| Home page To receive this publication via e-mail, click here. The latest on Norinco and Iran: check it out on the Communist China and the Terrorist War page. THE NORTH KOREA REPORT: MAY 27, 2003 Our statement on why North Korea must be liberated can be found here. TOP STORY: JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER VISITS U.S., BACKS BUSH ON NORTH KOREA KOIZUMI AND BUSH PROMISE �TOUGHER MEASURES;� BUSH BLASTS ABDUCTIONS Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi met with President Bush last week for a discussion of the North Korean nuclear situation. They both agreed that they �would not tolerate� (BBC) the Stalinist regime having nuclear weapons, and promised unnamed �tougher measures� if the North did not come around on the subject. Liberation? Don�t ask. Also reporting: Washington Times, Washington Post The President did, for the first time, bring up the subject of the Stalinist abduction of at least 13 Japanese citizens (see 9/23/02, 9/30/02, 10/21/02, 11/18/02, 2/10, and 3/17 North Korea Reports). Naturally, he wasn�t happy about it: �I assured the prime minister that the United States will stand squarely with Japan until all Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea are fully accounted for� (Fox News). Stop the North Korean Nuclear Power Plants: Despite North Korea�s new 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 stand firm against the Stalinist regime, and not to build the power plants. OTHER SUMMIT NEWS JAPAN CRACKING DOWN ON FIRMS THAT SHIP TO NORTH KOREA One sign of growing Japanese hawkishness came via the Washington Post: shipments of Japanese products headed for North Korea � which included many things critical for nuclear weapons development � are under tighter scrutiny. One such shipment was blocked before it ever reached the Stalinists. One NK defector estimated that Japanese parts accounted for �90 percent� of the North�s nuclear program. For more on the Koizumi, the summit and the Japanese people, see Commentary/Analysis. OTHER NUCLEAR NEWS STALINISTS COULD MAKE �HUNDREDS� OF NUKES SOON, ACCORDING TO SCIENTIST An unnamed scientist �who worked on North Korea's nuclear weapons program� (Time Asia) but is not North Korean himself is now in the United States. He tells American officials that North Korea is far further in its nuclear weapons development then was previously known: �They're on their way to be able to make hundreds (of nukes) within the next couple of years.� DRUG TRADE LIKELY FUNDING NORTH KOREA�S NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAMS The Australian seizure of a Stalinist heroine shipping vessel (see 4/28, 5/5, and 5/12 North Korea Reports) has led many to one unmistakable conclusion: �Pyongyang is using drug and other illegal trade to finance its nuclear weapons program� (Washington Times). An anonymous North Korean defector told a Congressional committee that Kim Jong-il himself oversaw the Stalinist move into the drug trade. OTHER DRUGS NEWS AUSTRALIA FINDS MORE NORTH KOREAN HEROIN Meanwhile, Australian authorities, fresh off the aforementioned North Korean heroin bust, found another 75 kilograms of the Stalinists� stuff �buried in bushes on the south-east coast of Australia� (BBC). NEWS ON COMMUNIST CHINA�S ROLE COMMUNIST CHINA AND RUSSIA ISSUE NK WARNING � AT U.S. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Communist Chinese President/Party chief Hu Jintao issued a stark North Korea warning � at the U.S. The two labeled any use of force against the Stalinists �unacceptable� (CNN), and called for �security guarantees for the Communist North.� They also called on the Stalinists to �maintain a nuclear-free status.� Did they not notice the North already claimed to be a nuclear power? NK NUKES BECOMING A �CARD� FOR COMMUNISTS TO PLAY AGAINST U.S. Communist Chinese Party boss and PRC President Hu Jintao �may play the Korean card when putting pressure on Washington to at least refrain from selling sophisticated weapons to the self-ruled island� (Willy Wo-Lap Lam, CNN). This was a tactic Jiang Zemin tried before stepping down as Communist Party chief last fall (see 10/23/02 Update). This is the first indication that Hu, who himself has �strong views on Taiwan,� will follow Jiang�s lead. It should be a sobering reminder of just what North Korea is to the Communists � a still useful ally, and nothing like the pariah threat seen by the rest of the world. OTHER AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS PRESIDENT CITES NORTH KOREA AS JUSTIFICATION FOR MISSILE DEFENSE President Bush, in a national security directive providing justification for the American missile defense system, specifically cited North Korea and its pursuit �weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles as a means of coercing the United States and our allies� (Bill Gertz, Washington Times). NORTH KOREAN DEFECTOR TO VISIT U.S. Hwang Jang-yop, the �the highest-level North Korean official ever to defect to the South� (Parapundit: blog run by Randall Parker, Member since 2003), will visit the U.S. next month, after years of being blocked by the government of previous South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who �didn't want him saying things in the United States that would upset the North Korean regime.� Although current South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun is from the same, dovish Millennium Democratic Party as Kim, his government lifted the ban. It may have something to do with the growing hawkishness of the South Korean people (see below). OTHER SOUTH KOREA NEWS SOUTH KOREAN PEOPLE GROWING MORE HAWKISH ON NK, WANT FOOD-NUKES LINK Less than six months after a wave of anti-Americanism propelled Roh Moo-hyun into the Blue House, the South Korean President, and his people, are turning their anger towards Stalinist North Korea. A poll cited by the Washington Times �showed that 88.5 percent of those surveyed agreed� that food aid to the North should be stopped until the regime ends its nuclear weapons program. Not even the U.S. and Japan have gone that far. They and other donors have instead raised the issue of North Korea stealing international food aid from its own people to feed members of the Stalinist elite, the military, and their families (see 3/6/02 Update). SOUTH GIVING FOOD TO NORTH DESPITE �UNSPEAKABLE DISASTER� THREAT Despite the above poll numbers, the South agreed to send 400,000 tons of food northward anyway, even after a Stalinist diplomat threatened South Korea with �an unspeakable disaster� (BBC), if it stuck with the Bush Administration�s glacially toughening line against the North. Less than two days after the aid was announced, the Stalinists were at it again, threatening �an unimaginable disaster� (Newsmax). COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN NORTH KOREA Steven W. Mosher, of the Population Research Institute, highlights the ties between the United Nations Population Fund and Stalinist North Korea, and recaps the Stalinist regime�s horrific human rights abuses, including its treatment of imprisoned pregnant women, in Newsmax. ON THE KOREAN WAR E.J. Dionne, Washington Post, reminds America not to forget the veterans of the Korean War, and how they saved South Korea. ON THE BUSH-KOIZUMI SUMMIT Doug Struck, Washington Post, notes that standing with President Bush on North Korea gives Koizumi a �vague image as a hawk,� thus boosting his support in Japan, where the nuclear issue and the Stalinist abductions have the Japanese people more hawkish than either Bush or Koizumi. MORE ADVICE ON STALINIST NORTH KOREA AND ITS NUCLEAR WEAPONS Jim Hoagland, Washington Post, calls for �coercive diplomacy� on North Korea, although he puts far too much stock in the 1994 Agreed Framework, and more to the point, he avoids the subject of liberation. ON COMMUNIST CHINA�S ROLE George Jonas finds the Council of Foreign Relations� recommendations on North Korea to be much better than we did in the last North Korea Report. Jonas focuses on CFR�s call for tough policy action should negotiations, as expected, fail. Unfortunately, he and they count on Communist China�s support � a weird naivet� � and neither of them was willing to discuss liberating the people of northern Korea. Kari Huus, MSNBC, has her own analysis of North Korea�s nuclear ambitions. Like Jonas, she doesn�t include liberation on the list of policy options, and even worse, she calls Communist China an ally of the U.S. How can so many people think, and even try to report, something that is so obviously wrong? 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 on our web site. Feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested in receiving it. 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