| Home page To receive this publication via e-mail, click here. THE NORTH KOREA REPORT: FEBRUARY 16, 2004 Listen to the Chinascope, hosted by D.J. McGuire: Tuesday, midnight EST, on WXEI 95.3 FM in Crestview, FL, or here. 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: U.S. CLAIMING �TOUGH LINE� ON NORTH KOREA BUT POSITION WON�T RULE OUT CONCESSIONS BEFORE NK DESTROYS NUKE PROGRAMS The Bush Administration would like the world to believe it is taking �a tough stance in upcoming six-nation talks over the North Korean nuclear crisis� (Washington Post). However, the U.S. position talks of aid if the Stalinist regime agrees to �irreversible and verifiable dismantling of its nuclear programs and weapons.� Also reporting: BBC An �irreversible� shutdown also means an incomplete one; thus the North will get some economic aid, and perhaps the security guarantee it covets, before it eliminates its nuclear weapons. The softness of �coordinated steps� is still in place (see 12/08/03 NKR). It should be noted that North Korea has agreed to be nuclear free in 1985, 1987, and 1994. The last of these came in the deeply flawed 1994 Agreed Framework, in which the North agreed to �freeze� their nuclear program in exchange for fuel oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars and two partially constructed nuclear power plants. A forced Stalinist admission to a uranium-based weapons program in October 2002 ended the deal (see 10/21/02 NKR). Stop the North Korean Nuclear Power Plants: Construction on the nuclear power plants from the 1994 agreement has been suspended for one year, but the plants have not been cancelled. 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 WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION NEWS DEFECTOR SAYS PAKISTAN GAVE NORTH KOREA URANIUM FOR WEAPONS In addition to the machinery needed to weaponize uranium (see last NKR), Pakistan gave North Korea the uranium itself as part of the missiles-for-nuclear-technology deals between the two regimes, according to a high-ranking defector (Cybercast News). Pakistan�s lead nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, has admitted to helping North Korea develop nuclear weapons. Pakistan received North Korean missile aid in exchange (see 11/18/02, 11/10/03, and 2/2 NKRs). PAKISTAN NUKE PROGRAM TRACES BACK TO COMMUNIST CHINA Pakistan�s nuclear weapons program largely had its start thanks to Communist China in the 1980s. The Communists basically conducted �wholesale transfer of sensitive nuclear technology� (Washington Post) to their allies in Pakistan. The Pakistanis may very well have passed the documentation on to North Korea. Also reporting: BBC, London Telegraph EX-PAKISTANI PM INSISTS MUSHARRAF KNEW Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had this to say of the military�s denial of any knowledge of the nuclear black market: �Nobody in Pakistan believes Qadeer Khan just woke up one day and decided to sell the nuclear secrets on his own� (Washington Times). NORTH KOREA: PAKISTAN CONFESSION IS A U.S. �SMEAR� Meanwhile, North Korea responded to the myriad of reports on how Pakistan helped them develop nuclear weapons. They called the aforementioned Khan�s confession a �U.S. trite smear campaign� (CNN) and �unverifiable fiction.� Also reporting: BBC PAKISTAN-NK NUCLEAR NETWORK LEADS TO UAE Two firms in the United Arab Emirates �served as a clearinghouse for nuclear components ordered by Iran, Libya and North Korea� (World Tribune). The firms, SMB Computers and Gulf Technical Industries, had as their heads a deputy and an associate, respectively, of the aforementioned Abdul Qadeer Khan. JAPAN TO GET PAKISTAN-NORTH KOREA NUCLEAR INFO Pakistan has promised �to provide Japan with information from its investigation in the black market transfer of nuclear secrets to North Korea� (CNN). Japan will get the information from Pakistan �when its investigation is complete.� IS NORTH KOREA HELPING BURMA GO NUCLEAR? North Korea now has a �growing relationship� (Cybercast News) with the dictatorship in Burma, a relationship that may include the Stalinist regime �providing nuclear technology to the Burma military,� according to the office of Senator Richard Lugar (R-Indiana). Burma, which like North Korea has a staunch ally in Communist China, denied the report (BBC). OTHER AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS BUSH WANTS TO CHANGE IAEA AND NPT, BOOST PSI TO STOP FUTURE NORTH KOREAS President Bush called for changes to the Non-Proliferation Treaty to ensure �nuclear fuel be provided only to countries that renounce nuclear enrichment and reprocessing� (Washington Post). He also called for reforms to the International Atomic Energy Agency to help keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of regimes like North Korea (Washington Times). The President also called for an increased role for the Proliferation Security Initiative (Fox News), a multinational group founded to keep weapons of mass destruction out of terrorists and the states that sponsor them (see 7/14/03 and 12/22/03 NKRs). The PSI, which includes Australia, Great Britain, the U.S., France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Canada, Norway, Denmark, and Singapore, is largely aimed at North Korea and Iran (both as sellers and buyers). NORTH KOREA TO SEND BACK REMAINS OF U.S. WAR DEAD North Korea has agreed to �resume repatriating remains of US war dead across the de-militarized zone separating the two Koreas for the first time in more than five years� (Agence France Presse). The North also agreed to begin �to resolve reports of Americans living in North Korea.� There are still 8,100 missing in action from the Korean War. U.S. CHOSE IRAQ AS TARGET DUE TO �GREATER DIFFICULTIES� IN NORTH KOREA A report published by the Army War College says the U.S. saw �far greater difficulties and risks� (Geostrategy-Direct via World Net Daily) in liberating North Korea than Iraq, which in part led to the decision to take action against Saddam Hussein, not Kim Jong-il. One of the �difficulties� was almost certainly Communist China�s fifty-year-plus alliance with the North. OTHER NEWS ON COMMUNIST CHINA�S ROLE MAN WHO EXPOSED NK GAS CHAMBERS UNDER ARREST IN COMMUNIST CHINA Communist China now has under arrest Kang Byong-sop, the brave man who smuggled out a document that exposed North Korea�s use of gas chambers to test chemical weapons on political prisoners (see 2/2 and last NKRs). Activist Kim Sang-hun demanded the west keep the PRC from sending Kang back to the North, which now will certainly kill him (BBC). Kang�s son, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, barely escaped abduction by North Korean agents while in Thailand. He has since gone into hiding (CNN). HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNAL NEWS JEWISH, ISRAELI GROUPS DEMAND UN INVESTIGATION OF NK GAS CHAMBERS The Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Authority and the Simon Wiesenthal Center demanded �an immediate United Nations investigation into reports that North Korea is using gas chambers to kill political dissidents� (Ha�aretz, Israel). Both groups cited the Nazi gas chambers of the 1940s as reason enough for a probe (see 2/2 and last NKRs). KIM JONG-IL CELEBRATES 62ND �BIRTHDAY� North Korean Stalinist-in-chief Kim Jong-il turned 62, at least if one believes him (BBC). Reports actually have Kim being born roughly a year earlier � no date is known � in Siberia in 1941 as his father, regime founder Kim Il-sung, sought refuge and training in the Soviet Union (BBC profile). Naturally, no one inside North Korea mentioned that. WFP CONTINUES TO PLEAD FOR AID, DISMISS MONITORING CONCERNS The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) continued its plea for more food aid, but at the same time airily dismissed concerns �that the food aid might be diverted to the military or government employees� (Washington Post). The WFP has largely ignored the numerous reports of stolen aid, which is a major reason donations are down (see 1/20 and last NKRs). ABDUCTION NEWS JAPAN-NORTH KOREA ABDUCTION TALKS GO NOWHERE North Korea received a visiting Japanese delegation, which demanded the Stalinists �hand over relatives of five abductees who are now back in Japan� (BBC). Japan �also believes that many more Japanese abductees may still be alive in North Korea.� The North admitted to kidnapping only 13 Japanese. The talks went nowhere (Washington Post, third item). The Stalinists have claimed that eight of the abductees died, but provided no evidence of this. Five others were allowed to return to Japan, but the North is still holding their children � and the American husband of one � hostage (see 9/23/02, 9/30/02, 10/7/02, 10/14/02, 10/21/02, 10/28/02, and 11/18/02 NKRs). SOUTH KOREA NEWS NATIONAL ASSEMBLY APPROVES TROOP DEPLOYMENT TO IRAQ BY a vote of 155 to 50, the South Korean National Assembly �has approved the dispatch of more than 3,000 troops to Iraq, making it the third biggest force after the US and Britain� (BBC). The opposition Grand National Party, which is easily the most pro-American party in South Korea, controls the National Assembly. COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS ON NORTH KOREA�S NUCLEAR WEAPONS James Goodby, former �negotiator for cooperative threat reduction during the Clinton administration� calls for the U.S. to � steel your stomachs �wage peace� with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program, in the Washington Post. ON NORTH KOREA�S GAS CHAMBERS Jay Nordlinger, National Review Online, notes the anger in Israeli circles over the return of the gas chambers in North Korea (fifth bullet). ON NORTH KOREAN AND PAKISTAN Greg Easterbrook, in his Easterblogg (from The New Republic Online) says, �there is no way on God's green Earth� that Pakistan�s government was in the dark about Abdul Qadeer Khan�s deals with North Korea. Simon Henderson, in National Review Online, is also skeptical, and presents evidence of Musharraf�s awareness of the deals. The editors of the Washington Times, however, are less convinced of Musharraf�s guilt (and far less than convincing). 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 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 that you happen to find to the same address. |