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NORTH KOREA THIS WEEK NO.476 (November 29, 2007)
*** INTER-KOREAN RELATIONS
A rush of inter-Korean talks in progress
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- In the last week of November, North and South Korea were busily following up on the historic summit of their leaders with inter-Korean talks aimed at implementing the summit agreements.
The inter-Korean activities included three on-site trips to North Korea for major projects to be developed there, as well as three official talks between the authorities of the divided Koreas.
In Pyongyang, the defense chiefs of the two Koreas met for three days starting from Nov. 27 to discuss easing tension in the disputed western sea border and security guarantees for economic cooperation.
In Kaesong, working-level officials from the two Koreas gathered on Nov. 28 to discuss repaving the Kaesong-Pyongyang expressway that runs between the North's border town and its capital.
On Nov. 28, Red Cross officials from the two Koreas held talks on the South's humanitarian assistance for the impoverished North and repatriation of South Korean prisoners of war and others abducted to the North since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The three-day talks, the ninth of their kind, were scheduled to end on Nov. 30 at the North's scenic resort at Mt. Kumgang.
Meanwhile, three separate on-site survey visits to the North were in progress. Starting Nov. 27, a group of South Koreans assisted by North Korean authorities visited the area near the Korean Peninsula's highest peak, Mt. Paektu, which borders China as they prepared for South Korean tourists, who are scheduled to arrive next May.
An agricultural team from the South was also in Pyongyang to discuss cooperation in hog farming in the North and other related agricultural projects. In addition, a survey team from Seoul made a visit to Anbyon along the North's eastern coastal area to study the feasibility of establishing a shipbuilding industry there.
Red Cross talks scheduled for later in the week were to mainly focus on ways to expand and regularize reunions between separated families, and the issue of South Koreans who have been missing since the end of the Korean War, an official at the Unification Ministry said.
North and South Korea have held nearly 20 rounds of family reunions since the historic summit between their leaders in 2000, but family members are not allowed to contact each other again after the brief reunion ends.
Nearly 100,000 people from South Korea alone have remained separated from their loved ones since the end of the Korean War, according to the Unification Ministry.
President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il agreed in their recent summit in Pyongyang to expand the family reunions, but again failed to find solutions to the thorny issue of South Korean prisoners of war and abductees held in the communist nation.
Seoul believes that nearly 500 South Koreans have been kidnapped and held in the North since the end of the war. Pyongyang denies holding anyone against their will, claiming that any South Koreans who live there defected voluntarily.
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N. Korean graphite material arrives in S. Korea
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korean graphite processed at an inter-Korean joint venture factory was shipped to South Korea on Nov. 24, the South Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said.
The 200-ton shipment from the factory near the city of Haeju left the North Korean port of Nampho earlier in the day and reached Incheon in South Korea later the same day, said the ministry.
"The shipment is significant because it is the first time that products made from minerals in the North have been shipped to the South after being manufactured at an inter-Korean joint venture company," a ministry official said.
The graphite can be made into heat-resistant bricks, pencils, ceramic melting pots and car brake linings.
South Korea's state-run Korea Resources Corp. (KORES) holds a 50 percent stake in the graphite processing plant that is valued at US$10.2 million. The North's Kwangmyong Trading Co. owns the other half.
The factory can produce 3,000 tons of processed graphite every year, with KORES entitled to 1,830 tons each year for 15 years as payment for its initial investment. The amount is equivalent to 15 percent of the country's annual graphite imports. China, Japan and Germany are currently South Korea's main suppliers of the material.
The state-run company signed the contract for the joint venture in July 2003, and commercial production began in April this year. Initial test production began in April 2006.
The ministry also said that the Jongchon mine near the factory is estimated to hold 6.25 million tons of crystalline graphite ore.
Wonjin Co., a South Korean carbon refractory brick manufacturer, signed a contract in September with the KORES to buy all the graphite from North Korea and market it in South Korea.
(END)
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