Return to *North Korean Studies*
by Gregory Elich
(4 July 2003) This article is an expanded version of a text published by the CRG in December 2002 under the title
"Targeting North Korea"
For all the ballyhoo surrounding the North Korean admission of a nuclear weapons program in meetings with U.S. officials, one salient fact has been overlooked. It never happened. Western news reports repeated endlessly the claims that North Korean officials admitted to a nuclear weapons program in an October 2002 meeting with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly and again during an April 2003 meeting, yet no evidence was presented other than
Kelly's assertions. On this matter, the word of the Bush Administration was accepted as sufficient evidence
-- the same Bush Administration that has consistently lied about every issue.
Citing the issue of a North Korea nuclear weapons program, the Bush Administration deliberately set about creating an international crisis on the Korean peninsula, eventually compelling North Korea to engage in a desperate bluff in hopes of ensuring its survival. To fully understand what took place during that those ill fated meetings and the mounting confrontation between the two nations it is necessary to view events in the broader historical context of U.S.-North Korean relations. This context is also important for explaining why the Bush Administration wanted a crisis, using the nuclear issue as a pretext for imposing punitive economic and political measures aimed at bringing about the collapse of North Korea...
The Asahi Shinbun reported that the Armistice Agreement signed July 27, 1953, by the Korean People's Army, the Chinese People's Volunteers and UN Command forces established a shaky framework that left the devastated Korean Peninsula neither at peace nor war. But even that framework is not properly functioning any more, as shown by the Military Armistice Commission (MAC), which was established to oversee implementation of the armistice and to handle violations of the cease-fire. The commission has not held a general meeting since March 1991.
The reason for the long inaction is due to DPRK's objections to an American general being replaced by his ROK equivalent as chief representative of the U.N. Command forces in the commission. DPRK and PRC have since pulled out of the MAC. In its place, an informal meeting of army generals was established to handle provocations and exchanges of gunfire in the Yellow Sea. Even so, DPRK has refused to take part in those meetings since March. While tensions between the two Koreas have lessened due to government dialogue and economic cooperation, the U.N. Command forces and the DPRK military communicate only via a telephone line.
The Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission, established to help oversee the armistice, also has been effectively dismantled. Both the US and ROK argue the armistice should be maintained until full-fledged peace is secured on the peninsula. But Pyongyang, insisting the agreement is ineffective, is calling for a new peace treaty between itself and the US. With the arguments of the two sides never meshing, there is no obvious course for achieving lasting peace in this last Cold War frontier. As for international concerns about DPRK's development of nuclear weapons, Pyongyang argues it is a deterrent for self-defense against the Bush administration's hard-line policy toward DPRK.
Pyongyang has indicated it intends to continue developing nuclear weapons as long as Washington continues on this course. Pyongyang's attitude demonstrates the tremendous distrust of the US that has been building over the past half century. No doubt, Pyongyang also worries from a national security perspective since DPRK is the sole party in a region where superpowers have been competing for years that is not covered by a nuclear umbrella. In hopes of resolving the issue, the focus of upcoming talks with North Korea will be on a framework for talks.
Regardless of the kind of framework proposed, the core of the problem is that the state of war remains in effect. This being the case, the issues involved in transforming a cease-fire structure into a genuine framework of peace will inevitably become entangled. It was no coincidence that the three nations that met in Beijing in April-the US, DPRK and PRC-are all participants in the Armistice Agreement. DPRK has threatened to abandon its obligations under the Armistice Agreement if sanctions are imposed against it. If that occurs, it would represent a reversal of course toward war.
Given DPRK's development of nuclear weapons and deployment of missiles, it goes without saying that Japan cannot be an innocent bystander in a possible second Korean War. Fifty years after the Armistice Agreement was signed, we stand at a crossroads: Either true peace will prevail on the Korean Peninsula through the peaceful resolution of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons development program or nations will proceed once again on the road to war. (Kiyoshi Hasaba, "NORTH KOREA'S NULES PUT SHAKY CEASE-FIRE AT A CROSSROADS,"07/30/03)
Reuters reported that the DPRK will halt propaganda broadcasts aimed at the ROK from September -- a move the ROK
interprets as a bid to get them to reciprocate. "Through a televised announcement, North Korea announced its
plan to halt the anti-South propaganda broadcasts," an official at the policy division of Seoul's Unification Ministry told
Reuters. "It appears that they are taking the initiative on this move and thereby urging us to
do the same," he said.
For decades, DPRK TV and radio have broadcast scathingly critical propaganda about the capitalist South, at times accusing leaders of being greedy womanizers and the ROK people of suffering under US oppression. The ROK also broadcasts to the DPRK, but Seoul says the content is mostly information about the ROK rather than criticism about the DPRK. The unification ministry official said the ROK and the DPRK had promised to stop critical propaganda broadcasts during an unprecedented summit in 2000 between DPRK leader Kim Jong-il and former ROK president Kim Dae-jung. The DPRK raised this issue again during recent ministerial talks and both sides agreed to discuss this in detail at working-level committees, the official said. ("SEOUL SAYS NORTH KOREA TO END ANTI-SOUTH BROADCASTS," Seoul, 07/29/03)
China Daily reported that the DPRK is prepared to declare itself a nuclear state unless the US responds positively to its proposals for resolving a row over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions by September 9 - the anniversary of the country's founding, diplomatic sources in Tokyo said. One source with close ties to Pyongyang told reporters that the DPRK was ready to declare itself officially a member of the nuclear club, opening the way for possible nuclear tests and the production of weapons. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing asserted on July 23 that PRC wants to see the Korean Peninsula free from nuclear weapons and strongly recommended dialogue as the only option to resolve the issue. ("DPRK SETS SEPT 9 AS DEADLINE FOR NUCLEAR ANNOUNCEMENT", Tokyo, 07/24/03, P1)
(18 July 2003, RBC.RU) Несмотря на все призывы к мирному разрешению кризиса вокруг ядерной программы Пхеньяна, США и Северная Корея полным ходом идут к открытому конфликту. Уже в ближайшие месяцы может последовать сокрушительный американский удар по КНДР. Такие пугающие прогнозы за последние сутки прозвучали и в Сеуле, и в Вашингтоне, а эксперты слегка расходятся только в определении сроков возможного столкновения. Близкое к властям Южной Кореи информационное агентство Ренхап предрекает "эскалацию ядерного кризиса" уже осенью. Чуть менее определенно выражается бывший глава Пентагона Уильям Перри: в своей статье в "Вашингтон пост" он пишет, что война с Пхеньяном возможна до конца года. К такому выводу экс-министр обороны пришел в результате серии "углубленных бесед" с верхушкой администрации Джорджа Буша, лично с президентом Южной Кореи Но Му Хеном, а также с высокопоставленными китайскими чиновниками. Полученная от них информация убедила Перри в том, что США "теряют контроль" над ситуацией, а Пхеньян уверенно идет к созданию ядерного арсенала и проведению первого атомного испытания. Это не только резко укрепит позиции "любимого руководителя" Ким Чен Ира на переговорах с Вашингтоном, но и может превратить его в первого в истории планеты торговца ядерным оружием, предупреждает бывший министр.
Перри знает, что говорит, поскольку на посту шефа Пентагона при администрации Билла Клинтона он в 1994 году руководил разработкой планов военного удара по ядерным объектам КНДР. Тогда кризиса удалось избежать, однако теперь получается, что его просто отложили на будущее, констатирует «Известия». Администрация Буша отказалась от обещанной при Клинтоне экономической помощи Пхеньяну, а Северная Корея опять пошла по пути ядерного шантажа, надеясь, что Вашингтон вновь окажется "бумажным тигром" и не решится на удар. Белый дом и Госдепартамент официально подтвердили: КНДР 8 июля в ходе закрытых переговоров в ООН уведомила их о завершении к 30 июня переработки имевшихся у нее 8 тысяч облученных ядерных топливных стержней. Из них можно извлечь плутоний для 5-10 ядерных зарядов. Представители Пхеньяна также заявили о намерении "максимально ускорить процесс создания боеголовок", чтобы иметь "солидные силы сдерживания агрессивных поползновений американских империалистов". По мнению ЦРУ, минимальный срок для превращения полученного плутония в примитивные бомбы -полгода.
Признания КНДР, похоже, вызвали очередной переполох в американских разведслужбах, которые не могут дать четкого ответа на главный вопрос: говорит Пхеньян правду или блефует? США не имеют серьезной агентурной сети в КНДР и полагаются в основном на спутники-шпионы. По данным печати, те зарегистрировали в последнее время над Северной Кореей некоторое количество газа криптон-85, который выделяется при производстве плутония. Однако только на основе этого пока трудно делать выводы о масштабах производства начинки для ядерных бомб. По японским меркам, на переработку 8 тысяч топливных стержней надо полтора-два года при соблюдении всех норм безопасности. Если же не считаться с возможными жертвами и выпаривать крайне токсичный и радиоактивный плутоний "во что бы то ни стало", в соответствии указаниями партии и правительства, то в полгода уложиться можно. А примерно такой срок и прошел с момента изгнания из КНДР инспекторов Международного агентства по атомной энергии (МАГАТЭ) в минувшем декабре и январского объявления Пхеньяном о выходе из системы нераспространения ядерного оружия, отмечает издание.
Между тем, Сенат США одобрил сегодня бюджет Министерства обороны страны на будущий финансовый год, который начинается 1 октября. Бюджет сотавил 368,6 млрд долл. Как отмечает АР, это на 3,1 млрд долл. меньше, чем первоначально запрашивал президент Джордж Буш. Как ожидается, необходимые Пентагону 3,1 млрд долл. будут приняты отдельным законом. Ранее документ практически в таком же варианте был одобрен палатой представителей США. Кроме того, на операции в Ираке и Афганистане планируется получить в виде отдельных ассигнований в размере 60 млрд долл.
(rbc.ru 18 July 2003 in Russian)
By David R. Sands, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Kim Jong-il, the secretive head of North Korea's Stalinist regime, has a 10,000-bottle wine cellar, favors Mazda RX-7s and tuna sushi, and once sent his wife and children on an unannounced vacation to Tokyo Disneyland, according to the man who served as his personal chef for more than a decade. Kenji Fujimoto is the pseudonym for the Japanese chef who was recruited by Mr. Kim to come to Pyongyang in the early 1980s, becoming the exclusive sushi chef to the North's "Dear Leader" in 1988. Revelations from his memoir, "Kim Jong- il's Chef," have produced banner headlines in South Korean and Japanese newspapers since the book came out late last month.
In one of the book's racier scenes, Mr. Fujimoto describes a banquet in "a rural city" where the president suddenly ordered the dancing women hired as entertainment to strip. The women, known as the "Group for Pleasure," were a frequent presence at Mr. Kim's banquets, where Japanese marching songs were often played. The author depicts Mr. Kim as smart but hot-tempered, feasting on imported cuisine and cognac even as ordinary North Koreans faced famine and deprivation.
"His banquets often started at midnight and lasted until morning," Mr. Fujimoto said in an interview with Japan's Shukan Post. "As far as I knew, the longest banquet lasted for four days. "All executives invited to the long banquets were not allowed to sleep until Kim Jong-il went to bed. It was torture for them." There are some substantive revelations in the memoir, including Mr. Kim's reported admission that he had hoped to use a diplomatic opening in the waning days of the Clinton administration capped by Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright's visit to Pyongyang in October 2000 to "bypass" South Korea and Japan and cut a deal directly with the United States.
The North Korean leader also is depicted as having long had a fascination with
nuclear weapons, telling the author that "without nuclear weapons, we will
be attacked." The book also described what might have been an accident at a
North Korean nuclear facility in 1995. Mr. Kim is described as having shown no
emotion when an aide informed him that workers at a nuclear facility had taken
sick, apparently from a radiation leak. And Mr. Kim, who succeeded his father,
Kim Il-sung, as supreme leader in 1994, is said in the book to favor his third
and youngest son, Kim Jung-woon, as the third-generation leader in the communist
dynasty.
Western speculation has focused on the middle son, Kim Jung-chul, as being groomed by his father for the top slot. Kim Jung-chul is said to have support within North Korea's powerful military. But the personal details and high living behind the walls of Mr. Kim's presidential retreats have garnered the most attention. With his high pompadour and reputed taste for blonde movie starlets, the North Korean leader has long been a magnet for speculation about his personal life. He had not ventured much beyond the secretive North's borders when he took power, and has made only tightly controlled diplomatic forays to Beijing and Moscow as leader.
Mr. Fujimoto began as a personal chef, but soon found himself invited to accompany his boss on several official and unofficial outings, including water skiing and hunting. The book confirms Western intelligence reports that Mr. Kim was hurt badly in a 1992 horseback riding accident. He refused to take painkillers after the accident, saying that he "did not want to become a drug addict." In the Shukan Post interview, the chef detailed the nude dancing party, saying that the Group for Pleasure women at first "hesitated, but they had no power to resist." "They all took off their clothes and danced. Then [Mr. Kim] ordered his men, including me, to dance with them. He said, 'You can dance with them, but if you touch them, you will be arrested as thieves.' "
Mr. Kim is portrayed as a confident, even arrogant executive who relies on a personal computer to keep tabs on affairs of state. He can be abrupt with underlings, and once threw a stainless steel napkin box at Chang Sung-taek, a senior party official and the president's brother-in-law. The president of impoverished North Korea also is shown as having a taste for rich fare. He developed an appetite for gourmet shark fin soup three or four times a week, sampled the most exotic sushis, and imported high- quality food ingredients from across Asia and Europe. His wine cellar contained a variety of French vintages, as well as sake, and such whiskey brands as Johnnie Walker Swing and Hennessy's XO.
Getting too close to the leader posed its own dangers. While Mr. Fujimoto enjoyed many privileges as a confidant of Mr. Kim, the chef found himself under suspicion by the regime when he was detained for two years in Japan during a visit in 1996. When he finally returned to the North, Mr. Kim confided that he had intended to "order my people to kill you in Japan," only to be talked out of it by his Japanese-born second wife, Ko Yong-hi. The chef travelled again to Japan in April 2001, telling his boss that he needed to buy sea urchins. He never returned to North Korea.
by Alexandre Y. Mansourov, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies,
Who is this 170-centimeter tall man, who dresses up like a revolutionary in the
Mao-style khakie-colored suits, wears unruly hairdo and big-rim sunglasses, and
puts on narrow-tipped Italian leather elevator shoes; an 80-kilogram epicure
with cultivated taste in exquisite food and wine who loves French, Japanese,
Russian, and Chinese cuisines; a man of arts in soul who appreciates music and
cinema and is proud of his 20,000-strong universal movie collection, including
all Oscar-winning performances; a dare-devil who has a passion for car-racing
and untamed horse-riding; a man of letters well versed in ancient Confucian
teachings on statecraft and virtues and contemporary Western philosophical
literature; the "Net man" who challenges his aides to provide him with
data and analyses better than what he can find by himself surfing daily the
Internet; a conflicted dictator with a black sense of humor and penchant for
self-doubt and occasional remorse?..
Christopher Buckley, 11.11.02
The incredible (literally) story of how Washington PR man Nick Naylor was hired
by North Korea to stage a celebrity Pro-Am golf tournament in the Axis of Evil.
My name may be familiar to you. For years I was the chief Washington spokesman
for the U.S. tobacco industry. That was me on TV every other night, dismissing
the latest overwhelming evidence that cigarettes cause your lungs to turn into
overdone pork chops. It paid the bills. Anyone can defend meat or poultry, or
even asbestos. I like a challenge. I also like to eat, which is how I ended up
doing PR for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. That would be North
Korea. When they put "People's" and "Democratic" in the name
of a country, you know it's a police state...
By MARI YAMAGUCHI, The Associated Press, Sunday, June 8, 2003
TOKYO - North Korea suspended the only regular ferry service between it and Japan on Sunday after Tokyo announced stricter searches and security measures around the ship, suspected of smuggling missile parts to the communist nation. North Korea's de facto representative in Japan accused Tokyo of fanning hostility around the passenger ship and creating unsafe conditions for its arrival in Japan.
The Mangyongbong-92 had been due to arrive early Monday in the northern Japanese port of Niigata, its first visit since a North Korean defector told U.S. lawmakers last month that most of the imported parts used in North Korea's missile program were smuggled by passenger ship from Japan. But North Korea called off the trip. "We are indefinitely suspending the ship's entry due to the abnormal and harsh environment around the Niigata port," said Nam Sung U, deputy chairman of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan. "Under these abnormal circumstances we cannot guarantee the ship's normal operations and the safety of the passengers," he told reporters.
The Mangyongbong-92 was scheduled to make 10 trips to Japan through Sept. 30. But Nam said the ferry wouldn't resume operations until Tokyo "improved" its actions regarding the ship. Niigata police were planning to mobilize about 1,500 riot police during the ship's planned two-day visit as a precaution against expected protests by rightists and supporters of Japanese who were kidnapped by North Korean spies decades ago. Customs officials were also planning to tighten their inspections of passengers.
The Mangyongbong-92 is the only ship making regular trips between Japan and North Korea. It carries ethnic Koreans back and forth on excursions and is believed to be an important conduit of cash and goods that Japan's Korean community sends to North Korea each year. North Korea on Sunday accused Japan of pressuring it to suspend the ship's operations. "This is a vicious plot to impair the prestige of the DPRK," the Korean Committee for Aiding Overseas Compatriots said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The statement also warned of "catastrophic consequences" if Japan's increased surveillance effectively marked the beginning of economic sanctions against the country. North Korea has repeatedly said it would view sanctions as an act of war. Japan's Korean population of about 200,000 is mostly second- and third-generation residents whose parents and grandparents came here to work during Japan's occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
June 6, 2003. TOKYO - At least 4 billion yen was remitted or directly carried in the form
of cash to North Korea from Japan in fiscal 2002 that ended March 31, according to remarks made Friday in the Diet by Finance Minister Masajuro
Shiokawa. During a plenary session of the House of Councillors, Shiokawa unveiled the
sum of money remitted or carried to Pyongyang that was reported to the Japanese government under the foreign exchange law. (Kyodo News)
Click the link below to view this article and related discussions on Japan Today.
Ibuk O-Do Newspaper, 2003/06/04. “Well, most of the emaciated ones have already passed away. All the survivors were tough enough to stand to live against whatever economic crisis that will come up in the future. Thus, we don’t expect death by starvation on a large scale in comparison to the mid 1990s, however, it seems that the fiscal system of the current regime has totally collapsed”, a college professor living in Pyongyang proclaimed. He visited China with an appropriate visa to enter in order to meet one of his relatives.
He said that Pyongyang is on the eve of a battle. He left Pyongyang by the time war broke out in Iraq and said that North Korean people cannot enter Pyongyang even though (s)he may have an entrance ticket: although he’s not sure in the case of foreigners.
“Pyongyang has become a blockade zone, and people living there are feeling a sense of urgency. They are even saying they will take on the war if necessary.”
“North Korean people compare the current situation to the verge of marching toward hardship”, he said. Also, inflation is getting worse; for example, one kg of rice cost 60-80 won last June, but now the price has increased to 150-200 won for the same amount. In a different location, it costs up to 300 won, so in terms of rice price, which is the barometer of price index of North Korea, the consumer price level has increased three folds.
“Also, it has reported that there are increasing number of people committing suicide because of fewer options and narrow circumstances”, he said. In North Korea, committing suicide is considered high treason, thus the family member of the ones who take their own lives are punished. For that reason, the ones who commit suicide now write the phrase “I am giving up my life in order to protect my homeland” on their chest just to protect their family from being punished.
In a worse case, there are some instances where the entire family decides to take their own lives, although we are not sure if the regime takes account of these circumstances. Anyways, many precious lives are being wasted because of failed politics of Kim Jung Il.
Yonhap News Agency, 2003/06/04. The North Korean Central Television reported on May 27 that a class education hall was built in Kaesong March 2003. This hall is reportedly for reinforcing ideological education, including the heightening of the people’s anti-US awareness.
Regarding this class education hall, the Korean Central Television relayed: “The hall is divided into 12 rooms under five themes, which include anti-US education, anti-Japan education, anti-exploitation education, and faith education. Exhibited in the hall are some 1,000 pictures, drawings, material evidence, and real-life materials showing the atrocities of aggression and plunder the US and Japanese imperialists perpetrated in our country in the past, as well as the anti-popular crimes committed by the exploitation class like landlords and capitalists.”
The Central Television noted that approximately 40,000 Kaesong party members, workers, youths, and students visited the hall in a matter of the first 70 days since the class education hall’s opening.
The Central Television added, “By inviting witnesses and war veterans to speak at the hall, the Kaesong Party Committee is heightening party members’ and workers’ class awareness, thereby making them infinitely hate US and Japanese imperialists and resolutely struggle against class enemies.”
Congressional Record, June 4, 2003. (House) Rep. Curt Weldon RESULTS OF TRIP TO NORTH KOREA
Mr. Speaker, the real and primary purpose of my special order tonight was to focus on a trip that I just led, we got back yesterday, from North Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Mr. Speaker, no one from America in an elected capacity had been to Pyongyang, North Korea, for the past 6 years, and in fact the only contact we have had with the leadership of DPRK has been through our State Department diplomats. We had a team there almost a year ago, or last fall, actually, and we had our Assistant Secretary of State, Secretary Kelly, meet in Beijing to have further discussions with North Korea.
...Mr. Speaker, on the last day we were there, we were scheduled to meet with the Minister of Trade, but I asked the delegation the night before if they wanted to do that meeting, and they said not really. So I told the representative who handles U.S. issues for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that we did not want to go to the meeting with the Minister of Trade, but instead on Sunday morning we wanted to go to church.
They agreed. They picked us up at our hotel at 9:45 in the morning, and six Members of Congress went to church in a Protestant church on a hill in North Korea, in the middle of this closed society, where there were no pictures of Kim Chong-Il or Kim Il-Song, his father, but rather were crosses, and with 300 people we worshipped in a Protestant church, much like churches all over America do every Sunday morning. So we had a good glimpse of this closed society...
...But more importantly, we bring back to America the possibility that we can resolve this nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula through peaceful discussions and through peaceful resolution. Hopefully, Mr. Speaker, under the leadership of our great President and our Secretary of State and Condoleezza Rice, our security adviser, we will in fact this year be able to solve this very difficult challenge in a peaceful way.
Chosun Ilbo reported that ROK National Intelligence Service has obtained intelligence
that some of DPRK's 8,000 used fuel rods were moved to another location and that the reprocessing is in progress, lawmakers said. The intelligence
agency reported at a closed-door meeting of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee, according to legislators in attendance, that
it had detected signs of traffic and people at the Yeongbyeon facility, as well as
heat from the reprocessing, until April 30, but that all activities had stopped since May. The agency said that the process of reprocessing the
used fuel rods and turning them into plutonium could take up to four months, and that it could not say how far DPRK had gotten. The lawmakers
said that DPRK's claim that the reprocessing of the 8,000 used rods was almost complete was likely a negotiation card, and there had been no
intelligence suggesting such development. (Hong Seok-jun, "NORTH MAY HAVE MOVED RODS," Seoul,
06/04/03)
Reuters reported that the ROK is investigating whether a huge seizure of the drug
methamphetamine, or speed, may have originated from the DPRK after it was found aboard a PRC container ship. The seizure comes as the US and its
allies have been contemplating tightening checks on cargo from the DPRK -- proposed measures to squeeze the communist state's revenues and press it
to abandon its attempts to build nuclear weapons. North Korea has since the 1970s been accused of trafficking illegal narcotics to prop up its
decrepit economy.
Two exiled former DPRK officials told a US Senate subcommittee last month of a 15-year-old state-run opium production program. Media and official accounts of Tuesday's drug seizure in the ROK port city of Pusan varied on the details in a case that could further undercut Seoul's attempts to reconcile with Pyongyang by extending economic aid to its poor neighbor. Yonhap news agency quoted sources familiar with the raid as saying police and customs officials seized 176.4 pounds of the banned stimulant philipon from a ship that originated in China and called at North Korea en route to Pusan. But a prosecution official gave a different account.
The ship is Chinese, but we have not confirmed whether it departed from China and stopped by North Korea," said Kim Myoung-jin, who estimated the drug haul at 88-110 pounds. "We cannot confirm that the drugs are from North Korea at this moment," he said by telephone. "We are investigating sources and relevant people now." South Korea's MBC television news showed film clips of police and customs officials inspecting sacks of the drug, which was mixed in a container of sugar on a cargo ship that the report said had called at the DPRK port city of Rajin recently. Yonhap said initial intelligence tip-off that triggered the raid put the methamphetamine haul at 242.5 pounds and valued at $250 million.
Last month Pyongyang angrily denied that its government was involved in a shipment of 110 pounds seized in April in Australia after being dropped ashore from a DPRK-owned ship. Thirty crew members from the DPRK-owned and Tuvalu-registered vessel Pong Su were accused of aiding and abetting the import of heroin and taken into custody in Australia. Some were thought to be communist party officials. Pyongyang's ruling party newspaper said on Wednesday that it was "ridiculous and preposterous" for Washington to talk of an economic blockade over the nuclear crisis that began last October with North Korea's admission of a covert nuclear arms program. "Any sanctions against the DPRK means a war," said the daily Rodong Sinmun, using the acronym for North Korea's official title, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. ("SOUTH KOREA INVESTIGATES NORTH DRUG LINK," Seoul, 06/04/03)
Japan Times, 2003/06/03. North Korea does not have a military as powerful as is often reported by international media, and there is no evidence that humanitarian aid has been diverted to the military and the country's elite, a British expert on North Korean affairs said Thursday.
Hazel Smith conducted aid operations for 18 months in North Korea between 1998 and 2001, during some of the worst years of famine there. She said the reports of 3 million people dying from starvation and 300,000 North Korean refugees being in China are exaggerated.
North Korea had a population of about 22.27 million in 2000, according to U.N. estimates.
"All food aid is primarily designated for children under 17. Generally, adults have to rely on food from domestic sources," which explains why North Korean adults would say in interviews they have not received any international food aid, Smith said.
She made the comments in Tokyo during a speech on "media myths" surround North Korea at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.
To prove that aid did reach them, Smith quoted a 2002 UNICEF survey showing improvement of nutrition in North Korean children.
The military and elite are unlikely to need international food aid, she said, because the army has priority in receiving both food harvested domestically and food aid from countries such as China and South Korea and the elite have the money to buy better food.
On the military, Smith said she is unaware of any evidence that North Korea possesses nuclear bombs, but added she believes it has the technological potential to produce the weapons if it has the resources.
North Korea's military expenditures in 2000 totaled about $2 billion, calculated at the nominal exchange rate, compared with South Korea's $12.5 billion and Japan's $44.5 billion, Smith said, quoting data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
According to Smith's calculations using the black market exchange rate, "For its million-man army, (North Korea) spends $20 a year on each soldier." This comes to a total expenditure of about $20 million, she added.
Smith was an adviser to the World Food Program and now works at the United Nations University in Tokyo.
Joongang Ilbo reported that the Mount Geumgang tours in DPRK may be resumed early next
month. The Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, the North Korean partner in the Mount Geumgang tour project, announced Thursday that it has asked North
Korean health authorities, who halted the tours to keep the SARS virus out of DPRK, to relent. "Even though the threat of SARS has not completely
disappeared, we considered the repeated requests of Hyundai Asan to continue the tours," the committee said. It wants to reopen the sea tours
in June and the overland link to the resort in July. Those overland tours were halted in early March, almost immediately after they had begun. On
April 26, the North Korean authorities halted visits by the cruise ship Hyundai Asan was using for the sea route to the resort.
("GEUMGANG TOURISM MAY RESUME IN JUNE," Seoul, 05/30/03)
Reuters reported that the DPRK accused the ROK of sending warships across a disputed sea border and
warned Seoul further moves could lead to "irrevocable serious consequences", ratcheting up tensions on the
divided Korea peninsula. The DPRK's warning, carried by the official KCNA news agency, followed what the
ROK Defence Ministry said was three successive days of incursions into southern waters by DPRK fishing boats,
most recently on Wednesday.
Tensions have been high on the Korean peninsula for more than seven months, since the US said the DPRK had revealed it was pursuing a secret nuclear arms program. Even before that, there had been clashes between the two Koreas at sea. Last June and in 1999 there were deadly naval gun battles in the same Yellow Sea area off the west coast -- prime fishing grounds especially during the June crab catching season.
KCNA said a series of ROK naval vessels of various types had crossed into what it said were northern waters in the past three days. "The ceaseless infiltration of warships into the waters where serious military conflicts occurred last year cannot be construed otherwise than a premeditated and deliberate provocation on the part of the ROK military to spark one more new shocking incident in these waters, joining the US imperialists in their desperate 'nuclear racket'," it said. (Samuel Len, "NORTH KOREA ACCUSES SOUTH OF SENDING WARSHIPS NORTH," Seoul, 05/29/03)
By Su-Hoon Lee and Dean Ouellette, May 28, 2003
In the paper below, Su-Hoon Lee and Dean Ouellette of Kyungnam University argue that given the breakdown in U.S.-DPRK relations, a viable alternative to avoid possible catastrophe on the Korean peninsula is urgent. The authors assert that energy sector cooperation may provide the most sound and politically acceptable solution to the problem we now face in Northeast Asia. This paper examines Northeast Asian regional energy cooperation by briefly reviewing North Korea's energy situation, the problems associated.
Joongang Ilbo reported that "The Rodong Sinmun" is the window to North Korea. It holds the past, present and future of the regime," said Professor Kang Sung-yoon of the Institute for North Korean Studies at Dongguk University Tuesday. Mr. Kang is leading a 30-strong group of academics that has undertaken a two-year project to comprehensively study 54 years' worth of the daily newspaper of the North Korean Workers' Party, spanning 1949 through 2005. Professor Koh Yu-hwan of DPRK is also on the team.
The Rodong Sinmun was founded on Jan. 1, 1945. The team held the interim seminar at Dongguk University Tuesday, in which six papers that studied the November 1, 1945 edition to editions from April 1950 were made public. New findings concerning DPRK were disclosed; for example, contrary to speculation that idolization of the late leader Kim Il-sung began in the 1950s, the Rodong Sinmun revealed that DPRK was moving to build a Kim Il-sung statue in 1949.
The research project is not without hurdles, the foremost of which is obtaining back issues of the Rodong Sinmun. The researchers had to travel to the Beijing Library, where they photocopied 100 daily editions from 1949 that were missing from the archives of the South Korean Ministry of Unification. Next, the team will compare what they have with microfilm of the newspaper at the Institute of Developing Economies in Tokyo, Japan. (Lee Young-jong, "FROM NORTH NEWSPAPER, A HISTORY BARED," Seoul, 05/28/03)
Joongang Ilbo reported that ROK senior Unification Ministry official hinted over the weekend that ROK would not be averse to using rice aid
to DPRK as a bargaining chip. He said a ROK delegation in Pyeongyang last week had told DPRK that such
shipments might be suspended if DPRK aggravates the nuclear situation. He asserted that DPRK's later pledge to
facilitate shipments of the 400,000 tons of rice that ROK has agreed to send was
DPRK's tacit acceptance of that policy. The official said the rice shipments were humanitarian assistance, but that it would be difficult to
continue them if tensions over nuclear weapons escalated. ROK plans to send 100,000 tons of rice to DPRK monthly
beginning in June; the agreement signed last Friday says that schedule could be changed.
("OFFICIAL LINKS RICE HELP WITH NUCLEAR PROGRESS," Seoul,
05/26/03)
Chosun Ilbo reported that as tension rises between US and DPRK due to the nuclear crisis, DPRK's leader Kim Jong Il is inspecting
military forces more frequently - once in every three days. ROK official at the Unification Ministry said Sunday
that among the total 36 inspections that Kim has made this year, 27 were military-related. The official also said
that after Kim emerged April 3 after withdrawing from public appearances for 50 days, he has made 23
inspections, 18 military-related. On Friday Kim inspected the 1973rd unit, DPRK's central broadcasting agency
reported Saturday. On Tuesday he visited the 762nd and 671st units; on Monday he inspected the 292nd unit.
(Kim Min-cheol, "KIM JONG IL MAKING MILITARY ROUNDS," Seoul, 05/26/03)
China Daily reported that he DPRK and the ROK wrapped up their most contentious talks in years on May 23, setting aside days of
bickering about Pyongyang's nuclear program to agree on rice aid for the DPRK and the
restoration of railway links. ROK will send the DPRK 400,000 tons of rice, and the two sides agreed to reopen North-South railway
links and to break ground for a joint industrial park in June, as a report from Pyongyang said.
("PYONGYANG AND SEOUL AGREE ON RICE, RAILWAYS," 05/24-25/03, P8)
Chosun Ilbo reported that DPRK's farmers' markets, the only ways the public can buy food and daily necessities, are getting bigger and
more active, as DPRK government is loosening restrictions, according to reports. A
Korean-Chinese who visited DPRK last week said after returning that the markets are busier, although the public is restricted from moving
freely due to the SARS scare. Previously, farmers were only allowed to sell agricultural goods at the markets, but
now the government is letting them sell other products and letting "approved businessmen" sell at the market,
in addition to performing their regular jobs.
As activity at the markets heats up, the government has expanded their sizes by 150-200 percent, reports say. The policy change was made on the orders of DPRK's leader Kim Jong-il, said a DPRK official who crossed into PRC recently. As a result of the changes, almost all products, excluding drugs and stolen goods, are allowed to be sold. In March, DPRK shortened the name of the markets from "farmers' markets" to just "market." It lends credence to the conjecture that after the government increased the prices of commodities last July 1 the rationing system has collapsed and the farmers' market is taking over its functions. (Kang Chol-hwan, "NORTH'S MARKETS BUSIER, REPORTS SAY," Seoul, 05/22/03)
by Ruediger Frank, May 9, 2003
The essay below is by Ruediger Frank, Visiting Professor at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute of Columbia
University. Based on research done on the DPRK's extraordinary 1998 ideological switch and quantitative
analysis of its 2002 price reforms, Frank argues that the DPRK is on the brink of
profound and meaningful economic reforms. Moreover, Frank concludes that by allowing the DPRK a fair chance to reform themselves
would produce a much more sustainable result than a change induced from the outside.
This essay is an abridged version of a much longer and detailed academic paper which is to be submitted for publication in May 2003.
by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Co-sponsored by Ilmin
International Relations Institute, Korea University and Dong-A Ilbo, May 6, 2003
This Special Report provides a transcript of the workshop Nuclear Confrontation with North Korea: Lessons of the 1994 Crisis for Today held in Seoul on March 20, 2003. It was organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Co-sponsored by Ilmin International Relations Institute, Korea University and Dong-A Ilbo. The roundtable discussion brings together former American and South Korean government decision makers who worked together on resolving that crisis in hopes of illuminating historical events and also drawing lessons for the future. The present crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons program makes the events of 1994 and their lessons even more timely as the international community struggles to come to grip with this mounting problem. The roundtable discussions hopes to offer insight into a wide variety of topics, such as U.S.-South Korean relations, the role of military force in dealing with North Korea, and negotiating with Pyongyang, to better inform the current public debate over what to do next.
Joongang Ilbo reported that DPRK has cut the terms of military service from 13 years to 10 years for men and from 10 years to seven years for women. It is believed to be the first time the mandatory service period has been cut. The change was enacted by the Supreme People's Assembly on March 26; the information was acquired by the ROK government recently. Military service in DPRK was set in 1958 as 42 months for the army and 48 months for the air force. But the actual terms of service were known to range from five to eight years. The period was extended in 1993 by former leader Kim Il Sung to 10 years. By an amendment in 1996, the period was again lengthened to 13 years for men.
The amendment required men to serve until they reach 30 years of age; the age for women was set at 26 years. North Koreans begin military service when they graduate from high school. The March amendment also introduced formal conscription, scrapping what had officially been a voluntary enlistment system. A senior analyst with the Korea Institute for National Unification, Jeung Young-tai, said shortening the period of service would result in a reduction of about 200,000 from the North Korean armed forces. The South Korean Defense Ministry estimates those forces to be about 1.17 million. (Lee Young-jong, "NORTH REDUCES REQUIRED TERM IN ARMY FROM 13 YEARS TO 10," Seoul, 05/28/03)
Chosun Ilbo reported that DPRK earns about 60 percent of its foreign currency by running narcotics, said a former high-ranking DPRK official who defected to ROK in 1998, according to a report this week in the Japanese daily Yomiuri Simbun. Now in Washington to provide intelligence about the communist state to the US government, the defector, who was not identified, said that the founder of DPRK, Kim Il Sung, first ordered that opium poppies be grown in 1991, and the current leader Kim Jong Il had every collective farm allot 10 hectares for poppy cultivation. The mountainous Hamgyong province is the hotbed of poppy growing, the defector said.
According to the article, "Room 39 at the headquarters of the North's
Workers Party" is in charge of producing, processing, transporting and exporting opium, and payments are received on the open seas at times and
places arranged by phone. Payments are always cash. The defector reportedly said the customers include Koreans,
Japans, residents of Hong Kong, Chinese and Russians, but that Japanese buyers constitute the largest group. According to the article, Jang Song
Taek, the first deputy director of the Workers Party Central Committee and the closest confidant of Kim Jong Il, oversees DPRK's narcotics operations.
(Choi Heub, "NORTH'S NARCOTICS OPERATIONS DESCRIBED," Tokyo, 05/21/03)
By B. R. MYERS, May 19, 2003
(B.R. Myers, associate professor of North Korean studies at Korea University, is author of "Han Sorya and North Korean Literature.")
SEOUL. There was a time when the specter of communism frightened
Americans into digging bomb shelters in their backyards. Today, improbably enough, the frequent characterization of
North Korea as a Stalinist or hard-line Communist nation appears to be having a calming effect, perhaps because it
evokes a happy time when all America's enemies were cold-hearted materialists who could therefore be reasoned
with.
If it takes misperceptions to get everyone talking, then maybe they're not such a bad thing. But it would be
dangerous for America to believe that it has negotiated successfully with Kim Jong Il's kind before. Mr. Kim is
not a Stalinist in any relevant sense, and his party's "juche" ideology has nothing in common with the Soviet-style
communism his father espoused during the Korean War.
Granted, the red-themed birthday parades may look familiar, but the cult of the two Kims is no socialist
personality cult. Stalin and Mao were revered for their perfect grasp of dialectical materialism, an omnipotent
science that made them omnipotent too. Kim Jong Il and his late father, Kim Il Sung, are revered, like the
monarchs they more closely resemble, for their perfect embodiment of national virtues.
Chief among these virtues is "sobak ham," a hard-to-translate Korean term that corresponds closely to
the word spontaneity in its Marxist-Leninist sense. The Soviets considered the spontaneity of the common people,
especially their tendency to violence, to be a dangerous force unless tempered with political consciousness. In
North Korea, the people's spontaneity is seen as one of the country's greatest strengths.
North Korean novels and movies often show the hero casting off the restraints of his book learning in a fit of
wild, sometimes suicidal rage against the Japanese or American enemy. This political culture induces officials to
tolerate a high level of violence in daily life; North Korean refugees attest that fistfights are the accepted way for
men and women to settle even minor differences.
While communism was always an internationalist movement, juche (literally, self-reliance) sees the world in
ethnic terms. North Korean propaganda makes no distinction between American capitalists and American
workers; the entire "Yankee" race is presented as inherently evil, degenerate and ugly. Dictionaries and textbooks
suggest that Americans be described with bestial attributes ("snout" for nose, for
example).
The central villain of Han Sorya's novella "Jackals" (1951), the country's most enduring work of fiction, tells
of an American child who beats a Korean boy so brutally that he ends up in a hospital - where he is murdered by the
American's missionary parents. Since the South Korean government began pursuing its policy of rapprochement,
the North's ethnocentric world view has become even more stark; the United States is now presented as being
exclusively responsible for all tensions on the peninsula.
This propaganda appears to be effective even among North Koreans opposed to the rule of Kim Jong Il. When I
visited a resettlement center for refugees near Seoul last year, many of those to whom I was introduced as an
American recoiled in terror or glared at me in hatred.
The glorification of spontaneous violence, sweeping hatred of the American people, and a budding nuclear
capacity: the combination is liable, as P. G. Wodehouse would say, to start a train of thought. Perhaps some in
Washington can sleep better by believing that Kim Jong Il has an urbane and sensible take on the political culture he inherited
from his father in 1994. But none other than Mr. Kim was at the head of the party's propaganda
apparatus when it went into overdrive in the mid- to late 1960's. Too much is made
of his much-publicized love of pizza and Hollywood videos; while his hedonism may make him a hypocrite, it's highly
unlikely that it signifies any real affection for the West.
In short, Mr. Kim stands for more than just a desire to stay in power. America should focus less on his
eccentricities and more on his ideology, especially since the anti-Americanism at its core is as heartfelt and
popular as the anti-Americanism that led to 9/11 and other terrorist attacks. Diplomacy cannot succeed until the
Bush administration begins addressing the historical basis for this hatred.
A good start would be a public apology for the excesses of the American air campaign in the Korean War: the
saturation bombing of North Korean cities, the use of napalm, the attacks on irrigation dams in order to cause
flooding. At the same time, President Bush should call on Mr. Kim to stop posturing about the "axis of evil"
remark, which was tame compared with what North Korea's official press has been saying for the past few years
about the United States, Pyongyang's main aid donor.
It is time for the president to demand that North Korea's official news media accord the same basic civility to
Washington as to Seoul. In an isolated nation dominated by propaganda, this would be a significant sign that Mr.
Kim is serious about wanting to improve relations.
Joongang Ilbo reported that $200 million wired by Hyundai Merchant Marine just before the June 2000 inter-Korea summit went to three accounts held by DPRK, including one owned by Workers' Party, at the Macao branch of the Bank of China, ROK government officials and members of the financial community told the JoongAng Ilbo Wednesday. This contradicts the statements made by senior aides to former President Kim Dae-jung, who said that ROK government merely facilitated a transfer by Hyundai to win development projects. The Hyundai transfer was allegedly funded by Korean Development Bank, a state institution, and former Hyundai and bank officials have alleged that the loan to Hyundai had merely been a cover for ROK government's payment to DPRK.
One of the accounts was held by Tae-song Bank, one of the DPRK's three major banks along with the Central Bank and the Foreign Trade Bank. Taesong Bank is DPRK's main foreign exchange bank. Officials speaking to the JoongAng Ilbo said tense National Intelligence Service agents pressed the Korea Exchange Bank, which handled the transfer, to ensure that the deposit was completed on June 9. The transfer was processed on June 9 but the balances at the Macao bank did not reflect the deposit until June 12. On June 10, DPRK put off the meeting between President Kim Dae-jung and its leader, Kim Jong-il, which was scheduled for June 12. DPRK later rescueduled for June 13. (Jeon Jin-bae, Kang Joo-an, "CASH DEPOSITS TO NORTH SPLIT," Seoul, 05/15/03)
(07/03/2003 19:00), podrobnosti.ua
К началу апреля Северная Корея станет обладателем ядерной бомбы. С таким прогнозом выступил проживающий в Японии руководитель общественного Центра корейско-американского мира Ким Мен Чор, который известен в Токио как неофициальный полпред Пхеньяна
Выступая в пятницу на пресс-конференции, Ким Мен Чор также высказал уверенность в том, что к концу нынешнего года КНДР 'сможет создать 6-8 ядерных боеголовок'. Он указал, что целью ядерной программы КНДР является 'нейтрализация США на Корейском полуострове'.
По его мнению, под давлением ядерной угрозы со стороны Пхеньяна США будут вынуждены 'уже в этом году пойти на заключение мирного соглашения с КНДР'. Вскоре после этого, уже в конце 2003 - начале 2004 года, как полагает Ким Мен Чор, 'вполне может состояться визит лидера Северной Кореи Ким Чен Ира в Вашингтон и Токио'.
Ким Мен Чор заявил, что 'не исключает возможности проведения первого в КНДР испытания ядерного оружия уже в этом году'. Он подчеркнул при этом, что стратегической целью Пхеньяна является достижение мирного соглашения с США и вывод с Корейского полуострова американских вооруженных сил.
'КНДР должна для этого иметь ядерный и ракетный потенциал', - отметил он. Ким Мен Чор подчеркнул, что создание Северной Кореей собственного ядерного оружия 'лишит смысла сохранение 'ядерного зонтика' США над Южной Кореей'.
Он указал, что 'КНДР нанесет ракетный удар по США, в том числе по Нью-Йорку и Лос-Анджелесу, если будет вынуждена это сделать'.
Ким Мен Чор напомнил, что в 1993 году с территории КНДР был произведен учебный запуск баллистических ракет, которые пересекли Японский архипелаг и поразили учебные цели в Тихом океане.
Он подчеркнул, что ответственность за обострение ситуации на Корейском полуострове несет администрация президента Джорджа Буша. 'Соединенные Штаты должны в этом году поставить в КНДР два атомных реактора для электростанций, но не делают этого - США нарушают условия мирного соглашения', - сказал Ким Мен Чор.
Отвечая на вопрос о возможных действиях Пхеньяна в случае нанесения Соединенными Штатами превентивного удара по ядерным объектам КНДР, Ким Мен Чор указал, что 'Пхеньян немедленно нанесет ответный удар по городам США'.
12 августа делегация из 56 руководителей южнокорейскийх СМИ была принята председателем Государственного комитета обороны КНДР Ким Чен Иром. На встрече присутствовало также около 30 членов северкорейского руководства. Мы предлагаем вам отрывки из состоявшейся беседы, опубликованные газетой «Чосон ильбо».
Ким Чен Ир: В своих подоходах к воссоединению обе Кореи допускали ошибки, и прошлые правительства обеих стран несут ответственность за задержку воссоединения, так как они использовали идею воссоединения для поддержания своих систем правления. Однако после межкорейской встречи на высшем уровне в июне, которую удалось провести благодаря решению президента Ким Тэ Чжуна, в этих подходах произошли коренные изменения. Южнокорейские СМИ были исключительно критично настроены в отношении правительства, то же касается и оппозиционной партии. В результате складывается впечатление, что что правительство Юга не обладает достаточной силой...