Daily Report Archives

Daily Report Archives

Established in December 1993, the Nautilus Institute’s *N*ortheast *A*sia *P*eace and *S*ecurity *N*etwork (NAPSNet) Daily Report served thousands of readers  in more than forty countries, including policy makers, diplomats, aid organizations, scholars, donors, activists, students, and journalists.

The NAPSNet Daily Report aimed to serve a community of practitioners engaged in solving the complex security and sustainability issues in the region, especially those posed by the DPRK’s nuclear weapons program and the threat of nuclear war in the region.  It was distributed by email rom 1993-1997, and went on-line in December 1997, which is when the archive on this site begins. The format at that time can be seen here.

However, for multiple reasons—the rise of instantaneous news services, the evolution of the North Korea and nuclear issues, the increasing demand for specialized and synthetic analysis of these and related issues, and the decline in donor support for NAPSNet—the Institute stopped producing the Daily Report news summary service as of December 17, 2010.

NAPSNet

NAPSNet Daily Report 07 May, 1997

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

I. United States

1. US-ROK-Japan Meeting on DPRK Issues

Reuters (“U.S., JAPAN, S.KOREA OFFICIALS BEGIN N.KOREA TALKS,” Tokyo, 5/7/97) reported that the US, the ROK and Japan began talks in Tokyo on Wednesday to coordinate policies regarding the DPRK. ROK officials said that the one-day discussions at the Japanese Foreign Ministry were to focus on food shortages in the North and ways to encourage the DPRK government to join peace talks. The trilateral discussions are being led by Charles Kartman, US deputy assistant secretary of state, Yu Myung-hwan, director-general for North American affairs at the ROK Foreign Ministry, and Ryozo Kato, Yu’s Japanese counterpart. At talks in New York two weeks ago, the US and the ROK failed to get the DPRK to accept their proposed four-party peace talks proposal.

Reuters (“FOOD AID TO NORTH KOREA TIED TO PEACE TALKS,” Tokyo, 5/7/97) reported that Japanese officials involved with the Tokyo talks said Wednesday that the US and the ROK do not plan to give large-scale food aid to the DPRK until the Pyongyang government agrees to open peace talks. The officials said Japan did not plan to give any aid at all until ties with the DPRK were normalized. All three viewpoints were reiterations of previously held positions. “We basically agreed it was important to keep a cautious eye on the food situation in North Korea,” a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.

The AP-Dow Jones News Service (“1997 S. KOREA, JAP

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NAPSNet Daily Report 06 May, 1997

In today’s Report:

I. United States

I. United States

1. US-DPRK Missile Talks Postponed

The Associated Press (“PYONGYANG POSTPONES MISSILE TALKS,” Washington, 5/6/97) reported that the DPRK, citing “technical reasons,” has called off talks scheduled for next week that were to deal with US concerns over DPRK missile technology development and export. Agenda items were to include reports that the DPRK is preparing to deploy long-range Rodong I missiles that may be capable of hitting the ROK and much of Japan, and US concerns that the DPRK has sold long-range Scud missiles to Iran and Syria. The talks were due to be held in New York May 12-13. US State Department spokesman John Dinger said that on Monday the DPRK requested a postponement but also requested alternative dates, indicating it was still interested in the talks. “We will recommend dates and hope they will be held soon,” Dinger said. In a first round of talks, held last April in Berlin, the US sought a freeze on DPRK missile exports and production, and encouraged the DPRK to join an international agreement to restrict exports of such weapons.

2. DPRK Comments on Food Talks Breakdown

Reuters (“NORTH KOREA HITS SOUTH FOR TALKS FAILURE,” Seoul, 5/6/97) reported that on Tuesday the DPRK’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) criticized the ROK for the deadlock in Red Cross talks on food aid. “No agreement was reached at the contact due to the South side’s eccentric and incomprehensi

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NAPSNet Daily Report 05 May, 1997

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

III. Russian Federation

I. United States

1. US-DPRK Talks Begin on US MIAs

US State Department Acting Spokesman John Dinger (“STATE DEPT. NOON BRIEFING, MAY 5,” USIA Transcript, 5/5/97) stated that talks led by the US Defense Department began May 4 in New York City with DPRK officials in an attempt to resolve issues relating to US military personnel still reported as missing in action (MIA) during the Korean War in the early 1950s. The talks resumed Monday and are expected to continue through the week. Among the subject areas to be discussed are reported sightings of Americans allegedly still living in the DPRK; access to military archives to recover DPRK data about Americans who were held as prisoners-of-war; and the establishment of a schedule to resume joint excavations to recover the remains of Americans buried in DPRK cemeteries and at other specific sites. “From the U.S. perspective, the meeting is moving in a productive direction,” Dinger said. He noted that the DPRK delegation has agreed to meet on May 9 with family members of US MIAs. “This is the first time that the North Koreans have ever agreed to such a meeting,” Dinger said. “We view this as a positive sign of North Korea’s interest in making progress on this humanitarian issue.” Dinger noted that “these talks are not connected to the talks that took place in New York just two or three weeks ago … at which the Four Party Peace Talks Proposal was discussed. They are also not connected to the US-DPRK

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NAPSNet Daily Report 02 May, 1997

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

III. Japan

I. United States

1. Japan-US-ROK Meeting on DPRK Issues

The AP-Dow Jones News Service (“U.S., JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA TO CONFER ON NORTH KOREA TALKS,” Seoul, 5/2/97) reported that the ROK Foreign Ministry said Friday that US, ROK, and Japanese officials will meet next Wednesday in Tokyo to discuss the DPRK food crisis and ways to induce the DPRK to accept the four-party peace talks proposal. Wednesday’s talks will be headed by US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charles Kartman; Ryozo Kato, head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian bureau, and Yoo Myung-hwan, chief of the ROK Foreign Ministry’s American affairs bureau. The US and the ROK have resisted linking additional food aid to DPRK acceptance of the peace talks, while the DPRK has sought large shipments of food aid and improved ties with Washington as a precondition to joining such talks. Japan additionally has been reluctant to provide food aid because of strong suspicions that DPRK agents kidnapped Japanese citizens in the 1970s and held them against their will. [Ed. note: See also the related item in the Japan section, below.]

2. ROK-DPRK Red Cross Talks

Reuters (“S.KOREA RED CROSS IN BEIJING FOR FOOD TALKS,” Seoul, 5/2/97) reported that a ROK Red Cross team arrived in Beijing Friday for the first talks in almost five years with their counterparts from the DPRK. The talks, due to begin Saturday, are aimed at speeding up food aid from South t

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NAPSNet Daily Report 01 May, 1997

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

III. People’s Republic of China

I. United States

1. US-DPRK POW Talks

US Acting State Department Spokesman John Dinger (“REPORT ON STATE DEPARTMENT NOON BRIEFING, MAY 1,” USIA Report, 5/1/97) announced that the US Department of Defense POW-MIA Office is planning talks with DPRK officials regarding the recovery of remains of US servicemen lost in the DPRK during the Korean War. The talks are tentatively planned to take place early this month in New York City.

2. May Day Marked in ROK, Elsewhere

Reuters (“S. KOREAN WORKERS CLASH WITH RIOT POLICE,” Seoul, 5/1/97) reported that thousands of ROK workers clashed with riot police on Thursday after Labor Day ceremonies in Seoul. Riot police used tear gas to stop members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions from marching in the city center, witnesses said. About 7,000 workers, joined by some students, attended ceremonies at a park where they denounced President Kim Young-sam’s administration and demanded the arrest of Kim Hyun-chul, the president’s second son, in connection with the widening Hanbo bribery scandal. The confederation, which has 500,000 members, spearheaded almost a month of work stoppages in January following the passage of a restrictive labor law that passed by a secret session of parliament in the absence of opposition members early in the morning of December 26. The strikes ultimately compelled the government to revise the bill.

The Associated Press (“May Labor Day Ma

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NAPSNet Daily Report 30 April, 1997

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

I. United States

1. Korean Red Crosses to Meet

The Associated Press (“KOREAS WILL MEET TO TALK FOOD AID,” Seoul, 4/30/97) and United Press International (“S.KOREA AGREES TO AID TALKS WITH NORTH,” Seoul, 4/30/97) reported that the ROK agreed Wednesday to the DPRK’s proposal for a meeting in Beijing this weekend between the two countries’ Red Crosses to discuss food aid. If held Saturday, the Beijing talks would be the first contact between the ROK and DPRK Red Crosses in nearly five years. Their last meeting in 1992 broke down over how to reunite families separated by the Korean War. The meeting site had been a point of contention: the ROK suggested last month that it be held at Panmunjom, the truce village along the countries’ shared border, but the DPRK refused and proposed meeting in Beijing instead. The head of the ROK Red Cross, Kang Young-hoon, reportedly told his DPRK counterpart, Li Sung Ho, that the ROK’s decision to agree to a Beijing meeting reflects its “belief that it is not desirable to delay because of disagreement over the place of meeting.”. In approving the Beijing meeting, the ROK government said humanitarian contacts by the Red Cross can be exempt from Seoul’s long-standing policy that inter-Korean contact must be held on the Korean peninsula. Kang said a six-person delegation will leave for Beijing May 3 and hopes to discuss details of how it can improve aid efforts. The ROK Red Cross has donated US$3.70 million in food and clothi

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NAPSNet Daily Report 29 April, 1997

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Announcements

I. United States

1. DPRK Famine Situation

The Associated Press (John Leicester, “STARVING, NORTH KOREANS EAT WOOD,” Beijing, 4/29/97) reported that Kathi Zellweger of the Caritas aid agency, having just returned from the DPRK, said Tuesday that food warehouses are nearly empty and officials are adding ground-up wood to rations of rice and corn to make supplies last longer. Zellweger said she saw hungry children too weak to stand, hospitals that can’t feed patients and other signs that the food crisis is “heading toward a disaster if nothing is done.” Zellweger said “we will have a full-blown famine with mass starvation, and possibly also refugees heading toward China and South Korea” by June or July unless food aid is delivered. Zellweger reported seeing piles of oak tree chips at a grain mill, and being told they would be made into a powder to stretch rations.

The Associated Press (Ian Stewart, “VIETNAM: N.KOREA REJECTS RICE GIFT,” Hanoi, Vietnam, 4/29/97) reported that a Vietnamese Finance Ministry official said Tuesday that the DPRK has rejected an offer of free rice from Vietnam and also will not allow Vietnam to settle a debt with food. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the DPRK sent Deputy Prime Minister Kong Chin-tae to Vietnam earlier in April to appeal for 30,000 tons of rice on credit, but that Hanoi balked when Pyongyang insisted on dictating the terms of the aid. Vietnam then proposed paying off an earli

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NAPSNet Daily Report 28 April, 1997

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

III. Japan

IV. People’s Republic of China

V. Russian Federation

I. United States

1. DPRK Famine Situation

Reuters (“CANNIBALISM FEARS IN HUNGRY NORTH KOREA,” Beijing, 4/28/97) reported that hunger in the DPRK has become so severe that some peasants now keep their dead in their homes until the corpses began to putrefy before burying them, for fear the bodies would be dug up and eaten by other hungry farmers, according to several Chinese residents. Visitors to the PRC’s border with the DPRK said Monday that peasants were selling clothes for food and were sneaking into the PRC to steal animal feed. “The situation in North Korea is very bad. There is only corn to eat and very little of that,” said one woman who recently visited her sister in the border town of Yanji. But many North Koreans are so terrified of official retribution they dare not cross into the PRC even though the shallow river that marks the border in part of northern Jilin province can be waded easily. Chinese and ethnic Koreans told recent visitors that DPRK spies based in the PRC round up those desperate enough to sneak across the border and force them to return, where punishment can be brutal and swift. “The North Korean police put a metal wire through the nose of some people who escape,” one Yanji resident was quoted as saying. “It’s like a brand that marks them out.” “We can hear the screams of children when they put the metal wire through their nose because they do it as soon as they cross into North Korea and the border is very close,” th

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Natural Resource Subsidies, Trade and Environment: The Cases of Forests and Fisheries – Full Text

As tariffs have been reduced by successive multilateral trade liberalization agreements, subsidies have emerged as a major issue in international trade policy. And as environmental concerns have been linked with trade issues, it has increasingly been recognized that subsidies can have significant environmental implications. In the past year, the issue of subsidies and the environment has been included in the work plans of the World Trade Organization’s Committee on Trade and the Environment, the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development’s Intergovernmental Panel on Forests, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

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NAPSNet Daily Report 25 April, 1997

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

I. United States

1. DPRK Proposes Normalization with US

The Washington Post (Andrew Browne, “N. KOREA DETAILS CONDITIONS FOR FOUR PARTY TALKS,” The Washington Post, 4/25/97) reported that the DPRK has publicly announced three conditions to be met before it will proceed with four-party talks. The DPRK wants U.S. diplomatic relations, additional food aid and a lifting of U.S. trade sanctions. The DPRK is also reported to be encouraging the PRC to drop out of the four-party talks until its conditions are met. Clinton has reportedly asked visiting Prime Minister Hashimoto for Japan’s support in persuading the DPRK to proceed in the talks without conditions.

United Press International (“S.KOREA: NORTH’S PROPOSAL ‘NONSENSE’,” Seoul, 4/24/97) reported that ROK Foreign Ministry Director General Yoo Myung-hwan called the DPRK proposal for peace talks “nonsense,” saying that the DPRK is trying to “put an end to the issue of rice provision . . . and the lifting of U.S. sanctions against it.” (DPRK Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan had said earlier that the DPRK proposed a ‘three-plus-one idea , excluding China until US negotiators build “confidence” with the DPRK.)

The news release issued by the DPRK follows:

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Permanent Mission to the United Nations PRESS-RELEASE BY THE DPR KOREA DELEGATION (New York, April 22, 1997) In the meeting

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