Indonesia plans to
give 2m dollars in food aid to North Korea
BBC Monitoring Asia
Pacific, June 5, 2012, Source: The Jakarta Post website, Jakarta, in English 31
May 12
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The Indonesian
government plans to give 2 m US dollars of aid to the North Korean government
to help it with its ongoing food crisis
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The government, Marty
said, was currently working with the World Food Program and UNICEF to figure
out the methods and forms of aid delivery to the Communist country
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On May 15, North Korea's
chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, Kim Yong-nam, met
with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to discuss trade and investment during
a bilateral meeting between the two countries
The response from
Seoul to the North targeting media outlets in the South
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SEOUL - South Korea's government is chiding the North
for a specific threat made by its military against some of the media in Seoul
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South Korean reports
say it is unprecedented for North Korea to publicly speak of map coordinates
for specific targets.
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One television channel
in Seoul had compared the ceremonies to those of the Hitler Youth of Nazi-era
Germany
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South Korea's
Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk says it takes the threat seriously
and calls North Korea's reaction way out of line
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However, Yim Tae-hee -
a former chief of staff to the current South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak
and declared presidential candidate of the ruling New Frontier Party - says
Seoul should not over-react. It should step back and put things in perspective.
literally interpreting such threats
could cause an erroneous move by Seoul in regards to relations with the North.
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Ryu says a competition
is underway in North Korea among various entities to demonstrate their loyalty
to Kim Jong Un and such belligerent rhetoric directed at the South is one part
of this.
N. Korea threatens
specific attacks on S. Korean media
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The North Korean
statement is the latest in a series of threats aimed at Seoul’s conservative
government and news agencies following the December death of Kim Jong-il
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Among the South Korean
media groups North Korea threatened was Channel A, a television network
affiliated with the conservative Dong-a Ilbo newspaper, which has described the
children’s festivals in Pyongyang as an Adolph Hitler-style “political show.”
North Korea’s Threat
Gets Coordinates Wrong
the Defense Ministry received
President Lee Myung-Bak’s approval to spend as much as $2.14 billion to buy
between 500 and 600 new missiles
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The request for the missile
procurement followed North Korea’s failed satellite launch on 13 April
Lee Hae-chan, a
contender to take over leadership of the opposition Democratic United Party, opposes
so-called “North Korean human rights law” proposed by the ruling Saenuri Party
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it is diplomatically
inappropriate for South Korea to intervene in the human rights situation in the
North
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“Politically speaking,
one country deeply arguing over a domestic political problem of another country
or intervening in it is a diplomatic discourtesy,” Lee said, “There is a human
rights issue in North Korea. It is true they have it, but it is up to North
Korea to deal with it. It’s not
something other countries can intervene in.”
o
DO- he could have put
it in a more nuanced way by putting things in the context of efforts toward
re-unification, as opposed to the general prohibition of intervention in
domestic affairs under UN Charter Art. 2(7)
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On Sunday, Saenuri
lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun said he and 10 other Saenuri lawmakers submitted a bill to enable the South Korean
government to create a foundation on North Korean human right issues for the
purpose of finding policies to improve human rights in the North. Under the
bill, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade will create a North Korea human
rights ambassador position. Similar
bills were submitted twice by Saenuri lawmakers in 2005 and 2008. Both failed
due to opposition from the DUP, the largest opposition party
The upcoming trip of Amb.
King and Amb. Glyn Davies
-
Amb. Glyn Davies,
special representative for North Korean policy, en route to Brussels, Moscow
and Paris
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Amb. Robert King,
special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, Seoul and Tokyo
The US special envoy
for human rights in North Korea, Amb. Robert King, will travel to Japan and
South Korea this week for meetings with senior officials, the State Department
says
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Tokyo where he will
meet Japan's Minister for the Abduction Issue Jin Matsubara and a senior
foreign ministry official tasked with Asian and Oceanian Affairs, Shinsuke
Sugiyama
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In 2002, North Korea
admitted to the abduction of 13 Japanese nationals. It allowed five victims to
return to Japan along with their spouses and offspring, but claimed the others
had died
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Tokyo does not have
diplomatic relations with Pyongyang and ties are tense, due in part to Japan's
sometimes brutal 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula
The Committee for the
Release of North Korea Human Rights Activist Kim Young Hwan plans to urge the
U.S. State Department’s dedicated envoy for North Korean human rights, Robert
King, to do more to obtain the release of Kim and three other South Korean men
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King is due to arrive
in Seoul on June 9th after visiting Japan on the 7th, and during this period is
due to meet with human rights groups on the 12th
US lets S Korea extend
missile range to 550 km
-
At the talks with the
United States, South Korea demanded its missile range be extended up to 1,000
km, but the two sides eventually agreed on the range of 550 km, the official
said
Threat of
Finlandization by China Should Spur Korean Reunification
the North – China
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In advising several
colleagues with ties to senior levels of the DPRK leadership, I have learned
that the North Koreans’ distrust of China is fundamental and profound. It is not polemical and for public
consumption, … as the late China-hand James Lilley sometimes hinted, the
undercurrent of Chinese-North Korean relations is likely more vicious and
brutal than we imagine.
-
Nowadays, the North
senses China has been displeased that the DPRK leadership is not
sufficiently responsive to Chinese authority. Specifically, it has been
intimated that Kim Jong Il himself was greatly distrusted by China because he
was not responsive to Chinese requests. Ironically, the subversion the North
fears comes not from the South, but from China.
-
For years, the
North sought improved relations with the U.S. to balance the immense
pressure it feels from China, although today it likely has given up on that
hope
the South – China
-
South Korea’s policies reveal an entirely different view of China. China is now the ROK’s largest trading
partner, even seeks a mutual military logistical agreement with
China (along with Japan), underlying ROK policy toward the DPRK in the Lee
administration has been to join hands with China .. to “envelop” the North
in the expectation of compelling irreversible economic reform
the consequence
-
However, the actual
result, some fear, may be that the North would be incrementally
integrated economically into China’s northeast provinces, end up using the
yuan as its currency, and find itself only nominally sovereign.
implication for the
effort toward re-unification
-
This scenario would
mean Korean reunification would take place – if ever – under Chinese auspices
and only if a united Korea’s foreign policy conformed to China’s. Simply put, how could red-blooded Koreans –
North, South, or overseas – accept such an outcome, after 35 years of Japanese
colonialism and nearly 70 years of division?
-
good reason to be
deeply concerned about potential Finlandization at the hands of China.
China may feel it is its right to secure its regional sphere of influence so that
its neighbors’ policies are more “compatible” with Chinese interests – but
Koreans could once again in their history pay the price by giving up national
unity and genuine independence
-
As a 2009 Goldman
Sachs report noted, the synergies between the two Koreas are more significant
than many think: e.g., they predicted the GDP of a unified Korea would surpass
that of Japan in a few decades
-
The two Koreas need to
concur that neither has a guaranteed future of political and economic
independence and viability , Reunification .. but a matter of contemporary
urgency to create a strong, unified and independent Korea.
China Targets North
Korean Refugees and the Activists Who Help Them
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“I heard that police and security staff are in every nook of the
streets. All defectors must take shelter and cannot come out of it,” he said.
“Most of the brokers appear to have returned home due to the crackdown. Chinese
residents also refuse to help defectors in dire need of their support.” [....]
-
There is also this
suspicious event to consider: Kang Ho-bin, a South Korean human
rights activist and survivor of an apparent assassination attempt in 2011, died
in a car accident in China on Sunday
UAV Crash in Korea
Linked To GPS Jamming
Threat of
Finlandization by China Should Spur Korean Reunification
JUNE 5, 2012 Mark
P. Barry, Ph.D., is an independent Asian affairs analyst who has followed
Northeast Asian affairs for 22 years. He
met the late President Kim Il Sung in 1994.
China is usually
considered the only nation with influence in North Korea, and we have
repeatedly heard that only it can moderate the North’s behavior. China, host of
the Six Party Talks, and the world’s second largest economic power, allegedly
understands the North Koreans better than anyone. As recently as this past
March, at the nuclear summit in Seoul, President Obama asked president Hu
Jintao to use all the instruments of China’s power to reign in Pyongyang. This
is often referred to as outsourcing the North Korean problem to Beijing.
Yet, China has not
lived up to that billing in moderating North Korean behavior. Though the North
remains critically dependent on Chinese economic assistance, China’s policy
toward the DPRK is evidently based on self-interest and not on the wider
interests of the other members of the Six Party Talks. There are also limits to
Chinese influence in the North, both self-imposed, and more importantly, beyond
China’s control due to strong underlying distrust of China in the North.
Despite the massive
Chinese economic aid it receives (food, fuel, consumer goods, investment), the
North wishes aid could come from elsewhere. Gone are the days of fraternal
assistance from the socialist bloc. As the North’s present food shortages are
aggravated by a spring drought, and with the cancelled food aid from the U.S.
due to the failed mid-April satellite launch, the North again has no one else
to turn to but China.
In advising several
colleagues with ties to senior levels of the DPRK leadership, I have learned
that the North Koreans’ distrust of China is fundamental and profound. It is
not polemical and for public consumption, as it is with Japan, South Korea and
the U.S.; yet it is deadly serious. It is based on both recent and more distant
history, and, as the late China-hand James Lilley sometimes hinted, the
undercurrent of Chinese-North Korean relations is likely more vicious and
brutal than we imagine.
North Korea sees China
as a regional hegemon in a modern-day reprise of its historical role in
treating Korea as a tributary state. It remembers that in October 1950, China
not only intervened in the Korean War – saving the Korean People’s Army from
oblivion – but took over all command and control, subsuming the North’s forces
into its own; it became China’s war with the U.S. After the 1953
Armistice, several thousand Chinese troops remained based in North Korea until
1958.
Nowadays, the North
senses China has been displeased that the DPRK leadership is not sufficiently
responsive to Chinese authority. Specifically, it has been intimated that Kim
Jong Il himself was greatly distrusted by China because he was not responsive
to Chinese requests. Ironically, the subversion the North fears comes not from
the South, but from China. Since Korean People’s Army officers have often
received training in China by the People’s Liberation Army, the North is
suspicious that the Chinese may have levers to influence the train of events in
the DPRK. For years, the North sought improved relations with the U.S. to
balance the immense pressure it feels from China, although today it likely has
given up on that hope.
In the purported last
will and testament of Kim Jong Il, parts of which are in the possession of ROK
think tanks like the Sejong
Institute and others, Kim allegedly warned his countrymen to be
vigilant of China:
“Historically, China
is the country that forced difficulties on our country, the country that
currently has the closest relations with us, but could become the country we
need to watch most in the future. Keep this in mind and be careful. Avoid being
exploited by China.”
Ironically, South
Korea’s policies reveal an entirely different view of China. China is now the
ROK’s largest trading partner, a dramatic leap since diplomatic ties were
restored in 1992. South Korea now even seeks a mutual military logistical
agreement with China (along with Japan). As many have argued, President Lee
Myung-bak’s policies of not providing aid to the North without significant
political concessions have helped push the North further into China’s grasp. A
friend of mine recently served as a presidential advisor in the Blue House, and
from his description, underlying ROK policy toward the DPRK in the Lee
administration has been to join hands with China, as highly developed economies
bordering North Korea, to “envelop” the North in the expectation of compelling
irreversible economic reform.
However, the actual
result, some fear, may be that the North would be incrementally integrated
economically into China’s northeast provinces, end up using the yuan as its
currency, and find itself only nominally sovereign. This scenario would mean
Korean reunification would take place – if ever – under Chinese auspices and
only if a united Korea’s foreign policy conformed to China’s. Simply put, how
could red-blooded Koreans – North, South, or overseas – accept such an outcome,
after 35 years of Japanese colonialism and nearly 70 years of division?
Ironically, despite
the deep divisions and divides between North and South, they are the same
people, and possess a common cultural memory of China in its various dynastic
incarnations as a hegemon. Watch almost any South Korean saeguk –
historical television drama – and the Chinese are typically depicted with more
disdain and distrust than even Japan. Given the uncertainty of China’s regional
intentions – in part evidenced by Obama’s renewed emphasis on Asia – Koreans,
North and South (and perhaps Vietnam as well), have good reason to be deeply
concerned about potential Finlandization at the hands of China. China may feel
it is its right to secure its regional sphere of influence so that its
neighbors’ policies are more “compatible” with Chinese interests – but Koreans
could once again in their history pay the price by giving up national unity and
genuine independence.
Instead, the two
Koreas should begin to reintegrate and eventually reunify as a nation of over
70 million people as the most viable solution to potential prolonged division
and Finlandization by
China. Near-term Korean reintegration would constitute a regional strategic
realignment which would be a win-win scenario for each Korea, as well as the
U.S. and Japan. For the proud North, moreover, it would send the message to
China that it will no longer be relegated to beggar status and subject to its
exploitation. Despite the huge challenges of incorporating the North’s
underdeveloped economy and the ideological and psychological chasms between the
two societies, perhaps no people on earth can overcome them as well as the
Koreans. As a 2009 Goldman Sachs report noted, the synergies between the two
Koreas are more significant than many think: e.g., they predicted the GDP of a
unified Korea would surpass that of Japan in a few decades.
