THE NORTH KOREAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACT AND OTHER CONGRESSIONAL AGENDAS
This is a paper by Karin J. Lee, Senior Associate at the East Asia Policy Education Project at the Friends Committee on National Legislation Education Fund. Mrs. Lee writes: “Congress should certainly be commended for raising human rights concerns about North Korea. There are, however, other practical actions that would ultimately enable the U.S. to address human rights more effectively and also address security and other concerns. It’s up to Congress to widen the agenda.”
AESNet TOP STORY: EVALUATION OF ENERGY PATHS FOR THE DPRK
The Nautilus Institute released this presentation from the Asian Energy Security Workshop held in Beijing, China from May 11 — 14, 2004. The presentation outlined background and preparation of analysis of national and regional energy pathway scenarios for the DPRK modeled using Long Range Energy Alternatives Planning (LEAP) software. Von Hippel’s initial modeling results showed significant energy savings at low costs for a “Sustainable Development” energy pathway both nationally and with regional cooperation as compared to a “Business As Usual” pathway.
NAPSNet TOP STORY: KOREAN NUCLEAR TALKS UNLIKELY BEFORE 2ND HALF OF NOVEMBER
ITAR-TASS reported that Russia’s Foreign Ministry does not see the opportunity to convene the next round of six-party talks over the DPRK’s nuclear problem earlier than the second half of November, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev told reporters on Thursday. “It happened due to a number of subjective and objective reasons,” Alexeyev said. These include “serious disagreements and a high degree of mistrust between the United States and North Korea,” the diplomat said.
THE TRANSFORMATION OF SOUTH KOREAN POLITICS: IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S.-KOREA RELATIONS
This is a paper by Sook-Jong Lee, Korea Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies. Dr. Lee writes: “Under these circumstances, it is imperative for the leadership in the U.S. and South Korea to take a long term view of the alliance. By avoiding excessive politicization, both governments should be able to redefine their alliance relationship in a way that suits their individual as well as mutual national interests.”