North Korea News Podcast by NK News - Kim Yo Jong threats, a North Korean eatery in Mongolia and aid workers return

Episode Date: July 17, 2024

The North Korean leader’s sister warned that South Korea will pay “a very high price” after North Korean authorities discovered more ROK-origin leaflets in its territory, according to a statement published by state media over the weekend.  NK News CEO Chad O’Carroll (@chadocl) joins the podcast to discuss Kim Yo Jong’s threat, as well as […]

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of July, 2024. I'm joined here in the studio by Chad O'Carroll. Chad, hello, welcome back on the show. Hey, how's it going? And welcome back to Korea. You were recently in Mongolia. Yeah, I got back a couple days ago and was there for about four nights. I attended a small briefing event and yeah, had a look around the city with old colleague

who's based there. And yeah, it's definitely a place that has a vibe of Pyongyang. And we know that Mongolia historically has had good relations with North Korea, even after Mongolia changed from a socialist system to a capitalist one. Did you see any signs of North Koreans being there on the ground in Ulaanbaatar? Well, we went past the embassy that was open and updated. It had fresh pictures on the wall of like the Putin summit, for example. So there was signs of life there.

But besides that, no. So there was a report published about six weeks ago on the website, Pyongyangpapers.com. Hello to Pyongyangpapers.com people. If you're listening, we'd love to have you on the show. Yeah. And they posted some very specific information about a North Korean restaurant called the Pyongyang Paekhwa restaurant that they claimed had reopened. I checked the article yesterday.

They claimed like in two or three places that it had reopened, that there were hiring adverts posted on the restaurant's Facebook, things like that. And, you know, Pyongyang papers, we've always thought because of the very detailed and specific information it posts has access to reliable information. So I was keen to go to the restaurant and some local Mongolian stakeholders who are close to the North Koreans. One of them was very dismissive when I explained that I read that this restaurant had reopened, but I persisted anyway.

Do we know how long it was closed for? Is this something that was a COVID era thing? It's been closed for several years. It looks like Mongolia complied with the overseas worker return sanctions. From the United Nations. Yeah, which I think they, everyone was meant to go back by January 2020 if memory serves. Anyway, so yeah, we went down to the restaurant, a friend and I, and went up to the 15th floor. There's still signage for it outside, even on the side of the building.

It's a commercial building? Yeah, 15th floor, a multipurpose building. And yeah, we went up there and it was just cobwebs closed down. The sign was in bits like missing characters and letters and there was a sign posted in Korean that said construction underway but it had like heavily bleached from sunlight so it looked like it had been written a long time ago. But there's no date on the sign itself. No date on it.

But it was clearly looking old. Yeah. And the Daily NK, they had an external contributor who visited in 2022 and it was closed. Similarly, it looked in very similar state. So Well update to Pyongyang papers, that restaurant's still closed. Yeah, still closed. I mean, it was a national holiday in Mongolia, so there were some restaurants that were closed, but just based on the like very cobwebby nature of it, it looked very much, uh, like it had been a unused for a long time.

A long time. Wow. And are there other signs of North Korean activity in Ulaanbaatar? Not that we saw. Just that parts of the city look very similar to Pyongyang. The main square, it looks very similar to Kim Il-sung Square. Without the statue? Without the statue.

Well, there is another statue. But yeah, it looked like if you could imagine Pyongyang with a sort of heavy injection of capitalism You know fancy hotels from the private sector opening up around right? But yeah, I think in general I think Pyongyang actually looks a lot more Sharp and polished then you learn battle now sometimes over the years North Koreans have gone to a land battle and have mingled with international folks, even occasionally South Koreans in multilateral dialogue forums and things like that. Have you seen any sign that that started again, that North Koreans are once again coming out

and meeting people and talking? Yeah, well, there was a report a few months ago that the Japanese had had a secret meeting with the North Koreans in Ulaanbaatar. Good venue. But besides that, we don't have any more reports of that. There was Ulaanbaatar annual dialogue recently, which sometimes in the past has had North Korean participation, but it didn't this time. And apparently that's despite the North Koreans doing their best to invite a DPRK side representative.

Hang on, so despite the Mongolians' efforts to invite a DPRK representative? Right. Okay. All right. Okay, well, that's Mongolia. Thanks for that update. Has North Korea been sending any more balloons filled with crap and trash and other things lately?

Yes, Kim Yo-jong made more threats about this. And there was a pretty unusual North Korean state media report on KCNA, Korea's central news agency on Sunday or early Monday, which actually included photos of South Korean launched balloons and cargo on the grass in North Korea being set fire by the North Korean, I guess, state media people who found it, probably under instruction to do so. And you could see some medical supplies that come from South Korea. I mean, I...

These are medical supplies sent by civic groups attached to balloons. Right, right. I didn't see any political messaging in the photo. Maybe there was, I don't think the North Koreans would be too keen to publish that. But it certainly looked like some of these balloons are making it into South, into North Korea and being found by North Koreans relatively easily to the point that the state media is able to go and see. Yeah. All the way up in Pyongyang. I mean, it's not just coming down in Hwanghae, Namdo or Gangwon-do. to the point that the state media is able to go and see.

Yeah, all the way up in Pyongyang. I mean, it's not just coming down in Hwanghae, Namdo or Gangwon-do. Yeah, or if it is, there's like an effective instruction to locals to report this and regional authorities are then following up and telling Pyongyang. Right. And then it's being passed on to state media. Okay. And so Kim Yo-jong has threatened to send more of their balloons down to the South. Have they done so yet?

As of this morning, no. We didn't. It's Tuesday. I think the winds would have facilitated it yesterday, but we didn't. We've not heard any reports thus far of balloons coming in. But by the time this podcast goes live, there may well be some. Hey, and I haven't told you I'm going to ask you this yet, but what's happened with the South Korean loudspeakers on the border there? They set them up more than a month ago. Did they ever start regularly sending messages into North Korea? As far as I know, no. They just did a test broadcast, we know about that. And then it seems to be there's this kind of effort to have strategic ambiguity or tactical

ambiguity on whether and how they will be used. Presumably the South Korean military knows that there is quite a lot of risk associated with sustained broadcasting via the loud speakers. And there's a bit of hedging going on and wait and see communications that we're seeing from MND people. Okay. And lastly, what is happening with regard to people going back into North Korea? I understand that there's been a visit recently from a UN agency to Pyongyang. Yeah.

So the Chinese embassy in North Korea, uh, on its small website posted on July 15th, that there had been a delegation visit and meeting between UN FAO personnel and that's the food and agricultural organization. And I think they're based in Rome. Yeah. And Chinese embassy side personnel. So the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang has kind of scooped twice now. Firstly, it was when some European, Western European diplomats visited for a

sort of technical inspection several months ago, Chinese embassy was first on there and we're seeing the same thing again today. And this is coming after, you know, I've been asking a lot of questions to those in the UN NGO embassy communities about whether there's any fresh sign that they could go back after the Putin summit. And this is the first sign that we're seeing that there is some interest in at least FAO people going back. We don't know the details though. It's not like the Chinese government to be more forthcoming with information than the United Nations. Yeah, it's not. But the other thing that came up a few days ago, which is worth keeping an eye on,

is South Korea's Yonhap news agency and others here had this exclusive report that stated China is sending all North Korean workers back to DPRK. Oh, belatedly conforming to United Nations sanctions orders to send workers back. Yeah. And it's, it's, the sourcing is very opaque and there is speculation. It could be to do with Chinese displeasure with North Korea over it's growing Russia relations. And with not allowing Chinese tourists back into North Korea yet. Yeah.

Yeah. Which is also, uh, yeah. So I think we need to keep a close eye on this. There are some indicators that we would see if there were, you know, tens of thousands of people going back, expanded flights, trains. Yep. And more posts on Chinese social media showing what Pyongyang looks like today. Yeah.

And I think it's just a, it's a bit early to know, but that's, that's definitely something we should keep an eye on. And if it's true, then yeah, Chinese tourists going back to North Korea, I think it would not be likely anytime soon. Okay. Now North Korea has made some statement recently about friendly foreign friends. I like the alliteration. Kim Jong-un was up in the Northeast near Pek-2, Samjeon area, inspecting this

tourist zone that's been under construction for a while. Very critical of the workers and some of the officials leading the reconstruction efforts, called for some of them to lose their posts. But there was this language from Kim Jong Un himself about the area having, you know, potential to become a, a great site of interest for friends from friendly nations. I think the wording was no, I thought it was friendly foreign friends, friendly. Sorry. Yeah.

You're right. Friendly foreign friends can feel a unique attraction. If they know that. Now I remember some Gion had quite a bit of development just in the last few years, either just before or around the time of COVID that new houses had been built and it was given a new lease on life, I suppose. Yeah, ski resort. And there's plans to upgrade the airport, include new paved runways.

That's the airport where you can charter a plane from Pyongyang to if you're going to Pekdusan, you'd land at Samjeon is that right? Yeah exactly so it looks like there's an effort to upgrade the airport, upgrade the facilities, you know it's hard to know who the tourists would be. Well exactly I mean are we talking about sending countries that are friendly so you know you obviously Russia, China, Iran, Syria and others or are're talking about individuals who have been proven through their loyalty, for example, membership of the Korea Friendship Associations in their countries who were, you know, they went on that trip, was it spring this year,

that there was a whole bunch of people from different KFA groups that went to North Korea on a junket. Yeah. But also the location is difficult for accessing a lot of the time. So I, I, I, I've flown to Samjeon once years ago when I went to Pek-2. And if I remember well, the flights from Pyongyang to Pek-2, Samjeon were only really taking place one or two months a year because we flew in extremely vintage propeller aircraft. I think that was like literally 50 years old or something. And it was very bumpy and you know, it's an area that gets pretty cold in winter.

So it may be after the airport is upgraded, it could facilitate direct flights from overseas. But you know, they did one San Airport up back almost 10 years ago. And I think it's barely had more than 10 or 11 flights from overseas in that entire last decade. Gosh. Okay. So very low traffic. So it's not going to be a big money spinner for North Korea then?

Yeah, I can't see how it will. Hmm, okay. Well, that's interesting developments anyway. Thank you again, Chad, for coming on the show and we look forward to seeing you again soon. Thank you, Jakob. Navigating the dynamics of the Korean Peninsula requires more than just information. It demands insight. Korea Risk Group offers strategic consulting that cuts through the noise. Our experts provide in-depth analysis, risk assessments and bespoke reports, all tailored to your specific needs.

Whether you're exploring new opportunities or managing existing challenges, our insights can be your compass. To learn more about how we can help you make informed strategic decisions, visit careerrisk.com solutions today. Ladies and gentlemen, that brings us to the end of our podcast episode for today. Our thanks go to Brian Betts and Alana Hill for facilitating this episode and to our post-recording producer genius, Gabby Magnuson, who cuts out all the extraneous noises, awkward silences, bodily functions and fixes the audio levels. Thank you and listen again next time.