Official North Korean Thread

Seoul recalls 175 workers from joint labour complex.

  • South Koreans have fled factory park with cars stacked with belongings
  • Evacuation of jointly run labour complex follows a breakdown in talks
  • Both sides have warned of "grave measures" over the dispute


A group of 175 South Koreans have been withdrawn from a jointly run factory complex in North Korea amid concerns of increasing tension between the two countries.

The South Korean workers could be seen arriving back at the border with their belongings from the factory park piled high on top of cars after they were recalled to Seoul.

The emergency evacuation follows an earlier North Korean rejection of a South Korean demand for talks on the labour complex that has been closed nearly a month.

Both sides have warned of taking "grave measures" over the dispute but did not say what they might be.

In a statement, the South Korean minister in charge of inter-Korean relations said he was worried about the workers not having access to food and medicine.

Pyongyang's powerful National Defence Commission earlier said Seoul's demand for working-level talks was deceptive and that ongoing US-South Korean military drills and the spreading of anti-North Korea leaflets at the border were proof of Seoul's insincerity.

The war of words calls into question the future of the complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.

The jointly run factory park is the most significant casualty so far in the recent deterioration of relations between the Koreas.

North Korea also said today it will soon put a detained American on trial for allegedly trying to overthrow the government.

The announcement further complicates the already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington.

The indictment of Kenneth Bae comes in the middle of something of a lull after weeks of threats by North Korea against the US and South Korea.

It has expressed rage over UN sanctions over a February nuclear test and ongoing US-South Korean military drills, though analysts say Pyongyang's motive is to get its Korean War enemies to negotiate on its own terms.

Bae, identified in North Korean state media by his Korean name, Pae Jun Ho, is a tour operator of Korean descent who was arrested after arriving with a tour on November 3 in Rason, a special economic zone bordering China and Russia.

He is the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009. The other Americans were eventually deported or released after high-profile diplomatic interventions, some involving former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Analysts say the North will probably hand Bae a harsh punishment to use him as a bargaining chip in possible negotiations with the US.

"The preliminary inquiry into crimes committed by American citizen Pae Jun Ho closed," the official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief report.

"In the process of investigation he admitted that he committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK with hostility toward it. His crimes were proved by evidence."

DPRK is the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Under North Korea's criminal code, terrorist acts include murdering, kidnapping and injuring the country's citizens can lead to a death sentence or life in jail.

North Korea and the US fought the 1950-53 Korean War and still do not have diplomatic relations. The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang represents the US.

KCNA did not say when Bae's trial will take place or what the charges were.

North Korea's state media and the US government have made little information about Bae public.

But his friends, colleagues and South Korean activists specialising in North Korea affairs said he is a Christian missionary based in a Chinese border town who frequently made trips to North Korea to feed orphans there.

Officially, North Korea guarantees freedom of religion. In practice, authorities crack down on Christians, who are seen as Western-influenced threats to the government.

The distribution of Bibles and secret prayer services can mean banishment to a labour camp or execution, defectors from the country have said.

In 2009, American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were arrested and sentenced to 12 years of hard labour for trespassing and unspecified hostile acts.

They were freed later that year after Mr Clinton visited Pyongyang to negotiate their release.

article-2315776-19826872000005DC-268_634x306.jpg


article-2315776-19825B44000005DC-42_634x419.jpg


article-2315776-19826EAC000005DC-18_634x413.jpg
Click to expand...

Source
 
zippy said:
not lifted off yet. Still refuelling. A mother of a rocket that one. Takes a year to fuel up. explains the fuel price hikes.
Click to expand...

Why don't they just run it off all the hot air that Kim Jong Un sprouts?
 
N Korea Sentences American to 15 years hard labour

An American detained for nearly six months in North Korea has been sentenced to 15 years of "compulsory labor" for unspecified crimes against the state, Pyongyang announced Thursday.

The sentencing of Kenneth Bae, described by friends as a devout Christian and a tour operator, will further complicate already strained relations between Pyongyang and Washington as the countries pursue tentative diplomacy following weeks of warlike threats from North Korea.

Pyongyang's official state media said Bae's trial took place Tuesday, but the dispatch provided few new details. Bae was tried in the country's Supreme Court on charges of plotting to overthrow the government. He could've faced the death penalty.

The exact nature of his alleged crimes has not been revealed.

Bae was arrested in early November in Rason, a special economic zone in North Korea's far northeastern region bordering China and Russia, North Korea said.

The trial mirrors a similar situation in 2009, when the U.S. and North Korea were locked in a standoff over Pyongyang's decision to launch a long-range rocket and conduct an underground nuclear test. At the time, North Korea had detained two American journalists, whose eventual release after being sentenced to 12 years of hard labor paved the way for diplomacy following months of tensions.

In North Korean dispatches, Bae, a Korean American from Washington state, is called Pae Jun Ho, the North Korean spelling of his Korean name.


Source : Sapa-AP /mr
Date : 02 May 2013 05:10
 
Watched a documentary the other day about some Western health care workers who set up an eye clinic in North Korea. These people had their cataracts removed and immediately went into a hall to give praise to Chairman Kim at the top of their voices in front of a group of other people. I didn't know stuff like that actually happened. Quite scary. If this is how ordinary people are conditioned to behave in North Korea its no wonder that the communist regime is still in power.
 
N Korea Removes Missiles from Launch Site

North Korea has taken a major step back from a planned missile test, US officials said, even as Pyongyang and Seoul exchanged fresh threats Tuesday of swift military retaliation to any provocation.

A US defence official said two North Korean missiles -- primed for imminent test firing -- had been moved from their launch site, signalling a possible easing of North Asia tensions ahead of a US-South Korea summit in Washington.

US and South Korean officials had been worried that any test of the medium-range Musudan missiles would trigger a fresh surge in military tensions that have included threats of nuclear war from Pyongyang.

But the US defence official told AFP on condition of anonymity: "They moved them," and added that there was no longer an imminent threat of a test.

Pyongyang, which rattled the world with its third nuclear test in February, would have to make detectable preparations to return to a launch-ready status, two US officials said.

The move was revealed in Washington on the eve of a first summit between President Barack Obama and new South Korean President Park Geun-Hye at the White House on Tuesday, intended as a strong signal of unity to Pyongyang.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been on the brink of boiling over for months, with the North issuing a series of apocalyptic threats over what it sees as intensely provocative US-South Korean military exercises.

Although large-scale, annual joint drills were wrapped up at the end of last month, Pyongyang issued a fresh warning Tuesday over a smaller, joint anti-submarine exercise.

North Korean troops near the disputed Yellow Sea border with the South sector have been ordered to strike back if "even a single shell drops" in their territorial waters, the North's army command said in a statement.

Any subsequent counterstrike would trigger an escalated military reaction that would see South Korea's border islands engulfed in a "sea of flames," the statement added.

North Korea shelled one of the islands, Yeonpyeong, in November 2010, killing four South Koreans and sparking brief fears of a full-scale conflict.

In an interview with US broadcaster CBS ahead of her summit with Obama, President Park said any similar attack by the North would be met with a harsh military response.

"Yes, we will make them pay," Park said, adding that Seoul would no longer engage in a "vicious cycle" of automatically meeting the North's provocations and threats with negotiations and assistance.

"It is time for us to put an end to that cycle," she said.

Earlier, a senior White House official warned that it was too early to say whether North Korea's spate of bellicose behaviour, which prompted Washington to send nuclear-capable stealth B-2 bombers over South Korea, was ending.

"It's premature to make a judgment about whether the North Korean provocation cycle is going up, down or zigzagging," said Danny Russel, senior director for East Asia on Obama's National Security Council.

South Korea's defence ministry would not comment on whether the North had moved its Musudan missiles from their launch pads, saying only that it was closely "tracking" all activity in the area.

It also declined to confirm a Yonhap news agency report, citing a senior government source in Seoul, that North Korea had ordered missile and rocket units to stand down from combat-ready status.

Washington is making strenuous efforts to cement Obama's relationship with Park who was sworn into office less than three months ago.

Obama will host South Korea's first woman leader in the Oval Office, hold an expanded luncheon meeting for both delegations, then appear with Park at a joint White House press conference.

Park will address a joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday.

Park has taken a firm stand against any concessions to North Korea but has also been careful not to close the door to future talks -- which US officials say is ultimately the sole, albeit not ideal, way to deal with Pyongyang.

Russel said the theatrics of the White House summit were intended to send a clear signal to Pyongyang.

"The unity of message between the two governments and the two presidents signals to North Korea that it has no hope of gaining benefits from provocation," he said.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 07 May 2013 09:14
 
ag shame too much other news at the moment so they not getting front page. shame sorry for them other things far more interesting than their fireworks display.
 
US Envoy praises China's penalty against North Korea

The top U.S. envoy on North Korea is calling a Chinese bank's decision to close the accounts of Pyongyang's main foreign exchange bank a "very hopeful sign" in efforts to end the North's nuclear ambitions.

Glyn Davies said Monday that it's not yet clear whether this signifies a real shift in Beijing. But he calls the development interesting. Davies meets Tuesday with South Korean officials and then heads for talks in China and Japan.

A torrent of warlike North Korean threats following its February nuclear test has raised inter-Korean tensions.

The state-run Bank of China Ltd. said last week that it halted business with North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank. Washington accuses the bank of financing Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs. It's the latest sign of Beijing's displeasure with its ally.


Source : Sapa-AP /pd
Date : 14 May 2013 05:17
 
N Korea has no nuclear warhead to fit missile: Official

North Korea has yet to develop a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on a missile, a senior US official said on Wednesday, contradicting a recent US military intelligence report.

The North claimed its third atomic test staged in February involved a "miniaturised and lighter" warhead, prompting speculation that it had acquired the crucial technology to fit nuclear devices to a missile delivery system.

The latest test -- the North's most powerful to date -- came only two months after it successfully launched a long-range rocket in what was widely viewed as a ballistic missile test.

"I don't believe they have the capability to miniaturise the nuclear warhead, put it on top of the missile, work the launch and reentry problem, and target," said the senior US official who declined to be identified.

"I don't think they have been able to put the whole piece together," he told a press briefing for foreign media in Seoul.

His comments countered a recent report by the US military's Defense Intelligence Agency which suggested the North may have succeeded in miniaturising its warheads.

The February test drew UN sanctions which in turn triggered a cycle of escalating military tensions on the Korean peninsula that are only now beginning to subside.

At the height of the tensions, Pyongyang threatened pre-emptive nuclear strikes on the United States and South Korea.

The threats prompted some hawkish politicians in Seoul to call for the South to develop its own unilateral nuclear deterrent separate from the "nuclear umbrella" provided by its US ally.

The US official said the deployment of nuclear-capable US B-52s and B-2 stealth bombers in recent joint drills with South Korea were proof of US commitment to providing a complete nuclear deterrent.

"I don't think South Korea needs to develop its own nuclear capability," he said, adding that such a move carried "a lot, a lot, a lot of responsibility".

"And the headache it brings is more than you understand right now. And I think that the US is able to be there to provide what we call an extended nuclear deterrence," he said.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pd
Date : 15 May 2013 06:08
 
SKorea says NKorea has fired three short range missiles

North Korea fired three short-range guided missiles into its eastern waters on Saturday, a South Korean official said. It routinely tests such missiles, but the latest launches came during a period of tentative diplomacy aimed at easing tensions.

The North fired two missiles Saturday morning and another in the afternoon, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said by phone. He said the North's intent was unclear. His ministry said it is watching North Korea carefully in case it conducts a provocation against South Korea.

In March, North Korea launched what appeared to be two KN-02 missiles off its east coast. Experts believe the country is trying to improve the range and accuracy of its arsenal.

North Korea recently withdrew two mid-range "Musudan" missiles believed to be capable of reaching Guam after moving them to its east coast earlier this year, U.S. officials said. The North is banned from testing ballistic missiles under U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Earlier this year, North Korea threatened nuclear strikes on Seoul and Washington because of annual U.S.-South Korean military drills and U.N. sanctions imposed over its third nuclear test in February. The drills ended late last month. This past month, the U.S. and South Korea ended another round of naval drills involving a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier off the east coast. North Korea calls such drills preparation to invade the North.

Analysts say the recent North Korean threats were partly an attempt to push Washington to agree to disarmament-for-aid talks.

In response to Saturday's missile test, the U.S. said threats or provocations will only further isolate North Korea from the rest of the world and undermine international efforts to bring peace and stability to Northeast Asia.

"We continue to urge the North Korean leadership to heed President Obama's call to choose the path of peace and come into compliance with its international obligations," said National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.

This past week, Glyn Davies, the top U.S. envoy on North Korea, ended trips to South Korea, China and Japan. On Friday, an adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned from North Korea but didn't immediately give details of his talks with officials there.

On Monday, North Korean state media showed that the country's hard-line defense minister had been replaced by a little-known army general. Outside analysts said it was part of leader Kim Jong Un's efforts to tighten his grip on the powerful military after his father Kim Jong Il died in December 2011.

The United States and Japan are participants in six-nation nuclear disarmament talks along with the Koreas, Russia and China. North Korea walked out of the talks in 2009 after the United Nations condemned it for a long-range rocket launch.

North Korea possesses an array of missiles. U.S. and South Korean officials do not believe the North's claim that it has developed nuclear warheads small enough to place on a missile. Last week in Washington, South Korean President Park Geun-hye and President Barack Obama warned North Korea against further nuclear provocations.

Tension between the two Koreas remains high after both sides pulled out their workers from a jointly run factory complex earlier this year. The countries remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce instead of a peace treaty.


Source : Sapa-AP /ma
Date : 18 May 2013 20:33
 
NKorea fires fifth missile in three days

North Korea fired another short-range missile into the Sea of Japan on Monday, the latest in a series of missile drills that have been condemned by South Korea and UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

The latest firing -- the fifth in three days -- was confirmed by a spokesman for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said it was unclear if the North was testing guided missiles or rockets from multiple launchers.

"We are still checking on the precise nature of these tests," the spokesman said.

The North fired three short-range guided missiles off its east coast on Saturday and another on Sunday, apparently as part of a military drill.

Such drills are not unusual but they come at a time of simmering military tensions on the Korean peninsula.

South Korea labelled the weekend missile tests "deplorable" and "provocative", while UN chief Ban Ki-moon had urged Pyongyang to refrain from any further launches.

"It is time for them to resume dialogue and lower the tensions," Ban said in Moscow.

Following the North's nuclear test in February and subsequent UN sanctions, tensions escalated sharply with Pyongyang issuing near daily threats of retribution against the South and the United States.

Although the situation has calmed somewhat in recent weeks, Pyongyang has continued to denounce a series of South Korea-US joint military exercises which it sees as dress rehearsals for invasion.

At one point, North Korea had been primed to test a pair of medium-range missiles, but US intelligence said the weapons were removed from their launch pads in early May.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 20 May 2013 09:34
 
North Korean Special Envoy in China Visit

A top North Korean general and confidant of leader Kim Jong-Un met a senior Chinese official in Beijing Wednesday, with relations between the allies strained ahead of a China-US summit.

Choe Ryong-Hae, director of the Korean People's Army politburo, is a "special envoy" of the North's young leader, Pyongyang's official news agency said.

He met Wang Jiarui, head of the ruling Chinese Communist Party's International Department, said Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei, to "exchange views on the situation on the Korean peninsula and other issues of common interest".

Hong gave no details.

China is the North's sole major ally and chief economic benefactor. But the relationship has been sorely tested in recent months by Pyongyang's refusal to heed Beijing's warnings against provoking the international community with its nuclear and missile programme.

China has long been the North's main diplomatic protector. But it sided with the rest of the UN Security Council in imposing sanctions after the North's long-range rocket test last December and its nuclear test in February.

The measures triggered a dangerous cycle of escalating military tensions on the Korean peninsula, during which China came under enormous US-led pressure to rein in a wayward ally threatening nuclear strikes against the US and South Korea.

Choe is believed to be the highest-ranking North Korean party official to visit China since Kim's late father and predecessor Kim Jong-Il in August 2011.

Kim Jong-Un has not visited since taking power in December 2011 but sent his uncle Jang Song-Thaek, a powerful figure in the inner circle, to Beijing in August last year.

Northeast Asia expert Wang Dong of Peking University called Choe's trip a "somewhat encouraging sign" that Pyongyang might be open to talks, but warned it was still taking provocative steps such as firing short-range missiles.

"The question of course will be how serious North Korea will be," he said.

Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies said the timing was significant ahead of a June 7-8 summit between US President Barack Obama and China's new leader Xi Jinping.

And South Korea's new president Park Geun-Hye is expected to hold a summit with Xi in Beijing in late June.

"Choe is Kim Jong-Un's closest confidant, so Kim is sending his highest possible envoy to China ahead of the US summit," Yang told AFP.

"This will be Kim's way to deliver his message to Obama concerning peace on the Korean peninsula and the nuclear issue," he added.

Seoul and Washington have held out the prospect of talks with Pyongyang, but only if it shows a firm commitment to abandoning its nuclear weapons programme.

The North has made it clear its nuclear deterrent is not up for negotiation, but observers said Choe might be empowered to offer some assurances or concessions to China.

"He's Kim's top military guy, so clearly the North's nuclear and missile programme will be on the agenda," said Cheong Seong-Chang, an analyst at the Sejong Institute think-tank in Seoul.

"China is looking for some sign of compromise, and Choe might offer an assurance not to conduct any more nuclear tests for now," Cheong said, adding that the North might seek a Kim summit with Xi in exchange.

Cho Han-Bum of South's Korea Institute for National Unification said the North's "threats and military brinkmanship during the recent crisis didn't reap much in the way of reward, so Kim needs a boost and a China visit would help cement his legitimacy as leader".

The relationship between the two nations, forged in the 1950-53 Korean War, has weakened significantly over the years as China's economic transformation has distanced it from the ideological rigidity of the dynastic Kim regime.

In line with UN sanctions, Beijing has moved to restrict Pyongyang's financial operations in China which the international community says are the major conduit for funding its nuclear weapons programme.

The strain in relations was reflected most recently when a Chinese fishing boat with 16 crew was seized by unidentified North Koreans.

The detention caused outrage online in China, with Internet users calling on Beijing to take a tough stance against Pyongyang.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 22 May 2013 11:51
 
Interesting read:

Nothing can really be done about North Korea at present because the incentive structure behind the relevant nations' behavior doesn't allow for it. The sad truth is that, for everyone who's not an ordinary North Korean citizen or prisoner languishing in the camp system, the status quo is infinitely preferable to the collapse of the regime:
  • China fears the influx of millions of brainwashed, malnourished refugees into its northeastern provinces. Not only would this be an expensive responsibility, but it might also strengthen separatist movements in the regions of Manchuria that already have significant ethnic Korean minorities. Also, it doesn't like the idea of a unified Korea on its borders with a U.S. base, particularly because such a state would probably be more pro-American than pro-China.
  • Russia, same deal. Although the Russians are curiously helpful when it comes to East Asian diplomacy these days (as Victor Cha noted in The Impossible State), perhaps because they think China would be a nightmare to deal with if the U.S. weren't in the region to counter it. Self-preservation is the first law of nature, kids.
  • Japan actually has a lot to gain from a unified Korea, although it'd probably have to fork over billions in aid money, which is something it can ill afford at present. Also, for the portion of the Japanese government that wants to strengthen the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, it's much easier to push for that against domestic opposition if the Kims are around and being their usual bug**** crazy selves.
  • The South Koreans are screwed the moment the Kims go under. They've studied the process of Germany's reunification very closely, and it's really nothing but bad news. Germany is still paying roughly $1 trillion per decade to reintegrate East Germany, and North Korea is so desperately poor that East Germany was a paradise by comparison. South Korea would basically be signing several generations over to the rebuilding of its northern cousin purely because the Kims made so goddamn many bad decisions. It's already having extreme difficulty integrating the few thousand North Korean refugees it gets every year because none of them are prepared for life in a modern economy. For now, it's easier to toss North Korea some aid to keep it quiet. As Andrei Lankov once observed, "This is a unique situation with few parallels in world history: a government feeding its enemy precisely to avoid its own swift victory."
  • The U.S. is sort of in Japan's situation in that it has a lot to gain from a unified Korea, but it, too, would probably fork over several hundred billion over several decades in order to rebuild North Korea and keep South Korea from economic collapse. Also, there's really not much it can do militarily to force regime change in North Korea because the Kims might just decide, "**** it, launch everything" in the event of attack. (And Kim Jong-il was once recorded as having expressed this exact sentiment.) Everyone wants the concentration camps shut down and some measure of freedom for ordinary North Koreans. No one is willing to risk the population of metropolitan Seoul to do it.
  • The Kim regime is terrified of what happened to the elites in other Soviet satellite states, and because the regime has been among the most brutal on the planet, they fear mass revenge against them in the event that their government falls. To be honest, many of them don't deserve to be targets; the younger generations were born after Kim il-Sung and his odious cohorts instituted the songbun system, series of concentration camps, personality cult, and extreme state control, and they're really not responsible for the fact that these exist. They were born into the system, they clearly benefit from it, and they help perpetuate it, but any serious objection to their lot in life would just dump them in the camps themselves with their whole family in tow. And, because they're not stupid, they also know that most revolutions and mass uprisings happen after a state has relaxed control, not before. They are only safe as long as the regime continues to do all the evil **** it's doing now.
  • No one else is going to do anything.
Someone once facetiously suggested that the U.S. and Canada could collapse the North Korean regime overnight by offering free visas and permanent resettlement to anyone in the North Korean government and military who wanted out. Which, when you think about it, would radically alter the incentive structure I mentioned above, at least in relation to NK's elites. No one would be left but the Kims. Of course, there's no way to actually accomplish this short of flying several hundred empty passenger jets to Pyongyang, which the North Koreans will interpret as an act of war, but even the offer itself would shake the Kims to their boots.

However, this would also mean offering safe harbor to thousands of people who are directly or indirectly responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses on the planet. In all likelihood, it would also mean consigning Kim Jong-un to the gallows, despite the fact that he's 30 and wasn't even alive (or was otherwise just a kid) when his idiot grandfather and father were busy running the country into the ground.

North Korea is popularly known as "The Land of Lousy Options" in diplomatic circles. This is one of the reasons as to why.
Click to expand...

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/c...s_hidden_labor_camps_exposed_a_new_un/ca3mnrf
 
SKorea Dismisses Nkorea 'Dialogue' offer

South Korea on Monday brushed off an apparent offer by North Korea to resume nuclear disarmament talks, and chided Pyongyang for a recent personal attack on its president Park Geun-Hye.

"Actions are more important than words," Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-Seok said of the offer contained in a letter delivered Friday by an envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Chinese state media said the letter cited the North's willingness to resume stalled six-party talks on denuclearisation involving China, the two Koreas, the United States, Russia and Japan.

The reported message was greeted with scepticism in South Korea, where observers saw it as an effort to appease Beijing, rather than a genuine signal of intent.

North Korea has repeatedly declared that its programme to develop a viable nuclear deterrent is not open to negotiation.

Seoul and Washington, meanwhile, insist that the North must demonstrate its commitment to abandoning its nuclear weapons programme in order for formal talks to begin.

The North Korean state media's coverage of envoy Choe Ryong-Hae's visit to China made no mention whatsoever of a dialogue proposal.

Of the letter handed to President Xi, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said only that it conveyed Kim's desire to deepen the "traditional friendship" between North Korea and China.

China is North Korea's key economic benefactor and diplomatic protector, but it signed off on UN sanctions punishing Pyongyang for its nuclear test in February.

In Seoul, the Unification Ministry said the North needed to set its priorities straight, and it criticised Pyongyang for a "two-faced" invite sent to a left-wing civic group in the South.

"If the North genuinely wants dialogue, the first step should be responding to our repeated call for working-level governmental talks on the Kaesong industrial complex," the spokesman said.

Kaesong was the most high-profile victim of two months of elevated military tensions that followed the North's nuclear test.

Established just north of the border in 2004 as a rare symbol of cooperation, the showpiece project had more than 120 South Korean firms employing some 53,000 North Korean workers.

The North barred South Korean access to the zone and pulled out its workers in early April. Seoul withdrew the last of its nationals early this month.

The South has called for talks on securing the raw materials and products stocks left by the departing South Korean managers, but the North has so far refused.

The Unification Ministry also criticised the North for a recent personal attack on Park Geun-Hye in which it labelled South Korea's first female president a "confrontation maniac".

"For the sake of healthy inter-Korea relations, the North needs to control and restrain itself ... and immediately stop such remarks that are too unspeakable for us to quote here," spokesman Kim told reporters.

Park, who is scheduled to visit Beijing for a summit with President Xi next month, said Monday she would seek to "work more closely with China in order to resolve North Korea issues".


Source : Sapa-AFP /mm
Date : 27 May 2013 05:30
 
NKorean Defectors sent back from Laos, China

Nine North Korean defectors have been forced to return to their country from China after being captured in Laos, a South Korean news report says.

Laos had been assumed to be a safe route for North Koreans leaving their mostly poverty-stricken homeland. Activists say that defectors who are returned to North Korea can be punished or even killed by the regime, considered one of the world's most repressive and brutal.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the defectors were flown home Tuesday despite a request from South Korea that China not repatriate them. The report cited an anonymous foreign ministry official in Seoul, who also expressed strong regret over the Chinese decision. The foreign ministry declined to confirm the report.

The report said the defectors, aged between 15 and 23, fled to Laos through China last month and were caught by Laotian authorities earlier this month. Laos sent the defectors to China on Monday, weeks after a Laotian delegation visited the North Korean capital.

In a statement, the U.S. State Department said it was concerned about reports and urged "all countries in the region to cooperate in the protection of North Korean refugees within their territories."

Close to 25,000 North Koreans have left their country since the Korean War, most of them over the last 10 years.

Often with the help of Christian missionary groups and having paid thousands of dollars to people smugglers, they have traditionally travelled first to China and then onward through Southeast Asian countries to Thailand, where they can fly to South Korea with the help of the government in Seoul. Defections across the land border between the Koreas are very rare.

China, North Korea's foremost ally, does not recognize North Korean defectors as asylum seekers and can return them.

"It's tragic and disappointing," Kim Eun-young, an activist with the Seoul-based Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, said Thursday of the reported repatriation. "We fear defectors will now feel more intimidated about trying to come to South Korea through Laos or other Southeast Asian countries."

The Korean Peninsula has been divided by a 4-kilometer-wide (2.5-mile-wide) Demilitarized Zone since the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, in 1953.


Source : Sapa-AP /ma
Date : 30 May 2013 04:42
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X