Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09SEOUL1164
2009-07-23 06:44:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Seoul
Cable title:  

SEOUL - PRESS BULLETIN; July 23, 2009

Tags:  PREL PGOV MARR ECON KPAO KS US 
pdf how-to read a cable
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SEOUL 001164

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV MARR ECON KPAO KS US
SUBJECT: SEOUL - PRESS BULLETIN; July 23, 2009

TOP HEADLINES
--------------

Chosun Ilbo
Newspaper Companies and Conglomerates to be Allowed
to Enter Broadcasting Business, Albeit Limitedly

JoongAng Ilbo, Dong-a Ilbo
Investment Barriers, which Banned Newspapers from Owning Stakes in
Broadcasters, Lifted for First Time in 29 Years

Hankook Ilbo, Segye Ilbo, Seoul Shinmun
National Assembly Thrown into Chaos after Ruling GNP Railroads
Controversial Media Bills Amid Scuffles
with Opposition Parties

Hankyoreh Shinmun, All TVs
Broadcasting Bill Passage Controversial
as Voting Occurred Twice...
Opposition Parties Call the Passage "Invalid"


DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
--------------

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Korean War Veterans
Recognition Act on July 21, which calls for the commemoration of the
Korean War Armistice Day, July 27, by flying flags at half mast in
recognition of the veterans. (Chosun, Hankook, Seoul)


INTERNATIONAL NEWS
--------------

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held a series of meetings with
ROK, Chinese, Japanese and Russian foreign ministers in Phuket,
Thailand yesterday, ahead of today's annual ASEAN Regional Forum
(ARF),in order to work out a strategy to persuade North Korea to
give up its nuclear ambitions. (All)

Secretary Clinton was widely quoted as saying during a press
conference following the meetings: "We have made it very clear to
the North Koreans that if they will agree to irreversible
denuclearization, the U.S., as well as our partners, will move
forward on a package of incentives and opportunities, including
normalizing relations that will give the people of North Korea a
better future." (All)


MEDIA ANALYSIS
--------------

-Secretary Clinton at ASEAN Meeting
--------------
All ROK media gave prominent coverage to Secretary Clinton's July 22
press conference following a series of meetings in Phuket, Thailand
with her ROK, Chinese, Japanese and Russian counterparts. Secretary
Clinton was widely quoted as saying: "We have made it very clear to
the North Koreans that if they will agree to irreversible
denuclearization, the U.S., as well as our partners, will move

forward on a package of incentives and opportunities, including
normalizing relations that will give the people of North Korea a
better future."

Conservative Chosun Ilbo, in particular, noted that this is the
first time Secretary Clinton mentioned the new "comprehensive
package" strategy which Seoul and Washington discussed recently to
persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

Secretary Clinton's remarks about possible military cooperation
between North Korea and Myanmar also received wide media coverage.
She was quoted: "We know that there are growing concerns about

SEOUL 00001164 002 OF 003


military cooperation between North Korea and Burma, which we take
very seriously. It would be destabilizing for the region. It would
pose a direct threat to Burma's neighbors. "

Newspapers carried the following headlines: "Clinton, Sung Kim:
(U.S.) Has No Plans to Meet with N. Korea" (conservative Chosun
Ilbo); "Clinton Says, 'We Do Not Intend to Reward N. Korea Just for
Returning to the Table,' Presenting New Solution for Complete and
Irreversible Denuclearization" (right-of-center JoongAng Ilbo); and
"U.S. Willing to Improve Ties with N. Korea If the North Agrees to
Complete Denuclearization" (conservative Dong-a Ilbo, moderate
Hankook Ilbo, left-leaning Hankyoreh Shinmun, conservative Segye
Ilbo, moderate Seoul Shinmun)


FEATURES
--------------

CLINTON SAYS THAT IF NORTH KOREA PURSUES DENUCLEARIZATION, U.S. IS
WILLING TO DISCUSS NORMALIZING RELATIONS
(JoongAng Ilbo, July 23, page 12)

By Reporter Ye Young-joon

During a July 22 press conference, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton said that if North Korea pursues complete and irreversible
denuclearization, the U.S. is willing to discuss normalizing
relations with North Korea. Secretary Clinton arrived in Phuket,
Thailand on July 22 to attend the annual ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
In the press conference, she was quoted as saying, "If the North
Koreans will agree to irreversible denuclearization, the U.S., as
well as our partners, will move forward on a package of incentives,
including normalizing relations." This is the first time in an open
press conference that Secretary Clinton made remarks about
normalizing relations with North Korea in return for its
denuclearization.

However, Secretary Clinton noted that the U.S. will not reward North
Korea for just returning to the negotiating table. She added that
if North Korea does not return to the negotiating table, it will
face international isolation and sanctions.

As evident in Secretary Clinton's remarks, the "irreversible
concept," which means "irreversible (nuclear) dismantlement," is
considered a core principle of the "comprehensive package" idea that
emerged as a new solution to the North Korean nuclear issue.
Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan agreed to this irreversible concept
during his meeting with Secretary Clinton the same day.

The comprehensive package is different from the Six-Party Talks
process that calls for North Korea to take phased steps to dismantle
nuclear programs and provides phased-in rewards to North Korea.
Under the comprehensive package, all pending issues including the
dismantling of nuclear weapons, which is the final objective, will
be placed on the negotiating table all at once.

The ROK and the U.S. emphasize "irreversibility" because of their
judgment that the 1994 Geneva Agreement, which called for freezing
Yongbyon's nuclear facilities, or the 2007 Six-Party Talks
agreement, calling for nuclear disablement, would not lead to North
Korea's genuine nuclear dismantlement. Therefore, (the ROK and the
U.S. view that) North Korean denuclearization should start from
Pyongyang taking irreversible steps that it cannot roll back
whenever it so chooses.

An (ROKG) official said, "Now, looking back on the steps toward
disablement - as negotiators judged at that time - these steps were
not 'irreversible' but 'reversible,' which has been proven true by
North Korea's behavior." (For example,) Yongbyon and its
reprocessing facility and its nuclear facilities were initially
subject to disablement by Pyongyang, but it recently declared that
it would restore the facilities and extract additional plutonium
from them.


SEOUL 00001164 003 OF 003


"Irreversible dismantlement" is the term that the U.S. once
refrained from using but has recently started to use again. In the
early days of the Six-Party Talks, the U.S. Bush Administration put
forward the so-called "CVID" principle of North Korea's nuclear
dismantlement. It is an acronym for "Complete, Verifiable,
Irreversible Dismantlement," and was advocated by the neo-cons, the
key force driving U.S. foreign policy at the time. Among those four
words, "irreversible" drew particularly strong resistance from North
Korea, and since 2005, the U.S. has rarely used the word. The ROKG
government official noted, "In the past, 'irreversibility' was part
of the principle, but these days, Washington is focused only on
irreversibility."

North Korea: "(The ARF) Should Not Become a Place Where a Member
Nation Is Attacked"

Park Geun-kwang, a (vice minister-level) representative from North
Korea for the ASEAN Regional Forum, told Thai Foreign Minister Kasit
Piromya, "An attack on a certain nation (North Korea) should not be
a main agenda item of the ARF," according to a source who asked not
to be named. In response, Thailand reportedly said, "We will keep
that in mind." Meanwhile, ROK Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan had a
series of meeting with his Chinese and Japanese counterparts Yang
Jiechi and Hirofumi Nakasone, respectively, on July 22.



STEPHENS