This photo released on Sept. 2, 2015, by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, shows North Korea’s national female choir Chongbong staging a performance, along with the North’s State Merited Chorus, at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow on Aug. 31, 2015. It marks the first time the all-female band, founded by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in July 2015, has performed to the public. (Yonhap)
Here is an interesting analysis by a North Korean defectors on how the Kim regime is using propaganda to influence their domestic audience that the recent provocation cycle was a success. Also of note is how the defectors believe that the ROK propaganda speakers were of great concern to the Kim regime:
One of the most notable aspects about the joint statement issued by South and North Korea is that Pyongyang expressed regret over the land mine incident that maimed two South Korean soldiers. It’s not unprecedented, but it’s certainly not common for the North to do so. Today we sat down with our reporters Choi Song Min and Kang Mi Jin, who both are from North Korea, to get some more insight about the matter.
My first question goes to Choi Song Min. Pyongyang has failed to apologize for its many previous provocations in the past. Why do you think it took such a different path this time?
CHOI: It’s because the loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts on the border can do much more harm to Kim Jong Un’s leadership than any other weapons of mass destruction. Just as Kim Jong Il said, ‘You may not be able to gain surrender with bullets and shells, but propaganda broadcasts can change the hearts of ten million.’ He himself knows just how powerful broadcasts can be. It’s because it exposes the many atrocities committed over the three-generation leadership, and it could lead to discontent and resistance against the current leader.
In expressing its regret, Pyongyang specifically referred to itself as ‘the North’. By doing so, it in some ways claimed responsibility — completely different from the many times in the past when it denied its involvement. How are we to interpret this action?
KANG: That’s right. Just until a few days ago, the North was out with its ambassador to the UN, its General Reconnaissance Bureau chief Kim Yong Chol, and its diplomats all over the world to publicly deny its involvement in the land mine incident that occurred on the southern side of the demilitarized zone. Having been so stubborn about this matter but then going along to express its regret over it and admitting to it is akin to bowing in front of the world.
What I think is more interesting is not the use of the word ‘the North’ but the word ‘regret’, which even to the smallest extent expresses its acknowledgement of wrongdoing. As mentioned earlier, in the past, North Korea has always denied its involvement, so for it to express regret shows just how desperate it was to get those loudspeakers to stop, as they could play a role in changing people’s perceptions.
The joint statement was also made public to people in the North through state-run media. What do you think people there are making of this?
CHOI: Based on the fact that the North’s media reported on the joint statement very quickly, it’s very likely it has branded this whole incident as one of ‘Kim Jong Un’s great achievements’ and a ‘grand victory in a fight against the South’. It will play it up through public lectures and broadcast propaganda and paint it as a victory ahead of the 70th anniversary of the Party Foundation. Casting aside its regret over the land mine victory, it will promote the fact that the South halted propaganda broadcasts and agreed to hold reunions for separated families. But, North Koreans all know the typical methods used by Pyongyang, so they will have a bitter smile for themselves. [Daily NK]
In this photo taken from an observatory on South Korea’s Ganghwa Island on Aug. 26, 2015, a North Korean soldier takes a nap at a sentry post in Kaepung on the North’s western front-line bordering South Korea, one day after North Korea lifted the quasi-war state of its armed forces. The two Koreas’ reached an agreement the previous day on defusing tensions after four days of intensive inter-Korean talks. (Yonhap)
Senior North Korean officials hold a national meeting at the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang on Aug. 24, 2015, to mark the 55th anniversary the next day of the day of “songun,” or the North’s military-first policy, in this photo released on Aug. 25, 2015, by the North’s Korean Central News Agency. (Yonhap)
I don’t see anything surprising about North Korea pushing out its forces. The Kim regime needs its population to feel that it is in a constant state of near war with the US and only the military genius of the Kim regime is keeping the “Imperialist Yankees” at bay. Plus it is just a good training exercise to keep his military busy:
More than 50 North Korean submarines are apparently away from their bases for operations, a sign that the North is gearing up for combat while participating in high-level talks aimed at easing tension, an official here said Sunday.
“Seventy percent of North Korea’s submarines left their bases, and their locations are not confirmed,” the South Korean military official told reporters.
The North is known to have around 70 submarines.
The unpredictable communist nation has also doubled the number of its artillery troops on the border, with the command to be combat ready, according to the official.
Top government officials from the two Koreas were supposed to resume their talks at the truce village of Panmunjom at 3 p.m. Sunday. It has not been confirmed yet whether they began the meeting as scheduled. [Yonhap]
Sounds like another news item that Park Sang-hak and his team should send across the DMZ for North Korean citizens to read about:
Two satellite images were compared to produce the analysis on Kim Jong Un’s Residence No. 15: the first from Jan. 14 and the second from May 20 show the progress on the roof and the garden. Photo by Yonhap
An extravagant mansion for former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il that cost Pyongyang tens of millions of dollars to build in 2010 has been torn down, and new construction is underway, according to satellite images from May.
The No. 15 Official Residence where Kim Jong Un‘s mother, Ko Young Hee, once lived also is the childhood home of the current North Korean leader.
Curtis Melvin of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, who used the satellite imagery in his analysis, told Radio Free Asia the roof on the north side of the building has been torn down and a landscaping project has begun in a garden section of the compound, South Korean newspaper Donga Ilbo reported.
Two satellite images were compared to produce the analysis: the first from Jan. 14 and the second from May 20 show the progress on the roof and the garden.
The residence cost tens of millions of dollars to build five years ago, and roads and railways for the former leader’s exclusive use also were built. Underground tunnels for electric trains are connected to office buildings in the compound. [UPI]
You can read more at the link, but you have to love the power that Google Earth provides average citizens to note things like this.
