NAPSNet Daily Report Tuesday, August 09, 2005

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NAPSNet Daily Report Tuesday, August 09, 2005

NAPSNet Daily Report Tuesday, August 09, 2005

I. United States

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. United States

1. DPRK on Armistice Treaty

Korea Times (“NK WANTS PEACE PACT WITH US, S. KOREA”, 2005-08-09) reported that the US should turn the cease-fire accord that ended the 1950-53 Korean War into a peace treaty to resolve the nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula, a major DPRK newspaper said on Tuesday. It was the first time Pyongyang’s state media outlet made any reference to the nuclear issue since the beginning of the fourth round of the six-party talks. “Replacing the armistice agreement with a peace treaty is an urgent issue, which North Korea and the United States should immediately address to resolve the nuclear problem in a fair manner,” said the commentary in the Rodong Shinmun.

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2. US on Six Party Talks

Reuters (“U.S. NEGOTIATOR UNSURE IF CAN REACH KOREA NUKE DEAL”, 2005-08-09) reported that the US negotiator said prospects were uncertain for reaching a deal on scrapping the DPRK nuclear programs, but he expected the two nations to meet on narrowing their differences before a new session of six-party talks. “I just don’t know, I just don’t know. But I tell you if we don’t get a deal it won’t be because we haven’t tried,” Christopher Hill said.

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3. DPRK on Six Party Talks

Reuters (“N.KOREA INSISTS ON ‘PEACEFUL’ NUCLEAR DEVELOPMENT”, 2005-08-09) reported that the DPRK put the onus on the US to resolve the stalemate over its atomic ambitions, saying Washington should allow it to retain nuclear programs for peaceful purposes. “The crux of resolving the nuclear issue is the differences between the policies of the DPRK and the United States … The US hasn’t decided to accept the DPRK’s peaceful nuclear program,” Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan said.

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4. DPRK on US Arms Buildup Plan

Yonhap News (“N. KOREA SAYS US ARMS BUILDUP PLAN MARS PEACEFUL MOOD”, 2005-08-09) reported that the DPRK said the US is seeking to chill the growing mood of inter-Korean peace and cooperation with its plan for an arms buildup in ROK and Japan. In a commentary titled “US’s dangerous military moves assailed,” the DPRK’s Cabinet organ Minju Joson reiterated that the US is stepping up efforts to launch a preemptive strike on the DPRK. “The escalating military moves of the US on the Korean Peninsula and in its vicinity are a revelation of the unchanged aggressive design of the US’s warlike forces to deliberately strain the regional situation and thus achieve their sinister aim at any cost,” the commentary said.

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5. ROK Minister to Visit US, PRC

Associated Press (“SOUTH KOREAN MINISTER TO VISIT CHINA AND U.S”, 2005-08-09) reported that the ROK foreign minister, Ban Ki Moon, said Tuesday that he planned to visit the PRC and the US over the next two weeks to discuss the next round of nuclear talks with DPRK set for later this month.

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6. Christian Right on DPRK Human Rights Issue

New York Times (“AMERICAN CHRISTIANS PRESSURE GOVT. FOR N. KOREAN HUMAN RIGHTS”, 2005-08-09) reported that Members of a small but influential Christian ministry with direct links to President Bush are part of a larger effort by conservative Christians who are playing an important role in raising attention for human rights abuses in the DPRK. The Midland Ministerial alliance, comprised of more than 200 churches from the President’s hometown of Midland, Texas have recently placed their primary focus on the DPRK human rights issues.

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7. WFP on ROK Aid to DPRK

Korea Times (“WFP WANTS TO FUNNEL SEOUL’S NK AID”, 2005-08-09) reported that the head of the WFP praised the ROK’s recent pledge of rice aid to the DPRK but hinted that food could be distributed more fairly by his organization than by delivering it directly into the hands of the Pyongyang regime.

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8. WFP on DPRK Food Insecurity

Reuters (“N.KOREA FODD SHORTAGE GROWING SERIOUS – WFP CHIEF”, 2005-08-09) reported that people in the DPRK are foraging for nuts and leaves to counter a serious food shortage but there is no danger of widespread famine or starvation, the head of the WFP said. James Morris, the WFP’s executive director said commodity prices have gone up in the state, food stocks have dwindled, and nascent economic reforms have only made it more difficult for the DPRK’s poor and urban dwellers to buy food. “Our sense is that the food situation in North Korea is particularly serious right now,” Morris told reporters.

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9. Inter-Korean Military Hotline

Yonhap News (“TWO KOREAS CONDUCT TRIAL OF MILITARY HOTLINE”, 2005-08-09) reported that the militaries of the two Koreas conducted a trial of a new hotline that has been established to help avoid accidental armed clashes along their disputed western sea border, the Defense Ministry said.

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10. USFK Realignment

Joongang Ilbo (“TEN INJURED IN PROTEST NEAR U.S. MILITARY BASE “, 2005-08-09) reported that ten people were injured yesterday when demonstrators clashed with riot police outside Camp Humphreys, the US Army base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi province. An estimated 1,100 residents and student activists joined the protest, which was in opposition to the planned expansion of the base.

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11. ROK-Japanese Relations

Chosun Ilbo (“KOIZUMI SUCCESSOR COULD BE WORSE FOR KOREA”, 2005-08-09) reported that observers expect Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to lose the next election after he dissolved the House of Representatives on Monday over his failure to push through post-office privatization. Blamed by many for souring the relationship between ROK and Japan “because of his conservative tendencies,” in the words of one diplomat, Koizumi could nonetheless be succeeded by an even more rightwing prime minister.

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12. Japan Textbook Issue

Donga Ilbo (“EVEN JAPANESE CITIZENS OPPOSE DISTORTED TEXTBOOKS”, 2005-08-09) reported that page A20 of the August 8 edition of Dong-A Ilbo carried a full-page advertisement by Japanese citizens who opposed to the adoption of textbooks carrying falsified historical facts. Under the advertisement is the explanation that “this advertisement was made with the contributions of 2,114 individuals and 153 groups (as of July 31).”

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13. USFJ Realignment

Kyodo (“ELECTION TO DELAY SEPT. REPORT ON U.S. MILITARY SHUFFLE: ONO”, 2005-08-09) reported that Japanese Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono said Tuesday plans to reach an interim accord with the US in late September on realigning US forces in Japan will probably be postponed due to Monday’s lower house dissolution, an agency official said.

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14. Russia Bird Flu Outbreak

Interfax (“BIRD FLU EPIDEMIC IN RUSSIA TO END IN 10-15 DAYS”, 2005-08-09) reported that a senior World Health Organization official said the bird flu epidemic in Russia will “die down completely in 10 to 15 days,” and that bird flu vaccine for humans will start being tested in September and might come into use in October.

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15. Sino-US Economic Relations

Xinhua News (“CHINA PUSHES SINO-US ECONOMIC TIES “, 2005-08-09) reported that senior CPC official Wang Jiarui Tuesday suggested Sino-US economic circles strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation, enhance mutual trust and expand common ground to promote the development of bilateral ties. During his meeting with Sidney Taurel, Chairman of Eli Lilly and Company, Wang, head of the international Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said that the PRC attaches great importance to the development of Sino-US relations and commits itself to building closer economic and trade cooperation ties between the two countries.

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16. Sino-Australian Uranium Deal

The Associated Press (“CHINA IS IN TALKS TO BUY URANIUM FROM AUSTRALIA”, 2005-08-09) reported that Australia and the PRC are negotiating an agreement to allow Australia to export uranium to the PRC for peaceful purposes, the foreign minister said today. Preliminary talks are underway to secure a PRC commitment that the uranium would be used only for electricity generation, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.

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17. PRC Energy Supply

Washington Post (“ELECTRICAL INEFFICIENCY A DARK SPOT FOR CHINA”, 2005-08-09) reported that the same city government that orders local factories to shut down in the name of energy conservation also forces skyscrapers to keep lights on so that investment bankers digging into their foie gras at waterfront eateries can gaze upon a glittering homage to modern PRC. The contrasts in this and many other PRC cities — austerity side by side with state-mandated extravagance — reveals another reason this country now scours the globe for energy: the PRC has become among the world’s most wasteful users of power, its growth in demand exacerbated by its striking inefficiency, say energy analysts and economists.

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18. Hong Kong Executive

Agence France-Presse (“POPULARITY OF HONG KONG’S NEW LEADER TSANG FALLS FURTHER”, 2005-08-09) reported that the honeymoon is over for Hong Kong’s new leader Donald Tsang whose popularity has seen a steep drop in the past two weeks, a new survey shows. The former civil service head took office with his routinely high popularity rating nudging 80 percent. However, the survey last week by the University of Hong Kong found his support level had slipped six percentage points to 66 percent of the 1,015 people polled.

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19. PRC Environment, Human Rights

The Associated Press (“CHINESE VILLAGERS PREVENTED FROM PETITIONING BEIJING ABOUT POLLUTION, RIGHTS GROUP SAYS”, 2005-08-09) reported that PRC villagers resettled to make way for the massive Three Gorges dam project were harassed by officials and prevented from petitioning the central government about pollution, a human rights group said Tuesday. Five villagers representing the 500 residents of Yangguidian, a village in central Hubei province, were taken off a bus by about 40 police officers on Saturday as they tried to travel to Beijing, the New York-based group Human Rights in China said in a statement.

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20. PRC Anthrax Outbreak

Agence France-Presse (“CHINA SAYS ANTHRAX OUTBREAK UNDER CONTROL”, 2005-08-09) reported that the PRC has brought under control an outbreak of anthrax that killed one person and infected 11 others in the northeastern province of Liaoning, state media reported. But by late Sunday, no new cases had been reported for seven consecutive days, prompting Sun Baijun, deputy director of the Disease Control Center of Shenyang, to declare it was controlled, Xinhua news agency reported.

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21. PRC Space Program

Xinhua (“CHINA EXPECTED TO LAUNCH LUNAR PROBE SATELLITE IN 2007”, 2005-08-09) reported that the PRC is expected to launch its first ever lunar probe satellite in 2007, given that the country’s moon exploration project has so far been proceeding smoothly, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASTC). Addressing a forum on space technology held here Tuesday, Ye Peijian, chief designer of the satellite with the CASTC, said that Dubbed “Chang’e-I”, the PRC’s first lunar orbiter is scheduled to be launched in 2007 for the country’s first fly-by mission.

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22. PRC Mining Accident

The Associated Press (“102 CHINESE STILL TRAPPED INSIDE MINE”, 2005-08-09) reported that rescuers continued searching today for 102 miners trapped for two days in a flooded illegal coal mine in southern PRC as officials urged 65 managers who fled the scene to return, the government said. Only four miners managed to escape after the tunnel, which lies almost 1,400 feet underground, was flooded Sunday at the privately owned Daxing mine in Guangdong province.

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23. PRC Tropical Storm

The Los Angeles Times (“BEIJING BRACES FOR RARE TROPICAL STORM”, 2005-08-09) reported that authorities prepared to evacuate tens of thousands of Beijing residents as Tropical Storm Matsa churned toward the capital after killing seven people and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in losses in eastern PRC. The New China News Agency said that, if necessary, authorities could evacuate up to 40,000 residents.

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