In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

III. People’s Republic of China

IV. Russian Federation

I. United States

1. DPRK Missile Test

The Associated Press (“U.S. WATCHES N. KOREA EXERCISES,” Washington, 9/26/97) and Reuters (“U.S. WATCHING NORTH KOREA MISSILE MOVES,” Washington, 9/26/97) reported that Navy Admiral Joseph Prueher, the head of the US Pacific Command, said Friday that the DPRK has conducted exercises with units that appear to support the No Dong missile, but has not yet deployed the weapon itself. “We have seen the troop deployments. We have not seen the deployment of the No Dong missile,” Prueher told reporters in an interview. “If they were deployed, they would be a potential threat to our forces in South Korea as well as to other nations adjacent to the area” because of their 620-mile range, Prueher said. The DPRK military conducted exercises with trucks and several units of troops that would be necessary to maintain and fire such a weapon, he said, but since no missile was seen, it wasn’t clear whether the exercise actually used real equipment, or whether “dummy” mockups were used. Prueher would not say where in the DPRK or exactly when the movements were conducted, but one US defense official, who asked not to be identified, said the maneuvers came over the summer. The official added that the US had contingency plans to deal with any deployment of the No Dong, but refused to say whether they might involve a military reaction such as a pre-emptive strike against launch facilities. The DPRK tested the No Dong once in 1993 but apparently has not tested it since. “We stay concerned about it and we watch it closely,” Prueher said of the DPRK program, while noting that the lack of aggressive testing allows him to be “not as concerned as I might be” about the missile’s potential use.

2. Huang Comments on DPRK Army Size

The Associated Press (“REPORT: N KOREA HAS LARGER ARMY,” Tokyo, 9/25/97) reported that Japan’s Kyodo News agency, quoting unidentified Japanese officials, said that top-level DPRK defector Huang Jang-yop told Japanese Foreign Ministry officials and investigators from Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto’s Cabinet in secret briefings in Seoul in July and August that the DPRK has more troops than outside estimates indicate. According to Kyodo, Huang told the officials that the Pyongyang government has 1.7 million regular troops ready to fight, considerably higher than the earlier estimates of 1.05 million. Japan’s Foreign Ministry denied any knowledge of such a meeting. Huang also reportedly told the Japanese that DPRK leaders are seeking US$10 billion from Japan as reparations for the state’s suffering under Japanese colonial rule and during World War II, and that, although DPRK leaders expect that any remuneration will require them first to enter peace talks, DPRK leader Kim Jong-il believes he can get more money out of Japan if the DPRK appears to be threatening war.

3. Four-Party Peace Talks

US Deputy State Department Spokesman James Foley (“STATE DEPARTMENT BRIEFING

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

I. United States

1. Four-Party Peace Talks

United Press International (“U.S, S. KOREA: BALL IN N. KOREA COURT,” New York, 9/24/97) reported that US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and her ROK counterpart Yoo Chong-ha, meeting in New York Tuesday, agreed that the Korean peace process will be stalled until the DPRK makes the next move. An unnamed senior Clinton administration official said that the two ministers agreed that “the ball is in North Korea’s court.” The official added that discussions of US troop withdrawals can be included in the final peace talks, but the agenda cannot be about removing the troops.

Reuters (“NORTH KOREA SAYS U.S. MUST PROVIDE FOOD AID,” Seoul, 9/21/97) reported that the DPRK’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), in a report monitored in Tokyo Sunday, quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying that the question of a pullout of US troops from the Korean peninsula has always been on the table at the preliminary Korean peace talks. “We proposed from the beginning to include in the agenda of the talks the US troop pullout from South Korea and its vicinity, the conclusion of a peace agreement between the DPRK and the US and the discontinuation of North and South Korea’s import of military hardware from outside,” the statement said. The DPRK statement also said that the US was using food aid as a weapon in the talks, and that the US should now provide food aid as a sign of goodwill. “We intended that if the US clearly promised food supply to the DPRK, we would regard it as goodwill of the US and show flexibility in the debate on the agenda of the ‘four-way talks’,” the statement said.

2. Kim Jong-il Ascension

Reuters (“N.KOREA MEDIA SAYS KIM’S SUCCESSION BEGINS,” Tokyo, 9/25/97) reported that the DPRK’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Thursday that the process to chose Kim Jong-il as the ruling party leader had started. “A wave of jubilation and emotion is now sweeping (North) Korea … because a process has started to elect the respected comrade Kim Jong-il as General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea Central Committee,” KCNA reported. “In the past three years when top party and state posts remained unoccupied, the Korean people were eagerly looking forward to the day when comrade Kim Jong-il would be officially acclaimed, regarding him as head of party and state. Their wish is being met at last,” KCNA said. The statement was the first outright acknowledgment Kim, who has controlled the country as the supreme commander of the military since the 1994 death of his father, Kim Il-sung, is now moving also to take over his father’s positions as general secretary of the party and state president. In July, the DPRK declared an end to a three-year mourning period for the elder Kim, paving the way for his son’s succession.

3. ROK Supports DPRK in IMF and World Bank

Reuters (“SEOUL SUPPORTS N.KOREA ENTRY TO IMF /WORLD BANK,” Hong Kon

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

I. United States

1. Four-Party Peace Talks

The Associated Press (“KOREAN PEACE TALKS BREAK DOWN,” New York, 9/19/97) reported that the four-party talks to arrange a peace conference for the divided Korean peninsula broke down Friday after the DPRK refused to soften demands that the agenda include withdrawal of US troops from the ROK. The DPRK also insisted on a separate peace treaty with the US, excluding the ROK, and for firm guarantees of more food aid to stave off famine. A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that no further preliminary talks were scheduled, and made clear that the US would not resume talks unless the DPRK signals it is willing to compromise. “We will be looking to the North Koreans for some serious sign,” he said. However, DPRK Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye-gwan, the chief DPRK delegate, said his country simply needed more time. “The only thing we require here is patience and time to settle these issues,” he said.

The Associated Press (“KOREAN PEACE TALKS BREAK DOWN,” Washington, 9/22/97) reported that on Monday the US continued its criticism of DPRK behavior at the preliminary four-party talks last week, charging that Pyongyang “made no attempt to find common ground” during the two days of discussions. “The United States probed for flexibility and found none,” US State Department spokesman James Foley said. Foley said the US cannot agree to DPRK demands for a direct linkage between food assistance and the peace negotiations and for inclusion of the withdrawal of US troops from Korea as an agenda item, because the conditions would prejudge the talks’ results. “The negotiations are for negotiating, and we want to preserve the integrity of the negotiating process,” Foley said.

2. DPRK Prepares Missile Test

The Associated Press (“REPORT: N.KOREA TO TEST NEW MISSILE,” Tokyo, 9/22/97) reported that the DPRK is preparing to test its new “Rodong I” missile, according a report in the Japanese Yomiuri newspaper Monday. The missile, reportedly in the final stage of development, is capable of hitting Tokyo, the newspaper said, quoting Japanese and US military sources. Military analysts have said they believe a modified Rodong I missile could carry a nuclear warhead. Yomiuri said US military satellites have confirmed that the DPRK has installed an unspecified number of the intermediate-range missiles on movable launchers at one of its northwestern military bases. A Rodong I was test-fired into the Sea of Japan in 1995, but there have been no confirmed launches since then.

3. Kim Jong-il Ascension

The Associated Press (“NORTH KOREA’S MILITARY ENDORSES KIM,” Seoul, 9/23/97) reported that the DPRK’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) stated Tuesday that delegates from the DPRK’s army, navy and air force met in Pyongyang on Monday and unanimously endorsed Kim Jong-il’s ascension to leadership of the country’s ruling Workers’ Party. Those attending the meeting swore to defend Kim with “the spirit of human bombs and the spirit of suicidal attack,” KCNA said. Since the 1994 death of his father, Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il has been ruling the DPRK as the supreme commander of the country’s m

In today’s Report:

I. United States

I. United States

1. Four-Party Peace Talks

US State Department Spokesman Jaime Rubin (“STATE DEPARTMENT NOON BRIEFING, SEPTEMBER 17,” USIA Transcript, 9/17/97) described Tuesday’s US-DPRK bilateral meeting in New York as “useful and constructive. They were conducted in a business-like atmosphere. The entire range of bilateral issues were discussed.” Rubin said the DPRK reacted favorably to a US proposal to send a team of experts to investigate the DPRK food shortage. The US also informed the DPRK of its intention to survey US citizens’ financial claims against the DPRK, which “would be the initial step necessary to eventually resolve the issue of remaining frozen North Korean assets in the US.” Regarding the recent DPRK defections, Rubin said, “I’m not aware that came up in any significant way. I mean, as we have stated earlier, we regard the defector issue as not linked to the four-party peace process or to other issues. As I understand it, they did raise it, but I doubt it got into much detail.” Rubin also said the US proposed resumption of missile proliferation talks in October, and that the DPRK delegation “said they would get back to us.”

United Press International (“U.S., CHINA, S.KOREA SET FOR PEACE TALKS,” Seoul, 9/17/97) reported that US officials were set to meet ROK and PRC officials in bilateral talks in preparation for resumption of the preliminary four-party Korean peace talks in New York on Thursday and Friday.

2. DPRK Tidal Wave Recovery

Reuters (“FLOODS THREATEN NEW CALAMITY IN NORTH KOREA-U.N.,” Beijing, 9/17/97) reported that Christian Lemaire, Pyongyang representative of the United Nations Development Program, said Wednesday that some 40,000 DPRK peasants are waging a desperate but probably futile effort to rebuild a sea wall flattened by a tidal wave in order to prevent worse damage to a key grain-producing region. In August, a tidal wave whipped up by a typhoon destroyed a 200,000-hectare (494,000-acre) swath of rice paddy running inland from the wall. Lemaire said that the peasants, malnourished and working around the clock using only bare hands, in just two days had rebuilt a head-high wall of mud and rock along a 40 kilometer (24 mile) stretch of eastern coastline. However, he said the effort probably was in vain, because an unusually high sea tide was expected to wash over the primitive dike on Saturday or Sunday, depositing a fresh blanket of salt over what was once some of the DPRK’s most fertile rice paddy fields. “They’ve done what they can, but it’s not enough,” Lemaire said during a visit to Beijing.

3. US Position on Landmine Ban

Reuters (“U.S. LEFT OUT OF LANDMINE AGREEMENT,” Oslo, 9/17/97) reported that an international treaty to ban landmines was endorsed Wednesday by the 89-nation conference in Oslo, Norway, but the US refused to sign the accord. US delegation head Eric Newsom said that he was disappointed the conference had refused to accept a US-proposed compromise formula that met US security concerns. “Completion of this treaty is certainly a significant accomplishment. I think it would have been a much stronger treaty had they taken the steps so that the U

In today’s Report:

I. United States

I. United States

1. Four-Party Peace Talks

The AP-Dow Jones News Service (“U.S., N. KOREA DIPLOMATS MEET FOR BILATERAL TALKS,” Seoul, 9/16/97) reported that US and DPRK diplomats met Tuesday for bilateral talks in preparation for resumption of the preliminary four-party Korean peace talks in New York on Thursday. A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the bilateral meeting had begun but refused to give other details. However, it was assumed that the DPRK would raise the issue of the US decision to grant asylum to the DPRK’s ambassador to Egypt, Chang Sung-kil, who defected last month with his brother, Chang Sung-ho, a diplomat on a trade mission to Paris.

US State Department Deputy Spokesman James Foley (“STATE DEPT. NOON BRIEFING, SEPTEMBER 16,” USIA Transcript, 9/16/97) confirmed that US and DPRK representatives were meeting Tuesday in New York, but did not comment on the meeting’s discussions. Foley added that US-ROK and US-PRC meetings would take place on Wednesday, in preparation for the second round of the preliminary four-party Korean peace talks set to begin Thursday at Columbia University in New York. Foley stated, “I don’t expect to provide any precise details about any of our bilateral meetings in advance of the Thursday talks.”

2. DPRK Famine Conditions

Reuters (“N.KOREA FAMINE WORST SINCE WW2 – GERMAN RED CROSS,” Bonn, 9/16/97) reported that the German Red Cross on Tuesday said some 10,000 children were dying of starvation every month in the DPRK, and called the country’s famine one of the worst the world has seen since World War II. German Red Cross spokeswoman Susanne Anger, who had just returned from two weeks in the DPRK, pleaded for more international food and medical aid to save lives. “An entire people are starving as the result of several natural disasters and a precarious economic situation,” Anger told a news conference in Bonn. “The mortality rate for children under seven has risen to 40 percent,” she said. “About 800,000 children are chronically undernourished and have severe developmental damage. Nine or ten-year-olds look like three or four-year-olds.” Anger said these calculations were made on the basis of the declining number of children attending kindergartens and information from other aid agencies. Anger added that the estimate by the international aid organization World Vision that at least half a million of the DPRK’s population of 22 million had already starved to death in the famine could not be ruled out. [Ed. note: See “DPRK Famine Conditions” in the September 15 Daily Report.]

Reuters (“N. KOREA EXPERTS DOUBT REPORT ON FAMINE DEATHS,” Bonn, 9/16/97) reported that some DPRK experts on Tuesday expressed doubt of World Vision’s estimate that between 500,000 and 2 million people have died in a famine in the DPRK, although experts agreed that the situation in the DPRK is dire and that massive food shortages are causing deaths. Brigitta Karlgren, country director for the World Food Program (WFP) in the DPRK, called into question data derived from a survey of people with first-hand information from numerous small

In today’s Report:

I. United States

I. United States

1. Four-Party Peace Talks

US Deputy State Department Spokesman James Foley (“STATE DEPARTMENT BRIEFING, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15,” USIA Transcript, 9/15/97) confirmed that the second round of the preliminary four-party peace talks are set to begin Tuesday in New York. Foley had no further comment on the upcoming meetings.

2. DPRK Famine Conditions

The New York Times (Barbara Crossette, “NORTH KOREA FAMINE MAY BE KILLING 15 PERCENT IN TOWNS, SURVEY SAYS,” 9/10/97, A6) reported that Andrew Natsios, vice president of the international relief organization World Vision, said Sunday that an informal survey conducted for Korean-American organizations has found that about 15 percent of people in the DPRK’s towns and villages may be dying of starvation and famine-related diseases. The DPRK government was not informed of the survey, which reached some 400 individuals, and which was carried out by ethnic Koreans living on the PRC side of the PRC-DPRK border who can travel freely into the DPRK. Respondents told stories of unclaimed bodies being collected from village streets and coffins being reused to save wood. “Fifteen percent is a huge famine,” Natsios said in a telephone interview Sunday from his home in Washington. “And the thing that’s alarming is that those three provinces on the Chinese border where the survey was conducted are ones where the World Food Program has found that people are the best fed.” Natsios said that if these figures are reflective of the national picture, as many as half a million of the DPRK’s 22 million population may have died. In addition to calling for more food aid, World Vision and other private relief organizations also asking the secretive DPRK government to allow relief experts and reporters to travel freely in the country, especially to remote areas. “The North Korean government must be pressed to open the country up so that we can judge its needs,” he said.

Reuters (“N. KOREA REPORTS INCREASED CORN CROP,” Tokyo, 9/15/97) reported that the DPRK’s official Radio and Television Broadcasting, monitored in Tokyo by the Radiopress news service, said on Monday that the DPRK expects to have a 30 percent increase in its corn harvest this year. The broadcast came days after the UN Food and Agricultural Organization and World Food Program expressed “very serious alarm” over the food shortage in the DPRK, where a drought and typhoon have aggravated two years of flooding. [Ed. note: See “DPRK Food Production Crisis” in the US section of the September 12 Daily Report.]

3. ROK Returns DPRK Body

Reuters (“S.KOREA SENDS HOME BODY OF N. KOREAN SOLDIER,” Panmunjom, ROK, 9/15/97) reported that the ROK on Monday returned to the DPRK the body of a DPRK soldier shot on the heavily fortified demilitarized zone last Tuesday. At the border village of Panmunjom, a six-member honor guard from the US-led UN Command handed over the coffin to six DPRK guards. The ROK Defense Ministry has said the soldier was shot after he neared the ROK border and aimed his rifle at ROK border guards. The US, ROK and DPRK have all played down

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

I. United States

1. DPRK Food Production Crisis

Reuters (“UN “SERIOUSLY ALARMED” ABOUT N.KOREA CROP,” Rome, 9/12/97) reported that the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Program (WFP) said Friday in a joint statement that drought and a tidal wave have eliminated the faint hope that the DPRK might be able to increase food production this year. The agencies said that the latest natural disasters, which followed two years of devastating floods, would almost certainly reduce the 1998 harvest, and FAO economist Ajay Markanday told a news conference that early estimates suggested next year’s food output would be even lower than in the flood years. “Guarded optimism expressed earlier for some recovery in food production this year is now replaced by very serious alarm at food security prospects for the coming months and year ahead,” the statement said. “As the general health of the population has now already been highly weakened by the shortage of adequate food … the anticipated shortfall this year is likely to have far-reaching implications that go beyond the devastation of 1995 and 1996,” it said. FAO and WFP representatives plan to visit the DPRK next month to conduct a full assessment of this year’s harvest.

2. PRC Nuclear Exports

The Associated Press (“CHINA ISSUES NEW NUKE EXPORT RULES,” Beijing, 9/11/97) and Reuters (“CHINA INSISTS NUCLEAR EXPORTS PEACEFUL,” Beijing, 9/11/97) reported that the PRC’s official Xinhua news agency said Thursday that the PRC has issued new rules to restrict exports of nuclear weapons and technology, pledging not to transfer the dangerous materials to countries opposing international safeguards. The regulations, if deemed strict enough, would counter US criticism of suspected PRC nuclear exports to Pakistan and Iran and improve the atmosphere for President Jiang Zemin’s Washington summit next month with President Bill Clinton, and would also meet a key US condition for ending a ban on US companies building nuclear power plants in the PRC. Premier Li Peng approved the regulations Thursday on behalf of the State Council, Xinhua said. “The government prohibits providing help to nuclear facilities not subject to the supervision of international atomic agencies and will not provide exports, personnel, technical exchange or cooperation to those facilities,” Xinhua reported the rules to read. The rules were issued “to strengthen controls on nuclear exports and to safeguard the security of the nation and public interests and to promote international cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” Xinhua said. US Embassy officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Diplomats and academics in recent weeks had expressed belief that the PRC was unlikely to have regulations ready by the late October summit, and the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency told the US Congress last month it was uncertain whether the PRC was abiding by a pledge not to provide technology to su

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

I. United States

1. Four-Party Peace Talks

The US State Department (“STATE RELEASE ON 2ND KOREA 4-PARTY PREPARATORY MEETING,” USIA Transcript, 9/11/97) issued the following statement through the Office of the Spokesman: “KOREA – FOUR-PARTY PREPARATORY MEETING. A second Four-Party preparatory meeting with the participation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea, the United States, and the People’s Republic of China will be held in New York City on September 18 and 19, 1997. The preparatory meeting is to decide arrangements for the Four-Party plenary session. The meetings will be held at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. We wish to express our appreciation to Columbia University for its generosity in making these facilities available.”

US State Department Spokesman James Foley (“STATE DEPARTMENT BRIEFING, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11,” USIA Transcript, 9/11/97) discussed the announcement that US, PRC, DPRK and ROK representatives will meet at Columbia University in New York City September 18 and 19 for the second preparatory meeting to discuss arrangements for four-party talks on a peace agreement for the Korean peninsula. Foley stated that the US also will be holding prior bilateral meetings with each of the other participants in the four-party talks, but would not comment on “the particulars of those meetings.” Foley also continued to refuse comment on any aspect of the recent defections of DPRK Ambassador to Egypt Chang Song-kil and his brother and fellow diplomat Chang Song-ho. “In our view there is no linkage between the Chang case and the four-party peace process, or, indeed, any other issue,” Foley said. Asked to comment on reports that DPRK officials claim their renewed willingness to attend the talks resulted from a new US-DPRK agreement on other issues, Foley replied, “I’m aware that our policy has consistently been to acknowledge no linkage. I have nothing further to add.” Foley also would not comment on any aspect of the meetings between US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charles Kartman and DPRK Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye-gwan in Beijing earlier in the week. Foley repeated the US position that it would treat seriously any new appeal for DPRK food aid from the UN World Food Program. Finally, Foley stated that no new date has been set for a next round of US-DPRK talks to discuss missile proliferation, following cancellation of talks set for the week of September 15 due to the defections.

Reuters (“U.S., N.KOREA AGREE TO NEW PEACE TALKS,” Beijing, 9/11/97) reported that US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charles Kartman and DPRK Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye-gwan, meeting in Beijing, agreed Thursday on resumption of preliminary four-party Korean talks in New York later this month. Although embassy officials on both sides had little comment, the DPRK’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and a senior US diplomat in the ROK confirmed the agreement. KCNA said the US had removed

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

I. United States

1. Four-Party Peace Talks

The AP-Dow Jones News Service (“U.S. ENVOY STILL CAN’T SAY IF N. KOREA TO JOIN PEACE TALKS,” Beijing, 9/10/97) reported that US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charles Kartman, following his meeting Wednesday with DPRK Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan, could not confirm that the DPRK would attend the second four-party peace talks preliminary meeting set to take place in New York next week, but did say that progress was made in the discussions and that the two envoys would meet again Thursday morning. Asked whether the DPRK would attend next week’s talks, Kartman said, “I’m afraid I can’t give you an answer.” “We’re still engaged and we’ll be able to make an announcement as soon as we know something,” he said in a telephone interview. Kartman added that Wednesday’s meeting “was lengthy but I think we made progress,” and then declined further questions.

US Deputy State Department Spokesman James Foley (“STATE DEPARTMENT BRIEFING, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10,” USIA Transcript, 9/10/97), commenting on the meeting between US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charles Kartman and DPRK Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan Wednesday in Beijing, stated, “The meeting was useful and productive. It was conducted in a professional manner. They will meet again tomorrow to continue their discussions.” Foley later added, “We are pleased that there is going to be a second meeting tomorrow.” On whether the DPRK will still attend the second four-party peace talks preliminary meeting set to take place in New York next week, Foley said, “we have no concrete news yet on that issue, but I will repeat again what I’ve been saying every day from this podium, which is that we’ve received no indication from the North Koreans that they are not going to be attending the talks.” Foley refused requests to elaborate on these statements. In replies to numerous questions, Foley provided few other details of the discussions, and had no comment on how many more meetings Kartman and Kim might have in Beijing, whether the DPRK had raised the issue of food aid at the Beijing meeting, whether the subject of rescheduling the postponed missile talks had come up, or whether the two sides discussed the defection of DPRK Ambassador Chang Song-kil.

2. DPRK Soldier Killed in DMZ

The Washington Post (Mary Jordan, “N. KOREAN KILLED AFTER CROSSING BORDER,” Tokyo, 9/10/97, A18) reported that ROK government officials said the killing of a DPRK soldier in the DMZ Tuesday took place after an unknown number of DPRK soldiers crossed the border. The soldier killed was armed with a rifle and had come within yards of a ROK guard post, the officials said. The shooting was the first fatality from DPRK-ROK conflict since the ROK manhunt for the DPRK crewmen and commandos that fled the DPRK submarine that ran aground on the ROK coast last September.

US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Kenneth Bacon (“DEFENSE DEPARTMENT REG