Sino-DPRK Contacts, Kumgangsan Protest and the Green Revolution

We have had no word from the North Korean press about President Obama’s visit to the East Asia neighborhood, nor as the DPRK said anything of the sinking of a North Korean cargo ship that was sailing from Nampho to Dalian, China.  But the North Korean press has been happy to burnish its Sino simpatico.  KWP International Secretary Choe Thae-bok met with a delegation from the CCP yesterday in Pyongyang.  KCNA is also reporting that Liang Guanglie, China’s Defense Minister, will visit the DPRK some time between the end of November and the beginning of December, most likely in advance of US Special Envoy Stephen Bosworth’s visit to the DPRK around 8 December.

Gen. Kim Jong-gak (Photo: KCNA)

Perhaps the Chinese Defense Minister’s trip was arranged during the recent three (3) day visit to China by NDC Member and  MPAF GPB Senior Deputy Director Gen. Kim Jong-gak.  Gen. Kim and his delegation of KPA political commissars met with CCP PolitBuro member Xu Caihou and PLA Political Department Director Li Jinai, prior to departing the country for Pyongyang.

In the south of the DPRK, Hyundai Chair Hyun Jeong-un arrived at Mount Kumgang to commemorate the anniversay of Inter-Korean travel to east coast mountain, which has since been suspended following a State Security Department officer’s shooting of an ROK national.  The North Korean press howled in protest at the ROK Government not acting on its offer to resume the tours (and the DPRK’s lost revenue).

Meanwhile the KWP’s Green Revolution continues.  Did the KCNA make a pun when it issued a report “Brisk Autumn Land Management?”  KCNA also reports the planting of trees by members of the Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea.  This most likely stems from a recent report that ROK President Lee Myung-bak intiated policies targeting reforestation in the North.

And the guidance train remains in the station.