NAPSNet Daily Report Tuesday, September 21, 2004

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NAPSNet Daily Report Tuesday, September 21, 2004

NAPSNet Daily Report Tuesday, September 21, 2004

United States

II. R.O.K.

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. United States

1. DPRK on DPRK Nuclear Talks

Chosun Ilbo (“N.KOREA CLAIMS FOUNDATION FOR MULTILATERAL TALKS HAS BEEN DESTROYED “, 2004-09-21) reported that the DPRK has revealed its disregard for the multilateral approach to address its nuclear intentions. In a rare interview with the foreign media, a government spokesman declared the foundation of the six-party talks had been destroyed. “Our position is that we can only come to the next round of six party talks if the foundation for the talks is rebuilt, because the foundation for talks has been destroyed,” said the spokesman. “The United States took issue with our non-existent enriched uranium and connived with the secret nuclear experiments in South Korea which really took place. This is clear proof that the United States has applied double standards regarding the nuclear issue.”

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2. PRC on DPRK Nuclear Talks

The Associated Press (“CHINA APPEALS TO U.S., NORTH KOREA FOR FLEXIBILITY IN STARTING NEW ROUND OF NUCLEAR TALKS”, 2004-09-21) reported that the PRC appealed to the US and DPRK on Tuesday to show flexibility and commit to new six-nation talks on solving their dispute over the DPRK’s nuclear program. “The key to the solution is not in the hands of China,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan. “The problem is North Korea and the United States as the main partners,” he said. “They have strong mistrust.” Kong called on the two sides to “display a pragmatic and flexible attitude” so that new talks can be held soon.

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3. UK on DPRK Nuclear Talks

The Associated Press (“BRITISH MINISTER SAYS PYONGYANG IS “MAKING A CALCULATION” ON WHETHER TO RETURN TO SIX-PARTY TALKS BEFORE U.S. ELECTION”, 2004-09-21) reported that a British minister who visited the DPRK last week says Pyongyang is “making a calculation” on whether to return to six-party talks before the US presidential election in November. Bill Rammell, who spent four days in the DPRK last week, told reporters Monday the DPRK wasn’t saying “no” to a fourth round of six-party talks but they aren’t setting a date.

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4. Russia on DPRK Nuclear Issue

Agence France-Presse (“PUTIN CALLS FOR RESUMPTION OF NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR TALKS”, 2004-09-21) reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin called for the resumption of six-nation talks to convince the DPRK to drop its nuclear weapons program. “Russia calls for the non-nuclear status of the Korean peninsula and for the continuation of the six-party negotiation process” on the DPRK nuclear issue, Putin said Tuesday after talks with his ROK counterpart Roh Moo-hyun. The Russian leader said Moscow would continue to support efforts toward a resumption of dialogue and construction of closer ties between the DPRK and the ROK.

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5. PRC on ROK Nuclear Experiment

Kyodo (“CHINA SAYS S. KOREA’S NUKE TESTS COMPLICATING TALKS”, 2004-09-21) reported that the PRC said Tuesday that the ROK’s nuclear experiments, along with mistrust between the DPRK and the US, are complicating the six-party talks on the DPRK’s nuclear ambitions. “There are quite a lot of difficulties in holding the talks as planned,” PRC Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said at a regular press briefing. Kong hinted the possibility of taking up the ROK’s nuclear experiments at the six-party talks, calling it one of the many issues that must be dealt with to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. “The main purpose (of the six-way talks) is to realize a nuclear-weapon-free Korean Peninsula,” Kong said.

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6. Japan, ROK on DPRK Nuclear Issue

Kyodo (“JAPAN, S. KOREA URGE PYONGYANG TO JOIN 6-WAY TALKS UNCONDITIONALLY”, 2004-09-21) reported that Senior Japanese and ROK Foreign Ministry officials on Tuesday agreed the six-nation talks on the DPRK’s nuclear ambitions should resume at an early date and that the DPRK should join them “unconditionally,” a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said. Yabunaka and Lee, who head their respective countries’ delegations to the six-party talks, also agreed that the question of when to convene the next round should not be linked to the recent revelations of the ROK’s past nuclear arms-related experiments, the official said.

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7. ROK – Japanese Relations

Korea Times (“SEOUL TRIES TO DISPEL TOKYO’S NUCLEAR DOUBTS”, 2004-09-21) reported that the ROK’s Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck flew to Japan Tuesday in an abruptly arranged trip to the neighboring country. Sources in the ROK’s Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry have said the surprise visit was related to the past nuclear activities by the ROK not by the DPRK. Despite Seoul’s assiduous efforts to prove their nuclear transparency, lots of Japanese media have raised speculations about what it called the ROK’s secretive nuclear ambition. The Tokyo government, while outwardly saying it understands Seoul’s position, also raised doubts behind its back.

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8. ROK Nuclear Experiment

Xinhua News (“IAEA INSPECTION CONTINUE IN SOUTH KOREA”, 2004-09-21) reported that International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors conducted their investigation over the ROK’s past controversial nuclear experiments for a second day on Tuesday, reported ROK national news agency Yonhap. The five-member IAEA inspection team kicked off the investigation Monday at the (South) Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) in Daejeon city, about 160 kilometers south of Seoul. Yonhap quoted unnamed officials at the ROK Science and Technology Ministry as saying the IAEA team’s main mission may be to take a sample of plutonium extracted in the 1982 experiment.

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9. ROK -Russia on DPRK Nuclear Issue

Kyodo (“RUSSIA, S. KOREA CALL FOR NUCLEAR-FREE KOREAN PENINSULA”, 2004-09-21) reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin and ROK President Roh Moo Hyun issued a joint declaration Tuesday highlighting their commitments to continuing the six-nation talks on the DPRK’s nuclear ambitions and seeking a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. The two leaders agreed on the need to maintain the dialogue framework of the six nations and called on the DPRK to agree to hold the fourth round as soon as possible. Roh told a joint press conference after the summit that he supports Russia’s “constructive role” in the six-nation talks, while Putin said he backs the continuation of the multinational talks and a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.

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10. Sino – DPRK Relations

Reuters (“CHINA ORDERS JOURNAL CLOSED OVER N.KOREA STORY”, 2004-09-21) reported that the PRC has ordered the closure of the influential bimonthly journal “Strategy and Management,” possibly for good, after it published a controversial article on the DPRK, an editor said on Tuesday. One of the journal’s editors said it was ordered to stop publication because of an article in its fourth issue this year that was highly critical of the DPRK. The editor did not specify which article. Foreign news reports said the controversial article pinned the blame for the nuclear crisis on DPRK leader Kim Jong-il and criticized him for trying to maintain a system of “dynastic rule.”

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11. DPRK Abductees

Washington Post (“ABDUCTED SOUTH KOREANS’ KIN FAULT SEOUL FOR FAILURE TO ACT”, 2004-09-21) reported that Lee Min Kyo is one of 486 ROK citizens who are officially recognized by their government as having been kidnapped by the DPRK. None of those 486 has been returned. Many of their families say their rage at the authorities in Pyongyang is matched by rising fury against their own leaders in the ROK. The ROK government has tried to play down the plight of the abducted ROK citizens, fearing damage to the historic détente now burgeoning between the ROK and the DPRK. Furious over their government’s reluctance to press the kidnapping issue, the ROK families banded together and went to court to try to force their leaders into taking a harder line. After a two-year struggle, they lost their battle last Tuesday when a judge in Seoul ruled against their case.

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12. DPRK Energy

The Scotsman (“OIL GROUP EXPANDS INTO NORTH KOREA “, 2004-09-20) reported that oil and gas company Aminex today unveiled a deal to help develop the petroleum industry in the DPRK. Aminex has won the opportunity to search for oil anywhere in the country as part of the DPRK’s drive to develop a local energy industry. Under the 20-year deal, Aminex will receive royalties on all oil drilled in the country in return for providing technical assistance and promoting the industry around the world. Chief executive Brian Hall said: “At present relations between North Korea and the outside world are strained but the important relationship with South Korea appears to be improving and commercial co-operation is on the increase. “An expanding energy industry may possibly help to build bridges between North Korea and the outside world.”

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13. DPRK Defectors

Yonhap (“SEVEN N. KOREAN DEFECTORS IN CAMBODIA DEMAND FLIGHT TO SEOUL:KYODO “, 2004-09-21) reported that a group of seven DPRK defectors under the custody of the Cambodian government may be deported back to their homeland despite their wish to be transferred to ROK, a Japanese news service reported Tuesday. Quoting the head of Cambodia’s immigration police, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported that seven DPRK refugees have been “watched” by the immigration office since arriving in the Southeast Asian country about 10 days ago via the PRC and Vietnam.

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14. Inter – Korean Relations

Chosun Ilbo (“CHARITY GROUPS SEND CHUSEOK PRESENT TO N.KOREANS “, 2004-09-21) reported that nuclear tensions on the peninsula are doing little to prevent charity groups and an Internet portal site in the ROK from extending a helping hand to people in the DPRK. With the Chuseok holidays just days away, a special present was dispatched to keep homes in the DPRK warm during the winter. Ten, 25-ton trucks rolled across the heavily fortified border on Monday carrying with them anthracite, or hard coal, for DPRK residents. It’s a present from the ROK charity groups and Internet portal site Empass as part of a campaign known as “Coal Mail” that began last December where the funds were raised by collecting one won for every email sent by Internet users.

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15. Russian – ROK Energy Trade

Reuters (“S.KOREA SIGNS OIL DEVELOPMENT DEAL WITH RUSSIA”, 2004-09-21) reported that the ROK, the world’s fourth-largest oil buyer, agreed with Russia on Tuesday on an upstream oil project in Russia’s eastern regions, Seoul’s energy ministry said. State-run Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) signed a memorandum of understanding on the oil project with Russian state oil firm Rosneft, the ministry said in a statement released in Moscow, where President Roh Moo-hyun is on a three-day visit. “The KNOC will jointly develop oil fields with Rosneft in the Sakhalin and Kamchatka areas with the exploration set to begin as early as next year after a technical review this year,” the statement said.

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16. US Troop Realignment

Joongang Ilbo (“U.S. COMMITS TO DELAY PART OF TROOP CUTS “, 2004-09-21) reported that a senior Roh administration official said yesterday the US has informed the ROK that it would delay in part its previously announced reduction of US ground forces on the peninsula. The US had said it would cut a third of the 37,500 U.S. troops stationed in Korea by the end of next year, prompting concerns in Seoul of a sudden security vacuum. The ROK had asked the US to put off the planned cutback until 2007. “Of the planned 12,500 US troops slated to depart Korea, 10,000 will leave by 2005 gradually,” the ROK official told the Joong-Ang Ilbo. The US also told the ROK that it may cancel the announced plan to withdraw one of its two multiple launch rocket system units, the official said.

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17. US – ROK Military Relations

Chosun Ilbo (“USFK MOVES TO COMBAT PROSTITUTION, HUMAN TRAFFICKING “, 2004-09-21) reported that before the special law on the sex trade goes into affect, USFK has started to actively root out prostitution near US bases, the US military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported Tuesday. The paper reported, “US military officials in South Korea say they embarked on an aggressive program to combat the sex trade and human trafficking,” and military authorities have begun uniformed and other uniformed patrols, barring US soldiers from areas suspected of being prostitution areas and installing a hotline to report cases of prostitution and human trafficking.

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18. ROK and US Elections

The Associated Press (“AP: KERRY FUND-RAISERS MET WITH S. KOREAN”, 2004-09-21) reported that a ROK man who met with John Kerry’s fund-raisers to discuss creating a new political group for Korean-Americans was an intelligence agent for his country, raising concerns among some US officials that either he or his government may have tried to influence this fall’s election. ROK officials and US officials told The Associated Press that Chung Byung-Man, a consular officer in Los Angeles, actually worked for the ROK’s National Intelligence Service. A spokesman for the ROK consulate office said Chung was sent home in May amid “speculation” he became involved with the Kerry campaign and Democratic Party through contacts with fund-raiser Rick Yi and that his identity couldn’t be discussed further.

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19. Japan UNSC Bid

Kyodo News (“KOIZUMI, BUSH TO MULL U.N. REFORM, MILITARY REALIGNMENT”, 2004-09-21) reported that Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and US President George W. Bush will meet Tuesday in New York to discuss a range of issues, including UN reform and the planned realignment of US troops in Japan. Koizumi is expected to tell Bush that Japan is ready to assume responsibility as a permanent member of the UN Security Council if the body is expanded as a result of UN reforms, Japanese sources said. One of the major purposes of Koizumi’s visit to New York is to seek international support for Japan’s bid to become a permanent UN Security Council member.

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20. PRC on Japanese UNSC Bid

UPI (“CHINA LINKS JAPAN WAR RECORD TO U.N. BID”, 2004-09-21) reported that PRC foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan Tuesday linked Japan’s war record to its bid for membership on the United Nations’ Security Council. Kong said the PRC believes the UN reform should give priority to developing countries, which are not fully represented on the Security Council. “The UN is not a board of directors and you cannot decide its composition according to the financial contribution of its members,” he said. Regarding Japan’s bid for the Security Council, he added: “We want to see a responsible attitude from the Japanese including a clear understanding of historical issues.”

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21. Japan on Sino-Japanese Relations

Kyodo (“CHINA URGED TO STOP ‘ANTI-JAPAN EDUCATION’ FOR BETTER TIES”, 2004-09-21) reported that the PRC must stop its “anti-Japanese education” in order to achieve a breakthrough in often-complex ties between the two countries, Japan’s former top financial diplomat Toyoo Gyohten said Tuesday. He told a press briefing that bilateral political problems, especially one stemming from Japan’s atrocities committed in the PRC before and during World War II, will not be settled without efforts and commitments by both sides. Analysts say the PRC’s traditionally nationalistic education became more hostile toward Japan under the patriotic education syllabus introduced in 1994, fanning anti-Japanese sentiment among PRC youth.

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22. Sino – Japanese Relations

The Associated Press (“CHINA’S TANG CALLS FOR ‘WIN-WIN’ TIES WITH JAPAN”, 2004-09-21) reported that PRC State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan called Tuesday for a “win-win” relationship between Japan and the PRC at a meeting with Japanese House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono, the Japanese Embassy in Beijing said. Tang told Kono that the PRC reaffirmed the importance of relations between the two countries in a recent meeting of its ambassadors held in Beijing, and that he hopes the countries “learn from the past and look to the future,” according to the embassy statement. Kono arrived Monday in the PRC on a six-day trip for talks with PRC leaders.

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23. US – Japanese Trade Relations

The Associated Press (“NO DEAL STRUCK OVER JAPAN’S U.S. BEEF BAN”, 2004-09-21) reported that no breakthrough is expected in efforts to lift Japan’s ban on US beef imports when the leaders of the two countries meet in New York, a top Japanese official said Tuesday. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and President Bush were to meet later Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to discuss the ban and other issues. “I think that positions taken by both countries are getting fairly close, but we have yet to reach a complete agreement,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said.

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24. PRC Transfer of Power

Agence France-Presse (“CHINA WAITS FOR ALL-POWERFUL HU JINTAO TO SHOW HIS TRUE COLORS”, 2004-09-21) reported that PRC President Hu Jintao was looking like one of the world’s strongest leaders, but questions still remain over where he wants to take the PRC and his 1.3 billion compatriots, analysts said. In the past two years, while he was still lingering in the shadows of predecessor Jiang, Hu had given only scattered hints of what he wanted to do with his continent-sized country. Assistance to the hundreds of millions who have been left behind by the breakneck economic reforms of the past two decades — especially the people left in the desperately poor countryside — appears to be one of his priorities. The real issue, however, is what Hu can realistically do in a political system crowded with influential people who were appointed by Jiang and maintain strong loyalties to him.

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25. Cross Strait Relations

The Los Angeles Times (“DON’T BET ON BETTER TIES WITH CHINA, TAIWAN SAYS”, 2004-09-21) reported that President Chen Shui-bian warned Monday that Taiwan cannot count on better relations with Beijing just because Jiang Zemin has stepped aside as the PRC’s top military leader. “We absolutely must not harbor any wishful thinking or unrealistic expectations,” Chen said at a ceremony honoring Taiwan’s military. “The security of the country is in our hands. We cannot hope for the enemy’s goodwill or the aid of external forces.” Chen’s speech echoed the view of many analysts on both sides of the Taiwan Strait that Hu is unlikely to alter the PRC’s policy on Taiwan any time soon, despite his reputation as a more deliberative, moderate figure than his predecessor.

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26. PRC Graft Issue

Agence France-Presse (“CHINESE CORRUPTION WATCHDOG VOWS TO SPARE NO ONE IN WAR ON GRAFT”, 2004-09-21) reported that the PRC communist party’s top corruption watchdog has vowed to go all the way to the top in its attempt to wipe out graft, state media said. The pledge to spare no one in the fight for clean government was made by the party’s 113-member Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in Beijing on Monday, the China Daily reported. The delegates stressed the need to uncover cases of leading communist party and government officials abusing their power in search of personal gain, according to the paper. Education and supervision would be employed to combat corruption, but if those measures failed, tough punishment would be meted out against offenders, the paper reported.

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27. Sino-US Relations

Agence France-Presse (“US HOPES TIES WITH CHINA FLOURISH UNDER NEW STRONGMAN HU”, 2004-09-21) reported that the US said it looked forward to expanding ties with China under President Hu Jintao, who has been proclaimed the undisputed leader after taking over as military chief of the most populous nation. US State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters that the US looked forward “to continuing our work with President Hu and his leadership team to further develop US-China relations.” On whether the US would send a congratulatory message to Hu, Ereli said: “We’ll do whatever is customary.”

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28. Uighur Government in Exile

Voice of America (“CHINA PROTESTS ESTABLISHMENT OF UIGHUR GOVERNMENT-IN-EXILE IN WASHINGTON”, 2004-09-21) reported that the PRC has protested to the US after members of the PRC’s Uighur minority group announced the creation of a government in exile in the US. PRC officials blasted the US following reports that the group headed by Uighur emigrants had announced their government in exile at the US Capitol building in Washington. PRC Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said the PRC considers a number of Uighur separatists, who refer to their homeland as East Turkistan, as terrorists. The mostly Muslim Uighurs are the dominant ethnic group in the PRC’s western region of Xinjiang. There was no immediate reaction from US officials regarding the PRC’s protests.

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29. Sino – Russian Relations

The Associated Press (“CHINA MAY INVEST $12 BILLION IN RUSSIA”, 2004-09-21) reported that Prime minister Wen Jiabao will discuss possible PRC plans to invest up to $12 billion in Russian energy industries during a visit to Moscow this week, a Hong Kong newspaper with close ties to Beijing said Tuesday. During his three-day visit starting Thursday, Wen will discuss bilateral issues with Russian leaders, and Moscow’s bid to enter the World Trade Organization, the Wen Wei Po newspaper said. It didn’t give a source for the information. “The two countries might also reach agreement that by 2020, China will invest $12 billion in Russia’s energy resources and infrastructure,” the newspaper said, without giving more details.

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30. PRC International Trade

Agence France Presse (“CHINA RESUMES COW AND SHEEP EXPORTS TO MIDDLE EAST AFTER EIGHT-YEAR LULL”, 2004-09-21) reported that the PRC resumed exports of live cows and sheep to the Middle East for the first time since the trade was suspended eight years ago due to demand and price considerations, state media said. Some 1,700 cows and 43,000 sheep were leaving from Qinhuangdao Port in northern Hebei province for Jordan, the State General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (SGAQSIQ) said. “China will grasp the chance to further tap the Middle East and the international market.”

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31. PRC Human Rights

The Associated Press (“CHINA LOOKS FOR `OBJECTIVE’ VIEW FROM U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS DELEGATION”, 2004-09-21) reported that the PRC said Tuesday that it hopes visiting UN human rights experts gain an “objective” view of how detained crime suspects are treated. The five-member UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is to meet top PRC police, prosecutors and court officials, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan. The 11-day visit concludes Sept. 30. “I hope … they will be able to have a comprehensive and objective knowledge of China’s justice system and China’s progress and efforts on human rights,” Kong said.

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32. PRC Economy

The Associated Press (“CHINA URGES CURB TO REAL ESTATE PRICES”, 2004-09-21) reported that the PRC’s construction ministry has warned local authorities to curb soaring real estate prices, amid warnings by some analysts that the market may be headed for a correction. The ministry urged local officials to boost the supply of low-cost housing, saying a shortage of affordable homes has left the market unbalanced and driven prices higher, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday. The average housing price nationwide in the January to August period was 255 yuan ($30) per square foot – up 13.5 percent over the same period last year, it said. Prices in major cities have risen much higher, much faster, with the average housing price per square foot in Shanghai about twice that figure.

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33. PRC Investment

The Associated Press (“CHINA BANKS WARNED ON BAILOUT PROTECTION”, 2004-09-21) reported that the PRC’s central bank won’t provide more financial assistance to help reduce the bad-debt burdens of the country’s state-owned commercial banks, People’s Bank of China Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan said Tuesday. Banks should rely on their own resources to cut bad loans in the future, Zhou said on the sidelines of a news conference marking the launch of state-owned China Construction Bank’s new stockholding company. The PRC has devoted massive sums over the past decade to reducing the nonperforming loans of its largest banks, hoping to transforming them into profitable, competitive institutions before the country opens its financial markets to foreign rivals in 2006.

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34. PRC Energy

The Associated Press (“CHINA CRUDE OIL IMPORTS JUMP 37 PERCENT”, 2004-09-21) reported that the PRC’s crude oil imports jumped 37.4 percent in August to 70 million barrels, the government reported Tuesday. Imports aren’t expected to slow despite a decision by Russian oil giant Yukos to halt some exports to state-run China National Petroleum Co., cutting off 60 percent of its crude supply to the PRC. Yukos also supplies crude oil to another state-owned firm, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec. Despite its voracious appetite, the PRC’s crude oil exports rose in August by 19.7 percent to about 97,600 barrels a day.

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35. PRC Environment

Reuters (“CHINA’S ENERGY CRISIS BLANKETS HONG KONG IN SMOG”, 2004-09-21) reported that the “fragrant harbor” from which Hong Kong takes its name is often shrouded in toxic smog. Hong Kong’s air pollution hit a record high Sept. 14, with the index rising to over 200 for the first time since air quality monitoring was introduced in 1995. Doctors advised asthma sufferers and those with heart disease to stay indoors. “I don’t see any reason why it will improve. The trend is really alarming,” said Alexis Lau, acting director of the Center for Coastal and Atmosphere Research and a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Experts lay the blame for Hong Kong’s worsening air pollution on the PRC, which the World Health Organization says has seven of the world’s 10 most polluted cities. Most of the pollution cloaking Hong Kong is generated by coal-fired power plants and smokestacks from the PRC’s industrial south, as well as traffic fumes from the city’s own congested streets.

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36. DPRK Imports

Chosun Ilbo (“S. KOREA HAS EXPORTED 3,800T OF SODIUM CYANIDE TO THAILAND SINCE 2002”, 2004-09-21) reported that It has been revealed that ROK companies have exported a total of 3,799 tons of sodium cyanide to Thailand from 2002 up to recently. Earlier, ROK stopped Thailand from exporting sodium cyanide to the DPRK. Sodium cyanide is a toxic chemical used to make sarin nerve gas. This may be the amount of sodium cyanide ROK collected from the ship on its way to DPRK from Thailand, which originally imported sodium cyanide from ROK, and argued, “The government should investigate all sodium cyanide that has been exported to Thailand so far to confirm how it has been disposed of.”

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37. ROK – Russian Relations

Chosun Ilbo (“KOREA, RUSSIA TO FORM ‘COMPREHENSIVE PARTNERSHIP'”, 2004-09-21) reported that On Tuesday (local time), President Roh Moo-hyun and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a summit talk and adopted a 10-point joint-declaration revising the existing bilateral relationship from a “constructive and mutually supplementary partnership” to a “comprehensive partnership of mutual trust.” Through a joint-declaration, the two leaders also agreed to reconfirm the principle of the Korean Peninsula remaining a nuclear-free zone, strengthen cooperation during the six-nations talks, block the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), regularize bilateral summit talks, jointly confront terrorism, support the role of the United Nations for world peace and promotion of cooperation, and invite President Putin to visit the ROK.