I. United States

1. US – ROK Relations on the DPRK

Chosun Ilbo (“ROH, BUSH TO ISSUE JOINT STATEMENT OVER NK NUKE AT SANTIAGO SUMMIT”, None) reported that President Roh Moo-hyun and US President George W. Bush will hold a summit in Chile on Nov. 20 and issue a joint statement that they will closely cooperate to resolve the DPRK nuclear issue. Reuters reported Wednesday that the US president would hold separate meetings with President Roh, Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiroa and PRC President Hu Jintao to ask for cooperation in settling the DPRK issue.

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2. US on Inter – Korean Relations

Korea Times (“US MOVES TO CHECK S. KOREA’S INITIATIVES ON NK NUKE”, 2004-11-18) reported that setting off a subtle but significant discord between the allies, the US has begun to move to tackle Seoul’s initiative on the DPRK nuclear issue, saying there are some “elements to discuss” in President Roh Moo-hyun’s recent speech in Los Angeles. Roh’s speech on Saturday seems to have triggered some alarm among US officials, according to sources in Seoul and Washington, as the powerful wording called for more flexibility from the US while siding with the DPRK.

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3. ROK on Inter – Korean Relations

Yonhap (“ROH EXPRESSED LENIENCY TO URGE N. KOREA TO JOIN NUKE TALKS: AIDE”, 2004-11-18) reported that President Roh Moo-hyun urged DPRK to come out for multilateral talks on its nuclear weapons ambitions when he made a speech Friday expressing a lenient position on its nuclear programs, a senior aide to Roh said Thursday. “It appears President Roh urged the North to come out for the negotiations to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue on the basis of an antiwar and anti-nuclear weapons spirit,” said Moon Jung-in, chairman of the presidential Northeast Asian Era Committee.

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4. US on DPRK Nuclear Talks

Reuters (“BUSH WANTS TO GET NORTH KOREA NUCLEAR TALKS GOING”, 2004-11-18) reported that President Bush plans to urge allies at an Asia-Pacific summit in Chile this weekend to press the DPRK to return to stalled talks over its nuclear weapons program, senior US officials said on Wednesday. The DPRK said last week an early resumption of the six-nation talks would be difficult and that it was waiting to gauge the post-election mood of the US.

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5. US on US – DPRK Relations

Agence France-Presse (“POWELL SAYS NORTH KOREA MAY BE EASING STANCE ON NUCLEAR CRISIS TALKS”, None) reported that the DPRK may be relaxing its insistence on one-to-one talks with the US to defuse a crisis over its nuclear weapons program, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said. “We have seen a few signals coming out of North Korea where they said: ‘No, we never insisted that it had to be solved in a bilateral way’. We will have to wait and see,” Powell told reporters accompanying him on a trip to Chile to join the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

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6. ROK and DPRK Sanctions

Joongang Ilbo (“CRISIS TEAM URGES SEOUL TO CONSIDER SANCTIONS”, 2004-11-18) reported that a group of foreign affairs analysts on a tour of countries involved in the six-way talks on the DPRK nuclear issues has called on the governments involved in those talks to resume them as quickly as possible. The team also advised Seoul to prepare a list of sanctions it could invoke against the DPRK if it refuses a reasonable settlement, not simply promise rewards to the DPRK.

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7. US Spy Plan for the DPRK

Chosun Ilbo (“U.S. TO PLANT SPIES IN NORTH KOREA: USA TODAY”, 2004-11-18) reported that citing a senior US official, USA Today reported Thursday, “CIA Director Porter Goss told his new chief of spy operations to launch a much more aggressive espionage campaign that would use undercover officers to penetrate terrorist groups and hostile governments such as North Korea and Iran.”

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8. DPRK Leadership Reform

Yonhap (“REMOVAL OF KIM JONG-IL’S PORTRAITS ORDERED IN 2003: EX-NK DIPLOMAT”, 2004-11-18) reported that a former DPRK diplomat on Thursday claimed an order to remove DPRK leader Kim Jong-il’s portraits from public facilities and homes came as early as last year. “At the beginning of last year, the North Korean diplomatic mission (where I used to work at) received an order to take down Kim Jong-il’s portraits and keep them as family treasures at our own homes,” claimed the former diplomat who defected to Seoul in 2003. The former DPRK diplomat, however, maintained the original order came early last year and directly from Kim Jong-il himself.

(return to top) Washington Post (“N. KOREA MAY BE REDUCING REVERENCE FOR LEADER”, None) reported that the DPRK appears to be reducing the level of official reverence paid to its leader Kim Jong Il, marking the first signs of a shift away from the cult of personality in which Kim rules the nation as a divine figure. Analysts say Kim may be attempting to portray himself as a more serious political leader to the outside world, where his deified status at home has earned him a reputation as one of the globe’s more bizarre rulers. But he may also be succumbing to pressure on several fronts to overhaul his secretive country’s peculiar form of leadership. (return to top) The New York Times (“MONITORS OF NORTH KOREAN NEWS NOTE DIP IN REVERENCE FOR KIM”, None) reported that as reports filter out of the DPRK that portraits of the country’s leader, Kim Jong Il, have been removed from their honored spots, official news outlets are dropping the honorific “Dear Leader” from reports on Mr. Kim, according to Radiopress, a Japanese news agency that monitors the DPRK’s radio. Regional analysts are debating whether Mr. Kim is losing his grip on power, or, more likely, quietly orchestrating the downsizing of his own personality cult. (return to top) Reuters (“KIM REFERENCES SOFTENED IN N.KOREA; EXPERTS ASK WHY”, None) reported that the DPRK seems to be softening its hitherto rigid personality cult around leader Kim Jong-il, experts on the DPRK said Thursday — although they were still unsure why the changes had been made. Seoul’s Yonhap news agency reported that Kim himself had ordered the portrait shift three weeks ago because he was concerned his image had been “lifted too high.” “Kim Jong-il is known to be a little bit skeptical in private about the personality cult. He doesn’t buy into all the adulation,” said Michael Breen, author of a biography of Kim. “But what’s prompted it? Who knows?” (return to top)

9. Portraits of DPRK Leader

The Associated Press (“N. KOREA PULLS KIM IMAGES FROM BUILDINGS”, None) reported that DPRK officials have removed portraits of leader Kim Jong Il from some public buildings, a dramatic change in a reclusive nation that has clung to totalitarian rule for more than half a century. Analysts speculated on Thursday that Kim may have ordered the measure himself to play down his state-sponsored personality cult, and that the change doesn’t necessarily reflect an overhaul of the leadership.

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10. ROK on DPRK Defectors

Yonhap (“SEOUL DISMISSES POSSIBILITY OF N. KOREAN REFUGEE CAMP IN MONGOLIA”, 2004-11-18) reported that the ROK on Thursday dismissed the possibility of building a refugee camp in Mongolia for DPRK defectors on the run. “We judge it is unrealistic,” Vice Foreign Minister Choi Young-jin told a parliamentary committee.

(return to top) Chosun Ilbo (“U.S. READY TO TAKE IN MASS DEFECTIONS FROM N. KOREA”, 2004-11-18) reported that the US is considering granting “Priority 2” status to groups of DPRK defectors seeking asylum, in which case asylum-screening conditions would be relaxed. DPRK defectors had previously been assigned “Priority 1” status, which relaxes screening standards when defectors apply for asylum on an individual basis, but this is the first time DPRK defectors have been considered for “Priority 2” status, and appears to be a follow-up measure to the legislation of the North Korean Human Rights Act. (return to top)

11. US on DPRK Defectors

Donga Ilbo (“N. KOREA-U.S. “NORTH KOREAN DESERTER CONFLICT” FORECASTED”, 2004-11-18) reported that as the US government announced that it is preparing for a mass exile of DPRK deserters, observations are made that the US is intending to intervene actively in the DPRK deserter problem upon the opportunity of enacting the North Korean Human Rights Act. He added, “The most appropriate solution for them would be to go to Korea [the ROK]. We are continuously discussing with the Korean government on ways to extend its accommodation capability of North Korean deserters.”

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12. Inter – Korean Relations

Joongang Ilbo (“SEOUL BLOCKS ACCESS TO 31 NORTH WEB SITES”, 2004-11-18) reported that the Ministry of Information and Communication said yesterday that it has blocked access to 31 Internet sites operated by the DPRK, or sites containing what the ROK considers “pro-North Korea” propaganda. The action was based on the National Security Law, which bars the spread of materials praising the DPRK and its leaders.

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13. Inter – Korean Economic Cooperation

Yonhap (“FIRST S. KOREAN PLANT TO BE COMPLETED IN KAESONG PARK NEXT MONTH”, 2004-11-18) reported that a ROK kitchenware maker will dedicate its plant in a DPRK industrial park in early December, becoming the first domestic company to operate there, a state land developer said Thursday. The Korea Land Corp. and Hyundai Asan Corp., an affiliate of Hyundai Group, are building the mammoth industrial complex in the DPRK city of Kaesong, a few kilometers from the inter-Korean border.

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14. ROK on Inter – Korean Relations

Korea Herald (“LAWMAKERS CLASH OVER ‘MAIN ENEMY'”, 2004-11-18) reported that lawmakers of the ruling and the opposition party clashed over the Defense Ministry’s plan to drop the designation of the DPRK as the nation’s No. 1 foe, in yesterday’s National Assembly panel review of national defense. Members of the opposition Grand National Party strongly opposed dropping the designation, criticizing the Defense Minister for earlier remarks on erasing the term “main enemy” from the nation’s defense white paper.

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15. Inter – Korean Athletics

Yonhap (“N. KOREAN SOCCER COACH PROPOSES UNIFIED KOREAN TEAM FOR WORLD CUP”, 2004-11-18) reported that the DPRK wishes for a unified Korean team in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the head coach of the DPRK’s football squad said Thursday. In an interview with Football Asia in Dubai, Yun Jong-su said, “the two teams could be unified and go together as one,” in the upcoming international football tournament.

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16. Japan on ROK Nuclear Experiment

Korea Times (“TOKYO TO SUPPORT SEOUL IN IAEA MEETING”, 2004-11-18) reported that Tokyo will actively support Seoul’s position at the IAEA conference next week, where the UN atomic agency will decide whether or not to bring the ROK’s past nuclear experiments to the UN Security Council (UNSC), according to officials Thursday. Diplomatic sources here said the Japanese government promised to help the ROK prove its innocence in a “secret diplomatic archive,” which has been recently delivered through an unofficial channel.

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17. IAEA on ROK Nuclear Experiment

Yonhap (“IAEA CHIEF EXECUTIVE REACTS POSITIVELY TO S. KOREA’S NUCLEAR ISSUE”, 2004-11-18) reported that a top UN nuclear regulator Thursday reacted positively to the ROK’s past nuclear experiments, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology. ROK had been under probe by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for its secret nuclear experiments to produce a small amount of plutonium and uranium on several occasions between 1978 and 2001.

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18. ROK Military

United Press International (“S.KOREA TO UPGRADE MILITARY WITH $92.5B”, 2004-11-18) reported that the ROK has completed a military build-up plan to cope with the planned reduction of US forces in the country, officials said Thursday. “The ministry is seeking to raise its budget by 11 percent annually by 2008 to purchase or develop a set of sophisticated weapons,” said Maj. Gen. Bang Hyo-bok, a policy planning officer at the ministry.

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19. Russia Nuclear Deployment

Washington Post (“PUTIN: RUSSIA TO DEPLOY MISSILES ‘UNLIKELY TO EXIST’ ELSEWHERE”, 2004-11-18) reported that President Vladimir Putin told a conference of top military officials Wednesday that Russia was planning to deploy a nuclear missile of a kind that other nuclear powers were unlikely to develop. Putin gave no other details, but over the last several months Russian military officials have spoken about developing a ballistic missile that could penetrate any missile defense system, such as the one being put in place by the US. It reportedly would have the maneuverability of a cruise missile after reentering the atmosphere from space, helping it to evade interceptor rockets.

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20. Sino – Japanese Relations

The Associated Press (“CHINA SEEKS ‘FAVORABLE CONDITIONS’ FOR SUMMIT WITH JAPAN”, 2004-11-18) reported that the PRC said Thursday Japan still hadn’t met the conditions for their leaders to meet face to face at a gathering of Pacific Rim economies, hinting that Tokyo wasn’t sufficiently contrite about its World War II aggression. But for a one-on-one meeting to take place, “we still believe we need to create favorable conditions and atmosphere,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue, without specifying.

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21. Vanuatu on Cross Strait Relations

The Associated Press (“CHINA-TAIWAN RIVALRY HELPS POOR COUNTRIES”, 2004-11-18) reported that Vanuatu is the guest star in a different, even more lucrative competition: “Dollar Diplomacy,” the battle between the PRC and rival Taiwan to woo diplomatic partners. For poor countries in Africa, Latin America and the Pacific, switching recognition can mean a multimillion-dollar windfall of foreign-supplied roads, doctors and cash.

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22. Sino – US Currency Issue

Reuters (“BUSH LIKELY TO RAISE CURRENCY ISSUE WITH CHINA’S HU”, 2004-11-18) reported that President Bush is likely to raise US concerns about the PRC’s currency policies when he meets at a summit in Chile with PRC President Hu Jintao, a senior US official said on Wednesday. The US wants the PRC to adopt a more flexible exchange rate as a way to boost exports and help US manufacturers.

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23. PRC Cultural Diplomacy

The New York Times (“CHINESE MOVE TO ECLIPSE U.S. APPEAL IN SOUTH ASIA”, 2004-11-18) reported that the Sirindhorn Chinese Language and Culture Center is part of the PRC’s expanding presence across Southeast Asia and the Pacific, where Beijing is making a big push to market itself and its language, similar to the way the US promoted its culture and values during the cold war. It is not a hard sell, particularly to young Asians eager to cement cultural bonds as the PRC deepens its economic and political interests in the region.

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24. PRC Media

BBC News (“CHINA OPENS TV TO FOREIGN FIRMS”, 2004-11-18) reported that the PRC has announced it will allow foreign companies to buy large stakes in PRC television and film production ventures. The move, which takes effect on 28 November, will let foreign investors own up to 49% of the joint ventures. It marks a major reform in the rules governing the PRC’s tightly controlled broadcast market.

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