Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. United States

1. US – DPRK Relations

Jakarta (“POWELL: NO N. KOREA AID UNTIL DISARMAMENT”, 2004-07-02) reported that Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday that the DPRK would be wasting its time if it holds out for economic benefits from the US before showing serious intent to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. “As we follow the principle of word-for-word and deed-for-deed, we have to see deeds before we are prepared to put something on the table,” Powell told a news conference. Powell was here for the annual summer round of meetings of Pacific rim foreign ministers. DPRK Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun was also attending, and Powell said he and Paek would be involved in meetings Friday. “The solution has to begin with North Korea acknowledging, and be ready to acknowledge, all these nuclear programs that are a concern … leading ultimately in some subsequent phase to the dismantling and removal of all parts of the program,” Powell said.

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2. US – DPRK Relations

The Washington Post (“POWELL, N. KOREAN DIPLOMAT MEET ‘USEFUL’ DISCUSSION HELD ON NUCLEAR DISMANTLEMENT PROPOSALS”, 2004-07-02) reported that Secretary of State Colin Powell met with DPRK Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun, the highest-level discussions between the U.S. and DPRK since the crisis over the DPRK’s nuclear ambitions erupted 20 months ago. The 20-minute conversation, which occurred on the sidelines of a regional security conference in Jakarta, “was useful to help clarify each side’s proposals,” a State Department spokesman said.

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3. DPRK on Nuclear Crisis

Yonhap (“OFFICIAL: N. KOREA WANTS TO RESOLVE ITS NUCLEAR ROW IN ‘KUMCHANGNI METHOD’ “, 2004-07-04) reported that the DPRK wants to resolve its nuclear row with the US in a way that its earlier similar dispute was settled in a deal with Washington, ROK officials said Friday. In 1997, the US raised suspicion that the DPRK might be hiding secret nuclear facilities inside an underground tunnel at Kumchangni, a remote village north of its capital, Pyongyang.

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4. DPRK Missile Program

Bloomberg News (“N. KOREA MISSILE PROGRAM ‘SIGNIFICANTLY’ IMPROVED, KADISH SAYS”, 2004-07-01) reported that the DPRK has significantly improved the capability of its offensive ballistic missiles, including those that can reach the United States, Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, the Pentagon’s top missile defense official, said. While the DPRK has adhered to a 1999 moratorium on flight testing of its long-range missiles, “they haven’t stopped development,” said Kadish, who retires this week as head of the Missile Defense Agency.

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5. Inter – Korean Relations

Yonhap (“RIVAL KOREAS HOLD TALKS ON TENSION-REDUCTION MEASURES”, 2004-07-05) reported that the ROK and DPRK militaries opened discussions Monday that Seoul officials say will focus on the DPRK’s failure to follow through on initial agreements to take tension-easing measures along their heavily fortified border. Colonel-level officers of the rival states began a third round of talks on a set of tension-reduction measures reached by their general-grade officers last month, said Brig. Gen. Nam Dae-yeon, a spokesman at the Defense Ministry.

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6. ROK – DPRK Relations

The Associated Press (“REPORT: N. KOREA LEADER TO VISIT S. KOREA “, 2004-07-04) reported that DPRK leader Kim Jong Il has told a top PRC leader he intends to visit the ROK at an “appropriate time,” a former ROK presidential aide was quoted as saying Sunday in news report. Kim Han-jung, an aide to former ROK President Kim Dae-jung, said a top PRC official was told that Kim Jong Il intends to follow through on the trip and also meet former President Kim during the stay, the ROK’s Yonhap news agency reported. Kim Han-jung accompanied Kim Dae-jung on a five-day trip to the PRC last week. The presidential aide said he heard about a reciprocal DPRK visit “from a Chinese official who Kim met in person when he visited China (in April),” Yonhap said. The aide declined to identify the PRC official, only describing him as a “very trustworthy high-profile figure,” according to Yonhap.

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7. DPRK – US Joint MIA/POW Recovery

The Associated Press (“N. KOREA TURNS OVER POSSIBLE GI REMAINS “, 2004-07-01) reported that remains believed to be those of a U.S. soldier lost in the Korean War were honored Thursday after being turned over by the DPRK as part of a project to find thousands of missing soldiers. The remains, in a casket draped with the powder-blue United Nations flag, were loaded into a black hearse after a ceremony outside the 8th U.S. Army headquarters in Seoul that included a 21-gun salute and “Taps.” They were brought overland on Tuesday across the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone that has divided rival DPRK and ROK since the end of the 1950-53 conflict. They will be flown to Hawaii for identification. U.S. and DPRK teams recovered the remains as part of a joint search project that began in 1996 and has so far recovered more than 180 remains thought to be of U.S. soldiers.

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8. DPRK on US Bombers

The Associated Press (“N. KOREA CONDEMNS ARRIVAL OF U.S. JETS “, 2004-07-02) reported that the DPRK on Friday denounced the recent arrival of U.S. stealth fighter bombers in neighboring ROK as a signal that Washington was preparing to invade the DPRK. A squadron of F-117As arrived earlier this week at Kunsan Air Base south in Seoul. The U.S. military command said they would stay for several months of training exercises. The DPRK on Friday called it a sign of ill will as the US, the two Koreas and three other nations continue negotiations on dismantling the DPRK’s nuclear weapons program. The DPRK said “it must not go unnoticed” that fighter bombers arrived just after the latest round in six-nation talks on the nuclear issue, in the commentary carried by the North’s KCNA news agency. The commentary said the high-tech aircraft were undergoing “training to invade the DPRK.”

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9. DPRK Domestic Economy

Yonhap (“KOREAN ECONOMY UNLIKELY TO REVIVE DESPITE REFORM MEASURES “, 2004-07-06) reported that despite years of reform, the DPRK’s economy is unlikely to revive soon due to “fundamental problems,” an expert claimed Tuesday. “Two years have passed since Pyongyang began reforming its economy, but it is difficult to anticipate an economic revival yet,” Ko Il-dong, a researcher at the Korea Development Institute (KDI), told a meeting of government officials.

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10. DPRK Repatriation

Yonhap (“GOV’T TO REVIEW VIABILITY OF RETURNING FORMER N.K. SPIES: UNIFICATION MIN “, 2004-07-06) reported that the government has yet to make a decision on whether to allow more former DPRK spies in the ROK to return to their homeland, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Tuesday. Chung, responding to a question on the matter, told reporters, however, that the government will soon review the viability of allowing the repatriation of more ex-DPRK spies.

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11. Inter – Korean Transportation

Yonhap (“KOREAS AGREE TO COMPLETE DESIGNS FOR RAILWAY STATIONS IN N. KOREA “, 2004-07-05) reported that the ROK and DPRK agreed Friday to complete designs for the southernmost train stations on the DPRK’s side of cross-border transportation links through the eastern and western sections of the heavily fortified border between them by September. During this week’s talks at Mount Geumgang, a scenic resort area on the DPRK’s east coast, the ROK also agreed to provide such materials as lampposts and road signs for roads in both sections across the border.

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12. Russian – DPRK Relations

The Associated Press (“NORTH KOREA LEADER MEETS RUSSIAN OFFICIAL “, 2004-07-05) reported that the DPRK’s reclusive leader held a rare meeting Monday with Russia’s foreign minister, who reportedly delivered a letter from President Vladimir Putin and paid “special attention” to peace efforts on the Korean peninsula. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who visited the ROK over the weekend, had been expected to discuss the international standoff over the DPRK’s nuclear weapons program. Lavrov said “special attention was devoted to the peace settlement on the Korean Peninsula,” during his meeting with DPRK leader Kim Jong Il, according to a statement from the Kremlin. He and Kim conducted talks in a “cordial atmosphere,” the North’s official KCNA news agency reported, adding that Lavrov delivered a “personal letter” to Kim from the Russian president. KCNA gave no details about the letter, but Russia’s ITAR-Tass news agency reported that it touched “on problems of bilateral cooperation and regional security.”

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13. ROK Humanitarian Aid

Yonhap (“SOUTH KOREA TO SEND 400,000 TONS OF RICE TO NORTH KOREA”, 2004-07-06) reported that the ROK will send 400,000 tons of rice loan to the DPRK by the end of this year, the Unification Ministry said Tuesday. In a report to the National Assembly, the ministry said it will spend 312.6 billion won (US$270.7 million) to buy domestic and imported rice for shipments to the DPRK.

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14. Russia – DPRK Energy Trade

New York Times (“RUSSIA WANTS TO SUPPLY ENERGY TO NORTH KOREA “, 2004-07-04) reported that Russia is moving to become a major supplier of electricity and gas to the DPRK at a time when the supply of nonnuclear energy sources available to that impoverished country is emerging as an important bargaining chip in talks intended to defuse the DPRK’s nuclear weapons program. “We are building energy transmission lines to the North Korean border,” Sergei Darkin, governor of Russia’s Pacific Maritime region, said in an interview on Monday. Governor Darkin said that if President Vladimir V. Putin “gives us the task of transmitting energy to North Korea next year, we will be ready to do that.”

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15. DPRK – Japanese Relations

Yonhap (“N. KOREA SAYS RETURN OF JAPANESE HIJACKERS TO JAPAN IS POSSIBLE”, 2004-07-05) reported that the DPRK said on Monday that it is not opposed to the return of members of a Japanese terrorist group who hijacked a commercial airplane in 1970 to their native country. In a dispatch from the DPRK, state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that the return of members of the Japanese Red Army is an internal issue that requires direct consultations between Japan and Red Army members.

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16. PRC – US Meeting

Reuters (“BUSH ADVISER RICE TO VISIT CHINA JULY 8-9”, 2004-07-05) reported that U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice will visit the PRC this week, the PRC Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, for talks expected to focus on Iraq and the crisis over DPRK’s nuclear programs. “The visit by Rice was just decided by the two sides,” a ministry official said, declining to give details of her schedule other than the dates. Rice’s PRC stop on July 8-9 will be sandwiched between talks in Tokyo with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and meetings in Seoul with ROK President Roh Moo-hyun and other senior officials.

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17. US – PRC Relations

The Washington Post (“7 HELD ON ARMS-EXPORT CHARGES SUSPECTS ACCUSED OF HELPING CHINESE OBTAIN TECHNOLOGY”, 2004-07-02) reported that federal agents arrested seven persons in two suburban New Jersey towns and charged them with exporting millions of dollars’ worth of sensitive military technology and components to the PRC. The arrests were the latest in a crackdown on what authorities believe is a clandestine network purchasing weapons technology across the US for the PRC.

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18. Cross – Straights Relations

Reuters (“CHINA GEARS UP FOR SHOWDOWN, BALL IN TAIWAN’S COURT “, 2004-07-05) reported that when the PRC holds war games on Dongshan island off its southeastern coast this month, its SU-27 fighters will battle for air superiority and back up an amphibious landing in a mock invasion of Taiwan. Convinced that Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian will push for statehood during his second four-year term, the PRC is readying for a showdown with the island. Booming PRC wants to avoid conflict, analysts say. The ball is in Taiwan’s court — whether conflict breaks out hinges on how far Chen pushes the envelope. “They do not wish to use force…This is not their preferred course of action. But they are preparing for worst-case scenarios,” said David Shambaugh, an expert on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at George Washington University. “I’ve been coming to China every year for the last 25 years, I have never sensed a higher level of anxiety over the Taiwan issue than at the present time.”

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19. PRC Heat Wave

The Associated Press (“REPORT: HEAT WAVE IN CHINA CITY KILLS 39 “, 2004-07-04) reported that a heat wave in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou killed 39 people over two days, a government newspaper reported Sunday. Temperatures hit a record 102 degrees in Guangzhou on Thursday and Friday, the Beijing Youth Daily reported. It said most of the 39 dead were elderly people who had been in poor health. Hundreds of people were rushed to medical centers suffering dizziness or fevers, the paper said.

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20. PRC Bird Flu

The Associated Press (“CHINA CONFIRMS NEW CASES OF BIRD FLU”, 2004-07-06) reported that the PRC reported a new outbreak of bird flu and Thailand said it had a suspected case – signs of a return of the highly contagious disease that health experts fear could sicken humans. China declared it had defeated the disease in March after killing 9 million chickens and other poultry. But it warned that the disease might come back with warmer weather. “It’s not surprising that it has come back,” said Roy Wadia of the World Health Organization in Beijing. “It stays in the environment a long time.” The farm, in the city of Chaohu near a lake of the same name, has been quarantined, China Central Television said. Authorities killed all the poultry within two miles of the affected farm and vaccinated poultry within three miles, the report said. It said the outbreak was under control.

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21. PRC SARS Response

The Associated Press (“HONG KONG RESPONSE TO SARS SAID INADEQUATE”, 2004-07-05) reported that top Hong Kong health officials responded inadequately to SARS, according to a legislative report Monday that was packed with sharp criticisms but stopped short of recommending that anybody be fired or punished. The report praised Hong Kong’s leader, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, for setting the right priorities in fighting the respiratory ailment when he urged officials to err on the side of caution and suggested quarantining relatives of victims. The legislative report, prepared during an eight-month investigation, said the Hong Kong health secretary, Dr. Yeoh Eng-kiong, and then-health director Dr. Margaret Chan had not paid sufficient attention when a mysterious disease – later identified as SARS – emerged in China’s Guangdong province. In a scathing attack on their performance, lawmakers found that both Yeoh and Chan had been “not satisfactory” in their reaction to the SARS epidemic.

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22. PRC Domestic Economy

Reuters (“CHINA LOOKS TO LOOSEN CAPITAL CONTROLS”, 2004-07-06) reported that the PRC aims to issue new policies soon to loosen restrictions on capital flows in and out of the country, a move that analysts say could lay the groundwork for eventual liberalization of the hotly debated yuan currency. “We are studying and will issue new policies on capital account management in the near term mainly focusing on the outflow of capital,” state media on Monday quoted vice director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange Wei Benhua as saying. No timetable for the loosening of controls or details of planned policy changes were revealed by official PRC papers.

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23. PRC on Hong Kong Protest

The Associated Press (“CHINA OFFICIAL DECRIES HONG KONG SLOGANS”, 2004-07-05) reported that a top PRC official in Hong Kong attacked pro-democracy activists Monday for using “inappropriate” slogans during a mass rally last week. Nevertheless, the head of Beijing’s liaison office here, Gao Siren, said Hong Kong people will continue to enjoy the freedom of speech that they were guaranteed when Britain returned Hong Kong to the PRC seven years ago, according to local radio reports. But Gao said some residents were pushing things too far, for example by using the slogan “end the one-party dictatorship” – a reference to the PRC’s ruling Communist Party – during last week’s march that demanded universal suffrage.

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24. PRC Evictions

Agence France-Presse (“COMPLAINTS EXPLODE IN CHINA OVER HOME EVICTIONS “, 2004-07-05) reported that the PRC government has seen a huge surge in complaints lodged by ordinary citizens because they have been evicted from their homes to make room for new developments, state media said. In the first half of the year, the Ministry of Construction was contacted by 18,620 people with grievances, more than the entire number recorded during all of 2003, the China Daily reported. The increase could be linked to a dramatic expansion in investment in the property market, fueling concerns about an overheated economy. In the first quarter, when activity on the property market was particularly feverish, the number of complaints was three times as large as in the same period the year before, according to the paper. Land disputes triggered by the need for real estate to feed the hungry property industry have emerged as one of the top causes of public discontent in modern China.

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25. Taiwan Flooding

The Associated Press (“RESCUE WORK IN TAIWAN CONTINUES”, 2004-07-06) reported that workers used bulldozers and shovels Tuesday to clear and repair mountain roads damaged by massive flooding that has killed at least 23 people, left 14 others missing and stranded thousands of villagers in central and southern Taiwan. Tropical storm Mindulle has pounded the island since the weekend. Torrential rains at the storm’s fringes have caused Taiwan’s worst floods in 25 years. The death toll rose by two to 23 on Tuesday while 14 others were missing and feared dead, the National Disaster Relief Center said. With heavy rains easing, workers began rebuilding the 123 sections of roads that were damaged by mudslides or washed away by raging floodwaters. The repair will take at least 10 days at a total cost of $55 million, the Transportation Ministry said.

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26. PRC Economic Reform

The Associated Press (“CUSTOMERS PROTEST AT SHANGHAI BANK “, 2004-07-06) reported that angry customers staged a rare sit-in protest at a branch of one of the PRC’s biggest state-owned banks over fears that an investment fund had failed. The protest at the Communications Bank underscores worries about public confidence in the PRC’s banks, which hold at least $1.2 trillion in deposits but are struggling under mountains of bad loans. Depositors say the bank encouraged them to buy into an investment fund that they are afraid has failed. Protesters said they want an explanation and for the bank to take some responsibility, though it wasn’t clear whether they expect it to repay them.

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27. PRC Energy Needs

The New York Times (“CHINA’S BOOM BRINGS FEAR OF AN ELECTRICITY BREAKDOWN”, 2004-07-05) reported that with the hottest days of summer fast approaching, Shanghai is making preparations to seed clouds over the city to make it rain, in the hope that a couple of degrees of reduced temperatures will help ward off brownouts, or worse, here in the PRC’s commercial capital. With the PRC projecting a 20-million-kilowatt shortfall in electricity supplies this year, actions like these are anything but isolated. With severe power shortages predicted for the country’s southern and eastern regions, Guangzhou, the PRC’s third largest city, an industrial powerhouse, has had rationing since January, six months earlier than the emergency measures put into effect last year. The worry, put bluntly, is that the world simply may not have enough energy and other resources for the PRC to continue developing along present lines, especially at its present rate. Furthermore, sharply increased environmental damage might make the country unlivable, even if such growth could be sustained. The PRC’s predicament is reflected in a simple statistic: this country is already the world’s second-largest consumer of energy, and yet on a per capita basis, the PRC consume scarcely 10 percent of the energy used by Americans. “There is nothing about China’s environmental situation that is not critical,” said Jiang Jilian, a member of Friends of Nature, a private PRC environmental group. “The government may have a sense they should do more about this, but they still have another priority – economic development.”

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28. ROK Domestic Economy

The Associated Press (“S. KOREA WATCHDOG URGES END TO BANK STRIKE”, 2004-07-06) reported that the 12-day-old strike at Citigroup-owned KorAm bank could disrupt the ROK’s financial market and should be resolved quickly, the country’s financial watchdog said Tuesday. KorAm’s 2,500 unionized workers began the strike June 25, demanding wage hikes and job guarantees in the wake of a takeover by New York-based Citigroup earlier this year. “If the ongoing labor-management negotiations are not resolved smoothly and such situation continues, the related government authorities will not be able to continue to neglect the issue because losses at the bank as well as possible confusion in the financial market can be foreseen,” the Financial Supervisory Commission said in a statement.

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29. Japanese Energy Project

The Associated Press (“JAPAN TO BEGIN SEARCH FOR NATURAL GAS “, 2004-07-06) reported that Japan will launch a $27.5 million project this week to explore the East China Sea bed for natural gas, an official said Tuesday, an undertaking that would put Tokyo in direct competition with neighboring PRC for potential offshore gas deposits. Japanese officials have grown increasingly worried that the PRC’s undersea drilling might draw gas from the Japanese side. The PRC, which has conducted its own studies, has suggested that the two countries develop the area together, but Tokyo has refused. Last week, the PRC said it was “gravely concerned” about Japan’s plan to search for gas, and warned Tokyo not to take “any action that may imperil China’s interest and complicate the current situation.”

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30. Japanese Abductee Reunion

Reuters (“JAPAN ABDUCTEE WORRIED AS FAMILY REUNION APPROACHES”, 2004-07-06) reported that a Japanese woman abducted to the DPRK decades ago said on Tuesday she was looking forward to a reunion with her family living in Pyongyang, but that she was worried about whether they could ever live together again. Hitomi Soga will be reunited with her husband, Charles Jenkins, a former U.S. army sergeant who Washington says is a deserter, and their two DPRK-born daughters in Indonesia on Friday. “The day that the four of us can hug each other is approaching, it’s right in front of us. I am happy and relieved,” Soga, 45, told a news conference.

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31. AIDS in Asia

The Associated Press (“U.N.: ASIA HAS OPPORTUNITY TO FIGHT AIDS”, 2004-07-06) reported that Asia has an opportunity to control its HIV/AIDS crisis, but failure to act quickly could lead to an epidemic of major proportions, a United Nations expert said Tuesday. “Asia is facing life and death choices when it comes to the epidemic,” said Kathleen Cravero, deputy executive director of UNAIDS. The report said that about a half million Asians are believed to have died of AIDS last year, and roughly twice that number were newly infected. The epidemic in Asia is expanding rapidly, primarily in the PRC, Indonesia and Vietnam, which make up approximately 50 percent of Asia’s population, said Cravero. The report points says that although the rate of HIV prevalence is low in the PRC and India both have serious localized epidemics which could spread. Ten million Chinese may be infected with HIV by 2010 unless effective action is urgently taken, it cautioned. “There’s a famous window of opportunity to get prevention programs up-to-scale in Asia. If we miss it, we will see an epidemic the likes of which we never imagined despite what has happened in Africa,” Cravero said.

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32. Truth Commission Report

Chosun Ilbo (“TRUTH COMMISSION SAYS NK SPIES AND PRO-NORTH GUERRILLA CONTRIBUTED TO DEMOCRACY”, 2004-07-02) reported that a government institute said that those who struggle against unjust government forces to defend one’s ideology and conscience, despite refusing to accept liberal democracy, can be seen as in association with the democratization movement. The Presidential Truth Commission on Suspicious Deaths decided Thursday to pave the way for DPRK spies Choi Sok-gi, Park Ung-seo and Sohn Yoon-kyu, who died while being forced to change their ideology in prison during the revitalizing reform periods, to have their honor restored.

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33. DPRK Asylum Seeker

Chosun Ilbo (“N. KOREAN MISSILE ENGINEER IN SOUTH APPLIES FOR ASYLUM IN U.S.”, 2004-07-05) reported that it was learned Saturday that a couple that came to ROK as defectors from DPRK has applied for exile in U.S.. A diplomatic source in Washington said 58-year-old Lee Bok-gu and his wife Lee Sun-hui (not their real names), who fled DPRK in 1997 and came to ROK in 1999, have applied with U.S. authorities for exile. Lee is known to have been a DPRK missile engineer, and appeared before U.S. Congressional hearing twice — wearing a mask — to give testimony on DPRK missile development.

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34. ROK – DPRK Cyberlinks

Joongang Ilbo (“CYBER LINKS TO NORTH ARE PROPOSED”, 2004-07-04) reported that Lawmakers are preparing to introduce a bill that would legalize ROK access to DPRK Web sites. Thirty-four lawmakers of governing and opposition parties said yesterday they have presented an amendment bill to the current Inter-Korean Cooperation and Exchange Act. The current act says that “ROK residents attempting to contact DPRK residents through communications or meetings must receive permission from the unification minister.” The amendment, if passed, would make the Internet an exception to the act. “Already, many ROK Internet users freely visit DPRK Web sites,” said Jeong Moon-heon, a Grand National lawmaker. “The government says [allowing legal] access to DPRK web sites could result in delivery of Pyeongyang’s propaganda to ROK people, [but] on the contrary, it co! uld become a tool leading DPRK to reform and openness, considering the technology and information gap between ROK & DPRK.” Many ROK people already belong to such DPRK Web sites as Uriminzokkiri (www.uriminzokkiri.com) that provide DPRK music and movies. Such memberships are now illegal.

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35. ROK on Iraq Dispatch

Chosun Ilbo (“POLL: 54% OF KOREANS APPROVE TROOP DISPATCH”, 2004-07-05) reported that Ever since ROK hostage Kim Sun-il was killed in Iraq two weeks ago the public opinion here in ROK has been shifting towards supporting the government’s additional troop dispatch to Iraq. According to Sunday’s poll results by Research & Research, more than half of the 800 surveyed adults supported the deployment, while nearly 37 percent still wanted the plan dropped altogether. Figures also show more men were in favor of the dispatch and people in their 50s were more supportive to the move as opposed to those in their 20s. Just three months ago in April, m! ore than 50 percent of the respondents were against sending more troops to Iraq, while 41 percent were for the deployment. The poll surveyed ROK adults over 20 years of age across the nation excluding Jeju Island with a plus-minus 3.46 percent margin of error.

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36. Japan on Iraq Donors Conference

Kyodo (“JAPAN TO HOST DONORS’ CONFERENCE ON IRAQ”, 2004-06-30) reported that Japan told the US on Monday it would host a donors conference on Iraq in October, a Japanese official said. Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi announced the plan when he met with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage as part of the Japan-US Strategic Dialogue, the official said. Takeuchi assured Armitage that Japan will continue to deploy troops to Iraq and provide financial assistance to the country. Armitage praised Japan for its plan to host a ministerial conference on the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq, which consists of two trust funds administered by the UN Development Program and the World Bank. Japan has pledged $490 million for the funds, about half the $1 billion offered by international donors as this year’s donations. Including its donations to the funds, Japan’s financial assistance to Iraq will total $5 billion over the next four years.

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37. Japan Iraq Troops Dispatch

The Asahi Shimbun (“IRAQIS SAY GSDF OK, BUT WHERE ARE THEY?”, 2004-06-29) reported that a poll of residents of the southern Iraq province of Muthanna showed that 85 percent support the presence of Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) members although about 68 percent said they had never or rarely seen the troops do anything. Asked about the GSDF presence in Samawah, 64 percent said they “very much approved” of Japanese troops stationed there, while 21 percent said they approved “on the whole.” On the other hand, 8 percent said they were “opposed on the whole” to Japanese troops in Samawah and 5 percent were “totally opposed.” Asked about the troops’ activities — supplying clean water to the local community and providing medical care — 85 percent welcomed what the GSDF is doing. Of those, 53 percent said the GSDF activities were very helpful to the local people. In contrast, as for occupation troops remaining in Iraq as part of a multinational force, 50 percent said they were “totally opposed” and 20 percent “opposed on the whole.” Defense Agency official said the poll showed that the “Iraqi people view the SDF and the US military separately.” The June 19-22 survey was jointly conducted by The Asahi Shimbun and the al-Samawah newspaper.

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38. PRC-Japan Relations on DPRK Defectors

Kyodo (“JAPANESE WHO AIDED NORTH KOREANS GETS EIGHT-MONTH SENTENCE IN CHINA”, 2004-06-29) reported that a Chinese court sentenced a Japanese man to eight months in prison on June 28 for helping North Koreans who entered the PRC to go to a third country, but said his prison term will end Aug. 9 to take into account the time he has spent in custody. The Intermediate People’s Court in Chongzuo said Takayuki Noguchi, 32, will be deported after his prison term ends. It also fined Noguchi 20,000 yuan (260,000 yen). He is expected to return to Japan by the end of August if he does not appeal the ruling. It is the first time for a Japanese national to be indicted and convicted in connection with assisting North Koreans fleeing their country. Noguchi has been detained since he was arrested by Chinese authorities on Dec. 10 near the Vietnamese border in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, when he was with two North Koreans who were previously residents of Japan. Noguchi, who belongs to the Japanese nongovernmental organization Life Funds for North Korean Refugees, was charged with assisting in smuggling people out of the PRC. The group’s secretary general, Hiroshi Kato, was also detained by Chinese authorities for a week from late October to early November 2002 before being deported. In Japan, the ruling was criticized by NGOs as being too strict. Kato of Life Funds for North Korean Refugees charged that Noguchi’s arrest itself was an unjust suppression of activities aimed at assisting North Koreans seeking asylum, seekers, and added that the contents of the ruling were also unforgivable. Masaharu Nakagawa, a lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Japan, said people fleeing from the DPRK should be treated as refugees. “If they are sent back to their homeland, their lives may be in danger.”

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39. Japan Nuclear Industry Data Fabrication

Kyodo (“KEPCO UNCOVERS DATA-FABRICATION SCAM”, 2004-06-29) reported that Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) said on June 28 it found 3,659 cases of fabricated records at its 11 thermal power generation facilities between fiscal 2000 and 2003. Japan’s second-largest electric utility said the fabrication of data regarding regular facility checkups and administrative matters was uncovered at 10 of its thermal power plants and a generation site that provides electricity to Kansai International Airport. KEPCO said it will do its best to prevent a recurrence before its next round of voluntary checks begins in September, and added it is considering reprimanding those who were involved in especially malicious fabrications. Hideji Sugiyama, vice minister of economy, trade and industry, told a news conference, “We will scrutinize the case, possibly with additional inspections, and decide whether we need to give an administrative punishment to the company.” Asked about possible repercussions on the government’s policy of promoting the recycling of spent nuclear fuel, Sugiyama said, “I don’t think (the case) is directly linked with the issue of the safety of nuclear power generation.”

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40. Japan-RF Relations

Kyodo (“RUSSIA SEIZES JAPANESE FISHING BOAT”, 2004-06-29) reported that a Japanese fishing boat was seized by border guards off Russia’s eastern coast in the Sea of Japan, the Aomori Prefectural Government said on June 28. Russian authorities apparently suspect the 138-ton Genei Maru No. 5 with nine crewmen on board was engaged in poaching in Russia’s exclusive economic zone. The vessel, out of Hachinohe port in Aomori Prefecture, was ordered on June 27 by a patrol ship to halt in Russia’s exclusive economic zone and was found by inspectors to be carrying 30 tons of salmon and 100 kg of salmon roe, they said. The Foreign Ministry said it has information that the boat was towed to the port city of Olga and officials said they were trying to confirm this with Russian authorities.

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41. Japan Constitutional Revision

The Asahi Shimbun (“KOIZUMI PUSHES COLLECTIVE SELF-DEFENSE”, 2004-06-28) reported that in debate over the role of Self-Defense Forces (SDF), Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called for constitutional revision so that Japan could engage in collective self-defense with US forces for the defense of Japan. “The issue … is not about Japan joining the fight when US forces engage in combat. However, if Japan is unable to take joint action with US forces when they are fighting for the defense of Japan, I find that wrong,” Koizumi said Sunday. During a televised debate aired on Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) in which Koizumi made the remark, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) President Katsuya Okada countered Koizumi. The “spirit of Article 9, which forbids use of force overseas, should be maintained,” he said. “If the notion of collective self-defense becomes widely accepted, there is a strong possibility that Japan will have to join wars waged by the United States in other countries,” Okada said. Takenori Kanzaki, head of the ruling coalition junior partner New Komeito, took a cautious stance toward Koizumi’s statement. “We are conducting debate on the Constitution without taboo subjects, but that debate has yet to reach the point where we are able to change our support of Article 9,” Kanzaki said, adding, “The overwhelming opinion in our party is that collective self-defense should not be permitted.”

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42. CanKor # 172

US Secretary of State Colin Powell met with North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Jakarta this week. It was the highest-level meeting between the two countries since 2002. Also in Jakarta, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon in his meeting with Foreign Minister Paek, extended an invitation to Kim Jong Il and other North Korean delegates to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit scheduled for November in Seoul. The DPRK Foreign Ministry issued a public statement which describes the latest round of six party talks as helpful to making progress? A new Tom Clancy computer game which features as opponent a rogue North Korean general, has attracted the DPRK’s attention. A recent article appearing in North Korean press called the game Proof of US warmongering. Last week, CanKor featured an interview with Robert Gallucci, lead US negotiator of the 1994 Agreed Framework and author of Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis. This week CanKor BOOK REVIEW features a review by Scott Snyder, Senior Associate at the Asia Foundation. The Brookings Institute publication was co-authored by Joel S. Wit, senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and coordinator for the Agreed Framework. Fellow co-author Daniel B. Poneman is a principal in The Scowcroft Group, who served on the National Security Council staff under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, including nearly four years as special assistant to the President for non-proliferation.