*** FOREIGN TIPS

North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il Stoned by People in Nightmare: Lawmaker

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il thinks the reclusive socialist nation's people dislike him and has even had a nightmare of being stoned by them, a Seoul lawmaker said Sunday, citing conversations between Kim and his late father.

   Kim made the comments in meetings with Chung Ju-yung, the late founder of Hyundai Group, in Pyongyang between 1998 and 2000, Chung's sixth son, Mong-joon, said during a local TV talk show on March 27.

   The Hyundai founder initiated various joint projects with North Korea, including a sightseeing tour to scenic Mount Kumgang on the North's east coast, through three meetings with the North Korean leader between 1998 and 2000. He died on March 21, 2001.

   "My father had meals and a lot of conversations with Chairman Kim during trips to North Korea. I was told that Chairman Kim once said, 'When I go somewhere, many residents come out to welcome me. But I am well aware that those people actually do not like me,'" Chung said, using the official title of the North's leader, chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission.

   "When I sleep, I dream that I am being stoned. I dream that Americans hurl stones first, second are South Koreans and third are North Korean residents," Kim was quoted as saying.

   It is unclear whether Kim was serious in talking about the dreams or if he was just joking.

   Chung, however, construed Kim's remarks as showing that the leader knows the grim reality facing the 24 million people in the impoverished country.

   Meanwhile, Chung, a senior ruling party lawmaker said to be a potential presidential candidate, hinted at his ambition to run in the 2012 presidential elections.

   "I have the thinking that I should be well prepared all the time," he said.

  
------------------------

Mongolian PM Condemns North Korea for Its Deadly Attack on South Korea

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- Mongolian prime minister on March 25 condemned North Korea for its deadly attack on a South Korean warship and vowed to make efforts to enhance peace on the divided Korean Peninsula.

   Tensions have been lingering on the peninsula following the North's two attacks last year, including the sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors. The North still adamantly denies its involvement.

   The North also shelled a front-line South Korean island in November that killed two soldiers and two civilians, further escalating tensions and worsening inter-Korean ties to their lowest level in decades.

   "The Mongolian government strongly censures the act of North Korea's attack" against the warship, Mongolian Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency.

   He is in Seoul for a three-day trip to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Mongolia.

   He also expressed hope that regional powers will hold talks and coordinate policies in resolving issues on the peninsula, noting Mongolia will do its best if there is any role to play. He did not elaborate.

   Mongolia is not a party to the international talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.

  
------------------------

Former U.S. President George W. Bush Believes N. Koreans Will Find Freedom

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- Former U.S. President George W. Bush, who famously labeled the North Korean regime as part of an "axis of evil," said on March 28 he believes the country's oppressed people will someday find freedom as did many of their counterparts in the Middle East.

   The former president, whose stated campaign for peace and freedom led to two costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 2000s, was openly critical of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during his eight-year term in office from 2001-2009. The term "axis of evil" was often used to describe the three countries -- North Korea, Iran and Iraq -- he accused of promoting terrorism and building weapons of mass destruction.

   "I don't think the current leader of North Korea wants there to be a free society and therefore he'll do everything he can to prevent his people being exposed to freedom," Bush said at a promotion event in South Korea for the newly published Korean version of his book, "Decision Points."

   "This is a person who stays in office to force intimidation and not the will of the people," he told a gathering of nearly 200 people at a top-rated hotel in downtown Seoul.

   Looking relaxed and punctuating his remarks with a few jokes in between, Bush stressed the "universal" value of freedom as proven through the recent democratic uprisings in the Middle East and Romania's 1989 overthrowing of former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

   North Korea, as "the last remaining Stalinist regime," would eventually follow the same course, he said.

   "I'm not surprised that it's difficult at this point in history to merge toward a free society in North Korea, but eventually it's going to happen," he said, alluding to the eventual reunification of the two Koreas split since the 1950-53 Korean War. "There needs to be time."

   His remarks came amid high tensions on the Korean Peninsula following the death of 50 South Koreans in Pyongyang's two attacks on a South Korean warship and border island last year.

   The former president, however, noted that he never lost sight of the plight of ordinary North Koreans, many of whom suffer from starvation and political oppression, according to witnesses.

   "One thing I made clear is that in the midst of all the decision-making regarding North Korea, that none of us should ever forget the human condition, the fact that people are thrown into prison camps, labor camps, because of their belief system, and all of us always ought to value freedom," he said.

  
------------------------

German Politicians to Visit North Korea Ahead of Women's World Cup

BERLIN (Yonhap) -- A senior German official at the international governing body of football, along with German journalists and politicians, will travel to North Korea this week as part of their tours to participating countries at an international women's tournament in the European nation this summer.

   The German Football Association announced on March 29 that Theo Zwanziger, its president and a member of FIFA's Executive Committee, and Steffi Jones, head of the organizing committee for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, will head the delegation to Pyongyang from March 31 to April 3. They will meet North Korean officials and discuss further cooperation for the future.

   "The Women's World Cup this summer, with its inclusive and global power, will again provide a wonderful opportunity to contribute to international understanding," Zwanziger was quoted as saying on the association's homepage. "Football attracts everyone, regardless of skin color, age, national origin, sex, religion or political affiliation."

   The trip is part of the "Welcome Tour" to 16 nations that will compete at the Women's World Cup. The delegation has canceled its trip to Japan, which is reeling from the devastating earthquake, tsunami and ensuing radiation scare.

   North Korea is paired with the United States, Colombia and Sweden in Group C of the Women's World Cup. The socialist state is ranked eighth in the world in women's football.

   Zwanziger also said he was looking forward to having "good discussions with our friends of the North Korean Football Association," adding that he hoped the framework of a cooperation agreement between the German and North Korean football organizations would lead to long-term ties.

   The German delegation will also include journalists and politicians, including Claudia Roth, a co-chair of the Green Party in Germany. Politicians have planned meetings with North Korean government representatives, the German football body said.

   "We want to try to build bridges for a cultural exchange," Roth said. "We will also address the tensions on the Korean Peninsula ... and human rights. Because the circumstances are so difficult, we are hoping that football will open doors to people."

   Germany and North Korea established diplomatic relations in March 2001. According to the German Federal Foreign Office, German governmental and private humanitarian organizations have offered "several million euros" in aid to North Korea over the years.

   Since the establishment of diplomatic relations, there have been no visits of government delegations at the ministerial level to Germany or North Korea. But members of the German Bundestag have previously visited North Korea, according to the Federal Foreign Office.

  
------------------------

WFP to Soon Unveil Humanitarian Steps on North Korea: Asian Chief

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- The World Food Program (WFP) plans to announce in two weeks a series of concrete humanitarian steps the international community should take in a bid to ease the ongoing food crisis in North Korea, its top Asian official has said.

   Kenro Oshidari, regional director for Asia, said in an interview on March 30 with Yonhap News Agency that North Korea needs "a little over 1 million tons" more food than what it currently has in order to feed its people.

   His comments come after a trio of U.N. agencies -- WFP, FAO and UNICEF -- said in a joint report this week that North Korea needs 434,000 tons of outside food aid to support its most vulnerable groups, which include children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers, among others.

   "Even if we came in with donor support to provide 400,000 tons or so of humanitarian assistance, there's 600,000 tons that the government has to, either commercially or from bilateral assistance, secure," Oshidari said. "North Korea suffered a very harsh winter."

   North Korea, which has relied heavily on international handouts since a massive famine swept the country in the mid 1990s, has seen little food assistance from its southern neighbor since 2008.

   International assistance has also dried up significantly in the wake of a series of nuclear and missiles tests Pyongyang has conducted in defiance of warnings. Critics also say the North may also be hoarding food ahead of 2012, during which it plans to celebrate the centenary of the birth of its charismatic late founder, Kim Il-sung.

   "Arithmetically, I can't see how it is feasible to stock up any food from the exterior," Oshidari said, citing field observations and data that his organization has procured from various countries.

   Pledging to demand "maximum monitoring," should food aid resume to North Korea, Oshidari said the WFP is in the midst of finalizing a proposal for international assistance to the communist nation.

   "We are in the process of right now getting the details down, devising that plan of how many people exactly we should be assisting, how much food it takes, what kind of food would be most suitable," he said, expecting disclosure "within two weeks."

   Oshidari, who visited Seoul on March 28 with missions that included briefing officials here on the food crisis in the North, said Pyongyang guaranteed "unprecedented access" when U.N. researchers were there to conduct their assessment earlier this year.

   "When the assessment mission went in, we had unprecedented, flexible access we never saw before in our 15 years of presence in (North Korea)," he said. "They were able to much more flexibly select where they want to go, which household they want to (see), schools they want to visit, also visiting markets."

   "So that type of flexibility we would request if we're going to have operations" in the nation with a 24-million population, he said, calling the North Korean behavior a "good sign."

   Oshidari, however, said he noticed a lack of enthusiasm among South Korean foreign and unification ministry officials over possible food aid to the North when he met them here.

   The relations between the Koreas remain at the worst point in years after a series of incidents that claimed a total of 50 South Korean lives last year. South Korea also demands the North roll back its nuclear arms programs for improvement in cross-border exchanges.

   "The message I got was it would be very, very difficult given the present circumstances and background" for Seoul to consider large-scale food aid, Oshidari said, adding the humanitarian measures the WFP plans to soon announce would be addressed to the international community, rather than specific countries like South Korea.

   Oshidari, who has traveled frequently to North Korea according to his spokesman, did not participate in the joint U.N. fact-finding mission to North Korea that took place between February and March. He is a Japanese national.

  (END)