PDAS DONOVAN'S MEETING WITH DPRK REFUGEE COMMUNITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SEOUL 001906 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/03/2029 TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR PHUM KPAO MNUC SOCI ECON KN KS SUBJECT: PDAS DONOVAN'S MEETING WITH DPRK REFUGEE COMMUNITY LEADERS REF: SEOUL 1896 Classified By: EAP PDAS Joe Donovan. Reasons 1.4 (b/d). Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) During a wide-ranging discussion over dinner on December 2, five prominent leaders from the North Korean refugee community told EAP PDAS Joe Donovan that ordinary people in the DPRK are listening to and reading "illegal" media from the South. Donovan's interlocutors cited a range of difficulties in adjusting to life in the South, from job discrimination to being overwhelmed by the choices available to consumers. They characterized the North's sudden currency replacement as a cash-grab by the regime intended to punish people who profited in the country's numerous unofficial markets. Nearly all of the participants claimed they would return home following reunification -- which they unanimously believed would occur quickly following Kim Jong-il's death. End summary. Key Leaders in the North Korean Refugee Community -------------- -------------- ¶2. (C) EAP PDAS Joe Donovan met for dinner on December 2 with five Seoul-based leaders of the North Korean refugee community. The guests were: -- Kim Heung-kwan, President of "North Korea Intellectual's Solidarity"; -- Kim Seung-chol, President of North Korea Reform Radio; -- Kim Seung-min, a journalist with Free North Korea Radio; -- Kim Young-il, President of "People for Successful Corean Reunification" (aka SCORE); and, -- Choi Jin-i, a journalist/poet from Imjingang magazine. Is Anybody Listening? -------------- ¶3. (C) Kim Seung-chol and Kim Seung-min told PDAS Donovan that people inside North Korea were listening to radio broadcasts from the refugee community in the South. They cited a recent U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors survey of 200 recently-arrived North Korean refugees in China's Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture; approximately 35 percent reported having listened to Free North Korea Radio. Anecdotally, both Kims said that people in the DPRK used mobile phones to call in to their programs and, for example, ask for advice on how to get to South Korea and to provide the latest on how much human traffickers charge to get someone from the DPRK to the ROK. The two Kims asserted that the current cost was approximately 8,500 USD to get someone to Seoul via plane 
from China in about three weeks; for about 2,600 USD, a defector could be smuggled to Seoul via Thailand in about six months. ¶4. (C) Choi Jin-i related that, although it has a small circulation, Imjingang Magazine was being read -- at least by censors -- at approximately 100 major work units in North Korea. Imjingang mails its magazine in unmarked envelopes to the work units, where at least two censors are required to look at it. Choi believes that, at a minimum, the censors sometimes copy or fax articles to their friends and relatives. She said the magazine had, for example, received a lot of feedback about a story on a Chinese village where the local Communist Party chief protected female North Korean refugees and even permitted a refugee to lead the official village housewives' association. Threats from the...NIS? -------------- ¶5. (C) In response to a question about whether the North Korean government had reached out to threaten them, the participants all said that they had been pressured indirectly by the DPRK. They joked that the regime had a "black list" and that each of the community leaders was on it. Kim Seung-min said that, ironically, the strongest pressure and intimidation had come from the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) during the Roh Moo-hyun era. Kim explained that the Roh administration was allergic to doing anything that provoked the North, so for organizations like Free North Korea Radio the NIS was "an enemy." Kim said the NIS had been less aggressive during the Lee Myung-bak administration; at least now, Kim said, "the NIS is not our enemy." Challenges in Adjusting to Life in South Korea -------------- -- ¶6. (C) Kim Seung-chol, who fled to the ROK in 1994 and is married to a South Korean, told PDAS Donovan that North Korean refugees faced a number of serious challenges in integrating into ROK society. Foremost among them was job discrimination, he said, explaining that many refugees resented the society's "exclusiveness" and class differences. Kim Heung-kwang highlighted a more mundane challenge: choices. He said many refugees were initially overwhelmed by the number of choices they had to make, ranging from where to live to what to have for dinner. He observed that, generally speaking, "ordinary people in North Korea are not permitted to make choices." For Kim Seung-min, one of the greatest challenges to overcome was simply the indifference of South Koreans to the plight of their Northern kin. "I think people in the United States care more about us than people in the South," he said, adding that "the U.S. Government has done a lot to support us, while Roh Moo-hyun did nothing for us." Currency Chaos: A Big Blow to Markets... -------------- ¶7. (C) Commenting on North Korea's reported sudden decision to replace its currency (reftel),Kim Heung-kwan said that, according to his contacts in the North, people remained "confused" about the move. In 1992, the last time the currency was replaced, the public distribution system (PDS) was functioning and people didn't have a lot of cash stored "in the family chest." Now, he said, the opposite was true: the PDS hadn't functioned for years and people kept a lot of cash on hand. Kim said that traders who did well in the gray market economy were the big losers; the authorities, driven by a mix of fear and jealousy, "have evened things up." SCORE's Kim Young-il asserted that the cash-strapped DPRK regime replaced the currency simply to squeeze more money out of ordinary people. The result of this short-term measure, he and Kim Heung-kwan reasoned, was that North Korean currency was now worthless; people would now keep their savings in foreign currency alone, they said. ...And a Boon for Wonsan? -------------- ¶8. (C) Kim Heung-kwan, citing contacts in the DPRK, speculated that the cash taken from people during this currency crisis might be used to beautify Wonsan. He explained that Kim Jong-il's alleged successor, Kim Jong-eun, was born in the city, so it needs to become a "great village" before he takes power. Kim Heung-kwan said the city was in the process of a major Pyongyang-esque makeover, with "mentally challenged" people being deported from Wonsan into the countryside and new power plants being built in the area to ensure it has a reliable supply of electricity. Unification: No Kim Jong-il, No Regime -------------- ¶9. (C) In closing, all the dinner participants except Choi Jin-i said they would return to the North following reunification; Choi said she would remain in the South, where she viewed herself as a "bridge" between the two societies. Surprisingly, all of the community leaders believed unification would occur during their lifetimes, agreeing that once Kim Jong-il died, the regime would die with him. Kim Seung-cheol explained that when Kim Il-sung died in 1994, the regime had "Kim Jong-il to fall back on. This time, there is no Kim Jong-il ready to step in." STEPHENS