Thread: North Korea

Highest ranking North Korean defector speak in DC, under heavy guard.

N.Korean defector, in US, urges 'ideological warfare'
Mar 31 06:33 PM US/Eastern






Hwang Jang-Yop, pictured in 2003, North Korea's highest-ranking defector, o...



North Korea's highest-ranking defector on Wednesday said that "ideological warfare" and Chinese pressure can help bring down the hardline regime, as he paid a tightly guarded trip to the United States. Hwang Jang-Yop, a former secretary of North Korea's ruling Workers Party, is credited with developing the regime's ideology of "juche," or self-reliance. He defected to South Korea in 1997 on a visit to Beijing.


Hwang is at the top of North Korea's hit-list and his visit was kept closely under wraps, with a security detail closely following him. It was his second trip to Washington.
Speaking to a small audience at a think-tank, Hwang discounted the options either of attacking or engaging Kim Jong-Il's regime and said it was instead crucial to show North Koreans about human rights violations in their midst.

"The solution is ideological warfare. We need to focus on the people of North Korea and alert them to the human rights abuses
that are taking place," he said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"Simply trying to make Kim Jong-Il die would not be the solution," he said, referring to the North Korean leader whose health condition is a matter of great speculation.

"We don't need to resort to force. We need to use ideology and markets and diplomacy. We need to take a lesson from the Cold War," he said.

Hwang, 87, sported a neatly pressed Western suit and spoke lucidly but showed signs of his age, struggling with his translation headset and occasionally repeating his remarks.

While unsure about Kim's current health, Hwang revealed that he did not find Kim to be the anti-American ideologue as it would appear from North Korean propaganda.

"Deep down, when he's talking in private with his henchmen, he never speaks ill about the United States," he said. "Rather, privately it's China that he talks about in a very bad spirit."

"China is the lifeline of North Korea," he said. "If China ever broke with North Korea, it would be the death knell for the regime."
China is the main economic and political supporter of North Korea. South Korea has said it expects Kim to visit China soon, raising hopes in Washington that Beijing will put pressure on Pyongyang over its nuclear program.

Link: N.Korean defector, in US, urges 'ideological warfare'

Ouch. Sounds like a bargaining chip.

NKorea sentences US man to 8 years of hard labory Apr 7, 2010

By HYUNG-JIN KIM GSEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea has sentenced an American teacher to eight years of hard labor and ordered him to pay a $700,000 fine after he crossed illegally into the country - the fourth U.S. citizen to be detained by the islolated regime since last year.

Aijalon Mahli Gomes, of Boston, acknowledged his wrongdoing during a trial at the Central Court Tuesday, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch on Wednesday.

The North said last month that it arrested Gomes, 30, on Jan. 25 for trespassing after he crossed into the country from China.

Gomes, a graduate of Bowdoin College in Maine, had been teaching English in South Korea and no details have emerged about why he went to the North. However, Jo Sung-rae, a Seoul-based activist, said Gomes may have been inspired by his acquaintance with an American missionary who made a similar trip to the North in December to protest the country's human rights record.

The KCNA report said the court sentenced Gomes to eight years of "hard labor" and a fine of 70 million won. North Korea's official exchange rate is 100 won to the dollar.

"An examination was made of the hostile act committed against the Korean nation and the trespassing on the border of (North Korea) against which an indictment was brought in and his guilt was confirmed," it said.
Verdicts issued by the Central Court - North Korea's highest - are final and cannot be appealed, according to the Unification Ministry in Seoul.

But Yoo Ho-yeol, a North Korea expert at South Korea's Korea University, said Gomes would almost certainly be released as the North appears to want to use his case as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the U.S. on its nuclear program.
"Continuing to hold him in custody is also a burden for North Korea" as it will only galvanize criticism of its human rights record, Yoo said.

Three other Americans have crossed into the North since March 2009 but all were freed after diplomatic negotiations, including a visit by former President Bill Clinton.

Link & Entire: My Way News - NKorea sentences US man to 8 years of hard labor

Originally Posted by Milkman

Here are some North Korean propaganda posters, against the US.

These are hilarious - seriously hilarious!

The recent sinking of the South Korean ship, and the recent "belligerance" by NK, may be a strategy by Kim Jong-Il to have his 27 year old son succeed.

Odd, nonetheless.

Advertise on NYTimes.com
News Analysis

Succession May Be Behind N. Korea’s New Belligerence

By CHOE SANG-HUN

Published: May 27, 2010

SEOUL, South Korea — Over the years, South Korean officials and analysts have grown accustomed to the North Koreans’ habit of stirring up trouble, whether through missile launchings or nuclear tests. And when faced with international censure, the North lashes out with threats of retaliation and even war. Typically, it is an attention-getting tactic, the South Koreans say, used to win diplomatic and economic concessions.

But this time the motivation may be different.
Experts on North Korea say that its latest act of belligerence — the sinking of a South Korean ship in March, one of the worst military provocations since the end of the Korean War in 1953 — reflects a new force at play: the efforts of the North’s leader, Kim Jong-il, to establish his 27-year-old son as a legitimate heir to carry on the family dynasty.

“His succession to power is the factor that links all other factors when we try to explain why the North is doing what it does these days,” said Choi Jin-wook, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, the Seoul government’s top research organization on North Korea. “Without it, no explanation is complete or convincing.”

On the surface, the North’s ever-intensifying policy of confrontation can appear self-defeating. But, officials and analysts here say, it is all part of Mr. Kim’s effort to groom Kim Jong-un, the youngest of his three known sons, as his successor. According to this line of thinking, the sinking of the South Korean ship was intended to create an atmosphere of crisis that would serve Mr. Kim’s purposes, both by rallying public support and winning the crucial backing of the military.
“Kim Jong-il needs to create a warlike atmosphere at home to push through with the succession of power to his son,” said Cheon Seong-whun, another senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification. “To do that, he needs tensions and an external enemy.”

Link & Entire: News Analysis - Succession May Be Behind N. Korea

No point opening a new thread:

South Korea has reported that it expects North Korea to test launch a ballistic missile from a submarine.

I would imagine this will cause a bit of a stir.

North Korea 'readying' sub launch of ballistic missile


North Korea 'readying' sub launch of ballistic missile