Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. United States

1. US, ROK and Japan Meeting with DPRK Official

New York Times (“U.S. AND ALLIES TO MEET OFFICIAL OF NORTH KOREA”, 2005-06-30) reported that a senior DPRK official will meet Thursday with representatives of the US, Japan and the ROK in New York at a private foreign policy conference. Senior Bush administration officials and foreign diplomats said they would press him to explain whether the DPRK planned to return to nuclear disarmament talks. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is planning to ask the PRC to explain what punitive steps against the DPRK they may be willing to accept when she travels to Beijing next month. The officials and diplomats acknowledged that the PRC was most likely to urge Rice to offer the DPRK more incentives.

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2. PRC on US-DPRK Relations

Xinhua (“CHINA EXPECTS FURTHER US-DPRK CONTACTS AMID STALLED SIX-PARTY TALKS”, 2005-06-30) reported that the PRC expects the US and DPRK to maintain contacts so as to create conditions for the resumption of the six-party talks. The two sides have recently held a series of contacts and set forth some positive propositions towards the resumption of the six-party talks, said PRC Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao when asked to comment on a possible US-DPRK dialogue at a symposium to be held in New York.

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3. Expert on DPRK Return to Talks

RIA Novosti (“EXPERT: NORTH KOREA MAY RESUME TALKS ON ITS NUCLEAR PROGRAM”, 2005-06-30) reported that the DPRK might return to the six-party talks, but its interests should be taken into account, says Andrei Kokoshin, chairmain of the Russian State Duma Committee for CIS Affairs and Russian Diaspora Relations. “The ‘quintet’ (Russia, China, the USA, Japan and South Korea) must approach the North Korean issue taking into account its security interests as well as the economic development interests, when firmly insisting that it maintain the nuclear non-proliferation regime,” said Kokoshin, former secretary of the Russian Security Council. “Russia and China seem to share this approach and it is important that other states of the ‘quintet’ consistently adhere to it as well,” he said.

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4. US Sanctions on DPRK

Chosun Ilbo (“U.S. ANTI-TERROR STEPS RAISE CONCERNS FOR N.K. PROGRESS”, 2005-06-30) reported that when the US adopted anti-terror measures that specifically target DPRK companies involved in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, there was concern over diplomatic efforts to get the DPRK to return to six-party talks. The executive order by President Bush empowers authorities to seize the US assets of companies suspected of aiding and abetting WMD proliferation and targets three DPRK companies – Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation, Tanchon Commercial Bank and the Korea Ryonbong General Corporation. The US media is interpreting the measure as an attempt to cut off outside funding for WMD-proliferating states like the DPRK. There are fears that Washington could deliberately be throwing obstacles in the way of the six-party talks and moving to a more belligerent position. However, others suggest such hard-line measures are ways of upping the pressure on the DPRK to come back to the talks. They say they are a way of preparing for all eventualities including a DPRK refusal to return to talks or give up its nuclear arms program, even if Pyongyang’s return to the negotiations remains Washington’s primary goal.

(return to top) Reuters (“BUSH ISSUES WMD ORDER ON N. KOREA, IRAN, SYRIA”, 2005-06-29) reported that US President gave US authorities new powers to block assets of companies believed to be helping the DPRK, Iran and Syria pursue weapons of mass destruction. The executive order did not mention specific countries, but said it applied to “any person or foreign country of proliferation concern.” The move was part of a US overhaul of intelligence services after the September 11, 2001 attacks. “By applying these powers against weapons of mass destruction, we deny proliferators and their supporters access to the U.S. financial system and starve them of funds needed to build deadly weapons and threaten innocents around the globe,” US Treasury Secretary John Snow said. (return to top)

5. DPRK Nuclear Reactors

China Daily News/Agencies (“NORTH KOREA RESUMES BUILDING NUCLEAR REACTORS – REPORT”, 2005-06-30) reported that the DPRK has restarted the construction of two nuclear reactors suspended under a 1994 deal with the US. Quoting unidentified US government and other sources in Washington, the Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that the DPRK had resumed building a 50,000-kilowatt reactor in Yongbyon and a 200,000-kilowatt reactor in Thaechon, north of Pyongyang. The DPRK recently told the US “indirectly” that it was resuming the construction of the nuclear facilities, the sources said. They added that the restart of the reactor was confirmed through spy satellite photographs and other data.

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6. IMF on DPRK Membership

Yonhap News (“N. KOREA NEEDS ECONOMIC STABILITY TO JOIN IMF: FUND OFFICIAL”, 2005-06-30) reported that the DPRK must achieve economic stability to gain admission to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Anne Krueger, first deputy managing director of the IMF, said the DPRK must submit its macroeconomic statistics to the IMF and achieve economic stability in order to obtain membership.

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7. Japan-DPRK Trade Relations

Yonhap News (“NORTH KOREA’S TRADE WITH JAPAN CONTINUES TO RECEDE: REPORT”, 2005-06-30) reported that the DPRK’s trade with Japan further dropped off in 2004, according to an ROK trade agency. According to the state-run Japan Customs agency that filed the nation’s trade with the DPRK from January through April, the DPRK’s exports to Japan fell by 25.8 percent from the corresponding period last year to 4.61 billion yen (US$41.6 million). The Japanese report was introduced in Seoul by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA).

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8. WHO on DPRK Medical Faculty Improvement

Yonhap News (“WHO SEEKING TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF NK MEDICAL FACULTY”, 2005-06-30) reported that the World Health Organization plans to join forces with the ROK government in sharpening the knowledge and skills of the DPRK’s collective medical faculty, according to senior WHO officials on Thursday. The WHO has donated medicine and medical equipment to raise the level of the DPRK’s health service and “such efforts should be continued, but now in tandem with training programs,” said Eigil Sorensen, the WHO’s representative in the DPRK. Sorensen stressed that DPRK doctors and health workers are dedicated, but the country’s isolation from the outside world, together with chronic food shortages and sub-grade pharmaceutical supplies, puts limits on the services they can provide patients.

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9. ROK Fertilizer Aid to the DPRK

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (“SOUTH KOREAN SHIP CARRYS FERTILIZER TO NORTH KOREA”, 2005-06-30) reported that an ROK ship carrying 5,000 tonnes of fertilizer is heading for the DPRK to fulfill the ROK’s pledge to supply additional aid to the DPRK. The shipment of fertilizer is part of the 150,000 tonnes of fertilizer the ROK agreed to contribute earlier this month. Officials say the ship is due to reach the DPRK on Friday.

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10. Hopes for Korean Unification

International Herald Tribune (“LETTER FROM ASIA: FOR MANY, TWO KOREAS MAY BE BETTER THAN ONE”, 2005-07-01) reported that there was little mention of reunification during the fifth anniversary of the inter-Korean summit. Talk centered mostly on the DPRK’s nuclear programs. Hopes for reunification appear to be waning. Strong arguments are heard that continued division, or at least delayed reunion, might serve everyone’s interests. “At the time, we were very emotional, but within the last five years, we have cooled down,” said Song Young Gil, a lawmaker from the ROK’s governing Uri Party. “We now realize the realities of the two countries. The economic gap between the two Koreas is greater than it was between West and East Germany,” he added. “So the more desirable situation is to engage in economic cooperation and to maintain the divided situation. We should help lift North Korea’s economic level to at least 60 percent of South Korea’s before we start to think of reunification. That will take more than 20 years.”

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11. DPRK Ban of ROK Pop Culture

Donga Ilbo (“NORTH KOREA BANS “HYE GYO” HAIRDO “, 2005-06-30) reported that Hanryu (ROK dramas and music that has been rising in popularlity) has been crossing the border with the PRC to the DPRK, leading to an unexpected crack down on the Song Hye-gyo hairdo. As ROK dramas and music illegally copied are smuggled into the DPRK, some dramas like “All In” are gaining popularity and the Song Hye-gyo hairstyle is becoming a new fashion trend among DPRK women. As a result, the government has begun cracking down on it, saying, “It is untidy.”

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12. Inter-Korean Sports

Associated Press (“PROMOTER SEEKS UNITY THROUGH BOXING”, 2005-06-29) reported that the DPR Korean won the series of women’s boxing matches sponsored by an ROK promoter who wants to see the two countries move closer together by meeting in the ring. Women from the two countries fought each other for the first time in Pyongyang sponsored by boxing promoter Park Sang-kwon’s newly created World Female Boxing Council. Women from the DPRK won all four bouts, according to the Korean Central News Agency. Park’s efforts, however, have created problems in the world of women’s boxing. The California-based International Female Boxers Association refused to sanction Tuesday’s matches.

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13. MIA Remains to Return Home

Chicago Tribune (“REMAINS OF KOREAN WAR GI ARE COMING HOME”, 2005-06-30) reported that the remains of a US Army soldier missing in action from the Korean War have been identified and are being returned to his family in Indiana. Pfc. Lowell W. Bellar of Gary is scheduled to be buried on his birthday, July 15, in Schererville, according to the Department of Defense. US teams began recovering remains of missing servicemen and servicewomen from the DPRK in 1996. Bellar’s remains were found in October 2001.

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14. ROK Military Abuse

Associated Press (“TROOP ABUSE SCANDAL IN S. KOREA”, 2005-06-30) reported that photos posted on the internet of ROK soldiers forced to stand naked raised new concerns of abuse in the nation’s military, as the legislature debated the defense minister’s future after a conscript’s deadly shooting spree. The photos and killings are raising concern across the ROK. One of the 88 pictures released Thursday by the civic group Citizen’s Solidarity for Human Rights shows naked soldiers crouching with their heads bent to the ground while commanders watch.

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15. ROK Energy Supply

Joongang Ilbo (“2 NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS APPROVED”, 2005-06-30) reported that the Ministry of Science and Technology announced yesterday that it has given permission for two new nuclear power plants to be built in the town of Gijang, near Busan. Science Minister Oh Myung presided over a meeting to finalize the authorization based on the safety and overall viability of the new plants, which will be built by the state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. The new plants, the 21st and 22nd such facilities in the ROK, are expected to be completed by 2010 and 2011, respectively.

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16. Russia Energy Supply

RIA Novosti (“FLOATING NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS TO RESOLVE REGIONAL ENERGY PROBLEMS”, 2005-06-30) reported that floating nuclear power plants could resolve some regions’ energy problems, academician Yevgeny Velikhov said. “Installing a floating nuclear power plant may resolve regional energy problems,” the head of the Kurchatov Institute, formerly the Nuclear Energy Institute, said at a round table in the State Duma, parliament’s lower house. “The European North, Eastern Siberia, and the Far East demand special attention,” he said.

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17. PRC Energy Supply

People’s Daily (“CHINA TO FILL ITS STRATEGIC GAS RESERVE “, 2005-06-30) reported that the PRC will start filling its strategic petroleum reserve from the fourth quarter this year, said Zhang Guobao, deputy director of the PRC’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in New Orleans, the US on June 28, 2005, according to report by Xinhuanet. Zhang also refuted the view that the PRC’s increasing oil consumption is to blame for the international oil prices hike. The US Department of Energy said, the country’s strategic petroleum reserve will reach its goal of 700 million barrels this August.

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18. Sino-Japanese Gas Dispute

The Associated Press (“CHINA APPEALS TO JAPAN NOT TO DRILL FOR GAS ON ITS OWN IN DISPUTED SEA”, 2005-06-30) reported that the PRC appealed to Japan on Thursday to jointly develop oil and gas resources in a disputed sea after a report that Tokyo might approve drilling by a Japanese company in the area. “Neither side should take unilateral action” before they reach an agreement on their disputed boundary in the East China Sea, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao. “If there is no agreement yet on the demarcation, we should go for joint development.”

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19. PRC on Taiwan-Japan Fishing Dispute

Kyodo News (“CHINA PROTESTS PLANNED TAIWAN-JAPAN FISHING RIGHTS TALKS”, 2005-06-30) reported that the PRC “strongly opposes” talks between Japan and Taiwan on fishing rights in disputed waters near the Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday. The PRC opposes any two-way talks between Japan and Taiwan on grounds that they would violate Sino-Japanese agreements in which Japan committed itself to a one-China policy, spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a regular briefing.

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20. Sino-Russian Relations

Agence France Presse (“CHINA, RUSSIA EYE ENERGY, SECURITY GOALS AT MOSCOW SUMMIT”, 2005-06-30) reported that PRC President Hu Jintao was due in Russia for a visit seen by both sides as a chance to strengthen ties, despite apparent differences in their priorities. For Russia, the focus of the visit will be the signing by the two sides of a declaration on the “international order in the 21st century,” Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said. This document has been seen by the Russian newspaper Kommersant as an implicit attempt by Moscow to form a united front with Beijing in the face of Washington’s growing influence, particularly in formerly Soviet Central Asia. “Russia and China with one voice declare the inadmissibility of efforts towards monopolisation in world affairs, the dividing of states into the leaders and the led, the imposition from outside of models of social development, the application of double standards,” Yakovenko said.

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21. US on PRC Arms Ban

Agence France Presse (“US LAWMAKER INTRODUCES BILL TO DISCOURAGE EU WEAPONS SALES TO CHINA”, 2005-06-30) reported that a senior US lawmaker introduced legislation to discourage the European Union from lifting its arms embargo on the PRC, despite recent assurances from EU officials that plans to sell weapons to Beijing have been shelved. The East Asia Security Act of 2005, authored by Republican US Representative Henry Hyde, was introduced after an uproar that followed Europe’s announcement last December that it was considering lifting the embargo slapped on the PRC following its June 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy students in Beijing. “This bill is intended to show that the US Congress intends to encourage the EU to keep its commitment to maintain its arms embargo, and not to falter in this commitment,” a senior aide to Hyde said.

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22. US on China-War Planning

Reuters (“U.S. STRUGGLES ON CHINA-WAR PLANNING – TOP OFFICER”, 2005-06-30) reported that the Defense Department is struggling to determine the right mix of bombers and other warplanes to fight the PRC if it ever became necessary, President Bush’s choice to become the next Air Force chief of staff said. Lining up such firepower would top his list of priorities if confirmed as the Air Force’s top military officer, Gen. Michael Moseley said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “The enhancements that we see in the Chinese military (do) cause concern,” he added in reply to a question from Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican. “That is at the top of my list … long-range strike and the ability to do that for this country,” said Moseley.

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23. Sino-Australian Relations

The Christian Science Monitor (“CHINESE DEFECTOR DETAILS COUNTRY’S ESPIONAGE AGENDA”, 2005-06-30) reported that according to Chen Yonglin, the PRC’s highest-profile defector in decades, the main task of the PRC Consulate here is to spy on five so-called “poisonous groups” in the Australian community. Once a fortnight, he says, officials file reports about Free Tibet supporters, Taiwan independence advocates, Uighurs who want an East Turkistan homeland, Falun Gong members, and the PRC pro-democracy movement. Mr. Chen said in an interview that he knows this because the officials reported to him.

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24. US on PRC Economy

The Christian Science Monitor (“THE RISING ECONOMIC CLOUT OF CHINA”, 2005-06-30) reported that in recent weeks Washington has become increasingly wary of one of the most powerful geopolitical trends in today’s world – the emergence of the PRC as an economic superpower. The unsolicited PRC bid to take over a US oil company has riled Congress in particular. Many lawmakers are calling for retaliation against a nation they believe has long flouted the rules of fair international trade. The White House, for its part, has been reluctant to publicly criticize a deal that may never be consummated. And in general, say analysts, attempts to hobble the PRC’s economic rise would be as futile as using ropes to try to restrain a rocket.

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25. PRC Unrest

The Associated Press (“REPORT: CHINA TRAFFIC DISPUTE BECOMES RIOT”, 2005-06-30) reported that a traffic dispute in eastern PRC erupted into a riot as angry crowds battled police, burned cars and smashed windows at a police station, news reports said Wednesday. There were no deaths but six police officers were injured, the reports said. The violence erupted Sunday after four passengers of a car beat up a pedestrian following an accident in Chizhou, a town in Anhui province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

(return to top) Agence France Presse (“HUNDREDS OF VILLAGERS IN EASTERN CHINA RIOT AGAINST POLLUTING FACTORY”, 2005-06-30) reported that hundreds of PRC villagers have marched on a battery factory which they say is poisoning their children and held 1,000 workers hostage, residents and officials said. About 600 people from Jianxia village in the eastern province of Zhejiang took control of the Zhejiang Tianneng Battery company and barricaded workers inside, resident Han Cheng told AFP Thursday. But a promise made Thursday afternoon by factory managers to stop production and carry out investigations helped defuse the tense five-day standoff. (return to top)

26. PRC Journalists Arrest

The Associated Press (“CHINA JOURNALISTS SEEK COLLEAGUES’ RELEASE”, 2005-06-30) reported that in a bold challenge to rigid government media controls, PRC journalists have petitioned for the release of two colleagues jailed after aggressive reporting that was believed to have angered local officials. In an open letter, the journalists claimed that Yu Huafeng and Li Minying, executives with the Southern Metropolitan Daily, were unfairly prosecuted on trumped up corruption charges, according to a text of the letter viewed online Wednesday.

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27. PRC Environment

Agence France Presse (“CHINA LAMENTS FAILURE TO ENFORCE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION LAWS”, 2005-06-30) reported that the PRC’s top environment official has lambasted the nation’s failure to enforce environmental laws, saying greater enforcement is crucial to stemming worsening pollution. “Non-enforcement and lax enforcement of laws and administrative inactivity are the main targets we must aim at,” Xie Zhenhua, director of the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), was quoted by Xinhua news agency as telling a meeting Wednesday. “The key problems in environmental law enforcement that the government currently needs to face up to and solve is that some local environment authorities do not exercise their law enforcement duties.”

(return to top) BBC News (“RURAL CHINA IN CLEAN WATER CRISIS”, 2005-06-30) reported that the PRC’s rapid economic growth has left its rivers polluted and more than 300 million people without clean drinking water, a top lawmaker has said. The figure showed the scale of the challenge facing the PRC’s leaders as they try to tackle pollution. The lawmaker, Sheng Huaren, said laws to prevent pollution had failed. Beijing has asked local authorities to improve water standards, but with no promise of funding it is unlikely any action will be taken. A BBC correspondent in Beijing says more than 90% of urban PRC already suffers from some degree of water pollution. (return to top)