Asia Times: Doubts linger over North Korea's real intentions


	April 5, 2002	atimes.com

The Koreas

Doubts linger over North Korea's real intentions
By Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING - As the two Koreas start a new round of talks and Asia anticipates a breakthrough on the divided peninsula, the grim tale of North Korean refugees in China casts a pall of doubt over whether Pyongyang is really moving toward change and genuine dialogue.

It is customary behavior of Pyongyang to demonstrate willingness for dialogue and political concessions whenever the economic situation of the country has become desperate. With a starving population and an urgent need for foreign currency, North Korea can no longer cling to its closed-door mentality.

Politically, the country has become even more isolated since US President George W Bush labeled it part of an "axis of evil" and the Pentagon designated it as a possible nuclear target. In March, Washington decided not to certify North Korea as being compliant with a 1994 accord that was to allow the country two proliferation-proof reactors in return for international inspections.

Outwardly, North Korea responded with a similarly harsh rhetoric - it threatened to scrap the 1994 agreement with Washington to freeze its nuclear development scheme. Yet in the meantime, Pyongyang has agreed to reopen talks with Seoul and even hinted it was drafting plans for economic reforms. "It is necessary to improve trade and economic cooperation and widely conduct joint ventures and collaboration with different countries and international organizations," the state-run Korean Central News Agency quoted North Korea's Prime Minister Hong Song-nam as saying last week.

But this is not the first time Pyongyang has looked outward and promised to open up to trade. Back in the 1980s, late paramount leader Kim Il-sung considered copying China's model of land reform by allowing peasants to lease farming plots from the state and sow them privately. Taking inspiration from China's gradual opening up of its economy, Kim also authorized a special economic zone along the border with China at Ranjin-Sonbong aimed at attracting foreign investment. Both initiatives ended up as failures. The land reform was scrapped amid internal ideological debates, while the Rajin-Sonbong zone produced little more than a landmark casino built by Hong Kong investors.

North Korea's record of attempting economic reforms is a cautionary tale for politicians and businessmen alike who consider approving business deals and aid packages in exchange for political concessions.

As the March tale of the 25 North Korean refugees who defected here reveals, little has changed in the way Pyongyang treats its people. Numerous efforts to influence North Korea's leadership either by Seoul or by Beijing have earned little more than just promises. The refugees, who found shelter in the Spanish Embassy in Beijing last month, told stories of state terror and starvation, discrediting United Nations claims that famine in the country has abated thanks to millions of tonnes of outside humanitarian food aid.

Instead, the people who came from different parts and walks of life in North Korea testified they had rarely seen this aid and have only seen it being sold at market. Among the refugees were children and elderly, or exactly those social groups who were supposed to be receiving the international aid. "We don't think humanitarian aid is reaching the most vulnerable groups," said Fiona Terry, director of research at Medecins Sans Frontieres in Paris.

"There is no food and no hope in North Korea," said one of the asylum seekers, a factory clerk from Chongsong who escaped the North with his three children.

However dramatic the stories told by North Korean refugees in Beijing, what followed in the aftermath of the successful asylum bid was even more revealing of the true face of the regime in the North. Teamed up with Chinese police, North Korean security agents launched a harsh crackdown on North Korean escapees hiding along the China-Korea border. Wire dispatches and witnesses' accounts described scenes of massive manhunts when refugees were arrested and taken away.

Once sent back to their hardline state, the escapees are likely to face life-threatening persecution and prison. Nevertheless, many of the refugees said to be hiding in northeastern China have tried more than once to cross the border with China. Their testimonies, detailing the death and torture people face in North Korea, appear to contradict the stance held by South Korean President Kim Dae-jung that the North is changing and is ready to negotiate in earnest.

While hopes are running high that reopened talks this week between Seoul and Pyongyang could create a positive momentum similar to that of the 2000 summit between Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, the track record of Pyongyang's political conduct suggests the contrary. After a series of landmark inter-Korean talks in 2000 and 2001, the North announced it was calling off a planned reunion between relatives across the border who have not seen each other since before the 1950-53 Korean War. That marked the end of yet another dialogue between the two arch-rivals, and relations headed for a new low point.

All the same, two years of roller-coaster diplomacy between Seoul and Pyongyang has made little difference to North Korea's people. During these conciliatory efforts, the living standards of the North Korean population have continued to deteriorate. They are still plagued by a lack of food, heat and medicine. This year the UN launched another appeal for massive donations worth more than US$600 million.

(Inter Press Service)