I. Unites States

1. US on Six-Party Talks

Xinhua (“US URGES DPRK TO RETURN TO SIX PARTY TALKS”, 2005-07-05) reported that the US on Tuesday reiterated calls for the DPRK to return to the six-party talks. “We have been urging for quite some time North Korea to return to the six-party talks without precondition and to engage in a constructive manner,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at a briefing to announce Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s upcoming trip to Asia. “We have been in consultation, and on this trip will consult again, with other members of the six-party talks about the way forward, but we still urge the North Koreans to return to the table and engage in a constructive manner,” he said.

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2. ROK on Six-Party Talks

Bloomberg Press (“NORTH KOREA SHOULD KEEP ITS WORD, RETURN TO TALKS, BAN SAYS “, 2005-07-06) reported that the according to ROK Foreign Minister Ban Kim Moon, the DPRK should keep its word and return this month to the six-party talks. “As the leader of the DPRK has voiced a willingness to return to talks in July, North Korea should respond to the expectations of the global community and become a member of the international society,” Ban said.

(return to top) Reuters (“SEOUL SEES N.KOREA NUCLEAR TALKS THIS MONTH”, 2005-07-06) reported that the ROK expects six party talks to resume this month and on Wednesday called on the DPRK to set a firm date for its return to the talks. “A lot of effort has been made to create favourable conditions for the North’s participation in the six-party talks. We believe North Korea knows that, and we expect the resumption of the talks in July,” ROK Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon told reporters. (return to top)

3. ROK on Inter-Korean Relations

Yonhap News (“INTER-KOREAN TIES REVIVIED, NORMALIZED: UNIFICATION MINISTER “, 2005-07-06) reported that ROK Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Wednesday formerly stalled inter-Korean relations were “completely revived and normalized” last month when the countries held celebrations marking the historic inter-Korean summit in 2000. “After the fifth anniversary ceremony of the June 15 joint declaration, the South-North dialogue was completely revived and normalized and found an occasion to make a fresh jump-start,” Chung said in a forum in Seoul.

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4. ROK on Rice’s Tour of Asia

International Herald Tribune (“SEOUL CALLS RICE TOUR CRUCIAL TO NORTH TALKS “, 2005-07-06) reported that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to visit the PRC, Thailand, Japan and the ROK on a tour of Asia set to start this weekend. The ROK government said on Wednesday that the visit would be crucial to determining whether the six-party talks could resume this month. ROK Foreign Minister Ban Kim Moon believes the talks will resume in July saying, Rice’s trip “will become a good occasion for an early resumption of the talks,” because she will discuss not only how to resume the talks but also “how to make substantial progress when the talks begin.”

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5. ROK Negotiator in US

Yonhap News (“S. KOREAN NUCLEAR NEGOTIATOR IN WASHINGTON FOR TALKS ON N. KOREA”, 2005-07-06) reported that an ROK nuclear negotiator was visiting the US for talks on resuming negotiations with the DPRK. Ambassador Cho Tae-yong, deputy chief of the ROK’s negotiating team for the nuclear talks, left for Washington on Tuesday and is scheduled to meet US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, and his deputy Joseph DeTrani. His trip will address how to reopen the six-party talks at an early date and achieve substantial progress once they resume, the ROK Foreign ministry said.

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6. EU Parliamentarians to Visit Koreas

Korea.Net (“EU PARLIAMENTARIANS TO MAKE SHUTTLE VISITS TO PYONGYANG, SEOUL “, 2005-07-05) reported that a European Parliament delegation will visit Pyongyang and Seoul this weekend on an eight-day trip aimed at helping to resolve the DPRK nuclear crisis. The delegation is expected to meet Kim Yong-nam, the DPRK’s second highest-ranking official and head of its Supreme People’s Assembly, as well as Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun, officials said. Traveling on to Seoul via the PRC on July 14, the European parliamentarians will stay there for three days and meet with National Assembly Speaker Kim One-ki, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young and Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon.

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7. New US Ambassador for ROK

Joonang Daily (“U.S. ENVOY TO RUSSIA SEEN COMING TO SEOUL”, 2005-07-06) reported that Alexander Vershbow, the US ambassador to Russia, is in line to become the new US ambassador to the ROK. After the former ambassador, Christopher Hill left Seoul to take an assistant state secretary post in March; the position of US envoy to Seoul has been vacant. Mr. Vershbow, an expert on Russia and Europe has been serving in Moscow since July 2001. The US embassy in Seoul however, said yesterday it cannot confirm Mr. Vershbow’s appointment as the White House has not yet made a public announcement.

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8. PRC on US-DPRK Relations

Interfax (“MEETINGS TO PROMOTE UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN U.S., N. KOREA – CHINA”, 2005-07-05) reported that the PRC hopes that meetings between the US and DPRK officials in New York will play a positive role in achieving mutual understanding between the two nations, according to PRC Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Zian Chao. The PRC hopes that all countries taking part in the six-party talks, primarily the US and DPRK, will take a pragmatic and flexible stance in order to promote fruitful six-side talks and create the necessary conditions for their resumption, he told a briefing on Tuesday.

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9. ROK Aid to DPRK

Korea.Net (“GOVERNMENT TO READY LARGER BUDGET FOR N. KOREAN SUPPORT PROGRAMS “, 2005-07-05) reported that the ROK Ministry of Planning and Budget said on Tuesday will increase its budget for unification affairs starting next year in order to launch a new project supporting infants and women. The ministry said that the government decided to provide foods, medical supplies and medical equipment to the DPRK as part of aid programs for the country.

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10. Expert on ROK Aid to DPRK

Korea Times (“`SEOUL’S MONEY CAN’T BUY NK REFORM'”, 2005-07-06) reported that ROK monetary assistance to help the DPRK transform its economy will be wasted unless the DPRK regime wants to reform, according to Johannes Linn, a former World Bank expert. Linn, now a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said that whether or not the DPRK government is willing to adopt substantial market reform is the key to a successful economic transition. “Surely putting money in from South Korea is a good idea if it helps incentivize a peaceful transition in North Korea,” said Linn. “But one has to be very careful to think about how that money is actually applied and not to have too high expectations that the money itself will buy an efficient transformation process.”

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11. DPRK on Bird Flu Outbreak

Yonhap News (“N. KOREA ERADICATES BIRD FLU: OFFICIAL”, 2005-07-06) reported that the DPRK has eradicated the outbreak of bird flu that hit the country in February. “The bird flu has been fully eradicated in Choson in a short period of time due to national interest and aggressive action,” U Song-rim, a director of the DPRK’s Central Anti-epizootic Center said in an article carried by the DPRK’s monthly Choson. In an effort to preempt a new outbreak of the poultry disease, the DPRK is working on research about the virus and controlling people at its borders while monitoring the path of migratory birds and checking workers at poultry farms and vaccinating chicken, U said.

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12. Freedom of Religion in DPRK

Joonang Daily (“NORTH PURSUIT OF CHURCH LIFE IS CALLED HARSH”, 2005-07-06) reported that a Seoul-based research institute, citing interviews with DPRK defectors, said yesterday that the DPRK is continuing an aggressive campaign to suppress underground churches in the country. The 2005 North Korea Human Rights White Paper published by the Korea Institute of National Unification reported a number of executions of religious figures operating underground Protestant churches in the DPRK. Since 1997, the DPRK has been instructing its people to report any kind of proselytizing to the authorities. As a pretense that religious freedom exists in the DPRK, Pyongyang has built a number of churches, but underground churches have been vigorously suppressed.

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13. DPRK Espionnage

Joonang Daily (“SPY SERVICE: 7 AGENTS CAUGHT IN 3 YEARS”, 2005-07-06) reported that seven DPRK spies have been arrested over the last three years, two of whom are suspected of transferring information back to the DPRK over the internet. One suspect was arrested on charges of contacting the DPRK’s propaganda agency, the National Democratic Front, via e-mail. Another suspect was arrested on charges of uploading information on an Internet bulletin board that could be accessed by the DPRK. Three DPRK agents were arrested in 2003, and three were taken into custody last year. So far this year, the intelligence service has arrested one agent.

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14. Russia on Non-Proliferation Regulations

RIA Novosti (“RUSSIA TO USE G8 SUMMIT TO IMPROVE NON-PROLIFERATION REGULATIONS”, 2005-07-06) reported that Russia intended to use the G8 summit to fulfill the important task of improving non-proliferation regulations. “It is very important that other (non-G8) countries do not view these regulations as dividing lines between industrialized and developing countries,” the source said. “On the contrary, these regulations must unite countries to attain the common goal of preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.” He added that effective barriers must be established to prevent terrorists from obtaining WMD or their components.

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15. ROK-Japan Territorial Dispute

Korea Times (“JAPAN UPS SURVEILLANCE NEAR DOKDO”, 2005-07-06) reported that Japanese patrol boats have appeared much more frequently near the ROK’s Dokdo islets in the East Sea than before, military officers said Wednesday. According to the Defense Ministry, the number of times that Japanese patrol vessels appeared near the rocky islets stood at 38 as of July 4, more than twice as high as in previous years.

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16. Japan on UNSC Expansion

Kyodo (“KOIZUMI IN SCOTLAND, TO SEEK G-8 BACKING FOR JAPAN’S UNSC BID”, 2005-07-06) reported that Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi arrived Wednesday in Scotland to attend the Group of Eight summit, with one of his aims being to seek support from other G-8 leaders for Japan’s bid to get a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.

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17. AU on UNSC Expansion

Reuters (“AFRICA THROWS U.N. COUNCIL EXPANSION INTO A MUDDLE”, 2005-07-06) reported that the African Union’s new plan to expand the UN Security Council by 11 members has thrown a proposal by Germany, Brazil, India and Japan into turmoil, diplomats said. At its just-ended summit in Sirte, Libya, on Tuesday, the AU said the 15-member UN council should be expanded to 26 seats, with six new permanent members, two of them from Africa. It also wants five new nonpermanent seats with two for Africa.

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18. Russia, PRC on US Military Bases in Central Asia

The New York Times (“CENTRAL ASIANS CALL ON U.S. TO SET A TIMETABLE FOR CLOSING BASES”, 2005-07-06) reported that Russia, the PRC and four Central Asian states called Tuesday for the US to set a deadline for withdrawing from military bases in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The wording in their declaration, made by members of a regional alliance known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, was veiled but clear, and it marked anew the shifting diplomatic ground in Central Asia since mid-May, when Uzbekistan used gunfire to put down an uprising and antigovernment demonstration in Andijon.

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19. Cross Strait Relations

Kyodo (“TAIWAN OPPOSITION PARTIES HEADING TO CHINA FOR AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS”, 2005-07-06) reported that a group of Taiwan opposition lawmakers is set to leave for the PRC on Thursday to discuss exports of Taiwan’s agricultural products to the mainland as the government warned against any agreements to be signed without official authorization. The trip is viewed as one of a series of follow-up moves made after Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan and People First Party Chairman James Soong visited the mainland between late April and mid-May.

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20. PRC Rural Poverty

People’s Daily Online (“26.1 MILLION RURAL RESIDENTS LIVING IN ABSOLUTE POVERTY IN CHINA “, 2005-07-06) reported that there are still 26.1 million rural residents living in absolute poverty in the PRC, 49.77 million with low income and over 22 million urban residents covered by subsistence allowances, Li Xuju, PRC Minister of Civil Affairs revealed at a national working conference. Li said the PRC will ensure establishment of basic framework of the social assistance system for the destitute living in extreme poverty in urban and rural areas in 90 percent of provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) and 70 percent of counties by the end of this year.

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21. PRC AIDS Issue

The Japan Times (“CHINA, INDIA KEY TO CONTAINING AIDS PANDEMIC”, 2005-07-06) reported that providing effective AIDS prevention and treatment in the PRC and India will determine whether the global epidemic can be contained, officials at the 7th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific warned Monday. “Among 20 countries that account for 85 percent of the unmet global treatment need, millions of Chinese and Indians’ lives hang in the balance. Efforts in these two countries will determine the course of the global epidemic,” said Jim Yong Kim, director of the HIV/AIDS department at the World Health Organization.

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22. PRC Freedom of Religion

BBC News (“CHINA PASTOR ON TRIAL OVER BIBLES “, 2005-07-06) reported that the leader of an underground PRC church is due to appear in a Beijing court on Thursday, accused of illegally printing more than 200,000 Bibles. Cai Zhuohua, along with his wife and two other church members, has been charged with “illegal business practices”, his lawyers have said. The Protestant pastor has already been in detention for 10 months.

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