NK Shows Interest in Bilateral Talks With US (Korea Times)
While reaffirming its stance that it would not return to the six-party talks, North Korea on Saturday expressed its interest of holding bilateral talks with the United States.
"We are not against a dialogue. We are not against any negotiations on issues of common concern," Sin Son-ho, North Korea's U.N. ambassador told reporters in New York, Yonhap reported.
Sin also said the country will not return to the multinational platform of negotiation aimed at discussing how to dissuade the nation's nuclear ambition.
Sin also vowed North Korea will not withdraw from the U.N. membership in its protest against the sanctions the world body imposed on the reclusive nation. "That will never happen," he said.
He added the U.N. 1874 resolution meted out against the nation for its launching a long-range missile and the subsequent nuclear test, was an "unfair" act, only meant to make the nation a common enemy of the global community. "Our stance is that we will never accept this kind of resolution," he said.
Earlier on Thursday in Bangkok, Ri Hung-sik, director-general of the North Korean foreign ministry's international bureau, also said that North Korea "is not opposed to dialogue" with the US.
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North Korea Slams Planned South Korea-US Military Drill (Yonhap)
SEOUL – North Korea lashed out at South Korea's planned military exercise with the United States Sunday, saying it is a provocative act against the communist country.
South Korea and the US plan to conduct Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG), an annual joint military exercise in which about 56,000 South Korean troops and 10,000 US soldiers will participate, from Aug. 17-27.
The exercise is "a military plan aimed at invading the North, given its content and size," Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency and the Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station said.
The military exercise sheds light on "the shady intention harbored behind the South's banner of peace guarantee and dialogue," they said.
South Korea and the US claim UFG is a defensive drill that is basically a computer-simulated war scenario.
The joint exercise comes as tension runs high on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea conducted a nuclear test in May and fired several missiles into the East Sea, for which the United Nations has imposed sanctions on the communist country.
Washington currently maintains some 28,500 troops in Korea as a deterrent against provocations from North Korea. The two Koreas remain technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended only with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
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North Korea, US in 'active Consultations' on Detained Reporters (Yonhap)
SEOUL – North Korea and the United States are in "active consultations" on how to resolve a standoff over two American journalists detained in the secretive communist nation, an informed diplomatic source here said Sunday [26 July].
The ongoing consultations through the North's diplomatic mission to the U.N., often called the "New York channel," are focused on who the U.S. government should send as a special envoy to Pyongyang to bring back the two female reporters, the source added.
"The U.S. has in principle reached a compromise with North Korea on the dispatch of a special envoy for their release," the source told Yonhap News Agency, requesting anonymity apparently due to the sensitivity of the issue. "The two sides are continuing related consultations. You may say 70-80 percent of the negotiations are done."
Laura Ling and Euna Lee of the San Francisco-based media group Current TV, co-founded by former vice president Al Gore, were arrested in mid-March near the China-North Korea border while on a reporting trip on refugees fleeing the impoverished North.
They were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor on charges of illegal entry and "hostile acts."
A main sticking point in efforts to free them, according to the source, is the North's demand for the Obama administration to send a high-ranking government official.
Washington, not wanting to link the humanitarian issue with the diplomatic dispute over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs, prefer to send a civilian, the source said.
After months of provocations, highlighted by its second nuclear test on May 25, North Korea is beginning to hint at a desire for talks with the U.S.
"We are not against dialogue. We are not against any negotiation on issues of common concern," North Korean ambassador to the United Nations Sin Son-ho was quoted as saying by foreign news media over the weekend. Sin's comments, though reaffirming Pyongyang's resistance to multilateral disarmament talks, came on the heels of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) held last week in Thailand, in which U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Pyongyang to choose between dialogue and continued sanctions.
Ri Hung-sik, head of the North Korean foreign ministry's international organization bureau, also refrained from flatly rejecting talks with the U.S. in a brief meeting with Yonhap at the ARF. "Let's wait and see," he responded when asked if the North's delegation was willing to meet with the U.S. side. Such flexibility was in stark contrast with Clinton's remarks to reporters that she would not meet bilaterally with the North Korean delegation led by Amb. Pak Kun-gwang, a vice foreign minister-level official.
Clinton expressed hope, even though she did not meet with the North Koreans during the regional forum, that Pyongyang will release the detained journalists. "I am very hopeful" of their release, she said in a media interview last week.
"The young women themselves have, apparently, admitted that they probably did trespass so they are deeply regretful and we are very sorry it's happened," she said. "I actually feel as though our message is getting through to North Korea."
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Civic Group Urges North Korea to Release Detainee (Korea Times)
About 1,200 people, including 150 lawmakers, have signed up to urge North Korea to release a South Korean, who has been held in the North for the past four months, organizers said Sunday [26 July].
A Seoul-based human rights group launched a nationwide campaign for the detainee after the Ministry of Unification called the detention as a top priority in inter-Korean talks to resolve issues regarding the operation of the joint Gaeseong Industrial Complex.
During the talks, North Korean officials declined to give details of the circumstances facing the detainee, a Hyundai Asan worker who was identified only as Yoo, simply saying he was doing fine.
The South Korean worker who was detained by North Korea on March 30 for criticizing its political regime and soliciting North Korean workers to defect to the South.
The non-partisan group Citizens Alliance for North Korea Human Rights (CANHR) began the campaign for Yoo on July 16.
"We have no idea if the South Korean worker is doing fine or healthy. We are not even informed where he is now," said CANHR activist Park Soo-jin.
Park said her organization launched the campaign to remind the public of the fact that the problem is not settled yet and the South Korean worker lives under uncertainty. The campaign is to be continued until Aug. 15.
Earlier, the unification ministry stressed on several occasions that the detainee issue is a top priority when dealing with issues related to the Gaeseong complex.
Critics, however, say the government was slow and inactive when it came to the issue, compared with the U.S. government's response to two American journalists who were sentenced to 12 years in prison in June for an unspecified act of hostility and illegaly crossing the border line.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on July 10 that America was seeking amnesty for the two, Laura Ling and Euna Lee. "What we hope for now is that these two young women will be granted amnesty through the North Korean system and be allowed to return home to their families as soon as possible," Clinton was quoted as saying.
After the two American journalists were sentenced to hard labor in June, the White House also said the Obama administration considers the detention a humanitarian issue and is working to win the release of the two journalists.
Earlier, the U.S. government contacted the two journalists before the court sentencing through a Swedish diplomat based in North Korea and they had phone conversations with their families in the United States.
Lee Jong-joo, the unification ministry's spokeswoman, told The Korea Times that the two cases are separate.
"The North claimed that American journalists broke North Korean law. But the case involving the South Korean detainee is about an inter-Korean agreement," Lee said in an effort to clarify the difference between the two cases.
Lee denied the accusation the Korean government was inactive, stressing Minister Hyun In-taek addressed the issue publicly on several occasions.
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South to Resume Humanitarian Aid to North (Korea Times)
South Korea is likely to resume assistance to North Korea soon by funding local civic groups through the so-called inter-Korean cooperation fund, according to officials at the Ministry of Unification, Sunday.
Chilly relations between the two Koreas have suspended government-level aid to the isolated state since the inauguration of the South's Lee Myung-bak administration in February last year.
“Government officials will meet this week to make a decision on the distribution of the fund to civic organizations even though its scale will be decreased,'' a ministry official told The Korea Times.
Last year, the Lee administration supported civic groups with 10 billion won (about $8 million) for their aid operations.
The official continued, “Related procedures are almost done. The discussion will likely result in a ‘yes.’”
The meeting will be attended by Unification Minister Hyun In-taek and vice ministers from related government agencies.
About 10 organizations are expected to get benefits from the funding program for their projects to provide social minorities in North Korea with emergency aid.
Thirty other groups also applied for funding, but the government will take time to further review those programs, as well as to continue monitoring inter-Korean relations.
“The amount of funding and the number of beneficiaries are subject to change,'' another ministry official said.
The government received applications between February and March this year, originally planning to distribute the money from April.
But North Korea's provocative acts postponed the aid.
The secretive state detained a South Korean worker in a joint industrial area for alleged slandering on March 30, and launched a long-range rocket on April 5, despite repeated warnings from the international community as well as South Korea.
Moreover, Pyongyang conducted a second nuclear test on May 25, which worsened the public opinion here toward aid programs to North Korea.
Some observers of the situation say that the move to resume the funding program comes from the government's principle that it will continue humanitarian aid regardless of political factors.
Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung reiterated that humanitarian assistance to North Korea will go on since it has nothing to do with political wrangling.
However, the observers said that it is too early to judge whether South Korea is poised to amend its North Korea policy because of the tension triggered by the nuclear tests and the detainee issue.
The 40-year-old employee has been detained in the North for almost four months, given no chance to meet with South Korean officials.
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