ROK and Inter-Korean relations
January 2010
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President Lee shifts N.Korea policy tenor
At the World Economic Forum, President Lee said he is open to holding an inter-Korean summit within the year
President Lee Myung-bak said Thursday (local time) that he has been “always ready to meet North Korean National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il.” President Lee also said, “If it is a situation that can be of help in achieving peace on the Korean Peninsula and solving the North Korea nuclear problem, there is no reason we cannot meet even within the year.”
[SK NK policy]
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NIS pressures Jogyesa Temple to cancel progressive civic event
» Participants representing civic organizations formed through Internet cafes, which had played an important role in the candlelight vigil demonstrations of 2008 demanding a public weigh-in on trade, make Kimchi at the Jogye Temple located in Seoul’s Jongno district, Dec. 6, 2009 during the event entitled “The Fools: Bringing about Love with Kimchi.” The same civic organizations were permitted to perform plays voicing criticism of current Lee administration policies, however, the permission was revoked as a result of pressure from the National Intelligence Service (NIS).
Allegations have been made that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) was able to force the cancellation of an event hosted by progressive civic groups by putting pressure on the venue, Jogyesa Temple. Coming on the heels of the NIS’s defamation suit against lawyer Park Won-soon and its demand that a gallery remove artwork that lampoons President Lee Myung-bak, it seems more than likely that the NIS’s actions will spark controversy for overstepping the bounds of authority.??
[Human rights]
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Using existing agreements as the foundation for an inter-Korean summit
Editorial]
During the World Economic Forum broadcast by the BBC yesterday, President Lee Myung-bak said there is no reason he could not meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il within the year, if the talks could help bring peace to the Korean peninsula and a resolution to the North Korea nuclear issue. Analysts are saying that this comment shows a fair amount of progression from his Jan. 4 New Year’s address, in which he said that this year, both countries need to create a new turning point in inter-Korean relations.??
[SK NK policy]
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Closely monitoring the West Sea
Members of the South Korean marine corps stand ready stationed next to a Vulcan cannon on Baeknyeong Island in the West Sea, Jan. 30.
The North Korea shot approximately 20 (sic) coastal artillery shells around Yeonpyeong Island in the West Sea on the same day, which marked the third consecutive day of fire
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Military considers radar system to counter North
January 30, 2010
Fishermen catch oysters on a coast of Baengnyeong Island yesterday as if nothing particular was happening, though North Korea continued firing artillery shells near Northern Limit Line for the third day. [YONHAP]
The South Korean military is considering stationing TPQ Firefinder Radar systems permanently on Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong islands in the Yellow Sea on the west coast in a bid to closely monitor North Korea’s artillery fire, said a lawmaker who received a report on the plan yesterday.
The ministry said that military bases on Yeonpyeong heard several artillery shots yesterday from North Korea, which would constitute the third day of shelling by the North. The shelling has not crossed into the South’s territorial waters. Park said that some 20 artillery shots were heard at a distance between 7:50 a.m. and 11:50 a.m.
[Military balance]
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S. Korean Buddhist leader to visit N. Korea
SEOUL, Jan. 28 (Yonhap) -- The leader of the Jogye order, South Korea's largest Buddhist sect, will travel to North Korea this weekend to promote religious exchanges amid sharpened military tension across the border, his office said Thursday.
In the four-day trip to Pyongyang starting Saturday, Rev. Jaseung will meet with leaders of the Buddhist Federation of Korea, the North's body of the religion, to explore ways of "reinforcing Buddhist exchanges and other non-government exchanges between the Buddhist sects of the two Koreas," the Jogye Order said in a statement. [Religion]
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S.Korea says N.Korea is not about to collapse
(AFP) – 12 hours ago
SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has partially recovered his health and his country is not close to collapse despite grave economic problems, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak says.
"First of all, North Korea is not in a situation near collapse," Lee said in an interview with the BBC in the Swiss resort of Davos where he was taking part in the World Economic Forum.
His office released a transcript Friday.
[Collapse] [SK NK policy]
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N.Korean Artillery Fire 'Was Time-on-Target Drill'
In firing artillery shells on Wednesday and Thursday from coastal batteries into waters near the Northern Limit Line, the de-facto maritime border, North Korea was apparently testing its capability to hit selected targets simultaneously using a variety of artillery pieces
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Korea Trails Neighbors in Number of Think Tanks
A study about the world's think tanks shows that Korea lags behind Japan and China. The study was conducted by the U.S.' Foreign Policy Research Institute and a research team led by professor James McGann at the University of Pennsylvania. The study results were released Monday.
According to the study, Korea has 35 think tanks, far fewer than China's 428, Japan's 108 and Taiwan's 52. Korea did not make the list of 25 countries with the most research institutes. The Korea Development Institute was the only Korean institute among the leading think tanks in the world, but among Asian think tanks it ranked only 12th.
The study defined think tanks as public research, analysis and engagement institutions in which researchers with various academic backgrounds generate knowledge, technology and policy. The RAND Corporation, which was established in 1948 with the support of the U.S. Air Force, is regarded as the world's first original think tank.
[Think tank]
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NK Adopts Two-Track Strategy
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
North Korea appears to be employing a two-track strategy after it fired artillery shells into the West Sea border for the second consecutive day Thursday, while proceeding with inter-Korean talks on joint projects.
[NK SK policy]
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UAE Wants to Buy Korea's T-50 Trainer Jet
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has reopened talks to purchase South Korea's T-50 supersonic trainer aircraft, following stalled negotiations to acquire Italy's M-346 trainer jets, defense procurement officials here said Thursday.
[Arms sales]
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North Korea Fires Again Into Disputed (sic) Waters
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: January 28, 2010
SEOUL, South Korea — The North Korean military fired shells for the second straight day on Thursday into waters near(sic) the disputed western sea border with South Korea, asserting its territorial claims in the most volatile section of the inter-Korean frontier.
[Media]
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North Korea fires more artillery towards (sic) South
By Jack Kim
Reuters
Friday, January 29, 2010; 1:58 AM
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea fired artillery toward a disputed sea border with its southern neighbor for the third straight day on Friday in a move seen by the South's president as a ploy by Pyongyang to put pressure on regional powers.
[Media]
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N.Korean Artillery 'Threatens S.Korean Islands'
North Korea fired around 100 rounds from coastal artillery positions and 240 mm multiple rocket launchers into waters near its maritime border with South Korea on Wednesday. It was the first time that North Korea fired rounds toward the Northern Limit Line, the de-facto sea border separating the territorial waters, although the rounds landed on the North Korean side (sic).
[Spin]
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Why Did N.Korea Fire Artillery Shells Near the Sea Border?
North Korea has raised the ante on the Korean Peninsula by resuming firing Thursday after lobbing around 100 rounds of artillery shells the previous day from coastal batteries into waters near the Northern Limit Line, the de-facto maritime border. The shelling came only two days after Pyongyang declared a no-navigation zone straddling the disputed sea border, the first of its kind since the Korean War ended in 1953.
Experts say the North is simply trying to attract attention from the United States with a view to expediting discussion of a peace treaty, as well as seeking to boost the morale of the military and punishing South Korea for perceived threats to the regime.
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Analysts say N.Korea highlights peace negotiations through artillery fire near NLL
The measure is being viewed as a pressure tactic in response to the Lee administration’s reluctance to improve inter-Korean relations
» The chart is an illustration of the situation that arose near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) on Jan. 27. 1. From 9:05 a.m. to 10:16 a.m. North Korea’s coastal artillery launched around 30 artillery shells 2. At 9:05 a.m. South Korean marine corps fired rounds from approximately 100 vulcan automatic cannons 3. After 3:25 p.m. North Korea’s coastal artillery launched several dozen artillery shells. The orange represents the NLL.
North Korea fired dozens of coastal artillery shells at two sites in the waters north of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) near Baengnyeong Island in the West Sea during two sessions on Wednesday morning and afternoon. Immediately following North Korea’s artillery fire, South Korean marines stationed at the island fired warning shots into the air toward the incoming shells.
[NLL]
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Japanese reporter cleared of espionage charges
Thirty years after being labeled a foreign spy, Tachikawa Masaki has been cleared of all charges by the Seoul Central District Court
A Japanese reporter who was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of giving money to activist students to conduct espionage activities for North Korea in 1974 was acquitted in a retrial Wednesday.
The troubles of Tachikawa Masaki, the 65-year-old former reporter for the Japanese newspaper Nikkan Gendai, began when he gave 7,500 Won to a university student being sought by the police. Masaki came to South Korea to cover the student protest against the Yusin Constitution, and interviewed Seoul National University student Yu In-tae, who would later be sentenced to death in the Mincheong Hangnyeon Incident, in his motel room in April of 1974. When Yu told him about how difficult things had become and that he was surviving only on ramyeon, Masaki handed Yu 7,500 Won, telling him to treat himself to the Korean beef dish bulgogi. The money was labeled as North Korean operational funds during a later investigation, and Masaki was labeled a foreign spy taking orders from North Korea. He could not bear to look at his father and wife as they sat in the audience of a foreign military court.
[Human rights]
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N.Korean Shipping Ban Intrudes into S.Korean Waters
North Korea on Monday declared no-fly and no-sail zones in waters north and south of the Northern Limit Line, the de-facto maritime border, near Baeknyeong and Daecheong islands in the West Sea.
[NLL]
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News Agency: Two Koreas Exchange Artillery Fire Along Western Sea Border
South Korea's Yonhap news agency says North and South Korea have exchanged artillery fire along their disputed western sea border.
Yonhap says the North fired several rounds of land-based artillery off its west coast early Wednesday, two days after it designated so-called "no-sail" zones along the sea border. The news agency says that South Korea's military returned fire. There was no immediate confirmation from officials in Seoul.
[NLL]
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Activists Release List of Inmates at N.Korean Camp
Two South Korean rights activist groups on Tuesday released a list of 254 inmates at North Korea's notorious Yoduk prison camp.
In a press conference at the Korea Press Center in Seoul, Democracy Network Against North Korean Gulag and the Antihuman Crime Investigation Committee said that of the inmates on the list, 133 were confirmed recently and the other 121 around 2004. The groups compiled the new list based on testimony of four defectors who escaped from Yoduk camp between 2003 and 2005.
The two plan to bring charges at the International Criminal Court and the UN against the human rights abuses North Korea has committed at political concentration camps.
[Manipulation] [Evidence]
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North fires artillery near 'no-sail' zone
January 27, 2010
North Korea fired several coastal artillery shells into waters near the inter-Korean maritime border around 9:05 a.m. today. Yesterday, the North had declared those waters "no-sail" zones.
A defense official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the fired shells did not land in the waters south of the Yellow Sea border, known as the Northern Limit Line.
[NLL]
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Two Koreas Trade Fire
By REUTERS
Published: January 27, 2010
Filed at 2:31 a.m. ET
SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire near their disputed sea border on Wednesday, highlighting instability along a heavily armed frontier for the second time in three months.
North Korea warned the South that more rounds were on the way as a part of military training, and then fired off another barrage a few hours after delivering the message in a state media report.
Analysts doubt the latest clash will escalate and see it more as an attempt by Pyongyang to stress tensions on the Korean peninsula and press home its demand for a peace deal that would open the way to international aid for its ruined economy.
[Media]
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Korea to Export High-Speed Gunboat to Kazakhstan
Korean-made high-speed ships will ply the Caspian Sea when they are exported to Kazakhstan. Late last year, Kazakh Navy Commander Zhandarbek Zhanzakov officially asked Seoul to export the vessels, a government official said Sunday.
Seoul will arrange the official signing of the deal during Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's visit to Korea at the end of April. The sale will net Korea some US$100 million.
The Yun Young Ha class of high-speed gunboats is the successor to the Chamsuri class that was involved in three clashes with North Korean Navy boats. Armed with 76 mm guns and ship-to-ship missiles among other armaments, the class has not only proven itself in battle but also as a combat patrol boat.
[Arms sales] [Military balance] [Double standards]
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Lagging Response to Haiti Disaster Reveals Korea's Real Status
Countries around the world are racing against the clock to save lives in Haiti, where bodies are still buried underneath the rubble of the massive earthquake and the number of patients in need of emergency medical care continues to rise. Just 48 hours after the earthquake struck, Japan airlifted 30 containers to Haiti and set up a mobile hospital staffed by 20 doctors. The hospital has surgery rooms, intensive care units and recovery areas, with a massive generator providing electricity 24 hours a day and a self-contained water purification system. Eight other countries, including France, Norway and the U.S., have also set up hospitals equipped with state-of-the-art communications systems enabling them to keep in touch with on-site rescue teams.
As soon as President Lee Myung-bak ordered Korea's aid to Haiti to be commensurate with its national status, the government raised the amount of assistance from $1 million to $12 million
It takes more than money to elevate a country's status. Korea is the world's 13th-largest economy and the host of this year's G20 Summit, but its humanitarian efforts are still miles behind those of the world's advanced countries. Korea's brand image ranks 33rd in the world, but it ranks among the bottom of the member countries of the OECD in terms of observance of laws. According to a study by the Board of Audit and Inspection last year, 140 civic groups were discovered to have embezzled some W50 billion. Korea's response to the disaster in Haiti will show whether it truly possesses the national status, attitude and standards worthy of hosting the G20 Summit.
[Aid weapon] [Image]
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N.Korea Threatens War Over Preemptive Strike Warning
North Korea on Sunday slammed South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young over recent remarks that Seoul would launch a preemptive strike if there are clear signs of a planned nuclear attack by the North. "We regard the scenario for a preemptive strike as an open declaration of war against us," the North Korean military's General Staff said in a statement. The North will "take resolute military action and blow up major targets, including the command center" in the South, it added.
[Takeover]
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South’s warning seen as ‘declaration’
January 25, 2010
For the second time in less than two weeks, North Korea threatened to take military actions against South Korea.
The North’s General Staff of the Korean People’s Army said South Korea’s recent remarks about a “pre-emptive strike” against any indication of a nuclear attack from the North were “an open declaration of war.”
[Inversion] [Media] [Takeover]
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Korea’s first general recounts his battles
January 25, 2010
Retired Gen. Paik Sun-yup, army chief of staff during the Korean War, stands in front of the War Memorial of Korea. By Kim Tae-seong
When the first gunshots of the Korean War were fired, Col. Paik Sun-yup was the commander of the First Division. His division aide called early in the morning and simply said, “War has broken out!” At the time, Paik was receiving training in Gyeonggi and was commuting from his home. He asked Army headquarters for permission to return to his unit.
He was also in charge of cleaning the ranks of the military of communist sympathizers right before the Korean War broke out. At the time, Park Chung Hee, a major who later became the country’s president in a coup, was on the blacklist, but Paik played a key role in acquiring a pardon for him.
In 1954, Paik was the major driving force behind the current South Korea-U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty. Having learned from the best at the time, Paik served as the chief of staff twice and spent another 10 years as a diplomat before establishing the country’s first subway line as minister of transportation in the 1970s. From 1971 to 1980 he served also as the head of several domestic chemical companies.
[Korean War events] [Park Chung-hee]
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17 percent of Koreans have relatives overseas
In the age of the global village, 17 percent of Koreans have at least one close relative
living abroad, showed a recent survey.
[Globalisation] [Migration]
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The Spy Within
The court decision last month on Lee Soo-geun, whose name in South Korea was synonymous to “double spy,” and the recent case of a Jordanian double agent who murdered seven CIA officers, as well as the popularity of KBS hit spy drama Iris, generated a great deal of public interest on the veiled life of a double spy, according to Chosun Ilbo Saturday.
Lee, a former North Korean senior cadre with the state’s propaganda outlet, the Korean Central News Agency, defected to the South in 1967. Five months later, the South Korean spy agency recruited him as its own agent.
When Lee attempted to flee to a third country, the South’s spy agency nabbed him, charging him a double spy and executed him. Lee’s niece was also imprisoned for over 20 years on charges of helping the North Korean spy.
Last month, a South Korean court ordered the government to pay 6.8 billion won in damages to her for false charges.
“Intelligence officials forced Bae into making a false confession,” the court said in the ruling at that time.
[Espionage]
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North Korea Accuses South Of Declaring War
By REUTERS
Published: January 23, 2010
Filed at 10:09 p.m. ET
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea on Sunday accused the South of declaring war by warning earlier this month that it would launch a pre-emptive strike if it thought its impoverished neighbour was preparing a nuclear attack.
The angry retort from Pyongyang is the latest in what have become increasingly brittle relations between the two Koreas just as the international community tries to lure the North back to nuclear disarmament talks.
[Takeover] [Pre-emptive] [Media] [Inversion]
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NKorea threatens war after South's strike warning
By KWANG-TAE KIM
The Associated Press
Sunday, January 24, 2010; 2:01 AM
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea threatened war Sunday after South Korea warned of launching a pre-emptive strike if the North was preparing a nuclear attack - the latest salvo in a battle of rhetoric despite signs of improved cooperation across the militarized frontier.
The North's military said it would take prompt and decisive military action against any South Korean attempt to violate North Korea's dignity and sovereignty and would blow up major targets in the South, including its command center.
[Inversion]
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Seoul seeks to make own jets, choppers
The government yesterday said it had finalized plans to start exploratory development of home-grown fighter jets and light attack helicopters next year.
The decision marks South Korea's aspirations to indigenously develop such aircraft, instead of mostly relying on imports as it has done so far.
[Military balance]
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Seoul Breaks Silence on N.Korea's Human Rights Abuses
South Korea has issued its first report on human rights abuses committed in North Korea's political prison camps. The report by the National Human Rights Commission shows the inhumanity of North Korea's political prison camps, including widespread torture and public executions. Most of the people incarcerated in the North's political prison camps were caught trying to escape to South Korea or for minor political infractions, such as failing to hang up a picture of leader Kim Jong-il. None of them were arrested with a warrant or received a fair trial. The families of inmates have also been imprisoned according to a guilty-by-association system.
[Manipulation]
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N.Korea 'Wants a Summit by Hook or by Crook'
North Korea's mixed messages in recent day are geared to bullying and wheedling South Korea into a summit, according to Hwang Jang-yop, an exiled former secretary of the North Korean Workers' Party.
{NK SK policy]
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Makgeolli to Be Served at Davos Forum
Makgeolli or Korean traditional rice wine will be served at the World Economic Forum which kicks off in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 27.
The Federation of Korean Industries chose makgeolli, which has recently enjoyed explosive popularity, as the official drink for a toast at an event to promote Korea on Jan. 28 of the five-day Forum, and will bring 150 bottles of the milky-white light alcoholic beverage via the president's jet.
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KU Head Talks About President Lee’s 'Makgeolli' Leadership
By Oh Young-jin, Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporters
Name one person and one thing that are most associated with Korea University, a Seoul-based private school.
The answers would most likely include President Lee Myung-bak, a 1965 graduate of its department of business administration, and "makgeolli," the traditional light-alcoholic, milky-white, ordinary-man's drink.
In the 1960s through the 1980s, makgeolli was the drink of choice among its students taking pride in the school's strong national roots. This was often compared with its archrival, Yonsei University, whose students drank pricier beers fitting the school's more refined image.
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Minister Vows Preemptive Strike Against NK Nuclear Attack
Defense Minister Kim Tae-young
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said Wednesday the military could conduct a preemptive strike against North Korean nuclear facilities, should signs of a nuclear attack by the North emerge in the event of war.
"A significant amount of damage could be sustained if we were to respond after a nuclear attack by North Korea, so we would have to hit North Korean targets as soon as clear signs of such an attack are detected," Kim said in a defense forum in Seoul.
"There is a controversy over the legitimacy of preemptive raids, but we should be allowed to do so if North Korea were to launch a nuclear strike," he said.
The remarks came just days after North Korea threatened to break off all dialogue and negotiations with South Korea, attacking Seoul for drawing up a new contingency plan to cope with possible internal instability, such as a regime collapse, in the reclusive state.
[Takeover] [Preemptive]
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'Preemptive strikes would be needed to stop N.K. attack'
Defense Minister Kim Tae-young yesterday said Seoul would have to conduct "preemptive" strikes if it detects signs of possible nuclear aggression from North Korea.
"We will need to carry out preemptive strikes immediately as soon as we see definite signs of a nuclear attack from North Korea because there would be too much damage if we tried to first block the attack and then respond," Kim said at a forum on military reforms and inter-Korean relations.
The defense minister's remarks come as relations between the two Koreas appeared to be strained once again in the aftermath of a furious statement from the North, denouncing Seoul's reported contingency plans for dealing with "emergency situations" in North Korea.
[Takeover] [Inversion]
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Think Tank Predicts Kim Jong-il's Death in 2012
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may not survive the year 2012 and massive unrest is likely to follow his death, the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification speculates. A military coup, riots, massacres and a massive exodus could follow Kim's death, KINU said in its report.
It is rare for a state-run South Korean think tank to go into such detail in forecasting changes in North Korea in a publicly issued report since such speculation is a red rag to Pyongyang.
One security expert at a private South Korean think tank said, "Rather than being a rational projection, the report appears to have been written based on wishful thinking." "Nobody can be sure exactly how much longer Kim Jong-il will live or whether the North Korean leadership will collapse," he added.
[Takeover] [Prediction] [SK NK policy]
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Kim Jong-il 'Won't Live Another 5 Years'
The CIA has told South Korean intelligence that the chances of ailing North Korean leader Kim Jong-il surviving another five years are one in three.
A South Korean government source on Friday said the CIA last month informed intelligence authorities here of a long-distance analysis of Kim's health that suggests there is a 71 percent probability of Kim, who has been battling complications from a stroke and diabetes, dying within the next five years.
[Prediction] [Intelligence]
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Seoul Overhauls N.Korea Contingency Plan
Seoul has recently made massive revisions to a North Korea contingency plan. A government source said on Wednesday previous contingency plans made during the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations "did not envisage sending government officials to North Korea even if a sudden change occurs there for fear of provoking the North. But the latest plan envisions our administrative agencies playing active roles in stabilizing and developing the North Korean region."
The contingency plan envisages what the South Korean government would do administratively in an emergency in the North, in contrast to a joint U.S.-South Korean military operation plan that also exists.
In an emergency, "an administrative office... headed by the unification minister will be launched to bring the North under emergency rule," the source said.
The revision comes due to new realities since the last draft including North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's health problems, struggles for the succession, the North's nuclear tests, international sanctions, and the North's imploding economy.
The Unification Ministry refuses to confirm the existence of such a contingency plan. But according to a 2008 government document obtained by the Chosun Ilbo, it exists. At the time, the government projected five kinds of emergency: Kim Jong-il's death; a power struggle and coup d'état; a popular uprising; mass defections; and sanctions and an attack from outside.
If the two Koreas enter a reunification process after a sudden change in the North, a national unity committee will be established chaired by the South Korean president. The ministry and the National Intelligence Service have made revisions to the plan every year.
[Takeover]
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No Talk of Battle at Inter-Korean Meeting
South and North Korean officials met in a perfectly civil atmosphere Tuesday for the first time since the North's National Defense Commission threatened a "sacred retaliatory battle" against South Korea. They met at the joint Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex to review a fact-finding trip to industrial parks overseas.
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[Editorial] Review of N.Korea policy needed amid uncertain inter-Korean relations
News of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s observation of joint training by the North Korean army, navy and air force appeared in the North Korean media yesterday, the first time this has happened since Kim took over command of the military in the early 1990s. This was a hardline move coming on the heals of a National Defense Commission (NDC) hardline statement on Jan. 15 that promised a holy war of retribution against South Korea.
[Takeover]
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SKorean Minister: Hit North First if Threatened
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 20, 2010
Filed at 1:21 a.m. ET
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea's defense chief called Wednesday for a pre-emptive strike on North Korea if there is a clear indication the country is preparing a nuclear attack.
The comments, made as the two sides held a second day of talks on further developing their joint industrial complex in the North, were likely to draw an angry reaction from Pyongyang, which recently issued its own threat to break off dialogue with Seoul and attack.
South Korea should ''immediately launch a strike'' on the North if there is a clear intention of a pending nuclear attack, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said at a seminar in Seoul.
Kim made similar remarks in 2008 when he was chairman of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, prompting North Korea to threaten to destroy the South.
[Takeover] [Inversion]
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Kimchi is going global
By Jane Black
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
I made my first batch of kimchi the first week of October. Since then, there has been only a single 13-day period when I haven't had some in the fridge. Thirteen very long days.
What started out as a neat addition to a dinner party menu -- "Let's try something from the new Momofuku cookbook" -- turned into an all-out obsession with funky, spicy Korean fermented cabbage. It was terrific with the hanger steak at dinner and maybe better with steamed rice or poached eggs after a few more days in the fridge. Soon, I began to crave it, the same way most people yearn for chocolate cake. That's when I realized that kimchi also tastes pretty darn good right out of the jar.
"It's like cabbage crack," I told my fiance as we polished off one of our early batches for a mid-morning snack. Then we both burst into hyena-like laughter. We were in trouble.
My kimchi habit will no doubt be a great relief to the government of South Korea, which has made spreading the word about the country's national dish an official policy.
[Hallyu]
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N.Korea's Mixed Messages Will No Longer Work
North Korea's Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Monday saying that if the North goes back to the six-party nuclear talks while UN sanctions remain in place, the talks "would not be equal." North Korea pledged it will "never allow this to happen." Last Monday, the ministry formally proposed talks to replace the armistice that ended the Korean War with a peace treaty this year, which marks the 60th anniversary of the war.
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N.Korean media reports on Kim Jong-il’s observation of military training session
Observers say the publicized observation is a part of a continuing hardline message, leaving the future of Mt. Kumgang and Kaesong tourism projects uncertain
Following a statement by a North Korean National Defense Commission (NDC) spokesman Jan. 15 threatening retaliatory holy war and the exclusion of the South Korean government from all dialogue and negotiations due to a South Korean news report of a contingency plan in the event of sudden changes in North Korea, the North Korean media rather extraordinarily released news Sunday of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s observation of a joint army, navy and air force training session.
[Takeover] [Media]
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Experts await further developments following North Korean NDC hardline statement
According to experts, Lee administration should issue affirmative response to prevent further deterioration in inter-Korean relations
In the wake of the statement by a spokesman for the North Korean National Defense Commission (NDC) threatening “retaliation through a holy war” against South Korea and “the exclusion of South Korean authorities from all dialogue and discussions” in response to reports by a South Korean media outlet on contingency plans in the event of a sudden change in North Korea, a wide range of interpretations have been prompted by the unusual announcement of a visit Sunday by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to combined training exercises by North Korea’s army, navy and air force. The divergent analyses have arisen because of the difficulty in discerning the North Korean leadership’s strategic concept, including Kim, represented in the country’s string of hardline messages, or the effect this will have on inter-Korean relations and the future political situation on the Korean Peninsula. Government authorities and experts, unable to formulate confident predictions of North Korea’s future course of action, are recommending a “wait-and-see” approach.
[Takeover]
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Improved Inter-Korean Relations Called for
Pyongyang, January 18 (KCNA) -- The inter-Korean relations still remain deteriorated despite the positive efforts made by the DPRK to achieve national reconciliation and unity and the country's reunification last year, guided by the spirit of the historic June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration. This is attributable to the south Korean authorities' persistent anti-reunification moves to escalate confrontation with compatriots.
Rodong Sinmun Monday observes this in a signed article.
[NK SK policy] [Overtures]
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'NK Threat May Strain Inter-Korean Talks Today'
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The North Korea-proposed talks over the operation of the joint industrial complex in Gaeseong are scheduled for today but prospects of the meeting being held are cloudy due to Pyongyang's threat issued Friday to suspend all inter-Korean dialogue.
Professor Yang Moo-jin said the warning would likely put a strain on inter-Korean talks.
"The statement issued by the North's National Defense Commission does not appear to be mere intimidation," Yang, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told The Korea Times.
"If the South Korean authorities offer no explanation regarding the reported action plan, the inter-Korean cooperation as well as general relations between the two sides will likely be strained for the time being."
[Takeover] [Inversion]
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2 Koreas hold talks despite North's threats (sic)
By KWANG-TAE KIM
The Associated Press
Tuesday, January 19, 2010; 1:48 AM
SEOUL, South Korea -- North and South Korea opened talks Tuesday on further developing their joint industrial complex in the North despite Pyongyang's recent threat to break off all dialogue and negotiations, an official said.
Following reports of a South Korean contingency plan to handle any unrest in the isolated North, Pyongyang threatened last week to launch a "sacred nationwide retaliatory battle" and vowed to cease all communication with the South.
[Takeover] [Inversions]
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Kim Jong-il Attends Massive Military Exercise
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il recently watched an exercise by the North Korean Army, Navy and Air Force, the [North] Korean Central Broadcasting Station reported on Sunday.
The drill is seen as a show of force after the National Defense Commission, the top leadership body chaired by Kim, last week complained about a South Korean contingency plan for any drastic change in the North, which is being updated, and called for "a sacred retaliatory battle to blow up Cheong Wa Dae."
It was the first time the North Korean media have reported on Kim watching a joint armed forces drill or even mentioned an exercise by the armed forces on this scale.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il observes a military exercise in this undated photo released Sunday by the [North] Korean Central TV. /[North] Korean Central TV-Yonhap
Some fear that this goes beyond mere saber-rattling. "We aren't ruling out that the North will follow up" with another round of limited provocations, a senior South Korean government official said.
[Takeover] [Media] [Inversion]
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Seoul Still Ill-Equipped to Deal with N.Korean Rights Abuses
UN Special Rapporteur on North Korean Human Rights Vitit Muntarbhorn in an interview Friday pointed out that the Roh Moo-hyun administration used the term "missing people" instead of "abduction victims" in referring to South Koreans who were kidnapped in the North's bizarre campaign of the 1970s and 80s. That is therefore the term used in UN reports, which causes the issue to be given lower priority.
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Activist Presents Headache for N.Korea
Robert Park An evangelical activist who walked across the frozen Duman (or Tumen) river into North Korea on Christmas Eve to demand improvement of human rights got as far as Bangwon-ni village in Hoeryong, North Hamgyong Province, where he was arrested by North Korean boarder guards.
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Unification Ministry Revives Textbook on N.Korea
The Education Center for Unification under the Unification Ministry has revived a textbook covering North Korea's South Korea strategy 15 years after it was dropped from the center's syllabus.
It had been a key subject taught since the Unification Research Institute, the center's predecessor, was inaugurated in 1972, but vanished from public lectures under the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations, who were reluctant to antagonize the North due to their engagement policy.
[SK NK policy]
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South taking ‘low key’ stance on North threat
North Korea’s approach to the South is defined by mind-boggling shifts.
January 18, 2010
Barely two weeks into the new year, North Korea has so far shown it hasn’t changed since last year.
Over the first 15 days of 2010, North Korea has managed to do the following: show willingness to engage South Korea; call for a peace treaty to replace the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953; propose talks on resuming suspended tour programs; set up a follow-up meeting tomorrow after joint trips to overseas industrial sites last month; and most recently, on Friday, threaten a retaliatory war on South Korea.
[Media] [Inversion] [Takeover]
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Kim Jong Il Inspects Combined Maneuvers of KPA
Pyongyang, January 17 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il watched combined maneuvers of the KPA three services.
After receiving salute on the spot, Kim Jong Il mounted the observation platform where he was briefed on the plan of the maneuvers before watching them.
With the order for the start of the maneuvers, flying corps, warships and ground artillery pieces of various kinds showered merciless barrage at the "enemy group" in close coordination, thus shattering the "enemy camp" to pieces and turning it into a sea of flame.
The maneuvers fully showed the resolute determination and merciless striking power of the servicepersons of the People's Army replete with the fighting spirit of annihilating the enemy to defeat aggressors who dare provoke even an inch of the inviolable territory of the country at a single stroke and reliably defend the socialist country with matchless military capabilities they have built up.
[Takeover]
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Smoking etiquette
Smoking etiquette: Philip Morris Korea Managing Director Roman Militsyn, center, poses with Kwon Eun-ye, left, a student of Dongyang Technical College, and Army Engineer School student Heo Ji-hun at an event to recognize the winners of a contest to come up with ideas to improve the promotion of smoking etiquette held at Philip Morris Korea’s head office in downtown Seoul, Friday. Kwon and Heo won the top prizes.
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N.Korea issues strong response to reported S.Korean contingency plan
Experts say the statement is indicative of a struggle between the conciliatory tone of the united front line and military hardline position, which is expected to prevail
North Korea’s National Defense Commission (NDC) issued a statement Friday saying, “If South Korea refuses to issue a sincere apology for creating a contingency plan for countermeasures to prepare for a ‘sudden change’ in North Korea, it will be excluded from all negotiations for improving inter-Korean relations and restoring peace to the Korean peninsula.”
In a statement issued by the commission’s spokesman on the same day, they stated, “The National Defense Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is issuing this statement through its entrusted supreme power.”
[Takeover]
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North reacts angrily to South contingency plan
January 16, 2010
North Korea yesterday threatened a retaliatory attack on South Korea and excluded Seoul from all future talks over peace and security of the Korean Peninsula, in a highly charged response to a report of the South Korean government’s completion of a contingency plan on North Korea.
In a statement by the National Defense Commission, the North called the contingency plan “an anti-North attempt by the South Korean government to single-handedly overturn our socialist system.”
[Takeover]
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DPRK Warns S. Korean Authorities of Anti-DPRK Operation
Pyongyang, January 15 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK National Defence Commission issued a statement on January 15 which reads in full:
It was reported by foreign press that the south Korean authorities recently worked out what they called "Emergency Ruling Plan-Puhung" to cope with a sort of "emergency" in the DPRK.
The south Korean newspaper Munhwa Ilbo on January 13 did not bother to open to media the plan reportedly worked out by tricksters of the south Korean "Ministry of Unification" handling issues of the inter-Korean relations and the "National Intelligence Service" in top secrecy from the autumn last year to its end.
Once the reckless provocative plan of the south Korean authorities to bring down the supreme headquarters of our revolution and the dignified socialist system is completed and put into practice, there will start a sacred nationwide retaliatory battle to blow up the stronghold of the south Korean authorities including "Chongwadae" that have led the drafting of the plan and backed it.
This battle will be a nationwide and all-out just struggle with all the fellow countrymen in the north and the south and abroad including our revolutionary armed forces.
The south Korean authorities should bear in mind that they will be thoroughly excluded from all the forthcoming dialogues and negotiations to improve the inter-Korean relations and ensure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula unless they make sincere apology for the crimes committed against the DPRK before the whole nation
[Takeover]
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NK Threatens to Wage Holy War on South
By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter
North Korea threatened Friday to wage a "holy war" against South Korea and exclude it from future negotiations, citing recent reports out of Seoul that its southern rival has prepared a contingency plan to address the potential collapse of the regime.
"We will blow away the den of South Korean authorities, including Cheong Wa Dae, in a pan-national holy war of retribution," said a statement issued by Pyongyang's National Defense Commission, which is headed by the North Korean leader
[Takeover] [Media] [Inversion]
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North's Dual-Track Approach Puzzles South
By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter
After decades of blackmail and derogatory statements from North Korea, the South Korean government is puzzled over Pyongyang's perceived reconciliatory and soft approach.
It began with the North's new year address that appeared in the Rodong Newspaper.
[Overtures] [Media]
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North Korea: Anger Over a Contingency Plan
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: January 15, 2010
North Korea denounced South Korea’s reported contingency plan for the potential collapse of the North’s government, warning Friday that it would cut off all dialogue with the South and exclude it from all negotiations concerning the security of the Korean Peninsula. South Korean newspapers reported this week that the South recently revised the contingency plan in the belief that uncertain health of the North’s leader, Kim Jong-il, and the North’s deepening economic woes have made the country more unstable. The government has not confirmed the reports.
[Takeover] [Media]
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President Lee Myung-bak’s New Year address
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N.K. accepts corn aid, blasts contingency plan
North Korea yesterday sent mixed messages threatening to shun South Korea in any official dialogue while accepting Seoul's offer of corn aid.
The National Defense Commission, led by leader Kim Jong-il, threatened "a holy war of revenge" over an alleged contingency plan by Seoul for possible sudden changes in the North such as a regime collapse or a massive outflow of refugees.
Referring to South Korean news reports earlier this week that Seoul updated such an action plan, the NDC called it "a scheme aimed at overthrowing our socialist system."
[Takeover] [SK NK relations] [Spin] [Aid weapon]
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Payment for N.Korea Tours Proves Headache for Gov't
There are differences in opinion in the government over whether package tours to the Mt. Kumgang resort in North Korea, a cash cow Pyongyang wants to revive, fall under UN sanctions. Asked about these concerns on Thursday, one ranking official said, "The matter is relevant to UN Security Council resolution 1874." The resolution, adopted after North Korea's nuclear and missile tests this spring, aims at preventing Pyongyang from obtaining cash for developing weapons of mass destruction.
[Sanctions]
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Prepare for talks
Seoul has voiced strong opposition to a call by North Korea for talks on a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War, one day after the communist state made the official proposal.
[Overtures] [Sequencing] [SK NK policy]
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Daredevil Activist Deserves More Attention
Freedom and Life for All North Koreans, a coalition of some 100 rights activist groups, gathered on Tuesday in Imjingak Park close to the inter-Korean border and released a couple of helium balloons across the demilitarized zone carrying propaganda leaflets as well as cookies for children. The balloons were named after Robert Park, an evangelical activist who crossed the frozen border river into North Korea on Christmas Eve in a daredevil mission to draw attention to human rights abuses there.
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Any Inter-Korean Summit Needs to Bring Solid Results Kang In-sun
Expectations are rising of an inter-Korean summit this year. They receded in the wake of Labor Minister Yim Tae-hee's meeting with Kim Yang-gon, the director of North Korea's United Front Department, in Singapore in October last year, but now they are on the rise again. To begin with, Pyongyang's attitude is positive. In a New Year's message, the North said its will to improve inter-Korean relations is "firm and consistent." The Choson Shinbo, a North Korean mouthpiece in Japan, said the message is a precursor to "radical changes" this year.
The North often raised the need of an inter-Korean summit last year, too, and Seoul also seems to be considering it seriously.
[Overtures]
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N.Korea Demands Action Over Propaganda Leaflets
North Korea on Wednesday called on the South to punish activists who masterminded the floating of propaganda leaflets across the border.
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N.Korea’s Foreign Ministry officially proposes talks for a peace treaty
Experts say it is likely though still unclear whether South Korea will be included in the talks, which may go hand-in-hand with North Korea’s return to six-party talks
North Korea has officially proposed talks for a peace treaty. On Monday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issuing a statement saying, “We are officially proposing talks for turning the Korean War truce into peace treaty on the 60th anniversary of Korean War.”
[Overtures] [Peace treaty]
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Military keeping close tabs on N.K. movement
Defense Minister Kim Tae-young yesterday said the military was closely watching for possible aggression from North Korea in the wake of a series of reconciliatory gestures from the communist regime (sic).
"The military is closely monitoring the situation, more so than before," Kim said in a press conference.
[Role of SK military] [Peace treaty]
- [EDITORIAL] Peace talks bid
North Korea's Foreign Ministry "cordially proposed" that the parties in the Korean War conclude a peace treaty this year, which marks the 60th year since the start of the 1950-53 conflict. It was the second time since the beginning of 2010 that the North has held out an olive branch to former war adversaries South Korea and the United States.
[Peace treaty] [Overtures]
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N.Korea Calls for Peace Talks
North Korea on Monday called for peace talks with countries involved in the armistice. Having declared six-party denuclearization talks dead and buried following UN sanctions after a missile test in April, it is now proposing the peace talks as a precondition to its return to the stalled dialogue.
"If confidence is to be built between [North] Korea and the U.S., it is essential first to conclude a peace treaty terminating the state of war, a root cause of the hostile relations," the regime's Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying by the official [North] Korean Central News Agency.
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No Peace Treaty Before Nuclear Disarmament for N.Korea
North Korea in a Foreign Ministry statement on Monday urged the countries involved in the 1953 armistice to promptly launch talks over a peace treaty. The regime's ministry said it had been "commissioned" to make the proposal, presumably by the leader Kim Jong-il.
Some South Korean government officials said it is likely that North Korea proposed peace talks to justify its return to the six-party talks. But peace talks can be held as part of the nuclear dialogue, since the six-party talks have already agreed to create a forum to talk about the issue. More importantly, therefore, North Korea must first return to the six-party talks to find a solution to the nuclear impasse.
[Sequencing] [Peace treaty]
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North says that peace treaty possible at 6-party negotiations
January 12, 2010
North Korea yesterday proposed talks on reaching a peace treaty to replace the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953 and added the issue could also be discussed at the six-party talks.
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North Korea Proposes Talks Over Peace Treaty
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
North Korea proposed talks on a peace treaty Monday, saying the issue could be discussed at a meeting of armistice signatories or in the six-party talks.
In a statement, a spokesman of the North's Foreign Ministry indicated that it could rejoin the six-party denuclearization talks to discuss the issue.
The South Korean government remained skeptical. An official said on condition of anonymity that the administration is reviewing the proposal and analyzing Pyongyang's real intention (sic).
[Overtures] [Peace treaty]
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Defectors feel frustrated at plight of life in Seoul
January 11, 2010
Ji-eun, a North Korean defector, stands alone on a playground near her house in the evening. By Kim Tae-seong
When hungry, Ji-eun, a North Korean defector, used to have to chew dried cornstalk. One time she was beaten by a farm owner after she was caught stealing and eating his cabbage roots, when she was back to North Hamgyong Province in North Korea. Ji-eun’s father died when she was little and the family had a hard time carving out a living in the poverty stricken nation.
[Refugee reception]
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S.Korean Man 'Defected to N.Korea'
A South Korean man has defected to the North, Chinese sources said Saturday.
The man, believed to be in his 30s or 40s, crossed the North Korean border by walking over the frozen Duman (or Tumen) River after getting out of a taxi about 2 km from China's Tumen city in the Korean autonomous prefecture of Yanbian.
He reportedly grabbed the taxi a day before at Yanji International Airport and, despite the taxi driver's warning that he could get shot, he stepped into North Korean territory.
Sources say he spoke to about a dozen North Korean guards and walked away with them.
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Korea Slides 10 Notches in Quality of Life Survey
Korea ranked 42nd among 194 countries in terms of quality of life this year in rankings by U.S. magazine International Living. That is a slide of 10 notches from 32nd last year.
France topped the list in the magazine's annual quality of life index for 2010, followed by Australia, Switzerland, Germany, and New Zealand. Somalia ranked lowest at 194th, with Yemen and Sudan tied for 192nd.
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N.Korean Tank Unit Stages Mock Invasion
Footage of a recent military drill by a North Korean army tank unit suggests the communist regime may be practicing for an invasion of the South.
Officials in Seoul said the video clips released Tuesday by the North's state-run Korean Central Television show the 105 Tank Division conducting a military drill apparently staged in mock South Korean cities and highways.
The 105 Tank Division was the first unit to invade the South during the Korean War.[media] [Military balance]
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Expert views on North Korea issues are bright
Survey of scholars and former high-level officials forecast an inter-Korean summit within the year
The 2010 outlook on the Korean Peninsula is a somewhat bright one. As we recall, last year started off with tensions high and a possibility of a military clash between North Korea and South Korea. We are astonished at how much has since changed.
Most of the survey’s respondents pointed out the key factor in the realization of a third inter-Korean summit is the South Korean government’s intentions. The experts and former high-level officials anticipate that if the Lee Myung-bak administration stops adhering to an insistence on denuclearization as a prerequisite for dialogue, a third inter-Korean summit could take place.
[SK NK policy]
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Is an Inter-Korean Summit in the Offing?
An inter-Korean summit could be held in the first half of this year, said a key official in the ruling camp on Monday, the same day President Lee Myung-bak called for "a new turning point between the South and the North" in his New Year's address.
[SK NK relations]
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How to Engage N.Korea in Dialogue
In his New Year's address on Monday, President Lee Myung-bak is unveiling a plan to improve relations with North Korea. Unification Minister Hyun In-taek in a policy briefing to the president last Thursday said, "All kinds of dialogue are possible, including those involving the highest officials." At the start of the New Year, there are signs of a potential thaw in inter-Korean relations, which had been virtually frozen during the first two years of the Lee administration. There is even talk of an inter-Korean summit.
[SK NK policy]
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Korean Reunification 'Will Cost $5 Trillion'
Estimates about the cost of Korean reunification vary wildly. The government and South Korean and foreign think tanks have so far estimated that it would cost between US$5 million and $1.5 trillion to recover the devastated economy of North Korea (US$1=W1,155). But others say it will cost much more.
In the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, Peter Beck, a research fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center of Stanford University, speculated, "I estimate that raising Northern incomes to 80 percent of Southern levels -- which would likely be a political necessity -- would cost anywhere from $2 trillion to $5 trillion, spread out over 30 years." This would be between $40,000 and $100,000 per capita if distributed solely among South Koreans.
[Unification] [Takeover]
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Korea's Berlin Wall
Paul L. Liem | December 30, 2009
(Originally published December 2, 2009 in the KoreAm Journal)
As we watched the Berlin Wall tumble down, "we wept from the heartbreak of sorrow mixed with joy," recalls Jungran Shin, a financial advisor in Los Angeles. Separated from relatives in North Korea, Shin felt a longing to "break down into pieces...the barbed-wire fences that block the 38th parallel." Rev. Syngman Rhee, co-chair of the National Committee for Peace in Korea, says the fall of the Berlin Wall ignited among Koreans new hope for peace and reconciliation, "even though we fully realized that the German situation was quite different from the Korean situation."
To those of the Korean diaspora, Mrs. Shin urges more vocal participation in demanding that the United States changes the Korean War armistice into a peace treaty, normalizes relations, and resolves the nuclear issue with North Korea.
[Unification] [US NK policy]
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'Pyongyang Wants Inter-Korean Summit'
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
North Korea softened its criticism toward South Korea in its New Year's message and instead, expressed hope for improved inter-Korean relations.
The Ministry of Unification responded positively to the move, saying that the secretive state underlined denuclearization through dialogue and negotiations
[Overtures]
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K2 Tank Production Suffers Budget Cut
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The planned production of homegrown K2 Black Panther main battle tanks this year has suffered a major setback due to a reduction of the related budget.
Unveiled in 2007, the K2 is a major defense product for domestic needs and overseas sales. The K2 technology has already been exported to Turkey.
The K2 carries a three-person crew supported by an auto-loading system and a locally-developed 120-millimeter/55-caliber stabilized smoothbore gun. The fully-digitalized vehicle has an electric gun/turret driving system, automatic sensor input and power monitoring and control system.
Its 1,500-horsepower engine can power the tank to 70 kilometers per hour on paved roads and 50 kilometers off-road. It can cross rivers as deep as 4.1 meters, a considerable improvement over the K1 and K1A1, and fire as soon as it resurfaces.
The budgetary plans endorsed by the legislature include 14.2 billion won to introduce a presidential jet; 10 billion won to build Type 214 submarines; 9.1 billion won to build a KDX-III Aegis destroyer; and 5 billion to construct a naval base on Jeju Island.
[Military balance] [Arms sales]
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Soju Is Favorite Drink for Drowning Sorrows
Koreans drink different kinds of alcohol according to how they feel at the moment, a survey suggests.
In the survey by the Korea Alcohol Research Center late last year of 2,200 people aged 19 to 59, some 85.2 percent of respondents said they drink soju when they are distressed by personal problems, and 63.5 percent said they prefer beer when they are tired. Whiskey was the preferred drink for business occasions among 63.5 percent of respondents, and 70.8 percent chose wine as the best drink for creating a friendly or romantic mood.
[Wine]
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Does South Korea need to be sold?
Friday January 1st 2010
Le Monde's Philippe Pons looks at the former 'hermit kingdom' that's now making a big splash in the Asian cultural world
Friday January 1st 2010
The idea of “a national brand image” for South Korea may come as a surprise, juxtaposing the word “nation” with such a brash marketing concept. So is there really a problem or is this just another form of national navel-gazing devised by President Lee Myung-bak, who wants to run his country like a business?
“Our country suffers from an image deficit abroad,” says the minister of culture, Yu In-chon, so his government has decided to
spend millions of dollars over the next five years promoting South Korea’s identity, overshadowed as it is by its giant neighbours, China and Japan.
[Hallyu] [Image]
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President Lee’s year-end address to ministries suggests little change in North Korea policy
As Lee’s second half of his term is set to begin, analysts say the Unification Ministry gives an indication that minimal funding will be disbursed
On Thursday, President Lee Myung-bak spoke on foreign affairs, national security and unification and said it is insufficient for these areas to engage the new international environment with the “ideas of the past” and called for a change in South Korea’s paradigm of thinking.
[SK NK policy]
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