NORTH KOREA NEWSLETTER NO. 56 (May 28, 2009)

*** FOREIGN TIPS

UNDP Officials to Visit N. Korea to Discuss Suspended Projects

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- Officials with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
will visit North Korea later this month to discuss the reopening of its office
there and the resumption of projects suspended two years ago, a government source
said on May 20.

UNDP officials visited Seoul last week and discussed the matter with South Korean
officials, the source said on condition of anonymity, adding that UNDP officials
will visit Pyongyang to discuss the resumption of the projects at some point.
The UNDP office in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang will likely reopen at
the end of June at the earliest, the source said, adding the projects will resume
thereafter.
The UNDP had been engaged in development projects in the North since 1981,
including agricultural development, human resource development and economic
reform programs, before withdrawing in March 2007 soon after suspicions arose
over North Korea's misappropriation of development funds.
The group's executive board made the decision to return in January after North
Korea allegedly agreed to guarantee independent auditing and to alter the methods
for payment and selection of North Korean staff. North Korea had previously
selected UNDP staff members in Pyongyang on its own.

------------------------

U.S. Seeking Strong Resolution on N. Korea for Nuke Test

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The United States said on May 26 it will seek strong
international condemnation of North Korea for its recent nuclear test, but left
the door open for North Korea to return to six-party talks on ending its nuclear
ambitions.
"We're going to now pursue a very strong resolution in the Security Council with
substantially tougher sanctions," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, told
NBC's "Today" show, noting that the nuclear test is "provocative, destabilizing,
and a threat to international and regional peace and security."
The 15-member council convened an emergency meeting Monday and agreed to
immediately begin drafting a resolution to condemn the North's nuclear test, the
second since 2006.
Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, who holds the rotating chair of the
council this month, said on May 25 that council members "voiced their strong
opposition and condemnation of the nuclear test," a "clear violation" of an
earlier resolution.
North Korea said it conducted an underground nuclear test on May 25, inviting
strong criticism not only from the U.S. and its allies, but also from North
Korea's allies, China and Russia, who had greatly diluted sanctions against North
Korea following its rocket launch last month.
The test comes after the North's repeated threats that it would detonate a
nuclear device following the council's sanctioning of three North Korean firms
for its April 5 rocket launch, which Pyongyang insists put a satellite into
orbit.
North Korea also has expelled international nuclear monitors and threatened to
restart its disabled nuclear reactor and boycott six-party denuclearization
talks.

------------------------

North Korea Exercised 'Wrong Judgment': Defense Chiefs

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- The defense chiefs of South Korea and China agreed on May 26
that North Korea's judgment to go ahead with a second nuclear test earlier this
week was misguided, officials said.
Tension is running high in Asia after North Korea detonated a nuclear device on
May 25 in what it touted as a "successful test" for the enhancement of its
nuclear weapons program.
North Korea conducted its first test in October 2006, and in April of this year
it launched a long-range rocket despite warnings that the move would be seen as a
provocative test of ballistic missile technology.
"The Defense Ministers of South Korea and China agreed that North Korea has made
wrong judgments and choices, and that such acts will only isolate the country
further," the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul said in a statement.
The consensus was reached when South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee met
with his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Liang Guanglie, the statement said. Lee
visited Beijing earlier Tuesday on a two-day trip that had been arranged before
the atomic test by North Korea.
Lee and Liang examined ways to bolster security exchanges between their
countries, including regular high-level meetings and joint naval exercises, the
statement added.
Since Monday's nuclear detonation, North Korea has fired a set of short-range
missiles on its east coast. South Korean officials said the North may conduct
missile launches off its east coast as well.
Lee will fly on May 29 to Singapore, where he will hold tripartite talks with his
U.S. and Japanese counterparts on the sidelines of a security forum and discuss
the North Korean issue, his aides said.
South and North Korea remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War
ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty.

------------------------

Washington Notified Seoul Ahead of North Korea Nuke Test

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- The United States informed South Korea in advance of
Pyongyang's latest nuclear test, Seoul's spy agency chief said on May 26, adding
China also knew of the test but had not notified Seoul.
Pyongyang said it conducted an underground nuclear test early on May 26. The
North detonated a nuclear device in October 2006 in its first-ever nuclear
experiment.
"We were pre-notified by the U.S. that the North will conduct a nuclear test,"
Won Sei-hoon, director of the National Intelligence Service, was quoted as saying
at a meeting with the National Assembly's intelligence committee.
Won said that the South Korean government did not receive any information from
China, according to Rep. Park Young-sun of the opposition Democratic Party who
was present at the closed-door meeting.
"Our weather agency detected seismic activity (in the North) and relayed the
information to the U.S. at 10:18 a.m," said Won.
According to Won, a North Korean diplomat in New York notified the U.S. at around
9:30 a.m. Monday of his country's plan for a nuclear test unless the U.N.
Security Council apologizes to Pyongyang for condemning the North's April 5
rocket launch.
Beijing was informed of the test at 9:25 a.m. through an embassy, according to Won.
North Korea had warned late last month that it will go ahead with nuclear and
missile tests unless the U.N. Security Council apologizes for its punitive
actions against Pyongyang.
Won also told lawmakers that North Korea fired anti-ship cruise missiles from
Wonsan at around 5 p.m. Monday and that he believes Pyongyang could carry out
additional missile launches.

------------------------

World-renowned Economist Advises N. Korea to 'Open up Economy'

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea should take lessons from China and realize it can
maintain its regime even with economic liberalization, a renowned economist said
at a press conference in Seoul on May 27.
"China could tell them, 'Look what happens when a former communist country
chooses economic liberalization,'" New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini,
known for his astute outlook on the world economy, said in a press gathering at
the Seoul Digital Forum.
"It doesn't necessarily have to be a threat. If you provide people with jobs,
your regime can stay stable for a long time, and the economic liberalization can
be beneficial to a country."
North Korea is among the world's poorest countries, registering per capita income
of US$1,150 in 2007, the last year for which figures are available, according to
South Korea's central bank.
Pyongyang faces chronic food shortages and has relied on outside aid to help feed
its 24 million people since famine reportedly killed as many as 2 million in the
1990s.
Roubini, the co-founder and chairman of the Roubini Global Economics Monitor,
emphasized the importance of South Korea's role in North Korea's economic
recovery.
"North Korea's action in areas where South Korea could provide its people jobs
(is important)," he said. "It is most unfortunate for them to shut down the
current factories (in Kaesong)," he added, referring to a troubled inter-Korean
industrial complex.
North Korea said May 15 that it has nullified all contracts with South Korea
regarding the complex in the North's border town of Kaesong and told South Korean
firms to accept the new terms or leave.

------------------------

Traffic Across Inter-Korean Border Flows as Usual

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- Inter-Korean traffic across sea and land borders continued to
flow as usual, a Seoul spokesman said May 27 in the wake of the North's nuclear
test that has sharply raised regional tension.
More than 400 South Korean workers crossed the military demarcation line in the
morning to visit a joint industrial complex in the North's border town of
Kaesong, said Chun Hae-sung of the Unification Ministry. About 400 people were
expected to return in the afternoon, he said.
Ships sailed near the border in accordance with an inter-Korean maritime accord.
Five North Korean commercial boats passed through South Korean waters, while
dozens of South Korean ships were in North Korean territory, the official said.
The maritime accord was reached amid brisk inter-Korean relations in 2004 and
ratified the following year to allow commercial vessels to save time and fuel.
Commercial traffic continued, but humanitarian and other visits were suspended.
Following the North's second nuclear test on May 25, South Korea imposed a
temporary ban on border trips by its citizens, mostly humanitarian aid workers
and social activists.
Only those who work at the Kaesong park and the Mt. Kumgang resort, where scores
of Hyundai Asan Corp. workers stay to maintain tourism facilities, can travel to
the North.
(END)