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Not too many years ago, North Korea was held as an ideal nation defying the West - and it was ahead of South Korea economically. To those of a certain political leaning at the time, including Aidan Foster-Carter, this fired the imagination as an answer to creeping imperialism. Disenchantment was to follow, though, over the sheer perversity of a regime that prefers famine to reform.
Joongang Ilbo reported that as DPRK leader Kim Jong-il travels to Moscow, signs inside the DPRK point to a purge of key reform-minded officials. DPRK experts in the ROK, like those that once watched the Soviet Union, monitor events in the DPRK by analyzing the angle, size and frequency of photos of the DPRK's cadres. Kim Yong-sun has appeared publicly just once beside the country's supreme leader this year, according to a number of DPRK watchers. "It is highly likely that Kim Yong Sun and his team got ousted" because of the reversal in relations with the US, said Kim Dal-soon, a former ROK negotiator with the DPRK who has analyzed the DPRK for 30 years. Also missing from Kim Jong-il's side recently is Vice Marshal Cho Myong Rok, the military leader sent to the White House last September to meet US President Bill Clinton. DPRK experts caution that their methodology is not an exact science and that key DPRK officials have disappeared from sight only to reappear months later--either restored to health after an illness, or politically rehabilitated. "These men were Kim Jong Il's eyes to the outside world," said one senior ROK government official. A US diplomat in Washington who closely tracks the DPRK said that there is a fear that hard-liners in the DPRK military are reasserting a tougher stance toward the ROK and the US. (Jay Solomon, "SUSPECTED NORTH KOREA PURGE MAY HINDER PEACE DISCUSSIONS," Seoul, 07/31/01)
Joongang Ilbo reported that ROK's efforts to provide the DPRK with electricity aid was put on hold by the US request, according to the latest report. The DPRK back in the fourth inter-Korean Ministerial meeting held last December asked the ROK to assist it with 500,000 kilowatts of electricity but the matter was dropped at least for a time being as US called for temporary halt, said vice Unification Minister Jeong Se-Hyun on Tuesday July 31. According to Jeong's explanation, the US call for suspension comes from its own problem in dealing with the DPRK's light-water reactor project. At the time, the US was busy with discussion to replace the existing light water reactors with thermal plants. It is largely speculated that US back then, may have figured that ROK extending helping hands to the DPRK at such point could weaken its own negotiating card with the DPRK. Jeong said that the US nowadays is reportedly discussing providing the DPRK with an additional 500,00 kilowatts of thermal plant aside from the promised 2 million kilowatts of light water reactors as part of an attempt to resolve the DPRK's nuclear and missile practices. He said however, that such matters should best remain for the two Koreas to resolve. (John Iams, "ELECTRICITY AID TO N.K. WITHHELD BY U.S. REQUEST," Moscow, 07/31/01)
The Associated Press
Monday, July 30, 2001; 10:05 PM
SEOUL, South Korea –– Britain opened an embassy in North Korea over the weekend, British officials said Tuesday. The British embassy is temporarily located in the German embassy quarters in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. British and North Korean officials are negotiating over a permanent site as well as the number of embassy staffers, said Adrian Chapman, a spokesman at the British embassy in Seoul. Britain established diplomatic relations with North Korea in December, joining a growing list of countries that hope stronger ties with the reclusive communist nation will encourage it to open up to the outside world. In March, James Hoare was appointed as Britain's diplomatic representative to North Korea.
The Chosun Ilbo, 29 July 2001. North Korean authorities are learned to have banned women from riding bicycles since this past May. During a recent visit to the North, a Korean-Chinese residing in Yanbian in northeastern China, Kim Un Hui, (alias), was reportedly dissuaded by her relatives there from riding a bicycle to the marketplace. They told her, "The party has issued an instruction forbidding women to ride bicycles," but acknowledged that residents had complained against the party order in question bitterly.
The reason for the alleged party instruction banning bicycle-riding by females is not known. "North Korea is reinforcing crackdowns with a view to uprooting capitalist elements in the society, And the bicycle-riding ban for women seems to be part of the campaign," speculated Kim. Early in the 1990s policemen cracked down on women riding on the back seat of bicycles driven by men on the grounds that it was indecent and various instructions were issued at that time. One forbid women from having long hair, another from wearing long trousers on ordinary occasions, and still another from wearing red trousers.
Bicycles in North Korea are perhaps even more important and precious than private cars in South Korea. Accordingly, bicycles are used almost exclusively by men, and women find it difficult to ride bicycles even if they want to. But since the acute food shortage prompted housewives to secure food by all possible means, the number of women riding bicycles has increased in recent years. "It's a matter of life or death for housewives to ride bicycles," Kim observed, "Accordingly, it's doubtful if the ban on women's bicycle-riding will be effective." © 2001 The Associated Press
The Joongang Il-bo, 29 July 2001. Grain production in North Korea this year is expected to be 12 percent lower than earlier forecast because of severe droughts that gripped the peninsula last spring. Last October, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program estimated that this year's crop in North Korea would be 2.92 million tons; the new estimate is for production of only 2.57 million tons. A team composed of officials from the two agencies announced the estimate Saturday based on information gathered in field trips in North Korea in late June and early July and on observations drawn from satellite photographs. According to the report, North Korea's grain production this year will be about 1.1 million tons of rice, 1.04 tons of corn, 79,000 tons of spring barley and 65,000 tons of other grains.
The production of early crops such as winter wheat, spring barley and potatoes plummeted by 321,000 tons from the forecast 499,000 tons. Production of fall grains, such as corn, is expected to drop by 29,000 tons. That drop is less dramatic because the later crops were less affected by the drought. Earlier, North Korea announced that virtually nothing was salvaged from its early potato crop this year. Between December 2000 and June 2001, North Korea contracted for commercial grain imports of 15,200 tons. Imports on credit reached 536,300 tons － 500,000 tons from South Korea and 36,000 tons from China － and humanitarian aid added 996,000 tons to North Korea's stocks. According to the UN experts, the total of production and imports of grain, some 4.5 million tons, is still well short of the 6 million tons of grain the North needs to feed its people. From September through June, 85 percent of North Korea's fertilizer consumption was also donated.
The Chosun Ilbo,29 July 2001. Is Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea, a special city or an extraordinary city under the direct control of the central government? "An Outline of North Korea," published by the Ministry of Unification describes Pyongyang as "a special city." The National Intelligence Service homepage (www.nis.go.kr), describing the administrative units of the North, explains that North Korea "... following a series of administrative-unit revamping, consists of Pyongyang as a special city, Nampo and Kaesong as special cities under the direct control of the central government, 9 provinces, 39 districts, 147 counties..." However these descriptions don't accord with North Korean texts.
Volume 20 of the "Grand North Korea Encyclopaedia," published last year by the Pyongyang-based Encyclopaedia Press Group, says, "... special cities in our country placed under the direct control of the central government are Pyongyang, Kaesong and Rason." Rason has reportedly been downgraded to an ordinary city since the encyclopaedia was published. “Our Country's Geography and Customs," put out in 1991 by the Kumsong Youth Publishing House in Pyongyang, discloses that the administrative area of Pyongyang has changed about a dozen times since liberation in 1945. It notes that, "Being revamped into a special city in September 1946, Pyongyang was separated from South Pyongan province and became a special city under the direct control of the central government." The special city referred to appears to mean not a special city in the sense of an administrative unit, but "an extraordinary city differentiated from other cities." "The Tourist Guide to Korea," published in the same year by the Foreign Language Press Group, says, "The northern half of the Republic has 9 provinces and three special cities under the direct control of the central government... The three directly controled cities are Kaesong and Nampo as well as the capital city of Pyongyang."
Other pictorials and publications available from the North all describe Pyongyang as a directly controlled city: No North Korean publications mention the capital city as "a special city." As a matter of fact, no administrative unit dubbed a special city exists in North Korea. In the extensive administrative unit reform executed in December 1952 in which myons or townships were abolished, North Korea created the three-stage administrative system, consisting of provinces (or special cities under the direct control of the central government), cities (or districts) or counties, and ri , or dong (both village), towns and laborers' districts. The three-stage administrative system has remained intact since. Beijing, the capital city of China, which is comparable in several aspects with North Korea, is also a special city under the direct control of the central government. Carrying the identical status are Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongging.
The Associated Press reported that Ri Tcheul, DPRK Ambassador to the UN, submitted a report last week to the UN Human Rights Committee on how the DPRK government is complying with its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Ri argued, "One cannot find unemployment, illiteracy, homelessness, nor such social troubles as collective violence, terrorism, drug abuse or alcoholism" in the DPRK. He added, "People do not yet live in luxury, however they live without social discrimination or concerns about their future, which ensures the stability of the country on a political and social level."
Responding to the report on Friday, the committee stated, "The observance of human rights is obligatory for all nations, whether they are capitalists or socialists." It also stated, "The committee regrets the considerable delay in submission of the report, which was due in 1987," but added that it welcomed the opportunity to resume dialogue with the DPRK. The committee also expressed concern about the absence of independent human rights institutions and the limited number of human rights organizations given access to the country. While the DPRK's 10-member delegation claimed that the death penalty had rarely been imposed and carried out over the last three years, the committee urged the state to abolish capital punishment completely and to cease public executions.
It also urged improved prison conditions, and eliminating the papers required for domestic travel and exit visas to leave the country. The committee also requested information on the prohibition of certain publications and urged the country to lift restrictions on foreign newspapers. It also expressed concern over "substantiated allegations" of the trafficking of women, and recommended a state investigation. Committee member Ahmed Tawfik of Egypt stated, "I think it was a very good sign that after an absence of so many years the Koreans found - for reasons of their own - they had to come and justify what they are doing." (Erica Bulman, "U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS BODY WARNS N. KOREA," Geneva, 07/28/01)
Press Release of Joint FAO/WFP, 27 July 2001. Rome, 27 July - A spring drought that lasted in many places more than three months has seriously aggravated the already precarious food situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) said in a joint special report issued today. The two Rome-based agencies warned in the report in order to avert further hardship, food aid is "imperative," and they urged the international donor community to immediately provide more food to the country. According to the report, the drought's effect on domestic food production is expected to have "dire consequences for the food security of the population" prior to the autumn harvest of the main rice and maize crops. The report is based on the findings of a joint crop and food supply assessment mission conducted from 23 June to 3 July.
A protracted dry spell between March and mid-June - the longest spring drought on record for many parts of the country - depleted rivers and reservoirs, and crippled irrigation systems. It delayed planting, forced the abandonment of large tracts of cultivated farmland, and drastically reduced agricultural yields. "About ten percent of the planted area was estimated to have been abandoned and yields from the remaining areas were well below normal. Wheat and barley yields dropped to 0.85 tonnes per hectare against the usual 2 tonnes/ha, while potato yield was reduced to 3.77 tonnes/ha against the recent past average of 10 tonnes/ha," the report stated. "The production of these winter/spring crops, estimated at 172,000 tonnes, was sharply below the expected output of about 493,000 tonnes."
As a result, WFP and FAO said the North Korean government's Public Distribution System planned to reduce the individual daily ration to just 150 grammes for the remainder of the 2000/2001 marketing year (November/October), from the 215 grammes provided during the last eight months. The two agencies further warned that the cooperative farms which account for the bulk of domestic production might not be able to supply the distribution system with enough food to help it meet even this target. Besides reducing the spring harvests, the pervasive drought degraded planting conditions for the main cereals and potato crops. "Some 45 percent of the maize crop was affected," the report said. The paddy crop appeared to be generally in good condition, however.
As a result of the smaller winter/spring season wheat, barley and potato harvests - traditionally vital sources of nutrition during the lean summer months - FAO and WFP reduced their previous estimates for the total production of cereals and potato in 2000/2001 from 2.92 million tonnes to 2.57 million tonnes. Taking into account the cereal imports contracted and food aid already delivered or pledged by donors, the country faces at present a significant uncovered food deficit of 564,000 tonnes for the remaining four months of the 2000/2001 marketing year.
"With the winter/spring harvest seriously reduced and the new harvest several months away, additional imports and food assistance until the end of October will be imperative to avert further hardship," the agencies said. "Any significant shortfall in aid would pose a threat of a deepening food crisis in the country next year." Given the unfavorable prospects for the main harvest in October, a large volume of food aid and concessional imports is also expected to be required in 2002. WFP, the largest international aid agency in the country, this year aims to provide, mobilize and deliver more than one million tonnes of food to more than 7.6 million of the hungriest and most vulnerable people in the country. These include children in nurseries, kindergartens and schools, pregnant and nursing women, and the elderly.
Joongang Ilbo reported that new legislation adopted back in the fourth session of the DPRK's 10th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) held in April this year caught much attention from outside observers as another factor to accelerate the DPRK's reform process, along with the new processing trade law adopted at the same meeting. The copyright law constituting of six chapters and 48 provisions makes clear that "the copyright holder has personal and property rights of one's work' (provision 13)." This is the first time a copyright law has been included in the civil law in order provide protection to the rights of the copyright holder, triggering hopes of some change in the DPRK's individual rights.
Experts said however that it would be a bit too soon to view the new legislation as an extension of private ownership because it is most likely a follow up measure to the DPRK's revised constitution No. 24 adopted in September 1998 that already acknowledges private ownership. "The new law puts more interest in showing off to South Korea and the outside world rather than in protecting the private ownership," Hong Song-guk of the economics team of the ROK Unification Ministry said. Nowadays the DPRK is widening their scope of copyrights demand, holding various ROK entertainment sectors responsible for using DPRK songs without any legal arrangements. So far the DPRK has applied for over 25,400 cases of special patentship and 2,400 cases of brand rights to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) up till late 1997. (Lee Young-jong, "NORTH KOREA CLAIMS FOR COPYRIGHTS," Seoul, 07/24/01)
The Chosun Ilbo, 23 July 2001. In January of last year Belgium normalized ties with North Korea and presently Belgium's Ambassador for both South and North Korea is Koenraad Rouvroy. Ambassador Rouvroy visited North Korea from the 18th to the 23rd of June. During this visit he met North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun and discussed various issues concerning relations between North Korea and the EU. While describing his trip, Ambassador Koenrad said, "North Korea has not changed, this is not only my personal opinion, but also the opinion of most of the resident officials and diplomats." During an interview with Ambassador Rouvroy in the Belgium's Embassy in Seoul, he said, "The basis of change in North Korea is Democracy. However, it's strange that it is called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) but has no Democracy. There is no Democracy when people are not allowed to speak."
--What did you witness during your visit to North Korea's last month?
"Many people were walking in the streets. Most of the people were well dressed. I got the impression that the people were very serious, they don't laugh too much, well the children laugh. The only place we have been except Pyongyang is Nampo, we made a brief stop there. As soon as you leave Pyongyang you see many people walking. If I were to make a picture of Pyongyang, 30% of the people you see are wearing a military uniforms." "We also went to see an embroidery workshop, a farm and finally we went to a diamond workshop. The impression I had of these work places was that the people working there were excellent professionals. As for the diamond cutting, they had to learn it, they were trained by people from Thailand. The diamond operation was actually a Belgian investment." "I didn't see people dying or starving in Pyongyang or Nampo, people in Pyongyang seem to be in universally good health"...
KCNA , 20 July 2001. "A satisfactory solution to the population problem is of vital significance for the survival, development and welfare of mankind in the future as well as at present," said Hong Sun Won, director of the population research institute. Inaugurated on July 11, Juche 74 (1985), the institute has sections covering demography, population health, female population and other branches. It has made a notable contribution to the implementation of the state population policy. It is now in a position to give a scientific estimate of population growth after an extensive study of births and deaths. through in-depth research and measures for the improvement of women's reproductive nutrition, it has contributed to preserving the health of women and children and reducing disease incidence during the years of the "arduous march".
It has also developed computer programs capable of providing in formation data on expected population growth and the corresponding food needs as well as other relevant measures. its multi-media program "Korean women" is used at home and abroad. The institute issues the periodicals, "population news" and "bulletin of demography", and compiles such reference works as "information on world population" for assistance in professional research. It provides its newly-developed programs to the Ministry of Public Health, the central statistics bureau and other national organs.
]In Korea, there is a scientific census system from the lowest administrative unit up to the highest and a well-regulated healthcare and epidemic prevention system.
The DPRK will strive to balance population growth and socio-economic development, the crucial issue of the population problem.
The Joongang Ilbo 22 July 2001. Former Vice Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said Saturday that chances of North Korea using its outside aids for military purpose, is low. In the special seminar hosted by Korea Institute for Future Strategies (KIFS) on political and military purpose for inter-Korea economic cooperation Mr. Jeong said the North is not likely to misuse its aids from abroad by feeding its armies. "There are two kinds of economy in the North; social economy and military economy, strictly separated from each other. The military-related 'second economy' has its own account system and principles that enable the sector to roll on its own apart from the outside influence," Jeong said. "This explains why North Korea's military sector is getting along relatively well compared to its national economy at the verge of collapse. It doesn't necessarily has to do with army units getting the lion's share of the foreign assistance."
Mr. Jeong then said in order to safely handle North Korea, weak in economy and powerful in military, there is no other choice but to change the overall strategy for economic cooperation and security. "Even the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) points out to strategic cooperation of providing economy and gaining peace," he explained. "The U.S. credit rating agencies after making a thorough research on investment risk and other factors upgraded our credit rate," he added. "We have perceived since the financial crisis back in 1997 that economy and inter-Korean relations are affecting both ways."
North Korea will not be sending Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun to this week's Asean Regional Forum meeting, preferring to be represented by a lesser official, and thereby avoiding having to talk to the Americans there. This snub confirms some countries' doubts about letting Pyongyang join the forum at all, writes Aidan Foster-Carter, who suggests it is about time North Korea followed through on some of its commitments.
Joongang Ilbo reported that ROK government has decided to aid the DPRK with electricity. Unification Minister Lim Dong-won announced Sunday that the government will use transmission towers between the ROK's Munsan and the DPRK Kaesong City, 20 kilometers apart from each other. He added that over 200 ROK firms have expressed a desire to build factories in the complex and through the joint venture, sectors in great need of manual labor such as shoes and textile will see great boost. However some analysts pointed out to some disturbing factors such as the DPRK's worn-out facilities, the time and cost to upgrade the major installations and possibility of resources being used for military purpose. "Minister Lim puts this year's highest priority on North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-il's visit to Seoul," one observer in Seoul said. "The electricity is another 'carrot' to lure Chairman Kim." (Kim Hee-sung, "NORTH KOREA TO RECEIVE ELECTRICITY FROM THE SOUTH," Seoul, 07/24/01)
Официальный представитель Министерства иностранных дел КНДР в 20 июля подверг суровой критике США за недавнее испытание ракеты-перехватчика, подчеркнув, что страна вынуждена предпринять ответные меры на американский план развертывания противоракетной обороны /НПРО/. Отвечая на вопросы корреспондента агентства ЦТАК, этот представитель отметил, что последнее испытание США ракеты- перехватчика является первым после прихода Джорджа Буша к власти испытанием в рамках НПРО. Это означает фактическое начало реализации программы, которая широко осуждается во всем мире. В этих обстоятельствах новая гонка вооружений становится неизбежной.
Он указал, что хотя мировое сообщество единодушно выражает озабоченность и возражает против НПРО, однако США действуют по- своему. Цель американского плана заключается в политическом и военном сдерживании других держав в новом столетии для осуществления своего господства над миром и преодоления экономической депрессии путем наращивания военного потенциала. Представитель подчеркнул, что для прикрытия своих истинных намерений по развитию НПРО США постоянно распространяют беспочвенные высказывания о ракетной угрозе со стороны КНДР. Поскольку США неизменно создают всевозможные препятствия, используя проблему ракет, КНДР вынуждена предпринять необходимые меры самообороны. По его словам, если в результате таких действий все достигнутые двумя странами соглашения будут аннулированы, это не причинит какого-либо вреда КНДР, сообщает Синьхуа.
23.07.2001 in Russian
Joongang Ilbo reported that Kwangmyong, an IT-related search engine developed by the DPRK's technology agency in 1997, now connects computers of over 1,300 institutions nationwide that include government agencies, universities, industrial complexes and research centers. The DPRK's monthly magazine "Minjok 21" in its August edition published on Sunday introduced photos of the homepage, which seems to have its basis in Microsoft's Windows system. The left-hand side showcased a database and other functions to log on and preserve files. "North Korea displayed its Kwangmyong homepage as it being the first network ever in the North," Shin Joon-young the editor-in-chief of Minjok 21 said. "Its explorer is in Japanese because it is based on the Japanese version of Windows. The network homepage named 'Kwangmyong' means a 'bright star.'" (Kim Hee-sung, "N.K. INTRODUCES FIRST COMPUTER NETWORK SYSTEM," Seoul, 07/23/01)
Chosun Ilbo reported that the DPRK has been preparing for a large-scale military parade to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Peoples Army next year, according to a government source Sunday. The source said that the DPRK was preparing a mass military parade next year, and each squad has already begun preparations. He added that it was unlikely that the parade will include high-tech military weapons
such as tanks, armored cars and artillery pieces, which have not appeared in public since the mid-90s. (Yu Yong-won, "NK PREPARES FOR MILITARY ANNIVERSARY PARADE NEXT YEAR," Seoul, 07/23/01)
The days were when it was not easy to find good specialist books on North Korea written in English. Times have changed, and there is now a wide range to choose from, writes Aidan Foster-Carter, who picks a few of his favorites.
PLA Daily reported that on July 20 when interviewed by the Korean Central News Agency, a DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesperson vehemently criticized the recent US missile interception test, stressing that the DPRK will have to adopt defensive measures to counter the US planned missile shield. He said, "this recent test was the first one after George W. Bush took his position, which means that the controversial missile defense system has entered the phase of putting in practice. Hence, the world-wide arms race is inevitable." The goal of the US missile shield is to contain other powers both politically and militarily in the 21st century and seek ways to get away from the economic recession by strengthening its armed capability, the spokesperson said. Besides, he pointed out, the US spread rumors of a "missile threat from DPRK" to cover its real intention on developing missile defense system, for which DPRK has to adopt relevant measures. If some bilateral agreement is abolished because of the DPRK's choice, it will not bring loss to the DPRK, he said. (Xinhua News Agency, "DPRK WILL DEVELOP COUNTERMEASURES TO US'S MISSLE DEFENSE SYSTEM," Pyongyang, 07/21/01, P4)
Pyongyang, July 17 (KCNA) -- A mass rally of Pyongyangites was held at Kim Il Sung Square this afternoon with more than 100,000 citizens from all walks of life attending. They met to vow to commemorate the 90th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung in the year 2002 with high political enthusiasm and shining labour achievements. present there were Hong Song Nam, premier of the DPRK cabinet, Kye Ung Thae and Kim Jung Rin, secretaries of the central committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, and others. The participants evinced their resolution to commemorate the anniversary by paving a wide avenue for the advance in the new century and effecting a radical turn in the building of a powerful nation, single-heartedly united around leader Kim Jong Il.
At the rally, Ryang Man Gil, chairman of the Pyongyang city people's committee, made a report which was followed by speeches by representatives of people from all walks of life. The reporter and speakers said that it is the noble revolutionary obligation and bounden duty of all the soldiers and disciples of Kim Il Sung to most significantly commemorate his birth anniversary with high political enthusiasm and shining labour achievements. They referred to the tasks to be fulfilled by the Pyongyangites. It is one of the major tasks to spruce up the Kumsusan Memorial Palace where the president lies in state as a solemn sacred temple of Juche.
It was also proposed at the rally to prepare at the highest level all the functions including a grand mass gymnastic display and art performance "song of sun" which represents the president's exploits performed for the building of the party, the army and the state. Special emphasis was laid on the tasks to improve the standard of the people's living and augment the state economic potential. A cardinal task facing agriculture in Pyongyang is to channel efforts into vegetable cultivation true to the president's behest that this cultivation is a main thing in agriculture in Pyongyang in order to make a sufficient supply of vegetables to the Pyongyangites in all seasons.
The rally called on the light industrial field to produce and supply more mass consumption goods including primary consumption goods and basic foodstuffs to the citizens. It underscored the need to exert sustained great efforts on the construction of dwelling houses for 30,000 families and put greater spurs to the projects to modernize and build on an expansion basis chicken factories and the construction of the Taedonggang beer brewery and the east Pyongyang catfish factory. At the end of the rally came a mass demonstration.
The Associated Press reported that the DPRK on Wednesday denounced the ROK for blocking its cargo ships from traveling through the strait between the ROK mainland and Cheju Island. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) stated, "The South Korean military authorities called only the voyage of the DPRK's civilian cargo ships into question to kick up a row. Their behavior will only result in aggravating their inter-Korean relations." ("N KOREA BERATES SOUTH KOREA OVER SEA CONFRONTATION," Seoul," 07/18/01)
By Aidan Foster-Carter
As North Korea's President Kim - Yong-nam, not Jong-il: (Pyongyang Watch, Jul 9,) continues his tour of Indochina, this seems an apt moment for another in our occasional series examining the DPRK's ties with assorted parts of the globe. Previous pieces have looked at Pyongyang's adventures in Africa, and in Central and South Asia. So let's now come closer to home and see how North Korea has fared in its own quasi-backyard of Southeast Asia. This article focuses mainly on Indochina. A future one will extend the story to the major Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) member states...
Joongang Ilbo reported that Ri Je-gang is the new face to rise to the power seat of DPRK's political circle with his latest promotion as a first vice director of Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). "North Korean media while reporting on North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's visit to an air force base introduced Ri as one of the first vice directors along with Ri Yong-chol and Jang Song-thaek on Monday," an ROK official said Wednesday. "This shows that Ri has been promoted to the vice director's position which was occupied by the existing four members including Mun Sung-sul, Yon Ki-sun, Jang Song-thaek and Ri Yong-mu," the official pointed out, but added that it is not known exactly which department he is in charge of. Ri, now in his late 60s, served within the Central Committee for over a decade. (Kim Hee-sung, "RI JE-GANG NEWCOMER OF THE POWER CIRCLE IN N.K.," Seoul, 07/18/01)
Recent meetings between North Korea and a number of other pariah states signal an attempted re-emergence of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). The global economic slowdown and increasing geopolitical competition will cause weaker countries to unify to combat the negative effects of globalism. NAM countries will be able to use their alliance to gain leverage in negotiations with larger powers.
In the past month, officials from North Korea have held talks in Myanmar and Cuba, while Pyongyang's second-in-command has recently visited Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. North Korea, according to a July 10 report in the Joongang Ilbo newspaper, is using all available diplomatic channels in the Third World to chair the Non-Aligned Movement conference in 2003. Closer ties will not only help improve the economies of some NAM members, but could make them more attractive to investors. Indonesia, for example, which has significant U.S. investment from companies like ExxonMobil, will have a better chance to receive aid and foreign investment despite its political turmoil since it wouldn't have to follow the strict regulations of
organizations like the International Monetary Fund.
Purchasing arms would become easier for NAM members. The members would have a wider variety of choices in where they acquire weapons and in the number they purchase. The Non-Aligned Movement was launched in 1961 with 25 original members, but it comprises 115 member states today. The group mostly consists of countries not in the Warsaw Pact or NATO, who joined to avoid being a pawn of one or more of the world's superpowers. North Korea's recent increase in interaction with other states suggests Pyongyang's attempts to shore up international support. The meeting between Pyongyang and Myanmar, followed by one with Cuba in North Korea, took place under the guise of military talks. Malaysia, an influential member of NAM,
also hosted Cuban leader Fidel Castro in May.
Agence France-Presse reported that a DPRK delegation headed by Kim Yong-Nam arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday. Thousands of school children were given the morning off and handed DPRK flags. Organizers
said that some 125,000 people ringed the road from the airport to the royal palace. Kim was met at the airport by King Norodom Sihanouk and his son Prince Norodom Ranariddh. He was to spend the next four days meeting top government officials. Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said the relationship between King Sihanouk and the DPRK leadership was "in the spirit of strengthening relations, friendship and cooperation between the two countries. That's why his excellency Kim Yong-Nam is paying a visit here." He said a joint communique would be signed later Tuesday and would include Cambodia's support for national reconciliation on the Korean peninsula. King Sihanouk frequently visited Pyongyang in the 1970's and most of
his bodyguards come from the DPRK. An unnamed western diplomat stated, "The numbers that turned out today, and King Sihanouk being there to greet someone who is effectively a number two head-of-state is reflective of the relationship." (Luke Hunt, "NORTH KOREANS GET MASS WELCOME IN CAMBODIA," Phnom Penh, 07/17/01)
Nezavisimoye voyennoye obozreniye 's Aleksandr Kharlamov published an big article about the events of autumn 1983, when DPRK commandos made an abortive attempt at ROK President Chung Doo-hwan's life who was on a visit to Yangon, Myanmar, the only case in the world history when agents of a country tried to kill another country's leader in the territory of a third country. ("A HUNT FOR PRESIDENT," Moscow, 7, 05/13-19/01, #25(247))
The Chosun Ilbo 16 July 2001. A South Korean NGO sent raw material for medicine to North Korea, officials at Korean Sharing Movement(KSM) said Monday, reported Yonhap News on July 16. KSM sent 32 metric tons of raw material including powdered aspirin worth 410m won (310,000 US dollars ) to North Korea via China, officials said. A six-member delegation from South Korean medical and pharmaceutical associations will visit the North from Saturday to Sunday, officials added.
The Joongang Ilbo 17 July 2001. A joint North-South Farmers' Festival will be held for the first time at Mount Kumgang on Wednesday and Thursday with more than 600 farmers participating from each side. "Six hundred and forty farmers from the Korean Farmer's League and a national association of female farmers, along with 50 reporters and inspectors left Sokcho port at 2 p.m.," a government official said. From the North, farmers and officials from the Korean Agriculture Workers Union will participate. They will watch art performances at a "unification event for the realization of the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration" and engage in traditional games of wrestling and tug of war Wednesday. On Thursday, they will hike up the mountain and return to the South.
The Joongang Ilbo, July 11, 2001. North Korea is collapsing socially and economically because it made military development its top priority, Thomas A. Schwartz, commander of U.S. forces in Korea, wrote in a magazine article published by the Ministry of Defence. "The 'military first' policy provides the only conceivable means by which the regime can survive," General Schwartz wrote. "Unfortunately, their dogged adherence to a 'military first' policy － when viewed against the backdrop of a nation on the brink of complete economic and social collapse － is problematic."
Nevertheless, the U.S. commander continued, "The North Korean military remains the major security threat in northeast Asia." He noted that the North had the world's fifth-largest military establishment and third-largest army, and the largest special operations force in Korea. "Moreover, North Korea also possesses weapons of mass destruction," he said. But he described the combined might of the South Korean and U.S. forces as a powerful deterrent force. "An unclassified snapshot of this power and might," he reported, would include potential manpower, including reserves, of 4.5 million, 250 combat ships, four aircraft carrier battle groups, 1,000 helicopters, 1,500 strike aircraft, 3,000 tanks, 6,000 artillery and more than 5,000 tracked vehicles ready for combat. General Schwartz described South Korean forces as "awesome." In fact, he said, "they are among the best warriors in the world. Their pride, discipline, tenacity and commitment set the standard for all to emulate."
The Chosun Ilbo 11 July 2001. Professor Lee Sang-myun of Seoul National University claimed at a symposium organized by Hanlim University and Chuncheon City, Wednesday that the recent drought in the northern parts of the country was caused by a North Korea dam diverting water to the east coast. At the '2001 DMZ Outdoor Discussion' Professor Lee said that the North had built four dams, including the Mount Kumgang Dam, 10km north of the DMZ and had diverted water through tunnels in the Taebaek Mountains to Anbyonchongnyon hydroelectric power station.
He said that this reduced the flow into the Hwacheon Dam reservoir by 40% on average and by 88% during the height of the drought, making it impossible to generate power. Lee noted that in 1996, the government had pledged to counter the effect of North Korea building dams, but had failed to do so while keeping the people ignorant of Pyongyang's construction work. He added that during the drought the government misled people as to the extent of the damage in order not to damage North-South relations, saying that a 40% reduction in flow into the North Han River produces an 8% overall decrease. Lee said that every year this will be exacerbated.
The Joongang Ilbo, 13 July 2001. North Korea has realigned over 36,500 hector of land during its Spring Land Management Movement, which lasted from March to April and during that period it has planted over 620 million trees nationwide claimed the North's leading government mouthpiece Rodong Sinmun this month. The Rodong Sinmun in its July 2nd edition introduced the great feat of various laborers scattered in Pyongyang and other regions. According to the North's report over 48,000㎡ land in Pyongyang were cultivated with new trees and flowers now covering the Kumsusan Memorial Hall where N.K. late-leader's mausoleum is placed and Monument symbolizing the Three principle of National Reunification and other numerous
arboteums.
South Hamgyong Province reportedly pulled off several large-scale factories and road constructions 'independently', abiding by the nation's 'non-reliant' spirit. By this Spring the South Hamgyong managed to rebuild the 399km road that links Changjin and Bujon region. Rodong paper then went on to point out the region has fostered 17,000 hector of forest land and additional 300 hector of land by reclaiming the nearby reed field. South Hwanghae Province also boasted its deeds of reclaiming over 32,500 hector-land with 'daring spirit' to overcome all obstacles. The North Hamgyong Province not only succeeded in restoring its hometown after the big flood took the region, but its region even established new tree nursery sites, the newspaper said. Similiar compliments went to
Hyesan, Kaesong, Kanggye City as well as Sanwon, Bukchang and Changyon Counties and other places.
North Korea has been launching a nationwide restoration project respectively in Spring and Fall. The next Land Management Period is from October to November ."Surely the number of new plants are exaggerated," commented one North Korea observer in Seoul.
By Aidan Foster-Carter
The good news is that North Korea has won an award. The bad news is that it has no official status. The worse news is - you'd guessed - that this was the kind of competition one would rather not win. Call it a sixth sense, or call me an old cynic. But somehow, as soon as I saw the cover of Newsweek's July 9 issue, I knew the DPRK would be in there. In fat postcard style letters, it read: "Greetings from the World's Worst Countries". And promised "Newsweek's Bottom 10 - the Worst of the Worst"...
By Christopher Hitchens
Newsweek , July 9 2001. PICKING THE WORST COUNTRY in the world is not unlike choosing rogue nations—a parlour game that is open to interpretation, whether informed or not. What goes to make up a real hellhole? The chief ingredients are tyranny, chaos and corruption, but in most countries, the lack of one tends to mitigate the presence of the others. An authoritarian state can bring stability and order; on the other hand, chaotic countries are more likely to have governments that are not very good at repression.
In Baghdad I have been sickened by the pervasive feeling of fear while feeling reasonably confident that, if I was knocked down by a car, an ambulance would come. In the Congolese capital of Kinshasa, I realized there would be nobody to call. Some dictatorships, like China, are tough on crime as well as any form of disorder; Tiananmen Square on an average day is very controlled but also very safe. Whereas in Zimbabwe, which used to be my favourite African nation, the state now uses criminal elements for “law enforcement.” Nor should one forget the systems and societies that are perfectly open, unless you happen to be a member of the wrong “race” or religion.
Yet there is one place on earth that is home to all these forces of misery: the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Into this tiny space has been packed the worst combination of absolute despotism and utter breakdown—a weird coincidence of totalitarianism with state failure.
It’s the totalitarian aspect that strikes you first, as it did me when I visited North Korea last winter. Fifty years of ultra-Stalinism have made the very idea of a private life almost unthinkable. Every move and utterance is planned and scripted, with an entire people endlessly mobilized for a cult of hysterical adulation. The president of the country is a dead man named Kim Il Sung, whose rotund visage glares from every wall. All other official leadership posts are held by his son Kim Jong Il, whose birth is said to have been attended by miraculous signs and portents. All films, all books, all newspapers and all radio and television broadcasts are about either the Father or the Son. Everybody is a soldier. Everybody is an informer. Everybody is a unit. Everything is propaganda.
There are no minorities in North Korea, but that doesn’t mean its society isn’t intensely chauvinistic. Children are drilled to think of Japanese and Americans, in particular, as monstrous. It is forbidden for citizens to have any contact with the handful of foreign visitors. One of my party-appointed guides told me that South Korea would need to be liberated very soon by the North, before intermarriage and exposure to outsiders could mongrelize the South Korean people.
The old justification for the Stalinist forced-march system was that at least it led to development. But even in Pyongyang, the capital city which is reserved for approved citizens, one can see that this excuse doesn’t work. Neither does anything else; the place is stalled and hungry and subject to constant blackouts. There are no cars on the streets; there is no construction except of tawdry shrines to the Holy Family. A very small window of dollar bribery has opened up in recent years, but there’s nothing to buy and no black market. Corruption at the leadership level is exorbitant, with palaces and limos and (a special obsession of Kim Jong Il’s) megalomaniacal movie projects. But there’s no trickle down, no enlivening parallel economy.
Out in the countryside and in provincial towns, I saw people scavenging individual grains from the fields and washing themselves in open sewers. On the almost deserted roads, animals do a good deal of the hauling. Domestic pets are nowhere to be seen. Perhaps most have been eaten, for the fact is that North Korea is a famine state and, in many of its provinces, a vanishing state. The few aid workers who remain tell of orphanages crammed with wizened babies. Nobody knows the death toll—the best guess is between 1.5 and 2 million—but in addition a generation of physically and mentally stunted children has been “fathered” by the “Dear Leader.” Well-attested rumors of cannibalism have filtered across the border to China, where a Korean-speaking minority has lately been augmented by refugees so desperate that they will risk shooting in order to brave the river. A system where you can’t live but you can’t leave is the definition of hell.
I was shown a film shot secretly in the North. It had footage of deserted towns, empty factories, wandering and neglected children and untilled fields. Most reports agree that the country’s once productive coal mines have been allowed to flood, and that there are no pumps that can be brought to bear. As if in mockery of all this dereliction and misery, the regime invests in building rockets for export—perhaps the only functioning part of the economy and a further guarantee (as if hysterical xenophobia were not enough) that international help will be hard to come by.
I think that covers everything. On the one hand, the country is marked by rigid and fanatical militarization, complete censorship and total party control. On the other, it continues to be plagued by galloping underdevelopment, scarcity and social implosion. No food and no culture. No future and no past. Just an unbearable present, both predictable and unstable. It can’t get any worse than this, except that it will. The envelope, please...
The Joongang Ilbo, 5 July 2001. The United Nations (UN)' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) expressed growing concern over the desperate crop situation in North Korea badly hit by this spring's long-term-drought. FAO in its Food Outlook report no. 3 of June 2001 edition revealed the combination of long harsh winter and equally unprecedented period of dry spell this spring promises another starvation period in the already impoverished state.North Hwanghae Province one of the major grainbelt regions in the North is also badly struck by the weather, confirmed the report as well as potatoes and corns. Despite the smooth proceedings of rice planting the lack of sufficient water has also affected one third of the farming land in the nation.This report drawn out in May 25 this year would be followed by another report expected to be released after further research into the North conducted by FAO and World Food Program (WFP) joint investigation team sometime between June 23 to July 3. Exact figure will be drawn out after a more accurate survey. FAO's world Food Outlook is released five times a year. The no.4 edition of this year is expected to determine the specific figure for the overall crop condition and its distribution system.
The Joongang Ilbo, 9 July, 2001. Professor Kim Soon-kwon of the Kyungpook National University who have recently returned from this trip to North Korea said today the food situation in the North is getting ever more serious due to the nation's earlier unprecedented dry spell. "In this year's harvest the North saw 70 percent decrease in its wheat and barley harvest and 50 percent decrease in potatoe harvest. Not much is expected ahead for corn harvest which is likely to show 40-50 percent decrease overall," said the professor.
"Not as much damage has gone to the rice plants, thank god, but if the draught prolongs the North will soon face its worst food crisis ever by second half of this year." "People's expression are gloomier than the last time I visited the North in May" the professor said. "The hunger-stricken people in the regime needs much attention and aid from the international society" he added. Professor Kim is again planning to enter the North early next month to inspect the growing conditions of super corn.
Koreaherald, 10 July 2001. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is ready to provide economic aid to North Korea if Seoul and Pyongyang open dialogue, a visiting senior official said yesterday. Stanley Fischer, first deputy managing director of the IMF, talked about the plan in a meeting with President Kim Dae-jung at Cheong Wa Dae, presidential spokesman Park Joon-young said.
Fischer said it would be possible for the IMF to send a fact-finding mission to North Korea to study how to help restructure its economy if both Koreas support it. There will be no big problems in dispatching the joint survey team to the North, the IMF senior official was further quoted as saying. In March, top officials of the IMF and the World Bank met President Kim in Washington and hoped to assist North Korea in its efforts to develop the economy and send a mission to Pyongyang. Fischer told Kim that the IMF wants the Asian Development Bank (ADB), China, the United States and several other countries to join the mission.
The President expressed support for the idea, saying it is desirable that as many countries and international organizations as possible participate in the fact-finding team, according to Park. North Korea has relied heavily on foreign aid to overcome its severe economic difficulties caused by crop-destroying weather and government mismanagement. The communist country has wanted to receive soft loans from international lending agencies like the IMF and the ADB to rebuild its shattered economy. But the United States, the major shareholder of those global financial institutions, has restricted the North's access to them, labelling Pyongyang as a terrorism-supporting state.
by Kim Hee-sung
The Joongang Ilbo, 5 July 2001. North Korea received a total of 1229.5 billion won-worth aid ($99 million) from the South for the first half of this year. Private-level aid to North Korea amounted to 44.5 billion won ($34.17million) for the first half of the year, an overwhelming increase from same time last year's 11 billion won ($ 8.45 million) reported the Ministry of Unification. Among the private donations 24.4 billion ($18.7 million) came from the Red Cross Society, 20.1 billion ($15.4 million) from individual channels, 5.5 billion won ($4.22 million) from relief organization Good Friends, 5.37 billion ($4.12 million) from Korean Welfare Foundation, 3.7 billion won ($2.84 million) from Good Neighbors International, 1.99 billion ($1.53 million) form South-North Sharing Campaign and 300 million won ($230,400) from the World Vision.
Again, more people frequented to the North compared to same period last year. According to the estimation, a total of 182 people crossed the border for 38 different cases in this early half, a jump from last time's 50 people with 14 cases. The government's aid to the North too soared up from last year's 64 billion won ($49.2 million) to 84.9 billion won ($65.2 million). The international society also extended an additional $188.08 million-worth aid to poverty-stricken nation with 500,000 ton of rice aid from Japan and further food aids from other countries including Germany, Vietnam, the United States for the early half of the year.
No, not that
President Kim
By Aidan Foster-Carter
This week North Korea's President Kim begins a tour of Indo-China. Have Kim Jong-il's two trips to China given him a yen for wider horizons? Nope. Not that president Kim. So did they elect someone else? You've got to be kidding. A coup? Perish the thought. Then what's going on? Nothing at all. It's just that the formalities of North Korea's power structure - the realities are something else again - can be rather confusing. This article will boldly strive to dispel Confucianism. Take a deep breath ...
The Chosun Ilbo,1 July 2001. North Korea's population policy calls for bearing many young. At the second mothers rally held in September 1998, authorities called on mothers to give birth to as many children as possible. A female with three or more children will be given a daily food ration of 600g and a monthly allowance of NKW60 (Workers' monthly wages average at NKW100), it was announced. A household raising four children or more will be granted the additional privileges of a special living allowance and priority in the allocation of bigger houses, the authorities proclaimed. In February this year a female worker in Jagang Province, who is said to have born many children, was given the title of
"labor heroine." This title is granted to housewives who have given birth to eight children or more, according to North Korean escapees in the South.
Faced with fallouts from it's mid 1970's birth control policy such as emerging shortages in military recruitment and labor force, Pyongyang shifted to the encouragement of childbirth in 1996. It was against such a background that the North in October 1996 extended servicemen's retirement age from 27 to 30. Also contributing to the trend was the practice of getting married later, a new social phenomenon brought about by worsening economic woes in the wake of the death of the North Korean founder and president Kim Il Sung in 1994. Females' marrying age was extended from 23-24 to 27-28 in 1994. A wide-circulated saying, "One who lends money to another person is the worst fool, one who pays back his debt is the second worst fool, and those who get married follow next," has something to do with such a social atmosphere.
Despite authorities' appeal to the contrary, young couples tend to put off having kids until they have established themselves financially, and have only one or two children at that. To do so, they have to practice contraception, but it's hard to find the means of contraception in North Korea. Only a privileged few rich citizens have access to condoms; most ordinary people have never even heard of a condom.
If a woman becomes pregnant against her wishes, she tends to undergo a surgical abortion. Surgical abortions were permitted in the North in or around 1983 when the birth control policy peaked. but remain confined to mothers with five children or more or those afflicted by serious diseases, like hepatitis and tuberculosis. However, a large number of pregnant women get surgical abortions illicitly by bribing surgeons. The price of a surgical abortion varies by region and individual, but is usually about 9 litres of polished rice.
Pregnant housewives take medical checkups at their neighbourhood clinics or hospitals. If a women carries triplets or more, she is immediately transferred to Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, the best-equipped hospital of obstetrics and gynaecology in the North, where she is accorded special treatment.
Expectant mothers generally deliver their babies at home. They avoid hospitals because medical institutions, due to economic difficulties, require admitted pregnant women to supply firewood for heating the ward, foods and drinks, injections and every other necessary type of equipment. Upon delivery, mothers eat seaweed soup, which follows the traditional practice prevailing across the Korean peninsula. As seaweed is hard to obtain, many of them are served a less salty soup of dried outer cabbage leaves.
The Chosun Ilbo,1 July 2001. Yanji, China -- Quite a few well-dressed itinerant ethnic Korean merchants were often seen in North Korean border cities such as Hyesan, Musan and Hoeryong in the 1980s. But few of them are observed in recent years. Back then it was hardly an exaggeration to say that every one of two households in the Yanji Korean community was engaged in trading activities with the North. The traveling ethnic Korean merchants brought back to China such products as sea cucumber, Alaskan pollack, cuttlefish, herbs, quality edible mountain plants, copper and antiques, while selling cheap Chinese goods in the North. By selling Chinese products in the North, they could make handsome profits - two or even three times the costs, says Kim Hui
Mun, 35, a Korean resident in China who used to trade with Pyongyang. Most popular in the North lately are very cheap nylon clothes, which are rarely worn in China, he adds. Chinese cigarettes, liquor, socks, candies and cookies are briskly sold in the North.
In recent years, however, the once-prosperous itinerant ethnic Korean merchants in North Korea are giving up the business in favor of such destinations as Russia and Southeast Asia. North Korea-bound merchants are now rarely seen at Dandong, Tuman and Changbai customs houses. They are halting business trips to the North because they are no longer profitable, according to reliable sources here. Commodities to be brought from the North have all but run out, and North Koreans' purchasing power to buy Chinese products has remarkably fell, they say. To make the matters worse, North Korean authorities are said to have recently reinforced crackdowns on them in a bid to uproot individual itinerant merchants.
Also hindering the business is corruption on the part of North Korean officials. The itinerant merchants are fed up with customs officials demanding excessive bribes and picking fights with them, they complain. Ethnic Korean businessman Kim Min Chol, 37 (assumed name), delivered relief goods to the North last year aboard a truck. He was quite upset when customs officials asked him to pay bribes even over the relief items. In addition, says he, on his way to his destination, a few soldiers boarded his truck by force and took one third of the goods away, adding that nothing whatsoever could be done about it.
A Korean resident in Dandong doing business with North Korea said that he was trying to establish a link with one of financially well-off military-affiliated North Korean trading firms. Ordinary North Korean trading companies are poorly funded and hardly trustable, he added. North Korean authorities are said to be rooting out individual merchants in a bid to restore crippled social discipline, and encouraging trading firms, not individuals, to do trade with China. The fewer ethnic Koreans visit the North on business, the more difficult the lives of North Koreans will become.
The Chosun Ilbo, 27June 2001. Activities by various social groups and professional associations have become increasingly prevalent in South Korea these days. Are there similar such groups in the highly regulated, reclusive Communist North Korea, too? The answer is "Yes." North Korea has about 100 social organizations with most of them being of a political flavor. Among them are interest groups that we would probably find difficult to imagine present in the communist country -- associations of chefs, Paduk-lovers, golfers, stamp collectors and automobile enthusiasts. In addition, there are professional organizations for lawyers, librarians and doctors aimed at promoting friendship and the economic interests of their members.
All of the above mentioned social organizations were formed in the late 1980s under Pyongyang's initiative in pursuit of economic interests, rather than political purposes. Analysts see their emergence as a result of the gradual infiltration of Western capitalism into North Korean society after the North enacted the Joint Venture Law in 1984 to lure more foreign investment into the cash-strapped country. The emergence of the groups is closely related to the country's realization that tourism is a good source of earning foreign currency and some groups go so far as to cite their objective as earning more foreign money by attracting tourists to the country with specially designed tourism programs like golf tours and food tours. Of particular interest is the chief's association.
The organization was formed in August 1989 with the aim of improving food on offer to foreign tourists and to diversify menus. To reach that goal, the group received instruction from their counterparts in the former Soviet Union and East European countries under sisterhood relationships. It is thought that the association has some 20,000 members comprising chefs from highly regarded restaurants in Pyongyang such as the Okryugwan and Chongryugwan, as well as joint venture restaurants in Eastern Europe and China.
The most famous of its members is Kim Jong-sun who runs the Yonggwang Street Restaurant in the capital city. Kim has won acclaim in the North for preserving and improving upon the country's traditional dishes. She has reportedly created some 200 kinds of new Korean dishes. The golf association was established in April 1987 timed with the opening of the Pyongyang Golf Course, the first in the country. The association still focuses on drawing more foreign tourists in close cooperation with the Choson travel company and managing a golf practice range at Chongchun St. in Pyongyang. In the North, golf is not regarded as a sport itself but a means of attracting foreign tourists.
A five or six-day golf tour package developed jointly by the golf association and the Chosun travel company includes a visit to Pyongyang Golf Course in Nampo, about 45 minutes from Pyongyang by car. At the time of the course's opening, the (North) Korean Central Broadcasting Station stated: "The golf course will contribute to providing a healthy atmosphere and rest to foreign visitors, including ethnic Koreans from Japan, and enhancing the techniques of golf-lovers from around the world."
The golf association is currently under the umbrella of the North's State Physical Culture and Sports Guidance Committee. The Paduk Association was established on March 13, 1989 under the control of the same state committee. The association has served greatly to increase the North's civilian exchanges with China and Japan. It sent a delegation to the 13th World Amateur Paduk Championships in Japan in May 1991 for the first time and officially joined an international Paduk federation during the championship period.
With the goal of increasing the number of people playing Paduk and promoting civilian exchanges with foreign countries, the association has been hosting an annual Paduk championship since 1990. Pyongyang is also thought to have an automobile association under the control of the sports guidance committee. "Pyongyang will see the emergence of more and more different groups in society because if it chooses to open up, the social diversification that will inevitably follow will probably produce such groups," an observer said. "Judging by recent trends and developments, the North is expected to open its door not in distant future," he added.
The Associated Press reported that the DPRK's official media KCNA said Monday that DPRK leader Kim Jong-il visited the PRC Embassy in Pyongyang and praised the PRC leadership. The DPRK did not criticize the PRC for recently allowing a DPRK family that took refuge in a UN building in Beijing to relocate to the ROK. Kim attended a July 1 evening party celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Kim, accompanied by top party and military officials, extended "warmest congratulations" to PRC leaders and lauded "proud achievements made by the CPC in leading the revolution and construction for the past 80 years." ("N. KOREAN LEADER VISITS CHINA EMBASSY," Seoul, 7/2/01)
Pyongyang, June 29 (KCNA) -- The United States is getting ever more pronounced in its hostile policy towards the DPRK. Some time ago, it bribed Hong Kong's reptile newspaper South China Morning Post into floating a sheer lie about the DPRK which was cited by some media of South Korea and Japan. It asserted that in the 1990s there were frequent "anti-government demonstrations" and "armed rebellions" in east coastal and northern areas of the DPRK and the government "has cut off supply of the food from international relief bodies" to "punish" inhabitants in those areas. This is no more than a sheer deceptive propaganda because neither "anti-government demonstration" nor "armed rebellion" is conceivable in the DPRK where the popular masses enjoy an independent and creative life as true masters of the state and society.
In recent years the DPRK had to make an "arduous march" owing to the imperialists' moves to isolate and stifle it and natural disasters that lasted for several consecutive years, and food has, therefore, remained in short supply. But, the government has ensured an equal supply of food to the entire population under such difficult conditions. It has been officially recognized by members of WFP and other international bodies and humanitarian aid organizations active in the DPRK. This notwithstanding, such a false report was fabricated and spread to slander the DPRK. It is entirely due to the U.S. imperialists and their stooges' hostile policy toward the DPRK. It is nobody's secret that in the past they egged venal writers to conduct a smear campaign in a sinister bid to tarnish the international image of the DPRK and check the international community's humanitarian aid to it.
The recent false propaganda was evidently cooked up by them in a bid to break the single hearted unity of the DPRK where the leader, the party and the masses have formed an integral whole, and infringe upon its sovereignty. Such provocation will only touch off bitterer hatred of the people's army and people of Korea against the U.S. imperialist aggressors and harden their determination to take revenge upon them and spark curses and condemnation from the truth-loving international community and public opinion. If the South Korean authorities echo the U.S. false report, banking on its hostile policy toward the DPRK, this will have an adverse on the north-south relations. In this case, they will be entirely held accountable for it.
Joongang Ilbo reported that talks on rice purchase between the DPRK and Thailand are continuing, with the DPRK most likely to make a barter deal over the payment. "North Korea will pay for the rice with fertilizer or steel," Thai Commerce Minister Adisai Bodharamik stated. (Kim Hee-sung, "N.K. TO PURCHASE THAI RICE WITH FERTILIZER AND STEEL," Seoul, 06/27/01)
The Korea Herald reported that the DPRK will soon enter the era of the Internet through the use of satellite-based infrastructure, Cho Hyun-jung, president of BIT Computer, said Wednesday. Cho said that during his recent trip to Pyongyang, he agreed with DPRK officials to set up a system at the Chosun Computer Center enabling people there to access the Internet via a satellite. "North Koreans will be able to log on to the Internet via the system within three months," Cho said. Cho, one of the most respectable venture entrepreneurs in the ROK, visited Pyongyang June 19-23 at the invitation of DPRK officials. Cho said that DPRK citizens have thus far had a limited, phone line-based access to the Internet via the PRC. "It is the first time that North Korea has built Internet infrastructures in earnest." In explaining why the DPRK chose a satellite-based connection, Cho said: "In Pyongyang and other major cities, optical cables have been laid with the support of the United Nations. Still, building connections to foreign countries and laying cables between major institutions will require prohibitively large additional costs. Hence, the low-cost satellite option." ("SEOUL TO HELP NORTH KOREA BUILD SATELLITE-BASED INTERNET ACCESS SYSTEM," Seoul, 06/28/01)
Yonhap News Agency, 25 June 2001. North Korea received 389,775 tons of foreign food aid between January and May from South Korea, the United States, Japan, the European Union (EU) and eight other countries as well as four non-governmental organizations, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Monday. The agency included the figure in its report on North Korea issued Monday. The greater part of the food aid, 385,308 ton, was in grains including 100,000 ton of corn from South Korea, 208,007 ton of rice from Japan and the EU, 74,000 ton from the United States and the EU, 2,311 tons of beans from Sweden and Ireland and 990 tons of corn mixed with beans from the EU. The remaining 4,467 tons included 2,216 tons of corn oil, 923 tons of sugar, 712 tons of frozen beef and 520 tons of canned fish from Canada. The report said the World Food Programme (WFP) needs an additional 250,000 tons of grain by the end of the year to prevent starving in the last three months of 2001. The WFP has secured enough supplies to last until September under its current aid projections for the North.
People Daily reported that in Pyongyang on June 24, 200,000 people assembled at Kim Il-Sung Square to memorize the 51st anniversary of "June 25 Anti-US Day." The chairman of the Pyongyang People's Committee delivered a speech at the rally. He said, since the armistice, the DPRK Party and Government has tried its utmost to end the instable situation on the Korean Peninsula, eliminate the danger of war, realize lasting peace and achieve peaceful reunification. However, he said the US did not draw lessons from the failed Korean War, but adopts hostile attitudes towards the DPRK. The hostile DPRK policies of the new US Government have impeded the reconciliation process on the peninsula, he added. He stressed that the DPRK will fight resolutely to balance the US hostile DPRK policies. (Xinhua News Agency, Zhang Jinfang and Li Zhengyu, "PYONG HOLDS BIG-SCALE ANTI-US MASS RALLY," Pyongyang, 06/26/01, P3)
The Korea Herald reported that the ROK Navy ships fired warning shots Saturday at a DPRK fishing boat which intruded into ROK waters off Baengnyeong Island in the West Sea, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. The DPRK boat was driven back to the northern side of the West Sea Northern Limit Line (NLL) after staying two and a half hours on the southern side of the NLL, the JCS said. "Our Navy spotted the nine-ton North Korean fishing boat with five fishermen aboard crossing into the southern part of the NLL about 4.5 miles northwest of Baengnyeong Island around 2:50 a.m.," said a spokesman for the JCS. The spokesman said that the Navy immediately dispatched two patrol boats to the scene and attempted to inspect the fishing boat while continuously sending warning signals. "But the North Korean fishermen, wielding torches and sticks, rejected our repeated orders to stop for an inspection, prompting our patrol boats to fire nine warning shots," he said. After receiving the warning shots, the spokesman said, the DPRK ship headed to the north around 5:27 a.m. The DPRK made no military moves during the incident, he said. (Kang Seok-jae, "NAVY FIRES WARNING SHOTS AT INTRUDING N.K. FISHING BOAT," Seoul, 06/25/01)
Arirang TV, 21 June 2001. North Korea is expected to face another dire food shortage in the coming months according to the World Food Program, the United Nations international food aid organization Wednesday, which said the North’s food stocks will be exhausted by the end of this month. The aid group also stated that the North's grim food situation in the next several months may be worse than it was back in 1998. The WFP stated that the Stalinist state is suffering a grain shortage of around 1-million tons, even though it had a better than average harvest in the past 3-years. Meanwhile, 56-officials from the relief organization have reportedly been monitoring the fair distribution of rations and noticed a change in health of the North Koreans.
Yonhap News Agency, 21 June 2001. The representative of the UN International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in Pyongyang said Wednesday [20 June] North Korea has a strong will to stand on its own and the officials think that the country should open its doors to the world to alleviate the sufferings of the people. Richard Bridle, visiting here for an international meeting of nongovernmental organizations helping North Korea, told a press conference that the officials working with UNICEF think the socialist economy no longer exists in the North and that North Korea should cooperate with other countries. They also think that North Korea does not want to follow the Chinese model of development, he added.
Noting that North Korea's food situation has improved from the 1996-97 period, Bridle said UNICEF, in cooperation with the World Health Organization, gave two polio vaccine shots to every child below five years old a year, with the result that the North Korean children are almost free from polio today. The drought has caused North Korea to suspend daily food rations to the people two to three days a week, he said.
According to the Hong Kong based South China Morning Post on Friday June 22, which quoted DPRK defectors hiding in the PRC, the DPRK government has been denying food supplies to regions that held anti-government demonstrations and riots. Action Contre le Faim, one of the non-governmental humanitarian groups from France that had withdrawn from the DPRK, revealed that DPRK authorities officially divided its people into two categories--the useful and the non-useful--and have forbid food aid to those they deem unworthy.
Joongang Ilbo reported that DPRK Chairman Kim Jong-il has so far conducted 140 economic inspections to various factories and industrial complexes in his regime, reported Korea Central Broadcast on Monday. Man Il-hong the vice-minister of Light Industry said in his Monday's interview that Chairman Kim visited conducted over 140 inspections to economic sites since the start of his political career back in June 1964. "During his on-spot-guidance he tasted our own food and resolved the problems that has kept us with concern," Man added. Man also said that during the Period of Arduous March - around 1995~1997 - Chairman Kim after dropping by fabric and food factory in Sakju region went to inspect textile and grape wine factory in Kanggye province. He also looked around Daehongdan Potato Starch Factory in Ryangang region and several more. ("OVER 140 ECONOMIC INSPECTIONS BY CHAIRMAN, REPORTS N.K. NEWS," Seoul, 06/19/01)
Chosun Ilbo reported that a high-ranking source in the ROK government said Tuesday that when a DPRK cargo ship, the 9,700-ton "Daedongkang," which attempted to violate the Northern Limited Line (NLL), detoured after receiving a warning from the a ROK Navy warship, DPRK leader, Kim Jong Il was making an inspection of one of the DPRK naval bases nearby in charge of guarding the DPRK's NLL area of the East Sea. The source said the detour of the "Daedongang" was possibly related to Kim's visit to the unit, but that there was no convincing proof that can support this assumption. Kim is known to have inspected other military units including air force bases in the neighborhood that day. (Yoo Yeong-won, "KIM JONG IL VISITS NAVAL UNIT," Seoul, 06/19/01)
Chosun Ilbo reported that the Joint Chiefs of Staff announced Sunday that a DPRK vessel sailing toward the Northern Limitation Line diverted toward open seas after receiving a warning from the ROK Navy. The 9,700-ton "Daedongkang" was detected at 7:00pm on Friday sailing 74 miles from the east coast port of Jeojin, but on receipt of the warning sailed out to 218 miles from the port. This is the first time a DPRK merchant ship has reacted to a warning after a series of intrusions across the NLL recently. The vessel had departed from Heungnam in the DPRK
with its final destination being Nagoya, Japan. The JCS said that
the vessel was not carrying any freight. (Yu Yong-won, "NK FREIGHTER DIVERTS FROM NLL AFTER ROKN WARNING," Seoul, 06/17/01)
Arirang TV 18 June 2001. North Korea's food crisis is said to have been aggravated by what's being called the worst drought on the Korean Peninsula in almost a century, and coming to the North's rescue is the German government, which has decided to send US$2.2 million worth of emergency grain to the famine-stricken country. The aid is expected to be sent through the World Food Program, which already has distribution facilities there. And under a separate program, Berlin will also provide bread to North Korean students in collaboration with German relief agencies operating in the communist state. The European country had pledged to send 30,000 tons of beef aid to the North, but has been unable to secure enough supply for even the first shipment. This is because German farmers are less inclined to sell beef at low prices now that the scare over the mad cow disease is over. Berlin's latest decision is likely to help ease North Korea's famine, while further improving bilateral relations between the two countries. Since setting up ambassador-level ties back in March, the two sides have been engaged in active economic and cultural exchanges.
Yonhap News Agency 17 June 2001. "The Third International NGO Conference on Humanitarian Assistance to North Korea" was held in Seongnam, Kyonggi Province, Sunday [17 June] for a four-day run to seek ways to support North Korea with international non-governmental organizations in attendance. At the closed-door session, 150 participants from 20 South Korean and 10 global aid groups discussed their long-term direction in backing the North and current problems from food shortage. During the event, seven representatives of United Nations based in Pyongyang will report drought damage in the North, including David Morton at the World Food Programme, Richard Bridle at the United Nations Children's Fund. In addition, Minister of Unification Lim Dong-won will deliver speeches on Monday and Wednesday. The first such conference was held in Beijing in 1999, and the second meeting in Tokyo in 2000.
The Chosun Ilbo 15 June 2001. Aid amounting to 712 tons of beef promised to N. Korea by the Swiss Government has arrived in the North. This shipment of aid is known to be the fourth shipment that the Swiss government has sent to N. Korea, worth over 4,3800,000 dollars. In addition, in May the Swiss government decided to send an additional 700 tons of beef to the North. According to a report written by the United Nations Department of Human Rights (UNDHR) in May. Italia sent 298 tons of sugar. Japan sent 60,000 tons of rice. Korea sent 35,000 tons of corn. Bethel Korean United Methodist Church sent 132 tons of sugar. And the U.S. sent 30,000 tons of wheat.
By Kim Ji-ho The Korea Herald 18 June 2001. Kim Un-yong, an executive board member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and Rep. Choi Jae-seung of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), will leave for North Korea tomorrow in search of ways to promote inter-Korean sports cooperation. They are making the five-day visit at the invitation of Jang Ung, the North Korean member of the IOC, and Pak Myong-chol, chairman of the North's National Sports Committee. Rep. Choi, chairman of the National Assembly's Culture and Tourism Committee, also serves as an advisor for the Korea Sports Council, which is led by Kim. Kim's aides said that the upcoming trip is aimed at reinvigorating inter-Korean sports exchanges, which went into a lull late March when Pyongyang pulled out of a promise to form a joint table tennis team with Seoul. The Seoul government still hopes to allocate some of the 2002 World Cup soccer matches scheduled to be held in the South, to North Korea. South Korea and Japan will co-host the World Cup finals. Sports cooperation between the two Koreas drew international attention last September, when their athletes marched together at the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics. Political observers speculated that in view of Choi's close ties to President Kim Dae-jung, the lawmaker might act as a sort of envoy for the Seoul government. With inter-Korean relations having been stuck in a deadlock for more than three months, Seoul officials are seeking to revive dialogue and arrange North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's visit to the South. Rep. choi's aides, however, cautioned against hasty speculation, saying that he would not be able to act as a "special envoy" as his visit is an official one.
By Kim Kwang, The Chosun Ilbo 17June 2001. The entire of North Korea is suffering from its worst drought in history, dubbed "King Drought in the Millennium." Accompanied by extraordinary high temperatures and strong winds, the dryness has lasted more than 90 days since early March. Rainfall during this period averaged 18.3mm, a mere 11% of the average in ordinary years and 17% of last year's. Quite a few places had no rain whatsoever in April, among them the capital of Pyongyang, along with Pyongsong, Anju and Sukchon in South Pyongan Province; Sinchon, Jangyon and Unyul in South Hwanghai Province; and Suan and Tosan in North Hwanghai Province. "This is a peculiar phenomenon that occurs only once in a millennium," said an official of the Pyongyang Meteorological Bureau.
A deputy bureau director-general of the North's Agriculture Ministry, Kim Hyok Jin, in an interview with the Korea Central Broadcasting Station on June 6, disclosed that 72% of the country's entire farmland corresponding to 3.3 million acres was affected by the dry weather. As of June 1, 80%-90% of potatoes, wheat and barley were blighted, according to figures released by the Agriculture Ministry. Strong winds uprooted crops in Kosong in Kangwon Province, Sariwon in North Hwanghai Province, Chongjin in North Hamgyong Province, and Haiju in South Hwanghai Province.
In addition, fruit flowers like those of apricots and peaches were also struck. Such abnormal weather conditions made soil moisture evaporate and soil has dried up down to 20cm or more, rendering it difficult to expect crops' budding and growth, says the North Korean media. The prolonged period of dry weather is anticipated to further aggravate the already serious food shortages in the North. The World Food Program (WFP), which along with the North's Great Flood Countermeasures Committee is monitoring the drought's extensive damage on crops, revealed in a recent report that grains planted for double-cropping purposes like winter and spring wheat, barley and potatoes, were hit severely. These crops planted in winter or early spring account for 10% of the entire farm output of the North and help maintain the population's food supply until rice is harvested in October, says the report, indicating that the drought damage would worsen the North's food shortages this year.
North Korea is doing its best to combat the drought damage. Based on damage reports filed by its officials dispatched to provinces, the Ministry of Agriculture is making desperate efforts, putting up irrigation facilities and adjusting power supply for the purpose of maximizing the operation of water pumps. Provincial agricultural agencies, in a bid to secure water for farming purposes, are digging wells and constructing small water reservoirs and pools. Large-scale drives are underway among residents to carry water to farmland with the help of machines. Even an emergency step of drawing seawater into rivers is recently being taken, according to the Korea Central News Agency.
As electricity generation by hydroelectric power plants has fallen because of the lengthy dry weather, North Koreans are reinforcing the "alternate production" system at plants and business establishments with a view to saving energy and normalizing production. The system calls for balancing power supply with its consumption by alternating production among power users belonging to the same power grid. Plants and business establishments are reminded by newspapers and broadcasting stations of the power scarcity, and urged to thoroughly comply with alternate production tables, periodically adjusted by the first and second half of the month, week or even by day.
North Korea's diplomatic forays into South and Central Asia, reflective of its efforts elsewhere, are characterized by subversion and spooks, farce and sleaze. Nevertheless, seven centuries after Genghis Khan laid waste to Korea, his heirs are kinder to North Koreans than their own latter-day khan, writes Aidan Foster-Carter.
Last June people on the the Korean peninsula were
celebrating first ever inter-Korean summit talks. A
year later there is not that much to party about,
although the news that the United States is at last
ready to resume talks with North Korea gives some
cheer, writes Aidan Foster-Carter.
The Chosun Ilbo 12 June 2001. The Korean peninsula has been hit by the worst drought since records began nearly a century ago, raising the specter of a fresh food crisis in North Korea, weathermen said Sunday. "The peninsula registered the lowest spring rainfall in the history of weather observation, which began in 1904," said Kim Sun-Kil of the Korea Meteorological Agency in Seoul. The central part of the peninsula was hit particularly hard by the drought, he said. The three-month rainfall in North Korea's southern rice belt stood at 10 percent of normal years, Kim said. In South Korea's drought-stricken areas, fire departments are distributing emergency water rations, factories have shut down and farmers have given up hope of planting rice. Agriculture experts said up to 10 percent of crops would be damaged in South Korea. Vegetable prices have already risen sharply.
At an emergency meeting on Sunday, top South Korean ruling party and government officials called for a nationwide campaign to cope with the drought. The drought also prompted emergency steps in North Korea, which has been plagued by six consecutive years of food shortages. "No harvest is expected from hundreds of thousands of hectares of drought-stricken areas," the North's official Korean Central News Agency warned. The drought was severely damaging crops, with temperatures in all parts of North Korea three degrees Celsius higher than in normal years, it said. The North posted a 15 percent fall in agricultural output last year, forcing the famine-hit country to live on reduced food rations this year, according to South Korea's central Bank of Korea. Aid agencies have warned that North Korea faces serious new food shortages this year, forcing the country into even greater reliance on international aid. The World Food Program director (WFP) in North Korea said last month that most of the North's 22 million population is now surviving on a fistful of rice or cereal each day. The WFP has been feeding around eight million North Koreans since 1996, mainly children and the elderly. It has appealed for 810,000 tonnes of international food aid this year. SEOUL/ AFP/ June 10/ by C.W. Lim
The Chosun Ilbo 10 June 2001. The driest spring in 80 years has put North Korea's wheat, barley and potato harvests this summer in doubt, the United Nations World Food Programme reports. Another year of severe food shortages looms for up to one-third of that nation's 22 million people. Lutheran World Relief recently extended support for a North Korean agricultural project begun in 1997. A new $20,000 grant will help provide fertilizers, seeds, vinyl sheeting and machinery parts for farming cooperatives that are served by LWR's partner in North Korea, the American Friends Service Committee.The project uses traditional and experimental methods for growing "green manure" crops that improve soil fertility and provide food and animal fodder. Farm managers credit the project with a 30 percent increase in rice and corn yields last year, despite scant rainfall then too. Each $50 worth of fertilizer supplied to the project increases rice or corn yields enough to meet the caloric needs of up to eight people for a year, according to AFSC. The three cooperatives involved include 13,500 people and about 13,000 acres on North Korea's western coastal plains. Earlier LWR aid to North Korea has included spring barley seed, bedding and clothing. North Korea's ability to feed its people has been crippled by the economic collapse that followed the demise of the Soviet Union and a series of droughts and floods that began in the mid-1990s. Baltimore/Lutheran World Federation (LWF)/ June 7
The Chosun Ilbl 8 June 2001. The Korea Meteorological Agency said Friday that the record drought will continue until June 16 when it forecast the first rain would hit the peninsula, adding that monsoon rains should fall from June 21. Water officials say that at the moment 6,200 people in 36 out of 232 administrative areas were on water rationing, but this could increase to 200,000 if there is no rain by the end of the month. In Choongnam, Sapkyo Lake, which supplies water in that area will have to cease pumping on June 19 if there is no rain as reserves are down to 42% of normal. Gangwon is the worst hit province with water reserves down to 39% and many farmers have given up hope of planting rice crops. The government held an emergency meeting and decided to reduce electricity charges for farmers and transfer water from 11 multi-purpose dams to agricultural areas. In related news, the Chosun Ilbo has started a campaign to raise money to buy and send pumps to drought areas and in just one day got responses from 236 people and companies including President Kim Dae-jung, raising W684 million. Other media groups are also joining the campaign.
The Joongang Ilbo, 08 June, 2001. Domestic civic groups provided North Korea with a total of 9.99 billion won-worth aid $7.67 million) during last month. According to the Unification Ministry, four major civic organizations including The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) and Korean Medical Association (KMA) delivered goods to the North worth 5.64 billion won ($4.3 million), while other 7 civic groups such as Korea Welfare Foundation (KWF) and Good Neighbors Inc., dispatched medical equipment, farming tools, flours, vinyl and other supplies worth 4.35 billion won ($3.34 million). The government authority revealed out this year's aid to the North is 3.8 times of same time last year, quite a jump from 10.9 billion won ($8.4 million) to 41.6 billion won ($31.9 million).
The statistics, pointed out the government, directly indicates the public's interest toward North Korea since last year's inter-Korean summit. The government also mentioned of the increased contacts between North Korea and the domestic civic groups. "Just last month alone a there were 27 contacts between North Korean authority and civic groups with a total of 328 granted the access to Pyongyang for various purposes," said the government. "That adds up to a total of 41 contacts with 499 people visiting the North this year alone. Again, that 's 2.9 times the number of same time last year which recorded 23 contacts with 173 people." The related official meanwhile added the government's aid to the North in May was about $43.58 million covering 3,500 ton of corns sent via World Food Program (WFP) and 168,000 ton of fertilizer dispatched through the shipment.
In another sign of opening up its doors to the international arena, North Korea was known Monday to have approved the use of billboards for advertising purposes for the first time. Granting a business license to a German-based Korean firm, North Korea approved two billboards at Changjon Port in the Mount Kumgang tourist zone Yonhapnews Agency, 4 June 2001
Associated Press in Seoul, 5 June 2001. North Korea said its already weak farm industry is under threat from the longest dry spell in the nation's history. The drought, now entering its fourth month, has left vast areas of farmland parched, state media reported Monday. ``From the climatological point of view this long spell of drought is something rare in the history of meteorological observation,'' said the report by KCNA, North Korea's foreign news outlet. ``It is believed to happen once in 1,000 years.'' North Korea's farm industry has been devastated by flood, drought and mismanagement, forcing the impoverished communist country to rely on outside aid since 1995 to feed its 22 million people. By the Pyongyang government's own estimate, more than 200,000 people died of starvation or hunger-related diseases in the late 1990s.
According to the KCNA report, North Korea has registered a nationwide average rainfall of 0.72 inches since the drought began in early March -- only 17 percent of the rainfall in the same period of last year. The dry spell has continued through the rice-planting season, which began in mid-May, and has decimated the nation's fall harvest. Nearly 90 percent of potato, wheat, barley and maize seeds that were sown have already dried up, KCNA said, citing a damage report by the Agriculture Ministry. The news agency added that the drought was expected to last for ``more days to come.'' The previous longest drought on record in Korea lasted from July through October and caused ``tremendous losses to crops, livestock and human lives,'' KCNA said. The historical data quoted by KCNA appeared to be drawn from the records of the old Yi dynasty that ruled Korea until 1910, though its source was not specified. North Korea was created as a communist state when the Korean peninsula was partitioned along the 38th parallel at the end of World War II. A pro-Western government was set up in the south under U.S. guidance.
АГЕНТСТВО Рейтер (08.06.2001) процитировало сообщения официального северокорейского информационного агентства KCNA о том, что Пхеньян собирается возобновить работы в рамках программы по созданию ядерных реакторов. США и Япония, считают в Пхеньяне, недопустимо затянули реализацию проекта по строительству в КНДР двух безопасных ядерных реакторов в соответствии с договором между тремя странами от 1994 года: "подготовка места под строительство до сих пор не окончена, а само строительство и не начиналось".
Договор был не просто экономической акцией: США, Япония (и Южная Корея) были обеспокоены тем, что строившиеся тогда в КНДР реакторы могут использоваться корейцами в военных целях, и предложили Пхеньяну финансовую помощь в строительстве модернизированных реакторов (типа российских ВВЭР), а также осуществление поставок нефти. Таким образом, США получили возможность контроля за реализацией корейской ядерной программы.
Власти КНДР утверждают, что побудить власти страны возродить свою национальную атомную программу может недостаток электроэнергии в стране - недостаток этот, добавим, более чем очевиден для любого, посещающего Северную Корею. Эта история примечательна тем, что речь идет об одном из самых тяжелых для российской дипломатии уроков первой половины 90-х годов. Тогда Вашингтон, как впрочем и сейчас, выражал недовольство по поводу того, что у новой,
демократической России осталось слишком много друзей (и, между прочим, экономических партнеров) от СССР. В том числе - и КНДР. "Собственные" ядерные реакторы, о которых шла речь в цитированном выше сообщении, вполне можно было бы назвать и российскими - по сути сейчас мы наблюдаем продолжение истории, которая вкратце называется так: изгнание Вашингтоном российского бизнеса с традиционного рынка под идеологическим предлогом и занятие затем этого рынка американским и иным бизнесом, для которого идеология оказывается не столь важна.
Сейчас на Корейском полуострове изменилось многое - в частности, как стало очевидно в ходе недавнего визита в Сеул Владимира Путина, всерьез обсуждаются многосторонние проекты, в том числе энергетические, с участием России, Китая и прочих стран региона. (Независимая Газета 08.06.2001) in Russian
.
Yonhapnews Agency, 2 June 2001. The World Health Organization (WHO) opened a permanent office in North Korea Friday (June 1), a government official, who requested anonymity, said. The first head of the WHO's Pyongyang office is a Norwegian official who has been in charge of WHO aid to North Korea, the official added. Over the past 10 years, the international agency has tried to set up an office in Pyongyang to better direct distribution, but the North blocked all earlier requests. One Foreign Ministry official in charge of WHO affairs still voiced scepticism about the opening, saying: "As we know, the WHO office is supposed to open in September. We have not yet been informed of the opening by the WHO."
Joongang Ilbo reported that DPRK's trade volume showed an overwhelming 33.1 percent growth last year (US$1.97 billion) compared to its previous growth of 2.6 percent. The DPRK's overseas trade volume surged by 33.1 percent from 1999, its export recording US$556.33 million and import, US$1.41321 billion. The total volume of trade for the year 1999 amounted to US$1.48 billion as revealed by the Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) on June 3. According to the report, last year's export showed an 8 percent increase and import a whopping 46.5 percent increase from its previous year resulting into US$515 million in total. The DPRK's export products largely included mechanical, electrical, chemical and plastic parts. Most of the DPRK's import included facilities needed to build power plants, factory, computer and vehicles, implying that the big investment the country is pouring on industrial sector. The PRC and Japan used to be the big trade partners of the DPRK, but Thailand and Hong Kong have since emerged as new partners. KOTRA said, "The increased transactions has much to do with aids from abroad such as surplus in inter-Korean trade and foreign currency earned from Mt. Kumgang business rather than the uprise in the export." (Lee Young-jong, "NORTH KOREA OVERSEAS TRADE REAPS $1.97 BILLION FOR LAST YEAR," Seoul, 06/04/01)
Joongang Ilbo reported that the ROK Unification Ministry in its latest report on "North Korea's Change since the Inter-Korean Summit Meeting" reported that the DPRK has been sending off special training delegations to the PRC, Australia, Hungary and other nations with the help from United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Asia Foundation and other international organizations. Over 400 officials have been sent since 1998. The report said, "This is part of the North's efforts to make speedy adaptation to capitalistic economy. The reform in this particular sector is faster than any other sectors pursuing change in the North. The North also amended its constitution in 1998 to promote establishment of new firms in special economic zone and in February 1999 enacted 60 laws in relations to foreign investments and tax laws for overseas firms." (Ko Soo-suk, "NEARLY 400 N.K. OFFICIALS OUT TO STUDY CAPITALISM ABROAD," Vienna, 06/04/01)
The Korea Herald reported that three DPRK cargo vessels crossed into ROK's territorial waters Saturday. They all returned to international waters Sunday after being challenged by ROK naval vessels, ROK officials at the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. The Defense Ministry lodged a protest to the DPRK the same day and called for measures to prevent the DPRK's vessels from entering its territory. The unarmed commercial boats sailed into ROK waters Saturday morning and afternoon, a spokesman for the JCS said. Two of them, 6,700-ton and 2,700-ton cargo ships, left ROK territory after the Navy sent a P-3C surveillance plane and patrol ships. There were no violent confrontations. At around 3 p.m., the Navy drove off the third vessel, the 13,000-ton Chongjin No. 2, which was sailing through the strait between Cheju Island and the southern coast. It is the first time that DPRK vessels have infiltrated the sea lane. ("N.K. CARGO SHIPS VIOLATE SOUTH'S WATERS," Seoul, 06/04/01)