Regional Update for 25 October

Japan-China: The Japanese government formally protested to the Chinese government on 25 October the presence of Chinese patrol boats near the Senkaku Islands. Japanese authorities detected two Chinese patrol boats late Sunday in Japan's "contiguous zone" but did not cross into Japanese territorial waters, Kyodo reported, citing Japan's coast guard.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said in the protest message that seeing Chinese patrol boats made his government feel "uncomfortable. He also said that Japan will step up its monitoring activities around the Islands, according to Kyodo.

China's foreign ministry claimed that its boats' patrols are both legal and based on need.

Comment from our friends at KGS NightWatch: Mainstream international press did not report the Chinese patrol boat activity nor at least three more anti-Japanese protests and demonstrations over the weekend. The confrontation over the Senkakus continues.

South Korea-US: For the record. A Pentagon spokesman today rejected claims by South Korean media that a planned U.S.-South Korea naval exercise had been postponed due to Chinese protests, Reuters reported. The spokesman told reporters that authorities in Washington and in Seoul were unable to reach a scheduling agreement, adding the exercises were intended to send a message to North Korea and should not be China's concern.

Comment from our friends at KGS NightWatch: The comment by the spokesman misses the point that the North has moved closer to China during the succession period than at any time since the government of Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s. The US is much less significant than it was a year ago in North Korea's strategic calculations. Since China agreed to assume overwatch responsibility for the Kim regime this year, the Allies have succeeded in sending no significant "messages" to North Korea.

Regional Update for 24 October

South Korea and the United States have canceled the planned combined naval exercise in the West Sea (Yellow Sea) scheduled for late October, South Korean state-run broadcaster KBS reported on 24 October, citing a senior South Korean official.


The decision was made in order to avoid irritating neighboring countries (really one neighboring country – China) and to improve conditions for the G20 Summit in Seoul on 11 and 12 November, Yonhap reported, citing another unnamed government source. The US aircraft carrier USS George Washington is unlikely to participate in any other combined exercises with South Korea in 2010, and the two allies will also delay the large-scale amphibious landing exercises planned for late October.

Comment (This comment is based exclusively on open source information which always is incomplete.): The cancellation appears to be a gratuitous conciliatory gesture to China to ensure its participation in the economic summit, where it is expected to be generally uncooperative, by some analysts.


The concern is that this is the second major security issue in Asia in which the US appears to have deferred to China's sensibilities, rather than assert the prerogatives of a great power.
 This cancellation would appear to negate all the brave language US spokesman have used to assert allied solidarity in confronting North Korea' aggression in sinking the South Korean corvette, Cheonan, in March. In the perception of the international community, the US backed down every time China protested the scheduling of joint exercises aimed at North Korea.


After seven months, North Korea still has gotten away with sinking an Allied patrol ship.


The second issue was the Chinese reaction to Japan's arrest of a Chinese fishing boat and crew in the Senkakus after the Chinese boat rammed a Japanese patrol boat. Only the Secretary of State stood with the Japanese against China. The rest of the US administration did not and has not.


Pro-US leaders in Asia are well advised to remember 2010 as a pivotal year for reassessing the dominant power in Asia.

Regional Update for September 10

Japan-China: The captain of a Chinese fishing boat was taken to a Japanese court on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa Prefecture on 10 September. Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi demanded the "immediate and unconditional" release of the captain and other crewmembers, according to news relays.


Yang summoned Japanese Ambassador to China Uichiro Niwa to lodge a third protest with Tokyo over what the Chinese Foreign Ministry described as an "illegal detention." Yang told Niwa that Beijing is determined to defend Chinese sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands, where the ramming incident occurred, and demanded the unconditional release of the boat and crew, according to the ministry

Japan asserts the incident occurred in Japanese territorial waters and that Japan is handling the case in line with domestic law, Niwa told the Chinese. On 10 September a Japanese court ruled that prosecutors can detain the captain of the Chinese fishing boat for 10 days.

In reaction to and protest of the court ruling, the Chinese announced a postponement of a second round of negotiation over disputed island territories. Lest the Japanese miss the point, the Chinese statement described the postponement as a "grave protest."

Comments from KGS NightWatch: Japan and South Korea require little encouragement in standing up to China on territorial or other disputes. In part, this is because they see China's export dependent modern sector as a competitor with their own export-driven economies. Neither Japan nor South Korea is inclined to accommodate China or accept it as a regional leader.


An epochal strategic shift continues to evolve in which Asian States are not only taking responsibility for the security of Asia, they are shaping the nature of the strategic relationships. Japan and South Korea will not roll over for China the way North Korea is doing,with or without US assistance.

South Korea-US: A US Defense Department spokesman announced today, 10 September, that the aircraft carrier USS George Washington will participate with South Korea in war games in international waters of the Yellow Sea off the Korean Peninsula. The US spokesman said the deployment is not aimed at challenging China, but is a warning to North Korea.

Comments from KGS NightWatch: After much hemming and hawing, the US appears to have made a decision in favor of strategic dominance and in favor of US Allies in Asia. Apparently thanks for the extra time to think straight goes to the intervention of a typhoon. The typhoon delayed Allied anti-submarine warfare training in the Yellow Sea and gave the US leadership time to make a decision in favor of American allies and interests.

China-Taiwan: Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration (CGA) will conduct a maritime rescue drill the week of 13 September with China's Maritime Search and Rescue Center, Taiwanese Central News Agency reported 10 September. The drill will be held in waters off southeastern China, between Taiwan's Kinmen Island and Xiamen, China.

Taiwan's CGA will send nine patrol boats, including a 500-ton patrol vessel, and helicopters to Kinmen. All participating ships and rescue teams will carry flags that symbolize the joint drill, CGA officials said, in an attempt to avoid territorial disputes.

Comments from KGS NightWatch: The drill will be the first time the two coastal patrol agencies will have held joint exercises.

Burma (Myanmar)-China: The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has begun construction of China-Myanmar oil and natural gas pipelines, according to Chinese media. The announcement coincided with a ground-breaking ceremony for a 200,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery in Anning city, Yunnan Province, China.

According to the CNPC statement, the company wants to complete the China section of the pipelines, as well as the refinery, by 2013. The oil pipeline, which will have a capacity of 440,000 barrels per day, will wind 771 kilometers (479 miles) through Myanmar, then stretch 1,631 kilometers though China before ending in Chongqing.

The natural gas pipeline will have a 12 billion cubic meter capacity, and will span 793 kilometers in Myanmar and 1,727 kilometers in China before ending in Guangxi region. The company did not disclose whether or when all three projects would receive final approval from China's National Development and Reform Commission, the body in charge of economic planning and pricing.

Comments from KGS NightWatch: The significance of this information plus other recent reports about China building a railroad through Burma is that they reinforce the assessment that Chinese leaders see Burma as a gateway for channeling natural resources to China.


This symbolizes the next step in China's economic imperialism by creating a network of vertical and horizontal monopolies on a global scale that gather and ship back to China the resources from concessions in Third World countries that the Chinese already have secured.


By using Chinese-made Burmese ports and infrastructure, natural resources from Africa and the Middle East can reach hubs in southern China and avoid the hazards of transiting the Straits of Malacca and Singapore and the South China Sea.

Same tune and not so different verse

The Korean People’s Army (KPA) General Staff issued North Korea’s first response to the annual ROK-US combined exercise, Key Resolve, on February 25 via North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (in English) and Korean Central Broadcasting Station (in Korean). The overall tone of this year’s initial denouncement of the ROK-US combined exercise is consistent with those of the past years. Additionally, mentioning of the need for “nuclear deterrent” was also found to be consistent with past years’ statements.

KPA General Staff Denounces Key Resolve 2010:

• Ignoring our repeated warnings, the enemies finally announced that they would stage the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joing military exercises, which are northward aggression war exercises, from 8 March. (KPA General Staff carried on Korean Central Broadcasting Station [KCBS], 25 February 2010)

• The enemies describe [the joint military exercises] as annual exercises and defense, but [the exercises] are pilot operations and nuclear war exercises aimed at a surprise, preemptive attack on our Republic to all intents and purposes. (KPA General Staff carried on KCBS, 25 February 2010)

• If the US imperialists and South Korean puppet warmongers carry out the aggressive joint military exercises despite our repeated warnings, we will respond to them with our powerful military counteraction, and if necessary, we will mercilessly beat to a muddy place the stronghold of aggression by mobilizing all the offensive and defensive means, including nuclear deterrent. (KPA General Staff carried on KCBS, 25 February 2010)

ROK-US Combined Military Exercises are “an act of provocation and northward aggression”:

• Currently, the US imperialists have drafted an adventurous plan of preemptive nuclear attack of northward aggression and war scenarios according to various circumstances, such as "Operations Plan 5027-04" and "Operations 5030. … These exercises are no different, even a bit, from the existing joint military exercises aiming at northward aggression in terms of scale and aggressive character, although the titles have been changed… (Rodong Sinmun , 13 March 2008)

• The staging of the "Key Resolve" and "Foal Eagle" joint military exercises, as an extremely adventurous and extremely dangerous provocation by those who are dreaming of provoking a nuclear war, is a serious military threat to, and a de facto declaration of war on, our Republic. We can never tolerate the war provocation maneuvers that the belligerent group of Lee Myung-bak is committing for northward aggression in conspiracy with the outside forces. (Rodong Sinmun, 11 March 2009)

• The enemies describe [the joint military exercises] as annual exercises and defense, but [the exercises] are pilot operations and nuclear war exercises aimed at a surprise, preemptive attack on our Republic to all intents and purposes. (KPA General Staff carried on KCBS, 25 February 2010)

Nuclear deterrent needed to defend against “the US and the ROK Aggression”:

• The United States plans to hold reception, staging, onward movement and integration (rsoi) exercises and foal eagle maneuvers with south Korea from March 22. … They are still rendering the situation around the Korean peninsula extremely strained, while intensifying the moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK. The Korean people, who consider independence to be their life and soul, are keeping a close eye on the U.S. moves, while further strengthening the self-defense nuclear deterrent to cope with them. (Korean Central News Agency [KCNA], 14 March 2004)

• At a time when the situation on the Korean peninsula is rushing toward a phase of explosion because of the US hostile policy against the DPRK, on 14 [March], aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk crawled into Pusan Port and a number of naval vessels, including cruisers and destroyers, crawled into South Korean ports. These [naval vessels] are reported to participate in the upcoming RSOI and Foal Eagle joint military exercise that will be staged starting from 19 [March]. … The persistent and adventurous US policy to crush the DPRK compel us to head toward strengthening the nuclear deterrent forces. (Rodong Sinmun, 17 March 2005)

• Intentionally straining the situation on the Korean peninsula with the excuse of the nuclear issue, the United States has carried out one war exercise after another, such as the "Foal Eagle" and the "Ulchi Focus Lens." … While ceaselessly upgrading war exercises, the United States is frantically preparing a war of aggression. Our army and people have achieved single-hearted unity, which is stronger than a nuclear weapon, under the great military-first leadership of the respected and beloved General Kim Jong-il and consolidated the self-defensive nuclear deterrent that can overwhelm the United States' "policy of strength." (Uriminjokkkiri, 25 June 2006)

• In the midst of this confrontation madness, the Lee Myung-bak gang began the first "task" of the regime by playing up to the US warmongers and launching the aggressive "Key Resolve" and "Foal Eagle" joint military exercises, which target their fellow countrymen. … The resolution and will of our army and people, who seek to rescue the fate of the nation and protect the foundation of [our] lives through the nuclear deterrent of justice, are fully charged. Besides South Korean society, those inside the gang are also quite troubled with unease and fear over the risk of the new war that the Lee Myung-bak gang is bringing along now. (Rodong Sinmun, 09 April 2008)

• Our Republic has enough ability and modern military and technological means capable of weakening their "military and technological edge." We trust our own military strength and are proud and confident about them as a matter of fact. An international lesson of the 21st century and our Republic's historic experience say that when [we] have powerful self-defensive national defense capability at our disposal, [we] do not fear any international cordon sanitaire by the united imperialist force or any kind of war. The US warmongers' frantic commotion of nuclear war exercises is pushing us toward reinforcing [our] war deterrent even further. (Rodong Sinmun, 10 March 2009)

• If the US imperialists and South Korean puppet warmongers carry out the aggressive joint military exercises despite our repeated warnings, we will respond to them with our powerful military counteraction, and if necessary, we will mercilessly beat to a muddy place the stronghold of aggression by mobilizing all the offensive and defensive means, including nuclear deterrent. (KPA General Staff carried on KCBS, 25 February 2010)

Continued “US and ROK Aggression” will be met with “Merciless Counterattack”:

• Dialogue and confrontation, and peace and war can never go together. If the enemies dare to ignite a war without discretion, the DPRK will give decisive punishment to the aggressors with merciless counterattack. (KCNA, 05 March 2008)

• There is no limit to the retaliatory measure of the KPA and no one can predict or evade it. If the warmongers dare launch a war of aggression defying our repeated warnings, our revolutionary armed forces will counter it with resolute and merciless just war for reunification. (KCNA, 08 March 2009)

• If the US imperialists and South Korean puppet warmongers carry out the aggressive joint military exercises despite our repeated warnings, we will respond to them with our powerful military counteraction, and if necessary, we will mercilessly beat to a muddy place the stronghold of aggression by mobilizing all the offensive and defensive means, including nuclear deterrent. (KPA General Staff carried on KCBS, 25 February 2010)

The North Korean media has reported on, and denounced, all major ROK-US combined military exercises since the mid-70’s and this year has not been an exception. On February 25, the KPA General Staff issued its denouncement of the planned Key Resolve ROK-US combined military exercise (additional denouncements have followed since). The overall tone of this year’s denouncement has been consistent with those of the past years - “an act of provocation and northward aggression.”

This year’s KPA General Staff statement also said, “…we will mercilessly beat to a muddy place the stronghold of aggression by mobilizing all the offensive and defensive means, including nuclear deterrent.” Use of the term “nuclear deterrent” and the context the term was used in this year’s statement were also found to be consistent with past North Korean denouncements of the ROK-US combined military exercises.

North Korea, as usual, threatens South Korea and the US over combined exercise

North Korean People's Army General Staff spokesman issued a statement today threatening to attack South Korea and US forces for a scheduled combined military exercise in March.

The enemies describe [the joint military exercises] as annual exercises and defense, but [the exercises] are pilot operations and nuclear war exercises aimed at a surprise, preemptive attack on our Republic to all intents and purposes.

If the US imperialists and South Korean warmongers launch the joint military exercises for aggression, ignoring our repeated warnings, we will react to them with our powerful military counteraction, and if necessary, mercilessly destroy the bulwark of aggression by mobilizing all the offensive and defensive means including nuclear deterrent.

North Korea routinely claims the annual South Korea-US exercise that mobilizes tens of thousands of US and South Korean troops and equipment amounts to a precursor to an invasion of its soil.

Here are the two versions of the February 25 North Korean statement issued in response to the exercise (one is a KCNA version that was released in English and the other is a translation of the KCBS broadcast that was originally broadcast in Korean):

KPA General Staff Spokesman Blasts Projected U.S.-S. Korea Joint Military Exercises (KCNA, 25 Feb 2010)

The U.S. imperialists and the warmongers of the South Korean puppet army finally announced that they would stage the DPRK-targeted Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises from March 8.

In this regard a spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People's Army released the following statement Thursday: Massively involved in the exercises will be more than 18 000-strong forces including over 10 000 U.S. imperialist aggression troops present in south Korea and ultra-modern military hardware as well as army corps-level, fleet command-level and flying corps-level units of the South Korean puppet army and even civilian forces. The enemies describe the exercises as "annual ones" and "defensive" but they are pilot operations and nuclear war exercises aimed to preempt a surprise attack on the DPRK, to all intents and purposes.

From the outset of the year the warmongers of the South Korean puppet army in collusion with the U.S. imperialists have frantically staged mid-winter tactical exercise, large-scale coordinated ground exercise and other exercises of various codenames, while talking about a "preemptive attack" over self-defensive nuclear deterrent of the DPRK. This is by no means accidental.

This brought to light their true colors as war fanatics keen to bring dark clouds of a nuclear war to hang over the inviolable land, while seeking escalated tensions and confrontation only.

We will not remain a passive onlooker to this grave situation created by the provokers.

If the U.S. imperialists and South Korean warmongers launch the joint military exercises for aggression, ignoring our repeated warnings, we will react to them with our powerful military counteraction, and if necessary, mercilessly destroy the bulwark of aggression by mobilizing all the offensive and defensive means including nuclear deterrent.

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Press statement by a spokesperson for the General Staff of the Korean People's Army [KPA] (Korean Central Broadcasting Station in Korean, 25 Feb 2010)

Currently, a touch-and-go dangerous situation, in which a war may break out any moment, is being created on the Korean peninsula due to brigandish US imperialists and South Korean puppet warmongers' reckless war maneuver.

Ignoring our repeated warnings, the enemies finally announced that they would stage the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises, which are northward aggression war exercises, from 8 March.

Massive forces of some 18,000-strong forces, including over 10,000 troops of the US aggression forces forcibly occupying South Korea, and state-of-the-art arms and equipment are to be intensively committed to the joint military exercises. [Also,] army corps-level, fleet command-level, and flying corps-level units of the South Korean puppets and even civilian forces are to be mobilized.

The enemies describe [the joint military exercises] as annual exercises and defense, but [the exercises] are pilot operations and nuclear war exercises aimed at a surprise, preemptive attack on our Republic to all intents and purposes.

It is by no means coincidental that South Korean puppet warmongers, who colluded with the US imperialists, have been frantically staging training under all kinds of pretexts, including mid-winter tactical training, and large-scale joint ground training, from the beginning of the year, while recklessly saying that they will launch a preemptive attack by picking on our self-defensive nuclear deterrent.

This by itself revealed that the US imperialists and South Korean puppet warmongers are the ones who are war fanatics trying to bring in dark clouds of a nuclear war to our sacred land, while only pursuing aggravation of tension and confrontation.

We will not just keep looking at today's grave situation created by the provokers.

Each heart of our military and people, who hold a deep grudge that has built up for more than half a century due to the aggressors, is strongly seething with soaring hatred and rage against the enemies that are igniting fire to a fuse of war, while giving off the smell of gunpowder, on this land today.

If the US imperialists and South Korean puppet warmongers carry out the aggressive joint military exercises despite our repeated warnings, we will respond to them with our powerful military counteraction [kangnyo'khan kunsajo'k taeu'ng]; and if necessary, we will mercilessly beat to a muddy place the stronghold of aggression [ch'imnyagu'i aso'ngu'l mujabihage chukt'angch'yo'bo'rilgo'sida] by mobilizing all the offensive and defensive means, including nuclear deterrent.

[Dated] 25 February 2010, Chuch'e 99, Pyongyang.

Korean Peninsula Today, 25 - 27 July 2009

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.