North Korea: Open For Business -- A Bit
BusinessWeek Online JULY 26, 2004 . ASIAN BUSINESS North Korea: Open For Business -- A Bit North Korea remains poor, but Kim's reforms are bringing growth http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_30/b3893074.htm Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
North Korea Goes Commercial Online
North Korea Goes Commercial Online (North Korea's net venture is merely one aspect of its slow but certain transformation into a capitalist economy): http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/07/north-korea-goes-commercial-online.html. -- Yoshie * Critical Montages: http://montages.blogspot.com/ * Greens for Nader: http://greensfornader.net/ * Bring Them Home Now! http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/ * Calendars of Events in Columbus: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html, http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php, http://www.cpanews.org/ * Student International Forum: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osudivest.org/ * Al-Awda-Ohio: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio * Solidarity: http://www.solidarity-us.org/
North Korea: Beyond the DMZ (Dirs. JT Takagi Hye Jung Park)
* NORTH KOREA: BEYOND THE DMZ JT Takagi Hye Jung Park / Edited by Dena Mermelstein (56 min./Color/2003) Axis of evil? While this tiny state on the divided Korean peninsula is continually demonized in America, few have any first hand knowledge of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. What is it like on the other side of the 38th parallel? How do Koreans in the north view this past decade - the fall of Soviet communism, natural disasters that brought famine and power shortages, and a continued, dangerously hostile relationship with the U.S.? What are the concerns of the Korean American community - many of whom have family in the north? This new documentary follows a young Korean American woman to see her relatives, and through unique footage of life in the D.P.R.K. and interviews with ordinary people and scholars, opens a window into this nation and its people. Go to www.twn.org/update.html for a listing of upcoming screenings near you! With support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting), Media Arts Fellowships/Rockefeller Foundation,the New York State Council on the Arts, the Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media/The Funding Exchange Film Rental Film Sale Video Rental Video Sale N/A N/A 75 225 English Pre-orders now accepted http://www.twn.org/record.cgi?recno=434 * * The human face of North Korea By Alisa Givental NEW YORK - Few Americans know that no army won the Korean War - it ended in a truce. But most are familiar with United States charges that North Korea has weapons of mass destruction, and they might also be used to thinking of the communist nation as a serious threat. A new documentary titled North Korea Beyond the DMZ looks at the human side of this country, and discusses the origins of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) outlook on the world and the US in particular. The film analyzes Korean history from World War II until the present. Using footage from the US and the North Korean capital Pyongyang and environs, combined with TV broadcasts, photographs interviews and archival footage, this film creates an image of the DPRK that differs from the harsh version usually presented by traditional news sources. Our goal was to create some glimpse of what life there is like, that there are people there. Usually, we are only seeing coverage about the leadership, said one of the documentary's two directors, J T Takagi. Accomplishing that mission was not easy. It took three years of paperwork for a crew of two to get permission to enter the DPRK with their subject, a young Korean-American woman on a quest to locate her father's long-lost family. After the Korean War - in which more than 30,000 US troops and 2 million Koreans died - ended without a peace treaty, more than 10 million families were separated and have remained so for more than 50 years. The young woman's father had a brother and mother left in the North from whom he has never heard. On arriving in the country, she learns about the contemporary culture of North Korea, one of the last communist countries. The young woman is exposed to juche, a system of thought created by the late ruler Kim Il-sung, which teaches that everyone is master of his own fate and the power to control that fate lies within oneself. Self-reliance has been the official mantra of North Korea for more than 50 years. The documentary discusses the life of modern North Koreans and their problems: the lack of electricity and hot water, the famines caused by massive flooding at the end of the last decade and the economic crisis precipitated by the loss of the country's main ally, the Soviet Union. Though often portrayed in the West as a country run by a maniacal militaristic leader, the film portrays North Korea as much more complicated than this simplistic version allows. It is a nation of few freedoms but an almost 100 percent literacy rate. It is a place with little nightlife or entertainment but a country that has proclaimed every Saturday a countrywide study day. According to Takagi, the current tension with the US is the result of fear and propaganda, and the fact that people in the North have grown up with the idea that the US would inevitably invade. North Koreans feel that they are under siege and respond accordingly, she said in an interview. North Korea has been trying to change, to move to a market economy or at least to an economy that could interface with the world market, Takagi said, yet the US has been preventing that from happening. The existence of North Korea as a supposed threat is a good reason to maintain a military presence in the area, Takagi added. Today, Washington has 37,000 troops stationed in South Korea. Takagi, a Japanese-American independent filmmaker who works with Third World Newsreel, a media arts center in New York City, co-directed the film with Hye Jung
North Korea will strengthen nuclear weapons programme
North Korea to continue nuke programme Tuesday 30 September 2003, 10:46 Makka Time, 7:46 GMT North Korea has said it is no longer interested in holding further negotiations with the United States and will take practical measures to increase its nuclear capabilities. Officials did not disclose the practical measures, but a spokesman for the communist state's foreign ministry said if the United States tried to force North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programme without a non-aggression treaty, it would lead to war. North Korea has threatened to strengthen its nuclear weapons programme as a deterrent against what it calls a US plan to invade. The DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea ) is taking practical measures to steadily beef up the nuclear deterrent force as a just self-defensive means to repel the US nuclear pre-emptive attack and ensure peace and security on the Korean Peninsula, the North Korean spokesman said. Source: http://english.aljazeera.net/Articles/News/GlobalNews/North+Korea+to+continu e+nuke+programme.htm On the thoroughfares of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, five remarkable roadside billboards are scheduled to go up later this month. In one, a young man will stare out with an expression of wonder once reserved for official posters of North Koreans gazing upon their leader, Kim Jong Il. This time, the object of awe will instead be a shiny new Fiat. The billboards are part of what is being dubbed the first corporate media blitz to hit North Korea. Pyeonghwa Motors Corporation - a South Korean company with close ties to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church - coaxed the North Korean government this year into a major break with its communist doctrine: the launch of a capitalist marketing campaign. Pyeonghwa began assembling cars in North Korea 18 months ago using imported Fiat parts. Creating an ad campaign acceptable to North Korean officials wasn't easy, said John Kim, the company's director of general affairs. We had to work closely with the government, and they kept on rejecting ads ... because they looked too much like we were trying to sell something. The company has already begun publishing ads in government- sponsored trade magazines showcasing the slick Whistle sedan, named after a popular North Korean song, as well as a new, roomier SUV model. Source: http://www.dawn.com/2003/09/16/int11.htm
Iraq's North Korea ploy
The Iraqis do not have Alistair Campbell working for them, but their handling of policy and presentation shows signs of great tactical skill. We will see whether the muted presentation in the form of an interview by vice president Ramadan on an Iraqi regional tv channel is just an accident but it looks to me probably coordinated. It subtly and directly challenges the whole Bush/Blair linkage of WMD and regime change - he let it be known that Iraq would have no objection to direct negotiations with the US about matters of mutual interest (with the caveat quietly added, so long as there is no interference in our internal affairs). This is North Korea's ploy to trade WMD for regime continuity, except they have decided to be aggressive in bringing the demand forward by being openly obstructive about nuclear weapons. They have their local neighbours, China, Russia and South Korea, all supporting the idea that they should negotiate directly with the USA. WMD is an arbitrarily applied code for regime change against unpopular regimes. The Iraqis have been arguing persuasively that the pressure on them is pressure for a change in the whole middle east. Their spokesperson has just argued this again at a conference of south east asian non-aligned. Colin Powell himself has revealingly quickly come forward with an interview giving all sorts of historical arguments when US intervention has not led, he claims, to interference in internal affairs. But he had to chose his words carefully to avoid saying anything that about a post Saddam Iraq being democratic. He said that an Iraq without WMD would change the whole Middle East apparently in a quiet amiable throw away aside. But countries like Saudi Arabia who are not really expecting Iraq to unleash anthrax or nerve gas on its territory, and who know that Israel already has nuclear weapons, can read the signals about whether its own monarchical dispensation will come under threat. So just as South Korea in the east thinks it has more to lose by a direct confrontation with North Korea on the grounds of its weapons of mass destruction, so may many other countries in the world will think that direct talks between the Bush administration and the Saddam administration is preferable. The democratic countries may also feel it is preferable to war which will cause chaos and lead to hundreds of thousands of refugees. The Iraqis have inserted a large wedge with a slim edge. Direct (of course initially indirect) negotiations between Iraq and the USA even on the assumption of non-interference in Iraq's internal affairs, (because the pretext of course is only about weapons of mass destruction) would provide an opportunity to demonstrate linkage (eg a few visits by human rights inspectors of the sort whom Iran has just prudently invited in) eg the EU could make a parallel initiative for aid to the middle east especially Iraq in return for improvements in human rights records, (perhaps of a similar nature to those which are supposed to have taken place in that pillar of NATO, Turkey in return for economic inducements.) Perhaps perhaps, the whole sanctions regime might be lifted if Tony Blair does not like the infant mortality in Iraq. In the final analysis Tony Blair knows from his own experience of dealing with terrorism you have to talk with the terrorists. Besides only a dozen years ago Iraq was an ally of the US against Iran. Where has realpolitik gone? I predict that Iraq will play up this N Korea ploy in the next weeks to intensify splits in the US hegemonic camp. The coalition of the willing may soon appear the coalition of the isolated and the politically desperate. How can you be a global hegemon if people do not follow, even if you have overwhelming armed force? Especially if you petulantly refuse to talk to enemies who are willing to offer negotiations. Chris Burford London
Squeezing North Korea
Interesting apparently informed comment on Newsnight (BBC2) last night: The issue of WMD is a proxy and a lever for regime change. [obviously applied selectively to the countries across the world] The Bush administration is divided about whether to go for regime change in north Korea. It has cut off fuel, and electricity is therefore in very short supply. The tactically sophisticated regime is trying to ensure its continuity by bargaining nuclear weapons for regime continuation. That is why it is upping the issues and trying to apply pressure for negotiations. The BA is resisting negotiations. -- No comment about how this will look different after an attack on Iraq. Interesting that the DRK's latest move is to call on Britain to facilitate negotiations. Most members of this list will not be hugely sympathetic to North Korea. But the neo-liberal agenda used to be to respect state sovereignty and to let economic pressures undermine state centralised societies. Should a government that is unloved by the USA be subject to economic sanctions severe enough to force regime change, on the grounds of WMD? More importantly than making moral judgements as individuals, each of us on our own are unlikely to change the world, is there any way of stopping the BA's hegemonistic plans? It seems possible that if Russia and China support France in defying the US agenda, it may be because of alarm at seeing a neighbouring regime overturned because the BA refuses negotiations about these allegedly very dangerous WMD's. BBC website today: China's reluctance to impose sanctions is shared by the European Union as well as Japan and South Korea. Russia - a veto-holding member of the Security Council and a key North Korean ally - abstained on the IAEA vote saying it believed that involving the Security Council would be premature and counter-productive. I would have thought that if Iraq falls, North Korea is next, as Tony Blair said in the House of Commons. Chris Burford London
North Korea nails Bush
BBC late last night emphasised how extremely unwelcome the news must be for the Bush administration that North Korea is expelling arms inspectors. Ironically just at time when Iraq is cooperating with them. The US government wants all public attention on Iraq. The speculation is that the Bush admin. has no policy for this contingency. They have been trying to isolate NKorea for the last year. They cannot fight it. They must negotate. But they cannot do so publicly. Even to use South Korea is difficult since the new President has just been elected on a platform somewhat distant from the USA. Bush's best hope is that China will help to coordinate negotations with North Korea. [But China is not in favour of a hegemonic world, and within 30 years the Chinese economy might be larger than that of the USA.] Chris Burford London
US Imperialism: North Korea
Top World News 12/24 12:45 North Korea Further Tampers With Monitors, UN Says (Update1) By Mark Drajem Washington, Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea broke more seals on its nuclear facilities and further tampered with surveillance equipment, increasing concern that the nation will develop nuclear weapons, United Nations monitors said. This rapidly deteriorating situation raises grave non-proliferation concerns, said Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in a statement. ElBaradei is also involved in the UN weapons inspections in Iraq. North Korea started work Saturday to repair a nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, north of the capital of Pyongyang, indicating the nation will breach a 1994 accord with Western nations to abandon its effort to make a nuclear bomb. The tensions with North Korea, which the U.S. has called a serious concern, have some analysts and U.S. lawmakers saying that the threat in the Korean peninsula is greater than that from Saddam Hussein in Iraq. North Korea only deepens its international isolation with these recent actions, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said yesterday. I'm sure everyone in the international community is seized with the issue. Powell Calls U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has made a round of telephone calls about North Korea to foreign ministers in Japan, South Korea, Russia and China since Saturday, Reeker said. North Korea said it needs the plant for electricity generation. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld yesterday ridiculed that claim, saying, Their power grid couldn't even absorb that energy. The State Department said spent fuel rods, which North Korea broke a UN seal in order to get to, can't be used to generate electricity. They can be converted into weapons material. So far, seals have been cut and surveillance equipment hampered at three separate facilities at Nyongbyong: at the spent fuel pond, a fuel rod fabrication plant and a reprocessing plant, the UN said. Unless the (UN) is able to immediately reinstate its safeguards at these facilities it will not be able to provide assurances that (North Korea) is not diverting nuclear material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, the statement said. Food Aid An estimated 6.4 million North Koreans, almost a third of the population, will need international food aid to survive the coming year, the UN said earlier this month. Since North Korea told U.S. officials it had resumed its nuclear weapons program, the U.S., South Korea and Japan have cut off food aid and fuel shipments to the country. The leadership of the country is currently repressing its people, starving its people, while rebuilding nuclear reactors it can't afford, Rumsfeld said. And Rumsfeld said that the U.S. is capable of fighting a war on two fronts if necessary, and let there be no doubt about it. Meanwhile North Korea blames U.S. hawks for tensions in the region. The nation's defense minister, Kim Il Chol, said the U.S. is driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war, according to Agence France-Presse. Human Bombs All North Korean military officers and their men should prepare themselves to be human bombs and fighters ready to blow up themselves in order to defend the headquarters of the revolution, the defense minister said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency and cited by AFP. While the U.S. has said that it is capable of fighting both a war in Iraq and taking action necessary to prevent North Korea from developing nuclear weapons, U.S. analysts say the U.S. military may not be capable of fighting on two fronts. U.S. Marine Lieutenant General Robert Magnus, formerly deputy commandant of Marine forces in the Pacific, said if the U.S. found itself in the middle of a major war with Iraq it would face problems with an outbreak of hostilities with North Korea. North Korea's defenses are aided by difficult terrain as well as a large conventional military force, and a prospective military campaign there would be tough stuff, Magnus said in a recent interview.
North Korea
My mother's first cousin was a high-ranking doctor in the Army during the Korean War. He was also a close friend of John Eisenhower, the Dwight's son. He was part of the task force to determine whether or not to drop a nuclear bomb. The reason for not doing so was that the prevailing winds would have brought too much fallout on the American troops. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
[PEN-L:7762] Chinese Grain, coal aid for North Korea
Saturday June 5 1999 South China Morning Post - Hong Kong
Grain, coal aid for North Korea
REUTERS
China will give famine-stricken North Korea
150,000 tonnes of grain and 400,000 tonnes of
coking coal this year, Premier Zhu Rongji told
Pyongyang's No 2 leader yesterday.
Xinhua said Mr Zhu offered the aid to Kim
Yong-nam, head of North Korea's Parliament
and the highest-ranking Pyongyang official to
visit China since 1991.
Mr Kim also met President Jiang Zemin.
"Over the past years, China has provided
assistance, within its capacity, for the North
Korean people in their socialist construction,"
Mr Zhu was quoted as saying.
North Korea has been struggling since 1995
with a devastating famine caused by floods
and drought, magnified by mismanagement in
the state-run collective farm system. Hundreds
of thousands of people are thought to have
died.
Mr Kim is expected to be shown the
achievements of capitalist-style economic
reforms in Shanghai.
Although China is likely to showcase its
transformation from a backward state-planned
economy to a global trading powerhouse,
mainland officials have said Beijing will not
press its development model on Mr Kim's
delegation.
Xinhua quoted Mr Kim as praising China's
economic reforms and congratulating Beijing
for avoiding the worst of the Asian financial
crisis and maintaining growth.
Xinhua quoted Mr Zhu as saying ties were
"well-grounded" between China and North
Korea, which fought together against US-led
United Nations forces in the 1950-53 Korean
War.
The two countries still hold many views in
common, including wariness about US policies
in Asia, suspicion of strengthened US-Japan
military ties, and rejection of Western criticism
of their human rights records.
Re: North Korea
A quick thank you to all who have responded (or intend to respond) to my request on information on Korea. Andrew Sessions
