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Policy Forum Online: Ethical Governance Of Investment Biweekly Update
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I. United States1. DPRK Nuclear Ambitions Reuters (Arshad Mohammed and Paul Eckert "U.S. CALLS N.KOREA TOP WEAPONS PROLIFERATION WORRY," Phnom Penh, Seoul, 06/18/03) reported that the DPRK's atomic ambitions are the US's most urgent weapons proliferation worry, Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday as the DPRK threatened to boost its nuclear deterrent. The DPRK found its nuclear program topping the agenda of the annual ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in the Cambodian capital despite the DPRK's decision to snub the security meeting by keeping its foreign minister at home. Powell took the opportunity to urge the DPRK to agree to wider multilateral meetings and repeated that demand in a three-minute conversation with DPRK ambassador-at-large Ho Jong during a break, US officials said. The DPRK rejects this as a ploy to isolate it and repeated its demand for bilateral talks. However, it found all other members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) forum ranged against it. "ARF members made it abundantly clear that we all need to work together to see a nuclear weapons-free Korean peninsula," Powell told a news conference. "Every nation talked of it." The PRC, which played host at talks among US, DPRK and PRC officials in April to try to resolve the issue, said negotiations were sure to be difficult and urged both sides not to do or say anything to antagonize the other. "With respect to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction... no issue is of greater urgency to the US than North Korea's nuclear weapons programs," Powell told the foreign ministers according to a senior US official. The US pressed the DPRK to expand talks to include neighbors Japan and the ROK that lie within range of the DPRK's missile arsenal. The US believes including the PRC, the ROK and Japan would give them a stake in ensuring that the DPRK stick to any agreement. "This is not a bilateral matter between the United States and North Korea. It affects every nation in the region that would fall under the arc of a North Korean missile," Powell said. 2. DPRK Multilateral Talks Agence France-Presse ("NORTH KOREA OPPOSES MULTILATERAL TALKS -- FOREIGN MINISTRY," 06/18/03) reported that the DPRK expressed opposition to multilateral talks on the nuclear crisis, calling them part of the US' strategy to crush the regime. "It has become clear that the US insistence on multilateral talks is not to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully but to camouflage its act of isolating and stifling our country," a foreign ministry spokesman told the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Following initial three-way talks in Beijing in April, the US is insisting on five-party talks to include the PRC, Japan and the ROK as well as the DPRK and the US for the next round. "We can no longer expect anything from multilateral talks that the United States is proposing," the spokesman was quoted as saying Wednesday in the Korean language KCNA report carried by the ROK's Yonhap news agency. The spokesman stopped short of saying the state would boycott five-party talks which were agreed upon by the US, Japan, and the ROK at high-level talks last week to coordinate DPRK policy. The US says the DPRK has to dismantle its nuclear weapons drive before it will discuss steps to resolve the eight-month-old nuclear crisis. 3. US - DPRK Relations The Associated Press (George Gedda, "POWELL PRAISES WORLD APPROACH TO N. KOREA," Phonm Pehn, 06/18/03) reported that amid fresh war threats from the DPRK, Secretary of State Colin Powell praised the way other nations have withheld economic aid from that country so long as it continues to develop nuclear weapons. "Nobody is doing much in the way of providing help to the North Koreans right now," Powell told reporters accompanying him Tuesday from Washington to a meeting of foreign ministers from the Asia and Pacific region. He said he would tell his colleagues Wednesday that the DPRK "will have to stop this nuclear weapons development program. The way to do it is through multilateral dialogue." He noted that a low-level DPRK delegation is expected to be in the audience when he delivers his remarks. After a 20-hour trip from Washington, Powell will meet Wednesday with representatives from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations and with officials from the PRC, Russia, Japan, the two Koreas, India and several other countries. He acknowledged that the PRC was helping its neighbor, but that the DPRK was nonetheless "suffering mightily." "The countryside is in dire straits. They need more than Chinese aid and Chinese fuel. They need aid from other neighbors, and they need aid from the rest of the world," Powell said. Powell said, "I don't think we're in crisis mode. It's a dangerous situation, and we're worried about it. ... We believe we can find an answer." 4. DPRK - US Relations The Associated Press ("N. KOREA SAYS IT WANTS U.S. CONCESSIONS," Seoul, 06/18/03) reported that the DPRK will never agree to give up its nuclear weapons program without prior US concessions, state-run media said Wednesday in the first apparent acknowledgment that the nation has such a program. "It is quite clear that the DPRK can never accept the U.S. demand that it scrap its nuclear weapons program first," said the DPRK's main state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun in a commentary. Rodong's commentary was the first time the DPRK's state-run media have referred to the North as having a nuclear weapons program. During talks in Beijing in April, US officials said the DPRK privately told them that the DPRK already has nuclear weapons and plans to build more. The commentary was carried by the North's official KCNA news agency. The report did not say if the DPRK already had atomic weapons. Rodong made the comment while criticizing the US insistence that the DPRK join multilateral talks - involving the PRC, Japan and the ROK - to settle the dispute over the state's suspected development of nuclear weapons. The DPRK said that the US' "pressure on the DPRK to scrap its nuclear weapons program first is intended to contain it with ease after forcing it to disarm itself." 5. US - ROK Relations Washington File ("EXCERPT: STATE DEPT. PLACES SOUTH KOREA ON TIER 1 TRAFFICKING LIST," 06/16/03) reported that the State Department designated the ROK as a Tier 1 country in its third Trafficking in Persons Report in recognition of Seoul's efforts to combat human trafficking. The report, released June 11, notes that "South Korea is a source, transit and destination country for women trafficked for sexual exploitation." Nonetheless, the ROK government "fully complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking" as set by Congress, the report continues. The ROK "recognizes that trafficking is a national problem and undertakes comprehensive efforts to prevent it, protect victims and prosecute traffickers," the report notes. The report commends such recent moves as the government's decision to apply stricter standards in the issuance of "entertainer" visas and steps taken to reduce police corruption associated with trafficking. The State Department is required to report to Congress annually whether foreign governments meet the minimum standards set for the elimination of trafficking as detailed in the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act of October 2000. Governments that do so are placed on the Tier 1 list. 6. US - ROK Relations Korean Central News Agency ("S. KOREA'S DECISION TO INTRODUCE "PATRIOT 3" MISSILE UNDER FIRE," Pyongyang, 06/18/03) reported that the ROK military decided to introduce the "Patriot 3" missile and proposed to increase "its defense spending". This is a clear indication that the ROK authorities, yielding to the US pressure, are toeing the US policy to stifle the DPRK by force under the pretext of its "nuclear issue." Rodong Sinmun today says this in a signed commentary. By deciding to introduce the missile the ROK military emerged a force threatening stability in Northeast Asia and the countries around the Korean Peninsula. After making an about-turn in its stand with its tour of the US as a momentum the south side is blindly following the intention of the Bush group, as it is unable to see any sinister aim lurking behind it. The proposed arms build-up lashes the north into fury. This move of the ROK authorities is a rash act of going against the era of independent reunification in which the nation pools efforts and a gross violation of the June 15 joint declaration. The north can not tolerate the moves of the ROK military for a war against fellow countrymen, going against the desire of the nation for national reconciliation and reunification. 7. Japanese - US Relations The Associated Press (Gary Schaefer, "MARINE ACCUSED IN OKINAWA RAPE ARRESTED," Tokyo, 06/18/03) reported that a US Marine suspected of raping a woman in Okinawa was arrested Wednesday after US military authorities agreed to turn him in before his indictment. The 21-year-old suspect was only the second US serviceman on the southern Japanese island to be handed over to police before charges were brought by a prosecutor. The US military normally retains custody of personnel suspected of crimes until they are indicted but can relinquish them sooner if the crime is deemed serious enough. Crimes involving American troops are a sensitive issue on Okinawa, where a heavy US military presence - about half of the nearly 50,000 American troops in Japan - has long been a source of friction with residents. The rape of a schoolgirl by three US servicemen in 1995 triggered outrage on Okinawa and led the two countries to agree that the US would give "sympathetic consideration" to requests for the handover of suspects in serious crimes prior to indictment. A local court issued an arrest warrant Monday for Marine Lance Cpl. Jose W. Torres, who was detained on base after the alleged incident, and the Japanese government formally requested custody later that day. US officials agreed to a handover Wednesday after being assured that Torres would "receive fair and humane treatment throughout his detention," the US military said in a statement. Hours later Torres was transferred from Okinawa's Camp Hansen to a police station in the nearby city of Ishikawa, where he was arrested, police spokesman Yasuhiro Funamiki said. 8. US - Japanese Relations The Washington File, ("EXCERPT: JAPAN ON STATE DEPARTMENT'S TIER 2 LIST FOR TRAFFICKING," 06/16/03) reported that the State Department designated Japan as a Tier 2 government in its third Trafficking in Persons Report in recognition of the Japanese government's "significant efforts" to meet congressionally set standards for combating human trafficking. The report, released June 11, notes that Japan "is a country of destination for men, women, and children trafficked for sexual exploitation" as well as a country with internal trafficking as victims are "resold" between traffickers. In the face of this, the report says, the Japanese government "is providing international funding for anti-trafficking efforts in Southeast Asia and conducting symposiums that help focus other governments." "At home, however, measures are less advanced," the report continues. "Japan's law enforcement and immigration response is seriously hindered because government officials, unclear on the nature of trafficking, tend to define the crime too narrowly and disagree among themselves about who is a trafficking victim," it states. The report also notes that the Japanese government has no national plan of action to combat trafficking of persons. The State Department is required to report to Congress annually whether foreign governments meet the minimum standards set for the elimination of trafficking as detailed in the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act of October 2000. Governments that do not fully meet the act's minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to do so, are put on the Tier 2 list. 9. PRC SARS Outbreak Reuters (Barani Krishnan, "SARS MYSTERY LIVES ON AS CASES DWINDLE," Kuala Lampur, 06/18/03) reported that an international conference on SARS in Malaysia wound up on Wednesday with officials relieved an outbreak of the deadly virus was petering out, but no wiser over how it originated or how to eradicate it. More than 1,000 scientists, doctors and health officials attended the two-day meeting organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) to swap ideas on how to stamp out the flu-like virus which has killed almost 800 people worldwide. "We know now so much about SARS and yet we also know how much knowledge is still lacking," WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland said at the end of the conference. Countries will at least be better prepared when the next mystery disease strikes and they should bite the bullet quickly in issuing travel advisories, which played a big part in controlling the spread of SARS, Brundtland said. WHO officials say the outbreak, which started in southern areas of the PRC late last year, is past its worst. But a senior Hong Kong health official was wary of false dawns and scientists were still groping for answers. "We must take home the message that we can hope for the best and we need to prepare for the worst," said Margaret Chan, Hong Kong's Director of Health. Hong Kong reported no new SARS cases or deaths on Wednesday, and the territory will have to go five more days before the U.N. health agency takes it off the list of SARS-affected areas. But the virus has already killed 295 people and infected 1,755 in the former British colony. Removal is automatic 20 days after the last case was isolated. Researchers are working on theories that the virus may have passed to humans because they ate infected animals. And in Taiwan on Wednesday two doctors were charged with covering up SARS cases that allowed the virus to spread unchecked through a Taipei hospital, leading to the island's first and worst outbreak. 10. Regional Partnerships in South-East Asia Agence France-Presse ("CHINA, RUSSIA, INDIA COUNTER GROWING US MUSCLE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA," 06/18/03) reported that nuclear powers Russia, the PRC and India want to forge strategic partnerships with Southeast Asia to counter growing US influence and assertiveness in the region, officials said. The three have given "strong signals" to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that they would sign up to the grouping's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC), effectively a non-aggression pact among the 10 ASEAN member states. Russia, the PRC and India are the first to offer to sign up to the pact to "demonstrate that we are benign powers and do not desire your territory," an ASEAN diplomat said "We believe the three will sign the agreement in Bali" during the annual summit meeting of ASEAN leaders in October, the diplomat told AFP. "This is going to be very symbolic because it was in Bali that the original regional concept of maintaining peace and security evolved," he added. Russia will this week also sign a joint declaration on "partnership of peace, security, stability and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region" with ASEAN, an overarching cooperation framework. The move by the three nuclear powers to forge such pacts comes at a time when the US is stamping its influence in the region under the guise of the international fight against terrorism, analysts said. "If we put this renewed assertiveness in the context of American dominance in the international arena and its ability to impose its will through its unrivalled military capability, we can understand the worries of some ASEAN nations that this could very well turn out to be American dominance in this region too," said Andrew Tan, an analyst with the Singapore-based Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies. "This worries Russia and China and India as well and it is not surprising that they want to sign the TAC too. It could be symbolic but this is the way of communicating a political message," Tan told AFP. All three powers, like the US, are ASEAN's dialogue partners. 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The NAPSNet Daily Report aims to serve as a forum for dialogue
and exchange among peace and security specialists.
Conventions for readers and a list of acronyms and
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For descriptions of the world wide web sites used to gather
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