Quotes of the Day:
"The ancient Romans built elaborate networks of pipes to deliver water where they wanted it to go. The networks were a marvel. But many of the pipes were made of lead, and the water carried the lead along with it. One school of thought regards this as part of the reason for the decline and fall of Rome: lead poisoning gradually took its toll, impairing the thought and judgment of many Romans, especially at the top. The theory is much disputed; perhaps it contains no truth. But as a metaphor it is irresistible. We have built networks for the delivery of information—the internet, and especially social media. These networks, too, are a marvel. But they also carry a kind of poison with them. The mind fed from those sources learns to subsist happily on quick reactions, easy certainties, one-liners, and rage. It craves confirmation and resents contradiction. Attention spans collapse; imbecility propagates, then seems normal, then is celebrated. The capacity for rational discourse between people who disagree gradually rots. I have a good deal more confidence in the lead-pipe theory of the internet, and its effect on our culture, than in the lead-pipe theory of the fall of Rome."
- Ward Farnsworth
"When plunder becomes a way of life, men create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."
- Frederic Bastiat
One of the great attractions of patriotism - it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat. Bully and cheat, what's more, with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous.
- Aldous Huxley
1. Chinese envoy says North Korea has 'legitimate’ security concerns, asks US to ease sanctions
2. North Korean Cyberwarfare Officer Arrested in Vladivostok While Seeking Asylum
3. End-of-war declaration will lose luster in trilateral FM talks: experts
4. With His Term Coming to a Close, Moon Reiterates Importance of Peace Process on Korean Peninsula
5. UNICEF provides nutrition supplies for 160,000 N. Korean pregnant women
6. Trump says he is still in touch with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un
7. N. Korean hackers are allegedly sending out phishing emails impersonating S. Korea’s National Election Commission
8. North Korea issues order for the promotions of military officers ahead of Kim Jong Il’s birthday
9. Kim Jong Un issues order to repatriate cyberwarfare officer detained at consulate in Russia
10. China remains Third World in South Korean minds
11. Clickbait on Kim Jong Un’s Health
12. North Koreans in China prohibited from traveling to Beijing during Winter Games
13. North Korea comes to Russia’s defense over Ukraine conflict
14. ‘I can see into the lives of North Koreans’ – the professor who reads washed-up rubbish
15. Population Decline Means Looming Shortage of Conscripts
1. Chinese envoy says North Korea has 'legitimate’ security concerns, asks US to ease sanctions
General Abrams took the Chinese envoy to task as described in the article below.
I also responded to the envoy with a few tweets but they did not make it into the article.
Here are the two tweets from the Chinese envoy:
刘晓明Liu Xiaoming
@AmbLiuXiaoMing
Feb 9
China government official
#DPRK has long faced external threats to its security. This is the crux of #KoreanPeninsula issue. To fundamentally solve the issue, the #DPRK’s legitimate security concerns should be addressed. Otherwise, it’s like solving one problem only to find another cropping up.
My response to the first tweet above:
David Maxwell
@DavidMaxwell161
Feb 9
You are wrong. And you do not seem to understand the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime. Kim is conducting political warfare (much like the PRC) and simultaneously preparing for war.
David Maxwell
@DavidMaxwell161
Feb 9
@DavidMaxwell161
He is executing the 7 decades old strategy of subversion, coercion-extortion (blackmail diplomacy), and use of force to achieve unification dominated by the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State in order to ensure the survival of the regime.
David Maxwell
@DavidMaxwell161
Feb 9
In support of that strategy Kim Jong-un has the objective to split the ROK/US Alliance and get US forces off the peninsula (in common with the PRC). Kim has a divide to conquer strategy - divide the alliance to conquer the ROK.
David Maxwell
@DavidMaxwell161
Feb 9
The root of all problems in Korea is the existence of the most evil mafia- like crime family cult known as the Kim family regime that has the objective of dominating the Korean Peninsula under the rule of the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State.
Second tweet from the Chinese envoy:
刘晓明Liu Xiaoming
@AmbLiuXiaoMing
China government official
If #US truly cares about the well-being of #DPRK people, it should not keep pressuring DPRK with sanctions. Instead, it should face up to the denuclearization measures already taken by DPRK, respond to its legitimate concerns & take measures to ease sanctions on #DPRK.
Response to the second tweet above:
David Maxwell
@DavidMaxwell161
Feb 9
If Kim Jong-un truly cared about the welfare of the Korean people living in the north he would not prioritize nuclear weapons and missiles. His deliberate policy decisions are solely responsible for the suffering of the Korean people.
Chinese envoy says North Korea has 'legitimate’ security concerns, asks US to ease sanctions
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gives a speech in this undated photo released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, Dec. 7, 2021. (KCNA)
China’s special envoy to the Korean Peninsula on Thursday defended North Korea’s view that it faces “external threats to its security” and urged the United States to ease sanctions against the communist regime.
Liu Xiaoming, the former Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom and Beijing’s representative to the two Koreas, tweeted that threats to Pyongyang are “the crux” of tensions on the peninsula.
“To fundamentally solve the issue, [North Korea’s] legitimate security concerns should be addressed,” Liu wrote. “Otherwise, it’s like solving one problem only to find another cropping up.”
Liu added that if the U.S. “truly cares” about North Koreans, “it should not keep pressuring” the country through its sanctions.
“Instead, it should face up to the denuclearization measures already taken by [North Korea], respond to its legitimate concerns and take measures to ease sanctions,” he tweeted.
Liu did not specify which North Korean denuclearization measures he was referring to.
Retired Army Gen. Robert Abrams, the former commander of U.S. Forces Korea and U.N. Command, replied to Liu’s tweet, asking him for clarification.
“Name one legitimate security concern that [North Korea] has,” Abrams tweeted on Thursday. “Legitimate.”
Liu had not replied to Abrams' tweet by Thursday evening.
The North’s Yongbyon nuclear power reactor may have been operational since July 2020, according to an August report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog. Negotiations between former President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un aimed at ridding the regime of its nuclear weapons stalled during their summit in 2019. The two leaders came to an impasse over closing the nuclear power plant and sanctions relief.
North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency recently signaled the regime’s desire to restart its nuclear weapons program, according to experts. In a missive published on Jan. 19, KCNA described the North’s weapon tests as defensive in nature and called for “immediately bolstering more powerful physical means” to combat “hostile moves” by the United States.
North Korea has conducted seven rounds of weapons tests so far this year, including an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. territory of Guam. That missile was the longest-range weapon the regime has tested since 2017, when Washington traded thorny statements with Pyongyang.
The U.S. described the recent tests as violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions and last month responded with sanctions against individuals and businesses affiliated with North Korea. The Security Council resolutions prohibit the North from nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches.
On Monday, another Chinese official came to North Korea’s defense and urged sanctions relief. China’s U.N. representative, Ambassador Zhang Jun, argued in a speech that the resolutions “brought about serious humanitarian consequences,” including “a serious shortage of food” in North Korea.
“Unilateral sanctions are extremely harmful, but it is a matter of concern that a few countries have not only failed to rein in their unilateral sanctions,” Zhang said. “On the contrary, they have been flinging them about left, right and center, in a frenzy so much so that they seem to be addicted to them.”
David Choi
2. North Korean Cyberwarfare Officer Arrested in Vladivostok While Seeking Asylum
The Enemy Collapse Sabotage Bureau. Sometimes the regime gives its organization cool names
Excerpts:
According to Choe’s passport, screenshots of text messages Choe exchanged with several sources and other documents obtained by VOA’s Korean Service, Choe was deeply involved in Pyongyang’s overseas cyberoperations handled by its Enemy Collapse Sabotage Bureau.
Mathew Ha, an analyst at national security research institute Valens Global, said a defection by a North Korean with Choe’s understanding of North Korea’s cyberwarfare landscape would be of “immense” value to countries such as the U.S. and South Korea.
“In terms of being able to attribute attacks back to North Korea,” a high-level defector from its military cyber command provides value “because the North Koreans have consistently denied any sort of claims from the United States or South Korea regarding (its) culpability on any major cyberattacks including (on) Sony” Pictures Entertainment in 2014.
“It (would) be very valuable,” said Ha. A defector like Choe “could potentially provide crucial information that we really want to know” about.
North Korean Cyberwarfare Officer Arrested in Vladivostok While Seeking Asylum
February 10, 2022 11:41 PM
WASHINGTON —
A ranking officer in one of North Korea’s elite military cyberwarfare units is being held in an undisclosed location in far eastern Russia after Moscow’s agents thwarted his attempt to defect, according to sources familiar with the matter and documents obtained by VOA’s Korean Service.
Major Choe Kum Chol, a top information technology (IT) specialist in the North Korean People’s Army (KPA), has been held by North Korea’s consulate general in Vladivostok since September after being arrested by Russian police in Razdolnoe, a city about an hour by car from the Pacific Ocean port city. Choe, 33, had been hiding in Razdolnoe to avoid North Korean authorities who had been hunting for him since July when he left his post in Vladivostok after deciding to seek asylum from the Moscow office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), according to multiple sources in Russia who knew Choe.
VOA’s Korean Service has verified the credibility of sources who provided information on Choe and has been in touch with them for several months. To protect their identities, the service cannot provide further information about them. The sources approached VOA hoping to generate international interest in Choe’s case. They provided a copy of Choe’s passport, screenshots of text messages Choe exchanged with several of them, and other documents.
VOA’s Korean Service contacted the UNHCR’s Moscow and Europe regional bureaus as well as the Russian Foreign Ministry and asked if they were aware of Choe’s attempts to seek asylum. Only the Moscow UNHCR office replied, saying Tuesday, “Please note that UNHCR does not provide comments on individual cases.”
Vladivostok
Elite education and career
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in 2013 that cyberwarfare, along with nuclear weapons and missiles, are an “all-purpose sword” that guarantees the military’s strike capabilities.
According to Choe's credentials obtained by VOA’s Korean Service, he was among those selected for elite training. He received his education in Pyongyang, attending the prestigious Geumseong School for middle and high school and Kim Chaek University of Technology for undergraduate and graduate school. North Korea combines middle and high school education in a six-year program.
Most Kim Chaek graduates are assigned to cyberwarfare units to work as hackers.
But even though Choe was an elite member of an elite force, like any other North Korean working overseas, he was under constant surveillance by Pyongyang, first in China and then in Russia.
The computer encryption specialist was assigned to Vladivostok in May 2019, according to VOA’s Korean Service sources, where he worked in a cyberwarfare unit tasked with undertaking intelligence missions while obtaining much-needed hard currency.
The North Korean won is largely worthless on international markets, and international sanctions have reduced Pyongyang’s access to trade that once provided foreign currency.
North Korean military official Choe Kum Chol's Russian ID. (Courtesy handout/VOA)
According to the report, “DPRK cyberactors stole more than $50 million between 2020 and mid-2021 from at least three cryptocurrency exchanges in North America, Europe and Asia." North Korea, formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), also uses its hackers to steal technical information.
Shattered dream
According to sources and documents obtained by VOA’s Korean Service, Choe made the decision to defect after losing hope for his future.
North Korea is one of the of the most repressive countries in the world, according to a Human Rights Watch report. Under Kim, the third leader of a nearly 75-year dynasty, the totalitarian government maintains “fearful obedience using threats of execution, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, and forced labor.” During the pandemic, the country has become even more isolated, according to the report.
A source told VOA’s Korean Service that Choe “would see [while working overseas] that nothing in North Korea changed.”
The same source said Choe had spoken of why he wanted to defect.
“He was young. He said he didn’t want to sacrifice his life for Kim Jong Un’s regime. It rules with lies and dictatorship. He said his dream was to live happily in a free world,” continued the source.
According to VOA’s Korean Service sources, Choe evaded his minders in Vladivostok in July and hid in Razdolnoe as instructed by a network that helps defectors seek asylum from the Moscow office of the UNHCR.
Plan thwarted
The source who knew of Choe’s decision to defect said he last heard from Choe on Sept. 20, the day he was arrested by Russian police. VOA’s Korean Service could not determine how the police knew where Choe was hiding.
“I received a text message from Choe asking for help. He said five police officers came looking for him,” said the source.
Russian authorities handed him over to the North Korean consulate in Vladivostok.
Russian police have a history of arresting North Korean defectors at the request of Pyongyang. According to the U.S. State Department’s human rights report on Russia released in March 2021, Russian police “committed enforced disappearances and abductions” in 2020.
“The Civic Assistance Committee reported that a North Korean citizen who was seeking asylum in Vladivostok was taken to the Artyom City Police Department by individuals in civilian clothes, where he subsequently disappeared,” the report said.
The Civic Assistance Committee (CAC) is a Moscow-based nonprofit organization comprised of a team of lawyers, doctors, consultants, aid workers and interpreters who help refugees and migrants in Russia.
According to a report by the CAC released in 2020, Russia’s Deputy Head of the Federal Migration Service Nikolay Smorodin signed an agreement with North Korean Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Pak Myung Guk in February 2016 to transfer North Koreans who are trying to defect.
“The Russian government legalized the forcible deportation to the DPRK of those Koreans,” said the report.
Svetlana Gannushkina, who heads CAC, told VOA’s Korean Service on Wednesday she had been unaware of Choe’s situation until contacted by the Korean Service.
“We have a lawyer in that city who knows all about Koreans who reside there,” said Gannushkina, referring to Vladivostok. “I’ll try to get more information about (Choe),” she said through an interpreter.
Dangerous decision
The source who last heard from Choe said they and others decided to disclose Choe’s information to VOA’s Korean Service hoping the international community would step in to help.
Suzanne Scholte, president of the Defense Forum Foundation and a leading North Korean human rights activist, said, “It’s extremely dangerous” for North Koreans who are trying to defect and seek asylum.
“The UNHCR is doing the best (it) can trying to facilitate any refugees that are seeking asylum, but it’s such a difficult environment. And I think North Korea is very aggressive at tracking down and trying to force back anybody who’s trying to escape,” said Scholte.
Several sources said Choe might not have been repatriated to North Korea immediately after his arrest due to Pyongyang’s fear that he might bring COVID-19 into the country. North Korea has virtually sealed itself off from the world since January 2020, although last month it partially reopened the borders it shares with China to allow passage by North Korean freight trains, according to commercial satellite images tracked by The Associated Press.
Value of knowledge
According to Choe’s passport, screenshots of text messages Choe exchanged with several sources and other documents obtained by VOA’s Korean Service, Choe was deeply involved in Pyongyang’s overseas cyberoperations handled by its Enemy Collapse Sabotage Bureau.
Mathew Ha, an analyst at national security research institute Valens Global, said a defection by a North Korean with Choe’s understanding of North Korea’s cyberwarfare landscape would be of “immense” value to countries such as the U.S. and South Korea.
“In terms of being able to attribute attacks back to North Korea,” a high-level defector from its military cyber command provides value “because the North Koreans have consistently denied any sort of claims from the United States or South Korea regarding (its) culpability on any major cyberattacks including (on) Sony” Pictures Entertainment in 2014.
“It (would) be very valuable,” said Ha. A defector like Choe “could potentially provide crucial information that we really want to know” about.
3. End-of-war declaration will lose luster in trilateral FM talks: experts
Focus on "effectives measures against Pyongyang's saber-rattling" is simply trying to treat symptoms and not the disease. We have to focus on the regime's objectives and strategies. saber-rattling is just one line of effort for the regime.
End-of-war declaration will lose luster in trilateral FM talks: experts
Noh Kyu-duk, South Korea's special representative for Korean peninsula peace and security affairs, speaks to reporters after arriving at an airport in Honolulu, Wednesday (local time). Yonhap
Seoul, Washington, Tokyo unlikely to come up with effective measures against Pyongyang's saber-rattling
By Kang Seung-woo
The Moon Jae-in administration's last-ditch effort to revive its push for declaring an end to the Korean War on the occasion of upcoming trilateral foreign ministerial talks with the United States and Japan is not likely to be realized due to bad timing and the nature of the meeting, according to diplomatic observers.
Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong is scheduled to hold a meeting with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts Antony Blinken and Yoshimasa Hayashi in Hawaii, Saturday (local time), during which the top diplomats are anticipated to mainly discuss how to effectively deal with North Korea's increased saber-rattling, as illustrated by its seven rounds of missile tests, in total, in January.
However, Noh Kyu-duk, South Korea's top nuclear envoy, implied before his departure for Hawaii, Wednesday, that South Korea may bring up the end-of-war issue again in the three-way talks, describing it as a "useful tool" to bring North Korea back to the dialogue. He, along with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts Sung Kim and Funakoshi Takehiro, will also hold a trilateral meeting, Thursday, to discuss the agenda for the ministers' talks.
Last September, Moon proposed declaring a formal end to the 1950-53 conflict, which ended in a cease-fire, hoping that the signing would be made before he leaves office in May, but North Korea has yet to respond to the overture.
"I'm not sure if the meeting will be an appropriate occasion for Seoul to raise the end-of-war (EOW) declaration, particularly in light of North Korea's most recent IRBM test," said Soo Kim, a policy analyst at the Rand Corporation.
Among the seven rounds of missile launches was a test-firing of an intermediate-range ballistic missile on Jan. 30, the longest-range missile since 2017.
"Pyongyang hasn't exactly been emitting peace vibes, and with protracted concerns about the DPRK missile threat, a discussion about the EOW declaration would not seem appropriate," she added. The DPRK refers to North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Along with the trilateral meeting, Chung is also scheduled to sit down with Blinken, while South Korea and Japan are in talks over a bilateral meeting, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"The end of war declaration absent a comprehensive peace and denuclearization process is just a piece of paper," said Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.
"It has been a chimera chased by the Moon administration. It may come up in the bilateral U.S.-ROK part of the consultations, but it is not high on the U.S. agenda, and Japan is not in favor of it."
The ROK stands for the Republic of Korea, South Korea's official name.
Despite negative sentiment toward the end-of-war declaration, fueled by recent North Korean provocations, South Korea still has pinned a gleam of hope on it.
In a TV interview with a local cable channel, Jan. 21, Chung said North Korea will positively respond to the South Korean proposal, adding that Seoul and Washington had been in close talks about the issue.
Given that Japan does not support the end-of-war declaration, it is unlikely that the three countries will mention the issue in a joint statement after the meeting.
"I would think that we would require some intermediate steps from North Korea before locking in an EOW declaration in a statement," Soo Kim said.
"To issue a statement including an EOW declaration would mean skipping over some critical steps to secure North Korea's commitment to the agreement. The Kim regime also has not expressed much interest in the declaration."
Amid widespread negative views on the end-of-war issue, President Moon admitted that it would be difficult to adopt the declaration during his term although South Korea and the U.S. have agreed on a draft of the declaration.
"It would be too physically demanding to reach a declaration to end the Korean War before the end of my term," Moon said in a written interview with Yonhap News Agency and seven other global newswires, released, Thursday. "However, I would at least like to make conditions ripe for an end-of-war declaration and pass that on to the next administration."
The ministerial meeting has been hurriedly arranged in the wake of the unprecedented North Korean show of force in January to seek ways to respond to the increasing threats from Pyongyang and strengthen deterrence.
"North Korean's new round of ballistic and cruise missile tests underscore the growing importance of U.S.-ROK-Japan trilateral defense and intelligence cooperation, and I would expect the focus of the discussions to be on how to enhance that cooperation and other measures needed to bolster deterrence," Manning said.
However, Soo Kim was skeptical of the three parties coming up with any effective measures against North Korea's provocations due to wide differences on how to handle North Korea.
"Effective measures require coordination and the parties being on the same page. The past few years have shown rifts among the parties' policy positions. Whereas the U.S. and Japan have prioritized denuclearization, the current South Korean government has emphasized what seems to have been an unconditional emphasis on inter-Korean engagement," she said.
"The countries will also need a clearly articulated policy position on key issues pertaining to North Korea ― the weapons program of course, but also Kim's human rights violations and the regime's illicit activities. Thus far, we may have given the impression to North Korea that its provocations will continue to be tolerated."
4. With His Term Coming to a Close, Moon Reiterates Importance of Peace Process on Korean Peninsula
Unfortunately the administration's strategy has really been based solely on hope and not on the reality of the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime.
Excerpts:
“If North Korea-U.S. talks resume and the leaders of the United States and North Korea hold a historic summit once again, I expect and hope that – unlike in Hanoi – substantive progress toward denuclearization of the Peninsula, the establishment of a peace regime and normalization of North Korea-U.S. relations will be made,” Moon said.
In the wake of the North’s recent series of missile tests, South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong will have a meeting with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Saturday to reaffirm the soundness of the trilateral alliance on North Korea issues. This meeting comes after the meeting of the nuclear envoys of the three countries on Thursday. The three defense chiefs also held a phone call on Thursday and are expected to hold an in-person meeting in Hawaii next month, showing how the tensions on the Korean Peninsula have escalated.
With His Term Coming to a Close, Moon Reiterates Importance of Peace Process on Korean Peninsula
In an interview with news agencies of OANA, South Korean President Moon Jae-in expressed his hope for the U.S. and North Korea to renew talks.
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South Korean President Moon Jae-in reiterated the importance of the peace process for denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula while expressing concerns over North Korea’s recent flurry of missile tests in an interview with news agencies of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) on Thursday.
With three months left before the end of his presidency, Moon seemed resigned that further progress is unlikely under his watch but expressed expectations that the Biden administration’s efforts for restoring stalled nuclear talks with North Korea will eventually bear fruit.
“Since dialogue is the only way to resolve problems, a meeting between [U.S.] President Biden and [North Korean] Chairman Kim is expected to take place eventually,” Moon said. He added that “it is just a matter of time” for the U.S. and North Korea to sit down at the same table.
Since the Hanoi summit between then-U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim collapsed with no deal in 2019, Pyongyang has consistently demanded that Washington make concessions first in order to restore the stalled talks. North Korea’s demands include lifting the heavy load of U.N. sanctions, permanently halting the joint South Korea-U.S. military drills, and withdrawing U.S. troops from the South. Washington has unofficially proposed possible incentives to North Korea in return for renewing dialogue, but Pyongyang has not responded.
Diplomat Brief
In order to make a breakthrough to end the impasse, Moon suggested the countries involved declare a formal end of the 1950-53 Korean War last year at the United Nations General Assembly. Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader and the regime’s main voice on inter-Korean relations, called this initiative an “admirable idea” but questioned the timing and preconditions.
According to North Korean state media reports on the results of the fourth Plenary Meeting of Eighth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) convened in December last year, Pyongyang will put more focus on reviving the country’s crippled economy. The public reports did not unveil any details on Pyongyang’s updated policies on nuclear talks and inter-Korea relations. Instead, North Korea is devoting its efforts to developing its military strength, as proved by the flurry of missile tests in January.
North Korea will likely showcase more of its advanced weapons in the coming months as the country’s biggest events – the birth anniversaries of Kim Jong Un’s father and grandfather – are scheduled in February and April, respectively,
North Korea’s most recent launch was a test of the intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) Hwasong-12, a step up from the short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) it usually launches.The next missiles North Korea will test-fire may be its long-range ballistic missiles.
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The peace process led by Moon has de facto ended with no substantive results in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang is unlikely to accept Washington and Seoul’s proposals for talks this year, much less before Moon leaves office. However, Moon still believes his peace process focused on dialogue is the only way to promote permanent peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula.
“If North Korea-U.S. talks resume and the leaders of the United States and North Korea hold a historic summit once again, I expect and hope that – unlike in Hanoi – substantive progress toward denuclearization of the Peninsula, the establishment of a peace regime and normalization of North Korea-U.S. relations will be made,” Moon said.
In the wake of the North’s recent series of missile tests, South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong will have a meeting with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Saturday to reaffirm the soundness of the trilateral alliance on North Korea issues. This meeting comes after the meeting of the nuclear envoys of the three countries on Thursday. The three defense chiefs also held a phone call on Thursday and are expected to hold an in-person meeting in Hawaii next month, showing how the tensions on the Korean Peninsula have escalated.
5. UNICEF provides nutrition supplies for 160,000 N. Korean pregnant women
UNICEF provides nutrition supplies for 160,000 N. Korean pregnant women | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, Feb. 11 (Yonhap) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has provided North Korea with micronutrient treatments for 160,000 pregnant and lactating women, according to its recent report.
The items are the first supplies from UNICEF delivered to the reclusive North after it reopened western sea routes in October following monthslong border controls against the COVID-19 pandemic.
"After several months in quarantine at Nampo port, the first batch of nutrition supplies was released from disinfection, including micronutrient treatments sufficient to support 160,000 pregnant and lactating women," the U.N. agency's Humanitarian Situation Report on East Asia and Pacific Region said. The report covered UNICEF's activities in the fourth quarter of last year.
North Korea has been gradually opening its sea and land routes to bring in essential materials from abroad.
scaaet@yna.co.kr
(END)
6. Trump says he is still in touch with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un
It would be interesting to know what is in the alleged communications.
Trump says he is still in touch with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un
Author says Trump claims Kim is the only foreign leader he has corresponded with since leaving office.
President Donald Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea, in 2019 [File: Susan Walsh/AP Photo]
Published On 10 Feb 202210 Feb 2022
Former United States President Donald Trump has told associates since leaving the White House he has remained in contact with North Korea’s reclusive leader Kim Jong Un amid raised tensions over recent his country’s missile tests, according to a report on Thursday.
“As we know, he had a fixation on this relationship,” New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman told CNN. The revelation is contained in her upcoming book on Trump, “The Confidence Man”.
Trump famously declared in 2018 that he and Kim “fell in love” after exchanging letters, but three meetings with the North Korean leader failed to persuade him to give up his nuclear bombs and missiles.
Trump’s claims could not be verified and may not be true, Haberman said.
“What he says and what’s actually happening are not always in concert, but he has been telling people that he has maintained some kind of a correspondence or discussion with Kim Jong Un,” she said.
Kim is the only foreign leader Trump has said he remains in contact with, she added.
The US State Department declined to comment on the report when asked if it was aware of such contact, and the White House did not immediately respond. A representative for Trump did not return a request for comment.
People watch a TV screen showing US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, in 2018 [File: Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo]
The US’s 1799 Logan Act bars private US citizens from negotiating with foreign governments without authorisation.
Jenny Town, director of the Washington-based North Korea project 38 North, said Trump had been known to exaggerate and any messages he had sent might only have been greetings and might not have been reciprocated.
“But if it’s true, and there is communication taking place on anything of substance without coordination or consultation with the White House, it could be highly problematic and potentially counterproductive to US interests,” she said.
President Joe Biden’s administration has repeatedly urged a return to dialogue with North Korea but has avoided pushing for summit diplomacy, favouring detailed lower-level engagement first, an approach that has been rebuffed.
Biden called Kim a “thug” during his 2020 presidential campaign but has said he would be willing to meet Kim if he agreed to discuss his nuclear program and their advisers met first to lay the groundwork.
Despite Trump’s direct personal engagement with Kim, US-North Korea relations grew frosty after the breakdown of their 2019 summit in Hanoi, and Pyongyang said it would not engage further unless Washington dropped “hostile policies”.
The Washington Post has reported that correspondence with Kim was among the presidential records in 15 boxes the National Archives retrieved last month from Trump’s Florida residence.
North Korea’s recent missile tests, including its first since 2017 of an intermediate-range ballistic missile, have raised fears it may be preparing for a return to tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs.
North Korea boasted on Tuesday it is one of only a handful of countries to field nuclear weapons and advanced missiles and the only one standing up to the US by “shaking the world” with missile tests.
Source: Reuters
7. N. Korean hackers are allegedly sending out phishing emails impersonating S. Korea’s National Election Commission
Cyber operations are effective and thus very important to the regime with so many "practical" applications.
N. Korean hackers are allegedly sending out phishing emails impersonating S. Korea’s National Election Commission
With 30 days to go before the South Korean presidential election, attacks by North Korean hackers appear to be intensifying
In recent days, a North Korean hacking group has allegedly been sending out phishing emails with a malicious code-laced press release from South Korea’s National Election Commission (NEC).
A former Daily NK employee received an email seven days ago with the subject line “Recruiting Vote Count Observers for the 20th Presidential Election.” The email’s sender was shown as the “National Election Commission Public Information Office.”
Attached to the email was a press release, which announced the recruitment of vote count observers for South Korea’s upcoming presidential election.
The former employee, who requested anonymity, told Daily NK he found it suspicious that the email was sent from a personal account rather than an official NEC account.
Daily NK requested an analysis of the email from a cybersecurity expert, who revealed that the email was sent by a North Korean hacking group.
A screenshot of the email shared with Daily NK by a former employee targeted by the phishing attempt. (Daily NK)
“Based on the results of an analysis of the techniques and style of the attack, we believe that the email was sent by the North Korean hacking group Gumsong 121,” said Mun Chong Hyun, the head of the ESTsecurity Security Response Center. “They launched an advanced persistent threat [APT] attack, which was in the form of a press release sent out by the NEC.”
Gumsong 121 is a prominent hacking group managed by North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau. Moon said that members of the group forged the press release published on the NEC website on Feb. 7 and are using it to mount cyberattacks.
“If you open the attached document, a fake pop-up appears,” he explained. “If you push the OK button, malicious OLE [Object Linking and Embedding] code hidden inside is activated.”
OLE allows users to create and even edit documents with items or objects created by various applications. Rather than exploiting the vulnerabilities of cybersecurity software, North Korean hackers are exploiting normal OLE functions to target users with malicious code. This means that, even if users have up-to-date security patches installed, users may still be vulnerable to malicious code. To stop the hacking attempt, users must press “cancel” and close the program if prompted to “run content” or “run macros.”
A screenshot of the popup shown in the press release. If users click “OK,” they risk executing malicious code on their computers. (Daily NK)
“Once the malicious code is executed, the next command links the user with an attack server [work3.b4a[.]app],” Moon said. “This system issues additional malicious code commands based on the intentions of the attacker.”
On target systems, North Korean hackers install backdoors which allow them to remotely control target systems or gather information. After this, they install additional malicious programs based on information gleaned from the target system or to mount a second cyberattack.
There is about 30 days before the South Korean presidential election and attacks by North Korean hackers appear to be intensifying.
Over the last three days, North Korean hacking groups have sent phishing emails to South Korean reporters working on unification, diplomacy, and political issues.
Given that this recent phishing attack used a press release from a government organization, North Korean hackers appear to be targeting reporters.
Generally speaking, email users should first verify senders before opening any email. Hackers have a very easy time changing the name of senders. One way to prevent yourself from becoming a victim of a phishing attempt is to confirm whether the email was actually sent by someone you know or a public institution.
Translated by Jason Mallet
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
Mun Dong Hui is one of Daily NK’s full-time journalists. Please direct any questions about his articles to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
8. North Korea issues order for the promotions of military officers ahead of Kim Jong Il’s birthday
It is not all "good news" for military leaders.
Control of the population is critical at all levels perhaps even most importantly among senior military officers.
Excerpts:
Meanwhile, North Korean media confirmed on Tuesday that Kwon Yong Jin, the director of the army’s General Political Bureau, was demoted from vice marshal to army general.
Kwon is in charge of the military’s party activities and personnel affairs.
His demotion means the authorities are continuing attempts to “keep cadres in line” even as they hand out promotions.
North Korea issues order for the promotions of military officers ahead of Kim Jong Il’s birthday
Kim has likely moved to hand down the promotions to underscore the strengthening of national defense during his first decade in power
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has issued an order to the entire military calling for sweeping promotions ahead of the 80th birthday of late leader Kim Jong Il.
This suggests Kim wants to bolster army morale and encourage loyalty while remaining true to the celebratory spirit of the period.
A Daily NK source in the North Korean military said Wednesday that an order “in the name of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces” was issued on Saturday morning calling for reorganizations and promotions of the army’s commanders.
According to the source, a similar order was handed down for Kim’s birthday last year, too, followed by the promotions of military officers.
While Kim has pursued “party-first politics,” he has also long emphasized that he inherited the legitimacy of his father, who pursued “military-first politics,” or songun.
However, unlike Kim’s previous orders – which focused on one-star promotions for generals such as corps commanders and political officers – this order calls for promotions of field-grade officers at headquarter units and corps commands.
With Kim handing out “gift” promotions to so many officers, some North Koreans point out the move is quite extraordinary compared to last year, when Kim did not make even a single visit to a military unit.
A North Korean ballistic missile on display during the country’s Victory Day parade in 2013. (Wikimedia Commons)
Some North Koreans also speculate that Kim felt politically pressured to hand out promotions to the military in the first year of the decade according to North Korea’s Juche calendar, which begins with the year of birth of Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s founder.
The year 2022 is Year 110 according to the calendar.
Daily NK has not confirmed specific promotions of military officers so far. However, people speculate that the promotions will focus on personnel involved in the development of the military’s priority weapons, such as hypersonic and ballistic missiles. This means Kim has likely moved to hand down the promotions to underscore the strengthening of national defense during his first decade in power.
Meanwhile, North Korean media confirmed on Tuesday that Kwon Yong Jin, the director of the army’s General Political Bureau, was demoted from vice marshal to army general.
Kwon is in charge of the military’s party activities and personnel affairs.
His demotion means the authorities are continuing attempts to “keep cadres in line” even as they hand out promotions.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
9. Kim Jong Un issues order to repatriate cyberwarfare officer detained at consulate in Russia
Forceful repatriation, dead or alive, regardless of mental state.
Kim Jong Un issues order to repatriate cyberwarfare officer detained at consulate in Russia
The order said Choe must be repatriated to the North regardless of his mental state and even if he is dead
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has issued an order calling for the forceful repatriation of an “Enemy Collapse Sabotage Bureau” officer who has been detained at the North Korean consulate in Vladivostok after he was caught trying to defect.
According to a Daily NK source on Thursday, Kim issued the “No. 1” order demanding the repatriation of the officer — identified as Major Choe Kum Chol — in mid-January.
According to the source, the order said Choe must be repatriated to the North regardless of his mental state and even if he is dead, and demanded tight security to avoid leaking his whereabouts.
While North Korea has been unable to repatriate other would-be defectors since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, confining them overseas, the order for Choe demands his repatriation as soon as possible.
According to Voice of America, Choe — an IT cryptology specialist with Unit 563 of the Enemy Collapse Sabotage Bureau — was preparing an asylum application to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Moscow after attempting to defect in July. However, he disappeared after he was arrested by five Russian police officers in Razdol’noe, a town near Vladivostok, on Sept. 20.
According to Daily NK’s source, although Choe has been in confinement at the North Korean consulate in Vladivostok since September, only in December did Kim Jong Un learn of the matter.
Agents of the Ministry of State Security and Enemy Collapse Sabotage Bureau deployed to Russia apparently tried to deal with the matter quietly, believing it nothing more than a simple defection attempt by a low-level officer.
The Golden Bridge in Vladivostok (Wikimedia Commons)
Choe is reportedly an encryption specialist with a PhD from Kim Chaek University of Technology. Daily NK understands, however, that he was in Russia to manage the expired visas and passports of North Korean workers and residents dispatched to Russia, falsifying documents to extend their stays.
Choe was, in fact, an IT specialist who digitalized secret information during his military service, and he reportedly siphoned off some of this information through a collaborator prior to his defection.
Accordingly, North Korean authorities came to view his defection attempt as a major problem.
The source said Choe has no chance of being released given the North Korean leader’s order for his repatriation. He noted further that the officer is likely in poor physical or mental shape.
There are also rumors that the authorities have already launched measures to deal with Choe after his repatriation, suggesting that Choe’s repatriation is imminent.
According to another high-ranking source in North Korea, the authorities have begun preparations to take possession of Choe, rushing a team from the Ministry of State Security to the vicinity of Tumangang Station.
The source said Choe could face immediate execution given Kim Jong Un’s interest in his case; the schedule for his execution, however, would likely depend on what happened with the information Choe leaked.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
Seulkee Jang is one of Daily NK’s full-time journalists. Please direct any questions about her articles to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
10. China remains Third World in South Korean minds
Excerpts:
Reluctant to admit, South Koreans today, the majority of them, do not like the Chinese in general. In an opinion poll last year by the Kookmin Daily-Global Research, 51.7 percent of South Koreans picked China as the least favored nation in the world, 31.2 percent named Japan, 10.7 percent North Korea and 2.2 percent the USA. The rate was even higher at 60 percent among people 18 to 24 years old. The reason: Sinocentrism, Communist Party dictatorship, controlled press, oppression in occupied territories, public rowdiness, imitation products, etc.
Early scenes of the Winter Olympics include unpleasant episodes such as a row over Korea’s traditional costume, the hanbok, worn by a Chinese girl in the stadium as the attire of a minority race and a barrage of name-calling hurled on social media at the flag bearer of the South Korean delegation who warned of possible partiality in Games proceedings.
Pollsters said that doing the biggest damage to the Korea-China relations was the Beijing authorities’ harsh reaction to South Korea’s introduction of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system six years ago and Chinese civilians’ show of antagonism in that matter. “Korea limitation order,” an unwritten ordinance by the Chinese authorities, has broadly affected the trade, tourism and entertainment business between the two countries.
[Kim Myong-sik] China remains Third World in South Korean minds
The 2022 Winter Olympics are underway in Beijing, among the nation’s closest foreign capitals at just some 950 kilometers from Seoul, four years after South Korea hosted the PyeongChang Games in Gangwon Province. Sixty-four Korean athletes are competing on snow and ice with the modest goal of ranking 15th or 16th in the medal standing.
Famous movie director Zhang Yimou used a lot of his genius and high technology to add a landmark in the ongoing rise of China, but the opening ceremony Friday night at the “Bird’s Nest” stadium surprised spectators around the world not because of great spectacles but because of their absence. Most impressive was the torch on top of a 60-centimeter stick lighting the site in the middle of a giant snowflake, which turned out to be the smallest Olympic cauldron in history.
We don’t know if the tiny flame was part of a scenario to show the world, now wary of China’s hunger for regional and global hegemony, 1.5 billion Chinese in pursuit for peace as a single unit of the global community, or it revealed the artist’s conscience envisioning the future of his country offering light rather than boasting power. Whatever the true intent, South Korean spectators were skeptical of the symbolism and its effect.
Reluctant to admit, South Koreans today, the majority of them, do not like the Chinese in general. In an opinion poll last year by the Kookmin Daily-Global Research, 51.7 percent of South Koreans picked China as the least favored nation in the world, 31.2 percent named Japan, 10.7 percent North Korea and 2.2 percent the USA. The rate was even higher at 60 percent among people 18 to 24 years old. The reason: Sinocentrism, Communist Party dictatorship, controlled press, oppression in occupied territories, public rowdiness, imitation products, etc.
Early scenes of the Winter Olympics include unpleasant episodes such as a row over Korea’s traditional costume, the hanbok, worn by a Chinese girl in the stadium as the attire of a minority race and a barrage of name-calling hurled on social media at the flag bearer of the South Korean delegation who warned of possible partiality in Games proceedings.
Pollsters said that doing the biggest damage to the Korea-China relations was the Beijing authorities’ harsh reaction to South Korea’s introduction of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system six years ago and Chinese civilians’ show of antagonism in that matter. “Korea limitation order,” an unwritten ordinance by the Chinese authorities, has broadly affected the trade, tourism and entertainment business between the two countries.
The Chinese insisted that the THAAD deployment was aimed at containing China despite Seoul’s explanation that its detection capability was so adjusted as to scan no significant part of China. What happened immediately afterward was a drastic fall in orders of South Korean automobiles and other imports, the disappearance of South Korean products from supermarket shelves and massive cancellation of tours to this country.
South Korean consumer outlets and factories were suddenly subjected to harsh hygienic and fire prevention checkups which forced them into temporary and permanent closures. The Lotte Supermarket chain closed 75 out of its total 99 locations across China within a couple of years. The Chinese-style “limitations” began to be eased little by little when South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa stated “three No’s” in regards to the THAAD system in the country.
In the self-restraint measure taken late in 2017, Seoul assured China there would be no additional introduction of THAAD batteries into South Korea, no participation in the US’ regional missile defense system and no affiliation in any form of trilateral military alliance with the US and Japan. It was the Moon administration’s virtual capitulation to Beijing’s well-coordinated economic sanction. The government even gave up filing a suit with the World Trade Organization.
South Koreans cannot approve of their government’s low posture before Beijing with official excuses that the guardian of Pyongyang can play a role in the ongoing denuclearization process with North Korea. On his state visit to Beijing in December 2017, Moon said in his address at Beijing University that South Korea “is a small country that is willing to join in the dream of the big China,” a remark that seriously hurt the average Korean’s pride.
Occasional incidents such as Chinese security guards’ assault on members of the press corps accompanying President Moon and the reported neglect by the hosts in serving the Korean delegation who accompanied the Beijing visit the president’s first foreign trip. Still, the government went ahead with the “three No’s.”
Since diplomatic normalization in 1992, ties between the two Korean War adversaries have been “upgraded” from a plain “friendly cooperative relationship” to “collaborative partnership for the 21st century” (1998) to “comprehensive cooperative partnership” (2003), to “strategic cooperative partnership” (2008) and to “enriched strategic partnership” (2014). But psychological distance between the two peoples has widened as China’s audacity grew with its economic advancement.
It is rather natural that opposition presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl is proclaiming additional THAAD deployment if he becomes president along with open renouncement of the three No’s policy, which he termed humiliating and as causing a risk to our defense readiness. He knows this helps him collect more votes.
To mark the 30th anniversary of diplomatic normalization with China, the two countries had designated 2022 as the Year of Cultural Exchanges. Perhaps in belated recognition of the long-term negative impact of their excessive response in the THAAD affair, the Chinese authorities recently allowed the showing of a Korean movie in cinemas, nearly seven years after the last one.
China has been in transition in all aspects of society as rapidly as South Korea over the past century, but democratic development over there remained tardy and the human rights situation has drawn international concerns to Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Hong Kong. The Chinese reality of social control was vividly exposed in the civil response involving the THAAD deployment in South Korea. As a whole, we are seeing in China the trace of Third World absurdities of the past era.
In spite of its remarkable growth in gross domestic product and seeming political stability, respect for individual rights remains shallow, as does state-level conscience in China. Unless these invisible things have visibly improved, China cannot assert global leadership, and its neighbors will continue to fight its bullying.
Kim Myong-sik
Kim Myong-sik, former editorial writer for The Korea Herald and managing editor of The Korea Times, can be reached at kmyongsik@hanmail.net. -- Ed.
11. Clickbait on Kim Jong Un’s Health
Keep this article in mind in the future when we see reports on Kim's health and other outrageous actions and activities.
Good advice here:
Parsing is an important component of propaganda analysis, and identifying the right element to parse, and parsing it in the right context, is crucial to sound analysis. Taking a single North Korean behavior and parsing it in isolation without considering the broader trend or historical patterns or parsing it in the wrong context could easily lead the analyst astray. This is complicated by the fact that each North Korean media vehicle that is relaying the message is unique. For example, as noted earlier, dramatic, exhortative language in a television leadership documentary is not intended to carry the same weight as a news report on Kim Jong Un’s activity. Hopefully, we can take this into account the next time we read or see what appears to be unusual or interesting in North Korean media.
Clickbait on Kim Jong Un’s Health
Kim Jong Un’s health is one of the most coveted topics for all North Korea watchers, and for good reason. Stating the obvious, a health crisis for the North Korean leader raises a number of uncertainties, especially if there is no contingency plan in place. Any resulting power vacuum could seriously destabilize the country, which would have severe repercussions for the Korean Peninsula, the region and possibly even the world. Growing public interest in Kim’s health has translated into increased media speculation in recent years—triggered by his unexpected or longer-than-usual public absences, visible weight loss and even a patch on the back of his neck—reaching a point where South Korea’s National Intelligence Service felt it necessary to deny the rumors repeatedly.
This theme may be in high demand for outside observers, but for rare exceptions, any North Korean media discussion of the top leader’s health remains taboo due to its extremely sensitive nature. And while it may be tempting to delve into this highly popular and important theme, analysis of Kim’s health conditions by nonmedical experts using limited open-source information is a risky business that can easily mislead rather than inform readers. Limited access to North Korean media, particularly for the general public in South Korea, and the intricacies of propaganda analysis make this already elusive topic even more challenging to tackle.
This article offers a few thoughts on the latest wave of media speculation surrounding Kim’s health from the vantage point of one North Korean media analyst. The goal here is not to change the prevailing media narrative, but rather to take this opportunity to review two important components of propaganda analysis: avoid over-parsing single data points and contextualize.
Not Everything Is About Kim’s Health
Last week, countless media outlets reported that a North Korean television documentary indirectly acknowledged Kim’s health issues. In one scene of the said documentary, Kim was shown carefully making his way down a set of stairs at a housing construction site. Multiple media reports characterized this as a “limp” or “struggle.” Whether Kim’s gait in that scene is a limp or caution—I leave to medical professionals to decide.
However, what reinforced the interpretation that this film was alluding to Kim’s health was the dramatic narration of that particular footage. Translated, it states:
Our Marshal’s [Kim Jong Un’s] image, which was more warmly engraved in our people’s hearts in the past year, was one of a strong and tenacious father who blocked all the snow and rainstorms of trial to defend the fate and future of millions of children, and one of a mother who suffers and worries a lot, who wears her whole self out [자신의 한몸 깡그리 녹이시며] and makes all of the people’s dreams come true. (Emphasis added by author.)
One definition of the verb 녹다 (녹이시며) in a North Korean-to-English dictionary is: “be tired (worn) out; be dead (=dog) tired; be done up.”
Some media reports singled out the expression “wears her whole self out” as an oblique reference to Kim’s health issues resulting from hard work for the people (overlooking the fact that Kim was also described as “strong and tenacious” in that same sentence). Their translation of that particular expression was “completely withered away.” The reader shall judge whether “withered away” is a good rendering of the dictionary-provided definition of “tired (worn) out.”
Linking the expression “wears her whole self out” (or “completely withered away”) to Kim’s health begs two questions. First, have North Korean media in the past used this expression or its variations, and if so, in what context? Second, should this type of expression in a television documentary be interpreted literally?
North Korean print media from time to time have used similar formulations—most commonly “his whole self burning [한몸 깡그리 불태우시는]” or “devoting his whole self [한몸 깡그리 바쳐가시는]”—meant to be metaphors to emphasize a Kim leader’s dedication to the people.[1] For example, the party daily published a poem in the summer of 2009—well after Kim Jong Il had recovered from the previous year’s stroke—mentioning “his whole self burning” with determination to shoulder the fate of the country. More recently, the party daily carried a political essay lauding Kim Jong Un for “devoting his whole self” to the people.[2] Furthermore, North Korean media have long employed an array of expressions to refer to the Kim leaders’ fatigue. For example, “short and uncomfortable sleep and rice balls [쪽잠과 줴기밥]” is a classic formulation state media have used to describe Kim Jong Il sacrificing good sleep and food in his hard work for the people.
The second question relates to understanding North Korean leadership documentaries. These programs use a combination of music, footage and hyperbole narrated by well-trained announcers to maximize the dramatic effect and bring out the viewer’s utmost sense of loyalty to the leader. Given this context, the language used in these documentaries—particularly if it is a vague figure of speech—should not be given the same weight as that in North Korean media reports on Kim’s activities, where language is scrubbed more carefully.
2014 Deja-Vu? Not Exactly
Many media reports that keyed in on Kim’s health in the documentary also likened the scene and the narration to a program from September 2014, carried in the midst of Kim’s protracted absence from the public view. While showing Kim visibly limping during his guidance visits, the 2014 leadership documentary acknowledged the leader’s health issue by saying he carried on his field inspections “despite not feeling well [불편하신 몸이시건만].” Kim had been shown limping on state television from July of that year, and South Korean intelligence confirmed Kim had ankle surgery during his long absence.
The situation leading up to the documentary in 2014—Kim Jong Un’s indisputable limp—and a clear reference to his health in the program both make the 2014 program different from the recent television documentary. Kim has had no apparent health problems in recent years: the South Korean intelligence denied rumors of supposed health problems triggered by his 20-day absence in 2020 and his visible weight loss in 2021. The “wear out” formulation in the documentary by itself (or with claims of a limp) is too weak to be taken as an allusion to Kim having health issues. More importantly, this metaphor certainly is not in the same category as the straightforward “not feeling well” formulation used in the 2014 documentary. North Korean television’s indirect acknowledgment in June 2021 of Kim’s weight loss would have been a better point of comparison for the 2014 documentary, as both referred to Kim’s health or physical conditions.
Parsing is an important component of propaganda analysis, and identifying the right element to parse, and parsing it in the right context, is crucial to sound analysis. Taking a single North Korean behavior and parsing it in isolation without considering the broader trend or historical patterns or parsing it in the wrong context could easily lead the analyst astray. This is complicated by the fact that each North Korean media vehicle that is relaying the message is unique. For example, as noted earlier, dramatic, exhortative language in a television leadership documentary is not intended to carry the same weight as a news report on Kim Jong Un’s activity. Hopefully, we can take this into account the next time we read or see what appears to be unusual or interesting in North Korean media.
- [1]
조선작가동맹 시문학분과위원회, “<서사시> 이 세상 끝까지, 세월 끝까지,” Rodong Sinmun, July 8, 2009, 4.
- [2]
김철, 리룡민, “[정론] 위민헌신의 숭고한 세계,” Rodong Sinmun, April 26, 2021, 1.
12. North Koreans in China prohibited from traveling to Beijing during Winter Games
Another reason, excuse, justification for continued draconian population and resources control measures.
North Koreans in China prohibited from traveling to Beijing during Winter Games
Pyongyang fears that their loyalty could be shaken by the Olympic spectacle, ‘hostile forces.’
By Hyemin Son
2022.02.10
North Korean workers in China are forbidden to travel to Beijing during the Winter Olympics, as Pyongyang is afraid they could get swept up in Olympic fever and “betray their homeland” by contacting South Koreans, sources in China told RFA.
In the Chinese city of Dandong, which lies across the Yalu River border from the North Korean city of Sinuiju, a consulate oversees thousands of workers dispatched by the government of Kim Jong Un to China to earn desperately needed foreign currency.
North Korean trade workers make deals with Chinese businesses to procure goods to ship into North Korea, or to provide laborers for factory work.
Business during the coronavirus pandemic has been rough. With factories shut down and trade with North Korea suspended from January 2020 to last month, many of the workers can’t even cover their own living expenses in China. The Olympics could reveal to them how much better off the rest of the world is.
This is why the consulate last week told everyone not to travel long-distance until the Feb. 4-20 Olympics are over, a North Korean trade worker in Dandong told RFA’s Korean Service.
“If they have to travel outside of Dandong, even if they need emergency supplies to send back to the homeland, they need to report their intention to travel to the consulate in advance, show their train ticket reservation, and inform the consulate who they will meet and the time and place of the meeting,” said the source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.
“They underscored that travel to Beijing and the surrounding areas, where the Winter Olympics are happening right now, is strictly prohibited. If there’s an urgent need to meet with a Chinese counterpart in or around Beijing, they must travel under the supervision of a companion designated by a state security agent,” he said.
The consulate in Shenyang, which is within the same province as Dandong, requires trade workers there to report on their activities daily, a source familiar with the consulate told RFA.
“They have to report the details of who they met and what they did each day through the end of the Winter Olympics,” the second source, who also requested anonymity for security reasons, said.
“Family members of North Korean trade officials stationed in China are also being closely monitored to make sure their movements and ideological conditioning are not heading towards Beijing,” the second source said.
Pyongyang is afraid that the spectacle of the Olympic Games could be alluring to the North Koreans in China, the second source said.
“The consulate warned that if a family member of a trade official is caught travelling to Beijing to watch the Winter Olympics, the trade official and their whole family will be punished as anti-party counter-revolutionaries,” he said.
“They fear that the trade officials and their families might come in contact with hostile forces, including people from South Korea, and this could cause them to betray their motherland during the Winter Olympics,” the second source said.
With the trade officials themselves having trouble making ends meet right now, “their ideology could easily be shaken,” the source said. “Their motivations could easily be bought by hostile forces such as South Korea, so the North Korean authorities continue to closely monitor their movements”
There are an estimated 20,000 to 80,000 North Koreans working in China, according to the U.S. State Department's 2021 Trafficking in Person's Report.
North Korean labor exports were supposed to have stopped when United Nations nuclear sanctions froze the issuance of work visas and mandated the repatriation of North Korean nationals working abroad by the end of 2019.
But Pyongyang sometimes dispatches workers to China and Russia on short-term student or visitor visas to get around sanctions.
North Korea announced in January that it would not send athletes to the Beijing Olympics due to the coronavirus and what it called “hostile forces.”
Translated by Claire Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
13. North Korea comes to Russia’s defense over Ukraine conflict
Will north Korea be a spoiler in strategic competition? If Russia invades Ukraine can we expect Kim to act out as a distraction to try to create a dilemma for US>
North Korea comes to Russia’s defense over Ukraine conflict
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets with Russian President Vladamir Putin in Vladivostok, Russia, April 26, 2019, in this image from the Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA)
North Korea, weighing in on the ongoing conflict over Ukraine, has demanded the United States cease its “hostile policy for isolating and weakening” Russia.
The communist regime’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday published an unsigned online column criticizing the U.S. role in heightened tensions in Ukraine. NATO allies, including the U.S., have sent military aid and supplies in recent weeks to support Kyiv as Moscow masses troops on the two countries’ shared border.
“The U.S. is flatly rejecting Russia’s legitimate demand while stubbornly insisting that it can never abandon NATO’s ‘open-door policy’ … and that Ukraine’s membership in NATO is an issue that belongs to the sovereignty of the country,” the Foreign Ministry’s column said.
Russian President Vladimir has responded to U.S. and NATO calls to deescalate the situation by demanding guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO.
Russia has built up a force of more than 112,000 troops at the border, Ukraine's envoy to the U.N., Sergiy Kyslytsya, said on Feb. 1. Other news reports indicated that up to 130,000 troops may have been amassed at Ukraine’s eastern border and on the Black Sea.
President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has ordered 3,000 U.S. troops to Germany, Poland and Romania. The U.S. had “made it very clear we’re ready to continue talks in good faith” but noted NATO would respond accordingly if Moscow “violates Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Biden said in a speech Tuesday.
“But if Russia makes a choice to further invade Ukraine, we are jointly ready and all of NATO is ready,” he said.
Russia in 2014 invaded Ukraine to seize and annex Crimea, a region it still holds. Russian-backed separatists have also waged war since then in Donbass, an eastern province bordering Russia.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said it empathized with Russia and called the U.S. troop deployments “a serious security concern.”
“The above facts clearly indicate that the United States, though advocating a solution through dialogue and diplomacy, is taking a growing Russia as a thorn in its flesh,” the column said.
North Korean diplomats met with their Russian counterparts on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss “strategic cooperation” and “issues of mutual concern regarding the regional and international situation,” according to two North Korean press releases.
Russia, one of the North’s few international friends, has previously come to the regime’s aid. Russia and China have lobbied the U.N. Security Council to lift sanctions against Pyongyang and blocked a U.S.-led effort to sanction North Korean affiliates, according to multiple news reports.
The U.S. Treasury Department announced on Jan. 12 that it imposed sanctions against six North Koreans, a Russian and a Russian company for procuring material goods for Pyongyang.
U.S. sanctions against North Korea create “a toxic atmosphere around Pyongyang” and fuel its “widespread unwillingness to cooperate,” Russian Ambassador to the U.N. Dmitry Polyanskiy said during a Security Council meeting on Wednesday.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield in a rebuttal argued that member nations were “too often” undermining legitimate sanctions.
“When member states willfully ignore sanctions, ignore sanctions evasion activity or fail themselves to live up to the commitments we have all made to enforce those measures, they undermine the utility of those tools and the work of the council itself,” she said at the meeting.
David Choi
14. ‘I can see into the lives of North Koreans’ – the professor who reads washed-up rubbish
One man's trash is another man's treasure.
On a serious note it is interesting the analysis that can be conducted on the trash. Some information may be useful indicators of conditions inside north Korea.
‘I can see into the lives of North Koreans’ – the professor who reads washed-up rubbish
From sweet wrappers to noodle packets, Prof Kang Dong-wan collects litter that floats to South Korea from the repressive North. Can military secrets really be uncovered in their surprisingly sophisticated designs?
Matthew Wilcox
Fri 11 Feb 2022 04.48 EST
On a clear day from the beaches of Yeonpyeong, a tiny South Korean island, you can see the coast of North Korea some 12 km (seven miles) distant. Glance down, however, and you might see something else. Amid the tangle of seaweed and greying driftwood, the chunks of bleached polystyrene and shreds of fishing net, there may lurk bits of brightly coloured plastic.
To the untrained observer, these scraps – sweet wrappers, cigarette cartons, instant noodle packets, all covered in oversized script, vivid colours and garish cartoon characters – might only confirm the Yellow Sea as one of Earth’s most polluted marine environments. To the sharp-eyed, however, encoded in the design of these snippets is valuable information about the society from which they originate: North Korea, virtually a closed shop to the rest of the world.
The first person to appreciate this was Kang Dong-wan, a professor of politics at Dong-A University in Busan, South Korea. Kang has spent the past year collecting 1,414 wrappers from the beaches of some of South Korea’s most far-flung outcrops. Until Covid, he had studied the North from across the demilitarised zone, catching its changing slogans with powerful lenses. When access to his vantage point was closed off, Kang relocated.
‘The most surprising thing was how much garbage made it here’ … Kang Dong-wan at work on Yeonpyeong. Photograph: Kang Dong-wan
The Five West Sea Islands were occupied by the South at the end of the war and now form the de facto maritime border between the two countries. Yeonpyeong, the closest island to the North, was the subject of a tit-for-tat artillery barrage in 2010 that left four dead and led to the evacuation of about 80% of the island’s 2,000 residents.
“The most surprising thing,” says Kang, speaking from the island where he continues to scour the beaches, “was just how much garbage made it here.” The professor has turned the fruits of his foraging into a book, Picking Up North Korean Garbage in the Five West Sea Islands, which divides the litter into categories: sweets, baked goods, drinks, dairy products, foodstuffs, seasonings, liquor, cigarettes, medical supplies and sundries. “With this rubbish,” he says, “I can see into the lives of North Koreans.”
Foremost among the preconceptions shredded by Kang’s scraps is the idea that the country is unsophisticated, that what goods there are are basic. “The packaging is surprising in its refinement,” he says. Perhaps most surprising, he adds, is the way products from the North mirror those of the South. “In a capitalist economy,” he says, “packaging and design are tailored to appeal to consumers.” You might expect things to be different in a repressive communist regime, but Kang believes otherwise: “Not even North Korea can completely ignore the desires of its people.”
Take the wrapper for Galaxy Candy with Strawberry Cream Inside, made in the Pyongyang Wheat Flour Factory in North Korea. It is covered in bright drawings and colours, with a cat suspiciously reminiscent of Sanrio’s Hello Kitty. This more elaborate packaging reflects recent changes, says Kang, as North Korean producers have developed sleeker branding.
Soldier’s diet? … Some of the washed-up trash. Photograph: Kang Dong-wan
This is partially a consequence of reforms that followed Kim Jong-un’s accession in 2011, heralding a liberalisation of the economy. Simultaneously, an increase in smuggling has made North Koreans familiar with products from abroad. This more refined packaging is an attempt to compete.
The trash also offers a glimpse into factory conditions, says Kang. Ingredient lists and production dates reveal what North Korea has been able to make itself during the pandemic, and what it is forced to import with its dwindling cash reserves. Packaging, too, will often specify what factory a product was made in. If it’s known to be operated by the military, this can indicate what the North’s soldiers are eating – as many such snacks are, says Kang, “supplied to the military. In general, the public don’t consume them. There is no money.”
Even the material itself can hold clues. Newer trash, Kang explains, is often composed of recycled or locally sourced materials, a further indication of the North’s economic state. Perhaps their reasons are green, but it’s far more likely that recycling is being forced on them by scarce resources.
Nick Bonner, who has written about North Korean product design, also sees the wrappers as a gauge of the North’s economic plight. “I would imagine over the next few months, as the sanctions bite harder and Covid keeps the border to China closed, there will be less and less garbage for Kang to pick up,” he says. “Sad for him but, more worryingly, a reflection of how tough its food and economic situation is.”
In the meantime, however, Kang continues his shoreline vigil, adding to his haul with every new tide.
15. Population Decline Means Looming Shortage of Conscripts
A major strategic problem for South Korea That cannot be offset by technology.
Population Decline Means Looming Shortage of Conscripts
February 11, 2022 09:24
The number of young men being conscripted into military service is expected to decline by almost 100,000 by 2025 as Korea's population declines, and potential university students will dwindle by 570,000.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance, which made the projection, on Thursday said it will come up with a response later this month.
"The military needs to overhaul its organizational structure, because the declining number of conscripts and shorter service period make it difficult to maintain troop levels."
/Yonhap
The school-age population is also expected to drop from 7.89 million two years ago to 6.94 million in 2025 and the working age population from 37.4 million to 35.6 million.
The government said it will look into hiring elderly workers to make up for the shortfall. Instead of extending the retirement age, it proposes rehiring retired workers or scrapping the retirement age altogether.
The government announced similar plans in 2019 but was met by stiff opposition from businesses.
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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.
