| Home page To receive this publication via e-mail, click here. THE NORTH KOREA REPORT: AUGUST 16, 2004 Dragon in the Dark: How and Why Communist China Helps Our Enemies in the War on Terror is now available: here, at Amazon, or at 1-888-280-7715. Our statement on why northern Korea must be liberated can be found here. TOP STORY: NORTH KOREA BACKS OUT OF NUCLEAR TALKS, BLAMES U.S. POWELL: WE�LL PAY FOR NORTH KOREA DISARMAMENT North Korea announced �it will not attend a working meeting ahead of the next round of six-party talks on its controversial nuclear programme (UK sp)� (BBC). The Stalinist regime was angry at �Washington's view that there could be no reward for North Korea freezing its nuclear programme.� A South Korean official doubted the talks were really in jeopardy. �This is the North Koreans putting on pressure,� according to this official. It should be noted that three previous rounds of talks on North Korea�s nuclear weapons program have achieved nothing � except win for the Stalinists American concessions and excuses to repeated move back the goalposts (see 7/14/03, 12/22/03, and 6/28 NKRs). Meanwhile, Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a press conference in Japan held before the North�s pull-out, said the U.S. �would help pay for the removal and destruction of North Korea's nuclear facilities as part of a deal for an �irreversible� end to Pyongyang's weapons program� (Voice of America via Epoch Times). Stop the North Korean Nuclear Power Plants: Are the plants dead or aren�t they? You can make sure they don�t come back! Use this China e-Lobby fact sheet and tell the President to kill the power plants from the 1994 agreement that North Korea broke. OTHER AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS JENKINS SAYS HE SAW THREE OTHER AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN NK Sergeant Charles Robert Jenkins, who either defected to or was kidnapped by North Korea in 1965 (see 10/28/02, 12/19/02, 7/19, 7/27, and last NKRs), �told Japanese officials of three other American soldiers living in Pyongyang� (Washington Times, second item). Two of them have died, according to Jenkins, who also insists, �I didn't tempt them to desert.� ABDUCTION NEWS JAPANESE OFFICIALS GET NOWHERE WITH NORTH KOREA ON �DEAD� ABDUCTEES Japanese officials held fruitless talks with North Korea about 8 missing Japanese nationals Pyongyang kidnapped between 1978 and 1983 (Voice of America via Epoch Times 8-12). The North has admitted kidnapping them, but insists they are all dead. Japan suspects that the Stalinists kidnapped two others as well; they deny this. The North has presented no evidence to prove the deaths of the missing eight (see 9/23/02, 9/30/02, 10/7/02, 10/14/02, 10/21/02, 10/28/02, and 11/18/02 NKRs). In fact, the one piece of �evidence� it gave Japan was proved to be a forgery, leading many in Japan � especially the abductees� relatives � to believe they are still alive. Additionally, �Many in Japan believe there are at least scores of other nationals who have been kidnapped by the Stalinist state� (BBC). North Korea promised to �investigate� the issue last May; according to the leader of the Stalinist delegation at the talks �said the investigation is �still going on�� (Voice of America via Epoch Times 8-11). Sure it is. OTHER SOUTH KOREA NEWS SOUTH KOREA TO BUILD AEGIS SHIPS South Korea�s navy is less than a month away from �constructing its first Aegis-equipped 7,000-ton destroyer� (Washington Times). The South Korean navy hopes to have the Aegis-class ship in its fleet in by 2008, to be joined by two more in 2012. The ships are named for the Aegis air defense system that they use. TROOP DEPLOYMENT TO IRAQ DRAWS PROTESTORS An unknown number of protestors (at least the BBC wouldn�t report a figure) demonstrated against plans to send 3,000 South Korean troops to Iraq. President Roh Moo-hyun once again insisted the deployment would go ahead, leaving this quarter to wonder why he is so resolute on Iraq and yet so dovish on North Korea. GOVERNMENT PICKS AREA FOR NEW CAPITAL; OPPOSITION FURIOUS South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hai-chan � a member of dovish President Roh Moo-hyun�s Uri Party � declared the Yeongi-Kongju area as �the site for a new capital� (BBC). Roh has publicly pledged to move the capital from Seoul, despite the fact that �more than half of the public are opposed to the plan� (CNN). The opposition � both the hawkish Grand National Party and the leftist Democratic Labor Party � is against the move. A GNP official denounced it as �unilateral� and �invalid.� COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS Hugh Levinson, BBC, interviews Ermanno Furlanis, once the pizza maker for Kim Jong-il, and saw first hand how �poor and backward-looking� the Stalinist regime was. ON COMMUNIST CHINA�S ROLE Austin Ramzay, in Time Asia, examines the implications over the argument between Communist China and South Korea over who can claim title to the mid-first millennium kingdom of Koguryo (see also 1/26 NKR). Check out the Communist China and the Terrorist War page. Sign the petition for an American boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Miss an Update, Week's Links, or a North Korea Report? Find it via our home page. Feel free to forward this to anyone you think would be interested in receiving it. Anyone who wishes to join (or unsubscribe or change their address) can send his/her name to [email protected]. Please feel free to send any news on Communist China or North Korea that you find to the same address. |