NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, July 19, 2006
- 1. Six Party Relations at ASEAN Forum
2. DPRK Military Mobilization
3. Japanese Sanctions on DPRK
4. US Sanctions on DPRK
5. ROK on US, Japanese Sanctions on DPRK
6. Inter-Korean Family Reunions
7. Inter-Korean Unified Olympic Team
8. DPRK Floods
9. US-ROK Security Alliance
10. Yasukuni Shrine Issue
11. PRC-Japan Relations
12. Russian Energy Trade
13. PRC-Russia Border Dispute
14. PRC-Russian Trade
15. Cross Strait Relations
16. PRC Leadership
17. PRC Environment
I. NAPSNet
1. Six Party Relations at ASEAN Forum
Chosun Ilbo (“RICE TO CANCEL KOREA VISIT OVER MIDEAST FLAREUP”, 2006-07-19) reported that Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is likely to cancel her visit to Korea due to the crisis in the Middle East. “In that case, we will look into holding a foreign ministers’ meeting at the ASEAN Regional Forum” opening in Malaysia on July 26, Ban told reporters. “Since all high-level officials from all the attending countries in the six-way talks will be gathered in Kuala Lumpur for the ARF, wouldn’t that provide a good opportunity to meetings?” He said if the DPRK does not attend the ARF, the other five parties can meet. Government officials say that it is unclear whether Pyongyang’s chief diplomat will be there.
2. DPRK Military Mobilization
Chosun Ilbo (“N.KOREA ‘NEVER ORDERED MILITARY MOBILIZATION'”, 2006-07-19) reported that the Unification Ministry has denied press reports that the DPRK ordered wartime mobilization of its military forces just hours before the UN adopted a resolution against it last Saturday. The ministry says it has confirmed that Pyongyang only heightened its defense posture to alert level ahead of routine Seoul-Washington military exercises. ROK newspapers on Wednesday reported that DPRK leader Kim Jong-il issued a special decree over the weekend ordering his troops to take emergency maneuvers and civilians to stay indoors because a war was imminent.
3. Japanese Sanctions on DPRK
Associated Press (“JAPAN WON’T RUSH SANCTIONS ON NORTH KOREA”, 2006-07-19) reported that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday Japan will not rush to impose more sanctions on the DPRK, amid reports Tokyo may call for five-party talks on the sidelines of a regional security forum on the DPRK’s nuclear ambitions. Koizumi told reporters Wednesday Japan will wait for a further response from the DPRK to a UN Security Council resolution and a Group of Eight summit statement condemning its missile test-launches.
4. US Sanctions on DPRK
JoongAng Ilbo (“U.S. SANCTIONS ON NORTH LIFTED IN 1999 MAY RETURN”, 2006-07-19) reported that the Bush administration is weighing the reinstatement of trade sanctions on the DPRK that were lifted during the Clinton administration. A visiting US Treasury Department official, Stuart Levey, described Washington’s policy direction to ROK government policymakers during a visit here from Sunday through Tuesday. The ROK officials said the US sanctions Mr. Levey mentioned had been lifted in 1999 by President Bill Clinton as US-DPRK tensions eased. They included trade restrictions and licensing requirements and strict limits on the amount of money US travelers to the DPRK could spend there.
5. ROK on US, Japanese Sanctions on DPRK
Chosun Ilbo (“ROH AGAINST U.S.-JAPANESE SANCTIONS ON N.KOREA”, 2006-07-19) reported that President Roh Moo-hyun on Wednesday indicated he opposes attempts by the US and Japan to impose additional sanctions on the DPRK after a UN Security Council resolution condemning Pyongyang’s missile tests. Roh said “oversensitive reactions” to the DPRK’s missile launches on July 5 “will create unnecessary tension and confrontations on the Korean Peninsula and do not help resolve the problem.” But in his remarks on the issue, the president also denounced the missile tests as a threat to peace and a trigger to an arms race.
6. Inter-Korean Family Reunions
Agence France-Presse (“NORTH KOREA SCRAPS NORTH-SOUTH FAMILY REUNIONS”, 2006-07-19) reported that the DPRK said it would scrap cross-border family reunions on the divided peninsula, accusing the ROK of siding with its Western allies in the standoff over Pyongyang’s missile launches. The DPRK’s Red Cross chief, Jang Jae-On, slammed the ROK for “abusing the humanitarian issue for meeting its sinister purpose to serve the outsiders.” “Our side is, therefore, of the view that it has become impossible to hold any discussion related to humanitarian issues, to say nothing of arranging any reunion between separated families and relatives between the two sides,” he said in a letter to the ROK.
7. Inter-Korean Unified Olympic Team
Yonhap (“SEOUL TO PURSUE UNIFIED OLYMPIC TEAM BY YEAR-END: KOC HEAD”, 2006-07-19) reported that the head of the ROK’s Olympic committee said Wednesday that Seoul will continue talks with the DPRK until the end of the year on the issue of fielding a unified inter-Korean team for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
8. DPRK Floods
Associated Press (“100 MAY BE DEAD IN FLOODS IN NORTH KOREA”, 2006-07-19) reported that floods and landslides in the DPRK have left more than 100 people dead or missing, an aid group operating in the nation said Wednesday, as the DPRK’s official media acknowledged heavy rains had caused “tremendous losses.” The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the harsh weather in the DPRK this month caused flash floods that damaged 11,524 houses, leaving more than 9,000 families homeless.
9. US-ROK Security Alliance
Chosun Ilbo (“U.S. ‘WANTS SHOT OF WARTIME COMMAND SOONER'”, 2006-07-19) reported that the US wants to return wartime operational control of ROK forces to Seoul by 2009-2010, military sources said Tuesday. The government has been pushing for a handover in five or six years’ time, but first concrete statements from the US suggests Washington would like to be shot of it sooner rather than later.
10. Yasukuni Shrine Issue
Kyodo (“YASUKUNI ISSUE MUST BE RESOLVED FOR JAPAN-CHINA TIES: DPJ’S OZAWA “, 2006-07-19) reported that Japan’s opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa who recently visited the PRC said the issue of Yasukuni Shrine must be resolved for Japan to mend fences with the PRC. “One bottleneck at present (for bilateral ties) is the Yasukuni issue,” Ozawa, president of the Democratic Party of Japan, said. “Since they (in Beijing) say this is intolerable, this, I think, definitely will have to be resolved.”
(return to top) Kyodo (“CHINA PARTY OFFICIAL FAVORS OPTION OF SEPARATING CLASS-A CRIMINALS”, 2006-07-19) reported that a senior PRC Communist Party official responded favorably to the idea of separating Japan’s Class-A war criminals from the war dead enshrined at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine to help mend the strained ties between the two countries, Japanese ruling party lawmakers said. (return to top)
11. PRC-Japan Relations
Kyodo (“JAPAN, CHINA TO HOLD SECURITY TALKS IN BEIJING ON FRIDAY”, 2006-07-19) reported that Japan and the PRC will hold senior working-level talks in Beijing to discuss various security and defense policies as well as regional concerns, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said. During their one-day dialogue, the two countries are expected to take up pressing security concerns such as the DPRK’s July 5 missile launches, ministry officials said.
12. Russian Energy Trade
International Herald Tribune (“CHINA’S OIL SECURITY IS IN BUYING RUSSIAN”, 2006-07-19) reported that the PRC’s biggest oil company said that a $500 million stake it had bought in Russia’s newly listed petroleum giant, Rosneft, would help its efforts to secure energy for the PRC market. The state-owned China National Petroleum said in a statement published on its Web site that the investment would build on earlier agreements between the two companies to extract, refine and process Russian oil for shipment to the PRC.
(return to top) Ria Novosti (“SAKHALIN ENERGY COMMITS TO MORE GAS CONTRACTS”, 2006-07-19) reported that Sakhalin Energy signed on Wednesday a 15-year contract with Japan’s Chubu Electric Power Company to supply half million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year, Ria Novosti reported. The deal states that Sakhalin Energy will supply LNG to Chubu Electric for a 15 year period beginning in 2011, the agency said citing a press statement from the company. (return to top)
13. PRC-Russia Border Dispute
Interfax (“RUSSIA-CHINA BORDER DISPUTES SETTLED DEFINITIVELY – LAVROV”, 2006-07-19) reported that Russia and the PRC have definitively settled their disputes concerning their border, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a radio program on Wednesday. “Two years ago we completed an extremely difficult period of negotiations with China on the border, our borders are definitively formalized, and no questions arise in this connection on either side,” Lavrov said.
14. PRC-Russian Trade
The Vladivostok News (“FAR EASTERN RAILWAYS PLAN TO BOOST CARGO AND PASSENGER FLOW”, 2006-07-19) reported that a total of seven million tons of cargo are expected to be transported through the Russian-PRC railway border checkpoint Grodekovo – Suifenhe in 2006, was mentioned at the meeting of Far Eastern Railways’ delegation and Harbin Railways in the PRC city of Harbin, Monday. For the first six months, the volume of exports through the checkpoint has increased up to 50.5 railroad freight cars per day showing a 15.5 percent growth to projections.
15. Cross Strait Relations
Agence France-Presse (“FIRST TAIWAN-CHINA CARGO FLIGHT “, 2006-07-19) reported that a Boeing 747 was set to take off in the first direct chartered cargo flight between Taiwan and rival PRC. The plane from Taiwan’s leading carrier China Airlines with an undisclosed freight shipment was to be given a grand send-off before departing Chiang Kai-shek airport at 1410 GMT for the more than three-hour flight to Shanghai.
16. PRC Leadership
Reuters (“CHINA’S JIANG CREEPS BACK FROM POLITICAL OBLIVION”, 2006-07-19) reported that former PRC President Jiang Zemin has quietly emerged from retirement, an apparent attempt to influence leadership changes due next year and safeguard his own legacy, political sources and analysts said. Jiang presided over a period of extraordinary reform-driven economic growth without many of the signs of social and environmental strains that have since come to light. Sources say he may be worried that the current leadership will rewrite his legacy, placing the blame for the country’s woes on him.
17. PRC Environment
Reuters (“TENTH OF CHINA’S FARMLAND POLLUTED – PAPER”, 2006-07-19) reported that about a tenth of the PRC’s vast farmland is polluted, threatening public health and the country’s fragile eco-system, the South China Morning Post said on Wednesday. About 12 million tonnes of crops had to be destroyed each year because of contamination by heavy metals, the newspaper quoted Zhou Shengxian, director of the PRC’s State Environmental Protection Administration, as saying.