NAPSNet Daily Report 23 July, 2010
Contents in this Issue:
- I. Napsnet
- ARF on ROK Ship Sinking
- US Sanctions on DPRK
- US-ROK Military Alliance
- Cross Strait Relations
- Japan-Russian Nuclear Cooperation
1. I. Napsnet
2. ARF on ROK Ship Sinking
Yonhap (Yoo Jee-ho, “DRAFT ARF STATE,EMT EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER S. KOREAN SHIP SINKING, SUPPORTS U.N. STATEMENT”, Hanoi, 2010/07/23) reported that foreign ministers attending the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) are expected to express “deep concerns” over the sinking of an ROK warship, and support a related U.N. statement, according to a draft chairman’s statement seen by Yonhap News Agency. In the draft, the ministers also “stressed the importance of maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the region, and called on all concerned parties to resolve all disputes by peaceful means.”
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2010/07/23/94/0301000000AEN20100723003800315F.HTML
3. US Sanctions on DPRK
Joongang Ilbo (Kang Chan-ho, Ser Myo-ja, “U.S. FROZE NORTH KOREAN BANK ACCOUNTS SINCE JUNE”, Seoul, 2010/07/23) reported that the United States has already begun quietly freezing assets in DPRK accounts at about 10 banks around the world, diplomatic sources familiar with the situation said Thursday. “The U.S. Treasury Department and intelligence authorities began looking into about 200 bank accounts that showed suspicious activities involving North Korea,” an informed diplomatic source said. “Bank accounts used to deposit money earned from the North’s exports of arms, in violation of UN Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1874, were studied, along with accounts used to purchase luxury goods believed to be supplied to the North’s leadership.”
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2923615
4. US-ROK Military Alliance
Yonhap (Hwang Doo-hyong, “U.S. TROOPS IN KOREA TO BE SENT TO CONFLICT REGIONS IN COMING YEARS: ADM. MULLEN”, Seoul, 2010/07/22) reported that the United States will deploy some of its troops in the ROK to other conflict regions in the future to meet growing regional security challenges, Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said. “Part of the discussion we are having with the Republic of Korea, with the leadership, and what we will be able to do in the next several years is support for deployments, literally, off of the peninsula,” Mullen told U.S. soldiers at Camp Red Cloud, north of Seoul, Tuesday, according to a transcript released by the Pentagon. “But we’re not there yet. We haven’t got to that point in time. But will there be rotational options? And part of this is, quite frankly, a regional issue.”
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2010/07/23/13/0301000000AEN20100723000100315F.HTML
5. Cross Strait Relations
Taiwan News (“ECONOMY MORE IMPORTANT THAN TAIWAN LAW: MAC”, Taipei, 2010/07/23) reported that a group of academics from the PRC proposed a Taiwan Law and also suggested the formation of a Cross-Straits Relations Committee to replace the existing semi-official bodies in charge of negotiations, Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council spokesman Liu Te-shun said that there were still several problems to be solved in the economic relationship between the two countries, and that those should be the focus of relations, rather than the political issues proposed by the academics. Liu said he had no idea what the Taiwan Law project was about, and nobody in China had told the MAC about the nature of the proposal.
6. Japan-Russian Nuclear Cooperation
Bloomberg News (Tsuyoshi Inajima and Shigeru Sato, “JAPAN SAID TO CONSIDER KAZAKH URANIUM IMPORTS THROUGH EAST RUSSIAN PORTS”, Tokyo, 2010/07/23) reported that Japan plans to ask Russia to allow it to ship uranium from landlocked Kazakhstan through ports along the country’s Pacific coast to cut the cost of importing the atomic fuel. A six-month study to assess the viability of shipments from Kazakhstan, the world’s largest uranium producer, via ports near Vladivostok will begin in August and be funded by the Japanese trade ministry, said two government officials in Tokyo with direct knowledge of the plan. “Russia can play a key role and make a big change to Japan’s uranium supply chain in years ahead as Japan is increasing purchases from Kazakhstan,” said Tomoko Murakami, a nuclear analyst at the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan.