Category: North Korea

OhmyNews makes it sound like the former brutal dictator of North Korea, Kim Il-sung wasn’t such a bad guy after all:

The roots of the current crisis go back to the founding of North Korea in 1945, when Korea was divided along the 38th parallel after World War II. Given its current reputation, the Kim dynasty was one of the milder communist dictatorships, whereas Stalin and Mao both applied collectivist theory to the countryside in short, brutal bursts, leaving desolation in their wake. Kim Il Sung took a more gradual approach.

I guess according to OhmyNews it is better in dictator terms to let the people suffer slowly before perishing. Here is more on the greatness of Kim Il Sung:

Moreover, Kim Il Sung, by contrast, did not slaughter class enemies en masse. Rich landlords were allowed to flee to South Korea in 1946-50, those who stayed beginning new lives as peasants. The right to sell land was abolished, but the right to inherit it was not. Like Stalin and Mao, Kim collectivized rice, paddy, and maize fields, but in proper, manageable units. The peasants were also allowed to trade vegetables and whatever else they were able to grow for themselves in their backyard vegetable plots.

Nonetheless, North Korea under Kim Il Sung was a repressive state, but its people never experienced a peacetime famine. According to CIA estimates, until the early 1980s, North Korean rice fields were actually more productive than those in the capitalist South, which was owing mainly to big subsidies, massive irrigation projects, and a generous use of chemical fertilizers.

How productive would the agricultural system in North Korea had been if it wasn’t for the “big subsidies” from their communist allies. Kim Il-sung was not some enlightened leader who created an effective agricultural system; he was a thug who was a master at manipulating people which he was able to successfully do by playing both China and Russia against each other in order to gain aid from both. The fallacy of the North Korean agricultural system was evident when China and Russia cut aid to North Korea and famine ensued shortly there after.

According to OhmyNews, Kim’s son, Kim Jong-il must also be a “mild” dictator for his response to the mass famines in the mid-90’s:

The government’s immediate response to the mayhem, when set against the norms of unreconstructed communist oligarchies, was pretty good. While Mao never admitted that China was facing mass starvation, North Korean leaders, by contrast, confessed their inability to feed their subjects in 1995.

Could it be that Kim Jong-il asked for international aid because he had no other choice because the regime was on verge of collapse and not because of some deep seeded feeling to help his own people?

This article only gets better:

The problem is not that the North Korean administration does not understand where it has gone wrong. The chief obstacle to reform is that Kim Jong-Il cannot admit this publicly without losing the last pretext for not teaming up with the capitalist South. Having seen South Korean judges hand down long-term jail sentences to two of their own former presidents for corruption and political murder, he probably dreads the thought of what they would do to him.

So does the author believe that if Kim Jong-il is issued amnesty than unification should become a reality? Has it ever occurred to the author that Kim Jong-il doesn’t want unification? He wants to keep his power and amnesty wouldn’t let him keep that.

Here is my favorite part. This was actually predictable because when in doubt, blame the Japanese:

Observers say that the North Korean regime should stop being suspicious of Japan and South Korea, as they are nearby and are best placed to help. Millions of tons of rice are sitting in Japanese warehouses, but with the Japanese press full of stories about North Korean obstructionism against those who would try to feed its hungry masses, the Japanese government is unsure of what to do.

First Dokdo, then history textbooks, and now they are letting the North Koreans starve. Those bad Japanese. I also guess it hasn’t occurred to the author that Japan is not eager to offer any aid until all their abducted citizens by North Korea are accounted for. Just because South Korea could care less about their abducted citizens doesn’t mean that Japan shouldn’t.

What is the world coming to when Kofi Annan is the biggest hardliner outside of the US, against North Korea?:

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday said North Korea must be held to account for the suffering and rage of people it kidnapped and the anxiety of families who never discovered what happened to their loved ones. He called on the North to return every one of those it abducted in its bizarre campaign in the 1970s and 80s.

The secretary-general, who arrived here on Sunday, was speaking at a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon. He condemned all abductions for whatever reason.

So let me get this right Kim Jong-li should be held to account for kidnapping citizens from multiple countries, but not held to account for starving and imprisoning in gulags his own people? Sorry I didn’t buy anything the UN said before the Iraq War and I’m not buying it now. However, sadly this is still the strongest statements I have heard any governmental body other than the US say about North Korea. What an interesting world we live in when movie and rock stars hold protests and advocate for the suffering of hundreds of thousands in Sudan while millions have perished and will continue to perish in North Korea and no one, especially the UN, cares.

So what else did Kofi have to say about Northeast Asia:

Turning to historical differences that are pitting Japan against the regional victims of its past aggression, Annan recommended Europe as a model for resolution of conflicts. He said Europe had a similar experience but was now moving to a union of 25 countries.

I can’t imagine in my life time Northeast Asia coming together into some kind of European Union type of government. These people don’t like each other and it has been this way for centuries and won’t change any time soon if the current Dokdo crisis is a barometer of the animosity that continues to simmer in this area of the world.

Finally here is something else Kofi said on his trip to Korea that made me chuckle:

Earlier, in an address to students at Seoul National University, the UN chief said he had witnessed the dynamic force of Korea’s youth, whom he called a ¿remarkable¿ group. He predicted a bright future for Korea given the healthy outlook of its younger generation.

I guess he hasn’t seen what this “remarkable” younger generation has been up to lately:

Yeah, remarkable.

There is some good discussion about possible reunification scenarios between North and South Korea, currently being debated on a couple of high profile blogs that are worth checking out. It began with Lirelou’s post on Coming Anarchy and that post was picked up on by Robert over at the Marmot’s Hole. I gave my opinion on the topic over at Coming Anarchy that drew some discussion, but I will go ahead and expand on my possible reunification scenario here.

Many people like Lirelou think reunification of the Korean peninsula is likely and will happen fairly soon. I tend to think that the possibility that Korea does not reunify is just as likely as reunification and yet no one plans for a non-reunification scenario despite the possibility. Let me outline my reasoning. First of all Kim Jong Il will not seek reunification despite the Sunshine Policy advocates claims because it is not in his interest to do so. Once the country is reunified the horrors of the NK regime would become public and KJI and the NK elites would lose their heads over it not to mention the loss of wealth and prestige from being the ruling class. So reunification with KJI is not going to happen.

Now when KJI dies from old age which could be 20 years from now and he has a hand over of power to a designated successor this is the time that maybe somebody in the military may make a move though I think unlikely to over throw the regime. I think a just as likely scenario is that NK becomes destabilized due to the financial pressure of the US and internal discontent over the next 10 years and KJI sees an internal collapse coming and instead of going down in flames turns to China to stabilize the country. Chinese peacekeepers come in and set up shop in NK. KJI cannot turn the country over to South Korea because he would lose his head to where if he turned the country over to China he would live to see another day. China would be eager to prevent a humanitarian crisis from spreading across their border and also China would seize the opportunity to dilute the potential regional power, though a long term possibility, of a unified Korea on the Chinese border. Keeping the Koreas separated prevents a possible long term regional rival from developing which a unified Korea once was in ancient Korean Kugoryo times.

China has already made moves to claim the ancient Korean Kugoryo kingdom’s history as their own through different UN programs and their own history textbooks. The Kugoryo kingdom covered parts of Manchuria and all of NK. If the Chinese moved into NK they could justify their claim to the land due to the claimed history. It worked before, does Tibet ring a bell?

The South Koreans could do nothing to stop the Chinese because they do not have the military or global diplomatic might to kick them out. The way things are going now, Korea would have no allies to help them in this scenario. The US-ROK alliance could very well be over and definitely highly transformed by this time with a reduced troop presence if any in South Korea. The US would probably not be willing to go to war with China over Korea, especially if there is a bitter divorce between the US and SK which the way things look now is a possibility. The US attitude may very well be towards SK, that you wanted us out and be a regional balancer, well now you got it, deal with it. Another possible ally Japan will be even further estranged from Korea as well. No help from the US and Japan would mean China would have no problems moving into NK and setting up shop. If NK falls to China that would mean that SK would fall firmly into China’s sphere of regional hegemony. That is why I see the current anti-Americanism in Korea runs contrary to Korea’s long term goal of reunification. If the US-ROK alliance remains strong the Chinese would not entertain the idea of provoking a war with the US over NK thus ensuring reunification with SK some time in the future.

I find it interesting that IMHO the absorption of NK into China is just as likely as the absorption of Taiwan into greater China. Yet no one has done any contingency planning if the NK-China absorption scenario happens. I’m not saying it is a sure thing to happen, but it is at least worth considering the possibility; or is it that no one really cares?

North Korea’s favorite useful idiot South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young during a meeting with Secretary Condoleeza Rice has offered US corporations to set up factories in the joint North/South industrial (AKA-slave labor) zone in Kaesong, North Korea:

The unification minister is on a six-day trip to the U.S. beginning Sunday. Chung also met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce David Sampson and called on U.S. firms to set up operations in the Kaesong industrial complex.

“If U.S. companies operate in Kaesong, it would have a symbolic meaning,” Chung told Sampson. With regard to the request, Sampson was quoted as saying that U.S. firms would be able to have businesses in Kaesong as South Korean companies do. He added that as the U.S. evaluates the Kaesong industrial complex as important, it will help with the success of the complex.

What is sad is that there is probably US businesses that would love to take advantage of the slave labor available at Kaesong.

Something that got me wondering about this proclamation is; does this mean that Chung Dong-young is the personal spokesman for Kim Jong-il now? It seems like a sensitive subject like this involving North Korean sovereignty would be handled by North Korean diplomats not a South Korean. It seems like it would be offensive to North Korean to have a South Korean going around making policy about their territory.

If Chung is in fact speaking directly for Kim Jong Il now maybe we don’t have to worry about Chung becoming the next President of South Korea in the future which would be a good thing. He may instead be in the running to become Kim Jong Il’s successor instead.

UPDATE#1: The Marmot is reporting that the North Koreans involved in the fire fight were actually North Korean soldiers. Very interesting. I wonder who Kim Jong Il is going to send to kiss China’s butt and apologize for this? Maybe he will send South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young.

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The Joong Ang Ilbo is reporting that North Korean robbers killed a Chinese soldier near the North Korean/Chinese frontier:

Chinese media reported Monday that an armed skirmish had taken place between Chinese soldiers and North Korean robbers, resulting in the death of a Chinese soldier. The firefight reportedly occurred in October in the Yanbian region of northeast China, which has a large population of ethnic Koreans.

Details were sketchy. The press reports said the attackers were North Koreans, although they did not explain how Chinese authorities had determined that they were not Korean residents in the area. The gunfight, the reports said, occurred after six Army troops engaged five robbers at a resort in the area after receiving reports of a break-in there.

The robbers escaped, the reports said. Three tourists and one staff member of the resort were unhurt, but a soldier was killed by a bullet to his chest.

Seems strange that PLA soldiers would be responding to what local police should be handling. Does anyone know if this is normal to have PLA soldiers conducting police work?

Here is an interesting Aritcle in East Asian Affairs about the online radio station, Free NK that was founded by North Korean defectors and now may have to stop their programming because of threats against them by South Koreans:

We’re not talking big time here. Free North Korea broadcasts live for just one hour each evening. And its start-up costs, a modest 30 million won (US$26,000), were financed wholly by other defectors; not South Koreans, much less the government in Seoul. Its seven-strong staff are realistic about their chances of being heard inside North Korea, where Internet access is all but non-existent. But even in megawired South Korea, they have only 3,000 members so far, with only a modest 10,000 logging onto the site.

So, for now Free NK remains a still small voice crying in the wilderness, seeking to lighten the enforced darkness imposed on North Koreans by their benighted leaders. Topics covered include news, literature, and even philosophy, as well as the often dramatic experiences of defectors. Bravo. More power to them. What person with an ounce of human decency could possibly not wish Free NK well?

Alas, these are not rhetorical questions. Fact is, many South Koreans are not sympathetic – and some are downright nasty. From day one, Free NK has been hassled and harassed – to the point where, after less than a month on the air, it now may have to close down: the building’s landlord can’t cope with the pressure, so he’s given Free NK notice to quit by the end of this month.

I have to wonder how many of these threats are coming from Pyongyang hired goons, but the article concludes with an interesting theory:

Even if the actual bullies are a minority, their violence – for that’s what it is – has been nourished in a noxious new soil that is spreading in Seoul these days. I fear I was wrong about democratization in South Korea. At least some of those who fought against dictatorship weren’t, and aren’t, true democrats. What they hated was the generals’ right-wing politics, not authoritarianism per se.

Such self-styled “progressives”, who rule the roost in the new South Korea, seem to me merely to have turned the old values inside out, rather than made true progress. I sometimes think Koreans don’t do shades of gray, but prefer gestalt conversions: a total switch of world view. They flip.

In the bad old days, woe betide you if you said anything good about North Korea in Seoul. Now it’s a mirror image: If you say anything bad about Kim Jong-il, you’re a traitor. Even if, like the defectors of Free NK, you’ve suffered grievously under the Dear Leader – and therefore know whereof you speak, unlike head-in-sand fellow-travellers living safely south of the border.

I never thought of it that way. Maybe today’s progressives really don’t mind authoritism along as they are the ones in charge.

Hat Tip: Asiapundit

One Free Korea is reporting about a large bust in Atlantic City of a Chinese gang that was smuggling both drugs and counterfeit money from North Korea into the country:

The guests thought they were headed to an early afternoon wedding on a yacht docked near Atlantic City. They ended up in jail instead, courtesy of an elaborate ruse by federal authorities hoping to bust up an international smuggling ring.

Lengthy undercover investigations on opposite sides of the country resulted in indictments of 87 Asians and U.S. citizens on charges of smuggling counterfeit money, drugs and cigarettes into the United States, law enforcement officials said Monday.

Authorities said they seized $4.4 million in high-quality fake $100 bills, more than 1 billion counterfeit cigarettes worth $42 million, and ecstasy, methamphetamine and Viagra worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some of the cigarettes were made in China, said acting assistant Attorney General John Richter.

(…)

Of particular concern, Secret Service officials said, was the group’s apparent ability to generate counterfeit U.S. currency that could fool even the most sophisticated detection devices. A government source said the bills, known as “super notes” because they were virtually identical to real currency, had been made in North Korea. The bills were seized before they entered the U.S. money supply, authorities said.

One Free Korea brings up some good questions that need to be answered concerning this bust:

1. Were any North Korean nationals caught or implicated?
2. Were other branches of the same organization operating in third countries? What countries?
3. Will international cooperation be sufficiently swift to snip those branches?
4. Will it be enough to shut down the entire network?
5. Is there a connection to North Korean diplomats, who routinely finance their official functions through illegal activity?
6. Where were the drugs made?
7. Were any of those caught connected to the Chinese government?
8. In the end, how badly will this hurt the finances of the North Korean regime?

Oh My News, has an article discussing how to properly reunify the Korean peninsula. This is how the article opens up:

By using Germany as a template on what to do and what not to do, we can minimize the problems of reunification by delaying it for several decades. A divided Korea will be needed to minimize the burden to South Korea’s economy when the North does collapse. This is the general consensus among South Koreans — even though they do genuinely care about the harsh conditions in the North — but they are not willing to give up their luxury cars and vacations to help them. This may seem heartless and cold but it is also reasonable. (*)

I really don’t consider keeping your luxury cars and vacations despite the suffering of the North Korean people as caring in general about the conditions in North Korea. I pretty much consider that as not caring at all about North Korea. Which is fine, but at least be honest about it.

The writer goes on to discuss how after reunification internal security should be handled in North Korea:

One of many important aspects needed to be considered by South Korea and the U.S. is internal security. The U.S. should play an integral role in the planning of internal security in the same way it has invaded and occupied Iraq, Japan and Afghanistan. Public relations should be on the minds of the U.S. when organizing internal security. Many anti-U.S. supporters may disagree with this statement, but you have to ask yourself this, “Which country has the expertise in this area?”

South Korea should handle all internal security because after reunification North and South Korea should technically be one country with the legimate government being the elected government in Seoul. A state of marshall law will probably have to be declared for a period of time to prevent looting and a mass refugee exodus to the south. The ROK Army has more than enough man power to handle this. During the period of marshall law the local North Korean police structure will have to be rebuilt to purge people guilty of atrocities and to train new policemen in the ways of modern law enforcement including such basics as, executing people is not standard police practice.

Here is something I can agree with the writer on:

The U.S. should not enter North Korea territory. The reason for this is because the North Korean government has used heavy anti-U.S. propaganda on their people for 50 years and the sight of a U.S. Marine could incite panic among North Koreans, especially in rural areas.
(…)
With the U.S. taking a prominent role in maintaining South Korea’s side of the DMZ….

There is absolutely no reason American soldiers should enter North Korea. The amount of propaganda taught to the people in the North is sure to cause many problems if American soldiers enter North Korea. This will also cause the North Korean public to wonder if the South Korean government is really legitimate and not an American puppet.

It would also be foolish to have American soldiers secure the entire DMZ. First of all there are not enough US soldiers here to even do it, so more GI’s would have to sent here creating a larger US footprint in Korea. Plus does anyone beside this reporter think it would be a good idea that the first person a North Korean refugee would meet when trying to enter South Korea would be an American GI? If that doesn’t reinforce the image of an American puppet regime in the south then I don’t know what will.

The best thing the US Army could do is just stay on post and speed up the current down sizing of forces on the peninsula. This would free up more needed soldiers for the War on Terror plus reduce the US footprint in Korea, and put China at ease that the US military isn’t trying to move into North Korea.

All the shots including internal and border security issues in North Korea needs to be called by and executed by the South Korean government to build legitimacy in the eyes of the North Korean people.

The Oh My News reporter thinks otherwise:

United Nations peacekeepers will be needed to ensure stability in the region. All internal security matters should be handled by the UN behind the scenes for PR purposes, since the United Nations did fight against North Korea during the Korean War.

This is the last thing South Korea should send into North Korea. To the North Korean public it would just look like another foreign occupation army wanting to take over Korea. Plus how would foreigners from third world countries like; Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, etc. that make up the majority of UN peacekeeping force handle enforcing the peace in North Korea. They can’t speak the language, don’t know the history, or the cultural differences in North Korea. Worse yet what if they get caught raping girls like they did in the Congo? It would be a PR nightmare for the Korean government.

The UN is successful in executing operations like caring for refugees and providing food aid. However, there is no government body worse at handling peacekeeping than the UN. Does Rwanda, Bosnia, and Somalia ring a bell? All collosal UN peacekeeping failures, especially Rwanda. Check out this PBS Frontline report to see how effective UN peacekeeping is.

Then the reporter thinks that Chinese Army would be a great element to have join in on the peacekeeping operation:

If the UN is the head of this operation, China will be the face of the operation. North Koreans have been taught that the Chinese have helped (not saved) North Korea from the U.S. during the Korean War; China is considered a brother to North Korea.

The People’s Liberation Army of China is not known for liberating anyone much less North Korea. Tibet ring a bell? If the Chinese are allowed into North Korea, mark my words, South Korea will have a hard time getting them out.

The reporter then goes on to think that by keeping the country divided, by having the UN govern North Korea, that more international aid will roll in. After the Asian Tsunami in Southeast Asia five billion dollars overall of international aid was pledged to the effected areas. How much of that money do you think those countries will actually see? Probably not much now that the media focus has moved on, plus the cost to reconstruct North Korea will run at approximately $350 billion dollars over 10 years from just South Korea. So Korea shouldn’t count on international aid, this will be their financial burden.

Then the reporter continues to go on thinking that neighboring countries will help finance reconstruction in the name of free trade:

You may be asking yourself, why would North Korea’s neighbors be willing to spend so much on another country? There are many uses for free trade. It is the view of this writer that trade prevents wars and ensures peace between nations. This view draws on the fact that everyone wants to be rich and people would not look favorably on their government if they took steps that threatened trade. In this instance, trade will be used as a tool to speed up normalization of relations.

Before you can have free trade you need to have something to trade. North Korea won’t be in the missile exporting, counterfeit money, and drug trafficking business after reunification which leaves them with nothing to trade. It will take years to build up the economy to attract international investment.

Then the reporter concludes by thinking that money for investment in North Korea’s economy can initially be provided by making cuts in the ROK military:

I have mentioned the domino effect. Since the threat from the North would be non-existent, South Korea could redirect billions spent on defense into North Korea.

It would be extremely foolish to cut the military in Korea especially with neighbors like Korea has in northeast Asia. Northeast Asia is a tough neighborhood that requires Korea to have a strong army to prevent past national humilations for occurring again. Plus the money saved cutting the ROK Army would only put a small dent in the overall amount of money needed to fix North Korea.

The bottom line is that Korea sooner or later is going to have to suck the egg and pay for the price of unification. The current policy is to pro-long the Kim Jong Il regime to put that day of reckoning off so that the citizens of Korea can enjoy their current prosperity. I don’t agree with it but if that is what Korean government wants to do that is their choice. But when the day of unification does come the South Korean government needs to immediately establish its authority over North Korea to build its legitimacy in the eyes of the North Korean people. Any intervention by foreigners like the US, UN, or China will not be received very well by the North Korean public and will harm the legitimacy of the South Korean government.

The article overall IMHO is not to well thought out and probably should of been challenged by the editors at Oh My News. But I guess everyone has a right to their own opinion and now you know mine.

A New York Times article recently featured Dr. Andrei Lankov who we all know from North Korea Zone and other publications as an expert on North Korean affairs. The article focused on the changes of Kim Jong Il’s regime in North Korea due to the expansion of technology such as video players and cell phones.

The construction of cellular relay stations last fall along the Chinese side of the border has allowed some North Koreans in border towns to use prepaid Chinese cellphones to call relatives and reporters in South Korea, defectors from North Korea say. And after DVD players swept northern China two years ago, entrepreneurs collected castoff videocassette recorders and peddled them in North Korea. Now tapes of South Korean soap operas are so popular that state television in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, is campaigning against South Korean hairstyles, clothing and slang, visitors and defectors have said.

“In the 1960’s in the Soviet Union, it was cool to wear blue jeans and listen to rock and roll,” said Andrei Lankov, a Russian exchange student in the North at Kim Il Sung University in 1985, who now teaches about North Korea at Kookmin University here in the South. “Today, it is cool for North Koreans to look and behave South Korean, as they do in the television serials. That does not bode well for the long-term survival of the regime.”

However, don’t expect the almighty cell phone to cause regime change any time soon:

Analysts are debating the importance of Mr. Kim’s visits to military bases, which accounted for almost two-thirds of his 92 publicly divulged appearances last year, compared with one-third in 2003. With North Korea closed to American journalists, it is hard to decipher whether Mr. Kim is shoring up his power base in the army out of fear of a foreign attack or of an internal coup.

Past predictions that Mr. Kim’s power was ebbing have not been borne out.

“We have very meager intelligence resources, and we’re sort of flying blind,” Howard H. Baker Jr. said on Feb. 16 in Tokyo, in his final news briefing as American ambassador to Japan. “My country has no alternative but to assume that Kim Jong Il will continue in power. There won’t be any significant change in the governance of that country.”

Reviewing North Korea’s political elite, “we see no big change,” said Noriyuki Suzuki, director of Radio Press, a Japanese government monitoring service that focuses on the North Korean media.

Things look better in the long run though:

Inside North Korea, social, political and economic controls have been eroded by two other changes over the past decade: private markets and a breakdown in travel restrictions, Dr. Lankov said.

“You have private money lenders, you have inns, you have brothels, you have canteens,” he said, adding that most North Koreans survive through a combination of foreign aid and a fledgling private economy.

Draconian controls on internal travel and on travel to China have been breaking down, he said, and hundreds of thousands of North Koreans have traveled to and from Korean-speaking areas of China, exposing them to a thriving market economy and more South Korean television broadcasts.

“They are gradually learning about South Korean prosperity,” Dr. Lankov said. “This is a death sentence to the regime. North Korea’s claim to legitimacy is based on its ability to deliver the worker’s paradise now. What if everyone sees that it is not delivering?”

Like Lankov I don’t see the cell phone causing any revolution in the North but the video tapes have to be of big concern to Kim Jong Il because the regime is centered around the lie of the “worker’s paradise” and their supremacy to South Korea. These video tapes of Korean dramas are exposing these lies that will in turn one day expose the regime. Interesting reading worth checking out.

North Korea plays Japan tonight for a chance to play in the next World Cup. It appears North Korea will have a number of people who live in Japan rooting for them.

Lee Jae-sul was born and raised in Tokyo but like thousands of Koreans living in Japan, he’s hoping North Korea (news – web sites) will beat Japan in a World Cup soccer qualifying match on Wednesday.

Lee, 48, is one of 150,000 Korean residents of Japan with allegiance to communist North Korea.

North Korea supporters account for a quarter of all Koreans in Japan, many of whom are descendants of students and workers who came, or were forcibly brought to Japan, while Korea was a Japanese colony from 1910 to 1945.

“Of course I will support the North Korean team because since my elementary school days I have received an ethnic and ideological education sympathetic to the North,” said Lee.

Like many North Korean loyalists, Lee attended a school run by a pro-Pyongyang residents’ group, where he was taught to revere the communist state and its leaders, whose portraits hang on classroom walls.

Hard to believe there are Kim Jong Il portraits hanging up in Japanese classrooms. If they revere North Korea so much then why don’t they go live there? It is probably because many of the Nork loyalists in Japan are part of the Japanese underworld and are making a lot money with the illegal activities they are conducting which is facilitated by the North Korean regime.

Interestingly enough North Korea has two Koreans living in Japan who play in the J-League on their roster.

Adding spice to Wednesday’s match for Korean residents, two J-League pros from the pro-Pyongyang community have been tapped for the North Korean side.

“To beat Japan and win a World Cup berth has been my dream. I’m really excited,” 22-year-old Sanfrecce Hiroshima midfielder Ri Han-jae told a news conference after being named to the team.

Ri will be joined by Nagoya Grampus Eight midfielder An Yong-hak, 26, who has said he was honored but a bit anxious about playing with compatriots from a country about which he knows little.

“As a player from Japan, I can’t help but feel nervous,” he said in a recent interview with the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.

“I stand out from the rest of the team,” added An, whose hair has been trimmed to fit with his closely cropped team mates.

I can’t figure out why these two players would play on the North Korean team other than they couldn’t make the Japanese team so this was their best second option to get to play at an international level. Maybe they just needed a free haircut?