NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, March 22, 2006
- 1. DPRK Missiles
2. US on DPRK Nuclear Status
3. ROK Nuclear Negotiator Visits US
4. US on Six Party Talks
5. PRC on Six Party Talks
6. Inter-Korean Reunions
7. DPRK Human Rights
8. DPRK Parliament Meeting
9. PRC on USFK Realignment
10. USFJ Base Realignment
11. Japan FM on US-India Nuclear Deal
12. US on PRC Latin America Diplomacy
13. Cross Strait Relations
14. US-PRC Trade Relations
15. Russia-PRC Energy Cooperation
16. PRC Rural Unrest
17. PRC Bird Flu
I. NAPSNet
1. DPRK Missiles
Reuters (“N.KOREA UPGRADES MOBILE MISSILE ARSENAL -REPORT”, 2006-03-22) reported that the DPRK is upgrading its mobile missiles, making it easier to launch a surprise attack on neighbours, but it does not have a missile that could hit the continental US, a report said on Wednesday. The DPRK has more than 800 ballistic missiles, some of which could deliver chemical or possibly biological weapons, the California-based Centre for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) said in its report on the DPRK’s capabilities. The report said missile exports are a major source of foreign currency for the DPRK government. “North Korea’s earliest and most loyal customer for missiles and missile technology has been Iran,” said CNS, a major US non-governmental organization devoted to non-proliferation.
2. US on DPRK Nuclear Status
Yonhap News (“U.S. SAYS INT’L COMMUNITY WON’T ALLOW INDIA STATUS FOR NORTH KOREA “, 2006-03-22) reported that the US defended its controversial nuclear accord with India, saying Wednesday that the entire international community agrees that India is different from the DPRK and Iran. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, in a briefing on the US-India nuclear deal, challenged media criticism that the agreement allows other nuclear-ambitious nations like the DPRK to demand the same kind of treatment.
3. ROK Nuclear Negotiator Visits US
Yonhap News (“U.S. POLICY ON N. KOREA UNDERGOING SUBTLE CHANGE”, 2006-03-22) reported that the ROK’s chief nuclear negotiator, Chun Yung-woo, headed Wednesday to Washington for a four-day visit amid reports of a delicate change in US tactics on DPRK issues. Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said the purpose of Chun’s journey is to learn the US position on the nuclear negotiations. “Chief delegate Chung Young-woo will exchange views about the recent developments on the six-way talks and he will have in-depth discussions on how to cooperate when the talks restart,” Ban said during his weekly press briefing. Newspapers here have said the US policy on the DPRK is showing signs of changing in the direction of lumping the protracted nuclear crisis with other problems, such as counterfeiting, human rights abuse, and illicit weapons trade, for a package solution.
4. US on Six Party Talks
Yonhap News (“US URGES NORTH KOREA TO RETURN TO NUCLEAR TALKS”, 2006-03-21) reported that the US, reacting Tuesday to the DPRK’s threats of a preemptive strike, said the DPRK should promptly return to stalled nuclear talks rather than rattle sabres.
5. PRC on Six Party Talks
Yonhap News (“CHINA’S AMBASSADOR RULES OUT BEIJING’S PRESSURE ON PYONGYANG”, 2006-03-22) reported that the PRC’s top envoy in the ROK Wednesday ruled out the possibility of Beijing exerting pressure on the DPRK to give up its nuclear weapons programs. Instead, the envoy said, the six nations involved in multilateral nuclear talks should cooperate closely to resolve the issue through dialogue and make efforts to bring about “win-win” results beneficial for all the parties.
6. Inter-Korean Reunions
JoongAng Ilbo (“REPORTING SPAT DELAYS RETURN OF REUNION KIN”, 2006-03-22) reported that in the wake of a quarrel with ROK journalists covering the inter-Korean family reunion at Mount Kumgang in the DPRK, Pyongyang yesterday barred a group of 99 aged RO Koreans from leaving the country. They relented at about 8 p.m., after the group had spent several hours waiting on buses and then in their hotel rooms. The DPRK was protesting the use by some journalists of the term “a South Korean kidnapped to North Korea” in some reports describing some of the DPRK participants in the reunion.
7. DPRK Human Rights
Reuters (“N.KOREAN DEFECTOR SAYS DISABLED NEWBORNS ARE KILLED”, 2006-03-22) reported that the DPRK has no people with physical disabilities because they are killed almost as soon as they are born, a physician who defected from the state said on Wednesday. Ri Kwang-chol, who fled to the ROK last year, told a forum of rights activists that the practice of killing newborns was widespread but denied he himself took part in it. “There are no people with physical defects in North Korea,” Ri told members of the New Right Union, which groups local activists and DPRK refugees. The practice is encouraged by the state, Ri said, as a way of purifying the masses and eliminating people who might be considered “different”.
(return to top) Yonhap News (“ACTIVISTS CALL FOR ‘IMMEDIATE’ ACTION ON N. KOREAN HUMAN RIGHTS”, 2006-03-22) reported that echoing calls by the international community, a ROK civic activist group on Wednesday called on its government to take “immediate” and “active” steps to help improve human rights conditions in the DPRK. “We urge the South Korean government and the National Assembly to denounce the North Korean government’s violation of human rights and join the effort to save North Korean lives and improve North Korea’s human rights conditions,” the New Right Union, an association of self-proclaimed conservatives, said in a statement. (return to top)
8. DPRK Parliament Meeting
Reuters (“N.KOREA PARLIAMENT TO MEET AMID NUCLEAR CRISIS”, 2006-03-22) reported that the DPRK parliament will meet next month, Pyongyang said on Wednesday, offering a glimpse into the policy priorities of the state amid a stand-off with regional powers over its nuclear arms program. This year’s meeting will start on April 11, the official KCNA news agency. Among the areas of interest for foreign experts and officials will be the importance given to stalled talks on ending the country’s nuclear programs, measures to revitalize its economy and any talk of succession to leader Kim Jong-il.
9. PRC on USFK Realignment
Chosun Ilbo (“CHINA KEEPING AN EYE ON U.S. FORCES ‘FLEXIBILITY’: ENVOY”, 2006-03-22) reported that the PRC Ambassador to the ROK on Wednesday said Beijing is keeping an eye on the greater “strategic flexibility” the US wants for its forces stationed in the ROK. Ambassador Ning Fukui said the PRC “will have no choice but to shift attention to the matter” if the new doctrine allowing the forces to be dispatched to trouble spots elsewhere turns out to be “targeted at a third country.”
10. USFJ Base Realignment
Kyodo (“DEFENSE CHIEF, NAGO MAYOR FAIL TO AGREE ON U.S. BASE PLAN “, 2006-03-22) reported that Defense Agency Director General Fukushiro Nukaga and Nago Mayor Yoshikazu Shimabukuro held a second day of talks Wednesday in Tokyo but failed to fill the gap over a plan to relocate a US air station from central Okinawa to the northern Okinawa city’s coastline.
11. Japan FM on US-India Nuclear Deal
Agence France-Presse (“JAPANESE FM VOICES CONCERN ON INDIA-US NUCLEAR DEAL”, 2006-03-22) reported that Japan’s foreign minister voiced concern that a landmark nuclear deal between India and the US set a “double standard” that could hurt diplomacy over Iran and the DPRK. The comments by outspoken Foreign Minister Taro Aso were at odds with earlier statements by Japan, a staunch US ally which has been seeking closer ties with India.
12. US on PRC Latin America Diplomacy
Reuters (“US AND CHINA TO LAUNCH LATIN AMERICA DIALOGUE”, 2006-03-22) reported that the US, wary of potential “crossed wires” as the PRC steps up its involvement in Washington’s traditional sphere of influence in Latin America, plans to start a dialogue with Beijing on the issue. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, who oversees Latin American affairs, said he would visit Beijing in early April, ahead of PRC President Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington later in the month. Shannon said the goal of his trip was to get a better idea of “how they feel about the Caribbean and the Americas.”
13. Cross Strait Relations
Agence France-Presse (“TAIWAN’S PRESIDENT ASSURES US OF “NO MORE” SURPRISES ON CHINA POLICY”, 2006-03-22) reported that Taiwan’s President Chen Shui-bian assured the US he would not push for independence during the rest of his term. “I would like to say again that my previous pledge to the US government and President Bush (not to push for independence) has not changed,” he told the new de facto US embassador Stephen M. Young.
(return to top) Kyodo (“TAIWAN TO TIGHTEN MEASURES FOR INVESTMENT IN CHINA”, 2006-03-22) reported that Taiwan’s government said it will tighten control over the flow of investment to rival PRC, a move likely to trigger criticism from the business sector. Several new measures will be adopted to effectively manage the flow of investment, including more thorough screening of companies wanting to invest amounts of more than NT$20 million (US$600,000) and of firms carrying sensitive, cutting-edge information technology. (return to top)
14. US-PRC Trade Relations
Reuters (“SENATORS VOW ‘CONSTRUCTIVE APPROACH’ TO CHINA TRADE “, 2006-03-22) reported that the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee plan to offer a bill that addresses concerns about the PRC’s currency practices and other trade irritants in a “constructive” manner, a spokeswoman for one of the senators said. Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and Sen. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, “are working on legislation to respond to major US-PRC issues from currency to trade enforcement,” a Grassley spokeswoman said.
15. Russia-PRC Energy Cooperation
Agence France-Presse (“HOLDING THE ENERGY CARD, PUTIN CALLS FOR BROADER TRADE WITH CHINA “, 2006-03-22) reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the PRC to broaden bilateral trade, saying an excessive focus by Beijing on securing Russia’s abundant natural resources could trigger “instabilities.” Despite booming sales of Russian oil, gas and other natural resources to the PRC, Russian exports of machinery and equipment plunged last year to around half of 2004 levels, he said.
16. PRC Rural Unrest
The Associated Press (“VILLAGERS IN SOUTHERN CHINA BLOCK LOCAL ELECTION, ALLEGING FRAUD: REPORTS”, 2006-03-22) reported that tempers flared in Taishi village on Monday when villagers accused officials of unfairly disallowing proxy votes and rigging the run-off election for a delegate to a local people’s congress. About 20 villagers shouted at an equal number of officials overseeing the vote, the Post said. The crowd also blocked the officials from opening the ballot box and counting the votes.
17. PRC Bird Flu
Agence France-Presse (“CHINA AGREES TO SHARE BIRD FLU SAMPLES “, 2006-03-22) reported that the PRC has agreed to share up to 20 virus samples from poultry killed by bird flu, a move that could help scientists develop an effective vaccine, the World Health Organization said. WHO officials in Beijing said PRC authorities had granted a request for up to 20 live samples to be analyzed in WHO-linked laboratories.