DPRK Business Monthly Volume III, No.10

The DPRK Business Monthly, an international business report edited in Beijing, has been made available to CanKor readers by its editor, Paul White. Please check the  current October 2012 edition here:  DPRK Business Monthly Vol III, No.10

Titles of articles found in this issue include:

• N. Korea signs air service deal with UAE
• Knowledge Sharing Promotes Growth, Understanding
• NK Missing `Golden Moment’ to Stem TB
• North, South Groups Remember Independence Fighter
• NK Cabinet “Flexing Muscles”
• New Consumer Culture Seen Emerging in NK
• NK Has 1.5 Million Mobile Subscribers
• More Chinese Inroads into Rason?
• ROK May Build 2 More Daycare Centers at Kaesong

…plus a number of other items, including a selection of North Korean tours by various tour operators.

DPRK Business Monthly Volume III, No.9

The DPRK Business Monthly, an international business report edited in Beijing, has been made available to CanKor readers by its editor, Paul White. Please check the  current October 2012 edition here: DPRK Business Monthly Vol III, No.9

Titles of articles found in this issue include:

South and North Korean Buddhist monks at a ceremony to mark the fifth
anniversary of the rebuilding of the Shingye Temple on Mount Kumgang in the
DPRK [Photo: Jogye Order]

• DPRK Trade Delegation Visits Sweden
• NK Reaching Out for China Investment
• North Korea Agricultural Program
• N-S Buddhist Monks “Work to Ease Tension”
• Two ROK Groups to Deliver NK Children Aid
• Seoul Warns Trade Agency Against North Contacts
• Breast Cancer Institute Completed
• Consumer Ads Appear in DPRK Press

…plus a number of other items, including a selection of North Korean tours by various tour operators.

5th Anniversary of the October 4th North-South Declaration

[It is an agreement that South Korea’s President Lee Myung Bak would rather forget — which is probably why the DPRK is reminding South Koreans and the world about the inter-Korean peace agreement signed on 4 October 2007 by the late ROK President Roh Moo-hyun and the late DPRK leader Kim Jong Il. Here are three reports: the first from South Korea’s Arirang TV, the second from China’s Xinhua news service, and finally an email to CanKor from the DPR Korean Committee of Solidarity with the World People. –CanKor]

Roh Moo-Hyun and Kim Jong Il at the 2007 Inter-Korean Summit. In the background, long-time friend of CanKor, former ROK Minister of Unification Lee Jae Joung.

N. Korea Puts Importance on Oct. 4 Peace Declaration

SEOUL, 4 October 2012 (Arirang News)

North Korea has put the 2007 inter-Korean peace declaration back into spotlight.

Then South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun held a landmark inter-Korean summit with late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, where Roh vowed to provide financial aid to the North and push for large-scale joint economic projects, in exchange for Pyongyang’s denuclearization.

Marking the fifth anniversary of the signing, the North’s Korean Central News Agency lashed out at the current Lee Myung-bak administration for scrapping the so-called Oct. 4th declaration.

The agency stressed the full implementation of the agreements is the only way to peaceful reunification and co-prosperity.

Experts say Pyongyang’s claims are targeted at South Korea’s next administration, with the presidential election just weeks away.

15th anniversary of formulating the Three Charters for National Reunification

[CanKor has received the following letter from four Pyongyang-based organizations: the Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People, the Korean Democratic Lawyers Association, the Korean Committee for Afro-Asian Solidarity, and the Korean National Peace Committee. As usual, we offer this text without commentary. –CanKor]

Dear friends,

Monument to the Three Charters for National Reunification, Pyongyang

Warm greetings!

As you know well, 67 years have elapsed since the Korean people have become separated into the north and the south after the 2nd world war. The Korean people have strived for the independent and peaceful reunification of the country without any interference from outside forces during the past 67 years. President Kim Il Sung, the great leader of the Korean nation and the lodestar of the reunification of the country, devoted his whole life for the reunification of Korea to the last day of his life from the beginning of the liberation of the country.

To look back, President Kim Il Sung’s whole life can be said to have been a life of struggle devoted to reunifying his country, expect the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle for national liberation. From the separation of the country, President Kim Il Sung has laid down many reunification proposals and wisely led the Korean nation for the reunification of the country.

The Wonderful World of North Korea’s YouTube Channel by Caleb McFadden

[Caleb McFadden is a history student at Middle Tennessee State University. He wrote the following article about North Korea’s YouTube channel for EA World View, a blog “dedicated to engaging with the notion of ‘America’ through a consideration of US foreign policy and politics.” It was published under the title North Korea Video Feature: The Wonderful World of the Regime’s YouTube Channel (McFadden) on 27 May 2012. –CanKor]

On 14 July 2010, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, with the username “uriminzokkiri”, created its official YouTube channel.

Since that day, 3000 videos have been posted, and the channel has more than 3000 subscribers and more than 2 million views of its footage. In comparison, the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has three times the population of North Korea, has less than 2000 subscribers and about 2.5 million visits.

12th anniversary of the publication of June 15 Joint Declaration

[The following letter by the Korean Committee of Solidarity with the World People reached CanKor from Pyongyang, commemorating the almost-forgotten breakthrough joint North-South Korean declaration that resulted from a summit meeting between ROK President Kim Dae Jung and DPRK Chairman Kim Jong Il during a hopeful period of inter-Korean relations on 15 June 2000. The unedited letter is reproduced here without comment. –CanKor]

Dear friends, Warm greetings from Pyongyang!

It is 12 years since that the historic June 15 joint declaration was published.

The publication of the declaration marked an event of great significance as it replaced the history of distrust and confrontation by a history of reconciliation, unity, peace and reunification.

Had this been given steady continuity, the day of reunification would have come earlier.

Statement by the (North) Korean Committee for Space Technology

[Following the unsuccessful launch of a DPRK satellite into orbit on Friday, 13 April 2012, and a UN Security Council President’s statement on 16 April 2012 condemning the launch and pledging to add  “additional entities and items” to the existing sanctions, the DPRK Foreign Ministry pledged to launch more satellites, and declared that it would no longer be bound by the 29 February agreement with the USA. Numerous North Korean organizations have since made their own statements, in each case adding copious insults against outgoing ROK President Lee Myung Bak. Considering that this was the first time that the DPRK admitted that its satellite launch had failed, we found the following statement by the Korean Committee for Space Technology (KCST) particularly worthy of note. The statement is taken from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) website. –CanKor]

DPRK’s Satellites for Peaceful Purposes to Continue Orbiting Space: KCST Spokesman

Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) — A spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology (KCST) Thursday released the following statement:

Unha-3 rocket at launch (photo source unknown)

Since the KCST’s announcement of the planned launch of satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 on March 16, the issue of the DPRK’s satellite launch has become topic of debate in the world. Those who sympathize with truth and love justice were unanimous in praising the plan with much expectation. But, the unjust and ill-tempered hostile forces have worked hard to mislead public opinion with groundless assertions and sophism.

The U.S. and Japanese reactionaries and their special class stooge Lee Myung Bak are taking the lead in the smear campaign. It is their brigandish assertion and their lackey’s nonsensical talk that the DPRK should not be allowed to launch a satellite for peaceful purposes. They claim that as Kwangmyongsong-3 was launched by Unha carrier rocket, it was not a satellite but a long-range missile and it, therefore, seriously threatened the U.S. mainland and Japanese archipelago and made south Korea unstable. Finally, they made a far-fetched assertion that the DPRK’s launch of the above-said satellite was “a violation” of the UNSC resolution and a grave “violation” of the DPRK-U.S. agreement and a military “provocation” to them.

38 North: The US-DPRK “Choose Your Own Adventure” Experience by Andray Abrahamian

[From time to time CanKor alerts readers to papers published by our partner-site 38North. The following article is authored by  Andray Abrahamian.  Please follow our link to the current article on the 38North site. –CanKor]

The US-DPRK deal signed last month is a softline message; the Satellite Launch is a hardline one. Washington would do well to ignore the hardline one.

In 1962, with the United States and the USSR seemingly spiraling towards nuclear war, Khrushchev and Kennedy engineered history’s most important diplomatic breakthrough.

At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, with both the White House and the Kremlin under incredible pressure, Khrushchev sent Kennedy a message that demanded a declaration of non-aggression from the United States towards Cuba in return for a Soviet withdrawal. The next morning, however, after consultation with government officials more inclined to take a harder line, Khrushchev sent Kennedy a second letter. This one demanded the United States remove its Jupiter missiles from Italy and Turkey as part of the deal, a proposal that would have made Kennedy appear to cave to high-stakes blackmail had he accepted it.

DPRK’s Satellite Launch Not Contradictory to DPRK-U.S. Agreement — KCNA

[The following article appeared on KCNA (Korean Central News Agency), North Korea’s official international news outlet. In contrast to most Western news outlets and pronouncements by the Republic of Korea and the US State Department, North Korea claims that the intended launch of an earth-orbiting satellite to mark the 100th anniversary of founding President Kim Il Sung’s birth does not contradict the DPRK’s unilateral moratorium on missile tests. In fact, in an unusual concession to international concern, the DPRK has released details about the timing of the launch and its intended trajectory on a similar path as South Korea’s attempted satellite launch in 2009. In addition–again unprecedented–the DPRK has invited international observers to the launch. It is also interesting to note that although the US negotiators have since before Kim Jong Il’s death warned that such a launch would be in contravention of UN sanctions, this article blames only the South Korean government and President Lee Myung-bak for the furor over its decision. –CanKor]

Taepodong-2 missile (photo by KCNA)

Pyongyang, March 19 (KCNA) — The south Korean puppet forces are busy with an odd smear campaign over the issue of DPRK’s launch of Kwangmyongsong-3.

Afloat on Saturday alone were rumors aimed to disturb negotiations between the DPRK and the U.S.

Dong-A Ilbo said “the north reduced the north Korea-U.S. agreement to a scrap of paper in 15 days”. Kukmin Ilbo asserted “this is little short of violating the agreement reached at the DPRK-U.S. high-level talks even before the ink of their signature was dry” and KBS noted “this showed the north’s will to take initiative, while boosting its negotiating power”, etc.

Then why are they claiming the satellite to be launched by the DPRK is an inter-continental ballistic missile and it is a violation of the agreement reached at the DPRK-U.S. high-level talks on February 29?

Russia Gets Into the Act, by Jeremy Paltiel

[DPRK leader Kim Jong Il made headlines again as he traveled to Russia for talks with President Medvedev. What was the purpose of this trip, and what’s in it for the Russians? CanKor Brain Trust member Jeremy Paltiel, Professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, looks at the possibility of a win-win outcome for all sides. –CanKor.]

Kim Jong Il with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev (Photo by Reuters)

For months now, Kim Jong-il has been trying without success to escape from the international straitjacket he imposed on himself since the sinking of the Cheonan and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island. He has appealed for international aid without much response. He has offered unconditional talks with the US; he has alternately engaged and threatened the ROK, most recently evicting South Koreans form the Mt Kumgang “Peace Village”; he has visited China on three occasions… all of which seemed only to magnify his isolation and dependence on his sole ally. With only four months until his beleaguered garrison satrapy is slated to become a “strong and prosperous country” he ventured back to the land of his birth, travelling to the Russian Far East to meet Russian President Medvedev. Russia has been eager to get back into the game without antagonizing its partners in the Six Party talks or throwing good money after bad on an unreliable former client.