I. NAPSNet

1. DPRK Missile Test

Reuters (“NORTH KOREA WILL PAY A PRICE FOR MISSILE TEST: SEOUL”, 2006-06-26) reported that the ROK warned the DPRK on Monday there would be a price to pay if it launched a long-range missile, using its strongest language yet to try to dissuade Pyongyang from a test-flight. “Whatever the nature of the launch object, it is wrong for North Korea to escalate tension this way,” the ROK’s chief presidential adviser on national security, Song Min-soon, said. “Of course, if North Korea goes ahead with the launch, the government will take measures that will match the seriousness of that,” Song said in a commentary posted on the presidential Blue House Web site.

(return to top) Reuters (“NORTH KOREA MISSILE LAUNCH COULD BRING JAPAN SANCTIONS: FM”, 2006-06-26) reported that Japan could impose its own economic sanctions on the DPRK if it launches a ballistic missile, without reference to the UN, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said on Sunday. “The laws have been passed, so all those options would come on to the table,” Aso told NHK television, referring to provisions that could be used to freeze cash transfers and ban ferry services between Japan and the DPRK. (return to top) Agence France-Presse (“TOP US REPUBLICAN URGES DIRECT US TALKS WITH NORTH KOREA”, 2006-06-26) reported that a prominent Republican ally of President George W. Bush, backed by other key lawmakers, called for direct talks between the US and the DPRK amid growing tensions over an anticipated missile test by Pyongyang. US Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, distanced himself from the Bush administration when he suggested the escalating standoff and other issues could be best resolved through direct dialogue between the two countries. (return to top) Agence France-Presse (“BUSH: NORTH KOREA MUST DETAIL MISSILE PAYLOAD”, 2006-06-26) reported that US President George W. Bush urged the DPRK to disclose what is inside a long-range missile that has been spotted on a launch site and say whether it plans to fire the rocket. “The North Koreans should notify the world of their intentions, what they have on top of that vehicle and, you know, what are their intentions,” said Bush. At the same time, White House spokesman Tony Snow rejected calls from some senior US lawmakers to hold direct talks with Pyongyang outside the stalled six-country negotiations on the country’s nuclear weapons programs. (return to top) Kyodo (“BUSH PLEASED CHINA TELLING N. KOREA TO STOP MISSILE LAUNCH”, 2006-06-26) reported that US President George W. Bush said Monday that he is pleased with the PRC telling the DPRK not to fire a missile as part of a “focused” message by Japan, the ROK, the PRC, Russia and the US. “I have made clear to our partners on this issue, that would be Japan, South Korea, China and Russia, that we need to send a focused message…that this launch is provocative,” Bush told reporters. “I was pleased to hear that the Chinese have delivered that message to the North Koreans,” Bush said. (return to top)

2. US Military Equipment Deployment

Guardian Unlimited (“US TO DEPLOY INTERCEPTOR MISSILES IN JAPAN”, 2006-06-26) reported that the US will deploy advanced Patriot interceptor missiles on Japanese soil this year for the first time as the region braces itself for a possible test launch by the DPRK of an intercontinental ballistic missile, local media reports said today. Under the agreement, reached this month, US bases on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa will host US Patriot advanced capability-3 missiles, which are said to be capable of intercepting ballistic missiles of the type being developed by Pyongyang, as well as cruise missiles and aircraft. Defence officials in Washington and Tokyo refused to comment on the timing of the deployment but the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported that three or four surface-to-air missile batteries, each containing up to 16 missiles, could be in place on Okinawa by the end of the year.

(return to top) Reuters (“UPDATED US U-2 SPY PLANE ARRIVES IN SOUTH KOREA”, 2006-06-26) reported that the US Air Force has deployed an updated version of its U-2 spy plane in the ROK, but a military official said on Monday the move was previously planned and not related to a possible DPRK missile launch. The US has long stationed U-2s at Osan, using them to keep a close eye on the DPRK through extremely high altitude reconnaissance missions. (return to top)

3. DPRK Nuclear Capacity

Yonhap (“REPORT SAYS NO PROGRESS IN N.K.’S 50-MEGAWATT REACTOR”, 2006-06-26) reported that the DPRK doesn’t appear to have advanced far in building a bigger reactor despite its claims, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said Monday, based on commercial satellite images taken last month. But should this reactor be completed, the DPRK’s plutonium production would increase tenfold, the institute said in a report.

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4. Nobel Laureates on US DPRK Policy

Korea Times (“NOBEL LAUREATES ADVISE ON BUSH’S NK RIGHTS POLICY “, 2006-06-25) reported that applying pressure to the DPRK is not a good way to improve the state’s human rights situation as it will only strengthen Pyongyang’s cause to shrink from the outside world, former President Kim Dae-jung said Saturday. In a televised debate, Kim underlined that the ROK is doing its part to better the DPRK’s human rights record, even though Seoul appears to pay little attention to the political pressures DPR Koreans now suffer. Sitting beside Kim during the TV program, Mikhail S. Gorbachev underlined that special care is necessary to deal with specific states’ human rights conditions in a way that reflects their culture and social nature.

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5. DPRK Anti-US Rally

Yonhap (“N. KOREANS CRITICIZE U.S. IN MASSIVE RALLY”, 2006-06-26) reported that hundreds of thousands of DPR Koreans staged a massive anti-US rally in Pyongyang on Sunday, the DPRK’s state media reported, as regional tension has risen over the state’s reported plan to launch a long-range missile. Pyongyang’s Kim Il-sung Square “shook with their voices denouncing the U.S. imperialists, the sworn enemy of the Korean people,” the KCNA said in an article.

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6. Kim Jong-il’s Russia Visit

Korea Times (“‘KIM JONG-IL NOT VISITING RUSSIA’ “, 2006-06-23) reported that a recent media report suggesting DPRK leader Kim Jong-il is visiting Russia seems to be false, officials in Seoul said Friday. A senior, unnamed government official said the ROK does not have any intelligence backing up the local news report on the possibility of Kim’s overseas visit. “He cannot be visiting Russia at a time when his country is said to be test-firing a missile,’’ the official said. “North Korea’s official news agency reported Kim made an on-site inspection of an army unit in Kwangwon Province on Thursday. Maybe he might have visited there the previous day. I think it is difficult for him to move to the border area in such a short time.’’

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7. DPRK-Russia Technological Cooperation

Yonhap (“N. KOREA, RUSSIA HOLD FIRST JOINT EXHIBIT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY”, 2006-06-26) reported that the DPRK and Russia have opened their first joint exhibition of information technology on Sunday in Pyongyang for a four-day run, the state’s official news media reported. “This exhibition that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and Russia opened for the first time in the information-technology field will serve a chance to open a new chapter in the development of friendly ties between the two countries,” said Kim Chol-ho, deputy chief of the general bureau of the national software industry, speaking at the opening ceremony.

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8. DPRK-Venezuela Relations

Pravda (“VENEZUELAN LEADER HUGO CHAVEZ SAYS HE WILL TRAVEL TO NORTH KOREA”, 2006-06-25) reported that Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said that he will make a trip to the DPRK to make some bilateral agreements on technology and science matters. Chavez made the declaration at the end of a two-day trip to Panama that finished Friday. He did not specify when he would travel or what the agreements would be.

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9. Inter-Korean Olympic Team

Korea.net (“IOC LEADER ASKS TWO KOREAS TO FIELD UNIFIED TEAM FOR 2008 OLYMPIAD “, 2006-06-26) reported that International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge has urged DPRK and ROK leaders to form a unified team for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, according to government and sports officials here on Friday. On June 7, Rogge sent letters to both ROK President Roh Moo-hyun and DPRK leader Kim Jong-il to the effect that he will do his best to help them field a single team for the quadrennial global sports event, they said.

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10. DPRK Economy

JoongAng Ilbo (“PLANTS, NOT RICE, CALLED NORTH’S NEED”, 2006-06-26) reported that during the JoongAng Ilbo’s 10-day survey of DPRK economic venues in May, the DPRK’s high dependence on the PRC was very prominent. Noting that trend, DPRK experts in Seoul recommended that the ROK make efforts to increase its industrial investment in the DPRK to assist the failing economy and allow it to make ends meet. Donating food and other aid, they said, was contrary to the aphorism, “Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day; teach him to fish and he can eat for a lifetime.”

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11. DPRK Abductee Family Reunion

Chosun Ilbo (“FAMOUS ABDUCTEES’ DAUGHTER TO MEET S.KOREAN FAMILY”, 2006-06-26) reported that a special event at the end of family reunions in the DPRK this week will bring together Kim Young-nam, who was abducted by the DPRK as a schoolboy and the daughter he had with the famous Japanese abductee Megumi Yokota. A source in the DPRK said the daughter, Hye-gyeong, would be there, “and everything the South has been curious about will be made known.”

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II. CanKor

12. Report #253

CanKor (“FOCUS”, 2006-06-23) US satellite surveillance suggests the DPRK may have finished fueling a Taepodong-2 missile, and could be preparing a test launch. The self-imposed 1999 moratorium on testing long-range missiles no longer applies, say Pyongyang officials, since there is no ongoing dialogue with Washington. “Our position is that we should resolve the issue through negotiations,” says DPRK Ambassador to the UN Han Song Ryol. A missile threat isn’t the way to seek dialogue, counters John Bolton, US Ambassador to the UN. US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley says signs of a possible launch remain uncertain. Meanwhile, the Pentagon moves ground-based interceptor missile defense systems from test mode to operational. Japan joins the USA in saying they could consider sanctions if the DPRK goes ahead with the launch. Former ROK President Kim Dae-jung cancels his visit to Pyongyang and the Ministry of Unification warns that South Korea’s planned shipment of 200,000 tons of fertilizer could be halted, should a missile be launched. Amid increasing tensions, Republican congressman Mark Kirk calls for US and DPRK governments to cooperate on family reunions. Sharp political tensions should not overshadow thousands of elderly Korean-Americans desperate to be reunited with family members in the DPRK.

(return to top) CanKor (“OPINION”, 2006-06-23) Rounding out this full-edition FOCUS on the suspected preparations for a DPRK missile launch, is a CanKor OPINION piece by Ralph Cossa, President of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Hawaii. “Fire away,” writes Cossa, addressing Pyongyang. “Who knows, it may actually give the other members of the Six-Party Talks the backbone required (and currently conspicuously absent) to finally get tough with Pyongyang and move the stalled denuclearization process forward.” (return to top)