NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, May 15, 2006
- 1. DPRK Nuclear Status
2. Annan on Six Party Talks
3. ROK on US DPRK Policy
4. Inter-Korean Rail Cooperation
5. Inter-Korean Trade Relations
6. DPRK Food Aid
7. DPRK Smuggling
8. DPRK-PRC Industrial Cooperation
9. Indonesian-Korean Relations
10. Japan Intelligence Capability
11. Japan Iraq Dispatch
12. Sino-Indian Trade Relations
13. US-PRC Military Relations
14. PRC Bishop Appointment
15. Cross Strait Relations
16. PRC Environment
II. CanKor
- 17. Report #248
I. NAPSNet
1. DPRK Nuclear Status
Yonhap (“YONGBYON SATELLITE PHOTOS INDICATE REACTOR IS IN OPERATION”, 2005-05-13) reported that satellite images indicate activity at a DPRK nuclear reactor suspected of producing weapons-grade material, according to an online security organization on Saturday. Four satellite photos of the five-megawatt reactor in Yongbyon, DPRK, taken on Jan. 5 this year show vehicles and containers near the main building that were absent in images taken on March 5, 2003. The photos appear on the web site of Global Security (GlobalSecurity.Org), an Internet organization providing background information on defense, space and intelligence. The Yongbyon reactor, claimed by the DPRK to be an “experimental lab,” is believed to have churned out enough weapons-grade plutonium to allow the state to build as many as half a dozen atomic weapons.
2. Annan on Six Party Talks
Pravda (“KOFI ANNAN URGES NEGOTIATORS TO CONTINUE NORTH KOREA NUCLEAR TALKS”, 2006-05-15) reported that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged negotiators on Monday to continue efforts to peacefully resolve the DPRK nuclear issue by resuming stalled disarmament talks. “I would urge the parties to the six-party talks not to slow their efforts but to persevere and press ahead strategically to get everybody back to the table to continue discussion,” Annan told reporters after meeting ROK Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon.
(return to top) JoongAng Ilbo (“UN’S ANNAN ENDORSES SEOUL’S NORTH POLICIES”, 2006-05-15) reported that settling the DPRK nuclear issue is the key to stability and peace on the Korean Peninsula, Kofi Annan told reporters yesterday. With Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, an announced candidate to succeed him, at his side, Mr. Annan endorsed Seoul’s undivided focus on eliminating nuclear weapons in the DPRK, saying it should have a “separate category and priority” than human rights and other issues. (return to top)
3. ROK on US DPRK Policy
Associated Press (“SOUTH KOREA APPEALS FOR U.S. UNDERSTANDING IN DEALING WITH NORTH KOREA”, 2006-05-14) reported that the ROK appealed on Sunday for US understanding of its policies toward the DPRK amid growing signs of discord between the two allies in dealing with the nation, especially over its poor human rights record. “In many cases, we agree with the United States, but for the U.S. to agree with our position is also part of the alliance,” Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok said in an interview with state TV network KBS.
4. Inter-Korean Rail Cooperation
Reuters (“NORTH-SOUTH KOREA PLAN FIRST TRAIN RUN IN 55 YEARS”, 2006-05-13) reported that the ROK and the DPRK plan to send the first trains across their heavily fortified border in 55 years when they test rail links later this month, the ROK’s Unification Ministry said on Saturday. Officials from the two Koreas this week held their 12th round of talks on the rail links in the DPRK border city of Kaesong. They agreed to have test runs that will cover a small length of track on rail links on the east and west coasts of the peninsula, the two said in a statement released by the ministry.
5. Inter-Korean Trade Relations
JoongAng Ilbo (“BUSINESS GROUPS EYE INVESTMENT PROSPECTS IN NORTH”, 2006-05-15) reported that a group of 60 ROK businessmen and government officials arrived here yesterday to attend the Pyongyang International Trade Fair and inspect other factories and businesses in the DPRK. The visit of the ROK team was linked informally by its sponsors, the Korea Development Institute and the JoongAng Ilbo, to an agreement in April 2002 between the two governments to exchange economic survey missions.
6. DPRK Food Aid
Kyodo News (“U.S. TO HOLD OFF ON RESUMPTION OF FOOD AID TO N. KOREA”, 2006-05-12) reported that the US will hold fast to its policy of not providing food aid to the DPRK until more effective monitoring of distribution is in place, the US State Department said Thursday. “We continue to have concerns about the ability to monitor whether or not these humanitarian food shipments do in fact get to those who are most in need,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
7. DPRK Smuggling
Reuters (“JAPANESE POLICE SEARCH NORTH KOREAN SHIP FOR DRUGS”, 2006-05-12) reported that Japan’s police and coast guard on Friday searched a DPRK freighter that they suspected was used to smuggle hundreds of kilograms of amphetamines from the DPRK in 2002, a coast guard official said. Authorities were searching the DPRK freighter Turubong 1 at a port in Tottori prefecture in western Japan, a Coast Guard official said.
(return to top) JoongAng Ilbo (“REPORT: NORTH SHIPS CAUGHT WITH FAKE CIGARETTES”, 2006-05-15) reported that during the last two years, Japanese maritime police officers have frequently caught foreign ships leaving DPRK ports trying to smuggle fake cigarettes, the Japanese newspaper Tokyo Shimbun reported. Citing intelligence data from satellites, the newspaper said that the fake cigarettes were at times transferred onto other ships waiting in the ROK port of Busan or near Taiwanese waters. The foreign ships were from Cambodia, Mongolia and Taiwan. (return to top)
8. DPRK-PRC Industrial Cooperation
JoongAng Ilbo (“NORTH KOREA, CHINA TO BUILD POWER PLANTS”, 2006-05-15) reported that the DPRK and the PRC have agreed to jointly build two hydroelectric power plants on the Amnok River, also known as the Yalu River in the PRC, on the border between the two countries, PRC media reported yesterday. According to the local newspaper Jilin Daily, DPRK delegates from the Ministry of Power and Coal Industries and the PRC’s central government, along with Jilin provincial officials, signed the agreement at Changchun, the capital city of Jilin province, on Sunday.
9. Indonesian-Korean Relations
Yonhap (“YUDHOYONO PLANS TO VISIT KOREAS NEXT MONTH”, 2006-05-15) reported that Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is planning to make a series of trips to the DPRK and the ROK early next month, as part of Jakarta’s efforts to help resolve the DPRK nuclear program, officials here said on Monday. “President Yudhoyono will make a state visit to South Korea from June 7-9,” Herawatin H. Wargamihardja, minister counselor at the embassy, told Yonhap News Agency. “It is also true that President Yudhoyono is pushing for a trip to Pyongyang on his way to Seoul,” Lee Ji-yoon, a Foreign Ministry official said. “As far as I know, however, he has yet to receive an official response from North Korea.”
10. Japan Intelligence Capability
Reuters (“JAPAN SPY CAPABILITY SAID AT ‘KINDERGARTEN’ LEVEL”, 2006-05-15) reported that Japan needs to bolster its woefully weak ability to gather and analyse intelligence vital to national interests, a former top intelligence official said. A foreign ministry advisory panel last September urged the creation of a Japanese version of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) to deal with terrorist threats and safeguard regional security.
11. Japan Iraq Dispatch
Kyodo (“JAPAN’S 10TH GSDF CONTINGENT ARRIVES AT SAMAWAH”, 2006-05-15) reported that about 150 Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force troops constituting the first batch of its 10th contingent has arrived in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah to assist in Iraq’s reconstruction, Defense Agency officials said Monday. The contingent, totaling 500, could be the last to be dispatched to Samawah, as the Japanese government is considering starting troop withdrawal in June for completion by the end of July.
12. Sino-Indian Trade Relations
Agence France-Presse (“INDIA, CHINA TRADE COULD REACH $100 BILLION BY 2015 “, 2006-05-15) reported that bilateral trade between India and the PRC could reach 100 billion dollars in less than 10 years, a PRC trade official said in a statement. “China and India have a history of increasing bilateral trade for the last 10 years,” Yu Ping, of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. “Now we are setting a new target of 100 billon dollars that should be achieved by 2015,” said Ping.
13. US-PRC Military Relations
The Associated Press (“U.S. ASKS CHINA TO WATCH MILITARY EXERCISE “, 2006-05-15) reported that a top American admiral said Monday he has invited PRC commanders to observe a US military exercise next month in a confidence-building step meant to encourage political leaders on both sides to improve military relations. Adm. William Fallon said he urged PRC commanders to accept invitations to mix with US and other militaries in the region — including sending a general to an annual Asian defense meeting, held this year in Malaysia — and to hold regular exchanges of lower-level officers.
14. PRC Bishop Appointment
The Associated Press (“CHINA WELCOMES NEW, NON-APPROVED BISHOP “, 2006-05-15) reported that the PRC’s state-approved Catholic church welcomed the installation Sunday of another bishop who was not approved by the pope, exacerbating Beijing’s already strained relations with the Vatican. Bishop Vincent Zhan Silu celebrated Mass for 500 Catholics and PRC officials in a church in the southern city of Ningde to mark his formal appointment as head of the Mindong Diocese.
15. Cross Strait Relations
Reuters (“TAIWAN’S CHEN SEEN IN DIPLOMATIC VICTORY OVER CHINA “, 2006-05-15) reported that Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian returns home from a Latin American visit on Friday after surprise stops in Libya and Indonesia that gave him a modest diplomatic victory over PRC but drew words of caution from the US. As Chen criss-crossed the globe, US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick told a congressional hearing this week that Taiwan “will keeping hitting into a wall” if it kept testing the “one China” policy.
16. PRC Environment
The Associated Press (“CHINESE ENVIRONMENTALIST’S TRIAL BEGINS “, 2006-05-15) reported that a PRC man who tried to set up an independent environmental group went on trial Monday on charges of stealing state secrets, an overseas human rights group and court official said. Computer technician Tan Kai was detained after he opened a bank account as part of efforts to register an environmental group, “Green Watch.”
II. CanKor
17. Report #248
CanKor (“CURRENT EVENTS”, 2006-05-12) The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) reaches agreement with the DPRK to resume food aid, albeit on a much smaller scale. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announces plans to step up efforts to “protect and support North Korean defectors in China and Mongolia”.
(return to top) CanKor (“FOCUS”, 2006-05-12) This week’s CanKor FOCUS examines fallout after the US Treasury Department published a notice designating Macao’s Banco Delta Asia as a “primary money-laundering concern” under a section of the post-Sept. 11 law, the Patriot Act. Macao government takes control of Banco Delta Asia, a Swiss firm sees its assets frozen; the US dollar soars in the DPRK’s black market; Japan exerts its own style of economic pressure and the DPRK warns outright sanctions constitute a declaration of war. (return to top) CanKor (“OPINION”, 2006-05-12) CanKor OPINION features a presentation by Nigel Cowie, General Manager of the majority foreign-owned joint-venture Daedong Credit Bank based in Pyongyang, in which he describes how the financial allegations have shifted the DPR Korean commercial landscape. (return to top)