Day: April 17, 2023

Sleek, modern rice cookers bearing the South Korean brand Cuckoo sell at premium prices in North Korean department stores, but they have not been illegally smuggled into the country, nor are they Chinese-made fakes.

They were manufactured in the Kaesong Industrial Complex, an inter-Korean manufacturing zone that was supposed to have been shuttered since 2016, a source in Pyongyang told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

The rice cookers on sale in Pyongyang are evidence that North Korea is running the factories in the Kaesong complex in direct violation of inter-Korean agreements, including those that protect the rights and interests of South Korean investors.

“The electric rice cooker is produced using the equipment and raw materials that Cuckoo Electronics Company left in the Kaesong Industrial Complex,” the source said. “The production manpower was provided by the residents of Kaesong who worked for Cuckoo when the complex was in operation.”

The factories, located in the city of Kaesong, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of the demilitarized zone, opened in 2004 during the height of the Sunshine Policy era of cooperation between Seoul and Pyongyang. 

By combining South Korean capital and industrial technology with cheap North Korean labor, the idea was meant to expose the merits of democracy to the North Korean people.

The complex briefly closed in 2013 during a period of high tension between the Koreas and was completely halted in 2016 in response to a North Korean missile test, prompting South Korean staff to withdraw.

But the factories remained intact, and stores of raw materials were left behind.

In fact, the complex has been churning out Cuckoo rice cookers for several years now, the source said.

Those Kaesong-made rice cookers in the Pyongyang Department Store cost 410,000 won, or U.S.$50, for the six-cup version, and 656,000 won, or $80, for the 10-cup version. Although cheaper than if they were sold in South Korea, those prices are prohibitively expensive in the North, where average monthly salaries for government-assigned jobs  amount to less than $1. 

Their hefty price tags mean that only the wealthiest of North Koreans can afford to buy them.

Payback for sanctions

For the first few years after the closure of the complex in 2016, the factories and materials lay idle. 

But later Pyongyang began selling finished products left in Kaesong in response to international nuclear sanctions going into effect that year, crippling North Korea’s ability to generate foreign currency, a source in the northwestern province of North Pyongan told RFA on condition of anonymity for safety.

The best-selling item, both sources said, has been the Cuckoo rice cooker. These cookers were among products smuggled into China by a company affiliated with the North Korean military in 2018.

The onset of the coronavirus resulted in North Korea being cut off completely from the rest of the world as Pyongyang and Beijing suspended all trade and closed the Sino-Korean border. 

“As the border was blocked due to the coronavirus crisis and economic difficulties began, the Central Committee allowed the use of production facilities, buses, and raw materials remaining in the Kaesong Industrial Complex,” the North Pyongan source said. 

On April 11, South Korea’s Unification Minister Kwon Young-se said in a statement that North Korea is infringing on property rights by using facilities of South Korean companies in the Kaesong Industrial Complex without permission, despite several warnings from the South Korean government. It was the first time a sitting minister directly condemned North Korea since 2013.

The Kaesong complex can only be restarted after UN and U.S. sanctions are lifted – specifically UN Security Council Resolution 2270, adopted in March 2016 in response to North Korea’s fourth nuclear test, and U.S. sanctions against North Korea that restrict trade between the two Koreas, except for humanitarian aid items such as food.

But until then, the Cuckoo rice cooker will likely continue to be illegally made, as it remains a must-have item.

“Electric rice cookers are especially in high demand as they are used in every home in Pyongyang,” the North Pyongan source said.

 Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

Hundreds of Hong Kongers and other supporters turned out in rallies around the world over the weekend to show solidarity with 47 former opposition lawmakers and political activists currently standing trial for “subversion” under a national security law imposed on the city by Beijing.

Demonstrators gathered in cities across the United States, Britain and Taiwan in protests that also aimed to warn global governments of the threats posed by Beijing’s attempts to push its authoritarian model of government far beyond China’s borders.

In San Francisco, protesters sang the 2019 protest song “Glory to Hong Kong” – banned under the national security law – and wrote letters and cards to the 47 defendants, who include former journalist Gwyneth Ho, a 2019 protest movement activist, former nursing student Owen Chow and labor unionist Winnie Yu.

“We want people to see that Hong Kongers haven’t given up, and that we still have some strength with which to achieve our goals,” said former protester Tong Wai Hong, who now lives in Taiwan.

“The Chinese Communist Party is going to regret provoking us, and scattering the people of Hong Kong around the world, because we will form the future resistance to its infiltration of other countries,” he said.

More than 10,000 people have been arrested and 2,800 prosecuted in a citywide crackdown on the 2019 protest movement, mostly under public order charges.

Around 230 have been arrested under the national security law, which criminalizes public criticism of the Hong Kong and Chinese governments, as well as ties and funding arrangements with overseas organizations deemed hostile to China. 

Call for sanctions, votes

The trial is the most high-profile to be brought so far under the law, which was imposed on the city by the Chinese Communist Party in response to the 2019 protest movement.

Sixteen defendants are standing trial after pleading not guilty to charges of “incitement to subvert state power” linked to their participation in a democratic primary that the authorities said was a bid to subvert the government by winning a majority of seats in the Legislative Council.it: Chunyin

The remainder, including pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, Occupy Central founder Benny Tai and journalist-turned-lawmaker Claudia Mo, have pleaded guilty. All defendants could face life imprisonment.

Rally organizers in several British cities called on the U.K. government to impose sanctions on Chinese officials involved in the suppression of Hong Kong’s promised freedoms.

They also urged Hong Kongers now living in the country to use their vote at the next election to support candidates who demonstrate an awareness of issues affecting them, which include violence and threats from supporters and agents of the Chinese state on British soil.

Protesters took to the streets to stand in silence in British, American, Australian and Canadian cities, with similar events also held in Taipei, amid the trial of 47 opposition politicians and democracy activists for taking part in a democratic primary to try to maximize pro-democracy seats in the Legislative Council.

The government responded to the primary by canceling the 2020 general election and rewriting the electoral rules to ensure pro-democracy candidates couldn’t run.

In Union Square in San Francisco, protesters turned out in white face-masks as a warning to the rest of the world that anyone could be targeted by Beijing under Hong Kong’s national security law, activist Ken Chan said.

“They claim that the national security law is enforceable anywhere in the world,” Chan said. “I think [the masks] mean that everyone faces the same kind of threat under the national security law.”

‘One country, two systems’ promise dead

New York, Vancouver, Manchester, Amsterdam and Sydney also saw similar rallies, with protesters in Taipei saying they are watching Beijing’s actions in Hong Kong closely, for fear China will try a similar political takeover of democratic Taiwan.

Former political prisoner Lee Ming-cheh told the rally in Taipei that the promise of “one country, two systems” made to Hong Kong ahead of the 1997 handover had died.

“[Chinese foreign minister] Wang Yi has said that without one country, two systems, there can be no peace in the Taiwan Strait, but when Taiwanese look at what happened to [that framework] in Hong Kong,” Lee said.

“The people of Taiwan have to make a choice: accept the fate that is currently Hong Kong’s or protect our democracy and the freedoms we currently have,” he said. 

A Taiwanese woman who gave only the surname Hsiung said people on the island need to take what is happening in Hong Kong as a warning.

“Taiwanese people should be more vigilant, and remember what it was like during the ‘white terror’ [crackdowns on democracy activists under the one-party rule of the Kuomintang] and the Feb. 28 massacre [that saw thousands of civilians killed by KMT troops in 1947],” Hsiung said.

“History will repeat itself,” she warned. “Just because we have freedom and democracy now, doesn’t mean we’ll have it for the rest of our lives.”

“We have to defend it,” she said. “Our civil rights are up to us.”

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

The Philippine government and opposition have slammed the Chinese envoy for his statements on Manila’s policy on Taiwan and its workers on the neighboring island, saying they will not brook any attempts at intimidation by Beijing.

Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian last week criticized the Philippines granting the United States greater access to military bases fronting Taiwan, advising Manila to “unequivocally oppose” the island’s independence if it cared about the 150,000 Filipinos working there.

Opposition Philippine Sen. Risa Hontiveros asked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to call on Beijing to immediately recall its envoy for his “disgraceful statements,” which she called a threat to Filipinos working in Taiwan. 

“How dare he threaten us. The [Presidential] Palace should tell Beijing to recall their representative in Manila as soon as possible,” Hontiveros said in a statement on Sunday.

“He has no business being a diplomat if he is unable to engage with us in a respectful and dignified manner. He, along with his country’s ships and artificial islands in the West Philippine Sea, should pack up and leave,” she said, referring to the disputed South China Sea territory within Manila’s exclusive economic zone.

Akbayan, a local political party which counts Hontiveros as a member, said Huang’s remark was a “statement of a hostage taker” not an ambassador.

“We call on the Marcos administration to immediately declare the Chinese ambassador persona non grata and expel him from our country,” Akbayan said in a statement on Monday.

The Philippines is “an independent and sovereign country with the freedom to form alliances and partnerships with other nations,” Akbayan added.

Speaking on Friday at a forum hosted by a pro-Beijing local group, Huang said the Philippines may be “stoking the fire” by offering the U.S. access to military bases near the Taiwan Strait. 

Huang said China would not abandon the use of force against Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province.

‘DND takes exception’

The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs on Monday said it was committed to the security of all Filipinos overseas.

“We assure the public that contingency plans are in place in all places where there are high numbers of OFWs,” it said in a statement using an acronym for Overseas Foreign Workers. 

The Department of National Defense issued a similar statement on Saturday where it criticized Huang for fueling alarm.

“The DND takes exception to the statement of Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian that the Philippines is meddling in the internal affairs of China concerning Taiwan,” spokesman Arsenio Andolong said in a statement.

“We observe the One China Policy and subscribe to the ASEAN principle of non-interference in approaching regional issues. Our primordial concern in Taiwan is the safety and well-being of the more than 150,000 Filipinos living and working on the island and we take grave exception to any effort by guests in our country to use this to fear-monger and intimidate us.”

Andolong also said Huang was wrong to liken the Taiwan situation to the one in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, where the government had for years faced an insurgency.

“We wish to emphasize that the issues are different from each other,” he said. 

“The whole context and rich experience of our peace process in Mindanao, which allowed the participation of the international community … is aligned with the Philippines’ position of resolving disputes peacefully,” Andolong said.

On Sunday, the Chinese Embassy in Manila said Huang’s remarks were reported incorrectly despite the media citing quotes from a copy of the speech provided by the embassy.

“Unfortunately some misquoted or misinterpreted Ambassador Huang’s remarks or simply took part of the ambassador’s words out of context,” the embassy said in a statement on its Facebook page on Sunday.

Marcos has yet to weigh in on Huang’s speech.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news organization.