NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, May 02, 2005

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NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, May 02, 2005

NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, May 02, 2005

I. United States

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. United States

1. DPRK Missile Test

Yomiuri Shimbun (“NORTH KOREAN MISSILE FIRED INTO JAPAN SEA”, 2005-05-02) reported that the DPRK on Sunday morning fired a short-range missile from its east coast toward the Japan Sea in what could be a test-firing of a new type of ballistic missile, government sources said. The Defense Agency and other ministries and agencies were investigating whether it was a test-firing of a new type of surface-to-surface ballistic missile with a range of 100 kilometers to 150 kilometers, the sources said. The sources said the missile might not be a surface-to-ship missile, but that if it was a short-range missile, it would not have an impact on Japan.

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2. US on DPRK Missile Test

International Herald Tribune/NY Times (“U.S. DENOUNCES NORTH KOREA AFTER REPORTS OF MISSILE TEST”, 2005-05-02) reported that the DPRK apparently launched a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan on Sunday, a move likely to raise tensions on the eve of a United Nations conference on nuclear nonproliferation. Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff, confirmed that a missile appeared to have been fired into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. “We’re not surprised by this,” Mr. Card said, appearing to play down the military significance of the test. “The North Koreans have tested their missiles before.” But as to their motivation, he told CNN, “I think they’re looking to kind of be bullies in the world.”

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3. ROK, Japan on DPRK Missile Test

Korea Times (“ALLIES DOWNPLAY PYONGYANG’S MISSILE TEST”, 2005-05-02) reported that the ROK on Monday played down the significance of Sunday’s missile test by the DPRK, saying it was a common end-of-winter military drill, involving a short-range missile without nuclear capabilities, and unrelated to the dispute over the DPRK’s nuclear ambition. “The missile that North Korea recently fired is a short-range missile and is far from the one that can carry a nuclear weapon,” Song Min-soon, deputy foreign minister and chief ROK delegate to the six-party talks, told Yonhap news agency. “This isn’t a case to be linked to the nuclear dispute.” A Japanese military official also noted that Tokyo believes the missile flew only an extremely short distance and would not pose an immediate threat to it.

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4. US on DPRK Nuclear Test

Chosun Ilbo (“U.S. WARNS IAEA OF N.KOREAN NUKE TEST”, 2005-05-02) reported that the US told the IAEA and its allies that the DPRK has been preparing for an underground nuclear test since March and could conduct a test as early as June, Japan’s Kyodo News reported. Quoting diplomatic officials in Vienna, the site of IAEA headquarters, AP on Saturday also said the US was “warning” its allies that a nuclear test could be in the offing. “The intelligence was obtained through satellite photos and South Korean and American intelligence operatives within North Korea,” Kyodo said quoting sources. “North Korea is preparing to test a small-scale plutonium device, and … the equipment needed for the test [is] already in place.”

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5. ROK on DPRK Nuclear Test

Agence France Presse (“NO SIGN NORTH KOREA PREPARING NUCLEAR TEST: SEOUL”, 2005-05-02) reported that the ROK said there were no signs the DPRK was preparing to conduct a nuclear test. Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon, Seoul’s chief negotiator to six-way talks aimed at ending the DPRK’s nuclear ambitions, also denied that Seoul had received any intelligence from the US about such a test. “The government has closely monitored (the DPRK) for theoretical possibility, but it has detected no signs of supporting the probability of a nuclear test,” Song said in an interview with Yonhap news agency. “The government has never been informed by the United States (of the DPRK’s possible nuclear test).”

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6. US on DPRK Nuclear Missile

The Associated Press (“U.S.: N. KOREA COULD PUT NUKE ON MISSILE”, 2005-05-02) reported that the DPRK could in theory mount a nuclear weapon on a long-range missile, but there’s no evidence it has already done so, the Pentagon says. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said officials have no indication the DPRK has actually put such a warhead atop a missile that could travel many thousands of miles. On Thursday, Defense Intelligence Agency chief Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby told a Senate committee that the DPRK can arm a missile with a nuclear device. He had left unclear, however, whether he was referring to a short- or long-range missile, nor did he specify whether he believed the DPRK had already done so.

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7. US on DPRK Nuclear Missile

Washington Post (“N. KOREAN NUCLEAR ADVANCE IS CITED”, 2005-05-02) reported that the Pentagon’s top military intelligence officer said yesterday that the DPRK has the ability to arm a missile with a nuclear device, stunning senators he was addressing and prompting attempts by other defense and intelligence officials later to play down the remarks. The statement by Vice Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby before the Senate Armed Services Committee marked the first time that a US official had publicly attributed such a capability to the DPRK. Later in the day, the Defense Intelligence Agency, which Jacoby heads, issued a statement seeking to portray the admiral’s assessment as nothing new and still largely theoretical. It cited his testimony last month before the same committee, where he said the DPRK is developing a missile that could deliver a nuclear warhead to parts of the US.

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8. US on DPRK Nuclear Talks

Yonhap news (“U.S. POSITIVE OF BILATERAL CONTACT WITH N. KOREA: HILL”, 2005-05-02) reported that Christopher Hill, the US’ chief negotiator on the DPRK nuclear crisis, said he would leave the door open for a two-way contact between Washington and Pyongyang if the DPRK sticks to the multilateral talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons program. In an interview with the Hankyoreh newspaper published on Monday, Hill stressed that the US would deal flexibly with the DPRK as long as it holds fast to the six-way process. “If they would like to talk to us in private, bilateral ways within the six-party process, or if they would like consultations between the rounds of the six-party process, I would be very open to those proposals,” he said in the interview held here last week.

(return to top) Joongang Ilbo (“U.S. ENVOY BLAMES NORTH FOR IMPASSE”, 2005-05-02) reported that Christopher Hill, Washington’s top envoy to the six-party nuclear disarmament talks with the DPRK, flatly blamed Pyongyang yesterday for the lack of progress in restarting long-stalled negotiations. “We are still in a situation where one of the parties is refusing to come to the table,” said Mr. Hill, speaking to reporters in Seoul. “The fundamental issue is that North Korea still has not made a strategic decision to do away with their nuclear weapons.” Calling the six-party talks a road map for the DPRK to gain membership in the international community, he said, “Yet, they don’t seem to see their way through this.” He added, “One has to worry what it is they want, or do they even know what it is they want?” (return to top)

9. ROK on DPRK Nuclear Talks

Choson Ilbo (“NSC REAFFIRMS TO RESOLVE N.K.’S NUCLEAR ISSUE DIPLOMATICALLY”, 2005-05-02) reported that in the ROK, the National Security Council held a standing committee meeting late Friday to reaffirm its stance that the best way to resolve the DPRK’s nuclear weapons program is by resuming the currently stalled six-party dialogue. Presided over by Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, Friday’s meeting came after the ROK’s deputy chief of the National Security Council, Lee Jong-seok returned from his three-day visit to Washington.

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10. US on UNSC Sanctions on the DPRK

Donga Ilbo (“BUSH: “AGREEMENT FROM FIVE COUNTRIES NECESSARY FOR PRESENTING NORTH KOREA NUKE ISSUES TO U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL” “, 2005-05-02) reported that President Bush rebuffed the possibility of bilateral talks between the DPRK and the US, which the DPRK has requested. However, President Bush said that he would not immediately remit the issue of the DPRK’s nuclear weapons program to the United Nations Security Council. Bush noted that to present the case before the UN Security Council, it is necessary to have an agreement from the countries participating in the six-party talks, which have veto rights.

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11. Russia on UNSC Sanctions on the DPRK

Asahi Shimbun (“RUSSIA BACKS UNSC TALKS ON N. KOREA “, 2005-05-02) reported that Moscow will go along with the US in calling for the UN Security Council to take up the issue of sanctions against the DPRK if Pyongyang does not return to the six-party talks on its nuclear ambitions, diplomatic sources said. Four of the five permanent Security Council members-Russia, Britain, France and the US-have now said they support a Security Council discussion of the issue, a senior official with the Bush administration said. The PRC is the only holdout.

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12. Japan on UNSC Sanctions on the DPRK

The Yomiuri Shimbun (“GOVT WANTS UNSC DEBATE ON N. KOREA “, 2005-05-02) reported that the government will demand that the issue of the DPRK’s nuclear arms development be addressed at the UN Security Council if Pyongyang continues to refuse to participate in six-way talks on the topic, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Thursday. In a meeting in Tokyo, Kenichiro Sasae, director general of the Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and his US counterpart, Christopher Hill, agreed on the need to consider an “alternative” to the six-way talks if Pyongyang does not return to the negotiating table in the near future.

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13. US-DPRK Relations, Nuclear Talks

Joongang Ilbo (“OBSERVERS FEAR U.S. HAS ABANDONED TALKS”, 2005-05-02) reported that observers in the US and ROK worry that the Bush administration’s criticism of the DPRK indicates that it has given up its policy of ending the DPRK’s nuclear arms programs through the six-nation talks. Noting that the US is extremely aware that the DPRK is highly sensitive to any kind of criticism targeting Kim Jong-il ? the most powerful figure in the DPRK, affectionately referred to by the population as the “dear leader” ? observers are skeptical of Washington’s tolerance. Don Oberdorfer, a professor of international relations at Johns Hopkins University, said if the US wants to resolve the nuclear crisis through the six-party talks, then the series of verbal attacks targeting Mr. Kim is difficult to understand.

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14. US on US-DPRK Relations

Chosun Ilbo (“BUSH HAS HARSH WORDS FOR KIM JONG-IL”, None) reported that US President George W. Bush on Thursday poured oil on the flames by again calling DPRK leader Kim Jong-il a “tyrant”. He also said Kim was a “dangerous person” with “huge concentration camps” who “starves his people” and “threatens and brags.” During a press conference at the White House on Thursday, Bush answered three questions about the nuclear standoff with the DPRK. He mentioned the name Kim Jong-il 12 times but he never used Kim’s title.

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15. DPRK on US-DPRK Relations

Washington Post (“NORTH KOREA LABELS BUSH A ‘DICTATOR’; STATEMENT WIDENS GULF IN NUCLEAR CRISIS”, 2005-05-02) reported that the DPRK lashed out at President Bush yesterday for comments he made about the country’s leader, Kim Jong Il, at a news conference Thursday, asserting that the DPRK nuclear impasse will never be resolved while Bush remains in office. Bush is “a half-baked man in terms of morality and a philistine whom we can never deal with,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said, according to the official KCNA. The statement described Bush as the “world’s dictator,” who as president had “turned the world into a sea of blood.” “We can no longer tolerate and wait for a shift in the [US] policy,” the DPRK statement concluded. “Quite just is the path chosen by us, and we will proceed straight and square along that path.”

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16. DPRK Nuclear Program

Donga Ilbo (“NK COULD HAVE ABILITY TO PRODUCE ONE TO THREE NUCLEAR WEAPONS”, 2005-05-01) reported that the Center for Non-proliferation Studies (CNS) at the Monterrey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) forecasted on April 28 that the DPRK could produce one to three additional nuclear weapons if the DPRK started plutonium reprocessing of the spent fuel rods at its 5MW nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, Pyongbuk Province that it recently stopped operating. The report said in its “special report on the suspension of North Korea’s 5MW nuclear operations” that a maximum of 14.5kg of weapon-class plutonium could be extracted, but considering the amount of loss in the process of reprocessing, the real amount of extraction should be closer to eight to 11 kilograms.

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17. Japan, EU on DPRK Nuclear Program

Reuters (“JAPAN, EU URGE N.KOREA TO SCRAP NUCLEAR REACTORS”, 2005-05-02) reported that Japan and the European Union joined forces on Monday in urging the DPRK to return quickly to six-party talks on its nuclear ambitions, scrap its nuclear reactors and improve its human rights record. “They urged the DPRK (DPRK) to completely dismantle its nuclear programs subject to credible international verification and, to that end, return to the six-party talks process expeditiously and without preconditions,” a joint statement issued at an EU-Japan summit said.

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18. US on Preemptive Nuclear Strike on the DPRK

The Japan Times (“U.S. MAY ALLOW NUKE STRIKES OVER WMD PROPOSAL WOULD REVERSE 10-YEAR POLICY”, None) reported that the US military is considering allowing regional combatant commanders to request presidential approval for pre-emptive nuclear strikes against possible attacks with weapons of mass destruction on the US or its allies, according to a draft nuclear operations paper. The March 15 paper, drafted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is titled “Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations,” providing “guidelines for the joint employment of forces in nuclear operations . . . for the employment of US nuclear forces, command and control relationships, and weapons effect considerations.” Citing the DPRK, Iran and some other countries as threats, the report sets out contingencies for which US nuclear strikes must be prepared.

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19. Casualties from a US Preemptive Nuclear Strike on the DPRK

Yonhap (“‘NUKE STRIKE ON YONGBYON CREATES 550,000 VICTIMS'”, None) reported that John Large, an independent nuclear consultant who has advised governments around the world, said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency in Seoul that the US has adopted a “first strike” policy in its dealings with the DPRK, claiming the policy also endangers the lives of South Koreans and Japanese. “The fallout would be considerable and spread-depending on weather conditions-over South Korea and parts of Japan,” Larger said. The estimated number of casualties would range from 430,000 to 550,000, he said. He cited a nuclear simulation test by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a US environmental organization that opposes the proliferation of nuclear weapons and waste.

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20. US-ROK on US Attack on the DPRK

Korea Times (“US ATTACK ON NK NEEDS CONSENSUS FROM SOUTH KOREA”, 2005-05-02) reported that any military action against the DPRK will be conducted based on a consensus between the ROK and the US, Gen Leon J. LaPorte, commander of the USFK, said. Attending the inauguration ceremony of a lawmakers’ forum on security issues at the National Assembly in Seoul, the USFK chief said the US administration will inform the ROK government of any possible plan on military actions against the DPRK before implementing it, according to Rep. Song Young-sun of the main opposition Grand National Party. Song also quoted LaPorte as saying that the US has no “intention” to conduct a preemptive strike on Pyongyang, stressing the Bush administration’s position that the standoff over the DPRK’s nuclear weapons programs should be resolved through dialogue.

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21. ROK on OPLAN 5029

Joongang Ilbo (“SEOUL PROPOSES DISCUSSING COLLAPSE PLAN WITH U.S.”, 2005-05-02) reported that a US official said yesterday that the ROK has proposed to continue updating a joint military plan that would be implemented in the event the DPRK suddenly collapsed. Lee Jong-seok, a senior ROK official on the National Security Council, made the proposal during a visit to the US at the end of last month, according to the Pentagon source. “He said that with the agreement of both nations, the plan should be maintained and developed,” the official said. The Roh administration said previously it terminated the plan? code-named Operations Plan 5029 ? in January because of concerns it could violate the ROK’s sovereignty.

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22. Inter-Korean Summit Anniversary

Joongang Ilbo (“NORTH, SOUTH CELEBRATE SUMMIT “, 2005-05-02) reported that an event to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the June 15 inter-Korean summit will take place in the DPRK in June. In a joint statement, Seoul and Pyongyang said they have agreed to hold the “June 15 Grand Festival for Reunification” between June 14 and 17. A total of 1,500 participants, including 900 officials from both Koreas and overseas, will gather in Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Stadium for a mass rally, photo exhibition and artistic and sports performances.

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23. Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation

Chosun Ilbo (“JOINT NORTH-SOUTH GOODS — SIMPLY ‘MADE IN KOREA'”, 2005-05-02) reported that in a grassroots step toward unification, products from the Kaesong Industrial Complex, a DPRK-ROK joint project in the DPRK, are being marked “made in Korea” for export, the Unification Ministry said Monday. A ministry official said ROK kitchen utensil maker Living Art would export pots and frying fans worth US$57,000 manufactured in the industrial park to Mexico as made-in-Korea goods. The origin marking was not a government-level decision, but the Mexican importer decided to mark the goods that way to comply with Mexico’s customs law, he said.

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24. Inter-Korean Agricultural Cooperation

Yonhap news (“FARMERS OF TWO KOREAS VOW TO PROTECT SEOUL’S ‘FOOD SOVEREIGNTY'”, 2005-05-02) reported that ROK and DPRK farmers agreed on Friday to join hands in safeguarding the ROK’s “food sovereignty” and make joint efforts to develop both sides’ agricultural sectors, the DPRK’s media said. The joint declaration was reached during a meeting of representatives of farmers’ associations from the divided Koreas at Geumgang, a scenic mountain resort on the DPRK’s east coast, said the Korean Central News Agency said.

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25. DPRK on Terror Nation Designation by the US

Yonhap (“N. KOREA REBUKES U.S. DESIGNATION OF TERRORIST NATIONS”, 2005-05-02) reported that the DPRK continued its verbal attack on the US Monday, this time for retaining Pyongyang on a list of terrorism-supporting countries. An unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesman, speaking to the North’s Korean Central News Agency, claimed the US administration “knows Pyongyang has no past record of terrorism.” “But (US President George W. Bush) continues to corner us as a terrorist-supporting country by rehashing the abduction issue that has already been cleared,” the spokesman said.

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26. DPRK Life Expectancy and Population

Korea Times (“LIFE EXPECTANCY IN NK FALLS”, 2005-05-02) reported that the DPRK’s life expectancy dropped by 5.5 years to 67.2 years in 2002 from 1993. A total of 23.31 million people were residing in the DPRK as of 2002. According to a report on reproduction and health by the DPRK’s population research institute, sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the life expectancy for males in the DPRK fell from 68.5 years to 63.1 years during the 10-year period, while that for females declined from 76.1 years to 71 years. “The decreases in the average life span seem to result from deaths by famine occurred in between 1995 and 1998,” the South’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said.

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27. US on DPRK Defense Budget

Choson Ilbo (“USFK COMMANDER HAS ADVICE FOR SEOUL”, 2005-05-02) reported that US Forces Korea Commander Gen. Leon LaPorte said Monday the ROK needs to spend between 3.2 percent and 3.5 percent of its budget on defense if it wants to develop independent defense capabilities. The general was quoted by Grand National Party lawmaker Song Young-sun as making the remarks during an informal discussion hosted by the National Assembly’s Security Forum. Last year, the ROK spent 2.85 percent of its budget — W20.8226 trillion — on defense.

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28. US on DPRK Defectors

Donga Ilbo (“U.S. FACES DIFFICULTY IN ACCOMMODATING NORTH KOREAN DEFECTORS “, 2005-05-02) reported that “North Korean residents and some aid groups have unrealistic expectations of our ability to directly support North Korean defectors.” On April 28, Arthur E. Gene Dewey, the assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, said above at a hearing on the enforcement of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 held by the House International Relations Committee’s subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. Dewey’s statement means that although the US government is working hard in various ways to enforce the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 enacted last October, in reality, there are many restrictions and difficulties in the way of “direct support.”

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29. ROK Dokdo Visit

Xinhua (“S.KOREAN MINISTER VISITS DOKDO”, 2005-05-02) reported that the ROK’s Information and Communication Minister Chin Dae-je made an unscripted visit to the easternmost islets of Dokdo on Monday to check communication services there, the ROK’s Yonhap news agency quoted a ministry official as saying. “Minister Chin flew to the Dokdo islets by helicopter in the morning to inspect information and telecommunication services in the region like mobile phone and high-speed Internet,” the official who declined to be named said.

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30. NPT Conference

The Associated Press (“IRAN, NORTH KOREA TO DOMINATE U.N. NUCLEAR CONFERENCE”, 2005-05-02) reported that in a world of growing nuclear fears and mistrust, US negotiators come to New York on Monday to urge a global nonproliferation conference to take action on Iran and the DPRK. But the Americans and other nuclear powers will face demands themselves. Non-nuclear states last week complained the big powers were moving too slowly toward nuclear disarmament, described as “not an option, but a legal obligation” under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Because of this clash of priorities, treaty members on Sunday still hadn’t completed an agenda for the monthlong conference opening Monday to review the NPT, whose workings are reassessed every five years.

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31. Japan-US Relations

Kyodo News (“JAPANESE FOREIGN MINISTER ARRIVES IN WASHINGTON”, 2005-05-02) reported that Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura arrived Sunday [1 May] evening in Washington from New York for talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The meeting, to be held Monday morning, was not initially on Machimura’s agenda. It was hastily arranged so that both countries can reaffirm and highlight the bilateral alliance due to growing uncertainties such as the stalled six-party talks on the DPRK’s nuclear ambitions and the tensions between the PRC and Japan over recent anti-Japan rallies in the PRC, according to Japanese sources.

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32. Japan-Pakistani Relations

Agence France Presse (“JAPANESE PM STARTS VISIT TO PAKISTAN MARKING NEW PHASE IN BILATERAL TIES”, 2005-05-02) reported that Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has held talks here with President Pervez Musharraf on non-proliferation, counter terrorism and UN reforms at the start of a visit expected to mark a new phase in economic and political ties. As the two met Saturday, Japanese diplomats said Tokyo was keen to have an update on Pakistan’s investigation into the dismantled nuclear proliferation network of country’s disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. Details of the Musharraf-Koizumi meeting were not immediately available but a Japanese diplomat said Tokyo wanted to raise relations with Pakistan to the level of a strategic partnership.

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33. Japan-Indian Relations

Agence France Presse (“JAPAN’S PM PUSHES STRATEGIC AND TRADE TIES WITH INDIA”, 2005-05-02) reported that Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he will push a strategic and trade partnership with India as the world’s biggest democracy moves closer to the PRC. “I want to strongly emphasize that India has Japan as a friend in Asia,” Koizumi told a business audience in New Delhi where he arrived late Thursday. Koizumi’s effort to woo New Delhi coincides with a warming in relations between New Delhi and Beijing and rising PRC-Japan tensions in recent weeks. “Japan and India need each other more than ever in order to grow and prosper,” said Koizumi, the first Japanese prime minister to visit India since his predecessor Yoshiro Mori in 2000.

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34. Japan on PRC Arms Ban

Agence France-Presse (“JAPANESE PM URGES EU TO KEEP ARMS EMBARGO ON CHINA”, 2005-05-02) reported that Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi voiced firm opposition to European Union (EU) plans to lift a 16-year-old arms embargo on the PRC, amid worsening ties between Tokyo and the economic giant. Speaking after the talks, he said the 25-member bloc acknowledged Tokyo’s opposition to the plans to end the 16-year-old arms embargo, slapped on Beijing after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. “I did express our concern and I think… Japan’s concern is very well understood,” he told a joint press conference with EU leaders including foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker.

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35. Japan-Russian Oil Pipeline

The Yomiuri Shimbun (“JAPAN TO GET OIL VIA SIBERIA PIPELINE IN ’12 “, 2005-05-02) reported that in a breakthrough, Russia has for the first time clarified when Japan could expect to start receiving oil via a planned Siberian pipeline, sources said Saturday. Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko, speaking during a bilateral ministerial meeting in April, said the pipeline would not be up and running until 2012, as it would take seven years for the project to move from research to production.

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36. Cross Strait Relations

The Associated Press (“HISTORIC ENEMIES MEET IN BEIJING”, 2005-05-02) reported that the leader of Taiwan’s opposition Nationalist Party and PRC President Hu Jintao met here Friday and pledged to work together to end hostilities between the Taipei and Beijing governments. It was the highest-level meeting between the two sides since they fought a civil war six decades ago. The Taiwanese government criticized the talks, saying they would do nothing to improve strained relations. In a ceremony televised live in the PRC and Taiwan, Hu and the Nationalist Party chairman, Lien Chan, smiled and shook hands in the Great Hall of the People, the seat of the PRC’s legislature in central Beijing.

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37. Cross Strait Relations

The New York Times (“TAIWAN COMMUNICATION PLAN STIRS NEW HOPES FOR A THAW”, 2005-05-02) reported that President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan called Monday for the PRC and Taiwan to set up a procedure to improve communications between their military and security forces so as to reduce the risk of misunderstandings or even unintended conflicts. The proposal is the latest in a series of moves that is awakening hopes here of a possible thaw in relations across the Taiwan Strait. While President Chen has previously spoken of a general need for “confidence building” military measures, his proposal on Monday was more specific.

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38. PRC Jails Journalist

Reuters (“CHINA JAILS REPORTER FOR LEAKING ‘STATE SECRETS'”, 2005-05-02) reported that a court in south PRC jailed a PRC journalist for 10 years on Saturday for illegally providing state secrets to overseas organizations, the state-run Xinhua news agency said. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in February that the PRC had the most journalists in prison, 42, of any country for the sixth year in a row. A confidential “important document” had been read out at the meeting and several overseas Internet portals published the content of Shi’s e-mail time and again, Xinhua said. It did not reveal the contents on the e-mail.

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39. PRC AIDS Issue

Agence France Presse (“CHINESE REGION AIMS TO PROVIDE FREE AIDS TREATMENT FOR UP TO 20,000”, 2005-05-02) reported that a poverty-stricken south PRC region that has been severely hit by the AIDS epidemic plans to offer free anti-viral treatments for up to 20,000 people, state media said. The program, launched in the Guangxi Zhuang region bordering on Vietnam, will be carried out over the coming five to 10 years, the Xinhua news agency reported. The problem, however, is that most HIV carriers do not seek medical treatment until they are already in serious condition, according to Xinhua.

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