50-70 Traders Arriving
in Namyang Daily
By Choi Song Min , 2012-06-20
Chinese traders are
operating with the
permission of the North Korean authorities in the public market in Namyang, part of rural Onsung
County in North Hamkyung Province.
The news has aroused
considerable surprise, even arousing claims of a ‘Kim Jong Eun-style opening’.
A North Hamkyung
Province source explained the scene to Daily NK today, saying, “From the start
of this month, Chinese traders have been coming through Tumen to trade with
locals in Namyang market. They are staying from 9AM to 5PM.”
Namyang has a small population and lies far from
significant population centers. However, there is a customs house
located in the immediate vicinity, making it a key contact point for
cross-border trade.
According to the
source, “Somewhere between 50 and 70 of them come in for the day,
and take up around a third of the stall space.” Namyang market used to have
approximately 100 stalls, but it has apparently been expanded to accommodate
the new arrivals.
The Chinese traders sell a range of items, including some that are formally
forbidden such as grains, but also fruits, processed foods including
instant noodles, clothing and shoes. Most also take the chance to trade the
other way, buying natural
products such as seaweed and seafood, wild herbs and mushrooms to sell in
China.
The move is surprising
because while ethnic
Chinese citizens residing in North Korea have long played the role of wholesaler
to the country’s domestic markets thanks to the relative ease with which they
can traverse the Sino-North Korean border, it is unprecedented for ordinary
Chinese citizens to be allowed to trade directly in domestic North
Korean markets.
Naturally, most North
Koreans in the area welcome the new presence, because it both shortens supply
chains and brings down prices, while also allowing them to order products
directly from China and, with a slice of luck, receive them within 24 hours.
According to the
source, “There are even people already coming up from Chongjin to trade fish
with the Chinese! The security services are cracking down on cross-border
activities, but the number of people is continuing to rise all the same.”
However, existing
North Korean traders do harbor unease at the new situation, mostly because they
are being forced to yield market share to the Chinese, whose products are
frequently cheaper and mostly of a higher quality than those they offer. In
many cases, the North Korean traders have little hope of competing with their
Chinese counterparts, not least since the latter can move more freely between
the two countries.
The move is said to be
one outcome of Chinese demands made when Kim Jong Il visited North
Korea's sole major ally in 2010. As
such, it joins the leasing of port facilities at Raijin and Chongjin and
the construction of a road between Namyang and Chongjin as outcomes of the
former leader’s visit.
However, it could
just as easily be rescinded as continued. According to the source, “Onsung
County cadres say that they opened up because the General (Kim Jong Il) ordered
it, but that comrade Kim Jong Eun has said they need to keep a close eye on
things. Because of the [freedom of information] effect it might have on
the people, a limit to the number of Chinese people being allowed in has been
set.”
In one of few previous
examples of something similar, Chinese citizens were permitted to trade in the
immediate vicinity of Wonjeong-ri Customs House near the special economic area
at Raijin-Sonbong in around 1996. However, this was not allowed to become
permanent.
N. Korea Operating S.
Korea Businesses in Mt. Geumgang
JUN 20, 2012 , Reporter : song@arirang.co.kr
North Korea is now
running businesses that it seized from South Korean organizations in the Mount
Geumgang resort area.
A propaganda website
for North Korea released a video showing a restaurant named Onjeonggak formerly
used to serve South Korean tourists having been re-opened under a new name
Byeolgeumgang.
The website said the
facility caters to foreign visitors to Mount Geumgang, one of North Korea's top
tourist attractions.
South Korea's Hyundai
Asan and Korea Tourism Organization built the tourist facility in 1999 and
legally, it's still part of their assets.
Seoul banned Mount
Geumgang tour programs after a South Korean tourist was shot in 2008. and Pyeongyang
confiscated South Korean assets there in 2010
S. Korea recognizes
wartime abductions of additional 350 civilians
entropy@yna.co.kr 2012.06.20
SEOUL, June 20
(Yonhap) -- More than 350 South Korean civilians have been additionally
classified as being abducted by North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War,
bringing the total of wartime abductions to 743, the government here said
Wednesday.
The Prime Minister's Office released the
latest figure, which excludes soldiers taken as prisoners of war, during
a meeting of a government committee handling the issue of wartime abduction
of South Korean civilians by the North.
On Wednesday, the committee ruled an
additional 351 people, including politicians, journalists, judges and
businessmen, were abducted by the North. Previously, the Seoul government has
confirmed the abductions of 392 civilians.
The total figure represents just a fraction
of about 100,000 South Korean civilians who are estimated to have been
kidnapped by the North during the war, which ended in a cease-fire, not a peace
treaty.
Kim Seok-kyu, a committee official handing
the issue, said the fate of 743 people is unknown.
Lee confidant admits
to secret meeting with N.K. official in 2009
entropy@yna.co.kr 2012.06.20
SEOUL, June 20
(Yonhap) -- A key aide to President Lee Myung-bak has admitted to a secret
meeting with a top North Korean official in Singapore in 2009 to seek a summit
between their leaders.
Yim Tae-hee said in a television interview
that he met with Kim Yang-gon, North Korea's point man on the South, in
Singapore in October 2009 to discuss details of a possible summit.
When asked if he had
met Kim more than three times, he said "several times," though he did
not clarify whether those meetings were all in Singapore or in other countries.
Yim's comment is the first confirmation of
media speculation on secret talks in Singapore between the two Koreas. South
Korea had previously denied such talks.
Yim's confirmation came less than two months
after he announced his presidential ambitions. The former three-term lawmaker
served as chief of staff to Lee in 2010-2011.
Yim said he and Kim
drafted a memorandum of understanding for a summit, which called for economic
aid from South Korea to the North in return for the repatriation of some
South Korean abductees and soldiers taken as prisoners during the 1950-53
Korean War.
South Korea estimates
about 517 civilians are still alive in the North after being kidnapped by the
North following the Korean War. It also believes about 500 South Korean
soldiers taken prisoner during the war are still alive in the North.
Pyongyang denies any
kidnappings, claiming any South Koreans in the North are there voluntarily.
South and North Korean
officials held two follow-up talks in the North Korean border city of Kaesong
in November 2009, but failed to reach an agreement on the summit due to
unspecified differences.
Lee's two liberal predecessors held summit
talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang in 2000 and 2007,
respectively
The Burma Model
by Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland | June 20th, 2012
In December, we considered
the dribs and drabs of evidence on a North Korea-Burma nuclear link in
connection with Secretary Clinton’s historic trip to the country. Most of these
claims have emanated from a very small handful of military defectors, amplified
by the Democratic
Voice of Burma. David Albright and Andrea Stricker at IISS have a useful dossier on the issue, which remains
skeptical even as it presses Burma to sign the IAEA special protocol.
As the domestic
political changes in Burma have accelerated, the changes in the country’s
foreign policy are also become more pronounced. Last June, the country informed
an American delegation led by Senator John McCain that it was giving up its
small non-weapons nuclear research program. Nuclear
renunciation played a central role Secretary Clinton’s trip.
These comments were
recently extended to the North
Korea connection. Speaking
before the 11th IISS Asia Security Summit in Singapore—the so-called Shangri-La
Dialogue—Burma’s Defense Minister Lieutenant General Hla Min outlined quite clearly the irrationality of a nuclear
option for a country seeking deeper integration with ASEAN. In the Q and A, he was pressed on the North Korea question
and spoke quite candidly about the constraints of being a rogue regime:
“Regarding relations
with North Korea, according to our country’s foreign relations policy, we would
like to have relations with all countries, so we only have ordinary diplomatic
ties with North Korea. While there were many sanctions against Myanmar, we
considered where we would get support for the benefit of our country. As every
country puts their own benefit first, we thought: who could help us, who could
support us? So we had relations based on the economic military, and political
climate. As the country is now transparent, as I said earlier, we do not
continue to do so.”
The Minister said the
country was committed to upholding its obligations under UN Security Council
resolutions and would make the relationship with North Korea “more transparent
in the future.”
The Burma story
confirms the links between
domestic reform and foreign policy behavior. Hla Min could not be
more explicit: “under this new government, as this [nuclear] activity is not
acceptable to the international community, we no longer continue it.” No wonder
Ambassador Bob King has talked openly of the Burma model for North Korea.
He is not alone.
During his trip to Burma earlier this month, South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak drew the obvious parallels between Burma and North Korea:
“Myanmar, despite
ample natural resources and a large territory, has a per-capita income of only
$700, similar to North Korea’s due to…a closed socialist economy and
international isolation in the past… I asked President Thein Sein to relay
Myanmar’s message of opening a new era to North Korea, which is close to the
country,” Lee
said. More recently, according to the Financial Times, when asked about the possibility of a
North Korean collapse Lee averred, saying it was not appropriate to talk of
such a scenario, again citing the obvious parallels between North Korea and
Burma, stressing that North Korea should revive its economy for an
eventual reunification, and offering to help Pyongyang revive its economy if it
followed the Burmese example.
Apparently a Coke would be waiting when North Korea comes in from
the cold. The company announced that it would be returning to Burma after a 60
year absence, leaving North Korea and Cuba as the only countries left where the
firm does not do business.
Whatever floats your
boat. Personally, when we think of Burmese models and sweet edibles, our tastes
run more toward Annabella Lwin and candy…
UNHCR Records 1,052
North Korean Refugees
By Clara Fontana,
Intern , [2012-06-20 17:09 ]
There are currently 1,052 North Korean refugees on
record worldwide, according to statistics carried in the 2011
Global Trend report, which was released by the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) yesterday.
In addition, the
report notes the existence of 490
further ‘asylum-seekers’,
those who have sought refugee status and therefore fall under international
protection but whose cases are still pending.
However, the
statistics do not account for a number of major issues that significantly
reduce the figures.
Most significantly,
many defectors come to South Korea, where they are granted
citizenship upon arrival and never register on the UNHCR’s radar at all,
while those in China cannot be counted and are not allowed to receive
UNHCR assistance in situ, leaving a black hole in the statistics.
In addition, refugees
who are granted permanent residency or citizenship in a third country are not
included in the statistics. Thus, while places like the UK only allow
foreigners to apply for citizenship after living in the country for a
significant number of years, meaning there are relatively many ‘refugees’
there, places like Canada, the United States and Germany tend to grant
citizenship more readily, and therefore North Korean defectors in those places
are able to earn their citizenship, thus losing their status as refugees, more
readily as well
UNHCR Global Trends
2011
UNHCR 2011 refugee
statistics: full data
Refugee numbers give
us a unique insight into violence and conflict around the world. Find out where
refugees come from - and where they go
