| Home page To receive this publication via e-mail, click here. THE NORTH KOREA REPORT: JULY 21, 2003 Fifty years ago this month, the Korea War was suspended by the 1953 Armistice, ensuring that South Korea would be free. Sadly it also ensured that millions of Koreans would be trapped in a Stalinist hell on earth until this very day. Our statement on why North Korea must be liberated can be found here. TOP STORY: SECOND SECRET NUCLEAR SITE SUSPECTED IN NORTH KOREA STALINISTS HAVE �ALL THE NECESSARY COMPONENTS� FOR NUCLEAR MISSILES American intelligence appears to have discovered a second, secret, nuclear weapons development facility in North Korea. The site was discovered thanks to �elevated levels of krypton 85, a gas emitted in the processing of spent nuclear fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium� (CNN). Also reporting: BBC, Newsmax If this is true � and South Korea is not on board with this (Fox News) � it would be more evidence that the international scrutiny supposedly on the North from the 1994 Agreed Framework is worth zilch. Meanwhile, Communist Chinese intelligence has discovered that North Korea has all it needs �to make nuclear-tipped missiles� (UPI via Newsmax). OTHER NUCLEAR NEWS NORTH WANTS SURVIVAL GUARANTEE FOR MULTILATERAL TALKS COMMUNIST CHINESE PUSHING FOR ANOTHER THREE-WAY ROUND North Korea has once again moved the goalposts to get its much-cherished guarantee of survival. Now they are insisting upon it before even talking about ending its nuclear weapons program, according to Tokyo Shimbun (cited by MSNBC). Previously they were willing to promise to end their nuclear program for the survival guarantee). The news came from an �unnamed Chinese government source in Beijing� who claimed the North was �ready to accept five-nation talks if a promise was made to guarantee (the survival of) the regime.� If the U.S. takes this �offer,� it will basically let the Stalinist regime have its cake (nukes) and eat it too (guaranteed survival). Meanwhile, the Communists are pushing for another round of three-way talks (the U.S., the PRC, and NK). PRC Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo left North Korea from the United States last week for �meetings� (Washington Times) with American officials about the idea. Also Reporting: CNN, Washington Post Of course, the last such round (see 4/28 North Korea Report) did not go too well: the talks broke up a day early and North Korea boasted that it had nuclear weapons. IAEA OFFICAL CALLS NORTH KOREA AN �IMMEDIATE� THREAT Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, called North Korea �the most immediate and most serious threat� (BBC) to the world�s attempts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. 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. NEWS ON COMMUNIST CHINA�S ROLE UK PM TONY BLAIR VISITS PRC; NORTH KOREA TOPS ON THE LIST OF SUBJECTS British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Communist China for talks on the nuclear ambitions of PRC ally North Korea. Blair held talks with PRC President Hu Jintao, and Central Military Commission Chair Jiang Zemin. Reports: CNN, BBC, Cybercast News OTHER SOUTH KOREA NEWS NORTH KOREANS FIRE ON SOUTH KOREAN TROOPS AT DMZ North Korea �fired four rounds from a military outpost� (CNN) on the demilitarized zone separating the Stalinist North from the democratic South, which fired in response. No one of the southern side of the DMZ was hurt. Also reporting: Newsmax The Stalinists have instigated several border incidents, including one that killed four South Korean sailors last summer (see 7/1/02, 7/8/02, 5/5, 6/2, and 7/9 North Korea Reports). DEFECTOR CROSSES DMZ TO ESCAPE NORTH KOREA The DMZ also saw one of the more dramatic escapes in many years, as an unnamed 37-year-old man �walked, swam and crawled to cross the border,� according to a spokesman for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, cited by the BBC. North Korean refugees rarely try getting across the heavily fortified land border. AUSTRALIAN AND BRITISH PRIME MINISTERS VISITS SOUTH KOREA Australian Prime Minister John Howard met with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, where they agreed to push �peacefully� (UPI via Washington Times) to end North Korea�s nuclear ambitions. British Prime Minister Tony Blair also visited Roh (CNN, BBC, Newsmax), and called for talks on the North�s nuclear weapons to include South Korea and Japan. OTHER AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS WHITE HOUSE MAY OPEN DOOR TO NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES The White House is �considering admitting thousands of North Korean refugees into the United States� (Washington Post) in the hope that the flow of refugees into the U.S. would �increase pressure on the government in Pyongyang during the standoff over its nuclear weapons programs.� Of course, it could also save thousands of lives. As the Post reported, as much as 300,000 refugees are hiding in Communist China, which sends back any refugee it finds. Perhaps not so coincidentally, the Senate added a measure by Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) and Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) to make it easier for North Korean refugees to receive asylum here (see 6/30 North Korea Report). The measure is now part of the Senate�s State Department authorization bill, it was added to the bill after a voice vote (meaning opposition to it, if there was any, was so negligible a roll-call vote was not warranted). As for the Administration, the internal discussion is focused on how many refugees should be let in, with some pushing for the 300,000 figure. CLINTON DEFENSE SECRETARY RIPS BUSH, ADVISES GIVING NK WHAT IT WANTS William Perry, who was Defense Secretary when the 1994 Agreed Framework was signed between the U.S. and North Korea, angrily called for more of the same. Perry specifically mentioned �economic aid, trade deals, diplomatic recognition or a nonaggression pact� (Washington Post), and blasted the Bush Administration. Also reporting: New York Post Perry is certainly not alone in his criticism of the Administration�s multiple-policy disorder (this quarter is rather miffed at that, too), but the idea that President Bush should follow the failed 1994 example is, well, mind-boggling. Perry saw the only other options as a war, or nukes in the hands of terrorists. He, like everyone else, did not mention liberation. U.S. AND NORTH KOREA IN SAME WOMEN�S WORLD CUP GROUP The Women�s World Cup teams were randomly placed into divisions (called Groups) last week, and the U.S. and North Korea are in the same group. Report: Washington Post COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS ON THE NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Indiana), normally a dove on North Korea, blasts the Stalinists for blocking monitoring of food aid, and calls on the U.S. to allow North Korean refugees to claim asylum in the Washington Post. He even cited the �East Germany 1989� argument (liberation via emigration) as justification. Randall Parker, Parapundit founder and Member since 2003, highlights the reasons letting refugees into this country is a good idea � chief among them the fact that dovish South Korea likes to keep quiet defectors who expose the Stalinist regime for what it really is. MORE FROM PARAPUNDIT Parker takes issue with William Perry�s blast of the Bush Administration on North Korea, and a slew of other doves on the subject. The Parapundit founder also whacks the Guardian (UK) for worrying about �a refugee exodus� instead of the millions of Koreans trapped under the Stalinist regime. Parker also touts a blog from a frustrated American in South Korea. Yet he is at his best (in the humble opinion of yours truly) at the tail end of his piece on North Korea�s second nuclear weapons site (See Other Nuclear News): �Overthrow of the Pyongyang regime is about the only certain way to put an end to the North Korean nuclear weapons development program.� Parapundit is listed on our Other Sites of Interest page. ON NORTH KOREA�S NUCLEAR WEAPONS Steven Chapman has an awful column in the Washington Times, in which he openly calls for the U.S. to �give in to blackmail� (Note: this column, also in the Chicago Tribune is one of the columns Randall Parker blasts above). ON COMMUNIST CHINA�S ROLE The editors of the Washington Times, in their analysis of the North Korean situation, have hope that Communist China will help the U.S. resolve the issue. OTHER LINKS The BBC interviewed Kathi Zellweger, manager of Caritas' North Korea program; the discussion leaves out the North�s use of food as a weapon (see 3/6/02 Update). Jon Wolfsthal, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, examines the problem of trying to get good intelligence on the Stalinist North�s nuclear weapons program (BBC). 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. |