NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, November 09, 2005

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NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, November 09, 2005

NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, November 09, 2005

I. NAPSnet

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. NAPSnet

1. Six Party Talks

Reuters (“US AND NORTH KOREA FACE OFF AS NUCLEAR TALKS OPEN”, 2005-11-09) reported that the US and the DPRK squared off on Wednesday as six party talks on the DPRK’s nuclear programs opened. Chief US negotiator Christopher Hill restated Washington’s position that Pyongyang could not receive the reward of a light-water reactor for atomic energy until it had disarmed and opened to nuclear inspectors. Pyongyang said Washington could not be trusted, despite its affirmation at the last round it would not invade. “The US words do not agree with its deeds at all,” said a commentary in Rodong Sinmun. Japanese envoy Kenichiro Sasae said the DPRK nevertheless was committed to the talks.

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2. Six Party Talks Strategy

Yonhap News (“CHINA PROPOSES WORKING STUDY GROUPS FOR PROGRESS IN NUKE TALKS “, 2005-11-09) reported that the PRC wants to create several working committees to tackle key issues that may block progress in the six party talks. Wu Dawei proposed that the three committees, if created, each handle the shared goal of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, the normalization of DPRK-US relations and energy aid to the DPRK. The outcome of the committee-level studies would be reported to the top envoys for use in making a roadmap for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, he said. “It would enable the parties concerned to break a big and abstract subject into small pieces for efficient discussions.”

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3. DPRK on Six Party Talks

Rio Novosti (“NORTH KOREA SET TO INTRODUCE NUCLEAR MORATORIUM”, 2005-11-09) reported that according to a DPRK official, the DPRK will introduce a moratorium on nuclear weapons, scrapping those already existing and halting the production of new ones, and will allow inspections of its facilities. A ROK source quoted the DPRK delegation head Kim Gye-gwan as saying that the DPRK was ready to rejoin the Non-Proliferation Treaty and be controlled by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Pyongyang demanded that the US permit nuclear inspections in the south of the peninsula, publicly profess that it will not launch nuclear attacks on the DPRK, end its “nuclear umbrella” for the ROK and stop nuclear activity there, including the transit of nuclear components through the country.

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4. PRC on Six Party Talks

The Associated Press (“CHINA: LITTLE PROGRESS ON N. KOREA TALKS “, 2005-11-09) reported that host the PRC said little progress had been made by day’s end in the new round of six party talks. The PRC delegate, Wu Dawei, called on negotiators to be flexible and pragmatic. The PRC says it expects this week’s talks to last three days and then recess so diplomats can attend an Asian-Pacific economic conference in the ROK this month. Political analysts say they do not expect any breakthroughs in this round of talks.

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5. US on DPRK Nuclear Program

The Washington Post (“NORTH KOREA RUSHES TO FINISH REACTOR INCREASED PLUTONIUM CAPACITY COULD ENHANCE BARGAINING POSITION AT TALKS “, 2005-11-09) reported that according to the first public report of an unofficial US delegation that visited Pyongyang in August, the DPRK has said it plans to finish building a 50-megawatt nuclear reactor in as little as two years. The new reactor would represent a tenfold leap in the DPRK’s ability to produce fuel for nuclear weapons, which could give it significant leverage in talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear programs.

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6. Inter-Korean Relations

The Korea Times (“CHUNG CALLS FOR FREER S-N EXCHANGES “, 2005-11-09) reported that Unification Minister Chung Dong-young Wednesday called for freer inter-Korean exchanges as a top priority to achieve the unification of the Korean Peninsula. Chung, who also chairs the Standing Committee of the presidential National Security Council, stressed the symbolic meaning of the fourth article of the joint statement issued at the end of talks on Sept. 19. The fourth article requires the directly related parties to negotiate a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula at an appropriate separate forum. The six parties agreed to explore ways and means for promoting security cooperation in Northeast Asia. “Present Korean society seeks more protection of human rights, freedom of the press and economic affluence than ever before,’’ Chung said. “We should make more efforts to improve Korean society as the present conditions have been achieved through countless sacrifices of our predecessors.’’

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7. US and Inter-Korean Communication

The Joongang Ilbo (“U.S. BARS USE OF PHONE GEAR AT KAESONG “, 2005-11-10) reported that the ROK’s plans to install an automatic telephone switchboard in the DPRK for direct phone links between Seoul and the DPRK’s Kaesong industrial complex have been blocked by the US, a diplomatic source said. The US Commerce Department recently told Korea Telecom that the switchboard, which has components of US origin, was considered a “dual-use” item with potential military uses. Washington does not allow the export of such items to countries on its trade blacklists without prior approval. The ROK and Korea Telecom are thinking about renegotiating with the US by presenting a plan to heighten the transparency of the telephone switchboard’s use,” the source said.

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8. DPRK-US Bilateral Talks

Yonhap News (“N. KOREA, U.S. MEET BILATERALLY AMID CHINA’S PROPOSAL FOR WORKING GROUP “, 2005-11-09) reported that the DPRK and the US had their first one-on-one meeting on Wednesday, the first day of the new round of six party talks. The bilateral contact came amid hopes of the two sides building mutual trust and confidence that is seen as a prerequisite to moving the nuclear disarmament talks forward again.

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9. DPRK-US Relations

The Associated Press (“U.S.: NORTH KOREA MUST BUILD CONFIDENCE”, 2005-11-09) reported that the US is ready to establish relations with the DPRK, but the regime in Pyongyang must do its part to build confidence, Washington’s new ambassador, Alexander Vershbow to Seoul said Wednesday in a meeting with RO Korean lawmakers. “We’re prepared to go down the road of normalizing our relation, negotiating a permanent peace agreement for the Korean peninsula, open an office in Pyongyang, things that show in a concrete way that we have no hostile intention toward North Korea,” Vershbow said. “For us to offer to normalize relations with North Korea is not a simple or easy step for an American political leader given how awful that regime really is. So I hope North Koreans will do their part in building confidence. We’re ready to do our part,” he said.

(return to top) ITAR-TASS (“US READY TO OPEN OFFICE IN PYONGYANG IF N KOREA ABANDONS NUKES”, 2005-11-09) reported that according to US Ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, the US is ready to open its office in Pyongyang as a sign of the absence of US aggressiveness against the DPRK in return for the liquidation of its nuclear weapons program. Officially Washington, the US diplomat stressed, is ready to establish relations with the DPRK and replace the existing truce agreement that put an end to the Korean War of 1950-1953 with a peace treaty. (return to top) The Associated Press (“NORTH KOREA THREATENS TO BLOCK U.S. ACCESS TO ITS SIDE OF TRUCE VILLAGE”, 2005-11-09) reported that the DPRK said Wednesday that it will not allow US military personnel and equipment to enter its side of a neutral zone between the two Koreas because the US military had locked it out of a joint conference room. The US-led UN Command and the DPRK jointly oversee the neutral area, the truce village of Panmunjom, as members of the UN Military Armistice Commission established in 1953 to supervise the cease-fire that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. The DPRK said it took the measure after the US military locked the door used by the DPRK delegates to access a joint conference room on Oct. 2 “in utter defiance of the agreement on jointly using the conference room,” Col. Kwak Yong Hun of the DPRK’s mission to Panmunjom said. (return to top)

10. US on DPRK Human Rights

Joongang Ilbo (“BUSH SLAMS HUMAN RIGHTS REGIME IN NORTH”, 2005-11-10) reported that in an interview with three Asian newspaper reporters, US President George W. Bush continued his criticism of the DPRK, this time focusing on the human rights situation there. “I have expressed my concerns about the treatment of men, women and children in North Korea. I worry about a society that is going hungry. I worry about forced labor camps,” Mr. Bush said. Asked what he expected from Kim Jong-il, Mr. Bush said, “I believe the measure, the mark of a good leader is one that cares first and foremost about the human condition of the people that live in the country. And where there’s starvation and hunger, the leader’s responsibility is to address that, and if need be, call upon others to make sure that food and aid actually get into the mouths of the hungry. I believe that a humane society is one in which people have a voice in government.”

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11. DPRK Abduction

BBC News (“N KOREA ‘KIDNAPPED THAI WOMAN’ “, 2005-11-07) reported that Thailand’s government is investigating claims that a Thai woman missing since 1978 was kidnapped by the DPRK agents and is now living there. Relatives of the woman, Anocha Panjoy, were alerted to her possible fate by an article written by a US man who recently left the DPRK. She has not been home since she travelled to Macao for work in 1978, according to Thailand’s TNA news agency. Pyongyang has already “informally denied” abducting the woman, said Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkon.

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12. ROK Military Wartime Control

Joongang Ilbo (“MILITARY READIES FOR TRANSFER OF WARTIME CONTROL”, 2005-11-09) reported that anticipating a transfer of wartime control of the ROK forces in the future and a changing inter-Korean relationship, the ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff is planning to strengthen its organizational structure, a senior official with the staff said yesterday. “We are adding a department in charge of military negotiations with the North and will also reorganize the operational headquarters,” said the official.

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13. Japan on Iraq Contribution

Kyodo (“KOIZUMI TO CONSIDER EXTENDED U.N. IRAQ MISSION WHEN DECIDING ON SDF “, 2005-11-09) reported that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday he will take into account the UN resolution extending the Iraqi deployment of multinational forces for a year when making a decision in the near future on how much longer Japanese troops will remain involved in reconstruction efforts there.

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14. Japan Whaling

Los Angeles Times (“WHALERS SET OUT, PLANNING BIG HAUL”, 2005-11-09) reported that a fleet of Japanese whaling ships left for Antarctic seas amid protests, aiming to kill 850 minke whales — almost double last year’s catch — and expand the hunt to take 10 fin whales. Greenpeace International called on Japan to cancel the latest hunt, calling it commercial whaling in disguise.

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15. US-PRC Relations

Reuters (“US LACKING CHINA STRATEGY: REPORT “, 2005-11-09) reported that the US is not prepared to respond quickly if there is conflict between the PRC and Taiwan and lacks a broad strategy for dealing with the PRC’s rise, a congressionally mandated commission said. The US-China Commission reaffirmed its skeptical view of Beijing, concluding that over the past year “the trends in the US-China relationship have negative implications for our long-term national economic and security interests.” In its annual report, it urged Congress to impose an “immediate across-the-board tariff” on PRC imports to force Beijing to strengthen significantly the value of its currency.

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16. US-PRC Energy Cooperation

The Associated Press (“PANEL URGES U.S.-CHINA ENERGY COOPERATION “, 2005-11-09) reported that a congressional advisory panel examining US-PRC relations is urging lawmakers to kick-start efforts at energy and military cooperation with Beijing and to respond more aggressively to its dramatic rise to power. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission made 57 recommendations to Congress about how to deal with the PRC in a report being released Wednesday.

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17. UK-PRC Relations

Agence France-Presse (“CHINESE LEADER TALKS TRADE, SECURITY, CLIMATE WITH BLAIR IN LONDON”, 2005-11-09) reported that the PRC’s President Hu Jintao was set to discuss trade, global security and climate change with Prime Minister Tony Blair on day two of a state visit to Britain full of pomp and circumstance — and demonstrators. Blair, who took part in the formal welcome and colourful palace banquet, has said that his talks with Hu would touch on trade, global security and climate change, as well as “how economic and political developments are progressing in China.”

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18. PRC Terror Warning

The Associated Press (“U.S. EMBASSY IN CHINA GET TERROR WARNING”, 2005-11-09) reported that the US Embassy in Beijing said Wednesday that PRC police have warned that Islamic extremists might be planning to attack luxury hotels in the PRC over the next week. The US warning, posted on the embassy’s Web site, urged Americans visiting PRC four- and five-star hotels to “review their plans carefully, remain vigilant with regard to their personal security, and exercise caution.” The PRC’s Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment.

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19. US on Religious Liberties

Washington Post (“U.S. CITES TOP VIOLATORS OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTIES”, 2005-11-09) reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice named eight countries yesterday as the world’s worst violators of religious liberty. The State Department’s seventh annual report on religious freedom listed the same eight countries that it did last year as the most egregious violators, or “countries of particular concern.” They are Burma, the PRC, Eritrea, Iran, the DPRK, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Vietnam.

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20. PRC Religious Liberties

Washington Post (“PROTESTANT PASTOR IN CHINA CONVICTED FOR PRINTING, DISTRIBUTING BIBLES”, 2005-11-09) reported that a prominent pastor in Beijing’s underground Protestant church was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison for illegally printing and distributing Bibles and other religious books, in a case that has attracted attention from Christian groups in the US and elsewhere. The Beijing People’s Intermediate Court handed down the sentence immediately after it convicted Cai Zhuohua, 34, of conducting “illegal business practices,” said his attorney, Zhang Xingshui.

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21. PRC Bird Flu

The Associated Press (“CHINA MONITORS BORDER BECAUSE OF BIRD FLU”, 2005-11-09) reported that two men in masks and protective suits guarded the border between Beijing and Hebei province, watching for vehicles transporting live poultry under anti-bird flu measures announced Monday to protect the capital. Only shipments of live chickens, ducks and geese from three certified Hebei farms are allowed in, said Tian Zhigang, an animal quarantine officer at the Baimiao Inspection Station.

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22. PRC Nuclear Power

Asia Pulse (“CHINA PLANS SUPER-EFFICIENT NUCLEAR REACTORS”, 2005-11-09) reported that PRC scientists are planning super-efficient nuclear reactors that can maximize uranium “burn” and minimize waste in the generation of electricity. PRC Academy of Atomic Science President Zhao Zhixiang said a team of scientists has already mapped a detailed plan to speed up research and utilization of the so-called next-generation fast reactors. The new reactors are expected to “burn” 60-70% of their uranium fuel – a conventional reactor consumes only 0.7% of the uranium it is fed.

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23. PRC Mental Healthcare

The Los Angeles Times (“CHINESE DISSIDENT TELLS OF ABUSE IN ASYLUM”, 2005-11-09) reported that former inmates describe the PRC’s police-run mental hospitals as decidedly less-than-serene places, with one recently freed political prisoner telling of sadistic nurses who performed electroshock therapy while other patients were forced to watch.

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24. PRC Urban-Rural Disparity

The New York Times (“DOWN ON THE FARM, BY THE GOLF COURSE AND SUBDIVISIONS”, 2005-11-09) reported that there is a constant collision between the two PRCs – one urban and racing into the 21st century, the other rural and seemingly locked in the 18th. Urban is prevailing, as recent government statistics show that at least 40 million farmers have lost their land to the demands of modernization and development. For some farmers the change is an opportunity for a better life. For others it is an abrupt end to the only life they have known.

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25. PRC AIDS Issue

Washington Post (“HOSPITALS IN CHINA FIND PROFIT IN AIDS”, 2005-11-09) reported that on the day she arrived at the Number Three People’s Hospital to seek treatment for HIV, Cai had no symptoms. But she did have a little bit of money, and that gets quick attention in the modern-day PRC health care system. When she asked for the free anti-AIDS drugs the central government has begun providing to the poor, the doctors rebuffed her, she said, until she agreed to pay for costly tests. And when she ran through her money and all she could borrow — her 45-day hospital stay exceeding $1,400, nearly triple her annual income — the doctors cast her out.

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