| October
4 | - The ROK government “again
urges North Korea to resolve the separated family issues
first” (in words of encouragement by the Minister of
Unification at the 48th joint ancestral ritual performed by
the separated families).
|
| October 6 | - Regarding
Radio Free Asia’s report on October 3 that North Korea is
secretly running clothing factories at the Gaeseong
Industrial Complex (GIC), North Korea says that “It is
nobody’s business what we do in an industrial complex where
our nation’s sovereignty is exercised, and the factories at
the GIC will be more vigorously operated” (on North Korea’s
propaganda site Uriminzokkiri).
|
| October 6 | - The ROK
government expresses its position that “North Korea should
refrain from infringing on property rights of South Korean
companies at the GIC” (in a briefing by a spokesperson for
the Ministry of Unification).
|
| October 6 | - North Korea
calls on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit
South and North Korea to resolve the issue of the defected
North Korean restaurant workers and take measures for
reuniting them with their families (at a meeting of the
Third Committee of the UN General Assembly).
|
| October 7 |
- North Korea threatens to take “ultra-hardline measures”
in response to the expansion of rotational deployment of US
strategic assets (in a statement by a spokesperson for the
Nationwide Emergency Measure Committee against DPRK-targeted
Nuclear War Exercises).
|
| October 11 | - North Korea
expresses its position that “We will never agree to any
talks in which our nuclear weapons are the subject of
negotiations; we have nearly reached the last point on the
journey toward our final goal - to achieve a real balance of
power with the United States; and we will not accept a
roadmap initiated by Russia” (in an interview with Russia’s
state-run TASS news agency by North Korean Foreign Minister
Ri Yong Ho).
|
| October 12 |
- Officials of the GIC tenant
companies request permission to visit North Korea.
|
| October 15 | - North Korea claims that “We have no
choice but to develop our nuclear programs” (at an assembly
of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in St. Petersburg,
Russia by Ahn Dong Chun, the deputy chairman of the North
Korean parliament).
|
| October
16 | - North Korea warns that “The
situation on the Korean peninsula has reached the
touch-and-go point and a nuclear war may break out at any
moment. ... Unless the hostile policy and the nuclear threat
of the US is thoroughly eradicated, we will never put our
nuclear weapons and ballistic rockets on the negotiation
table under any circumstances” (by North Korea’s deputy UN
ambassador).
|
| October 19 |
- The DPRK “will launch more
satellites into space in line with its five-year space
development program” (at a meeting of the Fourth Committee
of the UN General Assembly).
- * The US states that
“All launches using ballistic missile technology are in
violation of UN Security Council resolutions” (by a
spokesperson for the US State Department’s East Asian and
Pacific Affairs Bureau).
|
| October 20 | - North Korea
condemns the attempt by officials of the GIC companies to
visit North Korea as “shameless sophistry” (on North Korea’s
propaganda site Uriminzokkiri).
|
| October 20-21 | - Choe Son
Hui, director-general of the North American department of
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, says that “Unless the US is
prepared to co-exist with the nuclear DPRK, the DPRK’s
nuclear weapons are non-negotiable. ... Pyongyang will not
be returning to the Six-Party Talks until issues with the US
have been resolved” (at an international forum on
nonproliferation in Moscow).
|
| October 21 | - North Korean
UN ambassador Ja Song Nam sends a letter calling on the UN
Security Council to immediately discuss the recent ROK-US
joint naval exercise (October 16-20) (in a KCNA
report).
|
| October 22 |
- The ROK President says that “South
Korea’s democracy is one hundred or one thousand times more
powerful than North Korea’s missiles. ... The government
will resolve the separated family issues, including
confirmation of whether their relatives are alive, exchange
of letters, family reunions, and visits to hometowns, apart
from the political and military situation” (in his
congratulatory speech for the 35th Sports Day Event of the
Displaced Families from Five North Korean Provinces).
|
| October 24 | - North Korea denounces the attempt by
officials of the GIC companies to visit the North, declaring
that “The South Korean government would be better to render
support for damage to the companies. ... Mentioning their
visit to North Korea doesn’t make any sense and is just a
deceptive tactic” (on North Korea’s propaganda site
Uriminzokkiri).
|
| October
24 | - North Korea claims that
“The DPRK is becoming accustomed to the economic situation
created by the sanctions and new sanctions will have no
effect on the North” (in an interview with foreign news
media including Germany’s Focus Online by three North Korean
economic officials).
|
| October
24 | - The US House of
Representatives passes the Otto Warmbier North Korea Nuclear
Sanctions Act (H.R.3898) at the plenary session.
- -
1) Oppose international financial assistance for a foreign
government that does not implement the UN Security Council
sanctions against North Korea and 2) block foreign financial
institutions and foreign companies that engage in
transactions with North Korea from accessing the
international financial system.
|
| October 25 | - North Korea
says that “The US should take Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho’s
statement (North Korea could test a powerful hydrogen bomb
over the Pacific Ocean) literally. ... The US is talking
about a military option and pressuring the DPRK on all
fronts with sanctions. If you think this will lead to
diplomacy, you’re deeply mistaken” (in an interview with CNN
by Ri Yong Pil, deputy head of the Institute for American
Studies of the Foreign Ministry).
|
| October 26 | - The US
Department of the Treasury releases a list of sanctions
targets in conjunction with the State Department’s “Report
on Serious Human Rights Abuses and Censorship in North
Korea.
- - Add seven individuals and three entities to
a list of sanctions targets.
|
| October 26 | - The UN
special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea makes a
report on the human rights situation in the DPRK at a
meeting of the Third Committee of the UN General
Assembly.
- - The special rapporteur voices concerns
about the poor conditions and cruel treatment including
violence at administrative detention centers near the border
areas between North Korea and China, and about the
increasing incidence of bribery as a sign of faultiness of
the system.
- - The special rapporteur recommends
North Korea to resume reunions of separated families and to
discuss the abductees issue in inter-Korean dialogue; South
Korea to continue to make efforts to engage North Korea, to
make human rights an issue in inter-Korean dialogue, and to
resume reunions of separated families.
|
| October 27 | - North
Korea announces a plan to repatriate the 391 Hungjin, the
South Korean fishing vessel captured on October 21, and the
10 crewmen (in a KCNA report).
- - Repatriate the
fishing boat and its crew members at the maritime border in
the East Sea at 18:30.
|
| October 27 | - The First
Committee of the UN General Assembly (Disarmament and
International Security) adopts three resolutions that
denounce North Korea’s nuclear test: resolution L35 (United
action with renewed determination toward the total
elimination of nuclear weapons); resolution L19
(Nuclear-weapon-free world); and resolution L42
(Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty).
- * South
Korea abstains from the voting of the L35 and L19
resolutions, but endorses the L42 resolution.
|
| October 28 |
- The International Olympic Committee (IOC) expresses its
willingness to cover all costs for North Korean athletes if
they participate in the upcoming PyeongChang 2018 Winter
Olympics in South Korea (in a Radio Free Asia report).
|
| October 31 | - The ROK President says that “The one
step North Korea takes toward PyeongChang will mark great
progress toward peace that cannot be obtained even with
hundreds of missiles” (in his opening speech to the general
assembly of the National Unification Advisory Council).
|
| October 31 | - The ROK government says that “Seoul and
Washington are aiming for the complete denuclearization of
the North, but are willing to negotiate with Pyongyang in
advance, as long as the allies can affirm the regime’s will
to denuclearize” (during a parliamentary inspection of the
Ministry of Unification by the Minister of
Unification).
|
