CINA

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Just few minutes ago following was posted on (the conservative bourgeois) JoongAng Ilbo's web site:

U.S. base protester gets 2-year term
 
The leader of a group of Pyeongtaek residents opposing the relocation of U.S. military installations was sentenced to two years in prison yesterday by the Suwon District Court.

Kim Ji-tae had been convicted of instigating violence at prostests near the site for the relocated U.S. headquarters.

The court said Mr. Kim was personally responsible for the violence that broke out; his actions, the judge said, had instigated an atmosphere of defiance of public authority. Because he argued for the need to use violence, he should be punished severely, the verdict continued; "Considering [that] Mr. Kim was a catalyst for a large-scale violent protest in which bamboo sticks and iron pipes were wielded his crimes cannot be taken lightly."
 
The committee and some of its members complained of a "political" verdict and promised an appeal. Choi Yeon-chul, a committee official, said the sentence was out of proportion with those of similar cases, and accused the court of trying to intimidate future protesters.

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200611/03/200611032134277479900090409041.html 

For more informations please check out:

성지용판사, 대추리 김지태이장 징역 2년 실형 선고

Pan-S.Korea Solution Committee Against US Base Extension in Pyeongtaek (http://antigizi.or.kr) published following:

Village Leader Ji-tae Kim Sentenced to Two Years in Prison
 

An Exceptional Trial…. Dachuri, Doduri Residents Astonished
Judge Ji-yong Song Sentences Dachuri Village Leader Ji-tae Kim to Two Years in Prison

Scene 1- 10:40am

 
Dachuri Village Leader Ji-tae Kim's sentence shocks residents.

Today, November 3, 2006 at the Suwon, Pyongtaek District Courthouse at 10:00am Dachuri Village Leader Ji-tae Kim (head of the Paengsong Residents Committee) was handed the shocking sentence of 2 years imprisonment for obstructing civic affairs.

“The wickedness of the Noh Moohyun government goes beyond imagination.”

These are the words of Father Moon Jung-hyun, Representative for the Pan S.Korea Solution Committee against US Base Extension in Pyongtaek (KCPT), who spoke in astonishment this morning in the courtyard in front of the courthouse.
Compared with other similar cases, a sentence of 2 years imprisonment is extremely out of the ordinary.

Father Moon was not the only one who was bewildered.  Greatly shocked as well were the crowd of residents from Dachuri and Doduri and members of social movement organizations, about 70 people in all, who had come out to welcome Mr. Kim expecting him only to receive probation.  No one could hide their expressions of shock and confusion.  Mr. Kim’s elderly father, Mr. Suk-gyung Kim sank to his seat and remained their unable to speak or even move, with only a sorrowful look on his face.  Mr. Kim’s mother, Mrs. Hwang Pil-soon cried out “A-i-go, Ji-tae!  Our Ji-tae!” and then collapsed. 

Perhaps having anticipated this sort of verdict, 3 units of policemen were stationed in front of the court house, even blocking the residents from attending the trial.  While the resident met gruff treatment when trying to enter the courthouse from policemen blocking their path, the court delivered Mr. Kim’s two year sentence and ended the trial.

Scene 2- 11:20am

“Clearly a politically motivated trial.”  According to Father Moon Jug-hyun, “more cruel than the days of the Yushin System.  Therefore we must fight has hard as we did at that time.”

Upon hearing the verdict of Village Leader Kim Ji-tae’s trial, some 50 residents of Dachuri and Doduri and people affiliated with KCPT held press conference in front of the courthouse to condemn the verdict.

According to Representative Kim Yong-han who arrived early this morning and was therefore able to attend Mr. Kim’s trial, “the courts had decided because of disturbance at the last trial date (10.13) that it was necessary to stop residents from attending the trial in order to make it possible to deliver the verdict securely and protect equipment inside the courtroom.”

At the last court date residents had protested angrily when the prosecution presented old evidence as if it were new in order to intentionally prolong Mr. Ji-tae Kim’s imprisonment.

According to Representative Yong-han Kim, “we acknowledge the seven indictments put forward by the prosecution.  Among these the severe charge of obstructing civic affairs has a sentence of 3 to 7 years associated with it.  However considering that the defendant is the village leader and had to do what he did they give him a 2 year sentence.”   
 
But, he said, “I have experienced many trials in the past, but this is the first time I have seen a first-time offender receive prison time.”

According to Father Moon, “this the first time after Yushin System that I have seen police block the courthouse and refuse the right to attend the trial.  What is worse, they even denied Mr. Kim’s parents and family the right to attend the trial, which makes this even crueler than the time of Yushin.”    

“Because this is clearly a politically motivated trial the judgment that came out was not usual,” he added.
 
“If the government acts in this way, we have no choice but to struggle against it just as during the Yushin days,” he said and encouraged the residents to gather together even greater strengthen for this struggle.

Mr. Jong Il Kim, Joint Executive Director of KCPT, said of the situation, “Today, we must strictly question the violent attitude assumed by the government authorities who ordered the residents be blocked from the courtroom and the stance taken by the police and the prosecution.  We will also mobilize all means and measures possible to secure the release of Mr. Kim Ji-Tae.”

“In as much as the struggle to stop the base expansion is in a new phase with will fight to prevent the base expansion with new determination,” he said, assuring that there would be a corresponding plan after these events.

The press conference ended, but the residents could not be calmed, throwing newspapers and paper cups they were carrying in an expression of their pent up rage.

http://antigizi.or.kr/zboard/view.php?id=english_news&no=155    
 

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According to today's latest edition (9 PM, KST) of CNN World News Asia a int'l poll shows that a majority in UK, Canada and even Mexico is describing the US president as more dangerously than the "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il.

Harrharr!! No further comment..

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"The Fields Weep in Silence"

STREET ART FESTIVAL
To support the struggle for peace in Pyeongtaek/Daechu-ri
Against the expansion of USFK garrisons

Every day (until Nov. 11) 7:00 PM, Boshin-gak (Subway stn. Jong-gak)

November 2 (Thursday)
Singing Performance: Chee-hwan Ahn (invited), Tae-choon Jung, Eun-ok Park

November 3 (Friday)
MC: Wae-hyang Ryu
Poetry Recital: Yong-ju Yoo, Sang-hak Ahn, Nam-joon Park, Young-ju Lee
Singing Performance: “Aca-sia” acapela singing group, Sung-man Kim
Dance Performance: Chang-ho Han, Sang-young Lee
Mime Performance: Ji-su Kang

November 4 (Saturday)
Singing Performance: “Beautiful Country” children’s singing group

November 5 (Sunday)
Dance Performance: Thursday 1:00 (???)
Mime Performance: Jin-gyu Yoo
Singing Performance: “For Shining Smiles”

November 6 (Monday)
MC: Sung-ho Lee
Percussion Performance: “Youngsan Maru”, traditional percussion group “Pan”
Poongmul (traditional drumming) Performance: “Taeollim” drumming group
Singing Performance: Tae-choon Jung, new song group “Na-pal Flower” (singers: Chang-woo Pek, Soon-gwan Hong, Hyun-sung Kim, Su-jin Lee. Poet: Hwe-sung Jung)

November 7 (Tuesday)
MC: Wue-young Woo
Puppet Performance: Gyu-mi Ko
Mime Performance: Du-sung Lee
Traditional Martial Arts Performance
Singing Performance: Tae-choon Jung

November 8 (Wednesday)
MC: Eun-mi Kang
Singing Performance: Tae-choon Jung, Yoon Do-hyun Band (YB Band), Song of Hope “Got Daji”. Hot Potato (Kim C)
Dance Performance: Pae-tae (Yoo-mi Lee)
Traditional Play: joint performance by “Gyulpa” and “Hope Bird”
Pansori (traditional folk song) Performance: Myung-ja Kim

November 9 (Thursday)
Singing Performance: Su Ki-sang Band, Park Sung-hwan Band, Ma Gu-ri Band, Tae-choon Jung, Eun-ok Park

November 10 (Friday)
Poetry Recital: Hyun-lim Shin, Wae-hyang Ryu
Singing Performance: Tae-choon Jung

November 11 (Sunday): Final Performance
Poetry: Jong-hwan Do, Gyung-dong Song
Singing Performance: Tae-choon Jung, Eun-ok Park, Jun Il-gwon Band, Poong gyung (invited), Moon Bata Lamp Band
Dance Performance: Chang-ho Han

For more detailed informations about the daily events please check out:
http://antigizi.or.kr/zboard/view.php?id=english_news&no=153

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반전평화연대의 밤

(SAUFEN FUER DEN FRIEDEN!!!^^)

2006 반전평화연대의 밤에 초대합니다

1. 행사 취지

-그동안 반전 평화 운동에 함께하고 반전 평화 운동을 지지했던 다양한 단체들과 개인들을 초청해 고마움을 표하고 연대를 다지는 행사입니다.
-11월 말과 12월 초의 자이툰 파병 연장 저지 행동을 앞둔 상황에서 반전 평화 운동의 결속과 연대를 다지는 자리입니다.

2. 제목

2006 반전평화연대의 밤
이라크, 레바논, 이란, 팔레스타인에서 한반도까지 “평화에 목마르다”

일시: 11월 2일(목) 저녁 7시 30분
장소: 용산 철도 웨딩홀
주최: 파병반대국민행동

3. 행사 개요

* 문화 공연과 간단한 음주, 반전 평화 내용이 함께 어우러지는 평화 파티
* 행사장에 다양한 단체들의 다양한 부스 배치
* 기금을 마련하기 위한 자리가 아님으로 입장료는 없습니다. 맥주와 음료수는 원가로, 안주는 무료로 제공됩니다.

4. 행사 기획

1부 연대의 시간(7:30-8:00): 반전 영상 상영, 연설, 평화의 시 낭송, 편지글 낭독.

2부 공연(8:00-9:00): 힙합그룹 실버 라이닝, 우리나라, 오카리나 연주 등

3부 어울림 마당(9:00-9:30)

*공식 행사는 9시 30분에 마치고 11시까지는 전체가 자유롭게 어우러지는 시간.

반전과 평화를 바라는 모든 이들을 초대합니다.

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LATEST NEWS

Just few minutes ago CNN/AP reported following:

N. Korea agrees to return to 6-party nuke talks

North Korea agreed Tuesday to rejoin six-nation nuclear disarmament talks in a surprise diplomatic breakthrough three weeks after the communist regime conducted its first known atomic test, the Chinese government said.

Chinese, U.S. and North Korean envoys to the negotiations held a day of unpublicized talks in Beijing during which North Korea agreed to return to the larger six-nation talks on its nuclear programs, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

"The three parties agreed to resume the six-party talks at the earliest convenient time," the Chinese statement said.

The agreement is one of the first signs of easing tensions since North Korea conducted the underground detonation on October 9, defying warnings from both the United States and Japan, and its staunchest ally, China.

If the six-party talks resume, it would mark a diplomatic victory for Beijing, which in the wake of the test had argued against punishing North Korea too harshly, in order to leave open a path for diplomacy.

"We hope it's true," White House press secretary Tony Snow told NBC's "Today" show. "It would be very good news."

South Korea welcomed the North Korean agreement.

"The government hopes that the six-party talks will resume at an early date as agreed and that an agreement will be reached on how to implement" a prior accord under which Pyongyang pledged to abandon its nuclear program, South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-ho said.

Seoul also has been trying to strike a delicate balance in punishing the North for its nuclear test; seeking to avoid aggravating its volatile neighbor while imposing sanctions according to an unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution.

The U.N. resolution calls for a ban on the sale of major arms to Pyongyang and inspection of cargo entering and leaving the country. It also calls for the freezing of assets of businesses supplying North Korea's nuclear and ballistic weapons programs, as well as restrictions on sales of luxury goods and travel bans on North Korean officials.

The six-nation arms talks were last held in November 2005, where no progress was made on implementing the September 2005 agreement where the North pledged to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for security guarantees and aid.

Just after that agreement, the North had demanded a nuclear reactor for power -- a request that was quickly rejected by the other sides at the talks.

However, the North then argued that it wouldn't return to the negotiations until the U.S. desisted from a campaign to sever it from the international financial system for Pyongyang's alleged complicity in counterfeiting and money laundering to sell weapons of mass destruction. The North viewed those measures as proof of Washington's "hostile" policy against it and thinly veiled desire for regime change

The U.S. refused and said the issue was unrelated. To try and press its case, the North launched a series of missile in July -- including a long-range model believed capable of reaching parts of the U.S.

A U.N. committee has been determining how to implement the sanctions over the atomic test, measures banning the North's weapons trade.

Washington has been seeking to gather support for the sanctions, and getting the North's top two trading partners -- China and South Korea -- to pressure the regime.

North Korea is believed to have enough radioactive material to make about a half-dozen bombs, but estimates vary due to limited intelligence about its nuclear program.

The apparent North Korean agreement followed a day of typically bellicose rhetoric from Pyongyang.

North Korea claimed that the United States, "scared" by the North's nuclear test, conducted some 200 spy flights over the communist country during October.

"The ... aerial espionage underscores the need for the army and the people of the (North Korea) to bolster the war deterrent for self-defense in every way to foil the U.S. imperialists' moves for a war of aggression," the North's official Korean Central News Agency said.

North Korea also warned South Korea on Tuesday against participating in a U.S.-led international drive to stop and search ships carrying weapons of mass destruction, saying involvement would bring about unspecified "catastrophic consequences."

The warning released by Pyongyang's official news agency came as South Korea is considering whether to fully participate in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative aimed at interdicting shipments of weapons of mass destruction and other suspected cargo.

Seoul has been reluctant to take full part in the initiative out of concern it may anger North Korea and complicate efforts to resolve the international standoff.

Instead, it has sent observers to drills and attended briefings.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/10/31/nkorea.ap/index.html

中、朝、美六方會談團長在北京舉行非正式會晤 (中華人民共和國外交部)   

Just let's wait and see what will

bring the near future!!(*)

* Because, as you know, the "Dear Leader" likes to make strange surprises!!

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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???

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First of all: yesterday I wrote about "division of labor in the process of SK's support for (the rulers in) the DPRK".

So, in my opinion, the cops should arrest them all - including the entire government, SK capitalists/the main supporters of the opposition GNP... - for supporting the enemy(harrharr)... And if it's not possible(^^) everyone who was/is accused/denounced or sentenced under the N"S"L should be released immediately!!!

국가보안법 박살내자!

Anyway, here you can read the latest developments in the so-called NK spy case:

Spy Suspects in Hunger Strike (K.Times)

Group may have revealed state secrets to N. Korea (K.Herald)

DLP challenges spy investigation

JoongAng Ilbo published following idiotic "editorial":

Spy case may destroy party
 

Amid the tensions caused by the recent North Korean nuclear test and the increasing concerns about national security, an incident in which people who participated in past student movements have now been involved in a possible case of espionage involving the North is truly shocking. According to authorities, former officials of the Democratic Labor Party are currently under investigation on possible charges of spying. In addition, a current senior official of the party is linked to the incident.
 
Since the former Kim Dae-jung administration, when our ideological armor started to crumble, the news that security authorities had caught a spy was really "news." There was always the belief that people linked to the North were trying to shake the South's foundations. Nevertheless, the security authorities just stood by, doing nothing. In the end, our concerns have become reality.
 
The current incident bears special meaning. Most of the people that are suspected of spying activities were involved in student movements during the mid-'80s. During the '80s and '90s college campuses were flooded with the North's Juche ideology, a virus that heavily infected college students. A student faction, a splinter organization of the so-called National Liberation group, that adhered to this particular ideology studied and worshipped the ideology, and argued for the withdrawal of U.S. forces.

That National Liberation group infiltrated various student organizations' leadership. Many of those who were educated by these student organizations and took part in student movements initiated by these organizations became players in key parts of the Roh administration. Security authorities have to find out what connections the suspects have with officials in political and power circles, and also who took part in the student movement in the '80s.
 
The recent incident has revealed that former and current officials of the Democratic Labor Party are involved in this case. This is an issue that could become a death sentence for the Democratic Labor Party. The party itself has staged protests in front of the National Intelligence Service arguing that the case is fabricated. Protesters also argued for the abolishment of the National Security Law. How can one argue that the incident was fabricated under an administration such as the current one?
No political party can exist outside national security. The Democratic Labor Party has to reflect upon itself, find the internal "red" part and apologize to the people.

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200610/26/200610262153022379900090109011.html

Some independent voices about the "spy case" you can check out here:

Welcome to the witchhunt 

(Kotaji)

N. Korean spy case starting to get real interesting 

(The Marmot's Hole, incl. about 40 comments)

And finally please read following:

Use of National Security Law increases (Hankyoreh)

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This we can call a real division of labor in the process of SK's support for (the rulers in) the DPRK:

While allegedly some individuals in SK are/were supporting the "intelligence" apparatus of the DPRK (read about the latest developments here: Two More Arrested on Espionage Charges  /  Court agrees to detain 5 as spy inquiry continues  /  DLP official held in spy probe), the ruling (capitalist) class in SK is supporting the ruling economically and militarily elite in NK - KWP/KPA - by "donating" huge amounts of cash (millions of US$ since 2000!!). Here you can read about one - of many other - example (if we can/want to believe this report):

N.K. Party ‘Takes 60 Percent of Kaesong Wages’ (Chosun Ilbo, 10.23)

More than half the salaries paid to North Koreans working at the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Park go to the North Korean Workers’ Party, a document written by a team in charge of inter-Korean economic cooperation at the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy shows. The team reported to the unification minister.
 
Grand National Party lawmaker Kim Gi-hyeon made the document public on Sunday. According to the memo, US$30 out of the monthly pay of $57.50 goes to the Workers’ Party. With $17.50 spent on insurance and other costs, North Korean workers at the complex are left with only $10 a month.
 
The Unification Ministry has publicly claimed that workers get $66 on average, with 30 percent spent on benefit packages of workers, like housing and medial expenses, and 70 percent going to the workers. A Unification Ministry official on Sunday denied the report. “It is the first I’ve heard about $30 going to the party,” he said. “How could the Industry Ministry know about something that the Unification Ministry didn’t know? We have no idea.”
 
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200610/200610230015.html

Well, it seems that KOREA IS already ONE! ..aeh I mean from the view of the S. Koreans (ahe, I mean some S. Koreans, hopefully not all!!??), while the North frequently/regularly is threatening the South with a "Sea of Blood", alternatively "Sea of Fire", and finally just a "Bowl of Ash" will remain...^^

^^

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이주노동자문화제

단속추방 중단, 노동비자 쟁취를 위한 21번째 안산이주노동자문화제

장소 - 안산역 앞
시간 - 오후 4시

안산이주노동자문화제집행위

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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.^^