NAPSNet Daily Report Tuesday, November 07, 2006
- 1. US, Japan, ROK on Joint Strategy on DPRK
2. US on DPRK Sanctions
3. US on Six Party Talks
4. Japan on Six Party Talks
5. DPRK-Iran Nuclear Weapons Trade
6. DPRK Ship Inspections
7. DPRK Human Rights
8. DPRK Aid
9. Inter-Korean Cooperation
10. PRC-EU Trade Relations
11. PRC-US Trade Relations
12. PRC Mine Closure
13. PRC Gas Emissions
I. NAPSNet
1. US, Japan, ROK on Joint Strategy on DPRK
Voice of America (“US, JAPAN, S. KOREA DISCUSS JOINT STANCE AGAINST N. KOREA”, 2006-11-07) reported that the US, Japanese and RO Korean diplomats are working towards a joint strategy for confronting DPRK when six-party talks resume. Following the meeting, Aso told reporters that Tokyo will not be lifting sanctions imposed following Pyongyang’s October 9th nuclear weapons test.
2. US on DPRK Sanctions
Agence France Presse (“US, JAPAN PLOT ACTION ON NORTH KOREA “, 2006-11-07) reported that US Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmit called for implementation of UN sanctions against the DPRK as he coordinated Washington’s approach with Japan. “The agreement was that we would continue to live up to our responsibilities under UN Security Council resolutions 1695 and 1718 and we look forward to working bilaterally and with other members of the international community to live up to those very important resolutions,” Kimmitt said.
3. US on Six Party Talks
International Herald Tribune (“RICE SAYS INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE ON NORTH KOREA WORKING”, 2006-11-07) reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said DPRK decided to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks because of the strong international response to its nuclear test last month. “North Korea is now responding to the international community’s resolve,” Rice said in an interview with Fox News.
4. Japan on Six Party Talks
Bloomberg News (“JAPAN WILL KEEP ROLE IN SIX-NATIONS TALKS, ABE SAYS”, 2006-11-07) reported that Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his country will remain in six-party talks. “Japan has absolutely no intention to change its policy” on the negotiations, Abe said after meeting RO Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon. Ban said that “if Japan doesn’t participate, there wouldn’t be six-nation talks.”
5. DPRK-Iran Nuclear Weapons Trade
Yonhap News (“IRAN ADMITS BUYING MISSILES FROM NORTH KOREA DURING WAR WITH IRAQ “, 2006-11-07) reported that Iran’s military commander publicly acknowledged that his country had obtained missiles from the DPRK during its war with Iraq but no longer needs Pyongyang’s assistance. “The truth is that during the war, we had Scud B and Scud C missiles,” Yahya Rahim Safavi, chief commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, told Al Alam TV. “We received these from foreign countries like North Korea, but 17 years after the war, we were able to design all of these pieces and even their fuel,” the commander said.
6. DPRK Ship Inspections
Reuters (“MYANMAR FINDS NO PROBLEM GOODS ON NKOREA SHIP -JAPAN”, 2006-11-07) reported that Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said that Myanmar had inspected a DPRK Korean ship in one of its ports and found no suspicious goods on board. Japan’s NHK television had said earlier that both Japan and the US had asked Myanmar’s government to search the ship, which US authorities had tracked after it left the DPRK last month, because it might be carrying prohibited military goods. Japan’s Mainichi newspaper reported that Japan, the US and Australia have decided not to carry out inspections on the high seas for now, due to a reluctance on the part of PRC and Russia, who worry such action would escalate tensions.
7. DPRK Human Rights
Chosun Ilbo (“EU TO SUBMIT FRESH N.KOREA RIGHTS RESOLUTION”, 2006-11-07) reported that the European Union, the US and Japan are to submit a resolution calling for the UN Secretariat to investigate DPRK’s human rights abuses. Seoul took no part in voting on a similar UN General Assembly resolution last year, and it remains to be seem if it will relent in the wake of Pyongyang’s nuclear test. The EU resolution calls for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to submit a comprehensive report on human rights in North Korea to the 62nd General Assembly in 2007. The General Assembly is to vote on the resolution in mid-November, when it is likely to pass by a big margin.
8. DPRK Aid
Yonhap News (“7,300 N. KOREANS DISPLACED IN LATEST RAINSTORM: INT’L RED CROSS “, 2006-11-07) reported that a powerful rainstorm hit the DPRK two weeks ago, leaving at least 14 people injured and some 7,300 others homeless, an international relief agency said. The agency said it had released 640 relief kits containing water-purifying tablets, water containers and blankets for the flood victims who were housed at schools and other temporary shelters.
9. Inter-Korean Cooperation
Yonhap News (“KIM JONG-IL GETTING LITTLE OF S. KOREAN FUNDS FROM KAESONG COMPLEX: MINISTRY “, 2006-11-07) reported that very little or no hard currency from ROK’s joint development project in DPRK’s border town of Kaesong is reaching the DPRK’s regime including its leader Kim Jong-il, the Unification Ministry said. The claim comes amid criticism, mainly from the opposition and Washington, that a large portion, if not the majority, of US dollars paid in wages to DPR Korean laborers working at the inter-Korean industrial complex in could be used to benefit the DPRK’s regime or its nuclear and other weapons programs.
10. PRC-EU Trade Relations
Agence France Presse (“MANDELSON SAYS CHINA TRADE BARRIERS THREATEN TO HARM EU TIES”, 2006-11-07) reported that the European Union’s top trade official warned PRC that failure to open its economy more widely to foreign imports and competition risks harming broader EU-China relations. While calling for greater cooperation with PRC in trade, security and other spheres, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson also said the EU would not hesitate to haul PRC before the WTO in future trade disputes. “Europe will defend itself against unfair trade, just as China does all the time, and just as we are entitled to do under WTO rules,” Mandelson said.
11. PRC-US Trade Relations
Reuters (“CHINA WARNS AGAINST U.S. ACTION AT WTO OVER PIRACY”, 2006-11-07) reported that any move by the US to take PRC to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over intellectual property rights violations will have an “extremely negative” impact on trade relations, PRC Commerce Minister Bo Xilai said on Tuesday. Speculation is swirling that Washington is on the point of opening a WTO case against China for failing to protect intellectual property rights.
12. PRC Mine Closure
China Daily (“BIGGEST COAL PRODUCING BASE TO CLOSE 900 MORE MINES”, 2006-11-07) reported that PRC’s Shanxi Province, the country’s biggest coal-producing base, will close 900 more coal mines by June 2008 amid concerns over safety, environmental protection and resource conservation. Local authorities have listed 500 coal mines and the number could climb to 1,100 by June 2008, according to a circular issued by the Shanxi provincial government recently. The measure is aimed at reducing the number of coal mines to 2,500 by 2010, the circular said.
13. PRC Gas Emissions
International Herald Tribune (“CHINA GAINS ON U.S. IN EMISSIONS”, 2006-11-07) reported that PRC will surpass the US in 2009, nearly a decade ahead of previous predictions, as the biggest emitter of the main gas linked to global warming, the International Energy Agency concluded in a report.