◇ Is Choe Ryong-hae missing from major events because of diabetes?

Choe Ryong-hae, chairman of the Standing Committee of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly and once the No. 2 man in the country’s power hierarchy, has frequently been absent from major public events, raising questions about his status. 

Most notably, Choe was absent from the extended session of the 8th plenary meeting of the Workers' Party, which took place from February 26 to March 1. 

Analysts suggest that Choe's status has changed, as he was once invoked after Kim Jong-un at major public events, but since the middle of last year, his name was called after the Party’s secretary for organization Jo Yong-won, who is often referred to as Kim Jong-un's shadow, and more recently, even after Premier Kim Tok-hun. Some have speculated that Choe is suffering from a relapse of his long-standing diabetes.

◇ 30,000 households in the sacred land of revolution in Samjiyeon and Bocheon County where Kim Jong-un made a present of tile-roof houses suffer from lack of food

Amid reports of severe food shortages across the country, over 30,000 households in Samjiyeon and Bocheon County in Ryanggang province, known as the holy land of the communist revolution in North Korea, appeared to be without food. 

These households need to be immediately assisted with food supply. "On February 14, the provincial WPK committee had an emergency meeting of extended leadership to support 30,000 households in these counties," a well-placed North Korean source said on February 5. 

At the meeting the provincial committee reportedly instructed each city, county, district, and local people's units to club together food to support the starving households. That fact that the number of households suffering from food shortage has reached 30,000 even in such localities as Samjiyeon and Bocheon, which have been given special treatments as holy sites for communist revolution in North Korea, demonstrates the severity of food shortage in North Korea.

◇ North Korea prepares for living with coronavirus as it is about to open the border with China near Tumen River in March

North Korea is reportedly preparing to open the customhouse on its border with China in earnest from March to ease food and economic hardships. 

Following the opening of Sinuiju, according to border sources, the North Korean authorities have begun preparations to lift the border blockade on the Rason district in the Tumen River region, which borders the Chinese city of Hunchun. By the beginning of March, North Korea has already made a partial easing of the blockage by resuming train services between Sinuiju and Dandong and opening the border at the Rason district. 

While North Korea emphasizes it's the importance of COVID-19 prevention, some experts observe that it is opening the border along the Tumen River in an attempt to resume trade with Russia. 

In the aftermath of international sanctions, natural disasters, and a prolonged corona blockade, North Korea is facing the worst crisis in its history with economic difficulties on top of food shortage. Now Pyongyang has no other options but to open the border to overcome the crisis.

◇ Immediately after the WPK plenary meeting, the Ministry of Security issued a proclamation taking away from people even the means of living

North Korea released a proclamation outlining changes to the country's legal code, following the sixth plenum of the 8th WPK party congress. On April 4, three days after the conclusion of the plenum meeting, the country issued a new proclamation titled ‘On crushing down non-socialism and anti-socialism,’ according to internal North Korean sources. 

The proclamation requires North Korean provinces, cities, and counties to "stipulate imposition of heavier punishments than before for those activities that violate the laws." It also states that in case a convicted criminal who has been to a training camp three times in the past commits an additional crime, the punishment will be increased retroactively to the extent of his or her previous punishment. 

It also requires that if one who is under a pretrial or probation commits a crime, he or she will be sent to a correctional institution regardless of the severity of the offense. 

In particular, it states that even the most basic means of making living such as working as a housekeeper or farmhand, carrying other’s luggage by oxcart, or giving rides on motorcycles in exchange for money will be heavily punished, thereby making the residents complain that the government is controlling their basic livelihoods.

Kim Myungsung/SAND Secretary General