Top Headlines from North Korea - September 2023 — Crossing Borders - Helping North Korean Refugees and Orphans

NORTH KOREAN ATHLETES SET TO COMPETE AT THE ASIAN GAMES IN CHINA

A team of 191 athletes left Pyongyang on September 14 to take part in the 19th Asian Games held in the Chinese city of Hangzhou this month.
North Korea was banned by the International Olympic Committee from participating in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics for failing to take part in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were pushed back to 2021 because of Covid-19.
North Koreans are listed on the Games’ website under sports events including athletics, gymnastics, basketball, football, boxing and weightlifting.
North Korea’s first match is against Taiwan in men’s football.
The country has traditionally been particularly strong in weightlifting, as seen by its past victory in winning eight golds at the Jakarta Asian Games in 2018.

On August 28, 2023, five prisoners awaiting trial on charges of robbery, rape, murder and illegal cattle slaughter escaped from a North Korean prison in the northern province of Ryanggang.
Prison breaks in North Korea are rare. The jailbreakers reportedly climbed over a barbed wire-topped wall while they were repairing the roof of the social security department building “when security was lax.”
A 24-year-old escapee, who was accused of secretly eating a cow that was meant to be used for farm work, turned himself in days later, and a 23-year-old was caught near his home, while the other three are still at large and believed to be trying to escape to China, about 25 kilometers (16 miles) from the prison.
The escape came at a time when reports show that there has been a string of serious crimes this year in Chongjin.
Five people involved in burglaries and murders in Chongjin were publicly executed in late August.
However, many in Chongjin doubted whether the “sound of gunfire will reduce crime” as “Crime is born of hardship from food shortages.”

Biden’s administration recently renewed its ban on the use of American passports for travel to North Korea for a seventh consecutive year.
According to a notice posted on the Federal Register, “The Department of State has determined there continues to be serious risk to U.S. citizens and nationals of arrest and long-term detention constituting imminent danger to their physical safety.”
The ban was first set in place by Trump’s administration in 2017 following the death of American student, Otto Warmbier, who was imprisoned for stealing a propaganda poster before returning to the U.S. while in a coma.
Humanitarian groups expressed concern regarding the impact of the ban on providing relief to North Korea, which has been reportedly suffering from severe food and medical shortages.
Cathi Choi, director of Korea Peace Now!, expressed disappointment at the extension of the ban as it “ignores the repeated urging from a broad coalition of advocates and experts to modify the travel ban to at least allow for important people-to-people initiatives and family reunions.”

North Korean state media announced that the country has just launched its first operational “tactical nuclear attack submarine” to patrol the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
The new submarine, Kim Kun-ok, was named after a North Korean historical figure who led a maritime operation during the 1950-1953 Korean War that sank the USS Baltimore.
The North’s latest weapon system was unveiled after its leader, Kim Jong-un, proclaimed that nuclear weapons development would allow the country to develop economically while the U.S. continues to impose sanctions on Pyongyang.
Even though some sources describe the new submarine as just a conversion from an existing Soviet-built Romeo-class diesel-electric submarine, the North Korean government claims that it is ready for “both preemptive and retaliatory strikes.”
Reports describe that if the Kim Kun-ok is successful, it could give North Korea a longer range for its nuclear arsenal, which is beyond the existing capabilities of the U.S. and South Korean intelligence.