[Cankor] Report #259

[cankor at cankor.ca]

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CanKor # 259

Friday, 18 August 2006
*************************************************

The Bank of China freezes DPRK accounts in response to a US-led 
crackdown on Pyongyang's alleged illegal financial activities, according 
to a South Korean legislator. China permits three DPRK refugee-defectors 
to travel directly from China to the USA for asylum, without first 
transiting via a third country. Some observers see this as a sign of 
cooling China-DPRK relations. NGO sources in the USA claim that a 
further 120 DPRK refugee-defectors living in unidentified Asian 
countries have applied for US asylum.

Following last month's heavy flooding, the DPRK tells the UN World Food 
Programme that it will accept emergency food aid, despite the fact that 
it halted international food assistance last year. Because of the 
emergency situation created by the floods, the DPRK had already 
cancelled the Arirang mass games show that was to run from August to 
October, and the 15 August joint North-South national liberation day 
celebrations, which would have provided a chance for bilateral contacts 
after the DPRK missile tests of July.

Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Kirill celebrates the first wedding in the 
new Orthodox Church in Pyongyang. US evangelicals press Bush to take 
humanitarian approach to the DPRK rather than a single-minded focus on 
arms control, while a representative of Billy Graham's relief agency 
Samaritan's Purse is met by DPRK Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun in Pyongyang.

An Air Koryo Ilyushin class plane inbound from Beijing crash-lands at 
Pyongyang's airport with a broken front wheel axle. All of the 
approximately 50 passengers exit unscathed.

Kathi Zellweger shares observations from her 51st and final trip to the 
DPRK on behalf of Caritas-Hong Kong. In November she begins her new 
assignment in Pyongyang as resident DPRK Country Director for the Swiss 
Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
*************************************************

Contents:

1.   BANK OF CHINA FREEZES PYONGYANG ACCOUNTS
     
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=5&art_id=23538&sid=8988817&con_type=1

2.   DPRK REFUGEE/DEFECTORS GO TO THE USA FROM CHINA
     
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200607/25/200607252150512539900090209021.html

3.   ABOUT 120 DPR KOREANS SAID TO SEEK ASYLUM IN USA
     
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/150263.html

4.   WFP TO DELIVER FOOD TO DPRK IN RESPONSE TO FLOODS
     http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6023770,00.html

5.   DPRK CANCELS ARIRANG MASS GAMES SHOW
     
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/international/asia/news/20060801p2g00m0in035000c.html

6.   DPRK CANCELS LIBERATION DAY EVENTS WITH ROK
     
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-07-31T051938Z_01_SEO229112_RTRUKOC_0_UK-KOREA-NORTH-GAMES.xml&archived=False

7.   FIRST WEDDING HELD AT NEW ORTHODOX CHURCH
     http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=10708483&PageNum=0

8.   EVANGELICALS BREAK WITH BUSH ON NORTH KOREA
     http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=2284

9.   AIR KORYO PLANE CRASHES IN PYONGYANG -- NO INJURIES
     http://sg.news.yahoo.com/world/afp.html

10.   OBSERVATIONS FROM A VISIT TO THE DPRK
     by Kathi Zellweger, direct to CanKor


*************************************************

1.   BANK OF CHINA FREEZES PYONGYANG ACCOUNTS
     The Standard, China's Business Newspaper, 25 July 2006

The Bank of China has frozen North Korean accounts in response to a 
US-led crackdown on Pyongyang's alleged illegal financial activities, 
according to a South Korean legislator. The BOC's move was tantamount to 
China imposing sanctions on its long- time ally, Park Jin, a key member 
of the main opposition Grand National Party said Monday.

"I understand North Korea is even more frustrated because it regards the 
freezing of its accounts in China as virtual sanctions," he said in an 
interview with the Munhwa newspaper. Park, who has just returned from a 
trip to Washington, quoted former and incumbent US officials as saying 
that Washington was aware of Beijing's move late last year when it 
accused Macau-based Banco Delta Asia of helping Pyongyang launder 
earnings from counterfeiting US bank notes. Park said that he had also 
heard that North Korea was suspected of counterfeiting yuan banknotes as 
well as US dollars.

"So China cannot but launch separate sanctions on counterfeiting and 
money laundering by North Korea," he said. "I understand cooperation is 
under way between the United States and China to stop North Korea's 
illegal activities."

However, mainland government and banking officials refused to comment 
Monday on the report.

"If we have an answer we will tell you, if we don't have an answer we 
won't tell you," a BOC spokesman surnamed Miao said, refusing to comment 
further. The Foreign Ministry also declined to comment on the issue, 
with a spokeswoman referring queries to the BOC and the central bank. (...)

Park said that North Korea moved its accounts to other Chinese banks 
after US officials launched an investigation into Banco Delta Asia.

"I understand the Bank of China stopped dealing with North Korea as the 
United States expanded its probe," he said. North Korea fears the US 
probe may affect its accounts in Singapore, Austria, Switzerland and 
Russia, he said. The BOC is the mainland's second largest bank and 
recently listed in Hong Kong where it raised more than US$11 billion 
(HK$85.8 billion) in one of the largest new share offers ever. It 
traditionally conducted forex business for mainland groups and companies 
but has expanded its range in recent years.
*************************************************

2.   DPRK REFUGEE-DEFECTORS GO TO THE USA FROM CHINA
     by Yoo Kwang-jong, Joongang Ilbo, 26 July 2006

Three North Korean defectors left for the USA according to Beijing 
sources. In May, four North Koreans made their way into a South Korean 
diplomatic mission in Shenyang, a northeastern industrial city. Shortly 
thereafter, they scaled a wall to enter the adjoining US diplomatic 
premises and sought asylum in the United States.

Two of the defectors are men and the third is a woman. All are in their 
20s or 30s, but have not been more precisely identified. A fourth member 
of their party, who also asked for US asylum, was rejected by 
Washington. He was a former employee of a security unit in North Korea 
that monitors the civilian population and runs political prisons. The 
source said this man will probably go to South Korea soon.

In another sign of the gradual cooling of relations between Beijing and 
Pyongyang, the three USA-bound defectors will travel there directly from 
China. In the past, Beijing has demanded that asylum-seekers transit a 
third country before moving on to their final home. The Philippines has 
been one common waypoint. The three reportedly began to consider US 
asylum after learning that six of their countrymen were admitted to the 
United States in May. (...)

The USA recently relaxed its rules on accepting North Korean defectors 
to comply with a 2004 US law. Separately, a US immigration judge ordered 
in April that a North Korean family already resettled in South Korea be 
given asylum. That drew protests from Seoul because the basis for the 
asylum claim was discrimination against the family in South Korea.
*************************************************

3.   ABOUT 120 DPR KOREANS SAID TO SEEK ASYLUM IN USA
     Yonhap News, 18 August 2006

About 120 North Korean refugees staying in third countries, not South 
Korea, after fleeing their communist homeland have applied for asylum in 
the United States, a US radio station said Thursday [18 August], quoting 
a US civic activist. Judith Wood, president of the Los Angeles-based 
Human Rights Project, revealed the figure in a phone interview with 
Voice of America (VOA) and said the number of North Koreans to be 
allowed to settle in the US permanently would increase.

The United States adopted a North Korean human rights law in 2004 aimed 
at facilitating the defection of North Koreans from their Stalinist 
country. The law opened the way for North Korean escapees to seek asylum 
in the USA. But it does not apply to those who have already settled in 
South Korea. For the first time in May, the United States allowed six 
North Korean refugees staying in an unidentified Southeast Asian country 
to live permanently on its soil.

However, confusion has risen after a US court reportedly approved 
recently asylum for two North Koreans who have acquired South Korean 
citizenship. The latest case involved a 33-year-old woman who settled in 
South Korea in 2001. In April, a former North Korean army officer, Seo 
Jae-seok, who obtained South Korean citizenship in 1998, was granted 
asylum in the USA. The Seoul government has made inquires with the US 
government about the two cases, according to government sources. The 
same sources said about 20 similar cases are pending in US courts.
*************************************************

4.   WFP TO DELIVER FOOD TO DPRK IN RESPONSE TO FLOODS
     by Burt Herman, Associated Press, 18 August 2006

The UN food agency said Friday it will deliver emergency aid to North 
Koreans affected by last month's heavy flooding in the impoverished 
communist nation, which has reversed its refusal to accept international 
help. State media in the North has said the disaster killed "hundreds" 
but a South Korean aid group has claimed the casualty toll is nearly 
58,000 dead and missing. Pyongyang told the World Food Programme last 
week it was willing to accept aid, the Beijing-based programme spokesman 
Gerald Bourke told The Associated Press.

"We kept the offer there and it has now been accepted," Bourke said. "We 
are open to other requests." The programme is sending 150 tons of wheat 
flour and vegetable oil to feed 13,000 people for a month in North 
Korea's Songchon County, about 50 miles northeast of the capital.

North Korea also told South Korea this week that it would accept 
emergency aid, and the countries' Red Cross societies were to meet 
Saturday to discuss details. The South's top official on North Korea, 
Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, said North Korea is estimated to 
have lost at least 100,000 tons of rice in the floods, and the South 
will determine how much rice to ship to the North based on that figure.

The Seoul-based private aid agency Good Friends raised its estimated 
death toll Thursday to 57,700, up 3,000 from its earlier figures. Good 
Friends said it has "many sources" inside North Korea but did not say 
where it obtained the figures, which could not be independently 
confirmed because the North tightly controls all media and information. 
(...)

Last year, the North called for a halt to international aid, claiming it 
did not want to create a culture of dependency. The country still 
accepted Chinese and South Korean assistance, which comes with much less 
stringent monitoring than that required by the World Food Programme to 
ensure the needy are receiving the aid. South Korea suspended regular 
aid to the North in July after the country test-launched a series of 
missiles over international objections. Seoul decided to offer emergency 
aid after the floods, but said its suspension otherwise was still in place.
*************************************************

5.   DPRK CANCELS ARIRANG MASS GAMES SHOW
     Reuters, July 30, 2006

North Korea has canceled its mass games spectacle, where it celebrates 
its military might and communist ideology, because of flooding that hit 
the impoverished country this month, a South Korean official said on 
Monday. The 80-minute performances that are part rhythmic gymnastics 
floor show, part military parade and part circus act were scheduled to 
start on August 15 and run through mid-October. (...)

Leonid Petrov, who specializes in arranging tours to North Korea, said, 
"The official reasons named by the North Korean tourism authorities are 
the recent torrential rains and the planned joint military drill 'Ulchi 
Focus Lens', which will be performed by US and South Korean military 
forces." Petrov said the mass games festival will be moved to April next 
year.

North Korea typically objects to the annual joint drills, but it has not 
previously canceled the mass games because of them. About 100,000 people 
take part in the mass games -- called Arirang after a historic love 
story -- with some in the floor show and about 20,000 who make up a wall 
of flip-cards that forms the changing backdrop. The games have 
increasingly become a source of foreign currency for the North. (...) 
Last year 7,000 tourists from South Korea attended. This year, the North 
was planning to open its doors to American tourists, with packages 
costing about $5,000 to $6,000.
*************************************************

6.   DPRK CANCELS LIBERATION DAY EVENTS WITH ROK
     by Kwang-Tae Kim, Associated Press, 1 August 2006

North Korea called off joint celebrations with South Korea in the 
North's capital to mark the anniversary of their liberation from 
Japanese colonial rule, a South Korean organizer said Tuesday. The North 
informed South Korea early Tuesday that it had to cancel the events 
because of recent floods that devastated the communist nation in early 
July, the organizer said in a news release. The cancellation of the 
event, which had been scheduled for Aug. 15 in Pyongyang, cuts off 
another chance for bilateral contacts after North Korea's July missile 
test launches. The day was to mark the 61st anniversary of the Korean 
Peninsula's liberation from Japanese colonial rule. (...)
*************************************************

7.   FIRST WEDDING HELD AT NEW ORTHODOX CHURCH
     Itar-Tass, Pyongyang, 15 August 2006

Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad has performed a marriage 
ceremony for Russian Ambassador to North Korea Andrei Karlov at the new 
Holy Trinity Cathedral -- the only Orthodox temple in the DPRK. That was 
the first-ever wedding ceremony at the new cathedral, which was blessed 
by Metropolitan Kirill on August 13. The metropolitan leads a delegation 
of the Russian Orthodox Church on visit to Pyongyang. The wedding was 
announced unexpectedly during a Monday banquet that marked the Korean 
liberation from Japanese colonizers. The construction of the Holy 
Trinity Cathedral began in 2003 by the initiative and under personal 
control of Kim Jong Il. Korea fully financed the project. The church 
articles were delivered from Russia.

[Additional information from Agence France Presse: The first Russian 
Orthodox church has opened in communist North Korea, a country 
criticised by the US State Department for suppressing religious freedom, 
state media said Wednesday. The Korean Central News Agency said a 
delegation headed by the Russian Orthodox patriarch of Smolensk and 
Kaliningrad held a press conference 15 August to mark the opening of the 
Jungbaek Church in the capital Pyongyang. The delegation arrived on 
Saturday. The Russian embassy in Pyongyang had earlier said the church 
dedication was due last Sunday. (...) Russian Orthodoxy has a long 
history in Korea, stretching back before the country was split into two 
political regimes in 1945. According to AsiaNews, some 10,000 Koreans 
converted to Orthodoxy in the early 1900s as a result of Russian 
missionaries work.]
*************************************************

8.   EVANGELICALS BREAK WITH BUSH ON NORTH KOREA
     Religion News Service, 22 August 2006

When evangelical pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren announced 
that he would make a preaching mission to North Korea next year, it 
raised eyebrows in the conservative religious community. North Korea, 
after all, is a keystone in President Bush's "axis of evil" and is 
called by the State Department and human rights groups a gross violator 
of religious freedom.

Warren, author of the Purpose-Driven book series, was forced to cancel a 
preliminary July 17 trip to Pyongyang following heightened tensions 
between the reclusive regime and the West over North Korea's July 5 test 
of seven missiles. Nevertheless, he insisted that his preaching visit 
would go on next year despite criticism from other evangelicals and the 
Bush administration's efforts to totally isolate the country. 
"Regardless of politics, I will go anywhere I am invited to preach the 
gospel," Warren said.

Warren's stance is one of several indications that, at least on foreign 
policy issues, the president cannot automatically count on the support 
-- or at least quiet acquiescence -- of conservative and moderate 
evangelicals as he did in the run-up to the war in Iraq.

For example, evangelist Franklin Graham, head of the relief agency 
Samaritan's Purse and one minister who has visited North Korea, recently 
told the PBS program Religion & Ethics Newsweekly that he objects to US 
policy. "We need to talk to the North Koreans face to face, period," 
Graham said. "Eyeball to eyeball. And there is a lot that can be 
accomplished if we simply do that."

Separately, a leading conservative evangelical -- Richard Land of the 
Southern Baptist Convention -- signed on to an 18-point plan last month 
pressing for a joint humanitarian and human rights approach to North 
Korea rather than the administration's single-minded focus on arms 
control. The coalition includes such liberal groups as Americans for 
Democratic Action, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the 
American Humanist Association.

[Additional information from Associated Press: North Korean Foreign 
Minister Paek Nam Sun held talks with a US delegation led by a special 
assistant to the Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of veteran US evangelist 
Billy Graham, the North's official media said. Paek met Melvin L. 
Cheatham, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, without giving 
further details on what was discussed or the purpose of the trip by the 
US delegation. In 2000, the junior Graham went to North Korea and 
preached in churches, and his relief agency Samaritan's Purse has been 
allowed to do limited humanitarian work inside the isolated country.]
*************************************************

9.   AIR KORYO PLANE CRASHES IN PYONGYANG -- NO INJURIES
     Agence France Presse, 18 August 2006

A North Korean plane carrying around 50 passengers, including Western 
tourists, crash-landed at Pyongyang's airport this week without 
seriously injuring anyone, diplomats told AFP Friday. Local authorities 
have told embassies in Pyongyang that there were no deaths or serious 
injuries, according to two diplomats in the North Korean capital who 
spoke on condition of anonymity.
The accident happened on Tuesday (15 August) as Air Koryo flight JS152 
from the Chinese capital of Beijing came into land at Pyongyang, they 
said. It has not been publicly acknowledged by the North Korean 
government, however one diplomat in Pyongyang said embassies had been 
given some scarce details.

"The government has confirmed that the front wheel axle was broken and 
part of a wing came off and landed in a paddy field," a diplomat said. 
Another diplomat, who talked to one of the passengers after the 
incident, said the plane landed in the field after the first landing 
attempt failed.

"There was a lot of mud on the plane and people exited through the 
emergency door," he told AFP.

There were three British nationals and one German man known to have been 
on board, all of whom were unharmed, according to the diplomats. One of 
the diplomats said, however, that despite requests to authorities, no 
passenger manifest has been made available, and so it was not known who 
else was on the plane.

Like much in North Korea, little is known about the safety record of Air 
Koryo. The airline uses mostly former Soviet Union Tupolev or Ilyushin 
class planes. Earlier this year Air Koryo joined a list of 92 
international carriers blacklisted by the European Union from flying in 
EU airspace.
*************************************************

10.   OBSERVATIONS FROM A VISIT TO THE DPRK
     by Kathi Zellweger, last visit for Caritas Internationalis, 18-29 
July 2006

[After over a decade of working for the Caritas DPRK programme, Kathi 
Zellweger takes her 51st and last trip to the DPRK on behalf of 
Caritas-Hong Kong. In November she begins her new assignment in 
Pyongyang as resident DPRK Country Director for the Swiss Agency for 
Development and Cooperation (SDC), a Swiss Government organization of 
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Here follow excerpts of her observations.]

In July and early August heavy rainstorms hit parts of the DPRK. At the 
time of the visit, it was not clear how many lives had been lost, how 
many people were made homeless and how serious the damage to 
infrastructure and crop was. The government was still assessing the 
situation. The IFRC had, however, through their national counterpart, 
started to distribute family emergency kits and WFP had offered food 
aid. With the involvement of resident NGO reduced and the WFP program 
scaled down, doubts remain as to how the community away from Pyongyang 
will cope in future. The struggle for survival will continue and bad 
weather is affecting the already fragile situation.

The working environment for aid agencies remains difficult, particularly 
with the new focus on development aid, which requires a different modus 
operandi, with increased policy dialogue, transparency, data and 
information, and a partnership approach. The general situation seemed 
tense and people were somewhat withdrawn and reluctant to talk and share 
information. There is a risk that North Korea is slipping back into 
isolation.

Traveling from Beijing to Pyongyang by Air Koryo on Tuesday, 18 July, it 
was apparent that a number of DPRK diplomats posted in various countries 
were heading back home for consultation. Had the DPRK underestimated the 
reaction of the international community with regard to their missile 
testing?

In areas visited, no major flood damage was observed, but local 
officials knew that some places had been badly affected. The government, 
however, was at the time of the visit not considering appealing for 
international support, although donations would not be rejected.

The Ministry of Agriculture estimated a loss of approximately 100,000 
tons of grain with some 30,000 hectares of arable land flooded.

People were busy with various community services (embankment repairs, 
building and renovation jobs or working in the fields) and the opening 
hours of the markets in Pyongyang, possibly also elsewhere in the 
country, had been reduced to 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

The market visited was very busy and the availability of goods - for 
those with money - has again increased. Grain is officially still no 
longer sold in the market and food rations from the Public Distribution 
System were reported to be irregular.

Since the introduction of the first economic reform steps 4 years ago it 
is obvious that the 'taste of money' has penetrated North Korean 
society, resulting in increased pressure and control, but also in a 
greater awareness of prices and costs of goods and services.

At the market, the exchange rate for US dollars and Euros had remained 
similar to March this year, my previous visit, at Won 2,900.

In the fields hardly any tractors were operating, women and children 
were busy weeding and for heavier work, oxen are used. In many fields 
the maize looked stunted and farmers mentioned that the agricultural 
season had started late and in July the temperatures were too low. A 
decrease in the maize harvest is very likely.

Cutting trees for firewood and for construction material, but apparently 
also for export to China, continues and this will have a long-lasting 
negative impact on the environment.

In Pyongyang the preparations for another Arirang Festival were ongoing 
and thousands of youngsters busy rehearsing. Later on, however, the 
cancellation or postponement of the festival to spring 2007 was 
announced due to the impact of the floods. With fewer foreign residents 
in Pyongyang, shops and restaurants are feeling the impact, and 
discounts, free dishes or coupons for future visits are often provided. 
An entrepreneurial spirit has reached North Korea and earning money is 
part of daily life. Name cards, also of restaurants, are now more common.

Many streets in Pyongyang were undergoing renovation and hundreds of 
workers were busy seven days a week, often encouraged to work hard, with 
music playing from loudspeakers or even live bands. Traffic in Pyongyang 
has increased and new numberplates have been issued to some car 
operators. In the countryside men and women mainly use bicycles to move 
around and quite a number of motorcycles have also found their way to 
the DPRK. Bus services between cities (in the east coast) were also 
running. Colleagues reported that the energy supply was better than 
before and power cuts in Pyongyang were fewer.

Shopping in Pyongyang is now less dull: there are many more shops (state 
shops, supermarkets, hotel shops and small stalls). A similar selection 
of goods available in the public all-purpose markets proved however to 
be much cheaper. Foreigners can shop anywhere by now and the bargaining 
process is great fun.

The Sunday service at Changchun Catholic Church was much livelier. A 
group of 5 South Koreans, including one priest, was visiting and not 
only was the Church full to the brim. Thanks to the visit of the priest 
from South Korea, a mass with communion took place. There is no resident 
Catholic priest in North Korea. After the service, singing old songs had 
people from both the north and south joining hands.

Despite difficult road conditions, the delegation traveled the 380 
kilometers from Pyongyang to Hamhung in 4 1/2 hours. There was little 
traffic: some trucks, a few cars, many bicycles and a couple of 
scooters. In a few places some rain damage was seen; i.e. a flooded 
maize field near a river, a destroyed bridge and a couple of trucks or 
tractors that had gone off the road.

Ryongchon county has a population of some 123,000 people; 27,000 live in 
the county town. In April 2004, two train wagons exploded at the railway 
station in Ryongchon. Over 150 people died, mostly children, and of the 
approximately 1,300 injured, many had to be hospitalized. A number of 
public buildings and many homes were destroyed or damaged with over 
8,000 people in need of new accommodation. 

By now, life in Ryongchon seemed to be back to normal, with residential, 
community and government buildings all rebuilt. But despite tremendous 
support from South Korea and the international community many of the new 
buildings are already showing signs of decay and a lack of maintenance.  
The opening of the Ryongchon Hospital is now planned for 9 September.

The shift from humanitarian aid to development cooperation is not easy 
to execute as many vital elements for successful collaborations as still 
not in place. Overall, the room for NGO work is diminishing and NGOs can 
no longer establish an in-country presence. Even for some non-resident 
NGOs regular fieldtrips have been curtailed and some business people or 
foreign investors have also faced visa problems. At the time of the 
visit, it was not clear if the present flood situation would bring some 
changes, and if so, it was not clear which direction these might take. 
Former resident NGOs are now health units under the EU and all have had 
to give up their identity (no letterheads, no name cards, no cars with 
logos etc.) and in most cases also have had to reduce the number of 
international staff in order to remain an in-country presence.

WFP meanwhile reduced its staff establishment to 10 internationals. A 
number of food-for-work programs are planned and some of the blended 
food factories have been restarted. Access for WFP staff to the more 
remote areas was still under negotiation.

After more than 10 years of humanitarian assistance, the wish of the 
DPRK government to shift to development aid is understandable. Five 
priority areas for collaboration have been identified by the DPRK 
government:

-- to ensure food security
-- to improve energy supply
-- to strenghten environmental management
-- to rationalize trade, industry, transport sectors
-- to assist with basic social services

It will, however, remain important for the aid community to stay alert 
and continuously assess the situation. Humanitarian needs remain high 
during the transition phase to development cooperation, even more so if 
the country has to cope with natural disasters.
*************************************************

End CanKor # 259

*************************************************
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