DPRK: RASON THROUGH THE EYES OF AN AID WORKER

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SHENYANG 000076

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/K, EAP/CM, DRL/IRF, PRM

E.O. 12958: DECL: TEN YEARS AFTER KOREAN UNIFICATION
TAGS: PINR PGOV PREL PHUM KIRF KN KS CH
SUBJECT: DPRK: RASON THROUGH THE EYES OF AN AID WORKER

REF: A. (A) SHENYANG 67

B. (B) SHENYANG 68

C. (C) 07 SHENYANG 133

D. (D) SHENYANG 7

Classified By: CONSUL GENERAL STEPHEN B. WICKMAN.
REASONS: 1.4(d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Rason, in northeastern North Korea, is home
to a variety of foreign-assistance ventures, involving
everything from agriculture and animal husbandry to power
generation, transportation and pharmaceuticals, according
to a Westerner involved in several projects there, but
tensions have emerged among government bureaus over the
area's degree of openness. The late 2007 arrest of a
Canadian humanitarian worker led to a palpable tightening
of strictures on Rason's foreign aid community, including
on religious life, that continues. PRC nationals abound in
Rason, but some local North Koreans grumble about their
northern neighbors. Our contact reported that Russian
personnel involved in the implementation of an April 2008
Russia-DPRK agreement to improve the railway/port around/in
Rajin have already arrived on site. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) During a recent trip to the PRC-DPRK borderlands of
Jilin Province, Poloff met May 16 with a Western
humanitarian worker involved in several aid ventures in
Rajin-Sonbong (Rason),on the DPRK's far northeastern
coast. Temporarily back in China's Yanbian Korean
Autonomous Prefecture preparing for another return trip to
the DPRK, the humanitarian worker offered a read-out on
Rason's foreign aid community; recent atmospherics in the
area; and the significant Chinese presence there, inter
alia.

RASON AID VENTURES, HEALTH TROUBLES, INTERNAL TENSIONS
-------------- --------------

3. (C) Rason is currently home to a wide variety of
foreign-assistance ventures, though a precise tally of
projects and personnel remains elusive. Our contact, for
instance, is personally familiar with at least 25-30
discrete aid endeavors, though she explained that these
constitute only a subset of the greater aid community in
Rason. Existing projects with which our contact is
familiar involve everything from food production (e.g.,
small bread/noodle factories) and small-scale agriculture
(e.g., greenhousing) to animal husbandry--aid groups are
trying increasing amounts of chicken farming of late, she
noted--power generation (e.g., harnessing water/wind),
transportation infrastructure and pharmaceutical
manufacturing.


4. (C) Expanding on national deficiencies in the DPRK, our
contact explained that her group's North Korean minders
regularly ask her and her colleagues for medicines to treat
their sick children. Tuberculosis remains particularly
prevalent in Rason, she claimed. North Korean officials
there recently asked a Rajin-based group--the operator of a
pharmaceutical venture, where a friend of hers works--for
two container-trucks full of IVs, apparently in part for
treating tuberculosis patients. (NOTE: Our contact claimed
that according to the friend involved in the Rajin
pharmaceutical venture, China earlier in the year clamped
down on what she described as a "black-market channel" for
shipping expired/poor quality medicine into North Korea.
She offered this without any details. END NOTE.)


5. (C) Turning to Rason officialdom, our contact claimed
tensions abide between local officials in charge of foreign
investment and officials responsible for overseeing the
area's aid community. Citing direct conversations with
Rason investment officials--the primary interlocutors of
our contact's NGO, which operates one of the few
humanitarian aid projects in Rason licensed as commercial
ventures--our contact explained that frictions stem from
the investment bureau's comparatively greater
openness/permissiveness toward foreigners, from whom it is
eager for investment. Recalling more offhand comments made

SHENYANG 00000076 002 OF 003


by Rason investment officials, our contact also suggested
ongoing frictions existed between what she described as the
more progressively-minded Rason and the more conservative
Pyongyang over the number of foreign aid workers in Rason
and the area's overall degree of openness.

RASON TIGHTENS: KIM ARRESTED, NGOS "HASSLED"
--------------

6. (C) The November 2007 arrest--and subsequent two-month
detention--of KIM Je Yell, a Korean-Canadian humanitarian
worker involved in Rajin since the 1990s, led to a palpable
tightening of strictures on Rason's aid community. (NOTE:
Kim was released in early 2008, but the precise reasons for
his arrest remain unclear. The ostensible trigger,
according to our contact, was North Korean authorities'
alleged discovery of writings unflattering to the DPRK
government in the form of notes Kim had taken at a
conference he had attended overseas. Another contributing
factor likely included the religious worship sessions he
led for foreigners in Rason. Kim's organization's
practice, in the months before his arrest, of ferrying in
appreciable numbers of foreigners into Rason without clear
purposes, in some cases seemingly for tourism, also likely
attracted further scrutiny. Our contact added that Rason
officials--with whom she said Kim enjoyed good relations--
privately "made clear" to her own colleagues that the order
to arrest Kim had come directly from Pyongyang. END NOTE.)


7. (C) Since Kim's arrest, for instance, she said North
Korean customs officials have enhanced already rigorous
inspections of Rason-destined aid workers when they cross
into the DPRK from China (via Quanhe Land Port, near
Hunchun). Once in Rason, officials generally "hassled (aid
groups) more" in small ways not done before, said our
contact without elaborating. More challenging
operationally has been the ensuing greater difficulty--and
longer wait times--in securing the official DPRK invitation
letters that allow Rason's aid groups to renew visas or add
additional team members in the area. Our contact alleged
Rason's visa-related clampdown tightened further in late
April or early May, when Rason officials explicitly
proscribed Kim's associates from bringing any new
individuals into the DPRK. Some aid groups, however, have
fared better. Our source's group, for instance, is still
able to secure renewal-invitations for existing workers
already "in the system" (i.e., known to the North Koreans,
working in Rason),though the process is appreciably longer
than in the period before Kim's detention.


8. (C) North Koreans officials also attempted to tighten
strictures, or at least the enforcement thereof, on
religious life for foreigners in Rason. Following Kim's
arrest, Rason officials requested aid workers to return to
China on weekends, knowing that Christian workers typically
worshipped together on Sundays. They knew that such
services had been happening in Rason in the past but "put
up with it" provided no North Korean nationals were
involved, explained our contact, a participant in such
Sunday fellowship sessions. Our contact knows of "several"
aid groups who are currently complying with the North
Korean request, but also of others who are not and do not
appear to be suffering major consequences.

NORTH KOREAN VIEWS OF THE CHINESE PRESENCE IN RASON
-------------- --------------

9. (C) PRC nationals--business personnel in particular--
abound in Rason, but our contact suggested a certain
ambivalence among some local North Koreans about their
neighbors across the Tumen River. During her trips from
Yanbian into North Korea, our contact typically sees large
numbers of PRC trucks on the road from Quanhe Land Port to
Rason. PRC businessmen in Rason are numerous, operating
everything from market stalls to Chinese restaurants. Most
establishments she frequents and all taxis she uses accept
both North Korean won and Chinese renminbi as payment.
Much of Rason's produce and other food staples are imported
from China. (NOTE: Food prices in Rason surged in recent
months, eroding workers' salaries; see refs A-B. END

SHENYANG 00000076 003 OF 003


NOTE.)


10. (C) Purely anecdotal observations and conversations
with her organization's North Korean laborers and Rason
investment officials, however, ultimately led our contact
to assess that North Koreans in Rason "don't like" the
Chinese. They "tolerate" the Chinese because they "need"
their northern neighbors for investment and trade,
including food. Poor experiences with certain Chinese
businesspeople and investors appears to fuel this ill will
further among North Korean officials. In a candid moment,
for example, a Rason investment official told our contact's
colleagues that "some" Chinese businessmen are "not
trustworthy" as business partners, confiding that he tends
to "trust" other foreigners more. (NOTE: Chinese
businessmen in northeast China commonly complain to us
about unscrupulous North Korean partners, but we have also
heard the less-common, converse observation elsewhere; see
ref C. END NOTE.) More mundane dynamics might also be at
work. Several North Koreans, for instance, grumbled to our
contact about the "inappropriate" dress of some Chinese
women--typically the assistants who travel along with their
Chinese businessmen-bosses, as opposed to the resident
Chinese businesswomen who tend to dress more modestly in
relatively conservative Rason society. (An unofficial
dress code proscribes aid workers from wearing jeans, for
instance.) In restaurants, many Chinese businessmen tend
to come across as "loud and arrogant," acting as if they
are "not guests" in the country, she added, caveating the
anecdotal nature of these impressions.

RUSSIANS ALREADY IN RASON FOR RAILWAY/PORT PROJECT
-------------- --------------

11. (C) Russian nationals involved in implementing a recent
DPRK-Russia railway/port-improvement project are already in
Rason, related our contact, who has an aid-worker friend
living at the Rajin hotel that houses the Russians.
Another of our contact's North Korean interlocutors, a
Rason investment official who claimed to be involved in the
negotiations on this project, told our contact's colleagues
that Pyongyang was pleased by the inking of the April 2008
cooperative agreement. (NOTE: Under the project a joint
venture will reconstruct the dormant 50-plus-kilometer
railroad linking Rajin and Khasan, a border settlement
directly across the Russian border by rail bridge. Russian
plans are also underway to modernize parts of Rajin port.
See ref D for background. END NOTE.)
SWICKMAN