January 6, 2012

So those North Korean coup rumors probably aren’t true, but when it comes to North Korea, it can be weeks before we know what small grain of truth led to the rumors.  Chico Harlan of the Washington Post must feel at least a little sheepish having to pass along those rumors, and to admit that he has no idea if they’re true, so soon after writing that Kim Jong Eun’s succession was going smoothly.  The conclusion was based entirely on stage management, of course. Harlan isn’t a bad reporter, but I hope that he’s learned not to conflate easily accessible facades with more elusive realities.  It’s also interesting that the story got so far in Chinese social media before the censors were able to stop it.

_________________________________ Other reports, of a murderous new crackdown on refugees and other border-crossers are probably true:

In North Korea,  a new Kim may be in command but the same old human rights violations are still in play, including a renewed lethal  crackdown on defectors,  according to South Korean media reports.

Weeks after 20-something Kim Jong Un assumed power following his father Kim Jong Il’s sudden death by heart attack last month,  border guards have begun shooting down would-be defectors  who try  to flee the impoverished nation, the reports said.  [….]

The JoongAng Daily said Kim Jong Un ordered “immediate executions when people are caught trying to cross the borders.” There were also reports that Kim gave the order to a special security squad of the Korean People’s Army under his direct control, authorizing them to shoot defectors on the spot.  [….]

Pyongyang has banned the use of foreign currency in markets, even the Chinese yuan, the monetary unit of North Korea’s biggest supporter, according to the Daily NK, a website monitoring the North. Pyongyang has also jammed cellphone calls across the porous China border, the website said.  [L.A. Times]

But even before Kim Jong Il died, the regime had been cracking down on cell phones.

“Those caught using Chinese handphones are being viewed as agents selling out the country’s secrets,” said a source in Hyesan, Yanggang province. “They are being sent to political prison camps and their families forcibly expelled.”

_________________________________ The North Koreans seem to be straining to recruit proper spies:

The 47-year-old man surnamed Kim, believed to be a former agent of the North’s military intelligence unit, was charged with entering South Korea in June last year on a mission of pro-North espionage, according to the prosecutors.  [….]

Questioning by prosecutors revealed that Kim had accepted the spy agency’s suggestion to defect to the South for espionage activities while he was serving a 99-month disciplinary term for drug smuggling and human trafficking, which he committed during his previous work at the agency.

But the man appears not to have gotten far before the South Koreans caught him.  South Korea has had similarly bad experience recruiting spies in military prisons.  I wonder why the North Koreans haven’t learned from that mistake.

_________________________________ Yeah, well, I could have told you the same thing ten years ago:

A new, more austere U.S. defense strategy unveiled Thursday gives up on fighting major wars overseas and reduces active-duty troops from 570,000 to 470,000. The aim is to cut more than US$450 billion in defense spending over the next decade.  The new strategy would make it virtually impossible for the U.S. military to fulfill a pledge to South Korea to deploy 690,000 troops on the Korean Peninsula in an emergency.

_________________________________ Pyongyang zookeepers are stealing and eating the food intended for the animals; consequently, the animals are starving.

_________________________________ A supernote story with a twist:

An 80-year-old Sapporo man released by North Korea after his arrest last year said he went there with two other Japanese men to obtain counterfeit U.S. currency, according to Hokkaido police. [….]   The man was released in April but the other two–a company executive, 42, from Tokyo and a company employee, 32, from Chiba Prefecture–are still being held in the suburbs of Pyongyang.

[T]he three entered North Korea on March 14 with the help of a company employee at a fisheries company based in Rason, North Korea.  The next day, they received fake 100 dollars bills in a paper bag together with a small amount of drugs from two men introduced by the man at a Rason hotel. When the Japanese company executive was holding bills up to a light to check their quality, North Korean police stepped into the room and arrested them, according to the Hokkaido police.  [….]

The three developed the plan with An via international calls and took about 7 million yen and 50,000 dollars in cash to North Korea to finance their deal. They planned to buy fake U.S. bills and bring them back to Japan in shrimp cans, according to the police. [Yomiuri Shimbun]

Why would North Korean cops arrest supernote smugglers?  The least plausible explanation is that North Korea has developed a sudden new interest in adhering to international laws and norms.  A more plausible explanation is that these particular cops weren’t in cahoots with these particular smugglers, and saw an opportunity to shake them down, and/or disrupt the plans of a competing regime faction.  It’s also possible that like North Korea’s dope industry, a business that the state originally set up for itself is now leaking into the flourishing black market.