NORTH KOREA NEWSLETTER NO. 305 (March 20, 2014)

FOREIGN TIPS

S. Korea asks China to back U.N. move on N. Korea rights abuse

BEIJING (Yonhap) -- South Korea has asked China to support a United Nations resolution holding North Korea's leadership responsible for human rights violations, but Beijing has opposed referring the case to an international court, a Seoul diplomat said on March 17 .

The U.N. Human Rights Council is set to pass a resolution on North Korea's dismal human rights record this week in Geneva after a U.N. Commission of Inquiry concluded last month that "crimes against humanity" are committed by ranking officials in the socialist country.

The United States, the European Union and Japan are working to bring North Korea's human rights situation before the U.N. Security Council, which has the power to refer the issue to the International Criminal Court (ICC), but prospects remain elusive because China, key ally of the North, holds a veto.

"We have continued to discuss the issue with the Chinese side, but Chinese officials told us that it would not be an appropriate approach to try to openly address North Korea's human rights situation," the diplomat said on the condition of anonymity.

"The Chinese side maintains that North Korea's human rights situation should be handled through constructive dialogue and that it opposes such an explicit way" of referring North Korea's leaders to the ICC, the diplomat said.

China has publicly said that it would oppose any move at the U.N. to bring North Korea's leaders before the global criminal court.

"To bring the human right issues to the International Criminal Court does not help improve a country's human rights conditions," China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Feb. 17, when the U.N. commission published the report.

Wrapping up a year-long investigation, the U.N. commission reported widespread executions of people, enslavement and sexual violence by North Korea. It marked the clearest indictment against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, in his speech at the U.N. human rights session in early March, proposed strengthening the role of the U.N. commission on North Korea's human rights.

"For the international community, it is now time to begin the discussions on next steps to effectively follow up on the commission's recommendations to improve the human rights situation in North Korea," Yun said.

"In this vein, we strongly support the strengthening of the U.N. mechanisms to implement the commission's recommendations. We also look forward to the leading role of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea," Yun said.

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N. Korea's per-capita GDP grows 4.8 pct in 2013: report

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea's per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) rose 4.8 percent on-year in 2013 from an improved grain harvest and expanded investment in the mining, utility and other segments, a report showed on March 16.

The North's per-capita GDP for last year is estimated at US$854, up $39 from a year earlier, according to the report released by the Hyundai Research Institute (HRI), a South Korean private think tank.

The North's 2013 per-capita GDP amounts to a mere 3.6 percent of South Korea's per-capita GDP of $23,838 for the same year, it said

North Korea's grain production improved on the back of favorable weather conditions, while the country also expanded its investment in various industrial sectors, the report said.

The communist state's grain production is estimated to have grown some 5 percent last year from a year earlier. The country saw an 8.5 percent on-year rise and 10 percent gain in its grain production, respectively, in 2011 and 2012.

Also, the reclusive nation increased its budget spending for railroads, metal and power generation sectors, which contributed in boosting its economy, the report showed.

Trade between North Korea and its strongest ally China jumped 10.4 percent on-year to reach $6.5 billion last year, while inter-Korean trade sank 42 percent to $1.1 billion due to a five-month halt of an jointly run industrial park.

The 2013 inter-Korean trade figure is the lowest since 2005 when the comparable figure was $1.06 billion.

The Kaesong Industrial Complex was shut down in early April 2013 after the North unilaterally pulled out all of its workers at 123 South Korean firms. It reopened in September after Pyongyang agreed not to repeat such a suspension.

Assistance from the international community to the North also dropped 47 percent on-year to reach $63.1 million last year, the report said.

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China urged to take tough action against N. Korea over plane's near-miss

BEIJING (Yonhap) -- China should take tough action against North Korea over a "recklessly fired missile" that crossed the path of a Chinese airliner during recent military drills, a Hong Kong media outlet said on March 15.

China had expressed "concerns" to North Korea over the March 4 incident in which the North fired missiles from multiple launchers into the East Sea. Minutes after the firing, a China Southern Airlines Co. airplane, en route from Tokyo to the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang with 220 people on board, flew through the same airspace as one of the missiles.

"The near-miss of a Chinese airline by a recklessly fired missile should have elicited a tough response," The South China Morning Post said in an editorial. "China was not alerted, nor were the aircraft's crew aware that the jet was flying along the rocket's trajectory."

   "North Korea has no closer ally, but even among nations with firm relations, such an incident would provoke an angry response," the editorial said, criticizing China for expressing "little more than concern that international practice had not been followed."

   "The near-miss is a reminder that the North remains as dangerous a threat as ever," it said.

The paper called for China to do more to rein in North Korea.

"China has a measure of leverage, but it cannot by itself force North Korea to change its ways," it said. "Only by China, the U.S. and South Korea working together is there a chance of the North becoming a responsible and accepted member of the international community."

   China is North Korea's key ally and economic benefactor, although Beijing's patience with Pyongyang has been wearing thin, particularly since the North's third nuclear test that heightened tensions on the KOrean Penninsula early last year.

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U.S. NGOs offer humanitarian aid to N. Korea

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- Private agencies in the United States have provided North Korea with aid to help its people have access to clean water and medicine, media reports said on March 14.

According to the Washington-based Radio Free Asia (RFA), Wellspring, a non-governmental organization in the U.S., sent a large truck to the North earlier this week to support its groundwater development project.

The aid was provided at the request of the North's underground water development research institute, and the lorry was purchased in China, according to the RFA.

Under the vision of "Bringing living water to the people of North Korea," James Linton, who leads the organization, has visited the communist country every year since 2007 to provide training, equipment, and expertise in the field and has drilled some 200 wells across the country.

The Connecticut-based private agency AmeriCares also recently sent medicine, medical devices and food for children worth $370,000, according to the Voice of America.

They are expected to arrive in the North next month to be delivered to hospitals and local clinics in Pyongyang and North Hwanghae, it added.

North Korea has regularly suffered from acute food and medical shortages caused mainly by isolation and natural disasters.

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U.N. sends three experts to N. Korea over FMD: report

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has dispatched three experts to North Korea to help contain a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak that Pyongyang says is spreading after emerging in the country more than two months ago, according to a U.S. radio report.

The three experts plan to assess the situation with their North Korean counterparts and make recommendations on how to contain the highly contagious animal disease, the Voice of America reported on March 13, citing the U.N. body's Chief Veterinary Officer, Juan Lubroth.

The trip comes more than two weeks after North Korea made a request for assistance to the U.N. body.

In February, the North told the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health that the animal disease had broken out at a pig farm in a suburb of its capital, Pyongyang, on Jan. 8.

The North's media reported last month that the country had killed 2,900 pigs as a preventive measure to stop the spread of the disease and buried about 360 others that had died from the disease.

The highly contagious animal disease is continuing to spread due to a lack of vaccines, diagnostic means and disinfectants, according to the North's media.

Foot-and-mouth disease is an infectious and sometimes fatal disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals such as pigs, cattle, deer and sheep.

In February, South Korea offered to supply disinfectants and other assistance to North Korea, though Pyongyang failed to respond to the offer.

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