| Home page To receive this publication via e-mail, click here. THE NORTH KOREA REPORT: JUNE 30, 2003 Our statement on why North Korea must be liberated can be found here. TOP STORY: KOREAN SUMMIT NEEDED $100 MILLION IN �GOVERNMENT AID� THREE MAJOR OFFICIALS IN EX-PRESIDENT KIM DAE-JUNG�S GOVERNMENT, HIGH-RANKING HYUNDAI EXECUTIVE INDICTED IN SCANDAL OVER PAYOFF TO NORTH KOREA Independent investigator Song Doo-hwan announced the indictment of eight people for their role in sending $100 million in South Korean taxpayer dollars straight to North Korea to smooth the way for the 2000 summit between then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean Stalinist-in-chief Kim Jong-il. Report: BBC Song wouldn�t call the money a bribe, preferring �politically motivated government aid.� Whatever the terminology, the money was pledged to the North during a pre-summit meeting by then-Culture and Tourism Minister Park Jie-won, who is among the indicted. Also indicted were Kim Dae-jung�s former chief of staff, the head of the South Korean spy agency during his reign, and an executive at Hyundai, the firm that sent $500 million to North Korea prior to the summit; $100 million of that money came straight from South Korean government coffers. Kim Dae-jung himself admitted that the money was sent outside proper legal channels, and sent to clinch the summit, but justified the move as one that �facilitated peace on the Korean Peninsula.� See also 2/3, 2/10, 2/17, 3/3, and 3/24 North Korea Reports. Kim won the Nobel Peace Prize for the summit, which was the only major achievement of his dovish �sunshine� policy toward the North; he will escape indictment for the payoff. Since then, the only deals to which the North have agreed have involved money or material moving from the South to the North. NEWS ON COMMUNIST CHINA�S ROLE COMMUNIST CHINA, AGAIN, REFUSES TO LET UNITED NATIONS CRITICIZE NORTH KOREA Communist China has continued its battle with the rest of the world on its half-century ally North Korea, refusing to even talk with fellow members of the United Nations Security Council about condemning North Korea for its nuclear weapons development. One American diplomat told Newsmax, �They won't negotiate. They won't even talk about it.� OTHER NUCLEAR NEWS CONGRESSMAN WORKING ON NO-NUKE, NON-AGRESSION NK DEAL Oh dear. Congressman Curt Weldon (R-Pennsylvania) is working on a ten-point plan that basically, would give North Korea everything it wanted � a non-aggression pact, diplomatic recognition, and economic aid � if the Stalinist regime renounced nuclear weapons, agreed to inspections, and signed a treaty restricting trade in ballistic missiles. Report: MSNBC Weldon, who visited North Korea last month (see last North Korea Report), called the Stalinists� reaction �very positive.� No kidding: after violating every agreement they have ever signed in the last twenty years, they can get everything they want by signing more pieces of paper and going through an �inspections� charade. Why wouldn�t they be happy? Weldon is talking to South Korean and Japanese officials to get them on board, and the Bush Administration is watching closely. As for the North�s recent history with agreements, to say nothing of the people of northern Korea trapped by the Stalinist regime, no one seems to care. NORTH KOREA COULD HAVE TEN NUCLEAR BOMBS, TEST ONE BY DECEMBER A former American official who was involved in the infamous 1994 Agreed Framework � the deal in which the North pledged to freeze its nuclear weapons program � told Yomiuri Shimbun (cited by World Net Daily), that the Stalinist regime could conduct a nuclear test �by December� and currently has �enough plutonium to make six to 10 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 stand firm against the Stalinist regime, and not to build the power plants. AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS BILL INTORDUCED TO HELP NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES Senator Sam Brownback (Republican � Kansas) has introduced a bill that would stop the U.S. from automatically considering all North Koreans applying for asylum as South Korean citizens, making it easier for North Korean escapees to win asylum in the U.S. (New York Sun, courtesy Kathryn Jean-Lopez, National Review Online Editor and Member since 2002). Tens to hundreds of thousands of Koreans are still hiding from the Stalinist regime in Communist China; the Communists send back all North Korean refugees they find. Nearly 100 managed to escape through embassies of democratic nations, including Canada, Spain, Japan, South Korea, and the U.S. Brownback, a conservative Republican, reached �across the aisle� to liberal Massachusetts Democrat Ted Kennedy, who is a co-sponsor of the bill. Who could possibly oppose such a thing? The State Department, of course (NRO). SOUTH KOREAN DEFENSE MINISTER VISITS U.S. South Korean Defense Minister Cho Young-kil is in Washington for talks with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The major topics of conversation will be the North�s nuclear weapons program, and the future realignment of American troops in South Korea (see 6/9 North Korea Report). Report: Agence France Presse via Washington Times U.S. AMBASSADOR TO JAPAN DEMANDS NK END ITS NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM Howard Baker, the American Ambassador to Japan, used a speech to the Research Institute of Japan to warn Stalinist North Korea to end its nuclear ambitions. Baker also warned the North that it was playing a �deadly serious game� (Newsmax), and that the patience of the United States could �expire.� There was no talk, however, of liberation. OTHER SOUTH KOREA NEWS ANOTHER SET OF FAMILY REUNIONS Families separated between North and South Korea met over the weekend in another set of deeply emotional reunions. The North has agreed to these only a few times in recent years, but that is the only chance South Koreans have to see their loved ones trapped by the Stalinist regime. Report: BBC COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS ON THE BROWNBACK-KENNEDY BILL Joel Mowbray, National Review Online, rips the State Department for opposing the Brownback-Kennedy bill on North Korean refugees (see American-Related News), and details the plight of North Koreans who try to escape the Stalinist regime. ON PAKISTAN The editors of the Washington Post are wondering why President Bush is so kind to Pakistani strongman Pervez Musharraf � Communist China�s best friend in Central Asia and North Korea�s nuclear enabler. Post columnist Jim Hoagland is equally � and rightfully � confused. ON SOUTH KOREA Former U.S. Senator Malcolm Wallop writes on the history and future of the American-South Korean alliance in the Washington Times. Greg Constantine, BBC, talks to a musical group of defectors from North Korea trying to bridge the divide between those trapped in the Stalinist hell-zone and their brethren in South Korea. 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. |