[Cankor] Report #229

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Dear subscriber,

Welcome to issue #229 of the CanKor Report.

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The CanKor team

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CANADA-KOREA ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SERVICE

CanKor # 229

Thursday, 8 December 2005
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Unresolved US-DPRK bilateral issues once again delay the resumption of 
Six-Party Talks. This week's CanKor FOCUS examines the latest acrimony 
surrounding sanctions and counterfeit US dollars. Already last October, 
Washington imposed sanctions on eight North Korean companies it called 
fronts for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The US Treasury 
Department also imposed sanctions on the Banco Delta Asia in Macao for its 
role in North Korean counterfeiting of "superdollars" and money laundering. 
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that hoped-for bilateral US-DPRK 
talks are unnecessary. The DPRK denies the charges, accusing the USA of 
sabotaging the talks and reneging on promises. South Korea continues to 
encourage the two parties to hold direct talks in order to prevent 
outstanding non-nuclear issues from interfering with the Six-Party Talks. 
These include DPRK missiles, biochemical and conventional weapons, human 
rights abuses, alleged involvement in drug trafficking and counterfeiting. 
US Ambassador to RO Korea Alexander Vershbow responds the following day by 
calling the DPRK government a "criminal regime".

President of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, Kim Yong 
Nam, on 7 December receives credentials from Canadian Ambassador to the DPRK 
Marius Grinius.

The ROK worries about how to pay for the planned termination of the KEDO 
light-water reactor construction project in the DPRK. Japan and the USA have 
avoided answering questions as to who should pay for the estimated $200 
million price tag. South Korea is already committed to providing electricity 
to the North in return for ending the reactor project.

US AID cancels a pledged shipment of 25,000 tons of food aid to the DPRK, 
citing monitoring concerns if the WFP is forced to close operations.

Nicholas Eberstadt adds his own take to last issue's QUIDNUNC answer 
regarding the size of the DPR Korean People's Army.
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Contents:

1.   KIM YONG NAM RECEIVES CREDENTIALS FROM CANADIAN ENVOY
     http://www.kcna.co.jp/calendar-e/frame.htm

2.   NATIONS DIFFER ON PAYING FOR KEDO DEMISE
     http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200512/01/200512012149449479900090309031.html

3.   USA CANCELS FOOD AID TO DPRK
     http://washingtontimes.com/world/20051202-101224-4376r.htm

FOCUS: Counterfeits and sanctions stall six-party talks

4.   STOP COUNTERFEITING OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY: RICE
     http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2005/57414.htm

5.   US PERFIDY UNDER FIRE
     http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm

6.   DPRK ACCUSED OF COUNTERFEITING US CURRENCY
     http://www.washtimes.com/world/20051201-103509-5867r.htm

7.   ROK CALLS FOR DIRECT US-DPRK TALKS
     http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-12/05/content_500548.htm

8.   US ENVOY CALLS PYONGYANG A 'CRIMINAL REGIME'
     http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200512/200512070016.html

QUIDNUNC: Readers ask and respond to common and uncommon questions
*************************************************

1.   KIM YONG NAM RECEIVES CREDENTIALS FROM CANADIAN ENVOY
     Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang, 7 December 2005

Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's 
Assembly, received credentials from Canadian Ambassador to the DPRK Marius 
Grinius at the Mansudae Assembly Hall on 7 December. On hand were Kim Hyong 
Jun, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, and staff members of the Canadian 
embassy.

After receiving credentials Kim Yong Nam had a conversation with the 
ambassador.
*************************************************

2.   NATIONS DIFFER ON PAYING FOR KEDO DEMISE
     by Chae Byung-gun and Ser Myo-ja, Joongang Ilbo, 2 December 2005

South Korea is struggling with Japan and the United States over how to 
settle issues associated with the planned termination of the light-water 
reactor construction project in North Korea, and it is a money matter, South 
Korean officials said yesterday. The executive board of the Korean Peninsula 
Energy Development Organization, an international consortium formed in 1995 
for the project, agreed in principle on the termination last month, but the 
three countries differ on details of how to end the project.

According to participants in the talks, South Korea wants to set up a 
termination framework to specifically address financial and legal issues. 
The United States and Japan, however, contend that the project's termination 
should be announced first and follow-up procedures discussed later. Since 
the consortium had agreed to decide the fate of the reactor project before 
the end of November, Washington and Tokyo claim the announcement of 
termination should be made immediately.

The three countries are mainly struggling over how to share the termination 
expense. Of the $4.6 billion required to build two reactors in the North, 
the consortium decided in 1998 that South Korea would pay 70 percent and 
Japan provide 22 percent. The United States agreed to provide heavy fuel aid 
to the North until the reactors were completed and to initiate fundraising 
for the remaining 8 percent.

"The United States and Japan did not say they will not pay for the 
termination expenses, but they also did not say they will pay for it," a 
Unification Ministry official said.

Seoul is apparently concerned it will have to pay a large portion of the 
cost, since KEDO's main contractor is the Korea Electricity Power 
Corporation. The state-run corporation formed 114 sub-contracts with 60 
companies at home and abroad, including Hyundai, Daewoo, Westinghouse and 
Mitsubishi.

The estimated termination cost will be up to $200 million, a Unification 
Ministry official said. That expense will include compensation to 
subcontractors for broken deals. Construction has been suspended since 
November 2003, and equipment at the Sinpo site in the North has remained 
idle. No compensation has yet been paid.

"The 8 percent of the construction cost promised by the United States was 
covered by Japan and the European Union temporarily, but work went ahead on 
credit after that," another Seoul official said. "It is unclear who will pay 
that back."

Seoul officials claim that South Korea made an offer to provide electricity 
to the North in return for ending the reactor project, thus it should not 
become the main financier of the termination.
*************************************************

3.   USA CANCELS FOOD AID TO DPRK
     by Nicholas Kralev, The Washington Times: 3 December 2005

The Bush administration has cancelled a planned shipment of 25,000 tons of 
food aid to North Korea later this month, citing concerns that the food will 
not reach those who need it.

"We still think there are serious humanitarian needs in North Korea, but we 
cannot continue to supply food if we cannot even minimally assure that it 
will reach its intended recipients," the State Department said yesterday.

The UN World Food Program (WFP), which distributes foreign aid, has been 
ordered by the North Koreans to cut most of its staff there by the end of 
December, a move that will substantially reduce its ability to disburse and 
monitor aid shipments. Washington sent the first half of a 50,000-ton pledge 
for 2005 in the spring and had planned to deliver the rest, until 
Pyongyang's recent decision to expel the majority of the WFP personnel.

"We have not procured the 25,000 tons originally scheduled to have been 
shipped later this month, due to uncertainties about whether the [WFP] 
emergency feeding operation, to which it was to be delivered, would still be 
in place to receive it and monitor its distribution," the State Department 
said.

This is not the first time the Bush administration has withheld humanitarian 
aid to the impoverished communist nation. It cut off supplies of fuel oil in 
2002 amid reports that the North had continued its efforts to make nuclear 
weapons, despite an earlier pledge not to do so. In early 2003, the 
administration withheld grain shipments, citing concerns that the 
distribution of aid could not be monitored. US officials said yesterday they 
decide where to send food aid based on three criteria: the need in the 
country, the need elsewhere and the availability of effective monitoring. 
The third requirement cannot be met without the WFP's help, a State 
Department official said, noting there are no other reasons to withhold the 
aid.

"We don't use food as a weapon," the official said. "The three criteria are 
not connected to the state of our political relations with North Korea." 
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States is "in 
close contact" with the WFP "on these issues as well as other donor 
countries."

When Pyongyang announced its decision to expel most of the staff of 
international organizations in the North, it said that the humanitarian 
situation in the country has improved dramatically and aid is no longer 
needed in its present quantity. The WFP program delivers about half a 
million tons of food a year in North Korea and aims to feed about 6.5 
million of the nation's 22.5 million people. It has a staff of 47 persons 
there. The WFP said this week that its negotiations with the North Korean 
government to switch from food aid to development-focused programs and 
maintain most of its presence have made no progress.

"Consultations with major donors are also being held to come up with a 
solution which is suitable to all stake-holders," the WFP said. (...)
*************************************************

FOCUS: Counterfeits and sanctions stall six-party talks

*************************************************

4.   STOP COUNTERFEITING OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY: RICE
     USA Today, Washington, DC, 28 November 2005

[Excerpt of an interview with Secretary Condoleezza Rice conducted by 
Barbara Slavin and Ray Locker of USA Today.]

QUESTION: Can we turn to North Korea, if I could, just quickly? There was a 
short round. Things don't seem to be going very quickly. I mean, while the 
Bush Administration has been in office, the North Koreans may have developed 
enough plutonium for another six bombs. How long does it go on like this? Is 
there any other option that we can use to influence the North Koreans or 
concern that this process just doesn't seem to be going anywhere fast?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we are making -- we are doing other things. For 
instance, we are working with others in the Proliferation Security 
Initiative to deal with the potential for shipments of WMD-related 
materials, and on at least one very highly publicized occasion we made a 
very good hit leading ultimately to the -- I think to reinforcing the Libyan 
decision. That was a North Korean shipment. We have, of course, made very 
clear that we intend to deal with banks that are dealing in illicit proceeds 
for North Korea. So we're not sitting still while the six-party talks 
continue.

But I think the six-party talks themselves, first of all, have solidified a 
consensus at least among the five about North Korea's -- about the only path 
ahead for North Korea, which is to have -- to abandon its nuclear weapons 
programs if it wishes to fully access the international system. And there is 
now a statement of principles to which the parties are agreed, and when the 
North Koreans have tried to veer off those principles, others have brought 
them back to those principles. So I think you have a starting place with 
those principles for negotiation. But it will have to make more progress -- 

QUESTION: Are you going to invite a couple of the North Korean negotiators 
to New York to discuss the sanctions, the bank issue? I understand that 
there's a proposal to have them come to New York to continue talks and -- 

SECRETARY RICE: I think that we are prepared to tell the North Koreans what 
our laws are, but they know what they're doing. They don't need to have a 
bilateral on how to stop counterfeiting other people's money. Just stop 
doing it.
*************************************************

5.   US PERFIDY UNDER FIRE
     Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang, 6 December 2005

The US is persisting in such perfidy as escalating its sanctions and 
pressure upon the DPRK reneging on its promise made to the DPRK at the first 
phase of the fifth round of the six-party talks. This comes under fire by a 
signed commentary of Rodong Sinmun Tuesday. The news analyst says: This is 
evidenced by its behaviour of shunning the proposed DPRK-US direct talks to 
discuss the issue of lifting financial sanctions against the DPRK under this 
or that pretext. This only increases public scepticism about the possibility 
to resume the six-party talks.

In order for the six-party talks to proceed smoothly in a sound atmosphere 
and make progress it is necessary for the participating countries to be 
discreet in their words and deeds in the direction of respecting each other 
and promoting the relations of confidence. However, the US diplomatic chief, 
when interviewed by the USA Today shortly ago, openly blustered that there 
is no need to hold DPRK-US bilateral talks over the lift of financial 
sanctions, hinting that the US is pressurizing the DPRK in all aspects.

Such behaviour of the US cannot be construed otherwise than a deliberate act 
to touch off anti-American sentiment among the servicepersons and people in 
the DPRK and deter the six-party talks from resuming. It is impossible to 
resume the six-party talks under such provocative sanctions applied by the 
US upon the DPRK.

This is the stand of the DPRK. The prospect of the six-party talks will 
depend on whether the U. S. works hard to build confidence with the DPRK on 
the principle of mutual respect and equality or persists in its 
self-justified and unilateral acts. If the US truly wants the resumption and 
progress of the six-party talks it should take practical measures to lift 
the financial sanctions against the DPRK at an early date as it committed 
itself to do so before the other five parties at the talks. Only then a 
prospect will be opened for the resumption of the six-party talks.
*************************************************

6.   DPRK ACCUSED OF COUNTERFEITING US CURRENCY
     by Bill Gertz, Staff Reporter, Washington Times, 2 December 2005

North Korea's government has produced more than $45 million in high-quality 
fake $100 bills since 1989 and is the world's only state-sponsored producer 
of the so-called "supernote," according to US law-enforcement officials. The 
recent arrest of Sean Garland, head of the communist Workers Party of 
Ireland, provided the first confirmation of the Pyongyang government's links 
to the supernote or superdollar, which was discovered as part of a 
16-year-old probe by the US Secret Service, which is in charge of 
investigating illegal money production. Vic Erevia, assistant special agent 
in charge of the criminal investigative division at the Secret Service, said 
the probe resulted in 160 arrests linked to counterfeiting and related 
activities worldwide.

Meanwhile, the State Department yesterday defended Treasury Department 
sanctions imposed in September on the Banco Delta Asia in Macao for its role 
in North Korean counterfeiting and money laundering.

"We said from the very beginning that we are not going to fail ... to act 
concerning issues that are of concern to us, whether that happens to be on 
the human rights front, or whether that happens to be on taking steps to 
prevent disbursement of counterfeit US bills on the world market," said 
spokesman Sean McCormack.

The Treasury Department said senior officials at Banco Delta Asia handled 
large cash deposits, including counterfeit US currency, supplied by North 
Korean officials and agreed to put the fake currency into circulation. The 
department blocked the bank from doing business with US financial 
institutions. Pyongyang suggested it might back out of the six-party nuclear 
talks in protest.

"This is one of the most significant cases we've had, especially with this 
particular, highly deceptive counterfeit note," Mr. Erevia said of the North 
Korean supernote. "The investigation remains active and ongoing."

North Korea has produced 19 variations of the supernote since it first 
appeared in Manila in 1989, law-enforcement officials said. Each variation 
was an improvement and looked and felt almost identical to genuine $100 
bills. A close look shows the printing on a supernote is slightly lighter 
than that on a genuine note. The bills were printed on North Korea's 
intaglio-process offset printing presses bought in the 1970s. The machines 
are used by governments worldwide to print currency and by private firms 
that do so. The North Korean supernotes are considered the highest-quality 
forgeries and are better than the more numerous fake notes produced in 
Colombia. The officials said reports that Iran has produced supernotes are 
not true.

"In this case, we don't have any indication that it was anyone other than 
North Korea that was producing the [supernote] from the very beginning," 
said an official, who with colleagues revealed details of the case on the 
condition of anonymity.

A cashier found the first North Korean supernote in Manila in 1989. A short 
time later, a North Korean diplomat was caught passing forged notes in 
Belgrade. In 1994, several North Korean trading company officials were 
arrested after depositing $250,000 in supernotes in a Macao bank. All were 
carrying diplomatic passports. Pyongyang's role in counterfeiting appears to 
be part of an array of illegal activities that include drug trafficking and 
arms sales.

"There's this whole portfolio of illicit activities which they engage in to 
support the regime, and this is just another one of those items in that 
portfolio," the official said.

One Asian diplomat said intelligence reports from North Korean defectors 
indicated that Pyongyang and its intelligence services have used supernotes 
to support personal activities and foreign purchases of leader Kim Jong-il. 
The North Korean government's involvement in producing the note was 
uncovered by US investigators in 1996 and confirmed in the sealed May 
indictment of Mr. Garland that was made public in October. Mr. Garland was 
arrested in Belfast on Oct. 7 and charged with being part of a seven-member 
ring that trafficked in the counterfeit North Korean notes. He left Northern 
Ireland last month for the Republic of Ireland and is being sought by the 
State Department for extradition. Informants and electronic wiretaps helped 
unravel the case, which included meetings in Russia and Beijing between Mr. 
Garland and North Korean diplomats.

"We were able to get ahead of him and actually surveil him [in Moscow]," the 
official said. "He is picked up by North Korean diplomats, by a North Korean 
limousine, and taken to the North Korean Embassy."

The official said the North Korean government's role hampered the 
investigation, complicating efforts to shut down the network and arrest 
participants. Several North Korean diplomats have been identified by US 
officials as having a role in the network. In March, Interpol issued a 
notice warning currency manufacturers and equipment providers that North 
Korea's government is engaged in supernote production and distribution.

"We wanted to alert the industry that ... this is something they should be 
aware of - that a state is producing counterfeit currency and their products 
could be misused to further the illegal activity," a second official said.

The official said the US government has seized about $45 million in North 
Korean supernotes over 16 years. The amount is relatively small compared 
with about $355 million in lower-quality Colombian counterfeit bills. The 
North Korean supernotes have been found by investigators in Ethiopia, Peru, 
Macao and Germany. The officials said Mr. Garland used his party connections 
and a Dublin business known as GKG Communications International Ltd. to 
arrange the supernote deals.

Asked about Chinese involvement with Mr. Garland and the North Koreans, one 
official said reports about a Chinese connection could not be confirmed. A 
top-secret US intelligence report obtained by The Washington Times in 1997, 
however, linked Mr. Garland and China to the supernotes. The report said Mr. 
Garland was involved in supernote trafficking and had met in 1997 with Cao 
Xiaobing, a Chinese Communist Party International Liaison Department (ILD) 
official, to discuss "unidentified business opportunities." The ILD is a 
party organ linked to implementing China's policy toward North Korea. In 
addition to Mr. Garland's network of counterfeiters, a Chinese 
organized-crime group uncovered in the summer in California and New Jersey 
also was involved in selling North Korean supernotes, the officials said.

Counterfeiting remains a problem for the US government because even though 
only some of the $730 billion in US currency in circulation worldwide is 
counterfeit, the use of fake notes undermines the integrity of all US money, 
officials said.

"If people who use US currency don't believe they can tell the difference 
between the counterfeit and genuine, all the currency becomes suspect," the 
first official said. "That's why it's very troubling."

The official said it is likely the North Koreans are using the supernotes in 
international drug trafficking. North Korean diplomats and intelligence 
personnel have been engaged in trafficking of heroin and methamphetamine to 
Russia, China, Japan and other nations. The illicit activities are thought 
to generate hard currency for Mr. Kim's regime, accused by North Korean 
government defectors of directing the counterfeiting and drug trafficking. 
Law-enforcement officials said it is difficult to verify the defectors' 
information.

However, after years of intelligence and defector reports, "you have this 
catalogue of information that starts to build up and you start to see a 
pattern develop," one official said.

According to the US indictment, "Quantities of the supernote were 
manufactured in, and under auspices of the government of, the Democratic 
People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). "Individuals, including North 
Korean nationals acting as ostensible government officials, engaged in the 
worldwide transportation, delivery, and sale of quantities of supernotes," 
the indictment, unsealed Oct. 7, stated.

David L. Asher, who monitored North Korean criminal activity when working at 
the State Department, said the scale of the crime is difficult to determine 
but that the activities provide hard currency for the Pyongyang regime.

"Under international law, counterfeiting another nation's currency is an act 
of casus belli, an act of economic war," Mr. Asher said in a recent speech. 
"No other government has engaged in this act against another government 
since the Nazis under Hitler."

Mr. Asher said that in addition to drugs and counterfeit money, Pyongyang is 
engaged in money laundering, arms sales and illicit trade in sanctioned 
items, such as conflict diamonds, rhino horn and ivory. North Korea has 
become a "Soprano state," he said, a reference to the television show about 
a New Jersey organized-crime group.

"North Korea is the only government in the world today that can be 
identified as being actively involved in directing crime as a central part 
of its national economic strategy and foreign policy," Mr. Asher said.

North Korea's government has denied it engages in counterfeiting. The 
government-run Korean Central News Agency said Oct. 21 that the indictment 
charging a Pyongyang role in counterfeiting was part of a US "smear 
campaign."

"The US-escalated smear campaign against the DPRK only goes to prove that 
the former regards it as one of the basic means to create impression that 
the latter is a 'rogue state' in a bid to realize its ambition for bringing 
down the latter's 'system' and the former remains unchanged in its policy 
for isolating and stifling the DPRK internationally," the report said.
*************************************************

7.   ROK CALLS FOR DIRECT US-DPRK TALKS
     by Jae-soon Chang, Associated Press, 5 December 2005

South Korea's top official responsible for relations with North Korea urged 
the United States on Monday to hold direct talks with the North to resolve 
concerns over its missile development, human rights abuses and other 
non-nuclear issues, a report said Monday. The remarks by Unification 
Minister Chung Dong-young reflected concerns that a deepening row between 
Washington and North Korea over US sanctions against the country could 
undermine six-nation talks on ending the North's nuclear programs.

Non-nuclear complaints by the United States against North Korea "should be 
solved by bilateral talks between the two parties," Chung told a forum, 
according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. "As the six-party talks focus 
on resolving the nuclear issue, other matters should be separated from the 
six-party issue."

Chung listed the North's missiles, biochemical and conventional weapons and 
human rights abuses, as well as its alleged involvement in drug trafficking 
and counterfeiting of money, as among the major non-nuclear issues. The US 
has so far showed no willingness to separate the nuclear and non-nuclear 
issues, discussing both at the six-nation talks. It has also rejected the 
North's demand for one-on-one negotiations, saying all countries in the 
region must be involved in efforts to get it to disarm. (...)

Prospects for a resumption of the negotiations dimmed last week after North 
Korea reacted angrily to financial sanctions imposed by Washington over 
alleged counterfeiting and money laundering. North Korea had warned that 
such actions could affect the nuclear talks.
*************************************************

8.   US ENVOY CALLS PYONGYANG A 'CRIMINAL REGIME'
     The Chosun Ilbo, Digital Chosun, 7 December 2005

US Ambassador to Korea Alexander Vershbow on Wednesday made international 
headlines by calling the North Korean government a "criminal regime." 
Vershbow made the remark at the Kwanhun Club, a gathering of senior South 
Korean journalists, when the subject of North Korea's alleged currency 
counterfeiting came up.

Vershbow said North Korea's was the first regime involved in 
government-sponsored currency counterfeiting "since Adolf Hitler." Candid 
criticism of North Korea from a US diplomat here is rare in a public forum. 
It was Vershbow's first meeting with the press since he took office in 
October.

Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon urged caution, saying countries involved in 
six-party talks on the North's nuclear program "need to exercise restraint 
in the words they choose to describe each other."

At the meeting, Vershbow's position diverged widely from Seoul's on such 
issues as international recognition of the North Korean regime, human rights 
and counterfeiting.

Asked about US sanctions on North Korean firms for their alleged involvement 
in various criminal activities, Vershbow said, "This is a criminal regime, 
and you can't somehow remove sanctions as a political gesture when this 
regime is engaging in dangerous activities such as weapons exports to rogue 
states."

North Korea has warned it could stay away from six-party talks unless the 
sanctions are lifted. Vershbow added the measures were taken under US law 
and were non-negotiable. Seoul, by contrast, has suggested Pyongyang and 
Washington solve the problem in bilateral meetings.

The envoy expressed hope an international conference on North Korea's human 
rights abuses that starts in Seoul on Thursday will not be a political 
platform but a chance to find a strategy for real change in the lives of 
North Koreans. Vershbow is taking part in the conference. Asked about the 
South Korean government's attitude toward human rights in the North, he said 
South Korea and the US had the same goal even if their approach was 
different, adding he got the impression from talks with South Korean 
officials and lawmakers that they are concerned about the issue.

In more conciliatory remarks, commenting on North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, 
Vershbow said though a leader made mistakes, he could still bring about 
change. If North Korea changes, the US is ready to reassess its own stance 
on the North, he added.
*************************************************

QUIDNUNC
In this section of CanKor, we invite readers to send questions, answers, or 
responses. Answers should be under 150 words and may be edited for space.
*************************************************

HOW BIG IS THE DPR KOREAN PEOPLE'S ARMY?

Good question -- really difficult for outsiders to assess, especially those 
of us without security clearances.
Here's my take: the "1993" DPRK census reveals a discrepancy between total 
country population count and identified population by region and major city 
of slightly under 700,000 persons. Following Chinese practice, this 
difference is implicitly the national military force. The statistical 
implication is that KPA and ROKA were almost identical in size. Cute!
The problem is the strange anomalies and inconsistencies in the DPRK 
demographic data. These suggest that perhaps as many as 400,000 or more 
young men are being "hidden" from the count. (I've explained this 
elsewhere -- my study "Our own style of statistics").
The indication then is that the DPRK considers itself to have a military 
force of over one million -- or at least, did in 1993. Note this tells us 
nothing about readiness capabilities or activities of those in the military 
services -- for all we know from these raw numbers, they could all be on 
road crews, or up growing opium!

Nicholas N. Eberstadt
*************************************************

HOW MANY NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES ARE IN CHINA?

Hunger, illness, unemployment, and oppression have compelled tens of 
thousands of North Koreans to leave their homeland since 1995. Most have 
risked imprisonment, even execution by crossing into China. Their exact 
number is impossible to know. Estimates have ranged from a high of 
50,000-300,000 in 1996 and 1997, to 15,000-50,000 in 2000. More recent 
estimates fall somewhere between these two numbers. The office of the United 
Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) appears comfortable with the 
15,000-50,000 estimate.

[Answer taken from Kenneth Quinones, "Understanding North Korea," Alpha 
Books, p. 27]
*************************************************

WHAT NOW?

In CanKor #228, Glyn Ford writes, "without the knowledge of the European 
Commission let alone the North Koreans, the French bounced through the 
Council of Ministers a condemnatory resolution."

QUESTION: What reasons do you know of for the tactics of the French, i.e. 
what independent French reasons existed for this? Or were they acting 
indirectly for the EU? Or were they doing so at US behest?

J Gibbs

[Answers should be e-mailed to: editor at CanKor.ca]
*************************************************

End CanKor # 229

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