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NORTH KOREA THIS WEEK NO. 467 (September 20, 2007)
*** NEWS IN BRIEF (Part 2)
North Korea, Myanmar sign agreement on diplomatic cooperation
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea and Myanmar signed an agreement last week on cooperation between their foreign ministries, the North's official news agency reported on Sept. 14, without providing details.
"An agreement on cooperation between the foreign ministries of the DPRK (North Korea) and Myanmar was inked in Pyongyang on Sept. 14," the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
The agreement is viewed as the first concrete step toward normalizing relations since they agreed to re-establish diplomatic ties in April.
Myanmar severed ties with the communist country in 1983 following a failed assassination attempt by North Korean agents on then South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan, who was visiting the South Asian nation.
Twenty-one people, including South Korean Cabinet ministers and presidential aides, were killed in the bombing that year.
The agreement was signed by the North's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong-il and his Myanmarese counterpart U Kyaw Thu, the KCNA reported.
The Myanmarese vice foreign minister flew into Pyongyang the previous day, according to the news agency.
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Pyongyang expects improvement of relations with Japan
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea sees the abrupt resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as an opportunity for a politician with a "more flexible" attitude toward the communist country to replace the hawkish leader.
The observation came in a commentary aired on Sept. 17 by the North's state-run Radio Pyongyang, marking the fifth anniversary of the so-called Pyongyang Declaration for bilateral engagement by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
While calling for considerate behavior from Tokyo, the report said the Pyongyang Declaration was not carried out as expected because of Japan's stubborn adherence to the abduction issue, despite the North's sincere attitude.
"Nevertheless, the declaration is still effective as long as Japan clears away the past as stipulated in the declaration," the broadcast said.
Two days earlier, the Choson Sinbo, the organ of the pro-Pyongyang Association of Korean Residents in Japan, said, "The new (Japanese) Cabinet should reflect on the lessons of 'Abe diplomacy,' and withdraw all the sanctions against the North toward normalization between the two countries." The newspaper indirectly represents the position of the North's authorities.
The previous day, the newspaper reported that Pyongyang's citizens expect the Japanese policy toward North Korea to change following Abe's resignation.
Referring to the 2002 landmark summit between Japan and North Korea, Yasuo Fukuda, front-runner in the Sept. 23 election for the next prime minister, said on Sept. 17 that he is willing to make further progress by negotiating with North Korea.
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North Korea dismisses suspicions over nuclear link to Syria
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Sept. 18 dismissed recent reports suggesting it has a nuclear link to Syria, calling them "sheer misinformation" and reaffirming its pledge to honor a six-party agreement to stop its nuclear activities.
"This is sheer misinformation," said the North's official Central News Agency, quoting an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesperson, in an English-language dispatch.
"The DPRK (North Korea) solemnly declared in October 2006 that, being a responsible nuclear weapons state, it would never allow nuclear transfer, and has stood by its words," the spokesperson was quoted as saying, referring to the country's first test of a nuclear device last year.
The North Korean claim ran counter to a series of news reports quoting a senior United States official that Israel may have obtained some evidence or intelligence pointing to North Korean provision of nuclear expertise to Syria.
Andrew Semmel, acting deputy assistant secretary of state for nuclear nonproliferation, told a conference last week in Rome that Syria has "secret suppliers" of nuclear equipment and that there were North Koreans in the country, raising alarm over a possible nuclear link between the two states.
But on Sept. 16, a senior North Korean diplomat to the United Nations in New York dismissed the suspicions as untrue.
"They often say things that are groundless," Kim Myong-gil, deputy chief of the North Korean mission to the United Nations, told Yonhap News Agency by phone.
The latest suspicions about possible nuclear proliferation by Pyongyang comes amid recent progress in the six-nation talks aimed at denuclearizing the communist North.
"The DPRK never makes an empty talk but always tells truth," the Foreign Ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying, claiming the suspicions were generated by "dishonest forces who do not like to see any progress at the six-party talks and in the DPRK-U.S. relations."
South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said Monday that there has yet to be any proof of a nuclear link between Pyongyang and Damascus.
"If Syria received nuclear materials from North Korea, it must have a facility to store the nuclear material, but as far as I know, Syria does not have any nuclear (storage) facility," Song told reporters.
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North Korea agrees to establish diplomatic ties with UAE
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea agreed to establish diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of the oil-rich countries in the Gulf region, a South Korean diplomat in Dubai said on Sept. 18.
"Both countries signed an agreement to set up diplomatic relations at United Nations headquarters in New York on Sept. 18," the diplomat said, declining to be named.
The UAE's state-run news agency WAM reported the signing ceremony, saying the two countries pledged to develop friendly relations and strengthen cooperation.
However, North Korea's news outlets have yet to confirm the report.
Energy-starved North Korea has diplomatic relations with Kuwait, Oman, Yemen and Qatar in the Gulf region, using its ambassador to Kuwait to deal with comprehensive diplomacy in the region.
In early September, Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Properties PJSC, Dubai's state-owned developer, flew to Pyongyang in his own plane after stopping in Seoul along with Dubai's minister of economic development, raising expectations that the Arab country and the North will improve relations.
Pyongyang conducted intensive diplomacy with Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt, Syria, Libya and Iraq in the 1970s in an attempt to prove superiority over Seoul, giving the countries economic and military support.
(END)
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