In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

III. People’s Republic of China

I. United States

1. DPRK Boat Defectors’ Warnings

Reuters (“N.KOREAN DEFECTORS TELL OF STARVATION, WAR FEAR,” Seoul, 5/22/97) reported that on Thursday the recent “boat people” defectors from the DPRK told their first news conference that many DPRK citizens are starving to death and the country had been gripped by rumors of impending war against the South. “I had to struggle to feed five family members, and my parents had malnutrition from eating only flour porridge,” said Kim Hwa-ok, 41, the wife of the vessel’s captain, who arrived with their three children and his mother. “In April and May, I saw two people who had died of starvation,” she said. The ship’s engineer, Kim Won-hyung, said that rumors were spreading that DPRK leader Kim Jong-il would launch an attack on the ROK between July and October, at the end of a three-year mourning period for his father, the late “great leader” Kim Il-sung. The dire statements came at a time when South Koreans are already alarmed by statements from Hwang Jang-yop, the highest-level DPRK official ever to defect, that the DPRK could “scorch” the ROK and Japan with nuclear weapons and was preparing for conflict. The news conference was televised nationally in the ROK.

2. DPRK Denies War Intent

The Associated Press (“NORTH KOREA DECRIES WAR TALK,” Seoul, 5/22/97) reported that an unidentified spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry said in a statement, carried by the country’s

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

III. Russian Federation

I. United States

1. US Denies Plan for DPRK Special Envoy

US State Department Spokesman Nicholas Burns (“STATE DEPT. NOON BRIEFING, MAY 20,” USIA Transcript, 5/20/97) responded to a question concerning reports that the US is considering appointing a special envoy to handle relations with the DPRK. Burns stated, “I cannot confirm that report. … Frankly, I’m not familiar with any plan to appoint a special negotiator. I do know that we have excellent foreign service officers working on this. Chuck Kartman is a career specialist. He’s heading our Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. He has spent many years on Korea, understands the Korean problem very well. He’s been our point person. I know the Secretary is very pleased by the job that he’s done. Now, should it be necessary to appoint new people to work on North Korea in the future, I’m sure we’ll announce it. But I have nothing to announce, and I’m not aware of any plans to do so.”

2. DPRK Resists Providing Nuclear Information

Reuters (“N.KOREA RELUCTANT TO GIVE NUCLEAR DETAILS,” Tokyo, 5/21/97) reported that Hans Blix, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said on Wednesday that the DPRK has remained reluctant to provide information on nuclear reactors suspected of being used to produce nuclear weapons. A Japanese official said Blix told Japanese Foreign Minister Yukihiko Ikeda that Pyongyang still refuses to give details on how its nuclear

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

I. United States

1. ROK-DPRK Red Cross Talks

The AP-Dow Jones News Service (“RED CROSS OFFICIALS OF BOTH KOREAS TO MEET IN BEIJING FRI,” Seoul, 5/20/97) reported that Kang Young-hoon, head of the ROK Red Cross, said on Tuesday that his organization had accepted the counterproposal of its DPRK counterpart to meet in Beijing Friday to discuss food aid. Red Cross officials of the two Koreas met in Beijing earlier this month for the first time in nearly five years, but failed to agree on procedures to deliver food aid. The ROK Red Cross subsequently announced its willingness to accommodate a DPRK demand that it indicate the amount of food aid it was prepared to deliver, and proposed last week that both sides meet at the border or in either of the two capitals, Seoul or Pyongyang, on Friday. The DPRK Red Cross agreed to the meeting date but insisted that the contact take place again in Beijing. “I do not understand and rather regret why you insist on Beijing as a venue instead of our land, which is more convenient,” Kang said in a telephone message to his counterpart, Li Sung-ho. The ROK Red Cross will propose giving the DPRK about 50,000 tons of grain worth about US$10 million, donated by private aid groups. The ROK Red Cross will also propose that those donations be delivered by land and be marked with the donors’ names, suggestions the DPRK has opposed in the past.

2. US View of PRC Threat

The AP-Dow Jones News

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

I. United States

1. DPRK Famine Situation

The Associated Press (“CHINESE: N. KOREAN KIDS BEG FOOD,” Dandong, PRC, 5/19/97) reported that truckers who cross into the DPRK from the PRC every day say that, despite Pyongyang’s efforts to hide the extent of food shortages, they experience vivid evidence that North Koreans are dying of hunger. Every morning, trucks laden with food sacks line up for hundreds of yards along the streets of Dandong, just across the Yalu River from the DPRK city of Sinuiju, ready to barter the goods for scrap metal, wood and medicinal herbs that they then bring back to the PRC to sell. Some truckers report that as soon as they cross the China-Korea Friendship Bridge into the DPRK, swarms of hungry children try to loot their cargoes of food. “I’ve been going across since 1992. Back then, it was really well-ordered. Now — it’s a mess,” said one driver, waiting in line to cross the bridge. “They are definitely starving. They all beg for food,” he added. “Children, adults, they clamber all over the truck, stealing things. They smash the windows, the lights. Look at the front of my truck — both lights are smashed,” said another driver, who was hauling 10 tons of flour. Drivers also said the North Koreans sometimes throw stones, too — perhaps to slow the trucks down so they can steal food off the back, or because they are angry that the Chinese appear to be profiting from their misery. Certainly, in Dandong, attention is focuse

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

III. Japan

IV. Press Releases

I. United States

1. US-DPRK MIA Agreement

US Department of Defense Spokesman Ken Bacon (“PENTAGON SPOKESMAN’S REGULAR BRIEFING,” USIA Transcript, 5/15/97) issued the following statement: “I’d like to announce that the United States and North Korea have reached agreement on two important measures to allow us to continue with our efforts to sort out what happened to prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action from the Korean War. As you know, meetings were held in New York last week, and they ended without agreement. But after those meetings, we were able to reach agreement on two of the three issues we had raised with the North Koreans. Those issues are joint recovery operations for remains in North Korea. Both sides have agreed that the U.S. will be able to conduct three joint recovery operations. U.S. teams working with North Koreans in North Korea will be able to conduct three recovery operations this year. Second, U.S. researchers will be able to go to the archives in Pyongyang to look for archival information that may be left over from the Korean War. They also will work in a joint team with the North Koreans. The third issue was our request that we be allowed to interview American defectors in North Korea. We believe that six Americans defected to North Korea in the 1960s, and we believe that four of those are still alive in North Korea. We’ve asked for permission to go interview them in order to

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

III. People’s Republic of China

I. United States

1. US Military Leader’s Views of DPRK Threat

General John Shalikashvili, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a speech at the PRC’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) National Defense University May 14 (“SHALIKASHVILI 5/14 SPEECH AT CHINA DEFENSE UNIVERSITY,” USIA Transcript, 5/14/97), said that the DPRK currently poses the greatest threat to US interests in East Asia. Shalikashvili stated, “It is fair to ask: what specific threats do the United States and our friends and allies see in the Asia-Pacific region? First, and most threatening, is the unpredictable regime in Pyongyang, which poses a major threat to peace on the Korean peninsula and in the surrounding area. This threat is magnified by the regime’s current economic problems and its apparent inability to feed its population. This is a sad situation. Today, the security situation on the Korean peninsula is worse than it was 25 years ago, when I served there as a military planner.” Shalikashvili continued, “Let me add that we continue to welcome China’s active participation in the four power talks and its bilateral efforts to help reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula. And we appreciate China’s efforts to help us keep nuclear weapons off of the Korean peninsula.” Shalikashvili also cited as threatening the “nuclear, chemical, and missile technology proliferation both in the region and coming from the region,” and the “significant territorial disputes concerning Japan’s Nor

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

III. Commentary

I. United States

1. DPRK-Taiwan Nuclear Waste Deal

The AP-Dow Jones News Service (“TAIWAN NUCLEAR WASTE OF HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVITY -GREENPEACE,” Hong Kong, 5/13/97) reported that the environmental group Greenpeace charged Tuesday that Taiwan’s national power company has “deliberately misrepresented” the radioactivity of up to 200,000 barrels of nuclear waste it plans to ship to the DPRK for storage. Taipower said it was shipping only low-level radioactive waste, but was actually sending “some of the most dangerous substances produced by nuclear reactors,” Greenpeace said in a statement. Taipower spokeswoman Chung Ching-chung said Greenpeace was “mistaken,” and that all the waste intended to be shipped to the DPRK was of low-level radioactivity, mainly gloves, clothes, nuts and bolts and tools exposed to radiation during servicing of Taiwan’s three nuclear power plants. But Greenpeace said an investigation it carried out in Taiwan with a British nuclear engineering firm shows the waste is actually “a soup of highly radioactive poisons,” and that it has visual documentation of its claims. Taiwan reportedly will pay the DPRK about US$230 million to store the waste, with the DPRK receiving the first deliveries in June.

The AP-Dow Jones News Service (“S. KOREA: ENVIRONMENT GROUP TO PROTEST NUCLEAR WASTE PLAN,” Pusan, ROK, 5/13/97) reported that the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement, an ROK environmental group, said Tuesday it will stage a rally aboard some twenty ships this Friday to protest Taiwan’s plans to ship nuclear waste to the DPRK for stora

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

I. United States

1. US-DPRK MIA Talks

The US Department of Defense (“DOD 5/10 STATEMENT U.S.-NORTH KOREA MIA TALKS,” USIA Report, 5/12/97) released a statement on May 10 expressing disappointment that talks between the US and the DPRK on missing US servicemen (MIAs) from the Korean War ended in New York May 9 with no formal agreement and with no progress shown in resolving the issue. The statement, entitled “U.S. And North Korea Talks On Missing Servicemen End,” read: “Talks between the United States and North Korea on missing servicemen from the Korean war ended in New York, Friday night, with no formal agreement. The negotiations began on Sunday, and focused on the fullest possible accounting of American servicemen in three broad areas: the question of live sightings of alleged Americans living in North Korea; access to North Korean military archives; and establishment of a schedule of joint operations to recover the remains of Americans buried in North Korea. James W. Wold, leader of the U.S. delegation, expressed disappointment that the talks ended with no agreement and with no progress shown in resolving the issue. ‘Despite assurances in advance of the talks with the North Koreans that we would deal conclusively with all issues, their delegation was unable to respond constructively to U.S. proposals in any of the three areas,’ Wold said. ‘I know that our family members and veterans are as disappointed as I am.’ At the request of the Departm

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

I. United States

1. Hwang Assertions of DPRK War Threat

Reuters (“DEFECTOR: N. KOREA MOST LIKELY NUKE CAPABLE,” Seoul, 5/9/97) reported that Kwon Young-hae, head of the ROK Agency for National Security Planning (NSP), told a parliamentary committee Friday that DPRK defector Hwang Jang-yop says he presumes the DPRK has nuclear weapons but cannot prove it. Hwang, the highest-ranked official ever to flee the DPRK, has told Seoul investigators he could provide no details about any nuclear capability because he did not have access to military secrets. “Mr. Hwang said he presumed North Korea possessed nuclear weapons as it withdrew from the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) in 1993 while refusing inspections of atomic sites by the IAEA,” Kwon said. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, has never been able to confirm that the DPRK has a nuclear device, but said again in April that it had yet to account for an amount of nuclear-grade plutonium that experts say it possesses. A crisis over Pyongyang’s suspected nuclear weapons program led to the landmark accord signed in Geneva in 1994, under which the DPRK agreed to dismantle its nuclear facilities in return for safer reactors promised by the United States. Upon arrival in the ROK on April 20, Hwang, the architect of the DPRK’s guiding ideology of self-reliance or “juche,” said Pyongyang’s leaders had abandoned hope for their impoverished, famine-stric

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

III. People’s Republic of China

I. United States

1. US Optimism on Peace Talks

The AP-Dow Jones News Service (“U.S. OPTIMISTIC ABOUT KOREA PEACE TALKS,” Tokyo, 5/8/97) reported that a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US is optimistic that the DPRK will soon accept the four-party peace talks proposal, in order to bring both lasting peace to the Korean Peninsula and emergency food aid to its people. The ROK has said large-scale aid will follow commencement of peace efforts, but the DPRK is seeking a commitment to food aid prior to joining the peace talks. Last month, the DPRK backed out of the proposed peace talks, in part due to differences over the timing of food aid. Experts have said the DPRK is on the brink of famine after two years of flooding that has devastated farmlands.

2. US-DPRK MIA Talks

The AP-Dow Jones News Service (“U.S., N. KOREA ARE ON TRACK TO REACH MIA AGREEMENT BY FRIDAY,” Tokyo, 5/7/97) reported that Larry Greer, spokesman for the US Defense Department’s office for prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action, said Wednesday that the US and the DPRK are on track to reach an agreement on accounting for US soldiers captured or killed during the 1950-53 Korean War. Delegates from the two countries are aiming to reach agreements on tracing individuals who went missing during the war, the return of remains of US soldiers who died there, and access for US researchers to DPRK military archives. “We’