| THE NORTH KOREA REPORT: OCTOBER 28, 2002 Our statement on what should be done about North Korea (hint: regime change) can be found here. NEWS BUSH ADMINISTRATION, ALLIES SAY 1994 DEAL NOT DEAD YET Meanwhile, the United States, despite everything North Korea has done to it, still �may be open to continuing some aspects of the accord, including regular oil deliveries to Pyongyang,� according to the Washington Post 10/25. The U.S. is apparently listening to Japan, Communist China, and South Korea, who all support �dialogue with the North Koreans.� See also the last NK Report. More ominously, the Post reported that the U.S. let a shipment of heavy fuel oil to North Korea last Friday, after it was aware of the North�s bald-faced violation of the agreement. The fuel oil is a requirement under the �nullified� 1994 deal. One Japanese official said this about the 1994 deal: �It's not dead, even if it's not really working� (Washington Post 10/26) What? Will they never learn? There was at least one voice of reason, the South Korean opposition. An MP for the Grand National Party said this, �We shouldn't be fooled [by North Korea]. If they haven't developed nuclear weapons already, they are just trying to buy time.� Stop the Nuclear Power Deal: North Korea has just admitted to continuing its nuclear weapons program, in violation of the 1994 agreement that won it a commitment from the United States to build two nuclear power plants there. The Stalinists now say the deal is dead. Use this China e-Lobby fact sheet and tell the President to react accordingly, and halt the building of the nuclear power plants. APEC SUMMIT CALLS FOR �NUCEAR-FREE� KOREA, TOUGHER LANGUAGE REJECTED The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Mexico called for a �nuclear-free status� for the Korean Peninsula (Cybercast News). Sadly, the summit threw more carrots the North�s way, pledging �the potential for [North Korea] to benefit economically from greater participation as a member of the Asia-Pacific community.� Efforts by the U.S. for harsher language isolating the Stalinist regime as a pariah went nowhere, not that this would surprise anyone given the presence of the Stalinists� chief ally � Communist China and its leader Jiang Zemin. Reports: Washington Post, Washington Times JIANG AND BUSH AGREE ON NUCLARE FREE KOREA, LITTLE ELSE Speaking of Jiang, he met President Bush in Crawford on Friday, where they employed the same weak language, saying that they �both oppose any nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula� (BBC). NK WANTS NON-AGRESSION PACT BEFORE IT ADDRESSES NUCLEAR �CONCERNS� With its nuclear weapons program now in the open, North Korea has now offered to �to address American concerns over its nuclear weapons programme (UK sp), if Washington agrees to a non-aggression treaty� (BBC). According to CNN, the Stalinist regime attached two other conditions: recognize its sovereignty and �not take any action that would hinder its development.� The North did not pledge to end its nuclear weapons program, which it continued in violation of the 1994 Agreed Framework. The Stalinists agreed to �freeze� its nuclear program in that deal, in exchange for two nuclear power plants built by the U.S., Japan, and South Korea and over $90 million a year in fuel oil. Also reporting: Cybercast News, BBC text of North Korea Statement JAPAN SAYS NK MUST END NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM TO GET NORMALIZATION Japan has told North Korea it must drop its nuclear weapons program if it wants full diplomatic relations. The Stalinist nuclear ambitions are likely to join the fate of the Japanese kidnap victims as the big issues at �normalization� talks in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow (see below). Reports: BBC, CNN NORTH AGREES TO TALK WITH SOUTH ABOUT ITS NUCLEAR AMBITION, BUT NOT DROP IT Meanwhile, the Stalinists signed an agreement with a delegation from South Korea pledging to deal with the nuclear issue through �dialogue� (BBC 10/23-1). However, as CNN noted, the agreement �did not contain a clear North Korean promise to give up its nuclear weapons program,� something the South had demanded before the talks began. South Korea�s media was less than ecstatic about that (BBC 10/23-2). NK NUKE ADMISSION �FINAL NAIL IN COFFIN� OF �SUNSHINE� POLICY Meanwhile, the analyst on Korea for the Heritage Foundation, Balbina Hwang, told the Washington Times that the Stalinist admission on nuclear weapons is the �final nail in the coffin� for the �sunshine� policy of outgoing President Kim Dae-jung. Hwang also ripped Kim�s policy of pushing for a thaw with the North for creating what the Times called �a sense of complacency.� JAPAN WANTS KIDNAP SURVIVORS TO STAY, CHILDREN TO JOIN THEM The Japanese government, preparing for �normalization� talks with Stalinist North Korea tomorrow, is now asking that the five abductees that North Korea admits survived being kidnapped by Stalinist spies roughly twenty years ago be allowed to stay in Japan. The Stalinist had wanted supposed to return to North Korea last week. Reports: BBC 10/25, CNN 10/24, Washington Post Japan also said it would use the talks to demand that the survivors� children �be allowed to join them� (BBC 10/24, CNN 10/25) in Japan. The North refused to let the children go with the abductees. Most Japanese, see the children as �hostages� to keep the five survivors from saying they wish to stay in Japan, or anything else that might anger the Stalinists (see 9/23/02, 9/30/02, 10/7/02, and 10/21/02 NK Reports). Meanwhile, the BBC (10/28) examines the North Korean accounts of thirteen kidnapped Japanese, and why so many find the Stalinist tales so very hard to believe. DAUGHTER OF MEGUMI YOKOTA CONFIRMED BY DNA, NOT ALLOWED TO COME TO JAPAN Meanwhile, tests confirmed that Megumi Yokota, who supposedly killed herself due to �depression,� is the mother of the teenage girl that the Stalinists said was her daughter. Japan is also pushing the U.S. to grant amnesty to Charles Jenkins, an Army deserter to North Korea who is married to one of the five; he�s still in North Korea at present. The other four are two married couples. Almost immediately, the teenage girl was on television begging her grandparents to visit her. What of the Japanese push to have her, and the other children, come to Japan? Give the Stalinists credit: �she did not think her (North) Korean father would agree to her travelling (UK sp) to Japan� (BBC). PRC HELPS NORTH KOREA SELL ARMS TO TERRORIST STATES, INCLUDING IRAQ This was in the last Week�s Links, but it had enough new information to make it relevant here as well. Newsmax.com reported that Communist China is helping Stalinist North Korea sell arms to terrorist states, including Iraq. It�s the second report of the Stalinist regime selling weapons to Saddam Hussein; the first came via Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara in the last NK Report. REFUGEE SENT BACK BY COMMUNIST CHINA BEATEN TO DEATH BY STALINISTS Sohn In Kuk, a North Korean refugee hiding in Communist China, suffered the same fate of all refugees from the Stalinist regime � the Communists sent him back. North Korean border guards beat him to death in the PRC border prison where he was being held �while the Chinese border guards and prison officials simply watched� (Washington Post). COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS NATIONAL REVIEW BACKS LIBERATION OF NORTH KOREA The editors of National Review join the China e-Lobby in calling for the liberation of North Korea: �there can be no avoiding the conclusion that to protect both our regional allies and ourselves, it will be necessary to see regime change in North Korea.� HENRY SOKOLSKI WEIGHS IN Henry Sokolski has been the most persistent critic of the �nullified� 1994 nuclear power deal. In National Review Online, the head of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center continues to oppose any �engagement� with North Korea, instead suggesting the U.S. �isolate and contain North Korea until the regime and the nuclear threat it presents goes the way of the Soviet Empire.� Sokolski also recommends inviting Communist China �to join us to disarm North Korea out of informed self-interest,� but also firmly insist to the PRC, �we and our security allies in Asia will do our best � as we did before we ever engaged Pyongyang � without Beijing's help.� FROM THE HAWKS: NORTH KOREA SHOWS WHY WE SHOULD GO INTO IRAQ The editors of the Washington Post, Jack Kelly (New York Post), John Derbyshire (National Review Online), John O�Sullivan (also NRO), and Senator John McCain (Washington Post) give the hawkish argument. FROM THE DOVES: NORTH KOREA SHOWS WHY WE SHOULD NOT GO INTO IRAQ Harlan Ullman takes the other side in the Washington Times. MORE ON NORTH KOREA VIS A VIS IRAQ The New Republic surveys the opinion field. Paul Reynolds (BBC) examines North Korea and its relations to both of its fellows in the axis of evil. THE FAILURE OF �ENGAGEMENT� WITH NORTH KOREA Rich Lowry, editor of National Review takes his shots at the 1994 deal, and those who support continuing �engagement� with the Stalinist regime, in this column on Townhall. Victor Davis Hanson, meanwhile, calls the Agreed Framework, and all the assumptions that went into it, �a metaphor of the times� in this excellent National Review Online piece. Wes Pruden, editor of the Washington Times, examines North Korea�s sickening recent history of deals violated, people starved, etc. Frank Gaffney, of the Center for Security Policy, warns against relying too much on negotiating with the North, also in the Washington Times. Cal Thomas (Washington Times) sees North Korea as a lesson for dealing with totalitarian regimes: appeasement does not work. WHAT TO DO (OTHER THAN LIBERATION)? Not everyone was willing to come out and support liberating North Korea. Adam Garfinkle, of the National Interest, comes close. However, his plan involves a lot more trustworthiness on the part of Communist China than most would expect. Still, it�s a plan with a laudable goal � Korean unification under the control of the South Korean government � in The New Republic. Former Secretary of State James Baker advised in the Washington Post: �I think the United States should . . . make it clear to the North Koreans that for more than 40 years the U.S. nuclear deterrent kept the peace in Europe against an overwhelming Soviet conventional superiority, and we are quite prepared to do the same on the Korean peninsula to fulfill our security obligations to South Korea and Japan.� Susan Shirk, from the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, gives a more dovish outlook in the Washington Post. Shirk �visited North Korea for five days at the invitation of a government think tank and had the opportunity to talk with national and local officials, as well as with some ordinary North Koreans.� One wonders if she realizes just how little they were allowed to tell her. Steve Chapman, in the Washington Times, basically says this on North Korea: deal with it. The folks starving to death under the Stalinist regime will certainly be happy to hear that. Of course, Chapman�s options: �Isolate them, attack them, bribe them or put up with them� did not quite include the one we prefer: push for their peaceful liberation through isolation in part, and support of dissidents in part. Note: the above is the last link to our page on the liberation of North Korea in this Report. Sign the Boycott Petition: In reaction to the 2008 Olympic Games being awarded to Beijing, the China e-Lobby has begun a petition for an American boycott of those games. 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