Full Text of the Joint Statement by the Six-Party Talks
The following is the full text of the joint statement unanimously adopted at the
fourth round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs on Monday. The
Fourth Round of the Six-Party Talks was held in Beijing, China, among the
People's Republic of China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Japan,
the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, and the United States of America
from July 26 to August 7, and from September 13 to 19, 2005.
Mr. Wu Dawei, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the PRC; Mr. Kim Gye Gwan,
Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK; Mr. Kenichiro Sasae,
Director-General for Asian and Oceanian Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
Japan; Mr. Song Min-soon, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the
ROK; Mr. Alexandr Alekseyev, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian
Federation; and Mr. Christopher Hill, Assistant Secretary of State for East
Asian and Pacific Affairs of the United States attended the talks as heads of
their respective delegations. Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei chaired the talks.
For the cause of peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast
Asia at large, the six parties held, in a spirit of mutual respect and equality,
serious and practical talks concerning the denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula on the basis of the common understanding of the previous three rounds
of talks, and agreed, in this context, to the following:
1. The six parties unanimously reaffirmed that the goal of the six-party talks
is the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner.
The DPRK committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear
programs and returning, at an early date, to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation
of Nuclear Weapons and to IAEA safeguards.
The United States affirmed that it has no nuclear weapons on the Korean
Peninsula and has no intention to attack or invade the DPRK with nuclear or
conventional weapons.
The ROK reaffirmed its commitment not to receive or deploy nuclear weapons in
accordance with the 1992 Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula, while affirming that there exist no nuclear weapons within its
territory.
The 1992 Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula
should be observed and implemented.
The DPRK stated that it has the right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
The other parties expressed their respect and agreed to discuss, at an
appropriate time, the subject of the provision of light water reactor to the
DPRK.
2. The six parties undertook, in their relations, to abide by the purposes and
principles of the Charter of the United Nations and recognized norms of
international relations.
The DPRK and the United States undertook to respect each other's sovereignty,
exist peacefully together, and take steps to normalize their relations subject
to their respective bilateral policies.
The DPRK and Japan undertook to take steps to normalize their relations in
accordance with the Pyongyang Declaration, on the basis of the settlement of
unfortunate past and the outstanding issues of concern.
3. The six parties undertook to promote economic cooperation in the fields of
energy, trade and investment, bilaterally and/or multilaterally.
China, Japan, ROK, Russia and the U.S. stated their willingness to provide
energy assistance to the DPRK.
The ROK reaffirmed its proposal of July 12, 2005, concerning the provision of 2
million kilowatts of electric power to the DPRK.
4. The six parties committed to joint efforts for lasting peace and stability in
Northeast Asia. The directly related parties will negotiate a permanent peace
regime on the Korean Peninsula at an appropriate separate forum.
The six parties agreed to explore ways and means for promoting security
cooperation in Northeast Asia.
5. The six parties agreed to take coordinated steps to implement the
aforementioned consensus in a phased manner in line with the principle of
''commitment for commitment, action for action.''
6. The six parties agreed to hold the fifth round of the six-party talks in
Beijing in early November 2005 at a date to be determined through consultations.
By Mark Chisholm and Teruaki Ueno, Reuters, 19 Sep. 2005
(Additional reporting by Alan Wheatley, Tamora Vidaillet, Guo Shipeng, Vivi
Lin, Judy Hua and Niu Shuping)
BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea promised on Monday to give up its nuclear
weapons and programs in a landmark agreement aimed at defusing a high-stakes
crisis which skeptics said was long on words and short of action.
In exchange, South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China -- the
other players in the six-party talks in Beijing -- expressed willingness to
provide oil, energy aid and security guarantees.
Washington and Tokyo agreed to normalize ties with the impoverished and
diplomatically isolated North, which pledged to rejoin the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
"The joint statement is the most important achievement in the two years since
the start of six-party talks," Chinese chief negotiator Wu Dawei said. The
seven-day session ended with a standing ovation by all delegates.
South Korea's unification minister, Chung Dong-young, went further, saying the
agreement would serve as a first step toward dismantling the Cold War
confrontation between the two Koreas.
But Lee Dong-bok, Seoul-based senior associate of the Center for Strategic and
International Studies in Washington, said the joint statement had failed to
bring about any real progress.
"It contains no more than agreements on some principles that help prevent the
talks from collapsing and take them to the next round," he said.
Under the agreement, North Korea would have the right to a civilian nuclear
program -- the main sticking point between Pyongyang and Washington -- if it
regains international trust.
The United States, backed by Japan, had argued that North Korea could not be
trusted with atomic energy, but China, South Korea and Russia supported the
position that if Pyongyang scrapped its nuclear weapons and agreed to strict
safeguards it could have such an energy program in future.
Failure to reach an agreement on dismantling North Korea's weapons programs
could have prompted Washington to take the issue to the U.N. Security Council
and press for sanctions.
The North had said sanctions would be tantamount to war.
"DEVIL IN THE DETAIL"
North Korea had demanded aid and security guarantees before it dismantled any of
its nuclear programs, but Washington and Tokyo had wanted it to verifiably
dismantle first.
"The fact that North Korea has promised for the first time to abandon its
nuclear weapons and all existing nuclear programs in a verifiable way will serve
as an important basis for realizing the denuclearization of the Korean
peninsula," Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said in a statement.
The six parties agreed to hold a fifth round of talks in Beijing in November but
analysts had reservations about whether points of contention had been resolved.
"The worry is still the issue over whether North Korea can have its own civilian
light-water reactor civilian program. I think the problem is still there. They
have just postponed it," Lai Hongyi, a research fellow of the East Asian
Institute in Singapore, told Reuters.
Bob Broadfoot, managing director of Political and Economic Risk Consultancy in
Hong Kong, said: "I suspect anything they've signed is built around a philosophy
of 'show me first'.
"The devil will be in the detail of who's allowed to go in when to inspect the
status of North Korea's program. And you can bet there'll be some controversy
around that," he said.
In Monday's agreement, the United States affirmed that it had no nuclear weapons
on the peninsula and had no intention of attacking or invading North Korea with
nuclear or conventional weapons.
Three previous rounds of negotiations failed to resolve the dispute, which began
when the United States accused North Korea in 2002 of pursuing a nuclear arms
program in violation of international agreements. Pyongyang denied the charge
and promptly withdrew from the NPT.
Then, in February this year, North Korea, branded by the United States as part
of an "axis of evil" along with Iran and pre-war Iraq, said it did indeed have
nuclear weapons.
By BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer, September 18, 2005
BEIJING - International talks seeking to convince North Korea to abandon its
nuclear weapons program were in their "endgame" Monday, the top U.S. negotiator
said, before delegates met to consider a Chinese proposal for resolving the
standoff.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said the talks would wrap up
in a matter of hours. "We're at the endgame," he said as he left his hotel early
Monday.
Hill declined to reveal specifics of the proposal. Russia's envoy said earlier
that it acknowledged North Korea's right to a peaceful nuclear program after
disarming — but it was not known if that draft had been revised.
Washington had previously rejected allowing North Korea any atomic program,
saying its decades of relentlessly pursuing a nuclear bomb means it can't be
trusted. Hill said North Korea "has some demands and the question is whether
anybody accepts those demands." "I think we have a pretty good arrangement on
that, but I have to see what it looks like finally," he said.
South Korea's main envoy, Song Min-soon, said Monday that it was "time to make a
decision."
He added that a resolution depended on all six countries at the talks — China,
Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas.
"It is not a situation where just one party decides whether to accept," Song
said.
The night before Hill said he was leaving at the end of Monday no matter what
happened at the meeting for all six delegations to state their positions.
"Everyone knows each other's positions, everyone knows the agreement, everyone
can almost recite it from memory at this point, so I'm not sure we have to do
too much talking," he said Sunday evening. "I think we have to sort of ... put
the cards on the table and see where we are."
Hill described the proposal before the talks as "a good effort to try to bridge
the remaining differences, which I believe are difficult but certainly not
insurmountable."
That was far more optimistic than his view Saturday, when he said the United
States and several other countries had problems with the document's wording.
"It's a good draft for all concerned, and I think it's especially a really great
opportunity for" North Korea, he said Sunday.
North Korea had not commented publicly on the proposal, but after it was put
forward Friday, a spokesman denounced efforts to get the North to give up its
nuclear weapons program without concessions from the United States.
Participants have offered economic aid, security guarantees from Washington and
free electricity from South Korea in exchange for dismantling its weapons
program.
North Korea has demanded to be given a light-water nuclear reactor for
generating electricity before disarming, promising to open that facility to
co-management and international inspections.
The Pyongyang regime was promised two light-water reactors — believed to be more
difficult to use in diverting radioactive material for making nuclear bombs —
under a 1994 deal. But that agreement unraveled in late 2002 when U.S. officials
said the North admitted it was building atomic bombs, leading to the current
diplomatic effort to find resolve the standoff.
"There is still a chance of reaching an agreement," Japanese envoy Kenichiro
Sasae said Sunday evening, also sounding more positive than a day before.
Meanwhile, the head of the Pyongyang office of the United Nations' World Food
Program said Sunday that a decade of emergency aid shipments to North Korea
would end by January at the request of the country's communist government.
"They claim they have enough food coming in from other sources," Richard Ragan
told The Associated Press, indicating that included aid from South Korea and
increased trade with China. "They didn't want to create a culture of
dependency."
Since starting emergency aid in 1995, the WFP has distributed about 4 million
tons of food worth $1.5 billion to North Koreans. That has included donations
from the United States, despite the continuing nuclear standoff and Pyongyang's
constant saber-rattling at Washington as its main enemy.
BEIJING, Sept. 18 (AP) - The United Nations will end a decade of emergency food
shipments to North Korea by January at the request of its government, which says
it has enough food coming from other sources, Richard Ragan, chief of the World
Food Program's office in Pyongyang, the North Korea capital, said Sunday. He
said in a telephone interview that if donors supported the shift, the money
would be used instead for development projects in North Korea.
North Korea has made requests to halt emergency food aid in the past. Mr. Ragan
said officials there told him they believed they would be able to meet their
food needs with aid from South Korea and increased trade with China. North Korea
has relied on foreign aid to feed its 22 million people since disclosing in the
mid-1990's that its government-run farm system had collapsed. Famine has killed
an estimated two million people.
MOSCOW, September 12 (RIA Novosti) - North Korea and the United States are at
the point of finding a solution to their bilateral problems similar to the one
found by China and the U.S. back in the 1970s, a Russian political expert said,
commenting on the six-nation talks on the Korean nuclear problem resuming in
Beijing tomorrow.
"This formula can be applied to Korea as well," Mikhail Titarenko,
director of the Institute of Far East Studies of the Russian Academy of
Sciences, said. He said that before their relations improved, the U.S. opened a
liaison office (a diplomatic mission) in Beijing, which was coincidentally
headed by would-be president George Bush Sr.
"Relations between the U.S. and North Korea are moving in the same direction
because [both countries] are interested in reducing tensions and reaching a
compromise," Titarenko said. According to the expert, a compromise would
be possible if North Korea stopped its development of nuclear weapons, and if
the U.S. promised to offer economic support and eased the embargo.
SEOUL (Reuters) - Foreign aid and a good harvest of food staples such as
potatoes and wheat have helped ease North Korea's severe food shortage but aid
is still needed, the World Food Program said in a report.
In August, the head of the U.N. agency that works to feed the world's hungry
said people in North Korea were foraging for nuts and leaves to counter a
serious food shortage that had caused the government to cut food rations in
parts of the impoverished country to less than two bowls of rice a day. The
situation has eased since then as North Korea has brought in parts of its
harvest and significant amounts of rice aid from South Korea have also arrived
in the country.
"The overall food security situation has improved somewhat throughout the
country following the recently completed harvest of potatoes, wheat and barley
and with the ongoing harvest of vegetables," the World Food Program said in a
report released over the weekend. Rice sent in recent months from South Korea
was being distributed in parts of the country, it said.
The organization's report said it still needed donations or it would not be able
to provide food to many of North Korea's children, pregnant women, urban poor
and elderly. The World Food Program has said the food shortage is not as severe
as one in the mid-1990s. More than one million North Koreans are thought to have
died in a famine brought about by years of poor harvests and mismanagement of
the country's agricultural sector, aid workers say.
North Korea has about 22.5 million people and the U.N. agency aims to feed about
6.5 million of them. Last week, a human rights group said North Korea had been
abusing international food aid while cutting back on its own imports of food and
diverting funds elsewhere, including to the military. In a report, the U.S.
Committee for Human Rights in North Korea accused Pyongyang of hindering aid
efforts by both foreign governments and non-governmental organizations to reach
those who needed help most in the communist state.
By Jephraim P Gundzik, Asia Times On-line, 3 September 2005
The first three rounds of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs
showcased the absence of diplomacy inherent to US foreign policy. Rather than
isolating the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) as the Bush
administration had hoped, the fourth round of six-party talks has isolated the
US. Washington's isolation and the Bush administration's inability to grasp
diplomacy strongly indicate that the fourth round of six-party talks, which are
scheduled to resume this month, will fail to solve the North Korean nuclear
issue, paving the way for an escalation in the nuclear standoff between
Washington and Pyongyang... [...]
...The media manipulation inherent to the fourth round of six-party talks is
strongly reminiscent of the Bush administration's pre-Iraq war media
manipulation. By creating the appearance of inflexibility in Pyongyang,
Washington can justify to the American public that stronger action against the
DPRK must be taken.
Rather than a diplomatic push for reconciliation and mutual understanding, the
Bush administration is using the six-party talks as a bully pulpit for foisting
its non-negotiable position on the DPRK and the other participating countries.
This effort has very little chance of success in vanquishing Pyongyang's nuclear
programs, particularly since Washington's demands are not supported in Seoul,
Moscow or Beijing.
Washington must be plainly aware that its approach to nuclear dismantlement in
the DPRK has little hope for success. From this position it seems obvious that
the Bush administration does not want to negotiate a settlement. Rather, it
intends to use the six-party talks and the inevitable failure of these talks to
rally American support for stronger action against the DPRK.
Stronger action against the DPRK, whether militarily or through UN censure,
would almost certainly provoke Pyongyang to conduct a nuclear test in order to
demonstrate its deterrent capability. The Bush administration may be
purposefully pushing the DPRK to conduct a nuclear test to drum up international
support for isolating Pyongyang - support that Washington sorely lacks.
Unfortunately, escalation of the nuclear standoff between Washington and
Pyongyang is likely. This escalation carries strong negative global economic
implications.
PYONGYANG (Reuters) - It is eight o'clock on a Saturday night and darkness
envelopes virtually all of Pyongyang, serving as a vivid reminder of communist
North Korea's pressing energy needs. World leaders such as U.S. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice have talked of satellite pictures of the Korean peninsula
taken at night that show a brightly illuminated South and the North in total
darkness.
Miles beneath the high-tech flying eyes, Pyongyang residents have become adept
at riding bicycles through the gloom, playing cards by the light of hotel
billboards or negotiating sidewalks with shuffling, tiny steps to avoid
collisions. Apart from a few illuminated windows in apartment blocks, the only
lights on are at the hotels for foreign visitors and the halls designed to show
the greatness of the North Korean system of self-reliance.
The floodlights were blazing inside the cavernous May 1 Stadium for weekend
ceremonies celebrating the end of World War Two, but the thousands of students
waiting to perform the mass choreography had to queue up in the darkness. A
couple of blocks away, as dozens of people waited for an electric tram --
already packed with passengers -- the only light came from the occasional
passing car.
"We can't turn on many street lights because energy is scarce," a North Korean
official told a group of Thai journalists through his translator over a dinner
after the mass dance show. "Our country faces many problems, but the most
serious one is we don't have enough energy," said the official, who spoke only
Korean and French and identified himself as "Mr. Choi."
North Korea has sought help from the outside world, particularly South Korea, to
alleviate its power shortage. One of the stumbling blocks in recent six-party
talks on ending its nuclear weapons programs was whether Pyongyang should have
the right eventually to civilian nuclear power. North Korea has the potential to
generate about 7,800 megawatts of electricity, but fuel shortages have cut
output to nearly a third, data from South Korean state agencies show. The
shortage has kept more than two-thirds of its factories idle.
Conversely, no power or expense is spared on the symbols or ceremonies central
to the history and ideology of the communist state, one of the most isolated
countries in the world, or the few places foreigners are allowed to visit.
Electricity is available around the clock at the twin-tower Koryo hotel, which
charges customers at least 110 euro a night for a twin bedroom on any of its 35
floors. Lights are left on until at least 10 p.m. at empty hotel restaurants.
Outside, the streets are pitch black.
DAZZLING CONTRASTS
In the May 1 Stadium, the dazzling, 90-minute show of Arirang dances, involving
50,000 performers twirling about to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of
Japan's imperial rule over the peninsula, provides an illuminating contrast. The
show tells how the country overcame the harsh foreign occupation to become a
prospering and productive state with a powerful army in the 21st century.
But at his dinner with visiting journalists, Mr. Choi said North Korea lacked
the infrastructure and fuel to generate enough electricity -- hence its need for
nuclear power plants. "We don't have enough coal nor water supplies to generate
power," he said. "The solution is a peaceful nuclear program."
South Korean state firms said the North had the capacity to produce most of its
power from hydroelectric plants with a combined generation potential of 4,810
megawatts. The North also has a five-megawatt reactor at the Yongbyon complex,
the heart of its nuclear programs. But the power that generates is believed to
be barely enough to run the complex, let alone to be distributed outside.
The United States suspects that North Korea cannot be trusted with a peaceful
nuclear program because that could merely serve as a figleaf for the continued
pursuit of nuclear weapons. Seoul has offered to provide the North with
electrical supplies roughly equal to its current output if the impoverished
state dismantles its nuclear arms programs. The answer may come when the
six-party nuclear talks resume in Beijing in the week of September 12.
Echoing top Pyongyang officials, Mr. Choi insisted that North Korea needed a
nuclear deterrent to ensure its peaceful development and self-defense. "Look
what happened to Afghanistan and Iraq. If we did not have nuclear weapons to
defend ourselves, we would end up like them," he said referring to the US-led
invasions.
The West has so successfully demonized North Korea in recent years that the
notion of normal teenage girls living normal teenage lives in the capital city
of Pyongyang comes as a shock. Only when the shock wears off do you begin to see
at what cost that normality is maintained.
''A State of Mind" is the British documentarian Daniel Gordon's second film
about the country he calls the ''least visited, least known, least understood"
on the planet, and it's a quietly wrenching eye-opener. The rare Western
filmmaker allowed north of the 38th Parallel, Gordon focused on athletic
achievement in 2002's ''The Game of Their Lives," about the 1966 North Korean
World Cup team. Here he uses athletic achievement to make striking and subtle
points about daily life in a paranoid dictatorship. Take your teenagers.
Each year the city hosts the Mass Games, a sort of epic three-day pageant of
gymnastics, music, and placard flipping that suggests what Busby Berkeley might
have come up with if he'd been hired to choreograph the Nuremberg Rally. ''A
State of Mind" zooms in on two young girls practicing for the 2003 Games, but it
quickly ducks under that thematic wire to offer fuller portraits of their lives
and families.
At 13, Pak Hyon Sun has a bit of the rebel to her -- she drolly confesses to
playing hooky from the required two-hour Games drills until she was busted, and
she carps about having to learn a particularly tough routine. Kim Song Yun
groans about having to wake up for school like any other 11-year-old. This is
about as defiant as they get, because everyone in ''A State of Mind" -- kids,
parents, grandparents, teachers -- lives in ideological thrall to the leader of
North Korea, Kim Jong Il, and to the memory of his late father, Kim Il Sung.
There is no resistance; there is, instead, a complete and almost touchingly
childlike faith in the divinity of ''the General" and, by extension, the evil of
his enemies, America chief among them. (The film points out that this has been
so ever since the devastating US bombing of the North during the Korean War.) If
you want to know what a successful state cult of personality looks like, here it
is.
The director never pounds the point home, though, and he doesn't have to. He
mostly observes this society at work, occasionally dropping patient narrative
points about the Games' usefulness in subordinating individual will to the needs
of the group. The film makes clear that those living in the capital are better
off than the peasants in the country, and it shows that ''better off" is a
relative term. The Paks and the Kims are from different classes -- the former
are blue-collar, the latter academic intellectuals -- but their living quarters
are similarly cramped high-rise apartments, with grandparents and siblings
sleeping on floors. Each person is allotted one chicken and five eggs per month.
And these are the good times. ''A State of Mind" lets the older generation talk
candidly of the ''Arduous March," the period after Kim Il Sung's 1994 death
during which the country fell into a famine whose scope has never been fully
calculated. Outside commentators have blamed North Korea's outmoded agricultural
policies; the Paks and the Kims blame America, as they do for everything,
including the nightly electrical blackouts. But you might, too, if you had a
state-installed radio in your kitchen that could be turned down but never off.
A co-production of the BBC, French public TV, and New York's WNET, ''A State of
Mind" slightly overstays its welcome, and its use of Beth Orton-style
techno-folk under the Mass Games routines is an odd if catchy creative choice
(what's wrong with hearing the music the girls actually performed to?). That
said, the film's most remarkable aspect is its depiction of casually loving
family relations and giggling girlishness -- proof of the resilience of smaller
human freedoms in the face of almost constant mind control.
The girls, of course, consider Kim Jong Il their spiritual father. Song Yun goes
so far as to say, ''Other kids get to play in the bright sunlight, but we train
to perform in front of our dear General." When the Games finally arrive -- and
they are an epic display of state kitsch -- the two wait in vain for Kim himself
to attend one of the shows. He never does, but the notion of a Kafkaesque void
at the top is lost on the subjects. ''A State of Mind" implicitly insists we can
only truly understand what we can see for ourselves, and that goes for the
West's view of North Korea as well as the girls' view of their dictator.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea is abusing international food aid while
cutting back on its own imports of food and diverting funds elsewhere, including
the military, a U.S. human rights group said on Thursday.
The U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea accused Pyongyang of
hindering aid efforts by both foreign governments and nongovernmental
organizations to reach those who needed help most in the communist state.
"Pyongyang's refusal to allow full monitoring of food delivery and need, and the
restrictions on the movement of aid workers, continue to impede the aid effort
and limit its ability to reach vulnerable groups," it said in a report.
North Korea has suffered persistent food shortages since a famine caused by
drought and flooding in the mid and late 1990s led to the deaths of more than a
million people. "This crisis is no longer about food shortages, it's about a
government that denies its citizens basic rights," said Stephan Haggard of the
University of California, San Diego, who co-wrote the report.
It said as international aid increased, North Korea cut back on its own
commercial imports of food. The government was paying for only about 10 percent
of food coming into the country, allowing it to shift resources to other
priorities, including the military, it said. "North Korea is taking advantage of
the generosity of the donor countries. At the same time, they have been
accepting food aid to alleviate their man-made crisis, they have been cutting
their commercial food imports drastically," said Debra Liang-Fenton, executive
director of the committee.
"So instead of the destitute population being fed and supplies of food being
supplemented thanks to international aid, the communist regime has saved the
dollars raised in order to shore up its power." There was no guarantee aid was
reaching the truly needy and only those loyal to the authorities were cared for,
the report said.
"If anyone bears even a sign of suspicion that he has lost blind faith, the
suspect is immediately deprived of basic foodstuffs and medical aid; he loses
his job and even the chance to receive an education," said the report. Evidence
from refugees and others pointed to a need for better monitoring of food aid,
much of which comes from the World Food Program. This monitoring was made more
difficult by less conditional shipments of aid made to North Korea by China and
South Korea. The group urged these countries to channel food via the WFP.
Ten years ago North Korea appealed for outside assistance to address a famine
that we estimate killed 600,000 to one million people or roughly 3-5 percent of
the population. The international community responded with considerable
generosity, providing more than $2 billion in aid, including $600 million from
the US alone.
Yet a decade later, a significant share of the population remains chronically
food insecure and international humanitarian assistance continues to target
roughly 30 percent of the population. The outside world faces a conundrum in
dealing with North Korea: namely how to respond to the ethical imperative to
ameliorate suffering in a way that does not perpetuate a political regime that
is ultimately the source of the misery.
Linked below is a report written with Professor Stephan Haggard of the
University of California, San Diego under the auspices of the US Committee for
Human Rights in North Korea which examines hunger and food access issues in
North Korea through the lens of human rights.
http://www.hrnk.org/hunger/hungerReport05.pdf
Humanitarian aid community has developed protocols, embodying norms of
non-discrimination and transparency that are an anathema to the North Korean
political system. While conditions are better now than ten years ago, the North
Korean government has impeded the implementation of assistance every step of the
way. Today two important bilateral donors, China and South Korea, provide aid on
an effectively unconditional basis undercutting the ability of the United
Nations World Food Program to negotiate a more transparent and just regime.
In this imperfect environment we argue that USAID has gotten it right, providing
aid in forms that the elite does not like (i.e. barley instead of rice), and
delivering directly to ports in the worst affected regions of the country.
As Nobel-laureate Amartya Sen has observed, famines do not occur in free
societies. A decade-long food emergency, especially in a relatively modern
industrialized country, could only occur under a political regime that
systematically denies its citizens the most basic human, civil, and political
rights. We do not have option ethically, or in a practical sense, politically,
to walk away. The continuing humanitarian disaster that is North Korea requires
our engagement. But if we are to engage, we must be clear-eyed about the terms
on which that involvement proceeds.
POTATO PROJECT TO EASE NORTH'S FOOD CRISIS
The Joongang Ilbo reported that Joongang Ilbo and World Vision will launch a
three-month fund-raising campaign to enable the DPRK to increase potato
production and help ease the country's food crisis. World Vision and the DPRK's
National Economic Cooperation Federation said they have so far succeeded in
mass-producing a virus-free seed potato inside greenhouses. However, World
Vision representatives said they need further assistance to supply the seed
potato to farms nationwide. "North Korea's chronic food crisis cannot be
resolved by one-time assistance," said World Vision chairman Park Jong-sam. "To
resolve the fundamental issue, we need to devise long-term, consistent
approaches, such as this seed potato project." With aid, the DPRK's potato
production is expected to increase from its current 2 million tons to nearly 6
million tons by 2008. ("POTATO PROJECT TO EASE NORTH'S FOOD
CRISIS", 2005-08-31)
NORTH KOREA SENDS NATIONWIDE ORDER TO RESUME RATIONING
SYSTEM STARTING OCTOBER
The Donga Ilbo reported that the DPRK is
showing signs of resuming its food rationing system.═ According to informants,
the DPRK sent a ministerial order through the phone lines on August 19 calling
for normalizing the operation of its nationwide distributing system from October
1. A news source said on August 30, "After receiving the order, each province
and city held meetings for food administration officials and discussed
countermeasures". Another resource reaffirmed the fact and added, "The regime's
order to revive the rationing system is the first time in 10 years since the mid
1990s when the food crisis practically emerged." ("NORTH
KOREA SENDS NATIONWIDE ORDER TO RESUME RATIONING SYSTEM STARTING OCTOBER",
2005-08-31)
INDONESIA SAID TO HOLD NORTH KOREAN-FLAGGED SHIP FOR OIL
SMUGGLING
Kyodo News reported that Indonesia has detained a DPRK-flagged tanker and its 15
Indonesian crew members on suspicion of attempting to smuggle marine fuel oil
out of the country, a navy official told Kyodo News on Wednesday. The tanker MT
Tioman was detained while loading marine fuel oil into two PRC-flagged ships,
Bambang said. ("INDONESIA SAID TO HOLD NORTH KOREAN-FLAGGED
SHIP FOR OIL SMUGGLING", 2005-08-31)
PYONGYANG (Reuters) - In North Korea, it may be a crime to speak
ill of the Dear Leader, but visitors are also advised not to badmouth the
beloved national dish. "Kimchi can prevent SARS and bird flu," a North Korean
official told reporters at a dinner in a state-owned restaurant in Pyongyang,
urging them to spread the word around the world.
Kimchi, typically radish or cabbage that has been packed with garlic, ginger and
hot pepper and then pickled, is a staple on both sides of the divided Korean
peninsula. Although kimchi has been said to prevent bird flu and SARS, cure the
common cold, prevent certain types of cancer and improve the skin, few of the
claims have a scientific basis.
That meant nothing to an official guide escorting a group of Thai journalists
travelling with Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon on a recent visit
to the secluded Communist country. Asked by one journalist how he knew the SARS
and bird flu claims were true, the guide -- who gave his name only as "Mr Kim",
answered in an angry voice: "Where were you? I don't understand why you never
knew this information. Everybody in North Korea knows about it." North Korea had
an outbreak of bird flu at poultry farms in Pyongyang earlier this year.
Other questions agitated the guide. A journalist working for a Japanese news
agency wondered aloud if North Koreans used "Ajinomoto" -- a Japanese brand name
for monosodium glutamate seasoning -- in kimchi to make it so tasty. "What do
you mean?," Mr Kim asked. "You said a Japanese word. We live in Korea and we
only eat Korean food."
North Korea's official media roundly criticises Japan, the former colonial
overlord of the Korean peninsula which was divided into North and South at the
end of World War Two. North Korea has stayed isolated since the split in the
spirit of its national ideology of "juche", or self-reliance, and is now feared
by the international community to be building a nuclear weapons programme -- the
subject of so-called six-party talks being held on and off in Beijing.
Propaganda about North Korea's leaders and the Communist revolution is part of
life in the state. It assails visitors arriving at Pyongyang airport and thrusts
itself from fields and roads on billboards in the countryside and from state
television. In fact, propaganda is launched at visitors before they even get out
of the plane. Soon after touchdown, the plane's speakers lauded Kim Il-sung --
North Korea's founding Great Leader, Father Leader and Eternal Leader -- and his
son, Dear Leader Kim Jong-il.
Billboards plastered with slogans are everywhere, from the government's
reception hall to paddy fields along highways. "Long Live the Dear Leader, Kim
Jong-il!" reads a group of billboards, each carrying a Korean syllable, erected
in the middle of a paddy field outside Pyongyang. Another row of billboards on a
grassy foothill read: "Whatever the party decides, we will do it!" When asked
who put up the billboards, Mr Kim consulted a colleague, then said: "It is the
people who put up those signs themselves."
The visit by the Thai foreign minister was timed to celebrate 30 years of
diplomatic relations between Thailand and North Korea. Foreign journalists
rarely visit and are closely supervised when they do.
DPRK Airline Blacklisted in France
Agence France Presse reported that in an effort to strengthen
safety, France's civil aviation authority has put the DPRK's Air Koryo on its
blacklist of airlines prohibited from operating in France, which was released on
August 29. AFP added that Air Koryo has been suspended from operating in France
since April of 2001 and that this fact was only made public now.
("FRANCE ANNOUNCES BAN ON NORTH KOREA'S NATIONAL AIRLINE",
2005-08-30)
The research on which this monograph is based addresses the
circumstances, costs, and consequences of Korean reunification. All three of
these issues involve large conceptual as well as empirical problems. The total
costs of reunification would be dependent on how unification would occur,
including, for example, the costs of meeting humanitarian demands, stabilization
requirements, the needs of human capital re-education training and replacement,
and the demands of social integration. Our focus here is on the capital costs of
doubling the North Korean GDP in a short period of time (four to five years).
This target is based on the arguable premise that such a rapid improvement would
provide sufficient hope among the populace and stability in the polity to allow
the embryonic unified regime to endure despite the persistence of substantial
income and other disparities between North and South.
This premise does not deny that the regime would confront a wide
range of other formidable challenges, burdens, and costs. A new government of a
unified Korea would have to carefully manage these challenges and the continued
existence of disparities to avoid excessive instability. We cite numerous
examples and precedents in which unified, sovereign countries have managed to
function and endure, notwithstanding the presence of enormous economic, social,
and ethnic disparities and disharmonies. Employing an aggregate, economy-wide
simulation model, we find that the capital costs could vary widely from about
$50 billion to $670 billion (in 2003 dollars). Other costs mentioned above could
vary even more widely, leading to large additional costs...
...And so, my visit to North Korea comes to an end. After 11 days in Pyongyang,
at least I have now seen the country I write about almost everyday, even if I
have seen only a highly selective, sanitised version of it. I have seen how the
Kim dynasty permeates every aspect of North Korean life and the mind-boggling
organisation and discipline of the people.
But I have also watched children splashing in ponds on a hot day, I have drunk
Daedonggang beer in a local pub where Korean men snacked on fried fish eyes and
laughed riotously, and I have discussed everything from art and volleyball to
homosexuality with ordinary Koreans. As Mr Ri said to me one day: “People are
people. Life is life.”
But even in the capital, it was apparent that life here is extremely tough for
most people, and getting by means making the best of an undesirable situation.
The public distribution system now provides less than half of most people’s
daily food requirements, while inflation has seen the price of many necessities
spiral out of affordability.
Energy remains desperately scarce even during the wet summer – all the lights
and escalators in the five-story central department store are switched off, and
Koreans note that power cuts have a habit of coming while they're watching TV or
their children are doing their homework.
Along the highways leading out from Pyongyang, men gathered gravel from
potholes, women carried bundles of twigs that almost obscured their bodies from
behind, and children played insouciantly in the middle of the road. It was quite
a low-risk playground – after all, cars and trucks pass only occasionally, maybe
at 10 minute intervals.
The Koreans I talked to knew their lives were more difficult than in
neighbouring countries, but many said – in almost identically worded comments –
that their Socialist Paradise would prevail.
Regardless, it was evident to me that isolating them further will not help North
Koreans running barber shops, working on fishing boats or taking their children
to museums. North Koreans have already been dealt a cruel hand of cards.
Sanctions – coming on the back of the collapse of the Soviet Union and a
devastating flood followed by an even more devastating famine – have only
exacerbated the economic mismanagement that was already crippling the country,
once the industrial powerhouse of the peninsula.
North Koreans have become aware of their relative poverty largely through trade
and other economic interaction. The Chinese traders who bring in DVD players and
noodles in flashy packaging also import news of dynamic markets and outside
opportunities. The South Koreans in their high-tech hiking outfits who walk up
Mount Kumgang near the inter-Korean border, and soon up Mount Paekdu on the
northern border with China, are walking proof that southerners are richer and
healthier than their northern brothers.
If the US wants to help bring North Korea in from its international
isolation, DVDs and parkas would be a good place to start.
So as we drove to Pyongyang airport, I was sorry to say goodbye to Mr Ri and Mr
Baek, who had been charming and fun companions throughout my visit. They waved
as I went through the gates – Mr Ri was probably wanting to certain I really had
left – as I walked out to the old Russian plane waiting to take me to Beijing.
Air Koryo (or “Air Scary-o” as the ex-pats call it) is not the most comfortable
of airlines but the plane stayed in the sky, which was my main requirement for
the journey. I hope to return to North Korea soon. And I hope that some time,
before too long, I fly in on a Boeing...
North Korea is probably the most mysterious and inaccessible country in the
world today. Officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK),
the Pyongyang regime is headed by perhaps the most mercurial and enigmatic
political leader alive. The regime Kim leads is generally considered to be one
of the most repressive in existence, with a vast gulag, a massive security
apparatus, and an extensive system of controls. Despite the facade of a powerful
party-state possessing an enormous military, the North Korean economy is in
shambles, hundreds of thousands of people are living either as refugees in China
or as displaced persons inside their own country, and millions have died from
starvation and related
Topping the U.S. list of concerns about North Korea is its nuclear program;
Washington is extremely alarmed not only that Pyongyang is developing a nuclear
capability for its own use, but also proliferating nuclear material and
technology. But the United States and other countries are also concerned about
other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) North Korea possesses, as well as its
ballistic missile program. Moreover, North Korea's conventional military forces
are sizeable, with significant capabilities, and confront the armed forces of
the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United States across the Demilitarized Zone.
This monograph analyzes North Korea's strategic intentions and motivations.
First, the views of leading analysts of North Korea regarding Pyongyang's
strategic intentions are surveyed and examined. All of the analysts concur on a
number of conclusions: (1) that the North Korean regime is not irrational; (2)
this rationality leaves North Korea's leadership with a heightened sense of
insecurity; (3) North Korea's rulers-or at least some of them-appear to be
acutely aware of the reform dilemma they face.
This third conclusion is particularly significant. Because North Korea's leaders
fear that they would be undermining their positions if the regime adopts
comprehensive reforms, they are reluctant to move down this slippery slope.
However, without significant reform, North Korea's leaders realize they are
probably condemning their regime to the ash heap of history. Pyongyang is
probably more fearful of initiating change that it fears will spiral out of
control than it is of doing little or nothing.
Three alternative packages of Korean strategic intentions are identified: (1)
the modest aim of regime survival; (2) a driving desire to maintain a strong,
independent, and autonomous North Korea; (3) an ambitious and extremely
aggressive goal-unification on North Korea's terms.
Three kinds of observable manifestations would indicate which of the three sets
of strategic intentions North Korea is pursuing: propaganda, policy, and
planning. An analysis of North Korean ideology and rhetoric does not give a
clear indication of which package (#1, #2, or #3) would be selected. One point
does seem very clear: an unrelenting focus on maintaining a robust conventional
national defense capability and building a nuclear capacity. Examining past and
present policies reveals consistent national priorities of focusing on
maintaining military power, centrally planned economic development, and
initiatives promoting national unification. At the same time, North Korea has
depended for decades on substantial external assistance in the form of food,
fuel, and technology to compensate for the serious inadequacies of its Stalinist
economy.
An examination of North Korean planning indicators suggests that the regime
continues to think about and prepare for the future. While little evidence
suggests that new thinking pervades Pyongyang's approach to security or
unification matters, there are significant indications that North Korea is
contemplating further economic reforms. However, what is under consideration
appears far removed from systemic transformation and complete opening.
A careful analysis of propaganda, policy, and planning leads to a high degree of
skepticism that North Korea is focused on mere survival. Pyongyang appears to
have far more ambitious intentions, and nothing indicates desperation on the
part of North Korean leaders. A conceivable possibility is that Pyongyang's
intentions are focused on arms control, a policy of economic reform and opening,
and pursuing some form of peaceful confederation with Seoul. However, actual
Pyongyang policies and planning do not seem to bear this out. Evidence from
planning is unclear so the data remain inconclusive.
A real possibility is that North Korea's key strategic goals are to build up its
WMD programs, engage in parasitic extortionism, and pursue unification by force
or coercion. According to Pyongyang's propaganda, maintaining its military
strength is the regime's foremost priority. This is born out by examinations of
implemented policy, planning, and ruminations about the future.
The limited evidence available does not suggest a policy of thoroughgoing
reform. North Korea's history of central planning and the absence of any obvious
blue print for how to proceed indicate that systemic reform is unlikely.
Pyongyang appears likely to continue to hope that ad hoc changes, coupled with
continued foreign aid and income generated from arms sales, tourism, and
criminal activity, will be adequate to meet the country's needs. As for
unification, although propaganda stresses using peaceful means, it also urges a
united front between North and South Korea against the United States. An
examination of the record of unification policy suggests that Pyongyang believes
that South Korea's government enjoys no real popular support and is merely a
U.S. puppet. With the United States out of the picture, North Korea thinks it
could relatively easily bring about the collapse of the South Korean regime and
unification under the auspices of Pyongyang through limited military acts.
It is unlikely that North Korea's current leaders, at least the highest echelon,
have lost all hope and have fatalistically accepted that the end of the DPRK
looms on the horizon. North Korea's rulers are influenced by history, ideology,
and notions of nationalism that produce what social scientists like to term a
"bounded rationality." The author's conclusion is that North Korea's senior
leaders are determined and confident that they will not only survive but that
they will be able to restore and revitalize their regime.
However, in the final analysis, insufficient data exist to say with absolute
certainty what North Korea's strategic intentions are. Any one of these three
"packages" outlined is plausible. Intentions could conceivably also fluctuate
among the three, depending on how the regime assesses the situation at a
particular point. The United States needs to probe and prod the Pyongyang regime
to learn for sure; to keep an open mind and continually monitor what North Korea
says, does, and prepares for. The United States should look for consistencies
and inconsistencies. The distrust and suspicion are such that some intermediate
confidence-building measures are necessary...
by Ian Buruma, The New Yorker (Book Critics), 2005-08-22
The charm of dictators has been known to reduce the hardest men to jelly. I
remember a tough-minded Japanese photographer returning from Pyongyang in the
nineteen-seventies still aglow from the experience of Kim Il Sung's "warm
handshake." Similar reports have come from some of those allowed into Hitler's
mesmerizing presence: warm handshakes and piercing eyes appear to go with the
position.
Bradley K. Martin, whose "Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North
Korea and the Kim Dynasty" (St. Martin's; $29.95) is the heaviest tome to appear
in English on the subject, has spent decades penetrating the mysteries of North
Korea. He paints a grim picture in exhaustive detail, backed by many
first-person accounts. But, though he is no apologist, he is perhaps fair to a
fault. "There might be two sides to the story," he cautions. Kim Il Sung
possessed "considerable personal charm that only increased with age and
experience." The same goes for his son: "I would describe him as an often
insensitive and brutal despot who had another side that was generous and
- increasingly as he matured - charming."
Since North Korea is such an isolated and secretive place -
the Bhutan of Stalinism - hard facts are not
easy to come by. But we know a few things. To begin with, Kim Il Sung, whom the
Soviets installed as head of state in 1945, was responsible for starting the
Korean War, which may have caused as many as a million civilian deaths. In
addition to the toll exacted in the North by American bombing raids, many
civilians were massacred by the Communists for ideological reasons. After the
Korean War ended in the ruin of his country, Kim Il Sung, to deflect the blame,
had tens of thousands of people purged, sending many to prison or hard-labor
camps. Christians and Buddhists who had not already fled to the South were
persecuted in large numbers, and many were killed. To cleanse his own ranks of
possible rivals, Kim had many of his most intimate and loyal associates arrested
and tortured. As Jasper Becker notes in "Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the
Looming Threat of North Korea" (Oxford; $28), four hundred and fifty thousand
out of six hundred thousand Party members were investigated and punished for
"violating Party rules." The Great Leader's policy, to be memorized by prison
guards, was that anyone who opposed, or could conceivably be opposed to, Kim's
absolute rule would be singled out for "eradication."
By the time Kim Jong Il, the Dear Leader, took over from his father as the
absolute ruler of North Korea, the country was a slave society, where only the
most trusted caste of people were allowed to live in sullen obedience in
Pyongyang, while vast numbers of potential class enemies were worked to death in
mines and hard-labor camps. After Kim Il Sung's death, in 1994, the regime
suspended executions for a month, and throughout the following year it committed
relatively few killings. Since this was at the height of a famine, largely
brought on by disastrous agricultural policies, hundreds of thousands were
already dying from hunger. Then word spread that Kim Jong Il wished to "hear the
sound of gunshots again." Starving people were shot for stealing a couple of
eggs.
North Korea in the nineteen-nineties was, in Martin's somewhat peculiar choice
of phrase, "a nightmare by human-rights standards." Farmers were not allowed to
relieve their hunger by growing their own food and selling it, for, Kim
observed, "Telling people to solve the food problems on their own only increases
the number of farmers markets and peddlers. In addition, this creates egoism
among people, and the basis of the Party's class may come to collapse." If
things were bad in "normal" life, the conditions in the vast North Korean gulag
are difficult to imagine. Even here Martin's struggles for "balance" come across
as slightly otiose: "While more and more inmates died as a result of
malnutrition, the political prison camps continued to be run more as slave-labor
and slow death camps than as instant death camps. It may seem a small
distinction, but it shows that in this regard at least Kim Jong Il was no
Hitler."
Jasper Becker is less inclined to make these fine distinctions. As a result, his
book, though much slighter and less detailed than Martin's, is the more
intelligent. Becker wrote the classic book "Hungry Ghosts," about Mao Zedong's
man-made famine in China, and has interviewed many Korean refugees who managed
to stumble across the Chinese border. The highest-ranking defector from the
North was a man named Hwang Jang-yop, Kim Il Sung's chief ideologue, and both
Martin and Becker rely heavily on his accounts. According to Hwang, about a
million people starved to death in 1996 alone.
Kim Jong Il, meanwhile, was ferried about in his fleet of Mercedes-Benzes, from
one grand palace to another, where Chinese, Japanese, French, Russian, and
Korean food was always available for feasts that sometimes went on for days. One
of the more mouthwatering accounts of life in Kim's court is by his former
Japanese chef, a man who later took on the pseudonym Kenji Fujimoto, whose
duties included special trips to Iran to buy caviar, to Denmark for bacon, to
Japan for the best cuts of tuna. We know from Fujimoto's book, "Kim Jong Il's
Cook?I Saw His Naked Body," that Kim was an avid consumer of fine French wines
and Hennessy X.O cognac.
Kim Jong Il's other needs were met by large numbers of carefully selected young
women, assigned to their special tasks. There were masseuses and girls trained
to cater to the Leader's specific sexual demands, and there were singers and
dancers. ("Eat your heart out, Hugh Hefner," is Martin's oddly jocular
interjection.) On one occasion, according to Hwang, Kim punished his guests, all
high Party officials, for not applauding enough after a dance performance. On
another, recounted by the Japanese chef, he ordered the girls to strip naked and
dance with his guests. Anyone who dared touch one of Kim's private dancers,
however, would be regarded as a thief. According to Hwang, one of Kim's
secretaries went home after a night of drinking and told his wife about the Dear
Leader's debauchery. She wrote an earnest letter to Kim's father, asking how a
man who led such an immoral life could safeguard the happiness of his people.
She was arrested and led to a palace where Kim Jong Il was carousing. Kim
ordered her to be killed as a counter-revolutionary, but as a special favor
allowed her husband to shoot her on the spot.
Even if we follow Martin's advice and refrain from demonizing the Kims, we might
be excused for dismissing their moments of charm as an irrelevance. Martin's
notion that "people could still muster loyalty for the elder Kim" because "he
came across as an engaging figure" is politically na?ve. A warm handshake will
not explain why an entire people submitted to his whims.
All tyrants are alike, no doubt, but tyranny comes in different forms, and the
North Korean variety is an extraordinarily vicious blend of Western and East
Asian influences. On such matters, Martin provides far more detail, including
long transcripts of interviews with refugees and defectors, but, again, Becker
is more incisive. The political component, a mixture of Stalinism and strict
neo-Confucianism (with its stress on obedience to authority), is perhaps less
complicated than the religious aspects. The Kims' behavior recalls that of such
Roman despots as Nero and Caligula, who revelled in their power. In Pyongyang,
this often involves a sinister form of practical joking: turning top officials
against one another and watching the results on hidden television monitors; or
taking other men's wives as mistresses and, when finished with them, forcing the
women to remarry men picked on a whim. As Auden ventured in a discussion of Iago,
practical joking is always a way of playing God.
The religious cult around the Kims goes further, however; they really are
worshipped as divinities, in a peculiarly Korean mixture of native animism and
pseudo-Christianity. Martin writes about the Party congress of 1980, when Kim
Jong Il, then still the young dauphin, was elected to the five-person presidium
of the politburo. The Party newspaper, in a pre-Christmas editorial, offered the
Kims as a replacement for the Father and Son in the Holy Trinity. "People of the
world, if you are looking for miracles, come to Korea!" it went on. "Christians,
do not go to Jerusalem. Come rather to Korea! Do not believe in God. Believe in
the great man." After the son's ascent to the presidium, the newspaper reported,
there was "an explosion of our people's joy, looking up at the star of guidance
shining together with the benevolent sun."
Even though Kim Il Sung had stamped out all independent religious activity in
North Korea, the Christian influence is visible in the Kim cult. Apart from the
Philippines, Korea has long been the most Christianized country in Asia. In the
South, about thirty per cent still belong to various Christian denominations,
not including all the followers of pseudo-Christian evangelists, of whom there
is a rich variety. Unlike Filipinos, however, the Koreans were originally
converted not by Western conquerors but by missionaries, many of whom were
Korean themselves. The attraction of Christianity may have been partly
political, a means of resisting both the Korean gentry and alien oppressors,
especially the Japanese, who ruled Korea between 1910 and 1945. Like the Poles
and the Irish, many Koreans believed that the church would help deliver their
country from foreign domination.
A model for this mixture of nationalism, social protest, and Christianity was
the Taiping Rebellion, in mid-nineteenth-century China. A young scholar named
Hong Xiuquan believed that he was Christ's younger brother, whose God-given
mission was to destroy the demonic Manchu rulers and establish a heavenly
kingdom on earth. His failure, after fourteen years of struggle, cost more than
twenty million lives. In Korea, at about the same time, the Eastern Learning (Donghak)
school was founded by a Korean mystic named Choe Che-u, who believed he had
received divine instruction to deliver the world from evil; his followers
rebelled against the government, and later against "Japanese dwarfs and Western
barbarians." This uprising, too, ended in a costly defeat, but the vision of
Korea as the cradle of a new utopia remained.
Kim Il Sung, the son of pious Christians, was a great admirer of the Eastern
Learning school. Like Hong Xiuquan, Choe Che-u, and, indeed, Chairman Mao, Kim
Il Sung wanted to be seen as a messiah and not just a Stalinist dictator. Becker
convincingly places the Kim cult in a Sino-Korean tradition of millenarian
priest-kings, autocratic sages, and holy saviors. It's a tradition in which the
source of power is also the source of virtue, spiritual wisdom, and truth?hence
the total intolerance of any heterodoxy or dissent. The same idea prevails, in a
milder form, in South Korean, and Japanese, corporate life, where workers must
learn the "philosophies" of their company founders. It has also spawned such
cults as the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.
Animism is perhaps an even more important ingredient than Christianity in the
spiritual and ideological m?lange of Kim worship. Kim Jong Il was born in 1941
or 1942 in Siberia, where his father served in the Soviet Army. But the myth is
very different: in North Korea's official histories he was born in a log cabin
on Mt. Paektu, the country's most sacred mountain, the place where the Korean
people's divine ancestor, the son of a sky god and a bear, was born, more than
four thousand years ago. Kim Jong Il, the reincarnation of the divine bear-man,
as it were, could not have come into this world on a more auspicious spot.
Before his sacred birth, a double rainbow was seen, and the sky was lit up by a
shining star.
Myths and legends are scarcely unique to North Korean politics. What makes the
Kim cult especially disturbing?but also appealing to many Korean nationalists,
even some of those living in the South ?i s its xenophobia. Koreans, having
endured centuries of foreign domination, often use two phrases to describe their
"national character": han, impotent rage that can be relieved only by
collective action, and sadaechuui, the habit of pandering to foreigners.
The Korean ?lites have tended to fall into warring factions, often allied to
different foreign powers. To cover up the fact that Kim Il Sung served in both
Chinese and Soviet armies during the Second World War, and was put in charge of
North Korea by his Soviet minders, the Kim cult is quick to denounce its
enemies, especially in South Korea, as "flunkies." And han?directed at
Americans, Japanese, and South Koreans, as well as all "class enemies" or
"factionalists" at home?is the abiding sentiment in North Korean propaganda.
Kim Il Sung's most famous motto, juche ? self-reliance - must be
understood in this light. Juche is an often paranoid fear of dependence
on others. The fact that North Korea was highly dependent on stronger Communist
powers had to be obscured. The combination of proud isolationism, as an official
attitude, with de-facto reliance on China and the Soviet Union has proved
disastrous, not least for the North Korean economy, which has been in a state of
collapse since the demise of the latter and the capitalist course set by the
former. North Korea cannot survive on its own, but it cannot open up, either.
And yet there are people for whom the North Korean regime has not entirely lost
its prestige. One can forgive those romantic radicals in the South for admiring
the idea of Korean self-reliance, even if it was based on a fiction. Harder to
excuse are the nostalgic members of failed Eastern European and Third World
utopias who have made pilgrimages to Pyongyang to relive the good old days. When
I visited the city in 1996, I saw a group of plump East Germans being picked up
by great black limousines that were driven right onto the station platform so
that they wouldn't get their shoes dusty.
There is also the residue of old socialist dreaming. Bradley Martin quotes a
British visitor named Andrew Holloway, who found the "secure and cheerful
existence and the comradeship" of the "average" citizen "moving to behold."
Despite having written a long book cataloguing torture, famine, and mass murder,
Martin approvingly notes that readers of Holloway's account "not consumed with
knee-jerk loathing for socialism might be hard-pressed to adjudge as evil beyond
redemption a society so apparently successful in inculcating values such as
kindness and modesty." My own impression, reinforced by Martin's book, is that
North Koreans behave pretty much like all people forced to fight for bare
survival: kindness is a dangerous luxury. Far from inculcating gentle behavior,
the regime rewards brutality and crushes decency. Anyone caught trying to help a
"class enemy," after all, is liable to disappear into the camps.
What to do about Kim Jong Il and his murderous regime? Direct military
confrontation is not an appealing option. Kim, although bound to lose a war
against better-fed, better-led, and better-equipped American and South Korean
troops, has enough artillery, missiles, chemical weapons, and, quite possibly,
nuclear bombs to carry out the threat of turning the South Korean capital,
Seoul, into a "sea of flames." He has up to a million men in uniform, a dozen
chemical-weapons factories, and about a hundred thousand special-operations
forces ready to be unleashed. Nor is he likely to get rid of these weapons, for
the threat of mass killing is all that he has to bargain with, and is probably
the only means of insuring his personal survival. Richard Perle, quoted in
Becker's book, maintains that the threat of U.S. military force will push the
Chinese to "bring the North Koreans to heel." It's true that China supplies the
state with most of its fuel and food. But it benefits from having a Communist
buffer state, and fears the consequences of North Korea's collapse ? not least a
stampede of refugees. Indeed, in the two years since the regime served notice of
its nuclear-weapons program, trade between China and Korea has doubled, to $1.4
billion.
The usual alternative to military action is "engagement." This was the favored
tactic of the Clinton Administration and of South Korea's last two Presidents,
Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun. During the eighties, South Korea's expanding and
increasingly prosperous middle class had broken the back of military
authoritarianism. Kim Dae-jung, a longtime dissident, was a key figure in this
democratic transformation, and he might have hoped to achieve the same in the
North. His so-called Sunshine Policy was designed to winkle the North out of its
failed autarky by offering business opportunities, a railway link, and large
amounts of cash. Kim Jong Il himself pocketed a secret gift of five hundred
million dollars from the Hyundai corporation just before agreeing to grant Kim
Dae-jung an audience in Pyongyang. (Hyundai was allowed to build a fortified
holiday resort just across the border for South Korean tourists, who are
prevented from meeting any locals.) Much else was promised at the meeting of the
two Kims in 2000; little so far has materialized. But then the South Koreans,
like the Chinese, are essentially committed to sustaining and stabilizing their
neighbor; they fear the chaos and the expense if the North should implode (let
alone explode). Accordingly, Seoul dramatically increased its trade with the
North this year, even after diplomatic talks with Kim Jong Il faltered. In one
recent poll, forty per cent of South Koreans named the United States as the
country that posed the biggest threat to them; only a third named North Korea.
Meanwhile, there are enough carpetbaggers around the Korean Peninsula to
encourage this notion of capitalist seduction. Among the more striking
suggestions is one from Jean-Jacques Grauhar, the secretary-general of the
European Union Chamber of Commerce in Seoul, who urged Club Med to open a resort
in North Korea. He told Martin that changing the system "shouldn't be the
objective of foreign investors." The objective, it would seem, is to make money
out of vacationing foreigners while Koreans starve.
The problem with trade-and-aid engagement is that North Korea has no middle
class to speak of and Kim Jong Il has no reason to allow one to emerge; genuine
economic reforms are not in his interest. His people may be dying fast, but, as
long as his troops are fed, Kim's absolute power is assured. Becker's assessment
is both blunt and hard to dispute: "The past 15 years show that real change can
come only when Kim Jong Il and his family are recognized as evil tyrants,
removed from power, and put on trial." But how? Neither Becker nor Martin has an
entirely plausible solution. Martin ends his book with a bizarre open letter to
the Dear Leader, in which, after wishing him all the best, he advises him to
hand the country over to "competent and trusted officials," turn his rule into a
monarchy, retire to the South of France or to Hollywood, and thus insure that
the Kim dynasty will continue, "perhaps even for thousands of years." This does
not strike me as a useful contribution.
Becker, undistracted by the charms of tyrants or the cheerful comradeship of
their subjects, adopts a more serious tone. He argues that the world must agree
about "benchmarks for identifying a rogue state's behaviour just as there is a
definition of the crime of genocide." Then, with the right "political will, the
world could quickly agree on remedies to disarm a criminal state clearly unable
to feed its own population." But who is "the world"? The United Nations? And
what remedies would this world have at its disposal? Dealing with Kim Jong Il is
like negotiating with a man who holds millions of hostages. One has to be
flexible and opportunistic, and use every means at hand, from seduction to the
threat of violent force. What the Kims have done to their country is so
appalling, though, that almost anything is better than its continuation. The
challenge is to bring Kim down without taking millions with him.
This year has already seen a spate of books about the situation
in North Korea≈including Jasper Becker's Rogue Regime, Roland Bleiker's Divided
Korea, and Bradley K. Martin's massive Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly
Leader≈but the one you'll actually read is Pyongyang, Guy Delisle's slim
nonfiction graphic novel. Delisle, a Quebec-born, France-based animator, totes
Orwell's 1984 and an illegal portable radio into the world's most hermetic
country, where he spends two months overseeing the production of a kids'
cartoon. (The use of South Korean animators for Western shows is well-known≈The
Simpsons being the prime example≈but the practice of further, cheaper
subcontracting to the north has been an industry secret.)
But Delisle has a side project: this book. With a delicate pencil and a droll,
occasionally outraged sensibility, he captures the inanities and insanities of
Pyongyang, a "model city" where the "complete absence of handicapped people" is
explained away by his translator, who credulously asserts, "All North Koreans
are born strong, intelligent and healthy." Delisle is at once fantastically
isolated≈living on the only inhabited floor of a hotel situated on an island≈and
perpetually connected. A translator shadows him, turning down simple requests
for visits (to the train station, to the photocopy room) and instead taking him
on an endless tour of sites dedicated to North Korea's late founder, Kim Il
Sung, and his son and the country's current leader, Kim Jong Il. In a
particularly fine detail, Delisle notes that the portraits of the Kims, which
hang in every room in the country, "have a wider edge above than below"≈thus
appearing to loom over the viewer while keeping free of glare. Big Brothers are
watching him.
Observing that the omnipresent portraits show the Kims wearing the regulation
portrait pins (every North Korean wears a picture of either Kim senior, junior,
or both), Delisle imagines a "short circuit"≈the kind of sequence "animators
love"≈in which Kim Il Sung wears a pin depicting his son . . . who wears a pin
depicting his father . . . and so on, ad infinitum. (A perfect Pyongyang short
circuit would involve Delisle's book being turned into a movie≈and getting
animated in North Korea.) The vertiginous zoom-ins are just one example of
Delisle's limber style, which he adapts to suit memoiristic passages, flights of
fancy, and pure information. It's a master class in the medium's narrative
possibilities.
Delisle's experience of North Korea's regimented desperation ranges from the
absurd to the nightmarish. Sick of the dwindling meal choices at "Restaurant No.
1" and "Restaurant No. 2" (their actual names), Delisle and some Western
colleagues enthusiastically greet the reopening of "Restaurant No. 3," only to
discover that its menu derives from No. 1's≈and you couldn't invent a bleaker
dish than its seeming specialty, the "carrot salad."
A journey through the streets after 10 p.m. reveals a desolate cityscape, dark
save for car headlights and the kliegs trained on monuments to the late Great
Leader, with straggling pedestrians trudging like zombies in the gloom. It's a
perfect scene for Delisle's shadowy palette. The only time his gray scale fails
him is the lavish subway system, with "tunnels lit up like Las Vegas"; for
full-force glimpses of these underground stations in full color, watch Daniel
Gordon's N.K. doc A State of Mind, or check out Jane Portal's vibrantly plated
Art Under Control in North Korea, just out from Reaktion Books.
At times Delisle can barely contain himself as he listens to his keepers prattle
on about the greatness of their country and the wisdom of its leaders, while
empathizing with their human plight (in a secondhand anecdote, a guard "go[es]
to pieces" when his charge plays hooky≈it's a jaunt for the Westerner, but the
native's fate could be fatal). He avoids easy condescension, but doesn't
hesitate to stick it to the regime.
The supreme irony of making cartoons for kiddies in the bleakest of locales is
not lost on Delisle. He thanks his animators for their hard work, which will
"[allow] parents in our capitalist society to sleep in while their kids stay
glued to the TV." Toggling from North Korean bizarreries to his profession's
subculture makes for unpredictable resonances. In one panel, Delisle spells out
obvious instructions to his culturally dissimilar illustrators, and in the
process conveys both his workaday frustration and something more ominous: "When
the father finds out the children are lost, he should not be smiling."
Food shortage set to worsen in North Korea
By Channel NewsAsia's Korea Correspondent Kathy Paik, 16 August 2005
SEOUL : More needs to be done to solve the food shortage situation in North
Korea, which has reached serious levels. While the World Food Programme
acknowledges that it's not as dire as the mid-1990s, there are signs that the
crisis looks set to worsen further if the international community doesn't step
in to help out. With nothing to eat, North Koreans are said to be foraging in
the mountains and fields for wild food such as nuts and roots to supplement
their diet.
Said James Morris, Executive Director of World Food Programme: "The food
situation in North Korea is particularly serious right now. They had forecasted
a 3% growth of agricultural production. But our conversations with people
throughout the country suggest that that's not likely to materialise."
The negative outlook is due to North Korea's inability to grow enough food,
rising food prices and its limited experiments with market reforms. After the
government-run farm system collapsed, North Korea has relied on international
aid to feed its 23 million people, since the mid 1990s. In some places, daily
rations are now down to less than two bowls of rice, less than half of what a
person needs.
By the end of the year, the United Nations World Food Programme aims to provide
500,000 tonnes of food to some 6.5 million North Koreans - that's over a quarter
of the population. However, due to donation shortfalls, the agency has already
cut its distributions, affecting many elderly, pregnant and nursing women.
The agency warns that three million North Koreans could face a hungry winter
unless more international donations are forthcoming. "Highly controversial
issues like nuclear programmes make it more difficult for political leaders to
generate public support among their voters and their citizens for humanitarian
work at places where political relationships are a bit strained," said Morris.
The pressing food shortage is seen as a factor behind Pyongyang's decision to
return to the six-party nuclear talks in Beijing. The talks are still deadlocked
over Pyongyang's insistence on retaining a peaceful nuclear programme. South
Korea has donated 350,000 tonnes of fertiliser and has pledged a further 500,000
tonnes of rice to its northern neighbour.
DPRK Government Hosts Reception
Pyongyang, August 15 (KCNA) -- The government of the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea gave a reception at the People's Palace of Culture Sunday in
celebration of the 60th anniversary of national liberation. Present at the
reception were senior party, state and army officials, chairpersons of friendly
parties, cabinet members, leading officials of the party, armed forces and power
bodies, public organizations, ministries and national institutions,
anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters, men and officers of the Korean People's
Army, former unconverted long-term prisoners called champions of reunification,
officials of science, education, culture and art, public health and the press
fields, those of distinguished services to the anti-Japanese revolutionary
struggle, war veterans, heroes and labor innovators.
On hand were the head of the congratulatory group of Koreans in Japan and
delegations and home-visiting groups of overseas Koreans and prominent overseas
compatriots from regions staying here to celebrate the anniversary. Present on
invitation were the presidential envoy to the Far East Federal District of
Russia and his party, the Russian delegation of veteran lawmakers, members of
Russia's Beryozka dancing troupe, diplomatic envoys of various countries and
representatives of international organizations here and foreign guests. The
reception was addressed by President Kim Yong Nam of the Presidium of the
Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The 60th
anniversary of national liberation is an auspicious event of the nation that
demonstrates the great victory the Korean people won in the revolution and
construction after they achieved the independence of the country and embarked
upon the road of building a new society and the might of the single-minded unity
of Songun Korea where the party, the army and the people are united with one
mind and one purpose around the headquarters of the revolution, he said, and
continued: President Kim Il Sung embarked upon the road of the revolution in his
early years when the dark clouds of a ruined nation were hanging over the
three-thousand-ri land owing to the Japanese imperialist colonial suppressive
rule, founded the Juche idea, paved the new path of the Korean revolution and
accomplished the historic cause of national liberation through the 20-year-long
heroic anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. This is his undying feat for the
country and nation.
For more than half a century after the liberation of Korea he led the Korean
people's struggle for the building of a new society along the straight road of
victory to build a socialist power of Juche, independent in politics,
self-supporting in economy and self-reliant in national defence. The Korean
people have traversed the road of proud victories in the struggle for
sovereignty, independence and socialism as they acclaimed Kim Il Sung as their
leader for the first time in history spanning 5,000 years. As led by Kim Jong
Il, they are creditably carrying forward and developing the revolutionary cause
of Juche and bringing about the golden age of the prosperity of the country.
Kim Jong Il has developed the Korean-style socialism provided by the President
into a man-centred socialism in which the independent and creative life of the
people are efflorescing under the banner of the modeling of the whole society on
the Juche idea and turned the country into a politically, ideologically and
militarily strong country that any formidable enemy dares not to provoke. Thanks
to the seasoned and tested guidance of Kim Jong Il a new turning-point has been
made in the accomplishment of the cause of national reunification and the
external authority and prestige of the country considerably raised. It is the
revolutionary faith and will of all the servicepersons of the People's Army and
the people to carry to completion the revolutionary cause of Juche true to the
idea and guidance of Kim Jong Il, a great man born of Mt. Paektu, he stressed.
Art Performances Mark Day of Korea's Liberation
Pyongyang, August 15 (KCNA) --Art performances took place at theaters and
palaces in Pyongyang on Sunday in celebration of the 60th anniversary of Korea's
liberation. The revolutionary drama "Under the Banner of Victory" was presented
by artistes of the State Theatrical Company at their theatre.
The audience was mesmerized by the drama which made a broad-based and in-depth
representation of the undying exploits President Kim Il Sung performed by
curbing and frustrating the U.S. imperialists' reckless "new offensive" with
unique strategy and tactics and Juche-oriented war methods and outstanding
commanding art and bringing about a landmark phase for the final victory in the
Fatherland Liberation War. Performances were given by members of art groups of
factories and farms from across the country at the People's Palace of Culture
and the Central House of Workers.
In their repertoires the performers reflected the faith and will of the Korean
people to build a great prosperous powerful nation of Juche on this land, a
legacy handed down to them by the President, true to the Songun revolutionary
leadership of Kim Jong Il. Combined art performances were given by members of
art groups of the Mangyongdae Schoolchildren's Palace and the Pyongyang
Schoolchildren's Palace at their theatres. In their programs they truthfully
represented their unbounded reverence for the President and the happiness of the
school youth and children stoutly growing up to be knowledgeable, virtuous and
healthy pillars of Songun Korea under the care of Kim Jong Il. A combined circus
performance was given by artistes of the Pyongyang Circus Theater.
National Meeting Marks 60th Anniversary of Korea's Liberation
Pyongyang, August 14 (KCNA) -- A national meeting took place at the Pyongyang
Indoor Stadium on Sunday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Korea's
liberation. Attending it were senior party, state and army officials,
chairpersons of the friendly parties, anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters,
leading officials of working people's organizations, citizens and overseas
compatriots.
Present on invitation were foreign delegations and delegates and including
various delegations of Russia on a visit to the DPRK, diplomatic envoys of
different countries and representatives of international organizations here and
foreign guests. Kim Yong Nam, politburo member of the Workers' Party of Korea
Central Committee and president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's
Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, made a report at the
meeting.
The reporter stressed that the liberation of Korea is a cause of national
history accomplished by President Kim Il Sung, a peerless patriot and national
hero for the century, and his most precious and brilliant exploit in the history
of the Korean people's protracted revolutionary struggle for independence.
The President led the armed struggle and the overall Korean revolution always to
victory with Juche-based revolutionary idea and line, unique strategy and
tactics and superb commanding art to wipe out the Japanese imperialist colonial
rule and achieve the historic cause of national liberation in August Juche 34
(1945), he said, and went on: The historic victory of national liberation is a
vivid evidence of the President's Juche idea that the independence of the
country and the nation and victorious revolution are guaranteed by the powerful
driving force of the revolution and the army, the lifeline, and the absolute
truth of the Songun leadership and the might of certain victory. The liberation
of the country marked a historic milestone in putting the revolutionary struggle
of the popular masses in the era of independence on a new higher stage as it
provided a correct guiding idea, revolutionary forces and method of struggle
with which to pave the way of achieving the victory in the revolution for
national liberation against imperialism under the banner of Juche, the banner of
Songun, and made the first breakthrough in the imperialist colonial system in
the world.
The army of the former Soviet Union joined in the final offensive operation of
the Korean People's Revolutionary Army for the liberation of Korea to give
valuable assistance. The Korean people will always remember the feats of the
officers and men of the former Red Army who shed their blood in battles to
defeat the Japanese imperialist aggressor troops in Korea.
With the liberation of the country the Korean people put a period to the nearly
half a century-long colonial rule of the Japanese imperialists and retook the
sovereignty of the nation and a broad avenue for building an independent and
prosperous, new Korea was opened ahead of the Korean people.
It was thanks to the President's idea and leadership that after the liberation
Korea witnessed a man-centred socialist country where the people enjoy an
independent and creative life as genuine masters of the state and society, a big
harmonious and happy socialist family where all the members of the society help
and lead each other forward and bring the common idea into full bloom, firmly
united as one in mind and purpose around the Party and the leader, and socialism
has become the life and soul of the Korean people.
A century ago, Korea had to be disgraced as a ruined nation owing to the
exhausted national power. But, it is now shining as a politically, ideologically
and militarily strong country in the world. The credit for this goes to leader
Kim Jong Il who is glorifying the President's revolutionary idea and exploits
down through generations. All the Party members, servicepersons and the people
should protect the headquarters of the revolution headed by Kim Jong Il
politically and ideologically and at the cost of their lives and build up the
politico-ideological and socialist working class positions as firm as a rock.
He stressed the need to channel big sustained efforts into the strengthening of
the People's Army and solve all the problems arising in the revolution and
construction on the principle of attaching importance to military affairs and
putting military affairs above anything else.
At present we are faced with an important task to mobilize the entire strength
increased under the great Songun politics for building an economic power of the
21st century at an early date, the reporter said, calling upon all the Party
members and other working people to give full play to the revolutionary spirit
of self-reliance in every worksite and bring about a revolutionary surge of
Songun on all fronts of socialist economic construction with a high degree of
consciousness of citizens to contribute to the prosperity of the country of
Juche and burning patriotic zeal.
We will hold fast to the three charters for national reunification laid down by
the President and realize the three forms of cooperation--national independence,
peace against war and reunification and patriotism--under the banner of the June
15 North-South Joint Declaration to achieve the independent reunification of the
country without fail, the reporter stated. We are now in acute showdown with the
imperialist reactionaries, he noted, adding: The army and people of the DPRK
will mercilessly smash the moves of the enemies to isolate and stifle the DPRK
any time and finally conclude the stand-off with the United States.
We constantly maintain the stand on the peaceful negotiated settlement of the
nuclear issue and will continue to work hard for the denuclearization of the
Korean Peninsula, he said. The reporter expressed the resolution to strive to
decisively foil the U.S. imperialists' ambition for world supremacy and their
brigandish state terrorism in firm solidarity with the world people advocating
independence, protect peace and security in Asia and the rest of the world,
boost the friendly and cooperative relations with all the countries that respect
the sovereignty of the DPRK and build an independent, peaceful and friendly, new
world.
Resolution of World Conference for Korea's Reunification
Pyongyang, August 14 (KCNA) -- A resolution was adopted at the World Conference
in Support of the Independent and Peaceful Reunification of Korea to express the
unshakable will to more vigorously wage the solidarity activity in support of
the reunification of Korea. The conference took place in Pyongyang on Aug. 13
and 14.
The resolution said that they will positively conduct on a worldwide scale the
drive to support and defend the Songun politics of leader Kim Jong Il, which
gives an impetus to reunification and reliably ensures peace on the Korean
Peninsula. It is necessary to support the Songun politics as the most important
link in the solidarity movement for Korea's reunification, it said, and went on:
We will organize committees for supporting the Songun politics and conduct a
dynamic campaign to widely introduce and support it.
We will conduct brisk activities for supporting the June 15 North-South Joint
Declaration, the great programme and milestone of Korea's reunification, and the
Korean people's struggle to realize the three forms of cooperation.
We also resolve to organize on a worldwide scale various campaigns to disclose
and frustrate maneuvers of the U.S.-led anti-reunification forces that obstruct
the implementation of the joint declaration and the realization of the three
forms of cooperation.
We will enthusiastically wage a struggle for withdrawal of the U.S. troops from
south Korea and to demand an apology and compensation for all crimes the U.S.
has committed on the Korean Peninsula and resolutely wage a struggle to bring
the U.S. hostile policy against the DPRK to an end and to frustrate the moves of
the U.S. to provoke a new war that gravely threaten peace on the peninsula. The
resolution expressed the determination to continue solidarity activities with
the conviction that the Korean people's just cause of reunification will be
achieved without fail till the day when a peaceful, prosperous reunified country
is built on the Korean Peninsula.
Keynote Report at World Conference for Support to Korea's Reunification
Pyongyang, August 13 (KCNA) -- The World Conference in Support of the
Independent and Peaceful Reunification of Korea was opened here Saturday.
Secretary General of the International Liaison Committee for Reunification and
Peace in Korea (CILRECO) Guy Dupre delivered a keynote report at the conference.
Elaborating on the struggle waged by the Korean people for the country's
reunification, he suggested measures to be taken to fully support the Korean
people's cause of reunification by pooling efforts of the anti-imperialist
independent forces of the world desiring peace and progress. He noted that the
U.S. military occupation of south Korea after the Japanese imperialists' defeat
at the Second World War divided Korea into the north and the south, thus
protracting the national division suffered by the Korean people up to now.
President Kim Il Sung put forward the most reasonable and fair proposals for the
national reunification from time to time and devoted all his life to realize
this patriotic cause, the reporter said, and went on:
Today the Korean people are struggling more vigorously to achieve the
independent reunification of the country under the wise leadership of Kim Jong
Il and the reunification movement is entering a new phase in Korea.
With a bold patriotic decision, he took the initiative to arrange the meeting
between leaders of the north and the south in 2000 for the fist time after Korea
was divided, making possible the publication of the historic June 15 North-South
Joint Declaration, in which three principles for national reunification are
applied.
The publication of the joint declaration is an event of special importance in
the history of the movement for Korea's independent and peaceful reunification.
After the publication of the joint declaration, hundreds of joint functions took
place between the north and south, and talks, contacts and exchanges of various
levels have further expanded, making the era of reconciliation and cooperation
on the Korean Peninsula irreversible, and the reunification movement is
developing into a nationwide one.
Such historic change in the reunification movement of Korea is a proud result
brought about by the firm attitude and consistent policy of the DPRK which
strives to reunify Korea, free from the intervention of the outside forces.
Stressing that it is none other than the United States that is obstructing peace
and reunification on the Korean Peninsula, the reporter further said: In 1948
the U.S. instigated its followers to fabricate a separate "government" in south
Korea. Since that time on, it has pursued anti-reunification maneuvers to
perpetuate Korea's division until now.
After various high-level talks between the north and the south of Korea in early
1990s which resulted in the adoption of the "Agreement on Reconciliation and
Non-Aggression, Cooperation and Exchange between the North and South" and the
"Joint declaration on Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula", the U.S. laid
hindrance in every possible way and fabricated the "nuclear issue" of the Korean
Peninsula, raising frantic anti-DPRK rackets.
Even now, the Bush administration intensifies political, economic and military
pressure on the DPRK and instigates the separatist forces of south Korea to
obstruct the reconciliation and cooperation between the north and the south,
therefore attempting to prevent the Korean people from advancing along the road
to reunification under the banner of the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration.
The responsibility of the "nuclear crisis" on the Korean Peninsula claimed by
the U.S. totally lies on the U.S. side.
Recalling that the CILRECO and regional organizations for supporting Korea's
reunification have launched various campaigns on a wide scale to frustrate
maneuvers of the U.S. and anti-reunification forces in Korea for the last 30
years, the reporter referred to tasks for conducting the international
solidarity movement on a higher stage in keeping pace with the favorable
atmosphere created on the Korean Peninsula. He said:
What is most important here is to launch a campaign for supporting the struggle
of the Korean people to reunify the country true to the spirit of the June 15
North-South Joint Declaration, in which the unanimous desire of the entire
Korean nation is reflected. All the solidarity organizations should extend
support to and solidarity with the Korean people in their struggle to achieve
Korea's reunification by the Korean nation itself free from the interference of
outside forces and to realize the national unity and cooperation, the basic
guarantee for reunification, and reveal and frustrate the maneuvers of the
conservative forces including the United States to obstruct the independent
reunification of Korea.
They should join in the struggle to get the American troops withdrawn from south
Korea and to put an end to the U.S. hostile policy against the DPRK. They should
conduct more brisk activities to give a clear understanding to the international
community that converting the armistice mechanism into peace mechanism is the
primary issue for securing peace on the Korean Peninsula. The reporter
underlined the need to vigorously launch campaigns to put pressure on the U.S.
government so that it normalizes relationship with the DPRK and comes to the
negotiation table with the DPRK for settling the "nuclear issue" on the Korean
Peninsula in a peaceful way. All solidarity organizations must expand their
ranks and intensify their activities in every respective country, thus enabling
the movement for supporting the Korean people's struggle to take place on a
worldwide scale, he stressed.
World Conference Opens in Pyongyang
Pyongyang, August 13 (KCNA) -- The World Conference in Support of the
Independent and Peaceful Reunification of Korea opened in Pyongyang with
splendor Saturday on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of
Korea. The conference was co-sponsored by the International Liaison Committee
for Reunification and Peace in Korea (CILRECO), the Korean Committee for
Solidarity with the World People and foreign organizations for friendship and
solidarity with the Korean people.
It will discuss the tasks and ways for realizing the independent and peaceful
reunification of Korea by checking and frustrating the moves of the U.S. and the
anti-reunification forces and boosting the solidarity of the world progressive
people. Attending the conference are delegations and delegates of international
democratic organizations and organizations for peace against war including
CILRECO, the World Peace Council, the International Association of Democratic
Lawyers, the Women's International Democratic Federation and the International
Action Centre and delegations and delegates of the regional and national
friendship and solidarity organizations in Asia, Europe, Africa, America and
Oceania.
President of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers Jitendra Sharma
made an opening address.
Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's
Assembly, in his congratulatory speech extended warm congratulations to all
those participating in the conference to voice invariable support and solidarity
for the Korean people in their just cause for the independent and peaceful
reunification of the country. He said that the Korean people would always join
efforts with the world progressive people in the struggle to achieve the
independent and peaceful reunification of the country and build an independent,
new world.
Alberto Moreno, general secretary of the New Left Movement of Peru, D. Chahilgan,
president of the Mongolian Federation of Peace and Friendship Organizations, and
Kamal Hyder, vice-president of the World Peace Council and general secretary of
the Bangladesh Peace Council in their congratulatory speeches wished the
conference success, noting that it would provide an occasion of helping put an
end to the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK and achieve the independent and
peaceful reunification of Korea.
Guy Dupre, secretary general of CILRECO, made a keynote report which was
followed by a supplementary report by Mun Jae Chol, chairman of the Korean
Committee for Solidarity with the World People. The opening ceremony was
followed by a plenary meeting. The floor was taken by Robert Sharvaeng,
secretary general of the International Commission of Jurists for Supporting the
June 15 North-South Joint Declaration who is honorary president of CILRECO,
Mohammed Arif, general secretary of the British Afro-Asian Solidarity
Organization, Alejandro Rosales Sanchez, chairman of the Mexican Committee for
Supporting Korea's Reunification, and others. To replace the armistice system
with a peace one on the Korean Peninsula is one of the basic issues for the
peaceful settlement of the Korean issue, they said, urging the U.S. to pay due
attentions to the just call of the DPRK on establishing the peace system and
respond to it. The conference will continue.
Pyongyang Personal Perspective -- Four years in the DPRK
Korea Business Consultants (KBC) in Beijing is pleased to announce an
informative but informal lunchtime event that will give you a personal in depth
impression of contemporary living in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK),
or North Korea.
The talk will by given by H.E. Ambassador Paul Beijer, who is shortly
completing his 4 year term as Ambassador of the Sweden Embassy in Pyongyang,
having lived there since 2001. Ambassador Beijer is well known for his
accomplished speaking and deep understanding of the subject.
The presentation will be 40-45 minutes. Mr. Paul Beijer will talk about his
impressions of Pyongyang from a diplomat's perspective but also as an over-seer
of many inward missions by largely Swedish companies and DPRK Missions to
Sweden.
After the talk he can answer questions for around 20 minutes. Business Persons
and Diplomats are welcome to attend (please note this event is not open to
journalists). Don't miss out on this opportunity to gain insight into a unique
country that so many know so little about.
Date: Thursday 18th August 2005from 12.00 noon until 2 pm (food
served at 12.30 hrs - talk starting at 1 pm)
Venue: Riverside Cafe, San Li Tun North tel. 8454 1031)
Cost: RMB 80 includes lunch buffet and one soft drink
Enquiries tel: (+86 10) 8598 9098
FAX: (+8610) 8598 6687
EMAIL: info[at]kbc-global.com
Grand Mass Gymnastic and Artistic Performance "Arirang" to
Be Presented
Pyongyang, August 10 (KCNA) -- The grand mass gymnastic and artistic performance
"Arirang", the great masterpiece representing the new century, will be presented
in Pyongyang on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Korea.
Arirang is already well known to the world as an extravaganza rich in the
ideological content and philosophical thought and flawless in its artistic
representation.
On this occasion not a few scenes of Arirang have been successfully re-depicted
to add to the value of its original work. It makes a more profound artistic
representation of the century-long history of the "Arirang" nation in which the
Koreans who had undergone sufferings in the past has emerged a dignified and
proud nation. It will, at the same time, demonstrate once again to the world the
stamina of the Korean people marching toward a bright morrow full of confidence,
fully showcasing the Juche-oriented culture and art that have brilliantly
effloresced and developed under the wise leadership of Kim Jong Il.
Arirang to be performed by tens of thousands of persons will be a gift to be
presented with loyalty by its creators, artistes, youths and students to the
60th anniversaries of the foundation of the Workers' Party of Korea and the
liberation of Korea. All the creators and performers have worked hard day and
night to successfully complete the re-depiction of Arirang, bearing deep in mind
the idea and the spirit contained in the joint slogans issued by the Central
Committee and the Central Military Commission of the WPK which called for
re-producing it into a smash hit representing the new century on the occasions
of the 60th anniversaries of the WPK and the liberation of Korea.
The re-depiction of the extravaganza was wound up in a matter of a few months
and it will raise its curtain soon. The presentation of Arirang will begin with
splendor at the May Day Stadium on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the
liberation of Korea and will run through October which will commemorate the 60th
anniversary of the foundation of the WPK.
*If you want to visit the DPRK and witness the "Arirang" performance, please
contact KoreaKonsult
travel agency.
9 August 2005, SEOUL (Reuters) - People in North Korea are
foraging for nuts and leaves to counter a serious food shortage but there is
no danger of widespread famine or starvation, the head of the U.N. World
Food Programme said on Tuesday.
James Morris, the WFP's executive director said commodity prices have gone
up in the impoverished state, food stocks have dwindled, and nascent
economic reforms have only made it more difficult for North Korea's poor and
urban dwellers to buy food.
"Our sense is that the food situation in North Korea is particularly serious
right now," Morris told reporters in Seoul.
But he said the current situation is not as dire as in the mid-1990s when
more than an estimated one million North Koreans died in a famine brought
about by years of poor harvests and mismanagement of the country's
agricultural sector.
"Famine implies lots and lots of people dying. I don't see that will be the
case," Morris said. He said the WFP has made great strides in reducing malnutrition among
children in North Korea as part of its programme to feed about 6.5 million
people in the country with a population of about 22.5 million.
Signs that the current food shortage have grown more severe
include fewer livestock on farms and more people foraging in the countryside for
anything they can eat, he said. In some places, daily government rations have
been cut from 200 grams to 250 grams of staples such as rice -- less than two
bowls -- and Morris said the rations were less than half of what an individual
needs.
North Korea has spent heavily for decades to develop nuclear weapons and
regional powers are trying to convince Pyongyang to abandon its atomic ambitions
in exchange for economic aid and security guarantees. "Highly controversial
issues like nuclear programmes make it often times more difficult for political
leaders to generate public support among their voters and their citizens for
humanitarian work at places where political relationships are a bit strained,"
Morris said.
SIX-PARTY TALKS
The pressing food shortage is seen as partially contributing to Pyongyang's
decision to return to the six-party talks, which had been stalled for more than
a year before they resumed in late July. Analysts said if North Korea had
continued to boycott the talks, international donors could have grown more
reluctant to supply Pyongyang with food aid.
Last week, Morris went on an inspection tour of army-ruled Myanmar and said
one-third of the young children there are chronically malnourished, while many
others are too poor to get an education. Morris, who visited army-rule Myanmar
last week, said the food shortage in North Korea was different from that of the
southeast Asian Myanmar were of a different nature. Myanmar has a strong
agricultural sector, whereas North Korea, with less arable land, has not grown
produced enough food to feed its population. "Myanmar clearly has and
agricultural surplus. This is a resource-rich country," Morris said, adding
Myanmar's problems were "a matter of distribution and free movement of people
and products."
North Korea, on the other hand, needs outside help now, Morris
said. "We have a crisis in front of us that requires the international community
to respond, and provide resources so that we can do our work," he said.
By Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (Monday, August 08, 2005)
China has said international talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon
its nuclear programme are to go into recess until the end of August. It comes
after delegates from the six nations involved remained deadlocked after a 13th
day of negotiations. North Korea has blamed the deadlock on the US. "We had to
produce nuclear weapons because the US is threatening us with nuclear weapons,"
it said. The US said North Korea's demand to use light-water reactors was the
obstacle.
The two Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia have been holding talks in
China's capital, Beijing, since 26 July. The US wants North Korea to abandon its
nuclear weapons in return for aid and security guarantees. But North Korea
insists it has the right to conduct nuclear activities as long as they are
peaceful - for example, for generating electricity.
Speaking after the talks broke up, the chief US negotiator, Assistant Secretary
of State Christopher Hill, said North Korea's insistence on being allowed to
have light-water reactors for energy purposes had prevented an agreement. He
said: "The issue came down to the DPRK [North Korea]. They not only want the
right to use nuclear energy, but the right to use light-water reactors. That is
simply not on the table." Light-water reactors are capable of producing
weapons-grade nuclear material.
Kim Kye-gwan, the chief North Korean delegate, blamed the US refusal to allow
his country to maintain a peaceful nuclear programme for the deadlock. The
disagreement over "peaceful nuclear activity" was "one of the very important
elements that led us to fail to come up with an agreement", he said.
A review of ROGUE REGIME:
Kim Jong Il and theLooming Threat of North Koreaby Jasper Becker.
By Joshua Kurlantzick, The New York Times,
August 7, 2005
IS there a modern world leader as poorly understood as Kim Jong Il? Selig
Harrison, a North Korea expert who has traveled to Pyongyang numerous times,
regards Kim as a kind of Asian Gorbachev, a man pushing ''reform by stealth.''
For President Bush, by contrast, the North Korean leader is a ''pygmy,'' a
mindless, brutal leader: since 2001 the White House has until recently
essentially refused to engage in bilateral talks with North Korea.
In ''Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea,'' the
veteran Asia correspondent Jasper Becker makes a powerful case for defining Kim
once and for all -- not as an ordinary, if nuclear-tipped, dictator, but as an
extraordinarily skillful tyrant presiding over the worst man-made catastrophe in
modern history, worse than Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge or the Soviet Union in
the 1930's. Becker cannot report from inside North Korea, and he is not a
nuclear expert.
Instead, relying on extensive interviews with North Korean exiles, he offers a
highly readable narrative that unearths Kim's history, probes his
decision-making style and details the grotesque consequences of those decisions.
His book is a subtle plea to the world to expand its focus beyond the --
admittedly important -- nuclear issue to the vast humanitarian catastrophe
unfolding under Kim Jong Il's gaze. Becker traces Kim's destructive behavior to
the early days of the world's only Communist dynasty. The regime was founded on
lies, with Kim Il Sung, the father of the present ruler, destroying all evidence
of Soviet participation in his rise to power and brainwashing Koreans far more
extensively than other Communist nations brainwashed their citizens.
In 1963, a Soviet diplomat in the North called Kim Il Sung's rule a ''political
gestapo.'' At least Kim Il Sung enjoyed some respect within his country for his
role as the founder of the North. He also faced some checks, admittedly limited,
on his power: unlike Kim Jong Il, he held regular meetings of cadres. But after
his father's death in 1994, Kim Jong Il transformed North Korea from an odious
totalitarian regime into something actually worse, ''a Marxist Sun King'' state
that was ready to oversee an unparalleled orgy of extravagance and absolutism.
Details of that extravagance are drawn from Kim's former lackeys. ''For all the
immense privileges enjoyed by . . . those who ruled the Soviet Union and China,
they did not aspire to a live a life completely alien to their countrymen,''
Becker writes. ''They did not show signs of a consuming desire to emulate the
tastes of a jet-set billionaire.''
Kim does -- and he has built a stable of 100 imported limousines, as well as an
entourage of women who are trained in ''pleasure groups'' to service the leader
sexually. Kim imports professional wrestlers from the United States, at a cost
of $15 million, to entertain him. And when he decided to build a film industry,
he did what Hollywood studio heads could only dream about -- kidnapped foreign
directors and actors and forced them to work for him. His wine cellars contain
more than 10,000 French bottles. He flies in chefs from Italy to prepare pizza.
Meanwhile, his people scrounge for edible roots. Hunger had been a problem under
Kim Il Sung.
But under Kim Jong Il, Becker writes, it became possibly ''the most devastating
famine in history,'' with death rates approaching 15 percent of the population,
surpassing ''any comparable disaster in the 20th century,'' even China's under
Mao. (One of Becker's previous books was about the famine in China in the late
1950's and early 60's.) By some estimates, over three million North Koreans have
died, more victims than in Pol Pot's Cambodia, and international agencies are
warning that this year may bring particularly serious hunger. To survive has
required tenacity. Koreans are reported even to have murdered children and mixed
their flesh with pork to eat.
When I have encountered North Korean refugees in Asia, they look barely human --
stunted figures with sallow, terrified faces. Some North Koreans have tried to
grow their own food, potentially a sign of independent thinking. But for years
Kim had them stopped, though he has begun to open the economy slightly in the
past three years. Those who protested were sent to an extensive gulag system,
which may have resulted in the deaths of one million people. In this internal
slave state, Becker suggests, tests of chemical weapons are carried out on
prisoners, and pregnant women whose children were tainted with foreign blood
have been forced to have abortions.
Kim Jong Il has ''resisted adopting every policy that could have brought the
misery to a quick end,'' Becker says, making ''the suffering he inflicted on an
entire people an unparalleled and monstrous crime.
''Despite the famine, and despite some intelligence assessments that his regime
was about to collapse, Kim Jong Il has survived in power for over a decade.
Becker is strongest in laying blame, accusing the international community of
tacitly acquiescing in Kim's charnel house. United Nations agencies that are
supposed to monitor the humanitarian crisis in North Korea have averted their
gaze, refusing to confront a host government. They have declined to call the
North's hunger a famine, and allowed Pyongyang to control food aid, all but
assuring that it would be channeled to Kim's associates.
In South Korea, where much of the population does not remember the Korean War,
successive governments have shamefully hindered North Korean refugees from
fleeing, meanwhile funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to the North. The
Clinton administration also provided assistance to Kim, while making human
rights a low priority. Kim Jong Il ''obtained enough foreign aid'' from the
United States and South Korea ''to continue food and goods distribution and
maintain the loyalty of core followers,'' Becker writes. On the other hand, by
often refusing even to deal directly with the North Korea issue and simply
hoping for Pyongyang's collapse, the Bush administration has failed to make any
headway at all.
Yet after convincingly demonstrating why North Korean human rights should be as
much an issue as North Korean nukes, Becker has only limited policy suggestions
to offer readers. He recognizes that removing the Dear Leader by force would be
almost impossible -- his first chapter contains a detailed war game illustrating
the capabilities of Kim's weaponry. But he also understands that ''when the
North Korean crisis is defined as being just about proliferation or restoring
the economy, Kim Jong Il has already won,'' that any strategy for dealing with
Kim Jong Il must try to improve the lives of average North Koreans.
Becker does suggest pushing the United Nations to rethink how it handles states
that terrorize their people. But there are other options as well. The United
States could step up containment to try to ensure that North Korea can't sell
its weapons to terrorists; and it could make better use of its bully pulpit,
highlighting the North's concentration camps and pressing the South Koreans to
open their borders more to North Korean refugees.
The Bush administration's upcoming appointment of a special envoy for North
Korean human rights is a good start. The United Nations could make greater
efforts to gain access to Korean concentration camps, employing Korean speakers
to ferret out information. At the same time American diplomats could work harder
to persuade South Korea and China that a breakdown of Kim's regime would not
necessarily cause chaos, indeed, might actually result in greater stability on
their borders. For the present, however, Kim Jong Il will remain happily
misunderstood.
*Joshua Kurlantzick is a special correspondent for The
New Republic and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for InternationalPeace.
BEIJING (Reuters) - Talks to defuse the crisis over North Korea's nuclear
ambitions drag into their 12th day on Saturday, with negotiators trying to break
the deadlock as Pyongyang clings to the right to peaceful nuclear capability.
The talks between the Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and host China
have got bogged down, with parties unable to agree on a joint statement that
would provide for the dismantling of North Korea's programmes in return for
energy aid and security guarantees.
Christopher Hill, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific
Affairs and top U.S. negotiator for the six-party talks, speaks to journalists
after a bilateral meeting with North Korea in Beijing August 5, 2005. North
Korea is insisting it be allowed to keep nuclear programmes to generate
electricity. The United States is demanding a complete, verifiable dismantling
of all of Pyongyang's weapons programmes. The stalemate will continue into a
12th day on Saturday, with the chief U.S. delegate planning for talks with the
reclusive North's delegation as well as China's.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said the parties needed to
accelerate their efforts to end the crisis, which erupted in October 2002 but
remains unresolved despite four rounds of talks. "We are going to have to pick
up the pace if we are going to get there," Hill told reporters late on Friday.
Still, he appeared ready to go the distance. South Korean media have reported
that Hill reminded participants in the talks 1995 Bosnian peace talks lasted 21
days.
A failure in Beijing to reach some form of acceptable resolution could prompt
the United States to bring the issue to the United Nations, a move opposed by
host China for fear the crisis might escalate and lead to instability in the
region. The North Koreans say any attempt to bring U.N. sanctions against it
would amount to a declaration of war. At the marathon talks, North Korea has
declared itself committed to denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula but has
refused to budge on U.S. demands that it scrap all its nuclear programmes,
including those aimed at generating power.
Diplomats said North Korea was refusing so far to sign on to a joint communiquИ.
Host China on Thursday began playing down the need for such a statement, saying
the depth and breadth of discussions after dozens of bilaterals was a sign of
progress. With a 12th day of talks looming, Japanese chief delegate Kenichiro
Sasae likened the process to "birth pains". There was little movement on Friday.
Late on Friday night, he added: "The situation is rather severe."
Still, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev said the parties were
95 percent agreed on the final statement, the Interfax news agency reported.
"There is the possibility of achieving a great success ... There is hope for
this: the process goes on permanently in different formats," Tass quoted him as
saying.
A fourth round without agreement also could call the entire talks process into
question, and the thorny prospect of a confrontation in the U.N. Security
Council. North Korea is demanding energy aid, security guarantees and diplomatic
recognition in return for scrapping its nuclear programmes. Washington has
insisted the programmes are jettisoned before concessions flow. Intelligence
experts estimate the North Koreans have stockpiled enough plutonium for up to
nine nuclear weapons.
After Washington confronted North Korea in 2002 with evidence it was violating
international protocol by pursuing a clandestine uranium enrichment weapons
programme, Pyongyang responded by throwing out U.N. weapons inspectors,
abandoning the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and restarting their mothballed
Yongbyon reactor. North Korea raised the stakes in February, announcing it now
had nuclear weapons and demanding aid, assurances and diplomatic recognition
from Washington in return for scrapping them.
After a one year
hiatus, six party talks aimed at denuclearising North Korea have begun in China.
So far the signals have been positive with both Washington and Pyongyang making
the right noises. But the gulf between the two protaganists remain as wide as
ever.
SABAPATHY: After three unsuccessful attempts at 6 party talks, this round began
more cordially with Washington's delegation first meeting the North Koreans for
exploratory discussions on Monday.
Earlier talks floundered, with the US demanding that the North Koreans give an
upfront pledge to dismantle all its plutonium and uranium weapons program in
exchange for aid. Pyongyang for its part demanded security and aid guarantees
from Washington before abandoning its nuclear program.
So it was uplifting to hear the North Korean chief negotiator Kim Kye-gwan,
calling for real progress in the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsular at
the opening session.
KIM: The fundamental important thing is to make a real progress in realising the
denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsular. This requires very firm political
will and a strategic decision of the parties concerned who have interest in
ending the threat of nuclear war and realising denuclearisation of the Korean
Peninsular.
SABAPATHY: Responding in kind, Washington's chief negotiator, Christopher Hill,
reassured Pyongyang that Washington, which once branded North Korea as an "axis
of evil", sees it as the sovereign state which it would not attack.
HILL: The United States is prepared for serious negotiations and the 6-party
framework. We view DPRK sovereignty as a matter of fact. The United States has
absolutely no intention to invade or attack the DPRK and we remain prepared to
speak with the DPRK bilaterally in the context of these talks.
SABAPATHY: But despite the upbeat signals, some analysts remain pessimistic.
Professor Professor Nam Joo Hong from Kyongyi university in Seoul says there's
no common ground in their contradictory demands.
NAM: North Korea's demand of the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsular means
in other words, complete withdrawal of US forces in Korea. On the other hand,
American demand for immediate and the complete dismantling of Korea's nuclear
program means disarming North Korea's final card for survival.
SABAPATHY: According to Professor Nam the North Korean leadership is not using
the nuclear card as a bargaining power for aid and assistance from the US and
South Korea, it's also using it to retain its control of the country.
NAM: North Korea is in a desperate situation in their economic and social
conditions and they do need immediate energy assistance from outside. For that
reason alone, North Korea should make some concession. But it is not easy for
the North Korean leadership, because without North Korea's nuclear card Kim Jong
Il would not command and control high ranking officials and officers. They say
the nucelar card is the only card to guarantee their future survival.
SABAPTHY: Doctor Andrew Lankov from the Australian National University, who's
currently teaching at Kookmin University in Seoul says there's a double meaning
to Washington's promise of a security agreement.
While the US assures no attack if North Korea denuclearises, Pyongyang wants
security against regime change.
LANKOV: When North Korean side talks about security guarantee , what do
they mean? They mean largely guarantee of the current regime. Not a guarantee
that Americans would not invade, but guarantee that nothing would happen inside
North Korea. Americans will never take responsibility for keeping Kim Il Song
and Kim Jong Il and their grandson, president's son in power. And that's
essentially the major target of the North Korean side.
SABAPTHY: Meanwhile, some small steps to revive relations have begun, with South
Korea routing some two thousand megawatts of electricity and providng 500 tonnes
of rice to the North.
South Korean delegate, Song Min-Soon, hopes it would the the start of commitment
from all sides to the talks.
SONG: With our proposal as a starting point, I hope that the DPRK would make a
clear commitment to give up its nuclear ambitions and the other countries would
also make a clear commitment to take corresponding measures such as the
normalisation of relations and security assurances.
During a meeting
in P▓yŏngyang on October 4, 2002, North Korean Deputy Foreign Minster Kang
Seok-Ju [1] admitted to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly [2] that
North Korea has secretly continued a nuclear-weapons development program, in
addition to possessing ⌠more powerful things,■ perhaps alluding to chemical or
biological weapons. (McGeary, 2002 & Sanger, 2002 October 16) The October 4
confession is the single most significant event in a recent string of noteworthy
changes and admissions to come from North Korea, leading to the question: what
direction is North Korea taking in late 2002? Engagement? Status quo? Something
else? Is this a bid to admit past wrongs, address international concerns over
weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferation and human rights issues, move
towards openness, and enter the international community with some level of
credibility and legitimacy? Is it an attempt to get the U.S. to recognize North
Korea as a sovereign power to be dealt with? Or is the North simply
precipitating yet another security-related diplomatic crisis in order to extract
more aid from the U.S., South Korea, and Japan, and temporarily boost its
faltering economy?...
Текст,
фотографии - С.О. Курбанов, СПбГУ, Восточный факультет. (in Russian)
1. Торговые палатки
2004-й год показал колоссальные изменения в экономической жизни страны.
╚Колоссальные╩, естественно, не в абсолютных показателях, но в относительном
качестве. А именно √ на улицах Пхеньяна появилось большое количество торговых
палаток. Они есть везде √ и у дорог, как городских, так и ни выезде из города, и
во дворах, и на улицах перед магазинами. Выглядит такая торговая палатка точно
также, как и российская рыночная образца 2004 года. Продавцы, как правило √
женщины 30-40 лет. Ассортимент √ продукты питания, но не основные, а
╚дополнительные╩. То есть, это пиво (100 вон за бутылку), вяленые кальмары,
печенье, орешки, лимонад в пластиковых бутылках (китайского производства) и т.п.
8 августа у входа в пустой магазин (без посетителей и почти без товара) на
оживленной улице Сэмаыль я увидел наскоро организованную торговую точку, перед
которой сидела женщина и отгоняла мух от продававшегося ею мяса. То есть, иногда
на улицах города торгуют чем-то более ╚существенным╩, нежели просто ╚выпивка и
закуски╩...(in Russian)
Chris Buckley, New York Times, Monday, August 1, 2005
Beijing -- A planned joint statement from the six-nation talks in Beijing trying
to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program will include a
South Korean offer to send electricity to North Korea as a potential reward, the
chief American negotiator, Christopher Hill, said Sunday. "The electricity
offer, of course, is in the draft agreement," Hill said after a day of
negotiating the proposed statement.
South Korea's offer to supply 2 million megawatts of electricity a year to North
Korea means that North Korea could "get out of this business" of nuclear
activities, including power plants, Hill said earlier. South Korea "has made a
very good electricity plan, and I think" North Korea "has much to work on
without talking about nuclear-type things," Hill said after meeting South
Korea's chief negotiator, Song Min Soon, on Sunday.
Hill said that today, as the talks enter a second week with further bargaining
over the joint statement of principles for subsequent detailed disarmament
talks, negotiators would consider a second draft of the statement written by the
host country, China. Hill also said the statement would include promises of
"economic cooperation" if North Korea terminated its nuclear programs.
North Korea said Sunday that it might rejoin an international nuclear treaty and
accept international inspections of its nuclear facilities "if the nuclear issue
finds a satisfactory solution" and the United States accepted "peaceful
coexistence." The statement was issued by the country's official Korean Central
News Agency.
The North Koreans are famously truculent negotiators and may yet reject U. S.
demands that they end all nuclear activities, including power generation, before
receiving rewards. But North Korea could at least be lured into signing the
joint statement and continuing disarmament talks by South Korea's offer,
analysts said.
"It was a very astute move," Kent Calder, an expert on Northeast Asian energy
politics at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns
Hopkins University, said of the offer. "It does provide something that's badly
needed by North Korea, given its desperate energy situation, but from a South
Korean point of view, it doesn't compromise Washington."
The Bush
administration has resisted making direct offers of U.S. aid to North Korea. But
while the South Korean offer may have helped persuade the North to return to
talks, some experts said unexpected costs and North Korea's dilapidated power
grid might damage the offer's attractiveness at the negotiating table and
threaten its viability.
"It was very much a symbolically driven gesture," said Peter Hayes, the
executive director of the Nautilus Institute, a research group based in San
Francisco that studies North Korea. "It could be a very important long-term
project, but in the shorter term, it's just not the right project to hand the
North Koreans in return for nuclear disarmament."
The United States froze international oil shipments and suspended work on two
uncompleted nuclear power stations after announcing in October 2002 that North
Korea had admitted to taking nuclear rods from ostensibly civilian reactors to
make highly enriched uranium that can be used for weapons. North Korea then
publicly ended an eight-year freeze on its nuclear program and withdrew from the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which controls nuclear facilities in signatory
states, in January 2003.
Power shortages are second only to food shortages as a threat to North Korea's
economic survival, Calder said. But the power plan is likely to be much more
costly than the $2.4 billion South Korea has budgeted, Hayes and a team of
energy experts concluded in a Nautilus Institute study that has circulated among
policy-makers in South Korea, North Korea and the United States.
스웨덴의 한 여행사가 북한이 노동당 창건(10.10)
60돌을 기념해 준비 중인 집단체조 아리랑 2차 공연을 관람할 관광객
모집에 나섰다. ▒Koreakonsult사▓는 최근 홈페이지(www.koreakonsult.com)▓에
아리랑 공연 일정을 8월15일∼10월31일로
공지하고 북한을 방문해 공연을 관람할 관광객을 모집하고 있다.
그간 북한이 아리랑 2차 공연 준비에 착수했으며 8월에서
10월까지 공연을 진행한다는 보도는 있었지만 구체적 일정까지 알려진 것은 이번이 처음이다.
2차 공연 장소는 지난 2002년 1차
공연 당시와 같은 평양 릉라도의 5.1 경기장이며 공연 시간은 80분에서
90분으로 10분 늘어났다.
관람료는 일반석 기준 50유로(약 6만원).
KoreanKonsult사는 안내문에서 ⌠모든 것을 새롭게 바꾼 올해 아리랑 공연은 2002년
공연을 능가하는 이벤트가 될 것■이라고 소개했다.
북한은 김일성 주석의 90회 생일(4.15)을
맞아 지난 2002년 4월29일∼8월15일
어린이, 청년학생, 군인 등 10만
명이 출연하는 아리랑 공연을 진행했으며 북한 주민, 해외동포,
외국인 관광객 등 270여만 명이 이 공연을 관람했다./연합2005-07-08
(in Korean)
북한이 최근 스웨덴 여행사와 손을 잡고 적극적 인 관광객 유치에 나섰다.
코트라(KOTRA)는 4일
"북한이 스웨덴 관광객 유치 노력의 일환으로 근래 전문 웹사이트를 운영하고 있을 뿐만 아니라 한서(韓瑞.한국-스웨덴)
협회 정기소식지 지 면에 광고를 싣고 적극적으로 북한 관광을 홍보하고 있다"고
밝혔다.
북한 관광을 알선하고 있는 스웨덴 여행사는 `Koreakonsult사'로
올해 4월부터 10월까지 총 8회의
북한 관광 상품을 내놓았다. 코트라는 작년에 10여 명의
스웨덴 관광객이 북한을 방문한 것으로 전해지고 있으나 현재까지 관광 목적의 방문객 숫자는 정확히 파악되지 않고 있다고 덧붙였다.
이 여행사의 홈페이지(www.koreakonsult.com)는
베이징-평양 왕복 항공권, 호텔 숙박,
영어 가이드 동행 등을 포함한 6박7일짜리
상품의 가격이 1천260유로(약
180 만원)로 매우 경제적인 관광이라고 소개하고 있다.
이 여행사는 한국 관광 상품도 함께 홍보하고 있다.
(in Korean)
By Richard Phillips, 21 July 2005, World Socialist Web Site
North Korea
A State of Mind, by British television sports director Daniel Gordon, follows
the life of two North Korean schoolgirl gymnasts from Pyongyang and their
rigorous preparation for participation in the country's Mass Games. It provides
a rare look at the nation menacingly described as part of an "axis of evil" by
the Bush administration.
While Washington's bellicose military threats against North Korea are
ever-present in the western news media, there is next to nothing available on
film and television about life in this country. This becomes ever more apparent
as one views A State of Mind.
The Mass Games are socialist realist pageants involving thousands of young
people. They are held on national holidays and other state occasions.
Participants face months of harsh preparation, with hundreds excluded from the
prestigious event if they are not considered up to scratch. The Games involve
gymnastics, dancing and carefully choreographed hand-held murals generally
depicting scenes from the Korean War or the country's deceased head of state and
"eternal president" Kim Il Sung. Il Sung's son and the country's current leader
Kim Jong Il often attends.
Notwithstanding the crude and false political message of the spectaculars≈that
North Korea is a genuine communist society, which is not challenged by the
filmmakers≈the movie does provide some indication of life in Pyongyang, the
country's capital.
Gordon and his small crew visited the country 13 times between February and
September 2003, closely following the girls and their families in the lead up to
the Games. Although the girls are from relatively privileged layers of North
Korean society - one is the daughter of a physics professor and the other from a
construction worker's family - their living standards are rudimentary.
The families live in small, sparsely furnished apartments with frequent
electricity blackouts and candles always on standby to provide emergency
lighting. All apartments are fitted with government radios permanently
broadcasting propaganda. These can be turned down, but not switched off.
Despite rigorous daily training and rehearsals, the girls' diets, like those of
the rest of their families, are basic in the extreme. One mother explains that
during the 1990s famine and the US imposed sanctions, the only thing they could
afford to give their daughter for her birthday was a bowl of corn soup. The rest
of the family had half a bowl each. Thousands starved to death at this time,
which is known in North Korea as the "Arduous March". The film includes a brief
visit to a collective farm, where poverty is even more obvious.
A State of Mind ends with spectacular footage from the Mass Games. While the
girls fervently hoped that Kim Jong Il would attend the performances, which were
held over several months, the North Korean head of stated failed to show up.
Although Gordon's film is largely apolitical - it contains no direct editorial
comment on the repressive Stalinist regime or the imperialist blockade - it
punctures the ongoing black propaganda by Washington and its allies, and gives
some indication of the deep-seated animosity amongst ordinary people to US
imperialism and their determination to resist any future attacks against their
country.
Britain's ambassador to North Korea planted rice on a farm in the impoverished communist state, the official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday.
Ambassador David Arthur Slinn and embassy officials "plucked and transplanted rice seedlings" Friday to help farmers in Paeksong, north of the capital Pyongyang.
The World Food Program this week said North Korea is sending millions of people to work on farms each weekend, indicating the risk of famine is particularly high this year. WFP is the only aid organization with a presence outside of Pyongyang.
North Korea and Britain established diplomatic relations in late 2000.
BY BURT HERMAN, Associated Press, Sat, Jun. 04, 2005
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea gave rare praise to President Bush on Friday, welcoming his use of the title ''Mr.'' when referring to leader Kim Jong Il and saying it hoped that the softened tone could lead to its return to nuclear arms talks.
''If Bush's remarks put an end to the scramble between the hawkish group and the moderate group in the U.S., which has thrown the Korean policy into a state of confusion, it would help create an atmosphere of the six-party talks,'' an unnamed North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
The United States wants the North to end its nuclear weapons development and joins China, Japan, Russia and South Korea in trying to persuade Pyongyang to return to disarmament talks last held in June 2004. The North has stayed away from the table, citing a ''hostile'' U.S. policy and claimed in February that it had nuclear weapons.
At a Tuesday news conference, Bush defended his focus on using diplomacy to try to resolve the standoff.
SENDING A MESSAGE
''It's a matter of continuing to send a message to Mr. Kim Jong Il that if you want to be accepted by the neighborhood and be a part of . . . those who are viewed with respect in the world, work with us to get rid of your nuclear weapons program,'' Bush said.
The North said Friday that it had noted Bush was reported as ''politely addressing our headquarters of revolution,'' a reference to Kim. ''We will closely follow if his remarks would not change day and night as this happened in the past,'' the spokesman said.
On Friday, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the administration wants North Korea to ``be prepared to talk in a serious way about how to move forward.''
''And I think that's what the other parties in the region want to see, as well. They've made that clear too. And there are no preconditions for returning to the talks,'' McClellan told reporters in Crawford, Texas, where Bush is spending the weekend at his ranch.
ATTACK ON CHENEY
Friday's softer tone from the North came a day after it had labeled U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney a ''bloodthirsty beast'' and said his recent comment labeling Kim an ''irresponsible'' leader was another reason for it to stay away from the nuclear talks.
This week, the North also took a personal swipe at U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, using sexist language laced with insults to imply she was controlling the White House. In the past, Pyongyang has also called Bush a ''political imbecile'' and ``half-baked man.''
The North has demanded an apology for Rice labeling the country one of the world's ``outposts of tyranny.''
On Friday, the North again asked for the United States to make a ``bold decision to withdraw the remark . . . to remove the biggest hurdle lying in the way of resuming the six-party talks.''
At a meeting of Asian defense officials in Singapore, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday that Washington would continue to try to solve the dispute through six-nation talks.
''Our policy is what it is, and it's well known,'' Rumsfeld said.
U.N. Cites North Korea Food Shortages
By NICOLE WINFIELD, The Associated Press,
06/01/05
ROME (AP) - North Korea is sending millions of people from its cities to work on farms each weekend - another indication that the risk of famine is particularly high this year, a U.N. official said Wednesday.
The World Food Program is the only aid organization that has a presence outside the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, and its officials have reported the movements of the North's people from cities to farms, said Anthea Webb, spokeswoman for the Rome-based agency.
"It's not a new phenomenon, but it certainly caught our folks' attention in terms of the size and the scale,'' she said. ``I suppose also we're so worried about the situation, it's one more sign that things aren't going well.''
The isolated North has depended on outside support to feed its 24 million people since the 1990s. An estimated 1 million North Koreans starved to death after the Stalinist regime's state farm system collapsed following decades of mismanagement and the loss of subsidies from Moscow.
In Beijing on Tuesday, world aid agencies called for food assistance to North Korea to be stepped up despite a stalemate in talks to end its nuclear program, saying the communist regime still faces tremendous shortages affecting millions of people.
The WFP recently launched a new appeal for food donations, saying the supplies that let it feed 6.5 million North Koreans were dwindling and forcing it to cut off aid to children and the elderly. That followed a WFP request to governments for 500,000 tons of food for North Korea this year.
Of the $202 million the agency appealed for this year, it has received about $72 million - and practically all of it has already been consumed, Webb said.
"Unless something happens very soon, by the end of August, the only people we'll be feeding are 12,000 children in hospitals,'' she said.
She said a combination of factors was making 2005 particularly at risk for famine. Although the harvest was not any worse than expected this year, it is combined with declining WFP food aid, government reforms that have driven up prices and cuts in government rations, she said.
"Our people are beginning to be very concerned that this combination of factors in a worst-case scenario could put us back to a situation of the early '90s,'' she said.
"The potential for famine is quite strong.'' North Korea is under increasing pressure to return to international talks on its nuclear weapons program. While the United States and other donors claim they do not link the nuclear standoff to humanitarian assistance, Washington has yet to decide whether to continue giving the North food this year.
Washington gave 50,000 tons via WFP last year, half of what it gave in 2003. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher has said decisions on food aid are not affected by political considerations.
Monitoring of food aid distributions is a major concern for donors, who fear food is being diverted to the North's military or political leaders.
The nuclear crisis arose in 2002 after Washington said Pyongyang admitted running a secret nuclear program in violation of an agreement giving it energy aid in exchange for renouncing nuclear development.
Three rounds of international talks ended without a settlement, and participants missed a September deadline for a fourth round after the North refused to participate.
North Korea, with a history of using brinksmanship to wring aid from the West, claimed in February it had nuclear weapons and said it would indefinitely boycott arms talks until Washington drops its ``hostile'' policy.
The North's nuclear claim has not been verified, but U.S. intelligence and other estimates say it has as many as six atomic weapons.
![[]](http://wwl622.hanmail.net/Mail-bin/view_submsg.cgi?TM=Yc9Q727BFSNeDOslbdiKnUTtMPEr%2BdaZ3v5uONZ3ur1CqpLfbqIxEseM9cpbdajQ1SkCngOrqckkPVWvfSLJMgm%2FNF5JDoFpr2lbwsvy2G6rKv0OrfZZIvppGRttNbO%2FLo1kfDDcm43pY%2Bl%2F9%2BGDY0MGp9sJzQNyT6YlPMrG%2BSYONnoW0b6K1U6KaS57PppzHpqTMORs48SpwTPmtxEmeA%3D%3D&MSGID=E000000000FxfD7&pos=65074&bodylen=968&realname=7af50d.jpg){kind=small}