Weekly Report on North Korea from August 17 to 23, 2019 (No. 1479)
【Internal Affairs】
On August 17, the North Korean media
reported that Kim Jong Un gave field guidance at the test-firing of a
new weapon in the morning of August 16.
On August 19, the North Korean media reported that a meeting marking
the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the national quality
control system was held at the Central Workers’ Hall on August 18.
On August 20, the North Korean media reported on the progress in
construction of the Tanchon Power Plant: the North has successfully
dug and expanded a waterway tunnel under the Heocheon River and is
proceeding with concrete lining.
On August 21, the North Korean media reported that the North is
pushing for the construction of the Sunchon Phosphate Fertilizer
Factory in earnest.
【Inter-Korean Affairs】
On August 19, the North Korean media
condemned a South Korean lawmaker for criticizing the North’s missile
launch (August 16) in Tongcheon, Gangwon Province, the hometown of
late Hyundai Chairman Chung Ju-yung.
On August 20, the North Korean media denounced the joint military
exercises by the ROK-US Combined Forces Command.
On August 22, the North Korean media reported that a spokesperson
for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement, blasted the
South’s deployment of more F-35A stealth fighters, saying that
“Dialogue accompanied by military threats is of no interest to us.”
【Foreign Affairs】
On August 18 and 19, the North Korean
media reported the visit to China by Kim Su Gil, director of the
General Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army (KPA): He met
with the director of the Political Work Department of China’s Central
Military Commission (CMC) on August 18 and met with the vice chairman
of the CMC of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese head
of the International Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee
on the following day.
On August 22, the North Korean media condemned Japan for asserting
that the DPRK had abducted a man later found to have been living in
Japan for decades.
On August 23, the North Korean media reported that Foreign Minister
Ri Yong Ho, in a statement, blasted US Secretary of State Pompeo’s
comment that Washington would maintain the strongest sanctions in history.
On August 23, the North Korean media reported that a spokesperson
for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement, denounced Japan
for excluding the children of the Korean residents in Japan from
free-of-charge preschool education and childcare, saying that it is an
“extremely unequal and heinous move of national discrimination.”
