*** FOREIGN TIPS

U.N. Agency Could Press N. Korea to Stop Hacking Seoul: Report

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- A United Nations agency responsible for information and communication technologies could urge North Korea to stop its run of cyber attacks on South Korea, a U.S. report said on May 5.

   In an interview with Radio Free Asia (RFA), Sanjay Acharya, spokesman for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), said the board of directors at the Geneva-based agency could press North Korea since it is a member state of the ITU.

   Acharya also said a member nation that has been victimized by cyber attacks can lodge a complaint with the ITU board, but added South Korea has yet to make a move.

   Quoting an unidentified expert, the RFA said there is no international agency or measure that can punish North Korea for its hacking. The expert said International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT), an alliance designed to help countries with their cyber security, is aware of North Korean antics but is in no position to investigate or stop such action.

   In early May, South Korea condemned the North for a cyber attack that paralyzed the computer network of a major lender last month. North Korea was also blamed for two earlier hacking jobs on South Korean government and portal Web sites.

   The Foreign Ministry in Seoul believes the latest North Korean hacking was in violation of international law. The Unification Ministry, in charge of inter-Korean affairs, called the latest cyber attack "a provocation against our society that must be condemned."

  
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Chinese Visitors to N. Korean Border City Top 100,000 in One Year

SHENYANG, China (Yonhap) -- The number of Chinese visitors to North Korea's border town of Sinuiju has reached 100,000 over the past year after Beijing lifted a four-year ban on Chinese group tours from the Chinese border city of Dandong, a news report said on May 6.

   Dandong, which borders Sinuiju, is a major trade route between North Korea and China.

   The Chinese government resumed the group tours to Sinuiju from Dandong in April last year, a Dandong newspaper said, adding the number of Chinese tourists to Sinuiju is likely to go up in the coming months.

   The one-day group tour program allows the Chinese to visit Sinuiju without visas. China is the North's last remaining ally and benefactor.

  
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U.S. Has Received 101 North Korean Refugees Since 2006: DHS

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The United States has received 101 North Korean refugees for the past few years under legislation to help improve human rights conditions in the reclusive communist state and accommodate North Korean refugees, statistics showed on May 7.

   The total breaks down to nine for 2006, 22 for 2007, 37 for 2008, 25 for 2009 and eight for 2010, according to figures released on May 7 by the Office of Immigration Statistics at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

   Hundreds of thousands of North Korean refugees are also believed to be hiding in China.

   Most North Korean refugees, fleeing poverty, aim to make their way to South Korea via neighboring China.

   South Korea has received more than 20,000 North Korean defectors since the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War.

   China has come under criticism for repatriating North Korean refugees under a secret agreement with North Korea, categorizing defectors as economic immigrants rather than refugees, despite the danger of them being persecuted back home.

   The North Korean refugees were admitted into the U.S. under the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, which calls for the provision of financial aid to help improve North Korea's human rights and accept North Korean defectors into the U.S.

   In 2008, Congress approved the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act for another four years, calling for "activities to support human rights and democracy and freedom of information in North Korea," as well as "assistance to North Koreans who are outside North Korea," and 12-hour daily broadcasting to North Korea.

  
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N. Korea's Exports of Mineral Resources top US$860 Mln Last Year

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea's exports of mineral resources jumped 17-fold in a decade with its outbound shipment of coals and iron ores leading the growth, a U.S. report showed on May 7.

   According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), the communist state's exports of mineral resources reached US$860 million last year, compared with some $50 million in 2002.

   Citing data compiled by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency in Seoul, the RFA said exports of such minerals as coal and iron ore accounted for 63 percent of its total exports to its strongest ally China.

   In the first quarter of the year, the North earned around $154 million by exporting coal to the neighboring country, compared with $9.68 million seen a year earlier.

   North Korea's mineral reserves are believed to be among the largest in the world, worth some 7,000 trillion won, based on 2008 prices, according to an earlier report by the Unification Ministry in Seoul.

  
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N. Korean Defectors to Thailand Jumps 50-fold in Six Years: Report

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- The number of North Korean defectors to Thailand has jumped more than 50 times since 2004, a U.S. report claimed on May 7.

   Radio Free Asia (RFA), citing a Thai newspaper, the Bangkok Post, said the number of North Koreans who illegally entered Thailand and were arrested soared from 46 in 2004 to 2,482 in 2010.

   Through April this year, 870 North Koreans have been arrested for illegal entry, RFA added.

   Thailand is a frequent destination for North Koreans escaping through China. North Koreans are not granted refugee status in Thailand, but after serving their prison sentences for illegal entry, they're deported to South Korea or the U.S.

   The reclusive North is among the world's poorest countries. After suffering a famine that reportedly killed up to 2 million people in the mid-1990s, the North has since heavily depended on outside handouts to support its 24 million population.

   "The number of defectors (to Thailand) is on the rise because of severe food shortages, and also of the dire economic situation after the botched currency reform in late 2009," said an official with Life Funds for North Korean Refugees, which helps North Korean defectors in Thailand.

   South Korean sources recently said North Korea has intensified its crackdown on defectors to tighten social discipline since leader Kim Jong-il's designation of Kim Jong-un, his youngest son, as successor late last year.

   More than 20,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.

  
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Clinton Calls for Inter-Korean Rapprochement Ahead of Six-way Talks

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The United States and China on May 10 repeated calls for improved inter-Korean ties ahead of any resumption of the international talks on the North's nuclear dismantlement.

   Speaking to reporters after a two-day Strategic and Economic Dialogue with China at Blair House, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "We had candid discussions on some of our most persistent challenges, from addressing North Korea and Iran to rebalancing the global economy."

   She did not elaborate, but the State Department said in a statement that the sides "decided to enhance communication and coordination on regional and global issues to jointly address common challenges and to safeguard peace and stability. With regard to the Korean Peninsula, the two sides reiterated their understanding as expressed in the 2011 U.S.-China Joint Statement."

   The Joint Statement issued at the end of a summit meeting in Washington in January between U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao "emphasized the importance of an improvement in North-South relations and agreed that sincere and constructive inter-Korean dialogue is an essential step."

   That was the point Clinton made in her speech to open the annual high-level Sino-U.S. dialogue on May 9.

   "We continue to urge North Korea to take concrete actions to improve relations with South Korea, and to refrain from further provocations," Clinton said on May 9. "We want to see North Korea take irreversible steps to fulfill its international obligations toward denuclearization."

   The chief nuclear envoys of South Korea and China last month agreed on the need for North Korea to have a bilateral nuclear dialogue with South Korea and then another bilateral discussion with the U.S. ahead of any plenary session of the six-party talks.

   The talks have been deadlocked for more than two years over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests, the shelling of a South Korean border island and the torpedoing of a South Korean border island that killed 50 people last year.

  
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Japan Backs China's Proposal for Resuming North Korea Nuclear Talks

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- Japan voiced support on May 11 for China's proposal that South and North Korea first hold nuclear dialogue to help restart the six-party talks aimed at weaning Pyongyang off its nuclear ambitions.

   Shinsuke Sugiyama, Tokyo's delegate to the stalled multilateral talks, however, said such inter-Korean talks should not pass off as a formality, stressing the North should make a series of denuclearization steps to show its commitment to the cause.

   Sugiyama made the comments to reporters after his meeting with his South Korean counterpart Wi Sung-lac in Seoul.

   The six-party talks, which also group the U.S. and Russia, have not been held since 2008. In 2009, North Korea conducted its second nuclear test, drawing tougher sanctions. The country has since renewed its willingness to return to the six-party talks, but South Korea, Japan and the U.S. remain suspicious of its intent.

   In an effort to restart the talks, host China proposed last month that the nuclear delegates of the two Koreas first hold dialogue. The proposal came after Chinese nuclear envoy Wu Dawei met with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan in Beijing.

   South Korea has agreed to the proposal, but the North has yet to make a formal offer. Pyongyang has long been reluctant to discuss its nuclear arms programs with Seoul, saying they are aimed at deterring a U.S. invasion. Since the inauguration of a conservative government in 2008, however, Seoul has criticized such a stance, calling on the North to agree to bilaterally discuss the programs that it says constitute a direct national security threat.

   South and North Korea remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce instead of a peace treaty.

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