NAPSNet Daily Report Thursday, June 23, 2005

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NAPSNet Daily Report Thursday, June 23, 2005

NAPSNet Daily Report Thursday, June 23, 2005

I. United States

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. United States

1. ROK on Date for Nuclear Talks

Bloomberg (“NORTH KOREA RESISTS SOUTH’S CALL TO SET DATE FOR NUCLEAR TALKS”, 2005-06-23) reported that the DPRK stopped short of setting a date for returning to talks, despite urging from the ROK. The DPRK will return “as soon as conditions are right,” said DPRK chief negotiator Kwon Ho Ung in a briefing after meeting ROK President Roh Moo-hyun.

(return to top) JoongAng Ilbo (“ENVOY TO US PREDICTS TALKS WILL RESUME SOON”, 2005-06-22) reported that, in an interview with a Japanese newspaper, the ROK’s ambassador to Washington said he expects the DPRK to return soon to the six-party talks. “In the not very distant future, I read a strong signal that North Korea will return to the six-party talks,” the Asahi Shimbun yesterday quoted Hong Seok-hyun as saying. “North Korean leader Kim Jong-il said everything that we wanted to hear in the meeting [last Friday] with Unification Minister Chung Dong-young.” Mr. Hong suggested that there might be more news in store. “Unification Minister Chung was given information [from Mr. Kim] which has not been announced yet,” he said. (return to top)

2. US on Date for Nuclear Talks

Agence France Presse (“US CALLS ON NORTH KOREA TO GIVE DATE FOR TALKS”, 2005-06-23) reported that the White House called on the DPRK to set a date for the resumption of six-country talks. “We have a proposal on the table that we want to talk about. We urge North Korea to give us a date and return to the six-party talks as soon as possible, without preconditions,” said US spokesman Scott McClellan.

(return to top) Korea Times (“US COAXES PYONGYANG BACK TO NUCLEAR TALKS”, 2005-06-23) reported that, amid signs of softening US policy toward the DPRK, Christopher Hill, US assistant secretary of state, said he is willing to meet Leader Kim Jong-il. The hint of a policy shift came as the US State Department announced it will donate 50,000 tons in food aid to the DPRK. “It seems the US is becoming more conciliatory,” said Park Sang-seek, rector at Kyung Hee University’s Graduate School of Peace Studies. “The timing of these moves is very important.” (return to top)

3. US on Anti-DPRK Rhetoric

Chosun Ilbo (“RICE TO CONSIDER S.KOREA REQUEST ON TONING DOWN ANTI-NORTH KOREAN RHETORIC”, 2005-06-23) reported that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she will consider the ROK’s request asking Washington to tone down its references to the DPRK, which include labelling the communist country an “outpost of tyranny.” At an international conference in Brussels, ROK’s Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon requested Washington to refrain from using harsh rhetoric against the DPRK. Minister Ban said provocative remarks would not help create a positive atmosphere for the resumption of the stalled six-party talks, and the ROK is taking the DPRK’s words seriously.

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4. DPRK on Bush-Kang Meeting

Associated Press (“NORTH KOREA BASHES BUSH-DEFECTOR MEETING “, 2005-06-23) reported that the DPRK condemned President Bush for meeting a prominent defector detained as a child in a prison camp, saying Thursday the move chilled the atmosphere for a return to nuclear disarmament talks. Bush met last week at the White House with Kang Chol Hwan, a defector now working as a journalist in the ROK and author of “The Aquariums of Pyongyang,” detailing his life in a DPRK prison where he was incarcerated as a child with his family. Referring to Kang as “human trash,” the DPRK’s official KNCA said Washington’s calls for improved human rights in the DPRK show it “has yet to come up with a firm position that it would recognize and respect [the DPRK] as a negotiating partner.”

(return to top) Yonhap News (“N. KOREA CRITICIZES US FOR RAISING HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE”, 2005-06-23) reported that the KCNA on Thursday strongly criticized the US for raising the issue of the human rights situation in the country, calling it “an act of throwing a wet blanket on the efforts to resume the six-way talks.” It said, “the present US administration orchestrated such poor farce as the White House boss’s interview with the North Korean defector,” and continued, “this farce was staged at a time when the international community and the countries concerned became increasingly assertive for creating an environment and atmosphere favourable for the resumption of the six-party talks”. (return to top)

5. Kelly on DPRK Nuclear Issue

Chosun Ilbo (“EX-US EAST ASIA CHIEF SAYS N.KOREA HAS THE BOMB “, 2005-06-23) reported that the US State Department’s former East Asia chief said Thursday he believes the DPRK already has nuclear weapons. In his first interview with a Korean paper since he stepped down four months ago, former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs James Kelly told the Chosun Ilbo that recent signals from the DPRK leader Kim Jong-il were “very positive.” Kim last week indicated the 1991 Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was still in effect as this was a dying wish of his father Kim Il-sung.

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6. DPRK-US Relations

JoongAng Ilbo (“KIM JONG-IL REPORTEDLY WROTE TO BUSH”, 2005-06-23) reported that in a column in the Washington Post, Donald Gregg, former US Ambassador to the ROK, and Don Oberdorfer, a former Post journalist, disclosed that in 2002 the White House brushed aside a personal message from the DPRK leader Kim Jong-il that they had been asked to deliver to the Bush administration. In the unsigned and undated message, according to Gregg and Oberdorfer, Kim said: “If the United States recognizes our sovereignty and assures non-aggression, it is our view that we should be able to find a way to resolve the nuclear issue in compliance with the demands of a new century.” Writing in the Post, the two experts urged the Bush administration to “seize the moment” to engage the DPRK by sending top US officials including the State Secretary Condoleezza Rice to the DPRK.

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7. PRC President to Visit DPRK

Korea Times (“HU MAY VISIT NK EARLY NEXT MONTH”, 2005-06-23) reported that PRC President Hu Jintao is likely to visit the DPRK in early July and win a date from the DPRK to rejoin stalled six-party talks. “Hu’s trip to Pyongyang is to come under the premise that he will get a specific North Korean commitment for its return to the nuclear talks,” an anonymous source told Yonhap News.

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8. US Food Aid to DPRK

Washington Times (“US PLANS TO RENEW ITS OFFER OF FOOD AID TO NORTH KOREA”, 2005-06-22) reported that the Bush administration said Wednesday that it would send 55,000 tons of food to the DPRK this year, even as other American officials press ahead with plans to deprive the DPRK of hard currency if there is no progress in efforts to end its nuclear weapons program. With regards to the food aid, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said that there was no linkage to the nuclear issue. “Our decisions are made on humanitarian considerations solely,” he told reporters. “We want to make sure that there are assurances that that food is going to those who need it, not to the government or to the military in North Korea,” he added.

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9. Inter-Korean Nuclear Talks

Yonhap News (“TWO KOREAS AGREE TO TAKE SUNSTANTIAL STEPS TO RESOLVE NUKE ROW”, 2005-06-23) reported that the Koreas agreed Thursday to take “substantial steps” to resolve the dispute over Pyongyang’s nuclear arms program peacefully through dialogue, but failed to set a date for the resumption of nuclear talks. In a 12-point joint statement summing up the three-day talks, the two sides also agreed to restore various channels of dialogue.

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10. Roh to Send Message to Kim Jong Il

Korea Times (“ROH SENDS MESSAGE TO KIM JONG-IL”, 2005-06-23) reported that, according to officials in Seoul, ROK President Roh Moo-hyun met DPRK officials at Chong Wa Dae yesterday to deliver his message to leader Kim Jong-il, calling for a strategic decision to give up his nuclear ambition. Senior Cabinet Councilor Kwon Ho-ung, chief DPRK delegate to the ongoing inter-Korean ministerial talks, made the visit to the presidential office with other officials at Roh’s invitation, which is out of step from previous talks. According to an official at Chong Wa Dae on condition of anonymity, “we might say the meeting itself reflects the changed atmosphere in the inter-Korean relations.”

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11. Inter-Korean Military Talks

Chosun Ilbo (“TWO KOREAS AGREE TO RESTART MILITARY TALKS”, 2005-06-23) reported that the ROK and DPRK on Thursday agreed to convene trust-building military talks in July. With the agreement, general-level intra-Korean military talks will reconvene after a year’s suspension. The two sides also came to an agreement on family reunions by video link in August, as well as an 11th round of face-to-face reunions of 100 people from each side in the DPRK Kumgang Mountains on August 15. Additionally, the North-South Committee for Promotion of Economic Cooperation will meet in Seoul in early July to discuss method and timing of delivering 400,000 tons of rice aid the DPRK has requested.

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12. Inter-Korean Cooperation

Yonhap News (“SEOUL AGREES TO ALLOW N.KOREAN SHIPS TO PASS THROUGH JEJU STRAIT”, 2005-06-23) reported that the ROK said on Thursday that it has agreed to allow DPRK commercial vessels to pass through the waters separating the peninsula with the ROK’s southern island province of Jeju in a bid to further boost inter-Korean economic cooperation. The landmark agreement is expected to dramatically cut the cost and time needed for DPRK commercial vessels traveling between their country’s east and west coasts, officials and shipping experts said.

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13. Koreas on Japan 1905 Treaty

Yonhap News (“TWO KOREAS SAY JAPAN’S 1905 COLONIAL TREATY INVAILD”, 2005-06-23) reported that the Koreas declared on Thursday that a 1905 treaty forced on the ROK by Japan that made way for the latter’s colonization of the ROK had been fundamentally invalid. A joint statement adopted in Seoul by the ROK and DPRK at the end of the 15th Cabinet-level inter-Korean talks said that Seoul and Pyongyang have confirmed the “fundamental invalidity” of the Eulsa treaty signed a century ago this year.

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14. DPRK on ROK Opposition Party

Yonhap News (“N.KOREA RADIO LAMBASTS S.KOREAN OPPOSITION PARTY”, 2005-06-23) reported that the DPRK official radio on Thursday lambasted the ROK main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) for pandering to the US. Radio Pyongyang argued that the GNP had pushed for an enlargement of the contingent of ROK soldiers to Iraq, the relocation of US troops in the ROK and the move of the US Embassy in Seoul. “They are traitors, who are intending to sell the national interests for their own benefit,” the radio said.

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15. ROK-US Relations

Korea Herald (“KOREANS WANT TO GIVE HILL A KOREAN NAME”, 2005-06-23) reported that some Internet users are in a hot debate over choosing a Korean name for Christopher Hill, who left for Washington in April after just six months as US Ambassador to the ROK to become the top US negotiator on the DPRK nuclear standoff. Early this week, people on a Web blog, Cafe USA, started a discussion on which Korean name is the best fit for Hill. Responding to the issue, Hill expressed that it is “a very interesting idea.” Writing on the message board in Korean from Washington, “Once my Korean name is decided, please let me know the meaning and the reason for its choice.”

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16. ROK PM Visit to PRC

Xinhua (“ROK PM’S CHINA TRIP FOCUSES ON TRADE, SIX-PARTY TALKS “, 2005-06-23) reported that ROK PM Lee Hae-Chan concluded his three-day trip to the PRC Thursday. The mounting bilateral trade and stalled six-party talks topped the agenda between the Asian neighbours. “The ROK will make joint efforts with China to further expand bilateral economic and trade cooperation,” said Lee in talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Lee also highlighted the PRC’s important role in the six-party talks, saying that his country will make joint efforts with the PRC to pull all sides related back to the negotiating tables at an earlier date.

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17. Korean Interpereter Retires

JoongAng Ilbo (“LONG-TIME INTERPRETER FOR US BOWING OUT”, 2005-06-22) reported that since 1978, interpreter Tong Kim has been standing alongside US presidents and officials for their meeting with leaders from the ROK and DPRK, including presidents Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung of the ROK and Kim Jong-il of the DPRK. Kim is retiring next month, after serving four US administrations.

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18. Japan, US on UNSC Expansion

Kyodo News (“JAPAN TO SEEK U.N. REFORM IN LINE WITH G-4 PROPOSAL: MACHIMURA”, 2005-06-23) reported that Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a meeting that Japan will seek reform of the UN Security Council in line with a proposal agreed on by the so-called Group of Four nations including Japan, Japanese officials said. Rice reiterated the US position that the Security Council should be effective, the officials said. Machimura and Rice agreed to continue consultations over UN reform, a US official said.

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19. Japan Nuclear Security

Reuters (“JAPAN NUCLEAR DATA LEAK RAISES SECURITY CONCERNS”, 2005-06-23) reported that Japanese officials scrambled to contain the public relations fallout from reports that confidential information about Japan’s nuclear plants had leaked onto the Internet through a virus on a personal computer. Japan’s top government spokesman pledged to take steps to protect information after data on several nuclear plants appeared online, including photographs of their interiors, details of regular inspections and repair work and names of workers. “Nuclear plants are important facilities in terms of anti-terrorist measures, security and what not, and therefore we would like to take full steps to ensure information management,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told reporters.

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20. Japan Whaling Plan

Los Angeles Times (“WHALING PANEL REJECTS JAPAN’S HUNT PLAN”, 2005-06-23) reported that the International Whaling Commission rejected Japan’s proposal to allow limited hunts of minke whales, dealing another blow to efforts to roll back a worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling. Holding its annual meeting in Ulsan, the ROK, the commission defeated the proposal 29 to 26, with three abstentions. Japan had proposed killing up to 150 minke whales in waters off its northern coast to “alleviate the hardships of small coastal whaling communities.”

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21. Sino-Japanese Relations

Reuters (“CHINA, JAPAN IN TALKS TO MEND RELATIONS”, 2005-06-23) reported that Japan and the PRC kicked off talks on Thursday aimed at halting a deterioration in bilateral ties stemming from Tokyo’s wartime past. Relations between the two Asian giants have been strained for months, particularly over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visits to Yasukuni shrine, which Beijing sees as a symbol of Tokyo’s past militarism and where some convicted war criminals are honored along with Japan’s other war dead. PRC vice foreign minister Dai Bingguo flew to Tokyo for the second round of strategic talks with his Japanese counterpart Shotaro Yachi to discuss bilateral relations and issues of mutual concern, Xinhua news agency said.

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22. Sino-Russian Relations

RIA Novosti (“CHINA WELCOMES COOPERATION WITH RUSSIA – CHINESE DIPLOMAT”, 2005-06-23) reported that the PRC hopes to expand cooperation with Russia in the energy sphere, a spokesman for the PRC Foreign Ministry said today. Liu Jianchao told a news conference that PRC President Hu Jintao planned to discuss an increase in bilateral cooperation, including in the energy and investment sphere, during a trip to Russia that starts on June 30. “Cooperation in the energy sphere is an important part of our partnership,” the spokesman said in answer to a question about a potential agreement on building a branch of the Eastern Oil Pipeline to the PRC.

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23. PRC Strategic Oil Reserves

The Associated Press (“REPORT: CHINA TO START FILLING STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE THIS YEAR”, 2005-06-23) reported that the PRC will start filling its first strategic petroleum reserve this year, state television said Thursday amid efforts to ensure energy supplies for the country’s booming economy. Plans call for the PRC to build groups of storage tanks at four locations. The first 16-tank facility to be filled is in the city of Zhenhai in the eastern province of Zhejiang, south of Shanghai, China Central Television said, citing Wang Mingji, vice chairman of state-owned China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. The reserve is meant to cushion the PRC against possible interruptions of foreign supplies. Previous reports said Beijing plans to stockpile up to 100 million barrels of petroleum, or the equivalent of almost a month’s national consumption.

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24. PRC Energy Supply

The Associated Press (“CHINA’S APPETITE FOR RESOURCES HITS U.S.”, 2005-06-23) reported that the PRC’s growing appetite for foreign oil and gas resources has spread to the US. On Thursday the PRC’s state-owned CNOOC Ltd. announced it was ready to pay $18.5 billion to acquire Unocal Corp. of El Segundo, California. The offer put it at odds with US-based Chevron Corp., whose earlier bid of $16.6 billion had been accepted by Unocal. Unocal said it would evaluate the CNOOC offer, but emphasized that its board’s recommendation to shareholders to accept the Chevron bid remained in place. Foreign energy analysts say CNOOC’s Unocal bid is a continuation of a process begun by PRC energy companies in the late 1990s aimed at acquiring overseas energy assets to compensate for static or falling domestic oil and gas production.

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25. PRC Floods

Agence France Presse (“AT LEAST 80 DEAD, 60 MISSING AS RAINS CONTINUE TO PUMMEL SOUTHERN CHINA”, 2005-06-23) reported that at least 80 people were dead and nearly 60 missing after torrential rains and floods swamped southern PRC, leading to the evacuation of 700,000 people, state media and the government said. The heavy downpours have been pounding the region for a week and were not expected to let up until Saturday, the State Meteorological Bureau said. Millions of people have been affected by storms which are the worst in the area for years. The southeastern coastal province of Fujian was one of the hardest hit. A landslide near Jianou city swept a bus into the turbulent Min River and local officials left scant hope for 23 passengers.

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26. US on PRC One Child Policy

The Associated Press (“U.S. URGES U.N. ON CHINA FAMILY PLANNING”, 2005-06-23) reported that the US urged the UN population agency Wednesday to end its family planning program in the PRC until Beijing stops using forced abortions and punishment to enforce its one-child policy. President Bush’s administration has barred all US funding for the U.N. Population Fund for the last three years, charging that its support for the PRC’s population planning programs allows Beijing to implement policies of coercive abortion. The fund, known as UNFPA, has repeatedly called the allegations baseless, and uses money from other sources for its program in the PRC. It has cited a US government report that found no evidence that it “knowingly supported or participated in … coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization” in the PRC.

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27. PRC on Nuclear Disarmament

Xinhua news (“CHINA URGES TO ADVANCE INT’L NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT PROCESS”, 2005-06-23) reported that the PRC made proposals on Thursday to break the current stalemate in the international nuclear disarmament process. “Firstly, a secured international environment and strategic stability is the foundation,” Hu Xiaodi, ambassador on disarmament affairs of the PRC, told a plenary meeting of the Conference on Disarmament. Hu stressed that efforts to prevent an arms race in outer space and those on nuclear disarmament go hand in hand. Secondly, efforts on nuclear disarmament and those to prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons are mutually complimentary, according to the PRC ambassador.

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