Four North Koreans get their wish

Source: CNN, June 15, 2007.

TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Four North Koreans who arrived by boat at a Japanese port two weeks ago left Japan on Saturday for South Korea, their desired destination, police said.

Three men and a woman taken into custody in northern Japan on June 2, believed to be a couple and their two adult sons, arrived in a small wooden boat after a sea journey they said had begun on May 27.

The four said they wished to go to South Korea, and Japanese officials had said they would be treated sympathetically. (Full story.)

A police spokesman at Narita airport, just east of Tokyo, said the four had departed on Saturday morning for South Korea.

NHK public television showed the family boarding the plane, their faces concealed by blankets. The plane left shortly before 10 a.m. (0100 GMT).

The four told police they left Chongjin on the east coast of North Korea and headed south, but changed course due to heavy security and ended up at Fukaura in Japan's northern Aomori prefecture, 800 km (500 miles) to the east.

They were quoted in the media as saying that they were lucky to be able to eat bread every other day. But local media reports said they were wearing wristwatches, raising questions about how poor they actually were.

Some North Korea watchers said the watches suggested they might be middle class and their departure hinted at growing frustration among middle class North Koreans since the poor couldn't leave and the elite wouldn't need to.

Japan can grant asylum seekers a six-month permit under its immigration law, and a 2006 "North Korean human rights law" also states the government must take measures to protect and support defectors from North Korea.

North Korean defectors have fled to Japanese missions and other premises in China in the past, and Tokyo has allowed them to leave for third countries, but it is rare for North Koreans to flee to Japan.

Their arrival had raised concerns that relations between Tokyo and Pyongyang -- which have no diplomatic ties -- could worsen if North Korea demanded their return, but no such demands were made.

Japan is feuding with North Korea over the fate of Japanese citizens kidnapped decades ago by Pyongyang's agents to help train spies.

Abe has said that without a resolution to the abduction issue, Japan will not provide funds for a multilateral deal reached in February under which North Korea agreed to scrap its nuclear arms program in return for energy aid.

Chad may allow peacekeepers on Sudan border

Source: CNN, June 12, 2007.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Chad may allow international peacekeeping troops to deploy along its border with Sudan to create safe passage for humanitarian aid to the war-torn Darfur region, the president of the African country said Tuesday.

President Idriss Deby said Chad was under intense international pressure to accept such a plan, but he wouldn't provide specifics nor confirm if he would allow U.N. troops to be deployed on Chad's border.

"Chad is a poor country, and it cannot stand up to the pressures by the world's major powers and the United Nations," Deby told reporters in Cairo after talks with the Arab League's top diplomats.

"In the past, we refused the international troops, but now the situation does not allow that, and if there will be further deterioration, we won't be able to resist," he said.

Deby said Arab and African countries have failed to put an end to the humanitarian disaster in Darfur, where more than 200,000 [400,000] people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in four years of fighting between the government and regional rebels.

The Chadian president's comments come as a senior African Union official said after a meeting in Ethiopia that Sudan accepted a revised plan for a joint African Union and U.N. peacekeeping force of between 17,000 and 19,000 troops that would replace an ill-equipped and understaffed AU force currently deployed in Darfur.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir agreed to a "hybrid" force in November but later backtracked on his approval. During a visit to Sudan on Monday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that al-Bashir told him he fully agreed to the proposed "hybrid" force but was adamant that all of the troops must come from Africa.

As part of France's efforts to boost diplomatic efforts on Darfur, Paris has announced it plans to host an international conference on Darfur later this month that will bring together European countries along with Egypt, the United States and China, Sudan's key diplomatic ally.

The conference will focus on creating the safe passage so humanitarian aid can reach people in the western Sudan region, Arab diplomats in Cairo said, speaking on condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Deby said the suggestion of the safe passage was made to him by Kouchner during his stop in Chad earlier this week.

But so far, Sudan has not agreed to attend the conference.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol has said that the timing was not right to attend and suggested that international initiatives be handled mainly by the United Nations and African Union.

Just for the record, there are rumors that the UN peacekeepers are worse than the AU.

Blair to G8: Keep African promises

Source: CNN.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday urged rich nations to keep their promises of financial aid to Africa, saying failure to do so could threaten the continent's march toward prosperity and democracy.

In a keynote speech in Johannesburg on the final leg of his farewell African tour as Britain's leader, Blair also said that Africa's leaders must get tough on authoritarian governments, such as those in Sudan and Zimbabwe.

"Wealthy nations and Africa both face a choice ... Our challenge is to support the good. Africa's challenge is to eliminate the bad," Blair said in the speech.

"Next week at the G8 (Group of Eight) Summit, leaders will show whether, having put Africa at the top of the global agenda, we have the perseverance and vision to see it through. I hope we have," the outgoing British leader said.

Blair's visit came on the eve of the G8 summit scheduled for Germany, during which Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to press rich nations to fulfil aid pledges to Africa under a 2005 Blair initiative.

"We need each G8 to be bolder on Africa than the last," Blair said. "If we give up, we will lose the chance in this continent, rich as it is though its people are often poor, for our values to take root."

He said initiatives such as the new Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund, which will provide matching funds for commercially sustainable African business projects, showed that Africa and the West could be partners in development.

Mandela and Mbeki

Due to hand over power to finance minister Gordon Brown on June 27, Blair is using the trip to build momentum for the summit, which will focus on the world's poorest continent and push for a world trade deal.

He visited Libya and Sierra Leone before traveling to South Africa, where he will bid farewell to former South African President Nelson Mandela and meet current leader Thabo Mbeki.

Pushing the United States and other Western nations to meet their pledges of financial aid, trade support and assistance on peacekeeping and conflict resolution is a key part of the Blair agenda in his final weeks in office, as is the need for a global deal to fight climate change.

But Blair is also underscoring what he says is the need to pressure Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government, which has been criticized in the West for a violent crackdown on political opponents.

Mbeki is overseeing efforts to bring Mugabe and his opponents in Zimbabwe to the bargaining table ahead of elections in the southern African nation scheduled for next year, and Blair said this effort needed to bear fruit quickly.

"African governments should also hold other African governments to account," Blair said.

"The world is waiting, wanting to re-engage with a reforming Zimbabwe government ... but for the people of Zimbabwe, this is urgent, and change before the 2008 elections essential."

Blair said Sudan, where the United States has accused President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of pursuing genocide in the war-ravaged region of Darfur, was another opportunity for Africa to show it stood on the side of peace and justice.

"We have to offer President Bashir a choice. Engage with us on a solution. Or, if you reject responsibility for the people of Darfur, then we will table and put to a vote sanctions on the regime."

Blair acknowledged some people were growing cynical over repeated -- and often only partially fulfilled -- pledges of Western help for Africa, but said he was convinced the policy needed to be enhanced not questioned.

"The fact that we don't get it all doesn't mean that we got nothing," he said. "We've got to make the case in the developed world that in the end this is in our own self-interest as well. This is not about charity."

S. Korea: Aid to North conditional on disarmament moves

Source: CNN, April 23, 2007.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea's top official on North Korea stressed Monday that delivery of promised rice aid to Pyongyang depends on whether the communist nation lives up to its commitment to start dismantling its nuclear weapons program.

At talks between the two Koreas that ended Sunday, the South agreed to send 400,000 tons of rice to the North despite its failure to meet a deadline more than two weeks ago to shut down its main nuclear reactor. The text of the agreement contains no preconditions for the aid delivery that is to begin in late May.

However, Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said Monday that South Korea has "strongly delivered" its position that delivery of rice aid depends on whether North Korea implements the February accord reached at international arms talks.

Under the accord, North Korea was to shut down its Yongbyon reactor by April 14 and allow U.N. inspectors to verify and seal the facility in exchange for energy assistance.

"The rice issue is not just a humanitarian issue, but a very symbolic and essential task for peace ... so I believe it is very important that measures under the [February] agreement are implemented," Lee told MBC radio.

The two Koreas also agreed Sunday to conduct test runs of trains on rebuilt tracks across their shared border on May 17. A planned test run was called off last year because the North Korean military refused to guarantee the safety of travelers during the test.

"This is one of the tasks that has to be solved through dialogue with the [North Korean] military," Lee said. "If [the test run] is canceled again this time, it will bring difficulties to fundamental South-North relations."

South Korea remains technically at war with the North since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.

However, in the past decade, Seoul has tried to reconcile with its former wartime foe -- lavishing aid on the North and sometimes playing a middleman between Pyongyang and Washington at nuclear arms negotiations.

North Korea has refused to move on disarmament because of a delay in getting funds frozen in a Macau bank after it was blacklisted by the United States for allegedly assisting the North with money laundering and counterfeiting.

The US$25 million (euro18.6 million) has been freed for withdrawal, but for unknown reasons the North has not yet moved to remove the money.

In an attempt to resolve the impasse, South Korea's chief negotiator to nuclear talks, Chun Yung-woo, left for Washington on Monday to discuss the issue with his U.S. counterparts.

"We can't keep putting off discussions on denuclearization that are more important because of the [bank] issue," Chun said before departure, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

Chun said they had "a general understanding of North Korea's demands" regarding its money, without elaborating, according to the report.

The nuclear talks also involve China, Japan and Russia.

Hey idiot. The money which in my opinion should never have been freed up, has been available for over a month now. It is another stall tactic, or don't you diplomats have the good sense to know when you are being taken for ride? For crying out loud.

Nuclear pact not reached; S. Korea still to give North food

Source: , April 21, 2007.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea agreed Sunday to send 400,000 tons of rice to impoverished North Korea despite the communist government's failure to meet a deadline to shut down its nuclear reactor.

The agreement was reached early Sunday after five days of economic aid talks in the North Korean capital. It was seen as a setback in South Korea's attempt to use food aid as leverage to pressure the North to honor its pledge to shut down the reactor under the Feb. 13 nuclear disarmament deal with the United States and its regional partners.

The first batch of rice will be sent in late May, the agreement said. The South will ship 350,000 tons, and the remaining 50,000 tons be driven over land, across the world's most heavily fortified border. There were no conditions attached to the aid delivery, according to the agreement.

The Koreas also agreed Sunday to test a railway service to run on rebuilt rail tracks across their shared border. The North promised its military would guarantee the safety of travelers during the rail tests on May 17.

Last year, the North unilaterally called off a similar planned test run, citing objections from its military.

The two sides also agreed that South Korea would send raw materials for making clothes, shoes and soap to the North. In exchange, the South would have the right to develop mineral resources in the North.

Seoul, a key aid donor to the North, has sent more than 2 million tons of rice since the mid-1990s, when natural disasters and mismanagement devastated North Korea's economy and led to a famine estimated to have killed some 2 million people.

Following the February accord, Seoul decided to resume the aid shipments that it had suspended after the North conducted missile and nuclear tests last year.

But fearing it could be criticized for lavishing aid on North Korea before it takes steps to disarm, the South had sought to delay actual shipments until the North made progress on the nuclear deal.

North Korea failed to meet an April 14 deadline to shut the Yongbyon nuclear facility amid a prolonged financial dispute with the United States.

North Korea boycotted international nuclear talks for more than a year because Washington blacklisted a Macau bank where the communist country held $25 million. The United States accused Banco Delta Asia of helping the North to launder money and pass counterfeit $100 bills. Authorities in Macau froze the North's accounts.

The United States and Banco Delta Asia said earlier this month that the North's money had been unfrozen. But for unknown reasons, North Korea has yet to withdraw the money.

The two Koreas are still technically at war, as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. But their relations have warmed significantly since the first and only summit of their leaders in 2000.

Have I got a problem with S. Korea over this. How are we supposed to carry out any type of plan if all the players will fold at the first sign of failure? Ridiculuos. I expect more of you, S. Korea. After all, we saved your butts!