Quotes of the Day:
“Man cannot possess anything as long as he fears death. But to him who does not fear it, everything belongs. If there was no suffering, man would not know his limits, would not know himself. ”
- Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
“If anyone can refute me—show me I’m making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective—I’ll gladly change. It’s the truth I’m after, and the truth never harmed anyone.”
– Marcus Aurelius
"Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved."
- Helen Keller
1. N. Korea's nuclear reactor appears to be still operating: 38 North
2. South Korea’s growing partisanship over relations with the United States
3. South Korea ‘Seriously’ Looking to Join CPTPP Following China Bid
4. S. Korea charges 15 in sex abuse case as military grapples with mistreatment of female and trans soldiers
5. Singapore and South Korea to jointly launch quarantine-free travel for vaccinated travelers
6. 'Squid Game' is a global sensation. But at home, it's delivering hard truths.
7. North Korea says abduction issue "already resolved," raps Japan's new PM
8. North Korea, Thailand, Indonesia ruled non-compliant by WADA
9. 7-Eleven store in South Korea to launch drone delivery
10. Grassley congratulates Korean American judicial nominee on 'your people,' their 'work ethic'
11. More than 30 mln people fully vaccinated in S. Korea
12. Behind-the-scenes in North Korea through diplomat's wife's lens
13. North Korea distributes new emergency COVID-19 rules to its population
14. North Korea’s Progress on Poultry Farms
1. N. Korea's nuclear reactor appears to be still operating: 38 North
Again, indications that the regime has no intention to denuclearize.
N. Korea's nuclear reactor appears to be still operating: 38 North | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Yonhap) -- North Korea appears to be still operating its uranium enrichment plant at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, a U.S. website monitoring the reclusive state said Saturday.
"Imagery shows water being discharged from Aug. 25 to at least Sept. 9; no water was observed on Oct. 1, but it was detected again the next day," 38 North said in its latest article.
The website also stressed although there were no other indicators, such as the emission of steam from the facilities, "intermittent discharge is not uncommon when the reactor is operating."
Earlier this week, 38 North also said satellite images suggested Pyongyang has been carrying out construction activities at the venue.
The suspicion comes in line with the International Atomic Energy Agency's report released in August, which suggested Pyongyang appears to have reactivated its 5-megawatt nuclear reactor at the complex, also judging by possible activities indicative of a discharge of cooling water.
The North previously reprocessed spent fuel rods from the reactor to harvest plutonium for nuclear bombs.
Earlier this month, the North reopened its direct communication lines with the South, raising hopes for the resumption of stalled inter-Korean dialogue amid a drawn-out deadlock in denuclearization talks.
Last year, North Korea blew up a liaison office in its border town of Kaesong and unilaterally cut off all inter-Korean communication lines in anger over anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent from South Korea.
(END)
2. South Korea’s growing partisanship over relations with the United States
This bears watching. Domestic politics could have a significant influence on the alliance.
Excerpts:
The South Korean left has its limits as to how much pressure from China in response to South Korea–US cooperation it is willing to see. Yet as Democratic Party chairperson Song Young-gil recently asserted, the South Korean left, as an official policy platform, believes that Seoul does not face a zero-sum binary choice of having to align with either Beijing or Washington.
Amid fears that the US–China strategic rivalry could sideline Seoul in its bid to take the lead on North Korean denuclearisation, South Korea’s ability to remain at the forefront of these efforts will be an issue of key interest to a left-of-center government. One way the United States could work with a left-leaning administration in Seoul to advance US strategic interests vis-à-vis China would be to allow South Korea more autonomy within the alliance structure to manage its policies toward Pyongyang.
In doing so, Washington could both accommodate the evolution of the South Korea–US partnership and grant the US-aligned South Korea more leeway to operate. This strategy could deter Seoul from drawing closer to Beijing to manoeuvre away from Washington’s overbearing hand.
South Korea’s growing partisanship over relations with the United States | East Asia Forum
Author: Anthony Rinna, Sino-NK
Ahead of South Korea’s presidential election in March 2022, Seoul’s balancing act between China and the United States has taken on a distinctly partisan dimension.
The South Korean left has openly favoured Seoul’s so-called ‘strategic ambiguity’, asserting that neither Beijing nor Washington have any claim to use South Korean partnership to advance their great power geopolitical designs. South Korean conservatives, in contrast, are more inclined to criticise China in a manner consistent with the liberal international order, even as trade with China comprises a significant portion of South Korea’s export-oriented economy.
Seoul’s unwillingness to outright align itself with the United States against China does not pose an existential crisis to the South Korea–US alliance as of now. But in the event of a Democratic Party victory in next year’s presidential election, Washington will need to prepare for a South Korean administration less willing to align with the United States against China than it would like.
There is a general bipartisan consensus among policymakers in Seoul that the United States does not duly consider South Korea’s specific interests, particularly on the denuclearisation and unification of the Korean Peninsula. Yet the left and right are divided on how South Korea’s relations with Beijing and Washington factor into the pursuit of its national interests.
Policymakers on the South Korean left have asserted that both Beijing and Washington should consider the country as a crucial actor in Northeast Asia in its own right, rather than a pawn in the quest for hegemony in the Asia Pacific. The US push for South Korea to align with its strategy against China has raised questions about the extent to which the United States values its partnership with South Korea beyond geopolitical ambitions.
In contrast, policymakers on the South Korean right have argued that Seoul’s unqualified support for the South Korea–US alliance — including helping the United States contain China — comprises a key South Korean interest. Prominent members of the South Korean National Assembly, including North Korean defector-turned-lawmaker Thae Yong-ho and senior foreign affairs committee member Park Jin, have slammed Seoul’s ‘strategic ambiguity’ between Beijing and Washington.
While the Blue House publicly stated that the Biden administration appreciates South Korea’s tenuous position, policymakers in Seoul understand that the United States is attempting to enlist South Korea in its strategy to contain China. This was most notable in Washington’s urging Seoul to participate in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) and more recent moves in Washington aimed at potentially enticing South Korea to participate in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing pact.
Even if Washington does not explicitly ask Seoul to join the Quad or the Five Eyes, South Korea is well aware that Washington will invariably benchmark South Korea’s relative strategic value against its willingness to cooperate with broader US strategy toward China.
Given the prevailing pro-US sentiment, internal opposition to how the United States views South Korea in terms of strategic value is not anti-Americanism. But a failure on Washington’s part to view South Korea on more equal footing could stunt attempts at developing the South Korea–US partnership to meet current challenges.
The South Korean left has its limits as to how much pressure from China in response to South Korea–US cooperation it is willing to see. Yet as Democratic Party chairperson Song Young-gil recently asserted, the South Korean left, as an official policy platform, believes that Seoul does not face a zero-sum binary choice of having to align with either Beijing or Washington.
Amid fears that the US–China strategic rivalry could sideline Seoul in its bid to take the lead on North Korean denuclearisation, South Korea’s ability to remain at the forefront of these efforts will be an issue of key interest to a left-of-center government. One way the United States could work with a left-leaning administration in Seoul to advance US strategic interests vis-à-vis China would be to allow South Korea more autonomy within the alliance structure to manage its policies toward Pyongyang.
In doing so, Washington could both accommodate the evolution of the South Korea–US partnership and grant the US-aligned South Korea more leeway to operate. This strategy could deter Seoul from drawing closer to Beijing to manoeuvre away from Washington’s overbearing hand.
Anthony V Rinna is Senior Editor at the Sino-NK research group.
3. South Korea ‘Seriously’ Looking to Join CPTPP Following China Bid
South Korea ‘Seriously’ Looking to Join CPTPP Following China Bid
October 8, 2021, 2:20 AM EDT
South Korea became the latest nation to express interest in joining an Asia-Pacific trade deal, with the trade minister saying the government is “seriously and actively considering” the issue.
Korea’s overture comes after China and Taiwan submitted formal requests in recent weeks to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, a free-trade pact between 11 countries around the Pacific Rim.
The application from its Asian neighbors has created a sense of urgency in Seoul that they shouldn’t be left out of a deal that looks set to grow. Korea has so far said it’s reviewing joining the pact, but fell short of offering a timeline for its formal application.
“I think Korea is more than ready and prepared to enter into CPTPP than any other country right now,” Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo said in an interview with Bloomberg in Geneva, noting the government has been making “step by step” preparations to join the deal for the past few years.
Yeo said he didn’t know whether China will be able to meet the high standards required to join, and instead emphasized the benefits his own country could offer. Korea is a “technological and trade powerhouse in the region” and its participation could “revitalize the CPTPP into a more inclusive, comprehensive and transparent” agreement, Yeo said.
Applications from both China and Taiwan to join the deal initially designed by the U.S. to sideline Beijing have left CPTPP members scrambling to calculate the benefits, or risks, of accepting both or just one into the pact.
The development has also stirred renewed interest in the deal at a time when supply chain disruptions are raising the importance of close trade relations. With an annual GDP of $1.64 trillion, Korea would be the third-largest economy to join the $13.5 trillion trade pact after Japan and Canada. The UK applied to join earlier this year.
Yeo declined to say when the government will submit a request, but said the government has been making necessary changes to domestic regulations.
“I think we are ready.”
4. S. Korea charges 15 in sex abuse case as military grapples with mistreatment of female and trans soldiers
S. Korea charges 15 in sex abuse case as military grapples with mistreatment of female and trans soldiers
SEOUL — Two recent suicides in the ranks of the South Korean armed forces — and the perceived delay in accountability — have sparked public outrage, forcing the country to once again confront its poor treatment of women and sexual minorities.
On Thursday, a South Korean court ruled that the military unlawfully discriminated against the country’s first openly transgender soldier, Byun Hui-su, when it discharged her following her gender-reassignment surgery in 2019. The court ordered her reinstatement but the victory came seven months too late: Byun took her life in March.
And on Friday, military prosecutors charged fifteen people as part of a case involving the sexual abuse of a female noncommissioned officer, who was only identified by her last name of Lee. Authorities are also seeking a 15-year prison sentence for the Air Force master sergeant who committed the alleged incident.
After Lee reported the alleged abuse, her superior officers tried to persuade her to drop the complaint, according to local news reports. Two months later, she was found dead.
The deaths and the rise of the #MeToo movement have encouraged victims in the male-dominated, socially conservative nation to speak up, said Jang Hye-young, a lawmaker from the center-left Justice party, in an interview. “We’ve reached a point where we can talk about the harm we’ve endured, but the moments that follow afterward continue to remind us that we’re still in a living hell.”
Activists have lobbied heavily for a national anti-discrimination law protecting LGBTQ people and nearly a dozen such proposals have been put before the National Assembly since 2007.
In South Korea, activists opposed to gay rights have deep links to religious, right-wing movements. Lawmakers with close ties to such conservative blocs have killed the proposed legislation, arguing that homosexuality and being transgender are signs of mental illness and that anti-discrimination laws only serve to encourage LGBTQ people.
Such is the resistance that even lawmakers who support gay rights are reluctant to publicly commit to anti-discrimination bills for fear of invoking the wrath of the country’s politically influential and socially conservative Protestant community, which makes up about 20 percent of the population.
The failure to pass an anti-discrimination act leaves “LGBTQ people vulnerable to being fired, evicted, or mistreated because of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” said Human Rights Watch in a recent report.
“[Byun’s] case illustrates why South Korea needs to urgently address discriminatory laws and practices — not only to send a badly needed message that prejudice is harmful, but to protect those whose livelihoods are being destroyed by discrimination,” HRW researcher Ryan Thoreson said.
South Korean minorities have found some protection in the judiciary. The court that ruled in favor of Byun, the late transgender soldier, said that the reasoning that led to the military expelling her was “undoubtedly illegal.”
“In deciding whether Byun Hui-su’s case could be interpreted as a physical and mental disability … it’s obvious that the decision should have been based on the premise that [Byun] was a woman following gender reassignment,” the court said in a statement after its ruling.
The South Korean Army said it respected the court’s decision but had not decided on whether to appeal.
Many activists say that they are not surprised the military has been at the forefront of the battle around LGBTQ and women’s rights. The vast majority of South Korean men are required to spend 18 months in military service.
“Korea is still such a male-centered society, and the culture fostered in the Army trickles down to all other parts of society,” said Jeram Yunghun Kang, a visual artist and queer activist in Jeju, an island south of the Korean Peninsula.
In a June speech, South Korean President Moon Jae-in apologized for the “unjust death” of Lee, the female Air Force soldier, acknowledging the harm fostered in military culture. His Air Force chief of staff also resigned to take responsibility. But just a month after Moon’s display of regret, an Army general was arrested for sexually harassing a female subordinate.
After Kang disclosed his sexuality to a superior while serving in the military in 2008, he said he spent 116 days in a mental hospital to avoid being bullied by his fellow soldiers.
“I was treated like a problem they had to throw away,” he said.
If you or someone you know needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255). You can also text a crisis counselor by messaging the Crisis Text Line at 741741.
5. Singapore and South Korea to jointly launch quarantine-free travel for vaccinated travelers
Singapore and South Korea to jointly launch quarantine-free travel for vaccinated travelers
CNBC · by Abigail Ng · October 8, 2021
Korean Air Lines Co. aircraft sit on the tarmac at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea, on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020.
SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images
SINGAPORE — Quarantine-free travel between Singapore and South Korea will start from Nov. 15 for vaccinated travelers, the city-state's transport ministry announced Friday.
The two countries agreed to launch a so-called "vaccinated travel lane," which allows vaccinated travelers to enter Singapore from South Korea, and vice versa without serving quarantines. Instead, travelers will have to take Covid-19 tests to ensure they are not infected with the virus.
It is the "first of its kind between two major aviation hubs in Asia," the press release said.
Transport Minister S Iswaran said the travel arrangement reopens general travel between Singapore and South Korea after some 20 months of disruption.
"This is another milestone as we re-open Singapore's borders, and resume air travel in a careful and calibrated manner," Iswaran said.
As part of the agreement, travelers will have to fly between Singapore's Changi Airport and South Korea's Incheon International Airport. More details will be announced soon, the transport ministry said.
In September, Singapore started similar arrangements with Brunei and Germany, allowing conditional travel for inoculated visitors from both countries, and establishing the country's first vaccinated travel lanes.
Singapore is also in talks with the U.S. about a possible travel lane between the two countries, Gan Kim Yong, Singapore's minister for trade and industry, said at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event in Washington DC on Thursday.
"We are now working on a VTL with the U.S. as soon as possible, and certainly before the end of the year," he said, according to prepared remarks.
CNBC · by Abigail Ng · October 8, 2021
6. 'Squid Game' is a global sensation. But at home, it's delivering hard truths.
Excerpts:
While “Squid Game” is not the first story about a fight to the death, director Hwang Dong-hyuk, who has a film degree from the University of Southern California, made it influential in his own way, said Oh Dong-jin, a prominent film critic in South Korea.
“Every movie borrows this and that from other movies. What matters, therefore, is how creatively you can borrow from different references,” he said. “So, even from this standpoint, the traditional children’s games the show uses make 'Squid Game' quite original.”
Margie Kim, a housewife in Seoul who is watching “Squid Game” with her family, said that while she enjoyed its intensity and pop-art-influenced visuals, the underlying messages were also important.
“I do feel the pain of what our society is going through,” she said. The show deals with so many pressing issues, she said—income inequality, youth unemployment, a rapidly aging society—that it’s something her entire family can relate to and talk about.
“So many middle-class, ordinary people live with so much debt,” she said. “I could totally empathize with people who joined the game.”
'Squid Game' is a global sensation. But at home, it's delivering hard truths.
HONG KONG — Why are South Koreans watching “Squid Game”? Because everyone else is.
The nine-episode horror series on Netflix has hit No. 1 in 90 of the streaming service’s markets around the world, including South Korea, where it was made.
“I got to the point where I could not hold a conversation without watching the show,” said Jung Dunn, a security analyst in Seoul, the South Korean capital.
But the show also strikes a nerve because it unflinchingly addresses a problem that is particularly entrenched in South Korea: debt and the never-ending struggle to pay it off.
The cast of “Squid Game” features some of South Korea’s biggest stars, including Lee Jung-jae as the protagonist, Seong Gi-hun, a hopelessly indebted father who receives a business card from a stranger offering him a way out. Along with 455 other contestants — from all walks of life but all deeply in debt too — he agrees to compete for a cash prize of 45.6 billion won (about $38 million) by playing a series of traditional Korean children’s games, only to discover that elimination from each round means death.
A card with a phone number on one side is given to the game's 456 participants in
“There’s this dissonance between Korean pride that this Korean show is dominating Netflix all around the world, and the discomfort with what the show appears to expose about Korea,” said CedarBough Saeji, an assistant professor of Korean and East Asian studies at Pusan National University in Busan, South Korea. “Koreans love to be No. 1, but No. 1 at the cost of kind of airing your dirty laundry is a somewhat different thing.”
That South Korea also produced “Parasite,” the 2020 Oscar winner for best picture that also focused on themes of inequality, has probably accentuated this discomfort, Saeji said.
Still, “Squid Game” is wildly popular in its home country.
The show was released on Sept. 17 just before Chuseok, a Korean holiday similar to Thanksgiving when families gather, the perfect time for binge-watching. The surge in network traffic led one internet service provider to sue Netflix to cover its costs.
The fervor has also spilled over into real life. A street vendor in Seoul who provided the makers of “Squid Game” with dalgona, a brittle sugar candy at the center of one of the games, told Reuters that he had seen a boom in business.
One of the games in
Thousands of curious South Koreans also tried the eight-digit phone number that appears on the business card, which the show’s makers didn’t realize would reach an actual person. The owner of the number, and even people with similar numbers, have been inundated with calls and messages at all hours.
On Wednesday, Netflix said it was working with the show’s local production company to address the issue, including editing scenes to remove the number.
Park Sae-ha, a senior studying economics at Yonsei University in Seoul, said “Squid Game” was “spell-binding because it was so explicit and blunt.”
“Although I am young, I could easily relate to the hard reality of a very competitive society,” she said.
That intense competitiveness may be one reason South Korea has been so successful, with a period of rapid industrialization starting in the 1960s that turned it into the world’s 10th-largest economy. But as in many other countries, a university degree and a white-collar job don’t guarantee the financial security they used to, Saeji said. With an average income of about $42,000 a year, many Koreans now find they have to borrow to keep up.
Fueled by low interest rates, household debt in South Korea has grown significantly in recent years, and is now equal to the country’s annual GDP. (In the U.S., by contrast, household debt is about 80 percent of GDP.) People may rack up debt because of credit card spending, unemployment or gambling losses, but a large chunk of it is tied to real estate.
Housing prices have been rising fast, especially under President Moon Jae-in, and the average price of an apartment in Seoul is nearing $1 million. Lending curbs and efforts to cool the housing market have done little to rein in household borrowing. In addition to housing, some Koreans, especially young people, borrow money to invest in cryptocurrency.
People look at a city skyline from an observation deck of Woomyeon mountain at dusk in Seoul, South Korea, on July 9, 2020. (SeongJoon Cho / Bloomberg via Getty Images file)
Many Koreans start out by borrowing from legitimate financial institutions like banks, said Koo Se-Woong, a commentator on Korean culture based in Germany. When that avenue is exhausted, they may move on to second-tier lenders that charge higher interest.
In the worst-case scenarios, he said, borrowers turn to loan shark operations that can charge triple-digit interest rates, “and then you are pushed into situations from which you really cannot get out.”
According to some estimates, there are 400,000 Koreans in debt to loan sharks.
“When you look at the characters in the show who are participating in this game, they represent that demographic of the Koreans who are in the worst possible situation because of their personal debt,” Koo said.
In a recent widely shared Facebook post, Koo said he was shocked when a friend told him he was living paycheck to paycheck, despite having a good job.
The friend “doesn't strike anyone as extravagant,” Koo said, but struggles to afford the trappings of middle-class life: an apartment, a car and occasional travel with his wife and children.
"It's all paid for by loans, I am telling you," Koo said his friend told him. "We just have no money."
Jung, the security analyst, said the plot of “Squid Game” was easy to accept because “it dealt with such familiar stories of debt-ridden people you come across in real life.”
A scene from Netflix's
“The story stems from a deeply rooted perception of how society looks at failure, especially individual financial failure,” he said.
Bankruptcy in South Korea is generally seen not as a chance to start over but as a devastating fate. That is underlined in “Squid Game,” Saeji said, when contestants are given the option to leave but choose to keep playing even at the risk of their lives.
“In the regular world it’s not just the death of their body, it’s the death of their pride. It’s the shame of having to be such an unsuccessful person in front of your family,” she said.
Viewers in South Korea say the show is all the more disturbing because it injects death and violence into playground games like Red Light, Green Light and tug of war.
The show plays on childhood nostalgia “and along with it the innocent times when you had no problems,” said Kim Hern-sik, a pop culture critic in Seoul. “Yet the story tells you that escaping from reality is not the answer.”
“Squid Game” is “fundamentally a Korean story, featuring games people would remember playing as kids,” Don Kang, vice president of Korean content at Netflix, told NBC News in an email. “So we knew it would resonate with our members here.”
The doll acts as the person who is
Its popularity in the West came as more of a surprise. But Korean cultural exports have been sweeping Asia for years, and Netflix was already betting on their growing appeal. The company is spending $500 million this year on Korean content, almost as much as it spent in the last five years.
Saeji said that after decades of Western cultural influence, the success of “Squid Game” shows that South Korea can make a TV show with a Hollywood feel “and they can do it better.”
While “Squid Game” is not the first story about a fight to the death, director Hwang Dong-hyuk, who has a film degree from the University of Southern California, made it influential in his own way, said Oh Dong-jin, a prominent film critic in South Korea.
“Every movie borrows this and that from other movies. What matters, therefore, is how creatively you can borrow from different references,” he said. “So, even from this standpoint, the traditional children’s games the show uses make 'Squid Game' quite original.”
Margie Kim, a housewife in Seoul who is watching “Squid Game” with her family, said that while she enjoyed its intensity and pop-art-influenced visuals, the underlying messages were also important.
“I do feel the pain of what our society is going through,” she said. The show deals with so many pressing issues, she said—income inequality, youth unemployment, a rapidly aging society—that it’s something her entire family can relate to and talk about.
“So many middle-class, ordinary people live with so much debt,” she said. “I could totally empathize with people who joined the game.”
Jennifer Jett reported from Hong Kong, and Stella Kim reported from Los Angeles.
7. North Korea says abduction issue "already resolved," raps Japan's new PM
Of course they would say that. The Japanese abduction issue has never been resolved just as the 76,000+ ROK prisoners of war never returned has never been resolved. Another indicator of the brutality and depravity of the Kim family regime.
North Korea says abduction issue "already resolved," raps Japan's new PM
North Korea has reiterated that the issue of its abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s has been "already resolved," after new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to make efforts to settle the long-standing matter.
Pyongyang also warned that bilateral relations would worsen further unless Tokyo changes its stance on the abduction issue, in a statement released Thursday, in which the nuclear-armed nation first referred to the Kishida administration formed earlier this week.
North Korea's national flag is hoisted at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang in the early hours of Sept. 9, 2021. (KCNA/Kyodo)
"The abduction issue was long ago resolved perfectly and completely with the visits to Pyongyang by the then Japanese prime minister in September 2002 and May 2004, and the subsequent sincerity and efforts from our side," a researcher of North Korea's Foreign Ministry said, mentioning the visits by then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Following the launch of his Cabinet on Monday, Kishida said at a press conference that he is willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "without preconditions" to resolve the issue of the country's past abductions of Japanese nationals.
North Korea, however, said, "The key to DPRK-Japan relations is thorough apology and reparation for the immeasurable human, material and mental loss inflicted upon our nation," the researcher studying Japanese affairs said in the statement.
DPRK is the acronym of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.
"It is most likely that DPRK-Japan relations would be set gloomier if the Japanese prime minister makes a wrong start from the beginning, as he is doing now," the researcher added.
Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910 through the end of World War II in 1945. Pyongyang and Tokyo have no diplomatic ties.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno attends a press conference in Tokyo on Oct. 8, 2021. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
On Friday, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at a regular news conference, "We cannot totally accept the claim that the abduction issue has been already resolved," adding that settling the matter is a "top priority for our Cabinet."
"We will do our best to achieve the return of victims as soon as possible," said Matsuno, the government's top spokesman who doubles as minister in charge of the abduction issue.
Since five abductees were brought back to Japan in 2002, Tokyo has been seeking the return of 12 others whom it has officially recognized as having been abducted by North Korea. It also suspects North Korea's engagement in other Japanese citizens' disappearances.
Pyongyang has argued that the abduction issue has been "already resolved," saying eight of them, including the iconic abductee Megumi Yokota, have died and the other four never entered the country.
In May 2014, when Kishida served as foreign minister, Japan and North Korea reached an accord in Stockholm on principles for negotiations toward the settlement of the abduction issue. Japan relaxed its sanctions on Pyongyang, which in turn promised a full-scale investigation into it.
But North Korea repeatedly postponed reporting the survey results. The nation then disbanded its investigation team and suspended the probe after Japan levied further sanctions in February 2016 in reaction to Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests.
North Korea is banned from firing ballistic missiles under U.N. Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions on the country.
8. North Korea, Thailand, Indonesia ruled non-compliant by WADA
North Korea, Thailand, Indonesia ruled non-compliant by WADA
A woman walks into the head office of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada November 9, 2015. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi
Oct 7 (Reuters) - North Korea, Thailand and Indonesia were declared non-compliant by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Thursday, making them ineligible to be awarded the right to host regional, continental or world championships during the suspension.
Representatives of the three countries will also be ineligible to sit as members of the boards on committees until their countries are reinstated or for a period of one year, whichever is longer.
Athletes from the three countries will be allowed to compete in regional, continental and world championships but their national flags will not be flown other than at the Olympic Games.
WADA said in a statement that the National Anti-Doping Agencies (NADOs) of North Korea and Indonesia were ruled non-compliant for not implementing effective testing programs.
Thailand's non-compliance stems from a failure to fully implement the 2021 Anti-Doping Code.
Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto; Editing by Ken Ferris
9. 7-Eleven store in South Korea to launch drone delivery
I wonder what airspace management will be like in a few years.
7-Eleven store in South Korea to launch drone delivery
SEOUL, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Korea Seven, a subsidiary of Lotte Group, which manages the 7-Eleven brand in South Korea, said it plans to launch a pilot run of drone delivery services this year.
For the launch, the Seoul-based company is partnering with Pablo Air, which develops drone hardware and software, as well as logistics solutions using drones.
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A 7-Eleven store housing a drone station is planned to open near Seoul by December. A test flight is planned to take place there.
Pablo Air will supply the drone, and the station will be designed by BMW America and produced by U.S. manufacturer EVA, Korea Seven announced Wednesday.
The company said the commercial service will begin after the safety of the unmanned, flying vehicles is confirmed, possibly sometime next year. The service plans to target campers or travelers near the new store.
"The drone will be able to carry items less than 10 kilograms [about 22 pounds] and fly a distance of 10 kilometers [about six miles]. The weight and flight distance will be extended later," a Pablo Air representative told UPI News Korea. "To start commercial services, we need to win government approval."
South Korean oil refiner GS Caltex failed to launch its commercial drone delivery service after a test flight last June.
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A company official said it has tried to resolve technical and regulatory barriers.
South Korea has historically been reluctant to permit businesses to use drones, because the country -- which is still technically at war with North Korea -- is wary of airborne objects.
However, the South Korean government has vowed to support drone-related industries and ease related regulations.
"For now, human messengers or drivers provide a much easier, cheaper and safer way of delivering items than drones do," Daelim University automotive Professor Kim Pil-soo said in a phone interview.
"But things are different for remote areas like mountains and islands. Drone delivery services will eventually come to town, but they will not be broadly accepted in the near future," he said.
10. Grassley congratulates Korean American judicial nominee on 'your people,' their 'work ethic'
Tone deaf. There is no longer an excuse for these kinds of comments.
Grassley congratulates Korean American judicial nominee on 'your people,' their 'work ethic'
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, drew criticism Wednesday for comments he made about U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, a Korean American nominee for an appeals court judgeship, in which he described stereotypes about Korean people.
Grassley made the statements at a Judiciary Committee hearing on Koh’s nomination for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He said Koh, who had shared stories of her heritage and her mother’s escape from North Korea during the proceeding, reminded him of something his daughter-in-law, who is also Korean American, had told him about Korean people.
“What you said about your Korean background reminds me a lot of what my daughter-in-law of 45 years said: ‘If I learned anything from Korean people, it’s a hard work ethic and how you can make a lot out of nothing,'” he said before he congratulated Koh, a U.S. district judge in Northern California, about “you and your people.”
The comments prompted backlash from many on social media who accused Grassley of invoking the model minority stereotype.
Taylor Foy, Grassley's communications director, said Grassley's comments were intended to be "complimentary, not to insult anyone."
Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., " invited Judge Koh to share the inspiring story of her family’s immigration to the United States," Foy wrote. "Sen. Grassley shared that he has similarly been inspired by the immigration story of his daughter-in-law, who is also Korean-American."
Koh did not reply to a request for comment.
Sung Yeon Choimorrow, the executive director for policy and civic engagement of the nonprofit National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, said comments like Grassley’s were “dangerous,” given the damage the model minority stereotype has done to obscure the struggles and challenges of the community.
“It is not a compliment to say Koreans can make something out of nothing. We don’t survive and make a living to be validated or congratulated by people like Sen. Grassley,” she said.
During the proceeding, Koh, who would make history as the first Korean American woman to serve as a federal appellate judge if she is confirmed, spoke about her immigrant family, calling her mother one of her “heroes.” She told the committee that her mother, who was in attendance, was about 10 years old when she fled North Korea for South Korea in 1946, when such an act was forbidden.
“She and her uncles have basically escaped. It was illegal to leave North Korea,” she said. "That 38th parallel had been established in August, the year before, but it was porous, it was not enforced, so she and her uncles — she was about 10 at the time — walked for two weeks to come ... to freedom in South Korea.”
Koh also shared a bit about her own experiences growing up in Mississippi, attending highly segregated elementary schools.
Koh thanked Grassley briefly for his comment before the hearing proceeded.
Choimorrow said that instead of invoking stereotypes, Grassley should have listened and acknowledged the sacrifices Koh’s family has made.
“What he should have said instead is: ‘No one should have to suffer and struggle so hard to survive. I’m so sorry for the ways our country has disrupted the lives of Koreans to make families like yours struggle,’” she said.
11. More than 30 mln people fully vaccinated in S. Korea
(LEAD) More than 30 mln people fully vaccinated in S. Korea | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: ADDS more details in last 3 paras)
SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Yonhap) -- The number of fully vaccinated people in South Korea has surpassed 30 million, data showed Saturday, as the country speeds up inoculations and seeks to gradually roll out the "living with COVID-19" scheme.
Around 30.3 million people, or 59.1 percent of the total population, have been fully inoculated since the country launched its vaccination program in February, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
The KDCA said nearly 1.1 million people received their second shot Friday, which was a record high daily figure.
The percentage of fully vaccinated South Koreans aged 18 and above was estimated at 68.7 percent, the data also showed.
Those who have received the first shot of two-part vaccines also came to 39.9 million, taking up 77.7 percent of the total population.
South Korea currently plans to complete vaccinating 70 percent of the population by the end of this month and gradually roll out what it calls the "living with COVID-19" scheme in early November.
The country launched the inoculation program for pregnant women Friday. A total of 944 pregnant women applied to receive jabs in just four hours after reservations began at 8 p.m., the KDCA said
Health authorities said COVID-19 shots are considered to be safe for all women in different stages of pregnancy, although those under 12 weeks should consult with doctors.
Around 396,000 teenagers aged 16 and 17 also have reserved shots since the country began accepting applications from the group Tuesday. The number represents 44 percent of eligible people.
(END)
12. Behind-the-scenes in North Korea through diplomat's wife's lens
Diplomatic missions play an important role in understanding a country. Even one that is as closed and restrictive as north Korea. I do wish we could establish a diplomatic mission in Pyongyang though I doubt Kim would allow it unless he felt he could extort a lot of money front he US to approve it.
Behind-the-scenes in North Korea through diplomat's wife's lens
A young couple hold hands as they pass the Rodong Sinmun building, home to the official newspaper of the Workers' Party of Korea, in this August 2018 photo. Courtesy of Lindsey MillerBy Kwon Mee-yoo
Lindsey Miller, author of "North Korea: Like Nowhere Else" / Courtesy of Lindsey MillerNorth Korea test-fired four weapons in September, with footage from North Korea's state media showing people gathered in the city center and applauding the announcement. However, Lindsey Miller, who lived in North Korea from 2017 to 2019 with her diplomat husband at the British Embassy there, has her own, different memories of similar past occasions.
"In 2017, there were nuclear tests and announcements. I remember any time when there would be a launch of some kind or a test, I would always try to get out and see what it felt like. And actually, a lot of the time, it felt very normal," Miller told The Korea Times during a Zoom interview, Sept. 28. Miller is currently living in Taipei with her husband.
"We see often on state media people clapping and jumping. In Pyongyang when these things happen, people were going to work, children were going to school, and people were working in shops and walking to the park ― the daily life continued."
Miller compiled her photos of North Korea and wrote short essays on her experiences in the book, "North Korea: Like Nowhere Else." The book was first published in the U.K. in May and the Korean edition was released in mid-September.
In the book, a photo taken by Miller in November 2017 gives a behind-the-scenes view of the well-crafted footage released by the North Korean state media.
"The photo shows the higher sort of crowd in the background in front of the cameras jumping and dancing and digging. And then people on the other side of the cameras who were just watching it. Some clapped, some were very bothered and some were too busy trying to pass by to pay attention," Miller explained.
Soldiers on the back of a truck in Pyongyang, August 2018 / Courtesy of Lindsey Miller
Witness of everyday life
Miller said she didn't realize how powerful her assumptions about the country and the people were until she arrived in the world's most secretive state.
"That was because all of the information I consumed before going to the country had been based on news reports, or from reading books or watching documentaries. And because there's so little information that comes out of the country about everyday life, I had no concept of what that would be like, until I experienced it for myself," she said.
"The book tries to bring across this idea that North Koreans are often labeled in propaganda outside of North Korea. I think that's an overly simplistic view because human beings are complicated and cannot be summarized in a word like that."
Miller is an award-winning composer and music director who worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company and other theatrical productions, but she pursued her artistic desire in another way when in North Korea ― through photography. She almost always had her camera with her when walking around the city to capture whatever she found interesting.
"So photography, for me, was a way of being creative and feeling free in an environment that often made me feel the opposite. For me, as a musician, art and creativity is a way of expressing yourself and your interpretation of the world around you (as that) can't be controlled. My interpretation belongs to me and my creative voice belongs to me. So that was a real way of me being able to capture everyday life as I saw it," she said.
"As time progressed I was noticing people more than the portraits of the Kims or the cars. That's a major focus of those pictures, trying to understand where the truth is and where the mythology is. That's why photography was a really powerful way of me being able to look into a moment after it happened and analyze it in more detail, to try and help me understand it more."
The cover of Lindsey Miller's book, "North Korea: Like Nowhere Else" / Courtesy of Lindsey Miller
'People are people'
Some two years after returning to the U.K., Miller felt a responsibility to share her experiences of North Korea, not only to inform other people of the misconceptions, but also to help herself understand what she experienced, because it was so much more complicated than she expected.
"Something I really wanted to achieve with this book was to show that people are people. As North Korean people, they may live in an environment which is dominated by the regime. That does not mean that every single person there is so simple as to characterize them with the political view of the country because human beings are all different," Miller said.
"North Korean people are not robots. I found North Korean people to be very friendly, kind, generous and very curious. People I spoke to were curious about the outside world in a way that I don't think we come across when we think about North Korea outside of that country."
As a foreigner, specifically a diplomatic spouse, most of the North Koreans Miller spoke to were English speakers based in Pyongyang, working at cafes or restaurants.
"At the time when we were there, during 2017 and 2018, a lot was happening on the peninsula. And an example of people being curious is that I sometimes found some North Korean people knowing what was happening which hadn't been shown on television since the state TV delivered the news days after it happened," she said.
"Other examples would be simple questions like asking what it is like in Scotland. People would ask me about my family and what countries I've been to. Some North Korean friends would take pleasure in looking through photographs on my phone of wherever I've been, including South Korea."
North Korean girls pose during the Pyongyang Mass Games, August 2018. / Courtesy of Lindsey Miller
Miller mostly became friends with people who have lots of experience around people of foreign nationality such as those who work in cafes or restaurants, speak several languages such as Chinese, Russian and English, and have confidence around foreigners, something not everybody had. It was difficult to form relationships with those whom she met spontaneously on the street.
"I will talk about an example of meeting a girl in a shop. It was just a random shop, a random day of the week. She spoke Spanish and I speak Spanish as well. We had a nice conversation in Spanish and we got on really well. In that situation, I would give someone my number and, say, ask to go for coffee. But that wasn't possible because foreigners' cell phone networks are separated from North Korean people's cell phone networks. So even in those instances where you meet North Korean people and connect with them, it's not possible to continue on a relationship."
The woman who spoke Spanish was about the same age as Miller. Miller also noticed that young North Korean women share the same changing thoughts on gender roles, just as many other women around the world go through. The North Korean women's stories are told through Miller's voice, which might not have been picked up otherwise.
"Some of the women I spoke to were interestingly not interested in getting married. And there was one woman who said to me that she didn't want children, instead, she wanted a career, working at her job. I think, as a woman, a lot of us can identify with that dilemma," Miller said.
"This image of women being in a traditional gender role definitely exists, but that's not to say that exists for every single person. And the fact that there is a woman in Pyongyang who feels like she doesn't want children and wants a career, she should be acknowledged and taken on board as part of that complex human experience."
Miller believes that, as outsiders, it is important to acknowledge the different spectrum of experience with these pieces of information and that's where her book has power.
Pyongyang, September 2018 / Courtesy of Lindsey MillerReaching out to South Korean readers
The cover of the South Korean edition of Lindsey Miller's book, "North Korea: Like Nowhere Else" / Courtesy of Lindsey MillerIt has been less than a month since the book was published in Korean in South Korea, but Miller has already received messages from readers saying how much the book means to them, especially from South Koreans who cannot visit North Korea but who have family in or from the North.
"When the opportunity came for it to be translated into Korean, that was really exciting. It wasn't something I ever expected, but I'm very pleased that it offers South Korean readers a chance to read in the Korean language and experience it in a new way," she said.
"I'm not an expert nor a policy analyst. It's a book with a focus on people and my experience there. I would love readers to open the pages and spend time with the people in the photographs and come to their own conclusions. This book is a question to a reader of how much our own perception affects how we view other people."
About two years have passed since her return from North Korea and it is not likely for Miller to go back there, but she still misses her friends in North Korea.
"I definitely miss my friends. That has been the hardest thing. I think about them every single day: what they're doing; what they're thinking; who their families are; are they happy; are they safe; are they healthy amid the pandemic," she said.
"The biggest thing for me is the people, including the people I haven't met and I think about them as well. Elsewhere in the world, when you leave a place, you can make calls and write letters or emails. There are so many ways to keep in touch with people. But with that place, there's nothing like that. So when you say goodbye, it has a completely different meaning. It's very definitive. That's why I dedicated this book to them as I won't forget them."
Even in the news of North Korea's missile launches, Miller looks for something other people might not see.
"When the train missile was launched the week before, I didn't just watch the missile launch. I watched the trees in the background. I was trying to see the poses of the people who were nearby ― the places and people that aren't focused on when those events happen," Miller said.
13. North Korea distributes new emergency COVID-19 rules to its population
Rules to counter COVID or new populations and resources control measures to prevent nascent resistance?
North Korea distributes new emergency COVID-19 rules to its population - Daily NK
Daily NK has learned that North Korea recently distributed emergency COVID-19 rules to locals. A source says the materials stressed that residents must stay away from designated danger spots and avoid contact with suspected COVID patients.
A source in South Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Tuesday that the Emergency Anti-epidemic Command “is issuing emergency orders to residents regarding behavior rules for the coronavirus.” He said the command was conveying “matters of absolute compliance” to locals at all government institutions, enterprises, study groups for party workers and inminban (people’s units).
The source said the emergency order’s most important point was to ban all residents from approaching specific districts, buildings or quarantine facilities marked “Danger: Quarantined.”
“The order also said people must not contact or exchange items with people in those areas,” he said.
North Korea has long issued severe quarantine rules or responded to suspected cases by putting entire cities under lockdown, confining all residents to their homes. It has also banned residents from approaching the homes of suspected patients, posting signs in front of houses saying the residents are in quarantine.
The authorities have also moved to prevent people from doing things that go against the law — no fewer than 12 of the national emergency quarantine law’s 70 articles deal with punishments.
However, North Korea’s emergency quarantine law simply explains protocols for disinfecting, guarding and managing quarantine facilities. It does not ban locals from going near them.
There is speculation that a serious quarantine violation or a suspected outbreak may have led to the emergency order.
North Korean public health workers disinfecting a bus in Sinuiju. / Image: Rodong Sinmun
“Some of the students who took part in the national foundation day event [Sept. 9] are in isolation at the Pyongsong Sanitorium building,” said the source. “[The authorities] are banning contact with those students in particular.”
Daily NK reported that everyone who took part in commemorative events to mark the 73rd anniversary of North Korea’s founding on Sept. 9 were put in isolation. According to the report, about 10 students from Pyongyang’s Civil Defense University were rushed into ambulances after displaying symptoms of COVID-19.
Locals, too, speculate that the authorities issued the emergency measure because some of the people who took part in Sept. 9 parades fell ill.
“Locals are saying that [the isolated people] might also be people diagnosed as positive for the coronavirus,” said the source. “Some also worry that the infectious disease might be going around their areas.”
The emergency order also included items long stressed by the authorities, including continued mandates on hand disinfecting, masks and social distancing, a ban on touching birds or wild animals and a command that locals avoid touching and immediately report balloons or strange items suspected from entering the country from abroad, as well as items from unknown sources.
Meanwhile, North Korea is reportedly meting out cruel punishments to individuals who violate emergency quarantine protocols. There are many cases of people being sent to political prison camps on charges of “harming the national economy and violating party policy” after they failed to comply with quarantine rules.
With the number of quarantine violators rising, North Korea even appears to be building new political prison camps to bolster the country’s holding capacity.
14. North Korea’s Progress on Poultry Farms
North Korea’s Progress on Poultry Farms
Commercial satellite imagery shows construction of the Kwangchon Chicken Farm—a large chicken farm south of Pyongyang—remains incomplete, more than a year after Kim Jong Un visited the site. However, the project continues to attract senior leadership visits and state media reports have hinted that completion is on the horizon.
The farm is situated about 20 kilometers south of Pyongyang just off the Pyongyang to Kaesong Motorway, next door to the large Korean People’s Army (KPA) Tree Nursery 122.
Figure 1. Aerial image of the Kwangchon Chicken Farm broadcast on Korean Central Television on July 23, 2020.
(Source: KCTV via Martyn Williams)
First signs of construction appeared at the site in May 2019 when farmland was leveled for the project. However, the nature and progress of the work was not revealed by state media until July 2020 when Kim Jong Un visited the site.
Figure 2. Kim Jong Un is shown visiting the Kwangchon Chicken Farm in images broadcast on Korean Central Television on July 23, 2020.
(Source: KCTV via Martyn Williams)
During his visit, Kim said other “modernized” chicken farms in the country were actually 20 years out of date and the new Kwangchon farm would be a new model farm for the country.
It would, state media reported, “produce thousands of tons of delicious and quality meat and tens of millions of tasty and quality eggs every year.”
In the United States, the average farm chicken lays about 300 eggs per year thanks to modern feed and disease prevention, according to the Egg Farmers of America. Should North Korea be able to match that production level, it would require several tens of thousands of chickens to reach the stated egg production goals.
Figure 3. A chicken shed under construction is shown on Korean Central Television on July 23, 2020.
(Source: KCTV via Martyn Williams)
The walls of the chicken sheds that will house these animals were already far along in their construction when Kim visited. State media images showed him walking alongside the roofless sheds as he inspected the farm.
Today, all the sheds have roofs and much of the construction appears to have been completed at the site, although the interior state of each building is unknown.
Figure 4. Overview of Kwangchon Chicken Farm.
Image © 2021 Planet Labs, Inc. cc-by-nc-sa 4.0. For media licensing options, please contact [email protected].
While we cannot see inside the buildings, images from other chicken farms in North Korea indicate the country uses battery farming—rows of cages used to house egg-laying hens.
Figure 5. Close up of the 927 Chicken Farm using battery farming broadcast on Korean Central Television on September 6, 2021.
(Source: KCTV via Martyn Williams)
Choe Ryong Hae made his second reported visit of 2021 to the farm in late June and state media reported that construction had yet to be completed.
Like other recent North Korean construction projects, state media revealed challenges have arisen. Choe reviewed “deviations” in the supply of equipment and material for the farm, a report given without going into further details.
However, the report also mentioned “preparations for afforestation and greening and inauguration of the farm” being discussed at the meeting. The planting of trees and other shrubbery is usually one of the final steps seen before projects are finished in North Korea, so the farm could be near completion.
In addition to the farm itself, the project has also involved the construction of nearby houses and apartments for workers at the farm and those that supply it with animal feed. State media reported that the houses were for around 1,000-2,000 families. Move-in ceremonies were held in late December 2020.
The new homes replaced many older homes that were already in the area before construction began.
Figure 6. Overview of Kwangchon Chicken Farm and housing.
Image © 2021 Planet Labs, Inc. cc-by-nc-sa 4.0. For media licensing options, please contact [email protected].
North Korea has almost 30 chicken farms across the country. Their size varies but the new Kwangchon farm will be one of the largest.
State media has also recently reported on work at both the Kusong and Sinuiju chicken farms. In both cases, the work is focused on improving the feed supplied to the farms.
“The Sinuiju Chicken Farm remodeled its combined feed processing ground and newly established a fermented feed production line and a feed additive production line,” state media reported on August 25. “The Kusong Chicken Farm also set up fermented feed and feed additive production lines and built a ground for breeding Hermetia illucens to be used as feed for chickens.”
Satellite imagery of both locations does not reveal any major construction work.
Figure 7. Overview of Sinuiju Chicken Farm.
Image © 2021 Planet Labs, Inc. cc-by-nc-sa 4.0. For media licensing options, please contact [email protected].
Figure 8. Overview of Kusong Chicken Farm.
Image © 2021 Planet Labs, Inc. cc-by-nc-sa 4.0. For media licensing options, please contact [email protected].
V/R
David Maxwell
Senior Fellow
Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Phone: 202-573-8647
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
FDD is a Washington-based nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.
