>> NORK "CUT OUT" CONTINUED?

Japanese Daily Says China Stopped Pyeonyang-bound Shipment of Nuclear Related Material

The Chinese government reportedly seized nuclear related material bound for Pyeongyang just before the shipment was taken over the Sino-North Korean border last summer. According to an article in Saturday's edition of the Asahi Shimbun, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency informed Chinese authorities that a train headed for the North Korean capital was carrying a chemical called tributyl phosphate (TBP). TBP is a solvent needed in the process of extracting weapons-grade plutonium from spent nuclear fuel rods.
The Japanese daily quoting an anonymous U.S. official says the train transporting the chemical was stopped and the material confiscated in the city of Dandong bordering North Korea. This latest report is viewed as not only evidence of North Korea's atomic activity but also shows China, a traditional ally, cooperating with the United States to stop Pyeongyang's nuclear program. There was no information on where the TBP may have originated.

And in another revelation regarding North Korea's nuclear activity, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto acknowledged that her country purchased technology for missile to carry nuclear weapons from Pyeongyang in 1993.

Arirang TV
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Momentum Builds on N. Korea Nuke Crisis
By SOO-JEONG LEE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -
Efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis intensified Sunday as the United States and Asian allies met in Seoul to forge a common stance ahead of crucial six-nation talks.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly and Japanese Foreign Ministry Director General Mitoji Yabunaka arrived in Seoul on Sunday to hammer out details with their South Korean counterpart Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck.
The United States, Japan and South Korea agree that North Korea's alleged uranium-based atomic weapons program must be addressed in the upcoming negotiations.
But South Korea and Japan have recently on North Korea's offer to freeze its nuclear activities as a first step to resolving the standoff, in return for economic concessions from the United States. But Washington has demanded that North Korea first start dismantling its nuclear programs.
Wednesday's six-way meeting in Beijing between the United States, the two Koreas, China, Russia and Japan will try to make progress on those issues.
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said Sunday that any North Korean nuclear freeze must also allow inspections.
"On the assumption that nuclear inspections should follow, North Korea's freeze of its nuclear weapons programs must be the first step toward the ultimate abolition of them, including the one based on highly enriched uranium," Ban told South Korea's Yonhap News Agency during a trip to Saudi Arabia.
North Korea has said it would allow inspections, if a deal is brokered. But it is unclear how much freedom any outside inspectors would have in the tightly controlled country.
Earlier Sunday in Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said "everything depends" on North Korea at the upcoming talks.
"On the one hand, they could break down in a day," she said of the talks. "On the other, in a best-case scenario, North Korea would acknowledge possessing enriched uranium, agree to give up all its nuclear activities and invite inspections."
North Korea's alleged uranium-based nuclear program could be a key stumbling block in the Beijing talks. The nuclear crisis flared in late 2002 when U.S. officials said North Korea acknowledged having the program in violation of a 1994 agreement.
North Korea has since denied having a secret uranium program, in addition to its plutonium-based one, and on Saturday called the U.S. accusation a "whopping lie."
China has annoyed the United States by accepting North Korea's denial concerning a uranium program.
Some experts believe, however, that Pyongyang's denial has been undercut by recent disclosures that the founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had assisted the communist state's uranium program.

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Japan Weighs Trade Squeeze on N. Korea
By GARY SCHAEFER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO (AP) - They come in charcoal and black, with checks and pinstripes, and carry the English-language designer labels that Japanese shoppers take for granted.
But some of the men's suits on the bargain rack at a Daiei department store in Tokyo are cut from a cloth that would surprise many people here - they're made in North Korea.
"They're good quality for the money," said salesman Takashi Higuchi, standing near a sign announcing 10 percent off the usual $85 price. "Most customers are looking at the price, not where the suits come from."
These days, however, Japan's business with North Korea is getting closer scrutiny. As a new round of six-nation talks on the North's nuclear program begins Wednesday in Beijing, the government is under pressure at home to turn off the trade spigot to buttress its diplomatic leverage.
Despite decades of hostility that have kept the two governments from recognizing each other, Japan is the third-largest trading partner of North Korea, which is struggling to keep its shaky economy afloat.
The communist regime in Pyongyang also relies on hard currency sent home by North Koreans living in Japan, and Japanese authorities say drugs and spare parts for the North's military are smuggled out in cargos carried by North Korean ships.
Living within striking distance of North Korean missiles, Japanese have hardened their attitudes toward Kim Jong Il's regime because of the North's nuclear arms ambitions. But that is not their only concern.
Negotiations have failed to end a 16-month tug-of-war over the families of five Japanese abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s. The five were freed in 2002, but the North has refused to permit their children and one spouse to join them, and the issue has been kept in the public eye by the former abductees.
Debate on economic sanctions intensified this month when Parliament overwhelmingly approved a bill authorizing the government to freeze North Korean assets and restrict trade without a multilateral agreement such as a U.N. resolution. The governing party also is discussing a bill allowing the government to bar designated North Korean ships from Japanese ports.
For now, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is pursuing diplomacy, but his foreign minister suggested last week that sanctions would be seriously considered if relations deteriorate.
A test could come at the Beijing talks, which involve the United States, China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas. North Korea has threatened to exclude Japan from the talks if it brings up the abductees.
Most analysts believe Japan is unlikely to impose trade sanctions on its own at this point. Some doubt sanctions would have much of a sting without the cooperation of China and South Korea, North Korea's two largest trading partners.
Two-way trade between Japan and North Korea totaled $369.5 million in 2002, according to the Seoul-based Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency. That compares with China at $738.2 million and South Korea at $641.7 million.
But Japanese officials insist the law has strengthened their position.
"Before, our hands were basically tied," said Kenichi Mizuno, a lawmaker in Koizumi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party. "Now we can cut North Korea's lifelines if we have to."
Mizuno said the Pyongyang regime's belligerent outburst at the sanctions bill - warning in its state media that war was "imminent" - is proof that North Korea is being squeezed already.
Mounting tensions and Japan's intensified watch for contraband have cut the two nations' trade. Japan's imports of North Korean suits, for example, tumbled 46 percent last year.
North Korean ships unload mostly seafood and cheap suits in Japanese ports and return with used cars, refrigerators and other castoffs from the world's second-largest economy.
But the traffic also hides drug-running and parts smuggling for North Korea's military, Japanese officials say. Defectors claim North Korea's ballistic missile program is based on Japanese technology.
"Halting trade would make maintenance tough for the military," said Mitsuhiko Kimura, a North Korean specialist at Aoyama University. "With machinery you're stuck if you're missing just one part."
Policy-makers also may curb currency remittances by Japan's large North Korean community.
Some 600,000 Koreans live in Japan, and about a third are loyal to North Korea. Their declared remittances totaled about $40 million in 2002, although one lawmaker estimates the real figure is double that.

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. Korea, U.S., Japan to Have Final Council on Six-Party Talks

Assistant Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuk, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs James Kelly, and Director-General of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian Affairs Bureau Mitoji Yabunaka will meet at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade building Monday to have final discussions about the three countries' positions in preparation for the second round of the six-party talks.
With the six-party talks on North Korean nuclear ahead, Director-General of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian Affairs Bureau Mitoji Yabunaka (middle), the head of the Japanese delegation, arrives at Gimpo airport in Seoul to attend final discussions with South Korea and the U.S. /Newsis
At the conference, the three countries will look over each other's keynote speeches that will be made on Wednesday, the first day of the six-party talks in Beijing. There will also be final decisions on compensations for North Korea in case it promises to dismantle all its nuclear programs, including its highly enriched uranium (HEU) program.
South Korea, the U.S., and Japan agreed to provide the energy aid that North Korea is requesting when North Korea freezes its nuclear facilities, premised on a decision by the North to completely dismantle said facilities. It is know, however, that there are slight differences in opinion as far as the concrete plans are concerned.

(Lee Ha-won, may2@chosun.com )

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U.S., Asia Powers Gear Up for N.Korea Nuclear Talks
Sun February 22, 2004 10:38 AM ET
By Paul Eckert
SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States urged North Korea Sunday to seize a "great opportunity" at crucial six-party talks this week on resolving a crisis over the reclusive communist state's nuclear weapons ambitions.
U.S. and Japanese delegations arrived in South Korea to coordinate policies before a second round of negotiations with North Korea, China and Russia in Beijing Wednesday.
"We have a great opportunity for all of the parties at the six-party talks, especially the DPRK (North Korea)," said Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, chief U.S. delegate.
Analysts held out modest expectations for the talks due to lack of trust between Washington and Pyongyang, main protagonists in a dispute that has stoked regional tensions since late 2002.
But host China has sounded broadly upbeat, and reports from regional capitals suggested that, despite public denials, North Korea appears prepared to discuss a suspected uranium enrichment program that its partners say is the crux of the dispute.
Washington, Tokyo and Seoul have made clear to Pyongyang that the Beijing talks must cover not only North Korea's plutonium-based nuclear arms program, but a second suspected bomb-making scheme based on highly enriched uranium.
"They are talking about a 'freeze', but what we are interested in is the content," Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said on a television talk show in Tokyo Sunday. "Is it just plutonium or does it include enriched uranium?"
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon told reporters during a visit to Saudi Arabia that step one in a phased solution of the crisis required the North to freeze and agree to dismantle all nuclear programs subject to inspections.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov, head of Moscow's delegation, was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying he did not expect a breakthrough at the first six-way meeting in six months. He echoed top U.S. and Japanese officials in calling for a working group to conduct regular talks.
North Korea proposed last month to freeze its nuclear activities in exchange for energy aid and diplomatic rewards. But the offer apparently covered only its plutonium-based program, centered on a reactor and reprocessing facilities.
BEHIND DENIALS, MOVEMENT?
Pyongyang has denied having a uranium enrichment program. Saturday, it said Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan's statement that he sold nuclear secrets to Pyongyang were part of a "whopping lie" fabricated by U.S. neoconservatives.
"The U.S. smear campaign once again forced the army and the people of (North Korea) to keenly realize what a just measure it took to build a nuclear deterrent force for self-defense by its own efforts," said the North's official KCNA news agency.
The United States says North Korean officials acknowledged the covert uranium program in October 2002 when confronted with evidence presented by U.S. officials, and only later denied it in the face of international criticism.
Despite the tough public posture, there are increasing signs that North Korea may be willing to address the uranium issue.
Japan's Kyodo news agency quoted sources in Beijing as saying North Korea's chief negotiator, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye-gwan, had showed understanding of "the need to eliminate suspicions" by covering the topic in Beijing. It said Kim might propose inspections for verification.
U.S. officials say their basic aim is to have Pyongyang commit by the end of this round to dismantling any nuclear arms programs. Washington has offered then to detail how it could guarantee not to attack the state President Bush called part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and pre-war Iraq.
Friday, Secretary of State Colin Powell said he wanted to formalize the talks process, with working groups "that could stay in more regular session with each other."


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Seoul to Present 'Concrete' Plan During Six-Party Talks
A high-level South Korean government official said that during the next round of six-party talks set to open in Beijing on Feb. 25, Seoul will present a "concrete solution plan" that North Korea will evaluate positively.
The official said Friday that if North Korea freezes its nuclear program as a step to total dismantlement, the U.S., South Korea, and Japan can begin to show the North "through actions" about the compensation it demands. This is interpreted as meaning that if the North freezes its nuclear program with total dismantlement its eventual aim, the U.S., South Korea, and Japan will consider North Korea's requests for the removal of sanctions, its dropping from the State Department's list of states supporting terrorism, and energy assistance. The officials said "About the compensation problem, we put a lot of energy into persuading the Americans," suggesting that a harmonization of views with the United States has already taken place.
Concerning the highly enriched uranium program that the North denies having, the official hinted that South Korea's position on the matter might differ from that of the United States.
The official said, "During the three or four days of the second round of talks, so we can concretely come to an agreement about the problem of freezing [the nuclear program] versus compensation, we'll form working-level groups, and try to regularize the talks." He also said he has some idea concerning the timing of a third round of talks.
Meanwhile, "Come Back Home," an civic group for families of those abducted to the North, and five other local and foreign North Korean human rights groups visited the Foreign Ministry on Friday and met with Jo Tae-yong, the head of the ministry's diplomatic team for the North Korean nuclear issue. They asked Jo to officially raise the issue of South Korean abductees in the North during the six-party talks.
Choe Seong-yong, the head of "Come Back Home," said to Jo, "Japan has decided to strongly raise the issue of abductions during the talks, the U.S. says it will back them on this, but why doesn't our government, which rules a country where 480 people were kidnapped by the North, have any plans [to raise the issue at the talks]?" He requested that the South Korean negotiating team present the issue of abductions in its opening address on the first day of talks.
Choe and others also requested that the South use the talks to bring up refugees, human rights, and request an end to crimes against humanity in the North, such as human testing on political prisioners,

(Lee Ha-won, may2@chosun.com )
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Seoul Plans to Offer Pyeongyang Concrete Concessions for Freezing Nuclear Program

...with the latest in South Korea's preparations for the upcoming multilateral talks... on North Korea's nuclear program.
Officials in Seoul have given the press... an idea of what will be on the negotiating table... when delegates from the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan, and Russia... meet in Beijing next week.
Park Soojin has more in this report.
Seoul is willing to reciprocate Pyeongyang... should it freeze its nuclear weapons program... the first step in settling the nuclear standoff.
Speaking to the press on Friday... government officials in South Korea said... Seoul came up with three-stage plan for North Korea to abandon its nuclear development... along with corresponding concessions to be offered... during the second round of six-nation talks slated to begin in Beijing next Wednesday.
Senior officials noted the conditions to be suggested... are products of trilateral discussions among government representatives from Seoul, Washington and Tokyo... though not to be offered as a joint proposal.
They added... although debate over the highly-enriched uranium program is likely... it should be looked at from a broader perspective... and handled as part of the weapons program that needs to be dismantled.
A 13-member South Korean delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck will attend the new round of multilateral negotiations in Beijing.
North Korea... meanwhile... changed its chief delegate to Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye-gwan... from former representative Kim Young-il.
Observers say... the change implies Pyeongyang's willingness to engage in serious talks to yield substantive results this time around.
Park Soojin, Arirang TV.
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>> YOU SAY YOU WANT AN FTA?

The U.S.-Australia FTA Is Expect To Deal A Heavy Blow To Korean Manufacturers

The conclusion of a Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Australia last month... is expected to deal a heavy blow to Korean manufacturers.
A report released on Friday by the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy shows... domestic manufacturing industries are expected to loose their competitive edge over a number of export items including automobiles, wireless communications equipment... semiconductors and computers both in the U.S. and Australian markets.
The report points out that since the domestic economy is heavily dependent on exports... it is necessary for Korea to push for more free trade pacts in order to stay competitive in the global market.