6.28 Agriculture
Policy on the Back Foot
Daily NK. 10/12/12 By
Lee Sang Yong
It appears that plans
to use a handful of farms to road test the agricultural element of North
Korea’s ‘June 28th Policy’ have been put on hold until next year
due to difficulties with implementation. Under the plan, 30% of farm grain
production plus any over-production was due to go to the farm itself, while 70%
was to be procured by the state.
The source explained
today, “Cooperative farm cadres are saying that none of the experimental farms
will be given 30% of their production this year because it has become
difficult to meet the target. They are saying that the harvest is not good
and they need to feed the military as a matter of priority, so first
they’ll guarantee the military rice then give the rest to the farmers.”
Back in July, each
province designated a number of ‘model farms’ that were to be used to test the
policy. These farms were supposed to receive their initial inputs of fertilizer
and machinery from the state, and then be given 30% of their production in
return.
Court Orders Tokyo to
Reveal Files on Treaty with Korea
The Chosun Ilbo.
10/12/12
A Japanese court
ordered the government in Tokyo on Thursday to make public hundreds of documents
relating to the Korea-Japan Normalization Treaty of 1965 in a case
relating to victims of Japanese wartime atrocities.
The court subpoenaed
328 documents, 212 of them to be revealed fully and 56 partially. The court
ruled that documents whose contents Koreans could find insulting or
humiliating, as well as those that could impact talks on normalizing ties with
North Korea, must remain sealed.
The Japanese
government declassifies sealed documents after 30 years but has kept some
relating to the controversial 1965 treaty classified. Tokyo has insisted
that the treaty voids all individual claims for compensation because a lump
sum was paid to atone for the colonial occupation.
The Japanese
government is expected to appeal so the final verdict could take several years,
but Japanese courts rarely overturn earlier rulings.
Attorney Choi
Bong-tae, who spearheads the lawsuit, also sued the Korean government in
2005 to reveal documents related to the 1965 treaty and has
been pressing Japan to do the same since 2006.
Tokyo has 60,000 pages
of documents related to the treaty, of which the court ordered 40,000 to be
revealed. "If the Japanese documents are made public, it would provide a
new turning point in individual compensation for Japan's past wartime
victims," Choi said.
The Japanese court
also ordered 39 documents concerning Dokdo be revealed fully or in part. The documents, which
Tokyo has kept sealed for fear of jeopardizing its flimsy claim to the Korean
islets, include proposals made by the two sides about the islets when they
established the 1965 treaty and conversations between Emperor Hirohito and
Korean officials.
The Mainichi Shimbun
said the documents "could affect Korea-Japan relations."
