NAPSNet Daily Report Tuesday, May 03, 2005

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NAPSNet Daily Report Tuesday, May 03, 2005

NAPSNet Daily Report Tuesday, May 03, 2005

I. United States

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. United States

1. US on DPRK Nuclear Test

Chosun Ilbo (“SPY SATELLITES ‘DETECT POSSIBLE N.K. NUKE TEST SITE'”, 2005-05-03) reported that US intelligence authorities have told ROK intelligence that they have detected suspicious activity indicating possible preparations for an underground nuclear test in Kilju County in the DPRK’s North Hamgyeong Province, sources said. “US spy satellites took in an area of Kilju County, North Hamgyeong Province images of frequent truck movement bringing cranes and other equipment,” a government official said. “I understand that US intelligence, putting together the satellite photos with other information, believes it possible that North Korea is preparing for an underground nuclear test in the area, and that they sent the photos and analysis to Korean intelligence authorities.”

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2. ROK on DPRK Nuclear Test

Korea Times (“SEOUL DENIES REPORT ON NK NUKE TEST”, 2005-05-03) reported that the government dismissed reports that the US alerted Seoul to intelligence it had indicating the DPRK was preparing to conduct an underground nuclear test in the northeastern region of the DPRK. “We’ve received no such intelligence from the US government, nor have we seen any signs of preparation for a nuclear test,” Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung told reporters before attending a weekly Cabinet meeting at Chong Wa Dae.

(return to top) Korea Herald (“SOUTH KOREA, U.S. KEEP CLOSE WATCH ON N.K. TUNNELS”, 2005-05-03) reported that ROK and US intelligence authorities have been keeping track of DPRK construction of underground tunnels in a northeastern region, raising speculation they could be for military purposes although any use as an underground nuclear test site appears unlikely because the area is populated. Defense Ministry officials said yesterday the authorities have watched the construction since the late 1990s in Gilju County, in North Hamgyeong Province, but have not been able to verify the purpose of the tunnels. “Korea and the United States have continuously been checking the process of the tunnel construction, but the specific aim is uncertain at this moment,” ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Shin Hyun-don told reporters. (return to top)

3. Russia on DPRK Nuclear Test

Pravda RU (“NORTH KOREA COULD HOLD NUCLEAR TEST IN JUNE, SENIOR RUSSIAN LAWMAKER SAYS”, 2005-05-03) reported that the DPRK could hold a nuclear test as early as next month, a senior Russian lawmaker warned, saying the situation had reached a critical point, a Russian news agency reported. “There are grounds now to believe that North Korea may test a nuclear device already in June,” the head of the Russian lower house of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Konstantin Kosachyov, was quoted as saying by the RIA-Novosti news agency on its Web site. Kosyachov, who is to lead a delegation of Russian lawmakers to Pyongyang later this week, criticized the US for seeking to put pressure on the DPRK over its nuclear weapons program. He said such a policy risked forcing the DPRK out of the diplomatic arena.

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4. ROK on DPRK Missile Program

Joongang Ilbo (“NORTH APPEARS TO HAVE TESTED NEWER MISSILE”, None) reported that military officials said yesterday that an analysis of a DPRK missile test Sunday indicated that Pyongyang has upgraded its short-range missile capability, enabling it to strike US military bases that are being established 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Seoul. “Tracking the trajectory of the missile, it appeared to be a ballistic missile, not a cruise missile such as Silkworm,” a military official told the JoongAng Ilbo. “If the North Koreans upgraded their FROG-7 rockets to ground-to-ground missiles with ranges of 100 to 200 kilometers (62 to 124 miles), the US military bases to be relocated to Pyeongtaek by 2008 will fall under their range,” the military source said.

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5. US on DPRK Missile Program

Itar-Tass (“SIX-PARTY TALKS SHOULD ADDRESS MISSILE WPN DESIGN BY NKOREA-RICE”, None) reported that the issue related to the development of missile weapons in the DPRK should at a certain stage become part of the six-party talks aimed at the DPRK nuclear problem settlement, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters after talks with French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier in the US capital on Monday. The US Secretary of State also noted Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear programs are the concern of all countries of the region, and not just a factor of relations between the US and DPRK.

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6. US on DPRK Nuclear Issue

Agence France Presse (“US HAS ‘SIGNIFICANT’ DETERRENT CAPABILITY AGAINST NORTH KOREA: RICE”, 2005-05-03) reported that the US has “significant deterrent capability” to thwart the DPRK’s nuclear ambitions, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned as the White House called a weekend missile test by Pyongyang “provocative.” Rice told reporters, after talks here with French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, that “the United States maintains significant, I want to underline significant, deterrent capability of all kinds in the Asia-Pacific region. “So I don’t think there should be any doubt about our ability to deter whatever the North Koreans are up to,” she said.

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7. Inter-Korean Relations

Korea Times (“NUKE RESOLUTION CRUCIAL FOR FUTURE PEACE TREATY”, 2005-05-03) reported that the ROK should build a peace regime by replacing the 1953 armistice agreement with a peace treaty and a resolution of the regional standoff over the DPRK’s nuclear problem will be a part of the process, Vice Unification Minister Rhee Bong-jo said Tuesday. In a congratulatory speech to an academic seminar hosted by the Institute for Far Eastern Studies of Kyungnam University, he reiterated that the DPRK should return to the negotiation table without any conditions, citing what he called a positive message from the US.

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8. US-ROK on OPLAN 5029

Korea Herald (“SEOUL, WASHINGTON ATTEMPT TO REVIVE OPERATION PLAN FOR N. KOREAN CRISIS”, 2005-05-03) reported that the ROK and the US will discuss reviving a previously rejected operational plan that deals with possible internal turmoil in the DPRK, although its scope will be restricted to a conceptual level. The Defense Ministry proposed to Washington last week that the two allies supplement or develop a conceptual plan only, without going into specifics. “We completely stopped making a scenario of OPLAN 5029-05, but we also recognize the need to supplement and develop the concept of OPLAN 5029,” Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Shin Hyun-don told a news briefing yesterday. The US military in the ROK signaled it understood Seoul’s position.

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9. DPRK Military Ideology

Choson Ilbo (“N. KOREA’S SONGUN IDEOLOGY THE NEXT JUCHE?”, 2005-05-03) reported that the DPRK appears to be embracing its military-first ideology known as Songun in the same way the country’s former leader Kim Il-sung promoted the Juche ideology to a kind of national ideology, a ROK official said Tuesday. “This year marks the 10th anniversary of Songun politics, which first appeared in 1995, and it’s possible that it will be elevated to the status of ‘Kim Jong-ilism,'” the official said. He cited as evidence a series of reports in the mouthpiece of the DPRK’s ruling party, the Rodong Sinmun, quoting a recent edition as saying, “The Songun ideology is a new, higher stage of the Juche ideology.”

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10. Inter-Korean Exchanges

Yonhap news (“S. KOREAN VISITORS TO NORTH UP 72 PERCENT IN 2004: NIS”, 2005-05-03) reported that over 26,000 ROK citizens visited the DPRK last year due in part to expanding inter-Korean civilian exchanges, the nation’s top spy agency said Tuesday. A total of 26,213 ROK people visited the DPRK last year, up 71.6 percent from 15,280 a year ago, the National Intelligence Service said.

(return to top) Korea Times (“ASSEMBLY OKS BILL FOR FREER S-N EXCHANGES”, 2005-05-03) reported that beginning in November, ROK citizens who want to meet North Koreans will just have to report it to the authorities prior to the visit, or after the meeting in unexpected cases. A revision of the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Law, aimed at freer exchanges between the two Koreas, passed the National Assembly on Tuesday. Previously, ROK citizens who planned to meet North Koreans had to wait for approval from the Unification Ministry. But when the revision takes effect, all they need to do is notify the ministry. “We expect it will do away with bureaucracy and be more convenient for everyone,” an official at the Unification Ministry told The Korea Times. (return to top)

11. Inter-Korean Infrastructure

Joongang Ilbo (“NORTH RAIL OFFICIALS TO VISIT SOUTH”, 2005-05-03) reported that in a sign that inter-Korean relations could be warming, a Unification Ministry official said yesterday that a DPRK delegation will visit the ROK early next month to attend a railroad and logistics exposition. “North Korea’s delegation will attend the 2005 Korea Railways and Logistics Fair, scheduled to open June 8, at the invitation of the host,” the ministry official said. BEXCO, or the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center, has invited the North Koreans, he said. According to the ministry source, a half dozen DPRK delegates, including a cabinet member and a railroad expert, will visit the ROK.

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12. DPRK Urban Poverty

Reuters (“NORTH KOREA’S URBAN POOR AT BOTTOM OF THE PILE”, 2005-05-03) reported that if the DPRK is one of the world’s most impoverished countries, then those living in cities in the DPRK are close to the bottom of the food chain. Trapped between vicious inflation and uncertain paydays, the 60 percent of the DPRK’s 22.5 million people that aid workers estimate live in urban settings are a new underclass in a country where the daily food ration is equal to about two bowls of rice. The outside perception might be that those groups most at risk were largely in the countryside. The reverse is true; urban poverty is a growing concern for aid workers. Yet despite the trend, few believe the poverty gap will cause social unrest.

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13. DPRK Trade

Yonhap news (“NORTH KOREA POSTS RECORD TRADE VOLUME SINCE 1991”, 2005-05-03) reported that the DPRK’s trade volume hit US$2.85 billion last year, its highest since 1991, with almost half of the amount deriving from exchanges with the PRC, the ROK’s trade agency said Tuesday. The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) said the DPRK had a trade deficit of $817 million last year. Its exports increased by 31.3 percent to $1.02 billion, and imports rose by 13.8 percent to $1.83 billion, it said.

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14. DPRK Trade Forum

Yonhap news (“U.N. DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM, EXPERTS IN N. KOREA FOR TRADE FORUM”, 2005-05-03) reported that representatives of international organizations, including the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and foreign trade experts, arrived in the DPRK Tuesday to take part in a trade forum, the DPRK’s official news agency reported. The trade experts are from Malaysia, Singapore, Germany, Britain and Australia, the Korean Central News Agency said. The forum is cosponsored by the DPRK’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and the UNDP, the agency said. It did not give further details on the forum.

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15. DPRK Oil Pipeline

RIA Novosti (“PYONGYANG TO CONTRIBUTE TO EASTERN OIL PIPELINE”, 2005-05-03) reported that the DPRK’s contribution to the construction and operation of an oil pipeline from eastern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean (Eastern Pipeline) will be discussed this week when a State Duma delegation visits Pyongyang, said Konstantin Kosachyev, head of the delegation and chairman of the international affairs committee, on Tuesday. “Our two countries have several promising projects, including the involvement of North Korea, and the eventual involvement of South Korea, in the Eastern Pipeline,” Kosachyev said. He intends to discuss the reunification of the Trans-Siberian Railroad with the DPRK and ROK railroads.

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16. DPRK Media Freedom

Chosun Ilbo (“KIM JONG-IL NAMED WORST ENEMY OF PRESS FREEDOM”, 2005-05-03) reported that the DPRK’s Kim Jong-il and PRC President Hu Jintao were among the greatest enemies of press freedom named in a report by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The annual report on freedom of the media around the world published to mark World Press Freedom Day included a list of 34 leaders and organizations suppressing press freedom. RSF designated the DPRK, Turkmenistan and Eritrea the worst violators of press freedom. In the DPRK’s case it said nothing existed in the country that could be called “the press.”

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17. US on Nonproliferation Treaty

Los Angeles Times (“U.S. LAMBASTES IRAN, N. KOREA AT U.N. MEETING”, 2005-05-03) reported that at a key UN disarmament conference Monday, the US lashed out at Iran and the DPRK for their purported pursuit of atomic weapons and demanded that Iran dismantle its uranium enrichment facilities. At the opening of a monthlong review of the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, US negotiator Stephen Rademaker said the world must make sure that countries such as the DPRK and Iran cannot exploit loopholes in the treaty to divert civilian energy programs into illegal weapons facilities. “Some countries, such as Iran, are seeking these facilities, either secretly or with explanations that cannot withstand scrutiny. We dare not look the other way,” he said.

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18. ROK on Nonproliferation Treaty

Chosun Ilbo (“KOREA OPPOSES ‘ENRICHMENT CLUB’ PLAN”, 2005-05-03) reported that the ROK on Monday spearheaded widely expected opposition to a rumored US initiative that would create an exclusive club of countries allowed to enrich uranium and an even more exclusive one allowed to reprocess spent nuclear fuel rods. Foreign Ministry policy director Chun Young-woo, the ROK’s representative at a Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference that started at UN Headquarters in New York on Monday, said such plans would be unfair. “Korea is the world’s sixth largest power in terms of nuclear energy,” Chun told reporters. “Nations with many nuclear power stations properly need enrichment and reprocessing technology.”

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19. US on Japanese Plutonium Reprocessing

The Asahi Shimbun (“U.S. TO LET JAPAN EXTRACT PLUTONIUM “, 2005-05-03) reported that the Bush administration plans to allow five non-nuclear nations-including Japan-to maintain uranium enrichment programs for nuclear power generation, administration sources said. The four other nations to be given the special privilege are Argentina, Brazil, Germany and the Netherlands, the sources said. But Japan would be the only one allowed to start up a reprocessing facility to extract plutonium from spent fuel rods. The plan concerning the five non-nuclear nations will likely spark more criticism since it would create a new category of nations with the privilege of uranium enrichment.

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20. Japan Plutonium Program

Korea Times (“GREENPEACE WARNS OF JAPAN, S. KOREA NUCLEAR PROGRAMS”, 2005-05-03) reported that the advanced, civilian nuclear programs of Japan and the ROK could pose a greater proliferation threat than the DPRK’s nuclear weapons development, according to a visiting environmental activist. Shaun Burnie, an anti-nuclear campaign coordinator working for Greenpeace International, said the proliferation of weapons-usable nuclear materials by the two countries is “out of control.” “Japan’s plutonium program is on a scale that Pyongyang couldn’t even dream of,” he said during an interview with The Korea Times. The Scottish activist said Japan already has a 45-ton stockpile of plutonium and could rapidly develop a large atomic arsenal if it felt justified.

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21. Korean War Monument

Choson Ilbo (“SEOUL OFFICIALLY DEMANDS RETURN OF LONG-LOST WAR MONUMENT”, 2005-05-03) reported that Seoul’s Foreign Ministry officially asked Tokyo last week to return a historic monument that symbolizes the ROK’s victory over Japanese forces in the 16th century. Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan and the DPRK’s number two leader Kim Yong-nam reportedly agreed at last month’s Asian-African Summit in Jakarta on the need for cross-border cooperation in reclaiming the “Bukgwandaechupbi” to Korea. The two Koreas have also reportedly agreed to eventually restore the monument at its birthplace in North Hamgyeong Province, which is now DPRK territory, after temporarily exhibiting it in the ROK.

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22. ROK-Japanese Relations

Yonhap (“KOIZUMI TO VISIT SEOUL IN JUNE FOR SUMMIT”, 2005-05-03) reported that Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi plans to visit the ROK late next month for a meeting with President Roh Moo-hyun, Japan’s foreign minister was quoted as saying. Nobutaka Machimura briefed US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Koizumi’s planned trip at a meeting in Washington on Monday, Japanese news reports said. The foreign minister was also quoted as saying that Japan’s relations with the ROK were “gradually moving in a good direction.” No further comments were available.

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23. Cross Strait Relations

The Associated Press (“TAIWAN PROPOSES PEACE TALKS WITH CHINA”, 2005-05-03) reported that President Chen Shui-bian on Monday offered peace talks with Beijing, apparently seeking to regain the initiative from a political rival who is on a high-profile visit to the PRC. Implicit in Chen’s speech during a visit to the Marshall Islands was a message to PRC leaders that they should be talking to him, the elected president, not to Lien Chan, whom Chen has twice defeated at the polls. “The door for dialogue and negotiation is still open between the two sides,” Chen said. “Under the principles of democracy, peace and parity, the two sides can at any time begin to have contact, dialogue and negotiations.”

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24. PRC on Cross Strait Relations

The Associated Press (“CHINA REBUFFS TAIWAN LEADER’S INVITATION”, 2005-05-03) reported that the PRC on Tuesday offered a pair of giant pandas and concessions on tourism and fruit imports as a gesture of friendship to the people of Taiwan, but it rejected an invitation from the island’s leader for President Hu Jintao to visit. The PRC government said there could be no official contacts until Taiwan’s governing party drops a clause from its constitution calling for formal independence. “We have no exchanges with the Democratic Progressive Party because its party constitution advocates the separation of Taiwan from the motherland,” Wang Zaixi, a spokesman for the ruling Communist Party’s Taiwan Work Office, told reporters.

(return to top) The New York Times (“ON PATH TO CHINA-TAIWAN DÉTENTE, STROLLING PANDAS, PERHAPS”, 2005-05-03) reported that taking a chapter from PRC-American diplomacy during the Nixon administration, the PRC announced Tuesday that it would give a pair of giant pandas to Taiwan, the latest step in an evolving détente. In gestures to mark the end of the weeklong visit to the PRC by Lien Chan, chairman of Taiwan’s opposition Nationalist Party, PRC officials also said they would increase imports of Taiwanese fruit and allow more PRC residents to visit Taiwan. The moves, announced by the official New China News Agency, are clearly intended to appeal to public sentiment here and force President Chen Shui-bian to improve ties. (return to top)

25. PRC on Anti-Japan Protests

The New York Times (“BEIJING FINDS ANTI-JAPAN PROPAGANDA A 2-EDGED SWORD”, 2005-05-03) reported that surging anti-Japan sentiment, which has plunged relations between Asia’s leading powers into crisis, has been fanned in part by official propaganda and hot-headed PRC youth. The PRC reversed course late last month and ordered people to let the government handle Japan itself. But the authorities are clearly worried that patriotic protests could return, perhaps as soon as May 4, the anniversary of a protest in 1919 that defined modern PRC patriotism. More protests could put as much pressure on the PRC government as on Japan.

(return to top) The London Times (“MESSAGE TO THE MOB: CHINA TEXTS PROTEST BAN”, 2005-05-03) reported that tens of millions of PRC clicked open a text message on their mobile phones on Saturday and guessed that it must be a notice from their main provider, China Mobile. Or perhaps from a friend, but with the number hidden. They received a surprise. The message was from the police. It seems that the PRC’s Communist rulers had decided to call a halt to the anti-Japanese protests that for several weeks had swept through cities from booming coastal Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, to the northeastern industrial rustbelt that lies across the Yellow Sea from Japan. “Express patriotism rationally. Don’t take part in illegal protests. Don’t make trouble,” said the text message sent by Beijing police to millions of mobile phone users in the capital. “Help by not creating trouble, love the nation by not breaking the law.” (return to top)