ROK and Inter-Korean relations
March 2007
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Koreas Discuss DJ's Trip to N. Korea
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
South and North Korea are holding discussions over a possible second visit by former President Kim Dae-jung to Pyongyang, the unification minister said Friday.
``We held talks with North Korea through both official and unofficial channels (on Kim's visit),'' Minister Lee Jae-joung said in a National Assembly session. ``I also visited Kim and discussed the issue. Please understand that the two Koreas are now in consultation on the matter in a meaningful and careful way.''
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Tagore's Poem Distorted in Textbooks
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The April 2, 1929 edition of Dong-A Ilbo that published Tagore's "The Lamp of the East."
Indian literary giant Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) has achieved nearly saint-like status in Korea for a poem he wrote in 1929 that sympathized with Korea's independence movement under Japanese colonial rule.
However, the poem titled ``The Lamp of the East'' seems to have been over glorified to the point where it has taken on a life of its own, spawning hundreds of different versions with stronger words and longer passages to boost nationalistic sentiment.
And now it seems that one of these variations has made it into a state-authorized high school textbook.
In the original poem, published by Dong-A Ilbo on April 2, 1929, Tagore wrote, ``In the golden age of Asia, Korea was one of its lamp bearers. And that lamp is waiting to be lit again, for the illumination of the east.''
The words were translated into Korean by poet Joo Yo-han, who was then a journalist at the newspaper's Tokyo office.
In the history textbooks by Kumsung Publishing, one of the companies licensed to publish state-authorized scholastic texts, however, another passage is attached at the end of the poem that reads, ``Korea, the homeland of my admiring mind, awake.''
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Koreas discuss ex-president's trip to Pyongyang: unification minister
The two Koreas have discussed a possible visit to Pyongyang by former President Kim Dae-jung, a top South Korean official said Friday, amid speculation that the aim of Kim's trip is to arrange the second inter-Korean summit.
"We held talks with North Korea in both official and unofficial channels," Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said at a parliamentary committee meeting.
Speculation is rife that Kim will visit North Korea in a few months to set up the talks between President Roh Moo-hyun and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong-il. Roh's office has denied the allegation.
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Regular Briefing by Minister of Unification
(March 15, 2007)
Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung gave a regular briefing on March 15 and explained the North's request regarding control of foot-and-mouth disease, the result of inviting enterprises with a plan to move into an apartment-type-factory in Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC), and the current status of the Mt. Geumgang tourism.
[Kaesong] [Kumgangsan]
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Ex-Premier Hopes for Four-Way Summit
Former prime minister Lee Hae-chan on Wednesday said a summit between the two Koreas, the U.S. and China can be considered once North Korea shuts down its nuclear facilities under a Feb. 13 agreement and a roadmap for the abandonment of the nuclear program takes shape. Lee told Uri Party lawmakers the four-way summit would be a chance to discuss replacing the armistice that officially still halts hostilities on the peninsula with a peace framework. The four are the signatories to the 1953 armistice.
[In denial]
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GNP Caught in N.Korea Trap
by Park Doo-sik
The Grand National Party seems to have great difficulty formulating a new North Korea policy, despite pledging to overhaul it for more than 10 years.
It has just announced a change in its North Korea policy yet again. The party leadership is taking the initiative, saying they will implement a "flexible, proactive unification policy," not a passive and defensive policy toward North Korea. But that pledge is self-contradictory. The keynote of the "new" policy is already stipulated in the party platform adopted on Jan. 9 last year. What does it say? "The new GNP will adopt a flexible, proactive unification policy based on principles of reciprocal co-existence, abandoning a passive and defensive policy toward North Korea." The GNP leadership should have said they will stick to the platform. Instead, they have pledged to "change" it. At the time, the platform made headlines because it used the expression "reciprocal co-existence" with the North, instead of the party's favorite "reciprocity."
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Hard-liner softens up, wants to visit North
March 19, 2007
In a sure sign of changing times, if not sheer opportunism, Chung Hyung-keun, a leading hard-line figure in the Grand National Party, told the JoongAng Ilbo last week that he wants to visit North Korea next month, with an olive branch in hand. Asked about the visit, Mr. Chung said, "The North Korean regime thinks that if the Grand Nationals take power [in the December presidential election], it would end the engagement policy." He continued, "I'm going to Pyongyang to tell them that the Grand Nationals would not much change the North Korean policies."
[Continuities]
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Hawkish GNP to Offer Olive Branch to N. Korea
Pyongyang Raps Former Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
Rep. Chung Hyung-keun of the conservative Grand National Party (GNP) said on Sunday he plans to visit North Korea next month to convey his party's softening stance on the Stalinist state.
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Uri Head Calls for Early Inter-Korean Summit
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
The leader of the pro-government Uri Party said Thursday that an inter-Korean summit should be held as soon as possible free of procedural matters, format and venue.
Chung Sye-kyun, the party's chairman, made the remarks, amid recent progress in international efforts to denuclearize North Korea.
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Envoys Fail to Agree on Inter-Korean Railway Trial
Officials from South and North Korea on Thursday failed to set a date for a trial run of two cross-border train lines during a two-day meeting of the Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation Committee in Kaesong.
Unification Ministry spokesman Yang Chang-seok said that both sides agreed in principle on a trial run sometime in the first half of this year and on security arrangements, but failed to agree on when to start a related economic development project.
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Koreas to Resume Family Reunions
By Lee Jin-woo
Staff Reporter
South and North Korea on Thursday agreed to resume the reunions of families separated since the Korean War by the two sides' heavily fortified border, this May, Seoul's Red Cross said.
After ending a two-day working-level inter-Korean meeting in Kaesong, the Korean National Red Cross (KNRC) in Seoul announced each side will have 100 separated family members meet their long-lost relatives at Mt. Kumgang, a scenic resort, in North Korea between May 9 and 14.
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Uri Head Calls for Early Inter-Korean Summit
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
The leader of the pro-government Uri Party said Thursday that an inter-Korean summit should be held as soon as possible free of procedural matters, format and venue.
Chung Sye-kyun, the party's chairman, made the remarks, amid recent progress in international efforts to denuclearize North Korea.
``In consideration of the progress in the six-nation nuclear talks and moves to improve relations between the U.S. and North Korea, an inter-Korean summit has become a matter which should not be delayed for any reason,'' Chung said in a press meeting to mark his 30 days in office.
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GNP Leader Reaffirms Softened NK Policy
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The leader of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) on Thursday reaffirmed his party's softening policy toward North Korea following a landmark nuclear disarmament pact reached in Beijing last month.
The conservative party, however, called for a complete dismantling of the North's nuclear weapons programs as a prerequisite to the implementation of flexible North Korean policies.
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Military to Build 120-mm Portable Mortars
South Korea plans to develop portable 120 mm heavy mortars, defense sources said Thursday.
``The Army has drawn up a basic plan for the project and asked the Defense Acquisition Program Administration and the Joint Chiefs of Staff to review it,'' a defense source said, asking not to be named.
Under the plan, South Korea aims to develop 120 mm mortars with a range of eight to 10 kilometers by 2011, the source added.
The country's military has vehicle-mounted light and medium mortars with a range of 3.6 to 5.7 kilometers.
[Military balance]
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Poll: Corruption in S. Korea Worse Than in China
Expatriates in 13 Asian countries feel that the level of corruption in South Korea is worse than it is in China. According to a survey done by the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy, South Korea was rated 6.30 on a scale of zero to ten in terms of the severity of its corruption. The higher the score, the more severe the corruption.
South Korea's score this year is worse than its score last year of 5.44, and its ranking fell from the 5th cleanest Asian country to 8th of 13. China's score of 6.29 was enough to edge past South Korea and a significant improvement from last year's 7.58. Singapore received 1.20 and was once again named Asia's least corrupt nation. Hong Kong improved slightly, climbing one ranking to second place with a score of 1.87. Japan meanwhile fell from second place to third with a 2.10 rating in this year's survey.
Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines ranked at the bottom, from 11th to 13th place. Indonesia and Thailand both received scores of 8.03 and the Philippines scored 9.40. The survey was conducted on 1,476 expatriates in Asia from January to February.
[Corruption
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GNP Debates About-Turn in N.Korea Policy
The Grand National Party's announcement that it will review the underlying tone of its North Korea policy is causing disputes within and outside the party. The GNP leadership explains that, given the rapid progress being made in U.S.-North Korea relations, the review is unavoidable to adapt to the changing international weather map. It comes from a calculation that being seen to insist on a hardline policy would affect the opposition party adversely in the upcoming presidential election. But some conservative lawmakers have slammed it as "bending the knee" before North Korea.
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It's springtime for Kim Jong-il in GNP's eyes
March 15, 2007 In a bid to keep pace with the era of good feeling creeping over relations with the North on the nuclear issue, the deeply conservative Grand National Party also wants to make friends with the communists next door.
GNP floor leader, Kim Hyung-o, told his party lawmakers Tuesday that the party is "considering a revision of its stance on North Korea." To that end, the GNP has formed a "working group," and would soon hold a meeting with legislators to announce a modified position, Mr. Kim said.
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Opposition GNP Faces Backlash on North Korea Policy
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
A lawmaker of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) denounced the party's move to soften its stance on North Korea, calling it ``opportunism."
The criticism came after GNP officials said Tuesday that it would alter its policies on the North in consideration of the reconciliatory mood on the Korean Peninsula after the breakthrough in the latest six-party talks on denuclearization.
Rep. Kim Yong-kap said, ``Some GNP opportunists have urged the party to change its stance toward the Stalinist North and insist on sending more aid than pro-Pyongyang parties.''
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Navy Seeks 6 Aegis Destroyers
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
A graphic image of the KDX-III Aegis destroyer
The Navy plans to develop three more 7,000 ton Aegis-class destroyers by 2020 as part of programs to build a ``strategic mobile fleet,'' a local daily reported Wednesday, quoting unidentified defense sources.
The strategic fleet, in general, consists of six Aegis-class destroyers, twelve 5,000 ton destroyers and two through-deck landing vessels similar to light aircraft carriers.
[Military balance]
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Koreas Talk First Train Over Border in Half Century
By REUTERS
Published: March 14, 2007
Filed at 2:10 a.m. ET
Skip to next paragraph
SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korea on Wednesday discussed the first run of trains across their highly fortified border since 1951 and allaying fears of the North's military, which is leery of links into the reclusive country.
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Tapping the Magic of Kim Dae-jung
Key political figures from the ruling camp are lining up to visit the home of former president Kim Dae-jung. Over the last five months alone, former Uri Party chief Chung Dong-young, President Roh Moo-hyun, all of the leading members of the Democratic Party and the Uri Party, former members of the Uri Party and former prime minister Lee Hae-chan were among them. On Sunday, former prime minister Han Myeong-sook, expected to run for the presidency, paid a visit, marking her first official itinerary since stepping down from the premiership.
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Six-Way Talks Should Be Permanent Peace Regime: Roh
President Roh Moo-hyun on Monday called for the development of the six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program into a Northeast Asian multilateral security system. The proposal comes before North Korea has even taken the first step toward dismantling its nuclear program under a Feb. 13 agreement reached by the six participating nations. Roh was speaking at a special conference of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul.
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Uri Excited About Prospects for Inter-Korean Summit
The Uri Party appears to be staking all on promoting a second inter-Korean summit after the return of former prime minister Lee Hae-chan from a visit to North Korea on Monday, with Uri Party lawmaker Lee Hwa-young the most vocal supporter. The lawmaker, who accompanied the former premier on his trip, said North Korea "agreed on the need" for a second inter-Korean summit when the South Korean delegation proposed that the two Koreas discuss a summit if follow-up talks to the Feb. 13 six-nation nuclear agreement go smoothly. "Since there will be something for the heads of the two Koreas to decide on if the working-group talks yield progress, an inter-Korean summit would be natural in this context," he said.
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Roh calls for permanent peace treaty between Koreas
President Roh Moo-hyun said Monday that his government will strive to replace the cease-fire that ended the 1950-53 Korean War with a permanent peace treaty following the resolution of the North Korean nuclear weapons problem.
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Roh Calls for Peace Treaty to End Armistice
By Ryu Jin, Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporters
2007 IFJ in Seoul: President Roh Moo-hyun speaks at the 2007 conference of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the world's largest organization to promote and defend press freedom, at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul on Monday. About 350 reporters and journalists from more than 70 countries took part in the event./ Yonhap
President Roh Moo-hyun on Monday stressed that the armistice on the Korean Peninsula should be converted into a peace regime once the North Korean nuclear standoff comes to an end.
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Speculations Abound About Inter-Korean Summit
By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
Speculation is running high about an inter-Korean summit despite the repeated denials by Chong Wa Dae. Some say President Roh Moo-hyun sent a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, while others say the pair will meet in Kaesong this summer.
A newspaper reported Monday that Rep. Lee Hae-chan, a former prime minister who now serves as Roh's political advisor, delivered a letter to Kim when he met North Korea's No. 2 leader Kim Yong-nam last week.
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Seoul to Give N.Korea W400 Million in Cash
South Korea has for the first time in history officially decided to give cash to North Korea, in the amount of W400 million (US$1=W945). In 2000, the South Korean government secretly remitted about $500 million to Pyongyang prior to the first inter-Korean summit, but this will be the first time for Seoul to give Pyongyang money under an agreement reached in broad daylight. "We've decided to supply North Korea with building materials worth about W3.5 billion for the construction of a family reunion center equipped with video facilities. Among the expenses, we agreed to give Pyongyang about W400 million in cash," a South Korean government official said Sunday. The reason, he said, is that some materials including LCD monitors needed for the video facilities are banned for export to North Korea under the U.S. Export Administration Regulations, which prohibit exports of goods containing more than 10 percent of American components or technology to states sponsoring terrorism.
Not all government officials are happy that Seoul decided to give cash to Pyongyang although there are ways to ask Washington to lift the ban on some items. Another South Korean government official said, "In a similar case, we used to discuss it with the U.S. when we sent strategic goods" to the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex in the North.
[Sanctions] [Sovereignty]
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Lee: Koreas ready to talk of a summit next month
March 12, 2007 Lee: Koreas ready to talk of a summit next month
In about a month, the two Koreas may be able to start talking about holding a joint summit, said a top President Roh Moo-hyun adviser, who finished a four-day visit to North Korea on Saturday.
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'Summit Could Be Discussed in April'
By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
South and North Korea might discuss holding a summit for their top leaders to meet after mid-April when Pyongyang is supposed to complete its first step toward denuclearization, a high-profile lawmaker said Saturday after a trip to the communist state.
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S-N Relations Restored Fast
By Lee Jin-woo
Staff Reporter
Inter-Korean talks to improve the reconciliatory atmosphere on the Korean Peninsula are underway, yielding another meaningful agreement on Saturday to resume the construction work of a reunion center at Mount Kumgang, a scenic resort in North Korea.
In the two-day inter-Korean Red Cross talks, which ended at the mountain resort Saturday, the two sides agreed to resume construction of the reunion center on March 21, the joint statement said.
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GNP Underdog Offers Visit to N. Korea With Rivals
Rep. Goh Jin-hwa of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) on Sunday urged four other presidential contenders within the GNP to visit North Korea to enhance peace and the reconciliatory mood on the Korean Peninsula.
The lawmaker said the presidential hopefuls of the conservative GNP including former Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak should be free from the Cold War era mentality, but try to find ways to get involved with the North more actively.
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South Korea Reviews Its Dark Past, but the Pace Is Slow
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: March 11, 2007
SEOUL, South Korea, March 9 - In his final days, the Venerable Bogwang, a fisherman turned Buddhist monk, wrestled with his conscience. The scriptures he revered exhorted him to leave behind the entanglements of the material world.
But he could not shake off the nightmarish memories of the interrogation room of South Korea's once-infamous Army Security Command, where, he said, he was held for 43 days and tortured in 1983.
"They tied me naked in a steel chair and attached an electric cord to my genitals," he said in his last interview. "When they threw the switch, electricity bolted through my spine and jolted my brain. It was as if my body jumped a meter off the floor."
By the time the military interrogators were done with him, he had signed a confession that said he was a Communist spy. He served 15 years, and during that time his wife, who had also been tortured, divorced him, and he never saw his children again. He was released in 1998 and became a monk two years later.
He joined scores of South Koreans fighting to clear their names of political subversion charges under the military dictatorships from the 1960s to the 80s
[human rights]
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17-Year-Old Baffles Hyundai Motor Management
By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
A teenage high school dropout caught the limelight at Hyundai Motor's general shareholders meeting, pinpointing the company's struggling U.S. sales and criticizing dubious aspects of the meeting.
Lee Hyun-wook, who said he owns 75 shares of Hyundai Motor, made Hyundai Motor's Vice Chairman and CEO Kim Dong-jin's face redden after asking discomforting questions during the meeting held at the firm's headquarters in Yangjae-dong, southern Seoul on Friday.
Introducing himself as a ``real shareholder,'' Lee accused the management of having planted its employees as cover-up shareholders in order to end the meeting smoothly.
``I see quite a number of Hyundai Motor workers here. I request you to not to do this again so that the workers can fulfill their regular work,'' he said, leaving Kim speechless for a moment.
It has almost become a tradition for firms to engineer their shareholders meetings by having their employees serve as cover-ups or by paying some of their stakeholders to form a propitious atmosphere
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Is the 'Sunshine Policy' Dead?
[Opinion] South Korea should adhere to its policy of engagement
Jae Young Lee (ohmyjoshua)
Published 2007-03-11 15:48 (KST)
From the "agreed framework" in 1994 to the current six-party talks, there have been many attempts to negotiate with North Korea to diffuse its nuclear threat. Even though many deadlocks and failures have been unavoidable so far, now at last the current six-party talks seem to set the stage for dismantling North Korea's nuclear threat, though not yet conclusively.
But it seems that South Korea's "sunshine policy," though it paved the way to a highly significant summit meeting between the two Korean leaders in 2000, has not successfully brought any striking outcome in meeting North Korean nuclear and security challenges. In particular, it has been severely criticized for its failure to restrain North Korea's nuclear missile test last year.
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Kim Dae-jung demands answers about his 1973 kidnapping
Fact-finding commission has kept mum about investigation
Former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung urged the South Korean and Japanese governments to completely clarify the truth surrounding his kidnapping in Tokyo in 1973, at a time when he was an opposition leader criticizing the Park Chung-hee dictatorship. The former president also asked for an apology from both governments.
Kim said the commission tasked with clarifying events that occurred under the auspices of Korea's National Intelligence Service was being too slow in investigating his kidnapping.
Kim was kidnapped from his Tokyo hotel on August 8, 1973. He was staying there while working on bringing democracy to Korea after exiling himself from his native country in 1971. Several men alleged to be Korean agents took him to Osaka and later to Busan on Korea's southern coast by boat. While on board the vessel, the kidnappers attached weights to his feet, but later abandoned their assassination plans. He was released in front of his home in Seoul several days after he was initially taken.
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Kim Yong Nam Meets South Korean Delegation
Pyongyang, March 8 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, met and had a talk in a compatriotic atmosphere with a delegation of the Committee for Peace in Northeast Asia of the Uri Party of south Korea led by Chairman Ri Hae Chan at the Mansudae Assembly Hall on Thursday.
On hand were Choe Song Ik, vice-chairman of the National Reconciliation Council, and officials concerned.
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Han Named KU Acting President
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Han Sung-joo
Korea University, which lost its former president due to a plagiarism scandal last month, named former Foreign Minister Han Sung-joo as its acting president Thursday.
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Explanations on the Results of the 20th Inter-Korean Ministerial Talks
1. Overview
The 20th Inter-Korean Ministerial Talks were held from February 27, 2007 to March 2 in Pyongyang. The South and the North discussed the future direction of inter-Korean relations as well as various other pending issues and announced the six-point agreement in a joint press statement (see attached).
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US, N. Korean Foreign Ministers Likely to Meet
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The foreign ministers from the United States and North Korea are likely to have bilateral talks as early as next month over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program and follow-up measures to a Feb. 13 disarmament agreement, South Korea’s foreign minister said Thursday.
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Lee 'to Talk Peace, not Summits,' in N.Korea
Former prime minister Lee Hae-chan leaves Incheon Airport for North Korea on Wednesday morning. Lee serves as a special advisor on political affairs to President Roh Moo-hyun.
Former prime minister Lee Hae-chan told reporters Wednesday he was on his way to North Korea to discuss peace on the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia, not to broker an inter-Korean summit. Lee said comprehensive talks on a peace framework for the Korean Peninsula would also be possible. After returning home from Pyongyang, the former PM is to fly to the U.S. and invite U.S. lawmakers to discuss a peace framework for Korea.
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Lee Begins NK Visit
By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
Rep. Lee Hae-chan on Wednesday denied his role as President Roh Moo-hyun's special envoy to North Korea, saying that it is not the time to discuss an inter-Korean summit as speculated by media and political circles.
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Ex-PM's N.Korea Visit 'a Bid to Prepare Summit'
The government and Uri Party continue with moves that smack of an attempt to bring about an inter-Korean summit, despite denials by everyone including the president. On Wednesday, former prime minister Lee Hae-chan, now special advisor on political affairs for President Roh Moo-hyun, visits North Korea to meet with no. 2 leader Kim Young-nam. Lee meets with the president of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly in his capacity as the Uri Party's Northeast Asia Peace Committee chair, Uri spokesman Choi Jae-sung said.
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Korea's Conflicts with China, Japan to be Covered in Textbooks
The conflicts between South Korea, China and Japan over differing claims of territorial control and historical fact will be addressed in a new course and textbook for 11th and 12th graders to start in 2012.
The "East Asian History" textbooks will handle in separate chapters Japan's claim over the Dokdo Islets and its glorification of its war of aggression and China's "Northeast Project" assertions on early Korean history.
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N.K. defector finds it necessary to lie due to S.K. prejudice
[Feature] South Koreans are only comfortable 'when they don't really know each other', he says
Lee Ho-seung (not his real name), a 24-year-old North Korean defector with a slim figure and a handsome face, speaks standard South Korean dialect perfectly. Unless he reveals the fact that he came from the North, it would be difficult to guess.
[Refugee reception]
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Justice for Yeosu Detention Center Fire Victims and All Migrant Workers
Created by Yul-san Liem on Mar 02, 2007
Category: Human Rights
Region: GLOBAL
Target: progressive organizations and people around the world
Web-site: http://mtu.or.kr
Description/History:
Summary of the Incident:
At 4:00 am on February 11 a fire swept through the locked cells of the detention center at the Yeosu Immigration Controls Office, killing 9 detainees and wounding 18 others. Neither the alarm system nor the sprinklers operated when the fire broke out. The detention center staff tried but failed to put out the flames using portable fire extinguishers. Even so, they did not unlock cells to free the detainees. The detainees were forced to breathe in toxic fumes emitted from burning mattresses. These fumes were the cause of most of the deaths and injuries.
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Was There a Backroom Deal with North Korea?
Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung, who returned Friday from inter-Korean ministerial talks, said, "We agreed in principle to provide the North with 400,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertilizer." That raised suspicions of a behind-the-scenes agreement with North Korea. Lee tried to contain the fallout by saying it wasn't an agreement but North Korea's request, but the comments failed to quell lingering suspicions.
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Chun says Pyongyang has the will for 1st step
March 05, 2007
Kim Gye-gwan, North Korea's deputy foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator, leaves a hotel in New York Saturday with unidentified men. [AP]
NEW YORK ? There "appears to be no doubt that Pyongyang has the will to implement the initial phase of the nuclear disarmament agreement, Chun Young-woo, Seoul's representative to the North Korean talks, said yesterday. "They are set to do the things they can to implement the agreement."
Mr. Chun made his comments to reporters after a 50-minute dinner meeting with Kim Gye-gwan, the North Korean vice foreign minister.
"There are skeptics everywhere, but they are not the ones that make history," Mr. Chun said. "The most important thing is to form the right political conditions [in the United States]" over issues such as removing North Korea from the list of nations that sponsor terrorism.
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Defector's dating service unites North women with South men
March 05, 2007 Kang Hak-shil left a husband and a child in North Korea when she defected here in 2002. Completely alone, she hoped to remarry to settle into Korean society.
However, the men she met often lied about themselves, she said, some pretending to be single when they were married. A friend finally introduced her to her husband, whom she married in 2005. She decided to help North Korean women like her.
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Inter-Korean Summit Predicted for August
By Park Song-wu
Staff Reporter
A state-funded think-tank on inter-Korean relations in Seoul has predicted that the two Koreas could hold a summit meeting in August.
The report from the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) came as the North Korean nuclear standoff is showing signs of progress since Pyongyang agreed last month to comply with initial actions toward denuclearization.
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Inter-Korean Summit Predicted for August
By Park Song-wu
Staff Reporter
A state-funded think-tank on inter-Korean relations in Seoul has predicted that the two Koreas could hold a summit meeting in August.
The report from the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) came as the North Korean nuclear standoff is showing signs of progress since Pyongyang agreed last month to comply with initial actions toward denuclearization.
But the report, issued on Friday, is expected to draw criticism, especially from the main opposition Grand National Party, given that such a political event could affect the presidential election in December.
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North and S Korea seek to strengthen ties
By Song Jung-a in Seoul and David Pilling in Tokyo
Published: March 3 2007 00:11 | Last updated: March 3 2007 00:11
North and South Korea on Friday agreed to resume efforts to reunite families separated since the 1950-53 Korean war and to expand economic exchanges, beginning with trial runs of a cross-border railway.
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Two Koreas agree on fertilizer aid, reunions
March 03, 2007
Lee Jae-joung, South Korea unification minister, and Kwon Ho-ung, North Korea? senior cabinet councilor, yesterday at Koryo Hotel in Pyongyang after announcing a six-point joint statement on their agreement. [Joint Press Corps]
A May reunion of some family members separated since the Korean War and the resumption of fertilizer aid to North Korea are among the agreements the two Koreas announced yesterday in Pyongyang.
Video conference calls will take place March 27 to 29, and the face-to-face reunions will happen in early May at the Mount Kumgang resort in North Korea, according to Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung and his North Korean counterpart, Kwon Ho-ung.
The two released a joint statement yesterday wrapping up their four-day meeting. The reunions will be the 15th held; the last round took place in June of last year.
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Two Koreas Agree to Restart Family Reunions
The two Koreas have agreed to resume joint humanitarian and economic projects seven months after they were put on hold. Delegates to the latest inter-Korean ministerial talks agreed in Pyongyang to restart cross-border reunions of families who were separated by the Korean War. They also say reunions via video conferencing will start in the last week of this month. Three days of video reunions will be held, and face-to-face reunions are expected to resume in the Mt. Kumgang region in North Korea in early May. The agreement comes after four days of see-saw talks.
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North and S Korea seek to strengthen ties
By Song Jung-a in Seoul and David Pilling in Tokyo
Published: March 3 2007 00:11 | Last updated: March 3 2007 00:11
North and South Korea on Friday agreed to resume efforts to reunite families separated since the 1950-53 Korean war and to expand economic exchanges, beginning with trial runs of a cross-border railway.
The agreements came at the close of four days of cabinet-level talks in Pyongyang, the first between the two Koreas since missile tests last July and a nuclear test in October strained relations.
The inter-Korean talks are part of a burst of diplomacy that has followed a February 13 agreement calling for Pyongyang to begin dismantling its nuclear programme in exchange for energy aid.
Kim Kye-gwan, North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, arrived in New York on Friday for the first working group meeting on bilateral relations with the US, while Song Min-soon, South Korea's foreign minister, was in Washington to meet senior US officials.
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N.K. defector aims for resettlement, success
Foregoing academic study for a trade school, 22-year-old values obtaining skills, money
Kim Gwan-cheol (not his real name), 22, works at a car inspection center in Gangseo-gu, Seoul. Like other North Korean defectors his age, Kim once thought about entering a university, but he felt he was not the right person for that kind of study.
"Many of those who entered good universities had to stop their studies due to the problem of adaptation. I decided that obtaining technical skills and earning money was better than that," Kim said.
Kim, along with his father and a brother, entered South Korea by fishing boat in the summer of 2002. He first got a job at a gas station, and then went on to study for a year at an automotive department of a technical school operated by the Human Resources Development Service of Korea. Kim received 150,000 won (US$163) every month [from who?] <<<<>>> while studying. While there, he always thought it strange that South Korean youths did not seem drawn to what the school had to offer.
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Ministerial-level talks need to quickly elevate South-North relations
Ministerial-level talks between North and South Korea ended Friday, the first inter-Korean dialogue since the recent agreement at the six-party talks. These ministerial-level meetings were a demonstration of both the possibilities and potential limitations that could lie ahead for the future of inter-Korean relations. The atmosphere was amicable and the joint communique at the end was relatively specific, but fell short of addressing issues regarding the future, which would have been appropriate for what was the 20th round of such talks.
South Korean politicians on Saturday urged the Japanese prime minister to officially apologize for his claim that Japan never sexually enslaved Korean women during World War II.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was quoted as saying in a news conference on Thursday that there was no evidence proving women were coerced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers at frontline brothels at that time.
The statement indicated Abe's government may repeal a 1993 government study that Japan's military, both directly and indirectly, forced women in occupied areas to serve in brothels as "comfort women."
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North-South Ministerial Talks Open
Pyongyang, February 28 (KCNA) -- The 20th North-South Ministerial Talks were opened here Wednesday. Present there were members of the north side's delegation to the talks headed by Chief Councilor of the Cabinet Kwon Ho Ung and its suite members and members of the south side's delegation to the talks with Minister of Unification Ri Jae Jong as its chief delegate and its suite members.
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20th North-South Ministerial Talks Close
Pyongyang, March 2 (KCNA) -- The 20th North-South Ministerial Talks which were opened here on Feb. 27 closed Friday. At the talks both sides demonstrated internally and externally their will to develop the inter-Korean relations on a new higher stage and reached an agreement on a series of issues.
A joint press release on the talks was adopted at the talks held Friday.
The press release said:
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Seoul to Resume Rice, Fertilizer Aid to North
By Joint Press Corps and Park Song-wu
Staff Reporter
Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung, second from left, the chief South Korean delegate to the 20th Cabinet-level talks between the two Koreas, shakes hands with his North Korean counterpart, Chief Cabinet Councilor Kwon Ho-ung, after reaching an agreement at the Koryo Hotel in Pyongyang,Tuesday./ Yonhap
Unification Minster Lee Jae-joung on Friday made a blunder in Seoul by disclosing contents of verbal agreements with his North Korean counterpart on how much Seoul will provide in humanitarian aid.
A joint statement, issued on the final day of the Cabinet-level dialogue in Pyongyang, made no mention of the South's aid shipments.
But Lee, who led the South Korean delegation, told reporters after returning to Seoul that he had ``agreed in principle'' to provide 300,000 tons of fertilizer and 400,000 tons of rice.
He later returned to the press center to reverse his remarks and said there had been no such agreement.
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New Main Battle Tank Unveiled
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
CHANGWON, South Kyongsang Province _ The Korean military Friday unveiled its indigenous next-generation main battle tanks, XK2.
To mark the development of the prototype, the Agency for Defense Development (ADD), a state-run research institute, held a demonstration of the tanks' performance in Changwon, South Kyongsang Province.
The production of the high-tech battle tanks is part of Seoul's efforts to achieve an independent defense capability within five years, an ADD official said.
[Military balance]
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S. Korea Refuses North's Request for Restored Aid
Associated Press
Saturday, March 3, 2007; Page A12
SEOUL, March 2 -- South Korea on Friday added pressure on North Korea to comply with an international disarmament agreement, refusing the impoverished nation's demand to restore full aid shipments until after its main nuclear reactor is shut down.
[Media]
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Another Intelligence Twist
The CIA may have overstated North Korea's uranium program. But Pyongyang still must answer for it.
Friday, March 2, 2007; Page A12
ONCE AGAIN the Bush administration is being accused of exaggerating intelligence to justify an aggressive policy toward a rogue regime, with disastrous results. In October 2002 the State Department announced that North Korea had acknowledged secretly developing a uranium enrichment program. The next month the CIA reported to Congress that it had "recently learned that the North is constructing a plant that could produce enough weapons-grade uranium for two or more nuclear weapons per year when fully operational -- which could be as soon as mid-decade." On this basis the administration suspended a deal under which North Korea received fuel oil in exchange for freezing a separate program to produce plutonium. Pyongyang responded by restarting that program and producing enough plutonium for a number of nuclear weapons, one of which it tested last October.
Now administration officials are conceding that outside experts may be right when they say that the North probably never constructed a large uranium-enrichment plant. According to the New York Times, a new intelligence update concludes "with moderate confidence" that the uranium program continues, but it says it's not known how much progress has been made. Christopher R. Hill, the principal U.S. negotiator with North Korea, told Congress on Wednesday that it's debatable "whether they've actually been able to produce highly enriched uranium."
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Inter-Korean Talks Stall Over Fertilizer
North and South Korea continued their negotiations on the amount and timing of rice and fertilizer aid late into the night on Thursday, the third day of the 20th inter-Korean ministerial talks. South Korea did not reveal details of the North Korean request, fanning speculation that the amount was much bigger than expected.
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N.Korea Denounces GNP Despite Seoul's Pleas
North Korea resumed its attack on South Korea's conservative Grand National Party on Thursday, only a day after the South Korean delegation to inter-Korean ministerial talks asked Pyongyang to ease off. The Rodong Shinmun, the Workers' Party daily, reported that "ultra-conservative" forces including the GNP are desperate to win the presidential election on South Korea late this year. "Independence and democracy will be facilitated on South Korea and inter-Korean relations will go smoothly if progressive forces win the election. But if conservative forces take power, inter-Korean relations will return to an era of confrontation," the daily warned. "The South Korean people cannot sleep soundly for even for a minute without defeating the pro-American conservative forces. The South could lose everything achieved by the bloody sacrifice of its people if it fails to prevent the conservatives from taking power."
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Estranged from family after spy conviction, monk dies alone
On February 27, the body of a South Korean Buddhist monk was laid out prior to cremation. His Buddhist name had been Bogwang; his real name had been Lee Sang-cheol. Weeping next to the body was his youngest brother, Yeong-cheol (his name has been changed in this article).
The secular name of Lee Sang-cheol had been left behind when the man entered monkhood, but it still exists in traces: it appears on court documents of a man sentenced in 1983 for violating an anti-communist law, and it remains in the memory of his family and children, with whom he lost contact after the trial.
"My brother's life was so pitiful," said Lee Yeong-cheol. "In my memory, my brother smiled once, in late 1982, when he got married and settled down in his wife's hometown on Geoje Island. Soon after, as his fishing business was faring well, he called all his brothers, including me, and asked us to start living in the same place."
In 1971, at the age of 22, he had been taken away by North Korean coast guards in 1971 after his fishing boat met a storm and crossed into North Korean waters off the East Sea. During his one-year stay in North Korea, Lee was taught spying techniques, but upon his repatriation by North Korea, did not tell the authorities about this training out of fear of retribution by North Korean authorities.
[Media] [Spin] [Human rights]
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Koreas lock horns over humanitarian projects, economic issues
South Korea's five-member negotiating team to the ongoing ministerial talks on Thursday paid a courtesy call on Kim Yong-nam, the North's ceremonial head of state, as the talks went into a third day in Pyongyang.
Lee Jae-joung, South Korea's point man on North Korea, became the third unification minister to meet Kim, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, and Lee is to hold a press briefing to explain what they discussed later Thursday, pool reports said. The meeting was hurriedly arranged at the request of the South on Thursday morning.
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U.S.-N. Korea normalization talks set for March 5-6
The United States said Wednesday that it will hold a meeting next week with North Korea to discuss a series of steps toward normalizing the bilateral ties.
The U.S. chief nuclear envoy, Christopher Hill, will meet his negotiating counterpart, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan, on March 5-6 in New York, said Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the State Department.
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Aid on inter-Korean table
Joint statement today might not touch on issue
March 02, 2007
South Korea Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung, left, in Pyongyang, and his North Korean counterpart, Kwon Ho-ung, listen to a North Korean guide. [YONHAP]
After North Korea asked for a resumption of rice and fertilizer assistance from the South, the two countries began drafting a joint statement yesterday in Pyongyang.
As talks between the two sides conclude today, however, one South Korean official told Yonhap News Agency a draft of that statement did not contain any mention of the aid.
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Report of the 2007 Business Plan for the Ministry of Unification
Date : 2007- 02- 28
On February 6, 2007, the Ministry of Unification reported "The 2007 Business Plan" to the president in a written statement on the electronic report system of the Blue House.
In this report, the Ministry of Unification presented "The Realization of Peaceful Co-existence and Co-prosperity of the South and the North" as a its policy vision, establishing six strategic goals and nineteen performance goals for attaining the strategic goals.
[Kaesong]
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N. Korea Wants More Aid
Joint Press Corps and Lee Jin-woo
Staff Reporter
Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung, right, talks with Kwon Ho-ung, chief councillor of North Korea’s Cabinet, before the inter-Korean ministerial talks in Pyongyang, Wednesday. / Korea Times
PYONGYANG _ North Korea on Wednesday urged South Korea to resume inter-Korean humanitarian aid immediately.
On the second day of the inter-Korean Cabinet talks, which resumed after a seven-month hiatus, Kwon Ho-ung, chief Cabinet councillor of the North, also proposed that the two Koreas hold a meeting to discuss economic cooperation in its capital at an early date. The two Koreas discussed the details of aid shipments, especially rice and fertilizer, during the economic cooperation meeting.
Seoul seemed somewhat reluctant to accept Pyongyang’s requests before the Stalinist state shows that it will keep its promise to take the first steps to shut down and seal its primary nuclear reactor and resume the reunion of separated families.
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Minister Lee to "Soften" N.Koreans at Talks
The 20th inter-Korean ministerial talks opened in Pyongyang on Tuesday. The first official function was a dinner at the Yanggakdo International Hotel hosted by North Korean Prime Minister Pak Pong-ju. Delegates from both sides avoided mentioning at the dinner the North Korean nuclear and missile issue, the cause of a break in inter-Korean talks. Prime Minister Park said that the two sides should learn a lesson from the seven-month suspension of dialogue and urged both parties to resolve their affairs from a stance that considers the two Koreas one blood-sharing nation. He did not present a detailed agenda for the meeting.
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Seoul likely to resume N Korea aid shipments
By Anna Fifield in Seoul
Published: February 28 2007 02:00 | Last updated: February 28 2007 02:00
South Korea is likely to resume the shipments of food and fertiliser aid to North Korea suspended following last year's missile tests, said officials as inter-Korean talks resumed in Pyongyang last night for the first time in seven months.
The talks are part of the burst of diplomacy that has followed this month's multilateral agreement, under which North Korea agreed to take steps towards shutting down its nuclear weapons programme in return for energy and economic aid.
Just as North Korea's neighbours have moved quickly to ensure the first steps are taken, Pyongyang has wasted no time in seeking to reap rewards from the agreement, requesting much larger shipments of food and fertiliser aid than South Korea had been offering.
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Repatriated independence fighters and their offspring face hardship
Invited to South Korea, those that once fought for Korea now struggle to survive
Choi Young-gyu, 59, is the grandson of Han Young-bal, who was jailed during the Japanese colonial period for participating in the March 1 independence movement. Last year, Choi settled down in South Korea with his five family members, one-and-a-half years after beginning a struggle to leave China and return to the country where his grandfather fought so valiantly for freedom.
Choi suffers from diabetes, and his wife, Nam Bong-rae, 56, cannot work due to back pain. His 34-year-old son returns home late at night after working at a construction site, while his daughter-in-law puts in long hours at a restaurant. In spite of such hard work, however, they rarely are free from the yoke of poverty.
Though their ancestors fought for the nation's independence during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule, offspring of independence activists moving back to Korea from abroad often face a harsh reality trying to survive rather than a warm welcome from South Koreans.
Due to prolonged economic difficulties, some of the 33 have returned to China
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Roh says time is not right for inter-Korean summit
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said Tuesday that an inter-Korean summit would be difficult without the settlement of the North Korean nuclear weapons problem.
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Roh Says N. Korea's Opening Will Succeed
By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
President Roh Moo-hyun predicted yesterday that North Korea would eventually come out of its shell and take to the path of ``reform and openness'' once the nuclear standoff is resolved peacefully.
He also said that he would seek a summit with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il when it is deemed helpful for the peace on the Korean Peninsula, though he thinks that the ``time is not ripe yet'' at the moment.
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Koreas Open Detente Talks in Pyongyang
By Lee Jin-woo
Staff Reporter
South-North ministerial talks: Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung, right, the chief South Korean delegate to the 20th Cabinet-level meeting between the two Koreas, talks with his North Korean counterpart, Chief Cabinet Councilor Kwon Houng at the Korea Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea, Tuesday. Lee, who took office last December, said the two Koreas should work closely together to expedite the process of the six-party agreement forged in Beijing on Feb. 13. South and North Korea are expected to focus on ways to resume Seoul's humanitarian assistance for the impoverished North and restart long-delayed inter- Korean economic projects.
/ Joint Press Corps
South and North Korea yesterday began the 20th Cabinet-level talks, hoping to benefit from the reconciliatory mood, especially Pyongyang's agreement to give up its nuclear ambition in the six-party talks in Beijing Feb. 13.
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Failure in Disabling Nukes to Challenge Sunshine Policy
By Park Song-wu
Staff Reporter
South Korea's ``sunshine policy'' of economically engaging North Korea will face challenges if Pyongyang declines to completely disable its nuclear facilities, North Korea experts in Seoul said on Tuesday.
Their concerns were in sync with rising suspicions that Pyongyang will not abide by the latest accord on initial actions.
``If the initial steps to shut down and seal the nuclear facilities are not followed by disablement, South Korea's engagement policy will face a new challenge,'' Chun Chae-sung, a professor of diplomacy at Seoul National University, said at a symposium in Seoul.
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