NAPSNet Daily Report Tuesday, July 12, 2005

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NAPSNet Daily Report Tuesday, July 12, 2005

NAPSNet Daily Report Tuesday, July 12, 2005

I. Unites States

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. Unites States

1. US on Six Party Talks

Bloomberg Press (“NORTH KOREA MUST MAKE “STRATEGIC DECISION” ON ARMS “, 2005-07-12) reported that the DPRK’s government must make a “strategic decision” on its nuclear weapons program for six- party talks to succeed, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “What we really need is a strategic decision on the part of the north that they are indeed ready to give up their nuclear weapons because without that these talks cannot be successful” Rice said.

(return to top) Xinhua (“US: NO NEW INCENTIVES FOR SIX-PARTY TALKS”, 2005-07-12) reported that in light of the DPRK’s intentions to return to the six-party talks, Washington says it will offer no new incentives to disarm Pyongyang nuclear program. When asked if the US is willing to negotiate the terms of a proposal made last year, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the US is waiting for DPRK to respond to the proposal before deciding its next step. (return to top)

2. DPRK Return to Six Party Talks

The Globe and Mail (“U.S. TRIES COURTESY WITH NORTH KOREA”, 2005-07-11) reported that DPRK’s announcement of a return to the nuclear bargaining table may be largely due to a newly respectful tone by US leaders who now refer to the DPRK’s leader as “Mr. Kim.” At a dinner in Beijing this weekend, US diplomats gave further assurances of respect for the DPRK, including a repeat of its promise that the US had no intention of invading. “The U.S. side clarified its official stand to recognize the DPRK as a sovereign state, not to invade it, and hold bilateral talks within the framework of the six-party talks,” the KCNA said after the Beijing dinner on Saturday.

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3. ROK, US, Japan Meeting on Six Party Talk Strategy

The Korea Times (“TRILATERAL MEETING DUE IN SEOUL “, 2005-07-12) reported that the chief nuclear negotiators of the ROK, the US and Japan will meet in Seoul on Thursday to coordinate strategies for the six-party talks, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Tuesday.

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4. ROK on Aid to DPRK, Six Party Talks

The Korea Times (“SEOUL OFFERS ELECTRICITY AID TO NK “, 2005-07-12) reported that ROK plans to provide electricity to DPRK if Pyongyang agrees to scrap its nuclear weapons programs at the upcoming six-party talks, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said. Pyongyang has not yet reacted to the offer. But DPRK experts believe that the proposal persuaded Pyongyang to come back to the multilateral talks on its nuclear ambition. “I think the electricity supply could start when Pyongyang fulfills the process of nuclear dismantlement,” Chung said.

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5. Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation

Joong Ang Ilbo (“NORTH, SOUTH REACH ACCORD ON PROJECTS “, 2005-05-12) reported that the two Koreas agreed on a range of projects that include the opening of a new office in Kaesong to channel investments to the DPRK and an agreement to meet later this month to discuss commercial fishing operations near inter-Korean waters. The two sides also reached an accord to hold ceremonies in October to mark the restoration of cross-border railroad lines.

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6. Uri Party Hold Workshop in DPRK

The Korea Times (“URI HOLDS WORKSHOP ON MT. KUMGANG “, 2005-07-11) reported that the ruling Uri Party began a two-day workshop at the DPRK’s coastal resort of Mt. Kumgang early Monday, the first ROK political party event held in the DPRK. “It took 60 years for a South Korean party to hold an event in the North,” party chairman Moon Hee-sang told. Their workshop seeks to set a party agenda for the second half of this year and consolidate interaction among members from different regions, party officials said.

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7. PRC Car Culture

The New York Times (“A CITY’S TRAFFIC PLANS ARE SNARLED BY CHINA’S CAR CULTURE”, 2005-07-12) reported that when officials drew up the blueprints for the redesign of this city in the early 1980’s, nary a skyscraper punctuated the low-slung horizon, whose buildings mostly dated from the decades of Western control early in the last century. The hugely ambitious plans called for Shanghai to be built anew. And among the top priorities in a city previously dominated by bicycles was avoiding the most common plagues of the automobile age – unmanageable traffic and unbearable pollution.

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8. PRC Protest Arrests

Los Angeles Times (“ARRESTS MADE IN ATTACK ON VILLAGE PROTESTERS”, 2005-07-12) reported that authorities have arrested more than 100 people and are investigating two Communist Party officials after a June 11 attack on a shantytown in northern PRC left six people dead and 48 wounded, the government said. The violence erupted over a planned power station in the village of Shengyou in Hebei province. Villagers disputed the compensation offered by officials for their land and occupied the proposed site in 2004, the official New China News Agency said.

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9. US on PRC Military

Reuters (“U.S. CONCERNED ABOUT CHINA MILITARY BUILDUP – RICE”, 2005-07-12) reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday the US government, not just the Pentagon, had concerns about the PRC’s military buildup, but that it did not necessarily constitute a threat. “There is no doubt that we have concerns about the size and pace of the Chinese military buildup and it’s not just the Pentagon,” Rice told a news conference in Beijing after meeting PRC President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing.

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10. Sino-Australian Trade Relations

Kyodo News (“CHINA EDGES OUT JAPAN AS AUSTRALIA’S TOP IMPORT SOURCE IN E. ASIA”, 2005-07-12) reported that the PRC has overtaken Japan as Australia’s largest source of imported goods and services in East Asia, the Australian Associated Press reported Tuesday. The value of imported PRC goods and services hit A$19 billion (US$14.3 billion) in 2004 compared with A$18.7 billion from Japan, AAP reported, citing a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade study.

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11. Japan, Russia on Nuclear Sub Dismantlement

Agence France Presse (“JAPAN, RUSSIA TO BEGIN NEXT PHASE OF NUCLEAR SUB DISMANTLING PLAN”, 2005-07-12) reported that Japan and Russia hope to begin later this year the second phase of a plan to dismantle ageing Russian nuclear submarines that threaten to pollute in the Sea of Japan, a visiting Japanese official said. Under phase two of the bilateral “Star of Hope” project, five Russian nuclear submarines are to be dismantled, said Kawai Katsuyuki, the foreign ministry’s parliamentary secretary. “If talks with Moscow are concluded favourably, work on the second phase can start as soon as the autumn,” Katsuyuki said during a tour of several nuclear sites in the Russian Far East.

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12. PRC on Cross Strait Relations

Agence-France Presse (“TAIWANESE MUST FIGHT INDEPENDENCE AS THEY FOUGHT THE JAPANESE: OFFICIAL”, 2005-07-12) reported that a senior PRC official has called on Taiwanese people to fight “Taiwan independence” in the way they fought Japan when it invaded China 60 years ago. Wang Zaixi, vice minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said the 1937-1945 war against the Japanese had taught Chinese people that “only a rich and powerful China can avoid being bullied by others.” “Escalating secessionist activities pose the biggest and most destructive threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits,” Wang said told a forum attended by delegates from a minor Taiwan opposition party.

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13. Russia Oil Pipeline

Kyodo (“RUSSIA PRIORITIZES CHINA OVER JAPAN FOR OIL”, 2005-07-12) reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country will prioritize the PRC over Japan as the recipient of oil supplies from a pipeline project linking eastern Siberia with the Russian Far East, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported yesterday. Both Japan and the PRC have tried to convince Russia to favor it in planning the pipeline’s route. The PRC, which had initially inked the deal for a pipeline from the Siberian oil fields to Daqing, later offered Moscow more than $13 billion, Kyodo said.

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14. PRC on UNSC Expansion

People’s Daily Online (“CHINA OPPOSED TO FORCED VOTING ON UNSC REFORM”, 2005-07-12) reported that the PRC is resolutely opposed to setting a time limit for the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) reform and forcing a voting on proposals where major division still exists, reiterated Wang Guangya, PRC Ambassador to the United Nations on July 11, 2005. Wang made the remarks at the UN General Assembly’s debate on the reform of UNSC.

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15. US on UNSC Expansion

Reuters (“U.S. SAYS IT BACKS JAPAN’S BID FOR UN COUNCIL SEAT”, 2005-07-12) reported that the US said on Tuesday it supports Japan’s bid for a UN Security Council seat but stopped short of endorsing a UN reform proposal made by the Group of Four — Japan, Germany, India and Brazil. “I reaffirmed to the foreign minister our support for a Japanese seat on the United Nations Security Council,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters after holding talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura in Tokyo.

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16. Japan Space Program

The Associated Press (“JAPAN SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES M-5 ROCKET, SATELLITE INTO ORBIT”, 2005-07-12) reported that Japan on Sunday successfully launched a rocket carrying X-ray telescopes into Earth’s orbit to examine black holes and galaxies, the country’s space agency said. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, staged a live Web telecast of the M-5 rocket being shot into a cloudy sky from Uchinoura, 985 kilometers (620 miles) southwest of Tokyo.

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17. Yasukuni Shrine Issue

Kyodo (“LDP LAWMAKERS CONCERNED ABOUT YASUKUNI ROW LAUNCH STUDY GROUP”, 2005-07-12) reported that dozens of pro-PRC lawmakers in the governing Liberal Democratic Party launched a study group Tuesday out of concern over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s controversial visits to the war-related Yasukuni Shrine. The group was formed to counter another LDP body recently launched to support Koizumi’s Yasukuni visits.

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