I. NAPSNet

1. ROK Aid to DPRK Flood Victims

Associated Press (“S KOREA TO PROVIDE 10 BILLION WON IN AID TO FLOOD-HIT NORTH KOREA”, 2006-08-11) reported that the ROK will contribute 10 billion won (US$10.5 million, euro8.2 million) to civilian efforts to send relief supplies to flood affected areas in the DPRK. The contribution is part of an aid package that Seoul plans to give, reversing an earlier decision to suspend aid in protest against the missile launches last month. The ROK’s main opposition party, which has been skeptical of aid provisions, has been supportive of providing emergency aid to flood victims. The ROK also plans to ship official aid supplies to the DPRK via the Red Cross.

(return to top) Christian Science Monitor (“HOPE FOR NEW TALKS WITH NORTH KOREA PINNED TO AID FROM SOUTH”, 2006-08-14) reported that RO Korean officials are hoping the aid program for flood victims may help restore a wide range of contacts that were either suspended or canceled in the weeks before and after the missile tests. The drive for reconciliation, though, arouses controversy as conservatives gain strength while President Roh Moo Hyun, pressing to improve ties with the DPRK while loosening the alliance with the US, steadily loses popularity. (return to top)

2. DPRK Wind Power

KCNA (“NORTH KOREA CONDUCTING WIND POWER RESOURCES SURVEY “, 2006-08-11) reported that a survey of wind power resources in the DPRK is going “great guns”. The wind power survey team of the Geographical Institute under the State Academy of Sciences had established a method of measuring wind speed to suit the topographical conditions of the country and a methodology of estimating wind intensity. On this basis, the survey indicates hundreds of zones appropriate for the generation of wind power.

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3. DPRK Drug Trade

Associated Press (“JAPAN SUSPECTS IT’S TARGET OF DRUG TRADE”, 2006-08-11) reported that, for the first time, Japanese police has publicly voiced suspicions of the DPRK government’s involvement in drug production and trafficking with Japan as its primary target. Japanese police have made their first arrests in the case seven Japanese and an RO Korean intermediary. The allegation comes at a politically charged time and may have been an attempt, in part, to turn up the pressure on the DPRK to curtail its development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. A report prepared for Congress after a spate of high-profile busts in 2003 said the DPRK was linked to drug trafficking in 50 incidents in 20 countries, many involving the arrest or detention of diplomats. Months before that report was issued, a cargo ship owned by a state-run enterprise tried to smuggle more than 275 pounds of heroin into Australia. The report by the Congressional Research Service said the DPRK was suspected of producing 10-15 tons of “the highest quality” methamphetamines a year, diverting land that could be used for food crops. The report estimated the trade as generating about $71 million. Other estimates run in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

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4. Defector Arrested in Seoul

Donga-Ilbo (“COPS: DEFECTOR SOLD FAKE APHRODISIACS”, 2006-08-11) reported that Lee, who defected from the DPRK into the ROK in 2000, was booked without detention by the Seoul police on a charge of violating the Food Sanitation Act, for the sale of sex drive stimulants which caused some distress in consumers. Lee’s defection was highly publicized by the sale of a book in which he claimed to have been a personal guard of Kim Jong Il. He and his wife set up a plant in Songpa, Seoul in February 2005 and produced unlicensed aphrodisiacs by combining medicines made from cialis with herbs including a Chinese matrimony vine. They ran advertisements which claimed that Kim Jong Il benefited from the stimulants and that his father and grandfather were the physicians in charge of the DPRK leader.

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5. DPRK-Russia Cultural Exchange

UPI (“MOSFILM FILM SHOWING IN NORTH KOREA”, 2006-08-14) reported that a week of films produced by Russia’s Mosfilm opens in Pyongyang. Ryasov, the deputy director general of Mosfilm, Russia’s largest film-maker, said he has brought such popular Soviet and Russian films as “Kidnapping Caucasian Style,” “The White Sun of Desert” and “The Rider Named Death.” Mosfilm was invited to the DPRK after its ambassador in Moscow learned about the tour.

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6. Kim Jong Il’s Public Appearance

Reuters (“N.KOREA’S KIM APPEARS FOR FIRST TIME SINCE MISSILES”, 2006-08-13) reported that DPR Korean leader Kim Jong-il has made his first public appearance since the test-firing of seven missiles on July 5, with a visit to a farm that breeds rabbits and goats. The last time official media mentioned an appearance by Kim was on July 4, leading to speculation. Analysts had various theories for Kim’s recent absence, including concerns about his safety, not wanting to draw attention to himself while the country was battling major flooding and possibly a honeymoon after taking his secretary as his fourth wife.

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7. US-ROK Alliance

The Associated Press (“S. KOREANS RALLY IN SUPPORT OF ALLIANCE”, 2006-08-14) reported that thousands of ROK citizens, including former defense ministers wearing their old military uniforms, rallied in Seoul demanding that the president halt moves to retake wartime command of the country’s military from the US. Police said about 5,000 people, many of them elderly veterans, turned out for the demonstration, which underlined the worsening divide in ROK society over the government’s push for the return of wartime command.

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8. US-ROK Defence Readiness

Chosun Ilbo (“USFK DEPUTY RENEWS URGENT CALL FOR BOMBING RANGE”, 2006-08-14) reported that the loss to the US Air Force of a controversial bombing range at Maehyang-ri was tantamount to a loss of combat readiness, a senior commander with the US Forces Korea said. Lt. Gen. Garry Trexler said there were currently no plans for a withdrawal of the Air Force, but warned that if pilots are unable to maintain their skills, an alternative location will have to be found, and this would require a method that gets the best results in the least amount of time.

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9. ROK on Japanese Collaborators

Chosun Ilbo (“KOREA TO SEIZE ASSETS OF COLLABORATORS”, 2006-08-14) reported that an investigation on descendents of about 400 collaborators with the Japanese occupation will begin Friday. A joint government body plans to seize assets acquired by collaborators during the Japanese colonial years from 1910 to 1945.

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10. Yasukuni Shrine Issue

Agence France-Presse (“KOIZUMI SET TO ANGER NEIGHBORS ONE LAST TIME WITH SHRINE VISIT”, 2006-08-14) reported that Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is expected to visit a war shrine Tuesday on a sensitive anniversary, angering Asian neighbors one last time before stepping down. Koizumi has gone once a year to pray at the Shinto shrine — but never on August 15, the date of Japan’s World War II surrender, as he had pledged when he took office in 2001.

(return to top) Agence France-Presse (“CHINA, SKOREA MAY ACCEPT ONE SHRINE VISIT BY KOIZUMI SUCCESSOR: REPORT”, 2006-08-14) reported that the PRC and ROK plan to accept one visit by Japan’s next prime minister to a Tokyo war shrine at the centre of a bitter row among the Asian neighbours, a press report said. But the reported diplomatic compromise was quickly denied as “totally groundless” by a spokesman at the PRC embassy in Tokyo. The ROK’s Yonhap news agency also quoted an unidentified official at Seoul’s Tokyo embassy as saying the report “is absolutely groundless.” (return to top)

11. Japan Elections

Agence France-Presse (“FRONTRUNNER TO SUCCEED JAPAN’S PM SAYS WILL RUN IN KEY ELECTION”, 2006-08-14) reported that Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said he would run for the leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, a race that will decide who succeeds Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. “The time has come for our generation, who did not experience the war, to take the responsibility” of leading the country, he said.

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12. PRC Unrest

The Los Angeles Times (“WAVE OF SOCIAL UNREST CONTINUES ACROSS CHINA”, 2006-08-14) reported that the PRC government, which has battled a surge of social unrest in recent years, reported Wednesday that there were 39,000 cases of “public order disruptions” in the first half of the year. The Ministry of Public Security said that represented a 2.5% decrease in the number of protests from the same period in 2005, though it offered no explanation of how it had come up with the figures.

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13. PRC Land Management

Xinhua (“CHINA TO LAUNCH SECOND NATIONAL LAND SURVEY”, 2006-08-14) reported that the PRC plans to start its second national land survey before 2010, said an official with the Land and Resources Ministry (MLR) on Monday. The survey will collect details about land use in all cities and counties, and 95 percent of villages in the PRC. A national database is expected to be established after the results are collated and Fan said the survey will help the government improve its understanding of the current land use situation and map out effective policies to tighten land and resources management.

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14. PRC Environment

Agence France-Presse (“GLOBAL WARMING BEHIND KILLER TYPHOON SEASON IN CHINA: EXPERTS”, 2006-08-14) reported that global warming is contributing to an unusually harsh typhoon season in the PRC that started around a month early and has left thousands dead or missing, government officials and experts say. “Against the backdrop of global warming, more and more strong and unusual climatic and atmospheric events are taking place,” the head of the PRC Meteorological Administration, Qin Dahe, said.

(return to top) Reuters (“CHINA DROUGHT LEAVES 17 MILLION WITHOUT WATER: MEDIA “, 2006-08-14) reported that about 17 million people in southwest PRC don’t have access to clean drinking water due to sustained drought, state media reported. Crops on large tracts of farmland in Sichuan province and the nearby Chongqing municipality have withered due to the month-long drought, causing economic losses of 9.23 billion yuan ($1.15 billion), the Beijing News and the Xinhua news agency said. (return to top)

15. PRC AIDS Issue

Agence France-Presse (“BETTER DRUGS NEEDED IF CHINA TO WIN AIDS FIGHT: OFFICIAL”, 2006-08-14) reported that three years after the PRC launched an ambitious plan to provide free anti-retroviral treatment to all HIV/ AIDS patients, it urgently needs better quality drugs and child medication, a top official says. “We definitely need to improve our treatment. There’s no question about it,” said Zhang Fujie, head of the PRC’s AIDS treatment program.

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