NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, December 12, 2005

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NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, December 12, 2005

NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, December 12, 2005

I. NAPSNet

II. CanKor

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. NAPSNet

1. KEDO Project

Joongang Ilbo (“KEDO TOLD TO LEAVE NORTH KOREA”, 2005-12-12) reported that Pyongyang has told the KEDO Office in Kumho, DPRK, to withdraw all its workers at the nuclear power reactor construction site in the North by early January. ROK and KEDO officials told the Joongang Daily that the DPRK had also said KEDO would not be allowed to repatriate equipment and materials at the construction site on the DPRK’s east coast.

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2. Informal Six Party Talks

Pravda (“SOUTH KOREA SAYS UNOFFICIAL SIX-PARTY NUCLEAR TALKS UNLIKELY”, 2005-12-12) reported that the ROK said Monday its push for an unofficial session of international nuclear disarmament talks on the DPRK is unlikely to materialize amid growing tension between US and the DPRK. Seoul sought in recent weeks to convene an informal meeting of negotiators from the two Koreas, PRC, Japan, Russia and the US for freer discussion aimed at breaking a deadlock in the stalled negotiations. “Realistically, it appears to be difficult to hold a six-party meeting on Jeju,” ROK Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said. “I believe the six-party talks should resume before Lunar New Year,” Ban said.

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3. DPRK-US Relations in Six Party Talks

The Korea Times (“NK DENIES US CHARGES OF CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES”, 2005-12-12) reported that the DPRK flatly denied the US’s allegations of state-level criminal activities such as counterfeiting or illegal trade Saturday, blaming the US for possible suspension of the six party talks. The DPRK’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said in an interview with the Korean Central News Agency, the official mouthpiece of the regime, that the illegal activities are “beyond imagination” of the country, and insisted such allegations only proved the US “mastery of fakery.” The spokesman also blamed the US for refusing to lift financial sanctions against the DPRK, thereby suspending the six party talks “indefinitely”.

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4. ROK-PRC Cooperation on Six Party Talks

The Korea Times (“SEOUL, BEIJING WORRY OVER US SANCTIONS”, 2005-12-12) reported that the ROK and the PRC shared concerns over the possibility that US financial sanctions against the DPRK would have a negative effect on the progress of six party talks. In a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN+3 Summit that opened here Monday, President Roh Moo-hyun and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao reaffirmed their close cooperation to break through the nuclear impasse. “The two leaders talked about the latest situation related to the nuclear issue which has reached a critical juncture, and agreed to continue close bilateral cooperation so the denuclearization process would not take a retrograde step,” an official said.

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5. Inter-Korean Summit

The Korea Times (“INTER-KOREAN CABINET TALKS OPEN TUESDAY”, 2005-12-12) reported that a four-day inter-Korean ministerial-level meeting opens on Tuesday on the southern resort island of Cheju, as the ROK hopes to persuade the DPRK to reaffirm unimplemented agreements reached during previous meetings. The ROK has also expressed hope that the talks will provide momentum for the six party talks. “We will call on North Korea to assess the inter-Korean achievements made so far and agree on detailed measures for further implementation of previous agreements,” Kim Chun-sig, the ROK’s spokesman for the talks, told reporters in a briefing on Monday. The two Koreas signed a flurry of agreements during the previous 16 rounds of ministerial talks. But a number of them, such as talks between the military authorities and opening of direct railways across the heavily fortified inter-Korean border, which were originally agreed to take place this year, have yet to be implemented, along with marine cooperation on the West Sea.

(return to top) Reuters (“NUCLEAR DIFFERENCES OVERSHADOW INTER-KOREAN TALKS”, 2005-12-12) reported that the DPRK and the ROK will hold ministerial talks this week on improving cooperation, but a row in separate multinational discussions on ending Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programs could overshadow the meeting. This round of talks, to be held from Tuesday to Friday on the ROK resort island of Cheju, will focus on finishing a rail link between the two Koreas as well as increasing confidence-building measures between the two armies, the ROK’s unification minister has said. (return to top)

6. Inter-Korean Relations

Joongang Ilbo (“CITIES START TO DESTROY DEFENSES AGAINST TANKS”, 2005-12-09) reported that the defensive fortifications built in northern Gyeonggi province to hinder tank attacks by the DPRK may become part of history with some local governments deciding to demolish them. The fortifications are overpass-like structures erected in the 1970s over roads connecting cities in the province to Seoul. In the event of an attack, the ROK Army would blow up the structures to block roads to the capital. The local government of the satellite city of Guri, northeast of Seoul, said yesterday it started demolishing fortifications over the road connecting Seoul to Namyangju city, Gyeonggi province, on Nov. 8, 34 years after their construction. The city government said it will spend 1.3 billion won ($1.2 million) to dismantle the defensive wall by the end of this year and plans to replace it with underground fortifications on the same spot. An official said, “We hope that removing the wall will help to ease tension between the North and the South and build trust between two countries.”

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7. Inter-Korean Cooperation

The Korea Times (“BILL MAKES AID TO NK EASIER”, 2005-12-08) reported that a bill, which aims to pave the way for providing a legal basis for the ROK government’s aid to the DPRK, was passed at the National Assembly’s plenary session Thursday. ”A new era will soon start with the inter-Korean cooperation act, ending the previous era of the anti-communist National Security Law,” said ROK Unification Minister Chung Dong-young. “The bill, which is based on national consensus, is expected to put an end to time-consuming ideological disputes over the government’s aid programs to the North.” The bill defines inter-Korean relations as “special cooperative relations in the process of reunification efforts,’’ instead of exchanges between two separate countries. It also explains exchanges between the two Koreas as “internal exchanges within the same racial group.’’ The bill also supports the South Korean government to make efforts to improve human rights conditions in the North and continue its humanitarian aid programs to the DPRK. It also encourages the ROK to establish an inter-Korean economic cooperative body through mutual cooperation with the DPRK.

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8. Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation

Korea.net (“UNIFICATION MINISTER STRESSES NEED TO GET KAESONG COMPLEX IN FULL SWING “, 2005-12-09) reported that Unification Minister Chung Dong-young emphasized the need to quickly usher in the second phase of construction at an inter-Korean industrial complex in the city of Kaesong, ministry officials said. Chung made the remarks during his one-day trip to Kaesong to encourage RO Korean businesses operating there. He was accompanied by four of his predecessors and some 50 businessmen, the officials said.

(return to top) Korea.net (“KT TO OPEN OFFICE IN KAESONG”, 2005-12-09) reported that KT, ROK’s dominant fixed-line telephone operator, will set up a branch office in the city of Kaesong on Dec. 28 with the opening of the first direct inter-Korean telephone line. “The opening of the telephone office and the Kaesong-Seoul line is just a beginning. In the long term, it would be a cornerstone of collaboration between KT and the DPRK,” KT’s CEO Nam Joong-soo said. “We are looking for opportunities to work together with the North, and we are preparing to launch other businesses as soon as we get chances.” (return to top)

9. US on Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation

China Daily (“US AMBASSADOR CALLS ON SOUTH KOREA TO LINK ECONOMIC AID TO NUCLEAR TALKS”, 2005-12-12) reported that the US ambassador to the ROK called on Seoul to link its economic cooperation with the DPRKto progress at nuclear disarmament talks. US Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, speaking at a policy forum in Seoul, cautioned the ROK on handing over technology that could help the DPRK’s military as it pursues its policy of reconciliation with the DPRK. “Despite our best efforts to engage with North Korea, and despite our best intentions, we cannot turn our faces away from the fact that North Korea remains a military threat, with over (a) million troops, a claim to possess nuclear weapons and near-total control of its own people,” Vershbow said, according to a text of his comments provided by the embassy.

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10. DPRK-US Relations

The Korea Times (“N. KOREA STILL ‘MILITARY THREAT’: VERSHBOW”, 2005-12-12) reported that The Seoul-Washington military cooperation is still an important part of the alliance as the DPRK remains a “military threat,” Alexander Vershbow, US ambassador to the ROK, said at a seminar in Seoul on Monday. “Despite our best efforts to engage with North Korea, we cannot turn our faces away from the fact that North Korea remains a military threat, with over million troops, a claim to possess nuclear weapons, and near-total control of its own people,” he said. Vershbow indicated that the US will not sit idle and watch Pyongyang using the technical supplies from Seoul to enhance the DPRK’s military threat.

(return to top) The Associated Press (“N. KOREA SLAMS U.S. ENVOY OVER COMMENTS “, 2005-12-11) reported that the DPRK denounced the new US ambassador to the ROK for calling the DPRK a “criminal regime,” saying Saturday his remark was tantamount to a declaration of war. The DPRK called the statement “a sort of provocative declaration of a war” and threatened to “mercilessly retaliate against it,” the official Korean Central News Agency quoted a DPRK official as saying. A State Department spokeswoman said the U. was trying to verify the DPRK comments and had no immediate response. (return to top)

11. DPRK-Russian Relations

Interfax (“RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO HANDLE TERNEI SITUATION IN NORTH KOREA”, 2005-12-12) reported that Russian Ambassador to the DPRK, Andrei Karlov will go to Kimchaek to study details of the detention of Russia’s Ternei vessel, third secretary at the Russian embassy in Pyongyang Ruslan Krivyakin told Interfax. “Unfortunately, the Korean side has not kept its promise to release the Ternei, which was given to the Russian Consul General in Chongjin Yevgeny Valkovich,” he said.

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12. US on ROK role in DPRK Human Rights

International Herald Tribune (“U.S. AIDE ASKS SEOUL TO PRESS RIGHTS IN NORTH”, 2005-12-11) reported that a visiting US envoy yesterday made a blunt call to the ROK government to stop shirking its duty to challenge the DPRK’s human rights abuses. He noted repeatedly that Washington and Seoul have differences in their tactical approaches to promoting human rights in the DPRK. Jay Lefkowitz, the US envoy for human rights in the DPRK, said the international community has been working on a series of approaches to improve the rights situation in the DPRK. At a hastily called news conference yesterday afternoon, he urged Seoul “to participate and be a little more vocal.” He added, “There is never an inappropriate time to talk about human rights.”

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13. US-ROK Relations in DPRK Human Rights

The Korea Times (“NO RED CARPET FOR NK RIGHTS ENVOY”, 2005-12-11) reported that an international conference on DPRK’s human rights finished its three-day schedule Saturday with a candle-light rally in Seoul. One of the high-profile visitors to Seoul was Jay Lefkowitz, but he was not given the red carpet treatment at government offices in Seoul. Lefkowitz reportedly requested a meeting with Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on Thursday. But Chung dodged it, saying that he is “not in the same league,” a source in the government said. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon had a good excuse to avoid a meeting with Lefkowitz as he was busy preparing for his departure to Kuala Lumpur with President Roh Moo-hyun for an ASEAN summit. Instead, Lefkowitz attended two separate meetings with a senior Unification Ministry official and Chun Young-woo, the foreign ministry’s deputy minister for policy planning and international organizations.

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14. DPRK Food Aid

Agence France Presse (“WFP HEAD TO GO TO NORTH KOREA TO NEGOTIATE FOOD AID”, 2005-12-12) reported that the executive director of the UN World Food Program ,James Morrison, will embark Tuesday on a two-day trip to Pyongyang to negotiate food aid for the nation. “Basically he will be discussing the future of the WFP program in the DPRK,” Beijing-based WFP spokesman Gerald Bourke told AFP. Morrison will depart for Pyongyang from Beijing and will hold meetings with DPR Korean official, Kim Yong Nam, as well as with officials from the foreign and agriculture ministries, Bourke said Monday.

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15. DPRK Refugees in PRC

Taipei Times (“NORTH KOREAN SEX SLAVES FLOODING CHINA: US OFFICIAL”, 2005-12-10) reported that thousands of DPRK refugees are working as sex slaves in the PRC under threat of being returned should PRC authorities catch them, the US ambassador for fighting international slavery said yesterday. After two days of talks with PRC officials, John Miller, director of the US State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, said many victims of the modern-day slave trade were women and girls forced into prostitution or marriage. “Sometimes they’re trafficked out of North Korea. North Korean officials are complicit,” Miller told reporters. “If they are caught by the Chinese authorities, they are sent back to North Korea and punished.”

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16. DPRK Defectors in ROK

Korea.net (“1,200 NORTH KOREANS DEFECT TO SOUTH KOREA “, 2005-12-11) reported that more than 1,200 DPR Koreans defected to the ROK in the first 11 months of the year to flee the country, the Unification Ministry said. The number of DPRK defectors to the ROK came to 1,217 in the January-November period, according to the ministry. This is the fourth straight year to see over 1,000 of the defectors flood into the country.

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17. DPRK Leadership

Joongang Ilbo (“NORTH SEEN AS WARY OVER NEXT ‘DEAR LEADER’ “, 2005-12-12) reported that the DPRK leader Kim Jong-il has issued a special instruction barring any discussion about who might succeed him, informed sources in Seoul said yesterday. According to the sources, Mr. Kim gave the instruction during a recent meeting with ranking officials including Kim Ki-nam, secretary of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party and military generals Hyun Chol-hae and Park Jae-gyong. “Our enemies are backbiting us by speculating about our [country’s] future leadership and a father-to-son succession,” Kim was quoted by one source as saying in the meeting. “I ask party and military leaders to strictly crack down on any public discussion on the [issue of our] next leader.”

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18. DPRK Radio Station

Joongang Ilbo (“BROADCASTER STARTS SERVICE FOR NORTH “, 2005-12-10) reported that a radio station which will broadcast outside news to citizens of the DPRK started up Wednesday. The station, “Open North Korea Broadcasting,” does not produce its own programs, but airs content provided by outside organizations. “There has been a stereotype that broadcasts targeting a North Korean audience must criticize the North Korean regime,” said Ha Tae-gyeong, secretary-general of the station. “But this is an open radio station. We are willing to air programs presenting positive views about the North Korean regime.”

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19. DPRK Hair Styles

BBC News (“N KOREA WAGES WAR ON LONG HAIR”, 2005-12-10) reported that a campaign exhorting men to get a proper short-back-and-sides has been aired by state-run Pyongyang television. The series is entitled Let us trim our hair in accordance with Socialist lifestyle. While the campaign has been carried out primarily on television, reports have appeared in DPR Korean press and radio, urging tidy hairstyles and proper attire.

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20. PRC on Yasukuni Shrine Issue

BBC News (“CHINA CANCELS TALKS WITH JAPAN”, 2005-12-12) reported that the PRC’s foreign minister has cancelled a meeting with Japan and the ROK in protest at repeated visits by Japan’s leader to a controversial war shrine. The meeting was to have been held on the sidelines of an Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) summit which formally begins next week.

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21. Japan on Yasukuni Shrine Issue

The Associated Press (“KOIZUMI DOWNPLAYS TENSION WITH CHINA AND SOUTH KOREA AS HE LEAVES FOR ASEAN SUMMIT”, 2005-12-12) reported that Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dismissed as “temporary” deteriorating ties with the PRC and ROK as he left Sunday for an Asian summit and a maelstrom of anti-Japanese sentiment among Japan’s most important neighbors. “Japan has earned a high reputation among Asian countries due to what it has achieved in the past, and the interdependence between Japan, China and South Korea is deepening,” Koizumi said.

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22. US-PRC Military Exchanges

The Associated Press (“U.S., CHINA DISCUSS MILITARY EXCHANGES “, 2005-12-12) reported that Senior American and PRC defense officials have concluded two days of talks in Beijing on enhancing military cooperation, PRC media said Saturday. The official Xinhua News Agency said US Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Richard Lawless and Zhang Bangdong, director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the PRC Ministry of Defense, discussed military exchange programs and maritime military security in talks that ended Friday.

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23. PRC Technology Exports

The Associated Press (“OECD: CHINA TECH EXPORTS OVERTAKE U.S. “, 2005-12-12) reported that the PRC has overtaken the US as the world’s largest exporter of a broad category of electronic goods including computers, mobile phones and digital cameras, the OECD said Monday. The report by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development marks a milestone in the PRC’s diversification from low-tech textile sweatshops into sophisticated electronics factories. PRC exports of information and communications technology goods rose by 46 percent year-on-year to $180 billion in 2004, outstripping US exports of $149 billion, 12 percent higher than the previous year.

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24. PRC Village Shooting

Agence France Presse (“NINE VILLAGERS ARRESTED FOLLOWING DEADLY UNREST IN SOUTHERN CHINA: RESIDENTS “, 2005-12-12) reported that nine villagers have been arrested as tensions remained high in a southern PRC village where paramilitary forces last week opened fire on protesters, killing at least three, villagers said. The arrests were announced on local television after the PRC government admitted over the weekend that the shooting on Tuesday in Dongzhou village, Shanwei city in Guangdong province, had happened.

(return to top) Agence France Presse (“CHINA ARRESTS OFFICIAL OVER FATAL SHOOTING AT DEMONSTRATION “, 2005-12-12) reported that a PRC official who ordered security forces to open fire on protesters last week has been arrested, state media said, ending a news blackout on the clash but denying claims that scores were killed. The official press put the death toll from last Tuesday’s riot at three, far below local reports that as many as 30 people died in what would be the worst violence by PRC security forces since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. (return to top)

25. PRC International Relations

Agence France Presse (“CHINESE PREMIER TRIES TO CALM FEARS “, 2005-12-12) reported that PRC premier Wen Jiabao moved to ease fears about the PRC’s rising might, saying his country wanted peace and downplaying its rapid economic growth. Speaking at an economic forum on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, Wen said international stability was essential and that Beijing wanted “win-win” relations with the rest of the world.

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26. PRC Chemical Spill

The Associated Press (“CHINA SAYS TOXIN LEVELS IN RIVER FALLING “, 2005-12-12) reported that the concentration of toxins from a chemical spill in a northern PRC river has fallen sharply as the slick flows toward a Russian border city, the government said Sunday. However, the report by the official Xinhua News Agency, citing the PRC’s main environmental agency, did not say whether the water was considered safe for human use yet.

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27. PRC on Kyodo Protocol

The New York Times (“U.S. AND CHINA BAR ANY STEPS ON CLIMATE”, 2005-12-12) reported that two weeks of treaty talks on global warming neared an end on Friday with the world’s current and projected leaders in emissions of “greenhouse gases,” the US and PRC, still refusing to take any mandatory steps to avoid dangerous climate change.

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28. PRC Anti-Corruption Campaign

The Associated Press (“CHINA PUNISHES NEARLY 50,000 CORRUPT OFFICIALS OVER TWO YEARS: REPORT “, 2005-12-12) reported that the PRC has prosecuted and punished nearly 50,000 corrupt officials over the past two years during an on-going campaign against graft, official media have said quoting a senior state prosecutor. Wang Zhenchuan, deputy procurator-general of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, said the government and law enforcement agencies had made vigorous efforts to combat corruption, Xinhua news agency reported Sunday.

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29. Sakhalin Oil Project

The Vladivostok News (“GOVERNOR: SAKHALIN NEEDS US CONSULATE “, 2005-12-12) reported that Sakhalin Governor Ivan Malakhov at a meeting with American Consul General John Pommersheim in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Thursday revealed that the region, engaging many American workers in its oil projects, seeks to have a US Consulate General. At the meeting Malakhov and Pommersheim discussed further development of the shelf projects Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 and also talked about other spheres of partnership between the US and Russia, a press statement from Sakhalin administration reported.

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II. CanKor

30. Report #229

CanKor (“CURRENT EVENTS”, 2005-12-08) President of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly, Kim Yong Nam, on 7 December receives credentials from Canadian Ambassador to the DPRK Marius Grinius. The ROK worries about how to pay for the planned termination of the KEDO light-water reactor construction project in the DPRK. Japan and the USA have avoided answering questions as to who should pay for the estimated $200 million price tag. South Korea is already committed to providing electricity to the North in return for ending the reactor project. US AID cancels a pledged shipment of 25,000 tons of food aid to the DPRK, citing monitoring concerns if the WFP is forced to close operations.

(return to top) CanKor (“FOCUS: Counterfeits and sanctions stall six-party talks “, 2005-12-08) Unresolved US-DPRK bilateral issues once again delay the resumption of Six-Party Talks. This week’s CanKor FOCUS examines the latest acrimony surrounding sanctions and counterfeit US dollars. Already last October, Washington imposed sanctions on eight North Korean companies it called fronts for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The US Treasury Department also imposed sanctions on the Banco Delta Asia in Macao for its role in North Korean counterfeiting of “superdollars” and money laundering. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that hoped-for bilateral US-DPRK talks are unnecessary. The DPRK denies the charges, accusing the USA of sabotaging the talks and reneging on promises. South Korea continues to encourage the two parties to hold direct talks in order to prevent outstanding non-nuclear issues from interfering with the Six-Party Talks. These include DPRK missiles, biochemical and conventional weapons, human rights abuses, alleged involvement in drug trafficking and counterfeiting. US Ambassador to RO Korea Alexander Vershbow responds the following day by calling the DPRK government a “criminal regime”. (return to top) CanKor (“QUIDNUNC”, 2005-12-08) Nicholas Eberstadt adds his own take to last issue’s QUIDNUNC answer regarding the size of the DPR Korean People’s Army. (return to top)