NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Recommended Citation

"NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, June 07, 2006", NAPSNet Daily Report, June 07, 2006, https://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-daily-report/napsnet-daily-report-wednesday-june-07-2006/

NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, June 07, 2006

NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, June 07, 2006

I. NAPSNet

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. NAPSNet

1. DPRK Missile Test

Chosun Ilbo (“N.KOREA MISSILE LAUNCH WORRIES GROWING”, 2006-06-07) reported that Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon has voiced concern that the DPRK may be poised to test-fire a new Taepodong-style ballistic missile. The remark came after US Ambassador to Korea Alexander Vershbow and other US officials expressed similar concerns. “The indication of preparations for a missile launch in North Korea are a matter of great concern for both Korea and the U.S.,” Ban told reporters Wednesday. “The two countries recognize that any move by the North to further aggravate the situation is unacceptable.”

(return to top)

2. Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation

United Press International (“S.KOREA TO AID NORTH AFTER RAILWAYS TEST”, 2006-06-07) reported that ROK officials said they won’t provide financial support to the DPRK before test runs on two cross-border railway lines are carried out. ROK Vice Finance Minister Bahk Byong-won said, “We created a structure in which the additional economic cooperation is only possible after the railways test run,” The Korea Herald reported Wednesday. “Although we said ‘conditions’ in the agreement, both sides made clear when we read out the agreement that the conditions referred to the railways test to avoid any conflicting interpretations in the future,” Bahk said, according to the Herald.

(return to top)

3. Inter-Korean Media Cooperation

Dong-a Ilbo (“NORTH KOREAN ANNOUNCER MAKES TV DEBUT”, 2006-06-07) reported that after a DPRK actress showed up on a TV commercial in the ROK, now a DPRK announcer’s voice is being aired in a commercial for KTF, a ROK telecom company. The advertisement shows a DPRK family cheering for the ROK in the match between the ROK and Italy during the 2002 World Cup. The announcer says, “The South Korean team’s throw-in…the free kick was netted…Shoot! It’s a goal.” She uses DPRK words to describe the situation with her DPRK accent.

(return to top)

4. ROK on DPRK Human Rights

Yonhap (“SEOUL SHOWS GROWING INTEREST IN N. KOREAN HUMAN RIGHTS “, 2006-06-07) reported that the ROK is considering expressing its position on the DPRK’s human rights abuse at a forthcoming international meeting, Seoul’s top diplomat said Wednesday. Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon told reporters he will attend the first meeting of the UN Human Rights Council to be held in Geneva on June 19 and deliver a keynote speech. “The government is well aware of big interest at home and abroad in the North Korean human rights problem,” Ban said. “A review is under way on whether to include the issue in the keynote speech.”

(return to top)

5. US-ROK Trade Relations

Chosun Ilbo (“KOREA, U.S. FAIL TO AGREE ON KAESONG-MADE GOODS”, 2006-06-07) reported that the first round of free-trade negotiations between the ROK and the US failed to produce agreement on products made at the joint-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex in the DPRK. The issue will be carried over into the second round in Seoul next month, but the ROK will have a hard time overcoming US resistance to including products from the border town.

(return to top) Yonhap (“ECONOMIC RESEARCHERS RECOMMEND EXCLUDING KAESONG ISSUE FROM FTA”, 2006-06-07) reported that a US economic research body recommended Wednesday that the ROK and the US put off dealing with a controversial DPRK industrial zone in their free trade agreement (FTA) talks until a proper monitoring system is in place. But it said the US should include in the FTA promises to address the issue in the future once conditions change. (return to top)

6. Missing ROK Fighter Jet

Chosun Ilbo (“F-15 K FIGHTER GOES MISSING OVER EAST SEA”, 2006-06-07) reported that a state-of-art F-15K fighter jet went missing during a routine nighttime training mission in the East Sea on Wednesday night. The fate of the two pilots on the new aircraft was unknown. The F-15K jet, which left a Daegu air base at 7:45 p.m., suddenly disappeared from the radar at around 8:20 p.m., the Air Force said. Officers fear it crashed into the sea and have dispatched HH-60 helicopters to waters off Pohang on a search and rescue mission.

(return to top)

7. ROK-Central Asia Diplomacy

Yonhap (“S. KOREA TO JOIN REGIONAL SECURITY BODY”, 2006-06-07) reported that the ROK said Wednesday that it is set to become a new member of a regional security consultation body led by Kazakhstan, which would give Seoul an opportunity to expand its security-related dialogue channel to Central Asia. “The government is pushing for the membership of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) at its second summit to be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on June 17,” the Foreign Ministry said in a press release.

(return to top)

8. Yasukuni Shrine Issue

BBC News (“JAPAN SHRINE SEEKS ‘UNDERSTANDING'”, 2006-06-07) reported that a controversial Tokyo war shrine has started offering brochures in Chinese and Korean, to increase visitors’ “understanding”, shrine officials said. Officials said the brochure was a response to a recent increase in foreign visitors to the shrine. But the brochure’s wording may cause as much anger as understanding, correspondents say.

(return to top)

9. PRC on East Sea Gas Dispute

Kyodo (“CHINESE OFFICIAL RAPS JAPAN’S ‘PROVOCATIVE’ ACTION OVER GAS DISPUTE”, 2006-06-07) reported that a PRC official on Wednesday criticized “new nationalism” rising in Japan as fanning “provocative actions” over a bilateral gas dispute stemming from unsettled demarcation in the East China Sea, and expressed hope that the row will “calm down” through cooperation between the two sides.

(return to top)

10. PRC on Tiananmen Anniversary

Agence France-Presse (“CHINA HITS BACK AT US OVER TIANANMEN CRITICISM”, 2006-06-07) reported that Beijing has reacted angrily to US comments about the 1989 Tiananmen events, telling the US not to interfere in the PRC’s internal affairs and pay attention to its own human rights problems. “China is strongly dissatisfied with and resolutely opposes the US statement on (the) ‘Tiananmen incident’,” foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a statement.

(return to top)

11. US on Taiwan Leadership

Agence France-Presse (“US DIPLOMAT TO VISIT TAIWAN AMID CHEN’S POLITICAL CRISIS”, 2006-06-07) reported that a top US diplomat overseeing relations with Taiwan will visit the island amid a growing corruption scandal facing President Chen Shui-bian and his associates, officials said. Raymond F. Burghardt, chairman of the Washington-based American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), will meet with a wide range of people during his stay.

(return to top)

12. PRC Land Use

The Associated Press (“CHINA: 60 PCT OF RECENT LAND DEALS ILLEGAL “, 2006-06-07) reported that more than 60 percent of recent land acquisitions for construction in the PRC are illegal, with the figure rising to 90 percent in some cities, the government said in a report demanding investigations of such deals. The increase in violations comes despite repeated calls by the central government for local officials to stop selling land use rights for unauthorized construction, often for industrial parks, luxury housing and showcase projects such as convention centers.

(return to top)