ROK and Inter-Korean relations
July 2013
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South and North Korea both refuse to budge in Kaesong negotiations
Posted on : Jul.26,2013 14:58 KST
Park Chol-su (left) and Kim Ki-woong, heads of the North and South Korean delegations to working-level talks on the Kaesong Industrial Complex, look past each other as they shake hands at the end of the day’s meetings, July 25. (pool photo)
With no agreement, working-level talks end without progress, and without further talks scheduled
By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer
Twenty days after the first round of working-level talks on normalizing operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, negotiations between South and North Korea have broken down. The breakdown was caused by the failure of both sides to give an inch of ground in their demands during the six rounds of talks.
South Korea insisted on the North admitting it was responsible for the complex shutting down, while North Korea wanted the complex to be reopened right away.
North and South Korea held a general meeting from 5:10 to 5:20 pm on July 25 to wrap up the sixth round of talks at the Total Support Center at the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea.
But once again, both sides failed to issue a joint agreement, and unlike the fifth round of talks, they also did not agree when the next meeting should be held.
The working-level talks, which are the first real negotiations since South Korean President Park Geun-hye took office, were viewed as a litmus test that could affect the future of inter-Korean relations. Now that the talks have hit a wall, a veil has been drawn over the future of relations between South and North.
As was made clear in the documents that the North Korean delegation distributed to South Korean reporters (an unusual move for the North), the talks were stymied by the difference of position on the North taking responsibility for the suspension of work at Kaesong and pledging to prevent such an incident from occurring again.
[SK NK negotiations] [Kaesong]
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Kaesong Talks Break Down
Talks between mid-ranking officials from North and South Korea to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex broke down on Thursday and both sides went home without even setting a fresh date.
It was the sixth round of negotiations to try and revive the cross-border project, which was shut down on April 9. But talks snagged early on who was responsible for the halt in operations there and on ways to prevent any future capricious closures by the North.
Chief North Korean delegate Pak Chol-su (left) briefs South Korean reporters on the breakdown of inter-Korean talks to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex on Thursday. Chief North Korean delegate Pak Chol-su (left) briefs South Korean reporters on the breakdown of inter-Korean talks to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex on Thursday.
At 5:30 p.m., just after the talks broke down, the chief North Korean delegate Pak Chol-su and 20 others in his team stormed into a room where South Korean reporters gathered to cover the talks and put the blame on the South.
They read a pre-prepared statement before reporters and distributed copies of drafts and amendments of the agreements made in previous talks, while preventing South Korean officials from getting into the press room, causing shouts and scuffles.
"If the South has no will to normalize the industrial park, the fate of the joint venture is clear," Pak said. When asked if he thought the talks have broken down, Pak said, "they're moving in that direction." He added that troops would be stationed near the complex if it is not reopened.
South Korea voiced "strong regret" and warned of "grave actions" over North Korea's sudden announcement.
"In the latest series of talks, we have consistently made it clear that no unilateral closure must occur in the future. Unless North Korea truly guarantees safety measures (to prevent sudden closure), a final decision seems inevitable," the Unification Ministry said, suggesting Seoul is prepared to abandon the project altogether.
[SK NK Negotiations][Kaesong]
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Koreas fail to reach accord on industrial complex
2013-07-26 08:46
South and North Korea failed to reach agreement on the envisioned resumption of operation of the industrial complex in Gaeseong, border village in the North, Thursday.
Delegates from the two sides exchanged barbed words, blaming against each other, darkening the prospect of the future talks.
After the latest round of talks ended without progress, North Korea threatened to re-position its military at the factory park in its border city of Gaesong. The zone was opened in 2004 after North Korea had relocated its military units stationed there.
[SK NK Negotiations] [Kaesong]
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Lee's 'Resource Diplomacy' Lost Korea Billions
A total of W1.15 trillion in losses were caused by the former Lee Myung-bak administration's drive to secure natural resources abroad (US$1=W1,119). The loss is expected to swell since surveys and drilling at many mines and deposits overseas are still in progress.
The project only recently drew widespread criticism when it was revealed that huge investments were made in drilling and other projects without proper surveys and feasibility studies as the last government focused on short-term goals or showy projects.
According to Korea National Oil Corporation and other state-run companies involved, nine out of 75 projects pursued by the Lee administration at a cost of W24.7 billion have already been halted.
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No agreement reached in fifth round of meetings over Kaesong complex
Posted on : Jul.23,2013 15:46 KST
The heads of the South and North Korean delegations to the fifth round of working level talks on normalizing operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, Kim Ki-woong head of the Ministry of Unification’s Inter-Korean Cooperation District Support Directorate (left) and Park Chol-su, deputy chief of the North Korean central bureau in charge of developing special districts, part at the end of the day’s meetings at the Kaesong Complex’s total support center, July 22. (by Kim Jeong-hyo, staff photographer)
South and North still reiterating standard positions on preventing another closure at Kaesong
By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer
On July 22, South and North Korea held the fifth round of working-level talks between government officials to find a solution to the ongoing work stoppage at the Kaesong Industrial Complex.
The two sides traded revised versions of an agreement and engaged in heated negotiations. But once again, two weeks since the first round of the talks were held, North and South failed to reach an agreement on finding a way to prevent operations at Kaesong from being suspended again.
On the morning of July 22, South and North Korea held a general meeting in the total support center in the Kaesong Complex.
[SK NK negotiations]
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Final search for summit minutes due today
Lawmakers and private experts sit in the National Archives of Korea in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Sunday, searching for the original minutes and tape recordings of the 2007 inter-Korean summit. Lawmakers will carry out a final search today to reach a conclusion on whether the records exist. / Yonhap
By Jun Ji-hye
A team of ten lawmakers, five each from the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic Party, will today conduct a final search for the original minutes of the 2007 inter-Korean summit at the National Archives of Korea in Seongnam.
On basis of their search, they are scheduled to clarify at the National Assembly meeting whether the records in question are in the archives or not.
[KR_Summit07]
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Former president Chun’s tangled web of money laundering
Posted on : Jul.19,2013 11:51 KSTModified on : Jul.19,2013 15:19 KST
An investigator from the prosecutors moves a piece of art in Sigongsa warehouse in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, July 18. Sigonga is a publishing company owned by Chun Jae-guk. (by Lee Jeong-ah, staff photographer)
Investigation has uncovered complicated network of transactions meant to conceal the source of Chun’s illicit funds
By Kim Won-chul and Song Kyung-hwa, staff reporters
Former president Chun Doo-hwan, 82, divided the hundreds of billions of won in illicit funds he had received from chaebol during his time in office and put it into hundreds of accounts under false names or assumed names, investigators say. Every three months, he laundered this money by moving it to accounts under other assumed names.
With thousands of people’s names being used to maintain Chun’s slush fund, the prosecutors who were investigating the case in 1995 and 1996 reportedly ended the investigation because of the difficulty in tracking all of the different accounts.
[Chun Doo-hwan] [Corruption]
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DPRK Refutes Misinformation Spread by Chosun Ilbo
Pyongyang July 19 (KCNA) -- The spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) on Friday gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA refuting the misinformation released by Chosun Ilbo, anti-DPRK conspiratorial paper, to hurt the dignity of its supreme leadership, at the prodding of the south Korean puppet regime:
The whole country is now alive with preparations to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Korean people's victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War as a grand festival of victors and the world's attention is focused on Pyongyang.
It is against this backdrop that Chosun Ilbo dared float sheer misinformation hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK.
On July 18 the reptile newspaper released such nonsensical story that Pyongyang is going to invite Western media for interviews on the occasion of the diamond jubilee and asking them to pay a million dollars for them.
[Media]
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Fourth Round of Working Talks between Authorities of North and South of Korea Held
Pyongyang, July 17 (KCNA) -- The fourth round of working talks between the authorities of the north and the south of Korea were held in the Kaesong Industrial Zone on Wednesday to normalize the operation in the zone.
At the talks the north side advanced sincere and practical proposals for normalizing the operation in the zone at an early date and developing it. They included the issue of refraining from all political and military acts of hindering the normal operation in the zone, the issue of preventing the reoccurrence of suspension of operation, the issue of building institution and mechanism for fully ensuring secure operation and business in the zone, the issue of ensuring personal safety and protecting investment and properties, the issue of passage, communications and customs and the issue of developing the zone into a zone for economic cooperation with international competitiveness.
But the south side took such very dishonest and insincere attitude as creating artificial hurdles in settling the issues, insisting only on the blame for the crisis in the zone and unilateral assurances against reoccurrence.
The south side claimed it has the stand of normalizing the operation in the zone but came out to the talks without any draft agreement, the basis of negotiations. It only pretended to have the talks and keep them going on, thus making them fruitless.
The talks ended without fruit due to the unreasonable assertions and insincere attitude despite the north side's sincere efforts.
Both sides agreed to hold the fifth round of working talks in the zone on July 22.
[SK NK Negotiations]
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Empty vault!
No summit minutes found in National Archive; mystery sets off new round of partisan bickering
By Jun Ji-hye
Officials of the National Archives of Korea take an elevator in the National Assembly Thursday to carry boxes containing presidential records of the 2007 inter-Korean summit to the Assembly Steering Committee’s meeting room where 10 selected lawmakers will scrutinize the material. / Yonhap
The whereabouts of the original minutes and tape recordings of the 2007 inter-Korean summit are shrouded in mystery.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers were caught by surprise when they failed to find the records of conversations between late President Roh Moo-hyun and late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il at the National Archives of Korea on Monday and Wednesday.
Their job was to examine the records to find out whether Roh had indeed conceded the Northern Limit Line (NLL) during the summit, a point of major political contention. The NLL is a de facto sea border in the West Sea.
For now, it is uncertain whether a technical glitch or a complicated security system was responsible. The possibility that the records were not stored in the first place can’t be ruled out.
[NLL] [NIS] [RK_summit07]
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Prosecutors Raid Home of Disgraced Ex-President
Prosecutors on Tuesday raided the home of disgraced ex-president Chun Doo-hwan and also searched the offices of his two sons and close relatives on the trail of massive unpaid fines for corruption in office.
Prosecutors apparently confiscated around 140 valuable artworks from the office of Chun's eldest son Jae-kook, including around 30 pieces of rare porcelain. "We discovered many works of art at a dormitory for staff in Paju, Gyeonggi Province," a prosecutor said. "They hadn't even been unpacked, so we believe them to be part of Chun's hidden assets."
Prosecutors raid the home of former President Chun Doo-hwan in Yeonhui-dong, Seoul on Tuesday on the trail of massive unpaid fines for corruption in office. Prosecutors raid the home of former President Chun Doo-hwan in Yeonhui-dong, Seoul on Tuesday on the trail of massive unpaid fines for corruption in office.
The raid on Chun's home in the posh Yeonhui-dong area in northern Seoul also yielded one artwork valued at around W100 million (US$1=W1,119). The former president's home was also seized in order to pay the fines.
[Chun Doo-hwan] [Corruption]
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Former President Chun’s assets raided by prosecutors
Posted on : Jul.17,2013 11:45 KST
Prosecutors investigating holdings of Chun and his family, seeking the payment of long overdue fines
By Kim Won-chul, staff reporter
On July 16, the prosecutors seized one piece of artwork and 7-8 other items from the house of former President Chun Doo-hwan, 82, in the Yeonhui neighborhood of Seoul. The move was part of an effort to collect some of the 167.2 billion won (US$149.93 million) in punitive fines that Chun has yet to pay.
The prosecutors also raided the homes of Chun’s eldest son Chun Jae-guk, 54; his second son Chun Jae-yong, 49; his daughter Hyo-seon, 51; his wife’s brother Lee Chang-seok, 62; and Son Chun-ji, 69, the wife of his younger brother Chun Gyeong-hwan, 71. In addition, the prosecutors searched twelve businesses, including Shigongsa, a publishing company where Chun Jae-guk is president, its affiliate company Herb Village, and BL Asset, which is headed by Chun Jae-yong.
[Chun Doo-hwan] [Corruption]
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Kaesong Talks Fail Again
Officials from the two Koreas failed to reach an agreement in their third round of discussions on how to restart a shuttered inter-Korean industrial park.
Seoul's Unification Ministry said that South Korean officials demanded assurances Monday that operations at the complex continue, even during future periods of heightened tension. A ministry official said the North offered no solid response, but repeated Pyongyang's position that operations at the industrial zone should resume at the earliest possible date.
The talks were held at the North Korean border town of Kaesong, where the factory complex is located. The two sides will meet again, with a date to be determined later.
In their previous talks, the two sides also agreed on a desire to reopen the complex, but could not agree on how to proceed.
[SK NK Negotiations]
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Kaesong talks again end without breakthrough
Posted on : Jul.16,2013 15:42 KST
The heads of the South and North Korean delegations to the July 15 meetings in Kaesong leave at the end of the day without shaking hands. (pool photo)
South and North to talk again on July 17 about a way to restart complex
By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer and Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter
A third round of talks aimed at normalizing and developing operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex ended without any breakthroughs on July 15.
The South Korean side demanded a pledge from the North to prevent future closures and protections for personnel and assets, while North Korea reiterated its calls to resume operations at the complex as soon as possible.
[SK NK Negotiation] [Kaesong] [Preconditions]
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UN report: 9 out of 10 conscientious objectors are South Korean
Posted on : Jul.16,2013 15:59 KST
On July 6, 2008, conscientious objectors and human rights activists criticized the Defense Ministry for trying to bury a plan that would allow conscientious objectors to perform alternative forms of service in front of the Hyatt Hotel in Seoul, where UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was meeting with National Human Rights Commission of Korea President Ahn Gyeong-hwan.
Government continues to ignore UN recommendation on developing alternatives to armed service
By Um Ji-won, staff reporter
Nine of every ten people behind bars around the world for conscientious objection to military service on religious or philosophical grounds are South Korean, a UN study has found.
According to an analytical report on conscientious objection by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), a total of 723 people are in prison around the world for conscientious objection, of whom 669, or 92.5%, are South Koreans.
Next in line is Armenia with 31 conscientious objectors; Eritrea with 15; and Turkmenistan with eight.
The UNHRC published an analytical report on conscientious objector human rights on June 3, its first since 2006.[Human rights]
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Third Round of Working Talks between Authorities of North and South of Korea Held
Pyongyang, July 15 (KCNA) -- The third round of working talks between the authorities of the north and the south of Korea were held in the Kaesong Industrial Zone Monday to normalize the operation in the zone.
At the talks both sides advanced draft agreements for normalizing the operation in the zone and exchanged views.
They agreed to hold the fourth round of working talks in the zone on Wednesday.
[SK NK Negotiations] [Kaesong]
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Rodong Sinmun Calls for Defusing Confrontation between North and South of Korea
Pyongyang, July 15 (KCNA) -- To defuse the confrontation between the north and the south of Korea is essential for bringing earlier the independent and peaceful reunification of the country, says Rodong Sinmun in a bylined article on Monday.
As long as the north and the south of Korea stand in confrontation with each other, it is hard to create an atmosphere of national reconciliation and unity.
There is no reason whatsoever for the north and the south to fail to defuse such confrontation.
The differing ideologies and social system that have long existed between the north and the south of Korea cannot be any ground for fostering antagonism and confrontation between compatriots.
Such confrontation will only lead to a war.
Ceaseless war drills of various missions being staged by the south Korean regime in collusion with the U.S. are criminal acts of escalating the political and military confrontation between the north and the south of Korea and disturbing peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Any military exercise is an open threat to the other party.
[Joint US military]
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No simple scenario for uniting the Koreas
July 10th, 2013
Author: Chung-in Moon, Yonsei University
It is a daunting challenge to predict the future of the Korean peninsula in the Asian century because there are so many variables involved.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye speaks to a joint session of Congress in Washington 8 May 2013. Park highlighted her vision to make Northeast Asia a more peaceful and harmonious region unbound by history and territorial tensions. (Photo: AAP)
But the key factor is clear: the peninsula’s regional and international status and influence will be determined by the nature of inter-Korean relations. Whereas peaceful reunification would greatly enhance Korea’s position, a continuation of the status quo, heightened tension and military clashes are likely to undermine its leadership in the region.
Yet the status quo — where the Korean peninsula remains divided — does not have to entail negative consequences. Although both Koreas might fail to achieve de jure unification, they can avoid military tension and conflict through by promoting mutual exchanges and through cooperation, and so lay the foundation for eventual peaceful unification. Under this rather benign status quo scenario the South Korean economy would continue to grow and North Korea could grasp a new opportunity for opening and reform as well as economic revitalisation. The peninsula, though divided, would be at peace. That would allow both Koreas to play a significant role in shaping the Asian century.
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N.Korea Accuses South of Dodging Talks
North Korea on Saturday accused the South of distorting its intentions in offering talks about reunions of families separated by the Korean War and cross-border package tours.
The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, in an unusually polite letter to South Korea last Thursday, said that South Korea "avoided" talks between mid-ranking officials about the two subjects.
Seoul "must keep in mind that it will face more serious consequences than under the Lee Myung-bak government if it continues to ridicule the other side's good intentions and replies with arrogant and rude words and actions," it said.
The letter appeared to respond more to South Korean press reports, which had speculated that North Korea only proposed talking about the family reunions as a sweetener to resume lucrative package tours to the North's Mt. Kumgang resort.
A government official noted that the letter unusually used honorifics for the South Korean government.
Last Wednesday, President Park Geun-hye met with editorial writers of the country's major newspapers and said the two Koreas must watch what they say to each other in order to build trust. She said this applies to North Korea as well.
[SK NK Negotiations]
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2 Koreas Meet for Another Round of Kaesong Talks
North and South Korea meet for another round of talks about reopening the Kaesong Industrial Complex on Monday. Seoul will continue to push North Korea to admit all responsibility for shutting down the industrial park and offer guarantees that this will not happen again.
The South wants to amend regulations governing travel, communications and customs clearance in line with global standards.
But North Korea is digging in its heels over who is responsible for shutting the complex. North Korean propaganda website Uriminzokkiri on Sunday blamed the government here for perceived insults in the press using "provocative and abusive language." Newspapers here had predicted the North would be reluctant to close the industrial park because it is a cash cow for the regime in straitened times.
The website added that there would not have been any trouble in the first place if the South had watched its mouth.
In an interview with French current affairs magazine Politique Internationale, President Park Geun-hye said, "It is North Korea who has brought the Kaesong complex to a standstill, and it has responsibility to resolve it. We will not repeat the mistake of perpetuating the vicious cycle again -- agreeing to normalize it under a moderate compromise only to face abrupt abrupt shutdown at the whims of the North Korean side."
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Kaesong companies bringing their stuff out of North Korea
Posted on : Jul.15,2013 11:55 KST
Kaesong Industrial Complex tenant companies bring finished products and raw materials out of the complex and into the South through the Inter-Korean Transit Office in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, July 12. (by Lee Jeong-ah, staff photographer)
Companies still hoping that inter-Korean talks can get business going again at the complex
By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer and Kwon O-sung, staff reporter
“The association has not yet determined how much the companies at Kaesong brought back to Korea on July 12 and 13, but as a rule the companies are coming out with two or three vehicles that are completely full of materials,” said Seong Hyeon-sang, the chair of the Damages Subcommittee of the Emergency Measures Committee for Promoting the Normalization of the Kaesong Industrial Complex.
“A significant amount of time would be needed to bring out machines and everything else that is needed,” Seong said. “Since the companies only have one or two days to bring it all out, they are complaining about the difficulty.”
In response to observations that some companies are bringing back equipment, Seong said, “There are certain companies that are bringing back basic equipment, such as machine molds that can be used in South Korea.” He said that, since the machine molds will need some work before they can be used again, some companies are trying to bring as many to South Korea as they can.
When asked whether the companies weren’t trying to withdraw from Kaesong altogether, Seong said that for most of the companies it would be impossible to move all of their equipment with a few vehicles in just one or two days. “In order to remove the equipment from the complex entirely, it would take at least a month and ten or more big trucks.”
The Corporate Association of Kaesong Industrial Complex (CAKIC) seems concerned that the removal of materials and equipment might make it look like the companies are permanently emptying out the complex. If they are not careful, the complex could end up shutting down for good.
[Kaesong]
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Lawmaker releases map showing Roh’s proposed North-South joint fishing area
Posted on : Jul.15,2013 15:00 KST
Democratic Party lawmaker Yun Ho-jung presents a map showing former President Roh Moo-hyun’s proposed West Sea Peace and Cooperation Zone, discussed during Roh’s 2007 inter-Korean summit with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, at the National Assembly in Seoul’s Yeouido neighborhood, July 14. (by Kim Jeong-hyo, staff photographer)
Ruling party lawmakers still claiming that former president offered to abandon the NLL
By Song Ho-jin and Kim Nam-il, staff reporters
A Democratic Party lawmaker has released a copy of a map that he claimed former President Roh Moo-hyun gave to North Korea at a 2007 inter-Korean summit to propose a joint fishing area, with the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the West (Yellow) Sea remaining in place.
Another outcry against the false claims made by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and ruling Saenuri Party (NFP) is now predicted. Both the NIS and Saenuri lawmaker Chung Moon-hun had supplied very different conceptual diagrams for the fishing area that showed Roh attempting to abandon the NLL.
Democratic Party lawmaker Yun Ho-jung organized a July 14 press conference at the National Assembly, where he released both a location map for the “West Sea special peace and cooperation zone” proposed by Roh at the inter-Korean summit in Oct. 2007, as well as an “equal area map” of the fisheries proposed by South Korea during an inter-Korean defense ministers’ summit held the following month as a follow-up measure.
Yun said he had obtained the copies from a senior figure in the Roh administration.
[NLL] [Roh Moo-hyun]
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Doubt lingers over talks on Gaeseong
By Chung Min-uck
With the third round of inter-Korean working-level talks set for today at the North Korean border city of Gaeseong, skepticism is deepening over whether the two sides will be able to come to terms on restarting operations at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC).
North Korea’s propaganda website Uriminzokkiri (between our people) stated on Sunday that South Korea is to blame for the failure of the shut-down of the GIC.
“If the South had not conducted joint military drills with the U.S. and, particularly, had not denounced our intention of the Gaeseong operation as to merely earning dollars, the complex would have continued running,” ran a statement on the website. “So, the South must first come up with safeguards before asking us to do so.”
Seoul, in previous talks, insisted on strong safeguards implemented by the North to prevent another work stoppage in the future, while, Pyongyang called for an immediate resumption of operations once all preparations have been completed.
Given that the opposing stances are like that of a blame game, the widespread view is that it will be hard for the two sides to find a compromise in the upcoming negotiations, deemed crucial in determining whether the complex can reopen, also, whether South and North Korea can lay foundations for a path to reconciliation.
[Kaesong][Joint US military] [Spring Crisis] [Agency
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Envoy's wine promotion takes patience
Georgian Ambassador to Korea Nikoloz Apkhaz
The ambassador says there’s a
lack of awareness of the Georgian wine.
By Kim Se-jeong
Sixteen months into his job, Georgian Ambassador to Korea Nikloz Apkhazava’s efforts to raise awareness of his country’s wine and to find importers here has not been an easy one.
“Very few people know about Georgian wine. It’s only known among experts,” Apkhazava said in an interview. But, there’s a very good reason that Georgian wine deserves recognition, he adds. “Georgia is the cradle of wine.”
[Wine]
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DPRK blames S. Korea for aborted talks
Xinhua, July 14, 2013
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has accused South Korea of distorting its true intentions on talks intended to reunite separated families on both sides, the official news agency KCNA reported Saturday.
In a letter to South Korea's Unification Ministry from its Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea on Thursday, Pyongyang warned of serious consequences for Seoul's "arrogant demeanor," advising Seoul not to misjudge Pyongyang's "magnanimity and efforts."
The letter said Seoul Wednesday rejected Pyongyang's proposal on working talks for the resumption of tour to the DPRK's scenic Mt. Kumgang, asserting it is desirable to focus on settling the issue of the Kaesong Industrial Zone (KIZ) on a priority basis.
[SK NK Negotiations]
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[Special reportage- NIS part 3] Separation of powers to prevent NIS political interference
Posted on : Jul.14,2013 06:55 KSTModified on : Jul.14,2013 06:58 KST
Good will wasn’t enough in past attempts to separate NIS functions and keep them out of politics
By Kim Nam-il, staff reporter
“Surely you wouldn’t be afraid of being dragged into the National Intelligence Service (NIS) offices these days unlike in the past, would you? I don’t yet know how much to reform, or how to reform the agency, but if it continues to modify and adjust like now, then it’ll probably be fine without radical change. The NIS tends to be democratic as long as the president is democratic. Now, as unlike its previous history, the NIS would not conduct any bad actions on its own unless the president made the order to do so.”
This critical remark, which laid out the NIS’s path under the Lee Myung-bak government, was made in the middle of talk at the Blue House Reception Hall on March 23, 2006. It was part of then-President Roh Moo-hyun’s answer to ‘What kind of South Korea do you want your grandchildren to live in?’ during a televised discussion with members of the public.
[NIS]
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Lawmaker said Pres. Park’s father should never have been born; Saenuri demands apology and his resignation
By Kim Su-heon, staff reporter and Seok Jin-hwan, Blue House correspondent
The mood was chilling rapidly on July 12 as the Blue House and the Saenuri Party (NFP) went on the offensive over remarks by Democratic Party floor spokesperson Hong Ik-pyo, who said that South Korean President Park Geun-hye was the descendant of someone who should never have been born. The Blue House and the Saenuri Party intensified their pressure, completely rejecting all scheduled meetings at the National Assembly and demanding an apology from the leader of the Democratic Party, as well as Hong’s resignation.
With the Democratic Party calling these actions “trivial fault-finding,” the preliminary reading of the transcript of the 2007 inter-Korean summit and the adoption of the report of a parliamentary investigation of public health care, which had been scheduled for that day, were both called off
[Park Chung-hee]
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[Editorial] For relations to improve, Seoul and Pyongyang both must face reality
Posted on : Jul.12,2013 16:47 KST
With working-level talks under way on the Kaesong Industrial Complex, North Korea made another proposal on July 10 for talks to resume reunions of separated families and tourism at Mt. Keumgang. The last reunions took place in fall 2010. It also gave notice, for the first time in three years, that it was discharging water from the sluice gates on the Yeseong River.
From the appearances of things, inter-Korean relations seem to be making progress, but the facts tell a different story. The proposal from Pyongyang for new working-level talks seems very likely to be part of an overall “dialogue offensive,” picking up from the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea’s surprise proposal on June 6 for talks between authorities. The agenda is completely the same as the committee’s proposal. It looks as though North Korea is trying to create a positive atmosphere for resuming dialogue with Washington and getting its sanctions lifted by showing the international community that it’s working to improve relations with Seoul. If this is true, the dialogue offensive could continue for the time being.
[SK NK negotiations] [False balance]
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The NIS’s long history of political interference
Posted on : Jul.12,2013 16:43 KST
Meddling in last year’s presidential election is part of a long pattern that continues to go unpunished
By Kwak Byong-chan, senior reporter
It was just after the South Korean presidential election in 1971, and unsuccessful presidential candidate Kim Dae-jung met with Lee Hu-rak, director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (which later became the National Intelligence Service). When Lee offered Kim awkwardly tried to console Kim about the outcome of the election, Kim said, “I didn’t lose to Park Chung-hee: I lost to you, the director of the KCIA.” At the time, Lee, as director of the KCIA, was the person in charge of Park’s election campaign. The KCIA had a long reach, as it was even involved in counting the ballots.
But Park’s administration was not the only case in Korean history when the intelligence service interfered in a president election. With the exception of two, the intelligence agency has meddled in every presidential election.
Violence broke out when Roh Tae-woo was campaigning in Gwangju for the 1987 election stirred up regional sentiment and locked in the Gyeongsang Province vote for Roh. It was carried out by thugs who received orders from the Agency for National Security Planning (another former name of the National Intelligence Service). These were the same goons who took part in the effort to block the establishment of the opposition Democratic Unification Party eight months earlier (usually called the Yongpari incident).
[NIS]
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Abe analogy irritates President
2013-07-12 19:58
Rep. Hong Ik-pyo of the main opposition Democratic Party is surrounded by reporters asking about his remarks concerning President Park Geun-hye and her father, the late former President Park Chung-hee, at the National Assembly in Seoul, Friday. The ruling Saenuri Party boycotted the parliamentary schedule, and demanded an apology from Hong and the opposition party. / Yonhap
By Kim Tae-gyu
An opposition lawmaker used a nebulous phrase from a progressive book, Friday, calling President Park Geun-hye and her father Park Chung-hee “people who should not have been born.”
The comment angered Cheong Wa Dae, and the ruling Saenuri Party, which canceled its parliamentary schedule and demanded an apology from the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) leader Kim Han-gil.
Rep. Hong Ik-pyo of the DP, who made the derogatory remarks, is a first-term lawmaker with knowledge of North Korean affairs after serving as aide for then Unification Minister Lee Jae-jeong under the late President Roh Moo-hyun.
He went on to compare the two Parks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his maternal grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, a prime minister during the Japanese colonial era.
[Park Chung-hee]
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Battling tuberculosis in both South and North Korea
Posted on : Jul.13,2013 14:27 KSTModified on : Jul.13,2013 14:31 KST
South has highest TB prevalence among OECD countries; North has growing problem with multidrug resistant TB
By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer
Tuberculosis is one of the most serious public health problems plaguing North Korea, but South Korea is far from untouched by the disease. The country ranks first in a number of distressing statistical categories among OECD member countries: suicide rate, working hours, gender discrimination . . . and tuberculosis. South Korea is first on the list for tuberculosis incidence, prevalence, and death.
“The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) keeps talking about stamping out tuberculosis, about how embarrassing it is to be ‘backwards.’ But it’s not anything to be ashamed of, or to call ‘backwards,’” said physician Kwonjune Justin Seung, 44. Seung, who is considered one of the top experts in multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), was speaking at a seminar on June 26 on the dangers of the condition in North Korea, as well as possible solutions. The event was organized by the Eugene Bell Foundation, chaired by Stephen Linton, and received support from the Ministry of Unification.
[Health]
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NIS head rekindles NLL dispute
By Jun Ji-hye
NIS chief Nam Jae-joon
Nam Jae-joon, head of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), released a statement on Wednesday claiming that the late former President Roh Moo-hyun negated the nation’s northern sea border.
The statement came hours after rival parties decided to make public content of the original records of the 2007 inter-Korean summit between Roh and late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to settle controversy surrounding the late Roh’s comments on the Northern Limit Line (NLL).
[NIS] [NLL] [Roh Moo-hyun]
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Pyongyang goes tit-for-tat over inter-Korean dialogue
By Kang Seung-woo
North Korea’s withdrawal of a proposal to hold talks with South Korea on restarting a family reunion program is seen as a protest against the Park Geun-hye administration’s inter-Korean policy, Pyongyang watchers said Friday.
“The North views family reunions and the reopening of the Mt. Geumgang tourism program as identical issues, but the South agreed to open talks only on meetings between separated family members, which the former believes is a unilateral decision,” said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute.
“If the North accepts the South’s decision, it could face internal criticism for being too concessionary.”
[SK NK policy]
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North Korea: Enduring Short-Term Pain for Long-Term Gain
By Alexandre Mansourov
12 July 2013
North Korea is now engaged in diplomatic push and pull with South Korea, striving to restructure the inter-Korean relationship to meet the policy priorities of its new leadership and desires of the powerful vested interests it represents. Since Pyongyang’s motivations are not clear, below I identify three mutually exclusive alternative hypotheses explaining the North’s recent interest in engaging the South—to bind the South, to break up with Seoul, or to mollify its patron China—then assess the consistency or inconsistency of available evidence with each competing hypothesis and attempt to select the hypothesis that best fits the evidence. I assume that the North’s motivations in dealing with the South are primarily strategic, with military and domestic security factors being secondary, and economic considerations being tertiary in significance.
[NK SK policy]
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N.Korea in U-Turn Over Talks on Cross-Border Projects
North Korea on Thursday agreed to put off talks on the resumption of package tours to Mt. Kumgang and reunions of families separated by the Korean War. The North proposed the additional talks a day earlier but South Korea rebuffed the offer, saying it wants to concentrate on solving problems with the Kaesong Industrial Complex first.
The Unification Ministry said the North "wants to concentrate on solving the question of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, just as our side said on Wednesday."
Seoul on Wednesday accepted only the proposal for Red Cross talks about the family reunions but suggested a different venue.
[SK NK negotiations] [Overture]
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South and North to only discuss Mt. Keumgang tours after Kaesong is dealt with
Posted on : Jul.12,2013 16:52 KSTModified on : Jul.12,2013 16:54 KST
Ryoo Kihl-jae, Unification Minister
Getting preventive measures promised by North Korea could be a sticking point in resuming both cooperative projects
By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer
Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said on July 11 that the Mt. Keumgang tourism venture with North Korea would only be resumed after South and North first dealt with the Kaesong Industrial Complex situation.
His remarks answered the question of why Seoul agreed to only working-level talks toward reunions between separated families after North Korea’s sudden proposal of talks on both issues the previous day.
[SK NK Negotiations]
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Foreign Affairs Minister said there was never a plan to abandon NLL in 2007
Posted on : Jul.12,2013 16:50 KST
Yun Byung-se, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Yun Byung-se explains that pre- and post-summit, he and other officials never discussed ceding maritime demarcation
By Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter
Minister of Foreign Affairs Yun Byung-se affirmed that no mention of abandoning the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the West (Yellow) Sea was made during the preparations or follow-up to the 2007 inter-Korean summit between then-President Roh Moo-hyun and then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Speaking at an invitational debate on the morning of July 11 at the Kwanhun Club in Seoul, Yun made his remarks in response to a question on whether he had formulated a plan to abandon the NLL while working as Blue House senior secretary for unification, foreign affairs, and national security at the time of the talks.
“The three people in the current administration who came from past administrations are the heads of the agencies for foreign affairs and national security, so I have a very good idea of what their national security views are,” Yun said. “If there were a problem, they wouldn’t be working for this administration, and if you look at it that way, you can see how they prepared.”
[NLL]
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Park makes clean break from MB
President Park Geun-hye smiles duringa trade and investment meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, Thursday.Park said she wore a red coat to express her passion for boosting the economy. / Yonhap
By Kim Tae-gyu
President Park Geun-hye rarely leaves any room for misunderstanding.
Regarding her relationship with the government led by her predecessor Lee Myung-bak, President Park is so clear that few will be mistaken about her intention to establish a clean break from it, even though the two belong to the ruling Saenuri Party.
Of course Park hasn’t said this but her actions, or lack of them, speak loudly for her.
Won Sei-hoon, the former National Intelligence Service (NIS) head under former President Lee, was arrested Wednesday on charges of accepting bribes worth 150 million won ($132,000) from a contractor in cash and other gifts.
Even though Won is charged with bribery, punishing him has another meaning because it is alleged that he intervened in the presidential election last year by posting comments critical of opposition candidates, political observers pointed out Thursday.
Park has repeatedly said that she had nothing to do with the NIS maneuvering and ordered a thorough investigation into the case which, it is feared, will cause a big headache to the incumbent administration.
[Park Geun-hye] [Lee Myung-bak]
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Former NIS Chief Arrested on Bribery Charges
Won Sei-hoon Won Sei-hoon
Prosecutors in Seoul issued an arrest warrant for former National Intelligence Service chief Won Sei-hoon late Wednesday on bribery charges.
Won is accused of receiving W150 million in cash and other materials worth thousands of dollars from the CEO of a construction firm.
The disgraced NIS chief was immediately detained and will face intense questioning over his next 20 days in confinement.
Won has already been indicted for meddling in last year's presidential election.
[NIS] [Corruption]
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South and North agree to more working level talks on Kaesong
Posted on : Jul.11,2013 12:04 KST
Suh Ho, head of the Ministry of Unification’s Inter-Korean Cooperation District Support Directorate (right), shakes hands as he is greeted by Park Chol-su, North Korea’s representative as Suh arrives at the July 10 meetings in Kaesong, North Korea. (pool photo)
Seoul accepts Pyongyang’s offer for talks on divided families, rejects offer to talk about Mt. Keumgang tours
By Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter
During the working-level talks on the Kaesong Industrial Complex, North Korea offered to hold further working-level talks in regard to tourism at Mt. Keumgang and reunions of families separated by the division of South and North.
This indicates that North Korea means to counter the South’s requests for an expression of regret for the suspension of work at Kaesong and a pledge to prevent anything similar from happening again. It hopes to do this by improving inter-Korean relations and moving toward dialogue with the US. The South Korean government accepted the proposal of talks for reunions of divided families, but rejected the offer of talks for resuming tours at Mt. Keumgang.
“This afternoon, North Korean liason officers at Panmunjeom Peace Village delivered Pyongyang’s proposal for inter-Korean working-level talks on July 17 about resuming tours to Mt. Keumgang and its proposal for Red Cross working-level talks on July 19 for holding reunions of divided families around Chuseok [Korea’s harvest festival]. They suggested the talks could be held at Mt. Keumgang or at Kaesong,” said Kim Hyung-suk, spokesperson for the Ministry of Unification, during a briefing with reporters on July 10.
Pyongyang was essentially reiterating the requests that it made in a July 6 statement by the spokesperson for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland (CPRF).
[SK NK Negotiations]
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S. Korean businessmen return to idled Kaesong Complex
Posted on : Jul.11,2013 12:07 KST
Representatives of the Kaesong Corporate Association of Kaesong Industrial Complex answer reporters’ questions at the Inter-Korean Transit Office in Paju, Gyeonggi Province after returning from their inspection of facilities in Kaesong, July 10. (by Park Jong-shik, staff photographer)
Inter-Korean tensions in recent years have hindered investment in the complex; businessmen want to get back to work
By Park Byong-su, staff reporter and Park Kyung-man, north Gyeonggi correspondent
When South Korean workers returned to the Kaesong Industrial Complex on July 10, 97 days after North Korea prevented entrance to the complex on Apr. 3, the industrial park looked desolate under an overcast sky, with few signs of life.
All of the traffic signals were off. Several North Korean workers could be seen pulling weeds that had grown 10-20cm tall. The gas station, convenience store, and company offices that the South Korean staff had used were all locked up.
Nevertheless, the condition of the machinery and materials at the complex was not as bad as the visiting South Koreans had worried. A group of 96 representatives from 59 electricity and electronics companies went around the complex inspecting. This was separate from the second round of working-level talks held between the North and South Korean governments.
“The factories had been empty for nearly 100 days, but they were not in as bad a shape as we had expected,” said Kim Hak-kwon, joint chair of the Emergency Measures Committee for Normalizing the Kaesong Industrial Complex. It was the evening of July 10, and Kim had returned to the Dorasan Inter-Korea Transit Office. “In our judgment, there will not be a problem in getting the factories running again,” Kim said.
“The companies’ situations are somewhat different, but in general the condition of the machines is not that bad,” said Kim. “Since it will take a lot of time and cost a lot to maintain and repair the machines, a team of ten or more people will have to stay at the complex for about 3-4 weeks.”
North Korean employees of the South Korean tenant companies extended a warm greeting, sources reported.
“We were so happy to see each other that we embraced right away,” said one businessman. “They said it was like that with everyone. We’ve all been working closely with each other for years, and that’s just what happens.”
The head of one electronics parts company said the employees “really wanted normalization and said they were ready to go to work at any time. The visitors embraced the seven North Korean officials and employees who came out to greet them, and said they shouldn’t be separated again.”
North Korean officials were reportedly concerned about the removal of materials and equipment.
“The people from the Central Special Zone Development Guidance General Bureau said, ‘We’ve got 53,000 workers on line waiting for everything to start up again. No one’s moved,’” reported a head of one tenant company. “I got the sense that the North Koreans are also really hoping to see the Kaesong Complex back up and running again.”
[Kaesong] [Lee Myung-bak] [Sanctions]
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NIS attempts to defend release of 2007 inter-Korean summit transcript
Posted on : Jul.11,2013 14:58 KST
Statement makes extensive claims about former President Roh’s NLL comments to Kim Jong-il
By Seong Han-yong, political correspondent
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) put out an official statement on July 10 regarding the transcripts it released from a 2007 inter-Korean summit between then South and North Korean leaders Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Jong-il.
In it, the agency, headed by director Nam Jae-joon, argued that Roh effectively abandoned South Korea’s claim to the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the West (Yellow) Sea. It also explained its reasons for illegally releasing the transcripts on June 24, saying it was “profoundly concerned about deepening schisms in the public and a serious negative effect on national security.”
[NIS] [NLL]
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Family reunion talks to be held
South Korea’s chief delegate Suh Ho shakes hands with his North Korean counterpart Park Chol-su before working-level talks in Gaeseong, Wednesday. After failing to agree on detailed measures to reopen a joint industrial complex in the North’s border city, the two sides will meet again on Monday to resolve their differences. / Yonhap
By Chung Min-uck, Kim Tae-gyu
North Korea proposed Wednesday holding three meetings next week to discuss relevant issues with South Korean representatives regarding the joint Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC), Mt. Geumgang tourism and the reunion of family members separated by the Korean War (1950-53).
Pyongyang wants to discuss the GIC on July 15, the tourism project on the 17th and the reunions on the 19th.
[SK NK Negotiations]
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Moon Jae-in mentions President’s complicity in NIS scandal
Posted on : Jul.10,2013 15:31 KST
Moon Jae-in, lawmaker for the Democratic Party
DP candidate in last year’s election says Pres. Park needs to acknowledge that she benefited from NIS’s interference
By Cho Hye-jeong, staff reporter
Moon Jae-in, lawmaker for the Democratic Party, responded to South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s suggestion that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) should “reform itself” on July 10. “Park didn’t make a single reference to the fact that the NIS’s interference in the election and its illegal leaking of the transcript [of the inter-Korean summit in 2007] resulted in an extremely unfair election, or the fact that it was Park who benefited from and even took advantage of this,” Moon tweeted. Moon’s criticism was based on the argument that Park was the beneficiary of the NIS’s tampering with the election.
Moon attended the steering committee of the Busan branch of the Democratic Party on the morning of July 9. “Yesterday, Park ended her long silence to share her thoughts on this issue,” Moon said. “What she said was really disappointing and troubling.”[NIS]
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Second working-level meeting on Kaesong to be a touchstone for inter-Korean relations in the future
Posted on : Jul.9,2013 12:08 KST
Moon Chang-sub, co-chairman of the Corporate Association of Kaesong Industrial Complex, smiles while talking on the phone at the organizations’ offices at the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business in Seoul’s Yeouido neighborhood, July 8. (by Lee Jeong-ah, staff photographer)
Seoul could seek expression of regret from Pyongyang on Kaesong closure, and guarantee that it won’t happen again
By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer and Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter
Speaking in regard to the inter-Korean working-level talks that will be held at the Kaesong Industrial Complex on July 10, South Korean President Park Geun-hye once again emphasized that generally accepted practices and international regulations must be kept. Park is taking a “universalist” approach to the North Korean issue, and it’s not clear what effect that will have on inter-Korean talks in the future.
“If inter-Korean relations are to move forward in the future, we must reach agreements that conform to generally accepted practices and international standards,” Park said as she presided over a meeting of her secretariat at the Blue House on July 8. “It is only if past agreements that were made in this way are kept that we can build trust and forge a constructive relationship.”
[Kaesong]
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Kaesong Could Help N.Korea Overcome Its Global Isolation
Officials from North and South Korea met at the border on Saturday and agreed in principle to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex. The two sides also agreed to hold additional negotiations Wednesday at the complex to discuss specific measures to allow production to resume and prevent another closure.
It was the first agreement with the North since President Park Geun-hye took office in February this year.
[Kaesong]
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2 Koreas Agree to Reopen Kaesong Complex
Officials from North and South Korea in marathon talks from Saturday morning to the early hours of Sunday agreed in principle to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex.
The officials met at the border truce village of Panmujom. They said both sides wish to "normalize operations" at the industrial park and "resolve difficulties" faced by the manufacturers that had to close their facilities.
The agreement comes 96 days after North Korea on April 3 closed the border to traffic going into the industrial park, apparently aggrieved by South Korean media reports that it would not be able to close the complex as it needs the money too badly.
The two sides agreed to let the South Korean manufacturers check and repair machinery in their factories and collect finished goods and raw materials. The North promised South Korean personnel safe passage.
[Kaesong]
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South and North agree to Kaesong visits, more talks on July 10
Posted on : Jul.8,2013 12:10 KST
At the July 6 working-level talks, delegation heads Ministry of Unification Exchange and Cooperation bureau chief Suh Ho, (left) and North Korea’s Park Cheol-su exchange signed agreements after marathon inter-Korean talks in Panmunjeom Peace Village. The talks lasted for 16 hours, finally ending just after 4am on Sunday. (photo pool)
A sore point in negotiations could be getting N. Korea to guarantee that Kaesong won‘t be closed in the future
By Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter
During negotiations that lasted from July 6 into late in the early morning of July 7, North and South Korea agreed to allow South Korean businessmen to enter the Kaesong Industrial Complex to inspect the equipment there and to bring back finished products. While this can be seen as the first step toward reopening Kaesong, there is much work left to do before the complex is fully normalized, making it difficult to be optimistic about the future. In the end, it appears that this problem will depend on how committed North and South are to Kaesong, and whether they can accept each other’s positions.
[Kaesong]
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[Special reportage- part III] The South Korean Vietnam War experience
Posted on : Jul.8,2013 16:10 KSTModified on : Jul.8,2013 16:13 KST
Atrocities committed by South Korean soldiers were not publicly discussed until the late 1990s
By Nam Jong-young, staff reporter
“To the enemy, let us be a bold and fearsome South Korean Army. To the Vietnamese, let us be well-mannered and kind Dai Han,” reads one of the “three instructions and five warnings” for the South Korean forces in Vietnam.
The reality was somewhat different. The forces were like astronauts who had landed on a strange planet. They lost their way following faint trails in the jungle; they fumbled with rice urns and metal cooking pots in the village to find a place to store secret supplies. It took them some time to learn about the mazelike network of caves and tunnels dug into the ground beneath them.
When the first South Korean combat forces were deployed to South Vietnam in 1965, the guerrillas of the Viet Cong (National Liberation Front) had already established a base there and had political control of the locals. Like the US forces, the South Korean soldiers had a difficult time distinguishing who was an enemy soldier and who was an ordinary civilian. Boundaries were often unclear. Residents were friendly during the day, but could be deadly at night.
[Pacification] [War crimes] [SK Vietnam]
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Working-level Talks of Inter-Korean Authorities Held
Pyongyang, July 7 (KCNA) -- Working-level talks between authorities of the north and the south of Korea for the normalization of the Kaesong Industrial Zone (KIZ) were held at the Thongil House in the north side of Panmunjom on Saturday and Sunday.
The talks discussed the issues of decreasing the damage to be done to the south side businesses during the rainy season and normalizing operations in the KIZ and adopted an agreement.
According to it, the north and the south will let those businessmen concerned of the south side and other personnel visit the KIZ from July 10 to check and readjust equipment to reduce the damage.
The north and the south will let the south side businessmen take finished products and raw and subsidiary materials out of the zone and carry equipment out of it according to related procedures.
The north and the south will ensure the passage of south side personnel and vehicles coming in and out of the zone, communications and their safe return and personal safety for the above-said purpose.
The north and the south will make sure that the businesses in the KIZ will restart, depending on their preparations, and decided to hold the next round of talks in the KIZ on July 10 for the normalization of operations in the zone, including the prevention of recurrence of suspension of operation.
[Kaesong]
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2 Koreas agree to reopen Gaeseong
By Kim Tae-gyu
The two Koreas agreed in principle to reopen a joint industrial park in the North’s city of Gaeseong, which has been closed since early April, after two days of marathon negotiations that started Saturday and ended Sunday morning at the truce village of Panmunjeom.
As the monsoon season is feared to damage facilities in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC), those in charge of its operation and South Korean businessmen will visit the city on July 10 when a follow-up meeting will take place to discuss how to prevent a recurrence of the suspension of operations.
[Kaesong]
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[Special reportage- part I] Attending the funeral of the victim of a South Korean war crime in Vietnam
Posted on : Jul.7,2013 08:15 KSTModified on : Jul.7,2013 08:20 KST
Pamtihoa, a survivor of the 1968 Ha My massacre by South Korean soldiers in Vietnam, who passed away in June at age 87.
45 years later, massacre at Ha My village still an unsolved riddle for those who survived it
By Ku Su-jeong, contributing writer to Hankyoreh 21, in Vietnam
The chanting of the monks, prayers for the old woman Pamtihoa to have a peaceful journey to the next life, can be heard at the entrance to the village. My heart sinks, and I find it hard to move forward, as if my feet are glued to the ground.
“She’s here! She’s here!” Several people from Ha My village in Dien Ban District of Quang Nam Province, Vietnam who had been squatting in a narrow alley, come running out and pull me along by the hand.
[War crimes] [SK Vietnam]
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South, North agree to normalize Gaeseong complex
Chief delegates from South and North Korea shake hands after reaching four-point agreement toward normalization of the industrial complex in Gaeseong early Sunday morning. Yonhap
Officials from South and North Korea agreed to normalize the stalled inter-Korean industrial complex in Gaeseong.
They decided to allow employees of companies in the complex to visit production sites from July 10 to check facilities and equipment to minimize possible loss due to the ongoing rainy season.
The North concurred on the need for the South Korean firms to withdraw end-use products and materials to facilitate the planned normalization. It also promised to guarantee the safe passage of the South Korean people and relevant vehicles.
[Kaesong]
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ROK, DPRK start working-level talks
Xinhua, July 6, 2013
South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Saturday started working-level talks at the truce village of Panmunjeom, according to Yonhap News Agency.
As scheduled, three-member delegations from each side began the dialogue at around 10 a.m. local time in Tongilgak, an administrative building on the DPRK side of the Panmunjeom.
They will discuss how to normalize operations of the inter-Korean industrial park at the DPRK's border town of Kaesong that has been suspended for around three months.
[Kaesong]
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Two Koreas start talks on future of idled industrial park
South and North Korea began working-level talks at the neutral border village of Panmunjom on Saturday to discuss the future of the suspended inter-Korean industrial complex.
The two sides agreed to hold the talks late Thursday to iron out differences over the Kaesong Industrial Complex that has been shut down for nearly three months amid high tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula.
[Kaesong]
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2 Koreas to Talk About Kaesong Complex
North and South Korea have agreed to discuss the closed Kaesong Industrial Complex on Saturday. According to an agreement on Thursday, mid-ranking officials from both sides will meet in the border truce village of Panmunjom.
The complex has effectively been shut since North Korea on April 3 closed the border to traffic going into the industrial park, citing unspecified insults to its "dignity" in the South Korean press.
The officials plan to discuss maintenance of the idle manufacturing equipment, handling of finished products stored there, and how to resume production.
Seoul was able to persuade Pyongyang that the meeting should take place before any of the manufacturers go to Kaesong for separate talks, which the North proposed a day earlier.
[SK NK Negotiations] [Kaesong]
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Reopening Kaesong Complex Requires Fundamental Overhaul
The government on Thursday agreed to hold talks with North Korea to discuss the possible reopening of the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex. North Korea accepted the proposal.
North Korea stormed out in a huff and vowed never to speak to the South again after preparations for cross-border talks broke down last month over the rank of delegates. But on Wednesday afternoon manufacturers with factories in the complex held a press conference saying they want to get their equipment out and take their business somewhere else.
That seems to have prompted the North to announce later that day that it will allow the manufacturers to go to Kaesong and inspect their facilities. To get the message across, the North even reconnected a hotline with the South it had severed after cross-border talks were abruptly cancelled last month.
[Kaesong]
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[News analysis] Hurdles remain before normalization at Kaesong complex
The entrance to the Kaesong Industrial Complex is empty of traffic. North Korea announced an entry ban for South Koreans on Apr. 3 and yesterday announced that it would withdraw all North Korean workers. (by Park Jong-shik, staff photographer)
Talks scheduled for July 6 could stumble over disagreements regarding conditions for normalizing complex’s operations
By Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter and Seok Jin-hwan, Blue House correspondent
Working-level talks between the governments of North and South Korea for normalizing the Kaesong Industrial Complex are scheduled to take place at Panmunjeom Peace Village on July 6. It has been 25 days since government-level talks between South and North fell through on June 11 because of a dispute over the rank of delegation heads.
After trading proposals and counter-proposals, North and South agreed to hold the working-level talks at the Unification Pavilion, on the North Korean side of Panmunjeom Peace Village. After receiving North Korea’s initial proposal, on July 4 the Ministry of Unification suggested holding the working-level talks at the Unification Pavilion on the North Korean side of Panmunjeom or the House of Peace on the South Korean side.
However, a battle of wills ensued when North Korea suggested instead that the talks be held at the Kaesong Complex. When the South Korean government responded by proposing they take place at Dorasan Inter-Korean Transit Office, it appeared that the talks were in danger of collapsing again. But after some behind-the-scenes haggling, the two sides finally agreed on Panmunjeom.
[Kaesong]
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South and North agree to working-level talks on Kaesong Complex
Posted on : Jul.5,2013 11:54 KSTModified on : Jul.5,2013 11:55 KST
Talks are scheduled for July 6 on the South Korean side of Panmunjeom Peace Village
By Kim Kyu-won, staff reporter
North and South Korea have agreed to hold a working-level meeting at the Unification Pavilion on the North Korean side of Panmunjeom Peace Village at 10 am on July 6. The objective of the meeting is to resolve the issue of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, where operations have been shut down for three months.
Now that Pyongyang has agreed to the July 4 proposal by the South Korean government for working-level talks, inter-Korean dialogue is set to resume after twenty-five days of deadlock. The talks are notable as they may be an opportunity to resume operations at the Kaesong Complex and to improve inter-Korean relations.
After North Korea indicated on July 3 that it would allow businessmen from Kaesong tenant companies to visit the complex, the South Korean government responded the following morning with a counter-proposal. It suggested holding working-level talks between North and South at Panmunjeom on July 6.
[Kaesong]
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Kaesong Complex workers walk from Busan to the DMZ for normalization
Posted on : Jul.5,2013 11:53 KST
Around 50 members of the Kaesong Complex Workers’ Council leave Busan Station on July 4. They will walk from there to Unification Bridge in Paju calling for a normalization of operations at the complex, visiting 20 cities along the way. (Newsis)
Workers hoping July 6 working-level talks will allow them to get back to business
By Kwon O-sung, staff reporter
On July 4, Han Jae-kwon, joint chair of the Emergency Measures Committee for Normalizing the Kaesong Industrial Complex, held a press conference at the committee’s office at the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Businesses headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul. “We will try to visit the North on July 9 to inspect facilities and equipment,” Han said. “We hope that both North and South will take the necessary measures.”
[Kaesong]
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[Editorial] Take this chance to get Kaesong operating again
Posted on : Jul.5,2013 11:50 KST
North and South Korean government authorities reached an agreement to hold working-level talks in Panmunjeom on July 6 to discuss the Kaesong Industrial Complex. This would be the first meeting to normalize operations at the complex since it was shut down in early April.
Hopefully, the discussions will result in some good news for inter-Korean relations. On July 3, North Korea said it would allow officials from Kaesong tenant companies and members of the South Korean management committee to visit the complex. On July 4, Seoul proposed talks to discuss three agenda items, and the North agreed.
One of the topics mentioned by the South Korean government was the issue of inspecting facilities and equipment. Tenant companies have been desperately asking for permission to do this as the shutdown has drawn out into the rainy season. Unfortunately, Seoul chose to merely include this as an agenda item rather than simply allow the companies’ representatives to visit the North.
[Kaesong]
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2 Koreas agree to meet Saturday
By Kim Tae-gyu
The two Koreas have agreed to hold working-level talks at the truce village of Panmunjeom, Saturday, to discuss suspended operations at the inter-Korean industrial complex in the North Korean border city of Gaeseong, the Ministry of Unification said Thursday.
“The North informed us at around 8:35 p.m. that the talks can be held on the North’s side of Panmunjeom at 10 a.m. Saturday. And we accepted it,” a ministry official said.
The two sides will exchange lists of the three-member delegations Friday, he added.
[SK NK Negotiations] [Kaesong]
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North and South Korea agree to talks on shuttered industrial complex
By Chico Harlan, Published: July 4 E-mail the writer
SEOUL — South and North Korea on Thursday agreed to hold talks over reopening a jointly run industrial park, their latest attempt at reconciliation after a period this year during which the two countries cut nearly all ties.
The meeting — proposed by South Korea and accepted hours later by the North — will take place Saturday at an administrative building just north of the demilitarized border.
This attempt at dialogue comes three weeks after the two Koreas canceled a high-level meeting, unable to agree on who would attend.
As tensions have eased over the past three months, both nations have shown interest in dialogue but have met only once, for a contentious, 17-hour sit-down between mid-level bureaucrats.
The talks scheduled for Saturday will be of limited scope, focusing on the Kaesong Industrial Complex, a jointly operated park six miles north of the border. The complex has been shuttered since early April, when the North banned South Koreans from entering the site and pulled out its 53,000 workers.
[SK NK Negotiations] [Kaesong]
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Pyongyang Says S.Korean Manufacturers Can Visit Kaesong
North Korea in a fresh volte-face on Wednesday said it wants to restore inter-Korean hotlines and allow South Korean manufacturers to close the Kaesong Industrial Complex.
Around 5 p.m. Wednesday, the North Korean agency in charge of the joint-Korean industrial park sent a message through liaison officials to the South Korean management committee and an association of South Korean manufacturers there.
It pledged to "allow South Korean businessmen to visit the industrial park to work out emergency measures to prevent damage to facilities and materials in the rainy season." It also promised to take "necessary measures for their cross-border travel and communications" and asked to be given a schedule.
Officials from the management committee can also visit, for "any necessary consultations," it added.
The message was preceded by a phone call.
Cabinet members here immediately held an emergency meeting but failed to agree whether the manufacturers should be permitted to go, a government spokesman said. "The government will make a decision soon," he added.
[Overture] [Kaesong]
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South Korea prods North to reopen talks on jointly-run complex in Kaesong
Seoul tries again to restart negotiations over border complex closed after tensions rose earlier this year
Associated Press in Seoul
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 4 July 2013 07.34 BST
The roadblocks are raised at the entrance to Kaesong, on the South Korean side.
The entrance to Kaesong, on the South Korean side. Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP
South Korea's government says it has reached out to North Korea to discuss restarting a jointly-run factory park after weeks of testy silence between the two sides.
The industrial complex in the North Korean city of Kaesong, just north of the demilitarised zone dividing the two Koreas, has been shut since a political showdown in April.
[Overture] [Kaesong]
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Kaesong companies issue an ultimatum: normalization or relocation
Posted on : Jul.4,2013 14:39 KST
Representatives from 46 tenant companies show their worries at an emergency meeting at the Korean Federation of Small and Medium Business (Kbiz) offices in Seoul‘s Yeouido neighborhood, July 3. (by Lee Jeong-ah, staff photographer)
Still locked out of their factories, companies say if complex isn’t restarted, they’ll find somewhere else to do business
By Kwon Oh-sung, staff reporter and Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer
Machine and electronics parts tenant companies that had been operating at the Kaesong Industrial Complex have announced plans to relocate their facilities.
Representatives from 46 tenant companies released a statement adopted at an emergency meeting on July 3 at the Korean Federation of Small and Medium Business (Kbiz) offices in Seoul’s Yeouido neighborhood. In it, they demanded that the North and South Korean governments “reach a decision on either closing [the complex] down or starting it up again within the next 10 days.”
If a decision is not reached, the statement said, the companies would “have no other choice but to relocate their Kaesong Complex equipment to other places in Korea and overseas.”
[Kaesong]
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4-fingered pianist sends hope to NK
By Nam Hyun-woo
2013-07-03 17:55
Lee Hee-ah
Lee Hee-ah, 27, a pianist with only four fingers, said she hopes her music will play a role in helping to thaw the frozen relationship between the two Koreas.
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Inter-Korean Hotline is Reconnected
July 3, 2013
A North Korean soldier in April looks through binoculars into South Korea at the border village of Panmunjom. The Koreas on Wednesday reportedly restored an emergency hot line linking the two countries (AP Photo/Yonhap News Agency).A North Korean soldier in April looks through binoculars into South Korea at the border village of Panmunjom. The Koreas on Wednesday reportedly restored an emergency hot line linking the two countries (AP Photo/Yonhap News Agency).
The emergency communication line between North and South Korea was reconnected once again on Wednesday, unidentified South Korean officials told Agence France-Presse.
After being severed earlier this spring, the two-way hotline was restored in June as the two Koreas prepared to hold their first high-level talks in years. However, the discussions were called off at the last minute and Pyongyang ceased responding to hotline calls placed by Seoul.
"The hotline was restored this afternoon after North Korea accepted our request to normalize it," an anonymous South Korean Unification Ministry official said.
The North is understood to be motivated by a desire to keep South Korean businesses from following through on their threats to exit a shared economic project. The Kim Jong Un regime on Wednesday invited South Korean managers to visit the Kaesong complex to handle emergency weather-related preparations.
Seoul said it was carefully examining the message and would issue a response later
[Overture] [Kaesong]
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Lawmakers Agree to Disclose Full Summit Transcript
Ruling and opposition party lawmakers agreed on Tuesday to disclose the full transcript of a 2007 inter-Korean summit containing the late president Roh Moo-hyun's controversial remarks on the western sea boundary with North Korea.
Lawmakers will negotiate further over who gets to see transcript and in what format. Some 257 out of a total 276 lawmakers in the National Assembly supported disclosing the transcript, 17 opposed it, and two abstained.
The transcript is kept in the National Archives of Korea as presidential records and requires a vote by at least two thirds of the National Assembly to disclose. The archives now have 10 days to comply
[KR_Summit07] [NLL]
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N.Korea Slams Park Over Nuke Remarks
A defiant North Korea on Monday said its nuclear weapons "are neither a bargaining chip nor a topic on a dialogue table." The announcement came after President Park Geun-hye and her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping last week condemned the North's nuclear weapons as a "serious threat" and pledged to work together so the North abandons them.
That suggests the North's recent promise to return to six-party talks, made by a top military figure during a visit to Beijing, was so much hot air.
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N.Korea Tested Artillery Before Park's China Trip
North Korea fired short-range projectiles into the East Sea last Wednesday, a day before President Park Geun-hye embarked on her state visit to China. The projectiles are believed to fit a new type of 300-mm multiple rocket launchers.
A government source said Monday that four of the short-range projectiles were fired into the East Sea from a point near Wonsan.
Between May 18 and 20 North Korea fired another six short-range projectiles into the East Sea, and South Korean military authorities also estimated that they were new 300-mm multiple rocket launchers.
"We believe North Korea is continuing to test-fire its new multiple rocket launchers," a military spokesman here said.
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N. Korea making harsher, more direct criticisms of Park Geun-hye
Posted on : Jul.2,2013 11:37 KSTModified on : Jul.2,2013 11:39 KST
A North Korean Central Television announcer reads a statement from the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland denoucing South Korea‘s release of the 2007 inter-Korean summit transcript, June 27.
In a statement, the North omits Park’s title as head of government, and mocks her “trust-building process”
By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer
North Korea recently delivered harsh criticism of President Park Geun-hye that referred to her without her official title, which is considered a sign of overt disrespect in Korean culture.
This was the second such denunciation, the first coming in a May 25 statement by a National Defense Commission politburo spokesperson, who called her a “puppet president.” At the same time, it left open the continued possibility for inter-Korean dialogue, stating that it was “watching Park Geun-hye closely with our last bit of patience.”
[Park Geun-hye] [NK SK policy]
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CPRK Accuses S. Korean Chief Executive of Her Anti-DPRK Remarks
Pyongyang, July 1 (KCNA) -- The spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) Monday gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA as regards the provocative remarks made by the south Korean chief executive against the DPRK during her trip to China:
Park Geun Hye let loose a whole string of provocative remarks seriously hurting the dignity and social system in the DPRK while visiting China.
At the "summit talks," conversations, press conference and in a special lecture given at a university during her trip she persistently raised the "nuclear issue in the north", expressing "concern" and "disallowance." She went the lengths of blustering that the DPRK's new strategic line on simultaneously pushing forward economic construction and the building of nuclear force is "something impossible from the beginning" and "this only invites self-isolation."
[Park Geun-hye] [NK SK policy]
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2 Koreas to go toe to toe at ARF
2013-07-01 17:31
By Chung Min-uck
Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se
South and North Korea are exerting diplomatic efforts, holding back-to-back foreign ministerial meetings on the sidelines of the annual security forum hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Brunei, Monday.
North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Brunei on Monday, a day prior to the launch of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), Asia’s top security forum, according to the South Korean Foreign Ministry..
Pak reportedly conveyed Pyongyang’s willingness to return to the six party talks.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Minister Wang said, “China will expand efforts so that relevant nations can participate in talks.”
[ARF]
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Korea Marks Anniversary of Yeonpyeong Naval Battle
When the whole nation was celebrating Korea's advancement to the semifinals of the FIFA World Cup in 2002, North Korea sprang a sudden attack after one of its patrol ships defied warnings and crossed the Northern Limit Line, a de-factor maritime border in the West Sea, then fired artillery near the border island of Yeonpyeong.
The naval clash ended in just 25 minutes, but it claimed the lives of six South Korean marines, leaving 10 others critically wounded. Thirteen North Korean soldiers also died, and the patrol ship withdrew in flames after being fired on in return.
Eleven years have passed since but tensions near the inter-Korean maritime border remain high. The risk of similar shock attacks is still considered high as the socialist enclave continues to question the legitimacy of the NLL, arguing that it should be drawn further south.
[NLL]
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[Special reportage- NIS part I] Intel gathering, political interference and surveillance
Posted on : Jul.1,2013 11:26 KST
An image for the NIS‘s website, showing their motto as "Anonymous dedication to freedom and truth".
Recent election scandal leads to investigation into wide net of NIS agents’ political involvement
By Kim Nam-il, staff reporter
A parliamentary investigation into the National Intelligence Service’s (NIS) manipulation of public opinion during last December’s presidential election is set to begin soon. In the wake of this incident, calls for special measures to prevent political interference in the future are growing. Steps are being demanded to prevent the kind of widespread gathering of intelligence that is currently taking place not in the political and business worlds, but in with the media, academia, and civil society. This part of a special reportage series on the NIS looks at some of the problems with NIS’s intelligence-gathering tactics and offers some suggestions as to what kind of reforms might work.
It was the evening of June 24, and the politicians in Seoul’s Yeouido neighborhood were bowled over by the NIS’s surprising - and illegal - disclosure of transcripts from the 2007 inter-Korean summit between then-President Roh Moo-hyun and late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. A drinking party was taking place at a nearby restaurant, with an NIS agent in charge of the National Assembly in attendance. Others at the dinner included lawmakers’ aides, securities company senior managers, political journalists, and polling organization heads. They went back and forth over Roh’s purported comments about the Northern Limit Line (NLL) and the NIS’s election tactics, before the conversation eventually drifted to claims from the securities company senior manager that a figure from Roh’s administration had manipulated stock prices. The prosecutors hadn’t thoroughly investigated the matter, the senior manager griped.
[NIS]
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Park administration distorts 2007 summit transcript even more than MB gov’t
Posted on : Jul.1,2013 14:36 KST
Former President Roh remark’s have been twisted to create the impression he was kowtowing to N. Korea
By Kim Jong-cheol, political correspondent
The transcript of the 2007 inter-Korean summit between former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun, after being misrepresented once before during the Lee Myung-bak administration, has been even more severely distorted by the Park Geun-hye administration. This was what the Hankyoreh found on June 30 when it compared the full text of the transcript with the excerpts prepared in May 2009 (the Lee version) and the 8 pages of excerpts released to the Saenuri Party (NFP) members of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee (the Park version) on June 20.
First of all, the Lee version was designed with political ends in mind, as can be seen in the section that reads, “We will draw attention to the issues with the June 15 and the Oct. 4 Joint Declaration at home and abroad, suppress calls from North Korea and the South Korean left to fully implement these agreements, and emphasize the validity of our policy toward North Korea.” As a result, the larger context of the dialogue was ignored, and those sections that fit their agenda were taken out of context.
[KR_summit07] [NLL] [Lee Myung-bak] [Park Geun-hye]
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North Korea calls summit transcript release a “mockery of supreme leader”
Posted on : Jul.1,2013 14:51 KSTModified on : Jul.1,2013 15:31 KST
A North Korean Central Television announcer reads a statement from the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland denoucing South Korea‘s release of the 2007 inter-Korean summit transcript, June 27.
Pyongyang also mentions the release of details of NK visits by South Korean conservative politicians
By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer
On June 27, North Korea strongly expressed its opposition to the unauthorized disclosure of the classified transcript from the 2007 inter-Korean summit by the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the Saenuri Party (NFP), calling it a “mockery of our supreme leader.” This was three days after the transcripts were released in June 24.
The spokesperson for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland (CPRF), the North organization for dealing with the South, released an emergency statement early in the morning of June 26, the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. According to the KCNA, the statement read, “The puppet conservative lackeys’ arbitrary decision to release the transcript of the summit between the two leaders without receiving permission from North Korea constitutes a mockery of our supreme leader and a grave provocation to the other party in the talks.”
With North Korea offering harsh criticism of the release of the transcript, it is becoming less likely that the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which is attended by the foreign ministers of the members of the six-party talks (North Korea, South Korea, the US, China, Russia, and Japan), will be an opportunity for new talks. The conflict between North and South is keeping the situation on the Korean peninsula from progressing.
“It is obvious that this transcript could not have been released without the direct permission of the current authority in the Blue House,” the CPRF emergency statement said, according to the KCNA. “Considering that the current administration was directly involved not only with the National Intelligence Service’s interference in the election but also in the release of the transcript, it goes without saying that the Blue House was behind it.”
[KR_summit07] [NIS]
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