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Quotes of the Day:
"A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus."
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether or not it is the same problem you had last year."
– John Foster Dulles
"Give me a man or woman who has read a thousand books and you give me an interesting companion. Give me a man or woman who has read perhaps three and you give me a dangerous enemy indeed."
–Anne Rice
1. While the World Was Looking Elsewhere, North Korea Became a Bigger Threat
2. North Korea has sent 6,700 containers of munitions to Russia, South Korea says
3. Moscow Plans to Produce 2.7 Million Rounds of Ammunition, Ukrainian Intel Says
4. South Korea eyes mixed fleet of manned, unmanned warplanes
5. Defense chief says N.K. munitions factories operating at full capacity to supply Russia
6. N. Korea, China expected to have 'vibrant' exchanges in key year: Seoul official
7. Tourists have returned to North Korea for the first time since the pandemic
8. N. Korea shortens SLBM development period with technology stolen from S. Korea
9. Korea must learn from West Germany
10. Korea's major shipbuilders vying for $5.8 billion defense deal
11. N. Korea intensifies screening of candidates for overseas work
12. N. Korea’s electricity and food shortages lead to frequent cases of food poisoning
13. N. Korea sends youth delegation to Russia to attend festival
14. Russia sending North Korea food in return for arms: Seoul defense chief
1. While the World Was Looking Elsewhere, North Korea Became a Bigger Threat
We used to call this "creeping normalcy." The north's threats increased with few paying attention.
Kim Jong Un says, "My work is done here. I have the press and pundits accepting my political warfare and blackmail diplomacy strategy and I have made the world afraid of me."
It is amazing how much Carlin's and Hecker's article has created such a stir. We are being blinded by Kim's nuclear weapons.
Why won't the press recognize Kim's strategic failures? Why won't the press and the pundits acknowledge Kim's failed promise to the people that when he develops nuclear weapons it will bring peace and prosperity to the people? Why won't the press and pundits acknowledge the growing internal instability that is threatening the regime? Why won't the press and pundits recognize the historic inflection point caused by Kim saying he no longer seeks peaceful unification? There are opportunities for us if we are willing to seize them. Sigh....
While the World Was Looking Elsewhere, North Korea Became a Bigger Threat
Kim enlarged his nuclear arsenal and built ties to Russia, no longer aiming for reunification with South Korea. The U.S. and its allies are alarmed.
https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/north-korea-kim-jong-un-military-nuclear-f33ede51?mod=hp_lead_pos7
By Timothy W. MartinFollow and Dasl YoonFollow
Feb. 27, 2024 12:01 am ET
SEOUL—In March 2022, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walked out of a massive hangar wearing a bomber jacket and dark sunglasses. He pointed to the sky and launched his biggest missile yet.
“This miraculous victory is a priceless victory,” Kim said.
It was classic North Korean theater. But behind it were developments that together have made Kim’s regime a genuinely more capable and more threatening antagonist. Its ability to unleash some form of nuclear attack on the world has never looked so credible, so prone to misperception and so resistant to dissuasion.
Kim has developed new weapons in the past five years designed for regional warfare and seen Russian soldiers recently use some of them in fighting with Ukraine. In January, he abandoned hopes of reunification with South Korea and embraced more combative goals. He has given up on talks with the U.S. after President Biden took office, and his ongoing courtship of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is expected to visit Pyongyang soon, elevated North Korea on the global agenda higher than it had been in years.
The dictator has exploited a fractured global order to harden North Korea into a menacing nuclear state—a potent new complication for a world already enmeshed in wars in Europe and the Middle East.
Kim is playing a longer, more strategic game with a nuclear arsenal that has quickly grown since talks broke down at the February 2019 summit with former President Donald Trump in Hanoi. That has made predicting his next steps murkier and more worrisome.
Particularly troubling, security experts say, is how sure-footed Kim looks, despite widespread food shortages, a more confrontational South Korean administration and a U.S. that is rotating nuclear assets into the region more often.
At the 2022 weapons launch, Kim oversaw North Korea’s first full-range intercontinental ballistic missile test in nearly five years. In the past, Russia and China would have condemned the behavior at the United Nations. But Beijing and Pyongyang had grown tighter over their shared animosity toward Washington, and North Korea just weeks earlier had become one of the few countries to publicly back Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Since then, Pyongyang has ripped off eight more ICBM tests. The U.S. has tried more than a dozen times at the U.N. Security Council to condemn or punish the Kim regime. Each has failed.
For decades, officials often interpreted Pyongyang’s moves through the prism of a well-established “provocation playbook,” where weapons tests and bellicose language helped drive urgency around the world for talks with the regime. Kim and his predecessors used that attention to elevate the country’s global standing and win aid or sanctions relief by promising to halt its weapons activity, often covertly plowing forward anyway. But Kim has ditched that convention.
Kim Jong Un, center, at the ICBM test in March 2022 at an undisclosed location in North Korea, in a photo distributed by the North Korean government. PHOTO: KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Now, Kim is developing his nukes more with an eye to keeping them than trading them away, even if it means living under sanctions. He is also rewiring dynamics inside the regime to share authority and create a more normalized government, and adjusting his relationships with allies by increasing the reliance on Russia, said Ken Gause, an expert on North Korean leadership who has been a consultant for the U.S. government.
The shift in tactics is difficult to see given Pyongyang’s self-isolation and adversarial relationship with Washington, Gause said. “Kim Jong Un is his own man at this point,” he said. “The problem is many people can’t see North Korea changing.”
Dropping reunification
A clear sign of Kim’s new bravado emerged last month, as he abandoned a foundational doctrine of his predecessors. Taking to a lectern at his country’s cavernous parliament hall, he stood beneath towering statues of his father, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather, Kim Il Sung.
In a fiery speech, Kim Jong Un declared his regime would no longer seek peaceful reunification with Seoul. Instead, South Korea should be codified as the main enemy. He ordered the country to prepare for war. Pyongyang’s iconic “Arch of Reunification”—built by his father in honor of his grandfather—was torn down.
“Once a war becomes a reality facing us,” Kim said, “We will never try to avoid it.”
What a war or conflict could mean in Kim’s eyes has drawn rising concern from officials in Washington, Seoul and elsewhere.
Pyongyang has crammed more weapons advances in the past five years than during any similar stretch in the country’s history, said Kuyoun Chung, a policy adviser for South Korea’s navy, foreign ministry and unification ministry.
A United Nations Command soldier looks toward North Korea from the Demilitarized Zone in 2022. PHOTO: ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Yet an all-out invasion carried out by North Korea looks highly unlikely, with Kim himself ruling it out in his policy speech. North Korea has also reduced its arms reserves of late, sending munitions and short-range missiles to Russia for fighting with Ukraine, according to U.S. and South Korean officials. And in recent weeks, North Korean soldiers have been spotted re-mining the Demilitarized Zone, according to people familiar with the matter, which would be an odd move ahead of a land attack.
But Washington and Seoul officials say they remain concerned about the potential for lower-scale skirmishes between the two Koreas, including drone infiltration or maritime incursions, especially in the Yellow Sea or western border areas.
Waning support among Americans for the war in Ukraine and Israel’s efforts in Gaza might give Kim the impression that the U.S. is overextended and exhausted, said Sydney A. Seiler, a former U.S. envoy for six-party talks with North Korea in 2014 and 2015. Kim could be harboring hopes that following a threat—or even limited use—of nuclear weapons against South Korea, international pressure might build to quickly de-escalate, forgo retaliation and allow North Korea to extract financial gains for peace, Seiler said.
“Then North Korea’s dreams are coming true,” said Seiler, who also served as a former National Intelligence Officer for North Korea. “Kim would come to the negotiating table as a victor.”
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s appearance in public has shifted since he came to power over a decade ago. WSJ analyzes the subtle changes in Kim’s attire and what it signals about the future of his regime. Photo Composite: Emily Siu
A pair of former U.S. officials surmised that Kim had made the strategic decision to go to war in an article last month on 38 North, a website dedicated to North Korea news. Kim may have concluded Washington will never accept his country as a legitimate state and wants to eliminate it, said Robert L. Carlin, a former U.S. negotiator with the North and one of the authors. Pyongyang may believe that any agreements, including those with Seoul, may not be sustained anyway, he said.
Kim’s nonmilitary options might be exhausted, and his goals likely now extend beyond sanctions relief given the strength of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, he added. “Every surprise attack worked by definition,” Carlin said. “I hear over and over again: ‘They won’t use nuclear weapons.’ Well, that’s what they want us to think.”
North Korea could possess 50 to 60 nuclear warheads, according to an assessment by Siegfried S. Hecker, Carlin’s co-author. Five years ago, Hecker and others estimated Pyongyang’s stockpile at roughly 35.
“What worries me the most is they’ve continued to increase the size and sophistication of their nuclear arsenal and delivery means,” said Hecker, who in the past has visited North Korea’s nuclear facilities as an international inspector.
As the world grows more militarized, Pyongyang’s nuclear stockpile and know-how pose proliferation risks with other rogue actors. It’s a corner Kim could uniquely own: North Korea is the only state to have carried out a nuclear test this century.
Accepting life under sanctions
Founded in 1948, North Korea’s dynastic Communist state has outlasted the Soviet Union’s nearly 70-year run. As a father to three young children, Kim has suggested to U.S. officials in the past he doesn’t want nuclear weapons to be a burden to his offspring.
After taking power in late 2011, Kim had paid homage to his father’s policies on the military and economy, and packed on more than 100 pounds to physically resemble his grandfather. His initial leadership legitimacy had centered on a promise of delivering economic revitalization.
To cater to Pyongyang’s elite, Kim built a modern water park and a dolphin aquarium. He erected luxury apartments. He approved more incentives for farmers and backed more autonomy for small businesses.
Kim spoke of aspirations to make North Korea a “peace-loving nuclear power.” Ahead of nuclear talks with Trump in 2019, he had halted weapons launches and dismantled parts of a key testing facility as a diplomatic goodwill gesture. He hoped to win a deal with the U.S. that shed sanctions, reopened his country’s economy and invited foreign investments, in exchange for disarmament on his own terms.
Former President Donald Trump met with Kim at the Demilitarized Zone in 2019. PHOTO: KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS
The abrupt collapse of the talks brought major disappointment to Kim. State media stayed silent about the breakdown with Trump for a week. A documentary crew that Kim had brought with him to Hanoi ended up stuffing its 78-minute film with scenes from Kim’s uneventful state visit to Vietnam. Archived footage of his grandfather even got used as filler.
Within weeks, Kim began changing tactics.
North Korea restarted activity at its ICBM factory and rebuilt parts of its main rocket-launch site. Kim met Putin in Vladivostok, where the North Korean leader blamed the U.S. for acting in bad faith. In May 2019, missile tests started again.
Unlike the prior spree of nuclear tests and long-range weapons launches, North Korea prioritized developing new, sophisticated missiles that could terrorize neighboring South Korea and Japan—a missing part of the regime’s arsenal. The new missiles, dubbed KN-23 and KN-24, can be nuclear equipped and change direction midflight.
Those weapons are now used by Russian soldiers in the war in Ukraine, according to assessments by Washington, Seoul and Kyiv. “The North Korean weapons are getting target practice in Ukraine, and Russian feedback on the weapons’ shortcomings will allow North Korea to advance its technology even more,” said Moon Seong-mook, a retired South Korean brigadier general who was a negotiator at inter-Korean military talks in 2007.
Kim closed 2019 with a defiant speech that warned his nation to accept the reality of a protracted fight with the U.S. “We have to live under the sanctions by the hostile forces,” Kim said.
Remains of what is believed to be a North Korean missile used by Russia in Ukraine in January. PHOTO: REUTERS
Covid-era strength
When Covid-19 emerged in neighboring China, North Korea became one of the first countries to slam its borders shut, in January 2020. Cross-border trade, key to the North’s prepandemic economy, soon evaporated.
Kim took unprecedented control of the country’s society, economy and information. He no longer needed to cater to the country’s nouveau riche, and he centralized growth back to the state.
In 2021, he pulled off his biggest leadership shake-up in a decade, excising those he deemed disloyal or corrupt. He handed subordinates more authority, which also meant he could deflect blame to them for the country’s struggles.
He also tightened screws on his people: Watching or distributing South Korean movies became a crime punishable by firing-squad execution—and several violators were killed that way, according to human rights groups.
Kim’s strongman moves reflect how he’s still trying to overcome the broken promise to his people of winning sanctions relief while holding on to the country’s nuclear weapons, said Kang Chol-hwan, a North Korean prison camp escapee who heads a human-rights group in Seoul. “Now he’s being honest that nuclear weapons are the only way for regime survival,” Kang said.
To push through his new mandates, Kim made himself a bigger star, seeking to take North Korea’s cult of personality to new heights.
He articulated policy by giving lengthy speeches instead of penning newspaper editorials, as his father did. He introduced a personally-branded ideological doctrine called “Kimjongunism,” according to Seoul’s spy agency. His temporary weight loss became the face of North Korea’s Covid-era struggles. He shed tears in public. He even apologized for policy errors.
At a November 2022 ICBM test, Kim unveiled his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, to the public for the first time. Now she is a fixture at marquee North Korea events, with Seoul’s spy agency believing she could be a potential successor. Kim reportedly now refers to the young girl, who is thought to be about 11, as “Morning Star,” a moniker that had been reserved for Kim Il Sung.
Beyond the ICBMs, Kim has racked up other military achievements since the Vietnam summit: submarine-fired ballistic missiles, a first-ever spy satellite, hypersonic technology and new ICBM launch platforms. A growing swath of North Korea’s weapons now rely on a type of fuel that makes them more mobile and easier to hide. A second plutonium-producing reactor at the country’s main nuclear site is believed to have recently become operational.
Kim and his daughter at a military parade in North Korea, shown on a screen at a Seoul train station last year. PHOTO: LEE JIN-MAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Kim regime has refrained in one area: carrying out its seventh nuclear test. But Washington and Seoul officials have long warned that preparations for it have been completed.
Since taking power, Kim has carried out more than 200 missile tests. That’s more than triple the output of his father and grandfather combined. “The more flamboyant and fancy his weapons are make it a lot more difficult for countries to take them away,” said Soo Kim, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst who focused on North Korea.
‘Closest friend’
After years of Covid isolation, North Korea reopened to the outside world by inviting foreign dignitaries from Russia and China to a military parade in Pyongyang last July.
Kim showered more attention on his Russian guest, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, giving him a personal tour of a North Korean weapons expo—including a stroll past the short-range missiles now used in Ukraine. Pyongyang and Moscow have denied the existence of any arms deals.
Kim, who once had a prolific pen-pal relationship with Trump, promised in a letter last summer to continue “holding hands firmly” with Putin.
Kim with President Vladimir Putin in Russia in September 2023. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Months later, the two leaders shook hands in-person at Russia’s main spaceport in the country’s Far East. It was Kim’s first overseas trip since the pandemic. The Russian leader promised assistance on North Korea’s satellite endeavors. In his dinner speech, the North Korean leader admonished the “gathering of evil that claims hegemony and nourishes expansionist illusions.”
Before returning home, Kim toured a Russian fighter-jet factory and examined a Russian navy frigate. North Korean train shipments into Russia picked up soon after.
Pyongyang is estimated to have provided around 5,000 containers of weapons to Moscow by the end of last year, and could soon also include the supply of tactical-guided weapons, South Korea’s defense minister recently told local media.
Russia is sending shipments lately with unknown goods into North Korea, too, according to government officials.
A date for a Putin visit to Pyongyang hasn’t been set. North Korea’s foreign ministry said the nation awaits it with great sincerity, saying Putin is the “Korean people’s closest friend.”
Write to Timothy W. Martin at Timothy.Martin@wsj.com and Dasl Yoon at dasl.yoon@wsj.com
2. North Korea has sent 6,700 containers of munitions to Russia, South Korea says
10,000 or 6,700. That is a lot of ammunition either way.
North Korea has sent 6,700 containers of munitions to Russia, South Korea says
The Straits Times
February 27, 2024
View Original
FILE PHOTO: Russian and North Korean flags fly at the Vostochny Сosmodrome, the venue of the meeting between Russia's President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, in the far eastern Amur region, Russia, September 13, 2023. Sputnik/Artem Geodakyan/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
SEOUL - North Korea has shipped about 6,700 containers carrying millions of munitions to Russia since July to support its war against Ukraine, in a sign of ongoing arms transfers, South Korean media reported on Tuesday, citing the defence minister.
At a briefing on Monday for local media, Minister Shin Won-sik said the containers might carry more than 3 million 152 mm artillery shells, or 500,000 122 mm rounds.
"It could possibly be a mix of the two, and you can say that at least several million shells have been sent," Shin said, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Hundreds of North Korean munitions factories are running at around 30% of their capacity due to a lack of raw materials and electricity, but those producing artillery shells for Russia were operating "at full swing," he added, without elaborating on the source of the information.
Seoul and Washington have accused Pyongyang and Moscow of trading arms and condemned the North for supplying weapons to Russia for use against Ukraine. Both countries have denied it even as they pledged to strengthen military cooperation.
The U.S. State Department, in a fact sheet released on Friday, said that North Korea has delivered more than 10,000 containers of munitions or related materials to Russia since September.
In exchange, North Korea has received some 9,000 containers mostly containing food supplies, which Shin said has helped stabilise prices there.
An official at Seoul's defence ministry said it could not confirm the numbers, but quoted Shin as saying that Russia has sent nearly 30% more containers since July to North Korea than the has North shipped.
Shin said North Korea could fire another satellite as early as next month as Moscow continued to provide technical aid, and Pyongyang has also asked for assistance with aircraft and ground mobility equipment technology.
"It is unclear how much Russia will give, but the more dependent Russia gets on North Korean artillery shells, the greater the degree of Russian technology transfers will be," he said, according to Yonhap. REUTERS
3. Moscow Plans to Produce 2.7 Million Rounds of Ammunition, Ukrainian Intel Says
Excerpts:
The Kremlin has already received 1.5 million 122-mm and 152-mm shells from North Korea.
“This is 70-80 years old ammunition, half of it doesn’t work,” Skibitsky said.
“This proves once again that Russia lacks its own production capacity for a rapid and powerful increase in missile production. If it did not, why would it ask North Korea,” he said.
“The Kremlin is very afraid that powerful Western equipment will come to Ukraine, so the aggressor has given itself the task of destroying both our aviation and infrastructure.”
Moscow Plans to Produce 2.7 Million Rounds of Ammunition, Ukrainian Intel Says
A center has been set up in Russia to replace foreign components, especially electronics, with Russian-made elements that are of inferior quality but allow for weapons production.
by Kyiv Post | February 27, 2024, 8:06 am
kyivpost.com · by Kyiv Post · February 27, 2024
A center has been set up in Russia to replace foreign components, especially electronics, with Russian-made elements that are of inferior quality but allow for weapons production.
by Kyiv Post | February 27, 2024, 8:06 am
Photo:Kyiv Post
Russians are trying to increase both quantity and quality of weapons it has been exhausting, after acquiring old munitions from Belarus and North Korea, but is hampered by Western sanctions and foiled by Western air defense systems, according to a recent interview with Ukrainian intelligence.
Russia plans to produce 2.7 million units of ammunition this year. According to Ukrainian intelligence, last year, Russia produced 2 million rounds of 122-mm and 152-mm ammunition.
“These are plans. We’ll see whether they will be implemented. But this requires, first of all, modernization of production, decommissioning or creation of new lines,” Maj. Gen. Vadym Skibitsky, representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine (HUR), said in an interview with Interfax Ukraine.
In February, the Kremlin planned to launch 130 Iskander, Kalibr, X-101, X-32, and Kinzhal class missiles, but came up short of its goal.
Skibitsky said that Western sanctions should target machine tools, and materials used to make electronic chips and microcircuits.
Russia has now set up a center to replace foreign components, especially electronics, with inferior Russian-made components.
“They are worse in quality, not as perfect, but they allow weapons production,” Skibitsky said.
According to the HUR, the Russian military has already taken all the ammunition out of Belarus, so “there is nothing to take from there.”
The Kremlin has already received 1.5 million 122-mm and 152-mm shells from North Korea.
“This is 70-80 years old ammunition, half of it doesn’t work,” Skibitsky said.
“This proves once again that Russia lacks its own production capacity for a rapid and powerful increase in missile production. If it did not, why would it ask North Korea,” he said.
“The Kremlin is very afraid that powerful Western equipment will come to Ukraine, so the aggressor has given itself the task of destroying both our aviation and infrastructure.”
“In addition, the Russians are now trying to use more technological, more effective weapons, because the effectiveness of our air defense system against such missiles is very high…” said Skibitsky.
“But the enemy understands that it is difficult to shoot down ballistic missiles, and for this we need high-tech Western weapons, like the Patriot, and we depend here on the supplies of our partners.”
kyivpost.com · by Kyiv Post · February 27, 2024
4. South Korea eyes mixed fleet of manned, unmanned warplanes
South Korea eyes mixed fleet of manned, unmanned warplanes
Defense News · by Gordon Arthur · February 26, 2024
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — With South Korea’s KF-21 fighter jet nearing mass production, the country is looking to incorporate unmanned technology that can operate alongside the Air Force’s fleet.
The military’s growing interest in manned-unmanned teaming comes amid a declining pool of 18-year-old conscripts and as relations with neighboring North Korea worsen.
Korea Aerospace Industries, a producer of various drones and crewed fighters, including the KF-21 Boramae and FA-50, is one of the companies leading the national effort.
In an exclusive briefing with Defense News, a KAI executive outlined the company’s four-phase road map to provide manned-unmanned teaming capabilities to the South Korean military.
“We have a very ambitious plan to create a system of systems for the future, and this is a combination of manned aircraft like the KF-21 and FA-50, together with unmanned combat vehicles as unmanned fighters, and also small-sized UAVs,” the executive said on the condition of anonymity, as the individual was not authorized to speak to the press.
The twin-seat configuration of the FA-50 light fighter lends itself to manned-unmanned teaming experimentation, as the rear pilot can control drones. (Gordon Arthur/Staff)
South Korea’s Air Force plans to acquire both single-seat and twin-seat variants of the 4.5-generation KF-21, with first delivery scheduled for June 2026. The twin-seat jet, apart from its training role, is expected to perform manned-unmanned teaming, or MUM-T, in its Block III configuration. This would involve a pilot in the back seat — or perhaps artificial intelligence — controlling drones.
The KF-21 was designed so users could equip it with new technology even after production, and the intention is to eventually develop a fifth- and sixth-generation variant. This aim falls under what KAI calls the next-generation air and space combat system, a sophisticated and linked network of sensors and platforms such as satellites, airborne early warning aircraft, crewed fighter jets and drones.
Four phases
KAI is already implementing the first phase of its MUM-T road map, which began in 2023 and is to conclude next year. It involves the company and the Air Force collaboratively developing technologies to make MUM-T a reality with a helicopter and small, air-launched unmanned aerial vehicles. Once KAI proves the concept and technology for high-capacity communications and artificial intelligence, it will transition to more capable UAVs — which the company calls adaptable aerial platforms — to operate in conjunction with an FA-50 aircraft.
Although larger and possessing a longer endurance than the original air-launched UAVs, the recoverable “adaptable aerial platforms,” or AAP, will not be excessively high-tech because it needs to affordable, the executive noted.
The second phase, to take place from 2025 to 2028, will culminate in a technology demonstration whereby an FA-50 testbed shows whether it can simultaneously control up to four adaptable aerial platforms. The demonstration is to feature AAPs acting as decoys to spoof the enemy; conducting electronic warfare with an onboard jammer; carrying out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions with an electro-optical/infrared payload; or performing strike missions with its own warhead.
By 2028, Korea Aerospace Industries hopes to have achieved a technology demonstration whereby an FA-50 will control four so-called unmanned adaptable aerial platforms. (Gordon Arthur/Staff)
The third phase, to conclude by 2037, will transition increasingly capable MUM-T technologies from an FA-50 to a twin-seat KF-21. Simultaneously, KAI is expected to reach the engineering and manufacturing design stage for an additional type of combat drone acting as a loyal wingman to the piloted aircraft.
A single KF-21 would control up to four of the combat drones. In turn, each loyal wingman would command four AAPs. This essentially means the combat power of a single KF-21 would expand to 20 unmanned aircraft.
Work is already underway on such combat drones, as the government’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration chose Korean Air Aerospace Division in August 2022 to develop a new loyal wingman. Development of the so-called KUS-LW drone commenced in November 2021.
“The squadron of UAVs will not only support and escort a manned aircraft, but will also be able to perform its own missions including surveillance, electronic interference tactics and precise shooting,” according to Korean Air.
Finally, the fourth phase, from 2038 onward, in which KAI hopes to have sufficiently mastered MUM-T to attain a true system of systems: This is the fruition of the next-generation air and space combat system.
“It’s a kind of compressed development,” the KAI executive said regarding the four-phase process. “We believe we have to move, otherwise we will miss the chance. This time we have to act to get in front, utilizing the technology we have accumulated for the last 30 years.”
Indeed, South Korea’s defense and aerospace industry has the experience and capability to develop MUM-T capabilities, according to Douglas Barrie, a senior fellow for military aerospace at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank.
“As with most nations, however, it is at a relatively early stage in exploring, researching and developing such capabilities. Much will also depend on the extent of near-term ambition,” he told Defense News. “Any approach that allows you to bolster your combat mass at reasonable cost, and with systems that might allow the acceptance of higher attrition rates, is going to be attractive.”
Artificial intelligence is a key part of this. Algorithms can outperform their human counterparts in terms of decision-making speed, as crews must await orders from air operations center, plus an AI-enabled network can produce a swift kill chain.
“Within a very short time, they [the AI and aircraft] have to exchange a huge amount of data, so secure communications and software … are necessary for this future battlefield. Eventually, AI command — in other words, AI pilots in the aircraft, maybe in the back seat, we don’t know — will replace some parts of the air combat center,” the KAI executive said. “With these very special capabilities and features of the future system, the AI can make a decision within a very short time frame. This short procedure will give us a huge advantage, considering our enemy is not well prepared for this future battlefield.”
Partnerships
South Korea and KAI are also looking for foreign investors.
South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik visited the Middle East in early February, during which he met his Qatari, Saudi and Emirati counterparts to discuss defense cooperation and unmanned technology.
Meanwhile, KAI is seeking international partners as it develops the MC-X Orca multirole cargo aircraft. The aircraft has a maximum takeoff weight of 92 tons and is about 132 feet long — between the lengths of a C-130J and A400M. Anticipated roles for the MC-X include transportation, aerial refueling, special forces operations, space rocket launches, airborne early warning, medical evacuation and maritime patrol — as well as MUM-T.
If the project proceeds, production of the MC-X wouldn’t take place until as soon as 2035, a company spokesperson said at the Seoul ADEX defense exhibition last year.
A scale model of Korea Aerospace Industries' proposed MC-X cargo aircraft is seen on display. Like its manned-unmanned teaming efforts, the firm is seeking foreign investors for the MC-X’s development. (Gordon Arthur/Staff)
“Our government is pretty much interested in having indigenous hardware, but there is a question when and how much they are willing to invest. So we are in discussion with our government, but at the same time we are looking for international partners interested in this idea of a multirole cargo aircraft. There are a couple of countries that would like to be partners in this initiative,” the KAI’s executive said, declining to name the countries.
The firm has previously tapped foreign sources to close gaps in its technological know-how. For example, in March 2021 the company signed a collaborative agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries for loitering munitions. In computer-generated promotional videos, KAI has shown IAI-style drones launched by Light Armed Helicopters and Surion choppers.
KAI also has export ambitions. The executive said there’s is a potential export market for up to 800 KF-21 fighters over the next few decades, specifically citing Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as candidates.
And by demonstrating it can retrospectively integrate MUM-T capabilities onto FA-50 aircraft, the executive added, the company hopes to entice existing users like Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland and Thailand to take advantage of the MUM-T technology.
“For the FA-50 and KF-21, we are not selling the current capability of the aircraft. We are at the same time trying to sell the value of this aircraft to do something else, something greater in the future, by giving them [potential customers] an idea of the MUM-T concept and a fifth-gen combat system — in other words, a system of systems,” the KAI executive said. “There is high value once they purchase the FA-50. With the capability, gradually year by year, they can operate this aircraft to be perfectly prepared for the future battlefield.”
Certainly KAI’s ability to achieve its four-phase MUM-T plan is possible, Barrie noted, but it’s not written in stone.
“In part, this will depend on how far and how quickly South Korea wants to develop the technology, combined with the kinds of roles associated with the uninhabited elements of any teaming architecture,” he said. “While ambition is laudable, it also needs to be realistic.”
About Gordon Arthur
Gordon Arthur is an Asia correspondent for Defense News. After a 20-year stint working in Hong Kong, he now resides in New Zealand. He has attended military exercises and defense exhibitions in about 20 countries around the Asia-Pacific region.
5. Defense chief says N.K. munitions factories operating at full capacity to supply Russia
While the Korean people in the north suffer.
Defense chief says N.K. munitions factories operating at full capacity to supply Russia | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Eun-jung · February 27, 2024
By Kim Eun-jung
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korean munitions factories are operating at full capacity to supply weapons to Russia in exchange for much-needed food and other necessities, South Korea's defense chief has said.
Defense Minister Shin Won-sik made the assessment as concerns have heightened about North Korea's alleged arms supply to Russia for its war in Ukraine while the war-torn nation is facing shortages of munitions due to delayed Western military aid.
"While North Korea's arms factories operate at 30 percent capacity due to shortages of raw materials and power, certain factories are operating at full capacity, which primarily produce weapons and shells for Russia," Shin said in a meeting with reporters Monday.
Defense Minister Shin Won-sik speaks during a press conference at the defense ministry building in Seoul on Feb. 26, 2024. (Yonhap)
North Korea is estimated to have shipped around 6,700 containers to Russia since the summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian leader Vladimir Putin in September, he said. The amount is enough to accommodate approximately 3 million rounds of 152 mm artillery shells or 500,000 of 122 mm artillery shells.
In return for supplying weapons to Russia, Shin said North Korea appears to be receiving food and other necessities, as well as raw materials and parts used in weapons manufacturing.
The volume of containers from Russia to North Korea is presumed to be approximately 30 percent larger than those shipped from North Korea to Russia over the period, he noted.
"It seems that food accounts for the largest proportion (of shipments from Russia), which is believed to have stabilized food prices in North Korea, with other necessities also included," Shin said.
The minister said Moscow is also likely to have provided satellite-related technology to Pyongyang as the country put its first spy satellite into orbit in November and vowed to launch three more this year.
Although the spy satellite has been orbiting the Earth, Shin expressed skepticism about the North's claim that the satellite is capable of photographing major South Korean and U.S. military sites.
"It shows no signs of functioning and is merely orbiting without activity," he said.
If Russia's dependence on North Korean munitions and weapons grows, Shin anticipated the extent of Russia's military technology assistance is likely to broaden in the future.
"It remains uncertain to what degree Russia will offer technology related to aircraft and ground equipment sought by North Korea. However, if Russia continues to receive more munitions from North Korea, the scope of technology transfer could increase," he said.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Eun-jung · February 27, 2024
6. N. Korea, China expected to have 'vibrant' exchanges in key year: Seoul official
Because the Kim family regime has been masterful at playing all sides, in particular Russia and China.
N. Korea, China expected to have 'vibrant' exchanges in key year: Seoul official | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · February 27, 2024
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korea and China are expected to have "vibrant" exchanges this year on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic ties, Seoul's unification ministry said Tuesday.
North Korea declared 2024 as the "year of DPRK-China friendship," a designation first introduced in 2009 to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations, according to an official from the ministry.
DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. China is North Korea's traditional ally and economic benefactor.
In 2009, "there were vibrant exchanges between North Korea and China," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
He assessed the level of cooperation between North Korea and China as being "considerably" weaker than that between the North and Russia, given that the foreign ministers of Pyongyang and Beijing have not visited each other's country yet in recent years for talks.
This photo, taken Aug. 16, 2023, shows North Korean buses heading to the Chinese border city of Dandong on a bridge over the Amnok River. (Yonhap)
North Korea and Russia have expanded the scope of their cooperation following the summit between the North's leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin in September last year.
Pyongyang is suspected of having provided artillery and munitions to Russia for use in Moscow's war in Ukraine in exchange for Russia's potential transfer of weapons technology.
South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik told reporters this week that North Korea has been operating its munitions factories at full capacity to supply weapons to Russia in exchange for much-needed food and other necessities.
"North Korea and Russia did not have many things to exchange with each other in the past. But Moscow's war with Ukraine has changed that situation. It remains to be seen whether these relations could continue," the official at the unification ministry said.
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · February 27, 2024
7. Tourists have returned to North Korea for the first time since the pandemic
Tourists have returned to North Korea for the first time since the pandemic | CNN
CNN · by Lilit Marcus, Mayumi Maruyama · February 27, 2024
North Korea welcomes tourists again. Who is visiting?
02:06 - Source: CNN
CNN —
Lena Bychcova couldn’t really believe it when her North Korean tourist visa came through.
Many Russian tourists have found themselves locked out of tourism destinations. But North Korea — as a key Russian ally — offered a rare opportunity to travel.
The marketing professional was one of about 100 Russian nationals who were allowed to travel to North Korea this month in what is believed to be the hermit kingdom’s first international tourist trip since the coronavirus pandemic.
Tourism in North Korea is tightly controlled. Individual travelers are not permitted into the country, and groups are accompanied by minders. Tourism revenue is used to support the regime of dictator Kim Jong Un.
Traveling to the “hermit kingdom” is not without significant risks. American college student Otto Warmbier was detained on a North Korea trip in 2016, allegedly for stealing a propaganda poster. He was returned to the United States 17 months later in a vegetative state and died soon after.
Courtesy Ryan Carlson and Shauna Cheng Carlson
The American couple who met on vacation in North Korea
The world’s most unusual ski holiday
Bychcova and the rest of the group arrived in Pyongyang on February 9, traveling via a North Korean-owned Air Koryo plane from Vladivostok.
While Bychcova admits she was anxious about the trip, she says that curiosity won out and she couldn’t pass up the chance to see a country that few tourists have the opportunity to explore.
Travel blogger Ilya Voskresensky, who also joined the tour, felt similarly tense – he listed his part-time job, selling vintage dishes, as his profession rather than revealing he was a content creator. Despite his misgivings, he admits that one reason to go through with the trip was to discover whether modern-day North Korea would compare to the Soviet Russia his family members told him about.
“When you look at North Korea you realize that your grandma and grandpa were living like they do here,” Voskresensky tells CNN. “It’s a teleport into the past. There are absolutely no advertisements in the city. The only thing on display are party slogans, flags and so on.”
Members of the Russian tour group pictured shortly after arriving in Pyongyang. (Photo by KIM WON JIN/AFP via Getty Images)
Kim Won Jin/AFP/Getty Images
The four-day trip cost each visitor about $750. The group had Russian-speaking guides and translators with them at all times. The itinerary included a visit to the bronze statues of the late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on Mansu Hill, the Mangyongdae Children’s Palace, where kids put on a music and dance performance, and three days at Masikryong Ski Resort.
The Russians were also given strict rules to follow, especially when it came to taking pictures and videos.
“We were asked not to photograph the military or people in uniform in general, not to photograph the construction sites or any of the buildings under construction,” Bychcova explains. “And there were rules about how to take photographs and generally treat portraits or sculptures of leaders. If you have a newspaper or magazine with a picture of the leader, then you cannot fold the newspaper so that the portrait becomes wrinkled.”
These newspapers became some of her favorite souvenirs from North Korea. Bychcova says that there wasn’t much to buy, but there were two shops – one in the airport and one in the capital – where she and other tourists could get magnets, dolls, Lego sets and other small gifts.
Lena Bychcova looks out the window of her room at Masikryong Ski Resort.
Courtesy Elena Bychcova
Russia and North Korea’s relationship
Before the pandemic, the largest source of inbound tourists to North Korea wasn’t Russia – it was China.
The Russian ski trippers were the first tourists allowed into the hermit kingdom since the pandemic, a sign of Russia’s increasing popularity in North Korea.
With global sanctions and a shrinking pool of allies, Russia and North Korea’s increased interest in one another has raised the alarm among US Intelligence officials.
North Korea has supplied Russia with missiles to use against Ukraine.
In February, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented a car to his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un. The act was a possible violation of United Nations sanctions imposed against the country for its nuclear weapons program.
Both Voskresensky and Bychcova say that their decision to travel wasn’t about politics – they went to North Korea eager to get to know local people and form relationships.
After returning, though, Bychcova doesn’t believe such a thing is truly possible in the North Korean system.
“About 200 kids – we counted them on stage! – had prepared an hour-long concert especially for us. And there were just 97 of us,” she says.
“So there were more people on stage than spectators. We could feel they were trying to create a certain image of what North Korea looks like for us. But some details revealed that it was not entirely true, that there is another life.”
While the Russians were able to discuss their trip to North Korea and their thoughts on the Kim regime freely, that same privilege does not apply in their own country.
Criticism of Putin, Russia’s policies and the military are criminal offenses in Russia.
A prominent ex-KGB official turned pro-military blogger who had been vocal in supporting the war in Ukraine was arrested and charged with “extremist activity” last summer for comments critical of Putin.
Just last week, a 33-year-old dual citizen of Russia and the United States was arrested in Yekaterinburg and accused of “providing financial assistance to a foreign state in activities directed against Russia security.” The reason? She reportedly donated $51 to a Ukrainian charity.
While both Voskresensky and Bychcova were aware of North Korea’s human rights abuses, they both tell CNN they hoped the trip would be worth it in order to connect with regular North Korean civilians.
Now, both say they would consider going to North Korea again someday – but only if the political situation changes.
“The main message of my content is that anywhere: no matter what country, no matter what nationality, it is regular people who live there, and you should treat people with love everywhere,” says Voskresensky. “I hope traveling will save the world.”
Another Russian ski trip in North Korea is slated for March 2024.
Editor’s Note: Anna Chernova and Mariya Knight contributed translation.
CNN · by Lilit Marcus, Mayumi Maruyama · February 27, 2024
8. N. Korea shortens SLBM development period with technology stolen from S. Korea
Steal to leap ahead. We should realize that this is because South Korea is the military superior.
N. Korea shortens SLBM development period with technology stolen from S. Korea
donga.com
Posted February. 27, 2024 07:33,
Updated February. 27, 2024 07:33
N. Korea shortens SLBM development period with technology stolen from S. Korea. February. 27, 2024 07:33. by Jin-Woo Shin niceshin@donga.com.
The South Korean intelligence authorities confirmed that North Korea significantly reduced the development period of submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) by applying the cold launch technology seized from a South Korean defense company in 2016. This is the first time that the South Korean intelligence authorities made a judgment that a South Korean defense company’s technologies have been used on a key strategic weapon of North Korea against the South and the U.S.
According to the National Intelligence Service on Monday, the South Korean authorities believe that North Korea used multiple technologies seized from shipbuilding and satellite companies in South Korea and abroad for the development of its ballistic missiles and reconnaissance satellites. The North stole over 60 Level 1 to Level 3 military secrets and 40,000 internal materials by hacking into Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in April 2016 and August 2016. It was reported that the country stole not only part of technologies related to Aegis, which was one of the key strategic assets of the South Korean Navy at the time, and other submarines but also a blueprint of the Korean Vertical Launching System (KLVS), a key technology for SLBMs, and the cold launch technology. The authorities believe that key technologies related to KVLS directly impacted the North’s SLBM development.
Since revealing an SLBM named Pukguksong for the first time in May 2015, North Korea launched an SLBM from a Sinpo-class submarine to 500 kilometers in the air in August 2016, four months after it hacked into Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. It was the country’s fifth test launch related to SLBMs. Following the launch of the Pukguksong-3 SLBM from a barge in 2019, the country revealed several SLBMs at its military parades, including three large SLBM models, including Pukguksong-4 and Pukguksong-5, and one small SLBM model, Hwasong-11. “It is believed that North Korea is improving its SLBM performance and diversifying SLBM models based on the submarine technologies of a South Korean company,” said a government source.
In addition, the intelligence authorities suspect that launch vehicle and optical equipment technologies seized from domestic and foreign satellite companies were primarily used for Malligyong-1, the first military reconnaissance satellite that North Korea succeeded last year in placing into an Earth orbit after two failed attempts, and Chollima-1, a rocket that carried the satellite.
한국어
donga.com
9. Korea must learn from West Germany
Now is not the time for the ROK to abandon unification but rather to double down on it. This is a historic opportunity for the ROK to really drive unification as it operates from the moral high ground.
Excerpt:
We must look at all inter-Korean issues, including reunification, from the perspective of the universal development of civilization, including a respect for the dignity of humanity and the promotion of freedom and human rights. This is the constitutional duty specified in our Constitution, and it is what the North Korean people will want. We need to systematically overhaul our policies on reunification while keeping an eye on the intentions and repercussions of the North’s change. We must implant the dream of building a community — one in which the two Koreas can share universal values of respect and human dignity — in future generations.
Tuesday
February 27, 2024
dictionary + A - A
Published: 27 Feb. 2024, 20:17
Korea must learn from West Germany
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2024-02-27/business/industry/Koreas-major-shipbuilders-vying-for-58-billion-defense-deal/1990317
Song In-ho
The author is a professor of law at Handong Global University and head of the Handong Institute for Peace and Reconciliation.
Various analyses have been made since North Korea revealed its intention to fundamentally change its policy toward the South by defining inter-Korean relations as a relationship between “two hostile states,” rather than “the same peoples” as before. The North has already demolished its Monument to the Three Charters of National Reunification. This policy change is widely viewed as an attempt to promote stronger internal bonding amid deepening economic difficulties, establish a foundation for power succession, strengthen its control of the Korean Peninsula amid drastic changes in the international order and secure nuclear weapons.
The shift of North Korea is similar to that of East Germany during the German division. East Germany interpreted the 1972 Basic Treaty as a permanent division of the country and removed clauses related to reunification through a constitutional amendment in 1974. East Germany asserted its own statehood distinct from West Germany, declaring that Germans were divided into a “socialist people” and a “capitalist people.”
However, even after the signing of the Basic Treaty, West Germany took the position that East Germany was not a state under international law. The Federal Constitutional Court of West Germany maintained that West Germany’s constitutional obligation to protect East German residents under the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany continued although the Basic Treaty prohibited one side from interfering in the other’s internal affairs. West Germany’s firm stance is credited for helping to hasten German’s reunification.
The normative effects of the Constitution of South Korea have extend to the North per Article 3 since its establishment in 1948. Article 4 orients unification to “liberal democratic basic order” and “peace.” Based on a comprehensive interpretation of those constitutional provisions, the Supreme Court has ruled that inter-Korean relations are not relations between two states, and that the North’s legal status is a dual one of “anti-state entity” and “partner in dialogue and cooperation for reunification.”
And yet, some people in South Korea point to the need to treat inter-Korean relations as between two states. While the purpose of promoting peace between the two Koreas is understandable, we need to carefully examine whether this paradigm will really bring peace to the peninsula.
First, as the “two states theory” is premised on the abolition or reduction of the territorial provisions in our Constitution, it will most likely lead to the abolition of the ones regarding reunification. The idea of special relations — that the two Koreas are not separate states but counterparts that will one day reunify — has served a positive function by helping to enhance mutual respect, reduce tensions and contribute to peace.
If South Korea abandons those special relations just because the North did, the two will really become two hostile states, and all prospects of peaceful reunification will disappear.
As policy change is not easy even for the North Korean people to accept, we must take a careful approach to changing the status quo. Shifting inter-Korean relations to those of statehood can be discussed once the North has adopted a system based on a liberal democratic order.
We must look at all inter-Korean issues, including reunification, from the perspective of the universal development of civilization, including a respect for the dignity of humanity and the promotion of freedom and human rights. This is the constitutional duty specified in our Constitution, and it is what the North Korean people will want. We need to systematically overhaul our policies on reunification while keeping an eye on the intentions and repercussions of the North’s change. We must implant the dream of building a community — one in which the two Koreas can share universal values of respect and human dignity — in future generations.
Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
10. Korea's major shipbuilders vying for $5.8 billion defense deal
Tuesday
February 27, 2024
dictionary + A - A
Published: 27 Feb. 2024, 19:04
Updated: 27 Feb. 2024, 20:00
Korea's major shipbuilders vying for $5.8 billion defense deal
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2024-02-27/business/industry/Koreas-major-shipbuilders-vying-for-58-billion-defense-deal/1990317
A bird's-eye view of the Korean Next-Generation Destroyer (KDDX) [HD HYUNDAI]
Korea's major shipbuilders are competing to win a 7.8 trillion-won ($ 5.8 billion) order to build new stealth guided-missile destroyers for the Korean Navy, although the prospects for bidding participants remain uncertain.
The question is whether HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HD HHI) will be qualified to bid for the Korean Next-Generation Destroyer (KDDX) project since its record of leaking sensitive military technology could render the bid by Korea's largest shipbuilder invalid.
The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) convened a meeting on Tuesday to assess whether HD HHI should be disqualified from the bidding process as the agency began scrutinizing the ship maker's status as a potential ineligible contractor. The results of the assessment were not available as of the paper's closing time at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
The KDDX-class destroyer project, a joint effort between the Republic of Korea Navy and DAPA, aims to deploy six 6,000-ton mini-Aegis destroyers by 2030, with a price tag of 7.8 trillion won. Hanwha Ocean secured the conceptual design and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries the basic design.
The two are facing off for a 1 trillion-won bid for the detailed design and construction of the leading ship this year. Traditionally, DAPA has entrusted this phase to the contractor that handled the basic design, in this case HD HHI, but with potential bidding restrictions, the firm's prospects are uncertain.
The scrutiny of HD HHI stems from a decade-old incident involving leaked military secrets. Nine of its employees were convicted last year for unlawfully obtaining and disseminating 12 military documents, including crucial KDDX conceptual designs by Hanwha Ocean, then Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, in 2013.
Consequently, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has incurred a 1.8-point deduction in DAPA's shipbuilding bidding process over the past three years, signaling potential repercussions for its future involvement in defense contracts.
The defense agency's stringent evaluations typically yield scores of less than 1 point, and last July, Hanwha Ocean narrowly clinched the role as the preferred bidder for the construction of the fifth and sixth ships of the FFX Batch-III program with a mere 0.1422-point score difference.
The potential designation as an "ineligible contractor" and restrictions on bidding could hand HD HHI a severe setback in defense sector contracts. DAPA can impose a bidding ban of up to five years for companies found guilty of illegally acquiring military secrets or violating integrity oaths. The company could not only squander previous investments but also hinder its prospects of securing other defense contracts for the restricted period. The special boat division under the nation's largest shipbuilding company boasts annual revenue of 1 trillion won and employs approximately 1,700 individuals.
11. N. Korea intensifies screening of candidates for overseas work
A personal anecdote I have mentioned before. I spent Chuseok with a n escapee from north Korea. He planned hsi escape for years. His first phase of his plan was to learn English and Russia in the hopes of gaining overseas work. Phase 2 was that he was sent to Russian logging concern. Phase 3 was finding passage on the underground railroad to South Korea. He arrived in the ROK about one year ago. I met him last September at north Korean Freedom Week. Unfortunately it has been six years since he has seen his wife and daughter. He spent five years in Russia trying to escape.
N. Korea intensifies screening of candidates for overseas work
Continued defections by overseas workers appear to be the direct cause of the increased efforts to weed out potential troublemakers
By Seulkee Jang - February 27, 2024
dailynk.com
N. Korea intensifies screening of candidates for overseas work - Daily NK English
North Korean workers in Russia. (Courtesy of Kang Dong Wan)
North Korean authorities have greatly intensified ideological screenings when selecting workers to be sent overseas, apparently in response to continued defections by overseas workers.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a Daily NK source in Pyongyang said Thursday that the North Korean authorities have recently stepped up background checks when selecting workers to be sent overseas, with more thorough ideological screenings.
The increased efforts to weed out potential troublemakers comes as overseas workers continue to defect from their homes and workplaces. Daily NK reported in 2021 that 11 North Korean construction workers living in Moscow came to South Korea via another country.
Last year, Daily NK reported that nine North Korean workers living in Russia came to South Korea in November 2022 after defecting through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Moscow.
To deal with the continued defections, North Korean authorities discussed increasing the number of security personnel tasked with monitoring overseas workers. They also ordered security officials to submit regular reports on their surveillance activities and the movements of overseas workers.
The source said defections by overseas workers are a constant worry for North Korean government officials, who are desperate for foreign currency.
“It takes two or three times as long to select workers to send overseas because of the intensified background checks,” the source said. “When they select workers, they not only thoroughly investigate the candidate’s past and usual behavior, but also make sure that none of their family members or relatives have defected.”
In particular, if someone is sent overseas to earn foreign currency and defects, “their family and relatives back home become members of the ‘hostile class,’ all because of that one person,” the source said, adding that the government is more thoroughly vetting candidates because monitoring more people is a burden on the government.
Russia-based laborers are better earners than those in China
Meanwhile, North Korean authorities plan to continue sending workers overseas.
According to the source, North Korea plans to repatriate about 5,000 of its workers currently in Russia and send about 15,000 new workers. Most of the North Korean workers in Russia are construction workers under the supervision of the External Construction Bureau.
On the other hand, North Korea plans to send relatively few workers to China. “The authorities plan to repatriate about 1,000 workers currently in China and send about 2,000 new ones,” the source said.
“Most of the workers in China are women who work in sewing, seafood processing, and restaurants,” the source said. “The workers sent to Russia generate much more foreign currency than those sent to China, and it’s easier to fly under the radar of the international community when you send workers to Russia. So [the authorities] plan to send the most workers to Russia.”
North Korea is also drawing up plans to send a total of about 1,000 additional construction workers to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and about 200 new workers to Kuwait while repatriating about 100 workers currently in the country.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Daily NK works with a network of sources living in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous for security reasons. For more information about Daily NK’s network of reporting partners and information-gathering activities, please visit our FAQ page here.
Please send any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
12. N. Korea’s electricity and food shortages lead to frequent cases of food poisoning
The Korean people in the north continue to suffer.
N. Korea’s electricity and food shortages lead to frequent cases of food poisoning
"The state considers food poisoning an unimportant common disease, and people have long given up on getting help from a hospital or doctor," a source told Daily NK
dailynk.com
N. Korea’s electricity and food shortages lead to frequent cases of food poisoning - Daily NK English
North Koreans snap photos of food with their mobile phones at a national cooking contest. (DPRK Today)
Food poisoning has been a serious problem in North Korea this winter season due to food shortages and poor supplies of electricity, Daily NK has learned.
“In Hyesan, people think of food poisoning like the common cold,” a source in Yanggang Province told Daily NK on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “Food poisoning is always with us, regardless of the season, but many people came down with it during the recent string of holidays.”
This year, the Lunar New Year holiday and the Day of the Shining Star fell a week apart. As a result, many people saved some of the food they prepared for the Lunar New Year to use during Kim Jong Il’s birthday celebration.
However, the food often spoiled because people could not store it in refrigerators or freezers due to the lack of electricity. People ate it anyway because they did not want to throw it out, which resulted in food poisoning, the source said. As a result, the price of antidiarrheals, antibiotics, and saline drips shot up by a factor of one and a half during the holiday season.
“People saved and ate the leftover New Year’s dumplings, fried foods, rice cakes, and side dishes for the Day of the Shining Star. Even though the food went bad, people ate it anyway because they didn’t want to throw it away, and everyone – young and old – came down with food poisoning,” the source said. “The food goes bad because people can’t keep it in the freezer because there’s no electricity.”
“Food vendors also set the number of meals they sell per day. They don’t make more than that, and if they have leftovers, they pay families with freezers to store them, but that’s not enough because the electricity situation is not good,” the source said. “Even households with gasoline or diesel generators need good basic electricity to use freezers.”
In Hyesan, where temperatures have barely risen above freezing in the past month, food poisoning outbreaks do not appear to be related to food spoilage due to the limited use of refrigerators or freezers. The cause may be unsanitary preparation environments and dirty containers or utensils.
To prevent food poisoning, it is important to wash ingredients with clean water and to wash hands after handling ingredients before and after preparation. Cooking meat or seafood completely over high heat is also a good idea.
“In North Korea, the only thing people do to prevent food poisoning is to disinfect items, cook food, and boil water,” the source said. “The state considers food poisoning an unimportant common disease, and people have long given up on getting help from a hospital or doctor. So when they get sick, they buy medicine or an IV on their own.”
The most important thing to prevent food poisoning is to follow food expiration dates and hygiene guidelines, but North Koreans struggling with food and financial shortages do not have the luxury to do so with any degree of thoroughness, the source said.
“If people can make a decent living, they will follow expiration dates and improve sanitation, but they are too busy trying to make ends meet now to have much time to worry,” he said.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Daily NK works with a network of sources living in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous for security reasons. For more information about Daily NK’s network of reporting partners and information-gathering activities, please visit our FAQ page here.
Please send any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
13. N. Korea sends youth delegation to Russia to attend festival
N. Korea sends youth delegation to Russia to attend festival
The Korea Times · February 27, 2024
Moon Chul, center, head of the Central Committee of the North Korean Socialist Patriotic Youth League, is seen off by Russian Ambassador to Pyongyang Alexander Matsegora, left, in this file photo carried by North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency, Feb. 27. Yonhap
A delegation of North Korean youths has left for Russia to take part in the World Youth Festival, Pyongyang's state media said Tuesday, as the two nations have been deepening cooperation.
The delegation, led by Moon Chul, head of the Central Committee of the North Korean Socialist Patriotic Youth League, left Pyongyang on Monday to attend the event, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a short dispatch.
The delegation will also "discuss expanding ties between the two countries' youth organizations," Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency said, citing the Russian Embassy in North Korea.
The World Youth Festival will be held from Friday to March 7 in the federal territory of Sirius near the city of Sochi, the report said.
North Korea and Russia have expanded the scope of their cooperation following the summit between the North's leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin in September last year.
Pyongyang is suspected of having provided artillery and munitions to Russia for use in Moscow's war in Ukraine in exchange for Russia's potential transfer of weapons technology. (Yonhap)
The Korea Times · February 27, 2024
14. Russia sending North Korea food in return for arms: Seoul defense chief
Russia sending North Korea food in return for arms: Seoul defense chief
koreaherald.com · by Kim Arin · February 27, 2024
By Kim Arin
Published : Feb. 27, 2024 - 16:38
Minister of National Defense Shin Won-sik (Yonhap)
North Korea has provided Russia with 6,700 shipping containers’ worth of artillery shells over the past six months, according to Seoul’s defense chief Shin Won-sik. In return, the North is believed to have received from Russia enough food and other essentials to fill about 10,000 shipping containers over the same period, Shin said.
In a press conference on Monday, Shin noted that the North Korean military factories for producing arms for Russia were operating at full capacity.
“Since August last year, more than 6,700 shipping containers have been sent to Russia. Although we cannot count how many rounds of artillery shells are in them, a rough estimate is more than 3 million rounds if they are 152mm ammunition,” he said.
The minister said North Korea appears to be getting food and other supplies from Russia.
“Food makes up the largest proportion of support from Russia,” he said, adding that the food shortage in North Korea seems to not have been as severe as of late. “There are about 30 percent more articles going into North Korea from Russia than the other way around.”
Aside from food, he said Russia is believed to be supplying North Korea with other essential items as well as materials required for manufacturing weapons meant to be exported back to Russia.
He said that the South Korean military authorities were working to grasp the extent of the military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, including the transfer of Russian technology.
“North Korea is asking Russia for technologies related to aircraft and ground maneuvering equipment, and other things that they need,” he said.
As for the first military reconnaissance satellite that North Korea succeeded in launching in November, its signals were being received normally but it “has no utility military-wise.”
With the possible launch of another military reconnaissance satellite, the scope of the technological support from Russia would become more apparent, he said. He pointed out that Russian President Vladimir Putin had earlier pledged to help North Korea with satellite and space-related technology.
On the frequent firing of cruise missiles by North Korea, the minister said that the North seems to be intensively developing cruise missiles, which, unlike ballistic missiles, do not violate the United Nations Security Council resolutions.
“It seems the North Korean cruise missiles are capable of carrying nuclear warheads,” he said, adding that North Korea’s focus on cruise missiles seems to serve the dual purpose of exports to Russia and frontline provocations.
Shin said that North Korea does not have the capacity to wage a full-scale war, but that it was still capable of launching localized attacks at any time. He said that this year, joint drills by the US and South Korea would be held twice as frequently compared to last year, to maintain readiness against North Korean threats.
koreaherald.com · by Kim Arin · February 27, 2024
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
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