NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, September 06, 2006

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NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, September 06, 2006

NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, September 06, 2006

I. NAPSNet

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. NAPSNet

1. US-PRC Talks on DPRK

Chosun Ilbo (“HILL IN CHINA AT ‘DIFFICULT’ POINT FOR N.KOREA TALKS”, 2006-09-06) reported that US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill met with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei Wednesday. Immediately after a breakfast meeting with Wu, his counterpart as delegation chief in the nuclear talks, Hill told reporters both Washington and Beijing are finding it difficult to persuade Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. “We’re at a difficult juncture. It seems [North Korea] isn’t interested in coming back to talks,” he admitted. The two sides stressed the need to let the DPRK know that a nuclear test would make the situation worse, he said.

(return to top) JoongAng Ilbo (“U.S., CHINA SPAR OVER SANCTIONS ON NORTH KOREA”, 2006-09-06) reported that the PRC and the US appeared yesterday to be in the midst of a delicate diplomatic dance over the next steps to deal with the DPRK. Christopher Hill, the chief US negotiator at the six-nation talks on DPRK nuclear issues, and Wu Dawei, his Chinese counterpart, met over breakfast yesterday. Speaking to the press after that meeting, Mr. Hill said he and Mr. Wu had “talked about” the need to make clear to the DPRK that a nuclear test would be “a very, very unwelcome development.” Mr. Hill also said the US was determined to take additional measures to press the DPRK to comply with a UN Security Council resolution condemning Pyongyang’s missile tests in July and calling on the DPRK to return to nuclear negotiations. A day earlier, Wen Jiabao told a group of international correspondents that sanctions on Iran or the DPRK might be counterproductive. “The parties involved should be cautious about moving toward sanctions,” he said. (return to top)

2. ROK Experts on DPRK Sanctions

Yonhap (“SENIOR KOREA EXPERTS ARGUE AGAINST MORE U.S. SANCTIONS AGAINST N.K.”, 2006-09-06) reported that the US would be making a “grave mistake” if it were to impose new sanctions against the DPRK and risk a new level of tension on the Korean Peninsula, senior Korea experts said in an opinion piece in the Washington Post on Wednesday. In blunt criticism of the George W. Bush administration, which they said appears to harbor “visceral hostility” toward Pyongyang, Donald Gregg and Don Oberdorfer said neither past nor impending sanctions are likely to lead to the demise of the DPRK regime or persuade it to forego military actions.

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3. ROK-US Free Trade Talks

Yonhap (“S. KOREAN LAWMAKERS TO TAKE U.S. FTA TO CONSTITUTIONAL COURT”, 2006-09-06) reported that a group of ROK lawmakers decided Wednesday to file a petition with the Constitutional Court over the ongoing talks with US on a free trade agreement (FTA), saying the government has infringed on parliamentary rights by pursuing the negotiations without due procedures. Seoul and Washington are seeking to seal a deal by year’s end after launching the talks in June. Both sides are scheduled to begin a four-day, third round of negotiations in Seattle in the US on Wednesday.

(return to top) Chosun Ilbo (“U.S. WANTS KOREA TO THROW BROADCASTING OPEN WIDE”, 2006-09-06) reported that the US wants the ROK to open 11 service sectors including broadcasting and telecommunications, home delivery, legal and accounting services. In all, the US wants 11 out of 98 services Seoul excluded from the FTA opened, a member of the ROK’s negotiating team said. The US reportedly wants Korean national TV networks to scrap or reduce a quota obliging them to fill 80 percent of their broadcasts with domestic content, and the government to lift regulations preventing cable TV channels from dubbing foreign broadcasts in Korean. Washington also wants Seoul to stop subsidizing the post office’s home delivery business and let US home delivery services for small packages operate here. In turn, the ROK submitted 10 suggestions, including streamlining US visa renewal procedures for RO Korean expatriate workers, mutual recognition of professional certificates, and a new visa quota for some 20,000 RO Korean professionals. (return to top)

4. ROK-US Beef Trade

Associated Press (“KOREA MAY RESTART U.S. BEEF IMPORTS”, 2006-09-06) reported that ROK government official said Wednesday that the US has cleared a key hurdle toward resuming beef sales to the ROK by addressing problems at some of its slaughterhouses. Vice Agriculture Minister Park Hae-sang said the ROK will decide whether to resume US beef imports after a meeting of experts on Thursday. “For now, there is a possibility of resumption,” Park said. The ROK agreed in January to allow US beef back into the country on a limited basis, ending a two-year ban prompted by fears of mad cow disease. But the actual resumption of imports into what used to be the US’ third-largest beef market has been delayed over the implementation of measures to ensure meat safety.

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5. ROK-US Relations

JoongAng Ilbo (“ROH LOOKS AHEAD TO MEETING WITH BUSH “, 2006-09-06) reported that President Roh Moo-hyun said he would “coordinate South Korea-U.S. relations to make them trouble free,” when he meets US President George W. Bush next week in Washington. Mr. Roh was speaking to ROK residents here during his visit to the Romanian capital. “The public is very concerned about whether the South Korea-U.S. alliance is facing any problems, and there are people in the United States who have similar concerns,” Mr. Roh continued, “Such voices of concern are muted whenever I meet President Bush, although the quiet does not last for long.” That meeting of the two leaders is scheduled for Sept. 14.

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6. ROK-Romania Nuclear Cooperation

Chosun Ilbo (“ROH AGREES TO NUCLEAR COOPERATION WITH ROMANIA”, 2006-09-06) reported that President Roh Moo-hyun on Wednesday met with his Romanian counterpart Traian Basescu in Bucharest, where the two decided to expand cooperation in nuclear energy development, arms and information technology. The two signed a treaty on joint nuclear power development that will open the way for KEPCO and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power to participate in the construction of two W2.7 trillion (US$1=W957) nuclear power facilities in Cernavoda, Seoul’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said. It would be the first time the ROK has succeeded in moving into the overseas nuclear energy market.

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7. Japan Royal Succession

Kyodo News (“PRINCESS KIKO GIVES BIRTH TO BOY, 1ST IMPERIAL HEIR IN 41 YRS”, 2006-09-06) reported that Princess Kiko, the wife of Prince Akishino, Emperor Akihito’s second son, gave birth to a baby boy on Wednesday, the first heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne in nearly 41 years. With the continuation of Japan’s imperial line secured for now, the already stalled debate over revising the Imperial House Law to allow females and their descendants to ascend the throne is likely to lose momentum. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who masterminded changing the law to allow females to ascend the throne, said the government would not rush to submit a bill to revise it. ”I don’t think it’s something we can submit to a parliamentary session next year.”

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8. PRC-Japan Relations

Agence France-Presse (“CHINA TO SEEK BETTER TIES WITH JAPAN AFTER KOIZUMI”, 2006-09-06) reported that the PRC will seek to improve sour ties with Japan by seizing the opportunity of the change in premiership later this month, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei has been quoted as saying. “We want to use the power change as an opportunity. We hope (Japan) will act accordingly once a new cabinet is formed,” Wu told Japan’s Jiji Press news agency in an interview in Beijing. the PRC has refused summits with outgoing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi due primarily to his visits to the Yasukuni shrine, which honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead and 14 top war criminals.

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9. PRC-EU Summit

Reuters (“CHINA AND EUROPE TO DISCUSS ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT”, 2006-09-06) reported that PRC and European Union leaders will discuss cooperation on energy and climate issues at their upcoming summit, but Chinese officials held out little hope of a breakthrough on their long-sought end to the EU’s weapons sales ban. PRC Premier Wen Jiabao will arrive in Finland on Saturday for three days of talks with European leaders before visiting Britain, Germany and Tajikistan, foreign ministry officials told a news briefing. Li Ruiyu, a Chinese diplomat in charge of European affairs, said on Wednesday that Wen would raise Beijing’s long-time goal of lifting an EU ban on weapons sales to the PRC imposed after Beijing’s 1989 armed crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

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10. PRC-WTO Relations

Associated Press (“WTO WARNS CHINA ON FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS”, 2006-09-06) reported that WTO chief Pascal Lamy on Wednesday warned that the PRC’s pursuit of separate bilateral and regional free trade agreements would harm its long-term commercial interests. “Free trade agreements, whether bilateral or regional, cannot, in my view, replace the WTO,” Lamy said in a speech in the PRC’s commercial hub of Shanghai. The PRC is currently in negotiations with Australia and several other countries and trade blocs on such agreements, seeking to leverage better trade terms for its fast expanding economy.

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11. PRC Pollution

Associated Press (“POLLUTION HOSPITALIZES HUNDREDS IN CHINA”, 2006-09-06) reported that hundreds of people in the northwestern PRC have been hospitalized with lead poisoning that was likely caused by pollution from a nearby smelter, state media and local officials said Wednesday. The poisonings in two villages in poverty-stricken Gansu province added to a string of recent pollution disasters in the PRC that have prompted violent protests in some areas.

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12. Cross Strait Relations

Agence France-Presse (“TAIWAN OFFICIAL REMINDS US OVER CHINA’S GROWING MILITARY BUILDUP”, 2006-09-06) reported that Taiwan’s top PRC policy chief urged the US to strongly remind Beijing against using any military force on Taiwan, saying the PRC’s defense buildup was casting a huge shadow on the island. Joseph Wu, chairman of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, said Beijing’s military buildup opposite the island was a critical concern to Taipei but that Washington was not paying close attention to it due to the “war on terror” and other distractions. “The United States has to continuously make it very clear to China never to use force against Taiwan,” Wu, who heads the island’s top PRC policy planning body, said on a visit to Washington Tuesday. “We hope that kind of point can be stressed in a more clear, more convincing and more forceful way to the Chinese leaders so that they don’t threaten Taiwan the way they do right now,” he said.

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