Former US President Bill Clinton arrived in Pyongyang, North Korea to broker the release of two US journalists imprisoned there since March. He was met at the airport by Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Supreme People’s Assembly, and by the vice-foreign minister, Kim Kwe Gwan, who is also North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator. The two women journalists were sentenced in June to 12 years’ hard labour for illegally entering North Korea from China. Their employer, Current TV, was launched by Clinton’s former vice-president, Al Gore. BBC, CNN, NZZ (Ger)
Two days of talks billed as a “strategic and economic dialogue” between China and the US concluded Tuesday 28 July in Washington DC, with nothing concrete but with broad agreement on ways to combat the world recession and on climate change. The two say they are now closer on a variety of issues, among them US strategic concerns on Iranian and North Korean nuclear ambitions. On the economic front, the Chinese government worries about the value of its massive holdings of US treasury debt, given huge US budget deficits and the resulting danger of inflation, and very low US savings. The US wants China to increase domestic spending to reduce its reliance on the export market, and to show flexibility on its exchange rate. Both remain committed to open trade and say they vowed to resist protectionism. US President Obama has called for a concerted effort to reduce carbon emissions, but developing economies like China hesitate because they fear this will cramp their growth. BBC, CNN, Le Temps (Fre), NZZ (Ger)
The Financial Times has learned that Italy has blocked the sale of two luxury yachts for an estimated $17.8 million because it suspected they were for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The sale would have broken international sanctions against the country. Financial Times
International media are picking up speculation by South Korean television, based on what it says sources have told it, that the North’s leader, Kim-Jong Il, has pancreatic cancer that is putting his life in danger. The information is unconfirmed but is causing concern because of the instability that could be provoked in the North if he dies without a successor clearly in place. Swiss-educated younger son Kim Jong-un is rumoured to be in line to succeed him, but North Korea has not made an announcement to this effect, notes the Guardian, UK.
North Korea is coming under suspicion as the culprit in a series of major cyber attacks that began 4 July on South Korean banks and government web sites, as well as US sites, but some analysts question this and point instead to industrial spying or prankster hackers, Reuters reports, noting that “the attacks saturated target websites with access requests generated by malicious software planted on personal computers. This has overwhelmed some targeted sites and slowed server response to legitimate traffic.” AP, Time magazine
North Korea continues to defy world opinion, launching two more short-range missiles from its east coast, according to South Korean media reports. In May 2009 the UN began sanctions against the country after it launched long-range missiles despite warnings not to do so. BBC
The North Korean government announced it would enrich uranium and weaponize its plutonium stocks in a defiant response to the UN Security Council’s resolution to impose stricter sanctions on the country. The sanctions include a ban on arms purchase from North Korea, with which it finances its nuclear program, and searches of its ships at sea. The United States is considering applying greater restrictions on North Korea’s access to the international financial system. FT, BBC, CNN
The families of two US journalists sentenced to 12 years’ hard labour in North Korea for illegally entering the country have asked the North Korean government to free them, saying that the three months they had spent in jail with little contact with the outside world was punishment enough.
Their plight has complicated an escalation in the confrontations between the hermetic country and the the West. North Korea detonated a nuclear device and tested missiles recently, adding to tensions in the region. The two women were arrested under circumstances that remain murky while they were reporting on Koreans fleeing their country to China. BBC, SF Gate
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch and sources) – Aging and probably ailing North Korean leader Kim Jong Il surprised the world by reportedly naming his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, 26, as the new leader of North Korea, according to South Korean media, who cite the South’s spy agency. Kim Jong Un spent much of his youth at the International School of Bern in Switzerland where he was learned English, French and German, and he was known to be shy, a fan of basketball and action sports. Even if the rumours of his succession are true, it could be years before he steps into the job.
Ed. note: Swiss news magazine and GL partner l’Hebdo 19 March 2009 carried a lengthy feature on the boy known in Bern as Chol Pak: Kim Jong Il.
North Korea has declared the end to its truce with South Korea, but the UN Command says the armistice is still in place, reports, the BBC, as the international community continues to press the North to stop testing nuclear missiles. US and South Korean troops have been put on a high level of alert in the wake of the North’s announcement and are reportedly increasing surveillance operations. The truce ended the Korean War in the 1950s. The United Nations Security Council is debating a response to North Korea’s nuclear activities.
Late Monday the United Nations Security Council agreed to take steps to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear missile test, while US President Barack Obama and his counterparts in Japan and South Korea talked by telephone to ensure a coordinated response to the tests. The BBC reports North Korean leaders as saying, on their state television, “It is clear that nothing has changed in the US hostile policy against DPRK [North Korea]… even under the new US administration,” and that the government criticized recent US moves to relocate its fighter jets. Reuters says North Korea is ready to fire more test missiles. Unusually, North Korea’s allies, China and Russia, both condemned the nuclear tests. Reuters, Xinhua, Moscow Times, Voice of America
North Korea announced Monday 25 May that it had conducted a new nuclear test, prompting a stream of reactions from other countries. United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting Monday to discuss the situation. Reuters
Two American reporters, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, will face trial in North Korea on charges of illegal entry and perpetrating hostile acts against the communist state. The reporters were arrested five weeks ago at the Chinese border after reporting on North Korean refugees living in China. North Korea is likely to use the trial as political leverage against the United States, according to the International Herald Tribune.
North Korea officially says it launched a satellite that is now “circling the earth transmitting revolutionary songs,” reports Reuters, but it has few believers, with the US, South Korea and Japan – over which the long-range rocket was launched – expressing outrage at the North’s behaviour, saying the launch appears to have been a ballistic missile test. The United Nations Security Council is meeting Sunday afternoon to discuss the launch but China and Russia, who have in the past supported North Korea, are calling for calm and restraint. The BBC refers to the activity as a failed launch, with the satellite not going into orbit and the US claiming payloads fell into the Pacific.
North Korea has missed its first of several options in the space of a week to launch a missile. The launch, which it has said would be of a communications satellite, has worried several Western nations and Japan, who suspect it could be a nuclear missile test. South Korean media report that weather conditions were not the best for a launch, says the BBC.
Jaime Flor-Cruz of CNN, a longtime reporter in China who has visited North Korea, says on his most recent visit to the China-N Korea border that the dilemma for other nations of how to handle a very poor nation seeking respect with its nuclear efforts cannot be resolved by China, which has its own difficult relationship to sort out.
North Korea says it is launching a communications satellite but Japan and the US, among others, are concerned that it will instead be testing a long-range nuclear missile. Japan is preparing its defense system “to intercept any dangerous debris that might fall on its territory,” reports Reuters, although the Japanese government says the chances of this happening are slim.
North Korean military are preparing a long-range missile test launch that violates existing United Nations sanctions Wednesday 24 March. These activities have heightened political tension with neighbouring countries and the US. North Korea’s last test rocket blew apart seconds after takeoff July 2006. Reuters, International Herald Tribune
North Korea has told five international aid agencies that supply food aid to leave, the US State Department has announced. No reason appears to have been given, but the US “hinted” that it could be linked to a “US request to issue visas for Korean-speaking monitors from the World Food Program (WFP),” according to The Korea Times.
North Korea has announced to the International Maritime Organization, a member group for shipping companies, that it will launch a communications satellite missile 4-8 April. The missile launch has worried other governments, particularly in Europe and the US, because of fears that the country will test a nuclear missile. Reuters India, Xinhua and BBC background on North Korea’s missile arsenal
“Pyongyang routinely accuses the United States and South Korea of aggressive intentions with the exercises, but the rhetoric this time has been more strident,” reports Reuters, noting that tensions are rising in the region as the US and South Korea begin joint annual military exercises.
US-led UN Command in South Korea and North Korean generals have held military talks in a border village, at the request of the latter, to reduce tensions, after N Korea “warned US troops to stop ‘provocation’,” reports the BBC. The talks are the first in six years.
South Korea says that international nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea may be breaking down; N Korea announced it intends to start plutonium production again soon. AFP
