"Is it you comrade?" – North Korea issues a guide to mobile phone etiquette. #NewsFromElsewhere http://t.co/1pMuRaYpiz via @BBCMonitoring
— Groove Korea (@groovekorea) October 1, 2014
Considering that last year the North Korean government spent a lot of money renovating a Korean War cemetery honoring North Korean veterans of the Korean War; I would not be surprised if the Chinese leadership were unhappy that their cemetery did not receive the same treatment:
North Korea has begun renovation work on a cemetery in the North’s capital for Chinese soldiers who were killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, China’s state media reported Tuesday.
China’s ambassador to North Korea, Liu Hongcai, attended a ceremony in Pyongyang to celebrate the start of renovation work, the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, reported on its website. [Yonhap]
So does anyone expect anything to come of this?
North Korea says it is willing to cooperate with the U.N. and other international organizations on human rights, but is bristling at what it views as politicization of the issue by its arch enemy, the United States.
In February, a U.N. commission of inquiry concluded there was evidence of crimes against humanity by North Korea’s authoritarian government. Washington this week called on Pyongyang to shut its “evil system” of prison camps.
Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong did not directly address the findings of the commission, which Pyongyang has refused to cooperate with.
Ri accused the U.S. of “abusing” the human rights issue for political purposes.
He told the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday that North Korea is willing to cooperate on the issue with countries that aren’t hostile to it. (Associated Press)
North Korea has decided to play the delay game in regards to the report on abductions they promised to deliver to the Japanese:
North Korea will not announce the preliminary report on its probe into the fate of more than a dozen Japanese nationals it has admitted to kidnapping decades ago when it holds a new round of talks with Japan next week, an envoy from the communist country said Saturday.
Song Il-ho, the North Korean ambassador for normalization talks with Japan, made the remarks as he arrived in China’s northern city of Shenyang earlier in the day for talks with Junichi Ihara, head of the Japanese foreign ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau.
The Monday talks between Song and Ihara come after North Korea failed to produce its first report on its probe into the abduction issue, causing Japan to complain about the slow pace of the investigation. In May, Pyongyang agreed to re-investigate the abductions and, in return, Tokyo lifted some of its sanctions imposed on the North over its missile and nuclear programs. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but this is a classic North Korean negotiation tactic to make promises in exchange for something they want. Once they get what they want which in this case was the easing of Japanese sanctions they then renege on the promise for some made up reason in hopes of receiving more of what they want for little to nothing in return.
It looks like the North Koreans have determined that Kim Jong-un’s gout is not going away and thus have begun a campaign to make excuses for it:
Young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is suffering from “discomfort”, state media has said in the first official acknowledgement of ill health after a prolonged period out of the public eye.
Kim, 31, who is frequently the centrepiece of the isolated country’s propaganda, has not been photographed by state media since appearing at a concert alongside his wife on Sept. 3, fuelling speculation he is suffering from bad health.
He had been seen walking with a limp since an event with key officials in July and in a pre-recorded documentary broadcast by state media on Thursday appeared to have difficulty walking.
“The wealth and prosperity of our socialism is thanks to the painstaking efforts of our marshal, who keeps lighting the path for the people, like the flicker of a flame, despite suffering discomfort,” a voice over for the hour-long documentary said. (Reuters)
You can read more at the link.
North Korean swimmers perform synchronized swimming at a pool in Incheon on Sept. 19, 2014. (Yonhap)
Asian Games – North Korea threatens attack if leaflets are launched from South http://t.co/YBs5gymrhR #KoreaNews
— Korea News Summary (@ROKreport) September 20, 2014
Via One Free Korea comes this article from a ROK Drop favorite Bruce Klingner
Unilateral US actions against Iran, combined with diplomatic pressure, led other nations to impose their own financial and regulatory measures against Tehran. Collectively, the international sanctions have isolated Iran from the international banking system, targeted critical Iranian economic sectors, and forced countries to restrict purchases of Iranian oil and gas, Tehran’s largest export.
Just as strong measures induced Iran back to the negotiating table, more robust measures are needed to leverage North Korea. The United States should use its action against Iran as a model for imposing the same severity of targeted financial measures against North Korea.
Targeted financial measures are directed against entities that violate U.S. laws by exploiting their need to access the global financial network. Even the most isolated regime is vulnerable given the centrality of the U.S. financial system. The U.S. dollar is the global currency of choice for international trade, and the requirement that any dollar-denominated transaction anywhere in the world must go through a U.S. Treasury Department-regulated bank give Treasury the power to exclude North Korea and its third country enablers from the U.S. financial system.
Compared with trade sanctions, targeted financial measures are precision guided munitions against violators, rather than economic carpet bombing against a population. For banks, wire services, and insurance companies, there are catastrophic risks to facilitating – even unknowingly — illicit transactions. [Korea Economic Institute]
I highly recommend reading the whole thing at the link, but I agree with One Free Korea’s opinion that the old ideas in regards to North Korea have failed. The targeted financial measures that Klingner mentions were proven to change North Korean behavior when one looks back at the 2005 freezing of North Korean money in the Macau bank Banco Delta Asia. The bank was hit with targeted financial measures because it was being used to launder counterfeit US dollars. After the money was frozen there was a noticeable change in the short term in North Korean behavior until the ill-gotten money was returned. Since then North Korea has found new ways to launder and move money around. Imagine the affect on Kim regime behavior if they continually faced Banco Delta Asia type of crisis from targeted financial measures. Unlike Banco Delta Asia I would hope the US would not give North Korea their ill-gotten money back either.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” lang=”en”><p>A scrap from Matthew Miller's all-caps 'confession' / failed application for full 'fellow-traveller' status in DPRK. <a href=”http://t.co/SlgDm6Orzs”>pic.twitter.com/SlgDm6Orzs</a></p>— Adam Cathcart (@adamcathcart) <a href=”https://twitter.com/adamcathcart/status/511459634914144256″>September 15, 2014</a></blockquote>
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