In and Around North Korea: April 25 - 1 May, 2009

North Korea reconfirms to Russia its decision to withdraw from the Six Party Talks

• According to the North Korean foreign ministry, top North Korean officials reaffirmed their country’s decision to quit the Six-Party Talks during a meeting with the visiting Russian foreign minister on 24 Apr.

• The unidentified North Korean spokesman said, "the Russian side reconfirmed its stand against U.N. sanctions against North Korea and paid attention to North Korea's stand that there is no need to hold the six-party talks any longer.”
  

North Korea says it resumed reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods

• North Korea said on 25 Apr that it has restarted extracting plutonium from spent fuel rods.
  

• The announcement by the North's foreign ministry came just hours after the UNSC froze foreign assets of two firms and a bank in North Korea over their suspected ties to missile and nuclear programs.
  

US Secretary of State says US will not be “blackmailed”

• Responding to North Korea's purported reactivation of its plutonium-producing facilities, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on 25 Apr that Washington wants dialogue with Pyongyang, but the communist country should first retract its brinkmanship.
  

• "We're not going to be blackmailed by the North Koreans," Clinton said during her surprise visit to Baghdad.
  

• "We're going to crack down in conjunction with the Chinese, the Russians, the Japanese, the South Koreans and other allies to try to ... tighten the band around North Korea so that they cannot do that," Clinton said.
  

• The secretary emphasized, however, that Washington wants to talk with Pyongyang to resolve the crisis. The Secretary said, “We hope that we will be able to resume discussions with North Korea that will lead to their assuming responsibility for denuclearizing the peninsula.”
  

US will not accept North Korea as a nuclear-weapons state

• The United States will not accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed country, State Department spokeswoman Megan Mattson said on 25 Apr, "We will not accept North Korea as a nuclear-weapons state."
  

• "The United States remains committed to the six-party goal of the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner through the six-party talks," the spokeswoman said.
  

• The United States will "seek full implementation of the Sept. 19, 2005 Joint Statement under which North Korea committed to abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and return, at an early date, to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to IAEA safeguards," she added.
  

South Korea urges North Korea to rejoin the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

• Seoul officials on 27 Apr reiterated call for North Korea to return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty during the international NPT meeting in May.
  

• South Korea will send Oh Joon, Deputy Foreign Minister for International Organization, Global issues and Treaties, to the Third Preparatory Conference for parties to the NPT, which will be held from 04 – 15 May in New York.
  

• Moon Tae-young, the South Korean foreign ministry spokesman, said earlier in the day the forthcoming NPT meeting is meaningful as it comes as US President Obama seeks to bolster the regime.
  

U.S. hints at bilateral talks with North Korea due to idled Six-Party Talks

• On 30 Apr, the United States hinted at its willingness to engage in bilateral nuclear negotiations with North Korea amid slim chances that the North will return to the Six-Party Talks.
  

• The US State Department spokesman Robert Wood said, "If we have to look at other options, diplomatic options, we certainly will."

• Wood added, "There is skepticism about the North's intentions, and it doesn't appear likely that the North, at least from the signs we have seen so far, is willing to return to the negotiating table."
  

North Korea vows “merciless strike” against the US

• North Korea marked the 77th anniversary of the Korea People’s Army (KPA) on 25 Apr with vows of a “merciless strike” against the US and its allies, which it accuses of attempting an invasion.
  

• The national event for the KPA follows a UN action to sanction the North for its 05 Apr rocket launch.
  

Lavrov says Russia is ready to begin projects to launch North Korean satellites

• Russia is ready to begin projects with the North Korean on launching its satellites with the help of Russian boosters, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after talks with his South Korean colleague Yu Myung-hwan.
  

• "Russia is cooperating with many countries in aerospace, including launches of satellites by our boosters, including with South Korea. We are ready to work with North Korea on developing similar projects," Lavrov said.
  

Sources say Kim Jong-il’s third son is appointed to a post in the National Defense Commission

• Multiple sources privy to North Korean affairs said Kim Jong-il has appointed his third son, Kim Jong-un, to a post in the National Defense Commission (NDC), apparently a sign of being groomed as the North’s next leader.

• "Kim Jong-un had been appointed to a low-level post, called 'instructor' at the National Defense Commission days before the first session of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly meeting was held" on April 9, the source said.
  

• Another source also said that Jong-un works at the commission, but that his exact post remains unconfirmed.
  

South Korean president says South Korea-Russia gas deal will help North Korea

• President Lee said on 25 Apr a tentative deal to pipe natural gas from Russia via North Korea would greatly benefit the North and help it become a member of the international community.
  

• South Korea signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia in September to pay $90 billion to import 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year - a fifth of its need - for 30 years after 2015 via the pipeline from eastern Siberia.

• "If the project succeeds, a great amount will be paid to North Korea and it will offer them a big help," Lee told the visiting Russian foreign minister.

• "Such efforts will improve relations with the North and also help North Korea become a member of international community... I believe the North will be also interested," Lee said.
  

Stephen Bosworth says US is has no immediate plans to strengthen sanctions against North Korea

• US special envoy to North Korea Stephen Bosworth has told a group of families of Japanese abductees that the U.S. has no immediate plans to strengthen its sanctions against Pyongyang.

• After a meeting with the envoy at the US State Department on 27 Apr, Shigeo Iizuka, the head of the group, told reporters that there were some differences of opinion.
  

• In the meeting, the Japanese group reportedly asked Washington to beef up sanctions against Pyongyang and put the North back on its list of state terrorism sponsors.
  

• Bosworth, however, said the US has no intention of imposing additional sanctions at the moment, adding that additional sanctions would most likely have no effect on the North in regards to the abductee issue.
  

Secretary Clinton says US will not give aid to North Korea without nuclear talks in progress

• Secretary Clinton said on 30 Apr that the US government will not provide economic aid to North Korea unless Pyongyang stops making nuclear and missile threats and returns to the Six-Party Talks.
  

• "We have absolutely no interest and no willingness on the part of this administration to give them any economic aid at all," Secretary Clinton told a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.
  

• She said, "They are digging themselves into a deeper and deeper hole with the international community."
  

US urges North Korea to improve human rights record

• The US State Department spokesman Robert Wood said, "We remain deeply concerned about the human rights situation in [North Korea]."
  

• "We will continue to press [North Korea] to improve its human rights record," said Wood.
  

• Wood's remarks coincide with the observance of North Korea Freedom Week.
  

UN Security Council Sanctions Committee sanctions three North Korean companies

• The UNSCSC called for a freeze of assets of three North Korean companies it says are involved in the arms trade, as well as updating a lengthy list of items that North Korea will now be prohibited from either importing or exporting.
  

• The sanctions committee designated the Korean Mining Development Trading Corporation and Korea Ryonbong General Corporation, as well as Tanchon Commercial Bank as subject to an asset freeze.
  

• Sanctions Committee Chairman, Turkish Ambassador Baki Ilkin, said the committee also agreed to update a long list of items N. Korea will now be forbidden to import or export.
  

• Diplomats close to the talks said those items are basically the same ones that are included in the Missile Technology Control Regime and include certain rocket systems, missile-related components and related technology.
  

• Amb. Yukio Takasu said his government is very pleased that the council made what he called an 'extraordinary' effort.
  

• "I hope that this unity of the council could send, I hope, a good signal to rest of world, because a decision by the sanction committee is binding upon member states," the GOJ Amb. Said.
  

• All 192-member states of the United Nations are obligated to enforce the sanctions committee's designations of goods and entities - whether they will or not remains to be seen.
  

North Korea threatens to conduct nuclear and ICBM tests

• North Korea says it will conduct nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests if the United Nations Security Council does not immediately apologize for its condemnation of the North's recent rocket launch.
  

• In a 29 Apr statement, the North's Foreign Ministry said it will also start building a light-water reactor and develop technology to produce nuclear fuel, implying that it will begin its uranium enrichment program.
  

South Korea will propose to North Korea for talks next week

• According to a Blue House official, South Korea plans to propose holding talks with North Korea next week, most likely on Thursday, on issues concerning the Kaesong Industrial Complex as the North demanded at the inter-Korean meeting last week.
  

Stephen Bosworth due in South Korea next week

• The top American envoy on North Korea plans to visit South Korea late next week as part of his regional trip aimed at exploring ways to persuade Pyongyang back into the denuclearization process.
  

• "We are in consultations with the US for Special Representative Stephen Bosworth's trip to Seoul next week," the official said, "An exact schedule has yet to be decided, but he is likely to come here in the latter part of the week."
  

• He added that Bosworth will also visit other related countries including Japan, China, and Russia, but it is uncertain whether he will also travel to North Korea.