Open Sources: More reports of hunger in the NK army

Melanie Kirkpatrick, writing with Jack David in the Wall Street Journal, quotes senior North Korean defector Kim Duk-hong on Kim Jong Il’s nuclear policy:

In the early 1990s, Mr. Kim told us, Kim Il Sung posed a question at a meeting of the military committee of the Workers Party. Kim Il Sung’s question, and Kim Jong Il’s reply, were disclosed in a memorandum that was distributed to every member of the Central Committee, including Kim Duk-hong. Colleagues who were present also told him what happened.

“The United States is demanding that we give up our nuclear weapons program,” Kim Il Sung said. “What should we do? Give them up or not?”

The room was silent. Finally, Kim Jong Il spoke, saying he would answer his father’s question.

“Nuclear weapons are Chosun,” he said, using the North Korean word for Korea. “If we destroy our nuclear program, we may as well destroy ourselves.”

Two more stories today add fuel to my suspicions that nutrition, morale, and discipline in the North Korean army declined sharply this year:

“I was 155 centimeters high and weighed 42 kilograms when I entered the military, but my weight was reduced to 31 kilograms in two years,” Paek Hwa-seong, one of the defectors, said at the seminar hosted by North Korea Strategy Center, a Seoul-based conservative private think tank on human rights in the communist state.

“My hair almost fell out after turning yellow and I was bony,” Paek, who worked for a tank unit of the Fifth Corps of the People’s Army before defection, said while testifying about malnutrition among soldiers.

Park Myeong-ho, a former captain, said starving soldiers have often stolen food from civilians, which created a saying in the North that the best place to live is where there is no military unit. [….]

“Sexual harassment on female soldiers was so serious that they had to endure a physical touch. Some got pregnant from sexual assault and had to work wearing a maternity belt,” Choi testified. The women often had months without menstruation as a result of malnutrition, she said. [Yonhap]

Separately, the Joongang Ilbo gets the back story on a North Korean who recently defected by walking through a mine field along the DMZ. I wondered at the time how anyone would be able to do that without some inside knowledge, but the man’s background may provide some explanation:

A 21-year-old North Korean resident surnamed Kim who defected to the South by passing through the demilitarized zone and into Cheorwon County, Gangwon, on Feb. 15, says he escaped because he was starving in the North, according to South Korean intelligence officials.

“Kim, who was discharged from the North Korean People’s Army last year, crossed the border while waving his arms in surrender 1 kilometer [six-tenths of a mile] away from our guard post,” said a South Korean official. “It was obvious that he has been starving for ages. [Joongang Ilbo]

The survival of a totalitarian state depends on an army that’s willing to follow orders to kill civilians. We’re seeing this illustrated vividly in Egypt, where the army refused, and in Libya, where the security forces split. I adhere to my view that what happened in Egypt could never happen in North Korea, but that there’s just a chance that what happened in Libya could. Some things that would matter to my analysis include which units are still well-fed, the relationship between the officers and the soldiers generally, and how much access common soldiers have to weapons and ammunition.

As I’ve said before — what North Korea fears the most is the truth before the eyes of its people, and the very threat of spreading the truth inside North Korea could be the deterrent that USFK hasn’t been since at least the early 1990’s.

North Korea on Sunday threatened to fire cross-border shots if South Korea continues a leaflet-launching propaganda campaign, which aims in part to inform the hermetic North of anti-government revolts in the Middle East.

In a statement carried by its state-run news agency, Pyongyang called the leaflets — stuffed into massive, column-like balloons — a psychological plot to “shake up our socialism and break the trust of our military and people.” Calling it a matter of self-defense, North Korea said that it will “launch direct, targeted firing attacks” at any area where activists or military members are seen releasing the balloons. [WaPo, Chico Harlan]

“Ryanggang Children” is the story of what takes place when a Christmas gift package sent by balloon from South Korea lands in a remote village in North Korea. At a rural public school, all the students go on a field trip to Pyongyang, except for Jong-su, who is deemed unfit to enter the North Korean capital. He cries after running after the bus, and on his way back, he picks up the gift package. In it is a melody card, a Santa outfit and a toy robot. His classmates gather at Jong-su’s home with steamed corn, crispy rice, eggs and fermented soybeans just to see the package. The authority focused on the class president shifts to Jong-su. At this point, the class president’s father, a member of the security forces, intervenes. The rumor is that the robot comes from South Korea. [The Hankyoreh]

A video documentary: North Korea’s cinema of dreams.

Protesters in China try again:

Police and security officials displayed a massive show of force here and in other Chinese cities Sunday, trying to snuff out any hint of protests modeled on the uprisings in the Middle East. In Shanghai, several hundred people trying to gather were dispersed with a water truck. [….]

“I came here today to see how people protest against the government, which is corrupt and rules in an authoritarian way,” said a 71-year-old man, who asked that only his family name, Cao, be used. “Democracy is the trend in the world. No country in the world can be an exception to the process.”

Cao said the Communist Party in China was so strong that he expected reform would have to come from within the system. “For those fighting against the government, it is like eggs hitting the stone,” Cao said. “With 10, 100, 1,000 and 10,000 eggs hitting the stone, the eggs will eventually succeed.”

Another man, named Xia, 64, said there were about 400 to 500 people gathering at People’s Square when he arrived around 1 p.m., but they were dispersed by the spray from the water truck. He said he would keep returning to try to protest because he was already in his 60s and not afraid. [Wa Po, Keith B. Richburg]

The AP’s Elaine Kurtenbach, who also covered the abortive protests, wonders whether inflation could give a protest movement impetus.