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Web-only Exclusives November 30, 2000 From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead Bad news for the Philippines - and some others From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights? |
Week of July 23, 1999
SEOUL "I am not saying military consequences, but there will be economic and diplomatic consequences," that will follow any new missile launches by Pyongyang, U.S. Ambassador Stephen Bosworth warned. Several intelligence agencies have noted that the North seems to be preparing to launch a new longer-range Taepodong missile - a version of which was fired last August, sparking alarm in Seoul, Tokyo and Washington. Meanwhile, Pyongyang criticized the South's "double-dealing attitude" toward tour groups traveling to the Mount Kumgang tourist area. The trips have been canceled since last month when a Seoul housewife was detained for six days and accused of trying to lure North Koreans into defecting to the South.Week of July 9, 1999
Li Peng, chairman of the National People's Congress, will visit Pyongyang in October, ostensibly to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. His trip will pave the way for a visit - the timing of which is still uncertain - by the North's reclusive leader, Kim Jong Il, to Beijing.Week of July 2, 1999
SEOUL continued to downplay the firefight between North and South Korean vessels in the Yellow Sea on June 15. But in parliament, President Kim Dae Jung faced mounting pressure to reassess, if not abandon, his "Sunshine Policy" of engagement with Pyongyang (see INTELLIGENCE(link to feat 7)). In response to the skirmish, the U.S. sent two guided missile cruisers to the west coast of Korea, and diverted the carrier battle group led by the U.S.S. Constitution, which was underway toward active duty in the Persian Gulf. Several intelligence services say they have evidence that Pyongyang might be making preparations to test-fire another ballistic missile. Along the DMZ, tense talks between North Korean generals and American-led U.N. forces went ahead, but were inconclusive. In Beijing, after a one-day delay, vice-ministerial talks were cut short when the North Korean side walked out, demanding an apology for the Yellow Sea incident. They were the first government face-to-face meetings in 14 months. And to aggravate things, a South Korean tourist in North Korea - a mother of two - was charged with spying after guards heard her telling her tour group's guide that defectors are not abused when they flee to the South. Seoul quickly canceled all further tours to the North.Week of June 11, 1999
This is a monument near the Tower of Juche (self reliance) Idea in Pyongyang, and the man ambling with both hands behind his back is U.S.-North Korea policy coordinator William Perry. He delivered a joint message from Seoul, Tokyo and Washington to the North Korean leadership but, despite the positive spin the Americans put on his four-day trip, it's not clear that any substantive understandings were reached. Perry spent much of his time with vice foreign minister Kang Sok Ju, and did not see Kim Jong Il. Separately, U.S. inspectors at a suspected underground nuclear site near Pyongyang found no evidence that the North is violating anti-nuclear pactsWeek of June 4, 1999
PYONGYANG North Korea's No. 2 leader, President of the Presidium of the People's Assembly Kim Yong Nam, will lead a delegation on an official visit to Beijing in early June. The meeting marks the resumption of high-level talks, stalled since October 1991, when former leader Kim IlSung visited.This is a test. It is only a testÖ but in case of a real toxic gas attack from North Korea, these South Korean soldiers would be prepared. President Kim Dae Jung recently reshuffled his cabinet to, among other things, ease relations with Pyongyang (see NEWSMAKERS(link to FEAT9)). And on the very day these troops were rehearsing for the worst, U.S. envoy William Perry flew across the DMZ to present a joint message from Seoul, Tokyo and Washington to Kim Jong Il. The Perry proposal: Rein in missile and nuclear programs in exchange for economic aid; turn down the offer and face increased isolation. Perry's greatest problem- neither the South Koreans nor the Japanese gave his approach their full public support
Week of May 21, 1999
PYONGYANG Jon In Chen, Director of External Affairs for the Food Damage Rehabilitation Committee, admitted to a World Food Program delegation that "there is much talk about death rates and that three million have starved to death. But now I can say that before the natural disasters [in 1995] the mortality rate was 6.8 per 1,000 people. According to last year's assessment it increased to 9.3 per 1,000." Calculations vary, but the figures seem to imply that about 220,000 North Koreans died in that period. The death rate in South Korea in 1998 was 5.67.Week of May 7, 1999
THE WORLD FOOD PROGRAM NEEDS $260 million to feed eight million North Koreans over the next year. The country is facing its "hardest months" between now and June, "when some vegetables and potatoes become available." Until then, "there is no harvest left for general distribution," the agency said in its fifth appeal for North Korea since 1995.Week of April 16, 1999
NORTH ASIAN SECURITY At a sub-cabinet level meeting on regional affairs in Tokyo, China demanded Japan and the U.S. exclude Taiwan from coverage under new plans for a theater missile defense system. The Japanese say they and Washington have no intention of making the guidelines geographically specific. Meanwhile, Japan and South Korea agreed to continue cooperation - also involving the U. S. and China - in dealing with Pyongyang, after the alleged intrusion of North Korean spy ships into Japanese waters last month.Week of April 9, 1999
TOKYO In its first public statement on the incident, Tokyo accused Pyongyang of sending spy ships into its territorial waters on March 23. Japanese diplomats in Beijing and New York lodged protests with North Korean officials. The Japanese want the two vessels its Self-Defense Forces pursued to be handed over, but North Korea's reaction was "far from sincere, far from satisfactory," said government spokesman Saiki Akitaka.PYONGYANG The fourth round of negotiations to limit Pyongyang's development and export of missiles ended without resolution, though both sides agreed to meet again. North Korea wants $3 billion in compensation - $1 billion every year for the next three years - for agreeing to stop selling its missiles abroad.
Week of April 2, 1999
NOTO PENINSULA Two boats which Japan's military says were North Korean high-speed spy vessels operating inside Japanese territorial waters avoided capture and fled toward North Korea. The early-morning chase ended when the boats moved beyond the Japanese air defense zone. For the first time since it was established in 1954, the Self-Defense Forces engaged in a military action. Anti-submarine aircraft dropped a dozen 150-kg bombs near the boats and destroyers fired warning shots from five-inch cannon.Week of March 12, 1999
Talks in New York to allow inspections of a suspected nuclear site near Pyongyang dragged on with no resolution in sight. At risk is the 1994 deal in which Pyongyang pledged to halt its nuclear weapons program in exchange for two light-water nuclear reactors.Week of February 19, 1999
PYONGYANG The distribution of food rations to residents of the capital was halted in January, according to reports from Beijing. "As food rations will stop from this year, each institution and individual should solve their own food problems," said an official letter sent to workplaces in the city.SEOUL The U.S. quickly knocked down reports from Seoul that, while it will not send cash as demanded by the North, it will ship up to 500,000 tons of food to North Korea if Pyongyang allows the inspection of a suspect underground construction site. Japan, South Korea and the U.S. fear the project at Kumchangni will be used to revive Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. Tokyo, furious with the North Koreans for launching a rocket over its territory last August, will not take part in the offer hammered out in three-way talks in Seoul.
Week of February 12, 1999
SEOUL "There are some signs of food shortages easing a bit [in North Korea] as international food aid is being handed out to ordinary people," say Seoul intelligence sources. Kim Jong Il issued a directive in December, ordering that food rations must not be held up for more than 12 days.Week of January 22, 1999
TOKYO Missile defenses and a proposed network of Japanese surveillance satellites to counter the North Korean threat are at the heart of U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen's talks in Tokyo. He will also push to speed up implementation of new defense guidelines that allow Japan to play a broader role in any regional crisis. Cohen was to travel to Seoul later, where joint R.O.K.-U.S. military talks were already underway to enhance defense readiness south of the DMZ. Included in the talks was the possibility of increasing U.S. military strength.Week of January 15, 1999
SEOUL A popular North Korean movie star has defected to the South along with her entire family, the unification ministry revealed. Kim Hye Young, the star of seven films, arrived in Seoul in August, but her presence was kept secret for her own safety, defectors often becoming assassination targets. Kim was one of 934 defectors since 1948, with 60 crossing the border from the starving hermit kingdom last year alone.News from North Korea in 1998
News from North Korea in 1997
News from North Korea in 1996
News from North Korea in 1995
