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*North Korean Studies*
Pyongyang, December 30 (KCNA) -- Chinese Consul General Wang Yonggui and Russian Consul General Arkady Lavrov in Chongjin hosted receptions Sunday and Monday evenings on the occasion of the New Year, Juche 93 (2004). Present there on invitation were Pak Su Gil, chairman of the North Hamgyong Provincial People's Committee, Yun Sun Byong, secretary of the North Hamgyong Provincial Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, and other officials concerned. Officials of the Chinese and Russian consulates general in Chongjin were on hand. Speeches were made at the receptions.
Pyongyang, December 26 (KCNA) -- Russian Ambassador here Andrei Karlov hosted a friendly meeting at the embassy Thursday evening on the occasion of the New Year, Juche 93 (2004). Speeches were made at the meeting. Its participants deepened the friendship, talking about the need to boost the friendly and cooperative relations between the DPRK and Russia growing stronger day by day under the deep care of leader Kim Jong Il and President Vladimir Vladimirovich
Putin. An art performance was given by children of the embassy. DPRK Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun was among those present on invitation and staff members of the embassy were present there.
Pyongyang, December 23 (KCNA) -- The Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea sent a message of greetings to the 4th Congress of the All-Russia Party "United Russia" on Dec. 22. The message said that the 4th party congress would be an important and significant event in social and political life of Russia.
Expressing the belief that the friendly relations between the two parties would contribute to further strengthening the traditional DPRK-Russia relations of friendship, the message wished the All-Russia Party great success in the work of the 4th congress.
Pyongyang, December 22 (KCNA) -- A meeting of the Russian public was held in Moscow on Dec. 17 under the co-sponsorship of the Communist Parties-the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Russian Association for Friendship and Cultural Cooperation with the DPRK to celebrate the 12th anniversary of leader Kim Jong Il's assumption of the supreme commandership of the Korean People's Army and the 86th birth anniversary of Kim Jong Suk, an anti-Japanese war hero. Kramarenko, a retired major general of the air force, in his speech said that the great feats of Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il lay in highly displaying the dignified sovereignty and international authority of the DPRK and turning the Korean People's Army into an invincible vanguard to defend socialism.
Noting that thanks to him, the great brilliant Songun commander, the DPRK is standing firm inspite of any moves of the United States and its followers to isolate and stifle it, he said victory and glory are always in store for the Korean People's Army and the people guided by him. Writer
Garifulina, member of the Council of the Communist Parties-the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in her speech said: The life of Kim Jong Suk was a brilliant one that teaches what is the spirit of devotedly defending the leader and carrying through his instructions. She is a great pattern for the Korean people and the KPA officers and men in struggle and life. A congratulatory message to Kim Jong Il was adopted at the meeting.
Pyongyang, December 20 (KCNA) -- Shortly ago, Korean crewmen saved a Russian crewman from the jaws of death in the self-sacrificing spirit at Rajin Port, North Hamgyong Province. Igori Luchin, crewman of Russian-flagged vessel Prekollya anchoring at the port, fell to the sea due to a sudden accident on December 7. Ri Won Ho, deck hand of Trading Cargo Vessel Kumchon of the Foreign Trade Management Bureau of South Phyongan Province who was on duty, saw it and lost no time to plunge himself into the rising sea waves, not caring for danger. Upon hearing this news later, other crewmen of Kumchon rushed there.
Their bold rescue operation launched to save him come what may succeeded in rescuing him. The Russian was in a stupor. The captain of the ship, doctor and other crewmen worked hard to bring him to consciousness. It took 20 minutes to bring him back to life. The crewmen of the Russian ship sent a letter of thanks to the Korean crewmen which read "We extend sincere thanks to the crewmen of the DPRK Vessel Kumchon for saving our sailor drowning in the sea in the self-sacrificing spirit." And they were unanimous in saying to our officials that they would never forget the sincere and friendly feelings of the Koreans towards the Russian people and they would tell the Russians the noble and beautiful mentality of the Koreans.
Pyongyang, December 20 (KCNA) -- Leader Kim Jong Il was awarded the certificates of the titles of academician and professor of the Academy of Security, National Defence, Law and Order of the Russian Federation, a badge of the academy, Pyotr the Great Order First Class, the highest order of the academy, and its certificate. Sergei Lyoushkin, vice-president of the academy on a visit to the DPRK, handed them to an official concerned on December 19.
He said that the Presidium of the academy decided to present Kim Jong Il with Pyotr the Great Order First Class and certificates of the titles of academician and professor of the academy on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of his assumption of the supreme commandership of the Korean People's Army. He noted that the academy decided to award to Kim Jong Il the title of academician conferred only upon full members of the academy, not that of honorary academician. This was in recognition of his great contribution to boosting the Russia-DPRK relations of friendship and cooperation, he added. It is honor of our academy to award the order and titles to Kim Jong Il representing the desire of the Russians, he stressed.
Pyongyang, December 11 (KCNA) -- Andrei Karlov, Russian ambassador to the DPRK, arranged a friendship meeting at the embassy on December 10 on the threshold of the New Year, Juche 93 (2004). Present on invitation were Mun Jae Chol, acting chairman of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, Hong Son Ok, vice-chairwoman of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries who is chairwoman of the DPRK-Russia Friendship Association, and officials concerned.
Staff members of the Russian embassy were on hand. Speeches were made there. The participants deepened friendly feelings, stressing the need to boost the friendly and cooperative relations between the DPRK and Russia which were daily growing tighter under the deep care of leader Kim Jong Il and President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
James Brooke, New York Times, Tuesday, December 9, 2003 (SF Chronicle)
Slavyanka, Russia -- Here in Slavyanka, or Slavic village, a European outpost 50 miles north of the North Korean border, the Slavic population implosion is as clear as roadside meadows where cows graze among the concrete shells of abandoned houses. But the demographic transformation of Russia's Far East, local politicians say, could have a silver lining of global importance: providing new homes for refugees from North Korea.
The human drama of the estimated 150,000 North Korean refugees living clandestinely in northern China
has so moved the U.S. Congress that bills were introduced in late November in both houses to ease
American visas for some refugees and to pay for the resettlement of others. Sergei Darkin, governor of
Russia's Primorye region, is offering to take the North Koreans, he said Friday as he toured the Khasan
district here.
This finger of Russian territory is squeezed between China and the Pacific Ocean until it stops at a
five-mile-wide strip of North Korea. "The U.S. is moving in the right direction to solve the problem, and I
support them," he said. "I am ready to help, and financially too." Djambulat Tekiev, the district's
representative in the regional legislature, agreed, waving to a vast, empty vista here that evoked
eastern Montana. "Look," he said. "No people, no development."
This of course is only at the talking stage. Although the governor said he would welcome as many as
200,000 refugees, it is unclear whether the government in Moscow, which controls immigration policy, will
want to risk increasing regional tensions and racial insecurities among Russians here.
In Russia's nearly 150-year hold on this region, attitudes have waxed and waned on Asian immigration. But during the 1990s, the population of this
area contracted by 17 percent, to 6.7 million people.
Much of the decline was attributed to Russians moving west, seeking higher living standards. But now, the
nation's economy is growing, the unemployment rate has dropped to 3 percent, and labor shortages are
spreading. Federal officials have set a target of adding a million new workers. President Vladimir Putin "has said it is strategically important to get
more people to move into the East," Pyotr Samoilenko, the federal government's regional spokesman, said in Vladivostok. "The only thing that
North Korea has to offer is cheap labor."
Two months ago, Darkin traveled by train from Vladivostok to North Korea. What he saw there, he said,
gave him little hope for economic revival. "The economy there is still on a decline," he said. Noting that his train
clanked along at 25 miles an hour, stopping frequently because of power shortages, he said, "They lack everything -- fuel, cement, fertilizer."
As North Korea's penury forces it to abandon its socialist supply system, malnutrition and economic desperation are spreading, Masood Hyder, the
U.N. aid coordinator in North Korea, told reporters in Seoul. "A million people fall into this new category of underemployed
beneficiaries, underemployed urban workers who need assistance," he said, urging global
donors to contribute to a U.N. appeal for $221 million in aid for North Korea.
The twin bills in the U.S. Congress would tie future aid to North Korea to improvement in human rights, expand Radio Free Asia financing to cover 24-hour broadcasting and encourage neighboring countries to help people
fleeing North Korea. "The best thing for North Korean refugees is the opportunity to go back to
a free and democratic North Korea," Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said on submitting his bill, the North Korea Freedom Act of 2003. "Until that
becomes a realistic option, we must do whatever is necessary to relieve the suffering of North Korean refugees and defectors."
With China hostile to the refugees, the Russian Far East could offer an alternative, said Mark Palmer, who
was an American ambassador to Hungary as communism collapsed. "With Putin there is a chance," Palmer said in November at a North Korea
hearing held by Brownback's Foreign Relations subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Asian affairs.
"We should work hard on him to let refugees come out into Russia and to
create the kind of flows that I personally saw coming through Hungary in 1989, which really is what led to the collapse of East Germany," Palmer
said.
On Friday, Kenneth Bacon, president of Refugees International, a Washington-based policy group, reacted
to Darkin's offer, saying in a telephone interview: "The Russian proposal shows a willingness to share
some of the burden. It could be a building block for dealing with the humanitarian problem of North Korea."
Darkin said he wanted North Korea to come "out from behind the iron curtain." But he also called for order and stability, saying that
"strengthening the border is strengthening economic relations." On his return from North Korea, Darkin said he would double next year's
quota for North Koreans working in Primorye ere on official labor contracts, to around 5,000. He said less than one third of the region's
arable land was being cultivated and that North Koreans would be farming, doing construction work and picking up garbage.
North Korea's leadership is acutely aware that during the first half of the 20th century, Russian territory around here served as a base for
Korean guerrilla units that fought Japan's colonial government in Korea. Kim Jong Il, North Korea's leader, was born in 1942 in Khabarovsk, a
Russian city about 450 miles up the railroad from here, where his father, Kim Il Sung, trained a small military unit under Soviet supervision.
The arrival of North Korean refugees here would not be without tensions. North Korea maintains a consulate in the port city of Nakhodka to keep
control over the estimated 10,000 North Koreans working on contracts in the Russian Far East, and refugees here could become targets for
harassment by North Korean agents.
In 1996, North Korea is believed to have ordered the assassination of the South Korean consul in
Vladivostok. A North Korean diplomat who came to the door of the consulate in Nakhodka
last week declined to answer any questions. Korea's modern presence in this region dates to the 1860s, when Korean
emigration controls weakened and Korean farmers started moving into Russian lands.
By 1917, 100,000 Koreans were in Primorye and were the largest non-Russian group, with their own schools, newspapers and churches. After the
Soviet Union fought a brief but violent border war here with Japan in the summer of 1938, Stalin deported most of the border region's Korean
population to Central Asia.
Today, 40,000 ethnic Korean Russians live in Primorye and another 40,000 on the neighboring island of
Sakhalin. In the last decade, South Korea has become the largest foreign investor in the region. Some ethnic Korean
families have come back from Central Asia to demand the return of their old farms, causing
uneasiness among ethnic Russians. In recent years, Tekiev said, two large farms in the area were returned to
ethnic Korean families. Asked to reconcile his contradictory feelings about Koreans, he said he
had just built a knitting factory for 500 workers near Slavyanka. Speaking of his district, whose population has dwindled to 37,000 residents, he
said, "Now, I can't find any workers."
Pyongyang, December 6 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, sent a message of sympathy to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, president of Russia, on Dec. 6 in connection with bomb-blasting terrorism committed by Chechnya terrorists in Russia. The message expressed deep condolences to the president and, through him, to the victims and their bereaved families in connection with this terrorism which claimed huge casualties.
The message branded the terrorism as a dastardly behavior of the terrorists to create political instability by complicating the internal situation in Russia with the election to the State Duma at hand. Saying that the DPRK has consistently maintained the stand of opposing all forms of terrorism, the message expressed the belief that the Russian leadership would put the situation under control as early as possible and ensure the stability of the country.
Pyongyang, December 2 (KCNA) -- Frokopenko, military attache of the Russian embassy here, called a press conference on Nov. 20 at which he introduced in detail the results of the meeting held at the Russian Ministry of Defence as regards the military principle of Russia and the document of the ministry "The immediate tasks for the development of armed forces of the Russian Federation". Referring to the issue of the nuclear deterrent, in particular, the document clearly stated that Russia can use nuclear weapons as actual means to check the U.S. attempt to lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.
In this regard Rodong Sinmun today in a signed commentary says that the measure taken by Russia is a very just one in the light of the present international situation and from the viewpoint of holding in check the imperialists' hegemonic and unilateral policies and hard line and defending the security and interests of the country. It continues:
Nobody can criticize Russia for opting to increase its national defence capability, especially its strategic armed forces, under the situation where the U.S. is pursuing a new military confrontation after listing Russia as a target of its nuclear attack. Brisk in Russia is the work to beef up the armed forces of the federation as evidenced by the modernization of the strategic rocket force and the process of equipping its navy with new type weaponry. Thanks to these efforts fresh changes are taking place in the military field of Russia and the military and technical level and combat capabilities of its armed forces getting boosted. This is in line with the desire and interests of the Russian people and helpful to ensuring global peace and security.
Pyongyang, November 21 (KCNA) -- There was a press conference at the Russian embassy here yesterday. A speech was made by Military Attache of the embassy Vladislav
Prokopenko. He informed the participants of the main content of the document "Present task for the development of the armed forces of the Russian Federation" in which a Russian military institution recently clarified the position and role of the armed forces of the federation and character and prospect of their building on the basis of an analysis of the present international political and military situation. A series of questions were answered at the conference. Mediapersons in Pyongyang were present there. Also present there were Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov and embassy officials.
Pyongyang, November 26 (KCNA) -- This year many foreign figures wrote and published books and poems in praise of the immortal feats performed by the three generals of Mt. Paektu. Academician, Prof. and Dr. G. I. Korotkov, secretary general for academic studies of the Military History Institute, wrote the book "Victors" on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Korean people's victory in the Korean war, deeply moved by the outstanding military idea and tactics of President Kim Il Sung.
Sergei Lisitski, writer of the Russian Union of Writers, visited the DPRK and wrote the book "Story of DPRK", after avidly reading Kim Il Sung's Reminiscences "With the Century". Alexander Viktorvich Brezhnev, journalist of the Russian newspaper Zavtra, authored the book "Red Korea" in which he gave his impressions of the DPRK he visited in comparison with the realities of those countries where socialism collapsed.
A local government of Russia has held talks with North Korea on leasing the country's north-eastern port of Rajin to accommodate Russia's increasing demands for freight transport, the Voice of Russia (VOR) reported Monday. The discussion was held when Sergei Darkin, the head of the Russian Maritime Territory's administration, visited Pyongyang early last month, the VOR said.
In an interview with the station, Darkin said major ports in the Maritime Territory handle a total of 50 million tons of freight annually, but the volume is feared to rise to 100 million tons by 2010. "Rajin is a very important port for us," he was quoted as saying.
Leasing Rajin port would enable his province to handle an additional 5 million tons of cargo per year, he added. Darkin visited Pyongyang from Oct. 2-4 and discussed ways to enhance bilateral economic cooperation with North Korean Foreign Trade Minister Ri Gwang-keun. The throughput capacity of Rajin port is approximately 3 million tons. The port can handle four 7,000-ton vessels and nine 10,000-ton vessels simultaneously at three wharves. [Yonhap,Nov.17th]
James Brooke, The New York Times, 11 December 2003
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia After a decade of nearly static activity, Russia's Far East is aggressively repairing and expanding its economic ties with North Korea.
Invited by the North Korean government, teams of Russian engineers have gone in recent weeks to the port of Najin to inspect its cargo facilities and oil refinery. They have also looked at a stretch of railway that crosses the two countries' short border at the Tumen River. The port, refinery and railway, all built by the Soviet Union, have been in disuse or lightly used in recent years.
Russian workers are scheduled to build the first highway bridge linking North Korea and Russia. To speed rail traffic, they will also renovate the railroad down to Najin, 40 kilometers, or 25 miles, from the Russian border. New fishing and seafood-processing joint ventures are planned.
And with a hydroelectric plant inaugurated two weeks ago, and raising the electric power produced in the Russian Far East to 30 percent more than it needs, planners are talking with North and South Korea about distributing some of it through power lines down the Korean peninsula.
"We are almost destined for these contacts," said Victor Gorchakov, vice governor of foreign economic relations of Russia's Primorsky region.
"We live here and are interested in a quiet and comfortable
situation".
While this corner of Russia pushes aggressively toward Korea, the Bush administration is seeking to freeze economic ties with North Korea until it puts its nuclear program under international controls.
Speaking on Monday in Vladivostok, 120 kilometers from the North Korean border, Gorchakov expressed opposition to Washington's policy of containment.
"If driven into a corner, as they are now", he said of the North Korean government,
"they will bite".
The United States, South Korea and Japan worked out a set of principles last weekend for an agreement to end North Korea's nuclear program. But the framework did not contain a schedule for delivering energy or economic aid to the North.
During Russia's Communist era, economic cooperation between the Russian Far East and North Korea was intensive. But for most of the last decade, Russian business people here saw North Korea, a country of 22 million people, as dead economic space.
"As for business with North Korea, I, like many other people here, wouldn't want to
invest", said Djambulat Tekiev, a local politician and the leading businessman in Khasan, the Russian district directly bordering North Korea.
"I had one experience with trade with North Korea, and they didn't
pay".
Instead, Tekiev has set up a thriving cargo and passenger ferry service on a route designed expressly to bypass North Korea: The ferries sail twice weekly between Vladivostok and Sokcho, a South Korean port just below the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, with a stop at Zarubino, a Russian town near the North Korean border.
Now, though, Russian officials say they detect moves toward markets and pragmatism in North Korea.
"There is a new generation of people", Gorchakov said, recalling two North Korean ministers who recently were in Vladivostok on separate visits.
The days of aid to North Korea on the Soviet scale are gone for good, Russian officials say; the plans for renovating the port, the oil refinery and part of the cross-border railroad depend on the Russians' getting an ownership stake in the facilities or a guaranteed stream of revenue from them.
Still, the complementary road, rail, port and energy projects on the Russian side would re-establish Russia's historic influence in Korea's northeastern corner.
The renewal of commercial ties appeals to Russian nationalists, who remember the solidarity of Communist days. Last spring, members of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia demonstrated against the war in Iraq outside North Korea's consulate in Nakhodka, a port city near Vladivostok. Some carried signs reading
"An attack on Pyongyang is an attack on Russia". The Liberal Democrats did unexpectedly well in Russian parliamentary elections on Sunday, drawing 11.6 percent of the national vote.
But today, economic interests rather than ideology drive the Primorsky region's projects with North Korea.
For example, the regional government's recent decision to admit as many as 5,000 North Korean workers on labor contracts was billed as a move to lower local food prices by stepping up farm production.
Rehabilitating the Najin refinery after seven years of closure would spare Vladivostok from having to obtain its fuel supplies by rail from a Russian refinery 970 kilometers to the north. Renovating the port of Najin, which can berth 17 midsize freighters at a time, would relieve cargo congestion in Vladivostok and Nakhodka, Russia's two principal Pacific ports. Russian repair and administration of the port would be paid for through user fees.
"Our interest in the port of Najin is understandable", said Gorchakov, whose trip to North Korea in October was his first since Soviet times.
Two months ago, when Gorchakov was in Pyongyang, he was surprised, he said, by the number of South Koreans visiting the North Korean capital. Noting that Russia shared South Korea's approach of quiet economic engagement with North Korea, he said,
"They don't give much publicity to it, and maybe they are doing the right
thing".
По словам корейского дипломата Дальневосточный регион представляет особый интерес для КНДР. Он сказал также, что к концу текущего года консульство из Находки по всей вероятности переберется во Владивосток. Но, учитывая важное административное, географическое и экономическое положение дальневосточной столицы, в МИДе КНДР планируют открыть в Хабаровске постоянное отделение Приморского Генконсульства. Ким Тэ Хен не исключает, что со временем генконсульство его страны появится и в Хабаровске.
Пока же он приехал в краевой центр без дипломатического аппарата в единственном лице, чтобы налаживать всесторонние отношения. Генконсул КНДР уверен в том, что ему удастся при поддержке хабаровских краевых и городских властей организовать сотрудничество, которое будет способствовать дальнейшему развитию добрососедских отношений между двумя соседними странами. В свою очередь Александр Соколов поддержал идею укрепления связей, в первую очередь экономических и торговых, но для этого важно знать потенциал промышленности КНДР, выпускаемую ею продукцию, которая может представить для нас интерес. (Пресс-служба администрации города, in Russian)
Pyongyang, October 30 (KCNA) -- A Russian poet Alexandr Brezhnev created and published an epic "March for Victory of Songun". The epic said that leader Kim Jong Il started a grand long march for Songun, holding aloft the banner of justice, adding that the Songun policy pursued by the DPRK serves as treasured sword to win sure victory. Noting that its army has brought joy and happiness to all the families of the country, the epic described the Songun policy as the strongest power that helped the DPRK stand on its own feet and a source of world-startling creation and construction. The banner of Songun not only contributes to ensuring peace in Korea but serves as a shield to protect the security of our planet and ever-victorious lightning and thunder to wipe out all the rogues, it stressed.
Praising Kim Jong Il as a generalissimo of peace as he champions world security with the Songun policy, the epic called for fighting to protect the sacred banner of Songun.
Алексей Чичкин
"Китаизация" и "кореизация" Дальнего Востока становится геополитической тенденцией, выгодной соседям России.
В
СЕРЕДИНЕ января в Сеуле было подписано
российско-южнокорейское соглашение,
предоставляющее Корейской аграрной
ассоциации с марта в 50-летнюю аренду почти 7
тыс. гектаров пахотной земли в Анучинском
районе Приморья: корейцы здесь будут
выращивать рис, бобовые культуры, овощи.
Причем от имени РФ его подписали
представители администрации Приморского
края.
Что
интересно - впервые Южная Корея привлечет, в
соответствии с документом, к
внешнеэкономическому сотрудничеству
Северную Корею: северокорейские строители
построят в 2000 году не менее тысячи домов для
южнокорейских "плантаторов-арендаторов",
где, кстати, будут проживать и этнические
корейцы из Узбекистана (потомки тех, что
были сосланы туда с Дальнего Востока еще в
конце 30-х годов). По оценкам специалистов
упомянутой Ассоциации, сообщенным
агентству "Пресс-Лайн", уже в текущем
году на заброшенных сельхозугодьях
Приморья, ныне предоставленных в
пользование корейцам, будет получено не
менее одного миллиона тонн риса и бобовых.
Свыше 30% объема этой продукции будет
поставлено в Северную и Южную Корею...
Reuters reported that the advertisement is brief and to the point: "Koreans. Apartment renovations. Fast and cheap. Call 325-925." A
gruff male voice answers the phone and explains in broken Russian that the decorators will work 16 hours a day, seven days a week. "Good workers. Not
lazy. No drinking," says the man, who refuses to give his name. "Koreans -- North Koreans."
Newspapers in Russia's far eastern port of Vladivostok are full of similar advertisements touting the services of laborers sent by the DPRK over the border to Russia to earn hard currency for its cash-strapped government. An estimated 10,000 of its people are working in logging camps, mines and construction sites all around Russia's Far East -- and increasingly further afield.
In Vladivostok, several groups of North Koreans seen working on building sites refused to talk to a foreign reporter. But in the Russian border town of Khasan, one DPRK who gave his name as Kim told Reuters he had been decorating apartments in the Siberian city of Omsk for three years. "The work is hard but the pay is better in Russia," he said as he waited for a train back to his homeland. "I try to save money for my family." Kim said he earned about $100 a month and mostly lived in the apartments he was decorating. He and a co-worker were heading home because their travel documents had expired, he said. His colleague squatted nearby, chain-smoking and eyeing the foreigner with suspicion.
The labor teams are partly a hangover from the Soviet era, when North Korea sent workers to logging camps in far eastern Russia in exchange for massive economic aid from Moscow. The DPRK handled security in these camps and Amnesty International has documented serious human rights abuses, including torture and execution of those trying to escape. Some of these camps still exist, according to Russian media reports, with the DPRK providing free labor to help pay off its $3.8 billion Soviet-era debt.
The North Koreans usually stay in dormitories, supervised by their own plainclothes security agents, locals and experts say. Some work in teams on big construction projects, but others are sent out to find smaller jobs, such as decorating apartments, for themselves. Once a week, they have to attend a meeting to report on their activities and hand over the bulk of their earnings. Conditions in the dormitories are poor. Many workers, like Kim, prefer to stay in the apartments they are working on. Viktor Plotnikov, head of the immigration department for the Primorye region around Vladivostok, said there were up to 2,500 DPRK workers legally registered in his region.
"There is a rotation," he said. "Some of them may stay here after getting a new permit, some may return home and others come in their place, but the number never exceeds 2,500." Illegal migrants and asylum seekers are sent back to the DPRK, where they face imprisonment or worse, experts say. But for most Russians in cities like Vladivostok, the benefits of plentiful cheap labor seem to outweigh concerns about mass migration. (Jeremy Page "NORTH KOREA TOUTS CHEAP LABOR IN RUSSIAN FAR EAST," Vladivostok, 10/17/03)
People's Daily reported that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov on October 3 expressed the hope that Pyongyang would change its negative view on continuing the six-party talks on the nuclear issue, the Interfax reported. Russia has received from Pyongyang a statement indicating that the DPRK "does not see any use in this process," said Losyukov, who held consultations here October 2 with a senior Japanese official on the situation on the Korean peninsula.
Although the DPRK has not shown readiness for this second round of six-party talks, the senior Russian official believes that it is still possible to continue such negotiations because there is no alternative. The only alternative would be "a deterioration of the situation, a significant increase of danger on the Korean Peninsula and a threat to security in that region," Losyukov pointed out. He called on the parties involved to actively participate in the anticipated negotiating process so as to solve a wide range of issues, said the report. ("MOSCOW ASKS PYONGYANG TO CHANGE NEGATIVE ATTITUDE ON SIX-PARTY TALKS," 10/04/03, P3)
The Associated Press, Friday, September 12, 2003; 10:05 PM
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea again rejected a U.S. demand to end its nuclear weapons program, saying Friday it has no intention of disarming itself in the face of perceived American aggression. The commentary by North Korea's official newspaper Rodong Sinmun comes a day after U.S. officials said in Washington that the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods at a key North Korean facility apparently has ceased, although the reason was unclear.
North
Korea can extract weapons-grade plutonium from its pool of 8,000 rods to build
several nuclear bombs. The United States has long believed that North Korea has
at least one or two nuclear bombs and could have five or six within a matter of
months.
The Rodong Sinmun position is not new. North Korea repeatedly has
rejected U.S. demands that it allow verifiable and permanent dismantling of its
nuclear weapons programs. Rodong Sinmun also again accused the United
States of "seeking to mount a pre-emptive nuclear attack," according
to the official KCNA news agency.
During
last month's six-nation talks in Beijing on resolving the nuclear crisis, the
North Korean delegate said his country intends to formally declare its
possession of nuclear weapons and carry out a nuclear test. But the Japanese
news agency Kyodo, quoting unidentified diplomats, reported Friday from Moscow
that North Korea agreed in principle to a second round of talks in November.
The Russian news agency ITAR-Tass quoted a diplomatic source in the North Korean
capital, Pyongyang, as saying North Korea is ready to hold a second round of
talks on the dispute "if Washington submits new proposals to settle
it." The Russian Foreign Ministry refused to comment on the Kyodo report,
but a senior Russian official said talks were possible.
"It all depends on the inclination of all the participants to return to the
talks table," Russia's ITAR-Tass quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister
Alexander Losyukov as saying from the Siberian city of Irkutsk. Meanwhile,
Friday, the Kremlin released a portion of a letter that President Vladimir Putin
sent to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. It said Russia is "ready to make
our contribution to achieving positive results in the talks process on the
nuclear problem."
North Korea says it wants the United States to first sign a nonaggression treaty
and normalize relations before it feels safe enough to scrap its nuclear
program. Washington says it could consider security guarantees and economic help
if Pyongyang first abandons the program.
"Such demand of the U.S. belligerent forces, in essence, means that the
DPRK should completely disarm itself and succumb to the U.S.," Rodong
Sinmun said, using the country's official name, Democratic People's Republic
of Korea. "The U.S. demand for the DPRK's dismantling of its nuclear
weapons program through irreversible verification is unacceptable to the DPRK."
In the absence of a nuclear test, the existence of North Korea's nuclear weapons
has never been verified even though the Stalinist regime claims it and uses it
as a threat against perceived U.S. aggression.
Moscow, 7 September 2003 (RFE/RL). The Interfax news agency quoted Konstantin
Pulikovskii, Russia's presidential envoy to the Far East, as saying that Russia plans to export electricity to the Korean Peninsula as part of a plan to build an energy system in the Far East.
Pulikovskii made the remarks ahead of a four-day visit to North Korea, where he is expected to meet with its leader Kim Jong Il.
The Russian envoy is expected to discuss the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, as well as economic relations between the two countries.
В Москве с недоумением восприняли сообщение агентства Associated Press со ссылкой на неназванные американские источники по поводу того, что Россия якобы оказывает содействие КНДР в разработке баллистической ракеты большой дальности, способной достигать территории США. Об этом говорится в распространенном в пятницу соответствующем комментарии МИД России.
"Как ответственный участник Режима контроля за ракетной технологией (РКРТ) Российская Федерация не осуществляет никакого сотрудничества, которое противоречило бы принципам РКРТ. А эти принципы включают отказ его участников от сотрудничества по таким видам вооружений с другими странами. В этом плане никаких исключений мы не делаем, в том числе и для соседней КНДР", - подчеркивается в сообщении МИД. //Интерфакс
(in Russian)
Reuters reported that the DPRK has put forward no conditions for taking part in six-country talks on its nuclear arms program, a senior Russian diplomat said in remarks released by the Foreign Ministry Thursday. The talks, intended to end a nuclear standoff between the US and the DPRK, are to take place soon in Beijing and bring together the DPRK, the ROK, Russia, the US, the PRC and Japan. "The DPRK side has put forward no conditions and to my understanding Pyongyang is interested exactly in six-way talks," Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov said in comments to Japan's NHK television, posted on the ministry's Web site. "As far as bilateral issues are concerned, which some countries may discuss, the multi-side format is suitable for it," Fedotov said. "But I repeat, there have been no conditions made by DPRK (North Korea)."
Fedotov refused to rate chances of success of the forthcoming meeting, expected to take place this or next month, saying the toughest part had not begun yet. "The most difficult stage will come when these talks begin. And it is hard to expect any quick success. All parties will apparently need to be extremely patient, display constructive approaches and readiness to listen to the other side," he said. Sketching out Russia's views, Fedotov said the main task of the talks should be to guarantee that the DPRK's nuclear program is totally peaceful at the same time as making sure that it receives economic aid it is likely to be promised. He said the DPRK should be given security guarantees it is seeking and suggested the Korean peninsula might need a "roadmap" -- like the one worked out for the Middle East -- to make sure all parties involved stick to their obligations. (Andrei Shukshin, "RUSSIA: NORTH KOREA SETS NO CONDITIONS ON TALKS," Moscow, 08/07/03)
People's Daily reported that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov on July 28 said that Russia stressed a total settlement of the DPRK nuke issue through providing necessary aids to DPRK, while maintaining the nuke-free condition of the peninsula and abiding by international principles. The package of settlement also includes: to cooperate with international organizations; guarantee security of concerned countries, including DPRK.(Song Shiyi, "RUSSIA STRESSES A TOTAL SETTLEMENT OF DPRK ISSUE", 07/29/03, P3)
September 30 to October 3, 2003, Vladivostok, Russian Federation
Co-hosted by: The Far Eastern Branch of WWF Russia (Vladivostok, Russian Federation),
the Economic Research Institute of the Far Eastern Branch,
Russian Academy of Sciences (Khabarovsk, Russian Federation)
While it is intended that the main theme of this Workshop be the environmental implications of electric power grid interconnections, other aspects (technical and economic for example) of potential grid interconnections between the countries of Northeast Asia will also be discussed, building on the work of the first and second Grid workshops. As in previous workshops, participants from several Northeast Asian nations (the DPRK, the ROK, Russia, China, and Japan) have been invited to attend, thus the Workshop is expected to provide an excellent opportunity for the informal exchange of views on topics related to grid interconnection...
People's Daily reported that Moscow supports diplomatic efforts for the political settlement of the deteriorating nuclear issue of the DPRK, Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov said July 23. He considered the escalating tension around DPRK's nuclear problem "a very serious problem," which poses a serious threat to Russia, Interfax reported. "All this is happening in the immediate vicinity of our bordersand the consequences of the possible aggravation of the situation and escalation of tension could be very negative," said Fedotov. Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov warned earlier on July 23 that "there is a hypothetical possibility of a nuclear conflict" on the Korean Peninsula. "The consequences of a nuclear blast, even if it goes off on DPRK's territory, could be detrimental for both the South and the North and, of course, for neighboring countries, including Russia," Losyukov said. Talks ought to be launched immediately, but the main obstacles are DPRK's rejection of a multilateral format and the US' refusal to conduct a two-way dialogue with Pyongyang, said Losyukov. ("RUSSIA PRESSES FOR POLITICAL SOLUTION OF DPRK NUCLEAR ISSUE", Beijing, 07/24/03, P3)
People's Daily reported that Russia believes that talks should resume as early as possible for resolving the nuclear issue of the DPRK regardless of Moscow's own participation, visiting Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said on July 21. Losyukov said this after discussing with ROK Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan about the situation on the Korean Peninsula. "Losyukov expressed it is important for nuclear talks to resume at an early date regardless of Russia's participation," an unnamed ROK Foreign Ministry official was quoted by ROK's Yonhap news agency as saying. Losyukov also said that "Russia supports China's role and will work closely with South Korea to make a due contribution (at the talks)," according to the official. Losyukov told Yoon that he was hopeful the DPRK nuclear issue would be resolved peacefully, because all concerned parties agreed that the issue poses a threat to regional and global security, the official said. ("RUSSIA URGES DPRK NUCLEAR TALKS TO RESUME AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE", 07/21/03, P3)
Reuters reported that Russia said Tuesday it was willing to help defuse the standoff between the US and the DPRK over their nuclear ambitions. Monday, the DPRK made its most explicit acknowledgement yet that it was seeking nuclear weapons. The US responded, saying it would continue to seek a diplomatic solution through multilateral talks. "If these parties deem it necessary that Russia should play a more active part in this dialogue we will be ready," Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told a news conference through a translator. Ivanov is in Finland for a two-day meeting of Baltic foreign ministers and other officials in the western city of Pori. The DPRK, which wants direct bilateral talks with the US, said Monday it wanted nuclear weapons so it could cut its huge conventional forces and divert funds into an economy foreign analysts say is close to collapse. ("RUSSIA READY TO HELP IN NORTH KOREA CRISIS," Helsinki, 006/10/03)
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