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China-Japan-Koreas
Disasters Pile Up as N.Korea Readies for Party Congress
2016-05-07
North Korea holds its first Workers Party congress in 36 years on Friday amid unprecedented international isolation and crippling sanctions.

The aim is to consolidate leader Fat Boy's Kim Jong-un's disastrous doctrine of pursuing nuclear arms and economic growth in tandem. But international sanctions triggered by the North's nuclear tests are cutting into Pyongyang's sources of hard currency, and the harder Kim leans on his people to make up for the shortfall, the more signs of discontent are growing.

Press-ganging the population into sprucing up the country for the party congress has only aggravated the situation, so that the congress meant to highlight big achievements may well have the opposite effect.

The official Rodong Sinmun daily on April 4 claimed a couple in North Pyongyan Province "volunteered" to labor even on their wedding day. On April 10, a state security agent in Kangwon Province "performed her duties the day after her husband's funeral."
Oppression is never on leave...
In other words, no quarter was given. On April 17, state TV showed images of women laboring in coal mines, which is banned around the world. A source said some 30 soldiers died when a tunnel collapsed during the construction of a canal for power plant near Mt. Baekdu because of the unreasonably tight deadlines, and a landslide on a railway project in Ryanggang Province killed a dozen villagers.

The regime has ordered each family to cough up between 6,500 to 26,000 North Korean won as "loyalty payments" to fund the congress. That is a lot given that North Koreans make between 3,000 to 4,000 a month.

An even more serious problem is that open-air markets which propped up the moribund economy are being hollowed out already. Security services strictly controlled the movement of people and goods to mobilize as much labor as possible for state projects and cracked down on unregistered traders. The regime also charged traders hefty loyalty payments, which ended up weakening their purchasing power. One Chinese businessman who visited North Korea recently said, "Prices of goods in North Korea's open-air markets remain stable despite sanctions because people have no money. It looks like North Koreans will pay a heavy price economically."

A vicious cycle of raw material shortages due to a lack of hard currency has decreased production in factories. That kicks away one leg of Kim's doctrine, while the shortage of hard currency could well endanger the other. Already several recent missile launches have failed, whether due to incompetence or inferior fuel.

Kim is expected to replace key officials to rejuvenate his organization, but intensifying conflicts between the new appointees and the old guard will continue to put a strain on Kim's power.

One source in North Korea said, "There are complaints among the old guard in Pyongyang that young officials in their 40s are strutting around like they own the place."
They pretty much do...
North Korea has not held a party congress since 1987, when nation founder Kim Il-sung halted them until the regime was able to adequately feed, clothe and accommodate people.

But the corpulent Kim Jong-un seems to be eager for the legitimacy that a party congress would confer and lay the groundwork for long-term rule. "Kim Jong-un inherited his position, but that does not mean he was also given authority," an intelligence source here said.

But he too has failed to improve the livelihoods of North Koreans and seems to rely increasingly on hasty weapons demonstrations to make a splash.
Posted by:Steve White

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