NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, June 05, 2006

Recommended Citation

"NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, June 05, 2006", NAPSNet Daily Report, June 05, 2006, https://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-daily-report/napsnet-daily-report-monday-june-05-2006/

NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, June 05, 2006

NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, June 05, 2006

I. NAPSNet

II. CanKor

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. NAPSNet

1. Inter-Korean Economic Talks

JoongAng Ilbo (“AID LINKAGE TO RAIL TESTS CONTINUES TO STALL TALKS”, 2006-06-05) reported that on the third day of inter-Korean economic talks here, Pyongyang’s delegation cancelled plans for a sightseeing excursion around the island to continue the negotiations. Pyongyang’s delegation dwelled at length in the talks on Seoul’s earlier promise to supply the DPRK with a package of materials aid for the DPRK’s shoe, soap and textile industries worth tens of millions of dollars. The delegates from Seoul reminded their guests that the aid package had been made conditional on progress in reconnecting rail links between the two countries, especially on the completion of test runs of cross-border trains.

(return to top) Korea Times (“SEOUL URGES NK TO IMPLEMENT TRAIN TEST RUNS”, 2006-06-05) reported that the ROK and DPRK failed to reach an agreement at the end of the four-day economic cooperation talks here, as the delegates from Pyongyang did not bow to Seoul’s pressure on the test-run of cross-border trains while calling for the implementation of a deal on bilateral economic exchanges. (return to top)

2. Rumsfeld on DPRK

JoongAng Ilbo (“RUMSFELD TO NORTH: FOLLOW LIBYA “, 2006-06-05) reported that the US defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, urged the DPRK to follow the “Libyan example” in a speech on Saturday at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue defense forum in Singapore. The future of the Pacific Rim, said Mr. Rumsfeld, will depend on the path the DPRK takes ? whether it continues to repress its people and threaten its neighbors, or follows Libya’s example that “leads back to membership in the community of nations.”

(return to top)

3. US Senator on DPRK Nuclear Capacity

Yonhap (“BIDEN SAYS N.K. INCREASED NUCLEAR CAPACITY 400 PERCENT SINCE 2002”, 2006-06-04) reported that the DPRK has boosted its nuclear arsenal by 400 percent during the four years the Bush administration tried an isolation policy against its regime, a US senator said Sunday. Joseph Biden (D-Delaware), appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” argued the policy clearly didn’t work.

(return to top)

4. DPRK Naval Power

JoongAng Ilbo (“UK GROUP SAYS NORTH STRESSES SUBMARINE WARFARE”, 2006-06-05) reported that the DPRK’s submarine warfare capacity has increased dramatically and the number of its troops under arms has been reduced, according to a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. The institute is based in Britain, and released a report last weekend called “Military Balance 2006,” an examination of the military capacity of 118 nations. The institute said the changes in the DPRK’s military machine suggested that Pyongyang was focusing on doing the maximum possible damage to the infrastructure of the ROK in case of war rather than maintaining a large coterie of underequipped ground troops.

(return to top)

5. DPRK Troop Standards

JoongAng Ilbo (“4-FOOT-10 AND 95 POUNDS? KIM JONG-IL WANTS YOU”, 2006-06-05) reported that the DPRK has loosened its fitness standards for soldiers to keep up its troop strength, according to data released by the National Intelligence Service. The service, in a report prepared for Representative Song Young-sun of the Grand National Party, said that Pyongyang changed its draft exemption standards in the mid-1990s, lowering the minimum height to be drafted from 150 centimeters (4 feet, 11 inches) to 148 centimeters and the minimum weight from 48 kilograms (106 pounds) to 43 kilograms.

(return to top)

6. ROK POWs in DPRK

Korea Times (“‘1,743 S. KOREAN POWS IN N. KOREA'”, 2006-06-05) reported that a total 1,743 RO Korean prisoners of war (POWs) are currently held in the DPRK, an opposition party lawmaker claimed Monday. Quoting a National Intelligence Service (NIS) report, Song Young-sun of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) also said 489 RO Koreans had been abducted by the DPRK. According to the report, based on the testimony of DPR Korean defectors in the ROK, of the 1,734 POWs, some 550 are alive with 885 confirmed dead.

(return to top)

7. DPRK Train Accident

Chosun Ilbo (“‘1,000 KILLED’ IN APRIL’S N.KOREA TRAIN ACCIDENT”, 2006-06-05) reported that a human rights advocacy group claims that around 1,000 people died in a train accident in the DPRK in late April. In its latest newsletter, the group called Good Friends and based in the ROK, says the accident on April 23 in the DPRK’s Hamgyeong Province was a head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train. A large number of the passengers were DPR Korean soldiers, according to the newsletter. A brake malfunction has been blamed for the accident.

(return to top)

8. DPRK Abduction Issue

Kyodo (“ABE, ENVOYS FROM 19 NATIONS TO DISCUSS N. KOREA’S ABDUCTIONS TUES.”, 2006-06-05) reported that Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe will meet with ambassadors and representatives of 19 countries Tuesday to discuss the DPRK’s abductions of Japanese and other foreign nationals, government officials said Monday. Ambassadors, or their representatives, from Britain, the PRC, Lebanon, Romania, Russia, the ROK, Thailand and other countries are scheduled to attend the meeting at the prime minister’s official residence.

(return to top)

9. US Rights Envoy’s Kaesong Visit

Chosun Ilbo (“U.S. RIGHTS ENVOY TO VISIT KAESONG COMPLEX”, 2006-06-05) reported that the US special envoy on DPRK human rights, Jay Lefkowitz, is likely to visit the joint-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex in the DPRK, sources said Friday. Lefkowitz earlier took issue with working conditions at the complex.

(return to top)

10. DPRK on US Korean War Policy

Reuters (“N.KOREA REPROACHES U.S. OVER WAR KILLINGS”, 2006-06-05) reported that the DPRK criticized the US on Sunday over the mass killing of RO Korean refugees during the Korean War and demanded that US troops withdraw from the ROK. The comments come after the revelation of a 1950 letter from the US ambassador to Seoul, informing the State Department that US soldiers would shoot refugees approaching their lines. The letter, dated the day of the US Army’s mass killing of refugees at the ROK village of No Gun Ri during the 1950-53 Korean War, is the strongest indication yet that such a policy existed for all US forces in Korea.

(return to top)

11. US-ROK Combined Forces Command

Korea Times (“`KOREA-US COMBINED FORCES COMMAND TO BE SCRAPPED BY 2012′”, 2006-06-05) reported that the ROK is considering dismantling the ROK-US Combined Forces Command (CFC) by 2012 in tandem with the planned takeover of operational control of its military during wartime from the US, the Defense Ministry said. In a security forum in Seoul earlier in the morning, Gen. B. B. Bell, commander of the CFC and the United States Forces Korea (USFK), reportedly stressed that the US is fully supportive of Seoul’s recovering of wartime command, but as yet no timeline has been set.

(return to top)

12. US-ROK Trade Relations

Chosun Ilbo (“FREE-TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH U.S. GET UNDERWAY”, 2006-06-05) reported that Seoul and Washington have started negotiations to remove trade barriers for goods and services between the two countries. The first round of negotiations the bilateral free trade agreement kicked off in Washington on Monday. Negotiations will be based on draft agreements in 17 sectors including agriculture and services the two sides exchanged last week.

(return to top)

13. ROK-Japan Trade Relations

Kyodo (“S. KOREA TO PUSH AHEAD WITH TOUGHER PROPOSAL IN EEZ TALKS WITH JAPAN”, 2006-06-05) reported that the ROK plans to take a tougher stance in talks with Japan on the boundaries of the two countries’ exclusive economic zone, proposing ROK-controlled islets as a cardinal point to draw a line, an apparent shift from the earlier stance. “Under the current circumstances, we have no choice but to propose (Dokdo as a cardinal point),” Yonhap News Agency quoted Suh Choo Suk, senior presidential secretary for national security.

(return to top)

14. Japan Military

United Press International (“JAPANESE MILITARY GOING INTO SPACE”, 2006-06-05) reported that Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party has drafted a bill to allow Japan’s military into space. The calls for the military to venture into space within the parameters of self-defense rights. That would be a drastic change from the current civilian-based limitations that Japan has placed on space ventures. The bill calls for diverting funds from space research and development into security and engineering.

(return to top)

15. Yasukuni Shrine Issue

Agence France-Presse (“JAPAN’S ABE REFUSES TO CLARIFY POSITION ON WAR SHRINE VISITS “, 2006-06-04) reported that the front-runner to be Japan’s next prime minister, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, has remained tight lipped on plans to visit the controversial Yasukuni war shrine. “It is unfortunate if it turns out to be a diplomatic issue,” Abe said. “We have to make our effort to avoid such a scenario. Therefore, I think I should not say whether I will make a visit or not,” he said.

(return to top)

16. Japan-Central Asian Diplomacy

Agence France-Presse (“JAPAN PLEDGES TO BOOST COOPERATION WITH ENERGY-RICH CENTRAL ASIA”, 2006-06-05) reported that Japan has agreed to bolster cooperation with energy-rich Central Asian nations in the development of transportation links and the fight against terrorism and drug smuggling, officials have said. The pledge came at a meeting between Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso and his counterparts from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan plus an envoy from Kazakhstan.

(return to top)

17. US on PRC Military

Agence France-Presse (“RUMSFELD URGES CHINA TO COME CLEAN ON MILITARY SPENDING “, 2006-06-05) reported that US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged the PRC to explain its increased military spending to the world, saying it was in its interest to demystify actions that others find potentially threatening. Speaking at an international security conference in Singapore, Rumsfeld said the PRC had every right to decide how to invest its resources, but the rest of the world also needed to understand Beijing’s intentions.

(return to top)

18. Taiwan Leadership

Agence France-Presse (“TAIWAN OPPOSITION RALLY FOR PRESIDENT’S RESIGNATION “, 2006-06-05) reported that thousands of supporters of Taiwan’s opposition People First Party (PFP) have taken to the streets of Taipei on to demand the resignation of embattled President Chen Shui-bian, the party said. The event climaxed Saturday when popular Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou, head of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party, made a surprise appearance to again call for Chen to quit.

(return to top)

19. PRC Economic Disparity

Washington Post (“NATIVES FEEL LEFT OUT OF CHINA’S NEW WEST”, 2006-06-05) reported that in the six years since the PRC’s central government began its well-financed campaign to spread the benefits of economic growth beyond coastal provinces, the effort has exacerbated the extreme inequality that characterizes the national economy. Gaps have grown between urban and rural PRC and between the less-developed west and the frenetic east.

(return to top)

20. PRC Environment

The Associated Press (“CHINA’S ANNUAL POLLUTION COSTS TOP $200B “, 2006-06-05) reported that the PRC’s pollution problems cost the country more than $200 billion a year, a top official said Monday as he called for better legal protection for grassroots groups so they can help clean up the environment. Damage to the PRC’s environment is costing the government roughly 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, estimated Zhu Guangyao, deputy chief of the State Environmental Protection Agency.

(return to top)

21. Tiananmen Anniversary

The Associated Press (“17TH TIANANMEN ANNIVERSARY PASSES IN CHINA “, 2006-06-05) reported that PRC police tore up a protester’s poster and detained at least two people on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Sunday as the country marked 17 years since local troops crushed a pro-democracy demonstration in the public space. Discussion of the crackdown is still taboo in the PRC outside of the semiautonomous regions of Hong Kong and Macau. PRC television news and major newspapers did not mention the anniversary.

(return to top) The New York Times (“CARDINAL FAULTS CHINESE RULERS AT ANNIVERSARY OF TIANANMEN”, 2006-06-05) reported that the highest official of the Roman Catholic Church in the PRC used the 17th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre on Sunday to strongly criticize the PRC government and call on it to hold a full and open review of the killings. The criticism by the official, Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, is the latest sign that the Vatican may not be willing to compromise on human rights to establish diplomatic relations with the PRC. (return to top)

II. CanKor

22. Report #251

CanKor (“CURRENT EVENTS”, 2006-06-05) The White House rejects Pyongyang’s invitation for the chief US envoy to the nuclear talks to visit the DPRK. The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), whose activities have been suspended since November 2003, officially folds. CanKor presents a chronology of KEDO history. Last March, DPRK experts met at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada for a conference on the internationalized aspects of DPRK human and environmental security. Kathleen Stephens, senior US assistant secretary of State for East Asian Affairs visits the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial zone and is impressed by its “vision and scope” but warns that the project’s goals are unlikely to be realized until the nuclear impasse is addressed. Jay Lefkowitz, US special envoy on North Korean human rights, agrees to visit Kaesong if and when Pyongyang issues permits for the visit. US Ambassador Alexander Vershbow is expected to travel with him. Officials in Pyongyang ask the ROK government for cooperation in receiving television broadcasts from World Cup games in Germany. This marks the first request from the DPRK for live broadcasts. Only previously recorded outside sporting events have been broadcast through the state-run North Korean Chosun Central TV in the past.

(return to top)