CONTENTS
1. Shanghai Cooperation Organization Charter
2. US-DPRK Food Donation
3. DPRK-US World Cup
4. Moscow Missile Discovery
5. Japanese Domestic Economy
II. Republic of Korea 1. ROK-DPRK Football Match
2. ROK: High Grade in Trafficking Report
3. Asylum Seekers in PRC
4. North Korean Defectors in ROK Mission
III. CanKor E-clipping Service 1. DPRK News
I. United States
1. Shanghai Cooperation Organization Charter
The Associated Press (Vladimir Isachenkov, “ASIAN SECURITY GROUP LED BY RUSSIA AND CHINA BOOSTS STATUS, ANTI-TERRORISM COOPERATION,” St. Petersburg, 06/07/02) Reported that leaders of Russia, the PRC and four Central Asian nations on Friday anointed their security group as a full-fledged international organization. Putin said India also was probing the ground on joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or SCO, and added that any other nation was welcome to join, including the United States. Putin, PRC President Jiang Zemin and leaders of former Soviet republics Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan signed the SCO charter – a document that would give the group formal international legal status. The group’s secretariat will be based in Beijing. The six leaders also agreed to set up a joint regional anti-terrorism agency based in Kyrgyzstan. Jiang said the new body would help “resolutely protect the regional security and stability.” Putin described the new anti-terrorist structure as a “contribution to global anti-terrorist efforts.” Uzbek President Islam Karimov stated, “The SCO’s success will depend on its ability to take into account global changes.” Asked whether the United States might join the group, Putin responded that it had shown no such desire. But he added: “I don’t exclude that.”
2. US-DPRK Food Donation
Reuters (“US TO DONATE 100,000 TONS OF FOOD TO NORTH KOREA,” Washington, 06/07/02) reported that the Bush administration said on Friday it would donate 100,000 tons of wheat, rice and other food to the DPRK in response to the urgent appeals by the United Nations. The UN’s World Food Program in late May warned wealthy countries it would be forced to cut food supplies to more than 1 million people in the DPRK due to a shortfall in funds and a slower pace in aid. “This contribution will help to remedy an anticipated break in July of WFP’s food aid pipeline for North Korea,” the US Agency for International Development (USAID) said in a statement. USAID said the food aid would reach the DPRK by the end of July and help feed 1 million people for six months. North Korea, labeled by the United States as part of an “axis of evil” and as a state sponsor of terrorism, depends heavily on food aid to feed its 23 million people after being ravaged by several years of economic mismanagement, successive flooding and drought, and harsh winters. “We are prepared to feed people in North Korea, in spite of our ongoing concerns regarding the policies of (its government),” USAID said. The US donation includes 76,000 tons of US wheat, 15,000 tons of rice and 9,000 tons of dairy products. Funding for the commodities will come from the US Agriculture Department’s Section 416b food aid program, which was created to respond to emergency needs and reduce US crop surpluses.
3. DPRK-US World Cup
The Associated Press (Ronald Blum, “US TO MEET SOUTH KOREA IN TIME OF RISING TENSION,” Seoul, 06/07/02) carried a story that read at the DMZ, the US and the ROK are allies. When it comes to sports these days, the relationship is tense, adding even more intrigue to their upcoming World Cup game. Trouble began Februart 20, when Kim Dong-sung was first across the line in the 1,500-meter short-track speedskating final at the Salt Lake City Olympics. But the ROK athlete was disqualified for improperly blocking Apolo Anton Ohno with a half-lap to go, giving the gold to the 19-year-old American. The ROK threatened to sue and boycott the closing ceremonies. Anger increased when Jay Leno, during his monologue on “The Tonight Show,” said Kim “was so mad he went home and kicked the dog, and then ate him.” In a front-page story Friday, The Korea Times said “the negative feelings against Ohno stoked anti-American sentiment, and this was compounded by what locals perceived to be the heavy-handed approach by the US to force the ROK to choose a US company for its multibillion-dollar fighter jet acquisition project.” There also is lingering anger about Spc. Christopher K. McCarthy of Concord, New Hampshire, who is serving a six-year term in a South Korean jail for killing a bar waitress who refused to have sex with him. “I think we should defeat the Americans, whose arrogance we witnessed in the Ohno episode in the Winter Olympics,” 16-year-old Lee Sook-hee of Gyeongju said Friday. “So I think this is a good chance to avenge the injustice.” The ROK and the US won their first-round World Cup openers, and it’s possible the winner of Monday’s game in the southern city of Daegu will clinch a berth in the second round. Tens of thousands of ROK citizens are rallying behind their team, wearing red shirts that say, “Be the Reds,” and pep rallies repeatedly are shown on television. “The atmosphere should be amazing,” said US forward Joe-Max Moore. “Fortunately for us, I think the stands are quite a way back from the field, so they won’t be right on top of us. But there’s no doubt that it’s going to be hard to talk and hard to communicate between the players.”
4. Moscow Missile Discovery
The Associated Press (“MISSILES FOUND NEAR MOSCOW AIRPORT COULDN’T BE USED WITHOUT SPECIAL LAUNCHING PAD,” Moscow, 06/07/02) reported that a cache of missiles found near a Moscow airport couldn’t have been used to hit a target without a special launching pad operated by an experienced specialist, news reports said Friday. The five missiles were discovered Thursday in a cemetery outside Moscow near Vnukovo airport, which is regularly used by government officials. Police suspect the weapons were stolen from a military depot for sale to criminal groups. The found missiles are unguided and can be used to hit targets from helicopters only, the Emergency Situations Ministry told Russian media. However, Moscow police spokesman Kirill Mazurin said on NTV television Thursday that the missiles were capable of hitting air or land targets, and could be successfully launched from the ground or from helicopters. Still, the governor of Moscow region expressed anxiety Friday about the discovery and said it should be taken seriously. “The fact such a cache was found near the government airport is alarming,” Boris Gromov told ITAR-Tass news agency. According to Gromov, a commission has been working to find other illegal ammunition depots. But the fact such a cache was found shows they have failed in their work.
5. Japanese Domestic Economy
The Associated Press (Yuri Kageyama, “JAPAN ECONOMY REBOUNDS,” Tokyo, 06/06/02) and Reuters (Yonggi Kang, “JAPAN POSTS BEST GROWTH IN 2 YEARS,” Tokyo, 06/06/02) reported that Japan’s economy grew 1.4 percent in the first quarter, springing back from three straight quarters of contraction and marking the strongest growth in two years, the government said Friday. But analysts and government officials warned against too much optimism that the positive showing will continue in the months ahead. The Japanese government is expecting zero economic growth in the fiscal year that began in April. The Cabinet Office said gross domestic product, which measures the total output of goods and services produced in the nation, grew at an annual rate of 5.7 percent in the three months through March. A big push in growth came from exports, which climbed 6.4 percent, boosted by the recovery in the US and the rest of Asia. Household consumption rose 1.6 percent, while public investment increased 4.1 percent. Japan’s economy has been shrinking since the second quarter of last year. Growth figures for the latest quarter were the best since the economy grew 2.0 percent in the first quarter of 2000.
II. Republic of Korea
1. ROK-DPRK Football Match
Joongang Ilbo (Ser Myo-ja, “2 KOREAS AGREE TO FIGHT OUT ON A SOCCER PITCH,” Seoul, 06/07/02) reported that the two Koreas will meet on a soccer field in Seoul, a step closer to the revival of a soccer tradition between the ROK and the DPRK that died out half a century ago. The Europe-Korea Foundation, a project of the EU Chamber of Commerce here, said Thursday that it had agreed with DPRK to stage a match between DPRK and ROK national teams on September 8 at Seoul’s Sangam World Cup Stadium. During Representative Park Geun-hye’s visit to Pyeongyang in May, the DPRK leader, Kim Jong-il, approved the match. Follow-up discussions continued after Park returned to Seoul. The foundation and the Korea Football Association are the organizers, and the Korean Broadcasting System will be the official broadcaster. DPRK players and staff are scheduled to arrive in Seoul on September 6 aboard a charter plane through a direct air route and fly back home three days later.
2. ROK: High Grade in Trafficking Report
Joongang Ilbo (Ser Myo-ja, “TOP TIER IN TRAFFICKING REPORT,” Seoul, 06/07/02) reported that the US government acknowledged improvements in the ROK’s human trafficking record in a report released by the US State Department Wednesday. The second annual report on trafficking in people elevated ROK from the lowest tier to the highest. The US government reviewed 89 countries. Eighteen, including France and Germany, were placed in Tier 1, the report’s highest grouping. These governments fully comply with the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, according to the report. The US Congress passed the act in 2000, and the first report last year ranked ROK at the bottom. This year’s report praised Korean “efforts to close loopholes in transit procedures and border crossings.” But it still calls ROK “a source, transit and destination country for trafficking in persons.”
3. Asylum Seekers in PRC
Joongang Ilbo (Oh Young-hwan, Yoo Kwang-jong, “DEFECTORS IN MISSION STILL WAIT,” Seoul, 06/07/02) reported that five DPRK asylum-seekers continue to wait in the ROK Embassy in Beijing, with negotiations over their fates at a standstill. The delay is due in large part to the ROK refusal to hand over the five defectors to the PRC. ROK proposed that the defectors come to ROK directly from PRC without going through a third country, a PRC diplomat said. ROK is reportedly willing to allow PRC to question the defectors, if PRC guarantees their departures to ROK.
4. North Korean Defectors in ROK Mission
Chosun Ilbo (Yeo Shi-dong, “FIFTH NK DEFECTOR ENTERS BEIJING CONSULATE,” Beijing, 06/07/02) reported that an official at the Korean Embassy to PRC said Thursday that a DPRK, a man in his 20s, entered the Consulate General there on June 1 at 11:45am, bringing the number of defectors seeking refuge there to five. A spokesperson for the PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed in a briefing to foreign news reporters on Thursday afternoon that another defector was in the building.
III. CanKor E-clipping Service
1. DPRK News
For the DPRK, it is a cruel irony that the FIFA World Cup is taking place in the ROK, where baseball is the favored sport. Soccer is the DPRK’s game, successfully played to world standards as early as the mid-1960s. It proved impossible to establish a joint Korean team in time for the games, but other initiatives to use soccer as a vehicle for reconciliation are showing more promise, as illustrated by this week’s FOCUS section. In other news, KEDO inaugurates a training centre for nuclear engineers, civic groups from North and South plan a joint festival to mark the second anniversary of the inter-Korean summit, the DPRK gives prior notification on the control of water levels at the Imnam Dam, and the ROK decides to forego publication of an annual defense white paper that has caused inter-Korean friction. One of the longest-serving humanitarian agencies in the DPRK, Children’s Aid Direct, is reluctantly closing its office for lack of funds. The DPRK fails to provide visas for a US bipartisan delegation. On the Canadian front, the long-awaited presentation of credentials by DPRK Ambassador to Canada is slated for late June.
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