In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

III. Russian Federation

I. United States

1. Four-Party Talks Briefing Delay

The Associated Press (“NORTH KOREA SEEKS DELAY IN TALKS,” Washington, 1/27/97) reported that the US State Department said Monday that the DPRK has postponed by one week the scheduled briefing by US and ROK officials on the four-party peace talks proposal. US State Department Spokesman Nicholas Burns said the planned meeting, whose venue is now set for New York, was being postponed from January 29 to February 5. Burns said the DPRK sought the postponement in order to conclude negotiations with Western firms on grain imports, and that he considered the DPRK explanation to be “satisfactory.” The negotiations apparently involve Cargill Inc., a commodities trading firm, which received Clinton administration approval a month ago to sell up to 500,000 metric tons of wheat or rice to the DPRK. [Ed. note: Please see the related item in the ROK section, below.]

2. DPRK-Taiwan Nuclear Waste Deal

United Press International (“TAIWAN DUMPING SPARKS S.KOREA PROTESTS,” Seoul, 1/25/97) reported that after Taiwan’s economy ministry said Thursday it will not block the shipment of some 60,000 barrels of low-level radioactive waste to the DPRK despite ROK objections, ROK demonstrators burned an effigy of Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui in angry protest. The Korea Federation for the Environmental Movement (KFEM) protested Saturday outside Taipei’s representative office in Seoul as other groups vowed to laun

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

III. Japan

I. United States

1. ROK-DPRK Relations

The AP-Dow Jones News Service (“N. KOREA ACCUSES S. KOREA OF TRYING TO BLOCK AID FROM JAPAN,” Seoul, 1/24/97) reported that the DPRK on Friday said that the ROK is trying to block Japanese humanitarian aid. The accusation, carried by the DPRK’s official Korean Central News Agency, came on the eve of a summit between Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto of Japan and ROK President Kim Young-sam. Japan hopes for a reopening of long-frozen talks on normalizing relations with the DPRK, which experts say will involve food aid as an incentive. The ROK wants its allies to hold off large assistance until the DPRK agrees to peace talks. [Ed. note: Please also see “ROK-Japan Relations” in this section, below.]

Reuters (“S.KOREA REOPENS DOOR TO INVESTMENT IN N.KOREA,” Seoul, 1/24/97) reported that the ROK on Friday opened the door for domestic companies to invest in the DPRK for the first time since the submarine incursion incident shut off all contact between the two sides. The ROK Unification Ministry said it had given approval to seven firms to open talks to develop a number of joint projects. But company executives and government officials cautioned against expecting speedy improvement in economic cooperation. “Today’s approval was just for contacts, not for any specific project. Our group also has no specific project there yet,” said a senior official of the Lotte Group, one of the seven firms. “There should first be development in the ove

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

I. United States

1. ROK Strikes

Reuters (“SEOUL WARNS STRIKERS, BLASTS OPPOSITION,” Seoul, 01/23/97) reported that ROK labor minister Jin Nyum was quoted by ministry officials as warning Thursday that the government would no longer tolerate illegal strikes. “The minister said the workers should stop illegal strikes while a solution is being sought by politicians,” Son Khong-ho, a director-general at the ministry, told Reuters. “He said no more illegal activities will be tolerated.” Jin did not specify what measures would be taken against strikers or when the government would act. Meanwhile, representatives of the ruling New Korea Party criticized opposition parties for dismissing President Kim Young-sam’s offer to reopen parliamentary debate over the new labor law. The opposition rejected Kim’s offer Wednesday, saying any debate in parliament could only be held on condition the law was first repealed. “It is really shameless behavior… for the opposition to demand the nullification of the law, while it could not provide an alternative and has not put forward its own draft,” a statement from the New Korea Party said. The party rammed the law through parliament during a seven-minute pre-dawn session December 26 while opposition legislators were asleep.

2. DPRK Defectors

Reuters (“HUNGER DROVE N. KOREANS ON TRIP TO SOUTH,” Seoul, 01/23/97) reported that a spokesman for the ROK Agency for National Security Planning was quoted in ROK media as

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

III. Russian Federation

IV. People’s Republic of China

I. United States

1. Four-Party Talks Briefing

US State Department Spokesman Nicholas Burns (“STATE DEPT. NOON BRIEFING, JAN. 21,” USIA Transcript, 01/22/97) said he had no new information concerning the venue for the joint US-ROK briefing of the DPRK on the four-party peace talks proposal scheduled for January 29. “We still are trying to work out with the North Koreans and the Republic of Korea where those talks would be held, and we don’t have the final decision on that,” Burns said. Burns told reporters, “I have asked that as soon as a decision is made about the site for those talks, that we give that to you.”

2. DPRK Defections

The Associated Press (“2 N. KOREA FAMILIES DEFECT,” Seoul, 01/22/97) reported that two families defected from the DPRK to the ROK by boat on Wednesday. ROK patrol boats found the eight North Koreans adrift south of the border and towed them to a nearby island, officials said. A police helicopter took them to the port of Inchon, west of Seoul. The defection was the first major escape by sea from the DPRK since the 1987 defection of an eleven-member family to Seoul by boat via Japan. The defection followed that of a seventeen-member family that arrived in the ROK December 9 after a 27-day journey through the PRC into Hong Kong, the largest single flight from the DPRK since the 1950-53 Korean War.

3. Profile of DPRK Leader

The Washington Post (Kevin Sullivan, “N. KOREA’S NEW KI

I. United States 1. Allies Plan DPRK Collapse Reuters (“US, ALLIES DISCUSS N. KOREA CONTINGENCY PLANS,” Tokyo, 01/21/97) reported that a senior Japanese government official, in an interview with the news agency on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that the US, Japan, and the ROK have been discussing contingency plans in the event of a […]

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

I. United States

1. Allies Plan DPRK Collapse

Reuters (“US, ALLIES DISCUSS N. KOREA CONTINGENCY PLANS,” Tokyo, 01/21/97) reported that a senior Japanese government official, in an interview with the news agency on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that the US, Japan, and the ROK have been discussing contingency plans in the event of a famine-driven “crisis” in the DPRK. “Japan, the United States and South Korea have been exchanging information on the situation in North Korea,” the official said. “I would say we (the three countries) have been discussing contingency plans in the event of a crisis,” he said. The official added that the ROK has already mapped out various crisis scenarios including a mass exodus of starving refugees, a military invasion and the collapse of Pyongyang’s government. Although the Japanese official did not expect an uncontrolled outflow of refugees any time soon or the imminent collapse of the DPRK government, he painted a gloomy picture of the next few months. “North Korea has already been in a considerable degree of (food) crisis,” he said. “Food stocks would become extremely tight in March or April.” “If North Korea failed in its efforts to secure enough food supplies from other countries, the food situation would reach a crisis point,” he said. “We believe North Korea does not have much food left now.” The report follows last month’s arrival in the ROK of a seventeen-member family that fled the DPRK through the PRC and Hong Kong, which alerted

In today’s Report:

I. United States

II. Republic of Korea

III. Japan

I. United States

1. DPRK Opens Web Page

The Associated Press (“NORTH KOREA NEWS HITS INTERNET,” Tokyo, 01/17/97) reported that the DPRK’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Thursday opened a site on the World Wide Web (WWW) for dissemination of English-language news reports around the world. The web site address is: http://www.kcna.co.jp. However, only a few earlier news reports were immediately available on the site, and Lee Young Su, an editor of the Korean News Service in Tokyo, which acts as the Japanese agency for KCNA, admitted that KCNA wasn’t having an easy time with its new venue. “It’s been a little difficult for our young men in Pyongyang to master Internet, but never mind. Next month, it will be more up to date,” Lee said. By law, ROK citizens cannot read DPRK newspapers or other publications, and are not allowed to listen to DPRK radio broadcasts. The ROK Unification Ministry confirmed Friday that viewing the DPRK’s WWW page is illegal, but said it has not yet made any moves to block access to it. A ministry official said, on condition of anonymity, that the ministry has not asked ROK Internet providers to block access to the site because the same information can be found on so many other pages.

[Editor’s note: at the time of publication of this Daily Report, the KCNA site offered a list of news items for January 16, a link to an archive of news reports dating to December 2, 1996, a description of the Korean Central News Agency, and a photograph captioned, “The camp of Mt. Paekdu: Birthplace of Secretary Kim Jong Il.”]

2. ROK Strikes

Reuters (“SPECIAL FORCE