ID :
204700
Thu, 09/01/2011 - 12:56
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/204700
The shortlink copeid
NORTH KOREA NEWSLETTER NO. 173 (September 1, 2011)
NORTH KOREA NEWSLETTER NO. 173 (September 1, 2011)
*** FOREIGN TIPS
U.S. Urges North Korea to Halt Uranium Enrichment Program
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The U.S. government on Aug. 25 dismissed North Korea's claim that its uranium enrichment program has a peaceful purpose, saying Pyongyang still falls short of Washington's expectations for initial steps to resume full-fledged talks.
"We don't see any reason for that to meet civilian needs," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
She enumerated measures the North should take before seeking further dialogue on denuclearization and bilateral relations.
Top diplomats from North Korea and the U.S. met in New York in late July in what U.S. officials described as an "exploratory" meeting to see if the socialist nation is serious about negotiations.
Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan, heading the North's delegation to the talks, told reporters that his country's uranium program is designed for power generation.
In the latest development, the North's leader, Kim Jong-il, reportedly said in a summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Aug. 24 that his country is willing to rejoin the six-way talks "without preconditions" and impose a moratorium on nuclear testing and missile launches.
The department official reiterated that those steps are "insufficient."
In the New York meeting, she said, the U.S. clarified what the North should do.
"There are no secrets there in terms of our listed expectations vis-a-vis North Korea," Nuland said. "So when they come forward with a couple of them, as we said, it's still insufficient."
She said the North should stop its uranium-based nuclear development, improve relations with South Korea and abide by a 2005 agreement with the U.S., South Korea, China, Russia and Japan to abandon its nuclear program in return for political and economic rewards.
"We need to see them taking concrete steps along all those lines," she said.
Experts in Washingjton were also cautious about the North's recent charm offensive.
"Moratoria on testing are meaningless if he (the North Korean leader) feels free to end them at will as he has in the past," said Richard Bush, senior analyst at the Brookings Institution. "He must take steps to allay those doubts. The process of reengagement can only begin by talking to South Korea. And Pyongyang must come clean on its enrichment program."
Michael Green, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, also said the North's gestures seem aimed at "gaining concessions needed before testing and other provocations in 2012."
He said the Kim-Medvedev deal on a cross-border gas pipeline is not new. The leaders agreed to set up a joint commission to work out details of a plan to send natural gas to South Korea by way of a pipeline through North Korea.
Green, who worked at the National Security Council from 2001 to 2005 in the George W. Bush administration, said then-Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a pipeline across the Korean Peninsula to Bush in 2002 as the solution to North Korea's uranium enrichment program crisis.
"This is an old Russian dream," he said. "Seoul would be crazy to consider it, since the North could easily use the pipeline as leverage."
------------------------
U.S. Envoy Proposes Talks on Remains Recovery to N. Korea
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- The United States' special representative for North Korea policy has proposed to Pyongyang that they resume their talks on recovering remains of American troops killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, according to a U.S. radio report on Aug. 27.
In a letter by Republican Party Senator Kelly Ayotte sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the senator referred to the recent written proposal to North Korea made by Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, according to Voice of America. But it did not mention when the proposal was made.
The report came about one week after the North first referred to the proposal on Aug. 19 and said that it has accepted the request from the U.S.
Nearly 8,000 U.S. service members are listed as missing from the war, and the remains of more than half are estimated to be buried in the communist nation.
The U.S. has recovered more than 220 sets of remains since 1996, but it halted joint recovery efforts with North Korea in 2005.
The latest moves to resume the stalled recovery work came a month after North Korean senior officials met with their American counterparts in rare, high-level talks in New York on how to resume long-stalled talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs.
------------------------
U.S. Urged to Be Wary of North Korea's Overtures
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The United States and its allies aiming to get rid of North Korea's nuclear program should remain mindful of the possibility of cheating by the socialist nation even after its recent summit promises on denuclearization, a U.S. expert said on Aug. 29.
"The North Korean ship of state typically veers back and forth between belligerence and engagement, though it always remains on a true course toward achieving long-term objectives," said Bruce Klingner, senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation, based in Washington.
"In its typically schizophrenic way, the regime combines diplomatic entreaties with threats, resulting in a charm offensive that is more offensive than charming," said Klingner in his latest report, posted online.
He was referring to Pyongyang's reported pledge in summit talks with Moscow on Aug. 24 to rejoin the six-party nuclear negotiations and impose a moratorium on nuclear testing.
Analysts said North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's recent trips to Russia and China show Pyongyang's eagerness to win economic assistance before celebrating next year's centennial of the birth of founding leader Kim Il-sung. The North announced a plan to become a self-styled strong and prosperous nation by that year.
Kim made a rare trip to Russia for a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev and in May visited China for a summit with President Hu Jintao.
Klingner said the North may have additional meetings with the U.S. or South Korea in the near future, but any progress in dialogue with North Korea will be "difficult, halting, overshadowed by fears of cheating and potentially illusory."
If it is serious about a dialogue, he said, Pyongyang should first allow the return of international inspectors to its main nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, issue a moratorium on long-range and nuclear tests, and freeze its plutonium- and uranium-based nuclear program as well as abide by the Korean War Armistice and inter-Korean agreements.
He warned that the North will resort again to provocative actions if its quest for food aid and economic benefits bears no fruit.
"Therefore, even as the United States remains open to diplomacy, it must retain sufficient defenses against the multifaceted North Korean security threat," he said.
------------------------
N.K.'s Heir Apparent Son on Standby During Kim's Trip to Russia
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's heir apparent son, Kim Jong-un, appeared to have been on standby during his father's recent trip to Russia and China, a ruling party lawmaker said on Aug. 29, citing Seoul's spy agency.
The leader-in-waiting did not accompany his father on his trip to the North's neighbors and greeted the reclusive leader at the border upon returning from the trip over the weekend, according to media reports.
The junior Kim seemed to have been on standby as he refrained from official activities in Pyongyang, said Hwang Jin-ha, a lawmaker from the ruling Grand National Party.
Hwang made the comment to reporters after being briefed on North Korea by the National Intelligence Service at a closed-door session of the parliament's intelligence committee.
The intelligence agency did not give any further details.
The junior Kim, a four-star general and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the North's ruling Workers' Party, is being groomed to succeed his father as the country's next leader.
The succession, if made, would mark communism's second hereditary power transfer. The elder Kim inherited power from his father, the country's founder Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994.
------------------------
North Korea Faces Constant Pressure over Enrichment Program
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- South Korea said on Aug. 29 it will keep pressing North Korea to address its uranium enrichment program that could provide the socialist regime with new material to make atomic weapons, if the two sides hold a second round of bilateral nuclear talks.
The nuclear envoys of the two Koreas met in Indonesia for the first time in more than two years in late July, setting the tone for renewed diplomatic efforts to reopen the stalled six-party talks, which also involve the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.
The North's uranium program is among the key hurdles to the resumption of the six-party dialogue, which has been stalled since late 2008. The July inter-Korean talks led to a rare "exploratory" meeting between senior diplomats from the North and the U.S. in New York and South Korea is seeking to hold a second round of bilateral talks with the North.
South Korea "will continue to make diplomatic efforts to try to let the international community define the illegality of North Korea's uranium enrichment program," the foreign ministry said in a report submitted to the National Assembly.
"Based on such efforts, we will discuss the issue of the uranium enrichment program if talks with North Korea resume," the report said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, during a rare summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Aug. 24, reportedly pledged to consider issuing a moratorium on nuclear testing and missile launches if the six-party talks resume.
The North's gesture received a cool response from South Korea and the U.S., which have been pressing Pyongyang to announce such a moratorium before, not after, the multilateral negotiations begin. Also, there was no mention of the North's uranium enrichment program after the Kim-Medvedev talks.
Since Pyongyang unveiled its modern uranium enrichment facility last November, Seoul has sought to take the North's uranium program to the U.N. Security Council for new sanctions. But China opposes the move, arguing that the issue can be handled at the six-party talks, according to South Korean officials.
North Korea is currently under U.N. sanctions for its defiant missile and nuclear tests in 2009.
------------------------
Clear Evidence Exists on N. Korea-Syria Nuke Ties: Cheney
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said there was a "striking resemblance" between Syria's nuclear facility and North Korea's nuclear reactor in Yongbyon.
In his new memoir, "In My Time," published on Aug. 30, Cheney also said the North must have provided Syria with uranium-based nuclear technology as it did to Libya.
"Sustained nuclear cooperation between North Korea and Syria likely began as early as 1997," he said, citing information from senior U.S. intelligence officials.
The U.S. received much of the intelligence on the Pyongyang-Damascus relationship from the Israelis, he said. In 2007, Israel carried out an airstrike on a Syrian nuclear site.
A photo showed, Cheney said, that even a North Korean official in his country's delegation at the six-way talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's atomic weapons program had visited Syria for nuclear cooperation.
"It was pretty remarkable -- even for the North Koreans -- for a member of their negotiating team to be spending time, when he wasn't at the negotiating table, proliferating nuclear technology to Syria," he said.
Cheney, who served as vice president from 2001 to 2009, emphasized that current and future American leaders should take lessons from a mistake in North Korea policy during the final years of the Bush administration.
He claimed the State Department's negotiating team, led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, lost sight of the objective.
"For them, the agreement seemed to become the objective, and we ended up with a clear setback in our nonproliferation efforts," he said.
*** FOREIGN TIPS
U.S. Urges North Korea to Halt Uranium Enrichment Program
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The U.S. government on Aug. 25 dismissed North Korea's claim that its uranium enrichment program has a peaceful purpose, saying Pyongyang still falls short of Washington's expectations for initial steps to resume full-fledged talks.
"We don't see any reason for that to meet civilian needs," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
She enumerated measures the North should take before seeking further dialogue on denuclearization and bilateral relations.
Top diplomats from North Korea and the U.S. met in New York in late July in what U.S. officials described as an "exploratory" meeting to see if the socialist nation is serious about negotiations.
Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan, heading the North's delegation to the talks, told reporters that his country's uranium program is designed for power generation.
In the latest development, the North's leader, Kim Jong-il, reportedly said in a summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Aug. 24 that his country is willing to rejoin the six-way talks "without preconditions" and impose a moratorium on nuclear testing and missile launches.
The department official reiterated that those steps are "insufficient."
In the New York meeting, she said, the U.S. clarified what the North should do.
"There are no secrets there in terms of our listed expectations vis-a-vis North Korea," Nuland said. "So when they come forward with a couple of them, as we said, it's still insufficient."
She said the North should stop its uranium-based nuclear development, improve relations with South Korea and abide by a 2005 agreement with the U.S., South Korea, China, Russia and Japan to abandon its nuclear program in return for political and economic rewards.
"We need to see them taking concrete steps along all those lines," she said.
Experts in Washingjton were also cautious about the North's recent charm offensive.
"Moratoria on testing are meaningless if he (the North Korean leader) feels free to end them at will as he has in the past," said Richard Bush, senior analyst at the Brookings Institution. "He must take steps to allay those doubts. The process of reengagement can only begin by talking to South Korea. And Pyongyang must come clean on its enrichment program."
Michael Green, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, also said the North's gestures seem aimed at "gaining concessions needed before testing and other provocations in 2012."
He said the Kim-Medvedev deal on a cross-border gas pipeline is not new. The leaders agreed to set up a joint commission to work out details of a plan to send natural gas to South Korea by way of a pipeline through North Korea.
Green, who worked at the National Security Council from 2001 to 2005 in the George W. Bush administration, said then-Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a pipeline across the Korean Peninsula to Bush in 2002 as the solution to North Korea's uranium enrichment program crisis.
"This is an old Russian dream," he said. "Seoul would be crazy to consider it, since the North could easily use the pipeline as leverage."
------------------------
U.S. Envoy Proposes Talks on Remains Recovery to N. Korea
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- The United States' special representative for North Korea policy has proposed to Pyongyang that they resume their talks on recovering remains of American troops killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, according to a U.S. radio report on Aug. 27.
In a letter by Republican Party Senator Kelly Ayotte sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the senator referred to the recent written proposal to North Korea made by Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, according to Voice of America. But it did not mention when the proposal was made.
The report came about one week after the North first referred to the proposal on Aug. 19 and said that it has accepted the request from the U.S.
Nearly 8,000 U.S. service members are listed as missing from the war, and the remains of more than half are estimated to be buried in the communist nation.
The U.S. has recovered more than 220 sets of remains since 1996, but it halted joint recovery efforts with North Korea in 2005.
The latest moves to resume the stalled recovery work came a month after North Korean senior officials met with their American counterparts in rare, high-level talks in New York on how to resume long-stalled talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs.
------------------------
U.S. Urged to Be Wary of North Korea's Overtures
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The United States and its allies aiming to get rid of North Korea's nuclear program should remain mindful of the possibility of cheating by the socialist nation even after its recent summit promises on denuclearization, a U.S. expert said on Aug. 29.
"The North Korean ship of state typically veers back and forth between belligerence and engagement, though it always remains on a true course toward achieving long-term objectives," said Bruce Klingner, senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation, based in Washington.
"In its typically schizophrenic way, the regime combines diplomatic entreaties with threats, resulting in a charm offensive that is more offensive than charming," said Klingner in his latest report, posted online.
He was referring to Pyongyang's reported pledge in summit talks with Moscow on Aug. 24 to rejoin the six-party nuclear negotiations and impose a moratorium on nuclear testing.
Analysts said North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's recent trips to Russia and China show Pyongyang's eagerness to win economic assistance before celebrating next year's centennial of the birth of founding leader Kim Il-sung. The North announced a plan to become a self-styled strong and prosperous nation by that year.
Kim made a rare trip to Russia for a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev and in May visited China for a summit with President Hu Jintao.
Klingner said the North may have additional meetings with the U.S. or South Korea in the near future, but any progress in dialogue with North Korea will be "difficult, halting, overshadowed by fears of cheating and potentially illusory."
If it is serious about a dialogue, he said, Pyongyang should first allow the return of international inspectors to its main nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, issue a moratorium on long-range and nuclear tests, and freeze its plutonium- and uranium-based nuclear program as well as abide by the Korean War Armistice and inter-Korean agreements.
He warned that the North will resort again to provocative actions if its quest for food aid and economic benefits bears no fruit.
"Therefore, even as the United States remains open to diplomacy, it must retain sufficient defenses against the multifaceted North Korean security threat," he said.
------------------------
N.K.'s Heir Apparent Son on Standby During Kim's Trip to Russia
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's heir apparent son, Kim Jong-un, appeared to have been on standby during his father's recent trip to Russia and China, a ruling party lawmaker said on Aug. 29, citing Seoul's spy agency.
The leader-in-waiting did not accompany his father on his trip to the North's neighbors and greeted the reclusive leader at the border upon returning from the trip over the weekend, according to media reports.
The junior Kim seemed to have been on standby as he refrained from official activities in Pyongyang, said Hwang Jin-ha, a lawmaker from the ruling Grand National Party.
Hwang made the comment to reporters after being briefed on North Korea by the National Intelligence Service at a closed-door session of the parliament's intelligence committee.
The intelligence agency did not give any further details.
The junior Kim, a four-star general and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the North's ruling Workers' Party, is being groomed to succeed his father as the country's next leader.
The succession, if made, would mark communism's second hereditary power transfer. The elder Kim inherited power from his father, the country's founder Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994.
------------------------
North Korea Faces Constant Pressure over Enrichment Program
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- South Korea said on Aug. 29 it will keep pressing North Korea to address its uranium enrichment program that could provide the socialist regime with new material to make atomic weapons, if the two sides hold a second round of bilateral nuclear talks.
The nuclear envoys of the two Koreas met in Indonesia for the first time in more than two years in late July, setting the tone for renewed diplomatic efforts to reopen the stalled six-party talks, which also involve the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.
The North's uranium program is among the key hurdles to the resumption of the six-party dialogue, which has been stalled since late 2008. The July inter-Korean talks led to a rare "exploratory" meeting between senior diplomats from the North and the U.S. in New York and South Korea is seeking to hold a second round of bilateral talks with the North.
South Korea "will continue to make diplomatic efforts to try to let the international community define the illegality of North Korea's uranium enrichment program," the foreign ministry said in a report submitted to the National Assembly.
"Based on such efforts, we will discuss the issue of the uranium enrichment program if talks with North Korea resume," the report said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, during a rare summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Aug. 24, reportedly pledged to consider issuing a moratorium on nuclear testing and missile launches if the six-party talks resume.
The North's gesture received a cool response from South Korea and the U.S., which have been pressing Pyongyang to announce such a moratorium before, not after, the multilateral negotiations begin. Also, there was no mention of the North's uranium enrichment program after the Kim-Medvedev talks.
Since Pyongyang unveiled its modern uranium enrichment facility last November, Seoul has sought to take the North's uranium program to the U.N. Security Council for new sanctions. But China opposes the move, arguing that the issue can be handled at the six-party talks, according to South Korean officials.
North Korea is currently under U.N. sanctions for its defiant missile and nuclear tests in 2009.
------------------------
Clear Evidence Exists on N. Korea-Syria Nuke Ties: Cheney
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said there was a "striking resemblance" between Syria's nuclear facility and North Korea's nuclear reactor in Yongbyon.
In his new memoir, "In My Time," published on Aug. 30, Cheney also said the North must have provided Syria with uranium-based nuclear technology as it did to Libya.
"Sustained nuclear cooperation between North Korea and Syria likely began as early as 1997," he said, citing information from senior U.S. intelligence officials.
The U.S. received much of the intelligence on the Pyongyang-Damascus relationship from the Israelis, he said. In 2007, Israel carried out an airstrike on a Syrian nuclear site.
A photo showed, Cheney said, that even a North Korean official in his country's delegation at the six-way talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's atomic weapons program had visited Syria for nuclear cooperation.
"It was pretty remarkable -- even for the North Koreans -- for a member of their negotiating team to be spending time, when he wasn't at the negotiating table, proliferating nuclear technology to Syria," he said.
Cheney, who served as vice president from 2001 to 2009, emphasized that current and future American leaders should take lessons from a mistake in North Korea policy during the final years of the Bush administration.
He claimed the State Department's negotiating team, led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, lost sight of the objective.
"For them, the agreement seemed to become the objective, and we ended up with a clear setback in our nonproliferation efforts," he said.
