Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. United States

1. DPRK Nuclear Issue

Joongang Ilbo (“NORTH’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM CLOSELY WATCHED OVER YEARS”, 2005-02-14) reported that as the DPRK now has officially announced its possession of nuclear weapons and vowed to increase its inventory, the JoongAng Ilbo analyzes some questions surrounding the crisis. Experts estimate that the nuclear arsenal of Pyeongyang probably consists of weapons that can’t be mounted on a missile because the weight is between two to three tons. Pyeongyang could deliver them with its Russian-made IL-28 bomber planes. That option could have a high risk because of the plane’s slow speed and chance of being shot down.

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2. US on DPRK Nuclear Issue

The New York Times (“U.S. IS SHAPING PLAN TO PRESSURE NORTH KOREANS”, 2005-02-14) reported that in the months before the DPRK announced that it possessed nuclear weapons, the Bush administration began developing new strategies to choke off its few remaining sources of income, based on techniques in use against Al Qaeda, intelligence officials and policy makers involved in the planning say. The new strategies would intensify and coordinate efforts to track and freeze financial transactions that officials say enable the government of Kim Jong Il to profit from counterfeiting, drug trafficking and the sale of missile and other weapons technology.

(return to top) Washington Post (“WHITE HOUSE DISMISSES IDEA OF DIRECT TALKS WITH NORTH KOREA”, 2005-02-14) reported that the US yesterday swiftly rejected a reported demand from the DPRK that it conduct one-on-one talks with the DPRK as a price for restarting negotiations on dismantling its nuclear programs. US officials held firm to their position that the talks must include Pyongyang’s neighbors as they intensified diplomatic efforts to persuade the DPRK to return to the bargaining table. “It’s not an issue between North Korea and the United States,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. “It’s a regional issue.” (return to top) Donga Ilbo (“STICK VS. CARROT “, 2005-02-14) reported that over the countermeasures against the DPRK’s announcement, the US has various opinions divided into a hard-line policy to applying economic sanction against the DPRK immediately and a moderate policy offering carrots. Former Secretary of State James Baker weighed in on a hard-line policy, “The best policy is to apply economic sanctions against North Korea for its violation of its IAEA NPT commitments and its promise to the world community under a UN Security Council resolution.” Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware said that “the US should have an intention to provide more carrots,” adding, “Instead, China, South Korea, and Japan should play a heavy role in getting ready to use sticks.” (return to top)

3. US on DPRK Nuclear Talks

Yonhap (“US MULLS 5-PARTY TALKS ON NK NUKES: SANKEI”, 2005-02-14) reported that the US is considering convening a five-party meeting, excluding the DPRK, to discuss ways to persuade the North to attend another round of six-party talks on its nuclear weapons ambitions, Japan’s Sankei Shimbun said Sunday. The purpose of the five-way meeting would be demonstrating the solidarity of the five nations to put pressure on the DPRK.

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4. US, ROK on DPRK Nuclear Issue

Chosun Ilbo (“BAN AND RICE TO DISCUSS N. KOREAN NUCLEAR DECLARATION”, 2005-02-14) reported that Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon will meet with his US counterpart Condoleezza Rice on Monday (local time) to discuss a joint response to the DPRK’s announcement that it already has atomic weapons and is boycotting six-party talks on its nuclear program. In their meeting, Ban and Rice are expected to talk about the intentions behind Pyongyang’s shock announcement and assess how credible the declaration is. They will discuss their short-term and long-term response and announce the results at a press conference after the talks.

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5. DPRK on Nuclear Issue

The Associated Press (“NORTH KOREA SEEKS LOYALTY FROM CITIZENS”, 2005-02-14) reported that the DPRK urged its impoverished people Saturday to rally around leader Kim Jong Il, after Washington rebuffed the DPRK’s demand that the two sides hold bilateral nuclear talks. Pyongyang’s state-run daily newspaper Rodong Sinmun allotted the whole front page of its Saturday edition to an editorial saying “the single-minded unity serves as the strongest weapon.” “At a time like today, when the situation gets tense, no task is more important than to strengthen our single-minded unity,” the editorial said.

(return to top) Reuters (“NORTH KOREA PLAYS FOR HARD BARGAIN WITH NUKE BOAST”, 2005-02-14) reported that the DPRK has taken a calculated bargaining risk by announcing for the first time it has nuclear weapons, a ROK official said Saturday. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said after discussions with the DPRK and PRC envoys in Canberra that he saw a reasonable chance that Pyongyang would return to the talks. ROK Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-shik said it was significant that the DPRK had not declared outright it would not return to the negotiating table. (return to top)

6. DPRK on Nuclear Talks

Yonhap (“N.K. DEMANDS U.S. TROOP PULLOUT TO SET STAGE FOR 6-PARTY TALKS”, 2005-02-14) reported that the DPRK Sunday called on the US to withdraw its troops from the Korean Peninsula to help get the six-party nuclear talks underway again. Appearing on a Pyongyang Radio program, Han Song-nam, a senior member of the DPRK Workers Party in Pyongyang City, said, “The US troop pullout will be helpful to producing progress in the six-party talks.” Han said US troop withdrawals are a “very important issue” in addressing the showdown between DPRK and the US and would be a sign of US willingness to get rid of its hostile policy toward the DPRK.

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7. ROK on DPRK Nuclear Issue

Joongang Ilbo (“TOO SOON TO CALL NORTH A NUCLEAR STATE: CHUNG”, 2005-02-14) reported that top Roh Moo-hyun administration officials yesterday downplayed the significance of the DPRK’s declaration that it has nuclear weapons, with the unification minister saying it would be premature to label the DPRK a nuclear power. “Without a nuclear test [by Pyeongyang], it is too early to call North Korea a nuclear state,” Unification Minister Chung Dong-young told lawmakers at the National Assembly.

(return to top) Agence France-Presse (“SOUTH KOREA SAYS ENGAGEMENT WITH NORTH KOREA UNSHAKEN”, 2005-02-14) reported that the ROK said its policy of engagement with thye DPRK was unshaken by Pyongyang’s boast that it had nuclear weapons and would boycott talks to end the nuclear standoff. The ROK’s top policymaker on the DPRK, Chung Dong-Young, indicated that the ROK government was inclined to view the statement as more bluster in the DPRK’s game of nuclear brinkmanship. He told parliament that the ROK still had confidence in its policy of reconciliation with Pyongyang and that the nuclear standoff could be resolved through dialogue. (return to top)

8. ROK on Inter – Korean Talks

Yonhap (“SOUTH KOREA PROPOSES MILITARY TALKS WITH N. KOREA”, 2005-02-14) reported that the ROK offered to hold military talks with the DPRK last week after the DPRK declared it has built nuclear weapons, an official said Monday. The proposal was made on Friday, a day after the DPRK announced its possession of atomic bombs and boycott of multilateral negotiations on ending its nuclear program, an official at the Defense Ministry said.

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9. ROK on Inter – Korean Economic Cooperation

Korea Times (“SEOUL KEEPS ON KAESONG PROJECT DESPITE NK NUKES”, 2005-02-14) reported that the ROK will continue pursuing inter-Korean cooperation programs despite Pyongyang’s announcement that it has nuclear weapons and will boycott the six-party talks over its nuclear weapons programs, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon said in Washington, DC Saturday. He made clear Seoul’s hope that Pyongyang’s declaration last Thursday will not obstruct the joint industrial complex project in Kaesong, DPRK. “The pilot program for the Kaesong project will go on unless the situation is deteriorated further,” Ban told ROK correspondents in Washington.

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10. ROK on DPRK Aid

Yonhap (“SEOUL TO MAINTAIN AID TO N.K. DESPITE NUKES”, 2005-02-14) reported that the ROK will continue to provide humanitarian aid to the DPRK as well as development of a joint industrial park in the DPRK despite a rise in tensions over Pyongyang’s declaration Thursday that it has nuclear weapons and will continue to boycott the six-party talks, the top ROK diplomat said Saturday. “We will continue to provide rice and fertilizer unless the situation deteriorates as we’re providing them on humanitarian grounds,” Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon told a group of ROK correspondents here.

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11. Sino – ROK on DPRK Nuclear Issue

Yonhap (“S. KOREA TO SEND TOP NUCLEAR NEGOTIATOR TO CHINA THIS WEEK”, 2005-02-14) reproted that the ROK will send its top nuclear negotiator to the PRC this week to discuss the DPRK’s announcement that it has built nuclear weapons and would boycott six-party negotiations on the issue, an official said. Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon will visit Beijing as soon as he returns from the US, the official said on condition of anonymity.

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12. PRC on DPRK Nuclear Talks

The Associated Press (“CHINA TO PUSH TO REVIVE N. KOREA TALKS”, 2005-02-14) reported that the PRC has pledged to try reviving talks aimed at ending the DPRK’s nuclear programs following the DPRK’s declaration that it has atomic weapons and is boycotting disarmament negotiations. PRC Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Beijing firmly supports a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, the PRC government said Sunday. Li told Rice by phone Saturday night that “China will stay in touch with all relevant parties … so that the six-party talks could be resumed as soon as possible,” the Foreign Ministry said.

(return to top) Reuters (“U.S., S.KOREA LOOK TO CHINA TO BRING N.KOREA AROUND”, 2005-02-14) reported that the ROK and the US are hoping the PRC can bring the DPRK back to stalled talks on dismantling its nuclear weapons programs, Seoul’s foreign minister said. Minister Ban Ki-moon spoke as PRC Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing assured Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Beijing would push Pyongyang to end its boycott of six-party talks on the crisis as soon as possible. (return to top) The New York Times (“CHINESE NEWS MEDIA CRITICAL OF NORTH KOREA”, 2005-02-14) reported that the PRC on Sunday publicly called for the Korean peninsula to be free of nuclear weapons and urged the DPRK to return to regional talks regarding its nuclear program. State-run PRC media and censored Internet chat rooms were uncommonly critical of Pyongyang for having announced Thursday that it had manufactured nuclear weapons. The broad criticism by state-run media is important because the PRC government has tended to take a protective position, at least in public, toward the DPRK, its neighbor and sometime ally. (return to top) Chosun Ilbo (“SEOUL, WASHINGTON PASS N. KOREA BUCK TO BEIJING”, 2005-02-14) reported that Seoul and Washington agreed Saturday to try to persuade the DPRK through the PRC to return to six-party talks it has announced it is boycotting. In what amounted to a passing of the buck to Beijing, Ban said the two countries agreed that the PRC should step up efforts to persuade the DPRK back to the negotiating table. (return to top) Donga Ilbo (“CAN CHINA BE TRUSTED AS MEDIATOR?”, 2005-02-14) reported that after the DPRK`s shocking announcement of its nuclear weapon capability, the focus is now on the PRC`s reaction, with conflicting views on whether the PRC will use its influence over the DPRK or whether it has the intention to bring the reclusive regime back to negotiation table. James Lilley, the US Ambassador to the PRC, in an interview to be released in the February 13 issue of Time magazine, cited the effectiveness of energy provision strategy, saying, “North Korea would definitely resume talks if China mentioned a 10 percent decline in the country`s oil supply per month starting immediately.” But others predict that a desperate DPRK would not act as they used to. A senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Li Changchun, in a visit to Pyongyang in November of last year, however, failed to achieve his goal of bringing the DPRK to the negotiation table. (return to top)

13. Sino – DPRK Economic Relations

Yonhap (“N. KOREAN EXPORTS TO CHINA’S JILIN PROVINCE TOP $100 MLN IN 2004”, 2005-02-14) reported that the DPRK’s exports to the PRC’s northeastern Jilin Province more than doubled year-on-year to surpass the US$100 million mark, a ROK trade body said Saturday. The DPRK exported US$105.2 million worth of goods to the PRC province bordering the DPRK, recording a 113 percent year-on-year increase from 2003, the (South) Korea International Trade Association (KITA) said.

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14. PRC, Russia on DPRK Nuclear Talks

Kyodo News (“CHINA, RUSSIA AGREE TO WORK ON NUKE ISSUE THROUGH 6-WAY TALKS”, 2005-02-14) reported that PRC Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed Monday to continue trying to resolve the DPRK nuclear standoff within the framework of the six-country talks, the PRC Foreign Ministry said. The telephone conversation in the afternoon was the latest in a series of consultations by senior officials from the six countries in the talks following Pyongyang’s announcement last week that it has nuclear weapons and is backing out of the six-way discussions indefinitely.

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15. Japan on DPRK Nuclear Issue

The New York Times (“JAPAN URGES NORTH KOREA TO REJOIN DISARMAMENT TALKS”, 2005-02-14) reported that the day after the DPRK declared that it possessed nuclear weapons, Japan’s prime minister urged the DPRK to re-engage in disarmament talks. He spoke as the clock was running down toward a new law that will put economic pressure on the DPRK by barring most of its ships from Japanese ports starting March 1. Talking to reporters in Sapporo, Japan, about 600 miles across the Sea of Japan from the DPRK and a center of trade with the country, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi maintained Japan’s public stance that the tightening shipping rules were not sanctions against the DPRK.

(return to top) Chosun Ilbo (“JAPAN RESISTS FORMAL SANCTIONS AGAINST NORTH KOREA “, 2005-02-14) reported that Japanese Prime Minister Junichro Koizumi has resisted calls for formal economic sanctions against the DPRK, which says it will boycott further six-party talks on its nuclear weapons program. But a new Japanese law that takes effect next month will effectively cut into the DPRK’s maritime trade with Japan – a significant source for Pyongyang of both cash and consumer goods. (return to top)

16. UN on Nuclear Proliferation

Reuters (“UN’S ANNAN WARNS OF NUCLEAR ‘CASCADE’ RISK”, 2005-02-14) reported that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned on Sunday the world could soon face a cascade of countries acquiring nuclear weapons unless it took action to tighten existing controls. “For decades, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has helped prevent a cascade of nuclear proliferation,” Annan said. “But unless new steps are taken now, we might face such a cascade very soon,” he cautioned.

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17. Inter – Korean Maritime Conflict

Chosun Ilbo (“WAR OF WORDS IN NORTHERN WATERS CONTINUES”, 2005-02-14) reported that the DPRK Navy on Saturday alleged a ROK battleship strayed into its territory in the Yellow Sea, the sixth time in a month it has made a similar charge. DPRK Navy headquarters warned through the official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) such military “provocations” could result in disaster.

(return to top) Yonhap (“S.K. DISMISSES N.K. CLAIM OF VIOLATION OF NORTHERN WATERS”, 2005-02-14) reported that the ROK Sunday dismissed a claim by the DPRK that the ROK navy vessels violated northern waters. “It is a claim that does not deserve any consideration,” a spokesman for the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, denouncing the DPRK for “trying to raise military tensions on the Korean Peninsula”. (return to top)

18. DPRK on Food Aid

Yonhap (“SUSPENDED FOOD DISTRIBUTION AFFECTS 20 PER CENT OF NORTH KOREANS”, 2005-02-14) reported that the DPRK is increasingly denying monitoring visits to the country by the World Food Programme (WFP), leading the relief agency to suspend its food distribution in more districts, the agency said in a recent report. In the report on the DPRK published Friday 11 February , the WFP said Pyongyang added Kowon County, South Hamkyong Province, early this month to its areas designated as off limits, making the agency suspend its aid operation there. It was the 10th denial of access by Pyongyang since late last year.

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19. DPRK Economic Reforms

Chosun Ilbo (“TIME SEES WINDS OF CAPITALISM BLOW IN N. KOREA”, 2005-02-14) reported that the latest issue of the US current affairs magazine Time reports that the winds of capitalism are blowing through the DPRK. Time said all over the DPRK, privately run bakeries, clothing stores and gas stations were flourishing, while in border areas residents could buy PRC-made mobile phones. Quoting defectors in the ROK and PRC, the magazine said the capitalism had its strongest foothold in Hoeryong, where everything is available from rice, corn, apples, bananas, and tangerines to beef, pork, Japanese TVs and VRCs, ROK cosmetics and PRC sports apparel.

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20. DPRK Human Rights

Chosun Ilbo (“CONFERENCE ON N.K. HUMAN RIGHTS OPENS IN SEOUL”, 2005-02-14) reported that the 6th International Conference on DPRK Human Rights and Refugees opened Monday at Sogang University’s Ignatius Hall. The conference seeks to publicize human rights abuses in the DPRK and the plight of defectors. An official from the British Foreign Office told a meeting today Pyongyang still had a long way to go despite amending its Criminal Code in 2004 and promising to protect human rights. In a congratulatory message, former Czech President Vaclav Havel said concern for human rights was not interference in the internal affairs of the DPRK but an expression of respect for the rights of the people who live there.

(return to top) Yonhap (“EXPERTS DIVIDED OVER SOLUTION TO N.K. HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE”, 2005-02-14) reported that participants at an international seminar on the issue of human rights in DPRK agreed Monday that the reclusive regime has one of the worst records on the planet, but proposed varying solutions. Carl Gershman, president of National Endowment for Democracy, stressed that the Bush administration should connect the DPRK’s human rights issue with its nuclear program. Many hope to see a negotiated settlement of the nuclear dispute over Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal that includes resolving the issue of human rights violations there, he added. (return to top)

21. ROK on Korean War POWs

Yonhap (“SEOUL SUSPECTS 542 POWS ALIVE IN N. KOREA: MINISTER “, 2005-02-14) reported that a total of 542 ROK prisoners of war (POWs) are still alive in the DPRK, more than 50 years after taken captive by the DPRK, Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said Monday. As of the end of last year, the number of ROK POWs not repatriated was estimated at 1,523, and 542 of them were still alive, Yoon told parliament.

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22. ROK Envoy to the US

Joongang Ilbo (“JOONGANG HEAD BECOMES U.S. ENVOY”, 2005-02-14) reported that the Foreign Ministry yesterday officially appointed Hong Seok-hyun, publisher of the JoongAng Ilbo, to the position of ROK ambassador to the US. “We expect Mr. Hong to greatly contribute to the consolidation of comprehensive and vibrant South Korea-U.S. relations in the second Bush administration,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lee Kyu-hyung said in announcing the appointment.

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23. ROK on Kyoto Treaty

Joongang Ilbo (“SEOUL PLANNING FOR KYOTO COMPLIANCE”, 2005-02-14) reported that with the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty aimed at reducing global warming, going into effect tomorrow, Seoul announced measures to cope with the restrictions it will impose on industrial activity, even though the ROK won’t be affected by them at the outset. The ROK, which ratified Kyoto in December 2002, will not be immediately affected because it is classified as a developing country, and therefore is not obliged to reduce emissions.

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24. ROK Historical Revisionism

Washington Post (“S. KOREANS REVISING IMAGE OF NATION’S ELITE”, 2005-02-14) reported that the politically charged film “The President’s Last Bang” is a shot at the heart of the ROK establishment. The main target: Park Chung Hee, the ROK president, conservative icon and former military leader who was gunned down in 1979 after 18 years in power. Park was venerated by conservatives as a hero who faced down the DPRK while turning his country into an economic success. But the film, which opened this month to cheers and jeers, casts him as a philandering drunk with a traitorous soft spot for the ROK’s former occupiers, the Japanese.

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25. Russian Missile System

Itar-Tass (“SERGEI IVANOV: RUSSIA WOKS ON NEW MISSILE SYSTEM “, 2005-02-14) reported that Russia works on a new missile system. “We have grounds to believe that it will be a unique system, unmatched in the world,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told on Sunday a news conference on the results of the 41st International Conference on Security Policy. According to the Russian minister, the system will made “soon enough and will not be leveled at any specific country”.

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26. Russo – Japanese Relations

The New York Times (“JAPAN AND RUSSIA, WITH AN EYE ON CHINA, BURY THE SWORD”, 2005-02-14) reported that Japan and Russia are weaving closer military and economic relations, and the reason lies just across the Amur River – the PRC. That is a big change for Russia and Japan, which for two centuries have eyed each other warily in Northeast Asia. In 2004, bilateral trade jumped 38 percent over 2003 levels. Japan has become the largest foreign investor in the oil and gas projects of Sakhalin, the largest foreign investment in Russia today. “As long as Japan and Russia are in cooperation, China will not be able to move against us,” Toshiyuki Shikata, a military analyst at Teikyo University, said in a telephone interview, echoing a rapidly emerging view in Tokyo.

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27. Sino – Japanese Territorial Dispute

Reuters (“JAPAN MOVE ON ISLANDS ‘SEVERE PROVOCATION’ -CHINA”, 2005-02-14) reported that the PRC has accused Japan of a “severe provocation” after Tokyo moved to take over a lighthouse built years ago by right-wing activists on a small, disputed group of islands in the East China Sea. An unidentified official from the Foreign Ministry’s Asian department had made solemn representations to the Japanese over the incident, the ministry said in a statement seen on its Web site Saturday. “Japan’s actions are a severe provocation and infringement on China’s territorial sovereignty and are absolutely unacceptable by the Chinese government and people,” the official said.

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28. PRC Censorship

The Associated Press (“CHINA SAYS IT SHUT DOWN INTERNET CAFES”, 2005-02-14) reported that the PRC authorities shut down more than 12,575 Internet cafes from October to December last year for operating illegally, the government said. The purpose of the crackdown was to create a “safer environment for young people in China,” the official Xinhua News Agency said Sunday. It didn’t give details of the violations, but said the businesses closed “were mainly located nearby primary schools and middle schools.”

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29. PRC Dissident Arrest

Reuters (“CHINA DISSIDENT WHO TRIED TO SEE ZHAO FAMILY HELD -ACTIVIST”, 2005-02-14) reported that a PRC dissident who tried to pay his respects to the family of late deposed Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang has been detained for threatening national security, a fellow pro-democracy campaigner said on Sunday. Zhang Lin, who played a leading role in 1989 pro-democracy protests in the eastern province of Anhui that mirrored those held in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, was held by police on his return from Beijing in late January, said activist Ren Wanding.

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30. Hong Kong Politics

BBC News (“PRO-CHINA PARTIES MERGE IN HK “, 2005-02-14) reported that Hong Kong’s leading pro-Beijing party, The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), is to merge with a smaller counterpart. The DAB, which holds 12 seats in the 60-seat Legislative Assembly, is to merge with the Hong Kong Progressive Alliance. The move is seen as an attempt to bolster the pro-PRC vote against a strong pro-democracy opposition.

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II. CanKor

31. CanKor # 195

CANADA-KOREA ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SERVICE (“US ASKS CHINA TO INCREASE PRESSURE ON DPRK”, None) Days after President George Bush sent a letter hand-delivered to President Hu Jintao of China urging him to put pressure on the DPRK regarding the latter’s nuclear weapons programme, the DPRK sends shockwaves through the press with what is described as the most explicit statement of nuclear weapons ownership to date. The US President intended to underscore to China, Japan and South Korea the urgency of new intelligence that claims to have evidence of North Korea selling a partly processed form of uranium to Libya.

(return to top) CANADA-KOREA ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SERVICE (“DPRK SUSPENDS SIX-PARTY TALKS FOR INDEFINITE PERIOD”, 2005-02-11) The DPRK Foreign Ministry says in a statement reproduced in this issue of CanKor that North Korea has “manufactured nukes for self-defence to cope with the Bush administration’s evermore undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK,” and that it feels “compelled to suspend our participation in the talks for an indefinite period till we have recognized that there is justification for us to attend the talks and there are ample conditions and atmosphere to expect positive results from the talks.” (return to top) CANADA-KOREA ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SERVICE (“EXPERT SAYS DPRK STATEMENT LIKELY PRESSURE TACTIC”, 2005-02-11) Neighbouring nations respond calmly, urging the DPRK to return to the table, while some experts suggest the entire tit-for-tat may simply be atmospherics and positioning to gain psychological advantage ahead of a resumption of talks. We reproduce transcript of a radio interview with Dr Eric Heginbotham, North Korea Project Director at the US Council on Foreign Relations. (return to top) CANADA-KOREA ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SERVICE (“ARTS FESTIVAL TAKES CANADIANS INSIDE DPRK www.axistogrind.com”, 2005-02-11) Canadian artist Irwin Oostindie’s photo exhibit and film festival world tour will be in Toronto this month, as described in the latest “Axis to Grind” media release in this week’s EVENTS AND RESOURCES. (return to top) CANADA-KOREA ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SERVICE (“HUMAN RIGHTS CONSULTATION INTENDS TO CREATE DIALOGUE”, 2005-02-11) Another event of note will be held in Geneva, 17-18 February. An international consultation will explore the relationship between peace and human rights in the DPRK, and will try to bridge the ideological and pragmatic gap that has caused divisions among NGOs dealing with humanitarian and human rights issues in the DPRK. (return to top)