[Cankor] Report #249

[cankor at cankor.ca]

Dear subscriber,

Welcome to issue #249 of the CanKor Report.

We asked the readers of the interactive site NKZone.org if they knew why 
Dr. Norbert Vollertsen's book Inside North Korea: Diary of a Mad Place, 
might be unavailable for order on Amazon.com. If you have some alternate 
conspiracy theories, please let us know!

This week's QUIDNUNC:
The US Treasury Department actions are justified by the Bush 
administration as targeting criminal elements such as drug trafficking 
and counterfeiting. How effective is this tool to fight the Black Market 
and other illicit activity in the DPRK?

Ever wondered about North Korea but were afraid to ask? Fear no more! 
Ask QUIDNUNC.

Send questions, musings, comments or replies to editor at CanKor.ca.

The CanKor team.

For articles not original to CanKor, direct links are available in the 
Contents section, should you wish to consult the originals on the 
internet. If the links no longer function, you may refer to the full 
text articles appended to the issue. For back issues, archives and other 
content, please visit our website: http://www.cankor.ca
*************************************************

CANADA-KOREA ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SERVICE

CanKor # 249

Friday, 19 May 2006
*************************************************

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says the nuclear issue should take 
priority over other DPRK-related issues, including human rights. He 
urges the six parties to return to the talks "because it's only at the 
table where we are going to find a solution."

US President Bush is coming under increasing pressure to shift to a 
broader approach in dealing with the DPRK. Top advisors’ recommendations 
include negotiations for a peace treaty. "Focusing on regime change as 
the road to denuclearization confuses the issue," former Secretary of 
State Henry A. Kissinger writes in the Washington Post, "Periodic 
engagement at a higher level is needed."

Unconfirmed Japanese media reports claim a North Korean missile was 
moved closer to a launch site in the northeast.

The DPRK’s trade volume with foreign countries, excluding the ROK, rose 
to 3 billion USD - its highest figure since 1991.

The ROK promotes Korean inter-dependence as a strategy to reduce the 
costs of future unification as illustrated in this week’s CanKor FOCUS: 
Paving the road to unification. The ROK pushes to unify industrial 
standards and insists goods made in the inter-Korean Kaesong industrial 
zone will be included in any Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United 
States despite any opposition by Washington. A number of inter-Korean 
governmental talks are planned as well as a test-run of trains across 
the border railway link. Former President Kim Dae-jung will visit 
Pyongyang next month. Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok travels across 
the DMZ to inspect the Kaesong industrial park.

Economic pressure is failing to make Pyongyang more flexible. In fact, 
the DPRK is skillfully exploiting both the US-Japan collaboration and 
tensions between Tokyo and Seoul, says Kenneth Quinones, Professor of 
Korean Studies at Japan’s Akita International University in this week’s 
CanKor OPINION. The author contributed the English version of this 
column directly to CanKor. The Japanese version is to appear in the 
Mainichi Shimbun.
*************************************************

Contents:
1. ANNAN PLACES NUKE ISSUE OVER HUMAN RIGHTS
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200605/kt2006051521293368040.htm

2. US SAID TO WEIGH A NEW APPROACH ON DPRK
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/world/asia/18korea.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1147924800&en=6cdd9ec6a40988de&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin 


3. DPRK MAY BE PLANNING MISSILE TEST
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12861173/

4. US-ROK FTA COMPLICATED BY INTER-KOREAN KAESONG PROJECT
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HE16Dg02.html

5. DPRK TRADE TOPS US$3 BILLION IN 2005
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/biz/200605/kt2006050816295711910.htm

FOCUS: Paving the way to unification

6. ROK WANTS TO UNIFY INDUSTRIAL STANDARDS
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200605/18/200605182237384309900090509051.html 


7. CONTACT BETWEEN KOREAS GROWS
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2006/05/16/200605160035.asp

8. SEOUL'S TOP POLICYMAKER VISITS KAESONG
http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20060509-052753-4439r 


OPINION

9. PRESSURE AND TENSIONS HELP PYONGYANG
Submitted to CanKor, copyright Kenneth Quinones

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

1. ANNAN PLACES NUKE ISSUE OVER HUMAN RIGHTS
by Park Song-wu, Korea Times, 15 May 2006

Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs should be tackled first among other 
North Korean issues, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said at a joint 
news conference in Seoul on Monday. His remarks came as the United 
States is intensifying its pressure against North Korea for its poor 
human rights record and the counterfeiting of U.S. currencies amid no 
signs of progress in the six-party denuclearization talks.

"I think, in terms of priority, the nuclear issue is by far the most 
important and should be given a separate category and priority as 
compared with human rights and other activities," Annan told reporters, 
following talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon. 
Annan urged the six participating countries in the nuclear talks not to 
slow down their efforts.

"I would urge them to persevere and press ahead and get everyone back to 
the table to continue the discussions, because it's only at the table 
where we are going to find a solution," he said. Seoul is the first 
destination for Annan's Asian tour that will also take him to Japan, 
China, Vietnam and Thailand.
*************************************************

2. US SAID TO WEIGH A NEW APPROACH ON DPRK
by David E. Sanger, New York Times, 18 May 2006

President Bush's top advisers have recommended a broad new approach to 
dealing with North Korea that would include beginning negotiations on a 
peace treaty, even while efforts to dismantle the country's nuclear 
program are still under way, senior administration officials and Asian 
diplomats say. Aides say Mr. Bush is very likely to approve the new 
approach, which has been hotly debated among different factions within 
the administration. But he will not do so unless North Korea returns to 
multinational negotiations over its nuclear program. The talks have been 
stalled since September. North Koreans have long demanded a peace 
treaty, which would replace the 1953 armistice ending the Korean War.

For several years after he first took office, Mr. Bush vowed not to end 
North Korea's economic and diplomatic isolation until it entirely 
dismantled its nuclear program. That stance later softened, and the 
administration said some benefits to North Korea could begin to flow as 
significant dismantlement took place. Now, if the president allows talks 
about a peace treaty to take place on a parallel track with six-nation 
talks on disarmament, it will signal another major change of tactics. 
The decision to consider a change may have been influenced in part by 
growing concerns about Iran's nuclear program. One senior Asian official 
who has been briefed on the administration's discussions about what to 
do next said, "There is a sense that they can't leave Korea out there as 
a model for what the Iranians hope to become - a nuclear state that can 
say no to outside pressure."

But it is far from clear that North Korea would engage in any new 
discussions, especially if they included talk of political change, human 
rights, terrorism and an opening of the country, topics that the Bush 
administration has insisted would have to be part of any comprehensive 
discussions with North Korea.
With the war in Iraq and the nuclear dispute with Iran as distractions, 
many top officials have all but given up hope that North Korea's 
government will either disarm or collapse during Mr. Bush's remaining 
time in office. Increasingly, they blame two of Mr. Bush's negotiating 
partners, South Korea and China, which have poured aid into North Korea 
even while the United States has tried to cut off its major sources of 
revenue.

In his first term, Mr. Bush said repeatedly that he would never 
"tolerate" a nuclear North Korea. Now he rarely discusses the country's 
suspected weapons. Instead, he has met in the Oval Office with escapees 
from the country and used the events to discuss North Korea's prison 
camps and the suffering of its people. Mr. Bush has also been under 
subtle pressure to change the first-term talk of speeding change of 
government. "Focusing on regime change as the road to denuclearization 
confuses the issue," former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger wrote 
in a lengthy op-ed article that appeared in The Washington Post on 
Tuesday. Noting that the negotiations have been conducted by Christopher 
R. Hill, a seasoned diplomat who played a major role in the Dayton peace 
accords, which halted the civil war in Bosnia, he said, "Periodic 
engagement at a higher level is needed."

A classified National Intelligence Estimate on North Korea, which was 
circulated among senior officials earlier this year, concluded that the 
North had probably fabricated the fuel for more than a half-dozen 
nuclear weapons since the beginning of Mr. Bush's administration and was 
continuing to produce roughly a bomb's worth of new plutonium each year. 
But in a show of caution after the discovery of intelligence flaws in 
Iraq, the assessment left unclear whether North Korea had actually 
turned that fuel into weapons. With the six-nation negotiations over 
North Korea's nuclear program appearing to go nowhere, the drive for a 
broader strategy was propelled by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice 
and one of her top aides, Philip D. Zelikow, who drafted two papers 
describing the new approach.

Those papers touched off what one senior official called "a blizzard of 
debate" over the next steps that eventually included Mr. Bush and Vice 
President Dick Cheney, who has been widely described by current and 
former officials as leading the drive in Mr. Bush's first term to make 
sure the North Korean government received no concessions from the United 
States until all of its weapons and weapons sites were taken apart. It 
is unclear where Mr. Cheney stands on the new approach that emerged from 
the State Department.
Now, said one official who has participated in the recent internal 
debate, "I think it is fair to say that many in the administration have 
come to the conclusion that dealing head-on with the nuclear problem is 
simply too difficult."
The official added, "So the question is whether it would help to try to 
end the perpetual state of war" that has existed, at least on paper, for 
53 years. "It may be another way to get there."

An agreement that was signed in September by North Korea and the five 
other nations involved in the talks - the United States, South Korea, 
China, Japan and Russia - commits the country to give up its weapons and 
rejoin the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty "at an early date" but leaves 
completely unclear what would have to come first: disarmament or a 
series of steps that would aid North Korea. It also included a sentence 
that paves the way for the initiative recommended to Mr. Bush, declaring 
that "the directly related parties will negotiate a permanent peace 
regime on the Korean Peninsula at an appropriate separate forum." But it 
does not specify what steps North Korea would have to take first.

As described by administration officials, none of whom would speak on 
the record about deliberations inside the White House, Mr. Bush's aides 
envision starting negotiations over a formal peace treaty that would 
include the original signatories of the armistice - China, North Korea 
and the United States, which signed on behalf of the United Nations. 
They would also add South Korea, now the world's 11th-largest economy, 
which declined to sign the original armistice.
Japan, Korea's colonial ruler in the first half of the 20th century, 
would be excluded, as would Russia.

A National Security Council spokesman declined to comment on any 
internal deliberations on North Korea policy and referred all questions 
to the State Department, which has handled the negotiations with the 
North. The State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, declined to 
discuss the recommendations made to Mr. Bush and said, "The most 
important decision is with North Korea - and that is the strategic 
decision to give up their nuclear weapons program."
"They signed a joint statement," he added, "but they have yet to 
demonstrate that they have made a decision to abandon all nuclear 
weapons and existing nuclear programs."

In justifying its refusal to return to talks, North Korea has complained 
bitterly about the financial sanctions imposed by the United States, 
which have been aimed at closing down the North's banking activities in 
Macao and elsewhere in Asia. The United States has described those steps 
as "defensive measures" intended to stop the country from counterfeiting 
American currency and exporting drugs and missiles. Even if peace treaty 
talks started, officials insisted, those sanctions would continue. A 
month ago, Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, told a 
small audience of foreign policy experts that the sanctions were "the 
first thing we have done that has gotten their attention," several 
participants in the meeting said.

Some intelligence officials say they believe the protests may have 
arisen in part because they affected a secretive operation in North 
Korea called Unit 39 that finances the personal activities of Kim Jong 
Il, the North Korean leader, providing the money he spends for his 
entertainment and to win the loyalty of others in the leadership.

For the Washington Post Op-Ed piece by Henry Kissinger referred to in 
this article: 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/15/AR2006051501200.html 

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

3. DPRK MAY BE PLANNING MISSILE TEST
Associated Press (AP), 19 May 2006

North Korea could be preparing to fire a missile in the latest of 
several launchings in recent years, according to news reports Friday. A 
missile was moved close to a launch site in northeastern North Korea in 
recent days, Japan’s national broadcaster NHK said. The report quoted 
unnamed South Korean government officials, which cited satellite 
photographs. Japan’s Kyodo News agency carried a similar story, 
attributing it to a "source familiar with the North Korean situation." 
Defense analysts say such movement could indicate preparations for a 
launch. The reports said there was no indication when that would occur. 
There was no official confirmation: Japanese defense officials weren’t 
answering phones Friday morning, the U.S. military in South Korea 
refused to comment, and South Korea’s government said it was checking 
the reports. (...)
*************************************************

4. US-ROK FTA COMPLICATED BY INTER-KOREAN KAESONG PROJECT
Asia Times, 16 May 2006

South Korea reaffirmed on Monday that it aims to include goods made at 
an industrial zone in North Korea in any Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with 
the United States despite Washington's apparent opposition against the 
move. In the first round of talks next month aimed at establishing a 
free trade accord, Seoul will persuade Washington to allow products made 
at the Kaesong business park just north of the inter-Korean border to 
have preferential tariff status in the US, South Korea's trade ministry 
said in a statement.

"South Korea aims to find ground whereby the U.S. will recognize the 
goods made in Kaesong," the ministry said in a statement. Along with 
rice, the so-called Kaesong issue is posing one of the thorniest issues 
on the bargaining table for Seoul and Washington to go ahead with the 
FTA talks. On Friday, South Korea and the U.S. plan to exchange first 
draft statements on the FTA, the trade ministry said.

The government of President Roh Moo-hyun wants the goods to have 
free-trade status with the U.S. in order to give a boost to the 
inter-Korean business project, but Washington has reiterated that only 
goods made in South Korea will be included. The two sides agreed in 
February to begin the first round of formal negotiations on a free trade 
agreement from June 5-9 in Washington, with the aim of wrapping up the 
deal by the end of next March.
*************************************************

5. DPRK TRADE TOPS US$3 BILLION IN 2005
Korea Times, 8 May 2006

North Korea's trade volume with foreign countries, excluding South 
Korea, rose marginally last year to reach its highest figure since 1991, 
a local trade agency said Monday. According to the Korea 
Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), North Korea's trade volume 
gained 5.1 percent from a year earlier to $3 billion in 2005. North 
Korea recorded a trade deficit of $1 billion last year, up 23 percent 
annually. Imports increased 9.1 percent to $2.03 billion, but exports 
fell 2.1 percent to $998 million, the agency said.

The trade agency attributed the drop in exports to plummeting overseas 
shipments of fisheries goods, one of the North's key exports, and a 
20-percent annual decrease in shipments to Japan. The North's imports 
grew on rising inbound shipments of energy-related natural resources as 
well as food from China. The neighboring nation's increasing investments 
in the North also triggered a rise in machinery imports into the 
country, the agency said. North Korea's top trading partners -- China, 
Thailand, Japan and Russia -- remained unchanged, it said.

The North's trade with China accounted for 52.6 percent of the North's 
entire trade volume, excluding that with South Korea. The volume came to 
$1.58 billion last year, up 14 percent from the previous year, it said. 
Meanwhile, South and North Korea's annual trade surpassed the $1 billion 
mark for the first time last year. Including trade with South Korea, the 
North's trade volume stood at $4.06 billion last year, with trade 
between the two Koreas accounting for 26 percent of the total, it said. 
The increase in the figure was due to the expansion of two inter-Korean 
projects in the North, an industrial complex in Kaesong and a resort in 
Mount Kumgang, it said.
*************************************************

FOCUS: Paving the road to unification

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

6. ROK WANTS TO UNIFY INDUSTRIAL STANDARDS
Joong Ang Ilbo, 19 May 2006

South Korea will push to unify industrial standards with North Korea in 
a preparatory effort to help reduce the so-called unification cost in 
the future, a senior government official said yesterday. To that end, a 
civilian-government task force will be set up within this year to 
collect related data and coordinate inter-ministerial efforts, Vice 
Industry Minister Kim Jong-kap said.

"The lack of unified inter-Korean industrial standards may sharply 
increase the unification cost in the future," Mr. Kim said. According to 
a recent estimate, overcoming the differences could cost Seoul up to 362 
trillion won ($383 billion) over 12 years after the unification of the 
divided peninsula.
*************************************************

7. CONTACT BETWEEN KOREAS GROWS
by Lee Joo-hee, Korea Herald, 16 May 2006

A flurry of inter-Korean contacts began yesterday, despite the gloom 
surrounding multilateral negotiations on North Korea's nuclear ambitions 
which have been stalled for six months. A representative of former 
President Kim Dae-jung left for Mount Kumgang yesterday afternoon to 
discuss his upcoming visit to Pyongyang in June with North Korean 
officials. Meanwhile, a shipment of South Korean fertilizer aid to North 
Korea left yesterday from Yeosu Port in South Jeolla Province. The two 
Koreas are poised to hold defense ministerial-talks this week, and in 
addition there will be a test-run of trains along the cross-border 
railway link next week, the first locomotives to make journey in five 
decades. These events come amid a gloomy international situation as 
multilateral efforts to solve North Korea's nuclear problem have been 
bogged down since the end of last year.

Pyongyang has been boycotting the six-party talks since November after 
the United States accused the North of various illegal activities, and 
imposed a ban on dealing with a Macau-based bank, allegedly a key 
channel for laundering Pyongyang's dirty money. The tension between the 
United States and North Korea increased, but South Korean President Roh 
Moo-hyun vowed stronger relations with Pyongyang last week and once 
again offered to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Former president 
Kim Dae-jung is scheduled to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il next 
month, and there will also be Red Cross talks and a joint celebration of 
June 15, the anniversary of the first inter-Korean summit in 2000.

The contacts will continue in July through ministerial-level talks, 
followed by a joint Liberation Day celebration and another real-time 
video reunion of separated families in August. Delegations of the two 
Koreas will meet today in Mount Kumgang to discuss details of the second 
meeting between Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il. The first, historic summit 
opened the gate for active inter-Korean exchanges. Kim Dae-jung received 
the Nobel Peace Prize the same year to mark his accomplishment. Leading 
the South Korean delegation is former Unification Minister Jeong 
Se-hyun. He will be meeting with Ri Jong-hyuk, vice chairman of the 
North's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee.

During the 18th ministerial-level talks in April, Pyongyang requested 
Seoul send an additional 300,000 tons of fertilizer this year. Seoul 
agreed to sending 200,000 tons. It will cost around 77 billion for the 
addition shipment that will be completed by May 27. A South Korean 
vessel, BJ Ace, left Yeosu Port for North Korea's Nampo Port yesterday, 
carrying 7,000 tons of mixed fertilizer.
*************************************************

8. SEOUL'S TOP POLICYMAKER VISITS KAESONG
United Press International (UPI), 9 May 2006

Seoul's unification minister Tuesday visited a joint industrial complex 
in North Korea despite U.S. criticism of the inter-Korean project. 
Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, accompanied by a group of some 160 
officials and business representatives, inspected the complex in 
Kaesong, just north of the heavily fortified border, according to 
ministry officials.

"One of the main purposes of his visit is to reaffirm the government's 
unswerving determination to make the Kaesong project a success," the 
official said. The one-day trip has long been delayed in the wake of the 
North's angry response to Seoul's joint military drills held with the 
United States earlier this year. Lee, the main architect of the South's 
reconciliation policy toward North Korea, took office in February.

The Kaesong complex, located just north of the heavily fortified border, 
is considered one of the main achievements of the landmark 2000 Korean 
summit. The zone is a testing ground for mixing South Korean capitalism 
and technology with the North's cheap labor. More than 6,500 North 
Korean workers are already working for a dozen South Korean firms 
operating in the joint complex, with the number expected to increase to 
more than 350,000 by 2012, when the industrial complex goes into full 
swing. But the United States is concerned that "strategic products," 
such as precision machinery and high-tech personal computers, developed 
in the industrial park could be used to the North's advantage.
*************************************************

OPINION

*************************************************
9. PRESSURE AND TENSIONS HELP PYONGYANG
by C. Kenneth Quinones, Ph.D., Professor of Korean Studies, Akita 
International University, 15 May 2006

Obviously the Six Party Talks are dead locked. Whether they will resume 
soon or ever again remains uncertain. Seoul and Beijing will continue 
their efforts to restart the talks. So far, however, neither Pyongyang 
nor Washington has shown any willingness to demonstrate the diplomatic 
flexibility to restart the talks. Also, Seoul-Tokyo tensions are 
benefiting Pyongyang more than anyone else.

The Bush Administration is convinced that increasing economic pressure 
on North Korea will eventually force Pyongyang to return to the talks. 
Prime Minister Koizumi’s government shares this view and is also 
applying increasing economic pressure to Pyongyang. But so far US-Japan 
collaboration has not accomplished any significant results. Pyongyang 
remains just as inflexible as it did one month ago when its chief 
negotiator to the Six Party Talks visited Tokyo.

Actually Pyongyang is skillfully exploiting both the US-Japan 
collaboration and tensions between Tokyo and Seoul. Several factors are 
contributing to Pyongyang’s success in this regard. Washington and Tokyo 
assume that North Korea’s weak economy make Pyongyang anxious to return 
to the Six Party Talks so that it can gain Japan’s economic assistance 
and normal commercial relations with the United States in exchange for 
giving up its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Indeed, Pyongyang 
seems willing to make such a deal, and has proposed one several times. 
But Pyongyang is not in a rush to do this.

On the contrary, North Korea’s main goal now is to delay resumption of 
the Six Party Talks until it believes that the political situations in 
Tokyo and Washington are more favorable to it. First of all, there is no 
reason for Pyongyang to try to make a deal with governments about to 
undergo transfers of political power. This fall Japan will name a new 
prime minister and Americans will elect a new Congress. Before taking 
any steps to return to the negotiating table, Pyongyang wants to see who 
will lead Japan and whether President Bush will have any political power 
in the US Congress.

Japan’s new prime minister could be Mr. Abe, a so-called "hardliner." He 
could push for touch demands at the Six Party Talks which Pyongyang 
could decide to reject. But it wishes to avoid being blamed for 
continuation of the talks’ deadlock. The best way to do this is not to 
return to the talks.

At the same time, Pyongyang does not want to make a deal with a weak US 
president. It believes this is why President Clinton could not get 
Congressional support for the old Agreed Framework. This fall, if the 
Democrats win control of the US Congress in the November Congressional 
elections, President Bush most likely could not convince the Democrats 
to fund a diplomatic deal with Pyongyang that his administration had 
negotiated. Any deal that might be hammered out at the Six Party Talks 
could fall apart quickly because of Democratic party opposition in 
Washington, D.C. Again, the best strategy for Pyongyang is to wait and 
see what happens in Tokyo and Washington.

Pyongyang is exploiting the US-Japanese economic sanctions to prolong 
the deadlock in the Six Party Talks. The consistent policies of Beijing 
and Seoul are to avoid applying economic pressure to Pyongyang regarding 
the negotiations. Washington claims its sanctions are not related to the 
talks. So far, however, the Bush Administration’s claims in this regard 
have not been convincing. As China’s leadership made clear at the recent 
US-China summit in Washington, Beijing believes Pyongyang’s claims that 
Washington is trying to use economic pressure to force North Korea to 
submit to United States demands at the Six Party Talks. Meanwhile, Seoul 
continues to reject Washington’s pressure to discontinue South Korea’s 
economic cooperation policy toward Pyongyang.

Again, Pyongyang is adroitly playing Beijing and Seoul against 
Washington and Tokyo. North Korea benefits several ways. It continues to 
successfully delay resumption of the Six Party Talks, and it does this 
while also avoiding blame for the deadlock. Instead, it places blame on 
the US-Japan tactic of applying economic pressure. On the other hand, 
Pyongyang continues to receive substantial economic assistance and 
benefit from both Beijing and Seoul. The bottom line is that economic 
pressure is not likely to compel Pyongyang to return to the Six Party 
Talks, certainly not in the near future.

At the same time, Pyongyang is exploiting the continuing tensions 
between Seoul and Tokyo. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun seems 
determined to rally Korean nationalism to himself and his political 
party by pressing Japan on long standing disputes over claims to 
Takeshim or Tokto Island, Prime Minister Koizumi’s visits to Yasukuni 
Shrine and allegations that Japan intentionally distorts the historical 
record of its dealings with Korea. North Korea eagerly aligns itself 
with South Korea on all of these issues. Pyongyang benefits from this 
situation because Tokyo-Seoul tensions make trilateral cooperation with 
the United States impossible.

Clearly, without US-Japan economic pressure and Seoul-Tokyo tensions, 
North Korea’s strategy of delaying resumption of the Six Party Talks 
could not be effective.
*************************************************

ONE CANKOR READER MADE AN ONLINE ORDER OF THE BOOK "INSIDE NORTH KOREA: 
DIARY OF A MAD PLACE," BY NORBERT VOLLERTSEN. HE RECEIVED A REPLY FROM 
AMAZON CANCELING THE ORDER, STATING, "ALTHOUGH WE'D EXPECTED TO BE ABLE 
TO SEND THIS ITEM TO YOU, WE'VE SINCE FOUND IT WON'T BE RELEASED AFTER 
ALL." DOES ANYONE KNOW WHY THIS BOOK IS NOT BEING RELEASED?
*************************************************

I asked a friend to post last week’s QUIDNUNC on to the NK Zone blog to 
see if anyone in the general public had heard anything about Dr. 
Vollertsen’s book. An inquiry to Barnes & Noble online supported one NK 
Zone.org reader’s surmise that it must simply be out of print as it was 
released back in 2004. Another reader thought it interesting that it 
should be unavailable, as he’d recently purchased the Korean language 
version in Seoul.

Miranda Weingartner, Managing Editor, CanKor
*************************************************
WHAT NOW?

The US Treasury Department actions are justified by the Bush 
administration as targeting criminal elements such as drug trafficking 
and counterfeiting. How effective is this tool to fight the Black Market 
and other illicit activity in the DPRK?

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

End CanKor # 249

*************************************************
CanKor is an electronic information service for readers interested in 
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developer: David Seguin. Please visit our website at: www.CanKor.ca
*************************************************