This page includes materials on the stationing of US forces in ROK,NMD, ROK reaction to US DPRK policy, etc. but does not attempt to go into wider US-ROK relations.
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2004

• December
• November
• October
• September
• August
• July
• June
• May
• April
• March
• February
• January

• NK-US relations 2003
• NK-US relations 2002
• NK-US relations 2001
• NK-US relations 2000

• U.S. Call for "Disarmament" of DPRK Refuted
  Pyongyang, December 28 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA today as regards the assertion about the "disarmament" of the DPRK made again by high-ranking officials of the U.S. administration: Senior most officials of the U.S. administration are reported to have openly asserted again these days that it is necessary to "disarm" the DPRK by "collective pressure". They dared not make such assertion for some time. This ill-boding assertion helps us guess what a Korea policy the Bush administration will shape for its second term. Their assertion means, in the final analysis, that the DPRK should lay down its arms and abandon its system, yielding to the U.S. It is an unacceptable demand that can never be met.
• Zaytun to Serve One More Year in Iraq
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter The National Assembly was set to pass a budget bill for the 2005 fiscal year and an extension motion for South Korean troops in Iraq on Thursday evening, amid inter-party wrangling over four ``reform'' bills, including a bill to scrap the anti-communist National Security Law, that has crippled an extraordinary Assembly session from its beginning. The one-year extension motion for the 3,600- strong Zaytun Unit stationed in northern Iraqi town of Irbil was to be passed at a plenary session, enabling the troops to stay another year in the Kurdish-controlled town of the war- torn country for peacekeeping and reconstruction work.
• S. Korean Jaitun Unit in Iraq on Alert
  Pyongyang, December 27 (KCNA) -- The Jaitun unit of south Korea deployed in Iraq has been placed on alert as the Iraqi resistance forces recently threatened to launch a truck bomb attack on the unit, according to MBC of south Korea. The south Korean military is much upset by this warning as it was served soon after at least 80 U.S. service personnel were killed by those forces' mortar attack and missile strike at the U.S. military base near Mosul. In this connection, the unit suspended all activities except those for defending it and banned the entry of outsiders into the unit and their exit since Dec. 23.
• U.S.-Japan Joint Operation Plan Denounced
  Pyongyang, December 27 (KCNA) -- It was recently disclosed that the U.S. together with Japan worked out the joint operation plan "5055" on the assumption of an "emergency" on the Korean Peninsula. In this regard Rodong Sinmun Monday says in a signed commentary: It can not but be interpreted as a very serious development that the U.S. and Japan worked out such joint operation plan. This is a measure to step up their preparations for mounting a preemptive attack on the DPRK to stifle it. An immediate aim of the U.S.-Japan joint operation plan is to isolate and blockade the DPRK. The U.S. has advertised that it is willing to seek a peaceful solution to the nuclear issue in a bid to deceive the international community. But this can never cover up its real ambition to invade the DPRK. The Bush bellicose forces asserted that they have no intention to invade north Korea and attack it by force of arms, whenever an occasion presented itself. But this was nothing but a subterfuge to speed up the war moves against the DPRK behind the curtain of "peace." Japan is frantically working to implement the joint operation plan against the DPRK in cahoots with the U.S. This is as foolish an act as jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Japan should bear in mind that it will only meet disastrous consequences for zealously following the U.S. policy of aggression toward the DPRK. The self-reliant deterrent forces of the DPRK will be bolstered in every way to cope with the war moves of the U.S. and Japanese reactionaries.
• Professor Seeks `Track-II' Talks to Help Resume 6-Party Negotiations
  By Park Song-wu, Reuben Staines Staff Reporters Park Han-shik, a professor at the University of Georgia, plans to visit Pyongyang next month for ``track-II'' negotiations aimed at resuming the stalled six-party nuclear talks and alleviating tensions on the Korean peninsula, the Ministry of National Unification confirmed Monday. ``Even though it's not an official channel for dialogue, he is an expert on inter-Korean relations,'' a high-ranking ministry official told The Korea Times, asking not to be named. ``It's an attempt to find a breakthrough in the nuclear talks through consultations between civilian experts from the two Koreas and the United States.'' Unification Minister Chung Dong-young told reporters in Beijing on Thursday that he is aware of Park's plan for the track-II meeting, which refers to civilian dialogue that runs in parallel with official diplomatic contacts. Park, who has visited North Korea more than 35 times since 1981, initiated track-II dialogue with North Korea about 10 years ago and was once described by Donald Gregg, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, as ``an architect for inter-Korea rapprochement.'' ``It is very necessary to resume civilian negotiations at a time when the government-level talks have stalled,'' said Park, who is director of Georgia University's Center for the Study of Global Issues.
• US Senator Criticizes China for Repatriating North Korean Defectors
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter A U.S. senator has accused China of violating international law by continuing to repatriate North Korean refugees caught on its territory, expressing concern over the recent ``warning'' given by a Chinese diplomat in Seoul to a lawmaker engaged in an international campaign to help North Korean refugees in China, an aide to the legislator said Sunday. In a letter of protest sent to Yang Jiechi, Chinese ambassador to the U.S., Sen. Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, said the warning issued by the Chinese diplomat aimed at interfering in the humanitarian efforts of a local politician was an ``abuse of its authority.'' [refugee encouragement]
• DPRK Will Watch Policy-making Process of Second Bush Administration
  U.S. Should Drop Hostile Policy Toward DPRK and Express Willingness to Coexistence: Pyongyang Pyongyang said that it should hold off the multilateral six-party talks until the U.S. administration changes its hostile policy toward the DPRK. A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry issued a comment regarding the recent visit of the ambassador of the Chinese Foreign Ministry to the DPRK and the contact between the DPRK and the U.S. in New York. The ambassador in charge of the Korean Peninsula issue visited Pyongyang from November 24 to 27 and had an in-depth exchange of views with officials concerned of the DPRK Foreign Ministry on the issue of the six-party talks.
• Relations with U.S. at a high point, minister says
  December 25, 2004 ? Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday in an exclusive interview with the JoongAng Ilbo that the current South Korea- U.S. alliance is stronger than ever. Mr. Ban said his assessment is based on recent strides made on major issues. "The reduction of U.S. forces, the relocation of Yongsan Garrison, the deployment of South Korean troops to Iraq ? we have solved relatively smoothly important issues related to our alliance," said Mr. Ban during the interview at the Foreign Ministry. The minister said both sides reached a consensus on the direction of the alliance at the recent summit meeting on Nov. 20 in Santiago, Chile. "In the United States there is a rising recognition that South Korea's aim for a more equitable relationship is reasonable," said Mr. Ban.
• U.S. soldiers 'vigilant,' Ban says
  December 25, 2004 ? Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon thanked top U.S. military officials yesterday for the role U.S. forces play in South Korea, reaffirming that the government would extend the stay of South Korean troops deployed to Iraq.
• Uri leaders get to know LaPorte
  December 23, 2004 ? General Leon LaPorte, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, said yesterday in a meeting with Lee Bu-young, chairman of the governing Uri Party, and 10 Uri Party lawmakers that anti-U.S. sentiment in Korea did not bother him because he was proud defending a democracy where such freedom of expression is possible. The general made his remarks as the governing party lawmakers paid a courtesy visit to the U.S. 8th Army's 2nd Infantry Division located in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi province. The visiting lawmakers were briefed on operations of the unit while General LaPorte expressed his gratitude on the recent passage of the Yongsan Garrison relocation accord.
• S. Korea Biggest Asian Importer of US Arms
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - South Korea purchased $3.7 billion of U.S. defense products and services in 2000-2003, becoming the biggest Asian purchaser of American arms, a U.S. Congressional report showed Wednesday. During the calendar years 1996-1999, South Korea imported $2.5 billion in U.S. arms and services, according to the report by the Congressional Research Service. During the period, South Korea also topped other Asian nations, such as Taiwan, Japan and Singapore, the report said. In the 2000-2003 period, South Korea was followed by Japan with $2.5 billion of U.S. arms imports, Singapore with $1.1 billion and Australia with $960 million, the report said. In 2003 alone, South Korea procured $570 million of American military goods and services, ranking second behind Japan with $800 million, the report said. In a worldwide comparison, South Korea ranked fourth in both the 1996-1999 and 2000-2003 periods, it said. Egypt was the world's largest importer of U.S. weapons for the 1996-1999 period, spending $5.8 billion, the report said. In the 2000-2003 period, the United Arab Emirates spent $7.1 billion, the largest amount, purchasing U.S. military goods, it said. About 34,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea to deter possible aggression from North Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. 12-22-2004 16:29 [Armaments] [Military balance]
• When the Right Is Right
  By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: December 22, 2004 One of the most conservative, religious, fascinating - and, in many ways, admirable - politicians in America today is Sam Brownback, the senator from Kansas who is a leader of the Christian right. Sure, Mr. Brownback is to the right of Attila the Hun, and I disagree with him on just about every major issue. But 'tis the season for brotherly love, so let me point to reasons for hope. Members of the Christian right, exemplified by Mr. Brownback, are the new internationalists, increasingly engaged in humanitarian causes abroad - thus creating opportunities for common ground between left and right on issues we all care about.
  Then there's North Korea. Democrats have properly lambasted Mr. Bush for his disastrous approach toward North Korea, which has reacted to his policy by turning into a nuclear arms assembly line. But it has been Mr. Brownback and other conservative Christians who have turned the heat on North Korea's human rights record and laid the groundwork for more radio broadcasts to undermine the regime there. [Refugee encouragement] [Regime change]
• U.S. is seeking behavioral change in North
  December 22, 2004 ? Warning that Washington's patience with North Korea was not limitless, Christopher Hill, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, said yesterday that when the U.S. government calls for "regime transformation" in Pyeongyang, it means a "behavioral change." At a press conference, Mr. Hill said that changed behavior in Pyeongyang, such as the dismantling of its nuclear weapons programs, would be part of the transformation.
• U.S. Accused of Trying to Bring Down DPRK System
  Pyongyang, December 20 (KCNA) -- If the United States more desperately pursues its hostile policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK under the pretext of the "nuclear issue" and "human rights issue", not showing its willingness to co-exist with the DPRK, the latter will react to it by further increasing its self-defensive deterrent force. A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry said this in an answer Monday as regards the recent "human rights" racket going beyond the danger line kicked up by the U.S. as part of its hostile policy toward the DPRK. The U.S. is reportedly planning to designate even the post of "a special envoy in charge of north Korean human rights" and going to appoint one in the wake of the adoption and effectuation of the "North Korean Human Rights Act" which is aimed to bring down the "system in the DPRK," he noted, and continued: It is deplorable for the U.S. to style itself an international "judge of human rights", unaware of its position. By nature the U.S. is the worst human rights graveyard in the world. It is the worst human rights violator and the biggest criminal. This is clearly proved by what happened in Iraq.
• U.S. Fabrication of False Information under Fire
  Pyongyang, December 20 (KCNA) -- Selig Harrison, chairman of the U.S. North Korea Policy Special Investigative Committee and Director for the Asian Plan of the International Policy Center, in his article asserted that the story about north Korea's nuclear development based on "enriched uranium" is at variance with facts and is baseless. Much upset by this assertion, the Bush administration is now busy refuting it, observes Rodong Sinmun Monday in a signed commentary. It says: Deputy Spokesman for the State Department Ereli let loose a string of sheer rubbish, saying that his assertion is unreasonable, it seems to me that there is convincing evidence proving north Korea's uranium enrichment program and that he knows that north Korea has involved itself in enrichment technology. The story about the uranium enrichment program is a far-fetched assertion and fiction the Bush group has faked up on the basis of misinformation just as it did against Iraq in a bid to charge the DPRK with nuclear development. It is its ultimate purpose to force the DPRK to disarm itself and overturn the Korean-style socialist system in it under the absurd pretext of its "enrichment program." In fact the U.S. is least interested in the solution to the nuclear issue. What it seeks in vociferating about the resumption of the "six-party talks" and "peaceful solution to the nuclear issue" before the international community is to mislead public opinion and conceal its dark intention, concludes the commentary. (see Academic Papers)
• No Change in USFK Role Without Consensus: Hill
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Christopher Hill said Tuesday there would be no change in the duties for American troops stationed here without a consensus between the two traditional allies.
  Under a new global defense strategy aimed at giving more agility and flexibility to its overseas troops, the U.S. plans to reduce U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) by about one-third by 2008 and expand its role as a regional force in the future. Washington has often expressed the intention of expanding the USFK's role into that of a ``mobile force'' to cope with any possible contingencies in the Northeast Asian region, though Seoul has maintained a cautious attitude toward the idea. In an interview with The Korea Times last month, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki- moon hinted that the issue would be one of the major topics in next year's alliance talks between the two sides. When asked about the possibility of a U.S. pre- emptive attack against North Korea, Hill indicated there would be no such hostile action, saying the U.S. is a ``very full and a very strong supporter'' of the six-party process
• North reacts strongly to U.S. comments
  December 22, 2004 ? Reacting to a top Washington official's remark that the United States is seeking regime transformation in Pyeongyang, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said yesterday, "To change the system our people have chosen is a violent infringement on our people's political rights and their freedom of choice." On Dec. 9, Stephen Hadley, who is in line to become the head of the Bush administration's National Security Council, said the United States was hoping for a "transformation" of the communist regime. The ministry statement continued, "As long as Washington's policy is to exploit human rights issues of other countries, to interfere with those countries' internal affairs and overturn their systems, our only choice is to protect human rights and to fight physically against the United States."
• Don't betray MacArthur
  I am amazed to learn that So Seong-ho and his so- called "civic groups" are waging a campaign to remove the statue of General MacArthur from Freedom Park in Incheon. Mr. So cannot rewrite Korea's past. No rearranging of statues will erase from history the fact that under Kim Il Sung, the father of the current North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-il, North Korea invaded South Korea, bringing the wrath of the United Nations forces down on the North to roll back the invasion
  General MacArthur led a force that invaded through Incheon to defeat the North. He was successful. A nation cannot and should not rewrite its history, and it cannot and should not turn its back on people who have helped it arrive at its place in the world
  Perhaps they would rather be eating the bark off trees and looking for ways to escape famine, oppression and the tyranny of an elite, as do the people of North Korea, than striking a majestic pose with face uplifted in the late afternoon sun (with a commemorating photo published in a free press), looking forward to the bright future that lies ahead for South Korea, made possible by the contribution of General MacArthur.
  by Steve Stupak, Seoul
• U.S. Intensified Moves for Preemptive Nuclear Strike at DPRK under Fire
  Pyongyang, December 18 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialist aggressors have frantically intensified aerial espionage against the DPRK and massively deployed ultra-modern military hardware in and around south Korea this year. According to information available, the U.S. imperialists committed at least 2,100 cases of aerial espionage against the DPRK for the last 11months of the year by mobilizing strategic and tactical reconnaissance planes with different missions. Most of the espionage committed this year was carried out by U-2 and overseas-based RC-135, E- 3 and EP-3.
• US Stresses No Hostile Intent Toward NK
  By Reuben Staines, Park Song-wu Staff Reporters The United States stressed over the weekend that it has no intention of launching a military strike against North Korea, despite reports that it plans to deploy bunker-buster missiles on the Korean peninsula next year. James Kelly, U.S. assistant secretary of state, reiterated that Washington wants a gradual ``transformation'' of the communist regime and will not use force to remove leader Kim Jong-il from power. This message was conveyed to Pyongyang during an informal meeting between North Korean and U.S. nuclear negotiators in New York late last month, Japan's Asahi Shimbun quoted Kelly as saying. The term regime ``transformation,'' rather than regime ``change,'' has been adopted by U.S. officials over the past month in an apparent bid to calm the North's security fears and draw it back to the six-party talks on the nuclear standoff.
• N.Korea Could Test Long - Range Missile Any Time - U.S.
  By REUTERS Published: December 17, 2004 Filed at 3:05 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea could flight test at any time a ballistic missile potentially capable of reaching parts of the United States with a nuclear-weapon-sized payload, the State Department's top arms control official said on Friday. Making the case for President Bush's drive to build a missile shield days after a failed test of the system, Stephen Rademaker, assistant secretary of state for arms control, said North Korea was pushing plans to develop its ocean-leaping, multiple-stage Taepo Dong 2 missile.
  ``This missile could be flight tested at any time,'' he told a conference in a congressional office building sponsored by the American Foreign Policy Council, a private research group. [Missile defense]
• Publisher to become envoy to U.S.
  December 18, 2004 ? Hong Seok-hyun, publisher of the JoongAng Ilbo, has been selected to be Korea's next ambassador to the United States, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday. Lee Kyu-hyung, a ministry spokesman, said Mr. Hong had "consistently backed the Roh administration's reconciliation policy toward North Korea." Since the Kim Dae-jung administration, Mr. Hong lent support to government efforts aimed at unifying Korea peacefully. Mr. Hong said yesterday that accepting the key diplomatic post was not an easy decision. "I seriously considered that the U.S.-South Korea alliance is an important condition for Korea's survival and prosperity," Mr. Hong's aide quoted him as saying. "The president's request for help in resolving North Korea's nuclear problem peacefully was too earnest to turn down." Mr. Hong also said he was confident he could use his personal connections developed over many years in the United States to enhance ties between the two countries. Mr. Hong is graduate of Stanford and began his career at the World Bank in Washington. His father was Hong Jin-ki, who founded the JoongAng Ilbo in 1965 with help of the Samsung Corp. The elder Mr. Hong also served as a justice minister during the presidency of Syngman Rhee. The selection of Mr. Hong to represent Korea in the United States was surprising in one regard. The JoongAng Ilbo, in line with the country's other conservative newspapers, has been a consistent critic of Roh administration's policies, from efforts to abolish the National Security Law to the capital relocation plan to an administration's legislative proposal to curb the power and circulation of the major dailies.
• December Surprise: Hong to Be US Ambassador
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter JoongAng Ilbo chairman Hong Seok-hyun's designation as South Korea's new envoy to the United States is creating a stir here as the political, economic, media and other circles gave mixed responses to the surprise nomination.
  Often called an ``enlightened despot'' in media circles, Hong had been put behind bars for 63 days in 1999 on charges of tax evasion under the previous Kim Dae-jung administration. ``It is improper that a man, who was convicted of evading gift tax worth 1.8 billion won, is named as a high-level government official, representing the nation,'' the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy said in a comment.
  Born in Seoul in 1949, Hong studied industrial engineering and economics at Stanford University in the U.S. after graduating Seoul National University in 1972. With fluent English skills, Hong was elected president of the World Association of Newspapers in 2002. He is brother- in-law of Lee Kun-hee, Samsung Group chairman.
• Media Mogul Tied With Samsung
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Hong Seok-hyun, 55, South Korea's ambassador- designate to the United States, is a dominant figure representing the country's media circles. Despite his reputation, however, he had many ups and downs in the past, once even put behind bars on tax evasion charges. Born in Seoul in 1949, Hong flew to the U.S. to study industrial engineering and economics at Stanford University after graduating Seoul National University in 1972. After returning home, he started his career at the World Bank, or IBRD, and then moved to the public services, taking up secretarial posts of the Economy and Finance Ministry and the presidential office of Chong Wa Dae in the early 1980s. After that, he also worked for several years at Samsung Corning Co. It was in 1994 that Hong became vice president-publisher of the JoongAng Ilbo, launched in 1965 by Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul and Hong's father, Hong Jin-gi
• American Army Chemical Units Relocate to US
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - American military chemical units in South Korea were redeployed to the United States as part of arrangements to give Seoul a greater role in defending itself against Pyongyang, the U.S. military said Friday. The headquarters and headquarters detachment of the 23rd Chemical Battalion and two chemical companies had completed their relocation to Fort Lewis, Washington, from rear areas in South Korea last week, the 8th U.S. Army said in a news release. ``We're facing the changes and making progress,'' Col. William D. Lvey, chief of staff at the 8th U.S. Army, was quoted as saying in the release. ``We have several factors enabling these changes. The ROK (Republic of Korea) Army has made tremendous improvements in their capabilities over the last 50 years,'' he said. The transfer of the chemical decontamination mission was key to a 10-point South Korea-U.S. agreement giving the host nation more responsibility for protecting itself from possible invasion from North Korea. [cbw]
• Defense Missile for U.S. System Fails to Launch
  By DAVID STOUT and JOHN H. CUSHMAN Jr. Published: December 16, 2004 ASHINGTON, Dec. 15 - An important test of the United States' fledgling missile defense system ended in failure early Wednesday as an interceptor rocket failed to launch on cue from the Marshall Islands, the Pentagon said. After a rocket carrying a mock warhead as a target was launched from Kodiak, Alaska, the interceptor, which was intended to go aloft 16 minutes later and home in on the target 100 miles over the earth, automatically shut down because of "an unknown anomaly," according to the Missile Defense Agency of the Defense Department.
  Before Wednesday's test, the Missile Defense Agency had conducted eight tests with interceptor vehicles, scoring hits in five under carefully controlled conditions. Some critics of the agency, which has spent more than $80 billion since 1985, say the entire test program is unrealistic and that the tests have been scripted.
  Advocates say that fielding even a few interceptors of modest abilities, and improving them later, would help defend against potential threats that themselves are only just emerging, especially from North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons programs
• 'Pressure N.K. on human rights'
  U.S. expert says diplomacy alone won't end nuke standoff
  Passing the U.S. North Korean Human Rights Act was not easy but enforcing it will be even harder, one of the drafters of the bill, Michael Horowitz, said. South Korea's support for the bill is key to its survival and leaders of the liberal ruling Uri Party here have so far rejected it, he said in an interview with The Korea Herald during a trip to Seoul last week. Horowitz, senior fellow of the U.S. think tank Hudson Institute, met National Assembly members from the Uri and main opposition Grand National Party, scholars, refugee aid groups and religious leaders to get support and answer questions about the effort to improve conditions in the North. While Uri and other liberals are firmly against the bill, the conservative GNP and other conservative groups support the measure as a way to hold North Korea accountable for its actions. Michael Horowitz The toughest critics see the bill as being a U.S. tactic to bring about a regime change in Pyongyang but Horowitz says that more than just Bush administration officials are concerned about human rights. "What people (in Korea) do not understand is that Americans from the left and right, Jews and Christians are supporting this," he said. "It came from a true grassroots effort." As a Jew, he spoke of people in his community now picking up the fight for human rights after comparisons were drawn between North Korea's prison gulags and labor camps and the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. At a seminar hosted last week by the local Christian group Save North Korea, Horowitz criticized President Roh Moo-hyun for being the only world leader working to keep the Kim Jong-il government alive. He noted that China, often defined as North Korea's closest ally, may be reconsidering the costs of supporting the Stalinist state and planning for measures needed in a possible post-Kim Jong-il era. The position of the South Korean government is to ensure peace first through diplomacy while striking agreements with North Korea to disarm its nuclear weapons, and then deal with human rights. Horowitz believes this approach will never work. "We have to separate what we want and what can really happen," he said, expressing the firm belief that dictators cannot keep agreements and Kim Jong-il will find a way to develop nuclear weapons regardless of any pacts. Horowitz suggests ignoring the nuclear situation for the moment, believing that the communist state will only attack Seoul if they are struck first. "The U.S. faced down the Soviet Union without military action and they had about 6,000 nuclear weapons," he said. Putting Kim on the defensive about human rights is the best way to pressure the leadership into change, he said. Before Pyongyang receives any aid or peace agreements, Horowitz wants to see "measurable improvement." During his recent trip to Europe, Roh sought to dismiss speculation of a North Korea regime collapse and spoke out against a regime change. Horowitz said the international community will have a difficult time taking the South Korean leader seriously as it continues to hear horror stories from the North. One of the aims of the North Korean Human Rights Act is to spread the word about abuses committed in North Korean prisons and labor camps, the lack of freedoms for its citizens, and alleged use of gas chambers and human experimentation. Horowitz said that in the near future, an envoy will be appointed to meet world leaders, nongovernment organizations and other groups to get support to pressure North Korea into reform. The list of candidates has not been narrowed yet. Also, an international conference will be funded by the bill, providing an opportunity for diplomats to see alleged evidence of human rights violations and hear North Korean defectors share their tales. No date for the conference has been set, and no host city or country has been selected. As the international community learns more about human rights violations in North Korea, South Korea will be pressured to act as well and wake up from its state of "denial," Horowitz said. "We are trying to tell them (the collapse of North Korea) is coming sooner rather than later." (apetty@heraldm.com) [Refugee encouragement] [Regime change] [Neocons] By Andrew Petty
• Foreign Ministry Spokesman Blasts U.S. Psychological Campaign
  Pyongyang, December 13 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA Monday as regards the U.S. evermore undisguised psychological operation aimed at a regime change in the DPRK: Recently the U.S. let reptile media and riff-raffs spread the sheer lie that portraits of leader Kim Jong Il are no longer displayed in the DPRK. As this smear campaign proved futile, they floated sheer misinformation that "there is confusion within its leadership" and "at least 130 army general officers and high- ranking officials deserted their units in the wake of the defection of ordinary people." All this was intended to give impression that a sort of dramatic crisis has occurred in the DPRK. The U.S. false propaganda and psychological operation aimed to slander the DPRK and finally realize a regime change there have, in actuality, gone beyond the tolerance limit. The U.S. seems to foolishly think that its mean psychological operation works on the DPRK and it has done something in its bid to tarnish the image of the DPRK and bring down its political system. However, few would be taken in by such trick of those who are so ignorant as to know north Korea as a peninsula. We consider it mean to react to every plot- breeding operation orchestrated by the U.S. for its despicable and clumsy nature. Now that the U.S. is trying to shake the backbone of the DPRK, not content with hurling mud at it, the DPRK is compelled to say something to the U.S. The present situation makes us deplore the fact that the U.S.administration has only those politicians who are utterly ignorant of the DPRK to handle its Korean policy. As for the DPRK, all its servicepersons and people are devoting themselves to accomplish the cause of socialism confident of victory and all are out in a drive to build a great prosperous powerful nation thanks to the Songun politics energetically pursued by Kim Jong Il. Quite contrary to what the U.S. claimed, not even a button of a general officer's uniform, to say nothing of more than a hundred of general officers, has ever been found across the border. We do not know such a word as "defection". There may be some illegal border trespassers who crossed the border in violation of the law now in force in the DPRK, unable to live in their native land any longer because of their illicit acts and crimes. But their number is so small that there is no need to take them into account.
• Kim Jong-il Can Transform North Korea, Kelly Says
  By Oh Young-jin Korea Times Correspondent
  WASHINGTON, D.C. - A senior U.S. official said on Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is a ``rational'' leader who would be able to transform his impoverished Stalinist state once he resolves the nuclear standoff with the international community. ``Many accusations that he (Kim Jong-il) is some sort of crazy person are not correct,'' U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said in an exclusive interview with The Korea Times at his office in the State Department. He said Kim's leadership is one that is unique and rational. Kelly, who heads the U.S. effort to deal with the North Korean nuclear crisis, dismissed the speculation the impoverished nation will collapse anytime soon.
• Cracks showing in Kim family's Korea dynasty
  By James Brooke The New York Times
  TOKYO After weeks of reports from North Korea of defecting generals, antigovernment posters and the disappearance of portraits of the country's ruler, the leader of Japan's governing party has warned of the prospects of regime change in North Korea. . "As long as Chairman Kim Jong Il controls the government, we have to negotiate with him, but it is becoming more doubtful whether we will be able to achieve anything with this government," Shinzo Abe, acting secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, said on Fuji TV on Sunday, referring to talks on North Korea's abductions of Japanese in the 1970s. "I think we should consider the possibility that a regime change will occur, and we need to start simulations of what we should do at that time." . By breaking an unspoken taboo on talking publicly about regime change in North Korea, the powerful Japanese politician underlined a feeling spreading in the region that cracks are starting to show in the Kim family's control over North Korea after nearly 60 years. . .
• Patriot missile
  Patriot missile: U.S. Army soldiers salute the flag in a ceremony marking the completion of the deployment of a U.S. Patriot missile battalion, the 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade at Osan Air Base, Kyonggi Province, Friday.
• US Urged to Soften Rhetoric
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter The United States must soften its diplomatic rhetoric in President George W. Bush's second term to assuage rising anti-American sentiment in South Korea, Asian and U.S. experts said in a policy assessment presented on Friday. The Asia Foundation, a U.S. think tank with offices around Asia, called on Washington to look closely at the issues that are darkening its image here in the report, which was issued during a forum at the Grand Hilton Seoul. The report, entitled ``America's Role in Asia,'' was split into two parts: ``Asian Views'' and ``American Views.'' ``For the U.S. to exercise global leadership, it is necessary to adjust its policies in order to restore her moral stature,'' Kim Kyung-won, Asia Foundation advisor and former South Korean ambassador to the U.S., said in the paper summarizing the Asian experts' recommendations for the second-term administration. He said the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive action in Iraq has strengthened the perception in Northeast Asia that the U.S. is ``a dangerous, trigger-happy military power.''
  Regarding the North Korean nuclear standoff, the Asian scholars called on Washington to engage in bilateral talks with Pyongyang, even if they are held within the framework of the stalled six-party talks.
• Allies Disagree on Defense Cost-Sharing
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter South Korea and the United States on Thursday continued their second-day negotiations in Seoul but failed to reach an agreement on how to share next year's budget to keep U.S. troops here. They decided to reopen talks in Washington early next year.
• Experts rebel over US stance on N Korea
  Jonathan Watts in Beijing Saturday December 11, 2004 The Guardian A group of senior US policymakers has called on the Bush administration to change its stance towards North Korea, with its chairman accusing the White House of "distorting" intelligence about Pyongyang's uranium weapons programme just as it exaggerated claims about Iraq. The Task Force on Korean Policy, which includes former US chiefs of staff and ambassadors to Seoul, said the administration's obsession with the unproven uranium programme had held up negotiations, scuppered the old nuclear inspection regime and allowed Pyongyang to press ahead with the development of plutonium weapons, which represent a far more immediate and substantiated threat.
  The current nuclear stand-off started in October 2002 when US officials returned from a trip to Pyongyang claiming a senior North Korean diplomat, Kang Sok Ju, had admitted the existence of a covert uranium programme. North Korea denied this and the South Korean government expressed doubts about the US's interpretation of events. But the US claims were enough to disrupt a year of otherwise surprisingly good relations between Pyongyang and its neighbours. They also killed the "Agreed Framework" - the nuclear freeze put in place by the Clinton administration and condemned by neo-conservatives in the Bush administration. Washington and its allies halted supplies of oil and North Korea responded by kicking out nuclear inspectors. Selig Harrison, chairman of the Task Force on Korean Policy, said this was a deliberate ploy by the US to regain the initiative in north-east Asia. "Relying on sketchy data, the Bush administration presented a worst-case scenario as an incontrovertible truth and distorted its intelligence on North Korea (much as it did on Iraq)," he writes in next month's Foreign Affairs journal. The intelligence on North Korea's supposed uranium programme has not been made public
• President visits troops in Iraq
  Assembly begins action to extend deployment December 09, 2004 ? On his way back from a weeklong tour of Europe, President Roh Moo-hyun paid a surprise visit yesterday to South Korean troops in Iraq. At the same time, the National Assembly was moving to extend the deployment of the country's 3,600-man force in Iraq for another year. Because of security concerns, the president's intention to visit the South Korean base near Irbil, in northern Iraq, was a closely guarded secret, known only to a few aides. South Korean media had been reporting that Mr. Roh would arrive in Seoul yesterday. After he departed from Paris by air, the president informed accompanying reporters that he would make a stop in Iraq. To get to Irbil, the president said, his plane would touch down in Kuwait and from there he would take a military flight to Irbil. "The flight is not going directly to Seoul," said the president, who wanted to personally honor and encourage the South Korean force in Iraq. Reporters were asked by security officials to delay the news of the detour until the president had finished his visit and left Irbil. Divided into two South Korean C-130 military planes, Mr. Roh and an entourage of about 30, including Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and reporters, flew from Kuwait's Al-Mubarak Air Base to Irbil, where the president stayed for about two hours. During the visit, the president was briefed by the Korean unit's commander, Major General Hwang Eui-don, on the security situation in the region. Mr. Roh was cheered wildly by 420 soldiers who were waiting in the mess hall to have breakfast with him. The president's visit is the second time a South Korean president has visited troops deployed abroad. Park Chung Hee went to see Korean soldiers in Vietnam in 1966.
• Analyzing Asian Security; Probing Detective Fiction
  Thursday, December 9, 2004; Page DZ13 Victor D. Cha, an associate professor in Georgetown's Department of Government and the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service, is a widely known author and expert on North Korea and Asian security issues with a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He frequently comments on the nuclear situation in North Korea. Cha, who has served as an independent consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense, holds the D.S. Song-Korea Foundation Chair in Asian Studies, was a former John M. Olin National Security Fellow at Harvard University and is a two-time Fulbright Scholar and a former Hoover National Fellow at Stanford. His most recent book is "Nuclear North Korea." His expertise is in such demand that Cha is about to take a leave of absence from GWU to be director of Asian affairs for the National Security Council. Because of his new job, he declined to be interviewed
• U.S. aide says regime change in North not an aim
  December 09, 2004 ? WASHINGTON ? In a meeting with visiting South Korean legislators, Stephen Hadley, who is slated to become the head of the Bush administration's National Security Council, said the United States is not seeking regime change in North Korea, but hoping for a "transformation" of the communist regime. The U.S. policymaker denied Tuesday that the United States hoped to see Kim Jong-il, North Korea's leader, fall. And he dismissed reports the Bush administration is split over its approach to Pyeongyang. He said U.S. President Geroge W. Bush solely decides policy on North Korea.
• Allies Fail to Agree on Defense Cost-Sharing
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter South Korea and the United States on Thursday continued their second-day negotiations in Seoul but failed to reach an agreement on how to share next year's budget to keep U.S. troops here. They decided to reopen talks in Washington early next year.
• Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005, Provisions on North Korea
  The following provisions on North Korea were included in H.R. 4818, the consolidated appropriations act, 2005, passed on November 20, 2004.
• Roh seeks allies beyond the U.S.
  December 08, 2004 ? PARIS ? President Roh Moo- hyun has told professors and students here that Korea needs more friends around the world and suggested the United States holds too much sway over his country. At the last scheduled event of a weeklong European tour, Mr. Roh spoke to academics and students at the Sorbonne, a leading French university. He praised Europe's effort to form an economic and political union and said he wants to help build an entity like the European Union in East Asia. Taking questions from the students, Mr. Roh was asked whether he thought Korea is overly influenced by the United States in terms of its economy and culture. "There may be some American friends who would feel sorry if I say something," Mr. Roh responded. "But nobody should attempt to monopolize friends. All civilizations that did not have exchanges with others went into decline over time. Korea thus wants to exchange and cooperate with many other friends and develop its culture more creatively." Seizing on the president's remarks, a leader of the opposition Grand National Party said yesterday Mr. Roh's view was imprudent. "His language explicitly supports North Korea and criticizes the policies of the United States," the party's floor leader, Kim Deog-ryong, said. "We do not understand how that will help the national interests of Korea."
• U.S. officials meet twice with North Korean aides
  December 08, 2004 ? U.S. officials met with North Korean representatives in New York twice last week to urge Pyeongyang to return to the multilateral talks established to put a diplomatic end to the North's nuclear arms program, the U.S. State Department said. At a press briefing Monday, Adam Ereli, deputy spokesman of the State Department, said, "There was a meeting in New York on Tuesday, Nov. 30 and Friday, Dec. 3. The purpose was to state to the North Koreans that the United States is ready to resume the six-party talks at an early date and without preconditions and that we want to resolve the nuclear issue diplomatically."
• US Seeks NK Regime Transformation
  By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter In an apparent policy turnaround, the United States will seek transformation of the North Korean regime without attempting to change or overthrow it, a top U.S. security policymaker said Tuesday. ``If the U.S. policy is put into words, it would be `regime transformation,''' National Security Advisor-designate Stephen Hadley was quoted as telling South Korean parliamentary delegates visiting the U.S.
• President Roh Wins Support Over NK Nukes Through Summits
  By Ryu Jin Korea Times Correspondent PARIS - President Roh Moo-hyun will arrive home Wednesday after winding up his trip to Asian and European nations. He succeeded in winning support from the regions for a peaceful resolution to the North Korean nuclear standoff, aides said. While having summit meetings with international leaders, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac, Roh made an active effort to explain his firm belief regarding a peaceful resolution to the diplomatic impasse. He hardly passed a day without commenting on the issue during his successive visits to Britain, Poland and France. Roh first tried to prove the fact that North Korea wants to reform and open itself up to the outside world. For that, he added, the North should be given a security guarantee and economic aid. Because the North is well aware of the fact that it cannot pursue both nuclear arms and obtain security and aid at the same time, it is sure to give up nuclear weapons programs in the end. Those were the three core bases of his argument.
• President Pays Surprise Visit to Troops in Iraq
  Joint Press Corps, Ryu Jin Korea Times Correspondent
  IRBIL, Iraq - President Roh Moo-hyun on Wednesday paid a surprise visit to the ``Zaytun Unit'' in the northern Iraqi town of Irbil on his way back home from his European tour to encourage the South Korean troops stationed here.
• Pentagon Expresses Regret Over Info Leak
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter Rep. Roh Hoe-chan on Tuesday urged the U.S. Department of Defense to come clean on the alleged change in the role of U.S. Forces stationed in South Korea. Roh said the Pentagon failed to confirm speculations the U.S. forces' role will be expanded to that of a regional force in Northeast Asia.
• South Korea Isolated in Opposing NK Regime Change: US Expert
  By Reuben Staines, Park Song-wu Staff Reporters President Roh Moo-hyun's government is alone in its opposition to regime change in North Korea, according to a former U.S. official who played a key role in drafting the recently enacted North Korean Human Rights Act. Michael Horowitz, now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., claimed that all of the other countries engaged in the six-party nuclear talks with North Korea are preparing for the inevitable collapse of the Kim Jong-il regime, while Roh continues to live in denial. ``He is making love to a corpse,'' said Horowitz, who was in Seoul to participate in a seminar hosted Tuesday by Save North Korea, a local Christian group. ``Only Roh Moo-hyun, so far as I am concerned, is out there working for and acting on this strategic premise that we can keep this lunatic regime in power.'' Roh, delivering a series of speeches on the North Korean nuclear crisis during his current tour of European nations, has argued that the collapse of the Pyongyang government is ``very unlikely'' and warned that calls for regime change by hardliners in the U.S. are hampering the multilateral negotiations. But Horowitz said the international community would be highly skeptical of the ``increasingly frantic'' pleas by a South Korean president who has declined to speak out on North Korea's human rights abuses and continues to pursue a policy of appeasement. [Friction]
• US Demands 8.8% Rise in ROK's Share for USFK
  By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter Officials from South Korea and the United States will meet here today to discuss sharing the costs of keeping U.S. troops on the Korean peninsula next year, the Foreign Affairs-Trade Ministry said Tuesday. The two-day session will be the second round of negotiations since the two sides failed to make progress in their previous meeting in Washington early last month.
  The U.S. side is expected to renew its demand for South Korea to increase its contribution to 75 percent of the cost of maintaining the U.S. troops from the current 45 percent, as Japan is doing for the U.S. forces in its territory.
• Roh, in Paris, is even more outspoken on North Korea
  December 07, 2004 ? PARIS ? In his strongest remarks yet on how the North Korean nuclear crisis should be resolved, President Roh Moo- hyun declared that Seoul should have the leading say on the issue. "The United States and some Western countries harbor the idea that the North Korean system should collapse; that is why Pyeongyang is nervous and in crisis mode," Mr. Roh said Sunday in a speech to Koreans living in France. "This will not resolve the nuclear standoff." Unlike those Western countries, China and South Korea do not want to see North Korea collapse, Mr. Roh said. Mr. Roh then emphasized Seoul's role. If the six- party talks participants "are to coordinate our efforts," Mr. Roh said, "then Seoul should have the strongest say. The nuclear issue is a problem that will determine the survival of South Koreans. If South Korea is required to go red in the face against others, then it has no choice but to do so." Mr. Roh also aimed some strong language at Pyeongyang. "I hold the belief Pyeongyang will not develop nuclear arms. I believe Pyeongyang will make a certain political decision," he said. "I do not think North Koreans are so foolish as to expect support after they have developed nuclear weapons." During his recent tours in the Americas and Europe, Mr. Roh has made a series of comments that many have seen as being conciliatory toward Pyeongyang and challenging toward Washington. Yesterday's comments were the clearest and strongest so far. Blue House spokesman Kim Jong-min appeared to be concerned about the possibility that Mr. Roh's remarks could be misrepresented. "When I asked Mr. Roh, he said 'some Western countries' do not refer to their governments," the spokesperson explained. "He said he meant that there are some people or voices in those countries that want Pyeongyang to collapse." A senior Blue House official said, on the condition of anonymity, that Mr. Roh's remarks were not impromptu, but based on consultations with Blue House staff.[Friction]
• Seoul's aid to North questioned
  December 07, 2004 ? In a speech prepared for delivery in Seoul, a senior U.S. official expressed strong skepticism that South Korea's effort to engage North Korea politically and economically has in fact paid any dividends. Mitchell Reiss, the director of policy planning at the U.S. State Department, was to speak last week before Seoul's Sejong Institute, a think tank on security matters, but he canceled the session because of a family emergency. The text of his remarks, however, became public. Mr. Reiss made pointed reference to North Korea's failure to respond to a series of initiatives undertaken by the South Korean government, which has sought to encourage more moderate behavior from Pyeongyang. Mr. Reiss' prepared remarks said, "No one knows this sorry record better than the people of South Korea, whose generosity and boundless sense of optimism and hope repeatedly have been rebuffed and manipulated by the North." He said the "sunshine policy" of President Kim Dae-jung has elicited almost nothing in return from North Korea. Mr. Reiss also criticized Pyeongyang for failing to reciprocate the 2000 visit by President Kim, cynically controlling family reunions and violating the 1992 inter- Korean accord to keep the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons. [Friction]
• U.S. Scenario of Nuclear Preemptive Strike Disclosed
  Pyongyang, December 6 (KCNA) -- The International Strategic Institute in London recently disclosed the shocking fact that the U.S. had worked out a new war scenario envisaging that the U.S. forces would launch into an operation based on naval and air strikes and use tactical nuclear weapons in case of an "emergency" on the Korean Peninsula. To put it more concretely, it would deploy a carrier flotilla in deep sea and mount a precision missile attack on strategic vantages of the DPRK while making aerial strikes simultaneously from the U.S. mainland and U.S. military bases overseas. Commenting on this, a Rodong Sinmun analyst Monday says: The U.S. pays lip service to a peaceful diplomatic solution to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, babbling that it has no intention to invade north Korea. But what it seeks in practice is not a peaceful solution to the issue but the realization of its strategy of preemptive nuclear attack and its wild ambition for aggression against the DPRK.
• Defense Ministry Seeks Understanding From US
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter The Defense Ministry explained to the United States it did not intentionally leak the information used for recent disclosures of a lawmaker regarding the role of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), a ministry official said Tuesday. ``We explained the procedure of the disclosure in which Rep. Roh Hoe-chan of the Democratic Labor Party commented on the role of the USFK quoting part of the minutes of the Future of the Alliance (FOTA) meeting and asked for understanding,'' a high-ranking Defense Ministry official was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency. ``We made it fully clear to the U.S. that the ministry did not leak the information on purpose and the incident is a result of differences in the systems of government administration and legislative body, regardless of whether the disclosure was true or not,'' the official said.
• U.S. official frets on leaked secret papers
  December 06, 2004 ? WASHINGTON ? A U.S. Defense Department official has expressed deep concern over the recent leak by a left-wing legislator of classified documents related to the U.S.- Korea Alliance. The official , who asked not to be identified, called the documents academic "research papers" that should not have been disclosed to the public. He described the situation as "very disturbing." Twice last month, Roh Hoe-chan, a Democratic Labor Party lawmaker, referred to classified documents from the "Future of the Alliance" talks held last September. He claimed the relocation of the Second Infantry Division to the south of the Han River by the United States was actually part of a plan to launch a strike against North Korea or China. The U.S. official said Washington and Seoul have concluded a treaty that forbids public exposure of confidential documents without permission, so the recent revelations could be a violation of the U.S.-South Korea Mutual Defense Treaty. The official also warned that this incident could damage relations with President Roh Moo-hyun's administration. On the role of U.S. forces here, the official said that troops could move anywhere in the world, and the two countries have agreed to strengthen "strategic flexibility," so when U.S. forces in Korea move, they will consult Seoul. by Kang Chan-ho, Choi Jie-ho [Friction]
• South Korea asks U.S. to aid in hunt for subs
  December 06, 2004 ? South Korea has requested help from the U.S. Seventh Fleet in searching for submarines that have frequently been detected in the East Sea (Sea of Japan), a Navy official said. According to a Navy official, "Kim Jong-hwan, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently asked Vice Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert, the commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, for aid in maritime patrol activities using P-3C submarine spotter planes." Admiral Greenert reportedly responded positively. The request for support follows a failed attempt on Oct. 10 by the South Korean Navy to find an unidentified vessel, presumed to be a North Korean submarine, that showed up in the northern- most area of the East Sea. The Navy official said that North Korea possesses more than 100 submarines.
• Security leaks need checking
  The U.S. government has reacted strongly to the disclosure by Representative Roh Hoe-chan of an alleged secret agreement between Washington and Seoul on a broader role for U.S. forces in South Korea. A U.S. Defense Department official said, "The recent string of disclosures of secret documents and distortions of truth in Korea is causing serious harm to U.S.-Korea relations." The official even said that the U.S. government was considering requesting the Korean government investigate how the documents were made public. It is a cause of concern that the level of trust between the two countries has reached a record low. [Friction]
• KCNA Dismisses Story Spread by "The Washington Post" as Sheer Lie
  Pyongyang, December 4 (KCNA) -- A recent issue of "The Washington Post" released misinformation that "north Korea conducted a test of poisonous gas on human bodies," claiming that it was based on "testimonies made by north Korean defectors." The paper even cited words of the deputy director of an American research center in a bid to make the story sound plausible. As he let loose a whole string of vituperation against the DPRK, the newspaper should admit, whether it likes or not, the fact that his "testimony" lacked objectivity because it had something in common with the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK. We feel no need to waste time accusing "The Washington Post" any more as it used to take part in the smear campaign against the DPRK when necessary. But we cannot but scoff at the newspaper for telling threadbare stories about the Korean issue. Early this year, too, U.S. officials busied themselves with staging a Congressional hearing with "north Korean defectors" attending and the like in a bid to support their absurd assertion that "north Korea conducted a chemical weapon test on prisoners." Timed to coincide with this, media of the U.S. and other Western countries made much ado about this "test," a fabrication made by renegades and defectors. But the U.S. suffered bitter shame before the international community when those who were involved in the false propaganda disclosed at a press conference the truth about how the false documents had been written. [experimentation]
• Expanding Role for USFK
  Official Denial Does Not Dispel Suspicions Keeping state secrets on sensitive security issues and meeting the public's right to know are two matters that have often clashed with each other. The latest example is the ongoing tug-of-war between the Defense Ministry and Rep. Roh Hoe-chan of the opposition Democratic Labor Party over his revelations concerning the expanding role of U.S. Forces Korea. Both sides say they better serve the ``national interests,'' as has always been the case in similar disputes, so it's now left to the people's judgment once again. Rep. Roh, an active advocate of more equal military relationship between the two allies, is maintaining that the new regional role for the USFK includes preemptive military intervention against China and North Korea.
• Rep. Roh Urges Own Voice on US
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter The changing role of the U.S. forces stationed in South Korea to that of a regional force, on which bilateral negotiations are slated for next year, needs close consultation as it heralds a major shift in the 50-year-old ROK-U.S. alliance, Rep. Roh Hoe-chan of the Democratic Labor Party said. ``So this comes down to a matter of whether our government will accept it or not,'' he said in an interview with The Korea Times. ``It shouldn't be like that. We have to be able to suggest our own vision.'' The envisioned expansion of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK)'s role to a ``stabilizing force'' in Northeast Asian region, which means the USFK can even intervene in regional conflicts involving China and North Korea, is of much concern because it creates the possibility of South Korea being embroiled in a war it does not want by providing a military base, Roh argued.
• Roh Rejects Calls for `Regime Change' in North Korea
  President Keeps Trying to Lure NK to Bargaining Table By Ryu Jin Korea Times Correspondent PARIS _ South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun Sunday said North Korea detects a crisis because the United States thinks the Kim Jong-il regime will collapse in the end, adding that such hopes are making the current nuclear negotiations difficult. In a speech to South Korean residents in France, he said relevant parties in the nuclear talks will have to narrow differences between China and South Korea, which do not want a North Korean ``regime change'' and the countries that do. His remarks, apparently targeting some hawkish Americans represented by the ``neocons,'' were understood to be in line with a speech he gave in Los Angeles last month, in which he urged the U.S. not to take a hard-line attitude toward the North. During successive visits to Britain, Poland and France, Roh hardly spent a day without commenting on the nuclear standoff. In most cases, his remarks were directed at both sides _ urging the U.S. to refrain from hard-line attitudes on one hand and calling on North Korea to return to the negotiation table on the other. [Friction]
• Korea, U.S. trade barbs on Iraq-North link
  12th in a series December 04, 2004 ? In New York, Yoon Young- kwan, then the South Korean foreign minister, and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met on Sept. 26, and Seoul officials recalled recently that the meeting was turbulent. "At that time, Washington was reluctant to hold the meeting, but Seoul insisted on having one," a senior South Korean official said. "Mr. Powell was in Washington that day, but the U.S. government said it would try to arrange something. Washington probably anticipated that we would give a positive answer to its request for troops for Iraq." That expectation, if it existed, was dashed. "As the talks went on, Mr. Powell stiffened. Mr. Yoon practically told him that Seoul would link the nuclear issue with the troop dispatch," the official said. The New York Times reported that South Korea had told the United States it would not consider sending more troops to Iraq unless Washington made a concession to Pyeongyang. South Korean officials said later, however, that Mr. Yoon's message was not that strong. "At the meeting, Mr. Yoon read Seoul's instructions, and he handed a book, "Crisis on the Korean Peninsula: How to Deal with a Nuclear North Korea," to Mr. Powell." The book was written by Michael O'Hanlon and Mike Mochizuki, two U.S. foreign policy analysts. "The book argued for comprehensive resolution of the North Korean issues," the official said. "After listening to Mr. Yoon's explanation, Mr. Powell became extremely angry." U.S. media quoted Mr. Powell as curtly telling Mr. Yoon at the talks, "That is not how allies deal with each other." [Friction]
• Lawmaker Claims Cover-Up of USFK Role
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter The government is concealing its agreement with Washington on expanding the U.S. Forces Korea's (USFK) role as a ``stabilizing force'' in Northeast Asia, Rep. Roh Hoe-chan of the Democratic Labor Party claimed Friday, citing a classified document he recently obtained. Roh argued that the envisioned plan of the U.S. forces stationed in South Korea to engage in regional conflicts, including disputes involving China and North Korea, would aggravate the political situation on and near the Korean peninsula [Friction]
• `Government Hides Consent on USFK's Regional Role'
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter The government is concealing its agreement with Washington on expanding the U.S. Forces Korea's (USFK) role as a ``stabilizing force'' in Northeast Asia, Rep. Roh Hoe-chan of the Democratic Labor Party claimed Friday, citing a classified document he recently obtained. Roh argued that the envisioned plan of the U.S. forces stationed in South Korea to engage in regional conflicts, including disputes involving China and North Korea, would aggravate the political situation on and near the Korean peninsula.
• Ministry Denies Pressure on Copters
  By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter The Defense Ministry on Thursday rebuffed a claim that U.S. President George W. Bush had pressed South Korea to pick a U.S. firm for supply of three presidential helicopters ahead of official selection in mid-December. ``Such speculation is totally groundless. We have yet to make a final decision after President Roh Moo-hyun returns from his overseas trip,'' an Air Force spokesman told The Korea Times. According to an e-mail, sent to military authorities and major media companies en masse, South Korea's Air Force has already selected Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation for the project, apparently as a result of Bush's calling on President Roh to do so during their meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Santiago, Chile, last month.
• U.S. Scenario for Surprise Preemptive Nuclear Attack Blasted
  Pyongyang, November 30 (KCNA) -- The United States is escalating the offensive to pressurize the DPRK over the nuclear issue while spreading misinformation about the six-party talks. This is a deliberate and planned military provocation to ignite a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed commentary. It goes on: The U.S. is massively bolstering its naval and air strike forces equipped with ultra-modern military hardware in south Korea, Japan and other areas around the Korean Peninsula under the pretext of "reduction of the U.S. troops stationed in south Korea and security vacuum." This is aimed to carry out its strategic plan to start the second Korean war mainly in reliance upon the above-said forces.
• DPRK Blames U.S. Intention to Keep JSA Under Its Control
  A spokesman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland (CPRF) issued a statement on November 19 with regard to the U.S. decision to permanently keep persons concerned with the Military Armistice Commission (MAC) in the Joint Security Area (JSA) in Panmunjom to control South Koreans and goods coming into and going out of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
• Bush's Second Term to Start
  "Bushism" is Threat to International Community Viewpoints of Professor and Students of Kim Il Sung University George W. Bush won the U.S. presidential election which was held on November 2. People in the DPRK think of his reelection that if the second term of the U.S. administration continues its hard policy against the DPRK, tension around the Korean Peninsula will reach an extreme point. Meanwhile, specialists and analysts stress that the four years from now will be a period of time which will decide a political course and economic order in Asia and the world. The People's Korea asked a professor and students of the history department of Kim Il Sung University about their opinion on Bush's reelection and his policy against the DPRK. "Preemptive Strike Doctrine" is Core of "Bushism" Ri Chang Guk, dean of the history faculty of Kim Il Sung University, explained a characteristics of "Bushism" as "one-sided" and a "force is everything" policy. "The U.S. administration has schemed to conquer the world and followed this policy to achieve it by all means. However, there have been no U.S. administrations that have not even tried to hide their ambition to conquer the world and has acted arrogantly to achieve its ambition soon after taking office, without the Bush administration,ˇprofessor Ri said.
• `USFK Prepared for Regional Conflicts'
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter U.S. forces stationed in South Korea have contingency plans to intervene in regional conflicts, including disputes involving China and North Korea, according to a classified document released by Rep. Roh Hoe-chan of the Democratic Labor Party on Tuesday. Roh claimed that the U.S. Forces Korea's (USFK) ``high-level'' scenario includes involvement in disputes between China and other regional powers in Northeast Asia, military intervention in conflicts between China and Taiwan and the use of armed forces to manage a crisis on or near the Korean peninsula in case of the sudden collapse of the North Korean regime. ``The United States clarified its intention to intervene militarily in North Korea and China,'' Roh said at a press conference at the National Assembly. ``In the mid-level scenario, Washington will intensify its pressure on Pyongyang if it continues trying to develop nuclear weapons. This will eventually irritate Beijing, leading to a full-scale conflict between China and the U.S.''

• Seoul cautious about anti-U.S. tariffs
  November 29, 2004 ? Seoul said yesterday it would be cautious about levying retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products, after the World Trade Organization on Friday gave Korea and six other economies the green light to enact such tariffs in response to a U.S. subsidy law. The WTO said in August that affected economies, including the European Union and Japan, could retaliate against the U.S. "Byrd amendment," which allows anti-dumping or anti-subsidy duties collected from foreign countries to be given to American companies as subsidies. Now that the WTO has authorized the sanctions, Korea can impose up to $13.3 million in punitive tariffs on U.S. goods if it informs the trade organization of the items and the time periods for which the tariffs would be valid. Korea has already submitted to the WTO a list of American goods it wants to hit with retaliatory tariffs; the list includes detergent, glass tableware, cod and other fish products. "We will watch Washington's moves to decide on when to retaliate," a Korean government official said.[US Dominance]
• U.S. Deserter Jenkins Free, Prepares for New Life
  By REUTERS Published: November 26, 2004 Filed at 11:21 p.m. ET TOKYO (Reuters) - Former U.S. sergeant Charles Robert Jenkins, who deserted to North Korea four decades ago, emerged on Saturday from nearly a month in confinement to prepare for a new life with his family in his Japanese wife's home town. Jenkins was given a dishonorable discharge and sentenced to 30 days in confinement at a court martial this month after confessing to deserting because he was scared, bringing to an end one of the Cold War's strangest dramas.
• US Court Rejects NK Defector's Asylum Bid
  By Park Song-wu, Reuben Staines Staff Reporters An immigration court in the United States rejected a North Korean man's bid for political asylum on Tuesday, setting a precedent that could make it difficult for defectors who have already settled in South Korea to move to the U.S., South Korean diplomats said. A court in Seattle, Washington turned down the application from Im Chon-yong, 40, who argued that he cannot live in South Korea because of continuing ``death threats'' from North Korea, including a bomb found in his mailbox. [Refugee reception]
• Hawks Push Regime Change in North Korea
  by Jim Lobe The coalition of foreign-policy hawks that promoted the 2003 invasion of Iraq is pressing President George W. Bush to adopt a more coercive policy toward North Korea, despite strong opposition from China and South Korea.
  That the hawks back in Washington are indeed mobilizing became clear Monday when William Kristol, an influential neoconservative who also chairs the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), faxed a statement entitled "Toward Regime Change in North Korea" to reporters and various "opinion leaders" in the capital.
• Toward Regime Change in North Korea
  William Kristol 22 November 2004 Recent reports suggest the presence of emerging cracks in the Stalinist power structure of North Korea, and even the emergence of serious dissident activity there. These should remind us that one of President Bush's top priorities in his second term will have to be dealing with this wretched regime. Nicholas Eberstadt provides useful guidance for an improved North Korean policy in the current issue of the Weekly Standard, ("Tear Down This Tyranny: A Korea strategy for Bush's second term," November 29).
  To move beyond a policy that is "long on attitude (axis of evil) but short on strategy," Eberstadt writes that the Bush administration must recognize that North Korea cannot be talked or bribed out of its nuclear program, and that getting rid of Kim Jong Il and the current government should be our goal. From there, Eberstadt recommends several steps:
  * Bring in new officials to rethink and fix a stalled policy;
  * Stop the "perverse dynamic" of endless negotiating while Pyongyang builds up its nuclear arsenal;
  * Reject ambiguous and counterproductive behavior by China;
  * Develop a strategy to deal with problems created by the government now in office in Seoul;
  * Make clear that regime change in North Korea and reunification of the Korean peninsula are our ultimate policy goals.
  Simply blaming the current state of affairs on the legacy of the Clinton Administration is not a policy. Eberstadt's clear headed and practical advice provides a good action agenda for an incoming secretary of state and a new policy team. As Eberstadt rightly says, "If North Korea's threat to America is greater four years from now than today, that will be a Bush administration legacy. And history is unlikely to judge such a legacy kindly." [Neocons] [Friction]
• Tear Down This Tyranny
  From the November 29, 2004 issue: A Korea strategy for Bush's second term. by Nicholas Eberstadt 11/29/2004, Volume 010, Issue 11
  THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION is not famous for patience with its critics. But for the sake of national security, the new Bush team should listen to constructive criticism of its policies--in particular, its policy for the North Korean nuclear crisis. The current U.S. approach to the North Korea problem is demonstrably flawed; arguably, even dangerously flawed. Just what is wrong? After nearly four years in office, the curious fact remains that the Bush administration plainly lacks a strategy for dealing with the North Korean regime. Instead, it merely confronts Pyongyang with an attitude.
  Instituting regime change--at the State Department.
  Working around the pro-appeasement crowd in the South Korean government. U.S. policy on the North Korean crisis suffered a setback, and a serious one, with the December 2002 South Korean presidential election, thanks to which a coterie of New Left-style academics and activists assumed great influence over their government's security policies
  For all intents and purposes, South Korea is now a runaway ally: [Neocons] [Friction]
• U.S. aide says South manages North well
  November 25, 2004 ? WASHINGTON ? A senior expert on Korean affairs at the U.S. State Department said the U.S. government supports Seoul's efforts to harmonize relations with Pyeongyang through such projects as the Gaeseong industrial complex in North Korea. The official told Korean correspondents in Washington that South Korea's engagement policy aids efforts to restart the six-nation talks, which seek to end Pyeongyang's nuclear arms program. He said the United States also supports bilateral talks between either China or Japan and North Korea.
  Asked about North Korea's repeated demands that the Bush administration end its "hostile" policy toward Pyeongyang, the official said he saw no hostility in the U.S. policy toward the North [Friction] [Bizarre]
• Bipartisan Delegation to Leave for US
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The ruling and opposition parties have agreed to form a bipartisan delegation to send to the United States as part of efforts to help strengthen bilateral relations as well as resolve the North Korean nuclear standoff, party officials said Thursday.
• Bush, Roh said to agree on how to handle North
  November 22, 2004 ? SANTIAGO, Chile ? In bilateral talks on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum here, President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush agreed to resolve the North Korean nuclear standoff peacefully, within the framework of the six-party talks. The two leaders met for about 35 minutes Saturday morning at the Hyatt hotel, where Mr. Bush was staying, accompanied by a small number of staff from each side. According to Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, Mr. Bush said he was satisfied with the mutual efforts of the two countries to resolve the issue of North Korean's nuclear arms efforts and reaffirmed his will to resolve the issue peacefully through multilateral negotiations. Before the meeting, there had been concern over apparent friction between the two countries over how to deal with North Korea. On Nov. 12, Mr. Roh said in Los Angeles that he saw some validity to North Korea's assertions that its nuclear and missile programs were designed to deter external threats. Also, with the news that the new Bush administration would be filled with more hawkish officials, including Condoleeza Rice as the new secretary of state, some Koreans expressed concern that Washington may take tougher measures against Pyeongyang. According to Mr. Ban's statements, the two leaders' meeting may have removed such concerns. [Friction]
• Roh, Bush Eye Early Nuke Talks
  By Shim Jae-yun Korea Times Correspondent SANTIAGO - South Korea and the United States were discussing a last-minute deal until late Friday night over how to deal with the North Korean nuclear issue ahead of the summit meeting between President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush set to be held here late Saturday. ``We are still engaged in dialogue with the U.S.,'' said a Seoul official accompanying Roh's visit. Despite differing stances over the nuclear issue, Roh and Bush will jointly call on North Korea to rescind its nuclear weapons program, the official said on condition of anonymity.
• Discord Patched, Concern Lingers
  By Shim Jae-yun Korea Times Correspondent SANTIAGO - Seoul officials seemed highly elated at the outcome of the crucial summit meeting between Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush Saturday local time. National Security Advisor Kwon Jin-ho described the summit talks as having yielded the ``most outstanding outcome ever.'' Their satisfaction was heightened by the two leaders' agreement on peaceful and diplomatic solutions to the nuclear crisis through the six- party talks aimed at defusing the standoff.
  Despite the consensus and expectations, however, there is some concern over possible discrepancies between Seoul and Washington in the process of firmly reaching a solution to the nuclear standoff. Wary of possible conflict, Ban said the two nations would continue to have close consultation among working-level officials within the framework of the six-party negotiations. But other sources expressed concern that security on the Korean peninsula would worsen if Bush employs an increasing number of hardliners and the six-way talks fail to make progress. [Friction]
• Hawk Sightings Could Be Premature
  By DAVID E. SANGER Published: November 21, 2004 ANTIAGO, Chile - Four years ago, the world thought it knew what kind of foreign policy George W. Bush would pursue. He had arrived in the Oval Office talking of a more "humble'' America that didn't tell countries how to conduct themselves inside their borders. His national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was viewed as a realist rather than an ideologue; she made a compelling case that the United States could not afford to tie up its military in nation-building efforts because that would "degrade the American capability to do the things America has to do.''
  The result is that "we may have maxed out on hawkishness for a while,'' said Daniel Benjamin, who served on the National Security Council under President Clinton and was deeply involved in the first, unsuccessful, efforts to curb Al Qaeda in the 1990's. There will be "many opportunities to sound hawkish'' on North Korea and Iran, said Mr. Benjamin, but Mr. Bush has limited options in both places. While he remains fundamentally at odds with Mr. Roh, who wants a more conciliatory approach that would allow more countries to be involved in the bargaining with North Korea, Pentagon planners acknowledge that America has good reason to avoid any flare-up with North Korea. That would almost certainly require reinforcing the American presence in Asia, even as it is being reduced to bolster the effort to pacify Iraq. [Friction]
• U.S. Intention to Keep JSA in Panmunjom under Its Control Assailed
  Pyongyang, November 19 (KCNA) -- The U.S. has decided to permanently keep persons concerned of the U.S. side to the Military Armistice Commission (MAC) in Panmunjom to control south Koreans and goods coming in and going out of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). This reminds one of an "international gendarme" as the action is aimed to violate the sovereignty of the Korean nation and hamstring inter-Korean cooperation including the construction of the Kaesong Industrial Zone and the cause of Korea's reunification. A spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said this in an answer given to the question put by KCNA Friday as regards the U.S. recent announcement of its decision to permanently keep members of the U.S. side to the MAC in the joint security area (JSA) in Panmunjom and DMZ.
• Mongolia Under Pressure to Serve as Haven for Refugees
  By JAMES BROOKE Published: November 21, 2004 Jae-hyun Seok for The New York Times .ULAN BATOR, Mongolia - North Korea's brand-new embassy, painted pink and protected by coils of barbed wire, opened three months ago on Revolutionaries' Avenue, one block behind Government House. "They are watching us very closely," Tsakhia Elbegdorj, Mongolia's new prime minister, said in an interview here, half joking. But to American and South Korean advocates for North Korean refugees, North Korea's new diplomatic presence here, after a five-year absence for economic reasons, is seen as an attempt to block efforts to make Mongolia a haven and processing center for defectors from the authoritarian state. In the United States, the campaign to ease the plight of fleeing North Koreans is increasingly a mainstream cause.
  Bolstered by President Bush's re-election and a new American law that calls for spending $20 million a year to help North Korea's refugees, refugee advocates would like to see Mongolia, sandwiched between Russia and China, play roughly the same role as Portugal's during World War II; a neutral state where refugees could be processed for settlement in other countries, preferably by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Mongolia has plenty of room, foreign human rights advocates say. Twice the size of Texas with only 2.4 million people, Mongolia is one of the least densely populated nations on the planet. But Mongolia's government has yet to embrace the idea. "We are one of the few countries in the world that enjoys very good relations with both Koreas," Foreign Minister Tsend Munh-Orgil said in an interview here on Wednesday. "Frankly, I don't think we would look favorably on setting up camps of any nature on the territory of our country."
• LaPorte counters Roh's view
  November 20, 2004 ? Responding yesterday to President Roh Moo-hyun's recent remarks that he understood North Korea's claim of self-defense in its pursuit of nuclear arms, General Leon LaPorte, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, said that proliferation of nuclear materials by Pyeongyang would represent an international catastrophe. "An additional concern the international community shares is that North Korea, in its desire for hard currency, would sell weapons- grade plutonium to some terrorist organizations," General LaPorte told a forum held yesterday by the South Korean Air Force Academy in Seoul. "And that would be disastrous for the world." Mr. Roh said in a speech in Los Angeles on Nov. 12 that "the North Koreans maintain that their nuclear weapons and missiles constitute a means of safeguarding security by deterring threats from the outside. By and large it is hard to believe what the North Koreans say, but their claim in this matter is understandable considering the environment they live in." Viewed by the Bush administration as a potential proliferator of weapons of mass destruction, North Korea is estimated by intelligence agencies to have made enough weapons-grade nuclear material to construct as many as nine bombs. General LaPorte countered Mr. Roh's argument on the nuclear crisis, saying, "Clearly, they have an opportunity to harvest plutonium from the enrichment rods. Clearly, no one truly understands what is the intent. From a military standpoint, they do have a capability we must address." Reiterating the U.S. assessment of the threat, the general said, "North Korea is a known proliferator of missiles, missile technology and other military hardware." North Korea has said it had no choice but to develop nuclear arms in order to deter the United States. Pyeongyang says that before it will resume the six-nation negotiations, Washington must end its hostile policies. by Ser Myoja
• Victor Cha named to U.S. security post
  November 20, 2004 ? A Korean-American academic at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service has been appointed to a key position on the National Security Council by the Bush administration. Victor Cha will serve as the council's Asia director, a position that has the responsibility of developing Washington's policies in the region and on the Korean Peninsula. The former Fulbright scholar, 43, is a specialist in Korean affairs and security issues. He has been promoting a concept he calls "hawk engagement" with North Korea, urging the United States to stop ignoring Pyeongyang's nuclear aspirations. In an article for Foreign Affairs magazine two years ago, Mr. Cha argued that the Bush administration was using similar tactics on the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as the Clinton administration had, but for different reasons. The Bush team, he said, wanted to "to set him up for a fall." Mr. Cha, also an occasional columnist for the JoongAng Daily, has also pressed Seoul and Washington to redefine and renew their half- century-old alliance. Born in New York, Mr. Cha studied political science at Columbia University and at Oxford University.
• Pyongyang Might Sell Plutonium: USFK Chief
  By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter The top officer of U.S. troops in South Korea Friday said North Korea still poses a serious ``threat'' with its formidable military forces, rebuffing President Roh Moo-hyun's recent claim that Pyongyang is developing nuclear programs for self-defense
• U.S. explains North Korean refugee policy
  November 18, 2004 ? A senior U.S. official in charge of refugee issues has clarified Washington's policy toward North Korean defectors in China, saying the Bush administration is ready to accept all bona fide refugees but believes "the most appropriate solution" would be for them to go to South Korea. In a press briefing Tuesday at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, D.C., Arthur Dewey, assistant state secretary for population, refugees and migration, said he had recently visited Beijing to discuss the issue of growing numbers of North Korean refugees in China. "There is an agreement that there is a group that ought to have the opportunity to go to South Korea," Mr. Dewey said. "The current orderly movement needs to be increased, or the pressures will become so great that you'll have more of these consulate-jumpers." [Refugee reception]
• US May Expand Refugee Status for NK Defectors
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter Washington is considering making it easier for North Koreans refugees to seek asylum in the United States but believes the best place for the defectors to live is South Korea, a senior U.S. official said. [Refugee reception] [Friction]
• Victor Cha Expected to Join NSC of US
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Victor Cha, 43, a Korean-American scholar specializing in Korean Peninsula affairs, has reportedly been appointed as the new Asia director of the National Security Council in U.S. President George W. Bush's second term. A professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Cha will constitute America's Asia policy line, along with Stephen J. Hadley, designated as the new National Security Advisor, and Michael Green, the incumbent senior Asia director. Known as a conservative and sometimes described as a ``hawk,'' Cha will become the first Korean-American to assume the highest U.S. government post that could profoundly affect the Seoul-Washington relationship. As a Korean and security expert, Cha drew attention in his writing on Foreign Affairs in 2002, when he introduced the concept of ``hawk engagement,'' calling on the U.S. administration to intervene and resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. He has supported President Bush's policy of not compensating North Korea, which the Americans have a deep distrust of after the North has breached international promises
• Bush rewards Rice for loyalty to his cause
  Critics question former national security adviser's credentials Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Wednesday November 17, 2004 The Guardian President George Bush listens to Condoleezza Rice speak after he nominated her to replace Colin Powell as Secretary of State. Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters President George Bush yesterday named his foreign policy tutor and trusted confidante, Condoleezza Rice, as America's envoy to the world, signalling that his second administration would remain fixed on the global war on terror and regime change in the Middle East.
  Mr Bush sketched out his foreign policy ambitions for a second term: confronting outlaw regimes and nuclear proliferators, breaking up terror networks, and regime change. "The United States has undertaken a great calling of history to aid the forces of reform and freedom in the broader Middle East so that that region can grow in hope," he said. Ms Rice signalled she would live up to her reputation as a Bush family loyalist. "Under your leadership, America is fighting and winning the war on terror," she said. However, there was a fear even within Republican circles that the White House was too willing to sacrifice diplomatic expertise and management skills for personal loyalty.
  Further evidence of the ascendancy of the neo- conservatives at the state department arrived with press reports that John Bolton, under- secretary of state for arms control, was a favourite to succeed Richard Armitage as deputy secretary of state. Mr Armitage, a close friend of Mr Powell as well as sharing his views, announced his resignation yesterday. Mr Bolton is seen as a hawk among hawks, an ardent supporter of diplomatic ties with Taiwan and a harsh critic of international institutions such as the international criminal court. He is viewed as a hardliner on North Korea and has said that regime change in Iran would be the US's next priority.
• Roh Says NK Will Give Up Nukes If Given Compensation
  S. Korea, Brazil Agree on Joint Study for Free Trade Accord By Shim Jae-yun Korea Times Correspondent BRASILIA - President Roh Moo-hyun on Wednesday stressed North Korea will give up its nuclear weapons program if it is provided with enough compensation. He rebuffed the claim that the North has deliberately delayed the nuclear talks to buy time for nuclear development. ``We do not agree with the assertion of some hard-liners that the North is showing no intention of resuming the nuclear negotiations, seeking only to protract the dialogue,'' Roh said during an interview with Portuguese-language newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo. [Friction]
• Departure of Powell to Impact Asia in More Ways Than One
  By Patrick Goodenough CNSNews.com International Editor November 16, 2004
  Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - Colin Powell's resignation as Secretary of State will affect Asian nations, not just in obvious way but also indirectly because his deputy, who has played an especially high-profile role in Asia, is expected to follow suit.
  The departure of Powell and his allies could see changes in the way Washington approaches the North Korean nuclear issue.
  State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday there was a "general expectation" that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage also would be leaving. He said the secretary and his deputy were regarded as a team and it would likely be a case of "in together, out together."
• Roh sees little threat in future on peninsula
  November 16, 2004 ? BUENOS AIRES ? President Roh Moo-hyun on tour in the Americas has called again for a softer stance toward North Korea, saying the ideological competition between the Koreas is over and that "Pyeongyang itself knows well that imposing communism on the entire Korean Peninsula is impossible." Speaking to Korean immigrants on Sunday, Buenos Aires time, the president said, "Now, our interest is to help Pyeongyang accept a market economy so that North Koreans can have a better life." Offering a view on why Pyeongyang appears so recalcitrant toward the international community, Mr. Roh said, "Pyeongyang is trying to open markets and reform itself, but what will be the most difficult thing for Pyeongyang is that its society will be shaken if the wind of market economy blows hard. And thus it is controlling the speed [of opening]. That's why it takes such tough positions and pretends to be strong and powerful. I think that it is a struggle for Pyeongyang to proceed without its system being threatened." [Friction] [Marketisation]
• Confessed Agent for North Korea Sentenced
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: November 15, 2004 Filed at 10:30 p.m. ET LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A man who pleaded guilty to a federal charge of failing to register as an agent for North Korea was sentenced Monday to two years in prison. Prosecutors had alleged that John Joungwoong Yai, 60, secretly worked for North Korea and sent reports to Pyongyang as late as January 2003 through coded faxes and e-mails. . William Genego, Yai's attorney, said his client was simply sending newspaper clippings to Pyongyang to compensate for the lack of free media and Internet access in North Korea. Yai, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in South Korea, favors the reunification of the two Koreas. He also pleaded guilty to three felony charges for failing to tell customs officials that he and his wife were carrying more than $10,000 when they arrived April 20, 2000, at Los Angeles International Airport from a trip to Zurich, Switzerland. The couple was carrying $18,179. Yai's wife, Susan Youngja Yai, was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to one count of failing to disclose the money. [Human rights] [Espionage]
• Roh calls for softer stance against North
  November 15, 2004 ? In a speech in Los Angeles Saturday, President Roh Moo-hyun urged Washington to soften its stance on the North Korean nuclear issue, calling military action unacceptable and saying that there was some validity to the North's claims that its pursuit of nuclear arms is in self-defense. In a speech before the World Affairs Council, Mr. Roh flatly ruled out military action even as a negotiating point. "Before the six-nation talks began, some mentioned using armed force against the North," Mr. Roh said. "It is too much to ask of the Korean people, who have risen from the ashes, to submit to the risk of a war again... I believe the United States will respect such a reality as ours." Mr. Roh made it clear that his opposition extended to the possibility of a blockade, which he said would prolong the crisis. As of yesterday, Washington had no official reaction to Mr. Roh's remarks [Friction]
• Bipartisan delegation goes to Washington
  November 15, 2004 ? A delegation headed by Uri Party lawmaker Chung Eui-yong and Grand National Party lawmaker Park Jin is scheduled to depart for Washington tomorrow to meet with members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The delegation will seek to learn of any new changes in U.S. policy toward the Korean Peninsula, especially in the wake of U.S. President George W. Bush's re-election. Leaders of both parties had earlier agreed to form a bipartisan, ad-hoc committee to tackle foreign policy issues together. "Our visit's aim is to learn what the Bush administration will do regarding the North Korean nuclear issue," said Mr. Park. [Friction]
• Roh Tries to Curb Hawkish US Policy
  By Shim Jae-yun & Ryu Jin Korea Times Correspondent, Staff Reporter LOS ANGELES - President Roh Moo-hyun's stronger-than-ever message to the United States over North Korea's nuclear issue seems to be part of his efforts to avert a possible unfavorable change in U.S. policy on the communist state. Ahead of summit talks with U.S. President George W. Bush in Chile this weekend, Roh clearly expressed objections to any military option backed by ``neocons,'' many of whom are expected to be included in the new security lineup of a second-term Bush. Though he didn't mention Bush by name, Roh warned on Friday in Los Angeles that taking a hard-line over the North's nuclear issue could have ``grave'' consequences.
• Roh Opposes Sanctions Against North Korea
  By Shim Jae-yun Korea Times Correspondent LOS ANGELES _ President Roh Moo-hyun has expressed strong opposition to the possible imposition of sanctions or military strikes against North Korea, stressing that the current standoff over the North's nuclear weapons program should be resolved peacefully through the six-party dialogue. ``The use of force lacks effectiveness as a negotiation tactic. I believe the United States, which has greatly contributed to the national economic development, will well understand this,'' Roh said during a lecture at the World Affairs Council (WAC), a research organization in Los Angeles, Friday. It the first comment Roh has made regarding the security issue on the Korean peninsula since U.S. President George W. Bush's re-election earlier this month. Concern has continued to grow over the national security amid speculation that the U.S. will get tougher with the North with the possible rise of hawkish neo-conservatives in the second-term Bush administration. [Friction]
• 'U.S. Unilateralism Is Failing the World'
  Former Korean President Kim Dae Jung takes aim at U.S foreign policy during Nobel Laureate Summit (c)2004 Yonhap In a keynote address at the opening ceremony of the World Summit of the Nobel Peace Laureates held in Rome on Wednesday, Korea's former President Kim Dae Jung reprimanded the United States for maintaining "a unilateral attitude" and "failing to lead the world to a united system of cooperation." "We now have many knotty issues to deal with, like nuclear weapons, terrorism and wealth inequality... These problems cannot be solved by any one nation alone, and we need close cooperation from the entire world," Kim said, adding, "I hope the U.S. reflects deeply on its own historic mission and takes the lead in a multilateral system of cooperation that gathers the strength of the entire world into one." For a former Korean president to criticize the U.S. president on the international stage is extremely rare. Kim called for a "humble United States that cooperates with the world."
• Former U.S. Ambassador, "Changes to North Korean Regime Should Come from Within"
  NOVEMBER 13, 2004 23:56 by Keuk-In Bae (bae2150@donga.com) On November 12, the former United States Ambassador to Korea Donald Gregg made a metaphoric comparison of the relations between the Republic of Korea and the U.S. to "an old wooden warship with grimy planks." The metaphor was made to illustrate that "it is time the two countries recognize the changes that have taken place and make necessary repairs." He also argued, "Any changes in the North Korean regime should be made from within, and its neighbors outside should not be putting on pressure." The former ambassador delivered a keynote speech at a breakfast meeting held on November 12 that was hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) at Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, speaking under the theme of "A New Perspective on the R.O.K.-U.S. relationship through the Eyes of an American."
• 2 Koreas Urge U.S. to Ease Standoff
  By REUTERS Published: November 14, 2004 EOUL, South Korea, Nov. 13 (Reuters) - South Korea wants the United States to talk to North Korea instead of taking a hard line on its nuclear programs, while North Korea said Saturday that it would be "quite possible" to solve the crisis if Washington changed its stance. President Roh Moo Hyun of South Korea, in a speech on Friday in Los Angeles, said, "There's no other way than dialogue."
  "A hard-line policy means too much for the Korean Peninsula," he added, referring to the devastation of the Korean War and the consequences of any new conflict. [Friction]
• Mongolian Paper Discloses U.S. Plan to Make Nuclear Strike at DPRK
  Pyongyang, November 12 (KCNA) -- A Mongolian paper carried an article titled "The U.S. intended to make a nuclear strike at the DPRK" on November 9. It said: The Washington Times recently obtained a secret document disclosing the fact that the U.S. intended to make a nuclear strike at the DPRK in 1998. U.S. bombers were making preparations for it in North Carolina according to the "Operation Plan 5027". A south Korean lawmaker said that the U.S. planned to make a nuclear air strike at the DPRK as early as in 1994.
• A social revolution shakes South Korea
  David I. Steinberg International Herald Tribune Wednesday, November 10, 2004
  WASHINGTON South Korea's first "cultural revolution" took place in the 1960s under President Park Chung Hee. Now a series of major changes by President Roh Moo Hyun suggest that a second administrative effort to remake South Korean society is under way.
  The members of the new elite are less conversant with foreign affairs, more skeptical of U.S. motives and the American presence on the Korean Peninsula and elsewhere in the region, and have a strong desire to improve relations with the North Korean regime
  In addition to policy differences over the North Korean regime, there are three crises on the peninsula. The first is the North Korean nuclear issue, which the first Bush administration refused to acknowledge as a crisis. The second is between South Korea and the United States, where in spite of innumerable official pronouncements on both sides to the contrary, strong tensions exist.
• Roh-Bush Talks to Focus on Post-Election Alliance
  By Shim Jae-yun Korea Times Correspondent LOS ANGELES - President Roh Moo-hyun's summit meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush on Nov. 20 will focus on how to cement the alliance between South Korea and the United States, following Bush's re-election, according to Seoul officials.
• Cho Named as Chief Delegate to UNCMAC
  By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter Maj. Gen. Cho Young-rae has been appointed as chief delegate to the U.N. Command Military Armistice Commission (UNCMAC), Defense Ministry officials said Friday. Cho, 53, who served as president of the Army Artillery School, replaces Maj. Gen. Park Hung- han, who is completing his two-year tenure as a senior member of the UNCMAC. The ministry officials said Cho will also serve as deputy chief of staff for the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces. [US military dominance]
• US Mulls Wielding Rights Act Against NK
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter South Korea is seeking to convince the United States to take a moderate approach as it develops guidelines for the implementation of the North Korean Human Rights Act. With Pyongyang refusing to return to six-party talks over its nuclear weapons programs, concerns are rising among Seoul diplomats that Washington might seek to ratchet up the pressure on North Korea by wielding the controversial human rights legislation, which was signed into law last month.
  In a litmus test for the U.S.' approach to implementing the act, a North Korean man barged into the U.S. Consulate in Vladivostok, Russia late last month in a bid for diplomatic shelter. Officials confirmed that the defector is still being sheltered at the consulate but declined to comment on whether he would be granted permanent asylum in the U.S. [Friction]
• Iraq War protest:
  Anti-war protesters shout slogans during a rally against the U.S. assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah, near the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, Thursday. About 50 demonstrators rallied, criticizing the U.S. military occupation of Iraq and demanding the withdrawal of South Korean troops from the country. [photo]
• USFK Relocation Aimed at Surgical Strikes on NK: Rep. Roh
  By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter Rep. Roh Hoe-chan of the progressive Democratic Labor Party (DLP) claimed Thursday the planned realignment of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) is based on a U.S. plan to launch surgical strikes against North Korea. Speaking in a parliamentary interpellation session on security and foreign affairs, Roh asserted the plan was codenamed ``OPLAN 5027- 04,'' which was first revealed by North Korea in August when it accused the U.S. of preparing to attack the North with high-tech weapons. ``High-tech weapons together with improved C4I (command, control, communications, computers and intelligence) of the USFK will bring a huge increase in the potential of `surgical strikes','' Roh quoted a senior U.S. official who participated in the ROK-U.S. military talks in April, 2003, as saying. ``The current location of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division is not a proper place for conducting war (against North Korea).''
  On Sunday Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported that as part of U.S. scenario ``5027,'' which is produced every two years, 25 jet bombers flew simulated missions at an air force base in North Carolina to drop mock nuclear bombs on a firing range in Florida between January and June 1998. ``The relocation of the USFK is a part of Washington's new military strategy known as the Global Defense Posture Review (GPR),'' Roh continued. ``It is outrageous for the South Korean government to insist that the relocation has nothing to do with the GPR.''
• Bush Administration Divide Re - Emerges Over N. Korea
  By REUTERS Published: November 10, 2004 Filed at 7:07 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As President Bush prepares for a second term, hard-liners are pressing once again for a more coercive approach if six-party talks make no progress on resolving the North Korea nuclear issue. The United States remains committed to negotiations on the North's nuclear program, but officials, congressional sources and analysts said the policy is being re-examined. The administration put its first serious negotiating proposal on the table in June and the North has yet to formally respond
• UN Command clarifies comments
  November 11, 2004 ? The United Nations Command yesterday tried to soothe over some miffed feelings in the Korean military establishment after comments to the press by an American general. Speaking of the recent fence-cutting incident along the Demilitarized Zone, Major General Thomas Kane, deputy chief of staff of the UN Command, said the job was done by a "professional." That seemed to contradict the conclusion of a Korean military investigation, which suggested that the fence-cutter could have been a former South Korean soldier crossing into North Korea. General Kane's comments could have been construed, and evidently were, as a conclusion that a North Korean spy returning home was responsible. Yesterday, the UN Command issued a statement saying that it "respected" the conclusions of the Korean military, which has been combing the personnel records of its former soldiers who served in that area.
• DMZ crosser was skilled, officer says
  November 10, 2004 ? The U.S.-led United Nations Command, which investigated the cut fences found along the tense Korean border last month, said yesterday that the cuts must have been made by a skilled person or persons. "Obviously, the person was planning this event," Major General Thomas Kane, deputy chief of staff at the command, told reporters yesterday at the truce village of Panmunjeom. "Our estimation was that whether it was a civilian or someone else dressed in civilian clothes, they certainly knew the situation and planned their event with some procedures." On Oct. 27, the Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that South Korean soldiers on a patrol found holes in three wire fences along the inter- Korean border near Cheolwon, Gangwon province, near the center of the land border. That prompted South Korea to step up its military alert level. The UN Command investigated the cuts independently. "This individual who made his way through the border had knowledge of how to do this," General Kane told reporters. Yesterday's press conference at Panmunjeom was called to brief reporters on the relocation of the UN Military Armistice Commission, the UN watchdog agency overseeing a cease-fire on the Korean Peninsula. The commission moved from Seoul to the DMZ yesterday.
• Uri, GNP Cooperate for Diplomacy With United States
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter The ruling Uri Party and the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) agreed to send a joint delegation to Washington, D.C. next Tuesday as a way of strengthening diplomacy with the United States and sounding out U.S. President George W. Bush's second-term policies toward the Korean peninsula.
  ``The top priority of each political party should be national interests,'' Rep. Park Jin of the GNP said. ``We agreed it will be helpful to develop the Seoul-Washington relations one step further by sending a bipartisan delegation. It will also help convey our position to the U.S. in a balanced way.'' Both Chung and Park are chief international committee officials of the two parties ``During our stay in the U.S., we will focus on ways of strengthening confidence between the two traditional allies, finding peaceful measures to solve North Korea's nuclear standoff and identifying the second-term Republican administration's policies toward the Korean peninsula,'' Park said. [Friction]
• Pro-NK Paper Condemns Bush
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter In a further sign of North Korea's distress at the outcome of the U.S. election, a pro- Pyongyang newspaper based in Japan Monday issued a strongly worded attack against re-elected President George W. Bush, labeling him ``stupid and tyrannical.''
• President Signals No Major Shift In Foreign Policy
  By Glenn Kessler
  Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, November 7, 2004; Page A01 President Bush faces an array of difficult foreign policy issues in his second term, but he appears unlikely to change the overall direction of an assertive diplomacy that has riled some key allies and led to rising anti-Americanism around the globe, according to administration officials and outside experts. Administration officials acknowledge that they are considering stylistic shifts and will look for opportunities to reach out to estranged allies. With the election behind them, officials hope policy toward Iraq will not be as politicized, and that nations that have withheld assistance in the hope that Bush would lose will rethink their position.
  Richard Haass, the State Department's director of policy planning in the first two years of Bush's current term, said that rarely has a president faced such a challenging period in foreign policy. Besides having 135,000 service members engaged in a protracted conflict in Iraq, he said, Bush will need to continue the fight against al Qaeda, confront the prospect that Iran will acquire nuclear weapons and that North Korea will bolster its nuclear arsenal, reassess Arab-Israeli policy to account for Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat's death and find a solution to the genocide in Sudan's Darfur region. But Haass, now president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said Bush will be constrained in his options, in part because of soaring budget deficits and record borrowing from countries overseas (known as the "current account deficit") and in part because so many U.S. forces are stationed in Iraq. "The war of choice against Iraq has narrowed choices elsewhere for U.S. foreign policy," especially the ability to initiate new wars, Haass said.
  President Ronald Reagan was widely disliked overseas in his first term for his tough policies toward the Soviet Union, and then shifted in his second term toward a more conciliatory approach. Some experts have suggested that Bush, interested in establishing a legacy, will be forced to be more pragmatic, especially in light of problems that resulted from the Iraq war.
• Roh worried nuclear crisis would provoke war
  November 08, 2004 ? At the beginning of last year as North Korea continued to push ahead to build a nuclear arsenal, tensions on the Korean Peninsula were escalating sharply. In January, as President Kim Dae-jung was preparing to leave office, U.S. intelligence agencies detected trucks standing outside the Yeongbyeon nuclear facility north of Pyeongyang. The trucks were parked near the nuclear reprocessing facilities. The United States interpreted the information as a sign that the North was planning to move the 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods from storage nearby to a reprocessing laboratory in order to produce weapons-grade plutonium. That move was a "red line" set by the Clinton administration in 1994, during the first nuclear crisis, and at the time Mr. Clinton's had debated the need for an attack on the North's nuclear facilities to prevent it from being able to reprocess spent fuel.
  Mr. Roh began a series of remarks criticizing the U.S. policy toward the North. A month earlier, Mr. Roh said he was worried about the North's reaction if the United States initiated a surgical strike on the North's nuclear facilities. He said he was concerned about the possibility of all-out war that would follow because of Pyeongyang's retaliation against South Korea for such an attack. All options At the time, senior Washington officials were saying that all options, including military alternatives, were on the table. Therefore, Mr. Roh's remark prompted concerns about a rupture in South Korea-U.S. cooperation. [Friction]
• Shock and Awe at American Voters
  By Mike Weisbart Korea Times Columnist Most people living outside the United States wanted to believe there was no way Americans would re-elect George W. Bush. Polls before the election consistently showed international public sentiment heavily leaning towards the liberal challenger, John Kerry. They were obviously wrong and many people I know are in states of shock. There's a profound sense of awe that anyone could possibly vote again for a man who has so clearly violated basic principles of good governance, like misleading the electorate over matters of national security. The hope that Bush would be removed from office got a harsh lesson in the reality of the American psyche. By any measure, he has been one of the worst presidents in recent times.
• Bush signs human rights atct
  Statement on H.R. 4011, the "North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004" Today, I have signed into law H.R. 4011, the "North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004." The Act is intended to help promote human rights and freedom in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Section 107 of the Act purports to direct negotiations with foreign governments and international organizations. The executive branch shall implement section 107 in a manner consistent with the Constitution's grant to the President of the authority to conduct the foreign affairs of the United States. GEORGE W. BUSH THE WHITE HOUSE, October 18, 2004.
• Korean papers urge Bush to listen
  The ideologically-divided South Korean press had a common message it wanted to deliver to re- elected President George W. Bush: "Jettison your unilateralism and consult more with the international community." After watching the conclusion of the poll, Korean vernacular newspapers said Bush has set his second presidency into full swing, with the Republican Party also holding a strong grip on both the Senate and the House of Representatives. But they expressed fear that Bush might use that firm base to continue the unilateralism that has characterized his first term, generating division between the United States and the international community, as revealed in lack of broad international support for the war in Iraq. "The United States has to pay attention to world criticism that its unilateral foreign policy narrows its own position," the Chosun Ilbo, Korea's largest circulation daily, said in an editorial. President Bush`s re-election dominated the headlines in Korean newspapers. Another daily, the JoongAng Ilbo, pointed out that the United States has suffered great damage from its unilateral diplomacy over the past four years, obtaining unusually low support for its policies from around the world. "During the second term, the Bush administration must reflect on the international community's opinions and cooperate more closely with international organizations such as the United Nations," the JoongAng said. The Dong-a Ilbo, another daily, said it is up to Bush whether the world will be more peaceful and prosperous over the next four years, since the world is already under a unipolar system of U.S. rule.
• Roh congratulates Bush on re-election
  Seoul accelerates preparation for Nov. summit talks in Chile President Roh Moo-hyun sent a congratulatory message to President George W. Bush yesterday, expressing the hope that Korea and the U.S. would make joint efforts to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula and in the rest of the world.
  Cheong Wa Dae commented that Bush's election victory was "the choice of Americans in light of his leadership for the past four years," and said the two allies would cooperate more closely to solve the North Korean nuclear problem peacefully.
  With Bush's election victory, the government is accelerating preparations for summit talks between Roh and Bush which are scheduled to take place in Chile on Nov. 19 or 20, on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
• US Trained for Strikes on NK
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter The United States had active contingency plans as recently as 1998 to drop up to 30 nuclear warheads on North Korea in case of an attack on Seoul, according to declassified documents from the Central Intelligence Agency and other U.S. government departments. Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported Sunday that as part of the U.S.' ``scenario 5027,'' 24 F15-E bombers flew simulation missions at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina to drop mock nuclear bombs on a firing range in Florida between January and June 1998. It quoted the intelligence reports as saying that AWACS and KC-135 mid-air refueling planes also took part in the drills to prepare pilots for missions against North Korea from air bases in the U.S. The revelation follows claims by an opposition party lawmaker last month that the U.S. drew up plans to launch preemptive strikes on key targets in North Korea in 1994. Labeled ``scenario 5026,'' it identified 756 targets that could be taken out by U.S. B-2 stealth bombers and F-117 stealth fighters in order to disable Pyongyang, especially its suspected nuclear weapons capabilities. The report also comes amid concerns that re-elected U.S. President George W. Bush will take a tougher line with North Korea during his second term if it refuses to scrap its nuclear weapons programs. The newly declassified documents also showed the U.S. kept nuclear weaponry in South Korea until at least 1998, despite officially claiming it had withdrawn all nuclear warheads in 1991, Kyodo reported. Washington had conducted drills on the use of nuclear weapons in South Korea since 1958 and in one case fired a mock nuclear weapon at Kunsan Air Base along the southwestern coast of South Korea in 1991, the reports said. [PYR]
• North envoy sees no hope in U.S. vote
  November 06, 2004 ? In an initial reaction from North Korea to the re-election of President George W. Bush, one of the communist state's top diplomats has offered a grim assessment, saying the election outcome means there is little chance for relations between Washington and Pyeongyang to improve. In an interview with the South Korean newspaper, Hankyoreh Shinmun, Han Song-ryol, North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said, "I have watched the Bush administration's North Korea policy over the past four years, and I am doubtful that there will be any policy shift in the future. Unless there are substantial changes in U.S. policy, we will not attend the six- nation talks." Speaking to the newspaper on Wednesday, Mr. Han said North Korea would wait until Washington withdraws what Pyeongyang calls "hostile policy" against the North. At the same time, South Korea's top North Korea policymaker said he saw a brighter outlook for inter-Korean relations in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. election. "North Korea is showing signs of change after the U.S. presidential election," Chung Dong- young, Seoul's Unification Minister said yesterday. North Korea is willing to allow South Korean businessmen to resume their visits to Pyeongyang beginning some time in December, Mr. Chung said. But one senior official at the Unification Ministry challenged that hopeful view while asking not to be identified. "The North has maintained civilian talks with the South, although it stopped government dialogue. It is an exaggeration to say that the North is showing signs of changes."
• Seoul Sees NK Softening After US Poll
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter A squad of top South Korean officials sought Friday to douse concerns that the re-election of U.S. President George W. Bush could exacerbate the North Korean nuclear crisis, predicting that Washington will persist with diplomacy and noting signs of flexibility from Pyongyang. ``I believe that North Korea is showing signs of changing after the U.S. election,'' Unification Minister Chung Dong-young was quoted as saying by Uri Party spokesman Im Jong-seok during a meeting of ruling party officials and security- related ministers at the Prime Minister's Office. ``The government will prepare for an early restoration of the somewhat strained inter- Korean relations now, as outside factors affecting the situation on the Korean peninsula have been settled,'' he said. North Korea shunned inter-Korean exchanges and six-nation talks on the nuclear crisis in the months leading up to the U.S. poll, launching a barrage of criticism at Bush. But Chung said the North recently indicated a willingness to allow South Korean businessmen to visit Pyongyang _ something it has refused since July _ and suggested holding a working-level meeting with civic group members on Nov. 20 to prepare for next year's anniversary celebrations for the June 15, 2000 inter-Korean summit.
• NK Demands Change From Bush
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter In North Korea's first response to the U.S. election outcome, the deputy chief of its mission to the United Nations said Pyongyang will not return to the six-party nuclear talks unless there are ``material changes to U.S. policies'' in President George W. Bush's second term. ``I've seen how the Bush administration manages its policy towards North Korea for four years, and I doubt that they will make any shift in policy in the future,'' Han Song-ryol told Hankyoreh, a left-leaning South Korean daily. Chosun Shinbo, a pro-Pyongyang bulletin in Japan, echoed Han's sentiments in a dispatch from Pyongyang. ``We will never give up our deterrence as long as the Bush administration keeps its hostile policy toward North Korea,'' it read.
• Security Lineup Unaffected by US Poll
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter South Korea's foreign policy lineup will not likely undergo major change even if its U.S. counterpart is reshaped in the second-term George W. Bush administration, officials here said Friday. On the occasion of Bush's re-election to another four years in the White House, some Korean politicians raised the question of whether a diplomatic shake up was needed to cope with a possible reshuffle of the U.S. team. ``It has become even more urgent to repair the damaged South Korea-U.S. alliance,'' Rep. Kim Deog-ryong, floor leader of the opposition Grand National Party, said on Thursday. ``We need to overhaul the National Security Council (NSC), which has been the source of policy confusion.'' Kim's remark is largely based on his predominantly conservative party's recognition of the Roh Moo-hyun administration as preferring ``self-reliance'' to the ``alliance'' with the United States. An ardent advocator of inter-Korean reconciliation
• G.I. Deserter Tells of Cold, Hungry Times in North Korea
  By JAMES BROOKE Published: November 4, 2004 AMP ZAMA, Japan, Nov. 3 - Charles Robert Jenkins, the Army sergeant who left his soldiers and walked into North Korea in 1965 to avoid combat duty in Vietnam, received a light sentence Wednesday after pleading guilty in a court-martial here to desertion and aiding the enemy.
  After hearing bleak testimony about his harsh life in North Korea, an Army judge seemed to accept a defense lawyer's argument that Sergeant Jenkins, 64, had "already suffered 40 years of confinement." The judge, Col. Denise Vowell, then demoted him to private, stripped him of four decades of back pay and benefits, and gave him a dishonorable discharge and a 30-day jail sentence. The prosecutor, Capt. Seth Cohen, had called for a tougher sentence, evoking, in a veiled way, the need for military discipline while American soldiers are fighting in Iraq. Referring to noncommissioned officers like Sergeant Jenkins, he said, "We can't have soldiers going into the field fearing that their N.C.O.'s will abandon them, especially given the state of the world today." But the trial and sentencing seemed to reflect American political needs to mollify Japanese public opinion, which has been moved by the drama of the American defector from North Carolina and his Japanese wife, Hitomi Soga Jenkins, whom he met in North Korea a few years after North Korean agents had kidnapped her from a Japanese island in 1978. Apparently to minimize American media attention, the one-day military trial took place as votes were being counted in the American presidential election.
• Pyongyang Denounces "NK Human Rights Act" as Intended to Topple DPRK
  South Koreans Urge U.S. to Withdraw Act Pyongyang has criticized the so-called "North Korean Human Rights Act" approved by the U.S. Senate, saying that it showed nuclear talks were meaningless because the U.S. was "hell-bent" on toppling the DPRK. The U.S. Senate has approved "the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004" on September 28. President George Bush signed a law on October 18. A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry said on October 4 that the act was "one more declaration of the hostile Korea policy which fully disclosed the U.S. real intention to slander and insult the DPRK and topple the socialist system chosen by its people."
• U.S. Deserter Took Plea Bargain
  Leniency for Soldier Who Fled to N. Korea Appeases Japan By Anthony FaiolaWashington Post Foreign Service Thursday, November 4, 2004; Page A07 TOKYO, Nov. 3 -- A U.S. Army sergeant's decision to plead guilty on Wednesday to deserting to North Korea in 1965 was part of a plea bargain in a Cold War-era case that effectively settled a dispute between Japan and the United States. Sgt. Charles Robert Jenkins, 64, appeared before a U.S. military judge and acknowledged abandoning his post in South Korea and crossing the Demilitarized Zone into the North. The North Carolina native, who at one time faced the possibility of life in prison, was sentenced to 30 days in a military jail and a dishonorable discharge, but the judge, Col. Denise Vowell, recommended the jail term be suspended. Jenkins is expected to provide U.S. officials with information about his 38 years in North Korea.
• Bush Agenda: Bold but Blurry
  By Dan Froomkin Special to washingtonpost.com Friday, November 5, 2004; 11:34 AM While outlining an ambitious and aggressive agenda for his second term yesterday, President Bush didn't provide new detail that would help bring more definition to the generally hazy plans that he framed during his campaign. In fact, during his hastily scheduled press conference yesterday morning, Bush joked with reporters about how in some answers to their questions he was repeatedly using hoary phrases from his stump speech. "You might have heard that several times," he quipped during one answer. "I don't know if you know this or not," he said with a chuckle, before unleashing a shopworn line about subchapter-s corporations. Groans ensued.
  Probably the seminal exchange came when CNN's John King asked Bush "whether you feel more free to do any one thing in a second term that perhaps you were politically constrained from doing in a first." Bush replied: "Oh, in terms of feeling free, well, I don't think you'll let me be too free. There's accountability and there are constraints on the presidency, as there should be in any system. I feel -- I feel it is necessary to move an agenda that I told the American people I would move. Something refreshing about coming off an election, even more refreshing since we all got some sleep last night, but there's -- you go out and you make your case, and you tell the people this is what I intend to do. "And after hundreds of speeches and three debates and interviews and the whole process, where you keep basically saying the same thing over and over again, that when you win, there is a feeling that the people have spoken and embraced your point of view, and that's what I intend to tell the Congress, that I made it clear what I intend to do as the President, now let's work to -- and the people made it clear what they wanted, now let's work together. "And it's one of the wonderful -- it's like earning capital. You asked, do I feel free. Let me put it to you this way: I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it. It is my style. That's what happened in the -- after the 2000 election, I earned some capital. I've earned capital in this election -- and I'm going to spend it for what I told the people I'd spend it on, which is -- you've heard the agenda: Social Security and tax reform, moving this economy forward, education, fighting and winning the war on terror."
  Carla Anne Robbins writes in the Wall Street Journal: "In the wake of President Bush's re-election, foreign leaders as well as administration insiders are asking each other a question: Which George Bush now will lead the U.S. in the world? Will it be the 'with us or against us' unilateralist of the Iraq war, or the champion of multilateralism who emerged in the final weeks of the campaign?. . . . "Hard-liners, both inside the administration and out, already are talking privately about a second-term agenda that could include pulling out of the nuclear test-ban treaty or pushing for 'regime change' in Iran, North Korea and Syria."
• U.S. analysts see new Bush push on North
  November 06, 2004 ? WASHINGTON ? In quick assessments following President George W. Bush's re-election, U.S. policy analysts on Korean affairs have agreed Washington will set a high priority on addressing the proliferation threat posed by North Korea's nuclear arms program. The Korea watchers have also concluded that the framework of the six-nation talks, involving Japan, China, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas, is currently the only means at hand to end the crisis. Balbina Hwang, a Korea analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said Iraq would no longer be the hot issue after Iraqis vote for a new government in January. She predicted the North Korean nuclear standoff would rise quickly to the top of the U.S. foreign policy agenda.

• Letter of Appeal to the American Public
  An advertisement funded by the US-based Korean Peace Network in the New York Times, 26 October 2004
  United in a common urge to appeal directly to the American people on issues involving the future direction of American foreign policy on the Korean peninsula, and representing significant segments of the Korean-Americans and others concerned, we the undersigned have come together. Many Koreans believe that U.S. foreign policy dealing with the Korean peninsula in the past three years is flawed. It is flawed in that it is devoid of consistency, lacks relevant historical perspective, is insensitive to cultural nuances, and is based on an arrogant stance, best described as "Might is Right" Many Koreans believe this flawed policy is largely responsible for the steadily aggravating relationship between the U.S. and North Korea that resulted in North Korea emerging recently as a fledgling nuclear power. North Korea is a country seeking a new political and economic paradigm. This is why the historic process of détente began on June 15, 2000 as the heads of the North and South met in Pyongyang; this is why they have been insistent on the peace treaty with the U.S., lifting of U.S. sanctions and embargoes and finally, all else failing, a minimal security guarantee from the U.S. in the form of a nonaggression pact. None of these has been forthcoming. As a matter of fact, even the request for an opportunity for a meaningful bilateral dialog has been denied by the U.S. North Korea hardly constitutes a threat against the U.S. even with its fledgling nuclear weapons and 1.2 millionman army. Indeed, balancing the scale of arms is the reality of North Korea; It is located at the other side of the globe, smaller than the state of Maine, produces not a drop of oil and suffers from severe shortages of food, health care and energy. Its reported GDP is only 0.03% of that of the U.S. Confrontation between the U.S. and North Korea however could constitute a real threat against South Korea, a thriving country of 42 million people, located just south of the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) and with 37,000 U.S. soldiers stationed on its soil. Therefore, the maintenance of détente, and a cooperative relationship with its northern brethren is an essential imperative for the people of the Republic of Korea. Many Koreans believe that the current US foreign policy is in need of major rethinking, and that the time for such a process is now, just prior to November, when American people will express judgment on the current administration. Therefore, we present this "Letter of Appeal to the American Public"
• Kim Dae-jung decries hostility of some Koreans for the U.S.
  Former President Kim Dae-jung said yesterday, "It is very wrong to have anti-American thoughts." He was speaking to a Yonsei University alumni group in Seoul. "The United States is the one and only ally of Korea. Some people's anti-American thoughts are very wrong and will not help the national interests of Korea," he said. He added, "We should use the United States wisely so that the 'four elephants' near us who have interfered with our history cannot hurt us." When asked why he thinks the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has not made a reciprocal visit to Seoul, Mr. Kim said, "I think its because the relationship between Pyeongyang and the Bush administration became tense. People South Korea who say Kim Jong-il should be arrested played a part."
• Koreans spurn Bush, but like Americans
  The results of a worldwide survey on the role of the United States showed Koreans have a favorable opinion about Americans and believe the country's international leadership is important, but have a personal antipathy toward President George W. Bush. Ten countries' leading newspapers polled their own citizens in recent weeks to find out how they perceive America and Americans, who they support between John Kerry and George W. Bush, and their views on the war in Iraq.
  The survey showed Koreans to be the most critical of the Iraqi War. Eighty-five percent of Koreans polled said "the United States was wrong to invade Iraq," followed by Mexico (83%) and Spain (80%). While Koreans believe U.S. leadership is important, they were the most critical respondents about America's international role. When asked whether the United States was respected internationally, only 19 percent of Koreans agreed. The figure for Mexico was 63 percent, 61 percent for Israel and 51 percent for Russia. Koreans were also among the most negative toward the future of the United States. Half of the respondents in Korea and Canada said, "the United States is a declining superpower." In Mexico, 45 percent agreed. Around seven out of 10 Koreans said further acts of terrorism similar to those of Sept. 11, 2001, would be committed against U.S. interests in the coming months. Except for Spain, more than 90 percent of respondents in the rest of the countries said it was important to maintain a good relationship with the United States. "Less a benevolent friend, the United States is seen as a hegemonic power that takes unilateral military actions without regard to the consequences," said Kim Young-hie, the Joongang Ilbo's editor-at-large. "But the poll revealed that Koreans make a critical distinction between the state and the people." [Friction] [Anti- Americanism]
• Remains of US Soldiers Return From NK
  By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter North Korea will repatriate remains, believed to be those of U.S. soldiers missing in action from the 1950-1953 Korean War, to the United States via the border village of Panmunjom on Friday, government officials said Thursday.
• Moral Guidance From Class Clowns
  By A. O. SCOTT Published: October 15, 2004 Let me be the last to observe that we are currently living in a golden age of satire. While citizens in earlier eras had Walter Cronkite and the "CBS Evening News" to help them navigate contentious and confusing matters of public import, more and more of us seem to rely on Jon Stewart and Comedy Central. Which suits me just fine. I know I am not alone in confessing that my moral and ideological guides for the past half-dozen years have included four foul-mouthed Colorado youngsters made out of torn construction paper. Without "South Park," I would scarcely know what to think about issues like stem cell research, "The Passion of the Christ" or the Pokémon craze.
  Not that the movie is partisan, exactly. Tempting though it must have been, there are no puppets resembling John Kerry, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney or Edward M. Kennedy. The word Iraq is spoken only by the puppet caricaturing Sean Penn, who brags that he's been there. (The Matt Damon puppet is too dumb to say anything but his own name.) Saddam Hussein, an important supporting player in "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut," has been retired from the comic bestiary in favor of Kim Jong Il, who in the movie's scenario (and maybe not only there) is organizing a diabolical plot to arm global terrorists with weapons of mass destruction. (In spite of his accent, Kim, voiced by Mr. Parker, sounds an awful lot like Eric Cartman of "South Park," which makes sense when you consider that Kim Jong Il is pretty much who Cartman wants to be when he grows up). Opposing Kim's plot are the members of Team America, a squad of square-jawed, multiply talented Caucasians who fly around in screaming fighter jets, speed around on motorcycles and blow up a lot of stuff, including the Eiffel Tower and most of the pharaonic monuments in Egypt. [Media] [Propaganda]
• Kerry Attacker Protected Rev. Moon
  By Robert Parry October 15, 2004
  Carlton Sherwood, who has produced an anti-John Kerry video that will be aired across the United States before the Nov. 2 elections, wrote a book in the 1980s denouncing federal investigators who tried to crack down on Rev. Sun Myung Moon's illicit financial operations. In retrospect, Sherwood's book, Inquisition: The Prosecution and Persecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, appears to have been part of a right-wing counter-offensive aimed at discouraging scrutiny of Moon and his mysterious money flows. The strategy largely succeeded, enabling Moon to continue funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into the U.S. political process, most notably to publish the ultra-conservative Washington Times but also to make payments to prominent politicians, including former President George H.W. Bush. New evidence also makes clear that Moon resumed his practice of laundering money into the United States after serving a 13-month prison sentence for a 1982 conviction for tax law violations.
• Sinister Scheme of Preemptive Attack on DPRK Assailed
  Pyongyang, October 12 (KCNA) -- The test, production and deployment of missiles pertain to the legitimate, independent rights of the DPRK and no one is entitled to interfere in the issue as its missile development is entirely for self- defense, declares Rodong Sinmun Tuesday. The news analyst goes on: The U.S. is these days spreading the rumor that the DPRK is planning a missile test. This is nothing but an intentional and deliberate buildup of false rumor to keep the situation unstable on the Korean peninsula. The DPRK would not have bothered to manufacture missiles with so much trouble unless the U.S .resorted to military threat and aggressive war moves against it, having deployed a lot of nuclear weapons and missiles in and around south Korea. The U.S. is not in a position to talk about other's missile threat. It is none other than the U.S. which is producing and deploying the largest number of missiles on the globe. And it must not go unnoticed that the U.S. is openly scheming to mount a nuclear and missile preemptive strike at the DPRK. With "success" in the development of a super-high speed ground penetrating missile, it decided to transfer six of this type, first of all, to its forces in south Korea by the end of 2005. It has made a forward deployment of a squadron of F-15E fighter-bombers in south Korea allegedly to increase the capability of deployment in contingency on the Korean peninsula. The U.S. imperialists even brought into the East Sea of Korea Aegis destroyers equipped with a high-performance radar system and made them undertake operational duty under the excuse of coping with "the threat of north Korean ballistic missiles". The U.S. is freely setting afloat rumors about "north Korea's possible launching of ballistic missile" in an attempt to carry into practice its strategy of preemptive attack on the DPRK. The U.S. bellicose forces should abandon their impudent act to attain their criminal purpose by pulling up the DPRK with sheer sophism.
• U.S. Seen Moving Quickly on N. Korea Talks After Election
  By REUTERS Published: October 13, 2004 Filed at 8:05 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - No matter who wins the Nov. 2 election, the United States is expected to move quickly to engage North Korea in a new round of talks about its suspected nuclear weapons programs, South Korean ambassador Han Sung-joo said on Wednesday. In an interview with Reuters, Han said it was ``quite plausible'' that if Democratic candidate John Kerry ousts President Bush, Pyongyang will wait until Kerry takes office on Jan. 20 to return to the negotiating table. But once sworn in, Kerry is expected to swiftly begin implementing his policy toward Pyongyang, the South Korean envoy to Washington said.
• Foreign Ministry Spokesman Blasts U.S. Arms Buildup
  Pyongyang, October 9 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry Saturday gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA as regards the U.S. deployment of Aegis destroyers equipped with an ultra-modern missile interceptor system in the East Sea of Korea: The U.S. officially announced that Aegis destroyers belonging to the U.S. 7th Fleet were deployed in the sea and they began performing their operational duty. This is part of the arms buildup stepped up by it in real earnest in the Korean peninsula. The U.S. is justifying this move, asserting that the deployment of the new type naval missile interceptor system is aimed to cope with the ballistic missile threat from the DPRK
• Parties Caught Again in Secret Ammunition Leakage
  By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter After a weeklong harsh war of words over the leakage of confidential security information between rival parties, yet another controversy over a similar case came to a head on Monday. During the National Assembly's annual audit of state affairs, opposition Grand National Party (GNP) lawmaker Park Jin alleged that the South Korean Army's reserve stock of ammunition is 41 percent shy of the amount required if war breaks out.
  According to a report released by Park, the stockpile of ammunition for Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) will last only one day, stoking security concerns over whether Seoul can take up a self-reliant defense posture against Pyongyang. Park said, ``The ammunition reserves for the nation's K1A1 tanks will last just 10 days, while that for K-9 self-propelled guns will be used up in five days.''
• North Korea: The Land Americans Aren't Permitted to Know
  Humanist, May, 1999 by John M. Swomley Bells rang out around the world in March 1999 as an international treaty banning anti-personnel landmines went into effect. Most of the world celebrated the treaty--first signed in Ottawa, Canada, in December 1997--aimed at eliminating tens of millions of the weapons scattered in more than sixty countries and estimated to kill or injure 25,000 people a year, mostly civilians. In the United States, however, the bells were a call to join the more than 130 signatories and sixty-five nations that had ratified the treaty so far. Although President Clinton has endorsed banning the mines and recently committed funds for disposing of those uncovered by mudslides in Central America in the wake of Hurricane Mitch, he insists that the United States cannot sign the treaty because it still needs the weapons on the Korean peninsula to deter North Korea from invading South Korea. If an alternative to mines can be found, the Pentagon will phase out their use by 2006 and has requested $4.7 million in fiscal 1999 for the search. But why is North Korea a higher priority for the United States than the international campaign that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 19977 Because the United States is waging a misguided campaign of its own--one that seemingly provides direct and immediate benefits at home but, in the long run, only perpetuates an outdated Cold War mentality that has shackled the peace process. Leading this misguided campaign is the Pentagon, which needs to portray North Korea as an unpredictable and dangerous regional enemy in the Pacific as a way to scare Americans into maintaining and increasing its huge military budget [Threat]
• Bush, Kerry and North Korea
  With the U.S. presidential election just three weeks away, North Korea's leaders, after releasing a barrage of insults on incumbent President George W. Bush, must be holding their breath watching the seemingly neck-and-neck race. Many South Koreans might also be wishing a John Kerry victory, finding in his stated policies a little more flexibility on how to deal with North Korea plus his opposition to the plan to cut the U.S. forces in Korea by a third
• Father of Hostage Victim Urges End to Iraq War
  By Moon Gwang-lip Staff Reporter The father of Nicholas Berg, a U.S. businessman killed by Iraqi insurgents in May, has called for an end to the U.S.-led war in the Middle Eastern country to achieve world peace. Michael Berg arrived at Incheon International Airport yesterday evening for a four-day visit to Korea to give antiwar lectures and meet with the parents of the late Kim Sun-il, who was also beheaded by Islamic militants in Iraq in June. During a news conference held at the airport after his arrival, Berg urged the South Korean government to immediately pull out its troops from the Middle Eastern country.
• The Faith-Based Missile Shield
  Published: October 10, 2004 The Bush administration's exorbitantly wasteful missile defense system is about to be formally activated, just in time for its immediate bull's-eye: Election Day. Despite widespread technological doubts, President Bush promised in 2000 to have a missile shield in place this November. So, even though the $130 billion spent so far has yet to produce anything like a battle-ready system, the Pentagon plans to pronounce it active this month at a half dozen new missile silos on the West Coast.
  There is no disputing the idea that North Korea or some other rogue nation might someday present a nuclear missile threat. But creating a real shield is far different from proclaiming a fantasy one.
• U.S. military in Korea to retain its own command
  WASHINGTON ? Despite speculation the Pentagon plans to shift the command of U.S. troops and officers in Korea to a headquarters in Japan, a senior U.S. Defense Department official said the U.S. military on the peninsula would retain independence under a four-star general.
• USFK Commander to Remain 4-Star General
  By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter The commanding post of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) will still be filled by a ``four-star'' general even after the United States completes the planned troop cut in South Korea, a senior Washington official said Friday.
• US Poll to Determine Fate of Korea
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Friday that the weeks following the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 2 will be a critical period in deciding the ``destiny'' of the Korean peninsula. ``The U.S. is around three weeks away from the presidential election,'' Chung told reporters. ``When it comes to the destiny of the Korean peninsula, the post-election period is very important for us. We are preparing for it and are determined to manage it well.'' A top aide to Chung, however, denied suggestions that the Roh Moo-hyun government is hoping Senator John Kerry will beat President George W. Bush in order to improve relations between Washington and Pyongyang
• Stricter Missile Control Urged in Asia, Middle East
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Over 30 nations attending a global disarmament conference here expressed ``serious concerns'' about missile proliferation in ``Northeast Asia, the Middle East and South Asia'' on Friday, in an apparent reference to North Korea, Iran, Syria and India. At the end of their five-day annual general assembly in Seoul, officials from the 34 member states of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) pledged to work harder for their common cause of nonproliferation, according to the press release.
  During the meeting, North Korea, Iran, Syria and India were directly mentioned as a cause for concern, but the press release did not identify them clearly, describing only the regions they belong to, officials said.
• Seoul Should Get Tough on NK Nukes: Experts
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - The stick is more effective than the carrot in forcing North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions, a number of U.S. experts said, citing Pyongyang's apparent unwillingness to resolve its crisis anytime soon. The drawn-out international efforts to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program was a major topic at a two-day international security forum which ended in Seoul on Friday. A number of participants in the annual forum, jointly organized by the U.S. Heritage Foundation and Seoul's Sejong Institute, agreed in interviews with Yonhap News Agency that North Korea apparently has decided to wait for the outcome of November's U.S. presidential election. ``My concern is that North Korea doesn't really want to give up its nuclear program,'' Victor Cha, a Korea expert at Georgetown University, said. ``History of negotiating with North Korea shows that you have to apply pressure.''
• U.S. envoy sees no chance of raid on North
  Media speculation that North Korea might provoke a crisis on the peninsula this month and that the United States might retaliate with a surprise surgical strike against the North and its nuclear facilities was dismissed yesterday by Christopher Hill, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to South Korea. Speaking at a gathering of senior Korean journalists, he said, "There will be no October surprises coming from the U.S."
• US Committed to Peace in S. Korea: Amb. Hill
  By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter Washington's top envoy here said Thursday the United States will continue its efforts to maintain peace on the Korean peninsula despite the planned reduction of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK). ``It's very important to make sure that there is no change in anyone's perception about our commitment to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula,'' U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Christopher Hill said during the Kwanhun Forum at the Korea Press Center in central Seoul.
• N. Korea Shows Apathy to US Presidential Poll
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - North Korea restated Thursday that it does not care who will become the next U.S. president, insisting that it would only consider the U.S. policy toward it as its yardstick. So far, the communist country has been believed to prefer Democratic challenger John Kerry to President George W. Bush in the Nov. 3 election. There also is a widespread view that North Korea wants to bide its time until the U.S. election.
• John Edwards Says NK Has 6-8 Nuclear Warheads
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) - U.S. Democratic vice presidential hopeful John Edwards on Tuesday said that North Korea now possesses at least six nuclear warheads. Edwards, democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's running mate in the November election, claimed the North has increased the number of its nuclear warheads to ``six to eight'' from only one or two it had four years ago. The 51-year-old Democratic senator's claim came during his televised vice presidential debate with incumbent vice president Dick Cheney.
• Mixed Messages on U.S. Role as Two Koreas Begin Joint Projects
  By JAMES BROOKE Published: October 8, 2004 ORASAN, South Korea, Oct. 7 - Facing a battery of South Korean television cameras, a United States Army officer on Thursday praised the new railroad and four-lane highway that unrolled behind him, passing through breaks in the barbed wire to cross the demilitarized zone into North Korea.
  Nearby, his commanding officer, Maj. Gen. Thomas P. Kane of the Air Force, briefed reporters on the 10-fold jump in north-south road traffic since work began last summer on South Korea's first industrial park in North Korea, in Kaesong, 10 miles north of Dorasan. General Kane predicted enthusiastically, "Within a year, we could have 2,000 movements daily, 1,000 up, 1,000 down." Almost simultaneously in Seoul, 35 miles south of here, Christopher R. Hill, the United States ambassador to South Korea, was telling reporters at the Korea Press Center, "I want to stress that the U.S. fully supports the efforts made by South Korea on Kaesong."
• ElBaradei, Environmentalist Favored for Nobel
  By REUTERS Published: October 8, 2004 Filed at 1:46 a.m. ET OSLO (Reuters) - Among those tipped to win the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday are the U.N. nuclear watchdog and its leader Mohamed ElBaradei, a Kenyan environmentalist and a Russian anti-nuclear activist. The leader of the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee, Ole Danbolt Mjoes, will name the winner of the world's top accolade in Oslo at 9 a.m. GMT from a record field of 194 candidates.
  Many tip Egyptian-born ElBaradei and the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency to win the $1.36 million award for their struggle to keep nuclear weapons away from terrorists or rogue states. ``An award to the IAEA and ElBaradei is the closest we can get to candidates who fit today's political climate,'' said Espen Barth Eide, a researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. Even so, the IAEA has had an uphill struggle in recent years with crises in North Korea, Iran and Iraq.
• North offers a dim view of Kerry
  WASHINGTON ? A senior North Korean diplomat said even if John Kerry, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency, wins the election next month, Pyeongyang will not sit down for bilateral talks with the United States, unless Washington ends hostile policies aimed the communist state. In a debate last week with President George W. Bush, Mr. Kerry said that if he is elected, his administration would be prepared to open direct talks with North Korea. But Han Song-ryol, deputy chief of North Korea's UN mission, said Tuesday that "the United States' real intention is to overthrow North Korea. We cannot talk with the United States, whether it is six-nation talks or a bilateral dialogue."
• US to Cut 12,500 Troops by 2008
  By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter South Korea and the United States have struck a deal to delay by three years a U.S. plan to pull 12,500 troops from the Korean peninsula, the Defense Ministry announced Wednesday.
• Accused U.S. Deserter Jenkins Faces Nov. 3 Court Martial
  By REUTERS Published: October 7, 2004 Filed at 3:27 a.m. ET TOKYO (Reuters) - The court martial of U.S. Army Sgt. Charles Robert Jenkins, who last month surrendered to U.S. military authorities in Japan to face charges that he deserted to North Korea four decades ago, is scheduled to begin on Nov. 3, the U.S. Army in Japan said Thursday. The trial could lead to the resolution of a diplomatic dilemma for the United States and its close ally Japan, which has asked for leniency out of consideration for Jenkins' Japanese wife, Hitomi Soga.
• U.S. rights bill sparks worry
  South Korean Foreign Ministry officials sought yesterday to allay concern from National Assembly lawmakers who suggested that passage in the U.S. Senate of a North Korean human rights bill could provoke rash action by Pyeongyang.
• North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004
  The House of Representatives on October 4 approved the Senate's amended version of H.R. 4011, the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, by (unanimous) voice vote. The House had previously passed H.R. 4011 by voice vote on July 21. The Senate amended and passed the legislation on September 28, and returned it to the House, which approved the amendment yesterday without modification. The legislation will now be sent to the President to be signed into law
• House Legislation Relevant to North Korea in the 108th Congress
  The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)
• U.S. "North Korean Human Rights Act" Flailed
  Pyongyang, October 4 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to the question put by KCNA today as regards the recent passage of the "North Korean Human Rights Act" through the U.S. Senate: Recently, the U.S. Senate passed the act presented by the House of Representatives in July after partly modifying and supplementing it, despite the concern and opposition at home and abroad. The act is full of anti-DPRK poisonous clauses. It calls for spending out of the U.S. government budget 24 million U.S. dollars for those organizations and individuals taking part in the activities to bring down the system in the DPRK under the pretext of "improving the human rights situation in north Korea".
• US Planned Strike on NK in 1994
  By Yoo Dong-ho_ Staff Reporter Grand National Party (GNP) lawmaker Park Jin on Tuesday disclosed a 10- year-old U.S. plan to launch surgical strikes against North Korea to disable the communist nation's nuclear programs. On the second day of the National Assembly's 20-day audit of state affairs, the main opposition party lawmaker presented detailed information of a U.S. scenario in 1994 for launching preemptive attacks against North Korea that would take out important targets. According to a plan codenamed ``OPLAN 5026,'' the U.S. would strike multiple targets throughout North Korea, including facilities believed to be involved with the production, storage or deployment of nuclear weapons using B-2 stealth bombers and F-117 stealth fighters. The U.S. had the ability to strike up to 756 targets, according to a document released by Park
  Park also warned that the impact of the possible air strikes could have been significant, ranging from the release of radiation to North Korean retaliation. ``Strikes on the Yongbyon reactor and other suspected nuclear production facilities could release radiation that would have negative consequences for the region as a whole,'' Park said.
  Park also hinted at a link between OPLAN 5026 and another U.S. plan, dubbed OPLAN 5029, which aimed to prepare South Korean and U.S. forces for managing an inflow of North Korean refugees and coping with other situations stemming from the collapse of the North Korean regime. A day earlier, Park stunned the nation by disclosing details of a secret report stating that 1,000 long-range artillery pieces out of a total 12,500 North Korean guns are currently pointed at South Korea's capital city of Seoul.
• NK Defectors Seek Asylum in US
  Three North Korean defectors are seeking asylum in the United States, an opposition lawmaker said Tuesday. Rep. Lee Sung-keun of the Grand National Party disclosed a document showing that three North Korean escapees have submitted applications for asylum. He called for the government's active engagement in the defector issue. Washington has granted eight North Korean defectors the status of asylum seeker out of 47 applications it received since 1997, Lee said, citing U.S. statistics. [Refugee reception]
• Seoul to Pay 95% of US Base Relocation Cost
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - South Korea has to cover 95 percent of the $4.9 billion (5.6 trillion won) plan to realign U.S. military forces here, a lawmaker said Tuesday.
• Questions Remain on U.S. Missile Defense
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: October 3, 2004 Filed at 10:38 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- The military is in the final stages of readying its national ballistic missile defense system, with officials predicting it will be activated before year's end. But several questions remain, including how well the experimental missile interceptors work. The Pentagon maintains that any defense against intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) is better than none. Critics contend the Bush administration is vastly overselling an expensive, unproven defense system.
  There has been an expectation that the administration will shortly declare that the missile defense system is operational and on alert. Military officials said they know of no specific plans for such an announcement. Such an announcement would have political and strategic value for the administration. To those who believe it will work, activating the system would fulfill a pledge by President Bush to have an operational missile defense system by the end of 2004. Such an announcement would also have greater value if it came before the Nov. 2 elections.
• The Choice on North Korea
  Monday, October 4, 2004; Page A22 ONE OF THE substantive surprises of Thursday's presidential debate was the detailed exchange between President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry on the critical but neglected subject of North Korea. Prodded by moderator Jim Lehrer, Mr. Bush touted and Mr. Kerry attacked the current U.S. diplomatic strategy for preventing North Korea from becoming a nuclear weapons power. Somewhat esoteric references to "six party" vs. "bilateral" talks and plutonium vs. uranium processing soon were flying back and forth, probably leaving a lot of viewers wondering what the difference was. Here's how we'd sum it up: Mr. Kerry faults Mr. Bush for undoing the diplomacy of the Clinton administration with respect to North Korea and intends to respond by undoing, in turn, what has been accomplished by President Bush.
  Let's start with Mr. Kerry's indictment. The Clinton team painstakingly negotiated a deal under which North Korea supposedly froze its nuclear program and international inspectors monitored its known supply of spent nuclear fuel rods. North Korea received energy supplies from the West, and at the end of 2000, U.S. and North Korean officials were discussing a larger bargain concerning its weapons programs. In 2001 Secretary of State Colin L. Powell announced that the talks would continue, only to be publicly contradicted by Mr. Bush in front of the South Korean president. Two years then passed without negotiations: As Mr. Kerry put it, "while they didn't talk at all, the fuel rods came out, the inspectors came out . . . and today, there are four to seven nuclear weapons in the hands of North Korea."
  . Some truth-squadding is needed here: While the CIA concluded that North Korea may have built one or two nuclear weapons before Mr. Bush took office, and while U.S. intelligence agencies believe the fuel rods have been reprocessed into plutonium, there is no certainty that North Korea has built more nuclear weapons. To say so is to make the same sort of reach that Mr. Kerry faults Mr. Bush for making in his statements about Iraq's nuclear program. Nevertheless, the senator is right about the policy failures. In part because it has been paralyzed by internal feuding between hawks who favor "regime change" and advocates of negotiations, the Bush administration has been feckless in facing the North Korean threat.
  Mr. Bush made two points in his defense. One is that President Bill Clinton's deal with North Korea collapsed after Pyongyang was caught cheating: While "freezing" its plutonium, it was secretly pursuing another bomb program based on enriched uranium. The other is that despite an overall diplomatic stalemate the Bush administration has succeeded in persuading China -- a neighbor that arguably has more leverage over North Korea than the United States -- to join a five-nation alliance that commonly seeks disarmament. It is this innovation that Mr. Kerry would undo. He says he would return to the bilateral negotiations pursued by the Clinton administration.
  Mr. Kerry says his strategy would make room for China, too. But Mr. Bush's prediction is probably right: As soon as the United States agrees to bilateral talks, the North Korean regime will refuse further sessions of the "six party" negotiations that have been underway, relieving China, South Korea, Japan and Russia of responsibility for pressuring Pyongyang and leaving the United States to make a deal alone. Lacking the tools of China -- which controls North Korea's energy supplies and could cause its regime to collapse simply by loosening border controls -- the United States would once again face the choice of offering distasteful bribes to a murderous dictatorship or threatening an almost unthinkable war. Mr. Bush doesn't have a good record on North Korea, but he has mapped a possible way out of this difficult bind -- assuming, that is, that a diplomatic solution is possible. Apart from purely partisan motivations, Mr. Kerry's rejection of it makes little sense.
  This is one in a series of editorials comparing the records and programs of the presidential candidates on important issues. Others can be found at www.washingtonpost.com/opinion.
• Threat triggers higher security
  Seoul has deployed more security measures against terror attacks after a blunt threat by the second-in-command of the Al Qaeda terror network was broadcast around the world. The administration, which sent 2,800 additional troops to Irbil, northern Iraq, late last month, convened a National Security Council meeting over the weekend to plan the new measures. More than 5,300 police were deployed around 234 sites deemed possible terror targets, including the National Assembly building and government office complexes. Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon ordered Korea's 129 diplomatic missions abroad to step up their security as well. The Justice Ministry ordered airports and seaports to question thoroughly incoming travelers with passports issued by Arab nations, and reissued an entry ban against 4,000 suspected terrorists. The Arabic-language television station Al- Jazeera aired what it claimed was a new audio tape from Ayman al-Zawahiri on Friday. The message urged Muslims to resist the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, specifically naming South Korea as one of the targets.
• Kim Jong-il Satirized in US Film
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the satirical geniuses behind the famous ``South Park,'' have turned their social commentary towards the global war on terrorism. A marionette comedy entitled ``Team America: World Police,'' set to hit theaters across the United States next week, features Kim Jong-il, the reclusive North Korean leader, as a ruthless dictator bent on world domination. The action blockbuster stars marionettes that make up ``Team America,'' a secret taskforce that infiltrates terrorist organizations and discovers Kim has weapons of mass destruction. The puppet version of Kim appears as an evil villain who tries to sell his weapons to Muslim countries. [Media]
• S. Korea Pays $22 Mil. for Crimes by US GIs
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ The South Korean government has paid its nationals about 26 billion won ($22.62 million) in compensation for damages caused by U.S. troops over the past 10 years, a government report showed Saturday. Under a legal pact governing the 34,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, the host nation is obliged to share the indemnity in the event that its nationals suffer damages arising from illegal activities by American soldiers.
• Missile Nonproliferation Meeting Opens in Seoul
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter The 19th Plenary Meeting of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) will be held in Seoul from Monday until Friday with all 34 member countries attending, according to the Foreign Affairs-Trade Ministry.
• Human rights in the North
  It is regrettable the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, approved by U.S. Senate this week and expected to become law after passage again in the House of Representatives around the end of the year, is offering more fodder for partisan dispute over here. It is not exactly a row between parties but one along the liberal- conservative divide, a fundamental disruptive factor in Korean politics today. Some members of the ruling Uri Party who sent a letter to the U.S. Senate opposing the legislation have determined the bill will only provoke North Korea and thus do little to improve the human rights of people in the North. They argue it will further antagonize North Korea against the United States, as well as worsen relations between North and South Korea and adversely affect peace on the Korean peninsula. On the other hand, members of the opposition Grand National Party hailed the Senate action, which followed House approval in July of a similar bill, as a major step forward toward liberating oppressed and impoverished North Koreans. Some conservative media criticized the "silence" of the administration of President Roh Moo-hyun as more evidence of its timid approach to Pyongyang. So far, the official government reaction from Seoul is limited to a statement by the South Korean Embassy in Washington expressing hope the legislation would substantially contribute to peace and stability on the peninsula and improvements in human rights in North Korea. It observed it was not the intent of U.S. Congress to expedite the overthrow of the Pyongyang leadership or induce an exodus of North Koreans. Whatever the interpretation of South Korean diplomats, it is apparent the bill is primarily concerned with refugees from North Korea whose number has steadily increased over the past several years. It provides an annual appropriation of up to $20 million for the next four years to support individuals and groups which help North Korean refugees and offers to help any who want asylum in the United States. The clause in the bill that a North Korean's automatic citizenship in the Republic of Korea will not prevent seeking refugee or political asylum status in America will certainly inspire anyone who has escaped from the North and is staying in China or another country in Southeast Asia as well as anybody inside North Korea who learns about the U.S. legislation. The question is whether the United States is ready to accept North Korean defectors and offer permanent residence, just as it did in the 1970s after the fall of the Saigon government in South Vietnam, and the answer is negative. [Refugee reception] [human rights]
• Bush, Kerry at sharp odds over North
  In the first debate in the 2004 campaign for the U.S. presidency, President George W. Bush, the Republican incumbent, and his Democratic opponent, Senator John Kerry, staked out widely divergent policy positions toward North Korea and the communist country's stated effort to build nuclear arms. Mr. Bush stood behind his administration's multilateral approach with Seoul, Beijing, Tokyo and Moscow to persuade Pyeongyang to give up its nuclear arms, but Mr. Kerry said if he were elected, he would immediately open bilateral talks with North Korea.
• The Full Text of the Kerry-Bush Debate
  (09/30/2004) (extract) Kerry, on Iraq You can't tell me that on the day that we went into that war and it started it wasn't principally the United States of America and Great Britain and one or two others. That's it. And today we are 90 percent of the casualties and 90 percent of the costs. And meanwhile North Korea has gotten nuclear weapons. Talk about mixed messages. The president is the one who said we can't allow countries to get nuclear weapons. They have. I'll change that.
  Bush: Of course I know Osama bin Laden attacked us. I know that. And secondly, to think that another round of resolutions would have caused Saddam Hussein to disarm, disclose, is ludicrous, in my judgment. It just shows a significant difference of opinion. We tried diplomacy, we did our best. He was hoping to turn a blind eye and, yes, he would have been stronger had we not dealt with him. He had the capability of making weapons and he would have made weapons. Lehrer: Thirty seconds, Senator. Kerry: Thirty-five to 40 countries in the world had a greater capability of making weapons at the moment the president invaded than Saddam Hussein. And while he's been diverted with 9 out of 10 active duty divisions of our army, either going to Iraq, coming back from Iraq or getting ready to go, North Korea has gotten nuclear weapons and the world is more dangerous. Iran is moving towards nuclear weapons
  Lehrer: New question, Mr. President. Do you believe that diplomacy and sanctions can resolve the nuclear problems with North Korea and Iran, taking them in any order you would like? Bush: North Korea first, I do. Let me say I certainly hope so. Before I was sworn in the policy of this government was to have bilateral negotiations with North Korea. And we signed an agreement with North Korea that my administration found out that was not being honored by the North Koreans. And so I decided that a better way to approach the issue was to get other nations involved, just besides us. And in Crawford, Tex., Jiang Zemin and I agreed that the, a nuclear-weapons- free North Korea peninsula was in his interest and our interest and the world's interest. And so we began a new dialogue with North Korea, one that included not only the United States but now China. And China's got a lot of influence over North Korea. In some ways more than we do. As well we included South Korea, Japan and Russia. So now there are five voices speaking to Kim Jong Il, not just one. And so if Kim Jong Il decides again to not honor an agreement he's not only doing injustice to America, be doing injustice to China as well. And I think this will work. It's not going to work if we open up a dialogue with Kim Jong Il. That's what he wants. He wants to unravel the six-party talks or the five-nation coalition that's sending him a clear message.
  With respect to North Korea, the real story: We had inspectors and television cameras in the nuclear reactor in North Korea. Secretary Bill Perry negotiated that under President Clinton. And we knew where the fuel rods were. And we knew the limits on their nuclear power. Colin Powell, our secretary of state, announced one day that we were going to continue the dialogue and work with the North Koreans. The president reversed him, publicly, while the president of South Korea was here. And the president of South Korea went back to South Korea bewildered and embarrassed because it went against his policy. And for two years, this administration didn't talk at all to North Korea. While they didn't talk at all, the fuel rods came out, the inspectors were kicked out, the television cameras were kicked out and today there are four to seven nuclear weapons in the hands of North Korea. That happened on this president's watch. Now that, I think, is one of the most serious sort of reversals or mixed messages that you could possibly send. Lehrer: I want to make sure- Bush: I - Lehrer: Yes sir, we - but in this one minute, I want to make sure that we understand - that the people watching here understand the differences between the two of you on this. You want to continue the multinational talks. Correct? Bush: Right. Lehrer: And you want - you're willing to do it. Kerry: Both. I want bilateral talks which put all of the issues from the armistice of 1952, the economic issues, the human rights issues, the artillery disposal issues, the D.M.Z. issues and the nuclear issues on the table. Lehrer: And you're opposed to that, sir. Right? Bush: The minute we have bilateral talks, the six-party talks will unwind. It's exactly what Kim Jong Il wants. And by the way, the breach on the agreement was not through plutonium. The breach on the agreement is highly enriched uranium. That's what we caught him doing. That's where he was breaking the agreement. Secondly he said - my opponent said he'd work to put sanctions on Iran. We've already sanctioned Iran. We can't sanction them anymore. There are sanctions in place on Iran. And finally, we were a party to the convincing - to working with Germany, France and Great Britain to send their foreign ministers into Iran.
  Full text also at Washington Post
• U.S. researcher says cuts in troops not act of pique
  The U.S. troop cuts on the peninsula will not weaken the alliance between Washington and Seoul, a U.S. military expert said, dismissing widely repeated speculation that the United States was withdrawing its soldiers to express its displeasure with the Roh administration. Stephen Flanagan, the National Defense University's vice president for research and the director of Institute for National Strategic Studies at the university, visited Seoul to attend a security workshop late last month. His institute and South Korea's Korea Institute for Defense Analysis sponsored the event.
• Seoul Sticks to `Silent Diplomacy' for NK Rights
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter South Korea will stick to its policy of peaceful engagement to achieve a gradual improvement of human rights conditions in North Korea, despite moves by the United States to crank up the pressure on Pyongyang's rights abuses, a top government official said Friday. Responding to questions on the U.S. Senate's approval Tuesday of the North Korean Human Rights Act, the senior foreign ministry official said Seoul's focus on inter-Korean reconciliation means it sees the human rights issue differently from the U.S. [Friction]
• Pentagon Takes Key Step in Missile Defense System
  By REUTERS Published: October 1, 2004 Filed at 4:11 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy destroyer with long-range missile-tracking equipment has begun patrols in the Sea of Japan, officials said on Friday, in a key step toward forming a missile-defense system intended to guard against attack by nations like North Korea. The Japan-based USS Curtis Wilbur began patrols this week as the Pentagon moved closer to turning on a system championed by President Bush and intended to shoot down enemy missiles long before they hit their targets, Navy officials said.
• Poll shows Koreans back presence of U.S.
  A majority of Koreans say they believe the U.S. military presence in their country benefits national security and that any withdrawal of U.S. forces should be gradual, a recent poll shows. In the same poll, Americans named Korea as the country that needs their troops the most. The poll was conducted in the United States by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and in Korea by the East Asia Institute. Their results were released yesterday. The Korean institute surveyed 1,000 Korean adults and the Chicago council surveyed 1,645 Americans of which 450 are opinion leaders who are politicians and scholars. [SK attitude US]
• Seoul Sticks to `Silent Diplomacy' for NK Rights
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter South Korea will stick to its policy of peaceful engagement to achieve a gradual improvement of human rights conditions in North Korea, despite moves by the United States to crank up the pressure on Pyongyang's rights abuses, a top government official said Friday. Responding to questions on the U.S. Senate's approval Tuesday of the North Korean Human Rights Act, the senior foreign ministry official said Seoul's focus on inter-Korean reconciliation means it sees the human rights issue differently from the U.S. [Friction]
• Roh Vows to Reform Military
  By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter President Roh Moo-hyun pledged to actively pursue restructuring the military so it can play a leading role in the national defense with the support of a strong alliance with the United States.
• Uri Criticizes NK Human Rights Bill
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter Uri Party Chairman Lee Bu-young expressed ``grave'' concerns Thursday over the U.S. Senate's passage of the North Korean Human Rights Act, while a number of ruling party members requested the White House to exercise its exclusive right to veto the bill. ``I am looking at the issue with grave concern because it could negatively affect inter-Korean relations and the six-way talks,'' Lee told reporters. ``It's a foregone conclusion that the situation surrounding the Korean peninsula will be aggravated further.'' [Friction]
• Bill on Rights in North Korea
  Resolution to Nuclear Standoff Further Compounded The nuclear standoff between Pyongyang and Washington is further compounded because of the U.S. Senate's passage of a bill concerning human rights in North Korea on Tuesday. The bill named the ``North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004'' is slightly revised from the original one which the House of Representatives approved in July. It will be sent back to the House of Representatives for review prior to its legislation which is expected to be realized by early next year. The bill, which will be effective during the 2005-2008 period, makes it harder for the international community to provide aid to the North unless Pyongyang improves rights conditions for its poverty-stricken people.
• ROK, US to Consult on Rights Bill Implementation
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter The Seoul government said Friday that it will closely cooperate with its Washington counterpart to prevent the U.S. Senate's passage of the North Korean Human Rights Act from negatively affecting inter-Korean relations. [Friction]
• Standing Firm for 90 Minutes
  By TODD S. PURDUM Published: October 1, 2004 In the end, it was a real debate: sharp, scrappy and defining, just what the nation seemed to be yearning for during a wartime election campaign. Again and again, President Bush defended his conduct of the war in Iraq, insisting, "there must be certainty from the U.S. president." Over and over, Senator John Kerry asserted that Mr. Bush had led the country into a debacle in Iraq and it was time for a "fresh start, new credibility" in foreign affairs.
  Perhaps their sharpest disagreement on future actions came over North Korea, with Mr. Kerry favoring direct talks with Pyongyang intended to halt its development of nuclear weapons and Mr. Bush contending that two-party talks would be unwise and wreck the regional six-party talks in which the United States is counting on China's leverage to pressure the north. [US NK negotiations] Bush policy]
• America's Lost Respect
  By PAUL KRUGMAN Published: October 1, 2004 "As a result of the American military," President Bush declared last week, "the Taliban is no longer in existence." It's unclear whether Mr. Bush misspoke, or whether he really is that clueless. But his claim was in keeping with his re-election strategy, demonstrated once again in last night's debate: a president who has done immense damage to America's position in the world hopes to brazen it out by claiming that failure is success. Three years ago, the United States was both feared and respected: feared because of its military supremacy, respected because of its traditional commitment to democracy and the rule of law. Since then, Iraq has demonstrated the limits of American military power, and has tied up much of that power in a grinding guerrilla war. This has emboldened regimes that pose a real threat. Three years ago, would North Korea have felt so free to trumpet its conversion of fuel rods into bombs?
• Few Factual Errors, but Truth Got Stretched at Times
  By Glenn Kessler and Walter PincusWashington Post Staff Writers Friday, October 1, 2004; Page A10 President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry made few major factual errors in last night's debate, though on occasion they stretched the truth or left out inconvenient facts -- or may have confused viewers as they spoke in policy shorthand.
  On North Korea, Bush charged that Kerry's proposal to have direct talks with that country would end the six-nation diplomacy that the administration has pursued over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions. Kerry has said he would continue the six-party talks as well. Bush said direct talks with North Korea would drive away China, a key player in the negotiations. But each of the other four countries in the talks has held direct talks with North Korea during the six-party process -- and China has repeatedly asked the Bush administration to talk directly with North Korea. Moreover, the Bush administration has talked directly with North Korean diplomats on the sidelines of the six- party talks, and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell met with his North Korean counterpart over the summer. [US NK negotiations] [Bush policy]
• International Maritime Day Observed
  Pyongyang, September 28 (KCNA) -- Minju Joson Tuesday dedicates a signed article to the World Maritime Day. The theme set out by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) this year is "Focus on Maritime Security." In order to ensure safe voyage of ships it is necessary to strengthen cooperation among countries and foil the U.S moves to monopolize international sea routes, treasure common to humankind, and exploit them for meeting its selfish interests, the article notes, and continues: The U.S. is keen to put Malacca Strait and other major sea routes under its military control under the deceptive signboard of checking the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in a bid to use them for realizing its ambition to dominate the world. Such moves are a wanton violation of the international convention and regulations on ensuring security of ships in the sea. It is the consistent stand of the DPRK government to ensure safe voyage of ships in the sea, preserve sea environment and strengthen the ties of cooperation and exchange among countries. The DPRK government will as ever make positive efforts to discharge its mission before the IMO as its member.
• Uri Criticizes NK Human Rights Bill
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter Uri Party Chairman Lee Bu-young expressed his ``grave'' concerns Thursday over the U.S. Senate's passage of the North Korea human rights act, while a number of the ruling party members requested the White House exercise its exclusive rights to veto the bill. ``I am looking at the issue with grave concern because it could negatively affect the inter- Korean relations and the six-way talks,'' Lee told reporters. ``It's a foregone conclusion that the situation surrounding the Korean peninsula will aggravate further.''
• WHAT TO ASK GEORGE BUSH
  Changing Direction
  By MADELEINE K. ALBRIGHT
  Published: September 30, 2004 You say that we are winning in Iraq. Senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican, says, "We're in deep trouble." Gen. John P. Abizaid is asking for more troops. Secretary of State Colin Powell admits the insurgency is getting worse. The C.I.A. is pessimistic. Billions of dollars that were earmarked for reconstruction have been diverted for security. Insurgent attacks have quadrupled. Deaths of coalition troops are up. Significant chunks of Iraq are under enemy control. You have no viable military plan to make sure the January elections proceed peacefully and no political plan to reconcile competing factions. Your argument for re- election is that this is too dangerous a time to change direction. But since the direction is obviously wrong, don't we at least need to change drivers?
  Compared with when you took office, are we more safe or less safe on the Korean Peninsula? What concrete progress have you made during the past in preventing North Korea from building nuclear weapons? Madeleine K. Albright was the secretary of state from 1997 to 2001.
• . N. Korea Is Used to Justify System
  But U.S. Experts Question Extent of Nation's Missile Capabilities By Bradley Graham Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, September 29, 2004; Page A17 In justifying the accelerated deployment of a nationwide anti-missile system, the Bush administration has cited a growing missile threat, particularly from North Korea. But the extent of North Korea's missile program is open to debate. The U.S. intelligence community concluded several years ago that North Korea had already acquired some kind of long-range missile capability. A number of outside experts, however, doubt that nation has been able to surmount all the technical challenges to firing a nuclear-tipped missile at the continental United States, about 6,000 miles away. The fourth rocket designed to intercept warheads headed toward the United States is placed into its underground silo at a new launch site in Fort Greely, Alaska. (Missile Defense Agency) "It would require a huge technological leap for them," said Joseph Cirincione, a specialist in weapons proliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "I don't see the evidence that they've made the necessary breakthroughs." Complicating any assessment is a shortage of reliable information about North Korea's development effort, given the country's penchant for secrecy. If it has long-range missiles, it has yet to launch one. [Missile Defense]

• What Can and Can't Be Done About North Korea and Iran
  By DAVID E. SANGER Published: September 26, 2004 ASHINGTON - For weeks now, while American television screens have been tuned to bombings and beheadings in Iraq, an alternate set of high- definition images from spy satellites have been popping up on the monitors at the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Geospatial- Intelligence Agency. The satellites are focused on North Korea and Iran, both of which have seen America's preoccupation with Iraq as an opportunity to surge forward with their nuclear programs - and to pose a challenge to America and the rest of the world: What are you going to do about it? What can you do about it? The challenge is so serious that the C.I.A. is circulating warnings that North Korea may conduct its first nuclear test before the presidential election. And last week the Iranians defied the International Atomic Energy Agency by saying they were resuming the enrichment of uranium, although they insist their project is intended only to produce electric power and is not, as the United States has charged, part of a bomb project. In the first presidential debate on Thursday night, Mr. Bush is expected to argue anew that he is dedicated to disarming both countries through diplomacy rather than military force, and Mr. Kerry will probably repeat what he said Friday, that Mr. Bush "allowed these dangers to mount on his presidential watch'' by focusing on a far less potent threat, Saddam Hussein. The reality is that America's bargaining options are almost as limited as its military options.
• How Exactly Are We Safer?
  By Ellen Goodman Saturday, September 25, 2004; Page A23 BOSTON -- Sometimes I wonder what it must be like when the presidential son comes to Kennebunkport for a visit. Does George the Younger tell George the Elder what he tells the country? Does he say that we are safer with Saddam Hussein in prison than in power? Does he insist that we are better off having overthrown the dictator rather than having contained him? I suspect it might be just a splash awkward.
  Are we safer for having taken our eye off Iran and North Korea?
• Kerry Faults Bush's Strategy Against Terror
  Democrat Says President Made Iraq a Priority Over al Qaeda By Fred Barbash Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, September 24, 2004; 1:00 PM Sen. John F. Kerry today accused President Bush of prosecuting the war in Iraq at the expense of the war on terror, of neglecting homeland security in pursuit of Saddam Hussein when he should have concentrated on Osama bin Laden. The resulting uncertainties, Kerry suggested, leave mothers "awake at night worrying" about the safety of their children and citizens afraid to visit "our greatest cities."
  He said he would "move decisively" to deny terrorists the weapons they need, accusing Bush of having failed to continue the Clinton administration's program of securing so-called "loose nukes" in the former Soviet Union and of allowing Iran and North Korea to become greater and potentially nuclear threats. "Yesterday," Kerry said, "there were reports that North Korea is preparing to fire intermediate range missiles that may be able to carry a nuclear warhead. When President Clinton left office, that wasn't possible." "George Bush refused to talk to them [the North Koreans]," he said. "And they figured out their own way to get our attention."
• FM Ban Receives Van Fleet Award
  NEW YORK (Yonhap) - South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon received the Van Fleet Award from the Korea Society on Thursday for his contribution to the development of relations between South Korea and the United States.
  The award is named after James A. Van Fleet, former commander of the U.S. Eighth Army during the 1950-53 Korean War.
• N. Korea Urged Not to Test-Fire Missile
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter South Korea and the United States urged North Korea to give up any intention to test-fire a missile. Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, during a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in New York Friday, called on North Korea not to test- fire a missile, warning that it can negatively affect the inter-Korean exchanges, including a project to build an industrial complex in the North. The top Seoul diplomat is visiting the U.S. for the 59th Session of the U.N. General Assembly underway in New York.
• Envoy to US Will Keep Post
  By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter President Roh Moo-hyun will not dismiss South Korean Ambassador to the United States Han Sung- joo, who came under criticism for his inappropriate behavior, according to presidential spokesman Kim Jong-min Friday.
• North Korea Gesture
  Thursday, September 23, 2004; Page A28 IT'S A SMALL PIECE of legislation -- a gesture, really. But human rights diplomacy is often a collection of gestures, and this is one that needs to be made. In July, the House unanimously adopted the North Korea Human Rights Act, a moderate bill that, among other things, provides some humanitarian assistance for North Koreans, conditioned on improved transparency and monitoring; gives North Koreans the right to apply for refugee status in this country and broadens U.S. support for them; and establishes Congress's general belief that negotiations with North Korea should include, in diplomatically unspecified ways, concern for human rights. Now it's the Senate's turn.
• Statement on 'UN forces' in Korea
  By Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People, Pyongyang
  by email 22 September 2004
• U.S. Forces' Relocation Operation under Fire
  Pyongyang, August 27 (KCNA) -- Papers in Pyongyang Friday comment on the plan for the relocation of the U.S. forces overseas published by Bush on August 16. They dismiss it as one molded by the policy of strength of the new conservative forces to maintain and enlarge the U.S. domination over the world with modern mobile forces. A news analyst of Rodong Sinmun says the relocation operation, an offspring of unilateralism and arbitrariness, is a phase of global practice of the U.S. "doctrine of preemptive attack".
• Is U.S. Really "Human Rights Champion"? -- KCNA News Analyst's Article --
  Pyongyang, August 27 (KCNA) -- Many civilians have been killed in Falluja and Najaf, Iraq, by U.S. indiscriminate missile attacks and bombing. The killings indicate that the Abu Ghraib abuses astonishing the international community are only the tip of iceberg. While perpetrating such brutal torture and murder in other countries, the U.S. has had the cheek to talk about "human rights". Some time ago, the Washington Times reported about a shocking document worked out by the U.S. Department of Justice at the request of the Bush administration in August 2002. The document said physical torture should be tantamount to such physical damage as chronic injury, damage to physical function and death. It means only making a person insane or killing him or her can be considered to be torture. On the basis of this cruel logic, the U.S. Department of Defense in March 2003 worked out an unethical defense report stipulating that such torture is not illegal as it was ordered by the U.S. president, and has instigated U.S. soldiers to brutal murder and torture. The fact shows that U.S. human rights abuses, a target of worldwide denunciation, have been legalized as a state policy under the Bush administration. In the middle of the last century the fascist states, prompted by an ambition for world supremacy, invented various evil laws to legalize torture and murder against other nations. But in the 21st century the Bush administration, which declared human slaughter as a state policy, is the general headquarters of human rights violations. It is ridiculous for the U.S. to style itself a "champion of human rights" and "defender of liberty". The Bush administration should not desecrate the term of "human rights".
• AP: Kerry Fund - Raisers Met With S. Korean
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: September 21, 2004 WASHINGTON (AP) -- A South Korean man who met with John Kerry's fund-raisers to discuss creating a new political group for Korean-Americans was an intelligence agent for his country, raising concerns among some U.S. officials that either he or his government may have tried to influence this fall's election. South Korean officials and U.S. officials told The Associated Press that Chung Byung-Man, a consular officer in Los Angeles, actually worked for South Korea's National Intelligence Service. A spokesman for the South Korean consulate office said Chung was sent home in May amid ``speculation'' he became involved with the Kerry campaign and Democratic Party through contacts with fund-raiser Rick Yi and that his identity couldn't be discussed further
• Negotiators called too passive vs. U.S.
  An internal assessment by the Blue House of the performance of Korean negotiators in talks to relocate the U.S. military headquarters in Yongsan, Seoul, was scathing. The report accused the Foreign Ministry's North American bureau of being submissive to U.S. demands. [Friction]
• panel head says Kerry more likely to resolve nuke crisis
  21 September 2004 A leading ruling Uri Party member says South Korea would be better off if Democrat John Kerry is the next U.S. president insofar as dealing with volatile Korean Peninsula issues is concerned. In an interview with The Korea Herald, the National Assembly's Defense Committee Chairman Yoo Jay-kun was extremely candid in discussing his views on U.S. policy, an upcoming parliamentary vote on extending the South Korean troop presence in Iraq, and other pending issues. "There is no big difference in policies on North Korea between incumbent Republican President George W. Bush and Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry, but the Democratic Party and the Massachusetts senator's basic sentiment toward the peninsula would be better to resolve a nuclear standoff with Pyongyang through dialogue," Yoo said.
  Asked about Bush's speech at the Republican convention when he omitted mentioning South Korea among allies who sent troops to help the U.S.-led war on Iraq, Yoo said he thought the U.S. president did not list South Korea "intentionally." [Friction]
• U.S. Smear Campaign over "Religious Situation" of DPRK Refuted
  Pyongyang, September 18 (KCNA) -- The U.S. Department of State, in an "annual report on international religious freedom" released on Wednesday, made oft-repeated accusation that the DPRK seriously abridges religious freedom and represses religious organizations. Timed to coincide with this, officials of the Department of State, including Powell, came out one after another to groundlessly take issue with the DPRK over the "religious situation". A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry, in an answer to a question put by KCNA today in this regard, said: The DPRK strongly rejects such U.S. accusation over the "religious issue" made on the basis of lies and fabrications as this is no more than a sinister trick to tarnish the international image of the DPRK and escalate the moves for international "isolation and blockade" against it.
• U.S. Move to Deploy Missile Unit in S. Korea Denounced
  Pyongyang, September 18 (KCNA) -- The 60th anti- U.S. solidarity meeting was reportedly held in Seoul on Sept. 14 denouncing the U.S. for its move to deploy a Patriot missile unit at Kwangju airport
• How Should We Deal With North Korea? (4 Letters)
  Published: September 20, 2004 To the Editor: Richard V. Allen ("What Bush Did Right on North Korea," Op-Ed, Sept. 15) is right in one respect: the Bush administration indeed has a policy for North Korea, and it is regime change. Unfortunately, this neoconservative hard-line policy is full of dangers that could result in the testing of a nuclear weapon by North Korea or a second Korean War. According to Mr. Allen's admission, it seems that the Bush administration started jettisoning the hard-won 1994 agreement with the North right after President Bush took office in 2001. The alleged admission of the uranium enrichment program by North Korean officials in October 2002, in retrospect, seems to have served as a convenient excuse to suspend the American oil shipments to the North. What is needed is a new direction in the United States' policy toward North Korea: a serious, good-faith engagement policy based on direct negotiation with the North, instead of hiding behind the false facade of the six-party talks. John H. Kim New York, Sept. 16, 2004The writer is the president of the New York chapter of the National Association of Korean Americans. • To the Editor: I agree with Richard V. Allen that the Bush administration has a North Korea policy, but it is a misguided and counterproductive one. The administration made an unrealistic assumption that North Korea would go away if the United States just contained it. Its hard-line policy has made North Korea more obsessed with nuclear weapons as the sole means to protect it from becoming another Iraq and has allowed Pyongyang more time to produce more warheads. The North Korea issue shows this administration's tendency to claim credit for any positive record and blame the previous administration for anything negative. Although the administration proudly advertises the success of the six-party talks, this same administration adamantly rejected the engagement until the last moment. No wonder it was the United States, not North Korea, that was isolated at the negotiating table. The North Korea policy doesn't have to be the one the Democratic Party likes; it only needs to be realistic and effective. Youngshik Bong Wellesley, Mass., Sept. 15, 2004 The writer teaches international relations at Wellesley College. • To the Editor: In writing about the Bush administration's North Korea policy, Richard V. Allen uses the following phrases: "careful consideration"; "wanted more time to assess its policy options and consult with allies"; "its steady, multilateral approach and its refusal to be intimidated by recklessness"; "internationalizing the response" to the threat; and "patient diplomacy." If only Mr. Allen were writing about Iraq. James Gauer Victoria, British Columbia Sept. 15, 2004 • To the Editor: Richard V. Allen praises the Bush administration's "patient diplomacy" in its dealings with North Korea. With patience like this, who needs appeasement? Daniel E. Holloway West Fargo, N.D., Sept. 15, 2004
• Lack of Intelligence Capabilities
  Ado Over Mysterious Blast in North Turns Into Farce The week-long ado over a mysterious blast in North Korea is now turning into a mere farce as it seems to have been touched off by our intelligence officials' poor assessment of an American satellite picture. The fiasco has brought to light our poor intelligence capabilities concerning the Northern regime. It has also prompted the general public to raise concerns about intelligence cooperation between Seoul and Washington. [Friction] [Information]
• Ambassador Han Reprimanded for Skipping Rumsfeld Party
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter The Foreign Affairs-Trade Ministry plans to express its displeasure to Korean Ambassador to the United States Han Seung-joo for his failure to attend an event hosted by the U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, apparently giving preference to another meeting involving personal relations. Han did not go to the meeting held at Rumsfeld's residence in Washington, Sept.10, local time, where high-ranking U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Colin Powell and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, were also present, instead attending a party celebrating the publication of a book by his wife, a professor at the Academy of Korean Studies.
• Taking On the Myth
  By PAUL KRUGMAN Published: September 14, 2004 On Sunday, a celebrating crowd gathered around a burning U.S. armored vehicle. Then a helicopter opened fire; a child and a journalist for an Arabic TV news channel were among those killed. Later, the channel repeatedly showed the journalist doubling over and screaming, "I'm dying; I'm dying." Such scenes, which enlarge the ranks of our enemies by making America look both weak and brutal, are inevitable in the guerrilla war President Bush got us into. Osama bin Laden must be smiling. U.S. news organizations are under constant pressure to report good news from Iraq. In fact, as a Newsweek headline puts it, "It's worse than you think." Attacks on coalition forces are intensifying and getting more effective; no-go zones, which the military prefers to call "insurgent enclaves," are spreading - even in Baghdad. We're losing ground. And the losses aren't only in Iraq. Al Qaeda has regrouped. The invasion of Iraq, intended to demonstrate American power, has done just the opposite: nasty regimes around the world feel empowered now that our forces are bogged down. When a Times reporter asked Mr. Bush about North Korea's ongoing nuclear program, "he opened his palms and shrugged." {Bush policy} [Partisan]
• U.S. bungling in North Korea
  The Boston Globe Thursday, September 16, 2004 From the beginning of his term, Bush has mishandled the challenge presented by North Korea
  And the United States was not duped. Under pressure from conservatives, Clinton was unable to live up to the U.S. part of the Framework Agreement
  Bush is responsible for this peril. Whoever wins in November must negotiate with the North Koreans, offering them the normalization and energy aid they need in return for placing their plutonium under seal and under inspection
• Cyanide shipment to North blocked
  An Assembly lawmaker said yesterday the United States recently stopped a shipment to North Korea of sodium cyanide, a chemical used in pesticide production but which can also be used to produce deadly sarin gas. The cyanide, produced in South Korea, was being transshipped through Thailand. Representative Park Sung-vum of the Grand National Party told the JoongAng Ilbo about Pyeongyang's failed attempt to obtain the sodium cyanide. "In April, a domestic chemical producer exported 773 tons of sodium cyanide to Thailand, but the government learned a month later that 142.4 tons of the material would be exported to North Korea from there," Mr. Park said. Sodium cyanide is also widely used to produce insecticides and in metal industries. [Sanctions]
• U.S. is sharing intelligence, LaPorte says
  Dismissing reports the United States is no longer sharing key intelligence with South Korea, General Leon LaPorte, the commander of the U.S.-South Korea Combined Forces Command, told local reporters yesterday that the two countries' exchange information on an "hourly" basis. The general's remarks came against the backdrop of mysterious explosions last week in North Korea about which little is publicly known. [Friction]
• N. Korea Tried to Import Toxic Chemical
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: September 18, 2004 Filed at 3:07 a.m. ET SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea stopped North Korea from acquiring 70 tons of sodium cyanide, a toxic chemical that can be used to make sarin nerve gas, news reports said Saturday. North Korea tried to import the chemical from Thailand in September last year before South Korea persuaded Bangkok to stop the shipment, the mass-circulation daily Chosun Ilbo quoted Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as telling a National Assembly hearing on Friday. The report could not immediately be confirmed. Sodium cyanide is normally used to make fertilizers and in industrial plating. [Sanctions]
• Suppression of religion in North draws U.S. fire
  The U.S. State Department has condemned North Korea for its continuing suppression of religious freedom and said some Christians have been used as subjects of biological weapons tests. The report was released Wednesday in Washington. Releasing the International Religious Freedom Report for 2004, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Burma, China, Iran, North Korea and Sudan have been singled out as countries that continue to violate their citizens' religious liberty. The North has been designated as a country of particular concern since 2001.
• US Dept of State: The International Religious Freedom Report for 2004
• High Vigilance against Reactionary Ideological and Cultural Infiltration Urged
  Pyongyang, September 14 (KCNA) -- The imperialists are extensively infiltrating reactionary ideas and culture into other countries by crafty means, vociferating that whatever is impossible to be solved by military threat and blackmail can be solved easily by cultural infiltration, hinging hopes on the "globalization" of culture, notes Rodong Sinmun Tuesday in a signed article. It says: The imperialists are trying to benumb the independent consciousness and revolutionary spirit of the popular masses and enervate them through the infiltration of reactionary ideas and culture into other countries: The U.S. imperialists are now bent on their moves to send midget radios and TV sets into the DPRK in an effort to break up the single-hearted unity there and degenerate and disintegrate it from within. This fact alone well shows how desperately they are running about with bloodshot eyes to destroy the DPRK, the bulwark of socialism. Out of the same motive, the U.S. imperialists are trying to send impure publications into the DPRK. [Subversion]
• What Bush Did Right on North Korea
  By RICHARD V. ALLEN Published: September 15, 2004 ashington - A fiery explosion in North Korea has set off an unhelpful debate in the American presidential campaign. Senator John Kerry, the Democratic nominee, has pointed to the blast, detected by satellite last week, as evidence that President Bush's approach to North Korea is a failure and risks causing "a nuclear nightmare." In fact, it is Mr. Kerry's rhetoric that is dangerous. The explosion, which caused no known deaths and did not appear to release any radiation, is obviously cause for concern. (Foreign diplomats are trying to get permission to visit the site.) The Bush administration's customary approach to North Korea, based on consultation with North Korea's neighbors and skepticism of its motives, is exactly what is necessary. In his criticism, Mr. Kerry said that in 2001 Mr. Bush "pulled the rug out from under Kim Dae Jung," then president of South Korea, by refusing to endorse Mr. Kim's policy of engagement with the North when the two presidents met. But Mr. Bush's policy was then and remains the result of careful consideration.
  Far from ignoring the North Korean threat, the Bush administration has succeeded in internationalizing the response to it. Through patient diplomacy, it has engaged China, Japan, Russia and South Korea in efforts to bring stability to the region. The involvement of China, in particular, is especially encouraging; although a longtime ally of North Korea, China has been generally helpful by facilitating and hosting the six-party talks. Mr. Kerry and others who insist that the administration does not have a North Korea policy are wrong. There is a policy - it's just one they don't like.
  Richard V. Allen, national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan, is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford and a member of the Defense Policy Board.
• Kerry Says Bush Has Ignored North Korean Threat
  By DAVID E. SANGER Published: September 13, 2004 .. WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 - Senator John Kerry on Sunday accused the Bush administration of letting "a nuclear nightmare" develop by refusing to deal with North Korea when it first came to office. In an interview, he argued that President Bush's preoccupation with Iraq let the North Korean crisis fester to the point that there were now indications that the country might be preparing to test a plutonium bomb. He presented his charges in a 15-minute telephone call he made to The New York Times.
  Mr. Kerry argued that it was the Bush administration's refusal to follow Mr. Powell's advice in March 2001 and continue the Clinton administration's direct diplomacy with North Korea that created the conditions for the current crisis. Mr. Kerry has said for months that the United States must deal directly with the North Korean government - just as it dealt directly with Khrushchev during the Cuban missile crisis, and directly with China as it became a nuclear power in the 1960's. "The week that Colin Powell stood up and said we are going to continue the dialogue with the North Koreans, I said, 'Good,' " Mr. Kerry said, recalling what, in retrospect, was the first major foreign policy split in the administration, months before the Sept. 11 attacks. "And two days later when George Bush pulled the rug out from under Kim Dae Jung when he was in the Oval Office, and sent him back both embarrassed and bewildered to South Korea, I said that was both dangerous and the wrong direction for this issue and America." At the time, Mr. Kim was South Korea's president, and the failure of that meeting resulted in more than a year of paralysis in negotiations with North Korea, as hawks in the Pentagon and the vice president's office argued that the country should be pushed to the point of collapse, and the State Department insisted that only diplomacy would work. Mr. Bush ultimately decided to set up negotiations involving North Korea's neighbors, contending that they had the most to lose from a nuclear North Korea. Mr. Kerry argued Sunday that those talks, which so far have yielded no result, "have been basically a cover." "If you want to make them work, that's one thing," he said. "But they haven't made it work, they haven't put anything real on the table."
• U.S. "North Korean Human Rights Act" Rejected
  Pyongyang, September 10 (KCNA) -- Korean residents in the United States inaugurated a joint measure committee against "the North Korean Human Rights Act" on September 1, according to Minjok Thongsin, a U.S. Internet homepage. The committee is made up of personages from political, academic, press, art, labour and religious circles and reunification movement organizations.
• Grim reminder
  Police added armored vehicles to their security detail around the U.S. Embassy in Seoul on the eve of the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
• U.S. apologizes for 'slip'
  U.S. National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, has apologized for President George W. Bush's omission of South Korea as ally in the war against terror, in his nomination acceptance speech at the last week's Republican Convention held in New York. Ms. Rice called Kwon Chin-ho, the South Korean presidential adviser for national security, on Thursday evening. She said that the omission was unintentional and that the United States values highly South Korea's contribution of soldiers in Iraq. [Friction]
• Alleged U.S. Deserter Jenkins Surrenders
  By Eric Talmadge Associated Press Friday, September 10, 2004; 11:55 PM CAMP ZAMA, Japan -- Saluting and standing at attention, accused U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins surrendered to U.S. military authorities Saturday to face charges that he left his army unit in 1965 and defected to North Korea. Jenkins, 64, turned himself in at the U.S. Army's Camp Zama accompanied by his Japanese wife and two daughters, taking a major step toward settling a diplomatic quandary between Washington and Tokyo.
• Seoul Tries Hard to Keep Its 'Sunshine Policy' Free of Clouds
  By JAMES BROOKE Published: September 6, 2004 Jae-hyun Seok for The New York Times Kim Duk Hong, a North Korean defector, is unsettling Seoul.
  SEOUL, South Korea, Sept. 4 - Kim Duk Hong had just received his second death threat in two months: a plastic bag containing two vials of poison, an eight-inch knife and a letter accusing him of forming "a tricky anti-North Korea association." It warned: "Now, the time is coming to pay for your sins." Professing fears for his safety, South Korean security officials declined last month, once again, to issue a passport to Mr. Kim, one of the highest-ranking North Korean defectors. Officials said it would be too dangerous to allow Mr. Kim to travel to Washington to testify before a United States Senate committee. "We need to consider his personal safety, and unless the U.S. pledges to be responsible for his safety, it is rather dangerous," said a South Korean security agency spokesman, who asked not to be identified. Referring to the 14-month stall of what is normally a one-week process, the official said, "Concern for his safety is the only reason his passport issuance is being delayed." The real danger, of course, is that Mr. Kim might irritate North Korea [Friction]
• DPRK Compelled to Take Every Possible Measure for Self-Defence
  Pyongyang, August 31 (KCNA) -- The U.S. bellicose forces are now repeating their hackneyed fiction of "threat from the north" in a bid to cover up their ambition to invade the DPRK. They have gone the lengths of impudently asserting that even the reduction of U.S. troops in south Korea as part of "redeployment of U.S. forces" would not result in weakening "the deterrent against north Korea" and any misjudgment would prove a serious blunder
• U.S. "Human Rights" Offensive Assailed
  Pyongyang, September 3 (KCNA) -- The United States is slandering the DPRK over a fictitious "human rights issue," exploiting this issue as one of the important levers of its aggressive external policy for global domination. What it seeks in this is to find a pretext to launch aggression on the DPRK which is situated at a prominent strategic vantage. Rodong Sinmun today says this in a signed article, which reads in part: The adoption of the "act on human rights in north Korea" at the U.S. House of Representatives was a very grave provocation aimed at isolating and stifling the DPRK. The United States intends to bring to greater intensity its pressure to bear upon the DPRK by turning the fictitious "human rights issue" of the latter into a political and international problem and, furthermore, stifle it by force of arms. What the United States is after is to render its confrontation with the DPRK more acute with the "human rights" offensive against the latter and, moreover, light the fuse of a war. Trying to find a pretext for a war, it is whipping itself into frenzy in its massive war games, with vast aggression forces amassed in and around south Korea. The "human rights issue" is what it brings forward for this purpose. Nobody can vouch that the United States, the robber who stoops to any infamy by placing its domestic law above international law, would not launch into an armed intervention against the DPRK any time by brandishing the "act on human rights in north Korea."
• Butler criticises government over 'thin' evidence for WMD
  Richard Norton-Taylor Wednesday September 8, 2004 The Guardian The government failed to make clear that the evidence that Saddam Hussein had concealed weapons of mass destruction was "very thin", Lord Butler, who headed the inquiry into the intelligence failings, said yesterday.
  Britain and the US could end up going to war against Iran and North Korea by making "too much noise" about weapons of mass destruction, Hans Blix said last night. The former UN chief weapons inspector warned MPs at a private meeting that a doctrine of military "pre-emption" combined with weak intelligence could end up with both countries entering fresh wars.
• 'Deserter' to give himself up
  Justin McCurry in Tokyo Thursday September 2, 2004 The Guardian
  Charles Jenkins, 64, an American soldier accused of defecting to North Korea nearly 40 years ago, said yesterday he would soon give himself up to US military authorities. "I will soon voluntarily face the charges that have been filed against me by the US army," he said in a statement from Japan, where he now lives with his Japanese wife and two daughters. Desertion carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, but Mr Jenkins is reportedly hoping for a plea bargain. Officials in Washington are eager to pursue his case, but the Japanese government has an interest in keeping him out of prison.
• Bush and Blair: four more years may bring wide rifts on the Middle East and Cuba
  Simon Tisdall Tuesday August 31, 2004 The Guardian
  But another body of US opinion, typified by Joseph Nye of Harvard, holds that recent experience - not least the chastening lessons of Iraq - are already pushing Mr Bush back toward a more traditional, consensus-based approach. . Professor Nye suggests that a second term would see greater US emphasis on allies and institutions and a search for negotiated, rather than military, solutions in places like North Korea.
• Bush's Omission Not a Sign of Weakening Alliance: US
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter The United States has dismissed suggestions that President George W. Bush's omission of South Korea from a salute to allies at the Republican convention last week is indicative of a deterioration in relations between Seoul and Washington. Ban Ki-moon, minister of foreign affairs and trade, said Wednesday that U.S. officials have repeatedly reassured the South Korean government that the exclusion has no bearing on Washington's perception of the two nations' half- century-old alliance.
  Bush, delivering an acceptance speech after his nomination to run for reelection, neglected to mention South Korea when naming eight countries that had contributed to the U.S.-led coalition's campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• America right or wrong
  Three years on from 9/11, what has America learned about the world - and itself? The wrong lessons, argues Anatol Lieven in "America Right or Wrong". The Bush administration responded to 9/11 in the name of American Nationalism. Today, its deeply rooted attitudes combine fundamentalist religious sentiment, belief in American "exceptionalism", chauvinist contempt for other peoples, and embittered suspicion of the modern world as well as a love of its democratic creed Anatol Lieven 8 - 9 - 2004 The Bush administration responded to 9/11 by exploiting a force deeply rooted in United States thinking and behaviour: American nationalism. This force, says Anatol Lieven in an extract from his new book America Right or wrong, is now deforming the country's relationship with the world and damaging America itself.
  The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 were an atrocious assault on the American homeland. Any United States administration would have had to respond to them by seeking to destroy the perpetrators. The war to destroy the al-Qaida forces in Afghanistan and their Taliban backers was therefore a completely legitimate response to "9/11", as are US actions against al-Qaida and its allies elsewhere. What the George W Bush administration did, however, was to instil in the American public a fear of much wider threats to the homeland - from Iraq, Iran and North Korea. These states had no connection to al-Qaida. By acting thus, the administration created a belief that anything America does is essentially defensive and a response to "terrorism".

• U.S. Urged to Stop Reckless Sabre-rattling
  Pyongyang, August 26 (KCNA) -- There is an increasing danger of a war on the Korean peninsula today and with no sweet words can the U.S. bellicose forces cover up the true nature and danger of their criminal policy to invade the DPRK and deceive the world, says Rodong Sinmun Thursday in a signed article. Referring to the fact that the U.S. imperialists are staging madcap war exercises such as RIMPAC 2004 and Ulji Focus Lens-04 joint military exercises for the purpose of rounding off preparations for multi-national forces' military actions during the Korean war after turning the area around the Korean peninsula into assembly area for their forces and forward operational base, the article continues: [Joint US military]
• Militants Eyeing Seaborne Attack, U.S General Says
  By REUTERS Published: August 25, 2004 Filed at 10:28 p.m. ET COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Reuters) - It is ``only a matter of time'' before militants try to launch a seaborne attack on the United States, but threats of terrorism are greater abroad because they are avoiding hardened U.S. targets, a senior U.S. military official said on Wednesday. General Ralph ``Ed'' Eberhart, who as head of the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) is responsible for defending U.S. land, sea and air, also said North Korea posed the greatest threat to the United States of any country -- as opposed to non-state actors such as al Qaeda -- even as Washington tries to negotiate with Pyongyang. Eberhart, who is also head of the U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), said the danger of a seaborne attack was one reason why he advocated a modification of NORAD's bi-national mission to include the seas as well as the skies. ``I believe it's just a matter of time
• Horace H. Underwood, right, shakes hands with Yonsei University president Jung Chang-young
  at Jung's office in July after he delivered a letter of his intention to donate Korea-related books and other materials to the university. Underwood's family will leave Korea for the United States in late November.
• 1,000 U.S. Marines reported on way here
  As part of U.S. plans to relocate forces from Japan's island of Okinawa, about 1,000 U.S. Marines will be sent to South Korea, a Japanese news wire said yesterday, quoting unidentified U.S. and Japanese sources. The United States plans to relocate 2,600 Marines in Okinawa to other parts of Japan starting in 2008, the Kyodo News Agency said. The 3rd Marine Division will reduce the number of its troops in Okinawa, who have been the target of frequent complaints from locals, by sending 2,190 of them to South Korea, the Philippines and other parts of Asia for training and other purposes by 2008, the news report said.
• SK Lawmakers Decry NK Human Rights Act
  A 100-signature declaration will be sent to Washington in advance of the Senate's September reading South Korean politicians from the ruling Uri Party issued a statement last week stressing that a piece of legislation called the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, which was passed unanimously in the U.S. House of Representatives on July 21, may have dire consequences for peace on the Korean peninsula. "It is possible that the North Korean Human Rights Act will increase tensions on the Korean peninsula and we are petitioning Korean Assembly members to express their opposition to the bill by signing a policy declaration which we will send to the U.S. Senate," said Uri Party member Jeong Bong Ju. "We are seeking a minimum of 100 Assembly member's signatures by August 24 and the Korean Embassy will translate it into English and pass it on to the U.S. Senate." [human rights]
• Military Drill Announced in S. Korea
  Pyongyang, August 23 (KCNA) -- The metropolitan defense command of the south Korean army announced that a military drill codenamed "Hwarang" involving civilians, government officials and army would be staged from Aug. 23 to 27, according to south Korean MBC. As a part of the exercise, "a drill to cope with terrorism using chemical and biological weapons" is expected around the Socho District Office and Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul on Aug. 25 with a chemical battalion under the command, police and firemen participating. The south Korean warhawks are seeking to foster the atmosphere of confrontation with the new war drill coinciding with the start of the "Ulji Focus Lens-04" joint military exercises by the U.S. imperialists. [joint US military]
• Joint ROK-US Military Drills Begin
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter South Korean and U.S. troops began their annual joint military exercise on Monday amid rising tension over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, Defense Ministry officials in Seoul said. The two allies started the 12-day Ulchi Focus Lens war game as part of efforts to strengthen their readiness for a possible conflict on the Korean peninsula, the officials said. The exercise involves no field training, but North Korea has labeled it a rehearsal to launch a preemptive attack on the communist state. [joint US military]
• Blustery and Unfunny Goings-On in Kim Jong Il's North Korea
  By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN Published: August 24, 2004 double feature about North Korea appears tonight on the History Channel. The films are inescapably camp. For all their solemn warnings that Kim Jong Il has America in his nuclear sights and we'd better get ready, it's hard not to be distracted by Kim's batty dictator pomp and the sweeping film of his old Busby Berkeley stadium spectacle, staged in 2000 for Madeleine K. Albright, then the Secretary of State, in which thousands of majorettes in feathers came to resemble a stadium-sized garden of multicolored human poppies, rippled by a perfect breeze. The nation's songs, too, are always diverting. "We are children of the Great Leader/ Let's beat the hateful Yankees." And a classic: "Shoot, shoot, shoot well/ Let's hit the chest of every Yankee." But seriously, how should we take North Korean bluster? The propaganda is fruity, but it's not entirely laughable. And it's not informative, either. Its resemblance to past fascist and Communist display should not lead us to conclude that we know what it augurs. Wisely, then, these two decent movies don't force the propaganda scenes - or the routine complaints about how hard it is to penetrate North Korea - to tell the whole story. "Inside North Korea" instead risks pedantry in supplying ordinary details of North Korean existence, lives spent without electricity, fuel, mobility, medicine, education, information or sufficient food. And "The Real Dr. Evil" endeavors to gauge whether it's possible to negotiate with Kim Jong Il. In 1995, when floods left half a million North Koreans homeless, Mr. Kim's government encouraged people to eat grass. Some turned to tree bark, according to "Inside North Korea"; others to cannibalism. Norbert Vollertsen, a German doctor who went into the country as part of a rare relief mission in 1999, reports that he found no working hospitals in North Korea. He could do little to improve medical infrastructure, but he made detailed notes about what he saw, and "Inside North Korea" relies on his descriptions. [Human rights] [Media] [Black]
• Joint ROK-US Military Drills Begin
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter South Korean and U.S. troops began their annual joint military exercise on Monday amid rising tension over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, Defense Ministry officials in Seoul said.[Joint US military]
• Playing Politics With Security
  By Jim Hoagland
  Sunday, August 22, 2004; Page B07 John Kerry and his newly militaristic Democrats are running to the right of George W. Bush on national security policy and enjoying some success in that unlikely enterprise. They are wresting political advantage from Bush by painting him as the candidate who is playing politics with security.
  The Pentagon's most painful problem in real life is not Moqtada Sadr or Kim Jong Il. It is closing any military base in Congressman X's district. Abandoning bases abroad is, by comparison, a piece of cake.
• U.S. tells Korea early force cut won't change
  The United States has rebuffed an appeal from South Korea to delay the forthcoming withdrawal of a third of U.S. troops from the peninsula, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.
• FM Spokesman Assails North-Targeted Military Exercise
  Pyongyang, August 20 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK issued a statement Friday in connection with the "south Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command's" announcement that Ulji-Focus Lens-04 joint military exercise would be staged from August 23 to September 3. The projected exercise is another grave challenge to peace and security on the Korean peninsula as it is a replica of the Team Spirit joint military exercises aimed to examine and improve all aspects of the preparations for a war of aggression against the north, the statement noted, and continued: [Joint US military]
• U.S. Plans to Deploy One More Air Force Unit in South Korea
  Pyongyang, August 19 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists are contemplating to deploy one home-based F-15E fighter squadron of the U.S. Air Force in south Korea, according to south Korean KBS. It will reportedly fly to south Korea next month to familiarize itself with the geographical features of the Korean peninsula and increase the capacity of flying missions in the event of contingency. The U.S. imperialists recently worked out the new "operation plan 5027-04" and, to carry it into effect, are going through the motion of military "cutback" while steadily reinforcing their forces in south Korea with modern war tools and getting more feverish in the war moves.
• Seoul Asks Washington to Delay Troop Cut
  By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter South Korea on Thursday asked the United States to delay its troop reduction on the Korean peninsula by more than a year and keep its key combat forces and heavy weaponry systems here, according to the National Defense Ministry. ``We called for the postponement of the U.S. plan to slash its troops by more than one year or until when we complete our self-reliance defense posture,'' said a Defense Ministry official on the first day of the two-day military talks held in Seoul.
• North Korea Is Reaching Out, and World Is Reaching Back
  By NORIMITSU ONISHI Published: August 20, 2004 EOUL, South Korea, Aug. 15- Even as the Bush administration has worked to isolate North Korea in a campaign to make it drop its nuclear program, Asian and European governments have been actively engaging it on diplomatic, cultural and economic levels. Now, with the pace of engagement quickening, it is the administration that risks becoming isolated, experts say, a possible factor in a recent moderation in its stance. A country famous for its hermetic borders, North Korea now has embassies in 41 countries and diplomatic ties with 155. It recently held the first-ever military talks with its former archenemy, South Korea, and is moving toward normalizing diplomatic relations with its former colonizer, Japan. North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, a hard-core Communist who has begun tilting his country toward a market economy, extolled the virtues of profit during a visit in June to a North Korean factory. South Korean businesses will start operating this year in an industrial park in the North that by 2006 is expected to employ 30,000 North Korean workers.
• A Better Defense
  By Charles KrauthammerFriday, August 20, 2004; Page A19 For 60 years, American troops in the tens of thousands have been sitting in Germany essentially where Eisenhower left them at the end of World War II. For 50 years, American troops in the tens of thousands have been sitting where Matthew Ridgway left them at the end of the Korean War. For three years, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been making plans to undo this colossal idiocy.
  Critics are particularly vociferous about drawing down 12,500 of our troops in South Korea. We all know what our troops are doing there. They are intended to be sitting ducks. Thirty-seven thousand Americans are not going to repel a million-man North Korean army. Their purpose is to die in the first hours of a North Korean invasion -- setting off a tripwire that forces the United States to enter the war. This invitation to suicide might have made sense when South Korea was weak, impoverished and war-ravaged. Today it is an industrialized tiger with a large and superbly equipped army. It makes far more sense to redeploy these troops to where they are really needed -- to support weak, impoverished and war-ravaged countries in the Middle East whose governments cannot yet carry the burden of their own defense. John Kerry claims that withdrawing troops will send "the wrong signal" in a confrontation with North Korea over its nuclear weapons. Where was he when the Clinton administration sent a signal of abject surrender to the North Koreans by offering two shiny new nuclear reactors, oil shipments and all kinds of diplomatic goodies in return for a paper promise to freeze their nuclear program -- which they now brazenly and proudly claim to have broken long ago?
• A Smarter Way to Use Our Troops
  By Douglas J. Feith
  Thursday, August 19, 2004; Page A25 The new U.S. global force posture President Bush announced on Monday will strengthen our military, invigorate U.S. alliances and improve the lives of our military personnel.
  The changes in U.S. deployments in East Asia also have a compelling rationale. South Korea, for example, has burgeoned over the past 50 years. Thanks in part to our alliance, it is a strong, democratic and wealthy power, a far more capable ally than it was during and just after the Korean War. To bolster deterrence and keep our alliance vital, we are updating the allocation of responsibilities. We are plucking a thorn out of South Korea's flesh by moving a U.S. headquarters out of downtown Seoul. We are shifting U.S. forces southward on the Korean Peninsula, beyond the range of North Korean artillery, and consolidating them efficiently into hubs. We are increasing our naval and air power in the region and moving high-tech ground capability to South Korea.
  All of this means we will have greater capability to deal with threats in the region, from North Korea or anyone else, even as we shift some troops from Korea back home. Our Korean allies appreciate the wisdom of updating our arrangements. They know it is the key to sustaining the alliance for the next 50 years.
  The writer is the undersecretary of defense for policy.
• Foreign Policy
  Peter SlevinWashington Post Staff Writer_ Thursday, August 19, 2004; 12:00 PM Washington Post foreign policy reporter Peter Slevin comes to the Web to discuss the latest developments in U.S. foreign policy, from the State Department to the front lines in Iraq. Join Slevin every Thursday to discuss the diverse factors that shape U.S. foreign policy and how they impact our lives and the world.
  Arlington, Va.: Mr. Slevin, This morning the Deputy National Security Advisor stated on CNN that he believed the security situation on the Korean Peninnsula would remain unchanged with the announcement of a phased American troop reduction, saying he believed North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il "knows the difference between numbers and capability." This seems to credit Kim with a level of rational calculation in terms of his ability to accomplish political objectives on the Peninnsula through force that the Administration previously has seemed to deny when justifying dealing with North Korea on nuclear issues and in justifying National Missile Defense. How does the Administration view the true nature of the threat from North Korea in an operational sense, given this coflicted view of their rationality? Do they believe the greater danger is a conventional conflict, a nuclear exchange, or are they looking to cover all the bases? Peter Slevin: That's a lot of intriguing questions in one. I think the point about capability is that the United States could bring an awful lot of force to bear on North Korea in a very short amount of time, even with the withdrawals. _ _ Much of the analysis about the mercurial Kim Jong Il is guesswork, but suffice it to say that no one would bet the ranch on feeling certain about what he will do. The Americans, and the DPRK's jittery neighbors, are banking on the simple concept of deterrence to keep him from attacking with the forces, nuclear and conventional, that he could likely mobilize.
• U.S. "Operation Plan 5027-04" under Fire
  Pyongyang, August 18 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists are these days making desperate efforts to put into practice the new "operation plan 5027-04" they worked out in conspiracy with the south Korean military. This is a perfect and detailed version of the "operation plan 5027", a scenario for a war of aggression against the DPRK. Its main aim is to use the U.S. Third Armored Army Corps as an overseas reinforcement unit, conduct an "operation for destabilizing the rear of the DPRK" through joint air strikes by the U.S. forces in south Korea and the south Korean army, start a "full-dress northward expedition" in particular and "siege and occupy Pyongyang".
• Last Surviving US Defector to North Korea Speaks Out
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter At the height of the Cold War in the early 1960s, four young U.S. soldiers disappeared from their units in South Korea and crossed the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) into North Korea. Two of the men later died of natural causes in the North. A third _ 64-year-old Charles Jenkins _ was allowed to leave Pyongyang last month to be reunited with his Japanese wife, an abductee who was released to her homeland two years earlier. The ailing Jenkins now may face U.S. court martial for desertion. However, the fate of the fourth man, Private James Dresnok, was uncertain until Monday when two British filmmakers announced they had found him living happily in the North Korean capital and plan to make a documentary about his life
• Kerry aides rap Bush on troop cut in Korea
  Top Democratic Party advisers in the United States criticized the Bush administration yesterday over its plan to realign U.S. military posture around the world, expressing particular concern over the coming reductions of American troops on the Korean Peninsula.
• 'It makes little long-term strategic sense'
  Observers examine the reasons for the redeployment Wednesday August 18, 2004 The Guardian New York Times Editorial, August 17 "The troop redeployment plan announced [on Monday] by George Bush makes little long-term strategic sense. Mr Bush [said] that over the next 10 years, about 60,000 to 70,000 uniformed troops, would be transferred from bases and other military installations in Europe and Asia to the US. "The Bush administration justifies [this] by pointing to fundamental changes in the geography of threats since the end of the cold war. In Asia, however, that geography has not changed all that much. Washington has inexplicably granted Pyongyang something it has long coveted - a reduction in American troop levels - instead of building those reductions into a bargaining proposal requiring constructive North Korean moves in return." Washington Post Editorial, August 17 "[The redeployment plan] is a particularly bad idea in Asia. North Korea has pressed for US troop withdrawals for years; now that it is misbehaving in the nuclear field, it receives a reward, and for no concessions. China is increasingly throwing its weight around south- east Asia.
• Ulji Focus Lens-04 Flailed
  Pyongyang, August 17 (KCNA) -- The Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland Monday issued information bulletin No. 881 as regards the Ulji Focus Lens- 04 joint military exercise to be staged by the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean war hawks. The secretariat in the information bulletin bitterly denounced the projected saber- rattling in the name of the whole nation as it is a vicious challenge to the patient efforts of the peace-loving DPRK and an unpardonable criminal act of going against the aspiration and desire of all the Korean people and the world people for peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula. [Joint US military]
• KCNA Refutes Report on Drug Smuggling
  Pyongyang, August 17 (KCNA) -- The U.S. Congressional Research Service recently released a report what it called "Drug smuggling and north Korea". In the report the Bush administration groundlessly pulled up the DPRK, saying that it has become a state policy to cultivate opium in the DPRK, it conspires with criminal organizations in countries around it for drug smuggling and that it has doubled the drug production and its smuggling.
• ROK, US to Finalize Troop Cut Plan
  By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter South Korea and the United States will hold negotiations starting Thursday on a U.S. proposal to slash its troops here by one-third by the end of 2005, the Ministry of National Defense said Wednesday.
• Any Mode of War Does Not Work on DPRK
  Pyongyang, August 16 (KCNA) -- The "operation plan 5027-04", a new war scenario projected by the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean military against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is evoking surging indignation on the part of the Korean people. Vice Chairman of the State Planning Commission Ri Sung Ho told KCNA that the new operation plan, aimed to "encircle and occupy Pyongyang", is an extremely adventurous and dangerous war scenario that reveals their plot to mount a preemptive attack against the DPRK
• Seoul Dismisses Concerns Over US Troop Pullout
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter Seoul has dismissed fears of a security vacuum on the Korean peninsula after U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday confirmed his plan to withdraw 70,000 U.S. troops from around Europe and Asia, including 12,500 stationed in South Korea.
• Last U.S. Defector in N. Korea Said Found
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: August 15, 2004 Filed at 5:01 p.m. ET BEIJING (AP) -- A British film crew says it has found the last American defector still living in North Korea -- an Army private who crossed over to the Stalinist state in 1962 and says he is glad he did. Pvt. James Dresnok lives in the capital, Pyongyang, where he says he likes his ``simple life,'' said filmmaker Nicholas Bonner, who met him there in May and plans to make a documentary about him. The U.S. military has said that Dresnok, from Richmond, Va., left the Army in August 1962 at age 21. ``To us he's the most fascinating character because he's still there,'' Bonner said Sunday.
• Koreans Urged to Leave Iraq
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter The South Korean Embassy in Iraq on Thursday strongly urged its citizens there to leave the war-torn nation immediately, citing the worsening security conditions. ``The security situation here in Baghdad has been deteriorating rapidly in recent days,'' the embassy said in a notice posted on its Web site, recommending South Korean nationals in Iraq to leave for another country.
• Projected Ulji Focus Lens-04 under Fire
  Pyongyang, August 11 (KCNA) -- The Ulji Focus Lens-04 joint military exercise the United States and south Korea plan to stage from August 23 to September 3 come under fire in a signed commentary of Rodong Sinmun Wednesday. The exercise will draw at least 13,000 U.S. troops stationed in south Korea and south Korean troops and more than 6,000 U.S. troops stationed overseas. Dismissing the exercise as a serious military provocation against the DPRK and an intolerable challenge to the Korean nation aspiring after independent reunification, the commentary goes on: [Joint US military]
• Remarks of Spokesman for U.S. State Department under Fire
  Pyongyang, August 9 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the U.S. State Department recently cried that the U.S. had not withdrawn from the table the option including the use of strength, which was contradictory to the loud-mouthed words the U.S. is letting out to disguise itself as willing to solve peacefully the nuclear issue between it and the DPRK. Commenting on this, a news analyst of Rodong Sinmun today says: We cannot but take a serious view of the remarks, considering they were uttered by an official figure speaking for the intention and stand of the U.S.
• "Ulji Focus Lens 04" Joint Maneuver Announced
  Pyongyang, August 6 (KCNA) -- The south Korea- U.S. "Combined Forces Command" on August 4 announced that the "Ulji Focus Lens 04" joint military drill would be staged, according to foreign press reports. Units of the U.S. forces present in south Korea, south Korean army and some units of the U.S. forces overseas will take part in the war game covering the period from August 23 to September 3, which is aimed at "assessing and improving the performance of the joint action." The U.S. is bent on extremely reckless and dangerous military exercises to plunge the Korean peninsula into a nuclear holocaust, while maliciously pursuing a hostile policy towards the DPRK. [Joint US military]
• Yang Hyong Sop Meets U.S. Figure
  Pyongyang, August 6 (KCNA) -- Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, met and conversed with Donald Greg, president of the Korea Associated of the United States who is former U.S. ambassador to south Korea, at the Mansudae Assembly Hall Friday. (sic)
  ( Donald Gregg, President of the Korea Society)
• KCNA Report on Dangerous Reorganization and Redeployment of U.S. Forces
  Pyongyang, August 5 (KCNA) -- The Korean Central News Agency Wednesday released a detailed report laying bare the danger of the reorganization and redeployment of the U.S. forces in different parts of the world. The report cited concrete facts to prove that the U.S. plan for reorganization and redeployment is aimed at making a fresh forward-deployment of its troops as required by its military operation to dominate the whole world in the 21st century.
• Letter of Rep. of KPA Panmunjom Mission Distributed as Official Doc. of UNSC
  Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- A letter from the representative of the Panmunjom Mission of the Korean People's Army to the secretary general of the United Nations was distributed as official document No. S/2004/592 of the UN Security Council on July 30. The letter dated July 22 is related to the fact that a touch-and-go war danger has been created on the Korean peninsula by the on-going massive arms buildup of the United States in south Korea.
• Korean Missile Said to Advance; U.S. Is Unworried
  By THOM SHANKER Published: August 5, 2004 ASHINGTON, Aug. 4 - North Korea appears closer to deploying a new mobile ballistic missile that is a worrisome increase in that nation's military capacity, but American government officials stressed Wednesday that the weapon could not reach the continental United States. The new missile is based on designs of a Soviet- era submarine-launched weapon, known in the West as the SSN6, which has an estimated maximum range of just over 2,600 miles. American officials first disclosed North Korea's efforts to develop the variant of the Soviet missile in September 2003.
  Fresh reports of North Korea's readiness to deploy the missile appeared in Wednesday's editions of Jane's Defense Weekly. North Korea does not have a submarine capable of carrying the missile to within striking range of the continental United States. Officials also expressed doubts that the North Korean government had developed the missile for the purpose of hiding it inside freighters to be sailed closer to this nation's shores for launch. "There is no way this can hit the mainland,'' an American government official said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Even so, the missile's development raises questions about whether Russian or other scientists had helped develop the missile for North Korea, which has a troubling history of selling its military technology on the black market. The new missile, if launched from North Korean soil, would be able to put American forces on Guam and Okinawa at risk. North Korea has already demonstrated the capability to fire ballistic missiles that can reach across South Korea and Japan. Reports of North Korean progress in developing the missile appeared in the South Korean press this past May, including articles that predicted that about 10 of the missiles and their mobile launchers would be ready by September to coincide with a North Korean national holiday.
• Protests Against Additional Troop Dispatch to Iraq Grow in S. Korea
  The murder of Kim Sun Il, a South Korean translator, by a jihadist armed group in Iraq on June 22, shocked the South Korean public. Then came a United States Senate Intelligence Committee's report which said that incorrect information was provided to the Bush administration in the run-up to the Iraq war. The both events added fuel to the flame of anti-Americanism that has lingered long ever since the June 2002 killings of two young school girls by a U.S. armored vehicle, causing stronger popular protests against Seoul's decision to dispatch an additional 3,600-strong contingent to Iraq, the first batch of which is going to be sent there early August.
• DPRK UN Envoys Participate in Forum for Korean Peace Held in Washington
  A "Forum for the Peace and Security of the Korean Peninsula" was held on Capitol Hill, Washington D.C., on July 20 sponsored by the National Association of Korean-Americans (NAKA), the Korea Society and the National Committee for Peace in Korea (NCPK). Pak Kil Yon, DPRK ambassador to the United Nations (UN), and Han Song Ryol, DPRK
• Remains of US Soldiers to Return From North
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter Remains of two U.S. soldiers killed in the North during the Korean War will be delivered to the United Nations Command on Thursday, through Panmunjom, the command said Tuesday.[MIA]
• Protesters say Iraq dispatch is under way
  Convinced the country has begun secretly deploying additional troops to Iraq, hundreds of anti-war activists, students and legislators clashed yesterday with the riot police near the Blue House. Some 500 protesters gathered in the neighborhood of the Blue House yesterday morning after mounting overnight demonstrations in front of a military training center and a military airport in Seongnam on the outskirts of Seoul. Before scuffling with riot police, the protesters held a news conference to denounce the Roh administration for sending more troops.
• Cheong Wa Dae cancels 'Fahrenheit 9/11' screening
  Cheong Wa Dae reportedly canceled a plan to screen "Fahrenheit 9/11," Michael Moore's critical documentary of U.S. President George W. Bush, for President Roh Moo-hyun and other top officials. The presidential chief of staff and senior advisers decided it was not an appropriate time to see the movie, the Chosun Ulbo reported yesterday. Roh did not know about the screening, planned for Monday, and in any case started his summer vacation the same day. A presidential official was quoted as saying that the film was sent back Monday afternoon to Studio Plus, importer and distributor of the film in Korea. The studio said it was asked July 30 to deliver a copy of the film and did so Monday. The film was screened July 19 at the National Assembly hall in a showing organized by Democratic Labor Party two days before it went public at dozens of Korean movie houses, where it has drawn sell-out audiences.
• North Korean Official To Attend N.Y. Seminar
  Trip Builds on Contacts With the U.S. By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, August 3, 2004; Page A12 A senior North Korean official who threatened last year that North Korea might test a nuclear weapon will attend a foreign policy seminar next week in New York, allowing him to cross paths with U.S. officials attending the same meeting, diplomats said. This is the second year in a row that Li Gun, deputy head of U.S. affairs at North Korea's Foreign Ministry, will attend the meeting of scholars and experts hosted by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, a nonpartisan organization that focuses on resolving conflicts that threaten U.S. interests. Li's trip to New York follows a rare visit to Capitol Hill last month by the North Korean ambassador to the United Nations and other signs that the Bush administration's resolve to avoid bilateral meetings with the North Korea could be weakening. Because North Korea and the United States do not have diplomatic relations, travel by North Korean diplomats in the United States requires permission from the State Department. Donald S. Zagoria, a professor at Hunter College in New York who helped organize the meeting, said Li was invited to attend the conference Aug. 10-11.
• U.S. Dangerous Arms Build-up under Fire
  Pyongyang, August 2 (KCNA) -- It was reported that the United States would soon deploy a new carrier flotilla made up of nuclear-powered submarines centred on the latest type nuclear- powered carrier "John Stenis" and different types of warships including Aegis destroyer around the Korean peninsula. Minju Joson Sunday in a signed commentary termed this a dangerous arms buildup to mount a preemptive strike at the DPRK as it is aimed to cope with the "emergency" on the Korean peninsula
• U.S.-led Coalition Forces on Eve of Collapse - KCNA News Analyst's Article -
  Pyongyang, July 30 (KCNA) -- As already reported, the Philippines finished the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq on July 19. It brought to five those nations which completed the pullback of their troops from Iraq. Spain, Honduras, Nicaragua and Dominica already withdrew their troops from the country. After occupying Iraq in April last year, the U.S. had suffered from a shortage of forces. So it could not but entreat the United Nations for support. It raised a "compromise proposal" for replacing the U.S.-led occupation forces with multinational forces for the stability of Iraq and letting the United Nations play a leading role in the Iraqi issue and had it adopted by a narrow margin as a resolution of the UN Security Council in last October. With anti-U.S. and anti-war sentiments growing stronger in the world, Spain announced its decision on its troop pullback from Iraq on April 18, prompting other nations to withdraw or reduce their troops from the country. According to the Washington Post July 15, Estonia, New Zealand, Norway and Thailand are now planning to get their troops out of Iraq.
  It is the view of foreign media that the coalition forces are now on the eve of collapse. The situation is a result of the Bush Administration's unilateral policy of aggression

• Celebrities Join Anti-War Drive
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter A number of celebrities, including Cannes award-winning director Park Chan-wook, are to support a hunger strike led by the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) to block the government's plan to dispatch additional troops to Iraq.
• Seoul details U.S. plan to cut forces
  The United States has told South Korean officials it plans to pull out half of the 15,000 U.S. troops who have been guarding the western corridor of the Korean Peninsula for the past half century, officials in Seoul told the JoongAng Ilbo yesterday. Discussing last week's defense talks at the Pentagon, South Korean government officials said the U.S. military is planning cuts in weapons capability. Of the 37,000 U.S. troops stationed on the peninsula, 12,500 will be pulled out by 2005, the United States has said. Up until now, no details had been made public about the make-up of the departing troops.
• KCNA Assails U.S. Attempt to Control Major World Sea Routes
  Pyongyang, July 28 (KCNA) -- The United States is contemplating staging the largest ever joint military exercise in coming November with 14 member nations of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) in the Caribbean Sea involved. This is a dangerous move for hideous piracy as it is intended to internationalize the PSI, part of its plan to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by inputting several countries into the initiative, rake up economic profits by putting major world sea routes under its control and blockade those countries which incur its displeasure.
• Fingerprinting Essential to Get U.S. Visa
  By Jung Sung-ki South Koreans applying for U.S. visas are obligated to submit fingerprint signatures through electronic scanners from late next month, the U.S. Embassy in Seoul announced Friday. And the scope of interview exemption will be drastically reduced, a step which will make South Koreans find it more difficult and wait much longer to get the U.S. visas.
• The World According to Kerry
  His foreign-policy goals aren't radically different from Bush's, but his plans for achieving them differ considerably By Stan Crock Business Week JULY 29, 2004 NEWS ANALYSIS
  Can a complex global outlook win over voters in a post-September 11 America that fears an election-season attack? Kerry sells himself as a pragmatic internationalist pitted against a reckless, ideologically driven unilateralist. Republicans counter that with his back-to-the-future multilateralism and frequent waffling
  But while the tone may be different, the Kerry Doctrine's substance may not mark the radical departure from Bush policies that many expect. One reason: Bush has coopted policies Kerry has advocated, from expanding the U.N.'s role in Iraq reconstruction to negotiating with North Korea to pledging to implement the 9/11 Commission's recommendations.
  NO SOFTIE." In a similar fashion, Kerry would preserve the Six-Party Talks for dealing with North Korea's nuclear program but would tweak the U.S. approach. Again, though, Kerry will have to contend with Bush's sudden policy shifts. Under pressure from China, Japan, and South Korea, which were tired of U.S. stonewalling, the President recently outlined for the North what it could gain by ending its nuclear capabilities -- a step Kerry had urged for months. And U.S. officials have had some tęte-ŕ-tętes with North Korean officials, a previous no-no. Kerry would hold formal direct meetings with Pyongyang. Some Kerry aides, skeptical that strongman Kim Jong Il would give up his nuclear program, think such talks could flush out his real intentions. Both candidates demand verifiable dismantling of nuclear facilities. But Kerry goes further. He might put a top adviser in charge, such as former Defense Secretary William J. Perry. The hawkish Perry "is no softie on North Korea," says Richard H. Solomon, president of the U.S. Institute of Peace. The Kerry team would state clearly that certain steps, such as building nuclear bombs, would trigger an economic or even military response from the U.S. Bush hasn't been so explicit.
• 'Restore my honor,' spy implores Seoul
  ASHBURN, Va. ? Robert Kim, a Korean-American who served a prison term in the United States on espionage charges, has been released from the electronic monitor he was required to wear during home confinement. Meeting with a JoongAng Ilbo reporter, Mr. Kim said he could not imagine repeating his crime, given the harshness of his confinement for over seven years. Once a civilian computer expert at the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, Mr. Kim was jailed for handing classified information to a South Korean Navy official in 1997. He added his family had a history of public service to Korea and it had influenced his decision to hand over the U.S. intelligence. Commenting on a movement by local supporters to seek honorary Korean citizenship for him, he said he would be grateful if such action were taken. "If the Korean government would just acknowledge that they received my help, I think my honor would be restored," he said. He fought back tears when he mentioned the deaths of his parents, who died shortly before his release. For the next three years. Mr. Kim is confined to Washington D.C., and the states of Virginia, and Maryland. [Friction]
• Letter to UN Secretary General
  Pyongyang, July 27 (KCNA) -- Colonel General Ri Chan Bok, representative of the Panmunjom Mission of the Korean People's Army, on July 26 sent a letter to Kofi Annan, secretary general of the United Nations, as regards the touch-and- go situation prevailing on the Korean peninsula due to the U.S. massive arms build-up in south Korea. Recalling that the KPA side on July 1 last year declared that if the U.S. bolster of the combat power of its forces in south Korea starts as planned, the letter dated July 22 will regard it as the U.S. total denial of the Armistice Agreement (AA) and take a resolute step to defend the security and sovereignty of the DPRK, the letter said:
• DPRK FM Refutes U.S. Accusation against It over "Human Rights Issue"
  Pyongyang, July 27 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, answering a question put by KCNA Tuesday as regards the U.S. House of Representatives' recent passage of the "bill on human rights in north Korea," dismissed it as one full of lies and fabrications because it slandered the DPRK, making a nonsensical talk about "protection of basic human rights" and "transparency and inspection of humanitarian aid to north Korea". He said: The bill, setting out the socalled "countermeasure", went the lengths of mentioning financial and material support to the efforts to topple the DPRK's system and pressurizing even its surrounding countries to take part in the drive to achieve the aim.
• Robert Kim Asks Korea to Restore His Honor
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) _ Robert Kim, a former U.S. naval officer set free after seven and a half years in prison for spying for his native country on Tuesday demanded the South Korean government acknowledge his contribution and restore his honor. ``The South Korean government has never said whether they have received my help or not,'' he told a news conference. "My reputation will be restored only if they say they received my assistance. The naturalized American claimed the South Korean government ignored him when he most needed their help. ``I provided critical information to help South Korea, but the South Korean government ignored my existence at the critical moment,'' Kim said in a statement. Kim was found guilty in 1997 of passing classified information on North Korea to South Korean diplomats in Washington. He had originally received a nine-year jail term, but the sentence was reduced in recognition of his exemplary behavior while in prison.
• Korean Lawmakers, Peace Groups Wary of U.S. Bill
  Believing that the U.S. Congress "North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004" could have a negative effect in peace efforts on the Korean peninsula, the ruling Uri Party has said it will give "careful" consideration to an official party response. The bill, which earmarks substantial funding to promote human rights and freedom of information in the isolated state, was passed unanimously by the United States House of Representatives last week. "It is a positive development [for the U.S. House of Representatives] to have expressed interest in improving human rights in North Korea," Uri staff member Yu Seon Ho was quoted as saying by the Yonhap News Agency. "But our concern is that it could have a negative effect on the six-way talks and on inter-Korean relations."
• From Iraq to Asia-the Butterfly Effect
  By Colonel Daniel Smith, USA (Ret.) | July 8, 2004 At first glance, the U.S. call for a North Korean "pledge" to acknowledge and end its weapons programs might be considered equivalent to the North's "freeze." But the stumbling block is the alleged existence of an enriched uranium program in the North, a disparity so fundamental that it is the proverbial immovable object to real progress. The U.S. believes the program started in 1998 and is continuing while the North (backed by China in the absence of seeing proof from the U.S.) insists it has only a plutonium-based weapons effort.
  For the administration, the real challenge at this juncture may be deciding whether it can add one more ball to its juggling act. From the perspective of the White House, with Iraq "liberated," Iran reluctantly opening its nuclear facilities to international monitors, and North Korea still engaged in the six-party talks, the "Axis of Evil" has been blunted even though bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and al-Qaeda-like organizations still pose a threat to U.S interests. But this threat is not to long-term U.S. dominance; that, in pre-September 11 administration rhetoric, comes from only one quarter: China. [HEU]
• North Korea wants 'foreign forces' out
  North Korea has sent a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urging the international body to abide by Article 60 of the Korean War truce accord, which recommends the withdrawal of "foreign forces" from the peninsula. The letter said: "The North Korean People's Army believes that through its arms buildup, the United States is preparing for a preemptive attack
• N.Korean Negotiator Ri Gun to Visit U.S. Soon
  By REUTERS Published: July 28, 2004 Filed at 3:28 a.m. ET BEIJING (Reuters) - A senior North Korean foreign ministry official will make a rare trip to the United States soon, becoming the highest ranking figure from communist Pyongyang to visit since President Bush took office. News of the planned U.S. visit by Ri Gun, deputy head of U.S. affairs at North Korea's foreign ministry, came as the State Department's point man on the crisis over North Korea's nuclear programs headed to Beijing for talks. The U.S. embassy declined to comment on Ri's expected trip, which would follow on the heels of a visit to Washington by Pyongyang's U.N. ambassador -- the first allowed by the Bush administration.
  ``He is going to Washington, I believe, quite soon,'' a South Korean diplomat said Wednesday, referring to Ri. ``He is going ... to attend some seminar.'' A Chinese expert on North Korea said Ri, a key negotiator at six-party talks on the crisis, would visit the United States soon, though the dates were not clear. A diplomatic source in Tokyo said Ri would also visit New York for about a week and attend a gathering of scholars, experts and officials on August 10.
• Over 1,200 Cases of U.S. Aerial Espionage
  Pyongyang, July 25 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists committed over 1,200 cases of aerial espionage on the DPRK or more than 6 cases on a daily average from January to June this year, according to data available. Involved in the aerial espionage were latest reconnaissance planes of different missions including U-2, RC-135, E-8C, E-3, RC-7B, RC-12, RF-4, P-3 and EP-3. The espionage flights were made at a time when the U.S. imperialists were frequently staging war maneuvers, while massively shipping sophisticated military equipment into south Korea and relocating their troops in south Korea.
• U.S. Arms Buildup Reaches Dangerous Stage
  Pyongyang, July 24 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists' arms buildup for another war on the Korean peninsula has reached a dangerous stage. Recently the U.S. weekly "Defense News" reported that the U.S. had succeeded in the development and test firing of a new-type missile aimed at destroying underground military facilities of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The missile development program, it added, will be completed within a year and six missiles be deployed at a U.S. unit in south Korea, which will be followed by an additional deployment according to the results of their practical use. The U.S. military buildup has increased the danger of war against the DPRK. As soon as it made public a "program for increasing war capacity" to arm its forces present in south Korea with new-type nuclear weapons on May 31, 2003, the U.S. started carrying it into practice. Shortly after the publication of the program, more than 20 "Longbou AH-64D" helicopters were deployed at the south Korea-based "Apache" helicopters squadron of the Sixth Cavalry Brigade of the U.S. Then some of "Patriot 2" missiles were replaced with "Patriot 3". The U.S. has also shipped into south Korea many pieces of sophisticated military hardware including at least ten fighter-bombers, U-2 high attitude strategic reconnaissance aircraft, six F-117 stealth bombers, a F-15E squadron and Shadow 200 unmanned tactical aircraft. In the beginning of the year, the U.S. exchanged the old tanks of its Second Infantry Division with scores of high-tech M1-A1 Abrams. Now stockpiled in the U.S. military bases in south Korea are various kinds of military equipment -- thousands of tactical nuclear weapons, a large stock of depleted uranium bullets, different types of aircraft including F-16 and F-15 fighters capable of carrying nuclear weapons and hundreds of Lance, Patriot and other missiles and atomic guns. South Korea has turned into the world's most dense area in deployment of strategic weapons. The U.S. military buildup has rendered the situation of the Korean peninsula all the more strained and Northeast Asia into a theatre of acute military confrontation
• N.Korea Writes Annan, Demands U.S. Troop Pullout
  By REUTERS Published: July 26, 2004 Filed at 11:50 p.m. ET SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea urged the United Nations Tuesday to dissolve the U.N. Command on the tense peninsula and press for the withdrawal of U.S. troops based in South Korea. In a rare letter to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, North Korea's representative at the Korean War truce village called on the United Nations to dissolve the 50-year-old U.N. Command. ``It is our view that a war in Korea is almost unavoidable as long as the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK goes on,'' said the 1,100-word letter, which the official KCNA news agency said was written by Colonel-General Ri Chan-bok. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
• Former President Carter's Remarks to the Democratic National Convention
  FDCH e-Media, Inc. Monday, July 26, 2004; 9:33 PM The text of former President Carter's speech Monday at the Democratic National Convention: Elsewhere, North Korea's nuclear menace, a threat far more real and immediate than any posed by Saddam Hussein, has been allowed to advance unheeded, with potentially ominous consequences for peace and stability in Northeast Asia.
• US to Return 9 Bases by 2005
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter A total of 13 U.S. military bases in five South Korean cities _ Uijongbu, Tongduchon, Paju, Chunchon and Pusan _ will come into the hands of Koreans from 2005 to 2006, an earlier-than- expected return of land by the American troops.
• Uri Party Assails US Human Rights Bill
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter A number of lawmakers from the ruling Uri Party on Sunday decided to adopt a statement, rather than pushing their original plan of submitting a resolution to the National Assembly, expressing their discontent with a North Korean human rights bill passed by the U.S. Congress last week. ``We are currently aiming to get signatures from 80 to 90 lawmakers for the statement this week,'' the Uri Party's Rep. Chung Bong-ju said. ``I expect there to be many opposition party legislators joining hands with us.'' They originally planned to introduce a resolution saying the bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives could be tantamount to ``intervening'' into North Korean state affairs, possibly provoking Pyongyang to boycott six-way talks over the North's nuclear programs
• 2nd Generation Korean Youth Find Their Roots
  By Seo Dong-shin Why is the United States the superpower always giving its full support to Israel, a small and relatively new country in the Middle East? Or, to rephrase it to apply to Koreans, what can move the hugely influential U.S to truly act in the interest of peace and prosperity, particularly toward the long-aspired unification of the Korean peninsula? [Diaspora]
• As Tensions Subside Between Two Koreas, U.S. Strives to Adjust
  Thaw Strains South's Alliance With Washington By Anthony Faiola Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, July 25, 2004; Page A16
  But South Korean and U.S. officials privately admit there is an ideological gap between Roh, viewed as perhaps South Korea's most progressive leader, and the Bush administration. "On a range of issues, Washington and Seoul have increasingly divergent interests," said a senior Bush administration official in Washington who spoke on condition of anonymity. "With the next generation of decision makers in Seoul believing that Washington is more of a threat than Pyongyang, the situation will almost certainly get worse. . . . A growing number of people in Washington feel that our troops in South Korea limit our ability to respond to a crisis with North Korea." Still, both sides insist the foundation of the alliance remains strong, and there have been some recent attempts to ease the strain. Leaders of the Uri Party, allied to Roh and now in control of the South Korean legislature, visited Washington this month in an attempt to dispel fears that the party is anti-American. Meeting with Roh in Seoul the same week, Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser, offered a positive outlook for improved South-North relations. She also thanked Roh for his commitment to send 3,000 South Korean troops to Iraq, especially after the beheading of a South Korean civilian hostage there last month. But the South Koreans say they are frustrated by divisions within the Bush administration over North Korean policy. At talks last month in Beijing aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear programs, the Bush administration -- after prodding from South Korea -- appeared to ease its demands for a "complete verifiable and irreversible dismantling" of Pyongyang's nuclear programs without any incentives up front. Washington offered the North the possibility of energy aid from South Korea, security assurances and other benefits during a three-month test period if it promised to disclose and end its nuclear weapons programs. But during a speech last week at a Seoul university, John R. Bolton, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security and one of the administration's top hawks on North Korea, outlined a more hard-line stance. He dismissed the notion of a negotiated nuclear freeze as a first step toward a broader deal and argued that the North Koreans should not receive incentives unless they first agree to a comprehensive disarmament agreement similar to the one recently struck with Libya -- a proposal the North Koreans have flatly rejected. Bolton represents one powerful faction within a Bush administration split on Korea policy. A South Korean Foreign Ministry official said his "aggressive attitude" last week served to generate more confusion over what kind of deal Washington is willing to offer the North. U.S. officials have expressed equally mixed views on the South's new ties with the North. But top South Korean officials insist that improved ties between South and North and relations between the United States and South Korea should not be regarded as mutually exclusive. [Friction]
• Korea and U.S. agree on base relocation, size
  WASHINGTON ? After more than a year of talks, South Korea and the United States finalized a plan yesterday to move the U.S. military base out of Seoul and agreed on the physical size of the new U.S. military headquarters. On the sidelines of the talks, Seoul also appealed to Washington to delay the announced U.S. troop reduction on the peninsula, South Korean officials said. The United States said in June that it would withdraw 12,500 troops from Korea by the end of 2005. Currently, 37,000 U.S. troops are stationed on the peninsula. Seoul, for the first time, asked Washington to delay the planned departure of the soldiers to 2007 at the earliest, officials said. Washington reportedly gave no immediate response.
• Some See Jenkins As Gold Mine on N. Korea
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: July 23, 2004 Filed at 4:24 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- What some U.S. military officials really want from Army defector Charles Robert Jenkins is not prison time, but information. The former U.S. sergeant who has resurfaced after decades in North Korea could provide one-of-a-kind intelligence about the secretive communist regime, including how it trains spies. If taken to a court martial, the desertion case could jeopardize that chance, and the chance of learning about other Americans who, like Jenkins, disappeared for decades into reclusive North Korea, some observers say. With a non-threatening approach or offer of plea bargain, they say, U.S. officials might get Jenkins to tell what he knows about the other Americans -- three of whom are alleged to be fellow deserters from the U.S. Army.
• Warner 'Deceived' on Rev. Moon Event
  Aide Says Senator's Office Would Not Have Sanctioned Gathering at Dirksen Building By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, July 24, 2004; Page A08 Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) accepts "full responsibility" for arranging the use of a Senate office building for a March ceremony in which the Rev. Sun Myung Moon declared himself the Messiah, a spokesman for the senator says. But the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman released letters this week that show that organizers "deceived" Warner's office, spokesman John Ullyot said Thursday. He said the office would not have helped arrange the event "had its true nature been disclosed."
• KCNA Blasts U.S. MD
  Pyongyang, July 21 (KCNA) -- The U.S. is now working hard to input the European countries which newly joined the NATO into the missile defence system (MD). The Bush administration has reportedly negotiated with Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria for several months and recently started negotiations with Hungry in a bid to establish MD in Central Europe. It is reported that officials and experts of the U.S. Defence Department have conducted frequent field surveys of areas in those countries where interceptor missiles are expected to be deployed.
  The situation goes to prove that the peace, stability and prosperity of the world are unthinkable unless the Bush administration's wild ambition to dominate the world is held in check. The U.S. hegemonic and brigandish moves strongly convinces everyone of the justice of the steps taken by the DPRK to increase its capability for self-defence to be strong enough to repel any aggressors and pushes the DPRK to bolster its war deterrent force.
• NK Negotiator to Visit Washington
  By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter Pyongyang's deputy chief delegate to the six-party nuclear talks will meet with his Washington counterpart during a rare visit to the United States next month, according to a news report. Ri Gun, deputy director-general of American affairs at North Korea's Foreign Ministry, will visit New York for several days from Aug. 9 to attend an international conference, Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported. Ri is expected to meet Joseph DeTrani, U.S. special envoy for negotiations with the North, who is also scheduled to attend the conference organized by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy
• North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004
  HR 4011, as amended, passed in the House by voice vote on July 21 2004. If you cannot download the documentt, please go to fcnl website, http://www.fcnl.org/issues/issue.php?issue_id=34 or to http://thomas.loc.gov for the most recent version. The most significant changes have been made to "Title III: Protecting North Korean Refugees." The bill will next go to the Senate, where it will most likely be referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
• KCNA Blasts U.S. "Proliferation Security Initiative"
  Pyongyang, July 20 (KCNA) -- A U.S. assistant secretary of State, raising a hue and cry over the non-existent DPRK's drug smuggling, let loose sophism that it sponsors the drug smuggling and its income is likely to be spent for the ballistic missile development. This is nothing but a sinister attempt of the Bush administration to tarnish the image of the DPRK on the international arena and justify the "proliferation security initiative (PSI)" in a bid to isolate and stifle it. The U.S. much publicized PSI is a product of its hostile policy toward the DPRK aimed to blockade and suffocate it in the light of the background against which it was set out and the aims sought by it.
• Plan to deploy troops to Iraq has taken away an innocent life of Kim Seon-Il. Stop Deployment Now!
  The sacrifice of Kim Sun-Il was expected, as long as the government was to push for dispatch of troops to Iraq.
  This has to stop. Plans to dispatch troops to Iraq must be completely re-examined.
  The KCTU demands cancellation of the plans to dispatch troops to Iraq, as one of its main demands for the first half of this year, in order to avoid sacrifice of further lives. We demand that the Korean government not play puppet to the foreign policies of the US and that it take a firm stance again it, and that it protect the rights and the lives of its citizens. We strongly reaffirm that the KCTU and all its members will stand at the forefront of the struggle to cancel plans to deploy troops to Iraq. 23rd June, 2004
  Korean Federation of Trade Unions
• NK Criticizes US Missile Defense
  By Jung Sung-ki North Korea on Wednesday condemned U.S. President George W. Bush for plans to build a missile defense system that would encompass countries in Northeast Asia and Europe. The North's Korean Central News Agency released a statement calling the U.S. missile defense plan ``an extremely dangerous act that could bring another Cold War era.''
• `Fahrenheit 9/11' Heats Up Anti-Dispatch Move
  By Jung Sung-ki Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary ``Fahrenheit 9/11'' has turned up the heat on the anti-troop dispatch movement in South Korea. Lawmakers of the progressive Democratic Labor Party (DLP) on Monday hosted a free screening event at the National Assembly in Seoul in an effort to build on the nation's anti-dispatch momentum. Opposition to the nation's planned dispatch of some 3,000 additional troops to Iraq has grown since South Korean worker Kim Sun-il was beheaded in Iraq last month by Islamic militants. Additionally, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee recently released a report discrediting much of Bush's case for going to war in Iraq with regards to the links between Iraq and al-Qaida.
• Korea Exposure & Education Program
  Dear Friend and Supporter, My name is Sukjong Hong, and I am one of the coordinators of the KEEP summer program this year. I am writing to ask for your support. Now in its 10th year, Korea Exposure and Education Program (KEEP) sends a group of young Koreans from the United States to learn about the struggles and successes of South Korean civil society's efforts towards peace, democracy, and unification. Through building relationships and communities, KEEP seeks to broaden our understanding of and participation in the liberation struggles of the Korean people. [Diaspora]
• Airline Unions Refuse to Transport Troops to Iraq
  The labor unions of the nation's two airliners, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, declared Thursday that they refuse to transport anything related to the troop dispatch to Iraq, including Korean soldiers to be stationed in Iraq along with armor and related equipment.
• DLP Launches Anti-Dispatch Sit-In Protest
  By Jung Sung-ki Democratic Labor Party chairwoman Kim Hye-kyong and other party members began a sit-in protest on Tuesday opposing the nation's planned troop dispatch to Iraq. They sat near the United States Embassy in Seoul to protest what they see as an unjustified U.S.- led war in Iraq, and calling for an immediate end to hostilities.
• Motion To Suspend the Rules on The North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004
  H.R. 4011, "The North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004," is one of 13 bills to be considered under suspension of the rules on Wednesday, July 21 2004, and the balance of the week. The most recent version of the bill, as amended by the House Judiciary Committee, is not yet available.
  Note: "Suspension of the rules" is reserved for bills that are expected to be fairly non-controversial. Debate is limited to 40 minutes and floor amendments are not permitted. However, a two-thirds vote is required for passage. For more information on "suspension of the rules, see the excerpt from http://thomas.loc.gov below.
  Motion To Suspend the Rules On Monday and Tuesday of each week and during the last six days of a session, the Speaker may entertain a motion to suspend the rules of the House and pass a public bill or resolution. Sometimes the motion is allowed on days other than Monday and Tuesday by unanimous consent or a rule from the Committee on Rules. For example, the House by rule from the Committee on Rules provided for the motion on Wednesdays for the remainder of the 108th Congress. Members need to arrange in advance with the Speaker to be recognized to offer such a motion. The Speaker usually recognizes only a majority member of the committee that has reported or has primary jurisdiction over the bill. The motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill is debatable for 40 minutes, one-half of the time in favor of the proposition and one-half in opposition. The motion may not be separately amended but may be amended in the form of a manager's amendment included in the motion when it is offered. Because the rules may be suspended and the bill passed only by affirmative vote of two-thirds of the Members voting, a quorum being present, this procedure is usually used only for expedited consideration of relatively non-controversial public measures
  By email from East Asia Policy Education Project FCNL Education Fund Korea Update 245 Second Street NE, Washington, DC 20002-5795 phone: (202) 547-6000 ext. 110 fax: (202) 547-6019 email: Karin@fcnl.org web site: www.fcnl.org
• North envoys to visit D.C.
  WASHINGTON ? The U.S. government has given permission to two top North Korean diplomats to make a rare visit to the U.S. capital to attend a conference, the U.S. State Department said. The North Korean UN envoys will be allowed to visit Washington, D.C., next week to attend the "Korean Peninsula Peace Forum," scheduled for tomorrow. North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations, Park Gil-yon, and deputy ambassador, Han Song-ryol, will make the trip. The United States and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations, and Pyeongyang's UN representatives must receive permission from the U.S. State Department to travel more than 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the New York headquarters of the United Nations. The conference is hosted by the Korea Society, the National Committee for Peace in Korea and the National Association of Korean-Americans. U.S. participants include the Delaware Democrat, Senator Joseph Biden, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; and Jack Pritchard, former U.S. special envoy on North Korea. He recently retired and now works for a think tank.

  see peace forum

• US to Get 3.5 Million Pyong for New Base
  By Jung Sung-ki South Korea has agreed to provide the United States with 3.5 million pyong (about 1,155 hectares) of land south of Seoul for a new base for the American forces after they move from the current Yongsan Garrison, officials said Sunday.
• After Iraq Transfer, Kerry Again Prods Bush to Win Help From Abroad
  By DAVID M. HALBFINGER (NYT) 29 June 2004
  It was here at the news conference, Mr. Kerry's first since June 17, that he said Mr. Bush had switched his stance toward negotiations with North Korea only after being "pressured by the Chinese, by the Japanese and the South Koreans to finally offer some kind of inducement." "He flip-flopped," Mr. Kerry said. "He changed his position. Only because he finally came to the position that others of us have laid out over two and a half, three years ago.''
• Troop Dispatch to Iraq Opposed in S. Korea
  Pyongyang, July 16 (KCNA) -- The People's Action against Troop Dispatch reportedly held a press conference nearby the building of the National Assembly on July 12 to oppose the transport of military supplies to the troops to be dispatched. A press release read out at the press conference castigated the government for intending to dispatch troops and send a ship loaded with military supplies to Iraq despite the period of state examination regarding the issue of the troop dispatch. It stressed that in case the authorities let the ship embark at Pusan Port, the organization will have a protest demonstration at the port and resolutely check the troop dispatch.
• S. Korean Civilian Killed in Iraq
  Public Opinion Against Troop Dispatch Heighten in S. Korea
  A South Korean civilian was killed in Iraq. His name is Kim Sun Il, 33. He was in Iraq for his job. He was abducted and killed by an Iraqi armed group. This incident sent a shock wave throughout South Korean society. After the incident, voices opposing an additional South Korean troop dispatch to Iraq heightened in South Korea more and more
• Monstrous Crimes Committed by U.S. in Korean War
  Pyongyang, July 16 (KCNA) -- The anti-U.S. feelings are growing stronger among the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the month (June 25-July 27) of anti-U.S. joint struggle. During the three-year-long Korean war the U.S. imperialists indiscriminately bombed and bombarded all the cities and rural communities in the northern half of Korea in wanton violation of the international conventions on war including the Geneva convention on protecting civilians in war time adopted in 1949. They perpetrated more than 1,400 times of bombing to drop more than 428,000 bombs on Pyongyang, leveling all the industrial establishments, educational, cultural and public health institutions and dwelling houses and killing a large number of citizens.
  The U.S. used even germ and chemical weapons in Korea. In the beginning of 1952, they launched a bacteriological warfare against the whole area of the north. In the period from January to March 1952, they made 804 raids on 169 places with various kinds of germ bombs. The number of the aircraft mobilized in the bacteriological warfare was one fourth of those sent to bomb the northern half of Korea and it exceeded 480 at maximum in a day. The U.S. imperialists used more than 20 kinds of germ weapons in the war.
• REPORT OF THE PLATFORM COMMITTEE
  Strong at Home, Respected in the World The Democratic Platform for America Presented to the 2004 Democratic National Convention by the Platform Standing Committee Governor Tom Vilsack, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones and City Councilmember Antonio Villaraigosa, Committee Chairs
  Containing this massive threat requires American leadership of the highest order - leadership that brings our allies, friends, and partners to greater collaboration and participation - and compels problem states to join and comply with international agreements and abandon their weapons programs. Unfortunately, this Administration's policies have moved America in the opposite direction. They have weakened international agreements and efforts to enforce nonproliferation instead of strengthening them. They have not done nearly enough to secure existing stockpiles and bomb-making materials. They have failed to take effective steps to stop the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs. We must change course now.
  Leading international efforts to shut down nuclear efforts in North Korea, Iran, and elsewhere. We must show determined leadership to end the nuclear weapons program in North Korea and prevent the development of nuclear weapons in places like Iran. North Korea has sold ballistic missiles and technology in the past. The North Koreans have made it clear to the world - and to the terrorists - that they are open for business and will sell to the highest bidder. But while this Administration has been fixated on Iraq, the nuclear dangers from North Korea have multiplied. The North Koreans allegedly have made enough new fuel to make six to nine nuclear bombs. We should maintain the six-party talks, but we must also be prepared to talk directly with North Korea to negotiate a comprehensive agreement that addresses the full range of issues for ourselves and our allies. But we should have no illusions about Kim Jong Il. Any agreement must have rigorous verification and lead to complete and irreversible elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
• A fanciful shield
  Leader Saturday July 17, 2004 The Guardian The nuclear threat supposedly posed by Saddam Hussein may long ago have lost its credibility, but other, more tangible notions still alarm western strategic planners. The US is actively holding discussions with Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary about building a missile defence interceptor site in eastern Europe, our correspondent reported from Warsaw this week. It is not clear exactly whose missiles this might be intended to deter, but there is talk of an eventual Iranian threat and even more vaguely the possibility of a rogue Syrian attack. It is a huge stretch of imagination to envisage either country ever possessing a ballistic capability - Syria is not even in the nuclear-capable frame - or, if so, being foolish enough to invite nuclear retaliation by launching missiles.
  However, the missile defence advocates clinch the argument by saying that a "terrorist group" might one day acquire a long-range missile, and that they must plan for the worst case. The State Department has said that the European talks are preliminary, but the momentum is growing to establish this third interceptor site in addition to the two already being built in Alaska and California (which are supposed to deter North Korea from a similar act of suicide). The whole idea is so fanciful, and the technical difficulties so extreme, that it may not seem worth taking seriously
  Both Russia and China have legitimate concerns over programmes which may give one side a defensive advantage that could destabilise the nuclear status quo: they too might wish to plan for the worst case. Other worrying features include the planned development of "mini-nukes" for battlefield deployment, a drift towards the doctrine of pre-emptive use, and the strategic and tactical arsenals that still exist. We need to remind ourselves and our governments that the bomb has not yet been banned.
• Crying wolf has hurt global effort on WMD proliferation
  Simon Tisdall Friday July 16, 2004 The Guardian The massaging, mangling and magnification of intelligence on Iraq's elusive weapons of mass destruction, officially confirmed by the Butler report and by this month's US Senate inquiry, has left Tony Blair's principal justification for last year's invasion in tatters. But this is no mere matter of historical record. For these same embarrassing misconstructions by British and US spy agencies and their political masters may also jeopardise global efforts to prevent the spread of WMD.
  Disarmament talks with Iran and North Korea continue in desultory fashion. Both are waiting and hoping for a change of administration in the US in November. Of the two, North Korea may present the most serious threat, to its neighbours and to western interests, led as it is by a clique of chancers. The Bush administration has frequently provoked Pyongyang by word and deed. Yet if the US were to deem military action essential there, who would heed it? Mr Blair, for one, would not survive another pre-emptive war.
  Washington's perceived double standard in ignoring Arab demands for a nuclear-free Middle East - meaning, a nuclear-disarmed Israel - and its insouciant attitude to the nuclear non- proliferation treaty and to the enforcement of existing chemical and biological weapons conventions also undermine the counter- proliferation cause. Similarly hypocritical are the Bush administration's plans for new generations of nuclear weapons, such as bunker-busters and battlefield nukes; and its insistence on pressing ahead with the deployment of a destabilising, global ballistic missile defence. Entirely predictably, this has led Russia and perhaps China to increase their respective offensive ballistic missile capabilities.
• US Worries Over 2nd S-N Summit
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter As negotiations on the North Korean nuclear crisis enter a crucial stage, U.S. officials are cautiously assessing rumors of a second inter- Korean summit _ a development that some experts say would strengthen Pyongyang's hand at the bargaining table. Speculation of a meeting between President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has grown in recent weeks despite repeated denials by Seoul.[Friction]
• Resurging Anti-Americanism
  By Chang Se-moon Recent public opinion surveys in Korea have indicated that young Koreans consider the United States, not North Korea, to be Korea's number one enemy. A 2004 survey by Research & Research, for instance, is reported to have found that Koreans in their 20s to 40s picked the U.S. as Korea's biggest enemy, although Koreans over 50 still believe North Korea to be the key enemy. In fact, the survey found no less than 57.9 percent in their 20s, 46.8 percent in their 30s, and 36.3 percent in their 40s to believe that the U.S. is Korea's number one enemy. The latest survey may reflect a more deep-rooted anti-Americanism than the one that prevailed in 2002. The 2002 anti-Americanism may be blamed for the June 13, 2002 accident in which two 14- year-old schoolgirls were killed by a 45-ton U.S. mine-clearing vehicle on a training exercise. No such immediate incident can be blamed for this year's resurgence of anti- Americanism. Leaders in Korea have in the past assured me that anti-Americanism is more an expression of assertive nationalism by young Koreans than a movement against the United States. I am no longer sure whether this is a correct assessment.
• Koreans Go From Iraqi Friends to Foes
  Citizen reporter Gang Eun Ji tracks Iraqi bewilderment at Korean participation in 'U.S. conquest'
• U.S. Mean Economic Sanctions and Blockade against Other Countries under Fire
  Pyongyang, July 13 (KCNA) -- U.S. arrogant economic sanctions and blockade are leverages for undisguised interference in other countries and a means for strangling them. The U.S. has become toughest and most desperate in its mean sanctions and blockade against the DPRK. Rodong Sinmun today says this in a signed article. The article cites facts to prove that the U.S. has long applied economic sanctions against the DPRK. It goes on: The U.S. sanctions and blockade to isolate, suffocate and subjugate the DPRK have reached the height of the grave, aggressive and tough nature in the new century. The bellicose Bush administration has desperately worked to lay an international siege to the DPRK, peddling "the danger of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction." In May last year, the U.S. set out a "security action program for the prevention of the spread of weapons" aimed to carry out the operation to intercept and search the DPRK ships sailing in open seas and is pressurizing 11 countries to put it into practice,. The U.S. plans to stage five multi-national military exercises this year in a bid to lay an international siege to the DPRK. The U.S. imperialists' blockade operation against the DPRK is designed to increase the economic difficulties to the DPRK in a bid to take an initiative in settling the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the U.S. and, furthermore, bring it under their control by force of arms. The U.S. moves to lay an international siege to the DPRK is a grave infringement upon its sovereignty as it is in gross violation of international law and the norms governing the relations among countries. The U.S. actions to blockade the seas and airspace of the DPRK are a crude violation of the paragraph of the Korean Armistice Agreement banning any form of blockade against Korea. The U.S. "blockade operation" against the DPRK is an escalation of its strategy to fight a war against terrorism. Through this operation the U.S. seeks to thoroughly isolate the DPRK and render it economically and militarily incapable and then mount a preemptive attack on it and seize it. This method, however, will not work on the DPRK. The U.S. should give up its wild ambition to isolate and stifle the DPRK and other progressive countries through such mean sanctions and blockade.
• Uri head scoffs at criticism of U.S. remarks
  Shin Ki-nam, the chairman of the governing Uri Party, yesterday rebuked critics who said in posts on the Internet that he made "worshipping" the United States during a visit to Washington and Los Angeles last week. "Independence is about getting one's interests. Independence is not about staging anti-American demonstrations and fighting crudely," Mr. Shin said. "In diplomacy, one has to be firm and courageous. I am willing to debate with the critics and the regular commentators on the Internet." During his U.S. visit, Mr. Shin made comments such as "We will not forget the mercy of our blood ally," and "The world may change, but one thing that will not be changed is the South Korea-United States alliance, which was forged in blood." He criticized the violent expressions of anti- American sentiment in Korea
• US Ruling Prompts Anti- Dispatch Campaign
  By Jung Sung-ki Ruling and opposition lawmakers opposing the dispatch of troops to Iraq, Monday launched a fresh drive towards that end, encouraged by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report discrediting the link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, the Bush administration's major justification for going to war.
• Opponents to Troop Dispatch Continue Protest
  By Jung Sung-ki Ruling and opposition lawmakers opposing the dispatch of troops to Iraq, Monday launched a fresh drive towards that end, encouraged by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report discrediting the link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, the Bush administration's major justification for going to war.

• Lawmakers to rally against troop dispatch
  As least 20 national legislators from both governing and opposition parties will take part in a rally to protest South Korea's plans to dispatch additional troops to help Iraq in its reconstruction. The rally is scheduled to take place tomorrow.
• Four-star rises in the east
  Four-star General Kim Jang-su, right, was inaugurated as the deputy commander of the Korea- U.S. Combined Forces Command yesterday at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, with the head of the command, U.S. General Leon LaPorte at his side. General Kim was promoted to the post after his predecessor, General Shin Il-soon, was dismissed in the aftermath of an embezzlement conviction. [photo]
• Many Students Believe US Big Barrier to Unification
  By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter Nearly half of Korean university students believe that the United States maintains the most hostile attitude toward the possible reunification of South and North Korea, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday.
• Seoul Sees No Need to Revise ROK-US Defense Treaty
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter The planned realignment and reduction of American forces here will not prompt a revision of the ROK-U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty, Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday.
• Roh's Top Security Advisor Visits US
  By Park Chung-a National Security Advisor Kwon Jin-ho on Tuesday left on a five-day trip to the United States. The U.S. visit by President Roh Moo-hyun's top security advisor comes at a time when the two allies are attempting to scale down U.S. troops stationed here in a major realignment of their five decades-old alliance. The two countries are scheduled to hold the ninth round of Future of the Alliance Policy Initiative Talks June 7-8.
• Pullout Talks Pit Allies in Test of Wits
  Seoul Will Try to Slow Down Pace of US Troop Withdrawal By Ryu Jin & Reuben Staines Staff Reporters With Seoul and Washington set for new talks on slashing the U.S. troop presence here, main negotiators from both sides are preparing for a long journey that will reshape the future of the bilateral alliance.
• Less Military Means More Peace
  U.S. troop cuts are an opportunity for disarmament talks on the Korean peninsula While shifting some of its troops from South Korea to Iraq, the United States has decided to beef up its military capability in and around the Korean peninsula to avoid a "military vacuum." According to both domestic and international news agencies, the U.S. is planning to deploy a PAC-2 and a PAC-3 in Gwangju (Gyeonggi Province) and Osan, respectively. The U.S. already deployed a PAC-3 in South Korea last August. The Washington Post also reported on May 18 that the U.S. would instead dispatch the Stryker battalions to Korea and strengthen its military forces in Asia Pacific region, including more bombers in Guam and an Aegis destroyer in the East Sea. This series of announcements and movements lead us to believe that the U.S. is accelerating its military beef-up with its shift to Iraq. Both the U.S. and Korean governments claim that the strengthened military capability is enough to offset U.S. forces left in Korea, thus avoiding a "security vacuum."
• KANCC to Recruit Participants for July North Korea Trip
  [Chicago, KOTRA] It is reportedly said that the KANCC (Korean American National Coordinating Council) will organize a North Korea trip from July of 2004.
• Korea moves to address shifting ties with U.S.
  Because of rising public concern over the announcement that thousands of U.S. troops may soon be pulled out of South Korea, the government announced yesterday that a special group will be established next week to deal with issues arising out of the realignment of U.S. forces.
• Korean-American spy freed after 7 years
  Robert Kim, 64, convicted of espionage in 1997 for passing classified U.S. defense information to a South Korean naval attache, is being freed from a U.S. prison after serving seven years and four months of a nine-year term. Mr. Kim was a Korean-American defense worker.
• Lots of work ahead to redefine our U.S. alliance
  Alliance in vortex: 2d of 2 articles On November 17, 2003, a joint communique was issued by Cho Young-kil, South Korea's defense minister, and Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. secretary of defense, after the annual Security Consultative Meeting, held in Seoul that year.
• US Regrets Media Reports on GPR
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter The United States has expressed ``strong regret'' over Korean media's reports, which portrayed Washington as trying to downgrade the status of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), a South Korean official said on Monday.
  According to the GPR program, the U.S. military bases will be classified by four different categories: Power Projection Hub (PPH); Main Operation Base (MOB); Forward Operating Site (FOS); and Cooperative Security Location (CSL).
• Kerry: Nuclear Terrorism Is Gravest Threat to U.S.
  By REUTERS Published: June 1, 2004 Filed at 2:05 a.m. ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nuclear terrorism is the gravest threat the United States faces, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said on Tuesday as he offered a plan to secure atomic arsenals and materials around the world. ``The enemy is different and we must think and act anew,'' Kerry said in excerpts of remarks prepared for delivery in West Palm Beach, Florida. ``We have to do everything we can to stop a nuclear weapon from ever reaching our shore and that mission begins far away.'' In the second of three speeches on national security, Kerry is expected to propose a new high-level White House job to oversee efforts to prevent a terrorist attack using nuclear weapons and recommend speeding up a current program to secure nuclear material in the former Soviet Union. ``The greatest threat we face today (is) the possibility of al Qaeda or other terrorists getting their hands on a nuclear weapon,'' Kerry said. ``Osama bin Laden has called obtaining a weapon of mass destruction a 'sacred duty.''' The senator from Massachusetts, a 20-year veteran of the Foreign Relations Committee, also said he wanted to end nuclear programs in countries like Iran and North Korea. Kerry has criticized President Bush for refusing to hold bilateral negotiations with North Korea. He has said he would adopt a two-track policy of continuing the six-party talks that include Russia, Japan, China and South Korea while also holding direct discussions with Pyongyang. After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Kerry said Americans needed to ``take away politics, strip away the labels'' and ask honest questions. ``Have we done everything we could to secure these dangerous weapons and materials? Have we taken every step we should to stop North Korea and Iran's nuclear programs? Have we reached out to our allies and forged an urgent global effort to ensure that nuclear weapons and materials are secured?''
• Draft dilemma
  They are going to reintroduce the draft in the US. But it's such a vote loser, no one wants to mention it John Sutherland Monday May 31, 2004 The Guardian Last Wednesday, the American public was officially instructed to panic. Attorney general John Ashcroft and FBI director Robert Mueller - brows furrowed, faces grim - took over primetime TV to deliver a spine-chilling message to their fellow citizens: "Al-qaida attack imminent." And, of course, the strategic case for the draft is overwhelming. If, as Rumsfeld promises, Iraq turns out to be "a long, hard slog", who will do the slogging? If others follow the Spaniards, and Tony Blair goes, the US may find itself a coalition of one. What then if something blows up in North Korea? [media]
• US Pullout Inevitable: NSC Official
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter Lee Jong-seok, deputy chief of the National Security Council (NSC), recently said it is ``inevitable'' for the United States to reduce its troops stationed in South Korea due to the changing security conditions around the world.
• Park Speaks of Growing US Antipathy to Seoul
  Rep. Park Jin of the opposition Grand National Party (GNP), said on Sunday that some U.S. opinion leaders no longer consider South Korea as a ``true ally,'' which may force their government to discontinue sharing sensitive strategic intelligence with it.
• Vietnam War Veterans Suffering From Depression
  By Soh Ji-young Staff Reporter Agent Orange victims who fought in the Vietnam War are suffering from serious forms of depression, a study revealed on Monday.
  More than 40,000 Vietnam War veterans are registered as Agent Orange victims with the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs
• Excerpts From an Interview With John Kerry on Diplomacy and Defense
  Published: May 30, 2004 Following are excerpts from an interview Friday with Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee: On President Bush's focus on Iraq to the exclusion of North Korea and Iran, which he describes as "more compelling threats":

• Gov't Strongly Protests 8th U.S. Army Commander's Statements
  The government strongly protested on Thursday statements made by 8th U.S. Army commander Lt. Gen. Charles Campbell during a Tuesday press conference. Campbell talked of being able to insert USFK anywhere in the world, having Korea-U.S. allied forces engage in international humanitarian operations and conducting peacekeeping missions in Northeast Asia. The government issued its protests because Campbell's statements, which dealt with topics of a sensitive nature to Korean security, were made without any prior discussions at all. It is known that the Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry and other national security related government bureaus went into emergency mode trying to understand the intentions behind the general's statements.
• Kerry Says Security Comes First
  Less Emphasis on Democracy Abroad By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, May 30, 2004; Page A01
  Kerry also accused the administration of having no plan to deal with North Korea's rush to build its nuclear weapons arsenal. He derided the Bush administration's long effort to set up six-nation talks to resolve the impasse over North Korea's nuclear ambitions as a "fig leaf" designed to cover up its failure to have a coherent policy. Kerry said he would immediately begin bilateral negotiations with North Korea -- a goal the Pyongyang government has long sought. But, perhaps in a nod to the sensitivities of the Japanese, the South Koreans and the Chinese, he said he would not abandon the six-nation talks. "I would keep them both going," Kerry said. "I would do the six-party [talks], but I would engage in bilateral discussions." The Bush administration has argued that bilateral talks would reward North Korea for its behavior, and has contended that it is necessary to include the other nations to ensure a regional solution. Kerry declined to say what he would offer North Korea as inducements to give up its weapons but said he would be willing to discuss a broad agenda that includes reducing troop levels on the Korean peninsula, replacing the armistice that ended the Korean War and even reunifying North and South Korea. Kerry said Bush has made a serious mistake by not talking directly with Pyongyang. Of the North Korean leader, he said his advisers -- such as former defense secretary William J. Perry and former national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger -- told him that when they were in the Clinton administration "they had no illusion that Kim Jong Il was probably cheating over here and [creating] trouble over there, but they were getting the process of a dialogue to get a verification structure." "You are better off engaged in that effort than disengaged," Kerry said.
• John Kerry on national security
  Transcript of the Democratic presidential candidate's speech given in Seattle yesterday Friday May 28, 2004 Over the next 10 days, our nation will come together to honor the bravery and the sacrifice of past generations of Americans. On Saturday in our nation's capital, we're going to dedicate a memorial to the heroes of the greatest generation, who won World War II. And on Memorial Day, we will salute all those who for more than two centuries made the ultimate sacrifice when America's freedom was on the line
  And in East Asia, North Korea poses a genuine nuclear threat while we have begun to strip American forces from that peninsula to relieve the overburdened forces in Iraq. In the coming week, I will also offer specific plans to build a new military capable of defeating enemies both new and old, and stop the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
• US Seeks to Pullout 12,000 Troops
  By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter The United States notified Seoul last June of its intention to pull out 12,000 of the 37,000 troops stationed in South Korea, a senior Chong Wa Dae official said on Friday. It is the first official confirmation by the South Korean government of the plan for a significant reduction of U.S. forces here.
• No Change in ROK-US Alliance: Campbell
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter South Korea and the United States will remain ``reliable and interoperable allies'' and continue to maintain regional stability, even if American troops stationed on the peninsula are reduced, Lt. Gen. Charles C. Campbell, ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) chief of staff, said on Tuesday.
• South Korea Stakes Its Future on Keeping Peace With North
  By JAMES BROOKE Published: May 25, 2004 SEOUL, South Korea, May 24 - News that North Korea may have joined an international nuclear black market, selling uranium hexafluoride to Libya, was a Page 2 article on Monday for South Korea's five most influential newspapers. Instead, journalistic excitement here is vibrating around a meeting on Wednesday between a North Korean general and a South Korean general, the first such meeting since the Korean War, half a century ago. Once again, Seoul and Washington are separated by a deep panic gap. While the United States struggles to ascertain whether North Korea is crossing an invisible line concerning its nuclear activities, South Korea struggles to keep the peace on the peninsula. [Friction] [Collapse]
• KCNA on U.S. Much Ado about "Missile Threat" from DPRK
  Pyongyang, May 22 (KCNA) -- The U.S. administration is busy making much ado about the "missile threat" from the DPRK, while speeding up the establishment of the dangerous "missile defence system (MD)". Some days ago, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department said that the U.S. would continue to pursue the strong non-proliferation policy as north Korea's missile proliferation is posing a threat to the world. Earlier, the director of the Missile Defence Agency of Pentagon disclosed that the interceptor missiles to be deployed in Alaska before September are aimed to protect the U.S. mainland from north Korea's missiles.
• GNP Hints at Switching Sides on Troop Dispatch
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter Kim Deog-ryong, floor leader of the opposition Grand National Party (GNP), on Monday said that the party is open to discussions on the controversial plan to send additional troops to Iraq to help U.S. led operations in the war-torn country. ``As long as it doesn't hurt our international credibility, we may discuss the issue again,'' Kim said during his meeting with Cheon Young-se, whip of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP). Kim's remarks mark a departure from the former position of the GNP which has been an avid supporter of the troop dispatch plan
• U.S.-Korean ties still strong, says Ban
  Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said yesterday the U.S.-Korea alliance was "the central pillar" of the Roh administration's foreign policy, despite the strong perception of rising anti-American sentiment among a younger generation of Koreans.
• DPRK FM Spokesman Refutes U.S. "Report on Human Rights and Democracy"
  Pyongyang, May 21 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK gave an answer to a question put by KCNA Friday as regards the U.S. recent release of a "report on human rights and democracy" in which it again slandered the DPRK. He said: The U.S. Department of State in its "report on human rights and democracy" issued on May 17 absurdly asserted that the human rights issue in the DPRK has become an object of international debate and it is being taken up by the six-party talks, assessing as it pleased the human rights situation in at least 100 countries and regions.
• Ruling Party Unfazed by US Troop Redeployment
  By Mike Weisbart The U.S. plan to remove 4,000 troops from South Korea should not be a source of concern because steps are being taken to fill any potential security vacuum created by their departure, Chung Eui-yong, an incoming Uri Party lawmaker, said on Friday.
• US Team to Finish Long Dig for Remains in NK
  By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter A group of U.S. officials will visit South Korea next Wednesday after wrapping up their 52 days of operation in North Korea to unearth the remains of U.S. soldiers missing or killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) officials said on Friday.
• North's rhetoric rises over shift
  A North Korean envoy to the United Nations has denounced planned redeployments of U.S. forces in Korea, but has also raised a new offer of a peace treaty. Han Song-ryol, Pyeongyang's deputy UN ambassador said, "Analysts view the announcement on the U.S.'s redeployment in Korea as being aimed at a preemptive strike against the North, raising the potential for a second Korean War."
• Seoul Ready for US Redeployment
  Roh Seeks to Set Up 'Cooperative Self-Defense' System By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter President Roh Moo-hyun on Thursday ordered measures be taken to set up a ``cooperative self- defense'' system to cope with the relocation of some of the U.S. forces here to Iraq. Roh also called on the nation to approach the redeployment calmly, saying it has long been anticipated, presidential spokesman Yoon Tai- young said.
• Remains of More Patriots Unearthed in DPRK
  Sinchon, May 18 (KCNA) -- Remains of more patriots killed by the U.S. imperialist aggressors during the Fatherland Liberation War were recently unearthed in Sinchon, South Hwanghae Province. Remains of Four patriots were unearthed from a hollow 2m long, 90cm wide and 70cm deep in a mountain north of Sinchon Township. Some of the cranial bones were riddled with bullets and others were completely broken. Carpals were left tied double or treble with copper wires 3.5mm in diameter. The extreme ends of the wires were seen twisted about 20 times. Also discovered there were copper wires used in binding patriots together, shoes, leather belts, cartridges, bottles, spoons and others.
• U.S. Plan for Preemptive Nuclear Attack Denounced
  Pyongyang, May 19 (KCNA) -- The United States stages joint war games with Japan and south Korea more than a hundred time every year. Entering this year, "Iron Atef" and "Freedom Banner 04" maneuvers, "RSOI" and "Foal Eagle" joint war rehearsals have been staged. This has created a dangerous situation on the Korean peninsula in which a nuclear war may break out any moment.
• U.S. Arms Buildup in S. Korea under Fire
  Pyongyang, May 18 (KCNA) -- The United States is getting feverish in the arms buildup, while ceaselessly shipping ultra-modern military equipment and latest weapons into south Korea. These are the dangerous moves to escalate the military confrontation on the Korean peninsula and increase its military pressure upon the DPRK and acts of aggression against it.
• U.S., Wirepuller of Kwangju Massacre
  Pyongyang, May 18 (KCNA) -- May 18 is the 24th anniversary of the heroic Popular Uprising in Kwangju, south Korea. Kwangju people turned out in the uprising against the rule of the U.S. imperialists and south Korean military fascists and for national sovereignty, democratization of society and the country's reunification. But their uprising was converted into a bloodbath. The Kwangju massacre was wirepulled by the U.S.
  According to the south Korean Yonhap News Agency, the precursor of the Yonhap News, in late February Juche 85(1996), J. Wickham who was the commander of the south Korea-based U.S. forces at the time of the uprising admitted at a public meeting that he approved the commitment to Kwangju of the 20th division of the south Korean army. And according to south Korean Radio No. 1 Washington correspondent in early May 1997, William Gleysteen, the then U.S. ambassador to south Korea, said in his message sent to the U.S. State Department that he gave agreement to the south Korean authorities to use armed forces in Kwangju.
• U.S. Rights Report Is Released After Delay
  By BRIAN KNOWLTON, International Herald Tribune Published: May 17, 2004
  ASHINGTON, May 17 - The State Department's annual report on United States efforts to promote human rights and democracy around the world often receives barely passing attention. This year's version, released today, was different. The abuse of prisoners by American troops in Iraq is the sort of behavior routinely denounced in these reports (along with some conduct that is far worse) when it happens in other countries. Those countries - places like Iran and Burma and North Korea - routinely chafe at the criticism.
  This year, the report's original release date of May 5 came during the first blast of disastrous publicity over abuse and humiliation of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison. The coincidence proved more than awkward.
• Ban Says US Pullout Will Not Endanger Security
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter South Korea's Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday there would be no security vacuum despite the planned redeployment of some U.S. forces stationed here to Iraq, thanks to the allies' strong combined defense posture. The remark came a day after U.S. President George W. Bush called President Roh Moo-hyun to reconfirm Washington's commitment to defend its Asian ally under their firm alliance despite the Pentagon plan to relocate a brigade of 3,600 troops from the 37,000-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) to Iraq.
• Spokesman for DPRK FM. Denounces U.S. Sanctions against Cuba and Syria
  Pyongyang, May 16 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry Sunday gave an answer to a question put by KCNA as regards the U.S. intensified sanctions against Cuba and Syria.
• US to Send Part of Troops Here to Iraq
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter The United States has informed South Korea of its plan to move some of its 37,000 troops stationed here to Iraq, officials in Seoul said on Monday. The redeployment plan, if materialized, will likely affect significantly Seoul's plan to send some 3,000 additional forces for Iraqi rehabilitation efforts, which has repeatedly been delayed since April, as well as the security posture on the Korean theater.
• Roh Empowered to Redefine ROK-US Ties
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Fresh from the just-wrapped impeachment case, President Roh Moo-hyun has emerged stronger with the envisioned support from a majority parliamentary force of his Uri Party. Now the bone of contention in diplomatic circles is whether the head of state will be able to seek a sound vision in his remaining four years for relations with the nation's most important diplomatic partner, the United States.
• N. Korean Diplomats' Visit Exposes Rift
  JEREMIAH MARQUEZ Posted on Thu, May. 13, 2004 Associated Press LOS ANGELES - A rare visit by two North Korean dignitaries exposed just how wide the political rift remains in Southern California's Korean- American community. War veterans want to isolate the North. A younger generation strives for contact and reconciliation. The divide was on full display this week when about 100 veterans jeered and sprayed water on diplomats accepting a $20,000 check from a local group to aid victims of last month's deadly train explosion in North Korea. The Korean American Federation of Los Angeles invited the diplomats as a gesture of goodwill toward the reclusive communist regime. But for veterans and many others, the legacy of the Korean War remains too bitter for friendship. [Diaspora]
• U.S. Moves to Establish Missile Interceptor Defence System Condemned
  Pyongyang, May 13 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the National Democratic Front of South Korea issued a statement to the press on May 8, castigating the U.S. for pushing ahead with the moves to establish the missile interceptor defence system against the DPRK at a very dangerous stage, according to Kuguk Jonson Internet site. The Bush bellicose group is pushing ahead with the moves to establish the missile interceptor defence system at a time when the six-party talks for the settlement of the nuclear issue are under way, the spokesman said, pointing out this clearly proves that the U.S. preparations for a war against the northern half of Korea have been completed to enter the phase of practice as it is one more grave provocation for preemptive attacks which is little different from the declaration of a war on the north of Korea. [Belligerence] [Missile Defense]
• Sinister Aim of U.S. Deceptive "Reduction" of Armed Forces Disclosed
  Pyongyang, May 13 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists' plan for the reduction of their armed forces means a plan to reorganize and beef up their armed forces as it is aimed to maintain and strengthen their military position in the Asia-Pacific region and to more effectively enforce their policy of strength, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article carried in connection with the U.S. announcement that it would cut down some of its forces in the region in a few years to come.
• Harrison Faults Bush Administration for Rejecting Step-by-Step Accords to Halt North Korea's Nuclear Program
  Selig S. Harrison, director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy and a longtime expert on North Korea, says Pyongyang is "eager" to start step-by-step negotiations with Washington to freeze and end its nuclear program. But the United States, Harrison says, refuses to take up the offer. Harrison recently returned from North Korea-his eighth visit since 1972-where he met with Kim Yong Nam, the second in command to leader Kim Jong Il, as well as with the foreign minister, the vice foreign minister, and the spokesman for the North Korean Army. A pair of six-nation talks has been held to try to resolve the sharp dispute between the United States and North Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear program. A working group of officials from the six nations-the United States, North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan, and Russia-is to start another round of talks May 12, but Harrison holds out little hope for progress. "I think it is a charade," he says. Harrison, the author of "Korean Endgame: A Strategy for Reunification and U.S. Disengagement", was interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman, consulting editor for cfr.org, on May 10, 2004.
  You recently returned from your eighth trip to North Korea. What was the mood there on making progress on the nuclear issue, which has bedeviled relations ever since 2002?
  I found the North Korean leadership extremely eager to find a way to conclude a nuclear deal with the United States. They need such a deal urgently because North Korea embarked on significant economic reforms in the middle of 2002, and these [reforms] have intensified the economic pressures that confront its leadership. These pressures make large-scale aid to modernize the country's infrastructure extremely important, particularly in the energy, water, and transportation fields. So they want improved relations with the United States. As part of that, the nuclear issue would be settled. In North Korea's plan, as its fear of the United States diminishes and as the denuclearization process proceeds, the North Koreans will be getting installments of aid in payment for, or tied to, the concessions they make in the denuclearization process. I found them very eager for settlement, but the problem is, while they're eager and they need [a deal], but they are not prepared to do it in the way the Bush administration is asking them to do it. The North Koreans say that Washington wants them to, in effect, simply roll over and disarm unilaterally.
• U.S., North need to talk, says ex-leader
  BERLIN ? Speaking on the first day of the two-day OECD Forum in Paris, South Korea's former president, Kim Dae-jung, said yesterday that the nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula will have to be resolved by talks between Washington and Pyeongyang.
  The solution to this issue is for North Korea to completely dismantle its nuclear weapons, and the United States to provide security guarantees to North Korea and help North Korea advance into the international community," Mr. Kim declared. "Because there is a lack of trust between the two countries, they must both act simultaneously or in parallel."
• Rallies set to protest U.S. abuses in Iraq
  Several civic groups said yesterday they will join in a candlelight rally tomorrow in central Seoul to protest U.S. soldiers' killing and abuse of Iraqi prisoners. They will also demand that Korea's plan to dispatch troops to Iraq be withdrawn.
• Rodong Sinmun on U.S. Persistent Anti-DPRK Moves
  Pyongyang, May 12 (KCNA) -- The U.S. is working hard to defame the authority and image of the DPRK by attaching the label of "terrorist sponsor" to it, while persistently pursuing a hostile policy toward it. This is as foolish an act as lifting an axe only to drop it on one's own feet. Rodong Sinmun says this in a commentary Wednesday. The news analyst continues: The U.S. Department of State recently released an "2003 annual report on terrorism", in which it listed again some countries including the DPRK as "sponsors of terrorism" and even brought forward the "issue of abducted Japanese" to obtain a lever to put pressure upon the DPRK. The "issue of kidnapped Japanese" over which the U.S. is making quite a noise is the one between the DPRK and Japan which was already solved through the publication of the Pyongyang declaration between the two countries and, therefore, it is none of its business.
• U.S. Plan to Erect "Monument" Flailed
  Pyongyang, May 12 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the National Democratic Front of South Korea issued a statement on May 10 denouncing the U.S. hypocritical plan to build a "memorial monument in Rogun-ri", according to internet site of Kuguk Jonson. On July 25, 1950, the Fifth Cavalry Regiment of the U.S. First Cavalry Division, while fleeing, deceived more than 400 defenceless civilians and refugees of Yongdong County, North Chungchong Province, into seeking "safety" in a tunnel in Rogun-ri and fired machine guns at them, brutally killing them. [Nogunri]
• U.S. Dangerous Moves for Missile Defence System under Fire
  Pyongyang, May12 (KCNA) -- The U.S. Defense Department, which recently decided to deploy nearly 10 interceptor missiles by the end of this year, is going full steam ahead for its materialization.
• DJ Calls for Direct NK-US Dialogue
  By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter The prolonged nuclear standoff cannot be resolved without direct dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang, South Korea's former president Kim Dae-jung said on Wednesday.
• U.S. Human Rights Abuses in Iraq under Fire
  Pyongyang, May 11 (KCNA) -- Bestial atrocities committed by the U.S. forces in Iraq glaringly reveal the true picture of the U.S.-style "defence of human rights" as they are the most hideous human rights abuses beyond human imagination, says Minju Joson today in a signed commentary. Those human rights abuses that can be seen only in the medieval age are a wanton violation and a challenge to the publicly recognized international law, universally accepted ethics and common sense related to civilization, the commentary says, and goes on:
• KCNA on Ever-Increasing Military Threat from U.S.
  Pyongyang, May 6 (KCNA) -- The United States is reported to have planned to deploy two battalions of latest type Patriot interceptor missiles in south Korea this year. South Korea is expected to organize an anti-air defence brigade in 2006 with these two battalions as its backbone. The projected formation of the brigade is part of "arms buildup plan" announced by the U.S. Defense Department last year. The plan envisages spending $11 billion for the beef-up of its military capability in south Korea.
• More voices rising against Iraq dispatch
  A day after governing party legislators raised new objections to dispatching South Korean troops to Iraq, rank-and-file lawmakers of the opposition Grand National Party joined the call yesterday for reconsideration of the plan. Representative Lee Jae-oh, a three-term lawmaker for the second largest party on the National Assembly, said, "Driving our young people to the land of death is not a matter that should be treated lightly, with lesser priority than the alliance between South Korea-United States." In a declaration on his Web site, Mr. Lee wrote: "If the governing party should propose a review of the plan, the opposition would do well to go along with it."
• KCTU Issues Declaration on Emergency Situation
  Pyongyang, May 5 (KCNA) -- The south Korean Confederation of Trade Unions reportedly made public a declaration on emergency situation titled "We should not participate in the unjust war of aggression" on May 1. Noting that the number of the countries withdrawing troops from Iraq is increasing one year since the United States invaded it, the declaration warned that if south Korea sends troops to Iraq under the pressure, it will bring a calamity to all the people.
• Warnings Go Unheeded Over North Korea Threat
  By MICHAEL R. GORDON, International Herald Tribune Published: May 7, 2004
  WASHINGTON --Imagine a former official who toiled behind the scenes on the most sensitive national security issues leaving the Bush Administration in frustration and now charging that White House policies have left the United States exposed to a dangerous and growing threat.
  I am not referring to Richard Clarke, the former National Security Council aide whose criticism of the Bush Administration's counterterrorism policies rocked Washington, but to Charles Pritchard, a retired U.S. Army colonel and the former point man on North Korea for the U.S. secretary of state, Colin Powell. Jack Pritchard, as he is known around Washington, is not a celebrity. He does not have a best-selling book. He makes more appearances at research institutes than at talk shows. But for months he has warned that the White House lacks an effective strategy to dissuade North Korea from building up its nuclear arms.
  After three-party talks involving the United States, North Korea and China were arranged last year, Pritchard was expected to be the envoy. But senior State Department officials persuaded Powell that he would be unacceptable to the White House because of his past work for the Clinton Administration..//..What happened convinced him that the administration's policy was unlikely to succeed. As James Kelly, the State Department's top official on Asia, prepared for the three-party talks, Pritchard said he had drafted negotiating instructions that would allow Kelly to engage in "pull-aside," or informal discussions, with the North Koreans. The proposal for pull-aside discussions, he says, were cast aside after Kelly convened an interdepartmental meeting and hard-liners from Vice President Dick Cheney's staff and the Defense Department objected.
• North appears set to test new missile engines
  North Korea appears to be preparing for a series of tests on long-range ballistic missile engines, diplomatic sources and defense officials said yesterday. The resumption of testing comes almost a year and a half after an explosion at a missile testing complex in North Hamgyeong province severely damaged the facilities. [Missile defense]
• Troop Dispatch Likely to Be Delayed Further
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter South Korea's additional troop dispatch to Iraq will likely be further delayed, possibly until June.
• US Embassy to Be Relocated to Yongsan Garrison: Goh
  By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter Acting President and Prime Minister Goh Kun on Tuesday said the United States Embassy in Seoul will be relocated to the Yongsan Garrison, headquarters of the U.S. Forces Korea.
• Report on NK Human rights act
  Report 108-478 Pt. 1, the House International Relations Committee report on HR 4011, the North Korean Human Rights Act.
• U.S. Accusations against DPRK over "Issue of Terrorism" Denounced
  Pyongyang, May 3 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry in an answer to the question put by KCNA Sunday denounced the United States for putting again the DPRK, the world recognized anti-terrorist state, on the list of "terrorist nations" in a foolish bid to impair its image, persistently pursuing the hostile policy towards it. The U.S. Department of State in its "annual report on terrorism in 2003" made public on April 29 listed the DPRK and some other countries as "sponsors of terrorism" for their strong opposition to the U.S. policy of aggression and terrorism.
• New Suspicions Arise on NK's Missiles
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter North Korea is showing signs that it will not give up its missile arsenal, one of its few cash cows, despite enormous pressure by the outside world. [Missile Defense]
• North Deploys New 4,000Km Range Missiles
  North Korea has begun work on deploying intermediate range ballistic missiles (with ranges of 3,000~4,000km) it developed last year, building underground bases at two sites. This is much sooner than South Korean and American military authorities had expected. A high ranking government source said Tuesday that, "North Korea is in the middle of building two underground missile sites in Yangdok County, South Pyongan Province and Sangnam-ni, Hochon County, North Hamgyeong Province. Construction is about 70 to 80 percent complete." The source added, "In particular, U.S. spy satellites have discovered about 10 of the newly designed IRBMs and mobile launchers at the two sites between last year and the beginning of this year... We presume these bases to be for a new kind of ballistic missile, not Rodong 1's or Scud's." Of the ranges of missiles currently deployed in North Korea, the Rodong 1 has the longest at 1,300 km -- capable of hitting most anywhere in Japan. The Taepodong 1, developed in 1998 and with a range of 1,600~2,200 km, has yet to be deployed. The source said the threat posed by the new missile, which can reach Okinawa, Gwam and the vicinity of Hawaii, is part of the background behind the hastened development by the U.S. of its missile defense plans.
• At least 210 Cases of U.S. Aerial Espionage against DPRK in April
  Pyongyang, May 1 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists committed more than 210 cases of aerial espionage against the DPRK in April by mobilizing strategic and tactical reconnaissance planes with different missions, according to military sources. At least 30 espionage flights were made by U-2 and overseas-based RC-135, E-3, EP-3 and P-3. The tactical reconnaissance planes including RC- 12 and RC-7B that flew over Phochon, Chunchon and Rinje to spy on major military targets of the DPRK on the forefront area numbered 9 on April 16 and 8 on April 8 and 20 each.
• New Suspicions Arise on NK's Missile Buildup
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter North Korea is showing signs that it will not give up its missile arsenal, one of its few cash cows, despite enormous pressure by the outside world. The North was found to be building two underground bases for the early deployment of its new missiles with a range of 3,000-4,000 kilometers, according to sources on Tuesday. Citing its routine practice not to comment on military intelligence, the Defense Ministry refused to conform whether it was true the missile bases were being built in the two regions _ Yangdok in South Pyongan Province and Sangnam in North Hamgyong Province. [Missile Defense]
• North Korean Novelists, Poets Satirize Bush
  By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter An increasing number of North Korean literary magazines have begun to publish works satirizing U.S. President George W. Bush's hostile attitude toward the reclusive nation, amid the lingering standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. Most of the poems and stories are critical of Bush, lampooning his hardline security policy.
• This Time It's Real: An Antimissile System Takes Shape
  By JAMES GLANZ Published: May 4, 2004
  Officials at the Missile Defense Agency have said the system was developed to stop what they characterize as unsophisticated threats from budding nuclear powers like North Korea, not the highly developed arsenals of Russia or China. Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said the election, not any imminent threat, was behind the decision to deploy before full tests.
  Even if all elements of the giant program work just as in the computer simulations that the Pentagon is using to train the people who will operate the shield, some experts do not see the point. The cold war geopolitical landscape in which the system was conceived has shifted out from under it, said Dr. Dean A. Wilkening, director of the science program at the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation.
  "I don't understand the rush to deploy by 2004," Dr. Wilkening said. "I simply don't see the threat." [Missile Defense]
• Abuse of Iraqi POWs Re-Ignites Opposition to Troop Dispatch
  By Na Jeong-ju Staff Reporter A civic alliance on Monday urged the government to scrap a plan to send additional troops to Iraq as the U.S.-led coalition forces are facing a global uproar over alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners of war. ``It would be a severe blow to our global image if the government dispatches additional troops to Iraq as an ally of the U.S.,'' a coalition of 351 civic groups said. ``The South Korean government should call off its dispatch plan immediately, and take a step to call back in our troops that are already active in Iraq
• Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003
  US State Department, April 2004
  The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since the bombing of a Korean Airlines flight in 1987. Following the attacks of September 11, Pyongyang began laying the groundwork for a new position on terrorism by framing the issue as one of "protecting the people" and replaying language from the Joint US-DPRK Statement on International Terrorism of October 2000. It also announced to a visiting EU delegation that it planned to sign the international conventions against terrorist financing and the taking of hostages and would consider acceding to other antiterrorism agreements. At a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi in Pyongyang in September 2002, National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong Il acknowledged the involvement of DPRK "special institutions" in the kidnapping of Japanese citizens and said that those responsible had already been punished. Pyongyang has allowed the return to Tokyo of five surviving abductees and is negotiating with Tokyo over the repatriation of their family members remaining in North Korea. The DPRK also has been trying to resolve the issue of harboring Japanese Red Army members involved in a jet hijacking in 1970- allowing the repatriation of several family members of the hijackers to Japan. Although it is a party to six international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism, Pyongyang has not taken substantial steps to cooperate in efforts to combat international terrorism.
• US to Post Missile Brigade
  By Oh Young-jin Staff Reporter United States Forces Korea (USFK) will deploy a new air defense brigade equipped with two Patriot anti-missile missile battalions this year, USFK officials said on Friday
• Statements Opposing North Korea Freedom Act and North Korea Human Rights Act
  Bay Area organizations, Korea Solidarity Committee and Korean Americans United for Peace, are gravely concerned about the proposed North Korea Freedom Act (NKFA S. 1903, H.R. 3573) and North Korea Human Rights Act (NKHRA H.R. 4011). The bills are composed of hostile measures that threaten to derail prospects for peace in the Korean peninsula, while falling short of meaningfully addressing human rights issues in North Korea. The two Bay Area organizations support a recently released statement by 11 South Korean civil society groups which criticizes the proposed legislation and calls for U.S. legislators to adopt policy towards North Korea based on mutual respect and engagement. [human rights]
• North Korean press is world's least free
  In its annual survey on freedom of the press, the U.S.-based non-profit organization Freedom House announced that South Korea ranked 68 among 193 nations surveyed, while North Korea ranked 193, or last. [Media]

• North Korea's Hair Unapparent
  By Anthony Faiola Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, April 29, 2004; Page C01 SEOUL -- North Korean ruler Kim Jong Il's surprise summit in China last week took the top off of at least one of the Pyongyang government's best-kept secrets: The Dear Leader is losing his famed big hair. Indeed, the familiar profile of Kim, 62, has long been characterized by his luxuriously piled bouffant. But in a photo-op during his trip to Beijing that ended last week, Kim turned his back to the rolling cameras in a fateful moment to embrace Chinese leaders. Then, boom, it came into focus -- the shiny patches of the Dear Scalp glistening between strategically combed curls. [Bizarre] [Media]
• Korean trade expert offers advice on Iraq
  A senior trade official returning from Baghdad advised Korean companies to think more along the lines of life and death rather than profits when it comes to doing business in Iraq. Kim Kyu-sik, a director of the Korea Trade- Investment Promotion Agency, said yesterday that trade channels to Iraq have been shut down because of violence. During a brief visit to Korea to attend a conference on restoration projects in Iraq, Mr. Kim added that the situation was worse than foreign news reports had described and that resources in Iraq have almost dried up completely. The trade expert encouraged companies to set up ties with neighboring Middle Eastern countries instead of directly involving themselves in Iraq.
• U.S. in S.Korea to Cut DMZ Role But Still in Charge
  By REUTERS Published: April 27, 2004 Filed at 2:07 a.m. ET SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States will sharply cut its presence later this year in the truce village in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Koreas but the U.S.-led U.N. force will still command the unit, the military said on Tuesday.
• Powell Sees Nuke Opportunity from N. Korean Visit
  By REUTERS Published: April 26, 2004 Filed at 8:54 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington sees an opportunity for progress on talks to end North Korea's suspected nuclear arms programs after its leader visited China last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Monday. He dismissed the idea held by many Korean analysts that the North's reclusive leader, Kim Jong-il, was stalling talks to see if November's U.S. election would bring in a new president to negotiate with.
• North irate at move of U.S. troops from DMZ
  The North Korean Army announced yesterday that it would "re-examine" the armistice agreement that suspended the Korean War and agreements between Pyeongyang and the United Nations Command. The announcement said, with probably unintended irony, that the United States would no longer be fulfilling its responsibility under the armistice if it withdrew its troops from the Joint Security Area, the small border enclave that includes Panmunjeom.
• No nuclear exports, North says
  North Korea's foreign minister, Paek Nam-sun, told a visiting U.S. scholar last week that his country would never transfer nuclear materials or know-how to terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda. He was rebutting an assertion made by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney earlier this month. Selig Harrison, director of the Asia program at the Center for International Policy, quoted Mr. Paek's remarks to the Associated Press on Saturday in Beijing after a trip to North Korea last week. "We denounce Al Qaeda," Mr. Harrison said, quoting the North Korean official. "We will not transfer them because our nuclear program is for self-defense." But Mr. Harrison also added that Kim Yong-nam, the North's nominal head of state, told him that such a policy did not extend to missile exports
• KPA to Take Necessary Measure against U.S. Unilateral Action
  Pyongyang, April 25 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Panmunjom Mission of the Korean People's Army released the following statement Sunday: On April 13 the south Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff formally announced that the south Korean army would take over the guard duty in the Joint Security Area (JSA) in Panmunjom so far performed by the U.S. forces and even the Oryonggye post, the last U.S. forces' post in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) handed over to it. On April 11 the commander of the U.S. forces in south Korea made a similar statement at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee. The KPA side and the U.S. forces side have ensured the security in the JSA in Panmunjom for the last more than 50 years since the ceasefire in accordance with the Armistice Agreement and the agreement made in the subsequent period. The U.S. forces side, however, announced all of a sudden that it would completely withdraw its forces from the JSA and DMZ and deploy there soldiers of the south Korean army, which is neither a signatory to the AA nor a member of the "allied forces", in disregard of the AA and points agreed upon between the two sides.
• Dubious Threat, Expensive Defense
  Jackson Diehl Monday, April 26, 2004; Page A23 By now it's common knowledge that before Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration's attention was focused not on terrorism but on other national security priorities -- most notably missile defense. The administration's more reasonable defenders argue that this was a forgivable miscalculation, and that after al Qaeda's attack on New York and Washington, President Bush utterly remade his agenda.
  Only he didn't -- at least not in one large respect. The president may have declared war on terrorism and launched invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. But for the past 21/2 years, his Pentagon has quietly but implacably persisted in pursuing, without alteration, the previous No. 1 mission. The result is a breakneck, hugely expensive and quite risky attempt to build and activate a national missile defense before the November election.
  There's been bipartisan agreement on developing missile defenses for some time in Washington. But the Bush enterprise is different. It's a project being pursued with a lack of safeguards that could be justified only by a national emergency. Its logic is that the greatest threat to this country is not a terrorist's smuggling of a dirty bomb or nuclear weapon but the possibility of a surprise missile attack by North Korea.
  That threat looked somewhat plausible six years ago, when North Korea tested a missile possibly capable of reaching Hawaii and parts of Alaska with a heavy payload. But the regime of Kim Jong Il hasn't tested since then; it is currently negotiating about giving up its arsenal. Though the North probably has several nuclear weapons, no one believes it has built a miniaturized warhead capable of being placed on a long-range missile. No other hostile country has, or will have soon, a missile that can reach the United States. [Missile defense]
• N.Korea Says to Push Ahead with Nuclear Deterrent
  Sat Apr 24, 1:42 AM ET BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea (news - web sites) will push ahead with its nuclear deterrent, saying time is not on President Bush (news - web sites)'s side in trying to resolve the atomic crisis, a U.S. expert on North Korea said on Saturday after meeting top officials in Pyongyang. The officials had also vowed never to let nuclear weapons fall into the hands of al Qaeda or other militants, he said. Selig Harrison, of the Center for International Policy in Washington, quoted the officials as dismissing Bush's insistence on complete, irreversible and verifiable dismantling of North Korea's nuclear program up front, and laying out a deal for an initial freeze. "He (Bush) may be trying to gain time, but time is not on his side," Harrison quoted Kim Yong-nam, president of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly and North Korea's number two leader, as saying. "We are going to use this time 100 percent effectively to strengthen our nuclear deterrent, quantitatively and qualitatively." In response to allegations by Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) that North Korea could proliferate nuclear technology, Kim said there was a clear distinction between missiles and nuclear material. "There can be trade in missiles but in regard to nuclear material our policy, past, present and future, is that we would never allow such a transfer to al Qaeda or anyone else," Harrison quoted Kim as saying. Foreign Ministry officials said they expected a third round of six-party talks comprising the two Koreas, China, Russia, the United States and Japan before the end of June and working group meetings in late May
• Cancel Iraq dispatch, party says
  Kwon Young-ghil, the chairman of the Democratic Labor Party, said yesterday that his party would try to overturn the decision to send Korean troops to Iraq when the new National Assembly opens on June 5
• Kim Yong Nam Meets U.S. Guest
  Pyongyang, April 23 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, met and had a talk with Selig Harrison, senior researcher of the U.S. Woodrow Wilson Center, at the Mansudae Assembly Hall today. Present was Kim Kye Gwan, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs.
• 'Plan of Attack' Discusses North Korea, Too
  Bob Woodward's "Plan of Attack," which has won major popularity for recording the behind-the-scenes story of the American war in Iraq, contains information related to North Korea. Released on April 19, the Chosun Ilbo will transcribe excerpts from the book that deals with North Korea. ? Rumsfeld Requests Plan for Korean War Right after assuming office in 2001, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered that a report be submitted concerning war preparation plans in case of another war in Korea. Defense Department strategists thus briefed Rumsfeld with Contingency Plan 5027. At a later interview with Woodward, Rumsfeld said he was dumbfounded after hearing the briefing because the strategic plan was old-fashioned, mainly focusing on how to mechanically transfer large number of U.S. troops to South Korea. President George W. Bush and Rumsfeld had different ideas and strategies. Rumsfeld threw in questions like "Does North Korea have nuclear devices or not?" or "Did the North Korean army gain military strength or not?" but Defense Department officials could not answer his questions. Admiral Edmund Giambastiani said the only choice the Contingency Plan 5027 offered was whether to use a rhetorical device or use 75 butcher hammers to kill mosquitoes. In other words, the only solution was either through diplomacy or confrontation. On the Saturday of early August in 2001, Rumsfeld finally called in all the defense officials and ordered to revise all major contingency plans. ? Axis of Evil When Bush talked of an "Axis of Evil" in his early 2002 State of the Union address, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and White House top aide Steven Hadley suggested that Bush include North Korea and Iran on the list, fearing that Bush's remark would sound like a declaration of war against Iraq. Clearly, North Korea and Iran were candidates as they supported terrorism and were pursuing weapons of mass destruction. Bush liked the idea of grouping the three countries as one. However, Rice and Hadley later advised removing Iran from the list due to its complex internal situation, to which Bush said "No." U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was shocked at Bush's persistence with this"Axis of Evil" idea and thus realized that Bush would soon carry it out into action. (englishnews@chosun.com )
• DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesman Blasts Cheney's Anti-DPRK Remarks
  Pyongyang, April 18 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to the question put by KCNA today@as regards the reckless remarks made by U.S. Vice- president Cheney inciting bitterness towards the DPRK during his tour of Asian@countries: According to press reports, Cheney pulled up the DPRK, asserting that it poses a threat to peace and it is so dangerous as to@spread nuclear and missile technology to such terrorist organizations as "Al Qaeda."
• Cheney's Visit to Chongwadae Protested
  Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) -- The People's Action against Troop Dispatch to Iraq reportedly called a press conference in front of Chongwadae on April 16 in protest against U.S. Vice- president Cheney's visit to it.
• MIA searches
  Memorandum on Areas In Which US/DPRK Joint Recovery Operations Have Been Conducted 1996-2004 By Ashton Ormes April 8, 2004 Research Director of Defense Prisoner of War, Missing Personnel Office It is estimated that the remains of over 5,000 Americans lost in the Korean War are still in the DPRK. Since 1996, the US Department of Defense's POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) has been successful in arranging with the government of the DPRK for the joint recovery of the remains these American servicemen.
• Koreans on US: Can't live with 'em, or without 'em
  By David Isenberg WASHINGTON - Americans: can't live with them, can't live without them. Crudely stated, but not by much. That is the conclusion of many South Koreans and foreign analysts, and this anti-US sentiment - with major implications for US security policy - goes beyond the actions of the administration of President George W Bush. "Many South Koreans appear to share the generalized belief that their nation is not treated with respect by the US, substantial minorities have expressed the view that US-South Korean differences are attributable to differences in values (which typically cannot be negotiated), and large majorities indicated that their unfavorable attitudes are not specific to the current [US] administration," said a recent study by the RAND Corp, a federally funded US contractor.
• U.S. Much Ado about "Threat from North Korea" Refuted
• Bipartisanship Needed on Policy Toward US
  By David I. Steinberg Director, Asian Studies, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University The elections of April 15 for the 17th National Assembly, that will take office on May 30, was one of the most exciting and significant of all such elections since the founding of the Republic. This is the first liberal assembly since the strengthening of the democratic process in Korea.
• U.S. Effort on Arms Opposed
  Security Council Members Seek to Limit Resolution By Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, April 20, 2004; Page A16 UNITED NATIONS, April 19 -- Pakistan, Brazil, Germany and other Security Council members are working to scale back a U.S. initiative meant to halt the spread of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons to terrorist groups, on grounds the proposals could subject governments to sanctions and weaken the international system of disarmament treaties.
  Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, called the resolution "a step in the right direction," but said the Bush administration has weakened its own case because it hasn't done more to disarm. "This resolution is being interpreted as a 'Do as I say, not as I do' diktat, because it's calling on other states to comply with standards that don't necessarily apply to the United States," he said
• Honolulu-Pyongyang ties
  After few months of work and conversations in South Korea, Spain and USA, the City and County of Honolulu became the first in the history to offer a friendship agreement with Pyongyang
• Remains of U.S. MIAS to be Recovered in North Korea
  The Department of Defense announced that U.S. and North Korean specialists began preliminary work today in North Korea to prepare to recover the remains of Americans missing in action from the Korean War. For the first time since these operations began in 1996, supplies and equipment were transported across the demilitarized zone to U.S. recovery teams. This arrangement was made through negotiations led by the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office in February. And, for the first time since 1999, U.S. remains, accompanied by recovery team members, will return across the demilitarized zone (DMZ) at the end of each operation. 12 April 2004
• U.S and Japan Urged to Discontinue Military Provocations against DPRK
  Pyongyang, April 3 (KCNA) -- If the United States and Japan persist in military provocations aimed to stifle the DPRK at any cost, it cannot but take a necessary self- defensive countermeasure
• Joint Military Drills Staged in Area near MDL
  Pyongyang, April 2 (KCNA) -- It was disclosed that the U.S. troops staged the recent large- scale joint military exercises in the area near the Military Demarcation Line in south Korea, according to a press report.
• "Conception of Northeast Asian Security Organization" Termed Premature
  Pyongyang, April 2 (KCNA) -- Recently the United States and some other countries concerned came out with a "conception of the Northeast Asian Security Organization" with the six-way framework for the solution to the nuclear issue in mind. But it is a premature idea as it is far removed from the reality. Rodong Sinmun today says this in a signed commentary. It goes on:
  It is quite senseless to think under this dangerous situation that diplomatic relations can be established between the DPRK and the U.S. and between the DPRK and Japan. The complicated situation in the region tells that this conception is nothing but a subjective ambition ignoring the objective reality. The DPRK will not pay any attention to "the conception of the Northeast Asian Regional Security Organization" far removed from the reality but make every possible effort to increase the capacity for self-defence to effectively cope with the U.S. and Japan's immediate threat of aggression.
• U.S. Mideast Strategy Doomed to Failure - KCNA News Analyst's Article -
  Pyongyang, April 2 (KCNA) -- The United States has become all the more undisguised in its efforts for dominating the whole of the Middle East. The U.S. Mideast strategy, a main link in the whole chain of its strategy for world supremacy, is aimed to monopolize the rich oil resources in the region and, furthermore, have a military foothold for containing surrounding powers. Since the United States unilaterally launched a war of aggression against Iraq on March 20 last year allegedly to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, ignoring the protest of the United Nations and the international community, and occupied the country, it has persistently sought a strategic goal of putting the Middle East under its domination. The U.S. Mideast strategy, by and large, is prompted by two purposes -- one is to place the region under its political and military control and the other to make the whole of the region pro-America by injecting "democracy" based on the American-style view of value into the Mideast countries.
• Troops in Iraq now bound for Kurdish region
  The Ministry of National Defense announced yesterday that officials have decided to send the 3,000 troops it intends to deploy in Iraq to the relatively stable Kurdish region in the north of the country. "The United States proposed that South Korea send troops to either Irbil or Sulaimaniyah, both in northern Iraq," said Nam Dae-yon, spokesman for the defense ministry. "We will determine the final destination soon
• U.S. Aerial Espionage Numbers More than 220
  Pyongyang, April 1 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists' aerial espionage against the DPRK with strategic and tactical reconnaissance planes of different missions in March numbered more than 220, according to military sources. The number of espionage by "U-2" and "RC-135" strategic reconnaissance planes, "E-3" and "E- 8C" commanding planes and "P-3" patrol planes was at least 50 in March.
• DPRK to Take Decisive Countermeasure for Self- Defence
  Pyongyang, March 31 (KCNA) -- The DPRK will increase its nuclear deterrent force in every way and take a decisive countermeasure for self- defence when necessary in order to avert a war and defend peace in the Korean peninsula and the rest of Northeast Asia, declared a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK in an answer given to the question put by KCNA on Mar. 31 as regards the United States' decision to deploy Aegis destroyers in the East Sea of Korea to be combat-ready as part of the moves of the U.S. and Japan to jointly establish the missile defence system. The U.S. projected establishment of a naval missile interceptor system in the East Sea of Korea is the most outright hostile act against the DPRK as it is a system to wage a war against the DPRK and, furthermore, a part of its unchallenged attempt to dominate the Asia- Pacific region by rounding off the ring of military siege and containment against China and Russia, he noted and continued: Recently the U.S. announced that it would begin deploying the latest type Aegis destroyer of the U.S. Navy equipped with a missile interceptor system in the East Sea of Korea from September this year under the pretext of the DPRK's "ballistic missile threat" and wind up the establishment of the naval missile interceptor system by the end of 2005.
• KCNA Warns against U.S. Move to Establish MD
• Dream-Filled Missile Silos
  Published: April 1, 2004 The Pentagon is foolishly racing to deliver on President Bush's grandiose 2000 campaign promise to have a still unproven, money-munching missile defense system deployed in time for the November election. It's supposed to provide protection against incoming ballistic missiles. But, so far, the rush into the old "Star Wars" dream amounts to an extravagant political shield.
  There is no denying the theoretical virtue of a missile shield, considering the threat that North Korea or some other rogue nation may eventually present to the United States mainland.
• USFK in Dispute Over Bullet Train
  By Byun Duk-kun Staff Reporter A controversy erupted on Wednesday after a U.S. military newspaper reported that the United States Forces Korea (USFK) was trying to get free rides on the country's new high-speed bullet train service for its personnel on official duty.

• Large-Scale U.S.-South Korea Landing Exercise in S. Korea
  Pyongyang, March 28 (KCNA) -- The U.S. troops and the south Korean army staged a large-scale joint landing exercise in the area of Toksong- ri, Phohang City, North Kyongsang Province, on March 26, according to the south Korean KBS. Involved in the maneuver were at least 3,000 troops including the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Air Force and the marine landing group of the south Korean army and war equipment. The exercise was staged under the simulated conditions of a surprise landing in the rear of the "enemy" with the naval and air support in the event of "contingency". It is reportedly aimed to strengthen the system of operational cooperation between the U.S. and south Korea. This landing exercise is a drill for a war of aggression against the DPRK as it is part of the provocative large-scale joint military exercises now under way across south Korea.
• Seoul Guarding Against Terror Attacks During Cheney's Visit
  By Byun Duk-kun Staff Reporter Police and security officials are on alert against possible terrorist attacks during U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's official visit to the country on April 15-16. South Korea has already sent two units of medical and engineering troops to Iraq last year and is about to dispatch another group of some 3,000 soldiers, including combat forces, to the Middle Eastern nation in June, making the country vulnerable to terrorist attacks as other allied countries participating in the U.S.-led campaign in Iraq.
• Rumsfeld spells out realignment of forces
  With regard to the security threat posed by North Korea with the realignment of U.S. forces, he added, "The defensive capability will be healthy, strong and I would add, stronger than it is today, even though the numbers are going to change." Mr. Rumsfeld said that discussions have not been held on potential reductions.
• U.S. Neo-conservatism Assailed
  Pyongyang, March 24 (KCNA) -- The Korean Central News Agency released a lengthy article titled "U.S. neo-conservatism is fascism."
• Retired Brass Urge Delay in Antimissile Shield
  By REUTERS Published: March 26, 2004 Filed at 6:17 a.m. ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of 49 retired U.S. generals and admirals is urging President Bush to postpone the scheduled deployment this year of a multibillion dollar missile shield and spend the money instead on securing potential terror targets. In a letter to be released at a news conference Friday, the officers, including retired Admiral William Crowe, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1985 to 1989, described the complex technology as untested and a poor use of scarce defense dollars. The shield's initial goal is to protect against one or two warheads that could be launched by North Korea. But in their letter the retired brass said the United States already was able to pinpoint the source of a ballistic missile launch. ``It is, therefore, highly unlikely that any state would dare to attack the U.S. or allow a terrorist to do so from its territory with a missile armed with a weapon of mass destruction, thereby risking annihilation from a devastating U.S. retaliatory strike,'' they wrote. [Missile defense]
• Report says U.S. to pull 15,000 troops from Asia
  As part of a major realignment of U.S. forces around the world, as many as 15,000 troops will be pulled out of South Korea and Japan, according to a news report from Washington yesterday. Quoting unnamed U.S. officials the Washington Post said: "In Asia, about 15,000 troops out of a total presence of about 100,000 would be withdrawn, mostly by streamlining administrative staff of the U.S. military commands in South Korea and Japan."
• N. Korean Leader, Chinese Aide Discuss Arms
  Associated Press Thursday, March 25, 2004; Page A20 SEOUL, March 24 -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il hosted a rare meeting Wednesday with China's foreign minister to discuss the region's nuclear dispute. Beijing described the visit as a "very important contact."
  In Hong Kong, a North Korea expert said Pyongyang might skip the next round of nuclear talks because of the uncertainty caused by November's presidential election in the United States. "What are they going to do there? Now, is anybody going to strike a deal?" asked Charles L. Pritchard, a former U.S. State Department official. He was part of an unofficial delegation of Americans who toured North Korea's nuclear facility at Yongbyon in January as a way of providing confirmation that it has reprocessed spent fuel rods into plutonium. It is unlikely that President Bush will offer a deal before the election, while his Democratic rival, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, likely would start a direct dialogue with Pyongyang if he wins, Pritchard said.
• Cheney to Visit Japan, China and South Korea
  By ERIC SCHMITT Published: March 25, 2004 WASHINGTON, March 24 - Vice President Dick Cheney plans to visit China, Japan and South Korea next month to discuss North Korea's nuclear arms program, operations in Iraq and trade policy, Bush administration officials said Wednesday. It will be only his third overseas trip since taking office three years ago.
  The administration is insisting that North Korea agree first to dismantle its nuclear programs before Washington bestows any benefits, from security guarantees to economic and energy assistance. Specifically, the Americans are demanding a "complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement" of the North's nuclear programs.
• U.S. Urges Curb on Arms Traffic
  U.N. Is Given Draft Resolution to Ban Transfers to Terrorists By Colum Lynch Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, March 25, 2004; Page A20 UNITED NATIONS, March 24 -- The Bush administration presented the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday with a draft resolution that would outlaw the transfer of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons to terrorists and mercenary organizations.
  The five-page resolution would require the United Nations' 191 members to "adopt and enforce appropriate effective laws" to prevent "any non-state actor" from being able to "manufacture, acquire, possess, develop, transport or use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their means of delivery." It is to be adopted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, a provision that permits the council to use sanctions or military force to compel states to abide by its demands. The draft was agreed upon after the United States accepted a demand from China to drop a provision authorizing the interdiction of vessels suspected of transporting weapons of mass destruction, a cornerstone of the Bush administration's nonproliferation strategy. But China's ambassador to the United Nations, Wang Guangya, said Tuesday that "this interdiction [provision] has been kicked out" of the resolution. U.S. officials defended the concession, saying that an existing program, the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), provides sufficient legal authority to board ships suspected of transporting such weapons. But only 14 countries have agreed to participate in the PSI.
  U.S. officials said the resolution's chief aim is to target international terrorists, but the resolution would also require states, including alleged proliferators such as Pakistan, Iran and North Korea, to adopt new laws or regulations to enforce the ban on the transfer of prohibited weapons.
  Under the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty, only the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China may possess nuclear weapons.
• North Korean Leader Confers With Chinese Minister Li, BBC Says
  March 24 (Bloomberg) -- North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il held talks today with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing amid U.S.-led efforts to end nuclear-bomb work in North Korea, marking the first such visit by China in five years, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported.
  Charles Pritchard, a former U.S. diplomat involved in negotiations with North Korea, said today in Hong Kong that the Bush administration is ``split'' on how to solve the nuclear stalemate. ``There are many within the administration that fall under the category of hard-liners, who do not absolutely want to deal with North Korea and believe a regime change is in order,'' he said.
• North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004
  23 March 2004 The bill was introduced by Chairman Leach; co-sponsors include Rep.s Lantos, Cox, Faleomavaega, Smith (NJ), Berman, Royce, Ackerman, Chabot, and Gallegly. This bill will be marked up at the next House International Relations Committee Mark-up, which could occur next week
• Brigandish U.S. Imperialist War against Iraq and Its Aftereffects
  Pyongyang, March 20 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article terms the U.S. imperialist war against Iraq a vicious crime against history and humanity which betrayed the shameless, brigandish and outrageous nature of the U.S. imperialists as the worst aggressor nation in the world and kingpin of state- sponsored terrorism. The U.S. war which began with the attack on Baghdad with cruise missiles on March 20, 2003 was a blatant violation of the sovereignty of a legitimate independent state and an unpardonable wreckage of peace, the article says, and goes on:
• Ban Says ROK-US Harmony on Troop Dispatch
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Foreign Affairs-Trade Minister Ban Ki-moon stressed on Wednesday that there is no disagreement between Seoul and Washington over South Korea's plan to send some 3,000 troops to Iraq.
• Nowhere Is Safe in Iraq: Polish Envoy
  By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter Poland's top envoy in South Korea on Wednesday said there is no safe place for troops dispatched to Iraq, based on his country's nine-month-long experience in the war-torn country.
• Excerpts From Testimony by Clinton and Bush Officials to the Sept. 11 Commission
  Published: March 24, 2004 Following are excerpts from testimony yesterday by officials in the Bush and Clinton administrations before the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as recorded by the Federal News Service.
  FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE K. ALBRIGHT I can say with confidence that President Clinton and his team did everything we could, everything that we could think of, based on the knowledge we had, to protect our people and disrupt and defeat Al Qaeda. We certainly recognized the threat posed by the terrorist groups. . . . But I also do know that many of the policy issues that we had developed were not followed up. And I have to say with great sadness to watch an incoming administration kind of take apart a lot of the policies that we did have, whether it had to do with North Korea or the Balkans, was difficult.
• Day One Transcript: 9/11 Commission Hearing
  FDCH E-Media Tuesday, March 23, 2004; 5:30 PM
• NCC/CWS Delegation to North Korea
  Includes Humanitarian Aid, Visit to Demilitarized Zone, Worship with Church Community
  Korean Peninsula, November 17 -- A seven-member ecumenical delegation from the United States -- reported significant results from their meetings in North Korea, which took place there Nov. 11-15. The visit marks the culmination of a year-long initiative by NCC and CWS.
• Nov.17 Statement by U.S. Ecumenical Delegation to Korean Peninsula
• Delegation visits Korean peninsula, calls for more international response to crisis
  11/26/2003 An ecumenical delegation, sponsored by the National Council of Churches (NCC) and Church World Service (CWS), visited North and South Korea in mid-November, returning to the United States and calling for a broadened response to the political and humanitarian crisis on the peninsula.
• Citing U.S. military drill, North asks to delay Talks
  North Korea asked yesterday for a delay in the inter-Korean economic cooperation talks, which were scheduled to start tomorrow in Gaesong. The communist country earlier cited political anarchy in the South and is now complaining about the annual joint military exercise scheduled to take place with the United States. [Joint US military]
• KCNA Slams U.S. for Increasing Military Tension in Korea
  Pyongyang, March 19 (KCNA) -- The U.S. is going to launch Foal Eagle joint military exercises and Reception, staging, onward movement and integration (RSOI) in south Korea, defying the demand of the Korean people and the international community for a peaceful solution to the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the U.S. and a settlement of the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula.
• Increased Defence Capability Called for
  Pyongyang, March 19 (KCNA) -- The U.S. war of aggression against Iraq and the subsequent development afford a serious lesson to the people aspiring after independence and peace. Minju Joson today says this in a signed commentary carried one year after the U.S. start of military invasion against Iraq. The commentary continues: The Iraqi war was an inevitable product of the U.S. imperialists' aggressive nature and mode of existence peculiar to them. It has already been well known to the world that the United States selected Iraq as its target of invasion long ago.
• DPRK's Self-Defensive Deterrent Force Enough to Counter Any U.S. Preemptive N- Attack
  Pyongyang, March 19 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland issued a statement Friday denouncing the "reception, staging, onward movement and integration" (RSOI) and Foal Eagle joint military exercises the U.S. and the south Korean war hawks are going to stage from March 22. It says: The DPRK has a self-defensive deterrent force powerful enough to cope with any U.S. preemptive nuclear attack and wipe out aggressors to the last man.
• U.S. Urged to Ponder over Unpredictable Consequences to Be Entailed by Its Provocations
  Pyongyang, March 19 (KCNA) --The United States should ponder over the unpredictable consequences to be entailed by its provocative acts. Its threat to the supreme security of the DPRK would compel it to take strong measures for just self-defence. A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea stated this in a statement issued to the press on March 19 denouncing the United States for planning to stage together with the south Korean bellicose forces large- scale Foal Eagle joint military exercise and the reception, staging, onward movement and integration (RSOI) across south Korea from March 22 to 28. The statement branded these joint military exercises as an undisguised challenge and betrayal of the sincere efforts made by the international community and those countries concerned for a negotiated peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue.
• Some volunteer troops reconsider
  173 withdraw bids to serve in unit bound for Iraq More than 170 soldiers of the South Korean contingent selected to serve in Iraq have withdrawn their bids to join the contingent, a senior official at the Ministry of National Defense told the JoongAng Ilbo yesterday. "The military leadership is concerned that their decisions could dampen the morale of other soldiers," the official said.
• U.S. Aircraft Carrier Kitty Hawk Comes into Pusan
• "A TERRIBLE JOB ON THE WAR ON TERRORISM" THE CLARKE REVELATIONS
  March 22, 2004 By JULIAN BORGER George Bush's re-election campaign suffered a stinging blow yesterday when the president's former chief counter-terrorism adviser accused him of doing "a terrible job" in protecting America against attack, largely because of a fixation on Iraq. Richard Clarke, who retired as the White House counter-terrorism coordinator last year, accused the president of putting pressure on him to find evidence of Iraqi involvement in the September 11 attacks, despite being told repeatedly that there was no link. "I think he's done a terrible job on the war against terrorism," said Mr Clarke.
  "Rumsfeld was saying that we needed to bomb Iraq," Mr Clarke said in last night's interview. "And we all said ... no, no. Al-Qaida is in Afghanistan. We need to bomb Afghanistan. And Rumsfeld said there aren't any good targets in Afghanistan. And there are lots of good targets in Iraq."
• Intel experts: N. Korea a 'hard target'
  By Jeremy Kirk, Stars and Stripes Pacific edition, Sunday, March 21, 2004 SEOUL - As the United States looks for ways to improve intelligence collection, one of the target countries - North Korea - remains a sealed, difficult challenge, experts say. The Bush administration is studying its intelligence capabilities and how it collected information on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Also being studied: North Korea. The report is due in March 2005. U.S. military officials express confidence in existing intelligence. During a February Internet discussion, U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Leon LaPorte was questioned about the accuracy of intelligence on North Korea in light of the failings in Iraq. LaPorte ticked off a list of what the United States knows about the North Korean military: 70 percent is poised south of Pyongyang; it has the world's largest special operations force; it has an "asymmetrical threat" including biological and chemical weapons.
• Troop Dispatch Delayed With Changed Location From Northern Iraqi City of Kirkuk to Southerly Najaf Around June
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Seoul and Washington have agreed to change the site where South Korean troops will be stationed from Kirkuk in northern Iraq to a safer region in the middle of the Middle Eastern country, the Defense Ministry said on Friday.
• Cheney to Visit Seoul Next Month
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney plans to visit South Korea in mid-April, a Seoul official said on Friday.
• US, South Korea Are on the Same Side in the War on Terror
  Richard L. Armitage, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, has contributed the following article exclusively to The Korea Times on the occasion of the first anniversary of the war in Iraq. _ ED. By Richard L. Armitage US Deputy Secretary of State 19 March 2004
• Dispatch Issue Back to Square One
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter South Korea's troop dispatch to Iraq, originally slated for late April, will likely be delayed for at least a couple of months after Seoul and Washington agreed to look for another dispatch site instead of the northern city of Kirkuk. The delay is apparently due to worsening security conditions in Kirkuk and South Korea's unstable domestic political situation.
• Losing Time on North Korea
  NY Times Editorial March 18, 2004 The North Korean nuclear threat is not the kind of problem that grows easier to solve with time. If time is on anyone's side, it is on that of Pyongyang's aspiring bomb makers.
  Washington should be energetically probing for diplomatic opportunities. So far, it has merely been going through the motions.
• Cheney Enters Campaign Fray
  VP, Kerry Promote Parties' Visions of National Security By John F. Harris and Mike Allen Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, March 18, 2004; Page A01 Vice President Cheney assailed the national security credentials of Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) yesterday, accusing President Bush's Democratic rival of leaving a years-long trail of contradictory statements and votes on Iraq that he said reveal a weak-willed politician who would be a dangerous choice as commander in chief. "At least this much is clear: Had the decision belonged to Senator Kerry, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today in Iraq," Cheney said, in an aggressive defense of Bush's record as a war president. "In fact, Saddam Hussein would almost certainly still be in Kuwait."
  This view is the essence of the Democratic critique of Bush's handling of Iraq. As if to underscore it, Kerry was surrounded on stage at George Washington University by three major figures from the Democratic national security establishment of the Clinton administration: former defense secretary William J. Perry, former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright, and former Joint Chiefs chairman John M. Shalikashvili. Perry, who was a notably nonpolitical defense chief who won bipartisan praise during his tenure, said he has never participated prominently in campaign politics but was stirred to action by what he called Bush's "arrogant" foreign policy, and his failure to address constructively nuclear proliferation by North Korea.
• NORTH KOREA RAISES NUCLEAR TENSION
  Thursday, March 18, 2004 Posted: 0043 GMT (0843 HKT) South Korea has ordered heightened military vigilance against the North. SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea is raising the stakes in its standoff with South Korea and the United States, declaring that it is strengthening its "nuclear deterrent" and accusing the South of ratcheting up tensions by impeaching its president. Meanwhile, South Korea's interim leader is calling for a stronger alliance with Washington, dismissing the North's claim that the South's parliamentary impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun last week reflected U.S. interference to "install an ultra-right pro-U.S. regime" in Seoul.
• Spain Bombing Fuels Opposition to Iraq Dispatch
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Spain's move to pull its forces out of Iraq will not likely affect South Korea's troop dispatch plan, but it is providing momentum to the antiwar voices here with the first anniversary of the Iraq war approaching. With the recent terrorist bombing in Madrid causing serious repercussions in the U.S.-led alliance, Honduras announced on Wednesday that it will bring back its 370 troops in Iraq by the end of June following Spain's lead.
• Meeting with Dispersed Family Members in the N.K Gets Easier for Korean Residents in the US
  North Korea is taking an appeasement attitude toward a reunion of separated families between the Korean residents in the United States and their scattered families and relatives in the NK. The Federation of Overseas Koreans revealed that it has recently agreed with the NK to some extent on the reunion issue of separated families in and out of the North. North Korea has taken a positive attitude on this project and suggested to the Federation that it would be desirable to first decide the number of reunion people on a monthly and, then, adjust the time of visits to the NK
• KCNA Blasts U.S. Political Plot
  Pyongyang, March 16 (KCNA) -- The U.S. Department of State in a recent "annual report on drug control" groundlessly charged that the DPRK considers drug smuggling as a "state policy." This is a base and despicable political plot of the U.S. to tarnish the international image of the DPRK at any cost and internationalize and legalize "sanctions" and "blockade" against it. Some time ago the Australian Court, handling the case of the DPRK trading cargo ship "Pongsu," admitted that "the state was not involved in it" and instructed the release of its crewmen for the lack of evidence. This suffices to clearly prove that the U.S. assertion that the DPRK conducts "drug smuggling" as a state policy is a whopping lie.
• Acting President Orders Anti-Terror Steps
  By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter Acting President Goh Kun on Wednesday ordered the government to take steps to prevent possible terrorist attacks in the country due to its decision to send troops to Iraq.
• MISSILES INCOMING, AND YOU'RE PRESIDENT
  By JAMES GLANZ Published: March 17, 2004 OLORADO SPRINGS, March 16 - Call me Potus, baby. Half a dozen nuclear warheads are soaring from an East Asian country toward American cities on the computer screen in front of me, and it looks as if we are about to run short of interceptors in the missile defense system that is supposed to stop them. I have been chosen to play the role of president of the United States in this most frightening of war games.
  This is the first time anyone outside the United States military and its contractors has seen the computer-based war game that the Pentagon is using to determine how a national missile defense might perform in a nuclear attack. Called M.D.-WAR for Missile Defense Wargame and Analysis Resource, it is the tool being used to train military and civilian personnel who, led by the president, would actually make life-or-death decisions
  The launchings come from a mythical country on an island in the Sea of Japan called Midland, which is not (wink, wink) North Korea.
• North Korea Says U.S. Engineered Roh Impeachment
  By REUTERS Published: March 17, 2004 Filed at 1:58 a.m. ET SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States instigated the impeachment of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun to bring to power a pro-U.S. government, North Korea said Wednesday in its first detailed commentary on the political row. The communist North's official KCNA news agency said the opposition-led parliamentary ballot to impeach the left-leaning Roh last Friday was ``unprecedented political gangsterism'' resembling a military coup and had embarrassed all Koreans. ``The U.S. is chiefly to blame for the incident,'' KCNA said. ``The U.S. egged the South Korean political quacks, obsessed by the greed for power, on to stage such incident in a bid to install an ultra-right pro-U.S. regime there,'' it said.
• Simulated Attacks Repelled In Antimissile War Game
  U.S. Almost Exhausted Arsenal of Interceptors By Bradley Graham Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, March 17, 2004; Page A03 SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, Colo., March 16 -- In a war game run here Tuesday, a country resembling North Korea launched six ballistic missiles at the United States and put to the test an antimissile system modeled after the one being developed by the Bush administration. .
• Foreign minister affirms policies on North and Iraq
  South Korea's foreign minister, Ban Ki-moon, dismissed concerns yesterday that the impeachment of the president may hamper international efforts to address North Korea's nuclear arms programs. "The North Korean nuclear issue and the president's impeachment are completely separate matters," Mr. Ban said. "If North Korea becomes passive or decides to boycott the six-nation talks because of the impeachment, we will just have to doubt Pyeongyang's commitment to resolve the nuclear issues peacefully."
• USS Kitty Hawk arrives for joint military exercise
  [Photo]
• GIs' Arrogant Act under Fire
• U.S.-South Korea Joint Military Exercises Denounced
  Pyongyang, March 15 (KCNA) -- The United States staged a large-scale military exercise in Phyongthaek area of south Korea and announced that it would launch "reception, staging, onward- movement and integration(RSOI)" and Foal Eagle military drills till late March. These military moves are dangerous ones aimed to provoke the second Korean war. Rodong Sinmun today says this in a signed commentary.
• ROK Team Goes to Iraq on Troop Dispatch
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter South Korea's top military officials left for Baghdad on Monday to resolve differences in opinion with their U.S. counterparts over Seoul's plan to send some 3,600 troops to Iraq, officials said on Monday.
• Kitty Hawk Calls at Pusan Port
  The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk arrived at Pusan Port Monday to take part in joint military exercises next week. The flattop is to participate in the March 22-27 training, dubbed RSOI and Foal Eagle, amid unresolved tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
• U.S., South Korea to Hold War Games
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: March 16, 2004 Filed at 5:37 a.m. ET SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- The USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier sailed to South Korea for annual joint military exercises, drawing condemnation from North Korea that the war games will worsen tensions amid the crisis over the communist country's nuclear weapons program. A U.S. military spokeswoman said Tuesday that the exercises involving 8,500 American troops and an undisclosed number of South Koreans are ``defense-oriented and designed to ensure readiness and the ability to defend the Republic of Korea against external aggression.''
• U.S. Urged to Withdraw Projected Joint Military Exercises
• KERRY REMARK ON FOREIGN LEADERS FAULTED
  By JODI WILGOREN Published: March 15, 2004 BETHLEHEM, Pa., March 14 - A Republican business owner here in this November battleground state and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had the same questions Sunday for Senator John Kerry: Which foreign leaders told you they support your campaign, and when did you meet with them? The questions, in a volatile exchange at a forum here and in an interview on Fox News Sunday, stemmed from a comment that Mr. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, made last Monday at a Florida fund-raiser. It was the second time in recent days that stray comments by Mr. Kerry diverted attention from his themes of creating jobs and providing health insurance. "I just want an honest answer," Cedric Brown, 52, who owns a small sign company, told Mr. Kerry. "Were they people like Blair or were they people like the president of North Korea?" he asked, referring to the British prime minister, Tony Blair. "Why not tell us who it was? Senator, you're making yourself sound like a liar."
• Government to Keep Foreign Policy on Course
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter The government is trying to minimize any ill effects on national security issues by the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun. In his luncheon with foreign diplomats based in Seoul on Friday, Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki-moon said, ``The country's inter- Korean policy for peace and prosperity as well as foreign policy will remain unchanged.''
• Trading with the enemy
  Saturday March 13, 2004 The Guardian ˇ: The US Treasury Department has prohibited publishers from editing manuscripts from Iran, Cuba, Libya, North Korea and any other country with which trade is banned without a government licence. Publishers may be charged with "trading with the enemy", receive a fine of $500,000 and a 10-year prison sentence if they insert illustrations, correct grammar, replace inappropriate words, rearrange paragraphs or sentences or even correct a typo. [human rights]
• Army Offers Bonuses for Troops in S. Korea
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: March 14, 2004 Filed at 3:05 a.m. ET SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- The U.S. Army will offer monthly bonuses to American soldiers in South Korea for extending tours of duty, according to a statement. The new incentive program comes as the U.S. military juggles operations in Iraq and Afghanistan requiring routine injections of troops from elsewhere. Washington also is trying to upgrade its forces in South Korea as part of a global realignment that comes amid heightened concern over North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Soldiers who sign on for another year of duty in the South will get an extra $300 a month, the 8th U.S. Army said in a statement released Friday. American soldiers typically serve one year in South Korea. ``We want to keep more of our extremely well-trained soldiers on the peninsula,'' 8th Army commander Lt. Gen. Charles Campbell said. ``Retaining more of that talent in theater for a longer period of time enhances our ability to
• Joint Military Exercises of U.S. Troops and S. Korean Army Announced
  Pyongyang, March 12 (KCNA) -- It was announced that the U.S. troops and the south Korean army would launch reception, staging, onward movement and integration and Foal Eagle joint military exercises from March 22 to 28, according to the south Korean KBS. The exercises to be staged under the simulated conditions of "emergency" on the Korean peninsula are said to improve the procedures of the movement of the U.S. reinforced forces and the support by the south Korean army. The joint military exercises to be launched again this year clearly show the true intention of the war hawks including the U.S. imperialists clamouring for "dialogue" and "peace".
• KCNA Raps at U.S.-South Korea Reckless War Exercises
  Pyongyang, March 12 (KCNA) -- The U.S. forces and the south Korean army would reportedly stage the "reception, staging, onward movement and integration exercise"(RSOI) and Foal Eagle joint war exercise from March 22 to 28. This is a grave development as it will escalate the situation on the Korean peninsula where tensions still persist owing to the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the United States.
• Tripe a la Mode
  By Charles Krauthammer Friday, March 12, 2004; Page A23 Look. I know it is shooting French in a barrel. But when yet another insufferable penseur -- first Chirac, then de Villepin, now the editor of Le Monde -- starts lecturing Americans on how they ought to conduct themselves in the world, the rules of decorum are suspended. It is not John Kerry's fault that he is endorsed by a Frenchman. (Or by Kim Jong Il of North Korea, whose media have been running some of Kerry's speeches verbatim!) But Kerry has made the major -- indeed, only discernible -- theme of his foreign policy "rejoining the community of nations" and being liked abroad again. Which is why he does not just court foreign support, he boasts about it. "I've met foreign leaders, who can't go out and say this publicly," he told a Hollywood, Fla., fundraiser, "but boy they look at you and say, 'You gotta win this one, you gotta beat this guy.' " For the world. For France.
• Iraqi turmoil could delay troop dispatch
  Ongoing resistance by Iraqi guerrillas in the Kirkuk region could force a delay in the deployment of South Korean troops beyond the scheduled dispatch now slated for late April, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.
• Korean views of U.S. examined
  Noting a recent rise in anti-Americanism in South Korea, a U.S. think tank said yesterday that it found age and education to be the biggest indicators in measuring Korean sentiment toward the United States. A report by the RAND Corporation, titled "Ambivalent Allies? A Study of South Korean Attitudes Toward the U.S.," said U.S. policymakers should not give up on South Korea or South Koreans, despite the increasing criticism of the United States here
  Younger and better-educated South Koreans tended to have the least favorable view of the United States, the report said. Those with a college education or in their 20s displayed the strongest anti-American sentiment. They believed the United States poses a greater threat to their country than North Korea, the study said.
• RAND STUDY WARNS THAT SOUTH KOREANS' LONG-TERM SUPPORT FOR ALLIANCE WITH U.S. THREATENED BY DIFFERENCES OVER NORTH KOREA
  March 12, 2004 Press release on'Ambivalent allies'
• Ambivalent Allies?
  A Study of South Korean Attitudes Toward the U.S.
  ERIC V. LARSON, NORMAN D. LEVIN, SEONHAE BAIK, BOGDAN SAVYCH TR-141-SRF March 2004 Supported by the Smith Richardson Foundation Approved for public release; distribution unlimited Full text of Rand report.
• U.S. Forces Detain S. Korean Reporters
  Pyongyang, March 11 (KCNA) -- The U.S. forces detained three reporters of the south Korean KBS in Iraq on March 6, according to a south Korean KBS news report. When the south Korean side protested, they responded overbearingly, saying that if one understood the Iraqi situation, one would not think it was an excessive reaction and that the frontline soldiers treated them with utmost courtesy
• KCNA on U.S. Foolish Way of Thinking
  Pyongyang, March 11 (KCNA) -- A rumor is afloat on the international arena that the DPRK is driving the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the U.S. to a quagmire in the hope that if Bush is voted down, it would be possible to settle the nuclear issue more favorably. The Washington Times on March 6 in an article titled "North Korea hopes Bush to resign" said that north Korea is hoping President Bush from the Republican Party to fail in the U.S. presidential election slated for November and step down. We do not care where such opinion came from. But we cannot but clarify that this is nothing but sheer misinformation
• US-ROK Row May Delay Troop Dispatch to Iraq
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter South Korea's plan to deploy some 3,600 soldiers to the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk in late April will likely be delayed due to differing views between Seoul and Washington over the troops' mission and operational command. Officials from the
• What they said about...
  ... the crisis in South Korea Matt Keating Thursday March 11, 2004
  [Friction] The Wall Street Journal Asia sympathised with those worried about Mr Roh's leadership. "But they could easily have come up with better grounds for this drastic move ... Here, after all, is a man whose presidential campaign raised funds illegally to get him elected in 2002, according to prosecutors. Since then, he has put his country's national security at risk by cosying up to the nuclear-armed and totalitarian North Korea, and alienating a traditional ally, the US."
• NORTH KOREA SAYS IT DOESN'T CARE WHO WINS U.S. ELECTION
  By REUTERS Published: March 11, 2004 Filed at 1:11 a.m. ET TAIPEI (Reuters) - North Korea dismissed any idea it wanted George W. Bush to lose November's U.S. presidential election, saying Thursday the key for the winner -- Democrat or Republican -- would be to change policy toward Pyongyang.
• U.S. reported set to replace Seoul envoy
  Christopher R. Hill, 52, the current U.S. ambassador to Poland, is in line to succeed Thomas Hubbard as the ambassador to South Korea in August
• South praised for tactics in its approach to North
  In a lecture in Seoul yesterday, Wendy Sherman, former North Korea policy coordinator under the Clinton administration, praised South Korea's approach to the nuclear standoff with Pyeongyang, saying, "Engagement is the right thing."
• Conductor Ha Sung-ho Sacked for Scathing Remarks
  By Lee Yong-sung Staff Reporter the director said that the country has never been a winner through its 5,000 years of history, while praising the United States, saying that the country has achieved much in such a short history. Ha went further and even said that all Korean music has come from the US, in awkward English, according to Choi. His reckless remarks continued on the next day in San Diego, where he blamed Koreans for not coming to join the concert, compared to American audiences.
• Korean Committee For Solidarity With World's Peoples attacks US redeployment
  The United States, while redeploying its forces overseas, is advertising the relocation of its troops in south Korea as ?part of reforms? under way worldwide and claims this contributes to the ?détente?. This is nothing but sheer sophism to veil the cunning design of the U.S. imperialists because the relocation of the U. S. troops in south Korea is aimed to wind up the preparations for a war of aggression against the DPRK, block the process of confidence building between the north and the south, establish their military domination over Northeast Asia and monopolize the arms market in south Korea. The U.S. stepped-up moves to relocate its troops in south Korea are intended to finally complete the military operational preparations for the second Korean war against the DPRK, pursuant to its 'strategy for preemptive attack' and 'new operation plan 5026'
• U.S., South forces prepare yearly drill
  Two joint military drills involving U.S. and South Korean armed forces, to prepare for emergency situations on the Korean Peninsula, are scheduled to be held from March 22 to 28
• KCNA Urges U.S. to Make Switchover in Its Policy toward DPRK
  Pyongyang, March 9 (KCNA) -- U.S. State Secretary Powell at a meeting held in Washington D.C. on March 2 reiterated a unilateral assertion that north Korea should dismantle its nukes in a verifiable and irreversible manner. In a nutshell, he repeated a sophism of American style that the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the U.S. can be settled when the former drops its nuclear program first. The process of the recent Beijing six-way talks clearly proved that the U.S. insistence on this can not settle any issue.
• US Expresses Regret Over Detention of S. Korean Reporters
• Chuntering on
  Wednesday March 10, 2004 Welcome to the Backbencher, Guardian Unlimited's weekly insiders' guide to Westminster.
  The Backbencher has been thoroughly enjoying the GOP's attempts to cast doubts on John Kerry's probity. "International Man of Mystery III: Communist North Korea Is Only Government On Record Supporting John Kerry," warns GOP.com. "North Koreans Warm To Kerry Rhetoric." Worse: "Former French Environment Minister Is Kerry's First Cousin ... Various European Newspapers And Entertainers" - Liberation and Coldplay, specifically - have been endorsing the leftwinger. The Backbencher is currently awaiting delivery of her John Kerry bumper sticker, and will be giving it away to a lucky reader in due course.
• NEWSVIEW: U.S., N. KOREA DECIDE TO WAIT
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: March 10, 2004 Filed at 1:59 a.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- This may be one of those rare occasions when the United States and North Korea agree on something: Neither side seems interested in settling their long-running dispute over the communist country's nuclear weapons programs before the U.S. presidential election. Administration officials and private analysts say North Korean officials once believed President Bush was a cinch for re-election but now surmise that Democrat John Kerry has a fighting chance to win. As former State Department North Korea expert Jack Pritchard sees it, Pyongyang would rather take its chances with Kerry than open a serious negotiation before November with Bush, designator of North Korea an ``axis of evil'' member. A senior administration official privately says he shares that view.
  Pritchard also says any pre-election agreement with North Korea inevitably would involve U.S. concessions. This, he says, could alienate key segments of Bush's core supporters and invite comparisons with the failed 1994 denuclearization agreement the Clinton administration negotiated with North Korea.
• US Expresses Regret Over Detention of S. Korean Reporters
• Korean Troops to Head for Iraq April 7
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter South Korea will send some 320 soldiers to Kuwait on April 7, the first batch of its 3,600-strong contingent to be deployed in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk by late next month, officials said on Monday.
• Korean Journalists Demand US Apology
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - The South Korean journalists' association lodged a strong protest to the United States forces in Iraq on Monday, demanding an official apology for their detention of three South Korean television crew members Saturday on suspicions of carrying explosives
• Foreign Crises Stretch U.S. in Election Year
  By Robin Wright and Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, March 8, 2004; Page A01 With Haiti's drama and the flare-up of violence in Iraq, the United States faces an overload of crises that Republicans and Democrats agree will be even more difficult to deal with now that the presidential campaign is in full swing.
  Rarely has Washington had such a large and diverse array of foreign policy problems to juggle
  It's fighting three wars: Iraq, Afghanistan and the global war on terror. It has to deal with everything from Colombia to Haiti, the Palestinians to North Korea, the World Trade Organization. If someone is arguing the administration has a lot on its plate and it is stretched, they've got a point," said Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations and a top foreign policy planning official in both Bush administrations.
  Some Republican insiders have adopted a crisis-avoidance mantra for the election season: "No war in '04."
  White House officials deny that the administration is stretched thin or overburdened. "This White House is the most calm that I've worked in. I was struck by this [at the end of February] as we were wrapping up six-party talks on North Korea and had Haiti and Iraq's Transitional Administrative Law. The phones were ringing off the hook, but there was no sense of crisis in the White House.
  In Asia, North Korea is playing hardball with the United States and its allies over nuclear disarmament, aware that the Bush administration is unlikely in an election year to cede much in return.
• 'South Korean soldiers at risk'
  Iraqi politician warns against joint mission with U.S. A possible joint military presence in Iraq by the United States and South Korea would increase the danger for Korean soldiers, the leader of a political party in the Middle Eastern country said here yesterday. "I don't think that American soldiers going side by side with Korean soldiers will increase the security of Korean soldiers," said Abid Faisal Ihmaid, the president of the Iraqi Democratic Union, citing animosity over U.S. occupation. "It is the contrary."
• Seoul protests seizure in Iraq of KBS TV crew
  Foreign ministry officials in Seoul filed a strong protest with U.S. officials in Baghdad yesterday after U.S. military guards forcibly detained and handcuffed members of a South Korean television crew who were suspected of carrying explosives.
• Red-carpet U.S. welcome for foreign minister
  WASHINGTON ? The five-day visit by South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon to Washington was marked by exceptional treatment from the U.S. hosts. First, the meeting with President George W. Bush was unprecedented.
  In a press conference with Korean correspondents, Mr. Ban said, "More than anything, they were grateful for the dispatch of our troops to Iraq"
• Seoul Protests Reporters' Detention
  By Oh Young-jin Staff Reporter The Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry said on Sunday that it is planning to lodge a protest against U.S. military authorities in Iraq in connection with an arbitrary detention of South Korean journalists in the Middle Eastern country over the weekend.
  The journalists said the American soldiers' treatment of them was ``arrogant'' and ``inhumane.''
• Army Gen. John J. Hayes, 89
  Sunday, March 7, 2004; Page C12 John J. Hayes, 89, a retired Army major general who spent most of his career in command positions with the Chemical Corps, died of cardiorespiratory failure Feb. 6
  Later in the 1960s, he was a senior logistics adviser to the Army of the Republic of Korea and director of procurement and production at Army Material Command headquarters. [WMD]
• US State Dept on human rights in DPRK
  Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2003 Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor February 25, 2004
• U.S. Anti-DPRK War Moves Denounced
  Pyongyang, March 5 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today in an article cites facts to disclose the evermore dangerous moves of the U.S. to unleash a war in the Korean peninsula. The article says: The U.S. bellicose forces are now asserting that the forward deployment of their aggressor forces in and around south Korea is aimed to fill up the "vacuum of combat power," pursuant to the redeployment of the U.S. forces in Iraq and describing it as a "pre-emptive measure" to deter the "military provocation by north Korea." This is, however, sophism to cover up and justify the essence and dangerous nature of the U.S. policy to invade the DPRK and nothing but a red herring.
• U.S. Condemned for Pulling Up DPRK over Drug Issue
  This mud-slinging is a product of the U.S. policy of isolating and stifling DPRK. It is no more than a foolish plot to tarnish the image of the dignified DPRK. The DPRK, a state guided by the man-centered Juche idea, bans by law the use, transaction and production of drug which renders people mentally deformed. The import of spiritual stimulants for scientific research is under a strict state control and in this field the DPRK has long maintained a close contact and cooperation with the International Narcotic Control Board in this field. The U.S. had better settle the problem of the fin de siecle drug-related crimes rife in the American society before exercising the super- state "authority," which no one granted to it, to slander others.
• Ban, Powell Agree on Peaceful Solution to NK Nuke Issue
  Powell said the U.S. is ``not in any urgency to achieve that solution,'' rejecting a media report that Washington's patience with North Korea was waning. The Washington Post reported earlier in the day that President George W. Bush had instructed the U.S. delegation to Beijing's six-party talks last week to have the North clearly informed that the patience of the U.S. for the diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff could run out. ``We are not in some new state of crisis as suggested by the newspaper article this morning,'' Powell said. ``There is no sense of urgency in the sense that we are running out of time and if something doesn't happen in the next month or two, then the process will fall apart.''
• DPRK Denounces U.S. New War Plan on Korean Peninsula
  The DPRK denounced "operation plan 5026," a new U.S. war plan, saying that it is a "very dangerous plan aimed to make a surprise preemptive nuclear strike against the DPRK," with U.S. troops in and around South Korea any time. The U.S has mapped out a "new operation plan 5026" for a war of aggression against the DPRK,
• OPLAN 5026 - Air Strikes
  OPLAN 5026/CONPLAN 5026 has been associated, in the available literature, with surgical strikes against North Korea that would take out crucial targets but would not constitute the initiation of a major theater war.
  One scenario for dealing with North Korea's nuclear program would consist of surgical strikes against facilities believed to be involved with the production, storage, or deployment of nuclear weapons. Such strikes might resemble the Israeli preemptive strike on the Iraqi Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981. Using B-2 stealth bombers and F-117 stealth fighters the United States could strike multiple targets throughout North Korea, including the reprocessing facilities at Yongbyon. The deployment of F-117s from the 49th Fighter Wing to South Korea and the deployments of B-52s and B-1Bs to Guam brought a significant degree of capability to the region that might have handled contingencies.
  14 July 2003
• In His Words: John Kerry
  Published: March 6, 2004 The following are excerpts of an hour-long interview about foreign affairs with Senator John Kerry aboard his campaign plane on Friday, as recorded by The New York Times
  I don't know what they let Powell do or not do. I know that it's a war that's been ongoing between the Defense Department and the State Department and the White House throughout this administration.
  the CIA completely and totally missed the Soviet revolution...//..It took me about half a day to realize that this nation didn't have the capacity to march through Poland and Hungary,
  I've personally seen it in many of our trips abroad. I was in Hong Kong, foreign commercial service personnel say to me, Senator, we're missing billions of dollars worth of business. There are only three or four of us here, we don't even have a place like other countries to meet and bring companies together with clients. I got an email from a former station chief in Peshawar. Who said, you know senator I was the only asset in Peshawar. I'm six foot three, blond, blue-eyed, fair-skinned, and everywhere I went in the city every eye followed me. He said we didn't have a Pashtun speaking asset at the beginning of the war. We have not done a good job at building our human intelligence structure and abilities. I see that as an enormous priority for the country.
• Revamping reported of U.S. Forces Japan
  In yesterday's edition of the American military newspaper Stars and Stripes, Maj. Randy Cephus, the U.S. Army spokesman in Japan, is quoted as saying that talks are under way about possibly relocating part of the U.S. Army's I Corps headquarters from Fort Lewis in Washington state to Camp Zama, in central Japan.
• KCNA Terms U.S. Kingpin of Human Rights Abuses
  Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- The U.S. State Department slandered the DPRK again in "an annual report on human rights" on February 25. The U.S. talked this or that about human rights situations in more than 190 countries as if it were an international human rights judge
  After launching a war in Iraq, the U.S. used approximately 311,000 depleted uranium shells, more than 13,000 cluster bombs and many other bombs and shells, severely devastating land, killing at least 10,000 civilians and wounding about 20,000.
• Punishment of World's Worst Violator of Human Rights Called for
  Pyongyang, March 4 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today terms the U.S. the worst violator of human rights, commenting on all sorts of human rights abuses it has committed in every part of the world. The news analyst says: The Iraqi war fought by the U.S. was a crime of massacre of Iraqis and the most hideous human rights abuse. The U.S. Iraqi war reduced the whole land of Iraq to ashes and to a huge abattoir as defenseless peaceable civilians were massacred. It took the lives of at least 25,000 peaceable civilians.
• U.S. tank training:
  Soldiers of an armor unit with the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division take part in a field exercise in Paju, Kyonggi Province, Thursday. About 7,000 American troops join the Feb. 18-March 5 drill, codenamed Iron Army Readiness Training and Evaluation Program.
• Russian Engineers Reportedly Gave Missile Aid to Iraq
  By JAMES RISEN Published: March 5, 2004 The Bush administration has previously said it had uncovered evidence that Iraq had unsuccessfully sought help from North Korea for its missile program,
• S. KOREA TO MAKE LIST OF REFUGEE VICTIMS
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: March 4, 2004 Filed at 2:45 a.m. ET SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- The South Korean government will identify and compile an official list of victims of the July 1950 killings of civilian refugees by U.S. troops at No Gun Ri under a new law, which also clears the way for a monument at the site. The law, which takes effect in three months, also provides for medical assistance to survivors of the Korean War shootings, in which witnesses said up to 400 people were killed. The legislation is a victory for the survivors, who denounced the U.S. government's 2001 report on the incident as a ``whitewash.''[US offences]
• Seoul Softens `Independent Diplomacy'
  By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter South Korea will continue to strengthen cooperation with its allies including the United States to resolve the lingering crisis over North Korean nuclear program and efficiently deter possible attacks from the North.
• Front runners and dark horses jockey for position
  Search for a mix of geography and balance Julian Borger in Washington Thursday March 4, 2004 Bill Richardson Governor of New Mexico Pros Hispanic heritage, speaks fluent Spanish. Strong international experience as an ambassador to UN and negotiator with North Korea Cons He is a Catholic, like Kerry, and has not proved he can export his appeal to other states
• U.S. accuses Pyeongyang of worldwide drug dealing
  The Bush administration has accused the leadership in the North Korean capital Pyeongyang of involvement in the illegal narcotics trade, saying it is "highly likely" that the communist regime is trafficking in drugs internationally. The U.S. State Department issued its annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report yesterday, which said drugs such as heroin, morphine, and methamphetamine were being sold illegally by North Korea.
• Struggle against U.S. High-Handed Practices Called for
  Pyongyang, March 2 (KCNA) -- U.S. high-handed practices to realize its ambition for hegemony have reached their height in the new century, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article. The U.S. thinks that it is entitled to dominate other countries and nations and dictate them. But this is a serious miscalculation, the article says, and goes on: There may be big and small countries in the world but there can never be a superior country and an inferior country. There may be developed nations and less developed ones in the world but there can never be nations dominating other nations and dominated ones.
• Ban to Visit US for Consultations on NK
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Foreign Affairs-Trade Minister Ban Ki-moon will depart for the United States on Tuesday for follow-up discussions over the results of the second round of six-party talks on North Korean nuclear crisis.
  Powell will likely express appreciation once again for the additional dispatch of South Korean soldiers to Iraq in late April.
• Over 200 Cases of U.S. Aerial Espionage Committed in February
• US Redeployment of Its Armed Forces under Fire
• Joint Military Maneuvers in MDL Area
  Pyongyang, February 28 (KCNA) -- The U.S. troops in south Korea and the south Korean army stage joint military maneuvers in the area of the Military Demarcation Line, according foreign news reports. The field maneuvers dubbed Iron Artep which began last week will last till March 5, they said.
  The arrogant outrage of the U.S. and the south Korean authorities who are staging the war exercises in the area of the MDL at a time when the six-way talks for the settlement of the nuclear issue are held touches off serious apprehensions of the whole world. [Belligerence]
• DPRK FM Spokesman Refutes US Accusation over Its "Human Rights Issue"
  Pyongyang, February 28 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry today gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA as regards the US renewed accusation over its "human rights issue: The US Department of State in an "annual report on human rights" released on Feb. 25 again let loose unspeakable vituperation against the DPRK. The US, unaware of its own position, talks about the "human rights situation" in other country as it pleases, acting an international "human rights judge." This can not but be a disgusting behavior. The US is an international strangler of democracy and the world's worst violator of human rights as it is committing genocide in various parts of the world, imposing economic sanctions and war upon those countries advancing along the road of independence by fabricating false intelligence and hatching plots. Human rights mean national rights. It infringed upon the national rights of Iraq by force of arms after cooking up false information and unhesitatingly dropped bombs even over defenseless peaceable civilians and children. This barbarism clearly proves that the present US administration is the most inhuman regime in the world. If the right to life and existence are considered to be an urgent issue