Category: North Korea

Andrei Lankov continues to crank out great articles. The latest article over at Asia Times is about Kim Jong Il possibly being ready to name a successor:

Now, at long last, we know what North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung, told his wife more than 60 years ago about his intentions for dynastic succession – or at least what a Korean broadcast says that he said. Korea watchers are parsing this purported political pillow-talk – or some other private conversation or fabrication – stitched together by propagandists. And it comes on the eve of current Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s 64th birthday on February 16, with no known plans for his succession.

North Korean radio cited comments that Kim Il-sung, the dynasty’s founder, allegedly made when talking to his wife in 1943 (in all probability, these comments are pure invention – like more or less the entire “history of the Great Leader” as taught in North Korea). The Great Leader reportedly told his wife: “I would obey my father’s instruction to struggle for Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule and establish the communist country … if I fail, the tasks should be carried out by my son and grandson.” This was broadcast on January 27.

So, for the first time we have Kim Il-sung’s grandsons in the picture. Or have we? After all, many analysts interpret this as yet another propaganda exercise aimed at promoting Kim Jong-il, not his sons. But the majority seem to believe that these remarks do have some hidden meaning, indicating that Pyongyang leaders finally have decided to move ahead with their succession plans.

I tend to agree with this statement here:

It is widely believed that a dynastic succession is the only way to save the regime from collapse after Kim Jong-il’s death. If a new leader came from outside the ruling family, he would have too much incentive to negotiate surrender to the prosperous and powerful South, likely sacrificing the lives and property of the current elite in exchange for his own security. He would also probably lack the legitimacy necessary to keep the country and populace under control. Frankly, this writer believes that nothing short of Chinese intervention will save the regime one way or another, but if the Pyongyang royalty does not want to go down without a fight, it makes sense to appoint a new leader from the incumbent royal family.

You can read the rest on your own. It is an interesting read.

North Korea doesn’t necessarily need to name someone from the Kim family to be the successor. Anyone with blood on their hands would be suitable. They cannot name someone with a clean record because that person would have to much incentive to broker for peace with the South which means all the perks of the communist elite in Pyongyang is gone. So it is in their interest to name someone with a shady background.

However, they would not want to name someone to despotic because that would cramp their luxurious lifestyles also if they have a Stalin like person hovering over them which they have to be afraid of. At least with Kim Jong Il he is reported to be a likeable party guy in private.

So naming his oldest son Kim Jong-nam may not be a bad choice because he seems a rather layed back guy, heck he tried to go to Tokyo Disneland, but he also has a lot of baggage because he is Kim Jong Il’s son after all. So if the elites name him the successor they need to get him quickly involved in the intelligence service and have him order some airplane bombed like Kim Jong Il reportedly did in the 80’s to make no doubt that he has no choice but to keep the North Korean system functioning. This is probably the elites best bet to stay in power. However, it is becoming obvious that their days are numbered and no North Korean leader can do anything about that.

North Korea is trying to get the Czech Republic to ban the recent movie Team America.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic – North Korea (news – web sites)’s embassy in Prague has demanded that the film “Team America: World Police” be banned in the Czech Republic, saying the movie harms their country’s reputation, a report said Saturday.

In the film by “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, a team of marionettes rushes to keep North Korean leader Kim Jong Il from destroying the world, reducing world capitals to rubble along the way.

“It harms the image of our country,” the Lidove Noviny daily quoted a North Korean diplomat as saying. “Such behavior is not part of our country’s political culture. Therefore, we want the film to be banned.”

The Czech Foreign Ministy said the film would not be banned in the Czech Republic.

“We told them it’s an unrealistic wish,” ministry spokesman Vit Kolar was quoted as saying. “Obviously, it’s absurd to demand that in a democratic country.”

Obviously Kim Jong Il must of forgot the Czech Republic gave up Communism 15 years ago and will not be pushed around by another Communist bully. If North Korea wants to bully someone to ban Team America they should demand South Korea ban the movie. The South Korean government already gives North Korea everything it wants anyway, so banning a movie is no problem. Who cares about freedom of speech when you have North Korea to appease.

Time Magazine had an article about the kidnapping by North Korean agents of South Korean preacher Kim Dong Sik.

Friends and family members have long insisted that he was kidnapped by North Korea, but couldn’t prove their claims. South Korean prosecutors may have solved the mystery–and also created a diplomatic headache for Seoul. Earlier this month, they indicted a suspected North Korean agent for alleged involvement in a kidnapping ring that is suspected of seizing at least 16 people in China, including Rev. Kim. According to a copy of the indictment obtained by TIME, the suspected abductors operated under instructions from a senior North Korean state-security official tasked with “kidnapping defectors and others working against the interest of the North Korean state and the Party.”

According to prosecutors, the captured agent told how he and five other men were waiting for Kim when he left the restaurant after lunch. When the pastor got in the front seat of a taxi, two of them allegedly jumped in the back and forced the cabbie to drive off. “Who are you guys? Where are you taking me?” the pastor demanded to know. That night, they are believed to have taken him to North Korea.

What is the Korean government doing about this? Well not much.
Last week, under pressure from opposition lawmakers, Seoul asked Beijing to reopen Rev. Kim’s case. Kim Mun Soo, a lawmaker from the opposition Grand National Party who visited Yanji earlier this month, says China has information about the pastor’s disappearance that it hasn’t shared with South Korea. Kim said Seoul should also get tough with Pyongyang, which still holds an estimated 468 kidnapped South Koreans. Says Kim: “It is the fundamental duty of a state to protect its citizens. South Korea has been terrible at this.” Friends of Rev. Kim are losing hope that he is still alive after five years. “He may have become a martyr,” says his brother-in-law, Chung Se Gook. “But the government should officially confirm whether he’s dead or not.” Either way, the evidence strongly suggests that Pyongyang hasn’t kicked its kidnapping habit.

South Korea should be embarrassed for taking such a weak position on trying to discover the status of the preacher. I doubt the North Koreans would ever try to kidnap another Japanese national again due to the hard line the Japanese government is taking against the North Korean kidnappings by possibly leveling sanctions on the impoverished country. Seoul needs to take a similar hard line approach or South Korean citizens will just continue to get kidnapped whenever the North Koreans want too. Is appeasing the North more important than protecting Korean citizens?

Why are Koreans so “shocked” by the allegations that China has been aiding North Korean kidnapping teams in China? Why should China care about the refugees when the South Korean government doesn’t?

There was shock in South Korea Wednesday at the revelation that the North runs a kidnapping squad that freely crosses the Sino-Korean border and raids safe houses on Chinese territory, often in the guise of Chinese security forces, and apparently with the tacit consent of China.
By contrast, Chinese authorities habitually imprison South Korean activists who operate in China’s border areas trying to help North Korean defectors.

National Intelligence Service (NIS) records from the interrogation of 36-year-old Ryu Young-hwa, a North Korean operative involved in the kidnapping of South Korean pastor Kim Dong-shik, reveal that North Korean agents dress up as Chinese police to raid defector hideouts and kidnap their occupants. Even if the kidnappers smashed windows to break into houses and caused commotions as they dragged away handcuffed victims, the Chinese authorities did not lift a finger to stop them.

Prosecutors confirmed that Ryu’s squad kidnapped and returned to North Korea 16 people including the Rev. Kim in nine operations between 1999 and 2000, mostly from Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces. Chinese authorities either made no attempt to stop the abductions or were unaware of them.

Meanwhile, the Japanese media is focusing on a Japanese woman who was among a total of some 40 defectors abducted by the squad. Both the Asahi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun quoted a Chosun Ilbo report that the woman, who had moved to North Korea in the 1960s after marrying a North Korean, had been taken back to the North in handcuffs after escaping to China.

China has just as much reason to want to get rid of the defectors as North Korea does. China does not want a refugee crisis to flood its borders so they are going to do everything possible covertly to prevent mass defections such as allowing Nork kidnapping teams free access in the country. China cannot take action themselves because they do not want human rights allegations involving the refugees to tarnish the upcoming Olympic Games. The Nork kidnapping teams make a good proxy force to take care of the refugee problem and leaves the Chinese with plausible deniability. It’s a great arrangement that works for everyone involved, unless you are one of those refugees, but who cares about them anyway.

I just finished reading an article in this month’s Foreign Policy magazine about North Korean hackers. The article is written by well known North Korea watcher Rebecca MacKinnon formerly of CNN which some of you probably know from her website North Korea Zone. The Foreign Policy website doesn’t have this article posted yet on their website so I will just type it here for you to read.

Hermit Hackers

South Korea’s National Assembly Defense Committee recently reported that North Korea has trained an army of 500-600 skilled computer hackers. According to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, North Korea’s hackers attend a special five year college called the Automated Warfare Institute. Tucked away in the mountains, the South Koreans say, this military academy produces 100 cyber warriors per year, with degrees in subjects such as automated reconnaissance.

News that North Korea is developing cyberwarfare capbabilities on par with those in advanced nations came as a surprise. Short on cutting-edge computer technology (not to mention reliable electrical grids), the Hermit Kingdom still depends on other nations for it’s internet bandwidth. As of October 2004, there were reportedly 43 official North Korean or pro-North Korean web sites on the Net. Yet none of these sites is actually housed on a North Korean computer server. Seventeen, including North Korea’s official news agency, KCNA exist on Japanese servers. Servers in the United States, China, Singapore, and Germany host North Korea’s remaining sites. By: Rebecca MacKinnon

The first thing that jumped to mind when reading this is not the obsurdity of North Korea training computer hackers in a country with no ISP or little electricity but that they are wasting money on training people when they could easily hire some young South Korean sympathizers to come and hack for them. The next time these sympathizers are protesting at the front gate of of our camp I can let them know the Norks are hiring. I they still don’t want to go to North Korea, than they can just kidnap them. The Korean government won’t care. I also wonder if Japan places sanctions on North Korea if they will shut down their internet service as well? I would hate to lose such a great hard news service as the KCNA. What I am I going to do about not being able to read about the latest obscure third world dictator praising Kim Jong Il?

Fascinating article in the Asia Times, from Andrei Lankov, about Russian and North Korea relations over the last 50 years. When the Russians, the masters of propaganda are laughing at you that is pretty sad.

Back in the 1970s, when I was a teenager in the then Soviet Union in my native Leningrad, many barbershops stocked copies of Korea magazine, a lavishly illustrated North Korean propaganda monthly. What was such a publication doing in the barbershops? The answer, I suspect, would be quite embarrassing for its editors: it was subscribed to in order to amuse the patrons who were waiting for a haircut.

The magazine was heavily subsidized by Pyongyang, so its annual subscription rate was dirt-cheap while its content was both bizarre and funny. Thus the magazine, which was published to inspire worldwide love and admiration for the Great Leader and his son and successor, the Dear Leader, was often (I would say from my experience, in most cases) subscribed to by people who saw it as a laughingstock and opened its pages only to make fun of the Great Men. The North Korean propaganda appeared very weird to the Russians – not least because it looked like a grossly exaggerated version of their own official propaganda. The grotesquely bad Russian translation of the texts also provided unintended comical effects.

This remarkable magazine is warmly remembered by ex-Soviet people of middle age, many of whom still can easily quote more weird sentences from memory. Sets of this venerable monthly are kept by some Russian families, and there are even a couple of Russian websites where sarcastic webmasters have collected particularly bizarre and/or comical quotations from Korean propaganda materials.

It appears North Korea’s earlier propaganda did more harm than good with their Soviet sponsors which has led to today’s comical reception of North Korean propaganda in Russia.

Soon after the end of the Korean War, references to North Korea nearly disappeared from the Soviet press. This silence had political explanations: from the late 1950s, Kim Il-sung was building his “juche-style” Stalinism while the original Stalinism was being dismantled in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Moscow was unhappy about such developments, but was unwilling to express its disapproval openly since critical statements would have led to further deterioration of its already strained relations with Pyongyang. The government-controlled press could write neither bad nor good things about North Korea. Thus newspapers largely remained silent and only occasionally published something positive about, say, a new Pyongyang stadium.

In spite of this official blackout, rumors about North Korea circulated widely among educated Soviet people. They were aware of Kim Il-sung’s deification, police omnipresence, and strained relations with Moscow. To a large extent, the North Koreans damaged their own standing by flooding the USSR with exceptionally bad propaganda, the above-mentioned Korea monthly being the most notorious.

Here is the most comical and most disturbing excerpt from the article:

From around 1970, more daring journalists even made hints at more sensitive topics – such as Kim’s personality cult or lingering militarism. The hints had to be subtle, but when a Soviet television audience of the late 1970s saw how North Korean kindergarten kids enthusiastically performed a dance called “My Heavy Machine-Gun”, the bizarreness of the situation was for everybody to see. No doubt such an effect was intended by the producers of that documentary.

Interestingly enough Russians appear not to care to much about human rights. This probably has to do a lot with Russia’s history of gulags and the current war in Chechnya. You cannot promote human rights when you are committing human rights violations yourself.

It’s worth noticing that the human-rights issue does not play a major role in Russian foreign policy. A period of idealistic enthusiasm in the early 1990s proved to be short, so few people in Russia take seriously statements about human rights. Neither the Russian government nor the Russian public shows any enthusiasm for crusades in the name of human rights in distant lands. It is well known that North Korea is notorious for its disregard for human rights, but Russians could not care less. Their position is simple: first, it is North Korea’s internal affair; second, if North Koreans themselves live under such a regime, who are we to pass judgments on their behalf?

Apparently North Korea’s propaganda has worked on a few people in Russia because Kim Jong Il still has a few admirers there. I’m sure if they actually lived in North Korea they wouldn’t be admiring him to much.

And there are of course people who are sincere admirers of the Kims’ regime, even if their numbers are small. For some Russian leftists, the regime is seen as a living example of communist resilience. They did not question the right of the government to starve half a million or a million people to stay in power. They either deny the facts (half a million dead? Washington’s propaganda, of course!) or present the deaths as voluntary sacrifices made by the patriotic Korean people. But actually Korean domestic politics is not very important to the Russian Pyongyang-worshippers: it is the “anti-imperialist” stance of North Korea that really matters for the Russian left.

Fortunately, the general Russian public is still skeptical of the North Korean regime and does not harbor many illusions about its true nature. But nobody in Russia wants to build policy on the basis of ideology these days. Russians have had enough of ideology over the past century, so now they prefer interests, pure and simple. And to remind themselves of the past, many people still look through old, slightly yellowed pages of Korea monthly.

I have been impressed with Dr Andrei Lankov writings in regards to North Korea. He really knows his stuff and provides valuable insights into the hermit kingdom. He contributes often to North Korea Zone which I encourage everyone to check out.

This propaganda picture looks like it could be a PTA meeting with mortars

According to Yonhap News, Kim Jong Il has no plans to invade South Korea.

SEOUL, Dec. 25 (Yonhap) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has disavowed having any plan to invade South Korea, claiming that it is in fact South Korea which plots to invade the North, a North Korean report said Saturday.

Radio Pyongyang carried Kim’s remarks in a commentary, denouncing the South’s plan to increase its self-defense capabilities. The broadcaster did not provide details, including when and where Kim made such remarks.

Boy, I feel so much better now that I can count on Kim Jong Il’s word that he won’t ever invade South Korea.

North Korea is once again threatening Japan. North Korea is threatening to not allow Japan to participate in the six party talks regarding their on going nuclear program if the Japanese government continues to persue economic sanctions and a bill promoting North Korean human rights.

This diplomatic issue began when the remains of a kidnapped Japanese citizen were returned to Japan and the DNA test of the remains proved they were not of that person. North Korea denies the allegations.

The North’s Central Television Broadcasting Station blamed Japan in a Thursday report for its alleged manipulation of DNA tests on the remains of Megumi Yokota, a Japanese national kidnapped by North Korean agents in 1977.

“It has become difficult for us to sit down with Japan at the six-party talks because Japan has little faith and few morals,” the North’s official mouthpiece said.

Calls for sanctions against North Korea have risen in Japan ever since the remains that Pyongyang returned to Tokyo in November turned out to be inconsistent with Megumi’s DNA type.

The Pyongyang regime swiftly declared that it would consider any sanctions a declaration of war.

Obviously Japan is not to concerned about war because they are moving forward with the sanctions. So in response North Korea is just trying to play what little cards they have left to influence Japan’s decision making. I doubt it is going to work. If I was Japan I would state that if I was left out of the negotiations, I would feel obligated then to build my own nuclear deterent. That would really call North Korea’s bluff and get China greatly involved in solving the nuclear issue.

What I find really amazing but not really suprised by is the stance of the South Korean government.

Paik and other North Korea experts in Seoul said they believe the current diplomatic row between Pyongyang and Tokyo was caused by the North’s mistake, not an intentional move to anger Japan.

“(North Korea’s leader) Kim Jong-il is in a position to court financial aid from Japan,” Paik said. “It’s unlikely Pyongyang has sent false remains to Tokyo intentionally, given that Kim Jong-il has tried to improve the North’s relations with Japan.”

Lee Jae-joung, senior vice president of the constitutional Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification, also believes the North has nothing to gain by irritating Japan.

“I think it’s wrong to interpret the mistake as something conducted on purpose,” Lee said in a telephone interview. “There could be some mistakes during or after the cremation of her in Pyongyang. I think it’s more proper for Japan to officially ask North Korea to remedy the situation.”

The Seoul government is keeping a low profile over the alleged “false remains” issue. Vice Unification Minister Rhee Bong-jo told reporters on Thursday that it is not appropriate for Seoul to express its stance on this bilateral issue between North Korea and Japan.

Has nothing to gain from sending false remains? These Japanese citizens trained spies. Some of these spies are probably still operating in Japan. The Norks have everything to lose if they sent the correct remains. Also, how do you call sending the wrong remains a mistake? A mix up at the crematory? Some how I don’t by that. Well, if the Korean government can ignore thousands of North Korean defectors, ignoring this issue is really easy.