In and Around North Korea: 14 - 20 March 2009

• North Korea asked Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei to provide light water reactors to the country as a condition for accepting a comprehensive verification procedure over its nuclear activities, sources close to the six-party denuclearization talks said Thursday (19 Mar). The request was made when Wu, the chairman of the six-way talks, visited the country in February to seek a breakthrough in the multilateral negotiations, which have remained stalled since December, when they ended without progress due to sharp differences over how to verify Pyongyang's nuclear activities.

• North Korea will reject the six-party denuclearization talks [6PT] should the Barack Obama administration sanction it over its rocket launch, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper hinted Thursday (19 Mar). However, North Korea is ready to respond if the U.S. proposes dialogue, said the Choson Sinbo, a Tokyo-based paper that conveys North Korea's position. "It is too early to predict which action the Obama administration that has said its North Korea policy is 'under review' will take," the paper said. "One thing that is certain is that should it choose to go with sanctions and pressure, its dialogue process with North Korea that has been held through the diplomatic frame of six-party talks will face the risk of suspension."

• Chinese President Hu Jintao urged North Korea's visiting premier Thursday (19 Mar) to cooperate with efforts to resume stalled international talks on dismantling the North's nuclear programs, state media said. Hu told Kim Yong Il that China is willing to work with other parties to restart the six-nation talks and overcome difficulties, the official Xinhua News Agency said. "We hope that relevant parties can consider the whole situation, appropriately resolve their differences and promote the progress of the six-party talks," Xinhua quoted Hu as saying.

• North Korea has removed more than 75 percent of the used fuel rods at its atomic facilities, a U.S. report showed Sunday (15 Mar), a sign that progress has been made towards denuclearization despite hang-ups in multilateral talks. According to the report by the Congressional Research Service, the North has removed 6,100 out of 8,000 used fuel rods as of the end of February with efforts underway to fully disable nuclear facilities at its Yongbyon complex. The report comes as the six-party talks on the North's atomic programs have been stalled since December, when North Korea refused to agree to a verification protocol for its nuclear facilities.

• North Korea has slowed disablement work at its key nuclear reactor from what had already been a snail-like pace, complaining it has not been given energy aid promised in compensation, diplomatic sources said Tuesday (17 Mar).

• The slowdown comes at a time when the delivery of about 75 percent of assistance promised in a six-party deal has been completed, but the other 25 percent remains up in air. According to the sources, North Korea recently dropped the pace of disablement work by reducing the number of nuclear fuel rods it removes from the reactor from 15 a day to 15 a week.

• According to North Korean military sources, the aggressive Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises aimed at ground, maritime, and air surprise strikes against our Republic are being conducted recently at a peak stage. Vast armed forces of such proportions as to be seen only on the eve of war entered the stage of attack operations across the entire region of South Korea under orders from the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command and the puppet Joint Chiefs of Staff already put into mobile deployments.

• North Korean Premier Kim Yong-il began on Tuesday (17 Mar) his five-day trip to China, where he will attend an opening ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of bilateral relations and meet with Chinese leaders. Kim, accompanied by industry-related Cabinet ministers, arrived in Beijing amid tensions surrounding his country's planned rocket launch. After the ceremony for the opening of the "year of Sino-DPRK friendship," the premier is scheduled to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao, on Wednesday (18 Mar) and meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao the following day.

• Russia plans to step up political and economic cooperation with North Korea, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in a congratulatory message to his North Korean counterpart Kim Yong-Il upon the 60th anniversary of the bilateral agreement on economic and cultural cooperation. "This is the first interstate document in our bilateral relations that set the legal groundwork for boosting mutually advantageous and equal cooperation not only on economy and culture, but also in other areas," he said.

• An online media reported rumors that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was helped to ascend stairs during recent onsite inspections in Hoiryeong, North Hamkyung Province, on Feb. 24, raising speculations about his health conditions. Citing a source from the province, Daily N.K. said some people who accompanied Kim at the time of the tour are under investigation by the authorities for spreading rumors of Kim’s health difficulties to their acquaintances.

• It has been reported that Kim Jong Il, chairman of the North Korean National Defense Commission [NDC], will begin successor's lessons for his third son, Chong-un, 26, with the first session of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly [SPA] -- which is to be held at the beginning of next month -- as a starting point. North Korean sources in Beijing said so on the 9th [of March], while also saying that Chairman Kim will carry out a large-scale reshuffle of the party and the army in general, within this month as the election of deputies to the SPA has been successfully completed. This source, who demanded anonymity, said that "Chong-un will begin to take successor's lessons in earnest, from next month on," while also saying that "through the reshuffle, Chairman Kim will confer a major position on Chong-un, whom he unofficially designated as successor." He also said that "Chairman Kim will officially designate his third son Chong-un as the successor who will inherit the revolutionary tradition of North Korea, this coming 2012, which is both his 70th birthday and the 100th birthday of Kim Il Sung, and in which [North Korea] will open the gate of a powerful state."

• North Korea has ordered international food aid workers to leave the country this month over a dispute with the US that comes amid rising tensions as Pyongyang prepares to launch a long-range missile. Pyongyang has told Washington that United Nations World Food Programme [WFP] staff will be barred from distributing food aid after March. The Stalinist regime has also told US non-governmental organisations to leave this month, and rescinded permission for other humanitarian groups to visit, the Financial Times has learned.

• North Korea has refused to accept humanitarian food aid from the U.S., the State Department said Tuesday (17 Mar), amid escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula over North Korea's planned rocket launch and ongoing joint military drills between South Korea and the U.S. "North Korea has informed the United States that it does not wish to receive additional U.S. food assistance at this time," spokesman Robert Wood said. "We will work with U.S. NGOs and the North Korean counterparts to ensure that food that's already been delivered -- or food that's already in North Korea -- is distributed to the intended recipients." North Korea's harvest this year will fall short of the demand by its 24 million people by about 1.17 million tons, according to the Seoul government. Even if the North's own imports and Chinese aid are considered, the net shortage will likely surpass 500,000 tons, it said. The U.S. spokesman said he had no idea what caused the North Koreans to reject further food assistance, hinting that the North's reluctance to issue visas for Korean-speaking monitors at the World Food Program might have played a role.

• North Korea, facing chronic food deficiencies, is again looking at fertilizer shortages as the spring farming season approaches. North Korean authorities and farmers are particularly troubled by the fact that, just as last year, the likelihood of receiving chemical fertilizer aid from the South is practically non-existent. “If South Korean fertilizer aid to the North is not forthcoming this year, it will have a severe impact on the North’s grain production. This is already reflected in grain prices within North Korean markets, and could serve to drive them up even further.”

• A U.N. human rights investigator accused North Korean authorities Monday (16 Mar) of committing widespread torture in prisons that he called "death traps." Life in the reclusive communist-ruled country is "dire and desperate," said Vitit Muntarbhorn, adding that people are denied enough food to survive. Muntarbhorn told the 47-nation Human Rights Council that whole families are routinely sent away for the crimes of one member. Once imprisoned, they suffer greatly. "Many prisons are a death trap for the inmates," he said.

• Following North Korea's announcement that it had informed international agencies of its impending launch of a satellite, officials in South Korea, Japan and the United States on 13 Mar condemned the plan and warned of serious consequences. South Korea's Foreign Ministry said that early yesterday morning it had received official confirmation of the planned launch from the International Civil Aviation Organization [IMO] and the International Maritime Organization [ICAO], the two agencies informed of the North's moves. In the official document provided to the ICAO, the North stated that it would "proceed with the launch of a communications satellite" between April 4 and 8, and between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m., Greenwich Mean Time, or 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., Korean time. On the map issued by the ICAO, North Korea provided two specific dangerous areas, with detailed coordinates on a map. One area is off Japan's northeastern coast, while the other is in the Pacific Ocean.

• Japan and South Korea on Monday warned North Korea of a harsh international response if Pyongyang goes ahead with a rocket launch, including raising the issue at the U.N. Security Council, with Tokyo's top nuclear envoy hinting at further unilateral sanctions by Japan. Akitaka Saiki, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, also said after meeting his South Korean counterpart Wi Sung Lac in Tokyo that the two countries believe a missile launch by Pyongyang would "unavoidably" affect any hope of resuming the stalled six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing North Korea. "Japan and South Korea are in absolute agreement that such a provocative act by North Korea, be it for the firing of a missile or a satellite, would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions," Saiki told reporters. "If the launch goes ahead despite our calls against it, of course the international community will respond harshly."

• The government plans to approve at a Cabinet meeting as early as by the end of March preparatory measures to destroy the ''satellite'' rocket North Korea is preparing to launch, in the event that it would fall onto Japanese territory, government sources said Tuesday (17 Mar). Following the decision, Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada will order the Self-Defense Forces to take measures to prepare for the possible intercept of what is seen as a Taepodong-2 long-range ballistic missile in line with the Self-Defense Forces Law, including the deployment of ground-based Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptors in regions where a part or all of the projectile might fall.

• North Korea, if it goes through with a rocket launch, may open the door for Seoul to consider full-fledged membership in a Washington-led campaign to combat weapons proliferation, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said. "That is a possibility because the Proliferation Security Initiative is aimed at containing weapons of mass destruction, and if North Korea develops and attains such capabilities, there will be a need to prevent proliferation. So from this point of view, the launch may raise the need to review full membership," Yu said on Friday (20 Mar). Seoul is currently on observer status, and the previous government had put off full membership, citing such circumstances. Recently, however, an increasing number of scholars and officials have voiced the need to fully participate, calling membership one of the few significant leverages left for Seoul in dealing with Pyongyang and its brinkmanship.

• The South Korean government is considering drafting a list of targets for sanctions in North Korea in case the North launches a long-range missile. The projected list is aimed at stepping up pressure on the North under UN Security Council 1718. The list would specify people and organizations in North Korea as targets of major sanctions. When Resolution 1718 was adopted after North Korea conducted a nuclear test in 2006, no list was made out of political consideration. A government official said, "Considering the positions of China and Russia, it's not easy to reach a new resolution at the UN Security Council if the North keeps insisting that the projectile it plans to launch is a satellite. But there is some consensus that the North's launch of such a projectile would itself constitute a violation of Resolution 1718, even if it is a satellite." He said a "realistic alternative" would be to step up sanctions according to the resolution, which have so far been nominal.

• North Korea and the United States are in secret talks over the two American journalists being detained by the communist nation, a diplomatic source here said Thursday (19 Mar), with the negotiations delicate given the countries lack of formal diplomatic relations. "Two reporters working for a U.S.-based Internet news media outlet, including a Korean-American, were detained by North Korean authorities earlier this week, and they remain in custody there," the source said. The journalists, both women, were videotaping a scene near the North's border with China despite repeated warnings by North Korean border guards, according to the source. They were arrested after accidentally crossing into North Korea, the source said, adding it was hard to predict how the North will handle the situation.

• North Korea will likely carry out a surprise attack on South Korea, simultaneously with the communist state's launch of what it calls a communications satellite in early April, South Korea's defense ministry warned Wednesday (18 Mar). The latest warning followed Pyongyang's threat last week to push ahead with planned satellite launch in the sea off the Korean Peninsula between April 4-8. "There is a good possibility North Korea may make a surprise but limited attack on some areas along the inter-Korean border, with global attention mounting on its planned missile launch," the ministry said in a report presented to a special parliamentary committee on inter-Korean relations.

• A [ROK] intelligence official who deals with North Korea issues said on 16 March, "It has been confirmed that Kim Jong Il's thinking was reflected in Kim Kyo'k-sik's appointment as 4th Army Corps commander." More specifically, Chairman Kim personally gave Kim Kyo'k-sik assurances as follows: "This is not a demotion. I am sending you there because the west coast is important." The official said that intelligence authorities also obtained intelligence indicating that even gave him a word of encouragement by saying, "Keep up the good work and come back."

• While the top special operations units are still well cared for, more and more reports come out of the north about many less skilled special operations troops complaining about less, or at least lower quality, food and other benefits (like access to electricity year round, and heat during the winter.) The government uses these troops to insure the loyalty of the other 85 percent of the military, and more and more elite troops are being used to assist the secret police in going after dissidents and corrupt officials. This is probably hurting the North Korean special operations forces more than anything else. The troops are getting a close look at the corruption and contradictions in North Korea. The troops generally lived in closed bases and don't get out much. But now that they do, they see a North Korea that is unpleasant, and not as well as their commanders told them it was.

• North Korea lifted a days-long ban on border crossings Tuesday (17 Mar), normalizing visits by South Korean workers and cargo trucks to a joint industrial complex, but uncertainty lingered over Pyongyang's intentions and border stability. The Unification Ministry said the North's military overseeing cross-border passage hand-delivered a letter to the South Korean management office in Kaesong that it will approve visits both ways. The letter did not explain the reason for the North's reversal. "Traffic is now moving smoothly both ways across the border," ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said. Hundreds of South Korean managers and workers resumed trips to the Kaesong complex, just an hour's drive from Seoul, delivering raw materials to their factories and bringing back end products. The cargo traffic had been banned since Friday, forcing a number of factories to considerably cut down their production.

• South Korea warned Wednesday (18 Mar) that it would respond with decisive action if Pyongyang again blocked access to a joint factory park in North Korea, but said it was too early to consider shutting the project down. In the past week, the North has blocked movement across the heavily defended border to an industrial park run by South Korean companies in the city of Kaesong out of anger over joint military drills by South Korean and U.S. troops. "We are at this point not considering shutting down the Kaesong industrial zone," Unification Minister Hyun In-taek told a forum of journalists. "But if the North repeats the border traffic suspension after the end of the drills, the government will consider it a very grave situation and will take appropriate measures," Hyun said, without elaborating on possible steps.

• A group of North Korean defectors flew leaflets critical of the country's leader Kim Jong Il into the North on Tuesday, defying Seoul's calls for restraint amid heightened political tensions. About 20 defectors flew some 100,000 propaganda leaflets from the Imjingak pavilion just south of the inter-Korean border despite calls from the government to halt the campaign. The leaflets, which describe Kim as "the most vicious dictator and murderer," were sent with North Korean banknotes to encourage people to pick them up. "We want to tell the truth to North Korean citizens," Park Sang-hak, head of the Freedom Fighters for North Korea, a defectors' group in Seoul, said. The leaflets will likely land in North Korea with favorable winds that blew them northward, said Lim Jang-ho, spokesman for the Korea Meteorological Administration.

• North Korea maintains a "shoot on sight" policy for people caught trying to flee the impoverished communist country, a United Nations human rights envoy said in his latest report on conditions in the North, citing unidentified sources. Vitit Muntarbhorn, a U.N. Special Rapporteur on North Korean human rights, was to report the results of his findings later Monday to the 10th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council underway in Geneva. "Some sources report a 'shoot on sight' policy with regard to those who seek to leave the country clandestinely, and violence used against pregnant women forcibly returned to the country," he said in the report made public on the agency's Web site before his presentation. "Over the past year, the situation facing asylum-seekers has become more stringent. More restrictions have been imposed on departures from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and entry into neighboring countries," he said, using the North's official name.

• North Korea poses serious problems to the Asia-Pacific region, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a draft report Tuesday (17 Mar). Problems involving North Korea, including its nuclear ambitions and past abductions, need to be resolved through such channels as six-way talks, said the draft of an annual diplomatic bluebook for 2009. The draft acknowledged that progress has been made toward resolving the nuclear issue, citing North Korea's declaration submitted in June last year. But the draft said that Pyongyang is not forthcoming on how to verify its nuclear program.

• It was one of the most bizarre episodes of the Cold War. Men, women and children snatched by communist spies and bundled aboard creaking fishing boats in the most mundane circumstances: on the way home from school, on shopping trips, during a romantic stroll along a windswept beach. Decades later, Japan is still some way off establishing the truth about North Korea’s abductions of at least 17 of its citizens, spirited away between 1977 and 1983 to the world’s most reclusive state. There, they were employed as mentors to communist agents hoping to pass themselves off as Japanese; some were allegedly murdered so their identities could be used by spies taking part in missions on the other side of the Japan Sea. While the rest of the world grapples for an appropriate response to modern-day North Korean security threats – a rumoured ballistic missile test in early April and the development and proliferation of nuclear weapons – Japan simply refuses to let the abduction issue die.

• Japanese officials and media welcomed an emotional 11 March meeting between family members of Japanese abductee Yaeko Taguchi and former North Korean spy Kim Hyon-hui and praised the administration of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak for its cooperation in realizing the meeting. Officials and media called for increased cooperation between Japan and South Korea in solving the abduction issue, but expressed little optimism in achieving an early resolution in the face of a likely hardening of North Korea's position. Meanwhile, some media took the occasion to call for broader cooperation among Japan, South Korea, and the United States in addressing the abduction and other issues.

In and Around North Korea: 07 - 13 March 2009

• North Korean leader Kim Jong Il voted in parliamentary elections on Sunday (08 Mar), the country's media said, in long-overdue polls that experts say may provide a clue to who will be the country's next leader. Speculation has mounted over power succession in North Korea since Kim, 67, reportedly suffered a stroke last summer. The North's media have recently emphasized the themes of "bloodline" and "inheritance," a possible indication that the country may be preparing for another hereditary transfer of power. Kim "went to the festively decorated polling place ... and cast his ballot" for an army officer seeking a parliamentary seat representing the 342nd district, the North's Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station said in a report.

• The U.N. agency responsible for aviation safety has decided to send a letter of protest to North Korea for its recent threat against the safety of South Korean passenger jets, South Korea's foreign ministry said Tuesday (10 Mar). "The ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) decided unanimously to send the letter in a meeting of the board of directors on Monday (09 Mar)," the ministry said. The letter, to be delivered formally to Pyongyang on Thursday (12 Mar), stresses that the North's announcement is a "grave threat" to the safety and security of global civil aviation and travelers, according to the ministry.

• KCNA made public a report on 12 Mar that the DPRK acceded to the international treaty and convention on space. According to it, recently the DPRK acceded to the "Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies" and the "Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space." The DPRK's accession to the said treaty and convention will contribute to promoting international confidence and boosting cooperation in the scientific research into space and the satellite launch for peaceful purposes.

• President Lee Myung-bak and the new U.S. point man on North Korea met on Monday (09 Mar) and discussed a range of issues, officials said just hours after the communist state unilaterally severed its last remaining communications line with the South. "President Lee and Bosworth exchanged their views on a wide range of issues that concern both of their nations," an official at the presidential office said. "Kim and Bosworth discussed the North's missile activity and other issues," an official said, asking not to be identified.

• The top U.S. envoy on North Korea left the door open to visiting Pyongyang during his recent Asian tour, but authorities in the North were unresponsive, a senior Seoul official said Tuesday (10 Mar). Stephen Bosworth could have traveled to the North if it had "responded positively" to the plan, said the official, speaking to reporters on customary condition of anonymity in a background briefing. "I think North Korea was aware of the U.S.'s intention but it gave no response," he said. The official refused to clarify whether Bosworth delivered his intention to visit North Korea directly.

• Stephen Bosworth, Washington's special envoy on North Korea, on 09 Mar ruled out immediate dialogue with the communist state, although he said that Washington remains willing to make high-level contact with North Koreans. He also once again urged Pyongyang to refrain from launching either a missile or a satellite, saying it would be a violation of a United Nations Security Council resolution. "For the most part, the U.S. has been willing to make high-level contact with the North Koreans ... we will remain fully engaged with them and we will coordinate very closely. But that doesn't mean we are going to be immediately in agreement and it certainly doesn't mean that in this case our commitment to the six-party process is any less," he said.

• Stephen Bosworth, the new U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, expressed confidence Tuesday (10 Mar) about an early resumption of six-party negotiations aimed at disbanding North Korea's nuclear arsenal. "I'm optimistic we can resume the six-party process very soon," he told reporters upon returning from his three-nation tour of Asia that took him to Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul. Describing the trip as "encouraging," Bosworth said at an airport outside Washington that "I think we made a good contribution to coordination among the five" dialogue partners of North Korea in the six-way process.
  
• China and the United States on Wednesday (11 Mar) agreed to make further efforts to promote the six-party talks on the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and his U.S. counterpart Hillary Clinton discussed the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula during their talks at the State Department. Secretary Clinton said that the goal of a nuclear-free peninsula is indispensable, adding that the U.S. side hopes that the six-party talks could continue to proceed forward.

• North Korea's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday (11 Mar) accused the United States of preparing for a war against the communist state in Pyongyang's first verbal criticism of the Obama Administration. A ministry spokesman said military drills taking place between U.S. and South Korean forces were "nuclear war exercises designed to mount a preemptive attack on the DPRK." The DPRK is the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "The new administration of the U.S. is now working hard to infringe upon the sovereignty of the DPRK by force of arms in collusion with the South Korean puppet bellicose forces," said a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, in comments carried by the North's official KCNA news agency.

• A spokesman for the DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave the following answer to the question raised by KCNA on 11 Mar as regards the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises kicked off by the U.S. and the south Korean puppets: The U.S. and the south Korean puppets started large-scale war exercises targeted against the DPRK on Mar. 9 at last. These war exercises were kicked off by the U.S. and the south Korean puppet war-like forces across south Korea at a time when the inter-Korean relations have reached the worst phase and the situation has grown so tense that a war may break out any moment due to the reckless policy of confrontation pursued by the south Korean conservative authorities. The war maneuvers are nuclear war exercises designed to mount a preemptive attack on the DPRK in terms of their scale and contents from A to Z. This situation hardens the will of the DPRK to bolster up its defense capability in every way no matter what others may say. The DPRK, exposed to the potential threat of the U.S. and its allied forces, will take every necessary measure to protect its sovereignty.

• The Central Election Committee for the Election of Deputies to the 12th Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK on 09 Mar released a report on the results of the election of a deputy to the SPA held at Constituency No. 333 on 08 Mar According to the report, all the voters of Constituency No. 333 participated in the election and voted for Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Il who is general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, reflecting the unanimous will and wishes of all the servicepersons of the KPA and the people of the country.

• North Korea released the names of its new Assembly members including leader Kim Jong Il on Monday (09 Mar), but the list did not include his youngest son, who was rumored to have run in the election. The Supreme People's Assembly is a rubber stamp parliament, but Sunday's election drew keen outside attention because of the possibility that it would provide a clue to the country's next leader. But Kim Jong-un, 26, was conspicuously absent from the full list of names of the 687 members of the new Assembly, which was announced by the Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station and other state media.

• North Korean Premier Kim Yong Il will soon visit China, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday (10 Mar). Kim will make an official goodwill visit to China at the invitation of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the news agency said. Sources close to China-North Korea relations said earlier China and North Korea are in the process of arranging reciprocal visits by their premiers this year as part of events to mark the 60th anniversary of their diplomatic ties.

• The North Korean Central Election Committee announced on 09 March the results of the election of deputies to the 12th Supreme People's Assembly held on the previous day. A total of 687 deputies, including General Secretary Kim Jong Il, were elected to a five-year term. Based on these election results, the SPA is expected to hold the first plenary session of the new deputies. The names of the three sons of Kim Jong Il are not included in the list of elected deputies, but indeed, it is highly possible that the selection of the successor will take place unrelated to the SPA election. Kim himself was named as successor in 1974, but he was first elected as SPA deputy in 1982 after he had appeared in official media reports as the successor.

• Sunday's election of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, the country's parliament, has replaced just under half of its 687 mem bers, a Tokyo-based organization monitoring North Korean media said Wednesday (11 Mar). Radiopress said its analysis showed a total of 299 of the delegates on the list of those elected were new to the assembly's seats, while 367, or 53.4 percent, were reelected. North Korea's official media said Monday (09 Mar) that leader Kim Jong Il and his close aides have been elected to the assembly as a result of the election..

• Authorities in North Korea have begun enforcing a ban on the use of foreign cars in the isolated Stalinist state, putting further pressure on a population already struggling to survive. Beginning in early February, Pyongyang's National Defense Commission began enforcing a directive banning imported cars and ordered a crackdown According to a cross-border Chinese merchant, those targeted by the crackdown are primarily officials who take bribes to fraudulently register cars to state-owned enterprises or military bases. Authorities also want to stop North Korean mechanics from rebuilding and modifying imported cars by changing them from right-hand-drive Japanese vehicles—the Japanese drive on the left—to left-hand-drive vehicles for use on North Korean roads "The National Defense Commission regards failure to enforce its directive banning imported cars as a provocative act," said the Chinese merchant, who is a frequent traveler to North Korea.

• Under the leadership of Kim Jong Il, the country cannot feed its people. Perennially dependent on food aid, North Korea has become a truculent ward of the wealthy countries it threatens. It is the world's first nuclear-armed, missile-wielding beggar -- a particularly intricate challenge for the Obama administration as it begins to formulate a foreign policy.North Korea has informed an international organization on shipping safety that it will fire a rocket carrying a "satellite" between April 4-8, an intelligence source in Seoul said Thursday (12 Mar). Earlier in the day, the communist nation said through its official agency that it had notified the IMO and other related global bodies about the upcoming rocket launch. "The DPRK (North Korea) informed the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Maritime Organization and other international organizations of necessary information for the safe navigation of planes and ships according to relevant regulations as part of its preparations for launching Kwangmyongsong-2, an experimental communications satellite, by carrier rocket Unha-2 which was made public by the Korean Committee of Space Technology recently," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, without mentioning a date for the rocket launch.

• Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Saturday (28 Feb) indicated Beijing's opposition to a possible missile launch by North Korea, urging "relevant parties" to do more to benefit peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. China is aware of North Korea's recent announcement that it is getting ready to launch a communication satellite, Yang said, adding, "We are following developments.""This would be extremely ill-advised for North Korea to do this," Bosworth told reporters after holding a series of consultations with top-ranking South Korean officials. Bosworth rebuffed the North's claim of a satellite launch, saying, "whether they describe it a satellite launch or something else makes no difference. They would be a violation of the U.N. resolution 1718."

• The chief U.S. intelligence official said on 10 Mar that he believes that North Korea is about to launch a rocket into space as North Koreans insisted. The remark by National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair is the first by any U.S. official amid conflicting reports about the nature of the rocket Pyongyang is threatening to launch. U.S. officials have said that the North's claim to shoot a communications satellite into space is a cover to test a ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland U.S. "It is a space-launch vehicle that North Korea launches," Blair told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. "The technology is indistinguishable from intercontinental ballistic missile, and if a three-stage, space-launch vehicle works, then that could reach not only Alaska, Hawaii, but also part of the, part of what the Hawaiians call 'the Mainland,' and what the Alaskans call 'the Lower 48.” He said he "tended to believe that the North Koreans announced that they were going to do a space launch, and I believe that that's what they intend. I could be wrong, but that would be my estimate."

• Japan will extend sanctions against North Korea for six months and may consider additional measures if the communist country tests a ballistic missile, Nikkei English News said, without citing anyone. The sanctions, imposed in October 2006, include a ban on the import of North Korean goods and stop its citizens from entering Japan, the report said. Japan’s Cabinet will approve the extension of the sanctions, due to expire on April 13, early next month, the report said.

• North Korea and the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) in South Korea ended their high-level military border talks Friday (13 Mar) , officials said, as Pyongyang stepped up its warnings against an upcoming U.S.-South Korea military drill. The latest round of talks at the borderline truce village of Panmunjom "only lasted 45 minutes," a South Korean defense ministry official said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity. The official declined to discuss the agenda.

• KPA Supreme Command Orders All Personnel to Be 'Fully Combat Ready' (KCNA): The madcap Key Resolve and Foal Eagle are extremely adventurous and dangerous military provocations which can be seen only on the eve of a war and an undisguised military threat to the DPRK and a sort of a declaration of a war. The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK have grown stronger thanks to the songun [military-first] politics under the care of the great illustrious commander of Mt. Paektu. They will never remain a passive on-looker to the prevailing situation now that dark clouds of war are gathering to hang over the homeland and armed clashes are imminent. The KPA Supreme Command issued an order to all the servicepersons to be fully combat ready and follow every move of the aggressors with vigilance in view of the grave situation prevailing in the country and deal merciless retaliatory blows at them, should they intrude into the sky and land and seas of the DPRK even an inch.

• Scores of South Koreans scheduled to return from a joint industrial park in North Korea could not cross the border Monday (09 Mar) after the North cut off the last remaining inter-Korean communications channel, a Seoul spokesman said. About 80 people who were scheduled to return by 5 p.m. from the inter-Korean complex in the North Korea's border town of Kaesong were not able to make the trip, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said. North Korea severed the inter-Korean channel earlier in the day in protest against an ongoing South Korea-U.S. military drill and said the closure will continue until the drill ends on 20 Mar. It was the last such communications line to remain open after Pyongyang closed several others last year in retaliation to the Lee Myung-bak government's hardline policy.

• The Seoul government said Friday (13 Mar) that North Korea is violating international law by threatening the safety of South Korean flights in its airspace and urged Pyongyang to stop its military warnings. "To militarily threaten the normal operations of civil airplanes not only violates international rules but is also an inhumane act that can never be justified," said Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun. Tension has risen sharply on the Korean Peninsula since North Korea said it is "compelled to declare that security cannot be guaranteed for South Korean civil airplanes" in its airspace, adding to concerns that Pyongyang may be preparing for a missile launch.

• North Korea reopened its borders to South Koreans visiting a joint industrial complex in the communist state, a day after it severed inter-Korean communications, Seoul officials said. "A North Korean military official notified us that the North will allow passage through the military demarcation line as of 10 a.m.," Seoul's Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said. The North will keep the channel closed until the drill ends on March 20, the spokesman said. South Koreans can cross the border only after North Korea is notified of their planned arrival through the military communication channel.

• Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan on 11 Mar called on North Korea to drop its smear campaign on the South and abandon its tactics to stoke tension with a missile launch. "North Korea must refrain from provocative action such as vilifying South Korea, threatening to launch a missile and banning access to Gaeseong Industrial Complex, and should now return to inter-Korean talks," Yu said at a meeting with the members of the European Chamber of Commerce. Once the talks restart, Yu said the two Koreas could discuss ways for easing inter-Korean tension, intensifying economic cooperation and providing humanitarian aid for the impoverished North.

• South Korea's top defense official said Tuesday (10 Mar) North Korea's military threats have increased across the board, even though the communist state has "nothing to gain" by raising tension. "The recent series of provocative and tension-raising rhetoric and acts are not only straining inter-Korean relations but also making it impossible to rule out the possibility of clashes in land, sea and air," Lee told a group of about 210 newly commissioned officers graduating from an Army academy in Seoul. "We will push to make (North Korea) realize that there is nothing to earn through acts that raise tension and that such moves will never be of help."

• South Korea and the United States kicked off one of their largest joint military exercises on Monday (09 Mar) amid fears North Korea may test-fire a long-range ballistic missile in protest. The Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercise, which mobilizes over 25,000 U.S. troops, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and tens of thousands of South Korean soldiers, has been dubbed by North Korea as a prelude to war. The drill, slated to end on 20 Mar is genuinely defensive, its organizers say, even though the North warned of "consequences" during two rounds of general-level talks with the U.S.-led U.N. Command in South Korea last week.

• The international community should "maintain heightened control over" the situation in the Korean region in connection with increased tension between South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Vasiliy Likhachev, deputy chairman of the Federation Council international relations committee, said in a broadcast of Ekho Moskvy radio. "Reports from the Far East, which are far from positive, attest to the fact that the international community has not exhausted all the resources and means for a comprehensive settlement of the situation,”

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, have called on the countries involved to refrain from activities that could undermine security on the Korean Peninsula in connection with the aggravation of the situation in the region, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on 11 March after a telephone conversation between the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers. "During the discussion about the situation in North East Asia, serious concern was expressed about the aggravation of the situation on the Korean Peninsula," the ministry said. "The ministers called on the countries involved to show restraint and equanimity and refrain from any activities that could undermine security and stability in the region," it added.

• Loaded with missiles capable of intercepting a flying rocket, a pair of argus-eyed U.S. destroyers glided into a South Korean port this week along the east coast where North Korea appears determined to launch what it calls a space satellite. The USS Chafee and the USS Stetham, docked at Donghae Harbor about 130 kilometers south of the intensely guarded inter-Korean border, are among at least six U.S. warships deployed around South Korea as part of the 12-day joint defense exercise that began Monday (09 Mar).

• Barack Obama won last year's historic presidential election on a pledge to bring change to the United States. But there is at least one area in which no substantial change is expected -- U.S. policy on North Korea. U.S. experts say the new team dealing with the reclusive country will not seek to change how they try to resolve the issue surrounding Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, namely through the six-party talks. Tension on the divided Korean Peninsula is expected to escalate further this week, as South Korea and the United States plan to kick off their joint military exercise as scheduled, despite a series of North Korean threats.

• President Lee Myung-bak received a rare briefing from his security-related ministers Monday as North Korea continues to escalate tensions with threats of war and other hostile measures aimed at South Korea. The content of 09 Mar's special briefing was not immediately released. An official at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, however, tried to downplay the significance of the briefing, saying it is customary procedure following the president's overseas trips.

• North Korea's combative language is unproductive and destabilizing for the Korean Peninsula, a U.S. State Department spokesman said Monday (09 Mar). U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises aren't threats to the region, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said during a news briefing. "What is a threat to the region is this bellicose rhetoric coming out of the North." "The North is the party that is, you know, preparing to launch missiles, has launched missiles in the past," Wood said. "Its actions are of concern not just to the United States and the (South Korea), but to the entire international community."

• A North Korean freighter sailing through the Jeju Strait collided with a South Korean fishing boat, leaving one man injured, the local Coast Guard said Tuesday (11 Mar). The Coast Guard said the 1,790 ton Nampo-based ship collided with a 29-ton fishing boat from Uljin on Monday off the coast on Yeosu, 455 km southeast of Seoul. Of the 12 South Korean crew members, one was taken to a nearby hospital after complaining of chest pain.

• Kim Hyun-hui, a self-confessed North Korean terrorist responsible for the mid-air bombing of a South Korean jet in 1987 and now a housewife living in South Korea, stepped into the spotlight again Wednesday in an emotional meeting with the family of a Japanese woman kidnapped by Pyongyang three decades ago. The event in this southern port city bolstered Tokyo's efforts to garner support at home and abroad to press North Korea to settle the abduction issue, which involves more than a dozen Japanese nationals.

In and Around North Korea: 28 February - 06 March 2009

• South Korea on Monday (02 Mar) appointed Wi Sung-lac, special assistant to Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan, as its new chief envoy on the North Korean nuclear issue, the ministry said. Wi served as minister for political affairs at the South Korean embassy in Washington from 2004-2007 after leading the foreign ministry's North American affairs bureau from 2003-2004.

• The U.S. pointman on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, has no plans to meet with North Korean officials during his three-nation Asian trip this week, the State Department said Monday (02 Mar). Not as far as I know," deputy spokesman Gordon Duguid said in a daily news briefing. "That's what I know today." Bosworth, special representative for North Korea, Monday embarked on a nine-day trip to Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul to discuss resumption of the six-party talks, stalled over North Korea's refusal to accept a protocol for verification of its nuclear facilities.

• Russian Vice Foreign Minister Aleksei Borodavkin, who heads the country's delegation to the six-way talks on North Korea's nuclear program, will visit South Korea next week to discuss Seoul-Moscow relations and ways to advance the stalled negotiations, a diplomatic source said Tuesday(03 Mar). He may also meet Stephen Bosworth, the new U.S. point man on Pyongyang, during his trip here, the source added. Bosworth is scheduled to arrive in Seoul on Saturday (07 Mar) for a four-day stay as part of his regional tour that also includes stops in China and Japan.

• U.S. special representative on the issue of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Stephen Bosworth said that the new U.S. administration remained committed to removing nuclear facilities on the Korean Peninsula. Bosworth made the remarks at a briefing here Wednesday (04 Mar) after meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, saying that the United States' aim of removing nuclear facilities will not change.

• North Korea warned Saturday (28 Feb) that U.S. troops stationed in the South should stop what it called "provocative actions" along the military demarcation line, pledging to take stern action if its message goes unheeded. North Korean military officials notified their counterparts in the South, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, claiming that provocations by U.S. troops in the area are intensifying and could trigger "unpredictable military conflicts." "If the U.S. forces keep behaving arrogantly in the area under the control of the North and the South, the KPA (Korean People's Army) will take a resolute counteraction," the statement read.

• DPRK Delegate on UN Peace-Keeping Operations (KCNA): It is abnormal that the "UN Command," unhampered by the UN, remains in Korea, without getting any orders or financial support from the UN, still now though over half a century has passed since the ceasefire there. The "UN Command" present in South Korea is nothing but the U.S. command and the "UN forces" there are no more than the GIs. The U.S. insistence on the upkeep of such "UN Command" is aimed to perpetuate the U.S. military occupation of South Korea and cover up the aggressive nature of its forces by abusing the name of the UN.

• North Korean leader Kim Jong Il made more than three times the number of public visits this month than the same month last year, the Seoul government said Friday (06 Mar). Kim appeared publicly 15 times this month, compared to an average 5.3 visits he made in February between 2000 and last year, said the Unification Ministry. This year's figure was the highest since he took the reins of the country after his father and North Korean founder Kim Il Sung’s death in 1994.

• Conservative newsletters in South Korea specializing in North Korean affairs on 01 Mar said Kim Jong Un, the youngest son of the North’s supreme leader Kim Jong Il, is the heir apparent. Rumors are also swirling that the son threw a party Feb. 16 for high-ranking military officials to mark his father’s 67th birthday. Citing North Korean sources, Cho Bong-hyeon, a researcher at Industrial Bank of Korea Research Institute in Seoul, said, “Kim Jong Un invited the top brass to his father’s birthday party Feb. 16.” “His rating badge indicated he was a lieutenant general at the operations department of the (North) Korean People`s Army.”

• A report of the Central Election Committee was published on 04 Mar. According to the report, since leader Kim Jong Il sent an open letter to all voters throughout the country to inform the citizens that he decided to register as a candidate for deputy to the Supreme People's Assembly at Constituency No. 333 for the election of deputy to the 12th Supreme People's Assembly, the nomination and registration of candidates for deputies to the 12th SPA have been successfully finished at all other constituencies of the country.

• The results of general elections in North Korea slated for Sunday (08 Mar) will present a clearer picture of which politicians will support supreme leader Kim Jong Il and his successor. A report by the South Korean Unification Ministry presented to the National Assembly yesterday mentioned six politicians among the 20 most frequently mentioned by the North’s official daily Rodong Shinmun last year as rising stars in Pyongyang’s hierarchy. The six were not mentioned in 2007. One North Korea expert said, “North Korea’s leadership has been controlled by Kim Jong Il. Those frequently mentioned by media can be considered powerful politicians. After the elections Sunday, North Korea’s political elite will be replaced. In the process, we need to pay more attention to the rising stars.”

• Shanghai Dongfang Weishi (Dragon TV) in Mandarin carried during its regular midday news cast a report on the DPRK lifting its ban on cell phones. The report says the DPRK government recently lifted the ban on cell phones. It says that a rush to buy cell phones developed shortly after the announcement. The report says that people expect cell phones to dramatically change their lives. Footage shows a man telling reporters that cell phones make life more convenient. To this date, more than 6,500 own a cell phone, according to the report.

• The U.S. House of Representatives has set aside US$2.5 million for energy aid to North Korea this year despite stalled six-party talks over how to verify its nuclear facilities. The enabling legislation, formally known as the 2009 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill, which passed through the House last week, pegs the release of the funds on North Korea's fulfillment of its obligation under a six-party deal to disable its nuclear infrastructure. "None of the funds made available under the heading Economic Support Fund in fiscal year 2009 may be made available for obligation for energy-related assistance for North Korea unless the secretary of state determines and reports to the Committees on Appropriations that North Korea is continuing to fulfill its commitments under the six-party talks agreements," the bill says.

• South Korea urged North Korea to take "necessary measures" to address its abysmal human rights record at the regular session of the U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday (03 Mar). "My government, sharing the serious concerns of the international community regarding the dire human rights conditions in the DPRK (North Korea), urges that the latter take necessary measures to improve its human rights situation in full compliance with its obligations under international human rights law and relevant treaties to which it is a party, said South Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Shin Kak-soo.

• North Korea appears to have begun assembling a rocket that it claims will carry a satellite into space, a South Korean source said Friday (27 Feb), despite warnings to stop what neighbors call preparations to test-fire a long-range missile. "It appears that (North Korea) has begun assembling the rocket on the ground," the source said, expecting the work to be completed in a week at the earliest. The North has moved what appears to be its longest-range Taepodong-2 missile to a base in its northeast several weeks ago, and has begun assembling radars and other monitoring equipment. "Considering the brisk activity at the Musudan-ri base, we've concluded that the North's authorities have started testing radars and other equipment as they assemble them," a South Korean official said earlier Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to disclose such information to the media.

• In an exclusive interview with ABC News' Martha Raddatz, Adm. Timothy Keating, head of the U.S. Pacific Commands, said that the military is prepared to shoot down any North Korean ballistic missile -- if President Obama should give the order. "If a missile leaves the launch pad we'll be prepared to respond upon direction of the president," Keating told ABC News. "I'm not a betting man but I'd go like 60/40, 70/30 that it will, they will attempt to launch a satellite. There's equipment moving up there that would indicate the preliminary stages of preparation for a launch. So I'd say it's more than less likely." "Should it look like it's not a satellite launch -- that it's something other than a satellite launch -- we'll be ready to respond."

• The Heritage Foundation, a U.S. conservative think-tank, has released a documentary film which stresses the necessity of a missile defense system in a bid to protect America from "enemies'' including North Korea and Iran. Introducing a seven-minute preview of the film "33 Minutes,'' sub-titled "Protecting America in the New Missile Age,'' the institute claimed the government should establish the defense system against ballistic missiles capable of hitting the country within 33 minutes.

• Japan plans to deploy an Aegis-equipped destroyer carrying the Standard Missile-3 interceptor to the Sea of Japan to prepare for a possible North Korean missile launch in case it is aimed at Japan, defense sources said Tuesday (03 Mar). North Korea says it is preparing to launch a satellite but Japan's missile defense guideline provides that the defense minister may order an intercept when a rocket to launch a satellite is feared to fall onto Japanese soil or into Japanese territorial waters. ''We would have no other choice but to intercept,'' said a senior Maritime Self-Defense Force officer, referring to a scenario in which a missile or a rocket is launched and judged headed for Japan.

• North Korea's preparations for what it claims will be a satellite launch continue apace, though an actual launch does not seem imminent, Seoul's unification minister said Wednesday (04 Mar). Hyun In-taek, a foreign policy expert who took office last month as Seoul's point man on Pyongyang, also said South Korea takes "seriously" the North's continuing criticism of President Lee Myung-bak and demanded Pyongyang stop its verbal attacks. "I don't think the launch is very imminent, but various preparations are underway," Hyun said in his first meeting with the press.

• US Congressional Research Service (CRS) claimed through a report that North Korea produced 20 Taepodong-2 (TD-2) missiles by 2006. In a report titled “North Korean Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States”, CRS stated that, “Some believe North Korea first started the TD-2 missile production in 2005 and that by 2006, 20 TD-2 missiles were manufactured.”

• North Korea has exported more than 1,000 scud missiles and missile-related parts to the Middle East region, earning nearly $1.5 billion annually, a report said. The Independent Working Group, a U.S. foreign policy think tank, claims in its newly released report "Missile Defense, the Space Relationship & the Twenty-First Century" that the Stalinist regime has expanded arms trade and is providing technologies associated with its Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile to Middle East countries including Syria and Iran. "Missile exports, which net North Korea some $1.5 billion a year, constitute one of its largest sources of revenue," said the report. "The Kim Jong-il regime has become a principal supplier of ballistic missile components and associated technologies to the Middle East."

• Cash-strapped North Korean shippers smuggle narcotics and other contraband, but there's little evidence that the communist state's rusty merchant fleet transports illicit weapons, a report said on Thursday (05 Mar). British North Korea expert Hazel Smith said her detailed study of North Korean merchant shipping showed a fleet of only 242 ageing vessels faces too much scrutiny in the world's ports to be a significant conduit for weapons of mass destruction.

• North Korea voiced its routine criticism Monday (02 Mar) against a planned South Korea-U.S. joint military exercise at the first high-level talks with the United Nations Command (UNC) in nearly seven years, a defense source said. "North Korea filed lengthy complaints against the plan to hold the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercise and the situation involving the U.S. military deployment on the Korean Peninsula," the source said after the general-level talks between the North and the UNC. In response, the UNC reaffirmed that the annual drills are a defense-oriented exercise, unrelated to preparations for any attack.

• North Korea and the U.S.-led United Nations Command will hold a series of additional meetings this week to discuss ways to alleviate tension on the divided peninsula, officials said Tuesday (03 Mar). North Korea and the U.N. Command will reopen their talks on Wednesday (04 Mar) and Friday (06 Mar), South Korean officials said on condition of anonymity. Kim Yong-kyu, a spokesman for U.S. Forces Korea, confirmed the talks are scheduled for this week, adding colonel-level talks will precede general-level discussions.

• Military officers from North Korea and the U.S.-led U.N. Command held more talks Thursday (05 Mar) on easing tensions as the communist state renewed claims that an upcoming military exercise is a prelude to war. The colonel-level meeting set the agenda for a second round of talks at general-level on Friday (06 Mar), the United Nations Command said in a statement. The meeting at Panmunjom, inside the Demilitarized Zone which splits North and South Korea, lasted for 45 minutes, a Command spokesman said. Generals from the two sides met Monday (02 Mar) for the first such talks in almost seven years, but sources said the North used the occasion to criticize the March 9-20 military drill. The annual joint exercise will this year involve a U.S. aircraft carrier, 26, 000 U.S. troops and more than 30,000 South Korean soldiers. The "slightest" military conflict which may break out during the exercise can rapidly develop into "a thermonuclear war," the North's government newspaper Minju Joson said Thursday (05 Mar).

• North Korea warned Thursday (05 Mar) it can no longer assure the safety of South Korean passenger planes flying over the East Sea, protesting an upcoming joint military drill by South Korea and the United States. "Under the situation ... no one knows what military conflicts will be touched off," the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said. North Korea is "compelled to declare that security cannot be guaranteed for South Korean civil airplanes flying through the territorial air of our side ... and its vicinity above the East Sea of Korea," the committee said in a statement carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency in English. The threat comes as North Korea is preparing to launch what is believed to be a long-range missile from a base on its east coast.

• The Seoul government said Friday (06 Mar) that North Korea is violating international law by threatening the safety of South Korean flights in its airspace and urged Pyongyang to stop its military warnings. "To militarily threaten the normal operations of civil airplanes not only violates international rules but is also an inhumane act that can never be justified," said Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun.

• "South and North Korea have agreed to seek peaceful coexistence and co-prosperity, while recognizing and respecting each other. I am going to respect these inter-Korean agreements," said President Lee Myung-bak at a ceremony marking the 90th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement. Lee said he is "not negative" toward two inter-Korean agreements, the June 15, 2000 Joint Declaration and the Oct. 4, 2007 Statement, which North Korea claims the Lee administration is unwilling to respect.

• North Korea has notified South Korean companies in a joint industrial complex in the North of detailed labor standards, according to the Ministry of Unification Wednesday (04 Mar). The notice stipulated that a company will be fined up to $2,000 if it fails to pay salaries to employees for one month, and face a 10-day suspension of business if delaying payment for two months, a ministry official said.

• The North Korean government has penalized a South Korean firm at the Kaesong industrial complex by banning local employees from working there, Seoul officials said Thursday, amid mounting border tension. The sanction marks the first time for the North to penalize a South Korean company for pollution time since the complex opened in 2005.

• The United States Thursday (05 Mar) reiterated that it will not develop ties with North Korea at the cost of relations with South Korea, urging the North to refrain from escalating tensions with provocations. The secretary made very clear in her press conference in Seoul that we are not interested in developing relations with North Korea at the expense of relations with South Korea," Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said in a news conference at the National Press Center. "And she also made very clear our view that North Korea should be doing much more to work on its relationship with South Korea."

• Military officials of South Korea and the United States met in Seoul on Monday (02 Mar) to coordinate the transfer of wartime operational command and the relocation of U.S. troops stationed in the country, the Ministry of Defense said. Seoul and Washington have regularly hosted their Security Policy Initiative (SPI) talks since 2005 to discuss military issues between the allies. Monday's talks, the 21st of the kind, coincided with rare military talks held between North Korea and the U.S.-led United Nations Command, during which Pyongyang criticized South Korea-U.S. joint military drills set for March 9-20.

In and Around North Korea: 21 - 27 February 2009

• Striking a different tone from American intelligence officials, Secretary of State Clinton cast doubt s on the existence of North Korea’s purported highly enriched uranium program, in what some observers here believe is an indicator of Washington’s changing priorities in talks on denuclearizing the reclusive country. When referring to the suspected program in an interview with US network Fox News on 20 Feb, Clinton said, “I think that there is a sense, among many who have studied this, that there may be some program somewhere, but no one can point to any specific location nor can they point to any specific outcome of whatever might have gone on, if anything did.” She added, “I don’t have any doubt that they would try whatever they possibly could. Have they? I don’t know that and nobody else does either.”

• A source at the United Nations said on 21 Feb that a plan to send a United Nations special envoy to North Korea next month has been called off due to North Korea’s unwillingness to hold dialogue at this time. A group of U.N. delegates led by Lynn Pascoe, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, had planned to visit Pyongyang in early March but North Korea has rejected the offer, the source told Yonhap News Agency. The appointment of the high-profile figure as special envoy to North Korea has been viewed as a sign that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is moving to take a greater role in dealing with Pyongyang's reported plans to test-fire a ballistic missile.

• A South Korean official said on 22 Feb that all participants of the Northeast Asia Peace and Security Mechanism Working Group, held from 19 – 20 Feb in Moscow, Russia, reached a full agreement that a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula is key to peace and stability in North East Asia.

• Stephen Bosworth, US special representative for North Korea, will lead the US delegation at future six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions, the State Department said on 23 Feb. That's a sharp departure from the Bush administration, under which the multilateral talks were led by an assistant secretary of state Christopher Hill. "Ambassador Bosworth is the lead for the United States," deputy spokesman Gordon Duguid said, quelling speculation that Sung Kim, special envoy for the six-party talks, would lead the US delegation at future rounds since Bosworth intends to keep his job as a college dean in Massachusetts.

• According to Secretary of State Clinton’s remarks on 26 Feb (27 Feb Korea time), Ambassador Bosworth, Special Representative for North Korea policy, along with Ambassador Sung Kim, Special Envoy for the Six-Party Talks, will be departing for Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing and Moscow early next week to consult on next steps to move the Six-Party process forward.

• North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has promoted a renowned hawk to a top military post, signaling a continuing hard-line against South Korea, according to analysts. General O Kuk-Ryol was appointed vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, said an official statement published on 20 Feb by the North's official Korean Central News Agency. O, born in 1931, is one of Kim's confidants and a "renowned hawk" who has advocated a hard-line stance against South Korea, Yang Moo-Jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, told AFP. "His promotion is seen as another strong message towards South Korea," he said. "It is also aimed at enhancing stability in the military by appointing Kim's trusted old guard to a key post."

• US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went further than other U.S. officials in touching upon a possible succession situation in North Korea on 20 Feb, saying the sensitive topic is "something you have to think about." The top US diplomat affirmed that current leader Kim Jong il is Washington's negotiation partner, but her unusual remarks on uncertainty in Pyongyang suggested that the new US government is taking into account what could happen in the post-Kim era as it shapes policy on North Korea, analysts said.

• North Korea will likely disclose the names of its new lawmakers following the March 8 parliamentary elections, a Seoul spokesman said on 23 Feb, which could provide a decisive clue about succession rumors surrounding leader Kim Jong-il's third son. The North's rubber-stamp parliament has no power, but membership in it is believed to be an essential step toward joining the political elite in the communist state. Sources told Yonhap last week that the youngest of the leader's three sons, Kim Jong-un, 26, has registered as a candidate for the upcoming election in a sign of nascent succession process.

• South Korea's intelligence chief said on 25 Feb that another father-to-son succession is possible in North Korea, the first reference by a senior Seoul official to the future of the Kim Jong-il regime in Pyongyang. "A three-generation succession appears to be possible," Won Sei-hoon, chief of the National Intelligence Service, was quoted as saying in a closed-door parliamentary briefing.

• China has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-il for a summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao, as the two allied nations celebrate their 60th year of diplomatic relations, Pyongyang's state media said on 26 Feb. The invitation was offered a day earlier by Jia Qinglin, chairman of the People's Political Consultative Conference of China and the fourth-ranking member of the Communist Party's politburo standing committee, to a visiting delegation of the Workers' Party of North Korea, according to the Korean Central Broadcasting Station (KCBS). "Mutual visits by the leaders of the two countries are the most essential and irreplaceable in developing bilateral relations," Jia was quoted as telling the North Korean officials by the KCBS.

• Leader Kim Jong-il said that in order to solve the food problem, the main in clothing, food and housing, it is imperative to send a large quantity of fertilizer to the countryside while giving on-the-spot guidance to the Hungnam Fertilizer Complex some time ago. This news is arousing forcefully the Korean people to increase grain production, upholding the tasks put forth in the joint New Year editorial from the beginning of the year. The state is strengthening material, technical and labor support to the countryside to solve the shortage of food on its own at any cost this year.

• North Korea's human rights record is abysmal, with authorities even killing some babies upon birth in a vast network of prisons, the US State Department charged. The scathing report Wednesday (25 Feb) comes as the new Barack Obama administration reviews its way forward with North Korea, which has hinted it is on the verge of a long-range missile test. "North Korea's human rights record remained abysmal," the State Department said in its global report for 2008, in some of its harshest criticism of any country. "While the regime continued to control almost all aspects of citizens' lives ... reports of abuse emerged from the country with increased frequency," it said.

• A former adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama on Asian affairs said 19 Feb North Korea is highly likely to fire a long-range missile in the weeks ahead. "There is a real possibility that in the coming weeks North Korea will end up testing a long-range missile," said Gordon Flake at a forum on North Korea.

• Space is mankind's common asset [chaebu], and the peaceful use of space is becoming a worldwide trend today. According to the policy for space development and peaceful use of the government of the Republic, the research and development work to launch an artificial earth satellite with [our] own power and technology have been carried out consistently in our country since the 1980s. Currently, [we] are carrying out in full swing the preparatory work to launch a test communications satellite "Kwangmyo'ngso'ng No 2" via carrier rocket "U'nha No 2" at the Tonghae [East Sea] satellite launch site located in Hwadae County, North Hamgyo'ng Province.

• North Korea appears to be setting up radars and assessment equipment but has yet to mount a suspected long-range missile at a launch pad on its east coast, a South Korean source said on 24 Feb. The communist state said earlier in the day it is preparing to launch a rocket that would carry a satellite into space. US and S. Korean officials believe the North may be getting ready to test-fire its longest-range missile, the Taepodong-2.

• The United States will deal with a missile test by North Korea in three stages. Until the test, the US is using a double-pronged strategy of persuasion and pressure. In the event Pyongyang nonetheless fires a missile, the US plans to intercept it. North Korea is believed to be planning to fire a missile over Japan and drop it in the Pacific, as it did with a Taepodong-1 missile in August 1998. In the third stage, the US plans to convene a UN Security Council session immediately and discuss resuming sanctions against North Korea.

• North Korea's official announcement on on24 Feb that it would launch a satellite, not a missile, could affect the response of the US, which has warned it could intercept any missile that was fired at the American mainland. While few believe the satellite claim, the announcement means the projectile can only be intercepted if positively identified as a missile to avoid charges of violating North Korea's sovereignty.

• Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee told a National Assembly session on 24 Feb North Korea will be in violation of a UN Security Council resolution whether it launches a missile or, as it claims, a satellite and faces UN sanctions. The remarks follow a similar warning from the US. The warning is based on the paragraph 5 of the UN Security Council Resolution 1718 adopted on the heels of North Korea's nuclear test in October 2006. The paragraph “decides that (North Korea) shall suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile program and in this context re-establish its pre-existing commitments to a moratorium on missile launching.” In the unlikely event that North Korea does put a satellite into orbit, there is room for a dispute on sanctions against the North. "There is no international law or treaty that bans or sanctions the use of space," notes Prof. Kim Yong-hyun of Dongguk University. China and Russia, both permanent members of the UN Security Council, have yet to respond to North Korea's preparations for a missile test. "If what North Korea launches is clearly not a long-range missile, China and Russia are unlikely to step forward to sanction the North," a researcher at a state think tank said.

• South Korean and US intelligence said on 25 Feb North Korea has significantly improved its facilities for missile launch, with fueling stations built underground at the Taepodong-2 launch base at Musudan-ri in North Hamkyong Province. Experts said South Korean authorities could find it more difficult to closely monitor signs of an imminent missile launch. Senior Seoul officials said Pyongyang completed facilities for putting liquid fuel into a missile projectile at an underground space near the launch pad at Musudan-ri between late last year and early this year.

• North Korea may have advanced its fuel type and injection systems for its long-range ballistic missile, allowing its leader Kim Jong-il greater freedom in choosing when to go ahead with a launch, officials and missile experts said on26 Feb. It took the North Korean authorities several days to inject liquid fuel into a Taepodong-2 missile that crashed less than a minute after takeoff in a July 2006 test. South Korean officials and experts say the fueling time could be reduced to a single day if the communist country has fully developed the capability to produce solid fuel for its long-range missiles. Solid fuel, which is thicker than jelly but softer than a tire, can be instantly loaded into a missile, allowing authorities to drastically cut the time needed for launch preparations.

• North Korea appears to have begun testing radars and other monitoring equipment as it moves briskly to launch what it claims will be a satellite, a South Korean source said on 27 Feb. "Considering the brisk activity at the Musudan-ri base, we've concluded that the North's authorities have started testing radars and other equipment as they assemble them," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to disclose the information to the media.

• "If a missile leaves the launch pad we'll be prepared to respond upon direction of the president," Keating told ABC News. "I'm not a betting man but I'd go like 60/40, 70/30 that it will, they will attempt to launch a satellite. There's equipment moving up there that would indicate the preliminary stages of preparation for a launch. So I'd say it's more than less likely."

• Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada suggested on 27 Feb that Japan might shoot down the North Korean ballistic missile with its ballistic missile shield if the missile heads toward Japan. "The Defense Ministry has long been considering such a thing (intercepting a North Korean ballistic missile)," Hamada told a news conference. "It's not something we have to comment on in one way or another just because we have a situation like this now."

• South Korea would sternly respond to any preemptive attack by North Korea on South Korean warships along the disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea by striking back at the North's military installations from which the attack originates, Seoul's defense chief said on 20 Feb. "We will clearly respond to any preemptive artillery or missile attack by North Korea," Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said at a parliamentary hearing.

• On 24 Feb, North Korea conducted a coastal artillery live fire exercise on the west coast near Yo’n-p’yo’ng Island, close to the Northern Limit Line (NLL). According to the ROK Ministry of Defense, the North conducted the live fire from the coastal artillery units deployed in Haeju and Eung-jin Peninsula once in the morning and once in the afternoon of 24 Feb. The ROK Ministry of Defense assessed the live fire exercises were a part of the “routine winter training cycle exercise, and not an indication of provocation.”

• South Korea's top naval commander was quoted on 24 Feb as warning that North Korea could provoke in a fashion "beyond our imagination" as he inspected South Korea's east coast despite rising concerns of an armed clash on the western side. The inspection by Navy Chief of Staff Jung Ok-keun came just days after the South Korean chairman of general staff said at a parliamentary hearing that the North could deploy surprise tactics by provoking at an unexpected site along the border with South Korea.

• The ROK defense chief said on 25 Feb that the ROK military would firmly respond to any provocation from North Korea, as the nation struggles with rising tension caused by Pyongyang's latest saber-rattling attempts. "The military would respond in a clear and firm manner against provocative action from North Korea, and not be shaken in any way by the stereotypical and rhetorical threats of the North," Lee said at a meeting marking the 20th anniversary of a veterans' club. He stressed that the military is not simply hoping for the North to refrain from provoking the South, but that it has the ability and combat-readiness to win even if it does.

• South Korea will not submit to North Korea's threats regardless of how long it takes before inter-Korean talks are resumed, a senior presidential adviser said on 25 Feb. Park Hyung-joon, senior assistant for public affairs, also said North Korea's launch of what it claims is a satellite will not be condoned by the international community, even if it is a satellite and not a missile as suspected. "What North Korea needs to do right now is to take an open-minded approach to six-party talks and inter-Korean relations, rather than trying to seek gains by threatening the international community," Park said in an interview on a local radio program.

• North Korea strongly denounced on 26 Feb a series of concerns recently voiced by South Korean ministers over its military threat against the South and alleged preparations for a missile launch, repeating its claim that the launch is for a satellite and is wholly under its sovereign rights. A spokesman for the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, a powerful Communist Party organization handling inter-Korean relations, rebutted, saying, "As far as the issue of satellite launch is concerned, it is the North's sovereign right universally recognized which does not allow mere (South Korean) puppets to take issue with it." In the report carried by the (North) Korean Central News Agency, the unidentified spokesman said the North is ready for "everything as for their loudmouthed 'sanctions', 'intercepting' and 'retaliatory strike.'"

• Twenty lawmakers urged Seoul and Pyongyang leaders to work toward resuming tours to Mt. Geumgang, saying the travel ban has taken a toll on South and North Koreans heavily dependent on tourism income. Seoul suspended the cross-border tours, which kicked off in November 1998, five months ago, shortly after a female South Korean tourist was killed by a North Korean soldier last July. The North has offered no official apology for the shooting. Since the suspension of the program, dozens of South Korean businesses and approximately 1,000 travel agents that offered organized trips to the North have gone to the brink of bankruptcy,'' said independent lawmaker Song Hun-suk, an architect of the resolution.

• North Korea has completed the deployment of brand-new ballistic missiles capable of reaching the US territory of Guam and expanded its special forces after examining US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, South Korea said on 23 Feb. The defense ministry also said in its latest assessment of the communist neighbor that the North has recently bolstered its naval forces, reinforcing submarines and developing new types of torpedoes. The 2008 defense white paper, published after weeks of delay, terms the North's 1.19-million-strong military an "immediate and grave threat," as tension runs high along a western sea border. "After examining the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, North Korea appears to have developed new strategies that can complement its shortfalls while reinforcing its strengths," said Shin Won-sik, deputy of policy planning at the Ministry of National Defense.

• The United States reiterated its commitment to defend South Korea against any provocation from North Korea as the reclusive communist state threatens a missile launch and even imminent war on 25 Feb. "All I can tell you is that the US-ROK alliance is a strong one. We have many plans for a multitude of contingencies, were there to be provocative action by the North," Geoff Morrell, Pentagon press secretary, told a daily news conference. "And we feel we are well prepared to defend the South against any provocation."

• North Korean authorities have released the Russian dry cargo ship Omsky-122, which was earlier detained near the North Korean coast on 17 Feb. The Russian consulate general in Ch'ongjin confirmed that the Russian dry cargo ship Omsky-122 was released at 2:30 p.m. local time and headed for Vladivostok.

In and Aroun North Korea: 14 - 20 February 2009

• North Korea will not likely use its nuclear weapons unless it feels its security is at risk, the chief US intelligence official said on 12 Feb. "Pyongyang probably views its nuclear weapons as being more for deterrence, international prestige, and coercive diplomacy than for war fighting and would consider using nuclear weapons only under certain narrow circumstances," the director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, said in a report presented at a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing. "We also assess Pyongyang probably would not attempt to use nuclear weapons against US forces or territory unless it perceived the regime to be on the verge of military defeat and risked an irretrievable loss of control," Blair said in the report, titled "Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community."

• The outgoing top US nuclear envoy stressed on 15 Feb that the US does not regard North Korea as a nuclear power, countering growing speculation that Washington might have lowered the bar in dealing with the communist state's nuclear ambitions. "We do not and have never accepted North Korea as a nuclear weapon state I want to make that very clear," Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters after meeting with Seoul's top nuclear negotiator Kim Suk in Seoul.

• The chief Japanese and US nuclear negotiators agreed on 16 Feb to continue pressing for North Korea's denuclearization through the six-party talks under President Barack Obama's administration, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials said. Akitaka Saiki, director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and Christopher Hill, US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, reaffirmed the countries' joint position of not compromising easily in negotiations with North Korea on how to verify its nuclear programs. They are also believed to have agreed that given Pyongyang's recent provocative actions, it would be difficult for much progress to be made on US-North Korea relations at the moment.

• South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said on 16 Feb that Seoul wants a complete denuclearization of North Korea, and that the nations involved in the process do not approve of the country's possession of nuclear power. "Complete abandonment," Han said during an interpellation session in parliament when asked by lawmakers what Seoul's ultimate goal is in the six-party framework on North Korea's nuclear program.

• The US Secretary of State Clinton warned North Korea on 17 Feb that it stood to lose vital economic aid unless it took immediate steps to abandon its nuclear weapons program. In a move that could heighten tensions between the two countries, Pyongyang is reportedly preparing to test a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile believed to have sufficient range to reach US territory. Speaking in Tokyo on her first overseas trip as secretary of state, Clinton warned the Pyongyang regime against going ahead with the threatened launch, saying it would damage its prospects for improved relations with the US and the world.

• Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso will meet US President Barack Obama in Washington 24 Feb for Obama's first talks with a foreign leader at the White House since taking office, Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said after meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday (17 Feb). Clinton and Nakasone said in a joint news conference they agreed to reinforce the Japan-US alliance to tackle various global issues, including the financial crisis and terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as North Korea's denuclearization and past abductions of Japanese citizens. The two ministers also shared expectations for China to play a "constructive" role in the international arena, while Clinton warned North Korea that a possible missile launch that Pyongyang has been hinting at would be "very unhelpful" to efforts to move the denuclearization process forward.

• North Korea is operating a secret underground plant to make nuclear bombs from highly enriched uranium (HEU) despite denying that such a program exists, a South Korean newspaper said on 18 Feb. Dong-A Ilbo, quoting an unnamed senior government source, said South Korea and the United States have shared intelligence on the plant in Yongbyon district.

• South Korean intelligence efforts in the north appear to have uncovered information about a secret North Korean underground factory that is producing nuclear weapons using enriched Uranium. North Korea has long been installing military installations in large underground bunkers, often dug into the sides of mountains. North Korea has lots of mountains for this. If North Korea decides to test a uranium based bomb, it would probably be an underground test, like the 2006 plutonium bomb. But there is no way to prevent some radioactive gases from such a test from escaping into the atmosphere.

• A working group for security mechanisms in North-East Asia met at the Russian Foreign Ministry on 19 Feb to discuss a draft of the Guiding Principles of Peace. The meeting was held under Russia's chairmanship with participation of all the six countries that take part in the six-way talks on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The Russian diplomat said the working group is likely to approve a new schedule of meetings that would certainly be linked with the general course of the six-way talks.

• US Secretary of State Clinton said on 19 Feb that North Korea's leadership situation is uncertain and the United States is worried the Stalinist country may soon face a succession crisis to replace dictator Kim Jong-il. Clinton said the Obama administration is deeply concerned that a potential change in Pyongyang's ruling structure could raise already heightened tensions between North Korea and its neighbors as potential successors to Kim jockey for position and power.

• On 20 Feb, US Secretary of State Clinton stressed that North Korea's missile threats would harm the six-way disarmament talks and urged the communist nation to return to the bargaining table. "We are calling on the government of North Korea to refrain from being provocative and unhelpful in a war of words they engaged in because it is not fruitful," Clinton said in a press conference in Seoul after talks with her South Korean counterpart, Yu Myung-hwan. She also announced President Barack Obama's appointment of Stephen Bosworth, a former U.S. ambassador to Seoul, as the top U.S. official handling the North Korean issue. "We need a capable and experienced diplomat to stem our risks from North Korea's nuclear ambitions," she said, adding Bosworth will serve as senior emissary in dealing with North Korea and directly report to her and Obama. The secretary said that North Korea is "not going to get a different relationship with U.S." if it shuns dialogue with S. Korea.

• North Korea warned on 19 Feb that South Korea and the United States will pay a "high price" if they go ahead with their planned joint war drills, saying it is ready for an all-out war. A day earlier, the two allies said they will hold their annual military exercise from March 9-20 across South Korea. Pyongyang has denounced such drills as preparations for preemptive strikes, while the allies say they are purely defensive. “Inter-Korean relations are at their worst crisis," Radio Pyongyang said. "A dangerous situation is arising in the western sea and the regions where the two sides are in standoff ... one does not know when military clashes will occur." Following are excerpts of KCNA reports about the ROK-US combined exercise:

“The U.S. imperialists and warmongers of the South Korean puppet army are getting more frantic in their arms build-up and exercises for a war of aggression against the DPRK these days, according to a military source. On 19 Feb warmongers of the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces deployed at least 20 overseas-based F/A-18s, HC-130 and KC-135 in their air force bases in South Korea. 16 F/A-18s and E-3 were also deployed there on 13 Feb. The north-south relations have reached such a pass due to the puppet army warmongers' moves to escalate the confrontation with the DPRK that there is no way to improve them or
put them under control.”

“The bellicose conservative hard-liners of the US and the Lee Myung-bak group have buckled down to working out a new operational plan, a joint product of the theory of a war against the DPRK, in a bid to finally examine the feasibility of the DPRK-targeted war strategy that has already gone through several phases. All their war scenarios such as ‘OPLAN 5026’ called "precision strike plan", ‘OPLAN 5027’ called ‘an operational plan for coping with an all-out war’, ‘OPLAN 5028’ which took the provocation of a war and its escalation into consideration, ‘OPLAN 5029’ simulating ‘destabilization in the north’ and ‘OPLAN 5030’ aimed to weaken as much as possible the strength and capability of the DPRK assume without exception the nature of preemptive strikes.”

“According to South Korea's Yonhap News, US imperialists and the Lee
Myung-bak puppet warlike forces are going to perpetrate the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises, which are exercises for a war of northward aggression, in all of South Korea from 3-20 March. The South Korea-US Combined Forces Command [CFC] announced this on 18 February. The warmongers are going to mobilize massive aggression forces for the war exercises, including some 12,000 troops of the US imperialist aggression forces occupying South Korea, some 14,000 troops of overseas-based US forces, and corps-level, fleet command-level, and wing-level units of the puppet forces. A nuclear-powered aircraft carrier of the US forces is reportedly stepping up preparations to move to the East Sea [Sea of Japan] of Korea to participate in the war exercises. In the meantime, the First Corps of the puppet army openly declared that it will carry out field tactical training in the areas of Koyang and P'aju, Kyo'nggi Province, from the 20th [of February] by mobilizing various kinds of war equipment and massive forces. Currently, the 30th Division of the puppet army is bustling about for field mobile training in these areas.”

• Unlike its usual focus on leader Kim Jong-il, this year's ruling party editorial honoring his birthday repeatedly emphasized the "inheritance of bloodline," Seoul officials said on 17 Feb amid growing speculation of succession. "In the midst of glorious inheritance of bloodline of Mount Paektu is the bright future of the Juche (self-reliance) revolution," Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpeice of the ruling Workers' Party, said in its editorial on 16 Feb.

• A source close to the North Korean government has told Mainichi Shimbun that an internal memo circulating in the North Korean military headquarters has named Kim Jong-il's third son, 26-year-old Kim Jong Un, as his successor. However, Kim's second son, Kim Jong Chol, 28, is complicating the transfer of power as he is also apparently vying for the position following his appointment to a top post in the Workers' Party of Korea. According to the source, the memo is believed to be used for military ideological training and says that Kim Jong Un has been named as his father's successor. Kim Jong Un was reportedly studying at the Kim Il Sung Military University until 2007 before joining the army.

• North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s alleged decision to name his third son as his successor has been made at the recommendation of his brother-in-law, who is known to have overseen state affairs while Kim fell ill, sources said on 15 Feb. Jang Song-thaek, husband of Kim's younger sister and believed to be second in power, recommended Kim's youngest, [Kim] Jong-un, take over as the North's new leader, considering the incumbent leader's special affection for the 25-year-old son, multiple sources said on condition of anonymity.

• The youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is running in parliamentary elections seen by some analysts as laying the groundwork for a power transition, a report said Thursday (19Feb). The leader's third son, 25-year-old Jong Un, has registered as a candidate for the elections on March 8, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said. The registration means North Korea has started the process of designating the leader's successor, Yonhap said, citing sources in Beijing. "Kim Jung Un will be formally nominated as successor after the elections. He is expected to take on key party and military posts in April," one source told Yonhap.

• North Korea's food supply will fall 1.17 million tons short of demand this year, while Pyongyang is tightening control of the market and economic activities, Seoul's Unification Ministry said on 19 Feb. North Korea produced 4.31 million tons of grain last year, up 7 percent from the previous year thanks to improved weather conditions. But the country likely needs 5.48 million tons to feed its 2.3 million people, the ministry said in a report submitted to the National Assembly's foreign affairs, trade and unification committee.

• Two members of the British House of Lords returned from a five-day visit to North Korea last weekend and called on the new Obama administration to bring about a formal cessation of hostilities and normalisation of relations with North Korea. Lord David Alton and Baroness Caroline Cox expressed deep concerns over human rights, humanitarian and security issues during high-level meetings with DPRK government ministers and officials.

• North Korea signaled on 16 Feb that it is preparing to launch a satellite, sharpening its combative diplomacy on leader Kim Jong-il's birthday amid rising tension with South Korea and stalled nuclear negotiations with the United States. Pyongyang made clear it will go ahead with what it called its "space development" program, a possible message to Washington ahead of US Secretary of State Clinton's visit to Seoul this week. "One will come to know later what will be launched in the DPRK," the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

• When the US delegation led by former US ambassador to South Korea Stephen Bosworth visited North Korea and asked a high-ranking official of North Korea's Foreign Ministry about [the country's] preparation of the launch of a long-range ballistic missile, the official said: "We are still under a threat (of the United States). Under such circumstance, we will reinforce our deterrence." Korean Central News Agency on 16 Feby claimed that the object, which North Korea is preparing to launch, is not a missile and hinted at the possibility of launching a "satellite," asserting that "space development is the independent right of North Korea." It is viewed as North Korea's explanation to avoid criticism from the international community when it launches a missile. It contradicts the comment by the high-ranking official, who talked about "[reinforcing] deterrence."

• North Korea could complete preparations to fire a missile within the next two weeks at the earliest, Seoul's defense chief reportedly said on 18 Feb, as South Korea and the US warned Pyongyang of sanctions and other consequences. Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee made the prediction during a closed-door report to ruling Grand National Party leaders, Yonhap News Agency said, citing unnamed participants.

• South Korea's top diplomat emphasized on 18 Feb that North Korea's missile program poses a serious threat to international security due to its ability to launch a nuclear bomb. Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan also said that Pyongyang would still face stern punitive measures from the United Nations even if it launches a satellite, and not a missile as feared. North Korea's missile is not a mere conventional weapon," Yu said at a meeting with foreign envoys here. "The combination of its long-range missile and nuclear capability will have a very serious impact to the world's peace and security."

• The issue of whether South Korea should participate in the Missile Defense efforts led by the United States has resurfaced amid intelligence reports that North Korea is preparing to launch a long-range ballistic missile. The US-led Missile Defense system is being developed as a deterrent against air attacks from potential enemies such as North Korea and Iran. It will include a combination of mid-course intercepting SM-3 missiles based on US and Japanese Aegis-equipped ships and terminal-phase PAC-3 missile batteries. Japan, one of Washington's closest allies, is a partner in the program.

• Japanese companies played a key role in supplying equipment used for Pakistan's nuclear development, investigations by Kyodo News in Islamabad and Tokyo have revealed in recent days. Comments by Pakistan's disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan and former employees of the companies reveal in detail for the first time how leading Japanese manufacturers knowingly and unknowingly helped Pakistan acquire nuclear capability and were incorporated into its supply framework.

• An US scholar on 18 Feb urged the Barack Obama administration to resume negotiations on removal of North Korea's long-range missiles, talks that were suspended a decade ago under the Clinton administration. The Obama administration should "declare that the US is willing to resume negotiations to eliminate North Korea's missile threats to its neighbors," Bruce Klingner, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said in a policy report posted on the foundation's Website. Klingner, however, added that such negotiations "must comprehensively constrain missile development, deployment, and proliferation rather than simply seeking a quid pro quo agreement – cash payments in exchange for not exporting missile technology."

• North Korea said on 19 Feb its missile and nuclear programs pose no threat, ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State Clinton to South Korea for talks expected to focus on North Korea. North Korea's military accused South Korea of misusing what it called "nonexistent nuclear and missile threats" as a pretext to invade, and renewed a warning that its troops are in an "all-out confrontational posture" against Seoul.

• North Korea's titular head of state Kim Yong-nam Sunday (15 Feb) warned Pyongyang will take "decisive actions" against Seoul if the South continues to challenge the communist nation, becoming the highest North Korean official yet to directly make such a threat since inter-Korean relations turned sour early last year. The fresh threat comes after the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said late last month that the North will no longer honor any agreement reached between the divided Koreas in the past, also pledging to take all means necessary redraw a maritime border in the western sea to the south of the existing border, Northern Limit Line.

• South Korea is on high alert as the North Korean military has exposed part of its combat capability such as rocket and coastal artillery at its bases near the Military Demarcation Line and the maritime borderline in the Yellow Sea. Military sources in Seoul said on 13 Feb that intelligence spotted a raft of 240mm rocket artillery at the North's frontline tunnel bases. The North Korean military has positioned a slew of 170mm self-propelled and 240mm rocket artillery with a range of 50 to 65 kilometers at mountainous areas near the border with South Korea. Of them, 350 pieces can strike Seoul.

• Unification Minister Hyun In-taek yesterday downplayed the June 15 and Oct. 4 inter-Korean declarations as "political statements," a remark that could further deteriorate ties with North Korea. "The accords are political declarations entailing basic directions of the inter-Korean relations. They are not documents that have received parliamentary ratification," Hyun said. He made the remark in response to a question about the accords by Rep. Choi Young-hee of the main opposition Democratic Party during the National Assembly's interpellation to the government.

• On 16 Feb, conservative lawmakers urged the government to shift its position on North Korea's nuclear programs to better cope with what they called the de facto nuclear state. Hardliners have gained the upper hand in the legislature since North Korea announced that it will scrap all inter-Korean agreements and appeared to be preparing to test-fire a long-range missile. Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) proposed the creation of a presidential body to manage the situation in case a North Korea-led nuclear crisis takes place on the peninsula.

• The government has been reviewing legal action against civic group members who, despite repeated warnings, flew balloons filled with anti-North Korea leaflets and North Korean banknotes across the border on 16 Feb, the Ministry of Unification said. On 18 Feb, the unification minister asked the prosecutors office to investigate activists who sent North Korean currency over the border as part of an anti-Pyongyang campaign, in an alleged violation of South Korean law.

• Recently, South Korea's Ministry of Unification totally blocked the exchange of news items with us proposed by the Press Headquarters of the South Side's Committee for Implementing the 15 June Joint Declaration, babbling about a security guarantee and whatnot.

• A ranking North Korean official has admitted "there may be problems" in implementing the two inter-Korean summit accords but accused South Korea of completely opposing them, a British lawmaker said in a report on his recent Pyongyang visit. If confirmed, the alleged remark by Ri Jong-hyok, vice chairman of the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, Pyongyang's arm on inter-Korean affairs, could be a sign that North Korea also believes part of the extensive economic and political agreements forged in 2000 and 2007 should be revised in terms of their technical implementation.

• “Trains wish to run (to North Korea).” This is what a signboard read to mark the end of an inter-Korean railway at Shintan-ri Rail Station in Yeoncheon County, Gyeonggi Province. While inter-Korean tension has heightened in recent weeks, construction work continues around the station to reconnect Gyeongwon Railway, which symbolizes the dream of a reunified Korea. Workers were busy at work to lay the railway bed to increase the level of land 10 meters above normal, with a sign warning of landmines. In a tunnel, the centerpiece of the project for reconnecting the inter-Korean railway, heavy duty equipment broke off layers of rock amid a roaring sound with its two arms stretched out.

• President Lee Myung-bak assembled the largest annual national security meeting on 17 Feb amid heightening fears of a North Korean provocation, the defense ministry said. The meeting, which drew roughly 200 top military, intelligence, law enforcement and local government officials, marked the first time that a South Korean leader has presided over it in five years. Begun in 1964 to coordinate security measures against North Korean spies, the meeting came amid worries the communist neighbor may test-fire a ballistic missile or trigger an armed clash along the western sea border.

• South Korea will define North Korea as an "immediate and grave threat" to its national security in its forthcoming defense white paper, a spokesman said on 17 Feb, amid mounting tension along their heavily armed border. South Korea previously called North Korea an "immediate" or "grave" security threat in defense reports published in 2004 and 2006, but has never used the two terms simultaneously in a single white paper. "This year we have decided to term it a threat both grave and immediate," said Lee Bung-woo, a spokesman at the Ministry of National Defense.

• North Korea may try to jolt its enemies with unexpected provocations along its heavily armed border with South Korea, the South's chairman of general staff said on 19 Feb. North Korea recently stepped up its bitter rhetoric against South Korea and warned of an armed clash near the U.N.-drawn Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea -- the site of bloody naval clashes in 1999 and 2002. "We expect various scenarios of North Korean provocation, including at the NLL," Kim Tae-young, chairman of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a parliamentary hearing, citing a Chinese strategy that calls for attack after distracting enemy attention.

• Dozens of women clad casually in sweatsuits chat cheerfully in their classroom during a recess period. It could be any classroom except for the tight security outside and the subject of the lectures – how to adapt to life in a new world. The South Korean government's Hanawon resettlement centre, ringed with fences and tightly guarded by police, is the first stop for North Koreans who have fled their impoverished hardline communist homeland.

• It’s hard to imagine why someone would want to go back to North Korea – described by some defectors as “hell on earth” - after escaping the totalitarian regime that has the world’s worst human rights record. But some North Koreans are doing just that – volunteering to risk their lives to return to a hostile country in order to spread the Gospel. Underground University is a new project by Colorado Springs-based ministry Seoul USA that will train and equip North Korean defectors with tools they need to return to their homeland for ministry.

• North Korea will hold its Arirang Festival, the world's largest mass gymnastics show, from August to mid-October, a US tour agency said on 17 Feb. Pyongyang has intermittently held the annual Arirang festival, named after Korea's famous folk song, since 2002, mobilizing some 100,000 people for synchronized acrobatics, gymnastics, dances and flip-card mosaic animations. The months-long show, also held in 2005 and 2008, is believed to bring in badly-needed foreign currency and promote the regime's socialism. A U.N. committee has expressed concerns at the mobilization of children for the event.

• The population of North Korea totaled 24.05 million as of Oct. 2008, reported Radio Free Asia on 14 Feb, citing the preliminary census by the United Nations Population Fund. There were 11.72 million men and 12.33 million women. South Pyeongan Province was the most populated province, with 4.05 million and the capital city Pyongyang had 3.26 million people. North Korea conducted a census survey for the first time in 15 years since 1993 with the help of the UNFPA in October last year.

• As the health condition of General Secretary Kim Jong-il of North Korea has been attracting attention, government officials in China, a state friendly to North Korea, have become edgy about the movements of countries concerned that are actively collecting information on North Korea. Chinese sources have revealed that a senior official at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences – a government-affiliated think tank – is being investigated on the suspicion that he might have leaked information on North Korea to South Korea, and that China is tightening control [over information to prevent leaks] by taking such measures as issuing instructions not to get in touch with people at foreign embassies and news media alone without getting permission.