ROK and Inter-Korean relations
June 2011
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N.Korea Bristles at S.Korean 'Slander' of Regime
North Korea said Wednesday considers "as a new declaration of war" slogans by South Korean frontline units criticizing North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and his son and heir Jong-un. In a statement, the North Korean army said, "Our military retaliation will continue mercilessly until all types of slander of our government and military by the group of traitors are eradicated."
The "group of traitors" is jargon for the Lee Myung-bak administration.
A newspaper here recently reported that some military units on the frontline carried out training with slogans such as "Let's destroy the North Korean army and bring down the Kims."
[Buildup]
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Lee Myung Bak Group's Hideous Provocation to Be Shattered-- KPA Supreme Command
Pyongyang, June 29 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army released the following statement on Wednesday:
These days the Lee Myung Bak group's anti-DPRK confrontation racket is going beyond such danger line that it cannot be left to take its own course.
Typical of this was that the Third Infantry Division of the puppet Fifth Army Corps in the central sector of the front and other units in the forefront areas again seriously hurt the dignity of the leadership of the DPRK and deliberately spoke ill of its system and army.
They displayed slogans and placards at lots of barracks and posts of the puppet army, military facilities and guideboards and walls on nearby roads.
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'Kim Jong-il dictator who made people starve to death'
06-30-2011 13:27
The North Korean security authorities appear embarrassed as graffiti slandering North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has been found in the capital, Pyongyang, Daily NK reported Wednesday.
Quoting a source in Pyongyang who commutes to the Chinese border city of Dandong, Daily NK said a door at the entrance of the house where the late Kim Il-sung, founder of North Korea, was born was stolen recently. Moreover, the anti-Kim Jong-il graffiti was found on the wall of the Pyongyang College of Railways on June 24, the newspaper said.
[Buildup]
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NK discharges water from border dam: officials
North Korea began discharging water from a dam near the border earlier this week without notifying South Korea, officials here said Wednesday.
Officials here in this Gyeonggi Province town, north of Seoul, said the North earlier this week opened the Hwanggang Dam near the Imjin River, which flows out to South Korea's west coast, and has kept it open since.
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Kim Jong-il and His Henchman Must Stand Trial for Genocide
Four former Khmer Rouge leaders went on trial in Cambodia on Monday on charges of genocide for their involvement in the deaths of almost a quarter of the country's 9 million population in the so-called Killing Fields between 1975 and 1979.
Nuon Chea, known as "Brother No. 2" and the chief ideologue of the Khmer Rouge, former head of state Khieu Samphan, as well as Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot's brother-in-law and foreign minister leng Sari and his wife leng Thirith, the ex-minister for social affairs were put before a UN-backed court, accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and murder.
[Buildup]
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3 More N.Korea Box Mines Found Washed Ashore
The military said Tuesday it has found three wooden box mines that drifted ashore from North Korea in recent storms.
Two were discovered off the west coast near Incheon and the other on the east coast off Gangwon Province.
A box mine is slightly bigger than an adult's hand and usually contains around 200 g of explosives and can easily be detonated under pressure or if the lid is removed. One such mine killed a South Korean last year.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff have warned people to refrain from touching suspicious wooden or plastic containers and to contact the police or military if they find something suspicious.
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South Korea braced for North Korean 'provocation' as tension mounts
South Korean military preparing new rules of engagement for troops as Seoul threatens tough response to any attack
Julian Borger in Panmunjom, Korean Demilitarised Zone guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 28 June 2011 19.52 BST Article history
South Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak, at the command HQ of the joint chiefs of staff in Seoul. Photograph: EPA
Around the edge of the baseball field at Camp Bonifas, South Korean marines under the United Nations Command are busy building four bomb shelters.
The American and Korean troops at the camp are just 400 yards from the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that has divided North from South Korea since the 1953 armistice. It has always been a tense place, ringed by razor wire and minefields, but now there is a particular urgency to the military spadework.
North Korea has carried out two major military attacks on the South in the past 15 months, and is widely believed in Seoul to be planning a third, in an attempt to extract diplomatic and economic concessions.
[Buildup] [Inversion] [Media]
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DPRK Government Spokesman Warns Lee Myung Bak Group of Stern Punishment
Pyongyang, June 28 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Government issued the following statement on June 28:
It has been recently disclosed again by media that "Paekgol unit" of the puppet forces in Cholwon County, south Korean Kangwon Province and other forefront units are setting up slogans heaping malignant slanders and calumnies at the army, system and dignity of the DPRK and inciting extreme hostility toward it.
The slogans were so virulent that they stunned the public at home and abroad.
The army and people of the DPRK are now expressing irrepressible resentment and hatred for the Lee Myung Bak group which committed thrice-cursed acts of treachery this time in the wake of the provocative case in which it set up and fired at "targets" hurting the system and dignity of the DPRK. This has lashed them into towering hatred and hardened their resolution to take revenge upon it.
The group of traitors is steeped in hostility and confrontation hysteria aimed at hurting the system and dignity of the DPRK.
Shortly ago, traitor Lee Myung Bak invited gentries of the Defense Commission of the puppet National Assembly to Chongwadae and vociferated about "towering grudge" against the Yonphyong Island case and "a fit of rage at it". This goes to clearly prove how mad they have gone with confrontation.
The recent hideous provocation was not an individual act perpetrated by a few hooligans of the puppet military but its main culprits were traitor Lee and puppet military bosses.
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Seoul to Rig Up Special Planes to Infiltrate N.Korea
The South Korean military plans to fit out aircraft that will allow special forces to infiltrate North Korea's nuclear and missile bases at night or in bad weather. Currently South Korea depends on the U.S. military for support of such aircraft.
"We need to improve our special forces' capabilities to infiltrate North Korean military facilities in preparation for asymmetric threats from the North like nuclear or missile attacks or for a sudden change there," a military source said Monday. "So we decided to retrofit four of the Air Force's C-130 transport planes into aircraft similar to MC-130s," the U.S.' special operations aircraft.
MC-130 That involves installing equipment like multifunction radar, infrared front perimeter surveillance radar and satellite communications equipment.
The Air Force has 12 C-130s and relies on the U.S. military for support with MC-130s or MH-47 or MH-60 helicopters.
[Buildup] [Military balance] [US military]
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Gov't Softens Stance on Apology from N.Korea
South Korea is after all ready to hold unconditional inter-Korean nuclear talks without insisting on an apology from North Korea for last year's attacks on the Navy corvette Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island last year.
The U-turn was announced by a senior South Korean government official on Monday after he returned from a visit to the U.S. He added there will be "another opportunity" to discuss the North's attacks on the Cheonan and Yeonpyeong.
The announcement came right after Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan discussed Seoul's North Korea policy with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington. Seoul's insistence on an apology was increasingly seen in both China and the U.S. as the main obstacle to further talks with North Korea.
Amid the North's abrupt revelation of secret inter-Korean contacts last month, the South apparently feared that insisting on an apology could scupper a three-stage plan whereby inter-Korean dialogue would precede talks between Washington and Pyongyang talks and finally a resumption of the six-party nuclear talks.
Last Saturday, the North urged Seoul to "stop extremely provocative actions" and "withdraw a precondition" if it is "really interested in inter-Korean dialogue." The "precondition" apparently referred to the apology.
The South Korean government official said the matter will not be swept under the carpet. "For the time being, we're willing to separate the apology demand from nuclear talks," he said. "But the matter is still on the table and the two Koreas must address it together."
[Client] [Capture] [SK NK policy]
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2 Films About N.Korea's Grim Reality on Release in Seoul
Two films about North Korea that feel almost surreal in their portrayal of the miserable reality there are being shown in South Korea. One is a documentary titled "Kimjongilia" by American director N.C. Heikin, which deals with the violation of human rights by the Stalinist state based on testimonies of 12 defectors, including the Chosun Ilbo journalist Kang Chol-hwan, who was at one time held at the notorious Yodok concentration camp.
[Propaganda]
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Lee Myung Bak's Remark Inciting Confrontation of Systems Flailed
Pyongyang, June 24 (KCNA) -- Traitor Lee Myung Bak said reunification can come at midnight like a burglar. A spokesman for the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea in a statement Friday branded it as an unpardonable provocation to the system and dignity of the DPRK, an insult to the nation's desire for reunification and a declaration of confrontation between systems.
The statement said:
Lee only seeks confrontation with his fellow countrymen and the collapse of the system in the DPRK.
The south Korean puppet group's "north policy" and confrontation moves are all prompted by its extreme bitterness toward the fellow countrymen and the foolish story of the "collapse of the north."
[Lee Myung-bak] [Collapse]
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Korean wave is shaking up North Korea
Hallyu, or Korean wave, has been sweeping the world from Southeast Asia to Europe and further to South America. This is no exception in North Korea. The wave has been confirmed to have been creeping into the country believed to be impenetrable.
“South Korean thrillers, Iris and Athena are very popular there,” said Free North Korea Radio.
“The hair style of actress Song Hye-gyo from the soap opera, All In, is in vogue in Pyongyang, but the North Korean authorities are reinforcing its regulations,” said Daily NK.
[Hallyu]
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Why 'Arirang' Isn't Listed Among Korea's Cultural Assets
The government has listed music performed during royal ancestral rites, pansori or traditional Korean narrative song, "Goseong Ogwangdae," a mask dance drama from Goseong, South Gyeongsang Province, and royal cuisine as important intangible cultural assets of Korea. But the country failed to list the folk song "Arirang," widely considered Korea's unofficial national anthem, and the world-famous side dish kimchi.
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Ex-JCS head releases memoir on Cheonan
Lee Sang-eui, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), who left the military to take responsibility for sinking of frigate Cheonan.
By Lee Tae-hoon
A former top military commander who stepped down to take responsibility for the mishandling of North Korea’s deadly attack on a South Korean warship March last year has published a memoir detailing his struggles over the tragic incident.
Lee Sang-eui, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), left the military last June in disgrace amid allegations that he was drunk on a submarine on March 26 when the warship Cheonan was torpedoed near the disputed sea border in the West Sea by a North Korean submarine.
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N.Korea 'Spying on S.Korean Politicians'
North Korean spies appear to be gathering the private information of potential South Korean presidential candidates, the National Intelligence Service told lawmakers Wednesday.
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Top Korean Firms Size Doesn't Translate into Brand Value
Hyundai Motor spent US$12.7 million this February on commercials at halftime during the Super Bowl XLV, perhaps the most popular sports event in the U.S. That translates to W100 million (US$1=W1,087) per second.
Companies blame their low band value on Korea's unsatisfactory national brand. "When we go abroad, we find that Korea has a lower national brand value than China and Japan, and this is not helped by the negative image that the association with North Korea brings," a marketing executive of a large corporation claimed. "That's a difficult environment to raise a company's brand value."
[Brand] [Tribute] [Image]
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Marines 'Made Trigger-Happy by Inter-Korean Tensions'
South Korean marines mistakenly fired at an Asiana Airlines passenger plane because they were tense due to inter-Korean tension after last year's attacks by North Korea on the Navy corvette Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island, Le Figaro reported on Monday.
The French daily added the marines mistook the passenger jet for a North Korean military plane amid pressure to respond rapidly to attacks.
No one was hurt.
The accident "may have been triggered by North Korea's belligerent declaration that it would sever all contacts with the South," the paper said, citing South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin's recent warning of surprise attacks by North Korea
[Buildup] [Inversion]
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Korean War general’s heroism questioned
Paik Sun-yup has been accused of leading a charge resulting in the death of civilians
By Lee Soon-hyuk
As the 61st anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War approaches, controversy continues to surround General Paik Sun-yup, 92. Paik, a military veteran who was the first four-star general in the Republic of Korea (ROK) Army and twice held the post of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is the subject of dispute between two factions. One aims to exalt him by building a bronze statue of him, and the other aims to “draw a line,” claiming that he was an officer in the Gando Special Force who crushed Korean independence fighters.
[Japanese collaborators]
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Rodong Sinmun Calls for Implementation of Inter-Korean Declarations
Pyongyang, June 21 (KCNA) -- To defend and implement the June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration, its action program, is a patriotic work for national reconciliation, unity and reunification, says Rodong Sinmun in a bylined article Tuesday.
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Rodong Sinmun S. Korean Authorities' Remarks about "Apology" Blasted
Pyongyang, June 20 (KCNA) -- A mandarin of the south Korean puppet Ministry of Unification in a recent press interview blustered that south Korea would not "gloss over" the "Cheonan" warship case and the Yonphyong Island shelling incident, adding there would be no "next phase" of the inter-Korean relations unless the two cases are settled. He went the lengths of vociferating about "the unification of the systems," talking this or that about "the three-phase unification proposal" touted by the south Korean authorities.
Rodong Sinmun Monday observes in a by-lined commentary in this regard:
The conspiratorial and provocative nature of the above-said two cases had already been brought to daylight. It was none other than the Lee Myung Bak group that spawned the two controversial cases.
They were an inevitable product of the anti-DPRK confrontation policy of the conservative group as it pushed the inter-Korean relations to a collapse by hamstringing the efforts to implement the June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration.
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Spy Chief Masterminded Abduction of U.S. Journalists
Recently executed North Korean spy chief Ryu Kyong planned and orchestrated the abduction of two female U.S. journalists on March 17, 2009, it emerged on Sunday.
Ryu, who served as the deputy director of North Korea's State Security Department, obtained intelligence that Laura Ling and Euna Lee, journalists working for Current TV, were planning to visit the North Korean border as part of their report on defectors.
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[Editorial] Accidental fire against a commercial plane
It has belatedly emerged that an outrageous incident took place early in the morning on June 17 when marine corps sentries stationed at Gyodong Island in Gangwha County mistook an Asiana Airplanes passenger jet for a North Korean Air Force plane and fired rifle shots at it for ten minutes. Fortunately, there was no damage, but this was far too close to becoming a major catastrophe.
There are a number of aspects of this situation that provoke questions and concerns, including the reason for the soldiers’ mistake and the failure of the military to relate the events in a timely manner. The Ministry of National Defense’s approach of trying to gloss over the incident, calling it simply an “unforeseen situation,” however, is simply exasperating and pathetic.
Airline company officials were unanimous in calling the incident “unprecedented and incomprehensible.” To begin with, it is not clear why the sentries fired, given that the plane in question, a passenger jet that departed from the Chinese city of Chengdu with 119 passengers and crew members on board, was on a normal flight course. The military is blaming the natural environment, pointing to the fact that it was “early morning, with ocean fog.” But if the environment was the major factor behind this incident, then there is a serious problem, since the West Sea is often foggy in the early morning hours. This means that a similar incident could occur again at any time.
[Buildup]
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Alleged NK police document reports case of cannibalism
An alleged North Korean police document reported a case of cannibalism, a South Korean missionary group said Monday, a development, if confirmed, that could support what has long been rumored in the North.
There have been accounts among some defectors of eating human flesh amid chronic food shortages that culminated in a massive famine in the late 1990s that was estimated to have killed 2 million people.
[Sanctions]
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Unification Minister Not Notified About Defectors
Hyun In-taek /Yonhap Unification Minister Hyun In-taek has admitted he only found out about the defection of nine North Koreans when the news made headlines on Wednesday, five days after they arrived in the South. The admission fuels criticism that information flow within the government is seriously clogged.
[Adrift]
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North Korea's 'beauty corps' revealed
??? ????
North Korea’s “beauty corps,” featured in a video clip on a Chinese website, is causing a stir.
Around 753,000 Chinese web surfers have clicked a video clip named “Joseon military review,” recently uploaded on the Chinese version of Youtube, Youku.com, to see a group of “beautiful” North Korean female soldiers.
The two-minute and 49-second-long video shows Kim Jong-il reviewing the corps. Considering that it also shows foreign press covering the event, people guess it to be a recording of the ceremony held on the 65th anniversary of North Korea’s Workers Party.
The event had attracted attention for its unusual openness. The North Korean regime had invited foreign journalists, even allowing them to relay stories live. Around 80 foreign press members visited Pyongyang to cover the occasion and the North even provided a press center.
Among the scenes of North Korean soldiers marching rigidly, a group of North Korean women smiling and posing for the camera around a flowerbed caught peoples’ eyes.
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Marine Corps guards mistakenly shoot at civilian plane
South Korea's Marine Corps guards shot at a civilian airplane flying near the tense Yellow Sea border with North Korea, misidentifying it as one of the communist country's military planes, a military source said Saturday. No damage occurred, the source said.
Two soldiers guarding the southern coast of Gyodong Island in Incheon, 80 kilometers west of Seoul, fired their K-2 rifles at the Asiana Airlines flight for about 10 minutes at dawn on Friday, the source said.
They are thought to have fired a total of 99 rounds toward the South Korean plane.
At the time, the plane was making its descent into Incheon International Airport, carrying about 119 flight crew and passengers from China, according to other sources.
The airliner was undamaged as it was about 500 to 600 meters out of the range of the K-2 rifles, the military source said.
[Buildup]
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Defectors key to educating public on reunification’
Cho Myung-chul, director of the Education Center for Unification
By Kim Young-jin
North Korean defectors will play a key role in better educating the public about unification of the two Koreas, the first defector to gain a high-ranking government position said Friday.
Cho Myung-chul, the recently-named director of the Education Center for Unification, said he would infuse its programs with defectors in a bid to raise awareness on conditions there and better prepare for the two countries to unite one day.
[Takeover] [Propaganda] [Refugee reception]
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South Korean military fires at civilian jetliner near tense border with North Korea
By Associated Press, Updated: Saturday, June 18, 6:14 PM
SEOUL, South Korea — Marines fired rifles at a South Korean civilian jetliner as it was descending to land after mistaking it for a North Korean military aircraft, an airline official and a news report said Saturday.
The incident took place at dawn Friday, Yonhap news agency reported, citing a military source it did not identify. The Asiana Airlines jet carrying about 119 people was undamaged and no one was hurt.
.The incident highlights how persistent tensions near the heavily armed inter-Korean border pose the possibility for dangerous miscalculation. The Korean peninsula has remained in a technical state of conflict since the Korean War ended in a truce in 1953. A peace treaty has never been signed.
[Buildup]
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S. Korean soldiers fire at Asiana passenger jet
South Korean troops fired at a passenger jet flying from China with 119 people on board after mistaking it for a North Korean aircraft, amid increasingly fraught relations on the divided peninsula.
Two soldiers at a guard post on Gyodong island, just 1.7 kilometres (one mile) south of the North Korean coast, fired their K-2 rifles on Friday towards the plane, descending as it approached Seoul's Incheon International Airport.
Ties between the two Koreas are at their lowest ebb in more than a decade after Pyongyang announced late last month it was breaking all contacts with the South's conservative government.
The South Korean Asiana aircraft was flying southeast over Jumun island, 12 kilometres south of Gyodong, towards Incheon, when the soldiers fired a total of 99 rounds including two blanks, Yonhap said.
"The firing continued about 10 minutes but the plane was too far off the rifle's range and it did not receive any damage," Yonhap news agency quoted a Marine Corps official as saying.
"When the plane appeared over Jumun island, soldiers mistook it as a North Korean military aircraft and fired."
A Marine Corps spokesman confirmed the incident to AFP but declined to give further details.
An aviation controller told AFP that the Asiana flight from the southwest Chinese city of Chengdu, carrying 119 people including crew members and passengers, was following a normal route.
"It was flying normally. It did not deviate from its normal route," the controller said.
An Asiana spokesman said there was no damage as the plane was too far away from the military guard post, adding that the military had inquired whether the plane had received any damage.
South Korean soldiers had been alerted to possible provocative acts by North Korea amid simmering cross-border tensions.
After a few months of relative calm, the North since late May has been using harsher rhetoric against the South's conservative government -- describing it as a US puppet bent on fuelling confrontation.
[Buildup] [Media]
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SKorea refuses to send back 9 North Koreans who drifted south by boat, calling them defectors
Text Size PrintE-mailReprintsBy Associated Press, Published: June 17SEOUL, South Korea — Seoul refused Friday to send back a group of North Koreans who crossed into South Korean waters by boat last weekend, saying all nine have expressed the desire to defect.
North Korea has demanded the immediate repatriation of all nine people who landed on a South Korean-held island last Saturday aboard two small boats. Pyongyang warned Thursday that failure to send them back would aggravate ties between the two Koreas.
South Korea rejected Friday North Korea’s demand for an immediate return of nine people who defected by sea over the weekend, despite Pyongyang’s warning that could worsen their already-tense ties. The letter on a banner read “ Pass the law to help protect North Korean people’s human rights.”
.Relations are already tense, with North Korea threatening earlier this month to retaliate for the South Korean military’s use of photos of leader Kim Jong Il’s family for shooting practice.
[Buildup] [Abductees] [Adrift]
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Bipartisan body clashes over N.Korean human rights
Lawmakers differed on conditions for aid and funding for conservative N.Korea human rights groups
» A Democratic Party lawmaker talks about North Korean human rights legislation during DP’ Senior Policy Committee meeting at the National Assembly, June 16. (Photo by Park Jong-shik)
By Lee You Ju-hyun, Staff Writer
With the opening of the June session of the National Assembly, the formation of a bipartisan-government consultative body, agreed up by the ruling and opposition parties to discuss pressing public welfare issues such as a parliamentary savings bank audit and university tuition, is facing a snag over North Korean human rights legislation
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S. Korea deploys precision-guided missiles targeting Pyongyang
South Korea has deployed precision-guided land missiles capable of hitting North Korea's capital of Pyongyang, a military source said Friday.
The forward deployment of the surface-to-surface missiles, known as the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), came as tensions rekindled after North Korea vowed a retaliation against the South's military over its use of head-shot photos of Pyongyang's top leaders as targets for shooting practice.
Several ATACMS missiles, which can be fired from multiple rocket launchers, have been positioned near the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, the source said on the condition of anonymity.
[Buildup] [Missiles] [Double standards]
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Diplomatic breakthrough for two Koreas unlikely after fresh barbs
By Kang Hyun-kyung
The stalemate over inter-Korean relations has shown signs of going from bad to worse as fresh diplomatic antagonisms, including the defection of nine North Koreans, surfaced this week.
This could tempt the North’s military hardliners to carry out yet another attack, North Korea watchers said.
[Buildup]
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South Korea redeploys missiles capable of hitting Pyongyang after island attack, reports say
By Associated Press, Friday, June 17, 2:56 PM
SEOUL, South Korea — News reports say South Korea has redeployed some of its U.S.-made missiles capable of striking Pyongyang to sites near the tense border with North Korea.
Yonhap news agency reported Friday that the redeployment of Army Tactical Missile System rockets was made in response to North Korea’s shelling of a border island in November, which killed four South Koreans.
.Yonhap cited unidentified military sources as saying the surface-to-suface missile has a range of about 100 miles (160 kilometers).
The mass-circulation Dong-a Ilbo newspaper carried a similar report, saying South Korea has a total of 220 such missiles.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff declined to confirm the reports but did say that weapons and troops are redeployed in line with changes in the security environment.
[Buildup]
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N.Korean Military Growing in Influence
North Korea's military apparently boosted its role and political influence over the regime by sending a senior-ranking official to oversee a secret meeting with South Korea in May, government sources said on Wednesday.
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Lee Myung Bak Group's Anti-Reunification Action Blasted
Pyongyang, June 15 (KCNA) -- The south Korean puppet conservative group took the anti-reunification action of disallowing the participation of the south side delegation in the joint national event to be held by delegates of various circles in the north, the south and overseas in Kaesong on the occasion of the 11th anniversary of the publication of the June 15 joint declaration.
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Military Steps Up Defense of West Sea Islands with New Command
Seoul has established a new command to strengthen the defense of five islands in the West Sea. The command combines elements of the Army, Navy and Air Force in addition to the Marine Corps, which previously assumed full responsibility for protecting the islands.
The organizational set-up of the new operation has a Marine Corps lieutenant general as its commanding officer, an Air Force captain taking responsibility for intelligence and a Marine Corps colonel in charge of strategy. Issues relating to firepower devolve to an Army colonel. This form of multi-disciplinary organization is aimed at boosting cooperation between the
[Buildup]
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N.Korea 'Exported Massive Amounts of Missiles'
North Korea exported ballistic missiles on more than 500 occasions between 1987 and 2009, according to a report by the U.S. Congressional Research Service. The figure was cited by Jonathan Pollack, a Northeast Asia expert at the conservative Brookings Institution, at a seminar hosted by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
A total of 420 cases of ballistic missiles export were reported between 1987 and 1993, 30 cases between 1994 and 2000, and 60 from 2001 to 2009. Pollack said North Korea exported missiles to Syria, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, Libya, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
[Arms sales] [Missiles] [Double standards] [Evidence]
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NKorea urges SKorea to abandon confrontational policy on eve of Korean summit anniversary
By Associated Press, Published: June 14
PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea warned South Korea on Tuesday it should immediately end a confrontational approach toward the North that could lead to war.
A senior North Korean official spoke about Korean relations in an interview with Associated Press Television News in Pyongyang after the North commemorated a historic summit in 2000 between the leaders of the two Koreas.
.“Confrontation ends in war and the only ones to suffer will be the Korean people,” said Min Gum Song from the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland. “So the South Korean authorities should withdraw their confrontational policies at an early date.”
Min said North Korea is willing to cooperate with anyone concerned about the future of the Korean people, so the fate of inter-Korean ties completely depends on how South Korea acts.
[Overtures]
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A Time for the Future of Peace: the 11th Anniversary of the 6.15 Inter-Korean Summit
By Lim Dong-won and Paik Nak-chung
June 14, 2011
Lim Dong-won, former Minister, Ministry of Unification and Co-representative of Korea Peace Forum, and Paik Nak-chung, Professor Emeritus, Seoul National University and Co-representative of Korea Peace Forum, write, “We need to continuously develop effective strategies to realize a peace system on the Korean peninsula and implement them to the best of our abilities. That is, we need concrete systematic plans and visions to resolve the nuclear threat of North Korea and to dismantle the cold war atmosphere. Reflecting the transitioning order of Northeast Asia, we need the methodology and wisdom to convert the ceasefire agreement into a permanent peace regime. We must propose a path towards "tangible peace," providing security for our people to allow our nation to dream for the future.”
This article was the opening speech for the 11th anniversary commemoration (June 11th in Seoul) of the inter-Korean summit meeting on June 15th, 2000.
Korea Peace Forum is online at: http://www.koreapeace.co.kr/
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N.Korean Soldiers Use Ants to Check if S.Korean Food Is Safe
Items sent with propaganda leaflets to North Korea by groups of defectors in South Korea in March North Korean soldiers are apparently burying propaganda packages sent by South Korean activists in ant-infested soil to determine whether the attached food is poisoned, Open Radio for North Korea claimed Friday citing a North Korean source.
[Subversion]
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‘Likelihood of 'surprise provocation' by NK on rise’
South Korea's Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin warned Monday that the likelihood of a "surprise provocation" by North Korea against the South is on the rise, after Pyongyang's barrage of fiery rhetoric aimed at Seoul.
[Buildup]
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Apache-class copters on western islands
South Korea is considering deploying large-sized attack helicopters on one of its western sea border islands in preparation against surprise infiltrations of North Korea's air-cushioned vessels, a defense source said Sunday.
"A helicopter hangar under construction on Baengnyeong Island is capable of accommodating large-sized attack helicopters. Some Apache-class attack helicopters to be imported next year will be deployed on the border island in the long term," said the source, asking anonymity.
[Buildup] [Military balance]
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N.Korea's Bureau of Reconnaissance Orchestrates Pressure Tactics
North Korea's General Bureau of Reconnaissance appears to have seized the initiative in dealing with South Korea. The bureau was behind the sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan and oversees all espionage operations against the South and is now thought to be orchestrating Pyongyang's tactic of alternately engaging and pressuring South Korea.
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N.Korea Threatens to Release Tapes of Secret Meeting
North Korea's National Defense Commission on Thursday threatened to release tapes of a secret inter-Korean meeting last month where the North says the South offered money for a series of cross-border summits.
An official from the commission's policy department who was at the meetings warned Pyongyang will "release voice recordings of the entire meeting to the world" if South Korea "refuses to disclose the truth." The official was quoted by the state-run KCNA news agency.
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Marking 50th year, NIS power swells under Lee
Once weakened during democratization, NIS renews clout as administration arm
By Son Won-je, Staff Writer
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) is now fifty years old. Its former incarnation was the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), formed on June 10, 1961, just after the May 16 military coup that brought Park Chung-hee to power, with the goal of detecting and crushing anti-coup efforts. The sinister character it harbored from its foundation seemed to gradually fade over the course of democratization. But critics are saying that under the Lee Myung-bak administration it is once again wavering between the roles of national intelligence institution and administration arm.
An operation in the 1970s to acquire “unification rice” seeds, which contributed to making South Korea a self-sufficient rice producer, is a leading success story among secret operations. Unification rice seeds were thought to have been independently developed by the Rural Development Administration, but in reality they were secretly brought in by overseas KCIA agents and improved over a five-year period by the RDA. The agency’s behind-the-scenes contribution to the two inter-Korean summits also helped to promote its value. Then-Minister of Culture and Tourism Park Jie-won, who participated in preliminary coordination for the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, offered high praise for the NIS North Korean line that had helped him, calling it a “National Treasure of a North Korea channel.”
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Lie about Beijing Secret Contact Spread by Lee Myung Bak Group Refuted
Pyongyang, June 9 (KCNA) -- The Lee Myung Bak group of traitors let a spokesman for Chongwadae make an official announcement that the "true intention" reflected in Lee's "Berlin proposal" was conveyed to the DPRK side at a secret contact made between the north and the south of Korea in Beijing. It had been already disclosed before the world that it was a sheer lie.
Much upset by the first announcement made by the DPRK, the group of traitors falsified the fact, claiming that there was a secret contact with the DPRK but it was a contact not aimed to have "summit talks" but wrest "the north's admittance and apology" for "the Cheonan" warship sinking case and the Yonphyong Island shelling incident. It went the lengths of denying all facts that had been brought to light and negating and distorting
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South Korea hands high-level job to North defector as Seoul focuses on possible unification
By Associated Press, Published: June 8
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea handed a high-level government job to a North Korean defector Wednesday as inter-Korean projects languish and Seoul tries to focus on the potential costs of a unified Korean peninsula.
The appointment of Cho Myung-chul as the new chief of the government-run Education Center for Unification is part of Seoul’s efforts to put more resources into preparing South Koreans for the possibility of the two Koreas becoming a single country. The government is also trying to help North Korean defectors adapt to life in South Korea.
.Last year, South Korea proposed a three-stage unification process and a tax that could help pay for the massive costs associated with any Korean unification.
[Takeover]
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Engine Trouble Stalls Korean-Made Tanks
The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials has discovered a significant flaw in the gearbox of Korea's main battle tank, the K1A1. The institute has notified the Defense Acquisition Program Administration and the Board of Audit and Inspection.
All the military's 450-odd K1A1 tanks could be recalled.
Questions were raised whether Korea's own defense technology is good enough to make the "power pack" consisting of engine and gearbox, since a similar flaw was found in the K-2 Black Panther, the military's next-generation main battle tank.
Only Germany has so far succeeded in developing its own power pack
[Military balance]
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N.Korea 'Test-Launches Short-Range Missile'
North Korea test-fired a KN-06 missile in the middle of last week from a coastal area of North Pyongan Province, a South Korean intelligence source said Wednesday.
North Korea has attempted to increase the range of the KN-06 missile, a more accurate version of the KN-01 and 02. The KN-06 is a surface-to-air missile, whereas the KN-01 and 02 are surface-to-surface missiles.
[military balance]
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Songdo Consensus for Peace in the Seohae (Draft)
Announced at the Hankyoreh-Incheon International in Forum South Korea, June 8, 2011
To commemorate the eleventh anniversary of the June 15th South-North Joint Declaration of the two Koreas, former officials, academics and experts from the United States, China and South Korea attended the Hankyoreh-Incheon International Forum on Seohae (West Sea) Peace and Cooperation in Northeast Asia from June 7-8 which was convened in Songdo of Incheon City in South Korea.
The symposium, hosted jointly by the Incheon Metropolitan City Government and the Hankyoreh Foundation for Reunification and Culture, was held out of the stark realization that physical scuffles between the two Koreas could escalate into an all-out war in seconds, as had been evidenced during the sinking of the Cheonan corvette and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island on the West Sea.
In the four sessions of the symposium, participants called for new policies that take into consideration overall peace and prosperity of the Korean peninsula as well as Northeast Asia, rather than focusing on military deterrence and retaliation. They shared the view that a new peace process on the Korean peninsula should begin by making the West Sea a sea of peace, based on the cooperation of South Korea, North Korea, the United States, and China and reached the following consensus:
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'NK short-range missile test not tied to fiery rhetoric'
By Kim Young-jin
North Korea test-fired a short-range missile last week off its west coast, but it did not appear linked to recent fiery rhetoric emanating from Pyongyang, an official said Wednesday.
“We observed that the North fired a short-range missile into waters off its west coast in the middle of last week,” an official of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said on condition of anonymity. “It was not related to the North’s recent threats, but aimed at improving its missiles.”
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S.Korea Stages Huge Show of Force Near DMZ
Exactly one month after North Korea bombarded Yeonpyeong island, South Korea's military has staged a brief but large show of force. The country's president told troops his patience with Pyongyang has run out.
South Korean army troops fire shells from howitzers and tanks. Overhead, attack helicopters and jets drop bombs in an exercise to repel a mock North Korean invasion at a training ground 30 km from the heavily fortified border.
President Lee Myung-bak Thursday addressed an army unit in the mountains near the Demilitarized Zone dividing the Korean Peninsula. The president says South Korea will not strike first but if North Korea attacks it will be hit with a strong blow.
[Buildup]
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Experts discuss inter-Korean issues at Hankyoreh forum
A panel of men conveyed contrasting views on recent developments pertaining to the N.Korea issue
» .
By Kim Jong-cheol, Senior Staff Writer
An international Hankyoreh-Incheon symposium on “Peace in the West Sea and Cooperation in Northeast Asia” was held Tuesday at Incheon’s Songdo ConvensiA to mark the eleventh anniversary of the June 15 Inter-Korean Joint Declaration.
Appearing as presenters and panelists in a special session Tuesday, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Wallace Gregson and China Reform Forum senior counselor Pan Zhenqiang said the West Sea should be turned “from a sea of conflict to a sea of peace” for the sake of peace on the Korean Peninsula, and agreed on the need for dialogue with Pyongyang to achieve this.
{MISCOM] [Paradigm]
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Inheritance assets reflect widening inequality
By Kim Jae-won
Mon 06-07-2011 16:28
ey or assets inherited by the richest 1.5 percent accounted for more than half of the country’s total inheritance, providing a fresh indicator of the widening income gap here, according to figures from the National Tax Service.
[Inequality]
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NK's special forces capable of striking most targets in South
North Korea has trained its special forces to be capable of infiltrating and striking more than 90 percent of targets in South Korea, a report said Tuesday, ringing alarm bells over the threat posed by the North's elite troops.
The report, released by retired one-star Army general Lee Won-seung, was based on a series of drills simulating an infiltration by North Korean special forces that hit targets in the South and assessments by former North Korean special troops who defected to the South.
"After witnessing the drills, the North's defectors concluded that North Korean special forces could infiltrate more than 90 percent of important facilities in South Korea," Lee said, presenting the report at a forum organized by the Army.
[Buildup]
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Unification Ministry to Form N.Korea Crisis Team
The Unification Ministry has decided to establish a crisis management team that will be responsible for handling emergencies caused by North Korea.
The ministry on Sunday said the newly formed team will be in charge of coordinating military drills and planning responses for any unexpected attacks from the North.
The ministry added that the call to form such a team has been getting louder since the North's sinking of the warship Cheonan and the shelling on Yeonpyeong Island last year.
[Buildup]
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New name for NK bill creates stir
By Lee Tae-hoon
Tensions are growing once again between liberal and conservative parties over the parliamentary approval of a bill that touches on the fundamental rights of North Korean citizens.
Political wrangling over the issue surfaced shortly after floor leaders of the rival parties announced on May 30 that they agreed to deliberate on the North Korean Welfare and Human Rights Act in the National Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee in June.
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The Cheonan and uncertainty over the Six Party Talks
May 19th, 2010
Author: Jong Kun Choi, Yonsei University
The South Korean Navy’s 1200 tonne Cheonan (PCC-722) was a Pohang-class corvette vessel commissioned in 1989. Its primary mission was coastal patrol with an emphasis on anti-submarine operations. It sank at 21:50 local time on Friday, March 26 about 1 nautical mile off the southwest coast of Baengnyeong Island near the disputed Northern Limit Line between the two Koreas in the Yellow Sea.
The Cheonan and uncertainty over the Six Party Talks
May 19th, 2010
Author: Jong Kun Choi, Yonsei University
The South Korean Navy’s 1200 tonne Cheonan (PCC-722) was a Pohang-class corvette vessel commissioned in 1989. Its primary mission was coastal patrol with an emphasis on anti-submarine operations. It sank at 21:50 local time on Friday, March 26 about 1 nautical mile off the southwest coast of Baengnyeong Island near the disputed Northern Limit Line between the two Koreas in the Yellow Sea.
[Cheonan]
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NK claims unlikely to sway public
By Kim Young-jin
North Korea’s claim that South Korean officials proposed summit talks and “begged” for an apology for two deadly provocations at a secret meeting is unlikely to translate to a big shift in public opinion here over how to engage Pyongyang, analysts said.
Many observers suggested the move was a calculated effort to push domestic debate toward encouraging Seoul to return to an engagement policy. But analysts said any fallout from the incident appeared focused mostly on the Lee administration’s policy implementation, not overall inter-Korean relations
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Gov’t rapped for poor handling of Pyongyang
Rep. Sohn Hak-kyu, left, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party, and Rep. Hwang Woo-yea, floor leader of the ruling Grand National Party, greet each other ahead of an interpellation session at the National Assembly in central Seoul, Friday. Korea Times
By Lee Tae-hoon
Legislators of both the ruling and opposition parties Friday expressed their strong disappointment with the government’s handling of inter-Korean dialogue during the National Assembly’s interpellation session on foreign, unification and security policies.
Rep. Gu Sang-chan of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) urged the Lee Myung-bak administration to reshuffle top foreign and security officials for their failure to make progress on inter-Korean relations.
“They have left our government in disgrace in front of the international community following North Korea’s disclosure that they offered envelopes filled with cash and begged for a summit,” he said. “Korea’s pride has fallen into a bottomless pit.”
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Gov't Must Steer a Steady Course in N.Korea Policy
Tensions are rising on the Korean Peninsula after North Korea revealed that a secret meeting took place with South Korean officials and said it would now sever ties with the Lee Myung-bak administration. In a National Assembly hearing on Thursday, lawmakers bombarded government officials with concerns of a prolonged deterioration in inter-Korean relations, the threat of further North Korean provocations and a weakened diplomatic voice for South Korea on the international stage. The government must waste no time coming up with steps to assuage these concerns and put them into action.
[Buildup]
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N.Korea 'Was Willing to Express Regret Over Attacks'
North Korea was ready to express vague regret about the loss of South Korean lives in last year's attacks on the Navy corvette Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island when the two sides met secretly in May, a lawmaker claims.
Park Sun-young of the Liberty Forward Party, who is a member of the Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee at the National Assembly, said Thursday she heard this from a credible government source. "North Korean officials even said they would consider making comments that could be interpreted as an apology by South Korea."
But Seoul demanded a stronger apology, and this led to tensions in the secret talks, she said
[Spin]
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'Dilemma Over Attacks' Prompted Secret Meetings
The South Korean government chose to meet with North Korean officials in secret last month because it was "in a dilemma" over the North's attacks on the Navy corvette Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island last year, a government source said Thursday.
In public, Seoul has demanded a straightforward apology for the attacks, but it "is aware that this is hard for Pyongyang."
North Korea denied involvement in the Cheonan attack at the UN, as well as in a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao. Admitting them now would be a massive loss of face.
North Korea has only once apologized for any provocation, when it blamed a failed attack on Cheong Wa Dae in 1968 on a "rash act by some extremists."
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Break with S.Korea evidence of NDC’s central role
Analysts say this suggests the break is part of Kim Jong-il’s inter-Korean relations strategy
» Unification Minister Hyun In-taek answers questions from lawmakers at the National Assembly, June 2. (Photo by Tak Ki-hyoung)
By Son Won-je, Staff Writer
Following North Korea’s unexpected actions, attention is focusing on the fact that the National Defense Commission (NDC), the country’s supreme authority, took the initiative in terminating inter-Korean relations.
In a May 30 spokesperson’s statement, the NDC announced the breakdown of inter-Korean relations, stating that it would “no longer associate with the Lee Myung-bak administration.” On June 1, it emphatically declared the termination of inter-Korean relations with its revelations about secret contacts in the form of a response to a question by a Korea Central News Agency journalist.
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Former unification minister says N.Korea policy has been series of missteps
Lim Dong-won says it’s time for the Lee administration to change its policy of antagonism
» Lim Dong-won
By Park Byong-su, Senior Staff Writer
Former Unification Minister Lim Dong-won, a facilitator for the first inter-Korean summit meeting in 2000, said Thursday that North Korea’s sudden revelations about secret contacts by the South Korean government were “the product of antagonistic government policy toward North Korea.”
During a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh, Lim, who oversaw North Korea policy under the Kim Dae-jung administration, said, “I do not believe this incident occurred due to a working-level error or inexperience in the process of the secret contacts.”
“Restoration of inter-Korean relations appears unlikely without a change in the government’s North Korea policy,” Lim predicted.
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[Editorial] Secret inter-Korean contacts
North Korea’s revelations about secret inter-Korean contacts are the very definition of shocking. The intensity of the shock to South Korea is likely to be more or less the same for supporters and opponents alike of the Lee Myung-bak administration’s North Korea policy. The duplicity, lack of principles, sloppy management, and impatience were enough to leave many simply agape. Yet the response from the Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) and government has been the epitome of insincerity. Once again, the Lee administration has called upon its “wait it out” strategy employed every time a controversy arises.
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Playing the N. Korea card
Korea Development Bank (KDB), led by Chairman Kang Man-soo, claims that its anticipated merger with Woori Financial will give Korea a bank large enough to finance North Korean development projects if the two countries are unified. Critics ridiculed such claims as the corporate equivalent of a beauty pageant contestant wishing for world peace. / Korea Times file
Desperate KDB links ‘megabank’ aspirations with inter-Korean peace
By Kim Jae-won
Facing heavy criticism over its plans to acquire banking giant Woori Financial, the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) appears to be getting desperate in its attempts to sell the potential deal to the public. It remains to be seen whether the bank was wise to link the much-anticipated merger with peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula.
KDB is looking to acquire the government’s $6 billion-plus stake in Woori and is touting the idea that the size of the combined company would be ideal to finance large-scale development projects in North Korea after its unification with the South.
[Unification]
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Seoul Begged for Inter-Korean Summits, Says Pyongyang
North Korea on Wednesday claimed South Korea proposed a series of summits talks when officials from the two sides met secretly in Beijing last month. The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency quoted a spokesman for the National Defense Commission as saying one summit was to take place in the border truce village of Panmunjom in late June, the second in Pyongyang in August and the third in Seoul in March next year.
The spokesman said officials from the Unification Ministry, National Intelligence Service and Cheong Wa Dae came to the secret meeting on May 9 and proposed ministerial talks in late May to prepare for the summits. He even revealed the identities of the officials, only to repeat that the North will no longer engage with the Lee Myung-bak administration.
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Never Drag N.Korea into Domestic Politics
North Korea's powerful National Defense Commission on Wednesday claimed it held a secret meeting with South Korean officials including Kim Tae-hyo, a senior official at Cheong Wa Dae, Kim Chun-shik of the Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service official Hong Chang-hwa, during which they proposed a series of three inter-Korean summits in late June, August and next March.
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Did Seoul Try to Bribe Kim Jong-il?
The Unification Ministry on Wednesday denied offering money to North Korea for a series of inter-Korean summits during secret talks in Beijing last month. A spokesman for the North's National Defense Commission had earlier claimed South Korean officials "disgraced themselves" by offering "a gift of money."
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S.Korean Officials Respond N.Korean Bombshell
An official at the Unification Ministry on Wednesday admitted that secret contacts took place with North Korean officials, but denied the aim of the meeting was to "beg" for a summit, as North Korea claimed in an earlier statement.
South Korean officials "demanded a clear admission of and apology for the attacks against the Navy corvette Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island, together with a pledge from North Korea not to repeat such acts and were waiting for a response," a Unification Ministry official said. "North Korea distorted the facts by making it appear as if we were insisting on a summit."
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N.Korea voices break with S.Korean government
The move essentially puts off Inter-Korean dialogue, the first stage for resuming six-party talks
» A broadcast on North Korea’s state-run Korean Central Television (KCTV) reports details of secret inter-Korean contacts, June 1. (Captured from the KCTV Yonhap)
By Kim Jong-chul, Senior Staff Writer
North Korea stated on June 1 that South Korea suggested an inter-Korean summit during secret talks in Beijing last month.
A spokesman for North Korea’s National Defense Commission (NDC) revealed, in the form of answers to questions from a reporter at the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) that he had had secret contact with Kim Chun-sig of the Ministry of Unification’s (MOU) Policy Office, Hong Chang-hwa of the National Intelligence Service and presidential security advisor Kim Tae-hyo, from May 9. The contact revealed by North Korea is thought to be the same as that made public by the office of the president on May 18, when it said, “The true intentions of President Lee Myung-bak’s statement in Berlin have been conveyed to North Korea.”
North Korea’s highly unusual revelation of secret contact with South Korea is being interpreted as a public expression of its intention to hold no further dialogue with the current South Korean government.
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DLP and NPP compromise on divisive N.Korea issue
The issue caused the DLP’s split in 2007, as some moved to take a tougher stance
By Seok Jin-hwan
“The new progressive political party recognizes the North Korean system in the June 15 [declaration] spirit, and respects the position holding that ‘the issue of North Korea’s transmission of power is something difficult to comprehend in popular sentiments and we must express a critical position.’”
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Lee Myung Bak Group Can Never Evade Responsibility for Bringing Inter-Korean Relations to Collapse: Spokesman for NDC
Pyongyang, June 1 (KCNA) -- The Lee Myung Bak group of traitors on May 19 let a guy claiming to be a spokesman for Chongwadae spread rumor that the "true intention" reflected in Lee's "Berlin proposal" was conveyed to the DPRK side at a secret contact made between the north and the south of Korea in Beijing recently. A spokesman for the DPRK National Defence Commission Wednesday gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA as regards this:
The above-said group is master hands at fabrications as they cook up lies and deny what they have done and hooligans who renege on the promises made to the nation like a pair of old shoes.
This is clearly evidenced by the "Cheonan" sinking case and Yonphyong Island shelling case.
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N.Korean Threat Proves Empty Bluster
A belligerent message from North Korea on Monday proved mere bluster when it emerged that the communication lines the North threatened to cut off have been down since last year.
In its first message to South Korea after leader Kim Jong-il returned from China, the North threatened to cut off military communication lines along the east coast, but they have been down since a wildfire in Goseong, Gangwon Province in December.
Since the three copper cables were cut off, "we've called on the North several times to repair them, but there has been no response," a Unification Ministry official said Tuesday.
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Lee Must Stay Firm in His N.Korea Policy
Kim Dae-joong
Evaluations of President Lee Myung-bak's performance over the last three years vary, but he is generally seen as having been consistent in his North Korea policy. While maintaining that he is willing to help the North if it abandons its nuclear weapons program and reforms and opens up, he refuses to cave in under the North's provocations and threats. Many domestic policies have been adjusted or reversed, but in terms of North Korea policy, he is widely believed to have stood firm.
The Lee administration's North Korea policy was clearly a breath of fresh air for the South Korean public, who had been used to a decade of treading softly-softly and giving the North generous handouts for nothing under the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations. It is particularly significant because he has not given in to persistent attacks on the policy from the opposition parties and left-wing forces, who try to change the policy. Many leftwing pundits have urged obliging the North in the name of "brotherhood" and "peace." They also want six-party nuclear talks to resume unconditionally as a way of helping the North Korean regime out of its growing isolation.
[SK NK policy]
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N.Korean Regime Prefers Begging to Reform
To gauge North Korea's corn harvest, the U.S. government analyzes satellite images, and determines the size of harvests by comparing the area of corn fields and the conditions of the fields year by year. North Korea does not announce official statistics, such as national income and consumer prices, to conceal how badly it manages the economy. Only once in a while does it submit doctored data to the World Food Program to solicit aid.
[Agency]
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N.Korea Is Up to Its Old Tricks
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Monday said he will no longer engage South Korea and shut down a military hotline on the east coast as well as a liaison office in the Mt. Kumgang resort, according to the powerful National Defense Commission. "Our military and people will not deal with the traitor Lee Myung-bak and his clique from now on," it said in a statement. The commission also threatened a "physical strike at any time and any place" against South Koreans engaging in psychological warfare.
[Inversion]
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Kim Jong-il Severs Communication with S.Korea
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in a statement Monday said Pyongyang will no longer engage with South Korea and shut down a military hotline on the eastern coast as well as a liaison office in the Mt. Kumgang tourism resort, according to the North's powerful National Defense Commission.
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Gov't to Investigate Military Involvement in Pro-N.Korean Websites
The government is investigating whether some 70 military officers and servicemen who were active on a pro-North Korean Internet forum were just the tip of the iceberg, a government official said Monday.
"An investigation of similar websites will give us a better picture, because most of the members of these forums are active on multiple websites and communicate with each other," the official added.
[Human rights]
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A Visit to South Korea's Northernmost Island
Baeknyeong, the nation's northernmost island in the West Sea, is fringed by giant rocks created from continuous crash of the waves, shaped like elephants, lions, or dragons flying into the sky. Also famous as the place where heartthrob Hyun Bin serves as a marine during his military service, it has recently seen an increasing number of tourists.
[NLL]
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DPRK Will Not Deal with Lee Myung Bak: Spokesman for NDC of DPRK
Pyongyang, May 30 (KCNA) -- The moves of the Lee Myung Bak group of traitors to escalate confrontation with the DPRK have reached an extreme phase. A spokesman for the National Defence Commission of the DPRK issued a statement condemning them on Monday.
The group is doing sordid things only while escalating the accusation of the headquarters of our revolution and the sacred socialist system, reminding one of a puppy knowing no fear of the tiger, the statement notes, and goes on:
The Lee Myung Bak group of traitors fakes up false stories and whitewashes its misrule, undermining national reconciliation and unity and deliberately laying a hurdle in the way of peace and prosperity.
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NGO reps set for rare meeting with N. Korea
By Kim Young-jin
Representatives from South Korean civic groups will travel to North Korea today to meet with counterparts in a rare civilian exchange between the sides, an official said Tuesday.
Seven representatives from the Cheontae Buddhist group and two from the Lighthouse Foundation will travel to the border town of Gaeseong for talks on distribution of humanitarian aid and measures to ensure transparency, the official said on condition of anonymity. They will return later in the day.
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South Korean marines use photos of North Korean heir-apparent for target practice
By Associated Press, Published: May 31SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean marines are using photos of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s son and heir-apparent as targets during firing drills.
The Defense Ministry said Tuesday that the marines began having new recruits fire at Kim Jong Un’s photos in January in the wake of the North’s shelling of a front-line island in November.
.Two marines and two civilians were killed during the attack on Yeonpyeong Island, which hosts a South Korean marine unit.
Ministry officials say a front-line army division also used photos of the two Kims and Kim Il Sung — leader Kim’s father — as firing targets in reservist drills last week.
[Buildup] [Clash] [Media]
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