In and Around North Korea: 16 - 22 May 2009

North Korea wants the US to change its ‘hostile’ policy and Bosworth ways he will not visit North Korea to revive the Six-Party Talks until the two American journalists are freed

• The North Korean state media said on 17 May that North Korea will not come back to the negotiation table unless the US and the ROK give up their "hostile policy" towards it.
• The North also said it will never attend the Six-Party Talks aiming to end Pyongyang's nuclear program, and will strengthen its nuclear power no matter what other nations have agreed in the Six-Party Talks.
  
• A ROK government official said on 17 May the US special envoy for North Korea policy will visit North Korea to seek ways to revive stalled Six-Party Talks only after two American journalists are released.
  

US Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff calls on North Korea not to conduct a second nuclear test

• Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Monday urged North Korea to refrain from conducting another nuclear test or any other provocative acts that might further isolate the communist North
  
• Speaking to a forum at the Brookings Institution, Mullen, however, would not predict whether North Korea will actually detonate another nuclear device in the near future, after testing one in 2006
  

No ministerial meeting between US and North Korea'

• According to reports on 20 May, US Secretary of State Clinton and her North Korean counterpart Pak Ui-chun will not have ministerial talks during a regional forum in July.
  
• Clinton and Pak are to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Thailand from 17 – 23 Jul, which triggered speculation that they may hold talks on the sidelines of the forum.
  
• Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported the US has no plan to hold a meeting with North Korea, quoting an unidentified official of the State Department.
  

China to continue trying to bring North Korea back to talks

• China, the chair of the six-party talks for denuclearizing North Korea, expressed on 21 May its plan to continue trying to bring Pyongyang back to the negotiations after its announcement to pull out, former Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said.
  
• Kawaguchi told reporters that Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi made the comment in talks with her and former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, who are in Beijing to chair an international meeting on nuclear nonproliferation.
  
• "We were told that China, as the chair of the six-party talks, will continue trying to bring North Korea back to the meeting," Kawaguchi told reporters.
  

North Korea's point-man on inter-Korean relations Executed

• Sources said on 18 May North Korea executed its point-man on South Korea last year, holding him responsible for wrong predictions about Seoul's new conservative government that has ditched a decade of engagement policy toward Pyongyang.
  
• Choe Sung-chol, who as vice chairman of the North's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee had pushed for bold reconciliation with Seoul's previous liberal governments, disappeared from public sight early last year amid reports that he was fired.
  
• Rumors spread in January that he was forced to work at a chicken farm, but a number of sources privy to North Korean internal affairs told Yonhap News Agency that Choe was executed last year to shoulder the blame for inter-Korean relations, which changed drastically with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's inauguration.
  

Is Kim Jong-il grooming his second son to be the successor?

• A news report said on 20 May, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is grooming his middle son as successor, not the youngest son as has been widely speculated, quoting a former North Korean political aide who defected.
  
• Kim Jong Chol is holding a secret high-level post in the North's ruling Workers' Party as part of his successor training and reports directly to the leader, Seoul's Dong-a Ilbo newspaper quoted defector Kim Duk Hong as saying. The 29-year-old "is highly likely to take over the father's post," Kim said.
  
• Kim explained his reasoning and said, “Jong Chol is working as the General First Vice-Director of the Guidance Department after entering the Central Committee of the Party. He receives reports from the three other First Vice-Directors, takes them to Kim Jong-il, receives instructions from Kim Jong-il and controls the other departments.”
  
• Kim said, “In the early 1970s, in North Korea not Kim Jong-il but Pyong-il was in the limelight as the successor to Kim Il Sung, but the final successor was Jong-il. The situation of Jong Cheol and Jong Un looks like that.”
  
• 20 May's report contrasts with widespread media speculation that leader Kim considers the middle son too "girlish" to become leader, and is grooming the third and youngest son, Jong Un, 26, as his successor.
  

New signs that point to Kim Jong-il’s third son, Jong Un, as an potential heir

• An Osaka-based activist organization recently reported students in North Korea are singing songs in praise of Kim Jong-il's third son and potential successor, Kim Jong Un.
  
• The students said they were forced to practice the song all day long instead of taking their regular classes, and could not return home until they had thoroughly memorized it.
  
• The group’s report said, "The fact that schools are teaching students to sing such songs is tantamount to officially declaring the heir (to North Korea)."
  
• The report also states North Korean troops were ordered to shout slogans in praise of Jong Un, e.g., "Let's protect Gen. Kim Jong Un — the young general, the morning star general who inherits the bloodline of Paektu — with all our hearts."
  

N. Korea's 2008 trade hits record US$3.8 bln

• A report said on 18 May North Korean trade with the outside world, excluding South Korea, hit a record US$3.8 billion last year.
  
• Trade jumped 29.7 percent compared with 2007, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, a South Korean trade agency, said in the report. Last year, North Korea's exports rose 23 percent to $1.13 billion with imports climbing 32.7 percent to $2.69 billion, the report said. The country still posted a trade deficit of $1.56 billion for the year.
  
• The report also showed that China's influence on North Korea's moribund economy is rising quickly. The communist nation exported $750 million worth of goods to China and imported $2.03 billion last year. "North Korea's trade with China hit a record last year and keeps growing," the report said.
  

China's economic influence over North Korea grows

• China accounted for almost three-quarters of North Korea's total trade last year and its economic influence over the impoverished state is expected to grow further, data showed.
  
• The North's trade volume with the world, excluding South Korea, was 3.82 billion dollars in 2008, the highest figure since 4.17 billion dollars in 1990, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency said in a report.
  
• Trade with China accounted for 73 per cent of the total compared to just 33 per cent in 2003.
  

UNDP officials to visit North Korea to discuss reopening office there and resuming suspended projects

• UNDP officials visited Seoul last week and discussed the matter with ROK officials, and are to visit Pyongyang later this month to discuss resuming projects suspended two years ago; the UNDP office will reopen in June at the earliest.
  
• The UNDP had conducted development projects in the North since 1981, but withdrew in Mar 07 soon after suspicions arose over North Korea's misappropriation of development funds.
  
• UNDP officials made the decision to return in Jan after North Korea allegedly agreed to guarantee independent auditing and alter the payment and selection of North Korean staff, previously selected by the North, not by the UNDP.
  

US Secretary of State says no US aid to North Korea unless Pyongyang returns to Six-Party Talks

• The US Secretary of State Clinton said on 20 May (EDT) that the US will not provide any economic aid to North Korea unless the North returns to Six-Party Talks on ending its nuclear ambitions.
  
• "We are not going to expend one penny of those funds in the absence of their voluntary return to the six-party talks and their resumption of the obligations that they've already agreed to," Clinton told a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. "This money is, you know, there as a backstop in the event we see the kind of changes in actions that we're looking for from the North Koreans."
  
• Clinton was discussing the US$98 million the Barack Obama administration has asked for in next year's budget to provide heavy fuel oil and cover the disabling of North Korea's nuclear facilities under a Six=Party Talks agreement.
  

Trader Held Over Export of Military-Usable Trucks To N. Korea

• Japanese police said a trader was arrested on 19 May on suspicion of attempting to export to North Korea via South Korea two large tanker trucks that can be converted into launch pads for ballistic missiles.
  
• The police said the suspect was identified as Chong Rin Chae, 50, a South Korean national, who runs a trading house and uses the Japanese name of Tadao Morita. Chong, a resident of Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture, on the Sea of Japan coast, has denied the allegations.
  
• The police said exports of such trucks from Japan are restricted under the foreign exchange and trade law because they can be converted into military equipment, such as vehicles for transporting and launching missiles. Traders must apply for permission to export products that can be converted for military use.
  
• Investigations showed that Chong allegedly shipped the two used tanker trucks to the stopover port of Busan in South Korea for export to North Korea from Kobe port in Japan on Jan. 28 last year without gaining permission from the minister of economy, trade and industry, the police said. Each truck is capable of carrying about 12 tons.
  

US maintains weapons trade embargo on North Korea for lack of cooperation on terrorism

• The United States has maintained North Korea on its list of countries subject to weapons trade embargoes for their lack of cooperation in U.S. anti-terrorism efforts.
  
• "Pursuant of section 40A of the Arms Export Control Act and Executive Order 11958, as amended, I hereby determine and certify to the Congress that the following countries are not cooperating fully with United States antiterrorism efforts: Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Syria and Venezuela," James Steinberg, deputy secretary of state, said in a statement in the Federal Register dated 08 May.
  
• The designation is separate from the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism, from which North Korea was dropped in October when then Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill visited Pyongyang to agree verbally on a verification protocol for the North's nuclear facilities.
  

Seoul calls for 'unconditional' talks with North Korea over the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC) and the ROK Unification Minister rules out shutdown of KIC

• South Korea urged North Korea on 18 May to unconditionally return to the dialogue table to discuss the fate of the KIC.
  
• The call came after the communist nation rejected Seoul's two previous proposals for a follow-up meeting to talks held on 21 Apr, at which Pyongyang demanded wage hikes and payment of land use fees.
  
• An official at the ROK presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said, “Notifying the other side of a unilateral decision and telling them to either accept it or leave the country is simply unacceptable.”
  
• The ROK Unification Minister said on 18 May that the ROK is not considering closing the KIC despite the "crisis."
  
• On 21 May, the ROK Unification Minister urged the North to respond to the ROK’s dialogue proposal over the KIC.
  

North Korea proposes new rules on the KIC

• A ROK spokesperson said on 21 May that North Korea has presented new rules for South Korean firms operating at the KIC, including a US$10,000 fine for destroying roadside facilities.
  
• In its latest proposal sent at the end of Apr to South Korea's management office in Kaesong, North Korea laid out detailed rules for using and maintaining roads, they said. It demanded fines of up to $10,000 for destroying roadside grave stones and other stone markers and $30 for damaging trees.
  
• The draft also calls for a $1,000 fine for building road blockades without permission, a $500 fine for lacking safety measures in road construction, $50 for unregistered operation of caterpillar bulldozers and tractors harmful to pavement surfaces and $30 for jaywalking.
  
• The ROK Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said the proposal is part of a "routine" process in setting up detailed regulations rather than a politically motivated gesture.
  

US likely to provide terrorism related intelligence to the ROK

• A ROK military source in Seoul, Korea, said on 17 May the US may provide confidential terrorism intelligence to the ROK troops overseas.
  
• According to the government insider, Washington is planning to provide real-time information about regional developments collected by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
  
• The two governments have been discussing a memorandum of understanding outlining the information-sharing plan, the source added. "After the MOU is concluded, reports will be delivered to the Cheonghae unit in Somali waters and the Dongmyeong unit in Lebanon," said the source. "I am aware that both countries are also discussing whether to dispatch some DIA agents to those units."