NK REPORT

Only at MHI-NK News: Photos: Anti-American posters proliferate throughout Pyongyang, By Chad O’Carroll Posters which state media revealed in August visible in windows of at least 26 stores Anti-American propaganda posters are proliferating throughout Pyongyang, posted on dozens of shop front windows across the capital city, pictures recently obtained by NK Pro show. The photos, which were taken across the city in mid-September for NK Pro, show that six designs recently launched by North Korea’s propaganda apparatus appear to have been widely distributed throughout Pyongyang.* The family business: why Kim Jong Un promoted his sister, By Oliver Hotham After no mentions in state media for 16 months, Kim Yo Jong is promoted to the Politburo The weekend saw celebrations in North Korea, with fireworks and a major rally to mark the 20th anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s election as General Secretary of the Worker’s Party of Korea (WPK). But it also saw the ruling party get down to business, with the second meeting of the WPK’s 7th Central Committee . Blacklisted DPRK bank running company selling, producing precious metals, By Dagyum Ji Chosun Credit Investment Company run by Office 39-linked Korea Daesong Bank A North Korean investment company run by the internationally blacklisted Korea Daesong Bank is manufacturing and selling precious metal-based products, photos from a recent trade fair in the country’s capital have shown. The Chosun Credit Investment Company (조선신용투자회사) was seen selling rings, necklaces and pendants made from what it claims to be 99.99% pure gold at The Korea Daesong Bank.* Pyongyang taxi and bus prices stable, despite gas price spike, By Chad O’Carroll Petrol costs up by 170% since start of year: data Prices for taxis and buses remain stable in Pyongyang, despite major increases in fuel prices throughout North Korea that should, in theory, be impacting consumers, sources told NK News on Monday. Taxis, which are widely used by both local and foreign residents of the city, remain the same price as before a spike began in April.* The Hoeryong model: how a sleepy N. Korean town experienced an economic boom, By Andrei Lankov The 1990s saw the border city become a hub of private enterprise – and many got rich It is widely understood among Korea watchers that towns in the North lucky enough to be situated near the Chinese border tend to be the most prosperous. The richest of these towns, Sinuiju and Rason, are reputed to be more or less equal to Pyongyang in terms of the per capita income .* Four North Korea linked ships call in at various Chinese bulk ports, By Leo Byrne Visits come roughly thirty days after China’s implementation of UN embargo Four North Korea-linked vessels called in at Chinese bulk ports over the last seven days, despite UN embargos against many of the DPRK’s metals and minerals, the NK Pro ship tracker shows. The continuing ship traffic comes around 30 days after China implemented UN resolution 2371, which prohibits member states from importing several of the Country.* N.Korea set to stage large Kim Jong Il anniversary rally on Sunday, By Chad O’Carroll Anniversary comes two days prior to October 10 Party Foundation Day North Korean authorities are set to host a large rally on Sunday to commemorate a major Kim Jong Il-era political anniversary, sources told NK News. The rally is being scheduled to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Kim Jong Il being elected as General Secretary of the Worker’s Party of Korea (WPK). *

Top MHI-NK Stories from around the web: Tension mounts ahead of NK anniversary (Korea Herald) With North Korea gearing up to mark a major anniversary this week, concern is rising that the communist regime might celebrate the occasion with another provocation and heighten tension on the Korean Peninsula again… North Korea has not staged major provocations since its launch of an intermediate ballistic missile on Sept. 15 and a test of what it said was a hydrogen bomb on Sept. 3, though it has exchanged war of words with the US President Donald Trump and made a series of verbal threats toward South Korea.The reclusive regime, however, could break its weekslong hiatus “anytime soon,” military officials and security analysts here warned on Sunday, possibly around Oct. 10 when it celebrates the founding day of its ruling Korea Workers’ Party.* North Korea’s ‘princess’ now one of the secretive state’s top policy makers (Reuters) The promotion of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s 28-year-old sister to the country’s top decision-making body is a sign he is strengthening his position by drawing his most important people closer to the center of power, experts and officials say… Kim Yo Jong was named as an alternate member of the politburo within the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea – the opaque, all-powerful party organ where top state affairs are decided, the North’s official media said on Sunday.It makes her only the second woman in patriarchal North Korea to join the exclusive club after Kim Kyong Hui, who held powerful roles when her brother Kim Jong Il ruled the country.* Trump’s Dangerous Twitter Rebuke of Tillerson May Make Diplomacy Impossible With North Korea (The Diplomat) Trump’s comments risk serious destabilization and even war. “The situation between Washington and Pyongyang remains as serious now as it did when Tillerson travelled to Beijing. Trump’s words ensure that it will remain that way instead of providing an opening for de-escalation…” U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarkable decision to rebuke his own secretary of state’s attempt at pursuing diplomacy with North Korea last week was a dangerous move at a dangerous time. Trump took to Twitter to urge Rex Tillerson, who was in China to discuss North Korea among other matters with top Chinese officials, to save his energy, adding that the United States would “do what has to be done”. And so Trump, just weeks after threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea before scores of world leaders in New York, added another ambiguous, deterrence-degrading threat to his portfolio of threats against North Korea.* While the U.S. Talks of War, South Korea Shudders (The New York Times) “I cannot turn my thoughts from the news article I happened to see a few days ago. A man in his 70s accidentally dropped two thick wads of cash in the street. Two people who happened upon this bundle of money and shared it between them were caught by the police…” Up until here, it is still an ordinary story. But there was a special reason this man was carrying so much cash on him. “I’m worried that a war might be coming,” he told the police, “so I’d just taken my savings out of the bank and was on my way home.” He said that it was money he had saved — a little bit each month — for four years, intended to send his grandchildren to college. Since the Korean War broke out in 1950, war would have been the enduring experience of this man’s adolescence. I imagine what he would have been feeling, a man who has lived an ordinary middle-class life ever since, on his way to the bank to take out his savings. The terror, the unease, the impotence, the nervousness.* Can Sanctions Get a Mulligan? (38 North) Given recent developments, sanctions really might be part of the answer. “A little more time and a little more temperature may cause the pot to finally boil. For that to happen, China might need to do a little more, like charge dollars for the crude oil it currently gives North Korea…” In his recent article, Ruediger Frank concluded that sanctions will not materially influence North Korea’s nuclear weapons behavior, and by implication we must do something else. I don’t think anyone believes sanctions by themselves will do the job and I must admit I wrote a piece like Frank’s a year ago, where I also said sanctions were not working. But a lot has happened since then and we need to pay attention to changing circumstances rather than remain wedded to old ideas and old data. The jump in gasoline prices earlier this year, and again last weekend, tells me that sanctions really might be part of the answer now that China seems to have gingerly climbed on board. Clearly, they haven’t worked yet, and years have been lost, but a little more time and a little more temperature may cause the pot to finally boil. For that to happen, China might need to do a little more, like charge dollars for the crude oil it currently gives North Korea.*