This page includes materials on the stationing of US forces in ROK,NMD, ROK reaction to US DPRK policy, etc. but does not attempt to go into wider US-ROK relations.
Nuclear reactors issue, KEDO, IAEA, etc. are currently on the nuclear programme page

2007

• December
• November
• October
• September
• August
• July
• June
• May
• April
• March
• February
• January

• NK-US relations 2006
• NK-US relations 2005
• NK-US relations 2004
• NK-US relations 2003
• NK-US relations 2002
• NK-US relations 2001
• NK-US relations 2000

• Radio to Air Candidates' Speeches for N.Koreans
  Open Radio for North Korea, a private radio station based in the U.S., said it starts airing recorded speeches and debates by South Korean presidential candidates all over North Korea beginning Monday. Open Radio was launched in Washington in December 2005. The radio has since been transmitting programs on the situation on the Korean Peninsula and stories about separated families to North Korea on shortwave (9930?) from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. [Propaganda]
• Aide to Roh Explains Inter-Korean Contacts to US Officials
  WASHINGTON _ South Korea's top security adviser, currently visiting Washington, said Monday he discussed with the U.S. the results and implications of the latest flurry of inter-Korean contacts. Coming out of talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Baek Jong-chun, chief presidential secretary for security policy, said they evaluated the progress in Seoul-Washington relations.[Dilemma}
• U.N. announces new ethics rules after N.Korea case
  By Patrick Worsnip Reuters Monday, December 3, 2007; 6:57 PM UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations announced plans on Monday to unify ethical standards across its system after allegations it failed to protect a whistleblower who criticized spending by a U.N. agency in North Korea. An oil-for-food corruption scandal over Iraq and other ethics issues have battered the world body's reputation in the United States, the biggest provider of U.N. funds and a frequent critic of U.N. waste and lack of accountability.
  A directive by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strengthens from January 1 the central control of the U.N. Ethics Office, whose authority until now has covered only the secretariat, not separately governed bodies like the U.N. Development Program, or UNDP. That has led to charges, especially from the U.S. administration and Congress, that a whistleblower policy set up two years ago to allow U.N. staffers to expose wrongdoing without fear of retaliation was not being properly applied. The issue came to a head this year after UNDP did not renew the contract of Artjon Shkurtaj, head of its operations in North Korea from 2005-2006, who said the agency broke financial rules in handing over money to the Communist government there [UNDP] [Camouflage]
• Roh's chief security advisor flies to U.S. over peace initiatives
  President Roh Moo-hyun's chief security policy secretary left for the U.S. Monday for discussions on accelerating the dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear program and establishing a new peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said.   "Coinciding with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill's visit to North Korea, Washington officials and I will naturally discuss bilateral cooperation in the denuclearization of the North, including compensation for its nuclear disablement," Baek told reporters at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, before his departure.  
• Refugees in the U.S. 'Entitled to Sue N.Korea'
  A leading U.S. law firm on Wednesday released a report on ways to take legal action over the North Korean regime's human rights violations. The report by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom was made at the request of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, a private organization. It counsels worldwide organizations handling human rights in the North to make the most of the International Criminal Court, the UN Security Council, the UN Human Rights Commission, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This report says it is possible for North Korean refugees in the U.S. to sue North Korea for damages for harassment they suffered from the Kim Jong-il regime under the Alien Tort Claims Act. North Korean refugees in the U.S. can make an issue of torture, summary execution and forced labor by the Kim regime based on the U.S. judicial procedures. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom employs some 800 lawyers at its headquarters in New York and 1,600 worldwide. [Extraterritoriality]

• Taiwanese Firm Exports High-Tech Equipment to N.Korea
  Home> National/Politics Updated Nov.28,2007 09:12 KST Taiwanese authorities are investigating a Taiwanese firm for exporting precision equipment that could be used to produce nuclear-related materials to North Korea, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported on Tuesday. The precision machine tools, parts of whose components were made in Japan, were supplied to North Korea through Taiwan, which as a non-member of the UN is under no obligation to respect UN sanctions on the Stalinist country. Yicheng Co. is suspected to have illegally exported precision machine tools that could be used to enrich uranium, extract plutonium and produce biochemical weapons to a North Korean enterprise. According to the Japanese daily, Taiwanese authorities cracked down in March on another company for illegally exporting precision machine tools that could be used to make bullets to North Korea. In August, they discovered that yet another firm had exported Japanese-made computers that could be diverted to make missile components to a state-run enterprise in North Korea. [Sanctions]
• Korean Division Hobbling Int'l Diplomacy: FM
  Foreign Minister Song Min-soon has complained that South Korea’s standing on the international stage is hampered by the nation’s division. He was apparently thinking of the government’s latest abstention from a UN resolution condemning North Korea’s human rights abuses. In a lecture at Ehwa Womans University on Tuesday, Song said, "South Korea’s gross domestic product is equivalent to the aggregate GDP of the countries ranking between 80th and 200th in terms of economic power. The South has potentially… tremendous diplomatic power, but it is a divided nation and is belittled on the international stage whenever inter-Korean issues come up." [Dilemma]
• U.S. Stages War Exercises against DPRK
  Pyongyang, November 27 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialist bellicose forces for aggression are busy these days with war exercises targeted against the DPRK after introducing flying corps and nuclear-powered guided missile submarines into south Korea, according to a military source. On Nov. 26 they deployed overseas-based F-16s and F-15s in their air force bases and this was preceded by the deployment of F/A-18s on Nov. 19. These war planes were busy with exercises for air battle, close air support and strike at ground targets in the air over the areas of Hoengsong, Thaebaek, Chonan, Osan and Ryechon in a coordinated operation with flying corps of the U.S. seventh air force present in south Korea on Nov. 23, 26 and 27. Involved in these aerial war exercises were at least 350 F-16, F-15, A-10 and F/A-18 and other type planes. These planes were refueled by KC-135 in midair under the command of Japan-based E-3. A nuclear-powered guided missile submarine of the U.S. imperialist aggression forces entered Pusan Port on Nov. 21 to stage a madcap submarine operation exercise targeted against the DPRK in the waters off the port. [Joint US military] [military balance]
• Stealthy U.S. Sub Makes Rare Korean Appearance
  The USS Connecticut, a U.S. Navy ultramodern nuclear-powered attack submarine, is anchored at Yongho-dong naval base in Busan. The world's most powerful nuclear submarine is currently anchored at the Yongho-dong naval base in Busan.
  The US$3 billion Connecticut can carry torpedoes, anti-ship missiles and 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles, which can hit targets more than 1,300 km away with high accuracy. The sub features high-level stealth capabilities to make it hard for the enemy to detect. It also has the ability to drop off commandos in enemy territory and can gather intelligence by intercepting enemy communications. [Military balance] [Denuclearisation]
• Embarrassing S.Korean Diplomats at the UN
  Nov. 17, 2005 marks exactly 100 years since Nov. 17, 1905 -- two dates the U.S. magazine Weekly Standard in an early 2006 issue described as days of "national humiliation" for Korea. Headlined, "A Korean Day of Infamy", the op-ed piece says, "There's hardly ever a dull moment in South Korean politics. Awash in frequent and stupendous scandals, Koreans rarely find the time to step back and take the long view. Looking back on 2005, which defining event will Koreans remember, say, 50 or 100 years from now?" On Nov. 17, 1905, Korea was deprived of diplomatic sovereignty when it signed the protectorate treaty with Japan. Exactly 100 years later, on Nov. 17, 2005, our government abstained on a UN resolution condemning the violation of human rights in North Korea.
• U.S. Diplomat 'Permanently' Stationed in Pyongyang
    A U.S. diplomat has been stationed permanently at the Koryo Hotel in Pyongyang since mid-November, a source said Sunday. The development comes as U.S.-North Korea relations are improving as Pyongyang implements its promise to disable its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon by the end of the year. A source in Washington said that the U.S. plans to dispatch another permanent diplomat to Pyongyang soon, with the Koryo Hotel likely to serve as a de facto U.S. liaison office in North Korea. This is the first time the U.S. has ever stationed a permanent diplomat in Pyongyang, and it suggests the possible normalization of relations between the two sides. The Washington source said, "A foreign service officer in charge of administrative affairs from the U.S. State Department has been staying at the Koryo Hotel in Pyongyang, using his room as both an office and living quarters. He is mainly carrying out administrative liaison efforts between the U.S. and North Korea."
• Anti-DPRK "Human Rights Resolution" under Fire
  Pyongyang, November 22 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA Thursday as regards the adoption of the anti-DPRK "Human Rights Resolution" at the 3rd Committee of the 62nd UN General Assembly: A "resolution" slandering the DPRK over the "human rights situation" was adopted at the meeting of the 3rd Committee of the 62nd UN General Assembly on Nov. 20. As it happened last year, the "resolution" cooked up through the collusion of Japan and the EU is a document to serve the purpose of false propaganda as it was based on sheer lies and fabrications. The "resolution" which is nothing but the falsification of hard facts and profound confusion of right and wrong was prompted by sheer repugnancy towards Korean-style socialism centred on the popular masses. It, therefore, has nothing to do with the defence of human rights and would only stoke confrontation and distrust. The results of the voting showed that many countries said no to the "resolution" and this testifies to the fact that the political purpose of the "resolution" is regarded as a problem from an objective point of view. It is the worst human rights abuse in the present times to occupy other country by force of arms and turn it into a sea of blood. The worst human rights abuser is the country that ignited such a war and the countries that supported it.
• Not Strategy, but Theology,
  by Victor Cha
  President Roh Moo-hyun told an international security forum this week in Korea of his desires to see the leaders of the U.S., China, and North Korea meet with him in a four-way summit. Roh apparently stated that the four-way summit could declare a commitment to a peace treaty which would then help spur the six-party talks forward and persuade Pyongyang to denuclearize. The outgoing South Korean president also called for U.S. President George W. Bush to be more flexible in dealing with North Korea. Although the idea of a leaders summit was first stated in the October 2007 inter-Korean joint declaration, this would constitute the first time that any world leader called for the convening of such a summit. These statements defy logic. They reflect the views of a Blue House in its last days in office desperately seeking more concessions from its key ally while completely discounting all that has been accomplished thus far in six-party talks with Washington's cooperation. Washington's position -- shared by all the other members of the six-party talks -- is that we need to complete the second phase of disablement and declaration by the end of 2007.
• Pay bombing victims, U.S. urged
  November 23, 2007 The Truth and Reconciliation Commission urged the government yesterday to negotiate with the United States to obtain compensation for Korean civilian casualties caused by the bombing of a village during the Korean War. It is the first time that the independent fact-finding commission has made such a recommendation, which is non-binding. According to a press release, the panel met on Tuesday to discuss an incident that took place in Sanseong Village, Yeocheon, North Gyeongsang on Jan. 19, 1951. [Korea War events]
• North Korean Refugees in China and Human Rights Issues: International Response and U.S. Policy Options
  By the Congressional Research Service October 23rd, 2007 Rhoda Margesson, Specialist in International Humanitarian Assistance in the Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division of the Congressional Research Service, Emma Chanlett-Avery, Analyst in Asian Affairs in the Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division of the Congressional Research Service, and Andorra Bruno, Specialist in Immigration Policy in the Domestic Social Policy Division of the Congressional Research Service, write, “Formulating policy toward North Korea has been characterized as deciding among a range of bad options. The following outlines some basic approaches to dealing with North Korea’s human rights and refugee issues advocated by various constituencies, with an analysis of some of the possible diplomatic and security related ramifications. United States policy has adopted elements of several of these strategies in the past and future policies will likely be a combination of approaches.
• Abstaining From UN Vote on N.Korea is Cowardly
  The South Korean government abstained from a UN vote on Wednesday on a resolution against human rights violations in North Korea. The resolution was passed with 97 countries supporting it, 23 opposed and 60 abstaining. The South Korean government did not take part in the UN vote in 2003, abstained in 2004 and 2005, supported it in 2006 and abstained again this year. There has been no principle adhered to by the wishy-washy South Korean government involving an issue that concerns the abuses of human rights of its own people.
• S.Korea, U.S. Go Easy on N.Korea Human Rights
  South Korea and the U.S. are reluctant, the latter unusually so, to take issue with human rights abuses in North Korea, apparently worried about the delicate state of relations as North Korea starts disabling its nuclear program. South Korea’s abstention on a UN resolution condemning North Korea’s human rights violations this week is the most glaring example of its reluctance to alienate the North. The government backed a similar resolution last year, when former foreign minister Ban Ki-moon was running for the UN top job. It abstained from 2003 to 2005. That suggests Seoul voted for the resolution last year to boost Ban’s chances, not because it champions human rights. At least one Foreign Ministry official expects the decision to abstain this year to come back to haunt the country in its foreign policy.
• S. Korea’s abstention on human rights resolution
  [Editorial] A United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for an improvement in the human rights situation in North Korea has passed with 97 votes for, 23 against, and 60 abstentions, becoming the sixth UN resolution of its kind toward North Korea. South Korea voted in favour of last year’s resolution, but chose to abstain this time around.   The Blue House’s explanation was that it took into consideration the recently improving situation in inter-Korean relations. In other words it abstained after agonizing over how to not put a burden on relations that have been improving rapidly since the inter-Korean summit early last month. While it is not as if there is no logic to the fact that the move was largely an opportunist one, since the government has changed its position from the one it held last year, when there have been no improvements to speak of in North Korean human rights. For that matter, when it voted in favor of last year’s resolution, the reasons it gave had less to do with human rights and more to do with North Korea’s test of a nuclear device and the situational reasoning that came with South Korea wanting to produce its first UN Secretary-General. It is awkward for Seoul’s approach to these resolutions to be to link them directly to the state of relations with Pyongyang, because if you have to be careful when relations are good, that means that relations need to be bad, like last year, in order to be able to vote in favor of them. It is desirable that the government thoroughly consider a way to approach North Korean human rights with consistency, instead of being buried in changing situations.
• Roh instructed abstention from U.N. vote on N.K. rights resolution: spokesperson
  The South Korean government decided to abstain from Tuesday's U.N. vote on a resolution condemning North Korea's human rights record, in order not to damage inter-Korean relations, the office of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said Wednesday.   A U.N. General Assembly committee adopted a draft resolution in New York Tuesday expressing "very serious concern" at persistent reports of widespread human rights violations in North Korea, including torture, inhumane conditions of detention and public executions.   The assembly's human rights committee approved the resolution by a vote of 97-23 with 60 abstentions, including South Korea. The draft now goes to the 192-member General Assembly for a final vote.
• U.S. Treasury's Levey Says Bankers Worldwide Are Shunning Iran
  By Bradley K. Martin
  Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Treasury Department measures targeting Iran, similar to those used against North Korea, are having a significant effect in financially isolating the country, Stuart Levey, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in Tokyo. Financial institutions around the world have cut ties with Iran, leading to ``a dramatic pullback in business,'' Levey said on a trip through East Asia to build support for the measures.
  This year the U.S. agreed to the release of the BDA funds. While that compromise brought Kim's negotiators back to the table, it didn't cure the country's financial isolation, according to Felix Abt, president of Pyongyang's European Business Association. ``It is still difficult because some international banks are reluctant to handle payments to and from any banks in the DPRK, either state or foreign-owned, fearing that they could become targets of restrictive measures in the same way that Banco Delta Asia was,'' Abt said, using the initials of North Korea's formal name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea [Financial sanctions]
• N.K. officials expect progress on second day of financial talks with U.S.
     NEW YORK, Nov. 20 (Yonhap) -- North Korean officials said they expect substantial progress as they entered the second and last day of talks with the United States on gaining access to the international financial system. "It is North Korea's consistent policy to stop illicit financial activities," said Ki Kwang-ho, a Finance Ministry director leading the North Korean delegation. [Financial sanctions]
• N.Korea, U.S. Discuss Normalizing Financial Relations
  Working-level talks on the normalization of financial relations between North Korea and the U.S. opened in New York for a two-day run on Monday. The talks are a dialogue channel created in the process of resolving the issue of North Korea’s funds frozen at the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia. It is the first visit of North Korean financial people to the U.S. The U.S. delegation consists of officials from the U.S. Treasury and State departments and is led by Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes Daniel Glaser. The six-member North Korean delegation is headed by Ki Kwang-ho, a director at the North Korean Finance Ministry. At the meeting in the U.S. mission to the United Nations, the two sides discussed measures to prevent illegal financial activities and help the North join the international financial system. The U.S. focused on devising ways to end the production of counterfeit currency in North Korea. In response, the North highlighted its efforts to crack down on counterfeiters. The North Korean delegates also stressed that their country could join international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank only when Washington removes Pyongyang from its list of terrorism sponsoring states and lifts financial sanctions under the Trading with the Enemy Act. Before the talks, the North Korean delegation proposed ways to help the North join the global financial system at a seminar hosted by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and Korea Society on Friday. [Financial sanctions]
• U.S. pushes North on possible Syria ties
  November 20, 2007 WASHINGTON An off the record meeting Friday turned tense when U.S. officials pressed North Korea to explain its suspected nuclear ties with Syria when the North declares its atomic stockpile, sources who participated in the meeting said Sunday. Kim Myong-gil, North Korea’s deputy chief of mission to the United Nations who participated in the meeting, did not give a particular response, but he and his aides seemed "clearly taken aback" at the level of pressure from the U.S. participants, the sources told Yonhap in separate phone calls.
• Diplomacy With the Devil
  By DANIELLE PLETKA Published: November 19, 2007 Washington
  Op-Ed Contributor NEITHER George W. Bush nor the national security expert who advised him through his first presidential campaign seemed captivated by the prospect of a Nobel Peace Prize or encomiums from the chattering classes. But something has happened over the last seven years. The allure of a place in history has grown. How else to explain the about-face President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have made on key foreign policy issues from North Korea to the Middle East peace process?
  Early in his term, President Bush jettisoned the crown jewels of the Clinton administration’s foreign policy — the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the North Korea Agreed Framework. In each case, experts still disagree about whether he was right to do so. But the fact is that Bill Clinton had gone the extra mile in the Middle East and achieved nothing. And revelations that the North Koreans had been cheating on their 1994 commitment to abandon nuclear weapons made manifest the fraud underlying that "breakthrough."
  Seven years into the Bush presidency, however, what was old is new again. The "blackmailing" Pyongyang regime is now one with which the United States can do business. Nevermind that in 2002, American and Spanish warships discovered a North Korean vessel carrying Scud missiles to Yemen or that in 2005 the Treasury Department designated the Macao-based Banco Delta Asia as a "primary money-laundering concern" for its role in North Korea’s illegal weapons, counterfeiting and drug businesses. [Backdown] [Partisan]
• U.S. and North Korea meet for talks on financial norms
  By Michelle Nichols Reuters Monday, November 19, 2007; 6:03 PM NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States began two days of talks with North Korea on Monday in what Washington officials described as a bid to educate the reclusive Communist state about international financial standards of conduct. The talks are part of a thawing in U.S.-North Korean ties since Pyongyang agreed to abandon its nuclear arms programs.
  [Financial sanctions]
• The US, North Korea tango has begun
  By Sunny Lee BEIJING - Unbelievable things do happen. The US last week assisted an "evil" country, to use the terminology that had once been employed by the American president. Or to use a military metaphor, what the US did almost amounts to "consorting with the enemy".
• “U.S. Spent No Money on North Korean Human Rights Act”
  NOVEMBER 14, 2007 08:15 The China Post Online reported yesterday that the U.S. federal budget earmarked to help North Koreans authorized through the North Korean Human Rights Acts has not been spent at all since 2004 when the act was passed. Christian Whiton, deputy to the US special envoy on human rights in North Korea, visited Hong Kong on Monday. He said, “Millions of dollars earmarked by the U.S. government to help North Koreans are still tied up by red tape three years after they were first authorized.” Under the North Korean Human Rights Act, which was passed in October 2004, about $24 million is set aside annually to support the improvement of North Korean’s human rights from 2004 through 2008. Of this, about $20 million is to help North Koreans fleeing their impoverished homeland and wandering in China and other countries, $2 million to be funneled into broadcasters, and another $2 million to finance the NGOs’ activities for the advocacy of human rights of North Koreans. Mr. Whiton also said, “Even though Washington spent $4 million providing aid to North Korea and expanding its radio broadcasts into the North through UN and other relief agencies last year, it was not money assigned by this act.” [Manipulation]
• U.S.-N.K. financial talks scheduled in New York next week: sources
  WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (Yonhap) -- U.S. and North Korean officials will meet in New York early next week to reopen talks on addressing Pyongyang's alleged illicit financial activities, sources here said Tuesday.
  Daniel Glaser, assistant treasury secretary in charge of terrorism financing, will lead the U.S. delegation to the talks scheduled Monday to Tuesday, according to the sources. It was not yet clear who will represent North Korea at the meeting. Previous sessions were led by O Kwang-chol, president of the Foreign Trade Bank of Korea. [Financial sanctions]
• U.S., North Korea to Hold Financial Talks Next Week
  By REUTERS Published: November 14, 2007 Filed at 4:39 p.m. ET Skip to next paragraph WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and North Korea will hold two days of talks in New York next week that U.S. officials said on Wednesday they viewed as a chance to educate North Korea about international financial norms. The discussions, to take place on Monday and Tuesday, follow the resolution earlier this year of a long-running dispute over roughly $25 million in North Korean funds held in tainted accounts at Macau's Banco Delta Asia bank. In 2005, the U.S. Treasury Department designated the bank as a "primary money laundering concern" and charged it with accepting the proceeds of alleged illicit North Korean activities such as counterfeiting and drug smuggling. The United States eventually facilitated the return of the money to North Korea to revive a multilateral agreement under which Pyongyang has agreed to abandon its nuclear programs in exchange for aid and diplomatic incentives. After resolving the BDA issue, U.S. officials said they would open up a channel in which to discuss financial matters with officials from the secretive, Stalinist state. "We think it's an opportunity to familiarize the North Koreans with accepted international banking practices and problems that have affected North Korean access to the international financial system," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. He said the U.S. Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Daniel Glazer would lead the U.S. delegation. A Treasury official, who asked not to be identified, said officials from the State Department and the U.S. Secret Service, which investigates counterfeiting and other financial crimes, would attend. "The focus will be on North Korea's illicit financial activity, internationally recognized norms and standards for operating in the international financial system, and steps that the DPRK should take to be re-integrated into the international financial system," the official said, referring to Pyongyang by its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. (Reporting by Arshad Mohammed, editing by Eric Walsh) [Financial sanctions]
• In time of raised tensions, Russia honors its Cold War spies, including British double agent
  The Associated Press Published: November 12, 2007
  MOSCOW: Russian intelligence on Monday honored one of Moscow's most important Soviet-era spies, stirring Cold War memories at a time when relations between Russia and the West are again going sour. The accolade for British double agent George Blake, and the award of the nation's highest medal to another prominent Soviet spy, came five months after Queen Elizabeth II honored Oleg Gordievsky, a high-level KGB man who defected to Britain in 1985.
  Blake told Russia Today he chose to switch allegiance during the Korean War, when, as a British vice consul in Seoul, he was captured by invading North Korean forces. Seeing American bombs falling "on small, completely defenseless Korean villages, one didn't feel too proud of being on the Western side," he said. "And I came to the conclusion that it was wrong to fight communism." [Korean War events] [Espionage]
• Sending Troops to Iraq Was Historical Error: President
  By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter President Roh Moo-hyun said Sunday that his decision to send Korean troops to Iraq was a historical error, even though he didn't want to history to record him as a leader who made mistakes. ``As president it was an inevitable decision to send troops to Iraq,'' Roh said in an interview with K-TV. ``I realized that this was a time when I couldn't help but make a historical error even though I didn't want to.'' He said the decision was made in order to maintain good relations with the United States, which wanted Korea to help in the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
• KCNA Blasts Bolton's Anti-DPRK Remarks
  Pyongyang, November 7 (KCNA) -- U.S. conservative hard-liners raised their heads again to malignantly slander the DPRK. Neo-con Bolton is typical of them. He talked trash that it is foolish to expect north Korea to keep its promise, history proves that it will never scrap its nuclear program of itself and it is a matter of time to realize that the U.S. has been fooled. He even published a book titled "Surrender is not an option" in which he asserted that some mandarins of the U.S. administration are conducting absurd diplomatic negotiations with the DPRK. Bolton's remarks are not worth even a passing note as they are nothing but a spate of vituperation let loose by an ill-tempered guy ousted from the government. [Bolton] [Vituperation]
• DPRK's Consistent Principled Stand to Fight against All Forms of Terrorism Reiterated
  Pyongyang, November 8 (KCNA) -- The Korean Central News Agency released Thursday the following detailed report on the recent pirate attack on the DPRK-flagged trading ship "Taehongdan" in waters off Somalia: On Oct. 29, 2007 when it was anchored at roads ready for departure after discharging cargo at Mogadishu Port, Somalia the ship came under a surprise attack by seven armed pirates disguised as guards. All the crewmen were detained at a steering room and an engine room. The pirates demanded the crewmen pay a ransom of 15,000 U.S. dollars and navigate to the waters designated by them, opening fire to threaten them. The sailors, however, remained unperturbed under this dangerous situation created all of a sudden. They fought to beat back the pirates' attack. They switched on an automatic warning device and waged a fierce gunfight against the pirates after seizing weapons from two terrorists who were standing guard over the engine room. As the steering room was occupied by the pirates, they sailed towards the open sea by use of steering engine for emergency operation and life boat compass, while battling on to overpower the remaining pirates. In the meantime, upon receiving a SOS sent by the ship, an institution concerned in the DPRK officially informed the International Maritime Organization and the Piracy Reporting Centre of the IMB stationed in Malaysia of the incident and asked for help. At the request of the above-said centre, U.S. navy's destroyer James E. Williams and a helicopter rushed to the scene and helped the DPRK sailors in fighting, threatening the pirates over walkie-talkie. As a result, at around 16:30 on Oct. 30, i.e. about 20 hours after the start of the fight, the pirates dropped arms and surrendered. The ship was completely recaptured by its sailors. One pirate was killed and six crewmen of the DPRK were wounded in the fight. A surgeon of the U.S. destroyer provided first-aid treatment and other medical service to our wounded crewmen. Our cargo ship made a safe voyage to its destination through a regular sea route. The pirates' recent armed attack on our trading ship was a grave terrorist act perpetrated against a peaceful ship. It is the consistent principled stand of the DPRK government to oppose all sorts of terrorism. As shown by our crewmen through their actions, it is the disposition of the Korean people to fight out any terrorist act on the spot though they are empty-handed. We feel grateful to the United States for its assistance given to our crewmen. This case serves as a symbol of the DPRK-U.S. cooperation in the struggle against terrorism. We will continue to render international cooperation in the fight against terrorism, in the future, too.
• N.Korea Thanks U.S. for Help Against Pirates
  In a rare show of gratitude, North Korea officially thanked the U.S. for helping the crew of a North Korean cargo ship hijacked by pirates off the Somali coast last week. The official Korean Central News Agency said Pyongyang thanked Washington for helping the crew of the Dai Hong Dan take back control of their vessel from pirates, calling the case "a symbol of North Korea-U.S. cooperation in the war against terrorism." The remarks are a further sign that the North is determined to improve ties with the U.S., as the disablement of its nuclear facilities is going smoothly and it is expected to be removed from the U.S.’ list of state sponsors of terrorism soon. [Media]
• U.S. envoy calls on world leaders to meet N.K. human rights activists
  A senior U.S. envoy called on world leaders to meet with North Korean human rights activists just as President George W. Bush met with the Dalai Lama, saying such meetings can send powerful signals to the Pyongyang regime.   "When government leaders speak clearly about human rights, it can help those in repressive countries immensely," said Christian Whiton, deputy special envoy for human rights in North Korea. The transcript of his remarks, made in Belgium on Tuesday, was released through the U.S. State Department on Wednesday. [Manipulation]
• Japan initially voted against Ban Ki-moon's election at U.N.: Bolton
  The single early vote opposing former South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon's election as U.N.   secretary-general came from Japan, which later changed its mind to "no opinion," according to a former U.S. envoy to the United Nations.
  John Bolton recounts in his new book, "Surrender Is Not an Option," the process leading up to Ban's eventual election to the top U.N. post and his views of the North Korean nuclear issue.
    The former ambassador said he personally suspected that the "discourage" vote against Ban had come from Japan and persuaded Tokyo's envoy, Kenzo Oshima, to change his government's mind.   Ban had suspected Ghana of voting against him after Oshima flatly denied casting the disapproval vote, according to the book.   But Bolton said when he met with Oshima and urged him to reconsider Japan's "discourage" vote, he did not deny it.   "I took it that Japan could not yet vote 'yes,' but might at least shift to 'no opinion,' which was in fact what happened," Bolton wrote.   Regarding North Korea, the former ambassador claimed evidence indicating uranium-enrichment activity extended well back into the 1990s and called it "the hammer I have been looking for to shatter the Agreed Framework."   The Agreed Framework, reached in 1994 between the U.S. and North Korea, froze Pyongyang's nuclear activities in return for giving the North a set of light-water reactors. The deal collapsed when Washington confronted Pyongyang in October 2002 with accusations that the communist regime violated the agreement by engaging in a clandestine uranium enrichment program, an alternative to using plutonium in making nuclear weapons.
  Up until mid-August of 2002, there was still no consensus that North Korea had violated the Agreed Framework, according to Bolton.   This suited people at the U.S. State Department's East Asia and the Pacific Bureau, whom he called "EAPeasers," who were in denial and wished to postpone any decision until after the December presidential election in South Korea, Bolton wrote.   The book details his visit to Seoul in August of that year, when he briefed then-South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Tae-sik about the information on the North's uranium enrichment.
  "Lee was not happy with what I told him, because he understood even without my saying so that the North's actions would plunge the Agreed Framework into crisis," Bolton said.   It was on September 10, 2002, that the principals at the White House National Security Council finally concluded that North Korea had effectively killed the Agreed Framework, he said.   The former envoy reiterated his opposition to the current U.S.   approach to North Korea, insisting that the communist regime is bound to cheat again.   "In fact, the only true way to resolve the DPRK nuclear weapons problem is the reunification of the Korean Peninsula," he wrote, naming the North by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
  "If I were Kim Jong-il, I would not be optimistic," he said of North Korea's top leader.   "His death will be dirty and contemptible, like his life and his regime, and it will be exactly what he deserves."     WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 (Yonhap) [Regime change] [Bolton] [Dissension]  
• US influence in Northeast Asia in decline with ascending power of S. Korea, China and Japan
  [Column] By Selig S. Harrison, Director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy
    One of the more outspoken diplomats ever sent to Seoul by the United States was the late Ambassador William J. Porter. On April 16, 1971, in a memorable conversation at his residence that I have often quoted, Porter bitterly attacked the Park Chung Hee regime for complaining about Richard Nixon’s reduction of U.S. forces in South Korea from 60,000 to 40,000 troops and for flatly refusing U.S. demands to help pay for the cost of the U.S. presence.   "They have attached themselves to the big fat udder of Uncle Sam," Porter said, "and they don’t want to let go."       At that time the United States did indeed have a "big fat udder." The dollar was strong. The United States was loaning money to the rest of the world, not recklessly piling debt upon debt to keep the bankrupt U.S. economy afloat and to support U.S. military adventures abroad. The Pentagon could easily afford the $40 billion annual cost of the naval and air forces in the Pacific needed to maintain the U.S. security commitments to South Korea and Japan.   How different from the situation today. China now has $1.3 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, compared to $65 billion held by the United States, and China, Japan and South Korea combined have accumulated 47 percent of the $2.2 trillion in U.S. debt held outside the United States. [Realignment] [Decline]
• Bush Loyalist Now Sees a White House Dangerously Soft on Iran and North Korea
  By STEVEN LEE MYERS Published: November 9, 2007 WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — The White House’s effort to challenge Iran’s nuclear ambitions has been hobbled by "four and a half years of failed diplomacy." Its policy regarding North Korea is a dangerous fraud. It is pursuing an improbable Palestinian-Israeli peace at the expense of its stance against proliferation in the Middle East. And that from a longtime Bush loyalist: John R. Bolton, the conservative lawyer who until less than a year ago was President Bush’s proudly unwavering ambassador to the United Nations. Mr. Bolton, long viewed by liberal critics as a villain on the Bush team, has since emerged as the administration’s most outspoken critic from the right, rebuking his former boss in interviews, in op-ed articles and now in a book. For a man who rushed to Florida in 2000 to join the Bush campaign’s legal fight during the disputed vote recount, the disappointment sounds personal. [Bolton] [Dissension] [Imperialsm]

• Preparing for Unified Korea
  By Mauro F. Guillen It is certainly anachronistic to observe a nation like Korea divided into two separate states. The Cold War ended more than 15 years ago, with the notable exceptions of the Korean Peninsula and Cuba.
• Bush Sends Tougher Message to N.Korea
    U.S. President George W. Bush has warned North Korea against failure to fulfill its part of a six-nation agreement whereby it is to disable nuclear facilities by the end of the year. "There will be consequences to the North Koreans if North Korea renege on their promises," Bush said in a press conference at the White House. "They have declared that they will show us weapons and get rid of the weapons programs, as well as stop proliferation ... If they don't fulfill that which they've said, we are now in a position to make sure that they understand that there be consequences." Bush made the remarks in an apparent bid to deflect criticism that he has made too many concessions to the North in the denuclearization talks. The Washington Post and others criticized the Bush administration for taking a soft stance toward North Korea to achieve at least one palpable diplomatic success. Asked about an alleged nuclear connection between the North and Syria that has occupied column space in the New York Times and elsewhere, Bush said, "When it comes to the six-party talks, proliferation ... has equal importance with the issue of weaponry."
• Text of Bush's Wednesday News Conference
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: October 17, 2007 Filed at 2:36 p.m. ET Text of President Bush's news conference on Wednesday, as transcribed by CQ Transcriptions. BUSH: Good morning. We're now more than halfway through October, and the new leaders in Congress have had more than nine months to get things done for the American people.
  Q: Why are you going to attend the congressional award ceremony for the Dalai Lama today when ... BUSH: When am I, or why am I? Q: Why are you going to, when China has expressed outrage about it? And what, if any, potential damage do you see to U.S.-China relations, considering that you need their support on dealing with Iran and North Korean nuclear issues? BUSH: One, I admire the Dalai Lama a lot. Two, I support religious freedom. He supports religious freedom. Thirdly, I like going to the gold medal ceremonies. I think it's a good thing for the president to do, to recognize those who Congress has honored. And I'm looking forward to going. I told the Chinese president, President Hu, that I was going to go to the ceremony. I brought it up. And I said I'm going because I want to honor this man. I have consistently told the Chinese that religious freedom is in their nation's interest. I've also told them that I think it's in their interest to meet with the Dalai Lama and will say so at the ceremony today in Congress. If they were to sit down with the Dalai Lama they would find him to be a man of peace and reconciliation. And I think it's in the country's interest to allow him to come to China and meet with him. So my visit today is not new to the Chinese leadership. As I told you, I brought it up with him. I wanted to make sure he understood exactly why I was going. And they didn't like it, of course. But I don't think it's going to damage -- severely damage -- relations. As a matter of fact, I don't think it ever damages relations when an American president talks about, you know, that religious tolerance and religious freedom is good for a nation. I do this every time I meet with them.
  Q: When North Korea tested a nuclear device, you said that any proliferation would be a grave threat to the U.S., and North Korea would be responsible for the consequences. Are you denying that North Korea has any role in the suspected nuclear facility in Syria? BUSH: See, you're trying to pull a Gregory. Q: Yes, I am. BUSH: OK. Well, I'm not going to fall for it. But I'd like to talk about... Q: Doesn't (OFF-MIKE) a right to know about who is proliferating, especially when you're negotiating with North Korea? BUSH: Now, you have a right to know this, that when it comes to the six-party talks, proliferation, the issue of proliferation, has equal importance with the issue of weaponry and that North Korea has said that they will stop proliferating, just like they have said they will fully disclose and disable any weapons programs. Step one of that has been dealing with shuttering Pyongyang. Step two will be full declaration of any plutonium that has been manufactured and/or the construction of bombs, along with a full declaration of any proliferation activities. And, in my judgment, the best way to solve this issue with North Korea peacefully is to put it in the -- keep it in the contexts of six-party talks. And the reason why is that diplomacy only works if there are consequences when diplomacy breaks down. And it makes sense for there to be other people at the table, so that if North Korea were to, you know, have said to all of us, We're going to do X, Y or Z, and they don't, that we have other people, other than the United States being consequential. There's a lot of aide that goes on between North Korea and China -- or North Korea and South Korea. And therefore, if they renege on their promises, and they have said -- they have declared that they will show us weapons and get rid of the weapons programs, as well as stop proliferation. If they don't fulfill that which they've said, we are now in a position to make sure that they understand that there be consequences. And I'm pleased with the progress we're making. There's still work to be done; you bet there's work to be done. Do I go into this thing saying, Well, you know, gosh, the process is more important than the results? I don't. What matters most, you know, to me -- or whether or not we can achieve the results that I've said we're hoping to achieve. And, if not, there will be consequences to the North Koreans. Q: Is Syria part of those talks? Is Syria part of the talks? BUSH: Proliferation is -- a part of the talks ... Q: Including Syria? BUSH: Look, in all due respect to you and Gregory, this is not my first rodeo. (LAUGHTER) And I know what you're -- trying to get me to comment. I'm not going to comment on it, one way or the other. Q: But your administration has talked about ... BUSH: Thank you. Martha?
• A Framework for Peace and Security in Korea and Northeast Asia
  By the Atlantic Council Working Group on North Korea
  October 16th, 2007 he Atlantic Council Working Group on North Korea, chaired by Ambassador James Goodby and General Jack N. Merritt released this report which notes, “Enlarging the diplomatic agenda through parallel negotiations, alongside the nuclear talks, will strengthen the U.S. hand by enabling diplomats to assert additional pressures on North Korea as well as provide Pyongyang, and other negotiating partners, new incentives… The history of negotiating with North Korea demonstrates that improvements in political conditions almost always precede and foster agreements on security-related issues.”
• U.S. congressional report proposes N.K. human rights legislation
  A U.S. congressional report has proposed legislation requiring North Korea to improve its human rights conditions in exchange for diplomatic relations with the United States, using a 2003 act on Burma as a model. The report, titled "North Korean Refugees in China and Human Rights Issues: International Response and U.S. Policy Options," said human rights have yet to be addressed in the ongoing talks to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. [Dissension]
• 'Star-Spangled Banner' Likely to Be Played in Pyongyang
    In talks with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, North Korea has reportedly agreed the orchestra can play "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the U.S., during its first performance in Pyongyang. A South Korean government official on Tuesday said North Korea is keen on the New York Philharmonic's performance in Pyongyang and told the U.S. there would be no problem if the orchestra plays the anthem.
• Carter Encourages Continued Negotiations with N. Korea
    In 1994, with permission from the Clinton Administration, Jimmy Carter made history on an independent trip to North Korea, becoming the first U.S. president to visit the reclusive communist country. It was considered a successful diplomatic effort that brought an agreement from the North to curb its nuclear development program. "When the current administration came into the White House, they abandoned that commitment," says Mr. Carter, "and North Korea then began to process plutonium, and now has built up enough plutonium possibly for six or seven explosives." The Bush administration preferred multilateral talks with North Korea when the U.S. abandoned the so-called 1994 "Agreed Framework" that Mr. Carter helped broker. Last October, diplomatic efforts reached an all time low when North Korea tested a nuclear device. [Partisan] [Bilateral]
• U.S. Christian band performs in N. Korea, includes song from show in latest album
  Imagine an American Christian rock band going to North Korea, a country accused of being one of the most oppressed in terms of religious freedom, and not only performing a Christian hymn but winning an award for it at an international festival. That's what a Grammy Award-winning group, the Casting Crowns, did in April this year. In fact, the band members learned and sang a North Korean song in Pyongyang, brought a recording of it back to the U.S., and added it as a bonus track to their latest album, released in August. They are on a national tour now, and showing video clips of their performance in North Korea at each concert. The man who arranged it all is Robert Springs, head of Global Resources Services (GRS) based in Atlanta, who has been actively engaged in North Korea development projects for the last 10 years. He took the Casting Crowns to the 25th Annual April Spring Art Festival, where the group sang the traditional Christian song "Amazing Grace" and won the award for best duet.
• The Hidden Cost of Independent Troop Control
  The Ministry of Defense says it will need 1,420 new officers in order to prepare for Korea's takeover of wartime operational control from the U.S. military by 2012. They say it will cost W236.9 billion (US$1=W917) to do this. Some say that the Defense Ministry is simply trying to benefit from the Roh Moo-hyun administration's frenzied attempt at the final stage of its term to bolster the number of public servants. But we must not underestimate the meaning behind the ministry's announcement that it needs to prepare for the takeover. [Sovereignty] [Pro-Americanism]
• US Army Distorts Korean History
  By Kim Yon-se Staff Reporter The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK) has accused the United States Forces Korea (USFK) of misrepresenting or misunderstanding Korean history. VANK said American soldiers and their families here may be told that Korea has only a 1,339-year history, under the USFK's education program, dubbed ``Head-Start,'' as opposed to 4,340 years. When foreigners read the program offered by the U.S. Eighth Army, they may believe Korean history started in 668 A.D. the agency added.
• The Man Who Would Be Kim
  Sunday, October 14, 2007; Page B02 One day, when North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's secret diary comes to light, historians will know for sure whether he genuinely tried to make peace with his neighbors to the south. North Korea has promised to reveal its nuclear military secrets by the end of the year, and Kim recently told visiting South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun that he is ready to sign a peace treaty ending 60 years of hostility. But if this move turns out to be just another gambit, the entry for Oct. 10 might read like this:
  -- Jasper Becker [Bizarre]    
• Change in North Korea?
  So far, there's little sign of it.
  Saturday, October 13, 2007; Page A18 Editorial
  THE BUSH administration and the South Korean government are behaving as if they expect a remarkable transformation in North Korea within the next few months. The administration is quietly preparing to remove the regime of Kim Jong Il from the list of state sponsors of terrorism -- essentially reversing and repudiating President Bush's description of Pyongyang as part of an "axis of evil." For his part, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun -- like Mr. Bush, an unpopular lame duck -- showered Mr. Kim with promises of investments in North Korean roads, railroads and industrial zones at a summit meeting last week. One South Korean institute estimated that all the pledges would cost South Korea $11 billion if they are implemented by Mr. Roh's successor. And the transformation? So far the evidence of it is mixed, at best. North Korea has shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor and allowed monitoring by international inspectors, as it did in exchange for economic and diplomatic favors during the Clinton administration. Last week it approved a statement that said it would disclose all of its nuclear programs and materials -- presumably including the nuclear bombs it possesses -- and "disable" the Yongbyon facilities by the end of this year.
• Deployment of B-2 Spirit bombers raises stakes in Northeast Asia
  Increased combat air power to serve as deterrent to potential regional foes
    WASHINGTON - The U.S. Air Force deployed four B-2 Spirit bombers to the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, which has emerged as a military hub in the Western Pacific region as part of its continuous bomber presence. Since August, some analysts say that the U.S. military has increased its military presence against China and North Korea by deploying 40 F-22 Raptors to its air force base in Alaska. On October 9, the U.S. government-published U.S. Air Force Print News reported: "Four B-2 Spirits from the 393rd Bomb Squadron, deployed from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., arrived here (the Andersen Air Force Base) Oct. 7 as part of a continuous bomber presence." [China confrontation]  
• S. Korean envoy urges Rice to visit Pyongyang, U.S. says no such plans yet
  The U.S. State Department said Thursday there were no plans for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to visit North Korea despite diplomatic calls for her to do so. "I am not aware that anyone is thinking that the trip by the secretary is in the offing anytime soon or later," department spokesman Tom Casey said. Talks of a possible Pyongyang visit by Rice coincide with the latest six-nation accord in which North Korea agreed to declare and disable its nuclear programs by the end of the year, the first crucial step toward the goal of eventually dismantling all of its atomic weapons and programs. The Oct. 3 agreement, endorsed by South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan, lays out incentives for Pyongyang in return for denuclearization steps. Those incentives include diplomatic normalization with Washington and Tokyo. The South Korean ambassador to Washington, Lee Tae-sik, in an interview published Thursday, urged Rice to go to the North as a "political boosting measure" promoting the six-party deal.
• U.S. deputy assistant secretary to lead N.Y. talks with North Koreans
  A senior U.S. official will go to New York soon for talks with North Korean officials in a follow-up to last week's six-party denuclearization agreement, a State Department official said Wednesday. Alexander Arvizu, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, will lead a team of officials at the talks, but the exact date has not yet been set, according to the official. Christopher Hill, Arvizu's immediate superior, said Tuesday that the meeting could open this weekend. The official told Yonhap the talks would occur in the near term.  
• U.S. mulls opening office in North
  October 12, 2007 WASHINGTON ? The United States is considering establishing a representative office in Pyongyang as part of its effort to normalize relations with North Korea, according to a source in the U.S. Congress. The issue arose as U.S. nuclear experts entered North Korea yesterday to finalize details of disabling the North's nuclear facilities under terms worked out by the six-party nuclear talks. Citing an unidentified source, Washington-based Radio Free Asia's Korean language service also reported yesterday that there was a high possibility that Washington would open a representative office rather than a mere liaison office.
• Philharmonic to North Korea?
  Compiled by Lawrence Van Gelder Published: October 12, 2007 "It's looking good." Fresh from a journey to North Korea, Zarin Mehta, president of the New York Philharmonic, used those words to assess the chances of a performance there by the orchestra next year, The Associated Press reported. Mr. Mehta, accompanied by an unidentified State Department official and Eric Latzky, the orchestra's public relations director, went to North Korea last week to meet with officials of the culture ministry and explore sites and other arrangements for a concert in Pyongyang, the capital. "We are making inquiries and exploring, and then we will make a decision in the next few weeks," Mr. Mehta said. He added that he did not know when such a concert might be held. Word of an invitation to the orchestra came in August.
• Independent Troop Control Will Cost W230 Billion
  Last year, the government insisted Korea’s takeover of wartime operational control of its troops by 2012 would create no additional burden for the country, but that is far from truth. The Defense Ministry on Wednesday said it will need an additional budget of some W230 billion (US$1=W916) for an increase of 1,420 company and field officers to prepare for the takeover of wartime operational control from the U.S. between 2008 and 2012. [Sovereignty] [Pro-Americanism]
• Joint exercises cause concern in parts of Asia
  Michael Richardson, Singapore Ships and planes from seven nations will gather in Japan this weekend as part of a continuing series of exercises by states that want to prevent weapons of mass destruction and related materials from being smuggled around the world by sea, air or land. The Japanese government will host the maritime interdiction training off its coast from Oct. 13-15. It is being held under the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). Australia, Britain, France, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States will take part, along with Japan. Other countries are being invited as observers. China will be a noteable absentee, as it was when Japan last hosted a PSI exercise in October 2004
  The main reason China will not join the PSI is that it fears this would prompt a North Korean walkout from the six-party talks to defuse the North Korean nuclear crisis. The talks are chaired by China but South Korea, too, has shied away from joining the PSI for the same reason as Beijing. North Korea has condemned the PSI as a U.S.-led attempt impose a naval blockade and bring the regime in Pyongyang to its knees. From its inception, the PSI was widely seen to be aimed by the U.S. at so-called nuclear rogue states like North Korea and Iran [PSI]
• The Sky Is the Limit in U.S. Ties With N.Korea
    . The trend in the U.S. administration appears to favor reconciliation with North Korea to the point where almost everything is possible provided the North is faithful to its denuclearization commitment. U.S. officials are talking about striking North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism by the end of the year, while also seeking reconciliation in various other sectors. It is reminiscent of nothing so much as the Clinton administration in its final days seven years ago, when then-U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang and Vice Marshal Cho Myong-rok of North Korea visited Washington. Some observers speculated president Bill Clinton would meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang. Bogged down in Iraq, President George W. Bush has a lot riding on the resolution of the North Korean nuclear problem -- a potential diplomatic exploit without shedding a drop of blood to his credit. In
• .Korea Mouthpiece Foresees Kim-Bush Summit
  A meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is on the horizon after last week's inter-Korean summit, a North Korean mouthpiece in Japan said Monday. The Chosun Shinbo, the organ of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan or Chongryon, said the end of the Korean War will be declared in the near future considering progress in six-way talks on the North Korean nuclear programs. A face-to-face meeting between Kim and Bush "is approaching," it added. The daily claimed the U.S. was "decisively responsible" for the division of the Korean Peninsula and half a century of military tension between the two Koreas.
• U.S.-N.Korea 'Orchestra Diplomacy' in the Works
  The New York Philharmonic Orchestra is in talks with North Korea about a first possible concert in Pyongyang with the encouragement of the U.S. State Department. Some observers on Sunday speculated that "orchestra diplomacy" might do for Washington-Pyongyang relations what "ping pong diplomacy" did to normalizing U.S.-Chinese relations in the 1970s.
• U.S. Wary of Summit to End Korean War
  Commander-in-chief, United Nations Command, and U.S. Army Gen. Mark W. Clark signs the Military Armistice agreement at a base camp at Munsan-ni, Korea on July 30, 1953. The 1953 Korean armistice agreement did stop the fighting, but it didn't start the peace. Now the last generations to remember the "great toil" may see their war truly come to an end, if the two Koreas achieve the peace settlement proposed last week by their leaders. /AP Photo The U.S. is sitting on the fence over the question of the parties to the Korean War meeting to declare the war over after more than 50 years, apparently from strategic considerations. The U.S. was briefed by senior South Korean presidential security secretary Yun Byung-se about a declaration on the matter at the end of the inter-Korean summit last week, but failed to clarify its position in response. U.S. officials on Thursday instead stressed that more formal improvement of bilateral ties, including removal of North Korea from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, a full peace treaty ending the Korean War and normalization of ties would depend on the North abiding by its pledge to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. Those steps are "all conditioned on action-for-action" progress on the denuclearization deal, said U.S. security spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
• Will Next President Inherit Accord?
      Doves, Hawks in Washington Divided in Evaluating Pyongyang Summit
  By Michael Ha Contributing Writer
  WASHINGTON _ As South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's motorcade headed back to Seoul, analysis of the meeting began in earnest in Washington. But so far, reactions are mixed. Some Korea-policy analysts said the summit provided an invaluable opportunity for the divided Koreas to strengthen their ties, while others argued that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, as expected, got a much better end of the deal. A number of analysts were also worried that outgoing President Roh might have pledged too much without getting similar concessions in return from Pyongyang, such as firm pledges to take specific actions agreed in the latest six-party talks. One expert also noted that one of the points in the declaration, the issue of Northern Limit Line or the joint fishing area, could turn out to be a major issue later, arguing that it could mean South Korea giving up its maritime sovereignty on the west coast in the future. [NLL] [KR_summit07]
• Noam Chomsky replies to criticism
  .Letters The Department of Defense Sunday, October 7, 2007; Page BW14 In his review of my book Interventions (Book World, Sept. 2), Jonathan Rauch condemns me with "flights to a separate reality," giving four examples. The first is the charge that Washington bombed Serbia "not to prevent ethnic cleansing but to impose Washington's neoliberal economic agenda." The charge is not mine. I quoted high officials of the Clinton administration directly involved in these events. See page 179 of the book.
  .Next, "North Korea's counterfeiting racket may actually be a CIA operation." The statement is not mine, but is from the respected Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
  The third is my observation that the invasion of Afghanistan "was undertaken with the expectation that it might drive several million people over the edge of starvation." That is precisely accurate. Published estimates were that the numbers at the edge of starvation increased by 50 percent to 7.5 million. That is why aid agencies bitterly condemned the bombing, joined by leading Afghan opponents of the Taliban. And why, months later, Harvard's noted specialist on Afghanistan, Samina Ahmed, wrote in International Security that "millions of Afghans are at grave risk of starvation." The basic facts are given in the book under review, a collection of op-eds, in which I did not provide full details that were reported in the mainstream press and are reviewed in earlier books of mine. Rauch is amazed at the idea that President Bush "is the obstacle to a two-state solution that Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran are all prepared to accept," and then quips "(I am not making that up)." Bush did announce his "vision" of a Palestinian state -- somewhere, sometime, a vague reflection of the long-standing international consensus on a two-state settlement. There is nothing vague, however, about his support for Israeli takeover of the major illegal settlements in the West Bank and cantonization of the rest, a long step backward from Clinton's "parameters" and a serious blow to any hope for a viable Palestinian state. In contrast, Iran accepted the Arab League position: full normalization of relations in a two-state settlement. Hamas called for "statehood for the West Bank and Gaza . . . " (Washington Post, July 11, 2006), a stand often reiterated elsewhere, even by the most militant Hamas leader, Khalid Mish'al (Guardian, Feb. 23, 2007).Hezbollah has repeatedly stated that it will abide by any Palestinian decision. Rauch claims that Washington "tolerates a sovereign, more or less democratic Iraq whose Shiite government is friendly toward Iran." Comment should be unnecessary.
  That exhausts Rauch's charges.
  -- NOAM CHOMSKY [Counterfeiting]
• Notes From a Gadfly
  An outspoken linguist sounds off on American imperialism.
  By Reviewed by Jonathan Rauch Sunday, September 2, 2007; Page BW02 INTERVENTIONS By Noam Chomsky
  City Lights. 232 pp. Paperback, $15.95 For all his celebrity on the academic and activist left, Noam Chomsky, the linguist turned gadfly, goes all but unnoticed inside the Capital Beltway. And this neglect, according to Chomsky's new collection of op-ed articles, Interventions, is not benign. "Chomsky's op-eds have been picked up widely by the international press," according to an editor's note, but American " 'newspapers of record' have declined to publish them." When I picked up the new Chomsky collection, my first reaction was to be glad that City Lights Books -- "published at the City Lights Bookstore," in San Francisco -- had brought out what promised to be a refreshing, if sometimes infuriating, challenge to conventional smugness. No such luck. Chomsky's 44 brief essays, along with some supplementary notes added for republication, come to just over 200 loosely set pages. Yet this short book proves a chore to get through.
  To be sure, Chomsky's trademark barbs and provocations are here, but so are his flights to a separate reality. In Chomsky's universe, the 2001 U.S. attack on Afghanistan's Taliban "was undertaken with the expectation that it might drive several million people over the edge of starvation." And North Korea's counterfeiting racket may actually be a CIA operation. And the Clinton administration intervened militarily in Kosovo not in order to prevent ethnic cleansing but to impose Washington's neoliberal economic agenda. And President Bush -- the first and only U.S. president to declare formal American support for a Palestinian state -- is the obstacle to a two-state solution that Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran are all prepared to accept. (I am not making that up.) [Media] [Counterfeiting]
  response from Noam Chomsky
• No peace treaty without six-party success: U.S.
  October 06, 2007 Washington is all for dialogue between North and South Korea, but its official response to the call for peace talks that emerged from the inter-Korean summit was noncommittal. Political progress between the two Koreas, the United States believes, must be in line with the ongoing process of the six-party North Korean nuclear talks. "We have encouraged inter-Korean dialogue. That is something that's been longstanding," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack according to the department's Web site. "One thing that is interesting is the fact that on the South Korean side they made it very clear to North Korea that the ability to move forward in their relationship depended, in large part, on progress within the six-party talk mechanism. I think that's important." [KR_summit07]
• S. Korea's Generosity Encourages N. Korea's Bad Behavior
  [Opinion] In the Summit, the North takes as much as it can get from the South
    Tom Pauken II (Pauken)
  Published 2007-10-05 09:17 (KST)   To most of the world, the North Korean regime stands as an evil government perpetuating gross abuses against its citizens. People in other countries tend to rank North Korean leaders on the same level as the Myanmar military junta, who are deserving of economic sanctions and public condemnation. But high-level officials in the South Korean government believe those people have a mistaken opinion of the North. South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun suggests that North Korea should be seen in a more positive light and rewarded with large aid packages. Hence, President Roh had been eagerly anticipating his meeting with North Korea's leader Tuesday through Thursday (Oct. 2-4). He came as a Korean Santa Claus, holding a bag full of presents. He'll bring luxury goods such as a 52-inch LCD TV, even though the United Nations bans him from giving such items to North Korean officials.
    Nonetheless, breaking international laws doesn't concern President Roh, who will provide the North with other valuable assistance. [Bizarre] [KR_summit07]
• Korean Concepts of Negotiating
    By Tom Coyner
  For a Korean, negotiating is viewed more as part of a relationship, rather than specific terms of an agreement that happen to be written down on paper. A written contract among Koreans is not necessarily regarded as binding or important as it is in the West. To the Korean mind, commitments based on relationships, or on a personal level are equally important. [Negotiating style]
• New York Philharmonic Might Play in North Korea
  By DANIEL J. WAKIN Published: October 5, 2007 With the encouragement of the State Department, officials of the New York Philharmonic were en route to North Korea yesterday to discuss a possible concert in Pyongyang in February. The idea of a visit to North Korea, where the totalitarian government keeps a tight rein on the people and sharply restricts access to the outside world, began with a somewhat vague invitation in August but has taken shape in recent weeks. Zarin Mehta, the orchestra's president, and Eric Latzky, its public relations director, were in Beijing yesterday and are due in North Korea tomorrow.
• Lee's 'meeting' with Bush an embarrassment
  October 04, 2007 A series of bad assumptions and false announcements led Lee Myung-bak's backers to think they had scored a coup by securing a meeting between their man and U.S. President George W. Bush, but instead the meeting has been rebuffed and the GNP presidential candidate has suffered an embarrassing gaffe. U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in a statement Tuesday that there are no plans for a meeting between Lee and Bush, reaffirming what the U.S. Embassy in Seoul said a day earlier. A source familiar with the circumstances said yesterday that using Kang Young-woo, the White House policy adviser of the U.S. National Council on Disability, as a go-between with the White House was a mistake. The source said that a letter requesting the meeting was sent to the White House's domestic policy council last month. But that office is not in charge of arranging meetings between foreign dignitaries and the president. Melissa Bennett, special assistant to the president and director for appointments and scheduling, had replied to the letter saying, "Your request will be given every consideration."
• Lee Myung-bak disgraced by failed meeting with Bush
  [Editorial] . The United States embassy in Seoul has issued a statement it is calling the "U.S. government's official position," in which it says there exist no plans for any meeting between Grand National Party presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President George W. Bush. It is a straight repudiation of the GNP's official announcement that Lee would be visiting the United States October 14-17 and, while there, be given an audience with Bush. While one can of course not entirely exclude the possibility that a meeting might happen anyway, since it ends up having been the GNP announcing something that had not been a sure thing, Lee and the GNP find themselves in a disgraceful position. Even back when the GNP first announced there would be such a meeting, there were many who doubted whether it would really happen. It would have taken place ahead of Korea's presidential election so the timing would have been inappropriate, and the way Lee's people went about it was irregular as well, having gone through personal routes and not diplomatic channels. The fact that the U.S. State Department and the White House reacted with displeasure and began "reconsidering" things immediately after the GNP's announcement must be seen as something related to that. This kind of mood in the United States could potentially have a negative influence on U.S.-Korean relations. The GNP's attempts to blame pressure on the United States on the part of the current government, or the pro-government party, for the fact things went amiss is, therefore, as pathetic an attempt to pass the buck as there can be. The blame should start with the GNP itself for such a lack of reasoned discernment.
• Debate intensifies over Lee-Bush meeting
  Mounting criticism of pre-election meeting may make it a no-go
  WASHINGTON - South Korea and the United States have been bandying words about over the planned meeting between Lee Myung-bak, the presidential candidate of South Korea's main opposition Grand National Party, and U.S. President George W. Bush. Since the meeting was announced on September 28, the pace of the exchange has picked up as criticism of the appropriateness of the meeting has been raised by Washington insiders and presidential candidates in Seoul. A U.S. president has never before met a foreign presidential candidate prior to an election and concerns over whether this will serve to influence South Korea's December election my put a stop to a meeting that the GNP says it has no plans to alter. Diplomats in both South Korea and the United States have expressed their dissatisfaction over the meeting because the plan was fixed without their prior knowledge. Some people close to the matter in Washington say the White House may reconsider whether or not to have meeting, while other presidential hopefuls in South Korea have called on Lee to cancel his planned meeting with Bush. [Dissension]
• Diplomats Cross at Scheduled Lee Myung-bak-Bush Meeting
  Senior Korean and U.S. diplomats are miffed at being kept out of the process of scheduling a meeting between Korean opposition presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President George W. Bush. Observers speculate that the Lee-Bush meeting, scheduled during a four-day U.S. visit by Lee that starts on Oct. 14, could now be canceled. A diplomatic source familiar with Korean-U.S. relations said the White House "missed a chance" to seek understanding from the U.S. State Department and the Korean government for the meeting. [Dissension]
• Bush Back on Right Track in NK Policy
  Wendy Sherman By Michael Ha Contributing Writer NEW YORK _ Wendy Sherman, a top advisor and point person for North Korea during the Bill Clinton administration, said President George W. Bush has returned to the right track in his North Korea policy after nearly six years of hostile stance. In an interview with The Korea Times, she described North Korean leader Kim Jong-il whom she met as a ``very smart man,'' adding that calling North Korea an ``axis of evil" is not ``productive.'' Sherman cited two factors for President Bush's recent change of mind regarding his North Korea policy. First, all of the other parties of the six-party talks have been encouraging President Bush to change course. And secondly, she noted, President Bush only has a year and half left in his presidency. ``He is facing many other difficulties, obviously the most difficult being Iraq and also Iran,'' she said. ``I think President Bush is looking for places where some progress can be made so that he can have a legacy of his presidency that has some positive factors. North Korea policy became an area where he thought real progress can be made if he made adjustments in his approach.'' [Partisan] [Bush policy]      
• NKorea Sees Summit As Message to US
  By JAE-SOON CHANG The Associated Press Sunday, September 30, 2007; 2:14 PM SEOUL, South Korea -- When North Korean leader Kim Jong Il sits face-to-face with his South Korean counterpart this week, the communist dictator may have someone else in the back of his mind, whom he fears and wants to make friends with the most: President Bush. Kim sees the summit with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun in Pyongyang starting Tuesday as a chance to accelerate a thaw in his relations with Washington amid progress in U.S.-led efforts to rid the North of nuclear weapons, analysts say.
  "Kim Jong Il wants to convey his sincerity to Bush at a higher level that he strongly wants improved relations with the United States," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies. "In this respect, the South-North summit can be an important tool." [KR_summit07]

• GNP presidential candidate to meet U.S. president ahead of election
  Controversy could ensue over degree of U.S. influence in S. Korea's upcoming presidential election
      Lee Myung-bak, the presidential candidate of the main opposition Grand National Party, will visit the United States on October 14-17 for meetings with U.S. President George W. Bush and other politicians, the party's spokesman, Park Hyung-joon, said yesterday. It is rare for a U.S. president to meet a presidential candidate of a certain nation ahead of the nation's presidential election. The meeting is likely to spark controversy ahead of the December vote, as some critics may accuse Bush of supporting the candidate.  
• Outmaneuvering Bush
  [Column]   Selig S. Harrison, Director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy b b President Bush said at the APEC summit in Sydney that a peace treaty ending the Korean War can come only after the complete denuclearization of North Korea. This is a stalling tactic reflecting Pentagon fears that conclusion of a treaty will accelerate pressures for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the peninsula. President Roh Moo Hyun can outmaneuver Bush in two ways. First, by joining in a "Peace Declaration" with Kim Jong-il before denuclearization that specifically calls not only for a peace treaty, as such, but also for the subsequent replacement of the military Armistice Commission created in 1953 with new peace machinery, and for the dissolution of the anachronistic United Nations Command. Second, by seeking agreement with Kim on two key procedural issues that could block negotiations on a treaty: Should South Korea be a signatory? Should China?  
• Lee to get rare audience with President Bush
  Request for October meeting agreed on by the White House September 29, 2007
  In a rare diplomatic event, Grand National Party presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak is to have a meeting with President George W. Bush next month in Washington. It is the first time since 1987 that a U.S. president will officially meet an opposition presidential candidate prior to an election in Korea.
• Lee Myung-bak to Meet Bush Next Month
    By Kang Hyun-kyung Staff Reporter Presidential nominee Lee Myung-bak of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) is scheduled to meet U.S. President George W. Bush in mid October, a party spokesman said. Rep. Park Heong-joon said Lee is going to visit Washington from Oct. 14 for a meeting with Bush on either Oct. 15 or 16. He said the White House has confirmed the schedule.
  Experts said it is quite unusual for the incumbent U.S. president to meet an opposition presidential candidate of Korea ahead of the election. Lee has stressed the need for building a strong Korea-America alliance and pledged to get the security partnership with the U.S. on the right track, if elected president. He also made it clear that North Korea should give up its nuclear ambitions and urged President Roh Moo-hyun to set disabling the nuclear programs as one of key summit agenda items.
• US to Roh: Do No Harm
  This is the ninth in a series of articles on the forthcoming inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang. .. ED.
  By Derek J. Mitchell
  It has been no secret that President Roh Moo-hyun has desired a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jongil since entering office in 2003. Periodically testing the waters with Washington through proxies, Roh's administration would receive word that while a North-South summit was the business of the two sides, without any progress in the nuclear question, a summit that was mostly about positive atmospherics threatened to send a wrong signal to the North about international unity to encourage the regime to re-evaluate its course
• Bank accused of aiding N. Korea will return to owner
  By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers
  * Posted on Friday, September 28, 2007 BEIJING - A tiny bank in Macau that was at the center of stalled talks over North Korea's nuclear program will be quietly returned to its former owner Saturday, a move that seems to clear him of charges that he helped Pyongyang launder counterfeit U.S. cash. In a one-paragraph statement, the government in Macau, a former Portuguese colony that's a burgeoning gambling haven, said Banco Delta Asia had shown "remarkable improvement" during two years of government oversight. It said that Stanley Au, a former gold dealer who ceded control of the bank in September 2005, would be put in charge of the bank again Saturday. The bank issued a statement quoting Au saying that its return "reflected the exoneration of the bank and clearance of its name as well as its staff from taking part in any illicit activities." [BDA] [Toolkit] [Evidence]
• Blacklisted Bank to Return to Original Owner
  By DONALD GREENLEES Published: September 29, 2007 HONG KONG, Sept. 28 - A small family-owned bank in Macao accused by the United States of laundering money for North Korea will be returned to its original owner despite earlier warnings from the United States Treasury that to do so invited a return to illegal activity by the bank. [BDA] [Toolkit] [Evidence] [Extraterritoriality]
• U.S. Wary of S.Korea Gifts for N.Korea
  The U.S. Embassy in Seoul is said to be interested in South Korea's gift list for the inter-Korean summit which is scheduled for Oct. 2 to 4. That's because one of the items on the list is banned by the UN. A diplomatic source in Seoul on Thursday said that President Roh Moo-hyun is planning to present to North Korea a 52-inch LCD TV. The UN Security Council adopted a resolution barring UN member nations from exporting or bringing luxury items into North Korea after Pyongyang's nuclear test last year, the source said. The 52-inch TV would be considered a luxury item. "The U.S. will keep an eye on how President Roh handles this issue," the source said. [Sanctions] [Dilemma]
• `Bold, Strategic Actions Needed for NK Nukes'
    By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter Song Min-soon, minister of foreign affairs and trade, said bold and strategic actions are needed to deal with North Korea's nuclear weapons program, which could turn a crisis into an opportunity. Speaking at a luncheon co-hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, the Korea Society and the Asia Society in New York, Wednesday, the minister said that it is urgent to tackle the issue because North Korea's nuclear crisis tops any other issue in Northeast Asia and Seoul-Washington relations. ``This is the time for us to have the broadest view and take bold and strategic actions,'' Song said. ``What we are dealing with today is a grave potential crisis that could be and should be turned into an opportunity.'' He suggested a three-track approach to resolve the nuclear issue and security situation in Northeast Asia.
• Protests Greet Kim Dae-jung in New York
  Some 100 conservative Korean-Americans rallied against Kim Dae-jung and his policy of engagement with North Korea in front of the New York hotel where the former South Korean president is staying on Tuesday. Kim is on a visit to New York to deliver a lecture on his Sunshine Policy and peace on the Korean peninsula at the Korea Society. Members from 10 conservative organizations staged a 90-minute demonstration in front of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel at 11:30 a.m., holding banners which read, "Kim Dae-jung ignores the human rights of North Korean people," and "We denounce Kim Dae-jung and leftwing governments in Korea."
• Invest in the North, Kim tells U.S.
  September 27, 2007     Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung addresses the Korea Society in New York on Tuesday. [YONHAP] NEW YORK ? U.S. businesses should help counter China's growing role in North Korea's economy by investing in the North once Pyongyang's nuclear program is eliminated, former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung said Tuesday. "We should expedite our entry into North Korea so as to attain balance against China," Kim told the Korea Society in New York. Kim, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his landmark meeting in 2000 with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and efforts to promote Korean reconciliation, said China was "extensively involved" in the North's economy. The International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank and Western firms should "advance into North Korea together with South Korea" following denuclearization of the North, he said.
• U.S. to announce additional sanctions on North Korean entities
     WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. State Department is expected to announce Wednesday additional sanctions on North Korean entities connected to missile proliferation.    Some of the entities are believed to be linked to the Korea Mining Development Corporation (KOMID), which was designated in June 2005 in an executive order for supporting proliferation of weapons of mass destruction proliferation.    The measure would come at an awkward moment as envoys from six nations -- South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan -- gather in Beijing from Wednesday for a fresh round of negotiations aimed at disabling, and eventually dismantling, Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and programs.    The U.S. Treasury had frozen some US$25 million in North Korea-related money held in a Macau bank in late 2005, a punitive measure imposed as the six countries were signing an agreement toward denuclearization. That led to more than a year's suspension in negotiations with the North.    The new round of six-party talks is already on shaky ground with suspicions that Pyongyang may have transferred nuclear-related material to Damascus, prompting the unexplained Israeli air incursion into Syria earlier this month.    Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman, said Tuesday the new sanctions are related to missile technology transfers and downplayed possible negative repercussions on this week's talks.    "The company that was sanctioned has been sanctioned previously for the same thing. So the net effect of this is really pretty minimal," he said.    "I don't see... any reason why this should impact on the six-party talks." ldm@yna.co.kr [Dissension] [Sanctions] [Strategic incoherence] [Legality]
• Rodong Sinmun on DPRK's Foreign Policy
  Pyongyang, September 22 (KCNA) -- The DPRK will make every possible effort to ensure peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and the rest of Asia and the world, invariably regarding it as an important principle of its external activities to defend peace. Rodong Sinmun Saturday observes this in a signed article. It goes on: Ensuring peace on the Korean Peninsula is very important for keeping peace in the world at present. If a new war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, the powers around it cannot but get involved in it whether they like it or not due to its military and strategic importance. In that case the fallout of the war may extend not only to the Asia-Pacific region but also to all other parts of the world. [NK policy]
• Sen. Clinton Says US Should Not Walk Away From NK Deal
  WASHINGTON _ Sen. Hillary Clinton, a leading Democrat presidential hopeful, urged the U.S. administration Sunday to be tough on North Korea, but to never walk away from negotiations. The latest suspicions of a North Korea-Syria nuclear connection prove the international community's need for transparency and strong oversight of the Pyongyang regime, she said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "We've got to keep them under very close watch," she said.
• North Korea Is Taken off U.S. Drug-Trafficking Countries List
  By Bomi Lim Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea was dropped from the U.S. list of countries producing illicit drugs, a sign of further relief of tensions between the two countries. ``North Korea is not affecting the United States as much as the requirements on the list,'' Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Christy McCampbell said on Sept. 17 in Washington, according to a transcript of her speech on the State Department Web site. Ties are improving between the U.S. and North Korea after a February agreement on ending the government in Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. As North Korea moves to scale back the program, the U.S. has promised to review ways of improving ties with the communist country, including removing it from a list of states that sponsor terrorism.
  North Korea was first mentioned in the annual presidential report on ``major illegal drug transit and drug-producing countries'' in 2003, when President George W. Bush said the U.S. would fight the country's suspected drug trafficking. To contact the reporter on this story: Bomi Lim in Seoul at blim30@bloomberg.net . Last Updated: September 18, 2007 21:34 EDT [Drugs] [Toolkit] [Agreement070213]
• Briefing on Release of Annual Report on the Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for FY 2008
  Christy McCampbell , Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
  Washington, DC September 17, 2007 View Video
  (11:00 a.m. EDT) MR. GALLEGOS: Good morning. Today we have Christy McCampbell, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement. She's going to be delivering remarks on the release of the Annual Report on the Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal Year 2008.
  QUESTION: Paul Eckert of Reuters. India -- did India get on the list of Majors because of it's licit or because of the discovery of the other fields you mentioned? MS. MCCAMPBELL: No. The reason that India is on the Majors list is they do have a large problem of diversion of chemicals there and of opium production. Because of the diversion from their licit opium that they do grow, it's finding its way to the illicit market, and as much as 30 percent of their opium is being diverted that we believe. And so that is why that would be considered -- I guess you could consider that both a transit and a producing country because of the opium that is going into the diverted markets. QUESTION: And if I might follow up. North Korea is not on the list, is it, because they fall below the amount or -- MS. MCCAMPBELL: Yes. It's not affecting -- North Korea is not affecting the United States as much as the requirements on the list. [Drugs] [Toolkit] [Agreement070213]
• Presidential Determination on Major Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal Year 2008
  White House Press Release
  Office of the Press Secretary Washington, DC September 14, 2007
  Memorandum for the Secretary of State: Presidential Determination on Major Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal Year 2008 Presidential Determination No. 2007-33 Pursuant to section 706(1) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (Public Law 107-228)(FRAA), I hereby identify the following countries as major drug transit or major illicit drug producing countries: Afghanistan, The Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. [Drugs] [Toolkit] [Agreement070213]
• Statement on the "Majors List"
  The White House, Office of the Press Secretary Washington, DC September 17, 2007 On September 14, 2007, President Bush authorized the Secretary of State to transmit to Congress the annual report listing major illicit drug transit and drug producing countries (known as the "Majors List"). The report contains Presidential Determinations of the countries that have "failed demonstrably" to make substantial efforts during the previous 12 months to adhere to international counternarcotics agreements and to take measures specified in U.S. law. In his report, the President identified as major drug-transit or major illicit drug-producing countries: Afghanistan, The Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. The President also reported to Congress his determination that Burma and Venezuela have "failed demonstrably" during the previous 12 months to adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements and take the measures set forth in U.S. law. However, the President determined to maintain U.S. programs that aid Venezuela's democratic institutions. The President determined that Guinea-Bissau is becoming a refuge and transit hub for cocaine traffickers from Latin America. International efforts should be supported and advanced to help Guinea-Bissau confront these illicit drug activities. The President further determined that Bolivia is on track to eradicate 5,600 hectares of coca this year. However, these measures have been outstripped by coca replanting and expanded coca cultivation. The President expressed his concern about Bolivia's need to improve its counternarcotic results. Further, Bolivia should revamp its national drug policy to make its top priority the reduction and eventual elimination of excess coca crops. These Determinations required the President to consider each country's performance in areas such as reducing illicit cultivation, interdiction, law enforcement cooperation, extradition, and measures to prevent and punish public corruption that facilitates drug trafficking or impedes drug-related prosecutions. The President also considered these countries' efforts to stop production and export of, and reduce the domestic demand for, illegal drugs. [Drugs] [Toolkit] [Agreement070213]
• America's Human Rights Policy: Rhetoric Versus Action, Scott Snyder
  A coalition of American and Korean human rights groups demanded last week at a press conference in Seoul that human rights be addressed at the inter-Korean summit scheduled to be held in Pyongyang on Oct. 2-4. U.S. President George W. Bush strongly emphasized human rights concerns in his second inaugural address in 2005. But many human rights advocates say the reality is that denuclearization talks have since crowded human rights off the U.S.' North Korea agenda (for instance, this weekend in Geneva). The coalition's demand illustrates the practical difficulty of managing a perennial challenge for American policymakers: how to integrate promotion of human rights effectively with the promotion of America's other national interests. This is not the first time that Koreans have been frustrated by the failure of a U.S. president to follow up ideals with practical action. But it is disappointing as Bush's second inaugural speech was truly breathtaking in its rhetorical commitment to human rights. [Manipulation]
• Glimmer of Peace
  Former President Kim Dae-jung speaks at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., Tuesday. / Yonhap The following is a speech delivered by former President Kim Dae-jung at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., Tuesday. It is the third in a series of articles on the forthcoming inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang. ED.
• Former S. Korean president calls for North Korea's full denuclearization
  Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung on Tuesday urged the United States and others to accept all of North Korea's conditions for denuclearization, saying he is convinced Pyongyang will give up its nuclear ambitions if its needs are met. "Members of the six-party talks should do all that North Korea wants," Kim said at the National Press Club in downtown Washington, "and if North Korea still refuses to give up its nuclear development, then we should impose sanctions." [Media]
• N.Korea Remains on U.S. List of Religious Oppressors
  The U.S. State Department on Friday designated eight countries as countries of particular concern (CPC) for their systematic repression of religious freedom -- North Korea, China, Iran, Burma, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan. [Toolkit] [Manipulation]
• Kim Dae-jung to travel to U.S. on N. Korean nuke, security issues
    Former President Kim Dae-jung will fly to Washington Monday to give speeches and meet with U.S. officials and opinion leaders on North Korea's nuclear ambitions, a peace mechanism for the Korean Peninsula and other regional security issues, an aide to Kim said Sunday.
  While touring the U.S. for 13 days, Kim will deliver a speech to the National Press Club in Washington on the summit between Roh and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and ways to seek a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, the aide, Choi Kyung-hwan, said.
• Korean Summit High-Risk Gambit?
  Bruce Klingner By Bruce Klingner The inter-Korean summit provides an opportunity to further international goals of reducing North Korea's military threat and strengthening regional stability. If President Roh Moo-hyun presses North Korea for tangible progress toward denuclearization, then the summit would be a useful adjunct to the six-party talks. [RK_summit07]
• UNC Denies Consultations on NLL
  The United Nations Command (UNC) Friday denied reports that Korean government officials had asked the UNC for a position concerning changing the Northern Limit Line in the West Sea. A day earlier, local news media reported the UNC was reviewing the inquiry from the Ministry of National Defense. They said the Seoul government was seeking consultations with the U.S.-led UNC over a possible redrawing of the sea borderline, drawn by the UNC at the end of the Korean War. North Korea insists the sea border be nullified and redrawn. The NLL has served as the de facto maritime border between the two Koreas. [NLL] [Sovereignty]
• U.S. analyst urges Seoul to consult with Washington on NLL
  South Korea should consult fully with the United States before making any changes to the inter-Korean sea border, as the issue could end up strengthening North Korea's leader, a U.S. defense expert said Thursday. Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation, compared the situation to two brothers working together at a family farm. "And your brother suddenly announces that part of the family farm will be given to the neighbor without having detailed discussions with you. How are you going to feel?" he said.
  A controversy continues in Seoul over whether the Northern Limit Line (NLL) should be on the agenda of the upcoming inter-Korean summit, which is scheduled to be held Oct. 2-4. [Bizarre] [NLL] [US dominance]
• Seoul Consults With UNC Over Western Sea Border
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The Ministry of National Defense has asked the United Nations Command (UNC) if South Korea would address the redrawing of the West sea borderline with North Korea during the upcoming inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang, ministry officials said Thursday. The move is construed as an indication that President Roh Moo-hyun is considering discussing the controversial issue with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il at the Oct. 2-4 summit talks. The main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) blasted the move, calling for the issue to be removed from the agenda. [NLL] [Sovereignty] [KR_summit07]
• U.S. says no contact with N.K. diplomats in Washington
  The North Korean diplomats who visited Washington last weekend were here for nongovernmental events and did not have any contact with the U.S. government, the State Department said Tuesday. Kim Myong-gil, North Korea's deputy chief of mission to the United Nations, was in the U.S. capital Saturday to Sunday with other office staff and family members. Sources who confirmed their visit said the trip was private in nature and that it was mostly for sightseeing.
• Panel to Probe U.N.'s N. Korea Operation
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: September 12, 2007 Filed at 1:09 a.m. ET UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. anti-poverty agency announced the appointment Tuesday of a three-member panel to investigate its North Korea operation following allegations about its financial transactions in the reclusive communist nation. The U.N. Development Program refused to cooperate with a U.N. Ethics Office probe, which concluded that claims that a former agency staffer in North Korea suffered retaliation for being a whistleblower should be investigated. But the agency said it would conduct an external review of its now defunct North Korea program, and on Tuesday it announced the panel that will conduct it, hopefully producing a report by the end of the year. It will be led by former Hungarian prime minister Miklos Nemeth, a member of the advisory council of Transparency International, and will include Chander Mohan Vasudev, a senior Indian Finance Ministry official, and Mary Ann Wyrsch, a former U.N. deputy high commissioner for refugees and former acting commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. [UNDP] [Diversion] [Toolkit] [UNUS]
• What Was Lost in Translation Between Roh and Bush
    When presidents Roh Moo-hyun and George W. Bush baffled reporters Friday with what was later described as an "odd" exchange in terms of diplomatic protocol during a post-summit press conference, it was in fact because the niceties were lost in translation. Roh and Bush met for 55 minutes on Friday and then called a press conference, where they spent 15 minutes explaining the content of their summit. Bush delivered his statement in colloquial style. The Korean translator from the U.S. side translated the gist. When he didn't hear what he expected hear, Roh, whose English is not fluent, asked Bush twice to repeat what he had already said. But Bush responded as if Roh had been pressing him to be more precise.  
• U.S. Share of Korean Exports Falls to Record Low
  The percentage of Korea's overall exports that goes to the U.S. has been on a steady decline and has hit a record low this year. That same decline is also seen in exports to Japan, while the European Union has emerged as the new number two after China, taking up a significant share of Korea's exports. [Realignment] [Decline]
• Inter-cultural exchanges build trust between U.S.-N. Korea
  Sports and arts contribute to relaxed atmosphere and increased cooperation
    WASHINGTON- Along with progress at the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs, non-governmental exchanges between North Korea and the United States have showed signs of detente. Kim Myong-gil, North Korea's minister to the U.N. mission in New York, who has been banned from traveling more than 48 kilometers outside of Manhattan, reportedly visited Washington D.C. with his family on Sept. 8-9, a source close to the situation in Washington said. "Minister Kim's unusual tour to Washington was approved by the U.S. State Department," the source said. "Though the Washington visit by Kim's family and other North Korean officials isn't meaningful, it's a sign that, overall, North Korea-U.S. relations have improved," said the source. Meanwhile, starting Oct. 4, a group of North Korean taekwondo (Korea's traditional martial art) athletes will travel to the United States for the first time to showcase their skills in five cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Atlanta. The group, which will spend 13 days in the United States, consists of 13 athletes and five executive members of the North's Chosun Taekwondo Committee.
    In addition, three North Korean boxers will join the World Boxing Championship in Chicago next month. It will be the first time in more than a decade that North Korean athletes will join a sports event in the United States since the Atlanta Summer Olympics in 1996.
• Reports Says Organized Crime Top Problem
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: September 10, 2007 Filed at 8:26 p.m. ET UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Organized crime may have brought in more than $2 trillion in revenue last year, about twice all the military budgets in the world combined, a report issued Monday said. The ''State of the Future'' report, published by the Millennium Project of the World Federation of United Nations Associations, said organized crime entities generated income from money laundering, counterfeiting and piracy, and the trafficking of drugs, people and arms. One of the countries it singled out was North Korea, which it said makes an estimated $500 million to $1 billion annually from criminal enterprises.
  Income disparities also remain enormous, with the income of the 225 richest people of the world equaling that of the poorest 2.7 billion, or 40 percent of the world's population.
  ''This is gigantic and it's not being addressed well,'' said Jerome Glenn, head of the Millennium Project and one of the authors of the annual report [Counterfeiting] [Toolkit] [UNUS] [Media]
• 2006 State of the Future
  by Jerome C. Glenn and Theodore J. Gordon Executive summary
• 2007 State of the Future
  by Jerome C. Glenn and Theodore J. Gordon Executive summary 2007
  
• State of the Future
  Wikipidia entry
  The State of the Future is a yearly report published by the American Council of the United Nations University since 1997 to summarize the results of their research and studies under the Millennium Project. Primary authors are generally Jerome C. Glenn, Director, and Theodore J. Gordon, Senior Research Fellow.
• U.S.-N.K. exchanges flourishing
  Lee Joo-hee (angiely@heraldm.com
  Informal exchanges between the United States and North Korea are thriving against the backdrop of maturing nuclear negotiations at the six-party talks, news reports said yesterday. The exchanges vary from invitations to cultural and sports events, to a sightseeing tour in the United States by North Korean officials. North Korea invited the New York Philharmonic Orchestra last month to play in Pyongyang. The renowned orchestra is yet to accept the offer, but the U.S. State Department has already said that it was up to them to make the decision, despite the embargo on travel and trade with the North. Washington has also approved a tour around the capital city by the members and families of North Korean U.N. representatives this past weekend. The North Korean diplomats were usually restricted from traveling outside New York City. A North Korean Taekwondo sports team is set to compete in exhibition matches in the United States next month. The string of events is in stark contrast to just a year ago, when the North's missile test in July chilled relations between the United States and North Korea.
  An information and human resources exchange program between Syracuse University of the United States and Kim Chaek University of Technology of North Korea also resumed recently. The program was halted following Pyongyang's nuclear test last October. Upon the resumption, the United States reportedly approved a three-month visa for North Korean officials this month, compared to a 10-day visa in the past.
• Activist Brings Int'l Attention to N.Korea's Christians
  Newsweek magazine has reported on "underground" Christians in North Korea, now in the spotlight because of Son Jong-nam, a former defector who returned to the North to conduct missionary work. [Manipulation]
• [Editorial] No more broken promises on Iraq troop withdrawal
  There were strong suggestions of the possibility that Korean troops in Iraq may have their stay extended at the Sept. 7 meeting between Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush. Roh's response to Bush's request for "continued cooperation" could easily have been read that way. However, the troops are supposed to withdraw by the end of the year, so what would there be for Roh to talk to the National Assembly about [Friction] [US dominance]
• 40 years later, seized USS Pueblo is tourist draw in North Korea
  By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers * Posted on Friday, September 7, 2007
  PYONGYANG, North Korea - North Korea's greatest propaganda trophy, a captured U.S. Navy spy ship, floats along the banks of the Taedong River, beckoning visitors aboard to see how this country once humiliated the United States. It's the USS Pueblo, whose captain surrendered without firing [EWA] [Espionage]
• North Korean diplomat travels to Washington on unofficial visit
  A senior North Korean diplomat will make a private visit to Washington over the weekend, sources here said Friday. Kim Myong-gil, his country's deputy chief of mission to the United Nations, was to arrive on Friday and return Sunday, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Close acquaintances, including some from the New York-based Korea Society, will accompany him, they said. "The visit is not official in nature," one source said. "He would be spending most of his time touring the city." Kim is the main contact point in the United States for his government, which does not have diplomatic relations with Washington. North Koreans at the U.N. mission require prior permission from the State Department to travel beyond a certain distance from their New York office. [Double standards]
• . US Foreign Policy Needs Reassessment in Asia
  Foreign banks are conspicuously shown in Pudong, the financial district, in Shanghai, China in this file photo. In the current issue of Global Asia, experts agree that the rise of Chinese economy is the most significant variable on future U.S. foreign policies toward the East Asian region. / Korea Times file photo
  By Lee Hwan-hee Staff Reporter   Global Asia is a quarterly journal covering East Asian region published by East Asian Foundation. The main topic of the current issue is the role of the United States in the area. In a letter from the editors, the editor-in-chief Moon Chung-in and the managing editor David Plott express the sentiment shared by many in East Asia, which is that the U. S. foreign policies regarding the region must go through a reassessment in the light of new variables, such as the rise of China and India as newly emerging economic superpowers. Three very distinct perspectives are presented on the issue. [China confrontation]
• The Proposed South Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA)
  By William H. Cooper and Mark E. Manyin
  September 6th, 2007
  This article originally published by the Congressional Research Service. William H. Cooper, Specialist in International Trade and Finance in the Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division at the Congressional Research Service, and Mark E. Manyin, Specialist in Asian Affairs in the Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division of the Congressional Research Service, describe the impact of the US-ROK Free Trade Agreement on the Kaesong Industrial Park. They write, “according to the details of the agreement released thus far, it appears the United States backed away from the principle of not ever expanding the KORUS FTA to North Korea-made products…[however] the United States would be able to control the decision to and pace of any move to grant preferential treatment to North Korea made products.” [FTA] [Sanctions]
• Bush, Roh Spar Over End to Korean War
  By TOM RAUMThe Associated Press Friday, September 7, 2007; 3:33 AM SYDNEY, Australia -- In a testy public exchange Friday with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, President Bush said the United States would formally end the Korean War only when North Korea halts its nuclear weapons program. The two leaders met on the sidelines of a 21-nation Pacific Rim summit here, spending much of their roughly one-hour session discussing the international standoff over the communist North's pursuit of atomic arms.
      They agreed there had been progress. But then they had a before-the-cameras back-and-forth that was remarkable in the diplomatic world of understatement and subtlety. Roh pushed Bush to be "clearer" about his position on an official end to the 1950-53 Korean War. The two Koreas were divided by the conflict, which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, meaning they still remain technically at war. The leaders' tone remained light, but Bush responded firmly: "I can't make it any more clear, Mr. President. We look forward to the day when we can end the Korean War. That will happen when Kim Jong Il verifiably gets rid of his weapons programs and his weapons." [Friction] [Dilemma] [Sequencing]
• WFP in North Korea escapes with mild rebuke
  Source: Reuters Foundation Date: 31 Aug 2007 By Lindsay Beck BEIJING, Aug 31 (Reuters) - The World Food Programme escaped with only a mild rebuke on Friday from auditors scrutinising its North Korea operations, months after another U.N. organisation was forced from the country amid allegations of wrongdoing. The external audit of the WFP follows accusations that the U.N. Development Programme provided North Korea with hard currency and violated its own rules by hiring staff vetted through the government. The UNDP pulled out of the country in March after Pyongyang refused to accept changes ordered by its board of directors.
  The auditor's report highlighted concerns over the organisation's ability to monitor its programmes, saying the WFP was required to give advance notice of field visits and had to conduct interviews through interpreters in the presence of government officials. "The constraints placed on independent monitoring by WFP reduce assurance that food has been provided to the intended beneficiaries," the report said. North Korea has in the past been suspected of diverting food aid to the military or other privileged groups. [Toolkit] [Diversion] [Evidence] [UNUS]
• Anti-FTA, Anti-Troop Dispatch Activist Gets Plum Job
  Cheong Wa Dae appointed as one of its chiefs of staff on Tuesday Kim Jung-soo, a co-representative of Women Making Peace, who has been an ardent opponent of Korea's troop dispatch to Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. Those were two major priority policies for President Roh Moo-hyun. [Friction]
• Will Koreas See Big Bang This Year?
    By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter North Korea's announcement Monday that the United States has decided to remove the communist country from the U.S. list of states sponsoring terrorism reinforced the prediction by the top U.S. envoy in Seoul: a big bang is to happen to the Korean Peninsula next year. U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow said late last month that if a tangible result comes regarding North Korea's nuclear issue within this year, a ``big-bang'' transformation beyond many taboos will be possible next year. What the ambassador meant by the big bang is ultimately the normalization of the Washington-Pyongyang relations and the legal end of the Korean War by the introduction of Peace Treaty on the Korean Peninsula. [Sequencing]
• New Jikdo Bombing System Ready for Use
  A scoring system for a bombing range on the island of Jikdo in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province. /Courtesy of the city of Gunsan The Korean Air Force and the U.S. Air Force plan to start using a new scoring system built on a bombing range on the island of Jikdo in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province. The Korean Air Force said on Monday that testing was finished on the so-called weapons impact scoring system (WISS), which had been approved for construction by the city of Gunsan. The two air forces will begin using the system on Wednesday. [Joint US Korea] [Terrorism]
• Korea 'Paid US$20 Million to Taliban'
  The Korean government paid more than US$20 million in ransom to Taliban kidnappers for the release of 19 Korean hostages in Afghanistan, Reuters and Japan's Kyodo News said Saturday quoting a senior Taliban figure. Both news agencies cited remarks by a member of the 10-man leadership council of the Taliban, which are headed by the elusive Mullah Omar. "With it we will purchase arms, get our communication network renewed and buy vehicles to carry out more suicide attacks," the senior militant figure told Reuters. "The money will also address to some extent the financial difficulties we have had."
• North Korea tour guide has own recipe for détente
  By Mark Chisholm Reuters Sunday, September 2, 2007; 2:43 AM PYONGYANG (Reuters) - As U.S. and North Korean envoys meet in Geneva to try to push forward a disarmament plan, halfway around the world a resident of the North's isolated capital has her own ideas on resolving tensions. Li Gyong-il, a tour guide aboard the Pueblo, a captured U.S. warship that symbolizes the gulf between the arch-foes, insists that nuclear weapons are what keeps North Korea strong.
  At the same time, though, she says her country would be willing to accept detente with the United States if Washington changed its "hostile policy" toward the country formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). "As far as I am concerned, our country could accept any kind of decisions if the U.S. changes its attitude to our country," Li said. [Media]
• UN Agency Asked to Cooperate in Probe
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: August 31, 2007 Filed at 1:33 a.m. ET UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. Staff Council urged Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to order the U.N. anti-poverty agency to cooperate in an investigation of claims that a former agency staffer in North Korea suffered retaliation for being a whistleblower. In a resolution approved late Wednesday, the Staff Council expressed dismay at the U.N. Development Program's contention that its autonomy overrides any decision by the U.N. Ethics Office. Ethics chief Robert Benson said earlier this month there was enough initial evidence to support an investigation into Artjon Shkurtaj's claims that he lost his job for raising concerns about UNDP's operation in North Korea. But Benson said UNDP refused to cooperate in an investigation on grounds that its operations are not covered by the Ethics Office. Instead, UNDP has announced it will seek an external review of its now-defunct North Korea program. [UNDP]

• Troop Pullout From Afghanistan Starts
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter South Korea has begun preparations for the withdrawal of Korean forces in Afghanistan following Tuesday's agreement on the release of 19 Korean hostages with Taliban militants, the Ministry of National Defense said Wednesday. [Friction]
• Int'l Lawmakers Urge Rights Progress for N.Koreans
  An international group of lawmakers Wednesday adopted a statement calling for North Korean defectors to be granted refugee status in accordance with international law and urged that the issue of human rights of North Korean refugees be put on the agenda of the second inter-Korean summit. At the fourth general assembly of the International Parliamentarians' Coalition for North Korean Refugees' Human Rights (IPCNKR) in Seoul, the group said that an increasing number of women and children North Korean refugees are being forced into crime, including human trafficking, forced prostitution, and illegal work. "The international community must make efforts to assure their human rights by giving them refugee status according to international law," it said.
  Established in 2003, IPCNKR counts 111 parliamentarians from 36 countries as active members. Around 100 people attended the general assembly, including 24 parliamentarians from 13 countries such as U.S. congressmen Edward Royce and Diane Watson, Japanese lawmaker Masaharu Nakagawa and Mongolian lawmaker Lamjav Gundalai. The meeting also included representatives from related NGOs. [Manipulation]
• S. Korea to accelerate withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan
    South Korea plans to speed up its preparation for the pullout of more than 200 soldiers in Afghanistan after a deal with the Taliban on the release of 19 Korean hostages, officials here said Wednesday. They also indicated that Seoul's future role in Afghanistan _ possibly as a member of the civil-military Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) _ will be limited. The withdrawal of the troops is a key condition of the hard-won agreement that heralded an end to the six-week hostage crisis. A National Assembly resolution requires about 60 medics of the Dongui unit and 150 engineers of the Dasan unit to terminate their humanitarian mission in the war-ravaged nation and return home by the end of this year, although the U.S. has asked South Korea to continue its contribution there. [Friction]
• U.S. Reckless Military Moves Blasted
  Pyongyang, August 28 (KCNA) -- The U.S. is busy with the disturbing military moves to amass 60 percent of its navy submarine forces in the Pacific, etc. Minju Joson Tuesday blasts these moves in a signed commentary. It goes on: Given the fact that the DPRK is the only country in the Asia-Pacific region which is standing in military stand-off with the U.S., the recent U.S. military moves are obviously a direct military threat and provocation to the DPRK.
• Ulji Focus Lens" Joint Military Exercises under Fire
  Pyongyang, August 28 (KCNA) -- The "Ulji Focus Lens" joint military exercises now under way in south Korea are war maneuvers against peace in view of their nature, contents and purpose as they are designed to implement the U.S. military policy aimed to put the whole of Korea under its control and make a breakthrough towards carrying out its Asia strategy with Korea as a springboard.
• Taliban Begins to Free South Korean Hostages
  By Griff Witte Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, August 30, 2007; Page A16 According to the agreement, the South Korean government promised to withdraw its 200 noncombat troops in Afghanistan by the end of the year, which it had decided to do before the hostage crisis began. The government also said it would ban South Korean missionaries from traveling to Afghanistan. [Spin]
• Taliban Confirm Agreement to Free Korean Hostages
    Taliban kidnappers on Tuesday confirmed they agreed with the Korean government to free all 19 Korean hostages held in Afghanistan, ending a 40-day crisis that has shaken Korea. The two sides reached agreement in a fourth round of face-to-face negotiations at the Afghan Red Crescent office in Ghazni Province on Tuesday afternoon. Presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon said the Taliban agreed to release all remaining Korean captives on condition that Korea withdraws its forces in Afghanistan within this year and bans missionary activities by Korean Christians in the Islamic country.  
• U.S. Envoy Optimistic About Inter-Korean Summit
  U.S. Ambassador to Korea Alexander Vershbow on Tuesday expressed optimism that the second inter-Korean summit scheduled for October will serve as a "catalyst for denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula." [KR_Summit07] [Spin]
• U.S. envoy gives a boost to journalists battling Roh
  August 29, 2007 While President Roh Moo-hyun is in a pitched battle with the media over new guidelines viewed by reporters as infringing on freedom of the press, U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow yesterday praised the role of the media as one of the building blocks for democracy. Speaking at a forum sponsored by the Grand National Party on democracy and the South Korea-U.S. alliance,
• 3 South Koreans Freed by Taliban
  South Korea's decision to hold face-to-face negotiations with the militants may dismay the United States government, which refuses to talk to the Taliban. ''Maybe they (the Taliban) did not achieve all that they demanded, but they achieved a lot in terms of political credibility,'' said Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center. ''The fact that the Koreans negotiated with them directly and more or less in their territory ... is in itself an achievement.'' State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Tuesday that the U.S. wanted the Koreans returned to their families and stressed that U.S. policy was not to make concessions to terrorists. [Friction]
• U.S.-Korean Food Fight
  Christine Ahn | August 24, 2007 Editor: John Feffer Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org Whether measured in terms of farmers markets, growing memberships in the Slow Food movement, or supermarkets like Wal-Mart selling locally grown produce, the eat-local phenomenon is exploding across the United States. Americans are increasingly concerned with what they put in their bodies and where their food comes from. They can point to good reasons: the obesity epidemic, food contamination, mad cow disease and avian influenza, the survival of small farmers, oil shortages and the massive amounts of energy used to ship food around the planet. But as this healthy trend spreads across America's heartland, the U.S. government is working to deny South Koreans the right to local food and to undermine their domestic food safety laws through the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA). On June 30, 2007, one day before President Bush's "fast-track authority" expired, U.S. and South Korean negotiators signed the FTA. It now awaits ratification by Congress through an up-or down vote without amendment. So far, the Democratic leadership has said that the FTA is "dead in the water," but on the unenlightened grounds that the FTA did not go far enough in prying open South Korea's auto and beef markets. If enacted, the FTA will become the most economically significant trade deal since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Financial transactions between the two countries surpass $74 billion annually. The United States also intends to use it as a model to expand trade liberalization throughout Asia. Like NAFTA, the FTA will forever change Korea's agricultural economy. [Globalisation] [FTA]
• Roh, Bush to Meet Earlier
  The summit between President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush will be advanced from late September or early October to the beginning of next month. The summit will now be held on Sept. 7 on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which takes place in Sydney on Sept. 8-9.
• Congress likely to support Korea-US FTA
  The U.S. Congress is likely to support the free trade agreement (FTA), not because of expectations of economic benefits but rather because of its political importance, an American analyst said. Jeffrey Schott, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Studies, said other FTAs debated by the Congress, including the North American FTA (NAFTA), have been sold on foreign policy grounds.
• Orchestras may visit North, U.S.
  August 27, 2007 BEIJING ? A U.S. orchestra may visit North Korea while Pyongyang sends its own orchestra to the United States, an official of a Hong Kong-based company said yesterday. Bae Kyeong-hwan, vice president of Daepung Investment Group, told the JoongAng Ilbo that his company has been authorized by the North's Culture Minister, Kang Neung-su, to schedule and plan the events. "We contacted the New York Philharmonic orchestra first, but if its schedule does not permit, the Boston Philharmonic or the Philadelphia Philharmonic could be an option," Bae said.
• Roh's Security Adviser to Visit US to Discuss Korea-US Summit
  South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's chief secretary for security and foreign policy, Baek Jong-chun, will visit Washington from Monday through Wednesday to prepare for Roh's summit talks with U.S. President George W. Bush, likely to be held in Australia early next month, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Sunday. [KR_summit07]
• N. Korean military chief warns against U.S. hostility
      North Korea's military chief warned on Friday that his country would further enhance military preparedness against the U.S. if Washington fails to immediately stop its hostility toward the communist country. Kim Kyok-sik, chief of the General Staff of the (North) Korean People's Army, said that a tense situation still prevails on the Korean Peninsula due to the U.S.'s persistent hostile policy toward the DPRK. The DPRK, or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is the North's official name. Kim made the remarks during a report at a national meeting held Friday to mark the 47th anniversary of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's start of "Songun (military first) revolutionary leadership."
• U.S. solon unlikely to change views of N.K. tourism project
  A senior U.S. congressman said Friday he will rally for a free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea during his visit to Seoul but was skeptical that he would change his mind about an inter-Korean tourism venture he sees as a cash cow for a Pyongyang regime bent on nuclear weapons development.
• Northern Iraq Eager for Korean Investment
    Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, is known to us only as the base of the Zaytun Unit, a contingent of Korean troops. In fact, Irbil is a growing market in the Middle East. With reconstruction underway, this Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq has become a new economic battleground for multinational corporations. The Korean government banned Koreans from traveling to Iraq after the beheading of Kim Sun-il in 2004, but since February it has been issuing limited permits for travel to Irbil.
• S. Korea-U.S. alliance should no longer be global
  By Selig S. Harrison
  Next month, Americans will mark the sixth anniversary of September 11, 2001, with television replays from morning until night of the World Trade Center attack. Once again, as in each of the past five years, there will be somber discussions in the media about how to contain the continuing terrorist threat. But few of the commentators warning of the dangers ahead are likely to confront one central question: Did the nature of the U.S. response to September 11 inadvertently magnify the challenge of terrorism? The provisional answer to this question is clearly yes.
  Sadly, South Korea has been caught up in Afghan anger directed primarily at the United States. This was a predictable danger, when Seoul sent troops to Afghanistan. Similarly the Korean missionaries seized in Iraq in 2004 were a target because Roh Moo Hyun made the mistake of identifying Seoul with the disastrous U.S. invasion. The lesson of the hostage crisis for internationally-minded South Korean humanitarian aid organizations is not to stay at home but, rather, to stay away from places where they will become scapegoats for the sins of the United States. For the Roh government and its successor, the lesson is that the R.O.K.-U.S. alliance should no longer be global in scope. During the cold war Seoul could not escape being dragged into the Vietnam War, linked as the Vietnamese Communists were to Russia and China. But now the alliance is rapidly losing its relevance even in the Korean peninsula, and it should never again become a pretext for Korean involvement in any new U.S. imperial adventures.
• Pyongyang UNDP probe prevented
  August 23, 2007 A United Nations Ethics Office investigation into alleged retaliation against a whistle-blower who claimed that the United Nations Development Program wrongly provided hard currency to North Korea has been rebuffed. The development agency rejected the effort, saying that the charge does not fall under the newly created ethics office's jurisdiction. [UNDP] [Toolkit]
• Spokesman for DPRK Foreign Ministry Blasts "Ulji Focus Lens"
  Pyongyang, August 21 (KCNA) -- If the U.S. persists in its military hostile actions against the dialogue partner, the DPRK will take strong counter-measures different from the stand for dialogue it has so far maintained. A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK warned this in an answer given to the question put by KCNA Tuesday in connection with the joint military exercises launched by the U.S. in south Korea against the DPRK.
  The DPRK is ready both for dialogue and confrontation. [US joint military]
• Senior Diplomats Retaking Foreign Policy
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: August 22, 2007 Filed at 5:04 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senior career diplomats are retaking control of key elements of U.S. foreign policy and have begun to assert significant influence as the Bush administration enters its waning months eager to salvage a legacy marred by the Iraq war. Since assuming the helm at the State Department in 2005, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has installed veteran foreign service officers with more than 200 years of collective diplomatic experience in seven critical posts from the Middle East to South Asia and the Far East. By contrast, their immediate predecessors had just 72 years of combined experience and five of them were Republican political operatives with limited or no background in diplomacy, according to an Associated Press survey of senior agency appointees. While the departure of prominent conservative hawks, including Donald H. Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz from the Pentagon and John Bolton from the State Department, is well-documented, the quiet climb to influence of Rice's choices for top jobs has been less public even as they have started to steer new courses.
  Further afield, Christopher Hill, the assistant secretary for East Asia and the Pacific who holds the North Korea portfolio, joined the foreign service in 1977 as did Richard Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for Central and South Asia, which covers nuclear-armed foes Pakistan and India along with Afghanistan. The top deputy, Negroponte, replaced Robert Zoellick, the former U.S. trade representative, and Colin Powell's deputy, Richard Armitage, neither of whom were foreign service officers.
  The changes have perhaps been most dramatic in Asia, where Hill and Boucher have taken over areas that cover virtually the entire continent from Kazakhstan to Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The pair were the only two assistant secretaries of state to be invited to Camp David earlier this month to participate in a long-range policy strategy session with Bush. In East Asia, Hill replaced James Kelly, an academic and Hawaii-based business consultant who served in the Reagan-era NSC and Pentagon and during whose term North Korea expanded its nuclear weapons development. On Hill's watch, thus far, North Korea has come back to the negotiating table and shut down its Yongbyon nuclear facility. Talks on normalizing relations between the United States and North Korea are due to begin soon. [US NK policy] [Dissension]
• Korea, U.S. Start Joint Simulation Exercise
  South Korea and the U.S. began an annual joint military exercise called the Ulchi Focus Lens at 6 a.m. Monday. The UFL is a computer-based command post exercise of the two militaries simulating the allies' joint war scenario with a minimum deployment of troops and combat equipment. There was some grumbling about this year's exercise because South Korea postponed a real-life drill that was to be held at the same time due to expectations that it would coincide with the second inter-Korean summit. However, that was before North Korea postponed the summit from Aug. 28-30 until early October. This year's drill will center on shift to a war mode and preventing enemy attacks (Aug. 20-24) and destroying the enemy's capabilities (Aug. 27-30.) Reviews of the exercise will be held on Aug.31. In the exercise, South Korea will carry out the training of its forces from Aug. 20 to 24, while joint drills with the U.S. will be conducted from Aug.27 to 31. Some 5,000 U.S. forces stationed in South Korea and another 5,000 U.S. soldiers from overseas bases will participate in this year's UFL. Military authorities will carry out the postponed Hwarang Exercise after the inter-Korean summit from Oct. 2 to 4. [Joint US military]
• 'Rice could visit North Korea'
  By Lee Joo-hee
  President Roh Moo-hyun's entrusted aide said yesterday it will be possible for U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to visit North Korea if the bilateral talks between Washington and Pyongyang go well next week. The top nuclear negotiators of the United States and North Korea are set to hold their bilateral working group in Geneva, Switzerland, as part of the six-party talks process. Lee Su-hoon, chairman of the Presidential Committee on the Northeast Asian Cooperation Initiative, said in a radio interview, "Considering the example of Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill's Pyongyang visit, it is also possible to consider a similar visit by Secretary Rice." Hill visited Pyongyang in June following progress in the nuclear negotiation after the bilateral discussion in New York with the North in March. "Should Rice visit the North, the two sides will be able to discuss a prompt solution to the nuclear problem, a completion of the nuclear disablement by the year end and the steps toward normalizing U.S.-N.K. relations," Lee said. Hill's trip was the first visit to North Korea by a U.S. assistant secretary of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs in five years. The previous visit was made by James Kelley in 2002, and resulted in a crisis due to allegations that North Korea had a clandestine uranium enrichment program.
• Removal of N. Korea from US terror list could sour US-Japan ties, enrage US hawks
  The Associated Press Published: August 20, 2007
  WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush faces a delicate task as the United States works to persuade North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons: Fulfill a pledge to remove the North from a U.S. list of countries accused of sponsoring terrorism without alienating ally Japan and American conservatives. Failure to take North Korea off the State Department list would jeopardize years of disarmament negotiations by infuriating Pyongyang, which views the terrorist designation as evidence of hostile U.S. intentions. Following through, on the other hand, would anger conservatives in Bush's Republican Party and officials in Japan. Hard-liners in both countries complain that the Bush administration, eager for a nuclear resolution, has been far too willing to bend to North Korean demands. The Bush administration, once wary of any perceived concession to the North, has taken a different approach recently. Opposition Democrats long criticized the White House for following a policy that they said had allowed the North's nuclear arsenal to grow. In an effort to reach a nuclear settlement, the United States agreed in February to begin the process of removing the designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism as part of the procedure to end the North's nuclear program. [Terrorism List] [Agreement070213] [Abductees] [US Japan relations] [Sanctions]
• U.S., N. Korea likely to hold normalization talks in Geneva this month
  Officials from the United States and North Korea are likely to convene in Geneva later this month for the second round of talks on normalizing bilateral relations, diplomatic sources here said Sunday. The two countries held the first round of working-level talks in New York in March this year.
• N. Korea Designation Could Anger Critics
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: August 21, 2007 Filed at 4:01 a.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush faces a delicate task as the United States works to persuade North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons: Fulfill a pledge to remove the North from a U.S. list of countries accused of sponsoring terrorism without alienating ally Japan and American conservatives. Failure to take North Korea off the State Department list would jeopardize years of disarmament negotiations by infuriating Pyongyang, which views the terrorist designation as evidence of hostile U.S. intentions. Following through, on the other hand, would anger conservatives in Bush's Republican Party and officials in Japan. Hard-liners in both countries complain that the Bush administration, eager for a nuclear resolution, has been far too willing to bend to North Korean demands. [Agreement070213] [Terrorism List]
• Reprisal Indicated In a U.N. Program
  Agency Rebuffs Whistle-Blower Inquiry
  By Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, August 21, 2007; Page A12 UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 20 -- The top U.N. ethics official has found preliminary evidence that the U.N. Development Program retaliated against an employee who exposed abuse and rules violations in the agency's programs in North Korea. But the UNDP has refused a request from the ethics chief, Robert Benson, to submit to a formal investigation, saying it would appoint its own independent investigator. Benson's findings, detailed in a confidential letter obtained by The Washington Post, dealt a blow to the United Nations' top development agency, which has long said that the subject of Benson's inquiry, Albanian national Artjon Shkurtaj, is not a whistle-blower. [UNDP] [Toolkit] [Media]
• U.N. ethics chief: Evidence supports probe into former U.N. employee's claims of retaliation
  The Associated Press Published: August 20, 2007
    E-Mail Article Top of Form   Listen to Article Bottom of Form   Printer-Friendly   3-Column Format   Translate   Share Article      Text Size UNITED NATIONS: The U.N. ethics chief said there was enough initial evidence to support an investigation into claims by a former U.N. employee that he lost his job in retaliation for concerns he raised about his agency's work in North Korea, according to a letter obtained Monday. Artjon Shkurtaj, the former operations officer for the U.N. Development Program in North Korea, had sought whistleblower protection from the United Nations, claiming he lost his job after making serious allegations about the agency's financial transactions in the communist country. The UNDP has disputed Shkurtaj's claim that he was subject to retaliation, with spokesman David Morrison saying last month that the anti-poverty agency "found it to be without basis." The head of the U.N. Ethics Office, Robert Benson, said in the confidential letter obtained Monday by The Associated Press, however, that his review of the case had turned up enough initial evidence of possible retaliation to warrant a further investigation. In the letter, which was dated Friday and addressed to UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis, he urged the agency to reconsider its decision to look into the case, saying it "would be in the best interests of the United Nations and UNDP to do so." Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan signed the U.N.'s first whistleblower protection policy on Dec. 20, 2005. It states that all U.N. employees are required to report any breach of the organization's rules and regulations and explicitly protects them from retaliation. Because it is its own entity with its own governing board, however, the UNDP does not fall under the jurisdiction of the U.N. Ethics Office and, therefore, cannot be investigated by the office unless it so requests. [UNDP] [Toolkit]
• The United States, Japan, and India: toward new trilateral cooperation
  Michael J. Green
  August 16, 2007
  The United States, Japan, and India share common values and a commitment to the maintenance of an open and stable international order. The growth of the trilateral U.S.-Japan-India relationship in the strategic, energy, and economic fields will serve each nation’s interests and the cause of peace and stability in Asia and in the international system as a whole. The three nations should increase strategic consultations to ensure that the emerging Asian economic and political architecture remains open and progressive. [China confrontation] [US Japan alliance]
• Three scenarios for President Roh’s trip to Pyongyang: the good, the bad, and the ugly
  Michael J. Green August 13, 2007 There is much speculation about what President Roh Moo-hyun will do when he meets North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang Aug. 28-30. The opposition Grand National Party (GNP) worries that Roh will pledge billions of dollars in aid to secure a dramatic visit by Kim to Cheju Island on the eve of the South Korean presidential election. [KR_Summit07]
• S. Korea and US kick off war game to foster joint defense
    South Korea and the United States began Monday their annual computer-based war game exercise with few field activities, snubbing North Korea's warning that the exercise will trigger a "catastrophic impact." The 12-day Ulchi Focus Lens (UFL) involves about 10,000 American troops, with about half of them coming from outside of the Korean Peninsula, according to defense officials. Nearly 30,000 U.S. soldiers are already deployed here as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. "But some 500 key players among the troops from outside Korea will be actually deployed here, with the rest to stay abroad and take part in the UFL," a U.S. Forces Korea spokesman said. [Joint US military]
• Projected "Ulji Focus Lens" Joint Military Exercises Denounced
  Pyongyang, August 19 (KCNA) -- The Switzerland-Korea Committee issued a statement on August 14 denouncing the U.S. forces' "Ulji Focus Lens" joint military drill to be staged in south Korea. The statement said that the joint military exercises are U.S. war maneuvers aimed at launching a preemptive nuclear attack upon the DPRK and invading it. [Joint US military]
• 60-Second Expert: U.S.-Korea Relations
  John Feffer | August 17, 2007 Editor: Debayani Kar Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org The United States and North Korea are negotiating a resolution to the current nuclear crisis. Enthusiasm in Washington for regime collapse in Pyongyang has died down. But the United States hasn’t changed its fundamental approach to Northeast Asia. * The United States fundamentally doesn’t care about North Korea. * The United States is deeply ambivalent about Korean reunification. * And the United States is allergic to a regional security system. These are not hard truths for Americans. After all, the average U.S. citizen doesn’t pay much attention to North Korea. Rather, these are hard truths for those in East Asia who hope for a true end to the Cold War in the region. These three hard truths create sharp asymmetries in the U.S. relationship to the Korean peninsula. The United States is currently focused on a single goal: getting rid of its adversary’s nuclear program. North Korea, on the other hand, is interested in a relationship: diplomatic ties with the United States followed by expanded trade and technical exchange. The United States is simply not interested in a special relationship similar to what prevailed between Beijing and Washington after the opening of the 1970s. It is not just that North Korea is reluctant to give up what the United States wants it to forgo. It wants what the United States is very reluctant to provide. This asymmetry extends to U.S.-South Korean relations. The two countries have a very different view of North Korea. Seoul can’t help but have some kind of relationship with Pyongyang while the United States can focus on other parts of the world. The two Koreas are united by national interest and a sense of historical inevitability. The United States and North Korea have so little in common that a successful resolution of the Six Party Talks may prove ultimately elusive. As for the growing divide between the two allies, Washington and Seoul, it can only be hoped that the dissolution of the alliance, when it comes, will be amicable.
  full article [US NK policy]
• U.S. Accused of Proliferating WMD
  Pyongyang, August 16 (KCNA) -- The United States recently said that it would sell modern military hardware including guided missile system, war planes and warships to Mideast countries. Commenting on this, Rodong Sinmun Thursday observes that this proves the U.S. is chiefly to blame for disturbing peace in Mideast and proliferating weapons of mass destruction there. It goes on: The U.S. is pretending to be concerned for the regional peace, talking about the convocation of an "international conference for Mideast peace" and the like. But its real intention behind the curtain of "Mideast peace" is to bring profits to its munitions monopolies, split and alienate Arab countries and thus isolate anti-U.S. countries and establish an unchallenged domination over the regions rich in oil resources.
• 'Human Rights Should Be on Summit Agenda'
  Jay Lefkowitz By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter A senior U.S. official said that human rights in North Korea should be discussed during a second inter-Korean summit slated for Aug. 28-30 in Pyongyang. ``I would hope that the South Koreans put human rights on the agenda, as well,'' U.S. Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea Jay Lefkowitz said Wednesday in an interview with Radio Free Asia. [Manipulation] [KR_summit07]
• U.S. presidential candidates talk about engaging North Korea
  Rudolph Giuliani, a U.S. Republican presidential candidate, called for Washington to devote more foreign policy attention to Asia, saying America's future is linked to the region. John Edwards, a Democratic candidate, said the U.S. must re-engage with nations that are security threats, including North Korea. In the continuing series of essays by presidential hopefuls, Foreign Affairs magazine featured Giuliani and Edwards in its September/October edition. The preceding edition carried Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
• Two Released Hostages Safe
    Two women among 21 Koreans taken hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan were freed on Monday afternoon, 25 days after their abduction. The two were moved from the Afghan Red Crescent Society to the Korean Dongeui Medical unit stationed in Afghanistan after stopping at a U.S. base there for a medical check-up. The two women were released in Andar, southern Ghazni Province, at 3:30 p.m. and handed over by tribal elder Haji Zahir to the Afghan Red Crescent, reported news agency Pajhwok Afghan News. They arrived in Arzoo, a village between Andar and Ghazni City, in a gray Toyota Corolla driven by the tribal elder, where they boarded a Red Crescent ambulance.  
• S.Korea Dancing to Pyongyang's Tune
  The South Korean government on Monday decided to change the details of a joint South Korea-U.S. military exercise known as the Ulchi Focus Lens, mindful of the timing of the inter-Korean summit. The exercise, now in its 33rd year, had been scheduled to take place between Aug. 20 to 31. But because the inter-Korean summit had been set between Aug. 28 to 30, there were predictions from the beginning that the joint training drill may be postponed. That prediction came true. [US Joint military] [KR_summit07]  
• Seoul Delays Military Exercises for Inter-Korean Summit
    In consideration of the second inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang on Aug. 28-30, South Korea has decided to postpone two drills that were to form part of joint military exercises with the U.S. known as the Ulchi Focus Lens. The two are a field maneuver exercise and an emergency preparation and war mobilization drill. Seoul wants to postpone them until September-October. As a result, the joint exercises will focus only on computer-based war games. The Ministry of Defense announced it is postponing the Hwarang Exercise, a corps-level field maneuver exercise for the South Korean Army that was scheduled to be carried out simultaneously with the joint drills, until after September. "To create an atmosphere for a successful inter-Korean summit, we rescheduled the Korean armed forces' own field training exercise and field maneuvering exercise until after the summit." In the Hwarang Exercise, civilians, government officials and the military in the rear area jointly prepare for an emergency. [US Joint military] [KR_summit07]
• U.S., N.Korea to Boost Cultural, Sports Exchanges
  The U.S. and North Korea are reportedly promoting bilateral cultural and sports exchanges to build up mutual trust. As a first step, they are planning a concert by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in Pyongyang and a visit from the North Korean national soccer team to the U.S., said a source in Washington. At several meetings this year, chief U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill agreed with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan that cultural and sports exchanges would help thaw icy relations between the two countries, according to the source.
• U.S.-ROK: diverging threat perceptions of North Korea?
  By Ralph A. Cossa
  President, Pacific Forum, CSIS Same Bed, Different Dreams! This is becoming an increasingly popular way to describe the U.S.-ROK defense relationship, a relationship that each professes to embrace but which suffers from different priorities and perceptions, as well as different threat assessments. All too often, one side’s dream has been the other’s nightmare. Even where threat perceptions overlap, there is often serious disagreement over how best to respond to this threat. In fact, as this paper will argue, it is this difference in approaches, more so than difference in threat perceptions per se, that is the major source of contention. Nonetheless, different threat perceptions do matter and do play a part.
• Divergent Threat Perceptions On North Korea
  by Hyeong Jung Park, Visiting Fellow Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution
  Democracies usually do not go into war with each other. The relations between two democratic countries, however, may oscillate widely, in some occasions abruptly from the best to the worst in a short period. Such has been the case between South Korea and the United States with regard to North Korea perceptions and policies, though the worst phase has passed away.
• North Korea shows interest in inviting New York Philharmonic  
  North Korea has shown interest in inviting the New York Philharmonic to perform in its capital, Pyongyang, apparently as part of its efforts to improve ties with the United States, sources here said Sunday. During a meeting of six-party nuclear disarmament talks in Beijing in July, U.S. envoy Christopher Hill met his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan, and proposed that the two countries start civilian exchanges as part of confidence-building measures, said the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. Kim responded positively, saying that his government has already thought about such exchanges and would be interested in inviting the New York Philharmonic, according to the sources.
• S.Korea to Scale Back Drills With U.S. For Summit
  By REUTERS Published: August 13, 2007 Filed at 4:30 a.m. ET Skip to next paragraph SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea will cut back its participation in joint military drills with the United States to better the mood for an inter-Korean summit this month, the president's spokesman said on Monday. North Korea has called on the U.S. military to halt the drills, called Ulchi Focus Lens, which are scheduled to run August 20-31. The North has branded the annual exercise a prelude to invasion and nuclear war. "It is a decision made to create the mood for a successful South-North summit meeting and in consideration of the other party," presidential spokesman Chun Ho-sun said.  [Joint US military] [KR_summit07]
• S. Korean builders sign US$25 bln deal to build infrastructure in Iraq
  A consortium of 13 South Korean builders said Friday it has sealed a temporary accord worth US$25 billion with the Kurdistan Regional Government to improve infrastructure in the autonomous region of northern Iraq.
• Afghan Crisis Casts Shadow on Korea
  By ANTHONY DEUTSCH The Associated Press Saturday, August 11, 2007; 2:22 PM SEOUL, South Korea -- The pews of the 12,000-seat auditorium are packed for Sunday services and the capital's skyline is aglow with red neon crosses. Those not inside the Yoido Full Gospel Church _ the world's largest congregation _ can watch the sermons online in 16 languages. South Korea has an ancient tradition of Buddhism, but in recent times evangelists have put Christianity on track to becoming the nation's dominant faith. Korean missionary work, second only to the United States, places it at the forefront of the global search for converts. [Religion]
• KPA Panmunjom Mission Issues Statement
  Pyongyang, August 10 (KCNA) -- Senior colonel-level talks between the militaries of the DPRK and the U.S. were held at Panmunjom on Friday at the request of the DPRK side. At the talks the Korean People's Army side strongly protested and denounced the U.S. forces side for officially announcing its plan to stage "Ulji Focus Lens" joint military exercises in south Korea from August 20 and notified it of the statement of the KPA Panmunjom Mission clarifying the stand of the army of the DPRK to strongly react to it. The statement says: Despite a warning issued by the DPRK side through a statement of the chief of the KPA Panmunjom Mission on July 13 the U.S. military is set to stage the above-said military exercises to gratify its military ambition. This clearly indicates that the U.S. is not concerned for peace and security on the Korean Peninsula at all and does not want the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula nor detente and lasting peace on it. At a time when there prevails an urgent situation where huge armed forces of the other belligerent party may come in attack on the DPRK, pursuant to the plan for war exercises of the U.S. military, the KPA responsible for the security of the country cannot remain a passive onlooker to it, doing nothing. [Joint US military]
• U.S. Chiefly to Blame for S. Korean Hostage Crisis in Afghanistan
  Pyongyang, August 10 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the National Reconciliation Council issued a statement Friday in connection with the fact that some of the south Korean civilians held in hostage by Taliban armed forces in Afghanistan are now meeting tragic deaths. Holding the U.S. entirely accountable for the occurrence of the crisis, the statement continued: But for the U.S. act of driving south Korea into the war of aggression against Afghanistan which it launched under the pretext of a "war on terrorism" such tragic incident would not have happened. Such being a hard fact, the U.S. has not yet taken any positive approach to the issue, keen on meeting its own interests.
• NK Hits Korea-US Military Exercise
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The Ministry of National Defense Friday dismissed speculation that a South Korea-U.S. joint military exercise slated for later this month may be cancelled or rescheduled due to the second inter-Korean summit from Aug. 28-30. But North Korea said it would not stand for the large-scale military exercise, warning that the drill could disrupt a nuclear disarmament deal. South Korea and the United States are scheduled to conduct their annual computerized military exercise, Ulchi Focus Lens (UFL), from Aug. 20-31. [Joint US military] [KR_summit07]
• Vice-President of SPA Presidium Meets U.S. Professor and His Party
  Pyongyang, August 9 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Dae, vice-president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, met and had a talk with John Lewis, professor of U.S. Stanford University, and his party at the Mansudae Assembly Hall Thursday
• U.S.-Korea joint war exercise may see delay due to summit
  August 10, 2007 Seoul is considering delaying or reducing the scale of an annual war game exercise with the United States in order to avoid raising tensions with the North before this month's inter-Korean summit, several sources said yesterday in Washington. The issue was discussed yesterday by security officials in Seoul. One of the options discussed was to hold only part of the joint exercise, while the Defense Ministry is arguing that the drill should be held as planned. Other government agencies are opposed to holding a full-scale exercise, a source said. David Oten, a public relations officer with United States Forces Korea in Seoul said he had not heard anything about the matter yet. The exercise, Ulji Focus Lens, involved 8,000 U.S. troops and an undisclosed number of Korean soldiers last year. It is one of two major joint war game exercises held annually between the United States and South Korea. The drill, scheduled to be held from Aug. 20 to 31, simulates an armed confrontation with the North. It has been conducted since 1975 and involves real troops and computer simulations to map responses to different battlefield scenarios. [Joint US military] [KR_summit07]
• North Korea Military Tells U.S. To Halt Joint Exercise
  By REUTERS Published: August 10, 2007 Filed at 12:35 a.m. ET Skip to next paragraph SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea called on U.S. military officers on Friday to halt a joint training exercise with South Korean forces, saying the drills could scuttle a deal to end Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. Some South Korean government officials have said Seoul is considering a delay of the Ulchi Focus Lens exercise, which are scheduled to run from August 20-31, so as not to derail a rare summit of the two Koreas at around the same time. [Joint US military] [KR_summit07]

  Articles on UNDP in DPRK
  Mainly from Wall Street Journal

  • Ban's Reform Call
    22 January 2007 U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has been on the job for less than a month, but with a 26-word announcement Friday he did more to reform that international body than anything ever attempted by predecessor Kofi Annan. "The Secretary-General will call for an urgent, system wide and external inquiry into all activities done around the globe by the U.N. funds and programs." So said Mr. Ban's spokesman after the Secretary-General met with Ad Melkert, associate administrator of the United Nations Development Program. The key word here is "external." Concerns about corruption in the U.N.'s Oil for Food program bubbled for ... [Ban Ki-moon] [UNUS] [UNDP] [Diversion]
  • U.N. Keeping Close Watch on North Korea Funding
    11 June Your June 4 editorial "How to Beat an Audit," on the recent audit of U.N. programs in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, made for good reading but, much like your other editorials on the matter, is misleading. The audit report does not indicate that large-scale U.N. funding has been systematically diverted to North Korea, contrary to what has been repeatedly [UNDP] [Diversion]
  • North Korea Tech Transfer
    BY MELANIE KIRKPATRICK
    20 July 2007 (See Corrections & Amplification item below.) Of all the evidence turned up by the U.S. concerning irregularities in the United Nations Development Program's operations in North Korea, some of the most disturbing concerns the transfer of dual-use technology. As reported last month, the U.S. has uncovered documents showing the UNDP procured and delivered to North Korea in May 2006 technology that could be used for military purposes: global positioning system (GPS) equipment, a portable high-end spectrometer and a large quantity of high-specification computer hardware. According to packing lists and confirmation receipts, the items were intended for a "GIS" -- geographic ... [UNDP] [Diversion]
  • U.N. High Tech for Kim
    20 July 2007 The United Nations' Cash for Kim Jong Il scandal is now six months old, so it's a good time to assess progress, if that's the right word. The evidence of misdeeds at the U.N. Development Program in North Korea continues to mount, but there's still no "urgent" and "external" inquiry, as ordered by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in January. Now the U.S. has uncovered evidence that in addition to transferring millions of dollars in cash that may have gone to help prop up Kim's grotesque regime, the UNDP also transferred dual-use technology. It did so without bothering to secure a U.S. ... [UNDP] [Diversion]
  • Offensive Broadside Against U.N. Program
    30 June 2007 While we welcome your continued interest in the United Nations, your June 22 broadside against the U.N. Development Program's work in North Korea ("Kim's U.N. Buddy," Review & Outlook) is wrong and offensive on several counts. The truth is that after six months of accusations and allegations, no one has produced evidence that UNDP's resources in North Korea were used for anything other than legitimate development activities. The preliminary external audit of our program confirmed that UNDP's Executive Board had been informed of UNDP's staffing practices (which coincidentally are used by every other international ... [UNDP] [Diversion]
  • Kim's U.N. Buddy
    22 June 2007 The last time we wrote about Adrianus Petrus Wilhelmus Melkert, the Dutch politician turned international bureaucrat, he was busy disavowing his record at the World Bank in an effort to oust President Paul Wolfowitz. Mr. Melkert had run the bank board's ethics committee, which advised Mr. Wolfowitz to give the raise to his girlfriend that became the basis for the phoney accusations against him. Now Mr. Melkert has resurfaced as an anti-American agitator in another global sinecure. As associate administrator of the United Nations Development Program, he recently threatened to "retaliate" against the U.S. for its efforts to get to ... [UNDP] [Diversion]
  • Kim's U.N. Banker
    Word Count: 645 11 June 2007 The case of the United Nations and North Korea gets curiouser and curiouser. Only a week ago, the U.N. was claiming that a preliminary audit of its programs in North Korea showed "irregularities" that were no big deal. But now the U.S. has new evidence that U.N. funds intended to help the people of one of the world's poorest countries were diverted to prop up Kim Jong Il's regime. The latest chapter in the Cash for Kim saga shows how the United Nations Development Program operated as the North Korean dictator's private banker. The U.N. agency facilitated Pyongyang's purchases of ... [UNDP] [Diversion]
  • How to Beat an Audit
    Word Count: 793 4 June 2007 The case of U.N. hard currency for Kim Jong Il took its latest turn Friday with the release of the much-awaited audit on United Nations operations in North Korea. The investigation confirms and elaborates on irregularities in United Nations Development Program's activities in North Korea, first reported on these pages in January. It fails, however, to examine the central question of this scandal: Whether U.S. cash in North Korea was diverted from its intended recipients and instead used to prop up Kim's totalitarian regime? Let us stipulate that any investigation having to do with North Korea is bound to have ... [UNDP] [Diversion]
  • Ban Asked Probe of U.N. Activities in North Korea
    Word Count: 140 9 May 2007 Your May 3 editorial "North Korea Time" is misleading about the determination of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon to ensure an independent probe of U.N. activities in the Democratic ... [UNDP] [Diversion]
  • North Korea Time
    9 May 2007 It's been two and a half weeks since the 60-day deadline passed on April 14 for North Korea to comply with the first part of the nuclear accord reached in February. That includes shutting down the Yongbyong nuclear reactor, letting in U.N. inspectors and providing a list of all nuclear programs. But so far no word from Pyongyang, and nothing from Beijing or Washington either. President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice both recently claimed their "patience" is not "endless," contrary to all available evidence [BDA] [UNDP] [Diversion]
  • $25 Million for Kim
    20 March 2007 Word Count: 507 The first phase of the North Korean denuclearization agreement has passed its halfway mark, and it's a good time to assess progress, if that's the right word. Kim Jong Il must be smiling. At the very least, he's counting his initial return on investment -- $25 million. That's what the U.S. agreed yesterday to transfer from Banco Delta Asia in Macau to a North Korean account at the Bank of China in Beijing. North Korea is on its honor to spend the money for humanitarian and educational purposes. Of course, as State Department spokesman Sean McCormack noted with a straight ... [BDA] [UNDP] [Diversion]
  • Kim Jong Il's Word
    Word Count: 765 5 March 2007 North Korean officials arrived in New York over the weekend for discussions on normalizing relations with the U.S. as part of the nuclear disarmament accord struck last month. Chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill is scheduled to meet today and tomorrow with his counterpart, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan. May we suggest that, before he sits down, Mr. Hill take a look at the brief statement issued quietly Thursday by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). There is no better guide to Kim Jong Il's negotiating style, nor to the North Korean dictator's habit of breaking his word. Nuclear negotiators, ... [UNDP] [Diversion]
  • Less Cash for Kim
    Word Count: 522 26 January 2007 The case of U.N. hard currency for Kim Jong Il continues to evolve, with the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Fund agreeing yesterday to suspend new operations in North Korea until an audit can be completed and provide better oversight of existing programs. Most UNDP meetings are snoozefests. But yesterday's got lively, after the U.S., Japan and other countries requested the "deferral" over concerns that tens of millions of dollars in hard currency have been funneled to Kim's dictatorship. A compromise deal requires that projects in progress adhere to UNDP rules regarding hard currency, staff and on-site visits. ... [UNDP] [Diversion]
  • U.N.'s Program for the Poor of North Korea Strives to Forestall Corruption
    Word Count: 395 22 January 2007 In response to Melanie Kirkpatrick's Jan. 19 editorial-page commentary "United Nations Dictators Program" and the accompanying editorial "U.N. Cash for Kim" about the United Nations Development Program's work in North Korea, I would like to offer some important context and relevant facts. Here are the facts: There is no reason to believe that our programs were subverted to fund nuclear activities in North Korea, and the most recent audits conducted in 1999, 2001 and 2004 did not raise this concern. ... [UNDP] [Diversion]
  • U.N. Cash for Kim
    Word Count: 1,151 19 January 2007 U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has been on the job for less than a month, but with a 26-word announcement Friday he did more for the cause of reform of that international body than anything ever attempted by predecessor Kofi Annan. "The Secretary General will call for an urgent, system wide and external inquiry into all activities done around the globe by the U.N. funds and programs." So said Mr. Ban's spokesman after the Secretary General met with Ad Melkert, associate administrator of the United Nations Development Program. The key word here is "external." Concerns about corruption in the ... [UNDP] [Diversion]
  • United Nations Dictators Program
    BY MELANIE KIRKPATRICK Word Count: 1,627 19 January Saddam Hussein managed to pull off the $100 billion Oil for Food scam right under the noses of the United Nations officials charged with administering it. Now another dictator with nuclear ambitions has succeeded in a similar trick, this time manipulating the United Nations Development Program in North Korea. The story of the UNDP's lack of oversight of its operations in North Korea is revealed in previously undisclosed documents and an exchange of letters between U.S. and U.N. officials. American officials have been pushing for months for more transparency in UNDP operations in North Korea, while the UNDP has resisted. [UNDP] [Diversion]
  • UNDP Statement on Allegations Carried in the New York Sun of 15 June
    UNDP categorically denies suggestions in the 15 June edition of the NY Sun that its Associate Administrator in any way threatened “retaliation” against a State Department official.  The assertion that Ambassador Wallace of the U.S. Mission has presented UNDP with any documentation to back up recent U.S. allegations about UNDP’s former program in DPRK is also completely false.  [UNDP] [Diversion]
• A Unified Approach: Articulating a Coordinated U.S.-ROK Strategy in 2008
  By A. Greer Pritchett
  August 9th, 2007 A. Greer Pritchett, Assistant Project Director of Northeast Asia Projects for the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, writes, “if a smart policy is crafted now within the current administration, there appears to be little reason for a significant shift in 2009… Further, since the next administration will undoubtedly still be preoccupied and stymied in other parts of the world, a bolstered U.S.-ROK alliance would be a much appreciated housewarming gift.”
  It is no secret that the Bush administration was sharply critical of Kim Dae-Jung’s Sunshine Policy; this disapproval and censure has continued during Roh Moo-hyun’s presidency. The Sunshine Policy found South Korea actively engaging in economic and social interactions with its neighbor to the north in an attempt to ameliorate some of the latent, festering hostilities which still exist between these two countries. In the mind of President Bush, and many others in his administration, this engagement was seen as a type of pandering to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), a known enemy of the United States and the entire free world. After all, Bush called out North Korea as one of the three member states comprising the “axis of evil”; it was a rogue state and a sponsor of terrorism. The current administration’s solution to the believed scourge that was the DPRK was not to engage it, but rather to further isolate it. Washington’s approach was in direct opposition to Seoul’s new policy, driving a deep wedge between the two capitals. However, with the United States embroiled in the quagmire of the Middle East, it seemed as if President Bush would try to wait out populist President Roh’s tenure until a president more amenable to the Bush administration’s policies took the helm [Friction]
• After the Bush-Karzai Summit
  U.S. President George W. Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed at a summit on Monday not to bargain with the Taliban over 21 South Korean hostages being held in Afghanistan  
• S.Korea at 'High Threat' of Biological, Nuclear Attacks
  The U.S. Defense Department has named South Korea as a country with a high vulnerability to chemical, biological, radioactive and nuclear attacks. The department advised the country to prepare itself against such threats with special measures and training. [cbw]
• S. Korea prepares for face-to-face negotiations
  Seoul may offer early withdrawal of medical and engineering units; Bush and Karzai reaffirm non-negotiation stance
    On August 7, 20 days into the hostage crisis, the South Korean government is concentrating on preparing countermeasures in anticipation of face-to-face negotiations with the Taliban militia holding 21 South Korean citizens in captivity. Seoul thinks that face-to-face negotiations are the only resolution for the safe release of the kidnapped.      
• Frustration in Seoul as summit is a dead-end
  August 08, 2007     Concerned people hang yellow ribbons as a token of their wish for the safe return of the Korean hostages held by Taliban militants yesterday at a street in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul. About 80 civic and religious groups initiated the campaign with the crisis showing no sign of resolution. By Cho Mun-gyu With the Afghan-United States summit yielding no good news for the Korean hostages held by the Taliban, disappointed Seoul officials continued looking for a path forward. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said the meeting between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. President George W. Bush had "no result." Bush and Karzai must accept Taliban demands that militant prisoners be released in exchange for the lives of 21 surviving South Korean hostages or there will be a "bad result," Ahmadi said. Two hostages have already been murdered. Blue House Spokesman Cheon Ho Seon said yesterday, "We don't know what effect the summit meeting will have on the hostages but we will monitor the situation." Cheon stressed that the result was expected. In Seoul, observers said the outcome was a major setback. "It's certainly negative. Seoul was hoping that some flexibility would be shown but this narrows down the remaining options,"    
• Projected U.S.-S. Korea War Exercises Assailed
  Pyongyang, August 7 (KCNA) -- The "Ulji Focus Lens" joint military exercises, large-scale DPRK-targeted war exercises the U.S. and the south Korean authorities are going to stage in south Korea from August 20 to 31, are serious military provocations as they will increase the danger of a war and harass peace on the Korean Peninsula, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed commentary. [US joint military]
• U.S. Policy and the Korean Hostage Crisis
  Controversy over the role of the American government in Afghanistan?
    Ronda Hauben (netizen2)
      Published 2007-08-08 15:28 (KST)   There appears to be a serious debate taking place over how to win the release of the 21 South Korean church group members who are being held by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Family members have appealed to the U.S. Embassy in South Korea to rule out the use of force to try to free their relatives. U.S. officials have promised that force would not be used unless approved by the South Korean government. The Taliban has demanded the release of prisoners being held by U.S. or Afghan government forces in exchange for the Koreans. In discussions online and in other media, and especially among politicians, there are a range of views about how much responsibility the U.S. government has for the situation and what role the U.S. can be expected to play to gain the release of the church group.
    Some South Korean groups, such as the Democratic Labor Party and various Korean antiwar groups, hold the U.S. responsible, referring to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan as the root cause of the problem
• Bush, Karzai 'Won't Give in to Taliban'
    U.S President George W. Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karazi agreed on Monday morning not to give in to Taliban kidnappers of 23 Koreans in Afghanistan. In a meeting at the U.S. presidential retreat of Camp David in Maryland, the two made it clear there will be no release of Taliban prisoners in return for the freedom of the surviving 21 Korean hostages, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. "The Taleban are brutal and should not be emboldened by this," he added.
• U.S. State Department official to accompany academic delegation to North Korea
  The Associated Press Published: August 7, 2007
  WASHINGTON: A U.S. official will accompany an academic delegation on a trip to North Korea this week. John Merrill, an analyst in the State Department's intelligence bureau, will travel to North Korea with John Lewis, of Stanford University, and Siegfried Hecker, former director of the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory, State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said Tuesday. "The group will not be acting on behalf of the U.S. government or carrying any official message," Gallegos said. Merrill is traveling in a "research capacity," Gallegos said, and will not negotiate with the North Korean government. No other details of the trip, including whether the group would visit North Korea's nuclear reactor, were released.
• U.S. and Afghanistan must speak for the hostages
    It has been 19 days since a group of Koreans were kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and today the United States and Afghanistan, which hold the key to resolving the situation, are holding a summit in Washington, D.C. The United States is labeling the talks as "private" and "strategic," but the summit is particularly of note for Koreans because it could prove to be a significant turning point in the resolution of the hostage issue. Foreign media reports say that there are major differences between the United States and Afghanistan on what to do about the Taliban. The Washington Post reports that Afghans who are fatigued enough as it is from years of war, and are angry at the increasing number of civilians killed in NATO air attacks, support a diplomatic solution, while the United States rejects that and wants firm action taken. The Post reports that the United States is particularly opposed to a negotiated solution when there are hostages involved, and quotes a Bush Administration spokesperson as saying that pressure should be applied to the Taliban, including the possible use of force, to have the Korean hostages released.
• U.S. involvement in hostage crisis: political manipulation or essential participation?
  Political infighting over U.S. role continues, while victims families appeal for an end to dispute
      A controversy has arisen in the nation's political arena surrounding the "U.S. role" in the lengthening hostage crisis, after 23 South Koreans were kidnapped by Taliban insurgents more than two weeks ago. The nation's liberal and conservative parties have vastly different views on the matter, with the former pushing for greater U.S. involvement and the latter calling for a more prudent approach. Accusations have been traded on both sides, with each side criticizing the other of politically motivated manipulation of the crisis. Family members of the hostages, however, continue to appeal to politicians to stop the disputes and their main concern is that the anti-U.S. debates will have a negative effect on the hostage standoff.
• Hostage crisis is raising debate on U.S. response
  August 04, 2007 Complaints are growing in Korea about the absence of visible U.S. pressure to end the 17-day ordeal of 21 Koreans held hostage by the Taliban, with some even beginning to blame Washington for the hostage crisis.
• Trying to Make Hay From the Hostage Crisis
  One presidential contender of the ruling camp on Thursday published a letter he had sent to U.S. President George W. Bush, which called on Washington to take on a more active role in Korea's hostage rescue efforts, since the abductions happened because of America's war on terror. Another 33 ruling-camp lawmakers issued a statement containing the same demand. Did they really hope for a resolution of the crisis or did they merely want some media coverage.
• Hostage Families Reject Anti-American Rallies
    The families of the Korean hostages spoke out against a movement to hold the U.S. responsible for the unresolved crisis, saying anti-American demonstrations could put the hostages' lives at greater risk. The families turned down an offer by some anti-American organizations to stage a candlelight rally.
• Liberals and conservatives wrangle over U.S.-involvement in hostage crisis
  Pan-ruling camp urges greater U.S. role, while GNP takes more prudent position
  The movement stressing "a U.S. role" in resolving the Afghanistan hostage crisis has sent political tremors throughout the nation. As family members of the abductees have officially urged the United States to intervene in the crisis, the pan-ruling camp and the opposition Democratic Labor Party (DLP) have also raised their voices regarding U.S. responsibility. The main opposition Grand National Party (GNP), however, has taken a more prudent position, linking the liberal parties' tendency with the "spread of anti-U.S. sentiment."  
• Military response takes more than guns
  August 03, 2007 South Korea's elite special forces, constantly trained to counter the threat from the North, are capable of quick response to a crisis, and some voices inside the military are calling for them to be put into action to end the hostage crisis in Afghanistan. With two hostages already murdered and the remaining 21 under constant threat, the desire to move is understandable, but pulling the trigger on a military operation in Afghanistan would be complex, delicate and uncertain. One of the major obstacles, said a Foreign Ministry official who declined to be named, is the sovereignty of Afghanistan. "The incident is not in our jurisdiction," the official said. "We would need permission from Kabul. Otherwise it's an invasion. There is a need by Kabul to demonstrate that it can handle this situation. It also has to consider public sentiment."
• Hostage Standoff Likely to Affect Presidential Race
  By Kang Hyun-kyung Staff Reporter   Political analysts said the Afghanistan hostage standoff is likely to affect the primaries of the Grand National Party (GNP), but they questioned if the fallout of the kidnapping will engender anti-American sentiment in the country. They pointed the finger at the dwindling effect of the property scandal of presidential hopeful Lee Myung-bak on the primary race after the outbreak of the July 19 crisis
• Military Action Not Option Now
  Release of Prisoners Held by US Military By Emal Pashtunyar Special to Korea Times KABUL _ A senior Afghan official, involved in the negotiations for the safe release of Korean hostages held by the Taliban, Wednesday expressed the hope that the crisis would be resolved without further loss of lives. Merajuddin Patan, the governor of Ghazni Province, where the 23 hostages _ two of whom were later killed by the kidnappers _ were seized by Taliban militants, said there were hopes that the crisis would be resolved without further loss of lives. The governor said the Taliban were not asking for a ransom but were demanding the release of prisoners from Ghazni Province and now from other provinces as well.
• Politicians, Civic Groups Blame U.S. for Hostage Crisis
  Some politicians and civic groups in Korea are starting to hold the U.S. responsible for the two-week-old hostage crisis in Afghanistan with remarks that seem designed to stir up simmering anti-American sentiment here. At a meeting of the Uri Party on Wednesday, Rep. Park Chan-suk said, "The root cause of the hostage crisis lies in our dispatch of troops to Afghanistan. While the Koreans are suffering, the U.S. stands firm on the principles. It's irresponsible and it's a betrayal of one of its allies." Uri Chairman Chung Se-kyun said, "The U.S. should not remain a mere bystander."
• No Use Staring at the U.S. in Hostage Crisis
  With the hostage crisis in Afghanistan dragging on while the number of casualties rises, certain groups in Korea have begun to shift the blame on the United States. One group opposed to the dispatch of Korean troops overseas has held a candle-lit vigil saying the U.S. caused this tragedy, while the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy issued a statement saying the negligence of the U.S. government was the reason behind the lack of progress in negotiations. Certain news media are starting to take that perspective, and the Uri Party hopped on the bandwagon.
• Seoul, Washington rules out military action to rescue hostages in Afghanistan
  South Korea and the United States Thursday agreed to rule out military action to save the lives of 21 South Korean hostages in Afghanistan, South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said, amid reports of an imminent military operation against the Taliban in the war-ravaged country. "South Korea and the United States agreed to rule out any military actions," Song told reporters after bilateral talks with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte
• U.S. holds key to hostage crisis in Afghanistan
  The Taliban insurgents have killed a second South Korean hostage, once again demonstrating their position and leaving South Korea with a dwindling stack of cards on the table. If the Afghan government does not accept the insurgents' prisoners-for-hostages swap, they will not release the remaining South Koreans held hostage in the nation. The Afghan government should make a determination in connection with the release of the abductees. It also is clear that the U.S. administration will have a decisive influence over this matter. Because of this, the attention of the international community has been focused on the United States as the situation has continued to deteriorate.
• Taliban Clouding U.S., South Korea Ties
  A policy of 'no negotiations with terrorists' is being put to the test [Analysis] Lee Byong-chul (merrycow) javascript:memo_send('at_code=425742')javascript:memo_send('at_code=425742') Email Article Print Article     Published 2007-07-31 23:52 (KST)   "The kidnappers are demanding the release of prisoners in Afghan jails in exchange for Korean nationals. But this demand is not within the power of the Korean government because it doesn't have any effective means to influence decisions of the Afghan government." The presidential office of South Korea denounced on July 31 the killing of a second South Korean hostage in Afghanistan, threatening to take stern countermeasures in case of further killings of Korean captives by Taliban rebels.
  It is in fact the worst-ever political and diplomatic drubbing for the South Korean government:
• Policy of Double Standards under Fire
  Pyongyang, July 30 (KCNA) -- The policy of double standards pursued by the imperialists is an unfair and reactionary one as it bars each country and nation from exercising equal rights in the international relations. [Double standards] [NK US policy]
• U.S. Crusader Odd Man Out at U.N.
  By Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, July 31, 2007; Page A17
  Last year, John R. Bolton, then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, recruited Mark D. Wallace as the U.S. representative for U.N. management and reform. Given that Bolton was a longtime critic of the U.N. bureaucracy, no one expected that Wallace would go meekly about his new job. And he didn't. He has met with informants eager to spill bureaucratic secrets, scrutinized internal audits and butted heads with U.N. officials he suspects are blocking his efforts to uncover corruption in development programs in places including North Korea and Burma.
  Bolton is now long gone, and while Wallace's mission has not changed, U.S. diplomacy at the United Nations has a decidedly different cast. Wallace's continued prosecutorial zeal is roiling sensibilities at a time when the United States is trying to put a more conciliatory face on its diplomacy and persuade the organization to play a larger role in Iraq. Wallace's actions have also prompted allegations from U.N. officials that he may have exaggerated his findings. [UNDP] [Toolkit] [John Bolton]

• Pastor Bae's bereaved family calls for U.S. to support release of other hostages
  Bereaved family members of the South Korean pastor found slain in Afghanistan Wednesday appealed for the United States and the Afghan governments to help South Korea win the release of 22 other Korean hostages in the Central Asian state. The appeal comes amid reports that the Kabul government is reluctant to free Taliban prisoners because of opposition from Washington that has been waging war against Taliban militia, which it ousted in 2001, citing the Taliban's alleged connection to Al Qaeda, the force behind the Sept.11 attacks on the United States.
• Military Tie-up between U.S. and Its Allies Assailed
  Pyongyang, July 26 (KCNA) -- The U.S., Japanese and Australian military authorities held tripartite military talks, the first of their kind, in Singapore early in June at which they agreed to jointly cope with the "nuclear and missile issue" of the DPRK. In the wake of the talks a large-scale three-nation joint military maneuver was staged in the Pacific for about three weeks from the middle of June. The U.S. and Japan are putting spurs to the moves to establish the missile defence system (MD) while moving to plug Australia into it. [Missile defense]
• The Corrupt UN Strikes Again!
  Friday, January 19, 2007 8:57 AM
  THE STEAMING CESSPOOL OF SQUIRMING MAGGOTS AT THE UN CONTINUES TO WASTE OUR MONEY!!!
     WE WUZ ROBBED YET AGAIN by the UN! This should not be a surprise to us, especially since NOT ONE SLIMY UN BUREAUCRAT was punished for the Oil-For-Food scam! NOT ONE!
     The roaches scattered when the light was shown on the fact that North Korea has been scamming the United Nations Development Program to the tune of FOUR BILLION DOLLARS! That buys A LOT of weapons technology and funds A LOT of nuclear research. The program, paid for by member nations such as the United States, was bilked by Kim Jong-Il for all sorts of money and services. WHY WE ARE STILL IN THE UN? THAT is the MAIN QUESTION!! [Bizarre] [UNDP] [Diversion]
• U.S. State Department Reveals North Korea’s Misuse of U.N. Development Program Funds and Operations
  Friday, January 19, 2007
  By George Russell
  NEW YORK —  Has North Korean leader Kim Jong Il subverted the United Nations Development Program, the $4 billion agency that is the U.N.’s main development arm, and possibly stolen tens of millions of dollars of hard currency in the process?
  According to a top official of the U.S. State Department — using findings made by the U.N.’s own auditors — the answer appears to be a disturbing yes, so far as UNDP programs in North Korea itself are concerned. [UNDP] [Diversion] [Media]
• U.S. Congress Takes Up Korean Family Reunions
  The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday launched a committee to support the reunions of Korean-Americans with their separated families in North Korea. The committee, recommended by Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Jim Matheson, was inaugurated at the Cannon House Office Building. Kirk said he will soon visit North Korea's UN mission in New York to discuss the reunions of separated families. Chief nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill has reportedly said it would be possible to realize reunions of the Korean-Americans with their separated families in North Korea if North Korea agrees. The number of Korean-Americans who have families in North Korea is estimated at about 100,000. So far, some Korean-Americans have either visited North Korea without U.S. government permission or met with their families in China. [Human rights]
• Does Seoul not believe in tears?
  Park No-ja, Professor of Korean Studies at Oslo University I have various complex feelings about writing what you see here, while watching the hostage situation in Afghanistan and the many turns it has taken. From the very start, was there any need to send Korean troops there as if following the orders of the United States, which occupies Afghanistan without permission under the pretext of waging a war on terrorism? Was there no way for the church to have seen there was no way for Muslims living in the invaded territory to have thought positively about people who went to "serve" in a very religious way, when the country is being occupied by Western forces led by the United States, which presents itself as a Christian nation? What is most shocking, however, is the response of some of Korea's netizens. Of course it shows you quite well how intimate with imperialism the Korean church is, in that it goes to "serve" on a battlefield in a way that speaks the same religious language as the invading nation. We have to call on the church to return to the spirit of Jesus, who was killed at the hands of Roman invaders and Jewish collaborators
• U.S. distances itself from kidnapping
  Four days after 23 Korean citizens were abducted, U.S. State Department spokesman finally makes official comment       The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has, until now, remained silent, despite the ongoing hostage crisis involving 23 South Koreans who are being threatened with death by their Taliban captors in Afghanistan. The U.S. government's leading role in the war on terrorism and its decisive influence on the release of Taliban prisoners, one of the key demands of the current captors, has increasingly brought attention to the meaning behind the silence. Though the U.S. Department of State has finally commented on the recent events in Afghanistan, the timing of the comments still leaves many unanswered questions about what role the U.S. government will take.
• On the Armitage-Nye Report
  The US Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) recently released a new report entitled, "The US-Japan Alliance: Getting Asia Right through 2020". The primary authors of the report are Richard L. Armitage and Joseph S. Nye. Like the "The United States and Japan: Advancing Toward a Mature Partnership", a report issued by Ambassador Armitage and Dr. Nye in 2000, this report continues to emphasize the importance of the US-Japan alliance and the role of Japan in the US' Asia strategy. Unlike the first report, however, which was directed specifically at correcting the Clinton's Administration's tendency to neglect Japan and strengthening the bilateral relationship between the two countries, the new report also addresses ways in which the alliance could have a positive influence on the future of Asia. [US Japan alliance] [China confrontation]
• Missionaries spreading the word but also heighten tensions
  Competition between groups is intense as churches try to overcome sluggishness at home by doing missionary work
    Following the rise of Christianity in South Korea, Protestant evangelists have been spreading the "good news" in many countries worldwide. The missionary work done by these groups, however, has also contributed to escalated tensions and can place missionaries in potentially dangerous situations. The number of South Korean missionaries overseas was less than 100 in the late 1970s but grew to 12,874 in about 160 countries as of the end of 2004. South Korea ranked second in terms of its dispatch of missionaries, following the United States, which sent 46,000 missionaries throughout the world in the same period. Local churches now hope to send one missionary per 600 believers to foreign countries so as to help South Korea outperform the United States.       [Religion]
• S. Korean spy suspect released on bail
  Information obtained while doing business with the North
      Park Il-woo, known as Steve Park in the United States, has been charged with lying to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation about his role as a South Korean spy. According to an affidavit submitted by the F.B.I. to a U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Park had been giving information obtained from North Korea to South Korea, though he has denied having any contacts within the South Korean government. Park was released on a bail of US$150,000 on July 19 and ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device. Park is not likely in a position to handle highly sensitive information on North Korea but has been monitored and tailed by U.S. authorities since 2005. According to the court paper, Park met four South Korean intelligence agents working at the United Nations mission in New York and the South Korean consulate a number of times from April 2005 to earlier this month but intentionally hid this fact during questioning. Park was questioned by F.B.I. agents three times between 2005 and 2007; on all occasions Park denied having any contact with South Korean officials, though F.B.I. agents had earlier witnessed a meeting between Park and one South Korean official. The F.B.I. had been keeping tabs on Park by tapping his cell phone beginning in the spring of 2005. [Espionage] [Friction]
• The view from Washington
  Jang Jung-soo, Editorial writer Until returning to Korea recently, I spent the past year at a think tank in Washington, D.C., where I had a lot of opportunities to talk with American experts in Korean and Northeast Asian affairs. Their main interest was the North Korean nuclear issue. After the mood turned toward negotiation in the wake of the February 13 agreement, however, they showed interest in South Korea's upcoming presidential election as well. With few exceptions, everyone I met would ask about the election. They wanted to know if the Grand National Party was going to win the presidency and who would be Uri Party's candidate.  
  However, many American experts think that even if a GNP candidate wins there are not going to be major changes in Seoul's policy towards North Korea
• McDonald's Korea Closes First Outlet
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter
  McDonald's Korea is to close its first outlet in South Korea amid the waning fast-food fever here, though company officials say the shutdown is largely attributed to the excessively high rent for the store.
  McDonald's Korea said on Friday that it will close one of its two Apgujeong branches located on Rodeo Street in Shinsa-dong of the affluent Gangnam-gu, southern Seoul, due to the high rent. ``We've finally decided to close the branch as the owner of the building does not want to extend the lease contract any more,'' a company spokesman said. ``We're going to shut down the branch from this weekend.'' Symbolizing American culture along with Coca-Cola, McDonald's first set foot on the South Korean market in March 1988, just months ahead of the Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, with its first outlet on Rodeo Street. [IM]
• 23 South Koreans Abducted in Afghanistan
  Twenty-three South Koreans were kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan on Thursday afternoon (local time), the Korean Embassy in Kabul and Afghan Interior Ministry said Friday. The Islamist militants threatened to kill the South Koreans unless Korea withdraws its troops from Afghanistan by Saturday noon, according to AP. Some 210 Korean Korean troops -- 150 in the Dong-eui medical unit and 60 in the Dasan engineering unit -- have been stationed at the Bagram U.S. airbase since September 2002 and June 2003.
    The abducted Koreans were members of the Saemmul church in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, who had gone to provide medical and other aid work in Afghanistan.
• FBI Holds Korean American for Spying on N.Korea
  A Korean American businessman has been arrested by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation on charges of hiding his activities as a spy for the South Korean government, AP reported Thursday. According to court documents obtained by the wire agency, Park Il-woo, also known as Steve Park, was a legal resident in the U.S. for the past 20 years and conducted business with North Korea. Park provided information he obtained from his frequent trips to North Korea to the South Korean government in return for payments. U.S. law requires anyone acting as an agent of a foreign government to register with the U.S. government and disclose the nature of the activity. The FBI met with Park three times to ask about his activities between 2005 and 2007. But each time, Park denied his contacts with or knowledge of certain South Korean officials. Park was expected to appear in court Thursday afternoon. (englishnews@chosun.com ) [Espionage] [Friction]  
• Seoul to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by year's end
  South Korea will withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year as planned despite a Taliban threat to kill a group of kidnapped South Koreans unless the soldiers are pulled out immediately, its foreign minister said Saturday. "We are preparing to withdraw the troops as planned," Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said, adding that about 210 South Korean soldiers stationed in the war-torn country will "complete their mission by the end of this year and then withdraw."
• Korean missionaries kidnapped by Taliban
  Church group taken in southern Afghanistan July 21, 2007
      A group of Koreans on a summertime missionary trip to Afghanistan was snatched from a bus in the strife-torn south of the country by Taliban militia members on Thursday, Korean authorities said yesterday. The Taliban also confirmed yesterday that they have detained 18 Koreans, including three women. "They are safe with us, we are investigating them and our demands and reaction will be announced later," Taliban spokesman Said Yousuf Ahmadi was quoted as saying by Reuters.
• A Whistleblower's Tale
  Remember Oil for Food? Here's the story of how the U.N. propped up Pyongyang.
  BY MELANIE KIRKPATRICK
  Sunday, July 8, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT It's been more than six months since the U.S. first shone a light on the corruption in the United Nations Development Program in North Korea--a scandal potentially involving tens of millions of dollars used to help prop up the nuclear-armed regime of one of the world's most dangerous dictators. But never mind. It's all a Bush administration plot.
  Such, apparently, is the considered view of the UNDP, which has spent the past half-year variously disputing the U.S. disclosures, justifying UNDP actions on "humanitarian" grounds, or offering an everyone-does-it defense. Ad Melkert, the former Dutch politician who is the No. 2 official at the UNDP and the point person for oversight of the program, even threatened to "retaliate" against the U.S., according to Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. [UNDP] [Toolkit]
• Hill urges coordination on summit
  July 17, 2007 South Korea should not rush into an inter-Korean dialogue without considering the ongoing progress in the six-party North Korean nuclear talks, Christopher Hill, Washington's chief negotiator to the talks, said yesterday. Asked to react to local press reports raising hopes for an inter-Korean summit as early as next month, Hill said the decision was up to Seoul, but he urged caution. "We like to see the inter-Korean process in some ways coordinated with the six-party process," Hill said. "We want to know what we are doing and we want to make sure we are all reinforcing the same thing we all want." [Friction]
• S. Korea, US Mull Incentives for NK
  Christopher Hill to Visit Yongbyon Nuclear Facilities
  By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter South Korea and the United States agreed on Monday to provide political incentives to North Korea in accordance with the communist country's action toward denuclearization. ``We can provide political and security incentives to North Korea as far as the North denuclearizes,'' Chun Young-woo, the chief South Korean negotiator to the six-party talks on the North's nuclear programs, told reporters after discussion with his U.S. counterpart Christopher Hill in Seoul. Chun said, for example, the United States can remove North Korea from a list of countries sponsoring terrorism and terminate the application of the Trading with the Enemy Act with respect to North Korea. Chun's remarks came in the middle of North Korea's repeated position that it will not implement the disabling of the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon unless Washington stops the designation and application. [In denial]
• U.S. helps Japan on missile system
  By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers
  * Posted on Fri, July 13, 2007
  TOKYO - Even as efforts to erect a missile-defense system in Europe roil U.S. relations with Russia, Washington has quietly worked with Japan to deploy a costly defense network to protect major Japanese cities from a ballistic-missile barrage. The missile-defense system ostensibly is designed to protect Japan from attack by North Korea, but legislators quietly acknowledge that China is the nation's real concern. "We regard it as a bigger threat than North Korea," said legislator Katsuei Hirasawa, a prominent member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. [Threat] [Missile defense] [China confrontation] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• U.S. open to discussing N. Korea's military talks proposal
  The United States is open to holding discussions on North Korea's recent proposal to hold military talks to help establish a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, a State Department official said Friday. In a news briefing, deputy spokesman Tom Casey said if North Korea brings the matter up at the six-party talks slated for next week, there would be an ample opportunity to discuss details. He said all the information he had on the proposal came from media sources and that there had been no direct delivery of any message from Pyongyang. The official said that while separate talks outside the six-party framework were possible, he declined to confirm if Washington was officially accepting the proposal or rejecting it.
• North urged to halt public execution
  July 14, 2007 A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has sent a letter to the head of the United Nations and Washington's chief foreign policymaker, urging them to join the campaign to save a North Korean who is facing public execution, an international religious organization said yesterday. The Voice of the Martyrs, a group that assists persecuted Christians around the world, said that it has launched a global campaign to save Son Jong-nam, who defected to China in 2004 but was sent back by the Chinese authorities in 2006. Since then, Son has been a political prisoner, the organization said. Son, a former North Korean army officer turned evangelist, is facing execution for meeting his brother Son Jong-hoon, who currently lives in the South, and providing him with information about the North.
• N Korea's military requests US talks
  By Song Jung-a in Seoul Published: July 14 2007 03:00 | Last updated: July 14 2007 03:00 North Korea yesterday called for military talks with the US to discuss peace and security on the Korean peninsula. The unusual proposal for bilateral military talks preceded today's expected arrival in Pyongyang of United Nations nuclear monitors to oversee the shutdown of North Korea's main nuclear reactor. It also comes ahead of Wednesday's resumption of multilateral talks in Beijing over disarming the communist state. The North's military said the discussions with the US should be attended by a UN representative and cover "issues related to ensuring the peace and security on the Korean peninsula". The North Korean military said talks could take place at a mutually acceptable place and time, but urged the US to take the proposal seriously: "It is easy to miss a chance, but difficult to get it." The statement, on the official KCNA news agency, also warned that Washington should not put pressure on North Korea "under the pretext of the nuclear issue", saying this risked derailing the disarmament deal. It said Pyongyang would boost defensive measures if it was cornered.
• KPA Proposes Talks between DPRK and U.S. Militaries
  Pyongyang, July 13 (KCNA) -- The chief of the Panmunjom Mission of the Korean People's Army issued the following statement on July 13: The anti-DPRK fanatics of the U.S. are now raising more brigandish assertions as they have found themselves in a tight corner, left with no pretext to justify their moves to stifle the DPRK they have so far persistently pursued over the nuclear issue. They are letting loose brazen-faced sophism that it is necessary to increase pressure upon the DPRK in order to force it completely dismantle its nuclear program, absurdly asserting that a series of undertakings related to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula is now underway as a result of the U.S. policy to pressurize it. This discloses, after all, the intention of the U.S. to invariably pursue the policy to pressurize and stifle the DPRK till it has achieved its strategic goal to perpetuate its forces' presence in south Korea and the Korean division and bring down the socialist system in the DPRK. In this context, the KPA is compelled to clarify its stand on the vicious moves of the anti-DPRK fanatics of the U.S. The aim sought by the U.S. in maintaining the armistice for more than half a century since the realization of truce was to bring down the DPRK by way of strangulating it. As the U.S. found it hard to conquer DPRK by force of arms 54 years ago, it resorted to the act of deceiving the Korean and other peace-loving people of the world to achieve its aim though it put its signature to the Armistice Agreement (AA). Just 12 days after the AA took effect the U.S. concluded the "Mutual Defense Pact" with south Korea, diametrically running counter to Paragraph 60 of the AA which calls for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from south Korea and a peaceful settlement of the Korean question. It thus justified the U.S. forces' presence in south Korea and made toothless the above-said paragraph of the AA which was the ultimate object of the conclusion of the AA. By doing so, the U.S. removed the obstacles lying in the way of achieving its strategic design on Korea and paved the way for turning south Korea into a nuclear base in the shortest possible time. The nuclear issue of the DPRK about which the U.S. has so far trumpeted like a thief crying "Stop the thief!" is, in essence, the nuclear issue of the U.S. The U.S. has systematically introduced huge quantities of modern combat equipment as well as various types of nuclear weapons exceeding a thousand into south Korea after unilaterally declaring the abrogation of Paragraph 13 d of the AA on June 21, 1957, turning south Korea into the world's biggest nuclear base. The Korean people have since been exposed to the incessant nuclear threat of the U.S. and have consistently demanded the pullback of U.S. nuclear weapons from south Korea and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. History goes to prove that the DPRK is the very advocator of the denuclearization of the peninsula. It is ridiculous, indeed, for the U.S. to talk about the DPRK's nuclear threat and the denuclearization of the peninsula despite those hard facts. The U.S. has recently worked out and pushed forward a new nuclear plan to annually produce 125 smaller nukes with tremendous explosive power which can be used in any area and any time, in Korea to be more specific. This fact offers a clear testimony showing where is the root cause of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula and why is it so difficult to settle the issue. The U.S. is a belligerent party hostile to the DPRK and the two countries are still technically at war. Under this situation nobody can deny that the confrontation between the DPRK and the U.S means a life and death one. It is the undeniable and legitimate right of the DPRK to have in place all the necessary self-defensive means to cope with the threat and blackmail of the U.S. in order to protect its right to existence. This is a fair and clear reason which even a mere child can easily understand. If the U.S. keeps pressurizing the DPRK under the pretext of the nuclear issue and refuses to discontinue the large-scale war maneuvers it stages as an annual event in south Korea and the massive arms buildup as preparations for a preemptive strike at the DPRK, its army and people will have no option but to exert utmost efforts for further rounding off the means for retaliatory strike strong enough to cope with the U.S. nuclear attack and preemptive strike in order to protect its dignity, sovereignty and right to existence. This is the unshakable will and firm determination of the army and the people of the DPRK. In that case, it is as clear as noonday that neither the implementation of the February 13 agreement nor success of the six-party talks will be possible. Such a complicated and grave situation is now prevailing on the Korean Peninsula and it is getting tenser not only because of the U.S persistent hostile policy towards the DPRK but because of the servile attitude of the UNSC which zealously patronizes and supports it. It is a hard fact well known to the world that the UNSC has historically conspired with the U.S. in pursuing the hostile policy of perpetuating the division of Korea against its reunification. As early as in the 1950s the UNSC allowed the U.S. to abuse the UN flag, so that it could cover up its armed invasion of the DPRK and its illegal occupation of south Korea. And the U.S. is still committing all sorts of crimes against the Korean people under the same flag. For this reason, the Korean people have long pent-up grudge against the UNSC. The UNSC is obliged to observe the principle and strictly disallow the double standards in discharging its commitment to ensure global peace and security. It, however, actively joined the U.S. in dastardly racket of putting pressure upon the DPRK which had been compelled to take self-defensive measures to cope with the U.S. nuclear threat, while applying sanctions against it. This lashed the Korean people into extreme fury. It is shocking and deplorable, indeed, for the UNSC to protect the interests of big countries at the sacrifice of small countries on the basis of jungle law though it is obliged to adhere to the principle of impartiality. It is by no means fortuitous that many people are skeptical about the reason for the continued existence of the UNSC. It is the sincere hope of the DPRK that the UNSC will take a principled and objective and impartial approach in its activities to firmly ensure the global peace and security at a time when the world is facing such complicated and difficult problems as now. The KPA side urges both the U.S. and the UN, a signatory to the AA, to remain true to their commitments under the AA till a new peace-keeping mechanism is built on the Korean Peninsula. Though many core paragraphs of the AA have been played down and have lost their validity, the KPA side proposes having talks between the DPRK and U.S. militaries to be attended by a UN representative, too, in any place and at any time to be agreed upon between both sides for the purpose of discussing the issues related to ensuring the peace and security on the Korean Peninsula, including Paragraph 60 of the AA as required by Paragraph 17 of the AA which calls on the DPRK and the U.S. to respect the letter and the spirit of all of the provisions of the AA.
  It is easy to miss a chance, but difficult to get it.
• US Wants S-N Summit After Disarmament
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter As North Korea is moving to shut down its main nuclear reactor complying with a February nuclear deal, pro-government officials are renewing efforts to hold a second inter-Korean summit this year. The United States, however, appears to be wary of any hasty move toward a summit before the nuclear issue is resolved. Former President Kim Dae-jung and Lee Hae-chan, a former prime minister, are in the forefront of touting the summit, which they said will help develop cross-border relations one step further. Kim, who won the Nobel Peace Prize after the first summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000, said in an interview with a local daily that the possibility of holding a second summit within the year is more than 50 percent. Lee is more aggressive. He publicly talked of the possibility of a second inter-Korean summit several times in recent months amid mounting criticisms from the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP). [Friction]
• NK Proposes Military Talks With US
  North Korea Friday proposed holding bilateral military talks with the United States on a peace regime for the Korean Peninsula to replace the armistice that ended the three-year Korean War in 1953. The U.S. has yet to respond to the proposal, but South Korean military officials quickly dismissed the offer, saying South Korea should be involved in any peace talks on the peninsula. [Bilateral]
• NKorea Military Wants Talks With U.S.
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: July 13, 2007 Filed at 4:24 a.m. ET SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea's military proposed Friday holding direct talks with U.S. forces, an unusual plea amid recent progress on the nuclear standoff between the two countries. The North's Korean Peoples Army proposed the talks, also be attended by a U.N. representative, ''for the purpose of discussing the issues related to ensuring the peace and security on the Korean peninsula,'' the chief of the North Korean military's mission at the truce village of Panmunjom said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. ''It is easy to miss a chance, but difficult to get it,'' the North warned. [No mention of SK]  
• U.S. 'Ready to Start Peace Talks With N.Korea This Year'
      U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Alexander Vershbow says his government is prepared to start negotiations with North Korea for a permanent peace framework on the Korean Peninsula before the end of this year
• U.S. Imperialists Accused of Abusing Name of UN to Carry out Korean War
  Pyongyang, July 10 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists abused the name of the UN for perpetrating the last Korean war. This was a political fraud unprecedented in history, says Rodong Sinmun Tuesday in a signed article. It goes on: The U.S. imperialists massively hurled their forces and troops of their satellite countries into the Korean war. To justify this they carefully worked out a scenario beforehand to bring the Korean issue to the UN.
• On North Korea, Hippocrates Not Hypocrisy
  By Katharine H.S. Moon Special to washingotnpost.com's Think Tank Town Tuesday, July 10, 2007; 5:51 PM
  Two weeks ago, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the U.S. lead in the six-party talks, went to Pyongyang for a sudden and highly secret meeting with North Korean officials. But even if we get closer to breaking the impasse over the North's nuclear possessions and ambitions, the problem of North Korean human rights will loom large as the world continues to learn about the starvation, lack of political and religious freedoms, mass imprisonment, executions, infanticide and other horrors occurring in North Korea.
  We don't have to go it alone or reinvent the wheel. Existing international institutions and NGOs need to be pushed and supported to address various aspects of North Korean human rights -- e.g., UN Convention on the rights of the child (not to starve or be punished with hard labor or forcibly conscripted into military service), the UN Environmental Program, which has recently collaborated with North Korea, and anti-trafficking organizations. By working with institutions that specialize in various aspects of human rights and welfare, we broaden the international constituency around North Korean human rights. We convey to the North Korean regime that it is not being singled out for demonization, and we show the North Korean people that human rights, theirs included, are of universal concern. The writer is an associate fellow at the Asia Society and professor in political science at Wellesley College.
• Eighth U.S. Army Likely to Stay in Korea
  The Eighth U.S. Army Command will likely stay on the Korean Peninsula even after full operational control of Korean troops is handed over to Seoul in 2012, contrary to rumors. During the Korean War, the Eighth Army commanded more than 600,000 South Korean and U.S. ground forces. But with its functions reduced, the Eighth currently serves as an administrative support command. "I understand that Washington has changed its plans and decided to keep the Eighth U.S. Army on the Korean Peninsula, but will reorganize it as a U.S. ground forces command in Korea around 2012," when wartime operational control is transferred to Korean forces, a military source said Sunday. That would mean the Eighth is reorganized according to Washington's need to maintain a self-reliant military command in South Korea once the CFC disappears. [Sovereignty]
• U.S. Working Toward Accord to End Korean War: WSJ
  By REUTERS Published: July 9, 2007 Filed at 2:16 a.m. ET Skip to next paragraph NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. strategists are exploring how to implement a peace accord to officially end the 1950-53 Korean War and hope to start discussions with North Korea as soon as year end, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.  
• Outgoing U.S. defense official sounds alarm on new N. Korean missile system
  North Korea has successfully tested its new short-range missiles and is close to making them operational, alarming Washington, an outgoing senior U.S. defense official said Friday, according to Yonhap News Agency. "We have a problem with the new system because it's much more accurate, it's much more survivable than the huge Scud force ...already targeted on the Republic of Korea," said Richard Lawless, the outgoing deputy undersecretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs. Lawless is scheduled to step down on Saturday. He said the United States is "talking actively" to the South Korean government, and both governments view the matter with concern. North Korea test-fired a series of short-range missiles into the East Sea and the Yellow Sea over the past weeks. Officials in South Korea and at the U.S. State Department called them part of a routine military exercise. But in Seoul earlier this week, Gen. Burwell Bell, who commands U.S. Forces Korea, said the tests pose a threat to the region. [Spin]
• Korea Electric Power Company placed on terror list
  Gov't and KEPCO demand immediate removal
    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) placed South Korea's electric power monopoly Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) on a list of companies doing business with state sponsors of terrorism, prompting an outcry from the Seoul government demanding its immediate removal from the list. On June 25, the SEC opened a state sponsor of terrorism section on its web page (www.sec.gov) on which it listed KEPCO as a company doing business with North Korea, which has been designated by the U.S. State Department as a state sponsor of terrorism along with Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria. Along with KEPCO, HSBC, Reuters, Nokia, Unilever, Siemens, Deutsche Bank and other globally-renowned enterprises were cited. By country, 43 companies were listed as those with ties to Iran, followed by Sudan with 32, Cuba with 22, Syria with 19 and North Korea with 5, respectively       [Sanctions] [Bizarre] [Dissension]
• North defectors may go to the U.S.
  July 07, 2007 Chun Ki-won, a pastor who has been active in aiding North Korean defectors, said yesterday that up to 30 North Korean defectors dispersed in three countries, including Thailand, are in the process of being sent to the United States. Chun said that if asylum is granted, the defectors could go to the U.S. by the end of next month. Brian Gibel, deputy press officer at the U.S. Embassy to Seoul, declined comment, saying it was policy not to comment on refugee issues.
• Ex - Worker Seeks Whistleblower Protection
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: July 7, 2007 Filed at 3:22 a.m. ET UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The former operations officer for the U.N. anti-poverty agency in North Korea is seeking whistleblower protection from the United Nations, saying he lost his job for raising serious allegations about its financial transactions in the reclusive communist nation. The U.N. Development Fund on Friday, however, disputed Artjon Shkurtaj's allegations that he was subject to retaliation. In an interview with The Associated Press, Shkurtaj said he went to the former U.N. management chief and the U.S. government after his bosses at the U.N. Development Fund failed to act on his allegations. When he asked what to do with counterfeit U.S. dollars he found in the office safe on his first day in Pyongyang in November 2004, Shkurtaj said he never got a response. And he said when he complained that paying all North Korean salaries and program expenses in hard currency instead of local currency was against U.N. rules, he said he was told ''not to rock the boat.'' UNDP spokesman David Morrison said Friday that the agency ''has looked into this claim and based on available information found it to be without basis.'' ''UNDP has invited the individual to submit all relevant information to the UNDP office charged with undertaking internal inquiries, but he has so far declined to do so,'' Morrison told a news conference. {UNDP] [Toolkit]
• Republicans Say U.N. Agency Fired Whistle - Blower
  By REUTERS Published: July 5, 2007 Filed at 7:24 p.m. ET Skip to next paragraph UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. Congress are accusing the U.N. Development Program of firing a whistle-blower connected with the agency's North Korea program, a target of the Bush administration. Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, who last week sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said Artjon Shkurtaj, chief of operations in North Korea in 2005 to 2006, was dismissed for criticizing the UNDP. On Thursday, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida also sent a letter to Ban, urging him to intervene to protect Shkurtaj, who she said had uncovered "significant irregularities." The Bush administration accuses the agency of sloppy accounting, handing over cash to North Korean bodies without proper documentation and hiring government-picked staff. Shkurtaj, an Albanian, reportedly discovered in 2005 a stack of counterfeit dollars from North Korea that UNDP had put in a safe after they were handed to the agency 10 years earlier by an Egyptian consultant who had discovered they were fake. [Counterfeiting] [UNDP] [Toolkit]
• Investor-state dispute settlement rewritten to favor U.S.
  Foreign ministry official says Korean gov't had no choice but to accept the change
    With Seoul and Washington concluding their renegotiation of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA), it has been confirmed there were some ''unfair parts'' added to the economic deal under which investors of both sides are not treated equally in their respective countries. According to the FTA text disclosed on June 2, both countries have agreed to make a change to its introduction in which the rights of foreign investors in the United States cannot be protected as equally as those of their American counterparts here in South Korea. [FTA] [Tribute]
• Korea Insight July 2007
  The United States in June also charged North Korea with misusing United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) money slated for development projects. The accusations follow on the footsteps of a United Nations audit of UNDP operations in the DPRK after the Fund’s programs were shut down in March 2007. On June 11, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad presented UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis with the findings of a U.S. investigation, charging that North Korea had used $2.8 million in development funds to buy or maintain property in Canada, Europe, and New York. The report also questioned UNDP purchases of such “dual use” goods as computers, ten global positioning system devices, and a mass spectrometer (which can decipher the isotopic composition of elements) for the North Koreans. The UNDP claims the purchases were for weather forecasting and flood control. Deputy U.S. Ambassador Mark Wallace, a protégé of former U.S. Ambassador to the world body John Bolton, spearheaded the U.S. investigation. As July begins, lead negotiators for the six [John Bolton] [UNDP] [Toolkit]
• Missiles Aimed at South Korean Cities
  U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Burwell Bell said in a speech at the National Press Center in Seoul, "North Korea last Wednesday conducted testing of advanced short range missiles -- missiles specifically designed to attack (South) Korea, its armed forces, and its citizens." He added, "these missiles, in general, appear to be performing as they are designed." Bell said the new missiles were upgraded versions of the old surface-to-surface class of missiles code-named "Frog" and use solid fuel, which means they are easy to move and launch rapidly. Bell said they could reach not only Seoul but other cities south of the capital due to their extended range. Surface-to-surface missiles are far more effective than surface-to-ship ones.
  Some South Korean officials are claiming that conventional North Korean weapons no longer pose a threat, due to the deployment of superior weapons in the South Korean military [Military balance] [Threat]
• USFK Chief 'Concerned' About N.Korea Missile Test
  U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Burwell Bell on Monday expressed concern about a threat to South Korea from North Korea's missile arsenal. "Just last week while the IAEA was in North Korea seeking to reinitiate verification of compliance with the North's agreement to denuclearize, the North conducted testing of advanced short range missiles -- missiles specifically designed to attack (South) Korea, its armed forces, and its citizens," Bell told reporters.
• Letter added to FTA causes controversy
  U.S. did not include the letter in the full text of FTA, S. Korea did
    South Korea and the United States released the complete text of their Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on July 2. However, a controversy is expected as the United States version did not include a formal letter, containing procedures for dispute settlement in labor and environmental issues, while South Korea's version of the document did. So far, the South Korean government has described the letter as a safety pin, preventing the United States from inappropriately using dispute settlement procedures, when it accepted the U.S. demand to include tougher labor and environmental provisions in the agreement.
• North's missiles threaten stability
  July 03, 2007 The missiles test-fired by North Korea in recent months were successful and are a threat to the Korean Peninsula, the top U.S. commander here said yesterday.
• U.S. General: North Korea Still a Threat
  By KELLY OLSEN The Associated Press Monday, July 2, 2007; 12:01 AM
  SEOUL, South Korea -- The top U.S. military commander in South Korea on Monday criticized last week's missile test launches by North Korea, saying the country remains a threat despite its recent moves toward dismantling its nuclear program. Gen. B.B. Bell said he welcomed Pyongyang's efforts to live up to a February commitment to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, part of a program he called "extremely provocative."
  "One of the biggest threats to peace and stability is the potential capability for North Korea to couple its missile technology with its demonstrated nuclear capability," Bell said. [Chutzpah]
• N.Korea tested advanced missiles: U.S. general
  By Jon Herskovitz Reuters Sunday, July 1, 2007; 9:31 PM SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's recent tests of short-range missiles were successful launches of an advanced weapon that can be fired at little notice to strike targets in South Korea, the commander of U.S. Forces in South Korea said on Monday. North Korea tested at least three short-range missiles over the past month, with the latest test last week coming as U.N. nuclear inspectors were in the country as a part of a disarmament deal.
  "These (missiles) are modern, solid-fuel, which means that they are easy to handle and rapidly capable of being fired," U.S. General B.B. Bell said at a seminar in Seoul. [Disinformation]
• U.S. Democrat leaders oppose FTA with South Korea
    The U.S. House speaker and other Democrat leaders on Friday stated opposition to a free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea, saying the deal as negotiated does not address trade barriers, particularly in the auto sector. Just a day before the FTA signing on Saturday, the joint statement was issued by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, and Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Sander Levin. "Properly negotiated, a South Korea-U.S. FTA would provide key benefits to American workers, farmers, and businesses," it said.
• Congressional Leaders Skeptical of South Korea Trade Deal
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: July 1, 2007 SEOUL, South Korea, June 30 - The United States and South Korea on Saturday signed the largest free trade deal for Washington since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1992, though Democratic leaders in Congress warned that they would not approve it. The United States trade representative, Susan C. Schwab, and South Korea's trade minister, Kim Hyun-chong, signed the deal only hours before President Bush's "fast-track" authority to negotiate such an agreement - one that Congress must approve or reject but cannot revise - was to expire Saturday.
• Korea should not ratify FTA
  [Editorial]     Korea and the United States have finalized the free trade agreement (FTA) between them and officially sign the actual document today. Given its social and economic influence and the problems the FTA will present, issues that have become apparent in the course of the release of the initial draft after it was first finalized in April, and then in the course of the renegotiations, Korea stands to lose more than it will gain. We urge the National Assembly not to ratify the agreement.

• U.N. Development Agency Rebuts U.S. Charges of Wasteful Spending in North Korea
  www.foxsearchlight.com/sunshine By WARREN HOGE Published: June 29, 2007 UNITED NATIONS, June 28 - The deputy chief of the United Nations Development Program has shot back at American accusations that it had squandered millions of dollars in North Korea, saying the amount far surpassed what the program had at its disposal and questioning the authenticity of documents the American mission provided to back up its claims. In a confidential letter delivered Thursday evening to Zalmay Khalilzad, the United States ambassador, the official, Ad Melkert, said the money amounts, vendor names and transaction dates supplied by the United States had been examined against his agency's records and "there is not a single match." He said the volume of payments that the Americans claimed that the program had made to North Korean government entities was "significantly higher" than the total that the office had for all purposes in the country. American officials have said their charges stem from internal business records of the program, but Mr. Melkert challenged the veracity of seven supporting documents that the United States mission supplied in a June 15 meeting. [UNDP] [Toolkit] [Evidence]
• US 'Deeply Troubled' by NK's Repeated Missile Launches
  The White House said Wednesday it was "deeply troubled" by North Korea's repeated missile launches and urged it to refrain from provocative activities destabilizing regional security, Yonhap news agency reported in Washington. Indications were reported that the North may have tested a short-range missile on Wednesday, following the two fires of missiles by the North this year. [Double standards]
• US Predicted Continued Harassment From N. Korea: CIA
  The United States predicted continued harassment from North Korea in the 1960s, as the North's leader at that time, Kim Il-sung, was emboldened by his perception that the U.S. was too engaged in the Vietnam war to retaliate against his regime, Yonhap news agency reported Thursday, quoting an intelligence report declassified Tuesday. Titled "Kim Il-sung's New Military Adventurism," the report written by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyzed that North Korea was willing to risk conventional air warfare with the U.S. when it captured an American battleship, the Pueblo, according to Yonhap.
• US House cuts UNDP N Korea funding
  22 Jun, 2007 l WASHINGTON: US lawmakers have voted to cut USD 20 million from US funding for the UN Development Programme, over claims Stalinist North Korea plundered money from the organisation. The move passed by the House of Representatives yesterday by unanimous voice vote as an amendment to a bill funding the State Department and US foreign operations. "Rather than cooperating with US officials in investigating these allegations, UNDP officials have circled the wagons and resorted to rhetorical denials in the press," said Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs committee. She said the reduction would "send a clear signal about our demands and expectations for greater accountability from the UN Development Programme, while also continuing to make a substantial contribution to UNDP's core programmes." The USD 20 million will diverted to two other funds. USD Fourteen million will go to the UN Democracy Fund and USD six million will be sent to the UN Entrepreneurship Initiative. In 2006, the United States provided a total of USD 109 million to the UNDP, and the Bush administration requested USD 94 million in the fiscal year 2007, according to the State Department. [UNDP] [Diversion] [Toolkit]
• CIA Documents released under FOIA
  The CIA has established this site to provide the public with an overview of access to CIA information, including electronic access to previously released documents. Because of CIA's need to comply with the national security laws of the United States, some documents or parts of documents cannot be released to the public. In particular, the CIA, like other U.S. intelligence agencies, has the responsibility to protect intelligence sources and methods from disclosure. However, a substantial amount of CIA information has been and/or can be released following review. See "Your Rights" for further details on the various methods of obtaining this information.
  • The Sino-Indian Border Dispute Section 1: 1950-59
    
  • The Sino-Indian Border Dispute Section 2: 1959-61
    
  • The Sino-Indian Border Dispute Section 3: 1961-62
    
  • Sino-Soviet Competition in North Korea
    
  • Kim Il-Sung's New Military Adventurism
    
• Rice 'Could Visit N.Korea in the Fall'
        A senior presidential advisor on Monday said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice could visit North Korea in the fall if Pyongyang makes progress in disabling its nuclear facilities. "If the nuclear issue proceeds smoothly at the stage of disablement, I think Rice may possibly visit North Korea around October or November," said Lee Su-hoon, the chairman of the Presidential Committee on Northeast Asian Cooperation Initiatives.
• Time running out for Wolmido residents waiting to go home
  Demonstrations and protests call upon the gov't to let over 150 former residents reclaim their rights
  They marked the 57th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. However, former residents of Wolmido, a costal area near of Incheon, west of Seoul, are still banned from returning, after having been forced out of the village during the war    
  a June 24 press conference, the former residents, who were forced to leave Wolmido as children, but are now in their 70s or 80s, called on the government to let them live out the remainder of their lives in their hometown. In addition, they demanded that the government investigate civilian massacres carried out by U.S. military air strikes and napalm bombs during the war.
  According to remarks by the former residents, four U.S. military airplanes appeared over Wolmido on the dawn of September 13, 1950. The airplanes bombarded the costal area with fuel cans and napalm bombs, turning Wolmido into a sea of fire. Residents who were sleeping at the time were burnt to death, while others rushed to escape to nearby areas. [Korean War events]
• Improved U.S.-North Korea relations crucial to lasting peace
  [Column]     Jang Jung Soo, Editorial writer WASHINGTON D.C.= The February 13 agreement on North Korea's nuclear status has spun its wheels for five months, but now that the issue of North Korea's suspended funds has been resolved, the parties involved can now proceed with full implementation of the accord. It now looks like a series of previously-agreed upon actions will go forward as planned, including: the closing of the reactor at Yongbyon, the resumption of the six-party talks, the distribution of heavy oil to Pyongyang and the opening of a series of issue-specific, working-level talks. It was U.S. President George W. Bush's decision to permit the New York Federal Reserve to transfer the money that made this breakthrough possible. His choice to act has surpassed a barrier and proved decisive in determining whether the February 13 agreement would be resuscitated or not. Had Bush not become involved, the agreement might have failed before reaching the first hurdle. North Korea's demand that the money be transferred through an American bank appeared to be impossible at the outset due to the restrictions of the U.S. Patriot Act, Section 311 of which prohibits all financial institutions in the U.S. from handling illegal funds. Bush, too, appeared to be unwilling to compromise any further. Following his meeting with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in May, Bush threatened that America's patience ''is not unlimited.'' U.S. government hard-liners, led by vice president Dick Cheney, took the lead on North Korean policy, and the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Terrorist Financing were at the vanguard of this movement. The State Department, which had assumed leadership within the U.S. government during the February 13 agreement, found itself on the sidelines. It was because of this that follow-up negotiations on the agreement went nowhere.       [Dissension] [BDA]
• Rodong Sinmun on Ugly Color of U.S., Provoker of Korean War
     Pyongyang, June 25 (KCNA) -- With no artifice can the U.S. imperialists evade the responsibility for starting the criminal Korean war, declares Rodong Sinmun in a signed article Monday. Striping stark naked the ugly color of the U.S. imperialists as the provokers of the Korean war, the author of the article says:     The U.S. imperialists long ago designated Korea as a bridgehead for Asian and world supremacy. From the very day of their illegal occupation of south Korea, they projected a Korean war and picked up the DPRK as the first target of attack for realizing their ambition of world supremacy.     They made meticulous preparations for invading the DPRK, making the provocation of a Korean war as a fait accompli, vociferating that Korea is "a battlefield on which depends the success of the United States in Asia" and "a test ground of a showdown with communism".     The war plan finalized by the U.S. imperialists set the summer of 1950 as the time to start the war and envisaged that the battle posture of the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces and the south Korean army would be further completed and the "security measures of the rear" be fully taken by that time. And it was expected that the south Korean army and the U.S. forces would be hurled into the Korean war in full scale from the very start and Japan be inveigled into the war when it would break out.     U.S. President Truman hastily dispatched Advisor to the State Department Dulles as a special envoy to south Korea in mid-June 1950 and sent Defense Secretary Johnson and Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Bradley to Tokyo to make them finally decide with Commander of the U.S. Forces in Far East MacArthur the date of the start of the war and its procedure.     To start the war by surprise and create a favorable atmosphere for shifting the responsibility for the outbreak of the war onto the DPRK, the U.S. imperialists staged an unheard-of farce of deception and camouflage on the eve of the war.     Having made full preparations the U.S. imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique launched an all-out armed invasion of the northern half of the Republic at dawn on June 25, 1950 without declaring a war.     Thus the Korean war was a war of aggression meticulously prepared by the U.S. imperialists. [Korean War causes]
• U.S., Critic of N. Korea Payments, Also Sends Millions
  By Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, June 24, 2007; Page A18
  UNITED NATIONS -- Over the past six months, the Bush administration has repeatedly criticized the U.N. Development Program for channeling millions of dollars in hard currency into North Korea to finance the agency's programs, warning that the money might be diverted to Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. But the United States also has funneled dollars to Kim Jong Il's regime over the past decade, financing travel for North Korean diplomats and paying more than $20 million in cash for the remains of 229 U.S. soldiers from the Korean War. And in a bid to advance nuclear talks, the Bush administration recently transferred back to North Korea about $25 million in cash that the Treasury Department had frozen at Banco Delta Asia, a Macao-based bank that the United States had accused of laundering counterfeit U.S. currency on behalf of North Korea.
    Such transactions emphasize philosophical differences in the administration over the wisdom of engaging with North Korea and highlight the compromises that the United States, the United Nations and others face in dealing with Pyongyang. "The U.S. has no moral high ground," said Michael Green, a former special assistant to President Bush who served as senior director for Asian affairs in the National Security Council. "In terms of bribing Kim Jong Il, UNDP is a minor offender." [UNDP] [Personalisation] [Media]
• Estimating the Worldwide Volume of Counterfeit U.S. Currency: Data and Extrapolation
  Ruth Judson and Richard Porter 2003-52
  Abstract: The incidence of currency counterfeiting and the possible total stock of counterfeits in circulation are popular topics of speculation and discussion in the press and are of substantial practical interest to the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. Secret Service. This paper assembles data from Federal Reserve and U.S. Secret Service sources and presents a range of estimates for the number of counterfeits in circulation. In addition, the paper presents figures on counterfeit passing activity by denomination, location, and method of production. The paper has two main conclusions: first, the stock of counterfeits in the world as a whole is likely on the order of 1 or fewer per 10,000 in both piece and value terms; second, losses to the U.S. public from the most commonly used note, the $20, are relatively small, and are miniscule when only counterfeit notes of reasonable quality are considered. Keywords: Counterfeit, currency
• A Drop in the Bucket
  About Those North Korean Benjamin Franklins ...
  By CHINA HAND
  June 4, 2007
  The Federal Reserve Board has debunked allegations of large-scale laundering of the notorious North Korean "Supernote" $100 bills. In my previous post about alleged North Korean counterfeiting, I wrote that the U.S. Secret Service had reported that only $50 million in Supernotes had been seized over the last 15 years. This meager haul provides little evidentiary or logical support for the idea that North Korea was funding its current account deficit through counterfeiting. The counterfeiting allegation is an important part, perhaps a central pillar, of the hardliners' case for aggressive action against the North Korean state. [Toolkit] [IAI] [Counterfeiting]
• Newly Liberated Korea as Seen From the Air
  Some 1,056 photos taken by the U.S. Navy for military purposes in late August and early September 1945 of Seoul, Busan, Incheon, Gunsan, Jinju, and Masan were released on Tuesday. [photo]
• U.S. Asks for FTA Renegotiations in Seven Areas
  The U.S. has officially requested additional negotiations on an already concluded free trade agreement with Korea. It wants to renegotiate seven sectors -- labor, environment, essential security, pharmaceuticals, government procurement, harbor safety and investment. But critical issues that could hurt the balance of negotiations like cars and the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex are not on the agenda, the government believes
• S. Korea purchases US$1 billion worth of U.S. weapons in 2007
  South Korea will purchase nearly US$1 billion worth of weapons from the United States in the fiscal year 2007 which ends in September, the fifth-largest amount in the world, but at a slightly higher price than others due to U.S. restrictions.
  According to the budget bill for 2008, now under review by Congress, South Korea will likely have purchased a total of $955 million worth of weapons through the foreign military sales (FMS) program in the fiscal year, which ends in September 2007, following Turkey with a little over $3.4 billion, Afghanistan ($3.1 billion), Saudi Arabia ($1.59 billion) and Iraq with about $1 billion. The FMS program manages government-to-government sales of weapons and other military articles and training. Seoul purchased about $410 million worth of weapons through the FMS program in 2006. It was expected to buy some $350 million worth of weapons in fiscal year 2008, according to the U.S. bill.
  Washington currently categorizes its main weapons purchases in three classes: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), NATO plus 3 and major non-NATO allies. Seoul belongs to the lowest category of major non-NATO allies along with 13 others, including Egypt, Thailand and Pakistan, who have to pay an extra 1.7 percent of their total purchase amounts to cover administrative costs. Members of NATO and those belonging to the NATO plus 3 group, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the recently added Israel, are asked to pay between 0.2 percent to 1 percent. [Military balance] [Tribute]
• DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesman Blasts U.S. Establishment of MD
  Pyongyang, June 15 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK Friday issued the following statement in connection with the fact that the U.S. attempt to establish the Missile Defense System (MD) has now entered a grave phase, disturbing the world: The U.S. plan to deploy an interceptor missile base and radar station, a link in the whole chain of the MD, in Poland and the Czech Republic and plug Australia into the MD in the wake of drawing Japan into it in the Asia-Pacific is arousing deep apprehension and rebuff from many countries of the world. The U.S. has asserted that the worldwide MD it is working to build is aimed to deter missile attack from the DPRK and Iran, but it is no more than a clumsy pretext. One can see that the MD has nothing to do with the DPRK only if one studies from which it originated. As is well known to the world, the MD pushed forward by the Bush administration at present originated from a "strategic defense initiative" which the Reagan administration worked out to attack the former Soviet Union during the period of the Cold War. It is clear even from the scale of the MD at the present phase that this huge defence network is not targeted against just a few small countries. It is nonsensical for the U.S. to assert that it is expanding the MD network to far away Oceania in the south beyond Japan and Guam from Alaska to intercept missiles from the DPRK. And it is illogical for the U.S. to claim that it is deploying an interceptor missile base in Eastern Europe beyond Greenland and Britain to intercept those from Iran. Had the U.S. felt really threatened by the missile capacity of the DPRK, it would have had already several opportunities of seeking a negotiated settlement of the issue on an equal footing, not by wasting a stupendous amount of funds. [Missile defense] [Threat]
• US Seeks Wider Effort on Terror Funding
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: June 14, 2007 Filed at 8:07 a.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- Countries around the world must do their part to keep money and weapons out of the hands of terrorists, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Thursday. Although important efforts have been made on this front, especially since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks against the United States, Paulson underscored the need for more international progress. Paulson said several of the United States' ''key allies'' -- which were not named-- have yet to take such basic steps as adequately criminalizing money laundering and terrorist financing. An even greater number of countries have failed to develop national authorities, or powers, to apply targeted financial measures to terrorist groups other than al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan, Paulson added. ''We have a shared responsibility for our mutual security, and our allies, who confront risks at least as great as those confronting the United States, must find the political will to enact the authorities they need to join in effective multilateral action,'' Paulson said in a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
  The United States is now using targeted financial measures, for instance, against North Korea and Iran -- countries where there also are broad countrywide sanctions in place. Companies outside the United States have voluntarily cut off business with U.S.-designated entities in those countries as a result of the targeted measures by the U.S., Paulson said. ''Most of the world's top financial institutions have now dramatically reduced their Iranian business or stopped it altogether,'' he said. [Financial sanctions]
• American candidates split on North
  June 14, 2007 The top candidates for president of the United States in 2008 are hewing close to their party lines, according to a new report. The Democrats all say they support direct engagement with North Korea and are skeptical about the six-party talks, while most Republicans agree with the Bush administration’s multilateral approach, according to the report issued Monday by the Council on Foreign Relations, an influential foreign policy think tank. Senator Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, has described the ongoing six-party talks as “fruitless,” the report said, quoting a letter she sent to U.S. President George W. Bush in 2006. According to the report, Senator Barack Obama advocates establishing an “international coalition” to resolve the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula. The report also said Obama has clarified a passage from his book, in which he wrote, “Why invade Iraq and not North Korea or Burma?” He said using military power to rid North Korea of its nuclear arms program is not an option. [US NK policy]
• Bush Team's Sophism Blasted
  Pyongyang, June 12 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the White House recently let loose a spate of sophism that U.S. President Bush is considering the plan to operate its troops present in Iraq the same way as done in south Korea, claiming that the U.S. forces in south Korea have made a "contribution" to "maintenance of stability" and "democratic development" there. Commenting on this, Rodong Sinmun today observes: The purpose of floating such sophism is to justify the long-term presence of the U.S. forces in Iraq. It is a sheer lie for the Bush team to assert that the U.S. troops in south Korea made the above-said "contribution". The U.S. troops in south Korea are the aggressor forces which illegally occupied it. They are the uninvited villains who put the half of Korea under their occupation under the mask of "liberator" after it was liberated from the colonial rule of the Japanese imperialists. They are the brigandish aggressor forces and a group of savage murderers who imposed calamities of war upon the Korean nation to grab the whole of Korea. Bush team's painting of the U.S. forces in south Korea as a "war deterrent ensuring peace and stability" is no more than window-dressing to cover up the criminal nature of the U.S. troops in south Korea. But for the U.S. forces' illegal occupation of south Korea, the Korean nation would have had a fundamentally different history: Korea would have not been divided into two parts and the Korean nation would not have faced the issue of national reunification, a cherished desire. All the Koreans would have achieved democratic development and national prosperity in one state under one and the same social system. The Bush government is sadly mistaken if it calculates it can seek a way out of the bottomless quagmire in which it is now finding itself due to the daily worsening Iraq crisis, by operating its forces there the same way as done in south Korea. It had better opt for pulling its forces out of south Korea and Iraq as early as possible.
• U.N., U.S. Exchange Accusations on North Korea Program
  By REUTERS Published: June 11, 2007 Filed at 8:08 p.m. ET
  Skip to next paragraph UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States suspects that about $3 million in U.N. Development Program funds may have been diverted by North Korea to buy property in Britain, Canada and France, allegations denied by the agency. The accusations of possible abuses were made by a U.S. official on Monday, who argued that UNDP should have tighter oversight to ensure that the money it spends in North Korea go for its intended purposes of aiding the impoverished secretive Communist nation. UNDP denied most of the U.S. charges it received from U.S. officials and said others were exaggerated. It also said that the United States had not presented documents to back up its assertions during a meeting on June 7 with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, deputy U.N. ambassador Mark Wallace and UNDP administrator Kemal Dervis about the issue. But Khalilzad said Dervis' reaction was "exactly the right one" because he said "he would immediately investigate." The U.S. official, who spoke on condition he not be identified, told Reuters that Washington was not certain the money was diverted. But he said it was suspicious that a North Korean entity received about $3 million in UNDP funds and, in the same period, spent about $2.8 million to buy "buildings and houses" abroad. No further details of the purchases were given.
  The U.S. official told Reuters some UNDP funds appear to have been spent on books about arms control and disarmament, including one called "The Psychology of Nuclear Proliferation." "Not that it is good or bad for North Korea to read books about nuclear disarmament policy," the U.S. official said. "It's just a question of whether there is adequate oversight in place." [UNDP] [Evidence]
• The Psychology of Nuclear Proliferation
  Identity, Emotions and Foreign Policy Jacques E. C. Hymans Smith College, Massachusetts Hardback (ISBN-13: 9780521850766 | ISBN-10: 0521850762) DOI: 10.2277/0521850762 Also available in Paperback | eBook format Published February 2006 In stock (Stock level updated: 17:55 GMT, 12 June 2007) £45.00 Dozens of states have long been capable of acquiring nuclear weapons, yet only a few have actually done so. Jacques E. C. Hymans finds that the key to this surprising historical pattern lies not in externally imposed constraints, but rather in state leaders’ conceptions of the national identity. Synthesizing a wide range of scholarship from the humanities and social sciences to experimental psychology and neuroscience, Hymans builds a rigorous model of decisionmaking that links identity to emotions and ultimately to nuclear policy choices. Exhaustively researched case studies of France, India, Argentina, and Australia - two that got the bomb and two that abstained - demonstrate the value of this model while debunking common myths. This book will be invaluable to policymakers and concerned citizens who are frustrated with the frequent misjudgments of states’ nuclear ambitions, and to scholars who seek a better understanding of how leaders make big foreign policy decisions. • Undermines the current proliferation paranoia. Argues that most leaders do not want the bomb • Provides a rigorous model of foreign policy decision-making • Exhaustively researched case studies on countries other than the usual suspects
• Frustration of Imperialists' Moves for Economic Destabilization Called for
  Pyongyang, June 9 (KCNA) -- Economic destabilization is one of the methods of aggression stepped up by the imperialists at present. Rodong Sinmun Saturday says this in a signed article. It goes on: The economic destabilization operations conducted by the imperialists against former Yugoslavia and Iraq convinced them that they could easily stifle and bring down progressive countries by that method. They are now working hard to disrupt or throw into confusion the economies of non-aligned and other developing countries in various fields. The U.S. imperialists are now busy putting into motion reptile media to malignantly slander the economic systems in the above-said countries in a bid to advertise the "advantages" of the capitalist economy. They are, at the same time, infiltrating spies and saboteurs into those countries to destroy their economies and create economic confusion and disorder. They are also keen to deter the above-said countries from carrying on economic construction in peace by escalating the tension to the extremes through the beef-up of their armed forces and ceaseless military exercises in different parts of the world and taking a series of shocking military measures little short of a declaration of war. Sanctions are a main part of their moves for economic destabilization and financial sanctions are the most vicious of them. [Sanctions]
• N.Korea Abused International Donations
  The United States has handed over to the UN the results of an investigation of how North Korea diverted aid money from the UN Development Programme and used it to buy overseas real estate and military equipment. The investigation by the U.S. State Department shows that millions of dollars in aid money were used for purposes other than intended. The mission of the UNDP is to assist economic development in developing countries. The agency draws its funds from the voluntary donations of UN member nations to aid the people of poor countries. Since opening an office in Pyongyang in 1980, the UNDP has provided North Korea with tens of millions of dollars in aid. But now, the UN is conducting an internal probe due to the suspicions that its aid money to North Korea was being diverted. [UNDP] [Toolkit] [Media] [Disinformation] [Diversion]
• N.Korea Diverted UN Funds for Overseas Property - Report
  North Korea has allegedly diverted US$3 million in funds from the United Nations Development Programme towards the purchase and maintenance of overseas properties, the Washington Post newspaper reported on Saturday. The allegations were made in a confidential internal account by the U.S. State Department, the Post said, after an investigation into suspicions that UNDP development funds were being diverted for other purposes. [UNDP] [Toolkit] [Media] [Disinformation] [Diversion]
• DPR Korea: Ban Ki-moon says audit finds no large-scale diversion of funds
  Ban Ki-moon 1 June 2007 – An external audit of the United Nations’ activities in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has found there has been no large-scale or systematic diversion of UN funds provided by the world body’s agencies to help in humanitarian relief efforts, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today. [UNDP] [Evidence]
• N. Korean workers asked to leave Czech Republic by end of year: report
  About 200 North Korean workers employed by companies in the Czech Republic have been asked to leave the country by the end of this year, as the East European nation refused to extend their work visas, a U.S. broadcaster reported Saturday. Radio Free Asia (RFA), quoting the Czech News Agency, said the Czech government decided to replace the North Korean manual workers with laborers from Vietnam and Mongolia, following a U.N. resolution against the North over its nuclear weapons program. The Czech Republic's decision also seems to be related to suspicion that wages earned by overseas North Korean workers were exploited by the North Korean leadership in Pyongyang, said the report. Some 200 other North Korean workers were already forced to return home last year for similar reasons, it added. [Sanctions]
• North Korea Charged With Misusing UN Fund
  North Korea misused nearly $3 million in United Nations money intended to help the impoverished regime, by purchasing property in France, the United Kingdom and Canada, the Washington Post reported Sunday. The newspaper said millions more went to a bank linked to a North Korean institution allegedly to handle arms deals, the newspaper said, citing a U.S. State Department report based on witness testimonies and internal business records. The revelations came at a time when the .. [Toolkit] [Media] [UNDP]
• North Korea Misspent Funds From U.N., Diplomats Say
  By THOM SHANKER Published: June 10, 2007 WASHINGTON, June 9 — Senior American diplomats at the United Nations have compiled new information indicating that several million dollars in United Nations development money had been paid to a North Korean entity closely associated with that nation’s programs to develop unconventional weapons and sell missiles abroad. According to diplomats at the United Nations headquarters in New York, the American inquiry found that the development money for North Korea had also been used to purchase “dual use” equipment, which has both civilian and military applications, including mass spectrometers, sophisticated global positioning systems and advanced computer hardware. The diplomats, speaking on traditional ground rules of anonymity to describe private discussions among senior officials at United Nations headquarters over recent days, said the American investigation had also found evidence that up to $3 million in development funds were used by the North Korean government to purchase buildings and houses in Europe and North America. The American ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, and his deputy, Mark D. Wallace, laid out the findings in recent days in a meeting with Kemal Dervis, administrator of the United Nations Development Program, United Nations officials said. American officials declined to discuss the substance of the meeting, but Richard A. Grenell, the spokesman for the American mission to the United Nations, said, “We were quite encouraged about how Administrator Dervis came out immediately and committed to investigate the matter.” Details of the United Nations meeting and of alleged abuses regarding development funds for North Korea were first reported in Saturday editions of The Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post. Other abuses alleged in the American inquiry include instances of North Korea using counterfeit bills in currency transactions that were part of United Nations development programs, perhaps aiding money laundering efforts, diplomats said. [Toolkit] [UNDP] [Media] [Evidence]
• U.S. Alleges North Korea Is Misusing Aid for Poor
  Probe Says U.N. Money Was Spent on Property Overseas
  By Glenn Kessler and Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writers Saturday, June 9, 2007; Page A11
  About $3 million in United Nations money intended to help impoverished North Koreans was diverted by the Pyongyang government toward the purchase of property in France, the United Kingdom and Canada, according to a confidential State Department account of witness reports and internal business records. Millions more, the department reported, went to a North Korean institution linked to a bank alleged to handle arms deals.
  The U.N. Development Program (UNDP) in North Korea spent about $3 million a year over the past decade to promote the country's economic growth, foreign trade and investment. It halted operations in March after the United States alleged that the agency engaged in improper hiring and financial practices. A preliminary U.N. audit, released last week, confirmed that it violated its own guidelines by hiring local workers who were selected by the North Korean government and paying them in foreign currency.
  A separate State Department investigation suggests that some of the agency's money enriched the North Korean government. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, presented UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis with new allegations regarding the North Korea programs Wednesday, a UNDP spokesman confirmed.
  "At first glance, the allegations do not correspond with our own records, which we have scrutinized extremely closely in the past six months," spokesman David Morrison said.
  The U.S. probe, headed by Mark Wallace, a deputy ambassador, also found that the UNDP procured for North Korea equipment that could be used in a weapons program. Such "dual use" equipment included global-positioning system equipment, computers and computer accessories, and a device known as a mass spectrometer, used to determine the isotopic composition of elements.
  Morrison said the UNDP purchased the computers, GPS equipment and spectrometer to enable the forecasting of weather patterns in flood- and drought-prone areas of the country. He noted that the 10 GPS devices cost $65,000 and the mass spectrometer cost $6,000.
  The State Department has not made public any documents to back up its interpretation, and Khalilzad has declined to release details of the department's investigation
  The U.S. probe discovered that the UNDP purchased for the North Korean government 29 books for an arms control and disarmament project, including one titled "The Psychology of Nuclear Proliferation."
  During 2001 and 2002, the UNDP also transferred more than $8 million of other agencies' funds to the North Korean government, the State Department said. Pyongyang then transferred at least $2.8 million of the UNDP funds to North Korean diplomatic missions in Europe and New York to "cover buildings and houses," including purchasing buildings in France, the United Kingdom and Canada, the probe found.
  The UNDP said the national government received $2.2 million. The agency has no means to determine how North Korea financed its purchase of expensive houses, Morrison said, but he said the UNDP has verified that its money was used to fund its programs. [Toolkit] [UNDP] [Evidence]
• N.Korea Fires Two Missiles into West Sea
  Home> National/Politics Updated Jun.8,2007 06:48 KST North Korea test-fired two short-range surface-to-ship missiles into the West Sea on Thursday. It is very unusual for North Korea to fire missiles into the West Sea. "We have detected that North Korea fired two missiles, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, into the West Sea on Thursday," a South Korean military source said. "The North, which fired one short-range missile into the East Sea on May 25, attempted to fire another in the West Sea that day, but did not. It's seen as the North firing those missiles that it didn't launch at that time," the source said.
• The North Korean Economy: Overview and Policy Analysis
  By the Congressional Research Service
  June 7th, 2007 Dick K. Nanto, Specialist in Industry and Trade Foreign Affairs, Defense at the Congressional Research Service, and Trade Division, and Emma Chanlett-Avery, Analyst in Asian Affairs Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division at the Congressional Research Service, write, “U.S.-led financial sanctions on North Korea have disrupted that country’s trade. In the six-party talks, economic assistance (including fuel oil) is a major bargaining chip. Economic policy options include increasing or easing economic sanctions, preventing shipments of illicit cargo, normalizing relations with Pyongyang, negotiating a trade agreement, allowing the DPRK to join international financial institutions, and removing the country from the terrorism list.” [Sanctions] [Toolkit]
• Proposed United States - Korea FTA Texts
• In Iraq, Does the Korea Analogy Fit?
  (5 Letters) Published: June 5, 2007 To the Editor: The strategic mission of the Korean occupation was to draw a line at the 38th parallel and prevent a North Korean attack on the South. In Iraq, the “38th parallel” is everywhere and nowhere; our troops will continue to be fruitlessly enmeshed in tribal and sectarian violence. For all of its problems, the United States military presence in Northeast Asia was a stabilizing force. The American occupation of Iraq, in contrast, has further destabilized the Middle East. It has created an enormous refugee crisis, enhanced Iranian regional power and encouraged Islamic radicalism. Finally, the Bush administration’s determination to build permanent military installations throughout Iraq in spite of the opposition of a majority of Iraqis to such a plan underlines the absurdity of the claim that we invaded Iraq to establish democracy there. Melissa Macauley Evanston, Ill., June 3, 2007 The writer is an associate professor of history and Asian and Middle Eastern studies at Northwestern University. • To the Editor: Since no two wars are alike, trolling through history for an Iraq disengagement model is fruitless. In Korea, a joint United States-United Nations force repulsed a Communist incursion and left behind a mutually agreed token force as guarantee. In Iraq, the people are on record as wanting the United States to leave, even if not just yet. A long-term United States force presence in the Middle East would be continuously destabilizing and present a continuing target for jihadists. History surely warns us about maintaining foreign garrisons in alien lands. Norman Getsinger Flint Hill, Va., June 3, 2007 • To the Editor: Let me get this straight. First, the United States incurs the ire of Osama bin Laden and other Islamic jihadists through its military actions in the Persian Gulf and by stationing forces in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries. Then, after being attacked by Al Qaeda, the United States invades and occupies a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, turning it into a haven for insurgents and terrorists. And now, the Bush administration wants to establish a long-term military presence in Iraq to make sure that Al Qaeda and other jihadist groups do not turn it into a base like Afghanistan? John S. Duffield Decatur, Ga., June 3, 2007 • To the Editor: Re “Iraq’s Curse: A Thirst for Final, Crushing Victory” (Week in Review, June 3): You write, “Shiites intend to dominate the country entirely, taking what they believe was stripped from them when their revered leader Hussein was murdered in the desert of seventh-century Mesopotamia.” People who can carry a grudge for 14 centuries are not likely to forget all about it in a few months at the request of an invading army. Whenever the United States leaves Iraq, whether in 2008, 2012 or in 14 centuries, Iraqi blood will flow in rivers until a new incarnation of Saddam Hussein emerges to rule with an iron hand. For all the blood, treasure and heartache, we will have accomplished absolutely nothing. Ralph Averill New Preston, Conn., June 4, 2007 • To the Editor: How long after the fight shifts from Iraq do you think it will take to start in this country on our own soil? Any weakening or surrender of will in Iraq will mean certain attacks in the United States, which is already at risk — note the J.F.K. airport plot and others that have been recently uncovered. We are in a war for our survival against Islamic extremism. There are multiple fronts. Iraq is one of these fronts. May we all keep this in mind! Bob Jack North Las Vegas, Nev., June 3, 2007
• With Korea as Model, Bush Team Ponders Long Support Role in Iraq
  By DAVID E. SANGER June 3, 2007 News Analysis WASHINGTON, June 2 — For the first time, the Bush administration is beginning publicly to discuss basing American troops in Iraq for years, even decades to come, a subject so fraught with political landmines that officials are tiptoeing around the inevitable questions about what the United States’ long-term mission would be there. President Bush has long talked about the need to maintain an American military presence in the region, without saying exactly where. Several visitors to the White House say that in private, he has sounded intrigued by what he calls the “Korea model,” a reference to the large American presence in South Korea for the 54 years since the armistice that ended open hostilities between North and South.
• N. Korea Program Said to Violate U.N. Rules
  Associated Press Saturday, June 2, 2007; Page A07 UNITED NATIONS, June 1 -- U.N. agencies paid North Korean staff members and suppliers in hard currency without approval and hired only government-approved staff in violation of U.N. procedures, auditors said Friday. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon ordered the external audit after U.S. accusations that the U.N. Development Program had funneled millions of dollars in hard currency to North Korea with little assurance that the country's leader, Kim Jong Il, used it to help his people instead of diverting it to "illicit purposes," including developing nuclear weapons. [UNDP] [Media]
• N. Korea Program Said to Violate U.N. Rules
  =UNITED NATIONS, June 1 -- U.N. agencies paid North Korean staff members and suppliers in hard currency without approval and hired only government-approved staff in violation of U.N. procedures, auditors said Friday. "Even though this was only a preliminary review, the audit did confirm our concerns," said Mark D. Wallace, U.S. representative for U.N. management . David Morrison, a UNDP spokesman, said the audit confirmed the agency's assertion that it had "a relatively small program" in North Korea, "certainly much smaller than the huge figures that have been circulating." The audit, which covered 2002 through 2006, was limited, which led the U.N. Board of Auditors to say it "does not express any opinion on the financial results" of activities carried out in North Korea by the UNDP and three other agencies. [Media] [UNDP]
• Audit finds U.N. violates own rules in North Korea
  By Evelyn Leopold Reuters Friday, June 1, 2007; 8:29 PM
  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. agencies violated their own rules in North Korea by employing national staff handpicked by the government and paying them in hard currency, according to a report by a U.N. board of auditors. But the report, an interim survey, did not find that large-scale U.N. funding had been diverted systematically. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who ordered the audit, said preliminary findings needed to be followed up with a visit to North Korea by the auditors, drawn from France , South Africa and the Philippines. The report said numerous items were not in their auditors possession, such as a checkbook kept in Pyongyang by the U.N. Development Fund, or UNDP, which was investigated along with the U.N. Children's Fund and the smaller U.N. Population Fund. [Media] [UNDP]
• Auditors: U.N. Agencies Violated Rules
  By EDITH M. LEDERER The Associated Press Friday, June 1, 2007; 6:51 PM UNITED NATIONS -- U.N. agencies paid North Korean staff and suppliers in hard currency without approval and hired only government-approved staff in violation of U.N. procedures, U.N. auditors said Friday. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ordered the external audit following U.S. accusations that the U.N. Development Program had funneled millions of dollars in hard currency to North Korea with little assurance that Kim Jong Il used the money to help his people instead of diverting it to "illicit purposes," including developing nuclear weapons. "Even though this was only a preliminary review, the audit did confirm our concerns," U.S. deputy ambassador Mark Wallace told The Associated Press. But David Morrison, spokesman for UNDP, said the audit confirmed what the agency has been saying since the U.S. allegations were made _ that it had "a relatively small program" in North Korea, "certainly much smaller than the huge figures that have been circulating." [Media] [UNDP]
• Statement by UNDP regarding the Preliminary Audit Report on UN Operations in DPRK
  1 June 2007 UNDP welcomes the preliminary report of UN Board of Auditors (UNBOA) on the operations of UNDP and other UN agencies in DPRK. UNDP has cooperated fully with the audit process and will continue to do so.
  UNDP operated in DPRK at the express wish of its Executive Board. Member states encouraged UNDP to assist the country to engage progressively with the norms and standards of the global community.
  The operating environment was very difficult. In recent years UNDP tightened control mechanisms and conducted frequent audits (1999, 2001 and 2004). These audits did not lead to any suggestion that UNDP funding was being diverted to purposes other than those for which it was intended.
  UNDP is encouraged that the UNBOA preliminary report confirms: - That UNDP operated a relatively modest programme in DPRK ($2-3 million per year – far less than “$100s of millions” alleged in press reports) - That UNDP international staff could – and did – regularly visit project sites to verify how UNDP funding was being used The preliminary report also highlights specific aspects of the difficult operating environment in DPRK, including staffing and foreign currency arrangements not in line with worldwide practice. UNDP notes that: - The Executive Board knew of UNDP’s staffing practices in DPRK, which date back 27 years - Similar staffing and foreign currency practices were followed by all UN agencies, international NGOs and foreign diplomatic missions in DPRK, including past and current members of UNDP’s Executive Board - UNDP was not able to follow worldwide practice, but no UNDP regulations or rules were broken - Following requests by some Board members, UNDP notified DPRK that it was changing its staffing and currency practices. The proposed changes were formally endorsed by the Executive Board in January 2007 - UNDP suspended operations in the country on 2 March 2007 when DPRK failed to meet the operational changes endorsed and mandated by the Board. - UNDP took the lead in asking the DPRK government to conform to international practice before the Board’s decision The report highlights areas in which UNDP rules or procedures could be strengthened. UNDP is committed to addressing these areas. UNDP will be transmitting a formal management response to the ACABQ shortly. UNDP would welcome a continuation of the audit process, including a visit by the UNBOA to DPRK. UNDP looks forward to the final audit report. [Toolkit] [Disinformation][UNDP]
• WFP External Auditor to carry out a special audit of the WFP operations in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
  World Food Programme 19 February 2007
• DPRK: Press conference by controller on auditing of United Nations programmes
  Date: 26 Jan 2007
  Auditing of United Nations agencies operating in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was an “urgent matter”, and the Secretary-General was determined to pursue questions relating to that country vigorously, Warren Sach, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Controller, said during a morning press conference at Headquarters.
• Secretary-General’s system-wide probe of UN field activities to start with DPR Korea
  22 January 2007 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon moved quickly today on his promise of an external, system-wide probe of United Nations activities in the field, announcing that it would target as a first priority countries where hard currency transactions, independence of staff hiring and access to review local projects are an issue, beginning with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Just three days after he pledged such action amid questions over UN Development Programme (UNDP) operations in the country, his spokesperson said that Mr. Ban had decided to propose to the world body’s Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) that the Board of Auditors be requested to undertake an overall risk assessment and audit in such countries.
• DPR Korea: Ban Ki-moon says audit finds no large-scale diversion of funds
  1 June 2007 – An external audit of the United Nations’ activities in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has found there has been no large-scale or systematic diversion of UN funds provided by the world body’s agencies to help in humanitarian relief efforts, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today. In a statement released by his spokesperson, Mr. Ban said the report by the independent UN Board of Auditors “does point to some of the difficulties” that UN agencies have had in operating in the DPRK.
• Secretary-General receives audit on United Nations operations in Democratic People’s
  Republic of Korea, says first step in worldwide probe of field activities The following statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: The United Nations Board of Auditors has handed in its report on the activities of the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations Population Fund in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The Secretary-General has also received a copy. The report does point to some of the difficulties United Nations funds and programmes have had in operating in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. On independence of staff hiring, foreign currency transactions and access to local projects, the report identifies practices not in keeping with how the United Nations operates elsewhere in the world. It should be noted that the report does not indicate that large-scale United Nations funding has been systematically diverted, as has been alleged. However, the Secretary-General does expect the agencies to act upon the findings in the audit as quickly and transparently as possible. As the report also indicates, there are a number of areas that the Secretary-General feels would require follow-up in a subsequent audit phase. The Secretary-General will write to the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions asking that the Committee consider requesting the Board of Auditors to continue their work, including a visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The Secretary-General had called for this audit in January 2007 as the top priority in a systematic worldwide probe of United Nations activities in the field. Today’s report represents the first results of this ongoing effort.

• UN panel said close to finishing N.Korea audit
  By Patrick Worsnip Reuters Wednesday, May 9, 2007; 5:10 PM UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Auditors have nearly finished a preliminary report into U.N. operations in North Korea following allegations that funds were diverted to the Pyongyang government, a U.N. official said on Wednesday. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ordered the audit after the U.S. envoy for U.N. financial management, Mark Wallace, said millions of dollars might have been used to benefit the communist leadership of the secretive state.
    Wallace accused the U.N. Development Program late last year of violating rules by hiring North Korean government officials to carry out its work and by paying salaries in hard currency through the government. A U.N. official familiar with the issue said the U.N. Board of Auditors was completing a preliminary report into it, but he could not say exactly when it would be ready. The official, who asked not to be named because of the confidentiality of the matter, said the report would deal with what the auditors had discovered in New York. "It will say they had not been able to visit North Korea," he said. [UNDP] [Sanctions] [Toolkit]
• Who's Afraid of North Korean Regime Collapse?
  April 2007 In the decade and a half since its Soviet patron collapsed, Pyongyang's leaders have striven to make the international community regard North Korean collapse as a frightening--even unthinkable--risk to the region and to the world. Against all odds, Kim Jong Il's starving police state has been remarkably successful in this campaign. Today, numerous arguments against regime change in North Korea are routinely offered in Western foreign policy circles. These arguments include the incalculable economic costs of reconstructing northern Korea, the unpredictable mass exodus of refugees that might be triggered, the grave military and proliferation uncertainties entailed in any political transition from North Korea's current nuclear-armed dictatorship, and the geo-strategic tensions that could be provoked between Great Powers in an area that historically has been prone to Great Power conflicts. But is the world really better off with "the devil we know"? Should consideration of regime change or regime collapse in North Korea really be "off limits" for the public, human rights activists, and policymakers? In conjunction with North Korea Freedom Week, AEI convened a discussion of these thorny and important issues. A panel of leading specialists and practitioners of human rights, development policy, international security, and nonproliferation grappled with some all-too-often neglected questions at an April 24 panel discussion at AEI. [Collapse] [Unification cost]
• World's Biggest U.S. Embassy May Not Be Quite Big Enough
  By Al Kamen Wednesday, May 16, 2007; Page A13
  For all those who keep whining about how the government can't do anything right, we're happy to report that the massive New Embassy Compound in Baghdad, the biggest U.S. embassy on earth, is going to be completed pretty much as scheduled in August.
  New Face at the NSC?
  The Korean press reported last week that Katrin Fraser, a Fulbright fellow in Korea after her graduation from college in 2000 and more recently a special assistant to Kristin Silverberg, assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, is expected to replace Victor Cha as National Security Council director for Korea and Japan. Cha, a fluent Korean speaker whose father-in-law was a general and minister in the Roh Tae Woo government of South Korea, has gone back to his international relations professorship at Georgetown University. Fraser, who's not expected to be directly involved in negotiations on North Korea's nukes, has been harshly critical of President Bush. In a 2002 article for the Korea Society Quarterly, she said South Korean reaction to his "axis of evil" statement was "swift and largely negative," and talked of his "insensitivity to Korean cultural conventions."
• Peace 'Will Be Final Step in Six-Party Process': U.S.
  A growing number of U.S. officials appear resigned that North Korea is a de facto nuclear power, and it is time for South Korean politicians to join hands to make the Korean Peninsula nuclear free, says a lawmaker who just returned from a visit to America. Grand National Party Rep. Park Jin was among a group of legislators who spoke with senior White House and State Department officials about what the U.S. has in mind for North Korea this month. The group also included fellow GNP lawmaker Hwang Jin-ha and Uri Party lawmakers Chung Eui-yong and Kim Myung-ja,
• Nogeun-ri excavations begin
  Excavations began on the remains of people killed by U.S. forces during the Korean War at Nogeun-ri has begun. A team lead by professor Park Seon-ju of Chungbuk National University performed a preliminary earth surface survey May 8 ahead of the excavation of the remains of those who were killed at Nogeun-ri, at a railway near Hwanggan-myeon, Yeongdong-gun, North Chungcheong Province. Ten survivors, including the vice chairman of the survivors' organization, were allowed to be present and members of the general public were denied access. [Korean war events] [Nogun ri]
• U.S. reluctant to meet Seoul's demands over arms exports
  The United States is reluctant to meet Seoul's demand to upgrade its status in the American arms exporting program for allies, a Korean Defense Ministry official said yesterday. But the ministry will continue with its efforts for the change, he added. The Seoul government recently asked Washington to amend Korea's standing in the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program at a Security Cooperation Committee meeting. However, the U.S. side again rebuffed the demand, saying the status upgrade requires the revision of related U.S. laws, such as overseas support laws and arms export control laws, the official said on condition of anonymity. "This year, the two countries will continue the discussion for the FMS upgrade. The (Korean) government will again ask the United States for the amendment in this year's SCC meeting in September," he said. FMS is Washington's arms exporting program under which U.S. allies are allowed to purchase weapons with U.S. guarantees of quality. Its membership rating differentiates sales conditions among the U.S. allies, including regulations related to the export authorization process and the listing of items under export control. In the FMS program, Korea is grouped in the third-ranked "Major non-NATO Ally" group with Egypt, the Philippines, and Thailand, among others. Citing the country's low FMS rating, Korean lawmakers and experts have claimed Korea is being "improperly discriminated against" by the U.S. government, despite making huge purchases of U.S.-made weapons and equipment. Korea is the fifth-largest U.S. weapons buyer, purchasing about a 5 percent share of all U.S. weapons exports. Under the current rating, Korea's arms purchases exceeding $50 million require the approval of the U.S. Congress, whose deliberation process usually takes 30 days. Meanwhile, for the "NATO+3" group of nations, the U.S. Congress reviews arms purchases only if the total cost exceeds $100 million. That deliberation is completed in less than 15 days. In the NATO+3 group, the 26 member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Japan, Australia and New Zealand are included. Critics say Korea has been saddled with stricter regulations as well as extra costs in accordance with the lowest FMS membership ratings. "It is true that Korea is rated in the lowest group. The discrimination should be corrected as soon as possible in accordance with the spirit of the Korea-U.S. alliance," the official said. "The government and related authorities are working on an early revision of U.S. laws related to the change in grade. But it is unlikely that the two sides would reach a resolution in a short period," he added. By Jin Dae-woong (davidpooh@heraldm.com) [Friction] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• U.S. Could Return Symbolic Chosun-Era Army Flag
  A Chosun-era Army flag taken by U.S. forces in 1871 during the disastrous Shinmiyangyo, or Korea Expedition, could be returned to Korea this year. The military expedition was a clumsy attempt by the U.S. to force diplomatic relations with the Chosun Dynasty, which after mutual misunderstanding escalated into a battle that claimed the lives of 350 Koreans. The flag, bearing the Chinese character for "general," was the banner of the Korean troop leader general Eo Jae-yeon, who died in the battle. You Hong-june, the administrator of the Cultural Heritage Administration, said Sunday officials from his office visited the U.S. Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis on April 25 and asked for the return of the flag. "The museum's director rejected our request saying the U.S. Navy has taken about 350 flags as booty from wars and never returned a single one," he said. "He told the officials the return of a flag, as a symbol of victory, needs approval from Congress and the president's signature." However, the museum suggested a long-term loan of the flag to Korea provided it is preserved and displayed properly. The administration is examining where the flag should be exhibited, You added. According to the administration, it measures 4.5 m x 4.5 m and is on display rolled up at museum. Senator Wayne Allard of Colorado on April 18 suggested swapping the flag for the USS Pueblo, a naval vessel captured by North Korea in 1968 and displayed there. [Imperialism] [Friction]
• Engagement Policy Should Keep Pace with Denuclearization'
  Amb. Alexander Vershbow By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Alexander Vershbow said Friday South Korea's policy of engaging North Korea should keep pace with the Stalinist state's denuclearization process. Speaking at a forum held by the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation (KCRC), a pro-unification civic group, the U.S. ambassador also said it is important for South Korea and six-party partners to maintain a consistent reinforcement policy toward the North.
• David Asher
  David Asher is a senior associate fellow with the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation. From 2001 to 2005, he served as senior adviser to the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs. He also was coordinator of the State Department's North Korea Working Group, co-chair of the North Korea Activities Group policy coordinating committee at the National Security Council, and U.S. delegation adviser to the Six Party talks on North Korea. [IA} [Toolkit] [BDA]
• N. Korean Liquor to Be Sold in US
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter A North Korean-made distilled liquor of soju is expected to make a foray into the U.S. market as early as this month, the Hankook Ilbo, a sister paper of The Korea Times, reported Wednesday. The report said the ``Pyongyang Soju'' made by a factory in the North Korean capital has been exported to the U.S. since early last month through the Korea PyongYang Trading U.S.A. owned by a Korean-American Park Il-woo, 59.
• North Korea's burden of crime and terror
  By Bertil Lintner BANGKOK - North Korea may in the end get its US$25 million, which has been frozen in a Macau bank since September 2005. But the United States and North Korea still have a long way to go before relations between the two countries can be normalized. On Washington's part, there are two issues standing in the way of diplomatic relations: Pyongyang's alleged involvement in criminal activities, of which the blacklisting of Macau's Banco Delta Asia as an entity of "primary money laundering concern" is only a part, and the fact that North Korea is still on the US list of terrorism-supporting countries. [Drugs] [Counterfeiting] [BDA]
• North Korea's golden path to security
  By Bertil Lintner
  BANGKOK - While the West and Japan have targeted North Korea's overseas bank accounts to curtail its weapons program, Pyongyang has recently turned to more ingenious ways of maintaining its international businesses through substantial exports of gold, silver and other valuable metals. Pyongyang has apparently found a willing conduit to global buyers through its many business connections in Thailand, which has recently emerged as the isolated state's third-largest trading partner after China and South Korea. According to official Thai Customs Department statistics, North Korea shipped 500 kilograms of gold worth 398 million baht (US$11 million) to Thailand last April. [Sanctions]
• Who Will Think of South Korea's Abduction Victims?
  The U.S. State Department on Monday once again named North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism in its "Country Reports" for 2006. But this time, the U.S. government deleted the issue of 485 South Koreans abducted by North Korea, which was mentioned in previous country reports. The U.S. government, however, retained its reference to the 12 Japanese citizens abducted by the communist country. Last year's report said, "The South Korean government estimates 485 of its citizens have been abducted and detained since the Korean War." [Abductees] [Double standards] [Dilemma]
• US to give North Korea more time
  The US and Japan expect N Korea to fulfil its disarmament pledge
  The US has said it is willing to give North Korea more time to act on its nuclear disarmament pledge after talks with Japan on regional security issues. But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Japanese counterpart, Taro Aso, warned Pyongyang their two countries did not have "endless patience". Ms Rice also reaffirmed Washington's commitment to a plan to transform its mutual defence partnership with Japan. The US wants Japan to take a more active military role in the region. To allow such a move, the Japanese government has begun steps to revise the country's pacifist constitution. Tokyo is also currently in the process of buying two missile defence systems, after which it will be responsible for defending not only itself but also the 50,000 US troops stationed on its territory. [Japanese remilitarisation] [US Japan alliance]
• From Hawk to Dove in Three Short Years: Victor Cha
        White House Adviser 'Was Key Figure in N.Korea Trip'
  The outgoing Asia director at the U.S. National Security Council, Victor Cha, says the U.S. is the only country armed with enough military power and diplomatic connections to bring together several countries to tackle a massive crisis. Talking about the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, Cha told the Washington Post, "You see that in the crisis of this magnitude, what is the country that steps up and provides the public good? It wasn't China. China's role was helpful but peripheral. It was the United States." [Victor Cha]
•   The Dearly Departed
  Gone but not forgotten: On the State Department's Web site, there's a listing of all the top officials, along with their photos. So there's the listing for undersecretary for arms control and international security with a fine photo of Robert Joseph. Actually, he left the job in February after suggesting publicly that the North Korea nuke deal was immoral. But his mug is still there and the job's shown as filled. Forgotten but barely gone: Also on the department's top officials site, there's a listing for director of U.S. foreign assistance and USAID administrator -- which it says is "vacant." That was vacated quickly on Friday by Randall Tobias, who received inappropriate massages from the D.C. Madam's operation.  
• Country Reports on Terrorism 2006
  (html format) U.S. law requires the Secretary of State to provide Congress, by April 30 of each year, a full and complete report on terrorism with regard to those countries and groups meeting criteria set forth in the legislation. This annual report is entitled Country Reports on Terrorism. Beginning with the report for 2004, it replaced the previously published Patterns of Global Terrorism.
  Chapter 3 -- State Sponsors of Terrorism Overview State sponsors of terrorism provide critical support to non-state terrorist groups. Without state sponsors, terrorist groups would have much more difficulty obtaining the funds, weapons, materials, and secure areas they require to plan and conduct operations. Most worrisome is that some of these countries also have the capability to manufacture weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and other destabilizing technologies that could get into the hands of terrorists. The United States will continue to insist that these countries end the support they give to terrorist groups.
  North Korea The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since the bombing of a Korean Airlines flight in 1987. The DPRK continued to harbor four Japanese Red Army members who participated in a jet hijacking in 1970. The Japanese government continued to seek a full accounting of the fate of the 12 Japanese nationals believed to have been abducted by DPRK state entities; five such abductees have been repatriated to Japan since 2002. In the February 13, 2007 Initial Actions Agreement, the United States agreed to "begin the process of removing the designation of the DPRK as a state-sponsor of terrorism." [Terrorism] [Agreement070213]
• An Education in Government
  NSC Post a Real-World Lesson for Cha
  By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, May 1, 2007; Page A15
  Victor D. Cha, a Georgetown University international relations professor, started his job as an Asia specialist at the White House's National Security Council during Christmas week in 2004. His boss at the time said it would be a quiet period to settle into his new job, the first time Cha had worked for the government. Then the Asian tsunami struck, killing at least 235,000 people as it swept across a dozen countries.
  Cha's sudden introduction to high-level crisis management was a revelation. Debate over the rise of China and the eclipse of the United States dominate the discussions within the ivy walls of academia. But in the real world, he discovered, only one nation had the military might and the diplomatic connections to quickly deal with the tragedy. "You see that in the crisis of this magnitude, what is the country that steps up and provides the public good? It wasn't China. China's role was helpful but peripheral. It was the United States," Cha said. "It is not only that we responded but that everyone is looking to us to respond." Cha, 45, will return to Georgetown this week, but his government service has had unusual impact, especially for an ivory-tower academic with no experience in policymaking. He arrived at the White House with a reputation as an advocate for a tough approach to negotiations with North Korea -- what he called "hawk engagement" -- but in the end he drafted the crucial memo that helped persuade President Bush earlier this year to allow U.S. negotiators to meet for bilateral talks with their North Korean counterparts in Berlin.
  Cha, a fluent Korean speaker whose father-in-law was a general and minister in the Roh Tae Woo government of South Korea, was also responsible for policy to Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands, reporting to Dennis Wilder, senior director for Asian affairs. [US NK policy]
• Raw Deal Between Washington and Seoul
  Tim Shorrock | April 30, 2007
  Editor: John Feffer, IRC Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org In recent weeks, tens of thousands of South Koreans have demonstrated their opposition to a sweeping free trade agreement (FTA) signed on April 1 by the United States and South Korean governments. Although polls show that a slight majority of Korean citizens support the pact, Korean workers and farmers want their parliament to reject the agreement and have demanded that President Roh Moo-Hyun hold a public referendum on the issue. Leading politicians, including the former chairman of the ruling Uri Party, have participated in hunger strikes to protest the pact, and two activists have taken the extreme step of lighting themselves on fire to call attention to economic disparities in their country that will be exacerbated by the agreement. [FTA]
• U.S. Officials Sound Out N.Korean Defectors
  Key U.S. officials in charge of North Korean affairs are curious what will happen when leader Kim Jong-il is gone. On condition of anonymity, White House and state and defense department officials candidly talked with Chosun Ilbo journalist Kang Chol-hwan and other North Korean refugees about the future of the Stalinist country and six-party nuclear negotiations. Kang in 2005 met with U.S. President George W. Bush to tell him about human rights violations in the North. He and his fellow North Korean defectors were in the U.S. for North Korea Freedom Week, an event raising awareness of the North's rights violations, in Washington from April 23.

• Maneuvering over Congress' 'Comfort Women' Bill Intensifies
  Debate within the United States Congress over what to do about a House of Representatives resolution calling on the Japanese government to formally apologize for its forced mobilization of "comfort women" during World War II is intensifying, with 100 Representatives adding their names to the resolution while Tokyo steps up lobbying activities in an attempt to keep the bill from passing. Former chairman of the House International Relations Committee Henry Hyde and New Jersey Representative Chris Smith, in an column that ran in the Washington Post the day Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe arrived in Washington D.C. for a summit with U.S. president George W. Bush, urged Tokyo to admit its wrongdoing and make amends for them, saying Abe's denial of the Japanese military's involvement in wartime sex slavery has perpetuated the pain and sorrow of the victims and their loved ones. [Japanese colonialism] [US Japan relations]
• Abe's 'comfort women' comments leave Congress puzzled, discontent
  U.S. congressmen and their aides left an hour-long meeting Thursday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe less satisfied and more puzzled about his position on "comfort women," turning the tide favorably for a congressional resolution demanding Japan's formal apology, informed sources said. Abe, visiting here for the first time as prime minister, told the 10 or so legislators invited to the meeting that he, "as prime minister and an individual," feels "heartfelt sympathy" for the comfort women. He went on to say, "I have a sense of apology toward these individuals." "The senators and representatives were all quiet, but their aides sitting there with them were shaking their heads," said one source, who spoke strictly on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue. "All of the aides who were there met after the meeting, asking each other what they thought of Abe's comments about 'sense of apology.' The consensus was that they were extremely dissatisfied. Almost like a slap in the face," the source said. "This, I think, was the last straw for them." [Japanese colonialism] [US Japan relations]
• Defense Minister criticizes USFK commander on defense cost sharing
  Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo on Friday criticized the top U.S. military commander here for making "inappropriate" remarks in the U.S. Senate with regard to how much Seoul should contribute to the stationing of his troops. In a Senate hearing earlier this week in Washington, Gen. B. B. Bell, commander of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said the fate of the ongoing work to relocate U.S. military bases on the Korean Peninsula may hinge on whether South Korea is willing to increase its financial burden. [Tribute] [Friction]
• Turning Bush-Abe Alliance Into Friendship
  By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG Published: April 27, 2007 WASHINGTON, April 26 - When they met in Vietnam last November, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan presented President Bush with a little gift: a photograph of their grandfathers, playing golf on a course outside Washington with President Dwight D. Eisenhower. After lunch and a garden stroll, Mr. Bush said, "I told the prime minister he needs to get over to the United States quickly." B On Thursday, Mr. Abe took the president up on his offer, arriving in Washington with his wife, Akie, for a two-day stay that is as much about fostering personal ties as diplomatic ones. Mr. Bush and Mr. Abe have at least one thing in common: each comes from a political dynasty. [US Japan alliance] [Abe Shinzo] [Japanese colonialism]
• USFK Chief Urges no Letup on N.Korea
    Missiles Resurface in N.Korean Army Birthday Parade
  The commander of U.S. Forces Korea warned Tuesday of a second nuclear test by North Korea, which he claimed could continue nuclear development to become a moderate nuclear power by 2010 if it goes unchecked. Speaking before a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Gen. Burwell Bell said, "Unless the six-party talks process prevails, we expect North Korea to continue nuclear weapons research and development to perpetuate its strategy of intimidation." He added Pyongyang "may ultimately aim to develop nuclear armed missiles to threaten regional countries and even the U.S." Bell said North Korea has 50 kg of plutonium, enough to produce seven nuclear bombs. He also warned that the Stalinist country's record of selling missiles and arms could lead the regime to "proliferate nuclear weapons technology, expertise or material to anti-American countries, rogue regimes or non-state actors." However, Bell expressed optimism that North Korea will abide by a Feb. 13 denuclearization agreement. He said the U.S. should give North Korea more time to find access to its assets at Macau's Banco Delta Asia since the isolated country is unfamiliar with the international financial system. [Spin] [Chutzpah] [Dissension]  
• N Korea sharpens tongue to counter US 'sweet talk'
  By Anna Fifield Published: April 25 2007 03:00 | Last updated: April 25 2007 03:00 In the war of words, North Korea has always had something of an edge. It has never bothered with diplomatic niceties in its messages to the outside world, instead freely lambasting "wicked gangsters" (Americans), "imperialist puppets" (South Koreans) and "human scum" (John Bolton, former US ambassador to the UN). None of this has changed, despite the new momentum in the efforts to convince North Korea to abandon the nuclear capabilities it brazenly displayed to the world last year. In fact, it has cranked up its propaganda machine against the "arrogant Americans" further.
  "Because of our nuclear deterrent, our skies will forever be blue and clean," the Rodong Shinmun, the Workers' party mouthpiece, declared last week. Earlier this month the Tongil Shinbo newspaper reported: "Other countries fell for America's sweet talk and were tricked into giving up their military capabilities, but we're not going to do that." This kind of language hardly suggests Kim Jong-il's regime is preparing the North Koreans for a change in the relationship with the US, says Brian Myers, a North Korea propaganda expert who teaches at Dongseo University in the South. "What struck me was the way in which they refer to their atomic deterrent as something permanent, as something that will forever guarantee their security," says Mr Myers. [Media] [Bizarre]
• Head of U.S. Forces Korea calls on S.K. to up missile defense
  Remarks seen as pressure on Seoul to decide to join U.S.-led defense system
    Burwell B. Bell, the general in charge of U.S. forces in South Korea, has intensified pressure on the South Korean government to update its country's military defense capabilities. In a document submitted to the U.S. Senate's Armed Services Committee on April 23, Bell made a variety of complaints and demands to the South Korean government as well as the U.S. government and Congress. Bell requested South Korea to directly make concessions regarding requests made by the U.S. regarding its defense preparations, and also asked the U.S. government and Congress to show flexibility in allocating its military budget for its units stationed in Korea. One of the most notable demands made on the South Korean government by Bell was related to the so-called 'Missile Defense' system. Bell said the importance of Theater Missile Defense to protect the Korean peninsula is gaining after North Korea test-fired missiles last year. Bell said that South Korea must buy a system that is fully compatible with the U.S. system, hinting that South Korea should buy the newest Patriot Missile models (Pac-3) that U.S. Forces Korea currently uses. [Missile defense] [Tribute]
• USFK commander's remarks not beneficial to bilateral relations: officials
  Remarks by the top U.S. military commander, hinting that the ongoing base relocation plan could be adversely affected if South Korea fails to foot more of the bill to sustain American troops, drew fire from Korean government officials on Wednesday. [Friction]
• U.S. Accused of Contemplating Saber-Rattling against DPRK
  Pyongyang, April 20 (KCNA) -- The United States has posed a serious military threat to the DPRK since it amassed offensive forces around it. It is self-evident that the latter can not approach the former's move with good faith. Minju Joson Friday observes this, commenting on the fact that the U.S. is contemplating joint naval maneuvers involving multinational forces, timed to coincide with the deployment of a huge carrier task force in the Pacific, and planning to conduct a drill of "intercepting missiles of north Korea" in collusion with Japan. [Join US military]
• Edwards Opposes South Korean Trade Deal
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: April 22, 2007 Filed at 4:34 a.m. ET DETROIT (AP) -- Presidential candidate John Edwards said Saturday he opposes a free trade agreement between the United States and South Korea, telling Michigan Democrats it would be bad for the auto industry. The deal needs the approval of both countries' lawmakers. It would immediately eliminate U.S. tariffs on Korean vehicles, Edwards said, but leave in place a discriminatory tax based on engine size that disproportionately affects American cars. ''There are so many more Korean cars sold in the United States than are sold in Korea,'' Edwards told about 2,000 Democrats gathered at their annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner. He added that South Korean workers are thrown in jail for fighting for decent wages. ''We need trade that works for American workers, which means there need to be real labor standards, real environmental standards'' in the deal, Edwards said. [FTA] [Human rights] [Manipulation] [Protectionism]
• Gov't slammed by lawmakers for limiting access to FTA contents
  The South Korean government's plan for releasing the transcript of the free trade agreement (FTA) it struck with the United States on April 2 has been met with strong criticism from the National Assembly due to the fact that lawmakers can only read part of the entire document through computer screens without being able to take notes. [FTA]
• U.S. to sell high-tech missiles to S. Korea
    The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Friday it has notified Congress of a plan to sell a large number of sophisticated missiles to South Korea. In a news release posted on its Web site, the Pentagon affiliated-agency said South Korea has requested to purchase 102 ship-to-air SM-2 Block IIIA/B Tactical Standard missiles, 102 air-to-air AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles and associated equipment and services. "The proposed sale will enhance South Korea's defensive capabilities and increase interoperability with U.S. and multi-national forces supporting coalition operations," the release said. "The country already has these missiles in its inventory, and will have no difficulty absorbing these items." The SM-2 missiles are to be deployed on 4,000-ton-class or 7,000-ton-class destroyers which South Korea has developed or is constructing under naval force improvement programs dubbed KDX-II and KDX-III. [Proliferation] [Arms sales] [Military balance] [Double standards]
• N.Korean Official Unconvinced on Returning Pueblo
    N.Korea Told to Return Captured U.S. Navy Boat   North Korea's chief negotiator to the ongoing inter-Korean economic cooperation talks shook his head when he was asked about press reports on the possible repatriation of the USS Pueblo. "Return it?" Chu Dong-chan said. "Why would we return such an important thing?" He made the remarks while dining with South Korean delegates at Pyongyang's Okryu Restaurant, which is widely known for its Pyongyang cold noodles and overlooks the captured U.S. vessel. He stressed again the unlikelihood of the ship going home when the South Korean delegates suggested that returning the Pueblo could deliver some benefits.
• Senator Demands N Korea Return USS Pueblo
  By JENNIFER TALHELM The Associated Press Thursday, April 19, 2007; 3:28 AM
  WASHINGTON -- A senator sees it as a fair trade: a Korean battle flag captured in the 19th century for the USS Pueblo, taken in 1968. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., reintroduced a resolution Wednesday demanding that North Korea return the Pueblo, and he sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggesting she look into his proposed exchange.
  "Since the USS Pueblo bears the name of the town of Pueblo, Colorado, many in our state want to see the vessel returned to its proper home," Allard wrote. "North Korea continues to hint at the possible return of the captured U.S. Navy ship, and I ask that you take action at this opportune time." The Pueblo is the only active-duty U.S. warship in the hands of a foreign power. It was taken Jan. 23, 1968, after being sent defenseless on an intelligence-gathering mission off the North Korean coast.
  Allard said Colorado veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars suggested exchanging the flag. It was captured from Korean Gen. Uh Je-yeon in an 1871 battle after American ships attempting to open Korea to trade invaded Kanghwa Island, outside Seoul. The flag is on display at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. [Espionage] [Imperialism]
• Boeing Left as Sole Bidder for Fighter Contract
  U.S. aerospace company Boeing will likely be the sole bidder to participate in the second phase of Korea's F-X fighter jet procurement project. Korea will purchase 20 F-15K fighter jets in the second phase of the defense project between 2010 and 2012. Originally three bidders were expected to compete to win the contract: U.S. defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin, European consortium Eurofighter International and Boeing. Lockheed Martin recently withdrew its bid and now Eurofighter has also decided not to participate. According to a military source, Eurofighter's agent European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. notified the Korean government of the decision Monday. That means Boeing is likely to be the sole bidder to submit an application under the Wednesday deadline, the source said. Lockheed Martin and Eurofighter seem to have given up after concluding that Boeing has an advantage since it won the contract for the first phase of the F-X project to supply 40 F-15K fighter jets by 2008. [Military balance] [Tribute] [Arms sales]
• As U.S. documents surface, witnesses recount horrors of civilian massacre
  Refugees mistakenly bombed by U.S. fighters recall confusion, chaos
    "When I woke up, I was buried in rubble. Though I heard the sound of footsteps, there was no response when I shouted desperately for help. When I more fully came to, I recognized that I had just been screaming with my mouth closed." Kim In-tae was ten years old at the time. On April 16, the Hankyoreh met him, now 66 and living in Asan, South Chungcheong Province. Kim still vividly recalls this fighter bombing from the Korean War, but the enemy was not the North Koreans. A recently declassified U.S. document tells of how U.S. warplanes killed about 300 South Korean refugees at Dunpo-ri, South Chungcheong Province, during the Korean War. The Associated Press, quoting survivors, reported that in January 1951, U.S. warplanes killed 300 South Korean refugees while they were jammed in a storehouse at the village of Dun-po. After the refugees kindled a fire outside to try to keep warm, survivors said the planes attacked without warning, the AP report added.       [Korea War events]  
• The Massacre at No Gun Ri: Army Letter reveals U.S. intent
  Charles J. Hanley and Martha Mendoza
  Six years after declaring the U.S. killing of Korean War refugees at No Gun Ri was "not deliberate," the Army has acknowledged it found but did not divulge that a high-level document said the U.S. military had a policy of shooting approaching civilians in South Korea. The document, a letter from the U.S. ambassador in South Korea to the State Department in Washington, is dated the day in 1950 when U.S. troops began the No Gun Ri shootings, in which survivors say hundreds, mostly women and children, were killed.
  Exclusion of the embassy letter from the Army's 2001 investigative report is the most significant among numerous omissions of documents and testimony pointing to a policy of firing on refugee groups — undisclosed evidence uncovered by Associated Press archival research and Freedom of Information Act requests. South Korean petitioners say hundreds more refugees died later in 1950 as a result of the U.S. practice. The Seoul government is investigating one such large-scale killing, of refugees stranded on a beach, newly confirmed via U.S. archives. No Gun Ri survivors, who call the Army's 2001 investigation a "whitewash," are demanding a reopened investigation, compensation and a U.S. apology. [Korea War events]
• N.Korea May Return Captured U.S. Navy Ship
  North Korea expressed its willingness to return a U.S. navy ship that it seized during the Cold War when New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson visited there last week, a source said Sunday. The North Korean navy captured the USS Pueblo environmental research ship and its 83 crew members on Jan. 21, 1968, some 40km from the North Korean port of Wonsan. [Espionage] [Spin]
• When will the truth emerge surrounding U.S. troops' killing of civilians?
  [Editorial]   The Associated Press has reported that American documents confirm that there were mass killings of civilians by American forces during the Korean War at Songgol Beach in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, along with four other locations. In some cases, the facts were already known because documentation had been declassified, but now one learns that around 300 civilians were killed by U.S. fighter planes while hiding in a storage structure in Dunpo, Asan, South Chungcheong Province. The roughly 60 cases of mass killings of civilians that have surfaced since the infamous Nogun-ri case hit the news are, one by one, being confirmed as fact by American documentation. Many things of circumstantial substances have been confirmed before about civilian killings by American forces, such as through historical documents and survivor testimony. So far, however, the only incident that has been officially admitted by the United States is Nogun-ri. Even that, however, was concluded to have been a minor mistake resulting from accidental fire. The U.S. is failing to admit responsibility for cases confirmed by American military documentation such as logs by those involved in combat. [Korean war events]
• Bush Adviser Plays Key Role in N.Korea
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: April 15, 2007 Filed at 1:03 p.m. ET
  PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- An American delegation traveled to North Korea last week ostensibly to recover the remains of missing U.S. troops. Hitching a ride, almost unnoticed, was the highest-ranking Bush administration official known to have visited Pyongyang since 2002. In public, Victor Cha, the White House's top adviser on North Korea and a deputy negotiator at six-nation nuclear talks with Pyongyang, was perhaps the quietest member of a group led by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democratic presidential candidate, and former Veteran Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi. But in a series of private meetings with North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye Gwan, Cha delivered a strong message from President Bush, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the talks. Cha stressed the urgent need for the North to fulfill its pledge to begin dismantling its atomic program under a February agreement, the official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Despite the pressure, Pyongyang failed to meet a Saturday deadline to shut down its main nuclear reactor and allow in U.N. inspectors. But while the U.S. and others have urged the North to move quickly, criticism has been muted because the timetable was disrupted by delays in resolving U.S. financial sanctions until last week.
• Ethiopia Denies Violation in North Korea Shipment
  By REUTERS Published: April 13, 2007 Filed at 1:31 p.m. ET Skip to next paragraph ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia denied claims on Friday that it bought arms from North Korea in a violation of a U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution, but said it received items for its ``military industry'' from the Asian nation. Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the New York Times said last week the Bush administration had allowed Ethiopia, Washington's top anti-terrorism ally in the Horn of Africa, to complete a secret arms purchase from Pyongyang. But the Ethiopian foreign ministry dismissed the report, saying it contained ``erroneous and misleading information.'' ``Ethiopia did not purchase arms or any other item covered by Resolution 1718 under the contractual agreement with North Korea,'' the ministry said in a statement. It said a shipment of ``various items required by the military industry in Ethiopia'' took place on January 22. ``This shipment contained spare parts for machinery and engineering equipment and raw material for the making of assorted ammunition for small arms,'' the statement said. According to the Times report, U.S. intelligence agencies said in late January an Ethiopian cargo ship that was probably carrying tank parts and other military equipment had left a North Korean port. [UNUS] [Double standards]  
• Letter Reveals U.S. Intent at No Gun Ri
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: April 13, 2007 Filed at 11:20 p.m. ET Six years after declaring the U.S. killing of Korean War refugees at No Gun Ri was ''not deliberate,'' the Army has acknowledged it found but did not divulge that a high-level document said the U.S. military had a policy of shooting approaching civilians in South Korea. The document, a letter from the U.S. ambassador in South Korea to the State Department in Washington, is dated the day in 1950 when U.S. troops began the No Gun Ri shootings, in which survivors say hundreds, mostly women and children, were killed. Exclusion of the embassy letter from the Army's 2001 investigative report is the most significant among numerous omissions of documents and testimony pointing to a policy of firing on refugee groups -- undisclosed evidence uncovered by Associated Press archival research and Freedom of Information Act requests. [Korean war events] [Disinformation]
• Gift to Kim Jong Il from American
  Pyongyang, April 10 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il was presented with a gift by the visiting governor of New Mexico State, U.S. Governor Bill Richardson handed the gift over to Kim Yong Dae, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, Tuesday.
• U.S., N.Korea to Resume Recovery of MIA Remains
  New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson arrived in Seoul on Wednesday accompanied by the remains of six US soldiers who went missing during the Korean War. Richardson said the U.S. will team up with North Korea to recover any further remains of US soldiers. He added the issue will be discussed further in six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program.
• Gov't Warns Teachers Union Off Anti-FTA Classes
  The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development has asked provincial education offices to prevent the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union from teaching classes against the recently concluded Korea-U.S. free trade agreement. The teachers' union has been conducting anti-FTA classes since March 26 and posted anti-FTA class materials on its homepage. The class materials were based on reports from MBC and KBS reports on the side effects of the Korea-U.S. trade deal. The union also encourages teachers to let students debate the pros and cons of the FTA. [Human rights] [FTA]
• US Erred in Allowing Ethiopia-NK Arms Deal'
  A former U.S. envoy on North Korea said Monday that Washington made a mistake in assenting to Ethiopia's arms purchase from Pyongyang, thus potentially allowing other countries to deal with the communist regime believed to have a stockpile of missiles and nuclear weapons, according to the Yonhap News Agency. ``It points out that things are not black and white,'' Jack Pritchard, now president of the Washington-based Korea Economic Institute, told reporters. The decision to allow the Ethiopia-North Korea deal apparently was made because other U.S. goals superseded compliance with a U.N. Security Council resolution banning military trade with Pyongyang, Pritchard said. ``I think it was a mistake,'' Yonhap quoted him as saying. [Double standards] [UNUS]
• Turning a Blind Eye to N.Korean Arms Sales
  The New York Times reported that the Bush administration allowed North Korea to secretly export arms to Ethiopia, three months after Washington succeeded in getting the UN to impose strict sanctions on the communist country following its nuclear test. The deal appears to have taken place, judging from the response of the U.S. government. Last October, the U.S. initiated and led the formulation and implementation of UN Resolution 1718. Article 8 of that resolution prohibits all UN member nations from purchasing arms or weapons components from North Korea. Member nations were not merely advised to abide by that rule, but were obligated to do so without exception. At that time, the U.S. had called it the strongest resolution drawn up against North Korea, citing Chapter 7 of the UN Charter that clearly states forceful measures. When that resolution was passed, Ethiopia informed the U.S. of the purchase contract for arms from North Korea, including former Soviet T-55 tank parts. The U.S. decided to let this pass. The North Korean arms shipment entered Ethiopia in January without any problems. This was a clear violation of the UN resolution. The U.S. government reportedly tolerated the arms deal because Ethiopia was fighting armed Muslim forces in nearby Somalia. It's like the logic that the enemy of your enemy is your friend
  But in some sections of the U.S., there is talk that it could be better for America to form diplomatic ties with North Korea even if it does not abandon its nuclear weapons. There is no guarantee that this view may never become the mainstream approach of the U.S. government. It would be entirely within character. The future security of South Korea can only be protected by the determination of South Koreans, nobody else. We are getting close to the moment when we will realize this fact. [Double standards] [Friction] [[Realignment] [UNUS]
• U.S. Toughens Its Position on China Trade
  By STEVEN R. WEISMAN Published: April 10, 2007 WASHINGTON, April 9 - Has the Bush administration's economic team run out of patience with China?
    For years, President Bush has avoided confronting Beijing with sanctions or legal challenges to its trade practices, preferring to use diplomacy to press China to bring down its trade deficit with the United States, now at $232 billion. But these days, the conciliatory approach looks as if it is being reconsidered, if not discarded. The latest in a string of tough actions against China came on Monday, when the top American trade envoy, Susan C. Schwab, announced that the United States would take China to court at the World Trade Organization over suspected trade barriers and piracy of books, music, videos and other goods. That action came after two other unfair trade complaints earlier this year, one last month threatening stiff new duties on certain imports, and the other in February, challenging China over its subsidies of manufactured goods. [China competition]
• 'Arrogant America' Approves North Korean Weapons Sale
  JoongAng Daily, South Korea "The United States has violated the same U.N. Security Council resolution it had championed and in the process, it has killed any justification for preventing another country from importing North Korean weapons."
  EDITORIAL April 10, 2007 South Korea - JoongAng Daily - Original Article (English) It is beyond our understanding why the United States has ignored a United Nations resolution and so given tacit consent to the export of weapons by North Korea. It is simply astonishing that the United States has seen fit to neglect such an agreement reached by the international community. It is also an absurdity that the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treat, which the United States has pointed to as a basis for demanding the abolishment of North Korea's nuclear weapons, can be so easily flouted. Right after North Korea launched a nuclear test last October, the United States took the lead in adopting U.N. Security Council resolution 1718 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN_Security_Council_Resolution_1718http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN_Security_Council_Resolution_1718against Pyongyang. The resolution stipulates that U.N. member states are banned from importing any type of weaponry from North Korea or from providing money that could be used in the development of weapons of mass destruction. What's more, the United States pressed hard on South Korea to participate in its Proliferation Security Initiative http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proliferation_Security_Initiativehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proliferation_Security_Initiativeto limit the spread of WMDs, chiefly by inspecting North Korean vessels traveling on the open sea. But at that very hour, according to The New York Times http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/08/news/arms.phphttp://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/08/news/arms.php, the United States decided to approve Ethiopia's importation of weapons from North Korea. Pursuant to the U.N. resolution, the United States should have stopped Ethiopia from importing weapons from the North. But since the weapons would be used to fight Islamic terrorists in Somalia, Washington tacitly approved the imports. In other words, the United States violated the same resolution it had championed and in the process, it has killed any justification for preventing another country from importing North Korean weapons. The resolution which was designed to sanction the North is as good as dead. This is not new for the United States. There have been many similar instances - even after the Cold War. The most recent case in point is its invasion of Iraq. [Double standards] [Friction] [UNUS]
• U.S. Delegation Arrives in Pyongyang
  A delegation of senior U.S. officials led by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and National Security Council advisor Victor Cha arrived in Pyongyang on Sunday morning. Deputy delegate Tony Namkung, deputy chair of the Center for Korean Studies in UC Berkeley, told the Voice of America on Saturday that the delegation asked for a meeting with the reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, but Pyongyang has not given an answer. He speculated that Cha may carry a message from George W. Bush to Kim. (englishnews@chosun.com ) [Richardson]
• Korean gov't accepts unprecedented U.S. demands in trade deal
  Agreement was in exchange for dropped tariffs on Korean cars exported to U.S.
  Under a free trade deal agreed upon with the U.S. on April 2, the South Korean government agreed to include two measures regarding automobile trade in return for immediate U.S. tariff eliminations on certain import Korea passenger cars. However, the two measures were found to be unprecedented, having not appeared in any free trade deal. On April 8, an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, requesting anonymity, said, "In no FTA was there a 'fast-track procedure' and a 'snap back,' " referring to the two measures by name.     [FTA]
• Governor of New Mexico State, U.S., Arrives
  Pyongyang, April 8 (KCNA) -- Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico State, U.S., and his party arrived here Sunday
• Richardson Sees N.Korea Set for Nuclear Deal: Report
  By REUTERS Published: April 9, 2007 Filed at 1:51 a.m. ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, leading a U.S. delegation on a visit to North Korea, said he believed Pyongyang was ready to end its nuclear weapons program and improve relations with the United States, NBC Nightly News reported on Sunday. Richardson's delegation arrived ahead of an April 14 deadline for North Korea to begin dismantling its nuclear program under an agreement in six-party talks with the United States, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China. ``I believe for the first time they do want to enter into an agreement with the six-party countries and they want a better relationship with the United States,'' Richardson told NBC. ``They know that the key is dismantling their nuclear weapons.'' Richardson's delegation is on a mission to oversee the return of remains of American soldiers from the Korean War but many hope to get a sense of the reclusive communist country's thinking about the nuclear issue during the visit. The Bush administration's top Korea expert, Victor Cha of the National Security Council, is part of the U.S. delegation, signaling a willingness by the White House to engage the North Koreans if they reciprocate, NBC said. Richardson, a Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, visited North Korea in the 1990s and in 2005. En route to Pyongyang, he told NBC that negotiating with North Korea was not easy. ``I've learned with the North Koreans you don't know what they're going to do next. They're totally unpredictable,'' he said. ``They're isolated. They don't negotiate like any other country.'' [Media] [Spin]
• Richardson on Rare Visit to North Korea
  By FOSTER KLUG The Associated Press Monday, April 9, 2007; 12:59 AM PYONGYANG, North Korea -- Bill Richardson, the New Mexico governor who has undertaken diplomatic missions to countries at odds with the United States, began a rare visit to isolated North Korea Sunday to recover remains of American servicemen killed in the Korean War. The four-day trip, which has been endorsed by the Bush administration, comes days before a crucial deadline in a recent nuclear disarmament accord. Earlier, Richardson, a Democratic candidate for president, had said he had no intention of negotiating nuclear matters.
  On Monday, Richardson met with North Korea's top nuclear negotiator, who said his government would immediately invite U.N. nuclear inspectors into the country if $25 million in disputed North Korean funds are released to Pyongyang.
• Officials Head to Korea for GI Remains
  Sunday April 8, 2007 8:01 AM AP Photo NMJB103, NMJB101 By FOSTER KLUG Associated Press Writer
  ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska (AP) - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson left Saturday with a delegation of past and present U.S. officials for North Korea, where he hopes to reclaim the remains of American soldiers killed in the Korean War. The four-day trip also is meant to draw attention to the Democrat's underdog bid for the presidency and to highlight his foreign policy experience, which includes negotiating trips to hot spots around the world and serving as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during President Bill Clinton's administration. As with many of Richardson's freelance diplomatic missions, this one benefits from fortunate timing. Endorsed by President George W. Bush's Republican administration, it comes days before a crucial deadline in a landmark nuclear accord the North agreed to in February, four months after testing a nuclear weapon. Many will be watching to see whether Richardson brings back any new details on potential progress on a North Korean pledge to close down and seal its main nuclear plant and allow in U.N. nuclear inspectors by April 14. The delegation flew to Pyongyang on a U.S. government aircraft and was scheduled to arrive Sunday. It briefly stopped in Alaska, where Richardson met with military personnel from New Mexico. Accompanying Richardson are Bush's top adviser on North Korea, Victor Cha; Anthony Principi, the former veteran affairs secretary for Bush; and James McDougal, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense.
• Gov't documents reveal trade-off on textiles, genetically modified crops
  In trade negotiations with U.S., Korea accepted loosened quarantine standards in exchange for opened U.S. textile market
  The South Korean government pledged to ease quarantine rules on products containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) under a free trade agreement with the United States struck on April 2, but while negotiations were underway on the deal, the government had denied it was discussing the topic. In particular, the Korean government denied it linked the issue of the U.S. opening its textile market and Korea accepting U.S. GMOs, something that government documents obtained by the Hankyoreh says was indeed tied together during the talks. [FTA]
• U.S. Gov. Richardson requests to meet Kim Jong-il: aide
  New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who plans to visit Pyongyang next week, has asked to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, an official from the delegation said Saturday (Korea Time). Tony Namkung, a North Korea expert who will be accompanying the governor, said in an radio interview with the U.S. government-funded Voice of America that Richardson made the request but has yet to receive an answer. The governor, a former U.S. envoy to the United Nations, announced Friday that he will lead a private bipartisan delegation to North Korea with Anthony Principi, former secretary of veterans affairs. He is also to be accompanied by Victor Cha, director for Korea and Japan at the National Security Council. Namkung said the meeting is likely to take place, as the visit will be the first time for a member of the White House staff under President George W. Bush's administration, Cha, to visit Pyongyang.
  The governor will leave Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, Saturday morning aboard a U.S. Air Force jet after brief remarks and a photo session. He is to make a short stop in Anchorage, Alaska before arriving in the North Korean capital late Sunday afternoon. Seoul, April 7 (Yonhap News) [Richardson]
• NK Negative to Accord
  North Korea's official media Thursday reported outrage by South Korea's liberal politicians, farmers and activists to the just-concluded free trade agreement (FTA) between South Korea and the United States, the Yonha News Agency said. The North's media did not provide Pyongyang's official position on the deal. [FTA]
• What They Want Us to Know About the FTA (and What They Don't)
      The rough content of the free trade agreement between South Korea and the United States has been carried in Korean and English on the homepages of South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. But there are subtle differences. Over some clauses, each side emphasizes some points and never mentions others, depending on how advantageous or disadvantageous those points are to it. Experts say each side wants to show its own people that the agreement is to their advantage.
• U.S. rules N.K. refugees who settled in South Korea ineligible for asylum
  The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday overturned a Los Angeles court's decision and ruled North Korean refugees who previously settled in South Korea are not eligible for asylum in the United States. Under the ruling, two such refugees were ordered to return to South Korea. The decision is also likely to affect other similar appeals filed by the former North Koreans [Refugee reception]
• Richardson Not Tasked With 6-Party Issues
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter Bill Richardson The U.S. State Department on Wednesday downplayed the chances of a former U.N. ambassador delivering a message from U.S. President George W. Bush to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during his scheduled trip to Pyongyang next week. The White House announced on Tuesday that Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico will travel to North Korea April 8-11 to receive the remains of some 10 American servicemen missing from the 1950-53 Korean War. He will be accompanied by Victor D. Cha, director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House.
• S.K., U.S. differ as to whether Kaesong included in FTA
  Seoul says it could be deemed an 'outward processing zone'; U.S. says no clause in FTA refers to joint Korean industrial complex
    Differences between Seoul and Washington over how to handle goods made at the joint Korean industrial complex of Kaesong (Gaeseong) under a free trade agreement (FTA) have become more starkly outlined through recent Western media reports. In an interview with the Financial Times on April 4, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Karan Bhatia said, "There is no mention of Kaesong in this agreement." He continued, "This agreement is with South Korea, not North Korea. No goods from North Korea can flow into the US under this agreement." [FTA] [Kaesong]    
• S.K.-U.S. FTA, as it stands, should not be accepted
  [Editorial] A proposal for a free trade agreement (FTA) between Korea and the United States has been signed amid intense controversy. If it is ratified as it stands by the National Assembly, it will be Korea 's biggest market opening since 1997, when the Asian financial crisis hit. As had been the concern, however, little was gained for Korea in the negotiations, and the final draft reflects mostly an acceptance of American demands. We cannot support the draft because it is inconsistent with the principles set forth by the government, namely that it would put the highest priority on Korea 's national interest. The Korean government should especially be criticized for one-sidedly yielding in areas where Korea lacks competitiveness, such as agriculture and the entertainment industry, without being ready for what could happen next.
• Minister: New accord opens a road for Kaesong
  April 05, 2007 Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong said yesterday that the free trade deal with the United States "opened a road" for products made in the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex to be given preferential tariffs. The treatment of the products will likely depend on how well talks go between the United States and North Korea over nuclear weapons.       [Kaesong] [FTA] [In denial]
• US Visa Restrictions Mar FTA
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter   Korea and the United States have agreed to free flows of goods and services between themselves but the two countries have yet to introduce free travel of their citizens. About 800,000 South Korean travelers face stumbling blocks in visiting the U.S. due to Washington's strict visa requirements.
• S. Korea, US to Launch Panel on Kaesong
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter South Korea and the United States have agreed to launch a joint committee to deal with the inclusion of South Korean products manufactured in Kaesong, North Korea, one year after a bilateral trade pact goes into effect, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said yesterday.
• U.S. to Recover GI Remains in N. Korea
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: April 3, 2007 Filed at 9:59 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- A private delegation working with the approval of the White House will travel to North Korea this weekend to recover the remains of soldiers killed in the Korean War. The four-day trip will be led by Bill Richardson, the New Mexico governor and Democratic presidential candidate, and Anthony Principi, the former veteran affairs secretary for President Bush. White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino announced the effort on Tuesday. The bipartisan delegation has been invited by the North Korean government to help recover remains of missing servicemen, Perino said. {Richardson]
• Key U.S. Congress leader to visit North
  April 04, 2007 Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is planning to visit North Korea next month, an official close to Lantos said yesterday. In a phone interview, the official said that the U.S. congressman was invited last month by Pyongyang to visit the North. He had originally planned to make the trip this month but had to change his plans. Lantos could make his visit traveling from the South. A meeting with the North’s reclusive leader Kim Jong-il was one objective of the trip, but nothing has been decided yet, the official said. The representative visited Pyongyang twice in 2005. He has been vocal in urging bilateral talks between Washington and Pyongyang and has been supportive of the Feb. 13 deal under which the North committed itself to take initial steps to denuclearize. After North Korea’s nuclear test in October of last year, Lantos heavily criticized the White House for its failed North Korean policy. The representative has played a key role in getting Libya to give up its weapons program, making several trips to that country in 2004. by Brian Lee Staff Writerafricanu@joongang.co.kr [Bilateral] [Partisan]  
• Closed Services Market Tarnishes FTA
  Roh Wants More Opening of Education, Medical, Accounting Markets By Yoon Ja-young Staff Reporter Korea’s signing of a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States is certainly a remarkable event in the country’s history as with it comes the creation of the world’s third largest economic bloc after the EU and NAFTA, yet most experts are not rating it as a huge success. Little progress in the services sector negotiations made the whole FTA a mid-level deal despite the complete scrapping of barriers in manufacturing. Economists said Korea should open the services market on its own, separate from the FTA. [FTA] [Services] [IM]
• Trade Accord to Boost Inter-Korean Cooperation
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter Despite positive reports on the future of the joint industrial zone in North Korea, a U.S. expert on inter-Korean affairs expressed caution about being too positive over the issue of products made in the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC) being treated as South Korean. In an interview with Radio Free Asia (RFA), Anthony B. Kim, a researcher at the U.S.-based Heritage Foundation, stressed that the two sides agreement regarding the Kaesong site did not mean that products from Kaesong would immediately be included in the South Korea-U.S. trade accord. [Kaesong] [FTA]  
• JCS Chief Reviews UNC Role in Japan
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter Gen. Kim Kwan-jin, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is visiting Japan to review the role of U.S. military bases there for logistics and forces support to South Korea in the event of an emergency, the Defense Ministry said yesterday. Kim left for Japan on Monday with Gen. B. B. Bell, commander of the U.S Forces Korea (USFK) and Combined Forces Command (CFC), ministry officials said. Kim and Bell are scheduled to visit seven bases of the United Nations Command (UNC), which are also under the control of the U.S. four-star general, they said. [US military dominance]
• FTA may face uphill battle in Korean Assembly approval
  Release of deal's details may cause further public, political backlash: observers
  South Korea and the United States finally agreed upon a free trade agreement (FTA) on April 2. In order for the FTA to take effect, it needs ratification by Korea's National Assembly, but as political parties as well as members within the parties are divided over the FTA, the final approval procedure is expected to face a number of obstacles. If the two countries sign the FTA in late June according to the proposed U.S. schedule, the South Korean government is expected to seek parliamentary approval for the agreement around September, when the National Assembly opens its regular session. Just as in ordinary bills, in order for the FTA deal to be passed at the National Assembly, at least half of the Assembly members must be present for the plenary session and more than half of the members attending must give their approval.    
• S.K., U.S. take cautious steps toward trade of Gaeseong goods
  Major hurdles remain, experts say, including labor issues, denuclearization efforts
  South Korea and the United States agreed to establish a joint committee to approve "outward processing zones" on the Korean peninsula, a move which may pave the way for products made in the inter-Korean Gaeseong (Kaesong) Industrial Complex located in North Korea to be designated as "made in South Korea" under the terms of the recent S.K.-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA). Outward processing refers to a country manufacturing its products in a second country. In the case of Gaeseong, products are manufactured by workers from both Koreas at the industrial park, using South Korean materials and parts. They are then re-imported to the South Korean market or exported abroad. Observers cite the decision on the U.S.'s part to form the committee a major breakthrough, as Washington had previously balked at recognizing any joint North-South ventures in matters of trade. If the products manufactured at Gaeseong are indeed recognized as South Korean-made, inter-Korean economic cooperation will definitely be given a boost, experts say, as other would-be special economic zones, such as the North's Sinuiju and Nampo, could be designated as producers of South Korean-made goods. [Sanctions] [Kaesong] [FTA]
• FTA to Implant Anglo-Saxon Economic Model on Korea
      By Kim Yon-se Staff Report The free trade deal between Seoul and Washington will implant the Anglosaxon economic model on Korea, thus further synchronizing the economic cycle and systems between the world's largest economy and the 11th economy. [FTA] [US Dominance]
• Democrats threaten the South Korea trade deal
  By Kevin G. Hall McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON - Congressional Democrats threatened Monday to quash the Bush administration's new free-trade deal with South Korea unless the Asian tiger does more to open its market to U.S. automobiles and beef. [FTA]
• U.S. and S. Korean Warhawks Kick off RSOI and Foal Eagle Joint Military Exercises
  Pyongyang, March 26 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists and the south Korean warhawks started RSOI and Foal Eagle joint military exercises Monday, according to military sources. No sooner had an emergency order been issued that day than at least 29,000 U.S. imperialist aggressors and three services of the south Korean troops including U.S. imperialist aggressors present in south Korea and overseas-based Striker unit, a rapid deployment force, and the 25th Infantry Division of the First Army Corps got combat ready all at once and an airborne special warfare brigade belonging to the "Special Warfare Command" and "commandoes" of a commando brigade were infiltrated into the imaginary theatres of combat actions to perform their missions to strike different provinces, cities and counties of the DPRK. [US Joint military]
• US Governor to Visit North Korea Next Month
  Bill Richardson, governor of the U.S. state of New Mexico, will travel to North Korea next month at Pyongyang's invitation, the Yonhap News Agency reported Friday quoting a well-informed diplomatic source. A declared presidential candidate, Richardson will fly directly from New Mexico to Pyongyang on a military plane provided by the U.S. government, the source told Yonhap.
  "His visit is not directly related to the six-party talks," the source said, but indicated there were prior consultations between the governor and the administration. "The governor is not going as a U.S. envoy," Yonhap, South Korea's semi-official news service, quoted the source as saying. [Richardson]
• Richardson to Travel to North Korea
  By NEDRA PICKLER The Associated Press Friday, March 30, 2007; 11:43 AM
  WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson plans to travel to North Korea for meetings with government officials from the hardline communist nation. Richardson plans to make the trip in early April, officials familiar with the trip told The Associated Press on Friday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because plans were still being completed. [Richardson]
• US and S Korea reach landmark trade deal
  By Anna Fifield in Seoul Published: April 2 2007 05:30 | Last updated: April 2 2007 05:30 The US and South Korea said on Monday they had agreed on the terms of a comprehensive trade deal that will become Washington’s biggest trade pact in more than a decade and could boost bilateral trade by as much as $20bn a year. The accord was reached just minutes before the final deadline was to expire for submitting the deal in Washington to take advantage of President George W. Bush’s authority to fast-track deals through the US Congress with a simple yes or no vote. There is a widespread understanding that the deal will not pass through Congress if it is opened up to debate and amendments. ADVERTISEMENT The terms of the deal were not immediately available on Monday afternoon but US officials confirmed an agreement had been reached. Kim Hyun-chong, Korea’s trade minister, and Kim Jong-hoon, the chief negotiator, made no comment as they returned to the negotiation room after visiting President Roh Moo-hyun. [FTA]
• War exercises condemned
  Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People condemns US-ROK war exercises [Joint US military]
• How to Keep From Overselling or Underestimating the United Nations
  Mark P. Lagon and David Shorr
  March 2007 Stanley Foundation program officer David Shorr and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations Mark Lagon resist both the skeptics and boosters of the United Nations by pointing toward appropriate expectations for the world body, and other intergovernmental forums. They counter the perception of the United Nations as primarily an instrument of international law, but also stress the importance of politics and diplomacy within international organizations for the reinforcement of a rules-based order. The so-called “court of world opinion” is not actually a court. At the same time, though, the international norms that emerge from the political (and sometimes legal) process are critical to the promotion of peace, freedom, and prosperity. The authors examine the emerging concept of the sovereignty of national governments as a responsibility and the current state of the norm of noninterference in internal affairs of UN member states. [UNUS]
• Policy Memo: Realistic Engagement With North Korea
  March 2007 As the countries in the six-party talks work feverishly to turn the February 13 agreement into a concrete and workable plan that will lead to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the integration of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) into the international community, much will hinge on key decisions that policymakers in the DPRK will have to make on its nuclear program and the nature of its integration into the international community. A great deal of uncertainty exists in the US policy community about decision making in the DPRK. To shed light on these issues, the Stanley Foundation and the University of California’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation convened a workshop in Washington, DC, on February 22, 2007, entitled “Realistic Engagement: What Do We Know About Economic and Political Decision making in the DPRK?” The workshop brought together academics, policy analysts, current and former government officials, journalists, and business executives from the Asia-Pacific region, Australia, Europe, and the United States who closely follow the DPRK to provide their insights into the opaque world of economic and political policymaking in that country. This memo provides a brief summary of recommendations offered by participants in the workshop. [Agreement070213]
• Economic Perspectives on Future Directions for Engagement With the DPRK in a Post-Test World
  Bradley O. Babson
  Bradley O. Babson is a former World Bank official and expert on Asian affairs with a concentration on the North Korean economy and Northeast Asia economic cooperation.He now consults for international organizations, foundations, and research institutes, and is a member of the National Committee for North Korea. He is a graduate of Williams College and the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Introduction The decisions by the DPRK leadership to conduct a missile test on July 5, 2006, and a nuclear test on October 9, together with Resolutions 1695 and 1718 adopted by the UN Security Council in response to these actions, have fundamentally altered the context for engagement by the international community with the DPRK.

• Bush Seeks Peace Regime on Peninsula
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter U.S. President George W. Bush wants to finalize talks over the creation of a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula in the first half of next year, a local daily reported Friday.
• A warship calls to port
  The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier U.S.S. Ronald Reagan on March 22 arrived in Busan to participate in the Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration (RSOI), a joint U.S.-Korean military exercise that begins March 25. The giant vessel was greeted none too warmly by protesters from several civic groups. [photo] [Joint US military]
• Three Questions for Bush on North Korea
  During her trip to North Korea in 2000, then U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told North Korean leader Kim Jong-il that he could call her any time he wanted to talk. Kim replied, "Give me your e-mail address." Kim is said to enjoy surfing the Internet. If he were to engage in an online conversation with U.S. President George W. Bush, it might go as follows. Kim Jong-il: "In 2004, Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited my country. I told him that I was so keen to meet you that I wanted him to provide music that you and I could sing to together. Didn't you hear about that?"
• Abandoned at a Nuclear Crossroads
  by Kim Dae-joong  
      The dynamics of international relations concerning the Korean Peninsula are rapidly changing. So is the security situation of South Korea. With North Korea's vice foreign minister Kim Kye-gwan's visit to the United States as momentum, U.S.-North Korean relations are suddenly improving. In Vietnam, Japan has held negotiations with North Korea on improving relations (although their talks are broken off for the time being). Senior officials from the U.S. departments of State and the Treasury have visited China, suggesting that the U.S. is giving weight to China's go-between role in the Korean Peninsula. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has unexpectedly visited the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang to stress his friendship with China. Lee Hae-chan, a special aide to the South Korean president, has visited Pyongyang, tapping the possibility of an inter-Korean summit meeting. It all shows that with the Feb. 13 six-party agreement as momentum, the status of nuclear-armed North Korea is rising, and that the traditional alliances and hostilities in and around the Korean Peninsula are being readjusted. Today's South Korea may not be the friend of the U.S. it was yesterday, just as today's North Korea is not the enemy it was. [Realignment]  
• Sensing Shift in Bush Policy, Another Hawk Leaves
  By DAVID E. SANGER Published: March 21, 2007 WASHINGTON, March 20 - Among the hawks in the Bush administration, Robert Joseph long occupied a special perch.
  Robert Joseph, an arms control expert, is the latest hawk to leave an administration that many conservatives say has lost its clarity of mission. As the architect of much of the administration's strategy for countering nuclear proliferation, he helped engineer the decision to exit the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, worked secretly to squeeze Libya to give up its nuclear weapons program, and created a loose consortium of nations, now numbering more than 80, committed to intercepting illicit weapons at sea, in the air or on land.
  But last month Mr. Joseph quietly left the State Department, where he was under secretary for arms control and international security, telling colleagues that, as a matter of principle, he simply could not abide the new agreement with North Korea that the Bush administration struck in February. [Dissension]
• North Korea's $25 Million and Banco Delta Asia
  [Opinion] Another abuse under the U.S. Patriot Act (2001)  
    Ronda Hauben (netizen2)
  Published 2007-03-21 15:43 (KST)   A little known provision in the U.S. Patriot Act (2001) has been used by the Bush administration against North Korea to freeze $25 million dollars of its funds and to deny it access to the international banking system and to hard currency. Actions under this provision of the Patriot Act effectively stymied progress in disarmament talks between the U.S., North Korea, South Korea, China, Russia and Japan for over 18 months. North Korea says that only when the seized $25 million and access to the international banking system are restored is it willing to continue negotiations under the six-party-agreement concerning security and denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. [BDA] [Toolkit]
• Fate of Investigators in Balance at U.N. Rights Body
  By REUTERS Published: March 20, 2007 Filed at 5:49 a.m. ET Skip to next paragraph GENEVA (Reuters) - Cuba is leading a bid by a number of countries to strip the Human Rights Council of its power to investigate and condemn violations, a move some activists warn could jeopardize the whole U.N.'s credibility. The 47 member states of the new U.N. watchdog, set up last year to replace its largely-discredited predecessor, are quietly negotiating a package of measures which will define its role. At stake is the fate of ``special procedures'' -- independent investigators appointed to report on countries where abuses are suspected. The former Secretary-General Kofi Annan described these rapporteurs as the ``crown jewels'' of the U.N. human rights machinery. ``Our fear is that some governments are trying to sell the crown jewels, trying to undermine the independence of special procedures,'' Irene Khan, secretary-general of Amnesty International, told reporters in Geneva. ``There are huge stakes here for human rights, not only for survivors of abuses but the credibility of the Council and the larger credibility of the United Nations,'' she said. Its 13 special rapporteurs on countries, retained for now from the former U.N. Commission on Human Rights, include experts probing suspected abuses in Belarus, Cuba, Sudan and North Korea. But countries singled out for this attention, and their allies such as China, say such finger-pointing is selective and politically motivated. They want to abolish the rapporteurs. [UNUS] [{human rights] [Manipulation]
• U.S. Nuclear Hysteria Going against Dialogue and Peace Assailed
  Pyongyang, March 18 (KCNA) -- "RSOI" and "Foal Eagle" joint military exercises projected by the U.S. to stage in south Korea are a preliminary war, a nuclear test war, designed to make a surprise preemptive attack on the DPRK, and they are the criminal behavior going against the aspiration and demand of the people for peace. [Joint US military]
• We Could Be Left Out of a U.S.-N.Korea Deal
  It was set off by a nuclear test. The Bush administration, which insisted it could not reward a wrong and wouldn't conduct bilateral negotiations with North Korea, made a U-turn and promised the North political and economic compensation in bilateral talks. North Korea's response has been equally astonishing. North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-kwan recently had a long meeting with former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger. What he said sounds unbelievable. Expressing a deep interest in improving U.S.-China relations, he asked if the U.S. has "strategic interests" in North Korea and added, "The Korean Peninsula has been invaded by foreign powers like China and Japan. Strategic relations with the U.S. will be of help to North Korea and regional stability." The U.S.-China rapprochement early in the 1970s involved two factors. The U.S. wanted to use China's strategic value to check the Soviet Union's expansion, so it broke close relations with Taiwan in exchange for diplomatic relations with China. By the same token, it seems that North Korea is now willing to cooperate with the strategic U.S. interest of restraining China. [China containment][NK_US_China]
• Ask the expert: North Korean missiles
  Published: July 7 2006 18:36 | Last updated: July 10 2006 13:18 North Korea's missile tests provoked furious international condemnation, and the world's leading nations are struggling to forge a united response. How real is Pyongyang's threat to global security and how should the world's leading nations respond? The threat, while significant, is no more today than it was before the test missiles were launched, argued Mark Fitzpatrick, former US deputy assistant secretary of state for non-proliferation, and a senior fellow at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies, in the Financial Times. He urges the west not to overreact and to seek ways of reaching a missiles deal with Pyongyang. Mr Fitzpatrick answers your questions below.
• Relocation of US Bases to Be Finished by 2012'
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter Gen. B.B. Bell South Korea and the United States agreed last month on a plan to complete the relocation of U.S. military bases and facilities in South Korea by 2012, the top U.S. general here said on Sunday. In an interview with the Stars & Stripes, a U.S. military newspaper published here, Gen. B. B. Bell, commander of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said the defense chiefs from the two countries agreed on the timeline during their talks in Washington, D.C. last month. Seoul and Washington have differed over the timetable of the $10-billion project.
• Progressive Lawmakers in United Front Against FTA
  Progressive lawmakers including presidential aspirants in the ruling party on Friday launched a concerted drive against the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement, sparking fears that the FTA will have a bumpy passage through the National Assembly. The refuseniks attacked President Roh Moo-hyun for supporting the FTA. They seemed poised to block the appointment of prime minister designate Han Duck-soo, the former finance minister who leads a government committee supporting the initiative to clinch the FTA. Han needs parliamentary confirmation to assume the post.
• Cleaning Up the 20th Century
  THE PAST'S PULL The festering issues in northeast Asia include the Korean War, which ended with a demilitarized zone.
  By JIM YARDLEY Published: March 18, 2007 BEIJING
    FOR more than three years, the grinding, often exasperating negotiations over North Korea's nuclear weapons program have been about taking the bomb away from Kim Jong-il. As if that were not complicated enough, the agenda is now becoming more ambitious. One new goal could be loosely described as cleaning up the 20th century.
  North Korea is a bit like the crazy uncle whose refusal to stay locked and quiet in the region's attic has forced everyone to the same table, with historic baggage and contemporary rivalries in tow. The North's demands for economic and energy aid nearly derailed the last round of talks, and now negotiations are being separated into working groups to tackle decades-old issues like normalizing relations between North Korea and both Japan and the United States. Discussions over a peace treaty to end the Korean War will be held in a "separate forum" that has yet to be named. "These are the precise issues that North Korea really wants to address," said Bates Gill, a China specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "They want a peace treaty. They want a normal relationship with the United States." [NK US policy] [Spin]
• Rodong Sinmun Lashes Out at War Exercises of U.S. and S. Korean Warmongers
  Pyongyang, March 15 (KCNA) -- The joint military exercises "RSOI" and "Foal Eagle" are very dangerous war games against the DPRK, which are aimed at swiftly hurling massive reinforcements and military hardware of the U.S. onto the Korean front in case of "emergency" on the Korean Peninsula and invading the DPRK by a large-scale joint operation of the U.S. imperialist aggressor troops and the south Korean army, notes Rodong Sinmun in a news analysis Thursday. [Joint US military]
• Bush Adviser Sets Aside Tough Nuke Talk
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: March 17, 2007 Filed at 2:52 a.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- As an academic, Victor Cha was skeptical about nuclear talks with North Korea. He considered the real value of U.S. engagement as a way to ''expose the North's true, malevolent intentions.'' Now, as President Bush's top adviser on North Korea, Cha is a prime player in shaping those talks, which are set to resume Monday in Beijing. He avoids the tough language of his earlier writing. ''That was a completely different time and a completely different world,'' Cha told The Associated Press in a rare interview. ''I was just an ivory-tower academic.'' Cha, the son of Korean immigrants and a fluent Korean speaker, serves as a deputy negotiator in talks that last month resulted in the North agreeing to shut down its main nuclear reactor in return for fuel oil. A much larger batch of aid would follow once the North begins disabling all its nuclear programs. Some of Cha's fellow conservatives, such as former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, have decried the accord as rewarding North Korea for bad behavior. Bolton, in an interview, avoided discussing Cha's role, but he criticized the deal as something that cannot work. ''The act of engagement is not cost-free. It chews up time, it allows North Korea to refine its nuclear capabilities, and it gives legitimacy to the regime,'' he said. Conservatives lauded Cha's work when, as a Georgetown University professor in 2002, he became an unofficial defender of Bush's dealings with North Korea.
• Large-Scale Army Drills to Begin
  The South Korean Army is set to begin a large-scale field exercises on Friday, days ahead of a bigger joint Korea-U.S. exercise, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Thursday. The corps-level exercises (FTX) will involve more than 7,000 soldiers, 50 tanks, 100 armored vehicles and 10 attack helicopters, the JCS said in a statement. The six-day annual exercise, in which two corps will simulate combat, will start with a nighttime river-crossing exercise that will last through Friday morning. [Military balance] [US Joint military]
• S. Korea, U.S. in dilemma over deserter: sources
          South Korean and U.S. military authorities are in talks on how to handle an unprecedented case involving a Korean soldier found to have deserted from the U.S. military apparently to avoid being sent to Iraq, defense sources here said Thursday. The 26-year-old, identified only by his family name Kim, joined the U.S. Army in 2003 in a bid to receive U.S. citizenship, according to the sources. The South Korean-born man immigrated to the U.S. in 1992 and became a permanent resident. As part of his three-year contract with the U.S. military, Kim was to be deployed to Iraq. Kim came to South Korea in 2005 on leave, citing the illness of his father staying here, but did not return to the U.S. Instead, Kim joined the South Korean military last November.
• No Quick Removal From U.S. Terror List for N.Korea
  North Korea will not be easily removed from the U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism. U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said that taking North Korea off the terrorism blacklist is a process that will require a lot of time and careful reviews. He also made it clear that the process to normalize diplomatic ties between the U.S. and North Korea can move forward only when the North takes steps to make the Korean Peninsula nuclear-free.
  Casey, seemingly wanting to dampen expectations that the North will be taken off the list quickly, said that Pyongyang should answer questions about why it had been put on the list. North Korea's top nuclear envoy Kim Kye-kwan said recently that the U.S. promised to de-list North Korea.
  The six-nation agreement reached in Beijing on Feb. 13 requires the U.S. to start the process to remove the North from the terror list in the initial 60-day stage. The U.S. government must report to Congress 45 days before it removes a country from the list. A U.S. lawmaker said that the Bush administration could be flexible in implementing the Feb. 13 agreement, but removing North Korea from the list might take considerable time. [Agreement070213] [Dissension]
• U.S. in 'Masterful' Solution to N.Korea's Frozen Accounts
    Concluding its 18-month long investigation of North Korea's bank in Macau, the U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday announced measures barring U.S. financial institutions from direct and indirect deals with Banco Delta Asia. The U.S. accuses the bank of having been a money-laundering channel for the North's illicit activities. The ban goes into effect in 30 days. But the step paves the way for Macau authorities to unfreeze North Korean accounts containing US$24 million in what is rumored to be North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's personal money in the bank. "Our investigation of BDA confirmed the bank's willingness to turn a blind eye to illicit activity, notably by its North Korean-related clients. In fact, in exchange for a fee, the bank provided its North Korean clients access to the banking system with little oversight or control," Treasury Under Secretary Stuart Levey told reporters Wednesday. According to the department, BDA helped North Korea handle funds from illicit activities like counterfeiting U.S. dollars, manufacturing fake cigarettes and drug dealings. Some North Korean companies possibly laundered money through the bank, it said.
  Meanwhile, ahead of the official announcement, a South Korean government official quipped the BDA case would serve as "prize material for students of international relations and financial matters." Since seeking a more conciliatory approach with North Korea, the U.S. has been wracking its brains how to handle the problem of the frozen $24 million. Until then, the U.S. heavily publicized the money-laundering allegations as a way to pressure the North, but since late last year, it has sought a way out to make progress in the six-party talks. The solution the U.S. appears to have come up with is to point out the unlawfulness of BDA's actions but wash its hands of the North Korean accounts. "It seems the U.S. has passed sentence but suspended it," said Nam Sung-wook, a North Korea specialist at Korea University.
  But Washington could also face criticism that it exaggerated the information in the first place, considering that it did not present any decisive evidence, citing confidentiality, but let North Korea have the money. [Financial sanctions] [BDA] [Dissension]
• US puts sanctions on bank tied to N Korea
  By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington and Andrew Yeh in Beijing Published: March 14 2007 19:51 | Last updated: March 15 2007 02:51 The US on Wednesday banned American banks from dealing with Banco Delta Asia after concluding that the Macao bank had helped North Korea launder money, in a move that will test whether Pyongyang will follow through on last month's agreement to dismantle its nuclear programme. But the move paves the way for the bank to release a portion of the $25m in North Korean assets that was not related to illicit activity.
  One US official said Chris Hill, the US negotiator in for the nuclear talks, was pushing for a "maximalist" position that would encourage the North Koreans to implement the deal. But the official said some Treasury officials were reluctant to provide more than about a third of the funds.
  David Asher, a former State Department Asia expert who was involved in investigating North Korean illicit activities, said Pyongyang was even more concerned about the impact the Banco Delta Asia investigation had in sending a signal to the international banking community not to deal with North Korea. "This was a pin prick in a central artery, and there was a lot of bleeding," said Mr Asher. Mr Green said North Korea might be disappointed that the US would not reverse the signal sent to the international banking community. "That requires the US government to send a great big 'never mind' around the world," said Mr Green. "And I don't think Treasury or the administration are inclined to do that because the North Korean financial flows are being used to support their nuclear programme and their illegal activities." [BDA] [Dissension]
• U.S.-S.K. free trade deal may realign political landscape
  With presidential elections approaching, hot-button issue could influence voters
    South Korea's current political landscape is reflected in opinions held about the proposed S.K.-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA). The FTA, which is expected to be concluded by early April in line with the schedule of the U.S. Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), will likely play a role in December's presidential elections. [FTA]
• Armored unit to join Korea-U.S. drill
  March 15, 2007 A team of Stryker armored vehicles from the United States will arrive here this weekend to participate in the largest annual South Korea-United States joint military exercise, the U.S. military here said yesterday. A Stryker platoon from Hawaii will land in Korea on Sunday, and the vehicles will be temporarily deployed near Daegu, 300 kilometers (186 miles) southeast of Seoul, according to U.S. Forces Korea. It said the deployment is part of the "Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration" exercise, referred to as RSOI, which will be held from March 25 to 31. "The Stryker platoon is scheduled to conduct a platoon gunnery and squad live-fire exercise during this RSOI exercise," the USFK said. Also taking part in the drills are the USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, and a squadron of F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter jets. The RSOI was first held in 1994. This year's exercise is expected to involve more than 29,000 American soldiers, including 6,000 from outside the Korean Peninsula. North Korea views the training as a "rehearsal" for an attack against the communist nation, despite repeated claims by the United States and Korea that it is a defense-oriented drill. [US joint military] [Spin]
• UNDP's Wrong Action Accused
  Pyongyang, March 13 (KCNA) -- The United Nations Development Program recently announced that it would suspend its country program for the DPRK and, accordingly, withdraw the staff members of its office from Pyongyang. A spokesman for the DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tuesday answered the question raised by KCNA in this regard. The responsibility for this abnormal thing that happened in the cooperative relations between the DPRK and the UNDP, which have favorably developed for the past several decades, rests with the U.S. and Japan and some circles inside the organization, who took this discriminative action against the DPRK only, yielding to the pressure of the above-said two countries, the spokesman said, and continued: The U.S. has spread sheer lies about the DPRK's "diversion of UNDP's program fund" since the outset of the year in a bid to tarnish the international image of the DPRK. Taking advantage of this, Japan has pressurized the UNDP to suspend its country program for the DPRK. It wooed some member states of its executive board to reopen the discussion on the already passed country program for the DPRK. Some officials of the UNDP tried to cancel the country program of developmental nature for the DPRK contrary to its mission under the pressure from outside and adjust it into a country program of humanitarian nature and has unilaterally closed or cancelled the ongoing project. As regards this discriminative step taken against the country program for the DPRK only, it demanded the UNDP explicitly explain and clarify the step. The UNDP, however, has kept mum about the demand, deliberately avoiding its answer. The DPRK does not care about whether it receives small assistance from the UNDP or not but it will not tolerate even a bit any foolish attempt to hurt its dignity. It is the firm stand of the DPRK not to receive any politically motivated assistance seeking a sinister aim in the future, too {UNDP] [Diversion] [Toolkit]
• US Unveils Plan to Resolve Financial Dispute With N. Korea
  The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday made public a plan to resolve the financial dispute with North Korea by formally banning U.S. financial institutions from dealing with the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia (BDA), suspected of handling illicit North Korean assets, the Yonhap News Agency reported Thursday. ``When it takes effect in 30 days, this action will prohibit all U.S. financial institutions from maintaining correspondent accounts for BDA and prevents BDA from accessing the U.S. financial system, either directly or indirectly,'' the Treasury Department said in a statement, wrapping up its lengthy investigation into the bank [Financial sanctions]
• Bush administration plan may unfreeze North Korean funds
  By Warren P. Strobel and Kevin G. Hall
  McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON - After a behind-the-scenes battle royal, the Bush administration announced steps on Wednesday that could lead to the unfreezing of North Korean funds at a small bank in Macau and, conceivably, the dismantling of North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The action took the unusual form of an announcement that after an 18 month investigation, the Treasury Department had formally cut off the small family-owned Banco Delta Asia from the U.S. financial system for allegedly laundering counterfeit U.S. currency and other illicit gains on behalf of North Korean officials.
  It was unclear whether Wednesday's announcement would satisfy Pyongyang and maintain recent momentum to a potentially historic nuclear disarmament agreement. What did emerge was evidence of the intense and continuing friction within the Bush administration about how to proceed with the North Korea negotiations. State Department officials have privately accused Treasury of sabotaging diplomacy, and Treasury officials have accused U.S. diplomats of seeking a North Korea deal at any cost, according to U.S. aides who spoke on condition of anonymity. Wednesday's action was the subject of last-minute, high-level phone calls, and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte intervened to get it finalized, said a senior State Department official.
  Paul Downs, a partner at the U.S. law firm Heller Ehrman, which has represented the bank, was dismayed by the decision. "Needless to say, we are disappointed that despite the bank having addressed ... everything in the government's original allegations, this action, unsupported by the public record, has been taken without providing the bank an opportunity to see, evaluate or challenge the evidence on which the government relies," Downs said via e-mail. Section 311 is controversial because it allows Treasury to make serious allegations without having to show proof. It is an administrative, not legal, proceeding and thus lacks due process rights like the presumption of innocence and the right to see the details of the alleged wrongdoing. [BDA] [Dissension]
• U.S. Ends Bank Probe; Possible Step Toward N. Korean Reactor Closure
  By Glenn Kessler and Edward Cody Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, March 15, 2007; Page A16
  The Treasury Department said yesterday that it has ended its investigation of a Macau bank that it accused of facilitating money laundering and counterfeiting by North Korea, removing a possible roadblock to a six-nation agreement to shut down the reclusive nation's nuclear reactor. The Bush administration had pledged to end the case against Banco Delta Asia -- a case that complicated negotiations on North Korea's nuclear programs -- within 30 days of the Feb. 13 agreement on the nuclear program. But it is unclear whether the Treasury action, which formally ordered U.S. banks to stop doing business with Banco Delta Asia because of its dealings with North Korean entities, will satisfy North Korean demands for a halt to what Pyongyang has labeled "financial sanctions."
• 'UNDP Serves as Cash Cow to N. Korea'
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter North Korea is suspected of having used cash provided by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) just like ``withdrawing money from an Automatic Teller Machine,'' reports said Wednesday. According to the Chicago Tribune, the UNDP office in Pyongyang was used like an ATM machine for the North's Kim Jong-il regime. ``Like clockwork, a North Korean official wearing a standard-issue dark windbreaker and slacks would come to the door each business day. He would take a manila envelope stuffed with cash and leave without ever providing receipts,'' the report described the situation. It said the situation continued for years, resulting in the transfer of up to $150 million in foreign currency to the Stalinist state at a time when the United States was trying to keep the North Korean government from receiving hard currency as part of its sanctions. The daily also reported it obtained a document indicating that as early as last May, top UNDP officials at its headquarters in New York were informed in writing of significant problems relating to the agency's use of foreign currency in the North, and that such use violated U.N. regulations that expenses be paid in local currency. [UNDP] [Toolkit] [Media]
• U.S. Treasury to Wash Its Hands of N.Korea's Bank
  The U.S. Treasury Department will apparently cut the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia off from the U.S. financial system on Thursday. The Macau bank has been under suspicion of being a money-laundering channel for North Korea. The Treasury will announce final results of its investigation of North Korea's US$24 million accounts with the BDA 18 months after it froze them in 2005. A diplomatic source in Washington said Monday the U.S. government will entrust Macanese financial authorities with the task of dealing with the matter. Macanese authorities will not be affected by the U.S. government's opinion and have discretion whether to liquidate or put up the bank for sale. In any case, all of North Korea's $24 million will likely be unfrozen and be given back to the country, the source said. But he added the U.S. will continue its investigation of North Korean funds related to illicit activities like the suspected transfer of weapons of mass destruction and related technology according to the UN Security Council Resolution 1718. [BDA] [Toolkit]
• What If Roh, Bush Meet Kim Jong-il?
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter  [Issue Today] A warm breeze sits in the Pacific to forecast the advent of spring on the Korean Peninsula. Where does the unprecedented amiable atmosphere between North Korea and the United States come from? A flurry of diplomatic contacts are underway between South and North Korea and the four surrounding powers _ the United States, China, Japan and Russia _ since making an agreement in Beijing last month. Indeed, the Feb. 13 agreement broke the longstanding deadlock in one stroke and paved the way to normalization of ties between North Korea and the U.S. as well as the denuclearization of the reclusive country. Officials from Pyongyang and Washington sat face-to-face last week to discuss the establishment of diplomatic relations _ for the first time since the inauguration of George W. Bush in 2001. South Korea and the U.S. are dispatching high-profile officials to draw up joint strategies. And South and North Korea also resumed their ministerial talks earlier this month. Some people talk about a summit between President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il this year. Others even foretell of a tripartite summit joined by Bush. What would be the conclusion of this ``drama'' on the peninsula?
  Rice’s visit to Pyongyang, if realized, would accelerate the talks on the normalization of ties and denuclearization and might lead to Bush’s visit to the Korean Peninsula.
  ``I heard from a reliable source that secret negotiations are underway for an inter-Korean summit on Liberation Day, Aug. 15,’’ said Rep. Chung Hyung-keun, a member of the supreme council of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP). ``Following the summit, a four-way summit between the two Koreas, the United States and China might be held in September to sign a peace treaty,’’ he said. ``I was told the possibilities are quite high.’’
  If the scenario comes true, however, its explosive power in the run-up to the December poll would be tremendous, experts and election watchers say. Once the nuclear problem is resolved and the old antagonists enter the path toward the normalization of ties, the Cold War structure on the peninsula will rapidly break down. ``It would be a panic for those who, standing far right, try to brand everyone else as leftist,’’ said Kim Yeon-cheol, a professor at the Research Institute for Asian Affairs at Korea University in Seoul. ``What should the people do if the U.S. president declares an end to the war, and North Korea and the U.S. establish diplomatic relations?’’ he added. ``A day is coming when pro-North Korean should not be necessarily anti-American and vise versa.’’
• Treasury casts a wide net under Patriot Act
  By Kevin G. Hall McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON - Under a little-noticed provision in the USA Patriot Act, the Treasury Department has ordered severe restrictions against foreign banks or countries for reasons beyond the stated purpose of the law and without producing evidence. Section 311 of the 2001 Patriot Act was drafted to halt terrorist financing and money laundering, but the Bush administration has used it against an alleged source of terrorist financing - a bank in Syria - only once. The Treasury has invoked it more often to punish alleged human-rights abuses or offshore banking havens.
  The most controversial known use of the provision has been against Banco Delta Asia, a tiny bank in the Chinese enclave of Macau that North Korea's communist leaders allegedly used for their personal accounts. The Treasury accused the bank in September 2005 of laundering the North Korean regime's allegedly illicit proceeds and shepherding counterfeit U.S. $100 bills into the global financial system. An internal audit by the accounting firm Ernst & Young found no evidence of willful wrongdoing, according to Banco Delta's New York-based law firm, Heller Ehrman. The Treasury is sticking to its allegations, but hasn't produced any evidence against the bank. [BDA] [Evidence] [Toolkit] [Extraterritoriality]
• Macao inquiry clears bank of money laundering for N. Korea
  By Donald Greenlees Published: March 12, 2007
  HONG KONG: An investigation ordered by the Macao government of a bank accused by the United States of helping North Korea launder the proceeds of illicit activities has found no evidence of criminal misconduct by any bank employees, according to lawyers for the bank. In letters that were sent to the U.S. Treasury Department and made available by the department, the American lawyers of Banco Delta Asia said that a review of all the bank's accounts related to North Korea failed to turn up anything other than lax record-keeping. Joseph McLaughlin, of the law firm Heller Ehrman, in San Francisco, wrote to Treasury officials last October that the Macao government "has not yet found evidence of money laundering" and was "not currently planning to bring any criminal proceedings for money laundering."
  One issue of concern identified in the Ernst & Young report was that Banco Delta Asia maintained an account for Tanchon Commercial Bank of North Korea, which is on a U.S. government list of entities aiding the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
  The committee has overseen a comprehensive overhaul of the bank's anti-money-laundering procedures, with the assistance of the accounting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. It has replaced the heads of all nine of Banco Delta Asia's departments. It has also pledged not to do business with North Korean- linked entities in the future. [BDA] [Evidence] [Legality] [Toolkit]
• Did N.Korea Get All It Wanted From the U.S.?
      Since talks on the normalization of diplomatic ties between North Korea and the U.S. ended in New York on Wednesday, North Korea's top nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan has been telling everyone he reached agreement on all critical issues with his U.S. counterpart Christopher Hill. That includes Pyongyang's demands to unfreeze North Korea's accounts with the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia, remove it from the U.S. list of states sponsoring terrorism and lift economic sanctions under the Trading with the Enemy Act. Does that ring true even though North Korea has yet to shut down its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, the first step it promised under the Feb. 13 six-nation agreement? ? The accounts Kim suggested the U.S. agreed to unfreeze all US$24 million in accounts with the Macau bank. But the U.S. has not said whether it will unfreeze all or just some of them [BDA] [Financial sanctions]
• N.K. expects U.S. to lift sanctions
  From news reports North Korea expects the United States to lift financial sanctions as part of a nuclear disarmament deal and will retaliate if the U.S. fails to do so, a senior North Korean official said Saturday. Kim Kye-gwan, the North's envoy to the disarmament talks, said Pyongyang is carefully watching to see if the United States fulfills its pledge to end the restrictions on Banco Delta Asia. The Macau-based bank, accused of abetting North Korean counterfeiting and money-laundering, is holding $24 million that Pyongyang is unable to access. "The U.S. has promised the North it would scrap financial sanctions on the Banco Delta Asia," Kim told South Korean and Japanese reporters at Beijing's Capital Airport before taking a plane to Pyongyang. If Washington fails to do so, Kim said, North Korea "will be forced to take corresponding steps." Kim did not elaborate on Pyongyang's options. But North Korea could delay implementation of the disarmament deal should it feel that the U.S. or other parties - China, Japan, Russia and South Korea - were not meeting their commitments. The agreement, reached last month after three years of tortuous negotiations, sets out a schedule for North Korea's phased disarmament in return for inducements along the way. One of the first commitments was the U.S. pledge to resolve the fate of the frozen North Korean funds within 30 days of the agreement. That deadline falls next Thursday.
  Though Hill said the Banco Delta Asia issue did not come up, he told reporters afterward that he expected the U.S. Treasury Department would meet the 30-day deadline. Washington's blacklisting of Banco Delta Asia in September 2005 scared banks worldwide away from dealing with North Korea, effectively deepening the country's economic isolation [BDA]
• `US Promises to End Financial Sanctions Against NK'
  The United States has promised North Korea that it would lift financial sanctions against the communist country, the North's chief nuclear envoy said Saturday in Beijing. ``The U.S. has promised to end financial sanctions on the Banco Delta Asia and the North is keeping a close eye on the promise,'' Kim Kye-gwan told reporters at Beijing Shoudu Airport before taking a flight to Pyongyang. ``If the U.S. fails to solve the issue completely, we will have to take partial actions against it,'' Kim said.
• U.S. Forces Korea commander's inappropriate comments
  [Editorial]   United States Forces Korea (USFK) commander Burwell B. Bell is again the talk of the town for making comments that are inappropriate. In testimony before the United States House of Representatives' Armed Services Committee, he criticized South Korea's plans to reform its military and revealed a view of North Korea prejudiced in one direction. As well, during a press conference held January 18, he said used violent language when he said he would "fight" any delay in relocating the main USFK installation to Pyeongtaek. The commander of an allied military stationed in Korea may indeed express his views on issues of commonly shared security concerns; however, the premise is that he do so with respect for the Korean people, their government, and its policies, as well as with the moderation becoming of a soldier. Without these in place, he could cause misunderstanding and discord that could hurt the alliance, all the more so when the two countries are looking decades ahead into the future as they restructure the alliance
• Thousands expected to rally to oppose South Korea-U.S. FTA talks
  Thousands of South Korea farmers, workers and activists opposed to free trade talks with the United States are expected to take to the streets of Seoul Saturday, accusing their government of hastily pushing to open its market wider to imports under Washington's pressure, police and organizers said.
• U.S. promises to drop financial sanctions against N. Korea: N. Korean nuclear envoy
      The United States has promised North Korea that it would end financial sanctions against the communist state, the North's chief nuclear envoy said Saturday. "The U.S. has promised the North it would scrap financial sanctions on the Banco Delta Asia and the North is keeping a close eye on the promise," Kim Kye-gwan told reporters at Beijing Shoudu Airport before taking a flight to Pyongyang. "If the U.S. fails to solve the issue completely, we will have to take partial actions against it," Kim said. Kim was leaving Beijing after meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei to prepare for a fresh round of denuclearization talks on the North's nuclear disarmament on March 19. He also briefed Wu on the outcome of his U.S.-North Korea normalization talks in New York on Monday to Tuesday with Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. envoy to the six-party negotiations. [BDA]
• Transfer of "Right to Command Wartime Operations" Termed Charade
  Pyongyang, March 9 (KCNA) -- The U.S. and the south Korean military were reported to have agreed on the issue of transfer of the "right to command wartime operations" to south Korea, but that is quite meaningless so long as the U.S. military presence and domination over south Korea and its moves for a war of aggression go on. [Sovereignty]
• US Soldier Gets Four Years for Rape
  A Seoul court sentenced a U.S. soldier on Friday to four years imprisonment on charges of raping and beating a local woman in her late sixties earlier this year. The 23-year-old GI, who was only identified by his initial G, punched the 67-year-old woman in the face and raped her in a residential area in western Seoul in January. The court said the defendant's claim that he had been too intoxicated to control his behavior at the time of the incident was not valid because the circumstances surrounding his arrest suggested otherwise.
  The United States currently has about 30,000 soldiers in South Korea as a deterrent against North Korea. South Korea has jurisdiction over U.S. service members suspected of committing violent crimes, such as murder and sexual assault, while not on official duty. The U.S. forces have been quick to react to crimes or accidents involving its service members here since 2002 when two South Korean schoolgirls were run over and killed by a U.S. military armored vehicle, triggering anti-U.S. protest rallies and candlelight vigils across the nation. Major General John Morgan, acting commander of the 8th U.S. Army here, issued an official apology after the rape, showing Washington's awareness of the explosiveness of such a felony here. [US offences]
• N.Korea Expects U.S. to Lift Sanctions
  The Associated Press Saturday, March 10, 2007; 2:13 AM BEIJING -- North Korea expects the United States to lift financial sanctions as part of a nuclear disarmament deal and will retaliate if it fails to do so, a senior North Korean official said Saturday. Kim Kye Gwan, the North's envoy to the disarmament talks, said Pyongyang is carefully watching to see if the U.S. fulfills its pledge to end the restrictions on Banco Delta Asia. The Macau-based bank, accused of abetting North Korean counterfeiting and money-laundering, is holding $24 million that Pyongyang is unable to access.
  "The U.S. has promised the North it would scrap financial sanctions on the Banco Delta Asia," Kim told South Korean and Japanese reporters at Beijing's Capital Airport before taking a plane to Pyongyang. If Washington fails to do so, Kim said, North Korea "will be forced to take corresponding steps." [BDA]
• Reports: N. Korea Wants Sanctions Lifted
  The Associated Press Friday, March 9, 2007; 12:41 AM TOKYO -- A top North Korean official said the U.S. must lift sanctions against his country before it will shut down its nuclear reactor as part of an international disarmament deal, news reports said Friday. North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, making a brief, surprise stopover at Tokyo's main international airport late Thursday en route to Beijing from New York, said Pyongyang would be watching Washington's moves closely, the mass-circulation Yomiuri newspaper reported.     "The United States promised to resolve the problem of sanctions against our country within 30 days. If this promise is kept, then we will shut down our nuclear facilities in 60 days," said Kim, the chief negotiator to the disarmament talks. [Financial sanctions] [US NK negotiations]
• Kim: North off U.S. terrorism list
  March 09, 2007     TOKYO ? The United States has already agreed to take North Korea off Washington's list of states that sponsor terrorism and a follow-up development will happen soon, Kim Gye-gwan, North Korea's vice foreign minister, said yesterday. The United States is expected to release a new list in April. Mr. Kim said no conditions were placed on North Korea's removal from the list. After two days of talks in New York with his American counterpart, Christopher Hill, Mr. Kim arrived at Narita International Airport in Tokyo last night and spoke to reporters briefly on his way back to Pyongyang. "Spring is coming, so the atmosphere will change," Mr. Kim said, describing the first round of normalization talks as "constructive." He also said the discussion included North Korea's cooperation in the investigation of a highly enriched uranium-based nuclear arms program. Mr. Kim said he and Mr. Hill also discussed the possibility of arranging a foreign minister-level meeting among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. "It will probably take place around April," Mr. Kim said. "It is, however, not to upgrade the six-party talks. It is for the six ministers to get together to give momentum to the six-party talks." Asked whether Pyongyang will make more demands after financial sanctions on North Korean accounts in a bank in Macao, China are lifted, Mr. Kim said, "Just think that things are going well. Don't try to know too much about it."   By Yeh Young-june JoongAng Ilbo / Ser Myo-ja Staff Writer [myoja@joongang.co.kr] [US NK Negotiations]
• US, N. Korean Foreign Ministers Likely to Meet
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The foreign ministers from the United States and North Korea are likely to have bilateral talks as early as next month over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program and follow-up measures to a Feb. 13 disarmament agreement, South Korea's foreign minister said Thursday.
• USFK Commander Warns of Security Vacuum
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter   The top American general in South Korea said Thursday he was worried that the Seoul government's plans to reduce its number of troops over the next decade and cut the length of mandatory military service could cause a security vacuum on the Korean Peninsula. ``It is our hope that the Republic of Korea carefully considers these large force cuts unless they are matched by similar north Korean reductions,'' Gen. B. B. Bell, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), said in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee. [Military balance]
• Seizure of a tiny bank linked to N. Korea may soon end
  By Tim Johnson McClatchy Newspapers
  MACAU - Within weeks, authorities in this Chinese enclave near Hong Kong may end the 18-month takeover of a tiny private bank that the Bush administration has accused of laundering money for North Korea and serving as a conduit for counterfeit cash. Whether the government will return the bank to its original owner, a colorful gold trader with longstanding ties to North Korea, isn't clear. But regulators have told one of the bank's key clients that they'll soon release some frozen assets and end their seizure of the bank's operations.
  Officials in Macau won't say whether the U.S.-instigated seizure of Banco Delta Asia turned up any evidence to substantiate Bush administration claims of illicit activity. (An Ernst & Young audit did not, according to the bank's lawyers.)
  But signs are emerging that the government's seizure of the bank occurred in an irregular fashion, not following Macau's laws.
  "Was there ever a court order? I've never seen one," said a Macau lawyer, who declined to give his name, fearing retribution. He noted that bank records can be released only under such orders and must be published in local newspapers.
  At least one British client of Banco Delta Asia is angry and charges that the Bush administration pursued "trumped-up" allegations to pressure North Korea. Colin McAskill, whose company is acquiring Daedong Credit Bank, a foreign-operated bank in Pyongyang, said the bank had more than $6 million frozen at Banco Delta Asia at the behest of the U.S. Treasury Department. McAskill, speaking from London, said he proved to Macanese and U.S. officials that Daedong's deposits were from legitimate business dealings in North Korea. "We believe we've broken the back of the accusations the Americans have made and that we should get the money back," McAskill said. He added that Herculano de Sousa, the Macau banker who's temporarily running Banco Delta Asia's business, told him at a Feb. 28 meeting that his assets would soon be freed and the bank intervention ended. But McAskill said he's worried that U.S. officials may launch new volleys against North Korea, impairing the ability of his bank to do business. "The main focus now has to be to get the U.S. Treasury to stop interfering - as it has been doing - to prevent (North Korea) from using the international banking system for its legal and legitimate business," McAskill said. [BDA] [Legality] [Evidence]
• A Starring Role for N.Korea's Envoy in the U.S.
    North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan was a "star" in working group meetings in New York aimed at normalizing U.S.-North Korean ties. During his five-day stay in New York City, it was as if all U.S. diplomatic antennae and media attention focused on Kim. His entry into the United States, itinerary and security detail were those reserved for a foreign dignitary. The National Committee on American Foreign Policy at the Korea Society in New York held a closed-door seminar for Kim. Former U.S. secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright, Wendy Sherman, a former U.S. envoy to North Korea who accompanied Albright in her Pyeongyang visit, Victor Cha, national security aide at the White House and other high-profile officials spent five hours with Kim at the event. Charles Kartman, former director of the now defunct Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization and Jack Prichard, the U.S. special envoy to North Korea in the Clinton years and during the initial period of the Bush administration, met Kim separately. The U.S.-North Korean talks also dealt with the shutdown of the North's atomic reactor in Yongbyon and the next steps, which are the reporting and disablement of the country's nuclear program. The meeting was a prelude to the possibly rapid improvement in bilateral ties. The next step involves removing North Korea from Washington's lists of hostile and terror-sponsoring nations. Judging from the speed, direction and atmosphere of the latest talks, North Korea may get its wish of forming diplomatic ties with the U.S. without going through the stage of liaison offices.
• U.S. and S.Korea Closing in on Trade Pact
  With the eighth round of bilateral free trade talks opening Thursday, high-ranking Korean and U.S. government officials expressed their determination to secure an agreement and hinted that a deal might come earlier than expected.
• N.K., U.S. envoys end normalization talks on upbeat note
  North Korea made clear it would live up to last month's denuclearization deal and was willing to look ahead to the next stage when it will have to come clean on all the nuclear weapons and programs in its possession, a U.S. envoy said Tuesday.
• NK, US Envoys End Normalization Talks on Upbeat Note
  North Korea made clear that it would live up to last month's denuclearization deal and is willing to look ahead to the next stage when it will have to come clean on all its nuclear weapons and programs, the Yonhap News Agency reported quoting a U.S. envoy as saying Tuesday.
• Negroponte Pushes for N. Korea to Come Clean on HEU
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter   U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said in Seoul on Tuesday that North Korea should not risk losing all the benefits offered to it by concealing any of the nuclear facilities or programs that exist in the reclusive Stalinist state. [HEU] [Toolkit]
• U.S., North Korea Move to Open Ties
    Ronda Hauben (netizen2)   Published 2007-03-07 16:24 (KST)   "This process, not unlike a video game gets more and more difficult as you get to different levels," said Christopher Hill, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, speaking at a press conference held at the Foreign Press Center in New York City shortly after he had finished two days of meetings with North Korea's lead negotiator for the Six-Party talks, Kim Kye-gwan. Hill is the chief negotiator for the U.S. The Six-Party talks include the U.S., North Korea, South Korea, China, Russia and Japan [Media]
• Enhancing U.S. Engagement with North Korea
  The 2006 stalemate at the six-party talks, coming after North Korea’s missile tests and its first nuclear detonation, was a sign that U.S. policy was failing. Hamstrung by bureaucratic bickering, unable to build a cohesive multilateral coalition in support of its efforts, and unwilling to engage in serious negotiations with Pyongyang, Washington faced the real prospect of a North Korea armed with a small but growing nuclear deterrent. The Bush administration said that it would never accept a nuclear North Korea, but because of its policies, it seemed to have no choice. Then, in February 2007, engagement with North Korea appeared to be resurrected. Is it still possible to convince Pyongyang to reverse course? Joel S. Wit is a former U.S. Department of State official and coauthor of Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis.
• N.Korean Vice FM Ends 'Very Good' Talks in New York
  Seoul to Talk Peace   When a woman wearing sunglasses hurried into the Korea Society building on Manhattan's 57th Street in New York on Monday morning, even reporters at the scene failed to identify her immediately as former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright. Albright famously visited Pyongyang in October 2000, just over a month after North Korean vice marshal Cho Myong-rok's visit to Washington, and met Kim Jong-il to negotiate normalizing U.S.-North Korea diplomatic ties. Now North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan is in New York to attend a working group to normalize bilateral ties, and on Monday Kim met a flock of America's North Korea experts. They were mostly senior officials in the Clinton administration who dealt with North Korea and take a moderate line on the Stalinist country.
  Also attending the closed-door seminar sponsored by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy at the Korea Society was Wendy Sherman, a former U.S. envoy to North Korea, who accompanied Albright in her Pyongyang visit. She had been Kim Kye-gwan's negotiation partner during the Clinton administration. Jack Prichard, the U.S. special envoy to North Korea in the Clinton years and during the initial period of the Bush administration, was also present. In the past six years, all of them have taken the lead in criticizing the Bush administration's hard line on the North.  
• U.S. to Mount Military Exercises with S.Korea
  South Korea and the U.S. will stage joint military exercises called Reception, Staging, Onward movement and Integration, or RSOI, from March 25 to 31 at multiple locations throughout South Korea. It will be the first joint exercises for the two countries since they agreed last month to transfer wartime control of South Korean soldiers to Seoul in April 2012. U.S. Combined Forces Command in Seoul announced the drill Tuesday, saying that about 29,000 U.S. troops, including 6,000 reinforcements stationed outside the peninsula, will take part. The command agency said it notified North Korea of the plan through the UN Command's Military Armistice Commission on Tuesday morning. A statement said the Combined Forces Command "assured (North Korea) that this is a defensive military readiness exercise, and that it is not meant to be provocative in any way." The drill will include the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and a squadron of F-117A Nighthawk Stealth warplanes that arrived in January for a temporary stay in South Korea. [Joint US military] [Spin]
• S.Korea, U.S. Agree to Jointly Develop Guided Rockets
  The Agency for Defense Development and the U.S. Naval Institute of Aviation Weapons Research signed an agreement at Seoul's Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) on Tuesday to jointly develop 70mm guided rockets. The memorandum of understanding is the first agreement between South Korea and the U.S. to jointly research and develop core military technologies. Military authorities predict it will take more than 10 years to develop actual weapons. The planned air-to-surface rockets are equipped with an infrared video search system and a guidance system, and are an upgraded version of existing 70mm rockets carried by helicopters. [Military balance] [US Joint military] [Missiles]  
• US and N Korea in landmark talks
  North Korea is due to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor Talks aimed at normalising diplomatic relations between the US and North Korea for the first time in more than 50 years have opened in New York. The two-day meeting comes just three weeks after North Korea agreed to abandon part of its nuclear programme. On the agenda is the US designation of North Korea as a terrorist state as well as possible lifting of sanctions. Bilateral talks with the US have long been a condition set by the North for abandoning its nuclear ambitions. [US NK relations]
• Negroponte Pushes for N. Korea to Come Clean on HEU
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said in Seoul on Tuesday that North Korea should not risk losing all the benefits offered to it by concealing any of the nuclear facilities or programs that exist in the reclusive Stalinist state. ``It’s in the interest of North Korea to be completely forthcoming with respect to listing its nuclear facilities,’’ Negroponte said at a news conference. He was on a three-day trip here that began Monday as part of his first Asian tour since coming into office last month. ``If it were for some reason to conceal and not declare them, they will be undermining confidence in this entire agreement,'' he said. ``The North has nothing to fear from being entirely forthcoming in this regard.’’ [HEU] [Toolkit]  
• Can U.S. and N.Korea Move Past the 2000 Détente?
  The U.S. and North Korea started talks on normalizing their diplomatic relations in New York on Monday, in a new climate of sincerity that amazed some seasoned diplomats. "It makes you feel dizzy when a giant ship like the United States changes courses," was how a South Korean government official described it. Many in Seoul are cautiously optimistic that the situation could progress to a point it reached in 2000 ? when senior officials from the U.S. and North Korea exchanged visits and a trip to the North by president Bill Clinton was flagged ? and beyond.  
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and visiting U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright touch glasses during a banquet in Pyongyang in Oct. 2000 (top). North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan speaks to reporters on Sunday as he leaves the North's UN mission in New York, where envoys from Pyongyang and Washington began talks on normalizing diplomatic ties.
  North Korea has expressed willingness to discuss a uranium enrichment program the U.S. alleges it has alongside the admitted plutonium program, according to a Pyongyang mouthpiece in Tokyo. The report came from the Chosun Shinbo, the paper of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan or Chongryon [HEU]
• Korea Buys US$2.7 Bln in Weapons from U.S.
  Data show that Korea made a contract with the U.S. to purchase around US$2.7 billion worth of military weapons last year. This is according to the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, an organization that offers financial and technical assistance and promotes military-to-military contacts. The agency annually collects statistics on the number of U.S. military weapons sold to other countries. It said Seoul purchased close to $500 million worth of U.S. weapons through Foreign Military Sales between October 2005 and September 2006. The agency added that Korea also agreed to commercially buy around $2.3 billion worth of weapons through non-governmental firms in the U.S. [Military balance] [Tribute]  
• U.N. Development Agency Suspends Its Work in North Korea
  By WARREN HOGE Published: March 6, 2007 UNITED NATIONS, March 5 - The United Nations Development Program announced Monday that it was suspending work in North Korea because the country had failed to meet conditions set up in response to American complaints that United Nations money was being diverted to the government of Kim Jong-il. "We have decided to suspend our operations, and the ball is really now in the court of the D.P.R. Korean authorities," said David Morrison, director of communications for the agency, referring to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the country's official name. The decision, which curtails 20 programs with a budget of $4.4 million, was made Friday, a day after Pak Gil-yon, the North Korean ambassador to the United Nations, met with Ad Melkert, the development program's associate director, to say that his country would not agree to new conditions for assistance. [Diversion] [Toolkit]
• UNDP Suspends Operations in North Korea
  As working-level meetings for the normalization of relations between the U.S. and North Korea get serious, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has announced that it will suspend its operations in North Korea. In a statement released March 3, the UNDP said that it had no choice but to suspend its operations in North Korea as of March 1 as conditions set out by the organization's executive board on Jan. 25 have not been met. On Jan. 25, the U.S. demanded that the organization change its practices in North Korea, arguing that UNDP operations there are being used to funnel support for the development of nuclear weapons. At that time, the UNDP said it would review its plans for the next three years for North Korea and establish new operating practices after an audit was done. In this regard, the UNDP notified Pyongyang that it would stop making payments in Euros and review its hires of North Korean employees. When North Korea did not accept these changes, the UNDP decided to halt is operations there. UNDP support for North Korea totaled US$2.1 million in 2005 and $3.2 million in 2006. Funds were spent on developing public hygiene, the environment, agriculture, and the economy and 20 other areas. In addition to the UNDP, the UN has begun to audit other subsidiary aid organizations working in North Korea, including the World Food Programme and the United Nations International Children's Fund. The operations of these bodies in North Korea may be suspended or cut according to the results of the audit. [Toolkit] [Diversion]
• UNDP Suspends NK Aid
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter The U.N. Development Program (UNDP) suspended its operations in North Korea on March 1, according to an announcement on its Web site. In January, U.N. operations in the North were accused by the United Sates of funneling millions of dollars in cash aid to Pyongyang to be used for ``its own illicit purposes,'' including possible nuclear weapons development. ``As of March 1, 2007, UNDP has no choice but to suspend its operations in North Korea as the necessary conditions set out by the executive board on Jan. 25 have not been met,'' the U.N. aid agency said. [Toolkit] [Diversion]
• Administration asked to clarify intelligence on North Korea
  By Jonathan S. Landay McClatchy Newspapers Posted on Fri, Mar. 02, 2007 WASHINGTON - A top Senate Democrat demanded Friday that the Bush administration explain the intelligence it received on North Korea's nuclear weapons program after testimony this week suggested uncertainty about whether the communist regime has acquired the capacity to produce highly enriched uranium. President Bush has said repeatedly that North Korea has been producing highly enriched uranium, which is used to produce nuclear bombs. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., made the request after testimony before his Senate Armed Services Committee revealed that U.S. intelligence agencies had only "mid-level" confidence that North Korea was secretly pursuing a uranium enrichment effort in addition to a publicly known plutonium program. Both enriched uranium and plutonium can be used to make nuclear weapons. The assessment appeared to mark a shift backward from earlier judgments in which the intelligence community said it had "high confidence" that North Korea was building an industrial-scale uranium enrichment program. [HEU] [Evidence] [Disinformation] [Partisan]
• Delegation from North arrives in U.S. for talks
  South Korean foreign minister in Washington as well March 03, 2007
    Kim Gye-gwan North Korea's vice foreign minister kicked off a seven-day visit to the United States when he arrived in San Francisco on Thursday. During this rare visit Kim Kye-gwan will meet with U.S. officials next week to discuss normalization of ties between Washington and Pyongyang. After some details regarding Mr. Kim's schedule were made public, officials at the South Korean foreign ministry pointed out that he will be meeting with U.S. officials and opinion leaders who are influential enough to bring about changes in the Bush administration's policy toward Pyongyang.
• US May Have Inflated N. Korea Allegations
  The United States, which used some false and exaggerated intelligence to make its case for invading Iraq, may also have inflated some of its allegations against North Korea to justify a hard-line policy toward the Stalinist regime, according to American news reports. U.S. President Bush W. Bush claimed in 2002 that North Korea was making highly enriched uranium (HEU) for nuclear weapons when there was no intelligence that it was doing so. Now there are new questions about the administration's assertions that a bank in Macau knowingly laundered proceedings from North Korean narcotics trafficking, cigarette smuggling and counterfeit American currency, McClatchy Newspapers reported on Thursday. An audit of the Banco Delta Asia's finances by accounting firm Ernst & Young found no evidence that the bank had facilitated North Korean money-laundering, either by circulating counterfeit U.S. bank notes or by knowingly sheltering illicit earnings of the North Korean government. In a filing submitted to the Treasury Department last October, Heller Ehrman LLP, the bank's New York law firm, reported that an audit by the government of Macau also had found no evidence of money-laundering. The Treasury Department refused to discuss the findings of either audit, as did the government of Macau and Ernst & Young. ``Taken together, the pronouncements raised questions about whether the administration has been overstating its case against North Korea, a heavily armed communist dictatorship that Bush included in his `axis of evil' with Iran and Iraq under the late dictator Saddam Hussein,'' the report said. The White House didn't respond immediately to a request for comment. [HEU] [BDA] [Evidence] [Disinformation]
• Bush chooses diplomacy - for now
  By Warren P. Strobel McClatchy Newspapers
  * Administration asked to clarify intelligence on North Korea * U.S. claims on North Korea come under scrutiny * Firm: No evidence of North Korean money laundering
  WASHINGTON - As North Korean and U.S. officials sit down Monday to begin mending fences after 55 years of hot war and cold peace, it will be a turning point for both countries - and it could be the beginning of a transformation for President Bush.
  Republican presidents in the past have made policy shifts that Democrats feared to take. Dwight Eisenhower ended the Korean War, and Richard Nixon opened relations with communist China. There's also a bipartisan tradition of two-term presidents turning to diplomacy in their final years in office.
• Accounting firm finds no evidence of money laundering
  By Kevin G. Hall McClatchy Newspapers
  WASHINGTON - As American intelligence officials back away from key charges about North Korea's nuclear program, there are also new questions about whether the Bush administration may have made unverified or exaggerated claims to force a bank in tiny Macau to freeze North Korean financial assets.
  Ernst & Young, a global accounting firm, found no evidence that the family-owned Macau bank had facilitated North Korean money-laundering, either by circulating counterfeit U.S. banknotes or by knowingly sheltering illicit earnings of the North Korean government, according to a filing by the bank's American lawyers. Despite repeated requests by McClatchy newspapers, the Treasury Department refused to discuss the findings of the Ernst & Young audit or a separate investigation by the government of Macau, which also found no evidence of illicit money-laundering, according to the filing. Neither the government of Macau nor Ernst & Young would comment on the filing. [BDA] [Evidence] [Disinformation] [Toolkit]
• U.S. claims on North Korea come under scrutiny
  By Jonathan S. Landay and Kevin G. Hall McClatchy Newspapers
  Posted on Thu, Mar. 01, 2007 WASHINGTON - The Bush administration, which used some false and exaggerated intelligence to make its case for invading Iraq, also may have inflated some of its allegations against North Korea to justify a hard-line policy toward the Stalinist regime. President Bush claimed in 2002 that North Korea was making highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons when there was no intelligence that it was doing so. Now there are new questions about the administration's assertions that a bank in Macau knowingly laundered proceedings from North Korean narcotics trafficking, cigarette smuggling and counterfeit American currency. An audit of the Banco Delta Asia's finances by accounting firm Ernst & Young found no evidence that the bank had facilitated North Korean money-laundering, either by circulating counterfeit U.S. bank notes or by knowingly sheltering illicit earnings of the North Korean government. [HEU] [BDA] [Evidence] [Disinformation] [Toolkit]
• U.S. Shifts Aims to Ease N.Korea Negotiations
  By REUTERS Published: March 3, 2007 Filed at 9:04 a.m. ET Skip to next paragraph WASHINGTON (Reuters) - By acknowledging doubts about what it knows of North Korea's uranium enrichment program, the United States aims to set the record straight and ease resolution of an issue that has been a key obstacle to a nuclear agreement since 2002, U.S. officials and experts say.
  Chief U.S. negotiator Chris Hill ``had to back off the previous U.S. assessment of what North Korea was doing on uranium enrichment to make it easier to get a settlement,'' said Selig Harrison of the Woodrow Wilson Center thinktank, who first raised questions about the accuracy of the U.S. allegations two years ago. The administration in recent years used ``loose language'' and engaged in ``incremental analytical leaps of faith'' that may have inflated conclusions about North Korea's capability, making the issue harder to solve in negotiations, said Charles Pritchard, a former U.S. negotiator with Pyongyang. The current U.S. approach tells the North ``there is a pathway out of this for you. It is not as dire as you've been led to believe'' and agreement is possible, said Pritchard, president of the Korea Economic Institute.
  But in October 2002, it accused the North of pursuing a second covert program to produce highly enriched uranium, another source of fuel for nuclear weapons. The North initially acknowledged the program but has since denied it. [HEU] [Evidence] [Admission]
• U.S. Ready to Release N. Korean Assets
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: March 3, 2007 Filed at 12:11 a.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States will soon recommend releasing a significant amount of frozen North Korean bank accounts, officials say, which diplomats hope will keep North Korea from reneging on its pledge to scrap nuclear weapons. The Treasury Department could announce as soon as next week that several million dollars connected to North Korea are not tainted by links to rogue nuclear proliferation or allegations of counterfeiting, smuggling and other crimes. The U.S. move is expected to prompt overseas bank regulators to unfreeze between $8 million and $12 million from about $24 million in blocked assets, one official said. Treasury and State Department officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe results of an ongoing Treasury review.
• Banco Delta Asia comes clean over purchase of gold from North Korea
  January 1st 2007 / Vol 8 No 1 LOSSES & LAWSUITS
  Banco Delta Asia, labelled by the US Treasury as a "primary money laundering concern", has admitted that it purchased a large amount of gold from North Korea, one of its biggest exports.
  Through its US lawyers Heller Ehrman, Delta Asia stated that it bought 9.2 tonnes of gold from North Korea in the three years to September 2005, selling it through Delta Asia Credit, its Hong Kong unit, and taking commission of $1.50 an ounce. The article said this raised $120 million for Pyongyang. Delta Asia's Treasury filing also acknowledged that the bank had provided services to North Korea's Tanchon Commercial Bank, which had been blacklisted three months before by the US, deeming it the main North Korean financial agent for sales of conventional arms, ballistic missiles and related goods. Delta Asia blames outdated technology for the oversight and for its inability to generate reports on unusual deposits and possible shortcomings in screening retail cash deposits for counterfeit currency. Ernst & Young, which reviewed the bank's operations last year, found that the bank paid insufficient attention to maintaining its own books and had identified a North Korea-related account that bank staff had missed during the original asset freeze. Delta Asia's statement is an attempt to get the US Treasury to lift its labelling as a primary money laundering concern, which had caused other banks to break off commercial ties with Delta Asia, and had panicked customers. [BDA] [Spin] [Media]
• Death provokes anti-war protests
  March 02, 2007       Following the death of a South Korean soldier in Afghanistan during a suicide bomb attack, some politicians and civic groups yesterday urged the Roh Moo-hyun administration to bring back all troops sent overseas to assist the United States.
• Song, Rice to Discuss NK Disarmament
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter   Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Song Min-soon will discuss a roadmap for a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula when he meets with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington, D.C. The minister began a weeklong visit to the United States and Russia on Thursday for talks on follow-up actions to an agreement on the dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear weapons program and building up a peace regime on the peninsula. Song will coordinate with Rice the initial steps to implement the ``Feb. 13 agreement'' on disabling the North's nuclear program, ministry officials said.
• 57 Ex-Generals Rap Command Takeover Deal
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter A group of 57 former defense chiefs Wednesday called for the nullification of the Seoul-Washington agreement regarding the transition of wartime operational control from the United States to South Korea in 2012 reached last Saturday [Sovereignty]
• US Treasury Ends BDA Investigation
  U.S. officials said Monday they had wound up their probe into a Macau bank accused of laundering millions of dollars of illicit North Korean funds, Agence France-Presse reported. The U.S. move raised expectations that sanctions placed on the lender may soon be lifted, AFP said in its dispatch from Hong Kong.
• U.S., N. Korea to start talks on normalization
  U.S. and North Korean officials will meet in New York on March 5-6 to discuss first steps toward establishing normal ties after decades of hostility, the U.S. State Department said Wednesday. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill will meet next week with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan. The officials headed negotiating delegations at six-nation talks that resulted in a nuclear disarmament agreement on Feb. 13. Talks on normalizing relations were called for in that agreement. [US-NK relations]
• U.S. to crack down on N.K. counterfeiting From news reports
  WASHINGTON - The top U.S. negotiator with North Korea insisted Wednesday that Washington would pursue a crackdown on counterfeiting of U.S. currency and other illicit dealings by Pyongyang despite moves towards normalization with the communist regime. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told a congressional panel that the government was "prepared to resolve" a key financial dispute with North Korea as part of a deal to end that country's nuclear program. The dispute involved U.S. sanctions imposed in 2005 against a Macau-based bank accused of laundering North Korean-made counterfeit U.S. 100-dollar bills. The sanctions resulted in a freeze on $24 million in North Korean funds at the bank and Washington's willingness to lift the measures was a key element in enticing Pyongyang to sign a Feb. 13 agreement to freeze its nuclear program. But Hill insisted that resolution of the sanctions issue "will not solve all of North Korea's problems with the international financial system." [Toolkit]
• Macao bank set to lift its freeze on North Korea
  By Donald Greenlees
  Published: February 28, 2007 HONG KONG: The Macao bank accused by the United States of laundering money for North Korea is preparing to end a freeze on at least some accounts linked to North Korea by the end of March, the bank told a major account holder on Wednesday. A committee appointed by the Macao government to run Banco Delta Asia after the United States opened an investigation into charges of money- laundering and counterfeiting U.S. currency 18 months ago is also likely to return control of the bank to its original owners, the head of the committee said in talks in Macao. At a meeting in the Chinese territory of Macao this week, U.S. officials told government and banking authorities that they were close to ending the bank investigation that began in September 2005. The investigation of Banco Delta Asia prompted the bank to freeze all accounts linked to North Korea, totaling about $25 million. It also prompted a run on deposits and a decision by the Macao government to take control of the bank. Under pressure from the United States, banks around the world then cut ties with North Korea, effectively shutting down Pyongyang's access to the international financial system. But in a meeting in Macao on Wednesday, Herculano de Sousa, the head of the committee appointed to run Banco Delta Asia, told a representative of Daedong Credit Bank, of one Banco Delta Asia's biggest North Korean account holders, that substantial amounts of frozen money were likely to be returned soon. [BDA] [Financial sanctions]
• US Treasury Ends BDA Investigation
  U.S. officials said Monday they had wound up their probe into a Macau bank accused of laundering millions of dollars of illicit North Korean funds, Agence France-Presse reported. The U.S. move raised expectations that sanctions placed on the lender may soon be lifted, AFP said in its dispatch from Hong Kong.
• U.S. Sanctions With Teeth
  By David Ignatius Wednesday, February 28, 2007; Page A19
  Everybody knows that economic sanctions don't work. Just look at the decades of fruitless pressure on Cuba. But guess what? In the recent cases of North Korea and Iran, a new variety of U.S. Treasury sanctions is having a potent effect, suggesting that the conventional wisdom may be wrong. These new, targeted financial measures are to traditional sanctions what Super Glue is to Elmer's Glue-All. That is, they really stick. Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt doesn't even like to call them sanctions, preferring the term "law enforcement measures." Explains Stuart Levey, Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence: "Sanctions are scoffed at. They have a bad history."
  Treasury applied the new tools to North Korea in September 2005, when it put a bank in Macao called Banco Delta Asia on the blacklist. There was no legal proceeding -- just a notice in the Federal Register summarizing the evidence: Banco Delta Asia had been providing illicit financial services to North Korean government agencies and front companies for more than 20 years, according to the Treasury notice. The little Macao bank had helped the North Koreans feed counterfeit $100 bills into circulation, had laundered money from drug deals and had financed cigarette smuggling. North Korea "pays a fee to Banco Delta Asia for financial access to the banking system with little oversight or control," Treasury alleged. Wham! The international payments window shut almost instantly on Pyongyang's pet bank. Transactions with U.S. entities stopped, but the Treasury announcement also put other countries on notice to beware of Banco Delta Asia. The Macao banking authorities, realizing that they needed the oxygen of the international financial system to survive, took regulatory action on their own and froze the bank's roughly $24 million in North Korean assets. And around Asia, banks began looking for possible links to North Korean front companies -- and shutting them down. [BDA] [Financial sanctions] [Bizarre]