I. United States

1. Kim Jong-il on DPRK’s Return to NPT

Xinhua (“RUSSIAN ENVOY: NORTH KOREA COULD RETURN TO NONPROLIFERATION TREATY”, 2005-08-17) reported that according to Interfax, the Russian envoy who met recently with Kim Jong Il said Wednesday that Kim had told him that Pyongyang could return to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty provided his country faced no threat from the US.

(return to top)

2. Ted Turner on DPRK Nuclear Program

Joong Ang Ilbo (“TED TURNER BACKS NORTH ON CIVILIAN NUCLEAR POWER”, 2005-08-17) reported that according to Ted Turner in order to advance the six-party nuclear disarmament talks the Bush administration ought to allow Pyongyang as a face-saving measure to keep a civilian nuclear program. Washington has ruled out the possibility.

(return to top)

3. Ted Turner Proposal for DMZ Peace Park

Yonhap News (“CNN FOUNDER ASKS SOUTH, NORTH KOREA TO WORK FOR DMZ PEACE PARK”, 2005-08-17) reported that Ted Turner proposed Wednesday that the ROK and DPRK form a team to develop a peace park in the DMZ, claiming it will benefit them both politically and economically. “They need to have a commission to study all the complicated matters that will come up when it actually happens. I expect the commission will be established relatively soon,” he told a press conference.

(return to top)

4. Roh Meets DPRK Delegation

Korea Herald (“ROH MEETS N.K DELEGATION BUT NUKE ISSUES NOT DISCUSSED”, 2005-08-17) reported that a DPRK delegation for Liberation Day festivities met President Roh Moo-hyun, conveying personal greetings from Kim Jong-il but avoiding any talk about the DPRK’s nuclear standoff.

(return to top) Chosun Ilbo (“ROH MEETS N.KOREAN DELEGATION”, 2005-08-17) reported that President Roh spent about two hours with the DPRK delegation for the Liberation Day ceremonies. He told them the DPRK and the ROK “must work together to round the corner of the nuclear dispute and turn a new page in the history of the Korean Peninsula.” (return to top)

5. DPRK Propaganda at Liberation Day Celebration

Chosun Ilbo (“N.KOREANS MILK LIBERATION DAY FOR PROPAGANDA VALUE”, 2005-08-16) reported that Joint Liberation Day celebrations of the two Koreas in Seoul are turning into a platform for the DPRK to publicize its views as the ROK hosts are going out of their way to avoid offending their guests. The DPRK is unabashedly airing demands for the withdrawal of the US military and the rejection of “foreign influences,” while in the heart of downtown Seoul, participants from pro-DPRK labor, civic and student groups openly shout slogans in that vein. On Tuesday, the DPRK delegation gleefully waved sashes given them by ROK supporters that read, “Withdraw USFK!”

(return to top)

6. Expert on Liberation Day Celebration

Korea Times (“KIM JONG-IL’S BOLD MOVE WATERSHED FOR S-N TIES”, 2005-08-17) reported that according to Paik Hak-soon, director of DPRK Studies at the Sejong Institute, the DPRK has signaled its commitment to clearing away mutual animosity and settling the peninsula’s fratricidal past to open an era of new inter-Korean cooperation on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of national liberation. Secondly, the unprecedented gestures also aimed at serving the DPRK’s political scheme to speed up the process of concluding a peace treaty and normalizing ties with the US by greatly improving ROK-DPRK relations, Paik said.

(return to top)

7. DPRK Envoy Reads ROK Papers

Korea Times (“NK ENVOY READS S. KOREAN PAPERS”, 2008-08-16) reported that Kim Ki-nam, Pyongyang’s top envoy to Seoul, was observed on Tuesday looking at a bundle of newspaper clippings which contained ROK news stories about the activities of his delegation, which came here on Sunday to jointly mark the 60th anniversary of Liberation Day. “Chung might have wanted Kim to confirm that South Koreans are responding to his visit to Seoul in a positive way,” Chin Hee-gwan, professor at Sogang University’s Institute of Social Science in Seoul.

(return to top)

8. Inter-Korean Agricultural Cooperation

Yonhap News (“KOREAS TO HOLD AGRICULTURAL TALKS AMID FOOD SHORTAGES IN N KOREA”, 2005-08-17) reported that the ROK and the DPRK will hold talks this week to discuss agricultural cooperation amid reports of food shortages in the DPRK. During the Aug 18-19 talks in Kaesong, the ROK plans to make several proposals to help boost agricultural production in the DPRK to achieve self-sufficiency, according to officials. The proposals are expected to include inter-Korean joint farming and reforestation projects.

(return to top) Yonhap News (“NORTH KOREAN DELEGATE STRESSES CROSS-BORDER AGRICULTURE COOPERATION”, 2008-08-16) reported that a DPRK delegate to joint Korean Liberation Day celebrations called Tuesday for closer cooperation between the farmers of the two Koreas. Kim Myung-chul, vice-chairman of the DPRK’s Union of Agricultural Working People, told a meeting of farmers that Pyongyang supports efforts by South Korean farmers’ groups to fight to protect food sovereignty from outside encroachment. “If we allow outsiders to control what the people eat that would spell the end of farming and pose a grave threat to national survival,” he said. (return to top)

9. Inter-Korean Cooperation on Language

Chosun Ilbo (“KOREAS COOPERATE TO UNIFY THE KOREAN LANGUAGE”, 2005-08-17) reported that the two Koreas will work together to compile the “Large Korean Dictionary” that consolidates the different usage of language across the border. Nongovernmental delegates from both Koreas gathered Tuesday and shared the need to push ahead with the plan, noting that language is characteristic of the spirit of the nation. The Large Korean Dictionary is being hailed as the groundwork for eventually reunifying the ROK and the DPRK and moving toward a single national language.

(return to top)

10. US on USFK

Korea Herald (“USKF COMMANDER AFFIRMS NO NUKES IN SOUTH KOREA”, 2008-08-16) reported that the top US military officer in the ROK reaffirmed yesterday that USFK has no nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula. In an interview with The Korea Herald, Gen. Leon J. LaPorte, commander of the USFK and the UN Command, defended the cease-fire treaty which the DPRK now wants to change into a peace treaty. He said the armistice has successfully prevented unwanted combat and maintained peace between the two Koreas.

(return to top)

11. DPRK-Russian Economic Cooperation

Itar-Tass (“RUSSIAN ENVOY, N KOREAN OFFICIALS DISCUSS ECON COOPERATION”, 2008-08-16) reported that DPRK Prime Minister Pak Pong Ju and presidential representative in Russia’s far eastern federal district Konstantin Pulkovsky discussed bilateral economic cooperation here on Tuesday. The parties considered the necessity to step up bilateral economic cooperation and boost the turnover which does not exceed 150 million dollars at present, Pulikovsky’s spokesman Yevgeny Anoshin told Itar-Tass. The presidential envoy noted at the meeting that the attraction of labor resources from the DPRK to Russia, in particular to its timber sector, was an important part of economic cooperation between the two countries.

(return to top)

12. South China Sea PSI Drill

Agence France-Presse (“US, BRITISH, ASIAN NAVIES STAGE ANTI-WMD EXERCISE IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA “, 2005-08-17) reported that US, British and Asia-Pacific naval forces staged a joint exercise in the South China Sea to demonstrate a mock interception of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) aboard a merchant ship. Exercise Deep Sabre is part of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) a US-led effort to improve global efforts to intercept nuclear, chemical and biological weapons shipments by rogue states and terrorist groups.

(return to top)

13. Japan on UNSC Expansion

Kyodo (“JAPAN MULLS NEW RESOLUTION TO U.N. IN SEPT. FOR ADOPTION BY YEAR END”, 2005-08-17) reported that Japan on Wednesday began considering a new draft resolution for the UN Security Council expansion to the UN General Assembly in September in the hope of having it adopted by the end of the year, government sources said. The move comes as prospects for the General Assembly to adopt a framework resolution submitted by Japan, Brazil, Germany and India — or the Group of Four — aimed at expanding the Security Council membership have become dim.

(return to top)

14. USFJ Troop Realignment

Agence France-Presse (“US PRESSES MILITARY CONSULTATIONS WITH JAPAN”, 2005-08-17) reported that the US hopes to resume talks on its troop levels in Japan shortly after the Japanese elections in September, the State Department said. Spokesman Sean McCormack confirmed that Washington had received a letter from Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura on what is formally referred to as “military transformation” but would not give details.

(return to top)

15. Japan Iraq Role

Reuters (“JAPAN VOTERS COULD DEAL U.S. A BLOW IN IRAQ “, 2005-08-17) reported that Japan’s election next month could end up costing the US another ally in Iraq, a symbolic blow to Washington even if Tokyo’s overall pro-US foreign policy doesn’t change, experts said on Tuesday. The Democratic Party’s policy platform includes pledges to withdraw Japanese troops from Iraq by December.

(return to top)

16. Japan on Sino-Russian Military Cooperation

Chosun Ilbo (“JAPAN PARANOID ABOUT SINO-RUSSIAN EXERCISE “, 2005-08-17) reported that the Japanese government is reportedly worried about the first-ever joint Sino-Russian military exercises to be held from Thursday to Aug. 25 because they could be preparations for controlling an emergency on the Korean Peninsula, a newspaper reported Wednesday. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun quoted a high-ranking Japanese defense official as saying the exercise would show “whether the Chinese and Russian armies are capable of bringing North Korea under control before allied South Korean and US forces.”

(return to top)

17. Sino-Russian Military Cooperation

International Herald Tribune (“CHINA AND RUSSIA PLAN EXERCISES “, 2005-08-17) reported that the PRC and Russia are due to begin their most ambitious joint military exercise Thursday, with naval ships, bombers, fighter planes and 10,000 troops massing on the PRC’s northeast coast for a series of maneuvers that the two countries say will showcase their deepening cooperation. The display of mutual political trust may be more important than the military training, experts said.

(return to top) The Los Angeles Times (“AN EXERCISE FIT FOR SENDING U.S. A MESSAGE”, 2005-08-17) reported that as they prepare to join forces for their largest military exercise in modern history, the PRC and Russia have billed this week’s maneuvers as a cooperative fight against terrorism. But they’re also sending a message to Washington, analysts say: Don’t push the two former Cold War adversaries too far. (return to top)

18. Sino-Indian Resource Cooperation

Reuters (“INDIA, CHINA AIM TO TEAM UP FOR OIL ASSETS”, 2005-08-17) reported that Indian and PRC oil firms will sign agreements aimed at bidding jointly for foreign oil and gas projects and reducing cut-throat competition, a top Indian official told Reuters on Tuesday. Indian firms will sign separate memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with Sinopec Corp, China National Petroleum Corp. and CNOOC, the head of Indian oil ministry’s international division said.

(return to top)

19. Sino-Japanese East Sea Gas Dispute

Kyodo (“TEIKOKU OIL’S TEST DRILLING IN E. CHINA SEA UNLIKELY TO BEGIN SOON”, 2005-08-17) reported that a Teikoku Oil Co. senior official dismissed the possibility Wednesday of an imminent start of its planned test-drilling for natural gas in the East China Sea where Japan and the PRC are at odds over demarcation. “It is completely unforeseeable” when the company will be able to begin such drilling, Teikoku Oil Managing Director Yoshitsugu Takai told a news conference, citing security problems.

(return to top)

20. Israel on PRC Arms Deal

Agence France-Presse (“ISRAEL, US RESOLVE ROW OVER CHINA ARMS DEAL”, 2005-08-17) reported that Israel’s defense ministry and the Pentagon announced in a joint statement that they had resolved a crisis sparked by an arms contract between Israel and the PRC. “The US and Israeli departments of defense have concluded an agreement designed to resolve the problems that have seriously damaged their relations,” the statement said.

(return to top)

21. Hong Kong on WWII Anniversary

The New York Times (“JAPAN’S WARTIME SAVAGERY? BETTER TO FORGET IT”, 2005-08-17) reported that what is remarkable is that despite all the wartime horrors – which cut the city’s population to 600,000 from 1.6 million through starvation, killings and flight to better-fed communities – the war is little remembered in Hong Kong. The 60th anniversary on Monday of the Japanese surrender announcement was observed only by a few small gatherings: a talk by a war veteran at a local museum; a protest on Sunday against Japanese war crimes that drew 400 people by the organizers’ count and only 200 according to the police.

(return to top)

22. Hong Kong Wiretaps

Agence France-Presse (“HONG KONG LEADER CHALLENGED OVER WIRETAPS”, 2005-08-17) reported that a radical lawmaker and a political activist have launched a court challenge to Hong Kong’s new leader over controversial new measures giving police the power to tap phone calls. Hong Kong’s Beijing-appointed leader Donald Tsang invoked rarely used emergency powers to authorize the wiretaps after several high-profile corruption cases collapsed when courts said evidence obtained by secret phone tapping was illegal.

(return to top)

23. PRC Agriculture

Agence France-Presse (“ONE QUARTER OF CHINA’S FARMLAND HIT BY PESTS “, 2005-08-17) reported that rice, the main staple for the majority of the PRC’s 1.3 billion people, is under threat with one quarter of the nation’s farmland hit by pests and diseases this year. The situation is so serious that Agriculture Ministry officials have organized a meeting calling for extraordinary measures to be taken, the Xinhua news agency said.

(return to top)

24. PRC Gas Shortages

The New York Times (“ARE GASOLINE SHORTAGES IN CHINA REAL OR MAN-MADE?”, 2005-08-17) reported that sudden shortages of gasoline and diesel fuel in southeastern PRC have highlighted an ongoing debate over how quickly corporate influence and freedom of information are driving the PRC toward a market-based economy. The PRC regulates retail fuel prices, changing them no more than once a month. The government has not raised them this year nearly as quickly as world oil prices have risen to limit inflation. This has left refiners with negligible profit margins and even losses as they convert oil into gasoline and diesel.

(return to top)

25. PRC Clean Energy

Asia Pulse (“CHINA HUNTS FOR CLEAN ENERGY”, 2005-08-17) reported that the PRC is gearing up to develop clean energy by using nuclear, wind and solar sources to generate power in order to cut reliance on coal and oil, said a senior official from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). “The government is vigorously making efforts to tap clean energies to optimize the current power generation mix, which relies on coal for some 80% of its power output, and is blamed for severe environmental pollution and congested transportation,” said Zhang Guobao, vice-chairman of the NDRC.

(return to top)