Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. United States

1. US on DPRK Nuclear Talks

Reuters (“U.S. SAYS NO DEADLINE SET ON NORTH KOREA TALKS”, 2005-01-07) reported that the US said it has not set a deadline resumption of six-country talks on the DPRK’s nuclear program despite a seven month deadlock that has persuaded some officials negotiations are failing. Senior US officials have told Reuters they expect President Bush to reappraise his approach in his second term if Pyongyang continues to resist another round of talks, as it announced on Saturday that it would do. US options under consideration include bringing the issue before the United Nations Security Council, which could impose sanctions, and holding multilateral talks without the DPRK.

(return to top)

2. DPRK on Nuclear Talks

Kyodo (“N. KOREA VOWS NOT TO RETURN TO N-TALKS UNTIL 2ND BUSH TERM”, 2005-01-10) reported that the DPRK reiterated Saturday that it will not return to the six-way talks on its nuclear programs until seeing the policies to be formed by reelected US President George W. Bush in his second term. A DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesman said Pyongyang will closely watch the US government’s new policies and then respond to them, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. The “hostile” policies of the US are ruining the foundation for the six-way talks, the spokesman was quoted as saying.

(return to top)

3. Bolton to Quit

Reuters (“HARD-LINE STATE DEPT. OFFICIAL TO QUIT -SOURCES”, 2005-01-06) reported that Undersecretary of State John Bolton, a leading hard-liner on nuclear nonproliferation who has raised hackles among America’s allies as well as its adversaries, is expected to quit the Bush administration, sources said. His departure may signal a shift in US diplomacy to a less confrontational approach as President Bush begins a second term in which he has pledged to reach out to allies estranged by the Iraq War and other policies.

(return to top)

4. DPRK on Nuclear Program

Associated Press (“N. KOREA SEEKS CHANGE IN U.S. NUKE POLICY”, 2005-01-08) reported that the DPRK said Saturday it was willing to abandon its nuclear weapons programs, but it demanded a change in American policy as a California congressman critical of the DPRK’s human rights records visited Pyongyang. “Our consistent stance is to denuclearize the Korean peninsula and resolve the problem through dialogue,” said a spokesman of the DPRK’s Foreign Ministry. “If the United States really wants to resolve the nuclear problem through dialogue, it should show through action that it is giving up a hostile policy aimed at toppling our system, and take the road toward coexistence.”

(return to top) Korea Times (“NK PROFESSOR SAYS NUCLEAR DETERRENT MEETS INT’L LAW”, 2005-01-10) reported that the DPRK’s attempt to have a nuclear deterrent is “totally legal” under the principle of international law, a professor of Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang argued in the institution’s bulletin. Professor Rim Tong-chun said in a recent contribution to the bulletin that the DPRK having a nuclear deterrent is a self-defense measure as every country has the right to protect itself against another’s armed invasion. Rim said the DPRK has the right to seek measures for self-defense because the US unilaterally scrapped two bilateral agreements which Pyongyang reached with the US in June 1993 and October 1994 following its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in March 1993. (return to top)

5. US – DPRK Visit

Reuters (“U.S. CONGRESSMAN MEETS N. KOREAN FOREIGN MINISTER”, 2005-01-10) reported that a visiting US congressman met the DPRK’s foreign minister in Pyongyang Monday, the DPRK’s official KCNA news agency reported, amid concern about stalled six-party talks on the DPRK’s nuclear programs. Democratic Representative Tom Lantos of California held talks with Yang Hyong-sop — a vice president of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the DPRK’s parliament — as well as Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun. Before flying to Pyongyang from Beijing, Lantos told reporters he aimed to discuss the DPRK’s nuclear program and also human rights.

(return to top)

6. DPRK on US Congressional Visit

The Associated Press (“U.S. ACCUSED OF TRYING TO TOPPLE N. KOREA”, 2005-01-10) reported that the DPRK said Friday it attached little significance to the planned visit next week by members of Congress and accused Washington of plotting to topple Pyongyang’s DPRK. A bipartisan congressional delegation is scheduled to visit the DPRK next week, where a key topic of discussion will likely be the stalled six-nation talks on the DPRK’s nuclear weapons programs.

(return to top)

7. US on US-DPRK Relations

Kyodo (“U.S. WARNS N. KOREA AGAINST UNDERESTIMATING MILITARY DETERRENCE”, 2005-01-07) reported that the US warned the DPRK on Friday against underestimating the US military deterrence in the Pacific now that the US forces have dispatched from Japan some troops, vessels and aircraft for relief missions to the region. “We are still in this region. We are not far away,” Lt. Gen. Robert Blackman, commander of the Combined Support Force for the relief operations, told a teleconference from Thailand when asked if the dispatch would affect the deterrence against the DPRK. “So if that should come to pass, I imagine the (Hawaii-based) Pacific Command will have all the resources necessary to continue to deter any aggression on the Korean Peninsula,” he said.

(return to top)

8. Japan on DPRK Abductees

Kyodo News (“ABDUCTION VICTIM SUPPORT GROUP TO URGE BOYCOTT OF N. KOREAN CLAMS”, 2005-01-10) reported that a group supporting Japanese victims of DPRK abduction is calling for a boycott of marine products such as clams from the country, a Japanese newspaper reported Monday. The Sankei Shimbun quoted Tsutomu Nishioka, deputy leader of the group, as saying, “It is a campaign in which people enraged at North Korea for its unwillingness to resolve the abduction issue can take part and which will not anguish North Korean people.”

(return to top)

9. DPRK – Japanese Relations

Yonhap (“N. KOREA DEMANDS JAPAN COMPENSATE FOR COLONIZATION”, 2005-01-08) reported that the DPRK called on Japan Saturday to apologize and compensate for its colonization of Korea and other Asian nations. “Japan should apologize and compensate for the human, mental and material losses it inflicted upon the Koreans and other Asians in the past,” said Rodong Sinmun, a DPRK government newspaper, in a commentary.

(return to top)

10. Japan Missile Defense

Agence France-Presse (“JAPAN’S MISSILE DEFENSE TO ONLY ACT IF NATIONAL THREAT: REPORT”, 2005-01-10) reported that Tokyo has decided to use its missile defense system solely to intercept ballistic missiles targeting Japan, and will not act when it detects a threat to its allies, a report said. The government will not intercept missiles that pass over Japan or target other countries because doing so would be construed as collective self-defense, which goes against its pacifist constitution, Kyodo News said.

(return to top)

11. DPRK on Human Rights

Yonhap (“N KOREA DENOUNCES JAPAN FOR TRYING TO OVERTHROW ITS REGIME”, 2005-01-08) reported that the DPRK lashed out at Japan’s plan to enact a human rights law on the DPRK, calling it “a daydream.” In a report by its ruling party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, DPRK said the “wicked and stupid guys” in Japan’s ruling quarters are pushing the legislation in league with the US. “The reactionaries of Japan are joining the US in its smear campaign against the DPRK over its ‘human rights issue’ in an effort to overturn its system,” the paper said.

(return to top)

12. ROK – DPRK – Russian Power-Grid Linkage

Yonhap (“TWO KOREAS, RUSSIA TO HOLD TALKS ON LINKAGE OF ELECTRICITY NETWORK”, 2005-01-10) reported that the two Koreas and Russia will hold discussions in the Russian city of Harbarosk next month on the linkage of their electricity networks. “North Korea showed a positive attitude on attending the talks,” Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hong-jae told reporters. Kim did not provide further details on the talks. The three countries previously held discussions in May last year in the ROK. The DPRK hopes to get outside assistance to modernize its old electricity system.

(return to top)

13. DPRK Leadership and Stability

Korea Herald (“‘KIM LIKELY TO MAINTAIN GRIP ON AILING REGIME'”, 2005-01-10) reported that the DPRK couldn’t be any worse than it is nowadays, experts here agree. The economy is in tatters with raging inflation and outside pressure against its nuclear ambitions is steadily building up. The US Hudson Institute’s senior fellow, Michael Horowitz, insisted last month that the regime will implode within a year, and also mentioned the possibility of a coup. But analysts in Seoul say there is no imminent threat of a regime collapse or a leadership change for the time being in the DPRK, with its well-trained military and prolonged indoctrination of the people.

(return to top)

14. DPRK Attire

Agence France Presse (“NORTH KOREA CAMPAIGNS AGAINST LONG HAIR, UNTIDY ATTIRE”, 2005-01-10) reported that the DPRK has stepped up its campaign against long hair and untidy attire which its media says represents a “corrupt capitalist” lifestyle, reports said. DPRK state television, radio and newspapers have led the grooming drive, urging people to cut their hair short and to dress tidily, the BBC said in a dispatch citing broadcasts from Pyongyang. Men were asked to have crew cuts with hair growing up to five centimeters (two inches) in a twice-a-month visit to the barber, it said.

(return to top)

15. DPRK Cigarette Imports

Asia Pulse (“FOREIGN CIGARETTE DEMAND SURGING IN N. KOREA: S. KOREAN REPORT”, 2005-01-10) reported that demand for foreign cigarettes is surging in the DPRK, despite an active government campaign against smoking, a ROK report said Sunday. The ROK’s state-run Korea International Trade Association said in a report that the DPRK’s cigarette imports from the PRC and Japan rose significantly between January and November of 2004, compared with the same period a year before.

(return to top)

16. DPRK Food Aid

Chosun Ilbo (“WFP SUSPENDS FOOD DISTRIBUTION IN PARTS OF N. KOREA”, 2005-01-10) reported that the World Food Program (WFP), which is responsible for food aid to the DPRK, has suspended distribution in Chagang province and one district of Pyongyang, it reported Monday. The agency said it took the same step in a district of Pyongyang. Owing to continued lack of access from August, the WFP told the DPRK authorities on Dec. 1 that in accordance with its “no access, no food” policy, it would suspend food distribution in Chagang province’s seven counties until the end of February.

(return to top)

17. DPRK Agriculture

Yonhap (“N. KOREAN TRACTORS RUNNING AT 60 PCT CAPACITY: INT’L FOOD AGENCIES”, 2005-01-08) reported that the DPRK’s efforts to increase food production by using agricultural machines have hit a wall due to fuel, parts and tire shortages, UN food organizations said Saturday. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP) said that roughly four out of 10 tractors in the DPRK could not be used because of mechanical and other problems.

(return to top) Asia Pulse (“N. KOREA’S FERTILIZER PRODUCTION UP 75 PCT LAST YEAR”, 2005-01-07) reported that the DPRK’s fertilizer production increased by 75 per cent to 56,500 tons last year, according to a UN food agency. The Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the North’s increased production resulted in a substantial reduction in fertilizer imports. Despite the increased production, the DPRK still depends on outside aid to boost its agricultural production, it said. (return to top)

18. DPRK on Inter – Korean Relations

Yonhap (“N. KOREA CALLS ON S. KOREA NOT TO ISSUE DEFENSE WHITE PAPER”, 2005-01-10) reported that the DPRK accused the ROK of planning to refer to it as a “direct and principal threat” in its new defense white paper, saying that such behavior would not serve the interests of the nation or reunification. The Rodong Sinmun said in its commentary that the ROK should not resume publishing of its defense white paper, which would still portray the DPRK as the “key threat.”

(return to top)

19. ROK on Pro-DPRK Web Sites

Yonhap (“SEOUL IN DILEMMA OVER PRO-NORTH KOREAN WEB SITES”, 2005-01-10) reported that the ROK government is in a dilemma over growing calls for the lifting of its ban on access by the country’s Internet users to pro-DPRK sites, officials said on Monday. “We found it hard to set the criteria for the easing of the restrictions,” an MOIC official said. “We will meet again next week to continue the discussion.” The government has already decided to ease the regulation, which started last November.

(return to top)

20. ROK National Security Law

Joongang Ilbo (“NORTH KOREAN DOCUMENTS FOUND AT COLLEGE CAMPUS”, 2005-01-10) reported that former student representatives at Hankook University of Foreign Studies violated the National Security Law by keeping documents on DPRK ideology, but current student representatives stressed yesterday they do not hold the banned material. “While cleaning up the student association’s office, we found some collections of studies on Juche ideology, presumably used by the former executives of the general student body,” Park Jong-won, senior law student and the head of the student government, said at a press conference on Sunday. “We are telling the public that such material was found in the office and in order to make clear that the current student representatives are not involved,” he said.

(return to top)

21. ROK POW Escapes from the DPRK

Joongang Ilbo (“KOREAN WAR VETERAN ESCAPES NORTH KOREA”, 2005-01-10) reported that a 72-year-old ROK man has been in PRC custody since last month after fleeing the DPRK, human rights activists and Seoul officials said yesterday. Han Man-taek is considered a prisoner of war who was never repatriated after the Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953. Mr. Han crossed the Tumen River along the border with the PRC late last year and contacted his relatives in the ROK. His escape was assisted by Korean-Chinese activists in the PRC.

(return to top)

22. ROK on Rev. Kim Dong-shik Abduction

Yonhap (“LAWMAKERS LEAVE FOR CHINA OVER ABDUCTION OF S. KOREAN PASTOR”, 2005-01-10) reported that a group of four opposition lawmakers left for the PRC Monday to look into the kidnapping of a ROK pastor five years ago. During their four-day stay, the four-member delegation is scheduled to visit a restaurant from which Rev. Kim Dong-shik was allegedly abducted by DPRK agents and meet eyewitnesses as well as human rights activists.

(return to top)

23. US – ROK Military Alliance

Joongang Ilbo (” LAPORTE SAYS U.S. FOCUS WILL STAY ON KOREA”, 2005-01-07) reported that General Leon LaPorte, US Forces Korea commander, said yesterday in an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo that US troops’ clear mission, despite talk of taking on a possible regional role, is to defend the ROK. “If the current political situation between South and North Korea does not change, US forces here will support the US-South Korean Mutual Defense Treaty,” he said. “That is our main focus.”

(return to top)

24. ROK on Iraq Kidnapping Report

Reuters (“S.KOREA SAYS TAPS ALL SOURCES ON IRAQ KIDNAP REPORT”, 2005-01-10) reported that the ROK’s government held emergency meetings and was tapping all of its sources to check reports that one or two of its nationals may have been kidnapped in Iraq, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday. The ministry said on Sunday a militant Iraqi group had posted an Internet message claiming to have kidnapped two ROK citizens and giving Seoul 72 hours to withdraw its troops from Iraq. “The government is checking with all possible sources, including the Iraqi government, the United States, multinational forces and Kuwait but no information of a kidnapping has been received,” the ministry said in a statement.

(return to top)

25. Japan Iraq Extension

The Associated Press (“OFFICIAL: IRAQ WAR A PR PROBLEM IN JAPAN”, 2005-01-10) reported that the dispatch of Japanese troops to Iraq – a deeply unpopular move – is a public relations problem caused by ungrounded fears about the region’s stability, Japan’s defense chief said Friday, vowing to turn around public opinion. “The extension is very, very unpopular,” Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono acknowledged at a news conference on Friday. “Through the eyes of the Japanese people, the situation in Samawah is very bad, dangerous,” he said. “It is a public relations problem.”

(return to top)

26. US – ROK, Japan Trade Relations

Reuters (“RANCHERS WANT U.S. TO RESTORE EXPORTS TO JAPAN, KOREA”, 2005-01-09) reported that the Bush administration must restore US beef exports to Japan and the ROK before it opens the border to Canadian cattle, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said, shifting away from calling on the US to set a good example on beef trade for nations dealing with mad cow disease.

(return to top)

27. Russo – Japanese Relations

New York Times (“QUIETLY, JAPAN AND RUSSIA MEND TIES”, 2005-01-10) reported that after decades of hot and cold war, Russia and Japan are coming together in the face of a rising PRC. “As long as Japan and Russia are in cooperation, China would not be able to move against us,” Toshiyuki Shikata, a defense analyst at Teikyo University, said in a telephone interview, echoing a rapidly emerging view in Tokyo. The visit here by General Tokuda helped pave the way for Japan’s announcement on Dec. 10 that it would cut its tanks and artillery pieces by a third.

(return to top)

28. Cross Strait Relations

Reuters (“CHINA, TAIWAN EYE POSSIBLE HISTORIC DIRECT FLIGHTS”, 2005-01-10) reported that arch-rivals the PRC and Taiwan may exchange their first direct flights in more than five decades in February under a proposal hammered out by PRC policymakers and Taiwan opposition legislators in Beijing on Monday. The PRC’s Taiwan Affairs Office proposed allowing the first direct commercial flights across the Taiwan Strait since 1949.

(return to top)

29. PRC One Child Policy

The Associated Press (“CHINA EXPLAINS DETENTION OF WOMAN”, 2005-01-10) reported that the PRC on Monday denied claims by US officials and a human rights group that a Shanghai woman is undergoing re-education through forced labor because she campaigned to abolish the country’s one-child family planning policy. The woman, Mao Hengfeng, is in a labor camp not for her opinions about the PRC’s policy but because she disturbed the peace, the government said. State Department officials and the New York-based Human Rights in the PRC group have said Mao was fired from her job in the late 1980s after a second pregnancy, which violated family planning laws.

(return to top) The Associated Press (“CHINA OUTLAWING SELECTIVE ABORTIONS”, 2005-01-10) reported that the PRC is planning to make selective abortions of female fetuses illegal as a way to close the widening gap between the number of boys and girls in the country, the official Xinhua News Agency said. “The government takes it as an urgent task to correct the gender imbalance of newborns,” Zhang Weiqing, minister of National Population and Family Planning Commission, was quoted as saying Thursday by Xinhua. (return to top)

30. Falun Gong Protest

The Associated Press (“TAIWAN FALUN GONG FOLLOWERS PROTEST CHINA”, 2005-01-08) reported that about 3,000 Falun Gong members dressed in yellow and blue tracksuits formed a human chain 4 miles long through Taipei on Saturday to protest persecution of the group’s followers in the PRC. The protesters, who demonstrated despite rain, dubbed their chain the “Great Wall of Justice.” The PRC has denied mistreating any Falun Gong detainees, saying some have died from hunger strikes or from refusing medical attention.

(return to top)

31. US on PRC Counterfeiting

Reuters (“COMMERCE CHIEF FOCUSES ON PIRACY IN CHINA”, 2005-01-10) reported that the PRC has “got to start putting people in jail” to show it is serious about cracking down on widespread counterfeiting and piracy that costs US companies billions of dollars in lost sales every year, a top Bush administration official said. In an interview before his fourth and final official trip to the PRC, outgoing US Commerce Secretary Don Evans said he would press PRC leaders to make sure intellectual property theft of goods ranging from music and films to birth control pills and brake pads is treated as a serious crime.

(return to top)

II. Can Kor

32. DPRK Tsunami Aid

CanKor # 191 (“DPRK PLEDGES EMERGENCY RELIEF AID FOR TSUNAMI VICTIMS”, 2005-01-07) As a gesture illustrating North Korea’s desire to be seen as part of globalized society, the DPRK decides to donate US$150,000 to victims of southern Asia’s tsunami disaster — a comparatively significant percentage of its GNP. www.cankor.ca

(return to top)

33. DPRK New Year Editorial

CanKor # 191 (“JOINT NEW YEAR EDITORIAL”, 2005-01-07) The DPRK Permanent Mission at the United Nations in New York sent both of the two KCNA documents in this week’s Report directly to CanKor’s editor. In the FOCUS section we reproduce the KCNA’s English-language version of the New Year’s joint editorial, the DPRK equivalent of a “State of the Union” address. Since Kim Il Sung’s death in 1994, the joint editorial replaced his annual New Year’s speech, outlining Government policies for the coming year. The FOCUS also includes South Korean commentary on the editorial. www.cankor.ca

(return to top)

34. DPRK Nuclear Talks

CanKor # 191 (“NEW NEGOTIATORS TO REINVIGORATE NUCLEAR TALKS”, 2005-01-07) The Korea Times speculates that nuclear talks may be reinvigorated by the appointments of new negotiators in all of the six participating countries. www.cankor.ca

(return to top)

35. ROK on DPRK Defectors

CanKor # 191 (“ROK PULLS AWAY WELCOME MAT FOR REFUGEE-DEFECTORS”, 2005-01-07) Human rights advocates express concern that the ROK intends to reduce by two-thirds payments to North Korean refugee-defectors for their resettlement in South Korea. In Russia’s Vladivostok, ROK diplomats are actively discouraging defections. North Korean arrivals to Seoul are to be scrupulously investigated to weed out criminals, spies and ethnic Koreans from China. www.cankor.ca

(return to top)