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Quotes of the Day:
"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant."
- Robert Louis Stevenson
"The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances."
- Aristotle
"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."
- George Bernard Shaw
1. Kim Jong-un cries as he begs North Korean women to have more babies
2. N. Korea doles out gifts to participants in mothers' conference
3. ＜Inside N. Korea＞ The Major Changes Surrounding the November 26 Elections
4. FDD Biden Foreign Policy Tracker : December - KOREA
5. Yoon's approval rating drops to 33%: Yonhap News Survey
6. N. Hamgyong Province urges security officials to prevent defections
7. The North Korean family who risked execution to escape by boat
8. Kim Jong Un Urges Women to Be Good Comrades—and Give Birth
9. Should South Korea's foreign policy become more audacious?
10. Boeing eyes more Chinook helicopter exports to S. Korea
11. N.K. leader 'in hurry' to highlight his daughter to show his will for succession: minister
12. S. Korea urges N. Korea to cooperate in uncovering truth of S. Korean POWs
13. Korea could disappear from map if it doesn't welcome more immigrants: justice minister
1. Kim Jong-un cries as he begs North Korean women to have more babies
Video at the link: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/kim-jong-un-cries-tears-north-korea-b2459001.html
Key excerpt - "highly choreographed:"
The dictator was seen dabbing his eyes with a handkerchief in a highly choreographed plea to women gathered at a National Mothers’ Meeting in Pyongyang on Sunday.
Kim Jong-un cries as he begs North Korean women to have more babies
The average number of children being born to a woman in North Korea, stood at 1.8
Barney Davis
3 hours ago
Comments
Independent · December 5, 2023
Kim Jong-un burst into tears in front of thousands of North Korean “mothers” as he begged them to have more babies and stop the decline in the communist country’s birth rate.
The dictator was seen dabbing his eyes with a handkerchief in a highly choreographed plea to women gathered at a National Mothers’ Meeting in Pyongyang on Sunday.
Addressing the audience as “Dear Mothers” he told them: “Preventing a decline in birth rates and good childcare are all of our housekeeping duties we need to handle while working with mothers.”
Kim Jong Un attending the Fifth National Mothers' Congress in Pyongyang
(KCNA VIA KNS/AFP via Getty Image)
He added his country was being confronted with a host of “social tasks that our mothers should join to tackle.”
“These tasks include bringing up their children so that they will steadfastly carry forward our revolution, eliminating the recently-increasing non-socialist practices, promoting family harmony and social unity, establishing a sound way of cultural and moral life, making the communist virtues and traits of helping and leading one another forward prevail over our society, stopping the declining birth rate, and taking good care of children and educating them effectively.
“These belong to our common family affairs, which we need to deal with by joining hands with our mothers.”
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attends the 5th National Meeting of Mothers in Pyongyang
(via REUTERS)
The United Nations Population Fund estimates that as of 2023 the fertility rate, or the average number of children being born to a woman in North Korea, stood at 1.8, amid an extended fall in the rate during recent decades.
The fertility rate remains higher than in some of North Korea’s neighbours, which have been grappling with a similar downward trend.
South Korea saw its fertility rate drop to a record low of 0.78 last year, while Japan saw its figure drop to 1.26.
The dwindling birth rates in South Korea have caused a shortage of pediatricians, while one city is hosting matchmaking events to boost birth rates.
North Korea, which has a population of about 25 million people, has in recent decades also had to contend with serious food shortages, including deadly famine in the 1990s, often a result of natural disasters such as floods damaging harvests.
North Korea implemented birth control programs in the 1970-80s to slow a postwar population growth. The country’s fertility rate recorded a major decline following a famine in the mid-1990s that was estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands of people, the Seoul-based Hyundai Research Institute said in a report in August.
“Given North Korea lacks resources and technological advancements, it could face difficulties to revive and develop its manufacturing industry if sufficient labor forces are not provided,” the institute report said.
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Kim Jong Un attending the Fifth National Mothers' Congress in Pyongyang
KCNA VIA KNS/AFP via Getty Image
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attends the 5th National Meeting of Mothers in Pyongyang
via REUTERS
KCNA VIA KNS/AFP via Getty Image
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Independent · December 5, 2023
2. N. Korea doles out gifts to participants in mothers' conference
N. Korea doles out gifts to participants in mothers' conference | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · December 6, 2023
SEOUL, Dec. 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has held a meeting to hand out gifts to participants in the latest national conference of mothers, state media reported Wednesday, in an apparent move to secure their loyalty amid a declining birth rate.
The central committee of the ruling Workers' Party provided the participants with significant gifts "associated with the meticulous paternal affection" of leader Kim Jong-un.
Kim did not attend Tuesday's event, but the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said he made sure that "the kind and number of gifts are chosen suited to" the tastes of the participants.
Kim called for measures to prevent a decline in North Korea's birth rate at the Fifth National Conference of Mothers, which closed a two-day session Monday. It was the first meeting of mothers in 11 years.
South Korea's unification ministry said Kim publicly mentioned a fall in the birth rate for the first time, an indication that North Korea is grappling with the issue.
North Korea's total fertility rate -- the number of children that are expected to be born to a woman over her lifetime -- came to 1.8 in 2023, according to data posted on the website of the U.N. Population Fund. It is much lower than the replacement level of 2.1 that would keep North Korea's population stable at 26 million.
North Korea last held a national conference of mothers in 2012. The inaugural gathering took place in November 1961.
This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Dec. 6, 2023, shows participants in the Fifth National Conference of Mothers who received gifts from the ruling Workers' Party of Korea the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · December 6, 2023
3. ＜Inside N. Korea＞ The Major Changes Surrounding the November 26 Elections
Spot report, over.
So was it a free and fair election? A vote "against" block that you could not check.
＜Inside N. Korea＞ The Major Changes Surrounding the November 26 Elections(2) Emergency interview with someone who voted in the election…Despite “Against” box at election booths, “nobody could vote against the candidate”
asiapress.org
A picture of Kim Jong-un voting as reported by North Korean state-run media. There appears to be a box for opposing votes to the left. Published in Rodong Sinmun.
＜Inside N. Korea＞ The Major Changes Surrounding the November 26 Elections(1) For the first time, multiple candidates on secret ballots for preliminary election…a small change in past elections
The North Korean regime held an election for local people’s committee delegates on November 26. A November 28 report in the Minju Chosun, the official publication of the Cabinet, quoted a report from the Central Elections Guidance Committee that stated that voter turnout was 99.63%. A total of 27,858 candidates were elected, while 0.09% of voters in the provinces and 0.13% of voters in cities and counties voted against the candidates. Whatever the realities of the election, how was it conducted? ASIAPRESS asked a reporting partner in the country about what election day looked like. (KANG Ji-won / ISHIMARU Jiro)
◆ A red-colored “Against” box is placed at voting stations
The reporting partner who provided information about election day lives in a city in North Hamgyung Province and is a Workers’ Party member who works at a state-run enterprise.
―― Tell us about election day.
Starting at 10 AM on November 26, people from each inminban (neighborhood watch unit) and district were gathered to confirm their names, ages, places of residence, and ID cards, and then they signed their names before receiving ballots. A ballot station was established at the district office.
※ Inminban: North Korea’s smallest administrative unit, which is typically made up of 20-30 households.
―― Elections in North Korea have been described as festivals.
Children and women had a lot of difficulties because it was so cold. A troupe of singers was mobilized from a school to wave flowers and sign in front of the ballot station. The Socialist Women’s Union organized a propaganda unit to dance, but it was so cold that they wore pants underneath their jeogori (part of a hanbok).
―― What procedures did the authorities have in place for voting?
People took their ballots and entered the ballot station where a person checked their ballots. Then people went into a room behind a curtain and placed the ballots in a ballot box.
This time, there was a red-colored box for ballots rejecting the candidates. There had been a box with the words “For” and “Against”; but the “For” box was in front of the “Against” box. They set it up in a way that made it hard for people to place their ballots in the “Against” box.
The same picture but Kim Jong-un’s hand is magnified. He is holding what is called an “election ticket.” Published in Rodong Sinmun.
◆ Nobody voted against the candidate
―― In past elections, the authorities have always encouraged people to accept the candidates. Was that the case this time as well?
The person watching the entrance to the ballot station explained that we could vote for or against the candidate, but I don’t think anyone voted in opposition to the candidate. It would be enormously burdensome for someone to do that given that everyone has always just accepted the candidate presented by the authorities.
―― What was the response to the election by those around you?
After the voting was over, some people half-joked that the authorities may have to do another election if too many votes went against the candidate, and there was curiosity about whether the authorities would look into whether anyone voted against the candidate. People found the addition of the “Against” box to be of interest, but everyone knew that the box had no effect whatsoever (on their voting). I didn’t feel like the (elections) system had changed by that much.
―― Did sick or injured people participate in the election?
I heard that the city hospital conducted an ‘mobile election’ for patients. Anyone with difficulties getting around was told to vote on November 25.
※ ASIAPRESS communicates with reporting partners through Chinese cell phones smuggled into North Korea.
Women gathered in front of an “elections station” in traditional Korean clothing. From a video published on November 29, 2023 by Urriminjokgirri.
asiapress.org
4. FDD Biden Foreign Policy Tracker : December - KOREA
KOREA
https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2023/12/05/biden-administration-foreign-policy-tracker-december-3/?utm#Korea:~:text=pursuing%20such%20conditions.-,KOREA,and%20other%20materiel%20to%20Russia%2C%20significantly%20aiding%20Putin%E2%80%99s%20war%20in%20Ukraine.,-LATIN%20AMERICA
Anthony Ruggiero
Nonproliferation and Biodefense Program Senior Director and Senior Fellow
Trending Very Negative
Previous Trend:
Very Negative
North Korea successfully placed a military reconnaissance satellite into orbit after two unsuccessful prior attempts. According to South Korean intelligence, Pyongyang received Russian technical assistance as part of a deal struck during Kim Jong Un’s September visit to Russia. North Korea claimed that Kim reviewed satellite imagery of the White House, Pentagon, and U.S. aircraft carriers at the naval base in Norfolk, Virginia. After the launch, Seoul partially suspended implementation of a 2018 agreement designed to reduce tensions with North Korea and restored aerial surveillance along the border. Pyongyang retaliated by withdrawing from the agreement altogether.
The White House condemned the launch and urged Pyongyang to return to negotiations but did not mention Russia or sanctions. The U.S. representative to the United Nations exclaimed that North Korea had launched three space launch vehicles and 29 ballistic missiles in 2023, including four intercontinental ballistic missiles. The statement highlighted the administration’s flawed diplomatic and economic pressure strategies. The Biden administration has resorted to trying to shame China and Russia into action, but Beijing and Moscow are major, serial violators of UN sanctions and know there are no consequences for supporting the Kim regime.
In its first North Korea sanctions since late August, the U.S. Treasury Department targeted a virtual currency mixer used by Pyongyang and then designated overseas North Korean representatives. Still, enforcement of sanctions against North Korea remains lackluster — even after North Korea reportedly shipped over 1 million artillery munitions and other materiel to Russia, significantly aiding Putin’s war in Ukraine.
5. Yoon's approval rating drops to 33%: Yonhap News Survey
President Yoon cannot catch a break. (Of course neither can President Biden)
Yoon's approval rating drops to 33%: Yonhap News Survey
The Korea Times · December 6, 2023
President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a luncheon meeting with heads of the People Power Party in Seoul, Dec. 5. Courtesy of People Power Party
President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating dropped 4 percentage points from a month earlier to 33 percent, according to a survey conducted jointly by Yonhap News Agency and Yonhap News TV on Wednesday.
The survey also showed that the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) would secure 31 percent and 36 percent of the vote, respectively, if the general elections were to take place tomorrow.
Yonhap News Agency and Yonhap News TV jointly commissioned the survey to gauge public sentiment. The survey was conducted by Metrix on 1,000 adults aged 18 and older on Saturday and Sunday.
According to the poll, the positive assessment of Yoon was 33 percent, falling from the 37 percent in the previous survey conducted a month earlier, while the negative assessment rose to 60 percent, compared with 57 percent last month.
The survey once again identified defense and diplomacy as the most frequently cited factors in the positive assessment of Yoon's performance. Economy and livelihood matters were the most cited factors behind the negative assessment, the poll showed.
In terms of the approval rating of the two major rival parties, the DPK outran the PPP.
The DPK's approval rating was 35 percent, while that of the PPP was 34 percent, a turnaround from the previous survey where the PPP was ahead of the DPK by 4 percentage points.
Additionally, 66 percent of respondents said they have a negative view of the Korea Medical Association's plan to vote whether to launch a strike against the government's plan to increase medical school enrollment quotas.
The results had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level. (Yonhap)
The Korea Times · December 6, 2023
6. N. Hamgyong Province urges security officials to prevent defections
The crackdowns and draconian population and resources control measures are not enough to stop the people from wanting to escape.
Apparently they are trying to counter the information coming back from South Korea about escapees (though frankly not all escapees are well treated or do well during their transition to freedom in the South).
But this is another indicator of the internal problems the regime is facing.
N. Hamgyong Province urges security officials to prevent defections
Local officials were told to lecture people about the “poor treatment fugitives [defectors] receive in South Korea, as well as about the horrible end that awaits people who illegally cross the border into China"
By Jong So Yong - 2023.12.05 1:42pm
dailynk.com
N. Hamgyong Province urges security officials to prevent defections | Daily NK English
FILE PHOTO: A border patrol checkpoint in Pungso County, Yanggang Province, can be seen in this photo, which was taken in February 2019. (Daily NK)
North Hamgyong Province’s branch of the Ministry of State Security recently called in local city and country security officials and urged them to crack down ideologically on people to prevent defections, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in the province told Daily NK on Friday that the security bureau “called officials from local city and county security departments to the bureau’s meeting room in mid-November and pressed them to intensify ideological indoctrination activities to prevent defections attempts in the winter, when it’s easier for people to defect.”
According to the source, the provincial branch of the Ministry of State Security ordered the local officials to visit neighborhood watch units and lecture people about the “poor treatment fugitives [defectors] receive in South Korea, as well as about the horrible end that awaits people who illegally cross the border into China.”
In particular, the ministry’s provincial branch told the officials to emphasize in their lectures how North Koreans who sneak into China must constantly hide from the moment they enter the country, endlessly hunted by the Chinese police until they are ultimately caught and escorted back to prisons in the North, and that “only disgrace awaits those who abandon their country and leave.”
The agency also told the officials to specifically identify the names, sexes, and North Korean residences of defectors living in South Korea, and to deeply impress on people the lives of woe those defectors now live.
In short, the order called on officials to discourage defections by presenting examples of the difficulties defectors face, telling audiences that while defectors flee to South Korea thinking they will make money and live well, money does not simply fall from trees.
The provincial security bureau also called on officials to propagate lines such as, “South Korea’s intelligence service and state agencies trick fugitives to the South with a few pennies and then discards them like a pair of old shoes,” “If you go to South Korea, factories and state agencies won’t accept you because you talk funny,” and, “Ethnic Koreans from China are treated better, while North Korean fugitives in the South receive subhuman treatment and contempt as traitors who betrayed their hometowns and nation.”
The security bureau also urged officials to tell people that those for the river to freeze so they can abandon their country, unable to overcome their current difficulties at home, will certainly be found out and punished, the source said.
“The provincial security bureau ordered local city and county security department officials to make lecture materials geared to recent trends and circumstances based on what was said at the meeting and use those materials in their lectures before neighborhood watch units, and to strike hard on people planning to illegally cross the border using illegal foreign-made mobile phones.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Daily NK works with a network of sources who live inside North Korea, China and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK’s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page here.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
Read in Korean
Jong So Yong
Jong So Yong is one of Daily NK’s freelance reporters. Questions about her articles can be directed to dailynk@uni-media.net.
dailynk.com
7. The North Korean family who risked execution to escape by boat
Escaping is tough. But Koreans from the north are willing to try. And that scares Kim Jong Un.
The North Korean family who risked execution to escape by boat
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-67610240
5th December 2023, 05:10 EST
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By Jean Mackenzie
Seoul correspondent
BBC
Earlier this year, Mr Kim pulled off a seemingly impossible escape from North Korea. He fled by sea with his entire family - his pregnant wife, his mother, his brother's family, and an urn containing his father's ashes.
They are the first people to have fled the country this year and make it to the South. When Covid struck, North Korea's government panicked and sealed the country off from the rest of the world, closing its borders and cutting off trade. Defections, once fairly common, virtually ceased.
Mr Kim told the BBC how he masterminded such a remarkable escape, in the first interview with a defector to have got out since the pandemic. He revealed new details about life in the country, including cases of people starving to death and increasing repression. He asked us not to use his full name, to help protect his family here and back in the North.
The BBC cannot independently verify all of Mr Kim's account, but much of the detail tallies with what we have been told by other sources.
The night of the escape was a turbulent one. Fierce winds swept up from the south, bringing a storm in their wake. This was all part of Mr Kim's plan. The rough seas would force any surveillance ships to retreat, he hoped.
He had been dreaming of this night for years, planning it meticulously for months, but this did little to temper his fear.
His brother's children were asleep, knocked out by sleeping pills he had fed them. He and his brother now had to carry them through a minefield in the dark, to where their getaway boat was secretly moored. They inched along, careful to avoid the beams from the guards' searchlights.
The boat used by Mr Kim and his family to escape
Once they reached the boat, they hid the children in old grain sacks, disguising them to look like bags of tools. With that, the family set sail for South Korea: the men armed with swords, the women with poison. Each clutched a single eggshell, hollowed out and filled with chilli powder and black sand, to crack into the faces of the coastguards if a confrontation ensued.
Their engine roared, but all Mr Kim could hear was his thumping heart. One mistake now, and they could all be executed.
When I met Mr Kim in the outskirts of Seoul last month, he was accompanied by a plain clothes police officer - a typical safety measure for recent defectors. It had only been a few weeks since he and his family were released from the resettlement centre that North Koreans are sent to after arriving in South Korea.
"There has been a lot of suffering," he said, as he began to recount the past four years.
In the early days of Covid-19, people were "extremely scared", he said. The state broadcast images of people dying around the world, and warned that if the rules were not followed, the entire country could be wiped out. Some people were even sent to labour camps for breaking Covid rules, he said.
When a suspected case was reported, guards would quarantine the entire village, he said. Everyone would be locked up and the area sealed off, leaving those inside with little or nothing to eat.
"After they'd starved people for a while, the government would bring in truckloads of food supplies. They claimed to be selling the food cheaply, so people would praise them - like starving your baby, then giving them a small amount, so it would thank you."
Mr Kim said people began to question whether this was part of the state's strategy to profit from the pandemic.
As more people survived Covid, they began to think the state had exaggerated the dangers, he said. "Now many believe it was just an excuse to oppress us."
It was the border closures that caused the most severe damage, he said.
Food supplies in North Korea have long been precarious, but with less coming into the country, prices skyrocketed, he said, making everyone's lives "so much harder". In the spring of 2022, he noticed the situation deteriorate further.
"For seven or eight years there wasn't much talk of starvation, but then we frequently started hearing about cases," he said. "You'd wake up one morning and hear: 'oh, someone in this district starved to death'. The next morning, we'd get another report."
KCNA
This poster from the state broadcaster KCNA tells people to stringently follow Covid rules
One day this February, Mr Kim said a customer from a neighbouring county turned up late to a meeting. He told him the police had rounded up everyone in his village over the suspected murder of an elderly couple. But after the autopsy, they announced the couple had starved, and rats must have eaten their fingers and toes while they were dying. The gruesome scene had made the investigators suspect foul play.
Then in April, he says two farmers he personally knew starved to death. The farmers had the hardest time, he said, because if the harvest was bad, the state would force them to make up for it by handing over more of their personal food supply.
We cannot independently confirm these deaths. The 2023 Global Report on Food Crises stated that since North Korea's borders closed, it has been "challenging to obtain accurate information on food insecurity" but there were "indications the situation is worsening". In March 2023 North Korea asked the World Food Programme for help.
Amnesty International's North Korea specialist, Choi Jae-hoon, said he had heard of cases of starvation, from escapees in Seoul who had managed to speak to family back home. "We are hearing that the food situation worsened during the Covid period, and that in some areas farmers tended to suffer the most," he said. But Mr Choi noted that the situation was not nearly as catastrophic as during the famine in the 1990s: "We're hearing that people have found ways to survive within their means."
Mr Kim himself found ways not only to survive, but to thrive. Like most people in North Korea before Covid, he made his money selling items on the black market - in his case motorbikes and televisions smuggled from China. But when the borders closed, stifling virtually all trade, he switched to buying and selling vegetables. He figured everyone needed to eat.
He set himself up as a "grasshopper seller", hawking his items covertly at home or in alleyways. "If someone reported us, we'd pick up the food and run, like a grasshopper," he said.
"People would come to me, begging me to sell to them. I could ask for whatever price I wanted," he said. Mr Kim found himself richer than ever before. He and his wife could afford to eat stew for dinner, with any meat of their choosing.
"That counts as eating very well in North Korea."
The life Mr Kim describes paints a picture of an exceptionally savvy and, at times, unscrupulous businessman. Now in his 30s, he hustled and saved for more than a decade, finding ways to outsmart the North Korean system.
This was partly because he became disillusioned with the system at a young age. From as early as he can remember, he and his father would sit watching South Korean TV in secret. They lived so close to the border they could tune into the channels on their set. Mr Kim became captivated by a country where people were free.
As he got older, the corruption and injustice he witnessed in the North began to chip away at him. He recalled one incident where security officials raided his home. "Everything you have belongs to the state," they said. "You think this oxygen is yours?" one officer jeered. "Well, it's not, you bastard."
Then, in 2021, Mr Kim said powerful crackdown squads were formed to try to supress what the state deemed "anti-social behaviour". They would arbitrarily stop people on the street and intimidate them. "People started calling these crackdown officials mosquitoes, like vampires sucking out our blood."
The most serious offence was consuming and sharing outside information, particularly South Korean culture. The crackdown on this, Mr Kim said, had become "much more intense. Once you get caught, they'll shoot you, kill you, or send you to a labour camp."
In April last year, Mr Kim said he was forced to watch a 22-year-old man he knew be shot to death in a public execution. "He was killed for listening to 70 South Korean songs and watching about three films and sharing them with his friends."
The authorities told the onlookers they wanted to punish the man harshly, to set the right precedent. "They're ruthless", Mr Kim said, "everyone is scared."
We cannot independently verify this execution, but in December 2020 North Korea passed a new law, stating that those who shared South Korean content could be executed.
Joanna Hosaniak from the Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights said Mr Kim's account of the execution was "completely unsurprising". Ms Hosaniak has interviewed hundreds of defectors over two decades. "North Korea has always used public executions as a means to control the population," she said. "Whenever it implements new laws, it introduces a wave of executions."
As Mr Kim recounted these memories, he became distressed. He said it was a friend's suicide last year that had finally broken him.
Desperate to divorce a woman he no longer loved and marry another - the friend was told by officials that the only way he could get a divorce was to spend time in a labour camp. He sunk into debt trying to find another way out, before ending his life. Mr Kim visited his bedroom after his death. The carnage on display spelt out what a slow and agonising end he must have suffered. He had clawed the walls until his nails came out.
Although Mr Kim had fantasised about escaping hundreds of times, he could never bear to leave his family behind. By 2022, life had become so desperate, he felt he could finally convince them to join him.
He targeted his brother first. He and his wife ran an illicit seafood business, but the government had recently cracked down on unofficial sellers. Despite owning a boat, they could no longer fish. With money tight, he was easily persuaded.
For the next seven months, the pair meticulously plotted their escape.
Over the course of the pandemic, many of the well-established escape routes across the country's northern border with China had been blocked off. But the brothers lived in a small fishing town in the far south-west of the country, close to the South Korean border. This gave them an alternative, yet risky, way out - by sea.
First, they needed permission to access the water. They had heard about a nearby military base, where civilians were sent out to catch fish that was then sold to pay for military equipment. Mr Kim's brother enrolled in the scheme.
Meanwhile Mr Kim started befriending the coastguards and security guards who patrolled the area, surreptitiously mining them for information about their movements, protocols and shift patterns, until he was confident he and his brother could take the boat out at night, without getting caught.
Then came the hardest of his tasks: convincing his elderly mother and wife to join him. Both were opposed to leaving. Eventually the brothers shouted their mother into submission, threatening to cancel the trip if she did not join them, and hold her responsible for their misery to the end of their days.
"She was distraught and cried a lot but finally agreed," Mr Kim said.
His wife, however, was immovable, until one day the couple learnt they were expecting a baby. "You're not just your own body any more," he argued with her. "You're a parent, do you want our child to live in this hellhole?" It worked.
After talking for several hours, Mr Kim and I headed for dinner, where he ran through the final preparations for his escape. Fearful the authorities would desecrate their father's grave after they left, the brothers went to dig up his body. After repacking the ground to appear untampered, they took it into the surrounding wilderness and burnt it.
They went on to survey the remote minefield they would later need to cross in the dark. They pretended to pick medicinal herbs, while mapping a clear route through it. The coastline had been recently planted with landmines to prevent people leaving, Mr Kim said, but with fewer guards on duty there, it offered the safest way out.
Then it was a matter of waiting for the weather and the tide to turn.
At 10pm on 6 May they set sail, travelling as far as they were allowed, then continuing on. Low tide had exposed reefs and boulders, which they navigated ever so slowly, hoping to disguise themselves as floating rubbish on the radars. All the while, Mr Kim's heart was pounding, his clothes soaked with sweat.
As soon as it felt safe, they went full-speed with the currents. Mr Kim looked back to see a ship following, but it could not catch them. Within minutes they had crossed the maritime border.
AFP
The stretch of sea Mr Kim had to cross to make it to Yeonpyong island
"In that moment, all my tension released. I felt like I was collapsing," he said. They flashed their light as they approached the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong and were rescued by the navy, after nearly two hours at sea.
Everything had gone exactly as planned. "It was like the heavens helped us," he said.
Mr Kim's escape is exceptional for several reasons, said Sokeel Park from Liberty in North Korea, an organisation which helps refugees from the North resettle in the South. Not only have sea defections always been extremely rare, he explained, but since the pandemic it has become almost impossible for people to defect.
"These sea escapes take meticulous planning, incredible bravery and for everything to go miraculously well," he said. "There must be many more North Koreans who have tried but not made it."
"The only people who can defect now are the rich and well-connected," added Pastor Stephen Kim from JM Missionary, who helps North Koreans defect through China. Around 1,000 used to make it across the Chinese border each year, but to his knowledge only 20 have crossed during the past four years, and just four of them have arrived in South Korea. In October, he and Human Rights Watch accused China of sending some defectors back to the North.
Pyongyang is currently deepening its ties with China and Russia, while turning its back on diplomacy with the West. This has made it increasingly difficult for the international community to address these reported human rights violations.
South Korea's government has made North Korean human rights one of its top priorities, but its vice-unification minister Moon Seong-hyun said it had "limited tools to use".
"What we have been trying to do is to increase people's awareness, by continuously raising these issues through the UN and elsewhere," he said. "There is a tendency for North Korea to listen to countries in Europe," he added, citing the UK and Germany as examples. But Seoul's role has largely been reduced to helping the dwindling number of refugees who make it to the South, supporting them with counselling, housing and education.
After their rescue Mr Kim and his family first had to be debriefed by South Korea's intelligence service, to check they were not North Korean spies. They were then educated about life in the South at a resettlement centre. Despite being so physically close, their old and new homes are worlds apart, and defectors often struggle with the transition.
Mr Kim says he has found adjusting to life in Seoul easier than the rest of hi family
The family moved from the resettlement facility into an apartment in October, just as Mr Kim's wife gave birth. She is healthy, but finding it difficult to adjust, he said, though his mother is having the toughest time. None of them had ever ridden a subway before, and she keeps getting lost. Each mistake further knocks her confidence. "She is kind of regretting coming here now," he admitted.
But Mr Kim, who was already so familiar with South Korean culture, said he was adapting easily. "The world I imagined and the world I am now physically navigating feel very similar."
As we were speaking, he curiously picked up my AirPods case from the table beside us, turning it over in his hand. I opened it to reveal the wireless headphones, but still he looked confused. It wasn't until I placed the buds in my ears that a wave of understanding flashed across his face, and he laughed.
There will be many more of these surprises and challenges ahead. This is only the beginning of his journey.
Additional reporting by Hosu Lee and Leehyun Choi, Illustrations by Lilly Huynh
8. Kim Jong Un Urges Women to Be Good Comrades—and Give Birth
Who would want to bring a child into a country that is a slave state - the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State?
Kim Jong Un Urges Women to Be Good Comrades—and Give Birth
North Korean leader voices first-ever concern over his nation’s declining birthrate
https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/kim-jong-un-urges-women-to-be-good-comradesand-give-birth-988be73a?mod=Searchresults_pos3&page=1
By Dasl Yoon
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Updated Dec. 5, 2023 7:17 am E
North Korean women face widespread discrimination in the country’s deeply patriarchal society. PHOTO: KIM WON JIN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
SEOUL—Kim Jong Un has a new mission for North Korean women: Have more babies.
Kim acknowledged the impoverished nation’s plunging birthrate for the first time publicly at a rare National Conference of Mothers. Wiping away tears, the 39-year-old dictator, who is a father of three, described mothers as revolutionaries who were on the front lines of rooting out antisocialist behavior and helping the nation prosper.
Households producing “many children” would be given higher priority for housing, food and medical services, as well as unspecified subsidies and preferential treatment, Kim said, according to a Tuesday state-media report.
“When all mothers clearly understand that it is patriotism to give birth to many children and do so positively,” Kim said, “our cause of building a powerful socialist country can be hastened faster.”
Declining birthrates are a problem for many of the world’s wealthiest countries, including the U.S., much of Western Europe and Asia’s most advanced economies. The trend threatens labor forces and government budgets as populations get older and leave fewer working-age people to spur economic growth.
But North Korea’s birthrate—a snapshot of the average number of babies a woman would have over her lifetime—is unusually low for a poor country, standing at 1.6, according to South Korean estimates. That is about half the rate of African countries with a similar economic profile. Countries need fertility rates of around 2.1 to maintain the population, demographic experts say.
North Korea needs a robust population more than other nations. Farming, construction and other projects require significantly more manpower than elsewhere, as sanctions make it difficult to upgrade the country’s infrastructure. North Korea also boasts one of the world’s largest standing armies with more than one million personnel. Historically, many citizens have been dispatched to foreign countries to generate money for the government.
The Kim regime isn’t alone among authoritarian states pushing for more children. In recent months, Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged women to cultivate a “new culture of marriage and childbearing.” Russian President Vladimir Putin called for large families to again become the norm, recalling prior generations where households often had seven or eight children. Over the past decade, Cuba has offered government incentives to convince women to have more babies to reverse its population slide.
North Korea faces some particularly acute challenges to boosting its birthrate. Its economy has suffered under sanctions and isolation during the pandemic. Much of its 26 million population suffers from food shortages and rampant human-rights abuses—especially so for women.
Cases of domestic violence and sexual harassment against North Korean women go virtually unreported, according to Human Rights Watch. Women also face widespread discrimination in the country’s deeply patriarchal society, with their reputations often depending largely on obeying men in the family, the group said.
North Korea’s birthrate has slipped over the past few decades. PHOTO: KIM WON JIN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
In his recent speech to mothers, Kim said housewives who promote domestic harmony and manage their family affairs are a great thing for the country. He urged them to become a “meticulous mother, a grateful wife and a kindhearted daughter-in-law.”
Unlike his father and grandfather, Kim has brought the women in his life into the public eye. His sister, Kim Yo Jong, holds a senior Workers’ Party position. His wife is often seen with him in public. And in the past year or so, Kim Jong Un has made frequent appearances with his young daughter.
After the 1950-53 Korean War, North Korea urged citizens to have large families, with twins often appearing in state propaganda. But by the 1980s, North Korea’s state-controlled economy struggled to keep pace with the expanding population and implemented birth-control programs, including contraception, to slow growth. The famine in the ensuing decade further eroded the system of government rationing.
As a result, North Korea’s fertility rate has steadily fallen from about 2.8 in 1979, according to United Nations data.
In recent decades, more North Koreans have turned to smuggling goods or other black-market commerce to survive—with women often serving as a household’s breadwinners, since many young men face decadelong military conscriptions. That has led to the elongated slide in the nation’s birthrate, said Lee Woo-young, a professor of North Korean society and culture at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
“Even though North Korean women gained little equality, their economic participation raised women’s social status and more women began prioritizing making a living over having children,” Lee said.
Women earn more than 70% of household income in North Korea, as traders in the black market, which proliferated following the late 1990s famine, according to the Korea Institute for National Unification, a South Korean think tank. Women also shoulder most of the housework and child care, North Korean defectors say.
Kim’s emphasis on North Korean mothers follows his calls for the country’s youth to reject foreign culture, such as dressing like South Koreans or using South Korean words, which are considered antisocialist behavior. The younger generation’s exposure to foreign culture challenges Kim’s attempt to keep a tight grip on information to maintain loyalty to the regime.
“Unless a mother becomes a communist, it is impossible for her to bring up her sons and daughters as communists and transform the members of her family into revolutionaries,” Kim said at the two-day conference that ended Monday.Write to Dasl Yoon at dasl.yoon@wsj.com
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Appeared in the December 6, 2023, print edition as 'Kim—No Kidding—Calls for a Baby Boom'.
9. Should South Korea's foreign policy become more audacious?
Conclusion:
South Korea’s current foreign policy might appear to some critics as a lost opportunity to display more “audacity.” However, when confronted with the risks of an “audacious failure,” the more predictable security strategy has merits. The hope is that the Yoon government’s foreign policy achievements, whether small or large, will contribute to the capacity of the South Korean government to achieve geopolitical breakthroughs when future opportunities arise.
Should South Korea's foreign policy become more audacious?
The Korea Times · December 5, 2023
By Lee Jong-eun
South Korea today faces multiple geopolitical challenges. North Korea continues to advance its missile and nuclear capacity, while China’s conflict with Taiwan threatens security in the South China Sea. Beyond East Asia, the Russia-Ukraine War has widened the geopolitical divide between the West and revisionist states. The strategic competition between the U.S. and China increases concerns for South Korea’s economy, which depends on reliable access to the world’s two largest economies. Finally, the impact of climate change poses multifaceted global challenges, which South Korea also cannot avoid.
When President Yoon Suk Yeol was inaugurated last year, he pledged that South Korea would assume a greater role in partnering with other countries to overcome these geopolitical challenges. Specifically, Yoon proposed an “audacious plan” to North Korea to achieve “a lasting peace” on the Korean Peninsula.
Yoon’s foreign policy has focused on expanding strategic partnerships with countries whose strategic interests are aligned with South Korea. The Yoon government has pursued the institutionalization of trilateral partnerships with the U.S. and Japan over multiple security areas, including missile defense, science and technology. After adopting a partnership program with NATO this summer, South Korea signed the Downing Street Accord with the U.K. last month, which pledged bilateral cyber and energy security cooperation.
At the same time, the Yoon government has displayed caution toward escalating geopolitical conflicts. South Korea has declined to send direct military aid to Ukraine despite reports of North Korea supplying arms to Russia. South Korea has reassured China that a trilateral partnership with the U.S. and Japan will not lead to the creation of an “Asian NATO.” Despite North Korea’s military provocations, South Korea attempted to retain most clauses of its Comprehensive Military Agreement with the North, though the latter eventually suspended the agreement last month.
The Yoon government’s foreign policy has strived to mitigate South Korea’s geopolitical uncertainties through strengthening security partnerships while limiting geopolitical conflicts. The critics, however, have evaluated the foreign policy as too cautious, lacking in the “audacity” Yoon has promised. The two common criticisms have been that South Korea’s foreign policy should have bargained more forcefully with its strategic partners and negotiated more proactively with strategic adversaries.
The first criticism is that South Korea should have been more assertive in attaining cooperation and reassurance from its strategic partners, especially the U.S. and Japan. The South Korean government has received criticism for focusing on strengthening U.S. extended nuclear deterrence rather than boldly negotiating for its own independent nuclear armament. There has also been criticism that South Korea should have bargained harder for Japan’s concessions over long-enduring bilateral disputes. Subsequently, despite the recent improvements in the trilateral partnership, critics have portrayed them as insufficient in guaranteeing South Korea’s long-term security.
The second criticism is that South Korea should have been more proactive in diplomatic overtures to resolve geopolitical conflicts with North Korea and China. The South Korean government has been criticized for not implementing bold, creative strategies to overcome diplomatic gridlock with North Korea. Instead, South Korea’s foreign policy has been largely constrained to deterring threats from the deterioration of inter-Korean relations. Similarly, South Korea remains vulnerable to the U.S.-China geopolitical rivalry, struggling to balance its security alliance with the U.S. and economic ties with China.
These criticisms arise from frustrations within South Korean politics that the Yoon government’s foreign policy has not fundamentally resolved South Korea’s geopolitical challenges. Worried whether these threats can remain contained for long, advocates have urged the South Korean government to pursue “audacious” transformations of its geopolitical circumstances, whether through independent nuclear armament, a “grand deal” with North Korea or perhaps through arbitrating the U.S.-China rivalry.
The risks of pursuing such strategies should be weighed together with their appeals. Though South Korea’s current foreign policy has received criticism for prioritizing “lower-hanging fruit,” it is understandable, even prudent, that a government prioritizes limited but tangible policy successes over uncertain policy outcomes. Even if South Korea achieves nuclear armament, its security vulnerability will remain if its alliance with the U.S. is damaged. The U.S.-China geopolitical rivalry is beyond South Korea’s current capacity to arbitrate. Even if South Korea is willing to propose diplomatic solutions accommodating North Korea’s demands, the deal requires trust between North Korea and the United States.
This is not to say South Korea should not pursue these strategies, but rather that the window of opportunity appears narrow at present. Subsequently, despite their limitations, the Yoon government’s foreign policy might be a prudent reflection of the current geopolitical circumstances. Strengthening external strategic partnerships and maintaining cautious deterrence against potential strategic adversaries might not provide fundamental solutions to South Korea’s geopolitical threats. Nevertheless, they may be the realistic strategies available at present for South Korea to mitigate its challenges.
A soccer team might dribble the ball in the midfield until it sees an opening. Prolonged dribbling may be frustrating for the fans, but it is a strategy to increase the team’s success in achieving a goal. There are frustrations that South Korea is caught in a geopolitical stalemate and temptations to risk an audacious strategy to transform the geopolitical circumstances immediately. However, the timing is important for implementing such strategies with prospects for success. To quote a proverb, “Look before you leap,” dissatisfaction with the current policy should be balanced with preparation to act when the window of opportunity opens.
South Korea’s current foreign policy might appear to some critics as a lost opportunity to display more “audacity.” However, when confronted with the risks of an “audacious failure,” the more predictable security strategy has merits. The hope is that the Yoon government’s foreign policy achievements, whether small or large, will contribute to the capacity of the South Korean government to achieve geopolitical breakthroughs when future opportunities arise.
Lee Jong-eun, Ph.D., is assistant professor of political science at North Greenville University.
The Korea Times · December 5, 2023
10. Boeing eyes more Chinook helicopter exports to S. Korea
Boeing eyes more Chinook helicopter exports to S. Korea
koreaherald.com · by Yonhap · December 6, 2023
By Yonhap
Published : Dec. 6, 2023 - 11:45
This undated photo, provided by Boeing on Wednesday, shows the company's Chinook heavy-lift helicopter. (Yonhap)
US defense giant Boeing is seeking to win more orders from South Korea for its Chinook heavy-lift helicopters amid Seoul's efforts to reinforce readiness against North Korean threats.
The company touted the CH-47ER variant for South Korea's plans to acquire new special operations choppers during a tour of its production facility in Mesa, Arizona to a group of reporters from the defense ministry's press corps last Thursday.
In April, South Korea's defense authorities endorsed a 3.7-trillion won ($2.8 billion) plan to buy heavy choppers from overseas from 2024-2031 to replace aging special operations choppers. It has yet to decide on the model of the helicopter.
Patrick Serfass, Boeing's senior manager of H-47 Chinook Business Development, described the CH-47ER as being ideal for the project, citing its ability to operate in harsh environments and being able to load more than twice as much as fuel as the standard Chinook.
Boeing's Chinook has been mobilized for various global military special operations, most notably the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011.
Serfass noted South Korea's separate decision to buy 18 CH-47Fs this year to replace its aging Chinooks, crediting the helicopter model's capabilities in interoperability.
South Korea currently operates over 40 Chinooks, making it the fourth-largest operator of the helicopter globally, according to Boeing.
A Boeing official said the company has conducted case studies on the North Korean military and is developing its Chinooks and Apache attack helicopters based on the needs of the South Korean military.
Company officials also said it has completed building four of six P-8A maritime patrol aircraft ordered by South Korea, with plans to finish the rest next year as they gave a tour of its facilities in Seattle on Nov. 28.
In 2018, South Korea selected the P-8A for the Navy's new maritime patrol aircraft. (Yonhap)
koreaherald.com · by Yonhap · December 6, 2023
11. N.K. leader 'in hurry' to highlight his daughter to show his will for succession: minister
Interesting assessment. I am not sure how succession will help him with his internal problems. I doubt very much that knowing his daughter will succeed him will overcome the feelings of resentment caused by the suffering and sacrifice of the Korean people in the north. The key point is that the Minister is recognizing the potential internal problems Kim faces. We need to consider that.
Except:
"The North Korean leader appears to be in a hurry to highlight his daughter in an indication that he is trying to demonstrate his will for succession in the face of difficulties (facing the North)," Kim said in a meeting with reporters at a hotel in Yangpyeong, about 40 kilometers east of Seoul.
N.K. leader 'in hurry' to highlight his daughter to show his will for succession: minister | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · December 6, 2023
YANGPYEONG, South Korea, Dec. 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears to have been "in a hurry" to bring his daughter to the forefront in a bid to demonstrate his commitment to the third hereditary power succession, Seoul's top point man on Pyongyang said Wednesday.
Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho made the assessment amid speculation that frequent public appearances by Kim's daughter, believed to be named Ju-ae, may indicate she could be anointed to succeed her father.
"The North Korean leader appears to be in a hurry to highlight his daughter in an indication that he is trying to demonstrate his will for succession in the face of difficulties (facing the North)," Kim said in a meeting with reporters at a hotel in Yangpyeong, about 40 kilometers east of Seoul.
This file photo, taken Nov. 21, 2023, shows Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho speaking at a policy forum in Seoul. (Yonhap)
The minister said there are "signs" that North Korea has been facing multiple difficulties, citing a series of closures of its diplomatic missions and a food shortage.
Kim called on the North's leader to shift the focus of state policy to measures to improve people's livelihoods from military-focused policy at a key party meeting set for later this month.
North Korea plans to hold a plenary meeting of the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party late this month in a bid to review its 2023 policy measures and unveil its policy lines for next year.
"(The North's leader) should make a bold decision for the economy and people's livelihoods by realizing that it is impossible to catch the two rabbits of the military and the economy," the minister said.
Meanwhile, a senior official at the unification ministry said Kim Ju-ae appears to have emerged "at an early stage" in the process of a hereditary succession.
In a party congress in 2021, North Korea newly awarded the title of general secretary to Kim Jong-un and created the posts of seven secretaries, including the first secretary.
The first secretary of the Workers' Party could assume Kim Jong-un's role when the general secretary cannot perform his duty.
"The position of the first secretary has been vacant. This could be in consideration of Kim Ju-ae," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
Ju-ae, believed to be around 10 years old, made her first public appearance on Nov. 18, 2022, when she, along with her father, attended the firing of a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile.
Unification Minister Kim earlier left open the possibility that Ju-ae could be an heir apparent to succeed Kim Jong-un.
Kim Jong-un took over the communist country following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in 2011. The late Kim inherited power from his father, the country's founder, Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994.
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Soo-yeon · December 6, 2023
12. S. Korea urges N. Korea to cooperate in uncovering truth of S. Korean POWs
And we must also consider their children as well. They were allowed to marry but because of the "Songbun" (social classification) of the POWs their children were sentenced to the same life as their fathers, working in the mines. The regime used these POWs to create a perpetual slave system.
There are estimates that as many as 78,000 Koreans from the SOuth were held as POWs and never allowed to return by the regime.
S. Korea urges N. Korea to cooperate in uncovering truth of S. Korean POWs | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · December 6, 2023
SEOUL, Dec. 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korea urged North Korea on Wednesday to acknowledge the issue of prisoners of the 1950-53 Korean War detained in the country and cooperate in uncovering their fate.
Seoul made the call during an interagency meeting on the issue of prisoners of war (POW) -- the first session of its kind under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration.
The participants, including Vice Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho and officials from the foreign and unification ministries, also decided to continue making requests to North Korea for "substantive" measures on the issue in the future, according to the defense ministry.
South Korea says 80 South Korean POWs in North Korea have fled to their home country since the war ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.
South Korea estimates that more than 500 POWs had still been alive in the North as of late 2016. Still, North Korea denies holding any POWs.
Vice Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho (C) presides over a meeting on the issue of South Korean prisoners of the 1950-53 Korean War detained in North Korea at the defense ministry's headquarters in central Seoul on Dec. 6, 2023, in this photo provided by his office. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · December 6, 2023
13. Korea could disappear from map if it doesn't welcome more immigrants: justice minister
Or achieve unification (but north Korea is having its own challenges with birth rates).
Korea could disappear from map if it doesn't welcome more immigrants: justice minister
The Korea Times · December 6, 2023
Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon speaks during a meeting with ruling People Power Party (PPP) lawmakers at the National Assembly in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap
Local governments race to host immigration agency
By Lee Hyo-jin
Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon warned, Wednesday, that Korea could disappear from the map unless the nation implements effective immigration policies, and called for parliamentary support for his ministry's push to launch a new government agency handling immigration affairs.
"When it comes to immigration policies, we have passed the stage of deliberating whether to implement it or not. Because if we don't, we cannot escape the fate of extinction due to the demographic catastrophe," Han said during a meeting with lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) at the National Assembly in Seoul.
However, Han made it clear that the envisioned launch of the immigration agency does not mean that government will carry out entirely foreigner-friendly measures. Rather, the administration seeks to take a selective stance in accepting foreign nationals and establish what he called a "stronger grip" on those who are overstaying their visas.
"The policies we aim to pursue are not about simply accepting a large number of foreigners. Instead, we will accept only foreign nationals that meet our needs based on thorough assessments, while strengthening crackdowns on undocumented migrants," he said.
The minister stressed that the purpose of the immigration agency is to realize the practical interests of the nation and its people, and not to introduce diverse cultures based on humanitarian purposes.
During the meeting, Han provided details of the ministry's plan to establish the immigration agency, asking for parliamentary support. Cooperation between the justice ministry and PPP lawmakers will involve proposing related bills, as the creation of a new government entity requires revisions to the Government Organization Act.
Meanwhile, as the government speeds up its process to set up the immigration agency, local governments are vying to attract the organization.
Several local municipalities are competing to attract the immigration agency, whose establishment could help the surrounding area address issues such as a declining birthrate and a shortage of workers.
Ansan Mayor Lee Min-geun, left, delivers a proposal letter to Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon to locate the immigration agency in Ansan during a meeting held at the Ministry of Justice in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, Nov. 28. Courtesy of Ansan City Hall
Among others, Ansan City in Gyeonggi Province has shown keen interest.
Ansan is home to over 94,000 residents of foreign nationality who come from a total of 118 countries, accounting for 13 percent of the city's 729,000 population. With the highest foreign population density in Korea, the industrial city has positioned itself as an ideal location for the immigration agency.
"Our infrastructure and experience in foreigner-related policies will be a big asset in operating the immigration agency. Establishing the agency here will be a pivotal move in presenting a future for the successful social integration of residents from immigrant backgrounds," Ansan Mayor Lee Min-geun said during a meeting with justice minister on Nov. 27.
In response, the minister said, "I am well aware that Ansan is taking a leading role in migrant-related policies, as well as the city's efforts to attract the immigration agency. We should work together to find ways to address the nation's pending issues such as the low birthrate."
Gimpo residents hold banners promoting the city's bid to host the immigration agency during a meeting on support measures for children from multicultural backgrounds, which was held at a community center in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, Nov. 31. Courtesy of Gimpo City Hall
Gimpo City, west of Seoul in Gyeonggi Province, is also promoting itself as the best candidate considering its proximity and accessibility to Incheon and Gimpo international airports. It said the immigration agency, if located in Gimpo, would benefit some 150,000 foreign residents living across nearby cities such as Goyang, Bucheon, Paju and Seoul's Gangseo District.
In the southeastern port city of Busan, a civic committee led by scholars and religious leaders was formed in October to help promote their willingness to host the immigration agency, although there has yet to be an official announcement by Busan City declaring its interest.
Discussions on the possible launch of a new immigration agency have gained momentum here since President Yoon Suk Yeol took office in May 2022, as it had been one of his campaign pledges. The justice minister has also been stressing the importance of improved immigration policies for the benefit of the nation.
The need for Korea to establish a separate government agency dedicated to migrant policies has long been stressed by many immigration experts and policymakers, who believe that the absence of a control tower to draft an overall policy framework is the main reason the country is failing to implement coherent immigration policies.
Currently, Korea's immigration policy is handled separately by different branches of the government.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor covers migrant workers. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family creates policies for marriage migrants and their children, while the Ministry of Education handles international students and the Ministry of Justice covers visa statuses and other administrative affairs. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs deals with ethnic Koreans who are overseas.
The Korea Times · December 6, 2023
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
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