NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, October 18, 2004

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NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, October 18, 2004

NAPSNet Daily Report Monday, October 18, 2004

United States

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. United States


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KEDO LWR Project

Korea Times (“KEDO TO BE KEPT AFLOAT FOR ONE MORE YEAR “, 2004-10-18)  reported that an international consortium overseeing the construction of two light-water nuclear reactors in the DPRK has tentatively decided to extend the suspension of the project but will delay announcing the additional freeze until November due to the uncertain future of negotiations on Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programs, diplomatic sources said Friday.


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DPRK on Relations with the US

Donga Ilbo (“N.K. KIM YOUNG NAM: “HOSTILE U.S. POLICIES AGAINST NK MUST BE DROPPED” “, 2004-10-18)  reported that Kim Young Nam, the DPRK’s president of the Presidium of the Supreme People`s Assembly, visited the PRC on October 18. During President Kim Young Nam’s four-day goodwill visit to the PRC, he stressed that it will be hard to solve the nuclear crisis if the US continues with its hostile economic policy’s against the DPRK.


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DPRK on US – ROK Relations

Yonhap (“N KOREA CRITICIZES U.S. FOR THANKING ANTI-PYONGYANG S. KOREAN FIGURES “, 2004-10-18)  reported that the DPRK on Saturday criticized the US for granting letters of thanks to several prominent anti-Pyongyang figures in the ROK. On Sept. 23, the US Embassy in Seoul presented the letters to four ROK conservative figures — two pastors, a retired Army officer and a newspaper publisher — in recognition of their efforts toward strengthening bilateral ties.


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US, ROK Joint Training Exercise

Xinhua (“US MARINES COME TO S. KOREA FOR COMBAT TRAINING”, 2004-10-18)  reported that hundreds of US marines from Okinawa, Japan, are conducting combat training with ROK troops near the heavily armed inter-Korean border, according to an US military newspaper on Monday. About 450 US marines and sailors arrived in the ROK earlier this month aboard a high-speed boat to engage in a biannual joint exercise, dubbed the Korean Incremental Training Program (KITP), the Stars & Stripes said.


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DPRK Military on US Aircraft Deployment

Yonhap (“N KOREA AT COMBAT READINESS ON DEPLOYMENT OF U.S. FIGHTERS, BOMBERS “, 2004-10-18)  reported that the DPRK said Saturday that its military is at full combat readiness as the US has deployed dozens of strike aircraft in the ROK. Two separate squadrons of US F-15E fighter jets and F-117A stealth bombers have been deployed in the ROK for several months to familiarize themselves with the geographical features of the Korean Peninsula.


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ROK on DPRK Attack

Joongang Ilbo (“NORTH ATTACK CALLED UNLIKELY”, 2004-10-18)  reported that at a National Assembly hearing yesterday, Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-woong was dismissive of the idea that the DPRK would use its long-range artillery on Seoul, saying that the DPRK doesn’t want to be branded as war criminals. Asked about the possibility of such an attack, Mr. Yoon said, “There is a very slim chance of that happening.”


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ROK on DPRK Artillery Threat

Chosun Ilbo (“ALLIES COULD DESTROY N. KOREAN ARTILLERY IN 6-11 MINUTES “, 2004-10-18)  reported that concerning the controversy surrounding the threat posed by DPRK long-range artillery to the Seoul metropolitan area, Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said Monday, “If there were signs North Korea was going to launch long-range artillery strikes, our military could defeat [the artillery] in 6 to 11 minutes.” This is the first time a high-ranking military official has officially mentioned the response time required by the DPRK military to respond to the DPRK artillery threat.


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DPRK on Nuclear Talks

Kyodo News (“NORTH KOREA’S NO. 2 LEADER SAYS PYONGYANG WANTS TO SETTLE NUCLEAR DISPUTE THROUGH DIALOGUE”, 2004-10-18)  reported that the DPRK’s No. 2 leader said Monday that Pyongyang still wants to settle to the dispute over its nuclear program through dialogue, as the PRC tried to cajole the DPRK back into stalled six-nation talks, calling for flexibility by all sides. “The situation of the Korean Peninsula is still complicated, but the North Korean side would like to find a peaceful solution of the nuclear issue through dialogue,” state television quoted Kim as telling his PRC counterpart, Wu Bangguo.


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Sino – DPRK Border Defense

Donga Ilbo (“N. KOREA’S FRONT LINE OF NATIONAL DEFENSE IS ALONG THE BORDER WITH CHINA, NOT S. KOREA “, 2004-10-18)  reported that Japan’s Sankei Shimbun, citing a knowledgeable source of the DPRK, reported on Friday that the DPRK leader Kim Jong Il commanded an increase of guards along the PRC borderline, assigning this area as the “number one front line of national defense.” The Sankei Shimbun analyzed the reason for arranging intelligence agents along the national frontier and moving the military to guard the rear frontier is to serve as a preventive measure of group escape by the soldiers.


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PRC, DPRK on Nuclear Talks

Reuters (“NORTH KOREA’S NO. 2 LEADER VISITS CHINA”, 2004-10-18)  reported that the DPRK’s second-most senior leader toured a shiny new science park in Beijing Monday, a first stop on visit aimed at finding ways to help the DPRK’s moribund economy as much as jump-starting stalled nuclear talks. The DPRK parliament chief Kim Yong-nam’s visit comes during a renewed diplomatic push by the PRC to get the talks back on track.


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US, PRC on DPRK Nuclear Talks

Xinhua (“CHINESE AGENCY REPORTS POWELL TO DISCUSS NORTH KOREA ISSUE DURING VISIT”, 2004-10-16)  reported that US Secretary of State Colin Powell will visit Japan, the PRC and the ROK beginning from next week for talks on the nuclear issue of the DPRK, the State Department said. Powell will hold discussions with senior officials in the three countries “on bilateral matters, regional security and stability, and issues such as the global war on terrorism, Iraq, North Korea and the six-party talks”, the State Department said in a statement. Powell is to leave Washington for the three-nation tour on Friday, the statement said.


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PRC Visit to the DPRK

Asia Pulse  (“N.KOREA TO INVITE CHINESE LEADER TO VISIT PYONGYANG: REPORT”, 2004-10-18)  reported that the DPRK will invite PRC President Hu Jintao to visit Pyongyang in the first half of 2005, a Japanese report said Friday. Citing diplomatic sources in Beijing, Kyodo News Agency reported that the invitation is expected to be extended formally to Hu by the DPRK’s No. 2 leader Kim Yong Nam, who is scheduled to visit the PRC from Monday to Wednesday next week.


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Japan on DPRK Sanctions

Kyodo News (“JAPAN MAY TAKE N. KOREA NUKE ISSUE TO U.N. IF NO BREAKTHROUGH MADE”, 2004-10-18)  reported that Japan is considering taking the DPRK’s nuclear issue to the UN Security Council as a future option if the current six-party framework fails to make a breakthrough, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Monday.


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Japan on DPRK Nuclear Issue

Agence France-Presse (“JAPANESE OFFICIAL SAYS NORTH KOREA HOLDS NUCLEAR WEAPONS”, 2004-10-18)  reported that the DPRK has already completed the development of plutonium-based nuclear weapons with the help of Pakistan, a senior Japanese official said. The remarks by Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda represent the first time a Japanese official has confirmed the DPRK’s claim to have manufactured nuclear weapons, the Sankei Shimbun said.

Kyodo News (“HOSODA CORRECTS EARLIER COMMENTS ON N. KOREA NUCLEAR ARMS”, 2004-10-18)  reported that Japan’s top government spokesman Hiroyuki Hosoda was forced in a Diet session Monday to correct an earlier remark that the DPRK possesses nuclear bombs. The move came only a few hours after Hosoda in a press conference defended his weekend remark and said taking the DPRK nuclear issue to the UN Security Council is a future option if the current six-party framework fails to make a breakthrough.


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Russian – DPRK Relations

TASS (“PRIMORYE, N KOREA AGREE TO EXPAND TRADE-ECONOMIC COOPERATION “, 2004-10-15)  reported that Russia’s Maritime Territory and the DPRK have agreed to broaden trade and economic cooperation. The first meeting of the bilateral working group of the territorial administration and the North Korean Committee on promoting international trade ended in Vladivostok on Friday by the signing of a corresponding protocol. The agreement deals with cooperation in the building, timber, mining and light industries, as well as in the field of agriculture, fishery, trade and transport.


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Austria on DPRK Nuclear Issue

Yonhap (“AUSTRIA SUPPORTS S. KOREA’S PEACE POLICY ON NORTH KOREA “, 2004-10-18)  reported that the Federal Chancellor of Austria, Wolfgang Schussel, expressed his support for the ROK’s policy to peacefully resolve the dispute over the DPRK’s nuclear program on Monday. Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan and Schussel held a joint press conference after their talks to announce their agreement to the ROK’s pursuit of negotiations to solve the nuclear dispute and to the need of cooperation from the European Union.


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ROK on Austrian Role in DPRK Talks

Yonhap (“PM ASKS AUSTRIAN PRESIDENT TO CONVINCE N.K. TO ABANDON NUKES “, 2004-10-18)  reported that the ROK’s prime minister on Monday requested the Austrian president to use his connections in the DPRK regime to help resolve the standoff over Pyongyang’s atomic weapons ambitions. Lee Hae-chan asked President Heinz Fischer to “visit North Korea if possible” and persuade the country to give up its nuclear weapon development program, the prime minister’s spokesman Lee Kang-jin said.


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Inter – Korean Infrastructure

Financial Times  (“PICKING A WAY ALONG ROCKY ROAD TO RECONCILIATION: THE OPENING OF A TRANSPORT CORRIDOR BETWEEN THE KOREAS IS ONLY THE START OF WHAT IS EXPECTED TO BE A LONG JOURNEY”, 2004-10-18)  reported that in spite of all the diplomatic ructions over alleged nuclear programs on each side of the DMZ and tension about the increasing flow of defectors to the ROK, economic relations between the countries are steadily strengthening. The corridor is a practical example of the US’s and ROK’s divergent approaches to dealing with the DPRK. While President George W. Bush’s administration has set high barriers to helping the DPRK – insisting that it get rid of its weapons first – President Roh Moo-hyun’s government is seeking a reciprocal approach.


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DPRK on IAEA Inspections

Korean Central News Agency of the DPRK (“IAEA CHIEF’S “PARTIAL” STANCE THREATENS TALKS”, 2004-10-18)  reported that IAEA Director-General Al-Baradi’i’s biased attitude towards the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the US and the nuclear issue of the ROK prompts one to draw a conclusion that he is using the DPRK’s open and legitimate nuclear activities as a pretext for hiding the ROK’s nuclear issue. The dishonest forces of the IAEA are faithfully serving the US, a center of nuclear industrial complexes, and are resorting to high-handed and arbitrary practices based on mistrust in the relations with the DPRK.


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ROK on Nuclear Experiment

Deutsche Presse-gentur  (“”MILITARY NUCLEARIZATION NO OPTION”, SAYS SOUTH KOREA’S PREMIER”, 2004-10-18)  reported that ROK Prime Minister Lee Hai Chan said in an interview on Monday that military nuclearization is “no option” for his country. “The experiments for uranium enrichment have nothing to do with the development of atomic weapons.” The Prime Minister cautioned that one should not compare these uranium enrichment experiments with the DPRK nuclear program.


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Inter – Korean Economic Relations

Yonhap (“KOREAS TO OPEN INDUSTRIAL PARK MANAGEMENT OFFICE IN KAESONG “, 2004-10-18)  reported that the ROK and DPRK are scheduled to hold an opening ceremony Wednesday of the office that will oversee the joint industrial complex being built in the DPRK border city of Kaesong, officials said Monday. The Kaesong Development Complex Management Office is to handle the issuing of permits and ID cards to the ROK firms doing business in the DPRK’s economic enclave and manage the infrastructure, while also serving as Seoul’s liaison body in the DPRK.


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ROK on National Security Law

Joongang Ilbo (“END OF SECURITY LAW WILL EXPAND FREEDOM “, 2004-10-18)  reported that a show of support for the DPRK political system is punishable under the current National Security Law. After a wrenching debate Sunday over the fate of the security law, the governing party decided to do away with it, choosing instead to revise the criminal code. Meanwhile, opposition parties continued to heap criticism on the Uri Party plan yesterday.


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DPRK on National Security Law

Korea Times (“N. KOREA THREATENS TO BOYCOTT DIALOGUE”, 2004-10-18)  reported that the DPRK is threatening to continue its boycott of inter-Korean talks if it finds any remnants of the ROK’s anti-communist National Security Law after the legislation is abolished by the ruling Uri Party. “The Uri Party, which has been good at conjuring tricks to appear in favor of scrapping the security law, is now revealing its hypocritical, anti-unification attitude,” the committee was quoted as saying by the DPRK’s Korean Central New Agency.


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DPRK Food Aid

Yonhap (“SEOUL CONDUCTS ONSITE INSPECTION OF RICE AID TO N.K. “, 2004-10-18)  reported that the ROK officials conducted rare monitoring of food aid delivery to the DPRK last week, praising Pyongyang for cooperating in the verification process, Unification Ministry officials said Monday. Two four-member teams went to two food distribution centers last week in Kosong and Kaesong, DPRK border towns on the eastern and western coasts, respectively.


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DPRK Espionage

Chosun Ilbo (“COMMUNICATION AMONG NK SPIES REMAINS HIGH, ARRESTS OF NK SPIES DROP “, 2004-10-18)  reported that communications from the DPRK to operatives and pro-Pyongyang organizations in the ROK have remained steady in recent years at around 80,000 messages annually, but only two to four DPRK agents are nabbed in the country every year, it was reported Sunday.


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DPRK Leadership

Donga Ilbo (“KIM JUNG IL’S SISTER SEVERELY WOUNDED IN CAR ACCIDENT”, 2004-10-18)  reported that the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on October 17 from Seoul that DPRK leader Kim Jung Il’s sister, Kim Kyung Hee, a director of light industries of the Korean Workers’ Party (58 years old), was injured in a car accident in early September. According to the source, Director Kim’s exclusive car was damaged due to a car accident in Pyongyang.


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DPRK Defectors

Joongang Ilbo (“TWO NORTH DEFECTORS FREED BY MONGOLIANS”, 2004-10-18)  reported that Chung Seong-il, 35, and Chang Seon-young, 42, two DPRK defectors who were detained last week by Mongolian authorities at Ulaan Baatar airport arrived in Seoul over the weekend. A ROK official said that the two were released Saturday, and headed to Seoul. The officials said that both indicated to authorities their wish to stay in the ROK.


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DPRK Defectors in the PRC

The Associated Press (“REPORTS: N.KOREANS ENTER S.KOREA CONSULATE”, 2004-10-18)  reported that twenty people claiming to be DPRK asylum seekers scaled walls and crawled under barbed wire to reach the ROK Consulate in Beijing on Friday, ROK news reports said. Such asylum bids have become common in the PRC, with DPRK defectors who are fleeing famine and repression rushing into embassies, schools and other foreign facilities.


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ROK on US Troop Realignment

Yonhap (“SOUTH KOREAN MINISTER TO LEAVE FOR ANNUAL DEFENSE TALKS IN US 19 OCTOBER”, None)  reported that the defense chiefs of ROK and the US will meet this week for talks on the combined deterrence against the DPRK following a US plan to slash its troop level in the ROK, the Defense Ministry said Monday 18 October. ROK Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung will leave for the US Tuesday to hold annual talks, dubbed the Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), with his US counterpart Donald Rumsfeld, the ministry said in a news release.


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ROK Troops in Iraq

Agence France-Presse (“SOUTH KOREA WANTS TO EXTEND IRAQ TROOP DEPLOYMENT BY A YEAR”, 2004-10-18)  reported that the ROK government is to seek approval from the country’s parliament to extend the deployment of ROK troops in Iraq by a year, news reports said. The defense ministry decided last week to extend the mission which was originally due to expire at the end of the year, Yonhap news agency said.


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ROK Sex Trade

Korea Herald (“U.S. FORCES ALSO CRACK DOWN ON PROSTITUTION “, 2004-10-18)  reported taht no more slaps on the wrist for soldiers venturing up Itaewon’s “Hill” and to other areas known as places to buy sex. Starting next year, USFK servicemen convicted of doing so may face stiff penalties of time in jail and a dishonorable discharge. The announcement was made last month from Washington that pending changes to an article of the Uniform Code of Military Justice will wipe out the grey areas defining penalties for buying sex and allow military courts to kick people out of the military for doing so.


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PSI Drill

Kyodo (“PSI DRILL TO INTERCEPT WMD TO BE HELD OCT. 26 NEAR TOKYO”, 2004-10-18)  reported that Japan, the US, Australia and France will take part in a joint maritime exercise to intercept weapons of mass destruction Oct. 26 in waters southwest of Tokyo, Japanese officials said Monday. About 10 naval and coast guard vessels from the four countries and observers from 18 other nations will take part in the drill off Sagami Bay in Kanagawa Prefecture despite concerns that it could provoke the DPRK.


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US – Japan Relations

Reuters (“POWELL TO JAPAN; U.S. TROOPS, N.KOREA ON AGENDA”, 2004-10-18)  reported that Secretary of State Colin Powell will visit Tokyo for two days next weekend to discuss security and trade as well as stalled talks aimed at ending the DPRK’s nuclear ambitions, Japanese officials said on Sunday. Powell’s visit was expected to focus on the planned realignment of US forces in Japan, imports of US beef and the six-party talks, including Japan and the US, on the DPRK’s nuclear weapons programs.


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Japan UNSC Role

Reuters (“FIVE NATIONS WIN SEATS ON U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL”, 2004-10-18)  reported that Argentina, Denmark, Greece, Japan and Tanzania on Friday won coveted two-year terms on the UN Security Council at a time when pressure is mounting to expand the powerful 15-nation body. In Tokyo, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Japan would use its two-year seat to help build the case for Security Council reforms including a permanent seat for itself.


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US – Japan Security Alliance

Reuters (“JAPAN POLICE SEND U.S. RAPE SUSPECT TO PROSECUTORS”, 2004-10-18)  reported that an American man working for the US military was handed to Japanese prosecutors for questioning on Saturday following his arrest on suspicion of raping a woman on the island of Okinawa, a police spokesman said. Okinawa, Japan’s poorest prefecture and home to about half the US military presence in Japan, has long resented bearing what many see as an unfair burden for maintaining the US-Japan security alliance, the pillar of Tokyo’s postwar diplomacy.


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Japan on US Presidential Elections

Reuters (“JAPAN RULING PARTY EXECUTIVE SLAMS KERRY ON N.KOREA”, 2004-10-18)  reported that The No. 2 official in Japan’s ruling party sharply criticized US Democratic challenger John Kerry’s DPRK policy on Friday and said he hoped President Bush would be re-elected, media said. “I think there would be trouble if it’s not President Bush,” Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe told a radio program, Kyodo news agency reported.

The Associated Press (“JAPAN DENIES ENDORSING BUSH IN ELECTION”, 2004-10-18)  reported that Japan’s government on Friday denied declaring its support for President Bush in the US election, despite the prime minister’s comment that he hopes Bush will “do well” in the vote. “It’s not that the prime minister is saying who should win,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told reporters. “No matter what the results of the election may be, the ties between the United States and Japan are solid.”


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Japan on Sino-Japanese Relations

Agence France-Presse (“KOIZUMI UNSWAYED BY CHINESE CRITICISM OVER VISITS TO WAR SHRINE”, 2004-10-18)  reported that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi says he remains unswayed by the PRC’s criticism of his visits to a Tokyo war shrine, saying the Japanese should choose for themselves how to honour their dead. “I know the issue is not pleasant for China. But as a Japanese, I do not think it is bad to visit, pay respect and give thanks to the war dead,” Koizumi said during a legislative hearing.


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38

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PRC on Sino-Japanese Relations

Kyodo News (“CHINA PERPLEXED BY JAPANESE COMMENTS ON GAS EXPLORATION”, 2004-10-18)  reported that the PRC Foreign Ministry has no knowledge of reported PRC gas exploration plans in an area Japan designates as its own economic waters, but is asking related government quarters for information, a senior ministry official said Monday. Top Japanese government officials said earlier in the day Japan will urge the PRC to stop its gas exploration projects if they fall on the Japanese side of the “median line,” a Japanese-designated line of separation of the two countries’ economic zones.


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ROK on Cross Strait Relations

Joongang Ilbo (“CHINA ASKS KIM NOT TO MAKE VISIT TO TAIWAN “, 2004-10-18)  reported that the PRC has asked former ROK President Kim Young-sam to cancel a planned visit to Taiwan, but Mr. Kim’s aides said he would go. During a visit to Japan last week, Mr. Kim told friends there that a private group in Taiwan had invited him. The invitation led the PRC government to ask him not to go.


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Sino – Russian Relations

Reuters (“PUTIN’S CHINA VISIT LEAVES QUESTION MARKS ABOUT OIL”, 2004-10-18)  reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin met several top officials in the PRC Friday, winding up two days of official talks that were rich in symbolism but left unanswered many key questions about energy supplies to the PRC. Despite his calls to the PRC partners to increase the quota of high-tech in bilateral trade, Russian officials said off the record that supplies of oil and expected sales of natural gas to the PRC would remain dominant.


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41

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Sino – Mongolian Relations

Oyu Tolgoi (“FINDING A MOTHER LODE IN MONGOLIA”, 2004-10-18)  reported that in the table-flat vastness of the Gobi Desert, only a dusty spider web of roads linking 11 drilling rigs hints at the riches below: about $60 billion worth of copper and gold, one of the five largest copper deposits known in the world. This mineral province only 50 miles north of the PRC, is to burst into life again, driven by an industrializing PRC that is scouring the globe for minerals.


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PRC Peacekeeping Role in Haiti

Los Angeles Times (“CHINESE POLICE JOIN PEACEKEEPING FORCE”, 2004-10-18)  reported that Haiti’s interim prime minister accused ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of directing a wave of violence from exile, while 95 PRC police arrived for their first UN peacekeeping role in the Western Hemisphere. The PRC joined an overextended peacekeeping force that has struggled to keep order in Port-au-Prince. At least 55 people have been killed in clashes since Sept. 30, when Aristide’s supporters took to the streets.


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PRC Intellectual Property RIghts

The Associated Press (“EUROPEANS WANT CHINA TO DO MORE ON PIRACY”, 2004-10-18)  reported that the group representing European businesses in the PRC on Friday called for Beijing to do a better job of protecting intellectual property, joining a chorus of foreign complaints about rampant PRC product piracy. The European appeal follows a report by the American Chambers of Commerce in China and Shanghai last month that called on the PRC to impose tougher penalties for product pirates who violate foreign patents, trademarks and copyrights.


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Taiwan Quake

Reuters (“STRONG QUAKE ROCKS TAIWAN; SEVERAL INJURED”, 2004-10-18)  reported that a strong earthquake in the Pacific Ocean off Taiwan rocked the northeast of the island on Friday, damaging houses and injuring several people, officials said. The epicenter of the quake, which measured 7.0 on the Richter scale and struck just after noon at 0408 GMT, was about 110 km (68 miles) east of Ilan on the northeastern coast, at a depth of 59 km (37 miles), the Central Weather Bureau said in a statement.

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