ROK and Inter-Korean relations
June 2006
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Kim denies he was abducted
Kim Young-nam yesterday denied he was abducted by the North 28 years ago and said he arrived in the North after being rescued by a North Korean ship in 1978, when he was accidentally drifting in a small boat far away from a South Korean beach.
Kim, 45, also supported North Korea's statement that his former Japanese wife Megumi Yokota, who Japan claims was abducted by the North, committed suicide. He clarified her date of death as April 13, 1994.
"I was scared and concerned at the time and could not eat for several days but I began to open up as I got close to North Koreans and gradually changed my perception of the North," Kim said in a clear-cut voice at a news conference in Mount Geumgang, North Korea.
Kim went missing when he was 16 years old while vacationing with his friends at a beach in Gunsan, South Korea. A testimony in 1986 by a captured North Korean spy suggested he was abducted by the North.
Kim Young-nam, flanked by his mother and elder sister from South Korea, addresses a news conference yesterday at Mount Geumgang. [Joint Press Corps]
"My entering North Korea was neither abduction nor a voluntary defection. It was an accidental arrival that coincidentally occurred in the era of confrontation," Kim said.
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Separated family reunions
Separated family reunions: A North Korean waitress, left, serves a family during the inter-Korean family reunions at a hotel in Mt. Kumgang, North Korea, Monday. This is the 14th round of face-to-face reunion sessions since 2000. Participants in the 11-day round of family reunions, which will continue through June 30, are divided into four groups. Each group has three days of reunion sessions with their families who have been separated since the 1950-53 Korean War
[photo]
- 'South Korea Should Raise Intelligence Capabilities'
By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
President Roh Moo-hyun said Thursday that South Korea needs to build up its intelligence capability at least to a level that would allow the country to stand up to comparison with Japan in order to protect its maritime sovereignty.
While meeting with about 200 maritime police officers over lunch at Chong Wa Dae, he stressed that the nation should have military power enough to cope with any emergency situation in the East Sea.
``Although Japan owns a superior military power to ours, we also have enough defense capability to prevent the country from risking a provocation against us,'' Roh was quoted as saying by presidential spokesperson Jung Tae-ho.
His strong remarks came amid a soured diplomatic relationship between Seoul and Tokyo over the latter's repeated claim to the Dokdo islets in the East Sea, but it is the first time that the head of state directly mentioned the nation's combat potential.
[SK-Japan relations] [Japanese remilitarisation] [Intelligence] [Military balance]
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Kim Dae-jung Puts Off Visit to NK Again
By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
Former President Kim Dae-jung's planned visit to North Korea has been delayed again due to escalating tensions over Pyongyang's move to launch a long-range missile, a former unification minister said Wednesday.
``Because of the unforeseen situation, it has become difficult'' for Kim to visit North Korea on schedule late this month, Jeong Se-hyun, who served as unification minister under the Kim administration, told reporters Wednesday in Seoul.
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Korea Boosts Submarine Project to Double Fleet
Korean Navy Launches New Submarine
Homegrown Naval Artillery Goes into Service
Korea has expanded a plan to build three 1,800-ton level 214 submarines starting in 2012 by another six in a bid to double the country's fleet by 2020, the armed forces said Wednesday. Observers pricked up their ears at the choice of submarines over Aegis vessels as a key strategic weapon to counter any threat posed by powerful nations like China and Japan in the event of reunification with North Korea.
[Military balance] [China confrontation][SK-Japan relations]
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Koreas Mark 6th Anniversary of Summit
By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
South and North Korea begin four-day joint celebrations marking the June 15 Joint Declaration in the southwestern city of Kwangju Wednesday, as they continue to push ahead with rapprochement projects despite a rupture in the cross-border train test runs last month.
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Seoul 'Turns Back on S.Korean Spy's Family'
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Koreans Urged to Frustrate Pro-U.S. Conservative Forces' Bid to Return to Power
Pyongyang, June 10 (KCNA) -- The heroic struggle of the June popular resistance fighters 19 years ago was an eruption of the pent-up grievances and wrath of the south Korean people against the U.S. imperialists' colonial military fascist rule and a demonstration of their ardent aspiration and unshakable will to achieve independence, democracy and reunification. Rodong Sinmun Saturday says this in a signed article. The June popular resistance demonstrated once again the might of unity in the struggle of the south Korean people for independence and proved that those turning their backs on the people are bound to go to ruin, the article notes, and goes on: The resistance taught the south Korean people a precious lesson of history. This teaches that neither the people's wishes for democracy nor their desire for a social change can come true as long as the U.S. imperialists continue to dominate south Korea and interfere in its internal affairs and the pro-American conservative forces subservient to them remain there.
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Events to Mark Inter-Korean Summit to Begin
DJ to Meet NK Officials Before Pyongyang Trip
By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
South and North Korea will be jointly celebrating the sixth anniversary of the June 15 Inter-Korean Declaration this week in Kwangju.
The North Korean government and civic delegations will arrive in the southwestern city Wednesday to participate in the celebrations, which continue through Saturday.
Various official and spontaneous festivities will sweep the city, known for the democratic movement against martial law troops in 1980, according to officials at the South's organizing committee.
The two Koreas have held the joint celebrations to mark the first inter-Korean summit and the accord adopted during the summit, which set off a string of rapprochement projects and significantly warmed up inter-Korean relations.
The joint celebrations have taken place annually alternating between the South and North, with last year's festivities being held in Pyongyang.
During the Kwangju celebrations, former President Kim Dae-jung, who met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in the 2000 summit, is expected to again step into the limelight.
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Promised meetings unscheduled
June 10, 2006 ? Even though North Korea promised to hold a third round of meetings by the end of this week in preparation for a visit by former President Kim Dae-jung to Pyongyang, no such discussions have taken place.
According to the South Korean government, it recently sent a telephone message to the North to schedule the talks, but received no reply. The last round of meetings about Mr. Kim's trip took place in Kaesong on May 29.
During that meeting, the two Koreas agreed that Mr. Kim will visit the North on June 27 for four days.
They, however, deferred discussions on specifics about the trip, including the means of transportation, to a meeting this week.
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TV Drama Stirs Ideological Controversy
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
This is a scene from the KBS TV soap opera "Seoul 1945" in which Yeo Un-hyong, an independence fighter, is killed by a terrorist. The drama has caused controversy as it depicted Yeo and other figures differently from what most South Koreans learned from textbooks. /Courtesy of KBS
Was former President Syngman Rhee a respected leader to become the first head of the Korean provisional government in Shanghai, China, during the Japanese colonial rule? Or did he lead the division of Korea after colonial rule by establishing a government in the South, separate from the North?
Those who watch television are now asking another question: Was Yeo Un-hyong, a freedom fighter at that time a mere leftist? Or did he try hard to prevent the nation from being divided?
An ideological dispute has recently erupted regarding a soap opera ``Seoul 1945'' from local broadcaster KBS. The drama is set around 1945 when the colonial period ended and the nation was in ideological turmoil.
Guest-boards of soap opera web sites are filled with stories about actors and their performances. But the board of ``Seoul 1945'' is seeing heated debate over ideology, especially regarding the way the main character Yeo is depicted.
In reality, Yeo, a fighter for independence, participated in establishing the provisional government in Shanghai and organized a group for independence activities on the colonized Korean Peninsula. He also struggled to unite south and north in post-liberation Korea. He was killed by a right wing extremist in 1947.
However, Yeo has not been properly recognized in South Korea, mainly because of his alleged inclination toward communist ideology.
The soap opera's main character Choi Un-hyok is a leftist intellectual who turns from a socialist fighter for independence to a communist. Not a single drama depicting the time of liberation has ever told stories from a leftist perspective.
In the drama Choi follows Yeo _ described as a prominent nationalist _ while former president Rhee is depicted taking advantage of pro-Japanese collaborators in order to seize power. The story is quite different from what most of South Koreans have learned from textbooks.
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Korean Navy Launches New Submarine
Korea launched a stealthier and more powerful submarine on Friday. The 214 class Sohn Won-il was launched from Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan in what experts say is a major step from Korea's existing subs in terms of operational capability and power. While the sub is not quite up to the level of the large nuclear submarines of China, Russia and the U.S., among diesel and electricity-propelled craft, the Sohn Won-il is as powerful as they come and extends the potential scope of operations for the South Korean Navy to the Philippines and the island of Hainan, China
[Imperialism] [China confrontation] [Military balance]
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Conservatives Slam 'Biased' KBS History Drama
Conservative groups accuse the state-run KBS network of distorting history and belittling the achievements of its first president Syngman Rhee. Some 254 right-wing groups including the Citizens Coalition to Stop the Nuclear Development of North Korea and the Free Citizens' Alliance of Korea held a press conference at the Korea Press Center Friday slamming the KBS historical drama "Seoul 1945."
They complain that the drama accuses Rhee and others of involvement in the assassination of the center-left leader Yeo Un-hyong and demand a halt to the broadcast. They are also demanding the resignation of KBS president Jung Yun-Joo and threatened a campaign asking people to boycott the television subscription fee.
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Pyongyang agrees to produce kidnap victim at reunion
June 09, 2006 ? Pyongyang has confirmed that a South Korean man, apparently kidnapped from a beach on the Jeolla coast in 1978, is alive in the North. The man, Kim Yong-nam, will be allowed to meet his family in South Korea at the next round of inter-Korean family reunions at North Korea's Mount Kumgang later this month.
Mr. Kim's fate has become a symbol here of the tension between government efforts to keep relations with North Korea stable and activists and family members of many alleged kidnapping victims who question why the government is not doing more to recover its abducted citizens. Mr. Kim, according to research conducted by the Japanese government and confirmed by Seoul, is the father of a child whose mother was Megumi Yokota, a Japanese citizen that North Korea has acknowledged kidnapping. Pyongyang says Ms. Yokota has since died.
According to broadcasts by Pyongyang's Korea Central News Agency, Kwon Ho-ung, North Korea's chief negotiator at inter-Korean ministerial talks, sent a telephone message to his counterpart in Seoul, Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, informing him that Mr. Kim had been located and would be allowed to attend the next family reunion.
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KPA Navy Command Warns against S. Korean Warships' Intrusion
Pyongyang, June 8 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Navy Command of the Korean People's Army issued the following statement Thursday: The south Korean navy has perpetrated such grave military provocations as frequently infiltrating warships deep into the territorial waters of the north side in the West Sea of Korea lately.
[NLL]
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Telephone Message to President of S. Korean Red Cross
Pyongyang, June 8 (KCNA) -- Jang Jae On, chairman of the Central Committee of the DPRK Red Cross Society, Wednesday sent the following telephone message to Han Wan Sang, president of the south Korean Red Cross: A competent institution in the north side conducted an investigation into the issue of Kim Yong Nam which resulted in confirming the fact that he resides in the north.
In this regard the north side, prompted by compatriotism and humanitarianism, decided to let him meet with his mother in the south side at a special reunion between separated families and relatives to be held at Mt. Kumgang Resort on the occasion of the 6th anniversary of the publication of the June 15 joint declaration, according to an agreement reached at the Red Cross talks between the two sides to solve issues of that kind within the framework of the issue of separated families and relatives.
It is the hope of our side that your side will take a necessary measure to ensure his successful reunion with his mother at Mt. Kumgang Resort.
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1,800-Ton Class Submarine Launched
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The South Korean Navy Friday launched its first, 1,800-ton class, state-of-the-art submarine equipped with advanced missile systems, a Navy spokesman said.
Named after the country's first Chief of Naval Operations, the late Adm. Sohn Won-il, the 214-Type submarine will play a key role in securing sea lanes for transporting energy supplies and other goods, as well as extending the Navy's operation range, Commander Jung Sung-yup told The Korea Times.
``The launch of the 214-Type submarine will give our naval capability a great boost and help safeguard our maritime interests,'' Jung said, adding the Sohn Won-il submarine's operation will have a combat radius reaching Guam.
[Military balance]
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NK Warns South Not to Violate Territorial Waters
SEOUL (Yonhap) _ North Korea on Thursday accused South Korea of intruding into its territorial waters in the West Sea and warned that the South would pay dearly for its "military provocation."
A spokesman for the Navy Command of the (North) Korean People's Army issued a statement saying that, "The South Korean Navy has perpetrated such grave military provocations as frequently infiltrating warships deep into the territorial waters of the North side in the West Sea of Korea lately."
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Southern Mother to Meet Abducted Son in N. Korea
By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
Choi Kye-wol, left, mother of Kim Young-nam believed to have been abducted to North Korea, and her daughter Kim Young-ja hold a press conference at a chapter of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives in Songpa-gu, Seoul, Thursday. North Korea notified them that it will arrange a family reunion late this month. / Korea Times
North Korea said Thursday it will arrange a reunion between a South Korean believed to have been abducted to the North decades ago and his mother in the South late this month.
``Recently, our agencies confirmed the whereabouts of Kim Young-nam,'' Kwon Ho-ung, the North's chief delegate to the inter-Korean ministerial talks, told his South Koran counterpart, Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, in a telegram.
According to the telegram, Pyongyang will arrange a meeting of Kim and his mother out of fraternity and humanitarianism during the special reunion sessions at Mt. Kumgang later this month for the sixth anniversary of the June 15 Joint Declaration.
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Culinary Links of South and North
By Bae Keun-min
Staff Reporter
A placard displayed in the bar section of the Pyongyang Moran Bar in Taejon reads "Brothers! Nice to meet you," on an image of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il hugging each other during the historical 2000 South-North Summit.
/Korea Times Photo by Yoo Bo-reum
Shon Keun-hyung, a 30-year-old national research lab scientist, recently vacationed in Beijing. During the five-day stay, he dined at a restaurant run by the North Korean government.
There were South Koreans enjoying traditional dishes of the North but rarely present were Chinese people or those from other nations, he said.
``I enjoyed `Pyongyang naengmyon' (icy cold noodle in meat broth) there. But it was not about the taste but more about the curiosity and the unique atmosphere,'' Shon said.
``Waitresses were serving with monotonous manners, while guests were having meals a bit flushed with tension. The servers sometimes sang the North's songs when customers asked.''
Shon bought a bag of Pyongyang-style kimchi on his way out of the restaurant and brought it to Seoul. ``Many customers purchased the kimchi bag as a souvenir.''
It is still a violation of the National Security Law for South Koreans to meet or contact North Koreans unless they report it to the South's government. However, application of the law has been loosened since the end of the military regime here.
[National Security Law] [Human rights]
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Seoul wins agreement to aid-rail test linkage
North-South economic talks end with 9-point accord
June 07, 2006 ? SEOGWIPO, Jeju - South Korean delegates at the inter-Korean economic talks here won a victory of sorts early yesterday morning; North Korea agreed to Seoul's linkage of the completion of test runs of the newly reconnected railroads across the Demilitarized Zone to its offer of raw materials for the North's light industries.
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Accord on Rail Test Runs Missing in NK Reports
By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
North Korean media outlets Wednesday reported an agreement the two Koreas signed during economic cooperation talks that ended in Cheju Island Tuesday but missed out the deal's precondition: the test run of cross-border trains.
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'Dismissal of Leftist Professor is Wrong'
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- Western professors renewed their protest Tuesday against a South Korean university for trying to dismiss a professor the court found guilty of pro-North Korean ideology.
Calling itself the "Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea," the group of some 30 scholars from the United States and other countries sent a letter to the president of Dongguk University urging prompt reinstatement of Professor Kang Jeong-koo.
[Human rights] [Media]
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Professor Justifies Chinese Involvement in Korean War
By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter
Suspended Dongguk University's Prof. Kang Jeong-koo, convicted last month for violating the National Security Law, has stirred yet another controversy Monday by defending the Chinese military's involvement in the 1950-53 Korean War.
The 60 year-old sociology professor said the Chinese government was forced to intervene in the war in self-defense as U.S. troops advanced toward its border with North Korea.
Kang made the remarks in a speech during a seminar organized by the Kyonggi Citizens' Coalition for Democratic Media in Suwon, Kyonggi Province.
``China had repeatedly said it would send soldiers to aid North Korea if the U.S. troops marched north into Pyongyang. The Chinese involvement should be interpreted as a self-defense measure against the U.S. aggression,'' he said.
[Human rights]
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Inter-Korean Events Jammed in June-August
Inter-Korean events will be held actively from June to August this year. What events will take place in these months?
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North Side Notifies South Side of
Its Stand on Trial Train Operation
Pak Jong Song, head of the north side's group for the working contact for the reconnection of rail and road links between the north and the south of Korea, sent the following notice to Hong Kwang Phyo, chief delegate of the south side's group, informing it of the north side's stand on the north-south trial train operation on May 24.
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S.Korea to Supply North with US$80 million in Materials
The 12th meeting of the inter-Korean Committee for the Promotion of Economic Cooperation ended Tuesday in Jeju with an agreement whereby the South will provide US$80 million worth of materials to manufacture shoes, soap and garments to the North within this year.
The agreement will take effect only "when the necessary conditions are met," but Seoul was unable to make it one of those conditions in the accord that the two Koreas complete the repeatedly cancelled test runs of cross-border trains. Instead, the head of the South Korean delegation Bahk Byong-won made a verbal statement saying the supplies would come when the test run goes ahead once the North Korean military guarantees safe passage.
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A Shameful Speech on Memorial Day
In his Memorial Day speech on Tuesday, President Roh Moo-hyun mentioned the country's fallen only eight times, all in rhetorical phrases including, "Today is the 51st Memorial Day" and "May they rest in peace." The formulaic aside, the burden of the president's speech from beginning to end was, "The history of the Republic of Korea is shameful and must not repeat itself."
The chief executive said the nation's disgrace of falling under colonial rule a century ago resulted from "infighting among ruling factions" and because the rulers "oppressed the people so they would not rise up." Post-liberalization, he said, "Had our nation confronted the situation united, we could have averted the horrible misfortune" of war. Instead, an "extended dictatorship that employed collaborators who had betrayed the country brought about the sacrifice of the April 19, 1960 student uprising."
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Letter in Support of Professor Kang Jeong-koo
The ASCK steering committee authored a letter (which was signed by 33 members) to the president of Dongguk University in Seoul, South Korea on behalf of Professor Kang Jeong-koo. In December 2005, the South Korean government indicted him under the provisions of the National Security Law for statements alleged to be pro-North Korean. Dongguk University subsequently suspended him from his teaching and research jobs.
[Human rights]
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Seoul Links NK Aid to Train Test Runs
By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
SOGWIPO, Cheju Island ? South Korea on Tuesday agreed to provide North Korea $80 million worth of materials for its impoverished light industries on the condition that the North revives the canceled cross-border railway tests.
The nine-point agreement, adopted at the end of the inter-Korean economic cooperation talks here, called for early implementation of a former accord that includes Seoul's assistance for Pyongyang's shoe, garment and soap industries, as well as its mining industries, but said it would become effective only when certain conditions are met.
[Aid weapon]
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To Know Korea, Understand the War
By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
The Korean War is one of most commonly used motifs in local movies, but its portrayal has been varied depending on directors and the time period. "Joint Security Area or JSA" (2000) by Park Chan-wook is one of the first works that started to see North Korea as a neighbor.
Tuesday is Memorial Day, a day when the entire nation honors the veterans who sacrificed their lives for their country and fellow Koreans during the Korean War.
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'1,743 S. Korean POWs in N. Korea'
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
A total 1,743 South Korean prisoners of war (POWs) are currently held in North Korea, an opposition party lawmaker claimed Monday.
Quoting a National Intelligence Service (NIS) report, Song Young-sun of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) also said 489 South Koreans had been abducted by the North.
According to the report, based on the testimony of North Korean defectors in the South, of the 1,734 POWs, some 550 are alive with 885 confirmed dead. Some 300 POWs went missing in action.
Of the 489 abducted by the North, 103 are confirmed to be alive.
Song said there are some 7,300 North Korean defectors living throughout the country, while about 670 North Korean defectors are under the care of state-run facilities. An estimated five million North Korean refugees are hiding in China, he noted.
Of a population around 23.5 million, about 150,000 North Koreans are in the communist regime's labor camps.
North Korea maintains a 1.17 million-strong military including 1 million army troops equipped with conventional weapons, the report noted.
[Disinformation] [Bizarre]
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Gov. Sohn Plants Rice in Pyongyang
Kyonggi Province Governor Sohn Hak-kyu returned home on Sunday from a two-day visit to North Korea to help the communist country modernize its farming sector.
Leading a 100-member South Korean delegation, Sohn arrived in Pyongyang on Saturday to visit North Korean farms.
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North seeks aid, dismisses rail test uproar
June 05, 2006 ? SEOGWIPO, Jeju ? Delegates from the two Koreas met yesterday here for the 12th round of inter-Korean economic talks. The South had the North's abrupt cancellation of planned test runs on the newly reconnected railroads on its mind.
The delegations found little common ground. While the North put forward several new proposals for economic cooperation ? more economic aid, in other words ? Seoul's team demanded that Pyongyang begin to keep its promises.
Ju Tong-chan, North Korea's chief delegate, proposed in his opening remarks that the two Koreas form a joint venture to develop natural resources in a third country; he suggested such arrangements in lumbering or coal mining in Russia's easternmost regions. He also asked for aid from Seoul in building a processing plant to turn manure into fertilizer, a repetition of a request it made in the 10th round of talks last July.
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Group says both Koreas to teach 'unification'
June 03, 2006 ? The nation's two teachers' groups said yesterday that students in North and South Korea would receive "unification lessons" using the same material, to mark the sixth anniversary of the June 15 inter-Korean summit.
The Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations and the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union held a joint press conference yesterday to announce the plan.
Along with the two South Korean groups, the North's Education and Cultural Workers' Union will participate in the unification study program, the Southern groups said. "This time, several North Korean teachers, who will be in the South to attend the June 15 anniversary event, will observe the lesson," said Han Jae-gap, spokesman for the federation. "The North Koreans are attending the unification study class since they are already in the South. This is not an issue that should be interpreted politically."
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S. Korean Visiting Group Arrives
Pyongyang, June 2 (KCNA) -- A visiting group of south Korea's Foundation for the South-North Economic and Cultural Cooperation led by General Director Im Jong Sok who is assemblyman from the Uri Party arrived here today. It was greeted at the airport by Pak Kyong Chol, vice-chairman of the National Reconciliation Council, and officials concerned.
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Unjust Sentence Passed on Former S. Korean Minister under Fire
Pyongyang, June 2 (KCNA) -- The Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee bitterly denounces the sentence passed by the south Korean judicial authorities on Pak Ji Won, former minister of Culture and Tourism, as an intolerable insult to the historic Pyongyang Summit and the June 15 joint declaration and an anti-national behavior going against the trend of the era when the Koreans are working hard to achieve reconciliation, unity and reunification under the banner of "By our nation itself". Its spokesman said this in a statement on Friday accusing the Seoul High Court of south Korea of recently holding another round of trial of him who had been prosecuted for his alleged "involvement in the mail of money to the north" at which it finally sentenced him to three years in prison and imposition of a huge amount of penalty.
[Hyundai loan]
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Seoul Streets Ignore N.Korea Rights Protest
Wednesday, 11 a.m. While Korea is in the throes of World Cup and election day fever, some 40 people in their 20s dressed in black T-shirts gather in front of the Kyobo building in Gwangwhamun, Seoul. A few foreigners mixed in add a dash of blond hair to the bunch. A speech in English: "How many people have to die before you show interest? The starving children in North Korea don't care about politics. Please, show some interest in the state of human rights in North Korea." After chanting slogans, the young people lie down on the pavement like dead bodies. Only then does the performance designed to draw attention to the plight of North Koreans attract any interest from protest-weary passersby.
The people lying on the concrete in the heart of Seoul are members of the international group LiNK:Liberty in North Korea. Its head, the second-generation Korean American Adrian Hong (25), voices his frustration about how little South Koreans seem to care about human rights abuses in the North.
[Human rights] [Manipulation]
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"Typhoon." Nearly incoherent, ultra-violent South Korean thriller
"Typhoon." Nearly incoherent, ultra-violent South Korean thriller, perhaps re-edited for international audiences and missing key explanations; elite naval officer/agent (Lee Jung Jae) sent to stop criminal/terrorist (Jang Dong Kun) bent on killing all Koreans with nuclear waste injected into a typhoon -- revenge because he and his sister (Lee Mi Yeon), child refugees from North Korea, were sent back, their parents shot; bloody shootings, stabbings; strong profanity; suicide themes; footage of deformed children, fetuses, purportedly from Chernobyl nuclear accident; drinking; implied sexual slavery. In Korean with subtitles. 17 and older. [Media] [Black]
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Kaesong Cornered on Both Sides of Border
By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
The inter-Korean industrial complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong has suddenly been criticized by both the North and South as relations chill between the two Koreas over the failure to test run cross-border trains.
North Korea's military authorities first criticized the complex, which is often touted by the South Korean government as the symbol of inter-Korean peace and prosperity.
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North cancels again, this time a trip by reporters
May 31, 2006 ? A scheduled trip by South Korean reporters to the North's Kaesong Industrial Complex has been cancelled by the North at the last minute, making it the latest in a string of broken promises in recent inter-Korean relations.
Last week, the North canceled a test run of an inter-Korean railroad system just a day before its planned trial. The North's military also issued an announcement on Sunday blaming the South for trying to politicize former President Kim Dae-jung's visit to North Korea. The announcement also expressed criticism of the industrial complex, saying that success for the project has been too slow coming.
Inter-Korean military talks held earlier this month also failed to yield any results.
Experts said the announcement was a sign of dissatisfaction within the North's military, which agreed to the development of the complex but has received relatively little in return so far.
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