| Home page To receive this publication via e-mail, click here. THE NORTH KOREA REPORT: MARCH 24, 2003 Our statement on why North Korea must be liberated can be found here. TOP STORY: PRC DETERMINED TO STOP U.S. ACTION AGAINST NORTH KOREA KIM THREATENING PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKES; COMMUNISTS WARNING AGAINST THEM As the world focuses on Iraq, Communist China is setting its sights on its long-time ally, North Korea, and according to Willy Wo-Lap Lam, CNN, it is dealing with the same confusion at the top that is hitting the Bush Administration. While the Communists clearly don�t want the United States to touch the Stalinist regime, they appear less than certain as to how to stop the U.S. Lam reports that the Communists are convinced that the U.S. will �use tough tactics against the Kim Jong-il regime � perhaps including military means to take out its nuclear and weapons-manufacturing facilities � as early as July.� So far, the big two (Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin), are trying to keep the issue away from the United Nations (see below), and push the U.S. towards bilateral talks. Meanwhile, Stalinist-in-chief Kim Jong-Il has dropped hints of �some form of a pre-emptive strike against targets that could include the 37,000 American soldiers stationed in South Korea.� The PRC has warned their allies that such a move �will invite a stupendous retaliation from Washington.� Still, the Communist military, which Jiang heads, is �urging the (PRC) leadership to accede to Kim's demands for help against possible U.S. attacks.� Since Jiang owes the military his job, and Hu will need its support to ease Jiang out in later years, the generals may have a stronger hand than even Lam realizes. OTHER NUCLEAR AND OTHER WEAPONS NEWS JAPAN MAY SCRAP ECONOMIC AID DEAL WITH NK IF IT TESTS TAEPODONG MISSILE Japan has told North Korea that if the latter test-fires a Taepodong missile, economic aid from Tokyo promised in exchange for a Stalinist moratorium on such missile tests would come to a halt. The agreement to lock in place the North�s self-imposed moratorium was signed during Stalinist-in-chief Kim Jong-Il�s summit with Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi last September. Report: BBC NORTH KOREA HAVING TROUBLE WITH ITS NUCLEAR REPROCESSING Stalinist North Korea�s attempt to scare the U.S. into concessions with nuclear weapons is hitting a snag: the Yongbyon reprocessing facility is so old the Stalinists haven�t been able to get it operating properly. Couldn�t happen to a nicer bunch. Report: Washington Post Stop the North Korean Nuclear Power Plants: North Korea announced that it would restart the pre-1994 plutonium power plants. Despite this, talk of negotiations continues, and the two nuclear power plants that were part of the 1994 deal have still not been canceled. Use this China e-Lobby fact sheet and tell the President to stand firm against the Stalinist regime, and not to build the power plants. OTHER AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS NORTH KOREA RIPS IRAQ WAR, U.S.-SOUTH KOREAN EXERCISES North Korea accused the U.S. of timing joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises �to coincide with the US attack on Iraq� (BBC), as part of �the whole chain of its strategy to dominate the world� (CNN). Also reporting on the exercises: Washington Post GROUP OF �EXPERTS� CALLS FOR TALKS WITH NORTH, GIVING STALINISTS ALL THEY WANT What the Washington Post called a �group of prominent U.S. experts on Korea� called on President Bush to open direct talks with North Korea, downplayed the danger of the Stalinists� nuclear ambitions, and told Bush that the talks should include the North�s crown jewels: �normalization of political and economic relations.� Do you even have to ask if these �experts� discussed liberation? PRESSURE ON NORTH KOREA �JUST BEGUN� Meanwhile, Thomas Hubbard, the U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, told an audience of business leaders that the U.S. has �just begun talking about a multilateral approach,� i.e., recruiting other nations � including long-time Stalinist-ally Communist China � to help corral the Stalinist regime�s nuclear ambitions, according to the Washington Times (last paragraph). SOUTH KOREA DOUBTS NORTH IS NEXT The South Korean government does not believe the U.S. will take any military action against North Korea after the war with Ba�athist Iraq is over. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun called any speculation on the subject �inaccurate and groundless� (BBC). OTHER SOUTH KOREA NEWS KIM DAE-JUNG FACING CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION OVER PRE-SUMMIT PAYMENT Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung �is facing a criminal investigation under a new law to investigate charges that he purchased a summit with North Korea in 2000 with a $500 million payment to the communist state� (United Press International via Washington Times). That would be the payments from a South Korean government bank, through Hyundai to North Korea. The South Korean legislature, controlled by the opposition Grand National Party, earlier passed a law calling for a special prosecutor to examine Kim�s role in the payoffs (see 2/17 and 3/3 North Korea Reports). President Roh Moo-hyun signed the law despite being a member of Kim�s Millennium Democratic Party and a supporter of Kim�s dovish �sunshine� policy toward the North. Donald MacIntyre has this quick summary of what the $un$hine policy has cost the South, in Time Asia. NORTH CUTS OFF TALKS WITH SOUTH ON ECONOMIC COOPERATION, AGAIN North Korea found another excuse to suspend talks with South Korea on economic cooperation: the alert condition of the South�s military due to the �government's need to be prepared for a possible terrorist incident or �other contingencies� after the start of the U.S.-led attack on Iraq.� Reports: BBC, CNN SOUTH KOREA GROWING MORE ANXIOUS ABOUT NK; ROH TO �STEP UP� U.S. COOPERATION Goh Kun, South Korea�s Prime Minister, expressed concern about �escalating� (BBC) tensions with the North due to the war in Iraq. Meanwhile, President Roh Moo-hyun pledged to �step up co-ordination with the United States, Japan, China, Russia and the European Union to resolve the nuclear dispute.� Also reporting: Newsmax COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS STANLEY KURTZ GINGERLY APPROACHES LIBERATION Stanley Kurtz, National Review Online, after examining at length North Korea�s nuclear ambitions, and its likely willingness to put the nuclear material on the terrorist market, says of the threat: �short of regime change, there is no way to stop it.� Not quite an explicit call, but Kurtz clearly sees liberation (via war) as the only real option left to the U.S. SHINTARO ISHIHARA, JAPAN�S LEADING ANTI-STALINIST Doug Struck half-profiles Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, a fiery Japanese nationalist who is also one of the most anti-Communist, anti-Stalinist politicians in Japan. Struck forgets to mention Ishihara�s staunch opposition to Communist China in this Washington Post piece, but he does detail the Governor�s tough policy prescription�s for North Korea. ON COMMUNIST CHINA�S ROLE Can Communist China be induced to push the Stalinist regime to improve its behavior? Robert Scalapino, a professor from UC-Berkeley, is optimistic in the Taipei Times, but liberating North Korea cannot be an option. Jonathon Rauch also explores the possibilities in the National Journal. Charles Krauthammer, in the Washington Post, says the performance of the UN, including Communist China�s antics on North Korea, is reason enough to ignore it from now on. Meanwhile, Doug Struck, also in the Post, sees Communist China growing in influence in East Asia, at the expense of U.S. Cathy Hong, Village Voice, highlights the plight of Jae-Hyun Seok, a photographer for the New York Times, who is languishing in a Communist Chinese jail cell for attempting to chronicle the escape of North Korean refugees from the PRC. The Communists send back all North Korean refugees � who are fleeing both starvation and Stalinism � that it can find. ON NORTH KOREA AND IRAQ Richard Lowry, editor of National Review, suggests in his Townhall column that opponents of the war against Ba�athist Iraq who bring up North Korea will �have to abandon� their words should the U.S. decide on a military strike against the Stalinist regime. Lowry�s analysis has one flaw: the doves on Iraq have largely pushed talks with North Korea, not a military strike. Frederick Kagan, in the Washington Post, insists that North Korea cannot be ignored as war with Iraq develops (Kagan is a hawk on Iraq), and says the Stalinist threat emphasizes the need for a larger American military. Meanwhile, the BBC reports that North Korean media is hardly paying any attention to the war against Ba�athist Iraq, and Caroline Gluck (BBC) gauges some of the South Korean reaction. �WELCOME TO NORTH KOREA� That was the title of Cinemax�s look at the Stalinist regime, a painfully sad view of how stilted, controlled, and artificial life is in North Korea � similar to what others have found in the North (see 5/20/02 North Korea Report). Peter Carlson reviewed Cinemax�s documentary in the Washington Post. MORE ON NORTH KOREA Donald MacIntyre looks at the devastation that is the North Korean economy, and what the U.S. and others are trying to do (or in the case of Communist China, not quite trying) to end its nuclear ambitions. As liberation has never been discussed by anyone, MacIntyre himself doesn�t mention it, making his Time Asia analysis exceedingly bleak. Meanwhile, Nicholas Eberstadt, of the American Enterprise Institute, examines the options available to Stalinist-in-chief Kim Jong-Il during the Iraq war. In his Time Asia piece, he predicts the North will �commence reprocessing plutonium at its Yongbyon plant as soon as the balloon goes up in Iraq and . . . provoke incidents along its borders in the hope of reaping American hostages.� Check out the latest stories on the Communist China and the Terrorist War page. Sign the petition for an American boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Miss an Update, Weekly Links, or a North Korea Report? Find it on our web site. 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]. 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