Breaking Down North Korea: March 2021 Headlines
Recent North Korea news found around the web
South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in continues to hold out hopes for diplomacy with North Korea in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics.
President Moon stated that the Tokyo Olympics may provide an opportunity for South Korea and Japan recover economically following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Games scheduled for this year may serve as an opportunity for dialogue between South Korea and Japan, South and North Korea, North Korea and Japan, and North Korea and the United States,” stated Moon on March 1, South Korea’s Independence Movement Day.
Read More:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-independenceday-moon-idUSKCN2AT0ZL
North Korea has published its first biography of leader Kim Jong Un: ““The Great Man and The Age of The Powerful Nation”
Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul states that the novel comes at a critical time to remind the North Korean people that “we can survive this - since we are great.” North Korea’s economy is at its worst in several decades following the coronavirus pandemic.
Reflecting on Kim’s meetings with leaders such as former president Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the biography states “There has never been a time when all the world has been this focused on our peoples’ greatness and dignity in our 5,000-year history.”
The book is 621 pages, with seven chapters and 17 subchapters. Its biographical nature does not rely on the usual mythical proportions for North Korea’s leaders, but highlights Kim Jong Un’s “ever prevailing” nationalistic love for his people.
Read More:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-koreas-new-must-read-is-kim-jong-uns-biography-11614780001
North Korea expected to resume trade with China in April
North Korea’s border city with China, Sinuiju, has recently erected a "disinfection facility” as the two countries may resume trading in low volumes.
Trade between the two nations may resume as soon as April 2021.
North Korea’s trade with China dropped by more than 80% in 2020, having a devastating effect on North Korea, which relies heavily on China for 90% of its total trade volume.
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A recent report published by the Citizen’s Alliance for North Korean Human Rights accuses the North Korean government of being a “pyramid scheme” upheld by exploitative labor
The report is a summary of North Korea’s political and economic infrastructure and its inherent reliance on prison labor
North Korean prison camps are accused of using children as young as the age of seven and pregnant women to collect quotas of coal, prepare explosives, and work in mineshafts.
Whilte previous reports on North Korean prisons noted downsizing, the new report cites expansion in mining operations in North Korea within political prison camps.
It is estimated that the coal mined at these prison camps contributed to approximately $200 million attained through coal shipments made to China, Russia, Myanmar, and Syria in 2017.
Read More:
http://eng.nkhumanrights.or.kr/data/n_r_reports/20210224170215.pdf
Biden’s cabinet members to visit South Korea and Japan to discuss East Asian foreign relations this month.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are preparing a visit to Japan and South Korea from March 14-18. This will mark the Biden Administration’s first international trip conducted by cabinet officials.
Scott Snyder, director of the program on U.S.-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations urged the Biden Administration to “indicate parameters and framing for potential follow-up dialogue opportunities” with North Korea through “a private channel of communications.”
“North Korea will remain our most immediate threat to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific,” noted Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Philip Davidson.
Secretary Blinken stated at his confirmation hearing in January - “We have to review, and we intend to review, the entire approach and policy toward North Korea because this is a hard problem that has plagued administration after administration.”
What the final approach of the Biden administration toward North Korea still remains to be seen.
Read More:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/04/politics/blinken-austin-japan/index.html
U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises have been cancelled in Spring.
The military exercises conducted between the U.S. and South Korean militaries have raised tensions with North Korea in the past. The springtime drills for 2021 have been cancelled due to COVID-19.
The cancellation may be in an effort to avoid provoking or raising animosity between North Korea and the U.S.
South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff stated that the decision to cancel the drills were contingent on “the status of the pandemic and diplomatic efforts to achieve denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula.”
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North Korea’s nuclear weapons facilities are showing new activity
The International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi stated in March that “The DPRK’s nuclear activities remain a cause for serious concern.”
North Korea’s coal-fired steam plant at the Yongbyon nuclear complex is showing activity after a two-year hiatus. It may indicate that preparations are being made to extract plutonium or handle radioactive waste.
This may be a continuation of Kim Jong Un’s promise to expand North Korea’s nuclear arsenal and an attempt to apply pressure on the Biden administration to return to diplomatic talks regarding sanctions.
Read More:
https://www.crossingbordersnk.org/blog/north-koreas-missile-tests/2021/2/16
The current favorite to succeed President Moon, Ruling Democratic Party leader Lee Nak-yon, urges the Biden Administration to push for North Korean denuclearization
“I understand the Obama administration’s ‘strategic patience’ was perhaps unavoidable due to the situation on the Korean Peninsula, with no inter-Korean talks taking place,” remarked Lee in an interview. “But that policy basically gave North Korea the time and conditions to strengthen its nuclear arsenal. I would like to ask Biden to prioritize the North Korea denuclearization issue, and in order to do that you have to acknowledge a wider role for South Korea to play in that matter.”
Lee also states that China may be an important ally in resolving the North Korean nuclear dilemma and establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula.
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