Hang on folks...here we go again...

So, the "good guys" were all congratulating each other on a job well done after formally announcing the adoption of the UNSC Presidential Statement condemning North Korea for launching its rocket on April 5th. The "bad guy" in this story, of course comes back with "I am going to take all my toys and go home, and you can't stop me." routine. Does this sound somewhat familiar? It should be. We've been down this road many, many times before.

So, North Korea announced today that it will pull out of the Six-Party Talks and will begin working on its nuclear program again (like it has ever really stopped -- at least we have no idea that it has ever really stopped).

This is not same lyric different tune...even the tune is the same....

Things are getting more and more interesting over here...we'll see what all shakes out at the end.

Well, due to some time constraints, I have to stop here today. More on this later, so stayed tuned.

In and Around North Korea: 26 November - 4 December 2008

• U.S. chief nuclear envoy Christopher Hill met with his NK counterpart Kim Kye-gwan in Singapore on 04 Dec, saying they had substantive talks focused on verification of the NK’s nuclear activities. “We have reviewed the major issues that we have all been working on. It is disablement, the fuel oil and the issue of verification of their declaration, "Hill told reporters after their meeting. Analysts said this meeting was expected to "set the tone for Beijing", Kyodo News said in an earlier report. Hill has been criticized by conservatives in Washington for being too flexible with North Korea and not obtaining detailed information from Pyongyang about its suspected program to enrich uranium for weapons, or for proliferating technology to countries such as Syria.

• South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said "I anticipate they (the United States and North Korea) would maximize efforts to reach an agreement". Asked whether failure to work out an agreement in Singapore would derail the six-party process, the minister was quoted as saying that "the United States, North Korea and other countries in the six-party framework have appreciated the usefulness of the six-party talks, and the next US administration led by President-elect Obama supports the talks".

• The U.S. State Department's top official on nuclear verification Paula DeSutter stressed on 26 Nov that sampling should be guaranteed in a six-party agreement on ways to assess Pyongyang's nuclear capability. "Sampling is a very normal part of many arms control agreements, especially on nuclear programs," she said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency. "And obviously, analysis happens not on site but back at laboratories specially designed to do the work."

• South Korea, the United States and Japan agreed to finalize the disablement of North Korean nuclear facilities by March 2009, Seoul's top nuclear envoy said. The chief nuclear negotiators from the three nations agreed at a meeting in Tokyo on 03 Dec to fine-tune their strategies ahead of the next round of six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions. The talks are likely to be held in Beijing on 08 Dec.

• Rodong Sinmun on 02 Dec stated “it is the firm and unwavering stand of our Republic to counter the "preemptive attack," which the US imperialists made its main mode of striking us, with a more powerful and advanced preemptive attack of our own style. The preemptive attack of our own style, a powerful and mighty military operation beyond imagination, will make the combined military operations plan of the United States and Japan powerless. Nobody can predict the method of strike of our own style and its might and it will be resolute and merciless to the aggressors. Availing ourselves of this opportunity, we would like to serve a strong warning to the Japanese reactionaries. The desperate efforts made by Japan to start a reckless war against our Republic, crying out for "closer alliance" with the United States in a bid to gain something, will be an act of self-destruction as foolish as jumping into the fire with fagots on its back. Japan would be well advised to bear this in mind.”

• Rodong Sinmun on 01 Dec stated “with no rhetoric can the Lee Myung-bak ring avoid the criminal responsibility for having pushed North-South relations into a crisis of complete shutdown or cover up the anti-reunification and bellicose true colors of those keen to harm fellow countrymen at any cost in league with outside forces. Our principled stand is firm and invariable. We are always faithful to our words and we do not make any empty talk. The fate of North-South relations entirely depends on what attitude the authorities of the South side adopt toward them [declarations]. If the Lee Myung-bak ring continues to maliciously cling to its confrontational racket against the Republic, swimming against the current of the 15 June reunification era, it will be made to take full responsibility for all the grave consequences to be entailed.”

• KCNA reported on 02 Dec “the south Korean puppets are contemplating revising the "national defense reform for 2020" as a dangerous plan for arms buildup, while spreading rumor of "threat from the north." This is prompted by their bellicose scenario to realize at any cost their wild ambition to invade the north in collusion with foreign forces by attaining their goal for beefing up the ultra-modern armed forces earlier than scheduled and pushing ahead with it under a more carefully worked out plan.” It went on to say “the catastrophic crisis of the inter-Korean relations bears a close resemblance to the situation on the eve of a war. The Lee group would be well advised to stop the reckless arms buildup at once, mindful that the provocative acts will only further bedevil the inter-Korean relations and entail disastrous consequences.”

• North Korea released more pictures of leader Kim Jong Il visiting a military unit. Photos including one showing him clapping, in an apparent attempt to dispel rumors that a stroke left him partially paralyzed.

• KCNA reported on 03 Dec that Kim Jong Il visited the recently renovated Central Zoo in Pyongyang and oversaw operations there for “a long time.” The report did not specify exactly when the visit took place, but said the renovations were completed on 09 Nov, indicating he may have been there in the past month. It was the first time the KCNA had reported that Kim visited the local landmark.

• The Mainichi Daily News reported on 01 Dec that a move to have the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il succeed him as the reclusive country's next leader failed due to a power struggle within North Korea's ruling party late last year.

• Chang Song Taek, 62, a high-ranking official at the Worker's Party of Korea, asked fellow party official Lee Je Gang to agree to endorse Kim's eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, 37, as his successor around the end of last year.

• However, Lee rejected Chang in favor of Kim's second son, 28-year-old Kim Jong Chol instead, according to sources close to the North Korean government.

• The failed agreement between Chang -- Kim Jong Il's brother-in-law -- and Lee -- a senior aide to Kim -- has reportedly thrown the party into disarray over who will succeed Kim Jong Il, whose health is reportedly deteriorating.

• A 20 Nov article in the Tokyo Shimbun translated on 01 Dec stated that exports from North Korea's Musan mine (Musan County, North Hamgyo'ng Province), which boasts of the largest deposit of iron ore in Northeast Asia, and exports of rice from China to the DPRK had stopped since September. According to several related sources, the traffic of cargo trains between the two countries has also stopped since the beginning of November. The reason for this "strange occurrence" in PRC-DPRK trade is unknown, but certain pundits suspect that this is linked to rumors of General Secretary Kim Jong Il's illness.

• Kyodo News reported that Singapore and North Korea signed an investment guarantee agreement on 02 Dec as Pyongyang pitched for investment from the city-state. The agreement was signed by Singapore's Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang and North Korea's Foreign Trade Minister Ri Ryong Nam on the last day of his three-day official visit to Singapore. It promotes bilateral investment flows by protecting investors and their investments through nondiscriminatory treatment, compensation in the event of expropriation or nationalization of their investments, and free transfer of capital and returns from investment, Lim's ministry said in a statement.

• Amidst the stumbling of South Korean enterprises in the Kaesong Industrial Complex as a result of the 01 Dec restrictions, the assertion is that a “Shinuiju Special Zone” is on the way.
  
• Forum for Inter-Korea Relations representative Kim Gyu Chul held a press conference in Seoul on 01 Dec and released a piece of North Korean special data, which was purchased in March from a foreign consulting company in China, about developing a special zone in Shinuiju. According to Kim, North Korea has a plan to build a special economic zone in the Shiuiju and Wihwado region, on around 83.772 hectares of land.

• "During the period of the current South Korean administration, North Korea will minimize reliance on the South's economy, increase reliance on China, and is planning to promote economic relations with the U.S., the E.U. and Russia," he stated.

• Mobile phone service will be launched this month in North Korea but it is unclear who will be allowed to use it in the secretive communist state, a news report said on 04 Dec. The service is due to begin in Pyongyang on 10 Dec, US broadcaster Radio Free Asia said in a Korean-language website report which quoted a Chinese trader operating in the country. The broadcaster said the service will gradually expand to other parts of the country, with mobile handsets costing 700 dollars. This would make them too expensive for all but a tiny minority. Radio Free Asia said it was not known whether the new service would be restricted to communist party officials. Egypt's Orascom Telecom announced in January it had won the right to offer the mobile service and said it would invest 400 million dollars in the project.

• Officials at South Korea’s Ministry of Strategy and Finance said that the government plans to establish a 9.9 billion won ($6.7 million) trust fund in the World Bank next year in the form of a "Fragile States Fund," through which South Korea plans to provide organizational development assistance. "Since North Korea is not a member of the World Bank, we cannot help North Korea directly," an official of the ministry said. He noted that the fund would not target the North only, but "If there is some progress in North Korea's opening up and it becomes a member of the World Bank, the fund could be directly used to help the North," he added.

• KCNA reported that the DPRK categorically rebuffs and condemns an anti-DPRK resolution on human rights which was “railroaded through the meeting of the 3rd Committee of the 63rd UN General Assembly.” This "resolution, fabricated by Japan and the EU with a political motive to tarnish the image of the DPRK in the international arena, is peppered with lies and fabrications.” The article went on to say “That was why the majority of the UN member nations said no or abstained from voting, questioning the resolution as it was a vivid manifestation of politicization and double-dealing standards in dealing with a human rights issue.”

• The director of the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency said “U.S. intelligence agencies have numerous indications of close cooperation between Iran and North Korea on developing ballistic missiles.” Air Force Lt. Gen. Trey Obering told reporters that a recent Iranian missile test was one sign of Teheran-Pyongyang missile cooperation.

• South Korea will complete the withdrawal of hundreds of its nationals from North Korea on 04 Dec after the communist nation ordered them out. The North earlier demanded that, starting this week, the number of South Koreans working at the joint industrial and tourism zones in Kaesong and Mount Kumgang be halved to 880 and 100, respectively. The communist nation said the cutback is part of its initial retaliatory measures on Seoul's hard-line policy toward Pyongyang. The last group of about 50 staffers, including 23 Chinese, are scheduled to leave the two North Korean areas in the afternoon, according to Kim Ho-nyoun, spokesman for Seoul's Unification Ministry dealing with North Korea.

• Activists from groups who regularly send balloons carrying flyers to North Korea clashed on 02 Dec with tens of opponents from liberal groups protesting against the campaign as they attempted to launch a new batch of balloons at a port near the western sea border between the two Koreas. One activist was hospitalized after being hit on the head with a wrench wielded by a protester. The clash underscored South Korea's deepening ideological divide over sensitive political and social issues. Conservatives claim leafleting is an effective means of helping North Koreans see the truth in a country where the use of radio and television as well as the internet is limited. Liberals, to the contrary, believe it would only enrage North Korea and result in deteriorated ties.

• Conservative South Korean activists resumed sending propaganda leaflets into the North on 03 Dec and, in contrast to the previous day, there were no clashes with leftwing organizations trying to prevent them. Ten members of Family Assembly Abducted to North Korea and Fighters for Free North Korea floated 10 large balloons carrying 100,000 propaganda leaflets from the Bridge of Freedom at Imjingak Park in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. Attached to the leaflets were 1,000 US$1 bills.

• Radio Free Asia said on 03 Dec that North Korea has mobilized its troops to collect anti-communist leaflets distributed by South Korean civic groups off its western coast. The report said Pyongyang’s intelligence agents are monitoring residents in the area and punishing those who read or keep the leaflets.

• South Korean troops are on guard against any military provocation by North Korea after the communist state ordered a border clampdown amid worsening ties, the defense ministry said on 03 Dec. The North on 01 Dec imposed strict border controls and ordered the expulsion of hundreds of South Koreans working at the Kaesong joint industrial estate, in protest at what it calls the Seoul government's confrontational policy. It also halted a cross-border cargo rail service and a popular day tour. "In response to the North's 01 Dec measure, surveillance and control operations are being stepped up against (any) naval attacks and attempts to kidnap fishing boats," the ministry said.

• South Korea’s Democratic Party Chairman Chung Sye-kyun, Democratic Labor Party Chairman Kang Ki-kap, and Renewal of Korea Party Chairman Moon Kook-hyun held an “urgent meeting” on 30 Nov in the National Assembly member office building to discuss ways to deal with what they defined as a crisis in relations with North Korea. During the meeting the leaders of the three opposition parties decided to adopt a four-point joint resolution. “The leaders of North and South Korea agreed to the June 15 Joint Statement and the October 4 Summit Declaration and the United Nations supported them unanimously. The (South Korean government) must clearly state that it intends to carry out the agreements. It must scrap its unrealistic Vision 3000 plan and change its North Korea policy to be one of reconciliation and cooperation,” the statement said.

• ROK Minister of National Defense Lee Sang-hee said on 03 Dec that if an emergency situation or political instability takes place in North Korea, South Korea must use all means necessary to prevent any potential negative influence from China.

• South Korea on 03 Dec accused North Korea of breaching every existing military agreement between the two Koreas, blaming the communist nation for what is now a nearly defunct relationship between the two. The accusation comes two days after the communist North virtually shut down the passage through the inter-Korean border, reducing the number of South Koreans allowed to cross it from nearly 10,000 a day to only 1,500. "North Korea has breached or failed to honor most of agreements reached between the South and the North in military affairs," the defense ministry told the special committee of the National Assembly on inter-Korean relations.

• South Korea has delayed a costly plan to send naval ships to pirates-infested Somali waters, officials said on 28 Nov as the country continues to reel from the global financial crisis. The South Korean government had initially planned to seek parliamentary approval before the year's end for the motion, which calls for the dispatch of a stealth destroyer and Navy forces to patrol the dangerous coastal waters off the African country. Several South Korean commercial ships have fallen victim to piracy in Somali waters in recent years.

• The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution allowing member states to continue fighting pirates off the coast of Somalia for another year. The resolution also offers support for a European Union anti-piracy mission that launches next week. From United Nations headquarters in New York, VOA's Margaret Besheer has more. The U.S.-drafted resolution authorized states to continue taking all necessary means to combat piracy - including the use of force.

• The U.S. Congress recommended on 02 Dec that the incoming Barack Obama administration give priority to stopping the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran, fearing their armament will jeopardize the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. "As a top priority, the next administration must stop the Iranian and North Korean nuclear weapons programs," a congressional research report said. "In the case of North Korea, this requires the complete abandonment and dismantlement of all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs."

In and around North Korea: 21 - 26 November 2008

• The next round of six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programs will be held on 08 Dec in China, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. The talks have been stalled for months over how to verify North Korea's nuclear facilities as presented by the reclusive country in June as part of a nuclear deal signed by the six parties in the multilateral talks.

• On 25 Nov, Robert Wood, the US State Department spokesman, said the US is arranging a trilateral meeting with South Korea and Japan to prepare for a fresh round of six-party talks early next month to discuss how to verify North Korea's nuclear facilities. Robert Wood said, "I know we are trying to arrange a trilat meeting, you know, before the six-party Heads of Delegation meeting."

• Russian deputy foreign minister Alexei Borodavkin told Interfax on 25 Nov that changing the current format of the six- party talks on North Korea's nuclear problem would be unreasonable. "We believe that the existing six-party format is optimal. Any attempts to change it may have a negative effect on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula." It was reported earlier that North Korea demanded that Japan be excluded from the six-party talks for refusing to meet its obligations to supply fuel oil to Pyongyang.

• The U.S. State Department's top official on nuclear verification stressed on 26 Nov that sampling should be guaranteed in a six-party agreement on ways to assess Pyongyang's nuclear capability. Paula DeSutter, assistant secretary of state for verification, compliance, and implementation, hinted, however, at some flexibility in the format, saying, "it is not unusual for us to have a primary document with common understandings and a secondary document." "Sampling is a very normal part of many arms control agreements, especially on nuclear programs," she said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency. "And obviously, analysis happens not on site but back at laboratories specially designed to do the work." DeSutter, on a trip to the ROK to attend a U.N. disarmament seminar, said she will dispatch one of her senior staff to the upcoming six-way talks on the North Korean nuclear issue to ensure that sampling will be included in the verification protocol.

• The Rodong Sinmun reported in a signed article on 25 Nov that “the Lee Myung-bak group's moves for confrontation with the DPRK are, in essence, acts against reunification and the worst acts of treachery as they are ultimately aimed to provoke a war of aggression against the DPRK.”

• The Minju Joson reported in a signed commentary on 25 Nov “the U.S. is contemplating transferring about 8 000 marines present in Okinawa and their families to Guam and converting it into a military fortress in the Pacific in the period from 2010 to 2014. This means the U.S. declared at home and abroad its intention not to change its policy of military intervention and engagement in the Asia-Pacific region even in the years to come.”

• The Rodong Sinmun reported on 25 Nov that “war is an indispensable means of survival and one of the major links in politics for the United States. Almost all wars, large and small, fought during and after the Cold War period broke out with direct or indirect US intervention. The Korean war of the 1950s was also provoked by the United States. Today, the United States is again trying to provoke a new Korean war in collusion with its minion forces. Indications of that happening are becoming clearer with each passing day. Recently, the United States began, with Japan, the work of conducting a sweeping reexamination of the ‘joint operation plan’ in anticipation of an ‘emergency’ on the Korean peninsula.”

• Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun reported on 26 Nov, a Chinese source well versed in the situation in North Korea revealed on 25 Nov that Kim Jong-il had had another stroke in late October, and his health was so deteriorated that an emergency operation had been considered. However, it is not known whether KJI underwent another operation. Piecing together comments made by diplomatic personnel in Beijing, there seems to have been a respite in KJI's illness. It has been viewed that KJI had a stroke in August, but was recovering with some after-effects. The official stated KJI was hospitalized in mid-August for emergency treatment for a worsened chronic heart-disease condition. Results of the detailed examination showed that a blood clot in his heart went to his brain and obstructed a blood vessel [in the brain]. Neurosurgeons from China and France were said to have been sent to North Korea, and that a few days later a French neurosurgeon performed an operation.

• North Korean radio announced Kim Jong Il visited a cosmetics factory and a machinery plant in Sinuiju. He congratulated workers at the Nagwon Machine Complex on completing the year's production quota by the end of October.

• South Korean and Japanese media have noticeably highlighted the prospects of a future collective leadership and the growing role of Kim Jong Il's close confidants -- Chang So'ng-t'aek and Kim Ok – in succession dynamics since rumors of Kim Jong Il's ill health resurfaced in early September. By contrast, media have taken a more ambivalent attitude toward Kim Jong Il's three sons, discussing the possibility of hereditary succession only with the support of Kim Jong Il's inner circle. This media shift in focus underscores the growing view among North Korea watchers in the ROK and Japan that, whether North Korea adopts a collective leadership or chooses to continue the "monolithic leadership system" for a third generation, no one person is likely to exercise the absolute power wielded by Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

Since early September, when rumors of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's serious illness resurfaced, South Korean and Japanese media have given extensive coverage to a possible collective leadership in the future. While media remain divided over who would be at the helm of such a system, most such reports suggest leadership by the military, specifically the National Defense Commission (NDC) – the supreme military organ of the state which oversees all military and defense affairs -- is plausible in a post-Kim Jong Il era.

Small number of South Korean media reports, however, cited authoritative pundits on the party's ostensibly superior stature and hence the probability of a party-centered collective leadership.

Since many high-level civilians and military leaders hold titles in both state and party organizations, ROK and Japanese media have reported, though infrequently, on the possibility of a collective leadership led jointly by the different branches of government.

• Korean Central Broadcasting Station reported on 25 Nov a Korean People's Army Air Force delegation led by Colonel General Ri Pyong-chol, commander of the Air Force, returned home on 25 Nov after visiting Cuba. KPA general-grade officers and officers received the delegation at the airport.

• North Korea is playing a double game in inter-Korean and international relations, taking care of lucrative deals while appearing more hard-line in its policy. On Monday, North Korea announced it is stopping package tours to Kaesong and cutting inter-Korean railway service, but permitted continued operation of the Kaesong Industrial Complex. Pundits say this is because the North cannot afford to lose the money it makes from the industrial park. The complex employs 33,688 North Korean workers earning US$70 a month. That alone means W43 billion (US$1=W1,502) a year. With other added value included, the annual economic effects the North gains from the industrial park are estimated at between W250 billion and W300 billion. Kaesong package tours made the North W16 billion last year, but if the urgent aim is to pressure the South and bolster the regime, Pyongyang seems to have decided that stopping the tours is the lesser of two evils. In the nuclear negotiations, the North is also thoroughly calculates the economic benefits. While rejecting sample collections as "banditry," the North has agreed to resume the six-party talks in December because it can get economic and energy aid only if it attends the talks. On the international stage, the North recently rejected the UN human rights resolution, calling it "a scheme to change our system by coercion." Nonetheless, the North requested emergency food aid to the World Food Programme and got a promise of 600,000 tons in aid, worth about W650 billion. Though it has never admitted the UN special rapporteur on North Korean human rights, Pyongyang has allowed WFP officials to monitor food distribution by visiting anywhere in North Korea.

• According to Sankei Shimbun Online Japanese Morning Edition of 25 Nov, Iranian and Syrian delegations visited North Korea in late Oct to promote nuclear development. The article reported that according to a source well-versed in North Korea's nuclear issue, North Korea, Iran, and Syria seem to have discussed a tripartite joint training project for technicians who work at nuclear facilities. The source points out that the joint training project started in late 2006.

• On 24 Nov, North Korea’s delegation to the North-South general-level military talks notified the South Korean side, that due to the South’s blatant acts of destruction of all North-South agreements, it will take the following important measures beginning from 01 Dec:
  
  1. North Korea will selectively expel resident personnel and vehicles of relevant offices of the authorities and enterprises in the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Mt Kumgang Tourism District, and cut off their overland passages through the MDL.
  
  2. North Korea will completely cut off the tour of Kaesong by the South side's personnel that has been conducted through their passage of the MDL in the West Coast area under the control of the North and South.
  
  3. North Korea will disallow the operation of the South side's train that has run between Pongdong and Munsan and close again the MDL that was opened.
  
  4. North Korea will also strictly restrict the passage of all the South side's personnel through the MDL to enter and leave the Kaesong Industrial Complex and the Mt Kumgang Tourist Zone under the name of visit, economic cooperation work, and the like.
  
  5. North Korea will impose stricter order and discipline on passage and entry into the Kaesong Industrial Complex and the Mt. Kumgang Tourist District, and strong sanctions will be applied to violators.

• On 26 Nov, Dong-A Ilbo reported, the ROK government has started to pull out South Koreans from the joint industrial complex in Kaesong and consider how to compensate businesses operating in the complex. The ROK government formed a task force comprised of working-level officials at the Unification Ministry on 25 Nov and began preparing for the withdrawal of South Korean staff as demanded by the North. Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun told reporters, "The safety of the people working and staying at the complex is the top priority. The Kaeso'ng Industrial District Management Committee and companies whose staff were requested to leave the complex by the North are now in talks with the North on the number of personnel to be pulled out and the schedule." As of 25 Nov, 1,592 South Koreans were in the North Korean border city, including 38 workers on the management committee; 750 staff at 88 small manufacturers; 50 volunteers at 13 community work facilities; 201 workers employed by nine construction companies; and 553 staff at Hyundai Asan Corp. and other partner companies. If the government complies with the North's demand, some 500 South Korean workers will be pulled out from the complex, leaving behind 750 staff at manufacturers. In a related move, the ministry and the Small and Medium Business Administration are seeking to assess the damage to businesses operating in Kaesong and respond to a growingly hostile North Korea. The ministry will hold an advisory committee meeting of North Korean experts 08 Dec on handling the issue. Measures under consideration are encouraging companies at the complex to join a damage compensation program; introducing a collective purchase system to cope with a cut in orders from partner companies; and providing liquidity to prevent a credit crunch, according to ministry officials. The damage compensation program will require the government to absorb 90 percent of the losses (up to 10 billion won or 6.7 million U.S. dollars) stemming from the North's breach of contracts or expropriation of investment funds if companies sign up for the program for a fee.

• Hyundai Asan is in shock after North Korea announced it is stopping package tours to the city of Kaesong from Dec. 1. That means all tourism to North Korea stops for the first time in 10 years. The fatal shooting of a South Korean tourist in July already forced the company to halt tours to Mt. Kumgang. Suspension of the Kaesong tours, however, could cost Hyundai Asan up to W2 billion per month in addition to the W80 billion lost from the Mt. Kumgang tours.

• South Korean activists said on 25 Nov they will continue sending propaganda leaflets over the border into North Korea despite the communist neighbor's threats and Seoul's pleas to stop sending them. "We at one point had decided to suspend our activities of sending leaflets for the time being but reversed the decision after the North's announcement," Park Sang-hak, head of Fighters for Free North Korea, a Seoul-based group of North Korean defectors.

• North Korean authorities have begun tightening control over government officials and citizens, taking such steps as confiscating Japanese cars from senior government officials, at a time when the deterioration of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's health has been reported, a South Korean newspaper has reported. According to the Dong-a Ilbo, the authorities began seizing Japanese cars possessed by senior government officials from Thursday, 27 Nov. The North Korean regime also announced that it will close down markets around the country used by citizens to sell commodities and clothes from next year. Some observers say the movements are initiated by Chang Sung Taek, head of the Workers' Party of Korea's administrative department, who is rumored to wield power in the country now instead of Kim, to enhance his prestige. According to the Dong-a Ilbo, North Korean authorities are seizing cars and microbuses made in Japan. About 80 percent of the cars used in North Korea are Japanese, but the authorities have been relentless in seizing cars from many people, including senior government officials. The pretext for the confiscation is unknown. The newspaper says there are several possible reasons, including the deterioration of Japan-North Korea relations and moves to boost business for the factories of Pyeonghwa Motors Corp., which is an affiliate of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of Christianity, or the Unification Church. The markets in question were established in 2002 as part of Pyongyang's economic policies. Citizens gather at the markets to sell commodities, clothes and food. However, the authorities are planning to close them down and only allow markets that sell agricultural products, which existed before 2002. The only products people will be allowed to sell from 2009 will be agricultural products cultivated on surplus farmland. Citizens will be required to sell commodities and other products through government-run shops. Kim has ordered the seizure of Japanese cars twice before, including in January 2007, but the attempts have failed because the government officials in charge of the policy were also using Japanese cars. In addition, North Korean authorities reportedly have tried many times to close the people's markets, regarding them as a hotbed for capitalism to spread. However, all such attempts have failed.

• Radio Free Asia reported that the North Korean state orchestra may hold a performance in New York City this coming March. The performance will be in response to the one given by the New York Philharmonic in Pyongyang earlier this year.

• On 26 Nov, the ROK Defense Ministry stated the U.S. program to keep munitions as war reserves in South Korea will be terminated next month more than three decades after it was established as a deterrent against North Korea. Nearly half, or some 260,000 tons, of U.S. ammunitions stockpiled here under the War Reserve Stocks for Allies (WRSA) program will still be maintained and used by South Korean forces. The rest will be shipped back to the United States by 2020. Seoul and Washington signed an agreement last month for the sale of the WRSA ammunition to South Korea for a little over 270 billion won (US$184 million). "Even though the WRSA program will be terminated, the two countries will continue to maintain a system under which they will support each other's ammunition needs," the ministry said in a press release. A ministry official later said the transfer of WRSA ammunitions to South Korea will be completed before the end of the year. The U.S. program was initiated in 1974 in order to have enough munitions and supplies ready for the combined forces of South Korea and the United States in times of need. Washington decided in 2006 to terminate the program due to rising maintenance costs.

Groupthink

As I watched the development surrounding the US beef for the past two months, I have come to realize once again the dangers of groupthink and how easy it is for people to get caught up in the mob mentality. As the discord over the US beef issue grew, it became very clear very quickly to me that these protets would get out of hand and it was matter of when and not if. As the groupthink mentality started to take over, it very quickly became an us vs. them propsition. So, anyone who, in the eyes of the protesters, did not support the cause instantly became public enemy number one. Recently, this groupthink mentality has gotten to the point of criminal. The highlight is the recent netizens' movement to boycott companies who advertise in the three main South Korean newspapers, the Chosun, Dong-A and JoongAng dailies. This movement, however, has degenerated from a consumer movement to criminal cyber and telephone terrorism.

I came across an op-ed piece written by the former President Kim Dae-Joong today titled A Lone Protest Against the Protests and I could not agree with him more. You must understand...this is by no means a normal thing for me...to agree with the former president, but on this one, I fully agree with him.