| THE NORTH KOREA REPORT: AUGUST 12, 2002 NEWS U.S. COMMEMORATES CONCRETE POURING FOR NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR PLANTS The United States commemorated the pouring of the concrete for two nuclear power reactors in North Korea, despite the fact that the Stalinist regime has �continued to resist international inspections of its nuclear (weapons) capability� (Washington Times). The U.S. sent Jack Pritchard, its �special envoy� to the North, for the ceremony. Pritchard warned the North to �come into compliance� with the deal. CNN and the Washington Post had similar reports, while the BBC provides a snapshot of where the deal is right now. For more on the nuclear power deal � and how North Korea is exploiting and violating it � see the Commentary/Analysis section. Stop the Nuclear Power Deal: The United States is still building two nuclear power plants in North Korea. Meanwhile, the Stalinist regime refuses to let us inspect their nuclear weapons program to verify that it has been stopped, as the agreement demands. Use this China e-Lobby fact sheet and tell the President to cancel the deal. NORTH-SOUTH TALKS BEGIN AFTER ARGUMENT ON TIMETABLE Cabinet-level talks between Stalinist North Korea and democratic South Korea began Monday, after a delay of nearly two hours. The first day of the talks themselves lasted half that long (CNN, BBC). Topics for the talks are expected to include �construction of a railway linking North and South, and aiding an ailing tourism project to the northern Kumgang mountains.� NORTH KOREA AND UN COMMAND MEET; NORTH DEMANDS NEW SEA BORDER A military delegation from North Korea met with the United Nations Command � the largely U.S.-staffed force protecting South Korea for over 50 years � to �ease the bristling tensions� as the BBC put it. The two sides agreed to �better communication� (CNN) in the hope of avoiding incidents such as last June�s naval gun battle � caused by North Korea�s crossing the sea border and firing on the Southern navy. Speaking the naval battle and the sea border (see July 1 and July 8 NK Reports), the Stalinist regime demanded a renegotiation of the line during the meeting with the UNC (UPI via Washington Times). SOUTH KOREAN MISSIONARY DEPORTED BY PRC Communist China released, and is about to deport, a Christian South Korean missionary who helped refugees from North Korea in the PRC (Washington Times, second paragraph). Chun Ki-won helped 170 North Koreans escape the Stalinist regime through Communist China to South Korea before his arrest. Hundreds of thousands have fled North Korea�s starvation, made worse by the regime�s stealing of food. Communist China, meanwhile, has sent back any refugee from the Stalinist regime that it can find, leading many to seek refuge in the embassies of democratic nations. South Korea, Japan, and Canada have all hosted refugees at some point this year. All were eventually flown to freedom in South Korea. ANTI-�SUNSHINE� OPPOSITION TAKES CONTROL OF SOUTH KOREAN LEGISLATURE With victories in all but two of a baker�s dozen by-elections, South Korea�s Grand National Party � the opposition party �which is critical of President Kim's �sunshine� engagement policy with North Korea (BBC, CNN) � now has a majority in the South Korean legislature. Many are taking the by-elections as a predictor of this December�s presidential election; the GNP�s Lee Hoi-chang leads in the latest polls. SOUTH KOREA REJECTS RUSSIAN OFFER TO HOST NORTH-SOUTH SUMMIT South Korea insisted that any future summits between its President, Kim Dae-Jung, and Stalinist leader Kim Jong-Il would take place in Seoul, rejecting Russia�s offer to host a summit (Washington Times). COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS NUCLEAR PLAN DEAL RIPPED BY SOKOLSKI, NEW YORK POST Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center and a leading critic of the 1994 nuclear power deal between the U.S. and North Korea, took advantage of the concrete-pouring ceremony to list the flaws in the deal. Dan McKivergan of the Project for the New American Century reproduced Sokolski�s excellent Wall Street Journal piece, written with Victor Gilinski. The editors of the New York Post also blasted the accord last week, calling the 1994 agreement �a bad deal then and a worse deal now.� The editors finished their editorial with this axis-of-evil reminder; �What North Korea needs isn't modern nuclear technology but a regime change - just like Iraq and Iran.� IS IT �REFORM,� OR REINFORCING STALINIST CONTROL? Caroline Gluck (BBC) seeks out numerous opinions on North Korea�s shifting from food rationing to a price system. She finds many are skeptical � a South Korean official called the move �an attempt by the North Koreans to regulate and reinforce the socialist market economy, by increasing the government's grip on the non-formal economic sector� � not a real effort at economic reform. Gluck also reported that while North Korea has increased salaries by a factor of 18, food prices are now �30 to 50� times what they once were. That would tend to make food less available, giving more credence to the unnamed South Korean official�s view. North Korea has lost nearly 2 million to starvation in a massive famine, while the regime steals international food aid to feed itself and its army. WASHINGTON TIMES REPORTS FROM NORTH KOREA, SORT OF David Jones, foreign editor of the Washington Times, sent Nicholas Kralev to North Korea for the nuclear power plant ceremony (see News). Jones gives an account of the restrictions placed on Kralev et al � no pictures outside the construction site, and no interviews with anyone, inside or outside the site. Kralev received a reminder of the latter when he tried to talk to a construction worker from Uzbekistan. 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. Miss an Update, Weekly Links, or a North Korea Report? Find it on our web site. Check out the latest on Communist China and the Terrorist War. 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]. Please feel free to send any news on Communist China or North Korea you happen to find to the same address. |