I. NAPSNet

1. Aid to Victims of DPRK Floods

International Herald Tribune (“AID GROUPS LOOK TO SHIP SUPPLIES TO NORTH KOREA”, 2006-08-18) reported that the World Food Program has joined the ROK government in shipping emergency aid for flood victims in the DPRK, as relief officials scramble to estimate the extent of a humanitarian crisis stemming from torrential rains, floods and landslides last month. At the World Food Program in Beijing, Gerald Bourke, a spokesman, said: “We are now optimistic that food will begin moving to some of the people affected by floods very soon.”

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2. DPRK Defector-Refugee in US

Joong Ang Ilbo (“2ND NORTH KOREAN QUITS SEOUL FOR U.S.”, 2006-08-18) reported that a second DPR Korean defector who has legally been residing in the ROK was granted asylum in the United States by the Los Angeles Immigration Court. A 33-year-old woman, whose name was withheld, was given court approval on July 6. She had fled North Korea through China in 2001 and settled in South Korea the following year, entering the United States illegally in July 2005. “Last time, the U.S. administration said it has a limit in intervening in judicial decisions, so we will listen to the U.S. government’s position one more time before reacting,” Lee Youn-soo, a foreign ministry spokesman, told the JoongAng Daily when asked about Seoul’s position on the U.S. court decision.

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3. Billy Graham in the DPRK

Associated Press (“N KOREAN FOREIGN MINISTER MEETS US RELIGIOUS DELEGATION IN PYONGYANG”, 2006-08-17) reported that the DPRK Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun held talks with a US delegation led by a special assistant to the Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of veteran US evangelist Billy Graham. Paek met Melvin L. Cheatham, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, without giving further details on what was discussed or the purpose of the trip by the US Delegation. The senior Graham went to the DPRK in 1992 and in 1994 at the invitation of the then-leader Kim Il Sung, the late father of current leader Kim Jong Il. In 2000, the junior Graham went to DPRK and preached in churches, and his relief agency Samaritan’s Purse has been allowed to do limited humanitarian work inside the isolated country. The DPRK has one Catholic, two Protestant churches and recently built a Russian Orthodox church.

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4. US-ROK Security Alliance

Chosun Ilbo (“NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TOLD OF END TO COMBINED FORCES COMMAND”, 2006-08-17) reported that taking back wartime operational control of the nation’s troops from the US will mean a shift to a joint defense system where the nation’s armed forces play a leading role and the US Forces in Korea a more supportive one. The projected “military cooperation center” is to come under control of generals from Seoul and Washington, the Ministry of Defense said in a roadmap for the forces control takeover to the National Assembly.

(return to top) Korea Times (“‘USFK WILL NEVER WITHDRAW ADDITIONAL TROOPS'”, 2006-08-17) reported that the nation’s top diplomat said that Seoul’s plan to take over wartime operational control of its armed forces from Washington will “never” trigger an additional withdrawal of US forces stationed in the ROK. Describing the transfer as an expression of the nation’s confidence in its armed forces, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon underlined that the time has come for the ROK to be responsible for its own security. (return to top)

5. ROK on Yasukuni Shrine Issue

BBC News (“S KOREA ISSUES YASUKUNI WARNING”, 2006-08-17) reported that the ROK will not hold a summit with Japan while its leaders continue to visit the controversial Yasukuni war shrine, an aide has said. “Whoever becomes Japan’s next prime minister, we will keep our stance,” Seo Joo-seok told local radio.

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6. Japan Constitutional Revision

Agence France-Presse (“JAPAN’S ABE TO PLEDGE TO REVISE CONSTITUTION “, 2006-08-17) reported that Shinzo Abe, the front-runner to become Japan’s next prime minister, will pledge to revise the pacifist constitution as part of his policy platform, a newspaper says. Abe will pledge to revise the US-imposed 1947 constitution to state clearly that Japan has a military for self-defense, the business daily said, quoting anonymous sources.

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7. US-Japan Missile Defense Cooperation

UPI (“JAPAN’S LONG ROAD ON BMD”, 2006-08-17) reported that the July missile crisis with the DPRK revealed that Japan and the US have surprisingly little coordination in their current ballistic missile defense deployments. “It may come as a surprise to many, but the (Japanese) government does not have plans in place to enable US armed forces and the SDF (Japanese Self Defense Forces) to work jointly to protect the country from a ballistic missile attack,” the widely respected defense reporter Hidemichi Katsumata wrote in the Tokyo newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun on July 14.

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8. Japan-Russia Territorial Dispute

BBC News (“RUSSIA-JAPAN FISHING ROW HEATS UP”, 2006-08-17) reported that Russian officials have accused three Japanese fishermen detained since a clash on Wednesday of poaching and illegal border crossing. Japan has sent diplomats to the region and accused Russia of reacting with excessive force to the incident.

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9. Pakistan-PRC Military Cooperation

Asian News International (“PAK-CHINA SIGN TWO AGREEMENTS ON DEFENCE COOPERATION, MILITARY ASSISTANCE”, 2006-08-17) reported that Pakistan and the PRC signed two agreements on defence cooperation and military assistance at the end of the 4th Round of Defence and Security Talks held at Joint Staff Headquarters here on Wednesday. The agreements include cooperation in the field of defence and security and military assistance to the Armed Forces of Pakistan.

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10. PRC Environment

Agence France-Presse (“WESTERN CHINA ENDURES WORST DROUGHT IN 50 YEARS”, 2006-08-17) reported that areas of western PRC are enduring their worst drought in 50 years, with at least 14 million people suffering from a shortage of drinking water. Thousands of people are being admitted to hospitals daily due to heatstroke as temperatures regularly exceed 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), while large tracts of farmland have been devastated, the China Daily said on Thursday.

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