NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, June 15, 2005

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NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, June 15, 2005

NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, June 15, 2005

I. United States

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. United States

1. Inter-Korean Summit Declaration

Chosun Ilbo (“SOUTH AND NORTH KOREA ANNOUNCE JOINT DECLARATION ON CO-EXISTENCE”, 2005-06-15) reported that celebrations are currently underway in the DPRK to mark the fifth year since the 2000 inter-Korean summit. As part of the commemorative events, delegations from the two Koreas have produced a joint statement promoting a unified Korean peninsula. The joint declaration reaffirms co-existence and co-prosperity of the two countries. It also urges the two Koreas to cooperate in cultivating peace and eliminating the risks of nuclear war in the region and names the 6.15 joint committee as the main driving force in unifying the ROK and DPRK. During a mass gathering in Pyongyang, Beak Nak-cheong, who heads the ROK preparatory committee for the latest round of festivities, stressed the importance of strengthening inter-Korean cooperation by promoting active exchanges on both civilian and regional levels. Baek’s DPRK counterpart, Ahn Gyeong-ho, said the only way to keep peace on the Korean Peninsula is to consolidate the strength of the Korean people’s national power. Later in the day, delegations from the ROK and DPRK are schedule to hold their first official commemorative ceremony in five years at the People’s Palace of Culture in Pyongyang.

(return to top) JoongAng Ilbo (“KOREAS ASK END TO THREAT OF NUCLEAR WAR”, 2005-06-15) reported that on the fifth anniversary of the June 15 inter-Korean summit, ROK and DPRK civic groups issued a joint statement of cooperation that called for “the removal of the danger of nuclear war” on the Korean Peninsula. Labelled the “People’s Unification Statement,” the declaration was announced at an event attended by 6,000 people. As An Kyong-ho, a DPR Korean delegation member, said in a speech, “We are no longer a puny nation,” ROK Unification Minister Chung Dong-young nodded and clapped. Mr. Chung later had a quiet exchange with the DPRK delegation leader Kim Ki-nam, who is a key figure on the DPRK’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland. (return to top)

2. Inter-Korean Summit Celebrations

Joongang Ilbo (“PYONGYANG WELCOMES JUNE 15 DELEGATES”, 2005-06-15) reported that after a tense delay of two hours, the ROK’s official delegation to the 5th anniversary of the 2000 inter-Korean summit, led by ROK Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, was permitted by the DPRK to fly to Pyongyang. Mr. Chung was welcomed by Kim Ki-nam, a senior official of the DPRK Workers’ Party. Earlier in the day, a group of 295 non-governmental guests from the ROK arrived separately on a charter flight. The group of civic leaders were welcomed by about 70 DPRK officials and journalists at Pyongyang’s Sunan airport. In a ceremony at the airport, Paik Nak-chung, a Seoul National University professor spoke. “The June 15 joint communiqué between the two Koreas has ended the history of confrontation and division and opened up a new era of reconciliation, unity and reunification,” Mr. Paik said. “The festival will be remembered as an event of reconfirming the spirit of the joint declaration and showing the world Korea’s united will to protect peace.”

(return to top) Agence France-Presse (“NORTH KOREA ROLLS OUT RED CARPET FOR UNIFICATION FESTIVAL”, 2005-06-15) reported that the DPRK rolled out the red carpet for ROK dignitaries but kept its nuclear weapons ambitions under wraps at a festival marking the 2000 inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang. The celebrations remained free of any boasts about nuclear weapons as some 400 RO Koreans, including 40 government officials, took part in the four-day festival in the DPRK capital. ROK officials, sensitive to critics who say Seoul’s engagement amounts to appeasement, said their delegation chief, Chung Dong-Young, the minister of unification, would raise the nuclear impasse in private talks with senior DPRK officials and urge them to return to six-party talks. Chung is expected to meet Kim Yong-Nam, the DPRK’s No. 2 leader after Kim Jong-Il, and other top DPRK officials. (return to top)

3. ROK on DPRK Nuclear Issue at June 15 Celebrations

Associated Press (“SOUTH KOREA TOP OFFICIAL ON NORTH CALLS FOR SIDES TO WORK TO END COLD WAR ON PENINSULA”, 2005-06-15) reported that the ROK’s top official on the DPRK calls for sides to work to end tensions. “We should resolve peacefully, through dialogue, the pending issues placed before the Korean peoples,” Chung said, according to pool reports from Pyongyang. The Koreas “should not hesitate, but lead in quickly eliminating the obstacles to ending the Cold War on the Korean Peninsula.”

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4. ROK Minister on DPRK Return to Talks

The Korea Times (“FM URGES NK TO LISTEN WITH ROH-BUSH MESSAGE”, 2005-06-15) reported that the ROK’s top diplomat urged the DPRK on Wednesday to comply with the “positive” message from Seoul and Washington. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon added that Seoul would continue to persuade Pyongyang to return to the multiparty negotiation through direct dialogue channels, such as the ongoing joint festivities in the DPRK’s capital to commemorate the June 2000 summit between the two Koreas. However, the coordinated efforts by the ROK and the US to bring the DPRK back to the talks still seem troubled by lingering differences between the allies in understanding the DPRK, especially in their approaches to its human rights problems.

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5. ROK Invites DPRK to Liberation Day Celebrations

The Korea Times (“S.KOREA INVITES NORTH TO AUG.15 EVENTS”, 2005-06-15) reported that ROK officials visiting the DPRK for a joint festival to celebrate the inter-Korean summit in June 2000 officially invited a DPRK delegation to attend the Aug. 15 joint event in Seoul to mark Liberation Day. “We hope the 60th anniversary of the liberation would be jointly celebrated by the South and the North,” Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said at a meeting with DPRK officials. On the second day of the four-day festivities, the DPRK sought to emphasize cooperation with the ROK while excluding outside powers.

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6. DPRK on US-ROK Relations

Yonhap News (“N.KOREA TURNS UP HEAT ON U.S. WHILE SEEKING COOPERATION WITH SOUTH KOREA”, 2005-06-15) reported that the DPRK jacked up anti-US rhetoric Wednesday while seeking to boost cooperation with the ROK as it tried to fend off international pressure to end its nuclear program. “Today, a dangerous situation is being built on the Korean Peninsula where a nuclear war can break out at any time under the scheme of the U.S. war maniacs,” the DPRK’s main broadcaster, Central Radio, said in a commentary. The commentary, issued on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the historic June 15, 2000 inter-Korean summit, accused the US of plotting to put the entire Korean Peninsula under its control as part of its global strategy.

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7. US on PRC-ROK Relations with the DPRK

Chosun Ilbo (“CHINA AVOIDING PRESSURE ON NORTH KOREA: HILL”, 2005-06-15) reported that according to US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill on Wednesday, the PRC is not doing all it can to pressure the DPRK to return to six-party talks, while the ROK is also avoiding putting direct pressure on the DPRK. Hill was speaking at a US Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the DPRK nuclear dispute. He said the PRC has been reluctant to use all the economic and political leverage at its disposal. He also spoke of a disagreement between the US and PRC over whether the DPRK is proliferating nuclear technology and could hand nuclear weapons over to terrorists. According to the AFP news agency, Hill’s comments made it seem unlikely that the PRC will sign up to a US-led initiative to block any proliferation activities by the DPRK.

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8. US on DPRK Nuclear Issue

The International Herald Tribune (“U.S. DOUBTS GROW ON N.KOREA’S ARMS STANCE”, 2005-06-15) reported that the Bush administration’s top negotiators with the DPRK said they harbour “increasing doubts” that the DPRK is ready to give up its nuclear weapons program in return for security guarantees and economic incentives. The envoys, noting that there had been five sessions of talks between a US and a DPRK official at the United Nations in the past 10 months, rejected the idea that more incentives or one-on-one talks would be likely to revive serious negotiations. “I think the real issue here is not that they don’t know the benefits, but they simply haven’t made the fundamental decision whether they want to give up on being a nuclear state,” said Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, speaking at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Hill appeared with Joseph DeTrani, special envoy to the talks with the DPRK.

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9. ROK on Bush Meeting with Defector Author

Chosun Ilbo (“BAN DOWNPLAYS BUSH MEETING WITH N.KOREAN AUTHOR”, 2005-06-15) reported that ROK Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon downplayed the political significance of US President George W. Bush’s meeting with DPRK defector-refugee and Chosun Ilbo journalist Kang Chol-hwan. Asked during a briefing with reporters about the meeting between Bush and Kang, Ban said “The North Korean human rights situation is already widely known, not just in the United States, but also worldwide… I don’t think the meeting will influence the development of either the six-party talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear dispute or inter-Korean relations.” Ban cautioned against reading too much into Bush’s interest in Kang’s book “Aquariums of Pyongyang”, which details the author’s 10 hellish years in a DPRK prison camp. “I don’t think anyone recommended Kang’s book to President Bush with a particular political or other intention,” he said. “You can recommend a book anytime, and there’s no need to react over-sensitively to the activities of U.S. citizen movements or human rights groups” – a reference to increased focus in the US on the DPRK’s dismal human rights record.

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10. IAEA on DPRK Nuclear Issue

Reuters (“U.N. SEEKS END TO NUKE STANDOFF WITH NORTH KOREA, IRAN”, 2005-06-15) reported that the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) appealed on Tuesday to the DPRK to give up its nuclear weapons programme and urged Iran harder to assure the world it is not following the DPRK’s lead. The two countries, called part of an “axis of evil” by George Bush, are among the main issues being discussed by the governing board of the UN nuclear watchdog agency at its quarterly meeting this week. “I continue to believe in the importance and urgency of finding a solution to the current situation,” IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei said of the DPRK in a speech to the agency’s board of governors. “The agency stands ready to work with the DPRK, and with all others, towards a solution that addresses the needs of the international community to ensure that all nuclear activities in the DPRK are exclusively for peaceful purposes, as well as addressing the security needs of the DPRK,” he said.

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11. DPRK-Japan Relations

Yonhap News (“N.KOREA ACCUSES JAPAN OF TAKING UNILATERAL ACTION AGAINST IT”, 2005-06-14) reported that the DPRK claimed Tuesday that Japan is trying to “isolate and strangle” it and said such measures would only invite a stronger rebuff from the DPRK. “There is a growing tendency in Japan to intensify economic sanctions against the DPRK,” the North’s Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a commentary.

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12. Volunteer Organization Opens Eye Clinic in Pyongyang

Yonhap News (“WORLD VOLUNTEER BODY OPENS EYE CLINIC IN PYONGYANG”, 2005-06-15) reported that a large ophthalmic hospital will open in Pyongyang this weekend, thanks to donations from Lions Clubs from around the world, an ROK spokesperson for the volunteer association said Wednesday. “The fund-raising campaign started in 2002 at the initiative of South Korea and our fellow clubs around the world have participated,” said Jeong Jun-su, a Lions Club spokesperson in Seoul.

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13. Italian Law Office Established in DPRK

Yonhap News (“ITALY ESTABLISHES JOINT LAW OFFICE IN PYONGYANG”, 2005-06-15) reported that a DPRK-Italy joint law office was inaugurated in Pyongyang on Wednesday, according to the DPRK’s official news agency. The launch of the office, to be jointly managed by the (North) Korean Lawyers Committee and the Birindelli Law Company of Italy, comes amid increasing international trade in the DPRK. The Pyongyang law office will be mainly tasked with handling possible trade disputes between the DPRK and foreign companies, DPRK watchers said.

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14. Jenkins Returns to US

Associated Press (“ARMY DESERTER TOURS N.C. HOMETOWN “, 2005-06-15) reported that US Army deserter Charles Jenkins returned to his hometown and visited his father’s gravesite Wednesday for the first time since he defected to the DPRK more than 40 years ago. Jenkins, accompanied by his Japanese wife and their two daughters, placed a clear vase of pink and white lilies at the simple, granite gravestone of his father, Clifford, who died 15 years before his son crossed the Demilitarized Zone in 1965. Jenkins, who resurfaced a year ago after nearly four decades in the DPRK, had arrived in the United States on Tuesday. A caravan of a dozen police and media vehicles followed the family as it went on a tour of the town Jenkins hadn’t seen since he came home on leave in 1964.

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15. PRC Rural Unrest

Washington Post (“CHINESE PEASANTS ATTACKED IN LAND DISPUTE”, 2005-06-15) reported that hundreds of men armed with shotguns, clubs and pipes on Saturday attacked a group of farmers who were resisting official demands to surrender land to a state-owned power plant, witnesses said. Six farmers were killed and as many as 100 others were seriously injured in one of the PRC’s deadliest incidents of rural unrest in years. The farmers, who had pitched tents and dug foxholes and trenches on the disputed land to prevent the authorities from seizing it, said they suspected the assailants were hired by corrupt local officials. They said scores of villagers were beaten or stabbed and several were shot in the back while fleeing. Reached by telephone, a spokesman for the provincial government said he could not confirm or discuss the incident. “So far, we’ve been ordered not to issue any information about it,” he said.

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16. PRC on UN Reform

Xinhua news (“CHINESE STATE COUNCILOR CITES “DEVELOPMENT” AS TOP PRIORITY IN UN REFORM “, 2005-06-15) reported that the PRC State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan reiterated Wednesday that any UN reform plan should highlight and give top priority to “development issues.” He urged the UN member countries to continue pushing the implementation of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adopted in 2000 on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, which was described by Tang as an “important opportunity.” “If all parties are mired in the disputes about the Security Council expansion, the September summit will find it hard to focus on the discussion of development issues. Finally, it may end in achieving nothing,” Tang said.

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17. PRC AIDS Issue

Associated Press (“GROUP: AIDS ACTIVISTS HARASSED IN CHINA”, 2005-06-15) reported that the PRC should stop harassing AIDS activists, a US-based human rights group said Wednesday as it warned that Beijing’s heavy-handed methods of controlling information about the disease could hinder efforts to stop its spread. In its new 57-page report, Human Rights Watch called on the PRC to remove restrictions on private groups that work with AIDS patients and at-risk groups. “Grass-roots organizations have direct experience that could greatly strengthen the country’s fight against AIDS,” said Sara Davis, the group’s PRC researcher, in a statement. “But in a number of regions, they face harassment, censorship and even beatings because the Chinese government is suspicious of any activity outside its direct control,” she said.

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18. PRC Defector in Australia

The New York Times (“AUSTRALIA AND US BARRING HIM, CHINESE SAYS”, 2005-06-15) reported that the high-ranking PRC diplomat who defected two weeks ago only to be rebuffed by the Australian government says he also sought political asylum at the US Embassy, and was turned away there as well. The defector, Chen Yonglin, a 37-year-old career diplomat, said in his first interview with a foreign journalist that he had called the American Embassy in Canberra and followed up with a fax. “My wife, my 6-year old daughter and I are now in a desperate status,” Mr. Chen wrote on June 4 in imperfect English in his faxed appeal, which he showed to the New York Times. “I have no choice but seeking the only hope of political asylum of the United States.” He gave his cellphone number.

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19. Cross Strait Flights

Xinhua (“CHINESE MAINLAND URGES TAIWAN TO ARRANGE CROSS-STRAITS CHARTERED FLIGHTS”, 2005-06-15) reported that the PRC’s mainland told Taiwan Wednesday to make arrangements for charter flights for both passengers and cargo “as soon as possible,” instead of “delaying the issue in any excuse.” “We have not changed and will not change our stand to actively promote cross-Straits chartered flights for passengers and cargo. We’ll try our best to do anything beneficial for the Taiwan compatriots and cross-Straits exchange,” said Li Weiyi, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, at a routine press conference.

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20. Hong Kong Elections

The New York Times (“PRO-BEIJING OFFICIAL LOOKS SET TO WIN RACE FOR HONG KONG LEADER”, 2005-06-15) reported that Donald Tsang today effectively won the race to become the next chief executive of Hong Kong, as his only serious opponent withdrew after drawing limited support from the heavily pro-Beijing election committee that vets candidates for the top office here. Mr. Tsang, previously the second-ranking official here as chief secretary, had been the overwhelming favorite because of strong backing from Beijing. But political analysts said he might have hurt the territory’s democratic development by declining to debate his opponents and by campaigning very hard with members of the election committee. With Mr. Tsang’s victory, “the pro-democracy fighters are probably going to be sidelined further,” said Sing Ming, a political scientist at the City University of Hong Kong.

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21. Russian Gas Exports

Itar-Tass (“RUSSIA TO SUPPLY GAS TO SOUTH KOREA, CHINA BY 2015”, 2005-06-15) reported that gas consumers in the ROK, PRC might look forward to gas exports from Russia by the year 2010-2015, member of the Gazprom Board Vlada Rusakova told journalists on Tuesday. The ROK might receive Russian gas by the year 2010 already, Rusakova added. “We have been conducting marketing research and switched over from general to concrete projects,” Rusakova said. She heads the department for strategic development at the Gazprom Company. Commenting on gas exports to Japan in the framework of the Sakhalin-1 project, she said: “there is always a chance”.

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22. Japan Missile Defense Program

Agence France Presse (“JAPAN’S LOWER HOUSE AGREES TO LET DEFENSE CHIEF ORDER MISSILE INTERCEPT”, 2005-06-15) reported that Japan’s lower house agreed Tuesday to let the defense chief order the interception of a missile without prior cabinet permission, amid concern about the officially pacifist nation’s response time in a crisis. The bill was drafted amid worry that Japan would waste time in administrative procedures before reacting to an attack, as a missile fired from the DPRK would reach the country in 10 minutes. The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan opposed the bill, saying that parliament needed to be notified before a missile intercept.

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