*** FOREIGN TIPS

N. Korea to Kick off Month-long Arirang Festival in August

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea plans to launch a month-long massive gymnastics extravaganza known as the Arirang Festival in August, a tour agency said on June 9.

   The festival, named after a famous Korean folk song, has been held almost annually since 2002, when it debuted to celebrate the 90th birthday of North Korea's late founder, Kim Il-sung, the father of the country's current leader, Kim Jong-il.

   The massive event will open on Aug. 1 and run until Sept. 9, Koryo Tours, a Beijing-based agency that specializes in trips to North Korea, said on its Web site without elaborating.

   The festival features tens of thousands of young gymnasts performing synchronized acrobatics, dances and flip-card mosaic animation in what is believed to be the largest gymnastics show in the world.

   The show is a subject of outside criticism as it mobilizes young children for rigid training without providing sufficient nutrition.

   Critics also say the show is a propaganda tool to extol leader Kim Jong-il, who runs a massive cult of personality around his family.

   Former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun watched the performance during a presidential trip to Pyongyang for talks with Kim in 2007.

  
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U.S. Supports South Korea's Policy on North Korea: Campbell

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- The United States supports South Korea's view that inter-Korean dialogue should take place before the resumption of talks between Washington and Pyongyang or the stalled six-party denuclearization talks, a senior Washington official said on June 10.

   "We believe that the essential approach that South Korea has laid out is the right one. We would like to see a resumption of talks and dialogue, but we also believe that the South Korean approach will bear fruit," Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told reporters.

   Campbell arrived in Seoul earlier in the day on the final leg of his Asia tour that also took him to China, Mongolia and Indonesia. He met with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan and Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Jae-shin for discussions on a range of issues, including their joint strategy toward North Korea, the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement and their joint probe into allegations that the U.S. military buried the toxic defoliant Agent Orange at one of its former bases in South Korea.

   In the meeting between Campbell and Deputy Foreign Minister Kim, the sides agreed on a June 24 visit to Washington by the foreign minister at the invitation of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the officials said in their joint meeting with reporters.

   "He graciously accepted and he will be coming ... for intense consultations in terms of the next steps with respect to our joint strategy on North Korea and other matters in Northeast Asia, including the ASEAN regional forum and upcoming East Asia summit," Campbell said.

   Speaking of his trip to Beijing earlier in the week, Campbell said China was also in support of South Korea's policy toward North Korea, despite Pyongyang's recent threats to cut off all relations with Seoul.

   "We have many areas that are common between the United States and China, and South Korea and China, but also a few areas of difference. But I think we all agreed that there has to be improvement between the North and the South, and I think China wants to take efforts to help support that process," he said. "In all of our meetings, we urged China to make best efforts to encourage North Korea to improve relations with South Korea."

  
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U.S. Intercepted N.K. Ship Suspected of Carrying Military Contraband

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- The United States recently intercepted a North Korean ship suspected of carrying military-related contraband, causing the vessel to eventually sail back home, a U.S. official said on June 13.

   The remarks by Gary Samore, special assistant to U.S. President Barack Obama, came after local media reported that the North Koreans turned back after apparently sensing their cargo would be inspected if they stopped at a foreign port.

   It was not clear where the ship was headed or what it was carrying, but the vessel returned home at the end of last month after drifting in international waters near Southeast Asia, the reports said.

   In an interview with Yonhap News Agency, Samore identified the cargo ship as "The Light," saying it may have been going to Myanmar carrying military-related contraband, such as small arms or missile-related items.

   "We talked directly to the North Koreans. We talked directly to all the Southeast Asian countries, including Myanmar, urging them to inspect the ship if it called into their port," he said, speaking on the sidelines of the Asan Plenum, a nuclear forum, at a Seoul hotel.

   "The U.S. Navy also contacted the North Korean ship as it was sailing to ask them where they were going and what cargo they were carrying."

   Samore is also the White House coordinator for Arms Control and Weapons of Mass Destruction, Proliferation, and Terrorism.

   North Korea has been under multiple international and United Nations sanctions for its missile and nuclear tests. Under Resolution 1874, adopted by the U.N. Security Council in June 2009, the communist state has been subject to an overall arms embargo, as well as financial sanctions and interdiction of cargo on the high seas to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, missiles and other weapons of mass destruction.

   Another North Korean ship was forced to turn back in 2009 after being suspected of delivering missile components or other military-related supplies to Myanmar.

  
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North Korea Leases Pier on Northeastern Port to Switzerland

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea has leased a pier on its port located near China and Russia to Switzerland, a source said on June 14, citing an unidentified Chinese government official.

   North Korea has already leased two other piers on Rajin port to China and Russia, and various consultations are also under way for three other piers, according to the source who has knowledge on the North Korean economy.

   The port, located in a North Korean special economic zone known as Rason, provides China with an export route to other countries. The North has striven to develop Rason into a regional transportation hub since 1991, but no major progress has been made.

   On June 9, North Korea and China broke ground for their joint project to develop Rason as an economic and trade zone.

   The source said details of the North's lease to Switzerland have not been confirmed. A South Korean official said that the North's lease to Switzerland has not been confirmed.

   On June 13, a Swiss Foreign Ministry delegation arrived in Pyongyang, the North's official news agency reported in a brief dispatch, without elaborating.

   The source also said some European companies plan to invest in Rajin port as well as Hwanggumphyong, an island that sits at the estuary of the Yalu River.

  
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N. Korea's Cyber Attacks Become Bolder, Smarter: Military Spy Chief

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea has been waging cyber attacks against South Korea's government and corporate computer networks with bolder and smarter methods, the chief of the South's military intelligence command warned on June 14.

   "North Korea is strategically nurturing its cyber warfare unit," Lt. Gen. Bae Deuk-shin, chief of the Defense Security Command, told a computer security forum hosted by the command.

   "This unit has shown the potential for attacks that are larger in scale and more intelligent by pinpointing a specific target," Bae said.

   Bae confirmed that North Korea was behind a cyber attack that disrupted operations at one of South Korea's largest banks in April this year as well as two others on major government and corporate Web sites since 2009.

   "In the future, North Korea will try to cause social confusion and incur significant national damage through an intensive cyber attack," Bae said.

   South Korean intelligence officials believe that North Korea runs a 1,000-strong cyber warfare unit under the direct control of its top intelligence agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau.

   In April, Seoul blamed Pyongyang for crippling the computer system of one of its major financial institutions, the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, or Nonghyup. The incident paralyzed the bank's ATM and credit card services for more than a week, but the North denied the accusation.

  
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U.N. Slams North Korea's Immigration Policy on HIV Carriers

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- A United Nations health body recently criticized North Korea's immigration policy that banishes HIV carriers from the country as being discriminatory, a media report said.

   In a June 14 interview with U.S.-based broadcaster Radio Free Asia (RFA), Jason Sigurdson, a researcher at the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), said the deportation policy of HIV patients was a discriminatory policy which the U.N. clearly objects to.

   North Korea from 1998 to 2008 reportedly deported 28 foreign nationals who were HIV positive. In a 2010 report, UNAIDS pointed out that North Korea continued to discriminate or limit entry of HIV positive foreign nationals.

   The report did not include HIV- or AIDS-related data on North Korea, as Pyongyang failed to provide any pertinent information, according to UNAIDS.

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