[Cankor] Report #201

[cankor at cankor.ca]

Dear subscriber,

Welcome to issue #201 of the CanKor Report.

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The CanKor team

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CANADA-KOREA ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SERVICE
CanKor # 201
Tuesday, 5 April 2005
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Catholics in the DPRK send condolences to the Vatican and hold memorial 
services at the Pyongyang cathedral in honour of the late Pope John Paul II.
An outbreak of bird flu leads to the culling of over 200,000 chickens in 
food-insecure North Korea. South Korea takes measures to prevent the spread 
of the flu across the DMZ. FAO experts discover a virus strain not 
previously detected in Asia. The outbreak has not so far affected humans.
In the previous issue of CanKor we reported that the DPRK had requested the 
United Nations to close the Pyongyang branch of Office for the Coordination 
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). On his return from a recent visit, WFP Asia 
Region Director Tony Banbury says that the DPRK government misunderstood the 
role of OCHA. Subsequent clarifications have led to agreement to maintain 
the office. Banbury also describes monitoring issues discussed with DPRK 
authorities, excerpts of which are included in this issue.
The 61st session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva is 
contemplating another EU resolution on human rights in the DPRK. Special 
Rapporteur Vitit Muntarbhorn makes his first report, recommending protection 
for North Korean refugee-defectors in China and Russia. The DPRK 
representative at the meeting accuses the EU of "jumping on the US 
 bandwagon" of anti-North Korean policies.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice fails to coax North Korea back to the 
six-party table on her tour of Asia, despite offering a carefully worded 
recognition of the DPRK as a "sovereign state." The DPRK wants nothing less 
than an apology for being called an "outpost of tyranny" barely a month 
earlier.
DPRK Foreign Ministry issues another Statement via the KCNA in what is 
beginning to look like an attempt to negotiate via the media. It argues that 
given the fact that the USA has nuclear weapons that can reach the North 
Korea, and given that the DPRK has become a full-fledged nuclear weapons 
state, the six-party talks should be transformed into disarmament talks 
aimed at the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
CanKor readers will have to use their own judgement about a nuclear 
intelligence mystery. We reproduce a shortened version of an article in the 
Washington Post claiming that the USA misled allies about DPRK's nuclear 
export, and the White House Press Secretary's letter of denial.
Violent scenes erupt during the final round of Asian 2006 World Cup Group B 
qualifiers held in Pyongyang. The DPRK Football Association was already 
preparing to complain about unfair refereeing during its 2-1 loss to 
Bahrain, when Iran beat North Korea 2-0. The match officials were unable to 
leave the pitch for 20 minutes after the game, as furious North Korea fans 
hurled bottles, rocks and chairs in frustration. North Korean soldiers and 
riot police were forced to step in to restore order in and outside Kim 
Il-Sung Stadium.
*************************************************

Contents:
1.   DPRK CATHOLICS GRIEVE FOR POPE
      http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8088836
2.   BIRD FLU STRAIN IN DPRK OUTBREAK "FIRST FOR ASIA"
      http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8085166
3.   PLANNED IMPROVEMENTS TO WFP FOOD MONITORING
      http://www.nautilus.org/napsnet/sr/2005/0528A_Banbury.html
4.   PROTECT DPRK REFUGEES: UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR
      http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20050329/430100000020050329194002E3.html
5.   PROTECT HUMAN RIGHTS BY STRUGGLING AGAINST THE USA
      http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm
6.   RICE HAD COMPLICATED AGENDA IN ASIA
      http://www.nbr.co.nz/search/search_article.asp?id=11641&cid=0&cname=Results
7.   DPRK FOREIGN MINISTRY ON DENUCLEARIZATION OF KOREA
      http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm
8.   USA MISLED ALLIES ABOUT DPRK NUCLEAR EXPORT
      http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50241-2005Mar19.html
9.   OUR ALLIES WERE NOT 'MISLED'
      http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64562-2005Mar24.html?sub=AR
10. FIFA TO INVESTIGATE AFTER VIOLENCE MARS DPRK DEFEAT
      http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/internationals/story.jsp?story=624965
*************************************************

1.   DPRK CATHOLICS GRIEVE FOR POPE
      Reuters, Seoul, 5 April 2005

North Korean Catholics are holding memorial services in Pyongyang and across 
the country in honour of the late Pope John Paul II, the atheist state's 
KCNA news agency reported on Tuesday. KCNA quoted from a condolence message 
it said had been sent to the Vatican by Samuel Jang Jae On, described as 
chairman of the Central Committee of the Korean Catholics Association.
"All the Catholic believers of our country are also offering memorial 
service in deep grief at the Jangchung cathedral in Pyongyang and family 
worship places across the country," Jang was quoted as saying.
The Catholic Church has no legal standing in North Korea, and the number of 
its followers is unknown. Archbishop Nicholas Cheong of Seoul told the 
Catholic Mission organization in an interview with its online Mission News 
(http:/www.catholicmission.org/Mission_News): "We know there are Catholics 
in the North, but exactly how many we are not sure. 3,000 perhaps."
*************************************************

2.   BIRD FLU STRAIN IN DPRK OUTBREAK "FIRST FOR ASIA"
      by Marie Frail, Reuters, Beijing, 5 April 2005

A strain of bird flu previously undetected in Asia has been found in North 
Korea, which has culled thousands of chickens to contain the outbreak, a top 
UN expert said on Tuesday. The secretive state, struggling with widespread 
famine after natural disasters and bad harvests in the 1990s, has so far 
culled 219,000 chickens and clamped down on bird movements.
Hans Wagner, a senior official with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation 
(FAO), told Reuters Television in Beijing after a week-long visit to North 
Korea the strain was H7.
"We have a new situation, because H7 has so far not occurred in Asia," he 
said. "We don't know where the virus came from, so we have to trace back ... 
how did the virus come into the farms," said Wagner, who has played a 
prominent role in Asia's battle against the deadly H5N1 virus. H5N1 has 
killed 49 people since late 2003, 16 since the disease erupted anew in 
December, and has proved extremely difficult to stamp out in Thailand, 
Vietnam and Cambodia.
North Korea has clamped down on bird movements since the first outbreak was 
detected on a large poultry farm in Hadang, outside the capital, Pyongyang. 
Outbreaks were found on two other farms within a 4-km radius of the first 
case. It was unclear whether culled chickens were being cooked and eaten. 
Aid experts say more than 1 million North Koreans have starved to death 
since the mid 1990s.
There were no indications so far of human bird flu cases in North Korea, 
Wagner said, "(but) the country has to continue to be vigilant to survey 
those farms and check if there are no new outbreaks occurring."
China has tightened quarantine controls on its border with North Korea, and 
stepped up the fight against poultry smuggling. South Korea, which has also 
stepped up quarantine measures at poultry farms near the border, believes 
the outbreaks in North Korea are extensive.
Most of the 25 million birds North Korea produces annually come from larger 
farms, one of the few growing sectors in a country battling severe food 
shortages.
Bird flu has become entrenched in several other Asian countries because the 
virus can circulate among small, backyard farms where chickens often mix 
with wild ducks, believed to be silent carriers of the disease, experts say. 
Apart from H5N1, H7 is one of two other avian strains which can cause 
illness in humans, but outbreaks have not been as severe as those caused by 
the H5N1 strain.
*************************************************

3.   PLANNED IMPROVEMENTS TO WFP FOOD MONITORING
      by Tony Banbury, Press Conference, Beijing, 31 March 2005

[At a press conference in Beijing after his DPRK visit, WFP Asia Region 
Director Tony Banbury described monitoring issues being discussed with 
authorities. Highlights are excerpted here. Full text available at the 
Nautilus Institute website: 
http://www.nautilus.org/napsnet/sr/2005/0528A_Banbury.html]

The last issue that is very important to touch upon is the issue of 
monitoring, and WFP's operating conditions. WFP has struggled with this 
issue from the first day we started working in the country in the mid-90s. 
It is a perpetual quest of ours to improve the monitoring conditions. In the 
course of 2003 and 2004 we had, in fact, made some great progress. We 
steadily increased the number of monitoring visits we were able to conduct. 
On average, over the years, it went from the low 200s to more than 500 
visits per month. We were able to access much different kinds of 
information, a much wider variety of information. Not just how much food you 
need, but what your sources of income are, your sources of food, where else 
do you get food, what you are consuming, what you go forage for in the 
forest. This gave us a much better understanding of household-level food 
security.
WFP used to look at the food security issue from a national perspective: 
what's the total national requirement, what's the total national production, 
and then we'd look at helping to fill the gap. Now we are much more focused 
on household-level food security. What are individual households' 
experiences, who are the most vulnerable - is it the elderly, is it the 
urban poor, is it the children, is it the pregnant women? And as a result of 
the improvements in our monitoring in 2003-2004, we have developed a much 
better understanding of that. So we are better able to target our assistance 
to the people who need it the most.
It seems, though, that as a result of the improvements in our monitoring, 
there were certain segments of the North Korean authorities that were 
uncomfortable with WFP activities: the very large number of visits we were 
making, the intrusiveness of those visits - our visits into households, the 
very detailed questions we were asking. We were told by the North Korean 
authorities that this was making the people uncomfortable, and some parts of 
the government itself uncomfortable. So they decided to change our operating 
conditions, putting more limits, as of September of last year, for instance, 
reducing the number of visits we're able to make from more than 500 a month 
to down to around 300 a month. They also closed off some counties, although 
our access to most has been re-established. They also told us we should not 
ask certain types of questions which were not directly related to food aid.
We understand their concerns. (...) But we have also worked very hard to try 
to explain to the North Korean authorities the importance of having 
confidence that our food is reaching the people who need it. There are 
different ways to have that confidence. One way is to follow the type of 
practices we had in 2003-2004. But there are other ways. And in the past few 
months we have been having very intensive discussions with the North Korean 
authorities about different ways to develop the same or even greater 
confidence about how food aid is being used.
So, for instance, we are looking at having much more frequent visits to 
Public Distribution Centres. If we can go and observe people receiving 
assistance directly, and talk to them at the PDCs about their situation - 
similar types of questions but in a more public setting - that's one way we 
can get information.
Another way is to have focus group discussions, where, instead of one person 
in her living room with three government officials and three WFP people 
there - a rather intimidating setting - we gather a larger number of 
beneficiaries and talk to them in a group setting and allow them to talk 
among themselves, where they might be more confident in sharing common 
experiences.
Another important way that is through baseline surveys. Instead of doing 
household visits on a regular basis across the entire year, we would do 
three surveys a year. We would have household visits, but a rather intensive 
number over a short period.
The fourth and perhaps most important element of this new system that we are 
discussing with the government is a commodity tracking system, where we 
would use an internal technical logistics commodity tracking system that 
includes software - in WFP we call it COMPAS and use it around the world - 
that helps us track a bag of food aid from the point it enters the country 
to the point its distributed to the beneficiary. Technical logisticians can 
explain how this system works using computer tracking methods, where we know 
where the food is the whole way through the system.
We have discussed all of this with the North Korean authorities. They agree 
in principle on the need for us to have the confidence we demand on how the 
food aid is being used. They agree in principle to develop this new system, 
where we would have improved quality of monitoring, even if the quantity of 
visits is reduced. And they agree in principle with the elements that I have 
just mentioned. We are now in the process - our country team there, the 
country director Richard Ragan who I think some of you have met - are in the 
process now of trying to roll this out at the provincial level. Starting in 
April, officials from all the 158 counties where we deliver our assistance, 
where we have access, will be getting training from WFP on this new 
approach.
So it's not a done deal yet. But I'm very pleased that the government has 
extended its agreement in principle, has shown its understanding of our need 
to have confidence in the use of the food aid. (...) If we are successful in 
implementing the agreement in principle, we will have a better understanding 
of the use of this food aid from its entry into the country to its final 
consumption. What appeared to us to be a big problem in the latter part of 
last year has in fact turned into a very good opportunity for WFP. And I 
think we'll emerge in a stronger position as a result of the changes.
*************************************************

4.   PROTECT DPRK REFUGEES: UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR
      Yonhap, Geneva, 29 March 2005

The United Nations' Special Rapporteur on human rights in North Korea 
recommended international protection for defectors from the impoverished 
country here Tuesday. Vitit Muntarbhorn, who was appointed to the position 
by the UN Commission on Human Rights last year, said in his official report 
that the forced repatriation of North Korean refugees should be stopped, 
while refuge camps or protection facilities should be provided to them.
His report appeared aimed at China and Russia, two countries that have been 
criticized for forcibly repatriating refugees to North Korea in accordance 
with respective bilateral agreements with the last Stalinist state and for 
refusing to grant them refugee status.
Muntarbhorn, a former law professor from Thailand, also called on North 
Korea to allow non-governmental organizations unlimited access to the 
country which had rejected his own proposed visit. He wrote his report based 
on interviews with government officials, civic organizations and other 
sources. He also pointed out the distribution of food aid in North Korea 
should be delivered in a transparent manner to its intended recipients. The 
UN official also asked North Korea to return any remaining Japanese 
abductees as soon as possible.
The UN body endorsed resolutions against North Korea in 2003 and 2004, 
urging the country to cooperate with the international community in the 
investigation of allegations of human rights violations there. North Korea 
rejects such resolutions as the fruit of a political conspiracy.
*************************************************

5.   PROTECT HUMAN RIGHTS BY STRUGGLING AGAINST THE USA
      Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang, 1 April 2005

A DPRK delegate, participating in the discussion on item 9 "Human rights 
performance in all countries of the world" at the 61st meeting of the UN 
Commission on Human Rights in Geneva on March 23, accused the EU of its 
dastardly act of seeking only its selfish political purpose, backing the US 
hostile policy toward the DPRK. He said: The United States is so foolish as 
to work hard to apply to the DPRK the "human rights" standards it has used 
for launching aggression and war against other countries and toppling their 
governments, turning a blind eye to its poor human rights record.
The US adopted the ill-famed "North Korean Human Rights Act" last year, a 
typical example of its attempt at "bringing down" the system of the DPRK 
under the pretext of "human rights". Its behaviour forcing other countries 
to change even their political systems and ways of life is nothing but the 
gravest human rights abuse.
The present reality teaches a lesson that it is the only option for 
protecting the genuine human rights to struggle against the US with physical 
strength as long as its policy remains unchanged.
The evermore undisguised policy pursued by the US and the EU to isolate and 
stifle the DPRK under the pretext of its "human rights issue" will only 
harden the resolution and will of the Korean people to defend the socialist 
system chosen by themselves and their independent life and prompt them to 
fight against the policy to the last.
*************************************************

6.   RICE HAD COMPLICATED AGENDA IN ASIA
      by Stuart McMillan, National Business Review (NZ), 24 March 2005

[Stuart McMillan is an adjunct senior fellow in the school of political 
science and communication at the University of Canterbury.]

For her visit to Asia last week US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had 
much more on her agenda than she did when she visited Europe last month. In 
Europe she had some fences to mend after the breaks brought about by the 
Iraq war. That was not an easy undertaking but it was at least less 
complicated than the issues she had to juggle in Asia.
Much of her effort in Asia was directed toward getting some resolution of 
the North Korean nuclear problem. She came bearing what may be described as 
a special gift to North Korea, admitting that the country was a sovereign 
state. By most measures North Korea, cranky as it obviously is, would seem 
to fulfill the criteria for being a sovereign country but might be flattered 
to be so described by the US. Dr Rice has previously referred to it as an 
"outpost of tyranny." The two are, of course, not mutually exclusive. An 
official said the wording was reached after "extensive contemplation."
North Korea withdrew from the six-party (the US, South Korea, Japan, Russia 
and China) talks last June and on February 10 this year announced that it 
had nuclear weapons. The US wants the talks to resume soon. It argues, with 
some justification, that a nuclear-armed North Korea is a problem for the 
region, not just the US.
North Korea has appeared determined to have the US talk directly to it. Dr 
Rice did not rule this out but said that it would be within the framework of 
the six-party talks. Because everyone would not be talking at once, the US 
would sometimes be talking directly to North Korea.
The US believes China has the ability, if it is so inclined, to bring North 
Korea back to the bargaining table. The argument is that China is the main 
provider of North Korea's needs and this should give China a lever to 
persuade the North Koreans. Dr Rice pressed China, which has been the host 
of the talks, to put pressure on North Korea to return.
China would like the talks to resume but seems to have a much more 
pessimistic view of its ability to bring North Korea to the table. It might 
also be hesitating a little because China is adamant there should not be 
interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, a status it 
accords North Korea. China also appears sceptical of North Korea's claims 
that it has nuclear weapons and is even more sceptical of the claims by US 
intelligence that North Korea has eight or nine plutonium-based bombs.
In South Korea, Dr Rice said the US did not intend to attack North Korea, 
though it felt that it could not wait forever for North Korea to give up any 
nuclear weapons or ambitions to have nuclear weapons. She did not specify 
what would happen if the US felt it had waited too long. Within the US 
Administration there are people who would like North Korea to be referred to 
the Security Council of the UN soon. If North Korea did not comply with 
Security Council requests it should have sanctions imposed on it.
Soon after she landed in South Korea, Dr Rice visited an underground US 
base, a somewhat pointed reminder of the presence of US troops in South 
Korea and their task of helping to repel any North Korean attack. General 
Richard B Myers, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, recently said 
that if North Korea attacked it knew very well that it would be defeated and 
that that would be the end of the present regime.
When it left the talks, North Korea identified US hostility toward it as one 
reason for doing so. It remains to be seen if it will be mollified by the US 
viewing it as a sovereign state and will agree to return. The US has already 
said that if North Korea gave up nuclear weapons programmes the US might 
give it a guarantee of security.
There is a difference in tactics between the US on one side and Japan and 
South Korea on the other. The latter two would like to provide incentives 
for North Korea to give up its programmes; the US wants any rewards to come 
after North Korea has renounced any plans to produce nuclear weapons. (...)
*************************************************

7.   DPRK FOREIGN MINISTRY ON DENUCLEARIZATION OF KOREA
      Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), 31 March 2005

A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry released a statement today as 
regards the wrong view spread by the US and its allies on the 
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The statement says:
It is the consistent strategic goal of the DPRK to achieve lasting peace and 
stability and realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. However, 
the United States and its allies are now spreading a wrong view on the 
denuclearization of the peninsula at a time when the six-way talks for a 
solution to the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the US still remain at a 
stalemate. They assert that the DPRK's access to nukes is incompatible with 
the efforts to ensure security and the abandonment of its nuclear program 
would precisely lead to the denuclearization of the peninsula.
This is a deliberate distortion of the essence of the situation. If the 
Korean Peninsula is to be denuclearized, it is necessary to put an end to 
the growing US nuclear threat in and around the peninsula, the source that 
compelled the DPRK to have access to nuclear weapons, and establish the 
relations of confidence between the DPRK and the countries concerned. By 
nature, the denuclearization of the peninsula was initiated by the DPRK for 
the purpose of freeing it from the US nuclear threat. That was why the DPRK 
acceded to the NPT and concluded the DPRK-US Agreed Framework.
But, the US has abused all this for isolating and stifling the DPRK. The 
Bush administration, in particular, openly posed a nuclear threat to the 
DPRK, thus compelling it to produce nuclear weapons so as to prevent a war 
and protect its system and existence. Such being a hard fact, the US is 
twisting the essence of the denuclearization of the peninsula. It asserts 
that the DPRK's dismantlement of nukes would lead to the denuclearization, 
sidestepping the nuclear threat posed by Washington.
Denuclearization is needed only for ensuring lasting peace and stability on 
the peninsula. In the real sense, the denuclearization of the peninsula 
calls for rooting out the very source that compelled the DPRK to make 
nuclear weapons. This would be a proper order in the efforts to find a 
solution to the issue. To this end, the US should roll back before anything 
else its hostile policy aimed at toppling the system of the DPRK through a 
nuclear war after designating it as a "target of pre-emptive nuclear 
attack".
But the reality is quite contrary to this demand. The US keeps many tactical 
nuclear weapons in South Korea on a permanent basis. And it is ceaselessly 
shipping nuclear strike means there. It also brought lots of nuclear carrier 
flotillas and strategic bombers capable of nuclear delivery into South Korea 
when it staged large-scale nuclear war exercises against the DPRK in and 
around South Korea on an annual basis in recent years. It has conducted mock 
nuke dropping exercises in South Korea by mobilizing even flying corps of 
its air force in Japan and on Guam, etc.
As if it were not enough with this, the US is spending a colossal amount of 
fund for developing smaller nukes capable of destroying underground bunkers 
in the DPRK. Shortly ago it stealthily brought Los Angeles-class nuclear 
submarine to Jinhae Port in South Korea, sparking off a big furor. It is 
preposterous for the US to turn a blind eye to this fact and assert that 
only the DPRK's dismantlement of its nukes can lead to the denuclearization 
of the Korean Peninsula. If the peninsula is to be nuclear-free, it is 
necessary to clear South Korea of all the nuclear weapons of the US and root 
out every element that can help South Korea have access to nukes.
Of course, this should be confirmed through verification.
It is also necessary to stop all nuclear war exercises against the DPRK in 
and around the Korean Peninsula, remove leverage by which one can threaten 
others with nukes and build the relations of confidence among surrounding 
countries including the DPRK and the US. Only then is it possible to 
denuclearize the Korean Peninsula in practice, just as President Kim Il Sung 
desired so much in his lifetime.
Given that the DPRK and the US are technically at war and south Korea is 
under the nuclear umbrella of the US, nuclear weapons in the hands of the 
DPRK would serve a main deterrent force in its effort to avert a war on the 
peninsula and ensure peace and stability there until the above-said demands 
are met.
The same can be said of the six-party talks. The six-party talks should 
provide a platform for seeking comprehensive ways of substantially and 
fairly realizing the denuclearization of the peninsula, not just as a 
bargaining ground where a give-and-take type way of solution is discussed. 
Gone are the days when the six-party talks took up such give-and-take type 
issues as reward for freeze. Now that the DPRK has become a full-fledged 
nuclear weapons state, the six-party talks should be disarmament talks where 
the participating countries negotiate the issue on an equal footing.
The US claims that if the DPRK dismantles its nuclear weapons first, it will 
be given "collective assurances for security" and get a "benefit". This is, 
however, nothing but a gangster-like logic urging the DPRK to disarm itself 
and yield to the US domination. Such unequal "talks" at which the US sitting 
in a chair is allowed to issue commands to the DPRK while the latter is 
forced to sit on its knees and meet the former's demand can never help find 
a solution to the nuclear issue. On the contrary, they will only escalate 
the confrontation and tensions.
If the US threat of nukes is completely removed from the Korean Peninsula 
and its vicinity, it will be possible to ensure lasting peace and stability 
not only in the peninsula but in the rest of Northeast Asia. If the 
six-party talks are to creditably fulfill their mission, it is necessary to 
convert them into a place where ways are sought to completely remove the US 
threat of nukes and a nuclear war from the peninsula and its vicinity.
The DPRK will as ever do its best to avert a war and realize the 
comprehensive denuclearization on the peninsula.
*************************************************

8.   USA MISLED ALLIES ABOUT DPRK NUCLEAR EXPORT
      by Dafna Linzer, Washington Post Staff Writer, 20 March 2005

In an effort to increase pressure on North Korea, the Bush administration 
told its Asian allies in briefings this year that Pyongyang had exported 
nuclear material to Libya. That was the first allegation that North Korea 
was helping to create a new nuclear weapons state.
But that is not what US intelligence reported, according to two officials 
with detailed knowledge of the transaction. North Korea, according to the 
intelligence, had supplied uranium hexafluoride -- which can be enriched to 
weapons-grade uranium -- to Pakistan. It was Pakistan, a key US ally with 
its own nuclear arsenal, which sold the material to Libya. The US government 
had no evidence, the officials said, that North Korea knew of the second 
transaction.
Pakistan's role as both buyer and seller was concealed to cover up the part 
played by Washington's partner in the hunt for al-Qaida leaders, say the 
officials, who discussed the issue on the condition of anonymity. In 
addition a North Korea-Pakistan transfer would not have been news to US 
allies, who have known of such transfers for years.
The US administration's approach, intended to isolate North Korea, left 
allies increasingly doubtful as they began to learn that the briefings 
omitted essential details about the transaction, US officials and foreign 
diplomats said. North Korea responded to public reports last month about the 
briefings by withdrawing from talks with its neighbours and the United 
States. The new details follow a string of controversies over the Bush 
administration's use of intelligence on weapons of mass destruction.
*************************************************

9.   OUR ALLIES WERE NOT 'MISLED'
      by Scott McClellan, Washington Post: Letters to the Editor, 25 March 
2005

"US Misled Allies About Nuclear Export," the March 20 front-page story about 
nuclear material exported to Libya, was flat wrong. Our allies were not 
"misled" by the United States about North Korea's proliferation activities. 
We provided an accurate account of the intelligence assessment of the most 
likely source of the nuclear material that was transferred to Libya through 
A.Q. Khan's network.
The reporter asserted that "Pakistan was mentioned only once in the briefing 
paper, and in a context that emphasized Pyongyang's guilt." In fact, the 
Khan network was cited several times, but the key point is that the briefing 
made clear that the nuclear material transferred to Libya went through the 
Khan network. The US government has no evidence that the transfer was 
authorized by Pakistan's government.
Whether the intended recipient was the Khan network or Libya is irrelevant 
to our proliferation concerns regarding North Korea. The fact that nuclear 
material found its way out of North Korea to any destination is a source of 
serious concern for the United States and other participants in the 
six-party talks. That is why we brought the matter to their attention.
Signed: Scott McClellan, Press Secretary, White House, Washington, DC
*************************************************

10. FIFA TO INVESTIGATE AFTER VIOLENCE MARS DPRK DEFEAT
      by Gordon Tynan, The Independent, 31 March 2005

FIFA is awaiting referee Mohammed Kousa's report before launching an 
investigation after he and two assistants were forced to seek refuge from 
angry North Korea fans following the World Cup qualifier against Iran. Iran 
beat North Korea 2-0 in Pyongyang yesterday in a match that ended in violent 
scenes to take the outright lead in their World Cup qualifying group. The 
match officials were unable to leave the pitch for 20 minutes after the game 
as furious North Korea fans hurled bottles, rocks and chairs in frustration.
North Korean soldiers and police were forced to step in to restore order at 
Kim Il-Sung Stadium after the defender Nam Song-Chol was sent off for 
shoving the Syrian referee Kousa. The violence spilled over outside the 
stadium where thousands of angry North Korea supporters prevented Iran's 
players from boarding the team bus. Riot police finally pushed back the 
crowd far enough for Iran's squad to depart two hours after the end of the 
game.
"The atmosphere on the pitch and outside the pitch was not a sports 
atmosphere," said Iran's Croatian coach, Branko Ivankovic. "It is very 
disappointing when you feel your life is not safe. My players tried to get 
to the bus after the game but it was not possible - it was a very dangerous 
situation."
A deflected free-kick from Mehdi Mahdavikia in the 33rd minute and a Javad 
Nekounam goal 10 minutes from time gave Iran seven points from three games 
in the final round of the Asian zone qualifiers for 2006.
Tempers flared towards the end of the Group B match as Nam was dismissed for 
pushing Kousa after he had denied the defender a penalty. The game was held 
up for five minutes following Nam's dismissal as bottles rained down on to 
the stadium's running track. As trouble reignited on the final whistle, 
security forces were mobilized and stadium announcements warned the crowd of 
60,000 to be calm.
The result left North Korea's hopes of qualifying for their second World Cup 
in tatters after their third consecutive defeat.
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End CanKor # 201

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