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

2009

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

• NK-US relations 2008
• NK-US relations 2007
• 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

• Korea to Send 1,000 Troops for PKO
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter South Korea plans to send more than 1,000 troops to participate in U.N. peacekeeping operations (PKO) in 2010, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Thursday. [Tribute]
• N. Korea puts peace treaty before normal ties: sources
  North Korea conveyed to the United States that it places more emphasis on pursuing a peace treaty than a normalization of bilateral relations, a Japanese news agency reported, quoting an unidentified diplomatic source. Pyongyang officials including Vice Foreign Minister Kang Suk-joo had relayed the message to Washington's special envoy Stephen Bosworth when he visited the North earlier this month, according to Kyodo News on Monday. The North Korean officials reportedly said normalizing diplomatic relations were of less importance because they could "collapse at any unwarranted moment," Kyodo News reported. Pyongyang has been strongly pushing to establish a peace treaty to replace the current armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. The North's logic was that the lack of a permanent peace deal on the peninsula was a reflection of Washington's hostile policies towards it. [NK US policy]
• N.Korea Arrests U.S. Missionary
  U.S. missionary Robert Park is seen on TV. /AP U.S. missionary Robert Park is seen on TV. /AP North Korea says it has arrested an American who illegally crossed the border from China last week. Officials made the announcement in the state-run Korean Central News Agency Tuesday without giving any details. The report apparently refers to U.S. Christian missionary and human rights activist Robert Park. A colleague, Jo Sung-rae, says Park entered North Korea on Christmas Day. Jo said Park was carrying a Bible and a written human rights appeal for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
• North Korea Detains American
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: December 28, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Tuesday that it had detained an American citizen who the government said had illegally entered the reclusive country from China.
  Mr. Park was carrying a Bible and a letter urging the Mr. Kim Jong-il to release all political prisoners from the country’s notorious concentration camps, the activists said. “I am coming here to deliver God’s love,” he said as he crossed the frozen river border, according to Jo Sung-rae, head of Pax Koreana, a conservative civic group based in Seoul. “God loves you.” Before leaving Seoul for China on Wednesday to enter North Korea, Mr. Park said he wanted to be arrested to help bring international attention to the North Koreans’ suffering, South Korean activists said. He said he did not want to be released until the North shut down its prison camps, they said.
• North Korea Sees Progress in U.S. Envoy’s Visit
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: December 10, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea —North Korea said Friday that its differences with the United States had been diminished during the visit this week of President Obama’s special envoy, but that it needed more talks before deciding whether to return to six-nation nuclear disarmament talks. “Through businesslike and candid talks, both sides deepened mutual understandings, narrowed differences in their respective views and identified not a small number of things in common,” an unidentified spokesman for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency. “Both sides agreed to continue to cooperate to narrow the remaining differences.”
• Interview with Mike Chinoy on the Stephen Bosworth Visit to North Korea and U.S.- North Korea Relations in the Era of Obama
  Interviewed by Thomas Kim | December 12, 2009 (The Korean language version of this interview will be published in Minjog 21.) Mike Chinoy is currently a senior fellow at the U.S.-China Institute at the University of Southern California. A foreign correspondent for CNN for 24 years, in April of 1994 he became the first broadcaster to file live TV reports from North Korea. Chinoy has visited the D.P.R.K. 14 times and is the author of Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis, which Foreign Affairs magazine described as "the definitive account" of the North Korean nuclear crisis. An updated paperback edition current to former President Bill Clinton's visit to Pyongyang has just been published and a Korean language version is forthcoming.
  When Hill went back to Washington, there was so much pushback from hard-line critics that he was forced to go back to the North Koreans and demand that they submit to a very intrusive inspection regime as a precondition of delisting. That was the catalyst of the crisis that torpedoed the process in 2008. The North Koreans felt that the U.S. was moving the goalposts in the middle of the game. Bosworth is responding to this, telling them that he's speaking for the President. In the Obama administration, there is nothing on the order of the civil war that existed in the Bush administration over North Korea policy. [Renege] [US NK Negotiations] [Dissension] [Continuity]
• Kissinger: How to make progress on North Korea
  By Henry A. Kissinger, secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 ( The American special representative for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, returned from Pyongyang last week after unusually benign conversations. The North Korean government affirmed “the need to resume six-power talks” on the nuclear disarmament of the Korean Peninsula. It added, however, the proviso that the United States and Korea “needed to cooperate to narrow the remaining differences” before it would rejoin the established six-power diplomatic framework, from which it walked out a year ago while abandoning all the undertakings it had made during those talks. In other words, Pyongyang seeks separate negotiations with the United States while keeping the other parties out of the diplomatic process, at least for a while. [US N policy] [NK US policy] [Inversion]
• Dual approach to N.K. nukes valid
  The two-track approach devised in the past year to eschew North Korea's relentless attempts to expand and strengthen its nuclear weapons programs appears to have been valid with Pyongyang now poised to return to another round of six-party talks. The North Korean regime recently did an about-face, after almost a year of defying, challenging and dismissing calls from the international community to end its nuclear weapons programs. The dramatic shift came after Washington's special envoy Stephen Bosworth made a rare visit to North Korea after months of "strategic" procrastination. The United States and North Korea now appear good and ready to bury the hatchet, with Pyongyang agreeing on the need to revive the six-nation talks devised by international society to end its nuclear ambitions. The North also reaffirmed the denuclearization agreement set in the Sept. 19 joint communique. The "good news" does not stop there. It was later revealed that U.S. President Barack Obama sent a personal message to the North Koreans via Bosworth. Pyongyang has acknowledged the correspondence, although both sides are careful not to discuss the contents in detail. [US NK negotiations] [Media]
• Questions About N.Korean Arms Transport Multiply
  Unidentified crew members of a cargo plane which flew into Thailand carrying 30 tons of North Korea weapons talk with a Thai policeman (bottom left) before leaving the Criminal Court following a hearing, in Bangkok on Monday. /AFP-Yonhap Unidentified crew members of a cargo plane which flew into Thailand carrying 30 tons of North Korea weapons talk with a Thai policeman (bottom left) before leaving the Criminal Court following a hearing, in Bangkok on Monday. /AFP-Yonhap A Georgian cargo plane seized by Thai authorities with 35 to 40 tons of North Korean weapons had undertaken similar transports for the North three or four times before, press reports said Monday. Thai daily The Nation said pilot Mikhail Petukhov admitted the destinations were Sri Lanka and the Middle East and he had flown similar consignments three or four times. Besides Petukhov, a Belorussian, there were four crewmembers with Kazakh passports aboard. The Nation said some crew told Thai police the plane "was to stop for refueling [in Bangkok] and Sri Lanka and drop off the cargo in Ukraine." But questions remain over the exact route and the circumstances surrounding the stopover. On its way to North Korea, the plane refueled in Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates. The Bangkok Post quoted high-ranking Thai officials as saying that despite conflicting claims from the crew, Thai authorities seized the weapons at Don Muang Airport because of a tip-off from U.S. intelligence. The paper said crew, in a police investigation that started Sunday, denied knowing what the cargo was and said they believed it was "oil-drilling equipment." [Arms sales] [Imperialism] [US dominance] [Double standards] [UNUS]
• DPRK on US Envoy's Pyongyang Visit
  Pyongyang, December 11 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry Friday gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA as regards the DPRK visit by the U.S. special representative for DPRK policy and his party: Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for DPRK policy, and his party visited Pyongyang from Dec. 8 to 10. During their stay they had talks with the vice-minister for U.S. affairs of the DPRK Foreign Ministry and its first vice-minister met with them. At the meeting and talks both sides had a long exhaustive and candid discussion on wide-ranging issues including the conclusion of a peace agreement, the normalization of the bilateral relations, economic and energy assistance and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Through working and frank discussion the two sides deepened the mutual understanding, narrowed their differences and found not a few common points. They also reached a series of common understandings of the need to resume the six-party talks and the importance of implementing the September 19 Joint Statement. Both sides agreed to continue to cooperate with each other in the future to narrow down the remaining differences.
• The Path Not Taken, The Way Still Open: Denuclearizing The Korean Peninsula And Northeast Asia
  Peter Hayes and Michael Hamel-Green Synopsis A Korean Nuclear Weapons Free Zone (WFZ) may be a necessary condition to achieving the full denuclearization of Korea. As well as providing benefits to the United States in preventing a major direct and wider proliferation threat from North Korea, and to China, Japan and South Korea in maintaining stability in the Northeast Asian Region, it would also serve to address North Korean security concerns about potential US nuclear strikes. The two Koreas have already negotiated a legal basis for a Korean Nuclear Weapon Free Zone in the form of the 1992 Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korea Peninsula. This could form the basis of a NWFZ covering the peninsula. Alternatively, the ROK and Japan could create a Japan Korea NWFZ via a bilateral treaty. This article assesses the prospects for the creation of a NWFZ in the present international climate. [US NK policy]
• Extended Nuclear Deterrence, Global Abolition, and Korea
  Peter Hayes1 Introduction This essay examines the role that nuclear weapons have played in Northeast Asia in creating a system of inter-state relations based in part on nuclear threat and the impact of North Korea on that system. The US-led alliances that rest on extended nuclear deterrence have been characterized as hegemonic in the forty years of Cold War in the Gramscian sense of hegemonic, that is, allied elites accepted US leadership based on its legitimating ideology of extended nuclear deterrence, institutional integration, and unique American nuclear forces that underpinned the alliances.2 A crucial aspect of American nuclear hegemony in Asia was the guarantee that the hegemon would ensure that no adversary could break out of the system after China’s 1964 successful nuclear test, as expressed by the Non Proliferation Treaty and IAEA safeguard system. The failure of the United States to stop and now reverse the DPRK nuclear over the previous two decades threatens its hegemonic leadership in Northeast Asia, and is linked to the decreasing ability of American power to shape events in other proliferation-prone regions such as South and West Asia. [US NK policy] [US global strategy]
• Arms cargo
  Thai authorities discovered more than 35 tons of arms on a cargo plane from North Korea when the plane landed at an airport near Bangkok for refueling Saturday, confirmation that Pyongyang continues to actively engage in arms dealing despite a U.N. ban against North Korean arms shipments. Thai government said that the weapons included missiles, explosives, rocket-propelled grenades and tubes. Five crew members - four from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus - have been arrested, according to Thai media reports. A Thai air force official involved in the inspection of the cargo plane said that the United States had asked the Thai authorities to inspect the plane and its cargo. He also said that the plane came from North Korea and was heading for a country in South Asia, probably Pakistan. [Arms sales] [Imperialism] [UNUS] [Double standards] [Sanctions] [Legality] [Agency]
• Thailand Seizes Planeload of N.Korean Weapons
  A Georgian cargo aircraft from Pyongyang carrying 35 tons of North Korean-made missiles, explosives and other weapons was seized at Bangkok's Don Muang Airport on Saturday. Thai authorities arrested five crewmen including the pilot of the aircraft, which had stopped for refueling at Don Muang after leaving Pyongyang, and seized the weapons. This was the first time an airplane carrying North Korean weapons has been caught since the UN Security Council adopted sanctions in June. The resolution bans all weapons exports from the country and most imports. [Arms sales] [Imperialism] [UNUS] [Double standards] [Sanctions] [Legality] [Agency]
• Arms Deals Highlight N.Korea's Duplicity (sic)
  Thai authorities on Saturday searched a Georgian cargo aircraft from Pyongyang during a refueling stop at Bangkok's Don Muang Airport and found 35 tons of North Korean weapons aboard, including missiles and explosives, and arrested five crewmembers including the pilot. Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Sunday the measure was based on Thai laws and the UN Resolution 1874. Some reports said the final destination of the plane was Pakistan, near whose border U.S. forces are engaged in a fierce battle against the Taliban. [Arms sales] [Imperialism] [UNUS] [Double standards] [Sanctions] [Legality] [Agency]
• What Hope for Progress in U.S.-N.Korea Talks?
  The seizure in Bangkok on Sunday of a Georgian cargo aircraft carrying weapons from North Korea is giving rise to concerns that U.S.-North Korea dialogue could suffer as a result. North Korea is being as duplicitous (sic) by pursuing dialogue with the U.S. while continuing with its weapons exports. Some say the mood of detente between the United States and North Korea was always an illusion. [US NK negotiations]
• US to Blame for Nuclear Threat and Proliferation
  Pyongyang, December 13 (KCNA) -- Voices calling for withdrawal of nuclear weapons is now ringing out more loudly than ever before in the Western European countries where lots of U.S. nukes have been deployed, says Minju Joson Sunday in a signed commentary. Nuclear disarmament is one of the requirements of the times and an international trend, it notes, and goes on: [Nuclear disarmament] [Proliferation]
• Thais Seize Plane With Weapons From N. Korea
  By THOMAS FULLER and DAVID E. SANGER Published: December 12, 2009 BANGKOK — A cargo aircraft flying from North Korea and carrying tons of weapons has been seized by Thai authorities during a refueling stop in Bangkok, Thai officials said. A senior Obama administration official said the United States — which fears North Korea will sell some of its nuclear technology — had tipped off the Thai authorities that the plane, which landed here Friday, might be carrying weapons (sic). “From our visual inspection there seem to be several types of weapons, components and materials: long tubes, shoulder-fired missiles, certain types of rocket propelled grenades,” Panitan Wattanayagorn, a government spokesman, said in an interview Sunday. Mr. Panitan said many crates removed from the aircraft had not yet been opened. The full payload was brought to an air force base in central Thailand and will be inspected Tuesday, he said. The United States official said that beyond wanting to know what the plane was carrying, the administration was also signaling North Korea that it intended to keep the pressure up even as it pursued talks with its leaders about possibly restarting nuclear negotiations. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity. [Arms sales] [Imperialism] [UNUS] [Double standards] [Sanctions] [Legality] [Agency]
• North Korea Update: Skirmishes and Preparations for Preparations 
  December 1, 2009   by Amanda Pourciau (intnc@keia.org) and Nicole Finnemann (nmf@keia.org) Like the holiday season in the United States, developments on the North Korean front showed that the purpose of November is primarily to prepare for December. While the United States accepted Pyongyang’s invitation to hold a bilateral meeting in early December, progress hardly seemed plausible with the announcements of more completed nuclear activity and demands for nuclear state recognition. Pyongyang seemed to use the month of November to prepare its negotiating position vis-à-vis the other five parties to the Six Party Talks, including increased, but confusing, developments in inter-Korean relations. And on the economic front, North Korea looks to be positioning itself for 2012-related development.  [US NK policy]
• The Allies and North Korea
  By Leon V. Sigal December 1st, 2009 Leon V. Sigal, Director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project Social Science Research Council, writes, “whatever the allies’ misgivings about US diplomatic give-and-take with the DPRK, letting North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs run free will only aggravate alliance relations. Direct talks with Pyongyang are the best way for each of them to satisfy their own security and other interests – if not necessarily their leaders’ domestic political needs.” [US NK policy]
• Nonproliferation Policy towards North Korea
  By Sharon Squassoni and Fred McGoldrick November 24th, 2009 Sharon Squassoni, Senior Associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Fred McGoldrick, Principal at Bengeslsdorf, McGoldrick and Associates, LLC, write, “With North Korea’s declaration in 2003 of withdrawal from NPT, its compliance is now no longer a “simple” question of verifying disarmament and the absence of undeclared activities, facilities and materials… The ultimate goal must remain a recommitment to the NPT. Short of that goal, however, it is desirable to move towards a mid-way station that would, at a minimum, a) halt further nuclear weapons development; b) cap fissile material production; and c) stop or minimize WMD-related exports.” [US NK policy]
• Obama Takes a Bow?
  John Feffer | November 20, 2009 Critics of the Obama administration were delighted at the images from the president's recent trip to Asia. There was the deep bow before Emperor Akihito. There was the group photo with the head of the Burmese junta. There was the deferential press conference with Chinese President Hu Jintao. "There is no reason for an American president to bow to anyone," Dick Cheney said. In China, "Obama was deferential to the point of looking weak," USA Today editorialized. According to the critics, the Obama administration is bending over backwards — and sometimes forwards — to play well with others. We are kowtowing to our allies and our adversaries alike. In fact, the president on this trip did quite the opposite.
  Finally, in Seoul, Obama highlighted the importance of engaging North Korea and negotiating a comprehensive package to achieve denuclearization. The president announced the upcoming visit to Pyongyang of a high-level envoy Stephen Bosworth. But in other ways, Washington is still playing hardball. For instance, the United States continues to maintain sanctions against North Korea. Bosworth's delegation, meanwhile, has a very narrow brief: to revive the six-party format of discussions. In other words, the Obama administration is making a welcome but only slight nod in the direction of negotiations while maintaining a strong containment (sic) approach. [Continuity] [US NK policy] [Sanctions]
• Engaging the DPRK: A “Deferred Delivery” Option?
  Georgy Toloraya Regardless of rhetoric, there is little doubt that North Korea is not prepared to give up its nuclear capability any time soon. Although it might simply be a bargaining position, Pyongyang has even made it clear that there can be no such outcome until the whole world becomes free of nuclear weapons.1 That creates a new strategic reality – even if we do not recognize North Korea as a nuclear power, we will have to live side by side with it as a de -facto nuclear possessing state for a considerable period of time. While the United States is separated from it by an ocean, for Russia, China and South Korea there is just a river or a border. How are all the parties concerned going to deal with this country? [NK US policy]
• Anticipation rising for U.S.-N.K. talks
  The United States appeared to be busy raising the stakes for North Korea to earnestly recommit to its own denuclearization, with top officials advertising what enticing incentives are in store for the impoverished communist regime. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday underscored there would be a quid pro quo for North Korea's return to the six-nation talks, saying the United States would "explore some of the issues which they have raised continually with us over the years; namely, normalization of relations, a peace treaty instead of an armistice, economic development assistance." North Korea - and South Korea under late former President Roh Moo-hyun - has been seeking to replace the current armistice with a peace treaty to officially end the 1950-53 Korean War. [NK US policy]
• To care for the People As if They were Heaven: Kim Dae Jung on Kwangju and the U.S. role in South Korea
  Tim Shorrock, Investigative Journalist | November 15, 2009 (Originally published November 11, 2009, TimShorrock.com) Tim Shorrock recounts his June 1985 interview with the late President Kim Dae Jung published by The Progressive, February, 1986. The Korea Policy Institute is pleased to present the original interview, along with Shorrock's recollections of President Kim. [Kim Dae-jung] [War crimes]
• Broaching Peace Regime Concepts to Support North Korean Denuclearization
  By James L. Schoff November 17th, 2009 James L. Schoff, associate director of Asia-Pacific studies at the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis (IFPA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, writes, “Even if we believe that a peace regime is not possible without the collapse of the North Korean political system, this cannot be our only policy approach, that is, to simply wait for North Korea to collapse or for some kind of external change. The United States should work proactively with its allies and regional partners in the region to envision a framework for building a KPPR, which in turn may help improve the conditions for peace regime building and denuclearization.” [US NK policy]
• North Korea: a victory for Obama’s Asian diplomacy
  December 8th, 2009 Author: Amy King, Oxford Obama’s first visit to Asia as President has attracted widespread criticism. On everything from his decision to bow to the Japanese emperor, to his failure to achieve concessions from China on climate change and human rights, US press coverage in particular has characterised the visit as a failure (although James Fallows has attacked the mainstream US press for ‘manufacturing’ this failure). Yet on North Korea, the Obama administration has achieved some success [US NK policy]
• N. Korea comes closer to talks
  North Korea yesterday said it attained "a series of common recognition" with the United States on the need to resume the six-nation talks and reaffirm the principles of a previous denuclearization agreement when Washington's special envoy Stephen Bosworth visited this week. An unidentified official of the North's foreign ministry was quoted for these and other remarks regarding Bosworth's trip during an interview with the state-run Korean Central News Agency. The official also reportedly said the two sides held "frank and sincere" discussions on a wide range of issues including the possibility of achieving a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, normalization of relations and peninsular denuclearization. The United States and North Korea will continue to cooperate, the official added, to narrow down "remaining differences."
• North Korea: A Date in Pyongyang – but What Real Hope?
  By Aidan Foster-Carter December 9^th , 2009 Aidan Foster-Carter, Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea at Leeds University, writes, “Nuclear weapons may be misguided self-defence, but state crime is North Korea’s unforced and persistent choice. This is a pit Pyongyang dug for itself, as it has so many others – while often resisting or even biting the helping hand that offers to pull it out. So the fear must be that Kim Jong-il has no desire to go straight; that indeed he cannot conceive of doing so. Or again, in all honesty what hope is there for a ruler who quails in fear at TV adverts for beer?” [Inversion]
• Obama Administration Begins First Direct Talks With North Korea
  Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009 U.S. special envoy Stephen Bosworth traveled to North Korea today in hopes of persuading its leaders to return to negotiations aimed at permanently shuttering the reclusive state's nuclear program, Reuters reported (see GSN, Dec. 7). (Dec. 8) - U.S. special envoy Stephen Bosworth, left, leaves his hotel in Seoul today on his way to North Korea. He and other diplomats flew to Pyongyang, where they were expected to meet with high-level North Korean officials (Jung Yeon-je/Getty Images). The North's official Korean Central News Agency reported that Bosworth and a small team of diplomats had touched down at an airport at the edge of Pyongyang. Bosworth trip is anticipated to last only three days. He is set to talk with senior North Korean leaders, but not leader Kim Jong Il. Additional incentives to return to the nuclear talks, last held one year ago, are not expected to be on the table. However, analysts predict that Bosworth's visit will end with a promise from the North to rejoin the negotiations with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States. Given North Korea's history of offering concessions only to break those agreements later, as it did this fall when it announced that it had resumed plutonium processing, there are few expectations for real progress to be made during the first direct contact of the Obama administration with the Stalinist state. [US NK negotiations] [Inversion]
• Understanding North Korea
  For years, East Bay activists have been trying to influence US policy toward North Korea. Finally, Washington may be listening.
  Kathleen Wentz, Managing Editor of the East Bay Express | November 27, 2009 (Originally published November 4, 2009 in the East Bay Express) As a longtime peace activist and progressive, Christine Ahn was used to being on the ideological fringe. But even she wasn't prepared to be red-baited and called a supporter of dictatorship.
  But one month later, she received an e-mail that tempered her excitement. It was a message from a friend, pointing her to a blog called One Free Korea. A post entitled "The Alternative Reality of Christine Ahn" criticized her viewpoint, labeled her a "North Korean apologist," and detailed facts about her life and her beliefs. Ahn was creeped out. "I mean it was so freaky to have this ten-page article about me," she said. It was authored by Joshua Stanton, a lawyer with the Department of Homeland Security who currently serves as the department's deputy chief for tort litigation. In a recent interview via e-mail, Stanton said he blogs as a private citizen, but added, "I think Ms. Ahn is a reprehensible apologist for mass murder, and for the deliberate, discriminatory mass starvation of men, women, and children." [Think tanks] [Softpower]
• Dispatch from Pyongyang: an offer you can’t refuse!
  Scott Snyder December 2009 - Vol. 1, No. 11 Every North Korean seems to have been mobilized for an all-out push to mark their country’s arrival as a “strong and powerful nation” in 2012, which marks the 100th anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s birth, Kim Jong Il’s 70th birthday, and the 30th birthday of Kim Jong Il’s third son and reported successor, Kim Jong-Eun. Pyongyang citizens have cleaned up the city during a 150-day labor campaign, followed by a second 100-day campaign now underway. The Ryugyong Hotel in the middle of Pyongyang, unfinished for over two decades, has been given a facelift courtesy of the Egyptian telecommunications firm Orascom, which expects to have 100,000 mobile phone customers in Pyongyang by the end of the year. But it is still difficult to shake the feeling in Pyongyang that one has walked onto a movie set in between takes. Or that the used car looks good on the outside, but you really don’t know what you might find if you were able to look under the hood or give it a test-drive.
• Beating Kim’s game of ‘blackmail diplomacy’
  November 23rd, 2009 Author: Andrei Lankov, Kookmin University North Korea will never give up its nuclear weapons, but it makes sense for the United States to continue talks now with a more realistic understanding of the North’s strategies and goals. [US NK policy] [Inversion]
• U.S. spy chief visits Seoul to discuss Afghanistan   
  U.S. intelligence chief Dennis Blair visited Korea this week for discussions on Seoul's planned troop dispatch to Afghanistan and regional security issues including the North Korean nuclear crisis, government sources said yesterday. Blair, director of National Intelligence under the Barack Obama administration, also talked about Washington's latest moves to send additional troops to the Central Asian country in efforts to support the international war against insurgents there, according to sources. "The U.S. official met several senior Korean officials during his three-day visit, such as Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and Defense Minister Kim Tae-young," said an official here who declined to be identified. The two ministers are key coordinators of Seoul's troop dispatch plans.   [Tribute] [US global strategy]  
• North Korea Contingency Planning and U.S.-ROK Cooperation”
  By See-Won Byun November 19th, 2009 This paper was published by the Asia Foundation: http://asiafoundation.org/publications/pdf/576 See-Won Byun, Research Associate at the Asia Foundation, produced this report examining “the main issues on which the United States and South Korea would need to coordinate policies in response to possible North Korean instability at each stage of an unfolding contingency, with a focus on different functional areas of cooperation. It will highlight immediate priority areas for U.S.-ROK cooperation, identifying lead agencies and mechanisms for cooperation, and potential points of conflict in U.S.-ROK efforts to manage instability in North Korea. The assessment will attempt to provide a long-term framework for understanding U.S.-ROK contingency planning for North Korea.” [Takeover] [Spin]
• North Korea Arms Trade Funds Nuclear-Bomb Work, UN Panel Says
  By Bill Varner Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea is running a global arms smuggling enterprise to finance its nuclear weapons program, a United Nations panel said in a report on sanctions imposed on the regime. “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has established a highly sophisticated international network for the acquisition, marketing and sale of arms and military equipment,” said the report by a panel established in June to assess the effectiveness of the UN punishments. The report said arms sales banned by the UN “have increasingly become one of the country’s principal sources for obtaining foreign exchange.” North Korea has used “reputable shipping entities, misdescription of goods and multiple transfers” to hide arms smuggling, according to the report, which has been circulated within the Security Council and was obtained by Bloomberg News. It has not yet been publicly released. The council is set to discuss the findings today in New York. [Arms sales] [Double standards] [UNUS] [Sanctions]
• Engaging North Korea: will Obama buy Yongbyon for the third time?
  November 12th, 2009 Author: Jonas Parello-Plesner Relations with North Korea seem heeded in a more positive direction after the Chinese PM Wen’s visit to Pyongyang, President Hu’s talk with Kim’s envoy and after the informal meeting between State Department official, Sung Kim and North Korean nuclear negotiator, Ri Gun in San Diego at the end of October. Yet tensions are still simmering with the naval clash between North and South Korea Monday the 9th. [US NK policy] [Bilateral] [Sidelining]

• Experts caution West Sea naval “clashes” could warrant international intervention
  They say the U.S. and China negatively view increasing tensions in the West Sea, and that it is time to reign in naval commanders Tuesday’s naval clash in the West Sea near Daecheong island did not escalate, but experts have warned that clashes in the waters near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) could at any time turn into an international conflict. Experts explained that if a naval battle were to grow larger than expected, the U.S. military might feel compelled to intervene. [Takeover]
• [Editorial] Attacks demonstrate need to retract troop redeployment plan
  It has been confirmed that armed militants attacked the sites of road construction projects by South Korean businesses in Afghanistan a total of three times around the time of the Lee administration’s decision to deploy new troops to the country. This is a case in point showing the dangers of redeployment.
• Obama: US won't 'be cowed' by North Korea
  The Associated Press Friday, November 13, 2009; 8:31 PM TOKYO -- President Barack Obama says the U.S. and the world will not "be cowed"(sic) by North Korea 's threats and nuclear belligerence. Obama said in a major address in Tokyo on Saturday that Pyongyang must learn that its failure to meet international obligations on its nuclear arsenal "will lead only to less security - not more." [Media] [Inversion] [Spin]
• Confirmation of Bosworth’s North Korea visit presents crucial opportunities
  Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, officially announced Tuesday that he plans to visit North Korea. This announcement marks three months since former U.S. President Bill Clinton visited North Korea and opened a path for North Korea-U.S. dialogue. The two nations have discussed the resumption of dialogue through the New York channel and North Korean Foreign Ministry U.S. Affairs Bureau Director Ri Gun’s visit to the U.S. The announcement of Bosworth’s trip indicates an agreement has been made on the agenda and format of dialogue that is to take place between North Korea and the U.S.
• South Korean companies face increasing attacks in Afghanistan
  Observers say attacks are a warning to the South Korean government to reconsider its decision to redeploy troops to Afghanistan It has been confirmed that militants in Afghanistan have attacked the road construction site managed by a South Korean company around the same time that the Lee administration announced its decision to re-deploy troops to the country. The attacks hint at the fact that the security of employees of South Korean companies in Afghanistan, as well as that of re-dispatched troops and Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) personnel, will be in danger. [Tribute]
• U.S. at Work on Strangling Kim Jong-il's Cash Flow
  Philip Goldberg The U.S. envoy charged with UN sanctions, Philip Goldberg, is still trying to block North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's cash flow, even as Washington has agreed to talks with Pyongyang aimed at persuading it to return to nuclear negotiations. North Korea invited U.S. North Korea envoy Stephen Bosworth on Aug. 4, when former U.S. president Bill Clinton was in Pyongyang to win the release of two American journalists. The same day, Goldberg was on his way to Moscow, where he met Russian Vice Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin and reportedly asked Russia to crack down on a mafia gang based on a tip-off that it had been involved in the laundering slush funds for Kim Jong-il. South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities believe that North Korea recently earned a lot of foreign currency by smuggling ivory from Africa and distributing fake Viagra as well as selling drugs and circulating counterfeit dollars. [Sanctions] [Toolkit] [US NK policy] [Personalisation]
• South Korean companies face increasing attacks in Afghanistan
  Observers say attacks are a warning to the South Korean government to reconsider its decision to redeploy troops to Afghanistan It has been confirmed that militants in Afghanistan have attacked the road construction site managed by a South Korean company around the same time that the Lee administration announced its decision to re-deploy troops to the country. The attacks hint at the fact that the security of employees of South Korean companies in Afghanistan, as well as that of re-dispatched troops and Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) personnel, will be in danger. [Tribute]
• West Sea naval clash expected to affect North Korea-U.S. bilateral dialogue
  While conservatives want to use it to hinder N. Korea-U.S. dialogue, analysts say Lee administration could appropriately minimize its effects
  The latest West Sea naval engagement, an armed clash that comes at a time when the situation on the Korean Peninsula is on the verge of moving towards dialogue, is expected to play a harmful role for the time being. In the short-term, U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth is expected to visit North Korea sometime between late Nov. and early Dec. U.S. President Barack Obama will begin his Asia tour on Thursday. In light of this, experts say the scope and depth of the repercussions from the battle ultimately depend on the ability of North Korean and South Korean authorities to manage the situation. [Overtures] [NLL] [Sidelining]
• Rev. Moon's Troubled Generation Next
  By Robert Parry November 11, 2009 (Originally published September 6, 1997) Update: In a normal world, the question of who will succeed a crazed cult leader like the 90-year-old Rev. Sun Myung Moon would not be an issue of much public importance. But – incredibly – Moon’s money-laundering empire was allowed to become a major funding source for America’s powerful right-wing media and key Republicans. [Media]
• NK was Afraid of Ending up Like Iraq'
  2009-11-10 08:20:05 Declassified Japanese documents confirm that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il said during September 2002 summit talks with Japan that he was afraid the North would end up like Iraq. NHK also reports that according to summit minutes held by the Tokyo Foreign Ministry, then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi proposed to Kim that if Pyongyang gives up its nuclear program, the global community would compensate them financially. Kim then reportedly expressed fear of becoming like Iraq but added that Russia and China agreed to North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons. Another former Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, told NHK that during a visit he made to the North, Kim was nervous about prospects of a war with the U.S. [Military option] [Imperialism]
• North Korea: Journalists vs. Diplomats
  John Feffer | November 9, 2009 At the recent off-the-record meeting between U.S. and North Korean representatives at a conference in California, journalists were eager for any crumb of information about what the two interlocutors said to each other. The dialogue was "useful," according to the North Korean representative. The U.S. side remarked that the mood was "better than we've seen in months." Talk about ho-hum journalism. But, in the interests of diplomacy, this is precisely the kind of media coverage that U.S.-North Korean relations needs at the moment. In fact, for real progress to be made in resolving the longest-standing adversarial relationship the United States has with any country in the world, journalists would be well-advised to sit on their hands and keep their mouths shut. At the very least, all those involved in the sensitive negotiations should agree to say absolutely nothing of interest to the press. As a journalist, I don't feel very good about making this recommendation. Handcuff the reporters? Muzzle the broadcasters? That's what North Korea does. Surely I'm not advising that we take a page from their book. But here's why I think that the only way the two sides can achieve any real compromise is through sustained and secret dialogue on a comprehensive agreement, outside of the media spotlight. [US NK negotiations]
• Bosworth to Visit N.Korea in Late November
  The U.S. special representative for North Korea policy Stephen Bosworth will visit North Korea late this month after his administration accepted North Korea's request for bilateral talks. Bosworth will most likely meet with Kang Sok-ju, the first vice foreign minister and an influential foreign policy maker in the North. The U.S. apparently thinks of Kang as a key figure. In a report on Monday, the Center for a New American Security, a think tank for the Barack Obama administration, allotted Kang a separate one-page introduction. [Bilateral]
• U.S. and S. Korean "OPLAN 5029" Blamed
  Pyongyang, November 9 (KCNA) -- Yonhap News of south Korea recently reported that the south Korean military rounded off together with the U.S. the "OPLAN 5029" intended to cope with the "emergency situation in the north." According to it, the bellicose forces at home and abroad classified it into 5 or 6 levels and completed a detailed plan according to them. Rodong Sinmun Monday observes this in a signed commentary in this regard: This was an unpardonable grave political and military provocation to the DPRK and a treacherous criminal act of pursuing north-south confrontation and war. The war-like forces classified "the emergency situation" into "a regime change" in the dignified DPRK, "the spread of WMDs" and nonsensical "rebellion", etc. Their concoction of such farcical events which can never happen in the DPRK is an unpardonable provocation to it. Those forces went the lengths of simulating all sorts of nonsensical events and citing them as pretexts for mounting preemptive attacks on the DPRK [Takeover]
• First Obama Envoy to Visit N. Korea
  The new U.S. administration will send its first mission to North Korea to jumpstart denuclearization talks and the visit is likely by the end of the year, AFP reported Wednesday. "After careful consideration and extensive consultation among our allies and partners, we have told North Korea that we are prepared for Ambassador Bosworth and a small interagency team to visit Pyongyang at an appropriate time not yet determined," State Department spokesman P.J Crowley was quoted as saying.
• Bosworth to meet senior foreign minister in North
  November 09, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States will soon announce that its special representative for North Korea policy, Stephen Bosworth, will visit Pyongyang to talk with Kang Sok-ju, first vice foreign minister of the reclusive communist state, a senior South Korean government official said. [Bilateral]
  UNDP returning to DPRK
  • Don Borrie to UNDP Administrator Helen Clark
    
  • Helen Clark’s reply
    In line with the unanimous decision taken by UNDP's 36-Member State Executive Board in January 2009, UNDP has been initiating the necessary steps to resume its programme in DPRK. We just finished renovating our building which fell into a state of disrepair after two years of absence from the country. We are now in the process of recruiting our international and national staff. Our Resident Representative, Mr. Jerome Sauvage, arrived in Pyongyang recently to take up his post.
• U.S. Soon to Officially Announce Bosworth's Pyongyang Visit
  The Barack Obama administration would be willing to hold bilateral talks with North Korea and will soon announce plans, Yonhap news agency reported Saturday, citing a senior U.S. State Department official. "I think the announcement will come before (President Obama's departure of Asian trip early next week)," said the official, asking anonymity. "I think it may be this weekend." The official, however, said the trip to Pyongyang by Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, will not take place before Obama returns from his Asian trip, which falls on Nov. 19. Bosworth said on Thursday that he expects the U.S. government will "soon" make a decision on his trip to Pyongyang, but predicted it would come later possibly "within a few weeks." Speculation has been mounting that the U.S. point man on North Korea will fly to Pyongyang late this year or early next year to strike a breakthrough in the talks involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia. [Bilateral]
• Iran, North Korea Top Clinton's Overseas Agenda
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: November 7, 2009 Filed at 8:51 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nuclear impasses with Iran and North Korea are the dominant issues for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on her trip to Europe and Asia, which begins with a stopover in Germany to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall. Developments in both stalemates are expected in the coming days with international patience running out over Iran's refusal to come clean about its suspected nuclear program and North Korea's refusal to return to stalled disarmament talks. [Inversion]
• Madame Secretary's pins were mightier than the sword
  Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, November 8, 2009 The pins are displayed in glass cases at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York so that the jeweled butterflies seem to be in mid-flight and the patriotic eagles and flags sparkle like Fourth of July fireworks in a vitrine. The exhibition, "Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection," features some 200 brooches the former secretary of state has collected over the years. Most of the baubles are not precious, nor are they setting any new standards in design. Albright intentionally shopped flea markets and costume jewelry boutiques to build her collection so that it would not be fancy or rarefied. The brooches are valuable only because of their provenance. They were chosen and worn by the first female secretary of state, one who understood that fashion, rather than being a burden, could be another tool in her diplomatic arsenal. And it was one that men did not have.
  For Albright, fashion has always had power on the world stage; it says something about who we are. As secretary of state, she was photographed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. She made a point of wearing an American flag brooch that stretched from her shoulder almost half-way down her jacket. It was her way of silently combating North Korean propaganda. But she was disturbed by the brouhaha over flags during the 2008 presidential campaign, when not wearing one was portrayed as unpatriotic. "I thought the controversy of political people wearing pins was bad news. I had been to North Korea and people have to wear pins with the face of the dear leader," Albright says during an interview in a sitting room at her Washington office. "Why in a democracy would you insist people wear flag pins?" (sic) [Bizarre] [Double standards]
• 'No N.Korea-U.S. Talks Before December'
  Talks between North Korea and the U.S. aimed at persuading the North to return to six-party nuclear discussions will probably take place early next year, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan speculated Thursday. "It will be difficult before President Barack Obama visits [South] Korea" between Nov. 18 to 19, Yu said. "They will take place either at the end of this year or early next year." There had been hopes that Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, would visit North Korea at the end of November, but that now seems unlikely. Yu returned to Seoul on Thursday from a tour of the Middle East. "An important factor is that the United States wants to take things slowly," he told reporters at the airport. "If the U.S. and North Korea encounter no difficulties, then China will convene the six-party talks. But China's intervention will be needed when the envoys of Washington and Pyongyang find themselves in an awkward atmosphere. [US NK policy]
• U.S. 8th Army command to remain stationed in Korea
  Plan to move to Hawaii put on ice as strategy changes November 06, 2009 The U.S. Eighth Army headquarters, the commanding unit of all U.S. Army forces stationed here, has reversed its relocation plans and will stay put in Seoul, the JoongAng Ilbo has learned. Also, documents show the U.S. military will establish a new command in South Korea to replace the current U.S.-South Korea combined forces command after the wartime operational control is transferred to South Korea in 2012. According to a high-ranking military source, the headquarters will not move to Hawaii as previously announced. Also, documents obtained by the JoongAng Ilbo show that a new Korea Command unit will be set up next June to replace the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command in 2012.
  The U.S. about-face on its plan to move the headquarters to Hawaii reflects the strategic importance of the Korean Peninsula to the United States. Setting up the Korea Command would also attest to the strategic place Korea occupies in U.S. military planning.
  The new base will give the United States strategic flexibility for its overseas forces. [Sovereignty] [US global strategy]
• Former U.S. official has doubts on nuke deal
  November 06, 2009 Victor Cha, a former deputy U.S. nuclear negotiator and an expert on Korean affairs, says he is pessimistic about achieving denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. He also believes North Korea hasn’t deviated much from its past pattern of following up provocations with “smile diplomacy” and that the United States and others have learned their lessons. In an interview with the JoongAng Daily yesterday, Cha said while the ultimate goal of the six-party talks is denuclearization, “I think very few people really believe North Korea is going to give up its nuclear weapons.”
  The United States is still mulling over bilateral talks with North Korea. But Cha said the Obama administration is not overeager. [US NK policy] [Continuity] [Regime change]
• Rodong Sinmun on U.S. Policy of Hegemony on Verge of Bankruptcy
  Pyongyang, November 5 (KCNA) -- The first decade of the second millennium can be described in a word as a period in which the U.S. policy of hegemony, a policy for uni-polar world is going bankrupt and there opened a bright prospect for global independence and a multi-polar world. Rodong Sinmun Thursday says this in a signed article. It cites facts that up until the first half of the decade the U.S. got self-conceited and extreme arrogant, styling itself the world's "only superpower" but in its latter half it was compelled to admit that the situation has changed. When looking back on the last decade, a lot of changes took place in the world balance of forces with the U.S. pullout of the ABM treaty, the war in Iraq and the financial crisis, etc. as major momentums, the article notes, and goes on: The U.S. policy of uni-polar world and hegemony depending on its strength is on the verge of bankruptcy whereas global independence and multi-polarization are being rapidly accelerated, becoming a main trend of the times. The EU, Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America are confidently heading for regional unity and integration. There emerge new regional military and economic organizations excluding the U.S. The U.S. dollar is pushed aside in the international currency system and various regional bank notes and currencies make their appearances, exercising influence. There emerged a G-20 Summit involving developing countries, increasing the say and position of the developing countries in handling world economic issues. The U.S. is finding itself in a tighter corner as the days go by, thrown into bottomless pits in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is evidenced by the U.S. cancellation of its plan to build a missile shield in Eastern Europe and the rebuff and condemnation of the U.S. wrong policy of hegemony, its policy for uni-polar world not only by many countries of the world but by its allies, etc. As seen above, the hegemonic position of the U.S. as the world's "only superpower" is rapidly sinking whereas the movement for global independence and a multi-polar world has become an irresistible trend of the times. [Decline]
• N.Korea and U.S. continue to negotiate timetable for bilateral talks
  While N.Korea steps up pressure on U.S. by reprocessing 8000 spent fuel rods, experts anticipate an agreement prior to U.S. President Barack Obama’s tour to Asia Conflicting signals and assessments have been emerging regarding the results of contacts last month in New York between Ri Gun, the director of U.S. affairs at the North Korean Foreign Ministry, and Sung Kim, U.S. special envoy for the six-party talks. It appears that prior to full-scale North Korea-U.S. dialogue involving U.S. special envoy for North Korea policy Stephen Bosworth, North Korea and the U.S. are engaging in a last-minute, under-the-table and heated war of nerves. [Bilateral]
• KCNA Slashes U.S. Human Rights Racket
  Pyongyang, November 4 (KCNA) -- The U.S. and other hostile forces are making much ado about the so-called "human rights issue" in the DPRK at the UN General Assembly. This is nothing but a despicable plot to attain their sinister purposes by putting political pressure upon the DPRK. It is the political common sense universally accepted by the international community that the U.S. and its followers' "human rights" racket is so ridiculous that no one would lend an ear to it as they are becoming evermore undisguised in politicizing human rights issues and applying selectivity and double standards in handling them. Those countries that are becoming most vociferous about "human rights issues" are the countries with the most serious human rights records without an exception. To take the U.S. as an example, the rich get ever richer and the poor ever poorer and the number of the unemployed and the poor is on the steady increase; the right of equality, the right to work and the right to existence, elementary rights of human being, are being ruthlessly violated. The average income ratio between the monopoly capitalists and the working people in the 1970s was 40:1 and it increased as high as 367:1 and the number of the poor reached 39.8 million last year or an increase of 2.5 million over 2007. [Human rights] [Manipulation] [Double standards]
• US Soldiers in Korea Negative About Rotation to Middle East
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter Most U.S. servicemembers in South Korea are negative about a potential troop rotation to Afghanistan or the Middle East, while they are supportive of longer, family-accompanied tours here. The response comes after reports that the Pentagon is considering deploying its forces in South Korea to the Middle East on a temporary basis after the three-year, accompanied tour program is put in place in the coming years.
• Response to "U.S. Strategy Towards North Korea: Rebuilding Dialogue and Engagement
  By Tong Kim Policy Forum Online 09-079A: October 1st, 2009T The following are comments on the essay, "U.S. Strategy Towards North Korea: Rebuilding Dialogue and Engagement" by Joel Wit, an Adjunct Senior Visiting Scholar at Columbia University's Weatherhead Institute for East Asia and a Visiting Fellow at the U.S.-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, which appeared as Policy Forum Online 09-079A: October 1st, 2009. This response includes comments by Tong Kim, Visiting professor with the University of North Korean Studies, Research professor, Ilmin Institute of International Relations at Korea University, and Adjunct professor at SAIS. T The author's report contains several provocative thoughts deserving consideration by the Obama administration, which has announced its willingness to offer a "comprehensive solution" if North Korea takes irreversible steps toward denuclearization. The author's insights of the developments in North Korea are refreshingly similar to those of other "realists," who are labeled as "apologists" by skeptic conservatives. Many of his suggestions are creative and intriguing, while other ideas resemble a reinstatement of the Clinton administration's approaches that had been carried out with some impressive progress until the reversal of U.S. policy by the first W. Bush administration. A transformational approach to North Korea, as opposed to transactional, resonates with the concept of "reform and opening" through economic assistance, as a necessary step toward reunification as conceived by the Sunshine policy of former South Korean President Kim Dae Jung. There is no question that improved relations based on mutual confidence will provide the best chance to achieve denuclearization and removal of WMD threats of North Korea. [US NK policy]
• N.Korea, U.S. 'to Hold 2 Rounds of Talks'
  North Korea and the United States have agreed to hold two official meetings before North Korea returns to multilateral talks, U.S. Foreign Policy magazine reported Tuesday. The agreement came in a meeting between Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy to the six party talks, and Ri Gun, director general of the North American affairs bureau of North Korea's Foreign Ministry, it said quoting a source. The U.S. named three conditions, namely holding two formal bilateral meetings before North Korea returns to multilateral talks, and allowing U.S. special representative for North Korea policy Stephen Bosworth to meet with North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju when he visits Pyongyang. The third condition was "to abide by its previous commitments, namely the September 19, 2005 declaration in which the North Koreans committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning, at an early date, to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to IAEA safeguards." [Bilateral] [JS050919] [Solipsism]
• US, N. Korea Agree on Bilateral Talks
  The United States and North Korea have agreed to hold two rounds of talks before resuming multilateral negotiations on North Korea's nuclear weapons program, Bloomberg reported, quoting Foreign Policy. The agreement came at last week's discussions between Sung Kim, the State Department's special envoy to the six-nation talks, and North Korea's lead nuclear negotiator Ri Gun, the magazine reported on its Web site, citing an unnamed U.S. official. North Korea also agreed to a U.S. request that Stephen Bosworth, the special representative for North Korean policy, meet with North Korea's first vice foreign minister Kang Sok-ju, according to Foreign Policy. [Bilateral]
• Countering DPRK Illicit Activities
  By William Newcomb November 3rd, 2009 This paper was produced as part of the project “Improving Regional Security and Denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula: U.S. Policy Interests and Options.” http://www.nautilus.org/DPRKPolicy.html These reports are also available on the National Committee on North Korea web site: http://www.ncnk.org/resources/news-items/DPRKPolicy_interests_and_options William Newcomb, Former Senior Economist at the U.S. Department of State, writes, “It is proper to use financial sanctions to help enforce UN Security Council resolutions and discourage DPRK proliferation and illicit activities. But, it would be unhelpful to view all financial sanctions that target the DPRK solely as a way to pressure the regime or to calibrate enforcement to progress, or lack of it, in Six Party Talks or whatever might take their place. The credibility of the Treasury Department and its sanctions authorities would be eroded if rules about dealings with the DPRK were to shift sharply from one day to the next as dictated by changes in the negotiating atmosphere or bargaining tactics.” [Sanctions] [US NK policy] [Toolkit]
• [EDITORIAL] Contingency plan
  Though the Joint Chiefs of Staff refuse to confirm it, military sources reported that Korean and U.S. defense authorities have worked out a detailed operational plan to respond to a collapse of the North Korean regime. The clandestine nature of such a plan would not warrant any official acknowledgment of its establishment, but the top U.S. military commander in Korea provided significant clues a few days ago. Gen. Walter Sharp said in a lecture in Seoul Friday that the two allies agreed that the U.S. forces would be responsible for eliminating weapons of mass destruction in North Korea and amphibious landing operations on the territory even after the wartime operational control was handed over to South Korea in 2012. He was obviously referring to a contingency in which Kim Jong-il was toppled and its nuclear arsenal in danger of being grabbed by external elements
  Mapping out a scenario to prepare for a dramatic change in North Korea is necessary. The focus of any such plan should be on how the allies can prevent China's military intervention in the event of a North Korean collapse. Most important is assuring Beijing that a unified Korea would pose no threat to China, possibly with a practical proposal about what to do with the North's nuclear arsenal. [Takeover] [China confrontation]
• Troop Dispatch to Afghanistan Is No Military Adventure
  The government on Friday said the Korean Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan will be increased from 24 to 150 personnel, and that police and troops will be dispatched to protect the team. The number of police and military troops was not disclosed, but reports have it that they will be between 200 and 300. "The team will provide help in administrative work, economic reconstruction, social facilities building, and humanitarian matters," said a Foreign Ministry spokesman. "Troops and police will devote themselves to defense and will not take part in combat operations."
  A country so indebted to the international community cannot neglect to help others. If Korea were to turn its back on the war in Afghanistan, which is one of the most urgent issues in the world, it would find it impossible to gain genuine international recognition and establish global leadership. But the government must make it clear that the fresh dispatch of troops is designed to help the Afghans rebuild their country and does not constitute military intervention. [Tribute]
• N.Korea Gets Impatient with U.S.
  North Korea on Monday warned it will "go its own way if the U.S. is not yet ready to sit down" for dialogue about the North Korean nuclear issue. A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman made the remarks to the official KCNA news agency. "As we magnanimously clarified our position that it is possible to hold multilateral talks including the six-party talks depending on talks with the U.S., now is the U.S.' turn to make a decision." [Bilateral]
• Time for dialogue not OPLAN 5029
  OPLAN 5029, the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command operational plan that serves as a blueprint for dealing with a “sudden change” in North Korea’s political situation, is once again becoming the topic of controversy. Yesterday, the Yonhap News reported a high-ranking source in the government as saying that the plan’s draft is based on five or six scenarios of upheaval in North Korea, including the outflow of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction (WMD), a civil war resulting from a regime change or coup d’etat, a South Korean hostage incident within North Korea, a large-scale defection of North Korean residents, and a large-scale natural disaster. [Takeover]
• Analysis on the Effects of UN Economic Sanctions against North Korea
  Author : Hyung-Gon Jeong, Hokyung Bang Series : CNAEC Pesearch Series 09-04 Language : Korean Date : 2009-10-20 * Click on the name of the writer or research work to read the related document. This paper focuses on effects of UN’s economic sanctions on exports and imports of North Korea. The analysis is based on applying Difference-in-Difference methods to gravity model. The result of the empirical analysis indicates that UN’s economic sanctions against North Korea in 2006 did not have any significant effect on its exports and imports. This paper suggests four aspects of policy implications based on the empirical results. [Sanctions]
• 'Allies complete N.K. contingency plan'
  Even after the wartime operational control is handed over to South Korea in April 2012, elimination of North Korea's weapons of mass destruction and naval landing operations will be led by the U.S. army. Walter Sharp, commander of U.S. Combined Forces Command, said in a lecture last Friday that the allies agreed that the U.S. army handle the two special tasks after wartime operational control is returned to South Korea. A high-profile source in Seoul reportedly said South Korea and the United States have worked out a military operation plan to respond to a regime collapse or other internal emergency situations in North Korea. "The two allies have developed what was previously a concept plan into an operation plan after the Lee Myung-bak administration took office early last year," the source was quoted by the Yonhap News agency as saying on condition of anonymity. "They recently completed the operation plan based on five to six types of possible sudden changes in North Korea." The Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command created the Concept Plan 5029 in 1997 to prepare for such contingencies. The United States proposed upgrading it to an operation plan in 2005. But the former Roh Moo-hyun administration rejected the offer claiming it could provoke the North and infringe on South Korea's sovereignty. The Operational Plan 5029 prepares for various situations in North Korea - an outflow of weapons of mass destruction such as missiles, nuclear and biochemical weapons, a regime change, a civil war situation caused by a coup, South Koreans held hostage, a massive exodus of North Koreans and natural disasters. The source noted that most operations will be led by the South Korean army with the exception of WMD elimination, which will be taken care of by the U.S. army. "Should the Korea-U.S. combined forces inevitably intervene in case of such a situation in the North, most of the operations will be led by the South Korean army, in consideration of neighboring countries," he said. "The U.S. army, however, will be responsible for the removal of nuclear facilities and weapons." The Joint Chiefs of Staff officially denied the completion of OPLAN 5029, saying it still maintains the concept plan 5029. "We still have the concept plan 5029 to prepare for sudden changes in North Korea, but the claim that OPLAN 5029 has been completed is untrue," the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. "Our military is prepared for all kinds of situations in North Korea. We cannot confirm any details as they pertain to confidential military information." The allies are most concerned of a possible outflow of WMD or related technologies to terrorist groups or other nations in case of an emergency situation in North Korea. "A political change in North Korea is highly likely to result in an outflow of nuclear weapons and technologies to other countries," said a South Korean military official. "South Korea and the United States agreed to devise an action plan assuming this worst possible situation and recently attained some results." Since early last year, the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, with the participation of colonel-level officers, has developed schemes to prepare for the North's internal instabilities. The allies have also run a working group for research on WMD elimination capabilities. This group has reportedly discussed ways to keep the North Korean WMD from leaving the country's territory, waters and airspace. (sophie@heraldm.com) By Kim So-hyun [Takeover] [Sovereignty]
• N.K. demands direct talks with the U.S.
  North Korea on Monday pressed for direct dialogue with the United States, which has been unresponsive to the communist nation's invitation for a senior U.S. official to visit Pyongyang, according to Yonhap News. If Washington is not ready for such talks, Pyongyang will "go its own way," the North's foreign ministry said. "It is time for the U.S. to make a decision as we have expressed our lenient position that we can hold multilateral negotiations including the six-way talks," the ministry's unidentified spokesman told the country's official news agency KCNA. The comments came as Ri Gun, the North's deputy nuclear envoy, was set to return home after a weeklong trip to the U.S. where he met with Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy on the six-way talks, apparently to discuss conditions for a possible visit by Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy, to Pyongyang. [Bilateral] [Overtures]
• S.Korea, U.S. 'Complete N.Korea Contingency Plan'
  South Korea and the U.S. have completed an operational plan that envisages military responses to six types of emergencies in North Korea including regime collapse, a government source said Sunday. The source said the two sides will continue to complement and develop the plan. In 1999, during the Kim Dae-jung administration, the South Korean and U.S. militaries gave shape to the contingency plan, but it was then billed as a "concept plan" and envisaged five scenarios -- a civil war caused by a transition of power or a coup after North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's death; theft and sale abroad of WMD including nuclear, missile and biochemical weapons, by an insurgent army; a mass exodus; massive natural disaster; and the kidnapping of South Korean citizens. The plan included no details on troop mobilization and deployment. During the Roh Moo-hyun administration, the two militaries discussed ways to turn it into an "operational plan," but Cheong Wa Dae slammed the brakes on the idea since it feared the plan infringed on South Korea's sovereignty. But reports that Kim Jong-il suffered a stroke in August last year brought fresh impetus to the plan, and "Operational Plan (OPLAN) 5029" was completed after about a year of consultations. The Joint Chiefs of Staff on Sunday denied the plan has been completed. "Media reports that OPLAN 5029 has been completed are unfounded. We deeply regret that a secret military operations plan has been reported," it said in a statement. The U.S. military is apparently most concerned about the threat of North Korean nuclear weapons and technology falling into the hands of an insurgent army and being sold to terrorists abroad. In a speech at an international conference hosted by the Council on Korea-U.S. Security Studies last Friday, U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Walter Sharp said Seoul and Washington agreed that the USFK would take the initiative to remove WMD from the North and launch Marine assault operations in case of an all-out war, even after the transfer of full operational control of Korean troops to Seoul in April 2012. The South Korean military will reportedly be in charge in the remaining five scenarios. The South Korean and U.S. militaries are set to destroy or retrieve WMD in the North by sending elite forces into the North via U.S. nuclear-powered submarines and special warfare transport aircraft and helicopters if there is a possibility of weapons or technology being stolen by insurgents and smuggled overseas, a source said. [Takeover] [Sovereignty]
• OPLAN 5029 risks ceding South Korean sovereignty to the U.S.
  Analysts say China’s reaction will be unfavorable to South Korea, U.S. 5029 operational plans for intervention in case of possible upheaval in North Korea Since the Lee Myung-bak administration has taken office, South Korea and the U.S. have reportedly been engaging in discussions to flesh out OPLAN 5029, the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) operational plan to prepare for a “sudden change” in North Korea. Discussions over the plan had previously been halted in 2005 during the Roh Moo-hyun administration, when South Korea objected that it presented the potential for infringement upon its sovereignty. The “sudden change” the plan refers to is extreme chaos in North Korea resulting from factors such as a regime collapse. No clear solution has been found on the sovereignty dispute over who would lead a potential intervention, however, authorities from the two countries’ militaries are known to have pursued discussions on operational plans for various North Korean upheaval scenarios in earnest after rumors of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s ill health leaked in Sept. 2008. In a speech at a year-end party of the Korea Retired Generals and Admirals Association in Dec. 2008, General Walter Sharp, U.S. Forces Korea Commander, announced that response plans to an upheaval in North Korea related to Kim Jong-il’s health had been prepared. General Sharp said at the time that the South Korean and U.S. militaries had made thorough preparations not only for an all-out war against North Korea, but also for scenarios such as instability in the country or a regime change. A South Korean military official said Sunday, “South Korea’s military has made full preparations for a sudden change in North Korea, and we are cooperating closely with the U.S. in this matter.” It is a known fact that South Korean and U.S. military authorities have been steadily making efforts since last year to transition 5029 from a “conceptual plan” (CONPLAN) into an “operational plan” (OPLAN). While a conceptual plan is characterized by somewhat abstract content about what general course of action would be taken by South Korea and the U.S. in the event of a particular situation taking place in North Korea, an operational plan includes specific plans for the use of military forces, including the mobilization and positioning of troops at the battalion level and higher. While South Korea has cautiously responded that it is adhering to CONPLAN 5029 whenever a dispute over OPLAN 5029 surfaces, the U.S. has repeatedly announced that it is preparing concrete plans for possible upheaval scenarios in North Korea. In a speech given at the invitation of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in April 2009, Sharp said that contingency plans were being prepared for instability in North Korea. He also said that the plans had already been practiced and could be applied immediately in the event of instability. Sharp also referred to the matter in late September with journalists specializing in military affairs in Washington, D.C. There he said, “We’ve really taken a look at kind of a wide range of other scenarios. Everything from huge refugee problems caused by food or famine or other problems in North Korea, to great instability due to fighting factions, to regime change type.” Based on the various statements Sharp has made, the operational plan currently under discussion by South Korea and the U.S. includes plans for military operations in response to five or six scenarios of upheavals in North Korea, including the outflow of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction (WMD), a civil war resulting from a regime change or coup d’etat, a South Korean hostage incident within North Korea, a large-scale defection of North Koreans residents, and a large-scale natural disaster. The efforts to flesh out OPLAN 5029 are prompting some observers to comment that one of the most problematic aspects of the OPLAN 5029 discussion is that it places the CFC and not the South Korean government as the main agency in charge with handling the “sudden change” in North Korea, an issue that led to a dispute in 2005 between South Korea and the U.S. A senior foreign policy and national security official from the Roh administration said, “The Roh Moo-hyun administration determined that a major issue with OPLAN 5029 involved the sovereignty of South Korea and thus halted drafting the plan in agreement with then-U.S. President George W. Bush during the June 2005 South Korea-U.S. summit.” This official also said that in the working plan discussed by South Korean and U.S. military authorities at the time, the CFC commander would take the initiative in responding to all situations, not just ones in the military sector, in the event of a North Korean upheaval. The official added, “If an upheaval takes place in North Korea, it is natural that the South Korean president should have the authority to lead the response, and it is appropriate that the South Korean president responds by giving directions to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.” Other observers are saying that the title “operational plan” is itself inappropriate because it assumes a wartime situation. Operational plans controlled by the CFC commander automatically go into effect if a war breaks out, but an upheaval in North Korea is not equivalent to a wartime situation. Another factor analysts are considering is China’s reaction to OPLAN 5029. Some note that if South Korea crosses the armistice line without North Korea’s consent or request, it could be seen as an act of invasion according to international law, as South Korea is not a signatory to the armistice agreement that ended hostilities in the Korean War, while China, which is a signatory, has a justification for involvement if the South Korean and U.S. militaries enter North Korea. Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr] [Takeover] [Sovereignty]
• [Editorial] Lee government must cancel troop redeployment to Afghanistan
  Yesterday the Lee administration and ruling Grand National Party (GNP) announced their plan for assistance in Afghanistan, which involves a large-scale increase in Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) personnel and the deployment of soldiers to protect them. The reason they are giving is that the deployment of soldiers is inevitable to protect civilian workers, but anyone can see that redeployment of military forces is at the heart of the assistance plan. An emphasis on sending PRT personnel is merely a smokescreen to avoid criticisms of the deployment of more than twice as many military troops than civilian workers. In essence, the Lee government is acknowledging that this is a deployment without legitimacy or justification. [Tribute]
• North Korea Demands Direct Talks With US
  North Korea Monday pressed the United States to accept its demand for direct talks on the communist regime's nuclear program, warning that Pyongyang ``will go our own way'' unless Washington agree, The Associated Press reported. North Korea's Foreign Ministry did not elaborate in the statement carried by state media, which appeared to be a threat to enlarge its nuclear arsenal. The statement came as North Korea's No. 2 nuclear negotiator, Ri Gun, wrapped up a rare trip to the U.S., where he met with the chief American nuclear negotiator, Sung Kim, amid media speculation the two discussed bilateral negotiations. [Bilateral]
• North Korea demands direct talks with US
  By JAE-SOON CHANG The Associated Press Monday, November 2, 2009; 1:02 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea pressed the United States to accept its demand for direct talks on the communist regime's nuclear program, warning Monday that Pyongyang "will go our own way" unless Washington agrees. [Bilateral]
• Great risk expected for troops redeployed to Afghanistan
  DP lawmakers ask Lee government for careful deliberations on South Korea’s participation in Afghanistan’s reconstruction » The chart from the top to bottom indicates how many South Korean troops have been dispatched to Afghanistan. A contingent of 200 soldiers with the last name of Dasan and Dongeui were dispatched Feb. 2003 to Dec. 2007. A second military contingent of 3400 soldiers had been dispatched Sept. 2004, and had been reduced down to 650 by the time of troop withdrawal in Dec. 2008. The Lee administration and ruling Grand National Party (GNP) made official on Friday their decision to redeploy troops to Afghanistan. The decision, however, has increased the possibility that the troops deployed to the area, and even overseas Koreans, will be exposed to the threat of terrorism. [Tribute]
• Korea, US Complete Plans to Handle NK Collapse
  South Korea and the U.S. have completed joint action plans to respond to a regime collapse and other internal emergency situations in North Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported Sunday, quoting a ranking government source. The so-called "Operational Plan (OPLAN) 5029," drawn after years of bilateral consultation, dictates respective military responses by Seoul and Washington to several types of emergency situation in the communist North _ a civil war, an outflow of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the kidnapping of South Korean citizens, a mass influx of refugees or a natural disaster, the source was quoted as saying. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source also noted that South Korea's military will play a leading role in enforcing OPLAN 5029, with the exception of the elimination of nuclear weapons and related facilities that will be handled by the U.S. "South Korea and the U.S. had long worked on Concept Plan 5029 to prepare for a regime collapse and other internal emergencies in North Korea. Since its inauguration last year, the Lee Myung-bak government has pushed to convert the concept plan into an operational plan and it was recently completed," the source said. "If the South Korea-U.S. combined forces intervene in North Korea's internal instabilities, the South Korean military will assume the leading role in consideration of neighboring countries, while the U.S. military will be responsible for the removal of the North's nuclear facilities and weapons." He noted that South Korea and the U.S. will continue to complement and develop specific details of OPLAN 5029. The two countries have expressed concern that the outbreak of an internal emergency in North Korea could lead to the transfer of its WMDs and relevant technologies to terrorist groups or other countries. [Takeover]
• US Welcomes Seoul’s Personnel Dispatch to Afghanistan
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter The government announced plans to send more civilian workers accompanied by security forces composed of police and non-combat troops to join global efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, Friday. The plan is subject to the approval of the National Assembly. The administration will conduct an on-site inspection in the war-torn Central Asian country and work out details, said Moon Tae-young, a spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. [Tribute]
• NK Nuke Envoy Guarded Over US Talks
  North Korea's deputy nuclear envoy said Friday that he held a "useful dialogue" with American scholars in New York but did not give details on the meeting. "I had a useful dialogue," Ri Gun, who also serves as head of the North American bureau at the North's foreign ministry, was quoted as telling reporters after emerging from a seminar organized by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and the Korea Society. Ri said he attended seminars in San Diego and New York and met with Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy to six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, "at the U.S. request." But he was tightlipped about addressing other questions, including whether and when Stephen Bosworth, Washington's special representative for North Korea policy, will visit Pyongyang. [Bilateral]
• North Korea Update: Premier Wen’s Visit, Human Rights, and the Nuclear Question
  by Arthur N. Taylor (at@keia.org) Premier Wen Visits Pyongyang Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited North Korea recently to celebrate the 60th anniversary of formal relations between the two communist states, officially established on October 6, 1949. Amid much fanfare, Wen spent much of the time in conversations with Kim Jong-il, covering a variety of topics, according to state-run news agencies. [NK China]

• Lee government wants to redeploy 200 troops and 50 policemen to Afghanistan
  With the Democratic Party (DP) in opposition to the plan to redeploy troops, political controversy over the deployment to Afghanistan is expected » Members of Solidarity for Peace And Reunification of Korea hold a demonstration against the Lee administration’s plan to dispatch troops to Afghanistan in front of the Defense Ministry Building, Oct. 27. The Lee administration and ruling Grand National Party (GNP) provisionally decided Thursday to redeploy an estimated 200 troops and 50 policemen to Afghanistan. They will make a final decision on the size of the dispatch and unit composition after a government study team is sent next month to verify local conditions. With the Democratic Party (DP) in opposition to the plan to redeploy troops, political controversy over the deployment to Afghanistan is expected [Tribute]
• Obama signs bill requiring submission of report on N. Korea's terrorism
  By Hwang Doo-hyong WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Wednesday signed a defense authorization bill that calls for the administration to submit a report to Congress on whether to relist North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. The bill, authorizing implementation of US$680 billion in next year's defense budget, stipulates that within 30 days of the Act's enactment the Obama administration "shall submit to Congress a detailed report examining the conduct of the Government of North Korea since June 26, 2008, based on all available information to determine whether North Korea meets the statutory criteria for listing as a state sponsor of terrorism." [Terrorism list] [Continuity] [Spin]
• Economic Sanctions Towards North Korea
  Sanghyuk S Shin, Ricky Y Choi, Thomas E Novotny | October 23, 2009
  (Originally published October 9, 2009 by the BMJ Medical Journal)
  A violation of the right to health and a call to action On 12 June 2009, the United Nations Security Council approved its strictest economic sanctions to date against North Korea in response to a series of provocative acts, including the detonation of a nuclear device.1 The United States is also considering expanding sanctions and has appointed a high level task force to coordinate military, political, and financial strategies against North Korea. However, economic sanctions are being considered with virtually no public discussion of their potential effects on the North Korean people. Notably, even the health community has been silent. In contrast, during the lead up to the Iraq war, health professionals contributed invaluable insights to public discourse regarding the effects of economic sanctions on health.2 3 Prominent health associations published position papers and issued statements opposing their use.2 4 In fact, economic sanctions have been shown to violate the fundamental right to health.2 5 Furthermore, they do not achieve political change—60 years of US sanctions against North Korea have failed to do so. The health community urgently needs to take the lead in opposing the use of economic sanctions against North Korea on the basis of principles of health and human rights. [Sanctions] [War crimes] [US NK policy]
• Q. & A.: John Delury on North Korea
  Dispatches by Evan Osnos. October 27, 2009 Is it time for another approach on North Korea? “North Korea Inside Out: The Case for Economic Engagement” is a new report by a panel of independent experts on North Korea convened by the Asia Society Center on U.S.-China Relations and The University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. The task force came to the intriguing conclusion that the time may have come for “robust engagement” with Pyongyang, even as Washington pursues targeted sanctions on the nuclear front. (In the magazine this week, Barbara Demick writes about the one of the consequences of North Korea’s economic isolation: the famine of the nineteen-nineties.) I posed some questions to John Delury, the group’s project director. In practical terms, what would economic engagement with North Korea look like? Practically speaking, if the U.S. began to implement a proactive economic engagement approach to North Korea, you wouldn’t see it for a while. For one thing, we are talking about reversing sixty years of hostility between our governments [US NK policy]
• Government justification for troop redeployment in Afghanistan proven weak
  The government is promoting of “a global Korea” to justify new troop deployments to Afghanistan, but observers are saying that in examining other countries’ troop deployments and support in Afghanistan, the justification weakens. First, the government is stressing that there are 42 nations with troops in Afghanistan as of mid-Oct. They are suggestively kindling a fire, saying that South Korea, whose international prestige is on the rise with it hosting next year’s G20 summit, is being pushed back to number 43. [Tribute]
• Former head of N. Korean mission to U.N. likely to return: sources
  By Hwang Doo-hyong WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 (Yonhap) -- A former deputy head of the North Korean mission to the United Nations in New York has applied for a visa to come back to his previous post, apparently to buttress improving relations between the North and the United States, sources said Monday. The sources said former Deputy Chief Han Song-ryol will replace the current deputy, Kim Myong-kil, who will return to Pyongyang. "I understand that Kim Myong-kil will soon go back home, but I have no idea of when," a diplomatic source here said Monday. Han as applied for a visa to take up the post again, another source said. "I understand that North Korea wants Han, who served in New York for five years until 2006, to reinforce the New York channel as he is a higher-ranking official." [Bilateral]
• Working at the People-to-People Level: Recommendations for United States Government Involvement in Humanitarian Assistance, Development Assistance and Exchange Programs with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
  By Karin Lee October 27th, 2009
  This paper was produced as part of the project ?Improving Regional Security and Denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula: U.S. Policy Interests and Options.? http://www.nautilus.org/DPRKPolicy.html These reports are also available on the National Committee on North Korea web site: http://www.ncnk.org/resources/news-items/DPRKPolicy_interests_and_options Karin Lee, Executive Director of the National Committee on North Korea, describes the history of humanitarian assistance, development assistance, and technical and cultural exchanges between the United States and the DPRK. She also describes US policy options for expanding or inaugurating these programs in line with progress in negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear program. [US NK policy]
• Korea to Boost Non-Combat Troops in Afghanistan
  In response to U.S. pressure, the government wants to boost the civilian support unit in Afghanistan and could send troops to protect them. At a session of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee that day, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said the government plans to dispatch at least 130 civilian specialists to Afghanistan for reconstruction "and is also considering sending police or military troops to protect them." [Tribute] [Friction]
• Korea Should Give More Support for Afghanistan
  U.S. Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell on Sunday said all countries that wish for the peace and prosperity and economic growth of the world have an "obligation" to support Afghanistan. Another U.S. government official said it would be better for South Korea, which has provided medical support for Afghanistan until now, to make contributions to other sectors as well, adding that the quicker South Korea decides and the bigger its support, the better. [Tribute]
• South Korea considers new troop deployment to Afghanistan
  Observers expect expansion of Provincial Reconstruction Team and deployment of troops to ensure their safety will occur in tandem and offered as President Obama’s visit to Seoul nears It appears that the South Korean government is preparing to redeploy troops to Afghanistan on the pretext that an expansion of provincial reconstruction team (PRT) personnel requires more troops to ensure their safety. At a plenary session of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee on Monday, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Yu Myung-hwan announced plans to dispatch and employ a minimum of 130 civilian specialists for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. “We intend to enlarge the scale of the hospital being managed by the Korean PRT, and the scale of job education and police trainings being provided,” Yu said. [Tribute]
• Mr. Kim's scam
  Editorial
  Will the Obama administration pay to resume disarmament talks with North Korea?
  Tuesday, October 27, 2009 SUPPOSE THAT North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il decided last January to try luring the Obama administration into the same lucrative and fraudulent transaction his regime pulled off with the two previous U.S. presidents. In that case, Mr. Kim may feel he's getting close to executing another sting. The scam goes like this: Pyongyang raises tension by firing off missiles, ejecting inspectors from its nuclear facilities, testing bombs and promising to produce more. Then it turns conciliatory, suggesting it might be willing to freeze its nuclear program and even begin to dismantle it in exchange for economic and political concessions. Next it begins talks, collecting as much in cash and diplomatic recognition as it can from Washington and its Asian allies. Finally, it breaks off the process before it has taken any irreversible step to give up its weapons or the means to produce them. Mr. Kim has already run through the first two phases of his scheme in the past nine months. He conducted a nuclear test, fired the usual missiles and is reportedly close to restarting plutonium production at Yongbyon -- the same plant that both the Clinton and Bush administrations paid him to shut. Earlier this month he won the endorsement of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao for his demand that any renewal of the "six-party" negotiations on North Korean disarmament be preceded by bilateral talks between North Korea and the Obama administration. Such bilateral talks are a perennial objective of Pyongyang, because they exclude South Korea and Japan -- which the regime wants to snub -- as well as China, the only country with decisive leverage over Mr. Kim. Once the Obama administration shows up, Mr. Kim said, he will expect "progress" before he agrees to reopen the multilateral forum. That, of course, means bribes by the Obama administration, whether in the form of easing sanctions or steps toward U.S. recognition of his regime. Should the administration fail to deliver, Mr. Kim will blame the United States for blocking the six-party process -- just as he successfully cast the Bush administration as the obstacle before it caved to his demands. The Obama administration says it is well aware of what Mr. Kim is up to. To its credit, it has been slow to respond to his demand for bilateral talks, though preliminary contacts between U.S. and North Korean diplomats began last weekend. A State Department spokesman said that if higher-level talks occur, North Korea would be expected to reiterate its previous commitments to dismantle its nuclear program and agree to a return to the six-party forum. Officials add that they have been consulting closely with China and that the two governments agree that this time around, North Korea must take irreversible steps before it receives rewards -- a message that was stated publicly by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton last week. Does that mean that Mr. Kim will get nothing from the Obama administration at a bilateral meeting, other than the meeting itself? If so, that would be a step toward preventing another easy sting. [US NK policy] [Bilateral] [Bizarre] [Vituperation]
• [EDITORIAL] Keep an open mind
  North Korea-U.S. engagement is speeding along, starting with the meeting between Ri Gun, North Korea's second-ranking envoy to the stalled six-party talks, and Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy on North Korean nuclear disarmament, in New York on Saturday. This was the first direct contact between officials from the two countries since President Obama's inauguration. Ri, who was permitted to enter the United States to attend an academic conference and seminar, will be in the United States for more than a week, opening up the possibility of North Korea and the United States making some headway in sitting down for bilateral talks. [Bilateral] [Sequencing] [SK NK polocy] [Overtures]
• U.S., North hold rare nuclear talks in New York City
  Action could lead to resumption of the stalled negotiations by 6 nations October 26, 2009 In a rare occasion that could help advance the Washington-Pyongyang bilateral talks on ending a nuclear standoff, senior North Korean and American nuclear officials held a face-to-face meeting in New York early Sunday, Korean time (Saturday, EST). The U.S. State Department said that Ri Gun, deputy North Korean negotiator to the six-party talks, met with Sung Kim, chief U.S. nuclear representative and special U.S. envoy on the North’s nuclear disarmament. The statement said the meeting took place in New York and added Kim took the opportunity “to convey our position on denuclearization and the six-party talks.” No further details of their one-hour talk were available. [Bilateral]
• US Mulls Moving Troops in S. Korea to Afghanistan
  The top U.S. military officer has indicated that his country could move its troops from South Korea to Afghanistan in the coming years, according to a U.S. military paper. "That's something we're looking very specifically at," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, was quoted as saying in the weekend edition of Stars and Stripes. "We really haven't closed on whether it's going to be one way or the other," he was quoted as telling a group of soldiers in Seoul on Oct. 22.
• US Hints at Direct Talks As NK Envoy Visits
  The U.S. State Department hinted at holding a rare face-to-face meeting with a North Korean envoy visiting the United States, raising hopes of progress in stalled nuclear talks, AFP reported. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said no decision had been taken on who would meet Ri Gun, the senior North Korean nuclear negotiator who reportedly arrived in New York for a multi-day visit Friday. But Kelly said a meeting between Ri and the U.S. special envoy for North Korean disarmament talks, Sung Kim, had not been ruled out. "I wouldn't exclude that. I don't have anything to announce about that, but I certainly wouldn't exclude it," he was quoted as saying. South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported that Ri arrived in New York Friday. [US NK policy] [Bilateral]
• Senior N.Korean Official Makes Rare Trip to U.S.
  A high-level North Korean official is traveling to the United States for meetings that may help push forward stalled diplomacy with Washington. The trip coincides with South Korean media speculation of talk between the North and South about a potential meeting of their leaders. North Korean diplomat Ri Gun was departing for the United States Friday. He will reportedly land in New York, then on Monday is scheduled to attend an academic forum on Asian security at the University of California San Diego. Ri Gun is North Korea's second most senior envoy in multinational talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs. His trip has fueled expectations he may meet his U.S. counterpart, Sung Kim, to lay the groundwork for North Korea's possible return to the talks. [Bilateral]
• Treasury puts North Korean bank on blacklist
  Reuters Friday, October 23, 2009; 4:55 PM WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted a North Korean bank on Friday, saying it was involved in North Korea's arms dealing. Treasury said in a statement that Amroggang Development Bank was being added to a list of proliferators of mass destruction because it was owned or controlled by North Korea's Tanchon Commercial Bank. Tanchon was previously hit with sanctions by both the United States and the United Nations Security Council for its involvement in Pyongyang's proliferation activities. Treasury said assets of Tanchon under U.S. jurisdiction are frozen and Americans are banned from any dealing with it. It said that Tanchon's president, Kim Tong Myong, also was being added to the list of weapons proliferators. Treasury described Amroggang as a Tanchon-related company run by Tanchon officials. It said Tanchon helps finance Korea Mining Development Corp's sales of ballistic missiles and has been involved in Komid's ballistic missile transactions with an Iranian industrial group. [Legality] [Sanctions] [Arms sales] [Double standards]
• North Korea Inside Out: The Case for Economic Engagement
  October 23rd, 2009 This report was produced by an Independent Task Force convened by the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and the University of California’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. I. Introduction An Independent Task Force, convened by the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and the University of California’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, write, “Economic engagement should be a central part of U.S. strategy in dealing with Pyongyang, and is complementary to the current focus on solving the nuclear issue. Sanctions have a role in defending the U.S. against risks of proliferation, but they have not and cannot provide a long-run solution to the North Korean problem. Combining targeted sanctions with robust engagement, as the Obama administration is attempting to do with Iran and Burma, offers the best hope of changing the motivations and the actions of states that presently take a hostile stance toward the U.S. and the international community.” [US NK policy] [Inversion]
• U.S. Vows 'Unwavering Commitment' to Korea's Defense
  The U.S. on Thursday pledged to mobilize globally available U.S. forces and strategically flexible capabilities to augment South Korea's defense in case of crisis. It will continue to provide "extended deterrence," using the full range of military capabilities, including the nuclear umbrella, conventional forces and missile defense here. This was specified in a 16-point statement adopted by Defense Minister Kim Tae-young and his U.S. counterpart Robert Gates in Seoul following the 41st Korea-U.S. Security Consultative Meeting.
• Are Seoul and Washington Being Completely Frank?
  The South Korean and U.S. defense chiefs held their annual Security Consultative Meeting on Thursday in Seoul and stipulated in a joint statement specific steps to provide South Korea with "extended deterrence" against the North Korean nuclear threat. It was the first time specific measures were put on paper. The U.S. will provide South Korea with a nuclear umbrella, conventional strike and missile capabilities. In addition, Gates said the U.S. will deploy any American troops that can be mobilized from around the world in the event of a crisis on the Korean peninsula.
  If North Korea makes the strategic decision to scrap its nuclear program, it will inevitably demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula. It knows that this is the South's greatest weakness. And at that point, Washington will have to balance whether it has more to gain from North Korea giving up its nukes or from revising its alliance with South Korea. Washington's decision is difficult to predict. [US global strategy]
• Korea-U.S. Defense Meet Brings Mixed Blessings for Seoul
  The major issues the Korea-U.S. Security Consultative Meeting held in Seoul Thursday took up were the transfer of full operational control of Korean troops to Seoul, help in the war in Afghanistan and what is called "extended deterrence" of the North Korean nuclear threat. Seoul's position was amply reflected in the matter of extended deterrence, but on the other two issues the outcome fell short of the government's expectations. The question of dispatching Korean troops to Afghanistan was much in the spotlight due to rhetorical pressure on Seoul from U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell ahead of the meeting. Morrell had urged Seoul to give more economic aid, and Gates had said that South Korea's international military contribution should be perceived as helping the South's security and core national interests, which was taken as a roundabout way of calling for troops to Afghanistan. [Tribute]
• 'Kimjongilia' Documents Suffering N.Korea Seeks to Hide
  Kimjongilia director Nancy Heikin says this image is what the regime wishes to show -- what a wonderful place North Korea is. Human rights organizations say tens of thousands (sic) of North Koreans live in forced labor camps for political reeducation, where torture, starvation, and illness are commonplace. North Korean defectors say entire families are sent to the camps for tiny crimes such as humming a South Korean pop song. Now, a new film is bringing the stories of North Koreans who have escaped such camps to the screen. [Manipulation] [Propaganda] [Evidence]
• U.S. Report Claims N.Korea Passing WMD Tech to Syria via Iran
  A new U.S. congressional report claims North Korea is transferring weapons technology to Syria through Iran. In the report, the Congressional Research Service, an entity that works exclusively for the U.S. Congress, revealed that Iran was assisting in the procurement of weapons of mass destruction-related technology by providing North Korea with a platform for such trade with Syria. The report however does not offer further details on the alleged interaction. [WMD] [Evidence]
• S.Korea and U.S. discuss OPCON and Afghanistan
  S. Korean Defense Minister Kim and U.S. Secretary of Defense Gates reaffirm April 2012 transition deadline, and meanwhile increase PRT personnel » Defense Minister Kim Tae-young, second right, guides U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the Defense Ministry Building located in Seoul for the Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), Oct. 22. At the 41st Republic of Korea-U.S. Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), held at the office of the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul’s Yongsan district on Thursday, the two countries reaffirmed the plan to transfer wartime operation control to South Korea by Apr. 17, 2012.
  The U.S. defense secretary’s tone was somewhat subdued. Gates emphasized autonomous decision-making by South Korea and said that the issue of South Korean support in Afghanistan is “entirely up to the government of the Republic of Korea.” Observers, however, are saying that this alone does not lend itself to the interpretation that the U.S. has changed its position on wanting South Korea to redeploy forces in Afghanistan. “The U.S. has a guideline of not formally requesting deployment in consideration of contrary public opinion in South Korea,” said Kim Jong-dae, the editor-in-chief of the defense journal “D&D Focus.” According to Kim, Gates’ remarks on Wednesday should be seen as essentially a substitution for the demand to the South Korean government for troop redeployment. [Sovereignty] [Tribute]
• U.S. Should Engage With North Korea Economy: Report
  By REUTERS Published: October 22, 2009 Filed at 4:00 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ambitious U.S. economic engagement with North Korea would help end Pyongyang's isolation and moderate its behavior, aiding efforts to rid that country of nuclear arms, a task force report said on Thursday. The study by leading U.S. experts on North Korea, released as Washington weighs whether to engage in bilateral talks with Pyongyang, argues that sanctions alone will not denuclearize the North and will tend to strengthen hostile forces there. "Sanctions alone cannot provide protection from the threat posed now or in the future by North Korea," said the report by the Asia Society and the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. [US NK policy] [Inversion]
• Aid to Afghanistan
  Principle Is More Important Than Amount or Form U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will likely ask Korea to increase its aid to Afghanistan during his two-day stay here. And Gates' Korean counterparts are expected to accept his call, as they appear quite relieved that the U.S. request is not a military but financial one. [Tribute]
• U.S. Defense Secretary Urges S.Korea to Spend More on Security
  South Korean Prime Minister Chung Un-chan (right), shakes hands with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates during their meeting at the Government Complex in Seoul on Oct. 21, 2009. South Korean Prime Minister Chung Un-chan (right), shakes hands with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates during their meeting at the Government Complex in Seoul on Oct. 21, 2009. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says North Korea remains a real threat to security on the Korean peninsula and in the world. He is in South Korea, where he is urging Seoul to beef up its military to reflect its status as an emerging world power. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates praised South Korean defense reforms Wednesday, saying the country's military is becoming more mobile and better able to contribute to international peacekeeping and security operations. He says South Korea's rising status deserves a bigger budget. "We encourage the Republic of Korea's political leaders to make an investment to Korea's emerging role as a contributor to global security, and commensurate with the threat you face on the peninsula," Gates said. [Tribute] [Arms sales] [Threat]
• New U.S. Pacific Commander Concerned About N.Korea, China
  The new commander of U.S. forces in Asia and the Pacific and Indian Oceans says North Korea must be watched very closely and that China's growing military capabilities are also causing concern in the region. Admiral Robert Willard spoke to reporters in Seoul Wednesday, for the first time since he took command. Admiral Willard says the United States and other nations must continue to deal with North Korea's "unpredictability," and work through military deterrence and diplomatic pressure to convince the country's leaders to abandon their nuclear program. "A nuclear-armed North Korea and a North Korea that chooses to provoke and a North Korea that may be on the brink of succession, all those things make North Korea certainly worthy of our attention now," he said. "So, North Korea needs to be watched very closely." [China confrontation] [Unpredictability]
• US Wants Seoul to Invest More in Defense
  By Lee Tae-hoon Staff Reporter U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called on South Korea to increase investment in defense, Wednesday, to fit its role as a contributor to global security. "We encourage the Republic of Korea's political leaders to make an investment in defense appropriate to Korea's emerging role as a contributor to global security and commensurate with the threat you face on the peninsula," Gates told a group of U.S. and South Korean soldiers in Yongsan Garrison, Seoul. He said that the threat posed by North Korea has reached a higher level. [Tribute] [Threat] [Arms sales]
• Gates pledges nuclear umbrella to counter North Korea
  By Phil Stewart Reuters Thursday, October 22, 2009; 12:26 AM SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday that North Korea poses a threat to Washington's allies in North Asia and promised to protect them under the U.S. nuclear umbrella. [Threat] [US global strategy]
• Kim Kye-gwan pursues successful nuclear talks: report
  By Hwang Doo-hyong WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's chief nuclear envoy says he wants to successfully conclude nuclear talks with the U.S. and improve ties with the world's superpower. "We are committing our own efforts for the good result and for the good future of relations between our two nations and for successful talks with the United States and to defend the peace, which is the common goal of our two nations, the Americans and the people of the DPRK, to live as friends," Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan said in an interview aired on the Fox News program "On the Record" Monday evening.
  "I wish the Americans well and wish everything goes well in the United States," Kim said in the interview with Fox in Pyongyang soon after he met with the Rev. Franklin Graham, who visited the North Korean capital in his capacity as the head of a relief organization. "I want peace in the United States." [NK US policy]
• Korea, U.S. 'on Schedule for Handover of Troop Control'
  U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Tuesday said he was sure that the deadline for the transfer of full operational control of Korean troops from Washington to Seoul in April 2012 will be met. Speaking on an airplane en route to Tokyo, Gates said he was glad to see progress.
• Korea Should Give More Support for Afghanistan
  U.S. Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell on Sunday said all countries that wish for the peace and prosperity and economic growth of the world have an "obligation" to support Afghanistan. Another U.S. government official said it would be better for South Korea, which has provided medical support for Afghanistan until now, to make contributions to other sectors as well, adding that the quicker South Korea decides and the bigger its support, the better. When he visited South Korea in April, Richard Holbrooke, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Barack Obama administration, mentioned the need for additional support from Seoul. But he was not as frank in expressing the scale of support Washington wants. [Tribute]
• Pyongyang envoy said to travel to U.S. for talks
  October 21, 2009 A North Korean diplomat arrived in Beijing yesterday on his way to the United States for a bilateral meeting next week apparently aimed at laying the groundwork for higher-level nuclear talks. Ri Gun, director general of the North American affairs bureau at North Korea’s foreign ministry, is reportedly scheduled to meet Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy to the six-way nuclear talks, in San Diego on the sidelines of an academic seminar slated for Oct. 26-27. “I will go soon [to the U.S.],” Ri told reporters when asked about the timing of his rare trip to the United States. He was then rushed away in a North Korean embassy sedan. Diplomatic sources said Ri is likely to stay in Beijing for a few days for consultations with Chinese officials. The United States earlier issued a visa for Ri, North Korea’s No. 2 official at the six-party talks, to travel to San Diego and New York. Their meeting is widely seen as a prelude to higher-level contacts between the two sides. The North has invited Stephen Bosworth, special U.S. representative for North Korea policy, to visit Pyongyang. The sources added that the United States wants the North to be represented by Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju, who is known to oversee Pyongyang’s nuclear and U.S. policies, not Kim Gye-gwan, its top delegate to the six-party forum. [Bilateral]
• The Hermit Kingdom An unchanging, irrational Stalinist dictatorship? Not so much.
  BY CHRISTIAN CARYL | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2009 Forget the hairdos and the funny suits. Kim Jong Il is no madman. We don't have access to his shrink, of course, but there's absolutely no evidence to suggest that he's irrational. In terms of judging his own people and the international community, he seems to have done a remarkable job with what he has been given. One reason: cold-eyed awareness of the reality of his position. He has told at least one reliable source that his own regime's propaganda is all lies, and he surely knows -- given that he maintains constant access to the Internet and CNN -- that his economy is a basket case and his country is an international pariah. [Media] [Cliché]
• U.S. Ups Pressure on Korea Over Afghanistan
  U.S. Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell on Sunday claimed Korea has "an obligation" to support his government's war in Afghanistan. He made the remarks in an interview with the Chosun Ilbo on Sunday en route to Hawaii, the first stopover of Defense Secretary Robert Gates' Asian tour. [Tribute]
• Seoul Is Not Ready to Take Over Full Troop Control
  In a briefing about the annual Security Consultative Meeting to take place on Thursday in Seoul, a high-ranking U.S. Defense Department official reiterated that a final decision about the transfer of full control of Korean troops to Seoul in 2012 would be made based on the circumstances at that time, but at present the plan was progressing "on schedule." A spokesman for the Korean Defense Ministry on Monday confirmed this. That means at 10 a.m. on April 17, 2012, responsibility for Korean troops in case of war will be handed over from Combined Forces Command to the Korean military and the CFC will be dismantled. [Sovereignty]
• US Forces Korea - Exercises
  The ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command, established in Seoul in 1978 by the two countries, is a unique, integrated Korean-American headquarters responsible for the defense of the ROK. FOAL EAGLE is one of a series of four major Combined Forces Command annual exercises: TEAM SPIRIT, ULCHI FOCUS LENS, Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration (RSOI), and FOAL EAGLE. [Joint US military]
• US to Issue Visa for Ri Gun
  The United States has decided to allow a senior North Korean official to attend a seminar in San Diego later this month amid talk of imminent bilateral negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea over the latter's nuclear ambitions, press reports said. The U.S. government has decided to grant a visa to Ri Gun, director general of the North American affairs bureau of North Korea's Foreign Ministry, Reuters said, citing informed sources. Kim Myong-gil, deputy chief of the North Korean mission to the U.N. in New York, said Ri has been given a visa for the seminar, according to The Associated Press. [Bilateral] [Overtures]
• U.S. Accused of Seeking Monopoly of Space
  Pyongyang, October 16 (KCNA) -- It was reported that the two military satellites launched by the United States recently would provide its missile shield with the capability for tracking ballistic missiles worldwide and information transmitted by the sensors of the satellites would be used by the U.S forces for intercepting missiles. Minju Joson Friday observes in a signed commentary in this regard: This goes to prove that the U.S. strategic scenario to get a monopoly of space in a bid to establish military hegemony and put the world under its domination by force of arms has entered the phase of its implementation. To this end the U.S. is making much fuss about "missile threat" from someone in an effort to use this as a pretext for deploying a missile shield in space. It is the calculation of the U.S. that by unilaterally rounding off and expanding the missile defence system without let-up it will be able to neutralize other powers' retaliatory capabilities and other means and reinforce its military hegemony. [Missile defense] [Imperialism]
• North Korea: Official Allowed Into U.S.
  By REUTERS Published: October 16, 2009 The State Department has decided to grant a visa to Ri Gun, North Korea’s No. 2 official at talks on its nuclear programs, to meet with scholars in New York on Oct. 30, a person familiar with the matter said Friday. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was a high probability that Sung Kim, a State Department envoy, would meet informally with Mr. Ri. Analysts said the move could be a first step toward formal bilateral talks. [Bilateral] [US NK policy]
• BOOKS: Mystery, diplomacy in North Korea
  BAMBOO AND BLOOD By James Church St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95, 292 pages REVIEWED BY BARBARA SLAVIN It is rare that the third in a literary series surpasses those that came before. But in "Bamboo and Blood," author James Church has written a book that succeeds on multiple levels. Set in North Korea, New York and Geneva, it is, at one level, a page-turner about the investigation into the death of a North Korean diplomat's wife under mysterious circumstances abroad. It is also a political novel, depicting the desperate diplomacy that led North Korea to try to trade missiles for food in the mid-late 1990s during a famine that may have killed 10 percent of its population. Finally, it is a spy story in the tradition of John le Carre, full of suspense, cynicism and intrigue.
  James Church is a pseudonym for the author, a former CIA analyst. Among the few Americans to have spent time in North Korea, he manages to convey the awfulness of the regime without diminishing the humanity of the North Korean people. [Spin]
• US Firm Under Probe for Radar Supply Fraud
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter Military prosecutors are investigating a suspicion that a major U.S. defense company sold old radar systems disguised as new ones to the South Korean Navy between 2003 and 2005, officials of the Ministry of National Defense said Thursday. [Corruption] [Arms sales]
• North Korea invites U.S. envoy: report
  Reuters Thursday, October 15, 2009; 10:16 PM TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea has renewed an invitation to U.S. special envoy Stephen Bosworth to visit Pyongyang, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported, in a signal that it wants to return to nuclear talks, albeit on Pyongyang's terms. U.S. evangelist Franklin Graham, who was in North Korea this week to organize food aid, told the agency that Pyongyang was very positive about holding talks with Washington. "The invitation has been extended," Graham, who heads the U.S. aid organization Samaritan's Purse, said, quoting a North Korean official. The North has had longstanding ties with the Graham family, including Graham's father evangelist Billy Graham. The family has led several food aid missions from Christian charities for the impoverished state. During his trip, Graham met North Korean officials including Kim Kye Gwan, Pyongyang's envoy to the six-party talks, Kyodo said. "I think they are very positive" about holding talks with the United States, Graham said. [Overtures]
• Comparative Connections v.11 n.3
  Oct 15, 2009 -Regional Overview: Promises Kept, for Better and for Worse -U.S.-Japan Relations: Interpreting Change -U.S.-China Relations: Strategic & Economic Dialogue Sets Agenda for Cooperation -U.S.-Korea Relations: Bill’s Excellent Adventure -U.S.-Russia Relations: Missiles of September -U.S.-Southeast Asia Relations: The United States Is Back! -China-Southeast Asia Relations: Myanmar, South China Sea Issues -China-Taiwan Relations: Temporarily in the Doldrums -North Korea-South Korea Relations: On the Mend? -China-Korea Relations: China’s Nuclear North Korea Fever -Japan-China Relations: Old Issues Greet a New Government -Japan-Korea Relations: Japan’s New Government: Hope and Optimism -China-Russia Relations: Market Malaise and Mirnaya Missiya -Australia-East Asia/U.S. Relations: Australia Adjusts to New Realities
• U.S. Treads Softly Over N.Korean Missile Tests
  The U.S. administration on Tuesday held off on condemnation of North Korea's short-range missile tests. Asked Monday whether the firing of short-range missiles violates UN Security Council Resolution 1874, a senior official with the U.S. State Department told reporters that the U.S. government was still thinking about the matter. This official added whether the North violated the UNSC resolution will be determined based on analysis of aspects including how far the missiles flew.
• U.S. will not ease sanctions despite North’s gestures
  Pyongyang told direct talks with Washington tied to six-party talks October 15, 2009 The United States has no intention of easing sanctions on North Korea to try to bring Pyongyang back to the six-party denuclearization talks, and will not meet directly with North Korea unless it commits to returning to the table, senior U.S. officials said yesterday. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said pressure on North Korea will not be lifted at this juncture and the impending bilateral talks between the two countries are not linked to easing any sanctions. [Sanctions] [Bilateral]
• What's Gotten Into N. Korea?
  A Recent Spate of Friendly Gestures May Signal New Priorities
  Kim Nam-sik, a South Korean diplomat, says the North expressed regret for By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, October 15, 2009 SEOUL, Oct. 14 -- There have been hiccups, such as the five missiles it fired into the sea on Monday, but North Korea seems unusually focused this fall on smoothing feathers that it ruffled earlier in the year. [Overtures]
• Bush Urges Unity on N. Korean Nukes
  Former U.S. president George W. Bush Former U.S. president George W. Bush Wednesday urged nations negotiating with North Korea to stay united to pressure the communist state into abandoning its nuclear ambitions, AFP reported Wednesday. Bush told a Seoul forum that Pyongyang is undoubtedly testing the six-nation negotiating process and the other members must not give in. "I believe that the best way to bring peace to the Korean Peninsula is multilateral diplomacy through the six-party talks," Bush was quoted as saying in his keynote speech to the World Knowledge Forum. "The president (sic) of North Korea will, no doubt, test the system, and, no doubt, try to find weaknesses," he said, referring to leader Kim Jong-il who is not in fact president. [US NK Policy]
• Changing North Korea
  By ANDREI LANKOV Published: October 13, 2009 When it comes to dealing with North Korea, the United States and its allies have no efficient methods of coercion at their disposal; the regime is remarkably immune to outside pressure. Its leaders cannot afford change, so they make sure their state continues to be an international threat, using nuclear blackmail as a survival tactic while their unlucky subjects endure more poverty and terror.
• U.S. hails cooperation on North Korea, sees new steps
  By Chris Buckley Reuters Wednesday, October 14, 2009; 2:37 AM BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea's neighbors and the United States are coordinating closely to draw the isolated state back to nuclear disarmament talks and reviewing possible next steps, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Wednesday.
• Prospects for Pragmatic Engagement on Human Rights with North Korea
  By John Feffer October 7th, 2009 John Feffer, Co-Director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, writes, “to say that an improved human rights record is a ticket into the international community for North Korea separates the terms too starkly. North Korea's human rights situation will change largely through engagement with the international community not prior to it. If North Korea views human rights only instrumentally, as a price it has to pay, it will never take human rights seriously in any fundamental or institutional sense. Moreover, unless the international community begins to address these issues through a human security paradigm, it will continue to miss opportunities to engage North Korea in a way that can improve the lives of its citizens in direct, meaningful ways.” [Human rights] [Manipulation] [US NK policy]
• La Verne professor wants to pull some diplomacy out of his hat
  Dale Salwak, who teaches English literature by day and performs as a magician at night, knows that arranging for North Korean illusionists to visit the U.S. is no easy trick. For his next magic trick, Dale Salwak is going to attempt to pull international diplomacy out of his hat. That is the plan for the La Verne college professor, who has found that getting in and out of North Korea requires some sleight of hand. Salwak teaches English literature by day at Citrus College and performs illusions at night at places such as Hollywood's Magic Castle. His skill at floating mysterious zombie balls in the air and turning silk scarves into exploding flowers earned him an invitation earlier this year to visit the secretive Asian nation. His six-day stay in Pyongyang in April prompted him to attempt to organize an exchange program that will lead to visits by North Korean magicians to this country.
• North Korea: Economic Leverage and Policy Analysis
  Dick K. Nanto Specialist in Industry and Trade Emma Chanlett-Avery Specialist in Asian Affairs August 14, 2009 Congressional Research Service [US NK policy] [Sanctions] [Sanctions]
• North Korean Counterfeiting of U.S. Currency
  Dick K. Nanto Specialist in Industry and Trade June 12, 2009 Congressional Research Service
• North Korean Crime-for-Profit Activities
  Updated August 25, 2008 Liana Sun Wyler Analyst in International Crime and Narcotics Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division Dick K. Nanto Specialist in Industry and Trade Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division [Toolkit]
• U.S. Policy toward North Korea: The China Fallacy
  by Adam P. Liff Pacific Forum CSIS Young Leader Adam P. Liff (aphailliff@gmail.com) is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Politics at Princeton University. He is a former MEXT Research Scholar affiliated with the University of Tokyo and research associate at the Japan Center for International Exchange. He spent summer 2009 in Beijing and Shanghai conducting research on China’s foreign policy toward Northeast Asia. Images of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s warm embrace of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during this week’s visit to Pyongyang to celebrate the 60th anniversary of PRC-DPRK diplomatic relations may have surprised observers of the North Korea nuclear issue. After all, the conventional wisdom in U.S. foreign policy circles is that the Chinese leadership is increasingly angry with Pyongyang in the wake of its recent provocations and that Beijing is willing and able to use its leverage to pressure Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program. This embrace should give such observers pause: it manifests a clear disconnect between the conventional wisdom and reality. [NK China] [US NK policy]
• Unbearable Legacies: The Politics of Environmental Degradation in North Korea
  Peter Hayes
  Nearly 15 years ago, I wrote Enduring Legacies: Economic Dimensions of Restoring North Korea's Environment. This essay not only described a set of urgent environmental problems in North Korea, but also described its institutional and legal framework for environmental management. At the time, I had no idea that so many years would pass with no improvement in North Korea’s situation. It has actually become far worse than I could then imagine. In 1994, I led a UN mission charged with helping North Korea to compile its first greenhouse gas emissions inventory for its national report under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which North Korea had signed. Part of the justification for providing Global Environment Facility (GEF) funding for greenhouse gas reduction projects in North Korea was the creation of other benefits such as biodiversity. For this reason, I was looking into reforestation in North Korea as a way to capture carbon from the air as a way to preserve and restore biodiversity. I was talking over dinner with the head of North Korea’s biodiversity program about such a project. He offered to pour me a shot of liquor from a bottle containing a snake. I demurred but he insisted, saying the snake liquor for public sale was low grade whereas this one — a snake with a diamond head not a square one — was the real thing, made from a rare and endangered species! The following year, I sent another GEF mission to North Korea to inspect forests. North Korea provided extraordinary field access to the proposed fast-growth forests (in the sensitive northeastern mountains), provided scads of data and answered many penetrating questions by one of the world’s leading development foresters. The project worked its way through the GEF system, receiving positive reviews, only to be withdrawn from final consideration by GEF’s Governing Council. The reason? It was the year that conservative US Senator Jesse Helms had taken the US budget hostage, and the US Treasury Department wanted no red flags at GEF that might draw that bull to charge. A quiet word by the US representative on the Governing Council was enough to pull the plug, and the project was quietly killed, even though North Korea had met or exceeded all requirements.
  Many had high hopes that things might change quickly in relation to Korea when Obama was elected. However, as the months passed, two things became clear. First, Obama’s political appointees on Asia in general and Korea in particular were not high on the political agenda for rapid confirmation. This left the United States on auto-pilot, with many officials and pundits asking why change course from Chris Hill’s strategy of endless Six Party Talks?
  A North Korea contained with nuclear threat as an exception that proves the non proliferation global rule appears to be more valuable to Obama’s concept of global nuclear abolition than shifting to a non-nuclear military strategy combined with cooperative diplomacy and economic engagement to actually resolve the North Korean nuclear threat, and restore it to the NPT regime. Dismally, therefore, I conclude that the United States will not lead in Korea, but will revert to bad habits and standard operating procedures from the Cold war that will sustain the conflict indefinitely, while the DPRK will continue to use nuclear threat to evoke an American response, and then lapse into a near comatose state until winter passes, and we begin a new cycle of positional warfare in 2010. September 24, 2009. [UNUS] [US NK policy] [Continuity] [Asymetry] [Environment]
• The Korean War, Korean Americans and the Art of Remembering
  Ramsay Liem Abstract Rarely are personal life stories, art, film, spoken word, and history combined in public exhibition. Still Present Pasts: Korean Americans and the “Forgotten War” (SPP) is an exception. It weaves these elements into a multi-media, interactive experience that lifts the silence shrouding the Korean War, a pivotal event in Korean, United States, and KoreanAmerican history. [Korea War events]
• Demise of Dollar  
  Nation Should Prepare for Changes in Key Currency
  It's been some time since the U.S. dollar came under growing skepticism concerning its status as the world's reserve currency. However, recent foreign reports on some countries' move toward ending dollar dealings for oil trade come as quite a shock. Regardless of the authenticity of these reports, the fact that such stories are circulating points to the inevitable declines facing the U.S. monetary unit. Come to think of it, however, it would be rather strange if the U.S. currency's status remains unchanged after all the financial turmoil America initiated and the massive printing of new greenbacks nearly halving its value. So the dollar's downfall is not a matter of whether, but of how fast and low.  [Reserve]
• For US, North Korea step vindicates hard line: analysts
  AFP by Shaun Tandon Shaun Tandon – Wed Oct 7, 10:04 am ET WASHINGTON (AFP) – North Korea hopes to lure the United States to the table with its offer to resume denuclearization talks, but many in Washington see the shift as proof its hard line is working, analysts say. President Barack Obama's administration reacted cautiously Tuesday to the isolated communist state's announcement that it was willing to return to multilateral disarmament talks it stormed out of six months ago. But North Korea -- which has tested an atom bomb and a flurry of missiles this year -- said its return to talks depended on the United States meeting one-on-one to repair "hostile relations." State Department spokesman Ian Kelly responded by reiterating the United States would talk bilaterally with the North only as part of a return to six-nation talks and sought a complete end to its nuclear weapons program. Experts said that recent sanctions on North Korea, imposed by the United Nations with strong US support, were working better than perhaps even the Obama administration hoped.
  The administration -- which entered office planning to engage North Korea -- has found that with sanctions "they have a very powerful tool, and one that could become even more powerful," said Victor Cha, who was former president George W. Bush's top adviser on North Korea. [US NK policy] [Bilateral] [Sanctions] [Overtures]
• Is There Really No Rift Between Seoul and Washington?
  Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell is expected to visit Japan and China next week for advance talks about the agenda for U.S. President Barack Obama's first visit to Asia from Nov. 12 to 19. Obama visits Japan on Nov. 12 and 13, attend the APEC Summit in Singapore and then visit China and South Korea, but Campbell will not be stopping in Seoul. [Friction] [Sidelining]
• U.S. Expert Casts Doubt on 'Grand Bargain' for N.Korea
  The "grand bargain" proposed by President Lee Myung-bak to induce North Korea to relinquish its nuclear weapon program in return for money will not solve the problem, argues Joel Wit, a senior research scholar at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University. Wit, who worked on North Korean affairs in the U.S. State Department during the Bill Clinton Administration, was speaking at a seminar titled "Obama and North Korea: Next Steps" at Columbia University on Wednesday, where he presented a paper on "U.S. Strategy toward North Korea: Rebuilding Dialogue and Engagement." He said the "grand bargain" idea was dead on arrival, and buy-out deals like those offered on Wall Street cannot solve the North Korean nuclear issue. He said denuclearization of North Korea can be achieved only through fundamental transformation of relationships, not through simple monetary transactions.
  He urged the countries involved to realize that this is the only chance to solve the matter and seek solutions in continued dialogue. The U.S. government should seize the opportunity while Kim is still powerful and North Korea has not yet expanded its nuclear weapon arsenal while the power of Kim's successor is still weak. [US NK policy] [Bilateral] [Succession] [Sanctions]
• North Korea – the US still caught between speaking with the enemy and listening to allies
  September 28th, 2009 Author: Jonas Parello-Plesner Barack Obama: ‘America … has to talk with its enemies.’ ’[It] requires allies who will listen to each other, learn from each other and, most of all, trust each other’. North Korea is a litmus test for Obama’s foreign policy tenets. On the one hand, Obama promised to speak with the enemy to bring new results in foreign policy. On the other hand, Obama also wants to secure acceptance and listen to allies as a fundamental part of his foreign policy. These two principles are difficult to reconcile and apply to North Korea. [US NK policy]
• Movie Tests Korea-US Ties
  A poster shows a local film revisiting the 1997 Itaewon murder of a Korean student allegedly by a Korean American and an American. NGOs Call for Reinvestigation of Itaewon Homicide Case in 1997 By Do Je-hae Staff Reporter Authorities and American diplomats are concerned over the possibility that a recently-released movie depicting the 1997 Itaewon homicide by a Korean-American and the son of a U.S. soldier may fan the flames of anti-Americanism. The concerns may be backed by the fact that the film has so far attracted more than 300,000 moviegoers. Twelve years ago, a Korean American and the child of a U.S. soldier were tried for randomly killing a Korean college student in a restaurant in Itaewon, Seoul. They were eventually released from Korean prison. [Anti-Americanism] [Extraterritoriality]
• Just Me and My Celebrity Shadows
  By BEN BRANTLEY Published: October 5, 2009 You have probably wondered what it would be like to walk a mile (or a light-year) in the hair coils of Princess Leia, the intergalactic pinup girl from the original “Star Wars” movies. O.K., so you haven’t. But Carrie Fisher has arrived on Broadway with the intention of clamping those unflattering Danish-pastry-shaped pieces right onto your head — I mean, figuratively, of course, though in the case of one (un)lucky selected audience member per show, literally. What’s more, you’re going to like it. A lot.
  To explain what it’s like to grow up among the much-married in Hollywood, she provides a photo-illustrated genealogy chart that takes us all the way from Debbie and Eddie (and Elizabeth Taylor and Mike Todd) to Ms. Fisher’s teenage daughter and Ms. Taylor’s grandson, who it seems have been dating. Similar visual aids are employed to explain bipolar disorder (a map of North Korea, a picture of Abraham Lincoln) and alcoholism (a map of Ireland, a picture of George W. Bush). [Bizarre]
• Hell Hath a Jury
  North Korea Tortured the Crew Of USS Pueblo in 1968. 4 Victims Fought for Solace in the Courts.
  William Thomas Massie, who survived 11 months in captivity in North Korean when the USS Pueblo was captured in 1968, recounts his ordeal and his quest for restitution. Rose Bucher, the widow of his captain, Lloyd "Pete" Bucher, is also part of the lawsuit. By Del Quentin Wilber Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, October 8, 2009 But while the experts he has seen have helped ease Massie's lingering anger, pain and fear, they haven't delivered what he has truly craved: vengeance and vindication. For that, he turned to the law. Massie, two other Pueblo crew members and the widow of their captain sued North Korea for their torment. A federal judge in the District awarded them $65 million in damages last year. Their lawyers are trying to locate North Korean assets frozen by the U.S. government that they can seize. [Legality] [Espionage]
• Obama to visit Seoul in November
  U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Seoul from Nov. 18-19 for a summit with President Lee Myung-bak on North Korea and bilateral trade and alliance, Cheong Wa Dae announced yesterday. The visit will come after both leaders attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Singapore on Nov. 14-15. Obama will also visit Japan and China.
• Seized NK Containers Were Headed for Syria’
  OCTOBER 07, 2009 07:28 Four North Korean containers allegedly storing items related to chemical weapons seized in Busan last month were headed for Syria, a government source in Seoul said yesterday. The North has long been suspected of transferring nuclear technology to Syria. “(South) Korean and U.S. intelligence are focused on the fact that the seized containers were heading for Syria,” the source said. “They are concerned that protective clothing in containers can be used to develop weapons of mass destruction in Syria, such as nuclear or biological chemical weapons.” (sic) “The (South Korean) government is testing whether the protective clothing in the seized containers guards against nuclear, biological and chemical weapons (sic) or are used in the development or use of nuclear and biochemical weapons, and analyzing the results.” The protective clothing was reportedly made in Russia. The South also believes that the North might have copied, mediated or reprocessed Russian products. The Australia Group, a group of 33 countries launched in 1985 to prevent the production and spread of biochemical weapons, defines protective clothing as devices related to biochemical weapons and controls their import and export. The four containers were loaded onto the MSC Rachele, a Panama-registered cargo ship, not in North Korea (sic) but in a third country through cargo laundering, in which trading companies in a third country are recorded as sender and recipient in export and import documents. “This container ship goes to every port in the world, including Busan New Port,” another South Korean government source said. “It seems to have selected a ship able to carry many containers to avoid tracking.” The vessel is known to have been carrying 7,000 to 8,000 large and small containers when it was seized. [cbw] [Evidence] [PSI]
• Send Bosworth to North Korea
  Christine Ahn | October 5, 2009
  A thawing is occurring in Asia, especially on the Korean peninsula, melting away over a half century of hardened enmity between historic enemies. North and South Korea have revived the reconciliation process that was stalled in 2007, and Japan has promised the region that it will address its colonial past. Rarely are the stars so aligned for genuine peace in Northeast Asia. President Obama should take advantage of this historic warming by sending special envoy Stephen Bosworth to North Korea to finally resolve the outstanding Korean War. [US NK policy] [Continuity] [Overtures]
• US targets banks in effort to restart NKorea talks
  By FOSTER KLUG The Associated Press Friday, October 2, 2009; 7:34 PM WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration's push to settle a tense nuclear standoff with North Korea is being spearheaded not by soldiers on a battlefield or big-name diplomats but by government officials knocking on the doors of banks throughout Asia. The Democratic White House's effort borrows a page from former President George W. Bush's Republican playbook: Pyongyang unwilling to bend? Negotiating partners wary of tougher sanctions? Then bypass messy international diplomacy and hit the North where it hurts: its foreign bank accounts. American officials are traveling around Asia, targeting private banks that might have North Korean ties. [Sanctions] [Intelligent design] [Inversion]
• North Korean "Counterfeiting Scheme" Redux: What is Behind These Renewed Allegations?
  Gregory Elich | October 1, 2009
  As relations with North Korea show signs of improvement two recent articles have brought to the fore old and unconfirmed allegations of North Korean state-sponsored counterfeiting. Both the August 24 issue of The Independent1 and the September issue of Vanity Fair2 advance arguments for North Korea's guilt and do little to hide their desire for the U.S. to take a more aggressive approach to that nation.
  The Obama Administration has yet to make any meaningful diplomatic gesture towards North Korea; instead it has gradually ratcheted up the pressure through the steady addition of sanctions. There
  The recent announcement by the Obama Administration of its willingness to engage in bilateral talks with North Korea as a step toward resuming the six-party talks is a heartening development. It is likely that alarmist stories concerning North Korea will continue to appear, as opponents of dialogue step up efforts to block progress. They will argue that punishment is the only suitable response to a nation so irremediably criminal in nature. The voices of reaction, as ever, will be loud in the pursuit of their narrow interests. It is time for proponents of a peaceful resolution of U.S.-North Korean issues to speak out. There is much riding on the outcome. [US NK policy] [Dissension] [Counterfeiting] [Toolkit]
• Counterfeiting: Notes on a scandal
  As the US edges towards engagement with North Korea, it will be forced to address Pyongyang's booming trade in fake American currency. David Samuels investigates how 'supernotes' are funding crime - and a dictatorship Monday, 24 August 2009 In October of 1997, a white-haired 63-year old Irishman named Sean Garland paid a visit to Moscow in the company of an acquaintance subsequently identified only by the initials "JM". Garland was a self-proclaimed Marxist who dressed like a professor and served as head of a far-left faction called the Irish Workers Party that had never elected a single one of its members to any mainstream political body. Garland's first visit to Moscow was followed by three return trips in the first half of 1998, made in the company of known criminals from Dublin and Birmingham. [Counterfeiting] [Media][Disinformation]
• North Korea’s Dollar Store
  Office 39, North Korea’s billion-dollar crime syndicate, pays for Kim Jong Il’s missiles and cognac. Why did the Bush White House choose not to shut it down? By David Rose WEB EXCLUSIVE August 5, 2009 Appropriately enough, I met Chen Chiang Liu on Las Vegas Boulevard. But it wasn’t at one of the casinos on the Strip that he loved so well; it was in a different kind of building a few miles to the north—the Lloyd D. George U.S. District Courthouse. Peering through the heavy mesh screen in a holding cell, he was a very unhappy man. Understandably so. It was March 5, 2009, and later that morning, he was due to be sentenced. Liu had been convicted of conspiracy and fraud involving millions of dollars made not by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing but by counterfeiting presses in a foreign country, presumably North Korea. The quality of these “supernote” forgeries is so high that he’d managed to pass enormous quantities through the electronic detection devices with which every Vegas slot machine is supposed to be equipped. The prosecutor was asking the judge to give him close to 25 years, and in the end Liu would receive more than 12. David Rose discusses North Korea’s counterfeiting operation and shares footage from the F.B.I.’s investigation. Liu’s crimes threatened not only the integrity of America’s currency but the very fabric of international peace.(sic) [Counterfeiting] [Media] [Disinformation]
• North Korea: Updates on Uranium Enrichment, Six Party Talks, Inter-Korea Relations, and North Korea’s New Rules
  by Nicole Finnemann (nmf@keia.org) Not-So-Clandestine HEU Program The good news? North Korea made its most explicit revelation yet, which came in the form of a letter submitted to the UN on September 4, of its efforts to enrich uranium when it declared that it had successfully “done the experiment for enriching uranium and it has entered its final stage.” While the international community has long suspected North Korea of developing this second method of making nuclear weapons, it was not until last spring that Pyongyang officially acknowledged it even had the intention of doing so. [HEU] [Spin]
• U.S. delays bilateral dialogue with N.Korea
  Among the strategic considerations, analysts speculate that reasons for delay could center on a lack of agreement on the agenda among the other six-party talks members U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration is giving repeated indications of a cautious approach towards direct dialogue with North Korea, and has stated that the final decision to hold bilateral talks has not yet been made. Observers are calling this somewhat unexpected in light of a statement made by Philip Crowley, assistant secretary for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Public Affairs, in a Sept. 11 briefing. The statement seemed to indicate that the formal announcement of a bilateral dialogue would be made after the United Nations General Assembly session scheduled for Sept. 21 to Sept. 23 concluded.
  Many analysts are saying that the circumspect approach by the U.S. owes itself primarily to strategic considerations. According to this view, the approach is intended to put the U.S. in an advantageous position in future negotiations by not giving the appearance of rushing into a dialogue with North Korea. “It is correct that the U.S. has virtually decided upon the North Korea-U.S. dialogue, apart from the issue of the timeline,” said a South Korean government official. “However, there appears to be an underlying determination that there is no need to show their cards ahead of discussions,” the official added. Other observers are suggesting that in procedural terms, fine-tuning between related offices in the U.S. has finished, but no definite announcement has been made because Obama has yet to give his final approval. [US NK policy] [Bilateral] [US global strategy]
• Bosworth dismisses military option in N. Korean nuke issue
  By Hwang Doo-hyong WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (Yonhap) -- The United States does not have a military option on the table regarding North Korea's denuclearization, the U.S. point man on North Korea said Tuesday, underscoring that the six-party talks are the only way to resolve the issue. "There is no military solution," Stephen Bosworth (Data picture) , special representative for North Korea policy, said in an interview posted on the East Asia Forum Web site. "Containment does not give long-term results. Negotiations are the way forward." [Bilateral] [Military option]
• UNDP resumes aid projects in N. Korea
  SEOUL, Sept. 30 (Yonhap) -- A U.N. aid agency has resumed operations in North Korea, state media said Wednesday, more than two-and-a-half years after suspending the program due to the North's alleged misuse of funds. The United Nations Development Program decided in January to restart its North Korea projects after Pyongyang reportedly guaranteed independent auditing and alteration of administrative procedures to ensure the transparent use of funds. "An event on the restart of UNDP aid to the DPRK was held at the mission of the UNDP here on Wednesday," the Korean Central News Agency said. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name. [UNDP] [Media]
• U.S. Strategy Towards North Korea: Rebuilding Dialogue and Engagement
  U.S. policy based on containment and isolation alone only concedes that North Korea will remain nuclear-armed and that its weapons programs will further develop. That, in turn, will undermine stability in East Asia, sow doubts in Tokyo and Seoul about relying too much on the United States for their security and jeopardize cooperation with China. A nuclear North will also undermine Wash­ington’s global disarmament and non-proliferation agenda, particularly when viewed in conjunction with the danger of a nuclear Iran. The threat may become even more direct to U.S. security if the North perfects a long-range missile delivery system or exports fissile material or nuclear technology. An effective American strategy towards North Korea will require a combination of tough measures with serious dialogue and engagement. "U.S. Strategy Towards North Korea: Rebuilding Dialogue and Engagement," a new report by Joel S. Wit, discusses current developments in North Korea and, in that context, lays out a realistic set of U.S. objectives and recommendations for dealing with Pyongyang through dialogue and engagement. While that plan focuses on the United States, it should be noted that consultation and cooperation with key allies as well as with China, Russia and the international community will be central to its implementation. [US NK policy]
• U.S.' N.Korean Refugee Policy Under Scrutiny
  U.S. President Barack Obama last week nominated Robert King, a former aide to the late Tom Lantos, as a special envoy for North Korean human rights. Now a bipartisan group of U.S. congressmen have called for a reexamination of the issue of North Korean defectors. On the initiative of Democrat Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Senator Sam Brownback, Congress has recently instructed the Government Accountability Office to inspect government offices' North Korean refugee policy, a source in Washington said. According to the source, U.S. Congress instructed the GAO to inspect the U.S. administration, in the belief that there has been no significant change in the U.S. administration's policy on North Korean refugees even after Congress passed the North Korean Human Rights Act in 2004. The U.S. has been criticized for having accepted only about 90 North Korean refugees so far, despite the legal ground for accepting such refugees under the act. [Manipulation]
• U.S. Denies Rift with Seoul Over N.Korea Deal
  U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg on Wednesday denied there is conflict with South Korea over a package deal to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear program. Steinberg said President Lee Myung-Bak's proposal of a "grand bargain" is a matter that has been discussed between South Korea and the U.S. "What we all agree is that we've lived through the history before of partial measures and reversible measures," Steinberg said. "What we need is a comprehensive and definitive resolution of the nuclear question." [Friction] [Sidelining]
• [EDITORIAL] U.S.-N.K. talks
  Addressing the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Monday, North Korean vice foreign minister Pak Kil-yon said, "If the U.S. comes to dialogue with sanctions, we will also participate in dialogue with bolstered nuclear deterrence." The speech comes at a time when Washington and Pyongyang are wrangling over the conditions of bilateral talks. Pyongyang, which declared in April that it was quitting the six-party talks aimed at the denuclearization of North Korea, has been seeking direct talks with Washington. The Obama administration has said that it would meet North Korea one-on-one, but only to persuade the communist state to return to the six-party talks. Also, Washington has repeatedly indicated that it would not ease international sanctions against North Korea for its nuclear test and missile launches. Pak's speech once again shows that North Korea is not ready to give up its nuclear weapons easily, if it were to give them up at all. The United States and North Korea may engage in bilateral talks, but North Korea will not give up its nuclear weapons as long as the U.N. sanctions remain in place, Pak essentially said. This is a direct challenge to the Obama administration, which says it will maintain the sanctions. [US NK policy] [US NK negotiations] [Sanctions] [Sequencing]
• Reform from Below: Behavioral and Institutional Change in North Korea
  Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland
  Abstract The state is often conceptualized as playing an enabling role in a country’s economic development—providing public goods, such as the legal protection of property rights, while the political economy of reform is conceived in terms of bargaining over policy among elites or special interest groups. We document a case that turns this perspective on its head: efficiency-enhancing institutional and behavioral changes arising not out of a conscious, top-down program of reform, but rather as unintended (and in some respects, unwanted) by-products of state failure. Responses from a survey of North Korean refugees demonstrate that the North Korean economy marketized in response to state failure with the onset of famine in the 1990s, and subsequent reforms and retrenchments appear to have had remarkably little impact on some significant share of the population. There is strong evidence of powerful social changes, including increasing inequality, corruption, and changed attitudes about the most effective pathways to higher social status and income. These assessments appear to be remarkably uniform across demographic groups. While the survey sample marginally overweights demographic groups with less favorable assessments of the regime, even counterfactually recalibrating the sample to match the underlying resident population suggests widespread dissatisfaction with the North Korean regime. [Sanctions] [Regime change]
• N.Korea 'Willing to Denuclearize' if Sovereignty Is Respected
  The North Korean Ambassador to Britain says that his nation is willing to work towards a nuclear-free Korean peninsula if the sovereignty of its regime is respected impartially and equally. Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute in London, Ambassador Ja Song-nam disclosed the communist state's will to work towards denuclearization provided these conditions were met. However he added that denuclearization can only take place on the condition that Washington ends its anti-North Korean policies and withdraws its nuclear threat against the North. He went on to remind attendees that Pyongyang's neighbors -- China, Russia and South Korea -- are either nuclear states or are directly under the U.S. nuclear umbrella. Ambassador Ja suggested the hypocrisy of accusing North Korea of threatening world peace when the threat to Pyongyang posed by the U.S. remains unquestioned. The diplomat, known in North Korea as an expert on the U.S. and military disarmament, complained that the international community is maintaining double standards with regards to the North. He added that if this continues to be the case he doubts there can ever be genuine peace and security in the region. On the topic of the sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council on Pyongyang, Ja questioned the logic behind punishing a nuclear test by the North when some 2,000 nuclear tests have been carried out by established nuclear powers over the years. He went on to argue that a nuclear-free Korean peninsula must also include a denuclearized South Korea. [US NK policy] [Double standards]
• Gen: IEDs are NKorea's latest weapon
  By Lara Jakes The Associated Press Tuesday, September 29, 2009; 2:28 PM WASHINGTON -- Homemade bombs known as IEDs appear to be North Korea's latest weapon in its decades-long conflict with South Korea, the U.S. commander in Seoul said Tuesday. Army Gen. Walter L. "Skip" Sharp said missiles and long-range artillery that could hit the South Korea capital remain the top threat posed by reclusive regime in the North. But he said Pyongyang is turning to newer military means, such as improvised explosive devices left on roadsides, that have forced U.S. troops to "make sure we're leaning the lessons out of Iraq and Afghanistan with IEDs and other types of devices." He did not elaborate on where the devices might be used by the North Koreans. [Takeover] [Inversion] [Military balance] [Spin]

• N. Korea Urges US to Change Nuclear Policy
  North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Park Gil-yon told the U.N. General Assembly Monday that the key to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula was whether Washington was prepared to change its nuclear policy toward Pyongyang, according to AFP. "The denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula depends on whether or not the U.S. changes its nuclear policy toward Korea," he noted. "The U.S. administration must discard old concept of confrontation and show the 'change' in practice, as it recently stated on several occasions." Park added that Pyongyang "has done everything it could to realize the peaceful reunification of the country, remove nuclear threats and source of war and secure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula." "We initiated the denuclearization of Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula and advanced the proposal on replacing the Armistice Agreement with a peace agreement and the proposal of adopting the DPRK (North Korea)-U.S. non-aggression treaty," he noted. But Park complained that Pyongyang's gesture "has not received due response" from the United States, "which considers the Korean issue only in the light of its Asian strategy and does not want to see the entire Korean peninsula denuclearized." [US NK policy] [US Global strategy] [China confrontation]
• U.S. Nominates Special Envoy on N.Korean Human Rights
  Robert King, once a congressional aid with the U.S. House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee, has been nominated to serve as a special envoy on North Korean human rights issues. King, who will be given the rank of Ambassador, has worked on Capitol Hill for the last 25 years where he established and supervised the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. President Barack Obama has praised King's valuable service to his country. North Korea is currently suffering a severe food shortage, causing a third of the country's women and children to be malnourished. [Manipulation] [Sanctions]
• S. Korean high level official says, “N. Korea-U.S. talks may be delayed”
  S. Korean official meets with Korean correspondents to talk North Korea policy and Lee’s “Grand Bargain” A high-ranking South Korean official visiting the U.S. held a discussion with South Korean correspondents in Washington on Thursday evening. The official said the timing and form of the bilateral talks between the U.S. and North Korea have not yet been concretely decided, and that general expectations are too high. He suggested that progress towards the talks is slow. The official also said that even if and when North Korea-U.S. talks begin, sanctions will not be immediately lifted as they have been in the past. His statement suggests the U.S. will continue to employ a “two track strategy” of simultaneous sanctions and dialogue. In addition, he said if bilateral talks are held, they must not turn into a forum for negotiations, relegating six-party talks to a mere venue for ratification. [Bilateral] [Sanctions]
• On Several Foreign Policy Fronts, Events Force Obama to Turn to Plan B
  September 27, 2009 News Analysis By MARK LANDLER UNITED NATIONS — For President Obama, the handshakes and hugs during his first visit to the United Nations last week masked a cold reality: nine months into his presidency, he is being forced to retool his most important foreign policy initiatives, from the war in Afghanistan to peace in the Middle East and his diplomatic overture to Iran. Mr. Obama’s efforts to reach out to adversaries and break political deadlocks are running up against old enmities, insoluble differences and foreign leaders who simply do not see eye to eye with the president. The administration can point to successes: it has marshaled worldwide support for the campaign to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. And it has put relations with Russia on a firmer footing, with a decision to revamp a missile-defense system that may have paid extra dividends in helping to win Russian support for tougher sanctions against Tehran. [US global strategy] [Spin] [US NK policy] [Continuity] [Inversion]
• U.S.-DPRK Dialogue: Tasks and Prospects
  by David Straub
  Recent North Korean moves have prompted speculation that the DPRK might take a more positive approach toward South Korea and the international community, including in response to demands that it abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions. In August alone, among other things, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il staged dramatic meetings with former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jung-eun. The DPRK announced it would normalize key North-South Korean cooperative projects, and it also prepared to send a delegation to the funeral of the late President Kim Dae-jung. In the wake of President Clinton’s meeting with Chairman Kim, there has been increased interest in the tasks and prospects of U.S.-DPRK dialogue. The United States is clearly a major factor in North Korean strategic thinking, and thus bilateral U.S.-DPRK talks are a necessary, if not sufficient, element of any negotiated resolution of the North Korea problem. Since it is difficult to do much more than speculate about DPRK intentions, however, this paper will focus on Obama administration policy toward the DPRK. [US NK policy] [China confrontation] [Inversion] [US global strategy]
• U.S. Reacts with Caution to N.Korean Overtures
  U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell gestures during a press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo on Friday. /AFP-Yonhap The U.S. reacted cautiously to an overture on Friday by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who said he was ready for "bilateral or multilateral talks" to discuss denuclearization. Washington stressed its commitment to the existing six-nations framework for such talks. Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, on Saturday said the U.S. would watch if North Korea is prepared to return to the six-party talks. [Overtures] [US NK policy]
• Ex-Unification Minister Urges Obama to Meet Kim
  Former South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young Friday called on U.S. President Barack Obama to hold a one-on-one meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to usher in a breakthrough for the North's nuclear impasse that has been protracted for years. "I propose that President Obama invite Chairman Kim Jong-il to Washington if negotiations on the North Korean nuclear issue make some progress," Rep. Chung of the major opposition Democratic Party said in a speech to the National Press Club here. [Bilateral]
• Ex-Ambassador to Washington Recalls Difficult Job
  Former foreign minister Han Seung-joo says bilateral talks between the U.S. and North Korea will take place this year. In an interview with the Chosun Ilbo on Aug. 31, Han said, "Talks between the United States and North Korea will take place within the next one to two months at the earliest or before the end of the year at the latest," adding, "The United States has set the six-country talks as a prerequisite, while North Korea has set bilateral talks with Washington as a prerequisite, so if these demands are met, dialogue should be possible."  Han served as foreign minister in 1994 during the first North Korean nuclear crisis and was ambassador to the U.S. in 2002, when the second North Korean nuclear crisis began. "South Korea took a hardline stance against North Korea during the Kim Young-sam administration while the Bill Clinton administration took a moderate position. Then the Roh Moo-hyun government was more flexible towards the North while the George W. Bush administration took a hardline approach," Han recalled. "I often played the role of mediator between the two sides." [Friction]
• Korea-U.S. Alliance 'Could End Within 10 Years'
  The Korea-U.S. alliance could collapse within 10 years, the U.S. think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies warns in a report. In the report titled "Congressional Attitudes on the Future of the U.S.-South Korea Alliance," CSIS quotes an aide to a Democratic lawmaker as saying, "The alliance could end. For example, if in 10 years the South Korean government still had the same view and policy toward North Korea, continuing to increase its aid to North Korea -- in other words, 'sunshine on steroids' -- this could fray the relationship beyond repair." According to the report, both Republicans and Democrats in Congress are skeptical about Seoul's engagement with toward North Korea. Most respondents "believed that South Korea's policies toward North Korea were too generous, naive, and/or dangerous," it said. But Democratic respondents "were generally more favorably disposed to an engagement-oriented approach to North Korea -- but not an approach as forward-leaning as President Roh Moo-hyun has advocated." It notes that Seoul "made troop contribution to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but members of Congress and their staff have paid little attention." The CSIS drew up the report based on interviews of U.S. legislators and their aides with support from the Korea Foundation over one year. The think tank will hold a seminar on the report in Washington on Thursday. [Friction] [Tribute]
• Korea-U.S. Alliance Needs Constant Care
  In U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's contribution in the July-August 2008 edition of Foreign Affairs in early June last year, I stumbled on her remarks about Asia. Titled, "Rethinking the National Interest: American Realism for a New World," she describes Japan and Australia as "alliances." Japan gets particularly high marks, for sharing values and a democratic alliance with the U.S. Korea gets a subtly different shading. "South Korea, too, has become a global partner whose history can boast an inspiring journey from poverty and dictatorship to democracy and prosperity," she writes [Friction] [Sidelined]
• Seoul, Washington Resolved to Outwit N.Korean Tactics
  South Korea and the U.S. are working out a strategy to avoid falling for North Korea's brinkmanship tactics again after almost 15 years of nuclear talks that have produced little result. The two allies are apparently determined to maintain sanctions against the North until it denuclearizes. They believe their mistake in the past has been a piecemeal approach to negotiations that immediately rewarded the North for every small, reversible step. [US NK policy] [Sanctions] [Sequencing] [US NK negotiations]  
• N.Korea Should Get Nothing Until It Denuclearizes
  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday said she intends to explain to North Korea the incentives it can expect if it agrees to dismantle its nuclear program, as well as the consequences if it does not. In a recent report, the U.S. Congressional Research Service named as possible incentives the normalization of diplomatic relations, the lifting of sanctions and energy and food aid. CRS said the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank could set up a special fund to support North Korea's economic transformation. [US NK policy] [Aid weapon] [Sequencing]
• A Smart Alliance in the Age of Complexity; ROK-U.S. Alliance in the 21st Century
  By Seongho Sheen September 17th, 2009 This report was published by the East Asia Institute: http:// www.eai.or.kr/english/index.asp Seongho Sheen, assistant professor at the Graduate School of International Studies at Seoul National University and member of Policy Advisory Board of the ROK Ministry of Defense, writes, “It is clear that the two allies need each other to face both old and new challenges. The alliance needs change to deal with those challenges more effectively. A smart alliance combining a hard and soft approach will provide answers for one of South Korea’s ‘closest friends and greatest allies’ of the twenty-first century.” [US SK relations]
• Old talks in a new package?
  The six-party talks aimed at North Korea's denuclearization are expected to attempt a comeback later this year, but some new wrappings may be required to make them presentable for the North Koreans who have declared a permanent farewell to that particular format of dialogue. Diplomatic sources here have for several months hinted that the six-party talks - regardless of how much the rest of the members want them to succeed - may have to be altered, at least in appearance if not in substance. Some sources have gone so far as to suggest inviting several new regional members to the process. Pyongyang, following international condemnation of its April 5 rocket launch, has vowed to never again participate in the six-party talks - a dialogue that helped produce the Sept. 19 agreement outlining North Korea's nuclear disablement. But while the voices for such strategic moves may be gaining support, the majority appears to be in agreement that the one condition for any type of talks to succeed is an exclusive bilateral meeting between the United States and North Korea. [Bilateral]
• Bill Clinton's Doctor 'Took Close Look at Kim Jong-il'
  Bill Clinton's doctor, who accompanied the former U.S. president to Pyongyang last month, has told the U.S. government that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is still recovering from what appears to have been a stroke last year but is in stable condition, sources in Washington say. Diplomatic sources said Roger Band, a professor of emergency medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania who regularly checks Clinton's health, accompanied the former president on a visit to the North and got a close look at Kim. Brand had been briefed by U.S. government officials, the sources said. The U.S. administration was looking for concrete information about Kim's health after rumors that he suffered a stoke in August last year, asking Band to look closely at Kim's teeth, facial color, hair, scalp, speech, movements of hands and feet, and weight. Band was by Clinton's side in a meeting with Kim that lasted over three hours. Based on Band's observation, the U.S. government has reportedly concluded that Kim's condition has significantly improved. Bill Clinton's doctor Roger Band (circled in white) looks on as North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (left) talks to the former U.S. president in Pyongyang on Aug. 4. In preliminary contacts with the North, aides insisted that Clinton travel with his doctor on overseas trips. The North reportedly did not oppose this. The U.S. administration now believes that by allowing Band to accompany Clinton, Kim sought to publicize his good health to the world and may have taken advantage of the opportunity to dispel rumors that he is at death's door(sic). [Succession]
• N.Korea Is Wrong to Claim Victory
  Andrei Lankov The U.S. State Department says it is ready for bilateral talk with North Korea, and on Tuesday U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke of "incentives" for the North to commit itself to denuclearization. That is a clear shift in the U.S. position that diplomacy with Pyongyang is possible only through the six-party nuclear talks. At first sight that looks like a diplomatic victory for the North. [Bilateral]
• Clinton Calms Fears About Talks with N.Korea
  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday said that if the U.S. and North Korea should start bilateral talks, Washington will make it clear to North Korea what the possible incentives are if it commits to denuclearization and what the consequences will be if it does not. A South Korean government source on Wednesday said the talks will probably happen in late October or early November. [Bilateral]
• Wolmido residents demand joint investigation into Korean War massacre
  Surviving family members petition Obama for his support to resolve situation surrounding Incheon landing » Wolmido island residents hold a memorial service at Wolmi Park for the victims who died as a result of U.S. Air Force bombing during the Korean War, Sept. 9, 2008. Former residents of Wolmido island, located near Incheon City, read a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama during a memorial service for victims who were killed during the Incheon landing led by General MacArthur 59 years ago. In the letter, they are asking Obama for South Korea and the U.S. to conduct a joint investigation and to offer proper compensation for the families’ relatives. The former Wolmido residents plan to deliver the letter to the U.S. embassy in Seoul on September 16. The letter says, “We lost our family members due to U.S. bombing on September 10, five days ahead of the Incheon landing, and we were expelled from the island without being able to bury their corpses.” It also says, “We are writing this letter with the hope that President Obama will be able to address our heartbreak.” At dawn on September 10, 1950, the U.S. Army started to bomb Wolmido island with 93 napalm bombs in an effort to annihilate the North Korean army staying on the island. Several hundred civilians were killed as a result of the five days of bombing. [Korean War events] [war crimes]
• A New Opportunity to Engage North Korea
  Paul Liem | September 14, 2009 As the United States and North Korea prepare to re-engage one another through diplomacy, there remains skepticism in Washington about whether North Korea will ever agree to denuclearize, just as there is skepticism in Pyongyang about whether Washington will ever make peace with it. But former President Bill Clinton's visit to Pyongyang in August yielded valuable information and concrete diplomatic results to warrant reassessment of what is possible by way of bilateral talks with North Korea. [US NK policy] [Bilateral] [Clinton0908] [Overtures] [Succession]
• Obama and Bill Clinton Have Lunch in the Village
  By Jeff Zeleny Former President Bill Clinton and President Obama exited Il Mulino, a Greenwich Village restaurant, on Monday.Update | 6:23 p.m. The two men shared a corner table, chewing over health care and the economy, while having a lunch of fish, pasta and salad on Monday in Greenwich Village. It was the first time in more than a year that President Obama and former President Bill Clinton sat down – just the two of them – for a meal and a free-flowing talk about the White House and the challenges around the world. The last time they did, Mr. Obama was still a candidate and both men were trying to illustrate their cordiality to one another.
  The idea for lunch, Mr. Gibbs said, began after Mr. Clinton returned from a trip to North Korea, where he helped secure the release of two American journalists. He briefed Mr. Obama on what he saw during his travels to Pyongyang. [Clinton0908]
• The Obama Administration's North Korea Policy: Sleepwalking to War?
  Hazel Smith | September 7, 2009
  I was asked by Christine Ahn to speak, and the title I was given was "A Path to Peace." Given the events of the last couple of weeks, I really couldn't in all honesty use that as a title, and so you'll see my title here is about what I consider is happening at the moment, which is "The Path to War." And I've been commentating on North Korea for nearly twenty years now, including through the nuclear crisis of 1993-94, when the War Rooms were meeting in the White House. We nearly went to war then, before President Carter went to Pyongyang, and I've never felt at the moment so dangerous as it is today, so I'm not using hyperbole in this title.
  US Foreign Policy Towards North Korea Within that context, with the US policy today, what's taken place in the last twenty years? What's worked, what's not? What's the role of the US? I want to make a strong statement here. I want to say that current US administration policy is both banal and dangerous. And I say this being absolutely somebody who actually followed the [election] campaign for the last two years. Let me say as a person, I thought this was the most fantastic Presidential victory I have seen in my life. So is hard to say this and it's a judgment [I don't want to make] and profoundly disturbing to me. But I think that this is both a banal policy, that was enunciated in the first quote I gave you from President Obama, and dangerous. Why do I say that? First of all, if you look at the history of US involvement over the past 20 years, we see this in human rights as well as in non-proliferation, we see with [Presidents] George Bush and Bill Clinton and George Bush again and now Barack Obama, these very cyclic patterns — not with President Obama because we haven't got far enough down the route yet - of absolute uncompromising stance, belligerence, followed by negotiation. [Human rights] [Evidence] [Manipulation] [Aid weapon] [US NK policy] [Continuity]
• Improving Human Rights in North Korea: The Interdependence of Peace and Human Rights
  Bo-Hyuk Suh | September 7, 2009 Dr. Bo-Hyuk Suh is a former senior researcher at the South Korea National Human Rights Commission, is currently Research Professor at the Center for Peace Studies at Ewha University. The paper below was presented at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, CA on June 23, 2009 at a panel on human rights in North Korea sponsored by the Korea Policy Institute. Human rights discourse has a long history; and we have seen rising interest in the post-Cold War era. But discussion about human rights does not take place in a vacuum: it is tied to other issues such as development, peace, humanitarianism, and reconciliation. Problems of international concern have arisen due to diversity in values and priorities among nations. The situation in North Korea is one such case, and we have witnessed different approaches to different issues, particularly human rights issues and peace. There has been much unproductive dispute over which problem has to be resolved first: some say that human rights problems must be resolved before there can be talk of negotiating peace, while others say that an end to the Korean War must be the foundation for addressing other matters including human rights. To overcome this impasse, this paper proposes that peace be included in the category of human rights, and the security situation be considered in any strategy to improve human rights. Then we can find new directions in the discussion of human rights in North Korea. This paper explores ways to improve human rights in North Korea through consideration of the current situation on the Korean peninsula and the interrelation between human rights in North Korea and peace on the Korean peninsula. Let's start by looking at peace from the perspective of human rights. [Human rights]
• Direct U.S.-N.K. talks
  "Within the framework of the six-party talks" is the big premise Seoul and Washington officials now emphasize about direct dialogue between the United States and North Korea, which seems imminent. Both governments also confirm that any such bilateral contact would be solely directed at the denuclearization of the North, the objective of the multilateral process which started six years ago. But everyone here and perhaps many in the United States know that Pyongyang wants to hold talks with Washington to have the new Obama administration open its purse in the name of humanitarian and economic aid. Its recent bragging about the capabilities of weaponizing plutonium and enriching uranium was nothing but a gambit to prompt Washington to accept its bid for a two-way conversation. Through direct dialogue with the United States, the North can avert the cumbersome interference of Japan, perennially clinging to the abduction issue. [Bilateral] [SK NK policy]
• The Challenge of Preparing for Instability in North Korea
  Posted by Scott Snyder on 09/11/2009 :: In North Korea's totalitarian system, political stability depends on the health of the leader more than on any other factor. For this reason, Kim Jong Il's rumored health problems have drawn careful scrutiny since he failed to appear almost exactly one year ago at public events marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The possible policy implications of three scenarios related to North Korea's succession process--a managed succession, a contested succession, and a failed succession--were analyzed in a Council on Foreign Relations Special Report released in January entitled Preparing for Sudden Change in North Korea by Paul Stares and Joel Wit.
  Precisely because the list of challenges posed by possible North Korean instability is so daunting, it is unlikely that any single state in Northeast Asia would be willing or able to bear the burdens accompanying North Korea's political collapse on its own. Ironically, North Korea's last act of instability may once again promote unprecedented cooperation among North Korea's neighbors. [Takeover] [US NK policy]
• North Korea Contingency Planning and U.S.-ROK Cooperation
  Center for U.S.-Korea Policy This report identifies the key priorities and challenges in coordinating U.S.-ROK policy on potential instability in North Korea over three stages of contingency and in various functional areas of cooperation. [US NK policy] [Takeover]
• S. Korean civil society leaders head to Washington with Korean peninsula peace message
  As criticism of Lee administration on North Korea nuclear issue approaches, civil society leaders prepare to encourage Obama’s administration and U.S. congressman to negotiate Paik Nak-chung, Park Won-soon, and other Korean civic movement leaders, are engaged in private diplomacy with the U.S. administration, Congress and private groups, and are calling for “active negotiations” from the Obama administration in regards to the North Korean nuclear issue and peace on the Korean Peninsula. [US NK policy]
• Armies of N.Korean Kids 'Were on Stand-By for Clinton'
  When former U.S. President Bill Clinton took off from Pyongyang in early August after winning the freedom of two American journalists, he left 40,000-50,000 North Korean children and juveniles despondent. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had prepared a special performance of the "Arirang" mass calisthenics show for Clinton, which was to be attended by an audience of 100,000 Pyongyang residents, North Korean sources say. Kim reportedly asked Clinton three times to watch the show, but the former president changed the subject each time. [Overtures] [Clinton0908]
• 5 Countries Give Nod to N.Korea-U.S. Talks
  South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States are reaching consensus to support bilateral talks between North Korea and the U.S. if that can persuade the North back to six-way denuclearization talks. Until recently, the five countries were in favor of such bilateral talks only after North Korea proves that it wants to denuclearize. [Bilateral]
• Two firms from North blacklisted by the U.S.
  September 10, 2009 Adding pressure on North Korea to return to nuclear disarmament discussions, the United States yesterday decided to freeze assets at two North Korean companies allegedly involved in nuclear and missile programs. The State Department added the General Bureau of Atomic Energy and Korea Tangun Trading Corp. to its sanctions list. [Sanctions]
• Pyongyang’s Blackmail Diplomacy
  The North is reverting to form.
  By Andrei Lankov After months of insisting negotiations with the “American imperialist warmongers” are useless and humiliating, Pyongyang has suddenly changed its tune. North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations said late last month: “We are not against a dialogue. We are not against any negotiation for the issues of common concern.” The North confirmed it would accept bilateral talks with the United States while rejecting the continuation of the “useless” six-party talks. Finally, when a South Korean boat inadvertently crossed into North Korean waters, Pyongyang reacted cooperatively. These events were welcomed world-wide as grounds for hope that a seemingly dangerous crisis will soon be over. Pyongyang’s recent moves are comforting, but for a different reason: These diplomatic gestures confirm that, contrary to fears of some Pyongyang watchers, there was nothing unusual in the regime’s recent antics. It was just another round of the old game that has served Kim Jong Il’s clique for decades. [NK US policy]
• U.S. Pursues Financial Leverage Over North Korea
  By Jay Solomon WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is preparing to wield broad financial pressure to try to force North Korea to dial back its weapons program, building on strategies former President George W. Bush employed, but then unwound. The Treasury Department is taking a leading role and will work through international banking channels to try to restrict funds to 17 North Korean banks and companies that U.S. officials say are central players in Pyongyang's nuclear and weapons trade. These firms serve as a financial lifeline to leader Kim Jong Il, his family and ruling circle. [Sanctions]
• Korean War II When will the U.S. recognize that Pyongyang renounced the armistice?
  By Gordon G. Chang From today's Wall Street Journal Asia. At this moment the Kang Nam, a North Korea tramp freighter, is on the high seas tailed by a team of American destroyers and submarines and watched by reconnaissance satellites and aircraft. On board, its cargo could be plutonium pellets, missile parts or semi-ripe melons. In any event, Washington wants to know what is in the rusty ship's hold.
  Now, the Obama administration has no such excuse. There is definitely a legal justification to seize the Kang Nam. North Korea, after all, has resumed the Korean War. [Hardliners] [Bizarre]
• 64th anniversary of the occupation of south Korea by the USA
  Dear friends, Warm greetings from Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People! On the occasion of Sep. 9, the 64th anniversary of the occupation of south Korea by the USA we would like to send you the information to prove the illegality of the occupation. The occupation of the south Korea by the USA, itself was illegal and the reckless violation for the sovereignty of the Korean people. Korea that liberated from the colonial rule of Japan in mid 20 century was not the defeated country in the war and nobody in Korea required the interference or help of outsiders
• The North Korean Nuclear Threat
  Charles L. Pritchard July 01, 2009
  Charles L. Pritchard is the President of the Korea Economic Institute in Washington. He also served as ambassador and special envoy for negotiations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and United States representative to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization in the administration of President George W. Bush from April 2001 until September 2003. On April 5, 2009, after months of much publicized preparations, North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, Taepodong-2. Despite the North Korean regime’s claim that it was a rocket carrying satellite, the gambit inevitably provoked the condemnation of global society. With its national goal of becoming a gangseongdaeguk or “strong and prosperous nation” by 2012, nonetheless, Pyongyang dared the international denunciation, conducting a nuclear test on May 5, 2009. Why did North Korea undertake such confrontational actions? Did North Korea actually intend to raise the security tension in the Northeast Asian region? Or, was North Korea unexpectedly pressed to escalate the strain of the regional security relations? [Succession] {NK US policy] [Inversion]
• Bosworth arrival in Seoul signals maintenance in two-track approach
  While U.S. and S. Korea look for stronger signs of North Korea’s will to denuclearize, Bosworth leaves open possibility Pyongyang visit and bilateral North Korea-U.S. talks Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korea Policy, said Sunday that while North Korea’s freeing of two U.S. journalists was a welcome development, he believes there has been no fundamental change in North Korea’s attitude concerning denuclearization. During a press conference with reporters at the Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong, Seoul, Bosworth said that the U.S. and South Korea agree that the core issue is the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and that the nuclear issue requires a multilateral solution. He also added that signs of North Korea’s continuing nuclear program, including highly enriched uranium (HEU), are cause for worry, and that the U.S. would deal with the issue in a comprehensive way. He stressed that he has been satisfied with the level of cooperation with South Korea and other partners in executing United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1874, which calls for the inspection of cargo vessels to and from North Korea if states have “reasonable grounds” to believe they contain prohibited items. [Continuity] [US NK policy] [Overtures]
• [Column] Bringing negotiations forward
  Kim Ji-seok, Chief Editorial Writer Last June, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, released a report on North Korea policy entitled, “No Illusions: Regaining the Strategic Initiative with North Korea.” This report could be called the brainchild of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell, who co-founded the think tank in 2007 and has served as its director. The report states that negotiations are the only means for realizing denuclearization, but it also says that in the short term, prospects for successful denuclearization appear uncertain.
  Yet U.S. activity is losing steam. South Korean Government officials are now saying U.S. Special Representative for North Korea policy Stephen Bosworth’s tour of South Korea, China and Japan does not demonstrate any particular plan. According to them, the visit is simply intended to collect opinions on the conditions and content of North Korean negotiations from other countries involved in the North Korea issue. This approach suggests a view within the U.S. that there is no need to rush because the sanctions have produced some results, and the countries of South Korea and Japan do not appear enthusiastic about negotiations. The situation is not that simple, though. [US NK policy]
• No Illusions: Regaining the Strategic Initiative with North Korea
  By Abraham Denmark and Nirav Patel Lindsey Ford, Zachary Hosford, and Michael Zubrow
  Several ballistic missiles, proliferated missile and nuclear technologies, and repeatedly issued decrees of war against the United States, its allies, and the international community. North Korea’s latest provocations have raised insecurity and uncertainty in Northeast Asia to new heights. With international leverage dwindling and North Korea’s dangerous actions threatening to escalate into a broader regional conflict, it is increasingly clear that the status quo is unsustainable and unacceptable. [US NK policy]
• Nuclear Negotiations in North Korea
  One of the most pressing national security challenges that President Obama will confront is how to successfully manage nuclear negotiations with North Korea. For over two decades – spanning Democrat and Republican presidencies – Washington has struggled to compel Pyongyang to “come clean” and denuclearize. Despite nearly two decades of negotiations with the DPRK that have forced diplomats to frantically criss-cross the globe, there has not yet been a comprehensive and systematic analysis of nuclear negotiations with North Korea. Due to the opacity of the North Korean regime, significant questions remain unanswered about how to design an effective negotiating strategy. Previous discussions have been complicated by the sheer multitude of issues that are now intertwined with the nuclear situation in North Korea, including Pyongyang’s ballistic missile program, outward proliferation (e.g. Syria), human rights, the status of conventional forces, unresolved historical disputes amongst regional actors, and security in Northeast Asia. Additionally, the question of sequencing continues to challenge policymakers – how should we approach the various issues at hand? Previous agreements have been modeled on a phased implementation framework, but have often been stalled by the perennial question of “who moves first”. [US NK policy] [Sequencing]
• US to Talk with NK Only in 6-Party Framework
  U.S. special envoy on North Korea Stephen Bosworth said Sunday that Washington will talk with North Korea only within the six-party framework, reiterating the U.S. firm stance over Pyongyang's call for bilateral dialogue. [Bilateral]
• Bosworth restates need for six-party framework
  September 07, 2009 The special U.S. representative to North Korea believes Pyongyang hasn’t fundamentally changed, despite its recent conciliatory moves, and that denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula remains a goal for Washington and its dialogue partners at the six-party table. Stephen Bosworth, who wrapped up his three-day stay in Seoul yesterday, also said the United States would have bilateral talks with North Korea only within the six-party framework. [US NK policy] [Overtures] [Bilateral]
• US Envoy Sees No Change in NK
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter The U.S. special envoy to North Korea said Sunday that he saw no "fundamental change" in North Korea despite its recent conciliatory gestures. Stephen Bosworth also said his country is "prepared" for bilateral dialogue with North Korea within the existing six-party nuclear talks. [US NK policy] [Overtures]
• Controversy Persists on US Journalists' Claims
  The statement by the two U.S. journalists, freed from their detainment in North Korea, that they were dragged by North Korean soldiers while they were inside Chinese territory, met with repudiation from the Chinese government, VOA said Saturday. Breaking a month of silence since they returned home in the U.S., the two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, working for Current TV, a San Francisco-based Internet outlet co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, said at the time of their arrest they were in the Chinese land.
  The Chinese government rejected the pair’s claim. In a regular press briefing on Thursday, the foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said, “We checked it with competent authorities” and discovered “there was no such thing” as what the U.S. journalists described. She didn’t elaborate. On June 17, the North Korean government explained the circumstances surrounding the pair’s arrest in its official newspaper, Rodong Shinmun, in detail. According to North Korea, the two women entered the North Korean territory and filmed the place with their video camera. They even recorded a comment that said, “We just entered the North Korean territory without permission,” and even picked a pebble as a souvenir from the forbidden land.
• Allies Brainstorm Response to NK’s '2-Ttrack' Strategy
  Top nuclear strategists from South Korea and the U.S. met Saturday in Seoul to hammer out their response to North Korea's recent peace overtures, which was soon followed by renewed nuclear threats. Stephen Bosworth, Washington's special representative for North Korean policy, and Seoul’s top nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac discussed a joint response to Pyongyang's so-called "two-track" tactic, Yonhap News Agency said citing government sources. [Overtures] [US NK policy] [SK NK policy]
• Laura Ling and Euna Lee make first statement regarding events leading to capture
  Hostages in the Hermit Kingdom While covering human trafficking between North Korea and China, two American journalists wound up becoming the story.
  WE ARRIVED AT the frozen river separating China and North Korea at 5 o'clock on the morning of March 17. The air was crisp and still, and there was no one else in sight. As the sun appeared over the horizon, our guide stepped onto the ice. We followed him.
  There were no signs marking the international border, no fences, no barbed wire. But we knew our guide was taking us closer to the North Korean side of the river. As he walked, he began making deep, low hooting sounds, which we assumed was his way of making contact with North Korean border guards he knew. The previous night, he had called his associates in North Korea on a black cellphone he kept for that purpose, trying to arrange an interview for us. He was unsuccessful, but he could, he assured us, show us the no-man's land along the river, where smugglers pay off guards to move human traffic from one country to another. When we set out, we had no intention of leaving China, but when our guide beckoned for us to follow him beyond the middle of the river, we did, eventually arriving at the riverbank on the North Korean side. He pointed out a small village in the distance where he told us that North Koreans waited in safe houses to be smuggled into China via a well-established network that has escorted tens of thousands across the porous (sic) border. [Media] [Refugee]
• Reporters Tell of North Korea Arrest
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: September 2, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — Two American journalists freed by North Korea after four and half months of captivity have admitted that they did cross into North Korea. But they also say they were back across the border — “firmly back inside China,” according to their joint statement — when North Korean border guards chased and apprehended them, then “violently dragged” them back into the North. [Media]
• Request for Proposals: North Korea Programs
  August 13, 2009 Department of State Public Notice Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Request for Proposals: North Korea Programs SUMMARY The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) announces a Request for Proposals from organizations interested in submitting proposals for projects that promote human rights and the rule of law; civil society; and media freedom and freedom of information in North Korea. [Softwar] [Aid weapon]
• Protests against joint military exercises
  The Ulji Freedom Guardian (UFG), aggressive US-south Korea joint military exercise, staged from Aug 17 to 28 aroused the great indignation and fury of the people of all walks of life in south Korea and the progressive people in the world. Several kinds of actions and movements against the UFG were conducted all parts of south Korea including Seoul during the military exercise. [Joint US military]
• US Has No Intention to Build Close Ties with N Korea: Ex-official
  September 2nd, 2009 BY KIM HYUN, Yonhap News Seoul — North Korea is seeking a “strategic partnership” with the United States but the idea will never be accepted by Washington as such close ties would undermine its regional interests, a former U.S. official said. David Straub, who accompanied U.S. ex-President Bill Clinton on his trip to Pyongyang last month, said North Korea holds too little economic or political value for the U.S. to risk its relations with China or alliances with South Korea and Japan. [NK US policy] [NK China] [US NK policy] [Strategic incoherence] [Overtures]
• ‘North Korea Does Not Pose a Threat’
  Kang Byeong-tae Chief Editorial Writer The Hankook Ilbo The United States and North Korea exchanged mutually sneering and disparaging remarks on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum held last week in Phuket, Thailand. When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton compared North Korea`s nuclear test and missile launchings to the behavior of an “attention-seeking unruly teenager,” Pyongyang hit back with a harsh personal attack, calling her a “funny lady who … looks like a primary-school girl.” The tit-for-tat exchange is ill-suited to recent moves by South Korea and the United States to induce the North into talks with a “comprehensive package.”
  Meanwhile, Pyongyang has indicated its readiness for an open dialogue to defuse tension over its nuclear program. On the heels of the wrangling, North Korea`s ambassador to the United Nations said in a conciliatory tune that his government was “not against a dialogue,” suggesting its interest in bilateral talks with the United States. While conservatives were skeptical about the North`s gesture, those who were critical about Clinton`s “undiplomatic remarks” called on both Seoul and Washington to resume dialogue. The conflicting signs of dispute and dialogue invite confusion in fathoming the main current of the situation. In order to clear the confusion, implications of the remarks on “unruly” children need to be explored. In an interview on ABC`s “Good Morning America” program, Clinton said that Washington would not give North Korea satisfaction in its “constant demand for attention” conveyed through nuclear testing and long-range missile launches. Disclosing the Obama administration`s new approach toward North Korea of not responding to its provocations, she added, “Maybe it`s the mother in me or the experience that I`ve had with small children and unruly teenagers … who are demanding attention. Don`t give it to them. They don`t deserve it.” Picking up on the remark, a news analysis from China`s official Xinhua News Agency said that Clinton`s remarks marked a shift in Washington`s strategy toward the North. Xinhua took note of the secretary`s statement that the North Korean military “does not pose a threat to us” on the grounds that its capabilities are “not all that great frankly.” She was further quoted as having said, “We know our allies – Japan and South Korea – are very concerned. But they watch what we watch and they know what`s really going on.” Previously, Washington had consistently claimed that North Korea`s nuclear development and missile tests posed a threat even to the continental United States. But, since Pyongyang test-fired a long-range missile last April, the Obama administration has begun to furtively downplay potential danger from Pyongyang, finally stating publicly that North Korea “does not pose a threat.” [Threat] [Military balance] [Overtures]
• David Straub
  Straub served as head of the political section at the U.S. embassy in Seoul from 1999 to 2002 during popular protests against the U.S., and he played a key working-level role in the Six-Party Talks on North Korea's nuclear program as the State Department's Korea country desk director from 2002 to 2004. He also served eight years at the U.S. embassy in Japan. His final assignment was as the State Department's Japan country desk director from 2004 to 2006, when he was co-leader of the U.S. delegation to talks with Japan on the realignment of the U.S.-Japan alliance and of U.S. military bases in Japan
• ''New Beginnings'' in the U.S.-ROK Alliance: Recommendations to the Obama Administration
  Policy Brief Authors Michael H. Armacost*, Thomas C. Hubbard*, Evans J. R. Revere*, Gi-Wook Shin*, Charles ''Jack'' L. Pritchard*, Don Oberdorfer*, David Straub*, Daniel C. Sneider*, Robert Carlin*, Victor Cha* Published by Shorenstein APARC, March 31, 2009 In these uncertain times, the new Obama administration has an important opportunity to transform our vitally important alliance with the Republic of Korea (ROK, or South Korea) into a broader and deeper regional and even global partnership. South Korean President Lee Myung- bak is committed to the concept, and he has four more years in office to work with President Obama on it. The South Korean public also feels considerable goodwill toward President Obama. South Korea is key to American interests in dealing with North Korea and China, and, as the world’s thirteenth-largest economy, it is a factor in all regions of the world.
  The group's observations and recommendations on key U.S.-ROK issues:
  * North Korea: The United States should consider bilateral talks with North Korea to explore whether a new mix of inducements and pressures might achieve U.S. and South Korean goals. Close coordination with the ROK and Japan is essential.
  * Military Cooperation: The United States should fully implement the Bush administration initiatives to realign U.S. Forces Korea and transfer wartime operational control of South Korean forces to the ROK as scheduled in 2012. * Economic Cooperation: Congress needs to approve in a timely manner the bilateral free trade agreement with South Korea (KORUS FTA). [US NK policy] [Bilateral]
• Regional Multilateralism in Asia and the Korean Question
  By Wonhyuk Lim September 3rd, 2009 This article was published by the Brookings Institution: http://www.brookings.edu/ Wonhyuk Lim, Director of the Overseas Development Office of the Korea Development Institute, writes, “there appear to be basically two options for the United States, depending on what kind of relationship with China it envisions. One is to place South Korea within a hub and-spoke alliance against China, using the North Korean nuclear crisis as a catalyst. However, this policy is likely to find little support in South Korea and risks a nationalist backlash if the United States is increasingly viewed as an impediment to Korean unification and regional security… The other alternative is to deal with South Korea on more equal terms and engage it as a partner in building a new order in the region … This approach would not only strengthen the U.S. position in the Korean peninsula but also enhance its policy options in dealing with China and Japan.” [US SK policy] [China confrontation]
• North Korea Update: The North Opens its Arms?
  by Nicole Finnemann (nmf@keia.org) The month of August yielded high-level encounters between the United States and North Korea, inspiring many to believe that North Korea had begun to soften its harsh rhetoric and move in the direction of resumed disarmament talks. However, despite improved communication with the South (see lead article), and an extended invitation to Stephen Bosworth, U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy, to go to Pyongyang, the standoff remains—with North Korea refusing to come back to the Six Party Talks and the United States refusing to talk bilaterally with North Korea except under the framework of the talks. And then there is the little matter of North Korea's smuggling conventional weapons to Iran…
• Unbearable Legacies: The Politics of Environmental Degradation in North Korea
  By Peter Hayes August 27th, 2009 Peter Hayes, Executive Director of the Nautilus Institute, writes, “There is no shortage of options, and an infinity of needs. And ways exist to work around the barriers that divide North Korea from the rest of the world. There’s no time to wait, or these enduring legacies will become unbearable, and feed into a vortex of chaos and collapse in North Korea, with unimaginable consequences for humans and nature alike.” [US NK policy]
• North Korea Policy on the Rocks: What can be Done to Restore Constructive Engagement?
  By Leon V. Sigal
  North Korea’s latest nuclear and missile tests have forced the young administration of US President Barack Obama to grapple with policy toward the Korean Peninsula perhaps sooner than it wanted. US political scientist Leon V. Sigal argues the administration’s reactions have so far repeated the mistakes of past policies toward North Korea.
  NOT LONG AGO, it looked like full speed ahead with North Korea. President George W. Bush’s turnabout in response to the North’s 2006 nuclear test set Washington on a new course of diplomatic engagement with Pyongyang. By inducing it to disable its plutonium facilities at Yongbyon so that it could not restart them quickly, the United States was whittling away North Korea’s nuclear leverage. Once again, however, the Bush administration failed to sustain this promising diplomatic course. Instead, at the insistence of Japan and South Korea, it accused North Korea of wrongdoing and tried to punish it. The election of Barack Obama should have meant clear sailing, with no hardliners on board to grab the helm and steer North Korea policy back onto the rocks. But despite its promise of change, the Obama administration followed Bush’s misguided course of crime and punishment. [US NK policy] [Continuity] [Dissension]
• Playing With a Full Deck
  Lessons about nuclear deterrence from the poker table.
  BY JAMES MCMANUS | AUGUST 24, 2009 In the 1950s, as the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union was threatening to spiral out of control, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower hired Oskar Morgenstern, the Princeton University economist who cowrote Theory of Games and Economic Behavior in 1944, as an advisor on national security issues. "With bluffs so much easier to make and threats so much more portentous than any previous time in history," Morgenstern later wrote, "it is essential not only for our own State Department but for the entire world to understand what ... is the sanest way to play this deadly, real-life version of poker."
  Tracking the patterns of very loose players such as Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or North Korea's Kim Jong Il should persuade the U.S. president that they often won't possess the nuclear capability they are claiming. [US NK negotiations] Korea_Report0908.pdf
• The Time is Now to Negotiate with North Korea
  Haeyoung Kim | August 26, 2009
  This article appeared in Portside on August 26, 2009. First the life and now the death of South Korea's activist turned President Kim Dae-Jung has opened the door to peace in Korea. Kim Dae-Jung authored the "sunshine policy," which resulted in the June 2000 landmark summit between the leaders of North and South Korea — the first meeting since the country was divided in 1945. For over ten years, the "sunshine policy" significantly reduced military tensions on the Korean peninsula, opened the door for thousands of family members in divided Korea to meet in powerful and tearful reunions, and gave birth to real hope that reunification was not only possible, but inevitable. In over six decades of division, the "sunshine policy" represents the most peaceful and productive stretch of relations between North and South Korea, and justifiably earned former President Kim the Nobel Peace Prize. With the death of Kim Dae-Jung last Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il sent a high-ranking delegation to Seoul to offer condolences and pay respects to the late former president, who had tirelessly advocated for cross-border reconciliation. This moment of national Korean unity through shared grief offers a new window for the Obama administration to improve relations with North Korea through diplomatic engagement. [US NK policy] [Overtures] [Bilateral]
• The Way to Denuclearize North Korea
  By Wooksik Cheong August 26th, 2009 Wooksik Cheong, Representative of the Civil Network for a Peaceful Korea, writes, “If North Korea denuclearized it would lose its leverage to compel the US to fulfill the agreement. This is a fundamental asymmetry in the US-North Korea relationship. Once North Korea denuclearizes itself, the process will be very difficult to reverse. However, for the US, it is easy to change its policy toward a denuclearized North Korea.” [US NK negotiations] [Asymmetry] [Continuity] [Sequencing]
• Seoul Becomes More Affordable for U.S. Soldiers
  Seoul still ranks among the world's most expensive cities in some respects, but in others prices appear to have dropped into the middle ground, a study suggests. A cappuccino and pastry costs US$5.22 in a coffee shop in the U.S. but $6.90 in Seoul, $6.50 in Tokyo, $4.03 in Grafenwoehr, Germany, $5.95 in Mildenhall, the U.K., and $2.73 in Naples, Italy. Only the remote Japanese islands of Okinawa put even Seoul in the shade, with the caffe-cornetto costing a whopping $9.12 there. The U.S. military regularly surveys prices of daily necessities and services in countries where its servicemen are stationed to maintain equal buying power with their stateside peers, topping up pay with allowances if it is not enough to maintain an equal quality of life due to high local prices. The Cost of Living Allowance or COLA survey was carried in the latest issue of the military daily Stars and Stripes. It shows that while coffee is expensive in Seoul, a McDonald's Big Mac meal costs $4.38, making it cheaper than Naples ($9.94), the U.S. mainland ($5.68), Tokyo ($6.41), and Mildenhall ($6.28). A movie ticket is the most expensive in Tokyo at $19.56, compared to $6.73 in Seoul and $7.18 in the U.S. Since early this year, U.S. servicemen in Korea have received less COLA due to the weak won currency. A U.S. soldier with three year's of service in Seoul got $51 in COLA this month, behind their counterparts in Tokyo, who got $298, Naples ($167), Mildenhall ($109), or Grafenwoehr ($101). COLA tots up to about $1.8 billion a year.
• U.S. Point Man on N.Korea Sanctions in Seoul
  Philip Goldberg, the U.S. coordinator for the implementation of United Nations sanctions on North Korea, and his team arrived in Seoul Sunday afternoon. Goldberg is scheduled to meet Wi Sung-lac, South Korea's chief delegate to the six-party nuclear talks today to discuss ways to cooperate on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1874. Goldberg is expected to examine whether five joint projects the Hyundai Group recently agreed to start or resume in North Korea violate the resolution. Seoul earlier explained to Washington that resuming tourism programs to Mt. Kumgang and Kaesong does not violate it because it could be classified as private business. [Sanctions]
• U.S. envoy plans nuclear talks with North in Sept.
  August 25, 2009 WASHINGTON - The top U.S. official in charge of North Korea policy will travel to Pyongyang next month for the first bilateral nuclear negotiations between the two countries, a senior diplomatic source in Washington has told the JoongAng Ilbo. Stephen Bosworth, the Barack Obama administration’s special representative for North Korea policy, will head to Pyongyang at the North’s invitation, the source told the newspaper on Sunday, Washington time. Bosworth will be accompanied by Sung Kim, Washington’s point man for the six-nation nuclear talks, he added.
  Another diplomatic source also said the Obama administration will never abandon the six-nation nuclear talks because it sees the root of Pyongyang’s recent peacemaking gestures in the international community’s participation in the UN sanctions against the North. “Even if negotiations move forward, the UN sanctions will not be lifted easily,” the source said. “Instead, the Obama administration will likely provide a de facto assurance for the North Korean regime’s security by promising that it will not intervene in the succession of the Kim Jong-il regime to his son while pressuring Kim to give up nuclear programs.” [Bilateral] [US NK negotiations]

• N. Korea feels 'owed' direct talks with U.S., Richardson says
  SANTA FE, New Mexico (CNN) -- North Korea believes it's owed bilateral talks with the United States after the communist government released two detained American journalists this month -- a notion that senior Obama administration officials quickly rejected on Wednesday. Gov. Bill Richardson meets with North Korean diplomats Wednesday in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Gov. Bill Richardson meets with North Korean diplomats Wednesday in Santa Fe, New Mexico. "They feel, the North Koreans, that by giving us the two American journalists, that they've made an important gesture," New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson told CNN Wednesday after meeting with two North Korean diplomats. "And now they're saying the ball's in our court." [Bilateral] [Clinton0908] [Continuity] [Renege] [Overtures]
• USFK to Get Newer Apache Helicopters
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) will replace its only Apache fleet with newer models by the year's end, according to Stars and Stripes, a U.S military-run newspaper, Friday. Currently, the USFK operates 24 AH-64D Apache Longbow Block I, version 6 variants at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. Twenty-four others left South Korea in March for rotational deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. [Military balance]
• In South Korea, Freed U.S. Journalists Come Under Harsh Criticism
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: August 21, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two American journalists released after nearly five months in North Korean custody, have been widely portrayed at home as victims of unduly harsh punishment by a repressive government for simply doing their job. But here in South Korea, human rights advocates, bloggers and Christian pastors are accusing them of needlessly endangering the very people they tried to cover: North Korean refugees and the activists who help them.
• KPA Supreme Command Orders Army, People and Country to Be on Special Alert
  Pyongyang, August 17 (KCNA) -- The Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army made public the following report Monday as regards the U.S. imperialists and the Lee Myung Bak group of traitors kicked off the large-scale Ulji Freedom Guardian joint military exercises for aggression despite of the DPRK's repeated warnings and strong protest and denunciation of the public at home and abroad: The adventurous war maneuvers for aggression to be staged from August 17 to 27 will massively involve more than 10,000 U.S. imperialist aggression troops based in south Korea and overseas, at least 56,000 troops of the puppet army including those of corps, fleets and air division-level commands and above them and, over 400,000 members of puppet administrative organs and military and non-military businesses and other huge forces and all sorts of lethal means. What merits special attention is that the saber-rattling is base on the new scenario for more vicious joint operation to invade the DPRK replacing the "OPLAN 5027", scenario for the second Korean war of aggression. [Joint US military]
• North Korea Shipping: A Potential for WMD Proliferation?
  Hazel Smith
  | August 17, 2009 (Originally published by the East-West Center) Summary The possibility that North Korean ships may be smuggling weapons of mass destruction is a matter of intense concern in the Asia Pacific region and beyond. The few reported incidents of North Korean ships involved in WMD transport are ambiguous; some ships have been engaged in legal weapons trade and some carried "dual-use" goods suitable for use in non-military applications, like agriculture. Ownership of the North Korean merchant fleet is largely private and highly fragmented; most of its ships are small, old, and in poor repair, and are often subject to rigorous scrutiny in foreign ports. The inability of the government to effectively regulate the low-cost, sub-standard shipping industry creates the risk and incentives to smuggle goods, including WMD. Anti-proliferation efforts should abandon the divisive and unsuccessful Proliferation Security Initiative and concentrate on negotiating North Korea's entry into international arms control treaties, maintain stringent port controls, and negotiate technical assistance to reduce the vulnerability of the North Korean shipping industry. [PSI] [Proliferation]
• Obama and East Asia: No Room for Complacency
  by Gerald Curtis
  Gerald Curtis (glc2@columbia.edu) is Burgess Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. This is the executive summary of a longer report on Obama administration policy toward East Asia available at http://csis.org/files/publication/issuesinsights_v09n15.pdf. The Obama administration’s foreign policy in East Asia has been characterized more by continuity than by change, building on policies of previous administrations that have served U.S. interests well. But there is a danger that, forced by events to focus attention on the world’s hot spots, continuity will shade into complacency, leaving the administration to constantly try to catch up with developments in an East Asia that is rapidly changing.
  The North Korean conundrum The East Asian issue that does compel the administration’s attention at the moment because it is so fraught with danger is North Korea’s nuclear quest. North Korea has completed two nuclear tests, the most recent in May 2009, as well as tests of medium- and long-range missiles. Its response to Obama’s call in his inaugural speech for adversaries to “unclench their fists” and engage in dialogue was to restart processing plutonium at its Yongbong nuclear plant and conduct long-range missile and nuclear weapons tests [Continuity] [US NK policy] [US global strategy] [US Japan China] [Cliche]
• North Korea Moves May Show Sanctions Pressure Regime, U.S. Says
  By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- North Korean overtures to resume tourism and family reunions with South Korea may be a sign that international sanctions are putting pressure on Kim Jong Il’s regime, the U.S. envoy working on enforcing the measures said. If “this is a signal” that United Nations sanctions on financial transactions and illicit trade are forcing the North to reconsider its belligerent actions and return to diplomacy, “it would be welcome, and the door is open,” Ambassador Philip Goldberg said in an interview yesterday in Washington. Goldberg coordinates the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions imposed on North Korea for carrying out nuclear and missile tests. The U.S. wants the North to resume international talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear-arms development work. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said yesterday that based on the North’s decision to resume tours and reunions and release foreign detainees, “one might infer that North Korea’s feeling some pressure, whether it’s political pressure, economic pressure or a combination of the two.” [Sanctions] [Inversion] [Intelligence] [Overtures]
• U.S. Spurns Separate-Channel Talks with North Korea
  N.M. Governor Bill Richardson (center) meets with N. Korean Minister Kim Myong-gil (right) and advisor to the governor, K. A, Tony Namung in Santa Fe on Aug. 19, 2009. N.M. Governor Bill Richardson (center) meets with N. Korean Minister Kim Myong-gil (right) and advisor to the governor, K. A, Tony Namung in Santa Fe on Aug. 19, 2009. The Obama administration said Thursday it is not interested in direct talks with North Korea outside the framework of Chinese-sponsored six-party talks on its nuclear program. North Korean diplomats who met Wednesday with New Mexico governor Bill Richardson are said to have told him Pyongyang is ready for direct dialogue with the United States after months of discord. [Bilateral] [Continuity]
• Intellectuals from South Korea, U.S. and Japan call for peace in security in Northeast Asia
  Academics and intellectuals urge Obama and Lee to take advantage of recent visits to North Korea to engage in talks and honor wishes of late President Kim DJ » From left, Pastor Kim Sang-geun, Hankyoreh Foundation for Reunification and Culture Lim Dong-won, Tokyo University Honorary Professor Haruki Wada, Seoul National University Honorary Professor Baek Nak-cheong, Harvard-Yenching Institute’s Edward J. Baker, former National Assembly Speaker Lim Chae-jung, and Honorary Professor Yi Seon-jong read from a statement entitled, “Intellectuals for peace and security in Northeast Asia” endorsed by 110 intellectuals from the U.S., Japan, and Korea at a press conference held at the Korea Press Center located in Seoul, Aug 20. Korean, American and Japanese intellectuals issued a joint statement on Aug 20 calling for peace and security in Northeast Asia and for U.S. President Barack Obama and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to come up with a fundamental plan to reduce North Korea-U.S. confrontation in order to end what they are calling a vicious cycle of hardline responses. [US NK policy] {Asymmetry] [Bilateral]
• Kim Wanted Obama to Improve NK Ties
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter Months ahead of his death, the late former President Kim Dae-jung looked back on his life journey and was confident that he had lived a life for the Korean people, democracy and peace on the peninsula, according to his diaries released by his aides on Friday. Despite his worsening health, the former President was still worried about North Korean issues and the domestic political situation. [Kim Dae-jung] [US NK policy]
• Gingrich Calls for New North Korea Approach
  By Ines Min Contributing Writer Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said Thursday that the international community needs to rethink its approach to the North Korean regime, which he believes could endure for the next 20 to 40 years.
  ``So when we ask them to give (nuclear weapons) up, they have a huge disinterest in doing so and enormous internal pressure,'' he said. ``This is a very fundamental problem and it's not obvious to me that there's a solution.'' Gingrich does believe that further isolation of the country through trade restrictions could help bring the north to a weak point ? although that could result in a ``last act of survival'' that could lead to an ``attack on Seoul as the only thing they see left.'' ``The truth is, we don't know what they would do if we coerced them,'' Gingrich said about removing the North's weapons by force. He later added that Seoul is ``relatively safe in a world where you can't guarantee anyone's 100 percent safety.'' [US NK policy] [Inversion] [Media] [Bizarre]
• In North Korea, Clinton Helped Unveil a Mystery
  By Mark Landler and Mark Mazzetti Published: August 18, 2009 WASHINGTON — The visit was arranged under a veil of secrecy with the help of an unlikely broker: a high-level American intelligence officer who spent much of his career trying to unlock the mysteries of North Korea. When former President Bill Clinton landed in Pyongyang on Aug. 4 to win the release of two imprisoned American journalists, senior officials said he met an unexpectedly spry North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, who welcomed him with a long dinner that night, even proposing to stay up afterward. Mr. Kim was flanked by two longtime aides, and he gave no hint that North Korea was in the throes of a succession struggle, despite the widespread questions over how long he might live. Mr. Clinton and the Obama administration were determined not to extend a public-relations coup to Mr. Kim, who expressed a desire for better relations with the United States. But the visit is already setting off ripples that could change the tenor of the relationship between the United States and North Korea.
  For all the billions of dollars a year that the United States spends on intelligence gathering about mysterious and unpredictable countries like North Korea, it took just 20 hours on the ground in Pyongyang by a former president to give the Obama administration its first detailed look into a nuclear-armed nation that looms as one of its greatest foreign threats
  The role of the intelligence officer, Joseph R. DeTrani, in arranging the visit, has not previously been reported. Mr. DeTrani is the government’s senior officer responsible for collecting and analyzing intelligence on North Korea. His efforts to pave the way for Mr. Clinton’s visit offer a glimpse into how the administration has been forced to use unorthodox methods to overcome the lack of formal communications. [US NK policy] [NK US policy] [Cliche] [Clinton0908] [Intelligence][Overtures]
• North Korea scholar draws criticism, praise
  By FOSTER KLUG The Associated Press Friday, August 21, 2009; 5:34 AM WASHINGTON -- North Korea is a mysterious place for most Americans. Even senior U.S. diplomats rarely set foot there, let alone meet top North Korean officials face to face. The country is no enigma for Selig Harrison, though. The outspoken scholar and former reporter has visited 11 times since 1972 and regularly interviews powerful North Koreans. While the United States is perplexed about what it can do to stop North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons, Harrison believes his contacts in the North have given him the answers. [Thinktank]
• Obama's problems with North Korea were caused, not solved, by Clinton
  The new President is having to address his predecessor's toxic legacy By Con Coughlin Published: 7:48PM BST 06 Aug 2009 Comments 65 | Comment on this article Many of Clinton's detractors argue that the former president's failure to take a stronger line with the North Koreans during the early stages of the negotiations in the 1990s is responsible for the current crisis Photo: REUTERS The image of two American women weeping with relief, after being spared 12 years of hard labour in North Korea, led to a tempting conclusion: that even in the darkest recesses of the world's most reviled regimes, the Obama effect is starting to take hold. From the moment he came to office just over six months ago, the new US president has sought to undertake a fundamental rebranding of America's international image. Gone is the Bush administration's Manichean view that divided the world between good countries (those that supported Washington's War on Terror) and evil ones (those that didn't). Obama sees the world in a different light. He is not much concerned whether governments like or dislike America, or agree or disagree with his policies. So long as they are prepared to conduct relations with Washington on the basis of mutual respect, and without intimidation, he is happy to extend the hand of friendship, whether the recipients are unreconstructed Marxists, military dictators or Islamist fundamentalists. [US NK policy] [Bizarre]
• One man's meat...
  by Deborah Hill Cone A couple of Americans visit planet North Korea. Slate journalist Sarah Wang stuffed 150 Kit Kat bars into her bag when she joined a four-day trip by a group of Chinese businessmen to the secretive nation of North Korea. Not for her sweet tooth, but as powerful currency in a nation where malnourished workers have never eaten a piece of fruit and can only dream of a dinner with meat. “When a member of the tour group spat out the tasteless meat that was a rare treat at one of our meals, the waitress standing behind him visibly stiffened. On one occasion, I drew a banana on a piece of paper and showed it to a waitress; she had never seen one. She knew about apples, but she had never eaten one.” Wang’s essay for Slate magazine captured some of Pyongyang’s austerity – no internet, no lights after 9pm, shops with nothing but dusty turnips. “Despite the lack of food, North Koreans work hard. They have been fighting a ‘150-day battle’ since April 20. The campaign is designed to increase industrial output to ‘fight against American sanctions’, according to our tour guides.” Still on North Korea, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger has written an op-ed piece in the New York Times analysing the impact of former President Bill Clinton’s success at freeing American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, sentenced to 12 years’ hard labour in North Korea. “Is the lesson of this episode that any ruthless group or government can demand a symbolic meeting with a prominent American by seizing hostages or threatening inhuman treatment for prisoners in their hands?” Con Coughlin in the Telegraph took a similarly critical view: “Obama’s problems with North Korea were caused – not solved – by Clinton.” tinyurl.com/m4akod; tinyurl.com/lz7v88; tinyurl.com/ljulf3 [US NK policy] [Media]
• U.S. Not Ready to Declare Thaw in N.Korea Relations
  The Obama administration says it welcomes a series of seemingly-conciliatory gestures from North Korea in recent days but says it is not ready to say relations with Pyongyang have begun to thaw. North Korean diplomats met Wednesday with New Mexico state Governor Bill Richardson. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (center) meets with North Korean Minister Kim Myong-gil (right) and advisor to the governor, K. A, Tony Namung in Santa Fe on Aug. 19, 2009. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (center) meets with North Korean Minister Kim Myong-gil (right) and advisor to the governor, K. A, Tony Namung in Santa Fe on Aug. 19, 2009. State Department officials say the Obama administration facilitated the meeting between Richardson and the two North Koreans, but they say the governor was not asked to convey any message to Pyongyang and that it is too early to say if the troubled relationship is beginning to thaw. [US NK policy] [Continuity] [NK US policy] [Overtures]
• Sleight of Law and U.S.-North Korea Relations: Re-nuclearization and Re-sanctioning
  Michael Yo
  In the waning months of the Bush administration in 2008, certain changes to U.S. legal and regulatory frameworks were made to facilitate improved U.S. bilateral relations with North Korea. These changes were made in return for Pyongyang’s progress on disabling its nuclear facilities and in accordance with the Six-Party talks agreements. Among the most notable were the removal of North Korea from the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA) and the rescission of North Korea’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism (SST). However, closer examination reveals that these instruments were replaced with new or different legal restrictions which essentially rendered the actions moot. [Sanctions] [US NK policy] [US NK negotiations] [Renege]
• Seoul, Washington Show Signs of Moderation on N.Korea Dialogue
  South Korea and the U.S. both called for renewed dialogue with North Korea over the weekend after visits of senior figures from both countries to the reclusive (sic) nation, with the threshold apparently set marginally lower than only a week or two ago. [US NK policy] [SK NK policy]
• Annual S.Korea-U.S. Joint Military Exercise to Start Monday
  An annual joint military drill between South Korea and the U.S. kicks off on Monday. The 11-day defensive exercise dubbed Ulchi Freedom Guardian uses computer-simulated scenarios to test the abilities of both South Korea and the U.S. to respond to contingencies on the peninsula. The joint drill comes amid turbulent times between the two Koreas following the launch of Seoul's new conservative government in February 2008 and the North's brazen disregard of international concerns over its nuclear and missile activities. [Joint US military]
• N.Korea to Raise Military Alert Status Against U.S.-S.Korea Drill
  North Korea has blasted a joint military drill between South Korea and the U.S. as an "act of aggression" and in response has announced plans to raise the country's defense readiness status to "special alert posture" starting Tuesday. Pyongyang perceives such military exercises between Seoul and Washington as a great threat and accuses the two governments of preparing to invade North Korea. More than 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against North Korea's 1.1-million-strong army. [Joint US military] [Spin] [Threat]
• 'US, China Agreed Not to Send Troops to NK'
  The United States and China agreed not to dispatch troops to North Korea in case there is a sudden change or turmoil in the nation, RFA reported Friday, citing a former U.S. official. ``The U.S. has assured China that the U.S. will not supply, provide military or diplomatic support for any South Korean intervention in North Korea and the Chinese at the same time have guaranteed the U.S. that they would not intervene in North Korean area. They had strategic talks last year, at which this was quietly agreed upon," said Kenneth Quinones, a former U.S. state department official. [Takeover] [NK China] [Collapse]
• NK: US-NK Relations to See Big Development Soon
  2009-08-12 Updated. A senior North Korean diplomat has reportedly said that U.S.-North Korea relations will soon witness a significant development. According to a diplomatic source in Washington on Tuesday, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong-il made the comment when he met with high-level officials of Mongolia’s Foreign Ministry in Ulaanbaatar on Monday. The source added that Kim reiterated that Pyongyang has no intentions of returning to the stalled six-way nuclear talks, but that the North wouldn’t reject talks with the U.S. if certain conditions are met. Kim’s remarks suggest that efforts to open a North Korea-U.S. dialogue are approaching the final stages. [US NK negotiations] [Clinton0908]
• Evans: North miscalculated with U.S.
  August 15, 2009 Evans Revere, president of the Korea Society in New York, believes that a “miscalculation” by North Korea led to the Obama administration’s hard-line stance on Pyongyang. In an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo on Wednesday, Revere, former deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, said the Obama administration was more willing than its predecessors to improve U.S.-North Korea relations. But Pyongyang actions changed the nature of the game. “Due to North Korea’s miscalculation and misreading of the Obama administration [through nuclear and missile tests], Washington’s North Korean policy has gone in a direction that was not intended at the start,” Revere said. “North Korea may step back and reflect on its own behavior of the past eight months and alter its course.” [US NK negotiations] [Blame] [Continuity]
• Bill's Excellent Adventure
  by JOHN FEFFER | Tuesday, August 11, 2009 Vol. 4, No. 32 Jimmy Carter, the saying goes, was destined to be a great former president. The jury is still out on Bill Clinton, but he certainly accomplished his mission to Pyongyang quickly and successfully.
  First of all, the North Korean courts certainly handed down harsh verdicts against the two journalists. But Pyongyang was fully within its rights to detain Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who very stupidly made an illegal crossing into the country. We journalists often raise irresponsibility to the level of moral principle (we must do such-and-such because of the public's right to know). But Ling and Lee were unusually irresponsible, not just in breaking the law of a country but endangering their contacts in China and upsetting delicate relations between two historic adversaries. Despite some complaints from the two released captives, they were treated quite humanely — particularly if you compare their treatment to how the U.S. border patrol handles Mexicans who illegally cross into this country. I'm very glad that they're home safe, but frankly it's up to their journalist colleagues to rake them — and their scoop-hungry handlers — over the coals for misconduct. Second, North Korea wants to talk. Its demand to talk bilaterally with the United States is nothing new. It has always insisted on face-to-face communications. And, honestly, negotiations have only made progress when they have come after such bilateral talks. But the Obama administration has taken a significant step backward by insisting that North Korea meet certain preconditions before we talk to them. "We're not going to reward the North Koreans by agreeing to meet with them without some specific actions that they have to take," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly recently paraphrased the views of his boss, Hillary Clinton. Third, we shouldn't assume that North Korea doesn't want to give up its nuclear weapons. The more we say this in print, the more likely that North Korea will adopt this as a default position. If Bill Clinton had gone to Pyongyang a decade ago, in the waning days of his presidency, we might be seeing a very different North Korea today. Détente between North Korea and the United States might have made irreversible the country's economic reforms and its rapprochement with the South. Instead, winter has closed over the hermit kingdom, and the aging hardliners cling to their ideologies like misers clutching worthless banknotes. Bill's excellent adventure last week was a brief and welcome return of engagement on both sides. It's now up to Obama to ignore the bogus critics and orchestrate a most excellent follow-up. [Clinton0908] [US NK policy]
• U.S. Says North Korea Seeks Better Relations, Bilateral Talks
  By Jess Bravin and Jay Solomon WASHINGTON -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told former U.S. President Bill Clinton last week that Pyongyang wants to improve ties and hold bilateral talks with the U.S., in an apparent effort to break the North's growing isolation. U.S. officials said Mr. Kim's overture, which they outlined for the first time on Sunday, wouldn't alter President Barack's Obama's strategy in pushing Pyongyang to give up its nuclear-weapons program. Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," National Security Adviser James Jones said Messrs. Clinton and Kim spoke for about 3½ hours during Mr. Clinton's trip to North Korea last week to seek the release of two American reporters held by Pyongyang. "Reportedly, they discussed the importance of denuclearization, in terms of weapons systems, of the North Korean peninsula, the Korean Peninsula, and in addition to … talking about other things that the former president may have wished to discuss," Gen. Jones said. "The North Koreans have indicated that they would like … a better relation with the United States." Gen. Jones said Mr. Kim was "in full control of his organization, his government…. He certainly appears to still be the one who is in charge." Other U.S. officials played down reports that the reclusive North Korean leader had pancreatic cancer. [Clinton0908] [US NK Negotiations] [Bilateral]
• U.S. Envoy Returning to Asia for N.Korea Sanctions Talks
  The State Department said Thursday its special envoy for implementing UN-mandated sanctions against North Korea will return to Asia next week for more talks on tightening economic curbs against Pyongyang. Ambassador Philip Goldberg said he thinks efforts to put an economic squeeze on North Korea after its nuclear test in May are beginning to have an effect. [US NK policy] [Sanctions] [UNUS]
• No Rush to Talk With North Korea
  By ANDREI LANKOV Published: August 9, 2009 Bill Clinton’s trip to Pyongyang and the release of the American journalists confirmed what many observers have suspected since early July: North Korea is indicating its willingness to re-start talks with the United States. There are reasons why Washington should not rush to the negotiation table immediately, but few people doubt that these talks will start relatively soon.
  Nonetheless, future talks should be conducted without unrealistic expectations. There will be no breakthrough as long as the present regime runs the country. To keep Pyongyang engaged, something has to be given, but excessive generosity is not advisable: It will merely provoke more exercises in blackmail. There also is no need to hurry. It’s time to realize that the North Korean problem has no quick fixes, but it can — and should — be managed. [Clinton0908] [US NK policy] [Regime change]
• N.Korea says door always open to U.S. for talks
  Reuters Friday, August 14, 2009; 2:03 AM HANOI (Reuters) - North Korea is willing to hold talks with Washington, a senior diplomat for the state said on Friday in the first such comments since former President Bill Clinton's visit to Pyongyang last week.
  Asked about the possibility of talks with the United States, Kim Yong-il, a vice minister in the North's Foreign Ministry, told reporters in Hanoi through an interpreter: "We always keep the door open to negotiations." [NK US policy] [Bilateral]
• U.S. sees growing backing for N.Korea sanctions
  By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent Reuters Thursday, August 13, 2009; 3:43 PM WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. efforts to enforce U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea after its nuclear test in May are gaining growing support from countries and banks, a senior American official said on Thursday. Ambassador Phil Goldberg, the U.S. coordinator for implementation of the U.N. Security Council resolutions, said efforts to inspect North Korean vessels for illegal weapons and to curb financial transactions by Pyongyang entities suspected of proliferation were winning widespread backing. [Sanctions] [US NK policy]
• Kim Jong Il Meets Former U.S. President Bill Clinton
  Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il today met with former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his party on a visit to the DPRK. Bill Clinton courteously conveyed a verbal message of U.S. President Barack Obama to Kim Jong Il. Kim Jong Il expressed thanks for this. He welcomed Clinton's visit to the DPRK and had an exhaustive conversation with him. There was a wide-ranging exchange of views on the matters of common concern. Present there were First Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Sok Ju and Department Director of the WPK Central Committee Kim Yang Gon. [Clinton0908]
• The missing consensus: U.S. policy specialist views on Korea
  August 2009 - Vol. 1, No. 7 Stephen Costello From the earliest days of the modern U.S.-Korea alliance, there have been tensions reflected by debates in the American policy community over how to deal with North Korea. Under the Clinton and Bush presidencies respectively, U.S. policy toward North Korea has fluctuated wildly, from intensive engagement and deal-making to confrontation, coercion, and containment. There have been less noticed but equally important fluctuations in policy toward South Korea. These policy changes did not always correspond to developments in Korea, but sometimes reflected U.S. ideological and political battles. [US NK policy] [US SK relations]
• Let the Big Dog Run
  Maureen Dowd When I look at the incorrigible Kim Jong-il, an insult hurled by the incomparable Billy Wilder comes to mind. Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic, was having dinner with Wilder years ago when the subject of Swifty Lazar, the very famous and very short agent, came up. Putting down his knife and fork, Wilder announced: “That man should go hang himself from a bonsai tree.” The diminutive North Korean leader has been known to use lifts in his shoes. This time, he demanded some special stature in the form of a diplomatic cameo by our top diplomat’s husband. [Clinton0908] [Cliche][Bizarre]
• Nothing More Than a Humanitarian Visit?
  Kang In-sun It was moving to see Euna Lee and Laura Ling embrace their families as they came out of an airplane on returning home after their 142-day detention in North Korea. Their relief was palpable. And it was dramatic to see a former U.S. president fly into a hostile country to win their release on a plane provided by a long-time associate. The rescue operation was a spectacle enacted by professional actors of presidential caliber. President Barack Obama, ex-president Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who challenged Obama in the 2008 presidential election and a former first lady, and 2000 Democratic Party presidential candidate Al Gore played their respective roles well. Clinton and Gore took the stage, Obama and Hillary stood in the wings. Yet the Obama administration claims that the operation was an "individual" and "humanitarian" action that has nothing to do with political issues between the U.S. and North Korea including the nuclear problem.
  In relations between countries, everything is tit for tat. The Obama administration can emphasize all it likes that the rescue operation was private and humanitarian; but if the North does not see it that way, it will not be so. Kim Jong-il would hardly have spent more than three hours with Clinton just to eat. Clinton's Pyongyang visit was in effect the first high-level meeting between the Obama administration and North Korea. And it will greatly influence Washington-Pyongyang relations and the North Korean nuclear issue. [Clinton0908]
• Sanctioning North Korea: The Political Economy of Denuclearization and Proliferation
  Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland
  Abstract As a small country dependent on foreign trade and investment, North Korea should be highly vulnerable to external economic pressure. In June 2009, following North Korea’s second nuclear test, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1874, broadening existing economic sanctions and tightening their enforcement. However, an unintended consequence of the nuclear crisis has been to push North Korea into closer economic relations with China and other trading partners that show little interest in cooperating with international efforts to pressure North Korea, let alone in supporting sanctions. North Korea appears to have rearranged its external economic relations to reduce any impact that traditional sanctions could have. Given the extremely high priority the North Korean regime places on its military capacity, it is unlikely that the pressure the world can bring to bear on North Korea will be sufficient to induce the country to surrender its nuclear weapons. The promise of lifting existing sanctions may provide one incentive for a successor government to reassess the country’s military and diplomatic positions, but sanctions alone are unlikely to have a strong effect in the short run. Yet the United States and other countries can still exercise some leverage if they aggressively pursue North Korea’s international financial intermediaries as they have done at times in the past. In seeking to interpret North Korean actions, it is important to be frank about how little we know. There are ample reasons to believe that the country’s behavior is driven not by the external environment but by complex domestic developments that include Kim Jong-il’s health, succession struggles, shifts in the power of internal factions, and economic changes that have weakened the government’s hold over a fraying socialist system. We should not believe that fine-tuning incentives—in the form of either carrots or sticks—will necessarily succeed; much will depend on developments in Pyongyang as well. [Sanctions] [Agency][US NK policy]
• Sanctioning North Korea: The Political Economy of Denuclearization and Proliferation
  by Stephan Haggard, University of California, San Diego and Marcus Noland, Peterson Institute for International Economics
  RELATED LINKS Paper: Implementing the KORUS FTA: Key Challenges and Policy Proposals Policy Brief 08-6: North Korea on the Precipice of Famine May 2008 Policy Brief 07-7: The Korea-US Free Trade Agreement: A Summary Assessment August 2007 Policy Brief 06-4: Negotiating the Korea–United States Free Trade Agreement June 2006 Working Paper 07-7: North Korea’s External Economic Relations August 2007 Working Paper 04-3: Selective Intervention and Growth: The Case of Korea August 2004 Policy Brief 03-6: The Strategic Importance of US-Korea Economic Relations May 2003 Book: Avoiding the Apocalypse: The Future of the Two Koreas June 2000 Book: Free Trade Between Korea and the United States? April 2001 Working Paper 08-1: Exit Polls: Refugee Assessments of North Korea's Transition January 2008 Working Paper 08-4: Migration Experiences of North Korean Refugees: Survey Evidence from China March [Sanctions] [US NK policy]
• Why the U.S. Is Kim Jong-il's Last, Best Hope
  Kang Chol-hwan Former U.S. President Bill Clinton's surprise visit to North Korea to win the release of two American journalists went according to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's script. The North used the capture of the two reporters to its utmost advantage, the hostages providing it with an ideal opportunity to lure an eminent American onto its soil just when it became subject to tighter sanctions over its nuclear tests and missile launches from the international community and the U.S. in particular. It was a lucky break of the first order [Clinton0908]
• Bill Clinton's shadow darkens Hillary's mood in Congo
  "If you want my opinion, I will tell you my opinion. I am not going to be channelling my husband." Link to this video No matter where she goes, it seems that Hillary Clinton cannot quite escape the international shadow cast by her husband. Usually polished in public, the US secretary of state's calm demeanour momentarily cracked yesterday when a Congolese student asked her about Bill Clinton's view on a foreign policy issue. "My husband is not secretary of state," Clinton snapped. "I am."
  The exchange came at a sensitive time for Clinton, whose African trip has been somewhat overshadowed by her husband's humanitarian mission to rescue two US journalists held by Kim Jong-il's regime in North Korea last week. The former US president was lauded for his success in securing their freedom in a trip carried out independently from the Obama administration.
  But throughout her visit, she has been peppered with questions about her husband's North Korean visit. She told CNN on Sunday that his trip was "not in any way a government mission". When asked what he had told her about North Korea, she replied that she had a long-held policy of not disclosing the content of her private conversations with her husband. Commentators in the US have raised questions over her role, given Barack Obama's mission to revamp America's reputation overseas. In an article last month, the founder of the online Daily Beast, Tina Brown, described her as "invisible", pointing out that she was missing from Obama's recent trip to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow, and that Vice-President Joe Biden has taken the lead on policy in Afghanistan. [Clinton0908]
• The Catastrophe of the 3rd NK Nuclear Crisis Should Be Averted
  Moon Chung-in, Professor, Department of Political Science and International Studies, Yonsei University The North Korean nuclear issue is racing to the peak of a third crisis. In response to the nation’s second nuclear test, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has unanimously adopted Resolution 1874, which includes an indefinite embargo and export controls, cargo inspections and financial and economic sanctions. It is a strong resolution based on Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. The U.S. and Japan are also mulling over additional sanctions of their own. [Resolution1874]
• Clinton’s visit to Pyongyang could be a turning point in N. Korea-U.S. relations
  Although White House says Clinton’s visit was a private mission, a KCTV report suggests it is a sign of possible improvement in relations » Journalist Laura Ling speaks in front of Euna Lee, former Vice President Al Gore and former President Bill Clinton after Ling and Lee arrive at Hangar 25 on August 5, 2009 in Burbank, California after being released by North Korean authorities yesterday. Ling and Lee, of San Francisco based Current TV, were both arrested by North Korea in March for illegally entering the country on the Chinese border. Yesterday Commissioner Kim Jong-Il pardoned them after a meeting with former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Ling and Lee had been sentenced to 12 years in prison in June. (AFP) Former U.S. President Bill Clinton left Pyongyang on Wednesday morning with the two U.S. reporters who had been detained in North Korea and arrived in Los Angeles late at night (Korea time). The visit to North Korea lasted only two days and one night, but its significance is great. The visit has provided a possible stepping stone for a turning point in the political situation on the Korean Peninsula, which has been growing increasingly tense since North Korea’s long-range rocket launch and second nuclear test. The Barack Obama administration’s decision to approve Clinton’s visit is a “gift” to North Korea to see if a change in the North Korea-US relationship is possible.
  ome believe it is possible that North Korea, which has been claiming it would never abandon nuclear weapons, may have made a gesture of good faith concerning denuclearization. On the matter of “dialogue,” some believe Kim may have indicated some direction for possible follow-up by saying something along the lines that North Korea has only rejected a six party framework that abandons the spirit of mutual coexistence as embodied in the September 19 Joint Statement made in 2005, and not the six-party talks themselves. [Clinton0908]
• Bill's back, and diplomacy goes into showbusiness
  By David Usborne Sunday, 9 August 2009 Jon Stewart, the master of the satirical newscast, teased viewers on Wednesday on the Comedy Central channel. Was the big story of the night the safe return home of two US reporters after their nightmare incarceration in North Korea? "No!" he yelled. "Our big story tonight is: the Big Dog is back!" That would be Bill Clinton, who has had a good week. In a span of 20 hours, he shook up the world of international diplomacy by jetting into Pyongyang, dining and conversing with the most elusive leader on the planet, Kim Jong-Il, then returning with the pardoned correspondents, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, in tow. It seems as if the former president found his old Superman suit all of a sudden.
  Some released a knowing sigh when it emerged that the trip had been made possible by the services of Shangri-La Entertainment. The very name seems to devalue the accomplishment. How very Bill. Even more so, because the firm is run by Steve Bing, his old buddy with a wallet as large as his reputation for playboy living. Bing, you remember, was found out as father to Elizabeth Hurley's baby. [Clinton0908]
• Steve Bing: Man on a mission
  The wealthy American known to most as the father of Liz Hurley's baby re-emerges in a key role in Bill Clinton's North Korean rescue act By Stephen Foley Saturday, 8 August 2009 Steve Bing's role in the release this week of two US journalists held hostage in North Korea shows how he has quietly become a political power broker in his native country. It is not all that long since the efforts of journalists, private detectives and Hollywood gossips were combined in tracking the whereabouts of Steve Bing's sperm. But these days, the punditocracy and the political classes are more interested in tracking the whereabouts of his private jet. Although the American multimillionaire real estate heir and sometime Most Hated Man in Britain is still more famous as Elizabeth Hurley's reluctant baby daddy, his role in the release this week of two US journalists held hostage in North Korea shows how he has quietly become a political powerbroker in his native country. It has been an extraordinary transformation. More precisely, it has been an extraordinarily expensive transformation. The plane that touched down on Wednesday at Bob Hope airport close to Hollywood, bringing Laura Ling and Euna Lee back to the US in the company of Bill Clinton, was Bing's private Boeing 737, which he had lent to the former president at a personal cost of about $200,000. [Clinton0908]
• How Bing bankrolled Bill's Korean mission
  Clinton used rich friends so Obama could keep his distance By David Usborne, US Editor Friday, 7 August 2009 New details of Bill Clinton's triumphant North Korean rescue mission leaked yesterday have revealed that the former president had help from a dazzling array of high-level contacts – including the billionaire Hollywood producer Steve Bing. Bing, an erstwhile playboy and certified FOB, or Friend of Bill, lent Mr Clinton the all-white plane that ferried him across the Pacific. And nor was Bing the only player to help make a mission of huge value to the American government into a credible freelance operation. Yesterday's revelations on how the trip was secretly assembled revealed the extent of Mr Clinton's sometimes murky network of contacts. Once considered problematic given the position of his wife as Secretary of State, they give him a unique edge to mediate in crises where the US government might prefer to keep its distance. [Clinton0908]
• Leading article: A former President who still knows how to play his part
  Mission accomplished, Bill Clinton has left the ball in North Korea's court Thursday, 6 August 2009
  Two young Americans rescued from 12 years of penal servitude behind one of the world's last iron curtains – the emotional scenes at Burbank airport seemed to say it all. The women emerged from the plane tearful, but overjoyed. Their families were at the foot of the steps to meet them. So was their employer, Vice-President turned media-owner, Al Gore. There was much kissing, hugging and crying, and a heartstrings-tugging speech from Laura Ling. It was a classic piece of all-American theatre, and none the worse for that. [Clinton0908] [Inversion]
• Anne Penketh: First North Korea. Now Iran?
  Beyond Bill Clinton's trip lurks President Obama's nuclear disarmament agenda Thursday, 6 August 2009 Bill Clinton's successful mission to North Korea presents a "win-win" situation for President Obama. Never mind the nay-sayers, such as the neo-conservative former ambassador John Bolton, who has accused the administration of practically consorting with terrorists by engaging with the unpredictable Kim Jong-il. Contrary to Mr Bolton, who forgot in his previous incarnations working for George Bush that actions have consequences, President Obama has demonstrated that he is a serious strategic thinker, and by dispatching the former president to Pyongyang he has his eye on the long term. The benefits for Obama outweigh the disadvantages, not least because Clinton will come back with a first-hand appraisal of the mental and medical condition of the "Dear Leader", who seemed wizened and frail in the TV footage. That is an intelligence bonanza that money can't buy. Secondly, he eyeballed the North Korea leader in the type of conversation that only (former) leaders can have, in an attempt to winkle out the information that has eluded the world since Pyongyang pulled out of a negotiated nuclear disarmament process and returned to its threatening posture through a series of nuclear and missile tests: what does North Korea want? Is it the direct dialogue with Washington that has been refused until now, or is there more? Aid? Legitimacy? What is going on in the mind of the leader of the world's most secretive state? [Clinton0908] [NK US policy] [Inversion]
• U.S. will meet directly with North if nuke talks resume
  Washington says Kim Jong-il appears in tight control August 11, 2009 WASHINGTON - The Obama administration said Sunday it is willing to hold direct talks with North Korea over its nuclear weapons if the North first resumes international negotiations. Despite reports of his declining health, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il seems fully in charge of the reclusive communist country, White House National Security Adviser James Jones said. Jones said former President Bill Clinton passed on no official messages and made no promises during his mission last week to bring home two American journalists convicted of illegally entering the North.
  Jones noted that North Korea has said it wants better relations and long has sought one-on-one talks with the United States, as opposed to the six-party talks involving the U.S., South Korea, Japan, China and Russia. Both Jones and the U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said the United States is ready to resume the kind of direct talks held in the latter years of the Bush administration. [Clinton0908] [Bilateral]
• S. Korea, US to Tone Down War Games Next Week
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter South Korea and the United States will soften the level of their joint computerized military exercise to be held next week, according to officials of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Monday. The move is construed as an apparent bid not to provoke North Korea at a time when the communist regime appears to want to discuss stalled denuclearization talks with the United States, following former U.S. President Bill Clinton's landmark visit to Pyongyang last week, analysts say. The Lee Myung-bak administration is also wary of causing tensions with Pyongyang as five South Koreans have been held in the North, they say. ``In the upcoming war games, troops from the Combined Forces Command (CFC) will end their counterattacks in Gaeseong, before reaching Pyongyang,'' a JCS official said on condition of anonymity. Previously, CFC troops often advanced into Pyongyang or the Amnokgang (Yalu River) in their simulated training exercises, the official said. [Joint US military] [US NK policy] [Clinton0908] [Takeover]
• What Did US Offer to North Korea?
  By Richard Saccone
  Welcome home journalists! Now let's answer some questions. Americans are relieved that the two reporters from Current TV, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, finally returned home after spending several months in custody within North Korea. They are enjoying a hero's welcome and their faces are dominating the news for several days. Without doubt they will become wealthy from the book deals and movie rights forthcoming. Appropriate credit should be given to the Obama administration in the handling of the ordeal. After a few initial missteps, administration officials kept the negotiations affecting the release out of the press and toned down the harsh rhetoric against North Korea until the girls were safely on American soil. Now that the danger has passed it is time to ask the tough questions as to how we got into this mess. Question number one: ``Who ordered such a foolhardy mission?''
  And for what purpose did they undertake such a risk, ostensibly to gather information about human trafficking? The necessary information for such a report could have safely been collected from inside China. It does not advance this story to cross into North Korea, which renders the stated purpose of their reporting suspect. The cover story loses additional credibility when you consider that only three years ago Laura's older sister Lisa Ling entered North Korea under false pretenses to gather information for a National Geographic special in which she portrayed the country in the worst possible light. Luckily for her, she escaped undetected and lived to chortle about it in the West. So, was it Al Gore or underlings within the Current TV organization that dispatched these two on such a perilous mission?
  Finally, we must ask, what if anything did the U.S. government offer North Korea to secure the release of the young ladies? [Clinton0908] [Propaganda]
• Clinton’s Visit to N. Korea
  By Tong Kim After former president Bill Clinton's dramatic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il resulted in the freeing of the two American journalists who have now joined their families back in the United States attention has been drawn to what may flow from that first high-level contact between Washington and Pyongyang since the start of the Obama administration. The White House and the State Department emphatically portrayed Mr. Clinton's trip as ``a humanitarian mission" that had no direct bearing on the administration's policy on North Korea. Nevertheless, many watchers do not readily accept that explanation. Without the release of the two American journalists, it would have been impossible to consider revising the administration's pressure policy. [Clinton0908] [US NK policy]
• Could humanitarian mission pave way for nuclear deal?
  By Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON — With two journalists who'd been detained in North Korea safely back on U.S. soil, the Obama administration Wednesday adopted a wait-and-see stance over whether the humanitarian breakthrough will lead to renewed talks on the more pernicious question of the North's nuclear weapons. "This can't hurt, but it won't necessarily help," said a senior administration official involved in North Korea policy. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the topic's sensitivity. The White House and State Department worked aggressively to dispel the notion that U.S. concessions on the nuclear front led to the release of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who arrived in California early Wednesday after former President Bill Clinton secured their release. Obama aides said that North Korea must demonstrate that it's ready to abide by past pledges to dismantle its nuclear weapons, and should return to six-nation nuclear talks that it pulled out of this spring. The North has instead been seeking direct talks with the U.S. "I don't think we know yet" whether there will be an improved atmosphere for talks, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. "The ball is really in the North's court."
  The White House hasn't yet been able to formally debrief the former president about his talks with Kim. That session is tentatively scheduled to take place Friday, and is likely to involve top White House officials, as well as specialists from the State Department and intelligence agencies. Clinton was given two U.S. government briefings before leaving for North Korea, the second one Saturday, a second senior U.S. official told reporters in a conference call late Tuesday. Clinton wasn't the only envoy considered. North Korea also appeared to signal at one point it would accept a visit by Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, whose office was involved in the behind-the-scenes diplomacy. However, a White House official said, "We didn't take the Kerry (invitation from North Korea) to be real" and settled on Clinton as the envoy who could produce the journalists' freedom. Clinton's delegation included John Podesta, his former chief of staff; David Straub, a former State Department specialist on Korea; Doug Band, another Clinton White House aide; and Roger Band, his brother, who served as Clinton's personal physician. [Clinton0908] [US NK policy]
• Clinton Defends Husband’s North Korea Trip and Calls Iran Trials Sign of Weakness
  By Ashley Southall Hillary Rodham Clinton In a CNN interview, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton dismissed Republican criticism of a trip by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to free two American journalists held in North Korea, and said Iran’s prosecution of protesters showed that the country is “afraid of its own people.” In the interview, which will be broadcast on CNN on Sunday, Mrs. Clinton responded to harsh criticism from John Bolton, an ambassador to the United Nations during the Bush administration. Mr. Bolton had characterized the mission to free the American journalists as “unwise.” In an opinion article published Tuesday, Mr. Bolton criticized the Obama administration for sending Mr. Clinton to Pyongyang to negotiate the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who had been sentenced to hard labor for allegedly illegally crossing into North Korea. “Despite decades of bipartisan U.S. rhetoric about not negotiating with terrorists for the release of hostages,” he said, “it seems that the Obama administration not only chose to negotiate, but to send a former president to do so.”
  When asked about Mr. Bolton’s comments, Mrs. Clinton laughed, noted that similar efforts have been carried out before by presidents and members of Congress and summed up Mr. Bolton’s position as an attempt to politicize a humanitarian issue. “If President Obama walked on water, you’d say he couldn’t swim,” she said, according to Fareed Zakaria, who conducted the CNN interview. [Clinton0908] [Partisan][John Bolton]
• Clinton's Unwise Trip to North Korea
  By John R. Bolton Tuesday, August 4, 2009; 1:09 PM The Obama administration characterized Bill Clinton's unexpected visit to Pyongyang to secure the release of two American reporters, held unjustifiably (sic) by North Korea for nearly five months, as a private, humanitarian mission. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has insisted that the fate of the women who strayed into the North (whether accidentally or deliberately is still not clear), should be separated from the unresolved issue of the North's nuclear weapons program.
  The Clinton visit may have many other negative effects. In some ways the trip is a flashback to the unfortunate 1994 journey of former president Jimmy Carter, who disrupted the Clinton administration's nuclear negotiations with North Korea and led directly to the misbegotten "Agreed Framework." [Clinton0908] [John Bolton] [Hardliners] [Agreed Framework]
• North Korea’s Nuclear Blackmail
  By HENRY A. KISSINGER Published: August 9, 2009 Amidst the widespread relief that the two American journalists have avoided the brutal fate meted out to them by a North Korean court, it may seem captious to consider the long-term implications. Skip to next paragraph Related Op-Ed Contributor: No Rush to Talk With North Korea (August 10, 2009) The impulse to save two young women from 12 years of hard labor in a North Korean gulag is powerful. Yet now that this goal has been achieved, we need to balance the emotions of the moment against the precedent for the future. [Clinton0908] [US NK policy]
• Rethinking North Korea, With Sticks
  By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: August 5, 2009 Now that President Bill Clinton has extricated Laura Ling and Euna Lee from North Korea, the hard work begins. There are new indications that North Korea may be transferring nuclear weapons technology to Myanmar, the dictatorship also known as Burma, and that it earlier supplied a reactor to Syria. For many years, based on five visits to North Korea and its border areas, I’ve argued for an “engagement” approach toward Pyongyang, but now I’ve reluctantly concluded that we need more sticks. Burmese defectors have provided detailed accounts of a North Korean reactor, perhaps a mirror of the one provided to Syria, built inside a mountain deep in Myanmar. The reports, first aired in The Sydney Morning Herald this month, come from Desmond Ball, a respected Asia scholar, and Phil Thornton, a journalist with expertise on Myanmar, and there has been other fragmentary intelligence to back them up. [US NK policy] [Proliferation] [Clinton0908][Sanctions]
• Coming to Terms With Containing North Korea
  By DAVID E. SANGER Published: August 8, 2009 Bill Clinton’s rescue mission to Pyongyang last week may have done more than win the freedom of two young American journalists. To many in Washington, it seemed to reconfirm hints of just how shrunken North Korea’s ambitions (not to mention its leader) have become after years of confrontation with the world. Skip to next paragraph Related Bill Clinton and Journalists in Emotional Return to U.S. (August 6, 2009) Clinton Cites Concerns of Arms Aid to Myanmar (July 22, 2009) Times Topics: North Korea Desperate for some affirmation of his legacy, this interpretation goes, the ailing Kim Jong Il used the drama to draw a former American president onto his own turf. To North Korea’s hungry populace, it doubtless looked as if the Americans had finally come to pay homage. But the truth is that North Korea no longer instills fear the way it did even during the Clinton presidency, when it once threatened to turn Seoul into a “sea of fire” if it did not get its way. For all the nuclear and missile tests the North has recently staged, such a threat today rings hollow. The North still has well-hidden artillery that could do great harm, but South Korean officials say they know that North Korea’s air force does not have enough fuel to send fighters aloft to practice for long, much less to initiate a war. And South Koreans are so unafraid of a 1950s-style invasion that they have built housing developments to the edge of the demilitarized zone dividing the Koreas.
  Still, there are reasons to wonder whether containment of North Korea can work. The core idea is that wariness and time are the best instruments with which to let a corrupt, inept government rot from within, as when the Soviet Union collapsed. “I wish they’d conduct a nuclear test every week,” a member of Mr. Obama’s team joked recently, referring to estimates that North Korea has only enough fuel for 8 to 12 weapons. The problem is that every American president since Harry Truman has underestimated how much rot the North Korean regime could withstand. Each thought the North could fall on his watch. After all, it has been the most sanctioned nation on earth since the early 1950’s, and it has recently cut the few deep economic ties that it made in the past decade with the South.
  But perhaps the greatest risk in a containment strategy is one of inconsistency. Two Bushes, two Clintons and President Obama himself have vowed that the world will never tolerate a nuclear North Korea. If America does end up tolerating it, the Iranians will take notice. Which is why Israeli officials bring up North Korea whenever American officials talk to them about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. You Americans can try containment with North Korea, they say; it’s your problem. But don’t try to extend the concept to Iran. [Clinton0908] [US NK policy] [Precedent] [Proliferation] [Sanctions] [Continuity]
• Next Steps With North Korea
  Editorial Published: August 5, 2009 Sending a former president to secure the release of two journalists detained by North Korea was a big step, but Bill Clinton’s trip will have been well worth the effort if it laid the groundwork for truly productive talks on North Korea’s nuclear programs. Now it is up to President Obama to make it clear to Pyongyang that it is no longer good enough to make easily broken promises. Even before Mr. Clinton’s mission this week to rescue Laura Ling and Euna Lee from a 12-year sentence to North Korea’s gulag, Obama administration officials concluded that Pyongyang was looking for a face-saving way to re-engage with Washington. North Korea made a colossal mistake by getting off to a bad start with President Obama, who offered the kind of dialogue that President George W. Bush took far too long to embrace
  The United States and its partners also have to re-establish their credibility; North Korea never received all the fuel deliveries promised under the 2005 deal. [Clinton0908] [US NK negotiations] [Inversion]
• In Release of Journalists, Both Clintons Had Key Roles
  By MARK LANDLER and PETER BAKER Published: August 4, 2009 WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton left North Korea on Wednesday morning after a dramatic 20-hour visit, in which he won the freedom of two American journalists, opened a diplomatic channel to North Korea’s reclusive government and dined with the North’s ailing leader, Kim Jong-il.
  North Korea signaled its desire to have Mr. Clinton act as a special envoy in conversations with Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee, who relayed that message to their families in the middle of July, according to a senior administration official. The message was passed to Mr. Gore, who contacted the White House, which then explored whether such a mission would be successful. Mr. Obama did not speak directly with Mr. Clinton before the mission. But his national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, contacted the former president to sound him out.
  Among those accompanying Mr. Clinton was David Straub, a former director of the Korea desk at the State Department, who had held talks with the North Koreans through what is known as the “New York connection.”
  Given Mr. Clinton’s stature and his long interest in the North Korean nuclear issue, experts said it was likely that his discussions in North Korea ranged well beyond obtaining the release of Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee. “It would be someplace between surprising and shocking if there wasn’t some substantive discussion between the former president, who is deeply knowledgeable about the nuclear issue, and Kim Jong-il,” said Robert L. Gallucci, who negotiated with North Korea in the Clinton administration. [Clinton0908]
• North Korea wants better ties with U.S.: security adviser
  Reuters Monday, August 10, 2009; 12:18 AM WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea has signaled it wants to improve relations with the United States and has been told it must return to nuclear disarmament talks, U.S. national security adviser Jim Jones said on Sunday. "The North Koreans have indicated they would like a new relation, a better relation with the United States," Jones said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday" when asked about former U.S. President Bill Clinton's visit to North Korea last week. [Clinton0908] [Inversion]
• White House says policy toward North Korea unchanged
  By Steve Holland Reuters Thursday, August 6, 2009; 11:12 PM WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States held back on Thursday from making conciliatory gestures to North Korea after Bill Clinton's visit there, and Clinton said he wanted to avoid saying anything publicly that might "tip the balance." "I'm not a policymaker anymore," Clinton said in New York. The message from White House spokesman Robert Gibbs a day after Clinton returned from retrieving two American journalists held by North Korea was one of thanks to Clinton and no thanks to Pyongyang. In words that may well serve to reassure U.S. allies Japan and South Korea, Gibbs said U.S. policy had not changed as a result of Clinton's visit. [Clinton0908] [US NK policy] [Continuity]
• Special Contacts Aided Release
  By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, August 6, 2009
  Former president Bill Clinton's central role in the return of two journalists detained by North Korea has once again cast a spotlight on his vast web of financial and political contacts, a network that troubled senators who weighed whether to confirm his wife as secretary of state. In the case of the detainees, Clinton tapped wealthy business people to execute a mission that, without a special federal waiver for the aircraft to travel to North Korea, would have been illegal. A few weeks ago, one of his business contacts had the ear of Hillary Rodham Clinton in her role as secretary of state, an uncomfortable reminder of the former president's far-flung interests and associates.
  Foulkrod said the trip was especially difficult to arrange because Federal Aviation Administration regulations prohibit U.S.-registered aircraft from landing in North Korea. He said that the company received a call from Bing about the flight either late last Thursday or early Friday, and that it took "an unprecedented level of cooperation" from the FAA and the State Department to secure the necessary legal and diplomatic approvals in time for Monday's departure. [Clinton0908]
• US Official: Kim Jong Il in Full Control in N.Korea
  By VOA News 09 August 2009 The U.S. national security adviser says North Korean leader Kim Jong Il still appears to be in "full control" of his government. Jim Jones based the assessment Sunday on reports from the recent trip of former U.S. President Bill Clinton to North Korea. South Korean intelligence reports have suggested Mr. Kim has pancreatic cancer, raising questions about his successor. North Korean media deny Mr. Kim is sick. Mr. Clinton traveled to Pyongyang this past week to secure the release of two U.S. journalists who were jailed in March for illegally entering North Korea. Jones said on Fox News Sunday Mr. Clinton also asked for the release of South Korean and Japanese detainees held in North Korea. He said Mr. Clinton's private mission was first vetted with South Korea, Japan, China and Russia. Jones said the former U.S. president did not carry an official message from the White House when he and Mr. Kim spoke for 3.5 hours. He described the conversation as "respectful and cordial." He said Mr. Clinton's visit was first proposed by North Korea in messages conveyed by the jailed journalists to their families. Jones said North Korea has indicated it would like better relations with the United States(sic). [Clinton0908] [Succession]
• N. Korea's reality
  A sharp exchange of verbal attacks took place between the United States and North Korea at the ASEAN Regional Forum held at Phuket, Thailand. On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that Washington is willing to offer a "package of incentives," including normalization of relations with Pyongyang, if it abandons its nuclear weapons. The next day, Ri Hung-sik, head of the North Korean foreign ministry's international organization bureau, called the proposal "nonsense." It is part of Washington's attempt to unilaterally disarm North Korea, he said. There will be no dialogue until Washington changed its "deep-rooted hostile policy," he added. In an apparent retaliation at Clinton for her statement earlier this week that North Koreans were acting like "unruly teenagers," a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman in Pyongyang was reported by the North Korean state media as saying, "Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping" in attacking her "vulgar" remarks. Over in Washington, a State Department spokesperson hit back saying, "What is vulgar is that the North Korean government chooses to harvest missiles rather than enough food for its people."(sic) [Vituperation] [Tantrum] [Sequencing] [Victim]
• He's Not the Crazy One
  by Mike Chinoy
  Despite missiles, hostages, bomb tests, and cyberattacks, North Korea’s Dear Leader is quite consistent, says the region’s top expert, Mike Chinoy. It’s U.S. policy that’s been erratic. Having visited North Korea 14 times, let me caution against reading too much into yesterday’s report that the secretive nation’s leader, Kim Jong Il, may be dying of pancreatic cancer. The news came out of the notoriously unreliable South Korean media, citing sources from that country’s conservative-leaning intelligence agency which has often had its own political agenda—including destabilizing North Korea. The same goes for the similarly sourced, and equally unverifiable, media claims last week blaming Pyongyang for a wave of cyberattacks aimed at American and South Korean targets.
  How did a president who campaigned in part on a pledge to engage American adversaries, including the North Koreans, end up embroiled in a much more serious confrontation with Pyongyang—and pushing a much tougher policy—than the administration of George W. Bush? And why has the North repeatedly rebuffed Obama’s conciliatory overtures? [US NK policy] [Continuity] [Renege] [Media] [Disinformation]
• Direct talks with N.K.
  U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his support for bilateral talks between the United States and North Korea, possibly providing much needed relief in the stalled six-way talks aimed at the communist state's denuclearization. [Bilateral] [Ban Ki-moon]
• Why is North Korea so Aggressive? Kim Jong-il’s Illness and North Korea’s Changing Governing Style
  By Choi Jinwook July 30, 2009
  Choi Jinwook, Research Fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), writes, “North Korea has taken a harsher position since Kim Jong-il’s illness. It is not the Department of United Front but the military that plays a more important role in inter-Korean relations… The decision to launch a long-range rocket and carry out a nuclear test was clearly made by the military, not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The military seems to believe that it needs to become a nuclear power rather than try to resume talks with the United States at an earlier date.” [NK US policy] [Inversion] [Succession]
• Bill Clinton rewarding NKorea for bad behavior: Bolton
  (AFP) – 4 days ago WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is rewarding North Korea for its bad behavior by sending ex-president Bill Clinton to Pyongyang to win the release of two US journalists, the former US ambassador to the UN said Tuesday. John Bolton, an outspoken hardliner in the previous administration of George W. Bush, told AFP that Clinton's mission to Pyongyang undermines a number of public stands held by his own wife, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "It comes perilously close to negotiating with terrorists," Bolton told AFP when asked about Bill Clinton's trip to secure the release of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee. The pair were sentenced in June to 12 years in a labor camp for an illegal border crossing and an unspecified "grave crime," after they were detained by North Korean border guards on March 17 while working on a story (sic). "I think this is a very bad signal because it does exactly what we always try and avoid doing with terrorists, or with rogue states in general, and that's encouraging their bad behavior," Bolton said. [Cliche] [Hardliner] [Bilateral] [Media]
• Joint military exercises
  Dear friends, Warm greetings from Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People! The south Korea-U.S. “Combined Forces Command” announced on July 24 that joint military exercises “Ulji Freedom Guardian” would be staged from August 17 to 27. These joint military maneuvers will be participated in by commands of army corps and fleet and flying corps of the south Korean armed forces and above and at least 56,000 troops and more than 10,000 U.S. troops present in south Korea and overseas. Especially, they were reported to be staged under a new joint operational scenario instead of the existing OPLAN 5027. [Joint military] [Takeover] [OPLAN]
• Asia's Axis of Evil?
  John Feffer | July 30, 2009 Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the Asia Chronicle on 7/24/09. The two pariahs of Asia, North Korea and Burma, often get mentioned in the same breath. With no one else to depend on, these two countries would appear to be natural partners. Indeed, the Obama administration has been gathering circumstantial evidence that North Korea is providing Burma with nuclear technology so that they can both thumb their noses more aggressively at the international community. There are satellite images of Burma's underground tunnels (sic). The Japanese recently arrested a North Korean and two Japanese businessmen for attempting to sell Burma a magnetometer, a component of missile guidance systems. The Kang Nam, the North Korean ship that the Pentagon was recently tracking, was bound for Burma with a pile of who-knows-what on board. [US NK policy] [Evidence]
• Our Favorite Topic for Speculation: Succession Scenarios in North Korea
  by Nicole Finnemann (nmf@keia.org) It seems that Kim Jong-il’s health, perhaps North Korea’s most closely guarded secret, is on everyone’s minds these days. Rumors of Kim’s ailments are growing in their level of seriousness, from the stroke that he evidently suffered in August 2008, to diabetes, heart disease, heart failure, and most recently, pancreatic cancer along with reports that he has chronic renal failure which has placed the 67-year old on dialysis. While it is difficult to prove which, if any, of these may be accurate, one thing is certain: the issue of leadership succession is now a significant concern both inside and outside North Korea. [Succession]
• To talk or not to talk with North Korea
  July 31st, 2009 Guest Author: Mel Gurtov, Portland State University The photograph that came out of an Asian regional security meeting—the ARF (Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum)—in Bangkok last week told it all: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton walking past her North Korean counterpart without so much as a nod of greeting. ‘We really don’t have any intention of talking to them,’ she said. ‘What we are interested in is North Korea coming back to the table and continuing the negotiation that will lead to a denuclearized Korean peninsula.’ Yet a member of the North Korean delegation did not dismiss the idea of a meeting with Secretary Clinton on the sidelines. ‘It will depend on the situation,’ one delegate from the North Korean foreign ministry reportedly said. Other North Korean spokespersons have reportedly said the same thing since. To meet or not to meet, that is the question.
  To classify the North Koreans as unruly children is arrogant and gratuitous [Bilateral] [Tantrum]
• Dealing With North Korea
  
  Why Threats and Sanctions Will Only Backfire By CONN HALLINAN Most Americans think of North Korea as a nation of belligerent crazy people with a political succession system more akin to the 15th century than the 21st. Indeed, it is a repressive place, with a bizarre personality cult, but the U.S., Japan, and South Korea share much of the blame for the current crisis over nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. A little history. In June of last year, North Korea dutifully carried out “Phase Two” of the 2007 Six-Party talks by giving China the details of its plutonium program. In a separate agreement with the U.S., Pyongyang agreed to disclose its uranium enrichment program and any technology proliferation to other countries. In turn, the U.S. would take North Korea off its “state sponsor of terrorism” list. However, under pressure from the right-wing governments of Japan and South Korea, the Bush Administration moved the goal posts and demanded strict verification procedures before it would fulfill its end of the bargain. Verification, however, was not part of Phase Two, as then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted in a speech to the Heritage Foundation last year. “What we’ve done, in a sense, is to move up issues that were to be taken up in Phase Three, like verification, like access to the reactor, into Phase Two.” [US NK negotiations] [Renege]
• Escalating with North Korea
  John Feffer 25.JUN.09 Asia Chronicle Columnist The war in Afghanistan is ugly. The conflict in Iraq is still seething. The prospect of Pakistan's collapse is terrifying. But the real nightmare scenario, or so the media headlines suggest, involves North Korea. Its leader is wacko. It's adding to its nuclear arsenal. It's making preparations for a missile launch aimed at Hawaii. The Japanese attacked us 68 years ago. The Pentagon is bracing for Pearl Harbor, part II. This is serious stuff. The Taliban might be crazy, but they don't have nukes and we don't expect them to bomb Waikiki any time soon. [US NK policy] [Renege] [Military balance]
• The U.S. military machine: North Korea bomb test in perspective
  Thursday, October 12, 2006 By: Sarah Sloan U.S. bases, troops and bombs across the globe North Korea has proclaimed proudly that it carried out its first nuclear weapons test. The government in Pyongyang has announced to the world that it is ready for “negotiations or confrontation.” Clearly, the intention of North Korea is to spur a new round of bilateral negotiations with the U.S. government. It seeks to end the state of war that still formally exists between the two countries. This is the unstated but real goal of North Korea’s open resumption of its nuclear program. People in the United States would be left with the impression that North Korea is a huge threat to world peace now that it has carried out a nuclear test. Here is where actual facts come in handy. [Threat] [Military balance][NK US policy]
• Hopes raised for N.K. nuclear talks
  Speculation is rife on whether Bill Clinton's surprise visit to Pyongyang could serve as a well-timed push to get North Korea back to dialogue aimed at denuclearizing the reclusive communist state. Both Clinton and the White House is assuring the international community that the former president's visit is strictly a matter of private diplomacy aimed at the reporters' release. But many see the visit as a face-saving move allowing both the United States and North Korea off the hook to gracefully resume talks. Pyongyang also has sent out signals alluding to its elation over Clinton's visit, and its anticipation for a breakthrough in relations with Washington. [US NK negotiations] [Inversion]
• DPRK, ROK, and Chinese perspectives
  Editors Note: The following DPRK, ROK, and Chinese perspectives were offered at a recent meeting of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (CSCAP) Study Group on Countering the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and illustrate the wide differences that exist regarding Korean Peninsula denuclearization. These views are solely those of the individual authors. Situation in the Korean Peninsula – A North Korean Perspective by So Ki-sok So Ki-sok (kasssg@co.chesin.com) is a Senior Researcher for the DPRK Institute for Disarmament and Peace The Six-Party Talks for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula were entirely broken down by the racket for sanctions and pressure by antagonistic forces, including the U.S. As a result, an unpre As a result, an unpredictable tense situation was created on the Korean peninsula. The escalated tension was caused by the unchanged hostile policy of the U.S. against the DPRK. The Six-Party Talks ended and the tension was escalated by the U.S. and its followers who entirely denied the spirit of respect for sovereignty and sovereign equality, the basis and life of the talks which was clarified in the September 19, 2005 Joint Statement. The essence of the U.S. hostile policy against the DPRK, which continues to be maintained, is to obliterate the idea and system of the DPRK. [NK US policy] [NK China]
• Clinton’s Mission to Pyongyang
  By John Delury
  We will only slowly learn the full details of Bill Clinton’s historic mission to Pyongyang. But the preliminary indicators are positive, especially in what they tell us about domestic politics in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). American and South Korean headlines have been dominated for months by ominous stories of the triumph of military hardliners in Pyongyang and the ailing of Kim Jong Il. Just days ago, a seasoned journalist reported that leading diplomat Kim Kye Gwan had been purged as penalty for his openness to dealing with the Americans. Yet there on the tarmac of Pyongyang’s airport stands Kim Kye Gwan, the second man to shake Bill Clinton’s hand, welcoming him to the DPRK.. With Kim smiling on, Mr. Clinton receives a bouquet of flowers from a young North Korean girl, in a gratuitously friendly gesture sending a clear political message. The gaggle of reporters, photographers and cameramen capturing these scenes makes it plain that the government wishes to disseminate images of rapprochement internally, as well as internationally. Some media analysts in the U.S. are dismissively referring to North Korea’s “publicity coup,” missing the point that this “coup” is a show of strength by those in favor of improved relations with the U.S., with important domestic audiences watching. Equally promising, the ruling structure in Pyongyang appears relatively united in welcoming Mr. Clinton, and the symbolism of his trip
  There are numerous ironies in Mr. Clinton’s trip to Pyongyang. Early in his own presidency, he and Kim Il Sung were brought back from the brink of military conflict only by an independent mission by another former president, Jimmy Carter. It was a last-minute diplomatic intervention that infuriated the White House, but defused the international crisis and set the stage for a breakthrough agreement between Pyongyang and Washington in 1994. At the end of his presidency, Mr. Clinton seriously considered a presidential trip to Pyongyang as his foreign policy swan song (he opted instead to send Secretary of State Albright, and concentrate his political capital on a peace deal in the Middle East). Nine years later, he gets to complete his journey as an American éminence grise. And, final irony, he does so as husband of current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has led the charge of a tough-line against North Korea, speculating on the death of its leader Kim Jong Il and comparing its behavior to that of a child. These ironies encapsulate much of the history of U.S.-DPRK relations since the end of the Cold War. [Clinton0908] [US NK policy] [[Intelligence] [Disinformation] [NK US policy] [Tantrum]
• Report on Bill Clinton's Visit to DPRK Made Public
  Pyongyang, August 5 (KCNA) --A report on Former U.S. President Bill Clinton's visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is as follows: Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his party visited the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from August 4 to 5. Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, met with Bill Clinton and his party. During their stay Clinton and his party paid a courtesy call on Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly. Clinton expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong Il for the hostile acts committed by the two American journalists against the DPRK after illegally intruding into it. Clinton courteously conveyed to Kim Jong Il an earnest request of the U.S. government to leniently pardon them and send them back home from a humanitarian point of view. The meetings had candid and in-depth discussions on the pending issues between the DPRK and the U.S. in a sincere atmosphere and reached a consensus of views on seeking a negotiated settlement of them. Kim Jong Il issued an order of the Chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission on granting a special pardon to the two American journalists who had been sentenced to hard labor in accordance with Article 103 of the Socialist Constitution and releasing them. Clinton courteously conveyed a verbal message of U.S. President Barack Obama expressing profound thanks for this and reflecting views on ways of improving the relations between the two countries. The measure taken to release the American journalists is a manifestation of the DPRK's humanitarian and peaceloving policy. The DPRK visit of Clinton and his party will contribute to deepening the understanding between the DPRK and the U.S. and building the bilateral confidence. [Clinton0908] [US NK negotiations]
• Bill Clinton Leaves Here
  Pyongyang, August 5 (KCNA) -- Bill Clinton, former president of the United States, and his party left here today by air. They were seen off at the airport by Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, and Kim Kye Gwan, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs. [Clinton0908]
• Dinner Arranged for Bill Clinton
  Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- The National Defence Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea gave a dinner in honor of former U.S. President Bill Clinton on a visit to the DPRK at the Paekhwawon State Guest House this evening. Present at the dinner was Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission. Present there on invitation were former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his suite members. Present there were Chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK Choe Thae Bok, Secretary of the WPK Central Committee Kim Ki Nam, First Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Sok Ju, Department Director of the WPK Central Committee Kim Yang Gon, Member of the NDC U Tong Chuk, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Kye Gwan and officials concerned. The dinner proceeded in a cordial atmosphere. [Clinton0908]
• Bill Clinton Arrives Here
  Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- Bill Clinton, former president of the United States, and his party arrived here Tuesday by air. They were greeted by Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, and Kim Kye Gwan, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs. A little girl presented a bouquet to Bill Clinton. [Clinton0908]
• Gingrich Weighs Into N.Korea Question
  Former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich on Monday said China faces a stark choice over North Korea. In a lecture on the U.S. national security at the Heritage Foundation, Gingrich said if the North continues its brinkmanship, China will have to choose between a nuclear-free North Korea and a nuclear-armed Japan in the not-too-distant future. He said Tokyo will increase its military capabilities to respond to threat from North Korea and that the U.S. will give whatever support it can. The time is approaching for China to determine if Japan's establishment of a more elaborate missile defense system is really in China's interest, he said. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Threat] [NK China]
• If you want to change the N. Korea situation
  Kim Ji-seok, Chief Editorial Writer They say that a person who contracts a serious disease generally goes through five stages.
  Leon V. Sigal, the director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council in New York, has applied these five stages to the actions seen from successive U.S. governments in relation with North Korea and its negotiations over the North Korean nuclear issue. Previously, the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush governments experienced denial and anger over North Korea’s behavior and then attempted negotiations afterwards, and ultimately ended up discouraged. The current Barack Obama administration is still in the anger stage. [US NK policy]
• Clinton derides Pyongyang’s military strength
  U.S. Secretary of State likens North Korean regime to ‘unruly teenagers’ July 22, 2009 By Yoo Jee-ho The top U.S. diplomat doesn’t believe North Korea poses a threat to the United States and believes the North doesn’t deserve the attention it craves. In an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave little weight to the potential threat North Korea presents to America. “We understand their capabilities, which are not all that great frankly; their military doesn’t pose a threat to us,” she said. “We know our allies Japan and South Korea are very concerned. They watch what we watch and we know what’s really going on.” [Military balance] [Threat] [Tantrum]
• Too Much Importance Attached to 'Ship of Fools'
  By Tim Savage July 16th, 2009
  Tim Savage, Deputy Director of the Nautilus Institute?s Seoul office, writes, ?In the short term, we are thus unlikely to see a rapid return to negotiations, or any kind of capitulation to pressure on the part of North Korea. Instead, we are likely in for a long period of containment and stalemate, while the surrounding nations wait to see the outcome of the ongoing succession saga in Pyongyang. The only problem with this approach is that North Korea -- as it showed once again with its recent volley of missile tests -- does not like to be ignored, and has several tools for getting attention.? The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Nautilus Institute. Readers should note that Nautilus seeks a diversity of views and opinions on contentious topics in order to identify common ground. II. Article by Tim Savage -?Too Much Importance Attached to 'Ship of Fools'? By Tim Savage The recent saga of the Kang Nam -- the North Korean vessel that led the U.S. Navy on a tour of the South China Sea before turning around and heading for home -- shows both the strengths and the limitations of U.N. Resolution 1874, which authorizes the inspection of North Korean vessels suspected of carrying materials for Weapons of Mass Destruction. Admiral Gary Roughead, the top American naval commander, pointed to the incident as an example of the effectiveness of the resolution. Certainly, the vessel did not unload whatever cargo it may have been carrying, and in that sense Roughead is right to term it a success. On the other hand, the United States may be breathing a sigh of relief that the ship did not continue to its final destination. Doing so would have set up a test of the resolution that the Obama administration is hoping to avoid. The Kang Nam was purported to be carrying small arms -- most likely AK-47s -- to Myanmar. As always with intelligence matters, it is not clear from the publicly available information how accurate this assessment is. Assuming it is true, however, such a shipment would not represent a serious proliferation threat. Moreover, these types of arms are explicitly excluded from Resolution 1874, although the resolution does require states to notify the Security Council of sales to (but not purchases from) North Korea of such weapons. [Resolution1874] [Arms sales] [Double standards] [US NK policy]

• Report: N. Korea Facing Worst Crisis Since 1994
  JULY 18, 2009 08:14 North Korea is facing its worst situation since the time of the death of its founder Kim Il Sung in 1994, the leading state-run think tank in South Korea said yesterday. The Korea Development Institute said in a report that North Korea is saddled with a string of problems, including the internal problems of supreme leader Kim Jong Il’s poor health and power succession and external matters of international sanctions and stalled inter-Korean relations.
  “When comprehensively considering the situation in North Korea, the North is facing a grave crisis comparable to that in 1994, when it was concurrently embroiled in its first nuclear crisis and saw leader Kim Il Sung die.” At the time, an estimated hundreds of thousands of North Koreans starved to death due to food shortages resulting from U.S. economic sanctions and a string of natural disasters. As a result, Pyongyang pressed its citizens to persevere and overcome their crisis through a “March of Struggle.”
  “The factor having the most direct impact on the North Korean economy is international economic sanctions on the North, while stalled inter-Korean relations are also affecting goods trade and entrusted production.” [Sanctions]
• 'N. Korea Facing Worst Economic Crisis'
  By Lee Hyo-sik Staff Reporter North Korea is now standing at the most critical juncture for its survival since its founding leader Kim Il-sung died in 1994, as it faces growing international sanctions for a series of nuclear and missile tests earlier this year, the state-run think tank here said Friday.
  According to the Bank of Korea (BOK), the North Korean economy expanded 3.7 percent in 2008 from a year earlier, larger than the South's 2.2 percent. The central bank said surging grain production as a result of good weather conditions and international aid boosted the secretive state's economic output. But it is expected to decline sharply this year. ``The North has been hit hard by the U.N. sanctions and shrinking inter-Korean trade this year. The problem is that ordinary North Korean citizens, not the ruling elite, are taking the full blunt of the worsening economic conditions,'' the KDI said. [Sanctions]
• KDI: NK Hit by International Economic Sanctions
  2009-07-17 13:39:13 A state-run think tank says North Korea's current economic situation is as bad as it was in 1994 amid the first North Korean nuclear crisis and the death of North Korean founder Kim Il-sung. The Korea Development Institute (KDI) made the remarks Friday, saying that the refusal of the non-North Korean participants of the six-way nuclear talks to recognize the North as a nuclear power has made it more difficult than ever to break the deadlock. KDI said resolving the North Korean nuclear problem will take time, since the leadership of the communist country is using the nuclear issue to achieve domestic political goals. The think tank added that the North Korean economy has been severely affected by economic sanctions imposed by the international community, following the North's latest nuclear test in May. [Sanctions]
• Seoul says N. Korea facing biggest crisis
  By Lee Jong-Heon UPI Correspondent Published: July 17, 2009 Seoul, South Korea — With toughening sanctions from the outside and growing political and economic uncertainties at home, North Korea is facing its worst crisis since the abrupt death of its national founder and the subsequent mass famine 15 years ago, South Korea's state-run think tank said on Friday.
  The research report cited international sanctions as the most threatening factor to the fate of the North's moribund (sic) economy. "The international community's sanctions will have the most immediate impact on the North Korean economy," it said. Toughened financial sanctions by the United States and its allies would pose serious damage to the North's foreign trade and further worsen its cash crunch, it said. [Sanctions] [Cliche] [Media]
• N. Korea faces worst crisis since 1994: report
  SEOUL, July 17 (Yonhap) -- North Korea faces the worst crisis in more than a decade since its founding father Kim Il-sung died in 1994, due to a protracted conflict with the international community over its nuclear ambitions, a report said Friday. The North will not have enough food to feed its people and its economy will decline in the second half of this year if Pyongyang fails to resolve the nuclear issue, according to the report by the Korea Development Institute (KDI), a South Korean state-run think tank.
  The KDI cited the renewed U.N. sanctions and strained inter-Korean relations as reasons for its bleak outlook for the North Korean economy in the second half. Uncertainties surrounding leader Kim Jong-il's health were also mentioned, amid rumors he has developed pancreatic cancer. "The international community's sanctions will have the most immediate impact on the North Korean economy," the KDI said, adding that the chilled relations between Seoul and Pyongyang will also seriously affect its trade. [Sanctions]
• Clinton Accuses N.Korea of 'Acting Out'
  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday accused North Korea of "acting out" like an unruly child. "What we've seen is this constant demand for attention. And maybe it's the mother in me or the experience that I've had with small children and unruly teenagers and people who are demanding attention -- don't give it to them, they don't deserve it, they are acting out," Clinton said in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America." [Tantrum] [US NK policy] [Bilateral]
• From armistice to peace
  Warm greetings from Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People! July 27 this year is the 56th anniversary of conclusion of armistice agreement in Korea. In order to ease tense situation, realize peace and security on the Korean peninsula it is necessary to establish reliable and durable peace mechanism. [Korea War events] (email from Pyongyang)
• U.S. Seeks Comprehensive Solution for N.Korea Nukes
  The United States is looking for a comprehensive solution to the North Korean nuclear problem instead of the step-by-step approach previously favored. The new approach was suggested by Kurt Campbell, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, who visited Seoul on Saturday. After meeting Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Yong-joon on Saturday, he told reporters, "If North Korea is prepared to take serious and irreversible steps, the U.S., South Korea, Japan, China and others will be able to put together a comprehensive package that would be attractive to North Korea." [Sequencing] [US NK policy]
• U.S., N.Korea Negotiate over Detained Journalists
  The U.S. and North Korea have started delicate negotiations over two American journalists who were detained and sentenced to hard labor in North Korea, an influential source in Washington said Sunday. The next three or four weeks will be crucial in deciding whether the two women can walk free. The U.S. House of Representatives intended last week to adopt a resolution urging the North to release reporters Euna Lee and Laura Ling, and the Senate intended to follow suit, but their plans have been postponed at the State Department's request, the source said. The State Department made the request to Congress because it fears that a resolution could anger the North at a time when the two countries have entered sensitive negotiations, the source added.
• Trial of American journalists
  Links to KCNA articles
• N. Korea's Hard-Labor Camps: On the Diplomatic Back Burner
  Interactive Map Explore North Korean Prison Camps North Korea's government says political prison camps don't exist, but high-resolution satellite images show otherwise. By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, July 20, 2009 SEOUL -- Images and accounts of the North Korean gulag become sharper, more harrowing and more accessible with each passing year. A distillation of testimony from survivors and former guards, newly published by the Korean Bar Association, details the daily lives of 200,000 political prisoners estimated to be in the camps: Eating a diet of mostly corn and salt, they lose their teeth, their gums turn black, their bones weaken and, as they age, they hunch over at the waist. Most work 12- to 15-hour days until they die of malnutrition-related illnesses, usually around the age of 50. Allowed just one set of clothes, they live and die in rags, without soap, socks, underclothes or sanitary napkins. The camps have never been visited by outsiders, so these accounts cannot be independently verified. But high-resolution satellite photographs, now accessible to anyone with an Internet connection, reveal vast labor camps in the mountains of North Korea. [Human rights] [Evidence] [Spin]
• Talks and Sanctions Are Ready for NK: Campbell
  The U.S. will press U.N.-mandated sanctions to punish Pyongyang for its nuclear and missile tests, but is also ready to hold talks with North Korea, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Saturday. "What we are trying to do is follow a two-track strategy," Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs, was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency. "Under the right circumstances, we'd be prepared to sit down with North Korea if they would abandon their nuclear ambitions," he said. [Sequencing] [US NK policy]
• North Korea focus of Asian conference
  By DENIS D. GRAY The Associated Press Friday, July 17, 2009; 9:47 PM BANGKOK -- The United States is expected to trumpet its comeback onto the Asian scene after years of neglect as a major security conference tackles the seemingly intractable issues of North Korea's nuclear threat and political repression in Myanmar. Asia's "two devils" will hold center stage at the annual Asian Regional Forum that begins Wednesday amid hopes that a united front could be forged among enough of the 27 forum members to exert meaningful pressure on North Korea and Myanmar. Terrorism may also feature, sparked by suicide bombings Friday at American-owned luxury hotels in Indonesia's capital Jakarta that left eight people dead and wounded more than 50 others. The bombings ended a four-year lull in attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation. "The presence of Asian countries, especially China, may help the U.S. communicate its concern more effectively to North Korea. Even if there is no breakthrough, this is a good opportunity to have a discussion that goes beyond condemnation," says Chaiwat Khamchoo, an international relations expert at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. The United States, represented by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, will join foreign ministers of Asian nations, plus Russia and the European Union. North Korea is sending a lower-level official to the meeting on the Thai resort island of Phuket. [US Global strategy] [ARF]
• U.S. sees tougher efforts toward N.K.
  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton indicated Wednesday that Washington had no plans to detour from its currently hawkish policies toward North Korea. "The long-term result, we believe, will be a tougher joint effort toward the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Clinton said of the discussions she has conducted so far with other partners in the negotiations for denuclearizing North Korea. Washington, along with Seoul and Tokyo, has led a campaign for not rewarding Pyongyang's bad behavior (sic). [US NK policy] [Bilateral] [Cliche]
• North Korea Entering a New Phase: ‘We Are Not Interested in the U.S. Anymore’
  By Amii Abe July 16th, 2009
  Amii Abe, Visiting Fellow at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, writes, “In summation, though North Korea has strong suspicions against the U.S. and has lost the enthusiasm to negotiate with Washington, they still need to talk with the U.S. at the end of the day… First of all, we need to pay attention not only to Kim Jong-Il or the next successor, but also to the hard-liners who affect decision-making in North Korea… Secondly, imposing new sanctions is necessary, but is not enough… to change the situation, the U.S. needs more fundamental action than ever before; to deal with the DPRK’s focus on the legacy of the Korean War.”
  Bilateral Talks Are the Ultimate Goal
  Through the experience of spending four days with the official, I also found that North Korea still believes that, in the end, they can achieve bilateral talks with the U.S. on an equal footing. With regard to the Obama Administration, the official predicted that President Obama might take the same line as did President Bush. This means that the U.S. would take a firm stance against North Korea at first. However, the more they adopt a hard line by imposing sanctions or simply ignoring Pyongyang and refusing direct engagement, as President Bush did, the more North Korea achieves time to improve their armed forces. Because of this predicted outcome, it was the official’s opinion that the Obama Administration will finally approach the DPRK for bilateral or multilateral talks, as President Bush did. Though this may be unpleasant for Americans to hear, it can also be seen that North Korea’s goal is still, ultimately, negotiations with the U.S. To my knowledge, the DPRK hasn’t established a goal to go to war against America. This connects to the last point, that though North Korea shows a strong stance, they are still afraid of the U.S. [NK US policy] [Bilateral] [Media]
• U.S. Preparing Scenario for a Future N.Korea
  The U.S. Defense Department is developing a scenario in preparation for a future North Korea, possibly without ailing leader Kim Jong-il, a senior department official indicated Wednesday. Michael Nacht, the assistant secretary of defense for global strategic affairs, on Wednesday told a hearing on weapons of mass destruction at the House Armed Services Committee that the department is developing a scenario for the future of North Korea. Nacht said Kim is sick and his youngest son and heir apparent is in an unstable position. Tension with the outside world over the past months is attributable to such domestic factors as well as external problems, he added. The U.S. administration has so far avoided mentioning Kim's health. Nacht's mention of a "scenario" shows that the U.S. military is getting a step closer to an operational plan that will go into action in case of a sudden change in North Korea. [Takeover] [Regime change] [Spin]
• S. Korea’s new defense plans stimulates speculation regarding joining MD
  While S. Korea concentrates on strengthening ground forces against N. Korean nuclear weapons, experts say purchasing SM-3 and PAC-3 missiles would meet a MD precondition » The drawing and textual descriptions depict possible defense responses of patrolling, tracking, intercepting, and protecting against various North Korea missile and nuclear threat scenarios. Criticism is surfacing that S. Korea’s planned defense measures against North Korean nuclear weapons and missiles, as revealed by the Ministry of Defense on Friday in its basic plan for defense reform, could be interpreted by surrounding nations like China as joining the U.S.-led Missile Defense (MD) system. [Missile defense] [Threat]
• Power shift in Obama’s North desk
  July 17, 2009 WASHINGTON - Key U.S. policymakers on North Korea from the previous U.S. government will be moved to another role or have been relegated from the frontline, as the Obama administration continued to give more power to new faces with a more aggressive approach to Pyongyang. Diplomatic sources in Washington said Kurt Tong will soon be replaced as the director of Korean Affairs at the State Department. Tong was named to the post last August on George W. Bush’s watch. Tong previously served as the director for Asian Economic Affairs at the National Security Council from 2006 to 2008. Tong is expected to be promoted to the U.S. Ambassador to Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, according to the sources. With Tong’s move, the State Department will have a new lineup of policymakers on Koreas. Kurt Campbell is the new assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Another source with knowledge of State Department affairs said James Steinberg, the deputy secretary of state, is overseeing all Korean issues, and Campbell, too, has been given more authority. The source added two familiar faces are gradually losing ground. Stephen Bosworth, U.S. ambassador to South Korea from 1997 to 2001, is the special American envoy to Pyongyang, and Sung Kim, head of Korean Affairs at the State Department during the Bush administration, is the special envoy for the six-party talks. The source said following a string of recent North Korean provocations, “Bosworth and Kim, the two figures handling negotiations with the North, have seen their roles diminished.” [US NK policy] [Continuity]
• Regional Overview: Old Challenges, New Approaches
  by Ralph A. Cossa and Brad Glosserman (The July 2009 Issue of Comparative Connections) Pyongyang reverted to form this quarter, reminding everyone that old challenges would not be easily or quickly negotiated away. Its attention-getting devices included a failed “satellite launch” (sic) and an apparently successful nuclear test, along with a promise to never return to the Six-Party Talks. At the Shangri-La Security Dialogue, Secretary of Defense Gates showed the Obama administration’s softer, gentler side while the Chinese representative demonstrated that the “Cold War mentality” lives on. [Satellite][US NK policy]
• Still Present Pasts: Korean Americans and the “Forgotten War”
  Still Present Pasts: Korean Americans and the “Forgotten War” is a multi-media exhibit of installation and performance art, documentary film and archival photographs, and oral histories that explores memories and legacies of the Korean War. [Korean War events]
• 'North Korea earns $2b from trade with Iran'  
  In order to implement effective sanctions against North Korea, China must block airline operations between North Korea and Iran, as Pyongyang has been earning more than $2 billion per year from trade with Tehran, a U.S. expert said. Niksche said that North Korea's scientists, technicians, missiles, missile parts and technical documents were being transported to Iran via air, and the U.S. government was aware of this. As Iran, Syria and Myanmar have become North Korea's three major customers, with Iran being the largest, China should stop providing fuel for aircrafts operating between the two countries, he said.
  Ted Calen Carpenter, Cato's vice president of defense and foreign policy studies, reportedly said at the debate session that China was hesitating to use its leverage against North Korea. Carpenter called for Washington's strategic shift to induce active cooperation from Beijing. Now was the time for collective negotiations and the United States must suggest serious talks with the North, he said. Carpenter said that Washington should suggest everything Pyongyang wants, including establishing diplomatic ties, exchange of ambassadors and replacing the Armistice Agreement with a peace treaty. In return, Washington should demand a complete, verifiable and irreversible abandonment of the North Korean nuclear program and such a proposal for collective negotiations would clearly show that China's ongoing negotiations with the North were ineffective, he said. [Trade] [Sanctions] [Sequencing]
• What is North Korea's game plan?
  By Aidan Foster-Carter Korea analyst
  Is Kim Jong-il sending a hard-line message or covering for internal strife? Even by its own shrill standards, North Korea's recent behaviour is hyper-militant. But why? Last month's launch of a long-range dual-use rocket - maybe a satellite, certainly a potential missile - prompted censure by the UN Security Council. North Korea must have expected this, having been similarly rebuked twice for missile and nuclear launches in 2006. Yet Pyongyang professed high dudgeon at what was in truth mild UN Security Council remonstrance: just a statement, not a full resolution. [NK US policy] [Media]
• North Korea: back at the brink?
  Hearing before the COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, June 11, 2009 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Time: 2:00 P.M. Place: 419 Dirksen Senate Building Presiding: Senator Kerry
  • Senator Kerry's Opening Statement
    
  • Senator Lugar's Opening Statement
    Witnesses: Panel 1:
  • The Honorable Stephen Bosworth
    Special Representative for North Korea Policy Department of State Washington, DC Panel 2:
  • The Honorable Evans Revere
    President The Korea Society New York, NY
  • Leon Sigal
    Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project Social Science Research Council Brooklyn, NY
  • Nancy Lindborg
    President Mercy Corps Washington, DC
  • Victor Cha
    CSIS Korea Chair DS Song Professor of Government and Asia Studies Georgetown University Washington, DC
  [US NK Policy]

• Obama ponders N. Korea showdown
  By Rupert Cornwell in Washington Tuesday, 26 May 2009 President Barack Obama is weighing a possible naval cordon sanitaire around North Korea as one means of ratcheting up sanctions, amid the fierce global criticism of this week’s nuclear and missile tests by the reclusive communist country.
  In fact, all these paths have been tried, and all in the past have failed. The Clinton administration in 1994 offered aid and other incentives to persuade Pyongyang to halt its nuclear programme, only for the latter to renege on the deal. The following Bush administration talked tough, branding the North a member of the “axis of evil”, but could not prevent it from throwing out UN weapons inspectors in late 2002, and conducting a first nuclear test four years later. By 2007, the Bush White House reversed course and reached an agreement whereby North Korea would dismantle its main nuclear plant, but Pyongyang reneged on that deal too. [Media] [Inversion] [Renege] [US NK negotiations]
• Journalists held in North Korea ask for pardon
  By SAMANTHA YOUNG The Associated Press Friday, July 10, 2009; 4:07 AM SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The sister of an American journalist sentenced with a co-worker to 12 years in a North Korean labor camp said that they're seeking a pardon as their only hope for freedom. Lisa Ling told The Associated Press on Thursday that her sister, Laura, made the plea during a 20-minute telephone call Tuesday. Meanwhile, a scholar who visited the North said in an interview published Friday that North Korea has delayed sending the two convicted journalists to a prison labor camp, in a possible attempt to seek talks with Washington on their release. "I heard from North Korean officials that the American journalists were doing fine at a guest house in Pyongyang," University of Georgia political scientist Han Park told South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper. Park, originally from South Korea, arrived Thursday in Seoul following a trip to Pyongyang. Lisa Ling said her sister called to say that she and fellow journalist Euna Lee had broken the law in North Korea when they were captured in March on the China-North Korean border. "She was very deliberate in saying they broke the law," Lisa Ling said in a phone interview before an evening vigil planned at the state Capitol. "Their only hope right now is to be pardoned."
• Text of Obama's news conference on Friday
  By The Associated Press The Associated Press Friday, July 10, 2009 5:26 PM    -- Text of President Barack Obama's news conference on Friday in L'Aquila, Italy, as provided by the White House:  
• Obama says war with N.K. not imminent   
  · From news reports U.S. President Barack Obama said Tuesday that he did not think any war was imminent with North Korea, the Associated Press reported. Speaking in a network interview while meeting with Russian leaders in Moscow, Obama was asked how precarious is the security situation in the wake of North Korea's nuclear tests and new sanctions as a result of them. The AP quoted Obama as saying in the CBS interview, "I don't think that any war is imminent with North Korea." He was also quoted as saying, "I think they understand that they would be overwhelmed in a serious military conflict with the United States." [Military option] [Inversion]
• Going Forward on North Korea with Kurt Campbell
  China Hand Thursday, July 09, 2009 Kim Jung Il has been very good to me. I have an article up on North Korea at Asia Times under the pen name Peter Lee, titled A convenient North Korean distraction. Kim Jung Il has also been very good to the United States and Japan, providing a conventional security threat that plays to America’s most conspicuous advantage and justification for continued involvement in Asian affairs: our unchallenged military pre-eminence. The point of the article, however, is that we won’t have Kim Jung Il to kick around forever, but we—especially the Japanese--don’t seem to be making contingency plans for what to do in Asia once the DPRK ceases to exist in its present form. The two money quotes from the article are: The North Korean crisis represents a collision of two anachronisms: the world's last Stalinist state versus a fading Cold War alliance ill-equipped to face the challenge of China, a burgeoning regional power determined to expand its influence through investment, trade and diplomacy and avoid confrontation on the United States' primary terms of advantage: military power. [US NK policy] [Threat] [China confrontation]
• A convenient North Korean distraction
  By Peter Lee United States President Barack Obama's Asian team is embarking on an effort to realign political forces in North Asia, draw Japan and South Korea closer to the United States, and undercut Chinese and Russian influence by exploiting North Korea's posturing. Washington's primary regional asset is also its weakest link: Japan. The North Korean crisis represents a collision of two anachronisms: the world's last Stalinist state versus a fading Cold War alliance ill-equipped to face the challenge of China, a burgeoning regional power determined to expand its influence through investment, trade and diplomacy and avoid confrontation on the United States' primary terms of advantage: military power [US NK policy] [Threat] [China confrontation]
• Tauscher, Campbell confirmed
  Thu, 06/25/2009 - 7:41pm Obama's nominee to be under secretary of state for arms control and international security, Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA), and his pick to be assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, Kurt Campbell, were confirmed tonight in a unanimous consent motion, a congressional source relays. Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman is still hanging for the moment. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) has put the Feltman nomination on hold to try to get the State Department to take action to make an Italian-born constituent eligible for relief under a Libyan fund established to compensate victims of allegedly Libyan-sponsored acts of terrorism, including the bombing of Rome's airport. The Campbell and Tauscher nominations were both previously the subject of "holds" by Senate Republicans that were lifted in the past day as the administration pushed for the nominees to get in place before Congress's July 4 break. So it's perhaps ironic that the last apparent hold on this batch of foreign-policy nominees is from a Democrat.
• Sending another “Jimmy Carter” to N. Korea
  Selig S. Harrison, Director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy
  North Korea is often accused of dishonoring the commitments it makes in negotiations. However, in North Korean eyes, it is the U.S. that has failed to live up to its promises. This is the main reason why military hard-liners have been able to take control of North Korean foreign policy in the past six months and justify an increasingly provocative series of nuclear and missile tests in internal policy debates. Kim Jong-il’s failing health and his reduced work schedule have made it easier for the hard-liners to consolidate control. Their strength is rooted in a cavalier U.S. disregard of its commitments that has vindicated their opposition to the 1994 Agreed Framework and the 2007 six-party denuclearization agreement. [US NK policy] [US NJK negotiations] [Renege]
• N. Korea using Malaysian bank to deal weapons with Myanmar: source
  By Sam Kim SEOUL, July 4 (Yonhap) -- North Korea sought payment through a bank in Malaysia for its suspected shipment of weapons to Myanmar that is being carried on a freighter tracked by the U.S. Navy, a source said Saturday. The visit by a U.S. envoy to Malaysia this weekend will focus on ways to cut off the payment transaction for the cargo from the bank in Malaysia to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, the source said. [Sanctions]
• What's Driving Pyongyang?
  By Scott Snyder
  July 7th, 2009 This article is available online at: http://www.nautilus.org/fora/security/09055Snyder.html Scott Snyder, Director of the Center for U.S.-Korea Policy at The Asia Foundation and a Senior Associate at Pacific Forum CSIS, writes, ?Obama administration must go beyond a focus on disciplining (sic) North Korea's leaders and offer a positive vision for the future of the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia that would clarify US expectations and intentions toward the region.? [US NK policy]
• USFK Stages Refugee Aid Exercise
  The U.S. Forces Korea is holding a multinational meeting and military exercise to provide humanitarian aid to refugees. The USFK has denied the exercise aims to prepare for a mass exodus from North Korea in the event of regime collapse, as speculation has it. USFK Command on Tuesday said the exercise simulates providing humanitarian aid to refugees and displaced persons. It will take place at the Dragon Hill Hotel in the Yongsan garrison in Seoul from Wednesday until Friday. This is the first time the USFK has ever hosted such a conference and waged such an exercise, which attracts public attention in connection with preparations for a sudden occurrence in North Korea and an expanded role of the USFK. In a press release, USFK Command said the conference aimed at promoting local military forces' understanding of, and capability to respond to, natural disasters. The USFK denied it envisages any sudden change in the North. [Takeover] [Spin]
• Sister: Journalist says she broke North Korean law
  The Associated Press Thursday, July 9, 2009; 2:54 AM SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The sister of an American journalist jailed in North Korea says the woman acknowledged breaking North Korean law during a recent phone call. Lisa Ling told KCRA-TV in Sacramento she spoke to her sister, Laura Ling, Tuesday around 10:30 p.m. Lisa Ling said Laura told her she and the other American journalist being held, Euna Lee, violated North Korean law and need the U.S. government's help in obtaining amnesty. Laura Ling and Lee were working for San Francisco-based Current TV, which former U.S. Vice President Al Gore helped found, when they were detained. They were sentenced last month to 12 years of hard labor for illegal entry and "hostile acts." Laura Ling said her sister, who suffers from an ulcer, said she regularly sees physicians and is OK.
• Rogue (sic) N.Korean Ship Returns Home
  A ship suspected by the U.S. of carrying weapons-related materials on Monday returned to North Korean territorial waters in the West Sea after days of being trailed by an American ship. Since leaving Nampo Port on June 17, the Kangnam had been under close surveillance in waters off China and Southeast Asia. The Kangnam spent 20 days on a slow chase without finding a port to stop at. Even Burma, the suspected destination of the ship, said it would search the vessel on port, and the Kangnam turned tail in the South China Sea near Vietnam on June 28. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said that the "humiliation" of the Kangnam was a tribute to implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1874. In an interview with ABC on Sunday, he said that the North Korean cargo ship had to turn back as no port permitted it to stop. The resolution encourages inspection of suspicious North Korean ships on the high seas and denying the North fuel and food aid until it returns to nuclear disarmament. The U.S. State Department had urged China and all ASEAN nations to actively implement the resolution, and the U.S. Defense Department had tracked the Kangnam around the clock with a KH-12 reconnaissance satellite, P-3C maritime patrol aircraft, and Aegis destroyer USS John McCain. A major achievement was persuading the Burmese junta, which has resumed friendly relations with North Korea, not to permit the Kangnam to stop there. Burma was apparently swayed by fears of hurting relations with Japan, which gives huge amounts of aid to Burma, and South Korea, which has invested in developing resources there. [Sanctions] [Aid weapon] [Media]
• North Koreans relocate out of Macau
  July 07, 2009 By Choi Hyung-kyu MACAU - Just a few years ago, more than a dozen North Korean companies were operating out of this administrative region of China. Macau was the center of North Korea’s foreign trade and financial transactions, and nearly 100 North Koreans lived there. The companies acquired luxurious goods for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and shipped out counterfeit $100 bills, known as “supernotes.” But a source in Macau said most North Koreans have relocated since the U.S. move to freeze about $25 million of North Korean assets at Macau’s Banco Delta Asia bank in 2005. The Treasury Department at the time considered the BDA a money laundering concern. [Toolkit] [Sanctions]
• What To Do about North Korea: Will Sanctions Work?
  by Stephan Haggard, and Marcus Noland, Peterson Institute for International Economics
  Op-ed in the Oriental Economist July 3, 2009 On June 12, 2009, in response to North Korea's second nuclear test, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) imposed additional economic sanctions via UNSC Resolution 1874. This measure is politically significant, particularly in signaling the changing attitude of Beijing. However, it is highly unlikely that the sanctions by themselves will have any immediate effect on North Korea's nuclear program or on the increasing threat of proliferation. Sanctions need to be coupled with a nuanced policy that includes a strongly stated preference for a negotiated solution as well as defensive measures, of which the sanctions are only one part. Proliferation can be impeded. However, elimination of the North Korean nuclear weapons capability is likely to require a regime change in Pyongyang. [US NK policy] [Regime change][Sanctions]
• Obama’s North Korea policy and the June 15 South-North Joint Declaration
  Guest Author: Chung-in Moon, Yonsei University, Seoul. July 5th, 2009
  At the historic North-South summit in Pyongyang on June 15, 2000, there was a sense that lasting peace on the Korean peninsula lay just around the corner. I still cherish that moment when I was witness to a foundation of mutual trust being built through the expansion of cooperation and exchange between the two countries. The dismantling of the Cold War structure that had haunted the peninsula for decades never seemed more achievable. As we reach the ninth anniversary of that hopeful event, the Korean peninsula is caught by a dramatically different vision, one in which the hard-earned progress of recent history has unraveled and left us worse off than where we began. Photo from the Embassy of the Republic of Korea to the United States Photo from the Embassy of the Republic of Korea to the United States Given the success of the Clinton years and the diplomatic posture promised by President Obama, I anticipated that the new administration would adopt a more progressive policy towards North Korea based on the Clinton-Kim Dae-jung model. Yet, a number of major domestic and international issues including the economic crisis, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, and Palestine rendered North Korea a low policy priority for the Obama Administration. That was until the April 5 rocket launch. [US NK policy] [Continuity]
• Of North Korea; Lebanon's Vote; Irish Shame
  (Posted on Thu, 2 Jul 2009 18:07:18 -0400) Dispatches From The Edge By Conn Hallinan
  Most Americans think of North Korea as a nation of belligerent crazy people with a political succession system more akin to the 15th century than the 21st. Indeed, it is a repressive place, with a bizarre personality cult, but the U.S., Japan, and South Korea share much of the blame for the current crisis over nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. A little history. In June of last year, North Korea dutifully carried out "Phase Two" of the 2007 Six-Party talks by giving China the details of its plutonium program. In a separate agreement with the U.S., Pyongyang agreed to disclose its uranium enrichment program and any technology proliferation to other countries. In turn, the U.S. would take North Korea off its "state sponsor of terrorism" list. However, under pressure from the right-wing governments of Japan and South Korea, the Bush Administration moved the goal posts and demanded strict verification procedures before it would fulfill its end of the bargain. Verification, however, was not part of Phase Two, as then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted in a speech to the Heritage Foundation last year. "What we've done, in a sense, is to move up issues that were to be taken up in Phase Three, like verification, like access to the reactor, into Phase Two." The North Korea responded by halting the dismantlement of its plutonium-producing Yongbyon reactor. [US NK Policy]
• Who is the New North Korea Human Rights Envoy?
  Robert King (file photo) Robert King, who has been designated as the Barack Obama administration's North Korea Human Rights Special Envoy, was chief secretary to former House Foreign Relations Committee chairman Tom Lantos. King assisted Lantos for 25 years until Lantos' death in February last year and participated in foreign policy issues at the House of Representatives. [Manipulation] [Continuity]
• Is NK the Biggest Threat to Americans?
  By Kim Se-jeong Staff Reporter North Korea has succeeded in getting the attention of the United States as a poll released Thursday said that Americans now consider the communist country its biggest threat. The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey Thursday showed that North Korea is ``arguably the biggest threat to the U.S. in the mind of Americans." Director of the polling Keating Holland was quoted as saying, ``Fifty-two percent say that North Korea is a very serious threat, higher than the 43 percent who feel that way about Iran and much higher than the 20 percent who feel that way about China or the 11 percent who think Russia threatens the U.S."
  The result came on the same day North Korea test-fired a set of four short-range missiles off its east coast (sic). [Threat] [Bizarre]
• Is N.Korean Mystery Ship a Trap for Obama?
  The North Korean vessel Kangnam, which has been under suspicion of transporting weapons materials to Burma, has changed course on Sunday and headed north and back the way it came, AP reported Tuesday quoting Pentagon and other U.S. government sources. The sources said the Kangnam was 400 km south of Hong Kong as of Tuesday and they did not know why the ship suddenly changed course after consistently sailing south, tracked by the U.S. Navy since it left the North Korean port of Nampo on June 17. It was unclear whether the Kangnam had grown uneasy about being tracked by the U.S. ship, where its new destination was and whether it was sailing to a port to refuel. Meanwhile, the New York Times, calling the Kangnam's journey "the Cruise to Nowhere," on Wednesday said there are calls within the White House to approach the ship with caution. White House officials are starting to believe that it may be out on "a fishing expedition" ordered by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il "in hopes that the new American president will be his first catch." One high-ranking official in the Barack Obama administration said officials were cautious of the risks of the contents of the boat turning out to be sea bass, or ping-pong balls, following heightened tensions with the U.S. government as it seeks cooperation from various countries in searching the ship. "Members of Mr. Obama's team who served in the Clinton administration remember past embarrassments, including the interception of a Chinese ship suspected of carrying chemical precursors in the early 1990s. When the ship was finally cornered, the cargo turned out to be benign," the NYT said. Officials ranging from Vice President Joe Biden to the deputy secretary of state, James Steinberg, have cautioned the administration to go slow lest the U.S. fall into North Korea's trap. Obama has tried to distinguish himself from former president George W. Bush and stressed that there will be no measures taken that go beyond the authority mandated by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874. [Resolution1874] [Incompetence] [NK China]
• N.Korea 'Trafficking in Slave Labor'
  The North Korean government is directly engaged in the trafficking of slave labor, claimed Luis de Baca, the director of the U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, on Wednesday. He was peaking at a video press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul. He said the regime is sending North Koreans overseas to work under exploitative contracts with Southeast Asian, Eastern European and Middle Eastern nations.
  In the report, North Korea ranks Tier 3, the lowest, alongside Iran, Malaysia (sic), Saudi Arabia and Sudan. [Manipulation] [Evidence] [Labour] [Toolkit] [Sanctions] [Remittances]
• U.S. plans coordinated response if North Korea fires missile
  By Margaret Talev and Steven Thomma | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON — If North Korea fires a missile at Hawaii on or around the July Fourth holiday, as Japanese reports have warned, the U.S. plans a measured response in coordination with Russia, China, Japan and South Korea. In an exclusive interview with McClatchy, White House National Security Adviser James L. Jones said of North Korea and its erratic (sic) communist dictator Kim Jong Il: "Our reaction will be dependent on what it is they do over the next few days, few weeks, whatever it is." [Cliche]
• U.S. Pursues Firms With Ties to North Korea
  By REUTERS Published: June 30, 2009 WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The United States said Tuesday that it had cracked down on companies involved in North Korea’s missile program and in purchases of equipment that could be used in a nuclear weapons program. The Treasury and State Departments said they had singled out Hong Kong Electronics of Iran and Namchongang Trading Corporation of North Korea under an executive order that would freeze any American assets and ban American companies from dealing with them. It was not immediately clear if either company had American assets, but the move appeared aimed at isolating them from other countries’ banks and corporations that may resist dealing with them for fear of running afoul of American laws. [Sanctions]
• Second Thoughts on North Korea’s Inscrutable(sic) Ship
  By DAVID E. SANGER Published: June 30, 2009 Inside the White House, they are beginning to call it “The Cruise to Nowhere.” For more than two weeks now, White House officials have been receiving frequent updates on a rusting North Korean ship, the Kang Nam 1, as it makes its way dead-slow across the South China Sea. Earlier this month, Mr. Obama’s aides thought the aging hulk — with its long rap sheet for surreptitious deliveries of missiles and arms — would be the first test of a United Nations Security Council resolution giving countries the right to hail suspect shipments, and order them to a nearby port for inspection. But now some top officials in the Obama administration are beginning to wonder whether Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader, ordered the Kang Nam 1 out on a fishing expedition — in hopes that a new American president will be his first catch. “The whole thing just doesn’t add up,” said one senior administration official who has been tracking the cargo ship’s lazy summer journey. “My worry is that we make a big demand about seeing the cargo, and then there’s a tense standoff, and when it’s all over we discover that old man Kim set us up to look like George Bush searching for nonexistent W.M.D.” [Resolution1874] [Incompetence]
• Putting Together the North Korea Puzzle
  By Kongdan Oh and Ralph Hassig June 2009 Kongdan Oh is a Research Staff Member at the Institute for Defense Analyses and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Ralph Hassig is a Washington-based consultant on North Korea and an Adjunct Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland University College. Their book, The Hidden People of North Korea, will be published later this year. North Korea has always been known as a troublesome state, but lately its antics have alienated even its strongest supporters. At the same time, there is good reason to believe that the dictator Kim Jong-il is seriously ill and hurriedly trying to arrange a succession to one of his sons. Could these external and internal events be related, and will the old pattern of North Korean provocations answered by foreign tolerance and reward continue? [US NK policy] [Inversion]
• North Korea: “Sanity” at the Brink
  by Michael Parenti . Global Research, June 20, 2009
  Nations that chart a self-defining course, seeking to use their land, labor, natural resources, and markets as they see fit, free from the smothering embrace of the US corporate global order, frequently become a target of defamation. Their leaders often have their moral sanity called into question by US officials and US media, as has been the case at one time or another with Castro, Noriega, Ortega, Qaddafi, Aristide, Milosevic, Saddam Hussein, Hugo Chavez, and others. So it comes as no surprise that the rulers of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) have been routinely described as mentally unbalanced by our policymakers and pundits. Senior Defense Department officials refer to the DPRK as a country "not of this planet," led by "dysfunctional" autocrats. One government official, quoted in the New York Times, wondered aloud "if they are really totally crazy." The New Yorker magazine called them "balmy," and late-night TV host David Letterman got into the act by labeling Kim Jong-il a "madman maniac." [NK US policy] [Cliché]
• N.Korea's Arms Export Routes Getting Harder to Track
  North Korea has sought various legal and illegal ways to dodge the tightening net of the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative for the past few years, a government source said Sunday. South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies believe the North exported some US$800 million worth of weapons including missiles, submarines, multi launch rockets and field artillery to Iran, Syria and Burma between 2000 and last year. Until the 1990s, such exports were relatively easy for the West to track since the North exported finished goods directly to recipients with its own cargo vessels. But tighter controls by the international community of weapons of mass destruction (sic) and restraints on the North's arms industry meant Pyongyang had to look for more devious ways. [PSI] [Arms sales] [Legality] [Disinformation] [Media]

• U.N. sanctions hold little sway on N. Korea: U.S. economist
  By Kim Eun-jung SEOUL, June 25 (Yonhap) -- New U.N. sanctions on North Korea for its second nuclear test will have little impact on the country's economy, as China and the North's other major trading partners are reluctant to seriously enforce them, a U.S. scholar said Thursday. Tough U.N. responses to Pyongyang's first nuclear test in 2006 did little to curb the communist country's atomic drive, and the international community should now leave a dialogue channel open with the North, said Stephan Haggard, a professor at the University of California San Diego. "The last sanction didn't have any effect on North Korea, and I am skeptical of the current one," Haggard said at a Seoul forum hosted by the Institute of Far Eastern Studies, a leading think tank on North Korea issues. "The trade between North Korea and China showed no difference during the first nuclear test in 2006, even when the U.N. Security Council's Resolution 1718 was still effective," he said. [Sanctions]
• New North Korea Sanctions Team Formed
  Updated 4:28 p.m. By Michael D. Shear and Glenn Kessler The White House is ramping up its efforts to enforce sanctions against North Korea by forming a new interagency team to coordinate U.S. actions with other nations, senior administration officials said today. The new team will be led by former ambassador to Bolivia Philip S. Goldberg, who is slated to leave for China in the near future as the U.S seeks concerted action to stop the North Korean regime from developing nuclear weapons. "There is a broad consensus about the need to have a focused and engaged effort to see that these sanctions are implemented ... and that we're sharing information with each other," one official said, speaking on background. U.S. officials described the new group as a way to focus the administration more squarely on implementation of the latest sanctions, which were approved by the United Nations in the wake of North Korea's nuclear test last month. The officials said they are hoping the group -- with representatives from the State Department, the White House, the National Security Agency, Treasury and others -- will help "shine a spotlight" on the actions of the regime. [Sanctions] [Toolkit]
• US will not use force to inspect NKorean ship
  By KWANG-TAE KIM The Associated Press Friday, June 26, 2009; 10:27 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- The United States will not use force to inspect a North Korean ship suspected of carrying banned goods, an American official was quoted as saying Friday.
  Flournoy said Friday that Washington has ruled the use military force to inspect the North Korean freighter. "The U.N. resolution lays out a regime that has a very clear set of steps," Flournoy said, according to the Yonhap news agency. "I want to be very clear ... This is not a resolution that sponsors, that authorizes use of force for interdiction." [Resolution1874] [Legality] [PSI]
• NKorean state media news available on Twitter
  By KWANG-TAE KIM The Associated Press Friday, June 26, 2009; 1:41 PM SEOUL, South Korea -- It's best known as the place to tell millions what you had for breakfast. But dispatches from North Korea's state news agency have begun popping up on Twitter.
• U.S. monitoring several N.K. ships
  From news reports The United States said Wednesday it is closely monitoring several North Korean ships allegedly carrying weapons of mass destruction for possible proliferation, although it was tailing only one at the moment, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency yesterday. "We have been interested in this one ship, but we've been interested in, frankly, multiple ships," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said, but added, "It's the only ship that we have tracked like this." Morrell was talking about the Kang Nam, the North Korean ship that the U.S. military has been shadowing since its departure from a North Korean port early last week, possibly on its way to Myanmar. He would not discuss where the ship was headed. "I'm not going to get into where it is and where it's going," he said. "You know, obviously we have some notions of that, but I don't think it's productive for us to discuss it." It is illegal under international law to inspect cargo on the high seas unless the flag state consents. [Resolution1874] [Legality]
• Hardline U.S. Senator Blocks Appointment Over N.Korea
  The U.S. State Department is having a hard time due to Senator Sam Brownback, a Republican hardliner on North Korea, who is stalling the confirmation of various candidates for State Department posts who are not to his liking. Currently Brownback is blocking the confirmation of Kurt Campbell as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs. Last year, he stalled the confirmation of U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Kathleen Stephens for more than two months. Brownback is stalling the approval process for Campbell to exercise influence on the State Department's making of North Korea policies, just as he did during the confirmation process for Stephens.
  Brownback (52), a third-term senator and member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations and Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, has little to do with foreign and security issues, but he is the senator who takes the closest interest in North Korean issues and enthusiastically pursues for related policies in the Senate. Converted to Catholicism in 2002, he began taking interest in North Korean human rights abuses based on his religious faith. He played a decisive role in legislating the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, which opened the way for North Korean refugees to seek asylum in the U.S. In a statement on Tuesday, he said North should be designated a jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern, and the most stringent special measures under the Patriot Act should be taken against it. Brownback reportedly plans to run for Kansas governor and eventually for U.S. president.
• N.Korean Cargo Ship 'Approaching Moment of Truth'
  The North Korean cargo ship Kangnam that is being tracked by a U.S. destroyer due to suspicions that it carries weapons is steaming toward the moment of truth. "The moment is approaching when the North Korea sanctions framework led by the U.S. and North Korean provocations collide," a government official said Thursday. Chances are the moment will come when the ship pulls into port, he added.
  If the ship is searched and illegal weapons are found, "the U.S. will achieve a diplomatic coup and will be able to tighten sanctions against the North. If not, resistance will from China and other countries will grow and international cooperation in punishing Pyongyang will falter," speculated Kim Sung-han, a professor at Korea University. [Resolution1874]
• Pyongyang Mass Rally Marks Day of Struggle against U.S. Imperialism
  Pyongyang, June 25 (KCNA) -- A Pyongyang mass rally was held at Kim Il Sung Square Thursday on the occasion of "June 25, the day of the struggle against U.S. imperialism." Ri Yong Mu, Kim Il Chol, Kim Ki Nam, Yang Hyong Sop and others and the chairman of a friendly party were among more than 100,000 people from all walks of life and youth and students and overseas compatriots present at the mass rally. On hand were diplomatic envoys of different countries and staff members of foreign embassies here and foreign guests.
• Ever-Growing Danger of War
  Pyongyang, June 25 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists had started the Korean war in an attempt to realize their wild dream of domination over the whole of Korea on June 25, 1950, just 59 years ago. They had mobilized their aggression troops, the south Korean puppet army and armed forces of their 15 satellite countries in the war to topple the newly founded DPRK in the cradle. They perpetrated the most brutal massacre and indiscriminate destruction unprecedented in the world history of war. However they could neither conquer nor kneel down the Korean people who turned out with do-or-die spirit to defend the sovereignty and dignity of the DPRK. More than half a century has passed since the ceasefire. But today the danger of another war against the DPRK is increasing day by day owing to the U.S. imperialists. The United States has escalated the moves to perpetuate the national division and provoke another war of aggression against the north while strengthening military occupation of south Korea. It has converted south Korea into the biggest military base, a nuclear arsenal in the Far East by reinforcing armed forces in a systematic way in gross violation of the Korean Armistice Agreement. And it has frantically launched military exercises such as Team Spirit joint military exercises, RSOI, Foal Eagle and RIMPAC joint military exercises. [US NK policy] [Joint US military][Korea War]
• ‘A Good Old-Fashioned Divorce’
  June 25, 2009, 11:25 am If you’re planning a trip to North Korea, don’t go. The North Koreans are accusing us of trying to start another war, and they’re saying that they will wipe us out if we do. They’re probably kidding though, right? They have a good sense of humor about this sort of stuff. I think North Korea would be friendlier to us if we start calling them NoKo. [Media] [Bizarre]
• North Korea and the Importance of Arms Control
  By Donald G. Gross June 25th, 2009
  Donald G. Gross, former counselor of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, writes, “The administration can strongly oppose nuclear proliferation while still upholding the principles of arms control that have helped keep America safe for more than a generation. A policy approach that preserves an honored place for arms control negotiations is in the best interests of the United States and its allies, now and in the future.”
  Approximately four weeks after North Korea’s nuclear test, the Obama administration has adopted the hard line approach to Pyongyang advocated by former Vice President Dick Cheney and his conservative allies. Sadly, the administration’s new policy rejects the fundamental premises of arms control that have guided the U.S. government since the early 1970s. The administration’s decision to confront North Korea’s cargo ships on the open seas and demand inspections is a risky one – which is why President George W. Bush refused to authorize it despite pressure from the Republican right-wing. A U.S. Navy-enforced inspection regime comes close to establishing a naval blockade, long recognized in international law as an act of war [US NK policy] [Continuity] [PSI] [Legality] [Sequencing]
• Obama extends U.S. sanctions on N. Korea
  By Hwang Doo-hyong WASHINGTON, June 24 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday extended his country's sanctions on North Korea amid tightening international pressure on the North following its recent nuclear test and other provocations. The sanctions, which extend restrictions on commerce with North Korea for another year under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Trading With the Enemy Act, come after the U.N. Security Council slapped financial sanctions, an overall arms embargo and sea, air and land cargo inspections on the reclusive communist state for its May 25 nuclear test, the second of its kind after one in 2006.
• Fake U.S. Bonds 'Manufactured in N.Korea'
  It appears North Korea is printing counterfeit U.S. bonds. An Italian newspaper reports a recent mysterious case involving US$134.5 billion (sic) worth of counterfeit bonds has a North Korea connection. Earlier this month two Japanese nationals were caught in Italy allegedly trying to smuggle the bonds into Switzerland. Il Messaggero says the fake bonds may have been manufactured in North Korea since the two men are North Korean agents and are believed to have been seeking to purchase weapons. Arirang News / Jun. 24, 2009 11:54 KST [Toolkit] [Counterfeiting]
• N.Korea 'Helping Burma with WMD'
  North Korea is helping Burma with the acquisition of so-called weapons of mass destruction, with the U.S. claiming that the North Korean ship Kangnam is headed for the Southeast Asian country. The Burmese junta "has bought technologies on the open market that are potentially usable in a nuclear program, and North Korean arms companies involved in the nuclear trade have become active" in Burma, the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday said quoting speculation by U.S., Asian and UN officials. "North Korea has used [Burmese] ports and airstrips to transfer arms and contraband to third countries, including Iran," the daily claimed. [Toolkit] [Arms sales]
• Anniversary of Korea War
  Dear friends, Warm greetings from Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People!
  As you know June 25 is the day of Korean War provoked by the US 59 years ago.
  The United States attempted to invade our country for long time to hold over the Korea for its bridgehead to dominate the Asia and world. The US aggression on Korea spans more than 140 years. The intrusion of the US ship “General Sherman” into River Taedong in mid August 1866 was its start. The Americans who had intruded as far as to the vicinity of the walled city of Pyongyang along the river aboard the “General Sherman”, murdered Koreans and stripped them of their property, raining bullets and shells upon them, far from acceding to the demand of the Korean side for their immediate getting out of Korea. Exasperated at this, people of Pyongyang sent the ship to the bottom of the river by a clever piece of fire attack tactics. [Korea War cause]
• Dealing with North Korea's Tests
  Wade Huntley | June 19, 2009 North Korea has conducted its second nuclear test. The big question now is whether the world's response will recognize the unique features of this most recent intensification of the crisis, and so effectively answer Pyongyang's latest challenge to global nuclear stability and the embryonic disarmament renaissance. On the surface many aspects of recent developments are familiar. The May nuclear test, the April long-range missile test (a.k.a. satellite launch), and Pyongyang's announced withdrawal from the Six Party Talks process resemble numerous previous instances of North Korea undertaking belligerent acts apparently to foment crisis as a tactic of coercive diplomacy. Such brinkmanship is to be expected, given that it has worked for Pyongyang in the past. As a notable example, North Korea's first nuclear test in October 2006 generated international outrage and the most significant UN sanctions on North Korea since the Korean War. But it also stimulated negotiations and led mere months later to the February 2007 agreement to implement North Korea's denuclearization. [US NK Policy] [Test]
• Pearl Harbor, Part II?
  by John Feffer | Tuesday, June 23, 2009 Vol. 4, No. 25 The war in Afghanistan is ugly. The conflict in Iraq is still seething. The prospect of Pakistan's collapse is terrifying. But the real nightmare scenario, or so the media headlines suggest, involves North Korea. Its leader is wacko. It's adding to its nuclear arsenal. It's making preparations for a missile launch aimed at Hawaii. The Japanese attacked us 68 years ago. The Pentagon is bracing for Pearl Harbor, part II. This is serious stuff. The Taliban might be crazy, but they don't have nukes and we don't expect them to bomb Waikiki any time soon. Never fear: the Obama administration has crafted a robust response to North Korea. We pushed through a UN resolution, with Chinese and Russian support, that ups the sanctions against Pyongyang and authorizes the naval interdiction of North Korean vessels suspected of delivering weapons or other suspicious materials. We sat down with South Korean leader Lee Myung-bak and reaffirmed our willingness to retaliate with nuclear weapons if the South is attacked. We've beefed up our defenses in Hawaii. We're currently tailing a North Korean ship as it heads toward Burma. In his eagerness to show that he has the strength of will to confront a nuclear bully, President Barack Obama hopes to dispel any illusions — among conservatives here, among the leadership in North Korea — that he's a "cut-and-run" kind of guy. He can multitask. He can talk and prepare for war at the same time. This guy can take care of pesky flies like North Korea. I'm not sure who's giving the president his advice on North Korea. But it's all wrong. His show of "resolve" has only made matters worse. [UNUS] {US NK policy]
• U.S. Hoping to Get China on Side over N.Korea
  The United States is trying to get China on side in enforcing sanctions under the latest UN Security Council resolution against North Korea. Washington is contemplating sending former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who has close ties to China, or someone of similar caliber. It feels Beijing is the key to ensuring the sanctions are effective since China accounts for 70 percent of North Korea's trade. "The U.S. wants to show that international cooperation can enforce strong sanctions against North Korea even for the purpose of bringing the North back to the negotiation table later," a U.S. official said Sunday. Washington is convinced that persuasion of China is a top priority if Resolution 1874 is not to go the way of the previous resolution, which petered out in subsequent nuclear negotiations with the North. Henry Kissinger (file photo) Henry Kissinger (file photo) ? Heavyweight Envoy
  In a number of South Korean-U.S. meetings during the Seoul-Washington summit last week, the U.S. explained it wants to send a heavyweight like Kissinger, who is regarded as the best possible envoy to Beijing [US NK policy] [NK China]
• Dispatching S. Korean troops to Afganistan made it on South Korea-U.S. summit‘s agenda
  LFP spokesperson reconfirms the fact after Cheong Wa Dae denies the exchange It was confirmed belatedly Sunday South Korea President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President Barack Obama discussed the dispatch of South Korean troops to Afghanistan during the summit held in Washington. However, the contents of the discussion have not yet been confirmed. According to Park Sun-young, the spokesperson of opposition Liberty Forward Party (LFP), President Lee Myung-bak reported to LFP Chairperson Lee Hoi-chang and ruling Grand National Party Chairperson Park Hee-tae that US President Barack Obama had requested that South Korea voluntarily send troops to Afghanistan. Park said that Lee had responded by saying he would consider sending troops as part of a peacekeeping force. [Tribute]
• Revealing the truth about S. Korea-U.S. summit talks regarding Afghanistan
  [Editorial] It has been revealed that the Cheong Wa Dae’s (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) announcement that it did not discuss the issue of sending troops to Afghanistan during the June 16 South Korea-U.S. summit was not true. The office of Liberty Forward Party leader Lee Hoi-chang, who attended a breakfast meeting with President Lee Myung-bak, said President Lee explained that U.S. President Barack Obama had requested that South Korea voluntarily send troops to Afghanistan, and that he replied by saying he would consider sending troops as part of the peacekeeping force. When this account was made public, a Cheong Wa Dae official denied the course of the exchange, and instead reported that Obama had said it was not appropriate to ask South Korea to send troops given the current political climate, but indicated it would be nice if South Korea decided to send troops on its own accord. The official said Lee responded by saying he thought South Korea could expand its peace and reconstruction projects. The official said the point of Obama’s statement was that he could not demand South Korea send troops, and accordingly, the issue of sending troops was not officially discussed. [Tribute]
• The Obama administration and North Korea: Pyongyang’s aims and Washington’s dilemmas
  Posted Date : 2009-06-22 (IFES Forum No. 09-6-22-1) by B. C. Koh (Professor, UNKS, Seoul) Contrary to widespread expectations, the advent of the Obama administration in Washington failed to bring about any notable change for the better in U.S.-DPRK relations, which had entered a stalemate in the waning days of the George W. Bush administration. On the contrary, the bilateral relations have markedly deteriorated since the North’s rocket launch on April 5 and second nuclear test on May 25. Pyongyang’s Aims These two events had the effect of thrusting North Korea to the top of the Obama administration’s foreign policy agenda before it was really ready -- that is, his nominee for a top policy-making position in the State Department was still awaiting confirmation by the Senate. Among Pyongyang’s probable aims, getting Washington’s attention may have loomed large. For Obama’s campaign slogan of change in internal and external policies alike may have raised the North’s expectations [Continuity] [US NK policy] [NK US Policy]
• Kim Jong Il''s impatience & Obama''s indifference after North Korea''s second nuclear test
  Posted Date : 2009-06-03 (IFES Forum No. 09-6-3-1) by Keun-sik Kim (Professor, Dept. of Political Science, Kyungnam University) At long last, North Korea has announced its second nuclear test. Following April’s rocket launch, Washington issued a principled response, which North Korea strongly refuted, and Six-Party Talks, designed to resolve the North’s nuclear issue, became practically useless as expectations of additional nuclear testing grew. After the rocket launch, the North’s belligerence escalated to a higher level, pressuring the Obama administration. Immediately after the statement by the president of the UN Security Council, North Korea announced that it would not participate in Six-Party Talks, suspending dialog, while the decision to include North Korean companies to the list of sanctions against the North led Pyongyang to announce its intent to restart reprocessing of spent fuel rods and carry out addition nuclear testing. In addition, the North’s foreign ministry announced that the North saw no political difference between the Obama administration and the previous Bush government. There is no doubt that North Korea’s next step was to expect no amicable approach by the United States, and therefore conclude that it was time for an additional nuclear test in order to pressure the Obama administration. [US NK policy] [NK US Policy]
• KCNA Detailed Report on Truth about Crimes Committed by American Journalists
  Pyongyang, June 16 (KCNA) -- The Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday released a detailed report laying bare the facts about the crimes committed by the American journalists who were arrested for having illegally trespassed into the border of the DPRK and committed hostile acts against it for which they were tried. According to it, at dawn of March 17 unidentified two men and two women covertly crossed the River Tuman to intrude into its bank of the DPRK side in Kangan-ri, Onsong County, North Hamgyong Province. The two women were arrested on the spot. The arrestees were confirmed to be Chinese-American Laura Ling, 32, correspondent of the Current TV, and south Korean-American Seung-Un Lee, 36, editor of the Current TV.
  The investigation proved that the intruders crossed the border and committed the crime for the purpose of making animation files to be used for an anti-DPRK smear campaign over its human rights issue.
  At the trial the accused admitted that what they did were criminal acts committed, prompted by the political motive to isolate and stifle the socialist system of the DPRK by faking up moving images aimed at falsifying its human rights performance and hurling slanders and calumnies at it. [Media] [Softwar]
• North Korea Says Journalists Admitted Crimes
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: June 16, 2009 Two American journalists sentenced last week to long prison terms in North Korean labor camps admitted during their trial that they crossed into North Korea illegally, and confessed to committing their crimes out of political motives, the North’s official news agency reported on Tuesday. The report by the state-run Korea Central News Agency represented the North Korean government’s most detailed account to date of the shadowy circumstances surrounding the arrest, trial and conviction of Laura Ling, 36, and Euna Lee, 32, both journalists for San Francisco-based Current TV. North Korea sentenced the journalists to 12 years of hard labor on charges of illegal entry and committing hostile acts, dismissing calls for clemency from the women’s families, the United States and other governments. It was unclear why the news agency released the information on Tuesday. The United Nations Security Council passed an enhanced package of sanctions against the isolated nation on Friday in response to its second underground nuclear test in three years, as well as repeated missile launchings. According to Tuesday’s report, the journalists were detained on the North Korean side of the Tumen River, which serves as part of the boundary between China and North Korea. The Tumen has been used for years by North Korean refugees defecting across the border. Unlike the swift and deep Yalu River, which runs along most of the border between the countries, the Tumen is shallow and narrow, and is easily crossed in spots on foot or by swimming. The KCNA report said that the women’s own confiscated video indicated that they crossed the river illegally. It also said that the women had admitted to fabricating some aspects of their video in order to “defile” the government’s human rights record. [Softwar]
• Test Looms as U.S. Tracks North Korean Ship
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: June 21, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — A North Korean ship shadowed by an American Navy destroyer and possibly heading toward Myanmar on Sunday could pose the first test of how far the United States and its allies will go under a new United Nations resolution to stop the North’s military shipments.
  The United States began tracking the ship, the 2,000-ton freighter Kang Nam, after it left Nampo, a port near Pyongyang, the North’s capital, on Wednesday. Pentagon officials have said they suspect the ship is carrying prohibited materials, but they have declined to say where it may be headed. A South Korean cable news network, YTN, on Sunday quoted an unidentified intelligence source as saying that Myanmar was the destination of the freighter, which may be carrying missile components. [PSI] [Resolution1874]
• Interview with Hillary Rodham Clinton
  Following are key portions of an exclusive interview Tuesday with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton by Yoichi Funabashi, editor in chief of The Asahi Shimbun. Question: Secretary Clinton, thank you very much for coming. We really appreciate you sharing your precious time and thoughts with us. Our first question is about North Korea. What would you say is the biggest difference between your administration's policy toward North Korea, particularly with regard to the nuclear issue, and the previous Bush administration's policy? Answer: Well, the previous administration's policy changed, as you know, over time. And I think the ending policy, that we had to engage in the six-party talks and even bilaterally with North Korea, is where they should have started, because I think that is exactly what we must do ... and that we have to work closely with the other partners, particularly Japan and South Korea, and engage with China and Russia to bring influence to bear on North Korea, to convince them that their pursuit of nuclear weapons is not acceptable and carries costs that are going to be quite high. So we start from the premise that the six-party talks are a good forum and we will be appointing a successor envoy to Secretary (Christopher) Hill and engaging as broadly as we possibly can while trying to speak directly to the North Korean people and to the others in the government who are jockeying for a position that there are benefits that they would obtain if they began to cooperate. [US NK Policy]
• The Untold Story Behind Human Rights Violations in North Korea
  Christine Ahn and Thomas P. Kim* | June 16, 2009 Lost in the flurry over North Korea's detention of U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee is the story they sought to cover: the plight of North Korean women refugees in China. Eighty percent of recent North Korean migrants in China are women. According to "Lives for Sale," a recent report by Lee Hae-Young based on interviews with 77 North Korean women living in China, most of these women fled North Korea in search of a better life, only to find themselves sold to Chinese farmers and laborers. Possessing few or no legal rights in China and faced with the prospect of prostitution, forced marriage, and sexual slavery there, the freedom of these Korean women is directly related to what is happening in North Korea, and what might happen should they be able to return home. North Korean women in China are highly vulnerable to exploitation, yet what consistently fails to be covered is "why are they leaving their home country?" The Washington Post found that Lee's report, mentioned above, "is a part of a growing body of research conducted inside China that shows that North Korean defectors are mostly women from working-class and rural backgrounds who fled because of hunger and poverty, not political oppression." This finding is corroborated by a 2004 South Korea government (Ministry of Unification) survey of over 4,000 North Koreans living in South Korea. The survey found that 75% left North Korea for economic reasons or to join their families in the south, and only 9% left because of political repression. A similar survey conducted by Refugee International in 2005 found that only two of the 63 defectors they interviewed left North Korea for political reasons. Historically, we can observe that people leaving North Korea was largely unheard of for the first four decades of its existence, until the 1990s, when the state had difficulty delivering basic economic and social goods. This is not to say there is no political oppression in North Korea. There are numerous stories of refugees who endured experiences unimaginable to most of us. However, the evidence indicates that it was the economic decline North Korea began to experience in the 1990s, not political oppression that is the main factor driving North Koreans over the border. [Human rights] [Sanctions] [Refugee]
• The Only Way Out: Negotiate With North Korea
  An Interview with Leon Sigal on Recent Events and U.S.-D.P.R.K. Relations
  Interviewed by Paul Liem* on June 8, 2009 | published June 16, 2009 This interview will also be published in Minjog 21.
  Leon V. Sigal is the Director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project of the Social Science Research Council in New York. Mr. Sigal is the author of "Disarming Strangers: Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea," which was named the Book of Distinction in 1998 by the American Academy of Diplomacy. He was a member of the editorial board of The New York Times from 1989 to 1995 and served in the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, in 1979 as an International Affairs Fellow and in 1980 as Special Assistant to the Director. For a full bio, click here.
  [Paul Liem]: Mr. Sigal, several weeks have passed since North Korea conducted its second nuclear test since 2006 and declared that it would consider sanctions by the United Nations to be an act of war. What do you think are the issues being discussed at the Security Council and what do you think we can expect?
  [Leon Sigal]: Well, I think there are a number of sanctions that the U.S., Japan and South Korea are seeking and a number of provisions to make lawful, acts that otherwise would not be. A security council resolution creates new international law. I think the most important bone of contention is whether to legalize stopping ships at sea for the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) and aircraft with respect to just North Korea, that is to say, deterring cargo to and from North Korea, that might be weapons-related. As you know, Resolution 1718 partially legitimated PSI but it said — it was a phrase stuck in, I suspect, by the Chinese — that said "consistent with international law", and since stopping ships at sea is not consistent with international law under most circumstances, that was a significant loophole. I think the Americans and Japanese and others are trying to close that loophole and I'm not sure the Chinese are going to go along with it. So I think that's the main bone of contention. After all, stopping ships at sea was the reason why the United States once went to war with Great Britain. [US NK Policy] [PSI] [Legality] [UNUS] [Double standards]
• UNSC Anti-North Korea Resolution a Recipe for Conflict?
  By Mark Valencia June 16th, 2009 This article was also published in the Japan Times. Mark Valencia, a Visiting Senior Fellow with the Maritime Institute of Malaysia and Nautilus Institute Senior Associate, writes, “To get China and Russia to agree to more binding and mandatory language, the U.S. should ‘walk the talk’ of President Obama’s promise to ‘listen’, ‘compromise’ and ‘co-operate’ in multilateral endeavors. In other words, it will have to give up control of the decision to interdict, the definition of ‘reasonable grounds’ to do so, and the actual interdiction itself.” [PSI] [US NK policy]
• Another sign of North Korea’s insecurity
  Author: Leonid Petrov June 13th, 2009 Two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who were arrested on March 17, 2009 on the Sino-North Korean border, appeared before the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) Central Court. They were sentenced to 12 years in a labour camp for illegally crossing borders and for espionage activity.
  In 2007, North Korea went even further, allowing South Korean tourists to cross the demilitarised zone (DMZ) in their own cars. However, 2008 saw a dramatic policy reverse. Areas of inter-Korean cooperation started closing down, ‘unreliable’ tourists were mercilessly refused visas or deported, and those who chose unconventional ways to enter the country, were incarcerated or even killed. [SK NK policy] [Inversion]
• President Obama's Nominee to be Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
  Dr. Kurt M. Campbell, Nomination to be Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
  Statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Washington, DC June 10, 2009 Chairman Webb, Members of the Foreign Relations Committee, it is an honor to appear before you today as President Obama’s nominee to be the next Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
  Japan and the Republic of Korea have been key partners in our joint efforts to maintain peace and stability in Northeast Asia and, in particular, to denuclearize North Korea through the Six-Party process. Recently this process has suffered serious setbacks, with North Korea stepping away from the denuclearization process and instead carrying out a series of provocations including its April 5 missile test and its May 25 announcement of a second nuclear test. As the President said, North Korea’s actions blatantly defy U.N. Security Council resolutions and constitute a direct and reckless challenge to the international community, increasing tension and undermining stability in Northeast Asia. If confirmed, I would use close bilateral and trilateral coordination with Tokyo and Seoul to make clear that neither the United States nor its allies will accept a nuclear North Korea. We will also work closely with China in order to coordinate our policies on North Korea. And there should be no mistake: the United States is firm in its resolve to uphold its treaty commitments regarding the defense of its allies. [US NK policy]
• North Korea: Getting Back to Talks
  Asia Report N°169 18 June 2009 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS The motivations for North Korea’s second nuclear test are, as with many of its actions, mostly impenetrable. It may be the latest step in an unrelenting drive to become a permanent nuclear state or it could be advertising nuclear wares to potential buyers. It may be driving up the price others will pay for the North to give up its weapons or it might be about ensuring that the military will accept whatever decision Kim Jong-il has made on his successor. Most likely, North Korea’s nuclear weapons program serves multiple purposes for the leadership. Whatever the rationale, there are no good options in response. Finding a way to resume talks on ending the nuclear program may appear to reward Pyongyang’s bad behaviour, but diplomacy is still the least bad option. At the same time, the UN Security Council’s strong and united condemnation of the test in Resolution 1874 must be enforced, while containment of proliferation and deterrence of North Korean provocations need to be boosted. [test] [Cliche] [US NK policy] [Sanctions] [Inversion]
• Financial Crimes Enforcement Network Advisory FIN-2009-A002
  Issued: June 18, 2009 Subject: North Korea Government Agencies' and Front Companies' Involvement in Illicit Financial Activities
  The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ("FinCEN") is issuing this advisory to supplement information previously provided1 regarding the involvement by Democratic People's Republic of Korea ("North Korea") government agencies and front companies in illicit activities. The U.N. Security Council has recently adopted a resolution containing new provisions, including a call for enhanced monitoring of financial transactions, to prevent the financing of North Korea's nuclear, ballistic missile, and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD)-related programs or activities. The Security Council's action, combined with the potential that North Korea will attempt to evade these financial measures, illustrates the increased risk that North Korea and North Korean entities, as well as individuals acting on their behalf, pose to the international financial system and financial institutions worldwide. [Toolkit] [Sanctions] [Softwar]
• Global Insurance Fraud By North Korea Outlined
  Government Has Collected Millions Of Dollars on Large, Suspicious Claims What a defector says of Kim Jong II, above, is "complete nonsense," a lawyer for the North's firm says. (Knight Ridder/tribune News Service Via Associated Press) By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, June 18, 2009 For Kim Jong Il's birthday, North Korean insurance managers prepared a special gift. In Singapore, they stuffed $20 million in cash into two heavy-duty bags and sent them, via Beijing, to their leader in Pyongyang, said Kim Kwang Jin, who worked as a manager for Korea National Insurance Corp., a state-owned monopoly. Kim said he helped arrange the shipment and watched in February 2003 as the cash was packed. After the money arrived, Kim Jong Il sent a letter of thanks to the managers and arranged for some of them to receive gifts that included oranges, apples, DVD players and blankets, Kim said. "It was a great celebration," he said. The $20 million birthday present and the gratitude of its recipient, who is known as the Dear Leader, were annual highlights of a sophisticated global insurance fraud that North Korea has concocted to provide its communist leadership with hard currency, said Kim, who spent five years as an executive of the state insurance company in Pyongyang and worked for a year at its banking subsidiary in Singapore before defecting to South Korea. [Toolkit] [Defectors] [Evidence] [Softwar]
• North Korea’s Nuclear and Missile Tests and the Six-Party Talks: Where Do We Go from Here?
  Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment
  Eni F.H. Faleomavaega (D-AS), Chairman Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade Brad Sherman (D-CA), Chairman North Korea’s Nuclear and Missile Tests and the Six-Party Talks: Where Do We Go from Here? Transcript [PDF] | Webcast [Real Player] Date Wednesday, June 17, 2009 Time 10:00 AM Location Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building witnesses
  Mr. Selig S. Harrison Director of the Asia Program The Center for International Policy
  The Honorable Thomas C. Hubbard Senior Director McLarty Associates (Former Ambassador to the Republics of Korea, the Philippines and Palau)
  Mr. Scott Snyder Director, Center for U.S.-Korea Policy Senior Associate, International Relations The Asia Foundation
  Mr. Richard C. Bush III Director, Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution (Former National Intelligence Officer for East Asia) [US NK Policy]
• Why are U.S. Military Bases in South Korea?: An Interview with John Feffer
  March 11, 2009 on Real News Network Check out John Feffer, co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies and KPI Advisory Board Member, on Real News Network. Video and transcript courtesy of Real News Network. [JESSE FREESTON, TRNN]: In Part 1 of our look at the US military's network of foreign bases, Miriam Pemberton explained that the US maintains roughly 1,000 bases outside of its borders, excluding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, at a cost to the US taxpayer of approximately $100 billion per year. For a better understanding of these bases and the roles they play, The Real News dug into one such location in South Korea, a country that 25,000 US troops call home. Most of those troops are moving into a brand-new, $13 billion garrison in Pyeongtaek.
• The Political Economy of North Korea: Implications for Denuclearization and Proliferation
  by Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland
  East-West Center Working Papers, Economics Series, No. 104 Publisher: Honolulu: East-West Center Publication Date: June 2009 Binding: paper Pages: 25 Price: $3.00 Free Download: PDF Abstract Despite North Korea's turn away from economic reform and the constraints of the second nuclear crisis, the country has in fact become more economically open. But it has emphasized closer economic relations with China and other trading partners that show little interest in political quid-pro-quos, let alone sanctions. Yet the U.S. can still exercise economic leverage by going aggressively after third-party financial intermediaries. This particular form of sanction does not require multilateral coordination, since foreign banking institutions that conduct significant business in the United States have a strong interest in avoiding institutions that the United States Treasury has identified as money laundering or proliferation concerns. [US NK policy] [Sanctions]
• Moving From a North Korean Nuclear Problem to the Problem of North Korea
  By Chaesung Chun June 11th, 2009 This article was published by the East Asia Initiative: http://www.eai.or.kr/type/panelView.asp?catcode=1310000000&code=eng_report&idx=8277&page=1# I. Introduction Chaesung Chun, the Chair of the Asia Security Initiative at the East Asia Institute and an associate professor in the Department of International Relations at Seoul National University, recommends eight strategic principals for dealing with the DPRK nuclear issues including, “Search for new policy issues that will contribute to the project of ‘normalizing North Korea.’… We need to convince the North that the common goal of South Korea and the United States is to further the successful long-term future of North Korea, so long as it functions within global norms (sic). Projects might focus on long-term policy areas such as education, infrastructure, and state finance.” [US NK policy]
• Seoul Tells U.S. About N.Korea's Foreign Bank Accounts
  South Korea has told the U.S. what it knows about some 10 to 20 foreign bank accounts North Korea holds and which are possibly connected with illegal transactions or money laundering. A government official said Seoul "gave the U.S. information on some of the North Korean bank accounts which South Korean enterprises or civic groups engaged in projects in the North have used when remitting money." He said the accounts are suspected of being used in transactions related to counterfeiting foreign currencies, drug dealing and money laundering, he added. He said most of these accounts are in Chinese banks, and some in Switzerland and elsewhere. That suggests the U.S. has started preparations for financial sanctions on the North. The U.S. apparently also asked other countries with dealings with the North for cooperation. South Korean intelligence authorities are believed to know the names and bank accounts of North Korean companies disguised as trading firms which are suspected of dealing with high-quality dollar forgeries, the so-called "supernotes," or drugs. Meanwhile, North Korea is also apparently bracing itself for international financial sanctions by opening borrowed-name accounts overseas. South Korea last week slapped financial sanctions on three North Korean companies. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said it imposed sanctions on three North Korean companies on June 1 in compliance with a UN Security Council decision after the North launched a long-range rocket in April. The sanctions ban domestic companies to deal with these North Korean firms, whose assets here are now frozen. [Financial sanctions] [Toolkit] [SK NK policy]
• What Hopes for Detained Journalists in N.Korea?
  North Korea on Monday wrapped up proceedings against two American journalists by sentencing them to 12 years of hard labor. The sentence was passed in the Central Court, North Korea's supreme court, so there is no appeal.
• U.S. Must Be Resolute in Dealing with N.Korea
  U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday, "North Korea's actions over the last several months have been extraordinarily provocative" adding that Washington has no intention of pursuing a policy of rewarding the communist country should it continue to behave in this way. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed, saying that North Korea's actions were very provocative and warlike and that the U.S. was looking into putting the communist country back on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. The U.S. government is currently pushing for strong sanctions against North Korea through the United Nations Security Council. North Korea said on Monday that its court had sentenced two female American journalists to 12 years hard labor following a four-day trial. Clinton had sent a letter to North Korean officials urging them to release the two journalists, only to be given the cold shoulder by the communist state.
• N. Korea’s sentencing of two U.S. journalists may signal the possibility of talks
  Observers suggest N. Korea may attempt to link an early release of the journalists to negotiations on sanctions and recent nuclear and missile tests North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Monday that two women journalists from the U.S. who have been detained were sentenced to 12 years of “labor education” each. The KCNA revealed this in a “report,” while also saying that Laura Ling and Euna Lee’s trial took place June 4 to 8 in the Central Court of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The heavy sentencing of the two reporters contains both negative and positive aspects for the possibility of their release. On the one hand, the sentencing sends a signal that is not entirely negative. Since the charges and sentence are clear and have been decided, this means conditions have also been provided to allow North Korea and the U.S. to begin negotiations in earnest for the two journalists’ early release. A high-ranking government official said Monday that while he did not know the specifics, his sense was that the sentencing seemed to be part of a process towards the release of the reporters. On the other hand, the heavy sentence of 12 years of “labor education” each and the deteriorations in North Korea-U.S. relations suggest that negotiations for the journalists’ release can be expected to be difficult. A government official says North Korea will free the reporters, but it has played its “We will not free them easily” card.
• American Journalists Sentenced to Reform through Labor
  Pyongyang, June 8 (KCNA) -- The Central Court of the DPRK staged a trial of American journalists Laura Ling and Seung-eun Lee from June 4 to 8. The trial confirmed the grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing as they had already been indicted and sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor.
• President Lee to Hold Summit With Obama June 16
  South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will travel to the United States next week for a summit with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama for talks on ways to strengthen the alliance between their countries and cooperation in dealing with North Korea's nuclear provocations, Yonhap News Agency reported Tuesday, quoting Seoul's presidential office. The summit will be held in Washington on June 16, the day after the South Korean president arrives in the U.S. capital.
• New Day in North Korea Policy?
  I have a feeling that Pyongyang, taking a leaf from Iran’s book (and its detention and subsequent release of American journalist Roxana Siberi) has the idea of releasing the two hapless American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee--who were just sentenced to twelve years of hard labor for illegally entering North Korea from China and alleged “hostile acts”—as a goodwill gesture to the United States. It will be interesting to see if the Obama administration will consider the journalists’ release as an adequate olive branch for resumption of talks.
  With only a minor global naval presence, the Chinese are extremely leery of establishing a precedent for the U.S. and/or its allies to barge aboard other countries’ ships in pursuit of whatever. China will endorse the exercise of a PSI initiative against North Korea gingerly, if at all. But if the Obama administration can come up with a sanction that China sincerely supports (as opposed to the sanctions of the Bush administration, which targeted China almost as much as North Korea and were openly opposed by the PRC) while holding out the possibility of diplomatic and economic engagement, we might actually see some movement on North Korea. And Kim Jong Il, eager to secure his son’s succession and a controlled opening to the global economy, might decide that the Obama administration is offering him the best opportunity he can expect from the United States in his dwindling lifetime. [US NK policy] [Opening] [PSI] [NK China]
• U.S. Protests Journalists’ Treatment
  By DAVID E. SANGER and CHOE SANG-HUN Published: June 8, 2009
  WASHINGTON — President Obama and his top national security aides on Monday urged North Korea to release “on humanitarian grounds” two American journalists sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for entering North Korean territory. But administration officials also warned that the harsh sentence was likely to be a negotiating ploy as the North tries to avoid new sanctions in response to its nuclear test two weeks ago.
  In public statements, administration officials frequently referred to the two journalists as “young women” who might have inadvertently crossed the North Korean border, and urged North Korea to return them to their families. “Their detainment is not something that we’ve linked to other issues, and we hope the North Koreans don’t do that, either,” Robert Gibbs, Mr. Obama’s press secretary, told reporters on Monday afternoon.
  In recent weeks, there have been numerous reports that President Kim Jong-il has settled on his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, as his successor, a step that the North Korean military and China, North Korea’s reluctant patron, are believed to oppose.
  The United Nations Security Council is weighing tougher sanctions against the country and the possible interdiction of North Korean ships suspected of carrying unconventional weapons. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in an interview broadcast Sunday that the United States was also examining a request by members of Congress to restore the North to the list of nations branded as sponsors of terrorism. But the State Department did everything it could on Monday to argue that such a relisting was unlikely. There is little evidence that North Korea has sponsored acts of terrorism in recent years, which enabled the Bush administration to de-list the country last year. [US NK policy] [Succession] [PSI] [Terrorism List]
• The new nuclear power
  Glyn Ford
  Published 04 June 2009 Observations on North Korea On 25 May North Korea conducted a successful test of a plutonium-based nuclear weapon. Since the detection of the blast – similar in force to that of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – the question of how to read this action, and how best to respond, has reverberated through the media and the halls of power.
  All of these actions indicate that Pyongyang is attempting to force Washington to engage seriously in seeking a settlement to help North Korea’s regime survive. [US NK policy] [Test]
• Pausing for Mr Obama
  Glyn Ford Published 23 April 2009 Observations on North Korea
  North Korean commuters walk past adverting for the locally made Pyeonghwa The first green shoots are showing on the trees along the Taedong River. Spring is threatening. The city is busy and there are more cars on the street: so many so, that in east Pyongyang the traffic girls have had to double up. Cranes dot the skyline and new consumer outlets have appeared everywhere. Near to the moorings of the USS Pueblo, the National Security Agency spy ship captured by the North Koreans, are a new pizza parlour and an Italian fashion boutique. There is even talk that North Korea will acquire an A320 aircraft from Airbus. Yet all this illustrates economic triage as much as growth. [US NK policy] [Development]
• Why Punishing North Korea Won’t Work . . . and What Will
  Leon V. Sigal
  Despite the promise of change, the Obama administration has started to address North Korea just as the Clinton and Bush administrations did--accusing it of wrongdoing and trying to punish it for its transgressions. As Pyongyang's recent nuclear test demonstrates, the crime-and-punishment approach has never worked in the past and it won't work now. Instead, sustained diplomatic give-and-take is the only way to stop future North Korean nuclear and missile tests and convince it to halt its nuclear program. Pyongyang was not alone in failing to keep its agreements. Unfortunately, Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul didn't manage to keep theirs either. The current crisis truly began last June when North Korea handed China a written declaration of its plutonium program, as it was obliged to do under the October 3, 2007 Six-Party joint statement on second-phase actions. In a side agreement with Washington, Pyongyang committed to disclose its uranium enrichment and proliferation activities, including the help it had provided for Syria's nuclear reactor. [US NK policy] [US NK negotiations] [Renege]
• N.Korea Sentences 2 U.S. Journalists to 12 Years
  North Korea's state news agency says a court has sentenced two female American journalists to 12 years of hard labor. The Korean Central News Agency said Monday that the court found the two women guilty of committing an unspecified "grave crime" and illegally crossing into North Korea. Last Thursday, North Korean state media announced the start of the trial of Euna Lee and Laura Ling, reporters for the U.S. media company Current TV.
• N.Korea Could Be Put Back on U.S. Terror List
  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday indicated the U.S. could put North Korea back on a list of countries sponsoring terrorism after removing it in October 2008. Asked for a response to a letter from several U.S. senators asking President Barack Obama to put Pyongyang back on the list, she said, "Well, we're going to look at it." Speaking in a ABC interview, Clinton cited North Korea's latest underground nuclear test. "There's a process for it. Obviously we would want to see recent evidence of their support for international terrorism... We're just beginning to look at it," she said.
  Speaking in a ABC interview, Clinton cited North Korea's latest underground nuclear test. "There's a process for it. Obviously we would want to see recent evidence of their support for international terrorism... We're just beginning to look at it," she said. Meanwhile, a UN Security Council draft resolution made public Saturday includes a provision that would allow UN member nations to stop and search suspicious North Korean ships even in international waters. The provision is incomparably stronger in tone than the Proliferation Security Initiative, the U.S.-led anti-proliferation regime, which has some 90 member countries, a source said. But North Korea allies China and Russia argue it is against international law to stop and search ships from a sovereign state in international waters, but the U.S. claims a UNSC resolution itself takes on the nature of international law. [Legality] [PSI] [Sanctions] [Terrorism list]
• Obama’s strong remarks toward N. Korea leaves room for dialogue
  While the U.S. president continues to exclude military action, experts say China still plays a large role in resolving North Korea nuclear issue U.S. President Obama’s remarks on June 6 during his visit to France were strong. However, he did not venture beyond the line of “tough and direct dialogue” which he has drawn upon since his presidential election last year. Analysts are focusing on two central components in his remarks. In particular, attention is on his mention that “North Korea’s actions over the last several months have been extraordinarily provocative” and his reference to United Nations Security Council (UNSC) preparations for a new resolution against North Korea’s actions. In the remarks, Obama reconfirmed what his administration has announced since its inauguration that “Provocation may cost something corresponding to their action.” Analysts say his remarks demonstrate that the U.S. has a room for a diplomatic solution to the North Korea nuclear issue in spite of North Korea’s second nuclear test and preparation of a long-range missile launch. Furthermore, they suggest they indicate that the U.S. has not closed the door of dialogue even though U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has mentioned the possibility of imposing its own financial sanctions against North Korea. [US NK policy]
• [Editorial] Obama’s worrisome remarks on North Korea
  A few days ago in France, U.S President Barack Obama said, “North Korea’s actions over the last several months have been extraordinarily provocative.” He made it clear that he plans to change the keynote of the nation’s North Korea policy by saying, “We are not intending to continue a policy of rewarding provocation.” He explained that while he himself still prefers a diplomatic approach, North Korea has not shown the serious effort a diplomatic resolution requires. The disappointment of the U.S. is understandable given the series of provocations that North Korea has engaged in since Obama took office, from its rocket launch to its second nuclear test and even preparations to launch an long-range missile. Although the Obama administration, unlike the previous George W. Bush administration, has sought to resolve the nuclear issue through dialogue, North Korea has continued to ratchet up tensions. Recently, it even announced that it would no longer be bound by the 1953 Armistice Agreement that has existed between South Korea and North Korea for the past 56 years, citing the South Korean government’s participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) on weapons of mass destruction as the primary reason. North Korea’s provocations have done great harm to the stability of the Korean Peninsula and East Asia and should rightly be criticized. It also stands to reason that the international community denounces these actions and seeks an appropriate course of response. Yet one cannot help expressing concerns about President Obama’s pronouncements. The turn away from its dialogue-centered approach towards increasing confrontation will have damages that will fall squarely on South Korea [US NK policy] [Dilemma]
• NK Sentences US Journalists to 12 Years in Jail
  North Korea's highest court Monday sentenced two U.S. journalists detained in March near the border with China to 12 years in labor camp for an unspecified "grave crime" and illegal entry, Yonhap News Agency reported Monday, quoting Pyongyang's news agency. The sentence for Chinese-American Laura Ling and Korean-American Euna Lee appears to be harsher than expected, with their charges believed to carry a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison under North Korean criminal law, according to officials and watchers. The Central Court, North Korea's top court in Pyongyang, "staged a trial of American journalists Laura Ling and Seung-eun Lee from June 4 to 8," the Korean Central News Agency said, referring to Lee by her Korean name. "The trial confirmed the grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing," it said, "and sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor."
• USFK Cuts Down Combat Aircraft by 25 Percent
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) has cut the number of its combat aircraft by 25 percent over the past four years, a military source said Sunday. According to a USFK spokesman, the U.S. 7th Air Force operates about 45 aircraft now. According to a 2005 National Assembly report, the 7th Air Force, the air component of the USFK, then operated about 60 F-16 and A-10 aircraft belonging to the 51st Fighter Wing in Osan, Gyeonggi Province, and the 8th Fighter Wing in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province. Some strategists see the decrease as a de facto decline in U.S. military capability in South Korea, which runs counter to Washington's repeated pledge to maintain a troop capacity of 28,500 with related combat assets on the peninsula to help deter any North Korean aggression. [Military balance]
• U.S. Weighs Intercepting North Korean Shipments
  By DAVID E. SANGER Published: June 7, 2009 WASHINGTON — The Obama administration signaled Sunday that it was seeking a way to interdict, possibly with China’s help, North Korean sea and air shipments suspected of carrying weapons or nuclear technology. The administration also said it was examining whether there was a legal basis to reverse former President George W. Bush’s decision last year to remove the North from a list of states that sponsor terrorism. The reference to interdictions — preferably at ports or airfields in countries like China, but possibly involving riskier confrontations on the high seas — was made by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. She was the highest-ranking official to talk publicly about such a potentially provocative step as a response to North Korea’s second nuclear test, conducted two weeks ago. While Mrs. Clinton did not specifically mention assistance from China, other administration officials have been pressing Beijing to take such action under Chinese law. [Sanctions] [PSI]
• N. Korea Sentences 2 U.S. Journalists to 12 Years of Hard Labor
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: June 8, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Monday sentenced two American journalists to 12 years of hard labor in a case widely seen as a test of how far the isolated Communist state was willing to take its confrontation with the United States.
• U.S. to Weigh Returning North Korea to Terror List
  By Peter Finn Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, June 8, 2009 The United States will consider reinstating North Korea to a list of state sponsors of terrorism, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in an interview broadcast yesterday as the Obama administration looks for ways to ratchet up pressure on Pyongyang after recent nuclear and missile tests. "We're going to look at it," Clinton said on ABC's "This Week" when asked about a letter last week from Republican senators demanding that North Korea be put back on the list. "There's a process for it. Obviously we would want to see recent evidence of their support for international terrorism." [Terrorism list]
• U.S. Policy to Dominate Eurasia Censured
  Pyongyang, June 5 (KCNA) -- The U.S. policy to dominate Eurasia is bound to go bankrupt as it is the one against independence, peace and history. Rodong Sinmun Friday observes this in a signed article. The article cites facts that the above-said policy of the U.S. that started in the mid-19th century got pronounced after it divided Korea into two parts and drew the demarcation line for the Cold War in Europe at the end of World War II and the policy has entered a full-fledged phase since the demise of the Cold War. The article goes on: The defeat of the U.S. imperialists in the Korean war in the 1950s shattered the myth of their "mightiness" and started them on the downgrade. In the subsequent period the U.S. sustained a defeat in the Vietnam war, too, suffering disgrace and shame again in the eyes of the world. The U.S. started wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the new century and hastily declared "victory" in the wars but it still finds itself in an inescapable quagmire. To make the matters worse, it is in the grip of unprecedented "financial crisis." The U.S has become so weak politically, economically and militarily that it is hard for it to maintain its position as the world's "only superpower." The end of the U.S. is not only expected but is becoming a reality. It is the inevitability of history and a matter of time for the U.S. policy for dominating Eurasia to go bust. The U.S. would be well advised to face up to the changed reality and roll back the above-said policy, urges the article. [Imperialism] [Decline]
• Obama hardens US stance on North Korean defiance
  By JENNIFER LOVEN The Associated Press Saturday, June 6, 2009; 9:38 PM CAEN, France -- His patience tested, President Barack Obama on Saturday promised a new and stronger response to defiant North Korea, saying that while he prefers diplomacy he is now taking a "very hard look" at tougher measures. A Pentagon official said no military moves were planned. Obama's blunt language seemed to point toward nonmilitary penalties such as financial sanctions against North Korea, either within the United Nations or by Washington alone. U.S. allies in Asia may consider new moves to improve their own military defenses. "We are not intending to continue a policy of rewarding provocation," he said, alluding to recent North Korea nuclear and missile tests [US NK policy] [Continuity]
• North Korea’s Brinkmanship
  by Nicole Finnemann (nmf@keia.org) They Did What?! On the morning of May 25, after giving the U.S. government one hour’s notice, North Korea detonated a nuclear device underground at the same northeast site of its now infamous October 2006 test. Larger than the 2006 detonation—between two and four kilotons in size—the test violated UN resolution 1718, not to mention the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which North Korea was once a part. Later that same day, Pyongyang test-fired three short-range ground-to-air missiles from the Musudan-ri launch site. [Recall that North Korea launched what it claimed was a satellite from this site in April, an act that elicited strong condemnation in a UN Security Council Presidential Statement.] The next day, it launched two more short range missiles. Seoul reacted by immediately becoming a full participant in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), regarding the search of ships and other carriers with suspicious cargo, and North Korea’s response was a declaration that it was abandoning the armistice that ended the Korean War.
• The Northern Limit Line
  by Jack Pritchard (jp@keia.org)
  As an aid to better understand one of the issues that may be in the forefront of Korea news, the following is a primer on the Northern Limit Line (NLL). The drafters of the Armistice Agreement were unable to agree on a mutually acceptable maritime demarcation line following the conclusion of the Korean War hostilities—primarily because of the location of several South Korean islands north of a direct extension of the land demarcation line in the West Sea. To prevent these islands from becoming isolated in the event North Korea forceably prevented the South from resupplying or conducting normal commerce with them, the U.S.-led United Nations Command unilaterally established a "Northern Limit Line" that more closely hugged the North Korean coast. North Korea has never recognized the authority of the line, but has (mostly) honored the concept of the line since its imposition in August 1953. However, in June 1999, North Korea challenged the limits of the line in the midst of crab harvesting. A nine day naval confrontation between the North and South ended in an exchange of gunfire on June 15. North Korea suffered the loss of several sailors, and a patrol boat was sunk. Three months later, North Korea announced, "We declare that the brigandish ‘Northern Limit Line’ unilaterally defined by the U.S. forces side inside our territorial waters of the West Sea of Korea is invalid." Pyongyang then proceeded to draw its own Maritime Demarcation Line further south of the existing Northern Limit Line. In a repeat of the 1999 incident, North Korean patrol boats moved south of the NLL on June 29, 2002 and were immediately met by South Korean patrol boats. At the end of the encounter, several South Korean sailors had been killed along with an unknown number of North Korean sailors. A South Korean patrol boat later sunk as it was being towed back to its base. On May 27, 2009, The Panmunjom Mission of the Korean People’s Army issued a statement declaring: "For the present, we will not guarantee the legal status of the five islands under the south side’s control (Paekryong, Taechong, Sochong, Yonphyong, and U islands) in our side’s territorial waters northwest of the extension of the Military Demarcation Line in the West Sea of Korea and safe sailing of warships of the U.S. imperialist aggression forces and the south Korean puppet navy and civilian ships operating in the waters around there." Because of the current escalating rhetoric coming out of Pyongyang, there is a real concern that another military incident could occur in the next couple of months as crab fishing hits its peak. [NLL]
• UNDP officials to visit N. Korea to discuss suspended projects
  SEOUL, May 20 (Yonhap) -- Officials with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will visit North Korea later this month to discuss the reopening of its office there and the resumption of projects suspended two years ago, a government source said Wednesday. UNDP officials visited Seoul last week and discussed the matter with South Korean officials, the source said on condition of anonymity, adding that UNDP officials will visit Pyongyang to discuss the resumption of the projects at some point. The UNDP office in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang will likely reopen at the end of June at the earliest, the source said, adding the projects will resume thereafter. The UNDP had been engaged in development projects in the North since 1981, including agricultural development, human resource development and economic reform programs, before withdrawing in March 2007 soon after suspicions arose over North Korea's misappropriation of development funds. The group's executive board made the decision to return in January after North Korea allegedly agreed to guarantee independent auditing and to alter the methods for payment and selection of North Korean staff. North Korea had previously selected UNDP staff members in Pyongyang on its own. [UNDP] [Toolkit]
• U.S. open to Al Gore going to Pyongyang
  From news reports WASHINGTON - The United States might send former U.S. Vice President Al Gore to Pyongyang in order to negotiate the release of two American journalists on trial in North Korea for illegal entry. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly did not rule out such a possibility when asked if it would make sense to send Gore, who is chairman of the California station Current TV, which employs the two journalists. "This is such a sensitive issue, I'm just not going to go into those kinds of discussions that we may or may not have had," he said when asked whether Gore himself had raised the matter with the State Department. "The bottom line is that these two young women should be released but I'm not going to go into any kind of details on what we will or won't do," Kelly said when asked again if it would help to send Gore. Talks have abounded that Gore will be visiting Pyongyang in his capacity as the chairman of Current TV.
• U.S. says it won’t put North back on terrorism list
  June 05, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States said on Wednesday that it has no intention of relisting North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism despite nuclear and missile tests that escalated regional tensions. The remarks by Philip Crowley, assistant secretary of state for public affairs, came in response to a letter from several U.S. senators to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday asking for the North’s relisting. “As for North Korea, I think we’re aware of that letter, but as far as I know, firing off missiles and overheated rhetoric is unwise [and] unhelpful but does not meet the legal definition of terrorism,” Crowley said. “To list a country on the terrorism list, there’s a legal requirement there. And what we’ve seen so far I don’t think meets that legal test.” The United States delisted the North in October after Pyongyang agreed verbally to a protocol for verification of its past and current nuclear activity as part of the disabling process of its nuclear facilities under a six-nation deal. However, at the latest six-party meeting in December, Pyongyang refused to sign an agreement on the verification, saying it will accept that in the third and final phase of the denuclearization process. That phase involves dismantling the nuclear facilities in return for hefty economic aid and other political and diplomatic benefits. In the second phase of disablement, the North was to get 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil. [Sequencing] [Terrorism list] [Renege]
• UN drafts trade embargo on all North’s arms sales
  Export ban would choke flow of foreign currency into Pyongyang June 06, 2009 The United Nations Security Council has prepared a draft of a new resolution with tough sanctions against North Korea that would stifle cash flow into the country that defiantly conducted a nuclear test on May 25. According to a South Korean government source, the five permanent members of the Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - have agreed to additional sanctions that would place an export embargo on all kinds of weapons. Presently, Resolution 1718 only prohibits North Korea from trading weapons of mass destruction and related materials. The source said South Korea, a non-member, and Japan, a non-standing Security Council member, joined the United States in pushing for the complete trade embargo on all arms. But after negotiations with China and Russia, two of North Korea’s allies, the Security Council decided to impose the import ban only on WMD and their materials. “There will be an export ban on all kinds of arms and that should be able to cut a source of foreign currency income for the North,” the source said. The 15-member Security Council is expected to present the draft of a new resolution for internal circulation. A resolution requires unanimity from the permanent members. If the sanctions pass the Security Council, North Korea won’t be able to export even pistols, rifles or other small, conventional firearms. According to another government source, exporting weapons is one of North Korea’s major sources of foreign currency income. “Because of the watchful eyes of the international community, North Korea hasn’t been able to sell missiles or other large arms, and so the new sanctions won’t make major differences there,” the source said. “But if North Korea isn’t allowed to sell even simple weapons, then it will be a devastating blow.” The proposed sanctions also directly target the North Korean leadership. Importing luxury goods, ranging from expensive wines to sedans and designer watches, would be prohibited under the sanctions. UN diplomats have said they were considering travel bans, too, and officials who were responsible for the North’s WMD development have been placed on a travel ban list. The list is thought to include Jon Pyong-ho, secretary for ammunition at the ruling Workers’ Party, and Ju Kyu-chang, vice chairman of the National Defense Commission. The two are said to be behind the North’s April 5 rocket launch and last week’s nuclear test. The source also said the draft on the financial sanctions has been revised without altering its principals, though specifics weren’t immediately available. In 2005, the United States froze about $25 million of North Korean funds at the Banco Delta Asia bank in Macao, but financial sanctions this time would be more of a coordinated effort through the UN. The support of China, which has been reluctant to approve measures against the North but was unusually angry at the nuclear test, was essential for the draft. Russia, another North Korean ally, was also on the same page with other permanent members, the official said. “China and Russia are much more willing to impose sanctions than in the past,” a diplomatic source said. The United Nations Security Council has prepared a draft of a new resolution with tough sanctions against North Korea that would stifle cash flow into the country that defiantly conducted a nuclear test on May 25. According to a South Korean government source, the five permanent members of the Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - have agreed to additional sanctions that would place an export embargo on all kinds of weapons. Presently, Resolution 1718 only prohibits North Korea from trading weapons of mass destruction and related materials. The source said South Korea, a non-member, and Japan, a non-standing Security Council member, joined the United States in pushing for the complete trade embargo on all arms. But after negotiations with China and Russia, two of North Korea’s allies, the Security Council decided to impose the import ban only on WMD and their materials. “There will be an export ban on all kinds of arms and that should be able to cut a source of foreign currency income for the North,” the source said. The 15-member Security Council is expected to present the draft of a new resolution for internal circulation. A resolution requires unanimity from the permanent members. If the sanctions pass the Security Council, North Korea won’t be able to export even pistols, rifles or other small, conventional firearms. According to another government source, exporting weapons is one of North Korea’s major sources of foreign currency income. “Because of the watchful eyes of the international community, North Korea hasn’t been able to sell missiles or other large arms, and so the new sanctions won’t make major differences there,” the source said. “But if North Korea isn’t allowed to sell even simple weapons, then it will be a devastating blow.” The proposed sanctions also directly target the North Korean leadership. Importing luxury goods, ranging from expensive wines to sedans and designer watches, would be prohibited under the sanctions. UN diplomats have said they were considering travel bans, too, and officials who were responsible for the North’s WMD development have been placed on a travel ban list. The list is thought to include Jon Pyong-ho, secretary for ammunition at the ruling Workers’ Party, and Ju Kyu-chang, vice chairman of the National Defense Commission. The two are said to be behind the North’s April 5 rocket launch and last week’s nuclear test. The source also said the draft on the financial sanctions has been revised without altering its principals, though specifics weren’t immediately available. In 2005, the United States froze about $25 million of North Korean funds at the Banco Delta Asia bank in Macao, but financial sanctions this time would be more of a coordinated effort through the UN. The support of China, which has been reluctant to approve measures against the North but was unusually angry at the nuclear test, was essential for the draft. Russia, another North Korean ally, was also on the same page with other permanent members, the official said. “China and Russia are much more willing to impose sanctions than in the past,” a diplomatic source said. By Yeh Young-june, Yoo Jee-ho [jeeho@joongang.co.kr] [Arms sales] [Evidence] [WMD] [Spin] [Double standards] [Sanctions]
• Veterans rally for joint command
  A leading veterans' association yesterday reiterated its calls for South Korea and the United States to keep the Combined Forces Command untouched at a convention at Seoul Press Center. "The CFC is the core of South Korea's security. The allied security posture would be greatly undermined, not to mention the alliance itself, should the joint command get disassembled as according to the current plans," said Park Seh-jik, president of Korea Veterans' Association. The CFC, the joint military command for South Korea and the United States, is to be divided into two separate theaters following the transfer of wartime operational control to Seoul from Washington in April 2012. [Sovereignty] [Pro-Americanism]
• Seoul, Washington Focus on N.Korean Spymaster Gen. O Kuk-ryol
  Gen. O Kuk-ryol, the vice chairman of North Korea's National Defense Commission, has emerged as a common target for both U.S. and South Korean authorities. Citing U.S. intelligence officials, the Washington Times on Tuesday said the general and several of his family members play key roles in the production and distribution of so-called "supernotes," which are high-quality counterfeit US$100 bills. South Korean intelligence officials, meanwhile, point to O as the chief of the recently overhauled North Korean apparatus in charge of spying on the South. A South Korean official said O is therefore being closely monitored by both sides. [Counterfeiting] [Toolkit]
• Trial of American Journalists to Begin
  Pyongyang, June 4 (KCNA) -- The Central Court of the DPRK will start a trial of American journalists Laura Ling and Seung-eun Lee from 3 p.m. Thursday on the basis of the indictment already brought against them.
• U.S. Pushes U.N. Draft on N. Korea
  Security Council Resolution Would Target Funds for Military
  By Colum Lynch and Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writers Saturday, June 6, 2009 UNITED NATIONS, June 5 -- The United States and its allies are pressing for the Security Council to adopt a U.N. resolution that would further restrain North Korea's capacity to finance its military ambitions. The resolution would also urge states to seize cargo suspected of being used to support North Korea's ballistic-missile or nuclear weapons programs. But China is blocking approval, on the grounds that some of the toughest provisions are too provocative, according to diplomats. The negotiations on new sanctions, which will continue through the weekend, come nearly two weeks after North Korea launched its second underground nuclear test. That was quickly followed by a series of missile test launches that have rattled its neighbors and complicated U.S. efforts to resume nuclear talks with the North. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley confirmed yesterday that the United States was considering targeting North Korea's access to financial markets. A draft of the resolution urges U.N. member states to cut loans, financial assistance and grants to North Korea and its suppliers for programs linked to its military program. The draft also expands an asset freeze and travel ban. [Sanctions] [Test] [NK China] [PSI]
• Dealing with North Korea
  by Ralph A. Cossa
  What is North Korea up to? Is it trying to undermine the Six-Party Talks in order to force Washington to deal with Pyongyang directly, as some experts claim? Or, as others maintain with equal certainty, is it sending a signal that it is not interested in talks at all, given current domestic political uncertainties surrounding the poor health of “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il and his efforts to elevate his third son as the heir-apparent? Or is Pyongyang merely laying the groundwork for eventual talks, but only on its terms, which include acceptance of North Korea as a nuclear weapons state? The real answer is probably some combination of all of the above but the truthful answer is we really don’t know; when it comes to understanding North Korean motives, we’re all guessing. [NK US policy] [Cliché]
• U.S. criticizes S. Korea’s decision to disclose sensitive intelligence to media outlets
  Observers suggest publicizing N. Korea’s preparations to test-fire an “ICBM” shifts attention away from current crisis in government legitimacy » North Korean soldiers stand guard on the north side of the truce village of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, about 55 km (34 miles) north of Seoul, June 3, 2009. (REUTERS) It was confirmed Tuesday that the U.S. protested South Korea’s decision to inform media outlets of North Korea’s preparations to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) when the type of long range missile has not yet confirmed. Some observers criticized the South Korean government for using this event to shift attention focused on the death of former President Roh Moo-hyun towards North Korea. According to an expert on military matters who preferred to remain unnamed, the U.S. issued a strong statement about the fact that the South Korean government disclosed sensitive intelligence information regarding North Korea’s preparations to test-fire a long range missle by referring to it as an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to media outlets. He said, “It can be interpreted that the U.S. is discontent with how South Korea arbitrarily interpreted the satellite picture provided by the U.S. and shared it with the media. He added, ”I am concerned that the Cheong Wa Dae intended to shift the public’s attention away from the death of former President Roh Moo-hyun and towards North Korea. He added, “If South Korea does the same thing repeatedly, the U.S. will discontinue sharing key intelligence information related to North Korea.” It has also been confirmed that the U.S. also protested the content of a South Korean media outlet article that reported, “The door to the storage facility for fuel rods in Yongbyon opened several times.” Kim Yeon-cheol, the head of Hankyoreh Peace Institute says, “It seems that the Cheong Wa Dae intends to pass the responsibility of the current crisis to North Korea.” Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr] [Spin] [Intelligence] [Friction]
• Winning, not Playing the Nuclear Game with North Korea
  By Peter Hayes and Scott Bruce June 2nd, 2009
  Peter Hayes, Executive Director of the Nautilus Institute, and Scott Bruce, Director of the Institute’s San Francisco office, write, “it is time to win the game, not play it forever. This is within President Obama’s reach, but only if he rises above emotional and unrealistic talk of punishing North Korea and focuses on the big picture changes to the strategic landscape that would be necessary to strike a deal with Kim Jong Il worth having.” [Test] [US NK Policy]
• Korean Tragedies
  John Feffer | May 29, 2009
  Editor's Note: This article first appeared in the Asia Chronicle. North Korea's second nuclear test and the death of former South Korean president Roh Moo-Hyun have thrown the Korean peninsula into a period of acute crisis and mourning. Hopes for Korean reunification and regional peace have become very dim indeed. It would seem that the extraordinary experiment that Kim Dae Jung initiated in the 1990s — inter-Korean détente and slow-motion reunification — has been dealt two mortal blows by the suicide of his successor in the South and the policies of his erstwhile negotiation partner in the North. In retrospect, both shocks were predictable. [test] [US NK policy]
• Amateur spies put North Korea on the map
  Living large ... one of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il's palatial mansions with expansive gardens. Asher Moses June 2, 2009 - 12:24PM A group of amateur spies has used Google Earth to provide a rare glimpse inside North Korea, one of the world's most secretive countries. By default the Google Earth map of North Korea is completely bare, with no roads or landmarks labelled. Over two years, US doctoral student Curtis Melvin and other volunteers pored over news reports, images, accounts, books and maps painstakingly identifying and locating thousands of buildings, monuments, missile-storage facilities, mass graves, secret labour camps, palaces, restaurants, tourist sites, main roads and even the entrance to the country's subterranean nuclear test base. [Intelligence] [Media]
• U.S. delegation to discuss the North
  June 02, 2009 A United States government official who played a key role in freezing North Korean assets in 2005 will be part of an American delegation visiting Seoul this week, perhaps signaling that the international community will look to impose financial sanctions against Pyongyang following its nuclear test last week. Stuart Levey, the U.S. Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, is part of the American delegation led by Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg. The group arrives in South Korea today for a two-day visit as part of a larger visit to China, Japan and Russia. Those four nations, as well as the United States and North Korea, are dialogue partners in the six-party nuclear disarmament talks. North Korea, however, has said it will never return to those discussions. Steinberg is also traveling with Stephen Bosworth, the special U.S. representative on North Korea policy; Wallace Gregson, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, and Jeffrey Bader, senior director for Asian affairs on the National Security Council. [Toolkit] [Financial sanctions]
• No solution other than a comprehensive agreement
  Kim Ji-seok, Editorial writer [Column] The situation unfolding since North Korea conducted its second nuclear test is one that could turn into a major crisis at any moment. In these circumstances, it is likely that everyone will suffer if the right course of action cannot be found. North Korea’s recent actions differ from those that have come before. It must have some specific goal in mind in order to conduct a nuclear test amid warnings from the international community, but it is not at all clear what that goal is. It seems unsatisfactory to write it off as simple brinkmanship designed to increase its bargaining power and generate interest from the U.S. Experts are now focusing on North Korea’s intentions to strengthen the legitimacy of its system and increase internal solidarity. Behind these intentions are the twin goals of resolving the issue of succession and building a “strong and prosperous power” by 2012. Likewise, others are suggesting that in having secured its own position as a nuclear state, North Korea is proceeding on its own path with the idea of carrying out nuclear disarmament discussions with the U.S. Meanwhile, some military experts are focusing on North Korea’s intentions to improve its nuclear capabilities and export nuclear weapons. [NK US policy] [Test]
• Cases of Aerial Espionage against DPRK on Steady Increase
  Pyongyang, May 31 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppets perpetrated at least 200 cases of aerial espionage against the DPRK in May or 30 cases more than those in the same month of last year by mobilizing strategic and tactical reconnaissance planes with various missions, according to a military source. The U.S. imperialist aggressor forces committed more than 110 cases while the south Korean puppet army at least 90 cases. On May 28 and 29, the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces' overseas-based five RC-135s flew into the air over south Korea and were busy with aerial surveillance and photographing and electronic espionage against all areas of the DPRK. South Korea-based U-2 made shuttle flights from the east to the west all day long on May 30 to spy on the DPRK. The number of cases of aerial espionage perpetrated by this plane reached 25 this month. The U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppets let more than 40 strategic and tactical reconnaissance planes fly in the air over the front areas to intensify the espionage against the DPRK side in the period from May 7 to 13 when they were busy with combined air battle exercises in the air over areas of south Korea. In the meantime, the south Korean bellicose forces let two or three tactical reconnaissance planes make shuttle flights in the air over front areas in the East and West seas and the areas along the Military Demarcation Line day and night every day on spy missions. [Espionage] [Surveillance]
• Gates signals tougher approach to N Korea
  By Demetri Sevastopulo in Singapore Published: May 30 2009 12:46 | Last updated: May 30 2009 12:46 Robert Gates, US defence secretary, on Saturday warned North Korea that Washington would hold Pyongyang “fully accountable” if the Stalinist regime engaged in nuclear proliferation. Speaking at an Asian defence forum days after North Korea tested a nuclear weapon for the second time, Mr Gates said the transfer of nuclear weapons and materials would constitute a “grave threat” to the US and its allies. We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in Asia – or on us,” Mr Gates told the Shangri-La defence dialogue. The Pentagon chief said North Korea did not currently constitute a direct threat to the US, but said the progress Pyongyang had made on its nuclear and missile programmes was a “harbinger of a dark future”. [Proliferation] [US global strategy] [Test] [NK China] [Japanese remilitarisation] [US NK policy]

• The Case for a Peace Treaty to End the Korean War
  Korea Policy Institute | May 2009 (Also available in PDF format) Introduction North Korea's detonation of a nuclear device and firing of short range missiles on May 25, 2009 is a direct result of the collapse of the six-party talks, in which the United States, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), Republic of Korea (South Korea), China, Russia and Japan sought to negotiate the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The six-party talks fell apart last December over disagreements between the U.S. and North Korea on verification procedures. As President elect Barack Obama took office North Korea was willing to return to the six-party talks on the condition that denuclearization would be pursued on the basis of normalized relations with the U.S. However the new administration embraced the position that North Korea must first dismantle its nuclear programs as a precondition for normalization. Relations between the two countries continued to deteriorate. [US NK policy] [Sequencing]
• U.S. seeks harsh UN move to hit Pyongyang
  May 30, 2009 The United States yesterday said it was discussing with fellow UN Security Council members financial and military sanctions against North Korea, and underlined that it could fight a conventional war against the growingly isolated state if pressed.
• North Korea Is Warned by Gates on Testing
  How Hwee Young/European Pressphoto Agency U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates delivers his speech during a plenary session of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore on Friday. By ELISABETH BUMILLER Published: May 29, 2009 SINGAPORE — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned North Korea on Saturday that the United States would not accept it as a nuclear weapons state and would consider any transfer of nuclear material to other countries or terrorist groups a “grave threat” to the United States and its allies. “We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in the region — or on us,” Mr. Gates told a major security conference here that has been dominated by North Korea’s test this week of a nuclear device and the firing of at least six short-range missiles, all in defiance of international sanctions. North Korea test-fired a missile on Friday, according to a South Korean defense official. North Korea, Mr. Gates said, had a choice: “To continue as a destitute, international pariah, or chart a new course.” Mr. Gates, who was speaking for the first time at the annual conference, called the Shangri-La Dialogue, as an emissary of his new commander in chief, said the new administration had limited patience with North Korea’s bellicose words and behavior. President Obama has offered an open hand to tyrannies that unclench their fists,” Mr. Gates said. “He is hopeful, but he is not naïve. Likewise, the United States and our allies are open to dialogue, but we will not bend to pressure or provocation.” [Sequencing] [US NK policy] [Spin]
• Gates: North Korea should weigh moves carefully
  By LARA JAKES The Associated Press Saturday, May 30, 2009; 3:58 AM SINGAPORE -- The United States and its Asian allies are walking a fine line following North Korea's nuclear and missile tests: condemning the weapons threat without overplaying it. How to respond to last week's tests was a top topic Saturday for military officials and diplomats attending an annual security conference in Singapore. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called North Korea's actions "reckless." South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee called it a "serious challenge." Even China, which previously ignored United Nations sanctions to punish North Korea's 2006 atomic test, joined in. "As a close neighbor of North Korea, China has expressed a firm opposition and grave concern about the nuclear test," said Lt. Gen. Ma Xiaotian, the second-in-command of China's military. [test] [NK China]
• The North Korean Nuclear Test and Geopolitical Reality
  May 26, 2009 | 2337 GMT By Nathan Hughes North Korea tested a nuclear device for the second time in two and a half years May 25. Although North Korea’s nuclear weapons program continues to be a work in progress, the event is inherently significant. North Korea has carried out the only two nuclear detonations the world has seen in the 21st century. (The most recent tests prior to that were the spate of tests by India and Pakistan in 1998.) Details continue to emerge through the analysis of seismographic and other data, and speculation about the precise nature of the atomic device that Pyongyang may now posses carries on, making this a good moment to examine the underlying reality of nuclear weapons. Examining their history, and the lessons that can be drawn from that history, will help us understand what it will really mean if North Korea does indeed join the nuclear club. [US global strategy] [Nuclear weapons] [Deterrence]
• Neither war nor peace - the view from Pyongyang
  Dear friends, The situation of the Korean Peninsula, neither war nor peace, is running to the danger due to the anti-DPRK hostile policies of the antagonistic forces including the US and Japan. [Satellite] [Test]
• Pyongyang Ratchets Up the Tension
  by Marcus Noland, Peterson Institute for International Economics Op-ed in the National, Abu Dhabi May 28, 2009 North Korea's ailing leader Kim Jong-Il is determined to go out with a bang and not a whimper. Severely weakened by a stroke last year, the emaciated Kim has been frenetically delivering "on-the-spot guidance," as if to reassure himself and his country that he is still in control. This week's nuclear test was the most-recent and grandiose move to seal his legacy. Arising out of the context of presuccession maneuvering, this provocation is the latest manifestation of a retrograde turn back to the past, one that could have implications for the Middle East. [NK US policy] [Inversion] [Succession]
• U.S., Japan Want to Cut North Korean Financial Ties
  By Bill Varner May 28 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and Japan are seeking a United Nations Security Council resolution to cut North Korea’s financial ties to the world and forbid the regime from selling weapons to raise money, diplomats at the UN said. The proposed sanctions are being discussed by the U.S., Japan, Russia, China, France, Britain and South Korea, according to the diplomats, who spoke on condition they weren’t identified. The envoys said elements of a potential resolution have been circulated in New York and are being studied in their respective capitals. [Financial sanctions] [Test]
• U.S. grapples with idea of permanent nuclear N.Korea
  Fri May 29, 2009 11:10am EDT By Arshad Mohammed - Analysis WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea's second nuclear test has forced the United States to grapple with the idea that Pyongyang may never give up atomic weapons, current and former U.S. officials said this week. The potential implications range from a higher risk of global weapons proliferation, to an atomic arms race in the region, to a direct threat to U.S. allies South Korea and Japan. "This is a whole new ballgame and it's a whole lot deeper and darker and scarier," said a U.S. official who spoke on condition he not be identified. "It's a bit like when you get out a pair of binoculars and you get it just right. It has brought into crystalline focus what North Korea's intentions are -- that they do mean to develop this capability," he added. "It changes, or it should change, people's calculus about how to deal with this."
  William Perry, a former U.S. defense secretary who played a role in a 1994 U.S.-North Korean deal under which Pyongyang froze its nuclear program in exchange for aid, said the old pattern may no longer hold and that Washington may need to adopt a tougher line. "I do believe that diplomacy still has a chance of success, but only if is robust and only if the robustness includes some meaningful coercion components," Perry said at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank on Thursday. The best way to squeeze the country's leadership may be through financial sanctions "with a real bite," he said, adding that if these fail the United States should consider other steps, including the possibility of military strikes. [US NK policy] [Financial sanctions] [Military option]
• US Army moves to DEFCON 2
  28 May 2009 Sources close to MiNa claim the US Army has moved their alert level to Defcon 2. This was initiated by the alarming situation in North Korea. The US Army has over 35,000 troops stationed in South Korea, well within reach of North Korean convential weapons. North Korea has the largest artillery force in the world, which adds more to the already tense situation. Earlier today, N. Korea's leader Kim Jong Il issued threats to the South Korean and US Navy ships for coming too close to North Korea's territorial waters [Military option]
• South Korea and U.S. Raise Alert Level
  29 May 2009 One day after North Korea warned of a possible attack against the South, the United States and South Korea ordered their forces here to their highest alert for three years, increasing surveillance flights and satellite reconnaissance to counter what officials termed a "grave threat." The South Korean Defense Ministry said allied troops, including, 28,000 U.S. soldiers based in South Korea, raised their Watch Condition, or Watchcon, to the second-highest level from Watchcon 3 to Watchcon 2. [Military option]
• Casey: Army would have to 'shift gears' for N. Korea battle
  30 May 2009 It would take the Army time to "shift gears" if it needed to fight against North Korea, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said Thursday. Right now, the Army is focused on the counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but North Korea’s recent saber rattling has raised the prospect that the Army might be called upon to fight a conventional war. "I have said publicly for some time that if we had to shift gears, it would probably take us about 90 days or so to shift our gears and to train the folks up that were preparing to go to Iraq and Afghanistan to go someplace else," Casey said after a speech at a Washington think tank. [Military option]
• Does the Obama Administration Have Any Clue About North Korea?
  China hand Thursday, May 28, 2009
  Ah, for the good old days of the Bush administration. So simple, so easy to predict and analyze. One always knew that it would make the stupidest, most violent, and most vehement response to any policy irritant. Like Curly of the Three Stooges banging himself on the head with a two-by-four to rout a pesky fly. I am willing to give the Obama foreign policy team more credit. But maybe we’ve only upgraded from the Three Stooges to the Marx Brothers. I find the willful bewilderment of the U.S. foreign policy apparatus on the issue of North Korea’s recent nuclear and missile tests utterly baffling.
  The explanation, to me at least, is rather simple.
  North Korea is facing hostility from the right wing government in South Korea. It is dealing with calculated indifference from China, which is more interested in links with Seoul than Pyongyang.
  Therefore, earnest calls on China from the United States to handle the unpleasant, grinding chore of restraining and cleaning up after the North Korean pit bull are unlikely to yield positive results because a) the North Koreans are trying to break away from Chinese influence and will fight U.S. efforts to force them back into the framework of the Six Party talks; b) as long as North Korea is politically and diplomatically isolated from the rest of the world and hopelessly dependent on Chinese assistance and diplomatic good offices, it’s in China’s interest simply to let the matter fester without a resolution of the nuclear and missile issues that worry Japan and the western powers. The analogy isn’t perfect, but we’re basically telling the wife who’s screaming out the window that she’s getting battered by her spouse to go back and work things out with her husband. The way the current policy is evolving, it will simply increase China’s leverage on North Korea without achieving significant improvements in the regime’s behavior. One would like to think this point is clear to the Obama administration. Maybe they’ve got the whole situation scoped out, have decided that the North Korean problem will be solved in Obama’s second term (i.e. never) and have consciously made the call to let Kim stew in his dysfunctional relationship with the Chinese. Then again, maybe they’re just clueless. But in either case, for the sake of the long-suffering North Korean people, I hope the Obama administration has more in mind than malign neglect. [US NK policy] [NK China] [Intelligent design]
• S.Korea, U.S. on Increased Alert Over N.Korea
  Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command upgraded North Korea surveillance status by one notch to Watchcon 2 on Thursday, in expectation of more provocations following a nuclear test Monday. It was the first time since the North's first nuclear test in October 2006 that the CFC upgraded the Watchcon status to level 2. There were no immediate signs of impending provocations, but South Korean military authorities are on alert since they believe North Korea will carry out provocations along the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border in the West Sea, the Joint Security Area in the truce village of Panmunjom, or along the demilitarized zone. [US military dominance] [Sovereignty] [Military option]
• North Korea Tests
  Editorial
  May 27, 2009 Erratic, frightening and hugely self-destructive. Those are the words we would use to describe North Korea’s behavior. First it defied the United Nations Security Council’s cease-and-desist orders and tested both a nuclear device and half a dozen missiles. Now it is threatening to launch military strikes against South Korea and may have resumed production of nuclear fuel.
  Given all of that, and the fact that no one is sure who is calling the shots in the North’s capital, Pyongyang, it is tempting to throw up one’s hands and say that there is no point in trying to negotiate. But there is no military option here. Diplomacy — backed by stiff sanctions — is the only hope for walking North Korea back from the brink. And for now, China — not Washington — is the prime player. It is time for China (host of the six-party talks scuttled by Pyongyang) to exercise the leadership it has long shirked. As the North’s main oil and food supplier, it has more leverage than any other country. We understand that China is worried that too much pressure could topple the government, pouring refugees over the border. Beijing should be able to calibrate that pressure. If not, North Korea will end up with a nuclear arsenal that could pose an even greater threat to China and the whole region. Already some in Japan and South Korea are arguing for their own weapons. The Security Council displayed welcome unity on Sunday, condemning North Korea’s test and its missile launches. Now, it must impose new sanctions — and implement existing ones — on North Korea’s political and military elite: blocking luxury imports, freezing overseas bank accounts, and making it much harder for government-controlled companies to get the hard currency they need to do business. Pyongyang has already sold nuclear fuel technology and missiles to unsavory customers including Iran and Syria. And some analysts suggest, chillingly, that this week’s tests may be advertising. North Korea must be prevented from selling any more of its dangerous wares. South Korea’s decision to join the Proliferation Security Initiative — a voluntary group of 95 countries that shares intelligence and trains to interdict dangerous shipments — is overdue. North Korean officials need to be told quietly that Washington and its allies are not looking for a showdown, but they will redouble efforts to track those shipments and stop them if necessary. The goal of all of this is to get nuclear inspectors back into North Korea and North Korean officials back to the bargaining table. President Obama has said that he is committed to the six-party talks — which also include Japan, South Korea and Russia — and aides say to eventual bilateral negotiations. Those talks are North Korea’s only hope for coming in from the cold and ending its deep economic privation. Unfortunately, Pyongyang doesn’t see it that way right now, which is why the international response must be firm and skillfully choreographed. Loudly castigating and threatening North Korea and then failing to implement sanctions is worse than doing nothing at all. It will only embolden Pyongyang and send a dangerous message to others — Iran is surely watching — about the fecklessness of the major powers. [Test] [PSI] [Arms sales] [Cliché] [US NK policy]
• North Korea Will Never Disarm
  By B.R. MYERS Published: May 28, 2009 BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA — Let’s look on the bright side: North Korea’s latest underground nuclear test should put to rest several misperceptions about the country’s motivations. It is no longer possible for anyone to go on claiming that everything Kim Jong-il does is an effort to get America’s attention, or that he just wants to go into the next round of disarmament talks with a stronger hand. Nor can anyone seriously argue that all these hugely expensive exercises are aimed at securing more economic aid. In short, it has become obvious that North Korea’s nuclear and military provocations and the escalating belligerence of its rhetoric are motivated by domestic political considerations instead. [Bizarre]
• Maybe We Should Take The North Koreans At Their Word
  Pyongyang has consistently said that its nuclear weapons are intended to deter aggression. And, indeed, they do. By Tad Daley
  Tad Daley is the Writing Fellow with International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the Nobel Peace Laureate disarmament advocacy organization. His first book, Apocalypse Never: Forging the Path to a Nuclear Weapon-Free World, is forthcoming from Rutgers University Press in January 2010. Shortly after North Korea exploded its second nuclear device in three years on Monday morning, it released a statement explaining why. "The republic has conducted another underground nuclear testing successfully in order to strengthen our defensive nuclear deterrence."[1-see endnotes] If the Obama Administration hopes to dissuade Pyongyang from the nuclear course it seems so hell bent on pursuing, Washington must understand just how adroitly nuclear arms do appear to serve North Korea's national security. In other words, perhaps we should recognize that they mean what they say.
  Iran and North Korea appear to be seeking small nuclear arsenals in order to deter potential adversaries from launching an attack upon them - by threatening them with unacceptable damage in retaliation. Neither North Korea nor Iran could hope to defeat its most powerful potential adversary - the United States - in any kind of direct military confrontation. They cannot repel an actual attack upon them. They cannot shoot American planes and missiles out of the sky. Indeed, no state can. However, what these countries can aspire to do is to dissuade the American leviathan from launching such an attack. How? By developing the capability to instantly vaporize an American military base or three in Iraq or Qatar or South Korea or Japan, or an entire U.S. aircraft carrier battle group in the Persian Gulf or the Sea of Japan, or even an American city on one coast or the other. And by making it implicitly clear that they would respond to any kind of assault by employing that capability immediately, before it's too late, following the venerable maxim: "Use them or lose them." The obliteration of an entire American military base, or an entire American naval formation, or an entire American city, would clearly seem to qualify as "unacceptable damage" for the United States.
  no one seems to be proposing any kind of military strike on North Korea (sic). Why not? Because of the mere possibility that North Korea could impose unacceptable damage upon us in reply. [Deterrence] [NK US policy] [Nuclear weapons]
• The North Korea Nuclear Question
  Published: May 26, 2009
  To the Editor:
  Re “North Korea Says It Tested Nuclear Device” (front page, May 25): North Korea continues to show its contempt for the United Nations by announcing its second test of a nuclear device. Iran also has nothing but disdain for the United Nations as well as the European Union as it races nonstop to become nuclear. The United Nations fiddles while Rome burns. The only country with the courage to take military action against Iran is Israel, as its survival depends on Iran’s not achieving nuclear weapon capability. The civilized world has learned nothing from its painful experience with Nazi Germany. The more things change, the more they remain the same. Paul Schoenbaum
  To the Editor: Re “Obama Pledges to ‘Take Action’ on North Korea” (front page, May 26): It is quite understandable that North Korea and Iran would seek to develop nuclear technology. Nuclear weapons are a vehicle for attaining respect and perhaps deterring hostile actions by other nations. Although it is in the self-interest of the United States to limit the number of countries with nuclear weapons, there is also arrogance in the United States’ telling other countries that they cannot do what we have done. Jeff Atkinson
  To the Editor: North Korea’s nuclear test is bad news, but the United States has no basis for moral outrage until we ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. It was signed in 1996 but voted down by the Senate in 1999. Our failure to ratify sends a clear message to the world: If you have enough power, you can go ahead with your nuclear plans, unconstrained by the rest of the world. Stephen Hart
  To the Editor: North Korea’s decision to test a nuclear weapon needs to serve as a warning to our elected leadership that while we are naïvely dismantling our strategic weapons and platforms, there are still nations in the world that seek to proliferate these weapons of mass destruction. I find it disturbing that in the last few years, America has retired its most capable ICBM’s and air-launched cruise missiles — critical components of a modern nuclear deterrent — while nations like Iran, North Korea, Pakistan and others continue to work on weapons of mass destruction. D
  To the Editor: My recent trip to North Korea convinced me that the North Koreans are justified in claiming that they need a nuclear weapon as a deterrent. The United States military maintains a base in South Korea and at least once a year conducts joint exercises with the South Korean military, practicing a land invasion of North Korea. The United States Air Force maintains “a nuclear umbrella” over South Korea with nuclear bombs positioned in Okinawa, Guam and Hawaii. North Korea’s neighbors, China and Russia, already have nuclear bombs; and its third neighbor, Japan, says it can produce one within six months. These are good reasons for the North Koreans to feel a need for a nuclear bomb as a deterrent. It would be easy for the new, hostile leadership of South Korea to find a pretext to launch an invasion. Paul Sack [test] [Double standards] [NK US policy]
• Tests Point to Spread of Weapons Trade
  By JAY SOLOMON WASHINGTON -- Signs of growth in North Korea's nuclear program and the country's increasing isolation are renewing fears about Pyongyang's ability and need to smuggle weapons of mass destruction around the world, said U.S. and United Nations officials. North Korea's arms trade has focused on Iran and Syria, countries Washington views as state sponsors of terrorism, as well as Libya. Officials say North Korean arms have also been sold to nations allied with the U.S., such as Egypt and Pakistan, and to the military regime in Myanmar. The concerns about North Korean weapons proliferation were heightened this week with Pyongyang's underground test of a nuclear weapon and several short-range missile launches. Sales of short- and medium-range missile systems remain among North Korea's largest export earners, part of an arms trade that generates $1.5 billion annually for Pyongyang, say North Korea analysts. With the international community looking to punish the regime for the nuclear test, U.S. and U.N. officials say Pyongyang could try to increase exports of its nuclear and missile technologies as it gradually loses its ability to obtain hard currency from foreign aid and exports to markets such as Japan and South Korea. [Arms sales] [Double standards] [Sanctions]
• N.Korea's Nuke Test Revives Defense Debates
  North Korea's nuclear test has revived debate in the South about the handover of wartime operational control over the South Korean troops from the U.S. and nuclear armament. At the request of Liberty Forward Party lawmaker Chough Soon-hyung, the Ministry of Legislation recently issued a formal statement saying the current procedure for the takeover of wartime operational control of South Korean troops from the U.S. "leaves room for unconstitutionality." [Sovereignty]
• S. Korea ruling party asks to reexamine transfer of wartime operation command
  Some lawmakers say it is time to discuss details of U.S.’s nuclear umbrella, while spokesperson of LFP call for S. Korea nuclear armament » The new elected floor leader of the ruling Grand National Party participates in their Supreme Committee meeting at their Yeouido headquarters located in Seoul, May 27. The ruling Grand National Party (GNP) officially asked the South Korean government on Wednesday to reexamine the transfer of wartime operational control of South Korean troops from Washington to Seoul, which is supposed in April 2012. GNP Spokesperson Cho Yoon-Sun said, “We strenuously ask the government to review the transfer of wartime operational control of our troops under the present possibility of a nuclear attack by North Korea.” Following a high level discussion between the ruling party and government officials, Cho said, “We asked the government to raise this issue during the South Korea-U.S. summit in June.” It is reported that the government did not offer an explicit answer to the request.
• Calls Grow to Reschedule Command Transfer
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter Calls to delay the agreed 2012 transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) of South Korean troops from the United States have been mounting here since North Korea conducted a second nuclear device test and test-fired short-range missiles earlier this week. Arguments against the 2012 transition are expected to receive a boost, analysts say, because a 2007 deal on the wartime command transfer was agreed upon under the presumption that North Korea's military threat would diminish slowly but surely with progress in the six-party denuclearization talks. [Sovereignty]
• What Is North Korea Thinking?
  By Eric Etheridge May 27, 2009, 3:53 pm One nuclear weapon tested underground, one weapons-grade nuclear power plant restarted, several missiles test-fired into the sea, one armistice abrogated and war threatened if any of its ships are stopped and searched for weapons: Can North Korea stamp its feet any louder? At American Enterprise Institute, Danielle Pletka writes, “In the ‘cry for help’ school of foreign policy to which many in the Obama administration subscribe, North Korea is in the midst of a full-scale emotional breakdown.” “If past is prologue,” continues Pletka, “this latest North Korean tantrum will soon be followed by a payoff to Pyongyang. . . . If I were Kim Jong Il, I’d be figuring the payoff right now.” [Bizarre] [Tantrum]
• Pro-N. Korea newspaper urges U.S. to open two-way talks
  SEOUL, May 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea will continue to raise the stakes no matter how seriously it is punished by the international community unless the United States takes direct action to resolve the nuclear crisis, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper said Tuesday. The Choson Sinbo, which conveys North Korea's perspective to foreign readers, said in the article that the only way to stop the North's accelerating arms buildup is for the U.S. to discard its hostile policy and seek bilateral talks. [Bilateral] [NK US policy]
• WaPo’s Colum Lynch Gets the North Korea BDA Story Bass Ackwords
  Tuesday, May 26, 2009 I heard one Colum Lynch, UN correspondent for the Washington Post, pontificating on the current North Korean nuke crisis on PRI (Public Radio International). Lynch joined the PRI anchor, Lisa Mullins, in lauding the financial sanctions imposed on Banco Delta Asia in 2005 by the Bush administration as an example of " some measures against North Korea that worked" i.e. a model of effective multi-lateral soft-power shenanigans. I understand that liberals are enamored of soft power as a more desirable alternative to the “bomb ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out” unilateralism of the Bush administration. But listing the BDA circus as an example of the exercise of multi-lateral, rule o’ law soft power is nonsense. The BDA sanctions—and the hardliner policy behind them—drove North Korea to build and explode a nuclear bomb. North Korea only resumed negotiations with the U.S. when the BDA sanctions were abandoned. It’s an embarrassing chapter in neo-con history; I guess that’s why we don’t hear much about it. Except here. [Toolkit] [BDA] [Inversion] [Media]
• North Korea: the world watches Obama
  The US president has plenty of options on North Korea – what he does next will show us what he's made of Simon Tisdall guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 May 2009 19.01 BST Article history It's become fashionable to argue that the US and the international community, however that entity is defined, can do little to rein in maverick, gun-totin', bomb-throwing North Korea. Bill Clinton tried being nice, sending his secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, to Pyongyang, and that didn't work. George Bush tried being horrid, talked about the "axis of evil", then switched back to nice. That had no lasting impact, either. [Bizarre]
• Full participation in PSI and worsening inter-Korean relations
  [Editorial] South Korea announced its full-scale participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) on Tuesday. The punitive response for North Korea’s second nuclear test on Monday is inappropriate. Of course, it is appropriate to ask North Korea to be accountable for both launching a long-range rocket and its second nuclear test. A United Nations Security Council meeting was immediately convened to begin discussions on sanctions for North Korea’s bad behavior. However, the most critical thing to do now is to find a solution. North Korea’s second nuclear test indicates that it is moving closer to becoming a fully-fledged nuclear-armed state. North Korea’s rise as a nuclear state creates a tense situation and could threaten regional security and peace.
• A More Expensive Bill for North Korea
  Brent Choi and Joowoon Jung | May 22, 2009 This essay is part of a strategic dialogue on North Korea that includes this article by John Feffer. The authors respond to each other here. North Korea recently announced that it would launch intercontinental ballistic missiles and conduct nuclear tests unless the United Nations Security Council apologized for condemning the country's launching of a long-range rocket on April 5. The North is taking a quite different approach now compared with the crises of 1994, when it first confronted the Clinton administration with its nuclear program, and in 2006, when it conducted its first nuclear test. During those crises, North Korea was more concerned about the U.S. government's reaction. The North Korean Foreign Ministry made its announcements and then waited to see how the United States would respond before taking further action. This time, however, North Korea doesn’t seem to be waiting for a U.S. response, so Washington should craft a different policy to inhibit North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. [US NK policy]
• Strategic Dialogue on North Korea
  Brent Choi, Joowoon Jung, and John Feffer | May 22, 2009 The initial essays in this strategic dialogue can be found here and here. Brent Choi and Joowon Jung John Feffer is a North Korea specialist who is well known for his pro-engagement policy toward North Korea. In his article North Korea and Malign Neglect, it's not surprising that Feffer argues for an engagement approach as a solution to the North Korean nuclear issue. Such a point of view, however, results in unrealistic and unbalanced claims in several respects. First of all, Feffer fails to recognize the fact that it is North Korea that should be held accountable for the current standoff between the United States and the North. His assertion that the Obama administration has been using a "malign neglect" policy in dealing with the North over the past 9 months is not true. [US NK policy]
• N. Korea challenges U.S.’s “benign neglect” policy with second nuclear test
  Analysis] While the test represents its all-out strategy to heighten the crisis, observers suggest a path to negotiations is still open » An official from the Korea Meteorological Administration points to seismic activity detected near Gilju, North Hamgyong Province, May 25. North Korea’s nuclear test on Monday appears to fall in line with its all-out strategy to heighten the crisis. It may have also decided that because it is not in the middle of negotiations that it would not suffer anything more than the sanctions it has already received for its recent rocket launch. North Korea’s warning of additional self-defense nuclear deterrent measures came through a North Korean foreign ministry statement on April 29. It was a direct response to the U.S. and others for both the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) president’s statement supporting sanctions against North Korea on April 5, and the UNSC Sanctions Committee decision to sanction three North Korean companies on April 25. When North Korea pledged to conduct nuclear tests in the past, the only alternative was to resolve the situation through negotiations otherwise North Korea would push through with the nuclear test. In contrast and while it did not get much attention at the time, there was something different about the last foreign ministry statement from North Korea. The part that said if the “UN Security Council didn‘t immediately apologize,” North Korea would take “additional self-defense measures” was different. North Korea imposed an impossible condition, and consequently, one can see that North Korea was already fixated on conducting a nuclear test. Gary Samore, a White House coordinator for weapons of mass destruction policy and a key figure handling U.S.’s North Korea policy, appeared to speak along these lines on May 1, immediately after North Korea’s statement had been presented, when he said a second nuclear test from North Korea was likely and it seemed like it wanted to pick a fight.
  Peter Beck, a professor at American University who is close to Obama administration officials, said he had heard that the administration had decided to not engage with North Korea further, and to wait until either North Korea steps forward with a rational attitude or China twists its arm to act rationally.
  The issue facing us now is whether the nuclear test can lead to negotiations. [US NK policy]
• S. Korea announces full participation of PSI
  It says, decided that in order to counter the serious crisis on world peace and security » Mun Tae-young, the spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry announces, ”South Korea’s government decided on May 26“ at ministry headquarters in Seoul, May 25. South Korea announced that it will fully participate in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative on Tuesday. Mun Tae-young, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry said, “South Korea’s government decided on May 26 to become a full participant in PSI in order to counter the serious crisis of world peace and security due to the proliferation of missile and weapons of mass destruction.” Spokesperson Mun added, “However, South Korea will continue to apply the marine transport agreement between South Korea and North Korea.” [PSI] [Test]
• Tested Early by North Korea, Obama Has Few Options
  By DAVID E. SANGER Published: May 25, 2009 Facing the first direct challenge to his administration by an emerging nuclear weapons state, President Obama declared Monday that the United States and its allies would “stand up” to North Korea, hours after that country defied international sanctions and conducted what appeared to be its second nuclear test.
  Mr. Obama reacted to the underground blast as White House officials scrambled to coordinate an international response to a North Korean nuclear capacity that none of his predecessors had proved able to reverse. Acutely aware that their response to the explosion in the mountains of Kilju, not far from the Chinese border, would be seen as an early test of a new administration, Mr. Obama’s aides said they were determined to organize a significantly stronger response than the Bush administration had managed after the North’s first nuclear test, in October 2006. [Test] [US NK policy]
• An Early Test for Obama's Engagement Policy
  By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, May 26, 2009 President Obama came into office saying he wanted to demonstrate that engagement with hostile nations is more effective than antagonism, but North Korea's nuclear test now leaves the young administration with critical choices about its response.
  Does it ramp up the pressure with new and tougher sanctions? Does it not overreact and essentially stand pat? Or will it, like the Bush administration after North Korea's first test in 2006, shift course and redouble efforts at engagement and diplomacy? A key variable is an assessment of what North Korea is hoping to gain. Is it ratcheting up the pressure to win new concessions from the United States and nations in the region? Or should the United States take its rhetoric at face value -- that it is aiming to become a full-fledged nuclear power, no matter what the cost in diplomatic isolation? [Test] [US NK policy]  
• S. Korea joins PSI after N. Korea's nuke test  
     By Lee Chi-dong SEOUL, May 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Tuesday declared full participation in the U.S.-led  campaign aimed at curbing the spread of the weapons of mass destruction and related  materials, a day after North Korea conducted its second nuclear test.      South Korea made the decision to join the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI)  following the North's April 5 rocket launch, but it had delayed a formal announcement in  consideration of its efforts to resume dialogue with the communist neighbor. Government  officials said there was no reason to wait any longer as North Korea carried out another  nuclear experiment on Monday.      "The government has decided to endorse the PSI Statement of Interdiction Principles to  counter serious threats posed by the spread of weapons of mass destruction and missiles,"  foreign ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said in a statement.      But an inter-Korean maritime agreement signed in 2005 will remain valid, he added.      The initiative, launched in 2003, does not directly target any country, but North Korea,  long suspected of exporting illicit weapons and parts, is understood to be a main target.  North Korea has repeatedly warned that the South's participation in the PSI would be  tantamount to a declaration of war.    
• U.S. president welcomes Seoul's participation in PSI  
     By Byun Duk-kun SEOUL, May 26 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama welcomed Seoul's joining of the U.S.- led anti-proliferation campaign Tuesday, saying Seoul's participation is "very important," a  spokesman for South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said.      The South Korean president had told Obama of his decision to join the Proliferation  Security Initiative during their telephone conversation held earlier Tuesday.  
• North Korea Plans Kim Succession, U.S. Believes
  By JAY SOLOMON, EVAN RAMSTAD and PETER SPIEGEL WASHINGTON -- The Barack Obama administration has concluded that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, still recovering from an August stroke, has initiated a political transition inside his reclusive state in which his brother-in-law and third son are emerging as key players in a newly assertive power structure. This political shift in Pyongyang, senior U.S. officials say, has contributed to North Korea practicing an increasingly aggressive foreign policy. North Korea withdrew from diplomacy aimed at ending its nuclear-weapons program shortly after Mr. Kim's believed stroke. And on April 5, the nation test-fired a three-stage rocket, underlining concerns that North Korea is trying to develop a ballistic missile that can carry nuclear warheads. Leading U.S. officials are now publicly voicing their belief that Pyongyang will conduct its second nuclear test in the coming months.(sic) [NK US policy] [Inversion] [Intelligence] [Test]
• Obama faces N. Korea's brinkmanship even before developing policy
  By Hwang Doo-hyong WASHINGTON, April 25 (Yonhap) -- The new Barack Obama administration is facing North Korea's time-honored brinkmanship even before developing a policy on what to do with a nuclear-armed North Korea developing a nuclear warhead delivery system. With the advent of the 100th day of Obama's presidency nearing, the U.S. president is also seeking wider access to South Korea's auto market and consolidation of their decades-old alliance amid growing tension instigated by a nuclear-armed North Korea. By far, the most significant incident Obama has experienced in his relationship with either Korea as U.S. president, however, was Pyongyang's recent rocket launch that had awakened him before dawn at a Prague hotel. "North Korea's missile test stimulated the first direct statements on North Korea from the president himself," said Scott Snyder, director of the Center for U.S.-Korea Policy at the Asia Foundation. [US NK policy]
• Writing in order to remember Nogunri
  High school students are participating in a composition contest held in remembrance of “Nogunri Massacre” held under the bridge in Nogunri, North Chungcheong Province, May 22. The “Nogunri Massacre” occurred in 1950, during the beginning period of the Korean War, and 300 South Korean civilians were killed by U.S. soldiers. Photo by Shin So-yeong/The Hankyoreh [Korean War events][War crimes]
• Gulags, Nukes and a Water Slide: Citizen Spies Lift North Korea's Veil
  With Sleuthing and Satellite Images, Mr. Melvin Fills the Blanks on a Secretive Nation's Map
  Text By EVAN RAMSTAD SEOUL -- In the propaganda blitz that followed North Korea's missile launch last month, the country's state media released photos of leader Kim Jong Il visiting a hydroelectric dam and power station. Images from the report showed two large pipes descending a hillside. That was enough to allow Curtis Melvin, a doctoral candidate at George Mason University in suburban Virginia, to pinpoint the installation on his online map of North Korea. See some of the sites "North Korea Uncovered "users have identified. Mr. Melvin is at the center of a dozen or so citizen snoops who have spent the past two years filling in the blanks on the map of one of the world's most secretive countries. Seeking clues in photos, news reports and eyewitness accounts, they affix labels to North Korean structures and landscapes captured by Google Earth, an online service that stitches satellite pictures into a virtual globe. The result is an annotated North Korea of rocket-launch sites, prison camps and elite palaces on white-sand beaches. "It's democratized intelligence," says Mr. Melvin. [Intelligence] [Espionage]
• N.Korea's Grandstanding 'Suggests Internal Power Struggle'
  North Korea's recent grandstanding may be motivated by internal power struggles over who is to succeed ailing leader Kim Jong-il, Korean and U.S. diplomats speculate. In an interview with VOA on Wednesday, Scott Snyder, the director of the Center for U.S.-Korea Policy at the Asia Foundation, said the internal situation in North Korea is ominous and recent actions including the launch of a long-range rocket seem to have something to do with the succession question. There are opinions that for want of a properly prepared heir apparent, one of Kim's sons will end up as a figurehead for one or the other power group in the North. [Inversion]
• What Obama's Asian Ambassador Picks Reveal
  As U.S. President Barack Obama completes his appointment of ambassadors to major countries, stark contrasts are becoming apparent among the officials chosen to represent the United States in Korea, China and Japan. Obama evidently set the greatest store by the appointment of the ambassador to China. As he appointed Governor Jon Huntsman of Utah on Saturday, Obama said the position "as important as any" ambassadorial post because of the wide range of issues concerning the U.S. and China. Obama said working with China was a prerequisite to dealing effectively with the global challenges of the 21st century. And he chose a figure with a substantial level of expertise. Huntsman even has a Chinese name, "Hong Bopei," and is considered pro-Chinese, having adopted a daughter from China.
  But Obama apparently awarded the ambassadorship to Roos for his efforts in raising large sums of money for the presidential election campaign last year. And it seems Obama's picks for ambassadors to Germany and the U.K. were made along the same considerations. [Continuity] [Bizarre] [Obama]
• Kissinger Questions Effectiveness of the International System
  Henry Kissinger Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger claims on Fox News that North Korean nuclear issue is one of the urgent tasks facing the Obama administration. He said, "If Japan, China, Russia, the United States together cannot convince or -- a country of the size of North Korea by creating enough pressure, what is the sense of talking about an international system at all? And I believe that China and we and Japan should be able to bring about the denuclearization of North Korea." "In the short term, the [Obama administration's] preeminent objective has to be to prevent further proliferation of nuclear weapons into North Korea, Iran," he said. "If we cannot deal with a country [North Korea] that has no natural resources that others want, no significant trade, totally dependent on its neighbors for supplies, then what is the sense of talking of an international system?"
  Kissinger is currently being mentioned as a strong candidate for the role of special envoy to North Korea, if the Obama administration should send one. [Bizarre] [US NK policy] [Obama]
• U.S. maintains weapons trade embargo on N. Korea for lack of cooperation
  By Hwang Doo-hyong WASHINGTON, May 20 (Yonhap) -- The United States has maintained North Korea on its list of countries subject to weapons trade embargoes for their lack of cooperation in U.S. anti-terrorism efforts. "Pursuant of section 40A of the Arms Export Control Act and Executive Order 11958, as amended, I hereby determine and certify to the Congress that the following countries are not cooperating fully with United States antiterrorism efforts: Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Syria and Venezuela," James Steinberg, deputy secretary of state, said in a statement in the Federal Register dated May 8. [Sanctions]
• Kim Jong-il shifts to plan B
  By Kim Myong Chol
  "Upholding national dignity is much more valuable than a full granary." - Koguryo's most illustrious statesman Yon Kaesomun (603 - 666) "People cannot expect to be well off unless their country is independent." - Yi Korean Dynasty's 4th King Sejong the Great (1397-1450) "What is of fundamental interest to the destiny and fate of a nation is to safeguard its independence." - Korean leader Kim Jong-il
  PYONGYANG - In his drive to build a mighty and prosperous country and have the divided Land of Morning Calm reunified in an independent and peaceful manner, all indications are that Kim Jong-il, supreme leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), has finalized a little-known watershed decision in March to shift to a "plan B" after more than a dozen years of fruitlessly pursuing "plan A". The South Koreans now seem to be aware that the Kim Jong-il administration has shifted to plan B. The Financial Times reported on May 14, "South Korea is increasingly concerned that North Korea's latest threat to process plutonium to expand its nuclear arsenal is no longer a negotiating ploy to gain leverage with the US." The shift to plan B is a result of a critical policy review of the first three months of the United States Barack Obama administration and the 16 years of the two previous administrations of Bill Clinton and George W Bush. [NK US policy]
• U.S. reassures plans to engage N. Korea bilaterally on denuclearization
  By Hwang Doo-hyong WASHINGTON, May 8 (Yonhap) -- The United States said Friday that it is ready to engage North Korea bilaterally to reinforce multinational talks on North Korea's denuclearization. The remarks by State Department spokesman Robert Wood come amid threats by North Korea to abandon the six-party talks in retaliation for the U.N. Security Council's imposition of financial and trade embargoes of three North Korean firms after Pyongyang's rocket launch April 5. [Bilateral]
• Afghanistan Will Dominate the Korea-U.S. Summit
  The South Korea-U.S. summit is a month away. The two heads of state are already acquainted with each other, and the meeting will be important in terms of the basic direction for relations in the 2010s. High on the agenda will be support for the U.S. war in Afghanistan, North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles, the economic crisis and the bilateral free trade agreement. Of these, the most important point for the U.S. and the most sensitive for Korea is Afghanistan. The White House last Wednesday was so busy as to recall the heady days of the Cold War
  The Korean Peninsula is still militarily little more stable than Afghanistan, as North Korea's current antics show. A rash move of South Korean troops or the U.S. Forces Korea, which virtually play the role of an international security force, could be dangerous. Because the foundation of its political power is often shaky since the country democratized in 50 years where it took the West half a millennium, South Korea is still vulnerable to mobs (Sic). [Tribute] [Insurgency] [Democracy]
• Victor Cha Appointed to Korea Chair at U.S. Think Tank
  Victor Cha The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington, D.C., named Georgetown University professor Victor Cha as the director of Korea Chair which was launched on Wednesday. The CSIS launched the Korea Chair following Japan and China chairs in the belief that issues regarding the Korean Peninsula are becoming more and more important. This is the first time a Korea chair has been launched at a major American think tank. From now on, Cha will take charge of research and policy making concerning inter-Korean issues.
• Afghan Deployment to Test Lee-Obama Ties
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The Lee Myung-bak administration is in a big dilemma over a possible troop redeployment to Afghanistan following its 2007 pullout. Observers say Seoul's decision on the Afghan deployment could put the half-century-old Seoul-Washington alliance to a fresh test. Although no formal discussion has been made about the issue, informed sources here say the two governments have already started low-key, working-level talks to prepare for a deployment of either mechanics or combatants, in addition to financial assistance. President Lee, who puts emphasis on ties with the United States, is actually positive about a troop contribution to help settle the eight-year-old conflict in the terrorism-stricken Central Asian nation, the sources say. But Cheong Wa Dae is very much wary of a potential public or political backlash here over the Afghan issue, as it witnessed massive rounds of candlelit vigils and public protests early last year after agreeing to the resumption of the import of American beef, they say. [Tribute]
• North Korea and Malign Neglect
  John Feffer 15.MAY.09
  Asia Chronicle Columnist The Obama administration has started off on the wrong foot with North Korea. In the wake of Pyongyang’s April rocket launch, the new administration decided to push a statement of condemnation through the UN Security Council. It has subsequently decided to largely ignore North Korea. According to one U.S. diplomat, the administration believes that it has a nine-month window before North Korea has its nuclear program up and running in any serious fashion.[1] Until then, the administration will focus on its other global priorities: Af-Pak, Iraq, the global economy, climate change, and so on. In the meantime, North Korea has kicked out nuclear inspectors, declared the Six Party Talks a waste of time, and signaled that a second nuclear test may be in the offing. [US NK policy]
• Internal political instability led to recent provocations by N. Korea: CIA chief
  Yonhap News ^ | 05/19/09 | Hwang Doo-hyong
  Posted on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 12:11:24 p.m. by TigerLikesRooster Internal political instability led to recent provocations by N. Korea: CIA chief By Hwang Doo-hyong WASHINGTON, May 19 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's recent provocations have come from political instability following the alleged health problems of its leader Kim Jong-il late last year, a top U.S. intelligence official said. "There also are legitimate questions being raised about the internal stability of North Korea, given Kim Jong-Il's health problems, uncertainty about succession, the weak economy, and the persistent food shortages," Leon Panetta, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told a forum in Los Angeles Monday. "The result is that North Korea remains one of the most difficult and unpredictable threats that we face in that part of the world." Kim Jong-il is believed to have suffered a stroke and undergone surgery last summer. After months of disappearance from public view late last year, the reclusive North Korean leader attended a parliamentary meeting last month, limping on his left leg and with his left hand swollen. Reports said Kim has selected his third and youngest son, Jong-un, 26, as his heir apparent and appointed him as a mid-level official at the North's all-powerful National Defense Commission, through which Kim Jong-il controls the military as well as political and economic affairs. Panetta said the U.S. intelligence community has improved its skills at getting information on North Korea's internal affairs. "Like Iran, North Korea is a tough target to penetrate for intelligence purposes, but we're making good progress," he said. "The fact is, we had good notice about the fact that they were going to deploy the Taepo Dong missile and knew pretty well within an hour when that was going to happen." Panetta was talking about the North's April 5 rocket launch, which drew sanctions from the U.N. Security Council. Insisting the launch was to orbit a satellite, not a missile test, Pyongyang responded by threatening to boycott six-party nuclear-control talks, conduct further nuclear and ballistic missile tests, and restart its disabled nuclear facilities to enhance its arsenal. The conjecture is that North Korea's hardline military is taking advantage of a kind of power vacuum created by Kim Jong-il's health failure to derail the multilateral nuclear talks and strengthen the North's military might. Former President Bill Clinton said in Seoul Monday that the political infighting in North Korea has triggered the recent provocations. "Whenever people who have power in a closed society have any concerns about losing it, things tend to be degenerating to the lowest possible denominator," he said. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in February touched on the sensitive issue of North Korea's leadership change, while she was on an Asian tour. "There is an increasing amount of pressure because, if there is succession, even if it is a peaceful succession, that creates even more uncertainty and it also may encourage behaviors that are even more provocative as a way to consolidate power within the society," she said. The chief North Korean official in charge of inter-Korean relations has reportedly been executed in an apparent power struggle in which the hardline military has gained in the wake of strained relations with the South since the inauguration of conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak early last year. Reports said the North Korean official is a scapegoat for the worsening relations with the South and the new Barack Obama administration, amid complaints by hardline North Koreans that the rapprochement under the two liberal South Korean governments of the past decade has imbued North Koreans with fantasies of aid from South Korea and capitalism. The Lee administration has stopped short of providing food and other economic aid to the North, citing the North's nuclear ambitions, although his predecessors, Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, had funneled hundreds of tons of food or fertilizer, respectively, to the impoverished North every year. The North's parliament last month appointed Chang Song-thaek, Kim's brother-in-law, to the National Defense Commission, apparently to allow Chang to play a caretaker role in a smooth power transition. Another scenario is that North Korea's ruling Workers' Party and military leaders have been consolidating power around one of the leader's three sons to establish a collective leadership amid growing skepticism that there is time to groom a Kim heir for another dynastic power succession. None of Kim's three sons has had major posts in the government, military or the ruling Workers' Party, although Kim had consolidated power for two decades in various party and government posts until his father's death in 1994. Jong-un was born to the leader's third known wife, Ko Young-hee, who died of breast cancer in 2004. The second son, Jong-chol, 28, who was also born to Ko, seems to be sidelined in the succession due to a weak temperament stemming from a hormone-related disease. Jong-nam, the oldest son, who was born to the leader's late second wife, Song Hye-rim, has been adrift in China since 2001, when he was caught trying to visit Disneyland in Tokyo with his son and wife on a forged passport. [Intelligence] [Cliche] [Satellite] [Inversion]
• Top U.S. Admiral Speaks about N.Korean Nukes
  America's top military officer has for the first time mentioned the possibility of a second nuclear test by North Korea. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there are reports indicating that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is considering a new nuclear test, but Mullen declined to confirm or deny them.
• Bill Clinton, Kim Dae-jung to meet on Monday
  May 16, 2009 By Baek Il-hyun Former U.S. President Bill Clinton will meet with former Korean President Kim Dae-jung in Seoul on May 18. An aide close to Kim said Clinton had suggested the meeting. The former president will be in Seoul to give the keynote speech on May 19 at the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit, to be held at the Shilla Hotel. “Kim and Clinton will exchange views on issues ranging from solving the North Korean nuclear issue to peace in the Korean Peninsula,” the aide said.
• Diplomat Meets Detained Journalists in NK
  The top diplomat in Pyongyang 's Swedish embassy met with two detained American journalists Friday on behalf of the U.S. that doesn't have an official diplomatic channel with North Korea , Yonhap News Agency reported Saturday. The new development, the first such contactin six weeks, came one day after Pyongyang announced a June 4 trial date for the two journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who are Americans with Asian heritage. "The Swedish Ambassador to North Korea, acting as the United States ' protecting power, met with each of the two detained American citizen journalists on May 15," Yonhap reported citing State Department spokesman Ian Kelly. It's the second consular access to the pair by Ambassador Mats Foyer since March 30 when the envoy met them for the first time.[Media]
• How Bosworth Differs from Hill
  Stephen Bosworth (left) and Christopher Hill The only thing U.S. special envoy on North Korea Stephen Bosworth and Washington's former North Korea point man Christopher Hill have in common "is that they like sundubu jjigae (spicy soft tofu stew)," a diplomat said half in jest after Bosworth visited South Korea on May 8-11. The different styles of the two negotiators on North Korean nuclear policy are evident. A South Korean government official said, "They differ from each other very conspicuously in every respect, in addition to the outward difference that Hill was in permanent post at the State Department while Bosworth is in a part-time position" concurrently working as dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University. [US NK policy] [Negotiating style]
• Bill Richardson or Al Gore?
  Selig S. Harrison, Director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy
  [Column] Diplomatic scenarios for negotiating the release of two captured U.S. journalists now held in North Korea focus on proposed visits by Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, and former Vice President Gore, who founded Current TV, which the journalists represent. Richardson, now facing indictment on corruption charges, would like to use a Pyongyang mission to divert attention from his legal troubles. He has handled past troubleshooting missions to Pyongyang skillfully and the North Koreans might prefer him to Gore. However, Gore’s status as a former Vice President under a Democratic President might enable him to use a visit more effectively in opening up larger possibilities for a resumption of U.S. dialogue with North Korea. This, in turn, could set the stage for an eventual resumption of the six-party process at a much later stage. Conversely, with the trial of the two journalists now scheduled for June 4, there is a growing danger that a harsh sentence would heighten tensions. I have talked with the families of the detained journalists, who say that the two women have not been mistreated and are living in comfortable quarters while awaiting their trial. This information, which comes from the Swedish Ambassador to Pyongyang, Mats Foyer, who has had access to them, flatly contradicts the incorrect, propagandistic assertion in the Washington Post by Georgetown University Professor and former Director of Asian Affairs in the Bush White House Victor Cha that the women have been “forced into a world of barren prison cells.”
  Korea policymaking in the Obama Administration has been in disarray since the start and continues to be. The most striking symbol of this is the fact that Clinton’s choice for assistant secretary of state for East Asia, Kurt Campbell, is not likely to be confirmed by the Senate until late June or early July.
  Campbell is a hardliner and his relations with Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, could prove to be difficult. Bosworth, who headed the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization and visited North Korea several times, has had little impact so far. North Korea policy is being decided by Denis McDonough, the deputy national security adviser in the White House, and Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (UN), who were responsible for the counterproductive decision to seek UN Security Council sanctions against Pyongyang for its missile launch. Apart from Bosworth, there are only two officials in high places who have worked on North Korea issues in the past, Daniel Russell, deputy to McDonough, and Gary Samore, who handles U.S. National Security Council (NSC) non-proliferation policy. Jeffrey Bader, the Senior Advisor for East Asia in the NSC, is a China hand. [Disinformation] [US NK policy] [Bilateral]
• Gates: U.S. has 30 interceptors focused on North
  May 16, 2009 The United States has 30 ground-based interceptors specifically focused on defending against missile launches from North Korea, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates revealed for the first time yesterday. Speaking to the U.S. Senate, Gates said the interceptors can handle the missile capabilities “that North Korea has now and is likely to have for some years to come.” While many military analysts and experts long suspected that the United States had such technology in place for threats from North Korea, this marks the first time its government has provided specifics. Gates, however, also said that the United States will at least temporarily shelve its plans to boost the number of interceptors to 44 because there isn’t an immediate need. His comments came as he explained plans to cut the budget for a missile shield system. “Thirty interceptors in fact provide a strong defense against North Korea,” Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. “The decision not to go to 44 interceptors at this point does not mean we’ll never go to 44 interceptors. It’s just that...we don’t see the need (for) the additional interceptors given the pace at which North Korea is developing its program.” The U.S. and North Korea have been at odds following the North’s disputed long-range rocket launch on April 5. The United States has led international efforts to condemn the launch, which it believed was a cover for a ballistic missile test. The United States spearheaded the United Nations Security Council’s drafting of the presidential statement denouncing the North’s action and imposing sanctions on Pyongyang. The North has since threatened to conduct a second nuclear test unless the UN immediately apologizes. Pyongyang also has detained two American journalists and will put them on trial next month. By Yoo Jee-ho [jeeho@joongang.co.kr] [Missile defense] [Threat] [Spin]
• Switch Off the Aid Machine
  By ANDREI LANKOV Published: May 14, 2009 SEOUL — Recent weeks have been full of dramatic events on the Korean Peninsula. On April 6, North Korea, in spite of warnings from the United Nations and major states, launched a rocket (or, perhaps, a prototype intercontinental missile). Soon afterwards, it withdrew from the six-party talks on denuclearization, expelled foreign inspectors from its nuclear facilities, and asserted that it would soon start reprocessing plutonium. Finally, Pyongyang officials said that the country is preparing for a nuclear test. These actions are above all a show put on for Washington. Pyongyang is afraid that the Obama administration, distracted by the economy and the Middle East, will not pay enough attention to North Korea. This would be bad news for the Pyongyang regime, which has survived the last two decades through skillful, ruthless diplomacy aimed at maximizing unconditional foreign aid. Pyongyang needs the United States, both as a generous donor and also as a counterweight to China’s growing power. Pyongyang’s leaders know that to be taken seriously, they should appear dangerous, irrational and unpredictable. So, they are trying hard. [US NK Negotiations] [Aid weapon] [Satellite] [Inversion] [Cliché]
• A New U.S. Policy toward Korea: Korean American Recommendations for Real Change
  By John H. Kim and Indong Oh May 13th, 2009 John H. Kim, a Korean American attorney who served in the U.S. Army in South Korea, and Indong Oh, a Korean American Medical Doctor and co-chair of the June 15th Korean American Committee for Peace and Reunification of Korea, write, “As a candidate who got elected on a campaign promise of “change,” President Obama has a unique mandate and opportunity to shape a new U.S. policy toward Korea, including ending the long, costly Korean War finally and normalizing our relations with North Korea. However, it is not clear whether he recognizes the golden opportunity to bring a real change to the old, misguided U.S. policy toward Korea.”
  The recent uproar of the U.S. government and its allies over the rocket launch of North Korea on April 5 and the subsequent strong reactions by both the U.S. and North Korea confirm once more the deep mistrust and hostility that exist between the U.S. and North Korea (DPRK). The DPRK claimed that it succeeded in putting an experimental communication satellite into orbit. However, the U.S. military claimed that “no object entered orbit.” Considering the facts that India, Israel and Iran already launched their satellites, without any international condemnation, that Japan already launched 25 satellites, and South Korea is now preparing to launch its own satellite in July this year, it is quite understandable why North Korea is so defiant in this matter. [Satellite] [Double standards]
• U.S. Must Tread Carefully in Dealing with N.Korea
  The U.S. special representative for North Korea policy Stephen Bosworth returned to Washington D.C. on Tuesday after wrapping up his visits to China, South Korea and Japan. The U.S. special envoy to the six party talks, Sung Kim, who accompanied Bosworth, met Russian officials in Moscow on Wednesday. The purpose of the visit by Bosworth and his team was to negotiate ways to get North Korea to return to the six-party talks. Speaking with reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday, Bosworth said there is a high possibility of direct U.S.-North Korea talks and said he would think about the timing of that option over the next few weeks. Depending on how North Korea reacts, that means Washington-Pyongyang talks could take place before the South Korea-U.S. summit in Washington on June 16. The U.S. government has several times held bilateral talks with North Korea within the framework of the six-party talks. Now direct talks to convince the North to resume the six-party talks seem inevitable. But there are a few things Washington needs to be careful of. [Bilateral] [US NK negotiations]
• U.S. is considering a North Korea visit
  Bosworth announces consideration of face-to-face talks with North Korea after securing support from six-party talk allies for US-North Korea bilateral talks U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth said Tuesday he would consider over the next couple of weeks whether to visit North Korea. Before heading home from Tokyo at the end of his tour of South Korea, China and Japan, Bosworth was asked by a reporter whether he was thinking of visiting North Korea to talk with leaders there. He responded that this decision did not rest solely with the U.S., and was something that the U.S. would consider over the next couple of weeks.
• NK Sets June 4 Trial Date for US Reporters
  Two U.S. female journalists detained in North Korea for illegally entering the country will stand trial in Pyongyang on June 4, the North's news agency said Thursday. "The Central Court of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea decided to try (the) American journalists on June 4 according to the indictment of the competent organ," the Korean Central News Agency was quoted as saying in a one-sentence report by Yonhap News Agency.
  North Korea earlier said consular contact was allowed and that the American reporters were being treated "according to the relevant international laws."
• U.S. forces in S. Korea to hold evacuation exercise
  www.chinaview.cn 2009-05-13 17:32:19 SEOUL, May 13 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said Wednesday its 10,000 noncombatant members will conduct a semi-annual evacuation exercise. Family members of about 28,500 American troops stationed here and civilians working for the Department of Defense will be subject to the drill, the USFK said, without revealing the time of the exercise. During the exercise, only a few dozen volunteers are to fly to Japan while others are positioned into evacuation centers here. The USFK said the drill is unrelated to any current events, adding the U.S. would evacuate an additional 140,000 people, including the U.S. civilians and their families, from South Korea in a technical state of war.
• American Journalists to Be Tried
  Pyongyang, May 14 (KCNA) -- The Central Court of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea decided to try American journalists on June 4 according to the indictment of the competent organ.
• North Korea’s Latest Challenge: What is to be done?
  By Evans J.R. Revere Issues and Insights Vol. 9-No. 5 Honolulu, HI May 2009
  Karl Marx, who wasn’t right about much, managed to get one thing right when he declared that things occur twice in history, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. Both tragedy and farce have characterized our troubled relationship with the DPRK over the years. Today, there are signs that a new tragedy in this relationship may be in offing, this time of Pyongyang’s making. In 1999, the DPRK left the Four Party Talks involving the two Koreas, China, and the United States, preferring instead to focus on bilateral talks with the United States. Pyongyang also slowed the pace and the productivity of U.S.-DPRK talks that had grown out of Presidential Special Envoy William Perry’s historic effort to improve relations between the United States and North Korea. Both these moves severely reduced the chance that the United States and North Korea would be able to fulfill the potential of the U.S.-DPRK dialogue before the Clinton administration came to a close. The North Koreans were told as much by U.S. officials at the time. After a long hiatus in senior-level bilateral talks, the North Koreans re-engaged with the United States in October 2000 in a dramatic and determined fashion. A senior officer of the Korean People’s Army and first vice chairman of the DPRK’s ruling National Defense Commission, Marshal Cho Myong Rok, came to Washington and met with President Clinton and his National Security team. In those talks, Cho and his U.S. interlocutors made remarkable progress, reaching understandings on anti-terrorism cooperation and other issues and laying out the basis for a fundamental redefinition of the U.S.-North Korea relationship. [US NK negotiations]
• The New Korean Cold War and the Possibility of Thaw
  Georgy Toloraya
  In Pyongyang in late April 2009 this author got the impression – through both official and unofficial contacts - that DPRK decision-makers were in their hearts quite satisfied with the controversy about their country in the wake of the April “satellite launch”. North Korea had as a result once again become the focus of world politics. They seemed to have grown tired of the multilateral diplomatic process and frustrated with its “uselessness”, feeling that such a process would hardly help them attain their final goal, regime survival. They said repeatedly that Pyongyang had come to the conclusion that only WMD deterrent could guarantee their safety
  North Koreans became frustrated as their tangible gains from the multiparty process were marginal. They did not come much closer to getting substantial security guarantees, and even the largely symbolic (and easily reversible) “delisting” of the DPRK as a terrorist state caused much controversy in the US and elsewhere, and led to demands for new concessions from it in return. North Koreans saw that as a breach of trust. Modest economic assistance was indeed promised when the accord was sealed, but only Russia carried out its obligations (200 thousand tons of heavy oil), while other countries either totally abstained (Japan) or dragged their feet. The DPRK felt that its concessions were not fully recognized and valued. “Hawks” in Pyongyang might also have suspected that concessions were perceived in the West as a sign of weakness and testimony to their pressing need to normalize relations. No one was impressed, at least to the extent that North Koreans had probably expected, with the actual opening of its nuclear program and even the disabling of some objects, though such things were unimaginable just a few years ago. North Korea had gone much further than in Clinton’s time, but received much less in return
  The missile launch, widely publicized for nearly two months, became a perfect opportunity. North Koreans may have taken secret satisfaction from the fact that Western governments (especially Japan’s) swallowed the bait and gave the missile launch much more attention and publicity than it deserved. Dozens of missiles and rockets are launched regularly round the globe and only Japanese paranoia about this being an “enemy” rocket helped the impoverished country's once-a-decade launch of an outdated missile become the focus of global concern. Iran's successful satellite launch in February, despite its potentially much graver consequences, went almost unnoticed
  The US will sooner or later have to resume bilateral dialogue with Pyongyang. Otherwise new provocations would follow. [Bilateral] [NK US policy] [Satellite]
• US Confirms Operational Control Transfer in 2012
  The U.S. has reaffirmed that wartime operational control of South Korean troops will be transferred from Washington to Seoul in 2012 as planned, Yonhap News Agency reported Tuesday, quoting military officials in Seoul. [Sovereignty]
• US Calls for Sending Engineering Unit to Afghanistan
  The U.S. has recently conveyed to South Korea its hope that the ally will deploy a group of military engineers to aid reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, Yonhap News Agency reported Tuesday, quoting a source. "I believe officials at the U.S. Department of Defense recently indicated through the Combined Forces Command (CFC) and U.S. generals stationed here that they hope South Korea will contribute a unit of military engineers," the source was quoted as saying on condition of anonymity. South Korea withdrew its 200-strong team of military medics and engineers from Afghanistan in 2007, ending several years of deployment under a U.S.-led campaign there against the Taliban.
• North Korea Calls U.S. Policy ‘Unchanged’ Under Obama
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: May 8, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — One day after an American diplomat offered new talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, the North said Friday that it had become useless to talk with the United States, adding that “unchanged” American hostility has caused the country to resume and bolster its nuclear efforts.
• Seoul, Washington Need New N.Korea Strategy
  The North Korean Foreign Ministry in a statement on Friday said its study of the policies of the Obama administration for the past 100 days "made it clear that the U.S. hostile policy toward North Korea remains unchanged." It said there was "nothing to be gained by sitting down together with a party that continues to view us with hostility." Instead, North Korea issued the usual threat to "bolster its nuclear deterrent." After all this time trying to force direct talks with the U.S., the North is now denouncing dialogue as pointless. Washington is also stubborn.
• Afghanistan and North Korea policy impact on the Korean Peninsula
  Kim Ji-seok, Editorial writer [Column]
  If you combine Afghanistan and Pakistan, it amounts to an area six and a half times the size of the Korean Peninsula, which is 1.45 million square kilometers with a population of 200 million. Currently, half of this falls under the sphere of influence of the Taliban. The U.S. government under President Barack Obama is waging a war there with “Al-Qaeda and its extremist allies.” However, the principal enemy is not Al-Qaeda, but rather the Taliban. The U.S. does not really even know where Osama Bin Laden is.
  The Taliban is not a terrorist organization. It is a regional political and military force that merely shares the goal of opposing outside forces with Al-Qaeda. During the seven and a half years of the war in Afghanistan, the Taliban has broadened its support base with residents of the area. The concerns of the U.S. are clearly shown by the Obama government’s coinage of the word “AfPak” (Afghanistan + Pakistan). If they are to contend with expanded battle lines, they will need much more in the way of military forces, money and international support. Furthermore, victory is not assured even if all of these needs are met, since anti-U.S. sentiment and the influence of the Taliban are increasing in proportion to U.S. pressure.
  Second, there is the issue of North Korea. Just the like the Bush administration, the Obama administration has been contributing to the worsening of the situation by placing the North Korean issue on the back burner. This trend will continue as long as the U.S. remains focused on the war with the Taliban. Seeing some figures in the Lee Myung-bak government saying they need South Korean deployments in order “to gain U.S. support for Lee Myung-bak’s North Korea policy” is also reminiscent of the Iraq deployments. While the Roh Moo-hyun administration tried to weaken the influence of the U.S. neocons, the current administration is basically trying to curb moves toward North Korea-U.S. negotiations. The two administrations differ greatly in the keynotes of their North Korea policies, but they share the strained logic of connecting support for the U.S. policy in the Middle East with support for their North Korea policy. [US NK policy] [US global strategy]
• Talks with North remain possible: U.S. analyst
  May 11, 2009 Bruce Klingner Washington has grown more disillusioned about the viability of the six-party nuclear disarmament talks but is still willing to negotiate with North Korea over its nuclear issues, said Bruce Klingner of the conservative American think tank, The Heritage Foundation. “There is a growing acknowledgement and acceptance that the six-party talks won’t work,” Klingner said in an exclusive interview with the JoongAng Daily last Thursday, referring to the discussions involving the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China. “There were unrealistically high expectations in January [in the United States]. I think there are dashed hopes.” Klingner was in Seoul as part of the U.S. State Department’s Speaker and Specialist Program, which selects American experts to travel overseas to speak about U.S. policies. He was scheduled to meet with South Korean government officials and give speeches and lectures at stops in Seoul, Busan and Daegu. Klingner spent 20 years with the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency and has dealt with Korean issues for more than a decade.
  North Korea’s outreach and concession [would] show the benefits of soft policy and Obama would be comfortable in continuing the six-party talks by reciprocating with concessions of our own and even opening new lanes of negotiation,” he added. However, Klingner argued that North Korean behavior has constrained Obama’s ability or inclination to provide benefits “because he’s fearful of appearing soft or because his own inclination would be, ‘I can’t move forward and interact in such a bad way.’” [US NK Policy] [Obama] [Inversion]
• What to Do with North Korea Now? No Answers Yet
  by Nicole Finnemann (nmf@keia.org)
  What Happened On April 5, North Korea delivered on a North Korean promise. It launched a long range missile, also known as a Taepo-dong 2, a 3-stage rocket, in the direction of Japan. While monitors of the launch attest the rocket traveled for about 13 minutes before plunging into the Pacific Ocean, North Korea continues to insist it successfully delivered a satellite into orbit with the launch—something it had been promising for a few months to do. Arguments over the true intentions of the launch—including issues of sovereignty and peaceful rights to the development of space—seemed likely to derail any United Nations Security Council (UNSC) decisions. However, an agreement was finally reached on April 13 denouncing the launch. This sent North Korea into a wild tantrum of threats (to restart nuclear development) and breaks (from the Six Party Talks). [US NK Policy] [Satellite]
• US Evaluation of NK Policy Proposed
  By Kang Hyun-kyung Staff Reporter Rep. Park Geun-hye, former chairwoman of the governing Grand National Party (GNP), called on President Barack Obama to make an interim evaluation of previous approaches to North Korea by U.S. governments in order to determine what went wrong and learn any lessons. [US NK policy] [SK NK policy]
• Korea and the US in a Rapidly Changing World
  Shorenstein APARC Special Event Date and Time May 6, 2009 4:30 PM - 6:30 PM Availability Open to the public No RSVP required
  Speaker Geun-Hye PARK - Former Chairperson at Grand National Party, Republic of Korea Park Geun Hye, former Chairperson of the Grand National Party(GNP), entered politics with the objective of reforming the party system and the overall political environment and ultimately building a stronger nation. The daughter of late President Park Jung Hee,
  After her father President Park Jung Hee passed away (sic) on October 26, 1979, Park devoted herself to helping the poor and the marginalized through her management of the Yukyoung Foundation and the Saemaeum Hospital. [Spin] [US NK policy]
• No. of N.Korean Refugees in U.S. 'Reaches 81'
  The number of North Korean defectors who have entered the United States as refugees since May 2006 has now reached 81, according to the Korean language Voice of America service, citing the State Department's latest refugee entry data. The VOA report says in April four North Korean defectors set foot on U.S. soil after being granted refugee status. Three of them reportedly came from Thailand while the other entered via an unknown third country. [Refugee reception]
• DJ Seeks to Revive Sunshine Policy
  By Sunny Lee Korea Times Correspondent BEIJING ? Former President Kim Dae-jung, the architect of the Sunshine Policy of promoting engagement with North Korea, will meet with the Obama administration's front man on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, in Seoul Saturday. ``(The U.S. special envoy) Bosworth will visit my house in Seoul tomorrow,'' Kim said in Beijing on Friday, without elaborating. Expectations have been revived on the derailed multinational negotiation to dissuade North Korea's nuclear ambition, as Beijing the two prominent figures who support the policy of engaging North Korea this week.
  In Beijing, Kim underscored the grand principle of how the nuclear impasse can be worked out from here: to go back to the agreement both Pyongyang and Washington made in 2005. ``Both North Korea and the U.S. agreed to the September 19 Joint Declaration in 2005. So, the task now is to carry out that they agreed. And that would work," he said. In the 2005 agreement, Pyongyang pledged to give up its nuclear programs and Washington in turn agreed to move toward diplomatic normalization with North Korea as well as providing it with economic assistance. ``The two's cooperation in that regard will pave the way to establish a 'peace regime' on the Korean Peninsula,'' Kim said. [Agreement050919] [Renege]
• N. Korean Criticism of U.S. Has Familiar Ring
  By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, May 8, 2009; 5:53 AM TOKYO, May 8 -- President Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush have at least this much in common: North Korea's suspicious and reclusive government doesn't like them. When Obama came into office, North Korean leaders said they saw an end to what they called the "regime change" policies of the Bush years and an opportunity for warmer relations with the United States. As a candidate, Obama said he would be willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, if it would help remove nuclear weapons from the North. Kim's government, though, appears to have taken deep offense at the Obama administration for criticizing its long-range missile launch last month and for joining other members of the U.N. Security Council in demanding a halt to further launches. [Spin] [Inversion] [Continuity]
• Can Pressure and Neglect Help Keep N.Korea in Check?
  U.S. President Barack Obama's coordinator for weapons of mass destruction policy, Gary Samore, said Friday, "It's very clear that the North Koreans want to pick a fight." Asked if he expected Pyongyang to carry out another nuclear test, Samore said, "I think they will." An official who personally dealt with the North Korean nuclear issue under the Clinton administration in the 1990s, Samore is the Obama administration’s nuclear proliferation "tsar." Predicting that North Korea would be forced back to negotiations within nine months, he said, "We'll just wait." [Inversion]
• Korean Marines to Join SE Asia Drill
  The Korean Marine Corps is to take part from next year in the annual "Cobra Gold" multinational military exercise staged by the U.S., Thailand and Indonesia. The drill takes place in Thailand and focuses on anti-terrorism, peace-keeping, landing, and humanitarian support operations. It will be the Marine Corps' first large-scale participation in such an exercise and comes as Korea seeks to expand its international role in proportion to the size of its economy. [Imperialism] [Tribute]
• Calling the Bluff or Showing Respect? Short Term Propaganda Victories and Long Term Strategic Objectives?
  By Rudiger Frank May 5th, 2009
  Rudiger Frank, Chair of East Asian Economy and Society at the University of Vienna, writes, ?If we want to discourage the DPRK from reprocessing more fuel rods, from further refining their ICMBs and from developing a functioning nuclear warhead, we should stop telling them that all their efforts so far are not enough. By ridiculing these attempts, we win a small propaganda victory but also demonstrate to Pyongyang that they must work harder on these issues.? [US NK policy]
• Dealing With North Korea Difficult Amid Possible Succession
  Interviewee: Scott A. Snyder, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Korea Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
  Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor, CFR.org April 28, 2009 Scott A. SnyderKorea expert Scott C. Snyder says that North Korea's recent behavior indicates it feels constrained by the Six-Party Talks in Beijing, which are aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear programs. He also says that North Korea's recent launch of a missile, in defiance of a UN Security Council resolution, may be pegged to a succession process. Just as Kim Jong-Il took power after a missile shot in 1998, the North Koreans may be planning to elevate his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, to succeed his father. [US NK policy]
• U.S. asks S. Korea to decide on deployment of troops in Afghanistan
  S. Korea may increase financial support in the short term, while carefully examining troop deployment prior to South Korea-U.S. summit The U.S. government has recently requested that the South Korean government re-examine the deployment of soldiers from the South Korean army as part of support for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, sources indicate. A government official said Sunday that the U.S. government recently presented specific requests through diplomatic channels, including troop deployment and increased financial support from the South Korean government toward the reconstruction of Afghanistan. “The U.S. said that increasing South Korean financial support for Afghanistan was a pressing issue at this time,” the official added. [Tribute]
• Clinton has tough words for North Korea
  As N. Korea’s pressure intensifies, the U.S. responds with a tough line refusing economic aid until six-party talks resume With North Korea putting intense pressure on the United States through intimating that it may conduct a second nuclear test or an additional long-range missile test, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing Thursday (local time) that North Korea was digging itself into a deeper hole. She had some tough words, saying North Korea would get no economic aid as long as it refused to join the six-party talks. She also said, “We are very serious about trying to make it clear to North Korea that their recent behavior is absolutely unacceptable.” [Renege] [Inversion]
• Change in the U.S. a Sham, Says N.Korea
  North Korea on Monday said it can see no difference between the previous U.S. administration and the current one. It said the government of Barack Obama, one of whose election slogans was "change we can believe in," "is nothing different from the preceding administration." The statement was made by a Foreign Ministry spokesman to the official KCNA news agency. The spokesman said the U.S. forced the UN Security Council to review the North's "peaceful satellite launch" while "fabricating" a "non-binding" chairman's statement that led to the imposition of sanctions. He said such "illegal and foul acts" could not be justified. [Continuity] [US NK policy]
• North Korea: Unilateral and Multilateral Economic Sanctions and U.S. Department of Treasury Actions 1955-April 2009
  By Karin Lee and Julia Choi
  April 30th, 2009 Karin Lee and Julia Choi of the National Committee on North Korea (http://www.ncnk.org/ncnk) write, “all sides may find it a difficult and slow process to rebuild the momentum lost in the last half a year. It will take a great deal of effort for the promise of sanction reversals implied by US actions in October 2008 to overcome the new momentum of April 2009.” [Sanctions]
• No-Tech North Korea Won’t Attack the Super-Tech South
  By Kris Alexander  April 28, 2009  |  10:48 am  |  Categories: Strategery, Those Nutty Norks SEOUL, South Korea — With North Korea’s recent missile launch and its threats to re-start the nuclear reactors at Yongbyon, it’s worth asking: what is the prospect of all-out war?  Surprisingly, after a recent trip to South Korea and a tour of the Demilitarized Zone, I’m not really worried about the big one happening in the “Land of the Morning Calm.”  Here’s why.
  And that’s the whole feeling that you get from the DMZ. As you stare out across the landscape, there is nothing but empty ugliness. The North Koreans have cut down all the trees for firewood, and the hills are barren. Somewhere out there is one of the world’s largest armies and dug deep within the hills are hundreds of cannons aimed south. But, minus the world’s largest flag flying over “propoganda village” there is no evidence of civilization. North Korea is in the modern world, but not of it. [Bizarre]

• USFK Personnel Told to Behave
  The U.S. Forces Korea were under weekend curfew last Saturday, when personnel were required to attend a four-hour "Stand Down for Standards" training at their camps at the instruction of commander Gen. Walter Sharp. Sharp ordered the training early this month in efforts to curb a rise in crimes involving U.S. soldiers such as sexual assault and fistfights, chiefly in Itaewon, Seoul after a shorter weekend curfew was put into place last August. According to the military daily Stars and Stripes, U.S. servicemembers were told neither to mistake an "invitation for a dinner at home as an invitation for sex" nor to "have sex with someone for the first time if they were drunk, because one of them might not remember consenting to sex, and wake up believing they had been raped."[ US offences]
• Old Ideas and New Diplomats: a Fresh Beginning in Northeast Asia?
  By James Goodby and Markku Heiskanen April 28th, 2009 James Goodby, former U.S. Ambassador to Finland and a Research Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, and Markku Heiskanen, Senior Fellow at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) in Copenhagen, write, “It is clear is that only a comprehensive approach to the security problems of Northeast Asia will really get at the basic issues… By expressing a willingness to negotiate other mili­tary, political and economic issues together with the nuclear issue, the U.S. can significantly improve the political conditions for the negotiations.” [US NK policy]
• North Korea's Sunshine Policy
  John Feffer | April 20, 2009 Editor's Note: This op-ed was originally published in The Korea Herald on April 20, 2009. North Korea's recent rocket launch received few congratulations and many condemnations, including the recent UN censure. Although Pyongyang did not manage to put a satellite into orbit, it did succeed in getting the world's attention. It has sustained this attention by kicking out nuclear inspectors, vowing to restart its plutonium processing program, and declaring an end to its participation in the six-party talks. So, after this one-two punch, what should North Korea do for a finale? Here's my counterintuitive advice: Pyongyang can extend its 15 minutes of international attention by following its demonstration of power with a show of diplomacy. North Korea should revive its charm offensive from 2000, when Jo Myong-rok visited Washington and Kim Jong-il received Madeleine Albright in Pyongyang. It should adopt a sunshine policy of its own toward the United States, Japan and South Korea. [NK US policy]
• U.S. Changes Course on N.Korea
  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has apparently decided on a different North Korea policy from the one she planned three months ago. At a hearing by the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Wednesday, Clinton clarified the administration's position on stabilization efforts in Afghanistan, Taliban expansion in Pakistan, Middle East issues, and Iran's nuclear development program. But she said nothing about North Korea, nor did she mention the six-party nuclear talks. In her confirmation hearing on Jan. 13, she said, "We will... act with urgency to prevent proliferation in North Korea and Iran, secure loose nuclear weapons and materials, and shut down the market for selling them." At the time, she said there could be a chance for the U.S. to have a bilateral meeting with North Korea through the six-party talks. But on Wednesday, in a reply to a question by Republican Rep. Dan Burton, she said, "I think we have to be strong, patient, persistent and not give in to the kind of back-and-forth, the unpredictable behavior of the North Korean regime." Three months ago, North Korea was a potential dialogue partner. Now it is now a country which the U.S. should not give in to. "Nobody can rule out that North Korea will launch some provocation in time with President Lee Myung-bak's scheduled visit to the U.S. in June," a diplomat in Washington speculated. [US NK policy] [Media] [Hype]
• Korea, U.S. Discuss Relocation of American Bases
  Seoul's Defense Ministry says Korea and the United States have achieved "considerable progress" in narrowing differences on the timeline and cost-sharing plans for relocating American bases in Korea. During high-level talks, no concrete agreements were made on moving the Yongsan Garrison in Seoul and the Second Infantry Division base north of the capital to Pyongtaek by 2015. But the two parties reportedly came closer to an agreement for the second issue. Seoul has been calling for faster relocation of U.S. forces to the south of the capital while the U.S. had argued that relocation could only be completed by 2016 due to budget constraints. Korea and the U.S. are expected to hold more negotiations next week.
• NK Decides to Indict 2 US Journalists
  The two female American reporters detained in North Kora are to face trial at a local court as the North has decided to indict them in a result of investigation. "The authorities concerned have formally decided to bring the two American reporters to stand trial based on data of crime confirmed," the (North) Korean Central News Agency reported Friday, adding that the authorities concerned have completed investigation of the reporters. The agency reported in an interim report of investigation on March 31 that the authorities concerned had been preparing to indict them based on the confirmed charges, while continuing investigation. It said that the two reporters were suspected of illegally entering the North and doing hostile behavior against the North. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, journalists working for former Vice President Al Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV, were arrested after they allegedly crossed the border from China on March 17 while reporting on North Korean refugees.
• Campbell Named Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia-Pacific
  WASHINGTON-- Kurt Campbell, former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense, has been nominated as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, Yonhap News reported Thursday. In announcing Campbell's nomination, the White House said in a statement that he "is chief executive officer and co-founder of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), an organization dedicated to advancing a strong, centrist national security strategy," Yonhap said. He is to replace Christopher Hill, who was confirmed Tuesday by the Senate as U.S. ambassador to Iraq amid controversy over his lack of experience in Middle Eastern affairs. Hill doubled as the chief U.S. negotiator at the six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions, but Campbell's role will be different. Hill's deputy, Sung Kim, has won a promotion to lead the U.S. delegation to the multinational nuclear disarmament talks. And Stephen Bosworth, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, is President Barack Obama's special representative for North Korea, so he could oversee the six-party talks and other North Korea issues. Bosworth has said that he will report directly to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Obama, meaning Campbell is either being sidelined or at least will consult closely with Bosworth on North Korea, which is under Campbell's jurisdiction. In February, Campbell, who also serves as director of the Aspen Strategy Group and as chairman of the Editorial Board of the Washington Quarterly, met with a group of South Korean officials and scholars at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., on a closed-door basis to discuss North Korea's nuclear ambitions and other issues of mutual concern. Among the officials were Kim Tae-hyo, secretary for national strategy for South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Han Sung-joo, former South Korean foreign minister, and Wi Sung-lac, special assistant to South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan. [US NK policy]
• North Korea Decides to Indict 2 U.S. Reporters
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: April 23, 2009 SEOUL — North Korea said Friday that it had decided to indict two American journalists who have been detained for more than five weeks on charges of illegally entering the country and committing “hostile acts.” “Our related agency has completed its investigation of the American journalists,” North Korea’s state-run news agency, KCNA, reported. “It has formally decided to put them on trial based on confirmed criminal data.”
• Seoul caught in 'PSI trap'
  South Korea yesterday reaffirmed its intention to fully join a U.S.-led counter-proliferation regime, but remained undecided about the timing and conditions. Seoul had deferred its declaration of full membership in the Proliferation Security Initiative until after talks with North Korea over their joint industrial complex in the Northern border city of Gaeseong. At the Tuesday meeting, officials said Northern delegates repeated Pyongyang's rhetoric. The North had claimed Seoul's PSI accession is a "declaration of war" and a violation of the armistice pact that ended the Korean War. [PSI] [Dilemma]
• Sanctions Will Have No Effect on North Korea
  Andrei Lankov, Associate Professor at Kookmin University in Seoul, writes, "There is no alternative to negotiations with Mr Kim's clique. But Pyongyang dictators should be taught that provocations do not pay (or, at least, do not pay handsomely and immediately). This is especially important now, when Mr Obama's administration has its first encounter with North Korean brinkmanship." [Satellite] [sanctions]
• U.S. 'Welcomes S.Korean Membership in WMD Pact'
  A high-ranking U.S. official recently told the South Korean Embassy in Washington D.C. that his administration welcomes Seoul’s decision to join the Proliferation Security Initiative. "South Korea’s joining the PSI would also be a symbol of the strength of South-U.S. cooperation," the U.S. official said. The U.S. government feels the joint Kaesong Industrial Complex should be kept open as it does not wish the last remaining exchange channel between the two Koreas to be closed down, according to officials. The U.S. government fears that if the Kaesong Industrial Complex gets shut down, it will prolong stalemate in dialogue between North Korea and the U.S. as well as prompting North Korea to act more aggressively. [PSI]
• 'US Won’t Bend to N. Korea’s Unpredictability'
  The U.S. won't give in to North Korea's "unpredictable behavior" (sic) after Kim Jong Il's regime said it quit nuclear disarmament talks, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, according to Bloomberg. The U.S. has made it clear it is prepared to resume the negotiations, also involving China, Russia, Japan and South Korea, Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington Wednesday. [Satellite] [Spin] [NK SK policy] [Imversion]
• S. Korea, US Chart Contingency Plans on N. Korea
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter South Korea and the United States will complete their joint action plans to respond to any type of internal instability in North Korea this month, a government source said Wednesday. President Lee Myung-bak has recently directed the timeline for transforming a conceptual plan (CONPLAN) on North Korean contingency situations to a full-fledged operational plan (OPLAN), as tension has been heightened following North Korea's rocket launch and other provocative moves in recent months, the source said. ``President Lee asked the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) last week to finalize OPLAN 5029 by April 30 and prepare for various levels of internal instability in the North,'' the source told The Korea Times, requesting anonymity. [OPLAN 5029] [Regime change]
• Obama's Foreign Policy Challenge
  By Henry A. Kissinger
  Wednesday, April 22, 2009 The vast diplomatic agenda that the Obama administration has adopted will test its ability to harmonize national priorities such as relations with Iran and North Korea with global and multilateral concerns. President Obama has come into office at a moment of unique opportunity. The economic crisis absorbs the energies of all the major powers; whatever their differences, all need a respite from international confrontation. Overriding challenges such as energy, the environment and proliferation concern them to a considerable degree and in an increasingly parallel way. The possibility of comprehensive solutions is unprecedented.
  The administration's task, particularly with regard to North Korea and Iran, will be to keep the far-flung negotiations led by energetic personalities heading toward an agreed goal. In the process, it must navigate between two kinds of public pressures toward diplomacy endemic in American attitudes. Both seek to transcend diplomacy's traditional give-and-take. The first reflects an aversion to negotiating with societies that do not share our values and general outlook. It rejects the effort to alter the other side's behavior through negotiations. It treats compromise as appeasement and seeks the conversion or overthrow of the adversary. Critics of this approach, who represent the second sort of pressure, emphasize psychology. They consider the opening of negotiations an inherent transformation. For them, symbolism and gestures represent substance. Proliferation is perhaps the most immediate illustration of the relationship between world order and diplomacy. If North Korea and Iran succeed in establishing nuclear arsenals in the face of the stated opposition of all the major powers in the U.N. Security Council and outside of it, the prospects for a homogeneous international order will be severely damaged. In a world of multiplying nuclear weapons states, it would be unreasonable to expect that those arsenals will never be used or never fall into the hands of rogue organizations. A new, less universal approach to world order would be needed. The next (literally) few years will be the last opportunity to achieve an enforceable restraint. If the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia cannot achieve this vis-à-vis a country with next to no impact on international trade and no resources needed by anyone, the phrase "world community" will become empty. North Korea has recently voided all concessions it made in six years of talks. It cannot be permitted to sell the same concessions over and over again. The six-power talks should be resumed only if Pyongyang restores the circumstances to which it has already agreed, mothballing its plutonium reactor and returning international inspectors to the site. When those talks resume, the ultimate quid pro quo must be the abandonment of the Korean nuclear weapons program and the destruction of the existing stockpile in return for normalization of relations at the end of the process. [US NK policy] [Sequencing]
• Scholars around the World Express Concerns about Current Crisis in Northeast Asia
  Despite some hopeful signs in the last two years, the Korean peninsula is again teetering toward crisis. The Six Party Talks are stymied. Progress toward normalizing relations between the United States and North Korea has stalled. Relations between the two Koreas have deteriorated.
  In this context, North Korea’s rocket launch this week and the overreaction to it threaten to trigger another round of escalation. We urge all the governments in the region to remain calm and turn to dialogue and diplomacy to stop the peninsula from degenerating into a conflict. We believe that this crisis is a reminder of the absolute imperative of achieving permanent peace in the region. Frustrated by the lack of progress in the Six Party Talks and genuinely interested in advancing its space program, Pyongyang is making its second attempt to put a satellite into orbit. This time, North Korea has signed the appropriate international protocols governing satellites and given the proper notification. The UN resolution sanctioning North Korea after its 2006 nuclear test does not explicitly forbid satellite launches. That North Korea is attempting to abide by this resolution suggests that Pyongyang still wants to engage with the international community. We are concerned about the growing militarism in Northeast Asia, including increased military spending, destabilizing U.S. military exercises around the peninsula, and the bellicose rhetoric from North Korea. Japan has taken the current crisis as an opportunity to accelerate its missile defense programs; South Korea is solidifying its uncompromising position. We believe that an overreaction to North Korea’s rocket launch would only fuel North Korea’s suspicions and make further negotiations difficult. Talk of sanctions would only help end dialogue in the region. We call on the region’s governments to reaffirm the principles declared in the September 19 Joint Statement of the Six Party talks as well as the roadmap identified in the February 13 agreement. The six countries should abide by their commitments and move forward not only on denuclearization but also with the larger engagement package, which includes a peace treaty to replace the Korean War armistice, concrete steps toward normalization, and a roadmap that Pyongyang can follow to become integrated in the global economy and a peace structure. A narrow focus on non-proliferation is a recipe for prolonged, fitful, and probably fruitless negotiations. Only by expanding the number of options on the table can the Six Party Talks make headway. All avenues of communication and exchange, including bilateral ones, must be pursued. A bold move to open dialogue must begin now. [US NK policy]
• U.S. in No Hurry to Tackle N.Korea
  The U.S. administration has nine months until it will have to get serious on North Korean issues, an American diplomat recently said in a private conversation, suggesting President Barack Obama is in no hurry to deal with the renegade country. North Korea is trying to put pressure on the U.S. to establish bilateral dialogue by escalating tensions, launching a long-distance rocket on April 5, boycotting the six-party denuclearization talks and expelling International Atomic Energy Agency officials and the U.S. team monitoring the denuclearization process. But the U.S. has at best offered a token reaction. The main reason is in domestic factors in North Korea. The North's nuclear facilities are outdated, so even if it resumes its nuclear program, it will take considerable time for it to arrive at a point where it could pose a serious threat to America. The IAEA on Monday warned that North Korea will be able to operate its nuclear facilities in several months. Some diplomats feel that if North Korea wants to restore the reprocessing facilities alone, it can do so within a month or two, but it will take more than six months to restore all the facilities it needs to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. Thus the threat to resume its nuclear program is not enough to bring the U.S. to the table any time soon. Even three months after his inauguration, U.S President Barack Obama has not appointed the responsible figures who will take charge of North Korean affairs. Kurt Campbell, who is nominated as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and Wallace Gregson, nominated for assistant secretary of defense for East Asian and Pacific affairs, await their confirmation hearings, so the U.S. government lacks a big framework for its North Korean policies. [US NK policy] [Obama]
• U.S. Getting Angry with N.Korea
  The U.S. government is apparently getting angry with North Korea. Diplomatic sources in Washington D.C. say the White House and the State Department are irate at North Korea's refusal to talk following the launch of its long-range rocket, as well as its expulsion of International Atomic Energy Agency monitors and a State Department representative. [Satellite]
• [Analysis] Full participation in PSI becomes a “hot potato” for S. Korea
  Further delay in South Korea’s PSI announcement could draw conservative’s wrath, or otherwise lead to Kaesong’s shutdown Having gone from bad to worse since the inauguration of President Lee Myung-bak, inter-Korean relations stand at yet another crucial crossroads. On April 16, North Korea invited South Korea to Kaesong (Gaesong), the industrial complex in North Korea’s border city, for a meeting with officials on April 21. Immediately after the Hankyoreh exclusively reported the invitation, President Lee presided over an emergency Seoul government meeting on April 18 in which the government decided to delay announcing the nation‘s participation in an U.S.-led anti-proliferation campaign. South Korea was initially scheduled to announce its decision to fully participate in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) on April 19. North Korea has repeatedly claimed that it would interpret South Korea’s PSI participation as a “declaration of a war.” Lee‘s government has said that it will send a delegation of around 10 officials headed by Kim Young-tak, director general of the Kaesong Industrial Complex Project Bureau under the Unification Ministry. [PSI]
• Chaos in S. Korea’s foreign and national security affairs
  Editorial] The Lee Myung-bak administration has once again postponed its announcement of full participation in the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). This makes the third time it has set a date for an announcement only to change it, so there‘s no knowing whether it really plans to join PSI or not. It is enough to make you have doubts about whether or not there is a strategy, and if this is an administration that you can put trust in regarding the security and peace of the country and its people. At a meeting, characterized by discord between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT) and the Unification Ministry, hosted by South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan on April 14, it was decided the announcement should be made on the following day. The Unification Ministry had wanted the government to ”proceed with care“ in lieu of the more immediate announcement date settled on by the Foreign Ministry. [PSI]
• North Korean Issues and the new U.S. Regime
  Briefer: Dr. Masao Okonogi, Professor of Keio University Date: February 4 (Wed), 2009 I am Masao Okonogi of Keio University. Today I want to cover four or five topics: The health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, the succession problem, where the Bush administration’s North Korea policy failed and the stance of the new Obama administration concerning the North Korea problem, and what brought about the recent hard stance of North Korea toward South Korea.
  The biggest priority for the Obama administration right now is resolving the international financial crisis, which for it is a problem of the same magnitude as 9/11 was for the Bush administration. This means that the Obama administration must focus on the economy. It also means giving priority to such global concerns as clean energy and domestic issues like health care. For regional issues as well, the Middle East—Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan—is a much bigger priority than North Korea. That’s why my American friend said that in a 24-hour day President Obama will probably have about 5 minutes to think about North Korea.So, while carrying on the work of the Bush administration, the question will quite likely be something along the lines of how to form a link with the diplomacy of the last years of the Clinton administration. We [US NK policy] [Continuity]
• Anti-DPRK War Hysteria of U.S. and S. Korean Puppet Army Brasshats Flailed
  Pyongyang, April 17 (KCNA) -- Recently a brasshat of the U.S. forces in south Korea flew aboard a fighter of the puppet armed forces while a brasshat of the puppet army a fighter of the U.S. forces for the purpose of examining the posture for air operation and the capability carrying out combined operation for mounting a preemptive attack on the DPRK and they exchanged visits to the units of the U.S. air force and the puppet air force. The Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea in its information bulletin No. 947 issued Friday said that the above-said war hysteria kicked up under the signboard of "flight for commanding the air operation" and "combined operation" is an unpardonable military provocation and an undisguised hostile act against the DPRK. [Joint US military]
• Seoul-Washington diplomatic lines not in full service yet
  By Lee Chi-dong SEOUL, April 17 (Yonhap) -- Diplomatic consultation channels between South Korea and its key ally, the United States, are not in full operation yet ahead of major bilateral schedules, as the Obama administration's senior post handling regional affairs remains vacant, a government source here said Friday. The South Korean government customarily coordinates alliance issues with the U.S. through a couple of key lines -- the National Security Council (NSC) and the State Department. "Currently, however, the (South Korean) government mainly handles pending issues in consultations with the team of Jeffrey Bader, senior director for Asian affairs at the NSC," a foreign ministry source said. Consultations through the State Department are not as active as those via the NSC because the U.S. has yet to appoint an assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, the source added. Kurt Campbell, who served as deputy secretary of defense for Asia and Pacific affairs under the former Clinton administration, is widely expected to assume the post. There are no reports on why the U.S. government is delaying the formal appointment, but rumors have circulated that Campbell may need more time to clear his financial involvement in the Center for a New American Security. He is chief executive officer of the Washington think tank. The absence of the top U.S. official handling Korean affairs, with Washington's new regional policy still in the making, is a setback for South Korean officials preparing a new blueprint for the two sides' future alliance, which is set to be adopted at the June 16 summit in Washington between their presidents. But the fallout from the vacancy has been minimized on North Korea policy coordination as the Obama administration has a high-level envoy on the matter, Stephen Bosworth. Christopher Hill, the previous assistant secretary of state for Asia and the Pacific, was the key channel for Seoul's communications with Washington on the North Korean problem and other alliance issues. He had also doubled as Washington's chief delegate to the six-way talks on the North's denuclearization. "The North Korean nuclear issue is now largely discussed through Bosworth's assistant, Sung Kim (the State Department's special envoy on the six-way talks)," the source said. [US NK policy]
• Obama unlikely to bring dramatic change to Korea policy amid economic crisis
  By Hwang Doo-hyong WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 (Yonhap) -- Incoming U.S. President Barack Obama will not likely bring a dramatic change to his country's decades-old alliance with South Korea amid worsening economic woes that force him to be pragmatic in dealing with North Korea's nuclear disarmament and the ratification of a free trade deal with South Korea. "Regarding Korea policy, the main difference between the Obama and Bush administrations will be that President Obama will take a more pragmatic approach," said David Straub, associate director of Korean Studies at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. "U.S. strategic aims regarding North Korea and the U.S.-ROK alliance will not change." Marcus Noland, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, echoed Straub's theme, saying, "I do not expect Obama to have a particularly ideological presidency. His foreign policy views are pragmatic, and he appears to value cooperation with allies." [Continuity] [Friction]
• Should We Really Rush into WMD Initiative?
  After witnessing the government's confusion and feuding between ministries regarding South Korea's full participation in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), it makes one wonder whether we can truly entrust this government with the security of the nation. The government convened a foreign policy and security meeting on Tuesday and tentatively agreed to participate in the PSI. The weekly meeting involves the ministers of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Unification and Defense, as well as the head of the National Intelligence Agency, the chief presidential secretary for foreign affairs and national security and the head of the prime minister's office. [PSI] [Dilemma]
• Why Holbrooke, Not Bosworth?
  President Lee Myung-bak talks to Richard Holbrooke, the special U.S. envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, at Cheong Wa Dae on Wednesday. Richard Holbrooke, the special U.S. envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, met President Lee Myung-bak and Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan in Seoul on Thursday. Lee promised "substantial help" to Afghanistan and nearby areas. The government said Holbrooke was in Seoul to pay his respects on his way to a Pakistan donors conference in Japan on Friday. His visit comes at a delicate time, when South Korea feels the need to strengthen cooperation with the U.S. more urgently than ever before as North Korea once again boycotts six-party talks to end its nuclear program. A diplomatic source said, "The fact that the special U.S. envoy on Afghanistan, not Stephen Bosworth, the special U.S. envoy on North Korea, is visiting Seoul at this time is highly symbolic. It means we have to show sincerity in the Afghan issue before we can expect solid cooperation from the U.S. to solve the North Korean nuclear issue." A senior government official explained in diplomacy, the term "substantial help" chiefly means economic aid. "There is currently no discussion on dispatch of troops" to Afghanistan. [Tribute] [Dilemma] [US NK policy]
• [Editorial] No benefits from full participation in PSI
  The Lee Myung-bak administration had said it was going to make Korea a full participant in the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) if North Korea launched a rocket, but it has postponed the official announcement three times. First it let it be known an official announcement would come immediately following the launch, which occurred on April 5, and then postponed it to follow the outcome of the United Nations Security Council discussion, which issued a presidential statement on April 14. Yesterday, we were told the announcement would come by or around the weekend. Everyone and every agency seems to have a different interpretation as to the reason why. [PSI]
• A hopeful peace activist outpost
  Approximately 40 participants of the “International Conference against the Asia Pacific Missile Defense and for the End of Arms Race” visit the Odusan Unification Observatory in Paju-city in Gyeonggi Province, April 16. From the Odusan Unification Observatory, where North Korea appears very close, participants experience the division of the two Koreas with their own eyes. The Conference is being held by ten South Korean civic organizations to discuss the matter of U.S.-led Asia Pacific missile defense efforts. The conference continues through April 18. [Missile defense]
• Korean, US Troops to Hold Friendship Events
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter A friendship week for South Korean and U.S. soldiers will start April 20, the 8th Army Republic of Korea Army Support Group here said Thursday.
• Academic Science Engagement with North Korea
  by Dr. Stuart Thorson & Ms. Hyunjin Seo Syracuse University
  Sustained science engagement provides a valuable context for developing trust between individuals from countries with strong political differences. The trust-centric nature of collaborative science is especially relevant in engaging North Korea since, as with some other Northeast Asian countries, trust flows from the building of relationships. In their paper, Dr. Stuart Thorson and Ms. Hyunjin Seo of Syracuse University argue that science engagement provides a useful context for developing the relationships ultimately required for more broad-gauged cooperation between the United States and North Korea. Their paper highlights the Syracuse/Kim Chaek University exchange example, as well as lessons learned regarding the role that scientific cooperation can play in greater confidence-building between the United States and DPRK.
• U.S.-Korea: The Late Night Phone Call
  The quarter ended with the question of whether President Obama’s first late-night crisis phone call – the metric for leadership during the campaign – would be over a ballistic missile test by North Korea. The end to the quarter contrasted with its quiet start where the focus of U.S.-ROK bilateral relations was on initial contacts between the Lee and Obama administration teams and policy coordination over the global financial crisis. However events unfold, the launch itself gives the new administration its first taste of North Korean bad behavior (sic) and confronts it with the problem of inding the right balance between under- and over-reaction that is needed to move denuclearization negotiations forward. [US NK policy] [Satellite] [Double standards]
• North Korea-South Korea: Squeezing the Border
  This was a quarter when the expectation of an event dominated the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia more widely. Suspected since January, announced in February and awaited throughout March, despite all efforts to dissuade it North Korea launched a rocket on April 5. This evoked a broader context, and a seeming shift in Pyongyang. Even by the DPRK’s unfathomable logic, firing a big rocket – satellite or no – seemed a rude and perverse way to greet a new U.S. president avowedly committed to engagement with Washington’s foes. Yet, no fewer than four separate senior private U.S. delegations, visiting Pyongyang in unusually swift succession during the past quarter, heard the same uncompromising message: North Korea apparently just is not interested in an opportunity for a fresh start offered by a radically different incumbent of the White House. [NK US policy] [Inversion] [Continuity]
• Seoul Delays Decision on WMD Initiative
  Seoul again delayed announcing its full membership in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, planned for Wednesday, until the weekend. [PSI]
• N. Korea’s Puzzling Intent
  By Tong Kim There seemed to be a consensus among North Korea watchers here in the United States that the Obama administration offers the best chance in a long time for the North to strike a deal with the United States. It is puzzling that the North, instead of grabbing the opportunity up front, has continued raising tensions, ultimately with its rocket launch. [NK US policy] [Satellite]
• U.S. Looks to Balance Response to N. Korea
  Officials Press for Sanctions While Promoting Talks By Colum Lynch and Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, April 16, 2009 UNITED NATIONS, April 15 -- North Korea's rapid moves to eject international inspectors and restart its nuclear facility have left the Obama administration scrambling to demonstrate resolve while leaving the door open to talks that will defuse the latest crisis on the Korean Peninsula. The administration yesterday proposed imposing United Nations financial sanctions on 11 North Korean companies it says are involved in the country's lucrative trade in ballistic missile technology. But U.S. officials have balanced punitive actions with frequent official statements that North Korea should return to six-nation talks on eliminating its nuclear stockpile. [US NK policy]
• What Seoul's Decision to Join WMD Initiative Means
  The South Korean government's decision to join the Proliferation Security Initiative is based on a conviction that there is no longer any reason to delay joining international efforts to halt the spread of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. Seoul has reserved taking part in the PSI for fear of angering North Korea, but following the North's rocket launch and discussions at the UN Security Council over sanctions, it has decided to rectify this. [PSI]
• S. Korea announces full participation in PSI
  Possibilities of an inter-Korea class heighten, while observes expect N. Korea to make tough countermeasures The South Korean government decided yesterday to become a full participant in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) on weapons of mass destruction, potentially raising the level of the already-heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula. Some worry that the move is a “dangerous” decision that could lead to a military clash between South and North Korea. [PSI]
• America's N.Korea Envoy Lying Low
  Diplomats in Korea are grumbling that the U.S. special envoy on North Korea Stephen Bosworth has been conspicuous by absence in the 10 days since North Korea launched a long-range rocket. Bosworth, a part-time government employee, has not been seen in public since he resumed his duties as dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University following a press interview he gave in Washington on April 3, two days before the North launched the rocket. Since then, he has not spoken to South Korea's chief nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac, ostensibly his counterpart [Satellite] [US NK policy]
• [Kim Jong-il‘s third term: foreign relations] Outwardly N. Korea holds no “illusions” about U.S.
  N. Korea prepares to engage the U.S. despite mute protest, while hinting at tough future relations with S. Korea With the help of experts at the Hankyoreh Peace Research Institute, the Hankyoreh presents its analysis and forecasts on the character and direction of “Kim Jong-il‘s Third Term System,” which was inaugurated by the first meeting of North Korea’s 12th Supreme People‘s Assembly last Thursday. -- Editor Lee Jeong-chul, professor, Soongsil University In September 2003, a noteworthy resolution regarding diplomatic matters was adopted at the first meeting of the 11th Supreme People’s Assembly, which announced the beginning of Kim Jong-il‘s second term as North Korea’s leader. At that time, the first meeting of the six-party talks had just ended without concrete results, and the situation was ripe for the military and other areas of the country to dispute the effectiveness of participating in the talks. Amid this state of affairs, the Assembly sent an unprecedented message of support and encouragement for the Foreign Ministry‘s foreign policy activities and its discretionary powers. [NK US Policy]
• Seoul to join Proliferation Security Initiative quickly
  April 14, 2009 South Korea has informed the United States and other allies of its intention to join a U.S.-led multinational effort to curb trading of weapons of mass destruction. Moon Tae-young, the spokesman of the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, said yesterday that the South has talked with its allies, including the United States, about joining the Proliferation Security Initiative, or PSI. [PSI]
• Inefficacy of full participation in PSI
  Moon Chung-in, Professor, Department of Political Science & International Studies, Yonsei University [Column] North Korea’s rocket launch has left a rough storm in its wake. The South Korean government is both looking for a strong resolution presenting sanctions at the United Nations Security Council and mulling over full participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) on weapons of mass destruction. Judging from the situation so far, this approach is understandable, but one cannot help feeling concerns. [PSI] [Satellite]
• Let Them Eat Rockets
  By DANIEL SNEIDER Published: April 8, 2009 Op-Ed Contributor North Korean television watchers tuned in this week to scenes of a gleaming high-tech control room, followed by footage of a rocket rising triumphantly into space on Sunday, purportedly sending a satellite circling the earth broadcasting revolutionary songs. Viewers also caught a glimpse of another celestial object — an hour-long documentary showed the country’s idolized leader, Kim Jong Il, energetically inspecting factories and farms. These were the first moving pictures of Kim since he suffered an apparent stroke last August. The propaganda pairing was clearly meant to convey an impression of strength and legitimacy. Kim, reportedly present at the launch, crowed about the triumph of “a great prosperous and powerful nation.”
  This is the time to be calm and realize that time is not on the side of Kim Jong Il and his shaky regime. There is no reason to close any doors, but there is also no reason to panic and inadvertently aid a state whose main victims are its own people. Daniel Sneider is the associate director for research at Stanford University’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. [US NK policy] [Bizarre]
• It's Your Country Too, Mr. President
  By Charles Krauthammer Friday, April 10, 2009; Page A17 In his major foreign policy address in Prague committing the United States to a world without nuclear weapons, President Obama took note of North Korea's missile launch just hours earlier and then grandiloquently proclaimed: "Rules must be binding. Violations must be punished. Words must mean something. The world must stand together to prevent the spread of these weapons. Now is the time for a strong international response." A more fatuous presidential call to arms is hard to conceive. What "strong international response" did Obama muster to North Korea's brazen defiance of a Chapter 7 -- "binding," as it were -- U.N. resolution prohibiting such a launch? The obligatory emergency Security Council session produced nothing. No sanctions. No resolution. Not even a statement. China and Russia professed to find no violation whatsoever. They would not even permit a U.N. statement that dared express "concern," let alone condemnation. [Satellite] [Bizarre]
• S. Korea supports N. Korea-U.S. direct dialogue within the six-party framework
  Supporting six-party talks remains S. Korea‘s only choice for direct communication, while experts worry about longer timetables for nuclear dismantlement and missile compensation Amid talks by the international community over how to respond to North Korea’s rocket launch, the South Korean government is believed to have determined that it would support direct talks between Pyongyang and Washington under the framework of the six-party negotiations. An official at the South Korean government on April 8 said, “South Korea and the U.S. share common ground that the missile issue should be dealt with through the framework of the six-party talks,” the official said. In March, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had proposed that North Korea‘s missile issue be on the agenda of the six-party negotiations. At first, the strategy to deal with North Korea’s missile issue with possibilities of compensation at the six-party talks was seen as an intention to lure North Korea to a negotiating table. The idea was to let North Korea enter the talks by indicating the amount of return they could receive had the possibility of increasing. [Bilateral]
• Reading North Korea Right
  By Stephen Noerper April 7th, 2009 Stephen Noerper, Senior Fellow at the EastWest Institute and a Nautilus Institute Senior Associate, writes, “A Chinese adage suggests that a ‘cornered dog bites.’ President Obama and the international community should signal that we are not simply responding to a crisis or ‘managing’ the North Korean problem. It is time to address and, where possible, eliminate problem areas with North Korea­while maintaining a ‘stern and unified’ stance on the core issues.” [Satellite] [US NK policy]
• A need for restraint over N. Korea's satellite
  The Boston Globe By John Feffer April 5, 2009
  WHEN North Korea declared that it was planning to launch a satellite, the United States should have shrugged and gone about its business. Instead, the Obama administration has exaggerated the importance of the launch by treating it as a national security threat. There's little reason to doubt North Korea's claim that it simply wants to put a satellite into space. True, the rocket that puts the satellite into orbit is indistinguishable from a long-range missile. Only the nose cone and the trajectory are different. In 1998, North Korea also declared a rocket a satellite, and eventually even the Pentagon agreed. This year's launch, on a modified rocket, is likely to be the same. Getting a satellite in orbit would make North Korea only the 12th country in the world to do so, a point of pride for Pyongyang. [Satellite] [US NK policy]
• North Korea’s uncertain future
  Charles K Armstrong
  The Pyongyang regime's mix of domestic economic challenges and political uncertainties makes the path towards international agreement over its nuclear plans more difficult, says Charles K Armstrong. (This article was first published on 3 November 2008) 5 - 04 - 2009 The American baseball star Yogi Berra's maxim "it ain't over till it's over" seems tailor-made for North Korea. The deal to eliminate North Korea's nuclear programme, agreed among the members of the six-party talks (North Korea, South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan) on 3 October 2007, was on the verge of collapse ten months later - only to get back on track in October 2008. Now, the election of Barack Obama as new United States president will raise hopes of further diplomatic progress; though the tortuous history of the past year alone suggests that nothing can be taken for granted.
• An Interview with Selig Harrison on the North Korean Satellite Launch & U.S.-D.P.R.K. Relations
  Interviewed by Paul Liem | Published April 6, 2009
  Selig S. Harrison is director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy and a senior scholar of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He is the former director of the Century Foundation¹s Project on the United States and the Future of Korea. Specializing in South Asia and East Asia for fifty years as a journalist and scholar, he has visited North Korea over ten times and on two occasions, met with the late Kim Il Sung. He is the author of six books on Asian affairs and U.S. relations with Asia, including Korean Endgame: A Strategy For Reunification and U.S. Disengagement, published by Princeton University Press in May 2002. Dr. Harrison serves as an advisory board member of the Korea Policy Institute (KPI). With the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) preparing to launch a satellite and the Obama administration preoccupied with reviving the moribund U.S. economy, KPI caught up with Dr. Harrison on March 27 to gather his assessment of current conditions.
  Well, they certainly reaffirmed that they haven't acceded to the North Korean idea that normalization should come first. They reaffirmed the standing existing policy that denuclearization should come first.
  Lastly, something that is generally not noticed is that South Korea has been planning a launch of its own satellite in July, the so-called KSLV Korean Space Launch Vehicle 1 - they spent a billion dollars on it. A satellite launch by North Korea, this month, would be a way to neutralize the prestige impact of South Korea coming up with a very successful launch of its own. Previous South Korean launches have been in connection with European space agency and I guess the U.S. but this time South Korea is trying to do it on its own. And Japan of course has had 25 satellite launches that are very similar to what North Korea is doing. [Satellite] NK US Policy] [HEU] [US NK policy] [Sequencing][KSLV]
• S. Korea modifies message regarding PSI participation
  Fearing heightened military tensions on the peninsula, Cheong Wa Dae reverses position after N. Korea’s launch » President Lee Myung-bak hears the reports related to North Korea’s rocket launching from Kim Tae-young, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during the National Security Council meeting at Cheong Wa Dae on April 5. Analysts are detecting signs of change in South Korea’s stance on North Korea issues after Pyongyang proceeded with the launch of what it called a communications satellite on Sunday. South Korea had previously called for stepped-up international sanctions against North Korea anticipating a launch of a “missile,” and following the launch, has placed more emphasis on the safety and stability of the Korean Peninsula. As a case in point, experts refer to South Korea’s reversal of its announcement to participate in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). Asked if participation in the PSI was the government’s intended policy direction, Vice Foreign Minister Kwon Jong-rak during a parliamentary committee on April 3 said, “Yes.” Observers had speculated that the government would announce joining the initiative immediately after North Korea’s missile launch. Following the Sunday rocket launch, however, the mood has changed. [PSI]
• North gains leverage in talks with America
  [NEWS ANALYSIS] With a long-range rocket launch, North Korea yesterday demonstrated its enhanced military threat and boosted diplomatic leverage in negotiations with the United States. It is also expected to embolden its leader Kim Jong-il's grip on power as he enters a third term, having allegedly suffered a stroke last year. Meanwhile, the geopolitical risks and diplomatic tension from its rocket gambit will be limited and short-term, experts say. The provocative move earned the isolated nation global condemnation and may lead to a new U.N. resolution, though its likely effectiveness is questionable. In realpolitik, however, Pyongyang is expected to make gains on multiple levels.
  The United States also said Friday it is open to bilateral contacts with North Korea and urged it to return to six-nation talks. U.S. envoy to the North's nuclear issue, Stephen Bosworth, said the nuclear talks must be at the center of diplomatic efforts. "That will not change. We will continue to have bilateral contact and we are prepared to open that channel at any point," he said in remarks at the Foreign Press Center in Washington. By Hwang Jang-j
• North Korea Perfects Its Diplomatic Game: Brinkmanship
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: April 2, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — As North Korea prepares to launch as early as Saturday what it calls a rocket carrying a communications satellite but Washington calls an intercontinental ballistic missile, the world is watching. And watching, for now, seems to be about all it can do. On Thursday, as CNN reported that North Korea had begun fueling the rocket — a strong indication that the launching would take place as scheduled, between Saturday and Wednesday — President Obama and his South Korean counterpart, Lee Myung-bak, agreed on the need for a “stern, united” international response. But with two American journalists detained and facing criminal indictment in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, the United States all but ruled out the possibility of shooting down the rocket — an action that, if successful, could provoke the North into quitting already sputtering nuclear disarmament talks and, if not, would embarrass the Pentagon.
• A 'Stern and Unified' Message from Lee and Obama
  Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Barack Obama held their first summit in London on Thursday and agreed that a "stern and unified" response was necessary in dealing with North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket. In the meeting, Obama said the U.S. will seek punishment at the UN in response. Lee said it was necessary to demonstrate a strong resolve through the UN, while reconvening the six-party talks at the appropriate time to use both dialogue and pressure.
• Seized U.S. journalists become 'hostages' in N. Korea crisis
  By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers BEIJING — When American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee fell into the hands of North Korean border guards two weeks ago, vanishing into the maw of the most isolated nation on Earth, their fate drew concern. Now the complications are growing. North Korea appears days — maybe hours — away from test-firing a missile carrying what it asserts is a satellite. Reports say that North Korea is fueling the multi-stage ballistic missile at a launch site in its northeast. In London on Thursday, President Barack Obama met on the sidelines of the G-20 summit with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, and the two called for "stern, unified action" if the North goes ahead with its launch, the first since 2006, the same year it tested a nuclear device.
• Obama struggles to find unity over North Korea test launch
  By Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's administration was three days old when North Korean officials privately told their Chinese allies that they planned soon to "test the waters" with the new U.S. president. That test could come as early as Saturday, when the window opens for North Korea's planned launch of a long-range Taepodong-2 rocket that could fly over Japan and rattle governments in northeast Asia and beyond. If successful, the launch will pose the first significant global security challenge to the Obama team, and a tricky one at that, according to U.S. officials and Asia experts. So far, Obama has struggled to forge a united front on the issue among countries such as Japan, which is demanding a tough international response, and China, which argues for restraint. Obama wants the United Nations Security Council to send a stern message to Pyongyang. He also wants, however, to avoid precipitating a full-blown crisis or prompting the unpredictable (sic) North Koreans to scuttle the moribund six-nation talks on eliminating their nuclear weapons, a senior State Department official said. He requested anonymity in order to speak frankly. The launch is the latest in a series of provocations (sic) by North Korea, and it comes amid growing questions about succession in the isolated communist state following leader Kim Jong-Il's stroke in August.
• String of KF-16 Crashes is Cause for Concern
  A KF-16 fighter jet crashed into the West Sea during a training mission on Tuesday. It was the sixth crash of a KF-16 since they were introduced in 1994. The Air Force says the crash rate among its fleet of around 130 KF-16s is low compared to other countries that operate the same aircraft, but since we shall have to use it as our main fighter jet until 2020, it is a source of serious concern. Each KF-16 fighter costs around W40 billion (US$1=W1,381) and the losses from the crashes so far total W240 billion. Fortunately, the two pilots were able to eject to safety just before their plane crashed, but the loss of life involving such crashes is also a major problem. It costs around W9 billion to train a pilot for 10 years, and it is impossible to put a monetary value on a life. [Military balance]
• S.Korea to Join WMD Initiative if N.Korea Launches Rocket
  South Korea will fully join the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative as soon as North Korea launches a long-range rocket. "The government will inform the United States of its formal participation in the PSI the moment North Korea fires a rocket," a government official said Wednesday. "The policy has been agreed in a series of recent meetings among related ministries." [PSI]
• Obama Asked to Clarify Stance on NK Nukes
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter The United States should continue to use the six-party denuclearization talks in seeking a solution to North Korea-related issues, a group of American experts said in a report Wednesday (KST). They also urged the Barack Obama administration to clarify that it will not accept Pyongyang's possession of nuclear weapons. The New Beginnings Policy Study Group, which consists of former U.S. government officials and experts on U.S.-Korean relations, offered recommendations to the Obama administration on ways to strengthen the alliance and solve pending problems. ``In the absence of a credible military option and with sanctions having only limited effect, the United States should continue to use the six-party talks and, within that framework, bilateral talks with North Korea to explore whether a new mix of inducements and pressure might achieve U.S. and South Korean goals,'' the group said in the report. [US NK policy]
• KCNA Report [on US reporters]
  Pyongyang, March 31 (KCNA) -- The illegal entry of U.S. reporters into the DPRK and their suspected hostile acts have been confirmed by evidence and their statements, according to the results of intermediary investigation conducted by a competent organ of the DPRK. The organ is carrying on its investigation and, at the same time, making a preparation for indicting them at a trial on the basis of the already confirmed suspicions. While the investigation is under way consular contact is allowed and the treatment of U.S. reporters, etc. are given according to the relevant international laws.
• U.S. Journalists and UNSC Resolve Held Hostage by North Korea
  by Nicole Finnemann (nmf@keia.org) Between April 4 and April 8, North Korea intends to launch a rocket—which it claims is meant solely for placing an experimental communications satellite into orbit. While every nation has the right to the “peaceful use of space,” North Korea’s actions come at a particularly troubling time in the denuclearization talks with the United States, South Korea, Japan, China, and Russia, and arguably violate two 2006 UN Security Council resolutions. While few trust the peaceful intentions claimed by the North Koreans, debate grows over what an appropriate response could and will be. Amidst it all, Pyongyang readies itself to try two U.S. reporters for “hostile acts” after they were detained by the North along its border with China. [Spin]
• Conservatives Attack Obama over N.Korea
  American conservatives are closing ranks to attack President Barack Obama over its handling of North Korea's impending rocket launch. [Partisan] [Satellite]
• Two U.S. journalists will face trial in N. Korea
  Some experts say that North Korea may use the release as a bargaining chip after launching its satellite North Korea said yesterday that it is taking steps to indict two U.S. journalists, who are currently detained in the that country, raising concerns that their release could be especially delayed at this time as North Korea is poised to launch what it calls a “satellite.”
• N. Korea warns decisive response following S. Korea’s full participation in PSI
  N. Korea says, “full participation will be interpreted as a declaration of war,” while S. Korea shows no change » Members of civic and labor organizations, including the Solidarity for Peace And Reunification of Korea, Korea Confederation of Trade Unions, hold a press conference to urge the South Korea government to stop the consideration of full participation in PSI in front of Foreign Ministry in Seoul on March 23. There is growing tension between North and South Korea over the South’s plan to participate in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, the North Korean Workers‘ Party organization responsible for dealings with South Korea said in a spokesman’s statement March 30 that if the South Korean government uses North Korea‘s “satellite” launch as an “excuse to fully participate” in the PSI, Pyongyang will interpret the move as a “declaration of war.” He added that Pyongyang would take “immediate decisive action in response.” South Korea’s participation in PSI “will put a complete end to the already ruined state of inter-Korean relations and would be an inexcusable criminal act of placing Korean people in a horrific nuclear war,” the statement said. The comments represent North Korea‘s first official response to the South Korean government’s decision to consider full participation in PSI. [PSI] [Pro-Americanism]
• N.Korea Prepares to Indict Arrested American Journalists
  The two American journalists arrested earlier in the month near the border between North Korea and China are to be tried on charges of illegal entry and hostile actions, according to North Korea's state-run Central News Agency, which added that a trial will take place based on evidence and statements from the detained reporters. The news agency also claimed that the investigation abides by all relevant international laws, including consular contact and fair treatment. The two reporters, Chinese-American Laura Ling and Korean-American Euna Lee, work for former U.S. vice president Al Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV.
• DPRK Trip Report February 24-28th, 2009
  By Paul Carroll
  March 24th, 2009 Paul Carroll, Program Director at the Ploughshares Fund, writes, “Depending on how the U.S. responds to any DPRK action, as well as our partners in the region, we may be in for rough stretch of road for some time. The alternative could be that if the responses are creative and bold, we may just be able to snatch some victory from the jaws of defeat and make some progress toward the goals of denuclearizing the peninsula and transforming the regional security situation.”
• Does Obama Have a N.Korea Policy?
  Appearing on Fox News on Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the United States "was not prepared to do anything about" North Korea's rocket launch, which is expected to take place in the coming days. Gates' latest comments differ from what he said on Feb. 10, that the U.S. could intercept North Korea's missile "if necessary." On Mar. 19, Admiral Timothy Keating, commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, said the U.S. is "fully prepared" to shoot down the missile and added that the U.S. military has the capability to do it. Judging from the situation so far, the U.S. administration appears to have decided it would be difficult to take any measures against a North Korean missile launch other than discussing it with the UN Security Council. And the Security Council is unlikely to impose new sanctions on North Korea, so the most plausible outcome could be a low-level censure, such as a declaration by the host country of the council criticizing the launch. This would be very disappointing for a large number of South Koreans, who had hoped the U.S. administration would either prevent the satellite launch by engaging in strong diplomatic efforts, or be followed by a concerted international move demonstrating the resolve not to condone such acts.

• U.S. initiative of trilateral talks signals danger for S. Korea
  Jungsoo Jang, Executive editor [Column] On February 19 Morton Abramowitz of the Century Foundation contributed an op-ed piece in the International Herald Tribune and Japan’s Asahi Shimbun titled “U.S., Japan, China must meet trilaterally.” All said, the point he seeks to make is that Northeast Asia region is the world’s most dynamic, and that the United States should work closely with the world’s second and third greatest economic powers, China and Japan in order to build new American leadership here. To that end, he says US President Barack Obama should invite the leaders of those two countries for a trilateral summit.
• Patriotism of Korean-Americans
  By Jon Huer Korea Times Columnist Two items in the news made me think about the patriotism of Korean Americans. The first item was a lawsuit filed by a Korean American golfer who was called a ``traitor'' by a local newspaper in Korea because she chose to become an American citizen. She was previously a dual citizen of the United States and Korea, thus forfeiting her chances to play for Korea and bring honor to it, hence the name calling by the newspaper and the lawsuit. The second item had to do with the U.S. government being rather annoyed by the frequent leaks of sensitive intelligence it shares with the Korean government once it reaches the latter. The situation got so bad that according to the report, the Americans were considering withholding some intelligence from Koreans. [Dilemma]
• Criminalizing self-defense, whitewashing aggression
  By Stephen Gowans
  When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, Washington replied by launching the Gulf War to reverse the invasion and punish Baghdad for its serial aggressions. Or so Washington said. Iraq was indeed a serial aggressor, having attacked and waged a long war with Iran in the 1980s, followed by an invasion of Kuwait. What Washington and the compliant US media minimized was that the US had prodded Iraq to attack Iran, soon after the country sloughed off US domination by toppling the Pahlavi regime through which US influence in the country was exercised. With prodding came military aid and the weapons of mass destruction that Washington would later use as the basis for a murderous sanctions regime that killed over one million Iraqis, many of them children. In 1989, when Iraq sounded out the US ambassador, April Glaspie, about a possible invasion of Kuwait, she raised no objection. How odd it must have seemed to Iraq, then, that after fighting one war with US prodding, and launching another with what seemed like implicit US support, that Washington should point to Iraq’s serial aggressions as a pretext for launching its own string of anti-Iraq aggressions beginning in 1990 and lasting to the current day. The US itself is no stranger to serial aggressions, having intervened militarily in countless countries, often without provocation and with the sole objective of enforcing US domination.
  Nuclear armed Israel carries out a massacre in Gaza, backed by a rabbinate echoing the Nazi’s rationale for territorial expansion, while Israeli soldiers wear t-shirts depicting Palestinians as vermin to be exterminated, and Israeli warplanes violate the sovereign airspace of Sudan. Soon after, the hostile Lee Myung Bak government of south Korea, more interested in picking fights with the north than seeking peaceful reunification, escalates the country’s annual war games with the United States, aimed at intimidating the north. These aggressive and provocative acts are minimized by the North American media – either barely acknowledged, sanitized or celebrated. In the meantime, north Korea’s planned satellite launching is depicted as a provocation meriting stepped up sanctions and escalated efforts to bring down the government in Pyongyang. It can be hardly doubted that the North American media are an apparatus of public persuasion in the service of US foreign policy. In its hands black becomes white, the oppressed become oppressor, serial aggressors become keepers of the peace, and self-defense becomes provocation. [Media] [Inversion] [Satellite]
• Dismantlement of Imperialists' Overseas Military Bases Demanded
  Pyongyang, March 27 (KCNA) -- It is an important task facing the world peace-loving people at present to check and foil the imperialists' moves for reinforcing their overseas military bases for aggression and get them dismantled. Rodong Sinmun Friday observes this in a by-lined article. The imperialists' overseas military bases are operating as military strategic strongholds for implementing their policy of strength and the forces stationed there are playing the role of a shock brigade for aggression, the article notes, and says: The daily mounting movement for independence against imperialism and a serious economic crisis that hit the world, etc. have thrown the imperialists into a tight corner. They are trying to seek a way out of this in aggression and war. Citing facts to prove that the imperialists are busy setting up new military bases overseas or expanding the existing ones in a bid to contain the hostile countries, secure fuel and raw materials badly needed by them and put areas rich in major resources and military strongholds under their control, the article goes on to say: [Imperialism]
• Envoy's Status Raises Eyebrows
  N. Korea Diplomat Will Be on the Job Only Part Time
  By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, March 28, 2009; Page A07 Next week, as President Obama embarks on his first major overseas tour, North Korean engineers will be finalizing preparations for the launch of a three-stage rocket that theoretically could reach Alaska -- a launch that Pyongyang has announced will take place as Obama visits Europe. Whether coincidentally timed or not, North Korea's plans serve as a stark reminder that the isolated communist state with a stockpile of plutonium often tries to force its way onto the policy agenda. Pyongyang has claimed that it will seek to place an experimental communications satellite into orbit -- and it has warned that any effort to impose sanctions for the rocket test would rupture international efforts to eliminate its nuclear programs. North Korea presents one of the biggest foreign policy challenges for the Obama administration. But though Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has appointed a bevy of special envoys to deal with other specific international flashpoints, the North Korea assignment is a part-time job. Envoy Stephen W. Bosworth, a well-regarded Korea expert, is also dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts. He said in an interview that he is not giving up his deanship and is "planning on spending a day or two in Washington every week or two and probably a week every four to six weeks, depending upon the pace, in Asia."
• Response to “Can We Reach a Nuclear Deal with North Korea?
  March 19th, 2009 The following are comments on the essay, “Can We Reach a Nuclear Deal with North Korea? ” by Peter M. Beck, a Professor at American University in Washington, D.C. and Ewha Womans University in Seoul, which appeared as Policy Forum Online 09-022A: March 19th, 2009. This response includes comments by Marion Spina, a Washington DC attorney.
  I welcome and appreciate Professor Beck's positive search for a solution to this long-standing dilemma. I agree that the current DPRK attitude seems to match its earlier episodes of attention-seeking. Whether the satellite launch is a pre-cursor to development of a long-range nuclear weapons delivery system, or part of its general marketing of missile technology to potential customers, or both, seems unknowable. But rather than allow DPRK to command the pace of dialogue and simply react predictably to their whims, I agree with Professor Beck that the concerned parties would do well to propose "bold initiatives" to the DPRK. I disagree that a "shotgun" would be the consolation prize. Each time the DPRK misses an opportunity to accept a proposal supported by the other five members of the six-party group, the continuation of its miserable status quo is a sufficiently negative consequence that the "shotgun" is unnecessary. They have long punished themselves and their people by making unwise choices. It is obvious that some will object to giving the DPRK anything prior to the DPRK's abandonment of its nuclear materials. I do not see how such a position will ever lead to progress. And, I see no reason why the DPRK will be enticed by general promises of economic aid. So, let's talk about bold initiatives. [US NK policy]
• Secretary-General nominates Helen Clark as new UNDP Administrator
  Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon, following consultations with the Executive Board of UNDP, has written to the President of the General Assembly requesting the General Assembly to confirm Helen Clark of New Zealand as the new Administrator of the UNDP for a term of four years. Miss Clark replaces Mr. Kemal Dervis.

  Sundry archive articles on the UNDP affair

  • Senators Criticize U.N. Program in North Korea, but Question Set of Accusations
    By WARREN HOGE Published: January 25, 2008 WASHINGTON — A Senate subcommittee criticized the United Nations Development Program in North Korea on Thursday, accusing it of lax management and poor accountability. But the panel raised serious questions over accusations by the United States Mission to the United Nations that the agency had squandered millions of dollars there. The panel, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, concluded that the program depended excessively on staff members chosen by the North Korean government, that it broke its own rules in using foreign currency rather than local currency, and that it lacked sufficient administrative and fiscal controls and resisted auditing. [UNDP] [Toolkit] [Dissension] [UNUS]
  • U.N. Development Agency Rebuts U.S. Charges of Wasteful Spending in North Korea
    By WARREN HOGE Published: June 29, 2007 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.'' [UNDP] [Toolkit] [Dissension] [UNUS]
  • Allegations of tampering with DPRK evidence
    A 26 November 2007 story by George Russell on the Fox News website (www.foxnews.com), citing an anonymous blog entry that included a series of photographs, suggested that UNDP personnel in Beijing might be tampering with documents related to UNDP’s former operations in DPRK. This is entirely untrue. The documents in question have recently been removed from DPRK in sealed diplomatic pouches. The pouches will remain sealed until opened in the presence of the investigating bodies. The authenticity of the photos on the website cited by Fox News is therefore subject to question. [Media] [UNDP]
  • Background and Overview of Allegations Against UNDP
    In January 2007, amidst allegations by the U.S. Mission to the UN (USUN) of irregularities in UNDP’s program in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an audit by the UN’s external Board of Auditors of UN agencies operating in the country. At the same time UNDP’s Executive Board mandated several changes to UNDP’s programmes and operations in North Korea. At the beginning of March 2007, when it became clear that the North Korean authorities were not going to implement the mandated changes, UNDP suspended its operations and withdrew its staff from the country. The 31 May 2007 External Audit report found that UNDP and other UN agencies did not operate in North Korea according to the standards and practices they used elsewhere worldwide, and said that in some cases they had violated their own rules (e.g. by accepting local personnel sent by the North Korean government, rather than recruiting them competitively). UNDP’s Management Response pointed out that UNDP’s operational practices were imposed on it by the North Korean government, dated back 27 years, were known to its Executive Board, and were similar to those followed other by UN agencies, international NGOs and foreign missions. In June 2007, USUN came forward with a new set of allegations, including detailed charges that UNDP had underreported its funding levels, that large amounts of UNDP funding had been diverted by the North Korean authorities, that UNDP had supplied North Korea with potential “dual use” technology, and that UNDP had engaged in illicit transactions with entities tied to the North Korean armaments program. UNDP contested these charges, pointing out that the sums being alleged were larger than its total resources in the country, that there was not a single match between alleged payments and its own financial records, and that the documents being used by USUN to substantiate its charges contained incorrect UNDP financial codes. In light of the ongoing uncertainty, after consultations with its Executive Board, UNDP decided to commission an External Independent Investigative Review Panel led by former Hungarian Prime Minister Miklos Németh, to get to the bottom of all allegations. The Panel's Terms of Reference included establishing the facts around charges by a former UNDP employee that he had suffered retaliation for “blowing the whistle” on irregularities in UNDP’s North Korea operations. Relevant parties, including USUN, have been supportive of the Panel’s work. Also in 2007, a Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate decided to launch an investigation into UNDP’s North Korea operations. Published on 23 January 2008, the Subcommittee’s report charged UNDP with exercising insufficient financial and administrative controls in North Korea, and with impeding reasonable oversight by failing to share internal audits. The Senate report did not substantiate USUN’s allegations about funding diversion, provision of dual use technology, and illicit transactions with entities tied to North Korea’s armaments program. UNDP received the report of the External Independent Investigative Review Panel (“Nemeth Report”) on 1 June 2008. The Nemeth Report will be discussed at a meeting of UNDP’s Executive Board in Geneva near the end of June. Decisions on any future UNDP operations in North Korea would be taken by the Member States on UNDP’s Executive Board. [UNDP] [Toolkit] [Dissension] [UNUS]
  • Response to allegations about UNDP, Mercy Corps and DPRK
    A 12 December story by Fox News asks “Did the United Nations Development Program use an American charitable organization to secretly funnel nearly $2 million, and perhaps much more, to North Korea …?” The answer is no. From 2002 until mid-2007 UNDP and Seattle-based Mercy Corps International operated a project in support of vulnerable populations on the Chinese side of the China – North Korea border. None of the money went to North Korea or the North Korean government.
  • The UNDP North Korea Scandal: How Congress and the Bush Administration Should Respond
    by Nile Gardiner, Ph.D., Brett D. Schaefer and Steven Groves January 22, 2007 WebMemo #1318 In what seems to be an annual tradition, the United Nations is again embroiled in scandal—this time as willing dupe of the despotic tyranny in North Korea. As reported in The Wall Street Journal, the North Korean government (DPRK) convinced the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to provide hard currency payments to the cash-strapped nation without even minimal safeguards or supervision. Those funds ended up in the hands of Kim Jong-Il’s regime. [UNDP] [Toolkit] [Dissension] [UNUS]
• Art Review | 'Art of the Korean Renaissance'
  Treasures at a Korean Crossroad
  By HOLLAND COTTER Published: March 19, 2009 The Korean art gallery at the Metropolitan Museum is a trim, tall, well-proportioned box of light. But it’s just one room, and a smallish one at that, reflecting the museum’s modest holdings in art from this region and the still scant attention paid to it by Western scholars. So no surprise that the expansive-sounding exhibition called “Art of the Korean Renaissance, 1400-1600” is, by Met standards, a small thing too, with four dozen objects. Most of them — ceramic jars, lacquer boxes, scroll paintings — are compact enough to be stashed in a closet. What the show lacks in grandeur, though, it makes up in fineness, and in rarity. All of the art dates from a period of cultural efflorescence and innovation in Korea.
  Drawn as it was to China, the early Choson dynasty was also intent on defining and promoting Korean-ness. In 1443, in the reign of King Sejong, a committee of court scholars invented and made public, for the first time, a Korean phonetic alphabet and script called Hangul, ending the country’s long dependence on Chinese as a written language. [Korea China relations]
• N. Korea announces investigation charges of spying of two US reporters
  The North confirms the safety of the detained reporters and pursues high-level talks with U.S. North Korea is believed to have investigated two U.S. reporters on “charges of spying” after they were seized by North Korean guards near the Tumen River at the border shared with China. In a regular press briefing on March 24, when asked by a journalist to confirm news reports that the two U.S. reporters have been charged with espionage in North Korea, U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood said, “I‘ve seen those reports. We’re certainly aware of the charges.”
• For N. Korea, a Pair Of Bargaining Chips
  Detained U.S. Journalists Seen as Leverage North Korean female soldiers wave as they patrol along the waterfront of North Korea's Yalu River, opposite side of the Chinese border town of Hekou, northeast of Dandong, China, Monday, March 23, 2009. By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, March 26, 2009; Page A12 TOKYO, March 25 -- Two American journalists detained last week by North Korean soldiers are likely to become bargaining chips for North Korea in its feuds with the outside world, according to analysts and politicians in South Korea. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters working for Al Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV, were seized at 3 a.m. March 17 after walking from China across the shallow Tumen River into North Korea, according to a report in JoongAng Ilbo, a newspaper in Seoul.
• U.S. State Dept. Lacking N.Korea 'Control Tower'
  The U.S. administration has not yet lined up its North Korea specialists within the State Department, leading in the view of some critics to delays in dealing with North Korea's impending rocket launch and the detention of two American reporters in the North. Robert Einhorn, a senior adviser in the Center for Strategic and International Studies, had been expected to take charge of strategies for North Korea's weapons of mass destruction as the next U.S. undersecretary for arms reduction and non-proliferation. But he has suddenly declined to accept the offer. Ellen Tauscher, a seventh-term Democrat member of the House of Representatives, has been nominated in his place. Kurt Campbell, a former deputy assistant secretary, has not yet been nominated as assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific Affairs. Stephen Bosworth, who worked part-time as special representative for North Korea policy, has returned to his job as dean of Tufts University's Fletcher School after visiting nations participating in six-party nuclear talks. There is speculation that the reason the two reporters are still being held in the North is that there is no "control tower" for North Korean issues at the State Department. No senior American officials have officially demanded their release in the week since they were captured. The U.S. is ostensibly trying to solve the problem through quiet diplomacy, but in reality there is no senior U.S. government official who wants to take the initiative. [US NK policy]
• N.Korea Says Detained U.S. Journalists Well-Treated
  The State Department said the United States has been told by North Korea that two American journalists it detained last week are being well-treated. Officials here said the United States has been in contact with North Korea through its United Nations mission in New York and indirectly through the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang which handles U.S. affairs there. But they are providing only sparse information about the case, in the apparent hope the matter can be resolved through quiet diplomacy.
• U.S. Keeping Tabs on 90,000 N.Koreans
  The United States has secured private data of about 90,000 North Koreans through food aid agencies and has used them in the process of monitoring distribution of food aid, it emerged Tuesday. There is speculation that this is a reason North Korea has refused U.S. food aid recently. A South Korean government official said, "North Korea responded sensitively to the activities by American food distribution monitors who can speak Korean. We understand that they have an unimaginable amount of data of North Koreans." In addition to monitoring the distribution of the food aid, American officials reportedly tried to find out whether those who had returned after fleeing the North in the early 2000s were still alive and whether there were any changes in the North Korean family structure. When it accepted 500,000 tons of food aid from the U.S. last May, North Korea agreed to allow Korean-speaking Americans to monitor distribution. But it disagreed with the U.S. over their number. Former vice unification minister Kim Suk-woo said, "It seems North Korea has decided that American supervision of food distribution was doing more harm than good to the regime." South Korea has been rather lax in comparison. A Unification Ministry official, who has been to the North as a monitor, said, "All we did was watch North Koreans get abut 20 kg of rice and ask them how many people there were in their family. But we've monitored distribution of less than 0.1 percent of our rice aid." [Espionage] [Aid weapon]
• Source: U.S. journalists in Pyongyang
  Seoul tells Washington the detainees could be facing charges of espionage
  March 24, 2009 A sign warning against illegal border crossing was set up near the Tumen River where two female American reporters were reportedly arrested by North Korean soldiers on March 17. [YONHAP] South Korea has collected intelligence on how two American journalists were recently captured in North Korea and has briefed United States intelligence officials on the details, the JoongAng Ilbo has learned. A South Korean source said that after the capture, U.S. intelligence officials asked South Korea for cooperation in gathering facts about the detention of Korean-American Euna Lee and Chinese-American Laura Ling, who work for Current TV. The United States tried to no avail to negotiate with the North before the incident leaked to the media. The source said the American government had very little information on the status of the two journalists and on the North’s follow-up actions. Other than contacting the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang for communication, the U.S. took little action. Washington has no formal diplomatic ties with North Korea.
• Strategic Focus on Empire
  Is the Obama administration winding down our empire or simply trying to implement a kinder, gentler version?
  (A series from Foreign Policy in Focus)
  • The Obama Administration and Empire
    Michael Klare | March 4, 2009 Michael Klare and John Feffer talk about the role of the United States under the new president.
  • Hearts and Minds and Empire
    Francis Njubi Nesbitt | March 20, 2009 The Obama administration is going 3D: defense, diplomacy, and development. Is this a major shift from Bush-era doctrine or simply an updated version of the old counterinsurgency approach?
  • Why are U.S. bases in Korea? (video interview)
    John Feffer, with the Real News Network | March 11, 2009
  • The Battle Over Bases
    David Vine | March 9, 2009 Rumsfeld had dreams of radically rearranging the U.S. empire of bases. Here's what happened instead.
  • The Cost of Empire (video interview)
    Miriam Pemberton, with the Real News Network | March 7, 2009
  • The Imperial Unconscious
    Tom Englehardt | March 1, 2009 Predators, reapers, and imperial graveyards: Washington's language betrays its stubborn imperial ambitions.
  • Too Many Overseas Bases
    David Vine | February 25, 2009 In addition to freeing money to meet critical human needs at home and abroad, closing overseas bases would help rebuild the U.S. military. [Imperialism] [Continuity]
• Kim Jong-il Rated World's 3rd Worst Dictator
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il ranked third on a list of the world's worst dictators in the Washington Post's weekend magazine Parade on Saturday. Kim was at the top of the annual list in 2008 but fell behind Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir this year. The magazine selects the list after analyzing their human rights abuses and the intensity of their absolute power based on data from the U.S. State Department, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Reporters Without Borders. [Manipulation]
• Pyongyang confirms detention of two U.S. journalists
  North Korea announces ongoing investigation without revealing the conditions of release The state-run Korean Central News Agency reported a formal confirmation from Pyongyang of the detention and investigation of two female journalists from the United States While no specific references were made, Pyongyang announced that the two captured journalists had “illegally entered the country” Tuesday through the Chosun (North Korea)-China border indicating grounds for U.S. liability. In a rare move to confirm detention of prisoners, a noteworthy reference was offered about the ongoing “investigation at the corresponding organization.” While this could simply mean that the investigation has not been concluded, it could also indicate that Pyongyang is not yet indicating how this incident will play out. “If the (American) journalists came over by mistake, without intention, I think they could be released after investigation with no major problem,” stated an official at the North Korean Embassy in China offering his personal opinion, according to Yonhap News Agency. However, the official also added that the question of whether there are any changes in North Korean-U.S. relations could become a variable influencing the timing of their release.
• The calamity of full participation in PSI
  [Editorial] The administration of President Lee Myung-bak’s response to North Korea’s announcement of an intended satellite launch is to reveal that it is considering full participation in the United States-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). “A North Korean missile firing signals a time for us to consider the issue of participation in PSI,” said Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan just days ago. “With roughly eighty nations around the world participating in an international agreement to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, it was getting hard to explain to the international community why we, a country that should be most concerned about the issue, was not participating,” said another high-ranking administration official under the condition of anonymity. “The argument that a missile firing should be reason for full participation is gaining strength within the administration.” [PSI]
• Q & A on the Rescission of North Korea from the State Sponsor of Terrorism List
  US Department of Commerce
  Q: How does the President’s announcement affect U.S exporters?
  There is no change for U.S. exporters. Pursuant to Section 746.4 of the EAR, the Department of Commerce will continue to require a license for the export or reexport to North Korea of items subject to the EAR, except food and medicine classified as EAR99. Once the rescission takes effect, the Department of Commerce plans to amend the EAR to remove North Korea from Country Group E:1 and make other conforming changes to implement the rescission. Removing North Korea from Country Group E:1 will raise the threshold value for calculating the de minimis level of foreign goods destined to North Korea to 25% controlled U.S. content. Currently as a member of Country Group E:1 the threshold value for North Korea is 10%. [Sanctions]

  Some archive articles from Japan Focus

  • Coordination with Japan, South Korea: U.S. eyes 'trilateral' military cooperation
    Thursday, March 9, 2006 WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The United States plans to launch "trilateral military cooperation" with Japan and South Korea to deal not only with North Korea but also with China and terrorist threats in Asia, Adm. William Fallon, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, said Tuesday. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Fallon said the United States has been working to transform its bilateral defense alliances with the two nations to deal with regional and global issues and develop them into a stronger trilateral initiative. "We also hope to foster greater trilateral cooperation between the ROK (Republic of Korea), Japan and the United States," Fallon said in a written statement. But referring to the ongoing realignment of bilateral military alliances with the two nations, Fallon indicated the U.S. forces want the three countries to jointly deal with China's increasing military power, North Korea's possible collapse and reunification of the two Koreas, unconventional regional threats, including terrorism risks in Southeast Asia, and other regional matters. [China confrontation] [Threat]
  • After the Bomb: North Korea Isn't Our Problem
    The U.S., overstretched already, should treat Kim Jong Il as a regional crisis and let China take the lead. By Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman The United States is bogged down in what appears to be an unwinnable war in Iraq; it is facing very unpleasant options in regard to neighboring Iran's nuclear program; senior NATO officers say that the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating fast; in the former Soviet Union, Georgia and Russia are moving toward military confrontation, with the U.S. seemingly unable to restrain either; in large swaths of Latin America, new nationalist and populist movements are challenging U.S. interests. This article appeared in the Los Angeles Times on October 11, 2006 [US NK policy] [bizarre]
  • A Long-term Strategy for North Korea
    A Long-term Strategy for North Korea by Georgy Bulychev With the North Korean announcement that it now possesses nuclear weapons, (simply meant to intensify pressure on the US to formulate a coherent strategy vis-a-vis Pyongyang) world attention is focused on the issue of solving the nuclear crisis: finding a way to force, or induce, or make North Korea do away with its nuclear program and nuclear aspirations. Millions of words have been written about the methods and tactics best suited to tackle the issue, including the strategy of six-party talks. However, it is rarely mentioned that the nuclear issue can probably not be solved without addressing the deeper issue -- the future of North Korea itself. Without a clear-cut strategy on this, all efforts to solve the nuclear issue are probably doomed, or worse, they could even pave the way for a military solution. So, what is preferable -- collapse or transformation of the DPRK? And if transformation was to occur, would that help alleviate the tension and solve security problems? What should the world community do? [US NK policy]
  • Achieving a Nuclear-Free Northeast Asia
    by Umebayashi Hiromichi The author is president of the Peace Depot nonprofit organization. He contributed this comment to The Asahi Shimbun (IHT/Asahi: June 6, 2003). The first step calls for South Korea, North Korea and Japan to form the core of the zone as nonnuclear states. Concurrent with this, China, Russia and the United States will extend legally binding guarantees to these three countries that they will engage neither in nuclear strikes nor threats of such aggression. The Preparatory Committee for the Review Conference of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) convened in Geneva in late April. For our nonprofit organization, Peace Depot, this gathering was notable for the fact that we became the first Japanese nongovernmental organization to be given the opportunity to present its views at this official venue.
• N. Korea Says It Is Holding Reporters
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: March 21, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea confirmed Saturday that it had detained two American journalists on charges of “illegally intruding” into the North through its border with China. The journalists, Laura Ling, a Chinese-American, and Euna Lee, a Korean-American, both working for Current TV, were on a reporting trip along the border when they were detained by North Korean border guards, according to human rights activists and a South Korean news report. Their colleague, Mitch Koss, and their Chinese guide were reported to have been detained by Chinese border guards.
  It remains unclear under what circumstances Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee were detained. The Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s leading newspaper, reported Saturday that the American television crew appeared to have crossed the river border — either intentionally or not — while trying to get a closer shot of North Korea.
• Can We Reach a Nuclear Deal with North Korea?
  By Peter M. Beck
  March 19th, 2009 Peter M. Beck, is a Professor at American University in Washington, D.C. and Ewha Womans University in Seoul, writes, “Working closely with Seoul, Washington must make an irresistible offer – normalization, completion of the two light water reactors scrapped by Bush and economic assistance. A ‘shotgun wedding’ may just be the most effective way of testing the North’s intentions. However, there’s one catch. We must be prepared for a possible rejection by the North. In which case, we must be prepared to use the shotgun.” [US NK policy]
• Koreans 'Expressly Targeted in Yemen Attacks'
  The government on Thursday admitted Koreans were likely specifically targeted in a series of suicide bombings in Yemen this week. "What is certain is that Korea is included in the list of targets of al-Qaeda's terrorist attacks. Perhaps it's too early to reach a conclusion, but as the attacks happened twice in a row, we should consider the possibility of targeted terrorism," a senior official said. "From the terrorist point of view, Korea is similar to the U.S. because it sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. The Korean government had overlooked this aspect," the official said. [Dilemma]
• Opposition to South Korea’s full participation in the PSI increases
  Many experts seem to agree that the ‘negative impact is obvious but the benefits are not clear’ Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Yu Myung-hwan gave an unexpectedly conciliatory response to The Hankyoreh’s lead story on Friday, which said that the government is considering full participation in the Proliferation Security Initiative if North Korea goes ahead with the launch of what it says is a “satellite” early next month. Yu did not avoid answering the barrage of questions asking for the government’s response. This is in stark contrast with what a government official from the previous administration might have said in the past, when the administration struggled to dismiss media reports about what it thought of as a sensitive diplomatic issue. Whereas the previous administration may have said the report had gone too far or that the government would adhere to its North Korea policy by maintaining its status in the PSI as an observer, Yu said, “The North’s missile launch will highlight the non-proliferation issue and the need (for the South) to participate in the PSI, which is intended to curb the spread of weapons of mass destruction.” [SK NK Policy] [PSI] [Sanctions]
• Detention of U.S. journalists: Crisis or opportunity?
  [Editorial] Two American journalists were detained by North Korean officials on Tuesday while in the area of the Tumen River, which forms part of the border between China and North Korea. Situations like this do not happen often. Getting the two released should be of the greatest urgency, regardless of what events led to their detention. Relations between North Korea and the United States are not especially poor right now, but the two countries are in an intense battle of nerves.
• U.S. readies itself for North launch of several missiles
  Seoul may join Proliferation Security Initiative to put pressure on Pyongyang March 21, 2009 Two weeks before North Korea’s scheduled launch of a communications satellite, veteran U.S. military commanders said the United States is ready for multiple North Korean missiles and is capable of shooting them down. Speaking to the U.S. Senate, Admiral Timothy Keating, the top American commander in the Pacific, said there is a “high probability” that the United States could shoot down North Korean missiles. “We’ll be prepared to respond [to North Korea],” he said. “The United States has the capability to shoot down any missile.” [Legality]
• Yemen Attack Signals Time to Overhaul Anti-Terrorism Policies
  A convoy of vehicles carrying Korean diplomats and family members of the victims of Sunday's terror bombing in Yemen were attacked on Wednesday by what appears to be a suicide bomber. It is a great relief to know that no one in the convoy was injured. But the latest attack, which specifically targeted Koreans, is a reminder of just how urgently we need to shed light on the circumstances surrounding the suicide bombing and devise policies to deal with the situation. [Dilemma]
• N. Korea Detains 2 American Journalists
  North Korea has detained two American journalists working near its northern border, Yonhap News Agency reported Thursday, quoting a diplomatic source. "Two reporters working for U.S. Internet news media, including a Korean-American, were detained by North Korean authorities earlier this week, and they remain in custody there," the source was quoted as saying. The journalists, who are both women, were videotaping a scene near the North's border with China despite repeated warnings by North Korean border guards, according to the source.
  They were arrested after crossing into North Korea, the source said.
• Boeing Announces Bid for S. Korea’s Stealth Jet Deal
  A prototype of the F-15 Silent Eagle, a new configuration with radar-evading stealth functions, is unveiled at Boeing’s F-15 manufacturing headquarters in St. Louis, the United States, Tuesday. / Courtesy of Boeing By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The U.S. Boeing Company unveiled a new F-15 Eagle fighter jet featuring radar-evading stealth technology Wednesday, announcing its bid for South Korea's third phase F-X fighter jet acquisition program, to begin by 2012. Earlier, Seoul officials said the third phase program would focus on obtaining the so-called fifth-generation stealth fighters. The F-X aims to procure 120 high-end warplanes by 2020, and Boeing already won the previous two deals with its F-15K fighters. [Arms sales] [Military balance]
• N. Korea Said to Detain U.S. Reporters
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: March 19, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — Two American journalists on a reporting trip to the border between China and North Korea have been detained by the North Korean military, a human rights activist and another source said Thursday. Laura Ling, a Chinese-American, and Euna Lee, a Korean-American, were believed to have been detained by North Korean border guards Tuesday morning. Their Chinese guide, an ethnic Korean, was also detained. Aaron Tarver, a spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, could not immediately confirm the report. Chun Ki -won, a Christian pastor and head of South Korea’s Durihana missionary group, who helped the American journalists arrange their trip to China, said that at least three people were detained by the North Korean military.
  “They told me that they completed what they went to China for, they completed their assignment,” Mr. Chun said. “I warned them against getting too close to the border. I suspect that they got too ambitious.” Mr. Chun said North Korean border guards recently “lured” outsiders to come closer to the border and held them for a ransom.
• Reports: N. Korea military detains US journalists
  By KWANG-TAE KIM The Associated Press Thursday, March 19, 2009; 2:51 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korean guards detained two American journalists near the country's border with China when they ignored orders to stop shooting video, South Korean media reports said Thursday. The reporters, both women, were arrested Tuesday near the northern border and were being held in North Korea, the Yonhap news agency said, citing unnamed diplomatic sources. YTN television said the women were detained near the Tumen River in the far northeast. The journalists were detained after ignoring soldiers' orders to stop filming, the reports said. Yonhap said they were arrested in North Korea but YTN said the guards crossed into Chinese territory to arrest them.
• N. Korea detains two American journalists
  By Lee Chi-dong SEOUL, March 19 (Yonhap) -- North Korea and the United States are in talks over the fate of two American journalists detained by the communist nation, a diplomatic source here said Thursday. "Two reporters working for a U.S.-based Internet news media outlet, including a Korean-American, were detained by North Korean authorities earlier this week, and they remain in custody there," the source said. The journalists, who are both women, were videotaping a scene near the North's border with China despite repeated warnings by North Korean border guards, according to the source. They were arrested after accidentally crossing into North Korea, the source said, adding it is hard to predict how the North will handle the issue.
• Cisco Preens on TelePresence
  By Ashlee Vance March 16, 2009, 7:09 pm Someone call the folks at Guinness World Records. Cisco Systems may have broken the record for simultaneous video conferences. On Monday, Cisco held a video conference for the ages as it announced a new server product in 14 different locations around the globe. John Chambers, Cisco’s chief executive, directed the affair from the company’s headquarters in San Jose, Calif., while other people tuned in from San Francisco, Boston, London and elsewhere. Cisco hoped the virtual gig would showcase both the powers of its new servers and its TelePresence video conferencing technology, but it seemed like the company may have left cynical reporters with an unintended impression.
  “This is like being in North Korea,” remarked one prominent business reporter.
  The TelePresence session did, in fact, carry a scripted feel. [Image]
• War Maniacs Warned Not to Run Amuck
  Pyongyang, March 15 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun Sunday in a signed commentary points out that the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises under way in south Korea are a very adventurous war racket kicked up by the U.S. imperialists in collusion with the south Korean puppet military bellicose forces with an eye to mount a three-dimensional preemptive surprise strike at the DPRK from the ground, sea and air. The commentary says: The said largest-scale saber rattling kicked off by the U.S. imperialists against the DPRK at a time when their scenario for the second Korean war is at the final stage of completion is a very adventurous and dangerous military provocation that can be seen only on the eve of a war, and this is an undisguised military threat and a sort of declaration of war against the DPRK. No one can vouch that the U.S. imperialist bellicose elements will not ignite a war against the DPRK by surprise while reinforcing armed forces and staging war maneuvers in south Korea and its vicinity as they did in Iraq.
• War Exercise on Korean peninsula
  As you know well, the U.S. and the Lee Myung Bak regime of south Korea are staging the aggressive “Key Resolve” and “Foal Eagle” joint military exercises against DPRK from March 9 challenging the aspiration and demand of the whole Korean nation and peace-loving people in the world. The joint military exercises which more than doubled the period of the exercises as compared with the past is being mobilized reportedly hundreds of thousands of troops of US and south Korea army including more than 26,000 US soldiers stationed in south Korea and overseas and “George Washington” and “Stennis” task force, super-large nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, four Aegis cruisers, even destroyers and nuclear-powered subs of the U.S. navy etc. [US joint military]
• More Koreans Give Up ‘American Dream’ as US Job Market Shrinks
  More and more Koreans who went to the U.S. to realize their American dream are returning home as the companies in the U.S., the epicenter of the global financial crisis, are downsizing and giving recruitment priorities to the U.S citizenship holders, DongA Ilbo reported Saturday. A 39-year-old Cho, who works for an information consulting company in Boston found an e-mail letter of dismissal upon turning on his computer after arriving at work. The letter asked him to pack up his belongings until 5 p.m. that day. “A company official watched me all long while I was collecting my stuff as if to prevent me from stealing sensitive documents. It wasn’t a good feeling,” he recollected. A 28-year-old Hong, who graduated from an Ivy League with an MBA degree experienced a nightmare-like life for several months. He started to work for a hedge fund on a temporary status when the company promised him to sponsor an H-1B work visa that would allow him to stay in the U.S. for two years. That didn’t materialize. After working there for 10 months, he had to board himself on a Korea-bound airplane. [Migration]
• North Korea watches Washington
  Posted Date : 2009-03-06 (IFES Forum No. 09-3-6-1) by Tong Kim (Johns Hopkins University SAIS) North Korea is getting ready to engage the Obama administration, which has started moving fast to seek ways to resolve the intractable issues of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs. The direction of U.S. policy is clear in terms of both format and substance. In format the Obama administration will pursue a combination of the Six Party Talks and a direct bilateral engagement with North Korea. To enforce direct diplomacy, Washington appointed Ambassador Stephen Bosworth as “senior emissary for U.S. engagement with North Korea,” while keeping Ambassador Sung Kim to take care of “day to day efforts” and to lead the U.S. delegation in the Six Party Talks. [US NK policy]
• Nuclear-powered US carrier
  The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis arrives at a naval base in Busan on March 11. The John C. Stennis is participating in the U.S.-South Korea Joint military exercise Key Resolve, which is scheduled to end March 20. [US Joint military] [Military balance]
• DPRK to Take Every Necessary Measure to Protect Its Sovereignty
  Pyongyang, March 11 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave the following answer to the question raised by KCNA on Mar. 11 as regards the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises kicked off by the U.S. and the south Korean puppets: The U.S. and the south Korean puppets started large-scale war exercises targeted against the DPRK on Mar. 9 at last [US joint military]
• KCNA Brands U.S. as World's Worst Human Rights Abuser
  Pyongyang, March 11 (KCNA) -- The United States is not entitled to talk about human rights as it is the world's worst human rights abuser. In the U.S. the absolute majority of working people are like more dead than alive with their elementary rights to clothing, food and housing deprived. The same can be said of the right concerning personal inviolability. The right to labor, one of major rights related to existence, is ruthlessly violated there. The right to job, the right to get a fair reward for the labor done, the right to safe and hygienic working conditions and rational working hours, and the like are nothing but empty talk. Those in authority in the U.S. are talking about "freedom", "equality" and "democracy" but in fact, the political and socio-cultural rights of the overwhelming majority of working masses are institutionally violated and stamped out. [Human rights]
• N.Korea ships smuggle goods, but not WMDs: report
  Thu Mar 5, 2009 4:40pm EST By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cash-strapped North Korean shippers smuggle narcotics and other contraband, but there's little evidence that the communist state's rusty merchant fleet transports illicit weapons, a report said Thursday. British North Korea expert Hazel Smith said her detailed study of North Korean merchant shipping showed a fleet of only 242 aging vessels faces too much scrutiny in the world's ports to be a significant conduit for weapons of mass destruction. "We can't really find very much hard evidence of North Korean ships involved in smuggling WMD or components of WMD," Smith, of Cranfield University, told a Washington meeting of think tank East-West Center. The weapons of mass destruction trade North Korea conducts, such as missile sales to Iran or Pakistan, is more likely moved by aircraft or allied vessels than on highly suspect North Korean-owned or -flagged ships, her report said. North Korea came under U.N. sanctions that forbid such trade in missiles following its October 2006 nuclear test. Her findings, based on tracking ship movements using Lloyds Shipping Register and other insurance databases, call into question the efficacy of the Proliferation Security Initiative, a U.S.-led network of countries launched in 2003 to stop illicit weapons of mass destruction shipments because that effort focuses on shipping, she said. [Legality] [Sanctions] [Double standards] [UNUS] [Arms sales] [Evidence]
• FTA with Seoul Unacceptable, Says U.S. Nominee
  The U.S. trade representative-designate on Monday said Washington's free trade agreement with Seoul was unfair in its current state and warned his government could ditch the deal. The FTA "as it is just simply isn't fair, and if we don't get that right we'll be prepared to step away from that," Ron Kirk said in his confirmation hearing at the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. Kirk singled out FTA with Korea among the deals the George W. Bush administration concluded with Panama, Colombia and Korea. [FTA]
• Airline Body Appeals to N.Korea
  The International Civil Aviation Organization on Monday urged North Korea to retract its threat to civil aircraft over its territory. North Korea last week warned it "cannot guarantee" the safety of civilian South Korean aircraft flying through its airspace and in its vicinity during joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises that end March 20. [US joint military] [UNUS]
• NKorea rhetoric a threat, not US-SKorea wargames: US
  The United States said Monday that northeast Asia is threatened by North Korea's "bellicose rhetoric" rather than the annual US-South Korean military exercises. "Our military exercises with the Republic of (South) Korea are not a threat to the North," State Department acting spokesman Robert Wood told reporters when asked if Washington might be misinterpreting Pyongyang's stance. "What is a threat to the region is this bellicose rhetoric coming out of the North," Wood said. [Inversion] [US joint military] [Media]
• Sealing Off Kaesong Is the Wrong Move
  The transit of personnel and materials in and out of the Kaesong Industrial Complex has been completely halted with North Korea's abrupt announcement early Monday morning that it would sever all military communication channels with South Korea. A spokesman for the General Staff of the People's Army said in a statement the communist country would "take much tougher military control over the joint-management areas in the East and West Sea in order to guarantee the safety of these areas," trying hard to make it seem as if their moves were defensive in nature. The military drills North Korea is citing as problems are the "Key Resolve" and "Foal Eagle" exercises, which are annual defense drills South Korea carries out with the U.S. and of which it has given the North ample notice. But North Korea is ratcheting up tensions, with its military issuing a combat readiness stance and severing its only communication link with South Korea, something it has not done before. [US Joint military] [Spin]
• KPA Supreme Command Orders All Its Servicepersons to Be Fully Combat Ready
  Pyongyang, March 9 (KCNA) -- The Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army released the following report on Monday as regards the madcap Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises for aggression kicked off by the gangster-like U.S. imperialists and the warmongers of the puppet military of south Korea: The joint military exercises to be staged from March 9 to 20 will reportedly involve more than 26,000 U.S. imperialist aggression troops present in south Korea and overseas and hundreds of thousands of troops including the army corps, fleet command and units as big as flying corps of the puppet army of south Korea, super-large nuclear-powered carrier George Washington and Stennis task force of the U.S. imperialist aggressor navy made up of four Aegis cruisers, seven destroyers and nuclear-powered subs.
  The U.S. imperialists and the warmongers of the south Korean puppet military more than doubled the period of the exercises as compared with that last year.
  If the warmongers dare launch a war of aggression defying our repeated warnings, our revolutionary armed forces will counter it with resolute and merciless just war for reunification. [Joint US military]
• U.S. and S. Korea Start Military Maneuvers, Angering North
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: March 9, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — As thousands of American Marines poured into South Korea on Monday to kick off an annual joint military exercise that the United States described as routine, North Korea issued a characteristically bellicose statement calling the maneuvers preparations to invade and warning that it would attack the United States, Japan and South Korea if there was any attempt to interfere with a coming launching. [Joint US military]
• North Korea puts army on alert and warns of war
  Move pre-empts satellite launch which west claims masks long-range missile test Tania Branigan in Beijing guardian.co.uk, Monday 9 March 2009 07.48 GMT North Korea put its armed forces on standby today and warned of "war" if anyone attempts to block a pending satellite launch, which other countries claim will disguise a test of its longest-range missile. The threat came as the US and South Korea began their annual joint military drill involving tens of thousands of troops. Pyongyang routinely condemns the exercises as preparation for an invasion and last week warned passenger planes against flying near its airspace. "Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war," the North's military said in a statement issued today by the state news agency. It warned that a retaliatory strike "not only against all the interceptor means involved but against the strongholds" of the US, Japan and South Korea would result. [Media] [US joint military]        
• North Cuts Military Hotline With South  
  American soldiers participate in the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises conducted by South Korea and the United States, in Jinhae, South Gyeongsang Province, which began Monday. Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of the Combined Forces Command, said the exercise is a defensive “routine training drill that takes place every year at about the same time,” dismissing criticism from North Korea, which branded the drill an incitement to war. [US Joint military]
• N. Korean Military in Combat Mode As S. Korea-US Military Drill Starts
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter The government expressed regrets over North Korea's cut-off of inter-Korean military communication channels and called for immediate withdrawal of the measure, Monday, amid mounting tension on the Korean Peninsula. The North Korean measure was construed as a protest against the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercise, the annual large-scale military drill between South Korea and the United States, which began the same day. According to the Ministry of Unification, more than 700 South Koreans cancelled their trip to the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in the North and it remains uncertain whether southerners at the site could make it home since the phone lines are necessary to permit border crossings. The Stalinist state also warned of a full-scale war if its planned ``satellite'' launch is intercepted.  [US joint military]
• Joint Drills Unnerve N.Korea  
  By Lee Tae-hoon Staff Reporter South Korea and the United States begin large-scale, joint military exercises today amid growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula. This year's Key Resolve-Foal Eagle drills, which will be conducted on a similar scale compared to last year's, involve 26,000 U.S. servicemen, including 14,000 U.S. troops stationed outside the peninsula, a defense ministry official said. The annual military drills will be carried out until March 20 in multiple locations throughout South Korea. The 12-day exercise, formerly known as RSOI (Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration) is a simulation-driven, defense-oriented combined command-post exercise that evaluates the allied forces' capability to bring troops and equipment to the peninsula in the event of an emergency. Foal Eagle is a joint field exercises focusing on rear-area security and stability operations, along with ground, amphibious and air combat missions.   [Joint US military] [Global insurgency] [Anti Americanism]
• NK Threatens War Over Satellite Shootdown  
  North Korea Monday threatened to retaliate if anyone tries to shoot down a satellite it plans to launch, saying interfering with the country's peaceful space activity would mean war. The statement comes as South Korea and the United States began their annual war drill Monday, in what could be an indication that North Korea may try to launch the supposed satellite during the joint exercise that will continue through March 20, Yonhap News Agency reported.   [Joint US military]
• NKorea puts troops on alert, warns of war danger
  By JEAN H. LEE The Associated Press Monday, March 9, 2009; 1:47 PM SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea put its troops on alert and cut the last hot line to Seoul on Monday as the American and South Korean militaries began joint maneuvers. The communist regime warned that even the slightest provocation could trigger war. The North stressed that provocation would include any attempt to interfere with its impending launch of a satellite into orbit. U.S. and Japanese officials suspect the launch is a cover for a test of a long-range attack missile and have suggested they might move to intercept the rocket. "Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war," North Korea's military threatened in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. Any interception attempt will draw "a just, retaliatory strike," it said. The North has been on a steady retreat from reconciliation since President Lee Myung-bak took office in the South a year ago (sic). [US joint military] {spin]  
• N. Korea, S. Korea and UN Command trade blame for rising tensions on the peninsula
  S. Korea and UN Command demand North withdraw threat to civilian airplanes, North demands end to Key Resolve exercise » North Korean generals, seated at left, and generals from the U.S.-led UN Command sit face to face at a rare round of talks in Panmunjeom on March 6. The United Nations Command and South Korea demanded yesterday that North Korea withdraw its threat to passenger airplanes, condemning it as inhumane. North Korea said it cannot guarantee the safety of South Korean civilian airplanes passing through the North’s territorial airspace during the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercise Key Resovle, which is scheduled for March 9-20. It did not, however, mention the safety of civilian airplanes from other countries. North and South Korea have allowed civilian airplanes to pass through their respective airspace since April 1998. [UNUS]
• U.S. envoy for N. Korea arrives in S. Korea for talks
  Visit will focus on six-party talks, N. Korean missile launch and U.S. approach to N. Korea policy » WASHINGTON -- Stephen Bosworth speaks after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced his appointment as the new special representative for North Korea policy in the Treaty Room of the State Department on February 26, 2009, in Washington, DC. With the situation on the Korean Peninsula approaching a state of hair-trigger tension, United States Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth is traveling to South Korea on Saturday, by way of China and Japan, together with Sung Kim, U.S. special envoy to the six-party talks. Bosworth’s East Asian tour is particularly notable not only for being an important starting point in the Obama administration’s reexamination of North Korea policy but also for coming at a time when North Korea is announcing a satellite launch amid sharp tensions between the two Koreas. During his visits to China and Japan, he indicated that a launch would be strongly discouraged and seemed to suggest that discussion of sanctions at the United Nations level was inevitable if North Korea carries out a launch, but he avoided further specific references. For this reason, more attention is focusing on the message on North Korea that he will put forth in his South Korea visit.
• The North threatening civil aircraft entering its airspace
  Seoul denounces move as both illegal and inhumane March 07, 2009 Seoul yesterday urged Pyongyang to retract its threat against South Korean civilian planes that fly through the North’s airspace, denouncing the move as an inhumane action that violates international norms. Criticizing the scheduled beginning of the annual U.S.-South Korea joint military drill, the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland issued the threat Thursday night, four days ahead of the exercise. The nation’s state-run Korean Central News Agency carried the statement. North Korea is “compelled to declare that security cannot be guaranteed for South Korean civil airplanes flying through the territorial air of our side ... and its vicinity above the East Sea of Korea” during the period of the military drill, which is scheduled to end on March 20. The KCNA said the military drill is regarded as a grave provocation intended to challenge the North’s independence and dignity. Following the threat, two South Korean civilian airliners immediately changed their routes scheduled to pass through the North’s airspace [US Joint military]
• US Wants Dialogue With Pyongyang
  Washington wants dialogue with Pyongyang. That was the message from Stephen Bosworth, Washington's newly minted pointman on North Korea, upon his arrival in South Korea Saturday. "We want dialogue," Bosworth told reporters, adding the U.S. government is "reaching out" to the communist nation, Yonhap reported. [Inversion] [Spin]
• DPRK-U.S. General-level Talks Held
  Pyongyang, March 6 (KCNA) -- The DPRK-U.S. general-level talks were held in Panmunjom on March 2 and 6 at the proposal of the Korean People's Army side. Present at the talks were the delegation of the KPA side led by KPA Major General Kwak Chol Hui and the delegation of the U.S. forces side led by U.S. Air Force Major General Johnny Weida. At the first-day talks the head of the delegation of the KPA side roundly exposed the aggressive and dangerous nature of the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military war exercises, large-scale DPRK-targeted saber rattling, to be staged by the U.S. forces side together with the south Korean puppets from March 9 to 20, citing the arms buildup and military exercises perpetrated by the U.S. forces side recently. He solemnly clarified the principled stand of the KPA on the above-said war maneuvers. He declared that the projected joint military exercises will pose increasing danger as they are timed to coincide with a spate of bellicose remarks let loose by the U.S. and the south Korean conservative forces as regards the projected launch of a satellite by the DPRK. He strongly urged the U.S. forces side to immediately cancel the plan for the exercises for a war of aggression. The U.S. forces side tried hard to cover up the aggressive nature and purpose of the exercises at any cost, insisting that they are "annual ones" and aimed at "defense". The projected saber rattling which the U.S. forces side is going to stage by mobilizing huge troops and modern operational hardware as it did in the past goes to prove that the promise made by the new U.S. administration that it would seek a negotiated settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue is no more than flamboyant rhetoric, he noted, adding that whether the U.S. forces side meets the DPRK's request for suspending the large-scale joint military exercises or not will serve as a barometer showing whether the new U.S. administration is set to follow in the footsteps of the preceding administration which pursued a hostile policy toward the DPRK. That day the U.S. forces side said it would seriously examine the DPRK's request for the immediate suspension of the said exercises and in order to give an answer to it the former proposed resuming the general-level talks on March 6. At the talks on March 6, too, the U.S. forces side justified the exercises and charged that the DPRK's preparations for the satellite launch for peaceful purposes and the action taken by it to disallow south Korean airliners flying in the air above the East Sea of Korea pose threats. The head of the delegation of the KPA side made it clear that the satellite launch is an independent right pertaining to a sovereign state under international law, adding that it was an entirely just measure for self-defense for protecting the security of the DPRK for it to have taken the above-said action at a time when the U.S. is putting military pressure upon it and posing threat to it after amassing aggression forces in the East Sea of Korea. He strongly warned the U.S. forces side that as long as it does not cancel the DPRK-targeted war exercises, the KPA will take strong countermeasures to cope with the policy taken by the new U.S. administration, judging that the U.S. hostile policy to bring down the DPRK by force of arms remains unchanged and in that case the U.S. forces side will be held fully accountable for all the ensuing consequences. [Joint US military] [UNUS]
• Planes Avoid N. Korea Airspace After Threat
  By Jean H. Lee Associated Press Saturday, March 7, 2009; Page A07 SEOUL, March 6 -- Air Canada and Singapore Airlines joined South Korean airlines in rerouting flights to avoid North Korean airspace Friday after the communist regime threatened the South's passenger planes amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea warned late Thursday that it could not guarantee the safety of South Korea's passenger jets flying near its airspace if annual U.S.-South Korean military maneuvers go ahead as planned Monday. The South's two main airlines, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, immediately began redirecting flights. On Friday, at least two foreign airlines, Air Canada and Singapore Airlines, also changed flight paths to and from Seoul, an official at the Civil Aviation Safety Authority said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Pyongyang's warning was the latest threat from North Korea at a time of mounting tensions over stalled reconciliation efforts and the North's plan for a missile test. The two Koreas technically remain at war because their bitter 1950-1953 conflict ended in a cease-fire rather than a peace treaty. [Media] [US Joint military] [Inversion]
• Where Does Obama's New N.Korea Envoy Stand?
  "With the stony look on his face, he looks as if he has no business in negotiations, but no one matches him for strategic thinking," says a senior government official of Stephen Bosworth, who has been appointed as the U.S. special envoy on North Korea. The post is senior to the chief U.S. negotiator at the six-party talks, so what Bosworth thinks and what style he chooses are important variables for the future course of negotiations with North Korea. Bosworth arrives in Seoul on Saturday. A Foreign Ministry official who remembers Bosworth as U.S. ambassador in Seoul recalls, "In private meetings, he often expressed his distrust of the North Korean regime." In a meeting held in 2005, he reportedly said North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is a very unstable man.
• N.Korea Threatens Passenger Planes over Annual Drill
  North Korea on Thursday ratcheted up the rhetoric ahead of annual South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises, warning it "can no more assure the safety of South Korean passenger flights over our territory, especially those passing over the East Sea" during the drill on March 9-20. The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland was quoted by the official [North] Korea Central News Agency as saying, "Because of the United States and its puppet party in [South] Korea and their joint war exercise, we do not know what kind of military clashes may occur in the Korean Peninsula." [Joint US military]
• U.S. and S. Korean Puppets Warned Not to Act Rashly
  Pyongyang, March 5 (KCNA) -- A spokesman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea today issued a statement denouncing the United States and the south Korean puppets for planning to stage large-scale joint military maneuvers Key Resolve and Foal Eagle across south Korea from March 9 at any cost defying the repeated warnings of the DPRK and unanimous protest at home and abroad. The projected joint military maneuvers are a grave provocation to the dignity and sovereignty of the DPRK and a criminal act against peace as they will seriously endanger the security of the Korean nation and the situation in the region, the statement said, and continued: The committee in the name of all Koreans bitterly denounces the U.S. and the Lee Myung Bak group for the projected DPRK-targeted war maneuvers aimed at bringing the dark clouds of a nuclear war to hang over the Korean Peninsula. This saber-rattling is large-scale war exercises, the first of their kind since the emergence of the new administration in the United States [US Joint military]
• Letter: If North Korea Tests a Missile
  Published: March 5, 2009 To the Editor:
  N. Korea Statement Raises Worry of a Missile Test (February 24, 2009) Re “North Korea Statement Raises Worry of a Missile Test” (news article, Feb. 24): With North Korea’s apparent preparations to test a missile that could hit not only South Korea and Japan but possibly also Hawaii or Alaska, the United States and its allies need quickly to state publicly a new self-defense doctrine. It could be put as follows: “Should any nation known to possess and to have tested nuclear fissile material launch a missile capable of reaching the United States or any of its allies and apparently on a trajectory to do so, the United States and its allies will not hesitate to destroy that missile.” This is not intended as a threat but as a caution to all nations not to direct missiles for any purpose on trajectories that might be seen to be directed toward other nations. Nor is this new: it is what we would have done at any time during the cold war if we had had the ability to do so. W. D. Howells Washington, Feb. 25, 2009 The writer was director of politico-military research at the State Department, 1983-89. [Legality]
• At the Heart of North Korea's Troubles, an Intractable Hunger Crisis
  Military service was for decades a way for children from least-favored bloodlines to escape hunger. But food shortages have hit low-ranking troops, too. By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, March 6, 2009; Page A01 SEOUL -- Behind the long-range missile it is preparing to launch and the stockpile of plutonium it claims to have "weaponized," North Korea has an embarrassing and insoluble weakness. This Story At the Heart of North Korea's Troubles, an Intractable Hunger Crisis Patterns of Privation Under the leadership of Kim Jong Il, the country cannot feed its people. Perennially dependent on food aid, North Korea has become a truculent ward of the wealthy countries it threatens. It is the world's first nuclear-armed, missile-wielding beggar -- a particularly intricate challenge for the Obama administration as it begins to formulate a foreign policy. The "eating problem," as it is often called in North Korea, has eroded Kim's authority, damaged a decade of improved relations between the two Koreas and stunted the bodies and minds of millions of North Koreans. Teenage boys fleeing the North in the past decade are on average five inches shorter and weigh 25 pounds less than boys growing up in the South, according to measurements taken at a settlement center for defectors in South Korea. [Inversion] [Sanctions]
• Colorado–Based Ministry's Underground University Prepares North Korean Christian Exiles to Return to North Korea Undetected
  Contact: Erika Castle, 719-598-5869 COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Mar. 3 /Christian Newswire/ -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has announced plans to launch a communications satellite, which the U.S., South Korea and neighboring countries believe is intended to cover the test of a long-range missile. This act, which seems designed to gain the attention of the new U.S. president and other world leaders, comes while a group of North Korean exiles at Underground University in Seoul, South Korea are training to grow the North Korean church while avoiding the attention of Kim Jong Il's regime. These students are part of a 12-month intensive Underground University program that provides North Korean exiles with the skills and training they need to return to serve and grow the North Korean Church. Christianity is illegal in North Korea, despite three government-run churches in Pyongyang. Returning to North Korea after defecting is punishable by death in a concentration camp. "A modern-day Holocaust is occurring in North Korea. What Underground University students are preparing to do is deadly," says Mrs. H.S. Foley, Executive Director of Seoul USA. "But this program is designed to equip them to face these realities while spreading the Gospel to North Koreans." [Psychowar] [Religion]
• Stealth Bombers Could Form Part of Joint Exercise
  B-2 stealth bombers and F-22 stealth fighters of the U.S. could be deployed in a joint exercise with South Korean troops amid signs that North Korea is preparing to launch a long-range missile. The Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercise will be staged from March 9 to 20. On Feb. 25, the U.S. deployed four B-2 stealth bombers at Andersen Air Force Base, the U.S.'s key strategic base in the Asian and Pacific region, relieving six B-52s of duties there. Earlier in January, the U.S. deployed 12 F-22 stealth fighters, the world's most formidable fighter jets, at Kadena Air Base in southern Okinawa of Japan for a three-month tour of duty. [US joint military] [Military balance]
• N.Korea Threatens to Retaliate if 'Invaded'
  With the approach of a South Korea-U.S. joint military exercise on March 9-20, North Korea on Wednesday threatened dire consequences if the two countries violate its borders. If they "invade even 0.001 mm into our territory, we will mobilize all our potential and deal a hundreds of thousands of times more powerful strike in retaliation," the official Rodong Shinmun daily said. In an editorial, the newspaper wrote, "The U.S. boasts its superior strength. But its military capability is not an absolute one. We have a weapon called unity of leader, party and the masses, which is more powerful than nuclear weapons." It said a "firm ethos" has been established in the North in which "the entire society gives priority to the military. All people are armed and the entire country has been fortified," it added.
• Korean Americans Surpass 1.56 Million
  The number of Korean Americans residing in the United States reached 1.56 million as of the end of 2007, Yonhap News Agency reported, quoting the U.S. Census Bureau. The figure, representing those who came from at least one Korean parent, is the fifth biggest group among 15.2 million Asian Americans, followed by 3.54 million Americans of Chinese descent, 3.05 million Filipinos, 2.77 million Indians and 1.65 Vietnamese. Japanese ranked sixth with 1.22 million. [Migration] [Diaspora]
• UN command meetings with North are to continue
  March 04, 2009 North Korea and the United Nations Command will hold a series of additional military talks today and Friday as tension mounts along the inter-Korean border, South Korean officials said yesterday on condition of anonymity. North Korean ranking officer Kwak Yong-hun will likely participate in today’s talks while U.S. Army Col. Kurt Taylor will act as his counterpart, the official said. Kim Yong-kyu, a spokesman for U.S. Forces Korea, said colonel-level talks precede general-level discussions and confirmed the talks are scheduled for this week. [UNUS]
• A Google Search of a Distinctly Retro Kind
  By NOAM COHEN Last month an e-mail message washed up at the offices of The Cook Islands News in the South Pacific. It was a request to place a half-page advertisement in the newspaper, which has a circulation of 2,500. The cost was $370. “We were amazed — it came from out of nowhere,” the newspaper’s editor, John Woods, said in a telephone interview. “We are very skeptical of ads like that.” Even more surprising was who was paying for it: Google. Google, the online giant, had been sued in federal court by a large group of authors and publishers who claimed that its plan to scan all the books in the world violated their copyrights. As part of the class-action settlement, Google will pay $125 million to create a system under which customers will be charged for reading a copyrighted book, with the copyright holder and Google both taking percentages; copyright holders will also receive a flat fee for the initial scanning, and can opt out of the whole system if they wish. But first they must be found.
  We looked at how many books were published in various areas,” she said, “and we knew from the plaintiffs and Google that 30 percent were published in the U.S., 30 percent in industrialized countries. The rest of the world is the rest.” “We had some choices,” she added. “We thought it made sense that in order to meet the due-process standard that we were as broad-based as possible.” So, using United Nations data, her company created a list of countries and territories. Some nations, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran, were excluded because they do not agree to international copyright terms. In others, like Cuba, North Korea and Myanmar, her company is prohibited from buying ads because of United States trade embargos, Ms. Kinsella said. [Sanctions]
• What Obama should offer North Korea
  By Leon V. Sigal | 28 January 2009
  * To date, diplomacy with North Korea has been rife with frustration. * For the Obama administration to change the dynamic, it must propose a comprehensive menu of sequenced reciprocal actions. * Doing so will require circumventing domestic and foreign skeptics and a considerable political backbone.
  As if President Barack Obama hasn't inherited enough trouble from his predecessor, nuclear negotiations with North Korea are once again headed for trouble. In return for energy aid, North Korea agreed at the latest round of Six-Party Talks in December 2008 to complete the disabling of its plutonium program. The Bush administration, however, insisted that the disablement be verified--moving the goalposts beyond what the six parties had previously agreed to do. A couple of months earlier, North Korea had made an oral pledge to Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher Hill to allow sampling and other verification measures. But without a quid pro quo, which the Bush administration wouldn't provide, Pyongyang refused to put it in writing. In response, Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo threatened to suspend the scheduled shipments of energy aid they had pledged to Pyongyang, reneging on the October 2007 Six-Party agreement. This is nothing new. Whenever the United States fails to keep its side of the bargain, North Korea is quick to retaliate--in 1998 Pyongyang sought the means to enrich uranium and test a long-range Taepodong missile; in 2003 it reignited its plutonium program; in 2006 it test-launched a Taepodong and conducted a nuclear test; and last August it suspended disablement of its Yongbyon facilities and threatened to resume plutonium production. History shows that trying to get something for nothing from North Korea doesn't work. In fact, pressuring Pyongyang yields nothing but trouble. As if Washington moving the goalposts wasn't trouble enough, North Korea has been stepping up its demands, insisting that it won't give up its nuclear weapons unless the U.S. "nuclear umbrella" over South Korea is removed. Pyongyang has also hinted that it wants "all other nuclear weapons states" to disarm when it disarms. To change the dynamic, the Obama administration needs to propose a comprehensive menu of sequenced reciprocal actions to end enmity and reconcile with North Korea, easing its isolation and insecurity. [US NK Policy] [US NK Negotiations] [Sequencing] [Dissension]
• Reading Between the Lines: Clinton’s Trip and the Six Party Talks
  by Nicole Finnemann (nmf@keia.org)
  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s choice of Asia as the destination for her inaugural tour gave recognition to the significance of U.S. alliances and strategic interests in the region. From February 16–22, Secretary Clinton visited Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China. Highly publicized, each capital stop had a similar agenda, focusing on common approaches to the challenges facing the international community—namely the financial markets turmoil, humanitarian issues, security, and climate change. With a few exceptions, the words “North Korea” were strikingly absent from her trip’s primary agenda—perhaps a deliberate message to the region that the United States’ interests there run deeper than the North Korean “issue.” However, the trip was not uneventful with regards to North Korea and the Six Party Talks. Below are some of the key statements and events from Clinton’s trip that carry significance for the future of the Six Party process. [US NK policy]
• 'N. Korean Missile Can Reach US in 33 Minutes'
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter The Heritage Foundation, a U.S. conservative think-tank, has released a documentary film which stresses the necessity of a missile defense system in a bid to protect America from ``enemies'' including North Korea and Iran. Introducing a seven-minute preview of the film ``33 Minutes,'' sub-titled ``Protecting America in the New Missile Age,'' the institute claimed the government should establish the defense system against ballistic missiles capable of hitting the country within 33 minutes. Missile defense] [Threat] [Spin]
• North Korea Sends Message: 'Don't Ignore Us!'
  John Feffer | February 18, 2009
  Email this page to a friend Comment on this article Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org Editor's Note: This op-ed was distributed by the Progressive Media Project. Just as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was arriving in Asia this week, Pyongyang was threatening to test a long-range missile. That's its way of saying, "Don't ignore us!" North Korea's nuclear program is not in the top tier of foreign policy issues facing the Obama administration. The new team in Washington believes it has to deal with other priorities — the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the global economic meltdown, climate change and Middle East peace — before it can address the North Korean conundrum. But North Korea isn't waiting patiently for its turn in line. Its economy is in lousy shape. It has difficulty feeding its population. Its leader Kim Jong Il is reportedly recovering from a stroke, and no one knows who will be the next head of state. Firing a long-range missile is one way that North Korea can prove that it's still alive and wants a deal now.
• UNC, N.Korea Hold Rare Talks
  The United Nations Command and North Korea on Monday held general-level talks at the truce village of Panmunjom for the first time in over six years. But talks ended after 30 minutes without any tangible results after North Korean delegates demanded the cancellation of a South Korea-U.S. joint military exercise to be staged this month, but the UNC delegates countered it by saying it is an "annual defense drill." At the talks, held at the North's request, North Korean delegates called the South Korea-U.S. joint Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercise, which will be staged from next Monday, a "war exercise against the North." They claimed the exercise will "further heighten tension at a time when relations between the two Koreas are already strained." But UNC delegates emphasized, "As we have already told the North, it is an annual defense exercise." The two sides, however, reportedly agreed to schedule future general-level talks. It was the first time the UNC and North Korea have held dialogue since September 2002. About 26,000 U.S. troops -- about 12,000 U.S. Forces in Korea and some 14,000 U.S. troops stationed overseas -- will participate in the military exercise. Nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS John C. Stennis, and Aegis ships will be temporarily deployed in the East Sea. A working-level North Korean officer warned the South Korean Defense Ministry on Feb. 28. By contrast, it had reportedly proposed the latest UNC-North Korean talks to the UNC through duty officers at Panmunjom. Therefore, experts speculated that North Korea may have tried another tactic in attempting dialogue with the U.S. but rejecting talks with the South. [Joint US military] [Sovereignty] [Spin] [UNUS]
• The downside to Clinton’s visit
  Moon Chung-in, Professor, Department of Political Science and International Studies, Yonsei University
  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to South Korea last week is still a hot topic among the population. There have been many personal compliments for Clinton, talking about her “high-class diplomacy abounding with consummate skill” and her “impressive diplomacy that captured the hearts of the South Korean people.” Her visit to South Korea is also being judged to have allayed diplomatic concerns of the Lee Myung-bak administration, including: erasing apprehensions about the South Korea-U.S. alliance, strengthening cooperation between the two countries toward North Korea, and reconfirming the principle of having the North get in touch with the United States only by going through the South.
  But there are some unsatisfactory aspects to her visit
  It was also difficult to find a distinction from the Bush administration. There seems to be almost nothing different, aside for a different understanding of North Korea’s enriched uranium program. If one considers her statements about “complete and verifiable elimination of North Korea’s nuclear weapons,” strengthening the South Korea-U.S. alliance as a “global strategic alliance that rests upon shared commitments and common values -- democracy, human rights, market economies, and the pursuit of peace,” North Korea’s “tyranny and poverty,” and “the improvement of inter-Korean relations as a precondition for improving North Korea-U.S. relations,” it gave the impression of another visit to South Korea by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. [Continuity] [HEU]
• USFK Chief Urges Seoul to Join US BMD
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter South Korea should participate in a U.S. regional missile defense network to thwart the lingering threat posed by North Korea's missile programs, the top American commander here said Wednesday. In an exclusive interview with The Korea Times, Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), said South Korea should develop a multi-layered missile defense system interoperable with the U.S. high-altitude ballistic missile defense (BMD) shield for defense against a possible North Korean missile attack, the top American commander here said Wednesday. [Missile defense] [Threat]  
• N.Korea Slams U.S. Over 'Provocation' in DMZ  
      The North Korean military sent a message to the South Korea armed forces Sunday claiming the "provocative actions" of U.S. troops and "those in violation" of the armistice agreement were getting worse along the inter-Korean sea and land border. "If U.S. troops continue their arrogant actions in the DMZ, our military will respond resolutely," the North Korean officer in charge of DMZ business was quoted as saying. The North claimed U.S. troops crossed 30 m beyond the military demarcation line into the DMZ on the west coast on Jan. 5 and 21, taking photographs of guard posts and watching vehicles passing the MDL. "On 66 occasions until Feb. 20 since early this year, some 62 personnel and 58 vehicles have arbitrarily crossed 100 m beyond the MDL," it said. The message said at a time when the two Koreas find themselves "almost on the brink of war" such actions by U.S. troops which it claimed had the "tacit consent of the South" could trigger a military clash.  
• Fear Itself
  February 28, 2009 Something interesting happened last week when the homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, went to Capitol Hill. She did not use the word “terrorism” in her prepared testimony. Representative Peter King of New York, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, noticed. He did not approve. “I think it’s important for us in positions of leadership to constantly remind people how real that threat is,” Mr. King told her, “and how it’s an ongoing threat.” Barely a month into a new administration, Mr. King was straining to hear the terror drums of the last eight long years. Whether it was John Ashcroft’s trumpeted dirty bomber, Tom Ridge’s color-coded fear chart, or Dick Cheney’s muttering about mushroom clouds, the Bush administration could set the nation’s pulse spiking. The trouble was, it did not ask the country to do anything but be afraid, the better to push its disastrous campaign of unnecessary war and trampled civil liberties. Memo to Mr. King, and anyone else nostalgic for another jolt of Be Very Afraid: We are still afraid. It is not just those of us who live or work in New York, who ride the subway and gaze into the empty sky above ground zero. It is anybody who boards a plane, who knows what and who Iran and North Korea are, who remembers Mr. Bush’s post-9/11 failures to secure chemical plants, to complete the urgent mission in Afghanistan, to catch Osama bin Laden. Being wise to the reality of terrorism is not something we have to work on. [Threat] ]Bizarre]
• Putting Peace First
  Christine Ahn and Paul Liem | February 20, 2009
  (Published in the International Herald Tribune on February 19, 2009) "If North Korea is genuinely prepared to completely and verifiably eliminate their nuclear weapons program," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said before she departed for Asia, "the Obama administration will be willing to normalize bilateral relations, replace the peninsula's longstanding armistice agreements with a permanent peace treaty, and assist in meeting the energy and other economic needs of the North Korean people." Clinton's acknowledgment of the need to replace the armistice with a permanent peace treaty is a warm welcome to millions of Korean-Americans and Koreans hoping for a peaceful resolution to heightening tensions on the peninsula. During her stop in Japan, however, she appeared to adopt the Bush administration's position that North Korea disarm as a precondition for normalization. [Sequencing] [US NK policy]
• North Korea, the US and the Bottom Line in Negotiating the Future
  Selig Harrison Introduction by Bruce Cumings
  Selig Harrison originally visited North Korea in 1972, when he and Harrison Salisbury were the first independent or non-communist American journalists to visit since the Korean War. Mr. Harrison was also one of the first American experts to understand the strong grip of nationalism in North Korea, which he elucidated in his excellent 1978 book, The Widening Gulf: Asian Nationalism and American Policy. He now has more than 20 visits to Pyongyang under his belt, and his most recent book, Korean Endgame is a provocative call for American disengagement with Korea. It also contains perhaps the best informed treatment that we have of the issues that have animated the confrontation between Washington and Pyongyang over the latter’s nuclear program. With that stymied conflict now in its eighteenth year, it is no wonder that Mr. Harrison returned from his most recent visit with a suggestion that “benign neglect” of the nuclear issue might be the best among a narrowing list of American options
• US Experts Return From N. Korea
  A group of U.S. experts, who on Tuesday entered North Korea via China, has returned to Beijing after having talks on the Stalinist country’s denuclearization process, Yonhap reported Saturday citing Japan’s Kyodo news agency. The group summarized the meeting as “very helpful” but didn’t elaborate on their meetings with North Korean officials. The group, led by John Lewis, professor emeritus at Stanford University, was the first private-sector U.S. delegation to visit North Korea since the inauguration of Barak Obama as U.S. president. Currently, the U.S. administration is in the process of formulating its policy on Pyongyang. The other members of the group include Siegfried Hecker, an expert on nuclear arms reduction at Stanford University; David Straub, a former State Department official who dealt with North Korea in 2002-2004 and now is the Korean Studies Program associate director at Stanford. Talks on North Korea’s denuclearization have been stalled for months over the disagreement on the methods to verify Pyongyang’s nuclear activities. North Korea recently upped ante of its hostile rhetoric on the U.S. and South Korea, which analysts believe is intended to draw attention from the U.S.

• Clinton Addresses N. Korea Succession
  By MARK LANDLER Published: February 19, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned Thursday that a succession battle in North Korea could complicate nuclear negotiations with that country’s government, she broke an informal taboo. Diplomats do not talk publicly about what comes after Kim Jong-il, the convalescing dictator who turned his isolated country into a nuclear rogue state. Mrs. Clinton, on her first trip as secretary of state, broached the topic with reporters on her plane, and then answered two questions. “If there is a succession, even if it’s a peaceful succession,” she said, “that creates more uncertainty, and it may also encourage behaviors that are even more provocative, as a way to consolidate power within the society.” The question is whether Mrs. Clinton made a beginner’s error that could upset other players in the negotiations, like China. Or whether she showed refreshing candor — the kind of approach that could shake loose what has been a diplomatic quagmire for the last eight years.
• Clinton Warns N. Korea on Missiles
  By MARK LANDLER Published: February 16, 2009 TOKYO — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in her first full day on a weeklong tour of Asia, warned North Korea on Tuesday not to undertake a test of a long-range missile, as it has threatened. “The possible missile launch that North Korea is talking about would be very unhelpful in moving our relationship forward,” Mrs. Clinton said after a meeting with the Japanese foreign minister, Hirofumi Nakasone. North Korea’s saber rattling has cast a shadow over Mrs. Clinton’s inaugural foreign trip, as has Japan’s deteriorating economy, which was reflected Monday when the government reported the country’s deepest quarterly economic contraction since 1974.
• Succession Struggle In N. Korea Hinders Talks, Clinton Says
  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton embarked on her maiden voyage as Madam Secretary to Asia. Clinton will travel to Japan, Indonesia, Korea and China. She said she hopes to restore the image of the United States in the Islamic world. By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, February 20, 2009; Page A18 SEOUL, Feb. 20 -- A succession struggle appears to be underway in North Korea and is hampering efforts to restart talks on its nuclear program, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday.
• Stars Aligning for a Korean Global Role?
  by Spencer H. Kim Spencer H. Kim (spencer@cbol.com) is a founder of the Pacific Century Institute. He has served on the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) from 2005 to 2008. There is much discussion these days about a greater contribution from Asia in addressing global trouble spots. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Asia has helped focus the dialogue. Korea has to decide whether it will play a role commensurate with its economic and political status, as well as with its role as a treaty ally of the United States; if it chooses to do so, stars may be aligning that could make such actions much more smoothly integrated with U.S. efforts. Asian countries are increasingly called on to make more global contributions. When in Tokyo, Secretary Clinton called on Japan to be more involved in UN-led missions. The Japanese government announced its sponsorship of an international conference on stabilization in Pakistan. The Australian government is considering taking military responsibility for an Afghan province when Dutch troops leave. [Tribute] [Decline]
• Korea Hopes for Clear Message from Clinton Visit
  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Seoul on Thursday for a two-day visit, her meetings with South Korean officials the first big diplomatic event between Seoul and Washington since the inauguration of the Obama administration. It comes amid growing tension between the two Koreas
• Korean-American Officers to Command Ships in Joint Drill
  Two Aegis destroyers of the U.S. Navy commanded by Korean-American officers will for the first time take part in a regular U.S.-Korean military exercise in March. A military source on Wednesday said the so-called Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercise will be staged across Korea from March 9 to 20, and two U.S. Aegis ships led by Korean-American naval commanders will take part. The officers are commander Choi Hee-dong, captain of the USS Chafee (DDG-90), and commander Jeffrey Kim, who will be assigned as captain of USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) next month. The John S. McCain (DDG-56) belongs to the Seventh Fleet based in Yokosuka, Japan, which would be the first to sail to the Korean Peninsula in case of a war here. That they are commanded by Korean Americans therefore has symbolic resonance. A ceremony for Kim to assume command will be held in Busan, a source said. An officer with the U.S. Forces Korea said as in previous years, about 26,000 U.S. troops -- 12,000 USFK and about 14,000 other troops stationed overseas -- will participate. A fleet consisting of nuclear-powered 97,000 t-class aircraft carrier John C. Stennis, four to five Aegis destroyers, and a nuclear-powered attack submarine will also join the Korean Navy for an exercise. [Joint US military] [Imperialism]
• No question about Afghan troop deployment
  [Editorial] United States President Barack Obama approved a plan to send an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan yesterday, marking the beginning of a greater military presence in that country, as promised during his election campaign. Once those additional troops arrive in the summer, the United States will have more than 50,000 troops in Afghanistan.
  Even more frustrating is the attitude among some in the Lee Myung-bak administration and the ruling Grand National Party. Ahead of the arrival in Seoul of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the GNP is said to have drafted an internal document considering the possibility of sending Korean troops to Afghanistan and affirming what the United States would do in return. GNP Supreme Council member Gong Sung-jin says the document was never submitted to an official party, probably body, but that Korea could demand high-tech weaponry from the Americans as payment for sending Koreans. His thinking is pathetic for plotting an inter-Korean arms race on the premise that Korea is definitely sending troops. [Tribute]
• US Aircraft Carrier to Participate in Joint War Games
  USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter South Korean and U.S. troops will hold their annual joint exercises in multiple locations throughout South Korea from March 9 to 20, the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) announced Wednesday. The Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercises will involve about 12,000 U.S. troops stationed here and 14,000 from off-peninsula, along with South Korean troops, CFC officials said. The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) of the U.S. Navy's 3rd Fleet will participate in the large-scale drills, they said. The 97,000-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is the seventh Nimitz-class supercarrier named for Senator John C. Stennis of Mississippi. It carries F/A-18 Hornet, EA-6B Prowler and E-2 Hawkeye aircraft, and MH-60R and MH-60S helicopters. It has a top speed in excess of 30 knots. ``The United Nations Command (UNC) notified the North Korean Armed Forces that this exercise is defense-oriented, focusing on a military readiness posture,'' the UNC said in a news release. The Key Resolve exercise, formerly known as RSOI (Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration), is a simulation-driven, defense-oriented combined command-post exercise intended to evaluate the allied forces' capability to receive forces from bases outside the country in the case of an emergency on the peninsula. Foal Eagle is a theater-wide combined field exercise. It involves massive joint field exercises, including rear area security and stability operations, special operations, ground maneuvers, amphibious operations and combat air operations. Approximately 20,000 South Korean troops from corps-level units of the Army, Navy and Air Force are to take part in the Foal Eagle exercise, according to officials from Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff. North Korea regularly denounces joint drills by South Korea and the United States as a rehearsal for invading the North. [Joint US military] [Spin]
• North Korea: Take Away Their Mercedes
  by Marcus Noland, Peterson Institute for International Economics
  Op-ed in Newsweek February 14, 2009
  Last September, satellite photos of North Korea revealed construction of a large new missile-launch facility near the Chinese border. Now speculation is growing that Pyongyang may be about to test a multistage rocket, one potentially capable of reaching the US West Coast. South Korean intelligence officials estimate that the launch site is 80 percent complete, and their US counterparts claim the North is moving forward with preparations, including engine tests. [US NK policy] [Sanctions]
• Atlantic Council: Recommendations to the Obama Administration
  * Express a firm U.S. commitment to achieve a comprehensive settlement in Korea both to facilitate the success of the Six-Party Talks and to resolve other critical security, political and economic is­sues on the peninsula that underlie the nuclear issue and fuel tensions in Northeast Asia. * Appoint a Special Envoy with presidential authority to address outstanding security, political and economic issues with North Korea at the highest level. [US NK policy]
  • Smart Power: Remaking U.S. Foreign Policy in North Korea
    Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment Eni F.H. Faleomavaega (D-AS), Chairman Webcast [Real Player] Date Thursday, February 12, 2009 Time 1:00 PM Location Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building Testimony
    * The Honorable Eni F.H. Faleomavaega * The Honorable Donald A. Manzullo * Mr. Selig S. Harrison * The Honorable Charles L. Pritchard * Victor Cha, Ph.D. * Mr. Bruce Klingner * Mr. Scott Snyder * Mr. Peter Beck [US NK policy]
  • Crafting a More Effective Approach Toward North Korea
    Peter M. Beck
    Adjunct Professor, American University February 12, 2009 Testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and Global Environment Hearing: “Smart Power: Remaking U.S. Foreign Policy in North Korea” I feel very honored to have the opportunity to discuss with you today how to more effectively deal with North Korea. I will do my best to offer assessments and recommendations that have not already been made by the previous distinguished speakers, at least one of whom has been focusing on North Korea longer than I have been alive! As with the economy, we face a much more grave and complex situation with the North today than when President Bush took office eight years ago. I wish I could offer you a magic formula for success with the North. What I do know is what does not work: namely, the name-calling and disengagement of the early Bush years, or the unconditional engagement of the previous two South Korean governments. I believe we stand the greatest chance of succeeding if we maintain a two-track (bilateral and multilateral) approach that carefully balances carrots and sticks, in close coordination with the other key players. [US NK policy]
  • STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA
    CHAIRMAN before the SUBCOMMITTEE ON ASIA, THE PACIFIC, AND THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT “Smart Power: Remaking U.S. Foreign Policy in North Korea” February 12, 2009
  • Remarks of Selig S. Harrison
    Remarks of Selig S. Harrison at the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment, February 12, 2009.
    We’re meeting at a very important turning point in US-North Korean relations. For the past 18 years the United States has offered the normalization of relations with North Korea as the reward for denuclearization. Now North Korea is asking us to reverse the sequence, to pursue denuclearization through normalization. They want us to accept them as a nuclear weapons state during a period of transition to normalization and eventual denuclearization. I’m going to begin by telling you about my recent trip, what was said and who said it. I will then go on to my assessment of the reasons for the shift to a hard line on the nuclear issue and to my analysis of U.S. policy options. [US NK policy]
  • Statement of Charles L. Pritchard
    President Korea Economic Institute Before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment February 12, 2009 “Smart Power: Remaking U.S. Foreign Policy in North Korea”
    Thank you, Chairman Faleomavaega, Ranking Member Manzullo and distinguished Members for inviting me to discuss with your subcommittee an important foreign policy issue facing our nation and the new administration. I commend the Committee for holding this hearing and asking the witnesses today to address the issue of Smart Power – for that is exactly what will be required of the administration in formulating its policy toward North Korea. In her confirmation hearing, Secretary Clinton emphasized the importance of Smart Power and indicated that the administration will have at its disposal the full range of diplomatic and, if necessary, military tools to reestablish American leadership throughout the world. North Korea presents a special challenge, one that has evolved and become more dangerous over the past several years. Secretary Clinton and President Obama have indicated that they continue to value the Six Party process and will enhance cooperation and coordination with our allies South Korea and Japan as well as the other partners in the process. That is a good start. But let me suggest that while the 6 Party process has focused on capping future plutonium production and eventually going beyond the 1994 Agreed Framework to permanently dismantle North Korea’s nuclear facilities, it has failed to adequately address proliferation concerns. [US NK policy]
  • Bruce Klingner Senior Research Fellow, Northeast Asia The Heritage Foundation
    Prepared Statement before Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment United States House of Representatives February 12, 2009 Thank you Mr. Chairman and the distinguished members of the Subcommittee for asking me to testify on “Remaking U.S. Foreign Policy in North Korea. I will focus my oral remarks primarily on recommendations for the new Obama Administration and Congress as they begin the reformulation of policy toward North Korea. The views expressed in this testimony are my own, and should not be construed as representing any official position of the Heritage Foundation.1 In the dawn of a new year and a new U.S. administration we can again be hopeful of a diplomatic solution to the North Korean nuclear problem. Perceptions that President Obama will take a dramatically different approach toward Pyongyang, including an embrace of direct summit diplomacy, have raised expectations for a near-term breakthrough in the Six Party Talks. [US NK policy]
  • Scott Snyder
    Director, Center for U.S.-Korea Policy, The Asia Foundation Adjunct Senior Fellow for Korean Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
    February 12, 2009 “Smart Power: Remaking U.S. Foreign Policy in North Korea” Testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment [US NK policy]
• High Hopes in Asia as Clinton Starts Trip
  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began her tour of Asia, arriving in Japan late Monday night. In Tokyo, Clinton said, "The bilateral relationship between the United States and Japan is a cornerstone of our efforts around the world." She reminded her listeners that North Korea has already agreed to scrap its nuclear program and that the United States expects it to fulfill its duties.
• Clinton issues warning on North Korea
  Secretary of state's visit to Asia breaks with tradition as US signals shift in priorities towards Japan and China Justin McCurry in Tokyo guardian.co.uk, Monday 16 February 2009 19.26 GMT Secretary of state Hillary Clinton gives a speech upon her arrival in Tokyo. Photograph: Reuters Hillary Clinton arrived in Asia on her first overseas trip as US secretary of state today as North Korea prepared to test a ballistic missile which is believed to have sufficient range to reach US territory. In a move that looked set to heighten rather than defuse tensions between the two countries, the Pyongyang regime announced it would launch a missile, widely though to to be the Taepodong-2, from a base on its east coast. Before leaving Washington on Sunday, Clinton had said the United States is willing to normalise ties with North Korea and help rebuild its economy if it abandons its nuclear weapons. [Sequencing]
• Clinton Warns N. Korea on Missiles
  Tomohiro Osumi/Pool, via Reuters Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke at a joint press conference with Japan's foreign minister, Hirofumi Nakasone, on Tuesday. By MARK LANDLER Published: February 16, 2009 TOKYO — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in her first full day on a weeklong tour of Asia, warned North Korea on Tuesday not to undertake a test of a long-range missile, as it has threatened (sic). “The possible missile launch that North Korea is talking about would be very unhelpful in moving our relationship forward,” Mrs. Clinton said after a meeting with the Japanese foreign minister, Hirofumi Nakasone. North Korea’s saber rattling has cast a shadow over Mrs. Clinton’s inaugural foreign trip, as has Japan’s deteriorating economy, which was reflected Monday when the government reported the country’s deepest quarterly economic contraction since 1974. [Spin] [Media]
• Clinton Puts N.Korea on the Spot
  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a speech at the Asia Society in New York last weekend said "If North Korea is genuinely prepared to completely and verifiably eliminate its nuclear program the Obama administration will be ready to normalize our bilateral relations." She said the former Bush administration had not properly handled suspicions over North Korea's uranium enrichment program. It was her first comprehensive statement on North Korea policy and comes ahead of her visit to South Korea this Thursday. [Sequencing]
• N.Korea 'Could Test Missile During Clinton's Asia Visit'
  An expert on East Asian relations has suggested that North Korea could test-fire its inter-continental ballistic missile during U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's four-nation Asian tour. Secretary Clinton leaves the U.S. Sunday to visit Korea, Japan, Indonesia and China. She is scheduled to stay in Seoul on Thursday and Friday. The prediction came at a seminar in Washington D.C. on Thursday by Georgetown University scholar Balbina Hwang. She is a former senior special advisor to ambassador Christopher Hill, who worked as Washington's chief nuclear envoy to North Korea under the George W. Bush administration.
• Clinton’s North Korea policy: Just like old wine in a new bottle
  Jungsoo Jang, Executive editor [Column] The outline of the Obama administration’s strategy toward North Korea’s nuclear program is beginning to reveal itself. The solution presented by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in a speech at New York’s Asia Society on Friday can be broadly divided into four areas. First, the United States is dealing with the North Korean nuclear issue within the framework of the six-party talks. Second, North Korea must not engage in any provocative acts. Third, North Korea must abandon all nuclear weapons and return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. And fourth, North Korea’s denuclearization and the normalization of North Korea-U.S. relations can be pursued in parallel. What attracts the most attention among these is the part about carrying out denuclearization and normalization side by side. But it is highly uncertain whether this part can become a reality, as it comes with the difficult prior condition of “If North Korea is prepared to abandon its nuclear weapons program in a truly complete and verifiable way.” This principle, as specified by Secretary of State Clinton, gives pause to those who were expecting an essential shift in North Korea policy with the launching of the Obama administration. Of course, the side-by-side denuclearization and normalization plan elucidated by Clinton clearly does represent a considerable change from the Bush administration, which focused on a schematic view of denuclearization first, normalization second [Sequencing]
• North Korea Says Has Right to Launch Missiles
  By REUTERS Published: February 16, 2009 Filed at 1:39 a.m. ET Skip to next paragraph SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Monday it had the right to launch its longest-range missile, raising tensions just hours before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in the region for talks likely to focus on the reclusive state. [Double standards] [Media]
• Clinton, Heading Abroad, Takes Softer Tone on North Korea
  By MARK LANDLER Published: February 15, 2009 ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, en route to Asia on her inaugural foreign trip, struck a conciliatory tone toward North Korea on Sunday, saying the United States would have a “great openness” to the country if it gave up its nuclear ambitions. [Media] [Sequencing]
• Clinton Criticizes Bush on N. Korea
  By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, February 16, 2009; Page A11 ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska, Feb. 15 -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton cast doubt Sunday on a claim by the Bush administration that North Korea had a clandestine program to enrich uranium, and she said she will focus on getting the Pyongyang government to give up its stock of weapons-grade plutonium. "There is a debate within the intelligence community as to exactly the extent of the highly-enriched-uranium program," Clinton told reporters traveling with her to Asia on her first voyage as the chief U.S. diplomat. In a slap at her predecessors, Clinton made it clear she believes that the Bush administration's decision to walk away from an agreement negotiated during her husband's administration -- the 1994 Agreed Framework -- helped create the current crisis over North Korea's stash of nuclear weapons. "The Agreed Framework was torn up on the basis of the concerns about the highly-enriched-uranium program," Clinton said. "There is no debate that, once the Agreed Framework was torn up, the North Koreans began to reprocess plutonium with a vengeance because all bets were off. The result is they now have nuclear weapons, which they did not have before."
  After the 2006 test, the Bush administration also de-emphasized the uranium concerns, but senior officials raised it anew in the waning weeks of the administration, saying they had obtained new intelligence that cast doubt on North Korean denials. [HEU]
• From New DNI, Moderate View on North Korea And Warning About Iran's Role in Afghanistan
  By Walter Pincus Monday, February 16, 2009; Page A13 In his first presentation to Congress last Thursday outlining the worldwide threats to the United States, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair offered a collection of facts and judgments that failed to make headlines but are worth remembering in the coming weeks and months. Blair, in his rundown of North Korea's nuclear ambitions, said, "Pyongyang probably views its nuclear weapons as being more for deterrence and coercive diplomacy than for warfighting." He went on to say that the intelligence community's assessment is that "Pyongyang probably would not attempt to use nuclear weapons against U.S. forces or territory unless it perceived the regime to be on the verge of military defeat and risked an irretrievable loss of control." That seemed like new, moderate language, given the Bush administration's rapid push almost seven years ago to have a missile defense system in place against a possible nuclear attack launched by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. But a year ago, Blair's predecessor, Mike McConnell, used almost the exact same language in his prepared statement for the 2008 worldwide threat hearing. The difference is that McConnell talked not of Pyongyang's "nuclear weapons" but of its "capabilities." The underlying thought, that Kim would not order the use of a nuclear weapon against U.S. forces or territory unless he faced imminent military defeat, is reminiscent of the CIA's comments in October 2002 to Congress: Despite what senior Bush officials were saying, agency analysts judged that Saddam Hussein would not turn over weapons of mass destruction to terrorists for use against the United States or use them himself unless the country was invaded and he faced military defeat.
• Obama’s North Korea challenge
  Author: Peter Drysdale
  This week US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, heads of to Northeast Asia. She has a tricky mission. One of the trickiest parts will be to navigate around the development of an Obama Administration strategy for dealing with the North Korean problem. On this there seems still quite a way to go. [US NK policy]
• Bosworth 'Certain' to Succeed Hill in N.Korea Post
  Stephen Bosworth, a former senior State Department official and U.S. ambassador to South Korea, is a virtual shoo-in as assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and the head of the U.S. delegation to the six-party talks. Speculation now centers on whether he will visit North Korea. A diplomatic source in Washington D.C. on Wednesday said Bosworth is "certain" to succeed Christopher Hill in the post. From 1995 to 1997, Bosworth served as executive director of the now defunct Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization set up to build a light water reactor in North Korea under the 1994 Geneva Agreed Framework. He was U.S. ambassador to Seoul from 1997 to 2000 and is now dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
• Bosworth to be 6-party talks envoy
  February 13, 2009 WASHINGTON - Stephen Bosworth, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, is expected to be named as the U.S. envoy to six-party talks on curbing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. The sources spoke on condition they not be identified, noting that the selection of the envoy was a sensitive matter before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China next week. Reached at home, Bosworth declined to comment on whether he may be named the special envoy. A State Department spokesman also declined comment on the matter.
• U.S. Warns It May Shoot Down N.Korean Missile
  N The U.S. state and defense secretaries on Tuesday warned North Korea against a missile test for which the Stalinist country seems to be preparing. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters if North Korea is preparing to test-fire a ballistic missile with the continental United States considered a potential target, then the U.S. could shoot it down. But Gates added, "Since the first time that they launched the missile (in 2006) it flew for a few minutes before crashing, the range of the Taepodong-2 remains to be seen. So far, it's very short." [Double standards] [Legality]
• N.Korea Should Heed U.S. Warnings
  U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Tuesday said shooting down a Taepodong 2 missile launched by North Korea remains an option for his government. Gates added it would be advisable for North Korea to focus on sending a positive message about progress in denuclearization and verification. Gates said the U.S. decided to deploy battleships to locations where they can track North Korean activities, while a spokesman for U.S. Pacific Command said all military resources were being mobilized to closely monitor the situation.
• U.S. may down a threatening missile
  Secretary Gates, however, downplays possible danger from a North launch February 12, 2009 United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates indicated Washington could shoot down North Korea’s long-range missile if the communist country actually fires it toward the United States. Gates’ comment came at a time when Pyongyang is suspected of taking a series of steps to prepare for another Taepodong II missile test, the first such move after a failed missile test in 2006. Earlier, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also expressed concerns over Pyongyang’s recent flurry of hostile rhetoric and suspected missile test preparation, calling the latest developments “unacceptable.”
• South, U.S. craft new war plan in case of invasion
  February 12, 2009 When they hold their annual joint military exercise this summer, South Korea and the United States will be pushing to introduce a new war plan in case of a North Korean invasion, a defense official said yesterday. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against the communist North after the 1950?53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire rather than a peace treaty. The South, which has a 660,000-strong military, relinquished operational control of its troops to the U.S.-led United Nations command immediately after the war broke out. It received back its peacetime control from the U.S. in 1994, but the wartime command has yet to be returned in 2012, as Washington moves forward with its global troop realignment project. [Joint US military] [Inversion] [Sovereignty]
• US Ready to Use Defense Shield Against Missile Threat
  By Michael Ha Staff Reporter U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday that the U.S. military may put the country's missile defense system on alert if North Korea fires any intercontinental ballistic missiles. In a press briefing at the Pentagon, Gates answered that the U.S. administration is maintaining the option of activating the missile defense system if deemed necessary. According to a press transcript provided by the U.S. Department of Defense, Gates told reporters that ``I certainly intend to make sure that my colleagues ? the secretary of state, national security advisor, president and vice president ? understand what our capabilities are, and that that's an option out there should ? should we deem it necessary." But Gates also tried to ease concerns and played down the notion that the North Korean missiles pose any credible danger to the United States.
• Seoul Sought to Reclaim Wartime Command in 1970s
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter Former President Park Chung-hee sought to take over wartime command of Korean troops both in peacetime and wartime in the late 1970s following the inauguration of the Jimmy Carter administration, which was pushing to withdraw troops from South Korea, government reports said Wednesday. According to documents declassified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Park government was concerned about then U.S. President Carter's agenda to pull American troops out of the Korean Peninsula and reduce his government's security assistance to South Korea. Carter raised the issue of human rights in the South, the documents said. But Carter's policy toward South Korea faced opposition from U.S. conservatives as well as South Korea, Japan and other allies. The Park government, for its part, came up with measures to deter Carter's pledges, while pursuing diplomacy, seeking help from Japan and other nations, said the documents.
• U.S. seen naming Bosworth as North Korea nuclear envoy
  for the content that you post. Reuters Wednesday, February 11, 2009; 7:30 PM WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Stephen Bosworth, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, is expected to be named as the U.S. envoy to six-party talks on curbing North Korea's nuclear ambitions, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The sources spoke on condition they not be identified, noting that the selection of the envoy was a sensitive matter ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China next week. Bosworth, dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, declined comment on whether he would be tapped to lead the U.S. delegation to the six-party talks, which also include the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia. Under those talks, North Korea agreed in 2005 to abandon all its nuclear programs. However, Pyongyang tested a nuclear device in 2006, has been slow to carry out agreements on disabling its plutonium program and has refused to commit to a verification regime, leaving the multilateral process stalled. A State Department spokesman declined comment on whether Bosworth would be chosen as U.S. envoy to the talks [Inversion]
• Ex-IRA chief seeks bail in counterfeit dollar case
  By SHAWN POGATCHNIK The Associated Press Wednesday, February 11, 2009; 1:32 PM DUBLIN -- A former IRA chief accused of distributing millions in North Korean-produced counterfeit $100 bills jumped bail once and could flee Ireland if granted freedom again, a police officer testified Wednesday. The United States has accused Sean Garland of playing a lead role in a plot to launder millions' worth of expertly printed "superdollars" produced by North Korea in the late 1980s in an attempt to undermine the U.S. currency. The U.S. says Russian officials encouraged Garland and other activists with an Irish Republican Army faction called the Official IRA to profit by spending the counterfeit money in the early 1990s. Garland, 74, was arrested after the 2005 U.S. indictment but fled the British territory of Northern Ireland after being released on bail. He went on to live freely in the Republic of Ireland but was arrested last month in Dublin outside the headquarters of the Workers Party, a fringe Marxist political group he led until last year. Dublin High Court Judge John McMenamin ordered Garland to stay in jail for at least one more day while he considers bail. But an officer from the police's extradition unit, Sgt. Martin O'Neill, testified that Garland was likely to break any terms offered. "He can move again to another country," O'Neill said. "I would class him as being at high risk of moving on again." Garland's lawyer, Michael Forde, said his client needs treatment for cancer and diabetes and would be "virtually committing suicide" if he went on the run. Garland, a Dubliner, joined the outlawed IRA in the early 1950s. He was wounded during a botched 1957 gun attack on a Northern Ireland border police station in which two comrades were killed, and served prison terms on both sides of the border. Throughout the 1970s and 1990s the Official IRA's members were convicted of rackets including counterfeiting, money-laundering and bank robberies. [Counterfeiting] [Toolkit]
• Say No to the extradition to the USA of Seán Garland
  Seán Garland, former President of the Workers' Party of Ireland, was arrested outside the party's Head Office in Dublin on Friday, 30th January 2009 on foot of an extradition warrant from the United States. The extradition demand was personally signed by the outgoing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during the dying days of the Bush / Cheney regime in November 2008, three years after the first failed attempt to seize Seán Garland in 2005. This campaign website was originally established in 2005 following a previous extradition attempt through Northern Ireland. The site has now been reactivated and we will put regular updates on this site as soon as further information is available. This website will keep you regularly updated on the situation, and on our campaign. We welcome messages of solidarity / support which can be sent to us at the Defend Sean Garland campaign, 12, Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1, Tel: (01) 856 1879 or by-email to defendseangarland@gmail.com We will be establishing a system for donations to the campaign and details will go online shortly. [Counterfeiting] [Toolkit]
• Defend Seán Garland Campaign
  Briefing Document No.1 - 6th Feb 2009
  Sean Garland, former President of The Workers Party and current member of the Party Ard Comhairle, was arrested as he was about to enter the Party Head Office on Mountjoy Square, Dublin on Friday last, 30th January. The arrest was carried out by Gardai on foot of an extradition request from the United States of America. TheWorkers Party wishes to draw to your attention several issues of concern about this.
• Kim Jong Il's contribution to peace and security in the Korean peninsula
  Dear Friends in the Asia Pacific, On the occasion of the 57th birthday of General Kim Jong Il, we'd like to send 2 articles on his contribution to peace and security in the Korean peninsula, as well as on the DPRK-US nuclear confrontation. They will help you better understand about Korea. And if you don't mind, please send us your comment on this. It is our sincere hope that as in the past, so in the future, too, you will show your deep concern and render various support and encouragement to the Korean people in their efforts to achieve justice and peace on the Korean peninsula under the Songun leadership of the great General Kim Jong Il, .
  Yours sincerely, Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People Societies for Friendship with the Asia Pacific People Korea-Asia Pacific Exchange
• The DPRK-US Nuclear Game in the Obama Era
  By Shen Dingli
  February 10th, 2009 Shen Dingli, Executive Dean of Institute of International Studies and Director, Center for American Studies at Fudan University, Shanghai, writes, “As the US would not accept the DPRK demand to unify the peninsula on its terms and, as the US still perceives political and military utility of its own nuclear weapons, it is unrealistic to expect North Korea to disarm its nuclear weapons program in the first place, no matter which American president is in power.”
• Gov't to Boost Support Team in Afghanistan
  The government has decided to increase medical support in Afghanistan from 24 to about 100 staff and will make the offer when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits here on Feb. 19-20. It is also considering ways of deploying them in locations other than the Bagram Air Base for American troops in the province of Parwan, where they are currently based. [Tribute]
• U.S. steps up monitoring of North Korea: official
  Reuters Tuesday, February 10, 2009; 8:04 PM WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military stepped up its monitoring of North Korea this week amid concerns about a possible missile launch by Pyongyang, a U.S. military official said on Tuesday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. military decided on Monday to move "assets" including naval vessels into monitoring position in the Pacific. The official declined to provide further details. U.S. Pacific Command, which is responsible for U.S. military interests on the Korean Peninsula, acknowledged that it was monitoring activities in North Korea but declined to comment on specific operations. "We're watching those things closely with all the assets we have," Pacific Command spokesman Marine Major Bradley Gordon said. "We've got all sorts of sensors all around the area. But I won't say what or where they are." Destitute North Korea has recently been posturing about a possible test-firing of its long-range Taepodong-2 missile as the result of an aid dispute with South Korea. [Spin] [Media]
• U.S. Needs More Direct Talks With North Korea, Ex-Official Says
  By Dune Lawrence Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. should increase bilateral negotiations with North Korea, with the six-nation talks on nuclear disarmament serving as “a useful supplement,” former U.S. diplomat Stephen Bosworth said after visiting Pyongyang. Kim Jong-Il’s regime is waiting for President Barack Obama’s administration to make its first move, said Bosworth, part of a seven-person private delegation that left the communist country yesterday. The U.S. needs to handle relations “in a more straightforward manner,” he said in Beijing today. The group’s five-day visit came amid reports that North Korea is readying a test of a long-range missile powerful enough to hit the U.S. and as talks to persuade Kim Jong-Il’s regime to end its nuclear weapons program remain stalled. “The ball is in our court,” Bosworth, an academic who served as ambassador to South Korea from 1997 to 2001, said in an interview. The North Koreans “don’t care whether it’s Obama or anyone else. The rest of the world is Obama-ized, but they are not. So they’re waiting to see what happens.”
• U.S. Warmongers' Ill-boding Military Moves Flayed
  Pyongyang, February 9 (KCNA) -- Some days ago the U.S. forces in south Korea staged frantic air firing exercises with the mobilization of Apache helicopters in their firing range in the city of Phochon, Kyonggi Province. Rodong Sinmun Monday in a signed commentary brands these reckless moves as the criminal acts of leading the situation on the Korean Peninsula, which is inching close to the brink of a war, to the extremity, adding that the DPRK can not but take a serious view of such moves. A touch-and-go situation is prevailing in Korea because the south Korean puppets waged reckless confrontational moves for a war, obsessed with a wild ambition to invade the DPRK, it observes.
• U.S. Experts Recount Visit to N.Korea
  American experts on North Korean affairs including former U.S. ambassador to Seoul Stephen Bosworth are on their way home via Beijing after wrapping up a visit to the North that ended Saturday. It was the first contact between the U.S. and North Korea since the inauguration of the Obama administration. The group consisted of seven members, including Bosworth and Jonathan Pollack, an East Asia security expert at the U.S. Naval War College. They were in Pyongyang for five days, during which they met North Korean officials such as chief nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-gwan to exchange views on direct talks between Pyongyang and Washington and the North Korean nuclear issue. "They said we should all wait and see," Bosworth said. "There were no threats, no indication that they were concerned. They treated the missile issue as just a normal run-of-the-mill issue." He was referring to apparent plans by the North to test-launch ballistic missiles. He said he felt that North Korea was preparing for both six-party talks and bilateral talks between Washington and Pyongyang, adding there is no reason for the Obama administration to avoid direct talks. He said the group came away with the impression that the North wants to continue the nuclear disablement process. "We concluded that the outlook is that we can continue to work toward," he said. Pollack, meanwhile, said North Korean officials did not seem to expect quick progress or any breakthrough in the six-party talks.
• North Korea Tones Down Its Rhetoric
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: February 7, 2009 BEIJING (AP) — North Korean officials have expressed their willingness to move forward with long-stalled denuclearization talks and played down recent reports that the government is preparing to test-fire a long-range missile, a former American diplomat said Saturday after a private visit to North Korea. The message given to the former envoy, Stephen W. Bosworth, was a softening of North Korea’s increasingly belligerent rhetoric recently. Over the past few weeks, the government has declared that it would scrap peace agreements with South Korea, warned that the divided peninsula was on the brink of war and appeared to be preparing to test a missile capable of reaching the western United States. [Media]
• A Missile for Mr. Obama
  North Korea is calling, Mr. President.
  Monday, February 9, 2009; Page A16 IT HASN'T been easy for foreign governments to command the attention of the Obama administration in its opening days, but North Korea is doing its best. Last week, the secretive Stalinist regime was spotted transporting what looked like a Taepodong-2 missile toward a launch site. In theory, the rocket has a range of more than 4,000 miles, which would allow it to reach Alaska. In trotting it out, Pyongyang is transparently threatening to violate U.N. resolutions by conducting its first flight test since 2006. This follows a steadily escalating series of provocations by the North toward South Korea, including the repudiation of past non-aggression agreements and a threat of "all-out confrontation." [US NK policy] [Spin] [Media] [Double standards]
• 11th Pyongyang Medical Symposium by Korean and Overseas Korean Medical Scientists
  (May 6-8, 2009)
  The UDMEDEX (US-DPRK Medical Science Exchange Committee) is in receipt of a formal letter of invitation from the DPRK Symposium Planning Committee to be extended to interested Korean American medical and health scientists in general. The Conference is an annual event where medical and other health scientists of various disciplines from North Korea will interact scientifically with counterparts from United States, Japan, China and South Korea. Korean American physicians and other health professionals have in the past played a particularly important role at the Symposium by bringing information on many cutting edge scientific technologies and ideas.
• North Korea open to disarmament progress: U.S. expert
  By Chris Buckley Reuters Saturday, February 7, 2009; 1:54 AM BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea wants to advance nuclear disarmament steps if its aid demands are met and it played down concerns over possible missile launches, a former senior U.S. diplomat just back from Pyongyang said on Saturday. Pyongyang, which may be moving to test-fire its longest range Taepodong-2 missile in a bid to grab the attention of new U.S. President Barack Obama, said it had the right to make such a launch. Stephen Bosworth, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and now dean at the Fletcher School of diplomacy at Tufts University, said senior North Korean officials he met in his five-day visit to Pyongyang would not confirm or deny any missile launch plans. "They said we should all wait and see," he said of the possibility of launches. "There was no threat, no indication that they were concerned. They treated the missile issue as just another run-of-the-mill issue." The North Korean officials told Bosworth's group of seven U.S. academics and former officials that their country wants progress in the six-party nuclear disarmament talks, which have faltered in dispute over the North's obligations and its demands for more heavy fuel oil shipments. In what could be seen as a justification for a missile test, North Korea's communist party newspaper said "our country, as a member of international society, has a right to enter space and compete for space science technology." The impoverished North has claimed the Taepodong-2, which fizzled and destructed seconds after it was last test-launched in 2006, is the cornerstone of its space program. Experts said the missile is only for military purposes and designed to eventually hit U.S. territory.
• Opportunities and Shocks
  by Victor Cha
  The biggest concern for Asia when a new administration takes over in the United States is not that Barack Obama will suddenly decide to call up the North Korean leader, and negotiate a nuclear deal that leaves South Korea and Japan out in the cold. This is not likely. It would be highly unusual for a new administration to embark on a North Korea policy that is more flexible than that of the end of the Bush administration. The main dynamic that all sides need to be wary of is when a new administration sees certain policy initiatives as opportunities in an issue-area, but these opportunities end up becoming shocks in Asia. Throughout the history of US-East Asian relations, there have been examples of this. Japan, during the Nixon administration, suffered from two shocks. The first was the shock from the U.S. decision to open diplomatic dialogue with Beijing. While Tokyo felt completely betrayed by this sudden turnaround in U.S. policy, from Washington's perspective, the policy shift was seen as a major opportunity by Kissinger to occupy a pivot position between the then-feuding communist adversaries in Beijing and Moscow. The second shock was Nixon's decision to withdraw the 7th infantry division from Korea. While Washington saw this as an opportunity to give substance to the newly unveiled Nixon doctrine calling for Asians to handle more of their own defense responsibilities, it was widely seen as a shock by Park Chung-hee after he had committed ROK troops to fight alongside the U.S. in Vietnam.
• Alliance and the North on Clinton visit agenda
  February 07, 2009 WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit South Korea later this month to discuss six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear dismantlement and strengthening of the Korea-U.S. alliance, the State Department said Thursday. “The issue of North Korea will come up in conversation,” spokesman Robert Wood said in a daily news briefing where he announced Clinton’s trip, which will also take her to Tokyo, Jakarta and Beijing. “We all want to see how we can get the North Koreans to abide by their international obligations.” Wood was referring to North Korea’s refusal to agree to a verification protocol for its nuclear facilities, which stalled the latest round of the multilateral talks in December. Clinton will be in Seoul Feb. 19-20.
• N. Korea watching U.S. military in weighing missile test: report
  By Kim Hyun SEOUL, Feb. 5 (Yonhap) -- A pro-North Korean newspaper suggested Thursday that Pyongyang's decision on whether to test-launch a long-range missile could depend on a South Korea-U.S. joint military exercise scheduled for next month. The North Korean military will likely adopt a "tougher measure" should the U.S. military stationed in South Korea go ahead with its annual joint war drill, said Choson Sinbo, a Tokyo-based newspaper that usually conveys North Korea's position, apparently in reference to reports that Pyongyang is preparing a missile test. [Joint US military]
• Korea, U.S. to Combine Air Force Command
  A Korea-U.S. Combined Air Force Command will be set up in Osan, General Walter Sharp, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, said Wednesday. In a speech at the 2009 Korean-American Association general meeting, Sharp said the combined air force command will provide the air force capability needed to deal immediately with an attack. When Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command is dissolved upon transfer to Korea of operational control of the Korean troops, an operational center with weaker leadership than the CFC will be set up, but retired brass have expressed fear that that would weaken the country's ability to respond to an emergency. The Osan Air Base is home to the Pacific Air Forces' 51st Fighter Wing and headquarters of the Seventh Air Force. A formula to change the post to a combined air force command is now under study. It will probably be headed by the Seventh Air Force commander, a lieutenant general. The rotating deployment last month of 12 F-22 fighters to a U.S. base in Japan and the replacement of the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk with nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington are steps designed to support the Korea's defense, Sharp claimed. A plan is also underway to create a combined Korea-U.S. intelligence group, according to a government source. [Sovereignty] [US dominance]
• Korean Commercials Prove Goldmine for Hollywood Stars
  Hollywood stars are making a beeline for Korea to star in TV commercials here, with Emmy Rossum, of "Phantom of the Opera" fame, only the latest to sign a contract with the Aekyung Group. Former James Bond Pierce Brosnan has been modeling for Cheil Industries since 2006, and Richard Gere appears in magazine ads for clothing line RKFN. The reason Korean companies are choosing top Hollywood stars is that they cost the same or less than Korean stars. Rossum gets paid W800 million a year, and Gere about W1 billion (US$1=W1,379). Yet although they are seen in commercials here, it is rare to see them advertising in their own countries. In Korea, advertising contracts are an index of popularity, but Hollywood stars see it as a way to earn living when their acting career is not going well.
• U.S. Confirms Ban on N.Korean Firms
  The U.S. State Department in the Federal Resister on Monday confirmed sanctions banning three North Korean entities from trade with the U.S. for two years. The three are Korea Mining and Development Corp., Mokong Trading Corp. and Sino-Ki. The new U.S. administration has decided to maintain sanctions against the three firms, which the Bush administration accused of missile technology proliferation activities. The decision came nearly simultaneously with reports that North Korea is preparing to test-fire medium-range missiles, suggesting that the Obama administration still sees Pyongyang as a "rogue state" despite its removal from the list of states sponsoring terrorism. [Renege]
• Comment on John Delury’s “North Korea: 20 Years of Solitude”: the “Moscow Angle”
  February 4th, 2009 The following are comments on the essay, “North Korea: 20 Years of Solitude” by John Delury, Director of the China Boom Project and Associate Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society, which appeared as Policy Forum Online 09-005A: January 20th, 2009. These comments are by Georgy Toloraya, Professor at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) in Moscow.
  The approach suggested in the article seems to be sound and pragmatic and takes into account the (to put it mildly) less then desirable efficiency of US policy over last two decades towards North Korea. I agree that the Obama Administration’s policy goal should be changed from a purely non-proliferation agenda to “a far-reaching process of creating peace on the Korean peninsula”. Only such a policy could eventually solve the nuclear and other WMD issues, reduce military tensions, and bring North Korea back into the mainstream of world development. Such an approach would enjoy broad international support. While the paper candidly analyzes the challenges involved in US cooperation with major international actors it leaves out the role of Russia. John Delury writes: “I’ll leave it to the new administration’s Russian advisors to think through the Moscow angle”. I would suppose that Russia would strongly support such a “strategic engagement” policy with Pyongyang as it fully corresponds with its long-standing position and national interests – peace, stability, and development in the neighboring area, as well as non-proliferation, and multilateral approaches that take into account the interests of all the parties. This would create new opportunities of US-Russia cooperation on Korean issue. Russian policy-makers from mid-1990s have been increasingly wary of the ultimate objectives of the US on the Korean peninsula. They feared that the US would pursue a goal of regime change, which would cause economic and humanitarian problems for the Russian Far East and an unwelcome change in the geopolitical balance. As a result Russia would get an “eastern flank of NATO” on its borders. The Republican Administration policies between 2002 and 2006 were increasingly at odds with Russia’s stated policy goals. A US attempt to strategically shift the sub-regional balance of power and attempt to increase its domination in Korea by undermining the DPRK would be a challenge for Russia.
• Seoul, Washington Must Stand Shoulder to Shoulder
  South Korean and U.S. intelligence services have recently spotted a train carrying covered cylindrical objects loaded at a munitions factory to the missile base in Cholsan in North Korea's North Pyongan Province. Judging from where the objects were loaded, their length and transportation formula, they are believed to be Taepodong-2 missiles. The move comes as the Rodong Shinmun, the organ of the North Korean Workers' Party, on Tuesday again said inter-Korean relations are at the threshold of war. Taepodong-2 missiles have a range of up to 6,700 km, making them capable of reaching Alaska. The U.S. has every cause for alarm. A Taepodong-2 missile fired from Musudanri on the east coast in 2006 crashed into the sea after 2 km, but Pyongyang has continued capacity tests ever since. The preparations now are probably a demonstration intended to nudge the U.S. into direct negotiations. Even while threatening the South with war, the North on Monday urged to Washington to talk about mutual nuclear disarmament.
• With Obama in White House, North Korea Steps Up Big Talk
  By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, February 4, 2009; Page A10 SEOUL, Feb. 3 -- Stinging insults, sudden cancellations of military agreements and dark warnings of "unavoidable" war are spilling out of North Korea almost daily. On Tuesday, news media reports here and in Japan said North Korea is preparing to test-launch a long-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The target for much of this bluster and saber rattling is the government of South Korea, which has stopped giving its heavily armed communist neighbor unconditional aid. [Media]
• Hill Tapped as Ambassador to Iraq
  Assistant Secretary of State Was Top N. Korea Negotiator
  By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, February 3, 2009; Page A07 Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill, a career diplomat who since 2005 was chief negotiator in the often difficult effort to try to persuade North Korea to end its nuclear programs, will be nominated as ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said. He is an unexpected choice to succeed the highly regarded Ryan C. Crocker, who retired last month after a career spent largely in the Arab world. Hill is a consummate dealmaker, but he does not speak Arabic, and his expertise lies in Europe and Northeast Asia. He was ambassador to Poland, Macedonia and South Korea and also was a top negotiator to the Dayton peace accords that ended the Bosnian war in the mid-1990s. Hill won plaudits for his efforts in the face of opposition from within the Bush administration and the often frustrating negotiating tactics of the North Koreans. But he also was criticized for appearing at times too eager to strike a deal, or too eager to court the news media. [Dissension] [SU NK negotiations]
• US targets Chinese, Iranian, NKorean firms
  By FOSTER KLUG The Associated Press Monday, February 2, 2009; 11:19 AM WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration said Monday it has imposed sanctions on companies in North Korea, China and Iran for violating U.S. law aimed at stopping the spread of missiles and other weapons technology. The penalties were the first of their kind from the new U.S. administration and signaled a willingness to continue the Bush administration's tough stance on weapons proliferation. The sanctions, while largely symbolic, come at a sensitive time in two key U.S. diplomatic efforts. The United States relies on Chinese leverage in international negotiations to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programs. The Obama administration also needs the help of China, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, to deter Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon. The measures were in the works for some time, but Obama officials signed off on them after the new president took office and announced them in Monday's Federal Register. They bar the companies from trade with the United States that they were not likely involved in. The Obama administration is currently reviewing its North Korea policy, but Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has called the six-nation nuclear disarmament talks "essential." The United States heavily relies on China, the host of the negotiations and a country seen as having the most outside [Sanctions]
• No More Victims to the Devil of America’s Own Creating
  By Haksoon Paik
  February 3rd, 2009 One of the problems that will test the new U.S. President is the issue of North Korea’s nuclear program. What course will the negotiations involving the U.S. and North Korea take? Is there a serious chance for a negotiated resolution? Any answer to these questions will have to resolve the following three challenges. First, to a large extent, North Korea’s negative image as “uncooperative,” “untrustworthy,” or “deceitful” is a devil of America’s own creation. North Korea was simply “evil,” a target of regime change and removal for the neoconservatives and hardliners in Washington, who had hidden agendas that benefitted from continuous confrontation with North Korea. For them, the North Korean leadership’s motivations, perceptions, interests, objectives, and strategies were not important. The more tragic fact was that the Bush administration, by adhering to such a nonnegotiable, deceiving, and repulsive image of North Korea, narrowed the scope of its policy options to denuclearize North Korea. President Bush neither offered North Korea opportunities to cooperate nor sought North Korea’s cooperation. In other words, the United States became a victim to the devil of its own creation. [US NK policy] [Construction] [NK US policy]
• Take Me to Your Dear Leader Video| Kim Jong Il announces plan to bring moon to North Korea:
  US website featuring South Korean (?) spoof which strangely includes shot of Lee Myung-bak
• Clinton Expected in Korea This Month
  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to visit Korea in mid-February in a trip that will give Korean officials an opportunity to discuss the policies of the new U.S. administration on regional matters including the North Korean nuclear issue. A government official said the U.S. State Department has told Seoul she will visit to Korea as part of her first world tour. "We understand that she will also visit Japan and China in addition to Korea," he added.
• American Experts to Visit Pyongyang
  Leading American experts on North Korea are expected to arrive in the reclusive state next week. Former U.S. ambassador to Seoul Stephen Bosworth and former U.S. assistant secretary of state Morton Abramowitz are set to be among the group of experts meeting with high-level North Korean officials this coming Tuesday. This visit will be the first civilian exchange between the two countries under the new U.S. administration, and some of those making the trip have significant influence on American policy toward the North. Washington is considering appointing Bosworth as a special envoy to Pyongyang.
• US Experts en Route to Pyongyang
  A group of seven former U.S. government officials and experts were en route to North Korea Monday in the first major civilian exchange between the two nations since Barack Obama took office as new American president, according to Yonhap News. The visit, which has drawn considerable interest as it may provide a glimpse of Pyongyang's stance on the Obama administration, includes high-profile academics and experts who could help shape Obama's foreign policy. They are also the first Americans to go to the North since Pyongyang's declaration Friday nullifying all non-aggression agreements with the South. The group includes Stephen Bosworth, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and alleged candidate for the post of special envoy to Pyongyang. Other specialists in the group are Jonathan Pollack, a professor of Asian and Pacific studies at the Naval War College, former Assistant Secretary of State Morton Abramowitz, and Leon Sigal, director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council. "We have information that the group will enter Pyongyang around Tuesday via Beijing," a South Korean foreign ministry official said, asking not to be named. "We understand the media attention surrounding it, given the timing of the visit." The official downplayed the trip, however, saying it appears to be part of routine academic exchanges. "It was scheduled a year ago and those experts make frequent visits to the North," he was quoted as saying. Although foreign media have reported the academics and experts will likely meet North Korea's top nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan and other senior officials, he said, their itinerary will be decided after arrival there. "It is the usual way North Korea works when receiving foreign guests," he noted. Members of the group ? excluding Bosworth due to a scheduling conflict ? plan to visit Seoul this weekend prior to returning home. South Korean government officials said they have not scheduled meetings with them. [Overture]
• USFK Chief Pledges Naval, Air-Centric Reinforcement
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The top American military officer here has reaffirmed plans to provide stronger naval and air-centric support to South Korean troops after 2012, when Seoul takes over wartime operational control of its forces from the United States, a U.S. military newspaper reported Saturday. Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, made the remarks during his first trip to a naval base in Jinhae, South Gyeongsang Province, according to the Stars and Stripes. [Military balance] US military dominance] [Sovereignty]
• NK Defectors’ Groups to Get US Gov’t Aid
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter The U.S. Department of State will directly provide groups organized by North Korean defectors here with financial support for the first time, according to reports Sunday. Thus far, Washington has funded local groups working for improvement of North Korean human rights via the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a private organization supporting freedom around the world. [Psychowar]
• The bottom line in shaping North Korea policy
  Selig S. Harrison, Director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy [Column] “If the idea of discussions on a confederation is raised,” said Kim Yong-tae, vice-chairman of the Supreme People’s Assembly in Pyongyang, “we can consider it. Confederation remains our goal. But we don’t think the Lee Myung-bak administration supports the confederation concept. He is going in the other direction, driving the security situation in the peninsula to the brink of extreme danger.” For North Korea, Kim said, the test of Lee’s intentions towards the North is whether he “changes his mind” and accepts the goal of staged movement toward a confederation agreed upon in the June 2000 and October 2007 summit declarations. “We would like to find common ground to move toward the lowest stage of the confederation formula envisaged in the declarations. But at present, he is trampling on them.” I had requested in advance a discussion on North-South relations and was told that Kim was “the expert on the subject.” But Kim wanted to talk mostly about relations with the Obama administration and about the nuclear negotiations, as did Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun, General Ri Chan-bok and nuclear negotiator Li Gun.
  The strongest argument for this approach is that there is nothing to fear from a nuclear North Korea. Pyongyang has developed nuclear weapons for defensive reasons, to counter a feared U.S. preemptive strike, and U.S. nuclear capabilities in the Pacific will deter any potential North Korean nuclear threat.
  I found evidence in Pyongyang that the hard-line shift in the North Korean posture is directly related to Kim Jong-il’s health.
  The bottom line in shaping North Korea policy is that continued engagement with North Korea will strengthen the pragmatists in Pyongyang in their continuing struggle with military hard-liners.
• U.S. 'Looking for N.Korea Special Envoy'
  The new U.S. administration is reportedly considering New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and former U.S. ambassador to Seoul Stephen Bosworth for the post of special envoy to North Korea. Radio Free Asia cited a former senior official in the U.S. State Department as saying Richardson has a deep interest in North Korea and has been to Pyongyang several times.
• US Rejects North Korean Offer to Send Envoy
  Kim Kye-gwan, North Korea’s nuclear envoy By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The United States turned down an offer by North Korea to dispatch its nuclear envoy to Washington following the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama Jan. 20, diplomatic sources here said Monday. The communist state, through its United Nations mission office in New York, delivered the message last month that it could send Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan as a representative to the inauguration ceremony in Washington, D.C., they said. The message was conveyed to Obama's transition team via a non-profit U.S. organization, the Korea Society, they added. But Obama's team expressed negative opinions on the proposal, said the sources. [Overture]
• Opening a fist to shake hands
  Kang Tae-ho, Senior reporter for inter-Korean affairs [Column] Without naming any specific countries, United States President Barack Obama said in his inaugural address on Jan. 20 that “we will extend a hand” if those clinging to power “are willing to unclench their fist.” In response, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that the United States should “open its fists” first. Hillary Clinton, the Obama administration’s Secretary of State, said in a hearing on Jan. 13 that normalization of relations with North Korea would be impossible unless Pyongyang completely and verifiably eliminated its nuclear weapons development program. She may be telling North Korea that it must first open its fists. In a statement by a spokesperson on Jan. 13 and an interview with a spokesperson on Jan. 17, the North Korean Foreign Ministry gave its response: “The nuclear issue on the Chosun (Korean) Peninsula was created because of the United States’s policy of hostility toward Chosun and the resulting nuclear threat; hostile relations did not emerge because of the nuclear issue. Saying that relations can be improved only if we first abandon our nuclear weapons is backwards logic.” [Sequencing]

• Obama Will Be Challenged by North Korea
  By Bruce Klingner
  January 29th, 2009 Bruce Klingner, Senior Research Fellow for Northeast Asia in the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation, writes, "As President Obama contemplates the Sisyphean task of making real progress in North Korean denuclearization, he should first insist that North Korea comply with its existing six-party talks agreements. These include: issuing a data declaration addressing its uranium weapons program and proliferation activities; disabling all nuclear facilities; and accepting a verification protocol that meets international standards." [US NK policy]
• Preparing for Sudden Change in North Korea
  Authors: Paul B. Stares, General John W. Vessey Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Center for Preventive Action Joel S. Wit Council on Foreign Relations Press January 2009 60 pages ISBN 978-0-87609-426-6 $10.00 Council Special Report No. 42 North Korea poses difficult challenges for U.S. foreign policy. It possesses nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them, and despite some progress, it is by no means clear that the ongoing six-party talks will be able to reveal the full extent of the country’s nuclear activities, much less persuade Pyongyang to give them up. The United States maintains tens of thousands of forces on the Korean peninsula in support of its commitments to the Republic of Korea (South Korea), a country with which the North is still technically at war. And the peninsula sits in a strategically vital region, where the United States, China, Russia, Japan, and South Korea all have important interests at stake. All of this puts a premium on close attention to and knowledge of developments in North Korea. Unfortunately, Kim Jong-Il’s government is perhaps the world’s most difficult to read or even see. [US NK policy] [CONPLAN 5029]
• Change in N.Korea Should Be Gradual, Obama Told
  The Barack Obama administration should seek behavioral change from North Korea rather than a sudden collapse of the regime, says the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, which advises the Barack Obama administration. In a report released Wednesday, the CFR also calls for close cooperation with neighbors including China to avoid conflict.
• '460,000 Troops Needed to Stabilize NK Collapse'
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter South Korea and the United States should maintain about 460,000 troops to deal with any unusual situation on the Korean Peninsula that results from internal instability in North Korea, says a new report published by a private U.S. foreign policy organization Wednesday. The figure represents a three-fold increase in the number of U.S. troops currently deployed to Iraq. The report released by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) said the United States should put top priority on securing North Korea's nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) if the communist state collapses, according to Yonhap News Agency. [CONPLAN 5029]
• Carter Says N.Korea Willing to Scrap Nuclear Program
  Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says North Korea's nuclear issue could be worked out "in half a day" given the right conditions. Carter told AP he believes North Korea would surrender its nuclear weapons in return for U.S. diplomatic recognition, a peace agreement with South Korea and the U.S., and new atomic power reactors and fuel oil. He said North Koreans "have always been willing to forego their nuclear capability if they have diplomatic relations with the United States." Carter met with then North Korean leader Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang on a peace mission in 1994, which eventually led to North Korea agreeing to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for two lightwater reactors and other aid.
• North Korea Nuclear Disarmament Deal Could be Done in "Half a Day," Carter Says
  Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009 Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said yesterday it would not take long to reach an agreement under which North Korea would give up its nuclear weapons, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Jan. 26). (Jan. 27) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said yesterday that the North Korean nuclear crisis could be resolved quickly (Alex Wong/Getty Images). Pyongyang would want diplomatic relations with the United States and an official end to the Korean War, along with nuclear energy reactors and other energy assistance, Carter told the news service. "It could be worked out, in my opinion, in half a day," he said. Pyongyang in 2007 signed a pledge to dismantle its nuclear sector in exchange for economic, diplomatic and security concessions from China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States. The regime said last week, though, that it would eliminate its nuclear arsenal only after receiving diplomatic recognition from Washington and proof that there are no U.S. nuclear weapons in South Korea. Seoul and Washington deny the existence of any such stockpiles. "I went [to North Korea] in 1994 and I worked out a complete agreement with Kim Il Sung to eliminate all nuclear programs, and to let International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors come in without impediment," Carter said. "President [Bill] Clinton adopted that and put it into effect," Carter said. The Bush administration later rejected the deal after alleging that North Korea was secretly engaging in uranium enrichment activities that could be used for nuclear weapons purposes. "When [President George W.] Bush came in he threw that in the wastebasket, and it started all over with the 'Axis of Evil,' and so therefore they began to reprocess their (nuclear) fuel," Carter said (Peter Spielmann, Associated Press, Jan. 27). Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin today led a group of diplomats in a visit to Pyongyang, Agence France-Presse reported. There was no immediate word regarding a possible meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who is believed to have suffered a stroke in August. Kim since that time had not publicly met with foreign officials before a session last week with visiting Chinese envoy Wang Jiarui (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Jan. 27). [US NK policy]
• Carter: If no Palestine, Israel sees 'catastrophe'
  By PETER JAMES SPIELMANN Jan 26, 11:31 PM EST Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that Israel will face a "catastrophe" unless it revives the Mideast peace process and establishes an independent Palestinian state.
  During Monday's interview, Carter also discussed North Korea's nuclear program, saying he thought the communist nation would be willing to give up its nuclear weapons for U.S. diplomatic recognition, a peace deal with South Korea and America, and if it got new atomic power reactors and free fuel oil.
  "It could be worked out, in my opinion, in half a day," Carter said. Last week, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said it would give up its nuclear weapons only if Washington establishes diplomatic relations with the regime and the U.S. ceases to pose a nuclear threat to the North. "I went over there in 1994 and I worked out a complete agreement with Kim Il Sung to eliminate all nuclear programs, and to let International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors come in without impediment," Carter said. "President Clinton adopted that and put it into effect." But he said it was later shelved by President George W. Bush. Carter believes a deal could be accomplished with good will. "North Koreans, in my opinion, whom I know fairly well, have always been willing to forego their nuclear capability if they have diplomatic relations with the United States, first of all, which is not easy," Carter told the AP. "And if they have an assurance with the United States that it would not attack them militarily, of course with the proviso that North Korea not attack South Korea," he said. Carter said the rest of the solution is as easy as replacing their old dangerous reactors with new, safer designs with guaranteed IAEA inspection access, and giving North Korea fuel oil to run electric generators until its power grid is improved. [US NK policy]
• Clinton Sees an Opportunity for Iran to Return to Diplomacy
  By MARK LANDLER Published: January 27, 2009 WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that Iran had a “clear opportunity” to engage with the international community, amplifying the conciliatory tone struck a day earlier by President Obama toward Iran and the rest of the Muslim world. Sketching out an ambitious diplomatic agenda, Mrs. Clinton also suggested that there could be some form of direct communication between the United States and North Korea. And she said relations with China had been excessively influenced by economic issues during the Bush administration.
  As for North Korea, Mrs. Clinton said the administration was committed to existing multilateral talks over its nuclear program. But she noted that in the past, there had been bilateral talks within the current six-nation arrangement. “We’re going to pursue steps that we think are effective,” she said. [US NK policy]
• U.S. must prepare for sudden North Korea changes: study
  By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent Reuters Tuesday, January 27, 2009; 4:59 PM WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States must step up work with Asian allies and regional powers to be ready to cope with sudden change in nuclear-armed North Korea, a U.S. think tank warned on Tuesday. The Council on Foreign Relations said that although North Korea defied predictions in the 1990s that it would collapse after the death of its founder, economic meltdown and a deadly famine, the state remains weak and vulnerable.
• No Signs Kim Has Eased Control in North Korea
  Interviewee: Don Oberdorfer, Chairman, U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor, CFR.org January 21, 2009 Don Oberdorfer, a leading expert on North and South Korea, says there are no clear signs yet that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is too ill to run the country. "We would know if he were in such a state that he could not function and he couldn't give any instructions," Oberdorfer said. "Things like that trickle out of the North. That's not been the case." He said he believes the Obama administration will step up diplomacy on North Korea but doubts there will be major initiatives in the short term. "The administration has got lots of things on its plate" and this "is not an issue where you can get any early returns. I remain skeptical it's going to be a major item."
• S. Korea Should Cooperate with U.S. on N.K.
  By Cheon Seongwhun January 13th, 2009 Cheon Seongwhun, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), writes, “the Obama administration is likely to ask for stronger verification measures than what was agreed during the Bush administration… The new administration will regard material sampling as an indispensable condition for effective verification, and even push for inspections on undeclared facilities, the nuclear testing site, and explosive testing facilities which were practically exempted from verification under the current agreement.”
• Obama's Options on North Korea
  By Tong Kim January 15th, 2009 Tong Kim, a visiting professor at the Graduate University of North Korean Studies, and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), notes recommendations for the Obama administration in dealing with the DPRK including that it, “tell the North Korean leadership that a meeting with President Obama is possible when the United States and its allies are convinced that the North truly intends to abandon its nuclear weapons even before complete denuclearization. To prove its intentions, the North must take positive but irreversible steps.” [Sequencing]
• Response to “Obama's Options on North Korea”
  January 27, 2009 The following are comments on the essay, “Obama's Options on North Korea” by Tong Kim, a visiting professor at the Graduate University of North Korean Studies, and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), which appeared as Policy Forum Online 09-004A: January 15th, 2009. This response includes comments by Kim Myong Chol, Executive Director, Center for Korean-American Peace.
  Obviously the article by Tong Kim “Obama's Options on North Korea” is uncharacteristic of a scholar with a good knowledge of 5,000 years of Korean history and the history of DPRK-US negotiations. The article is fraught with five major misunderstandings. In the first place, the article totally fails to address a very simple but least noted and hard fact, that is, the US policy of hostility to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (the DPRK): the root cause that has relentlessly driven the Kim Jong Il Administration to arm itself with nuclear weapons and their long-range means of delivery. The US refusal to have full ties with North Korea is one thing, with which the Kim Jong Il Administration can easily dispense, and the US bid to isolate it and threat to nuke it is quite another, which is perceived with alarm as a fundamental threat to the national security of North Korea.
  Secondly, the article is wrong to describe the goal of the six-party talks as “the North's complete and verifiable nuclear disarmament.” This represents a bid to distort the objective of the multilateral nuclear talks from verified complete denuclearization of the whole of the Korean Peninsula into a unilateral nuclear disarmament of North Korea.
• From Bad to Worse
  Comparative Connections A Quarterly E-Journal on East Asian Bilateral Relations Edited by Brad Glosserman and Carl Baker Volume 10, Number 4 Fourth Quarter (October-December) 2008 Honolulu, Hawaii January 2009
  Regional Overview: From Bad to Worse by Ralph A. Cossa and Brad Glosserman, Pacific Forum CSIS Things generally went from bad to worse in the Asia-Pacific this past quarter. The Six-Party Talks began on a low note and went steadily downhill from there as Pyongyang stonewalled against even a moderately intrusive verification regime.
• Pyongyang wants envoy at Obama’s Jan. inauguration
  January 12, 2009 North Korea last month said it wanted to send a representative to the Jan. 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama. But Washington has so far remained reluctant to accept the request, according to South Korean government sources. “The North, through its United Nations mission office in New York, conveyed the message that it can send Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye-gwan as a representative to the inauguration ceremony,” said the source. The message was first delivered to The Korea Society, an U.S. nonprofit organization that promotes Korea-U.S. relations, and was later delivered to the Obama transition staff. [NK US policy] [Overture]
• A Conversation With Peter Agre
  Using a Leadership Role to Put a Human Face on Science January 27, 2009 By CLAUDIA DREIFUS In February, the Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Peter Agre, 60, will be inducted as the 163rd president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the nation’s largest scientific organization. Dr. Agre is the director of the Malaria Research Institute at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. We spoke in January for two hours in a back room at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore (the current exhibition is “The Marriage of Art, Science & Philosophy”) and also later on the telephone. An edited version of the conversations follows.
  Q. YOU’RE PART OF A GROUP OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS WHO WANT TO OPEN UP COMMUNICATION WITH NORTH KOREAN SCIENTISTS. WHAT CAN YOU SAY ABOUT THAT? A. There’s a team that’s attempting to organize scientific visits to North Korea. Even during the Cold War, when the governments of the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. were at odds, scientists kept in touch. I think particularly with North Korea now, there’s every reason that scientists should be part of the group that welcomes them back into the international community. We see this as an opening to do something like the cultural exchange that happened with the New York Philharmonic. So yes, we’re hoping to make a visit. But it’s still in the planning stages. [Overture]
• Some global adversaries ready to give Obama chance
  By PAUL HAVEN The Associated Press Sunday, January 25, 2009; 12:14 PM -- In his inaugural address, President Barack Obama signaled conciliation to America's foes by using the metaphor of an outstretched hand to an unclenched fist. Already, there are signs that some of those foes were listening, sensing an opening for improved relations after eight combative years under President George W. Bush. Fidel Castro is said to like the new American leader, and North Korea and Iran both sounded open to new ideas to defuse nuclear-tinged tensions.
  Elsewhere, some see hope for progress in the frustrating on-again-off-again talks with North Korea. Hours before Obama's inauguration, a newspaper considered a mouthpiece for the isolated, nuclear-armed regime said the country would be willing to give up its nuclear arsenal if the U.S. accepts its conditions, which include establishing diplomatic relations.
• North Korea Maintains Its Tough Stance
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: January 14, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — In what appears to be its first official message to the incoming Obama administration, North Korea has demanded that the United States normalize relations with it before the North abandons nuclear weapons. “It is a twisted logic to assert that the bilateral relations can be improved only when we show nukes before anything else,” the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “We will never do such a thing as showing our nuclear weapons first, even in 100 years, unless the U.S. hostile policy and nuclear threat to the North are fundamentally terminated.” [Sequencing]
• Unvarnished Conclusions After Covering, and Uncovering, the White House
  By GARY J. BASS Published: January 12, 2009 Last Sept. 2, Barack Obama went into the F.B.I. building in Chicago to get a 90-minute secret briefing from Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence, about the world Mr. Obama would face if he won the presidency. As David E. Sanger recounts in “The Inheritance,” Mr. McConnell warned Mr. Obama about a sickening range of intractable problems: Al Qaeda’s regrouping along the ungoverned border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Iran’s headlong progress toward getting nuclear weapons, totalitarian North Korea’s expanding nuclear arsenal, Russian belligerence, an overheating planet — and more. The sensible reaction would have been to walk outside and drop out of the race immediately.
  THE INHERITANCE The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power By David E. Sanger Illustrated. 498 pages. Harmony Books. $26.95.
  Rarely will a president enter office so thoroughly challenged on Day 1 as Mr. Obama. This dazzling and mordantly hilarious book is a history of how we got into this particular ditch. Mr. Sanger, the chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, drops the strict detachment of a daily reporter and lets rip, delivering a withering indictment of his longtime subject: President George W. Bush’s foreign policy, which he writes “has left us less admired by our allies, less feared by our enemies and less capable of convincing the rest of the world that our economic and political model is worthy of emulation.” After seven years covering Mr. Bush, Mr. Sanger, a shrewd and insightful strategic thinker, is left stunned by “the president’s inexplicable resistance, until the final quarter of his term in office, to changing course.” Mr. Bush, he says, saw strategic change and negotiation as signs of weakness. This is a Nixon who never went to China. These unvarnished conclusions by Mr. Sanger will of course confirm the perfidy that Karl Rove and Bill O’Reilly presume lies in the black hearts of Times reporters. But Mr. Sanger’s criticism, the product of extraordinarily diligent reporting, is too hawkish to be easily dismissed by conservatives. He believes in putting brute military power behind diplomacy, wants to win the war in Afghanistan and hates the thought of a nuclear-armed Iran and North Korea.
  The Iraq war hobbled America’s ability to threaten North Korea and Iran credibly. Mr. Sanger points out that in 2003, as North Korea kicked out international weapons inspectors and raced to complete the fuel for perhaps six nuclear weapons, the Bush administration was gunning to invade nuclear-free Iraq. “Had a few other things on our mind,” said a senior Bush administration official, when Mr. Sanger reminded him that the North Korean crisis was unfolding at the same time.
  Mr. Sanger quotes Christopher R. Hill, the skillful veteran diplomat spearheading the joint American and Asian effort to denuclearize North Korea, on administration hard-liners: “These” — here an epithet unprintable in The New York Times — “don’t know how to negotiate. Everything is Appomattox. It’s just ‘Come out with your hands up.’ ” [US NK policy] [Dissension] [US NK negotiations]
• Clinton Pledges Tough Diplomacy and a Fast Start
  By MARK LANDLER Published: January 13, 2009 WASHINGTON — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday deflected calls for greater limits on her husband’s fund-raising, struck a sharper tone toward Israel on violence in the Middle East and emerged from a daylong confirmation hearing headed for swift approval as secretary of state. Appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mrs. Clinton showed a mastery of the issues that won praise from her fellow lawmakers, and outlined a muscular view of American foreign policy that she said would put diplomacy front and center in the Obama administration.
  Likewise, Mrs. Clinton predicted a grinding process of diplomacy with North Korea, saying the United States would continue to press the government in Pyongyang on its nuclear program through multiparty talks with China, Japan, Russia and South Korea [US NK policy]
• Censured U.N. agency to return to North Korea: officials
  By Patrick Worsnip Reuters Friday, January 23, 2009; 3:27 PM UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A U.N. aid agency that left North Korea two years ago amid U.S. charges of financial mismanagement will resume work there later this year under a decision this week by its board, officials said on Friday. The U.N. Development Program's executive board "authorizes the resumption of program activities" in the reclusive and impoverished communist state, said a board document dated Thursday and obtained by Reuters. The decision came after an external review last year cleared the agency of major financial wrongdoing, although it found fault with some practices. The 36-member executive board gave the green light for UNDP to return to North Korea after considering a report by the agency that proposed tightening up hiring and payment procedures to address critics' concerns.
  A U.N. audit, the external review and a separate U.S. Senate subcommittee inquiry found that UNDP had made mistakes, but did not substantiate the main U.S. charge of funding suspect North Korean bodies, which the agency strongly denied. The dispute was one of several irritants in relations between the United Nations and the Bush administration [UNDP] [Dissension] [UNUS]
• Report: NKorea could give up nukes for US ties
  The Associated Press Wednesday, January 21, 2009; 7:33 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea is willing to give up its nuclear weapons if President Barack Obama agrees to conditions imposed by the communist regime, including establishing formal diplomatic relations, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper said. The Japan-based Choson Sinbo paper _ considered a mouthpiece of Pyongyang _ said in a story posted on its Web site hours before Obama's inauguration Tuesday that the North was waiting to see what position the new president would take on the nuclear standoff. "It is too early to predict whether the Obama administration will endorse the North's nuclear possession or try to realize denuclearization through normalization of relations," the paper said. "But what is sure is that the North side is ready to deal with any choice by the enemy nation." The paper is closely linked to Pyongyang and its articles are considered a reflection of the North's positions. [NK US policy]
• Roundtable on U.S.-North Korea Relations and the Obama Administration
  Korea Policy Institute January 2009
  Minjog 21, a leading progressive news journal based in South Korea, sponsored a roundtable interview with Thomas Kim, Executive Director of the Korea Policy Institute (KPI), KPI Fellow Christine Ahn, and long-time Korean American scholar-activist Professor Ramsay Liem. The interview was published (in Korean) in Minjog 21's December issue.
  Kim: The major conceptual failure on the U.S. side has been to negotiate with North Korea within a narrow securitization framework. The U.S. pursues denuclearization (and demilitarization) because of its immediate security concerns, but real progress on demilitarization paradoxically hinges on whether or not the U.S. goes beyond their narrow concerns about nuclear weapons and missiles. The U.S. needs to fully recognize that normalization is both possible and profitable for U.S. interests. So long as the U.S. treats negotiations as only about North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, it won't matter how much money or aid the U.S. sends to North Korea—you will not have peace. North Korea will still not have achieved its primary goal—a genuine, strategic relationship with the U.S. A relationship with the U.S. would simultaneously help North Korea maneuver with other countries and balance off the threat of China to North Korea. The relationship with America is one that North Korea believes it needs in order to revive its economy and, paradoxically, to maintain its independence.
  Kim: Japan has no obvious investment in seeing the U.S. develop normal relations with North Korea, and clearly the hardliners seeking to build Japan's military would prefer that the U.S. and North Korea maintain a hostile relationship. Japanese hardliners want to continue to expand their military beyond the "peace constitution" imposed by the U.S. after World War II, and are eventually hoping to possess their own nuclear weapons. The desire to remilitarize Japan is one major reason why conservatives continue to use the abductee issue as a blockade for diplomatic engagement. The Obama Administration will be strongly, uniformly opposed to helping Japan develop its nuclear weapon program, so while the U.S.-Japan relationship will continue to be central to U.S. hegemony, his election means that the possibilities for Japanese nuclearization have narrowed. [US NK policy] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Clinton Is Moving to Fill Senior Posts at State Dept.
  By MARK LANDLER Published: January 7, 2009 WASHINGTON — As she awaits Senate confirmation as secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton is filling out the senior echelon of the State Department, and keeping a respected career diplomat in one of the agency’s most influential posts. The diplomat, William J. Burns, is to stay on as the under secretary for political affairs, according to people informed of the decision. The unusual move has been popular within the diplomatic ranks, where Mr. Burns, a former ambassador to Russia and Jordan, is close to a revered figure. Mrs. Clinton is also expected to name Kurt M. Campbell as assistant secretary for East Asian affairs — a challenging post that has involved negotiating with North Korea on its nuclear program, though that task will now shift to other officials. Wendy R. Sherman, another incoming official, has long experience with North Korea, but it is unclear whether she will be involved this time. Mr. Campbell, a seasoned Asia hand, was a defense official in Bill Clinton’s administration. Ms. Sherman, a prominent figure in Democratic Party circles, advised Mr. Clinton on North Korea and has helped run the State Department transition for President-elect Barack Obama.
• North Korea: 20 Years of Solitude
  By John Delury January 20^th , 2009
  John Delury, Director of the China Boom Project and Associate Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society, writes, “The solution to the myriad problems created by North Korea’s long isolation is, quite simply, to end the isolation. The antidote to North Korea’s evasive hostility, always linked to a demand for “face,” is full engagement.”
  With the American people thirsting for a new foreign policy, transcending the aggrieved, insular doctrines of “regime change,” “pre-emptive war” and the “global war on terror,” a breakthrough might be found in a most unlikely place—the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. North Korea’s alienation from the world community is a grave threat to peace in East Asia. But with the right kind of American leadership, North Korea can be coaxed back into concord with its Asia-Pacific neighbors. The new Obama administration has a chance to make history by ending the 60-year conflict that divides the Korean peninsula, and reversing the two decades of solitude that has exiled an entire nation from the global community. [Inversion] [US NK policy]
• Barack Obama Takes Office as U.S. President
  Pyongyang, January 21 (KCNA) -- Barack Obama took office as the 44th president of the United States on Jan. 20. The inauguration ceremony was held at the Capitol building that day. He made an inaugural address there.
• Obama Urged to Draw Clear Lines for N.Korea
  The conservative Heritage Foundation on Wednesday urged U.S. president-elect Barack Obama to set tough parameters for dealing with North Korea. The think tank called on Obama to "define redlines and their consequences" and "establish deadlines with consequences for failure to meet them." "If the North Koreans do not meet their obligations, we should move quickly to re-impose sanctions that have been waived, and consider new restrictions going forward,” it said in a policy paper. [US NK policy]
• Ex-Prostitutes Say South Korea and U.S. Enabled Sex Trade Near Bases
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: January 7, 2009 SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea has railed for years against the Japanese government’s waffling over how much responsibility it bears for one of the ugliest chapters in its wartime history: the enslavement of women from Korea and elsewhere to work in brothels serving Japan’s imperial army. Bae at 29. Now 80, she lives on welfare and uses an oxygen machine. Now, a group of former prostitutes in South Korea have accused some of their country’s former leaders of a different kind of abuse: encouraging them to have sex with the American soldiers who protected South Korea from North Korea. They also accuse past South Korean governments, and the United States military, of taking a direct hand in the sex trade from the 1960s through the 1980s, working together to build a testing and treatment system to ensure that prostitutes were disease-free for American troops.
• John Lee, Editor and Mentor, Dies at 78
  Mr. Lee served in three foreign bureaus, first in Canada, then in London and finally in Tokyo. In 1972, he and Harrison Salisbury became the first two Western reporters to visit North Korea since the end of the Korean War, filing articles about the culture and politics of what was then — and may still be — the world’s most mysterious nation. “There are two demons in North Korean life, ‘United States imperialists’ and ‘Japanese militarists,’ and it is hard to tell which is worse,” Mr. Lee wrote in a news analysis during the visit.
• Unseen Korean War Pics, Videos Released
  Some 150 photos and 40 video clips taken by photographers and cameramen in the U.S. Army during the Korean War have been released on the Internet. The Installation Management Command Korea (IMCOM-K) received the data from the archive of the U.S. Defense Department and put them on its website, the Stars and Stripes military daily reported Tuesday. The pictures and the clips show Seoul in ruins and South Korean and U.S. soldiers at the scenes of battle. There are pictures of Gen. Douglas McArthur visiting the war front, and of Bob Hope and Marilyn Monroe, who came to entertain the soldiers. The video collection contains clips of fierce battles during the war and the lives of Koreans after the war.
  The pictures can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/imcomkorea/sets/72157607808414225 and the videos at www.youtube.com/warinkorea. [Korean War events]
• Something Must Change in U.S. Dealings with N.Korea
  The year 2009 marks the 20th year since the North Korean nuclear problem first became an international issue. French commercial satellite photos of secret nuclear facilities at Yongbyon drew global attention in 1989, and the world has been negotiating with the North ever since. During that period, South Korea has had five administrations. The U.S. is just about to greet the fourth administration in that period. The negotiation framework has changed four times. The initial negotiations were between the two Koreas; then came U.S.-North Korean high-level talks and four-party talks, and finally six-party talks
• Sharp Supports 8th U.S. Army Staying in Korea
  U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Walter Sharp late last year told superiors that the headquarters of the Eighth U.S. Army should stay in Korea even under a new command structure once full operational control of Korean troops has been handed to Seoul in 2012. U.S. military authorities in June last year decided to turn the Eighth Army, which has acted as a command post for personnel and administrative support here, into Operational Command Post-Korea (OCPK), which would have operational and intelligence functions, by around 2011. [US dominance] [Sovereignty]
• Lee’s foreign policy experts to get a sneak peek at Obama’s foreign policy plans
  S. Korean delegation, which includes experts from public and private sector, to meet with key Obama foreign policy and security advisers
  A delegation consisting of President Lee Myung-bak’s diplomatic staff and experts in the private sector will leave for Washington on Wednesday to explain South Korea’s policy direction to the incoming U.S. administration of President-elect Barack Obama and preview their foreign policies. “The delegation, including former Foreign Minister Han Sung-joo, Secretary for National Strategy Kim Tae-hyo and other key presidential advisers, will leave for the U.S. on Jan. 7 and meet with Korea exerts from U.S. think tanks and officials of the Obama administration,” a government source said. “The meetings will provide a chance for us to explain our North Korea polices and other diplomatic and security policy lines, while taking a peek into what the incoming U.S. administration’s stance on its Korea-related policies will be.” [US dominance]
• Engaging North Korea
  By Jimmy Carter
  Published: October 27, 2002
  In June 1994, the North Koreans had expelled inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency and were threatening to process spent fuel -- from a graphite-moderated nuclear reactor in Yongbyon -- into plutonium. It was clear that war might break out on the Korean peninsula. The United Nations Security Council was being urged by the United States to impose severe sanctions on North Korea. There was a general consensus, shared by American military experts, that the combined forces of South Korea and the United States could defeat North Korea with overwhelming power. But it was almost inevitable that severe damage would be done to Seoul and much of the fighting would take place in its streets. The American military commander in South Korea estimated that total casualties would exceed those of the Korean War.
  It was the policy of the United States to reject any direct talks with North Korean leaders. [Bilateral] [Partisan] [US NK policy] [Agreed Framework] [HEU] [Admission]
• Infiltrators of North Korea: Tiny Radios
  By James Brooke
  Published: March 3, 2003
  As the Pentagon studies moving tons of military hardware within striking range of North Korea, some say the weapon most feared by the Stalinist government there may be a disposable radio the size of a cigarette pack. ''Little throwaway radios, you listen, you throw away -- the smaller the better, the more disposable, the better,'' said Pastor Douglas E. Shin, a Korean-American human rights activist who advocates smuggling thousands of tiny radios capable of receiving foreign broadcasts into the North.  [Propaganda]
• U.S. ambassador to visit museum of independence activist Kim Koo
  Museum visit is not official, but does come amidst New Right’s push to downplay Kim’s achievements United States Ambassador to the Republic of Korea Kathleen Stephens is becoming the first currently serving U.S. ambassador to visit the Kim Koo Museum & Library. [Friction]
• [Analysis] The N. Korean-U.S relation in the new year
  Dismantlement could begin in 2009, but course will be set by Washington’s priorities and Pyongyang’s willingness to give up its nukes The North Korean nuclear issue as it enters 2009 stands atop the heritage of the six-party talks of 2008, that heritage being the failure to produce a verification agreement and the subsequent failure to bring disablement of North Korea’s nuclear facilities to completion. At the same time, approaching the issue has a new point of departure, that of the changed political landscape brought about by the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama. The Hankyoreh talked to 32 experts who provided interpretations of what both these premises mean for the North Korean nuclear issue and for U.S.-North Korean relations and gave predictions as to what directions both will take in the new year. Most predicted that there would be progress, but they differed in terms of how wide-ranging it will be and at what pace it will come.
• Rice to Stop in Seoul on Farewell Tour
  Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Korea on Jan. 8. Diplomatic sources said on Tuesday that Rice will make a farewell tour of Northeast Asia in early January and arrive in Korea either on Jan. 8 or 9. She leaves office on Jan. 20, when president-elect Barack Obama takes office. Rice is to meet Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and plans a courtesy call to Cheong Wa Dae.
• Judgment Is Issued in North Korea Suit
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: December 30, 2008 WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has awarded more than $65 million to several men of the Navy spy ship Pueblo, who were captured and tortured by North Korea in 1968. The judge, Henry H. Kennedy Jr. of Federal District Court, issued the judgment against North Korea on Tuesday. North Korea did not respond to the lawsuit, which accused it of kidnapping, imprisonment and torture. Four former crewmen of the Pueblo filed the suit in 2006. [Extraterritoriality]
• Korea Looking at Ways to Support U.S. in Afghanistan
  The government will dispatch a senior official to Afghanistan in January on a fact-finding mission to see what Korea can do to help the U.S. war effort there. The Barack Obama administration, which will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, is expected to ask Korea for a renewed commitment in the war-torn country. [Tribute]

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