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Quotes of the Day:
“What limits individuals as well as nations is the inability to confront reality, to see things for what they are. As we grow older, we become more rooted in the past. Habit takes over. Something that has worked for us before becomes a doctrine, a shell to protect us from reality. Repetition replaces creativity.”
- Robert Greene, The 33 Strategies of War
- Because of the self-confidence with which he had spoken, no one could tell whether what he said was very clever or very stupid."
- Leo Tolstoy
“Because one believes in oneself, one doesn't try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn't need others' approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.”
- Lao Tzu
1. Kim Jong-un’s midlife crisis: ‘He’s crying after drinking a lot’
2. S. Korea considering buying Israeli drone detection system: source
3. NK media silent on leader Kim's birthday
4. [Editorial] Internal battle over the drone infiltration
5. First lady seeks to help mend ties with Japan
6. North Korea’s nuclear escalation, explained
7. [S. Korea-Japan Reboot] Activist suggests using cultural reach to fight Japan’s ‘revisionism’
8. Ask a North Korean: Were you exposed to outside information in the DPRK?
9. North Koreans step up scrap metal collection to support struggling steel works
10. North Korean farmers question prioritization of ‘cows over people’
11. Tesla fined $2.2 million in Korea for false advertising
1. Kim Jong-un’s midlife crisis: ‘He’s crying after drinking a lot’
A lot to parse in this article some interesting tidbits here and there though nothing can be for certain. It is a question as to where Kim Han-sol is and if he is a threat to Kim Jong Un.
Excerpts:
His wife Ri Sol-ju – described by Fifield as the ‘Kate Middleton’ of North Korea in the sense that she is an aspirational yet approachable figure – is said to have tried to modernise the dynasty. She was even seen holding hands with the South Korean First Lady at a summit in 2018. But Kim operates with a chilling cruelty.
Nine years ago he reportedly ordered the execution of his influential uncle and mentor Jang Song-thaek, accusing him of treason. Unconfirmed reports suggest Jang was mown down by anti-aircraft guns, and his body incinerated with flamethrowers. The facts were hazy, but the message was clear. It was reinforced in 2017 by his alleged decision to murder his half-brother Kim Jong-nam at Kuala Lumpur airport using a nerve agent.
Lankov describes Kim as a sometimes capricious, but rational ‘third-generation CEO’; a man prepared to be brutal internally, while also building a nuclear weapons deterrent in order to protect himself and his family from foreign invasion. ‘His goal is very simple – to die a natural death in his palace, decades later. He wants to stay in power. He understands… if he loses power, very soon he will probably lose his life and everyone who he loves,’ Lankov says. ‘He is protecting his life, not lifestyle.’
...
Having neutralised the North Korean elites, whose prosperity is entwined with his fate, Kim tried to prevent a popular uprising by enforcing ‘information isolation’. Jihyun Park, 54, a defector and human rights activist who now lives in Manchester, tells me that as a child growing up under Kim Jong-il’s reign, she had no concept of how desperate the North Korean situation was. At school they were ‘brainwashed’ and ‘we believed everything we were told’.
Back then, in the pre-internet era, indoctrination was easier. Kim, while established as royal stock, has a more fragile cult of personality than his father and grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the nation’s founder. The younger Kim’s propaganda is less impressive, reduced to outlandish tales of learning to drive aged three, or a purported ability to control the weather. The first known mural depicting Kim’s exploits – digging at a greenhouse complex – has only recently appeared. It pales in comparison to the resplendent statues of his father and grandfather.
Hanna Song, from the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights in Seoul, said Kim’s youthful interest in technology is also a double-edged sword. He has to keep the younger, tech-savvy generation under control, through draconian laws and punishments for ‘anti-socialist behaviour’. In 2021, he unleashed a crackdown on ‘words, acts, hairstyle and attire of young people’ and a fresh ban on unsanctioned videos, broadcasts and speaking in a ‘South Korean’ style. Radio possession risks years in prison, and access to the open internet is blocked, allowing only a heavily censored state intranet.
Song said defectors’ motivations have shifted, from basic survival in the early 2000s to a new disillusionment with the leadership. ‘We’ve heard about North Koreans who are similar ages to Kim Jong-un who just couldn’t believe they had to serve a leader with his little experience,’ she says.
There could be one more astounding plot twist – and it’s a development that will only add to Kim’s mounting anxieties. In 2017, after his father Kim Jong-nam was poisoned in Malaysia, a young man called Kim Han-sol was spirited out of Macau, via Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, to an unknown destination. He is Kim Jong-un’s nephew.
Kim Jong-un’s midlife crisis: ‘He’s crying after drinking a lot’
Nicola Smith
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/08/kim-jong-uns-midlife-crisis-crying-drinking-lot/
Sun, January 8, 2023, 1:00 AM EST·14 min read
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/08/kim-jong-uns-midlife-crisis-crying-drinking-lot/
In heroic mode, Kim Jong-un rides a white horse to climb Mount Paektu near the border with China - KCNA via KNS
A distinct puncture hole on a fleshy right forearm, seen just inside the sleeve of a boxy Mao suit. This tiny mark, when first spotted on Kim Jong-un in May 2020, caused an instant reaction among observers of the North Korean regime. Was it the trace of an IV drip? A giveaway of surgery? At the very least, it was an unusual sign of vulnerability in a man who rules his nation with a suffocating grasp.
The needle mark was seen on footage shortly after Kim had been out of public view the previous month. Rumours had circulated that he was either dead or in a vegetative state. When he was finally seen, touring a fertiliser factory, foreign medical observers concluded the wound could be related to a cardiovascular procedure, possibly for a stent placement.
The truth never emerged. So furtive is Kim about his health that on rare trips abroad he travels with his own toilets, to prevent foreign intelligence services scouring his excretions for clues. But the dramatic weight loss that followed his 2020 health scare, possibly due to bariatric surgery, is proof that even dictators must endure the trials of middle age.
This month, according to our best guesses, Kim turns 40. It’s indicative of how little the outside world knows about him that conflicting sources will put him at 39 or even 38. Either way, the approach of his fifth decade brings new anxieties.
Kim Jong-un turns 40 - Benjamin Swanson
‘He probably feels more mortal now than he did three years ago, and he had Covid earlier this year apparently as well,’ says Peter Ward, a North Korea expert and post-doctoral researcher at Seoul’s Kookmin University.
The regime itself appears to have acknowledged Kim’s mortality, quietly creating the unprecedented role of ‘first secretary’ – a de facto deputy – in the ruling party hierarchy. ‘It seems to be because they are concerned about managing another illness,’ says Ward.
Since 2011, Kim has secured his power base, brutally putting down any threat to his rule. But the impact of a global financial crisis and sanctions on the North Korean economy – along with climate change wreaking havoc on farming – could present the leader with his toughest decade yet, thinks Ward.
Adding to the pressure on Kim will be the battle to block the influx and spread of information that could destabilise his strictly curated persona. To North Koreans, Kim is sold as a benevolent provider and semi-divine figure who inspires devotion and fear.
To the rest of the world, he is almost a figure of ridicule. Last March, when he appeared in a Top Gun-style propaganda movie, clad in a shiny leather jacket and aviator shades while walking past a monster missile – all in dramatic slow motion – he was mocked by the West.
Yet the threat he poses globally is no joke. One muggy Pyongyang morning in August 2017, Lindsey Miller was woken at 6am by a deep rumbling. Her body shook as she ran out to the garden to look into the sky. ‘It sounded like an aeroplane going overhead but it didn’t fade away,’ she recalls now.
The author of North Korea: Like Nowhere Else, Miller lived in Pyongyang from 2017 to 2019 with her diplomat husband. She is one of the few Westerners to have experienced the roar of a North Korean ballistic missile test as a Hwasong-12 took off from the capital’s airport.
City residents carried on normally, Miller recalls. ‘The thing that made me more nervous was the response internationally. I was scared,’ she says. ‘It felt like a very real sense of danger.’ Diplomats were told to pack a bag in case of an emergency exit. ‘There were North Koreans who said how stressed they felt. They were worried about the potential for real war breaking out,’ she adds.
Kim seems set on raising the stakes. Since January 2022, he has test-launched an unprecedented volley of ballistic and cruise missiles, including a purported hypersonic weapon and his largest missile, the Hwasong-17, designed to carry a nuclear warhead more than 9,300 miles, within reach of the US mainland.
Kim watching a Hwasong-12 rocket launch
There had been a respite from aggression in 2018, during talks between Kim and then-US President Donald Trump. But the cycle of intense military escalation has since resumed; intelligence officials now warn Kim is gearing up for a seventh nuclear test, possibly a tactical weapon, and further confrontation with Seoul, Washington and the West.
So, what could Kim Jong-un be capable of?
In Asia, the significance of turning 40 is an expectation that a person ‘does not waver in their judgements’, explains Chun In-bum, a former lieutenant general in the South Korean army. ‘Kim Jong-un’s legacy is a Maoist, Stalinist legacy,’ says Chun. ‘So if he is 40, he is probably going to think that, “My path is the right path”… He is going to be more convinced of who he is and he will be very hard line.’
A tendency towards ruthless determination was already evident in Kim as a child. ‘He had such an abnormal childhood and was raised in such a dysfunctional family, there is really no other way that he could have turned out,’ says North Korea expert Anna Fifield. ‘From a very early age he was treated like a princeling in a way that not even the British Royal family would be.’
Fifield’s 2019 biography, The Great Successor, pieces together his life story. As a child Kim knew he would be handed the keys to the kingdom, after his dictator father Kim Jong-il identified him as more suitable for iron-fisted rule than his older brothers.
The stunning vistas along the eastern coastal resort of Wonsan provided the backdrop for Kim’s early years, which he spent sequestered in opulent villas with high iron gates. The vast property still plays a special role in his playboy lifestyle.
Kim’s decadence may be concealed from his hungry subjects, but high-resolution satellite imagery allows the world to view his expanding property empire. Recent pictures of the Wonsan enclave have revealed four cruise ships and a marina, with 10 villas dotting a 530m-long white sandy beach and manicured gardens. One boat is 80m in length and is said to boast dual twisting water slides.
He married Ri Sol-ju in 2008, and is thought to have three children. The Kim family enjoys as many as 30 luxury villas, and several private islands, according to Bruce Songhak Chung of South Korea’s Kyungpook National University. And in September, new verified images showed the expansion of ornate buildings at Kim’s lakeside mansion in South Pyongan province.
Kim Jong-un and his daughter pose in front of the Hwasong-17 ‘monster missile’ - KCNA/Reuters
But now Kim faces the challenge to all midlifers: how to mitigate the threat he poses to himself. Overweight, a heavy smoker (of local brand 7.27 cigarettes) and drinker (he prefers fine spirits and expensive French wines), he frequently ignores the advice of his doctors and wife to exercise and cut back on indulgences. His father died at the age of 69. Kim’s long absences from the public eye suggest he is dealing with an array of serious health problems.
‘I heard he is crying after drinking a lot. He is very lonely and under pressure,’ says Dr Choi Jinwook, a Seoul-based North Korea academic.
In November, Kim unexpectedly pushed his ‘beloved daughter’ Kim Ju-ae into the spotlight. In her first introduction to the world, Kim was seen gently holding her hand in choreographed photographs as they inspected a new intercontinental ballistic missile. Analysts were left guessing about his message. Was the girl in the white puffy jacket and red shoes his heir? Or simply a prop to humanise him? Ju-ae, who was born in 2012, would be too young to take over in the event of his sudden death.
There is wide consensus among observers that the role would temporarily fall to his ambitious younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, who has often been spotted at his side, carrying his files or even his ashtray. ‘Family interests come first,’ says Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul, and an authority on North Korea.
There are no reliable estimates of Kim’s personal fortune – in 2013, South Korean media suggested it could be $5 billion – but his personal assets grow even as dangerous levels of hunger rise in the nation of 26 million.
Last year, he warned citizens to brace for a crisis similar to the 1990s famine, which is believed to have killed up to 3.5 million people. In an interview with me last year, Professor Hazel Smith of the Centre for Korea Studies at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies confirmed that food insecurity is now at a similar level. ‘The conditions that we had in the famine years that precipitated malnutrition are in place today,’ she said. ‘There is starvation in North Korea right now.’
Kim Jong-un watching a Hwasong-12 missile launch
The crisis has been building for years thanks to the Kim family’s mismanagement of the agriculture sector and a centralised system that focuses heavily on providing food for the military and political elites, at the cost of the general population.
In 2019 and 2020, a string of typhoons hammered harvests and sent the cost of maize and rice soaring. ‘There is obviously climate change and long run environmental impacts,’ says Ward. ‘The point is their inability to handle them and the fragility of their supply system is not an environmental issue per se.’
Shortages grew in 2021 even as the pandemic forced the UN’s World Food Programme to suspend operations in the country. It warned that another poor harvest meant the North Korean population, already 40 per cent undernourished, would be short of about 860,000 tonnes of food that year.
Add in the impact of global sanctions and plunging trade with China due to border closures, and by June 2022, the South’s government-backed Korea Development Institute was warning the isolated North could fall into a ‘famine in silence’.
Naturally, Kim has never gone hungry. He was shielded from the 1990s famine as a child in his Wonsan paradise, with huge playrooms filled with toys and kitchens full of pastries and tropical fruits. Yet Fifield’s biography quotes Kenji Fujimoto, a Japanese sushi chef who spent years serving the Kims, as saying that a precocious Kim endured a solitary childhood, cut off without playmates.
Aged 12, he turned up with a ‘pudding-bowl haircut’ under the alias Pak-un at a $20,000-a-year international school in Bern, Switzerland. His maternal aunt and uncle Ko Yong Suk and Ri Gang cared for him and his older brother Jong-chol, later defecting to run a dry-cleaning business outside New York. ‘We lived in a normal house and acted like a normal family,’ Ko told Fifield. ‘I made snacks for the kids. They ate cake and played with Legos.’
Kim, though, was short-tempered, stubborn and intolerant. Classmates from the school recalled a loner who displayed frustration at his academic weaknesses. ‘He kicked us in the shins and even spat at us,’ recounts one in the biography. Others remembered his aggressiveness and trash talk on the basketball court. But his Portuguese friend João Micaelo described him as quiet, decisive and ambitious.
In 1998, Kim’s privileged European bubble imploded after his mother was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer; he returned home to face his destiny, taking on his father’s mantle after his death. His youth and Western education raised hopes that he might be more inclined towards reform, but those expectations quickly fizzled.
‘He realised if he was just treated normally, he wouldn’t be anyone,’ says Fifield. ‘He needed to keep this system completely intact, or his family would lose all of its power and status.’
Kim Jong-un’s 11 years in power have been defined by inhumanity and a determination to establish his reclusive regime as a nuclear state. The glimpse of Kim at the 2018 Singapore Summit, greeting Donald Trump with a wide smile, was all part of an act, says Fifield. ‘The real Kim Jong-un is the one that lives in Pyongyang and is Machiavellian,’ she says. ‘He is trying to strike fear into the heart of the populace and the top officials of the regime, to make sure that they don’t think about crossing him but also to generate the other half of the Machiavellian equation – which is love.
‘He completely played Donald Trump like a fiddle… all of it was designed to bolster his legitimacy at home and give him that brag book of photos where he could show people of North Korea that he is respected and treated as an equal by all these other leaders.’
Meeting with then US President Donald Trump in June 2019 - AFP
His wife Ri Sol-ju – described by Fifield as the ‘Kate Middleton’ of North Korea in the sense that she is an aspirational yet approachable figure – is said to have tried to modernise the dynasty. She was even seen holding hands with the South Korean First Lady at a summit in 2018. But Kim operates with a chilling cruelty.
Nine years ago he reportedly ordered the execution of his influential uncle and mentor Jang Song-thaek, accusing him of treason. Unconfirmed reports suggest Jang was mown down by anti-aircraft guns, and his body incinerated with flamethrowers. The facts were hazy, but the message was clear. It was reinforced in 2017 by his alleged decision to murder his half-brother Kim Jong-nam at Kuala Lumpur airport using a nerve agent.
Lankov describes Kim as a sometimes capricious, but rational ‘third-generation CEO’; a man prepared to be brutal internally, while also building a nuclear weapons deterrent in order to protect himself and his family from foreign invasion. ‘His goal is very simple – to die a natural death in his palace, decades later. He wants to stay in power. He understands… if he loses power, very soon he will probably lose his life and everyone who he loves,’ Lankov says. ‘He is protecting his life, not lifestyle.’
Heading a meeting of the Workers’ Party of Korea last May
Having neutralised the North Korean elites, whose prosperity is entwined with his fate, Kim tried to prevent a popular uprising by enforcing ‘information isolation’. Jihyun Park, 54, a defector and human rights activist who now lives in Manchester, tells me that as a child growing up under Kim Jong-il’s reign, she had no concept of how desperate the North Korean situation was. At school they were ‘brainwashed’ and ‘we believed everything we were told’.
Back then, in the pre-internet era, indoctrination was easier. Kim, while established as royal stock, has a more fragile cult of personality than his father and grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the nation’s founder. The younger Kim’s propaganda is less impressive, reduced to outlandish tales of learning to drive aged three, or a purported ability to control the weather. The first known mural depicting Kim’s exploits – digging at a greenhouse complex – has only recently appeared. It pales in comparison to the resplendent statues of his father and grandfather.
Hanna Song, from the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights in Seoul, said Kim’s youthful interest in technology is also a double-edged sword. He has to keep the younger, tech-savvy generation under control, through draconian laws and punishments for ‘anti-socialist behaviour’. In 2021, he unleashed a crackdown on ‘words, acts, hairstyle and attire of young people’ and a fresh ban on unsanctioned videos, broadcasts and speaking in a ‘South Korean’ style. Radio possession risks years in prison, and access to the open internet is blocked, allowing only a heavily censored state intranet.
Song said defectors’ motivations have shifted, from basic survival in the early 2000s to a new disillusionment with the leadership. ‘We’ve heard about North Koreans who are similar ages to Kim Jong-un who just couldn’t believe they had to serve a leader with his little experience,’ she says.
There could be one more astounding plot twist – and it’s a development that will only add to Kim’s mounting anxieties. In 2017, after his father Kim Jong-nam was poisoned in Malaysia, a young man called Kim Han-sol was spirited out of Macau, via Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, to an unknown destination. He is Kim Jong-un’s nephew.
Kim Han-sol, the son of Kim Jong-nam, has apparently spoken out for the first time since his father's assassinat...
Now 27, is he the other Kim being groomed in the wings for leadership at the earliest opportunity?
‘He seems to be somewhere in Europe being protected and taken care of, which I think is a great thing to do,’ former lieutenant general Chun tells me, ‘because we need him for some eventualities that might occur in North Korea. I am glad somebody is looking that far ahead.’
2. S. Korea considering buying Israeli drone detection system: source
No surprise here. There should be lots of opportunities for new technology and systems in Korea.
The question is why was this not anticipated?
As Eliot Cohen and John Gooch all military failures are attributable to the failure to learn, the failure to adapt, and the failure to anticipate.
You can learn and adapt but it is always better to be able to anticipate. I am sure the military did anticipate and did want to procure this kind of technology in recent years but the National Assembly likely would not provide the appropriations to procure such capabilities.
Sadly, this is not the first time there has been such an infiltration from the north.
S. Korea considering buying Israeli drone detection system: source | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 이치동 · January 8, 2023
SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's military is considering the purchase of an Israeli "electric eye" as part of efforts to bolster its capabilities to detect small North Korean drones, a defense source in Seoul said Sunday.
The move comes as the South's defense authorities have come under fierce criticism for the failure to counter the penetration of five North Korean drones into its airspace late last month. It was belatedly revealed that one of them even intruded into the no-fly zone, called P-73, near the presidential office in the central district of Yongsan.
In order to beef up its airspace defense system, the military is considering pushing for the speedy acquisition of the Sky Spotter system, according to the source.
Built by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, it is designed for the early detection and tracking of such aerial objects, including drones, as well as balloons and kites, that are used for terrorist attacks.
The military plans to decide whether to formally request the purchase of the system following a review in the coming weeks on its effectiveness in countering the North's drone threats, especially in making up for the radars and thermal observation devices currently in operation.
In this file photo dated June 21, 2017, a North Korean drone is displayed at the defense ministry in Seoul after it was discovered in Inje, Gangwon Province, northeastern South Korea. Suspected North Korean drones crossed the inter-Korean border on Dec. 26, 2022, without South Korea's permission, prompting the deployment of fighter jets, choppers and other assets to shoot them down, an official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. (Yonhap)
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 이치동 · January 8, 2023
3. NK media silent on leader Kim's birthday
I guess according to the Telegraph article (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/08/kim-jong-uns-midlife-crisis-crying-drinking-lot/), Kim must be drinking and crying.
NK media silent on leader Kim's birthday | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 이치동 · January 8, 2023
SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's state-controlled media made no mention of leader Kim Jong-un's birthday Sunday.
Pyongyang's main propaganda news outlets, including the Korean Central News Agency and the Rodong Sinmun, remained silent as Kim turned 39 on the day.
Since taking the helm of the reclusive regime shortly after the death of his father Kim Jong-il in 2011, Kim Jong-un has been praised by the Rodong Simun, an organ of the powerful ruling Workers' Party, describing him as a "symbol" of North Korea's strength and guardian of the nation.
The North officially commemorates the birthdays of the leader's late grandfather, Kim Il-sung, and his father called the Day of the Sun and the Day of the Shining Star, respectively.
But it has not designated the sitting leader's birthday as a formal anniversary.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks during the third-day session of the sixth enlarged meeting of the eighth Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang on Dec. 28, 2022, in this file photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency the next day. During the session, Kim stressed the need to spur the "fighting efficiency" of party organizations and conduct party duties in a fresher manner. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 이치동 · January 8, 2023
4. [Editorial] Internal battle over the drone infiltration
Kim Jong Un's political warfare strategy (and especially his subversion line of effort) is having an effect. Politicians should recognize and expose this strategy and not fall victim to it and not unwittingly support it.
Sunday
January 8, 2023
dictionary + A - A
[Editorial] Internal battle over the drone infiltration
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/01/08/opinion/editorials/North-Korea-drone-infiltration/20230108200100423.html
After the infiltration of North Korean drones into our air space over Seoul on Dec. 26, the government, military and politicians must concentrate on finding the reasons for our lethargic response and devising effective ways to prevent it. Regrettably, however, the People Power Party (PPP) and the Democratic Party (DP) are stuck in a political mud fight after a PPP lawmaker raised the possibility of a DP lawmaker staying in touch with North Korea.
The essence of the drone raid is clear: North Korea violated the Sept. 19 inter-Korean military agreement in 2018, but our military could not shoot it down even with fighter jets and attack helicopters. President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered a consideration of suspending the military agreement, and the military announced a plan to train our military to cope with future drone incursions by the North and acquire cutting-edge equipment to shoot down its unmanned aerial vehicles.
But the problem is the ongoing internal battle after Rep. Kim Byung-joo, a four-star general-turned lawmaker of the DP, raised the possibility of a North Korean drone sneaking into a flight ban zone over the presidential office after he was briefed about the flights by the Ministry of National Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the National Assembly on Dec. 28. Until then, the military denied it. But nearly 10 days after the infiltration of a drone into the sensitive P-73 zone, the issue has evolved into a political battle.
On Jan. 6, the presidential office shifted the focus of the incident to who really leaked the drone infiltration information to Rep. Kim. In response, Rep. Shin Won-sik — a three-star general-turned lawmaker of the PPP and former head of the Capital Defense Command — said he could not shake off the “reasonable doubt that Rep. Kim may have communicated with North Korea” given the details of his claim.
In reaction, Rep. Kim denounced the presidential office for its “incompetence and ignorance,” as “anyone can easily infer the infiltration based on a 30-minute flight tracking.” Rep. Shin immediately counterattacked by saying, “It’s lamentable for the DP to denigrate the integrity of our military.”
The farcical development did not end there. It has been found that the Joint Chiefs of Staff first detected the drones at 10:19 a.m., Dec. 26, six minutes after the real infiltration. Moreover, after being told about them by the First Army Corps on the frontline, the Joint Chiefs of Staff did not inform the Capital Defense Command of the infiltration for a while. As a result, the Capital Defense Command could not immediately respond to the drone penetration into the P-73 zone. And yet, our political circles are still fighting with one another. The government must thoroughly review our porous aerial defense system before it is too late.
5. First lady seeks to help mend ties with Japan
Interesting note here:
*Editor's note: The Korea Times will stylize the presidential couple as President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee starting Monday, upon the presidential office's request.
First lady seeks to help mend ties with Japan
The Korea Times · January 8, 2023
First lady Kim Keon Hee, right, and Japanese architect Tadao Ando pose in this photo taken in 2016. Courtesy of Presidential Office
Presidential office discloses Kim Keon Hee's exchange of letters with Japanese architect
By Lee Hae-rin
President Yoon Suk Yeol's wife Kim Keon Hee exchanged new year messages with renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando and hoped that their friendship can pave the way for more exchanges between the two countries, the presidential office said, Sunday.
In a letter sent to the Japanese architect, Kim wrote that she was able to deliver the "topic of our time" through their past collaborations. She then proposed that her ties with the Japanese architect can contribute to friendly exchanges between Korea and Japan.
Their ties were known to have begun when they worked together for the Le Corbusier special exhibition at the Seoul Arts Center in 2016.
The first lady also thanked Ando for the gift he sent her to commemorate President Yoon's inauguration last year.
The Japanese architect sent Kim a miniature version of his "Green Apple" installation piece along with a brochure for his recent project, a sketch with a picture of the presidential couple and a photo of him and the first lady taken in 2016 while working together.
In response, Ando sent Kim a letter about his impressions of her past exhibition and delivered a message of gratitude for her understanding and sympathizing with his architectural philosophy. He also sent a print of Samuel Ullmans' poem "Youth," which starts with the line, "Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind."
The first lady sent the message on Jan. 1 and received his response four days later, the presidential office said.
The internationally acclaimed Japanese architect worked as a truck driver and boxer before starting his career as an architect. He won the 1995 Pritzker Prize and many other globally prestigious awards. His major works include the Church of Light (1989) in Osaka and the Water Temple (1991) in Awaji, Japan.
The self-educated architect has an architectural style that focuses on harmony with nature and the use of empty space and enclosed concrete. He has a growing fandom and six of his works are in Korea, including Museum SAN in Wonju, Gangwon Province, Bonte Museum on Jeju Island and the Jaenung Culture Center (JCC) in central Seoul.
*Editor's note: The Korea Times will stylize the presidential couple as President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee starting Monday, upon the presidential office's request.
The Korea Times · January 8, 2023
6. North Korea’s nuclear escalation, explained
Kim's escalation is simply because his political warfare and blackmail diplomacy strategies are falling and he intends to raise tensions until the ROK and US back down out of fear of further escalation and make concessions. Unfortunately any concessions or appeasement will not result in changes in Kim's behavior and will in fact lead him to assess that his strategies are successful and will then continue to execute them.
Two key points. Kim needs the external threat to justify the sacrifices and suffering of the Korean people in the north. He is creating tension and threats. Second, Kim continues to execute his strategies with the intent to divide the ROK/US alliance. One of the key responses to all north Korean provocations is to continue to demonstrate the strength and resolve of the alliance.
Excerpts:
In the North, for example, “even the elites are having trouble,” according to Bruce Bennett, a researcher at the RAND Corporation. Some members of leadership and Kim’s inner circle have reportedly been purged; “[Kim’s] been pretty brutal, and it hasn’t just been with the common people — it’s been with the elites, too.” Internal struggles, like consistent fuel and food shortages, pose a serious threat to Kim’s leadership, and in an authoritarian government, the only way to deal with internal struggle is to blame an external enemy.
“What does Kim need to manage his internal instability? What he needs is to look powerful,” hence the escalated rhetoric from both him and his sister and advisor, Kim Yo Jong. Testing, threats, and military parades help the elite feel like, “Wow, we’re powerful, [Kim] is a good leader, he’s making us powerful,” Bennett said, easing the pressure on Kim himself.
South Korea isn’t facing the same internal issues; it has the backing of the US and a strong military and economy. Public opinion polling indicates that South Koreans may be looking at China — not the North — as their major adversary in the future. Still, Yoon has pursued a “strength for strength” tactic, as opposed to former President Moon Jae-in’s pursuit of concessions and conciliation to reach a negotiated outcome. Though Yoon’s response may assure South Koreans that they’re defended from the North, it doesn’t do much to deter Kim, Bennett said.
“[Kim] appears to be trying to divide the US-ROK alliance” in order to isolate the South and demonstrate some form of dominance on the peninsula by explicitly focusing on shorter-range weapons that can only reach the South and ICBMs which would only be useful against the US, Bennett said.
North Korea’s nuclear escalation, explained
Kim Jong Un’s military plans are raising tensions with the South to new heights.
By Ellen Ioanes Jan 7, 2023, 4:19pm EST
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Vox · by Ellen Ioanes · January 7, 2023
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presiding over an intercontinental balistic missile launch on March 24, 2022.
API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Ellen Ioanes covers breaking and general assignment news as the weekend reporter at Vox. She previously worked at Business Insider covering the military and global conflicts.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at the highest in years after an unprecedented year of missile launches on the part of North Korea — and a more bellicose posturing from the South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk-yeol.
In 2022, North Korea launched at least 95 missiles — more than in any previous year — and shot off another short-range missile New Year’s Day of this year, according to the New York Times. The tests are the product of several factors, including domestic North Korean politics, as well as the rapid and extreme deterioration of diplomatic relations between Kim Jong Un’s regime and the US-South Korea alliance since 2019’s failed summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, between Kim and former President Donald Trump.
Since Yoon’s inauguration in May 2022, the South and the US have pursued a tit-for-tat strategy in dealing with the North, pursuing joint military exercises which the North sees as provocative, and even sending unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Pyongyang after one of the North’s own drones buzzed Seoul, South Korea’s capital.
Despite a 2018 resolution between the North and the South prohibiting military hostilities between the two nations, both sides have engaged in increasingly dramatic shows of force over the past several months which, given the lack of diplomatic efforts, could increase the possibility of grave miscalculation and outright conflict on the part of either party.
The explicit threats on Kim’s part, as well as the increase in missile tests, point to a North Korea that’s interested in projecting a credible deterrent capacity and to try and manage instability internally. And the South is taking a hard line and projecting its own force — sometimes at odds with the interests of the US, its primary military ally.
Given both nations’ vows to increase their military capacity, the possibility of peace on the peninsula seems to be deteriorating by the day. Furthermore, the US — which maintains a force presence in the South — isn’t doing enough to prevent conflict and encourage diplomacy to prevent miscommunication, according to Ankit Panda, the Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“The United States should be doing more to express concerns about possible allied defensive plans and postures that might actually increase escalation risks,” which would inevitably implicate the US.
What exactly is North Korea planning?
Kim announced last week his intention to build “overwhelming military power,” including a focus on producing shorter-range tactical nuclear weapons to target the South, as well as long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, capable of reaching the US mainland, among other innovations. Kim’s announcement, and Yoon’s suggestion that the South and the US would hold joint nuclear weapons exercises, have brought the nuclear threat into sharp focus.
As Panda told Vox via email, Kim’s policy announcement isn’t exactly new, “but more of a fleshing-out of a fairly well-articulated and constant nuclear strategy.” Kim and his predecessors have always seen the South and the US as their existential adversaries; the new policy announcements and missile testing simply make the North’s nuclear threats more realistic and achievable. “Their intentions haven’t changed: They’re still reserving the right to use nuclear weapons first to deter an attack on their territory,” Panda said.
Rather than an ambiguous threat of nuclear firepower, the North is now putting increased energy into tactical nuclear weapons which could be used in a battlefield scenario, or to repel a perceived attack from the South.
Increased focus on solid-fuel missiles also indicate the intention to deploy missiles rapidly, since they come pre-fueled and are highly mobile. Developing solid-fuel missiles has been a priority for Kim at least since the the Party’s plenary meeting in January 2021. Kim held a successful ground launch of a solid-fuel rocket motor — which could be used either on an ICBM or a missile launched from a submarine — in December.
“They’ve identified solid-propellant ICBMs as a particular focus for this year,” Panda said, specifying that, “we should expect to see flight-testing of large-diameter solid propellant missiles and perhaps even solid propellant ICBMs this year.”
Missiles are just the delivery vehicle — and just one aspect of the nuclear threat. The North’s nuclear arsenal also depends on its ability to develop warheads — the missile’s payload.
Nuclear weapons development in the North is difficult to track due to the extremely secretive (and illegal) nature of that work, but the missile tests, Kim’s announcements, and satellite imagery help analysts understand how far along the Kim regime is in creating weapons of mass destruction.
The North has not staged a nuclear test since September 2017, but experts have told Vox that all signs point to a seventh at any time — and even an eighth soon after, Panda said.
Two of the North’s main nuclear sites are Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center, which has a uranium enrichment facility, and Punggye-ri, the country’s only nuclear test site.
Yongbyon continues to be operational, Joseph Bermudez, the Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies told Vox. “We see rail cars coming in and out, we see the razing of several buildings and work on updating other buildings, we see activity in and around the reactors and also in and around the centrifuge plant,” he said, but without thermal imagery, it’s impossible to tell what that activity means.
As for Punggye-ri, the testing site, “it’s been basically quiet for the last couple of months,” Bermudez said. However, the US and South Korean governments have indicated they believe a nuclear test could take place “at any time that Kim Jong Un decides to do so,” he said, adding that imagery from earlier in the week “shows tracks in the snow indicating the movement of vehicles.”
“We believe that someone is checking on it,” although given the positioning of the facility — one of the entrances is shielded by a steep mountain slope and the angle of the sun — it’s hard to tell who and what’s coming in and out. The North also tends to move equipment and vehicles under cloud cover and in the dark, further obscuring those movements to outside observers.
Bermudez assessed that the North is “not only validating missile designs, but probably refining them,” and repeated missile tests indicate “new systems coming online and being distributed to units.”
Still, for Kim to use a nuclear missile or stage an invasion of the South would be a death sentence, both for his military and his regime. And the increased missile tests and activity around nuclear facilities can provide only limited information about the North’s actual capabilities.
But the fear that a nuclear-capable North Korea instills in its adversaries also serves a purpose; for all the testing and parades, Kim’s nuclear arsenal is further along than it’s ever been, but it’s far from complete. What Kim is showing off may not yet work militarily, “but it certainly has the potential work coercively” Bennett said.
Nuclear escalation on the peninsula has as much to do with internal politics as foreign affairs
Kim likely feels wary of engaging in diplomacy with the US or South Korea because of the spectacular breakdown of peace talks with former President Donald Trump, according to Toby Dalton, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie endowment for International Peace told Vox in a previous interview. That process ended in a humiliating failure in Hanoi, Vietnam, when Trump tried to push for full denuclearization in return for an end to the punishing sanctions regime the US has built up over the decades.
“[Kim] took some risks in terms of his domestic constituency in terms of pursuing that diplomacy — and then it fell apart and I think he was embarrassed by that,” Dalton said. From the North’s perspective, “they’re not willing to trust South Korea or the US to engage in diplomacy,” he told Vox, and the parties involved aren’t even in agreement about what the outcome of that diplomacy would be.
“It’s unsurprising that inter-Korean dynamics are as tense as they are right now,” Panda said. “We’ve seen this pattern play out under previous conservative-led governments in Seoul. That said, the [North’s] weapons development plans would likely have proceeded as they have regardless of the outcome of the 2022 South Korean election.”
Internal politics, especially in the North, favor a muscular response — at least in the eyes of Kim and Yoon.
In the North, for example, “even the elites are having trouble,” according to Bruce Bennett, a researcher at the RAND Corporation. Some members of leadership and Kim’s inner circle have reportedly been purged; “[Kim’s] been pretty brutal, and it hasn’t just been with the common people — it’s been with the elites, too.” Internal struggles, like consistent fuel and food shortages, pose a serious threat to Kim’s leadership, and in an authoritarian government, the only way to deal with internal struggle is to blame an external enemy.
“What does Kim need to manage his internal instability? What he needs is to look powerful,” hence the escalated rhetoric from both him and his sister and advisor, Kim Yo Jong. Testing, threats, and military parades help the elite feel like, “Wow, we’re powerful, [Kim] is a good leader, he’s making us powerful,” Bennett said, easing the pressure on Kim himself.
South Korea isn’t facing the same internal issues; it has the backing of the US and a strong military and economy. Public opinion polling indicates that South Koreans may be looking at China — not the North — as their major adversary in the future. Still, Yoon has pursued a “strength for strength” tactic, as opposed to former President Moon Jae-in’s pursuit of concessions and conciliation to reach a negotiated outcome. Though Yoon’s response may assure South Koreans that they’re defended from the North, it doesn’t do much to deter Kim, Bennett said.
“[Kim] appears to be trying to divide the US-ROK alliance” in order to isolate the South and demonstrate some form of dominance on the peninsula by explicitly focusing on shorter-range weapons that can only reach the South and ICBMs which would only be useful against the US, Bennett said.
Yoon’s claims that the US and the South were discussing joint nuclear exercises are a “good example of where an ally might be getting ahead of where the United States is ready to go,” Panda said. The Biden administration is focused on repairing its relationships with allies after “the atrocious treatment that US allies endured at the hands of the Trump administration,” Panda said — but that approach could backfire.
Rather, Biden should be more explicit with regional allies — including Japan, which is pursuing remilitarization after decades of minimal defense spending — about what the US’s limits and intentions are regarding the North. Just as crucially, the US and allies must pursue diplomatic channels to try and reduce the risk of miscommunication and miscalculation while that’s still feasible.
“I want to say there’s always room for diplomacy,” Bermudez said, but given the situation, “it seems like that room is very narrow.”
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Vox · by Ellen Ioanes · January 7, 2023
7. [S. Korea-Japan Reboot] Activist suggests using cultural reach to fight Japan’s ‘revisionism’
[S. Korea-Japan Reboot] Activist suggests using cultural reach to fight Japan’s ‘revisionism’
Webtoon on sex slaves, forced laborers may draw international attention on wartime abuses, Seo says
koreaherald.com · by Choi Si-young · January 8, 2023
This is the second installment of the three-part interview series exploring what experts believe should take place for S. Korea to better advance its interests, while resetting ties with Japan amid disputes. -- Ed.
AAAAA/
South Korea should use its growing cultural presence to rally an international audience against Japan’s “revisionist history,” a course of action that is more effectively put in check with international backing while the two Asian neighbors rush to reset ties, according to an outspoken campaigner promoting Korean culture.
The Japanese government has repeatedly denied its role in forcing Koreans into sexual slavery or forced labor during World War II, though the United Nations urges Tokyo to face up to its past.
“We have to involve a bigger international audience and make them see wartime abuse as it is -- that universal values like human rights are at stake. Timing is perfect for us to do just that,” Seo Kyoung-duk, the activist, said in a recent interview with The Korea Herald.
Seo -- a professor of general education at Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul who teaches about safeguarding national interests by enhancing its outside ties -- highlighted taking advantage of a wider recognition of Korean culture, thanks in part to K-pop sensation BTS and recent Netflix megahit “Squid Game.”
“What if we tell the story of sex slaves and forced laborers using webtoon? Would this be the one capturing global attention? I’m not sure yet, but I’m confident that’s more engaging than putting out some paper that dryly lists who did what and who is to blame,” Seo said, referring to an online comic enjoyed mostly by smartphone users.
The activist -- who gained prominence in 2005 when he placed a New York Times ad about Dokdo, a group of islets between Korea and Japan that the two countries both claim ownership -- referred to a World Cup match in November last year where organizers prevented Japanese fans from displaying the “Rising Sun” flag, a military-used sign almost as offensive as Nazi symbols such as the swastika.
“I had repeatedly told FIFA the flag was inflammatory at the very least. They finally heard me. Imagine a bigger global audience siding with us on the issue that needs a stronger, united voice. Webtoon outreach is the kind of narrative that could permeate through international conversation,” Seo said.
He welcomed the government’s push to establish an agency to oversee about 7.3 million Koreans living overseas, a move that comes amid bipartisan support for empowering expatriates.
“I am approached by many, many young Koreans every day here and abroad who are looking to chip in but don’t quite know how. An official body would surely help streamline such exchange,” Seo said.
When asked about the government’s handling of the 2015 sex slave deal -- essentially put on hold after Korea called it half-baked in reflecting the victims’ voices -- Seo was wary of placing blame, saying Japan had also violated the spirit of the agreement by endorsing openly inflammatory statements negating the promise to help the victims reclaim their “honor and dignity.”
But the Korean government had clearly given too little attention to what the victims had to say about their forced labor, according to Seo, pointing to the current settlement talks taking place behind the closed doors between top Seoul and Tokyo officials. Korea’s top court ruling in 2018 that ordered Japanese firms to pay damages had prompted the negotiation. Japan protested the court’s decision, enforcing export curbs.
“We all know it would eventually be the government running the discussion but it could’ve let the victims in on what’s being discussed from the start, however small it may be,” Seo said, joining growing calls for Korean negotiators to share more information with the victims to avoid repeating the same mistake in 2015.
Seoul’s Foreign Ministry this week will hear public input on the issue, potentially for the last time, meaning a compromise deal is almost complete with little room left for last-minute changes. The Korean victims, expected to appear at the hearing to lodge a complaint, have been left frustrated.
“Diplomacy can’t be all about sentiment but it has to reflect that on some level. If that’s close to impossible then it’s the government job to make those affected by negotiation feel heard enough,” Seo said.
Seo, 48, has dedicated the last 18 years to raising awareness of Korea and correcting “distortions of historical facts” often involving Seoul and Tokyo. He has advised government boards as well as state-run groups on projecting the Korean national identity onto the international stage. Grassroots campaigns are taking on a bigger role in leading the world to understand Korea better, Seo says.
By Choi Si-young (siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com)
koreaherald.com · by Choi Si-young · January 8, 2023
8. Ask a North Korean: Were you exposed to outside information in the DPRK?
Information (like the bomber, drone, or balloon) will always get through. ("The bomber will always get through" by Stanley Baldwin)
Though I think in the case of information it will have a greater effect than the bomber over the long term . We need to have a sophisticated and aggressive information and influence activities campaign
Ask a North Korean: Were you exposed to outside information in the DPRK?
Unapproved information reaches most corners of North Korea through fliers, radio broadcasts and even shark balloons
https://www.nknews.org/2023/01/ask-a-north-korean-were-you-exposed-to-outside-information-in-the-dprk/?utm_source=pocket_saves
Joshua Kim January 6, 2023
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A shark balloon, Sept. 2010 | Image: Dmitry Boyarin / Flickr
“Ask a North Korean” is an NK News series featuring interviews with and columns by North Korean defectors, most of whom left the DPRK within the last few years.
Readers may submit their questions for defectors by emailing ask@nknews.org and including their first name and city of residence.
Today’s question is about how outside information enters the DPRK and how it shapes North Koreans’ views on their country and the wider world.
Joshua Kim (a pseudonym) — who was born and raised in North Korea and lived there until he defected in 2019 — writes about discovering a balloon from South Korea, what he learned from an anti-regime flier and more.
Got a question for Joshua? Email it to ask@nknews.org with your name and city. We’ll be publishing the best ones.
Everyone has moments they will never forget, both happy and sad. We seem to remember times that are special or different from daily life. One such incident dates back to the early 2000s, those ordinary days when I was in elementary school.
Once on my way to school with some friends, one of them spotted a small dot in the sky, far away. As the dot neared, it began clearer what it was: a shark-shaped balloon. I thought it was the most beautiful balloon I had ever seen, but thought it would be best not to touch it directly.
That’s because we reasoned the balloon may have floated in from South Korea. All North Koreans are taught at school that touching objects from the South is physically harmful to the human body, and my friends thought that our hands would immediately start to rot if we touched the balloon.
Nonetheless, it landed, and we decided to pick it up with sticks and bring it with us to school to show off.
Not long after, a state security agent was tipped off and came to the school and interrogated us on every little detail of how we had found the balloon. I remember little about what the agent asked, just that he took the balloon away and that I felt like I was doing the right thing by following the school’s instructions.
This incident shows not only one of the methods by which information is sent to North Korea, but also the DPRK’s response to such incidents.
Mansu Hill monument in Pyongyang, Sept. 2016 | Image: NK News
I thought much of that balloon as I got older. I began to wonder what sort of external information it could bring from South Korea. I soon found out: I went to the mountains alone to complete a school assignment on herbs in the border county of Chorwon in Kangwon Province. That’s when I spotted a white object in the distance.
At first I thought it was a copy of the state-run Rodong Sinmun, but quickly realized it was a flier from South Korea. I began to read it.
The flier covered topics like the Kim family, Korean liberation from colonial rule and the causes of the Korean War — all presenting new information I had never heard before. It also compared the economic situation in South Korea to the situation in North Korea.
The flier seemed to have some credibility. But the thought that the enemies might be speaking poorly of the DPRK to deceive us left my head spinning. While I had believed that the Kim family was like gods, it made me realize that they were human beings and living while committing various wrongdoings.
I carefully read the leaflet and then threw it away in the mountains. While I told a close friend about it, I didn’t reveal all the content because to do so felt dangerous.
In addition to fliers, there are also radio and public TV channels where you can access information, but availability and ease of access may depend on proximity to the borders. Although the North Korean authorities control radio and TV channels that are not broadcast by the state, there were small gaps in their control.
In the army, soldiers who used wireless communication equipment to access weather forecasts were able to access foreign radio channels. While obviously illegal, the TV and radio channels contain all sorts of information and are so interesting that you want to watch or hear them again and again.
BORDER CALLS
The way most information enters North Korea is through individual smuggling and trade at the DPRK-China border. It is not easy to smuggle goods over the border while avoiding the eyes of the guards — especially since North Korea implemented stricter border controls during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But a range of restricted information, including South Korean products, movies and TV shows make it into North Korea.
Being a border guard is a sought-after career in the DPRK because they receive money and other bribes in return for turning a blind eye to smuggling. Since secret police and border guards don’t receive little or no official salary, accepting bribes is seen as a natural way to make a living.
The North Korean authorities often liken outside information to mosquitos entering a house. But no matter how much they tighten control over information, they cannot block all routes.
Workers dispatched overseas, for example, earn foreign currency and return to North Korea with mostly pleasant memories. Those who have not been able to escape North Korea experience a new world indirectly through the small anecdotes they hear.
Edited by Arius Derr
9. North Koreans step up scrap metal collection to support struggling steel works
North Koreans step up scrap metal collection to support struggling steel works
americanmilitarynews.com · by Radio Free Asia · January 7, 2023
This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
North Korea has ordered its people to donate large amounts of scrap metal in the new year to help the country’s steel industry, which is struggling from a lack of fuel, electricity and raw materials, sources in the country told Radio Free Asia.
The scrap is in addition to an existing monthly quota, a resident of the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“On Jan. 2, the first work day of the new year, employees of all the factories and enterprises had to report to work with sleds and carts filled with all the scrap metal they collected,” the source said, adding that the government has recently been pushing support for the metalworking sector in its propaganda messaging.
“On New Year’s Day, I wasn’t able to rest properly because I was out searching every corner of town trying to collect the required 10 kilograms [22 pounds] of scrap metal. This is in addition to our monthly scrap metal assignment,” said the source.
Every North Korean of elementary school age or above must collect between eight and 15 kilograms of scrap metal each month. The collected metal is donated to the state and distributed to steel mills all over the country.
“North Hamgyong province is home to the Kim Chaek Iron and Steel Complex – the largest steel mill in the nation – and other steel making facilities,” the source said, “But the province is not able to meet the demand for steel products.”
The source cited a lack of electricity and scrap metal as the main obstacles to meeting demand.
A resident in the city of Chongjin, where Kim Chaek Steel is located, told RFA that the facility can only run intermittently, owing to electricity and fuel shortages.
“Smoke only comes out of the chimney of the steel mill a few days each year,” he said on condition of anonymity to speak freely.
Despite the plant idling on most days, the resident of Chongjin said state media has been reporting that Kim Chaek is meeting production demand and building a new energy-saving oxygen-thermal furnace.
“The New Year’s prospects for Kim Chaek Steel are very bleak,” he said.
Key to the facility’s performance is its supply of coke, a coal-based fuel that is necessary in the steel melting process.
Companies in China previously supplied coke to North Korean steel mills on credit, but are increasingly reluctant to do so as the mills have failed to repay their debts, according to the Chongjin resident.
“A few years ago, a manager of the [Kim Chaek] steel mill was on a business trip in China to try to solve the coke issue. The [Chinese] company detained him, saying that they wouldn’t release him until [the mill] repaid what it had borrowed,” he said. “North Korean authorities were forced to pay back part of the outstanding debt.”
The price of coke is also rising, so the new oxygen-thermal furnace is intended to help solve the issue, according to the Chongjin-based source. But he said that it was “not a very clever solution” because this method requires even more electricity to produce the oxygen needed in the process, and North Korea suffers from nationwide power shortages.
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americanmilitarynews.com · by Radio Free Asia · January 7, 2023
10. North Korean farmers question prioritization of ‘cows over people’
KIm Jong Un's deliberate policy decisions are the reason for the suffering of the Korean people in the north.
North Korean farmers question prioritization of ‘cows over people’
rfa.org
As another bitter winter grips North Korea, authorities are ensuring that its bullocks – working cows that pull plows and do other chores – are getting fed, even though it’s not doing the same for its citizens, sources in the country say.
Sources told RFA that caretakers are receiving plenty of feed for the bullocks on collective farms, while annual rations for farmers have been halved, owing to a poor harvest. The move seems to be aimed at boosting harvest production.
A source from South Pyongan province who declined to be named told Radio Free Asia that grain distribution for the winter at collective farms in Maengsan county ended in December. “This year's distribution received by the farmers is only about half a year's worth of food,” the source said.
“However, 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of corn kernel and corn stalks were supplied to the working cows of the cooperative farm,” he said. “As a result, farmers complained that cows were treated more favorably than people, and that cows are more important than people.”
Sources in North Korea say temperatures have dropped far below freezing in the country and, as food becomes more scarce, large numbers of people have gone missing, believed starved or frozen to death.
RFA received reports of homeless beggar children, known as kotebji, dying on the street, while even the employed have been deserting their homes to subsist on hunting and fishing in remote areas because they cannot afford to buy food.
Speaking on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal, a farmer in the province confirmed to RFA that local cadres delivered year-end feed rations last week for “working cows” at the 22 cooperative farms in Kimjongsuk county.
“I work in Team No. 4 of Agricultural Group No. 1 in Wondong village, and our team has 5 cows,” said the farmer. “Each working cow is raised in a barn adjacent to the house of the cow’s manager. The cow manager receives the food for the working cow.”
Each cooperative farm in Kimjongsuk employs 300-400 farmers in four to six work groups. Each work group is divided into five to six teams, each of which raises three to six working cows, the farmer said. While the size of collective farms varies in the county, each raises around 100 cows.
The farmer told RFA that at the end of this year, cow managers were provided 100 kilograms, or 100 days’ worth, of grain in addition to the year-end grain all farmers receive for their daily labor.
A poor harvest this year saw regular farmers receive only half their grain, frustrating those who say the government prioritizes the nation’s cows over its people. “Due to the lack of harvest this year, farmers who went to work 365 days … only received 200 days worth of grain,” the farmer said.
North Korea stopped providing rations for cows at collective farms during the country’s economic crisis in the 1990s. The first source told RFA that, until this year, cow managers had been required to foot the bill for feed, in addition to medicine and shoes for hooves, forcing them to earn additional money as porters at train stations and in the marketplace.
“The fact that corn kernels and corn stalks were supplied as feed to working cows for the first time [since the 1990s] seems to be an attempt to increase food production by mobilizing all working cows for farming,” the source said. “But it remains to be seen whether working cows will increase grain production as a result.”
According to the “2022 North Korean Crop Production Estimate” recently announced by the Rural Development Administration, North Korea harvested 4.51 million tons of food this year, a decrease of 180,000 tons from 2021.
Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh. Edited by Josh Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
rfa.org
11. Tesla fined $2.2 million in Korea for false advertising
Tesla fined $2.2 million in Korea for false advertising
By Kim Hae-wook & Kim Tae-gyu, UPI News Korea
upi.com
The Korea Fair Trade Commission judged that Tesla’s Korean affiliate exaggerated the driving range and charging speeds of its electric vehicles. File Photo courtesy of Tesla
SEOUL, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- South Korea's antitrust watchdog levied a $2.2 million fine on U.S. electric car manufacturer Tesla for false advertising.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission judged Tuesday that Tesla's Korean affiliate exaggerated the driving range and charging speeds of its electric vehicles.
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For example, Tesla Korea claimed that its vehicle could run 328 miles on a single charge. But the FTC found the driving distance plummeted as much as 50% in cold weather.
Tesla Korea made other claims, that charging with a supercharger takes less than 15 minutes and enables 153 miles of driving, and also that its car buyers would save $3,900 over five years compared to those with internal combustion engines.
The FTC countered that Tesla's charging time was based on the fastest V3 supercharger, with only the slower V2 superchargers available in South Korea at the time of the online ads.
The antitrust regulator also said there was no sufficient evidence to buttress Tesla's claim that its vehicles offered $3,900 saving over traditional vehicles.
The FTC said Tesla also violated relevant codes by disallowing purchase contracts to be canceled online.
Last year, the FTC slapped a fine of $1.6 million on German automaker Mercedes-Benz and its Korean subsidiary for its claims regarding gas emissions in passenger vehicles.
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"Performance of electric cars in cold temperatures has been one of the thorniest issues for Tesla," Daelim University automotive Professor Kim Pil-soo told UPI News Korea.
"The company should have been more careful with its advertisement about driving distance and charging time. The fine could further dampen Tesla's already declining sales here," he said.
During the first half of 2022, Tesla's sales in Korea were down 42% from a year before.
upi.com
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Senior Advisor, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
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