North Korea’s Ominous Mysteries

July 20, 2021 Michael Chang

Top North Korean headlines from July 2021

South Korea reported in July the fewest number of North Koreans to have ever reached South Korea in a quarter, as only one male and one female North Korean defector arrived in South Korea from April through June 2021.
From January through March of 2021, 31 defectors reached South Korea.
In the past 10 years, the number of North Koreans arriving on an annual basis had never dropped below 1,000. In 2020, 229 North Korean defectors entered South Korea - a 78% drop in persons.

Choi Hyunmi’s talents were noticed at a young age and she was told she could become a boxer who “can delight General Kim Jong Il”
She and her family left North Korea when she was 13 and arrived in South Korea by way of Vietnam
She went back to boxing after a classmate insulted her North Korea background
Choi became a member of South Korea’s national team in 2006, turned pro and clinched the World Boxing Association’s vacant featherweight crown in 2008
Agents from the US, Japan and Germany have approached her about being naturalized in those countries, which Choi turned down.
Reasons being: worries about another tough resettlement, and the immense pride that she’s had representing South Korea
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/sports-2020-tokyo-olympics-south-korea-great-britain-olympic-team-ireland-olympic-team-6ec5a04a1abede44839e2a2790ff42f7

“The biggest wild card” in assessing the stability of North Korea is no other than the health of its leader, Kim Jong Un, as stated by Senior fellow of Center for Strategic and International Studies and former CIA analyst on North Korea, Sue Mi Terry.
The significant weight loss over the course of recent weeks has launched a frenzy of speculation. It is unclear whether Kim’s loss of weight indicates that his health has become dramatically better or worse.
Uncertainty and confusion regarding the sudden change reveals the sheer lack of information coming out of North Korea and the deterioration of intelligence on its leaders throughout the pandemic.

“The people’s food situation is now getting tense,” announced Kim Jong Un to the North Korean state media in a recent public statement. “It is essential for the whole party and state to concentrate on farming.”
Recent flooding and agricultural disasters caused by 2020 droughts and typhoons has sorely affected North Korea’s annual yield of grain.
The Korea Development Institute in Seoul reported in June that North Korea required 5.2 million tons of food in 2020, yet produced only 4 million tons.
The fear of ongoing flooding damaging food production in 2021 has resulted in criminal sentences for “soil plunderers” - farmers who take soil near rivers for their farmland. Those who steal river soil, thus increasing the risk of flooding, “will be punished as ‘anti-party’ elements for consciously neglecting [government directives],” noted an anonymous North Korean source in Pyongyang.