NAPSNet Daily Report Thursday, February 01, 2007

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NAPSNet Daily Report Thursday, February 01, 2007

NAPSNet Daily Report Thursday, February 01, 2007

I. NAPSNet

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. NAPSNet

1. Six Party Talks Diplomacy

Yonhap News Agency (“TOP US NUCLEAR ENVOY DUE IN SEOUL 3 FEB AHEAD OF NORTH KOREA TALKS”, 2007-02-01) reported that Christopher Hill, the top US negotiator in the six-nation talks is to arrive in the ROK for last-minute discussions with his RO Korean counterpart. The US State Department said earlier in the week that the US negotiator would take a trip to the ROK and Japan before the nuclear negotiations resume next Thursday.

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2. ROK on Six Party Talks

Chosun Ilbo (“SEOUL ‘WON’T BE CONTENT WITH NUCLEAR FREEZE’ IN N. KOREA”, 2007-02-01) reported that Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said six-party talks aim to “eliminate all of North Korea’s nuclear programs” rather than simply return to the status quo ante of 2002 or before the second nuclear crisis. After freezing activities at a nuclear reactor under the Geneva Agreement between the U.S. and the DPRK in 1994, the DPRK started to operate the reactors again in 2003 to produce plutonium, a key material to make nuclear weapons. Pundits have said getting DPRK to freeze nuclear activities again hardly amounts to progress. Meanwhile, John Negroponte, just nominated as deputy U.S. secretary of state, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearing that the purpose of the six-party talks is to put a freeze on the nuclear reactors and nuclear enrichment reprocessing facilities and to launch an international investigation. He said he “certainly wouldn’t rule out” the possibility of a visit to the DPRK by the U.S. chief negotiator Christopher Hill if progress is made.

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3. Bush on Six Party Talks

Wall Street Journal (“BUSH ON THE RECORD”, 2007-02-01) Reported that US President Bush clearly believes the sanctions on Pyongyang’s sources of hard currency have been the key to both the six-party talks and getting the regime’s attention. Asked why some in his own government — that is, the State Department — want to lift those sanctions, Mr. Bush replied, “Where’d you get that report?” The idea, he added “is to use the sanctions to get North Korea to give up on its weapons programs.”

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4. Pritchard on Six Party Talks

Yonhap News Agency (“N KOREA MAY GIVE UP NUCLEAR FACILITIES BUT NOT WEAPONS: PRITCHARD”, 2007-01-31) reported that former US envoy to DPRK Jack Pritchard said the United States is likely to reach a nuclear agreement with the DPRK that is very much like the one he helped broker under the Clinton administration, only worse, since Pyongyang will get to keep its nuclear weapons. Despite Bush’s criticism of the 1994 Geneva Agreed Framework, his negotiators may end up recreating it, Pritchard said, but this time, it will be a “framework-minus.” For the DPRK, the strategic value of their plutonium-producing reactor has diminished, he argued. The reactor can produce only about one bomb’s worth of material per year, and there is no significant value to adding more bombs when the DPRK presumably already has 10 or so, he said. Because its nuclear facilities can be negotiated away with its arsenal intact, Pyongyang may decide to talk seriously with Washington, Pritchard said. “If they (North Korea) can get economic benefits for them, they think it’s a pretty good deal,” he said. Refusal to talk directly with Pyongyang was one of Bush’s mistakes, he said, but nonetheless, the shifts in U.S. positions may have sent the wrong message. “North Koreans are learning a very bad lesson here. As long as they stick to very key and fundamental issues, it is the U.S. that is going to change,” he said.

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5. Kim Jong Nam Sightings

Associated Press (“REPORT: KIM JONG IL’S SON LIVING IN MACAU”, 2007-02-01) reported that the DPRK leader Kim Jong Il’s eldest son has lived for the past three years in Macau, where the United States slapped sanctions on a bank for allegedly helping Pyongyang launder money. Kim Jong Nam, 35, has stayed in five-star hotels in the Chinese territory and has been seen in casinos and restaurants, the South China Morning Post reported, quoting unidentified sources from a six-week investigation. The Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun published a similar report on Wednesday with a photo that allegedly showed the pudgy younger Kim outside a building in Macau. A person in Hong Kong’s diplomatic community, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, told the AP that the younger Kim occasionally visits Macau, but could not confirm that Kim Jong Nam lived in the city.

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6. US-ROK Security Alliance

Chosun Ilbo (“SEOUL, WASHINGTON DISCUSS FUTURE ROLES IN UN COMMAND”, 2007-02-01) reported that the ROK and the US have started discussing their future roles and duties at the United Nations Command, which oversees the armistice between the two Koreas. Ministry officials say the ROK and US are expected to hold concrete discussions on the UN Command’s future at their Security Policy Initiative meeting in Seoul next month.

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7. ROK-GCC Trade Relations

Agence France-Presse (“SOUTH KOREA CONSIDERING FREE TRADE DEAL WITH GULF STATES”, 2007-02-01) reported that the ROK is actively considering forging a free trade agreement with six Gulf nations, its top economic official has said. “South Korea is actively reviewing an idea of pursuing a free trade agreement (FTA) with the Gulf Cooperation Council,” Finance and Economy Minister Kwon O-Kyu told a Qatar economic forum. The council groups Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates Kwon said the ROK and Qatar should expand their cooperation from energy and resources into finance and other fields.

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8. UNSC Expansion

Japan Times (“U.N. NOW LOOKING AT PHASED EXPANSION OF SECURITY COUNCIL”, 2007-02-01) reported that several countries have proposed an “interim solution” to expand the number of permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, such as creating semi-permanent status as a first step toward eventual expansion, according to U.N. diplomats. Momentum at this point appears to stem from the growing awareness that the “reality of 1945” might be fixed in the Security Council in the foreseeable future unless some progress is achieved during the current General Assembly session.

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9. Japan War Victims

Japan Times (“ABE TO MINISTRY: FIND WAY TO AID WAR-DISPLACED”, 2007-02-01) reported that Prime Minister Abe on Wednesday told seven members of war-displaced Japanese that he has told the health ministry to look at new ways to help the roughly 2,500 resettled Chinese of Japanese descent who were left behind at the end of the war. Abe did not give any details about financial assistance during the meeting but he told the group that the government is looking at ways to improve their Japanese and help their children and grandchildren land jobs.

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10. Sino-Japanese Territorial Dispute

Bloomberg (“JAPAN ASKS CHINA TO HALT GAS OUTPUT IN DISPUTED FIELD”, 2007-02-01) reported that Japan asked the PRC to halt any new production of gas from a field in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said. The PRC has started supplying gas from the Chunxiao field to cities in the southeastern province of Zhejiang, the Ta Kung Pao newspaper reported. Japan’s government asked for an explanation, and the PRC this morning said the situation at the field was unchanged, “an answer that we don’t understand,” Shiozaki said today at a press conference in Tokyo. “Since Japan and China are discussing joint development, we want an answer we can understand. We have strong concerns about this.”

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11. PRC on Space Weapons Treaty

The Associated Press (“CHINA CALLS FOR SPACE TREATY”, 2007-02-01) reported that the PRC says is ready to work with other countries on an agreement to prevent an arms race in space. “Since other countries care about this question and are opposed to weaponization of space and an arms race in space, then let us join hands to realize this goal,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu when asked to respond to criticism of the test by the US and Japan.

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12. Sino-Portugese Relations

China View (“CHINA, PORTUGAL SEEK CLOSER TIES AMID SPIRALING TRADE”, 2007-02-01) reported that the PRC and Portugal have pledged to further their trade ties, as Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates pays his first visit to the PRC since taking office. Trade between the PRC and Portugal surged to $1.7 billion last year, up 39 percent year-on-year. In 2005, PRC Premier Wen Jiabao expressed the hope that bilateral trade volume could double in three years. He said on Wednesday the goal is expected to be achieved ahead of time.

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13. Cross Strait Historical Revisionism

Reuters (“CHINA LASHES TAIWAN OVER CHINESE HISTORY BOOK CHANGES”, 2007-02-01) reported that the PRC lashed out at Taiwan for dropping phrases from high school history text books that link the two as one country, saying the move was another step towards promoting the island’s independence. One of the most important changes is to substitute the word “China” for “our country,” “this country” and “the mainland.” Proponents of the new textbooks in Taiwan argue the changes are meant to provide a more neutral and world-minded account of events.

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14. PRC African Diplomacy

China View (“CHINESE, CAMEROONIAN LEADERS DISCUSS TIES, AFRICAN SITUATION”, 2007-02-01) reported that visiting PRC President Hu Jintao held talks with his Cameroonian counterpart, Paul Biya, on closer bilateral ties. Hu summed up the characteristics of the Sino-African ties as sincere friendship, equality and mutual benefit, solidarity and cooperation, and common development. “China has never imposed its own ideology, social system and development pattern upon others, nor gained its own interest at the cost of others,” he said.

(return to top) Agence France Presse (“THOUSAND GREET CHINESE LEADER IN WAR-BATTERED LIBERIA”, 2007-02-01) reported that PRC President Hu Jintao arrived in Liberia ahead of the most important stage of his African tour in Sudan where he will discuss the Darfur conflict and oil supplies. Liberia switched ties from Taiwan to the PRC three years ago, but in an arrival statement, Hu said he was in Liberia to “deepen the traditional friendship, enhance mutual understanding and trust.” Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf expressed hope that Hu’s visit would bring greater development opportunities to Liberia. (return to top)

15. Hong Kong Leadership

BBC News (“TSANG SEEKS SECOND TERM IN HK”, 2007-02-01) reports that Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang has officially announced that he will seek a second term of office. The territory’s leader is chosen by an 800-member election committee loyal to the PRC. The PRC is known to approve of Mr Tsang. But the election, in March, will be the first time that more than one candidate has gone for the post.

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