NAPSNet Daily Report 27 September, 2010

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NAPSNet Daily Report 27 September, 2010

Previous day’s Issue

Contents in this Issue:

1. ROK-US Military Exercises

RTT News (“US-SOUTH KOREA JOINT NAVAL DRILLS BEGIN IN YELLOW SEA”, 2010/09/27) reported that the United States and ROK began their latest round of joint anti-submarine drills in the Yellow Sea on Monday, drawing an angry response from the DPRK. A spokesman for the ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff said some ten ships and more than 1,700 troops from both the countries were taking part in the drill, which is planned to end on Friday. Separately, the United States Forces Korea said the joint drills were “designed to send a clear message of deterrence to North Korea,”.  Meanwhile, the DPRK responded angrily to the joint exercises being held in the Yellow Sea describing them as a “military provocation aimed at mounting a pre-emptive attack” on the communist nation.”The warmongers blustered that they would conduct intensive training of the strategy, technique and procedures for countering someone’s submarine infiltration, openly disclosing that the joint naval military exercises are targeted against the DPRK,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency alleged on Monday.

http://www.rttnews.com/Content/MarketSensitiveNews.aspx?Id=1429261&SM=

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2. DPRK Military

Arirang News (“N. KOREA PREPARES FOR LARGEST-EVER MILITARY PARADE”, 2010/09/27) reported that the DPRK is reportedly preparing for its largest-ever military parade one that includes as many as 10-thousand soldiers, missiles, armored vehicles and artillery rockets. A source familiar with DPRK affairs said judging from the current preparations the military parade will be more than double the size of those held in previous years. The source also added that the DPRK’s military has been rehearsing for the parade which will likely showcase portable missile launch pads, rocket launchers, self-propelled artillery and newly developed missiles.

http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=107299&code=Ne2&category=2

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3. ROK, PRC, Japan Relations

Korea Herald (“KOREA, JAPAN, CHINA MEET OVER REGIONAL COOPERATION”, 2010/09/27) reported that officials from the ROK, Japan and the PRC have met in Seoul to discuss setting up a permanent secretariat for closer trilateral cooperation, officials here said Monday.  President Lee Myung-bak, then Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and PRC Premier Wen Jiabao had agreed during their summit in May to establish the cooperation secretariat in Korea next year to boost the three-way partnership over the next decade. Officials from the three nations are holding a two-day meeting through Tuesday to discuss details, as the three leaders are likely to meet again on the sidelines of the ASEAN Plus Three Summit next month, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said.  The functions of the secretariat are to include administrative and technical support of the three-way summits and meetings of foreign ministers, developing and assessing new cooperation projects as well as research on major issues of trilateral collaboration. “The trilateral cooperation secretariat is expected to contribute to decreasing tensions and conflicts among the three states,” a Foreign Ministry official here said.

http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20100927000673

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4. Japan Nuclear Technology

Kyodo News (“JAPAN TO DEVELOP NUCLEAR FORENSIC TECHNOLOGIES”, 2010/09/27) reported that Japan will develop nuclear forensic technologies in the fiscal year beginning April 2011 to identify the origin of nuclear materials in an effort to prevent their trafficking and proliferation. Amid growing international concern over nuclear terrorism, the Japanese government is aiming to analyze the composition of uranium fuel and reprocessed plutonium in the country to develop technologies for determining where the uranium originated and when it was produced, and to create a database of the results, government sources said Saturday. The science and technology ministry hopes to secure a budget of 200 million yen for fiscal 2011 starting April to start working on the plan, according to the sources. Under the government plan, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, will install necessary equipment and start developing technologies to identify the different shapes of fine particles in the nuclear materials and determine the production area and time. Japan will consider sharing the data on the composition of nuclear materials in the country to be obtained through the study with the United States and IAEA, the sources said.

http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/japan-to-develop-nuclear-forensic-technologies/355442.html

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5. PRC Human Rights

New York Times (“CHINA INVESTIGATES EXTRALEGAL PETITIONER DETENTIONS”, 2010/09/27) reported that the authorities are investigating a security company that helps local officials illegally detain desperate citizens who come to the capital to file complaints against them, the state media reported Monday.  According to the English-language China Daily, the company’s employees posed as police officers and dragooned so-called petitioners into “black jails,” where they were held and sometimes beaten until they could be hauled back to their homes in other provinces.  According to their reports, the company, which earned $3.1 million in 2008, employs 3,000 “interceptors” whose job it is to ensnare petitioners before they can make it to the central government bureaus where grievances are filed. According to Southern Metropolis Daily, the Beijing Public Security Bureau detained two of Anyuanding’s executives and charged them with “illegally detaining people and illegally operating a business.”  Human rights groups said they were encouraged by the detention of Anyuanding’s executives but suggested that the system had become so entrenched that the changes would have to come from on high.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/world/asia/28china.html

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