Open Sources, January 17, 2014

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THE SOFT BIGOTRY OF LOW EXPECTATIONS: North Korea threatens South Korea with “an unimaginable holocaust,” Yonhap calls it “a camouflaged peace offensive,” and the Park Administration calls it “a fake peace offensive.” I sure would hate to see them when they’re feeling surly. More here.

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REIGN OF TERROR UPDATE: In the immediate aftermath of Jang Song-Thaek’s purge, the authorities conveyed a message of “business as usual” to the people. That didn’t last. Rimjingang reports that since the purge, North Koreans have become “fed-up” with the climate of fear, mutual distrust, and “ever-increasing” restrictions on their daily lives, and particularly their economic activities:

“All people express that they would escape to China if the emergency situation arises. Some of them say that the state is tightening the restrictions to prevent people escaping because when war breaks out, the country will become empty as everyone rushes to China. Usually we don’t have the opportunity to talk about this kind of thing freely among ourselves because of censorship, but these days I hear many different voices. I think these words reflect the people’s true feeling towards the authorities.” [….]

As our partner explained, people are forced to live in an extremely tense situation. What the partner emphasizes is that the living conditions continue to worsen in every aspect. In the aftermath of the purge of Jang Song-thaek, there is an atmosphere of deep mistrust among the people. However, the partner adds that people with close relations share what they really think of their circumstances.

“All people express that they would escape to China if the emergency situation arises. Some of them say that the state is tightening the restrictions to prevent people escaping because when war breaks out, the country will become empty as everyone rushes to China. Usually we don’t have the opportunity to talk about this kind of thing freely among ourselves because of censorship, but these days I hear many different voices. I think these words reflect the people’s true feeling towards the authorities.”

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KIM KYONG HUI: DEAD OR NOT QUITE DEAD: I hate to write posts that are entirely speculative. I don’t think they add value to the discussion, and at any rate, you can do that just as well as I can. I have, however, credited an account of Ms. Kim’s condition that has since been contradicted by several other accounts, and I feel obliged to correct the record, to the extent we have the slightest idea what “correct” means.

Our first unverified rumor, via the Chosun Ilbo, is that Kim Kyong Hui is dead, either by suicide or a heart attack. The second account, via Yonhap, is that she is in critical condition. This is more-or-less consistent with a Joongang Ilbo report, which cites “[a]n intelligence official in the United States,” that after giving her “tactical agreement” to the execution of her husband, Jang Song Thaek, Ms. Kim fell ill, had surgery, and has been in a coma ever since. The Daily NK adds that she is “unable to move” or “recognize those around her.”

New focus adds that the denunciation of Jang as a womanizer would have been a severe blow to Kim Kyong Hui’s pride in the Korean culture, which sounds right. That would be an indication that Ms. Kim, if she is still alive and responsive, has fallen into disfavor with her nephew. Whatever the explanation, all of them eliminate her as a major factor in the regime’s policy-making. How much of this is true? Hell if I know. But it’s interesting that North Koreans who aren’t government insiders are speculating and rumor-mongering just like the rest of us, despite the best efforts of the boys from the Inmin Poam-Bu to stop them.

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THOR HALVORSSEN AND ALEXANDER LLOYD their experience launching balloons, leaflets, and USB drives into North Korea:

In June of last year, at a different border site, word got out about the effort, which was to be the first time that a foreign NGO had collaborated directly in such an activity. Two days before the anticipated launch date, the North Korean government issued a warning through its propaganda outlet, threatening, “[I]f you so much as haunt [the launch site] with your presence and act as human shields for refugees who have already been sentenced to death, we will kill you.”

We chose to ignore this inflammatory rhetoric, which is typical of the regime, and pressed on. The morning of the launch, however, the North Korean government issued a second warning, this time from the Command of the Korean People’s Army, saying the launch “reminds one of a puppy knowing no fear of a tiger.” This threat was taken so seriously by the South Korean government that its security forces mobilized to stop us.

North Korea, which has assassinated or attempted to assassinate several human rights activists in the last five years, was removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism on October 11, 2008. The State Department’s position is that North Korea “is not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since … 1987.” Discuss among yourselves.

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A 17 YEAR-OLD NORTH KOREAN GIRL has walked into the South Korean embassy in Vientiane, Laos. Laos, as you recall, was the government that recently sent nine North Korean orphans back to North Korea, where some reports claim that they were executed. We continue to await the AP’s exclusive report debunking this vicious slander.

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SUPREME PEOPLES’ ASSEMBLY DELEGATES have some real powers after all:

“There have been cases where a deputy on a work-related trip sees a security officer mistreating people and engaging in illegal activity on the street, so he rips off the agent’s epaulets on the spot and reports it to the Supreme People’s Assembly,” the source recalled. “I knew of another security officer who struck a delegate he had mistaken for an ordinary worker. He received an education through labor sentence for that.” [Daily NK]

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LIKE ME, DANNY RUSSEL WOULD ALSO LIKE Japan and South Korea to show some maturity in their dealings with one another:

“By the same token, (South) Korea and Japan are two leading economies and two leading democracies in the Asia-Pacific region. For Japan and Korea to be at odds is something that the region and the world can’t afford,” he said at a media roundtable in Brussels earlier this week, according to a related video.

Russel, from everything I’ve heard, is serious and tough-minded.

I’m sympathetic to South Korea’s specific complaint about Japan’s past conduct, because recognizing your past conduct informs your present conduct. I’m unsympathetic, however, to the tendency of some South Koreans to allow their obsession with crimes committed 70 years ago to eclipse their perception of crimes that are being committed today, and Japan certainly isn’t the nation committing those. No apology can undo what the comfort women went through in the past, but enough outrage in South Korea could pressure China to change policies that are causing North Korean women to be sold into sexual slavery at this very moment.

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ALSO, IT SOUNDS REALLY HARD TO DANCE LIKE THAT: Yonhap reports that Jeon Shik-Ryol, the head of “a left-leaning dance troupe” has been indicted under the National Security Law for passing insider information about factional disputes inside the Unified Progressive Party to a North Korean spy in China. In case you’re tempted to argue that Jeon was merely talking politics with a casual acquaintance, the prosecutors also allege that he wrote an oath of loyalty to North Korea, which he transmitted to Pyongyang using specialized secret-encoding software developed by the North Koreans.

Which just goes to show you that North Korea is – with a few exceptions, including “” – an highly advanced nation.