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North Korea Weekly (October 13-19, 2008)

ROK National Intelligence Service

【Inside North Korea】

o On October 14, the North Korean Central Broadcasting Station (KCBS) said, “Female athletes of the DPRK garnered a cup, two gold medals, three silver medals and seven bronze medals in the third East Asian Jiu-Jitsu Championship and the third Chinese Taipei International Jiu-Jitsu Competition.” It went on to say, “DPRK athletes captured first place in the women’s team competition of the East Asian Jiu-Jitsu Championship, defeating their competitors from Chinese Taipei, South Korea and China. Notably, Hwang Chun-geum won a gold medal in the 63 kg division of the women’s individual competition. In the meantime, Choi Gyeong-shil became a gold medalist in the 63 kg division of the women’s individual competition at the Chinese Taipei International Jiu-Jitsu Competition.”

o On October 15, the Pyongyang Broadcasting Service (PBS) reported, “In line with its simultaneous execution of various farming activities, including the harvesting of crops, South Pyeongan Province methodically deployed agricultural machinery and enthusiastically sowed seeds on about 10,000 square meters of land every day.” It added, “North Pyeongan Province, which began seeding in a timely fashion, had conducted plowing and fertilization immediately after the corn harvest and carried out seeding effectively. It completed the planting process in a short time by exceeding its planned objective on a daily basis.”

【Outside North Korea】

o On October 12, the KCBS said, “During the DPRK-US talks held in Pyongyang October 1–3, the two sides engaged in serious and practical discussions to overcome hurdles that arose in the process of implementing the US obligation to provide political and economic compensation to the DPRK in accordance with the October 3 Agreement. The two parties worked out a series of agreements, based on which the US administration finally removed us (the DPRK) from the list of terrorism-sponsoring states on October 11.” It also reported, “As the US has completed fulfillment of its obligation to render political compensation and the two countries agreed on fair verification procedures for process of disabling the DPRK’s nuclear facilities, we decided to resume the disabling of nuclear facilities at Yeongbyeon and once again permit monitoring activities by the US and IAEA in compliance with the action-for-action principle.”

o On October 13, the PBS reported, “The US administration removed us from the list of terrorism-sponsoring states on October 11.” It added, “Completion of the implementation of the October 3 Agreement hinges upon whether the five parties concerned deliver their economic compensation. They promised to supply us (the DPRK) with an alternative energy source equivalent to 1 million tons of heavy oil, but provided us with a mere 35 barrels of heavy oil and over US$60 million’s worth of raw materials for equipment to date.”

o On October 16, the PBS reported, “Our (the DPRK) representative said in a meeting of the UN General Assembly that despite the UN’s effort to deter it, terrorism has continued to escalate rather than be reduced, and poses a serious threat to human life, social stability, international peace and safety. He also mentioned that infringements upon other countries’ sovereignty and extreme cases of human rights abuses are being justified under the pretext of counter-terrorism warfare. As measures to rectify the situation, he suggested that (i) special attention should be given to actions designed to promptly eradicate state terrorism and (ii) top priority be placed on eliminating the root causes of terrorism.”