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Reuters reported that the suspected DPRK ship that sank after an exchange of gunfire with Japanese patrol boats on December 22 sent a suicide message before it sank. Although the unidentified ship went down with the apparent loss of all 15 hands, the cause of the sinking remains unknown. Citing Defence Agency and police sources, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said that among radio signals picked up by an agency monitoring facility were messages saying that the crew was prepared to commit suicide if they could not break away from their Japanese pursuers. "We will blow ourselves up and fulfill our duty," an internet phone message from the mystery boat reportedly said. A Japanese Defence Agency official said he was unable to comment on the report. However, the Japanese Coast Guard said last week that there was a possibility the ship blew its engine room and sank on purpose. The mystery ship was first spotted in Japan's 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone, and Japanese vessels fired warning shots when it tried to flee. The DPRK has strongly denied any connection to the ship, accusing Japan of mounting a smear campaign while threatening unspecified countermeasures. (Elaine Lies, "N.KOREAN MYSTERY SHIP SAID TO HAVE SENT SUICIDE MESSAGE," Tokyo, 12/31/02)
Pyongyang, December 26 (KCNA) -- Patrol boats of Japan indiscriminately machine-gunned an unidentified ship in the East China sea on Saturday, sinking it. This was an incident unprecedented in history. This crime committed in other country's territorial waters is nothing but brutal piracy and unpardonable terrorism of modern brand that could be committed only by Samurais of Japan in defiance of international laws. Nevertheless, the Japanese reactionaries are spreading a sheer rumour that the unidentified ship might be a "spy ship from North Korea," describing their piracy as a "measure for self-defence." This proves that their loudmouthed case of the "unidentified ship" is another trite charade and a grave provocation, products of the anti-DPRK hostile policy of the Japanese reactionaries, who never open their mouths without pulling up the DPRK. The anti-DPRK smear campaign launched by the Japanese authorities linking the DPRK with the case of the "unidentified ship" for no reason is little short of an act of adding to the crimes already committed against it. The Japanese authorities, not content with the recent terrorist act perpetrated against the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, an overseas compatriots organization of the dignified DPRK, are frantically escalating this hostile policy towards the DPRK under the above-said absurd pretext. We will never remain a passive onlooker to such moves of the Japanese authorities.
Joongang Ilbo reported that according to an official paper of the Japanese organization Chongryon more than 200 people regularly attend Sunday service at the DPRK Bongsu church. The paper reported that foreigners and diplomats living in the DPRK attend the services alongside local residents. The paper was published to counter assertions by the US that the DPRK is a "country of particular concern" for denying religious freedoms to its citizens. The Chongryon paper said that there are about 500 religious meetings throughout the DPRK. (Lee Dong-hyun, "DPRK ASSERTS THAT RELIGION IS ALIVE," Seoul, 12/31/2001)
Chosun Ilbo, December 27, 2001. North Korea will grant amnesty to certain prisoners an put others on parole from January next year to celebrate its deceased former leader Kim Il Sung's 90th birthday on April 15 next year. According to the North Korean Central Broadcasting Station Thursday, the decision was made in a decree issued by the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) on December 13, making the first such pardon since July 1978, when it celebrated the 30th anniversary of the founding of its government. The station reported that the move was aimed at realizing the Communist Party's humanitarian politics, reflecting the will and achievements of former leader Kim Il Sung. The SPA's permanent committee ordered the cabinet and related institutes to draw up practical measures for the freed prisoners to be able to live a normal life, though the number affected was not disclosed. North Korea sentences "social and economic criminals" to punishment called 'Labor Educative Penalties' in which political criminals are reportedly excluded. Government officials in the South suggested that the North is trying to improve its human rights image and the decision was made in an effort to regenerate the economy prior to ex-leader Kim Il Sung's 90th birthday and Kim Jong Il's 60th birthday
AP Network News, December 28, 2001. Slowly but surely, North Korea is changing, especially in its economic system, out of a need to survive, a government report released Thursday said. The '2002 unification education guidelines' said North Korea is still clinging to its political structure but 'there are signs of change in other areas, especially in the economy, which is in the direst crisis,' the report said.
AP Network News, December 28, 2001. North Korea has made solving its electricity and food shortage its biggest concern this year, a pro-Pyongyang Japanese magazine said Friday. 'The breakthrough toward a stronger economy for our Republic lies in solving the electricity and food crisis,' said Yi Song-hyok, an Institute of Socialist Economic Management (ISEM) researcher.
Pyongyang, December 28 (KCNA) -- Pyongyang University of Railways was reorganized into Pyongyang University of Transport. It will function as a comprehensive center training scientists and technicians in the field of land transportation. The city communication faculty having city transport course and vehicles operation course are added to the existing faculties and courses in the field of railway transportation in the university. The city transport course will train scientists and technicians in the field of tramcar, underground train and trolley bus. Vehicle operation courses have been transferred from Pyongyang university of mechanical engineering and Pyongyang university of printing to the vehicle operation course of the new university to train those in that field. The Ministry of People's Security, the Ministry of Land and Marine Transport, the Ministry of Railways and other units have become patrons of the university.
Koreatimes, December 14, 2001. Farmers' markets in North Korea, where people buy and sell goods from grains to electronic goods out of the state ration system, have stabilized this year with prices coming down and regional gaps narrowing. Unification Ministry officials said merchandise prices in the farmers' markets fell 27.1 percent this year. Despite the 11.5 percent rise in grain prices owing to poor harvests in 2000, prices for electronic goods and clothes fell 12.4 and 23.1 percent, respectively. But the price of fishery products soared 102.2 percent due to a poor season and increased exports. Prices at the farmers' markets, which are much higher than official state prices, have shown a consistent fall since 1998, and price differences between regions have also lessoned. ``This indicates an increase in the amount and frequency of goods being transported and traded inside North Korea privately,'' said a ministry official who asked to remain anonymous.
In every city in North Korea, a certain area is set aside for the ``farmers' market,'' meant originally for the country people to conduct small transactions. As such markets grew and started to sell non- agricultural items, the Pyongyang government has been periodically cracking down on them. The recent trend in these markets, the official noted, is specialization, with the ones in industrial areas focusing on selling electronic goods, while the seaside areas concentrate on selling marine products. ``There's a saying `it's not the lack of products, but the lack of money' floating around in the farmers' markets. In some areas, markets even sell bananas and pineapples, with demand for colour televisions and refrigerators on the rise,'' the official added. Since the overall trend shows a systematic enlargement of private commerce in North Korea, the official forecast that the farmers' markets will flourish in the future.
AP Network News, December 13, 2001. The first batch of German beef provided to North Korea to help it stave off famine was distributed fairly to the needy, a German daily reported Tuesday. The Tages Spiegel said most of the 6,000 tons of beef went to children, the elderly and weak as well as hospital patients, quoting German officials who monitored the distribution. Germany insisted that Pyongyang allow German experts and journalists to monitor the distribution as part of the conditions for the beef aid. The monitors said North Korea's state-controlled economy made the orderly distribution of beef possible and unlike other countries, the beef donation did not threaten the local beef market.
An official who monitored the beef distribution for weeks said the beef will become a good source of nutrition for hunger-stricken North Koreans. The second beef shipment is expected to depart for the North as soon as the German Agricultural Ministry gives its approval. The German government promised the North 18,000 tons of beef in April, when Europe was struck by the mad cow disease scare and subsequent beef market crisis. However, it had problems securing enough beef later after demand for meat in Europe recovered and stockpiles shrank. The shipment was also delayed upon North Korea's request. Germany and North Korea established diplomatic relations in March.
Joongang Ilbo, December 10, 2001. The regime in Pyongyang moved to strengthen its hold over the nation's factories and industrial complexes with strict orders to manufacture only the products assigned by the National Planning Committee. "North Korean authorities are trying to curb the freelance production of goods at factories and complexes to prevent those goods from circulating in underground free markets," a well-placed South Korean government source said Sunday.
"Now that the North has made noticeable improvements in food production and distribution the authorities are again seeking to force the people to fall in line with socialist ideals," added the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. North Korea is reportedly cracking down on free markets, prohibiting the sale of clothing, shoes and other commodities the planning committee considers daily necessities. Black markets sprung up throughout the country in the mid-90s as food became scarce and life grew worse for ordinary people. The markets allowed people to trade necessities and authorities mostly turned a blind eye. But as the black markets have grown, the government sees them as a potential threat to the authority of the Stalinist regime.
Joongang Ilbo, December 7, 2001. "What struck me most when I first arrived in North Korea was that the place wasn't as unitarian as publicized in the outside world," said a South Korean official who traveled to the North last year. "Beneath the firm control of authoritarian government lay a relatively diverse society." Kim Gwi-ok, a professor at Kyungnam University's graduate school of North Korea studies, recently released a paper based on in-depth interviews with outsiders who have made rare trips to the North. The paper, aimed at suggesting a course for future social and cultural exchanges between the two Koreas along with prospects for unification, said most of the visitors commented on the dualistic nature of North Korean society.
The paper argues that although North Korea is a rigid society people are relatively free to make their own decisions within the strict hierarchy. One South Korean television producer commented, "In South Korea if a TV producer wants to bring personal guests to the studio he can, but that's not the case in the North. They have to explain every little detail to the guard before the guest will be allowed to enter." He noted that it is not just average people who have to submit to such interrogations, but even the highest ranking officials. "Within the rigid system lies a kind of equality and fairness," Prof. Kim said. "It has become common for North Koreans to address each other carefully and courteously regardless of rank, bearing in mind the domestic intelligence agents blended into the populace."
Other visitors said high-ranking officials in the North overwork themselves. One editor of a monthly news magazine in Seoul said he had a chance to ask Kim Ryong-song, a cabinet counsellor and the head of the North Korean delegation to the sixth inter-Korean ministerial talks, how much time he is able to spend with his family. "I was taken aback when he said he stays home for about two months and spends the rest of his time on the road," the editor said. "It seems North Korea's top brass is very much accustomed to following Party orders no matter what and are prepared to see the orders through even if they are made at the last minute, ready to jump on an airplane for the next destination." But most of the visitors added that while although the North's top officers seemed capable and willing, lower-level officials, though devoted to their work, seemed to lack any passion for their work.
Chosun Ilbo, December 7, 2001. Ranking North Korean officials feel they are constantly exposed to personal danger because they never know when they will become the victims of "revolutionization," a type of punishment banishing those who commit errors to mines or farms for a set period of time, where they undergo hard labor and ideological reeducation. Outwardly it resembles the condemnation of a criminal to exile, practiced under Korea's dynasties, but in reality it is far more strict and crueler than banishment. To be suddenly condemned to work as a manual laborer is physically harsh, and causes mental misery.
"Revolutionization" has nevertheless become a routine practice in senior officials circles of the North. In reality, few distinguished officials have been exempted from it. The problem lies in what the so-called "errors" are. Though blunders in line of duty are involved sometimes, they often are the mixture of minor gaffes, personal lives, and conflicts among senior officials, boiling down eventually to the "yardstick of loyalty" to the Kims, senior and junior. Hence "revolutionization" is sometimes referred to as a means of disciplining officials in responsible posts.
The banishment of several prominent figures is widely known in the North. Among them were first deputy director Jang Song Taek of the Workers' Party Central Committee's Influential Guidance and Organization Department; Kim Jong Il's brother-in-law, who was once rumored as the number-two man in the North Korean hierarchy; central committee secretaries Kim Yong Sun and Kim Jung Ryin; First Deputy Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju and Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Su Hon, both top foreign policy working officials; People's Army chief of staff Kim Yong Chun; 3rd corps commander Jang Song Yu; and central committee Operations Department Director O Kuk Ryol.
Starting his party career as a guidance officer at the Workers' Party Pyongyang chapter, Jang Song Taek, aided by his blood relationship with the Kim Il Sung family, rapidly climbed the party hierarchy. Charged with power abuse in the late 1970s such as holding a weekend party after the pattern of Kim Jong Il, Jang was severely reprimanded by him and demoted to foreman at the Kangsong Steel Co. in Nampo, South Pyongan Province, currently known as the Chollima Steel Integrated Business Establishment. Following over two years of hardship there, during which he sustained burns while on duty, he was permitted to return to the party headquarters in 1980.
While serving as the party headquarters' international department head, Kim Yong Sun, prompted by Kim Il Sung's instruction that "the international department staff, being engaged in diplomatic services after all, learn social dances like the polka," held a dancing party with his colleagues. But as his act invited serious criticism from other departments of the party headquarters he was relieved of his post for a year, during which he underwent ideological retraining at a mine. Kim Jung Ryin, a member of the top elite in the North's programs and activities toward the South, was relieved of his posts as central committee political bureau member and secretary in charge of South Korean affairs and suffered the humiliation of clearing excrements and raising pigs at a farm directly administered by the party headquarters. His disgrace came in the course of the then heir apparent Kim Jong Il's review of the North's espionage and other activities against the South in the mid-1970s.
In a conflict with the central committee international department over a diplomatic issue in 1993, Kang Sok Ju was criticized for neglecting party guidance, and was made to work for a month at an unpaid cooperative farm in Jungdsan County, South Pyongan Province, administered directly by the party headquarters. For his alleged failure to prevent the 70th IPU meeting from being held in Seoul in October 1983, Choi Su Hon was exiled to the Samsin coalmine near Pyongyang to do hard labor, in the course of which he had his fingers cut while pushing a cart. He suffered another "revolutionization" in 1993 because of wrangling with the Ministry of the People's Armed Forces on negotiations over joining the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Disgraced senior military officials have been demoted and relieved of their posts instead of being given hard labor. A power struggle developed in the mid-1980s between the old guard supporting People's Armed Forces Minister O Jin Yu and a rising group, headed by Chief of Staff O Kuk Ryol. Members of the latter group suffered bitter blows when Kim Il Sung sided with O Jin Yu. Chief of staff O Kuk Ryol was relieved of his post and underwent a six-month reeducation course at Kim Il Sung School for Party Seniors, following which he was assigned as civil defense department head at party headquarters.
His colleagues shared a similar fate. Chief Operations Officer Lieutenant-general Kim Yong Chun was demoted to the rank of colonel and to the post of regimental chief of staff. Chief Intelligence Officer Lieutenant-general Jang Song Yu was enrolled at the Kim Il Sung School for Party Seniors, along with O Kuk Ryol, but was later reinstated as the Social Security Ministry's political department head. Promoted to four-star general, Jang now serves as 3rd Army commander. Yi Yong Mu, who rendered outstanding services in the process of Kim Jong Il's gaining control of the military in the 1970s and who became the People's Army general political bureau chief, was demoted to the post of forestry administration deputy manager in Yanggang Province by Kim, who feared Yi's expanding power base. After languishing there for nearly a decade, Yi was reinstated as transportation committee chairman at the Administration Council (the cabinet). He is currently deputy chairman of the all-powerful National Defense Commission.
Chosun Ilbo, December 6, 2001. It has been learned that North Korean Defense Commission chairman Kim Jong Il, in a recent directive issued to the party, administration and military, instructed that the use of "hwangap" or "hoegap," both Korean names for one's 60th birthday anniversary, be refrained from, and that instead "60th birthday" be used. North Korean media, in fact, use neither 'hwangap" nor "hoegap."
The directive has been issued out of a concern that the mention of "hwangap" or "hoegap" may bring about some burden on the part of the Pyongyang leadership by prompting a public call for determining Kim Jong Il's heir, according to North Korea watchers here. When Kim Il Sung observed his 60th birthday on April 15, 1972, Pyongyang officially called it not "hwangap" or "hoegap," but "60th birthday." Two years later Kim Jong Il was designated heir at the Workers' Party plenary session in February 1974.
Because the its economic plight renders it difficult for Pyongyang to colorfully celebrate both the two major events next spring; Kim Jong Il's 60th birthday on February 16 and the 90th birthday of the late President Kim Il Sung on April 15; Kim Jong Il is also learned to have instructed that emphasis be placed on the latter. Against such a backdrop, Pyongyang has decided to perform mass callisthenics dubbed "Arirang" and touted as "a masterpiece, if missed, you would regret throughout your lives," not on Kim Jong Il's 60th but on Kim Il Sung's 90th birthday. "Mass callisthenics experts are accelerating preparations for 'Arirang,' comprised with mass games and arts, that will be pompously performed in the forthcoming spring," reported the Workers' Party organ the Rodong Shimmun recently. "Unprecedented in form, scale and contents, 'Arirang' will display to mankind an incomparably beautiful and noble aspect of cultural arts." Over 100,000 people are to take part in the mass callisthenics that will be performed in the 'May 1 Stadium.' Kim Il Sung's 60th birthday celebrations saw the performance of mass callisthenics called "The Mangyongdae Hill Shone with the Sun of Hope."
North Korea nonetheless is learned to be preparing to make Kim Jong Il's 60th birthday celebrations much more splendid than his earlier birthdays. The quotas of so-called "loyalty money," allocated to trading firms and pro-Pyongyang Korean organizations and residents abroad, have been nearly doubled that of before. North Korean trading firms, engaged in processing-on-commission projects with South Korean companies, it is said, have asked their South Korean counterparts to boost orders so that they may fulfill their quotas by January next year.
Reuters reported that the DPRK newspaper Rodong Sinmun published a commentary stating that the DPRK "feel[s] quite reassured" and bolstered in its belief that only a strong military force can guarantee the country's survival. The commentary continued, "It is a foolish delusion for the U.S. imperialists to threaten and blackmail the DPRK and hurt it, taking advantage of the 'September 11 incident'. This incident threw the world into a catastrophic crisis and great confusion in overall international relations. It is only the DPRK that remains unfazed, unaffected by it." On Tuesday, the DPRK warned the United States it would build up its military to counter what it said was the US' "strong-arm policy" against it. The newspaper warned, "If the U.S. imperialists try to test its logic of strength on the DPRK as they are using it against some countries, they will be annihilated to the last man." ("NORTH KOREA WARNS U.S. AGAINST ATTACK," 12/05/01)
The Korea Herald reported that the DPRK is ready to permit foreign inspections of its nuclear laboratory despite threats to revive its suspected nuclear program. The DPRK's isotope production laboratory in its Yongbyon nuclear complex will be open to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yonhap news agency said. The agency quoted an ROK government source as saying: "The North offered to open its laboratory to inspection at talks with IAEA officials in early November." The report followed the arrival of Charles Kartman, executive director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), in Pyongyang on Saturday. Kartman leads a consortium funding the $4.6-billion project to replace the DPRK's old graphite reactors. ("N.K. TO ALLOW NUCLEAR LAB INSPECTION," Seoul, 12/03/01)
Chosun Ilbo, December 3, 2001. A top World Health Organization (WHO) official recently disclosed how critical the spread of contagious diseases is in North Korea when she revealed, "North Koreans infected with malaria number 300,000." WHO Secretary General Bruntland made the disclosure in a press conference she held in Seoul following a North Korea tour during which she opened the permanent WHO mission in Pyongyang. "In June communicable diseases raged in Hamgyong and Yanggang provinces of the North, causing a sharp rise in the number of graves in public cemeteries. To prevent this being revealed to the outside world, North Korean authorities are banning the making of mounds over graves, inviting public grievances," alleged a South Korean missionary serving in the north-eastern region of China bordering with North Korea.
With the onset in the mid-1990s of the perennial food crisis, acute contagious diseases preying on malnutrition and insanitariness such as cholera, typhoid and paratyphoid also hit the North. Infectious diseases were also a major cause of mass starvation in the North. Paratyphoid, with a relatively low fatality, becomes substantially fatal when no antibiotics are available. "Paratyphoid can be overcome if one has money to buy antibiotics and nutritious food," reminisced Kim Young-suk (alias), 58, a North Korean emigre in the South who contracted the disease in the North. "Had I had that much money, however, I, to begin with, wouldn't have been infected by the disease." Many paratyphoid patients get too weak to move outside for food and eventually starve to death she added.
Malaria affected military personnel posted near the Demilitarized Zone first and then spread across the country, according to experts in the South. Unlike tropical malaria, the variant prevailing in the North has a low fatality rate, but the patients suffer from a high fever and chills. In South Korea too, 4,400 people, beginning with soldiers manning the Demilitarized Zone and then nearby citizens, were inflected with malaria last year and 2,700 people this year "Given that malaria cases have been reported near the DMZ only in the South, they appear to have been influenced by the disease that occurred in the North," observed an official of the National Institute of Health. The North's Health Ministry reported to an international health agency in 1999 that "malaria patients numbered 100,000."
Tuberculosis is more chronic and serious in the North, which is said to have the highest fatality rate of communicable disease in the world. The Korea Association of Tuberculosis in the South unofficially estimates that the North's tuberculosis fatality rate in 1997 stood at 40-80 persons per 100,000 of the population, nearly 10 times the 7.4 persons in the South. However, the actual fatality rate from tuberculosis should be much higher, according to relief organizations. The Yugene Bell Foundation, engaged in tuberculosis relief in the North, estimates that 1,000,000 North Koreans need imminent tuberculosis treatment. "Supported by volunteers in South Korea and the United States, among other countries, we've provided the North with tuberculosis-related medicine and equipment since 1997, but only about five percent of tuberculosis patients in the North are estimated to have benefited from the relief aid," says the foundation's secretary-general, Cho Il.
Unreported patients swarm sanatoriums when news spreads about the arrival of relief medicines. "It is known that nine out of ten tuberculosis patients treated in sanatoriums die in the institutions," Cho added, saying that inmates in over 60 tuberculosis sanatoriums have started to entertain hope of recovery since relief work began to reach the North from outside. Schools are often closed due to the occurrence of measles, and cholera every year. Even smallpox, said to have been eliminated from the earth 20 years ago, still occurs in some areas of Jagang province, according to officials involved. The status of chronic infectious diseases like hepatitis is reportedly not assessed accurately. Since infectious diseases in the North have a direct effect on South Korea, positive joint-countermeasures are needed, officials stress.
The Agence France-Presse, reported that DPRK daily newspaper Rodong Sinmun published a signed commentary that said, "The DPRK's missile development is one of the most reliable self-defensive measures to smash the imperialists' moves to stifle the DPRK by force of arms and defend socialism." The commentary also accused the US of stepping up its "hardline" policy toward the DPRK, escalating tension, and increasing the danger of war on the Korean peninsula. The DPRK's Korean Central News Agency said separately that US "imperialist warmongers" carried out 160 espionage flights over the DPRK in November alone and staged aerial war exercises against it. "All this fully reveals the heinous attempt of the US imperialists to render the situation on the Korean peninsula extremely tense and ignite a new war of aggression," the news agency said. ("NORTH KOREA HINTS AT CONTINUING MISSILE DEVELOPMENT," 12/2/01)
AP Network News, December 29, 2001. North Korea on Nov. 22 launched another work-harder campaign, under the slogan, "Let us accelerate the revolutionary advance in the new century, holding high the torchlight of Ranam...." Ranam is the name of a coal mining machinery manufacturer in North Hamgyong Province, the industrial complex Kim visited the day after he returned home from his 24-day trip to Russia on Aug. 18, instead of going directly to his office in Pyongyang.
The North's drive was declared in an editorial in Rodong Shinmun , the newspaper published by the Workers' Party. "The torchlight Great Leader Kim Jong-il lit in Ranam in the first year of the new century is a follow-up of the Kanggye Spirit and the Torchlight of Songgang which brought about victory in the Painful March and the Desperate March in the 1990s and a manifestation of their new high stage," the editorial said. The term, Kanggye Spirit, was first used in an editorial in Rodong Shinmun on Feb. 16, 1997, aimed at marking Kim's 56th birthday, and the term, the Torchlight of Songgang," after Kim visited the Kangson Steel Mill in North Hamgyong Province in March 1998, preceded by his one-week "on-spot guidance" trip to Jagang Province, whose capital is Kanggye.
Many North Korea watchers in Seoul believe this work-harder campaign served as a driving force for ending in 1999 the continued negative growth of the North Korean economy since the turn of the 1990s. The Bank of Korea, South Korea's central bank, estimated the North's growth rate of the gross domestic product at 6.2 percent that year. The GDP growth rate slowed to 1.3 percent the next year, according to BOK. "The basic elements of the Torchlight of Ranam is the spirit of safeguarding the Suryong (Leader) even at the cost of our lives, and the do-or-die spirit which means implementing unconditionally and without fail the tasks given by the Party, not just saying empty words or shouting empty slogans," the editorial said, indicating the political implications of the campaign, let alone its economic basis.
Noteworthy was the following passage in the editorial: "The driving force for the innovations at Ranam was created when the manager, the Party secretary and the chief engineer there formed a trinity and they were devotedly in the vanguard of seeking a breakthrough." An objective of the campaign originating from Ranam seems to be "innovations" because the editorial also said: "The torchlight is calling on the whole Party and country and all the people to effect a fresh leap and innovations in a general advance to build a powerful nation in the new century." The editorial, however, accented "our own wisdom, technology and strength," which the North will depend on in the campaign to rebuild the country as a strong and prosperous state.
Officials and workers at Ranam held a rally on Nov. 23 to express their resolution to devote themselves to the cause of the new work-harder campaign, followed by similar gatherings in major cities, industrial units and farms. Participants in the rally at Ranam adopted a letter of appeal to laborers and farmers throughout the North. The letter called for, among other things, their "conclusion of the last drive in the first year of the new century by effecting a new revolutionary upswing in all sectors and units, and commemoration of the 90th birth anniversary of former President Kim Il-sung, the February holiday and the 70th anniversary of the Korean People's Army with high political enthusiasm and proud labor achievements next year." The February holiday refers to current North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's birthday.
In a speech to the rally at the Ranam Coal Mining Machinery Manufacturing Complex, Jon U-yong, chief of the Party chapter there, called on the participants to implement their production and other plans set for this year earlier, unconditionally and without fail. He also mentioned the "theory of seed" presented by the North Korean leader in the 1970s, and the technology innovation campaign the North launched at the start of this year.Noteworthy is the fact that no such meetings were held in any unit of the army, nor did any military leader attend the meetings held so far. The army has played a pivotal role also in the North Korean economic sector.
The Rodong Shinmun editorial on Nov. 22 emphasized the role of the Party, although it related the campaign with "this era of an army-centered policy," saying: "Our Party wants all of its offices to organize and carry out the programs for generalizing the Torchlight of Ranam vigorously from the start in such a way as to gain substantial benefits." Is this a signal of the strengthening of the role of the Party, whose influence has been ever weakening since the death of former North Korean leader Kim Il-sung in 1994? Any clue to help answer this question has yet to come from the North.
AP Network News, December 29, 2001. North Korea on Nov. 27 held a meeting of officials from plants and enterprises throughout North Korea who are responsible for supplying their workers with food and daily necessities. The meeting, the first of its kind held in recent years, was also attended Kim Jung-rin, secretary of the Workers' Party Central Committee, plus Deputy Premier Cho Chang-dok and Agriculture Minister Kim Chang-sik. In a speech delivered to the meeting held in Pyongyang, Ryom Sun-gil, chief of the state-controlled General Federation of Trade Unions, called on the participants to further improve their work so as to encourage workers to be absorbed in the new work-harder campaign under the name of the Torchlight of Ranam, the (North) Korean Central Broadcasting Station said on Nov. 28.
Ryom emphasized the need of GFTU officials to increase their responsibilities and roles, which are essential to fulfill their mission to improve workers' living conditions, urging them to keep in mind the "teachings" left behind by their former leader Kim Il-sung, and the "remarks" of their current leader Kim Jong-il on the matter. In March 1993, the People's Army in the North held a similar meeting. But the meeting this time is the first gathering for civilians. This is an encouraging development in the North which has been plagued by serious economic troubles, notably shortages of food and daily necessities since the mid-1990s.
Reuters and the Associated Press reported that in a statement carried on the Korea Central News Agency on Thursday the DPRK Foreign Ministry rejected recent US calls for inspections of suspected DPRK weapons of mass destruction. The statement said, "The US is unreasonably demanding the DPRK receive an 'inspection' just as a thief turns on the master with a club. Under this situation the DPRK cannot sit idle but is left with no option but to take necessary countermeasures." It said US calls for arms inspections and criticism of DPRK "human rights violations" and "religious restrictions" only "goes to prove that some forces in the United States, in fact, do not want dialogue for the solution of problems." Finally, the statement also dismissed as "quite nonsensical" the US statements urging the country to do more to cooperate against terrorism. ("NORTH KOREA REJECTS US CALL FOR ARMS INSPECTIONS," Seoul, 11/29/01) ("NORTH KOREA VOWS TO STAND UP AGAINST "HOSTILE" US POLICY," Seoul, 11/28/01)
Pyongyang, November 29 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK yesterday gave answers to questions raised by KCNA as regards the U.S. evermore undisguised hostile attitude toward the DPRK. Not content with the ceaseless mud-slinging at the DPRK over issues of "human rights", "religion", "biological and chemical weapons" and the like, the united states has recently linked the DPRK with terrorism and even raised the issue of "verifying the possible development of weapons of mass destruction" in a bid to bring pressure to bear upon it, the spokesman said, and went on: This goes to prove that some forces in the United States, in fact, do not want the dialogue for the solution of the problems, though they are giving lip-service to the "resumption of dialogue with the DPRK without preconditions."
This compels the DPRK to follow their attitude with particular vigilance. The DPRK has nothing to do with terrorism and has made every possible effort to combat it. Nevertheless, the U.S. is becoming all the more undisguised in its hostile policy toward the DPRK, keeping it on the list of "sponsors of terrorism". It is quite nonsensical for the u.s. to talk about cooperation with the DPRK in its anti-terrorism operation after labeling the DPRK as a "sponsor of terrorism". The building of the light water reactors due to be provided to the DPRK by the U.S. by 2003 under the 1994 agreed framework is being indefinitely delayed. The U.S. is unreasonably demanding the DPRK receive an "inspection" just as a thief turns on the master with a club, instead of feeling responsible for this and complying with the DPRK's just demand for the compensation for the loss of electricity. All facts indicate that the prospect of the negotiated settlement of the issue has, in fact, become gloomy. Under this situation the DPRK cannot sit idle but is left with no option but to take necessary counter-measures.
Joongang Ilbo reported that on Wednesday Egypt denied the latest report on its purchase of long-range missiles from the DPRK. Egyptian President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak denied the report and stated, "This is totally false and incorrect. I have repeatedly said that we are not endeavoring to obtain these kinds of weapons and we do not plan to do so because we do not have aggressive intentions." (Won-ki Choi, "EGYPT STRONGLY DENIES REPORT ON MISSILE TRANSACTIONS WITH N.K.," Seoul, 11/29/01)
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com Pacific Rim Bureau Chief
November 28, 2001. (CNSNews.com www.cnsnews.com ) - Claims that North Korea has agreed to sell medium-range ballistic missiles to Egypt have re-emerged at a time the Stalinist nation and its weapons proliferation program have moved back onto the U.S. radar screen. In a report Monday citing unnamed South Korean diplomatic and expert sources, a Seoul newspaper said Pyongyang earlier this year concluded a deal to sell "as many as 24" Nodong missiles to Egypt. If the claims are true, Egypt will boast a missile with a range of at least 600 miles, great enough to reach all of Israel's population centres...
Pyongyang, November 28 (KCNA) -- The capitalist way of life demoralizing people in a twinkle is little short of a dangerous drug as it degenerates them, Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article says, calling for strictly guarding against this way of life. The American way of life typical of the capitalist way of life represents the way of life of brutes as it is based on the jungle law, extreme misanthropy, national chauvinism and all other corrupt ideas, the article notes. Referring to its harmfulness, the article goes on: Anyone following the capitalist way of life is bound to become a beast, a slave of money and a fool totally bereft of reason and morality. The capitalist way of life is as harmful as a drug because it deprives people of conscience, morality, love, creative energy and enthusiasm and reduces them to animals and brutes. Introducing the capitalist way of life would bring socialism to a collapse and make the country and the nation fall prey to the imperialists.
If this way of life is allowed to make its way to society and people take to it, they will become loafers waiting for a chance of a good luck, renegades of revolution and will be reduced to the despicable traitors who readily betray his homeland, the benevolent party and the generous socialist system for a few dollars. One should guard against and keep oneself from the capitalist way of life. All countries should take strict measures to prevent this way of life from infiltrating into society and root out even the slightest manifestation of it. Thoroughly combating the capitalist way of life and firmly defending the socialist way of life means protecting people's genuine rights and their freedom.
International Herald Tribune, November 22, 2001. The top executive of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that North Koreans were dying at a rate that was approximately 40 percent higher than in 1994 when the country was hit by the first of a series of devastating floods and famines. The official, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, arriving here after installing a permanent representative for the United Nations organization in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, said "we have reason to believe" that the number of deaths each year had risen from 6.3 per 100 people to 9.3.
Dr. Brundtland offered no hard statistics on the number of North Koreans who have died in recent years as a result of disease and starvation but said that "women, children and people who are malnourished" were inevitably the most vulnerable. Other organizations, notably the UN's World Food Program, have estimated that the combination of natural calamities and poor planning have resulted in the deaths of more than 2 million North Koreans since 1994. With health conditions most likely to worsen in most of the country outside Pyongyang, Dr. Brundtland said she had asked President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea about the possibility of extending more medical aid. Although South Korea has given $500,000 for fighting malaria, she said, the president did not give a definite answer.
The reason for his reluctance was assumed to be the rising opposition that he faces politically to his policy of pursuing reconciliation with North Korea. Talks between ministers from both countries in a resort at the base of Diamond Mountain, just north of the line between the two Koreas, were broken off last week after they failed to reach agreement on a wide range of issues, including another round of reunions of families divided by the Korean War. As a result of the impasse, the South has withheld shipment of several hundred thousand tons of food that it had promised.
Dr. Brundtland said aid for the North should include a much higher percentage of medicine than is now shipped there. "Only five percent of emergency assistance is in the health field," she said, citing malaria, tuberculosis and childhood diseases as the worst problems. On the basis of their visit and other evidence, however, World Health Organization officials got the clear impression that life was improving only for the privileged residents of Pyongyang. While smoke was rising again from some of the factories in Pyongyang, said one official, "in the countryside, conditions are appalling."
The UN health officials said they had photographed and videotaped malnourished children waiting in line for food handouts in one town after talking to officials in the capital. Outside Pyongyang "there is no change," said Jon Liden, a UN health organization adviser, even though "the humanitarian crisis has eased in Pyongyang." Dr. Brundtland said she did not directly discuss reports that North Korea maintains a huge stockpile of chemical and biological weapons, as charged this week by senior U.S. and South Korean officials. Rather, she said she had talked to North Korean officials "about the capacity for dealing with chemical or biological weapons outbreak," whether caused by weapons or the natural spread of disease.
The Associated Press reported that UN officials were investigating a brief exchange of gunfire across the border between DPRK and the ROK on Tuesday. The ROK office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that two or three shots were fired from a DPRK guard post inside the 2.5 mile-wide Demilitarized Zone. The ROK military said there were no reports of injuries during the shooting. The military said it appeared the DPRK fired first. A shot from the DPRK broke a window at an ROK guard post, and another hit a wire fence, but there were no ROK soldiers injured. ROK officials said that ROK guards broadcast warnings and fired back about 15 rounds. There were no reports of injuries on the DPRK side. Noting that the DPRK fire did not last, the ROK military said it did not appear to be an intentional attack. ("KOREAS EXCHANGE FIRE AT BORDER, BUT NO CASUALTIES ARE REPORTED," Seoul, 11/27/01)
Agence France-Presse reported that the DPRK's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Monday that DPRK leader Kim Jong-Il has launched a new development movement, dubbed "Ranam." KCNA said that the new movement was prompted by "miracles" performed by workers at the Ranam Coal Mining Machine Complex in the north eastern port of Chongjin. Ranam workers were praised for advancing the production of equipment dramatically through technical innovation and the utilization of waste material, despite a lack of food, raw materials and electricity. Kim was touched by their "revolutionary militant spirit," and has ordered a drive to build "a people's paradise on this land at an early date." The report said, "The torchlight Kim Jong-Il lit in Ranam is calling on the whole party and country and all the people to effect fresh leap and innovation in the general advance to build a powerful nation in the new century." Oh Seung-yul, a DPRK expert at the ROK's Korea Institute for National Unification, said that the DPRK policy priority this year had shifted to economic development now that attempts to improve relations with the ROK had become deadlocked. (C.W. Lim, "NORTH KOREAN LEADER LAUNCHES NEW REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT," Seoul, 11/26/01)
Joongang Ilbo reported that a high-ranking ROK government official said on November 26 that the DPRK has asked Australia to quit the Military Armistice Commission (MAC) that formally supervises the Korean truce. "Ryu Yong-chol, vice director of the North Korean Ministry of People's Armed Forces, made the request to a high-ranking Australian diplomat October 23 in Beijing," the official said. "It is not known how the Australian counterpart responded." Ryu reportedly contended that since the DPRK and Australia enjoy normal diplomatic relations, Australia should not serve its term on the MAC. (Lee Young-jong, "NORTH HITS AT TRUCE BODY," Seoul, 11/27/01)
The Associated Press reported that at a parliamentary committee on Monday night, ROK Defense Minister Kim Dong-shin stated, "North Korea stockpiles between 2,500 and 5,000 tons of biochemical weapons in six different facilities and has the capability to wage germ warfare." He also said that the DPRK is believed to have stores of anthrax, smallpox and eight other types of diseases. However, no clear evidence exists to link the DPRK with terrorist networks. ("NORTH SAID TO HAVE UP TO 5,000 TONS OF BIOCHEMICAL WEAPONS," Seoul, 11/20/01)
The Associated Press and Reuters reported that Gro Harlem Brundtland, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), said Tuesday that the WHO will appeal for US$8 million in donations next week. Speaking in Beijing after a three-day visit to the DPRK, she told officials that DPRK hospitals lack power, modern equipment and drugs. The DPRK devotes just 3 percent of its economy to health - about US$30 for each of its 22 million people per year. The chief WHO representative in the DPRK Eigil Sorensen stated, "The health care system has more or less collapsed." Brundtland added that DPRK's mortality rate has increased 30 to 40 percent in recent years. (John Leicester, "WHO SEEKS AID FOR N.KOREA HOSPITALS," Beijing, 11/20/01) (John Ruwitch, "N.KOREA HEALTH CARE COLLAPSING, MORTALITY RISING-WHO," 11/20/01)
Chosun Ilbo, November 20, 2001. North Koreans describe some of their marketplaces as "freezing-street and power-cutoff-village locust market squares" - a reference to the harsh realities of the markets where merchants, subject to constant surveillance, have to move around in cold and dark places. Pyongyang, it is said, has recently resumed cracking down on the markets in an apparent bid to step up controls as part of endeavors to put the system in order with Kim Jong Il's 60th birthday - February 16, 2002 - approaching. However strictly they control the marketplaces, however, the North Korean authorities are unlikely to be able to eliminate them as they flourish in the face of heavy punishments such as the confiscation of banned goods and proceeds from them, public self-criticisms, and even imprisonment, and as a result of the virtually suspended rationing of daily necessaries.
The selling of farm produce and other essentials is permitted in the North's "farmer marketplaces," set up in specific urban areas. But commerce is conducted way beyond such specified areas, constituting black markets in effect. Goods traded are not confined to farm produce, either. It us rumored that merchants alone number 30,000 at Suman Market in Chongjin, North Hamgyong province. The neighborhood of Pyongsu Market in Hamhung, South Hamgyong province, and Songsin Market in Pyongyang swarms with people selling and buying commodities. In Pyongyang, only farmers and elderly citizens are allowed to trade in marketplaces, but the young are also engaged in business there, directly or indirectly. Large quantities of quality goods, coming from the capital, are on display at Kanri Market in the capital's suburbs.
So many pieces of equipment and tools, taken out of factories closed up due to the power shortages, are offered for sale in the marketplaces that some people lament, "If these equipment and tools alone are collected, one should be able to run a factory." "Locust market square" and "running market square" refer to areas where unauthorized commercial activities take place when surveillance becomes lax. When goods are confiscated by authorities, shouts, screams and cries are heard here and there, and desperate struggles for survival ensue in which victims strive to get confiscated goods returned by bribing officials.
Comprising control teams are People's Security officers (policemen), June 4 Group cadres and retired party and administration leaders. Merchants work out measures to cope with control networks. Apparently, an apt description has it: "Marketplaces flow like liquid." When surveillance is loosened, merchants reappear from nowhere with more commodities to sell than before. A crowd of people moving back and forth, looking around nervously, while no goods are observed, indicates some transactions are underway. Goods are hidden elsewhere, and buyers know they can buy those items they seek through secret negotiations conducted in the crowd.
The authorities, who once stepped up controls to the extent of banning the transactions of even foodstuff, it is said, are now gradually reducing the scope of goods prohibited from sale in marketplaces, with only military supplies, specified medicines and those coming out of factories still unremoved. Foreign products, including those made in South Korea, overflow the markets so much that their transactions are difficult to control. Regardless of how much control they are brought under, the marketplaces still grow, albeit conspicuously - an indication that harsh laws cannot suppress the tenaciousness for survival.
Joongang Ilbo reported that the ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that a patrol ship from the DPRK crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) by about 1.8 nautical miles at 8:35 on the morning of November 18, some 6.5 miles northwest of Baekryung Island, and headed back to the DPRK around 9:11 AM. A JCS officer said that Navy high-speed patrol boats intercepted the vessel and issued warnings via loud speakers. The officer said, "We didn't spot any military moves from the patrol boat. The patrol boat instead, returned home after cracking down on the Chinese fishing boats around the area." (Kim Hee-sung, "N.K. PATROL SHIP VIOLATES NLL YET AGAIN," Seoul, 11/18/01)
The Korea Herald reported that DPRK Central TV said on November 17 that Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), arrived in the DPRK to attend the opening of the WHO's country office in Pyongyang. The DPRK media company said the WHO chief will meet with Kim Yong-nam, chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, and other officials to discuss the overall health situation in the DPRK, and the possibility of future cooperation and investments in the field. Brundtland will stay in Pyongyang for four days and then visit the ROK for two days. She is expected to meet President Kim Dae-jung, and Minister of Health and Welfare Kim Won-gil, as well as other ROK officials. ("WHO HEAD ARRIVES IN N. KOREA, 11/19/01)
Pyongyang, November 15 (KCNA) -- A book "catfish cookery" has recently been brought out in the DPRK. It is a photo-illustrated book on national dishes. It deals with hundreds of catfish cooking methods and over 120 dishes. It has 10 parts dealing with all kinds of ingredients, cooking methods and cooking utensils. "Cold catfish soup prepared with unsliced potato", "fried catfish prepared with bean curd and bean paste", "catfish-loach tonic soup," "vinegared rice mixed with catfish," "catfish skin salad" and others were highly appreciated at the national folk cookery contest. This book is instrumental in developing national cookery.
Pyongyang, November 11 (KCNA) -- Socialist planned economy is the best economy developing on the basis of its inherent new principle and mode, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article. The superiority of the socialist planned economy over the capitalist market economy lies in that it ensures maximum economic profits, the article notes, and goes on: Maximum economic profits are fully guaranteed by the planned and balanced development of the national economy in socialist society.
The advantages of this economy lie in that the state channels all resources in a purposeful and conscious manner to manufacturing a variety of products needed for consolidating the country's economic foundation and improving the standard of the people's living on a social scale. It also makes it possible to scientifically calculate and specify on a social scale for which field manpower, equipment and materials should be used to make the country's economic potentials yield maximum productive results. The rational distribution of the socially gained resources is unthinkable in the market economy where spontaneity and anarchy in production prevail due to the private ownership of means of production.
The advantages of this economy also lie in that the socially and rationally distributed resources can be most effectively used at all units according to the state-defined norms, procedures and methods. In the socialist society the state defines scientific norms, procedures and methods for the use of resources, as required by the development of science and technology and realities and socially coordinates them, thus making it possible to make use of conditions and possibilities in production fields and units for maximum economic efficiency. Norms, procedures and methods for the use of resources in the capitalist market economy are defined within the framework of an individual enterprise and it is, therefore, impossible to coordinate them socially as they are kept in top secrecy.
The socialist planned economy, at the same time, develops science and technology, carries out the technological transformation and modernization of the national economy and improves the organization and management of production in a purposeful and planned manner for an effective use of all the manpower and material resources of the country.
Pyongyang, November 11 (KCNA) -- Economic "globalization" means, in essence, "Americanization" of the world economy aimed at forcing developing countries to stop building independent economy and introduce its capital and economic mode, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article. It goes on: The imperialists exploited and plundered the people of the developing countries through non-equivalent exchange in the past, but now they changed the mode of exploitation and plunder by letting multi-national corporations penetrate into those countries. These corporations are like syringes drawing blood out of the people's bodies. Those who are addicted to the "drug" called economic "globalization" are unable to know its adverse consequences.
The economic "globalization" on the lips of the imperialists is nothing but a deceptive signboard to bar the people of the developing countries from feeling that they are exploited and plundered. The economic "globalization" is aimed at destroying national economies, westernizing the world economy and thus realizing economic monopoly and domination in order to intensify their exploitation and plunder worldwide. The economic "globalization" is by no means a remedy. The imperialists never do the developing countries a favour.
If they do something for the developing countries, that is only strangulating them by subjugating them economically with foreign capital as a bait. One should build national economy by oneself. If not, one is bound to go to ruin. To try to build national economy through the introduction of unreliable foreign capital is little short of giving trump card to capital investors. Yielding to the pressure of economic "globalization" will lead both national economy and country to a ruin. One should not be taken in by the imperialists' call for economic "globalization". It is necessary to discard dependence upon outside forces and build and develop independent national economy on one's own efforts. This is the only way to achieve national prosperity and independent development.
Joongang Ilbo, November 09, 2001. North Korean authority enforced a crackdown on the market place according to one defector's testimony. North Korea is in the middle of 'reorganizing' its market place, reported the November edition of monthly magazine 'Keys' specialized in North Korean affairs, citing the words of one North Korean defector in China. "North Korea, seeing its own national economic plan being paralyzed due to suspension of food supply is doing its best to stamp out the nation's own market economy self-produced out of pure needs of the people," testified the defector. "The authority is doing its best to return the current market place to the old farm market and thus is prohibiting the sale of clothing, shoes and other commodities."
"The authority has evidently cut out the very means of survival for those who managed to get by for past five years of hardship," the defector said. "Even the grains one has raised in individual land is being considered government supply and is forbidden cultivation for the New Year." The difference between the current market place and the old farm market could be found mainly in its scale. Farm market known to be legal allows people to sell personal products as a side-job, preferably few harmless commodities such as knitting-works. Daily necessities provided by the government, such as rice however, is not to be sold for it harms the overall system. Then by 90s, as the life grew worse common people began to take advantage of the petite farm market and developed it into what a real market place should be that allows more exchange of daily necessities to live by. Black markets were born at the sideline promising to become a disrupting factor for the socialist system in the future.
Chosun Ilbo, Novemeber 8, 2001. North Korea's cooperative farm account settlement and sharing, starts early in November when harvests are completed. Though the event, which should be an occasion of celebration for the farmers, has long been a mere formality in the wake of the serious food shortages in the 1990s, it is still no doubt a special occasion for the farmers. Upon concluding a year's farming, each cooperative farm closes its accounts and determines shares for its members. With farming expenses spent on seeds, fertilizers and agricultural chemicals, irrigation costs, farm implement rents, and joint saving funds deducted from total output, the farm fixes a share for each of its members according to the quantity and quality of the labor he or she has provided in the pertinent year.
Shares calculated based on the quantity of farming labor input during the year are notified to the members through work teams usually about ten days prior to the formal account settlement and sharing meeting. Discrepancies between individuals' workday pocketbooks and notified shares are rectified in advance through reviews. Such a meeting is held at the farm's Culture Center with all the members attending. Morning hours are devoted mostly to ideological lectures, party policy explanations and singing, and account settling and sharing are done in the afternoon. Following the singing in chorus of "The Song of General Kim Il Sung" and "The Song of General Kim Jong Il," the cooperative farm chairman delivers an account settlement report, enumerating projected targets, actual performances and revenues in cash, among others.
The report is followed by the recommendation of outstanding farmers and presentation of shares to them. Each work team is entitled to recommend one distinguished farmer who has worked most enthusiastically, who as a result gets the biggest share among his colleagues. At the meeting they are given an envelope each, containing a slip of paper listing the kind and quantity of crops and the amount of cash to be given them. Cash of around NKW1,000 is delivered to them simultaneously, according to North Korean [...] living in the South. Upon receiving the envelopes, cited farm members make brief speeches, attributing their accomplishments to the self-reliance farming formula advocated by the late President Kim Il Sung and pledging further devotion to farming the next year than this year, and shout three cheers to the Kim Senior and Junior. Their fellow members clap their hands and repeat the three cheers. The meeting concludes with singing by entertainment members of work teams, who sing to the accompaniment of accordions and guitars.
Ordinary cooperative farm members return to their respective work teams and receive envelopes with slips describing the contents of their shares. Having been informed of the shares in advance, they don't feel any special sentiments. They are distributed with crops in kind and cash, as recorded in the slips. Crops they get are usually corns and rice in the ratio of 7:3. Farm members normally get a total of 340kg of un-hulled corns and rice, the amount of which is adjustable by labor input. Slightly varied as it is depending on region, few farmers receive more than 340kg of crops across the country, and 20-30% of them, having failed to achieve even 50% of the requirement, have to struggle with hunger throughout the a year, say the defectors.
Even if they are allotted with 340kg of crops, having fulfilled the labor requirement, what they actually receive may amount to no more than about 270 kg, because they are obliged to donate rice under the name of patriotism, military and strategic uses. The 270kg is a mere minimum annual requirement for a family to barely sustain themselves, says a North Korean defector. Cash is not handed at the time of account settling and sharing, but given in the form of a bank deposit, which can hardly be withdrawn because banks lack cash, he adds.
Joongang Ilbo reported that the DPRK became a new member of the global trade network called SWIFT, which establishes a system for settling transactions abroad. The DPRK's entrance into the SWIFT messaging service (which covers over 7,330 financial institutions in 194 countries) and its usage of SWIFT interface software indicates that the DPRK's major settlement dealings would be well exposed to the Western World. According to related institutions, DPRK authorities requested SWIFT's Hong Kong branch (SWIFT ASIA) this summer to aid its nation in establishing a settlement system, and an official from Hong Kong was dispatched to build a full system in Pyongyang. The DPRK is also expected to equip itself with a trade settlement system next year in accordance with the policy of SWIFT that calls for business-to-business settlement service via Internet. ("NORTH KOREA MEMBER TO GLOBAL NETWORK SWIFT," Seoul, 11/12/01)
Joongang Ilbo reported that the state-run Korean Central Broadcasting Station (KCBS) said that DPRK leader Kim Jong-il conducted on-the-spot-guidance for military unit Number 397 on November 12. DPRK Army generals Ri Myong-su, Hyon Chol-hae and Pak Jae-kyong were among Kim's aides. After being apprised of the current situation and viewing the training of the troops, Kim directed the soldiers to put full efforts to bolster the combat skills. Kim has returned to his full schedule of nationwide on-spot-guidance tour of factories and army bases. This latest visit makes it the eighth of its kind for this month alone. ("KIM JONG-IL VISITS ARMY NO.397," Seoul, 11/12/01)
Северная Корея ведет переговоры с рядом государств Азии и Ближнего Востока о продаже своих баллистических ракет. Об этом заявил журналистам на условиях анонимности представитель администрации США. По утверждению этого официального лица, договоренность о поставках баллистических ракет "Нодон" уже заключена между Пхеньяном и Каиром. Американский представитель не смог уточнить, была ли сделка реализована. По его словам, КНДР предпринимает эти усилия, чтобы обеспечить приток твердой валюты и поправить таким образом катастрофическое положение в национальной экономике.
Консультации о поставках ракет, по свидетельству американского представителя, Северная Корея ведет примерно с 3-4 государствами указанного региона. "Нодон" является ракетой средней дальности, которая уже поставлена на вооружение северокорейской армии. Несколько лет назад КНДР приступила также к разработке нескольких модификаций ракет "Тэпходон", способных достигать американской территории. Однако под давлением Соединенных Штатов ракетные испытания этих систем были заморожены, сообщает Cтрана.Ru |12.11.2001| (in Russian) .
Warning that North Korea will run short of food by January, a U.N. official said Saturday his agency will ask foreign donors for 610,000 tons of grain to get the starving country through the winter. The North's harvest this year was bigger than in 2000 but still 1.47 million tons short of what it needs, said David Morton, representative of the World Food Program in the North. Part of that gap has been filled with donations from Japan, South Korea, the United States and others. ``The food pipeline from donors will stop in January,'' Morton said at a news conference. ``We will need to revive donor contributions ... so that the beneficiaries, the children, don't run out of food in the middle of the winter.''
Isolated, secretive North Korea, the world's last Stalinist dictatorship, has relied on food aid since the mid-1990s. State farms have suffered a string of floods and droughts, worsening damage done by decades of mismanagement and loss of Soviet subsidies. Morton emphasized that despite a better harvest this year, aid officials see no sign of a sustained recovery. Children are eating better but hospitals have run out of medicines, he said. Aid agencies have gotten only a limited response to appeals for foreign help to supply clean drinking water.
The harvest this year was about as low as in other hunger-stricken years, Morton said. Last year, grain production had a record shortfall of 2.2 million tons, in part because North Korea lacks pesticides, fuel and other farm supplies. Morton said about one-third as much fertilizer is available as in the early 1990s.
``The fact that we got through the past 12 months without major starvation, I think, is a tribute to the success of the aid groups,'' Morton said. Small farmers markets have eased shortages in cities, but prices are high, Morton said and 2.2 pounds of rice costs a month's salary for a government employee.
However, aid workers know little about such markets because they aren't allowed to visit, Morton said. Despite some recent relaxations, North Korea still bars them from many areas. North Korean officials are stressing economic development over aid in an attempt to end their dependence on donations, said Morton, who also represents the U.N. Development Program in Pyongyang, the North's capital. ``We do not see a possibility for a long-term sustained ability of the country to feed itself until the economy as a whole recovers,'' he said. The North must attract private investment because aid agencies can't supply enough money to rebuild the country, he said. He said the North has ventured into processing goods under contract for South Korean firms and other businesses. Nevertheless, Morton said, there is no indication that the North is abandoning its state-run economy. "There is no indication that the DPRK is considering any change in its system that we can detect,'' he said. (Joe McDonald, "UN: N. KOREA RUNNING OUT OF FOOD," Beijing, 11/3/01)
The Izvestia reported that DPRK authorities on November 1 officially told EU representative Percy Westerlund that the country was against terrorism and that it is ready to sign the International convention on prevention of financing of international terrorism in New York as early as this November. DPRK Foreign Ministry officials told the EU representative that "United States groundlessly branded us as a country supporting terrorism". They also expressed "displeasure and concern" with the increased alert state of ROK armed forces and police and the strengthening of US Air Force stationed in ROK. DPRK media criticism of the US has somewhat diminished, but that has been excessively compensated by criticism of the ROK and Japan, which allegedly "is getting ready for another aggression in Asia." It said that by assisting the US, Japan tries to create a precedent of sending its troops abroad. (Denis Dubrovin, "MILITARY SECRET", Pyongyang, 6, 11/02/01)
Joongang Ilbo carried an analytical article that said that DPRK leader Kim Jong-il is showing an overall change in his ruling style. Among the activities that Chairman Kim conducted since early this year was his field inspection that covered not only various military bases but also factories, farm sites and many other economy-related sectors nationwide. This year he conducted so-called "on-the-spot-guidance" 73 times from April to September alone, which represents an average of one inspection every 2-3 days. He conducted a total of 84 field inspections this year so far. Observers in Seoul presume that Chairman Kim is probably building another foreign strategy. "Other reports have that Pyongyang is going through a great shake up not only in the government sector but also in the fields of economy, and relatively young officials in their 40s are rising to the high seats," one source said. "Chairman Kim may be preoccupied with the process of interviewing and reviewing the future economic policy of the North with 'young bloods' in accordance with the personnel list prepared by the Organization and Guidance Department." (Brent Choi, "N.K. CHAIRMAN MAY COME UP WITH NEW POLICY," Seoul, 11/05/01)
The Associated Press reported that the DPRK said on November 3 that it will sign the 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. A DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesman said it decided to ratify the treaty to show "we have made every possible effort to combat worldwide terrorism." The DPRK also decided to sign a 1979 international convention against hostage-taking. The spokesman did not say when the DPRK will sign the treaties. ("N. KOREA TO SIGN ANTI-TERROR PACT," Seoul, 11/3/01)
The Associated Press reported that David Morton, representative of the UN World Food Program in the DPRK, warned on November 3 that the DPRK will run short of food by January. He also said that the agency will ask foreign donors for 610,000 tons of grain to get the country through the winter. Morton emphasized that despite a better harvest this year, aid officials see no sign of a sustained recovery. He said that DPRK officials are stressing economic development over aid in an attempt to end their dependence on donations. He added that the DPRK must attract private investment because aid agencies cannot supply enough money to rebuild the country. He noted that the DPRK has ventured into processing goods under contract for ROK firms and other businesses. However, Morton said, there is no indication that the DPRK is abandoning its state-run economy. (Joe McDonald, "UN: N. KOREA RUNNING OUT OF FOOD," Beijing, 11/3/01)
Pyongyang, November 5 (KCNA) -- The so-called North Korean Human Rights Committee was reportedly inaugurated and started official activity in the United States. We cannot but pay attention to the fact that the United States organized the plot-breeding "North Korean Human Rights Committee," seriously distorting the human rights situation in our country. The target and content of its activity clearly show that it ensures no objectivity and fairness as a human rights organization but rather presented itself as a tool of the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK.
The organization made public an "inaugural declaration" aiming at "improvement of the North Korean human rights situation" and "opening" and raised a hue and cry as if there were the "human rights problem" in North Korea. This is a product of a premeditated plot to tarnish the internal and external prestige of the DPRK.
Never should it go unnoticed why the U.S. needed to inaugurate such a "human rights" organization whose headquarters is in Washington and which is executing its political instructions, not content with its annual "smear report on human rights." This proves that the U.S. is seeking to intensify its hostile policy toward the DPRK while clamouring for dialogue with it.
The U.S., known to the world as a theatre of rowdyism for human rights abuse, should investigate its human rights situation and open it to the world public before inaugurating such a human rights committee. It is a political caricature that the U.S. is taking issue with the human rights situation in other countries while suffering a loss of human lives from surprise attacks by its hand-raised terrorists all over the world, trembling with uneasiness and horror in the crucible of lawlessness and committing crimes of killing in cold blood a large number of civilians in Afghanistan. It is no more than a foolish attempt for the U.S. to disparage our social system under which all the rights of humankind are ensured most truly and independence of the popular masses has been completely embodied on the highest level. The U.S. should refrain from folly, mindful that its "human rights" pressure does not go down with our people.
Pyongyang, November 5 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today in a singed commentary denounces the U.S. for slinging mud at the DPRK and some other countries in its recent "annual report on international religious freedom," saying they are contrary to its "law on religious freedom." This is as impudent and ridiculous as a thief crying "stop the thief," the commentary says, and goes on: The U.S. is not in a position to admonish other countries in terms of religion. Years ago, the U.S. police fired at a residential quarter of members of a religious clan in Philadelphia and set their houses on fire and burnt 11 women and children for the reason that they asserted according to their religious belief the American civilization destroys the spiritual basis of human being. Right after the shocking attacks on the U.S. on September 11, the U.S. right-wing reactionary forces lost no time in attacking and destroying the houses, villages and establishments of Muslims in the U.S.
Worse still, the U.S. is killing many innocent Muslims in Afghanistan with missile strikes and air raids.
It was recorded in history that the U.S. imperialist aggressors destroyed churches and all other religious facilities and brutally murdered numerous believers during the last Korean War. As the U.S. army, police and CIA campaign against Muslims is beset with crisis, the U.S. is pulling up the DPRK and other countries over the issue of religion so as to get rid of world-wide precautions against it. However, nobody believes it. It is the U.S. who should stand trial for abusing religion. The freedom of religion and belief is fully guaranteed by law and many religionists are free to conduct their activities in Korea. No matter what others may say, we will consolidate and develop the people-centered socialism of Korean style.
Pyongyang, November 3 (KCNA) -- The Korean religious believers council issued a statement on Friday denouncing the United States for its recent mud-slinging at the DPRK over its religious issue. The statement said: The U.S. in a recent "annual report on international religious freedom" groundlessly pulled up the DPRK, slinging mud at other countries over their religious situation as if it were a "judge of religious issues." The U.S. was once strongly condemned by the unbiased world public and put to shame before the world when it let pseudo-religious organizations groundlessly take issue with the DPRK over its religious situation.
The religionists are free to conduct their activities while exercising the inviolable rights of citizens without any discrimination under the Korean-style socialist system centred on the popular masses where the human rights and freedom are genuinely guaranteed thanks to the benevolent politics of love and trust. This is a stark reality recognized by the world people. Many international religious organizations, religious organizations and believers of different countries witnessed this reality during their visit to the DPRK and sympathized with and confirmed the free activities of religionists in the DPRK.
The present U.S. administration must know that six years ago the chairman of the c.c., the Korean Catholics Association paid an official visit to the U.S. and the then U.S. President met with him and that rev. Billy Graham, U.S. religious leader, also visited the DPRK several times and held joint masses in a free atmosphere together with Korean religionists. Nevertheless, the United States, not content with using pseudo-religionist organization called the "international committee for religious freedom," which is acting a political prostitute, announced its "annual report" slinging mud at the DPRK over its religious issue, ignoring those stark facts. This glaringly shows how reckless the U.S. has become in its anti-DPRK campaign.
It was the U.S. that ignited a war of aggression in Korea in the 1950s, savagely bombed more than 1,900 churches, cathedrals and temples, destroying all of them, and killed in cold blood hundreds of thousands of innocent religionists. It is nonsensical for it to say this or that about the religious issue in the DPRK. It is the religionists who know best about the religious freedom and it is as clear as noonday that the U.S. law cannot be international standards. The Korean religious believers council bitterly denounces, in the name of all the religionists in the DPRK, the U.S. unreasonable act of groundlessly pulling up the DPRK religionists over their sacred life in a bid to achieve a sinister political aim, regarding it as an unbearable insult to the religious organizations, all the office-bearers and believers of the DPRK and an intolerable provocation to the highly dignified DPRK. It is foolish to try to falsify truth with lies and fabrications.
The U.S. is well advised to renounce at once the base anti-DPRK diatribe, honestly apologize for destroying all the religious facilities in the DPRK and committing the thrice-cursed mass killings of innocent religionists and people during the Korean war before ridiculously interfering in its internal affairs and immediately withdraw the ill-intended "decision". If the U.S. continues resorting to arbitrary practices, bereft of reason, while distorting and desecrating the true life of the religionists in the DPRK, it will be sternly judged by history. We will firmly defend and glorify our socialist system centred on the popular masses which ensures a worthy life and a genuine religious life no matter what others may say. We express the expectation that the peace- and justice-loving international religious organizations and honest-minded religionists of the world will actively turn out to punish the U.S. threatening world peace and trying to stamp out religion and check and frustrate its arbitrary practices.
The Associated Press reported that Silibank.com, a company based in Shenyang in northeast PRC, and supported by the DPRK government, said it installed server computers in Pyongyang in early October and is running an experimental e-mail service. Government agencies or other official organizations said the service is limited for now to only those who want to exchange e-mails with DPRK trade companies. A Silibank.com official in Shenyang said in a telephone interview that e-mail service for ordinary DPRK citizens is being discussed with authorities in Pyongyang. He declined to be named. Silibak.com said it has only 10 subscribers so far for its service. According to its price table, most text e-mails can be sent for US$1.50-2.00 But sending a photograph of 8 megabits, for example, costs US$300. During the experimental phase, Silibank.com will transmit e-mails in and out of the DPRK only once every hour. ROK officials said they were studying the new e-mail service. ("CHINA-BASED WEBSITE OFFERS E-MAIL LINKS TO ISOLATED NORTH KOREA," Seoul, 11/01/01)