ROK and Inter-Korean relations
April 2009
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S. Korea ranks as biggest conventional arms importer in 2008
South Korea was the world's largest importer of conventional weapons from 2007-2008, a Sweden-based think tank has reported, according to Yonhap News.
South Korea would rank third if its entire arms imports from 2004-2008 were factored in, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said.
SIPRI, which released the report on Monday (Swedish time), is a state-funded institute that regularly provides information on international arms transfers.
The United States was the world's biggest supplier of conventional weapons from 2004-2008, the report said, adding it accounted for 73 percent of South Korea's arms imports during the same period.
The trade included "F-15K combat aircraft along with engines and other components for South Korean-designed aircraft and ships," it said, adding South Korea was the biggest recipient of U.S. arms.
"South Korean imports of major conventional weapons were 61 percent higher in 2004-2008 than in 1999-2003. In 2007 and 2008 South Korea was the world's largest importer of major conventional weapons," the report said.
2009.04.28
[Arms balance] [Arms sales] [Double standards]
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POWs in N.Korea 'Put to Work in Coal Mines'
Most prisoners of war in North Korea are believed to have been sent to coal mines in the northeastern province of Hamgyeong, according to a yearly white paper on human rights released by South Korea's Institute for National Unification.
The report says the North used POWs as labor there because North Koreans avoided the job and it is relatively easy to monitor and control prisoners at mines. The institute estimates over 19,000 South Koreans were taken prisoner during the Korean War in the early 1950s but added the exact number can only be determined when data from North Korea and China become available.
[Korean War events] [Media]
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S. Korean held for 30 days in incommunicado detention by North Korea
Criticism emerges against both governments while S. Korea continues to negotiate access amid uncertain inter-Korean relations
» Members of “Citizens Solidarity for the Campaign to Release the South Korean National Abducted and Detained in the Kaesong Industrial Park” start a petition campaign near the Unification Ministry in Seoul, April 27.
As of Tuesday, April 28, North Korean authorities will have detained a South Korean citizen for thirty days. Criticism of North Korea is mounting as it continues to deny South Korean authorities access.
The “Citizens Solidarity for the Campaign to Release the South Korean National Abducted and Detained in the Kaesong Industrial Park,” an ad hoc umbrella organization of conservative groups promoting human rights in North Korea and groups promoting inter-Korean relations like the North Korea Forum and the Citizen‘s Solidarity for Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation held a demonstration near the Unification Ministry in downtown Seoul April 27. The groups denounced “inhumane and anti national behavior on the part of North Korea,” which the groups say, “is spreading negative views towards North Korea.”
North Korea informed South Korean authorities that the South Korean citizen and employee of Hyundai Asan is being detained for criticizing North Korea’s government and trying to persuade a local woman worker to defect. North Korea has provided no other information since about how the individual criticized North Korea, who he encouraged to defect, and other specific case details.
When the investigation will be concluded remains unknown. North Korean criminal law permits up to ten days for initial investigations, and between two and four months for full-fledged investigations, after which the accused may be indicted.
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All Soldiers Will Sleep on Beds by 2012
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
All South Korean enlisted soldiers will be able to sleep on individual beds in their barracks by 2012, the Ministry of National Defense said Monday.
The plan is part of the ministry's mid- and long-term polices to improve the welfare of servicemembers, it said in a news release. President Lee Myung-bak approved a package of plans for soldiers' welfare last week, it added.
Under the plan, the military will complete providing a total of 1,084 military residences nationwide with individual beds over the next three years to ``meet social trends.'' Currently, most soldiers in the field still sleep on heated floors in their barracks.
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Erotic Art Reflects Conservative Korea's Passionate Side
On the 15th day of the first lunar month, a small fishing town in Gangwon Province will celebrate the phallus as it has done for centuries. On that day, a penis measuring a respectable 20-25 cm and carved from the wood of an aromatic tree will be offered to the gods, its bright red color said to ward off misfortune. The ceremony serves to propitiate the spirits of young women who died unmarried and pray for prosperity and big catches.
As late as the 1960s, such ceremonies were common in many fishing villages in the province. Korean society is outwardly conservative about sex, mainly due to the Confucianism that has been the nation's governing philosophy for a long time. Yet underneath the stolid formality, there survives a more powerful desire for untrammeled sexual expression that has always found some form of expression in art.
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President Lee takes on a moderate response in North Korea policy
In an attempt to assuage criticism that the president is flip-flopping on his stance towards inter-Korean dialogue, the Cheong Wa Dae maintains resolve on PSI
» President Lee Myung-bak, left, shakes hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov before their meeting at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, April 25, 2009. Lavrov renewed his country’s opposition to sanctions against North Korea for its rocket launch and called for efforts to revive the stalled talks on ending Pyongyang’s nuclear programs. (AP)
President Lee takes on a moderate response in North Korea policy
In an attempt to assuage criticism that the president is flip-flopping on his stance towards inter-Korean dialogue, the Cheong Wa Dae maintains resolve on PSI
President Lee Myung-bak is recently showing a more prudent stance in his remarks about North Korea and inter-Korean relations. Lee seems to view the latest meeting between the two countries in Kaesong (Gaeseong) on April 21 as the starting point for Inter-Korean dialogue, the first since his inauguration a year ago and amid relations that have soured since North Korea’s rocket launch earlier this month. His aides say he appears to be leaning towards a reconciliatory mood and away from causing provocations from North Korea.
[Satellite] {sanctions] [PSI]
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Why Korea Can Afford the Cost of Unification
South Koreans are becoming less enthusiastic by the year about reunification with North Korea. Those in favor of unification accounted for 91.6 percent in a 1994 poll by the Korea Institute for National Unification. But the figure declined to 63.8 percent in a 2007 survey by the Seoul National University Center for Unification and Peace. By contrast, the view that unification is not necessary increased from 8.4 percent in 1994 to 15.1 percent in 2007.
Under the engagement policy of the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations, unification became something of a taboo, and that taboo, coupled with a fear of the enormous cost, will have to be overcome if the two Koreas are to become one again.
[Unification}
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Seoul to Propose Fresh Inter-Korean Meeting Next Week
The government could propose a second meeting to North Korea sometime next week to negotiate the renewal of contracts for the joint Kaesong Industrial Complex
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[Analysis] N. Korea uses look one way and row another tactics in April 21 meeting
Experts suggest Kaesong’s cash-related issues may not be driving the agenda of inter-Korean communications on Kaesong
North Korea has tossed a tough question to the South Korean government. At the April 21 meeting in North Korea’s border city of Kaesong (Gaeseong), North Korea put three “cash-related” Kaesong Industrial Complex issues on the table that called for South Korea to raise wages for North Korean workers, shorten the period of free land lease, and revise land rental terms. While the face value of the requests is certain, it is difficult to analyze North Korea’s motivations.
While the three “cash-related” issues are directly related to companies, North Korea wants to negotiate with the South Korean government. An official at the Ministry of Unification says, “During the April 21 inter-Korean meeting, North Korea said that South Korea should ‘prudently respond to contacts needed for negotiations,’ indicating that the South Korean government should be involved.”
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N.Korea 'Cares More About Dollars Than PSI'
North Korea seemed more interested in earning dollars than whether the South joins the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, an official said after an inter-Korean meeting Tuesday in the border city of Kaesong. The official said threats over Seoul's plan to join the PSI, which aims to intercept ships suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction or related material, was nothing but a scare tactic to keep the South Korean government under its thumb, he added.
South Korea had feared the North would announce the closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex in case the South joins the PSI, but those fears were apparently unfounded.
In the press briefing Wednesday, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said, "At the meeting in Kaesong, North Korea only made two demands which it had already announced earlier," namely a raise for North Korean workers at the industrial park and payment of land use fees. North Korean officials only made a comment, not a demand, about the PSI issue, he added. That suggests the PSI was not on the North's agenda in the first place but North Korean officials merely reiterated a previous statement at the meeting.
South Korea has several times delayed joining the initiative for fear of provoking the North at a sensitive time, but now officials here fear they may have been overly cautious.
"Although 94 countries including Russia have joined the PSI, North Korea has never taken issue with it, but because we have failed to reach consensus at home, we have given the North an opening to poke its nose into our business," the official said.
[PSI] [Kaesong]
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South Korea may trade in hard line stance for a more flexible approach
Government officials say April 21 meeting signals inter Korea dialogues have begun
The Lee Myung-bak administration is currently deciding its follow up to the meeting with North Korean officials in Kaesong on April 21. On April 22, a key Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) official said that while the administration is still analyzing Pyongyang’s intentions, “we think it is not trying to break the game board, and whatever else could be true, we think dialogue has been set in motion.”
“Not being dragged around by North Korea is a key principle of our administration,” said the official. “However, a hard line stance is not always best, so we are going to be more resilient,” the official said.
Analysts speculate that the decision to support dialogue may mean indefinite delays in the government’s announcement of South Korea’s full participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI).
[PSI]
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North Korea’s April 21 communications test the South Korean government
[Analysis] South Korea determines plans for further dialogue on Kaesong while postponing PSI participation
Following South Korea’s official meeting with North Korea in North Korea’s border city of Kaesong (Gaeseong), the first in more than a year, the South Korean government has mobilized its officials in the fields of diplomacy and security to map out how to proceed in negotiations with North Korea. In particular, officials at the Ministry of Unification and the third division in charge of North Korea at the National Intelligence Service were in full gear. The officials had been shunned since the South Korean government of President Lee Myung-bak was inaugurated.
[PSI]
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N. Korea Wants South to Honor Past Accords
By Sunny Lee
Korea Times Correspondent
BEIJING ? The complexity of the North Korean issue and the concerns that the international community has over North Korea's nuclear ambition have now entered a U.S. high school classroom.
``Why is North Korea going it alone?'' is a topic for politics class, offered online by the U.S. educational broadcaster PBS.
For Harrison, the North's latest confrontational posture is, in ultimate analysis, a mere symptom of a bigger and more fundamental problem, which is mysteriously overlooked in South Korea. That is, the South's unilateral revocation of the past rapprochement agreements with the North and also its obliviousness of what impact it had on the mindset of the North's leadership.
[Renege] [SK NK policy] [NK SK policy]
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North Korea Claims Border Marker Was Moved
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: April 22, 2009
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea accused the South of tampering with a border marker on Wednesday and warned of a possible clash along the heavily fortified frontier.
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The Inter-Korean Meeting Was a Farce
North and South Korean officials met for just 22 minutes in the border city of Kaesong on Tuesday, with each side merely informing the other of its position. It was to be expected that the talks would not produce any results. The South Korean delegates arrived in Kaesong at around 9 a.m. and offered to hold a preparatory meeting to discuss the agenda, participants and venue of the talks. Until they arrived, the North Koreans had declined to inform the South of who was taking part and where the meeting was to take place. Then they told the South Korean officials to come over to the North's office in the Kaesong Industrial Complex.
In the half century history of inter-Korean talks, neither South or North Korea has been this rude.
aim was to make South Korea feel small by forcing officials to travel to the North, bombard them with scathing criticism over the implementation of UN sanctions and Seoul's participation in the Proliferation Security Initiative, and threatening the possible closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex.
Our government must stick to its principles and pursue genuine dialogue with North Korea instead of getting caught up in the results of individual instances. The South Korean government must clear up the confusion over whether or not it is going to join the PSI and get to work focusing on its overall North Korea policy.
[PSI]
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S Korea Jails Pair For Spreading N Korean Propaganda
SEOUL (AFP)--A South Korean court Tuesday jailed two leaders of a left-wing group for spreading North Korean propaganda and engaging in activities sympathetic to the communist nation.
Choi Han-Wook and Kang Jin-Goo, current and former leaders of the Solidarity for Practice of the South-North Joint Declaration, were given prison sentences of 24 months and 30 months respectively.
[Human rights] [NSL]
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Military confrontation policy of south Korea
Statement by Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People
Dear friends,
Warm greetings from the Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People!
We are sending you the letter as regards that the Lee Myung Bak group of south Korea is driving the inter-Korean relations into the worst phase for one year of its stay in power while making the military confrontation policy against DPRK and running amuck to the military exercise to invade the north.
Lee Myung Bak, from the first day of his staying in power, oftenly held the several kinds of meetings for the mock battle such as “State Affairs Meeting” and “Ministers’ Meeting related with the Urgent Security” and advocated about the “Dispute possibility with the north” and “Radical measure”. In September last year, Lee appeared at one of the war exercise field and encouraged the south Korean army to the confrontation and war against the north by saying that “We must certainly defeat the north”.
[SK NK policy]
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What Does N.Korea Want to Talk About?
In a statement targeting South Korea on Saturday, North Korea reiterated that Seoul's full participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative "is tantamount to a declaration of a war" and added ominously the South Korean capital "lies only 50 km from the military demarcation line." The message took the form of a statement from the North Korean Army's General Staff.
[PSI]
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Inter-Korean Talks to Start Tuesday
North and South Korea are planning to hold their first inter-governmental talks since the South's conservative president assumed office last year. The rare meeting comes as North Korea sharpens its menacing rhetoric and detains a South Korean businessman.
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[Column] S. Korea’s survival strategy in the multipolar system
Jungsoo Jang, Executive editor
The current global economic crisis triggered by the U.S. financial meltdown has led to a reorganization in the world order. The curtain is coming down on the unipolarity of the U.S. that emerged after the end of the Cold War system, and in its place we are seeing the shifting towards a multipolar system in which rising powers like China, India and Brazil have inserted themselves among the ranks of existing superpowers. The arrival of the multipolar system has been symbolically demonstrated by the gathering of the two G-20 summits that have been held to devise solutions for the global financial crisis. The ideology barrier to a multipolar system has been broken down. Even neoliberalism, the dominant ideology among capitalist camps following the collapse of the Communist system 20 years ago, has proven insolvent, throwing the world into an ideological vacuum, an unprecedented situation where all of the ruling ideologies have lost credibility.
[Realignment]
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NK Defector Slams South's Education System
A North Korean defector, who had graduated from Pyongyang’s elite Kim Il Sung University, harshly denounced the South’s educational system that is centered around rote memorization, lacking creativity and is filled with excessive competition.
Zhu Seong-ha, who came to South Korea several years ago and now works as a journalist for Dong-A Ilbo, wrote in his personal web blog: “I am from North Korea, which is relatively backward in education. So, one would think that I would very envy the South’s educational system. But to be frank, I am not envious of it at all. In fact, the more I know about the reality of education in South Korea, I become even less envious.”
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North Proposes Inter-Korean Contact in Kaesong Over 'Important Thing'
North Korea has proposed inter-Korean contact on April 21 in Kaesong, saying that it has “an important thing to inform,” it was belatedly confirmed Saturday.
Government sources said that the North Korean authorities conveyed the proposal to the Seoul side last Thursday via the channel of the industrial complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.
As a result, the South plans to send officials of the Unification Ministry to the North on April 21, the sources said.
This is the first time that government officials will visit North Korea since the Lee Myung-bak government was inaugurated in February last year.
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N.Korean Painter Brushes Away Taboos about Kim Jong-il
North Korea's recent rocket launch and its reappointment of Kim Jongi-l as military chief are reminders to the world of the North Korean leader's potential ability to threaten regional security. But one North Korean refugee is giving the world a look at Kim Jong-il in a much less austere light.
The face of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il - not waving at the masses from a balcony, but lying on his back in a hospital bed.
Artist describes this painting as 'Kim Jong-il is sick, so the child is giving him Coke as a medicine' "Kim Jong-il is sick, so the child is giving him Coke as a medicine," Artist Sun Mu explains. "I chose Coke as a symbol of North Korea's need to open up."
[Pro-Americanism]
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Singer Sued for Lauding NK Rocket Launch
Shin Hae-chul
South Korean conservative groups said Friday they will ask the prosecution to probe a singer for allegedly violating the National Security Law by praising North Korea's recent rocket launch, according to Yonhap News.
Shin Hae-chul, a famed rock singer, posted a controversial entry on his Web site on April 8 "congratulating" his "brethren" in Pyongyang for the successful launch.
[NSL] [Satellite] [Human rights]
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Wine bubble bursts on cost of imports
April 16, 2009
A bad economy means less wine consumption, according to global figures recently indicated by the Paris-based International Organisation of Vine and Wine, or OIV.
Global wine consumption totaled 6.4 billion gallons last year, a 0.8 percent drop from 2007.
The Korean wine industry is in turn facing a decline after several years of growth. Wine sales for January and February this year decreased by as much as 5 percent at Lotte, 4 percent at Hyundai and 3 percent at Shinsegae, according to each department store, last month. It is the first decline in sales since 2000, when department stores opened their own wine cellars.
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N.Koreans in South 'Bewildered and Rejected'
"To flee North Korea and arrive in the rich, wired, consuming culture of South Korea is to feel clueless, fearful and guilty," the Washington Post says of North Korean refugees here. "At the movies for the first time, they panic when the lights go down, afraid someone might kidnap them."
In an article titled "North Korean Defectors Bewildered by the South" on Monday, the daily focuses on the difficulties these refugees have in adapting to their new environment. "When they start to make progress, they feel guilty," it quotes Gwak Jong-moon, the principal of the Hangyoreh Middle-High School, an educational institution in South Korea for teenage North Korean defectors, as saying "One hundred percent of the time, when you throw a birthday party for these young people, they cry for the family they left behind."
[Refugee reception]
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How to Deal with N.Korea's Increasing Provocation
The United Nations Security Council on Monday unanimously adopted a statement condemning North Korea's rocket launch and accusing Pyongyang of violating UN Resolution 1718. The Security Council said it would punish North Korea by reviving sanctions according to Resolution 1718 passed in 2006 but not implemented while there was progress in the six-country talks. In protest, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday, "The DPRK [North Korea] will never participate in such six-party talks." North Korea added it would reprocess the spent fuel rods that were extracted from the nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, pursue the construction of a light water reactor and continue its long-range rocket launches. The communist country has responded to criticism by restarting its nuclear program, which had been frozen for the past two years under the framework of the six-country talks.
[Inversion]
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[Editorial] Problematic decisions made by both Koreas
Yesterday North Korea, through a statement from the Foreign Ministry, said it will not participate in the six party talks and is going to strengthen its “nuclear deterrent for self-defense.” It was an expected response to the United Nations (UN) Security Council’ presidential statement that denounced Pyongyang’s recent rocket launch for being in violation of Security Council Resolution 1718. North Korea had said, “there will be no six party talks” if the matter of its rocket launch was discussed at the UN Security Council. Nonetheless, its reaction is stronger than was expected.
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Super Junior Star Mistaken for Kim Jong-il's Son
A picture of Yesung of the Koran boy band Super Junior mistakenly published as showing North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's youngest son in Switzerzland's largest circulation tabloid, Blick
Yesung of the Korean boy band Super Junior was confused with the third son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il by Swiss daily Blick.
The tabloid mistakenly published a picture of Yesung in a piece on Kim Jong-un, apparently confused by the fact that Yesung's real name is Kim Jong-woon.
Blick is Switzerland's largest-circulation tabloid. Yesung appeared on the front page and headline news on page 14. The news soon reached the web board of a South Korean portal site and is quickly spreading all over the Internet.
"We confirmed the news through the Internet as well and have asked Blick for a correction," a spokesperson for Super Junior said.
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South Korean Strategic Thought toward Asia
Authors: Gilbert Rozman, In-Taek Hyun and Shin-wha Lee (eds.)
ISBN: 9781403975553
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date: 2008
Reviewed by Jörg Skorpil
South Korean Strategic Thought toward Asia is a book edited by Gilbert Rozman, In-Taek Hyun and Shin-wha Lee as compilation of papers written by the editors and academic experts from all over the world. The main purpose of the book is introduced in the first chapter as the three editors try to give a briefly overview over the difficult situation of South Korea and its international orientation. Furthermore they start to analyse the changing of alliances after the cold war ends and its consequences for the Seoul government. Moreover they discuss the turning points of strategic thinking in South Korea.
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North removes ‘symbolic’ agency
Loss of bureau for economic cooperation reflects state of relations
April 11, 2009
Visibly thinner, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il takes part in voting at the Supreme People’s Assembly of the country on Thursday in Pyongyang. [AP]
A North Korean agency dealing with inter-Korean economic cooperation appears to have been removed.
Following North Korea’s cabinet reshuffle at the first session of the Supreme People’s Assembly on Thursday, most ministers and heads of government agencies were retained during the opening session of the assembly.
But the National Economic Cooperation Federation was not on the list of ministries and agencies.
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Over W3.2 Trillion Funneled into N.Korea
South Korea handed an estimated W3.2 trillion over to North Korea in the decade since the Kim Dae-jung administration took power (US$1=W1,323).
Data from the ministries of unification and of strategy and finance on aid to the North compiled and analyzed by the Chosun Ilbo on Wednesday show food and goods like building materials from the government and private sector amounted to W2.73 trillion. In addition, the money Hyundai Group says it paid the North for the Mt. Kumgang tour program was US$475.28 million from 1999 to 2007, adding up to North Korea's entire annual budget for 2007 of $3.22 billion.
[Tribute] [Dilemma]
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50% of Rural Kids to Be Biracial by 2020
By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
It's already been a year since 26-year-old Thien moved to Gangnjin, a small farming county in South Jeolla Province, but Korean still sounds like unbearable noise to her.
With a 35-year-old jobless husband and two elderly in-laws to take care of on a suffocating budget, the Vietnamese woman is not pleased with her pursuit of the much-fantasized ``Korean Dream.''
``I don't feel like learning Korean. I'm not interested,'' Thien said through a translator, Kang Kyung-ae, who heads a support center for multicultural families in the rural town of 40,000 people.
A disappointing mix of financial hardship, language barriers and nonexistent romance has made Thien become increasingly more quiet and bitter over the past several weeks.
``I want to make a decision, whether to leave or not, before I have children,'' said the immigrant, who has a mother and two brothers at home.
Kang, who provides counseling for some 150 immigrant women, says the first one to two years is the most vulnerable period in which interracial couples either make it through or break up.
``Proper support measures need to be put in place to help the growing number of mixed marriages last,'' she said.
According to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, nearly 50 percent of the population below age 19 in South Korea's rural regions will soon become biracial due to the quickly growing number of interracial marriages in the farming and fishing community.
[Migration] [Double standards]
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Attack Helicopter Plan Shelved
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
South Korea is likely to scrap or, at least, delay a program to develop an indigenous attack helicopter following an assessment that it was nonviable economically and technically, an official source said Thursday.
Instead, the Lee Myung-bak administration wants to speed up efforts to purchase foreign attack helicopters under the AH-X program to replace the Army's aging fleet, he said.
Cheong Wa Dae has recently shown strong skepticism about the Korea Attack Helicopter (KAH) program, initiated by former President Roh Moo-hyun who focused on building a ``self-reliant'' defense posture, particularly after witnessing the indigenous T-50 Golden Eagle trainer's defeat in a $1 billion acquisition deal offered by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in February, the source said.
[Military balance] [Arms sales]
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Singer's Praise of NK's Rocket Launch Draws Stir
Singer Shin Hae-chul
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
Shin Hae-chul, 41, a singer known for his sarcastic criticism of government policies, has again put himself in the center of a dispute by praising North Korea's April 5 rocket launch.
Shin congratulated the North, saying, ``As a member of the same ethnic group, I congratulate the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on its successful launch of a rocket (I wouldn't call it an ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile)) in line with its sovereignty and appropriate international laws.'' He posted the statement on his official Web site (www.shinhaechul.com) Wednesday.
``I also hope the Republic of Korea will have nuclear and long distance missiles, as nuclear weapons are the most effective and only way to resist foreign powers,'' he added.
[Nationalism] [Satellite]
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Seoul Eases Restrictions on Gaeseong Entry
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
Despite North Korea's launch of a rocket on Sunday, the government has eased restrictions to enable more South Koreans to visit the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in the North, the Ministry of Unification said Wednesday.
The South will add more flexibility when allowing South Koreans to visit the joint complex, a ministry official said.
The measure came after President Lee Myung-bak instructed his Cabinet to deal with the entry issue more flexibly to help corporations conduct business efficiently.
The ministry had called on companies operating in the industrial park to send a ``minimum'' number of employees to maintain business since the North restricted departing to and from its territory last December.
[Kaesong]
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Full Participation in PSI may endanger Kaesong Industrial Complex
Businesses are moving south in response to mounting tensions on the peninsula
South Korean business owners in a Kaesong (Gaeseong) Industrial Complex border town expressed concerns yesterday that the government’s full participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) would lead to the shutdown of the complex. Lee Im-dong, executive of a Kaesong business owners’ association, said, “Participation in PSI is a military action, which means that North Korea could take a military action as well. Since this would affect business activities in Kaesong, many business owners here are deeply concerned about it.”
A company owner who declined to be named said, “Pyongyang would not sit idle if the government pushes to join PSI and the Kaesong Industrial Complex would be closed as a result.” Lee echoed the opinions, saying, “It is right for the government to not participate in PSI.”
[PSI] [Dilemma]
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N.Korea Winning the Missile Race
North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket on Sunday reminded many people of the serious imbalance between the two Koreas in nuclear and missile capacities. Although it is still unclear to what extent the rocket launch was a success, it is clear that North Korea has at least the capacity to shoot missiles thousands of kilometers away but South Korean missile capacity falls far short of that.
[Military balance] [Threat]
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N.Korea's Missile Technology Is a Threat to the South
The long-range rocket North Korea launched on Sunday dropped into the Pacific Ocean after flying over 3,200 km, a little under half of the 7,000-8,000 km the South Korean and U.S. authorities anticipated. The satellite launch ended in failure, but what is important is not whether it was a satellite or a missile.
Seoul and Washington must instead pay attention to North Korea's rapidly developing long-range missile technology. The Taepodong-1 missile the North fired in 1998 flew 1,620 km and the Taepodong-2 missile in 2006 broke fizzled in 40 seconds. But over a decade, North Korea has nearly doubled its missile range from 1,620 km to over 3,200 km. Should the trend continue, Pyongyang would before long possess inter-continental ballistic missiles with a range long enough to reach America.
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[Analysis] S. Korea’s zigzag policies deliver confusing signals to N. Korea
With Prsident Lee mixing hard line and moderate suggestion at the same time, even Blue House officials are unclear on PSI participation
Lee Myung-bak administration’s treatment of North Korea issues before and after North Korea’s missile launch on April 5 has lost its consistency. It has issued a mixture of both moderate and hard-line declarations from being prepared to send a special emissary to Pyongyang to planning to go ahead with full participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI).
[PSI]
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N. Korea’s satellite prompts S. Korea’s call to extend its missile range
While critics suggest increasing the missile range is an unnecessary step in restoring peninsular stability
» South Korean Foreign Minister, Yu Myung-whan, right, and Unification Minister, Hyun In-taek, report on North Korea’s rocket launching at the National Assembly, April 6.
South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-soo told the National Assembly on April 6, “It’s time for defense and diplomatic authorities to seriously review the issue of revising the South Korea-U.S. missile guidelines.” Remarks made by Han over the need to redraw the South Korea-U.S. missile guidelines are drawing attention, especially as conservative politicians and organizations have raised the topic of South Korea’s missile sovereignty intermittently in the past.
[Sovereignty]
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Sending emissaries to Pyongyang to avoid brinkmanship
Lee Jong-seok, Former Unification Minister
[Column]
North Korea launched its satellite. It says it is asserting its right to the “peaceful use of space,” but the launch is undeniably a provocative act in violation of United Nations (UN) Security Council resolution 1718. The fact the “rocket” carried a satellite and not a missile, however, will make talk at the UN Security Council about sanctions against North Korea difficult. China and Russia will oppose sanctions, while it looks like the U.S. will be mindful of Japan‘s hard-line position and will try to turn the situation around to an appropriate line in the sand.
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How Long Will N.Korea Get Away with These Antics?
Time in its 2006 year-end issue chose North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as one of 26 people of the year. Kim was fully qualified. On July 4 that year, he ruined George W. Bush's Fourth of July party by launching a long-range missile. In October, he tested a nuclear device. Few countries have challenged the United States in this way. "Kim suffers from his own form of attention-deficit disorder," Time said explaining why it chose him. His “brazen act of defiance, according to Kim's calculations, pay off”
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Lee Pushes for New UN Sanctions Against North Korea
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Daro Aso held a summit in London on Wednesday and agreed to push for new sanctions against North Korea via the United Nations if the communist country launches a long-range missile. Aso said if the North launches a missile it would be a patent violation of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718.
[SN NK Policy] [UNUS]
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N.Korea Must Show It Is Not a Hostage-Taker
North Korea announced Tuesday that it would indict two American journalists it has detained. On Monday, North Korea arrested an employee of South Korea's Hyundai Asan who was working in the Kaesong Industrial Complex and is interrogating him, while refusing officials from the South access to him.
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Lee Opposes Drastic Action Against N.Korea
President Lee Myung-bak has ruled out drastic action against North Korea over its impending rocket launch.
In an interview with the Financial Times on Monday, Lee said he opposes drastic action. "Our ultimate objective is to convince North Korea to fully give up their nuclear weapons and also usher in an era where the two Koreas will be able to coexist..." he said. "For us to go the other way, taking a harder stance, I don't [think] that would necessarily be helpful in achieving this ultimate objective."
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N. Korea Overshadows South’s Images Abroad
By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
The reputation of a country has a direct impact on almost every way it engages with the rest of the world: Its products, its politics, its people, its culture, its ability to attract tourists and investment, all are underpinned by its image.
If the country's image is weak, out of date or negative, there is no doubt that this can seriously obstruct many of the things the country wants to do in the world.
South Korea, despite the impressive and substantial progress it has made over the past decades in the economy and other various fields, is still widely unknown to a majority in Europe and the West.
This situation is particularly striking if it is compared with the international standing of Korea's neighbors, such as Japan and China, according to Rudiger Frank, a professor of East Asian economy and society and vice director of the East Asian Institute at the University of Vienna.
``Ironically, it is mainly the negative news around North Korea that directs Western public attention at the peninsula. The many positive features of South Korea remain widely unnoticed,'' Frank told The Korea Times.
[Image] [Dilemma]
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