NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, May 25, 2005

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NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, May 25, 2005

NAPSNet Daily Report Wednesday, May 25, 2005

I. United States

Preceding NAPSNet Report

I. United States

1. DPRK on Six-Party Talks

Reuters (“N.KOREA UNMOVED DESPITE US CONTACT – CZECH LEADER”, None) reported that the DPRK remains umoved in its refusal to return to six-country nuclear talks despite recent contact with the US. Czech parliament chairmain Lubomir Zaoralek met with DPRK leaders on Wednesday. “The North Koreans said they cannot sit down at the negotiating table with a party which tries to stifle their country and unleashes vicious rumors,” Zaoralek said. He arrived in Seoul on Tuesday after a four-day visit to the DPRK where he held lengthy discussions with several DPRK leaders, including the president of its parliament and DPRK’s second-ranking leader Kim Yong-nam. “The North Koreans said they still have not grasped the true intention of the United States and were analyzing it,” Zaoralek said through an interpreter. He said he had also met Premier Pak Pong-ju.

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2. DPRK on Nuclear Test

Yonhap News (“NORTH KOREA DENIES RUMORS OF NUKE TEST, WANTS MORE ECONOMIC EXCHANGES”, None) reported that the DPRK denied recent US allegations that it is preparing for a nuclear test as “groundless propaganda” according to the leader of a Czech delegation that visited Pyongyang. The six-member delegation from the Czech parliament met high-level DPRK officials, including No.2 leader Kim Yong-nam during a four-day visit that started Saturday. Lubomir Zaoralek, leader of the Czech delegation and parliamentary speaker said, “They [officials of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly] didn’t want to bring up this issue, because they said it (the allegations) was groundless propaganda.”

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3. PRC on DPRK Nuclear Test

Itar-Tass (“BEIJING STRONGLY WARNS PYONGYANG AGAINST NUKE TEST – KYODO”, None) reported that the PRC has “strongly” warned the DPRK, through a diplomatic channel, against carrying out a nuclear weapons test, stressing a test would undermine the PRC’s stated policy of seeking a nuclear-free Korean peninsula. The news agency said it remained unclear exactly when and how the PRC warned the DPRK.

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4. Experts on DPRK Nuclear Test

Associated Press (“FALLOUT FROM TEST WOULD BE TROUBLING FOR EVERYONE”, None) reported that a nuclear test by the DPRK would reverberate around the world, altering the nuclear balance in Asia and posing stark new challenges for US policy-makers and military planners. Analysts say it would also induce the PRC, Russia and other powers to join the US in seeking UN-approved penalties against the DPRK. The US would probably respond by trying to involve the UN. It is less clear whether US President George W. Bush would consider a risky military strike given DPRK leader Kim Jong-il’s million-man army, heavy conventional weaponry and perhaps several nuclear weapons. “The North Koreans are basically hell-bent on proving to the world that they need to be taken seriously. That’s dangerous,” said Representative Curt Weldon, vice chairman of the US House Armed Services Committee. “A North Korean test would embarrass China and might actually rally other nations to our position. But the result might push Kim Jong-il to take whatever steps he felt were necessary to rally his people into war,” Weldon said.

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5. PRC on DPRK-US Relations

Chosun Ilbo (“BEIJING GROWS FRUSTRATED WITH UNYIELDING POSITIONS IN N.K. AND U.S. “, None) reported that the PRC, key mediator in the Six-party talks is growing impatient with the intransigence of the DPRK and US. The PRC is faced with pressure, particularly from the US, to use more economic and political leverage to bring the DPRK back to the talks. But the PRC believes the US should show more flexibility and sincerity in trying to peacefully resolve the issue. Reflecting the PRC’s stretched patience, Assistant Foreign Minister Shen Guofang said on Tuesday that resuming the six-party talks was up to the US and DPRK.

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6. Russia-DPRK Nuclear Talks

Interfax (“RUSSIAN DELEGATION TO DISCUSS NUCLEAR PROBLEM IN PYONGYANG”, None) reported that a Russian delegation will visit Pyongyang in August to discuss ways to resolve the DPRK nuclear standoff, according to Russian presidential envoy to the Far East Federal District Konstantin Pulikovsky. “The main problem is why they are laying claims for a nuclear program. This is of course North Korea’s energy problem,” Pulikovsky told a news conference at the Interfax main office on Wednesday. He stated that all the countries in the six-party talks are ready to help Pyongyang tackle its energy crisis. “There are suggestions in this respect that we are ready to put forth in exchange for their steps to abandon their nuclear programs. We want our suggestions to be accepted. We are interested in a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula,” Pulikovsky said.

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7. Meeting of KEDO

Associated Press (“KOREAN ENERGY-FOR-ARMS PROJECT IN LIMBO”, None) reported that a 10-year-old international project to build nuclear power plants for the DPRK as part of a deal to shut down its weapons program is in limbo with its US chief working without a contract and the group assessing its future. The New York-based Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization or KEDO, held its first meeting Tuesday since executive director Charles Kartman’s contract expired at the end of April. Kartman, KEDO’s chief for four years, is staying on month-to-month and attended the meeting. Meanwhile, the two partly built light-water reactors sit unfinished about 125 miles north of the 38th parallel on the DPRK’s east coast near Sinpo. KEDO halted the $4.6 billion project in 2003.

(return to top) Joongang Ilbo (“KEDO BOARD DECIDES NOT TO RETAIN LEADER”, None) reported that Charles Kartman, head of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, or KEDO, has been let go, according to diplomatic sources. The board of the international consortium established to build non-military nuclear reactors in the DPRK decided Tuesday that it would not renew its contract with Mr. Kartman who has led the agency since 2001. (return to top)

8. DPRK Ships Dock in ROK Port

Reuters (“N.KOREAN SHIPS END RARE VISIT TO SOUTH”, None) reported that the two DPRK ships sailed home on Wednesday with sacks of fertilizer provided by the ROK, ending the DPRK’s first call on ROK ports in 21 years. The historic visit followed bilateral talks last week when the ROK agreed to provide the 200,000 tons of fertilizer.

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9. ROK on Aid to DPRK

Joongang Ilbo (“SEOUL UNVEILS PLANNING TO AID NORTH DEVELOPMENT”, None) reported that head of the ROK Presidential Committee on Balanced National Development Seong Kyoung-ryung said the ROK is planning to aid the DPRK by focusing efforts on two large cities and two smaller zones. Seong unveiled the plan at a special lecture hosted by ROK Grand National Party lawmakers. He said the DPRK’s abandoment of nuclear arms programs and peaceful relations between the two Koreas were preconditions for implementing the assistance plan. Tentatively naming the support program as “two plus four,” Seong said Pyongyang and Wonsan in the DPRK had been targeted for development aid. Kaesong, Sinuiju, Rajin-Sonbong and Mount Kumgang are also named as areas into which major assistance would flow.

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10. Amnesty International on DPRK Human Rights

Yonhap News (“AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL BLAMES N. KOREA FOR FAILURE TO FEED PEOPLE”, None) reported that Amnesty International released its annual report in which it condemned the DPRK government for continuing to deny its people basic human rights, most seriously the right to food, and jail and torture defectors and political critics.

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11. US Freedom House on DPRK Human Rights

Joongang Ilbo (“RIGHTS GROUP PLANS JULY PARLEY”, None) reported that Freedom House, a US-based human rights organization, will hold a large-scale conference in July to raise international awareness of abuses committed by the DPRK. This is one of the first efforts to come out of the US North Korea Human Rights Act. Jae Ku, director of the DPRK program at Freedom House said the organization will hold the conference on July 19 at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. The US State Department has provided $1.97 million to Freedom House this year from the $2 million budget earmarked for international conventions on the DPRK. Ku said the organization will urge the ROK to actively address the abuses in the DPRK although he understands the ROK’s delicate position in not wanting to irritate the DPRK leadership.

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12. US Recovery of MIA in DPRK

Chosun Ilbo (“U.S. FINDS MORE REMAINS OF MISSING GIS IN N.KOREA”, None) reported that a recovery team has discovered a large number of remains of US soldiers in the DPRK who went missing in action during the Korean War. The Pentagon said after the remains are flown to the Yongsan Military Compound in Seoul on Thursday, they will be moved to a laboratory at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, where specialists will determine the exact number and identities of the remains. The remains were discovered in Unsan, North Pyongang Province, about 97 km north of Pyongyang, which was the site of fierce battles between US and PRC Communist forces in November 1950 at the height of the Korean War.

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13. OECD on Effect of Stand-0ff on ROK Economy

Yonhap News (“OECD CHIEF: NK NUKE MAY DETER INVESTMENT IN S. KOREA”, None) reported that a DPRK nuclear standoff may be affecting foreign direct investment in the ROK, according to Donald Johnston, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Seoul on Wednesday. According to a Yonhap News Agency interview, Johnston said he personally is not troubled by developments taking place in the DPRK but investors may think differently.

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14. US on ROK-US Relations

Chosun Ilbo (“U.S. FURIOUS AT KOREAN LEAK OF CONTINGENCY PLAN”, None) reported that the US government has admonished the ROK for leaking to the media a US military plan dubbed OPLAN 5029, which prepared for contingencies in the DPRK, such as political collapse or mass defection. “When NSC deputy chief Lee Jong-seok visited the U.S. in early May, the responsible U.S. government department expressed serious regret that the plan was leaked to the Korean media,” the official told reporters. “The U.S. demanded to know why it was leaked to the media, and why this always seemed to happen.” The ROK later scrapped the plan.

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15. ROK on ROK-US Relations

Korea Times (“KOREA PROTESTS JAPANESE CLAIMS OF INTELLIGENCE RIFT”, None) reported that the ROK has voiced strong regret over claims by a top Japanese diplomat that the US is unwilling to entrust the ROK with classified intelligence on the DPRK. “Intelligence cooperation between Seoul and Washington is close,” said Lee Kyu-hyung, a spokesman for the ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, responding to remarks made by Japanese Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi to ROK lawmakers. “Japan knows that very well and is not in a position to comment (on bilateral relations between South Korea and the U.S.),” Lee said. According to members of the National Assembly’s Defense Committee, the Japanese diplomat told them during a meeting on May 11 that Japan receives a lot of intelligence from the US but cannot pass it on to the ROK because the US does not fully trust it. Another ROK official dismissed Yachi’s remarks as irrelevant, saying the Japanese vice minister seemed to have a grudge against the ROK due to lingering history disputes.

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16. ROK-US Summit

Xinhua (“S.KOREA-US SUMMIT SLATED FOR JUNE”, None) reported that ROK President Roh Moo-hyun will visit the US for a summit meeting with US President George W. Bush on June 11, according to the ROK Presidential office. The two leaders will hold summit talks and attend a luncheon together Presidential Spokesman Kim Man-soo said. “We will place the focus of the visit on consultations on substantive issues,” said Kim. “We hope the (summit) talks to provide an important opportunity for the leaders to actively seek a peaceful solution as consultations among concerning countries on the North Korean nuclear issue continue,” he said.

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17. USFK Build-up in the ROK

Korea Times (“US DEPLOYING 15 STEALTH FIGHTERS TO S. KOREA”, None) reported that the Pentagon is deploying 15 F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighters and 250 airmen this week from its air force base in New Mexico in the US to the Korean Peninsula. The stealth fighters are expected to be deployed to either US air bases in Osan or Kunsan said Kim Yong-kyu, a public relations official at the USFK. “The current deployment of the stealths is not related to the current situation surrounding Pyongyang’s nuclear threat,” Kim quoted USFK spokeswoman MaryAnn Cummings as saying. “This is a routine deployment of a U.S. air force unit for training and familiarization.” However, the move drew attention as it came amid escalating tensions over the DPRK’s possible nuclear test and worsening prospects of an early resumption of the six-party talks on the DPRK nuclear program.

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