October 28, 2009

Treasury Knocks Over Yet Another North Korean Bank

Phillip Goldberg and Stuart Levey have done more to advance U.S. interests in five months than the entire East Asia Bureau of our State Department has done in two decades: Treasury said in a statement that Amroggang Development Bank was being added to a list of proliferators of mass destruction because it was owned or controlled by North Korea’s Tanchon Commercial Bank. Tanchon was previously hit with sanctions by both the United States and the United Nations Security Council for...

Categories Proliferation/Sanctions/WMD
October 28, 2009

“Under the Warm Care of a Relevant Organ?”

A South Korean man who worked at Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor unit and more recently at a pig farm has defected to the North by walking across the heavily mined border, the communist state’s media said on Tuesday. [Reuters] Something tells me he’ll be dreaming of those little piggies soon enough. “He is beside himself with joy for having accomplished this heroic deed,” the North’s KCNA news agency said. It identified the defector as Kang Dong-rim, 30. “He is now under...

Categories Defectors/Useful Idiocy
October 28, 2009

North Korea’s Meth Problem Is Now China’s Meth Problem

Previously, I’ve written about North Korea’s growing drug problem. The Chosun Ilbo’s “On the Border” even showed video of a North Korean in delicto flagrante while smuggling dope across the Yalu River in his mouth. In keeping with the ancient economic rule that supply chases demand, North Korean meth cooks have found that Chinese customers can pay more than most North Koreans: Chinese police is [sic] having a hard time with philopon trade in the border area near Tumen River....

Categories Drugs & N Korea/Inside NK
October 27, 2009

Mixed Reviews for North Korea’s “150-Day Battle”

The word from inside North Korea is that it fell far short of its stated goals, and that the people are still starving in the dark. The sum total appears to be that people did a lot of work that ultimately accomplished only short-term gains in “core” areas of the country: At the end of this September, a high level source stated that according to North Korea it hit a new record of agricultural production from the 150-day battle, which...

Categories Famine & Food Aid/NK Economics
October 27, 2009

Defector: Naver Infiltrated by NorkBots!

Hmmm. I wonder if we’ve seen some of those types around here? Writer Jang Shin-Jung (former employee of the United Front Department), a North Korean refugee, testified that North Korea’s United Front Department has adopted a new propaganda strategy against South Korea by operating a new internet commenting team to reflect South Korea’s change in media culture. [….] Jang conjectured that about 30 team members at contact station 101 were cultural experts of South Korea. He described their proficiency in...

Categories Propaganda/Subversion/The Fifth Column
October 26, 2009

Interview with the Producer of “Kimjongilia”

The Voice of America interviews Nancy Heiken, producer of the documentary Kimjongilia, about North Korea’s concentration camps. You can see a short video clip here. Personally, however, I’d say the film’s own site does a better job of conveying its artistic theme — contrasting the eerily beautiful illusions of the state against the terrible realities beyond the gauzy backdrops. I’m looking forward to having a chance to see this.

Categories Books & Films/The Camps
October 26, 2009

If President Lee is Sincere About Protecting Refugees and POW’s, the South Korean Consul in Shenyang Must Go

[10/27: Here’s an update on that 80 year-old POW.] The latest reports coming from northeastern China emphasize China’s ongoing disregard for the lives of North Korean refugees, and for the pleas of the South Korean government. They also raise questions about President Lee’s sincerity about shifting to a more compassionate policy toward North Korean refugees. Last week, it was reported that two family members of an escaped South Korean prisoner of war found their way to the South Korean consulate...

Categories China & Korea/Diplomacy/Refugees
October 23, 2009

Organizational Profile: Justice for North Korea (JFNK)

Justice for North Korea (JFNK) is a small, activism-oriented group lead by South Korean pastor, Peter Chung. It has Christian and non-Christian members from both Koreas and a handful of other countries. At times they have been active in the Seoul portion of the multi-city demonstrations in front of Chinese embassies around the world that are coordinated by the NK Freedom Coalition. In May 2007, they started a 444-day campaign leading up to the Beijing Olympics in August 2008. Every...

Categories Activism/Human Rights
October 20, 2009

Nine Refugees Leave Danish Embassy in Hanoi for Seoul

“The nine North Koreans left the Danish embassy this morning and they are now at Noi Bai International Airport checking in before flying to Singapore and then Seoul,” the Vietnamese diplomatic source told AFP, asking not to be named. [….] The nine entered the Danish compound on September 24 hoping to reach South Korea, Kim Sang-Hun, an activist who said his group helped them reach the embassy, told AFP earlier. [AFP] That must be the same Kim Sang Hun whom...

Categories Human Rights/Refugees/Southeast Asia
October 19, 2009

North Korean official media denies that the camps exist and claims that all of its people lead “the most dignified and happy life.”

Yoon Sang-Hyun, from the ruling Grand National Party, said the North had 10 camps holding about 200,000 prisoners until the late 1990s when it closed down four of them amid mounting international criticism. “Currently, it holds 154,000 prisoners in six places,” he was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency. [AFP] I don’t know what a South Korean lawmaker is going on when he suggests that North Korea’s gulag inmate population might actually have fallen to 154,000, but when I...

Categories Human Rights/The Camps
October 19, 2009

Wanted: North Korean Assets

William Thomas Massie’s nightmares almost always begin in a dusty prison cell. His arms are lashed behind his back, and North Korean guards are karate-chopping his neck, kicking his groin and ankles, and smashing his face with fists and rifle butts. The frigid room is illuminated only by tannin-tinted light trickling through newspaper-covered windows. The guards are screaming. One thrusts an assault rifle into Massie’s mouth. The soldier’s finger is on the trigger. Sweat stings Massie’s eyes. He is terrified....

Categories U.S. Law/U.S. Military
October 18, 2009

Extortion for Domestic Consumption

This, coming from a regime that offers little more than propaganda for its people to consume: Upon seeing signs that the food situation is becoming serious, factory managers are moving to soothe workers, saying, “Great amounts of food will come from foreign countries in January, so don’t worry so much. However, the workers reactions are not ones of great relief, because it is not clear whether that foreign food aid would be distributed to workers even if it did arrive....

Categories Famine & Food Aid/Propaganda
October 16, 2009

China: The John Edwards of Diplomacy

[Update: According to this story, Wen put off signing an economic development deal with Pyongyang worth “several billion dollars” dollars after Kim Jong Il failed to provide a “clear” statement about returning to six-party talks. I can’t say whether China’s offer came with the Obama Administration’s tacit approval or provoked quiet disapproval, but if we’re back in the business of paying North Korea to come back to talks to stall and lie, we’re right back at square one. The only...

Categories "United" Nations/China & Korea/Sanctions
October 15, 2009

Anti-Kim Jong Il Posters Trigger Massive Dragnet in Small Farming Town

A story sourced to Open Radio (link in Korean) reports that in the small farming town of Kwaksan-Up, North Pyongan Province, anti-government posters were placed on the door and window of the local party office. The posters denounced the top local party official, complaining that in his ambition to curry favor with Kim Jong Il, he had created unbearable conditions for the local people. The posters were signed by a group calling itself “Seo namu dan,” or “pine tree group.”...

Categories Resistance
October 14, 2009

Interview with Kim Young-il, Executive Director of PSCORE

People for Successful COrean REunification (PSCORE; 성공ì ì¸ 통일을 만들어가는 사람들, aka 성통만사) is a small NGO that works on “democratization, human rights and social issues. [They] hope to bridge the gap between South Korea, North Korea and the international community.” They mostly aim their programs, such as essay contests, a one-on-one tutoring program, a summer English camp, and cultural outings, at students, but they’ve held at least one seminar for the public at large (last Spring). Mark your calendars...

Categories Defectors/Democracy/Human Rights/Reconstruction