I. United States

1. DPRK on Nuclear Weapons

Agence France-Presse ("NORTH KOREA TOUGHENS ITS LINE ON NUKES, US" United Nations, 09/30/03) reported that hardening in the face of US pressure, the DPRK said it had no interest in more talks on its nuclear program until the US inks a non-aggression pact with them. In messages delivered to the United Nations and released on the Korean peninsula, it blamed Washington for the current standoff and suggested it was absurd to consider setting aside its nukes until a deal had been struck. "Asking the other party to put down the guns first does not make any sense," Deputy Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon told the UN general assembly's annual gathering of world leaders. "Simultaneous action is a realistic way to de-nuclearise the Korean peninsula and any opposition to it is tantamount to rejection" of that goal, he said. His speech came just hours after an official statement from Pyongyang said that the DPRK was beefing up its nuclear program to deter Washington from launching a "pre-emptive" nuclear strike. Choe repeated his government's insistence that the ultimate goal of Washington is to disarm North Korea, a policy he said the US had made clear in last month's talks in Beijing. "It has been proven that the US is only interested in turning the six-party talks into grounds for completely disarming and killing the DPRK by all means," he said. "We have been compelled not to maintain any interest in or expectation from such talks." Despite the rhetoric, North Korea says it is committed to ending the nuclear crisis through peaceful dialogue, and the PRC recently maintained that Pyongyang's position is unchanged.

2. US and ROK Intelligence on DPRK Nuclear Test Probability

Reuters (Carol Giacomo, "CHANCE OF NORTH KOREA NUCLEAR TEST SAID LOW," New York, 09/30/03) reported that US and ROK intelligence agencies believe there is only a low possibility that the DPRK would act on its threats to test a nuclear weapon or formally declare itself a nuclear state, a senior ROK official said on Tuesday. Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun also said he believed the North was ready to continue six-party talks on its nuclear program despite public statements that suggest otherwise. During the first round of talks in Beijing last month, the DPRK suggested it might formally declare itself a nuclear arms state and conduct nuclear and missile tests. Speaking at a Korea Society lunch, Jeong said: "But intelligence agencies in Seoul and Washington have concluded that such possibility is low." Since the talks ended, Pyongyang has often spoken negatively of a future round. But Jeong said: "If one makes a thorough analysis of DPRK intention, however, it is evident that North Korea is paradoxically ready to continue the dialogue. Some can interpret the DPRK reaction as its typical tactic to ratchet up its bargaining chip to gain more leverage in future negotiations."

3. UN on Nuclear Weapons Proliferation

Reuters (Louis Charbonneau, "SCORES OF STATES MAY BUILD NUCLEAR WEAPONS -ELBARADEI," Vienna, 09/30/03) reported that the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Tuesday that unless the US and other nuclear powers take concrete steps toward disarmament, scores of countries will follow their lead and build atomic weapons. The US, the PRC, Britain, France and Russia all signed the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). They were allowed to keep their atomic arsenals, but agreed to begin negotiations on full disarmament. "Unless we are moving steadily toward nuclear disarmament, I'm afraid that the alternative is that we'll have scores of countries with nuclear weapons and that's an absolute recipe for self-destruction," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters. ElBaradei has attacked US plans to research so-called "mini nukes," smaller nuclear bombs which Washington says it wants to study but not deploy. ElBaradei says these plans are sending the wrong signal to states considering atomic bombs. "I think eventually the weapons states have to make good on their commitment under the NPT, which was made 30 years ago, saying that we are going to move to nuclear disarmament," he said. "That was an acknowledgment that nuclear weapons are inherently bad and that we should get rid of them," ElBaradei said. "The sooner we do that the better."

4. ROK Business on ROK Troops in Iraq

Asia Pulse ("BUSINESS LOBBYING GROUP SUPPORTS S. KOREAN TROOPS IN IRAQ," Seoul, 10/01/03) reported that the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), South Korea's largest business organization, has come out in support of the proposed dispatch of combat troops to Iraq, citing potential economic benefits. In a statement released Wednesday, the FKI said sending the troops should be determined from the perspective of national interest, indirectly indicating its support. "The decision on a troop dispatch has to be made in consideration of South Korea's unique diplomatic and security situations, its alliance with the US and future economic cooperation with the Middle East," said the statement. "It is particularly noteworthy that South Korea and the US have maintained a solid alliance over the past half a century and are now forming a joint front against North Korea's nuclear ambition," it said. The FKI also maintained that an active role in Iraq's restoration and democratization will be helpful to South Korea's participation in the Middle East country's economic reconstruction.

5. DPRK Food Aid Black Market Sales

The Associated press (Sang-Hun Choe, "ACTIVISTS: FOOD AID IN NORTH KOREA SOLD," Seoul, 10/01/03) reported that international food aid sent to ease the suffering of North Koreans is being sold on the black market for high prices, according to video footage released Wednesday by Japanese and ROK human rights activists. The activists said the footage was secretly taken in September in Haesan, a DPRK town on the border with the PRC. It showed a marketplace where people were selling rice and other grains that the activists said was provided by the ROK, the U.N. World Food Program and other relief organizations. Some of the grain sacks bore stamps that read, "Rice from the Republic of Korea," the ROK's official name. There was no immediate way to independently verify the authenticity of the video footage and the activists' claim. Lee Young Hwa, head of Rescue the DPRK People, said the video confirmed a long-standing suspicion that the DPRK police and military were selling aid to fill their pockets. "The aid has not been used for those who really need it. The aid is helping a regime of terror and dictatorship become stronger," said Lee. In a statement, the Seoul-based Network for DPRK Democracy and Human Rights urged the international aid donors to "establish the transparency of the distributing process" in the DPRK.

6. PRC Manned Space Flight

Agence France-Presse ("CHINA WILL LAUNCH FIRST MANNED SPACE FLIGHT IN MID-OCTOBER: REPORT," 10/01/03) reported that the PRC will send a man into space in mid-October "right after" a meeting of the PRC Communist Party's top brass, the Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po said. The Beijing-backed newspaper cited unnamed authoritative sources saying that the launch time for the spacecraft -- Shenzhou V -- has "basically been decided," and that it will take place after the Communist Party Central Committee's third plenary session. The session will be held in Beijing from October 11 to 14, state media, including the China Daily, had reported. Wen Wei Po's Wednesday report on the timing of the spacecraft launch backs up previous state media reports which said the launch date will be in October. Media reports did not say why October has been chosen, although the Wen Wei Po report cited relevant sources saying that generally good weather conditions in China in Autumn made October suitable. Politics and nationalism likely also figured into the decision to launch the spacecraft in October, as China's National Day falls on October 1 and the launch would happen shortly after the week-long National Day holiday.

7. PRC Democratic Reform

The Associated Press (Joe McDonald, "CHINA PRESIDENT URGES `DEMOCRATIC' VOTE," Beijing, 10/01/03) reported that PRC President Hu Jintao called for a bigger public role in government and "democratic election," the government's official news outlet said Wednesday. The report by the Xinhua News Agency didn't give any details of what Hu, who it said spoke Tuesday night in a speech to fellow Communist Party leaders, meant by the reference to elections or whether it might include allowing true opposition parties. But the PRC has been holding nonpartisan elections to low-level village offices for a decade, and the party has long been rumored to be preparing to hold competitive internal elections for its posts and to expand the so-called "village democracy." Hu called for "efforts to expand citizens' orderly participation in political affairs and guarantee the people's rights to carry out democratic election, decision making, management and supervision according to law," Xinhua said. Hu, who is the party's general secretary, also called for reforms to the PRC's legal system and for government to be more responsive to the public, the report said. The speech to Hu's fellow members of the party's Politburo, the second-highest level of power, came on the eve of the PRC's National Day - the 54th anniversary of the day communist revolutionary Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China. Xinhua said its theme was "government by law and improving political ethics."

8. PRC National Day Political Unrest

Agence France-Presse ("LAID-OFF WORKER SETS HIMSELF ALIGHT ON PRC NATIONAL DAY," 10/02/03) reported that a laid-off worker marked the start of the PRC's "golden week" National Day holiday by setting fire to himself in Tiananmen Square. Yang Peiquan, 49, set himself ablaze at 7:45 am as hundreds of thousands of tourists thronged the vast square for the 54th anniversary of the founding of communist-ruled China, the Xinhua news agency said. Police immediately put out the fire and Yang, who had traveled to Beijing from the central Hubei province, was hospitalized with minor injuries. Soon after 6:00 am, some 250,000 people had amassed on the vast plaza in central Beijing to watch a flag-raising ceremony to kick-off the holiday, which lasts until October 7 and sees millions of people travel across the country. The break is one of three designated "golden weeks" in the year, meant to get the PRC's 1.3 billion people to spend more lavishly to help lift the economy. The previous "golden week", in early May, was shortened because of the outbreak of pneumonia-like SARS disease in spring, and the government is hopeful this holiday will boost spending in travel and retail sales, both severely affected by the outbreak. This "golden week" got under way as the world's most populous country was preparing to become only the third nation in history to send a man into space in an attempt to raise its international image and boost its technological prowess. Millions of people were expected to travel around the country to visit family and friends for the break. Xinhua quoted tourism officials as estimating the number of people traveling by train, bus or boat this week would likely top the 59.5 million recorded during the New Year "golden week" at the beginning of the year.

9. US on PRC Currency Situation

The Associated Press (Martin Crutsinger, "BUSH PRESSING CHINA ON IT'S CURRENCY," Washington, 10/01/03) reported that the Bush administration, insisting it is doing everything possible to halt a slide in manufacturing jobs, assured Congress on Wednesday it was pressing the PRC to move to a flexible currency system and dismantle barriers to US exports. Treasury Undersecretary John B. Taylor, the top US official on international economic issues, told a House Financial Services subcommittee that the administration is keeping up pressure on the PRC to honor commitments it made when joining the World Trade Organization. "China represents one of the largest economies in the world and a flexible exchange rate regime would be a good policy for China," Taylor told lawmakers. Taylor said that Treasury Secretary John Snow, during a trip to Beijing last month, had made this argument in what Taylor described as "detailed and candid" conversations. The PRC, however, rejected Snow's appeal, arguing that now was not the right time to allow their currency, the yuan, to float because of the potential dangers to the PRC's fragile banking system.

10. US-Russia Relations

The Washington File ("Bush, Putin at Camp David Stress Strong U.S.-Russia Ties," 09/27/03) reported that President Bush and President Vladimir Putin of Russia stressed the strong ties between the US and Russia and declared themselves allies in the war against terror following two days of talks on bilateral and world issues at Camp David, the US presidential retreat in the mountains of Maryland. "In recent years, the US and Russia have made great progress in building a new relationship. Today, our relationship is broad and it is strong," Bush told reporters September 27 at a joint news availability with Putin. Putin said he and Bush had held "a calm and open, very frank talk on the major problems and on the broader picture of relations between Russia and the US. "Our talks today have once again confirmed that our relations are based on a clear vision and a clear understanding of special responsibility of Russia and the US for ensuring international security and strengthening strategic stability," the Russian leader said. Bush declared that "Russia and the US are allies in the war on terror." "Both of our nations have suffered at the hands of terrorists, and both of our governments are taking actions to stop them," he said.

The full transcript can be found: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=September&x=20030927163732ssor0.4198114&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html

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