Tag Archive for 'Defectors'

Hwang Jang Yop on Yongbyon

Published
by
Jack
on July 2, 2008
in DPRK, Defectors, News and Nukes
. 0 Comments

Hwang jang YopHwang Jang Yop, as you know, is a well-known staple on the DailyNK. On my usual travels to the DailyNK, I read what the guy has to say. To be honest, I sometimes do not understand his mindset. Perhaps it is because I do not understand the full nature of the DPRK while he does. A column regarding Kim Jong Il’s nuclear activities is no exception. According to this entry:

Regarding North Korea’s demolition show at the Yongbyon nuclear reactor on June 27, Hwang Jang Yop, President of the Committee for the Democratization of North Korea, said that Kim Jong Il used the already useless Yongbyon nuclear complex in his negotiations with the U.S.

Emphasis mine. I do not really understand the jist of the opening paragraph, and the only thing I can glean from this is perhaps Yongbyon is a used up card in the negotiations with the United States? I doubt it reading the article further, and I think Hwang is trying to say North Korea only uses the crappy Yongbyon complex as a front. So it appears North Korea gets to keep the nukes via HEU while getting goodies for “cooperation”. According to Hwang:

“North Korea refers to the Yongbyon nuclear complex only when it talks about freezing nuclear facilities.” He said, “The Yongbyon nuclear reactor was used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. Indeed, it has already produced enough [nuclear weapons].”

He said, “In 1996, I heard the secretary in charge of the munitions industry saying, ‘We do not need plutonium any more. We can now produce nuclear weapons with Uranium-235.’ North Korea must have subsequently produced nuclear weapons using its uranium enrichment program.”

So this implies Yongbyon was past its usefulness a long time ago. That is not surprising. What I noticing in the negotiations process, North Korea shows a veneer of cooperation to get aid while at the same time doing the HEU program in secret. The thing is, the HEU program is highly suspected and of course, North Korea denies such a program. This is not a surprise either, and is not news:

Hwang said, “The North Korea nuclear problem gives the impression of having been resolved at the Six Party Talks. However, North Korea still refuses to admit that it cooperated with Pakistan to develop nuclear weapons using enriched uranium.” He stressed that North Korea must declare and destroy its HEU programs in accordance with the February 13 Agreement.

From what I have been reading, the United States is very skeptical about the declaration and feels it is incomplete. Hwang in this article does not talk about the removing North Korea from the blacklist of state sponsors of terror, but this does go to show just how much work is left to de-nuclearize the secretive state. Also, this agreement does not even cover the suspected chemical/biological weapons, human rights abuses, illicit trade, or funny money. On the other hand, the United States does want more information about possible cooperation with others such as Syria among other things. If North Korea does declare such things is another thing. As we all know, Kim Jong Il is all about stop and go. In the meantime, next comes the very difficult process of verification. In North Korea, verification is probably the most difficult in the world and is not called the most secretive state for nothing. So my question is, in the light of all of this, why does the United States remove North Korea from the blacklist when it has not cooperated fully? Perhaps for legacy, a “better than nothing” approach or heaven knows what else. All I know it is a joke in my opinion.

Hwang Jang Yop believes Kim Jong Il will not use nukes:

Hwang also said, “Kim Jong Il is a selfish coward. He would never use nuclear weapons because he knows that he would lose his life if he does.”

I do agree North Korea will not use nukes, and I also believe North Korea does not have the means to use them in an efficient manner. I am utterly convinced North Korea only uses the nukes as a card of political survival. The issue is, this card is starting to fade with all the pressures mounting on the regime such as serious economical shocks. I am also utterly convinced the entire scope of North Korea’s activities will only be known once Kim and his regime is gone. With the aid coming, this will be delayed longer. However, as I said a thousand times, it is only a matter of time before the regime does implode. I think no outside intervention is needed for that to happen. Eventually, the aid will not help and the regime will come crashing down. North Korea brought severe isolation on itself, and the extreme paranoia is starting to show signs of extreme wear.

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Yoo Sang-joon freed from Chinese jail

Published
by
Jack
on January 14, 2008
in Defectors, Humanitarian Topic, News, North Korea, ROK and Video
. 0 Comments

Yoo Sang-joonA bittersweet story of one of the most powerful underground railroad activists I have seen Yoo Sang-joon. ROK Drop has the documentary posted.

[...]

“Yoo Sang-joon is now safely in South Korea after spending the last four months in a prison located in northern China, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW),” said Vu. “He is said to have endured extreme cold during his imprisonment and was believed he would die while being confined in China.

[...]

“I am grateful from the depths of my heart to CSW and CSW supporters for all the deep concern, prayer and advocacy on my behalf while I was in prison,” said Yoo, according to CSW.

Vu went on to say, “Yoo, a North Korean survivor, was arrested near the Chinese-Mongolian border while trying to rescue other North Koreans from danger in China. He had lost his wife and youngest son in the North Korean famine. He realized the same fate awaited him and his remaining son if they remained in the country, and decided to flee to China.

“But unable to travel together, his 10-year-old son, Chul Min, attempted to cross the Mongolian border by himself. Unfamiliar with the inhospitable terrain, he wandered 26 hours and – suffering from dehydration and weakened from the famine – died before crossing the border.

“Yoo himself was able to reach South Korea and is a citizen, but he continues to be haunted by the loss of his family. As a result, he has dedicated his life to helping North Korean refugees in China, especially children, at the risk of his own safety.”

[...]

“North Korea is one of the most repressive regimes in the world and is ranked by the watchdog Open Doors as the world’s worst persecutor of Christians. Citizens of the communist state are forced to adhere to a personality cult that revolves around worshipping current dictator Kim Jong Il and his deceased father, Kim Il Sung,” said Vu in her story.

“In the face of these grave consequences, Yoo’s punishment is considered light.”

“The fact that Yoo Sang-joon was released after only four months, in contrast to other activists who have served up to and surpassing four years, is surely a testament to your prayers, network and fervent advocacy,” said a CSW contact on the ground in Asia (location cannot be identified for security reason). “We thank you all so very much !”

No words can express the work of somebody like this who endured such unspeakable tragedies in his own life and risked his life to help others in search of freedom from the iron grip of Kim Jong Il. For me personally, it is so much easier to sit in my comfortable house in the United States and want freedom for North Koreans, when in reality would be much harder to act on it, unlike like this man and other people who risk everything to help others. So I tip my hat, and I wish him all the luck, happiness and health. Not only to him, but to others who help in this regard.

I do not know if he will continue to do anymore underground railroad work, but even if he does not, he is a testament to ultimate bravery. Also, I would like to take the time to thank others in the cause for helping defectors, getting the word out about the real state of North Korea, and at least making the effort to let the world know even if a blind eye is cast aside.

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What is the real story behind the supernotes (update)?

Published
by
Jack
on January 10, 2008
in Defectors, Economy, Humanitarian Topic, North Korea, Questions To Readers, ROK and United States
. 5 Comments

Update: One Free Korea has a much better commentary on this story and is well worth the read.
Supernote?

There have been questions and charges raised regarding the so-called supernotes that supposedly came out of North Korea. I do not know the validity of these charges because I am not a currency expert. However, there are two articles today that may raise doubts. Apparently, according to one article by AZCentral.com:

WASHINGTON - Two years ago, as he was ratcheting up a campaign to isolate and cripple North Korea’s dictatorship financially, President Bush accused the communist regime there of printing phony U.S. currency.

“When someone is counterfeiting our money, we want them to stop doing that. We are aggressively saying to the North Koreans just that - don’t counterfeit our money,” Bush said on Jan. 26, 2006.

If I recall correctly, I think one of the reasons for the frozen cash ($25 million) was because of the counterfeiting and money laundering. That is understandable. In return to start disabling the Yongbyon reactor, North Korea wanted that money back. So the United States released the money with some minor complications, but the DPRK did get it. As usual, North Korea keeps moving the goal posts, but will throw a fit if others do it real or imagined. Several posts have covered this already, so that is not news.

However, a 10-month McClatchy Newspapers investigation on three continents has found that the evidence to support Bush’s charges against North Korea is uncertain at best and that the claims of the North Korean defectors cited in news accounts are dubious and perhaps bogus. One key law-enforcement agency, the Swiss federal criminal police, has publicly questioned whether North Korea is even capable of producing “supernotes,” counterfeit $100 bills that are nearly perfect except for some practically invisible additions.

Huh? How is that so? I did read an article a while back regarding the question regarding the supernote producing capability (based on their own currency being very low quality), but in my mind, that does not prove a lot. I cannot find the link, but I will post it once I do find it. But to see more information on it, you can see this link (PDF). Personally, I do not doubt supernotes exist, and I also do not doubt North Korea produced counterfeit notes because they are well known for producing other things like pharmaceuticals, cigarettes and other things for quick cash. After all, any way to make money is a good thing for a collapsed economy. However, there is a story suggesting a defector may have been telling stories:

Many of the administration’s public allegations about North Korean counterfeiting trace to North Korea “experts” in South Korea who arranged interviews with North Korean defectors for U.S. and foreign newspapers.

The defectors’ accounts, for example, were cited prominently in a lengthy July 23, 2006, New York Times magazine story that charged North Korea with producing the sophisticated supernotes.

The McClatchy investigation, however, found reason to question those sources. One major source for several stories, a self-described chemist named Kim Dong-shik, has gone into hiding, and a former roommate, Moon Kook-han, said Kim is a liar out for cash who knew so little about American currency that he didn’t know whose image is printed on the $100 bill. (It’s Benjamin Franklin.)

The Secret Service, the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department all declined repeated requests for interviews for this story.

(Link mine) Hm, that is interesting, but that does not mean the entire story regarding the supernotes may be bogus:

Although banks around the world are still seizing supernotes, the Bush administration is no longer publicly accusing North Korea of producing them and has dropped the subject from talks on halting North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program, according to State Department officials.

This story seems a bit slanted, but reading in between the noise, it seems there may be more questions than answers regarding the supernotes. So the question I have for you readers is, if a defector claiming to make these notes is lying (he obviously was if he does not know the person on the bill), what is the real story behind the notes?

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Happy new year: North Korea almost certain to miss deadline

Published
by
Jack
on December 30, 2007
in Defectors, Diplomacy, Humanitarian Topic, News, North Korea, ROK and United States
. 0 Comments

According to Reuters:

North Korea appears almost certain to miss a deadline in a nuclear deal, a development that is unlikely to scuttle the disarmament-for-aid pact it reached with regional powers but could hamper its implementation.

Pyongyang has met one part of the deal by starting to take apart its Soviet-era nuclear facility that produces arms-grade plutonium, but is unlikely to meet its obligation to fully account for its nuclear activities by the end of the year.

If the DPRK makes the deadline, you are free to sell me some oceanfront property in Kansas. It is the 30th already, and looks like nothing is going to be done because North Korea is balking at the details of the February deal. Kim Jong Il wants more aid in return for an almost likely incomplete detailing of its past and current programs including HEU. However, they have almost been certainly been caught otherwise, but apologists will say it could come from somewhere else. With anything dealing with North Korea, nothing is ever certain, and neither will this even if they do declare. How is the outside world to know 100%. They cannot, unless I am missing something.

If it lives up to the deal it reached with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, the destitute state would receive 1 million tonnes of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid and the U.S. would take it off its terrorism black list.

Now that North Korea will not make the deadline, how are the details of the carrot going to be? Time will tell on that one, but I am going to guess it is going to be the status quo.

The paranoid state also probably loathes the prospect of being forthcoming about one of its biggest secrets, its nuclear weapons program, analysts said.

No kidding, yet will still want what they demand. Will the parties involved deliver despite the bad behavior?

North Korea may delay the process, but analysts said it must come up with some sort of declaration.

I have to agree with this too, because Kim Jong Il is the type to do stuff when he is damn good and ready. His hallmark is to ruffle his feathers, balk and play games. It’s been that way for decades. This is just more of the same stuff, and if something different comes along, color me very surprised.

One Free Korea and ROK Drop has more.

*******************************************************************************

In humanitarian news (AFP):

Beijing will soon allow more than 40 North Korean refugees sheltering at foreign missions in China to leave for South Korea and the United States, a report said Sunday.

China usually forcibly repatriates North Korean refugees, whom it regards as economic migrants, even though they often face harsh punishment on their return home.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, quoting unnamed sources in Beijing, said the Chinese government had decided to allow them to leave to prevent the issue overshadowing the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Ah, what a opportunistic time to all of a sudden care for North Koreans looking for freedom. As the article said, China regularly deports North Koreans and right back into the lion’s den. This is a good step forward, and will most likely save 40 lives. This is good news. The bad news is, will this last? Most likely not. I have to see this as a ploy of “See! We care for North Koreans. Do not boycott the Olympics now!” However, I have to also say even if China were to send the 40 North Koreans back, it would have not made much of a difference anyway, because most people will not even know or care about the defectors. There are games to watch.

China has been in talks over the fate of 20 North Korean defectors sheltering in the South Korean embassy compound and 23 others under the protection of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Beijing, according to Yonhap.

[...]

Despite its rare permission for the North Koreans to seek asylum, Beijing plans to beef up its crackdown on illegal North Koreans ahead of the Olympics, Yonhap said.

Hah, so it is business as usual. Nothing to see here folks, move along.

See One Free Korea

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North Korean oddities: DMZ Tunnels

Published
by
Jack
on December 18, 2007
in Defectors, History, Kim Il Sung, North Korea and ROK
. 5 Comments

DMZ TunnelOne of the more interesting oddities I have read about are the tunnels under the DMZ.

According to north Korean defectors, Kim Il-Sung — president of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — issued a sweeping order in the early 1970s that required every Korean People’s Army division along the Demilitarized Zone to dig and maintain at least two tunnels into South Korea. The opposing United Nations Command had been aware of an earlier north Korean tunneling effort that never became an actuality, but was surprised when new evidence came up that indicated the north was hard at work underground again.

(Emphasis mine) I do not know where the source of this information is, but I am very interested in finding it. Since the DPRK side will obviously have no information on such projects, it would be interesting to read any declassified information on these tunnels. If anybody has any good source material, let me know. This goes on to say:

On November 15, 1974 (Subscription) while in operation in the western DMZ near Korangpo, allied reconnaissance troops found steam rising from the earth’s surface indicating that a tunnel was present underneath the DMZ. The tunnels depth is believed to be some 45 meters, has a total length of 3,500 meters of which 1,000 meters invaded into the DMZ. The tunnel is along a course that would have exiting soldiers heading towards Korango, Uijongbu and is some 65 km from Seoul, 8 km northeast of Korangpo. It has a prefabricated wall of concrete and slate. When discovered, there were 220-volt and 60-watt lamps, electric lines, railways, and track vehicles. The ground is inclined by 5 degrees to the north to prevent water from gathering. There are turning points on the railroad. The tunnel is large enough to allow the transit of a regiment of troops and heavy artillery every hour.

Pretty impressive if you ask me. I am not sure if people visiting the DMZ get to see these tunnels. I am pretty certain the North side does not conduct such tours, but I could be wrong. The other tunnel discoveries are found in this article (Subscription).

More information on the tunnels are here, here, here(Small blurbs and a map) and here (PDF: This also gives a list of provocations by the North. An interesting read).

I can barely imagine the man-hours, intensive labor and the horrors of working on these tunnels. The risk must of been very great, and at least the first tunnel caused loss of life when investigating these tunnel from the South side. As for the North, I can only speculate, but the work must of been very hard.

Do other readers know more about this oddity? I would be truly grateful.

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Food woes in the DPRK (Resources included)

Published
by
Jack
on December 17, 2007
in Defectors, Diplomacy, Economy, History, Humanitarian Topic, Interesting reading, Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, North Korea, Policy Elites, Politics, ROK, Speculation, The region and United States
. 0 Comments

North Korea farmThis article got me thinking a lot, and the food shortages in North Korea seem to be getting worse and worse.

[...]

According to the survey results, which were announced Thursday, North Korea’s gross production of grains such as rice, corn and wheat, was about 4.01 million tons in 2007, down about 470,000 tons from the year before.

North Korea reportedly needs 6.5 million tons of grain to meet domestic demand, meaning it is facing a shortfall of about 2.49 million tons.

Especially devastating were torrential rains in August and a typhoon in September that hit the Korean Peninsula, which resulted in the flooding of about 11 percent of rice paddies in the country. As a result, rice production was 1.53 million tons, down by 360,000 tons from the previous year.

[...]

(Emphasis mine) North Korea’s food shortages are not new, and while I am not a farmer, I have read several places the land has been so overworked and the hills so stripped bare for fuel, the floods made the crops fare even worse. This article shows an eerie foretelling of the events of August 2007:

Photographs which depict a lush, rural environment are misleading. The country needs an average of 1m metric tonnes in food aid a year.

Yes, we have heard about the model farms before, but after the flooding, even some of the best crops were eradicated. Yes, in North Korea, image is everything, but it seems to me the facade is fading fast with the walls cracking and the real face showing behind it. The more that is shown, the bleaker it becomes. After a while, no amount of “spin” will make it better. In my mind, it is only a matter of time before everything is clear to everybody, and that will not be pretty for anybody.

“North Korea is not an agrarian country,” said Kathi Zellweger, a frequent visitor to the country with aid organisation Caritas. It is mostly rugged mountain terrain, and only about 18% is arable.

It is dependent on fertilizer and machinery to make that land productive, both of which are expensive.

Fertilizer and spare parts seem to be a very serious problem. With a growing population, the demand for more food rises (and you guessed it), the State cannot deliver when there is little to farm the land with. As the article goes on to suggest not only natural disasters takes its toll on food production, but decades of political central mismanagement of the Kims made things even worse (Among other things: see One Free Korea’s review of Marcus Noland and Stephen Haggard’s book on the famine - Markets, Aid and Reform as must read):

[...]

“If their farm produces five times as much, they don’t get five times as much food,” he said. Instead, they concentrate on their own private plots, which they use to feed themselves and to produce food for the markets.

The problem with this system is that market reforms, instituted in 2002, have sent prices soaring at a higher rate than wages. “Who can afford this stuff in the markets?” asked Mr French.

The answer: only the elite. Government officials, senior managers of state enterprises, security forces, and the leadership of the army are all unlikely to go hungry.

But a typical urban family can now only afford to buy 4kg of maize - the cheapest commodity - a month.

[...]

As Children of the Secret State suggested, the poor are only left with crumbs. The article only goes further to show a bleaker picture:

The urban diet is partly made up of a ration provided by the government, but this has dropped from 300-250g of cereals per person per day. North Korean officials have told the WFP they expect it to slump to 200g a day.

“The rural folk have already learned how to cope,” said Tim Peters, director of aid agency Helping Hands Korea. “But the urban people are so dependent on the government for distribution.”

As a result, foreign donations that have helped to prop North Korea up in previous years are doubly important this year.

To date, only 270,000 of the 500,000 tonnes of food needed for 2005 has arrived, the WFP says.

Then the prediction comes:

And there is always the risk of natural disaster.

Floods exacerbated the extreme food shortages 10 years ago, and North Korea’s ability to cope with them “is now probably worse”, said Mr French.

Ongoing land clearance has destroyed natural water breaks, “so it all just comes flooding down”.

…and that is precisely what happened with the major floods of August 2007. Then a little while later, a typhoon hits making the situation even worse. Not a lot has been said as to the result of the 2006 floods and how many people are perishing as a result of it, but the ROK did deliver tons and tons of food/medicine aid to the stricken North. If that helped, I am not sure of. However, one thing is clear. North Korea cannot continue to go on like this, and the people at some point are going to rebel especially if the food shortages hit the elite and/or KPA. It seems like it is happening already.

The DailyNK also paints the same shortfall with some reservations. What was the reservation?

[...]

A North Korean expert observed, “Due to the flood this year, the overall crop yield was reduced, but the products from North Korea’s paddy fields which are spread all over the place do not count in official statistics. When considering the food support from the outside world, the food shortage is not at a worrisome level.”

[...]

So this quote suggests the aid seems to be helping some, but I have to say this is still only a band-aid. I simply cannot see this level of suffering going on much longer without a lot of problems. However, I could be wrong, and have been wrong before. Also:

A majority of defectors insisted that the agricultural production level from North Korea’s individually cultivated lands (including paddy fields and fields attached to homes) will surpass the cooperative farms’ 30% standard.

So again, time will only tell, but along with the other news and rumors floating around including a lot of “firsts” for the reclusive regime tells me volumes. Something is changing in North Korea, and it may be bittersweet.

Also, see:

Country Studies

Food Security in North Korea: Designing Realistic Possibilities (PDF)

Famine and Reform in North Korea (PDF - Marcus Noland)

Hunger and Human Rights- The Politics of Famine in North Korea (PDF Haggard, Noland)

Edit: See One Free Korea

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Joseph Dresnok syndrome?

Published
by
Jack
on October 10, 2007
in Defectors, Diplomacy, Humanitarian Topic, Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, Korean War, North Korea, Policy Elites, ROK and Speculation
. 0 Comments

Joseph DresnokThere is the lingering and little talked about issue regarding kidnapped South Koreans according to the DailyNK. Apparently, these poor souls got tired of living in South Korea and wanted to defect to the socialist paradise that is the DPRK according to Kim Jong Il:

At the Inter-Korea Summit which was held in Pyongyang on the 3rd, Kim Jong Il insisted regarding the abducted South Korean, “They came to the North voluntarily and we received them through welcoming ceremonies.”

I guess human rights activists were wrong about Roh and he asked about some human rights issues. So it seems to me they should all calm down, “take a chill pill” and understand Roh is doing all he can to make North Korea play nice. In my opinion, if you believe that, I have some ocean front property in Kansas to sell.

Continue reading ‘Joseph Dresnok syndrome?’

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The DailyNK got me thinking: When will times get better?

Published
by
Jack
on September 17, 2007
in Defectors, Diplomacy, Economy, Humanitarian Topic, Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, Korean War, North Korea, Policy Elites, Politics, Speculation and The region
. 3 Comments

Chemical Factory(Fixed some grammar and typos) There are some powerful images coming from North Korea that go beyond the propaganda and the partisan rhetoric that goes with it. One in particular are photos from this article from the DailyNK. There are two pictures that caught my attention namely the women behind the barbed wire and the abandoned factory (Picured left).

The article asks an interesting question: “What Does that Girl Beyond The Barbed Wire Think?” I would like to go a little beyond that and ask the question, what does the average person living inside one of the most brutal regimes in the world think? That is a very big question, but that does lend the most important part of the process of brining eventual re-unification and freedom from dictatorship. However, I have noticed the political process has hindered the main focus and instead political points are at expense of the people behind that barbed wire. Something must of been lost along the way because of North Korea’s involvement in nuclear tests, missiles and possibly helping other regimes (such as Syria) carry out the most terrifying prospects of terrorists having access to weapons that can kill tens of thousands of people on impact. That is a very legitimate concern and North Korea should disarm and join the ranks of the international community. Unfortunately, that may be a pipe dream because the DPRK has not done it so far with all the disengagement.

Continue reading ‘The DailyNK got me thinking: When will times get better?’

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The Path to Succession: The Path to Collapse Part 2

Published
by
Jack
on August 31, 2007
in Cult Of Personality, Defectors, Diplomacy, Economy, History, Humanitarian Topic, News, North Korea, Nukes, Other Regimes, Policy Elites, Politics, Speculation, The region and United States
. 0 Comments

Coat of arms

Sorry for the delay in the posting. I’ll remember not to make fixed dates on postings.

In the last part of the series, I looked at the “When North Korea Falls” article. I read some reactions to the article I did not read before (See comments in the last article of the series), and gave some extra insight into this complex and highly speculative series. In this part of the series, we look further into what else could happen in a former North Korea and the challenges it could face in the country and in the region. Only this time, I would like to make this more on a further tangent into the speculative. I find this stuff very interesting, and will probably go elsewhere too as I research this thing.

But first, I will look into the argument made in the comments:

That’s the money shot. The problem is that a lot of people would die in a short time (months, a couple of years) and governments would feel responsible. As it stands, probably even more have been dying over a much longer period of time. Six in one, half dozen in the other.

That presents a very good argument, and as said in the last part of the series, reunification is going to be a painful process no matter how it is done, and the way things are handled now are too Utopian. As always with this, I present the following disclaimer:

Please be aware this is an ongoing research project, and information contained in this post may have glaring factual or missing information that I may not be aware of. If anybody has any insight that will make me better understand it, please say so in the comments and I will love to take your views into consideration and learn something. That is the whole goal of this blog.

Continue reading ‘The Path to Succession: The Path to Collapse Part 2′

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Nigerian oil, human rights and other news…

Published
by
Jack
on August 29, 2007
in Defectors, Diplomacy, Economy, Humanitarian Topic, News and The region
. 1 Comment

Looks like an interesting news day today.

Energy starved North Korea is looking to Nigeria for an oil investment?

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria will send a high-level delegation to North Korea to discuss attracting investment in Nigerian energy and natural gas, President Umaru Yar’Adua has said.

Nigeria is the fifth largest oil supplier to the United States and an ally of Washington, but it also maintains warm relations with the secretive Stalinist state as a fellow member of the Non-Aligned Movement.

That’s so sweet, but then there is a tidbit I never heard of:

In 2004 North Korea, which tested a nuclear device for the first time in October 2006, offered to share missile technology with Nigeria as part of a wide-ranging military cooperation agreement. It is unclear if it went ahead after Washington opposed it.

All of this globetrotting is making my head hurt, but the summit seems to be on the top of the agenda. Human rights activists want Roh to talk to Kim about the human rights issue:

The groups appealed to the government at least to put pressure on North Korea to cease public executions and punishment of repatriated North Korean defectors. They also called for the abolition of North Korean concentration camps for political prisoners, the repatriation of South Korean prisoners of war and South Koreans abducted by North Korea in the 1960s, and religious freedom for North Koreans. Kim Sang-chul, the chairman of Save North Korea, said if the South Korean government declines to accept the groups’ demands, they will continue to fight “by legal and appropriate means.”

The question is, will it happen? Only time will tell, but I have my doubts. In Japan, after a long embargo with aid to the North are considering aid for the flood. This is an unusual move:

TOKYO, August 29 (RIA Novosti) - Japan is debating whether to lift a three-year embargo on humanitarian aid to North Korea, Tokyo financial newspaper Nikkei quoted the new foreign minister as saying Wednesday.

“The UN and other humanitarian organizations have called for help,” Nobutaka Machimura said. “In view of the distress caused by the recent natural disaster, surely we should not to tie everything to the problem of the abductees.”

…

Pyongyang has acknowledged that it kidnapped at least 13 Japanese nationals. Five were eventually repatriated, while the remaining eight reportedly died in the interim. The released abductees said they had been forced to train North Koreans to spy against Japan.

Japan has not accepted North Korean assertions that the matter is now closed, insisting that many more of its citizens remain unaccounted for.

The topic will be among the main items on the agenda at bilateral working group talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang September 5-6 in the Mongolian capital, Ulan Bator, as part of the six-party negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear disarmament.

But North Korea wants billions for the occupation of Korea, so this is a very touchy issue. Again, time will tell if the issue will be resolved, but in my opinion will be a long time.

Also check out this story on DPRK Studies regarding the investment issue with China and North Korea.

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