This article on the Yonhap website is worth a look describing the professional rivalry between two Kim Jong-il lookalikes Kim Young-sik and Bae Eun-sik. Of the two, Kim Young-sik appears to be the better known, at least outside of Korea. He has been featured in an Australian TV news item and also in an article … [Read More]
Category: North Korea (page 31)
Andrew Holloway: A Year in Pyongyang
(Aidan FC’s website, 1988) Amid the pile of available reading material on the DPRK, is there room for an unpublished memoir, getting on for 20 years old, recording the experiences of a lowly “raiser” — someone who converts Konglish into English — in late 1980s Pyongyang? Definitely yes. Though obviously not state of the art, … [Read More]
DPRK’s need for hard currency
Sorry, I’m a bit behind with some of the news stories. The BBC ran an interesting one a couple of days ago on the US$ supernotes and other ways of generating hard currency. The theme is picked up on in today’s DPRK embassy e-bulletin. [Read More]
DPRK e-bulletin 21 April 2006: superdollars
The DPRK’s London embassy speaks on the subject of Western accusations of drug-smuggling and currency counterfeiting: Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) — The people’s security institution in the DPRK tasked to protect by law the socialist system, the life and soul of its people, tightly holding the arms for state security, is following with a high … [Read More]
DPRK embassy e-bulletin 7 April 2006: Dokdo
The text of a release circulated by the DPRK Embassy in London yesterday: DPRK Foreign Ministry’s Spokesman Slams Japan’s Claim to Tok Islet Pyongyang, April 6 (KCNA) — A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry in a statement issued on April 6 accused the Japanese authorities of recently allowing the description of Tok Islet as … [Read More]
Elevator music leads to defection
To many it’s the sort of music one would endure all sorts of hardship to get away from — but to a talented North Korean pianist it was a revelation which led him to defect to the South. Yes, it’s the easy-listening grooves of Richard Clayderman which inspired the conversion. It says something about the … [Read More]
More on Lone Star / KEB and the US Kaesong visit
I’m guessing that Douglas Anderson from the US House of Representatives has now reported back to base following his visit to Kaesong. Jay Lefkowitz, the US envoy for NK human rights has condemned the low wages and poor conditions there, to the understandable irritation of the South. I’m also guessing that the messages taken back … [Read More]
North-themed update
The Xinhua newsagency reports the cordial meeting between Kim Jong-Il’s brother-in-law Jang Song Taek and a member of the Chinese politbureau, as the DPRK’s tour of Chinese economic zones draws to a close. Meanwhile, Yoduk story, the musical based in a North Korean concentration camp, is a sell-out success. The BBC is now featuring the … [Read More]
Life in the concentration camp – in a musical
I was a bit slow in spotting this, but for politically controversial stage shows, Yoduk Story must take some beating – a musical about human rights abuses in one of North Korea’s concentration camps, written, directed and acted by defectors. See article in the Chosun Ilbo. Other Links: Musical brings Korean horrors home, Charles Scanlon, … [Read More]
Six party talks, round 4
Following is a text of the joint statement at the conclusion of the fourth round of Six-Party Talks, as released in Beijing on September 19, 2005 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China. Joint Statement of the Fourth Round of the Six-Party Talks Beijing 19 September 2005 The Fourth Round … [Read More]
Pyongyang declaration
PYONGYANG, Sept. 17 Kyodo The following is the full text of the Japan-North Korea Pyongyang Declaration issued Tuesday after a summit meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Kim Jong Il, leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Chairman Kim Jong Il of the DPRK National … [Read More]
The June 15 North-South Joint Declaration
The following is the text of the joint declaration issued following the first Nouth-South summit. NORTH-SOUTH JOINT DECLARATION True to the noble will of all the fellow countrymen for the peaceful reunification of the country, Chairman Kim Jong Il of the National Defense Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and President Kim Dae … [Read More]
The 1994 US – DPRK Agreed Framework
AGREED FRAMEWORK BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA GENEVA, OCTOBER 21, 1994 Delegations of the Governments of the United States of America (U.S.) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) held talks in Geneva from September 23 to October 21, 1994, to negotiate an overall resolution of … [Read More]
Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean peninsula
The text of the Joint Declaration, courtesy of the Federation of American Scientists: JOINT DECLARATION ON THE DENUCLEARIZATION OF THE KOREAN PENINSULA Entry into force on February 19, 1992 South and North Korea, In order to eliminate the danger of nuclear war through the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, to create conditions and an environment … [Read More]
North-South Korea Joint Communiqué
Text of the North-South Korea Joint Communiqué
NORTH-SOUTH JOINT COMMUNIQUÉ
Pyongyang, July 4, 1972
Talks were held in Pyongyang and Seoul for discussing the question of improving the relations between the north and the south and reunifying the divided country.
Ri Hu Rak, director of the Central Intelligence Agency in Seoul, visited Pyongyang in the period from May 2 to 5, 1972, and had talks with Kim [Read More]