NAPSNet Daily Report 11 July, 2008

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"NAPSNet Daily Report 11 July, 2008", NAPSNet Daily Report, July 11, 2008, https://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-daily-report/napsnet-daily-report-11-july-2008/

NAPSNet Daily Report 11 July, 2008

NAPSNet Daily Report 11 July, 2008


Contents in this Issue:

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. NAPSNet

1. Six Party Talks

Korea Herald (Lee Joo-hee , “NUKE TALKS FOCUS ON VERIFICATION PROTOCOL”, Beijing, 2008/07/10) reported that members to the six-party talks began negotiating how to form a verification protocol on the DPRK’s reported nuclear programs before heading on to the next phase of dismantling them. The negotiation focused on getting DPRK to agree to a maximum level of verification, while Pyongyang demanded a more prompt delivery of corresponding incentives and a promise for more to come. “Everyone understands what verification regime is. We have discussed the basic principles. These things do tend to depend on details so we have a lot of work ahead,” Hill told reporters.

Yonhap (Lee Chi-dong, “DEAL ON VERIFYING N. KOREA’S NUCLEAR LIST IMMINENT”, Beijing, 2008/07/11) reported that the DPRK came close to a compromise Friday on how to check the authenticity of the DPRK’s account of its plutonium inventory, an ROK official said. “The related nations came close to an agreement on guidelines for a verification and monitoring mechanism at the meeting of heads of delegations,” the official told reporters. “They appear ready to hold a denuclearization working-group meeting, for which the schedule has not been set yet.”

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2. US on DPRK Nuclear Program

Yonhap News (Lee Chi-dong, “U.S. PUSHES FOR SPECIAL “NK MODEL” FOR DENUCLEARIZATION “, Seoul, 2008/07/10) reported that the US plans to adopt a new formula to denuclearize the DPRK, different from the method used to coax Libya to renounce terrorism and nuclear arms, a ROK government source said. “The U.S. has proposed an NK model, a modification of the Libya model, to simultaneously conduct the verification and dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear program while providing a reward in each stage,” the source said. “A unique denuclearization formula should be adopted for a speedy implementation of the entire process.”

The Wall Street Journal (Jay Solomon, “U.S. SEEKS TALKS WITH NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR SCIENTISTS”, Washington, 2008/07/10) reported that US diplomats are pressing to interview the DPRK’s top nuclear scientists and administrators as part of a broader set of measures designed to ensure that Pyongyang has truthfully documented its nuclear activities. The US also is seeking to gain access to as many North Korean nuclear installations as possible, say US officials. The American team also is trying to get more documents to add to the more than 18,000 pages that Kim Jong Il’s government provided in recent months, which detail Pyongyang’s nuclear activities dating to the 1980s.

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3. DPRK on Nuclear Program

Xinhua (“DPRK BLASTS U.S. LAWMAKERS FOR HAMPERING DENUCLEARIZATION”, Pyongyang, 2008/07/10) reported that the official news agency KCNA of the DPRK accused US lawmakers of hampering the denuclearization process by trying to postpone the delisting of the DPRK from the US terrorism blacklist. Some US lawmakers recently submitted a bill requiring President George W. Bush to postpone measures to remove the DPRK from the list of “state sponsors of terrorism,” KCNA said. The move embodied their hostile policy toward the DPRK, it said, adding that the country will make corresponding moves depending on the future actions of the US.

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4. ROK on DPRK Energy Aid

Kyodo News (“S. KOREA TO URGE JAPAN TO PARTICIPATE IN ENERGY AID FOR N. KOREA “, Beijing, 2008/07/10) reported that the ROK’s chief delegate to the six-party talks on denuclearizing the DPRK said he would like to urge Japan to participate in providing energy aid to Pyongyang in exchange for the disablement of its nuclear facilities and disclosure of its nuclear programs. ”We’d like to encourage Japan to participate (in the aid) and draw up a specific plan regarding the remaining aid,” said Kim Sook, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs at the ROK Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry.

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5. US-DPRK Relations

Yonhap News (“N. KOREA ACCUSES U.S. OF RAISING TENSION”, Seoul, 2008/07/10) reported that the DPRK accused the US of escalating tension through what it called “provocative actions” while meeting with a senior US member of the U.N. armistice commission at the joint truce village of Panmunjeom, the DPRK’s state media reported. At the same meeting, the US side had notified the DPRK of upcoming US-ROK joint military exercises next month. The report labeled the maneuver a “criminal act” and demanded it be canceled. The report claimed the meeting came at a request from the DPRK’s military mission to Panmunjeom to file protests against what it called provocative acts that obstruct the performance of duties by DPRK guards at the truce village inside the demilitarized zone.

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6. Sino-DPRK Relations

Xinhua (“DPRK MARKS 47TH ANNIVERSARY OF FRIENDSHIP TREATY WITH CHINA “, Pyongyang, 2008/07/10) reported that the DPRK held a banquet on to commemorate the 47th anniversary of a DPRK-PRC friendship treaty. Guided by the spirit of the treaty, the DPRK and the PRC have shown mutual cooperation and support, thus contributing to peace and stability in North-East Asia, said the chairman of the Central Committee of the DPRK-PRC Friendship Association, Choe Chang Sik. The DPRK will continue to strengthen the traditional friendship with the PRC, he added.

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7. Mt. Kumgang Shooting

Associated Press (Jae-soon Chang, “SOUTH KOREAN FATALLY SHOT BY NORTH KOREAN SOLDIER”, Seoul, 2008/07/11) reported that a DPRK soldier fatally shot an ROK tourist Friday at the Mt. Kumgang resort. An ROK spokesman said that the ROK would suspend future tours until it completes an investigation. The other some 1,200 tourists already at the resort are to complete their tours as scheduled by as late as Sunday, said Hyundai Asan. According to a DPRK account given to Hyundai Asan, the woman left her hotel around 4:30 a.m. to walk along the beach at the resort, but crossed deep into a fenced-off military area. The woman, identified as Park Wang-ja, ran away when a DPRK soldier told her to halt after spotting her about a half-mile inside the fence. Park fled as the soldier chased her and fired one warning shot, before she was shot dead around 5 a.m., the DPRK said.

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8. DPRK Economy

IFES NK Brief (“DPRK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PROVISION ADOPTED”, 2008/07/10) reported that Korean Central Broadcasting reported on the 7th that the DPRK cabinet recently adopted a provision on a DPRK Chamber of Commerce. The broadcaster quoted the Democratic Chosun, a publication of the DPRK cabinet, reporting that the provision included the Chamber of Commerce’s tasks and overseas economic activities, the provision’s targets, and various issues regarding the Chamber of Commerce’s organization and operations, but the report did not cover any of the provision’s specific details. It stated, “By adopting this provision, a legal guarantee has been prepared so that exchange and cooperation with international and foreign countries’ national Chambers of Commerce and trade promotion agencies can be realized and overseas economic activity can be further promoted.”

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9. DPRK Food Supply

Xinhua (“KIM JONG IL CALLS FOR HISTORY-MAKING CHANGES IN AGRICULTURE”, Pyongyang, 2008/07/10) reported that Kim Jong Il, the top leader of the DPRK, reiterated that solving the food crisis is the country’s priority and called for history-making changes in agriculture. While inspecting farms in North Phyongan province, Kim called on the people to support agriculture and make the countryside civilized, self-sufficient and equipped with modern technology, the official Rodong Sinmun daily reported. He inspected a cooperative farm, a pig farm and a rabbit breeding farm in the province, according to the report.

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10. DPRK-ASEAN Relations

Kyodo News (“N. KOREA AGREES TO SIGN ASEAN’S NON-AGGRESSION TREATY “, Singapore, 2008/07/10) reported that the DPRK has agreed to sign the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ non-aggression treaty, ASEAN official sources and diplomats said. DPRK Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun has written a letter to Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo, the grouping’s current chairman, to convey Pyongyang’s decision to sign ASEAN’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, they said.

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11. DPRK Cultural Exchanges

Korea Times (Kim Sue-young , “N. KOREAN ORCHESTRA TO PERFORM IN LONDON IN SEPT.”, Seoul, 2008/07/11) reported that a DPRK symphony orchestra will perform in Britain in September, the Voice of America (VOA) reported Thursday. Opera Diva Suzannah Clarke, chief of the North Korea Orchestra Project, was quoted as saying she hopes the event to be a peaceful occasion with the ROK and the United States also participating.

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12. US-ROK Trade Relations

Chosun Ilbo (“BUSH VOWS TO PUSH RATIFICATION OF KOREA-U.S. FTA”, 2008/07/10) reported that US President George W. Bush said the controversy surrounding the ROK’s import of US beef has bolstered, not weakened, his will to get the Korea-US FTA ratified. In a meeting with Bush on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Japan, President Lee Myung-bak told him, “There is something you need to do before your term ends” in January next year, and Bush responded by saying he would press on with the ratification of the FTA. While he could not promise that it will be passed by Congress, he will try his best to win approval, he vowed.

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13. ROK-Japan Territorial Dispute

Kyodo News (“N.Y. TIMES FULL-PAGE AD CLAIMS DISPUTED ISLETS BELONG TO S. KOREA”, Washington, 2008/07/10) reported that the New York Times on Wednesday carried a full-page ad claiming the ROK’s sovereignty over a pair of rocky islets in the Sea of Japan, called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in the ROK. The ad, titled “Do you know?” says, “Dokdo and East Sea (Sea of Japan). For the last 2,000 years, the body of water between Korea and Japan has been called the ‘East Sea.'” “Dokdo (two islands) located in the East Sea is a part of (South) Korean territory. The Japanese government must acknowledge this fact,” said the ad put up by the advertiser who is identified only as http://www.ForTheNextGeneration.com.

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14. Japan Missile Defense

Kyodo News (“JAPAN’S MARITIME SELF-DEFENSE FORCE CONDUCTS MISSILE TESTS OFF HAWAII “, Honolulu, 2008/07/10) reported that Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force conducted a missile firing drill involving destroyers off Hawaii during a joint exercise of defense forces from the United States, Japan and eight other countries. The destroyers Kirishima and Setogiri and two other vessels fired SM-2 surface-to-air missiles at an unmanned target plane launched by the US military. Of the seven planned to be fired, two misfired while some of them are believed to have hit the target, according to the MSDF.

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15. Japanese Nuclear Energy

Asahi Shimbun (“NUKE WORKER EXPOSED TO RADIATION”, Yokosuka, 2008/07/11) reported that a Japanese nuclear fuel company worker in his 20s was exposed to a small amount of radiation Wednesday after an accidental discharge at the Global Nuclear Fuel-Japan Co. uranium processing plant. About 8 grams of radioactive material was scattered inside the plant at 5:24 a.m., after the worker failed to place a lid on a device that processes uranium powder into pellets. No radioactive material was emitted outside the plant, company officials said Thursday.

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16. Cross Strait Relations

The Associated Press (Peter Enav, “TAIWAN NIXES CHINA MOVE TO CHANGE OLYMPIC NAME “, Taipei , 2008/07/10) reported that a senior Taiwan official has rejected the PRC’s attempts to change the name under which the island will compete in next month’s Olympics, striking a discordant note to the two sides’ recently improved relations. Vice Chairman Liu Te-shun of the Mainland Affairs Council in Taipei on Thursday said “Zhongguo Taipei” — a name in the Chinese language that strongly suggests that Taiwan is part of the PRC — “is not acceptable to us.”

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17. US-PRC Relations

The New York Times (Neil A. Lewis, “SPY CASES RAISE CONCERN ON CHINA’S INTENTIONS “, Washington, 2008/07/10) reported that prosecutors in the last year have brought about a dozen cases involving the PRC’s efforts to obtain military-grade accelerometers (used to make smart bombs), defense information about Taiwan, American warship technology, night-vision technology and refinements to make missiles more difficult to detect. In interviews, current and former intelligence and law enforcement officials demonstrated uncertainty as to the precise scope of the problem of PRC espionage. But many officials offered a similar description of the pattern of the cases: the PRC government and state-sponsored industries have relied on the Chinese diaspora — using immigrants, students and people of second- and third-generation Chinese heritage — and regular commercial relations to operate a system in which some people wittingly or unwittingly participate.

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18. PRC Leadership

The Associated Press (Christopher Bodeen, “CHINA’S HU DOMINATES HOME NEWS COVERAGE”, Beijing, 2008/07/10) reported that the PRC media lavished coverage on President Hu Jintao’s attendance at the just-concluded G-8 summit in Japan, in what appears to be part of a drive to boost his profile before next month’s Beijing Olympics. Hu’s trip to Hokkaido was a “major diplomatic move, which produces important achievements in many aspects,” the official Xinhua News Agency and newspapers reported Thursday, quoting Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. Proposals by Hu on reforming international trade and financial institutions “embody China’s strategic consideration and strong sense of responsibility as the world’s largest developing country,” Yang was quoted as saying.

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II. PRC Report

19. PRC Civil Society and the Environment

People’s Daily (Du Ruoyuan, “FIRST WETLAND PROTECTION FOUNDATION SET UP IN HUBEI”, Wuhan, 2008/07/08) reported that the PRC’s first national Wetland Protection Foundation was born in Hubei today. The first amount of funding raised is 4.31 million yuan. Hubei enjoys a reputation as the “Province of a Thousand Lakes”, which is rich in wetland resources. There are four major types of wetland there: river, lake, swamp, marshes and meadows. The total area of them is 1.6169 million hectares, accounting for 8.5% of the province’s total area. In early 2007, the then Vice-Chairman of Hubei Provincial CPPCC Cai Shuming decided to donate his 10,000 US dollars prize money awarded by the highest international scientific prize of wetland — the Ramsar Award — for registering this Wetland Protection Foundation.

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20. PRC Civil Society

China Modern Enterprise (Ye Feng, “SHANGHAI CIVIL ORGANIZATIONS BECOME THE MATCH-MAKER FOR TRANSFORMING SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS”, 2008/07/08) reported that the experience of the Shanghai Promoting Association for Transforming Scientific Achievements proved that civil organizations can play the “matchmaker” role in promoting transformation of scientific achievements. This can be attributed to the “Alliance Program.” Every year, this Program collects technical problems from enterprises in June, then organizes colleges and universities to contact with the enterprises in September. In October, experts assess and determine the winning bids. The two sides of the tender will sign a cooperative agreement with Promoting Association in December. The organizer will also give some subsidy to the projects. According to statistics, over the past four years, this Program has accepted 230 technical problem from all types of enterprises, among which 91 were officially awarded funding. The total funds being invested is 59.61 million yuan, of which 12.24 million yuan comes from the organizer. After these projects have solved the above problems, the sales income is expected to be about 50 billion yuan, with economic benefits of about 700 million yuan.

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21. PRC Energy Supply

Xinhua Net (Wang Zuokui, Wei Lianglei, “SINO-KAZAKHSTAN NATURAL GAS PIPELINE STARTS LAYING PIPE”, 2008/07/09) reported that the PRC and Kazakhstan formally started the laying of a natural gas pipeline on July 10. Sino-Kazakhstan natural gas pipeline is a part of the Sino – Central Asian natural gas pipeline. The total length is 1,300 km, built by a joint venture of the two sides. The Sino – Central Asian natural gas pipeline starts from Turkmenistan in the west, through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, to Central PRC, East PRC and South PRC. The pipeline length in Chinese areas is about 10,000 km. Among them, Sino-Turkmenistan and Sino-Ukrainian gas pipelines started construction respectively on June 27 and 30. So far, Sino – Central Asian natural gas pipeline has started the whole line construction. After its completion, Turkmenistan will provide the PRC with an annual 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas for 30 years.

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III. ROK Report

22. Inter Korean Relations

Yonhap News (“PRESIDENT LEE SUGGESTS THE DPRK TO RESUME CONVERSATION”, 2008/07/11) reported that President Lee Myung-bak suggested resuming the conversation between two Koreas through his opening address to the National Assembly on July 11. Lee emphasized that the ROK government is willing to discuss the implementation of previous agreements, such as the 6.15 joint declaration and 10.4 summit declaration. President Lee’s suggestion is interpreted as his willingness to change the policy toward the DPRK to break the deadlock.