Korean Peninsula Today, 04 August 2009

Today’s highlights:
1) The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister stated sanctions against North Korea must be implemented consistently but their unrestrained interpretation must be avoided
2) The North Korea Sanctions Act of 2009 has been submitted to the US congress for imposing an arms embargo on North Korea
3) Chinese communist party delegation led by a publicity official has arrived in North Korea for a “good will visit”
4) North Korea remained silent on the status of the captured South Korean fishing boat despite repeated calls for the release
and 5) North Korean defectors claim North Korea is helping Myanmar (Burma) develop its nuclear weapons program.

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Moscow Against Unrestrained Interpretation Of N. Korea Sanctions (Interfax-AVN)

Moscow believes that sanctions against North Korea must be implemented consistently, but their unrestrained interpretation should be avoided.

"Our approach is that these sanctions must be implemented by all - consistently, resolutely, fully and transparently," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin told Interfax on Monday.

"But an unrestrained interpretation of these sanctions must be avoided," he said.

"We think unilateral sanctions must not be introduced bypassing the UN Security Council. Nor should these sanctions become a pretext for inciting additional tensions in Northeast Asia and on the Korean Peninsula," Borodavkin said.

Furthermore, the sanctions must not damage the humanitarian situation in North Korea, he said. "They must focus only on the prevention of further development of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs," the Russian diplomat said.

The sanctions against North Korea, listed in Security Council resolutions, are not for good, he went on to say. "If North Korea complies with the demands, advanced by the international community, naturally they will be lifted," he said.

"The idea of the sanctions is not to punish North Korea, but to demonstrate the international community's adherence to the goal of re-launching the six-party talks and making the Korean peninsula nuclear-free," Borodavkin said.

Russian-U.S. consultations on the implementation of the earlier adopted sanctions are underway in Moscow on Monday.

Moscow and Washington's positions on sanctions against North Korea "are very consistent, near and similar," he said.

Borodavkin commended the implementation of the sanctions by other members of the world community. "We have no reason to claim that any member of the international community does not observe these sanctions," he said.

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Congressmen Submit Bill to Sanction North Korea for Nuclear Test (Yonhap)

WASHINGTON – A bill has been submitted to US Congress for imposing an arms embargo on North Korea under a U.S. domestic law for the North's second nuclear test in May after one about three years earlier.

The North Korea Sanctions Act of 2009 (HR 3423), introduced by Michael McMahon (D-NY) and Rep Bob Inglis (R-SC) on Thursday, calls on the Barack Obama administration to "impose certain sanctions on North Korea as a result of the detonation by that country of a nuclear explosive device on May 25, 2009" under the Arms Export Control Act (AECA).

The AECA bans arms shipments to any countries if the exports "would contribute to an arms race, aid in the development of weapons of mass destruction, support international terrorism, increase the possibility of outbreak or escalation of conflict, or prejudice the development of bilateral or multilateral arms control or nonproliferation agreements or other arrangements."

It also prevents U.S. governments and financial institutions from doing business with those countries under an arms embargo.

North Korea has already been subject to international sanctions under a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted after the May 25 nuclear test.

Under the resolution, the Security Council blacklisted five North Korean firms early last month, imposed a travel ban on and froze the assets of five North Korean officials, and banned the trade to and from North Korea of graphite for electrical discharge machining and aramid fiber, used in nuclear weapons and missiles.

The introduction of HR 3423 also follows a U.S. Senate resolution adopted late last month to call on the Obama administration to "assess the effectiveness" of relisting North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism.

The resolution calls for Obama to submit a report within 30 days on Pyongyang's record on weapons of mass destruction proliferation and terrorism since it was removed from the U.S. State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism in October.

North Korea was first put on the terrorism list soon after it downed a South Korean airplane over Myanmar in 1987, killing all 115 passengers. Its delisting came in October 2008 and paved the way for a fresh round of multilateral nuclear talks deadlocked for nearly a year.

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China's Party Delegation Arrives in N. Korea For 'Goodwill Visit (Yonhap)

SEOUL – A Chinese party delegation led by a publicity official arrived in North Korea on Monday [3 August] for a "goodwill visit," state media of the two countries said.

The delegation of the Communist Party of China was led by Luo Shugang, deputy head of the party's publicity department, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

The one-sentence dispatch did not elaborate on the purpose or length of the trip, only saying it came at the invitation of the Workers' Party of Korea.

China's Xinhua news agency said the delegation was making a "goodwill visit," but gave no further details.

The two countries are holding a variety of events to celebrate 60 years of diplomatic relations this year, but watchers say their traditional alliance has been displaying signs of fraying. China joined the world condemning North Korea's nuclear test in May and signed a U.N. Security Council resolution to tighten a trade embargo and other sanctions on North Korea.

Some watchers pointed out the watered-down attitude of North Korean media toward China, as some recent dispatches left out the usual descriptions of the relationship between the two countries, such as "blood-sealed." China fought for the North against the U.S.-led U.N. Command in the Korean War and is still a major donor to the impoverished country.

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N Korea silent on S Korean boat crew (AFP)

SEOUL – North Korea was silent Monday on South Korea's renewed call for the release of a fishing boat and four crew members which strayed across the maritime border four days ago.

"The North Korean side simply replied that the investigation was underway," said unification ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-Joo, after maritime authorities of the two countries communicated with each other early Monday.

Seoul says the 29-ton squid fishing boat drifted into the North's waters off the east coast Thursday due to a malfunctioning navigation system.

Pyongyang on Saturday said the boat had "illegally intruded" into its territorial waters, its first direct official response to the incident.

"A relevant institution is conducting concrete investigation into it at present," the communist state's official news agency said.

The two countries have remained technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict, but have sometimes returned each other's craft in the past.

Two South Korean trawlers strayed into the North's waters in April 2005 and December 2006 and were returned after five days and 18 days respectively.

But tensions have been mounting this year after nuclear and missile tests by the North and tougher UN Security Council sanctions in response.

The North has since March 30 detained a South Korean worker at the Seoul-funded Kaesong industrial estate, accusing him of insulting its system and urging a North Korean worker to defect.

It is also holding two US journalists captured on its border with China. They were jailed for 12 years in June for an illegal border crossing and an unspecified "grave crime."

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Defectors tell of Burma's secret nuclear reactor (The Independent)
North Korea is helping country develop weapons, according to the men

Two of Asia's most oppressive regimes may have joined forces to develop a nuclear arsenal, according to strategic experts who have analysed information supplied by a pair of Burmese defectors.

The men, who played key roles in helping the isolated military junta before defecting to Thailand, have provided evidence which suggests Burma has enlisted North Korean help to build its own nuclear bomb within the next five years.

Details supplied by the pair, who were extensively interviewed over the past two years by Professor Desmond Ball of the Australian National University and Thai-based Irish-Australian journalist Phil Thornton, points to Burma building a secret nuclear reactor and plutonium extraction facility with the assistance of North Korea.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak, the head of Thailand's Institute of Security and International Studies, said: "The evidence is preliminary and needs to be verified, but this is something that would completely change the regional security status quo.

"It would move Myanmar [Burma] from not just being a pariah state but a rogue state – that is one that jeopardises the security and well-being of its immediate neighbours," he said.

The nuclear claims, revealed by The Sydney Morning Herald at the weekend, will ring alarm bells across Asia. The newspaper said the testimony of the two defectors brought into sharp focus the hints emerging recently from other sources, supported by sightings of North Korean delegations, that the Burmese junta, under growing pressure to democratise, was seeking a deterrent to any foreign moves to force regime change.

Their evidence also reinforces concerns expressed by Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, in Thailand last week about growing military co-operation between North Korea and Burma. "We worry about the transfer of nuclear technology and other dangerous weapons," she said at a regional security conference.

The two defectors whose briefings have created such alarm are both regarded as credible sources. One was an officer with a secret nuclear battalion in the Burmese army who was sent to Moscow for two years' training. He was part of a nuclear programme which planned to train 1,000 Burmese. "You don't need 1,000 people in the fuel cycle or to run a nuclear reactor. It's obvious there is much more going on," he said.

The other is a former executive of the regime's leading business partner, Htoo Trading, who handled nuclear contracts with Russia and North Korea. The man, who died in 2008, provided a detailed report which insisted that Burma's rationale for a nuclear programme was nonsense.

"They [the generals] say it is to produce medical isotopes for health purposes in hospitals. How many hospitals in Burma have nuclear science? he asked. "Burma can barely get electricity up and running. It's a nonsense," he said.

Professor Ball and Mr Thornton reported that the army defector claimed that there were more than five North Koreans working at the Thabeik Kyin uranium processing plant in Burma and that the country was providing yellowcake – partially refined uranium – to both Iran and North Korea.

The authors concluded that the illicit nuclear co-operation was based on a trade of locally refined uranium from Burma to North Korea in return for technological expertise.

What is missing in the nuclear chain at the moment is a plutonium reprocessing plant, but according to the army defector, one was being planned at Naung Laing in northern Burma, parallel to a civilian reactor which is already under construction with Russian help.

The secret complex would be hidden in caves tunnelled into a nearby mountain. Once Burma had its own plutonium reprocessing plant, it could produce 8kg of weapons-grade plutonium-239 a year, enough to build one nuclear bomb every 12 months.

If the testimony of the two defectors proves to be correct, the secret reactor could be operational by 2014, The Herald reported. "These two guys never met each other, never knew of each other's existence, and yet they both tell the same story basically," said Professor Ball.

"If it was just the Russian reactor, under full International Energy supervision, then the likelihood of them being able to do something with it in terms of a bomb would be zero," Professor ball said. "It's the North Korean element which adds danger to it."