I. United States

1. Qadhafi on DPRK Nuclear Issue

Yonhap News (“SOUTH KOREAN MINISTER, LIBYAN LEADER DISCUSS N KOREA NUCLEAR ISSUE”, 2005-01-26) reported that Libyan leader Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi advised the DPRK and Iran to learn from his decision to give up developing nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, a visiting ROK official said Tuesday. Al-Qadhafi had made similar calls before, to which the DPRK responded negatively. Ban also quoted the Libyan leader as saying that once the DPRK gives up its nuclear arms ambitions, the international community should help the DPRK take peaceful advantage of atomic power.

(return to top)

2. US on DPRK Nuclear Talks

Korea Times (“US IMPATIENT OVER STALLED NUCLEAR TALKS”, 2005-01-26) reported that the US expressed impatience Tuesday at the DPRK’s refusal to resume six-nation negotiations on dismantling its nuclear weapons programs, saying Pyongyang is denying its people the chance to benefit from outside help. “(North Korea) is not showing up for talks and not getting any better and not delivering the benefits that they could have for their people if they were to try to work out their better relationship with the world,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters at a briefing in the US.

(return to top)

3. US on DPRK Nuclear Issue

Donga Ilbo (“BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S NORTH KOREAN POLICY TO REMAIN”, 2005-01-26) reported that the Wall Street Journal reported on January 25 that most analysts predict that the DPRK policies which will be pursued by the second Bush administration will be similar to that of the previous term. “Though Condoleezza Rice has been nominated as secretary of state, there seems to be little chance that the United States will provide new carrots to North Korea in admonishing them to enter the fourth round of six-party talks as long as Vice President Dick Cheney and the hawks in the Department of Defense are in power.”

(return to top) Joong Ang Daily (“U.S. ANALYST: BUSH WILL FOCUS DIPLOMACY ON NORTH”, 2005-01-26) reported that a US expert on nuclear proliferation issues discounted yesterday the possibility that the Bush administration would use force to make the DPRK give up its nuclear arms programs. In a lecture at the Seoul Club, Charles D. Ferguson, a science and technology analyst at the Council for Foreign Relations, an independent think tank based in New York, said the administration will continue to spend more resources on Iraq, by necessity, and will face severe limitations in readily dismantling existing or suspected weapons of mass destruction programs in rogue states. (return to top) Kyodo News (“BUSH STRESSES ‘PRACTICAL OBJECTIVE’ IN DEALING WITH N. KOREA”, 2005-01-26) reported that US President George W. Bush said Wednesday that he is promoting a “practical objective” in dealing with the DPRK. In a press conference to outline his policy agenda for his second term, Bush also referred to the US ties with Japan after World War II as an exemplar to promote democracy and freedom with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny. (return to top)

4. DPRK Stability and the Nuclear Issue

Forbes (“STALEMATE RATHER THAN CRISIS IN KOREA”, 2005-01-26) reported that the outlook for the Korean peninsula in 2005 is problematic in several respects, but it is improbable that either the crisis over the DPRK’s nuclear program or the ROK’s political and economic difficulties will escalate into major emergencies. The DPRK will not embrace peace or reform fully enough to resolve its crises at home or abroad. However, regime stability in Pyongyang is likely to be maintained despite external pressures and extreme privations, and the nuclear crisis will not reach any meaningful resolution in 2005.

(return to top)

5. DPRK on US Dissent

Yonhap News (“N. KOREAN RADIO RELAYS CRITICISM OF BUSH’S INAUGURATION SPEECH”, None) reported that a DPRK radio station on Wednesday relayed criticism in the US media of last week’s inauguration speech by US President George W. Bush. “In the United States, voices of criticism about the inauguration speech President Bush delivered on Jan. 20 are flowing out day after day,” the Korean Central Broadcasting Station said.

(return to top)

6. DPRK Leadership Shuffle

Yonhap news (“NORTH KOREA SEEN TO APPOINT NEW DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER – SOUTH AGENCY”, 2005-01-26) reported that the DPRK was on Wednesday (26 January) reported to have named its former ambassador to Kuwait as a new deputy foreign minister. According to the DPRK’s Korea Central News Agency, the new deputy foreign minister, Kim Hyong-jun, attended a dinner with DPRK Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun and PRC diplomats in Pyongyang Tuesday. Analysts here said Kim’s participation in the ministry dinner may indicate a possible power shift in the DPRK’s Foreign Ministry.

(return to top)

7. Sino – DPRK Relations

KCNA (“OFFICIALS ATTEND “FRIENDLY GATHERING” AT CHINESE EMBASSY”, 2005-01-26) reported that the DPRK Foreign Ministry arranged a friendly gathering with officials of the PRC embassy in Pyongyang Tuesday (25 January) on the occasion of the New Year Juche 94 (2005). They noted that the friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries were strengthened and developed in various fields, and peculiarities of the bilateral relations powerfully demonstrated internally and externally last year.

(return to top)

8. Forum on US, PRC Policies on the DPRK

Korea Times (“FORUM ON NK POLICIES OF U.S. AND CHINA”, 2005-01-26) reported that the World and Northeast Asia Peace Forum, a non-government think-tank led by former lawmaker Jang Sung-min, will hold its first international conference next Monday at Ewha Womans University in Seoul on “North Korea’s nuclear politics in Sino-American rivalry.” Jon Wolfsthal, deputy director for Nonproliferation at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, will present the PRC’s DPRK policies from the US viewpoint, while Sun Ru, research fellow at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, will offer his ideas on Washington’s DPRK policies from Beijing’s perspective.

(return to top)

9. DMZ Information Online

Yonhap (“GYEONGGI PROVINCE STARTS INTERNET PORTAL FOR ALL ABOUT DMZ”, 2005-01-26) reported that a local government said Wednesday it will soon open the country’s first official portal site for the demilitarized zone (DMZ), the world’s most heavily armed border bisecting the two Koreas. The Web portal (www.dmz.ne.kr), now open for a test-run, includes information for tourists and on the ecology of the DMZ and its adjacent southern area with texts, photos, maps and multimedia images.

(return to top)

10. DPRK Athletics

Agence France Presse (“NKOREA GIVING CARS, HOMES TO MOTIVATE FOOTBALLERS FACING JAPAN: REPORT”, 2005-01-26) reported that the DPRK is giving cash, cars and houses to motivate its footballers, who are determined to beat Asian champions and political rivals Japan in next month’s World Cup qualifier match, a report said Wednesday. “We are sure that we will win. We’ve been strongly motivated. We shall beat them for sure,” Kyodo News quoted the DPRK’s sports guidance commission vice secretariat director Ri Hyon as saying.

(return to top)

11. Inter – Korean Agricultural Cooperation

The Associated Press (“SOUTH KOREA PROPOSES FIRST JOINT FARM IN NORTH KOREA”, 2005-01-26) reported that a ROK province on Wednesday suggested building an unprecedented joint-venture farm in the DPRK to help ease the impoverished DPRK’s food shortages. If built, the farm would mark the first of its kind in the DPRK, where state-run collective farms cannot meet demands, forcing millions to survive on foreign aid.

(return to top)

12. Inter – Korean Economic Cooperation

Joongang Ilbo (“ALL 15 FIRMS BACKED FOR GAESONG PILOT RUN”, 2005-01-26) reported that the Unification Ministry approved yesterday the moving of production equipment into the Gaeseong Industrial Complex by JCCom and JY Solutech, two companies that were previously rejected because of defense-related export restrictions. Cho Myoung-gyun, head of the Gaeseong division at the Unification Ministry, explained, “The two firms redesigned their manufacturing process, which enabled them to forgo the equipment on the strategic control list.”

(return to top) Korea Times (“TONGDAEMUN MERCHANTS TO BUILD PLANTS IN KAESONG”, 2005-01-26) reported that Tongdaemun Market plans to build a fashion town in the Gaesong Industrial Complex in the DPRK by 2008. The traditional market is also planning to build up an apartment-type plant in the complex to produce a range of garments, market sources said Tuesday. (return to top)

13. Japan on Abductees

Japan Times (“NO DEAL MADE TO KEEP QUIET ABOUT ASHES: MACHIMURA”, 2005-01-26) reported that Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura denied Tuesday that a senior Foreign Ministry official who visited Pyongyang in November agreed not to disclose the fact that Japan had received what the DPRK claimed were cremated remains of abductee Megumi Yokota. Machimura, however, confirmed that the DPRK had demanded that Japan not make the matter public.

(return to top)

14. DPRK on Abductees

Kyodo News (“N. KOREA LABELS JAPAN’S TEST RESULTS ON YOKOTA AS “FABRICATED””, 2005-01-26) reported that the DPRK condemned Japan on Wednesday for “fabricating” results of a DNA analysis which concluded that the ashes handed over by the DPRK as the cremated remains of Japanese abductee Megumi Yokota were those of two other people, Foreign Ministry officials said. Pyongyang made the criticism in formally replying to Japan’s protests a month ago over the results of the DPRK’s reinvestigation into 10 missing Japanese whom Tokyo recognizes as abduction victims, the officials said.

(return to top)

15. WFP on Abductees

Kyodo News (“WFP HOPES JAPAN RESUMES FOOD AID TO N. KOREA BY SOLVING ABDUCTIONS”, 2005-01-26) reported that a senior official of the World Food Program said Wednesday that the U.N. food agency hopes to see Japan restart food aid to the DPRK after improving bilateral relations by resolving the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by the DPRK. The WFP is hoping to see Japan “once again in a position to provide the extraordinary level of assistance” to the DPRK after “the relationship on this particular issue” improves, John Powell, deputy executive director of the WFP’s Fundraising and Communications Department, told reporters.

(return to top)

16. PRC on DPRK Defectors

Korea Times (“CHINA REQUESTS JAPAN HAND OVER NK DEFECTORS”, 2005-01-26) reported that the PRC is calling for the Japanese Embassy in Beijing to hand over eight people believed to be DPRK defectors who sought asylum at a Japanese school in the PRC capital earlier this week. PRC Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said Beijing considers the group “illegal immigrants” who intruded into a diplomatic mission and has requested that the embassy transfer them to police custody for questioning.

(return to top)

17. PRC on ROK POW

Yonhap News (“CHINA TELLS SEOUL OF REPATRIATING S. KOREAN POW TO N.K.: ACTIVIST “, 2005-01-26) reported that the PRC informed the ROK that it sent a ROK prisoner of war (POW), who fled from the DPRK to the PRC, back to the DPRK, an activist claimed Wednesday. Choi Sung-ryong, head of an association of families of people kidnapped by the DPRK, said he heard Han Man-tack, the ROK POW, had been sent back to the DPRK in December last year.

(return to top)

18. US on DPRK Defectors

Donga Ilbo (“U.S. ARRESTS 15 KOREAN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS NOT YET CONFIRMED AS NORTH KOREAN DEFECTORS”, 2005-01-26) reported that fifteen Koreans and one broker trying to smuggle into the US through New York were arrested by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the US Department of Homeland Security and await identity interrogation at the federal court of Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to the local press. The Consulate General of the Republic of Korea located in Los Angeles stated that it has not been confirmed if those arrested are DPRK defectors, and that it was gathering more information on the issue.

(return to top) Yonhap News (“U.S. GIVES COLD SHOULDER TO N. KOREAN DEFECTORS LEAVING S. KOREA”, 2005-01-26) reported that for DPRK defectors who live in the ROK, the US is not a land of opportunity. The US opened its border wider to DPRK escapees by enacting the North Korea Human Rights Act last year. (return to top)

19. Japanese Historical Revisionism

Chosun Ilbo (“JAPAN TONES DOWN TEXTBOOK DESCRIPTION OF COLONIAL RULE IN KOREA”, 2005-01-26) reported that in an unprecedented move, a government-approved description in a Japanese textbook of Japan’s occupation of the ROK has been revised after parents protested. The publisher scrapped the original text approved by the Ministry of Education and Science, “The Japanese government forced South and North Koreans to use the Japanese language exclusively,” and replaced it with, “South and North Koreans had to learn the Japanese language as the ‘mother tongue’,” according to the paper.

(return to top)

20. PRC Economic Reforms

The Associated Press (“COMMUNIST PARTY ORDERED TO TAKE ROLE”, 2005-01-26) reported that in an apparent step backward from Western-style capitalist reforms, the PRC has ordered a more active role for Communist Party officials in managing state-controlled companies. Although Chinese corporations increasingly are modernizing management and seeking to meet international standards as they invest and issue shares overseas, party officials still call the shots in many strategically important industries. “The party’s never really gotten out of business,” says Bob Broadfoot of the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy in Hong Kong.

(return to top)

21. Cross Strait Relations

Reuters (“TAIWAN URGES U.S. TO SPEAK AGAINST CHINA LAW”, 2005-01-26) reported that the US should intensify its opposition to the PRC’s proposed anti-secession law aimed at Taiwan because “quiet diplomacy” would not resolve the volatile issue, according to a senior Taipei official. Joseph Wu, Taiwan’s top official for PRC-Taiwan affairs, told Reuters in an interview late Monday, there may be no way to stop Beijing from enacting the law, which Taiwan and US officials say will inflame cross-straits tensions. Senior US officials privately describe the proposed law as a threat to regional peace but have said little in public.

(return to top)

22. PRC Defense Industry

The Associated Press (“CHINA DEFENSE INDUSTRY POSTS 2004 GROWTH”, 2005-01-26) reported that the PRC’s defense industry recorded strong growth in 2004, with revenues climbing more than 25 percent, while seven military-controlled companies issued public shares, state media reported Tuesday. Military-run companies increasingly are raising funds in domestic share markets and are expanding into overseas markets, Xinhua said, citing Jin Zhuanglong, spokesman for the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

(return to top)