NAPSNet Daily Report Thursday, February 24, 2005

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"NAPSNet Daily Report Thursday, February 24, 2005", NAPSNet Daily Report, February 24, 2005, https://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-daily-report/napsnet-daily-report-thursday-february-24-2005/

NAPSNet Daily Report Thursday, February 24, 2005

NAPSNet Daily Report Thursday, February 24, 2005

I. United States

II. CanKor

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. United States

1. DPRK on Nuclear Talks

Korea Times (“N. KOREA WANTS US PLEDGE OF ‘NO HOSTILITY’”, 2005-02-24) reported that the DPRK wants the US to openly state it has “no hostile intent” before any further negotiations to resolve various problems between the two sides, including the nuclear dispute, diplomatic sources said Thursday. Pyongyang’s comments on “conditions” for future talks referred to a comprehensive security guarantee rather than material rewards, with the US promising not to attempt to topple or transform the Kim Jong-il regime, according to the sources.

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2. PRC on DPRK Nuclear Talks

New York Times (“CHINESE ENVOY RETURNS FROM NORTH KOREA SAYING IT IS OPEN TO TALKS”, 2005-02-24) reported that the PRC and the US have agreed that multiparty talks aimed at halting the DPRK’s nuclear weapons program should resume as early as possible, and the DPRK is open to the negotiations, PRC officials said Wednesday. In an interview on PRC television on Wednesday, Mr. Wang said the DPRK leader, Kim Jong Il, was open to negotiation despite the Feb. 10 announcement. “The North Korean side never opposed the six-party talks, and the DPRK is willing to return to the six-party talks at an early date,” Mr. Wang said of Mr. Kim’s position in their meeting.

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3. US, ROK, Japan on DPRK Nuclear Talks

Korea Herald (“U.S., S. KOREA, JAPAN ENVOYS TO DISCUSS N.K. NUCLEAR ISSUES”, 2005-02-24) reported that the ROK, US and Japanese envoys will meet on Saturday in Seoul to try to coax the DPRK back to talks on its nuclear weapons after leader Kim Jong-il signaled his isolationist country is ready to return to the negotiating table under certain conditions. ROK Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said the envoys will discuss the recent visit of top PRC official Wang Jiarui to the DPRK and how to arrange an early resumption of the six-party talks.

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4. Japan on DPRK Nuclear Talks

Yomiuri Shimbun (“GOVT SEEKS TO READ KIM’S MIND ON 6-WAY TALKS”, 2005-02-24) reported that in the wake of reports Tuesday that DPRK leader Kim Jong Il has been hinting at returning to the stalled six-nation talks, the government is keen to gauge Kim’s real intentions, sources said Wednesday. The government is especially interested in whether Kim’s remarks can be interpreted as indicating a change of mind from the Feb. 10 Pyongyang declaration to “boycott the six-way nuclear negotiations indefinitely.” His latest remarks concerning the stalled talks have encouraged those in the government and ruling coalition parties who favor imposing pressure on Pyongyang in preference to dialogue.

(return to top) The Associated Press (“JAPAN PRESSES NORTH KOREA TO REJOIN TALKS”, 2005-02-24) reported that Japan’s prime minister told the DPRK on Wednesday to stop denouncing Tokyo and instead rejoin multilateral talks on dismantling its nuclear weapons program. “Instead of criticizing Japan all the time, it would be in North Korea’s interests to get on board at the six-party talks,” Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters in Tokyo. “They should quickly make good use of the six-party framework and gain the confidence of the international community. I hope they understand this point and attend unconditionally.” (return to top)

5. ROK on DPRK Nuclear Issue

Yonhap (“N. KOREA UNLIKELY TO ACCEPT ‘LIBYAN MODEL’ IN DEFUSING NUCLEAR ROW”, 2005-02-24) reported that the DPRK is unlikely to accept US calls to follow Libya’s example in abandoning its nuclear weapons program, the ROK’s point man on the DPRK said Thursday. In a parliamentary report, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young cited the DPRK’s negative views on the Libyan model and reluctance to disarm amid what it calls an increasingly “hostile” US policy toward its regime.

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6. ROK on DPRK Nuclear Issue

Yonhap (“S KOREAN PRESIDENT TO ADDRESS NATION 25 FEBRUARY”, 2005-02-24) reported that ROK President Roh Moo-hyun plans to address the country on Friday in a speech at the National Assembly, officials said Thursday. Roh will also use the occasion to reconfirm his determination to resolve the ongoing standoff over the DPRK’s nuclear weapons program peacefully through dialogue, the president’s spokesman Kim Jong-min said.

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7. Russia on DPRK Nuclear Issue

RIA Novosti (“EXPERT: US WILL NOT PURSUE MILITARY OPTION IN NORTH KOREA”, 2005-02-24) reported that in an interview with Politichesky, a political affairs magazine, Alexander Konovalov, the president of the Institute for Strategic Estimates and Analysis says the DPRK’s recent announcement that it has nuclear weapons reveals its strategy: to sell its nuclear program for the best price. However, Mr. Konovalov believes any plans involving a military operation against the DPRK would lead to serious protests from the ROK, Japan, and PRC, which will instead continue to pressure Pyongyang. For Russia, any military outcome on the Korean peninsula could mean a nuclear disaster in the country’s Far East.

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8. ROK on DPRK Nuclear Program

Yonhap (“N. KOREA HAS YET TO BUILD HEU-BASED NUKE BOMBS: NIS REPORT”, 2005-02-24) reported that the DPRK has yet to build a highly-enriched uranium (HEU) factory for producing HEU-based nuclear weapons, the nation’s top spy agency said Thursday. The DPRK failed to do so as it could not secure key equipment due to enhanced inspection of the DPRK’s nuclear activities by the international community, it added.

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9. DPRK on Abductee Issue

KCNA news (“DPRK RULES OUT TALKS WITH JAPAN ON DISPUTED REMAINS”, 2005-02-24) reported that Japan told rubbish that the results of the DNA test of the remains of Megumi Yokota are false. We feel disgusted by Japan which fabricated the case by falsifying truth. We, therefore, have no intention to discuss the issue with the Japanese government. We strongly urge the Japanese government once again to probe the truth behind the fabrication of the results of the DNA test of the remains of Megumi, punish those responsible, apologize to her bereaved family and return the remains without delay.

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10. Japan on Sanctions on the DPRK

The Associated Press (“CAN JAPAN SQUEEZE NORTH KOREA INTO COOPERATING? IT MIGHT TRY”, 2005-02-24) reported that Japanese lawmakers are stretching their imaginations for ways to squeeze concessions out of the DPRK amid mounting frustration over Pyongyang’s failure to disclose all it knows about the Japanese it kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s. “We could stop the melon trade. Then Kim Jong Il wouldn’t be able to eat delicious melons and he would be furious,” said Ichita Yamamoto, a ruling party lawmaker. “He would ask, ‘Where are my melons?”‘ More seriously, they have suggested blocking all trade with the impoverished state and banning DPRK ships from Japanese ports.

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11. DPRK on Sanctions

Kyodo News (“N. KOREA WARNS OF ‘COUNTERACTION’ AGAINST JAPAN ‘TOUGH STEPS'”, 2005-02-24) reported that the DPRK warned Japan on Thursday of a “counteraction” if Japan imposes economic sanctions or any other “tough steps” on the country over Pyongyang’s abductions of Japanese citizens, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said. The DPRK reiterated in a document faxed to the Japanese Embassy in Beijing that it “can never accept” Japan’s DNA test results that showed the ashes Pyongyang claimed were those of a Japanese abductee were those of other people, it said.

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12. US on USS Pueblo

Agence France-Presse (“US DEMAND FOR RETURN OF SEIZED SPY SHIP ADDS TWIST TO KOREAN NUCLEAR SAGA”, 2005-02-24) reported that as diplomatic efforts to end a nuclear standoff between Washington and Pyongyang make little headway, a resolution has been introduced in the US Senate demanding that the DPRK return an American intelligence ship seized by the DPRK 37 years ago. The Republican senator from Colorado said although it had been more than three decades since the “disgraceful episode” occurred, “the United States government should demand the return of the USS Pueblo to the US Navy without further delay.”

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13. Clinton on DPRK Nuclear Issue

Korea Times (“CLINTON SUPPORTS PEACEFUL RESOLUTION OF NUCLEAR CRISIS”, 2005-02-24) reported that former US President Bill Clinton said Thursday he hopes the crisis surrounding the DPRK’s nuclear weapons program will be resolved peacefully. “I support a non-nuclear Korean Peninsula,” Clinton said during a reception held at Sheraton Grand Walkerhill Hotel in eastern Seoul on Thursday evening. He said he hopes “the U.S. and China and all friends of the Korean people” join together to resolve the present crisis. “This is consistent with my vision,” Clinton said. Clinton arrived in Seoul on Thursday to promote his autobiography, “My Life.”

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14. DPRK on KEDO LWR Project

Yonhap (“N. KOREA HOLDS TALKS ON SUSPENDED REACTOR PROJECT”, 2005-02-24) reported that the DPRK and a US-led international consortium met this week to discuss follow-up measures after the consortium suspended building two nuclear reactors in the DPRK for another year, officials said. “The KEDO hoped to take construction equipment out of the North, but the North is opposed to it until the compensation issue for the delayed project is resolved,” said Ku Hyon-mo, a ROK official who traveled to Hyangsan, North Pyongan Province for talks.

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15. DPRK on Inter-Korean Communications Network

Korea Times (“NK DELAYS TALKS ON PHONE RATES FOR KAESONG “, 2005-02-24) reported that the DPRK recently asked to delay working-level talks for building a cross-border communication network in Kaesong until early next month, the Ministry of Unification said Thursday. The DPRK did not elaborate on its reason for delaying the talks. This is not the first time an inter-Korean talk at governmental or private level has been unilaterally postponed only a few days prior to the meeting.

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16. Inter – Korean Economic Cooperation

Korea Times (“KAESONG GUIDEBOOK PUBLISHED”, 2005-02-24) reported that the Export-Import Bank of Korea (ExIm Bank) yesterday announced the publication of a guidebook on the Kaesong Industrial Complex in the DPRK. The 133-page book includes an introduction to the industrial complex, its investment climate and procedures, as well as other information. The state-run bank said the book provides useful details to companies interested in the Kaesong Complex and economic cooperation with the DPRK.

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17. ROK on Inter – Korean Railroad

Korea Times (“SEOUL TO FINISH S-N RAILROAD BY DEC”, 2005-02-24) reported that the ROK plans to finish connecting an inter-Korean railroad on the east coast by the end of the year to support a Mt. Kumgang tourism project in the DPRK, Minister of Unification Chung Dong-young said Thursday. He also said the government would negotiate with the DPRK to guarantee travelers’ safety when driving to the scenic resort area through the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

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18. Inter – Korean Trade

Asia Pulse/Yonhap (“NORTH-SOUTH KOREAN TRADE PROJECTED TO RISE”, 2005-02-24) reported that Inter-Korean trade is expected to increase this year, due to the development of Kaesong Industrial Complex built by the ROK in the DPRK, according to a trade group here. According to the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), trade between the two Koreas surged 34.7% on-year to US$42.42 million in January. “Despite the recent standoff surrounding the North’s nuclear weapons project, the development of the Kaesong Industrial Complex has been carried out steadily and increasing the exchange of goods between the South and the North,” a KITA official said on condition of anonymity.

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19. DPRK on ASEAN

Korea Times (“NK DIPLOMACY FOCUSES ON ASEAN”, 2005-02-24) reported that the DPRK has concentrated on forging diplomatic relations with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since the Cold War, a North Korean quarterly said. “The international environment since the Cold War raises the issue of further developing ties with ASEAN countries,” the latest edition of History Science said. The quarterly also said ASEAN was important for the DPRK to forge a sense of self-reliance in Asia and around the world and to make the DPRK a powerful socialist country.

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20. ROK Military Radio

Yonhap (“SUSPENDED PROPAGANDA FACILITIES REBORN AS MILITARY RADIO”, 2005-02-24) reported that the ROK’s border propaganda broadcasting facilities have been reborn as an educational radio station for the military, eight months after they were halted in accordance with inter-Korean rapprochement agreements. In mid-June, the ROK and DPRK halted decades-long propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts along their tense 248-kilometer land border. The ROK’s “Voice of Freedom” station, for instance, had boomed out propaganda broadcasts towards the DPRK for about 15 hours a day.

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21. Jenkins Case

The Associated Press (“U.S. ARMY DESERTER HOPES TO VISIT AMERICA”, 2005-02-24) reported that forty years after defecting to the DPRK, Charles Jenkins hopes to visit his US homeland with his Japanese wife and their two DPRK-born daughters, a Japanese official said Thursday. Koichiro Takano, the mayor of Sado, the town where Jenkins and his family live, was quoted by a Sado official as saying the former US Army sergeant would soon apply for a passport so he could go to the US.

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22. ROK – US Military Alliance

Korea Times (“S. KOREAN AND US AIR FORCE COMMANDERS’ TALKS HELD”, 2005-02-24) reported that General Paul V. Hester, commander of the US Pacific Air Forces, arrived in the ROK Wednesday for talks on bilateral military exchanges, the Air Force said Thursday. Gen. Hester met Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Lee Han-ho to discuss ways to facilitate bilateral military cooperation, such as the expansion of joint training, the Air Force said in a news release.

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23. ROK – Japanese Territorial Dispute

Choson Ilbo (“SEOUL SUMMONS JAPANESE EMBASSY OFFICIAL OVER ENVOY’S DOKDO GAFFE”, 2005-02-24) reported that the Foreign Ministry on Thursday summoned an official from the Japanese Embassy to register its protest over a remark by Japanese Ambassador to the ROK Toshiyuki Takano that the disputed Dokdo islets belong to Japan. A ministry official said Park Joon-woo, the director general of the ministry’s Asia-Pacific Affairs Bureau, stressed to Toshinao Urabe, a minister with the Japanese Embassy, Seoul’s unequivocal position that the islets belong to the ROK.

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24. ROK War Laborers Reparations

The Associated Press (“S. KOREAN WAR-LABORERS’ DEMANDS REJECTED”, 2005-02-24) reported that a Japanese court Thursday rejected a claim for compensation by a group of ROK women who were allegedly forced to work during World War II at a Japanese aircraft factory run by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. The plaintiffs are not eligible to seek compensation under a 1965 bilateral treaty between Japan and the ROK, Nagoya District Court Judge Kunio Sakuma ruled, the Kyodo News agency reported.

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25. Japan Cyberattacks

The Associated Press (“JAPANESE GOVERNMENT HIT BY CYBER ATTACKS”, 2005-02-24) reported that a series of cyber attacks disrupted Japanese government computer networks this week, although no damage was reported, Japan’s top government spokesman said Thursday. The attacks, seen three times each on Tuesday and Wednesday, targeted the Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet Office, causing computers to freeze up under a deluge of data and made it impossible for anyone to access the two Web sites, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told a news conference. “We don’t know whether the attack came from inside or outside the country,” Hosoda said.

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26. Japanese Space Program

Agence France-Presse (“JAPAN’S FIRST ROCKET LAUNCH SINCE 2003 SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY”, 2005-02-24) reported that Japan plans to send its domestically developed H-2A rocket into space on Saturday, the space agency said Thursday, in the country’s first launch since a mission failed in November 2003. The H-2A rocket will carry a multi-function satellite that can monitor weather and navigate aircraft.

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27. Cross Strait Relations

Reuters (“TAIWAN OPEN FOR UNIFICATION WITH CHINA”, 2005-02-24) reported that Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian told an opposition leader Thursday that he would not shut the door on eventual unification with rival PRC if Beijing expressed goodwill. Chen and People First Party Chairman James Soong signed a joint declaration at the end of the meeting, their first formal talks since Oct. 2000. But in their joint declaration, they promised that they would “not rule out the possibility of any model of relationship evolving on the basis of goodwill.”

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28. EU on PRC Weapons Ban

The New York Times (“EUROPE WANTS CHINA SALES BUT NOT JUST OF WEAPONS”, 2005-02-24) reported that to some critics, Europe’s plan to lift its arms embargo on the PRC is simply a way to make sure its weapons makers claim a slice of one of the world’s largest military budgets. But much more is at stake in Europe’s decision than whether it sells French fighter jets or German submarines to Beijing – namely broader commercial ties and some genuine diplomacy. “Europe wants to sell cars and perfume in China,” said Willem van der Geest, the director of the European Institute for Asian Studies, a research group in Brussels. “Its nonmilitary economic objectives weigh far more in this decision than any gains it would get from selling arms.”

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29. Sino – US Anti-Drug Cooperation

Reuters (“CHINA, U.S. TO SHARE INTEL IN ANTI-DRUG BATTLE”, 2005-02-24) reported that the PRC and the US will share information to combat illegal drug trafficking under a new scheme agreed in Beijing on Thursday. The PRC says some 80 percent of the 70-80 tons of heroin produced in the nearby “Golden Triangle” each year is smuggled into the country overland along the border with Myanmar. The US Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) head, Karen Tandy, signed with the PRC’s Bureau of Narcotics Control a memorandum of intent to launch the intelligence sharing arrangement.

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30. PRC Energy Supply

Agence France-Presse (“CHINA ANNOUNCES PLANS TO BUILD FOUR MORE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS”, 2005-02-24) reported that two PRC provinces have announced plans to build four multi-billion dollar nuclear power plants in the coming years to meet rampant energy demand and reduce the country’s heavy reliance on coal, state press said. The plans are part of the nation’s ambitious efforts to increase its nuclear generating capacity from the current 8,700 megawatts to 36,000 megawatts by 2020.

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31. PRC Energy Efficiency

Xinhua (“ENERGY-SAVING BUILDING BOOM IN THE MAKING”, 2005-02-24) reported that the PRC will see a construction boom of green, energy-efficient buildings in the coming 15 years, Qiu Baoxing, vice minister of construction, said here Wednesday. By 2020, the PRC will transform all existing buildings into energy-saving buildings, Qiu said at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office. Currently, energy-saving buildings in the PRC occupy less than one percent of the country’s total construction by square meter.

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32. PRC Environment

Agence France-Presse (“CHINA’S SOUTHERN BOOMTOWN MUST CLEAN UP ITS ACT, MAYOR ADMITS”, 2005-02-24) reported that massive pollution caused by the astonishingly swift expansion of one of PRC’s principal economic success stories is not sustainable, the city’s mayor has conceded in a rare official admission of error. “We must find a way of more sustainable development,” Li said during a meeting in the city with visiting British finance minister Gordon Brown late on Wednesday. “In the past 20 years with the development we have had, there have been big problems in the environment, including industrial pollution.”

(return to top) Xinhua (“3 MAJOR RIVERS HEAVILY POLLUTED”, 2005-02-24) reported that three of the PRC’s major rivers, Haihe, Liaohe and Huaihe, are heavily polluted, according to the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) in a report released here Tuesday. Water pollution in China is ranked into five categories with the fifth being the worst. A survey of 345 bodies of water and 175 rivers show that about 46.7 percent of water pollution is between first to third category and 24.9 percent between fourth and fifth category. Water pollution below the fifth category accounts for 28.4 percent of water surveyed, says the report. (return to top)

33. PRC Three Gorges Dam Project

Reuters (“CHINA RESETTLES HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS FROM DAM SITE”, 2005-02-24) reported that the PRC has resettled about three quarters of the more than 1 million people forced from their homes by the massive Three Gorges Dam project but now must find ways to employ them, officials said on Thursday. By the end of last year, 810,000 mostly rural residents had been moved from the world’s largest hydroelectric project, but the region was grappling with ways to keep them from becoming an underclass, said Wang Hongju, mayor of the huge western municipality of Chongqing.

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34. PRC AIDS Issue

Reuters (“CHINA MUST EXPAND AIDS FIGHT — UNICEF”, 2005-02-24) reported that the PRC, having finally broken its silence about AIDS, must now expand its struggle against the disease nationwide but faces challenges in prevention and treatment, UNICEF said on Thursday. “I think China has at least broken through the silence barrier, but having broken through the silence barrier it now has to take AIDS on as a China-wide challenge,” UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy said in a speech in Beijing. She warned that “prevention, services, information and treatment are all remaining challenges for China.”

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II. CanKor

35. CanKor # 197

CANADA-KOREA ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SERVICE (“KIM JONG IL INDICATES WILLINGNESS TO RETURN TO TALKS”, None) Three questions on the minds and lips of North Korea watchers are answered in the affirmative after the weekend visit to Pyongyang of a Chinese delegation led by Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese Communist Party’s international liaison department. Would the delegation be granted an audience with DPRK leader Kim Jong Il, would China be able to cajole North Korea back to the six-party table, and would inducements be offered to achieve this result? A longer than usual report in the Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday 22 February, reproduced in this issue of CanKor, not only confirms the audience with the supreme leader, but even more unusually quotes Kim Jong Il directly on the matter of the six-party talks. “We will go to the negotiating table anytime if there are mature conditions for the six-party talks,” he is quoted as saying. The meaning of “mature conditions” is clarified as including sincerity and forward movement on the part of the USA. Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency reports on the same day that China indicated its readiness to increase oil deliveries to the DPRK to induce flexibility. www.cankor.ca

(return to top) CANADA-KOREA ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SERVICE (“US-JAPAN JOINT STATEMENT ON NORTH KOREA”, None) US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura issue a joint statement urging the return of the DPRK to six-party talks as “the best way forward to multilateral security assurances, a better life for its people, and progress toward a new relationship with its neighbours, the region, and the world.” www.cankor.ca (return to top) CANADA-KOREA ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SERVICE (“FOCUS: DIVERGENT STATEGIES ON HUMAN RIGHTS”, 2005-02-24) Two conferences were held last week to discuss the issue of North Korean human rights. In the FOCUS section of this issue of CanKor, we feature two documents. The first is a resolution issued by the Sixth International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees, meeting in Seoul. The second is the report of a participant at an international consultation on peace and human rights in North Korea, convened in Geneva by Forum Asia. The purpose of the latter consultation was to try to bridge the gap between those who see human rights in the DPRK as the overriding priority (e.g. the participants at the Seoul conference), and those who give primacy to security and humanitarian concerns (e.g. humanitarian agencies working inside the DPRK). www.cankor.ca (return to top)