Day: April 18, 2023

Wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt, shorts and sandals, the man with the glasses whistled as he slid onto the saddle of his Fino motorbike, backed it away from his Bangkok rental home and rode off.

Those were the last images captured by the security camera of blogger Duong Van Thai. The camera screen showed the footage was recorded at 4:37 a.m. on April 13, 2023 – but the timestamp was almost certainly inaccurate. 

The video showed Thai motoring away during daylight, and neighbors said he left home at around 11 a.m. on Thursday. Later that day, he live-streamed for about 20 minutes on his YouTube channel with nearly 120,000 followers. He talked about last week’s trial of blogger Nguyen Lan Thang and the U.S. secretary of state’s visit to Vietnam.

Calls to his mobile phone and messages on WhatsApp on Thursday afternoon went unanswered, several of his friends said, and he never returned home. 

On Sunday, police in Vietnam’s northern province of Ha Tinh announced they had found a person without identification illegally entering the country via trails on its border with Laos. They confirmed that the person was named Duong Van Thai, born in 1982.

Duong Van Thai, also known as Thai Van Duong, had been applying for refugee status with the United Nations refugee agency’s office in Bangkok. Thailand for many decades has served as an informal safe haven for political refugees in the region.

The 41-year-old fled Vietnam in either 2018 or early 2019 fearing political persecution for his many blog posts and videos that criticized the government and leaders of the Communist Party on Facebook and YouTube. 

Now it appears that he was abducted and forced to return to Vietnam.

‘Everything looks normal’ at rental home

Grace Bui, a Vietnamese American human rights activist living in Thailand, told Radio Free Asia that she and her friends went to Thai’s home on Monday. 

“Inside his room, everything looks normal, just like Duong has just gotten up in the morning and gone out for a quick walk,” she said. “We found the bag he often carried when going out. His wallet was still in the bag, and his UN card and bank cards were still in the wallet. We found his laptop also.”

The UN card is a refugee card issued by the UN High Commissioner of Refugees office in Bangkok to people who have refugee status and are waiting to be resettled in a third country. 

The back of refugee card has text in both English and Thai that reads as follows:

“The bearer of this card is related to UNHCR, registered and documented under the UN General Assembly’s authorization, and cannot be forced to return to their country of origin. All support to the bearer is highly appreciated.”

All the belongings in his room seemed to show that Thai was not prepared for a long trip back to Vietnam, where he faces a heavy sentence for his criticism against the government and the ruling Communist Party. 

A close friend of Thai said that Thai had a stable life in Thailand and very much wanted to resettle in a third country. He had no plans to return to Vietnam, according to Hoang Trong Man, also known as Man Hien Phap.

“I would like to affirm that Mr. Duong Van Thai did not intend to return to Vietnam because if he had had such a plan, he would have told us and collected some belongings before he left,” he said.

Pre-disappearance signs

Several of Thai’s friends told RFA that he had shared with them a piece of great news on Wednesday. He did an interview with UNHCR officials, who asked if he had any relatives in Australia. Thai replied that he wanted to resettle in the United States, where his girlfriend lived. 

Bui, who was in regular contact with Thai before his disappearance, told RFA that it was very unlikely that Thai would return to Vietnam a day after doing an immigration interview with UNHCR.

“Duong [Thai] never intended to return to Vietnam, and if you ask Duong’s friends, you will know that he never wanted to go back to Vietnam,” she said. 

Nguyen Xuan Kim, another Vietnamese refugee in Thailand and a close friend of Thai’s, said that around two weeks before going missing, he shared his feelings of insecurity just after he posted videos about political infighting in Vietnam.

“His recent posts referred to many senior officials of the Ministry of Public Security, about the general who had an extramarital affair,” Kim said. “He said briefly that he should be vigilant just in case but did not go into the specifics.”

Thai told Kim that one of his neighbors said that on April 6, a man riding a motorbike with a Chiang Rai provincial number plate approached Thai’s home to film and take photos. The man spoke Thai but not fluently, the neighbor told Thai, according to Kim.

Kim told RFA on Tuesday that Thai gave him access to his rental home’s security camera system, some social media accounts and some electronic devices. However, Kim said he hasn’t been able to access much of the data.

Who was involved? 

A statement from Amnesty International’s regional office expressed concern over the information about Thai’s arrest in Vietnam, particularly given that the UNHCR had recognized his refugee status. 

“Viet Nam keeps close tabs on dissidents and has in the past shown that it is not above tracking and surveilling them beyond its borders. Vietnamese refugees living in Thailand who fled the country because of the government’s repression must be protected and should not have to live in constant fear,” the group said in the statement sent to RFA on Tuesday.

RFA contacted UNHCR and its office in Thailand, as well as the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, via email to inquire about Thai’s case but hasn’t received a response.

Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, urged the Thai government to clarify Thai’s case. 

“There are so many highly troubling questions about the abduction of Thai Van Duong, but what is not in dispute is he was living in Thailand as a UNHCR-recognized refugee entitled to full protection,” he said in an email to RFA on Tuesday.

“How he was forced from Thai soil to Vietnam, who was involved, and when and where did it happen are urgent matters that the Thai government must immediately investigate.”

Robertson said he fears that Thai’s case is yet another example that a so-called “swap mart” exists between Thailand and repressive neighboring countries like Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. 

“It is very unlikely that Vietnam government agents could have just come into Thailand and snatched a dissident without some local Thai officials knowing about this, and agreeing to look the other way,” he said. 

“Whoever did this clearly broke both Thai and international law that prohibits sending a person back to where they will face persecution, torture, and abuse, and there is no doubt all those things lie in the future for Thai Van Duong in the hands of the Vietnamese police,” he said. “There must be accountability to end this kind of hunting of refugees and asylum seekers in Thailand, starting with this case.” 

Bui said representatives of international rights organizations in Bangkok have met in the past to discuss how to support and protect refugees in Thailand.

Thai Immigration Police and responsible agencies in Vietnam haven’t responded to RFA’s emails sent on Saturday requesting comment. 

Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

Global fashion websites such as Shein may be selling clothes made by Uyghur slaves directly to American consumers by exploiting a loophole in the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act that exempts packages worth less than $800 from inspection, lawmakers were told Tuesday.

The 2021 U.S. law banning imports made using Uyghur slave labor is also being weakened by “transshipments” of goods from China to third-countries that obfuscate their true origin, as well as by a lack of coordination with Canadian and Mexican authorities, according to testimony to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

Rep. Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey who heads the commission, told the commission that 685 million packages entered the United States last year under the $800 “de minimis” inspection exemption, which he called a “loophole” in the restrictions.

Anasuya Syam, the director of human rights and trade policy at the Human Trafficking Legal Center, an independent group aimed at eradicating human trafficking, said direct-to-consumer sales from low-cost fast-fashion websites like Shein, which usually fall below the $800 threshold, were a “glaring example” of the loophole.

“This ‘de minimis’ shipping environment is being used to circumvent the UFLPA,” Syam said, pointing in particular to a Nov. 20 report from Bloomberg she said showed “companies like Shein were using Xinjiang cotton in their low-value shipments being sent to the United States.” 

The $800 exemption also created a ready strategy, Syam added, for importers of larger shipments of goods made using slave labor.

“One strategy to circumvent this could also be to break down bigger packages into smaller, under-$800 shipments,” she said. “This is what we are concerned that companies are doing to circumvent the law.”

However, Rep. Jennifer Wexman, a Democrat from Virginia, said Shein’s many small direct-to-consumer sales were the main problem, given the large total volume and its alleged ties to Xinjiang cotton. 

Shein was founded in China but is now headquartered in Singapore.

“Shein continues to exploit our current ‘de minimis’ policy to sell billions of dollars worth of goods to American consumers,” Wexman said, calling the strategy “so successful that it now holds the largest share of the U.S. fast-fashion market, beating out giants like Zara and H&M.”

Asked about the comments made during the hearing, a spokesperson for Shein told Radio Free Asia in an emailed statement that the company followed the law when it came to supply chains.

“As a global company with customers and operations around the world, SHEIN takes visibility across our supply chain seriously,” the spokesperson said. “For over a decade, we have been providing customers with on-demand and affordable fashion, beauty, and lifestyle products, lawfully and with full respect for the communities we serve.”

Dumped in Canada

Syam also noted concerns that any shipments ultimately rejected at American ports were simply being rerouted to Canada and Mexico, and possibly then re-imported overland into the United States.

Unlike Mexico, Canada also has laws banning imports made with slave labor, Syam explained, but it had been slow to implement them. But she said the issue could only be solved if all three countries cooperate to ensure no North American ports accept slavery-linked imports. 

“Canada has detained one shipment which was subsequently released after a successful appeal by the importer,” Syam said. “Mexico, on the other hand, did announce its import ban on Feb. 23 and will begin implementing it in May. So the time is ripe for the three countries to convene the trade ministers to ensure that we are aligned.”

The issue of businesses deliberately shipping goods to third countries for re-import into the United States was also raised.

Kit Conklin, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center, said that the “global nature” of supply chains made Customs and Border Patrol’s job difficult because it took a lot of investigation to determine all the origins of a good’s components, especially when an importer had no clear ties to China.

But he said that such work was clearly taking place.

“This gets to a core issue,” Conklin said. “Since UFLPA enforcement began in June of last year, CBP has obtained $490 million worth of goods from Malaysia and over $369 million worth of goods from Vietnam – to provide a bit of perspective here, CBP only detained at $9 million worth of goods imported directly from China.”

Even then, enforcement can become a game of whack-a-mole.

Laura Murphy, a professor of human rights and contemporary slavery at Sheffield Hallam University in the United Kingdom, said some Chinese companies were getting creative by splitting their business operations in half – one for U.S. exports and one for elsewhere.

“They bifurcate their supply chains so they can continue to sell goods in the U.S. market while selling Uyghur forced-labor tainted goods elsewhere in the world,” Murphy said. “Some of those companies are even benefiting from Inflation Reduction Act incentives while continuing to operate or source in the Uyghur region.”

China investigative mission

Smith, the chairman of the commission, ended the hearing by making an unlikely request to Chinese President Xi Jinping: Let him lead a congressional delegation to the Xinjiang region for “a full-scale trip.”

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson had said Beijing welcomed foreigners to visit Xinjiang to “see with their own eyes” that no Uyghur forced labor was taking place, he explained, so he had written a letter to Xi to request visas for “a week or 10 days” to carry out a trip.

“So stay tuned,” Smith said. “I hope that we would have unfettered access to the camps and to talk to officials there and, above all, to talk to individual Uyghurs without any fear of retaliation.”

India has locked the gates to key border crossings with Myanmar’s Chin state after three Indian citizens were killed in the state last month in an air raid, according to sources from the area.

The closure comes amid an intensified military offensive against rebel forces in Chin state, where on April 10, a junta jet dropped bombs near a high school in Falam township, killing nine civilians and injuring four others. 

Thousands of Myanmar nationals have fled fighting and taken refuge across the border in India’s Mizoram state.

Sources told RFA Burmese that on March 22, the charred remains of three Myanmar-born ethnic Chin women holding Indian citizenship were discovered in Matupi. An investigation identified the victims as C. Biaksuii, 48, Bablu Talukdar, 37, and B. Lathafamkima, 44, but has yet to determine who is responsible for their deaths.

In the aftermath of the discovery, civil society organizations in Mizoram issued a statement warning Indian nationals against traveling into Myanmar and on April 6, Indian authorities shuttered the two main border gates at Matupi’s Hlungmang and Gawnglaung villages, residents told RFA. Additionally, crossings accessed from the Chin towns of Rihkhawdar and Thantalan were also closed by the Indian side, they said.

A resident of Matupi, who declined to be named for security reasons, told RFA that the closure of the border gates had cut off access to food, medical treatment, and refuge for inhabitants of the township.

“The closure of the border is mostly related to the murder of Indian nationals,” the resident said. “It’s caused a lot of trouble for Myanmar refugees in Matupi. They can’t enter the Indian side for now.”

Attempts by RFA to contact Thant Zin, the junta’s social affairs minister and spokesman for Chin state, for comment on the measures taken to restrict border crossings went unanswered Tuesday.

Salai Dokhar, the founder of India-based aid group India For Myanmar, urged Myanmar nationals in India to refrain from illegal activities, saying that doing so could impact refugees who have already fled across the border.

“What I mean by ‘illegal’ includes doing business illegally, committing crimes and that sort of activity,” Dokhar told RFA. “I urge all Myanmar refugees not to become involved in such activities because one person’s crime can impact tens of thousands of refugees sheltering in India.”

Arrests in Manipur

Following the deaths of the three Indian nationals, residents of India’s Manipur state, which also borders Chin state to the north, said that they have seen authorities conduct a series of arrests of Myanmar nationals on the grounds of illegal immigration.

In one incident on April 6, authorities in Manipur arrested a group of six men, 11 women, and six children from Myanmar who had fled across the border to Langkaur township and were working in the local weaving industry, Myanmar refugees told RFA.

“The reason for their arrest is that they did not have permission to stay in the town,” a Myanmar national in Langkaur told RFA. “They were supposed to stay in temporary refugee shelters being built by the Manipur government. They are being kept in a temporary detention center for now and will be moved to the refugee shelters once they are complete.”

Police in Manipur began hunting Myanmar nationals living in the state at the start of the year and, as of the beginning of March, had arrested around 170 people, according to aid workers assisting refugees.

On March 26, Manipur government officials visited villages in Moreh township where Myanmar refugees are sheltering to announce the construction of the camps, which they said will be able to accommodate half of the more than 10,000 who have fled across the border into the state.

“They came and took pictures of the refugees and issued refugee identity cards to them … saying that it will be more secure to live there,” said a refugee in Moreh, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity. “They have made a list of the refugees, too. We are currently staying near the villages along the border.”

RFA emailed the Indian Embassy in Yangon inquiring after the border closure and the arrests of refugees in Manipur, but had yet to receive a response as of Tuesday evening.

According to Chin civil society organizations, around 60,000 people have been displaced by fighting in Chin state, while some 50,000 others have fled across the border to Mizoram and Manipur states in India.

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

A brutal airstrike by the Myanmar military on civilians in northwestern Myanmar’s Sagaing region a week ago has been reported by news outlets around the world. The attack on residents of Pa Zi Gyi village attending the opening ceremony for a public administration building killed an estimated 200 people, including 40 minors. 

Miemie Winn Byrd, a Honolulu-based Asia-Pacific security analyst and retired Burmese-American lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, says the aerial assault is unacceptable and a war crime because junta forces targeted civilians. Byrd spoke with RFA Burmese reporter Khin Khin Ei about what action the international community should take to try to stop the junta’s atrocities against civilians. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

RFA: Almost 200 civilians, including women and children, were killed during an aerial attack on April 11 by Myanmar junta forces as the people celebrated the opening of an administrative building in Sagaing region’s Pa Zi Gyi village. What’s your take on this?

Byrd: I must say that it’s an extremely tragic incident because those villagers were doing a charity event when the military junta air-raided them. It’s really a brutal act. It was actually a peaceful gathering. The civilians were not armed. That’s why the attack on these innocent and unarmed civilians is definitely a war crime, something completely unacceptable by any means. I strongly condemn such an atrocity. Even a small publication like the Honolulu newspaper here reported that horrible incident of the Myanmar junta on its front page. This indicates that the whole world is acknowledging this attack and condemning such brutality of the military junta. The world has become more and more aware of the junta’s cowardice atrocity. 

RFA: The junta said it attacked the crowd because the civilians were involved with the anti-junta People’s Defense Forces, but it also claimed that the aerial assault triggered further explosions because shots hit weapons and ammunition stored on the ground. What do you make of this explanation?

Byrd: They simply don’t have the evidence to back their claim. The claim that weapons and ammunition were stored there is just a lame excuse of the military junta. Attacking the peaceful gathering of innocent civilians, like I said earlier, is a very wrong act already. And it is evident that they had deliberately targeted the civilians. The more brutality the junta uses to oppress, the more bitter the people feel towards them. Myanmar people will never accept them, as a consequence. It’s a negative result for the military council. I think they know that they are in a bad situation. That’s why they have committed such brutal crimes as their last straw. Since they are used to such brutal strategies, we can say that their administration is losing strength.

RFA: Have there been any similar such incidents involving international military organizations?

Byrd: Well, when we plan a military operation, we always have to consider the collateral damage. If there is any civilian presence near the target, we do not go forward with the operation because although the plan may be tactically successful in the short term, we will receive the bitterness of the people in the long run. As I have always said, a war is not won by means of superior firepower. It is won only with the support of the people and by means of politics. That’s why what the Myanmar military is doing appears to me that they do not understand the way of war. They understand the tactical level, but they don’t know the strategic level to win a war. That’s why their strategies always go backwards from what we have learned.

RFA: How many military organizations around the world are carrying out horrendous activities like those of the Myanmar junta? Are there ways to stop them from committing such atrocities?

Byrd: There are some militaries in Syria like them. The North Koreans may be acting similarly, too, but we don’t know for sure as we cannot infiltrate the interior of North Korean affairs. But it can be concluded that only the bad guys commit such brutal crimes. The countries where the people love and respect the government and the developed countries do not have such atrocious militaries. The more the Myanmar military oppresses the people in such brutal tactics, the more deteriorated the country becomes and the lower its economy declines to a point of never coming back to progress. The children and the Myanmar people will lose their opportunities to be able to go abroad and learn in international countries, something they used to have before. These will never be possible for them again. The economy will decline. Since they do not have the support of the people, they won’t be able to develop the country.

RFA: The junta chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, has said he will crush the armed anti-regime forces and ethnic armed groups supporting them. How much will he accomplish in doing so?

Byrd: If they could totally crush resistance forces by using their military strength like he said, there would not be any ethnic armed groups left by now, right? They haven’t been able to do that for over 70 years. The situation has worsened for them as 90% of the whole country is resisting them in addition to the ethnic armed groups. It doesn’t matter what he said; his administration is losing strength. It’s questionable whether he could accomplish what he claimed.

RFA: How do you evaluate the situation of Myanmar in terms of eradicating the military dictatorship?

Byrd: I think the military is aiming to use superior firepower to solve the crisis, but it is actually a political problem. Since it’s a political problem, the trust and support of the people play a major role. They won’t be able to cope with the crisis because 90% of the people are opposing them.

RFA: What should the international community do to take effective action against the Myanmar military?

Byrd: Well, the military junta is already under a lot of international pressure. They have been being taken into action at the International Court of Justice, and sanctions and embargoes have been imposed against them. The junta has just little freedom left. The more atrocities the junta commits, the more international support the resistance forces receive. Like I said, the Burma Act was sped up when the news of the execution of political activists such as Ko Jimmy and Zayar Thaw spread around the world. The more brutally they act, the clearer the international community sees their atrocities and the more support they give to the people and the resistance groups.

RFA: What are the necessary components for the success of the people’s Spring Revolution, the protests that began in early 2021 in opposition to the military’s coup d’état on Feb. 1, 2021?

Byrd: The most important thing is for the people to be able to cooperate in the resistance. The more united the revolution the people have become, the faster the success will be. The people will have to cooperate and defy the military junta in any way possible.

Translated by Myo Min Aung for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.

London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch has accused banks of perpetrating a “brazen asset grab” by withholding up to U.S.$2.4 billion in the pension pots of Hong Kongers who have emigrated to the United Kingdom under its British National Overseas visa scheme.

Banks have written to several people who sought to withdraw funds from the city’s compulsory Mandatory Provident Fund savings plan on the grounds that they had left the city permanently, rejecting their requests, according to a recent investigation by the group.

The group called it a form of “punishment” for leaving amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent.

The small group of protesters gathered outside London’s Guildhall as Hong Kong financial chief Christopher Hui gave a speech inside, and some ran after Hui’s car after he left the venue by the back door.

The letters from the banks cited Hong Kong government guidance issued on March 10, 2021, for the decision, which stated that the British National Overseas passport can no longer be used as part of an application to withdraw accumulated pension savings.

The group blamed China’s foreign ministry for revoking recognition of British National Overseas passports in anger at the launch of the visa scheme in January 2021, saying it was in breach of British promises prior to the 1997 handover.

The British government says 160,700 people have emigrated to the United Kingdom on its BNO visa scheme, which includes a pathway to permanent residency and citizenship, since its launch in 2021, which prompted retaliation from Beijing.

The majority of these visas are being used to live in the U.K., with an estimated 60% holding Mandatory Provident Fund accounts, Hong Kong Watch found.

“Taking the average MPF account size (U.S.$28,500), and multiplying it by the number of main BNO visa holders (96,000) there would be around £2.2 billion (U.S.$2.4 billion) of … assets that Hong Kongers are currently being denied access to,” the group’s investigative report said.

Sam Goodman, director of policy and advocacy at Hong Kong Watch, said: “The Chinese government’s retaliatory action to no longer recognise the British National (Overseas) passport is designed to financially punish those leaving the territory and is a gross violation of its obligations under [the treaty and constitutional arrangements governing the handover].”

“This amounts to a brazen asset grab that is a punitive measure targeting anyone who has left Hong Kong under the BNO visa scheme and is intended to warn others who are thinking of leaving,” Goodman said.

The report singled out HSBC for criticism, saying the bank had been supportive of a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the Communist Party from July 1, 2020.

“[The bank] has around 30% of the Mandatory Provident Fund market through various schemes, meaning that it would be withholding an estimated £660 million (U.S.$820 million) of assets,” it said.

According to Goodman, the bank is failing to satisfy its responsibilities as a trustee of the compulsory pension scheme.

“It must explain to its customers why it is blocking access to their hard-earned savings and the U.K. government must ask why a London-headquartered bank is doing the bidding of an authoritarian government by failing to recognise a valid government issued document,” he said in a statement issued with the report.

HSBC hadn’t replied to a request for comment from RFA’s Cantonese Service by the time of publication.

Veteran Hong Kong journalist Joseph Ngan said it is now looking increasingly unlikely that people leaving the city for good will be given access to their money.

“This is very worrying,” Ngan told Radio Free Asia. “It’s likely that the authorities will make various excuses, including the fact that the person has applied for British citizenship via the British National Overseas route [to withhold their money].”

“It seems that the Hong Kong government wants to make things as difficult as possible for people emigrating to the U.K. on the British National Overseas route.”

A May 2022 report found that nearly one in four Hongkongers who fled the ongoing political crackdown under the ruling Chinese Communist Party still suffered from symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome linked to police violence during the 2019 protests and the subsequent fear engendered by the national security law.

The survey of recently arrived migrants by the Hongkongers in Britain group found that 23.8% of respondents reported symptoms of PTSD linked to the 2019 protests and subsequent political crackdown, while nearly 19% reported symptoms of depression and 25.8% reported symptoms of anxiety disorders.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

They prepared for almost a month, practicing for the “songs of loyalty” competition and massive choreographed dances, fixing food and decorating cities – only to have officials call off the “Day of the Sun,” arguably North Korea’s most important holiday, due to a forecast for rain.

The April 15th holiday marks the birthday of national founder Kim Il Sung, and festivities have never been canceled due to inclement weather since it was designated a holiday in 1997, sources in the country said.

Kim Il Sung, grandfather of the country’s current leader Kim Jong Un, is revered in North Korea for leading the country in its infancy, instilling the “juche” principle of self-reliance and for his exploits as a guerilla leader who fought against Japanese colonial rule before he came to power in 1948.

“They say it was all canceled on account of rain, but I’ve never experienced a cancellation of a national event like this before,” said a resident of the northeastern province of North Hamgyong to RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “It’s even been held in the middle of the night in heavy snowfall in the middle of blizzards.”

Citizens thought the cancellation was unusual and suspected that rain might not be the true cause, a source in the northern province of Ryanggang said.

“Some welcomed the opportunity to get some rest, but others think that maybe the foundations of the three-generation dynasty that started with Kim Il Sung could be crumbling,” he said. 

Even with the cancellation, citizens still flocked to patriotic monuments to lay flowers in tribute, according to the first source.

The canceled events included the “songs of loyalty” contest, held in each province, public mass dances in town squares, sports competitions and street singing parades.

Residents were shocked by the decision, which erased a month’s work of preparation.

“The paper flags of our republic that had been raised on every street were lowered,” said the first source. “The square which was to be the center of the celebrations was eerily quiet.”

Empty streets

In northern Ryanggang, the Day of the Sun celebrations amounted to a single song performance at the entrance of a local university, the source there said.

“The streets were deserted,” he said. “The circle-shaped dance line marked on the town square by the Women’s League was clearly visible in such an empty space.”

Kim Jong Un usually makes a public appearance on the Day of the Sun at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, his grandfather’s final resting place as well as that of his father and predecessor Kim Jong Il.

But on the 16th, the state-run Korea Central News Agency and the Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported that he was not there and senior officials presented a floral basket in his name. Instead Kim attended a ceremony on the night of the 16th, celebrating the completion of the latest batch of 10,000 new homes in the capital Pyongyang, part of a widely publicized national project to build 50,000 new homes by the end of 2025.

The leader’s absence from Kumsusan was unusual but was not intended to emphasize his independence, so that he could escape the shadow of his forebears, said David Maxwell of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“Secretary Kim is [always] trying to show the image of a strong leader who works hard for the people,” he said. “I think he’s trying to show that he is a strong leader doing good things for the Korean people in the north. So I think that that’s real, and the focus is to generate his positive image and I think that’s why we’re seeing these types of events highly publicized.”

The leader’s emphasis on promoting housing construction projects instead of worshiping his ancestors on the Day of the Sun indicates that North Korea is facing economic difficulties,” said former CIA analyst Soo Kim.

She said that Kim Jong Un was trying to convey to North Koreans that he understands their economic difficulties and is taking action. 

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