GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – North Korea is reportedly planning an amnesty for prisoners, but no further details are available, say a number of media, citing the country’s official news agency. Birthdays of leaders are moveable feasts in North Korea, and those of its two previous leaders, Kim Jong-il, who died 17 December 2011 and his father Kim Il-sung, appear to be the excuse for the release of prisoners that could start 1 February.
Current leader, and former Bern schoolboy Kim Jong-un may have celebrated his own birthday 8 January, although the date is not certain, and his two predecessors’ birthdays are equally vague, although celebrated 16 February for his father and 15 April for his grandfather.
Kim Jong-un’s birth date was determined by Korean media by compiling information from a former Japanese sushi chef who worked for the family for 19 years, old Swiss schoolmates and N Korean defectors.
Links to other sites: Amnesty International, BBC, Korea Times
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The “Great Successor”, Kim Jong-un, has officially been named the successor to his father, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, 69, who died Monday 19 December of a heart attack while traveling, according to media reports coming out of the country. The son, who is reportedly in his late 20s, surfaced as part of N Korea’s political picture in 2010, when he was appointed to several senior posts, including military ones.
He spent some of his time in early adolescence at a state school in Bern.
South Korea has put its military forces on high alert; the two countries have officially been at war for more than 60 years and N Korea in recent months has been the target of much criticism from the West for its nuclear programme.
Links to other sites: CNN, Sydney Morning Herald, Reuters,
Ambassador Stephen Bosworth speaks with the press following talks between the US and North Korea - Photo Eric Bridiers US Mission
Updated: 17:32 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The second bilateral encounter between North Korea and the United States of America on de-nuclearization concluded on a somehow “positive” note.
It was “generally constructive” said outgoing US Ambassador Stephen Bosworth who responded that both governments had “narrowed differences in terms of what has to be done before [they] can both agree to a resumption of the formal negotiations.”
“We can reach a reasonable basis of departure for formal negotiations for a return to the Six-Party process,” said Bosworth.
The two-day meeting is the latest in recent months between the US and North Korea, as well as the two Koreas.
Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan of North Korea met with Bosworth, Washington’s outgoing top envoy for Pyongyang, and Special Representative Glyn Davies, who will from now on be “actively engaged” in the discussions on the North Korean nuclear program.
The US Ambassador thanked the Swiss authorities for what he called “the cooperation extended” to the talks.
“I just want to say that we’ve had some very positive and I think generally constructive talks with the DPRK delegation over the course of the last two days.
We narrowed differences on several points and explored our differences on others. We came to the conclusion that we will need more time and more discussion to reach agreement in an effort to assess whether we have sufficient agreement to resume our active negotiations both bilaterally and in the Six-Party process.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The US Mission in Geneva has confirmed State Department news Wednesday that an American interagency team will meet with representatives from the North Korean government 24-25 in Geneva to review the Asia country’s willingness to begin nuclear disarmament.
The meeting, with First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan leading the Korean group, follows several de-nuclearization meetings in recent months, between the US and North Korea, as well as the two Koreas.
The US says of the upcoming meeting that the “delegations will continue discussions to determine if North Korea is prepared to implement its obligations under UN Security Council Resolutions 1718 and 1874 and its commitments under the 2005 Joint Statement of the Six-Party Talks, including concrete steps toward denuclearization.”
No immediate reaction from North Korea
South Korea’s military exercises on Yeonpyeong Island on the disputed maritime border with North Korea, which included the firing of live munitions, have ended. Residents on the island were ordered into bomb shelters and South Korea launched fighter jets which patrolled South Korean airspace in the event of an attack by North Korea. The exercises lasted 1 and 1/2 hours.
There was no immediate reaction from North Korea 20 December, which had warned that the drills would provoke a response similar to the one that resulted in 170 shells being fired at Yeonpyeong Island which killed 4 South Koreans last month. The North had warned of “catastrophic” consequences and said that the exercises could unleash a war on the Korean peninsula.
Former US ambassador to the UN and outgoing New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is in Pyongyang at the invitation of the government and has helped to defuse tensions, according to CNN.
Links to other sites: ABC News, VOA
Source: Al-Jazeera
US President Barack Obama has ordered an aircraft carrier task force to hold joint exercises with South Korea’s naval forces, after North Korea pounded an inhabited South Korean island near the peninsula’s disputed western maritime border 23 November. Four people are confirmed dead in the artillery attack, two civilians and two military personnel.
South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak has come under strong domestic criticism for his measured response to the attack. He promised “stern retaliation” if North Korea continues its provocations. Major international leaders have called for calm in what is deemed the most serious incident between the two countries since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
Obama says he is outraged by the attack, coming as it did after last week’s revelations of a significant increase in the North’s nuclear production capabilities.
Links to other sites: Financial Times, Guardian, Wall Street Journal
The existence of a new nuclear facility in North Korea with “hundreds and hundreds” of centrifuges capable of enriching uranium to weapons grade is complicating US efforts to bring North Korea’s nuclear ambitions to a halt, says Steven Bosworth, chief US envoy on the stalled six-party talks with North Korea. The centrifuges are part of a facility that US experts say did not exist in April 2009. Siegried Hecker, the US-based scientist who was shown them earlier this month, says he was stunned by the revelation and the sophisticated nature of the facilities. He informed the White House a few days ago.
Bosworth, speaking in Seoul 22 November, said, “We have been watching and analyzing the (North’s) aspirations to produce enriched uranium for some time. It goes back several years.” He called the announcement “provocative”, but not a “crisis”.
Links to other sites: BBC, New York Times, Reuters
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A North Korean senior official has announced it and photo agencies have offered living proof that Kim Jong Un will likely succeed his father, Kim Jong Il, as leader of North Korea when the father dies. Kim Jong-Il has been in failing health since a cerebral hemorrhage in August 2008.
The leader-to-be, who attended school in canton Bern as a young teenager, is an apple-cheeked young man now, whose exact age is not known. In September he was made a four-star general, and photos of a major parade review Sunday 10 October in Pyongyang are the first to show him with his father.
Hong Su Jong North Korean athlete suspended - Photo FIG
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - North Korean gymnast Hong Su Jong and her fellow teammates have been barred by the Lausanne-based International Gymnastics Federation, IFG, from competing at the Artistic World Championships in Rotterdam for allegedly lying about her age.
The North Koreans have been barred from competing during the next 30 days which will prevent Hong and the rest of the team from competing in Rotterdam next week. The federation may not participate at any national event either.
The decision handed down on 7 October, says the North Koreans claimed three different years of birth for Hong during the 2004 Olympic games, the 2006 world championships and at the Asian games the same year, and at the world championships in 2007 and 2010.
The athletes have five days to appeal the IFG’s decision.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Kim Jong-un, after months of speculation that he might be named the heir apparent to the leader of North Korea, his father Kim-Jong Il, has finally been given a public face by his country. The son was named a general, state media announced Monday (Swiss time), the first official public mention of him. The announcement appears to put him several steps closer to leading the country when his ailing 68-year-old father is gone.
The most anyone can say clearly about North Korea’s possible heir-apparent is that there is little that’s clearly known about him. This much appears to be fact: he is now a general, he spent time at a state school in Bern, he probably speaks English and German. He is 26 or 27 but details about his birth are unavailable, including the year and whether or not his mother was married to his father. Old school-mates say he was a Michael Jordan fan and he loved to play basketball as a kid.
Google his name for images and while there are hundreds, they are mostly copies of the same 10 or fewer. Videos purportedly from his time at school in Bern have been surfacing lately, as have spoofs.
And the Sunday Telegraph in the UK 26 September ran a lengthy article with tantaliziing glimpses of a young Kim Jong-un, reminiscences by old classmates of the leader’s son from his four years in a state school in Liebefeld, near Bern, under a false name.
Links to other sites: Guardian, Reuters
CNN on workers assembly that starts 28 September
The meeting of the ruling Workers Party of Korea which was to officially announce the country’s new leader has not taken place. The conclave, the first such meeting since 1980, was scheduled for “early September”, and government officials are blaming the severe flooding that disrupted the country’s transportation links.
Other theories say that Dear Leader Kim Jong Il is too seriously ill, perhaps from diabetes. Many observers agree that something odd is going on in Pyongyang, the North’s capital, but reliable information is hard to come by. The South’s present administration has sidelined many of the intelligence experts who had long-standing contacts with their northern counterparts.
A flurry of conciliatory moves from North Korea – offers to hold military talks with the south, a move to resume family reunion visits, the release of the crew of a fishing boat seized in August – follow the most tense months in recent memory, involving the sinking of a South Korean warship.
Links to other sites: ABC, AFP, Japan Times, Xinhua
Dozens of people died in flooding and landslides in North Korea as typhoon Kompasu struck the divided peninsula earlier this month, North Korean state media confirmed 15 September. The typhoon caused heavy damage to railways and roads and washed away 30,000 hectares of farmland. Kompasu caused the death of five people in South Korea 2 September.
The North is recovering from heavy flooding last month, and even in a good year its agriculture struggles to feed its 23 million people. South Korea offered 13 September to send food aid and cement to rebuild houses.
Links to other sites: AP, Reuters, Straits Times
Thousands of people have been evacuated, and hundreds have perished in the deadliest floods to hit China, North Korea and Pakistan over the weekend.
It is believed that over 13 million people have been affected in Pakistan alone. The death toll rose to 165 as more bodies were rescued in the Indian-controlled Kashmir. About 200 more remained missing.
In China, the death toll jumped to 337 late Monday after Sunday’s landslides in Gansu. Update: The death toll from landslides in northwestern China more than doubled Tuesday to 702.
In North Korea, some 10,000 people are sheltered in public buildings in the border city of Sinuiju near China. Flash floods destroyed thousands of homes across the impoverished country.
Additional details: AP / Yahoo News
China is cautiously watching as North Korea (DPRK) a longtime friend, lashes out at the United Nations over its review of the sinking of a South Korean military boat, the Cheonan. Forty-six people died in the 26 March incident. Xinhua, the official news agency, carries several related stories Wednesday 16 June, after North Korea’s ambassador to the UN, Sin Son-ho, held a rare news conference where he appeared to threaten military action if the UN condemns the North for the incident. The Security Council is reviewing reports on the sinking, which North Korea “has rejected as a ‘complete fabrication’” reports Xinhua, which carefully avoids condemning either Korea, as it notes that “the DPRK is vowing to respond with military measures if the UN Security Council releases any official document blaming them for the Cheonan incident.”
Meanwhile, Xinhua reports that North Korean football fans watching delayed TV footage of the World Cup games were cheering for South Korea.
Links to other sites: ABC, Australia, NY Times, RiaNovosti, Russia, Xinhua
Brazil and North Korea brilliantly close a day of exciting football
Brazil fans celebrate their team's win - Photo 2010 FWCLOC
Brazil 2 North Korea 1
As forecast, Brazil won 2-1 against a North Korean team that, surprisingly, was an equal match to the cariocas. The vuvuzelas could be heard not only in South Africa but in Geneva where fans were roaming the streets celebrating their team’s victory.
In spite of a lackluster performance, Brazil showed why it is one of the best teams in the world: it takes any chance given and scores.
“In football, the best teams don’t necessarily win,” said the 53-year-old DPR Korea coach Kim Jong-hun before the game started.
By winning the game, the five-time world champion gets three points and places itself at top of Group G.
The North Koreans played very offensively during the first half. “Our game is not all about playing cautiously. We can also play good attacking football when we need to,” said Jong-hun. And so the players did and scored the goal of honour a few minutes before the end of the match.
Arguably, the North Korean goalkeeper, Ri Myong Guk, could be described as the most valuable player of the match.
New Zealand 1 Slovakia 1
The All White scorer celebrates its first point at a World Cup - 2010 FWCLOC
This is what football dreams are made of, tying a game in the last few seconds of the stoppage-time and scoring your first point ever in a World Cup.
What was a given victory for Slovakia faded to a 1-1 tie for the All Whites. The results mean that the first and second place in Group F is up for grabs (Italy and Paraguay also tied on 14 June).
New Zealand’s coach saw the end result as a fair result. “We were never picked to get a point at a World Cup albeit we’ve only been twice. We got a result over Serbia but people want to tell you that was a friendly,” he said after the game.
The Swiss national team
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss football team is down one man due to injury. The Swiss football federation announced Christoph Spycher’s knee injury is preventing him from playing at the World Cup.
Spycher had planned to retire after the world championship but his injury is forcing him into early retirement.
The defender will be replaced by Ludovic Magnin who is recuperating from a broken hand. According to the Swiss coach, Magnin will wear a cast during training camp which begins on 25 May.
Switzerland will play Costa Rica on 1 June in Sion, and Italy in Geneva on 5 June as part of its pre-World Cup training.
Five days of meetings between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Hu Jintao Chinese president in Beijing have resulted in an agreement to strengthen their commercial ties and work more closely to foster security in the region, the Chinese government announced Friday 7 May. Official Chinese statements have the North’s leader reconfirming his commitment to denuclearization, but South Korean media were unhappy that official remarks made no mention of discussions over a boat that the South suspects the North of sinking.
Rescuers are fighting unusually cold waters and rough seas in their search for 46 sailors who are missing after the South Korean patrol ship Cheonan sank Friday at 21:45. Military officials were quoted in Korean media as saying that an explosion of unknown origin made a hole in the bottom of the ship, which was carrying 104 persons, of whom 58 were rescued. The South Korean government has virtually ruled out foul play by North Korea.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – It’s a day for looking back at 2009. Patrick Chappatte takes us to North Korea and Afghanistan.
Click on images to view larger
© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
Year-end in Afghanistan
Year-end in North Korea
Warships from South and North Korea have reportedly fired at each other, media from both countries are reporting. The cause of the incident, which the BBC says is the third exchange of fire in a decade, differs according to the two sides. South Korea claims the North’s ship crossed a disputed water boundary, while the North reports that one of its patrol boats that was checking on an unidentified object in its own waters was chased by a warship from the South. Tensions between the two have increased in recent months, largely over North Korea’s nuclear programme and missile tests.
Links to other sites: BBC, Bloomberg, Sindh Today
North and South Korea navy ships have exchanged fire along the countries’ disputed Western maritime border. The Northern vessel was reportedly hit by gunfire, and one North Korean was killed, and three injured, after it crossed a demaracation line Tuesday, 10 November, say several reports in Seoul, South Korea. CNN, Los Angeles Times.
Colombia may make a complaint to the United Nations and the Organization of American States, following Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’ call Sunday, 8 November for his country to prepare for war, and prepare the people for war. Chavez has been irritated by Colombia’s newly signed bases agreement with the USA, which will allow a US military presence in Colombia. Chavez says that this is a preparation for an invasion of Venezuela. CNN, Reuters India.
China says it has executed nine people involved in the deadly rioting in Urumqi, in China’s Xinjiang province last July. The US urged China to ensure that detentions and judicial processes be handled “in a transparent manner”, according to US State Department spokesman, Ian Kelly. AFP, New York Times
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland will lead efforts to backup a major conference that opens 29 November in Colombia, the Cartagena summit on a mine-free world. The conference marks the 10th anniversary of the Ottawa Treaty entering into force and provides the opportunity for its second review conference to assess progress and how well the convention is being respected.
North and South Korea will hold talks this week on preventing flooding along their common border and on family reunions, despite signs that North Korea will test more missiles. The news comes a day after the North fired five short-range KN-02 surface-to-surface test missiles 12 October. The government in Seoul condemned the launches, saying they violated several UN Security Council resolutions.
North Korea agreed last week to resume six-party talks to resolve the question of the North’s illegal nuclear programme if Washington DC agrees to bilateral talks first.
The need for talks between the two Koreas became more urgent after North Korea opened a dam 6 September and released millions of tonnes of water which swept away six people south of the border. BBC, Romandie News
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is reported by North Korean media to have told Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao his country is willing to return to 6-party talks. First, however, progress must be made in bilateral talks with the US, according to media reports. The US says it wants North Korea to agree to a complete denuclearization on the penninsula. The Chinese leader has just rreturned to Beijing after a three-day visit to North Korea. The six-party talks broke down earlier in 2009.
Links to other sites: BBC video showing celebrations of 60 years of ties with China, NPR, Xinhua
North Korea says it is in the “final stages of uranium enrichment” and that extracted plutonium from spent fuel rods is “being weaponized”. Both technologies are steps in making a bomb. Experts outside the country believe Pyongyang may have enough plutonium to make about eight bombs.
In a letter to the UN Security Council the North says it is ready for dialogue, but that “if some permanent members of the UN Security Council wish to put sanctions first before dialogue, we would respond with bolstering our nuclear deterrence first before we meet them in a dialogue.” International sanctions have been tightened on the North, and North Korean ships have been trailed at sea and challenged. Recent overtures by the Pyongyang government have largely been ignored: two US journalists were released and a North Korean delegation was sent to the lying-in-state of deceased South Korean former President Kim Dae-jung. The US is trying to get North Korea to return to stalled six-party talks with South Korea, Russia, China and Japan to discuss its nuclear programme. BBC, CNN, Reuters
Two senior North Korean diplomats at the United Nations in New York were on their way 18 August to the US state of New Mexico for a two-day visit with Governor Bill Richardson, a former US ambassador to the UN in New York. Richardson is well known to the North Korean government and visited the country several times, most recently in 2007 when he obtained the return of the remains of US military personnel killed during the 1950s Korean war. The visit to New Mexico stokes speculation that North Korea is positioning itself to restart diplomatic talks about its illicit nuclear programme in the Six-party talks.
North Korea has also expressed a desire to send a delegation to the funeral of former South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung, who died 18 August. Kim was instrumental in improving relations between the two countries earlier this decade and made an historic visit to the country in 2000. BBC, CNN,
North Korea has once again opened some areas to South Korean tourists, agreed to help reunite families and to provide access again to an industrial park, in the continuing dance between rapprochement and keeping a distance. South Korea remained wary, saying the agreements were on a civil and not at a government level. The news came on Monday, just a day before the death in Seoul of Kim Dae-jung, 85, former president of the South who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his efforts to create better ties between the two countries. JoongAng Daily, Reuters
Two US journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were freed from prison in North Korea and flew home to Los Angeles with former US President Bill Clinton late 4 August. The two women were jailed in March for illegally entering the country. They were released on orders from Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s leader, to show the country’s “humanitarian and peace-loving policy” after Clinton went to North Korea on an unannounced visit 3 August. The families told US media they were “overjoyed.” North Korean sources said Clinton and Kim had wide-ranging talks and that Clinton brought a personal message from US President Barack Obama. The White House denied this and repeated that Clinton’s visit was purely a personal one. Nevertheless, the chartered plane carrying them home landed at a military base in Japan with no comment from the military about how long they would be there. BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Wall Street Journal
Former US President Bill Clinton arrived in Pyongyang, North Korea to broker the release of two US journalists imprisoned there since March. He was met at the airport by Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Supreme People’s Assembly, and by the vice-foreign minister, Kim Kwe Gwan, who is also North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator. The two women journalists were sentenced in June to 12 years’ hard labour for illegally entering North Korea from China. Their employer, Current TV, was launched by Clinton’s former vice-president, Al Gore. BBC, CNN, NZZ (Ger)
Two days of talks billed as a “strategic and economic dialogue” between China and the US concluded Tuesday 28 July in Washington DC, with nothing concrete but with broad agreement on ways to combat the world recession and on climate change. The two say they are now closer on a variety of issues, among them US strategic concerns on Iranian and North Korean nuclear ambitions. On the economic front, the Chinese government worries about the value of its massive holdings of US treasury debt, given huge US budget deficits and the resulting danger of inflation, and very low US savings. The US wants China to increase domestic spending to reduce its reliance on the export market, and to show flexibility on its exchange rate. Both remain committed to open trade and say they vowed to resist protectionism. US President Obama has called for a concerted effort to reduce carbon emissions, but developing economies like China hesitate because they fear this will cramp their growth. BBC, CNN, Le Temps (Fre), NZZ (Ger)
