Weekly Report on North Korea (No. 716)
ROK Ministry of Unification
1. Internal Affairs
o North Korea 's Kim Il Sung Broadcasting University began to offer internet lectures, which had previously been delivered via radio broadcasts. The North has also opened up an Internet homepage, titled “Auditorium for the People,” on November 8 to provide lectures on Kim Il Sung and his revolutionary achievements.
o The North posted $1.09-billion trade volumes with China and Japan during the January-September 2004 period, an increase of 30.4 percent from the same period of 2003.
-The North Korean-Chinese trade totaled $890 million, an increase of 40.5 percent from the same period of 2003, while the North’s trade with Japan slightly decreased to $200 million, a contraction of 0.9 percent from the same period of last year.
o In June, the North had reported that some 100 small/medium-size power plants were under construction across the country. According to a more recent report, however, a much smaller number, 20 to 30 plants, either were under construction or are planned for construction. Only four plants have been completed.
o The North Korean Daeseong Bank and Sberbank, a leading state-owned bank of Russia , held a working-level contact in early October and agreed to open a foreign-currency account.
o Construction of a large-size, modernized oxygen separator was completed at Seongjin Steel Works Corporation, located in Gimchaek City , North Hamgyeong Province . Jeon Byeong-ho, secretary of the North Korean Workers’ Party Central Committee, attended ceremonies marking the commencement of separator operations on November 5.
o The North completed the first stage of concrete tie replacement work between Shinseongcheon and Gowon stations that provide east-west connections along the Pyongyang-Najin line (781.1 kilometers).
2. Relations with South Korea
o Referring to reports about South Korea ’s past nuclear-material experiments, North Korea argued in Rodong Shinmun that the South was not qualified to raise questions about the (North Korean) nuclear issue.
o The North demanded the dissolution of the ROK -U.S. Combined Forces Command and the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Korean Peninsula , calling the command a ‘cancerous organ’ through which the United States was seeking to carry out its hostile policies toward North Korea .
o Through a report carried in the Tongil-Shinbo newspaper on November 6, the North protested that South Korean unification ministry’s practice of changing names of North Korean defectors to the South was a ‘contemptible scheme’ designed to hide and justify the kidnappings of North Korean citizens.
3. External Affairs
o North Korea made indirect references, accompanied by its usual invectives, to U.S. President George W. Bush’s reelection in “Joseon Shinbo,” a newspaper run by “Jochongryeon,” a pro-North Korean organization in Japan .
- Rodong Shinmun (November 9) was the first North Korean news agency to report on Bush’s reelection by making an indirect reference to that effect.
o Kim Sang-ik, vice-minister of the North Korean People’s Armed Forces, gave a speech at the first ARF (ASEAN Regional Forum) security-policy conference, held in Beijing , China on November 5, denouncing “hostile” U.S. North Korea policies.
o Officials of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda visited the North from November 6-9, holding meetings with high-ranking North Korean officials like Kim Young-nam, president of the Supreme People’s Assembly Presidium, and Baek Nam-sun, foreign minister. Discussions focused on expanding friendly relations.
-Lee Won-sun, Lee Byung-gab, Han Chang-un, and Mun Seong-mo were appointed the North’s ambassadors to the Republic of Angola , Slovakia , India and Bangladesh , respectively
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