The Sweet Infiltration of North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may face a more pernicious challenge than either a "preemptive strike" by the United States, or a power grab by generals eager to fill the power vacuum created by his illness. Think Choco Pie, the thick wafer-like confection, served in the Kaesong Industrial Complex as a daily dessert for the 40,000 North Koreans who toil for 100 South Korean companies with factories in the complex. North Korean workers, and the friends and family members for whom they save their daily treats, may salivate over Choco Pie, but it's giving a severe stomach ache to senior officials fearful of the infiltration of South Korean culture in all corners of their Hermit Kingdom. Choco Pies, and other favorite South Korean cakes and candies as well as instant coffee are "sweet symbols of capitalism". [Excerpt of an Asian Times article by Donald Kirk]

Concerns about Seoul’s influence causes purge in North Korea

The long absence of some senior North Korean officials from public functions, after participating in inter-Korean affairs for the past decade, touched off speculation that there has been a purge, aimed at insulating the North against the growing influence of the South.

Yonhap reported that North Korea's internal surveillance conducted extensive investigations into irregularities among its officials and agencies involved in economic cooperation and trade with South Korea. The North Korean leadership seems to have concluded that the country can survive without the dollars it earned through the Mount Geumgang and Gaeseong projects.

It is likely that Kim has sacked all of the aides who helped him through the period of vigorous inter-Korean dialogue and exchanges, which provided a variety of cooperation programs between the two Koreas.

Most notable is the case of Choe Sung-chol who Pyongyang's top representative in South-North contacts, who it appears was executed last year on charges of corruption. Other senior North Korean officials who were active in South-North dialogue also disappeared recently. They included Jong Un-op, president of the National Economic Cooperation Committee, and Kwon Ho-gyong, a cabinet secretary for inter-Korean dialogue.

The humanitarian aid to the North in all its various forms resulted not only in the North Koreans' dependence on the food, fertilizer and clothes from the South but their attachment to the songs and dramas from its free society. Admiration for the affluence in the South grew, leading to an increase in refugees seeking to go to South Korea via China.

North Korea executes their ex-point man on South Korea

Choe Sung-chol, the chief deputy director of North Korea’s Workers' Party apparatus that dealt with the communist state's relations with the South, was executed last year for supposed corruption, Yonhap news agency reports.

South Korea's Unification Ministry was not able to confirm the report that North Korea had executed a key official who handled relations with Seoul, who was apparently made a scapegoat after ties between the rival states chilled.

The Yonhap report quoted a source familiar with the North, who said the real intention was to punish him for pushing a soft-line with the South. North Korea has threatened war with South Korea in anger over the tough policies of President Lee, calling him a "traitor to the nation."

Swedes meet detained US journalists in North Korea

The Swedish ambassador to North Korea met two detained US journalists on Friday, the first such contact in six weeks, according to State Department spokesman Ian Kelly, who gave no details of their condition.

The two women were working on a story about refugees fleeing the hardline communist North.

Analysts say Pyongyang is using the pair as a bargaining chip to open direct talks with Washington, which has participated in six-country negotiations aimed at scrapping North Korea's nuclear programs. An American diplomat said Sunday that North Korea must release two journalists before a U.S. envoy visits Pyongyang to revive stalled talks.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking to reporters on Thursday, considers the June 4th trial date for the journalists as a positive sign. "We believe that the charges are baseless and should not have been brought and these two young women should be released immediately," she said.

North Korea and its two hostage U.S. journalists

It's believed that Laura Ling and Euna Lee of the San Francisco based Current TV were nabbed by North Korean border guards in the early morning hours after allegedly straying past the North Korean border [with China] an unmarked halfway point on the frozen river. It's not a good idea "to behave like it's the Belgium-French border" says Andre Lankov, a North Korea expert.

China has a large population of North Korean exiles and refugees. The northeastern Chinese city of Yanji sits a quick 30 minute drive from the border of North Korea, and is one of the best posts for trying to glean the goings-on in that eremitic totalitarian state.

Many of the refugees get help from human rights groups. One such activist based in Seoul, Tim Peters, who has visited this region in the past, thinks the two American TV journalists were trying to report on the plight of stateless orphans, the offspring of trafficked North Korean women repatriated back to the North. "It's a mushrooming problem," says Peters, who notes that authorities have been making it harder for foreign journalists to cover the refugee issue there since the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics. He and others like him counsel journalists about the perils of interviewing defectors and navigating the border. People "unfamiliar with the terrain" could have a difficult time understanding the frontier's exact location," he explains. In the wake of this latest incident, "everyone is going to have to hunker down for now."

America has extricated its citizens from North Korea in the past, so Ling and Lee should make it home eventually. One thing is for sure: their misadventure will make it an even more daunting task for journalists to learn about the lives of ordinary North Koreans.

[TIME]

U.S. journalists to stand trial in North Korea June 4

TIME magazine reports that two U.S. journalists detained at North Korea's border with China will stand trial on June 4.

Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency gave no other details in its brief dispatch, including what charges they face. North Korean media previously have said that the two journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, are accused of illegal entry and unspecified "hostile" acts.

The journalists, who work for San Francisco-based Current TV, a media venture founded by former Vice President Al Gore, were detained on March 17 near the border while reporting on North Korean refugees living in China.

The cloaked rise of North Korea’s heir apparent Kim Jong-Un

Kim Jong-un, probable heir apparent of Kim Jong Il, is believed to have been born in 1983 or 1984 to Kim's third wife (Ko Hyong-hui) and is allegedly his father's favorite son. There are also reports that Kim Jong-un may share some of the ailments of his father, such as diabetes.

Unlike his brother Kim Jong-chol, Kim Jong-un has a more forthright character and, some sources say, has exhibited leadership skills. He is rumored to have studied at the International School of Berne in Guemligen, Switzerland. There are varying reports that he speaks German, French, and English. Upon returning to North Korea sometime after 2000, his studies continued, most likely at Kim Il Sung Military University.

In 2004, reports began to surface that he and brother Kim Jong-chol were accompanying their father on inspections of military installations. In 2007, a flurry of reports emerged placing the third son in either the Korean Workers' Party's (KWP's) powerful Organization Guidance Department, where Kim Jong Il began his career in 1964, or the Korean People's Army's influential General Political Bureau. Both of these bodies are charged with surveillance and monitoring of the regime's powerful party, military, and security bodies.

When the succession will be made public is a critical question. Some Pyongyang watchers speculate that it will be attached to an auspicious date in North Korean history. Many point to April 2012, which would mark the 100th anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth. Of course, the health of Kim Jong Il, which has appeared to worsen in recent months, will probably drive the timing of this announcement.

[Excerpt of an article by Ken E. Gause, senior analyst at nonprofit think tank, who has studied the North Korean regime for two decades.]

Kim Jong-un, son of Kim Jong-il tests role as North Korean heir

Kim Jong-un, the third and youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has been increasingly visible on official occasions and masterminded some of the country’s major publicity events in an apparent bid to burnish his image as a successor, sources said.

Yonhap reports that Kim Jong-un organized the unusually massive April 15 fireworks held to mark the 97th birthday of Kim Il Sung. Kim Jong-un also initiated an economic reconstruction drive, called the “150-day campaign,” sources privy to North Korean internal affairs said on condition of anonymity. The 150-day campaign is a nationwide movement to rebuild the country’s struggling economy by maximizing its labor force during the period.

Cheong Seong-chang, a North Korea expert at the nongovernmental Sejong Institute, said Jong-un, with no major post yet in the Workers’ Party, appears to be attempting impressive feats ahead of his official nomination.

Sources earlier said that Jong-un has been appointed to a low-level post called “instructor” in the National Defense Commission, the highest military decision-making body. The instructor post, however, is too low to be seen as a sign of his succession, Cheong said.