NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, September 03, 2007

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"NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, September 03, 2007", NAPSNet Daily Report, September 03, 2007, https://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-daily-report/napsnet-daily-report-monday-september-03-2007/

NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, September 03, 2007

NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, September 03, 2007

I. NAPSNet

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. NAPSNet

1. US-DPRK Working Group Meeting

Chosun Ilbo (“N.KOREA TO DISABLE NUCLEAR FACILITIES ‘BY YEAR-END'”, 2007-09-03) reported that the DPRK has agreed to report and disable all its nuclear facilities by late this year, the chief US envoy in talks with the reclusive nation said. He said the DPRK will report its uranium enrichment program, on which the two sides had “good discussions” that will continue. His DPRK counterpart Kim Kye-gwan said, “We made it clear, we showed clear willingness to declare and dismantle all nuclear facilities.” He added, “In return for this, we will receive political and economic compensation.”

(return to top) Joongang Ilbo (“NORTH: U.S. READY TO LIFT SANCTIONS, ADJUST TERROR LIST”, 2007-09-03) reported that the DPRK said that the US has agreed to take it off the list of state sponsors of terrorism and remove some trade sanctions if the DPRK discloses and disables all of its nuclear programs by the end of this year. The two sides agreed on working-level steps to disable the nuclear facilities, an unnamed spokesman for the DPRK’s foreign ministry told the state-run Korean Central News Agency. In return, he said, the DPRK will be delisted from the terrorism roster and the sanctions imposed under the Trading with the Enemy Act will be lifted. (return to top) Kyodo (“JAPAN DISMISSES REPORTS ON N. KOREA’S REMOVAL FROM U.S. TERROR LIST “, 2007-09-03) reported that the Japanese government and the kin of Japanese citizens abducted by DPRK brushed off reports that the US had agreed to remove the DPRK from its list of terrorism-sponsoring states, saying they will continue to watch developments closely. The United States “will not move unilaterally without Japan’s consent to remove it (North Korea) from the list,” a Japanese government source said. (return to top)

2. Japan-DPRK Working Group Meeting

Kyodo (“JAPAN, N. KOREA NEED TO MAKE PROGRESS IN WORKING GROUP TALKS: ABE”, 2007-09-03) reported that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that Japan and the DPRK need to make progress on such issues as DPRK agents’ abductions of Japanese at their working group talks under the six-party nuclear talks framework to be held this week in Mongolia. “We have to make the working group (between Japan and the DPRK) advance by seeing progress even by one or two steps on such matters as the abduction issue with a sincere response from North Korea,” Abe told reporters.

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3. DPRK Flood Aid

Reuters (“NORTH KOREA UNUSUALLY OPEN ABOUT FLOOD DAMAGE, U.N. SAYS”, 2007-09-03) reported that the DPRK has responded to outside help after devastating floods with unusual openness, a top U.N. official in the country said, but added providing assistance to the reclusive state was still a massive challenge. “The level of damage to infrastructure, to communications, to crops, to farmland and to households, is considerable,” said Jean-Pierre de Margerie, who is the acting UN coordinator in the DPRK as well as the World Food Program’s country representative. “The breakthrough that happened with the floods a few weeks ago is that the government has improved its level of cooperation by giving us unprecedented access to the field to conduct our assessments of the damage,” he said.

(return to top) Agence France-Presse (“US HINTS AT LARGE FOOD AID FOR NORTH KOREAN FLOOD VICTIMS”, 2007-09-03) reported that a State Department spokesman said that the US was ready to talk to the DPRK about a “significant” food aid package for victims of the recent devastating floods. Washington “is prepared to engage with North Korean officials on arrangements for a significant food aid package, including appropriate monitoring procedures,” deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey said. (return to top)

4. ROK Hostages in Afghanistan

Chosun Ilbo (“KOREA ‘PAID US$20 MILLION TO TALIBAN'”, 2007-09-03) reported that the ROK government paid more than US$20 million in ransom to Taliban kidnappers for the release of 19 Korean hostages in Afghanistan, Reuters and Japan’s Kyodo News said Saturday quoting a senior Taliban figure. Both news agencies cited remarks by a member of the 10-man leadership council of the Taliban, which are headed by the elusive Mullah Omar. “With it we will purchase arms, get our communication network renewed and buy vehicles to carry out more suicide attacks,” the senior militant figure told Reuters.

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5. Japan Leadership

Kyodo (“FARM MINISTER ENDO QUITS OVER SCANDAL 1 WEEK AFTER TAKING OFFICE”, 2007-09-03) reported that farm minister Takehiko Endo resigned only a week after taking office over the misuse of farm subsidies, becoming the fifth Cabinet minister to step down since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to power last September. In a triple blow to the Japanese leader and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party, accounting irregularities concerning political funds reports led newly appointed Parliamentary Foreign Secretary Yukiko Sakamoto to step down from her post and former farm minister Tokuichiro Tamazawa to leave the LDP.

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6. Japan on PRC Military

Reuters (“CHINA MILITARY VEXES JAPAN DESPITE MINISTER’S VISIT”, 2007-09-03) reported that a rare visit to Japan by a PRC defense minister has done little to erase mutual suspicion over the Asian rivals’ military ambitions, despite his assurances that Beijing poses no threat, Japanese media said. Japanese suspicions over the lack of transparency in the PRC’s rising military budget showed no sign of letting up.

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7. PRC Military

The Associated Press (“CHINA TO REPORT MILITARY SPENDING TO UN “, 2007-09-03) reported that the PRC said it will provide the United Nations with information on its military spending and arms deals for the first time in more than a decade, taking a step to address international concerns about the secrecy surrounding its defense spending and operations. The PRC will give U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “basic data of its military expenditures for the latest fiscal year,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a statement posted on the ministry’s Web site.

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8. Quadrilateral Initiative Drill

BBC News (“NEW ‘STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP’ AGAINST CHINA “, 2007-09-03) reported that ships, aircraft and submarines from four countries begin week-long war games in the Bay of Bengal on 4 September. It is the first flexing of muscles by the newly-formed “Quadrilateral Initiative”, which brings together the US, Japan, India and Australia. Many analysts see the manoeuvres as efforts by a democratic coalition to “contain” rising PRC power. Although the participants deny this, Beijing seems to be increasingly worried.

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