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NORTH KOREA THIS WEEK NO. 495 (April 17, 2008)
*** NEWS IN BRIEF (Part 2)
North Korea calls Lee Myung-bak's vision a 'replica of reciprocity'
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea accused South Korean President Lee Myung-bak of challenging the new era of the inter-Korean relationship with his North Korean vision of "no nukes, opening and 3,000 dollars," saying the scheme is nothing but "a replica of the theory of reciprocity" advocated by anti-reunification traitors in the past.
The Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the North's ruling Workers' party, on April 11 said the "piffle" touted by the Lee Myung-bak group is prompted by a country peddler's crude way of thinking: "Roll my log and I will roll yours."
Lee has proposed upgrading the North's per capita income to US$3,000 through economic cooperation if the communist country gives up its nukes and opens its the closed society.
"This is, in essence, nothing but a replica of the 'theory of reciprocity' advocated by anti-reunification traitors in South Korea in the past in a bid to deter inter-Korean relations from improving, and the reunification movement from making any progress," the organ said.
It is an "intolerable, treacherous and anachronistic act ... to challenge the desire of the Korean nation and the trend of the times in the process for reconciliation and unity," the organ said, warning that such a vision only drive inter-Korean relations to catastrophe and lead to confrontation and war amongst fellow countrymen.
Earlier, on April 10, the organ also criticized Lee's vision as a "fraud and swindle" without alluding to the previous day's result of the general election in the South, in which Lee's ruling party won over half the seats in parliament.
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North Korea slams Olympic torch relay protests
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea on April 12 denounced recent anti-China protests in some countries that have disrupted the global tour of the Olympic flame and said it will ensure smooth passage of the torch through its territory.
The Olympic torch for the Beijing Games is scheduled to reach North Korea on April 28 after a day-long relay in South Korea the previous day. It will arrive in the Chinese capital in early May before the Games open in August.
"We give our genuine support to the Olympic torch relay that is proceeding upon the Olympic idea of peace and friendship and sternly denounce the disruptive maneuvers of some rebellious forces as a threat to the Olympic idea," a spokesman of North Korea's Olympic Committee said in a report by the country's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The KCNA report quoted the unidentified spokesman as saying that North Korea was putting the final touches on its preparations for the torch relay. It will be the first time for a global Olympic torch relay to go through the reclusive communist country.
"This event will proceed most safely and smoothly as planned" in Pyongyang, the spokesman said in the KCNA report, monitored in Seoul.
Protests against China's rule of Tibet and its human rights abuses disrupted the torch relay in Paris, London and San Francisco in April.
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N. Korea urges S. Korea to abide by inter-Korean accords
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea recently urged South Korea to abide by inter-Korean rapprochement agreements and called for the U.S. to abandon its hostile policy against the North, the North's Korean Central Broadcasting Station said on April 13.
The demands were made at an arms reduction committee meeting at the United Nations held in New York on April 8, according to the station.
At the annual arms curtailment session, a North Korean delegate said, "South Korean officials will have to behave well in accordance with the historic June 15 (South-North) Joint Declaration and the Oct. 4 Declaration rather than pursuing a road to a showdown with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/ North Korea)," the report said.
The two Koreas held their first-ever summit in June 2000 and another one in October in 2007 to produce a range of rapprochement measures, including construction of a South Korea-invested joint industrial complex in the North's border town of Kaesong and a tour of North Korea's scenic Mt. Kumgang by South Koreans.
After the launch in February of the conservative Lee Myung-bak government, which pledged a hardline position on the nuclear-armed North, North Korea expelled South Korean officials from Kaesong, test-fired short range missiles into the West Sea and threatened to suspend inter-Korean dialogue.
The North Korean delegate also demanded that the U.S. stop conducting joint military drills with South Korea and demonstrate its willingness to abandon its hostile policy toward the North, the report said.
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North Korea belatedly refutes counterfeiting allegation
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea belatedly refuted an allegation by a top U.S. Treasury official that the North's counterfeit U.S. bills are still showing up, saying the allegation is a deception aimed at delaying the ongoing six-way talks for the North's denuclearization.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on April 14 said U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey raised the allegation again at a Senate Finance Committee testimony on April 1,
"The Secret Service is continuing to investigate North Korea's counterfeiting activities, and the high-quality counterfeit bills produced by North Korea, known as the 'supernote,' continue to surface," Levey said then.
However, the KCNA claimed such allegations are aimed at dirtying the North's image and are driven by the intentions of hawkish forces who want to worsen the situation, recalling that the issue of the Banco Delta Asia (BDA) idled the six-way talks over one-and-a-half years. In addition, the KCNA said the allegations had been already disclosed as false, even by U.S. media.
Pyongyang's suspected illicit financial transactions, including the circulation of bogus U.S. bills, led to the Treasury's punitive actions against the BDA, a small Macanese bank, in September 2005 before the North's frozen funds worth some US$25 million at the BDA were later returned to the communist country.
The North agreed to conclude the second phase of the six-way talks with the U.S. in Singapore on April 9. The declaration and disablement phase has deadlocked the forum since late last year.
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Putin marks birthday of late North Korean leader
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- The Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a congratulatory message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on the birthday of his late father on April 15, the North's official news agency said.
Putin called for firmer cooperative ties between Russia and North Korea in the message to celebrate the 96th birthday of the North's late founder Kim Il-sung, the Korean Central News Agency said.
"The traditional friendship and goodwill ties between the two countries are developing today," Putin was quoted as saying.
"Efforts will continue to expand the multifaceted cooperation to ensure the welfare of peoples of the two countries as well as overall peace, stability and security on the Korean Peninsula and elsewhere in Asia," he said.
The Russian leader also sent a congratulatory message on the 66th birthday of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Feb. 16.
(END)
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