Choe Yong Rim Visits

DPRK Premier Choe Yong Rim inspects ongoing construction work on Nungra Islet in Pyongyang on 18 May 2012 (Photo: KCNA)

DPRK state media reported on 18 May (Saturday) that DPRK Premier Choe Yong Rim visited ongoing construction on Nungra Islet in Pyongyang on 17 May.  KCNA reports:

The project is making brisk headway at its final phase under the meticulous guidance of the dear respected Kim Jong Un, conveying the legend about love of leader Kim Jong Il for the people.

The soldier-builders engaged in the project have made remarkable progress in the project in the spirit of conducting an offensive at a breath in hearty response to the order of Kim Jong Un, supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army.

The premier looked round different places of the pleasure ground including the Rungna Dolphin Aquarium to acquaint himself in detail with the progress made in the project.

He underscored the need for the builders to translate into reality the supreme commander’s outlook on people.

He also underlined the need to fully ensure quality in the construction including the modern Rungna Wading Pool as required by the new century and touched upon issues arising in the project.

DPRK Premier Choe Yong Rim is briefed about the construction of a water slide on Nungra Islet on 18 May 20120 (Photo: KCNA)

DPRK Premier Choe Yong Rim (R) is briefed about the production process at Sakchu Textile Factory on 17 May 2012 (Photo: KCNA)

On 17 May (Friday) Choe Yong Rim was reported to have visited factories in Ch’angso’ng and Sakchu Counties, North P’yo’ngan Province on Thursday (16 May).  KCNA reports:

Greater efforts are made for the development of the local industry in the county associated with the undying leadership feats of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il.

Choe toured various places including the Changsong Foodstuff Factory undergoing a dramatic change to acquaint himself in detail with the technical updating and production, and met innovators to give them a pep-talk.

Then followed a consultative meeting.

It stressed the importance of the local industry in improving the standard of the people’s living.

It took steps for the solution of problems arising in invigorating the central and local industries, producing more quality consumer goods of diverse kinds and sprucing up the county.

That day the premier went round the Sakju Textile Factory and the Sakju Foodstuff Factory, too.

Touring the factories increasing production by keeping themselves in full capacity operation, he called for launching dynamic drive for improving the standard of the people’s living by actively tapping raw materials available in localities.

View of Kwaksan land reclamation (Photo: KCNA)

DPRK Premier Choe Yong Rim (R) and DPRK Vice Premier and State Planning Commission Chairman Ro Tu Chol (L) attend the opening ceremony of the Kwaksan Tideland phase of land reclamation on 16 May 2012 (Photo: KCNA screen grab)

Prior to his visit to Ch’angso’ng County, Choe’s attended the opening ceremony of the Kwaksan land reclamation, which is linked to ongoing land reclamation projects in North P’yo’ngan Province.  Land reclamation was part of Kim Jong Un’s remarks on land management, which were publicized earlier this month.

Workers and officials of the North Phyongan Province Tideland Reclamation Complex built breakwaters in sections extending several thousand meters linking Kwan, Talyang, Woejang and several other islets in a matter of one and half years, turning 1 600 hectares of tideland into cultivated land.

The completion of the projects made it possible for a huge farm to do safe farming and breed fishes and cultivate shallow-sea food. As a result, great progress was made in developing agriculture and improving people’s living standard and another change was made in the map of the country.

A ceremony of the completion of the projects took place on the spot Wednesday.

Present there were Choe Yong Rim, Ro Tu Chol and other officials concerned, officials and builders of the tideland reclamation complex and working people in Kwaksan County.

A letter of thanks from the Workers’ Party of Korea Central Committee was conveyed to the builders and officials, scientists and technicians who made distinguishing labor feats in the construction of the second-phase project.

The WPK Central Committee highly praised them for successfully building another monumental structure in the Songun era by displaying popular heroism and matchless devotion.

At the end of the ceremony, the participants went round different places of the completed project.

Kim Jong Un Visits Mangyongdae Amusement Park as Land Management Conference Held

Kim Jong Un (2nd L) tours Mangyongdae Fun Fair. Also in attendance is VMar Choe Ryong Hae (L), director of the KPA General Political Department. (Photo: KCNA-Yonhap)

DPRK state media reported on 9 May (Wednesday) that Kim  Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) visited Mangyo’ngdae Fun Fair (amusement park).  The amusement park has occasionally been featured in tourist photographs.  Some images have shown DPRK citizens using the park, however other pictures have shown the areas of the park, constructed in the 1980s, shuttered.  In its report on KJU’s visit, KCNA noted that he expressed his displeasure about the condition of the amusement park.  In undated images his visit, KJU is wearing a fedora of similar style to his grandfather, Kim Il Sung.

Kim Jong Un (2nd L) pulls weeds during his tour of Mangyongdae Fun Fair (Photo: KCNA)

Kim Jong Un (2nd L) appears to be complaining about cracked pavement during his tour of the Mangyongdae Fun Fair (Photo: KCNA)

KCNA reports :

Covering 70 hectares, the funfair has the first-phase funfair built in Kalmaeji Field and the second-phase one and a wading pool built on an expansion basis in Songsan Field.

The funfair has made positive contribution to the entertainment of people and school youth and children for decades.

He looked round various places of the funfair to acquaint himself in detail with its management and operation.

In front of the swingboat in the second-phase funfair, he, pointing at the seriously broken pavement in the compound of the funfair, asked officials when the road was last re-paved. It is regretful that the road has not been managed well, he said.

Putting his finger on the faulty arrangement of the bases of Oriental arborvitae and Sabina Chinensis, he said it would be good to have gravel stones planted in various shapes around the trees.

Seeing the weeds grown in between pavement blocks in the compound of the funfair, he, with an irritated look, plucked them up one by one. He said in an excited tone that he has never thought that the funfair is under such a bad state and a proverb that the darkest place is under the candlestick fits the funfair. He scolded officials, saying why such things do not come in their sight and querying could the officials of the funfair work like this, had they had the attitude befitting master, affection for their work sites and conscience to serve the people. Plucking up weeds can be done easily with hands as it is different from updating facilities, he added.

Saying that the amusement facilities have been put into operation with the paint scraped off, he noted that the officials and care-takers of the funfair have below-zero spirit of serving the people. This is not just a business issue but an issue concerning ideological viewpoint, he said in a serious tone.

He dropped in at the fountain pool where he stressed the need to tidy up the place even though it may not go operational for this or that reason.

Officials should draw a serious lesson from the tour of Mangyongdae Funfair, he said, adding that this occasion should be taken to issue a serious warning to the officials so that they can have proper spirit of serving the people.

He called for sprucing up the Mangyongdae Funfair as required by the Songun era. This process should be made an occasion of removing outdated ideological point of view from the heads of officials and ending their old work-style, he added.

He set forth the tasks for sprucing up the funfair.

He gave Choe Ryong Hae, director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army, the task for sprucing up the funfair as required by the new century by dispatching strong construction forces of the KPA.

The officials of the relevant fields including the Pyongyang City Committee of the WPK, ministries and national institutions should fulfill their duties and responsibilities in sprucing up the funfair to implement the WPK’s intention of serving people in practice.

He was accompanied by Choe Ryong Hae and Ma Won Chun, vice- department director of the WPK Central Committee.

Kim Jong Un and members of the DPRK central leadership pose for a commemorative photograph with participants in a meeting on land management (Photo: KCNA)

Kim Jong Un was also reported to have attended a photo op with participants in a land management conference held in Pyongyang.  KCNA reports:

He waved back to their enthusiastic cheers, giving a warm encouragement to them.

He expressed expectation and belief that all the service personnel and people including the participants in the meeting would carry out leader Kim Jong Il’s idea of land management and his last instructions without any slight deviation and concession so as to drastically change the appearance of the land to suit the features of a thriving socialist nation.

He was accompanied by leading officials of party, state and military organs Choe Yong Rim, Kim Jong Gak, Jang Song Thaek, Kim Ki Nam, Ri Myong Su, Mun Kyong Dok, Ro Tu Chol, Ri Ryong Ha and chief secretaries of the provincial committees of the WPK.

Photo op at Kumsusan Memorial Palace for participants in a meeting on land management held in Pyongyang on 8 May 2012 (Photo: KCNA)

View of rostrum at a meeting of land management activists held at the People’s Palace of Culture in Pyongyang on Tuesday, 8 May 2012. During the meeting a speech on land management by Kim Jong Un was publicized. (Photo: KCNA)

DPRK Vice Premier Kim In Sik delivers a report during a meeting of land management activists on 8 May 2012 (Photo: KCNA)

The land management meeting was held at the People’s Palace of Culture on 8 May (Tuesday).  It is not clear if this was the large “homeland” meeting which was reported by Good Friends to take place in early May.  The meeting included the release of a speech on land management Kim Jong Un delivered on 27 April 2012.  KCNA reports:

The meeting discussed the tasks and practical measures to turn the country into a land of bliss for the people by highly displaying the validity and vitality of the movement initiated and led by leader Kim Jong Il under the guidance of the dear respected Kim Jong Un.

Present there were Choe Yong Rim, Kim Jong Gak, Kim Ki Nam, Ri Myong Su, Mun Kyong Dok and Ro Tu Chol, and officials of party and power organs, working people’s organizations, armed forces, economic institutions and the relevant field in Pyongyang and all provinces, cities and counties and activists of the movement.

The participants of the meeting heard “On Effecting a Drastic Turn in Land Management to Meet the Requirements for Building a Thriving Socialist Nation,” the work of Kim Jong Un published on the occasion of the meeting.

The work, published on April 27, 2012, said that President Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il paid deep attention to the land management and worked heart and soul to turn the country beautiful.

It clearly indicates the tasks and ways for the officials and other working people in the field of land management to preserve and glorify the party’s idea and leadership feats performed in the land management and face-lift the appearance of the land to befit the land of a thriving socialist nation.

Kim In Sik, vice-premier of the DPRK Cabinet, in his report referred to the undying feats the peerlessly great persons performed in the work for improving the land construction and management.

He also touched on the successes made in the land construction and management since the policy on general mobilization for land management was put forth.

He underscored the need for all officials, party members and working people to dynamically wage a general offensive to successfully realize the far-reaching plan of the Party for land construction true to the leadership of Kim Jong Un and thus turn the country into a fairyland of socialism.

Speeches were made at the meeting.

The speakers expressed their determination to fully uphold the work of Kim Jong Un as their important guidelines for land management and to dynamically step up the worthwhile effort forturning the country more beautiful in hearty response to the call “Forward for Final Victory!” made by the supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army to all the people of the country.

A view of the venue and participants in a land management meeting in Pyongyang on 8 May 2012 (Photo: KCNA)

Science and Technology Festival Opened

DPRK Premier Choe Yong Rim (2nd R) tours the Science and Technology Festival on Friday, 27 April in Pyongyang (Photo: KCNA)

On Friday (27 April) DPRK state media reported that the a Science and Technology Festival opened at the Three Revolutions Exhibition Hall.  DPRK Premier Choe Yong Rim and KWP Secretary Choe Tae Bok, among other central leadership, attended the opening ceremony.  The festival was announced   KCNA reports:

The festival is divided into 13 panels of light industry, agriculture, foodstuff, railway transport, energy, construction and building materials, basic science, state of the art and others.

Presented to the festival are achievements of more than 200 units in the process of putting the production processes on a modern and scientific basis by pushing back the frontiers of latest science and technology together with many research findings of scientists, technicians and working people highly appreciated at local festivals.

Attending the ceremony were Choe Yong Rim, premier of the Cabinet, Choe Thae Bok, secretary of the C.C., the Workers’ Party of Korea, Ri Ja Bang, chairman of the State Science and Technology Commission, officials concerned, scientists, technicians and working people.

Meanwhile, 372 km (231 miles) northeast of the Three Revolutions Exhibition Hall, excavation and construction work proceeds.  The ongoing activity suggests that preparations are under way for the DPRK to conduct a third nuclear detonation at its test site in P’unggye-ri, Kilchu County, North Hamgyo’ng Province.  Kyodo reported on 25 April that Russia raised its alert level on the expectation that the DPRK’s nuclear test would be within the week.  38 North reports:

The latest imagery, taken April 18, 2012, documents continuing preparations for an upcoming nuclear test and shows a train of mining carts on top of the spoil pile and random unidentified structures or objects on or near the piles (see figure 3). Based on an examination of previous satellite photos, their position and number appear to vary on a day-to-day basis, indicating the continued movement of vehicles, structures and other objects on or near the spoil piles at the mouth of the test tunnel. According to one press report on April 21, the North had completed the removal of the large spoil pile near the test site, probably to seal the tunnel for the explosion. However, this imagery shows the size of the pile largely unchanged. Whether the test device has been emplaced in the chamber and stemming with other material has been completed, remains unclear.

Images of a tunnel entrance (top) and tunnel leading to the nuclear detonation site. These images appeared in episode 4 of the 2009 Korea Film Studios' feature The Country I Saw, which included a depiction of the 25 May 2009 nuclear test

The DPRK’s third nuclear test may not be as imminent as some in the neighborhood foresee.  Korea Herald reports:

Pollack was in Seoul last week to attend the 2012 Asan Plenum, a three-day international forum on global challenges that kicked off last Wednesday. The annual forum was organized by local think tank Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

Pyongyang may face a tougher response from its crucial patron China should it take another destabilizing action following the recent rocket launch, he pointed out. In an unusual move, Beijing agreed at the U.N. Security Council to condemn Pyongyang on April 16, three days after the botched launch.

“They may also be weighing the implications. This time, China would really impose some severe costs on them. We have the Chinese vice foreign minister in the forum, giving some very forceful remarks,” he said.

“They will test it at some point, but not now yet,” Jonathan Pollack of the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, told The Korea Herald.

“The reason might not be technical, but political that another nuclear test would probably be damaging to North Korea from the point of view of seeing a future South Korean president more aligned with their interests.”

“He did not say a nuclear test, but you could see what he was talking about to make clear that China’s disapproval of any such third test would be very strong, potentially very harsh.”

Pollack paid particular attention to the fact that Pyongyang has not been explicit yet about its preparation for a nuclear test while it gave some explanation before their past nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

“There has been no explicit threat to test the nuclear weapon. The other thing I want to emphasize that in both 2006 and 2009, they developed almost what we would call an immediate campaign over a period of time,” he said.

“I don’t know, it was perhaps, weeks or months, but it was trying to build the case for why they would then proceed to a nuclear test.”

Although it would not be easy for Beijing to change its core policy toward its impoverished ally considering that it favors stability on the peninsula, China could make some adjustments in it to protect its national interests, he argued.

“The Chinese are not, in my own view, likely to discard North Korea, but under some circumstances, it is possible that they might really try to put limits on the relationship if North Korea is affecting their Chinese vital interests,” he said.

“China’s larger worries concern North Korea undertaking actions to which the ROK (Republic of Korea) would respond this time, and then, this triggers an environment that draws in both the U.S. and China on the peninsula.”

“The Rainy Season Has Come”

Photo: KBS World

Typhoon-5  Meari hit the Korean Peninsula on Sunday [26 June].  The storm was expected in Sinu’iju, North P’yo’ngan Province, on Monday [27 June] before hitting China’s east coast.  Xinhua reports:

Thousands of people have been evacuated amid storm-triggered floodings, authorities said Sunday.

The tropical storm is expected to make a landing near the city of Donggang, northeast Liaoning Province, or areas to the north of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at Monday dawn, the National Meteorological Center said in its latest bulletin.

The storm was projected at the Yellow Sea, about 35 kilometers southeast off the coast of eastern Shandong Province, at 5 p.m. Sunday, according to the bulletin. The storm is moving north at 20 to 25 kilometers per hour, packing sustained gusts of 23 meters per second near its center.

Strong winds and heavy rain are forecast near the coasts of Shandong, Liaoning and the province of Jilin. The strength of the storm will be reduced after landing, the meteorological authorities said.

Off the coast of Shandong, the stormy weather sank or stranded three vessels on Sunday. Twenty-six people on board of the mishapped vessels have all been rescued, according to a spokesman with the provincial maritime safety administration.

Gales whipped through the Bohai Strait and over the northern part of the Yellow Sea while torrential rains pounded most parts of Liaoning, eastern Shandong, and part of Jiangsu Province on Sunday, raising water level of the Taihu Lake in Jiangsu to critical level at one point.

According to KCNA, the storm affected areas of South Hwanghae Province early Sunday morning:

Typhoon-5 Meari is moving northward at speed of 60 km per hour in the DPRK.

Strong wind of 10-13 m per second hit Haeju and Kaesong cities, Ongjin and Sepho counties and other areas from 03:00 to 09:00 Sunday.

Rainfall of 105 mm was registered in Hoeyang County, 90 mm in Kosong and Pongchon counties, 79 mm in Thongchon and Chongdan counties, 76 mm in Yonan County, 73 mm in Kosan County and 70 mm in Changdo County from 12:00 Saturday to 12:00 Sunday.

Tidal waves are foreseen to hit coastal areas of South Hamgyong Province and Kangwon Province on Sunday afternoon.

Even as Meari weakens and makes its way to the PRC, heavy downpours are expected in the Peninsula (at least the southern part) on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to KBS World:

Typhoon Meari has passed over waters west of Baeknyeong Island and is soon expected to reach the North Korean border city of Sinuiju.

The Korea Meteorological Administration forecasts the typhoon to weaken into an extratropical cyclone once it reaches Sinuiju Monday afternoon.

Rainclouds left by the typhoon will hang over South Korea on Monday, bringing five to 20 millimeters of more precipitation in the central region.

Skies over the nation will gradually clear up in the afternoon, but the monsoon front will return on Tuesday with showers falling over Jeju Island in the morning and the southern coastal regions by night.

People are urged to take precautions as a heavy downpour is forecast nationwide Wednesday.

On Friday Rodong Sinmun published an editorial about various instructions and measures to mitigate flooding and rain damage.  KCNA reported about Kim Cho’ng-il’s instruction “to establish measures well to prevent rainy season damage”:

A nationwide campaign has been launched in the country to prevent damage from heavy rainfalls.

Collieries and mines throughout the country are working on setting pit drainages in good condition.

In the sector of land and environmental conservation, necessary measures have been taken to improve reservoirs and streams and dredge rivers and waterways.

In the railway transport sector, a deep attention has been paid to protecting iron bridges, railways and other structures and facilities from flood and landslide.

Meanwhile, cooperative farms have directed much effort to preventing damage from flood and strong wind possible in the rainy season.

During the summer of 2010, the DPRK saw several hundred deaths and widespread damage due to heavy rains.  Some of the problems resulting from the rain could not be contained, and crossed the DPRK-ROK border such as box mines washing up in ROK, as well as malaria-infected mosquitoes caused by stagnant water.

A flooded village in Sinhu'ng, South Hamgyo'ng Province in KCTV footage from July 2010. (Photo: KCNA-Yonhap)

New Minister of Land and Environmental Protection

Pak Song-nam was dismissed as Minister of Land and Environmental Protection.

In the third (3rd) DPRK Cabinet replacement to occur in two (2) calendar months, Minister of Land and Environment Protection Pak Song-nam has been relieved of his post.  Mr. Pak was appointed as Minister in April 2006 and his appointment was renewed at the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly in April of this year.  Mr. Pak joins Kim Wan-su (former Minister of Finance) and Pyon Yong-rip (former President of the State Academy of Sciences) in a trio of Cabinet replacements in the last sixty (60) days, and the twelfth (12th) Cabinet replacement to occur in 2009.  As Yonhap News reports Pak Song-nam’s replacement, Kim Chang-ryong, is “obscure.”  It is likely that the replacement is a Kim Chang-ryong (born 1947) who is a former Vice Chair of the Kim Il-sung Youth League, Vice Chair of the Korean Students Committee  and a former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs who had served as the DPRK Ambassador to Germany (1999-2004) and Iran (2004-2008).  This particular Mr. Kim certainly has the profile–in MOFA, but certainly in two North Korean youth/student organizations–of a member of Jang Song-thaek’s political patronage network.  If this is the new Minister this would add further credence to the contention by Pyongyangologists (this one included) that Kim Jong-il is populating North Korea’s policymaking organs with members of the Jang Song-thaek-Kim Kyong-hui political family.

There is also a Kim Chang-ryong identified in the North Korean press as a Korean People’s Army General (the Ministry of Public Security has a bureau for environmental regulation and MPS draws some of its personnel from the KPA) who sang the praises of the DPRK’s ICBM/satellite launch in April 2009, as well as a Kim Chang-ryol identified as a Chairman of the Korea Susok Association.  This latter position could be filled by either a MOFA official or KPA General.  Susok are natural rock formations, certainly a position germane to the Ministry of Land and Environmental Protection.  It is also likely that all of these Kim Chang-ryol’s are the same person.  If a new DPRK Cabinet Minister has been drawn from the ranks of the KPA, this may be interpreted as evidence of the KPA’s increasing dominance of the DPRK State; that said, KPA influence is often balanced by the supposedly tight security controls of the Military Security Command and Party management.

Will the real Kim Chang-ryong step forward, please? Former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and former DPRK Ambassador Kim Chang-ryong in Iran.

In terms of the North Korean power dynamic, the DPRK State (which is to say the Cabinet) is certainly the tertiary constituent of the DPRK’s Power Three of Party-Army-State.  Nevertheless, this latest Cabinet appointment is the most recent of a dozen to happen this year.  Attrition in the DPRK Cabinet is not unusual, but as previously mentioned, this is the third (3rd) turnover in a sixty (60) day period.  A replacement of the Minister of Land and Environmental Protection might relate to the enigmatic forest fires captured by a NASA satellite, and written about by North Korea Economy Watch.  But the 2009 attrition in the DPRK Cabinet may read as a sign of succession, political conflicts among North Korean elites, or both.  Cabinet and personnel attrition may occur due to a succession drive (where positions are filled with the successors’ supporters).  This examination of the latest Cabinet replacement is predicated on examining the recent DPRK Cabinet appointments at-large.  A new Minister of Land and Environmental Protection may simply be a cosmetic change to implement the KWP’s “green revolution.”