1. WFP REACHES AGREEMENT WITH DPRK
Associated Press (AP), 11 May 2006
The World Food Program has reached agreement with North Korea to resume food aid, but the operation will be smaller than it was before its suspension in December, the agency said Thursday. The new program will feed 1.9 million of the "most needy" people in the North, Tony Banbury, the agency's Asia regional director, said. That is much less than the 6.5 million people the agency was feeding in past years. The World Food Program suspended aid in December after the North Korean government asked the agency to shift its focus to economic development aid.
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2. UNHCR WEIGHS IN ON DPRK REFUGEE-DEFECTORS
by Soon-Taek Kwon and Jong-Koo Yoon, Donga Ilbo, 8 May 2006
On May 5, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that it will step up efforts to protect and support North Korean defectors in China and Mongolia this year. At a press conference held at the Washington National Press Club on that day, the UNHCR announced its 2006 work plan. In particular, the UNHCR urged the Chinese government to prepare a proper law covering the refugee issue and strengthen its legal protection and aid for North Korean defectors applying for asylum.
High Commissioner Antonio Guterres said that although most of the defectors in China are illegal aliens who crossed the border not for political reasons, but for hunger and a better life, they shouldn’t be repatriated to North Korea. Guterres further stated that the Korean government has agreed to accept all of defectors who initially wanted to head for US but were denied access in the status determination process by the US government. In an interview after the conference, Guterres said, “The Korean government and the UNHCR agreed to make sure no defectors in Southeast Asia are abandoned without protection.”
In addition, US assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration Ellen Sauerbrey noted that the US has contacted the Chinese government in order to prevent defectors in China from being forcibly repatriated to North Korea. Sauerbrey added that the US is significantly concerned about women being trafficked to China and that North Korean women married to Chinese should be granted Chinese citizenship.
Meanwhile, regarding the UNHCR statement of the Korean government’s decision to accommodate defectors who failed to get asylum status, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT) said yesterday that the government didn’t agree with the UNHCR on that matter. In its reporting material, the MOFAT said, “The Korean government has been accepting all of defectors from the perspective of humanitarianism and brotherhood.”
A MOFAT official remarked, “If a defector wants to come to Korea, he or she will be handled in accordance with the due process, no matter whether he or she has been disqualified from the US asylum determination process,” and explained that the fact that a defector originally wanted to settle in the US but was rejected doesn’t affect the decision process by Korean government. The official said that the precondition to accept defectors is their mindset and intentions, and that mentioning that Korea embraces all defectors denied access to the US can be misunderstood as saying that Korea will accept all of them regardless of their intentions.
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FOCUS: Repercussions of DPRK economic pressure
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3. DOLLAR SOARS IN DPRK BLACK MARKET
Chosun Ilbo, 4 April 2006
While North Korea’s closed economy may hide most of the effects of financial sanctions the US has imposed on the communist country since September, sources just back from the North say the black-market value of dollars is skyrocketing there. The official exchange rate in the North is W150 per dollar. But in the black market, the greenback had soared from around W2,000 to W2,600 by late last year. “It varies from region to region, but the dollar now seems to have risen to W3,000 because of the financial sanctions,” a South Korean official said.
A North Korean defector says in some black markets in Pyongyang and Shinuiju $1 will fetch W3,800-4,000 and rising. An expert on North Korea said rumor has it that some people are hoarding dollars in the expectation that their value will keep going up. Given that the average monthly income of North Korean workers is around W3,000, the surge has effectively reduced their wage to less than $1 a month.
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4. US PUNISHES SWISS FIRM FOR DPRK CONNECTION
Chosun Ilbo, 31 March 2006
The US has frozen the assets of a Swiss company it accuses of aiding North Korea in alleged “proliferation” of nuclear weapons technology. Washington on Thursday froze the accounts of Kohas AG and its president Jakob Striger. The measure, taken by executive decree, is based on a charge that Kohas had dealings with a North Korean company whose assets were frozen last year, Korea Ryonbong General Corp. This is the second time Washington has made good a threat to punish companies from third countries for their alleged involvement in a range of crimes the North is accused of. Last September, it banned all US firms from transacting with the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia in an effort to strangle the North’s cash flow.
Meanwhile, the US has slammed China for repatriating a North Korean refugee using the pseudonym Kim Chun-hee. In an unusual move, the statement issued Thursday by President George W. Bush’s staff from Cancun, Mexico reminded China of its obligation under international treaties not to return North Korean asylum-seekers without allowing them access to the UN High Commission for Refugees.
Washington’s special envoy on human rights in North Korea, Jay Lefkowitz, earlier promised this year would be a “turning point” in the US’s own failure to grant asylum to a single North Korean refugee, saying “discussions are underway” to see if any can be admitted. On Thursday, Lefkowitz criticized the joint Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex, where he said North Korean laborers work without guaranteed rights for less than US$2 a day. He suggested an independent organization like the International Labor Organization should inspect the complex and report its findings to the UN.
A spokesman for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, Lee Gwan-se, protested against the remarks on Friday. “The lowest monthly paycheck for laborers of the industrial complex stands at US$57.5 or around $2 a day, but that figure is far higher than what ordinary North Korean workers in other regions are paid,” Lee said. He added working conditions in the Kaesong complex are in line with ILO standards.
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5. JAPAN REVOKES TAX BREAKS FOR DPRK ORGANIZATIONS
Kyodo News Service, 3 April 2006
The government urged local authorities to review their tax breaks for facilities owned by pro-North Korean organizations in a written notice dated Saturday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Monday. Following a court ruling in February against such preferential tax treatment, the internal affairs ministry has been promoting its policy to the local governments concerned and repeated it in writing at the April 1 start of fiscal 2006, Abe said in a press conference.
Of the 49 local governments hosting the head office or regional branches of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, 32 were offering reduced property tax rates on the grounds their facilities are akin to community centers or public assembly halls, according to a ministry survey conducted in January.
In a Feb. 2 ruling, the Fukuoka High Court denied preferential tax treatment for a hall, located in Kumamoto City, affiliated with the association, also known as Chongryon, saying the facility is not used enough for the benefit of the general public to be eligible for such treatment. The Kumamoto municipal government, which has extended the tax treatment for the hall, has filed an appeal.
The notice urged local governments to conduct thorough reviews to see how such facilities are used and make "appropriate responses," according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. On the tax break issue, the governing Liberal Democratic Party has also stepped up pressure on the local governments involved in conducting reviews by asking its local chapters to influence assemblies.
The government is strengthening its law enforcement measures in an attempt to increase pressure on North Korea to help resolve the country's abductions of Japanese nationals and other human rights issues. Voices are growing particularly within the LDP calling for economic sanctions on North Korea, a step the government views as the ultimate means of pressuring Pyongyang.
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6. DPRK WARNS JAPAN AGAINST SANCTIONS
Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), 28 March 2006
The Japanese ultra-right conservative forces are contemplating setting up two working departments for sanctions against the DPRK under the pretext of the "abduction issue" and presenting a "bill on sanctions against north Korea" to its Diet session. Rodong Sinmun Tuesday observes in a signed commentary in this regard: It is an invariable intention of the Japanese ultra-right conservatives to isolate and stifle the DPRK. They have long seriously ruffled the DPRK's feathers by crying out for pressure upon it over the "abduction issue" and the like.
To cite just a few examples, they released a statement to put sanctions upon the DPRK while setting out a five-phased "plan for economic sanctions against north Korea". They have kicked off a row after publishing and distributing even booklets on the "abduction issue". The above-said racket kicked off by them against such backdrop goes to clearly prove that their hostile moves against the DPRK have gone to extremes. This is nothing but an escalation of the anti-DPRK reckless hostile moves stepped up by the Japanese ultra-right conservatives in collusion with the US, an indication of their frantic pursuance of its line.
The DPRK has clarified more than once that it will regard any sanctions against it as a declaration of war and take a corresponding measure for self-defence. The Korean people regard the country's sovereignty as their life and soul and will never allow anyone to infringe upon it even a bit. Japan would be well advised to bear in mind that the above-said behavior of Japan will only lead to its self-destruction.
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7. NO MORE GAMBLING ON DPRK
by Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, 6 April 2006
By the time financial authorities cracked down on North Korea's dealings here, it was like the classic moment of feigned ignorance in "Casablanca" when Capt. Louis Renault declares, "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here." For decades, the former Portuguese colony was renowned as the favorite haunt of counterfeiters, drug runners and spies, a kind of real-life "Casablanca" whose old-world cobblestone sidewalks and smoke-filled baccarat parlors probably hatched more intrigues than any script could contain.
Banks here handled millions of dollars on behalf of North Korea's isolated communist government, which has been long accused by the United States of selling illegal drugs to raise hard currency. The nation's founder, Kim Il Sung, and his son, current leader Kim Jong Il, allegedly kept their ill-gotten gains in Macao. And a North Korean terrorist confessed to plotting the 1987 bombing of a South Korean airliner from a hotel here overlooking the South China Sea.
But now the welcome mat has been rolled up, and the North Koreans, who didn't have many friends to begin with, find themselves distinctly unwelcome in this autonomously governed Chinese territory. In February, Macao's banking regulators froze $25 million worth of North Korean accounts in the Banco Delta Asia, a bank the US Treasury Department had accused in September of helping the North Korean government launder money and distribute counterfeit US currency. A North Korean company, Jokwang Trading Co., long believed to be a front for illicit activities, closed its headquarters on the fifth floor of an office building near the bank. Most of its personnel have relocated to Zhuhai, just across the border in China proper, business sources here say.
"You used to see the North Koreans around here all the time with their Kim Il Sung badges, but suddenly they're gone," said Seok Yeong Chong, a South Korean businessman living here. He said their numbers had dropped from more than 100 to only a handful. "They gave the Macao government too much of a headache."
Businesspeople here say the North Korean presence became a liability at a sensitive time. The North Korean government in Pyongyang is more unpopular than ever internationally because of its pursuit of nuclear weapons. At the same time, China is trying to develop Macao into a gambling destination to rival Las Vegas. After Macao reverted to Chinese control in 1999, the Chinese government busted the casino monopoly of billionaire Stanley Ho, a long-standing friend of the North Korean government and the owner of a casino in Pyongyang.
The first US-owned casino in Macao, the Sands Macao, opened in 2004, and a $1.2-billion casino operated by Las Vegas mogul Steve Wynn is scheduled for a September opening. Even Ho's family — he has passed many of his casino interests to his daughter, Pansy — has struck a deal with MGM Mirage for another new casino.
"Today people here want to do business with the Americans, not the North Koreans," said Jose Rocha Dinis, director of the Jornal Tribunal de Macau, a Portuguese-language newspaper, as he drove along a waterfront cluttered with construction cranes. "When they are seeking investment from the outside, they can't let the North Koreans get in the way."
There is still a cloak-and-dagger feeling to Macao, an hour from Hong Kong by high-speed ferry. When you walk into the downtown Watson's, the local equivalent of a Rite Aid, prominently displayed for sale are paper shredders. At the pink colonial Club Militar, where members of the business establishment convene for multi-course lunches accompanied by red wine and cigars, one banker arriving for his Friday lunch explained, "We bankers in Macao are very busy, so we don't have time to ask questions about other people's business." But Americans are bringing with them not only Las Vegas glitz but also more modern notions about transparency and accounting.
"Macao had to clean up its act," said David L. Asher, a former State Department official who specialized in North Korea and was one of the architects of the action against the Macao bank. "There are $5 billion in annual gaming revenues at stake. They have to work with the United States."
The freezing of the $25 million in the Banco Delta Asia has been a particularly big blow for a government scraping by for lack of hard currency. North Korean banks kept large sums of money in the Macao bank. Now, with those accounts suspended and other banks frightened off by the Treasury Department action, North Korea has been largely cut off from international trade.
"The impact is severe," said Nigel Cowie, a British banker based in Pyongyang who is general manager of the Daedong Credit Bank, serving mostly the tiny foreign community in the North Korean capital. In a telephone interview from Pyongyang, Cowie said that North Korea, because it had no credit and a weak banking system, dealt almost exclusively in cash, which might have created the appearance that it was laundering money when it was not.
"I can't speak for what everybody was doing, but I can say that in our case, a lot of legitimate business has been hurt," Cowie said.
The North Koreans blame the US for their woes in Macao. A senior North Korean diplomat, Li Gun, visited Washington last month on what appeared to have been a futile attempt to get the Macao freeze lifted. He left angry, declaring that North Korea would boycott negotiations on its nuclear program until the banking situation was resolved.
"Under this continuing US pressure, we can't go back to the negotiation table," Li said.
US officials protest loudly that the crackdown in Macao is unrelated to the prolonged struggle over nuclear weapons. In a news release issued in response to the North Koreans' accusations, the Treasury Department said it wished to clarify that its actions against Banco Delta Asia were "intended to protect American institutions and not serve as sanctions against North Korea."
Denials notwithstanding, the Bush administration has been angling for ways to apply pressure without seeking full-fledged United Nations sanctions — which almost certainly would be opposed by North Korea's traditional allies in China and Russia, nations that have veto power — since Pyongyang pulled out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 2002. Until now, China has staunchly refused to apply any pressure to North Korea.
What's happening in Macao has been the result of a delicate diplomatic dance involving the United States, China and the government of Macao. US officials had been complaining to local authorities about North Korean activities in Macao and getting little response, people involved with the case say. Then last year, the Treasury Department decided to use the Patriot Act. In September, the department published a notice designating Banco Delta Asia as a "primary money-laundering concern" under a section of the post-Sept. 11 law that is designed to cut off funding to groups that present a security risk.
Panicky banking customers lined up in front of the silverfacaded headquarters in downtown Macao. In a matter of six days, they had withdrawn $133 million out of $390 million in deposits. The Macao government intervened and took control of the bank. Victor Chan, the lead spokesman for the Macao government, said there wasn't much choice in the matter. "There was a withdrawal of such large proportions that it triggered a takeover of the bank," he said. However, Macao's financial authorities have reacted very aggressively since. They have drawn up new money-laundering laws. They have frozen without interest 50 accounts belonging to North Korean banks, trading companies and individuals.
According to a letter sent in February by their lawyers to the Treasury Department, there is likely to be a criminal investigation into the bank and the money will be confiscated if Macao courts determine the accounts were involved in illegal activities. Banco Delta Asia was a small, family-owned bank headed by a portly and colorful local politician, Stanley Au. Businesspeople who know him here say he was an easy target because he was not particularly well connected in Beijing and, unlike the better-known Stanley Ho, not vital to Macao's economy.
"It was just a shot across the bow to go after Banco Delta Asia," said David Green of the Macao office of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the auditing firm. "They could pick on a bank that had an obvious relationship with North Korea that everybody could afford to lose."
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OPINION
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8. FINANCIAL ALLEGATIONS – WHAT THEY MEAN
by Nigel Cowie. General Manager, Daedong Credit Bank, 11 April 2006
My name is Nigel Cowie, I’m GM of DCB, and I’d like to take this opportunity to address with you the recent financial allegations and actions against the DPRK by the US Treasury. Where they have acted against specific companies, I can’t make any comment, except perhaps that we have not seen any evidence of any wrongdoing by them, because I don’t know anything about those cases, but I can tell you what they mean in the case of our bank and the budding legitimate foreign business community in the DPRK which we serve.
May I quickly first say a few words of introduction about me and about Daedong Credit Bank, our customers and their activities, before moving on to the US financial allegations and measures; and then address the use of cash in the DPRK, as this is important with regard to the financial allegations, then address the allegations themselves. I would also like to end by throwing in a few suggestions of our own.
DCB Daedong Credit Bank is a majority foreign-owned, and foreign-managed joint venture commercial bank, providing standard, high street banking services in foreign currency to foreign-owned or invested commercial business customers – current accounts, remittances, foreign exchange and lending. Most of our customers are importing goods, these may be the consumer goods on sale in the hard currency shops, or larger scale commodities, mainly food related; also raw materials, in the case of the joint venture companies. A very few are exporting, mainly perishable goods like seafood and agricultural products where they need to receive payment before goods arrive. However, we are not allowed to operate accounts for state-owned companies, and since these are the ones handling high value exports like minerals, most of our remittance business consists of outward remittances to pay for imports.
FINANCIAL MEASURES
On 15 September last year, the US Treasury announced the designation of Banco Delta Asia, Macau, as a "primary money laundering concern" in connection with transactions for DPRK customers, and proposed steps to deny the bank access to the US financial system. BDA immediately suspended all transactions with its DPRK customers and shortly thereafter voluntarily handed over management to the Macau Monetary Authority. The balances of these customers were transferred into special suspense accounts pending the outcome of various audit and other investigations. These investigations have now been completed, although the results have not been made public, and it is still not clear if and when the balances will be released. Subsequently, other overseas banks closed the accounts of their DPRK bank customers, after receiving warnings from the US Treasury.
When we asked them, one of our correspondent banks explained that ‘This was an across-the-board policy decision due to external developments/factors, as you may be aware of, where present or future requirements may preclude us from our ability to service the accounts in an efficient manner’. However, US Treasury Department Under Secretary Stuart Levey is quoted in Newsweek last week as saying that as more business people and governments learn about the risks of dealing with the DPRK, the campaign will have a ‘snowballing … avalanche effect’. In this regard, he would appear to be true. We have heard from foreign customers conducting legitimate business here, who have been told by their bankers overseas to stop receiving remittances from the DPRK, otherwise their accounts will be closed.
Cash – a Key Point Now, the way most of these customers get paid by local buyers is in cash. They bring the cash to the bank, we check the cash for counterfeits and credit it to their accounts with us. Then at the end of the month or whenever, we remit the funds out to their suppliers overseas. But because they are mainly importing, we tend to accumulate cash here in Pyongyang, and sometimes have to physically deliver it to banks overseas. There is nothing in any way tainted with this cash, and it is not counterfeit, it represents funds from legitimate business activities by legitimate customers, and the only reason it comes in cash is because of the peculiar circumstances in the DPRK. Irrespective of whether or not any illegal activities went on, other banks in the DPRK will have the same problem, whereby they have to make cash deposits overseas.
We have the most updated equipment, as well as highly experienced cashiers, for detecting counterfeit notes. While we do come cross them, they are not that common. And, contrary to many perceptions, it is possible to detect the so-called ‘supernotes’. All the banks in the DPRK, so far as I am aware, view counterfeit notes as a nuisance, as, just like anywhere else, people have to have confidence in the cash they are handling. When the ‘supernotes’ first appeared, our staff worked closely with those of Daesong bank and the Foreign Trade Bank to find ways of detecting them. Banco Delta Asia DPRK banks have, as the Treasury announcement correctly observed, been using Banco Delta Asia for decades. One of the reasons for that is because they were prepared to provide banking services to DPRK customers, but also because they accepted cash transactions.
MONGOLIA STORY
One further incident occurred specifically to us, which I would like to relate, and you can draw your own conclusions. At the end of last year, we opened new accounts with Golomt Bank of Mongolia, in Ulaanbaatar. We discussed in detail with them procedures for handling cash transactions in a legally correct manner, as well as providing them with a copy of our anti-money laundering procedure manual, a manual that, incidentally had been accepted by our other correspondent banks.
On 21 February, our designated couriers transported a cash deposit to Mongolia, consisting of USD1 million and JPY20 million; the couriers were met, as previously agreed, by Golomt Bank officials together with local police at Ulaanbaatar International Airport. However, the couriers were then detained by Mongolian intelligence agents who took them, and the cash, to the Bank of Mongolia (central bank); the couriers were accused of importing counterfeit currency. DCB’s couriers were detained outside the Bank of Mongolia for most of the night, whilst the intelligence agents claimed to be checking the authenticity of the cash. The next day they alleged that USD61,700 was suspected to be counterfeit; the alleged fakes were sent, together with two additional notes randomly taken from each remaining USD10,000 bundle of cash, for further examination at an unspecified location.
On 22 February the Mongolian press carried false reports, based on a leak, to the effect that “North Korean diplomats had been intercepted smuggling USD1 million and JPY200 million (not JPY20 million) into Mongolia”. These reports were subsequently carried by international news agencies. Our Treasurer was despatched to Mongolia, where he was subsequently joined by me, to protest this action and demand the return of its funds. On 7 March, after holding the cash for 14 days claiming they were still checking it, the intelligence officials in a meeting with us finally conceded that all the notes were genuine; the cash was released. The money was deposited with the Golomt Bank of Mongolia on 9 March, as had originally been intended.
By the way, I would like to add that this is not a complaint against the Mongolian authorities. All the meetings I attended were most cordial, and I had the impression that all the officials I met were just trying to do their job. At the final meeting with Mongolian intelligence, they appeared rather embarrassed that they had been given incorrect information.
EFFECTS OF THESE MOVES ON DCB
Once again, I can only speak for DCB, and don’t know what Banco Delta Asia was doing with other customers. For our part, we are only conducting legitimate business, but have nonetheless been seriously affected by these measures. A large amount of our and our customers’ money – not just in USD, but in all currencies – has effectively been seized, with no indication of when they’ll give it back to us. This makes it more difficult to manage the bank’s working capital, as well as that of those customers whose money was frozen. It has subsequently resulted in a sharp fall in turnover – more than 50%, I estimate – as customers’ own working capital is tied up, and they are reluctant to continue using the banking system in case something like this happens again. It has also obliged us to expend great efforts to find new bank accounts, and make our side of the story heard to protect our and our customers’ business. It has also greatly increased the cost of operations as the banking transactions have become more complicated.
So, there is a clear effect on legitimate business. I can’t speak about the illegitimate business, because we don’t have any, but I would imagine that anyone conducting illegal business could find a way around this, because they don’t have to comply with internally instituted procedures like we do. For example, I was approached by someone overseas offering to take cash deposits of any size we like, and have it re-sent on to wherever we want in consignments of less than $10,000 so that they are not spotted by overseas banks’ money laundering detection procedures. I declined this offer because we are not about that sort of banking.
Which brings me to the point that there is a danger of legitimate businesses being squeezed into routes that are more normally used by real criminals, and the result of these actions against banks doing business with the DPRK being that criminal activities go underground and harder to trace, and legitimate businesses either give up, or end up appearing suspicious by being forced to use clandestine methods.
SUGGESTION
We and other EBA members are trying to make an infrastructure for normalizing economic relations with outside world, this not helping. During a March 7 interview with Arms Control Today, Michael Green, until recently President George W. Bush’s National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs, stated that The United States will continue to take action against illegal North Korean activities regardless of the six- party talks’ status, he said. But he added that Washington thinks such measures complement the talks by forcing Pyongyang to turn to legitimate economic activities for revenue. Our point is that that may be impossible.
The US Treasury department’s full report on Banco Delta Asia, as reproduced in the Federal Register (20 September 2005) states that ‘It is difficult to determine the extent to which Banco Delta Asia is used for legitimate purposes. Although Banco Delta Asia likely engages in some legitimate activity, the [Treasury] Secretary believes that any legitimate use of Banco Delta Asia is significantly outweighed by its use to promote or facilitate money laundering and other financial crimes.
I would far rather get everything out in the open, reporting full details of all our transactions to any monitoring authorities that need to know, that way there is nothing to hide, all parties are satisfied, and everything is legal, open, transparent and respectable. I am quite sure that the other DPRK banks would be willing to do the same. Indeed, at a meeting on 7 March between US Treasury officials and the DPRK’s deputy Director-General for North America, Mr Li Gun, Mr Li proposed that the DPRK be allowed to open a USD bank account with a US bank – something we also would support.
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QUIDNUNC
HOW MANY PEOPLE IN NORTH KOREA HAVE UNFETTERED ACCESS TO INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORLD OUTSIDE THE DPRK?
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At my last Amnesty International conference in Berlin we (the coordinators responsible for the DPRK) had a guest speaker, a German doctor who had worked with an aid agency for several months in the DPRK. He said that they didn't have very much access to "outside information." Radios are "soldered" so that you can't tune into anything except the Voice of Korea (which I get on my shortwave; it's an awful station!) except for the nice choirs it's all speeches by and about the Dear Leader.
There was a documentary by Sunny Yi on CBC Radio a couple of years ago and her experience was that the average DPR Korean didn't have much contact with the outside world. She showed pictures of celebrities and they didn't know who they were.
Sue Hickey, North and South Korea coordinator for Amnesty International Canadian Section (English Speaking) and director for AICS's national Executive
Committee
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