Top NK Headlines - April 2023 — Crossing Borders - Helping North Korean Refugees and Orphans

NORTH KOREAN CHILDREN MARCH 216 MILES IN 15 DAYS

North Korean state media released footage of elite school children walking 216 miles across the country to show loyalty to the state as part of a 15-day “study program.”
Many textbooks say the country’s founder, Kim Il-sung, left his studies in Manchuria (northeast China today) and walked to his home in Mangyongdae (part of Pyongyang today) in 1923 when he was only 11 years old after learning that his father had been arrested by Japanese police.
Every year since 1975, top pupils as young as 11 years old have been handpicked to retrace the alleged route walked by Kim.
Students chanted loyalty slogans as they marched in the annual event to signal to the nation the level of sacrifices the state expects of them.
One student told the media that, “The march was harder than I thought. But by making it through harsh valleys and mountains, I learned that I can overcome any difficulty.”
However, defectors who joined the march as children told Daily NK that it was a “harrowing journey” as “At the end of each day, we would unpack at the lodging facilities and students would cry because of all the blisters on their feet. The next day, those blisters would burst, causing a lot of pain. But no one could say anything.”

The South Korean military fired warning shots to repel a North Korean patrol boat that had crossed the countries’ disputed maritime border near the South’s Baekryeong Island while chasing a Chinese fishing boat.
During the operation, the South Korean high-speed vessel collided with the Chinese boat due to poor visibility, causing minor injuries to some of the South Korean sailors.
The poorly marked border has not been officially recognized by the North and has led to clashes over the years. Last year the North fired a ballistic missile across the maritime border, which prompted the South to fire three missiles, suspend flight routes and issue orders for island residents to take shelter in bunkers.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a statement claiming that “Our military is prepared against various provocations and keeping a decisive combat posture while closely monitoring the enemy’s movements.”

Kim Jong-un attended a ceremony on April 16 to celebrate the completion of 10,000 newly built homes in Pyongyang’s Hwasong District.
The event was dedicated to the 111th birth anniversary of Kim Il-sung, called the Day of the Sun, on April 15.
According to state media, the country’s leader reaffirmed the Workers’ Party of Korea’s goal to set the housing project as a “top priority” and make Pyongyang a “world-famous” city.
Since Pyongyang pledged to build 50,000 new apartments by 2025 during the Eighth Party Congress in January 2021, thousands of young laborers have been mobilized to launch a series of construction projects amidst foreign suspicion of ongoing food shortages.

North Korea’s launch of its new solid-fuel ICBM sparked fear over residents in Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido after the government alerted millions of people to take cover.
The missile flew for about 621 miles and landed in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
Kim Jong-un, oversaw the test launch and said that the new missile would reform the country’s strategic deterrence components to enable it to more effectively respond with a nuclear counterattack.
Experts described the new type of weapon as a significant upgrade to its existing technology. According to Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, “If successfully developed, solid-propellant ICBMs would complicate wartime planning for the U.S.-South Korea alliance as these missiles would be much more responsive in a crisis.”
A South Korean military official added that there is a possibility that Pyongyang was testing a part of a reconnaissance satellite, such as a sensor.