Open Sources

The State Department gets one right on food aid:

“One of the sticking points in the past discussions we have with North Korea have always been confidence in the ability to ensure that humanitarian assistance provided get to those in need,” he said. “Our policy regarding the provision of humanitarian assistance is based on the level of the need of given countries, and competing needs of other countries and our ability to ensure that the aid is reliably reaching the people in need. These are standards that we have traditionally applied to North Korea.”

The more evidence I see, the more convinced I’ve become that markets are doing a better job of feeding North Korea’s poor and hungry than food aid, which has mostly fed the army. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that soldiers are going hungry now that donor nations aren’t giving North Korea food aid. It’s an agonizing decision to make, and I hope this is the reason we’re making it, but the rest of the North Korean people won’t eat until its army starts to starve … and turns its guns on the regime.

Happy Groundhog Day, everyone!

A confidential report from a panel of United Nations experts suggests that North Korea may have additional secret nuclear facilities, according to U.N. diplomats who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity…. The report could also lead to calls for tighter pressure against Pyongyang, which already faces U.N. sanctions designed to choke its nuclear arms program.

Wow. Those sneaky neocon unilateralists have even infiltrated the U.N.! They could never have gotten away with this when Ban Ki-Moon was alive.

In February 2005, Selig Harrison alleged “that the Bush administration misrepresented and distorted the data” about North Korea’s uranium enrichment program to scuttle the first Agreed Framework. In August 2009, Harrison told an Associated Press reporter that, “Everything I’ve ever said about North Korea since 1972 has seemed at the time like screaming into the wilderness, and everything I’ve ever advocated has come to pass.

Marcus Noland was kind enough to pass me a copy of the new book he co-wrote with Stephan Haggard. Sadly, I haven’t found the time to read it yet, but I’ve been able to listen in on discussions about the ideas it proposes. You can get an idea of what we’re both missing from this article.

Long imagined as docile followers, North Koreans are increasingly skeptical of their leaders as a burgeoning marketplace and foreign media broaden their worldview, a study said Monday. Two US academics surveyed North Koreans who fled the country and found that virtually none believed that Kim Jong-Il’s regime was improving, while a vast majority backed Korea’s reunification on the terms of the US-allied South. [….]

The survey found major changes in North Korean society after its devastating famine in the 1990s, as demand for food created a street-level market. The state also introduced cautious economic reforms but has largely curtailed them. North Koreans who participated in the market were far more vocal in their dissent and were 50 percent more likely to be arrested, as the regime criminalizes much economic activity. “In effect, the market is emerging as a semi-autonomous zone of social communication and, potentially, political organizing. From that standpoint, the state is right to fear the market,” Noland said.

Peek inside, or get your own copy here.

Yet another reason why the North Korean people need guns:

The source explained, “When an agent visits one’s home, they won’t leave until the host has set up a table of drinks for him. After drinking some, the agent coaxes them, “ËœHave you got some news from the South?’ “ËœAre you getting money well?’ or “ËœWhen you get a call next time, you should grumble that the situation is hard, so that they will send more money.'”

Sometimes, agents call for bribes for their own family events, too. The source said, “While talking, agents hint furtively that there will be a family event and call for something for that, saying, “ËœThere will be nothing bad for you if you help out.'” “Agents say openly that, “ËœIf more money is delivered, we can live well; it’s is a good thing, and a way to maintain socialism.’ They only need so much as to smell money and they come running,” the source complained.

North Korea is expanding its amphibious capability near the Yellow Sea islands.

You may remember my recent post on Rason, which included photos of the Emperor Casino. The casino is surrounded by a fence to keep the North Koreans out, but corrupt officials have found ways to sneak in and gamble away public funds. In the context of a place where children are literally starving in the streets, the usual menu of North Korean punishments seems less unjust than in a more typical case, but then, speculate as to how the regime would have spent the funds anyway.

Another comparison between Egypt and North Korea. To me, this is the money quote:

However, it is true that there are big difficulties. North Korea’s leaders have no problem turning the military’s guns on the people. Also, news inside North Korea does not circulate well, and news from beyond the borders is largely blocked out, while the internet in the country is too restrictive to be of use.

The character of an authoritarian state is fundamentally different than that of a totalitarian one. The North Korean people will need to organize and arm themselves to change this regime, and even then, they’re never to going to seize Pyongyang on their own. They might, however, further sap the finances, the will, and the unity of the system; persuade the Chinese that the Kim Dynasty is a security liability; and force negotiations leading to eventual reunification under a democratic system.

It isn’t exactly new, but I found this piece by Anne Appelbaum interesting for its discussion of genocide, how the word is defined, and how the Soviets helped to shape that definition to exclude their own atrocities. It has implications for North Korea as well, particularly for the charge that North Korea has selectively starved some of its people — those of lower songbun and who live in geographically disfavored areas, while spending lavishly on its military priorities and bling for its diktatoriat.