SEOUL - PRESS BULLETIN; JANUARY 13, 2010

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 SEOUL 000051 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV MARR ECON KPAO KS US SUBJECT: SEOUL - PRESS BULLETIN; JANUARY 13, 2010 TOP HEADLINES -------------- Chosun Ilbo, Hankook Ilbo Feud Deepens in Ruling Camp over Sejong City Development Plan JoongAng Ilbo Survey: 82 Percent of ROK Citizens Want Sejong City Issue to be Resolved through Referendum or National Survey Dong-a Ilbo Apple Admits Using ROK's Patent Technology without Permission Hankyoreh Shinmun ROKG Seeks to Offer Land at Bargain Prices for Firms that Invest in Other Innovative and Industrial Cities, Drawing Criticism for Giving Two Much Favor to Companies and Encouraging Reckless Development Segye Ilbo President Lee: "It Is Regrettable that Sejong City Issue is Becoming Political Issue" Seoul Shinmun, All TVs ROK's Long-Standing Preference for Sons over Daughters Receding; Survey Finds More Parents Want Baby Girls DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS -------------- According to the Korea International Trade Association, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has decided to indefinitely postpone recognizing the ROK as a country free of foot-and-mouth (FMD) disease. The ROK reported its first outbreak of FMD in eight years on Jan. 7. (Dong-a) INTERNATIONAL NEWS -------------- Responding to North Korea's recent proposal for talks on a peace treaty, the White House and the State Department both said on Jan. 11 that the North should first return to the Six-Party Talks and take steps toward denuclearization. (All) MEDIA ANALYSIS -------------- -N. Korea -------------- Media reaction continues on North Korea's recent proposal for talks on a peace treaty. All ROK media carried reports from Washington saying that the U.S. immediately rejected North Korea's proposal. White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs was quoted as saying: "If they're willing to live up to those (denuclearization) obligations, then we will make progress in those (peace treaty) talks." Philip Crowley, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, was also widely quoted: "The first - the key here is that North Korea has to come back to ... the Six-Party process, start working on its obligations under the (September 19) joint communiqu - joint statement, and then we are perfectly willing to have other kinds of discussions." Most media also noted a report by Japan's Kyodo News Agency that North Korea's Ambassador to China Choe Jin-su said on Jan. 12 that Pyongyang will hold talks with the U.S. and China for replacing the Korean War armistice agreement with a peace treaty, but showed reservations about holding such talks with the ROK. SEOUL 00000051 002 OF 004 Right-of-center JoongAng Ilbo editorialized: "(The North's proposal for peace treaty talks to advance denuclearization) is disappointing because it amounts to putting the cart before the horse. ... This (development) has undermined the possibility of progress in getting the North to give up its nuclear ambitions and has also dimmed the prospects for establishing a permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula." Conservative Dong-a Ilbo wrote in its headline: "Six-Party Talks Made More Complicated; N. Korea's Peace Treaty Overture Emerges as New Bone of Contention, Besides Its Human Rights and Uranium Enrichment Issues" Moderate Hankook Ilbo observed in an editorial: "The problem is that North Korea insists on 'denuclearization after signing a peace treaty,' rather than resumption of the Six-Party Talks. ... The North would be reckless if it tries to blur the issue of denuclearization by raising another contentious issue. Pyongyang should first return to the Six-Party Talks and then discuss a peace treaty or lifting sanctions against the North. " OPINIONS/EDITORIALS -------------- ¶N. KOREA'S RETURN TO SIX-PARTY TALKS MUST PRECEDE PEACE TREATY TALKS (JoongAng Ilbo, January 13, Page 30) The North Korean Foreign Ministry's statement that a peace treaty should be signed to speed up the denuclearization (of the Korean Peninsula) is disappointing because it amounts to putting the cart before the horse. So are North Korean claims that it will resume the Six-Party Talks if the UN lifts sanctions. The USG dismissed this proposal in less than a day. The U.S. stressed that if North Korea returns to the Six-Party Talks and makes progress on denuclearization, it can discuss overall issues including signing of a peace treaty. The ROKG has the same position. During the month following U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth's visit to Pyongyang, the ROK and the U.S. have been engaging in a tug-of-war with North Korea. North Korea has demanded a peace treaty with the U.S. for years. This time, the North further complicated this issue by formally linking a peace treaty with denuclearization. This North Korean approach is not genuine. The North is just trying to capitalize on the ROK and U.S. position that a peace treaty could be signed if North Korea makes progress on denuclearization under the September 19 Joint Statement. This clearly shows that the North was merely making a conditional offer when it expressed willingness to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to rejoin the Six-Party Talks. North Korea once again confirmed that it has an ulterior motive despite its assertion that it aims to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. This (development) has undermined the possibility of progress in getting the North to give up its nuclear ambitions and has also dimmed the prospects for establishing a permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula. However, we should not stop (the effort to) persuade the North from abandoning its nuclear weapons program. We should continue to take a carrot-and-stick approach until we can persuade the North (that it should denuclearize.) One hopeful sign is that time is not on the North's side. The North is facing a succession issue and its currency reform sparked anger among residents. In this situation, the North is unlikely to keep pursuing a "hedgehog strategy". North Korea will become increasingly restless because it will find it difficult to change foreign policy drastically in order to maintain its regime, and its internal crisis is escalating. This may prompt North Korea to ratchet up tensions on the Korean Peninsula. This is why the ROK should take thorough steps to deter North Korean provocations. We should bolster our military deterrence while at the same time taking a carrot-and-stick policy SEOUL 00000051 003 OF 004 appropriately. (Ed. Note: A hedgehog strategy means that a country will be belligerent and "show its spikes" so that other nations will be unlikely to invade them.) ¶N. KOREA NEEDS TO COME BACK TO SIX-PARTY TALKS BEFORE DISCUSSING PEACE TREATY (Hankook Ilbo, January 13, 2010, Page 39) North Korea proposed peace treaty talks with the signatories to the Korean War ceasefire in its Foreign Ministry's statement on Monday. The statement stressed that this year is the right time to hold peace talks since it marks the 60th anniversary of the Korean War. However, more noteworthy is the fact that Pyongyang said that the talks on a peace treaty "could take place within the framework of the Six-Party Talks." This seems intended to create a justification for rejoining the Six-Party Talks, which the North declared dead last July. North Korea will not, of course, willingly return to the Six-Party Talks. The Foreign Ministry's statement set the lifting of the UN sanctions as a precondition. The North demands that justification be provided for it to return to the bargaining table which it walked away from on its own. In order for the talks to resume, it seems inevitable that a compromise must be made to guarantee that there will be discussions on a peace treaty and that sanctions must be removed to some extent. While reaffirming that the North should first rejoin the Six-Party Talks, the U.S. also took an accommodating attitude. Secretary Clinton indirectly said that if the North returns to the Six-Party Talks, an opportunity to consider easing the sanctions will be open. At the fourth round of the Six-Party Talks in 2005, there was already an agreement that a peace treaty, along with denuclearization, should be discussed at separate talks. When U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth visited Pyongyang last December, he reportedly agreed with the North on the four-party talks involving the two Koreas, the U.S. and China to discuss a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. The problem is that North Korea insists on "denuclearization after signing a peace treaty," rather than the resumption of the Six-Party Talks. It is most desirable that denuclearization should come before the signing of a peace treaty, which leads to a peace regime, but it is also difficult to proceed with both of them at the same time. Judging from North Korea's past behavior, there will be an obstacle at every step of the way. In the Foreign Ministry's statement, the North did not specify the countries that are signatories to the ceasefire. Pyongyang may have intentionally left it out to be controversial. However, it is needless to say that the ROK should be a direct party to a peace treaty and a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. The North would be reckless if it tries to blur the issue of denuclearization by raising another contentious issue. Pyongyang should first return to the Six-Party Talks and then discuss a peace treaty or lifting sanctions against the North. FEATURES -------------- ROK'S COWARDLY SILENCE ABOUT NORTH KOREAN HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE (Chosun Ilbo, January 13, 2010, Front Page) By Reporter Chung Woo-sang The world's attention, the ROK's disregard Recently, foreign officials dealing with the matter of North Korean human rights are engaging in a flurry of activities in Seoul. U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues Robert King met SEOUL 00000051 004 OF 004 with Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and Unification Minister Hyun In-taek on January 11 and ruling Grand National Party (GNP) Chairman Chung Mong-joon, opposition Democratic Party leader Chung Se-kyun, and former GNP Chairwoman Park Geun-hye on January 12. He also reportedly said, "Improved relations within the United States and North Korea will have to involve greater respect for human rights by North Korea." UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the DPRK Vitit Muntarbhorn, who is also visiting the ROK to make a report on the North Korean human rights issue, called on Hanawon, the government resettlement center for North Korean defectors. While the international community is making active efforts to improve human rights conditions in North Korea, the ROK government and lawmakers are silent or even indifferent to the issue. In reality, it is true that once the word "North Korean" is added to "human rights" in the ROK, it is viewed from a political perspective. The behavior of Robert Park, a Korean-American missionary who crossed the Tumen River into North Korea from China, is considered "aberrant" in the ROK. This contrasts sharply with the close attention paid by ruling parties and the so-called "human rights groups" when Amnesty International officials visited Seoul to investigate the police response to candlelight rallies. Throughout a decade of the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun Administrations, the North Korean human rights issue was considered a hurdle to national reconciliation even though it gained great attention from the international community. A good example is the North Korean Human Rights Act which is pending in the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee. The bill, which calls on the ROKG to examine the condition of the North's human rights, was proposed in the 17th National Assembly but automatically dropped. In the 18th Assembly, the Democratic Party defined the Act as one of President Lee Myung-bak's "evil laws," stalling discussions on this issue. Freedom House, an international human rights organization, released a human rights report on 194 countries on January 12. In the report, North Korea ranks among nine nations with the worst records along with Myanmar and Sudan. The U.S. and Japanese lawmakers have passed the North Korean Human Rights Act and various international organizations such as the UN are making efforts to improve North Korea's human rights conditions. Regardless of liberal or conservative, international society is taking an interest in the North Korean human rights issue. Therefore, it is somewhat absurd that the North Korean Human Rights Act is regarded as an evil law in the ROK. STEPHENS