N. Korea sentences two U.S. reporters to 12 years in labor camp
Yonhap
06/08/2009
The report did not specify what the grave crime was. The North previously accused them of illegally entering the country and engaging in "hostile" acts.
The verdict would be final, as the North's top court does not allow appeals, the Seoul officials say.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has lately toughened her call on North Korea to free the two women, saying the charges against them are baseless.
The journalists from Current TV, a San Francisco-based Internet outlet co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, were detained on March 17 while working on a story about North Korean defectors.
Washington did not rule out the possibility of Gore flying to North Korea to negotiate their release.
Negotiations have won releases in previous cases. Bill Richardson, a former New Mexico governor, flew to Pyongyang to win the release of Evan Hunziker, a U.S. citizen who was detained for three months in the North in 1996 after swimming across the river that borders China.
U.S. Army helicopter pilot Bobby Hall was released 13 days after his helicopter strayed into North Korea in 1994. The two cases did not involve trials.
North Korea has also been holding a South Korean citizen for months. The Hyundai Asan Corp. employee was detained at a joint industrial park in the North's border town of Kaesong on March 30 for criticizing the North's political system and trying to incite the defection of a local female worker. The North has neither allowed access to him nor said how the case will be handled.
N. Korea moves to clear huge portion of waters off east coast
Yonhap
06/08/2009
SEOUL -- North Korea has banned ships from the waters off a major portion of its east coast starting Tuesday, including a site where it fired a long-range rocket on April 5, South Korean officials said.
The ban, effective between 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. from June 9 to 29 according to the National Oceanographic Research Institute (NORI), starts at the mid-eastern port of Yeongeodan and stretches 266 kilometers northeast along the coast of South Hamgyeong Province.
Covering nearly 9,700 square kilometers, the ban ends near the Musudan-ri base where the North launched a long-range rocket in April despite international warnings.
North Korea imposed a similar ban late last month when it tested a nuclear device in its northeastern region and fired a series of short-range missiles off the east coast.
"North Korea tends to impose such bans when it intends to test missiles," a NORI official said, declining to be named.
The ban did not include the waters off the southeastern county of Anbyon where South Korean defense officials say the North may be preparing to test-fire several medium-range missiles.
North Korea is also apparently preparing to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile on its west coast, the officials say.
North Korea has vowed to resume its nuclear and missile testing since the U.N. Security Council condemned its April 5 rocket launch, which only Pyongyang says put a satellite in space.
South Korea and the U.S. say the rocket could be converted into a ballistic missile capable of hitting the western U.S.
North Korea conducted its second nuclear test on May 25 following the first in October 2006.
S. Korean Firm Decides To Withdraw From Kaesong Complex
Yonhap
06/08/2009
SEOUL -- A South Korean apparel maker decided Monday [ 8 June] to pull out of an industrial complex in North Korea due to worsening inter-Korean relations, the company's president said.
The Kaesong [Kaeso'ng] industrial complex, about an hour's drive from Seoul, houses 106 South Korean firms that produce clothes, utensils, electronic equipment and other labor-intensive goods.
"We made the decision as deteriorating ties between the two Koreas resulted in canceled orders and raised concerns over the security of company staff," the president of the company said in a telephone interview.
"Related documents have been submitted to the management committee of the complex," he said on condition of anonymity.
The company, identified only by its initial of S, is the first South Korean company operating in the complex to withdraw.
Worsening inter-Korean relations have dealt a blow to economic cooperation between the Koreas. In March, North Korea detained a South Korean worker on charges of criticizing its political system, raising worries about the safety of South Koreans working in the complex. It has denied access to the employee of Hyundai Asan Corp., frustrating Seoul officials.
Protesting South Korea's hard-line policy shift toward the North, Pyongyang has demanded changes to inter-Korean contracts governing the Kaesong [Kaeso'ng] park, including wages and land use fees.
The joint venture is the last remaining inter-Korean economic project resulting from a 2000 summit meeting between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
Construction began in 2003, and the park opened a year later. KT Corp., South Korea's largest telephone and Internet company, began service at the Kaesong park in 2005, with electricity supplied by the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp.
South Korean companies employ more than 40,000 North Korean workers at the complex, with their total output reaching US$74 million in the first four months of this year, down 6.6 percent from a year earlier, according to South Korea's Ministry of Unification.
South and North Korea remain technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
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US to Provide 'Extended Deterrence' for S. Korea
Korea Times
06/08/2009
The two allies agreed that a guarantee of security for the Korean Peninsula was needed during the South Korea-U.S. summit scheduled for June 16 in Washington, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said Saturday.
"Considering North Korea's nuclear test and missile launches as issues relevant to the South Korea-U.S. alliance, we agreed to take joint action and we also fine-tuned issues to be discussed during the upcoming summit," he told reporters after meeting with his U.S. counterpart Hillary Clinton.
Yu and Clinton agreed on the need for an "extended deterrence," which will protect South Korea under the U.S. nuclear umbrella and with conventional weapons in times of emergency.
The written guarantee will be the first of its kind by a U.S. President if Presidents Barack Obama and Lee Myung-bak confirm it during their talks.
In regards to the United Nations yet-to-be-determined sanctions on the secretive state, Yu stressed that he and Clinton agreed to have details released as early as this week.
"The important thing is how to effectively put a strain on North Korea's cash flow to deter it from developing its nuclear and missile programs," the minister said.
Pyongyang conducted its second underground nuclear test in two and a half years on May 25 and has heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula by test-firing short-range missiles.
According to reports, the U.N. Security Council is close to drawing up sanctions which may allow it to intercept and search North Korean vessels.
Despite the international condemnation, Seoul reaffirmed Sunday that it will continue to run the inter-Korean industrial complex in Gaeseong, North Korea.
"Humanitarian and other normal trade should be ruled out of U.N. sanctions," a government source said on condition of anonymity. "The government is firm in its position to operate the industrial park."
Minister Yu also discussed North Korea's succession issue with Clinton but refused to confirm that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has appointed his third son, Jong-un, as his heir.
"It is too early to unveil since it's confidential," he said.
South Korea's intelligence agency and news reports have said the junior Kim will become the next leader of the secretive state.
Kim Jong Il’s eldest son, Jong-nam, also indicated that his brother might be the successor, saying his father likes "his youngest son very much."
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