NAPSNet Daily Report
 
thursday, november 22, 2002
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I. United States

II. Japan
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I. United States


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1. US on Agreed Framework

Washington File ("KELLY SAYS NO FINAL DECISION ON STATUS OF NORTH KOREA AGREED FRAMEWORK," 11/20/02) carried the following report and transcript: "The U.S. government has not made any final decision about the status of its Agreed Framework with North Korea following North Korea's admission that it has been working on a uranium enrichment program for nuclear weapons, says a top U.S. official. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James A. Kelly told reporters at a briefing November 19 at the Foreign Press Center in Washington that "No final decisions have been made and no final statements have been made by the U.S. Government" on the agreement. "The U.S. view on the Agreed Framework is that the North Koreans said it was nullified and we guess it's been nullified. But we are not in any rush to make decisions on all aspects of it," Kelly said. Kelly said that North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Suk-joo made it clear to him that North Korea's uranium enrichment program "was something that North Korea was proceeding with" despite earlier agreements to abandon such projects. In response to a reporter's question, the Kelly said there are no U.S. plans for a U.S. military response."

The full official transcript of the press briefing can be found here: http://usinfo.state.gov/cgi-bin/washfile/display.pl?p=/products/washfile/latest&f=02112003.elt&t=/products/washfile/newsitem.shtml


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2. DPRK on HOF and Agreed Framework

Reuters (Paul Eckert, "N KOREA SAYS US OIL CUTOFF ENDS NUCLEAR PACT," Seoul, 11/21/02) and The Associated Press (Jae-Suk Yoo, "NORTH KOREA SAYS 1994 NUCLEAR AGREEMENT WITH WASHINGTON HAS COLLAPSED," Seoul, 11/21/02) reported that the DPRK said on Thursday that the US had nullified a landmark nuclear pact with the decision last week to cut oil supplies to the DPRK over its atomic weapons program. The DPRK's first response to the decision said the oil cutoff meant "it is high time to decide upon who is to blame for the collapse of the Framework." "It is well known to the world that the U.S. has violated the Framework and boycotted the implementation of its commitments," a DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement carried on the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Under the 1994 Agreed Framework, the DPRK promised to freeze its nuclear weapons program in return for fuel oil, paid for by the US, and two light water reactors that cannot easily be converted to produce atomic weapons material. The statement called the oil cutoff -- which takes effect as the DPRK's sub-zero winter sets in next month -- a "wanton violation" of the pledges of allied energy aid for the DPRK. It asserted that the United States had broken the pact because the light-water reactor construction is behind schedule and because the US has threatened the DPRK by labeling it a part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and Iraq.


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3. PRC on Agreed Framework

The Associated Press ("CHINA CALLS FOR SALVAGING OF NORTH KOREAN ENERGY PACT," Beijing, 11/21/02) reported that the PRC, called Thursday for the salvaging of a deal under which the DPRK agreed to halt a nuclear weapons program in return for energy assistance. The agreement "is useful in realizing a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said. "China hopes that the relevant parties can carry out their obligations," he said. The agreement's future fell into doubt after the United States and its allies, including Japan and the ROK, last week decided to cut off oil shipments beginning in December.


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4. PRC Domestic Politics

The New York Times (Erik Eckholm, "CHINA'S NEW LEADER PROMISES NOT TO SEVER TETHER TO JIANG," Beijing, 11/21/02) reported that after being appointed the PRC's Communist Party chief on Friday, Hu Jintao pledged that on important matters he would "seek instruction and listen to the views" of his predecessor, Jiang Zemin. According to two party officials who attended briefings on the meeting, the words Hu used were stronger than customary farewells to retiring leaders, the officials said, and amounted to a promise of deference, declared before the new senior leadership. Hu's speech, to a closed caucus of party leaders on Friday morning, has not been released to the public. But its contents are being officially described in briefings this week to party-affiliated institutes and agencies.


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5. Japan Spy Satellites

The Associated Press ("JAPAN AIMS TO PUT FIRST SPY SATELLITES IN ORBIT BY END OF MARCH," Tokyo, 11/21/02) reported that Japan said Thursday it plans to launch the country's first spy satellites by the end of a March, a project nearly four years in the making that was originally envisioned as an advanced warning system for DPRK military moves. The launches will be the first of four separate earth-observation satellites that Japan plans to send up by the summer of 2003, a spokesman at the Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center said on condition of anonymity. As a team, the four satellites will be used for military and political purposes, and for charting natural disasters. They will be able to take still photos of objects on the ground one-meter across in any weather conditions. And they can also be positioned above any target in the world within 24-hours notice, the official said. The Japanese government decided to build the satellites after the DPRK fired a test missile over the Japanese archipelago in 1998. They will be launched atop Japan's H-2A rocket. The four satellites, costing a total of about 250 billion yen (US$2.05 billion), will orbit earth at a height of 400 kilometers to 600 kilometers (250 miles to 370 miles). They should have a life span of about five years.


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6. Japan Missile Shield Issue

Reuters (George Nishiyama, "JAPAN MAY SPEED UP MISSILE SHIELD PLANS," Tokyo, 11/21/02) reported that Japan has not closed the door on the DPRK in their dialogue on normalizing ties, but Japan may step up efforts to develop a missile defense shield to counter the threat of an "unpredictable" DPRK, a senior aide to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday. Deputy Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, a key government point man for DPRK policy, told Reuters it was only natural for Japan to consider a missile defense system as it currently had no means to protect itself from a missile attack. "The threat is already there. North Korea has 100 Nodong missiles deployed and we have no means to protect ourselves from them," Abe stated. "So it is an obligation for us to consider missile defense," he said, adding that he did not rule out the possibility of Japan moving from the research stage to actual development. Japan is conducting research with the US on a missile defense system but has stopped short of beginning development because of concerns about cost, feasibility and diplomacy.


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7. ROK Anti-US Protests

The Agence France-Presse ("SOUTH KOREAN PROTESTS MOUNT AS SECOND SOLDIER GOES ON TRIAL," 11/21/02) reported that a second US soldier stood trial over the deaths of two ROK school girls as anti-US activists and politicians expressed outrage over a US acquittal of the first soldier. The ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) slammed Wednesday's court martial ruling to acquit Sergeant Fernando Nino on two counts of negligent homicide for the deaths of two girls crushed by a 50-tonne track vehicle on their way to a birthday party. The US military court found him "not guilty of criminal misconduct," a charge that could have carried a six-year jail sentence. "We cannot accept this fraudulent verdict, which is unimaginable in any law-abiding country," said MDP spokeswoman Lee Mi-Kyung, describing the verdict as an "outrage to heaven and earth."


II. Japan


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1. US Military Drill in Japan

The Japan Times ("U.S. MILITARY TO CONTINUE UNDERWATER BLASTS," 11/16/02) reported that the US has notified Japan it will continue military exercises involving underwater explosions in waters near Japan, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said. Despite Japanese protests, the US detonated explosives in the Sea of Japan off Shimane Prefecture on 14 November. The US told Japan the drill involved only one explosion, in which a mock mine was blown up. The ministry said it has protested the drill and demanded that such exercises be called off. The governors of Shimane, Yamaguchi and Hyogo prefectures, from which fishing boats were licensed to operate in the drill area, also protested the exercise. The US military agreed that it will not conduct similar drills if it finds Japanese fishing boats near the sites.


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2. US Bases in Okinawa

Kyodo ("OKINAWANS ASK TOP COURT TO HEAR PROPERTY RIGHTS SUIT," Naha, 11/14/02) reported that eight Okinawa landowners filed an appeal with the Supreme Court against a high court ruling denying them damages over the continued leasing of their land, against their will, to the US military in line with a special law. The plaintiffs, including Shoichi Chibana, an assembly member from the village of Yomitan who owns a parcel that is part of a US Navy installation, are seeking 140 million yen from the state, arguing that the law violates the Constitution, which guarantees individual property rights. The appeal follows a Nov. 7 ruling by the Fukuoka High Court. The latter overturned a lower court ruling ordering the government to pay Chibana some 470,000 yen for "illegally occupying" his land even after a property lease had expired in 1996. Mirroring the lower court decision, the high court denied the claims of the other seven landowners on the grounds that the amended Special Land Use Law was enacted before their leases had expired in May 1997. The law, amended in April 1997, facilitates the continued compulsory leasing of land for the US military after the expiry of contracts. In Chibana's case, the amended law was not enacted until after his lease with the state expired in March 1996. Both rulings verified the law's constitutionality.


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3. Overseas A-Bomb Survivors

Kyodo ("SOUTH KOREAN MUNICIPALITY AIDS A-BOMB VICTIMS," Hiroshima, 11/15/02) reported that Tonggu Ward of the South Korean city of Taegu has implemented in May an ordinance to support surviving South Korean victims of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, according to the Association of Citizens for Supporting South Korean Atomic Bomb Victims. The ordinance was the first of its kind to be implemented in South Korea. It provides free medical treatment in the central city's Tonggu Ward to people who were affected by radiation from the bombing. The ordinance stipulates that the ward will supply 100,000 won (9930 yen) in aid per month currently supplied by a welfare fund established by the Japanese government if the fund is depleted. There are 41 victims living in Tonggu Ward, the support group said.



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