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Quotes of the Day:
“No power and no treasure can outweigh the extension of our knowledge."
- Democritus
“As a young Black man in rural Mississippi in the 1920s and ’30s, Amzie Moore had assumed that God somehow loved white people more. “We had a terrible idea that it was sinful to be black, that God only loved white people,” he recalled. “I had assumed, reluctantly so, that it had to be something wrong with me.” His travels during World War II, and in particular his service in the Burma theater, opened his eyes. “I lost my fear of whites when I was in the armed forces,” he said. “I found out I was wrong. People are just people, some good, some bad, some rich, some poor.””
— Waging a Good War: A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968 by Thomas E. Ricks
"An infected mind is a far more dangerous pestilence than any plague – one only threatens your life, the other destroys your character."
- Marcus Aurelius
1. U.S. will continue holding joint exercises against N. Korean provocations: Kirby
2. Russia continues to look to N. Korea for weapons for use in Ukraine: State Dept.
3. N. Korea revises laws on agriculture, grain distribution amid food shortages
4. S. Korea issues advisory against hiring N.K. IT workers with disguised nationalities
5. North Korea's Olympic suspension to end on Dec. 31
6. North Korea looks for attention with missile diplomacy
7. South Korea to amend laws to prevent forced repatriation of North Koreans
8. U.S. Greenlights Sale of Chinook Helicopters to Korea
9. UN Security Council plans ‘closed-door’ discussion on NK human rights despite calls
10. Increasing number of N. Korean students cut class as winter begins
11. December is bribery season in North Korea as public enterprises seek 2023 funding
1. U.S. will continue holding joint exercises against N. Korean provocations: Kirby
Excellent. We must never give into north Korea's blackmail diplomacy and political warfare.
U.S. will continue holding joint exercises against N. Korean provocations: Kirby | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · December 8, 2022
By Byun Duk-kun
WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (Yonhap) -- The United States will continue to hold joint military exercises bilaterally and trilaterally with South Korea and Japan to enhance the countries' defense capabilities against North Korean provocations, a White House official said Wednesday.
John Kirby, National Security Council (NSC) coordinator for strategic communications, also urged North Korea to engage in dialogue.
"We are working with all of our allies and partners to continue to put pressure on Pyongyang," Kirby said in a virtual press briefing.
"I would say, obviously, we remain willing to sit down without preconditions with Kim Jong-un to try to find the diplomatic path forward here for the denuclearization of the peninsula. That offer still stands," he added, referring to the North Korean leader by his name.
U.S. officials have said the North remains unresponsive to U.S. overtures.
Kirby stressed the need to be ready militarily to counter potential North Korean aggression.
"We are going to continue to make sure we have all the defensive capabilities that we need available to us in the region to defend our interests, as well as those of our treaty allies, Japan and South Korea," he said.
"That's why we have continued to try to improve our intelligence collection capabilities there in that part of the world, as well as making sure, in a readiness perspective, militarily we're ready to defend ourselves and our allies. You've seen more bilateral exercises between us and our allies," added Kirby.
Since late September, North Korea fired nearly 40 ballistic missiles, along with hundreds of artillery shells, while accusing the U.S.' joint military exercises with its allies of provoking its behavior.
The U.S. has dismissed the North Korean claim, insisting the joint exercises had been prompted by North Korean missile launches instead, and that they are purely defensive in nature.
Kirby said the U.S. will continue to hold joint military drills with its allies.
"You have seen more bilateral exercises between us and our allies. You have seen trilateral exercises, trilateral coordination. All that's going to continue," he said.
The NSC coordinator also called on Beijing to help reduce tension, saying, "China has influence in Pyongyang. We would like them to use that influence to the betterment of regional security."
"Thus far, they've shown no desire to really put the kind of pressure on Pyongyang that we know they could put. So we are going to keep working outside of that avenue to make sure we are ready," he added.
#shorts
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · December 8, 2022
2. Russia continues to look to N. Korea for weapons for use in Ukraine: State Dept.
Win-win for Russia and north Korea? Russia is desperate for milia=tray equipment and north Korea is desperate for hard currency?
Russia continues to look to N. Korea for weapons for use in Ukraine: State Dept. | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · December 8, 2022
By Byun Duk-kun
WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (Yonhap) -- Russia continues to look to North Korea and Iran for weapons to be used in its illegal war against Ukraine, a state department spokesperson said Wednesday.
Ned Price also called North Korea the most serious threat in the Indo-Pacific, partly citing its recent series of ballistic missile launches.
"We know that Russia's brutal assault against Ukraine has forced Russia to extend its relatively scarce quantities of weaponry, including ballistic missiles," the department spokesperson told a daily press briefing.
"So the concern remains that Russia may look to other countries, including Iran, to help replenish its stocks of ballistic missiles, just as we continue to be concerned that Russia continues to look to the DPRK when it comes to other forms of assistance for its illegal war against Ukraine," Price added.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.
The U.S. earlier said the North was in the process of secretly shipping "millions" of artillery shells to Russia by obfuscating the true destination of its shipments.
John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, said it was still not clear whether the North Korean shipments have been delivered.
"We know that the Russians have continued to express interest in obtaining North Korean artillery," Kirby said in a virtual press briefing held earlier in the day when asked if Russia was currently using North Korean ammunition in Ukraine.
"I don't believe we can say today that we have seen definite indications that that transaction has been consummated," he added.
Price said the U.S. will continue to work with its allies in the region to counter any security challenges posed by North Korea.
"So there is no question that Northeast Asia has become a more dangerous neighborhood and there are a number of threats that could lead to that, but none more so than what we have seen from the DPRK," the state department spokesperson said.
North Korea fired 63 ballistic missiles this year, a new record that far outnumbers its previous annual record of 25.
Price has also said Pyongyang may conduct a nuclear test at any time, noting the country appears to have completed all preparations for what will be its seventh nuclear test.
"We know that in the absence of the DPRK's willingness to take us up on the offer of dialogue and diplomacy, that what is most important is coordination and defensive and deterrent steps with our allies in the region, and there are no more important allies in the Indo-Pacific than our allies in Japan and the Republic of Korea," he said, referring to South Korea by its official name.
#shorts
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · December 8, 2022
3. N. Korea revises laws on agriculture, grain distribution amid food shortages
No details but this is likely an indicator of the severe food shortages the regime is facing.
N. Korea revises laws on agriculture, grain distribution amid food shortages | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · December 8, 2022
SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has revised laws on grain production and distribution at its parliamentary meeting, according to its state media Thursday, a move seen aimed at tightening state control on crop supply amid food shortages.
The standing committee of the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) convened a meeting to review revised acts on farming, grain distribution and others, and adopted them, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
"In regard to the law on grain, important problems were reviewed to establish strict order and systems on purchasing, processing and selling grain and advance the scheme of food supply," the KCNA said.
The latest move appears intended to tighten state control on food supply in a bid to root out corrupt practices detected in the process of grain purchases and distribution.
During an SPA meeting in September, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un highlighted the importance of changing the structure of the country's grain production and improving the system of grain procurement and food supply.
North Korea is known for chronic food shortages that have been apparently aggravated in recent years due to typhoons, flooding and the COVID-19 pandemic.
julesyi@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · December 8, 2022
4. S. Korea issues advisory against hiring N.K. IT workers with disguised nationalities
An important caution. I think we would be surprised to learn how many Koreans from the north are able to pass themselves off as someone from another Asian country.
(LEAD) S. Korea issues advisory against hiring N.K. IT workers with disguised nationalities | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 장동우 · December 8, 2022
(ATTN: UPDATES with details in last paras; ADDS photo, byline)
By Chang Dong-woo
SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Thursday issued an interagency advisory against the hiring of North Korean information technology (IT) workers with disguised nationalities amid reports that the country is using them as a source of foreign currency earnings.
In the advisory, the foreign, unification and ICT ministries called on local companies to strengthen background checks in recruiting IT workers at home and abroad, adding that a significant portion of earnings by those workers is channeled into the North's nuclear and missile development.
The advisory details identity theft methods by North Korean IT workers, such as photoshopping images of South Korean driver's licenses to create accounts for job searching websites in the South or paying foreigners to borrow their accounts on such online platforms.
Some cases involved North Korean workers approaching foreign freelance workers to work together and share the earnings on projects commissioned by South Korean companies.
Many of such workers are believed to belong to North Korean organizations subject to United Nations Security Council sanctions, including the Machine-Building Industry Department of the Workers' Party and the Ministry of National Defence, it added.
The government called for caution, as recruiting and paying disguised North Korean workers could be in violation of related domestic legislation as well as the U.N.-led sanctions against the North.
odissy@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 장동우 · December 8, 2022
5. North Korea's Olympic suspension to end on Dec. 31
Will Kim interpret this as a concession? Will appeasement proponents use this to justify relief from another sanctions?
Wednesday
December 7, 2022
dictionary + A - A
North Korea's Olympic suspension to end on Dec. 31
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/12/07/national/northKorea/Korea-International-Olympic-Committee-IOC/20221207154431187.html
Athletes from North and South Korea enter together under the Korean Unification Flag at the opening ceremony of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics — the last Olympic games in which the North participated. [YONHAP]
North Korea's suspension from the Olympic Games, which was imposed after the country refused to participate in the Tokyo Summer Games in 2021, will be lifted at the end of the year.
The suspension "will end automatically on December 31, 2022,” James Macleod, the director of Olympic Solidarity, said Tuesday in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Olympic Solidarity is an International Olympic Committee (IOC) initiative that arranges support for National Olympic Committees (NOC).
The decision to not extend the North’s suspension means that country could make an appearance at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
The IOC suspended the North’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) in September last year after it was the only country to not show up to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which were delayed to July 2021 as a result of the global Covid-19 pandemic that began in early 2020.
The North informed the IOC in April last year that it would not participate in the Tokyo Summer Games due to Covid-19 concerns and refused to attend despite being “provided reassurances for the holding of safe Games and offered constructive proposals to find an appropriate and tailor-made solution,” the IOC said in explaining its decision to prohibit the North's participation.
Rule 27.3 of the Olympic Charter states that “each NOC is obliged to participate in the Games of the Olympiad by sending athletes.”
As a result of the IOC suspension, the North was forced to sit out the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing — a consequence that the regime’s Olympic committee and sports ministry blamed on “hostile forces” and the global pandemic.
The last time the North refused to participate in the Olympics was the 1988 Summer Olympics, held in Seoul.
North Korea boycotted those games after its demands for special opening and closing ceremonies and that 11 of the 23 Olympic sports events be hosted on its territory were not accepted.
The North hosted the World Festival of Youth and Students the following year. It spent a quarter of its yearly budget on hosting the 1989 festival, and the country’s economy collapsed a few years later.
As a result of the lifting of the suspension, financial support from the IOC’s Olympic Solidarity fund to the North Korean Olympic committee is expected to resume.
Olympic Solidarity assistance goes to athlete development programs that promote the training of not only athletes, and also coaches and sports administrators, particularly in countries that lack resources.
The executive board of the IOC is meeting in Lausanne from Monday to Wednesday.
6. North Korea looks for attention with missile diplomacy
Sure, wanting attention is the conventional wisdom (if we have any wisdom about north Korea).
But if he wants attention, to what end? It is certainly not attention for attention's sake some some petulant child (although that is part of ur problem - we look at Kim as a petulant child acting out). But we must examine and understand the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime as well as its seven decades of history to try to discern why he is "looking for attention." I do not think it is just attention for attention's sake. It is part of his deliberate political warfare and blackmail diplomacy strategies. It is our job to make sure those strategies fail (as well as ensure we deter war, which is job one).
Excerpt:
The Kim cult and the enduring legacy of East Asia's only totalitarian Marxist monarchy sit in judgment in their surreal capital, Pyongyang. Kim's powerful sister, Yo-jung, who serves as the primary voice of North Korea's dialogue with the South, has denounced and insulted South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol for planning additional sanctions on Pyongyang, calling him an "idiot" and "loyal dog" to Washington. National economic sanctions against the DPRK are planned since passing a Security Council resolution becomes highly unlikely given China's and Russia's stance.
U.N. Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield added, "We are prepared to meet without preconditions, and I call on the DPRK to engage in serious and sustained diplomacy." Is there still room for diplomacy given the Kim regime's apocalyptic fantasies?
North Korea looks for attention with missile diplomacy
The Korea Times · December 7, 2022
By John J. Metzler
North Korea's petulant and isolated regime wants attention. It's thirty-something dictator, Kim Jong-un, vies for the noxious notoriety that much of the world has focused on Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine or Xi Jinping's military threats to Taiwan. Poor little Kim had his fire and fury moment back in 2017 until he was put back in his box by the Trump administration.
So Kim and his family sit, stew and plot in the quaintly titled Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), waiting for their moment when global attention and concerns once again turn to the divided Korean Peninsula and the implications of a nuclear-armed North Korea.
Confrontation cycles are as predictable as weather patterns. During Kim Jong-un showdowns in March 2013, the winds of war returned to the Korean Peninsula and to the shores of Japan and Hawaii as the then-newly installed North Korean leader brought a renewed level of both military and rhetorical volatility to the region.
Then in 2017, Kim tested the new American administration with a spate of missile firings and rounds of incendiary rhetoric. President Donald Trump pushed back with firmness and rhetorical salvos of his own, warning Kim that his actions are courting "fire and fury." Not only did the North Koreans back down but later engaged in unprecedented diplomacy, which led to the historic Singapore Summit in June 2018 and an unofficial three-year moratorium on missile launches.
This year, the U.N. Security Council has met many times in response to North Korea's actions.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned at a recent Council briefing, "This is the DPRK's eighth ICBM launch this year, part of an unprecedented 63 ballistic missiles in 2022." She warned, "Sixty-three times this year the DPRK has flagrantly violated Security Council resolutions and attempted to undermine global nonproliferation."
The firing of the intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-17 over Japan has been hailed by the North Koreans as "the world's strongest strategic weapon."
Despite the hyperbolic propaganda from Pyongyang's minions, there's no doubt that the powerful rocket poses a clear and present danger not only to Japan but to American bases in Okinawa, Guam and indeed Hawaii and beyond.
At the recent G7 economic meeting in Bali, Indonesia, the foreign ministers from the seven nations said that the repeated missiles launched by North Korea "further destabilize the region." The summit members slammed the recent missile launches as "reckless."
Kim told his state-run media that the regime's "ultimate goal is to possess the world's most powerful strategic force, an absolute force unprecedented in the century." Talk about delusions of grandeur.
Tough sets of U.N. sanctions followed earlier North Korean missile and nuclear tests; but agreement in the Security Council came amid a degree of cautious cooperation between Western countries such as Britain, France and the United States alongside China and Russia until 2011.
However, during the past decade, Council unity is long lost given the polarizing Syrian conflict; now there's a logjam among the members to cooperate on matters of international peace and security when those agreements touch on the interests of Beijing and Moscow. Thus, the deadlock now extends to the long-standing question of the DPRK's nuclear proliferation.
Since 2006, the U.N. Security Council has passed a dozen resolutions on North Korea for its nuclear and missile proliferation. The reclusive communist regime has tested six nuclear weapons between 2006 and 2017, and another nuclear test is expected.
The Kim cult and the enduring legacy of East Asia's only totalitarian Marxist monarchy sit in judgment in their surreal capital, Pyongyang. Kim's powerful sister, Yo-jung, who serves as the primary voice of North Korea's dialogue with the South, has denounced and insulted South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol for planning additional sanctions on Pyongyang, calling him an "idiot" and "loyal dog" to Washington. National economic sanctions against the DPRK are planned since passing a Security Council resolution becomes highly unlikely given China's and Russia's stance.
U.N. Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield added, "We are prepared to meet without preconditions, and I call on the DPRK to engage in serious and sustained diplomacy." Is there still room for diplomacy given the Kim regime's apocalyptic fantasies?
John J. Metzler (jjmcolumn@earthlink.net), is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of "Divided Dynamism the Diplomacy of Separated Nations; Germany, Korea, China."
The Korea Times · December 7, 2022
7. South Korea to amend laws to prevent forced repatriation of North Koreans
Do you need a law for common sense and humanity? A law should not be necessary to prevent the tragedy caused by the misguided Moon officials.
South Korea to amend laws to prevent forced repatriation of North Koreans
koreaherald.com · by Kim Arin · December 8, 2022
South Korea is seeking to amend its laws to protect North Koreans who fled their country from being repatriated against their will.
The proposal for amendment to laws on the protection of North Korean refugees, posted on Wednesday, requires the Minister of Unification to confirm the settlement intentions of North Koreans who came to South Korea by sea or land or via a third country.
The amendment would also give the Minister of Unification authority to allow North Koreans under criminal suspicions to be investigated in South Korea after deliberation by government committee.
Under the amendment, the Minister of Foreign Affairs would be given the authority to decide on measures to protect North Koreans who ask for protection with diplomatic offices abroad, and provide support for their entry to South Korea.
The push for changes in the laws follow South Korea’s controversial decision to forcibly repatriate two North Korean fishermen in November 2019.
In June, the Ministry of Unification released photographs of the two men resisting as they were handed over to the North Korean side of the border at the truce village of Panmunjom.
Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental organization based in New York, said in a report following the photographs’ release that it “considers the men’s forcible return to a country where they faced torture, forced labor, and possible execution a clear violation of their human rights.”
Reps. Ha Tae-keung, Ji Seong-ho, Hong Suk-joon and Hwangbo Seung-hee of the ruling People Power Party posted the identities of the deported North Korean men for the first time in September, calling on North Korea to disclose their whereabouts.
The lawmakers said both men are from Cheongjin, a city in North Korea’s Hamgyong Province, and should be about 25 to 26 years of age if they are still alive.
By Kim Arin (arin@heraldcorp.com)
koreaherald.com · by Kim Arin · December 8, 2022
8. U.S. Greenlights Sale of Chinook Helicopters to Korea
U.S. Greenlights Sale of Chinook Helicopters to Korea
english.chosun.com
December 08, 2022 10:19
The U.S. State Department has approved a US$1.5 billion sale of CH-47F Chinook helicopters and other equipment to Korea.
The Pentagon needs the State Department's agreement for exports of sensitive weaponry to a foreign country.
The Chinook is the main transport chopper of the U.S. Army used to carry cargo and personnel, search for and rescue injured soldiers, and carry out parachute drops.
/Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Defense
According to the Defense Ministry here, the State Department green light covers 18 Chinook helicopters, 42 helicopter engines and secure communication devices, and common missile warning systems and air communication systems. It also approved technical and assistance from the U.S. government and Boeing.
"The proposed sale will improve Korea's capability to meet current and future threats by strengthening the Army's heavy-lift capability," the ministry said in a statement.
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- Copyright © Chosunilbo & Chosun.com
english.chosun.com
9. UN Security Council plans ‘closed-door’ discussion on NK human rights despite calls
I think this explains it. Could we get 9 votes to hold an open session? We have to do what we can to push human rights forward. If we did not do this would the UN be discussing north Korean human rights at all?
Excerpts:
The US will raise North Korean human rights issues under “Any Other Business (AOB),” at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday, a US diplomatic source with knowledge of the matter, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed to The Korea Herald on Wednesday in a written statement.
The 15-member UNSC can discuss standing agenda items behind closed doors without prior consensus among member states in the AOB format.
Voice of America on Tuesday first reported that a closed-door discussion on the human rights situation in North Korea would be held following a meeting on sanctions on the Democratic Republic of Congo scheduled for Friday morning, citing an unnamed source at the UN.
The UNSC has failed to resume an open discussion on North Korea’s human rights situation since 2017, as growing conflict among the US, China and Russia — all veto-wielding permanent members of the UNSC — has made it more challenging to find a middle ground.
To hold a public discussion on North Korean human rights a procedural vote is required at the 15-member UN Security Council. At least nine affirmative votes out of 15 must be secured to proceed with an open session.
The UN Security Council discussed North Korea’s human rights as a separate and formal agenda item and held an annual open discussion from 2014 and 2017. The UNSC stopped holding a session on the matter in 2018 and 2019.
UN Security Council plans ‘closed-door’ discussion on NK human rights despite calls
koreaherald.com · by Ji Da-gyum · December 7, 2022
Human rights groups and defenders urge UNSC to resume open discussion on matter
Published : Dec 7, 2022 - 15:10 Updated : Dec 7, 2022 - 17:44
The Security Council meets regarding recent missile launches in North Korea at United Nations headquarters, Monday, Nov. 21, 2022. (File Photo - AP)
The UN Security Council will discuss the human rights situation in North Korea behind closed doors this week for a third consecutive year, since 2020 despite human rights organizations’ calls for an open discussion.
The US will raise North Korean human rights issues under “Any Other Business (AOB),” at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday, a US diplomatic source with knowledge of the matter, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed to The Korea Herald on Wednesday in a written statement.
The 15-member UNSC can discuss standing agenda items behind closed doors without prior consensus among member states in the AOB format.
Voice of America on Tuesday first reported that a closed-door discussion on the human rights situation in North Korea would be held following a meeting on sanctions on the Democratic Republic of Congo scheduled for Friday morning, citing an unnamed source at the UN.
The UNSC has failed to resume an open discussion on North Korea’s human rights situation since 2017, as growing conflict among the US, China and Russia — all veto-wielding permanent members of the UNSC — has made it more challenging to find a middle ground.
To hold a public discussion on North Korean human rights a procedural vote is required at the 15-member UN Security Council. At least nine affirmative votes out of 15 must be secured to proceed with an open session.
The UN Security Council discussed North Korea’s human rights as a separate and formal agenda item and held an annual open discussion from 2014 and 2017. The UNSC stopped holding a session on the matter in 2018 and 2019.
In 2020 and 2021, the UNSC discussed the human rights situation in North Korea behind closed doors under AOB.
Six UNSC members and Japan in December 2021 called for openly discussing human rights abuses in North Korea by issuing a joint statement.
International human rights organizations and defenders also urged the UN Security Council to resume open discussion on North Korea’s human rights situation “as soon as possible,” as the Security Council is set to hold another closed-door discussion on the matter.
The joint open letter was signed by 45 human rights organizations and six high-profile human rights activists, including Marzuki Darusman and Tomas Ojea Quintana, who formerly served as UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea, and South Korea’s former Ambassador-at-large on North Korean Human Rights Lee Jung-hoon. The letter was delivered to the UN Security Council member states on Monday.
“The absence of open and public meetings on the DPRK’s human rights situation for the past four years has precisely sent the wrong message to Pyongyang, that the government can continue committing grave violations against the North Korean people with impunity,” the letter read, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“We also call on the UN Security Council member states to mainstream human rights into any debate related to North Korea, especially given in referring to security and weapons development in North Korea, where human rights violations such as exploitation and forced labor go in tandem.”
The human rights groups and defenders underscored the necessity of resuming open discussion given that the Kim Jong-un regime has exploited the COVID-19 pandemic to “further isolate the country and increase repression” at the expense of North Korean people’s right to movement, freedom of information and right of access to food, medicine and basic necessities.
“Even if the UN Security Council decides to hold North Korea human rights discussion under AOB, it is crucial that the member states keep in mind that such discussion under AOB is not sufficient, and that it should not be used as a substitute or an excuse for not scheduling an open and public meeting in the Council’s official agenda in January 2023,” the letter read.
The UN General Assembly also encouraged the Security Council to “immediately resume discussion” on the human rights situation in North Korea and invited the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to give a briefing to the Council in a resolution adopted at the Third Committee by unanimous consent in November.
By Ji Da-gyum (dagyumji@heraldcorp.com)
10. Increasing number of N. Korean students cut class as winter begins
Life is tough. Then there is life in north Korea.
Increasing number of N. Korean students cut class as winter begins
“They are refusing to go to class because of demands for money to buy firewood for the winter," a source told Daily NK
By Lee Chae Un - 2022.12.08 4:00pm
dailynk.com
FILE PHOTO: A view of Yanggang Province from the Chinese side of the China-North Korea border. (Daily NK)
A growing number of students at schools in Yanggang Province are cutting class without permission as winter begins, Daily NK has learned.
A source in Yanggang Province told Daily NK on Monday that more and more students have recently been going absent from schools in Hyesan.
“They are refusing to go to class because of demands for money to buy firewood for the winter,” he said.
According to the source, elementary, middle and high schools in Hyesan have been making students contribute money from early October, ostensibly to purchase firewood for the winter.
The source said Yanggang Province is a mountainous area and one of the coldest regions in the country.
“Because of these climatic conditions, schools in Hyesan burden students with firewood when winter comes,” he said.
In the past, the local people’s committees, factories and enterprises provided winter firewood to educational facilities. However, with this practice disappearing, schools reportedly take it for granted that they should obtain winter firefood by shifting the costs onto students.
However, since most students come from families that are struggling, they cannot contribute money for firewood, and are reportedly being pressured by the schools as a result.
The source said students are responding by refusing to go to school, with a noticeable rise in the number of students going absent without permission.
The source said the students are refusing to go to school because “the schools are shaming students who did not contribute firewood money in front of their classmates.”
“Some schools are even unhesitatingly telling students who could not contribute money for firewood something absurd, namely, that they shouldn’t come to school if they have a conscience,” he added.
In fact, one homeroom teacher at an elementary school in Hyesan told a student who did not provide money for firewood that his parents “lacked a conscience,” and that they should find some way of paying for firewood for their children “no matter how difficult life is.”
Thus, as the days get colder, teachers are pressuring students to bring firewood money, even excluding them from class by telling them to go home and come back with the cash.
One high school student in Hyesan — unable to ask his parents for the money because of the household’s tough financial situation — reportedly spends all day wandering around outside after lying to his parents in the morning about going to school, returning home later at night.
The source said in the old days, teachers would go to the homes of students who cut class to resolve the problem.
“But now, they don’t even care if their students show up for class or not,” he said. “They’re impatiently focused on preparing firewood for winter.”
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
Read in Korean
dailynk.com
11. December is bribery season in North Korea as public enterprises seek 2023 funding
When is it not bribery season in north Korea? But it must be especially important in the winter as they try to keep warm.
December is bribery season in North Korea as public enterprises seek 2023 funding
To ensure their funding isn’t cut, organizations pay off officials with alcohol and gasoline coupons
By Chang Gyu Ahn for RFA Korean
2022.12.07
rfa.org
It’s bribery season in North Korea.
Every December, state-run enterprises submit their budget proposals to treasury officials – and bribes to keep their funding from getting reduced, sources in the country tell Radio Free Asia.
In North Korea, many institutions – utilities, schools and hospitals – rely on government funding for all of their revenue.
If their funding declines, they will have difficulty paying wages to employees, or they may be unable to deliver vital services to the public, according to an official at one of these organizations in the coastal city of Tanchon, who talked to Radio Free Asia on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“To get even a little more funding, [enterprises] must bribe officials who control the budget,” he said.
His organization gave government officials 20 kilograms of alcohol and 10 gasoline coupons each, – a bribe worth about U.S.$160 together, he said. “The budget review was completed without any issue.”
Authorities are reluctant to accept the bribes in cash in such an official setting, so instead, commodities that can be used, or readily be converted into cash are exchanged, the source said.
Way of life
Bribery is a way of life in North Korea, where meager government salaries are not enough to survive on. Many people pick up side jobs to make ends meet. Police and other local government officials regularly accept bribes to supplement their income, sources in the country tell RFA.
Even central government officials and high-ranking members of leader Kim Jong Un’s inner circle live off of what others will pay them in exchange for favors.
A company in the northern province of Ryanggang sent its representatives to negotiate the budget with the provincial government four separate times in November and early December, one of the company’s employees told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.
“The company officials have no choice but to go see the senior officials and bribe them,” the employee said. “It is rare for a budget submitted without bribery to be passed as is.”
If funding is cut, “the damage is passed on to residents,” the first source said.
For example, if an urban developer loses some funding, ordinary citizens are forced to provide free labor for maintenance on roads and parks. Or if a sewage operator gets less government support, that means residents are recruited to run water treatment facilities and clean out sewers, he said.
According to South Korea’s national bank, the North Korean government’s budget in 2021 was about $9.1 billion, less than 1/40 of the more prosperous, democratic South.
Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
rfa.org
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Senior Advisor, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
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