ROK and Inter-Korean relations April 2005

ROK and Inter-Korean relations

April 2005

S, N Political Parties to Meet in July in NK
By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter
Leaders of South Korea's Democratic Labor Party (DLP) and North Korea's Korean Social Democratic Party (KSDP) will meet in Pyongyang in July, DLP officials said Friday. It will mark the first official inter-Korean meeting of political parties since the nation's division, if realized.
Ministry seeks independence for military
April 29, 2005 ? The Ministry of National Defense said yesterday it will soon draft a plan to put the country's military on an independent footing, an effort it said would take as long as 20 years. The ministry said it would propose legislation in the fall to give the program impetus, saying that previous reform plans without National Assembly backing had not fared well. At a briefing for President Roh Moo-hyun, Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said the ministry will submit reforms to the National Assembly by October in order to legislate the road map. According to Mr. Yoon, the plan will include preparations for the U.S. transfer of wartime operational command to South Korea. Aiming to establish independent self-defense capabilities by 2025, the plan will outline conditions and steps needed to reshape South Korea's readiness, which now depends on the U.S. alliance. Mr. Roh promised that the administration would appropriate the funding to carry out the measures. Mr. Yoon said the defense budget should be increased to 2.7 percent of gross domestic product by the end of the Roh administration. The nation's defense budget for this year is 20.8 trillion won ($20.8 billion), about 2.47 percent of the gross domestic product. [Role of ROK military] [military balance]
Unification Minister Asks for NK's Trust
By Reuben Staines Staff Reporters South Korea's top unification official on Thursday expressed disappointment at the lack of progress in inter-Korean reconciliation and urged North Korea to show some trust in his government.
Bill allows defectors divorce in absentia
April 27, 2005 ? The Ministry of Unification said yesterday it has drawn up a bill to allow North Korean defectors to seek divorces from spouses still in their communist homeland. According to the draft legislation, North Korean defectors would become eligible to file for divorce with the Seoul Family Court three years after establishing South Korean family registration
Inter-Korean Relations Thawing, But Slowly
By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter While the Korean Peninsula remains under the dark cloud of North Korea's nuclear weapons program, inter-Korean relations seem to be thawing with the advent of spring. Officials, however, say it will take more time to ``melt the ice'' of a long winter. After top officials of the two Koreas met in Jakarta last weekend, expectations in Seoul are high that Pyongyang would soon send a message to resume government-level talks that have been left dormant since last summer.
Parties Differ Over Bill to Examine Modern History
By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter The ruling and opposition parties on Sunday failed to narrow differences on a bill to form an ad hoc committee to rectify possible wrong accounts of the nation's modern history from the period of Japanese colonial rule to the present. The parties have originally agreed to pass the bill during this April session. If the bill is passed, members of the committee will be entitled to investigate and shed light on some suspicious cases in the history. Cases to come under close investigation of the committee include the atrocities committed during the Korean War (1950-1953), including massacre of civilians. The ruling Uri Party demanded that cases of human rights abuse during previous authoritarian regimes in the 1970s and 1980s be included [Japanese colonialism]
North, South, Overseas Korean Organizations Adopt Joint Declaration for Peace Against War
Organizations in the North, the South and overseas agreed on Mar. 20 to make energetic efforts for peace against the U.S. war moves and adopted a joint declaration. The declaration demanded the Bush administration immediately abandon the hostile policy and war preparations against the DPRK it was intensifying under the pretext of the nuclear issue and sincerely approach the dialogue and negotiation from the standpoint of peaceful co-existence.
Dictionary Compilation Work Being Promoted with Reunification in View
Interview with Mun Yong Ho, North Side's Chairman of Joint Compilation Committee for a "Large Korean Dictionary"
North, South, Overseas Koreans Inaugurate Preparatory Committees for Joint Functions
"Achieve Reunification By Our Nation Itself"
North, South agree to resume meetings
April 25, 2005 ? South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan and North Korea's No. 2 leader, Kim Yong-nam, agreed Saturday that dialogue and official meetings between the two Koreas should be resumed. The two met for 40 minutes Saturday on the sidelines of the Asia-Africa Summit meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia. In the meeting, Mr. Lee told Mr. Kim that talks between the two nations should be resumed, according to a spokesman for Mr. Lee
Tragedy marked Korea's path to democracy
April 25, 2005 ? April 26, 1991 Kang Gyeong-dae was a 21-year-old economics major at Myongji University. Similar to other college students at that time, Mr. Kang thought street demonstrations were the best way to change the world, and also better than staying in the library. President Roh Tae-woo, the successor of President Chun Doo Hwan, was in power. On this day, Mr. Kang was with his fellow student activists on the street lobbing Molotov cocktails toward riot police. But the riot police reacted too strongly, and the result was tragic. Mr. Kang was severely injured when he was beaten by riot police with iron pipes. After he collapsed on the street, Mr. Kang was taken to a nearby hospital, but soon died. It was a time when riot police and student activists were enemies, and people on both sides suffered injuries and deaths. Mr. Kang's death ignited the anger of student activists around the country, and it led to a chain of suicides in his memory
Lee Hae-chan and Kim Yong-nam meet
Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan of South Korea, right, and Kim Yong-nam, president of the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea, greeting each other yesterday at the Asia- African Summit in Jakarta. [photo]
NK Girl Longs for Mother's Love
By Park Song-wu and Reuben Staines Staff Reporters Kim Min-ah is undergoing a common experience for a single 30-somethinger in South Korea _ her mother is pressuring her to find a husband. Unlike other women her age, however, her mother cannot call to nag her about it every day. Kim left her mother behind when she defected from North Korea in the late 1990s. Since coming to Seoul four years ago, the only way Kim has been able to contact her mother is by mobile phone hookups arranged by a Korean- Chinese broker. ``My mother is always worrying about me and my future,'' Kim told The Korea Times. ``But I am more concerned about my mother's situation there.'' Struggling herself to adjust to life in the capitalist South, Kim has still managed to send around 10 million won ($9,900) to her mother through the broker over the past years. [refugee encouragement] [Refugee reception]
Seoul Officials Visit NK for Bird Flu Talks
By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter In a sign of thawing relations, a South Korean government delegation visited North Korea Friday to discuss collaborative measures for containing an outbreak of bird flu in the communist nation, the Unification Ministry said. Three officials and eight support staff traveled by car across the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone to the North's border city of Kaesong for the talks, the ministry said.
. Groups flay rights panel over North
April 22, 2005 ? Civic groups concerned with rights in North Korea attacked South Korea's Human Rights Commission, a state agency, for shying from confronting the communist regime over what they see as a crucial issue. The groups rebuked the commission after Cho Young-hoang, president of the rights body, said yesterday the panel has no official stance with regard to North Korea. He also said it was up to Pyongyang in the first instance, and not the United Nations or international community, to improve its own rights situation. Mr. Cho's comments were made yesterday in a submission to a Judiciary Committee meeting at the National Assembly. Local rights groups denounced the stance, saying the body had issued opinions on touchy matters such as the disputed National Security Law and even on Iraq.
Is 'Hallyu' a One-Way Street?
By Park Chung-a Staff Reporter Asian media experts warn that Korea's one-way flow of cultural products will result in only short-term success of the ``hallyu (Korean Wave)'' phenomenon. ``Do you just want to earn quick money relying on the boom of the Korean Wave? I hope the Korean Wave is not a one-sided flow of culture but a channel for interactive culture for mutual interest,'' said Lee Jih Jyen, a chairman from INSERIA in Taiwan, at the National Assembly's public hearing on Wednesday to discuss the boom of Korean culture in neighboring countries.
Activists Urge New Pope to Visit NK
By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter Catholic activists on Thursday called for newly elected Pope Benedict XVI to visit North Korea and seek an improvement in human rights conditions in the reclusive communist nation during a rally at Myongdong Cathedral in central Seoul.
The Controversies of South Korean Society on the Issue of Human Rights in North Korea
By Bohyuk Suh April 21st, 2005 Bohyuk Suh, an expert advisor at the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, writes: "The North Korean human rights issue should not be the only issue to be viewed, but rather, the general situation in and outside of Korea, and the task of settling for peace on the Korean peninsular, should be viewed together as a whole."
Foreign Ministry tries to untie Roh's knots
April 20, 2005 ? South Korea's Foreign Ministry is currently playing defense on three dicey issues: handling the stalemated six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear arms, trying to explain what the country's newly proclaimed "balancing role" actually means, and deciphering what President Roh Moo-hyun meant when he said this week in Turkey that some Koreans were too "pro- American."
Police Investigate Parody of President Roh
By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter Police have launched an investigation into a controversial parody of President Roh Moo-hyun, which was posted on the Web site of a conservative right-wing Internet media last Weekend. Toknypsinmun, a conservative online media critical of reform-minded President Roh, placed the spoof, in which a sniper was depicted aiming at the President's forehead, on its Web site, www.independent.co.kr on April 16. In the parody, a smiling President Roh says, ``North Korean leader Kim Jong-il won't collapse easily. And I hope it won't happen.'' The sniper says, ``I'll shoot you in the head if you make any more remarks supporting Kim, the enemy of the nation.''
Prodigal son of the sea
Hwang Hong-ryeon, center, who took a fishing boat last Wednesday to North Korea, was returned yesterday with the vessel to Sokcho Port in Gangwon province.
S. Korean Mil. Authorities Warned against Infiltrating Warships into Waters of North Side
Pyongyang, April 18 (KCNA) -- The Navy Command of the Korean People's Army Monday issued a press release denouncing the south Korean military authorities for infiltrating warships into the waters of the north side in the West Sea of Korea in a bid to deliberately strain the situation. The press release said: The south Korean military authorities infiltrated a warship into the waters of the north side south of Kuwol Hill from around 11:35 to around 12:05 Monday. They committed a similar military provocation seven times on April 15 and four times on April 16.
Megawati Stirs Inter-Korean Speculation
By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter A news report claiming that former Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri plans to pass on an important message from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to President Roh Moo-hyun was dismissed Monday as speculation.
Fisherman Questioned Over Defection Motive
By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter A South Korean fisherman, who crossed the eastern sea border in the East Sea aboard a vessel into the North last Wednesday, was transferred to investigators on Monday for a joint investigation of his defection, government officials said. The fisherman, Hwang Hong-ryon, 57, resident of Sokcho in Kangwon Province, was picked up by the country's maritime police at around 3 p.m. near the Northern Limit Line in the eastern waters from North Korean authorities. Two 250-ton patrol ships were sent the area to receive Hwang and pull his ship, named Hwangman- ho, to Sokcho, the officials said. ``I'm happy to be back,'' Hwang said after arriving at the port around 5:40 p.m. ``I was so intoxicated when I went over to the North.''
NK to Repatriate South Korean Fisherman
By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter North Korea said Saturday that it will send back Hwang Hong-ryon, who crossed the sea border in the East Sea into the North aboard his boat last Wednesday, government officials said.
Kim Jong-il 'Sends Message to President Roh'
It was learned Sunday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has given former Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri a message to pass on to South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun. Prof. Kim Su-il of Pusan University of Foreign Studies, who accompanied Megawati when she called on Roh ahead of her visit to Pyongyang, said he was told this by the former Indonesian leader, who returned to Beijing from Pyongyang on Friday. Kim said Megawati was to have come to Seoul on Friday for a meeting with Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, but the schedule changed and she would now pass the message on to the president directly when he returns to Korea. About whether the North's message is from Kim Jong-il himself, Professor Kim said, "Former president Megawati plans to directly reveal that to President Roh." But given how she will convey the message to President Roh, it's very likely that the message is in the name of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Attention is focusing on the message as it appears it will deal with either an intra-Korean summit or the Kaesong Industrial Complex. (Park Seung-jun, sjpark@chosun.com )
N. Korea Says It Will Return S. Korean Defector
SEOUL, April 16 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Saturday it will repatriate a South Korean fisherman who defected across the tense East Sea border to the North by his boat on Wednesday, according to government officials here. The North informed the South Korean government that it will return the fisherman, Hwang Hong- ryon, and his 3.9-ton ship to the South via the East Sea at 3 p.m. Monday, the officials said.
1,000 Guided Missiles to Be Introduced to Counter North Korean Artillery
APRIL 10, 2005 23:02 by Sang-Ho Yun (ysh1005@donga.com)
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) has decided to introduce 1,000 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kits, a cutting-edge guided missile, in an effort to guarantee South Korea's independent deterrence against the North. A MND official said on April 10, "The ministry recently reported the option of introducing 1,000 JDAM kits as part of its 2006-2010 Mid-Term National Defense Plan, and the National Security Council (NSC) is currently reviewing the details of the plan." The need for adoption of JDAM has long been discussed within the military, but this is the first time that the exact scale of introduction has been clarified. By introducing a huge number of JDAM units, the Defense Ministry aims at carrying out a surgical strike against, and eventually destroying, numerous field artillery pieces deployed by the North Korean armed forces near the Demilitarized Zone in case of an emergency. [military balance] [friction] [role of ROK military]

Return to ROK and Inter-Korean relations page