" China is the main way out of North Korea for people fleeing the country but for many of those who make it across the border and into the South, it is also a vital link for defectors sending much-needed money back to their families. In this instalment of a four-part series, Josephine Ma looks at how exiles in the South find ways to support and stay in touch with their relatives back home  .


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Contact is usually brief and dangerous, with relatives travelling to the hermit kingdom’s border and using smuggled Chinese SIM cards to tap into telecommunications signals across the Yalu River.

According to Amnesty International, those in North Korea often have to walk through mountainous areas at night just for the fleeting phone conversations.

Remittances vary but a 2016 survey of 200 defectors by the Seoul-based Chosun newspaper found that about 60 per cent of the 200 respondents sent US$900-US$1,800 each year via agents in China and North Korea while one person reported sending US$9,000 a year. About 70 per cent said they transferred money regularly.

One mother in her 50s told the South China Morning Post that she remitted US$3,000 to her son in North Korea last year and had sent US$2,000 so far this year.

She said her son used a Chinese SIM card to make brief phone calls to her several times a year to confirm the transactions, and there was little time to ask him about his life.

“We cannot send text messages and the calls have to be short,” she said, adding that the conversations started with her son saying: “Mum, can you send me some money?”

She said the money was sent via a network of trusted Chinese and North Korean brokers, including smugglers who carried the cash across the border, together with other smuggled Chinese goods.

NGO workers said there were also brokers living in North Korea with Chinese bank accounts that they used to take payments.

The operations are illegal and dangerous in both countries so the brokers take a heavy cut, usually 30 per cent of the total, according to defectors.

Another defector said she received a call last month from her daughter in North Korea who said she needed money to pay for treatment for a sick member of the family.  "

WOW !!!!!!   ..... Look at what those rising interest rates are doing to the deficit !

" Japan is refusing to alter its hardline stance towards North Korea, claiming the regime poses a “serious and imminent threat” to its security, despite a lowering of regional tensions following Donald Trump’s summit with Kim Jong-un.

In its 2018 defence white paper, published on Tuesday, the defence ministry said North Korea’s nuclear capability and ballistic missiles proved that the security environment around Japan was becoming “increasingly severe”, despite recent dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington.

The North Korean leader made a vague pledge to denuclearise at historic meetings with Trump in Singapore in June, and with the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, along the countries’ heavily armed border in April.

The defence ministry voiced concern over Chinese military spending and naval activity in the South China Sea, as well as air and maritime activity around the disputed Senkaku islands in the East China Sea.

The document also referred to Russia’s growing military ambitions, adding that Tokyo should monitor activity near their maritime border – a reference to the disputed Kuril islands, which were seized from Japan by Soviet troops near the end of the second world war.

“North Korea’s military activities pose the most serious and pressing threat our nation has faced,” the white paper said. “Its military actions represent an unprecedented serious and imminent threat to Japan’s national security. There is no change in our basic recognition about the threat of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles.”

The white paper was published soon after Trump cancelled a planned trip to Pyongyang by the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, citing the regime’s lack of progress on nuclear disarmament since the president’s summit with Kim.

The paper noted that North Korea had conducted three nuclear tests and launched 40 ballistic missiles since the start of 2016. Some of the tests involved long-range missiles that flew over northern Japan – albeit at very high altitudes – while North Korea also possesses several hundred medium-range Rodong missiles that are capable of striking Japan.

“We need to keep a careful watch on North Korea to see what concrete action it takes to abandon its nuclear weapons and missiles,” the ministry said.

The defence minister, Itsunori Onodera, acknowledged there had been unprecedented attempts to establish dialogue with North Korea this year, but added: “We cannot overlook the fact that, even to this day, it possesses and fully deploys several hundred missiles that put nearly all of Japan within range.”

The ministry said China was attempting to unilaterally change the regional status quo “through coercion” by building military bases in the South China Sea and sending vessels into waters near the Senkakus, which are administered by Japan but claimed by China, where they are known as the Diaoyu.

Beijing had prompted “strong security concerns in the region and international community, including Japan”, the white paper said. It did, however, welcome the introduction of a mechanism designed to prevent an accident or miscalculation from escalating into conflict between Japan and China in disputed areas.

“China is showing an interest in building trust to prevent such incidents,” the ministry said. "