Top North Korean Headlines - April 2022

NORTH KOREAN WORKERS DISAPPEAR FROM SHANGHAI DORM

• North Korea has requested help from China to track down 20 North Korean women working for a clothing company in Shanghai and their manager who they suspect are now on the run as refugees.  

• Beijing is under two bilateral border and immigration pacts with Pyongyang to return North Koreans found to be illegally within Chinese territory.

• The group of textile workers were dispatched from North Korea to earn foreign currency in China for the government and were supposed to be in quarantine when they disappeared from their dormitory in mid-February.

• A source told Radio Free Asia that the company owner had immediately reported the disappearance to the North Korean consulate in Beijing, which had in turn sought assistance from the Chinese police to track the escapees and monitor railway stations heading towards the border. The source further commented that “[the] workers and the manager have not been found for a month since they went missing...[the] North Korean consulate is under a state of emergency to find if they have already escaped and are in Southeast Asia or already entered South Korea.”

• Another source from Dandong, a Chinese city bordering North Korea, said that Shanghai is so large with a population of around 26 million people that “it would be easy to hide there...[but] if they were to leave by train or bus, they would need to show ID to buy a ticket. It therefore seems this is a planned escape led by a guide, since the manager and the workers have not been caught.”

• According to the U.S. State Department’s 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report, there are an estimated 20,000 to 80,000 North Koreans working in China. Meanwhile, escapes by North Koreans working in China are rare because Pyongyang only sends its most loyal citizens abroad, monitors them closely, and punishes their family members.

• Although United Nations nuclear sanctions froze the issuance of work visas and mandated the repatriation of North Korean nationals working abroad by the end of 2019, China and Russia often bypass these sanctions by granting workers short-term student or visitor visas so they can legally work in other countries.

Source:
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/china-03222022201416.html
https://www.visiontimes.com/2022/03/23/north-korean-women-rented-to-china-for-work-disappear-from-shanghai-dorm-presumed-defected-report.html

NORTH KOREAN LEADER’S SISTER WARNS OF NUCLEAR RETALIATION

• In response to South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook’s remarks on the South’s ability to strike the North’s missile launch points, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister, Kim Yo-jong, issued two statements in state media calling Suh “a scum-like guy” and claiming that “[in] case South Korea opts for military confrontation with us, our nuclear combat force will have to inevitably carry out its duty.”

• Kim Yo-jong also dismissed Suh’s assertions in relation to the South’s militia abilities, which North Korean analyst, Cheong Seong-chang, noted was an attempt to “enhance the internal unity within the North” amidst uncertainty and concerns about relations with the new South Korean cabinet.

• Kim Yo-jong further added that North Korea did not want a war and would only respond using nuclear weapons if attacked. 

• According to Sydney Seiler, national intelligence officer for North Korea at the National Intelligence Council, North Korea uses US-South Korea joint military drills as a pretext for its provocations and is employing a “short-term choreography” or propaganda which Pyongyang has historically utilized while seeking to convince others that the escalation of tension is simply a result of the US-South Korean alliance and not the desired outcome of its actions.

• Seiler also noted that North Korea has breached numerous denuclearisation agreements in the past, “each breakout that we have seen, agreed framework breakout, six-party talks, breakout, leap day agreement, breakout, Singapore-Hanoi breakout, each time the [North Korean weapons] program advances a little more, making it harder to imagine denuclearisation as a viable topic for discussion.”

Source:
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220408000121
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-60992313

NORTH KOREA DEMOLISHES SOUTH KOREAN-OWNED $75 MILLION GOLF RESORT

• In 2019, Kim Jong-un called the dozens of South Korean-built facilities at North Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort “shabby” and lacked “national character”, and ordered the removal of “all the unpleasant-looking facilities of the south [Korean] side” after Seoul refused to defy US-led sanctions that kept tourism from resuming.

• South Korea’s Unification Ministry and other parties requested to negotiate with the North following Kim’s announcement, but their requests were denied.

• The North postponed the demolition work in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic until days before the South Korean presidential election in March 2022. South Korea’s Unification Ministry called for North Korea to stop the “unilateral” destruction of the Haegumgang Hotel, which serves as one of the last symbols of inter-Korean engagement.

• Weeks later, it was reported that North Korea began to demolish a $75 million South Korean-owned golf resort near Mount Kumgang without permission from the company Anati that built the facility. The Ananti Golf and Spa Resort was open to South Korean tourists in 2008 for one year, before Seoul suspended all tourism to North Korea after a DPRK soldier shot and killed a South Korean national.

• Anati’s chairman expressed hopes that his resort could still host the 2025 World Amateur Golf Championship, but this does not seem likely to happen as according to Planet Labs satellite imagery, 10 large lodging buildings have already been partially demolished.

Source:
https://apnews.com/article/business-travel-seoul-south-korea-north-korea-bb623f840c86a80a08cd214cad1233b5
https://www.nknews.org/2022/04/north-korea-begins-demolishing-75-million-south-korean-golf-resort-imagery/ 

NORTH KOREANS IN RUSSIA: NO WAY HOME

• North Korean soldiers dispatched to Russia to earn foreign currency are unable to return home after their three-year services due to Pyongyang’s prolonged border closure as part of their Covid-19 prevention measures.

• According to a North Korean soldier in his 20s, Choi, along with four other soldiers who were sent to Russia in 2018, although they were eligible for discharges from the military in 2021, they were not allowed to return home and are still engaging in foreign currency earning activities in Russia.

• Choi told Daily NK that two soldiers in similar positions have tried to escape by leaving their base in Moscow without permission in mid-March, but were subsequently apprehended by the Ministry of State Security and imprisoned on charges of attempting to defect.

• Choi also noted that the “first thing North Korean authorities consider when choosing soldiers to send abroad is whether or not an individual will run away while in a foreign country...[since] soldiers are thoroughly armed politically and ideologically speaking, and because they have families back home [who are used as hostages], [the authorities] prefer them over regular workers.”

• Despite the heavy emphasis on selecting soldiers who are loyal to the ruling Workers’ Party and Kim Jong-un, Choi explained that “there are many soldiers who are considering escaping due to the long working hours that stretch into the night and poor pay, which is not even enough to buy cigarettes.”

Source:
https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-korean-soldiers-russia-earning-foreign-currency-still-unable-return-home/

North Korean Refugees Now – Part 4: Outsized Influence

Examining the news for ongoing political actions that affect North Korean refugees in China, Crossing Borders has seen a number life-altering events unfold over time. We have come to realize that history doesn’t always occur under lights and in front of cameras. It often happens in meeting rooms with hours and hours of negotiation. One example of this kind of event unfolded last week when the United States and China met for a summit to discuss a variety of issues between the two countries. There are, to our understanding, a number of issues the two countries need to discuss: hacking, Chinese expansion in the South China Sea, economic disputes and Chinese banking expansion into the US.

There is another, quiet point of discussion that the two countries have debated again and again and have not come to a conclusion: North Korea. Within the long grasp of these two countries lies the fate of this small, poor country and its people.

It’s remarkable that a government in such economic disarray that it cannot feed its own people continues to command the attention of the most powerful countries of the world. North Korea, seemingly, is at the center of conflicts between the US and China, and has positioned itself to thrive under this umbrella of contention.

In this post, we will examine the world’s two largest economies: those of United States and China, and how North Korea has capitalized on a mutual mistrust between the two countries.

On February 29, 2012, Pyongyang agreed with the United States to a moratorium on nuclear tests, long-range missile launches and all nuclear activity. But 16 days later, North Korea defied this agreement by launching a satellite into orbit. On December 12 of the same year, the country launched what appeared to be another satellite, sparking condemnation from 60 countries around the world and the UN Security Council, which unanimously adopted UNSCR 2087.

This seemingly erratic behavior by the North Korean government has left the world confused on what to do next.

“North Korea probably was never serious about ending its nuclear and missile programs,” wrote, Evans J.R. Revere of the Bookings Institute in 2013. “Pyongyang has enshrined its nuclear status in its constitution and declared that it will not give up its nuclear weapons under any circumstances.”

But the main focus of all political maneuvering by the US toward North Korea has been contingent upon denuclearization. Under the Obama administration, the US has made it clear to North Korea that any high-level talks or aid given to North Korea will be regarding meaningful steps toward dismantling their nuclear program.

China has also shown a wariness toward North Korea’s nuclear program but despite intricate ties with the North Korean government, it does not have the power to change its ally.

North Korea is China’s greatest foreign policy challenge, according to experts. This relationship has key strategic implications, as we discussed in earlier posts.

“Like a variety of foreign policy issues in recent years, North Korea threatens to besmirch China’s prestige,” wrote Andrew Scobell and Mark Cozad. “China craves the reputation of a responsible global citizen and a force for good in the world.”

China’s relationship with North Korea appears to be multi-faceted and focuses on three key areas: diplomacy, economics and military.

This means that China has purposely and strategically chosen not to criticize its neighbor on multiple occasions. UNSCR 2087 was an exception to the rule. It has taken measures in the past to prop up the North Korean economy, seemingly at any cost. And it has a long standing agreement to protect its neighbor, should war break out in the region.

For China, there is too much to lose if North Korea fails. The biggest fear is that North Korea will crumble, South Korea will assume control and US troops will be at its doorstep.

Under President Obama the US has strengthened its alliances with China and other key countries in East Asia, known as Obama’s “pivot” to Asia. But this move has been the topic of heated debate in China.

“This debate provides a backdrop to consider prospects for Sino-US cooperation on policy toward North Korea, and highlights Chinese wariness and strategic mistrust of US policy intentions,” wrote, Scott A. Snyder for the Council on Foreign Relations.

This key relationship between the US and China and all the mistrust that comes with it is at the heart of why the North Korean regime as we know it still exists.

North Korea has used this mistrust to its advantage. It feeds off the two countries and their differing agendas. It can only survive as long as the two largest economies will continue on this path.

Whether the US and China will continue on this path is yet to be seen. The US and China have recently reached major milestones in a key climate agreement. China has also grown weary of North Korea’s nuclear tests and was disappointed in the execution of Jang Sung-tek, North Korea’s main point of contact with China.

Despite these challenges, China has been unrelenting in their support of the North Korean government. They continue to be North Korea’s largest trading partner and even supply food aid to the country.

The result for the millions of North Koreans, still hungry from lack of food and the North Korean refugees in China, is devastating.

Will North Korea change? Can it change? Will it implode? For almost 13 years we have stood at the border of this country and wondered, prayed and cried. We are just as uncertain today as we were in 2003. But we have not lost hope and will continue to pray in hope for a better tomorrow for North Korean refugees.