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July 2, 2009: South Korea’s Unification Ministry (MOU) notes that, despite reports that he was ill during the first half of this year, Kim Jong-il made a record number of public appearances: 77, up from 49 last year. More than usual – 31 or 40 percent – were to economic sites like factories and farms. Military inspections, usually preponderant at 60-70 percent, were down to 29 percent: about the same as attendance at artistic events and cultural exhibitions. July 2, 2009: A South Korean government report reckons that the North will be short 840,000 tons of food this year, with an expected supply of 4.29 million tons (including a million tons from abroad) against needs of 5.13 million tons. July 2, 2009: The DPRK test-fires four short-range KN-01 surface-to-ship missiles, with a range of 120-160 kilometers, from a base at Sinsang-ri north of the port of Wonsan. July 2, 2009: North and South meet at the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC) to discuss its future, but resolve none of the outstanding issues. No date is set to meet again. North Korea-South Korea Relations 92 October 2009 July 4, 2009: North Korea fires seven ballistic missiles – two mid-range Nodongs and five shorter-range Scuds – into the East Sea from its Kitdaeryong base near Wonsan. This is its largest one-day barrage since a long-range Taepodong-2 and six smaller missiles fired in July 2006. The ROK calls this a “provocative act” that violates UN Security Council resolutions banning all DPRK ballistic missile activity. The ROK joint chiefs of staff declare that “Our military is fully prepared to deal with any threats and provocations by the North, based on a strong joint defense alliance with the US.” July 5, 2009: South Korea’s Defense Ministry (MND) warns that the ballistic missiles test-fired by North Korea are capable of striking key government and military facilities in the South. July 6, 2009: On the eve of the 100th day of detention of Yu Song-jin, a Hyundai engineer arrested at the KIC on March 31, MOU again calls on the North to “immediately release [him] and guarantee our basic rights, including the right to access, under our agreement on the Kaesong industrial complex.” July 6, 2009: Lee Chan-ho, chief analyst of cross-border ties at MOU, says that as of June 22 DPRK media have denigrated President Lee 1,705 times so far this year: an average of 9.9 times each day, up from 7.6 last year. Other ROK ministers are being similarly insulted. July 7-9, 2009: Several major public and private ROK websites, including the Blue House, Defense Ministry and National Assembly, are swamped by cyber-attacks, as are a number of official sites in the U.S. July 8, 2009: The North’s Korean Central Broadcasting Station (KCBS) television shows a brief clip of a gaunt-looking Kim Jong-il, with receding hair and limping slightly, at a memorial service in Pyongyang marking the 15th anniversary of the death of his father, Kim Il-sung. July 9, 2009: MOU says South Korea will tighten control of Southern goods entering the North in line with UNSC Resolution 1874, “mostly banning luxury items such as wine and fur.” July 9, 2009: Citing the need to counter the North’s nuclear threats, MND asks for a 7.9 percent increase in funding next year, for a total budget of 30.8 trillion won ($24.1 billion). July 9, 2009: What purports to be a presence on Twitter by the DPRK’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), which began on April 23 and has 4,3000 followers, is revealed as a hoax by activists of Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF). The aim is to make KCNA’s content available in South Korea, where North Korean media are still banned. July 10, 2009: The real KCNA says that North Korea’s population census, conducted on Oct. 1-15 last year, “is making progress in its final stage.” A preliminary count released in February put the DPRK’s total population at 24,050,000. July 10, 2009: On the eve of the anniversary of the fatal shooting of a Southern tourist at the Mount Kumgang resort a year ago, Seoul reiterates its demand for talks to resolve the impasse. North Korea-South Korea Relations 93 October 2009 July 12, 2009: An intelligence source tells Yonhap that North Korea has stolen the personal information of at least 1.65 million South Koreans since 2004. July 17, 2009: Korea Development Institute (KDI), a leading ROK state think tank, says in a report that North Korea currently faces its worst economic and diplomatic crisis since 1994. July 18, 2009: The DPRK weekly Tongil Sinbo criticizes Seoul’s plan, announced in June, to create a 3,000-strong military unit to assist UN and other global peacekeeping operations as a scheme to “provoke a second Korean War.” July 18, 2009: Tongil Sinbo says the future of the Kaesong Industrial Complex is on the brink of breakdown because of South Korea’s “insincere and confrontational” attitude. July 20, 2009: President Lee Myung-bak urges Hyun Byung-chul, new head of the ROK’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), to “pay special attention to human rights conditions in North Korea.” Past ROK governments had tended to downplay this topic. July 21, 2009: ROK Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan thanks his ASEAN counterparts for “sending a resolute message” in a resolution the day before criticizing North Korea for its nuclear test and missile launches. July 21, 2009: MOU says it is unaware of any Northern move to resume family reunions in response to a report by Minjok 21, a progressive Southern magazine, that quoted a recent visitor to Pyongyang as saying the North plans to propose “special family reunions” around Chusok, the Korean harvest festival. July 21, 2009: The South’s Korea Customs Service (KCS) reports that inter-Korean trade in the first half of this year totaled $649.85 million, down 26.6 percent from the same period last year. North-South trade has fallen year-on-year in each of the past 10 months. July 23, 2009: MOU forbids the Committee for the June 15 Joint Declaration, a leftist NGO, from accepting an invitation from its Northern counterpart to meet in Shenyang, China. July 24, 2009: The DPRK Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland (CPRF) attacks the ROK’s latest annual White Paper on Reunification, published on July 17, as an “anti-reunification document that fraudulently used the title of unification.” July 25, 2009: Seoul says its will resume humanitarian aid to North Korea via NGOs, frozen since Pyongyang’s long-range rocket launch in early April. MOU spent just $21.5 million or 1.8 percent of its annual aid budget for the North during January-April. July 26, 2009: South Korea’s Foreign Ministry (MOFAT) says Seoul would not oppose any bilateral dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington, citing the strong U.S.-ROK alliance. North Korea-South Korea Relations 94 October 2009 July 26, 2009: On the eve of the Armistice which ended the 1950-53 Korean War, DPRK Armed Forces Minister Kim Yong-chun warns that “we will deal unimaginably deadly blows at the U.S. imperialists and the South Korean puppets if they ignite a war.” July 26, 2009: DPRK media criticize annual joint U.S.-ROK Ulchi Freedom Guardian military exercises as “a military plan aimed at invading the North.” July 27, 2009: The ROK Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MOSF) announces it will implement new UN sanctions targeting five North Korean individuals and five DPRK organizations. July 29, 2009: Chung Eui-hwa, a lawmaker of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) and co-chair of the Korea Sharing Movement (KSM), a Southern NGO, cancels a planned four-day visit to Pyongyang as the North’s Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation (KCRC) did not send the expected invitation. July 30, 2009: A 29-ton South Korean squid-fishing boat, the 800 Yeonanho, with a crew of four, is towed into Jangjon port in southeastern North Korea, having earlier reported that its GPS navigation system was malfunctioning. July 31, 2009: KCNA condemns alleged aerial espionage by the U.S. and South Korea, citing some 180 surveillance missions in July alone. It accuses both nations of remaining unchanged in their attempts to forcibly stifle the DPRK. Aug. 1, 2009: A team from World Vision’s South Korea branch begins an eight-day trip to North Korea, to resume aid to potato farmers there. They are the first Southern NGO approved by MOU to visit the North since May’s nuclear test. Aug. 2, 2009: The management committee of the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KICMC) announces that South Koreans driving across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to the KIC need no longer carry photos and detailed travel plans for every passenger. Aug. 4, 2009: Ex-U.S. President Bill Clinton visits Pyongyang. After three hours of talks and dinner with Kim Jong-il, he departs with two U.S. journalists, who were arrested and sentenced for illicitly entering North Korea from China. Aug. 7, 2009: MOU reports an easing of hostile rhetoric by North Korean media in July. Criticisms of the ROK government fell to four from 23 in May and 13 in June. Personal attacks on President Lee were down to 275 from 454 in June and 333 in May. Aug. 8, 2009: Rodong Sinmun, daily paper of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), says that “the improvement and development of North-South relations is a prerequisite to settling the problems of the Korean nation.” But it blames current tensions on Seoul’s “confrontational policy.” Aug. 10, 2009: North Korea’s Foreign Ministry warns that Pyongyang will “closely watch” how other countries react to South Korea’s imminent launch of a space rocket, claiming that the DPRK has been unfairly punished for its own rocket launch in April. North Korea-South Korea Relations 95 October 2009 Aug. 10, 2009: Hyun Jung-eun, chairwoman of Hyundai, enters North Korea for a planned three-day visit to secure freedom for the Hyundai Asan worker, Yu Seong-jin. Aug. 13, 2009: North Korea releases the detained Hyundai Asan worker, Yu Seong-jin, who returns to the South across the DMZ the same day. He had been held since March 31. Aug. 14, 2009: Hyundai chair Hyun Jeong-eun meets Kim Yang-gon, a WPK department director and close aide to Kim Jong-il. Aug. 15, 2009: On the 64th anniversary of liberation from Japan in 1945, a holiday in both Koreas, ROK President Lee declares a “peace initiative.” Aug. 16, 2009: The Panmunjom Mission of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) condemns the Ulji Freedom Guardian joint ROK-U.S. military exercises. Aug. 16, 2009: Hyundai’s Hyun Jung-eun finally has lunch with Kim Jong-il. An accord announced next day between Hyundai and the North’s Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee (KAPCC) agrees to resume joint tourism projects, facilitate operation of the KIC, and hold reunions of separated families at Mount Kumgang around the Chusok festival. Aug. 17, 2009: MOU cautiously welcomes Hyundai’s accord with the North, but notes that its implementation will require “a concrete agreement through dialogue” between the two governments. It promises to try to expedite family reunions via the Red Cross. Aug. 17-27, 2009: The U.S. and South Korea conduct Ulchi Freedom Guardian, an annual joint military exercise involving about 56,000 ROK troops and 10,000 U.S. troops. Aug. 18, 2009: Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung dies. Aug. 19, 2009: KCNA says that a Northern delegation led by WPK secretary Kim Ki-nam will visit Seoul to mourn former President Kim Dae-jung. Aug. 20, 2009: North Korea says it will restore road and rail cross-border traffic at the level before it imposed restrictions on Dec. 1, and reopen the joint office on economic cooperation at the Kaesong industrial complex. ROK firms in Kaesong welcome the news. Aug. 22, 2009: WPK director Kim Yang-gon and ROK Unification Minister Hyun In-taek hold the first high-level inter-Korean talks in nearly two years, in Seoul. Hyun also hosts a dinner for the entire six-person Northern delegation that evening. Aug. 22, 2009: New York Times quotes Rev. Lee Chan-woo, an ROK activist, as accusing the freed U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee of damaging his Durihana mission’s work with DPRK refugees on the Chinese border. North Korea-South Korea Relations 96 October 2009 Aug. 24, 2009: South Korea launches the first space rocket launch from its soil after repeatedly postponing it due to technical reasons. While the launch is successful, the satellite fails to deploy to its intended orbit and falls back into the earth’s atmosphere. Aug. 23, 2009: Having extended their stay in Seoul, the visiting DPRK delegates meet President Lee at the Blue House and deliver a verbal message from Kim Jong-il. Aug. 24, 2009: Amid the ongoing Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise, Ri Yong-ho, chief of the KPA general staff, warns that “the army and the people will deal a merciless and immediate annihilating strike on the aggressors using all means of attack and defense, including a nuclear deterrent, should the enemies violate even an inch into the sky, land and sea of our fatherland.” Aug. 25, 2009: MOU issues a report on Yu Seong-jin, which confirms that the Hyundai worker dated a Northern cleaner at his hostel in the Kaesong IC, writing her letters critical of Kim Jong-il and urging her to defect. Aug. 26, 2009: For the first time in 21 months, Red Cross officials from both Koreas meet at Mount Kumgang to discuss a new round of reunions of separated families. Aug. 27, 2009: Choson Sinbo, the daily paper of pro-North Koreans in Japan, says that Kim Jong-il has decided to break the North-South impasse and that upcoming family reunions “will be a new watershed in improving inter-Korean relations.” Aug. 27, 2009: MOU says South Korea has no plan to resume rice and fertilizer aid to the North, despite recent fence-mending. This would require separate government consultations. Aug. 28, 2009: The two Koreas’ Red Cross bodies agree to hold family reunions at Mount Kumgang from Sept. 26 to Oct 1, just before Chusok. Aug. 28, 2009: DPRK Red Cross delegates tell their ROK counterparts that North Korea did not suffer major flood damage from this summer’s monsoons, unlike in 2006 and 2007. Aug. 29, 2009: After being held for almost a month, the ROK squid boat 800 Yeonanho and its crew are released by North Korea and returned to Southern waters. Aug. 31, 2009: Rodong Sinmun calls on North and South to strive for peace and unity rather than mistrust and confrontation. Other DPRK media also switch to a similar gentler tune. Sept. 2, 2009: The western sector inter-Korean military hotline reopens after more than a year. A similar east coast hotline was suspended last December and restored in August. Sept. 4, 2009: Pyongyang says its uranium enrichment program (UEP) has entered its final phase, and that it is making more nuclear weapons from extracted plutonium. Seoul criticizes this as provocative. North Korea-South Korea Relations 97 October 2009 Sept. 4, 2009: Choson Sinbo says that North Korea wants to simultaneously improve ties with the U.S. and South Korea. It criticizes ROK Unification Minister Hyun In-taek for still linking inter-Korean relations to North Korea’s nuclear disarmament. Sept. 6, 2009: A sudden discharge from North Korea’s Hwanggang dam on the Imjin River drowns six South Koreans camping further downstream. Seoul demands an explanation. Sept. 7, 2009: The Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Consultation Office (IKECCO) at the KIC resumes operation, nine months after the North shut it down. Sept. 8, 2009: Seoul demands an apology and full explanation of the North’s dam discharge. Sept. 9, 2009: Unification Minister Hyun In-taek tells the ROK National Assembly that the DPRK may have deliberately discharged 40 million tons of water from its dam. Sept. 9, 2009: The DPRK mark its 61st anniversary with low-key celebrations. There is no direct criticism of South Korea, and relatively little of the U.S. Sept. 11, 2009: MOU says North Korea has withdrawn its earlier demand for a four-fold wage increase for its workers at Kaesong Industrial Complex. Sept. 11, 2009: MOFAT says that North Korea’s dam discharge broke international law. Sept. 14, 2009: MOFAT spokesman says Seoul does not oppose the idea of bilateral U.S.-DPRK talks, provided these expedite the six-party process rather than replacing it. Sept. 15, 2009: President Lee attributes recent DPRK gestures to the impact of UNSC sanctions, but says it “is still not showing any sincerity or signs that it will give up its nuclear ambitions.” Sept. 16, 2009: The two Koreas agree on a 5 percent wage hike for DPRK workers at the Kaesong complex, after the North without explanation withdraws the demand for a 400 percent rise. The new raise will increase the minimum wage to about $58 from the current $55. Sept. 16, 2009: MOU says the North is conducting a survey of all 114 Southern firms at Kaesong. Its aim is to examine their output and “listen to their complaints and difficulties regarding tax and accounting.” Sept. 16, 2009: A ceremony is held to mark completion of phase one of the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) after seven years of construction. A 20-strong ROK delegation attends, including an aide to President Lee. Sept. 21, 2009: Visiting the U.S., President Lee proposes a “grand bargain” to resolve the DPRK nuclear issue, including economic-political incentives and a security guarantee. Sept. 21-24, 2009: The Pyongyang Autumn International Trade Fair is held. Firms from 16 countries participate, including “Taipei of China” (Taiwan). South Korea is not represented. North Korea-South Korea Relations 98 October 2009 Sept. 22, 2009: South Korea says it will go ahead with building a nursery at the KIC. Sept. 26-28, 2009: The first reunions of separated families in two years are held at Mount Kumgang, briefly reuniting 97 South Koreans with 233 of their Northern relatives. Sept. 28, 2009: The text of the DPRK Constitution as revised in April reaches the outside. Kim Jong-il’s Songun (military-first) policy now gets equal billing with juche (self-reliance). The National Defence Commission (NDC) is strengthened, and communism is abolished. Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 2009: Reunions of separated families are held at Mount Kumgang, bringing together 98 North Koreans with 428 of their Southern relatives. Sept. 30, 2009: President Lee says Seoul should take the lead in resolving global issues as well as those involving the DPRK. Regarding the North, he adds: “We’ve lacked our own voice in simply following proposals from Washington and Beijing.” Sept. 30, 2009: KCNA rejects Lee Myung-bak’s “grand bargain” idea unless the ROK first discards confrontational policies. Sept. 30, 2009: Fourteen ROK opposition lawmakers urge the government to resume sending rice aid to the DPRK as a way to help reduce a rice surplus and stabilize prices for farmers.