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Re: North And South Korea On The Brink Of War, Russian Diplomat Warns
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Re: North And South Korea On The Brink Of War, Russian Diplomat Warns
N. Korean FM defends Pyongyang's decision to bolster nuclear arsenal
MOSCOW, Dec. 11 (Yonhap) - The current tensions on the Korean Peninsula prove that North Korea made the right decision to bolster its nuclear arsenal, Pyongyang's top diplomat said, accusing South Korea and the U.S. of seeking confrontation with the communist nation.
Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun made the remark in an interview with Russia's Interfax news agency Friday ahead of his planned trip to Moscow, set for Dec. 12-15. Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch that Pak departed Saturday for the Eastern European nation.
The visit comes amid a flurry of diplomacy to deal with high tensions over North Korea's artillery attack on South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island, which killed four people, including two civilians.
"Recently the situation on the Korean Peninsula has been in quite a dangerous stage, while inter-Korean relations are worse than ever," Pak said in the interview. "The main reason behind this escalation is the United States' hostile policy in relation to the DPRK and the policy of confrontation with the North being pursued by the current ruling forces of South Korea."
DPRK is the acronym for the North's official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Unless Seoul and Washington drop "their hostile and confrontational policy" toward the North, Pak said, it will be impossible to reduce tensions on the divided peninsula.
"We once again saw the rightness of our choice in favor of the Songun policy and the comprehensive strengthening of our self-defense potential based on nuclear deterrence forces," he said. Songun refers to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's "military-first" policy of putting priority on building stronger armed forces.
Despite the high tensions, the North supports resuming the six-party nuclear talks, Pak said, accusing Washington of opposing dialogue and ignoring its proposal of a peace treaty.
South Korea and the U.S. say that the North should first improve relations with Seoul and demonstrate its denuclearization commitment through action so as to create the right atmosphere for resuming the nuclear talks involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the U.S.
The nuclear talks have been stalled since the last session in December 2008.
(END)
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Re: North And South Korea On The Brink Of War, Russian Diplomat Warns
We are ready to wage full-scale war: North Korea
The Korea Times
12-12-2010 03:37
North Korea has lashed out at South Korea and the United States for the meeting between their joint chiefs of staff regarding the North’s recent artillery shelling on a border island of the South in the Yellow Sea.
“The Korean Peninsula has been escalated into the situation of full-scale war due to provocative scheme by the United States and pro-war fanatics of the South,” the (North) Korean Central News Agency quoted Saturday the spokesman of the (North) Korea’s National People’s Council for Protection of Peace, a propaganda mouthpiece of the North against the South, as saying in a statement. “Our military and all the citizens are ready to deal with all, whether it is limited or full-scale war.”
North Korea claimed that it has regarded the meeting of the joint chiefs of staff between the two allies as the declaration of war meaning that they actually intended to break out a total war through the expansion of the skirmishes in a dangerous conspiracy of attacking the North militarily.
Washington accepted the guidelines on Seoul’s invocation of self-defense right, while the two allies agreed to overhaul measures against limited provocations by the North at the meeting in Seoul, December 8.
“It is crystal-clear that the provocations will expand to the full-scale war not confined to limited war if the South fires at us with aircraft, war ships and missiles and the U.S. intervene in war with its up-to-date weapons,” said the statement.
“It will not remain as limited to the Korean Peninsula if the all-out war breaks out on this soil,” the statement said. “We will punish provocative forces and invaders cruelly and protect the dignity and security of the people gloriously.”
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Re: North And South Korea On The Brink Of War, Russian Diplomat Warns
No progress from Dai in Pyongyang
‘We warned of shelling,’ envoy from China told
December 13, 2010
| http://joongangdaily.joins.com/_data...2/12215928.jpg |
| North Korea’s state television reported Saturday that Kim Jong-il visited a sock factory in Pyongyang, without specifying the date. Kim’s son and named successor Kim Jong-un is also shown in this video capture of the visit. [YONHAP] |
A meeting on Thursday between Chinese envoy Dai Bingguo and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il failed to break the impasse on the Korean Peninsula after the bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island, Seoul officials said yesterday after being debriefed by China.
“Chinese officials told us that the North Korean side said [to Dai] that it attacked Yeonpyeong because South Korea provoked the North by continuing shooting drills despite being warned several times,” said a government official. “Chinese officials said North Korea said it wouldn’t have done it if South Korea and the U.S. hadn’t held the drills.”
However, North Korea told China it will talk with the United States if the U.S. arranges conditions for talks by ending hostile policies against the North, the official said.
Bingguo, China’s state councilor on foreign affairs, made the visit to Pyongyang amid growing pressure on China to rein in its communist ally after the unprovoked shelling of Yeonpyeong Island near the maritime border in the Yellow Sea. South Korea and the U.S. have demanded an apology from the North over recent provocations, including the shelling, which killed four South Koreans - two of them civilians.
China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that the two sides “reached consensus on the situation on the Korean Peninsula” at the meeting, but another Seoul official said there was no news from the meeting.
“China said it requested North Korea refrain from any further military provocation, but it seems just to be paying lip service.”
A diplomatic source said more details of the Dai-Kim meeting could come to light when U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg meets Chinese officials on Tuesday.
South Korean and U.S. military officials will also hold the 27th Security Policy Initiative meeting today in Seoul to coordinate countermeasures to North Korean threats, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.
Deputy Defense Minister Chang Kwang-il and Michael Schiffer, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, will preside over the meeting to be attended by defense and diplomacy officials from both sides. The SPI meeting, aimed at discussing mutual security cooperation, has been held bimonthly since 2005.
The meeting comes after North Korea raised its belligerent rhetoric on Saturday, saying through a statement from its National Peace Committee that, “The army and people of the DPRK [North Korea] are ready for both escalated war and an all-out war.”
North Korea’s Foreign Minister Park Ui-chun, in an interview with Interfax, defended the North’s nuclear program, saying it’s needed to fend off hostility from the South and the U.S.
Meanwhile, the South Korean military is to conduct more naval firing drills from today to Friday at 27 locations in all the three seas surrounding the peninsula. Fifteen of the locations are in the Yellow Sea, but areas near five border islands like Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong are not being considered.
By Kang Chan-ho, Moon Gwang-lip [joe@joongang.co.kr]
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Re: North And South Korea On The Brink Of War, Russian Diplomat Warns
Ex-US intel chief: SKorea may act against North
December 12, 2010
(AP) – 2 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) - South Korea is losing patience with North Korea and probably will take military action, former national intelligence director Dennis Blair said Sunday.
Blair, who just returned from the Korean peninsula, said he doesn't see a major war starting, but he believes recent aggression by the North will press South Korea into some lower level military confrontations.
He said there's support among South Koreans for their military to take a stronger stance, adding that "a South Korean government who does not react would not be able to survive there."
He told CNN's "State of the Union" that the North's recent moves to sink a South Korean ship and fire artillery rounds on a South Korean island near a disputed sea border have frayed Seoul's patience. The artillery attack killed four South Koreans, while 46 sailors died in the sinking of the ship.
Blair said that what is needed is a united Korea under Seoul's influence, but China would have to exert its influence on the North for that to happen, and Beijing prefers the two countries to remain divided.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Re: North And South Korea On The Brink Of War, Russian Diplomat Warns
South Korea calls Kan's remarks on Japanese troop dispatch 'unrealistic'
SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Yonhap) - South Korean officials on Sunday brushed off as "unrealistic" Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan's remarks on a possible dispatch of his country's Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to the Korean Peninsula in case of contingencies.
In a meeting Friday with the families of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea, Kan was quoted as saying that his government plans to hold talks with South Korea on sending SDF to rescue the abductees in the event of a contingency in the region.
"I don't know in what context Prime Minister Kan's remarks were made," an official at the South Korean presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said, adding that they may not have come after thorough consideration. The Korean official said criticisms by Japanese media indicate that there was not anything concrete being planned.
Jittered by North Korea's deadly artillery attack on the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong last month, Japan has been looking at its own ability to deal with the belligerent Pyongyang regime.
The United States suggested trilateral cooperation when Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of its Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during his Asia visit last week that he hoped Japan would participate in future joint drills by South Korea and the U.S. Japan had sent observers to such drills in July.
South Korea is cautious about deepening military cooperation with Japan, given the history of Tokyo's brutal colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910-1945.
"Following the North's attack on Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea has strengthened strategic communication with the United States and Japan. But we are not in a situation to discuss that kind of an idea. (The two sides) have not had deep discussions on the issue," the Cheong Wa Dae official said on condition of anonymity.
Some officials saw Kan's remarks as aimed at conservatives in his country who demand revising Japan's pacifist constitution that limits the dispatch of its troops overseas and bans the settlement of international disputes through the use of force.
"There was no discussion (on the issue) with the South Korean government in advance," a senior official at Seoul's foreign ministry said, adding that Seoul was "rather surprised" by Kan's comments.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
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Re: North And South Korea On The Brink Of War, Russian Diplomat Warns
South Korea to Hold Maritime Shooting Drills at 27 Sites
KBS World
2010-12-13 07:44
South Korea will hold maritime shooting drills at 27 locations this week.
According to sailing alerts issued by the Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Administration, the nation’s military will hold shooting drills from Monday through Friday at 15 sites in the Yellow Sea, six in the East Sea and at six sites in waters south of the country.
Drills are not scheduled to take place on the northwestern islands of Baengnyeong or Yeonpyeong near the Yellow Sea border with North Korea. Yeonpyeong was hit by a North Korean artillery attack last month that left two soldiers and two civilians dead.
A military official says that shooting drills will likely be held in areas near South Korea’s five Yellow Sea islands this week but that the schedule has not yet been set.
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Re: North And South Korea On The Brink Of War, Russian Diplomat Warns
South Korea, U.S. discuss forming committee to deter North Korea's nuclear threats
SEOUL, Dec. 13 (Yonhap) - South Korea and the United States on Monday began talks on security issues including a plan to set up a joint committee to effectively deter threats from North Korea's nuclear programs and other weapons of mass destruction, officials said.
Monday's meeting of the Security Policy Initiative (SPI) forum, the 27th of its kind, comes as tensions run high on the Korean Peninsula following the North's deadly bombardment of a South Korean island last month that killed four people.
Deputy Defense Minister Chang Kwang-il and his U.S. counterpart, Michael Schiffer, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia and Pacific security affairs, were leading the SPI talks in Seoul.
"The two sides plan to sign terms of reference to systemize the Extended Deterrence Policy Committee, which would be headed by Chang and Schiffer," said an official at the South's defense ministry.
South Korea and the U.S. agreed to form the committee at their annual defense ministers' meeting in October.
Extended deterrence means the U.S. can provide tactical and strategic nuclear weapons, conventional strike and missile defense capabilities to defend South Korea in case of an attack from North Korea. It is the first time for the U.S. to create such a committee with a non-NATO ally.
During the SPI talks, the allies are expected to reaffirm their commitment to respond firmly should North Korea strike the South again, as it did on Nov. 23 when it shelled the southern border island of Yeonpyeong.
The bombardment also injured 18 people and destroyed dozens of homes, marking the first attack by the North on a civilian area on the South's soil since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
South Korea and the U.S. have held SPI talks regularly since 2005 to discuss a wide range of military and defense issues. The U.S. has about 28,500 troops in South Korea to help defend its ally against North Korea.
kdh@yna.co.kr
(END)
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Re: North And South Korea On The Brink Of War, Russian Diplomat Warns
From Steve Herman on Twitter:
- NKPLF: #DPRK provocations will continue so #ROK military needs to carry out preemptive strikes. #Koreas 5 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®
- NKPLF members (ex-DPRK military) say N. Korea soldiers believe Korean unification will only come through an attack. 13 minutes agoTwitter for BlackBerry® via
- NKPLF members wearing khaki uniforms at Korea Press Ctr. Briefing media on #DPRK unit which shelled Yeonpyeong on Nov. 23. 33 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®
- At NK Peoples Liberation Front seminar in Seoul where ex-DPRK soldiers giving insiders' briefing on N. Korean military capabilities. 36 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®
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Re: North And South Korea On The Brink Of War, Russian Diplomat Warns
From Steve Herman on Twitter:
1. AFP: S.Korea on Wed. (2pm) to hold biggest air raid drill in years. Evacs to shelters, fighter jets overhead will simulate #DPRK airstrike. about 3 hours ago via TweetDeck
2. Japan gov't spokesman retracts Prime Min. Kan's assertion JSDF might be dispatched to Korean peninsula to rescue citizens in emergency. about 3 hours ago via TweetDeck
3. Rodong Sinmun (#DPRK): US-ROK military cooperation "bringing the dark clouds of a nuclear war to hang over the Korean peninsula." about 4 hours ago via TweetDeck
4. NKPLF member, ex-DPRK special forces, warns his former colleagues pose more serious threat to #ROK than atomic bomb. about 8 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®
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Re: North And South Korea On The Brink Of War, Russian Diplomat Warns
If this information is correct, the possibility of a real shooting war is very big
Signs Suggest that North Korean Regime Is Cracking
The Chosun Ilbo - December 13, 2010
South Korean, U.S. and Japanese foreign ministry officials talked about the possibility that the North Korean regime has lost control and gone off the rails since the artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island, it emerged Friday. On Thursday, President Lee Myung-bak said North Koreans are now much aware of the outside world. "I feel reunification is now not far off."
A senior government official said, "Having watched the North launch a series of provocations such as the torpedo attack on the Navy corvette Cheonan, its uranium enrichment program and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, officials in Seoul, Washington and Tokyo recently discussed the need to look at the North's latest movements from a completely new viewpoint."
He said some officials saw the Yeonpyeong attack as merely another round in a familiar pattern of provocations, "but others said that it shows that the situation on the Korean Peninsula has entered a new phase." This may mean the regime "has lost control internally," he added.
PROVOCATIONS
In the past, the North regularly alternated tensions and charm offensives to gain material aid and political profit, either through the six-party talks or direct contact with the U.S. It then launched another round of provocation if the aid dwindled.
"But when we were trying to create an atmosphere for dialogue early this year, they torpedoed the Cheonan," the government official said. "And when we were trying again to create such an atmosphere after the Cheonan attack, they shelled Yeonpyeong. The signals the North sends out are not as consistent as in the past."
CRACKS IN THE REGIME
There are two possible explanations. One is that the regime with its nuclear capabilities judged that South Korea would not dare to respond to any provocation, but would have to accept negotiations for fear of escalation. The other is that the regime is cracking.
After leader Kim Jong-il had a stroke in August 2008, speculation emerged that the regime has changed. Before he collapsed, power was concentrated only in his hands. Nobody had talked about a "second-in-command," let alone a "successor."
Kim reacted swiftly to a rumor in 2004 that supporters were gathering around Jang Song-taek, the husband of his younger sister Kyong-hui, and ruthlessly purged Jang and his associates.
But with Kim's health deteriorating and his third son Jong-un established as his heir, the North has changed, say observers.
A North Korean source said, "There are some unusual signs now that it's difficult for Kim Jong-il to make all the decisions alone as before." He speculated that the process of transferring power to Kim Jong-un is going badly.
"After he was established as the heir apparent in the early 1970s, Kim Jong-il concentrated power around him for more than 10 years, but this is not the case with Kim Jong-un," said a former senior North Korean official who defected to the South.
englishnews@chosun.com / Dec. 13, 2010 10:32 KST
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Re: North And South Korea On The Brink Of War, Russian Diplomat Warns
DPRK accuses South Korea of lying in artillery shelling incident
English.news.cn 2010-12-13 13:41:43
PYONGYANG, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) - A leading newspaper of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday accused South Korea of lying in its propaganda over last month's Yonphyong Island shelling incident.
South Korea's claim that the DPRK provocated the incident is "a lie to the world," Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary on the meeting of top U.S., Japanese and South Korean diplomats in Washington on December 6.
South Korea used the incident as an excuse to accelerate its confrontation with the DPRK with the help of other countries, it said.
The move, the commentary said, has intensified the already tense situation on the Korean Peninsula and brought dark clouds of nuclear war to the peninsula.
South Korea would suffer "painful consequences" of the tension while the outsiders would benefit, and South Korea's action to "jugulate" fellowmen with outsiders is an intolerable "move of traitor," it said.
It was the first time that DPRK media commented on the December 6 meeting of the top diplomats of South Korea, Japan and the United States, who threatened to jointly confront any "provocation and threats" of the DPRK in a post-meeting statement.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have been heightened since South Korea and the DPRK exchanged artillery fire on November 23.
After the incident, South Korea and the United States staged joint naval drills from November 28 to December 1 in waters west of the peninsula. On December 3, Japan and the United States launched their biggest-ever joint military exercises at bases across Japan and in the air and on waters around them, with South Korea taking part as an observer.
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Re: North And South Korea On The Brink Of War, Russian Diplomat Warns
Seoul readies more naval drills
Source: Global Times
[08:18 December 13 2010]
By Jia Cheng
South Korea will conduct live-fire drills at sea today, the latest in a series of military exercises taking place amid heightened tension with North Korea, a military official told Reuters Sunday.
"The drills running through Friday are routine," the official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
However, the official added that drills were not being conducted in waters off the west coast where a deadly artillery exchange occurred last month.
Tensions between the two Koreas have been at their highest in decades since the November 23 attack, which killed four South Koreans on Yeonpyeong Island.
Washington and its ally Seoul have staged joint naval exercises to deter Pyongyang, and they have threatened a tough response to any future attacks.
Separately, North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun left for Russia on Saturday amid a flurry of diplomatic attempts to ease tensions, AFP reported.
"Recently, the situation on the Korean Peninsula has been at quite a dangerous stage, while inter-Korean relations are worse than ever," Pak told Russia's Interfax News Agency in an interview, according to AFP.
He said the Yeonpyeong incident was a plot designed by Seoul to drag Pyongyang into conflict and to deceive the international community.
Pyongyang is "assured of the rectitude of our choice of the songun (army first) policy, and in strengthening a defense that relies on nuclear forces as deterrents," Pak told Interfax, according to AFP.
"Pak's visit is likely aimed at winning diplomatic support from Moscow," said Cai Jian, vice director of the Center for Korean Studies at Fudan University. "This is a good sign because diplomatic efforts are much more useful for easing tensions than firing guns."
According to AFP, US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg is scheduled to visit Beijing in the coming week for talks over the Korean tensions; and Seoul’s chief nuclear envoy, Wi Sung-lac, will visit Russia for talks with his counterpart, Alexei Borodavkin.
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is also to visit North Korea from Thursday to December 20, and he hopes "to be helpful during this volatile period." Pak told Interfax that Pyongyang was always ready to resume international talks on denuclearizing the peninsula, according to AFP.
"Even in the atmosphere of the escalated situation, we have expressed support for resuming the six-party negotiation process," he said.
Agencies contributed to this story
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Re: North And South Korea On The Brink Of War, Russian Diplomat Warns
Yeonpyeong shelling causes inflation in Pyongyang
12-13-2010 18:48
By Kim Young-jin
North Korean merchants are exchanging their local currency en masse as war jitters in the wake of Pyongyang’s attack on Yeonpyeong Island have stoked fears that the won may lose its value in the case of war, a report said.
According to North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity (NKIS), a Seoul-based NGO comprised of defectors with lines into the North, currency exchange rates have skyrocketed since the Nov. 23 incident. One hundred yuan, which before the shelling went for 2,000 won, is now worth 35,000 won, NKIS said in a report released Sunday.
“Merchants have heard rumors that if there is war, North Korean bills will become worthless scraps of paper,” NKIS quoted a source as saying, causing traders to exchange their won while they can.
Price of daily goods have also skyrocketed, the report said, with rice jumping from 900 won per kilogram to 1,600 won. Corn climbed from 4,000 won per kilogram to 6,000 won, it said.
The source said the soaring prices have been caused by jitters in the market over the heightened tensions in the wake of the Nov. 23 attack, saying the North’s military has been in a “quasi state of war” since the incident.
The rumors that the won will lose its value in case of a war have slowed market activities as merchants have raised prices and are waiting to see if further military action is on the cards.
Traders in China, from who markets in the North secure much of their goods, have also become reluctant to make transactions involving North Korean currency and are trading what won they have, the source said.
The price jump comes on the heels of reportedly enormous inflation caused by a botched currency reform last year.
The regime redenominated banknotes at a ratio of 100:1 in November last year in a move to squelch a bourgeoning private sector. But the move led to runaway inflation as the price soared by some forty times within the year, according to reports.
The U.N. estimated last month that some 5 million North Koreans will face food shortages this year due to lack of staple grains, while the economy is believed to be suffering heavily from international sanctions imposed for the regime’s missile and nuclear tests.
Meanwhile, Pyongyang, which claims Seoul instigated the shelling by firing into its territory during a military drill, continued to threaten the South over the weekend, saying, “The army and the people of the DPRK are ready for both an escalation and an all-out war.”
yjk@koreatimes.co.kr
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Re: North And South Korea On The Brink Of War, Russian Diplomat Warns
How Pyongyang Wins the Information War
The Chosun Ilbo
North Korea is stepping up provocations, preparing to fire a missile near the East Coast, refusing to recognize the Northern Limit Line, the de facto sea border, and restricting border crossings from the joint Kaesong Industrial Complex. What do North Korean citizens think about these provocations?
Many North Koreans now use Chinese mobile phones along the border with China, so their reactions are not that difficult to find out. But once the connection is established, North Koreans prove more curious to learn what is going on in the South. "Is South Korea preparing for war? Is that true?" they ask.
Preposterous though it may sound, North Koreans are given the impression that it is not the North that is provoking the South but the other way around. The North Korean authorities creating a war atmosphere by saying things like, "The traitor Lee Myung-bak and the puppet South Korean military have declared a preemptive attack against our republic" and that no one knows when a war will break out.
Pyongyang has succeeded in misleading the public that it was not North Korea but the United States and South Korea that started the Korean War, so it is no great leap to start false propaganda about the future. The problem is that North Koreans are denied other sources of information and therefore often believe their government.
This thoroughgoing information control provides the authorities with a sturdy background for their manipulation of inter-Korean relations. The North has the confidence that it can always gain political victories even in military defeats by the South. Following its defeat in the first Yeonpyeong Naval Battle of June 1999, the North publicized it "a victory that crushed an enemy provocation." Even when it cannot conceal a military defeat, the North is capable of controlling the public by publicizing that it was ambushed, and urging people to "sharpen the sword of revenge." The
South Korean government does not have that option. Even if only one or two soldiers are killed in a victorious military action, the opposition and civic groups will protest that lives have been sacrificed to the wrong North Korea policy. And the media slam the government for causing an economic downturn by failing to resolve tensions. In short, the South Korean government cannot win politically even if it wins militarily. The difference is that South Korea lives in the flood of information, while North Korea lives in a desert.
The first Gulf War offers another example of a military victory not leading to a political one due to such an asymmetric approach to information. In 1991, the U.S. drove Iraq out of Kuwait, but concluded the war without advancing to Iraq. Collin Powell, who commanded "Operation Desert Storm," stopped because he expected that Saddam Hussein, having been defeated in the war, would soon be deposed. But Saddam was left in complete control of information at home, and built a stronger base for his dictatorship.
The same applies to North Korea. To win a political victory over Kim Jong-il, the Lee administration must break the wall that blocks information. The EU and Reporters without Borders have recently decided to support private radio stations providing accurate information to North Koreans. The EU and the U.S. now participate in the campaign to convey accurate information to North Korean citizens. Only South Korea has yet to come on board.
The South Korean government must win the hearts of North Koreans by getting its point of view across to them. So long as Kim Jong-il monopolizes the eyes and ears of the North Koreans, Lee Myung-bak will sustain one political defeat after another even if he wins military victories.
By Ha Tae-keung the president of Open Radio for North Korea
englishnews@chosun.com / Mar. 27, 2009 13:14 KST
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Re: North And South Korea On The Brink Of War, Russian Diplomat Warns
Foreigners sell Korean bonds massively
The Korea Times - 12-13-2010 18:10
By Kim Da-ye
Have Korean bonds become less attractive to foreign investors?
Foreigners net-sold listed bonds worth 3.7 trillion won between December 1 and 13 in a stark contrast to the rest of the year during which time they bought several trillion won more than they sold.
They net-bought bonds worth 3.15 trillion won in September, 6.18 trillion won in October and 2.57 trillion won in November, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Such a trend is extending to the over-the-counter market in which the amount of Korean bonds foreigners net-bought plunged in November to 2.3 trillion won from 6.4 trillion won a month earlier. The Korea Financial Investment Association says that it is the lowest figure since April 2009.
The association says that the drop was triggered by concerns over possible regulations of capital flows, geopolitical risks highlighted by North Korea’s artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island and the higher value of the Korean won.
“As the market expected, the short-term investment in bonds that mature within a year decreased by a huge margin. Foreigners net-sold short-term bonds worth 400 billion won. But the net-buying of 2-year and 3-year bonds increased to 2.1 trillion won,” said the association in a Dec. 8 report.
Foreigners buying fewer Korean bonds won’t seriously affect the domestic bond market, experts say.
“After November 23, foreign investors net-sold bonds worth more than 3.7 trillion won, but the domestic bond market remains steady,” the Korea Center for International Finance said in a December 10 report. “As uncertainty over the two events - possible taxes on bonds and the Yeonpyeong Island attack - clears, foreigners seem to recognize now as an opportunity to expand the purchase of safe assets.”
The center still warned the market to remain vigilant on volatility in the market.
“European investors, especially German ones, have significantly reduced their holdings of Korean bonds recently. In relation to Europe’s sovereign debt problem, the market needs to be cautious over the volatility in foreign capital flows.”
kimdaye@koreatimes.co.kr
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Re: North And South Korea On The Brink Of War, Russian Diplomat Warns
Park's Appearance Unlikely to Mean Real Reform
Daily NK
By Kim So Yeol
[2010-12-13 17:58]
An oft-cited example of an advocate of reform within the North Korean leadership, former Prime Minister Park Bong Ju appeared alongside Kim Jong Il during a recent onsite inspection at a Pyongyang sock factory, leading to suggestions that North Korea may again be contemplating the idea of embracing economic reform.
However, this is less likely than another explanation; that Park was brought back into the fold to oversee a number of revisions to the legal code during 2010.
Park, whose appearance at the onsite inspection was verified in five images broadcast by Chosun Central Television on the 11th, was a leading architect of the July 1st Economic Management Reform Measure of 2002, which formalized a number of relatively liberal economic policies.
He then became Prime Minister in September 2003, but was deposed during a period of economic retrenchment in April 2007, sent into virtual exile in South Pyongan Province as manager of Suncheon Vinalon Complex.
As a result of this career path, Park is seen by many as a reformist thinker in the North Korean elite.
Therefore, when he stepped back onto the main political stage this August, three years and four months later, mentioned in a report published by Chosun Central News Agency on August 21st about the 50th anniversary of a well-known Pyongyang restaurant, Okryugwan, it led to suggestions that North Korea might be set to head down the road to economic reform, led by Park as Party First Vice Director.
However, Park’s re-emergence does not mean that North Korea is about to turn towards market mechanisms on an official basis; conversely, it is more likely to be related to the revision this year of a number of laws which were actually designed to strengthen the control and supervisory functions of state institutions.
North Korea officially revised the People’s Economic Planning Law on April 6th alongside the Pyongyang Management Law, revised on March 30th, and both its Labor Protection and Chamber of Commerce and Industry Laws, revised on July 8th.
In revealing the legal revisions to The Daily NK in an interview in November, an inside North Korean source commented on the intention behind the changes, saying, "The People's Economic Planning Law of 2001 alleviated national controls and supervision, even though it came before the July 1st measure of 2002. However, the revised bill strengthens national controls."
Additionally, the source went on, "This series of bills including the revised People's Economic Planning Law are the basis of the nation's control, management and supervision. It should be understood as being part of the same flow as the series of measures undertaken during the succession process since October of 2007, when market controls began wholeheartedly; the 150-day Battle, 100-day Battle and currency redenomination."
Accordingly, research suggests that North Korea probably chose to play the Park Bong Ju card now to revise state policy to try and sort out the problems left behind by the failure of the 2009 currency redenomination and to address the pressing need to improve the state of the domestic economy, whilst also hoping that the appointment of an official with a reformist image might attract investment from Northeast China and further afield.
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Re: North And South Korea On The Brink Of War, Russian Diplomat Warns
S. Korea launches committee on N. Korea's wartime abductions
SEOUL, Dec. 13 (Yonhap) -- South Korea launched a government-led committee on Monday aimed at identifying citizens kidnapped by North Korea during the two countries' war six decades ago and calling for their repatriation.
The committee is chaired by the prime minister and includes three civilians whose family members were abducted during the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce, Unification Ministry officials in Seoul said.
The Seoul-based Korean War Abductees' Family Reunion estimates more than 110,000 South Koreans were kidnapped during the invasion by North Korea, which denies any such activity and argues that many South Koreans voluntarily defected to the communist country during the war.
The committee, which South Korean lawmakers have proposed for years, comes amid high tension between the Koreas after the North shelled a South Korean border island last month, killing two marines and two civilians.
The committee is comprised of 15 members, including the unification, foreign and defense ministers. South Korea also demands that its soldiers captured during the Korean War be returned by North Korea, which has tacitly allowed a handful of temporary reunions between the former prisoners of war and their families.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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