June 19, 2010 9:35 pm
The Washington Post, “N. Korea lifts restrictions on private markets as last resort in food crisis”
by Chico Harlan
Bowing to reality, the North Korean government has lifted all restrictions on private markets — a last-resort option for a leadership desperate to prevent its people from starving.
In recent weeks, according to North Korea observers and defector groups with sources in the country, Kim Jong Il’s government admitted its inability to solve the current food shortage and encouraged its people to rely on private markets for the purchase of goods. Though the policy reversal will not alter daily patterns — North Koreans have depended on such markets for more than 15 years — the latest order from Pyongyang abandons a key pillar of a central, planned economy.
With November’s currency revaluation, Kim wiped out his citizens’ personal savings and struck a blow against the private food distribution system sustaining his country. The latest policy switch, though, stands as an acknowledgment that the currency move was a failure and that only capitalist-style trading can prevent widespread famine.
“The North Korean government has tried all possible ways [for a planned economy] and failed, and it now has to resort to the last option,” said Koh Yu-hwan, professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul. “There’s been lots of back and forth in what the government has been willing to tolerate, and I cannot rule out the possibility of them trying to bring back restrictions on the markets. But it is hard for the government to reverse it now.”
The Washington Post article continues here.
June 13, 2010 11:26 pm
Bloomberg, “North Korea Threatens `All-Out Military Strike’ on South’s Loudspeakers”
by Jungmin Hong
North Korea warned of an “all-out military strike” to destroy South Korean loudspeakers and other propaganda tools along their fortified border, according to the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.
South Korea’s preparation for psychological warfare, is a “direct declaration of a war” against the North, the general staff of the communist state’s military said today in a statement on KCNA. The North’s military retaliation may turn Seoul into “a sea of flame,” the statement said.
The South has already installed loudspeakers in 11 places along the border and is attempting to set up electronic displays, according to the statement.
Bloomberg article continues here.
June 2, 2010 10:52 pm
ABC News, “U.S. to Join South Korean Military Exercise Off North Korea Coast”
by Luis Martinez
The U.S. aircraft carrier USS George Washington will participate in a joint naval exercise with South Korea next week in the Yellow Sea, the same waters west of the Korean peninsula where North Korea is accused of sinking a South Korean warship last March, ABC News has learned.
A U.S. official said the carrier, which operates from its home port in Japan, “will be sent to the waters off South Korea within coming days to participate in joint exercises” with the South Korean navy.
Slated to begin June 8, the official said this exercise will be “separate and distinct” from an upcoming anti-submarine warfare exercise that Pentagon officials had said recently would be occurring “in the near future.” The upcoming exercise was first reported by South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
ABC News article continues here.
May 27, 2010 9:25 am
Bloomberg, “China May Shield North Korea as Lee, U.S. Seek Action”
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is likely to resist pressure to acknowledge that North Korea torpedoed a South Korean warship when he flies to Seoul tomorrow to meet President Lee Myung Bak and Japan’s Yukio Hatoyama.
China hasn’t followed South Korea, Japan and the U.S. in blaming North Korea for the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors. Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun yesterday repeated a call for “restraint” by both sides and said China had no “firsthand information” on the sinking.
China wants to avoid a conflict on the Korean peninsula, and is concerned that taking South Korea’s side may provoke North Korea into further escalations and even lead to war, said Shen Dingli, vice dean of the Institute of International Affairs at Shanghai’s Fudan University.
Bloomberg article continues here.
May 24, 2010 11:13 pm
Breitbart (AFP), “US plans naval exercises with South Korea:Pentagon”
The US military on Monday said it will carry out anti-submarine and other naval exercises with South Korea in the “near future” after a North Korean sub sank a South Korean warship.
The announcement came after an international investigation last week concluded that a North Korean submarine fired a heavy torpedo at the Cheonan on March 26, sinking the South Korean vessel and killing 46 sailors.
The decision to conduct anti-submarine as well as maritime interdiction exercises with Seoul’s military “are a result of the findings of this recent incident,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.
He declined to offer more details of the “important” exercises but said they would take place “in the near future.”
Breitbart (AFP) article continues here.
May 24, 2010 12:47 am
Fox News (AP), “South Korea to Take North Korea to U.N. Security Council”
South Korea’s president said Monday that the country will no longer tolerate North Korea’s “brutality” and said the regime would pay for the surprise torpedo attack that killed 46 sailors.
President Lee Myung-bak said Seoul will take Pyongyang to the U.N. Security Council, suspend inter-Korean exchanges and ban North Korean ships from passing through its waters.
North Korea must be punished for its repeated provocations, Lee said in a solemn address to the nation from the War Memorial as he recounted the “incessant” pattern of attacks by communist North Korea, including the downing of an airliner in 1987 that killed 115 people.
Lee said South Korea was prepared to defend against any future provocations.
Fox News (AP) article continues here.
