I always figured the Chinese would just reduce their oil exports to North Korea to make them feel a little pain and show their displeasure with North Korea. I never believed they would cut off the exports entirely because of the effect it would have on regime stability:
WASHINGTON, July 10 (Yonhap) — North Korea’s sole-operating oil refinery has been up and running despite a series of media reports that China halted crude exports to the impoverished communist neighbor amid strained relations last year, a U.S. expert said Friday.
Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., chief analytics officer of AllSource Analysis, said in a report carried by the website 38 North of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies that the North’s Ponghwa Chemical Factory would not have been running if Beijing had halted crude exports.
Bermudez cited satellite imagery showing the refinery operational.
“Numerous reports during 2014-2015 have stated that China, North Korea’s largest crude oil supplier, did not sell it crude oil during 2014, a development that would force North Korea’s single operating oil refinery into caretaker status,” Bermudez said in the report.
“Satellite imagery from 2014 and 2015, however, reveals that the facility has remained operational, though perhaps at somewhat lower levels than in the immediately preceding years, calling into question media reports of an oil cutoff from China,” he said.
Imagery indicates activity at the factory’s rail loading and unloading facility, and construction activity within the factory, such as the building and maintenance of storage tanks and additions to several buildings, provides another indication that the facility remained operational, the expert said. [Yonhap]
I guess it was only a matter of time, but now North Koreans get to wear another face on their clothes:
North Korea is printing new badges showing leader Kim Jong-un alongside his grandfather and father.
North Korean officials have so far worn badges with the faces of former leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, but now the personality cult clearly includes the current leader.
A company in Pyongyang’s Pyongchon district is making the badges with the faces of the three Kims on the occasion of the anniversary of the Workers Party on Oct. 10, a source said on Tuesday.
The company is printing the first batch of 3,000 to give out to senior party officials and senior members of the socialist youth league. [Chosun Ilbo]
You have to hand it to the North Korean propagandists for finding new ways to bush the US:
You’ve probably seen Riley. He’s a dog who got internet-famous for looking super stoned at his birthday party. He’s a funny little pup. But the North Koreans aren’t laughing. They recently showed the image on state TV to prove just how decadent American culture is.
KCTV commentator Lee Chung-song claimed in the clip that American billionaires are buying $15,000 dog collars for their pets, paying for dog hotels and spas or even hosting expensive birthday parties for their canines, such as the one enjoyed by Riley, while many homeless people are forced to live in boxes, he said.
This same freedom that allows North Korean women to more easily cross the border into China also makes them more susceptible to sex trafficking. That is why today North Korean women in China are the modern day comfort women that few people care about:
North Korean women dressed in traditional dresses, leave the restaurant they work at and head to the North Korean embassy in Beijing, on December 17, 2006. Women participate in North Korea’s unofficial economy in at higher rates and the country’s gray markets have continued to proliferate. UPI Photo/Stephen Shaver | License Photo
SEOUL, July 6 (UPI) — North Korean defectors are overwhelmingly women, according to a South Korean government report released Sunday.
The preliminary data from Seoul’s Unification Ministry indicated of the 535 North Koreans who sought asylum in South Korea in 2015, 444 were women, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.
Women in North Korea are not subject to the same strict surveillance in place for North Korean men, according to South Korean newspaper Hankyoreh.
The North Korean state employs men in higher numbers, and a prolonged absence from the workplace is likely to raise a red flag.
While Pyongyang maintains a system that discourages men from fleeing the country, North Korean women who are registered as “housewives” in the country are allowed more freedom.
Women participate in North Korea’s unofficial economy at higher rates and the country’s gray markets have continued to proliferate as the state looks the other way.
In the absence of scrutiny, North Korean women also cross the China-North Korea border in larger numbers — an option not available to North Korean men, according to South Korean press. [UPI]
On October 31, 1966, US President Lyndon B. Johnson arrived in South Korea to meet with then South Korean strongman Park Chung-hee. This was the first time that President Johnson had traveled to South Korea and President Park was eager to make an impression. Here is how the Stars & Stripes described the seen as President Johnson arrived in Seoul to a crowd estimated at 250,000 people:
SEOUL — President and Mrs. Johnson got a rousing Texas-style welcome here Monday.
They were greeted by an enthusiastic crowd estimated at 2 million as they flew to the Republic of Korea on the last leg of a 7-nation trip.
Officials traveling with the presidential party called the welcome the largest and most enthusiastic of the trip.
At times, the ecstasy almost resulted in tragedy.
Frenzied crowds estimated at 250,000 at Seoul’s City Hall Plaza roared approval at the sight of Johnson so loud and long that the speech of Korean President Chung Hee Park was drowned in the din.
The mob also overran a 2,000-member girls’ chorus near the presidential stand, trampling some of the girls underfoot, and at one time threatened to break Secret Service lines and overflow onto the speaker’s stand.
One 57-year-old Seoul woman was hospitalized with serious injuries after being trampled and 12 persons were treated for minor injuries.
The entire 9-mile motorcade route in Seoul was lined with crowds 20-30 persons deep.
Much of the crowd was made up of schoolchildren waving U.S. and Korean flags and carrying hand-painted signs bearing greetings to the President and First Lady. The city’s schools were closed for the occasion.
The President stopped the motorcade five times to shake hands with Koreans along the route between Kimpo International Airport, where he landed at about 3 p.m., and Seoul’s city hall. Several times along the route, the crowd surged forward past police lines and flooded around the car bearing the two presidents.
At city hall, order among the roaring crowd was restored only after Deputy Prime Minister Key Young Chang personally took charge of police lines and appealed to the front ranks of the crowds.
Johnson told the city hall crowd that Koreans should be “rightly proud” of the rebuilding job they have done after the Korean War leveled the nation, and suggested that Asia was experiencing “a new spirit of cooperation.
“That spirit of cooperation in this part of the world was shared by the seven nations who met at Manila last week.
“That historic meeting, which you first suggested … affirmed the broad partnership and the common purpose of free Pacific nations — a partnership that will endure long after the communist aggression is ended in Vietnam,” Johnson said in his speech.
(“Here in Korea, our fighting men stand with your own along the Demilitarized Zone, and we shall come once again to your defense if aggression — God forbid — should occur here again,” he added, AP said.)
(“To an American, the free soil of Korea is hallowed ground,” Johnson told the throng police estimated at some 350,000.)
(“More than 54,000 Americans died in the bitter 1950-53 battle to save this mountainous peninsula country from communist invaders from the north. Today South Korea has around 45,000 soldiers helping the allied cause in South Vietnam.”)
The two partnership efforts against Red aggression and Korea’s remarkable recent economic progress were main themes of the visit.
Park said Korea had “undiminished appreciation” for the help the United States has given it during the past quarter-century.
“We have been much indebted to you as comrades-in-arms,” he said.
“Please be assured that ours is not a nation which will indefinitely continue to be indebted to others, but rather is a nation which knows how to requite its obligations, which has a keen sense of responsibility, and which abides by good faith.”
At city hall, Johnson was officially welcomed to Korea and presented a gold key to the city of Seoul by Mayor Hyun Ok Kim.
President and Mrs. Johnson were honored Monday night at a state dinner given by the Korean first family at the national capitol. After the dinner they attended an art festival in Seoul’s Citizens’ Hall.
Tuesday, Park and Johnson had a private, 30-minute talk.
Johnson was to visit the Korean 26th Inf. Div. and the U.S. 36th Engineer Group, both near Uijongbu, 13 miles north of Seoul later Tuesday. He was to lunch with U.S. troops.
In the afternoon, the President was to visit an agricultural display at Suwon, 20 miles south of Seoul, where he was also to have a hill named after him.
Johnson will wind up his Far East trip Wednesday with visits to the National Cemetery and Korean National Assembly, where he will give a speech on nationwide television. [Stars & Stripes]
As well as President Johnson’s trip was going, evil was lurking in the background. Early on the morning of November 2nd, the same morning that President Johnson was projected to leave Korea, members of the North Korean 17th Foot Reconnaissance Brigade followed an eight man patrol of US Army soldiers with Company A, 1st Battalion, 23d Infantry Regiment, 2d Infantry Division. The soldiers were patrolling about 1 kilometer south of the DMZ near the Libby Bridge. The North Koreans set a hasty ambush ahead of the patrol and engaged them with hand grenades and small arms fire. After they cut down the patrol the North Koreans shot a few more rounds into some of the bodies and stuck their bayonets in others. Six Americans and a Korean Augmentee to the US Army (KATUSA) were killed by the attack. Incredibly a seventh American soldier, PFC David L. Bibee some how survived the attack by playing dead. Here is what he had to say afterwards:
PFC David L. Bibee . . . 17 years old. He was wounded but escaped death by playing dead. “The only reason I’m alive now is because I didn’t move when a North Korean yanked my watch off my wrist. [Korean War Project]
At the same time of the attack on the US soldiers, a ROK Army patrol was also ambushed killing 2 soldiers. Both attacks were well timed and well executed. The below Google Earth image shows where Libby Bridge is located outside the village of Changpa-ri and where the DMZ fence is located. The ambush would of happened in the hills between the bridge and the fence:
With the attack happening during President Johnson’s Korea trip this caused the attack to make headlines in the US. Here is how the November 3, 1966 Stars & Stripes reported the attack:
This attack along with others during this timeframe would become part of what became known as the “DMZ War“. The North Korean regime led by Kim Il-sung was launching attacks in an effort to test US resolve to defend Korea during the Vietnam War. He hoped the attacks would create a wedge between the US and ROK alliance while simultaneously sending in operatives to create an insurgency within South Korea. Fortunately Kim Il-sung’s strategy failed, but it cost the lives of the following men in the 2nd Infantry Division patrol ambushed on November 2, 1966:
Benton, Johnny Wayne 2 Nov 66. Vermont.
Burrell, Robert Wayne 2 Nov 66. Mt. Ayr, Indiana
Fischer, Morris Lee 2 Nov 66. Wisconsin.
Hasty, Leslie L. 2 Nov 66. Palestine, Texas.
Hensley, James. 2 Nov 66. Stockridge, Michigan.
Reynolds, Ernest D. 2 Nov 66. Missouri. P
Myong, Pfc Hwan Oh 2 Nov 66. KATUSA attached to A Co. 1/23 2ID Camp Wally
Robert Burrell
Of note is that Private Reynolds who was Killed in Action during the ambush, was nominated for the Medal of Honor and was awarded the Silver Star and the Purple Heart. He had only been in Korea 17 days. Ernest D. Reynolds was born October 13,1946 in Maryville, Missouri to Lowell D. and Joyce A. Reynolds (died 2011). In 1958 the family moved to Northeast Kansas City, Missouri. Ernie went to Whittier Elementary and graduated from Northeast High School in 1964. In 1986 the family was in Seoul for the dedication of the Reynolds Range. He is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Maryville, MO. Private Reynolds is survived by his siblings Melody, Roger and Sharon. Here is his Silver Star citation:
The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Silver Star Medal (Posthumously) to Ernest D. Reynolds (US-55881470), Private, U.S. Army, for gallantry in action while engaged in military operations, while serving with Company A, 1st Battalion, 23d Infantry Regiment, 2d Infantry Division. Private Reynolds distinguished himself by gallantry in action on 2 November 1966, in the Republic of Korea, by sacrificing his own life in the defense of his fellow soldiers. Private Reynolds was a member of a patrol operating near the southern boundary of the Demilitarized Zone in Korea when his patrol was attacked and overrun by an armed patrol of the North Korean Army. Prior to the attack, as rear security man, he had occupied a concealed position and opened fire upon the enemy, and he continued to fire until he himself was killed. His indomitable courage, determination, and profound concern for his fellow soldiers, are in the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, the 2d Infantry Division, and the United States Army. Department of the Army, General Orders No. 16 (April 4, 1967) Home State: Missouri Personal Awards: Silver Star (Korea-1966), Purple Heart.
The Korean War is known as the “Forgotten War”, but for the soldiers that served on the Korean frontier during the “DMZ War” their conflict should be known as the “Really Forgotten War” since so few people know about it. Fortunately the 2nd Infantry Division today is beginning to embrace and remember the brave soldiers who served on the frontlines of the DMZ War. It is because of the service of the brave men that served in Korea during this time period that Kim Il-sung’s strategy was thwarted and South Korea was able to develop into the thriving democracy and economic miracle that it is today.
For more DMZ Flashpoints articles please click the below link:
I put this story in the category of unverifiable rumor, so who knows how true it is:
North Korean diplomats, fearful of reprisals from the state for their children’s positive remarks on life outside the country, are sending their sons and daughters to mental hospitals to protect them from state surveillance.
A source in Dandong, China who is familiar with the situation in Pyongyang told Daily NK on Wednesday that parents use bribes to cajole psychiatrists for admission into hospitals under false pretenses.
Cases of North Korean foreign service officers using mental health clinics as a refuge for their children are on the rise, according to the source.
“[Diplomats] with children who know the truth about the outside world are afraid of punishment and are sending them to mental hospitals [as a preventive measure],” the source said.
North Koreans in the foreign service are typically elites who are well cared for by the state, and take residence in Pyongyang, where the standard of living is significantly higher than in many parts of the state. [UPI]
