NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, August 10, 2005
- 1. US on DPRK Nuclear Program
2. ROK on DPRK Nuclear Program
3. US on Possibility of Bilateral Meeting with DPRK
4. ROK on Six Party Talks
5. Russia on Six Party Talks
6. Russia on DPRK-Russia Economic Ties
7. Trans-Korean Railway
8. Inter-Korean Maritime Cooperation
9. Sino-Japanese East Sea Gas Dispute
10. Sino-Russian Relations
11. Taiwan Territorial Dispute
12. PRC Unrest
13. Media in the PRC
14. PRC Mine Accident
15. PRC Power Supply
I. United States
1. US on DPRK Nuclear Program
Reuters (“US SAYS NO NEED FOR N.KOREA CIVIL NUCLEAR PROGRAM “, 2005-08-10) reported that according to Christopher Hill, the DPRK’s nuclear track record undermines its demand to have a peaceful atomic program. Christopher Hill told reporters Washington wants all of the DPRK’s nuclear facilities dismantled, not just the program believed to have produced enough material for several nuclear bombs. “This is a country I think that had trouble keeping peaceful energy peaceful,” he said.
2. ROK on DPRK Nuclear Program
Reuters (“SEOUL TO LOBBY PEACEFUL NUCLEAR PROGRAM FOR NORTH”, 2005-08-10) reported that the ROK’s top negotiator for six-party talks said he will try to persuade the other five to let the DPRK have a peaceful nuclear program. “Our position is that North Korea should abandon its nuclear program and then we will adjust differences (with other countries) to pave the way for them to pursue a peaceful nuclear program as a sovereign state,” Seoul’s Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said.
3. US on Possibility of Bilateral Meeting with DPRK
Voice of America (“US MAY MEET NORTH KOREA BEFORE SIX PARTY TALKS RESUME”, 2005-08-10) reported that Christopher Hill said he is open to direct contacts with Pyongyang before the Beijing talks are due to resume at the end of the month. “I don’t have any plans to meet the North Koreans,” Mr. Hill said. “But we are in the middle of the fourth round of the six-party talks. And I think if there’s value to direct contacts we would have them, just as we’ve been having them certainly ever since I’ve been around.”
4. ROK on Six Party Talks
Korea Times (“PRESIDENT OPTIMISTIC ON NUKE TALKS”, 2005-08-10) reported that President Roh Moo-hyun expressed cautious optimism with regard to the six-party talks, saying the latest negotiations in Beijing, though no clear agreement was reached, obtained a certain degree of success. “A joint statement couldn’t be signed due to differences in peaceful nuclear activities, but I believe we’ve made a small achievement,” he said at a meeting over lunch with delegates to the talks.
5. Russia on Six Party Talks
RIA Novosti (“RUSSIAN EXPERTS DO NOT CONSIDER NORTH KOREAN TALKS FAILURE”, 2005-08-10) reported that Russian experts do not consider the six-party talks a failure. According to Retired Lieutenant General Gennady Yevstafyev, an expert with the PIR-Center for Policy Studies, said he did not expect a breakthrough in the next round of talks “because the problem was too old.” If the sides agreed to a document on principles for further dialogue, “this achievement would lead to stabilization in northeast Asia.”
6. Russia on DPRK-Russia Economic Ties
Interfax (“RUSSIA DISSATISFIED WITH ECONOMIC RELATIONS WITH N. KOREA – ENVOY”, 2005-08-10) reported that the level of development of Russian-DPRK trade and economic relations together with the dynamic development of political ties between the two states have not yet reached their full potential, Russian presidential envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District Konstantin Pulikovsky told the press in Khabarovsk in the run-up to his visit to North Korea. “We are not satisfied with the development of trade and economic relations between Russia and North Korea. Levels are lagging significantly behind those that had been reached by the beginning of the 1990s and do not yet meet their potential,” Pulikovsky said.
7. Trans-Korean Railway
RIA Novosti (“TRANS-KOREAN RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION POSTPONED BEACUSE OF PYONGYANG “, 2005-08-10) reported that talks on the construction of the Trans-Korean railroad were stopped on the DPRK’s initiative, Russian Railways president Vladimir Yakunin said Tuesday. “At the end of last year, North Korea said that at a time when the United States is toughening its policy in regard to the DPRK, the Korean side ‘sees no sense’ in holding a second trilateral expert meeting on the reunification of the Trans-Korean railroad,” Yakunin said.
8. Inter-Korean Maritime Cooperation
Korea Times (“NK SHIPS TO PASS THROUGH CEHJU STRAIT”, 2005-08-10) reported that DPRK civilian vessels will be allowed to pass through the Cheju Strait, waters that lie between Cheju Island and the Korean Peninsula, beginning on Aug. 15, Liberation Day. The DPRK will also be able to take sea routes on the ROK’s territorial waters when its vessels have to pass the area, for example from one of its ports on the east coast to another on the west or vice versa. The same right is granted to the South as well. These new rights were conferred in a six-point agreement made at the end of the three-day working-level talks on inter-Korean maritime traffic cooperation Wednesday.
(return to top) Yonhap News (“S. KOREA SEEKING TO FORM INTER-KOREAN SHIPPING COMPANY”, 2005-08-10) reported that the ROK is seeking to establish a joint venture shipping firm with the DPRK to promote maritime transport between the two Koreas, the deputy head of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries said Wednesday. “We will work to form a joint venture shipping firm as a follow-up to the South-North Korean maritime agreement which went into effect on Friday,” Vice Maritime Minister Kang Moo-hyun, said. (return to top)
9. Sino-Japanese East Sea Gas Dispute
The Associated Press (“JAPAN SUSPECTS CHINA MAY BE DRILLING GAS”, 2005-08-10) reported that the Japanese government suspects the PRC has begun drilling gas in the East China Sea along a disputed sea border and has asked Beijing to stop, officials said Wednesday. “There was a strong possibility that (China) has started drilling gas, so we asked China to confirm and … stop drilling,” Nakagawa told reporters. He said Japan has not received “satisfactory replies” from the PRC.
10. Sino-Russian Relations
Agence France-Presse (“PUTIN PRAISES RUSSO-CHINESE TIES”, 2005-08-10) reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin praised developments in ties between Russia and the PRC as he briefed Moscow’s new ambassador to Beijing, news agencies reported. In particular he briefed the new ambassador, Sergei Razov, to seek to boost economic ties with the PRC, they said.
11. Taiwan Territorial Dispute
Agence France-Presse (“TAIWAN PRESIDENT VISITS ISLET, RENEWS CLAIM TO DISPUTED ARCHIPELAGO”, 2005-08-10) reported that President Chen Shui-bian flew to an island off northern Taiwan in a high-profile bid to highlight Taipei’s claim over adjoining areas in the East China Sea including a disputed archipelago. Chen, the first head of state to visit Pengchiayu island 33 nautical miles off Keelung, inaugurated a tablet inscribed with four Chinese characters reading “Safeguarding of sea territory”. The PRC and Japan also claim the Diaoyu islands, which are known as the Senkaku islands by the Japanese, and surrounding waters.
12. PRC Unrest
Washington Post (“CHINA GROWS MORE WARY OVER RASH OF PROTESTS”, 2005-08-10) reported that facing a steady rhythm of violent protests, the PRC government is showing increased concern about stability, using caution in putting down riots around the country but warning people that violence will not be tolerated. The fallout from a series of demonstrations has been magnified recently because of loosened restrictions on news reporting and increased use of cell phones and the Internet, even by villagers in remote areas. Although Communist Party censors try to stifle reporting on the unrest, they said, word of the incidents is transmitted at a speed previously unknown in the PRC.
13. Media in the PRC
People’s Daily Online (“CHINA PUBLISHES ITS ANNUAL PRESS DEVELOPMENT REPORT FOR THE FIRST TIME”, 2005-08-10) reported that the General Administration of Press and Publication of the PRC released the PRC’s first press industrial research report entitled “China National Press Industrial Development Report for Year 2005”. The report said that on average, the PRC printed 100 million copies of various kinds of daily newspaper every day in 2004, ranking the first in the world, and there were 75.86 copies per 1,000 people in the PRC, an increase of 6 per cent if compared with that of 2003.
14. PRC Mine Accident
The Associated Press (“MINER’S BODY FOUND IN CHINA MINE FLOOD”, 2005-08-10) reported that rescuers on Wednesday recovered the body of one miner from a flooded southern PRC coal shaft, as hopes of finding 122 still trapped underground faded, state media reported. Authorities detained 11 people believed responsible for the accident and suspended two mayors who had jurisdiction over mines in the area, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
15. PRC Power Supply
Financial Times (“CHINA HEADS FOR POWER GLUT BY LATE 2006”, 2005-08-10) reported that the PRC’s frantic construction of power stations could lead to overcapacity in some areas late next year, easing regular power cuts suffered by businesses, according to a senior government official. Zhang Guobao, a vice-minister at the national development and reform commission, the PRC’s leading economic planning body, said the power shortages experienced by foreign and local businesses would “disappear in most places”.