Weekly Report on North Korea (No. 621)
1. Domestic Affairs
- Chairman Kim Jong-il of North Korea inspected tactical training of soldiers
at military unit 115 on December 11 and lauded the outcome of the education
on political ideology. On the following day, he also encouraged the morale of
those who were involved in the land readjustment work, including soldiers, during
a field inspection in the Pyongannam-do Province.
- At a national convention for judiciary workers held on December 11, North
Korea underscored the need for tightening censorship and supervision for the
promotion of law-abiding spirit of its citizens and urged to crack down non-socialist
phenomena based on strong class-consciousness.
- The North concentrated its efforts on expanding the food supply by dedicating
five new food processing factories including a chicken processing plant in Yongseong.
- An athletic competition opened in memory of the birthday of Kim Jeong-sook,
mother of chairman Kim Jong-il, which falls on December 24. The competition
was aimed at heightening loyalty to the family clan of chairman Kim.
2. Relations with South Korea
- At the working-level meeting to discuss matters concerning the construction
of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex held December 6-8, the North expressed its
willingness to earnestly pursue inter-Korean cooperative projects as soon as
possible by adopting a three-point joint press release including the date to
start the construction of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex and the agreement
on communication, customs and quarantine.
- At the first working-level meeting aimed at laying institutional framework
for long-term inter-Korean economic cooperation on December 11-13, delegates
from the South and the North narrowed their differences on some issues including
the confirmation of the country of origin, but failed to strike a deal due
to differences on other issues.
- The North falsely reported that the South Korean naval ships that were
guiding civilian vessels in operation intruded the North Korean territorial
waters and denounced the 34th Korea-US Security Consultative Meeting on December
5 for plotting a war.
- The North attempted to spread the massive anti-US, anti-war campaign everywhere.
For example, the North declared the period from December 10 to January 30, 2003
as a term for staging a joint inter-Korean struggle against the United States,
while mobilizing the Northern branches of the Beomminryeon and Beomchonghangryeon,
the two seditious underground organizations,
- A by-lined commentary carried in a December 11 edition of Rodong Sinmun
maintained that the election of the presidential candidate of South Korea s
opposition Grand National Party would return the inter-Korean relations to the
confrontational structure of the past and bring on a nuclear war. It instigated
all South Koreans to come forward to resist the election of the opposition candidate.
3. External Affairs
- While declaring the decision to reactivate its nuclear program on December
12, a spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs mentioned that the freezing
of its nuclear program depended on the United States. It seems to suggest that
the North is anticipating dialogue with the United States.
The North strongly criticized Japan s allusion to a demand for the compensation
for the Japanese victims who were abducted by North Korea, claiming that the
most immediate problem facing the North Korea-Japan relations is how to deal
with the legacies of the past.
A group of party representatives visited Cuba and sought to form an anti-US
coalition through the meetings with Cuban political leaders including President
Fidel Castro.
