NORTH KOREA NEWSLETTER NO. 91 (January 28, 2010)

*** INTER-KOREAN RELATIONS

S. Korean Group to Ship Milk to N. Korea Monthly

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- A South Korean humanitarian group said Jan. 22 that it plans to
send a monthly shipment of milk to North Korea -- enough to feed more than 40,000
children in the impoverished country.

In line with the plan, the private organization said the first shipment of 20,000
cartons of sterilized milk and 500 cans of powdered milk were shipped from
Incheon, west of Seoul, to arrive in the North Korean port of Nampho the same
day.
According to the group, "Share Together Society," a carton contains 200
milliliters of sterilized milk, with each can holding 800ml of powdered milk.
"We plan to send two to three shipments of sterilized and powdered milk to North
Korea each month," said the aid group funded by civic organizations, companies
and individuals in capitalist South Korea.
It is the first time for a private group to send milk to North Korea
periodically, though South Korean civic organizations have sporadically provided
milk for North Korean children, Share Together Society said.
The milk will be fed to children aged four and under in day nurseries in the
North Korean capital of Pyongyang and the border town of Kaesong, the
organization said.

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N. Korea Fires Artillery Into Waters Near Disputed Sea Border

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea fired artillery into waters near the disputed
inter-Korean maritime border in the Yellow Sea on Jan. 27, prompting South Korea
to respond with warning shots and raising tension on the Korean Peninsula.
According to Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the North fired about 30 rounds
of artillery into waters near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), and the South Korean
navy immediately responded by firing 100 warning shots.
"We confirmed North Korea's firing of several artillery shells, but they did not
cross the NLL. We are on high military alert," Park Sung-woo of Seoul's JCS said,
adding it continued for about 70 minutes from 9:05 a.m. No casualties or damage
were reported.
Hours after the exchange of fire, North Korea said firing artillery off its west
coast is part of an annual military exercise and that the drill will continue.
"Artillery units of the (North) Korean People's Army (KPA) staged an annual
artillery live shell firing drill in waters of the West Sea of Korea Jan. 27
morning," the General Staff of the KPA said.
"Such firing will go on in the same waters in the future," it said in a statement
carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.
The artillery exchange came two days after the North declared the waters near the
South's northernmost islands of Baeknyeong and Daecheong as no-sail zones,
raising tensions after indicating renewed will to return to the multinational
negotiations over its nuclear disarmament.
Seoul's military officials said on Jan. 26 that the no-sail zones will remain in
place until March 29.
The no-sail zones overlap the NLL, the officials said. The NLL is the de facto
inter-Korean maritime border drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations Command at the
end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Pyongyang has never recognized the decades-old
NLL, claiming it is unfair and void.
The socialist state unilaterally set a peacetime firing zone in December last
year in an area just south of the NLL. The two Koreas engaged in a brief naval
clash on Nov. 13. They remain technically at war, as the 1950-53 conflict ended
in a truce.
The United States on Jan. 27 denounced North Korea for escalating tensions on the
Korean Peninsula by firing artillery shells along the disputed western sea
border.
"The declaration by North Korea of a no-sail zone and the live firing of
artillery are provocative actions and as such are not helpful," State Department
spokesman Philip Crowley said.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell also called on both Koreas to show restraint.
"Although this is a bilateral issue, fundamentally, between the North and the
South, we clearly are discouraging any further acts of aggression which would in
any way increase the tensions along this historically disputed boundary area,"
Morrell said. "So we want to see everybody exercise restraint as they deal with
this issue."

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S. Koreans Asked to Wear Masks in Industrial Zone in N. Korea

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea is requiring South Koreans to wear masks when they
enter an industrial complex in the North's border town of Kaesong in an effort to
stem the spread of influenza A (H1N1) from the South, officials in Seoul said
Jan. 26.
Starting Jan. 16, the North began to ask the South Koreans entering the complex
to wear masks because two or three South Koreans residing inside the complex were
confirmed to have been infected with the virus and returned to the South earlier
this month, according to the officials.
Citing sources from the World Health Organization, Radio Free Asia reported Jan.
26 that three North Koreans living in Kaesong, just north of the western section
of the inter-Korean border, were confirmed as infected with the H1N1 virus.
Some 110 South Korean firms operate at the Kaesong complex, which employs about
42,000 North Korean workers producing labor-intensive goods such as clothing and
kitchenware. The project is one of the most symbolic outcomes of the first summit
between the divided countries in 2000.
Medical experts say wearing masks does not offer complete protection against
viruses that can be transmitted through the air, but could provide some help in
curbing the spread of disease.
South Korea, meanwhile, said Jan. 26 it has started vaccinating North Koreans who
work at an inter-Korean industrial complex near the border against the influenza
A virus.
The first batch of flu shots will be given to around 1,500 workers at the
complex, according to the health ministry and the Korea Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
About 300 North Koreans who work closely with South Koreans will be the first to
receive the vaccine. Another 40,000 North Koreans who work in factories run by
the South will be inoculated in the coming weeks, according to Seoul's health
authorities.
The North also accepted a South Korean shipment of anti-viral medicine late last
year, said the officials.
(END)

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