State to Embark on Swathe of Forced Mergers
Daily NK. 9/28/12 By Kim Tae Hong
The central authorities are planning to merge
uncompetitive factories and enterprises with stronger ones as North Korea
prepares to embark on the full implementation of the so-called ‘June 28th
Policy’, Daily NK has learned.
This process is being undertaken to give those enterprises
that remain the best chance of competing under the new rules that are due to
enter force in the coming days.
An overseas Chinese trader explained the situation to Daily
NK on the 27th, saying, “A whole bunch of traders who were in China on business
trips started rushing back to North Korea. They had heard that the authorities
planned to rationalize the number of small and medium size enterprises so they
headed back in a hurry to investigate for themselves.”
Another major problem is that while the official aim of the
policy is to retain only those enterprises that are capable of implementing the
tenets of the June 28th Policy effectively, only around 30% of North Korean
enterprises are fully functioning, which means that there are around 70% in an
uncompetitive condition. Therefore, it seems inevitable that some uncompetitive
enterprises will have to be kept, and these are likely to be a drain on the
economy in the short to medium term.
Ahn Calls for Virtuous Circle via Peace System
Daily NK. 9/28/12 By Lee Sang Yong
“Peace on the Korean Peninsula will not happen in the absence
of national reconciliation,” according to independent presidential candidate Ahn Cheol Soo.
Ahn, speaking at a foreign affairs forum held this morning by
the policy group ‘Tomorrow’, asserted, “A welfare state will remain remote for
as long as our national security is unstable and peace cannot be secured.”
However, “If a peace system is constructed on the Korean
Peninsula then it is natural that peace, security and economy will form a
virtuous circle,” he went on. “Improving relations with North Korea and pushing
for unification through peaceful cooperation is now one of our most critical
tasks.”
Ahn also once again reiterated his intention to bisect the
stances of the two most recent governments, saying, “We need to go up one level
from the engagement policy of the Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun governments,
and beyond the policy of the Lee Myung Bak administration.”
However, he did not give any details. Ahn has now repeatedly
emphasized the importance of security while failing to offer any specific
policy to bring that security about, leading to accusations of populism without
substance.
Hundreds of Chinese fishing
boats still catching crabs near tense inter-Korean border
Yonhap News Agency. 9/28/12
SEOUL, Sept. 28 (Yonhap) -- Hundreds
of Chinese fishing boats are still catching crabs in waters near the Yellow Sea
border between South and North Korea, a military source said Friday, despite
Beijing's agreement to have them stay away from the tense area.
Earlier this week, Chinese
Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi promised in talks with his South Korean
counterpart, Kim Sung-hwan, in New York to pull Chinese fishing boats out of
waters around the Northern Limit Line, the de-facto sea border between the two
Koreas.
The agreement came as
military tensions escalated in the area after North Korean fishing boats made a
series of violations of the maritime boundary, with the South's Navy firing a
barrage of warning shots last week to chase North Korean boats away.
"About 450 Chinese
fishing boats have been catching crabs every day, even after Sept. 24,"
when the agreement was reached, the military source said. "Chinese fishing
boats have come close to the NLL in large numbers and are filling their nets
with crabs."
Areas near the border have
been the scene of a number of bloody inter-Korean clashes. The two sides fought
naval gun-battles in the area in 1999, 2002 and 2009. In 2010,
the North torpedoed a South Korean warship in the area and shelled a South
Korean border island.
N.Korean Regime Fleeces
Overseas Workers
The Chosun Ilbo. 9/27/12
North Korean agents abroad
have been ordered to squeeze expatriate laborers for US$167 a month each on top
of the hefty cut the regime officially takes from their earnings.
The regime sends one State
Security Department agent to watch over every 50 workers sent
overseas to earn hard currency, to prevent them from defecting or absorbing and
bringing back western influences. Each agent must confiscate $167 per worker a
month to meet the annual quota of $100,000.
The average North Korean
working abroad makes only between $300 and $1,000 a month depending on the type
of work and country. Eighty percent of that money goes to an agency known as
Room 39, which manages leader Kim Jong-un's private coffers, in the form of
taxes, insurance payments and boarding fees.
That leaves the expat workers
with a mere $60 to $200 a month, and that is now set to dwindle even further.
S. Korea to send third notice urging North to repay food loan
The Korea Times. 9/27/12
South Korea will send a third
notice to North Korea, urging the country again to repay overdue loans
extended to the North after a summit between the two countries in 2000,
Seoul said Thursday.
In loans of rice and corn, promised in the landmark 2000
summit between the two Koreas, South Korea provided the North with food worth a
total of $720 million until 2007.
Including interest accrued on the food loans, the North is
required to repay some $875 million by 2037, with the first installment payment
of $5.83 million having come due on June 7.
The North has remained silent about the overdue debt,
North Korea gets lukewarm reception to investment plea
Reuters. 9/27/12 By
Ben Blanchard and Langi Chiang
(Reuters) - North Korea got a lukewarm reception to a plea
on Wednesday for investment in two special economic zones set up with
China, with businesses expressing worries about the impoverished state's
stability and lack of basic infrastructure like banks.
Rason on North Korea's east
coast and Hwanggumphyong, an
area on the western border between the two countries, hope to attract Chinese
and foreign investment to help Pyongyang overcome tough international sanctions
imposed in retaliation for its nuclear tests.
But after listening to a presentation from Chinese and North
Korean officials at one of Beijing's most expensive hotels laying out the
supposed allure of the two zones, the head of one company gave an emphatic
"no" when asked if she was convinced.
Chinese miner and steel manufacturer, the Xiyang Group,
has described its investment in an iron-ore powder venture there as "a
nightmare", accusing the North of violating its own investment laws.
6th Session of the 12th SPA Held
North Korea Leadership. 9/26/12
Kim Jong Un reads the agenda at the 6th session of the 12th
Supreme People’s Assembly held at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang
on 25 September 2012 (Photo: KCNA-Yonhap)
Kim Jong Un reads the agenda of the 6th session of the 12th
SPA in Pyongyang on 25 September 2012. Also sitting in the first row of the
rostrum in this image are: DPRK Cabinet Premier Choe Yong Rim (L), SPA
Presidium President Kim Yong Nam (2nd L), Director of the KPA General Political
Department (bureau) VMar Choe Ryong Hae (2nd R) and Chief of the KPA General
Staff VMar Hyon Yong Chol (R). Seated in the second row of the rostrum are KWP
Secretary and Director of the United Front Department Kim Yang Gon (L),
Director of the Minisry of State Security Political Bureau Col. Gen. Kim Chang
Sop (2nd R) and Director of the Ministry of People’s Security Political Bureau
Col Gen. Ri Pyong Sam (R) (Photo: KCNA-Yonhap)
The SPA adopted a revised education law, making elementary
and secondary mandatory for 12 years.
Previously, DPRK law required 11 years of “compulsory education.” The new education law was described as a “a
step reflecting the dear respected Kim Jong Un’s noble outlooks on the country,
the younger generation and future” and was justified because the country “is
now demonstrating its might as a dignified military power possessed of nuclear
deterrent, a country that manufactures and launches satellites. Korean-style
CNC technology and flexible production system have been introduced to the
different domains of the national economy and a great number of Juche-based and
modern heavy and light industrial bases and grand monuments have been built.”
Despite a deluge of prognostications and anticipation, the
6th session of the 12th SPA did not promulgate any modifications
concerning special administrative regions/economic zones, market
mechanisms or agricultural policies.
It is entirely likely that the legislative session addressed one or all
of these policy initiatives, but chose not to publicize them to external
observers.
N. Korea's nuclear standoff tops agenda at security forum in
China
Yonhaps New Agency. 9/26/12
DALIAN, China, Sept. 26 (Yonhap) -- Long-standing tensions
over North Korea's nuclear weapons program will top the agenda of an annual
security conference that brings together all key regional players
committed to resolving the communist country's nuclear drive, a
diplomatic source said Wednesday.
The Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD) will draw government
officials and civilian experts from South Korea, North Korea, the United
States, China, Japan and Russia in this eastern Chinese port city of Dalian
on Thursday and Friday.
Organized by the University of California Institute on
Global Conflict and Cooperation, the NEACD has served as an opportunity for
informal dialogue between North Korea and its nuclear negotiation partners.
Last year's meeting was held in Hawaii, but North Korean officials did not
attend.
Lee Do-hoon, South Korea's deputy
chief envoy to the six-party talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear weapons
program, will attend the forum. Other nations are expected to send their deputy
chief nuclear envoys to the conference.
Choe Son-hui, a deputy director in
North Korea's foreign ministry, arrived in the Chinese city on Wednesday. She
is expected to participate in the forum, according to Seoul's foreign ministry
sources.
Choe, the adopted daughter of the communist nation's Premier
Choe Yong-rim, serves as the North's vice representative of the six-party
talks.
She was accompanied by several other officials, including Han
Song-ryol, Pyongyang's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, the sources
added.
Formal six-party talks between the six nations were last held
in late 2008 and diplomatic efforts to resume negotiations have been frozen
since April, when North Korea defiantly launched a long-range rocket that
failed moments after lift-off.
N.Korea Turns to Selling Gold Reserves
The Chosun Ilbo. 9/25/12
North Korea has exported more than 2 tons of gold to China
over the past year to earn US$100 million. Even in tough
times during the Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il regimes, North Korea refused to
let go of its precious gold reserves.
North Korea produces one to two tons of gold a year. Mines in
South and North Pyongan Province and North Hwanghae Province are believed to
have around 1,000 to 2,000 tons of gold deposits.
North Korean trading companies have secretly been selling
gold in China, said one ethnic Korean businessman in China. "These
companies are operated by the military and Workers Party and are collecting
gold from the mines and forcefully buying up gold from the people in certain
cases."
Analysis of satellite images shows halt in North Korea work
on new launch pad
The Washington Post. 9/25/12
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has stopped construction
on a launch pad where intercontinental-range rockets could be tested,
an interruption possibly due to heavy rains and that could stall completion up
to two years, according to an analysis of new satellite imagery.
Despite the setback, however, Pyongyang is also
refurbishing for possible future use another existing pad at
the same complex that has been used for past rocket launches, according to
the analysis of Aug. 29 images provided to The Associated Press by 38 North,
the website of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced
International Studies.
North Korea conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, but experts
don’t believe Pyongyang has yet mastered the technology needed to shrink
a nuclear weapon so it can be mounted onto the tip of a long-range
missile.
There are worries, however, about North Korea’s rocket and
missile programs. The United States, South Korea and others have said North
Korea uses rocket launches, including a failed effort in mid-April, as covers
to test banned missile systems that could target parts of the United States.
North Korea says recent rocket launches were meant to put peaceful satellites
into orbit.
Both the new launch pad where work has been suspended and the
existing launch pad being refurbished are at the Tonghae launch complex,
which houses nine facilities around the villages of Musudan, No-dong and
Taepo-dong on the northeast coast, according to the report.
“Despite the temporary halt in construction at the new
Tonghae launch pad and the failed test last April, the North Koreans appear
determined to eventually build bigger and better rockets,” Joel Wit, a former
U.S. State Department official and editor of 38 North, told AP.
The failed April launch of Pyongyang’s new Unha-3 rocket
occurred at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Tongchang-ri, a
sophisticated, newer site on the country’s northwestern coast.
The new commercial satellite photos of Tonghae, taken by
DigitalGlobe, also show halted construction at fuel and oxidizer buildings near
the new pad, the analysis said. Those buildings are described as crucial to any
future tests.
The exact reason for the halt isn’t clear, but the analysis
says the rains this summer that killed dozens of people and submerged large
amounts of farmland are one explanation. North Korea is particularly vulnerable
to natural disasters because of its poor drainage, widespread deforestation and
poor infrastructure.
There are no workers or heavy construction equipment at the
new pad site. No flooding can be seen in the new photos, but the analysis
speculates that the construction equipment may have been moved to help with
rebuilding efforts elsewhere. It says that heavy equipment can only get to the
site by a rutted dirt trail that crosses a stream.
“Whatever the reason, the slowdown, barring concerted North
Korean efforts to make up for lost time, could result in a 1-2 year slip in the
planned completion date of the new complex, which was probably the middle of
this decade,” the report said.
It said Pyongyang can still launch longer-range rockets from
its Sohae facility.
