NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, June 14, 2006

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NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, June 14, 2006

NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, June 14, 2006

I. NAPSNet

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. NAPSNet

1. DPRK Missile Test

Reuters (“NORTH KOREA MISSILES RATTLE CAGES, STEEL HAWKS”, 2006-06-14) reported that the ROK called on the DPRK on Wednesday to stop preparations for a ballistic missile test, saying it threatened regional security and caused grave concern. ROK Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon told reporters a test could set back talks on resolving one of the region’s pressing security issues – the DPRK’s nuclear arms ambitions. “If North Korea fires a missile now while the six-party talks remain off and questions are being raised in the international community about the effectiveness of the talks, there is a possibility it will have a seriously negative impact on the resolution of the North Korean nuclear problem,” Ban said.

(return to top) Chosun Ilbo (“U.S. ENVOY WARNS N.KOREA AGAINST MISSILE TEST”, 2006-06-14) reported that the US ambassador to Korea on Wednesday warned a rumored imminent missile test by the DPRK would be a huge setback to Washington-Pyongyang relations. Alexander Vershbow told KBS Radio on Wednesday the US “never stood by” when a state carried out “provocative actions.” (return to top)

2. Inter-Korean Summit Anniversary

Chosun Ilbo (“GWANGJU MARKS ANNIVERSARY OF INTER-KOREAN SUMMIT”, 2006-06-14) reported that Celebrations by the two Koreas of the sixth anniversary of the historic inter-Korean summit on June 15, 2000 started in Gwangju on Wednesday with delegations from both Koreas and abroad. A dozen members of conservative groups including DPRK defectors protested in front of the cemetery. Former president Kim Dae-jung gave a five-minute keynote address. The two Korean delegations are to hold a rally to promote putting the June 15 Joint Declaration into practice at the Gwangju Culture and Art Center on Thursday and will organize unity meetings for labor, religion, women’s issues, culture and art, farmers’ issues, college students, education and the civic environment.

(return to top) JoongAng Ilbo (“NORTH’S AIDE HOLDS TONGUE AT CELEBRATION”, 2006-06-14) reported that delegates from the two Koreas yesterday began a joint celebration of the sixth anniversary of the summit meeting of their leaders, the first and at until now only such meeting. One of the leaders of the DPRK delegation was Ahn Kyong-ho, the secretary-general of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland. He had been less than diplomatic in recent remarks about the ROK’s conservative Grand National Party, saying that if it won the presidency, inter-Korean relations would suffer. Leaving the cemetery after the commemorative ceremony, Mr. Ahn was asked by reporters to elaborate on the comments that stirred the controversy; he replied sourly, “Go ask the Grand National Party.” (return to top)

3. Kim Dae-jung on DPRK Visit

Yonhap (“KIM DJ CALLS FOR OPENING OF BORDER RAILWAYS, PEACEFUL UNIFICATION OF KOREAS”, 2006-06-14) reported that the ROK’s former President Kim Dae-jung on Wednesday called on DPRK leader Kim Jong-il to meet him for a second time in the DPRK’s capital to discuss ways to open cross-border railways and peacefully unify the divided Koreas. “I intend to visit North Korea soon at Chairman Kim Jong-il’s invitation,” the former ROK president said at the opening of joint events in the southwestern city of Gwangju, marking the sixth anniversary of his historic meeting with the DPRK leader in Pyongyang. “Unlike my visit in 2000, this would be a personal visit,” he said.

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4. Senator on US DPRK Policy

Agence France-Presse (“US SHOULD STAY FOCUSED ON NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR ISSUE”, 2006-06-14) reported that a US senator called on the administration of President George W. Bush to focus on ending a nuclear standoff with the DPRK instead of pushing the state to act on counterfeiting charges. “The United States must focus its efforts toward North Korea first and foremost on the nuclear issue,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski, who is from Bush’s Republican party and chairwoman of a key Senate panel on Asia-Pacific affairs.

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5. US Senate Delegation’s DPRK Visit

Yonhap (“U.S. SENATORS ARRANGING N.K. TRIP TO BREAK NUCLEAR IMPASSE:MURKOWSKI”, 2006-06-14) reported that a group of US senators plans to visit the DPRK to try to find a way to break the impasse in multilateral nuclear negotiations. “It is an effort by several senators, primarily the Foreign Relations Committee,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who will be part of the visiting delegation, told Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday. “I understand it would be a very small group, probably no more than four.”

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6. ROK-Japan Territorial Dispute

Kyodo (“JAPAN EYES EXPANDING EEZ TO COUNTER S. KOREAN PROPOSAL”, 2006-06-14) reported that Japan has told the ROK it will expand its exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea by making Torishima Island in Nagasaki Prefecture, its cardinal point, Japan-ROK negotiation sources said Wednesday. Japan expressed the intention during the just-concluded talks with the ROK aimed at resolving the dispute over demarcating their EEZs.

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7. Yasukuni Shrine Issue

The Associated Press (“JAPANESE COURT CONSIDERS WAR SHRINE VISITS “, 2006-06-14) reported that Japan’s Supreme Court will rule next week on a suit challenging the constitutionality of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visits to a Tokyo war shrine, court officials said Tuesday. The June 23 ruling on a suit filed by relatives of Japanese, PRC and ROK war dead would be the first time that Japan’s top court has ruled on whether the visits violate the division between religion and the state.

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8. Japan on Iraq Role

The Associated Press (“JAPAN MAY KEEP ITS TROOPS IN IRAQ LONGER “, 2006-06-14) reported that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday that Japan may not pull its noncombat troops from Iraq until after he is scheduled to step down in September. Japan’s decision to withdraw its 600 troops from the southern Iraqi city of Samawah would be based on “a comprehensive evaluation” of the security and political situation in Iraq, and “wouldn’t necessarily be during” his term, Koizumi told reporters.

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9. US Nuclear Carrier in Japan

Agence France-Presse (“JAPAN’S YOKOSUKA CITY ACCEPTS NUCLEAR POWERED US AIRCRAFT CARRIER “, 2006-06-14) reported that the mayor of Yokosuka, Japan, said his city would accept the first US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be stationed in Japan despite protests in the only nation to suffer nuclear attack. “I have no choice but to reluctantly accept a nuclear aircraft carrier because the possibility is zero that a conventional aircraft carrier would be sent,” Mayor Ryoichi Kabaya told the Yokosuka city legislature.

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10. East Asia Free Trade Proposal

Kyodo (“ASEAN CHIEF BACKS NIKAI’S PROPOSAL ON E. ASIA-WIDE FTA, POLICY BODY”, 2006-06-14) reported that the chief of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations expressed support for the Japanese trade minister’s offer of setting up a free trade area in East Asia and a regional policy coordination body modeled after the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Japanese officials said. Visiting ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong said that he views Nikai’s idea of concluding a free trade agreement positively.

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11. PRC-Indian Border Dispute

Agence France-Presse (“BORDER TALKS WITH CHINA ARE MOVING FORWARD, INDIA SAYS “, 2006-06-14) reported that talks between India and the PRC to resolve a decades-old border dispute are “moving forward” and the two nations do not see each other as a threat, Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said. “Over the years, both countries have recognised that we are neighbours and that we cannot alter our neighbourhood,” the minister said.

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12. PRC on Iranian Nuclear Program

Agence France-Presse (“IRAN PRESIDENT TO ARRIVE IN CHINA, BRINGING NUCLEAR ISSUE TO SUMMIT “, 2006-06-14) reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to arrive in Shanghai, renewing the focus on the role the PRC may play in resolving the standoff over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program. Ahmadinejad is only a guest at Thursday’s summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which groups the PRC, Russia, and four Central Asian states plus a handful of observer nations, including Iran.

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13. Cross Strait Relations

The Associated Press (“TAIWAN LAUNCHES CHARTER FLIGHTS WITH CHINA “, 2006-06-14) reported that Taiwan and the PRC said Wednesday they’ve agreed to launch direct charter passenger flights between them during major holidays, a key trust-building step toward restoring regular direct flights. Negotiators have also reached a “tentative consensus” on allowing Taiwanese companies to use special chartered cargo flights to fly goods and equipment between the two sides, said Joseph Wu, chairman of the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council.

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14. PRC Bird Flu Outbreak

Agence France-Presse (“SUSPECTED HUMAN BIRD FLU CASE IN SOUTH CHINA “, 2006-06-13) reported that a 31-year-old man is suspected to have contracted bird flu in southern PRC, state media quoted health authorities as saying. The man, identified only by his surname Jiang, was in critical condition in hospital in the economic boomtown of Shenzhen in Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong, the Xinhua news agency said, citing city health officials.

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