Return to *North Korean Studies*
By JAE-SUK YOO, The Associated Press, Tuesday, October 7, 2003; 10:29 AM
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea said Tuesday it will not allow Japan to participate in talks on resolving the standoff over the North's nuclear programs because Tokyo wants to use the forum to discuss the kidnapping of its citizens by communist agents.
North Korea's statement complicates efforts by the United States and its allies to restart six-nation nuclear talks. Washington considers Japan's participation crucial, saying North Korea's nuclear programs threaten regional security.
In August, the United States, China, Russia, the two Koreas and Japan held talks in Beijing aimed at addressing the North's nuclear programs. Tokyo used the talks to raise another issue it considers pivotal - the abduction of its citizens decades ago by the communist state.
On Tuesday, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said it "would not allow Japan to participate in any form of negotiations for the settlement of the nuclear issue in the future."
It was unclear whether the statement, carried by the North's official news agency
KCNA, meant North Korea could agree to a future meeting if Japan is excluded. Since the August meeting ended without plans for a next round, North Korea has said it is not interested in further talks.
"Japan is nothing but an obstacle to the peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the U.S.," the statement said, using the initials for the North's official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "It has lost its qualification to be a trustworthy dialogue partner."
North Korea accused Japan of abusing the nuclear talks to raise the "issue of abduction," which the North says has already been settled.
Japan responded Tuesday by saying that North Korea has the responsibility to resolve both issues.
"North Korea agreed to hold six-nation talks. It has a responsibility to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully and diplomatically, and to solve the abduction issue. We want North Korea to respond squarely to that responsibility," said top government spokesman, Yasuo Fukuda.
The kidnapping of Japanese during the 1970s and 1980s by North Korea to train its spies has been a major sticking point between the Asian
neighbors, stalling efforts to set up diplomatic relations and halting Japan's food aid to impoverished North Korea.
The Japanese public was outraged when North Korean leader Kim Jong Il admitted in September 2002 that his nation's agents had systematically kidnapped Japanese decades ago. North Korea has allowed the return of five kidnapped Japanese.
In Tokyo, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement that if future talks are to occur, "Japan's participation is natural."
"The nuclear, missile and abduction issues must be resolved if Japan-North Korea normalization negotiations are to move forward," it said.
Meanwhile on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, Japan, China and South Korea agreed to coordinate efforts to get North Korea to end its nuclear ambitions and reiterated that the dispute should be resolved peacefully.
The agreement between Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, South Korean President Roh
Moo-hyun and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao came on the sidelines of the annual summit of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
A South Korean government official, who asked not to be named, said the three leaders agreed to cooperate in setting up a second round of six-party talks, but no date has been set...
Жена лидера КНДР Ким Чен Ира Ко Йонг Хи находится в критическом состоянии после того, как в сентябре попала в автокатастрофу, сообщает Reuters. Об этом пишет японская газета Sankei Shimbun со ссылкой на источник на Корейском полуострове. Известно лишь то, что она получила тяжелые черепно-мозговые травмы. О ее состоянии более ничего не сообщается.
В последнее время в Пхеньяне явно пытаются повысить статус 50-летней Ко Йонг Хи, отмечает Sankei
Shimbun. В частности, в официальной хронике ее стали называть "любимой матерью (вероятно, народа. - Ред.) Аналитики считают, что это означает, что один из ее сыновей будет вскоре рассматриваться как наследник Ким Чен Ира. Вероятнее всего, это будет 20-летний Ким Чен Хой, который получил образование в Швейцарии. Ранее наследником считался сын другой жены Ким Чен Ира - Ким Чен Нам. Однако он лишился этих прав после того, как по поддельному паспорту пытался бежать в Японию - якобы для того, чтобы побывать в Диснейленде.
Семейная жизнь руководителя Северной Кореи по понятным причинам практически засекречена, а в СМИ попадает лишь немного информации. У Ким Чен Ира было несколько жен. Про Ко известно очень мало: она родилась в Японии в семье этнических корейцев. В начале 60-х семья переехала в КНДР. Когда ее заметил Ким Чен Ир, она танцевала и пела в некоем ансамбле в Пхеньяне.
В прошлом году, в июле в Москве умерла 65-летняя Сон Хи Рим, которая, как предполагается, некогда была женой Ким Чен Ира. Сон находилась в Москве для лечения. Вместе с ней в российской столице находился их с Ким Чен Иром сын Ким Чен Нам.
(07.10.2003 Grani.Ru, in Russian)
The Associated Press reported that the DPRK said Friday it had solved "all the technological matters" involved in using plutonium from nuclear fuel rods to build atomic bombs, a brazen statement prompting more international hand-wringing over Pyongyang's intentions. The DPRK's announcement appeared to be part of a calculated effort to escalate tension in the standoff with the US and its allies, possibly to gain leverage in any negotiations on the nuclear issue.
"All the technological matters have been solved fully in the process of making a switchover in the use of plutonium," said the DPRK's official news agency, KCNA. It was impossible to independently verify the claim because the country has expelled international inspectors from its nuclear facilities. Friday's statement came a day after the DPRK said it finished reprocessing the rods and had started using plutonium to make nuclear weapons as a deterrent against what it calls a US plan to invade. (Sang-Hun Choe, "NORTH KOREA ESCALATES NUCLEAR STANDOFF," Seoul, 10/03/03) and Agence France-Presse ("NORTH KOREA SAYS TECHNICAL HITCH OVERCOME IN ATOMIC BOMB-BUILDING," Seoul, 10/03/03)
Reuters reported that Veteran U.N. diplomat Maurice Strong said on Thursday a senior DPRK official told him
Pyongyang would give up its nuclear weapons program if its security concerns were satisfactorily
addressed. Strong, an adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the DPRK, spoke to reporters after talks with DPRK
Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon. Choe "made it very clear that his government is committed to
abandoning its nuclear weapons program, to subjecting itself to internationally agreed inspection and verification procedures,
and that their primary concern is their security," he said. "I have to take the North Koreans at their word," he
added. "They have openly said that they will continue to develop their nuclear weapons program until there is a
settlement of these issues." ("NORTH KOREA WOULD DROP ARMS FOR SECURITY -UN ENVOY," United
Nations, 10/02/03)
Reuters, Saturday, October 4, 2003; 2:21 AM
TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea, which is embroiled in a diplomatic standoff over its nuclear arms program, recently devalued its currency as part of a fresh push for economic reforms, a Japanese newspaper said on Saturday.
The report follows this week's comments by a senior South Korean official, who said that North Korea seems committed to economic reforms.
The famine-stricken communist country had launched some reforms in July last year in what appeared to be the first major changes to the centralized, closed system in half a century.
North Korea this summer began exchanging the won using an official rate of about 900 won to the dollar, down sharply from a rate of 150 won fixed after a devaluation last year, and also switched to floating exchange rates, the Asahi Shimbun said.
New currency exchange offices have been set up in various areas of the capital Pyongyang and are manned by central bank personnel, the Asahi said in a story from Beijing quoting a source knowledgeable about North Korea.
Diplomats in Pyongyang had said in August last year that North Korea had devalued the won to 150 per dollar from around 2.15 per dollar as part of a series of reforms designed to introduce more market driven prices.
North Korea decided on the latest steps due to a widening disparity between official and black market rates, Asahi said.
South Korea's Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said on Tuesday that after sending hundreds of North Koreans to China and Europe in recent years to learn about free markets, Pyongyang is now dispatching delegations to Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam.
"This is clear evidence that North Korea is really interested in economic reform and that they have decided to pursue economic reform," he told the Korea Society in New York.
Despite such signs of change, however, international concerns over North Korea have been growing due to its nuclear ambitions.
North Korea said on Friday it had successfully finished reprocessing some 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods in June and had switched technology to enhance its use of plutonium extracted from the rods for possible atomic weapons.
The United States, China, Russia, South Korea and Japan are seeking to draw North Korea back to the negotiating table for more talks on ending its nuclear program. There was an inconclusive first round of talks in Beijing in August...
By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent, Reuters, Thursday, September 11, 2003; 4:53 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea appears to have halted work at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, center of efforts to produce plutonium for atomic weapons, U.S. officials said on Thursday.
The officials said they did not know the reason, but told Reuters possibilities include: Pyongyang has done this as a gesture to encourage negotiations with Washington; run into technical difficulties, or, more ominously, finished reprocessing fuel needed for a half dozen or more nuclear bombs.
"There's not much going on," one U.S. official said when asked about current activity at
Yongbyon. Another said: "I sense there may be a pause in the action but would be nervous about concluding that for certain."
Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly disclosed that Washington remains concerned that China, despite hosting six-party talks aimed at resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis, continues to abet Pyongyang's weapons programs.
China has been "quite restrictive" in stopping the flow of major technologies to the North but "there is some leakage around the edges," requiring Kelly to raise the issue with Beijing in the last two weeks, he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"I know that there have been examples in which China blocked shipments but ... there are many North Korean companies and front companies operating around in China," Kelly said...
Agence France-Presse reported that DPRK leader Kim Jong-Il formed a new cabinet in a sweeping reshuffle of the government's economic team that also affected key military posts. Kim appointed technocrat Pak Pong-Ju, a light-industry specialist, as prime minister, replacing Hong Song-Nam, according to DPRK media monitored by Yonhap news agency. Kim also replaced two of three vice premiers and sacked five ministers in charge of the state planning commission, and other key economic posts. Jo Myong-Rok, one of Kim's closest confidants, retained his job as first vice chairman of the DPRK' most powerful body, the National Defense Commission, which controls the North's 1.1-million military, the world's fifth largest.
Kim, himself, was
re-elected to a third five-year term as chairman of the all-powerful commission. Kim Yong-Nam was reappointed head of the presidium of the
Supreme People's Assembly, North Korea's nominal head of state. Marshal Ri Ul-Sol and Vice Marshal Paek Hank-Rim were
dropped from the commission. The two comrades-in-arms of North Korea's late founding father Kim Il-Sung had
served in key military posts for decades. Kim promoted young followers in the military and party, sidelining a group of seniors in their 80s in a
generational shift to consolidate his leadership, Yonhap said. The ROK agency said 52 percent of North Korea's new power elite was now aged under
55. ("NORTH KOREA LAUNCHES MAJOR CABINET RESHUFFLE," 09/03/03)
The Associated Press reported that the DPRK's parliament re-elected Kim Jong Il the communist country's leader Wednesday and endorsed Pyongyang's decision to "increase its nuclear deterrent," spurring orchestrated celebrations by dancing housewives and loyal soldiers. The bespectacled Kim, 61, nodded nonchalantly from a platform as 670 legislators stood in unison, wildly clapped their hands and shouted hurrays to voice unanimous support for his new five-year term as chairman of the North's highest governing body, the National Defense Commission. Tens of thousands of olive-clad soldiers stood in neat lines at a Pyongyang rally as a speaker called for increased "battle readiness against American imperialists."
Women in colorful dress and children wearing red scarves sang songs and danced on streets decorated with flags and flowers. The festivities, carefully choreographed by the Stalinist regime, came as Kim upped the stakes in negotiations with the US and other countries over the North's nuclear weapons program. The DPRK says it will give up its program only if the US guarantees the DPRK regime's security by signing a non-aggression treaty and providing badly needed economic aid. The DPRK has been careful in describing its nuclear capabilities, saying it has a "nuclear deterrent force" but not elaborating. (Sang-hun Choe, "NORTH KOREA TO RAISE NUCLEAR CAPABILITIES," Seoul, 09/03/03)
David Kang NYT, Thursday, August 7, 2003
HANOVER, New Hampshire. The news that North Korea has agreed to multilateral talks has been greeted with relief and hope from Moscow to Beijing to Washington. The United States has consistently insisted on multilateral talks with the North, while North Korea had been calling for talks only between the United States and North Korea. Now that North Korea has agreed to talks that will include Japan, China, Russia and South Korea, the Bush administration is focusing on the need to dismantle the North's nuclear weapons program.
But the issue of multilateral versus bilateral talks is only peripheral to the nuclear crisis, and the prospect for resolving the yearlong standoff between America and North Korea remains dim. If the United States offers nothing but a demand that North Korea abandon its nuclear program, the meetings will be useless. If there is nothing to discuss, why even meet?..
by Leon V. Sigal, Northeast Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council,
August 5, 2003
While its faith-based intelligence and downright deceptions about Iraq are now being exposed, the Bush administration has been just as misleading about North Korea. North Korea has grudgingly accepted multiparty talks. It had been balking - not, as administration officials suggest, because it was insisting on bilateral talks with the United States, but because Washington has shown no interest in negotiating.
In three-way talks in Beijing in April, North Korea made a proposal to freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear programs. Allies South Korea and Japan want the Bush administration to make a counterproposal, but it has not. Yet administration officials say they seek a "diplomatic solution." Winston Churchill would have called that a "terminological inexactitude." That phrase was Mr. Churchill's way around a rule in parliament against accusing fellow MPs of lying. The Bush administration is propagating other inexactitudes on North Korea, all of them designed to keep talks from turning into negotiations and all of them at odds with the facts...
Korean Central News Agency
reported that a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement released on August 1 referred to the DPRK's new
proposal for starting the six-party talks and holding the bilateral talks within their
framework to discuss the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the US It is a reflection of the DPRK's sincere and patient efforts to peacefully settle
the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the US through dialogue at any cost. It is gratifying that the countries
concerned and the world public unanimously welcomed the DPRK's principled and fair proposal.
The US has
deliberately sidestepped a peaceful negotiated settlement of the issue while insisting on the absurd assertion that
"north Korea should scrap its nuclear program before dialogue" and raising such secondary issues as
format of dialogue. This created a serious hurdle in the way of settling the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula and pushed
the nuclear stand-off between the DPRK and the US to an extreme pitch of tension. As a result,
the situation has led to such a dangerous phase that a war may break out any moment.
A new format of dialogue has been decided
upon thanks to the DPRK's magnanimity and bold decision to remove the danger of a war from the
Korean peninsula and peacefully settle the nuclear issue. So, everything depends on the US attitude. As already known,
what is essential for settling the DPRK-US nuclear issue, a product of the US hostile policy
toward the DPRK, is whether the US has a bold intention to make a switchover in its policy to stifle the DPRK and a firm political will to
prove it in practice. A fundamental settlement of the nuclear issue would be unthinkable without the US switchover in its policy toward the DPRK.
("KCNA ON DPRK-US TALKS PYONGYANG," 08/05/03)
Reuters reported that the DPRK is in talks to export its Taepodong 2
long-range ballistic missile to Iran and to jointly develop nuclear warheads with Tehran, a Japanese newspaper reported on Wednesday. The
conservative Sankei Shimbun, quoting military sources familiar with the DPRK, said that the DPRK planned to export components and Iran would then
assemble the Taepodongs at a factory near Tehran. The paper, known for its hardline stance on Pyongyang, said
the DPRK would also send experts to provide Iran with assistance on missile technology and would jointly
develop nuclear warheads. They have been discussing the plans for about a year and are expected to reach an agreement in
mid-October, the Sankei added.
If Iran acquires the Taepodong 2, which has a range of over 6,000 km
(3,700 miles), it would be able to hit targets in Europe, the paper said. Missile exports are a vital source of foreign currency
for cash-strapped DPRK and it is widely believed that Pyongyang has had dealings with
countries in the Middle East as well as with Pakistan. Iran said last month that it had completed tests on its Shahab 3 ballistic missiles,
based on the DPRK Rodong 1. The Japanese report is likely to fuel suspicions that
Tehran is using its commercial nuclear program to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has repeatedly denied any plans to build nuclear weapons,
saying its program is for civilian use. ("PAPER: N.KOREA PLANS TO EXPORT MISSILES TO IRAN," Tokyo,
08/05/03)
Agence France-Presse reported that the DPRK accused ROK conservatives of murdering a Hyundai
executive found dead while under investigation for illicit payments of millions of dollars to the DPRK. Chung Mong-Hun, who was on trial in
connection with the illegal cash transfer to the DPRK in 2000, jumped to his death Monday from his high-rise office building in
downtown Seoul. Police said he committed suicide. "Chung's death was not a suicide in a
true sense of the word, but a murder by South Korea's independent counsel and main opposition Grand National Party which oppose
inter-Korean progress," DPRK said Tuesday in a statement carried by the official Korean
Central News Agency (KCNA).
Inter-Korean economic projects were in jeopardy
as a result of the "murder" and tours to the DPRK resort of Mount Kumgang, operated by Hyundai Asan, would be suspended following the death, it added.
Chung was one of the central figures standing trial in connection with Hyundai's transfer of 500 million dollars to the
DPRK just before the 2000 inter-Korean summit. The DPRK charges were contained in a message sent by
telegram to Chung's elder brother, Chung Mong-Koo, chairman of Hyundai Motor, and Kim Yoon-kyu, Hyundai
Asan president, KCNA said. It was issued in the name of the DPRK's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee and other
organizations that deal with inter-Korean relations. ("NORTH KOREA SAYS HYUNDAI TYCOON MURDERED," 08/05/03)
Xinhua, reported that
border trade through Quanhe port in Hunchun city of N.E.PRC's Jilin Province and Wonjong-ri port (DPRK)
returned to normal on 12 July. Trade resumed after the DPRK lifted restrictions on the entry of
PRC citizens, which were imposed in April during the SARS outbreak in parts of the PRC. Quanhe was the biggest trading port along
the Jilin-DPRK border, facing Wonjong-ri across the Tumen River and neighbouring the
largest economic development zone of the DPRK. Quanhe has played an important role in trade between the two countries. In the
first three months of 2003, the number of tourists passing through the port reached
56,000 and more than 30,000 tons of cargo went through the port. KBC NOTE: Cargo trade through Rajin-Sonbong and transit trade by sea to
Pusan continued throughout - this was not interrupted by SARS restrictions. What
did stop were border trade and tourism both of which have returned to normal levels.
( "BORDER TRADE BETWEEN CHINA AND DPRK RESTORED," Beijing, 07/12/03)
Agence
France-Presse reported that ROK Leader Kim Jong-Il won a seat on the DPRK's
rubber-stamp parliament with a widely expected 100 percent of the vote in the
DPRK's legislative elections, Pyongyang's official media said. Kim was one of
687 single candidates handpicked by the ruling Workers Party who stood unopposed
and each of whom won 100 percent of votes cast for the Supreme People's Assembly
(SPA) on Sunday. The only blackspot, the official Korean Central News Agency
admitted, was the turnout. It stood at 99.9 percent. The stayaway 0.01 percent
were living abroad or at sea, KCNA explained. The people gave their
"absolute" support to hereditary dictator Kim, who has run the country
since the death of his father Kim Il-Sung in 1994. Kim won a seat from
constituency 649 in the capital, Pyongyang. "The voters registered at
constituency no. 649 all went to the polls and 100 percent of them voted for Kim
Jong-Il ..., " the agency said. "This is an expression of the absolute
support and trust of all the servicemen and the people in him." ("LEADER
KIM JONG-IL WINS LANDSLIDE IN NORTH KOREA-STYLE ELECTIONS," Seoul,
08/04/03)
Agence
France-Presse reported that the DPRK's Kim Jong Il is not "unstable"
but a "canny" operator who has played weak cards well, US Deputy
Secretary of State Richard Armitage said. Armitage was asked how the US should
deal with Kim on a radio show compared by conservative host Sean Hannity, who
described the reclusive leader as "unstable." "I wouldn't call
him 'unstable,'" Armitage replied on the nationally syndicated program.
"You can call him a lot of things, but this guy has played a weak hand very
well for years. And so he may be many things, but he is a canny
character."
His
comments came as US officials declined to be drawn into a war of words with
Pyongyang, which branded top State Department arms negotiator John Bolton as
"human scum" following a speech in which he disparaged Kim last week.
Armitage declined to be drawn into criticism of the previous Clinton
administration, which reached an anti-nuclear deal with Pyongyang in 1994 that
has since been violated. "(Kim) partied on. But that's a different ball
game and a different administration and we're trying to approach this in a way
that it will actually make sense and that is multilaterally," Armitage
said. "It's not just our problem, others have a more immediate problem
because they are in more immediate proximity," he added. ("NORTH
KOREA'S KIM NOT 'UNSTABLE' BUT 'CANNY': ARMITAGE," Washington,
08/04/03)
Korea
Central News Agency, reported that a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea today gave the statement on top US Arms
Official, James Bolton. According to a press report, during his recent visit to
the ROK and Japan, Bolton hurled malignant abuses at the top leader of the DPRK.
Bolton asserted that "while he lives like royalty in Pyongyang, he keeps
hundreds of thousands of his people locked in prison camps with millions more
mired in abject poverty" and "for many in north Korea, life is a
hellish nightmare." Bolton's remarks make one doubt whether he is a man
with an elementary faculty of thinking and stature as a man or not, to say
nothing of whether he is a politician belonging to a hawkish faction or to a
dovish one.
We
know that there are several hawks within the present US administration but have
not yet found out such rude human scum as Bolton. What he uttered is no more
than rubbish which can be let loose only by a beastly man bereft of reason.
Bolton was so completely seized with the inveterate habit of rejecting others
out of reason that he made a malignant personal attack even on the top leader of
other country. If he is allowed any longer to speak for the US policy on the
nuclear issue, this would adversely affect not only the fate of the policy but
that of the administration itself. Bolton's reckless remarks cast a doubt as to
whether the US truly wants to negotiate with the DPRK or not. ("SPOKESMAN
FOR DPRK FOREIGN MINISTRY SLAMS US MANDARIN'S INVECTIVE," Pyongyang,
08/02/03)
The
Associated Press reported that the DPRK on Saturday warned that any moves to
discuss its suspected nuclear weapons programs at the United Nations would
"hamstring" efforts for dialogue and be a "prelude to war."
The warning came a day after the communist country agreed to multilateral talks
over the nuclear standoff. The DPRK has accused the world body of siding with
the US. "The US intention to bring up the nuclear issue ... at the U.N. at
any cost is a grave criminal act to hamstring" the DPRK's efforts at
opening a dialogue, the official KCNA news agency said. "Any move to
discuss the nuclear issue at the U.N. Security Council is little short of a
prelude to a war," it said, reiterating past comments. Meanwhile, the US
and Japan are discussing forming a multinational inspection team to ensure the
DPRK eliminates its nuclear weapons development program. (Jae-Suk
Yoo, "NORTH KOREA ISSUES WARNING ON U.N. TALKS," Seoul, 08/02/03)
by AsiaInt (1 August 2003 Weekly Alert )
...Despite
signs that the US and the North appear ready to compromise, definite plans for a
resumption of dialogue in any format have not been agreed. But US Secretary of
State Colin Powell said on Wednesday that he saw a "distinct
possibility" of more multilateral talks soon, while President George W Bush
was confident of an "attitudinal change by Kim Jong-il" in the near
future. Powell also hinted that the US was considering ways of addressing North
Korea's demand that it must guarantee the security of the regime in Pyongyang
before any negotiations can begin. Although a formal declaration of
non-aggression seems unlikely, Powell said "there are ways of capturing
these ideas and we are exploring a variety of ways in which one can communicate
these ideas to other parties".
Meanwhile,
on Tuesday a source in Tokyo said the US is preparing a "concept
paper" on the issue, which will be shown to the North only on the occasion
of five-way talks. Despite the optimism about negotiations, comments made by US
Undersecretary of State John Bolton, visiting China and South Korea this week in
his capacity as Washington's senior arms-control official, suggest the US is not
focusing exclusively on dialogue as a means of resolving the crisis. Commenting
on Thursday in Seoul that "the days of DPRK blackmail are over",
Bolton also said the UN Security Council needed to "take appropriate and
timely action" to demonstrate its intentions to Pyongyang.
Also,
one of Bolton's principal aims on his tour was to secure cooperation for
Washington's Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a multinational campaign
to prevent - by force if necessary - the sale and transhipment of weapons of
mass destruction. Although not aimed specifically at North Korea, by enforcing
the PSI member nations (including the UK, Australia, and a dozen other Western
countries) will effectively blockade the North. It is not thought that Bolton
asked the South to join the PSI. Commenting on China's role in the standoff,
Bolton said on Monday that "I am not sure that there's anything else
specifically that we can think of that the government here can do that they
haven's already tried", although he mentioned Beijing's
"substantial" leverage over the North as a major supplier of food and
fuel...
Agence
France-Presse reported that the DPRK has dropped its demand for one-on-one negotiations with the US and has directly notified
key regional players that it is ready to meet them in six-way nuclear crisis talks, ROK
officials said. The ROK, Japan, the US, Russia and the PRC received notifications at about the same time from the DPRK, whose latest
move triggered optimism that a breakthrough in the nine-month nuclear stand-off was at hand. A senior US official
said talks could take place as early as this month.
The US State Department said it was "very encouraged" by the
development, and Moscow's Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov said the move "opens the way to a resolution" of the nuclear impasse. Japanese
leaders welcomed signs that the DPRK was finally showing flexibilty while the ROK foreign ministry said months of tough diplomacy may at last be
paying off. ROK officials said the DPRK state had abandoned, at least for now, its long-standing demand for one-on-one talks with the US and was
ready to engage directly in six-party talks without a resumption of exploratory three-party talks held in Beijing in April.
Officials said
details were sketchy but it appeared the DPRK had also dropped all reference to a non-aggression
pact, one of the country's key demands since the nuclear crisis erupted in October last year. "North Korea
expressed its intention to accept six-party talks directly without going through
three-way talks or bilateral talks," Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-Hyuk told a news briefing here. No date for talks has been fixed, he said, but
the venue looked highly likely to be Beijing. He said the DPRK had attached no conditions to participation in the talks.
Experts said they expected talks to go ahead soon but cautioned against undue optimism about swift
progress. ("NORTH KOREA DROPS DEMANDS, AGREES TO NUKE TALKS,"
08/01/03)
Agence
France-Presse reported that top US arms negotiator John Bolton has slammed DPRK leader Kim Jong-Il for
forcing his people live a "hellish nightmare" as he stepped up a war of words with the DPRK over its nuclear
weapons ambitions. The US undersecretary for arms control and international security said Thursday that Kim had
to scrap his nuclear weapons drive and was "dead wrong" if he thought developing them would serve to strengthen
his regime.
"The days of DPRK
blackmail are over," Bolton said in a speech to the East Asia Institute, a Seoul-based private
think tank. "Kim Jong-Il is dead wrong to think that developing nuclear weapons will
improve his security. Indeed the opposite is true." He said Kim lived like royalty
while keeping "hundreds of thousands of his people locked in prison camps with millions more mired in abject poverty, scrounging the ground for
food. For many in the DPRK, life is a hellish nightmare."
Asked at a press
conference what effect his criticial remarks were likely to have on Pyongyang while delicate
diplomatic negotiations were underway, Bolton said it was necessary to speak out. "I think it is important to tell the
truth and I think that being able to state clearly the concerns we have about the
regime in North Korea is important internationally in explaining why we are concerned both about its own support for terrorism and its pursuit of
weapons of mass destruction," he said. ("TOP US OFFICIAL SLAMS NORTH KOREA, DEMANDS END TO
NUCLEAR DRIVE," 07/31/03)
Friday, August 1, 2003, The New York Times
WASHINGTON North Korea now appears ready to talk to the United States and four other nations about its nuclear weapons program in what could be a significant diplomatic thaw, Bush administration officials said Thursday. The North Korean government has long insisted on one-on-one talks with Washington on nuclear issues, but the Bush administration has always rejected that idea, saying it would not give in to what it called blackmail.
So if North Korea has indeed shifted its stance, and if the shift is more than momentary, the way could be open for talks that would include not only diplomats from Pyongyang and Washington but representatives from China, South Korea, Russia and Japan, as well. There was no immediate word on where or when these new talks might take place.
News of the development came somewhat indirectly from Moscow. There, North Korea's ambassador to Russia, Pak Ui Chun, told the Russian deputy foreign minister, Yuri Fedotov, that North Korea now supports "six-sided talks with the participation of Russia on resolving the current complex situation on the Korean Peninsula," the State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, told reporters Thursday.
...News of the shift by the Pyongyang government came hours after John Bolton, under secretary of state for arms control and international security, condemned the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, as a
"tyrannical dictator" who presides over a country that is "a hellish
nightmare." Bolton delivered his speech in Seoul.
It was not immediately clear whether the timing of Bolton's strongly worded speech was a just a coincidence. In the past, communications between the United States and North Korea have been marked by unpredictability and bellicose language. Boucher suggested that Bolton, who has been in South Korea for a few days, might not have been informed of the very latest developments on North Korea.
"I'm sure he's been updated by now," Boucher said.
...[Bolton]
derided North Korea's repeated calls for one-on-one talks with the United States
as a "one-note piano concerto." The unflattering descriptions of North
Korea's leader Thursday could unleash a backlash among North Korean officials,
who nurture a personality cult about a man they prefer to call "Dear
Leader." Last year, North Korean officials complained bitterly after Bush
called Kim "evil."
Bolton appeared to return to a James Bond theme when talking about the leader of the secretive state.
"While nuclear blackmail used to be the province of fictional spy movies, Kim Jong Il is forcing us to live that
reality," Bolton said, referring to the nation that officially calls itself the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea.
...Before Bolton's speech, speculation in the region ranged from a renewal of talks in September to a formal declaration by North Korea of a nuclear arsenal on Sept. 9, the 55th anniversary of the founding of the Communist state.