NAPSNet Daily Report Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Recommended Citation

"NAPSNet Daily Report Tuesday, April 11, 2006", NAPSNet Daily Report, April 11, 2006, https://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-daily-report/napsnet-daily-report-tuesday-april-11-2006/

NAPSNet Daily Report Tuesday, April 11, 2006

NAPSNet Daily Report Tuesday, April 11, 2006

I. NAPSNet

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. NAPSNet

1. Six Party Talks

Reuters (“ENVOYS TRY TO REVIVE NORTH KOREA TALKS “, 2006-04-11) reported that envoys to stalled six-party talks on the DPRK’s nuclear program sought ways Tuesday to entice Pyongyang back to the table, but the chief US negotiator insisted that it was up to the DPRK to act. Christopher Hill, the US assistant secretary of state, said it was time for the DPRK to make up its mind to return to the negotiations. “We have done our homework,” Hill said. “They need to do their homework, and then we need to get on with it.” Hill said he had no plans to meet the top DPRK negotiator, Kim Kye Gwan, and also denied a report that he would hold a three-way meeting with Kim and the chief PRC envoy.

(return to top) Yonhap News (“DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS TO REVIVE NUCLEAR TALKS FAIL”, 2006-04-11) reported that the PRC failed Tuesday to organize a meeting on Tuesday between its top nuclear envoy and counterparts in the DPRK and the US, the PRC Embassy in Tokyo said, dashing hopes of a breakthrough to the diplomatic stalemate over Pyongyang’s nuclear program. PRC Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Dawei invited the DPRK’s chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, and his US counterpart Christopher Hill, to a dinner meeting, embassy officials said, but Hill did not show up. The PRC’s proposed three-way meeting was part of last-ditch efforts by related countries to put the six-way talks back on track. ROK delegates now plan to return to Seoul on Wednesday as scheduled, indicating their low expectations that any progress will be made. “The much-awaited bilateral talks in Tokyo between North Korea and the U.S. are virtually impossible,” a member of the delegation said. (return to top)

2. US Shipping Sanctions on DPRK

Chosun Ilbo (“U.S. HITS NORTH KOREA WITH SHIPPING SANCTIONS “, 2006-04-11) reported that the US has announced new measures to stop the DPRK’s flow of money from alleged illicit activities by banning US citizens and companies from using DPRK vessels. It goes into effect on May 8. The legislation applies to all US citizens and permanent residents anywhere in the world, as well as all companies and organizations based in the US including their subsidiaries. Penalties for breaking the new law are stiff: up to 10 years in prison, and fines of up to US$250,000 for an individual or up to $1 million for a company.

(return to top) JoongAng Ilbo (“U.S. SEEKS SEOUL’S HELP IN NEW SANCTIONS ON NORTH “, 2006-04-11) reported that after publishing a directive last week prohibiting US entities from owning, leasing, operating or insuring any DPRK ship, the US government asked Seoul to take similar measures. An official here said that no ROK companies or individuals have any such connections with DPRK ships, even in inter-Korean trade or when shipping aid goods. Even so, acceding to such a request would send a signal to the DPRK that Seoul would probably consider counterproductive to its reconciliation policies toward the DPRK. That assessment seemed to be borne out by the official’s comment that Seoul has told Washington it would “take note” of the US request, but that no action would be taken “in light of the current situation.” (return to top)

3. DPRK Espionage Trial

JoongAng Ilbo (“MAN ARRESTED, CHARGED WITH SPYING FOR NORTH KOREA “, 2006-04-11) reported that Seoul prosecutors arrested a Taiwanese businessman living in the ROK late Monday night and charged him with espionage. They say the man, who was not immediately identified, had provided information to a DPRK businessman who acts as an agent for Kim Jong-nam, the first son of the DPRK’s leader Kim Jong-il. But the information released by prosecutors suggested that the man had been sending information available at book stores, on the Internet or through a magazine subscription. Indeed, the man defended himself after his arrest by arguing just that point. More seriously, he was also accused of attempting to obtain a digital hydrographic map of the ROK coastline. The prosecution also cited a series of payments from the DPRK agent in the PRC. The arrested man allegedly received $15,000 from the ethnic Korean in the PRC in 2001, after receiving $55,000 in 2000. Prosecutors said the money was from accounts at Banco Delta Asia in Macao.

(return to top)

4. DPRK-Japan Relations

Associated Press (“JAPAN CONFRONTS NORTH KOREA ON ABDUCTIONS “, 2006-04-11) reported that Japan stepped up pressure on the DPRK, accusing it of lying about who married and fathered a child with a Japanese woman kidnapped by the regime when she was a 13-year-old schoolgirl. Japan presented DNA results on the case to a DPRK envoy, who was on a rare visit to Tokyo for a private conference among the six nations involved in stalled talks on ending the DPRK’s nuclear ambitions. “Whether North Korea will treat this issue with a sincere attitude would affect other problems lying between Japan and North Korea,” Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said. The DPRK has insisted that Megumi Yokota, who was snatched as a schoolgirl in 1977, married a DPR Korean named Kim Chol-Jun in 1986 and later killed herself after suffering depression. But DNA samples from Yokota’s daughter, Kim Hye-Gyong, showed her father was more likely to be Kim Yong-Nam, a RO Korean kidnapped as a high school student, Japan said.

(return to top)

5. US-DPRK Industrial Cooperation

Yonhap News (“U.S. APPROVES $15,000 WORTH OF CONTROLLED ITEMS TO N.K. IN FY 2005”, 2006-04-11) reported that the US approved some US$15,000 worth of controlled items to the DPRK for fiscal year 2005, according to a recently released Commerce Department report. Dated April 5, the annual report compiled by the department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BSI) said the US will continue to work with the ROK on issues related to technology exports to the Kaesong industrial complex, an inter-Korean entrepreneurial venture.

(return to top)

6. US President on DPRK

Yonhap News (“BUSH SAYS HE IS ‘DISTURBED’ BY NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR ISSUE”, 2006-04-11) reported that US President George W. Bush said Monday he is “disturbed” by nuclear intransigence and starvation in the DPRK, which should be troubling to the world as well. Addressing students at Johns Hopkins University in yet another public session aimed at mustering support for global war on terror, Bush expressed hopes for better relations between the ROK, the PRC and Japan.

(return to top)

7. DPRK Military Spending

Yonhap News (“N. KOREA SAYS IT WILL SPEND 15.9 PCT OF STATE BUDGET ON MILITARY IN 2006”, 2006-04-11) reported that the DPRK will allocate roughly 16 percent of its 2006 budget for its military as it did last year, the country’s state-run news agency reported Tuesday. “The government will allocate 15.9 percent of the total budgetary expenditure for national defense so as to bolster the People’s Army,” reported the KCNA, quoting a report by Deputy Premier Ro Tu-chol.

(return to top)

8. DPRK Political Appointment

JoongAng Ilbo (“NEW HELMSMAN FOR NORTH’S POLICY TOWARD SOUTH”, 2006-04-10) reported that the DPRK has filled the post of its chief ROK policymaker, naming Rim Tong-ok to the head of the Workers’ Party’s Unification Front Division, ROK intelligence sources told the JoongAng Ilbo yesterday. The post had been vacant for more than two years, since the death in October 2003 of Kim Yong-sun.

(return to top)

9. USFK Base Realignment

Chosun Ilbo (“MASTER PLAN FOR NEW USFK HEADQUARTERS ANNOUNCED “, 2006-04-11) reported that Brig. Gen. Steven Andersen on Tuesday announced that a long-awaited master plan for the move to the new base has been agreed in consultation between the US and ROK side. Andersen said the already existing 547 million sq.m Camp Humphreys there will serve as the core of the base, with an additional 8.55 million sq.m in Daechu-ri and Dodu-ri added to the grounds. Personnel at the base will increase exponentially from 9,000 people to 44,531 by the end of 2008. Of that number, 14,491 will be U.S. service members.

(return to top)

10. SDF Iraq Mission

Kyodo (“JAPAN TELLS U.S. IT CANNOT TAKE PART IN REHAB TEAM IN IRAQ’S BASRA “, 2006-04-11) reported that Japan has told the US that it is difficult for Tokyo to accept Washington’s request to send civilians, including diplomats, to the southern Iraqi city of Basra for a new reconstruction project there following Japanese ground troops’ withdrawal, Japan-US diplomatic sources said Tuesday.

(return to top)

11. Yasukuni Shrine Issue

Kyodo (“ABE REITERATES PLAN TO VISIT YASUKUNI SHRINE IF HE BECOMES PREMIER “, 2006-04-11) reported that Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, believed to be a key candidate to succeed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi this fall, said Tuesday he plans to visit war-related Yasukuni Shrine should he take the premier’s post.

(return to top)

12. US-PRC Trade Relations

The Associated Press (“U.S.-CHINA BEGIN TALKS OVER TRADE TENSIONS “, 2006-04-11) reported that the Bush administration pressed the PRC on Tuesday to deal with a range of trade tensions between the two countries that have been heightened by America’s record $202 billion trade deficit with the PRC. The administration was seeking commitments from the PRC to deal with the rampant piracy of American computer software and other copyrighted products, to open its vast market to US goods, including beef, and to provide greater access to American service companies.

(return to top)

13. US-PRC Trade Relations

Reuters (“CHINA BLAMES SURPLUS ON US HIGH-TECH EXPORT CURBS “, 2006-04-11) reported that US curbs on high-technology exports to the PRC are the main reason for the PRC’s growing trade surplus with the US, Commerce Minister Bo Xilai said. Asked whether the PRC’s campaign to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) would help narrow the imbalance in two-way trade, Bo told reporters: “Instead of saying the cause is China’s IPR problems, it is in fact U.S. curbs on high-tech exports that affect the trade imbalance between China and the U.S.”

(return to top)

14. US on PRC Environment

Reuters (“US URGES CHINA TO CLEAN UP ENVIRONMENT “, 2006-04-11) reported that the US urged the PRC on Tuesday to clean up its environment ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, as the PRC’s top environmental agency warned Beijing citizens to stay home to avoid serious air pollution. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Stephen Johnson warned the PRC that the world was watching its environmental protection efforts in the lead-up to the Beijing Games.

(return to top)

15. PRC-Saudi Arabia Relations

Agence France-Presse (“CHINESE LEADER TO VISIT AS SAUDI EXPANDS ASIA TIES “, 2006-04-11) reported that a planned visit by the PRC’s president to Saudi Arabia, soon after a trip by the Saudi monarch to Beijing, underlines the oil-rich kingdom’s quest to forge partnerships with Asia, experts said. President Hu Jintao’s April 22-24 visit will also come close on the heels of an Asian tour by the Saudi crown prince, confirming that Riyadh is increasingly looking eastwards for both export markets and the import of technology.

(return to top)

16. PRC Civic Power

The New York Times (“CHINESE TURN TO CIVIC POWER AS A NEW TOOL”, 2006-04-11) reported that in the PRC a once totalitarian system is facing growing pressure from a population that is awakening to the power of independent organization. Uncounted millions of Chinese, from the rich cities of the east to the impoverished countryside, are pushing an inflexible political system for redress over issues from shoddy health care and illegal land seizures to dire pollution and rampant official corruption.

(return to top)