| THE NORTH KOREA REPORT: JULY 29, 2002 NEWS NORTH KOREA STILL WON�T ALLOW INSPECTION OF ITS NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM STALINIST REGIME REFUSES TO ADHERE TO AGREEMENT AS POWER PLANTS ARE BUILT Casting a well-deserved pall over a planned ceremony to mark the pouring of �concrete for a pair of nuclear reactors being developed� in North Korea, the Stalinist regime is refusing to hold up its end of the bargain � namely allowing the U.S. to inspect its nuclear weapons facilities. The 1994 agreement obligated the North to the inspections and to freeze, its nuclear weapons program (Washington Post). In exchange, the U.S. agreed to build two light-water nuclear power plants. That construction continues despite the North�s refusal to allow inspections, which led the Bush Administration to say the regime had violated the agreement (see March 20 China e-Lobby Update). Stop the Nuclear Power Deal: As the above story notes, the United States is still building two nuclear power plants in North Korea. Meanwhile, the Stalinist regime refuses to let us inspect their nuclear weapons program to verify that it has been stopped, as the agreement demands. Use this China e-Lobby fact sheet and tell the President to cancel the deal. MORE REFUGEES MAKE IT INTO SOUTH KOREAN EMBASSY IN BEIJING Another group of North Korean refugees hiding in Communist China entered the South Korean Embassy in Beijing last week. The BBC put the number of refugees at �seven or eight.� Thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of North Koreans desperate to escape the Stalinist regime � thanks in part to a famine that has killed nearly 2 million � are hiding in the so-called People�s Republic. They hide because Communist China sends back any North Korean refugee it finds � the two Communist regimes have been allies for over five decades. North Korea also has been stealing international food aid to keep the families of party members and the military fed, while the ordinary people starve to death (see February 13 China e-Lobby Update). Also reporting: CNN STALINISTS �REGRET� NAVAL CLASH WITH SOUTH North Korea has expressed �regret� (NK statement: BBC) for �the armed clash incident that accidentally took place . . . sometime ago.� That would be the naval gun battle that �accidentally� began after NK naval vessels crossed the border into South Korea and then started firing on South Korean ships, killing five and injuring 19 from the democratic South (CNN, see Ju1y 1 and Ju1y 8 NK Reports). It should surprise no one that the Stalinist regime released the �regret� statement just as it was hoping to restart talks with the United States this week. The South said it took the message as an apology (BBC), but it should be noted that the statement did not include the words �apologize� or �sorry.� POWELL OPEN TO TALKS WITH NORTH KOREA NEXT WEEK Secretary of State Colin Powell said he was open to talks with his North Korea counterpart at the ASEAN meeting in Brunei later this week. A previous American offer for talks earlier this month was rejected by the Stalinist regime (CNN, Washington Post). RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS NORTH KOREA WANTS TALKS WITH U.S. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was in Pyongyang for talks with the North yesterday. While he was there, he said North Korea is �ready for contacts with officials from the United States and Japan as early as the Asean summit in Brunei� (BBC). Whether the North was ready to make good on agreements already reached (see above on the 1994 nuclear power deal), Ivanov naturally did not say. �RED ARMY� HIJACKERS OF JAPANESE FLIGHT IN 1970 MAY RETURN FROM NK TO JAPAN Four surviving hijackers of a 1970 Japanese flight have offered to leave North Korea � which offered them asylum that year � to return to Japan and face charges. The four � member of the terrorist group called the �Red Army� � may have been part of a plot to kidnap Japanese citizens and force them to live in North Korea, according to CNN. The hijackers, of course, deny that. COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS IS IT THE FREE MARKET, OR A RUSE TO KEEP CONTROL? Alice Donald, BBC, examines the implications of North Korea ending its food rationing in favor of selling food and raising wages to allow workers to pay for it. Some take it as a sign the Stalinist regime is moving towards a market economy � but others consider it �a short-term measure to wrest back control from the black marketers.� Of course, political reform remains out of the question in the North. 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. Miss an Update, Weekly Links, or a North Korea Report? Find it on our web site. Check out the latest on Communist China and the Terrorist War. There�s still time to contact the President and tell him not to appoint pro-PRC Doug Paal as de facto ambassador to Taiwan. See Follow-Up for more on Paal. 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 you happen to find to the same address. |