462개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Jean-Baptiste KIM, one of the main promoters (or better said: THE main promoter) of "2007 PY Rock Festival/ROCK FOR PEACE" (☞ 평양 2007年 5月) published on the first day of the new year following statement:
"I .. need to announce that ROCK FOR PEACE will be suspended along with myself. It was my passion to bring rock festival into North Korea but I decided not to continue on this project because I know full details of the event, the reasons, the purposes, the backgrounds, everything. The reason why I abandon the event is because the event was politically designed which gives more pains to ordinary people but more benefits to the regime. The event was designed to generate westernized reputations over the current isolated image of the regime. I have generated lots of reactions from world medias and I was about to use them in order to generate new political images for internal and external political purposes. It has been also designed to make more money while UN sanction is restricting DPRK rulers. I am pretty much sure that the money I create from this project will not benefit ordinary people but only gives political fund for ruling minority only..."
His entire statement ("MY COUP D'ETAT, CONSCIENCE AGAINST REASONS OF STATE") - actually he's breaking complete with the DPRK - you can read here: http://www.voiceofkorea.org
평양 2007年 5月
PYEONGYANG 2007
SEX AND DRUGS
AND ROCK'N'ROLL (*)
Following f.. crazy story I found several days ago [actually about one month ago on the Guardian's/UK web site was a link to a blog.. but I thought it was just a stupid joke (**)]:
Rock Festival in Pyong Yang
If you are a band playing any kind of rock, including heavy metal, then you can participate 'ROCK FOR PEACE' in Pyong Yang, the capital city of North Korea. This is the very first time in history that North Korea allows western musicians in the heart of DPRK territory to play capitalist popular music. There are few restrictions and conditions on participation but any band will be considered even though you are from USA...
For more about this b..sh.. please check out:
Gimme some Pyongyang blues (The First Post/UK, 11.14)
North Korea wants a ‘western, capitalist’ rock festival. Oh yeah?
Whatever you thought you were doing in March 2007, it's time to reschedule. A music festival billed as the rebirth of Woodstock, is set to shake the planet for four days. Only there will be no sex and drugs. Or politics. And it'll be in North Korea.
Although it may sound eerily similar to the fictional plot of Team America, the festival is for real. Billed as "Rock for Peace", the event is an attempt to promote the values and stability of North Korea. "We are not a mad, isolated country. We are part of an ordinary world, just like yourselves," organisers told The First Post.
The decision to invite bands to play "western, capitalist" music was designed to change people's perception of the Hermit Kingdom.
What it will resemble musically is anyone's guess as no bands have yet been confirmed and anyone who accepts the invitation will have to refrain from mentioning war, sex, violence, drugs, imperialism or "anti-socialism". Despite these strictures, the organisers hope to attract rock musicians such as Eric Clapton, U2 and - most surprising, given their redneck credentials - Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Bands that are invited to play will also be given the privilege of being able to explore any part of North Korea the government deems suitable.
If the Rock for Peace festival is a success, there is talk of making it a regular occurrence and even staging the next one in the DMZ (demilitarised zone) between North and South Korea, the most heavily guarded border on earth (***).
Kim Jong-il, North Korea's leader, will not attend the concert for security reasons. Known to harbour a taste for Western music and film, he will surely be watching closely on the state's single TV channel.
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?menuID=2&subID=1097
N. Korea to hold rock festival in March (Yonhap, 11.17)
North Korea, under international censure for trying to arm itself with nuclear weapons, plans to host an international rock music festival next year, the country's main radio station said Friday.
The Voice of Korea said in a report that the "Rock for Peace" festival will be held in Pyongyang, the capital, on March 1, a major national holiday marking an anti-Japanese public uprising in 1919.
The North's radio station carried the same report in its English Web site, with an announcement that Western musicians, including U.S. rockers, are eligible to participate and play a gamut of rock music including heavy metal.
"This is the very first time that North Korea allows Western musicians in the heart of DPRK territory to play capitalist popular music," the English report said...
It's highly unusual that North Korea, a closed communist (****) society, has decided to hold the festival which will expose its hungry people to what it called "decadent" American music.
The North's report said there still will be "few restrictions and conditions" for participants in the festival, insisting that the lyrics should not praise "war, sex, violence, murder, drug, rape, non-governmental society, imperialism, colonialism, racism, anti-DPRK, and anti-socialism."
North Korea is one of the most closed societies in the world. Its entire social system is strictly geared to uphold and praise leader Kim Jong-il and his late father, Kim Il-sung.
The country is under U.N. sanctions over its nuclear weapons test on Oct. 9. It claims that its move to arm itself with nuclear weapons is to thwart Washington's attempt to topple its communist system.
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/Engnews/20061117/670000000020061117181423E3.html
For those about to rock, Kim Jong-il salutes you (Guardian, 11.21)
Step aside Glastonbury, move over Lollapalooza - there's a new music festival vying for space on the international tour calendar. Rock For Peace, which takes place next May in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, "will be the 2007 version of Woodstock rock festival in 1969 but in a different location and with different goals".
Though not a place historically associated with free love and hippy wig-outs, all that is about to change, with organisers embracing "capitalist popular music" for the first time. And, in keeping with the laissez-faire spirit of rock festivals, there are few restrictions: "Lyrics should not contain admirations on war, sex, violence, murder, drug, rape, non-governmental society, imperialism, colonialism, racism, anti-DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), and anti-socialism."
That excludes anyone other than Cliff Richard then.
The event, organised by DPRK's Ministry of Culture and National Tourism, has been advertised on a website run by UK-based Voice of Korea (Vok), a mouthpiece for the DPRK. Jean-Baptiste Kim, the organisation's leader, explains: "Vok manages the event in London because it is practically impossible for foreigners to contact the concerned authorities neither by email nor by telephone."
Kim himself is hard to get hold of, declining to be interviewed through any medium other than email, although he stresses that he "will sincerely answer your questionnaire".
Kim's retiring attitude may be due to a lack of confidence in English. Further down the website there is a photograph of some ruddy-faced westerners posing with a football team. The caption reads: "Hey, Americans, you should learn a lot from our Norwegian friends who are having really good time with North Korean young school boys."
The line-up for Rock For Peace is yet to be announced, but the organisers claim interest from 49 acts in 20 countries. Bands are invited from any western country, "even though you are from USA".
http://music.guardian.co.uk/rock/story/0,,1953029,00.html
* Of course there will be (at least) no sex and drugs!! ^^
** Oh no.. it's not a stupid joke!!!!!! It's just a F.. STUPID JOKE!! (aeh~ it must be..!!)
*** It must be one of Kim Jong-il's most funny ideas: to send all rock musicans - especially from S.K. - on the mine fields..
**** Even I repeat myself: NK has nothing to do with "communism", or any kind of progressive society!!
Please check out the home page of the "organisers" very seriously, especially this:
"ALL OF US ARE UNITED IN NORTH AND SOUTH KOREA..
WE WILL FIGHT FOR OUR FATHERLAND UNTIL ALL OF US DIE ON THE BATTLEFIELDS."
YEAH, THAT'S THE REAL ROCK'N'ROLL!!
"ANARCHY" IN N.K.??
Already Nov. 9 the (in my opinion anti-DPRK) internet magazine DailyNK reported about riots in the city of Hoeryeong. Yesterday now the "left-liberal" daily Hankyoreh published following story:
One dead in N.K. clash between protesters, authorities
Citizens, upset about new market regulations, storm gov't office
Clashes between locals and the authorities broke out in the North Korean city of Hoeryong (Hoeryeong) in September and again in early November, according to a November 29 report in the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, which said the clashes related to regulations placed by authorities on a local market. The melee ended with one person dead and twenty arrested.
According to the report, the conflict began when authorities imposed stronger regulations about the operating hours and after-hours transactions at "Nammun Market" in this important border city in North Hamgyong province.
During the confrontation that took place in September, one woman died after being struck by a market official. In the second clash, in early November, 18 people were arrested after dozens of locals showed up at the market management office to protest the new regulations. The report said that two people were arrested later for allegedly playing leading roles in the protests and were taken away by North Korea's public security agency.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/175273.html
Also yesterday DailyNK wrote this about the same incident:
20 Arrested in the Nammun Protest Incident
A protest incident at Nammun market in Hoeryong, N. Korea, which was first reported by the Daily NK on Nov. 8th, caused 20 people arrested by the North Korean authorities, according to the Asahi Shimbun report yesterday.
The Japanese newspaper also covered a death of a resident in a clash over management of the Nammun market in September.
Nammun market is located 2 km southeast from Hoeryong city and supplied basic necessities for local residents. The Asahi said “Residents resisted against the government’s regulation of opening hours of the market and prohibition of off-hour
Out of the 20 arrested, two were accused of inciting and leading the protest.
On November 8th, the Daily NK reported that about one hundred angry merchants, as a mass, requested the management authority to ‘return the market renovation payment’ and against ‘merge of Hoeryong markets,’ in a rudimentary form of demonstration.
The mass protest in North Korea, in which any sort of group movement is prohibited, would be the first kind of such incident known to the outside.
http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk00100&num=1364
Related articles:
Kim Jong-Il Interprets Sunrise As Act Of War (10.31)
PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA – Increasingly defiant toward international pressure since his nation's first nuclear test in early October, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il condemned this morning's sunrise, calling it "another hostile, deliberately timed act by the world community" and "a clear and blatant declaration of war."
According to North Korean military sources, the sunrise, sighted at 6:17 a.m. by patrolling officers, was not fully confirmed until an hour later, at which time Kim assessed the threat himself, and immediately released a harshly worded warning to the U.S. and the United Nations Security Council.
"The Democratic People's Republic Of Korea condemns, in the strongest possible terms, this act of aggression on our eastern border," read a statement printed in the state-run Korean Central News Agency. "If another act of this nature occurs at any time in the next 24 hours, we will be left with no choice but to retaliate with the full might and power of our armed forces."
In addition to denouncing the "imperialist invasive assault," Kim also supplied the U.N. with an extensive list of "unacceptable" international actions. According to Kim's list, North Korea will no longer tolerate the encroachment of Japanese waters onto its western shore, will view the accumulation of cumulus clouds in restricted airspace as acts of intimidation, and will not hesitate to respond militarily to any "violent and unprovoked bursts of wind."
Kim outlined further "extreme transgressions" that would be worthy of more immediate and serious military retaliation.
"Economic sanctions on North Korean imports and exports, the reintroduction of cuff links as a fashion accessory, a sudden drop in lower-middle-class spending habits, sporadic changes in the migratory patterns of monarch butterflies, the announcement of yet another new sports drink, a daily rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average higher than 3.5 points, shorter hemlines, inspections of North Korean cargo in an attempt to intercept weapons or weapons parts, or the release of a new U2 album—any of these actions will be interpreted as an act of war, and force us to take drastic measures to protect our sovereignty," said Kim in a written statement, which also warned that the world's third-largest standing army is prepared to deliver a "merciless blow at a moment's notice" if the leaves begin to turn colors and fall from the trees of North Korea. "Though we desire peace, we have seen the signs of war on the horizon, and we are not afraid to act."
Despite claims from China that Kim's statements are "nothing more than hollow threats," the U.S. remains worried that the communist republic may test a second nuclear weapon in response to Sony's new line of 62-inch flat-screen television sets.
"The United States wants nothing more than to engage the North Koreans in diplomatic talks, but we will not simply cave in to these bullying tactics," said Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice, who called the Asian nation's response to Wednesday's events "politically questionable." "That said, we are carefully reviewing their demands, and believe we can find some common ground on concerns over NBC's Thursday-night lineup."
Kim Jong-Il decried Rice's remarks, the side to which her hair was parted, and the fact that she was wearing blue, calling each an "indisputable and highly charged admission of war that North Korea will not be cowed by."
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/54667
Angry KPA units promising deadliest retaliation
against any attacks against the DPRK
Meanwhile, just few days before and later..
Successful Nuclear Test Hailed in Different Provinces (10.26)
More Meetings Hail Successful Nuclear Test (10.28)
More Meetings Hail Successful Nuclear Test (10.30)
More Meetings Held to Hail Successful Nuclear Test (11.2)
..while nearly at the same time, at least since last Tuesday, the DPRK promised to rejoin the 6-party-talks to dismantle its nuclear weapon program ^^
*****
Another really "funny" remark by KCNA (11.1):
Workers' Struggle in S. Korea
Pyongyang, October 31 (KCNA) -- Organizations under the south Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) are these days waging a struggle for a victory in the general strike of workers in Seoul, according to a media report. The Federation of Public Transport and Service Trade Unions under the KCTU on October 26 held its Seoul regional meeting for a victory in the general strike near the general building of the "government".
A resolution read out at the meeting bitterly denounced the "government" for gravely threatening the right to existence of the workers and other strata of the people by the negotiations for the conclusion of the south Korea-U.S. "Free Trade Agreement" and declared that the workers would closely unite and stubbornly wage the struggle to thwart the signing of FTA...
http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2006/200611/news11/01.htm#3
Well, please keep in mind that the SK gov't ("south Korean war maniacs"/KCNA) is just a "government" - a so-called gov't.(*)
..
..
"Songun policy.. has an enormous influence on the victory of the movement for independence and democracy of the south Korean society and national reunification, helps defend peace with the strength of justice, makes it possible to defeat imperialism with a steadfast anti-imperialist class stand and pushes forward global independence and helps fully meet the demand of the Juche idea.
The book is reportedly on sale in south Korea." ^^
And now you just have to find out what's parody and what's not..^^
* BTW I have nothing to do with any gov't!!! I only wanted to say..
IHT published yesterday following article:
The lure of Korea's magic mountain
Visiting this fabled North Korean mountain was not an easy decision for Kim Chung Soo and his wife, Nam Sang Ja. Twenty-two people from their village in central South Korea had each paid 240,000 won a month in advance to book a day trip last week, but after North Korea conducted a nuclear test on Oct. 9, 14 of the tourists canceled.
"Our children said, 'Father, don't go there. It's dangerous,'" Kim, 66, said with a laugh. Around the couple, a chattering crowd of visitors marveled and digital cameras flashed at the mountain's famed Nine Dragons Waterfall, which an ancient poet described as "10,000 bushels of pearls cascading from the heavens."
"This is not a place you can come everyday," Kim said. "So my wife and I thought, Let's go. Why does a Korean have to be afraid of visiting a Korean mountain?"
Each week, despite tensions over North Korea's nuclear test and U.S. assertions that such tours are channeling precious cash to the communist regime, thousands of South Koreans travel to this tourist resort carved out of the foothills of Mount Kumgang, just beyond the east coast border of the two Koreas.
The 3,280-hectare, or 8,200-acre, zone is the only part of the North that South Koreans can visit freely. The trip is not only a sojourn into a mountain whose waterfalls and autumn foliage have inspired Korean poets and painters for centuries. It offers a peek into a country stuck in a bygone era, where red-and- white slogans everywhere exhort people to "Defend Great General Kim Jong Il, Lodestar of the 21st Century, with our lives," while his hungry people brace themselves for UN sanctions.
For Kim Jong Il, the mountain has proved as precious as its namesake - Kumgang means diamond in Korean - bringing $452 million in tourist fees since the tours began in 1998. His regime also received a lump sum of $450 million from Hyundai, the South Korean conglomerate, for the rights to Mount Kumgang tourism and other inter-Korean economic projects, as well as $400 million invested in hotels, piers and roads in the mountain resort.
Now with Washington determined to cut off all sources of financing for the North's weapons programs, the tour has become a focal point in a U.S.- South Korean dispute over how to change the North's behavior. In Seoul last week, Christopher Hill, the U.S. assistant secretary of state, said the tours were "designed to give money to the North Korean authorities."
Seoul, however, is keeping the tours going. Tourism - and the incentives it provides - is one of the few remaining tools of influence that South Korea maintains over the North. It also is a linchpin in South Korea's painstakingly built policy of encouraging the North to open up to the outside world - the so- called Sunshine Policy.
"We started our tours hoping that we could help build trust and ease tensions between the two Koreas and serve as a catalyst for reunification," said Chang Hwan Bin, senior vice president of Hyundai-Asian, an arm of the Hyundai conglomerate that runs the tour. "But this winter is going to become a very difficult time for us."
Since 1998, Hyundai has attracted 1.36 million visitors. It pays from $30 to $80 to the North for each tourist it brings. After years of losses, the tour business posted its first annual profit last year, at 14 billion won, or $15 million, thanks partly to South Korean government subsidies for students and teachers who take the tour during the winter vacation.
But after the North's launching of missiles in July and its nuclear test, thousands of people canceled their trips. Now the average number of tourists stands at 20,000 a month, half the figure the company had hoped for and barely enough to break even. Then came another blow last week: Under pressure at home and abroad to implement UN sanctions more vigorously, Seoul said it would probably end the subsidies.
There is a growing recognition in South Korea that the Sunshine Policy "has not worked and it's time to recalibrate that policy," said Peter Beck, an analyst with the International Crisis Group in Seoul. But South Korea also fears that terminating the Mount Kumgang project will drive the North deeper into isolation and raise tensions.
"At this rate of 20,000 tourists a month, we pay about $1 million a month to the North in tourist fees," Chang said. "But keeping the door open with the North is worth the money. It took us 50 years to come this far. If we shut the door now, it will be more difficult to open it again."
To get to Mount Kumgang, tourists travel on a Hyundai-built road across the no-man's land that has divided the two Koreas for six decades, and enter a zone sealed off from the rest of North Korea by steel fences and soldiers.
They check into Hyundai-run hotels, bask in a hot spring, watch a North Korean acrobatic show and shop at duty-free Hyundai stores packed with Western liquor and North Korean "Paradise" cigarettes and dried mushrooms.
In the hotel's karaoke bar served by communist women(*), southern capitalists belt out American pop songs and Western whiskey flows.
Improved lifestyles in this part of North Korea highlight how contact with capitalists has already reaped rewards - or at least how much the regime is trying to polish its image for visitors. Villagers' clothes were more colorful than before. Some houses were freshly painted.
A few years ago, when Northern villagers on the road saw a convoy of South Korean tourist buses, they would drop their bags and hide behind trees to avoid contact. Now they go about their lives hardly noticing the buses.
"It would be really regrettable if the South succumbs to U.S. pressure and ends the tour," said Park Myong Nam, a North Korean tourism official.
A highlight of the trip is a hike up the mountain's Nine Dragons Valley. The route is dotted with granite monuments celebrating each spot where Kim Jong Il's late father, President Kim Il Sung, stopped for a rest during his "historic" hike in 1947.
Communist minders - part tour guides, part propagandists - guard the monuments. They are eager to propagate the official line on why North Korea was pursuing a nuclear arsenal, and to gather information from this rare contact with free-speaking South Koreans.
On a visit last week, the minders asked what had resulted from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's trip to Asia last week to try to work out how to implement UN sanctions against the North. South Korean tourists gathered to watch them speak.
"We are not afraid of sanctions," said Kim Nam Sook, a minder in her 20s. "We have lived with them for decades and survived them. They are nothing new to us."
Up the valley, Kim Keum Chul, who wore a Mao-style "people's suit," told South Koreans "not to worry about the nuclear test but to thank the North for building a strong deterrent against war on the Korean Peninsula."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/30/news/mount.php
(*) since when the North Koreans have something to do with COMMUNISM???
조선민주주의인민공화국
NORTH KOREA
"PARADISE OF THE
WORKING CLASS"..
..or - perhaps - only for the rulers (in the KWP/KPA)?
Following article was published yesterday in the German (of course bourgeois) magazine Der Spiegel (www.spiegel.de):
KIM JONG IL GOES SHOPPING
Another Toy for the Gluttonous Dictator
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il isn't just playing around with his country's latest products, atom bombs, anymore. He also has a penchant for high-quality German goods.
The order came as a big surprise to the sales staff at the all-terrain vehicle manufacturer Kässbohrer Geländefahrzeuge in Laupheim, Germany. In fact, they thought it was a joke at first. But the customer, who had mailed the request from an address in the Italian capital, was deadly serious. He wrote that he wanted to buy the Model 100, the smallest of Kässbohrer's PistenBully special-purpose vehicles, but with one modification: it had to come with a Mercedes Benz engine. The customer was an official at the North Korean embassy in Rome.
What on earth did communist dictator Kim Jong Il's poverty-stricken realm want with a German-made snow groomer? With whom exactly did the despot plan to go sledding?
The southern German company delivered the snow groomer in June 2003, and the customer promptly paid the purchase price of €98,000. Finally, a German shipping company transported the vehicle to a region of North Korea near the Chinese border, where snow is plentiful. Kässbohrer's mechanic arrived a few days later. The German company takes its service seriously.
In freezing temperatures, and under the watchful eyes of military guards, the German mechanic assembled the huge, caterpillar-like device and then taught the slope attendant how to drive the monster. "It was a hard trip for him," says one of the mechanic's coworkers.
Hardship is a relative term, especially when one considers that the North Korean people spend their lives staggering from one famine to the next. But while bad economic management routinely leads to humanitarian disasters, the diminutive dictator and his sybaritic entourage of obedient party officials have been living it up with imported Western luxury and entertainment goods for years, including the expensive equipment for their very own ski resort.
But in the wake of North Korea's underground test detonation of a nuclear bomb a few weeks ago, the country's unscrupulous leadership can expect to be running into a few obstacles if it hopes to continue enjoying its decadent lifestyle. A few days after the explosion, the United Nations Security Council imposed financial sanctions and an embargo on luxury goods.
The ban on luxury goods is intended to hit the dictator where it hurts, cutting off supply channels to feed Kim's seemingly boundless gluttony. As his personal chef revealed in a book about his experiences working for Kim, the dictator with the predilection for platform shoes and oversized sunglasses had no qualms about spending $15,000 on sea urchins.
A broad interpretation of the term "luxury goods" will not only affect Swiss luxury watchmakers, but also quite a few German companies. That's because Germany is one of North Korea's seven most important trading partners. In 2005 Germany exported goods worth about €51 million to the reclusive leader's realm -- not a huge sum for the Germans, but certainly a lot for North Korea.
A glance at foreign trade statistics shows that German exports to North Korea are no longer limited to mundane pumps, milling machines and electric motors. The list now includes everything from cases of beer, whisky, gin, vodka and Mosel white wine to strollers, handmade glasses, grand pianos and violins, even Christmas tree decorations, chandeliers and sculptures. Indeed, orders for well over €1 million are routinely posted under the categories of "oil paintings, water colors, pastel drawings" and "carousels, swing sets and shooting galleries."
Is all of this for Kim? Or is some of it intended for his entourage and foreign diplomats? Could the rest be going to Chinese who use their porous border with North Korea to circumvent their own high taxes on imports? Hardly anyone in Germany would venture to answer these sensitive questions. Even experts at the Hamburg-based German Asia-Pacific Business Association have refused to comment on the issue. In fact, the organization has yet to release its latest report on North Korea.
But Hans-Joachim Schnitger, a businessman from the northern German port city of Bremen, is more than happy to discuss his activities in Kim's Korea. His company, Helia, supplies goods to diplomats worldwide. This May, Helia began supplying merchandise to a recently opened Euroshop in Pyongyang, where affluent North Koreans use their hard currency to buy imported goods, including "their favorites, German products like cheese and processed meats," says Schnitger. Name brand cognacs are also available, starting at €30.
"We received an inquiry from the North Korean embassy in Berlin in December 2004," says Schnitger. Then the North Koreans even sent over an official to inspect the Bremen company's facilities. Schnitger has high hopes of expanding his business with the North Koreans. "They are very nice people," he says, praising his new trading partners. "Besides, they have a wonderful golf course and a very nice clubhouse in Pyongyang."
Like most German exporters, Schnitger uses Müller + Partner, a freight forwarding company based in the central German city of Fulda, to ship his products to the North Korean capital. The company's agent in Pyongyang is a former employee of North Korea's foreign trade ministry. Industry insiders say Müller's current contacts are the result of close relationships in the past between the North Koreans and the former East German foreign trade organization. When asked about historical ties, one of the company's directors claimed that he had "no knowledge of previous operations," nor was he willing to discuss the content of current shipments to Pyongyang.
Müller also shipped Kässbohrer's PistenBully. But the North Korean government opted to go with an Austrian lift manufacturer, Doppelmayr, when it came time to order the equipment for the ski resort's chair lifts.
According to Ekkehard Assmann, Doppelmayr's director of marketing, "the military was there and helped out in the construction work." That's the nice thing about dictatorships: there are always plenty of willing workers.
PS:
According to the Swiss Watch Industry Association the DPRK imported between 1995 and 2004 for US$ 24,000,000 (luxury) watches from Switzerland.^^
조선민주주의인민공화국
NORTH KOREA
"PARADISE OF THE
WORKING CLASS"..
(*)
..but, if we want to believe following articles, perhaps not longer anymore.
‘Coup Possible in Pyongyang’ (K. Times, 10.23)
A ``Beijing-friendly palace coup’’ may happen in North Korea to drive out the North’s ``dear leader’’ Kim Jong-il, a U.S. weekly magazine reported in its latest issue.
Chinese officials used to ``scoff’’ at the idea of effecting Chinese-style regime change in the Stalinist state, but an ``unprecedented debate’’ has taken place over Beijing’s North Korea policies, Newsweek said in its Oct. 30 issue.
Mentioning the stoppage of financial transfers and food exports to North Korea, the magazine backed the possibility of a coup.
Four major Chinese banks halted financial transfers to North Korea last Friday, and China decreased food exports to the isolated regime by two-thirds, the weekly said.
``Among some close advisers to the government, the idea of a Beijing-friendly palace coup has gained new currency,’’ the report said. ``China certainly has the means.’’
The means is the 11,000 barrels of oil China offers the reclusive state every day _ accounting for over 70 percent of Pyongyang’s total energy supply, the magazine said.
Chinese officials have said that they want Pyongyang to return to the six-party talks on its nuclear disarmament, but some scholars, angry at Kim’s recalcitrance, are asking for the government to pull the oil plug instead, the report said.
A former U.S. Pentagon official and Korea watcher said in an interview with Newsweek that the likely pool of moderate North Koreans who could succeed Kim includes Sinophile military officers and technocrats. ``They have come to believe that Chinese-style economic reforms will help transform North Korea,’’ he said.
As for post-Kim Jong-il scenarios, the report said, ``China would prefer North Korea to maintain a friendly, ideally socialist, buffer state on its periphery, which could keep U.S. soldiers based in South Korea at arm’s length.’’
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200610/kt2006102317384311990.htm
Here's what K. Times quoted:
China's Reaction: Tightening the Screws
Would Beijing dump Kim? It's certainly not likely, but ...
(Newsweek)
Once upon a time Beijing officials and scholars would have scoffed at the idea of effecting Chinese-style regime change in Pyongyang. But in the wake of Kim's nuke test, an unprecedented debate has broken out over Beijing's North Korea policies. Last Friday four major Chinese banks stopped making financial transfers to North Korea—a tactic that could quickly pinch a weak economy that relies on China as a link to the international financial system. And this year China has reduced food exports to Pyongyang by two thirds. "I've never seen the Chinese leadership so resolved to be tougher towards North Korea," says Zhu Feng, head of Peking University's international-security program.
Among some close advisers to the government, the idea of a Beijing-friendly palace coup has gained new currency. China certainly has the means: it provides 11,000 barrels of oil to North Korea every day, accounting for more than 70 percent of Pyongyang's total energy supply. Beijing stopped oil deliveries for three days in early 2003 to pressure Pyongyang to join the Six-Party Talks. (Later Chinese apparatchiks insisted there had been a mechanical malfunction.) Chinese authorities insist they want Kim to return to the talks again, but some scholars, furious at Kim's recalcitrance, are calling on their government to pull the oil plug instead. "Chinese diplomacy has been a failure," says Prof. Zhang Liangui, a foreign-policy analyst at the influential Central Party School. "To not stop oil [deliveries] would be baffling from a moral point of view."
According to a former U.S. Pentagon official and Korea watcher, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, the likely pool of moderate North Koreans who could succeed Kim includes Sinophile military officers and technocrats who have come to believe that Chinese-style economic reforms will help transform North Korea. The presence in China of high-level defectors, including military officers, has sparked rumors of a Beijing supported "Chrysanthemum group" who could be the backbone of a new regime, the source says, though "the Chinese never talk about it." South Korean experts on the North recall similar, albeit "theoretical" talk of a Chinese shadow cabinet in 2003-2004.
A successful coup, while farfetched, would ease Beijing's fears of anarchy and a flood of refugees on its border. But the crucial question is how the interests of China diverge from the United States' and South Korea's when it comes to post-Kim scenarios. Beijing would prefer to maintain a friendly, ideally socialist, buffer state on its periphery, which could keep U.S. soldiers based in South Korea at arm's length. Seoul isn't seeking instant reunification with the North, either—too expensive—but South Korean strategists may want to move troops into the North to prevent its being absorbed by China. Replacing Kim might not be any easier than dealing with him now.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15365945/site/newsweek/
*****
First of all these kind of theoretic considerations are not really new. Since several years some political analysts are debating this kind of possible future for the DPRK.
But in my opinion this will not be practicable, not really.
Why?
A DPRK with "Chinese-style economic reforms" will become very soon a capitalist (at least economical) society. China(PRC), even the ruling party is a "communist" party, is a capitalist society. And nothing different North Korea will be.
But there is a big difference between the PRC and NK. There is only one China(just forget in the moment Taiwan). The PRC, even in the late 1970s, even after years of Culture Revolution, was a huge, powerful country with a lot of own natural resources.
On the other side the PRC had, even in the time of the Great Leap and the Culture Rev., strong relationships to the oversea Chinese community(S.E. Asia, USA..). And especially from this community the first investments("hard" currency, know-how..) in the new econimic reforms in the late 1970s were coming. But this investors had only economic intentions, no politically.
For a NK with "Chinese-style economic reforms" the most potentially investors will come from S. Korea. But in this process - of course the country MUST/WILL open its borders(i.e. also the entire society) to the outside world, especially to the South -
the southern "brothers and sisters" will try to influence NK also politically.
Finally, like in the case of Germany in 1989/90, after the collapse of the East German ruling system(the so-called "Material Existing Socialsm"), there will be no necessity for two capitalist Korean states!!
BTW: According to many political analysts/experts(and so on..) for the PRC the main obstacle for a - of course - peaceful re-unification of the Koreas is the presence of USFK on the peninsula (because they worry that after the unification this shit, i.e. USFK, will be moved to the Yalujiang/Amnok-gang).
As I know, nearly everyone in SK wants the unification.. So the first thing to prepare for the re-unification should be the struggle against the presence of USFK in SK. JUST KICK THEM OUT! NOW(ahe~ or at least tomorrow)!!
* according to the NK propaganda^^
Following article was already published yesterday in NYT/IHT:
Tension and desperation on the China-Korea line
North Korea's porous 1,400-kilometer border with China is its lifeline to the outside world. About 39 percent of its trade last year was with China, which, critically, supplies it with 80 to 90 percent of its oil. Trafficking in money transfers and human beings also flourishes.
By contrast, the North's border with Russia is 18 kilometers long, or 11 miles, and heavily guarded, and the 240-kilometer-long Demilitarized Zone with South Korea has hundreds of thousands of soldiers on each side.
Until now, the North's ships have regularly visited Japan, from which relatives sent cash and goods, but North Korea's nuclear test was expected to end that trade.
For China, the bottom line is to erect the right number of fences, as it did last week along the border city of Dandong. Build too few and you invite instability in China. Build too many and North Korea collapses.
A collapse is something Beijing does not want, and why it is lukewarm toward harsh United Nations sanctions. A collapse might send more North Koreans into China than the 100,000 to 300,000 estimated to have flooded the border during the North's great famine in the mid- to late-1990s. (Paradoxically, the famine also opened trade links when local North Korean groups formed to barter raw materials for Chinese grain.)
The end of the North Korean state could also bring reunification of the Korean Peninsula under America's ally South Korea, another development Beijing does not want.
Also, the border itself could be put into question. In recent years, South Korea has challenged China over the legacy of Koguryo, an ancient Korean kingdom whose rule extended into present-day China. The region is home to hundreds of thousands of ethnic- Korean Chinese who might be sympathetic to a reunified Korea making territorial claims.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/22/news/border.php
..that I missunderstood your demand to give up my plan for a nuclear test." This, possibly, yesterday said the "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il to his Chinese visitor in Pyeongyang.
The "Dear Leader" looks not happy
anymore, not really!!^^
"Kim Jong-il has apologized to China and reassured his powerful neighbour that he has no plans to conduct further nuclear tests," according to reports today that suggest the DPRK leader is backing down in the face of unprecedented pressure from a historic ally.
Many news agencies now are expecting a return of NK to the "six-party talks" soon.
Ha, just wait, watch and see!! (Until now nobody really knows what Kim was saying..) (*)
For more about the latest developments please check out here:
N.Korea: No plan for 2nd nuke test (CNN)
N Korea backs off second test (Guardian)
Chinese and U.S. urge North Korea to talk (IHT/NYT)
President Hu meets with Rice (Xinhua)
N.Korea ‘Ready to Talk if U.S. Lifts Sanctions’ (Chosun Ilbo)
PS:
Only few hours after the Chinese delegation left PY the NK leadership ordered 100,000 people on Pyeongyang's Kim Il-sung-Square to celebrate the "great victory over the US-Imperialsm", i.e. the successful nuclear test.(**)
So what's now? Sorry or happy? Or sorry AND happy? ..???
Meanwhile, according to the German Spiegel online(it quoted AP), the former SK president Kim Dae-jung warned the int'l community about a possible military attack by the DPRK in the process of the UNSC sanktions against NK.
* Washington Post wrote later: '"There wasn't anything particularly surprising" about Kim's message, Rice said, suggesting the reports that Kim promised a halt in testing were also inaccurate.'
** KCNA "reported" following:
Servicepersons and Pyongyangites Hail Successful Nuclear Test
丹東/신의주
Dandong and Sinuiju - two cities on the border between the P.R. China and N. Korea
From the Friendship Bridge to the Line of Divorce
The Chinese border city of Dandong is North Korea's most important gateway to the outside world. Now, though, the booming metropolis will become a litmus test to determine China's commitment to UN sanctions.
Trucks wait in a rumbling line to cross the bridge over the Yalu River. They're fully loaded as they cross the river into North Korea -- the semi-trailers, though, tend to be empty on the return run back to China. The poor, isolated country simply doesn't have much to offer in return for the electronic goods, hardware, fruit, clothes, oil and grain China exports to North Korea. The goods are unloaded as soon as they cross the river -- North Korean trucks carry them further into the country.
The remote border crossing, which hosts a lion's share of the commerce between China and North Korea -- which amounted to some $500 million last year -- has hardly received much of the world's attention in the past. But that may soon change. The sanctions passed by the UN Security Council against North Korea Saturday -- in response to the country's apparent testing of a nuclear bomb just over a week ago -- will also have to be enforced here. Indeed, one of the most pressing political questions currently facing the world will have to be settled in the border town of Dandong: How serious is Beijing about reprimanding its tiny neighbor and its leader Kim Jong Il?
For the time being, China is still in step with the world community. Controls along the border will be tightened in accord with the Security Council resolution. But trade with North Korea can be profitable -- and it's in China's economic interest to let it flourish.
The largest border city in China lies just over the Yalu River from the tiny Stalinist nation -- a booming economic metropolis just opposite profound and bitter poverty. The North Korean town is called Sinuiju. Every day in Sinuiju, people gather anxiously waiting for Chinese trucks and trains to make their way across the border. Indeed, without Chinese imports the troubles in North Korea would be even worse.
Dandong Booms, the Metropolis Gleams
Trade across the Yalu has a long tradition going back at least to the 14th century Ming Dynasty. Back then, the economic relationship was roughly eye-to-eye. Now Kim Jong Il's regime in Pyongyang relies on the grace and favor of rulers in Beijing, both politically and economically. Imports from China keep North Korea's wobbly Stalinist regime intact -- exports in the other direction amount to little more than a trickle.
Chinese street vendor in Dandong selling DPRK trash
It's a good deal for China. North Korea's elite is not just eager to buy but loyal because their isolated government has no choice but to deal with Chinese businessmen. Dandong, in particular, holds a near-monopoly on trade with North Korea and the last few years have been good for the city and its 2.4 million residents. Countless industrial firms have moved to town: machinery, paper and textiles are now produced in Dandong. Modern skyscrapers and Korean restaurants line the riverbank and chic businesses have crowded the city center.
NK riverboat on Yalu/Amnok-gang
Sinuiju turns off the power at night
Chinese tourists are also coming to Dandong. Just like the "Wall tourists" in pre-1989 Berlin, they want a glimpse of North Korea from across the water. The excursion includes a boat tour right up close to the other shore, for a souvenir snapshot -- and there are plenty of telescopes on the bank available for those afraid of the water. But there isn't much to see on the other side besides a rusty old Ferris wheel. Sometimes one can spot North Korean kids playing in the sand, red Communist youth scarves wrapped around their necks. Some visitors venture out onto the old bridge across the Yalu River that was destroyed by US fighter planes in the Korean War. The bridge is passable to the halfway point, where a small museum commemorates the battles. Traders sell souvenirs in the form of North Korean postal stamps and memorabilia of North Korea's founding president, Kim Il Sung.
KPA border guard unit
A wholly different picture emerges on the other side of the river. There, in Sinuiju, people look at the flashy Dandong with great envy. Every night, the Chinese city shines bright. But North Korea's Shinuiju is pitch-dark due to a chronic power shortage. Very few are granted visas to cross the river into China -- many make their way across anyway, under cover of darkness.
NK "happiness"..
..on the other side of Yalu/Amnok-gang
Smuggling has flourished in recent years and Chinese border officials are in the habit of turning a blind eye to the illegal trade. Indeed, it is this illegal trade which leads many in the US government to doubt China's commitment to enforcing the UN sanctions. China has committed itself to prevent trade in luxury goods -- a provision aimed at North Korea's tiny elite -- and goods that could be useful to a nuclear weapons program.
A historic bulwark against refugees
China's main priority, though, has been to prevent cross-border traffic of an entirely different nature. Many North Koreans are interested in more than just a bit of trade with China -- rather they often want to leave the misery of their poverty-stricken country completely behind them. Tens of thousands have already crossed the border and China is interested in stemming the flow.
Indeed, at almost precisely the same time as the Security Council voted in favor of sanctions, Chinese authorities began constructing a 20-kilometer long barbed wire fence. It's the first time China has erected a physical barrier to keep North Koreans out.
China's justification: A mass exodus from North Korea could further destabilize the volatile neighbor. The political and financial ramifications would be fatal for the region. But the bulwark comes at just the right time for China. A stampede out of North Korea is the nightmare scenario for Beijing -- but eminently possible. Especially if the sanctions are too tough or if North Korea's conflict with the US and the world escalates.
The Friendship Bridge between Dandong and Sinuiju
More about the current developments on the PRC/DPRK relationship you can read here:
!!! China to set action on North Norea (IHT/NYT, 10.19)
China pulls its punches on North Korea (Asia Times)
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That makes sense to me... Kim Jong Il's 2nd son is trying to get a foot into the game... Read this for example... http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/06/front2453908.0597222224.htmlWill he turn NK into a Rock'n'Roll state? Let's see... who knows what surprises the Kim family has to offer?
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