Quotes of the Day:
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
- Leo Tolstoy
"Nobody can decide for himself whether he is going to be a human being. The only question open to him is whether he will be an ignorant, undeveloped one or one who has sought to reach the highest point he is capable of attaining."
- Robert M. Hutchins
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1. North Korea says Cuba can "smash" U.S. interference, joining Russia, China, Iran
2. Foreign ministry calls on Chinese envoy to be 'cautious' after remarks on presidential front-runner
3. Vice FM Choi calls in Japanese ambassador over his deputy's 'rude' remarks
4. IOC makes South Korea remove banners from Olympic village
5. N. Korea blasts Japan over claim to Dokdo
6. North Korea arrests around 20 trading company heads in latest crackdown on unauthorized trade
7. North Korea warns of heat wave's impact on crops
8. Welcome aboard Kim Jong Un’s party boat
9. U.S. Will Need to Work With China to Make Progress With North Korea -Official
10. South Koreans now see nation as stronger than North, but more want to reunite: poll
11. Moon Jae-in asks for Vietnam's help in restarting North Korea dialogue
12. Only 2 N.K. defectors arrive in S. Korea in Q2, lowest ever
13. The summer of North Koreans’ discontent
14. Seoul releases rare footage of Yongsan bombing during Korean War
15. Protester rushed to hospital after clash at South Korea THAAD site
1. North Korea says Cuba can "smash" U.S. interference, joining Russia, China, Iran
Kim Jong-un is afraid, very afraid. And of course the revisionist, rogue (and revolutionary) powers unite.
I will be observing VOA and RFA reporting on Cuba in Korean broadcasts. The GEC and PSYOP professionals supporting our informational influence activities strategy should have a field day developing themes and messages for north Korea from events in Cuba (until Cuba cracks down and violently stamps out the resistance).
North Korea says Cuba can "smash" U.S. interference, joining Russia, China, Iran
Newsweek · by Tom O'Connor · July 16, 2021
North Korea has declared its support for Cuba, joining the likes of Russia, China and Iran as the United States backed mass demonstrations accusing the island nation's ruling Communists of shortcomings in addressing humanitarian needs exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a press statement published Friday, a spokesperson for the North Korean Foreign Ministry argued that "the anti-government protests that occurred in Cuba are an outcome of behind-the-scene manipulation by the outside forces coupled with their persistent anti-Cuba blockade scheming to obliterate socialism and the revolution."
Though the statement did not mention the U.S. by name, a possible sign that Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un was still interested in potential diplomacy with Washington, the reference to Washington's long-standing embargo against Havana was clear.
The official said that North Korea "condemns and rejects the attempt at interfering in the internal affairs by the outside forces scheming to overthrow the socialist system of Cuba by taking advantage of the recent anti-government protests."
"We express our full support to and solidarity with all efforts and measures taken by the government and people of Cuba for safeguarding the dignity and sovereignty of the country and defending to the end their fatherland, revolution and gains of socialism," the statement added. "We are confident that Cuba would smash the interference of foreign forces, creditably overcome the present situation, and firmly safeguard the political stability of the country."
North Korea has grown increasingly silent on international affairs, but the country has long-spanning ties with Cuba that can be traced back to the Cold War, which very much remains alive today both in the two nation's own respective politics and their interactions with the U.S.
China and North Korea have a long-spanning history traced back to the Cold War and continue to maintain friendly ties as they face U.S. pressure and sanctions. Above, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un speak while their wives Ri Sol Ju, second from right, and Lis Cuesta Peraza, left, look on during a banquet at their first state summit in three decades, in Pyongyang, North Korea. KCNA/KNS/AFP/Getty Images
North Korea was officially founded under Kim Jong Un's grandfather, Kim Il Sung, in 1948 as the Soviet-backed rival to U.S.-aligned South Korea in the wake of World War II. The two opposing Korean Peninsula states went to war in the 1950s, resulting in a stalemate that still stands today in the form of a cease-fire but no formal peace.
Later that same decade and across the globe, Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro led a successful uprising in 1959 that would eventually result in the first Soviet ally in the Western Hemisphere, just 90 miles off the U.S. coast.
Havana and Pyongyang quickly established relations a year later and the two would also go on to fortify economic and military ties, even offering mutual support for conflicts in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, however, also brought vast hardships for both Cuba and North Korea, though they have managed to persevere to the present through differing ways and means in spite of ongoing U.S. pressure.
Though Cuba abandoned nuclear weapons aspirations since Soviet attempts to deploy weapons of mass destruction led to a U.S. standoff resulting in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, a year after a failed CIA-backed invasion of the island, North Korea went on to develop a nuclear arsenal that it views as critical to its survival. This stockpile has been subject to global condemnation and sanctions.
Against Cuba, the U.S. is largely alone in maintaining economic restrictions against Cuba, which regularly receives support from the international community in calls to lift the embargo.
Since coming to office in January, President Joe Biden has sought to review U.S. policies toward both Cuba and North Korea after Washington's approach underwent drastic changes over the course of the past two presidents.
Former President Barack Obama, whom Biden served as vice president, initiated a historic thaw in relations with Cuba, including an easing of the decades-long embargo. His successor, former President Donald Trump reversed these measures and instead pursued landmark diplomacy with North Korea, though efforts toward a denuclearization-for-peace and sanctions relief deal ultimately stalled.
The Biden administration has raised the possibility of offering some assistance to both countries as they deal with a worsened economic outlook due to the pandemic. When it comes to Cuba, however, an ongoing policy review has been complicated by the recent eruption of rare protests that Washington has capitalized on to single out Havana for criticism.
South Koreans See Nation as Stronger than North, More Want to Reunite: Poll
Read more
A presidential proclamation Friday to mark what the White House has for more than six decades dubbed "Captive Nations Week" made no mention of North Korea, but targeted Cuba along with fellow Latin American left-wing-led Nicaragua and Venezuela as well as Belarus, China, Myanmar—also referred to as Burma—and Russia..
"We hear the determination of those rejecting military rule in Burma, resisting dictatorship in Venezuela, taking to streets in Cuba to demand freedom in the face of brutal state repression, and pressing for free and fair elections in Nicaragua—as well as the Crimean Tatars, ethnic Ukrainians, and other ethnic and religious minorities who suffer repression for opposing Russia's illegal occupation of Crimea," the statement said.
In comments hearkening back to the Cold War a day earlier, both Biden and White House press secretary Jen Psaki declared that "communism is a failed system" and the president further laid in to Cuba during his joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"Cuba is, unfortunately, a failed state and repressing their citizens," Biden said. "There are a number of things that we would consider doing to help the people of Cuba, but it would require a different circumstance or a guarantee that they would not be taken advantage of by the government, for example, the ability to send remittances back to Cuba. I would not do that now because the fact is it's highly likely that the regime would confiscate those remittances or big chunks of it."
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, the first outside of the Castro family to lead the country as both head of state and the Communist Party, has acknowledged the need "to carry out a critical analysis of our problems in order to act and overcome, and avoid their repetition" in the face of the demonstrations and has answered some protester demands by lifting restrictions on travelers bringing in some food, medicine and other essential goods.
At the same, time he's firmly held the U.S. responsible for deliberately sabotaging the Cuba's economy through the embargo, and has called on Biden to reverse his predecessor's tightening of the policy.
"If President Joseph Biden had sincere humanitarian concern for the Cuban people," Díaz-Canel tweeted Friday, "he could eliminate the 243 measures applied by President Donald Trump, including the more than 50 cruelly imposed during the pandemic, as a first step towards ending the blockade."
He also rejected Biden's characterization of Cuba as a "failed state," asserting that "a failed state is one that, in order to please a reactionary and blackmailing minority, is capable of multiplying the damage to 11 million human beings, ignoring the will of the majority of Cubans, Americans and the international community."
Unprecedented anti-government protests broke out in Cuba on July 11, which the ruling Communist Party blames on a Twitter campaign orchestrated by the United States. Above, people hold Cuban and U.S. flags as they march during a protest showing support for Cubans demonstrating against their government, in Hialeah, Florida on July 15. EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI/AFP/Getty Images
Also hitting out at the Biden administration's role in Cuba's recent unrest was former Cold War ally Russia. Moscow officials have released a number of statements attacking Washington's position.
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused the U.S. of attempting to carry out a "color revolution" by "strangling the country, discriminating against its people and destroying the economy," and then provoking tensions from within.
Zakharova said Moscow called on "Washington to take on an objective position finally, to get rid of the hypocrisy and hidden agendas in politics, and to let the Cubans, their government and people, deal with the situation themselves and determine their fate."
"And if Washington really is concerned over the humanitarian situation in Cuba and wants to help regular Cubans," she added, "they need to start with themselves, by lifting the blockade, which was opposed from the start by the entire global community."
Last month, the United Nations General Assembly voted for the 29th consecutive time to condemn the U.S. embargo on Cuba.
China, an ally of North Korea and strategic partner of Russia, referenced this resolution in recent remarks delivered by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian at a press conference. Zhao asserted that "the U.S. embargo is the root cause of Cuba's shortage of medicines and energy" and accused Washington of fomenting instability in the fellow communist country.
"China firmly opposes foreign interference in Cuba's internal affairs, firmly supports what Cuba has done in fighting COVID-19, improving people's livelihood and upholding social stability, and firmly supports Cuba in exploring a development path suited to its national conditions," Zhao said Tuesday. "I'd like to stress that China stands ready to work with Cuba to implement the important consensus of the two heads of state and is firmly committed to deepening friendly relations between the two countries."
Beijing has come to the economic aid of a number of countries suffering from U.S. sanctions and views Havana as a critical node in extending the intercontinental, investment-driven Belt and Road Initiative into the Western Hemisphere.
Another key nation that sees China as a lifeline in the face of U.S. economic restrictions is Iran, which has joined the chorus of countries in weighing in on behalf of Cuba.
"In this situation, where the United States is primarily responsible for the many problems created for the Cuban people," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters Tuesday, "it is trying to appear as a supporter of the Cuban protests and has tried to interfere in the internal affairs of this country in a blatant violation of international rules."
As Obama pursued rapprochement with Cuba in 2015, he also signed a multilateral deal with Iran backed by both China and Russia, as well as the European Union, France, Germany and the United Kingdom that same year, to provide sanctions relief in exchange for restrictions on the Islamic republic's nuclear program. But Trump, too, rolled back these measures, which also remain in place today under Biden, whose officials are negotiating a potential reentry into the deal in the Austrian capital of Vienna.
Iran, Khatibzadeh said, "while condemning the illegal U.S. sanctions, which are an important factor in the economic hardships of the Cuban people, has condemned any interference in the internal affairs of this country and as a country facing illegal and oppressive U.S. sanctions."
Cuba has joined China, Iran, North Korea and Russia as well as Algeria, Angola, Belarus, Bolivia, Cambodia, Eritrea, Laos, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Syria, Venezuela and the State of Palestine, a U.N. non-member observer state to form "the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations."
Among the coalition's key principles are "non-interference in the internal affairs of States, peaceful settlement of disputes, and to refrain from the use or threat of use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, as enshrined in the UN Charter."
In March, the "Group of Friends" presented Newsweek with the following concept note, which was reiterated at a virtual launch earlier this month that involved representatives of each member state.
Newsweek · by Tom O'Connor · July 16, 2021
2. Foreign ministry calls on Chinese envoy to be 'cautious' after remarks on presidential front-runner
A lot to this short article: THAAD, ROK-PRC relations, PRC "threat" to the ROK, election interference and improving "values-based" ROK-US alliance relations and relations with other like-minded democracies.. (It is interesting that candidate Yoon would associate THAAD with Chinese radar systems along the Chinese-north Korean border)
Foreign ministry calls on Chinese envoy to be 'cautious' after remarks on presidential front-runner | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, July 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's foreign ministry made an implicit call Saturday for Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming to be "cautious" after his comments on a presidential front-runner raised questions over whether they could amount to political interference.
In a contribution to the local daily Joong-Ang Ilbo on Friday, Xing rebutted remarks by Yoon Seok-youl, a conservative presidential hopeful, from a recent interview about missile defense as "hardly understandable." Yoon had said that China should first remove its long-range radar systems on its border if it wants a U.S. anti-missile system, called THAAD, to be withdrawn from South Korea.
Seoul and Washington said the missile defense system deployed in 2017 is only meant to counter North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats.
But China has repeatedly pressed South Korea to withdraw the missile system, claiming it could hurt Beijing's security interests.
Xing's contribution triggered criticism, with some arguing that his remarks on a prominent South Korean politician could affect the March 9 presidential vote to pick a successor to President Moon Jae-in.
"Our government's position on the THAAD deployment remains unchanged," a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
"Given that the public expression of an opinion by a foreign diplomatic mission regarding remarks by a politician of a host nation could have a negative effect on the development of relations between the two countries, there is a need to be cautious," he added.
In the interview with Joong-Ang Ilbo published on Thursday, Yoon stressed the need to strengthen cooperation with countries sharing the same values "based on the South Korea-U.S. alliance" -- an indication of his support for a stronger partnership with Washington.
sshluck@yna.co.kr
(END)
3. Vice FM Choi calls in Japanese ambassador over his deputy's 'rude' remarks
What was this diplomat thinking? Not only in making the insensitive remark but also making it to a journalist?
Younhap did not report the specific remark. But the South China Morning Post did here:
Hirohisa Soma, the deputy head of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, reportedly ridiculed Moon’s chances of holding a summit with Suga during the Games, accusing the South Korean president of “masturbating”.
...
“President Moon is masturbating,” Soma reportedly told the JTBC reporter. “The Japanese government cannot afford to worry about the Korea-Japan issue as much as South Korea thinks … President Moon is engaged in a war of nerves on his own.”
(2nd LD) Vice FM Choi calls in Japanese ambassador over his deputy's 'rude' remarks | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: CHANGES headline, lead; UPDATES throughout; ADDS photo)
SEOUL, July 17 (Yonhap) -- Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun called in Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Koichi Aiboshi on Saturday to protest his deputy's "undiplomatic, rude" remarks disparaging President Moon Jae-in's efforts to improve ties between Seoul and Tokyo, the foreign ministry said.
The cable TV broadcaster, JTBC, reported Friday that Hirohisa Soma, deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy, made sexually indecent comments during a lunch with its reporter, saying Moon is in a tug of war only with himself while Tokyo has little room to pay attention to pending issues between the two countries.
"Vice Foreign Minister Choi lodged a stern protest over undiplomatic, rude remarks by a senior official of the Japanese Embassy, which greatly denigrated our leader's efforts to improve relations between the South and Japan," the ministry said in a press release.
"He also demanded the Japanese government promptly take visible and due steps to prevent a repeat of such a situation," it added.
The ambassador expressed regrets over Soma's remarks and said that he would relay Seoul's demands to his government, the ministry said.
The two countries have been in talks over the possibility of Moon visiting Tokyo to attend the opening ceremony of the Summer Games later this month and have talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to help address protracted rows over wartime history and trade.
Earlier in the day, Aiboshi said he had cautioned Soma over what he called "extremely inappropriate" remarks.
"(The remarks) as a diplomat were extremely inappropriate and very regrettable," Aiboshi said in a press release. "I have sternly cautioned Minister Soma after receiving his briefing (on the matter)."
The ambassador said that while Soma did make the controversial remarks, he has retracted the remarks, which Soma claimed were by no means directed at Moon.
Soma's gaffe added to tensions between Seoul and Tokyo over the long-simmering issues of Japan's wartime forced labor and sexual slavery, as well as its restrictions on exports of key industrial materials to South Korea.
Seoul has been cranking up diplomacy with Tokyo to address the issues through high-level talks and enhance cooperation in addressing shared challenges, such as North Korea's nuclear threats, amid Washington's push to bring its two Asian allies closer.
sshluck@yna.co.kr
(END)
4. IOC makes South Korea remove banners from Olympic village
More on Korea-Japan relations. As an interesting aside, the war (1592-1598) which they are honoring, led by Korean hero Admiral Yi Sun-sin, featured the first ironclad ships, known as the turtle ships for the iron armor protecting them from enemy fires.
Excerpt:
The South Korean banners, which drew protests from some Japanese far-right groups, had been hung at the balconies of South Korean athletes’ rooms and collectively spelled out a message that read: “I still have the support of 50 million Korean people.”
This borrowed from the famous words of 16th-century Korean naval admiral Yi Sun-sin, who according to historical lore told King Seonjo of Korea’s Joseon Kingdom, “I still have 12 battleships left,” before pulling off a crucial victory against a larger Japanese fleet during the 1592-1598 Japanese invasions of Korea.
IOC makes South Korea remove banners from Olympic village
South Korea’s Olympic committee said on Saturday it has removed banners at the Olympic athletes’ village in Tokyo that referred to a 16th-century war between Korea and Japan after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ruled it was provocative.
In agreeing to take down the banners, the South Koreans said they received a promise from the IOC that the displaying of the Japanese “rising sun” flag will be banned at stadiums and other Olympic venues. The flag, portraying a red sun with 16 rays extending outward, is resented by many people in South Korea and other parts of Asia who see it as a symbol of Japan’s wartime past.
The South Korean banners, which drew protests from some Japanese far-right groups, had been hung at the balconies of South Korean athletes’ rooms and collectively spelled out a message that read: “I still have the support of 50 million Korean people.”
This borrowed from the famous words of 16th-century Korean naval admiral Yi Sun-sin, who according to historical lore told King Seonjo of Korea’s Joseon Kingdom, “I still have 12 battleships left,” before pulling off a crucial victory against a larger Japanese fleet during the 1592-1598 Japanese invasions of Korea.
South Korea’s Olympic Committee said it was told by the IOC that the banners invoked images of war and went against Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter, which says “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas”.
The committee said it agreed to remove the banners after the IOC promised to also apply the same rules to the rising sun flags and ban them at all Olympic venues.
“Under the agreement, the committee will not raise any further debate to allow athletes to fully focus on competition, while the IOC will ban the displaying of the rising sun flag at all Olympic venues so that no political problems would arise,” the South Korean committee said in a statement.
South Korea had first formally requested the IOC to ban the rising sun flag at the Olympics in 2019, comparing it to the Nazi swastika. South Korean Olympic officials then said Tokyo’s organising committee rejected their demands for the flag to be banned, saying it was widely used in Japan and was not considered a political statement.
Many South Koreans still harbour animosity over Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, and the countries have seen their relations sink to new post-war lows in recent years with disputes over history, trade and military cooperation.
The countries have been trying to improve relations since the inauguration of United States President Joe Biden, who has called for stronger three-way cooperation with the traditional US allies in face of the North Korean nuclear threat and challenges posed by China. But progress has been slow.
South Korea’s foreign ministry on Saturday summoned Japanese Ambassador Koichi Aiboshi to protest remarks made by another senior Japanese diplomat who, according to a local broadcaster, used lewd language to ridicule South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s efforts to improve bilateral ties while meeting with its reporters.
The countries had been discussing the possibility of Moon visiting Tokyo to participate in the Olympics’ opening ceremony and have talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga over improving relations.
5. N. Korea blasts Japan over claim to Dokdo
north Korea will not be outdone in terms of Korea-Japan relations.
N. Korea blasts Japan over claim to Dokdo | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, July 17 (Yonhap) -- North Korea lashed out at Japan on Saturday for its claim to a set of South Korean islets in the East Sea, Dokdo, calling it a shameless act.
"The Japan sports world has reached the extremes in its shameless act designed to seize Tok Island, part of the inviolable territory of Korea, even in defiance of the sacred idea and spirit of the Olympic movement," a spokesman for the North's Olympic Committee said in a statement carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.
The statement comes amid a renewed row between Seoul and Tokyo over the latter's claims to the South Korea-controlled islets.
Japan's Tokyo Olympics Organizing Committee marked Dokdo islets as Japanese territory on its torch relay map posted on the official website of the summer Olympic games, set to begin next Friday.
"Political issues are inseparable from territorial issues, and it is shameless and groundless sophism to insist that it is just a geographical concept that part of Korea is marked as part of Japan," the North Korean statement said.
"The act of abusing the Olympic Games for realizing territorial ambition though they are supposed to promote friendship and harmony is a mockery of sportspersons all over the world and the desire of mankind for peace and an intolerable provocation violating the sovereignty of the Korean nation," it added.
Seoul has also filed strong protests with Japan and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) against Japan's marking of Dokdo as its own territory, but both Tokyo and the IOC have done little to address the issue.
The spokesman for the North Korean Olympic Committee called the IOC's reaction "problematic."
"The International Olympic Committee's response to the wrong assertion made by the Tokyo Olympic Games Organizing Committee is also problematic," said the statement, noting the IOC had "categorically opposed" marking Dokdo as Korean territory on a flag used in the 23rd Winter Olympic Games held in PyeongChang, South Korea, in 2018.
North Korea is not taking part in the Tokyo Olympic Games due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced the impoverished country to maintain a border shutdown since early last year.
(END)
6. North Korea arrests around 20 trading company heads in latest crackdown on unauthorized trade
The most important "agency" in the Kim family regime and party is the OGD. The regime is trying to maintain central control over all aspects of the economy and is using COVID as the excuse to crack down on what it classifies as "political activity.". The regime is threatened by the relative economic freedom that has developed over time since th Arduous March often famine of 1994-96. This economic freedom has helped the Korean people develop resilience over the last two decades. Attaching this resiliency is going to cause greater suffering among the Korean people living in the north and could result in conditions worse that the Arduous March.
Excerpts:
The ruling party’s Organization and Guidance Department is reportedly taking overall command of the joint inspection.
...
Given that North Korean authorities regard illegal trade by trading companies as “political activity,” offenders apparently face the severest of punishments — including death or confinement in a political prison camp — depending on the severity of their crimes.
“At the very least, nobody will get away with a mere slap on the wrist, like time in a forced labor or reeducation camp,” the source said.
The latest inspection is expected to last until the end of July, which suggests that the dampened atmosphere among traders along the border will endure for the time being.
But this is really significant. I would like to know from escapees their assessment of this.
Daily NK’s source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the authorities are making no exemptions in this latest crackdown – not even for trading companies attached to Bureau 39, which handles the ruling Kim family’s slush funds. If companies are caught engaging in illegal trade, they apparently face severe and “merciless” punishment.
North Korea arrests around 20 trading company heads in latest crackdown on unauthorized trade - Daily NK
The authorities have confiscated the trade certificates of trading companies caught up in the crackdown
The atmosphere along the China-North Korea border is growing even more tense due to the North Korean government’s inspections of trade-related entities. Daily NK has learned recently that the authorities have arrested almost two dozen trading company managers and related cadres for conducting unauthorized trade.
According to a Daily NK source in North Korea on Thursday, the authorities arrested around 20 heads of trading companies during a “joint inspection” of trade-related entities that began last month. Hundreds of trade workers have also been arrested and are undergoing questioning.
The ruling party’s Organization and Guidance Department is reportedly taking overall command of the joint inspection.
Those arrested are being charged with either importing items outside their approved import lists or distributing imported items that have not gone through proper quarantine procedures.
North Korean authorities are reportedly applying heavy punishments on importers who circumvent quarantine procedures, rather than focusing on just the import of unapproved items.
Daily NK understands that the items imported by companies busted in the latest inspection include consumer goods scarce in most of the country’s markets, including seasonings, soybean oil, sesame seeds, and sugar.
Based on Daily NK’s information, the authorities have confiscated all of the unapproved imported items. They have also confiscated the waku (trade certificates) of the relevant trading companies.
Moreover, inspectors are targeting trading companies involved in overseas remittances. All in all, with North Korean authorities cracking down on remittances and punishing the middlemen who facilitate them, North Koreans are facing great difficulties in transferring money.
The Sino-North Korean Friendship Bridge, which connects the Chinese city of Dandong with the North Korean city of Sinuiju. / Image: Daily NK
North Koreans authorities, for their part, have learned that trading companies have been making money by taking commissions to assist in the sending of remittances, disguising them as trade payments from China.
A trading company attached to the Central Committee’s “Moran Guidance Bureau” is reportedly among those busted in the latest inspection.
Daily NK’s source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the authorities are making no exemptions in this latest crackdown – not even for trading companies attached to Bureau 39, which handles the ruling Kim family’s slush funds. If companies are caught engaging in illegal trade, they apparently face severe and “merciless” punishment.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reportedly ordered that individuals caught in the inspection face criminal proceedings rather than “party-related punishments”; that busted cadre-level trade officials be stripped of their party credentials; and that the authorities apply the same criteria in their crackdown to companies affiliated with “special institutions.”
Given that North Korean authorities regard illegal trade by trading companies as “political activity,” offenders apparently face the severest of punishments — including death or confinement in a political prison camp — depending on the severity of their crimes.
“At the very least, nobody will get away with a mere slap on the wrist, like time in a forced labor or reeducation camp,” the source said.
The latest inspection is expected to last until the end of July, which suggests that the dampened atmosphere among traders along the border will endure for the time being.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
7. North Korea warns of heat wave's impact on crops
north Korea is vulnerable to natural disasters and harsh conditions because of the policy decision of the regime. Its agriculture system is in shambles because it is "ideological based" on juche and central control by the party/regime rather than based on sound agricultural practices.
North Korea warns of heat wave's impact on crops
By Elizabeth Shim flip.it2 min
North Korea urged citizens to prepare for a “stronger heat wave” Friday. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo
July 16 (UPI) -- North Korea could be taking preventative measures against climate change by planting more trees and protecting crops from extreme heat as temperatures soar to record highs on the peninsula.
Korean Workers' Party paper Rodong Sinmun said Friday that preventing crop damage from heat waves is a "struggle to protect the lives and safety of the people."
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"Party organizations at all levels inform us that a stronger heat wave is expected to affect our nation next week," the paper said. "Preventing damage is an important political project for the realization of decisions made at the [Eighth] Party Congress."
The Rodong is urging the country to prepare for extreme weather only days after North Korea's chairman of the State Planning Commission said in a report to the United Nations that "severe natural disasters hit the country every year" amid a worsening food situation.
The Party paper said Friday that workers must focus on "finding a water source" and then mobilize "all means of transportation" to water crops.
Last year, North Korea said typhoons and ensuing floods wiped out crops. The regime could be responding with tree planting initiatives.
Propaganda service Meari said Thursday that a "unique forestation" initiative was taking place in the city of Samjiyon in Yanggang Province. Birch, cypress and clove trees have been planted in the area that state media said was the "standard and exemplar" of a "modern mountain city."
The Rodong reported in a separate article that various North Korean work units, including the Mangyongdae District Agricultural Machinery Workshop and the Ryusonamsae cooperative farm, were recognized for their "reforestation" efforts.
North Korea underwent a period of deforestation during the Great Famine of the '90s. Defectors in the South have said energy shortages forced people to burn wood for fuel.
Unsustainable clearing of forests also contributed to deforestation amid the food shortage, according to analysts.
8. Welcome aboard Kim Jong Un’s party boat
I cannot wait for photos of Kim Jong-un sliding down one of his waterslides.
Welcome aboard Kim Jong Un’s party boat
It has waterslides. Yes, plural
In this image made from video broadcasted by North Korea’s KRT, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, watches a military parade during a ceremony to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the country’s ruling party in Pyongyang on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020.
KRT via Associated Press
Relaxing aboard a luxury yacht seems like a far-off dream for many of us — not so much for North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un.
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Recent reports and satellite imagery show that the dictator may be enjoying his luxury yacht for the first time in multiple years, reported The New York Post.
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The party boat was spotted near Kim’s Wonsan mansion compound along the eastern coast of North Korea earlier this week, reported NK News.
What is Kim Jong Un’s party boat like?
Kim’s Princess-brand luxury yacht is decked out with twin twisting waterslides, an Olympic-size swimming pool and a multistory lounge, per NK News.
The yacht was last seen at the Wonsan mansion in 2019 but returned to the mansion this week. The ship’s arrival coincided with days that Kim did not make any media appearances, reported The New York Post.
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The timing suggests that Kim has been “chilling out” on the yacht or possibly recovering from sickness since the dictator has reportedly lost some weight recently, said The New York Post.
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The “famously reclusive and rotund” leader has lost up to 44 pounds recently, according to The New York Post. Kim’s sudden slimness has fueled speculation about his health and his potential successor, who remains unnamed.
Kim’s family, friends or other trusted associates could be at the Wonsan mansion, which has previously hosted guests, per NK News.
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Another smaller boat was docked at Kim’s Hodo Peninsula palace in early July. This palace is 10 miles up the coast from the Wonsan mansion, reported The New York Post.
What’s going on in North Korea?
While the leader of North Korea may be relaxing, the rest of the country does not have that luxury. Conditions in the country have seemed increasingly concerning in recent weeks, reported The New York Post.
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The country is facing a food shortage due to failed crops, international sanctions and a strict COVID-19 lockdown, reported the Deseret News.
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North Korea has continued to claim that it has zero coronavirus cases. However, last month, Kim admitted that the country faced a “grave incident” related to the pandemic, per Deseret News.
9. U.S. Will Need to Work With China to Make Progress With North Korea -Official
It does not look like China is ready to cooperate to make progress since it has rebuffed the Deputy Secretary's request for a visit.
U.S. Will Need to Work With China to Make Progress With North Korea -Official
By U.S. News & World Report2 min
FILE PHOTO: A North Korea flag flutters next to concertina wire at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia March 9, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su
By Daphne Psaledakis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States will have to work with China to make progress on North Korea, a senior State Department official said on Friday, ahead of a senior U.S. diplomat's visit to the region.
Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will visit Japan, South Korea and Mongolia next week, and may add a visit to China to the itinerary, where dealing with the North Korean regime would be on the agenda, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Washington wants to work with China on some areas of overlapping interest, despite fraught relations between the world's two largest economies over issues including trade and human rights.
Washington wants to rein in North Korea's nuclear program, but efforts to establish diplomatic contact since President Joe Biden took office earlier this year have received no response.
The senior official said there was "no doubt that any way forward" with the regime, known as the DPRK, would require the help of China, as well as U.S. regional allies South Korea and Japan.
"The DPRK is one area where we may work with (China) because you can’t do a solution (without them)," the official said, explaining that China was the major trading partner of North Korea.
In December, the United States accused China of "flagrant violation" of its obligation to enforce international sanctions on North Korea.
China says it abides by U.N. sanctions on North Korea, although along with Russia, it has expressed hope that an easing of those conditions could help break the deadlock in nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Simon Lewis and David Brunnstrom; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Raissa Kasolowsky)
Copyright 2021 Thomson Reuters.
10. South Koreans now see nation as stronger than North, but more want to reunite: poll
Some interesting statistics but we should not be lulled by the headline. While here has been a significant change in views of "strength" of the north and South the difference is slight.
Unification is good as long as unification results in a United Republic of Korea (UROK) or as we should pronounce it - "You Rock." Unification cannot occur through a federal or federation concept of one country two systems because the north will exploit that process and continue its campaign of subversion to ensure the outcome of such a process will be the domination of the Korean peninsula by the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State.
It is my firm belief the only way we are going to see an end to the nuclear program and threats as well as the human rights abuses and crimes against humanity being committed against the Korean people living in the north by the mafia-like crime family cult known as the Kim family regime is through achievement of unification and the establishment of a United Republic of Korea that is secure and stable, non-nuclear, economically vibrant, and unified under a liberal constitutional form of government based on individual liberty, rule of law, and human rights as determined by the Korean people. In short, a United Republic of Korea (UROK).
Excerpts:
The difference, recorded in April, is slight at 37.1% who favor Seoul versus 36.5% who see Pyongyang as commanding the more powerful Korea, but it marks a drastic change from previous figures last November, when North Korea was described as more powerful by more than a seven-point margin at 33.5% against just 26.4% who chose South Korea.
South Koreans now see nation as stronger than North, but more want to reunite: poll
Newsweek · by Tom O'Connor · July 17, 2021
South Koreans now see their country as more powerful than their northern neighbor, but the number of citizens who want to reunite with North Korea has witnessed a significant uptick, according to a state-sponsored poll obtained by Newsweek.
The Seoul-based, government-backed Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) has published the results of its latest opinion survey spanning a number of topics, mostly pertaining to inter-Korean relations. Newsweek obtained the accompanying report as well as some additional results that were not featured in the public version.
Among the more notable features in the unreleased section is a never-before-recorded reversal that shows more South Koreans believe their nation "is stronger" than North Korea.
The difference, recorded in April, is slight at 37.1% who favor Seoul versus 36.5% who see Pyongyang as commanding the more powerful Korea, but it marks a drastic change from previous figures last November, when North Korea was described as more powerful by more than a seven-point margin at 33.5% against just 26.4% who chose South Korea.
Previous years showed an even further lead for the North Korean option at 7.8 points ahead in June of last year, 9.1 in September 2019 and 11 in April of 2019.
Research fellow Lee Sang Sin, corresponding author of the study, called the latest results "a very interesting change."
"So far, more South Koreas have believed that North Korea can overpower South Korea with its military force," Lee told Newsweek. "Now, it has reversed."
And he explained what he said is the likely reasoning for the shift.
"I think it shows that South Koreans are now confident with the country's cultural, economical, and political standing among neighboring countries," Lee said. "Due to South Korea's exemplary response to COVID-19 and the recent surge of Korean soft power, Koreans are finally accepting the fact that South Korea is no longer a poor, defenseless country."
South Korean soldiers set a barricade at a checkpoint on the Tongil bridge, the road leading to North Korea's Kaesong joint industrial complex, near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the two Koreas in Paju on December 15, 2020, a day after Seoul's parliament passed a law criminalizing sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets into the North. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has sought to build ties with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, but stalls in diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang have prevented inter-Korean reconciliation. JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images
But there's another interesting facet to the figures featured in the report.
Asked about the need for North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and South Korea, formally known as the Republic of Korea, to once again unite after being divided by rival Cold War powers the Soviet Union and the United States after World War II, "the response that unification is necessary has significantly increased" from a low of 52.7% last November to 58.7% this past April.
This number had continued to steadily decline from a historic high of 70.7% in the wake of the landmark summit between former U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un in June of 2018 as a subsequent meeting in February 2019 ended without a sought-after peace deal providing sanctions relief in exchange for North Korea's denuclearization.
As Washington and Pyongyang failed to rekindle diplomacy, South Korean President Moon Jae-in's hopes for inter-Korean rapprochement have also stalled. Now with President Joe Biden in office, however, Moon has called for a new effort to engage with Kim and the report saw a correlation between these developments and public opinion in South Korea.
"The necessity of unification is closely connected to changes in inter-Korean relations," the report found. "After the failure of the US-DPRK Summit in Hanoi in [2019], responses that unification is necessary continued to decline, but the [2021] result shows that new expectations for inter-Korean dialogue have been reflected since the Biden administration took office."
But Lee saw a more compelling argument that it was events on the Korean Peninsula itself that have driven this trend.
"I don't think it is related to Biden's election," Lee said. "Necessity of reunification item always reflects the current South-North relationship. When the two Koreas get along it tends to go up. When there is tension, it goes down. After the failure of Hanoi, South Koreans feared North Korea might resume its usual military provocations. But, with the exception of the demolition of the Kaesung office, North Korea has refrained itself from extreme measures so far."
"An increase of the necessity of reunification may reflect these changes," he added.
North Korea has not tested a nuclear weapon or long-range missile since the launch of the peace process with South Korea and the U.S., though Kim has reserved the right to due to a lack of progress in negotiations. The ruler has also ordered a limited number of shorter-range weapons tests that have garnered expressions of concern from Seoul and Washington.
Among the principal grievances aired by North Korea is the prospect of joint U.S.-South Korea military drills viewed as provocative by Pyongyang. North Korean state-run media outlet Uriminzokkiri issued a scathing commentary Monday in response to news that the two allies would conduct training together this summer.
"The blame for the current instability on the Korean Peninsula should be squarely placed on warmongers among the South Korean military colluding with outside power and engaging reckless confrontational machinations," the commentary said.
It argued that "war games and schemes to strengthen armed forces will never stand hand in hand with peace."
North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un (L) and South Korean President Moon Jae-in (R) walk together during a visit to Samjiyon guesthouse on September 20, 2018 in Samjiyon, North Korea. Kim and Moon meet for their third Inter-Korean summit, the fifth ever since the 1945 division of the peninsula and the subsequent war in the 1950s. Pyeongyang Press Corps/Pool/Getty Images
North Korea has also reacted strongly to the U.S. decision to lift restrictions on South Korea's missile development during Biden and Moon's debut summit in May, At that same meeting, however, the South Korean leader emphasized his aspirations for the resumption of talks with North Korea.
Since completing its policy review earlier in April, the Biden administration has left the door open for diplomacy with Kim's government, but has warned it would also respond to any escalations and would act in unison with allies such as South Korea, along with Japan, which has expressed far less enthusiasm for inter-Korean unity.
Deputy Secretary of State Wendy R. Sherman is set to begin on Monday an East Asia trip in which she'll visit travel Japan, South Korea and Mongolia. She's set to hold joint talks with officials from Tokyo and Seoul "to discuss trilateral cooperation on pressing shared challenges, including regional security issues such as the DPRK, as well as climate change and global health."
The Biden administration has also recently discussed coordinating on North Korea with China, North Korea's ally and a top rival of the U.S.
Asked by reporters Friday at a press conference in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian declined to discuss Sherman's upcoming trip.
"China's position on China-U.S. relations is consistent and clear," Zhao said. "As to the specifics you asked about, I have nothing to read out at this moment."
Later that same day, State Department spokesperson Jalina Porter also declined to offer additional details on Sherman's agenda during a press briefing in Washington.
So far, no direct contacts between Washington and Pyongyang under the current U.S. leadership have been reported as North Korean officials say the White House must first end its "hostile policy" against the country.
At a press conference earlier this month, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the offer to talk still stands.
"We have made very clear to the DPRK that we are ready to engage in good-faith, constructive diplomacy," Price said at the time. "We have extended messages and we are awaiting a constructive reply."
As for South Korea, the country's Unification Ministry has also continued to broadcast its willingness to complete its mission amid suggestions that such unity between the two Koreas may never be realized.
"The Ministry of Unification should continue to exist and improve in order to realize the spirit of the ROK Constitution toward peaceful unification, to heal the wounds of division and to accelerate peaceful coexistence and common prosperity between the two Koreas," spokesperson Lee Jong Joo said earlier this week.
Newsweek · by Tom O'Connor · July 17, 2021
11. Moon Jae-in asks for Vietnam's help in restarting North Korea dialogue
As an aside and as a reminder to those who tout the "Vietnam model"for north Korea. It would be a grave mistake. I think north Korea would love to adopt a "Vietnam model." Unfortunately, we are all focused on the post 1975 economic "Vietnam Model." The regime is likely unwilling to adopt that model given the current conditions, to include the regime's assessment of security conditions.
But there is a "Vietnam model" that we overlook but one that the regime is actually pursuing. Like north Vietnam it would like to broker a peace treaty with the US that would cause the withdrawal of US troops. It would like to see the US become overly focused on domestic issues. Once troops are fully withdrawn the regime will redouble its efforts to dominate the entire peninsula and if necessary it will use force to do so because it will believe it has created the conditions to be successful. it will attack the South, assuming the US has lost the will to come to the aid of the South because there is no longer a US force presence, and seek to unify the peninsula under the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State just as north Vietnam did with the South. That is the "Vietnam model" the Kim family regime would like to copy. We need to understand the regime's political warfare strategy as well as its military strategy. They are mutually supporting.
aaaAs anaside g, it'll appear here.
Moon Jae-in asks for Vietnam's help in restarting North Korea dialogue
By Elizabeth Shim flip.it2 min
South Korean President Moon Jae-in expressed desire to resume diplomacy with North Korea during a phone call with Vietnam’s Nguyen Phu Trong Thursday. File Photo by Erin Scott/UPI | License Photo
July 15 (UPI) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in requested Vietnam play a role in restarting North Korea dialogue during a phone call with Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of Vietnam's Communist Party.
South Korea's presidential Blue House spokeswoman Park Kyung-mee said Thursday that the leaders of the two countries spoke for the first time since the inauguration of Trong to the leadership position in January, News 1 reported.
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Moon congratulated Trong while Trong commended South Korea for attaining developed nation status as designated by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, according to Yonhap. The upgrade in South Korea's status was formalized earlier this month.
The South Korean leader also raised the issue of North Korea; Moon's diplomacy with Pyongyang played a pivotal role in easing tensions between the North and the United States in 2018.
Moon reportedly thanked the Vietnamese government for providing a venue for the U.S.-North Korea summit in early 2019. Former U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un met for their second official summit in Hanoi in February of that year. Talks collapsed after the two sides could not reach an agreement on sanctions relief, however.
The South Korean president reportedly asked Vietnam to "play a role in promptly resuming dialogue with North Korea," the Blue House said.
Trong said in response that Vietnam "supports the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and dialogues for peaceful consultations."
Moon last met with Kim in June 2019 at the truce village of Panmunjom. North Korea has rejected the Moon's offers of dialogue since that time.
The South Korean president also mentioned the crackdown against Myanmar's pro-democracy protesters during the conversation.
Moon said he "looks forward to close communication" between Seoul and Hanoi on the situation in Myanmar. Trong reportedly said Vietnam will "continue to work for the restoration of peace and stability in Myanmar."
The United States said Wednesday in an address to ASEAN that "immediate action" should be taken on Myanmar, where COVID-19 deaths have been climbing amid ongoing unrest.
12. Only 2 N.K. defectors arrive in S. Korea in Q2, lowest ever
A question is how many have actually escaped from north Korea? I would say it is more than 2 although we know the regime is cracking down even harder on border crossing in the name of COVID defense.
But if more than 2 have escaped where did they go? Are they choosing not to go to South korea? Or are they being apprehended in China and forcibly returned to north Korea? (China is complicit in north Korean human rights abuses)
Only 2 N.K. defectors arrive in S. Korea in Q2, lowest ever | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, July 16 (Yonhap) -- Only two North Korean defectors arrived in South Korea in the second quarter, the lowest number ever since the government began compiling quarterly defector data in 2003, the unification ministry said Friday.
The number of incoming defectors has gradually decreased since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic due to restrictions on cross-border movements, dropping significantly to 12 in last year's second quarter from 135 in the previous quarter.
The figure stood at 48 defectors in the third quarter of last year and 34 in the fourth quarter before dropping further to 31 in January to March this year and two in the April-June period, according to the ministry data.
julesyi@yna.co.kr
(END)
13. The summer of North Koreans’ discontent
We must continue to observe for indicators of instability. What is the nascent resistance potential? If we observe resistance, what actions are we (the ROK and the ROK/US alliance) prepared to execute?
I hate to beat the dead horse but time to continue to review Bob Collins' Seven Phases of Regime Collapse.
When North Korea Falls
The furor over Kim Jong Il’s missile tests and nuclear brinksmanship obscures the real threat: the prospect of North Korea’s catastrophic collapse. How the regime ends could determine the balance of power in Asia for decades. The likely winner? China
By Robert D. Kaplan
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/10/when-north-korea-falls/305228/
The summer of North Koreans’ discontent
Reports say hungry people's denunciation of the regime's incompetence is drowning out hymns of praise for Kim Jong Un
There’s a country in the West where not a few people have been conditioned such that, when they disagree with official policy, they’re ready to load up their weapons with real bullets and march off to do battle with the government.
And then there’s North Korea, where dissent is so comparatively rare that outsiders often imagine the ruler has succeeded in indoctrinating the population to worship and obey him single-mindedly.
That imagining wasn’t far-fetched when the original ruler, Kim Il Sung, was still alive. Kim made some awful mistakes, starting with his 1950 invasion of South Korea to start the Korean War – nearly three horrible years in which a quarter of the northern population died for practically zero territorial gain.
Still, North Koreans with few exceptions bought into the cult of personality surrounding the Great Leader. One defector told me that even years after he had escaped the country he could not bring himself to speak ill of Kim Il Sung.
The buying in became less complete after Kim Il Sung died in 1994 and the country, under his son the Dear Leader Kim Jong Il, promptly entered a terrible famine in which at least 600,000 people died. North Koreans began venting about the regime to a considerably greater extent.
They were careful, of course, about who was listening as they spoke their minds. And even when he coast seemed reasonably clear they directed their criticisms at Kim’s subordinates, not usually at the ruler by name. They didn’t want to be sent off to camps.
The current, third-generation ruler, Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, went all out in altering his costume, hairstyle and body build (and, some say, his facial features, via plastic surgery) to project an image of being like his revered grandfather rather than his hapless father.
Nevertheless, reports suggest that Jong Un’s administration these days is suffering much the same disrespect that the populace meted out to his father’s. And the reason is the same: food shortages, from which people once again are starving and dying although the situation so far is by no means so dire as it was in the famine of the mid-1990s.
The ruler is the regime: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits a vegetable greenhouse farm and tree nursery in Jungphyong in Kyongsong County, North Hamgyong Province, in 2019. Photo: AFP / KCNA VIA KNS
From three news organizations based abroad that are set up to gather news surreptitiously by speaking with sources inside the country, we now hear that discontent is widespread. In North Hamgyong province the authorities have made available a week’s worth of grain purportedly from military storehouses – and people are belittling the gesture, according to DailyNK.
The Seoul-based outlet’s account quotes a source on the ground in the province, which includes the country’s third-largest city, Chongjin, home to many members of a new middle class that arose out of market dealings during and after the ’90s famine and that had been advancing until the current troubles arose:
Though the authorities are selling the rice at below-market prices, locals are reportedly quite dissatisfied with receiving only a week’s worth of food.
In fact, locals are denouncing the measure. “For the first time in our lives, we are receiving rice that could either be [government] rations or disaster relief – we don’t know which,” they say, according to the source. “But if they give us only a week’s worth of staple grains [then] all [the government] is telling us to do is just eke by.”
Many Chongjin residents say that prior to the Covid-19 pandemic they lived so well on their business acumen and talents that they felt no envy toward people living in the Sino-North Korean border region, who were generally afforded better opportunities for cross-border trade.
They complain, however, that despite the fact they have suffered greatly since the border was sealed, the state has provided them rations that amount to “bird feed.” Outraged, they are saying, “These rations apparently aim to assuage the people, but we don’t want them,” according to the source.
“If they open the border, Chongjin residents could confidently obtain three months’ worth of food from Chinese traders and sell it off in three days in the town square,” some members of the donju, the country’s wealthy entrepreneurial class, are saying, according to the source. “The state can’t do a thing and is simply making the people feel insecure. If the state can’t do anything, it should just sit back and get out of the way.”
Little if any food is being imported due to Kim Jong Un’s extreme policy of tightly closing the borders to keep the coronavirus contagion out. As Asia Times has reported, it appears Kim believes that not just human contact but contact with dry cargoes poses a serious infection danger – a view that is not scientifically supported.
North Korean ship docked at Nampo port, North Korea.Not much of anything is entering the country under Kim’s policy for preventing coronavirus contamination. Photo: AFP / Eric Lafforgue / Hans Lucas
Beyond this month’s paltry government grain distribution gesture, the authorities are telling the people they’re on their own when it comes to providing what they project as a crisis that could last longer than three years before the Covid-19 threat is vanquished and it’s safe to resume trade, according to a report from US government-funded Radio Free Asia, which cites its own sources inside the country.
“Ordinary people say that the government is shirking its responsibility,” RFA reports. And it quotes a resident who apparently was unafraid of blaming Kim Jong Un directly.
“Factory workers have to go to the fields and work with hoes in their hands now,” said [a] source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.
“These days all the factory workers in Chongjin are concentrating on farm work as they have been mobilized for their factory fields. They are busy right now removing weeds from the fields from the early morning to the late afternoon,” [this] source told RFA.
The residents in Chongjin are also complaining, according to [this] source, saying that the food shortage there is so bad that they can hardly solve their food issues for the next three days, and being told to survive three years is like a “death sentence.”
“The Highest Dignity stressed that rice is a vital element that maintains the existence and self-reliance of our country, [this] source said, using an honorific term to refer to the country’s leader Kim Jong Un.
“But how can an affluent leader and other high-ranking officials understand the reality of the hungry people?” said [this] source.
[This] source said the longer the border with China remains closed, the closer to rock bottom the people fall.
“The people wonder how many of them should starve to death before the authorities come to their senses.”
Can’t or won’t feed his people: Kim Jong-Un in 2017 inspects the newly-built Samjiyon potato farina production factory in Ryanggang Province, North Korea. Photo AFP / KCNA VIA KNS
Some hungry people are less articulate but at least equally voluble in their complaints, according to Jiro Ishimaru, editor in chief of Osaka-based AsiaPress, which maintains its own corps of North Korean residents it has trained on the other side of the border as reporters and sent back in equipped with smuggled Chinese cellphones. Ishimaru quotes one of them:
“The market is filled with sighs, shouts and screams. I can hear the sobbing of those who lost money and those who cannot afford the high prices. Many elderly people who live alone are starving to death,” said a reporting partner from North Hamkyung Province. No one knows how to cope with and defend against the current chaos, and the future of the situation is entirely unclear.
In Ishimaru’s own view, “the limitations of the Kim Jong Un regime’s coronavirus quarantine policy are apparent. Even if North Korea itself is closed off from the rest of the world, the Covid-19 pandemic will never be able to end unless vaccination progresses in China and other neighboring countries.
‘The lives of the people of North Korea have been deteriorating,” he adds, “and the country is facing a humanitarian crisis. The Kim Jong-un regime must ask the international community for urgent assistance in food and vaccines, and the international community should hasten to begin discussions.”
A footnote: The degree of outspokenness that’s reported now almost surely is not sufficient to signal an uprising any time soon. For one thing, North Koreans lack experience and know-how in making revolution.
For another, as a wise Indian economist pointed out to me in the 1980s, people who don’t have enough to eat are physically unable to do much more than procreate and get through the day alive.
Bradley K. Martin is the author of Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty.
14. Seoul releases rare footage of Yongsan bombing during Korean War
The horrors of war.
I wonder why they chose these photos. It depends on who did the "choosing,"
Seoul releases rare footage of Yongsan bombing during Korean War | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, July 17 (Yonhap) -- The Seoul metropolitan government has released footage of the U.S. Air Force's bombing of Yongsan in July 1950 during the Korean War, images that have previously been unseen in the country.
On July 16, 1950, U.S. Air Force planes dropped bombs on the central Seoul district of Yongsan to reclaim the capital city from invading North Korean forces.
The footage, which was obtained from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, shows the bombs being dropped on Yongsan, the city going up in smoke and bodies strewn on the ground.
To mark the anniversary of the event, the city government is showing the footage, along with 17 videos and 80 photographs that have been edited from it, at a special exhibition at the Yongsan City Memorial Exhibition.
As part of the special exhibit, the city has also reorganized the hall's existing archives under the four themes of bombing, homecoming, restoration and reconstruction.
This section of the exhibit chronicles the suffering of people during the war and the reconstruction process after the armistice signing in July 1953.
The exhibit opened Saturday on a reservation-only basis, with a maximum capacity of 10 people per hour, in keeping with COVID-19 protocols.
Reservations can be made online at: https://yeyak.seoul.go.kr. The exhibition will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. every Tuesday to Saturday.
The footage can also be viewed online at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuTkIdudM36VV5SQnToDMMA
hague@yna.co.kr
(END)
15. Protester rushed to hospital after clash at South Korea THAAD site
This situation appears not to have been resolved. The Korean government has not been able to effectively counter the professional anti-American agitators who have radicalized the local population.
Protester rushed to hospital after clash at South Korea THAAD site
By Elizabeth Shim flip.it2 min
Anti-THAAD activists in Seongju, South Korea, have clashed with local police officers several times this year, according to reports. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo
July 15 (UPI) -- A South Korean protester collapsed and was transferred to a nearby hospital during a military delivery to the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense base in Seongju on Thursday.
South Korea's military and U.S. Forces Korea had begun to deliver equipment to the base at 6 a.m., when they were confronted by more than 40 protesters, including local residents, Newsis reported.
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Anti-THAAD rallies have recurred in the area since the deliveries began in May. Seoul made multiple deliveries in May and June, typically early in the morning. Protesters often attempt to block trucks from gaining entry to the base.
Activists who claimed the THAAD site illegal chanted slogans Thursday, urging the shuttering of the base and calling for the withdrawal of police, Yonhap reported.
Police officers created a line to maintain order on roads and used loudspeakers to call on protesters to disband. When the group refused to disperse, officers began to physically push people out of the way about 6:50 a.m. One protester fell and was taken away in an ambulance.
U.S. Forces Korea and local military officers secured the road at 7:25 a.m., and the deliveries were brought in on 10 trucks, according to reports.
Protesters who spoke to Newsis said that police threatened to arrest them if they did not voluntarily leave the premises.
More than 800 officers were deployed to the site Thursday. The activists previously raised concerns about the large police force deployment.
The more police there are, the more severe the human rights violations at Soseong-ri, activists said in June.
The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command said last month that it is seeking to upgrade defenses on the Korean Peninsula.
Improving Patriot and THAAD interoperability and bringing a Patriot launch-on-remote capability are "developments efforts associated with U.S. Forces Korea," Lt. Gen. Daniel L. Karbler said in a statement to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee.
The United States and South Korea agreed to deploy THAAD in 2016 in response to North Korean missile threats.
V/R
David Maxwell
Senior Fellow
Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Phone: 202-573-8647
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
FDD is a Washington-based nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.
