Korean Peninsula Today, 30 July 2009

Today’s highlights:
1) The Chinese Vice Foreign Minister stated North Korea is willing to consider a new disarmament agreement if the US takes into account its security concerns
2) The US State Department spokesman stated a special envoy on human rights to North Korea will be appointed as Secretary Clinton had mentioned during her visit to Thailand last week
3) North Korea rejected the visit to Pyongyang by the Korea Sharing Movement
and 4) a South Korean Pro-unification activist group protested at the ROK Unification Ministry building citing the disapproval of meeting with its North Korean counterparts in China

N.Korea willing for deal: China (AFP)

WASHINGTON – North Korea is willing to consider a new disarmament agreement if the United States takes into account its security concerns, a senior Chinese official said on Tuesday.

Chinese and US officials, holding two days of wide-ranging talks in Washington, said they spoke at length about North Korea which in recent months has tested an atom bomb, fired missiles and bolted from a disarmament deal.

Wang Guangya, China's vice foreign minister said that Beijing welcomed an active role by the United States in reaching a solution on the Korean peninsula.

'China believes that if the package solution that the United States is thinking about accommodates reasonable security concerns, it will be attractive to the North Korean side,' Mr Wang told reporters.

North Korea signed a 2007 deal with five countries - the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia - giving it pledges of non-aggression and badly needed aid in return for dropping its nuclear programme.

North Korea has cited US 'hostility' for its rejection of the deal. But many analysts speculate that Pyongyang's actions are mostly a function of a brewing power struggle as leader Kim Jong Il's health falters.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that she and China's State Councilor Dai Bingguo, a veteran negotiator with Pyongyang, spoke at length on 'the Chinese perception both of North Korea but also of our interactions with them.' 'And I found that very useful indeed,' Mrs Clinton told reporters.

China is the closest ally of North Korea and served as the host of marathon six-way talks that reached the now-collapsed denuclearisation deal.

China has also faced strong criticism in Washington, particularly among conservatives who say that Beijing could do more to rein in North Korea.

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Excerpt from the US Department of State Daily Press Briefing (US Department of State)

QUESTION: Yeah. North Korean human rights issues not currently from North today at all. How does the United States concern about North Korean human right issue change in current?

MR. KELLY: Well, I think you probably saw last week in Thailand the Secretary announced that we’re going to have a special envoy on human rights in North Korea. We do have – we have a lot of concerns, of course, about North Korean behavior. But, yes, she announced that we’re going to have a special envoy for human rights.

QUESTION: She didn’t announce who it was going to be?

MR. KELLY: No, she did not.

Yes, I mean, we do have concerns and we raise our concerns about human rights in a number of different fora. We, of course, are very concerned about the arrest and detention of the two American journalists. We’re concerned about the lack of – I mean, you could go right down the line in terms of political – lack of political freedoms in North Korea. And we’re always very forthright about pointing out where we think that there needs to be improvement.

QUESTION: Is this – this special envoy is basically going to be filling the job that Jay Lefkowitz used to have?

MR. KELLY: I’m not sure what job Jay Lefkowitz had.

QUESTION: He was the special envoy for human rights in North Korea --

MR. KELLY: Yeah. Well, I’m not sure – I’m not sure that it --

QUESTION: -- created by the Bush Administration. This is the same position? It’s not something new?

MR. KELLY: Not knowing what Mr. Lefkowitz did before, it’s hard for me to say that it’ll be the same job.

QUESTION: Even if North Korea nuclear issue is resolved at the Six-Party Talks – but doesn’t the United States still concerned about human rights issue – same time?

MR. KELLY: Yes, absolutely. I mean, we’ve said all along that we can – we have, obviously, real concerns about the nuclear program. And we are working very hard to get North Korea back to the Six-Party Talks. But at the same time, we have concerns about North Korea’s human rights record and their lack of fundamental political freedoms for their people.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Just on the special envoy for human rights, what would he be doing exactly? I mean, would he be raising human rights with North Korean --

MR. KELLY: Yeah.

QUESTION: -- leaders or --

MR. KELLY: He or she – let’s see if we can get you more information. The Secretary announced it last week, and let’s see if we can get you more information on it.

QUESTION: Is the Republic of North Korea going to come up in the strategic dialogue?

MR. KELLY: The topic has already come up, in fact. I mean, you saw that President Obama, in his opening speech, highlighted the need to advance our mutual interests in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. And this, of course, includes our collaboration on – in denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. The issue was covered. The issue of the denuclearization and our common interests in attaining that state was covered in the discussions, and also in Secretary Clinton’s meeting with State Councilor Dai. The U.S. and China reiterated their agreement on the need for implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1874 and the need for North Korea to return to the Six-Party Talks.

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N.Korea rejects aid group trip (AFP)

SEOUL – North Korea has rejected a planned visit by South Korean activists to discuss humanitarian aid, officials said on Wednesday, nixing the first such cross-border trip since Pyongyang's nuclear test in May.

Members of the Korea Sharing Movement were to fly into Pyongyang on Wednesday for talks on humanitarian support projects, after a verbal agreement with the group's North Korean counterpart.

It would have marked Seoul's first approval of such trips since the communist North's nuclear test on May 25.

But the South's unification ministry, which handles inter-Korean relations, said the journey had to be called off at the last minute.

'The trip was cancelled because the group did not receive an official invitation from North Korea,' ministry spokesman Chung Hae Sung told reporters.

South Korea has promised to extend massive economic aid and business cooperation if impoverished North Korea scraps its nuclear weapons.

But relations worsened sharply this year over North Korea's nuclear and missile tests, which prompted the United Nations to impose tougher sanctions.

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Pro-unification Activists Blast S. Korea's 'arbitrary' Policy on Inter-korean Exchange (Yonhap)

SEOUL – Activists rallied on Wednesday to protest the South Korean government's policy on civic exchanges with North Korea, saying its "arbitrary" approach discriminates against the pro-unification movement.

The Unification Ministry recently barred the South Korean Committee for the June 15 Joint Declaration from meeting its North Korean counterpart this week in Shenyang, China, citing frozen political relations. The committee is an umbrella organization of various civic groups aimed at implementing the first inter-Korean summit accord reached on June 15, 2000.

"We are enraged by the fact that these arbitrary control measures are concentrated on the June 15 joint declaration committee, which is the largest gathering of the civic unification movement," Park Deok-shin, co-chairman of the committee, said at the rally staged in front of the ministry building.

The participants, about a dozen members representing the committee, said the ministry has been inconsistent in its decisions, noting it approved another aid organization to meet North Koreans in the Chinese city this weekend.

Kim Dong-han, a professor at Dongguk University and a member of the committee, accused the Unification Ministry of violating the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Law.

"The first reason the ministry cited was the current state of inter-Korean relations. But the current stalemate has nothing to do with academic exchange. The ministry itself is a bad influence on inter-Korean relations as it bars exchanges, going against the spirit of the law," Kim said.

The government banned non-governmental trips to North Korea and other exchanges after Pyongyang's nuclear test in May. The blanket restrictions have been eased recently, allowing some aid organizations to visit the impoverished country with food and medical assistance.

But others, such as exchange programs by the Joint 15 summit declaration committee, are still generally banned.

A ministry spokesman, Chun Hae-sung, rejected the criticisms, saying the government intends to continue humanitarian aid regardless of political tension but maintain restrictions in other areas.