Ramping Up North Korea's Military Technology

"Keeping with the trend of modern warfare in which the competition for using intelligent drones as a major means of military power is being accelerated and the range of their use is steadily expanding in military activities [stressed by North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un]."

Korean Central News Agency report

 

"North Korea is realizing the need for not only nuclear weapons but also modernized capabilities in large-scale warfare, like AI and unmanned systems."

"There is a risk that these could become actual combat capabilities in a relatively short period of time."

Cha Du-hyeogn, former South Korean intelligence adviser

 

"North Korea is completely transforming itself by  upgrading its weapons systems for modern warfare based on its experiences in the war in Ukraine, and by copying military technologies from countries like China and Russia."

Yoo Yong-won, National Defence Committee, North Korea

South Korean TV shows footage of what appears to be an airborne early warning and control aircraft. Getty Images

"Suicide attack drones" powered by artificial intelligence, is now the latest military technology championed by North Korea. Inspired no doubt by the success realized by the Ukrainian military in its existential struggle against North Korea's much-admired Vladimir Putin toward whose bloodthirsty territorial expansion he has dispatched tens of thousands of North Korean soldiers as disposable fodder in the conflict, ostensibly to gain experience in battle-hardened situations.

 

Pyongyang is determined to  update weapons capabilities in lock-step with the front-line experience its soldiers are gaining with modern warfare technologies in Ukraine. Core reconnaissance and attack drones are for the moment Kim Jong Un's preoccupation, believing that development of unmanned control and AI capability to be priorities for North Korea's military.

 

International observers such as North Korea analyst Cha Du-hyeogn at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul states that the hermit kingdom's ambitions should be taken seriously. North Korea has revealed its development of a "new-type strategic reconnaissance drone" capable of tracking and monitoring various targets and troop activity on land and at sea. Photos of Kim inspecting a large reconnaissance drone on a runway and of drones crashing into ground targets were released by State media.

 

According to experts who have viewed the photos, the large drone in the photograph is similar to the U.S. RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance aircraft, a type of drone that North Korea introduced in 2023 at a weapons exhibition in Pyongyang. Additionally, North Korea showcased for the first time an airborne early-warning and control aircraft. One which would enable North Korea to manage air and ground operations in real time, simultaneously.

 

Images released from North Korean state media KCNA show what it said were self-detonating drone during a test of the unmanned aerial vehicles. Elements of this image were blurred before its release.

KCNA

Left unannounced was what AI technology is used in its new suicide attack drones, much less when North Korea plans to ramp up production. However, according to Cha Du-hyeogn, it is questionable whether these suggested new capabilities could be mass-produced any time soon, in his opinion. Suicide attack drones are typically small and easy to manoeuvre, so they can be undetected and produced in large quantities.

 

Further, there is no evidence as yet that North Korea has mastered such technologies, much less incorporated AI technologies which can detect air defence systems, he said dismissively. Despite which in recent months North Korea has been emphasizing its reconnaissance drone technology, a key component of Kim's military modernization strategy, where he has been pushing the mass-production of suicide drones. 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been pictured inspecting new suicide drones, which state media say have been equipped with artificial intelligence (AI).  KCNA

Flirting Dangerously With Prospects of World War III

"Today, I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, and that North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region."

"[The move represents] a significant escalation [in North Korea's involvement in the conflict and marks] a dangerous expansion of Russia's war."

"[NATO is] actively consulting within the alliance, with Ukraine, and with our Indo-Pacific partners [on developments]."

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte

 

"This is our sovereign decision."

"Whether we use it or not, where, how, or whether we engage in exercises, training, or transfer some experience. "

"It’s our business."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

 

"North Korean soldiers are deployed to support Russia’s war of aggression. It's a grave escalation in this war and a threat to global peace."

"[The EU would] respond together with our like-minded partners."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen  

"[A] portion [of those soldiers had already moved closer to Ukraine."

"The US is increasingly concerned that Russia would use these soldiers] in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk oblast [region]."

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh

The Ukrainian spy agency released video that it says was intercepted from Russian soldiers complaining about North Korean troops and the language barrier. Reuters

A high-level South Korean delegation, along with top intelligence and military officials as well as senior diplomats briefed NATO's 32 national ambassadors at NATO headquarters in Brussels on what is known at this time respecting the deployment of North Korean soldiers to Russia for training to take part in the Russian conflict against Ukraine.

Sergey Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Minister pointed out that Pyongyang and Moscow had signed a joint security pact in June. Although he was responding to the statement by NATO's Mark Rutte, he confined himself to that single remark, side-stepping any confirmation that North Korean soldiers were actually in Russia at this point. On the other hand, he pointed out, Western military instructors have been deployed covertly to Ukraine to train its military in the use of long-range weapons supplied to Ukraine by its Western partners.

NATO has confirmation that troops from North Korea have been dispatched to Russia to aid its war against Ukraine, elaborating with the additional confirmation received that some troops have already been deployed in the Kursk border region where significantly, the Russian military has been attempting to push back a Ukrainian incursion into Russia well beyond the border between the two that appears to be well dug in.

Thousands of North Korean soldiers -- an estimated total of 10,000 -- would represent a significant boon to Russia in Europe's largest conflict since the Second World War. In the process the situation will place greater pressure on Ukraine's overstretched military and underarmed, war-weary soldiers. On Monday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that about 650,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded. "They [Russians] are not collecting the bodies... their people are rotting on the ground." 

 

Geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the greater Indo-Pacific region including Japan and Australia are being stoked, according to Western officials. The more complex the situation becomes, the more heated the conflict and wider in its implications, drawing in sympathetic supporters on either side -- East and West -- the likelier it is that the embers of a greater and more widespread conflict can accelerate the flames of war; that World War III hovers on the horizon.

 

It is obvious that Vladimir Putin's end-game is the goal of reshaping of global power dynamics, seeking a counterbalance to Western influence during a summit of BRICS countries where the leaders of China and India visited Russia a week ago. Direct assistance for his war was sought from Iran, whose supply of drones has been most useful to the Kremlin, alongside North Korea's contribution of ammunition to Russia's war machinery.

• NATO says N.Korean troops may be headed to front line
• South Korea and Ukraine vow to step up cooperation
• North Korea's foreign minister arrives in Russia for talks
• Kremlin doesn't deny reports of N.Korean troops in Russia
  

"This war is becoming internationalized, extending beyond two countries."

"We agreed to strengthen intelligence and expertise exchange, intensify contacts at all levels, especially the highest, in order to develop an action strategy and countermeasures to address this escalation."                                                                                                             Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

A news broadcast in Seoul showing a satellite image of Russia's Ussuriysk military facility, where intelligence agencies said North Korean personnel were gathered within the training ground. Photograph: Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

 

 

Trouble Brewing in East Asia

"The more preparations we make, the less likely there will be rash attempts of aggression."

"The more united we are, the stronger and safer Taiwan would become."

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-won

"We [United States] will continue to assist Taiwan in maintaining a sufficient self defence capability in line with our long-standing commitments and consistent with our one China policy."

White House National Security Council

Aircraft of the Eastern Theater Command during a prior drill near Taiwan in August. Pic: Xinhua /AP

The entire region of East Asia shows indication of an uneasy peace slowly unravelling. North Korea sent drones  across its heavily fortified border with South Korea, with the South responding by scrambling fighter jets, flying surveillance and firing warning shots in deterrence. For the first time in five years a fresh escalation of tensions has erupted of an intensity that strikes concern, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

Attack helicopters were dispatched along with fighter jets to shoot down the drones. Several days earlier two short-range ballistic missiles were fired at the South. This is North Korea's method of protesting its displeasure at joint air drills carried out betwen South Korea and the United States; a rehearsal for an invasion, interpreted by North Korea. "Our military will thoroughly and resolutely respond to this kind of North Korea provation", director of operations Major General Lee Seung-o of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff stated emphatically.

"[U.S. officials are] consulting closely with the [Republic of Korea] about the nature of this incursion. We recoggnize the need of the ROK to protect its territorial integrity", noted an unnamed White House National Security official. Taiwan, South Korea nervous of the intentions of China and North Korea. Joining them is Japan, edgily watching what is happening in its neighbourhood and fearing that it too is in North Korea's and China's crosshairs.

Tokyo is considering the possibility of a nuclear attack to match the growing fears of a potentially full-on conflict with either North Korea or China. Japan, the only nation on Earth that has ever suffered a nuclear attack, saw its cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki both devastated in the wake of the Second World War when nuclear devices were unleashed on an unsuspecting, still war-defiant nation. Suddenly a soaring business has taken off of nuclear shelter sales in Japan.

In Taiwan, in a 24-hour-period, 71 Chinese military aircraft. among them fighter jets and drones, entered Taiwan's air defence zone, to date the largest reported incursion. The Taiwan Straits saw 43 aircraft cross the median line, the unofficial buffer separating the two sides. Throughout the steady increase of aggressive intimidation that Beijing tqrgets Taipei with, this is yet the most emphatic. According to Beijing these were 'strike drills'.

Beijing was merely responding to 'provocations' from Taiwan and the United States. The latter intervening in territory not its own, the former spurning Beijing's wish for reunifiction, to take independent sovereign Taiwan back under its wing. The drills saw the Chinese air force dispatch warplanes from several locales across the country for simulated attacks on Taiwanese and U.S. warships. 

The situation has compelled Taiwan to change the service tenure of its compulsory military service from the current four months to a year, to deal with rising tensions linked to Beijing's military pressure. Taiwan's southern air defence identification zone saw Chinese electronic-warfare and antisubmarine aircraft incursions along with drones. Repeated missions by the Chinese air force of the last two years has given Taipei reason for vigilance. In response to the latest incursion, Taiwan sent combat aircraft to warn off the Chinese planes, with missile systems monitoring their flight.

North Korea In Extremis

"If senior elites start dying en masse -- there are quite a lot of them, and we don't know if they are vaccinated -- if many of them die of it, there may be questions asked about why North Korea didn't vaccinate earlier,"

"It is going to test his [Kim's] leadership, and it is going to create some urgency for very creative storytelling in the North Korean propaganda apparatus."

"We've seen Kim Jong Un crying about the nation's sacrifices (in the past) -- I think this is the type of thing he may do to try dampen outrage."

"North Korean citizens have definitely been through a lot. The first thing he could do is really apologize and take some blame for it."

"We know that they flew in citizens from across North Korea to attend and celebrate that event [last month's military parade], That's the perfect petri dish for this virus to spread, so I think that parade will go down in history as a very bad idea for North Korea."

Chad O'Carroll, managing director, Seoul-based NK News outlet

In photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is shown attends a meeting of ruling party members on May 17, 2022   AP

"The fact that Kim Jong Un has decided to come out and publicly announce this health crisis is quite telling," 

"[It] may have a political element, obviously."

Lina Yoon, senior Korea researcher, Human Rights Watch

 

"There is no evidence to show that North Korea has access to enough vaccines to protect its population from COVID-19."

"With the first official news of a COVID-19 outbreak in the country, continuing on this path could cost many lives and would be an unconscionable dereliction of upholding the right to health."

Boram Jang, researcher, Amnesty International East Asia 

 

"There's no good option."

"But there are things that can be done that can begin to ameliorate some of the worse consequences if they're done quickly."

J. Stephen Morrison, director, Center on Global Health Policy, Center for Strategic and International Studies

It took North-Korea-watchers by surprise to see and hear the leader of the hermit kingdom publicly admit his country is in for a really rough ride, lamenting the fact that COVID-19 finally infiltrated the country despite Kin Jong Un's approach to total closure of his country to outside penetration, taking his cue from Chin's 'Zero COVID' approach in defense against SARS-CoV-2. Reliance in North Korea appears to have been based solely on its closed border, to keep COVID at bay.

 

Although North Korea should have been and was designated as a prime country to claim participation in the UN-sponsored global vaccine sharing program, COVAX, North Korean leadership expressed no interest, much less desire to take advantage of the opportunity to bring in vaccines for a country-wide vaccination campaign. And nor has the country invested in lab testing for COVID.

 

Its population, in a country where medical facilities are at best functioning at a low level, has been left vulnerable to a raging wave of the infectious Omicron variety of COVID. Out of the total population of 25 million people, a week ago the recorded coronavirus case load reached 2 million. This, in a society with zero-level vaccines, poor medical infrastructure and strained/limited ties to the global health community. In the past that has been North Korea's choice, to maintain a distance.

 

The country now, however faces a crisis situation with its population vulnerable to a galloping virus taking full advantage of a population unprepared to face a pandemic. Health experts weigh its chances from afar; where it could be prevailed upon to accept donations of antiviral treatments and protective medical gear for its health workers to slow down the outbreak, protecting those most in need of shelter from the ravages of the virus. Whether North Korea would accept international offers, is another thing. It has failed to the present to respond to a U.S. offer of assistance.

 

North Korea in the past several years steadfastly refused many offers of coronavirus vaccine in preference to shuttering its borders to the world, a choice that is now seen to have failed spectacularly. Leading experts to give warning that the death toll in the country could reach and exceed 100,000. And within that unvaccinated population lies the prospect of fertile ground for the virus to further mutate into other, perhaps more virulent strains.

 

North Korea last month staged a massive military parade in Pyongyang. The fast spreading BA.2 subvariant of Omicron has been identified in the country. At this juncture late in the game, vaccines that might have been useful in preventing a crisis on this scale cannot now be administered swiftly enough and sufficiently broadly to halt the viral spread. 

There appears to be one country only that North Korea pays heed to, and that is China. Flights have resumed between China and North Korea this week for the first time in several years, with observers speculating that they carry badly needed emergency health supplies for a country that locked itself into a hapless situation of wide-open opportunity for a ravenous virus.

North Korean military personnel have been mobilized to assist in the distribution of medical supplies as Pyongyang grapples with high Covid case numbers.

"It looks really bad, They are facing the rampant spread of Omicron without protection from vaccines, without much – if any – immunity in the population and without access to most of the drugs that have been used to treat COVID elsewhere."

"I’m sure the North Koreans will still be very wary of accepting major international aid and going back to the situation of the 1990s, when there were multiple different aid agencies operating in the country and this was felt by the leadership to be humiliating and potentially destabilising."

Owen Miller, lecturer in Korean studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, London University

 

The Shining Example, North Korea Tarnished with COVID

"The North Korean leadership likely felt that acknowledging an outbreak in a timely manner -- and showing the public that the leadership was responding quickly -- was necessary for effectively controlling the situation and seeking the people's co-operation in the regime's stepped-up quarantine efforts."

Rachel Minyoung Lee, non-resident fellow, 38 North Program, Stimson Center

"Look how difficult it is in Shanghai, for them to stop Omicron -- and that's throwing absolutely everything they can think of at the epidemic, at the outbreak."

"In North Korea I think it's going to be very tough to stop this. I'd be very, very worried at this point."

Professor Ben Cowling, epidemiologist, University of Hong Kong.  

 

"They really only have one option. They've got to find a way to bring in vaccines and to rapidly vaccinate the population."

"The world is willing and ready to help North Korea, but they have to be willing to invite that help."

Peter Hotez, vaccine expert, US National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine. 

Kim Jong-un has not been seen wearing a face mask on television since the pandemic began  KCTV/AP

 

In the 1990s North Korea suffered a famine estimated to have caused the death of up to 3.5 million North Koreans over a period of years. The poor in North Korea suffer from malnutrition which has conditioned them to stunted growth. This huge segment of the population is health-compromised in a country whose leader refused to entertain the thought of importing vaccines, yet boasted that his country was free of COVID-19, which has struck everywhere else in the world. 

Kim Jong Un has just announced his country's first coronavirus case and he is no longer gloating at his status of an exceptional leader who miraculously kept the pandemic at bay. This, even though the commander of U.S. Forces Korea stated in July of 2020 that the virus had been reported both in China and Russia as outbreaks were seen to occur near their borders with North Korea. 

Finally, at a time when 520 million cases have been reported globally, COVID appears to have knocked at North Korea's door. In one of the most repressive systems on Earth where political prisons abound for citizens who fail to toe the government line or have the temerity to question its leader's dictates, Kim Jong Un has ordered lockdowns in all of the country's cities.

 

Recently there were several large-scale gatherings in the country as well as a military parade held a month ago where tens of thousands of maskless soldiers marched in the presence of maskless masses, following the example of their maskless leader. Airports in the country have been closed during the pandemic but the regime reopened a rail link with China in the new year. Black-market traders crossing the border can't be discounted.

 

There are concerns Covid could worsen an already dire food situation  AFP

It was, boasted Kim, evidence of his nation's superiority in evading the entry of COVID-19 to the country. Sacrifices made to further isolate North Korea in a depressed, sanctioned economy succeeded in maintaining a coveted COVID-free population. Now that conceit has been shattered. Now, because North Korea refused all foreign vaccines, its 26 million people are vulnerable to strains of the virus.

This is a country whose health-care system is fragile and under-funded. Kim has poured his nation's treasury into designing and building facilities for nuclear and missiles development for security purposes against the designs of his nation's enemies who plan, he claims, to destroy the country. Investment in agriculture and manufacturing to buoy the economy and feed its citizenry is an afterthought.

Should a widespread outbreak occur in Pyongyang where about one in ten North Koreans live, it has the potential to gravely impact a large proportion of the population. The city's lockdown spurred panic in its population, with people desperate to stock up, leading to long lines for public transport. Their leader, however, retains his confidence that under his unerring leadership, the country will soon shake off the virus.

North Korea will return to its former state as a "shining success" where the borders were sealed and North Korean athletes were kept from competing at two Olympics. Even cold-blooded murder was not beyond the pale in protecting the country from contracting the virus. North Korean troops shot, killed and burned the body of a South Korean government employee who had the misfortune to drift too near a nautical border.

The scene in the capital Pyongyang - much of the country is inaccessible to foreign visitors   Reuters

 

 

Hold That Smile

"During he mourning period, we must not drink alcohol, laugh or engage in leisure activities."

"Even if your family member dies during the mourning period, you are not allowed to cry out loud and the body must be taken out after it's over."

"People cannot even celebrate their own birthdays if they fall within the mourning period."

North Korean from northeastern border city, Sinuiju, North Korea

 

"They [the police] will have a special duty to crack down on those who harm the mood of collective mourning."

"It's a month-long special duty for the police. I heard that law enforcement officials cannot sleep at all."

"Residents must also work together to help out the kotjebi [growing number of North Korea's homeless street beggars]."

Second North Korean source, southwestern province of South Hwanghae, North Korea 

Citizens visit the bronze statues of their late leaders Kim Il Sung, left, and Kim Jong Il on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang, North Korea Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021, on the occasion of 10th anniversary of demise of Kim Jong Il

 

In the national interests of the tenth anniversary of the death of Kim Jong Il, father of the current 'dear leader' of North Korea, North Koreans are cautioned from demonstrating joy for a ceremonial, national period of sorrow over the North Korean leader's death. Restrictions limit how North Koreans may express themselves and their spontaneous moods, in the interests of complete uniformity of a national mourning period. This is a strict imposition on the entire population on pain of state punishment.

There is a ban on laughter and alcohol consumption during the period of mourning. One additional day has been added to the usual ten days of mourning, to commemorate the passing of a ten-year anniversary since the leader's death, and the ascension of his son, Kim Jong Un, the country's current supreme leader whose father's death was marked Friday 17 December.  During that mourning period, North Koreans may not shop for food.

Having ruled from 1994 until 2011 when Kim Jong Il, then 69, died of a heart attack, the man who tyrannized the people of North Korea preferred to be addressed adoringly as 'dear leader'. During his rule a dark period descended on North Korea, with the mid-1990s famine known as the "Arduous March". Euphemisms are beloved of the far East.

 

At midday Friday, as a siren blared for three minutes, North Koreans across the country fell silent and bowed in respect for Kim Jong Il. Pictured: People bow to pay their respects in front of a mosaic that shows a depiction of President Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, to mark the ten year anniversary of the death of Kim Jong Il, the father of current leader Kim Jong Un, in Pyongyang on December 17, 2021

 

During that memorable period of Kim Jong Il rule, an estimated 3.5 million people perished in a four-year period. The entire Kim dynasty is known for periodic times of mass starvation; truly an 'arduous march of an impoverished, oppressed society. Considered the father of the nation, the grandfather of the current leader, Kim Il Sung, along with Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il's occasion of their deaths are held to be solemn occasions to be observed annually. 

According to RFA (Radio Free Asia), police in North Korea have been warned to look for those who fail to appear upset. An additional effort is required of North Koreans to look after the interests of others who are in a state of famish and impoverishment; if the state won't do it, then the people, themselves struggling for access to food, must. Fears exist of the appearance of a second Arduous March.

Kim, in his trademark leather trench coat, attended a ceremony on Friday at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, the mausoleum for Kim Jong Il and his father Kim Il Sung - the founder of North Korea. Pictured: A huge crowd stands in front of the palace on Friday

"In the past, many caught drinking or being intoxicated during the mourning were arrested and treated as ideological criminals."

"They were taken away and never seen again."

Extraordinary Gift-Giving

"Meth, until recently, has been largely seen inside North Korea as a kind of very powerful energy drug -- something like Red Bull, amplified." 
"[That very misconception underscores a] significant underestimation [within the country of the risks inherent in drug abuse]."

Andrei Lankov, North Korea expert, Kookmin University, Seoul, South Korea

"[Though illegal in the North it has obtained the cachet of legality] because officials take bribes to look the other way, and because the state indirectly benefits from a food chain of bribes that goes all the way to the top."
Justin Hastings, political scientist, University of Sydney, Australia

"For as long as drug use does not pose a challenge to the regime, but instead dulls the wills and minds of the North Korean people, the government tacitly allows it to go on."
Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director, Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, Washington

Kim Il-sung Square on Lunar New Year’s Day, 2017   Wikimedia Commons

Mr. Scarlatoui from his vantage point in a Washington think tank observes that Kim Jong-un's regime was entirely focused on placing its state resources on what it deems are national priorities. Controlling the use of psychotropic drugs is not anywhere close to a priority. Not in an impoverished country where health care itself is not recognized as a national need to be fulfilled, and where people, under-serviced in that area, will take to self-medicating with mind-alterants.

On the other hand, what is recognized as top priorities that the government places all its attention on is self-evident from the news, sometimes hysterical, that comes out of the hermit kingdom. Its development of long-range missiles, its preoccupation with 'defence' enabling it to lob viral warning to its perceived enemies, most of its neighbours whom the North believes have collaborated with the United States to undermine North Korea's progress. And its nuclear program, which has long alarmed the world at large.

This month during celebrations of the Lunar New Year, North Koreans have been exchanging gifts to one another. Choosing to present to those they care about, crystal meth. Methamphetamine, viewed by the outside world as a health and addiction threat has become in North Korea a casual, oft-used recreational and health aid. A powerful stimulant it may be, but in North Korea it is seen as beneficial to the user, used as lightly as smoking a cigarette. Its harmful effects evidently completely ignored.

The drug was originally introduced to the Korean Peninsula during the colonization period by occupying Japan. And during the 1970s North Korean diplomats were arrested while abroad, charged with drug smuggling. By the 1990s North Korea began manufacturing its own meth for export not too long after it sponsored local opium cultivation and opiate production, according to a study conducted by University of Missouri political scientist Sheena Chestnut Greitens.

Which opened a vigorous trade opportunity for the drug to be shipped across the border to China, or transferred at sea to the hands of criminal organizations such as Chinese triads or the Japanese yakuza, until the mid-2000s when government-sponsored meth production declined, leaving a surplus of people with manufacturing skills who began selling their product to the local market.

Though North Koreans in the face of a chronic shortage in health care have taken to self-help with the use of opiates and amphetamine-like stimulants, the government denies any of its citizens produce or make use of methamphetamine. Crystal meth, called "pingdu" as a transliteration of the Chinese word for "ice-drug", is customarily given as a gift, a particularly popular custom among young North Koreans.

Image via Shutterstock (L); and Flickr user Zennie Abraham, CC licence 2.0 (R)

"Ice has become a best-selling holiday gift item. Most of the buyers are young people, even those still in middle school."
"They usually buy ice to snort together during holidays. They want to forget their harsh reality and enjoy themselves… Social stigmas surrounding drug use [have disappeared], so people now feel that something big is missing if they don’t have ice or opium prepared as a holiday gift."
DPRK Anonymous Source

Risk-Taking in North Korea

"He is wise. He would not do anything unwise that would jeopardize the humanitarian mission. He would not say anything against the government, he wouldn't try to convert people. He's smarter than that."
"So, we thought, 'Let's not make it a huge issue'. The feeling now is, after the days have gone by, that this is a highly unusual situation."
"It's shorter to list the countries he hasn't been to [in his humanitarian work]."
"[With no news the congregation felt it had] nothing to worry about and nothing to not worry about [and proceeded to pray for good news]."
"He loves the people [of North Korea] and he wants to see the nation grow and develop."
Lisa Pak, staff member (pastor), Light Korean Presbyterian church, Toronto

Photo released by Light Presbyterian Church show Hyeon Soo Lim doing humanitarian work in North Korea

"There is no resident Canadian government office in the country. The ability of Canadian officials to provide consular assistance is extremely limited."
Nicolas Doire, spokesperson Foreign Affairs Canada

"It's not as though the [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] is making announcements about who they've detained. [If the preacher is in custody in North Korea] the next likely information relayed in this case would likely be to the Canadian government through the Swedish government [relaying consular information through their North Korean mission]."
"It's hard to get lost in North Korea. The North Koreans keep track of people pretty well. The unusual thing, I think, in this case, is because he's familiar and has been going back and forth. That's unsettling, because somebody with that level of experience going in and out -- basically he knows the rules."
Scott Snyder, senior fellow, Korea studies, Council on Foreign Relations

Well, knowing all the rules in diplomacy and acceptable behaviour, sticking strictly to them to ensure that he will not offend the sensibilities much less the suspicions of that paranoid, militant, secluded government, means also being aware of how those with whom you are familiar, in favour with the regime, are currently regarded. In Reverend Hyeon Soo Lim's case, he had groomed good relations with an uncle of Kim Jong-un.

This was an uncle by marriage to Mr. Kim's father's sister, his aunt. Who, together with her husband, the once-powerful Jang Song-Thaek, groomed the current dictator of North Korea for his ruling position on the death of his father. Unfortunately, Jang Song-Thaek fell out of favour with his nephew-by-marriage for leading a "dissolute and depraved" life; that, in any event was public disclosure held to be a handy accusation covering up a more discreetly-held charge against uncle.

Jang Song-thaek, his hands tied with a rope, is led into court by uniformed personnel. Photograph: Yonhap/Reuters

Whose 'trial' and 'sentence' was swift and final, his life summarily ended in December of 2013. So having the elite entree to the power system that is North Korea might have worked very well indeed for Reverend Heon Soo Lim for as long as his mentor was at the height of his powers, not so well in the wake of his fall from grace. His connection to uncle might be seen by the volatile and paranoid ruler to be evidence of the reverend's mission to proselytize, not offer humanitarian aid.

The 60-year-old pastor of the Mississauga-based church travelled to North Korea at the beginning of February, via China. A month has transpired with no word from him, which is most unusual. And which led members of his church to appeal to Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs to help find out what has become of the man. Foreign Affairs has a standard advisory warning Canadians to steer clear of North Korea.  Unfortunately, Canada has no mission in North Korea, but does have an arrangement with Sweden to represent Canadian interests in the hermit kingdom.

This was not an unfamiliar first-time trip, but one of over one hundred the pastor has embarked upon since the 1990s. All of those trips taken with the approval of North Korean authorities. Religious missionaries hoping to travel and work in North Korea place themselves in direct peril. But Reverend Lim focused on humanitarian aid, which is of course a covert type of mission work. However, aid workers are considered as being "agents of Western cultural imperialism", according to Richard Bush, senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

It was originally thought by his parishioners that Reverend Lim was in quarantine for the 21 days that North Korea insists upon, mandatory for all foreign visitors, as a guard against Ebola. Most foreigners detained in North Korea have been arrested on charges of failing to notify authorities about their visit, but that category would not include Reverend Lim. He immigrated to Canada from South Korea in 1986, and set up the Light Korean Presbyterian Church with an initial five-family membership, grown since then to 3,000 members.

He has led many worldwide mission for the church, including trips to Cambodia, Brazil, India and Kazakhstan, let alone North Korea. None of the other destinations pose as hazardous a destination potentially as does North Korea. In North Korea the pastor aided residents in the north to open noodle-producing factories, factories for tofu and yogurt production, and he carried in vitamins, medical supplies and winter coats. He was well aware of the risks involved in his travels to North Korea.

And now he is experiencing the results of those risks. And it is entirely possible that after several months of detention, appeals to the government will result in his release. Possible, but certainly not guaranteed.

All You Need Is Love

"They were executed with machine guns while the key members of the Unhasu Orchestra, Wangjaesan Light Band and Moranbong Band, as well as the families of the victims looked on."
South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper

War criminals? Threats to the stability of the country? Actually a dozen entertainers. Specifically, North Korean singers, musicians and dancers with Hyon Song-wol's band. She was a popular singer, a beautiful young and talented woman. And her name was at one time twinned with that of Kim Jong Un, the ferocious little tyrant of North Korea. They had a long affair, and it was popularly assumed they were lovers.

North Korean singer, Hyon Song Wol of former band Bochonbo Electronic Music Band

Several years ago the world became aware that the very attractive, lithe young woman seen often at Kim Jong Un's side at official functions was his wife. Not Hyon Song-wol, however. His wife , Ri Sol-ju had also been a comely and talented member of the Unhasu Orchestra. Now she is married to the tyrant of North Korea, and the mother of his child.

Kim Jong Il before his death and before his son Jong Un became leader of the country, disapproved of his son's relationship with Hyon Song-wol. He was ordered to stop seeing her She then married an officer in the military and became a mother herself. The rumours persisted that the two, Jong Un and Song-wol continued to see one another.

Dictator: Kim Jong-un and wife Ri Sol-ju

Reason given to the public that merited the machine-gun execution of the dozen entertainers? Accusations levelled against them of having produced pornographic videos of themselves, and putting the videos out for sale. What might have been far worse, however, are accusations that when they were arrested they were found to have bibles in their possession.

Effectively then making of them political dissidents. Rumours also circulated that they supported an opposition political party. A rival political faction in Pyongyang. After their execution, the onlookers, their immediate families who were forced to watch their loved ones executed, were sent off to prison camps; guilty by familial association.

"If these people had only made pornographic videos, then it is simply not believable that their punishment was execution. They could have been made to disappear into the prison system there instead", suggested Toshimitsu Thigemura, professor at Waseda University in Tokyo, and an expert on North Korea. The execution took place, he feels, for "political reasons".

kcna/reuters  Delighted: Kim Jong-un laughs and cheers just days after his ex-girlfriend was executed

"Or", he ventured further: "...it is possible that these executions are more about Kim's wife who objected to the high profile of her husband's former girlfriend". That would have constituted a fairly lethal objection, one with morbid consequences for an unfortunate dozen people.

In a country whose leader values life to such an abysmally low degree that the starvation of millions of North Koreans in exchange for using state treasury to advance nuclear weapons takes precedence over human survival of the unfittest, their mass death due to starvation constitutes an acceptable trade-off.

Giving Offence

Omigawd!  There goes Canada again.  Off on its mission to reform the human-rights-abusing countries of the world.  Well, hardly.  There are simply too many of them performing that life disqualifying task to tackle.  But those whose abuses are that well-known and -observed as to qualify for especial notice - to make it abundantly clear that their oppressive miseries are not overlooked - that does merit concentrated attention.

At least, at the very least, to make it an annual obligation to bring to task through the auspices of one of those United Nations-inspired humanitarian committees, to bring forward the names and humanitarian crime-commissions of the outstanding offenders.  Canada has brought forward time and time again the human-rights abuses of the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Much to Iran's chagrin and offence, and they do take offence.

In taking offence, they also take pot-shots at Canada, accusing Canada of the very human rights violations that they themselves are guilty of.  But this is a regime that has become exceedingly skilled at turning the charges brought against them that have their basis in stark reality, against those leading the charge against them who are in reality innocent of those same charges that make a mockery of decency and due process.

Seems, on reflection, Canada is becoming a glutton for punishment.  Turning aside from the counter-charges to resolutely charge ahead to commit to calling it the way it is.  Not precisely making any new friends in the enterprise of revealing and denouncing the world's most egregious human rights abusers, but doing so to mount a defence of the defenceless, to have them know that they are not alone and forgotten.

And so, for the second time within two succeeding days, Canada has irritated the hell out of yet another nasty regime, calling to account at the same UN humanitarian committee, the face of inhumanity toward humanity that exists within the Republic of North Korea.  Just as Iran was mortally, if not morally, offended, so too is North Korea outraged at this calling out in such an "insulting" manner by the Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, Guillermo Rishchynski.

"The passing of totalitarian leader Kim Jong-il presented an opportunity for the regime to emerge from six decades of self-inflicted misery and isolation.  Canada calls on the regime to close its concentration camps and to abide by its human rights obligations.  Even the strongest dictatorship cannot withstand faith, it cannot withstand truth, and it cannot withstand freedom.  The people of North Korea deserve to have freedom and are entitled to the basic rights that all should enjoy.  We hope to one day see this day."

"Groundless allegations", according to North Korean envoy to the UN Kim Sook.  Who urged Canada to "give up its hostile policy against" his country.  Canada's lead on the non-binding resolution drafted by the European Union, adopted by the 193-nation committee through consensus was slated to pass at the General Assembly.

But not without an indignant response from Mr. Sook who deplored the insult to his country's "Supreme Authority".  "We never think of our country without his name.  Under the wise leadership of great leader and comrade Kim Jong-il, Korean people [have] made great achievement so far and we will develop in the future, too", he pledged defensively.  Obviously taken aback at the slur to the sacred name of the great leader and unskilled at pointed repartee, having much yet to learn from Iran.

As for the resolution on North Korea, which Canada has declared it has no intention of backing down from, insisting on calling for improved human rights conditions in North Korea, that country need not fear, for it has friends in low places.  Iran, along with China, Cuba and Venezuela rejected the resolution put forward in the UN on North Korea. 

Proving yet again that old adage that birds of a feather stick together.