| Home page To receive this publication via e-mail, click here. THE NORTH KOREA REPORT: SEPTEMBER 20, 2004 The next North Korea Report will be sent on Tuesday, September 28. 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: NK SAYS NO TALKS UNTIL SOUTH KOREA �FULLY PROBED� SOME BELIEVE STALINISTS HOPING KERRY WILL WIN ELECTION; NK ALSO RIPS U.S. Stalinist North Korea announced �that it can never sit at the table to negotiate its nuclear weapon programme unless [the] truth about the secret nuclear experiments in South Korea is fully probed� (BBC 9/16). Of course, many were already thinking the North would put the brakes on the vote �to see if a new U.S. president would take a softer line� (CNN). For what it�s worth, Democratic nominee John Kerry is more dovish than President Bush on North Korea, but President Bush today is more dovish then he was before the six-way talks on the North�s nuclear weapons began (see 12/8/03, 12/22/03, 6/7, and 6/28 NKRs). North Korea also cited what it called America�s �hostile policy based on double standards� (BBC 9/18) as another reason for its refusal to continue the talks, which also involve the U.S., South Korea, Russia, Japan, and Communist China � the North�s fifty-plus-year ally. Communist China, the host of the talks, insisted ��the sky will not fall� if talks about North Korea's nuclear weapons programs are delayed� (Voice of America via Epoch Times). WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION NEWS EIGHT NATIONS SEND DELEGATIONS TO VISIT NORTH KOREAN BLAST �SITE� Delegations from Britain, the Czech Republic, Germany, Mongolia, Poland, Russia and Sweden �visited a large construction site in North Korea which Pyongyang said was the cause of a mysterious cloud last week (BBC). North Korea insists the explosion was part of its plans for a power-generating dam (see also last NKR). However, a North Korean defector told the South Korean paper Chosun Ilbo that �body of water in the area was not sufficient for a large power plant� (CNN). Meanwhile, a South Korean official said the site shown the diplomats was actually over 60 miles away from the actual explosion. Also reporting: VOA 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 STATE DEPARTMENT SAYS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM �DOES NOT EXIST� IN NORTH KOREA The State Department released its annual report on religious freedom in the world, and it found that in North Korea, �religious freedom does not exist� (VOA via Epoch Times). For this reason, the regime was listed among �Countries of Particular Concern.� INTERNATIONAL NEWS BRITISH FIRM TO DRILL FOR OIL IN NORTH KOREA; AID REGIME�S OIL INDUSTRY Aminex, an Anglo-Irish oil company, �signed a 20-year deal to develop North Korea's oil industry� (BBC). In exchange for �royalties on any of its own production, as well as . . . earnings from wells drilled by other firms,� Aminex will �provide technical assistance to North Korea,� i.e., help a nuclear-armed enemy become more energy efficient. How nice. HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNAL NEWS REGIME ADMITS TO LABOR CAMPS UK diplomat Bill Rammell (see last NKR) reported that North Korea �admitted the existence of �re-education� through labor camps� (Washington Times, fourth item). The Stalinists also admitted to Rammell �that it puts a lower priority on human rights than the West.� North Korea has imprisoned anyone who speaks against the regime and their relatives, including nine-year-old grandchildren. It has also tested chemical weapons on their prisoners (see 1/20/03, 2/2, 2/9, 2/16, 4/5, and 8/2 NKRs). HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICIAL HOPES NK WILL LET HIM IN Vitit Muntarbhorn, the special rapporteur (investigator) on North Korean human rights appointed by the United Nations (see 8/10 NKR), �expressed the hope that the authorities in the reclusive communist state will allow him to visit� (Cybercast News). OTHER SOUTH KOREA NEWS IAEA COMING BACK TO SOUTH KOREA The International Atomic Energy Agency �returned to South Korea . . . to continue investigations into the country's clandestine nuclear experiments� (BBC). South Korea admitted to enriching a tiny amount of uranium in 2000 and extracting an even smaller amount of plutonium in 1982 (see 9/7 and last NKRs). Also reporting: VOA via Epoch Times COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS ON THE BUSH ADMINSTRATION The Bush Administration won high praise from the editors of the Washington Times for having �rejected the failed Clinton policy of using oil and food to bribe Pyongyang into complying with nuclear inspections.� Perhaps the editors didn�t notice the Administration doing essentially just that over the last year (see 12/8/03, 12/22/03, and 6/28 NKRs). ON NORTH KOREA Anne Penketh, The Independent (UK), examines the North�s �trinity� � Stalinist-in-chief Kim Jong-il, his father Kim Il-Sung, and his grandmother Kim Jung Sook � and what the regime is doing to ensure no other viewpoints reach the people of northern Korea. James Robbins, BBC, sees an unbridgeable gulf between Stalinist propaganda and real life in North Korea. 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. |