BBC News: The extraordinary process of secretly interviewing people inside North Korea

Report at BBC News - bbc.co.uk/news/world
By Jean Mackenzie
Seoul correspondent
Dated Thursday 15 June 2023 - full copy:

The extraordinary process of secretly interviewing people inside North Korea

In the dead of the night, two North Koreans meet in secret. One is an ordinary North Korean citizen who has agreed to risk all to be interviewed by the BBC. The other is a source, working for an organisation in South Korea to leak information out of the country.

At a secure location that cannot be bugged, the source relays one of our questions to the citizen and notes down the answer. Later, when it is safe, they will send it back to us, in multiple instalments. Sending even one full answer at a time is too risky.

This is the start of a painstaking process that will take us many months, as we investigate the consequences of the North Korean government's decision to seal the country's border more than three years ago.

North Koreans are forbidden from talking to anyone outside the country, especially journalists, and if the government finds out they have done so, they could be killed.

But when the border was shut in January 2020, in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a country that was already difficult to report on became virtually impenetrable.

All the sources that journalists would ordinarily rely on to relay what was happening on the ground dried up, as foreign diplomats and aid workers left the country. It also became nearly impossible for North Koreans to escape and share their experiences.

At the same time, there was good reason to suspect the border closure was causing people significant suffering, based on our knowledge of how people in North Korea make their living and acquire their food. Then, last year, we started to get unconfirmed reports of severe food shortages and possible starvation.

This is why we decided to take such extraordinary measures, to interview three ordinary North Koreans inside the country.

First, we sought advice from those who work closely with North Koreans and understand the risks. Sokeel Park, from the organisation Liberty in North Korea, who has been working with escapees for more than a decade, was of the view this was an important and worthwhile undertaking, in spite of the risks.

"There is not a single North Korean who won't understand the danger, and if people want to do this, I think we should respect that," he told us. "Every conversation with people inside North Korea, every titbit of information, is so valuable, because we know so little," he said.

But to do this, we could not work alone. We teamed up with a news organisation in South Korea, Daily NK, that has a network of sources inside the country. These sources found us people who wanted to be interviewed. Aware we would only be getting a snapshot of life inside the country, we chose to speak to people of varying ages from different areas.

We explained what the BBC was, and how far and wide their interviews would be seen and heard, and they gave their consent.

"They are looking forward to telling the world how bad the situation is in North Korea," said Daily NK's editor-in-chief Lee Sang-yong. "They hope the international community will take notice."

Mr Lee has been working with his sources for 13 years to smuggle information out of North Korea. He assured us that his methods of communication were robust. He was confident he could keep people safe but warned that the process would take time.

Image caption,

Lee Sang-yong, editor-in-chief of Daily NK - the organisation that helped us carry out the interviews

As we waited, there were moments we worried we might not get enough information. What if we received one-line answers - perhaps not even enough to report? This was the gamble.

But when we finally collated the messages, we were blown away by the level of detail. People revealed far more than we had expected, and the situation was worse than we had imagined. It pointed to a dire humanitarian and human rights situation unfolding in the country, and chronic food shortages.

Inside North Korea - voices from behind the sealed border

• In depth: Read the full BBC investigation
• Read more: North Korean experts on what this testimony tells us

We then set about verifying as much as we could. Helpfully, our three interviewees corroborated each other. They all cited the same quarantine rules and the same new laws which frightened them. They all spoke about the scarcity of food and medicine, and had experienced increasingly severe crackdowns and punishments. They even shared many of the same hopes and fears.

But there were also illuminating differences. It appeared there was more government support in the capital Pyongyang than in the border towns, but also more control, surveillance and fear there - which was in line with what we had expected.

Our next step was to take our interviews to NK Pro, a news service in Seoul which monitors North Korea. One of the only remaining sources of information on North Korea is the country's own state-run newspaper and TV channel. While much of the content is propaganda, NK Pro's state media expert Chung Seung-yeon monitors this daily, combing it for clues as to what is really happening in the country.

"We think of North Korea as a very secret state. Certainly, they never speak loudly about their problems, but they drop hints," she said. And when they actually mention a problem, as they have done with the food crisis, this means it's "a really big deal", she explained.

She showed us one news report from February in which North Korean party members were praised for donating rice to the government. "That the state is receiving grain from its people, shows us how desperate the food situation is," she pointed out.

Image caption,

Expert on North Korean state media, Chung Seung-yeon, looks for clues in their reports about what is really happening

With Ms Chung's help we were also able to confirm many of the quarantine and lockdown rules our interviewees had cited, and the new laws and punishments that had been introduced.

To corroborate other details, we analysed the available data on food prices and trade, and viewed satellite images of the border. We combed the texts of new laws that had been smuggled out the country, while cross-referencing our interviews with reports from the South Korean government, the UN, and other sources, until we were confident that our interviews - while not comprehensive - provided reliable snapshots of life in North Korea.

As much as we have published, there are many details we have held back, to protect our interviewees. But through their bravery, we know so much more about the situation in North Korea than we did before.

"The world has not realised how bad things are for the North Korean people right now," said Sokeel Park. "These interviewees are not the full picture. In future years, we'll probably learn in depth just how difficult this period has been," he said.

When we last checked in with our interviewees, through Daily NK, they were all safe.

Related Topics

North Korea human rights

Journalism

North Korea

More on this story

In depth: Read the full BBC investigation

North Korean experts on what BBC testimony tells us

View original: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-65903359

[Ends]

North Korea: Residents tell BBC of neighbours starving to death

Report at BBC News Asia - bbc.co.uk/news

By Jean Mackenzie

Seoul correspondent

Dated Wednesday 14 June 2023 - full copy:

North Korea: Residents tell BBC of neighbours starving to death

People in North Korea have told the BBC food is so scarce their neighbours have starved to death. 

Exclusive interviews gathered inside the world's most isolated state suggest the situation is the worst it has been since the 1990s, experts say. 

The government sealed its borders in 2020, cutting off vital supplies. It has also tightened control over people's lives, our interviewees say. 

Pyongyang told the BBC it has always prioritised its citizens' interests. 

The BBC has secretly interviewed three ordinary people in North Korea, with the help of the organisation Daily NK which operates a network of sources in the country. They told us that since the border closure, they are afraid they will either starve to death or be executed for flouting the rules. It is extremely rare to hear from people living in North Korea. 

The interviews reveal a "devastating tragedy is unfolding" in the country, said Sokeel Park from Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), which supports North Korean escapees. 

One woman living in the capital Pyongyang told us she knew a family of three who had starved to death at home. 

"We knocked on their door to give them water, but nobody answered," Ji Yeon said. When the authorities went inside, they found them dead, she said. Ji Yeon's name has been changed to protect her, along with those of the others we interviewed. 

A construction worker who lives near the Chinese border, whom we have called Chan Ho, told us food supplies were so low that five people in his village had already died from starvation. 

"At first, I was afraid of dying from Covid, but then I began to worry about starving to death," he said. 

North Korea has never been able to produce enough food for its 26 million people. When it shut its border in January 2020, authorities stopped importing grain from China, as well as the fertilisers and machinery needed to grow food. 

Meanwhile, they have fortified the border with fences, while reportedly ordering guards to shoot anyone trying to cross. This has made it nearly impossible for people to smuggle in food to sell at the unofficial markets, where most North Koreans shop. 

A market trader from the north of the country, whom we have named Myong Suk, told us that almost three quarters of the products in her local market used to come from China, but that it was "empty now". 

She, like others who make their living selling goods smuggled across the border, has seen most of her income disappear. She told us her family has never had so little to eat, and that recently people had been knocking on her door asking for food because they were so hungry. 

From Pyongyang, Ji Yeon told us she had heard of people who had killed themselves at home or disappeared into the mountains to die, because they could no longer make a living. 

Media caption, 

Watch a clip from Ji Yeon's animated testimony

She was struggling to feed her children, she said. Once, she went two days without eating and thought she was going to die in her sleep. 

In the late 1990s, North Korea experienced a devastating famine which killed as many as three million people. 

Recent rumours of starvation, which these interviews corroborate, have prompted fears the country could be on the brink of another catastrophe. 

Inside North Korea - voices from behind the sealed border

• In depth: Read the full BBC investigation
• Read more: The extraordinary process of secretly interviewing people inside North Korea

"That normal, middle-class people are seeing starvation in their neighbourhoods, is very concerning," said the North Korea economist Peter Ward. "We are not talking about full-scale societal collapse and mass starvation yet, but this does not look good." 

Hanna Song, the director of NKDB, which documents human rights violations in North Korea, agreed. "For the past 10-15 years we have rarely heard of cases of starvation. This takes us back to the most difficult time in North Korean history." 

Even the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has hinted at the seriousness of the situation - at one point referring openly to a "food crisis", while making various attempts to boost agricultural production. Despite this, he has prioritised funding his nuclear weapons programme, testing a record 63 ballistic missiles in 2022. One estimate puts the total cost of these tests at more than $500m (£398m) - more than the amount needed to make up for North Korea's annual grain shortfall.

Photo credit: NK NEWS

A rare photo taken inside North Korea during the pandemic, showing people at a crossing in Phyongysong

Our interviewees also revealed how the government has used the past three years to increase its control over people's lives, by strengthening punishments and passing new laws. 

Before the pandemic, more than 1,000 people would flee the country each year, crossing the Yalu River into China, according to numbers released by the South Korean government. The market trader Myong Suk told us it had become impossible to escape. "If you even approach the river now you will be given a harsh punishment, so almost nobody is crossing," she said. 

The construction worker Chan Ho said his friend's son had recently witnessed several closed-door executions. In each one, three to four people had been killed for attempting to escape. "Every day it gets harder to live," he told us. "One wrong move and you are facing execution." 

"We are stuck here waiting to die." 

North Korea: The Insiders

For more than three years, North Korea has sealed its borders. People are banned from leaving or entering the country. Almost every foreigner who was inside has packed up and left. The world's most secretive and tyrannical state is now an information black hole. For months, three people inside North Korea have risked their lives to tell the BBC what is happening. 

Watch now on BBC iPlayer (UK only) or at 19:00 BST on BBC Two in the UK

We put our findings to the North Korean government, which told us it "has always prioritised the interests of the people, even at difficult times". 

"The people's well-being is our foremost priority, even in the face of trials and challenges," said a representative from the North Korean embassy in London. 

They also said the information was "not entirely factual", claiming it had been "derived from fabricated testimonies from anti-DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] forces". 

But Sokeel Park, from LiNK, said these interviews reveal a "triple whammy" of hardship. "The food situation has become more difficult, people have less freedom to fend for themselves, and it has become pretty much impossible to escape." They support the theory, he said, that "North Korea is now more repressive than it has ever been before." 

In Pyongyang, Ji Yeon said the surveillance and crackdowns were now so ruthless that people did not trust each other. She was taken in for questioning under a new law, passed in December 2020, which bans people from sharing and consuming foreign films, TV shows and songs. Under this Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act, aimed at rooting out foreign information, those caught distributing South Korean content can be executed. 

A former North Korean diplomat, who defected in 2019, said he was shocked by how extreme the crackdown on foreign influence had become. "Kim Jong Un is afraid that if people understand the situation they are in, and how wealthy South Korea is, they will start hating him and rise up," explained Ryu Hyun Woo. 

Our interviews suggest that some people's loyalty has waned over the past three years. 

"Before Covid, people viewed Kim Jong Un positively," Myong Suk said. "Now almost everyone is full of discontent." 

Related Topics

North Korea human rights

North Korea

More on this story

The BBC's North Korea investigation: How we did it, and why

Profile: Kim Jong-un

North Korea tests 'most powerful' missile to date

Russia to offer food for North Korean weapons - US

View original: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-65881803

[Ends]

Artillery fire on Korean border - North Korea artillery fire hits South Korea island (Update 3)

Artillery fire on Korean border
Source: BBC News online - www.bbc.co.uk
Date: Tuesday, 23 November 2010 at 06:46

North Korea has fired artillery shells across its western maritime border, prompting return fire from South Korea, reports say.

Some of the shells landed on a South Korean island, witnesses say.

A television station said some houses on the island were on fire, and Yonhap news agency said that four South Korean soldiers had been hurt.

South Korea has issued its highest non-wartime alert in response to the incident, the defence ministry said.

The incident comes days after North Korea revealed it had a modern uranium enrichment plant.

Earlier, the US ruled out more denuclearisation talks while Pyongyang continued to work on the facility.

'Illegal firing'

South Korean officials said several rounds of artillery landed on Yeonpyeong island, near the disputed inter-Korean maritime border to the west of the Korean Peninsula.

"A North Korean artillery unit staged an illegal firing provocation at 1434 PM (0534 GMT) and South Korean troops fired back immediately in self-defence," a defence ministry spokesman told AFP.

A resident on the island told the agency that dozens of houses were damaged, while television pictures reportedly showed plumes of smoke rising above the island.

This western maritime border has been the scene of numerous clashes between the two Koreas in the past.

In March, a South Korean warship went down near the border with the loss of 46 lives.

International investigators say a North Korean torpedo sank the ship, although Pyongyang denies any role in the incident.

Since then relations between the two neighbours - who have not signed a peace treaty since the 1950-53 Korean War - have been very tense.

- - -

UPDATE on Tuesday, 23 November 2010:
Excerpt from Channel 4 News Snowmail received today at 17:32 pm entitled "North Korea bombards South Korea"

By the time we get to air, fortunately the appalling clash between North and South Korea will be hanging in the air as rhetoric. But this morning's bombardment of a South Korean island by North Korean artillery has provided a nasty wake-up call to the world that the North Korean dictatorship is undergoing some sort of internal upheaval.

Amazingly, fifty years after satellites first read number plates in Red Square, the world has very little idea about what's going on in the inner sanctums of Pyongyang and the great danger is that China is the ultimate protector of North Korea and the United States, with its vast battalions stationed in and around South Korea, is that country's equally great protector. Lindsey Hilsum is on the case and will be talking to a raft of North Korean watchers.

North Korea artillery fire hits South Korea island
http://www.channel4.com/news/north-korea-artillery-fire-hits-south-korea-island

- - -

UPDATE on Wednesday, 24 November 2010:

Excerpt from BBC News online report published today at 04:26

President Barack Obama: North Korea 'a serious threat'

In an interview with ABC television news, President Obama said South Korea was an ''ally'' of the US

US President Barack Obama has strongly condemned North Korea's shelling of Yeonpyeong island in South Korea and said the US would defend South Korea.

Mr Obama told ABC News that North Korea was "a serious and ongoing threat that needs to be dealt with".

The attack near a disputed sea border was also denounced by Russia, Japan and the European Union.

South Korea returned fire and threatened missile strikes if there were "further provocations".

President Obama described South Korea as an important ally and "a cornerstone of US security in the Pacific region".

He said: "We strongly affirm our commitment to defend South Korea as part of that alliance.

"We want to make sure all the parties in the region recognise that this is a serious and ongoing threat that needs to be dealt with."

He called on North Korea's ally China to communicate to Pyongyang "that there are a set of international rules they need to abide by".

In a telephone conversation, Mr Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak agreed to hold combined military exercises in the days ahead to underscore the strength of their alliance, the White House said in a statement.

The US has 28,000 troops stationed in the South.

South Korea's military had been carrying out an exercise near Yeonpyeong, but it denies opening hostilities by firing towards the North.

Two South Korean marines died when dozens of artillery shells landed on the island - most of them hitting a military base. Both soldiers and civilians were wounded.

The South fired back some 80 shells. Casualties on the northern side are unknown.

- - -

Joint press conference: FM Liberman and Italian FM Frattini
Source: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs website - www.mfa.gov.il
Date: Tuesday, 23 November 2010. Excerpt:

Q: I would like to address Foreign Minister Liberman. I would like to ask for your response regarding the aggression shown by North Korea earlier this morning towards the South. Do you find it -

FM Liberman: We have enough problems with the Middle East.

Q: So I'll make it related to the Middle East. Do you think that it has implications on the Middle East and Israel? Do you find it alarming? And do you think that this act comes because of the changes in the leadership of the regime?

FM Liberman: Of course we really think that North Korea is part of the axis of evil that includes North Korea, Iran and Syria. Because of the close cooperation between these three countries, the proliferation of nuclear technology, the proliferation of missile technology, I think that North Korea is really, as we see, a threat not only to their part of the world but also for the Middle East and the entire world. Also, if the international community cannot stop and cannot suppress this crazy regime and resolve the nuclear problem of North Korea, how can the international community try to deal with the Iranian threat if it cannot stop and restrict even North Korea? I think it's a bad message, and it's necessary today more than in the past to stop and topple this crazy regime and to halt their proliferation and their provocations.

FM Frattini: We all should condemn this North Korean attack. You know, perhaps there is an ongoing G8 consultation which very likely will lead to a common document and, I'm sure, a common message of condemnation against that attack.

- - -

U.S. aircraft carrier heads for Korean waters
Source: Reuters - www.reuters.com - by Jack Kim and Lee Jae-won
INCHEON, South Korea
Date: Wednesday, 24 November 2010 9:56am EST. Excerpts:

A U.S. aircraft carrier group set off for Korean waters on Wednesday, a day after North Korea rained artillery shells on a South Korean island, in a move likely to enrage Pyongyang and unsettle its ally, China. [...]

Despite the rhetoric, regional powers made clear they were looking for a diplomatic way to calm things down.

South Korea, its armed forces technically superior though about half the size of the North's one-million-plus army, warned of "massive retaliation" if its neighbor attacked again.

But it was careful to avoid any immediate threat of retaliation which might spark an escalation of fighting across the Cold War's last frontier.

China has long propped up the Pyongyang leadership, worried that a collapse of the North could bring instability to its own borders and also wary of a unified Korea that would be dominated by the United States, the key ally of the South.

Beijing said it had agreed with the United States to try to restart talks among regional powers over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

A number of analysts suspect that Tuesday's attack may have been an attempt by North Korean leader Kim jong-il to raise his bargaining position ahead of disarmament talks which he has used in the past to win concessions and aid from the outside world, in particular the United States.

(Reporting by Seoul bureau, Michael Martina, Aileen Wang and Benjamin Kang Lim in Beijing, Kaori Kaneko and Yoko Kubota in Tokyo, Alister Bull, Paul Eckert, Phil Stewart and Arshad Mohammed in Washington and Ralph Jennings in Taipei; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Sanjeev Miglani)

- - -

US Calls North Korean Artillery Strike Armistice Violation
Source: VOA (Voice of America News) - www.voanews.com
Author: David Gollust, US State Department
Date: Wednesday, 24 November 2010

The United States said Wednesday North Korea's lethal artillery strike on a South Korean island was premeditated and a violation of the 1953 Korean War armistice. But U.S. officials do not believe Pyongyang is preparing for an extended military campaign.

Officials here are not minimizing the seriousness of the North Korean artillery barrage, which they call a serious provocation and a deliberate violation of the Korean armistice.

But they say they are not observing preparations for a broader conflict by North Korea, and say they are looking to China to play a "pivotal" role in restraining its neighbor.

State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters the United States is engaged in wide-ranging diplomacy with China and others in the aftermath of the artillery clash, and intends to raise the matter directly with North Korea in the armistice framework.

The spokesman rejected North Korea's claim it acted in self defense after South Korean shelling in a military exercise. He said North Korea attacked the South Korean island hours after the routine exercise ended, in an obviously premeditated act, but that there has been no sign of a broader aggressive move by the North.

"This was in our view a one-off, premeditated act," said Crowley. "Without getting into intelligence matters, we don't see that North Korea is preparing for an extended military confrontation. That's what makes it not a war. It is a violation of the armistice. Among other things, we will have a conversation with North Korean general officers and make clear that this is a violation of the armistice."

Crowley said responsibility for the current crisis "rests exclusively" with North Korea, and the United States recognizes that China - despite being its main ally and aid provider - cannot dictate to Pyongyang.

Nonetheless he said Beijing has influence with North Korea, and the United States expects China to clear as to where the blame rests, and that Pyongyang should not be allowed to derive comfort from thus-far ambivalent Chinese statements on the issue.

President Obama late Tuesday announced U.S.-South Korean military exercises in the wake of the artillery attack, that will include dispatch of the nuclear aircraft carrier George Washington to waters off the Korean peninsula.

China has previously opposed such exercises but Crowley said they contribute to stability for the entire region including China.

"We have a military alliance with South Korea and we will continue to do what we need to do with South Korea to cooperate," he said. "Our alliance with South Korea provides stability and protection, and many, many countries, including China, benefit from the alliance that we have with South Korea and others in the region."

The spokesman said the United States is engaged in broad diplomatic consultations on both the artillery incident and recent claimed advances in North Korea's nuclear program.

Crowley said there have been preliminary contacts in the U.N. Security Council, but there is no indication an emergency council session is being sought.

Khartoum, Sudan: Assembly's Speaker Receives Korean Ambassador

Assembly's Speaker Receives Korean Ambassador
Source: SUNA - www.sunanews.net
Date: Thursday, 28 October 2010:

(Khartoum) - The Speaker of the National Assembly, Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Tahir, has reviewed progress of the Sudanese Koran relations and means of consolidating them further when he received at his office Thursday the Korean Ambassador to Sudan

Al-Tahir appreciated firmness of the relations between the two countries

He informed the ambassador on the efforts being exerted by the government to implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), especially with regard to holding of the referendum of south Sudan, besides the efforts to realize peace and stability in the country

Meanwhile, the Korean ambassador expressed his country's support to Sudan in the economic, investment, political and cultural fields
IF/MO

S. Koreans reunited with Northern relatives after 60 years

Hundreds of South Koreans held tearful reunions with their relatives living in the North as the heavily-guarded border was opened for the first time in over a year.

Report title: South Koreans reunited with Northern relatives after sixty years
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
Published: 12:21PM BST 30 Oct 2010



Photo: South Korean Kim Rye-jung, 96, left, hugs her North Korean daughter Woo Jung Hye during the Separated Family Reunion Meeting at Diamond Mountain in North Korea Photo: AP

Some 430 South Koreans crossed into the North on Saturday in a convoy of buses.

The reunions, which give divided families their first chance to see one another in six decades, took place at the Mount Kumgang resort on the North's southeastern coast, near the border.

"How are you, I could only see you in dreams," said Kim Rae-Jung, 96, from the South, choked in tears as she touched the face of her 71-year-old daughter, Wu Jong-Hye, from the North.

"I've been living well here, mother," said the daughter with tears rolling down her face.

She showed her mother pictures of her relatives and some 20 medals of honour that she and members of her family had received from the North Korean government.

The daughter was left behind in the North when other family members fled to the South in 1951 to avoid advancing Chinese troops during the Korean War.

The South Koreans from 97 families will spend three days with relatives in North Korea, from whom they were separated by the war.

Lee Moon-Yeong, in his 70s, said he had spent a sleepless night in anticipation of seeing one of his brothers after so many years apart with no chance of any communication.

He had previously feared the brother might have been killed in action after joining the North Korean army during the 1950-53 Korean War.

"Brothers were fighting against brothers. What a tragedy it was," he said.

Lee's second brother died in 1952 while fighting for the South.

North and South Korean troops on Friday briefly exchanged fire across the frontier, heightening tensions before next month's G20 summit of world leaders in Seoul. No casualties were reported.

Following the Saturday to Monday meetings, another batch of 96 South Koreans will be reunited with North Korean relatives next week.

The emotional meetings, the first since September last year, come despite icy inter-Korean ties in the aftermath of the North's alleged torpedoing of a South Korean warship, for which the North angrily denies responsibility.

Under President Lee Myung Bak, Seoul has rolled back the previous government's policy of reconciliation and taken a tougher stance towards the communist state, linking badly needed food and fertiliser aid to progress in talks on dismantling the North's nuclear programme.

On Friday, the North fired toward a South Korean guard post and South Korean soldiers there immediately returned three shots from a machine gun.

It marked the first time that shots have been fired from the North across the border since Lee's conservative government replaced a liberal government in February 2008.

Local newspaper reports said that a North Korean machine gun, always trained toward the South, might have accidentally fired.
Such accidental firings occurred occasionally, it said.

"Things are quiet there today," the Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman said.

The shooting, in the Hwacheon area 56 miles northeast of Seoul, comes as the South prepares to host the Group of 20 summit on November 11-12.

North and S. Korea on brink of war, Russian diplomat warns

North and South Korea are on the brink of war, a top Russian diplomat has warned, calling for both countries to exercise restraint and sit down for talks.

North and South Korea on the brink of war, Russian diplomat warns
From The Daily Telegraph www.telegraph.co.uk
By Andrew Osborn in Moscow
Published: 12:04AM BST 24 Sep 2010

In Moscow's bleakest assessment of the situation on the Korean peninsula yet, Russian deputy foreign minister Alexei Borodavkin said tensions between the two countries were running at their highest and most dangerous level in a decade.

"Tensions on the Korean Peninsula could not be any higher. The only next step is a conflict," he told foreign policy experts at a round table on the subject in Moscow.

His prediction came two months after North Korea vowed to wage "a sacred war" against South Korea and its biggest backer, the United States.

Tensions bubbled over in March after Washington and Seoul concluded that a North Korean submarine had sunk a South Korean naval vessel in the Yellow Sea. Mr Borodavkin called for the investigation into exactly who was responsible for the sinking of the vessel, the Cheonan, to be urgently closed in order to remove an obvious source of tension.

Describing the standoff between the two Koreas as a "hangover from the Cold War," Mr Borodavkin said Russia, which is one of the six countries involved in talks with North Korea over its nuclear programme, was doing all it could to try to prevent an outbreak of hostilities.

But he said responsibility for keeping peace in the volatile region was shared equally between North and South Korea. He condemned North Korea's nuclear testing programme but also criticised the way the United States and South Korea had increased their military manoeuvres in the wake of the sinking of the Cheonan.

Related Articles

• North Korea: Kim Jong-il's troops 'combat ready'

• US sanctions against North Korea provoke Chinese anger

• US and South Korea prepare for joint military exercises

• North Korea claims US could provoke nuclear war

• UN Security Council toughens sanctions against North Korea

• Kim Jong-il is a headache, but not a nightmare

Kim Jong-il dictatorship could end within days

The dictatorship of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il could end within days after a leadership conference was called for the first time in nearly 45 years.

Kim Jong-il dictatorship could end within days
From The Daily Telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk)
By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
Published: 6:30PM BST 21 Sep 2010:

The country has announced a "great revolutionary surge" as it prepares for a regime change which could see Mr Kim's son, Kim Jong-un, appointed as his successor.

North Korea will hold a party conference of its ruling Workers' Party next week, for the first time since 1966, to elect its "supreme leadership body".

Ostensibly the conference will appoint new blood into the North Korean bureaucracy, but the rarity of the event has convinced experts that Mr Kim, 68, could use the event to unveil his third son as his successor.

The elder Mr Kim travelled to China last month and may have sought China's rubber-stamp over the transfer of power. China remains North Korea's most important trading power and political ally.

If Mr Kim does hand over power, North Korea will continue to enjoy the apparent contradiction of being a centrally-planned Communist state with a hereditary dynasty in charge.

An announcement yesterday (tues) from the Korean Central News Agency, the mouthpiece of the government, said there would be a "new great revolutionary surge" and that all cadres in the country were "single-mindedly united" behind Kim Jong-il, whatever his decision may be.

The regime is "now ready to go ahead with its move to designate Kim Jong-Un as successor", said Yang Moo-Jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. "The son is expected to take a key party post but that will not be made public for a while," he added.

The meeting had been delayed since the beginning of September, causing many observers to wonder whether the elder Kim was facing an internal challenge to his choice of successor.

"It is possible that the North Korean elite is far less united than usually assumed, so some factions are seriously unhappy about the likely choice of successor or the expected composition of the new leadership," said Andrei Lankov, a professor at Seoul's Kookmin University.

Other analysts noted that the delay could have been triggered by the need to plan and stage-manage the succession and instruct cadres, who have been stationed in Pyongyang for two weeks in expectation of the meeting, about their roles in the event.

However, some observers note that the younger Kim, at 28, may not be ready to assume full control over North Korea and has not been groomed in the same way as his father. The younger Kim has instead been fast-tracked to leadership ever since his father suffered a stroke in 2008, leaving a question mark over his continuing rule.

Another possible option would be for Kim Jong-il to pass power to his brother-in-law, Chang Song-taek, as a regent while his son built his own power base. A bureaucratic reshuffling in 2009 helped to promote Chang, and the forthcoming conference could see him given further roles.

He is currently vice chairman of the National Defence Commission, a position considered second only to Kim Jong-il.

Related Articles

• Profile: Kim Jong-il

• New leader 'won't change tactics'

• North Korea delays meeting over Kim Jong-il's health

• Frail Kim Jong-il 'may only have months to live'

• Kim Jong-il chooses third son as his successor

• North Korean officials hold first talks with South for two years

North Korea joins Facebook

North Korea appears to have joined the social networking site Facebook after its Twitter account was blocked by South Korea under the country's security laws.

Full story: Telegraph.co.uk - North Korea joins Facebook - 20 August 2010.

US declines to put North Korea back on terrorism blacklist

Report by AFP - Thursday, 05 August 2010:

US declines to put NKorea back on terrorism blacklist

The Obama administration declined Thursday to put North Korea back on a blacklist of countries supporting terrorism despite pressure from lawmakers to do so.

In its report for 2009, the State Department kept the same countries on the list as it did in 2008 -- Iran, Sudan, Cuba and Syria -- with Iran again listed as the "most active state sponsor of terrorism."

Former US president George W. Bush de-listed North Korea in 2008 after it vowed to end its nuclear program, agreed to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and pledged to disable its nuclear plants.

The Obama administration has kept it off the list again after citing narrow legal definition for what constitutes support for terrorism.

In June 2009, 16 US Republican Senators urged President Barack Obama's administration to place the communist regime back on the US blacklist.

The North conducted its second nuclear test the previous month and defied international criticism by firing a volley of short-range missiles and threatening to attack the capitalist South.

Though the report does not cover events this year, Republican senators renewed their call for North Korea to be listed again after South Korea and the United States blamed it for sinking a South Korean warship in March.

In keeping four countries on the blacklist, the Country Reports on Terrorism 2009 said "Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism".

"Iran?s financial, material, and logistic support for terrorist and militant groups throughout the Middle East and Central Asia had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace, threatened economic stability in the Gulf and undermined the growth of democracy," it said.

The US accuses Iran of actively supporting groups like the Taliban in Afghanistan, Shiite groups in Iraq and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Palestinian territories.

On Sudan, the report said the government was cooperating with US counter-terrorism efforts, but said "Al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist elements as well as elements of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and HAMAS, remained in Sudan in 2009."

The report said the United States disagrees with Syria's support for what it calls national liberation movements, groups Washington considers are terrorist.

"Syria continued to provide safe-haven as well as political and other support to a number of designated Palestinian terrorist groups, including HAMAS, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC)," the report.

The report complained that Cuba still gives safe haven and ideological support for three terrorist organizations.

"The Government of Cuba has long assisted members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army of Colombia (ELN), and Spain?s Basque Homeland and Freedom Organization (ETA), some having arrived in Cuba in connection with peace negotiations with the governments of Colombia and Spain," it said.

Israel says seized North Korean arms were for Hamas, Hezbollah

Israel says seized North Korean arms were for Hamas, Hezbollah
Report from Reuters - Wednesday, 12 May 2010 3:19am EDT
(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Jeremy Laurence):

(TOKYO) - The Israeli foreign minister said on Wednesday that North Korean weapons seized in Thailand last year were headed for Islamist groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

More than 35 tonnes of arms including rockets and rocket-propelled grenades were seized from a cargo plane after it made an emergency landing at a Bangkok airport in December. Thai authorities said the plane came from North Korea.

In January, the Thai government sent a report to the U.N. Security Council stating the weapons were headed for Iran, which is allied to Syria.

"With huge numbers of different weapons ... (it had the) intention to smuggling these weapons to Hamas and to Hezbollah," Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a news conference in Tokyo, where he is visiting until Thursday.

"These cooperation between North Korea and Syria ... (do not) improve the economic situation in their countries," he said, speaking to reporters in English.

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Monday Israel was in a proxy war with Iran due to its sponsorship of Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas and the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas.

Diplomats have said the movement of North Korean arms to Iran appears to have been an effort to violate U.N. sanctions against North Korea, diplomats said. Although Iran is subject to separate U.N. sanctions because of its nuclear program, it is not forbidden to import arms.

Pyongyang was hit with fresh U.N. sanctions last year to punish it for a nuclear test in May 2009, its second atomic detonation. The expanded measures are aimed at cutting off its arms sales, a vital export estimated to earn the destitute state more than $1 billion a year.

North Korea's biggest arm sales come from ballistic missiles, with Iran and other Middle Eastern states as customers, according to U.S. government officials.

A North Korean submarine fired a torpedo which caused the sinking of a South Korean warship in South Korean waters - with the loss of 42 lives

Excerpt from Channel 4's Snowmail - Thursday, 20 May 2010:

Dramatic tension between the two Koreas, with the official finding that a North Korean submarine fired a torpedo which caused the sinking of a South Korean warship - with the loss of 42 lives. The warship was in South Korean waters. The condemnation is worldwide. The problem for South Korea is that whatever it does in response, North Korea has threatened all out war. It’s an incident which threatens to spread well beyond the region. If there's a will in the international community to ramp up pressure on North Korea, would China scupper it?

North Korea blamed for sinking navy ship: http://bit.ly/9uauHl

North Korean refugees plead case against Kim Jong-il

Refugees from North Korea are in The Hague in an attempt to convince the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute Kim Jong-il for crimes against humanity.

From NRC Handelsblad, 10 December 2009 17:31:
North Korean refugees plead case against Kim Jong-il
By Harry Meijer

Park Hye-ri (43) cried softly as she removed her artificial limbs in a hotel conference room in The Hague on Wednesday, her black lacquered shoes dangling pointlessly from the flesh-coloured prostheses. The limbs are evidence in a case Park Hye-ri and one of her compatriots came to make on behalf of 150 refugees from North Korea.

Hye-ri reached South Korea, where she now lives with her 19-year-old son, in 2006 at the end of her second escape attempt from North Korea. The first failed when she was intercepted by Chinese police in the border area between Mongolia and China, in 40 degrees Celsius below zero temperatures, and repatriated to North Korea, where she was detained and beaten for months.

"The Chinese sent me back with frozen feet. The North Korean secret police beat me on my feet, and drove a steel pin through them. My legs started rotting away. They only wanted one thing: to hear me confess that I had wanted to escape to South Korea," Hye-Ri told the court.

If al-Bashir, why not Kim Jong-il?

Hye-ri and the other refugees want the ICC's main prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, to investigate the possibility of indicting the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il for crimes against humanity. The charges include torture, deportation, sexual slavery, rape, starvation and summary executions.

The refugees are supported by a group of South Korean intellectuals and activists. They take courage from the ICC's earlier indictment of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir for war crimes in Darfur.

If the ICC can issue an arrest warrant for Bashir, then surely it must do the same for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, said Ha Tae-keung, a South Korean activist who is the driving force behind Open Radio for North Korea, a Seoul-based radio station that broadcasts daily to listeners in North Korea. "The crimes against humanity committed by North Korea are at least as grave as those of Sudan," said Ha.

Stalinist North Korea is one of the most reclusive and repressive regimes in the world. According to human rights organisations, an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people are detained in political prisoners camps. Prisoners are subjected to forced labour, torture and public executions, claims the file of the refugees before the ICC.

Slim chance

The international community is at a loss what to do with the North Korean leader. US envoy Stephen Bosworth paid a three-day visit to Pyongyang this week in an attempt to persuade North Korea to re-enter talks about nuclear disarmament.

Activist Ha sees a trial in The Hague as another way to put pressure on the regime. "Kim Jong-il will never give up his atom bomb," he said, "but with enough international pressure he might be persuaded to do something about the human rights situation."

Chances that the ICC will prosecute Kim Jong-il personally are slim as North Korea does not recognise the court. The UN Security Council could refer Kim Jong-il to the ICC, but such a move would be almost certainly vetoed by China, an ally of North Korea.

Burma claims it will release Aung San Suu Kyi

Photo: Aung San Suu Kyi is being held under house arrest in the commercial hub Yangon after her detention was extended by another 18 months in August. (AFP) Source: The Daily Telegraph, Nov. 03, 2009:
US diplomats arrive in Burma for talks with junta
- - -

From The Daily Telegraph
Burma claims it will release Aung San Suu Kyi
Published: 7:00AM GMT 10 Nov 2009

"There is a plan to release her soon ... so she can organise her party," Min Lwin, a director-general in the foreign ministry. He gave no details and it was unclear whether Mrs Suu Kyi would be allowed to campaign or stand for election.

Despite the conciliatory remarks, the country's constitution includes provisions that bar her from holding office and ensure the primacy of the government in the military.

The Nobel peace prize winner has spent 14 of the last 20 years under house arrest. In August a court sentenced her to an additional 18 months after an American, John Yettaw, swam across a lake to her villa in Rangoon and stayed overnight.

Burma's junta in the past has raised expectations of Mrs Suu Kyi's imminent release only to dash the hopes of her supporters at home and abroad.

Pro-democracy campaigners cautioned against reading too much into the latest hints on Mrs Suu Kyi's release. "They've been saying these sorts of things for a long time but they have never delivered on them," Anna Roberts, the director of the Burma Campaign UK told the Guardian. "The regime's main concern is get economic sanctions lifted and get approval for the sham elections next year."

Tantalising hints of a possible release for the political prisoner came as Min Lwin was in Manila for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and the US.

- - -

Diplomat says jailed opposition leader will be allowed to organise her party for elections next year
Excerpt from The Guardian
Burma claims it will release Aung San Suu Kyi
Tuesday, 10 November 2009

In a break with George Bush's policy of isolating the Burmese regime, Barack Obama has decided on a policy of engagment with the junta. Last week the US assistant secretary of state for east Asia, Kurt Campbell, and his deputy, Scott Marciel, became the most senior American officials to visit Burma since 1995, when Madeleine Albright went as Bill Clinton's ambassador to the UN.

Campbell and Marciel held exploratory talks with senior figures in the junta, including the prime minister, Thein Sein, but not Than Shwe, the general who has ruled the country for the last 17 years. They also met Aung San Suu Kyi.

Obama will meet Asean leaders this weekend during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Singapore, possibly bringing him into rare contact with Thein Sein. The last US president to meet a Burmese leader was Lyndon Johnson, who held talks with prime minister Ne Win in 1966.

- - -
From The Irrwaddy
China Builds Fence on Part of Burma’s Kachin Border
By WAI MOE, Tuesday, December 23, 2008:

Chinese authorities are building a fence along the Burmese border near Laiza in Kachin State, reportedly to deter drug traffickers.

Awng Wa, of the Kachin Development Networking Group, based on the Sino-Burmese border, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that work began on the fence last month. He said it is expected to be at least 10 km long.

“I heard that the Chinese authorities want to complete the construction before the coming Chinese New Year Festival [in late January],” he said.

Awng Wa said that although the Chinese authorities claimed the fence was being built to prevent landslides, the real purpose appeared to be to stem rising drug trafficking across the border.

Authorities in China’s Yunnan Province report that in the three years ending April 2008 they seized 12.9 tons of heroin, 9.3 tons of crystal methamphetamines and 4.5 tons of opium originating in Burma. The heroin amounted to 75 percent of nationwide seizures, the methamphetamines accounted for 55 percent and the opium 87 percent.

The fence is the second to be built by China along its border with Burma. The first, 4 km long, was built near Ruili. A third is planned in the Pangwah pass area, according to sources.

Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese analyst on the Sino-Burma border, said the fences were not expected to disrupt drug trafficking. “The Chinese need to consider the root of the problem,” he said.

China and Burma have a relatively open border of more than 2,000 km, favoring smuggling and drug trafficking, according to Poon Kim Shee, an expert on Sino-Burmese relations.

Cross-border trade was banned by the government of Burmese dictator New Win from 1962 until 1988. The two countries signed an agreement legalizing trade in August 1988.

Since 1988, bilateral trade increased steadily, soaring 60 percent in the fiscal year ending last March 31, reaching a total value of US $2.4 billion.

China is now Burma’s second largest trading partner, after Thailand, and bilateral trade accounts for 24 percent of Burma’s trade.

Burmese exports to China comprise mostly raw materials such as agricultural produce, fish, timber, gems and minerals, while Burma imports Chinese machinery, electronics, processed food and consumer goods.

- - -

Further reading

Online Burma/Myanmar Library

From foes to friends: The changing face of Burma-North Korean relations
Did Foreign Pressure Make Ship Turn Back? 
By LALIT K JHA (WASHINGTON) — Pressure from Burma’s key neighbors including India, China and members countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) could have persuaded the military junta not to be associated with North Korean nuclear activities at this point of time. The controversial North Korean ship heading for Burma may have been turned around as a result.

Related Articles

• US diplomats arrive in Burma for talks with junta