*** FOREIGN TIPS

South Korea, U.S., Japan to Hold High-level Talks on North Korea

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- South Korea, the United States and Japan have agreed to hold a meeting of their senior diplomats dealing with the North Korea issue, an official confirmed on Jan. 6.

   "I think we’ve agreed that we’ll be holding a meeting in the near future," Kurt Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told reporters in Tokyo, according to a transcript released by the State Department.

   He was replying to a question on a news report that the allies will hold high-level talks in Washington on Jan. 16 to discuss next steps on North Korea after the change in North Korea's leadership.

   Campbell said a date has not been fixed yet. He is on a five-day tour of China, South Korea and Japan, his first regional trip since the death of the North's leader, Kim Jong-il, in December.

   "I think the exact date, we are still coordinating among our partners," he said.

   On the rumor of an explosion at a North Korean light-water nuclear reactor, he said he has no information.

   "I’ve just heard that rumor, but I’ve heard nothing further. I can’t confirm or deny, and I just simply don’t know," he said.

   The rumor, fast spreading in South Korea, rattled the country's stock market on Jan. 6, although the local authorities dismissed it as groundless.

  
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South Korea Dismisses Rumors of Nuclear Explosion in North Korea

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Jan. 6 dismissed as groundless a rumor that a light-water reactor has exploded in North Korea's nuclear complex, sending leaked radiation to Pyongyang and as far as South Korea.

   The rumor cited an unidentified secret Japanese intelligence operative in the isolated socialist country.

   The rumor quickly spread among securities firms in Yeouido, South Korea's equivalent to New York's Wall Street, through instant messenger services on Jan. 6 afternoon as ordinary citizens also tweeted messages on the allegation.

   South Korean officials quickly dismissed the rumor, saying they received no intelligence on the alleged explosion of the light-water reactor and that there is little probability of radiation leaks from the nuclear blast.

   "Nothing has been confirmed," an official of South Korea's intelligence authorities said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, citing policy.

   South Korea's financial watchdog asked police to launch an investigation into the latest rumor that experts say could be part of a scheme by stock market manipulators to make money.

   An official of LIG Investment and Securities Co. said those involved in derivatives may be behind the rumor to make illicit gains.

   South Korea's benchmark Kospi index fell 20.6 points to 1,843.14.

   In November, North Korea said it was speeding up its production of low enriched uranium for its light-water nuclear reactor as the United States expressed concerns over Pyongyang's construction of a new nuclear reactor.

  
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Iran Officials Visit N.K. in November on Possible Uranium Enrichment

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- A delegation of Iranian defense officials visited North Korea in late November in an apparent bid to discuss military cooperation, including uranium enrichment, a report said on Jan. 8.

   Citing an informed source, Japan's Kyodo News Agency said a three-member Iranian delegation visited the North to talk with key officials including head of the military general staff Ri Yong-ho in an apparent move to cement military cooperation and discuss advanced centrifuge technologies related to uranium enrichment.

   Ri is a core member of the supporters of the leadership spearheaded by the North's new leader Kim Jong-un. Kim, who was named "supreme leader" of the communist country, is consolidating his power since his father Kim Jong-il died of a heart failure on Dec. 17.

   A separate report said on Jan. 8 that Iran has begun to enrich uranium at a new underground site, which is well protected from possible airstrikes, defying the international community's moves to impose nuclear sanctions on the Islamic country.

   In 2010, North Korea revealed it is running a uranium enrichment facility, shocking the international community. Highly enriched uranium can be used to make weapons, giving Pyongyang another way to build nuclear bombs in addition to its existing plutonium program. The North conducted two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

   North Korea has long been suspected of being behind nuclear and missile proliferation in Iran, Syria, Myanmar and Pakistan.

   Yonhap News Agency reported earlier that hundreds of North Korean nuclear and missile experts have been collaborating with their Iranian counterparts in more than 10 locations across the Islamic state.

   The Iranian Embassy in Seoul denied the report, arguing that it has indigenous technology for a peaceful nuclear program.

  
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North Koreans Sent Home After Drifting to Japan

Tokyo (AFP) -- Three North Korean men, who reached Japan in a small wooden boat last week, were sent home on Jan. 9 under an agreement between Pyongyang and Tokyo, press reports said.

   The trio, who were found in the boat with the body of another man near the western Japan island of Oki on Jan. 6, have said they started drifting with engine trouble after setting off on a fishing trip in mid-December, Japanese coastguard officials have said. They have expressed their wish to go back to North Korea.

   Despite lacking diplomatic ties, the two governments have agreed on the return of the trio in unofficial talks in Beijing, the Jiji and Kyodo news agencies reported.

   The Japan Coast Guard declined to comment on the reports and the foreign ministry was not immediately available.

  
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Children of Inner Circle in North Korea Take Key Posts

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea has handed out decent jobs to children of former and current North Korean elite in what could be an attempt to help ensure the dynastic power succession goes smoothly.

   Children of former communist guerillas and current regime officials in North Korea were appointed to high-ranking positions, rising as a new inner circle that apparently will shore up heir Kim Jong-un's regime, a source familiar with the isolated country said on Jan. 10.

   Including the powerful couple Jang Song-thaek and his wife Kim Kyong-hui, who is a daughter of the North's founder Kim Il-sung, eight children of former communist guerillas were anointed to high-ranking positions in the party at a party convention in September 2010.

   Jang Yong-chol, a nephew of Jang Song-thaek, became North Korea's ambassador to Malaysia in 2010 before fully serving out his term as Pyongyang's top envoy to Nepal, the source said.

   Choe Ryong-hae, son of Choe Hyon who was Former Minister of People's Armed Forces, was named as a four-star general and a member of the party's Central Military Commission.

   Children of Workers' Party secretary Kim Yong-il and Vice Premier Kang Sok-ju, a veteran negotiator and key foreign policy advisor to the late leader, have been dispatched to North Korea's overseas diplomatic missions, the source said.

   Meanwhile, Ri Son-il, son of Ri Yong-ho, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army, and Cha Dong-sup, son-in-law of the People's Armed Forces Minister Kim Yong-chun, are engaged in works to either earn foreign currency or attract foreign investment, the source said.

   The nepotism appears to be the North's attempt to secure the loyalty of the elite to make sure the third-generation power transition goes smoothly, the source said.

  
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Prominent Atomic Scientists Say World Closer to Nuclear Catastrophe

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- A group of prominent atomic scientists and experts warned on Jan. 10 that the world has come closer again to catastrophic destruction due to a lack of progress in reducing nuclear weapons in North Korea and other nations as well as environmental damage.

   "Faced with inadequate progress on nuclear weapons reduction and proliferation, and continuing inaction on climate change, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) announced today that it has moved the hands of its famous 'Doomsday Clock' to five minutes to midnight," the group said in a statement issued after an annual meeting in Washington. The closer the clock is to midnight, the closer the world is estimated to be to disaster.

   The clock's minute hands had stood at six minutes to midnight since 2010.

   Kennette Benedict, executive director at the BAS, said her group considered North Korea's nuclear ambitions, along with several other nations' reluctance to control their nuclear arsenal, in making this year's decision.

   "North Korea is, of course, an issue. I think it's fair to say it's part of a larger problem that we face," she said in reply to Yonhap News Agency's inquiry. Regarding uncertainly over the North's leadership change, however, she said it is too soon to tell what's going to happen there.

   The BAS at the University of Chicago, put the clock at 11:55 p.m. in 2007 after North Korea conducted its first known nuclear test and as concerns over Iran's nuclear drive surged.

   It nudged the minute hands back to 11:54 p.m. in 2010 as the U.S. and Russia moved forward talks on the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and global leaders showed the political will to fight global warming at their Copenhagen summit.

   "The path toward a world free of nuclear weapons is not at all clear and leadership is failing," said Jayantha Dhanapala, former U.N. under-secretary-general for disarmament affairs, a member of the BAS Board of Sponsors.

   "Failure to act on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by leaders in the United States, China, Iran, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Israel, and North Korea, on a treaty to cut off production of nuclear weapons material, continues to leave the world at risk from continued development of nuclear weapons," he added. "The world still has approximately 19,500 deployed nuclear weapons, enough power to destroy the world's inhabitants several times, too."

   The Doomsday Clock is aimed at enhancing public awareness of dangers posed by nuclear weapons and environmental damage and urging global leaders to work to address the problems.

  
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More Than 23,000 North Korean Defectors Settle in South Korea

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- More than 23,000 North Korean defectors have settled in South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, government data showed on Jan. 11, indicating a constant stream of North Koreans fleeing their repressive regime.

   A total of 23,100 North Koreans had defected to the South as of the end of last year, including 2,737 defectors who arrived here last year, according to data from the Unification Ministry handling inter-Korean relations.

   The number of new arrivals increased 15 percent last year from 2,379 in 2010, the data showed. At least 2,000 North Koreans have defected to the South each year since 2006, with a record 2,927 defectors arriving here in 2009.

   By gender, 70 percent of last year's new arrivals were women.

   As of June 2011, 32 percent of North Korean defectors in the South were in their 30s, while 27 percent were in their 20s. About 70 percent had completed middle or high school before escaping their country. About half had been without jobs, while some 38 percent worked as laborers.

   South Korea has a longstanding policy to accept any North Korean defectors who wish to live in the South.

  
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N. Korean Imports of Mobile Phones Jumped 6 Times from 2009-2010

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea imported six times more mobile phones in 2010 than in 2009, a media report said on Jan. 11, indicating growing mobile penetration in the reclusive country.

   North Korea bought 430,000 mobile phones from China in 2010, up from 68,000 phones the previous year, according to Washington-based Radio Free Asia (RFA). In 2010, the country spent US$35 million on importing mobile phones, seven times more than the $5 million outlay in 2009, the report said, citing recent data from the United Nations.

   The number of mobile phone users in the communist country has grown rapidly in recent years, from about 90,000 at the end of 2009 to 430,000 a year later and more than 800,000 in the third quarter of last year, the report added, referring to data from Egypt's Orascom Telecom.

   The Egyptian company launched mobile phone services in North Korea in 2008 through Koryolink, a joint venture it set up with the North. Koryolink provides its services on cell phones imported from China, RFA said.

   The apparent increase in mobile penetration comes despite reports that North Korea severely restricts any flow of information within and across its borders. In recent years, the North has cracked down on mobile phones smuggled in from China, fearing they will be used to communicate with people in China and South Korea, according to defectors in the South.

   North Korea first launched a mobile phone service in Pyongyang in 2002, but banned it after a deadly explosion in a northern train station in 2004, possibly out of concern that it could be used in a plot against the regime.

  
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North Korea Ranked Worst in Nuclear Materials Security

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- North Korea was placed at the bottom of a landmark ranking on Jan. 11 on the security of nuclear materials.

   The report was released by a group of experts here working to curb the threat of nuclear terrorism and accidents.

   The unprecedented Nuclear Materials Security Index, compiled by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) in Washington, examined the status of nuclear materials security conditions in 176 countries. It was issued ahead of the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul in March.

   In the survey of 32 nations with one kilogram or more of weapons-grade uranium or plutonium, North Korea ranked 32nd. The index took into account the amount of nuclear materials, sites, domestic commitments, societal factors, and global norms. Iran and Pakistan ranked 30th and 31st, respectively.

   In 2008, during talks with the U.S., the secretive North reportedly declared that it possessed roughly 38.5 kg of plutonium.

   The NTI said it demanded that North Korean authorities verify information jointly collected with the Economist Intelligence Unit, but Pyongyang said no.

   In an interview with Yonhap News Agency, former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia, who co-founded the NTI, called for broader efforts to foil possible nuclear terrorism and resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.

   "This index is really our effort to inspire governments around the world to understand the importance of nuclear materials security, making sure that we prevent catastrophic terrorism," he said.

   Nunn is well known for introducing legislation, along with Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, to aid Russia in reducing its nuclear arsenal after the Cold War.

   He said the upcoming Seoul summit is a "great opportunity to have dialogue and discussion about the priorities for securing nuclear material" that could fall into the hands of terrorists.

   He also held out expectations for North Korea's new leadership and the resumption of talks.

   "Dialogue, that kind of discussion, six-party talks, at some point have to resume," he said. "In the meantime, countries have to have a lot more confidence-building measures, and some of the incidents and acts that have come from North Korea have been very disruptive to that process."

   He said there is a chance now for North Korea to change course as the world takes a fresh look at Pyongyang. "I think we will certainly leave that possibility open," he said.

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