| THE NORTH KOREA REPORT: DECEMBER 2, 2002 Our statement on why North Korea must be liberated, and how it can happen, can be found here. NEWS NORTH KOREA DENIES ADMITTING TO NUCLEAR PROGRAM Well, this is rich. Weeks after its acknowledgement of its continuing nuclear weapons program woke the rest of the world up to its perfidy, North Korea is now saying it never made such an admission to the United States. The admission led the U.S. to suspend shipments of fuel oil that were part of the 1994 nuclear power deal with the North, which it violated by not ending its nuclear ambitions. Report: BBC Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly forced the admission out of the Stalinists, but now, after the suspension of fuel oil, and a lot of talk about nixing the two nuclear power plants that were also part of the deal, they claim it was all a misunderstanding. Sure it was. DEFECTOR SAYS NORTH KOREA HAS NUKES, KIDNAPPED DOZENS OF JAPANESE Kenki Aoyama � and for obvious reasons, that�s not his real name � defected from North Korea to Japan over three years ago. A former nuclear engineer, he backs up numerous claims from intelligence officials about North Korea�s nuclear weapons (the Stalinists have them) and from families of missing Japanese (the North kidnapped far more than the thirteen to which it admits). Report: Washington Post Despite the fact that his information is far from new (see 9/30/02, 11/04/02, and 11/18/02 NK Reports), Japanese officials are keeping him at arms length. In part this is because of his claims, never refuted, that a leading member of Japan�s ruling Liberal Democratic Party took North Korean money in 1992. His information also leads to this embarrassing question: why did the government sit on it for three years? Stop the North Korean Nuclear Power Plants: North Korea�s nuclear weapons program, and its nuclear weapons themselves, are no longer secret, but the 1994 agreement to build two nuclear power plants for the Stalinists has yet to die. Use this China e-Lobby fact sheet and tell the President to move beyond the suspension of fuel oil shipments and end the 1994 deal, now. PUTIN AND JIANG CALL FOR �NON-NUCLEAR� KOREA, U.S. DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH NK Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Beijing this week to meet with the two powers in Communist China: General Secretary Hu Jintao and Central Military Commission Chairman Jiang Zemin. Putin met with Jiang first. The two issued a joint statement calling for a �non-nuclear� North Korea � using boilerplate the People�s Republic has been using for years. Report: CNN, BBC IAEA TELLS NK TO DROP INSISTENCE ON �ENTITLEMENT� TO NUKES, ALLOW INSPECTIONS The International Atomic Energy Agency publicly ripped the Stalinist regime�s �repeated public statements that it is entitled to possess nuclear weapons� (CNN). The IAEA also called on the North to �open immediately all relevant facilities to IAEA inspections and safeguards� (BBC) and �give up any nuclear weapons programs expeditiously and in a verifiable manner.� POWELL TELLS PAKISTAN TO STOP HELPING NORTH KOREA�S NUCELAR AMBITIONS Secretary of State Colin Powell called on Pakistan to cease and desist its assistance to North Korea�s nuclear weapons development. Powell said he told Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf that �consequences� (Washington Post) would follow any such aid. According to Powell, Musharraf �assured me on more than one occasion that there are no further contacts.� Numerous reports have found Pakistan helped North Korea�s nuclear program up to as recently as three months ago (see the above story and the 11/18/02 NK Report). NORTH KOREA SELLING MISSILE PARTS TO YEMEN They�re at it again. The Stalinist regime is now selling �missiles and fuel components to Yemen in a sign the Pyongyang government is continuing to act as the world's main missile supplier� (Bill Gertz, Washington Times). Yemen is currently an American ally in the terrorist war, but then again, Pakistan, which has its own military relationship with North Korea (see above), also makes that claim. KOREAN PEACE NETWORK WANTS JIMMY CARTER BACK IN NORTH KOREA An umbrella organization of Korean dovish groups which calls itself the Korean Peace Network asked Jimmy Carter to help defuse the issue of North Korea�s nuclear weapons program (Cybercast News). Carter led the negotiations for the 1994 deal in which North Korea got two nuclear power plants and millions in fuel oil for freezing its nuclear ambitions � the very deal the North admitted violating. NORTH KOREAN REFUGEE ADVOCATES RETHINKING STRATEGY In light of the Communist clampdown on democratic embassies in the PRC to stop North Korean refugees from using them to get to South Korea, advocates for the refugees are looking at other avenues, according to the Washington Post. Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans are forced to hide in Communist China, which sends any refugee it finds back to the Stalinist regime from which they escaped. YANG BIN CHARGED WITH BRIBERY The PRC charged Yang Bin, the �entrepreneur� who was supposed to lead the North�s �special economic zone� in Sinuiju, with �bribery, fraud and other �commercial crimes�� (Communist-run Xinhua news agency as cited by CNN). However, the real motivation for the charges may come from Yang�s appointment itself, on which the PRC �was not consulted� (BBC). Also reporting: Washington Post SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION NEWS: FIELD NARROWS, RACE TIGHTENS In an effort to block hawkish Presidential candidate Lee Hoi-chang from winning the Blue House (South Korea�s White House), one of his two major opponents withdrew, endorsing the remaining candidate � Roh Moo-hyun of President Kim Dae-jung�s Millennium Democrats. Roh�s windfall gave him a slight edge in the last polls allowed before the December 19 vote, predicted to be very close. Report: BBC Roh is a supporter of Kim�s �sunshine� policy. Lee, by contrast, is far closer to the U.S. position on the Stalinist North. He has even gone beyond it, demanding a halt to construction of two nuclear power plants in the North from the 1994 Agreed Framework until the Stalinists nix their nuclear weapons program (see 11/11/02 NK Report). Lee�s Grand National Party controls the South Korean legislature. ON-AGAIN, OFF-AGAIN DE-MINING OF DMZ ON AGAIN AFTER SOUTH DROPS INSPECTIONS North Korea has ended its three-week holdup of de-mining the demilitarized zone between the Stalinist North and the democratic South. The Stalinists had put a halt to the operation by insisting the U.S., the lead military force on the southern side of the DMZ, have no part in inspecting the northern de-mining operation. The South agreed to have the inspections �dropped� (BBC). The de-mining is in preparation for the building of road and rail links, to which the North agreed in September in exchange for tens of millions worth of construction equipment (see 10/14/02 NK Report). The links would allow freight from South Korea to �travel overland to Europe, significantly cutting costs.� They would also make the South more economically dependent on keeping the Stalinists happy. COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS ON NORTH KOREA AND IRAQ John Leyne, BBC, looks at why North Korea is receiving treatment from the United States that is so much softer than the treatment Iraq is receiving. Meanwhile, Charles Krauthammer sees North Korea�s nuclear weapons as justification for war against the Ba�athist regime of Saddam Hussein, in the Weekly Standard. ANOTHER CALL FOR REGIME CHANGE IN NORTH KOREA James Hackett adds his voice to those calling for the liberation of North Korea in the Washington Times. Hackett is also optimistic that after December�s presidential election in South Korea, �the United States and its Asian allies can end the (1994 nuclear) agreement and pursue a more realistic policy of aggressive containment to isolate North Korea and promote badly needed regime change.� Sign the Boycott Petition: In reaction to the 2008 Olympic Games being awarded to Beijing, the China e-Lobby has begun a petition for an American boycott of those games. 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