard-wired with hostility and xenophobia to allow a major foreign presence to enter, establish itself, and earn a profit. Perhaps in the short term, North Korea will do what it always does — let the suckers send money and build things. We know how that always works out.

It is true that North Korea’s economic and material dependence on China continues to increase, and given the China’s lax enforcement of U.N. Security Council sanctions, why shouldn’t it?

North Korea’s imports from China in January and February jumped 31 percent compared to the same period a year ago to US$229 million, Voice of America reported on Tuesday, citing data from China’s commerce ministry.

According to the report the North’s imports from China totaled $112 million in January, up 31 percent on-year, and $117 million in February, an increase of 28 percent on-year.

Experts on North Korea explain that the surge was due to a shortage of food and resources in the North which was exacerbated by the botched currency reform late last year.

With the dramatic rise in imports, bilateral trade between North Korea and China in the first two months of the year reached $301 million, surpassing the $300-million mark for the first time. The figure for January and February last year was $267 million, and the previous high was $276 million in January and February 2008. [Chosun Ilbo]

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Apparently, the Obama Administration thinks the sanctions are working, and that for once, time is on our side:

“We are not going to remove those sanctions until North Korea commits to the six-party process and begins to take affirmative steps towards denuclearization,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. “One of the great quotes in this space comes from (Defense) Secretary (Robert) Gates: ‘We’re not going to buy the same horse twice.'” [Yonhap]

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In what looks like its latest desperate attempt to extort money from a foreign state, North Korea threatens to stop looking for American MIA’s.

The Daily NK looks at taxes in North Korea.

The Washington Post picks up a detailed Reuters report on the unfinished war of South Korean prisoners of war still held in the North.

The North Koreans really are sympathizers of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, aren’t they? There’s ample evidence that the converse is also true.

Contrary to previous reports that he had been reassigned, North Korea’s Ambassador to Switzerland, Ri Chol, is back.