| THE NORTH KOREA REPORT: MAY 6, 2002 NEWS NORTH KOREA SHARES DUBIOUS HONOR OF WORST VIOLATOR OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM The Second Summit of Christian Leaders on Religious Persecution in Washington, a meeting jointly backed by Freedom House and the National Association of Evangelicals, declared North Korea and Sudan �the worst violators of religious rights in the world� (Cybercast News, Washington Times). UN CUTTING FOOD AID TO THE NORTH The United Nations is cutting back its food aid to North Korea, according to the BBC, and the Washington Post. Sadly, neither story mentions the unmet demands of many donors that the UN more thoroughly monitor its aid distribution. Reports are rampant of North Korean Communists stealing the food to feed Party and military families, which has led many to hold back donations to the famine-stricken land. TALKS WITH U.S. SET, BUT TALKS WITH SOUTH KOREA JUNKED ON AN �INSULT� North Korea and the U.S. have agreed to resume talks, according to the Washington Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. Among the topics sure to come up is the North�s �approach� to the 1994 deal in which the U.S. agreed to build two nuclear power plants for the Stalinist regime to entice it to stop building nuclear weapons. North Korean weapons sales to terrorist states are also likely to be an issue. The nuclear deal has survived all reports of sales to terrorists, reports of the regime being �out of compliance� with the agreement, and, of course, its inclusion in President Bush�s axis of evil. Talks with South Korea, however, were nixed days before they were to begin by the Stalinist regime, which blamed �reckless� and �insulting� remarks by a South Korean cabinet member for its fit of pique (BBC, CNN). NORTH KOREA SAYS IT DID NOT INVITE CLINTON TO BE A MEDIATOR The BBC story also included a North Korean denial of an earlier report that the Stalinist regime had asked former President Bill Clinton to mediate between it and the U.S. Report: Los Angeles Times SECURITY AROUND EMBASSIES IN PRC BEEFED UP TO STOP NORTH KOREAN DEFECTIONS Communist China has �strengthened security around foreign embassies� (BBC) in an attempt to prevent refugees of its Stalinist ally North Korea from using them to defect to South Korea. As a policy, the People�s Republic sends back anyone who escapes from its fellow Communist regime. JAPAN PROBE OF NORTH KOREAN SHIP FINDS �BODIES LASHED� TO VESSEL A Japanese investigation of a sunken North Korean ship that was possibly �on a spying or drug smuggling mission� has found �several bodies lashed� to the vessel, in an apparent attempt to �make recovery difficult� (CNN). There was also evidence that the crew scuttled the ship to avoid capture. CRACKS IN NORTH KOREAN DAM COULD FLOOD THE SOUTH A 16-year-old dam in North Korea is so badly cracked that it �could collapse and send millions of tonnes of waters crashing into the South� (BBC). The cracks, large enough to come through in satellite photos, could leave rural areas in South Korea �submerged.� COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS DOCTOR NORBERT VOLLERTSEN Doug Struck, of the Washington Post, interviewed Dr. Norbert Vollertsen. The German physician was a charity worker in North Korea two years ago when exposure to the horrifying way the Communists hoarded food for themselves while the people starved turned him into an anti-Communist activist. While he has his critics, he also has the best response against them: �(S)ilence protects a dictatorship.� THE PAIN OF SEPARATION Barbara Demick examines the plight of Korean families separated between North and South by the tyrannical regime of Kim Jong-Il, who still traps millions in the starving Stalinist rump state, and has �balked� on many planned family reunions, leaving them few and far between (Los Angeles Times). CNN opens a window to the families temporarily reunited. LOS ANGELES TIMES SAYS BUSH NEEDS �COHERENT� U.S. STRATEGY The editors of the Los Angeles Times criticizes the Bush Administration � and rightly so � for not having a �coherent� policy for North Korea. The editors do not themselves, however, come up with one, outside of copying a nuclear weapons dismantlement plan for the former Soviet Union. Why North Korea, already in violation the 1994 nuclear power agreement, would follow the deal was not addressed. Stop the Nuclear Power Deal: The United States is building two nuclear power plants in North Korea while the Stalinist regime refuses to let us inspect their nuclear weapons program to verify they have halted it as required in the deal. Tell the President to end the deal. 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. As Communist China�s allies and customers enter the cross-hairs, check out the latest on �Communist China and the Terrorist War,� either directly or via our main page. There�s still time to contact the President and tell him not to appoint pro-PRC Doug Paal as de facto ambassador to Taiwan. See Follow-Up for more on Paal. Feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested in receiving it. Anyone who wishes to join can send his/her name and e-mail address to [email protected]. 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