*** FOREIGN TIPS

U.N. Criticized for N. Korea's Role in Disarmament Body

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- A senior U.S. congresswoman strongly condemned the United Nations on June 30 for selecting North Korea for the rotating chairmanship of its disarmament body.

   In a statement, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) said the move demonstrates "how backward the U.N. has become."

   "Time and again, th U.N. demonstrates that it is in dire need of real reform," she said. "The U.N. must place pressure on rogue regimes, not hand them chairman gavels."

   She pointed out North Korea's development and proliferation of nuclear weapons and missile programs.

   "This is a classic example of the fox guarding the hen house," she said, adding it is no surprise that North Korea was congratulated by Iran and other rogue regimes.

   North Korea has assumed the rotating presidency of the U.N. Conference on Disarmament, which opened in Geneva on June 28.

   Seo Se-pyong, Pyongyang's top envoy to Geneva, said earlier, "(We are) sure that this conference will bring concrete results and will actively participate in it so that it can move forward."

   The 65-member U.N. Conference on Disarmament in Geneva is chaired by six nations each year in alphabetical order. A country takes on the presidency for four weeks.

   Initially, Cuba was supposed to lead the ongoing session but it requested a change in the order, citing unspecified internal problems.

   The conference will be held until Friday and enter a one-month recess before reconvening Aug. 2.

  
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North Korea Icreases Grain Imports from China

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea imported more than 50,000 tons of grains from its key ally China in May, an expert said on June 30, amid chronic food shortages in the North.

   The North purchased 50,328 tons of corn, flour and rice in May, up 31.5 percent compared to the same period last year, said Kwon Tae-jin, a North Korea expert at the Korea Rural Economic Institute.

   The North also imported 114,300 tons of fertilizer from China in the first five months, a rise of 39 percent compared to the same period last year, Kwon said, citing figures from Seoul's Korea International Trade Association.

   China is the North's last remaining ally, key economic benefactor and diplomatic supporter.

   In March, the U.N. food agency appealed for 430,000 tons of food aid to feed 6 million vulnerable North Korean people, a quarter of the country's population.

   Washington sent its delegation to North Korea in May to assess the food situation, though no decision on food aid has been made yet.

   The North has relied on international handouts since the late 1990s when it suffered a massive famine that was estimated to have killed 2 million people.

   However, the outside aid has dwindled following the North's missile and nuclear tests and other provocations.

  
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N. Korea Tightens Border Controls to Stop Defections

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea has strengthened its border controls to try to stem the steady stream of defections to South Korea, a private aid group claimed on July 1.

   The latest crackdown came after nine North Koreans crossed the tense western sea border into South Korea aboard two engineless boats in June, the Good Friends said in its regular newsletter.

   The North bans small motorless boats on its western coast and thoroughly vets people before issuing permits to go to sea. It also stopped issuing a travel permit that made it nearly impossible for inlanders to travel to border areas - crossing points for defectors, the aid group said.

   However, the flow of North Korean defectors continues amid chronic food shortages and harsh political oppression, prompting Seoul to build a new facility to accommodate North Koreans. South Korea is now home to more than 21,000 North Korean defectors.

   South Korea is scheduled to break ground for the resettlement center in Hwacheon next week to help the defectors better adjust to life in the capitalist South. The area is about 118 kilometers northeast of Seoul.

   Defections are a constant irritant to inter-Korean relations, which have already worsened since the North's two deadly attacks on the South last year that killed 50 South Koreans.

   South Korea has suggested that it will not return the nine North Korean defectors to the North despite Pyongyang warning of further damage to inter-Korean relations.

   Seoul has a longstanding policy to accept any North Korean defectors who want to live in the South, and repatriate any North Koreans who stray into the South if they want to return.

  
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N. Korea's Economy Hopeless without Leadership Change

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- North Korea's renewed push for a joint economic zone with China will again come to naught as its current leadership has no will and capability to carry out the project, a U.S. expert said on January 3.

   Nicholas Eberstadt, a political economy researcher at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI), said North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's trip to China in May reflects the communist regime's gesture for the "opening" or "reform" of its economy.

   He said Kim's visit was a "fundraising tour" for the 10-year State Strategy Plan for Economic Development which the North announced early this year in hopes of lifting itself into the ranks of advanced nations by 2020.

   "It is a safe bet that Kim Jong-il's visit to China in May 2011 was a sort of fundraising tour aimed at securing some of the many billions of dollars envisioned by this ambitious plan," he said in a report titled "What is wrong with the North Korean economy?"

   Shortly after Kim's return from China, Pyongyang unveiled a new joint economic zone project with China on two border islands - Hwanggumphyong and Wihwa.

   The project was apparently meant to underscore a new direction for the North Korean economy, and to jump-start the new development campaign, according to Eberstadt.

   He pointed out Kim's every trip to China so far has raised speculation over a possible shift in the North's own style of socialism, called "Urisik Sahoejuui" in Korean.

   "Yet all North Korean efforts at 'opening' and 'reform' to date have been confused and half-hearted, and every one of these initiatives has ultimately ended in failure," he said.

   He stressed the North's economy has no future under the current system.

   "In China and other socialist countries, big changes in economic policy have typically followed, and depended upon, big changes in national leadership," he said. "But Pyongyang appears absolutely intent upon carrying the Kim family's dynastic rule into its third generation. North Korea is most likely to remain the black hole in the Northeast Asian economy."

  
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South Korea Rules Out Food Aid to North Korea

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- South Korea ruled out sending any government food aid to North Korea on July 4 as the European Union (EU) announced a plan to give emergency aid to the impoverished communist country.

   Seoul had been one of the largest donors to its northern neighbor, but it has suspended the aid since a conservative government came into power in 2008 and linked denuclearization efforts by Pyongyang as preconditions to resuming cross-border exchanges.

   The North's two deadly attacks on the South last year also heightened animosity against Pyongyang, sharply worsening public opinion on giving aid to the North.

   "We have no plan to provide the North with large-scale government food aid," Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said.

   Still, South Korea has selectively allowed civilians to travel to the North to give humanitarian aid to infants and other vulnerable people.

   The spokeswoman made the comment in response to the EU's decision to provide the North with aid worth 10 million euros to help feed 650,000 people.

   "Increasingly desperate and extreme measures are being taken by the hard-hit North Koreans, including the widespread consumption of grass," the European Commission said in a statement.

   The executive body of the European Union said North Korea has agreed to a strict monitoring system to make sure the aid reaches malnourished children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, the elderly and other intended beneficiaries.

   The aid comes months after the U.N. food agency appealed for 430,000 tons of food aid to feed 6 million vulnerable North Korean people, a quarter of the country's population.

   Washington sent a delegation to North Korea in May to assess the food situation, though no decision on food aid has been made yet.

   The North has relied on international handouts since the late 1990s when it suffered a massive famine that was estimated to have killed 2 million people.

   However, the outside aid has dwindled following the North's missile and nuclear tests and other provocations.

  
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iPhone Application Offers Rare Glimpse into North Korea

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- A new iPhone application now offers a rare glimpse into North Korea, one of the most isolated countries in the world.

   The free application, Fotopedia North Korea, which launched in late June, displays more than 1,140 photos that photographer Eric Lafforgue took across North Korea on his four visits between 2008 and 2010.

   The photos show soldiers, children, the massive gymnastics extravaganza known as the Arirang Festival, as well as anti-American propaganda posters and images of the country's leader Kim Jong-il and his late father and the country's founder, Kim Il-sung.

   A propaganda poster shows several missiles being launched at the United States while another poster illustrates a crushing blow to the U.S.

   North Korea views the U.S. as its key enemy and fought against its troops during the 1950-53 Korean War, though it wants to improve its relations with Washington.

   The photos also show many people paying tribute to the country's founder by visiting his towering bronze statue overlooking Pyongyang.

   The Kims are the subject of a massive personality cult that pervades almost every aspect of North Korean society.

  
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U.S. Says It 'Understands' EU's Food Aid

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The United States said on July 5 that it "understands" the European Union's decision to provide North Korea with food aid but stressed that it will make its own decision on aid.

   "We have noted the EU's move. We have talked to the EU about its move. And we understand their decision. We have not made our own decision," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said at a press briefing.

   The EU announced earlier this week that it will send food aid worth 10 million euros, or US$14.5 million, to North Korea, said to be suffering a severe food shortage. The EU's decision follows a June trip by a team to assess the food situation there.

   The EU said its plan for the food shipment is to save the lives of 650,000 vulnerable residents in the communist nation despite long-stalled denuclearization efforts. The first batch of delivery, apparently non-rice products, is scheduled to arrive there next month.

   Observers said the EU's initiative will put pressure on the U.S. and South Korea, which are considering similar assistance.

   Nuland sidestepped a question on whether the U.S. welcomes the EU's decision, instead choosing the word "understand."

   When asked if the EU's move will affect Washington's consideration of aid, she did not give a direct answer either.

   "Obviously, we are in close touch with the EU on these issues, as we are in close touch on all of the issues that we work on around the world," she said.

   The U.S. sent a separate delegation to the North in late May to verify its claim that it is in urgent need of food. The nuclear-tipped North has long relied on food handouts from foreign nations, mainly China and South Korea.

   Seoul delivered 200,000-300,000 tons of rice to Pyongyang each year under the so-called sunshine policy before the current Lee Myung-bak government was inaugurated in early 2008 on a pledge to link such aid with a denuclearization process.

   U.S. officials have been calling for measures to guarantee the transparent distribution of food.

  
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Kim Jong-il's Field Trips Focused on Economy

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has focused his inspection tours on economic facilities in the first six months of the year, an official said on July 6, indicating that he wants to improve his country's faltering economy ahead of next year's landmark centennial anniversary of his late father's birth.

   Kim made 63 public appearances during January and June, the largest number ever compared to the same period in previous years.

   On 28 of the outings, the North Korean leader inspected economic facilities, Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo told reporters.

   Kim "has been increasing activities on economic areas since 2008," she said.

   The North has vowed to improve light industries and agriculture as part of its stated campaign to build a prosperous and powerful nation next year, the centennial of the birth of the country's late founder, Kim Il-sung, the father of current leader Kim.

   The move comes amid doubt about whether the North can make any economic breakthrough by next year.

   North Korea has built some 500 houses in its capital of Pyongyang, far short of its goal of building 100,000 houses by next year, according to the National Intelligence Service, Seoul's spy agency.

   In the latest reminder of chronic food shortages, the European Commission announced this week that it will provide the North with emergency food aid worth 10 million euros to help feed 650,000 people.

   During the first half of this year the North Korean leader inspected just one military unit and made 13 other military-related public appearances, including art performances, Lee said.

   Meanwhile, Kim's son and heir apparent, Kim Jong-un, accompanied his father on 35 inspection trips, more than 80 percent of which were related to the military.

   The elder Kim named Jong-un vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the North's ruling Workers' Party and a four-star general last year in the clearest sign yet of making him the next leader.

  
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North Korea's Trade Reliance on China Deepens: KDI

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea's reliance on China for trade deepened last year after South Korea cut almost all business relations with its communist neighbor following Pyongyang's deadly attack on a South Korean naval ship, a report showed on July 6.

   South Korea cut its business relations with the North on May 24 of last year after a multinational team of investigators confirmed that the North torpedoed the South Korean warship Cheonan on March 26 near their disputed western maritime border, killing 46 sailors. The North has denied any involvement.

   According to the report by the state-run think tank Korea Development Institute (KDI), North Korea's trade with China came to US$3.47 billion last year, up 29.3 percent from a year earlier.

   That accounts for 56.9 percent of the reclusive country's total annual trade of $6.09 billion, up from 52.6 percent a year earlier, said the report. The KDI said that the report is based on an analysis by North Korea experts on the communist country's overall economic situation.

   Pyongyang's trade dependence on China had further deepened so far this year, the report noted.

   Trade between North Korea and China nearly doubled to $1.43 billion during the first four months of this year, compared with the same period a year earlier. In particular, exports of natural resources spiked, making up 72.4 percent of the total China-bound shipments, according to the report.

   "The North expanded its exports of such strategic materials as coal to China at the instruction by Kim Jong-il following the blocking of its trade channel with the South," the report said.

   "As a result, we think that the country is facing disruptions in running its economy such as a possible energy shortage during winter," it added.

   On North Korea's financial market situations, the report said that the currency exchange rate has nearly doubled since December amid market concerns over a lack of hard currency due to worsened business ties with South Korea.

   "The spike in the North's currency exchange rate seems to have resulted in a sharp rise in food prices, further crimping its citizens' livelihood," the report said.

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