NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, November 20, 2006

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NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, November 20, 2006

NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, November 20, 2006

I. NAPSNet

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. NAPSNet

1. Six Party Diplomacy

Associated Press (“U.S. ENVOY TO ARRIVE IN BEIJING FOR NORTH KOREA TALKS”, 2006-11-20) reported that US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill arrived in Beijing to confer with Chinese officials on laying the groundwork for expected Six Party Talks. US President George W. Bush dispatched envoy to Beijing immediately following the APEC summit. Hill, an assistant secretary of state, was expected to confer with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, during his 24-hour stay in Beijing. When asked if he would meet Pyongyang’s negotiator, Kim Gye Gwan, during his stop in Beijing, Hill replied: “I am sorry but I don’t know.” Hill and Kim made surprise visits to Beijing last month, holding talks that led to the DPRK’s agreement to return to talks. A date still has not been set.

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2. APEC on Six Party Talks

Washington Post (“PACIFIC RIM STATEMENT ON N. KOREA FALLS SHORT OF WHAT BUSH SOUGHT”, 2006-11-20) reported that US President Bush achieved mixed results in his effort to persuade Pacific Rim countries to agree to a formal, written declaration from APEC countries calling on the DPRK to abandon its nuclear weapons. Instead, the two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Hanoi concluded with its members agreeing to an oral statement.

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3. US Incentives for DPRK

New York Times (“U.S. SIGNALS NEW INCENTIVES FOR NORTH KOREA”, 2006-11-19) reported that US President Bush has signaled that the US will “dangle a new set of incentives” for the DPRK to give up nuclear weapons and technology. But the offers would hinge on the DPRK coming to talks agreeing to begin immediately dismantling some of the equipment it is using to build an arsenal. The combination of incentives and demands were expected to be the focal point when President Bush met PRC President Hu Jintao, but in their statements to reporters Mr. Hu never mentioned the DPRK, instead citing new trade statistics showing a 25 percent jump in American exports to the PRC and noting renewed joint maneuvers between the Chinese and American Navies for search and rescue operations. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also dangled a new incentive: the prospect of the DPRK one day being allowed to join this Asia-Pacific economic forum. One big thing that the DPRK has signaled it wants is for the United States to lift the financial restrictions it placed on a Macao bank, Banco Delta Asia – a main hub of the DPRK’s international financial transactions. Officially, American diplomats say they will lift the restrictions when the DPRK stops counterfeiting American currency. But privately, they acknowledge that they hope to find ways to work on the problem with their DPRK counterparts.

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4. PRC Incentives for DPRK

Kyodo News Service (“CHINA UNFREEZES HALF OF NORTH KOREAN ACCOUNTS IN MACAO BANK”, 2006-11-20) reported that the PRC lifted its freeze on about half of DPRK accounts in the Macao bank that had allegedly been used in money-laundering operations. The PRC lifted the freeze on less than $12 million of the DPRK’s holdings “with the understanding of the United States,” the report said. The partial lifting of the ban is likely to give a positive boost to the Six Party Talks, observers say. The report quoted an unidentified DPRK official as saying, “That is seen as the U.S. accepting some of our demands.” The unfrozen accounts are believed to be those unrelated to the alleged financial crimes, and ones suspected of being linked to the illegal activities are still under restrictions, the report said.

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5. ROK Intel on DPRK Nuke Test

Agence France-Presse (“N KOREA CANNOT MINIATURISE NUCLEAR WEAPONS: NEW SPY CHIEF”, 2006-11-20) reported that Kim Man-Bok, director-designate of the ROK National Intelligence Service, told parliament that the DPRK nuclear test was only partially successful and that it cannot yet miniaturise atomic warheads. Kim told legislators that the DPRK “has to make (nuclear weapons) smaller and lighter, but it has not advanced to that level.” He confirmed the communist state has a programme to produce highly-enriched uranium, as the US alleges, “but it is estimated that the development has not been completed.” The PRC says the DPRK has told it that there are no plans for a second test. The DPRK has since announced its willingness to resume stalled Six Party Talks. But some experts believe it will be obliged to test again to validate the results of the first underground explosion, which sparked international condemnation and UN sanctions.

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6. DPRK Tourism

Chosun Ilbo (“DWINDLING NUMBERS JEOPARDIZE N. KOREA TOURISM”, 2006-11-20) reported that Hyundai Asan said fewer than 300 tourists now visit Mt. Kumgang over the weekend. During the same period last year, weekend visitors to Mt. Kumgang numbered 400-500. The number of ordinary tourists has dwindled to fewer than 2,000 bookings for December tours, but activist groups have booked the tours in an effort to support the inter-Korean business project, boosting numbers to 4,000, Hyundai Asan said. The drop in the number of tourists is due to growing doubts about the project after the DPRK’s nuclear test. The halt to government-sponsored Mt. Kumgang field trips for teachers and students has also reduced visitor numbers. Hyundai Asan seems unperturbed. CEO Yoon Man-joon says a total of 240,000 people will visit the resort this year, a plunge from the initial goal of 400,000. But he predicted the situation will improve since new tours to inner Mt. Kumgang start next spring and a golf course opens there in next September.

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7. USFJ Troop Realignment

Agence France-Presse (“US MILITARY PLANS WIN BOOST IN OKINAWA VOTE”, 2006-11-20) reported that voters in Japan’s Okinawa Islands gave a boost to the US military’s global realignment plan by rejecting a campaign seeking to scale down the key US deployment, observers said. Voters elected an ally of conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as governor, rejecting by a margin of more than five percentage points an opposition-backed candidate who wanted to trim the US presence.

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8. Japan Missile Defense Program

Kyodo (“JAPAN MAY REVIEW PLEDGE NOT TO USE MISSILE SHIELD FOR 3RD COUNTRY: SHIOZAKI”, 2006-11-20) reported that Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said that Japan will consider reviewing a 2003 statement by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda that Japan’s missile defense system will not be used for the purpose of defending a third country.

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9. Japan on Nuclear Weapons

The Associated Press (“PM ABE PLEDGES JAPAN WON’T GO NUCLEAR”, 2006-11-20) reported that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged that Japan would remain a non-nuclear weapons state. Abe’s comments came at the end of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Hanoi, Vietnam, where he urged the leaders of the world’s nuclear powers to push harder for disarmament. Abe also pledged “that my government, and the Liberal Democratic Party in its official meetings, will not debate possessing nuclear arms.”

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10. Japan Constitutional Revision

The Yomiuri Shimbun (“DPJ ARGUES FOR COLLECTIVE SELF-DEFENSE”, 2006-11-20) reported that in a break with the government over its interpretation of the country’s constitutional right to exercise self-defense, the Democratic Party of Japan proposes allowing for the right to collective self-defense under limited circumstances, according to a copy of the opposition party’s policy draft. The draft of the DPJ’s security policy says, “If the nation faces a direct, imminent and unjust threat to its territory, it should exercise defensive rights based on the Constitution, without getting bogged down in debates over whether the rights are individual or collective.”

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11. Sino-Japanese Relations

Bloomberg (“CHINA-JAPAN RELATIONS ARE ‘BACK ON TRACK,’ ACCORDING TO CHINA”, 2006-11-20) reported that PRC-Japan relations are “back on track” since Shinzo Abe became Japanese Prime Minister in September, a top PRC official said following a meeting between the countries’ two leaders in Hanoi. “Since Prime Minister Abe’s visit to China,” Huang Xingyuan, Councilor with the PRC’s Foreign Ministry, said today in Hanoi. “China-Japan relations have improved dramatically and are now back on track.”

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12. Sino-Indian Relations

Reuters (“WALL OF DOUBTS LOOMS AS CHINA’S HU ARRIVES IN INDIA “, 2006-11-20) reported that Asian giants India and the PRC hope to transform their cagey friendship into a trusting relationship as Hu Jintao arrived in New Delhi on Monday for the second visit by a PRC president. The world’s two most populous nations have been able to put behind the bitter memories of a brutal border war and forged new ties on the back of soaring trade and business links. But mistrust and misperceptions left over by history linger just below the surface, creating hurdles and threatening to distract what could be a lucrative partnership between two of the world’s fastest growing economies.

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13. PRC Military

The Associated Press (“RICE SAYS CHINA’S MILITARY ‘OUTSIZED'”, 2006-11-20) reported that the US has some concerns about a rising PRC, including a military expansion that may be excessive, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. “There are concerns about China’s military buildup,” Rice told a television interviewer. “It’s sometimes seemed outsized for China’s regional role.”

(return to top) Agence France-Presse (“CHINA SAYS MILITARY EXPANSION NEEDED FOR ‘TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY'”, 2006-11-20) reported that the PRC has said its rapid military build-up was needed to ensure the Asian giant’s “territorial integrity”, in a veiled reference to Taiwan. “China is such a huge country and we are also faced with the question of national reunification,” foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters. “We also have a large boundary, so we need an increase in military spending, and that is reasonable, I think.” (return to top) The Christian Science Monitor (“ALARM OVER CHINA’S ARMS PURSUIT – IN SPACE”, 2006-11-20) reported that new alarms are sounding over signs that the PRC may be developing space weapons, reinforcing suspicions that the People’s Liberation Army is increasingly interested in the final frontier as a theater of war. The latest alert came from an independent panel – created by Congress to assess the economic and security situations in the PRC – that questions PRC intentions and urges lawmakers to lean on the Bush administration to talk with Beijing about curtailing space militarization. (return to top)

14. PRC Religious Freedom

The Associated Press (“CHINA CRITICIZES U.S. LIST OF VIOLATORS “, 2006-11-20) reported that the PRC assailed the US for listing it as a country that violates religious freedoms. “We demand the United States respect the truth, and stop interfering in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of religion,” Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a statement posted on the ministry’s Web site. The State Department report said “China maintains tight control over all religions and has cracked down hard on groups not sanctioned by the ruling Communist Party. Those who practice Falun Gong, a banned spiritual movement, or who attend underground Protestant or Catholic churches routinely face detention, harassment and sometimes imprisonment.”

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15. PRC Judicial System

The Los Angeles Times (“TORTURE CITED IN WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS”, 2006-11-20) reported that about 30 people are wrongfully convicted in the PRC each year after being tortured into making false confessions, but the number may be higher, a government official said. “Illegal interrogation exists to some extent in local judicial practice,” said Wang Zhenchuan, the PRC’s deputy chief prosecutor, according to the official New China News Agency. “China records some 30 cases of wrongful verdicts due to illegal interrogation each year, but the real number could be higher.”

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16. PRC Organ Transplants

The Associated Press (“GROUP URGES CHINA TO DETAIL TRANSPLANTS “, 2006-11-20) reported that a human rights group urged the PRC to disclose details surrounding the removal of body organs from executed prisoners for transplants, after health officials recently acknowledged the practice. “This is one of the most critical issues in terms of human rights today in China because it raises a number of areas of concern — China’s criminal justice system, the use of the death penalty, medical ethics and irregularities in the organ trade,” said Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights Watch.

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