In and Around North Korea: 10 - 16 January 2009

• A spokesman for the NK Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on 13 Jan that the “Wrong views and assertions were floated in the United States recently to create the impression that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is the issue to be settled only when the DPRK shows nuclear weapons.” The spokesman stated that the US should first normalize relations with Pyongyang as a precondition for its denuclearization and that it will hold onto its nuclear weapons as long as the US backs the ROK with its own atomic arsenal.

• Particles of highly enriched uranium have been detected from a high-strength aluminum pipe North Korea submitted to the U.S. government as a sample, senior U.S. officials and other sources said Wednesday (14 Jan). U.S. intelligence authorities are paying attention as it might prove to be evidence of North Korea's nuclear development, which Pyongyang admitted to in 2002, but later denied. The aluminum pipe is a component the U.S. government believes North Korea imported from Russia as part of a centrifuge separator to concentrate uranium in Pyongyang's nuclear weapons development program. North Korea invited U.S. government officials to its military facilities in 2007, when Pyongyang submitted a section of aluminum pipe, explaining to a U.S. delegate that the device was used for conventional weaponry. However, Paula Desutter, U.S. assistant secretary of state for verification, compliance and implementation, said in an interview with the Yomiuri Shimbun that an unexpectedly large amount of uranium particles was found attached to the pipe.

• South Korea rejected Thursday (15 Jan) a North Korean demand to adopt a mutually verifiable deal to confirm the possession or presence of nuclear weapons in each other's territory. North Korea, under increasing pressure from regional powers to agree to a verification regime on its nuclear declaration, insisted Tuesday (13 Jan) that the same rule should be applied to U.S. troops stationed in South Korea. South Korea rejected the North's demand as "distorted."

• A South Korean team visited North Korea on 15 Jan to discuss buying unused fuel rods from its plutonium-producing reactor as part of a nuclear disarmament process. Deputy chief nuclear envoy Hwang Joon-Kook will lead a delegation of officials and nuclear technocrats as South Korea has expressed interest in buying the rods for its nuclear power plants. The delegation will check “technical and economic” aspects of possibly buying the rods. North Korea said that it has some 14,000 unused fuel rods, each one measuring about 60 cm long at the Yongbyon nuclear complex. The total amount is reportedly equivalent to 100 tons of uranium.

• Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak confirmed in their meeting on 12 Jan that their countries will closely cooperate in pursuing denuclearization of North Korea. Aso told Lee that close cooperation of Japan, South Korea, and the United States is important as North Korea may view the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama as a good opportunity to maneuver to split the unity of the three nations.

• Korean Central Broadcasting Station reported on 14 Jan that “according to South Korea's Yonhap News on 13 January, the US Seventh Air Force occupying South Korea proclaimed that it will wage a military exercise testing combat capabilities in preparation for somebody's invasion. The majority of the 8,500 or so members of US Air Force units occupying South Korea, including the Osan and Kunsan US military bases, will reportedly participate in this war exercise; the US Army's Patriot missile unit will reportedly be mobilized as well. The warmongers disclosed that, through various war exercises, they will check the US Air Force's wartime combat mission performance capabilities, including ground target attack [capabilities]. In the meantime, the 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade of the US forces occupying South Korea is also planning to conduct a simulated missile firing exercise. What is grave is that these war exercises are preliminary exercises for Key Resolve, a South Korea-US joint military exercise, which will be staged this Spring. The fact that an official of the US Air Force occupying South Korea publicly clamored that their primary mission is to make sure they are ready to beat back a North Korean attack vividly lays bare the belligerent nature of these war exercises. Right now, the US imperialist aggressors are driving the Korean peninsula's situation to a crisis from the outset of the year by being crazed with war exercises hypothesizing northward aggression, in parallel with large-scale arms buildups of US forces occupying South Korea.”

• KCNA reported on 12 Jan that “the U.S. Defense Department started deploying three squadrons of the latest type F-22 called prototype fighter in the 21st century in the Asia-Pacific and Global Hawk in the U.S. Air Force base on Guam. The report further states that the U.S. unprecedented moves to hold air supremacy of its strategic forces indicate its full-fledged adventurous military actions to retain an unchallenged upperhand of strength in the Asia-Pacific.” This is the first mention by DPRK media of the actual deployment of the F-22 prototype fighter and Global Hawk at a U.S. Air Force base on Guam.

• North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has recently designated his third son, Kim Jong-un, as his successor and delivered a directive on the nomination to the Workers' Party leadership, sources well-informed on North Korea said Thursday (15 Jan). The decision by the elder Kim comes earlier than expected and was likely driven by his poor health condition after suffering a stroke last August, multiple intelligence sources said. Kim's 68th birthday is next month. If actualized, the junior Kim's succession would be the second father-to-son power transfer in the communist country, unprecedented in modern history. "(Kim) delivered a directive around Jan. 8 that he has named Jong-un as his successor to the leadership of the Workers' Party," one of the sources told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity.

• There is little possibility of a regime collapse in North Korea despite doubts over leader Kim Jong-il's long-term viability and growing social distress, a Seoul think tank said. "Protracted economic woes have weakened social discipline and stirred discontent among North Korea's citizens, but the predominant view is that it is an overreaction to read these as signs pointing to North Korea's collapse," the Korea Institute for National Unification said in a report.

• North Korea's recent announcement of impending legislative elections suggests the first session of a new term of the country's legislature, the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA), will officially open sometime in April with Kim Jong Il in attendance. While North Korea's announcement of the planned 8 March 12th SPA elections omitted any mention of when the new term would start – as is standard practice – if past precedent holds, North Korea should open the first session of the 12th SPA in early April.

• According to an unnamed US Intelligence source on 14 Jan, North Korea appears be working to build collective leadership, with the eldest son Kim Cho’ng-nam as the national leader as a mere formality, to prepare for a contingency involving Kim Jong-il. The system centers three persons from the Kim family, the Workers Party of Korea (WPK), and the Korean People’s Army. The report also states that Chang So’ng-t’ae’k, who is the director of the WPK Administrative Department, is a central figure in building collective leadership and that it is highly likely that the system to succeed Kim Jong-il will practically become the “Chang” regime.

• North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has visited a silk yarn and gum factory in Pyongyang to urge workers to enhance production and quality, the North's state-run media reported Thursday (15 Jan). The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim visited the silk yarn factory and after praising workers called for redoubled effort to raise production to world-class levels. He also said more should be done to modernize production facilities and research on silkworms to increase output. The report added that the reclusive leader visited a gum factory in the capital city and talked to workers there along with high ranking officials from the Worker's Party of Korea.

• KCNA reported on 14 Jan that Kim Jong-il inspected machinery plants as part of his stepped-up economic drive. Kim gave field guidance to the Taean Heavy Machine Complex and the Kum Song Tractor Plant. Accompanying him were Pak Nam-ki, department director of the WPK Central Committee, and Ju Kyu Chang and Ri Jae Il, fist vice department directors of the WPRK Central Committee.

• On 11 Jan, Yonhap reported that North Korea recently opened a consulate branch office in Dandong, a major Chinese city bordering North Korea. According to an unnamed source, the move signals the North’s intention to increase its product procurement from China through brisker border trade and strengthen its consular affairs amid a growing North Korean population in the Chinese border city.

• North Korea began preparing for its parliamentary elections next month by forming an election watchdog. The Supreme People’s Assembly set up an election committee and named Yang Hyong-sop, vice president of the Supreme People’s Assembly Presidium, as the committee chair, KCNA said in a two-sentence statement on 12 Jan.

• According to a statement by Good Friends, a South Korean aid group, on 14 Jan, North Korea has postponed for six months a planned clampdown on market trading for fear of provoking widespread public resistance. North Korea, in late November 2008, announced plans to ban general markets that sell consumer goods from early 2009. The plan decreed that farmers’ markets known as “jangmadang” would be allowed to operate just three times a month and could sell only vegetables and certain other farm products, while staples such as rice and corn were to be sold only at state distribution centers.

• The United States delivered its latest batch of food aid to North Korea, according to a Voice of America report on 10 Jan. The 21,000-ton shipment, pledged under the six-nation denuclearization deal, had been scheduled to reach North Korea earlier, but was delayed until 8 Jan due to bad weather. The latest food aid will be distributed to 25 regions in North Korea under the monitor of a group of civic organizations.

• Australia granted $3.75 million in humanitarian aid to North Korea. Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith stated the funds comprised $2 million for the World Food Program for emergency food for North Korea, $1 million for UNICEF for emergency water and water sanitation supplies and $750,000 for the Red Cross.

• In the middle of hearsay circulating in North Korea that food production for 2008 was the highest since the arduous march in the late 1990s, a high-level party official in Yanggang Province has announced to the citizens that food provisions will be normalized shortly. A source from Yanggang Province said in a phone conversation with The Daily NK on 13 January: "In our chuch'e Agricultural Method lecture, which was given nationwide for three days starting 26 December, a Yanggang Province party official emphasized that the state will shortly normalize public provisions."

• The U.S. State Department said on 12 Jan that Pakistan has provided nuclear technology to North Korea to help the communist state build a uranium-based nuclear program. The department said Pakistan’s A. Q. Khan and his associates provided centrifuge designs, equipment and technology to North Korea.

• Exports of North Korean missiles and other weapons rose in value to about 100 million dollars, or more than 10 percent of total exports, last year mainly due to tensions in the Middle East. According to a South Korean news report, an unidentified Seoul government official stated that progress in the six-party nuclear disarmament talks helped North Korea sell more weapons as purchasers felt less political burden in buying such weapons as the talks had made some headway. The Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America were said to be export destinations.

• A North Korean weapons specialist, who is working in a secret nuclear project being implemented in Central Burma by North Korea and the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) military government, passed away in Meiktila. He died on 9 January. The authorities sent the North Korean national to Meiktila Military Hospital because he was suffering from severe migraines but he died on the way, according to a hospital staff who does not wish to be identified. The name of the deceased is still unknown but he was cremated at 0703 on 11 January at the Myindawgan Cemetery with the assistance of Yan Aungmyin Free Funeral Service Society in Meiktila, according to a resident of Meiktila.

• Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung on Thursday (15 Jan) echoed calls by North Korea on the Seoul government to honor and abide by previous bilateral agreements. "It is the obligation of an incumbent president to carry out and respect official international agreements signed by his or her predecessors," Kim said in a meeting with foreign news correspondents in Seoul. Kim urged current South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to honor an agreement reached at the first-ever inter-Korean summit between himself and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000. He also demanded Lee acknowledge another deal signed in 2007 between the North Korean leader and Lee's predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun. The former president, however, also called on the communist North to halt its criticism of the South Korean head of state. "They have to understand that the South Korean people do not condone such reckless criticism ... Their behavior is counterproductive and has gone too far," he said.

• A group of South Korean information technology experts and businessmen will visit North Korea next month on a rare trip to the communist country amid frozen cross-border exchanges, organizers said Thursday (15 Jan). The 80-member group is scheduled to tour North Korea's major IT centers and hold a joint software exhibition during its Feb. 7-11 visit, said the non-governmental South-North Cooperation for IT Exchange. They also plan to donate 5,000 IT books and journals to the North.

• South Korea’s police beefed up security for North Korean defectors sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets to the North amid warnings from the communist state and increasing personal threats. The defectors said they are receiving a growing number of threatening phone calls and that South Korea’s National Intelligence Service and the police have recently increase the number of security guards for them.

• The provincial government of Jeju Island will go ahead with its annual shipment of tangerines and carrots to North Korea despite the central government’s refusal to pay part of the cost. The Jeju government decided to send a smaller shipment of aid this year – 300 tons of tangerines and 1,000 tons of carrots worth about US $441,176 – to North Korea starting on 16 Jan. Jeju Island has sent more than 10,000 tons of tangerines and carrots to North Korea every winter since 1998, with the central government paying for about half the cost.

• North Korea has called on the United States to sign a peace treaty that would formally put an end to the Korean War of 1950-1953 and replace a truce agreement that is still in effect. "If the United States does not intend to attack our country it should have no reasons to refuse from concluding a peace treaty," the Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the Central Committee of Korean Workers' Party, stressed on Thursday (15 Jan). In the past Pyongyang had repeatedly made similar proposals to the United States, however the Bush administration turned them down as "premature," stressing that it will not consent to the conclusion of a peace treaty on the Korean Peninsula before North Korea's denuclearization. The present call of the North has been made 5 days ahead of the inauguration of US President-elect Barack Obama.

• The incoming Barack Obama administration should be ready for early challenges from North Korea as it tries to test Obama and sunder the six-party talks over the North's nuclear ambitions, President George W. Bush's top Asia adviser said on Wednesday (14 Jan). Dennis Wilder, senior adviser for Asia on the National Security Council, also said doubts remained about the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, despite recent efforts to show that he had recovered from a suspected stroke last August. "The North's best act is to try to create the conditions of crisis in order to renegotiate with the United States and the new team will have to be ready for that," he told reporters and scholars at a Washington think tank. "Part of the North's goal will be to see if they can split this five-party consortium that has been created," said Wilder of talks in which China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States have tried to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions in exchange for aid and diplomatic benefits. Any renewed North Korean brinkmanship would also be designed to "see just what the new leader of the United States is made of," he added.

• The United States turned down an offer by North Korea to dispatch its nuclear envoy to Washington following the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama on 20 Jan. North Korea delivered a message in Dec 2008 through its United Nations mission office in New Yokr that it could send Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan as a representative to the inauguration ceremony. One unnamed source stated that North Korea appeared to offer the proposal to test the political waters in the new U.S. administration.