| Home page To receive this publication via e-mail, click here. THE NORTH KOREA REPORT: AUGUST 18, 2003 Our statement on why North Korea must be liberated can be found here. TOP STORY: U.S. PLAN FOR NK TALKS � GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT As Russia, Communist China, the U.S., Japan, and South Korea prepare for talks with North Korea on its nuclear ambitions, two �senior administration officials� told CNN that the U.S. will give the Stalinists everything they want if they pledge to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. The talks are slated for August 27-29 in Beijing, Communist China. The concessions will include �written assurance, guaranteed by the parties to the talks, that (the U.S.) has no intention of attacking North Korea . . . an end to a long-standing trade embargo and U.S. assistance in helping North Korea secure loans from institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank.� Even worse, �a pay-off could come as soon as North Korea made positive credible steps, such as admitting international nuclear inspectors� (London Telegraph). Such foolhardy thinking led to the 1994 Agreed Framework, which won North Korea to partially built nuclear power plants in exchange for broken nuclear pledges (see 10/21/02 North Korea Report). Such a massive giveaway to a regime that has broken every single nuclear weapons pledge it ever signed may explain why John Bolton � State�s top arms control official and the man who rightly called the regime a �hellish nightmare� (see last North Korea Report) � �will not be part of the delegation� (Washington Post). Armitage insisted the move had nothing to do with North Korean demands that Bolton not be there (Washington Times). However, he provided a rather limp defense of Bolton�s comments, saying they �reflect a point of view in the United States held by many.� Is Armitage implying there are some who don�t hold that view? Is he serious? Meanwhile, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, a member in the dovish Millennium Democratic Party, promised �to take the lead in helping (the North) develop its economy� (BBC) with unspecified aid. Thousands of doves and hawks took to the streets in Seoul. OTHER WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION NEWS NORTH KOREA TRIED TO SEND MISSILE ASSEMBLY LINE TO LIBYA The capture of The North Korean freighter Kuwolsan, captured by Indian authorities four years ago, revealed a nearly complete ballistic missile assembly line destined for Libya. While the missiles to be built by the technology were older Scud missiles, �It still works,� as one Indian official told the Washington Post. So determined were the Stalinists not to let India, or anyone else, know of the ship�s cargo that they �rained blows on inspectors and barricaded the doors with their bodies.� They even tried to lock inside the few Indian customs officials who got past the melee before �the ship's doors were finally reopened at gunpoint.� NORTH KOREA REPEATS DEMAND FOR NON-AGGRESSION PACT North Korea has insisted, again, �that nothing less than a non-aggression pact would break the deadlock� (BBC) on its nuclear weapons. The regime also called any early inspection of its nuclear facilities �impossible and unthinkable.� Also reporting: Cybercast News GERMANS CHARGED WITH TRYING TO SEND ALUMINUM TUBES TO NORTH KOREA Three Germans face charges of plotting �to export more than 200 aluminum tubes to North Korea, via China� (BBC). The North tried to import the tubes � a critical component in weaponizing uranium � this past spring (Washington Post). Stop the North Korean Nuclear Power Plants: Despite North Korea�s boast of nuclear weapons, a brazen violation of the 1994 agreement to freeze its nuclear ambitions, the two nuclear power plants that were part of the deal have still not been canceled. Use this China e-Lobby fact sheet and tell the President to kill the power plants. OTHER AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS U.S. PRAISES TAIWAN SEIZURE OF NORTH KOREAN VESSEL, CHEMICALS High praise came from The United States for Taiwan�s seizure of a North Korean vessel carrying chemicals that �could be used to make chemical weapons� (Australian Broadcasting Corp). The ship was carrying at the very least phosphorus pentasulfide, �a substance that can be used in making rockets.� See also the last North Korea Report. OTHER SOUTH KOREA NEWS YET ANOTHER NORTH KOREAN BOAT CROSSES NORTHERN LIMIT LINE A North Korean boat crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the sea border between the Stalinist North and the democratic South, and forced the South to fired warning shots at it (CNN). North Korea has violated the NLL numerous times, including a naval skirmish last summer in which four South Koreans died (see 7/1/02 and 7/8/02 North Korea Report). NORTH KOREA BACKS OUT OF STUDENT GAMES, CITES �RIOTS� OVER THE WEEKEND North Korea pulled out of the world university games � which will start in Daegu, South Korea on Thursday � because of �the participants' safety is not guaranteed� (CNN). The Stalinists� great safety worry was an anti-Stalinist protest in Seoul over the weekend, which the North called �the August 15 riot.� Also reporting: BBC HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNAL NEWS ANTI-STALINIST ACTIVIST SENDING RADIOS INTO NORTH KOREA VIA BALLOONS In his latest thrust against the Stalinist regime, Dr. Norbert Vollertsen is using �the power of information� (BBC) by airlifting 600 radios into North Korea via helium balloons. The radios would enable those who find them to listen to foreign broadcasts, which are banned in North Korea because of the challenge to its control over what the people hear (Cybercast News). This is only the first effort by this group to get free information into the North (Parapundit). Vollertsen himself has been a dedicated anti-Stalinist ever since he saw the effects of the North Korean famine, and how the regime used food as a weapon against its own people (see 3/6/02 and 3/20/02 Updates and 5/6/02 and 12/9/02 North Korea Reports). COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS ON THE NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR TALKS Masashi Nishihara, president of Japan's National Defense Academy, lists several good reasons why the U.S. should not give North Korea the non-aggression pact it craves � although the call for diplomatic relations with the Stalinist regime falls far short of the preferred liberation of northern Korea � in the Washington Post. James S. Robbins hits the bull�s eye in the first sentence of his National Review Online column on the exclusion of John Bolton from the upcoming six-party talks: �Score one for North Korea.� The rest of the column is also worth the read. MORE ON NORTH KOREA�S NUCLEAR AMBITIONS Robert T. Grey Jr., director of Bipartisan Security Group, couches a plea for a �negotiated diplomatic settlement� inside a call for a UN Resolution �calling for North Korea to return to and comply with the NPT.� This rather weak piece ran in the Washington Times. Meanwhile, Paul Reynolds, BBC, examines the prospects for war against the North. Notra Trulock, Newsmax, worries about a lack of concern about intelligence information on North Korea�s nuclear ambitions within the Bush Administration. Gordon Prather, World Net Daily, says the U.S. should not have undermined the International Atomic Energy Agency �despite its inability to find, let alone stop, North Korea�s nuclear weapons program. ON NORTH KOREA AND IRAN Jim Hoagland, Washington Post, examines the dangers of North Korea and Iran�s nuclear ambitions � without mentioning how the two are likely to be linked by October (see last North Korea Report). ON ALL OF THE ABOVE Charles Scanlon, BBC, gives a thumbnail sketch of the threat North Korea poses to the rest of the world � including its nuclear ambitions and its arms ties to Iran. He predicts the U.S. to demand �a reduction in the conventional threat from North Korea's million-man army and improvements in human rights� in the talks slated for later this month (See Top Story). ON COMMUNIST CHINA�S ROLE Randall Parker (Parapundit founder and Member since 2003) rips Communist China and the dovish government of South Korea for enabling North Korea�s nuclear ambitions and international antics. He maintains his well-founded skepticism of any success coming from the August 27-29 talks. John Pomfret, Washington Post, finds Communist China pushing North Korea into talks for various reasons, all of which have to do with its own security and geopolitical position, not any concern for the U.S. or its allies. ON KIM JONG-IL�S OBSESSION WITH MOVIES The BBC takes a look at Stalinist-in-chief Kim Jong-il, and his obsession with the propaganda value of movies � to the point of kidnapping a South Korean director (for his story, see the 3/10 North Korea Report). 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. |